City Commission - workshop

Now it's literally- Vice Mayor, it is 9.02 and we are live.

Okay, good morning, everybody. It is July 24th, 2026, and this is the pre-agenda meeting of the City of Lake Worth Beach. However, at this moment, I'm the only commissioner here.

Yeah, what happened to Commissioner Maliga? She was here a minute ago.

I don't know. I'm looking at the list. So attendance would be an interesting- exercise.

Commissioner Maliga is back. Okay, good.

Okay. Sarah, are you there? Can you hear us? Oh, there's a Sarah Maliga, a real one.

Well, that was frustrating because every time I hit click join as panelist, it kicked me off.

Oh.

So I had to go in through Zoom and put the meeting ID in. So I apologize.

No, you're fine. You and I are the only commissioners here, just so you know. I don't know if you can see the list.

I see Troy. I see... No, no, no.

We have plenty of people to have a conversation, I'm just saying, as far as commissioners.

We don't have four.

Right, but Elizabeth reminded us that it's a workshop, so we're really not making decisions, so I guess it's okay. Melissa, will you do the attendance officially? Okay.

Yes. Mayor Betty Resch had a conflict and might be joining a little later. Vice Mayor Mimi May. Present. Commissioner Sarah Maliga.

Present.

Commissioner McVoy has just arrived. I'm promoting him to panelist. And Commissioner Anthony Segrich is absent at the moment.

Okay, thank you so much. Good morning, everybody. I cannot believe that it's already the end of July. It has gone by so fast. But we do have two more meetings this month. We've got Monday night. We're talking about the annex building in 17 South M. and Tuesday we have a regular commission meeting with a focus. We have a lot of utility stuff on the commission meeting for the last month, but we also have other items. So I have some questions, but I would like to go last since I'm the chair today. So Ms. Malika, would you like to bring up anything? specifically.

I'd like to hear if staff has any updates or anything first, if that's okay with you, Madam Vice Mayor.

Yeah, I just wanted to know if you had anything that you wanted staff to talk about.

Nope, not directly. I answered all my questions at my one-on-one with Tiana and Troy.

Okay. All right. Good morning, Mr. McVoy.

Good morning.

Good morning. I guess I am going to go to staff first, as I usually do, and then I'll come back. So we do have some items coming from Electric and and water is there anything that you want von and ed that you want us to know before we meet on tuesday good morning oh sorry no go ahead juan you started go ahead i was just gonna say not necessarily but i'm happy to answer any questions on the agenda items if you have them okay thank you and ed uh

No big items. I thought I might use the Tuesday night meeting to mention the reliability awards that we received and introduce our newly elected union officials for our team.

Your newly elected what?

Union IBW officials.

Oh, great. Okay. That sounds like a very good idea.

I'll mention their names, and that's all I have. the bigger items that make my normal report on what we're seeing for low growth and degree days, things like that.

Okay. Sounds good. Sarah, do you have a question for Ed or Vaughn?

I do for Ed. I had actually brought this forward to Tiana and Mr. Perry. In the transfer from Storm Fund to PCA, to the Rate Stabilization Fund, there were no balance backups in regards to what each fund had currently. And I had requested that that be part of our backups.

Yes, we can add those.

No problem. Can you please make sure to send it to all of us today so we can see it before it's put on?

Yeah, I'll have the budget manager take a look at that. That updates daily in Navaline, so we'll get that out.

Thank you. And then don't forget whoever posts it to the agenda, the backup. We're going to want that.

Yes. Correct.

Okay, great. Thank you. The other item we have on the Tuesday meeting is some resurfacing. So, Jamie, do you want to address that? And then I do have a question about it.

Address a certain portion of it, or it just kind of gives the limits of each one of those projects. I don't know if there's a specific question you had on each one of those.

Not on each one. I mean, I do have a specific question, though. I was looking at the Site map for the work order 13. And I was looking at all of those streets down in round in and around kind of Bryant Park area. And I'm wondering why First Avenue South is not on them.

First Avenue South is, that's part of a CIP that we kind of carried from year to year based on the Gulfstream finishing. And it was really, we were trying to wait until phase two and we've been doing repairs. I know we've had some utility issues there where we've had to fix some sinkholes and some other things in that area. But we were trying to let the Gulfstream finish before we repave that because it's going to get torn up when they bring in cranes and all the heavy equipment for phase two.

I agree with you in theory because I think it would make sense. But I also, because that's the road that people drive their boats down to launch and then they pay us for that service, I am concerned about, really concerned about the condition of that road. And I'm wondering if there is a way for us to get that done earlier than when, quote unquote, whenever the Gulfstream finishes phase two. Sarah and Troy have their hands up. Let's go with Troy and then Sarah.

Real quick, Commissioner or Vice Mayor.

Yep.

Part of that was just that final block there leading up to Gulfview. Basically that block just south of the Gulfstream. So are you talking about that particular block of First Avenue South or are you talking about First Avenue South going like all the way back to Federal Highway?

I mean, I'm kind of talking about First Avenue South going to Federal Highway. It's pretty bad. I don't know. What is the PCI on it?

That I'd have to pull.

Okay. And I did, there is a way maybe we could, I know it's not in the CRA zone, but if we could figure out a way to have CRA pay for something else and switch that, they might be willing to do that. Mr. Perry.

Madam Chair, a few days ago, Mr. Brown, and what we thought about is we'll break that, what the cost would be to do that. We'll break it out of the overall plan and bring it back to the commission. Just let you know how much, if we spend X amount of dollars on this, and then in the future, if someone tears it up, whatever the case might be, we'll probably ask them to prepare, but at least we'd like to let you know the cost of it first. on what we will be spending. Like Mr. Brown said, we wanted to try to wait until the Gulf Stream was done, but we'll at least give you a cost of what we would spend on getting that portion completed. So we'll bring that cost to you. You guys can take a look at it.

And that makes sense. I mean, I don't know, as I'm not a paving lady, but I don't know if there's a way to do it so it's not like the perfect finished product, but that you could drive the boats down it where you wouldn't be the axles wouldn't be breaking and the potholes. So I don't know. Sarah.

Thank you, Vice Mayor. My question actually goes back to what you just said. Boats are paying to launch. Who do they pay?

I think it goes to parking.

But how do we know they're paying to launch? I know that's a whole nother conversation, but when you just said that, I'm like, we don't have, and I asked years ago, how come we don't have somebody there for them to pay? Like most places do. And you know, that, that's a bigger question. Like, okay, we want to repave the road and it's boats that are coming in and out and trailers, which then goes to the cost of maintaining the road. So how, I would love to know how, how are they paying and how much have we received in the last year, last fiscal year for boat launching?

Got it. Stuart had his hand up and put it down, but, um, I am going to call on Stuart.

Hey, good morning, Stuart here. Yeah, just regarding the boat. Now, conceptually, someone could, you know, pull a boat trailer in, pull the boat off and then, you know, withdraw that. But typically they either have a permit or they used a park mobile app and they pay there. Then parking enforcement goes through there and I can pull the numbers down on what we've, you know, pulled in off citations of boat trailers and the revenue generated from that zone. So I can follow up with you on that.

But to Sarah's point, there's nobody monitoring if somebody paid to launch.

Correct. I mean, they would typically park their trailer there, right? Otherwise, they'd have to take it off site and come back.

Yeah, or they park it down the street and then they don't pay to park and they don't pay to launch the boat. So I'm curious to see what the numbers are and if that's something that we need to look at for next year in regards to capturing that income.

Understood. We'll pull it down and I'll get it to Mr. Troy.

Okay. So going back to First Avenue South, I just don't want us to forget that. It's been a thorn in a lot of neighbors' sides, and I'm hearing a lot about it. So, in fact, it was literally the first thing Andy told the ambulance driver. So what's next? Christopher, I think you originally had your hand up. Did you want to ask anything regarding the commission meeting or the special meeting?

No, I'm happy to hear what staff has to share with us.

Okay. I do want maybe a little bit more direction from staff on the special meeting. What is the ultimate goal of that meeting?

Well, on Monday night, correct, on July 27th, we have three items that are on the agenda. First is the city hall annex as a follow-up to the comments over the last few months It's on our project list. So we brought this forward to just provide you with an overview of what's being done or what's scheduled to be done at the City Hall Annex Building. It just gives you some information about how it sits and where it sits and what can be done going forward. But we also made three or four recommendations to the commission that we would like for you to consider. Nothing concrete, just want to hear from the public. What do you want to see and get some direction from the commission on how you would like us to move forward? Because as you know, it's just sitting there vacant right now. So we just want to start the process, whatever it is. We need some more research, more information, whatever the case might be. So just as a conversation piece, we probably won't come out with any clear direction, but at least we'll get some idea of how you want to proceed. For the 17 South M, obviously, this is not a part of the movement. It's once we sit this building in its new spot, we have three or four different options that we've had the contractor, not a contractor, but one of the companies take a look at and tell us what we can do going forward, just various options. You have a presentation by the Leisure Services Director, and we'll just whether or not you want full staff there, you want half staff there, you want to go with a volunteer agency, whatever the case might be. But this is after the building is placed in its foundation. And then the third one is the beach circulation concept plan. For years, since I've been here, the tenants up at the mall have been wanting some available parking. So when people come to pick up food or whatever the case might be, we just need to look at that pattern And so we can assist them in increasing their revenue, make it more convenient for our citizens coming up there to purchase whatever the case might be. So we're going to provide you with a concept. There's nothing in stone, but we're going to provide you with a concept on what we think would also with the tenants that we've had up there to try to work together in a concept going forward that we think would be better for the city.

OK. I do have a question about the beach. What are we calling it?

The circulation concept.

The beach circulation concept. I understand that it would benefit the tenants for sure. My question is, and this is probably for Mr. Brown or somebody, has this plan been presented to Fire Rescue?

Yes, in the initial stages, we had 12 firefighters.

And they said that this would not impede their speed and their ability to service the beach?

Again, after we speak with you guys on Monday, and we'll put it back in front of the can, but we did have those initial conversations that we wanted to make sure it was accessible.

Maybe not for everybody else, but for me, you just broke up. Can you just repeat that?

Can you hear me better now? Yes. Okay. You guys said we initially had those conversations with them when we were doing the initial design layout and draft concept, and there was no issue. Okay. But we'll have more conversation with them after our meeting on Monday.

Okay. Okay, because for me, that would really help me make that decision. The other thing is, was there any? Was there any community campaign to get community input on whether people would want that or not want that? Or was it just the tenants at this point?

It was the tenants and looking at the service and the flow up there. It was something that was looked into as well by Siscovich in this upcoming draft you guys will be receiving in the next couple of weeks. That is something they also were recommending just based on the circulation pattern up there. And again, we're trying to retrofit a process. a current design up there to make it more modern. You know, the things when this was designed decades ago that we have today, they just weren't around back then. Like Uber Eats and all the delivery services and being able to drop off off the beach and stuff like that. There's just no way to do that right now. Not to mention all the food trucks and service trucks that come up there with the current two-way design that stacks property, stacks vehicles behind them because there's no way to get around them if there's oncoming traffic. So just trying to just increase the flow up there and just make it a lot more easy.

Thank you. Those were the questions that I had regarding that. Sarah or Christopher, do you have any questions about any of the items on the Monday night meetings?

I don't have any questions. I don't know what other conversations have been with staff in regards to the 17 South M Street. I had thrown it out there that we've turned that into the parking division and the visitor center. Since people will be parking there, having a visitor center there would be conducive and have minimal build out. I did throw that out, but I don't have any questions in regards to The beach front roundabout, my only concern is that, you know, we keep talking about things at the beach before we have this Zakovich, you know, overview. And I know that, you know, they might not have done a deep dive, but I kind of feel like we're putting the cart before the horse on this. And that was my only concern.

Yeah, it might only look at the staff report for that and see what the request is. So it's to approve or disprove the concept plan. So what would that mean, Mr. Brown, if we approved or disproved the concept plan?

Well, we, for one, just want to get this in front of you guys for the first time to see if that's something that you guys are in favor of. Obviously, we've been dealing with attendance the whole time, and that's something they're in favor of. It's going to be beneficial for them as well as everyone who's going to be actually visiting the beach. But we want to see what your guys' ideas are. If you guys have additional ideas, things you would like to see. Another thing that came up up there was family parking. This concept does incorporate that. Should that be something we look to do in the future up there? And that's not just for those who are visiting restaurants or, you know, the gift shop or something up there or going to an actual function at the ballroom. That would also be if you're just going to the beach and you just want to throw out your towels and cooler and everything, you just drop your car off at valet and just go to the beach and not worry about parking it yourself. So just providing that service up there as well. We had to incorporate that in the concept because obviously there's no way to do that up there right now. So this is just basically to put this in front of you guys, see if it's something you're in favor of. If there are changes you would like to see, if so, what those would be, what you would like to see incorporated. And then if we are moving forward, we would want to, you know, we need to identify some funding and some other things. So this is kind of step one.

So are you planning on funding this from 26 or 27?

This would be something for 27.

Okay, thank you.

And more than likely, this would be something we would be looking at doing after season of 27. Because obviously, we have enough going on up there right now. We don't want to try and wedge anything in before October 27th.

Okay. And by that point, just to Commissioner Maliga's point, we will have the Ziskovich back.

Absolutely. And we'll also, at that point in time, we'll have, you know, based on our conversation on Monday, have a finalized concept that we can then get with fire rescue and everything else to make sure they still don't have any issue with it. But it gives us more time to kind of to finalize anything.

And I think that we should at least have a we like it, we don't like it survey for the residents as well. I mean, because they're the ones that are going to be up there driving it. But I mean, I see your point that it really is, the purpose of it is to benefit the tenants and the flow of traffic, but it may be at least a little bit of, hey, we're talking about doing this, what do you guys think? Because I wouldn't want to change the way everything happens at the beach and then the residents say, whoa, whoa, whoa, you didn't even tell us, you weren't thinking about this.

So... Yeah, just give us a couple more parking spaces as well as some temporary spaces like in front of the building. So if you're like, I'll just stop real quick for like a 10 minute run in, grab something, run out. You now are having to park at the bottom log, walk away from the top just to get one thing to walk all the way back down again.

Right, and I've noticed that people do park at the top to run in and then, so now they're doing it illegally and we'd be giving them a legal way to do it.

Now they're doing it in a fire zone, basically. Correct. Correct. Which is why fire rescue initially was in favor because it's like, well, that would eliminate the issue of people now parking in a fire zone because it gives you an extra lane where you now have a through lane, basically.

Okay. Mr. McCoy, you were first and then Ms. Maliga.

Thank you. I just wanted to thank you, Vice Mayor, for requesting some sort of public input process on that. I think that is pretty important. I'll throw in two cents that there are, and maybe this is already accommodated in the potential plan, I'm not sure, but something that periodically I hear about and I'm personally familiar with is there are people, especially older people, who may not be able to go down to the beach in spite of our new wheelchair type accommodations, which are very cool. but who like to drive by and be able to look out at the ocean. I hope that we can find a way. I realize there's some challenges with that. If somebody wants to sit there for an hour, that could be difficult, but I hope that we keep that in mind and that that, you know, that's something that is important to a group of people. So that's one unrelated. The other one is with the beach club. I see that it's on the agenda to approve a, a, an extension of the arrangement with the operator. And I just want to reiterate my concern that we've added a number of things to the person's cost. And, you know, they may all be very legitimate additions. They may be similar to what other arrangements we have with the folks at the beach, with other things. I'm just concerned that we'd be conscious that At least at one time, there was an objective at the Beach Club location to create a family-friendly, affordable meeting place, and that the current operator has successfully done that for, I'm not quite sure exactly how many years, but something like a decade. I hope that someone has worked through that the contract we're proposing to them is in fact financially viable.

Have you looked at the financials that were sent to us?

No, not recently, no.

So if you check your email with the financials with the profits that the Beach Club makes, you might be able to make that that calculation and see that I don't believe that we are adding too much of a burden. Because currently they spend about 2% of their revenue on rent, and our increase would make it 4.5%. And my research is that generally it's usually around 10% to 12% just on rent. So I think if we put the other items in, we're still in the 10% of general revenue. So it should be okay. If you look at the numbers and then come back and have an issue with it, I think it is worth discussing because I had the same question. But then when I saw their profits, I was like, yeah, I think we can massage this a little bit.

Yeah, no, thank you for the heads up on that. If that's all the case, I would agree that that's bringing it more in line. Doesn't sound like it'll be the demise of that organization or of that entity.

Because I had the same concern until I saw the numbers. So just look at the numbers, and then if we still, I think that it will obviously be a conversation on Tuesday, but I just would prefer us to have it with actual concrete data.

100%. 100%. And thank you for the heads up for that.

You're welcome. Ms. Maliga.

Thank you, Madam Mayor. So I have two things. Well, I like that. Say that again. So I am sorry, I'm driving in and I just pulled over. So I have a couple of concerns in regards to the possible redirection. And I understand it's something that some of the tenants want. The beach fund is already running. And, you know, what we always hear is that it's, it's not making money. I am more concerned as, is this going to help create a better flow? But what if we come back a year from now and say, OK, well, now we want to do a double decker parking and we want to do this. I just feel like the beach really needs to, even though we can have this conversation, we really need to have an overall master plan for that beachfront. Because we had several people come look at the upstairs and not even put in a bid because of the eyesore of the pool. The flow of the traffic and the parking had nothing to do with why we didn't get a bid. So we can sit here and talk about traffic, but until we take care of the one eyesore that's not helping us lease the upstairs space, I think that we're, again, putting the cart before the horse. That's just my opinion. In regards to the beach clubs, I, too, have done the numbers, and somebody who pays a commercial lease can tell you that they will, in my calculation, should be just fine. And I'm thankful that they, you know, I'm glad that they provided those documents because they were supposed to be doing that as part of their agreement. And, you know, I went over that with staff as well. And I feel confident in the numbers that were provided that they're legal and legit and that we're all going to be able to move forward as a good partnership with the Beach Club.

Thank you. I kind of agree with you. And without having the experience of being a business owner, I did a little bit of research on it, but I kind of agree with you on that. And I also kind of agree with the idea of at the beach, the entire property, thinking of the entire property, it does, I am a little concerned about spending $400,000 to change the way that the road goes before we really know what's going to happen down there. Because I really think, you know, with the way that our beach is, where you go up the hill to get to the beach, it really does lend itself to a vertical parking structure versus horizontal. And that would free up so much space for greenery or more park area or, you know, a completely different concept. So I do agree with you that I hear the conversation. I think that makes sense, but I don't know. And it sounds like it's not going to be done tomorrow anyway. So it's, we can talk about it, but if it's not going to be done until late 27, early 28, then it really doesn't, it's going to have to be included in the overall master plan of the beach because we're going to get that, at least some ideas back from Siskovich. In my mind. Sarah, your hand's still up. Would you like to continue?

No, ma'am. Sorry.

OK, so let's see. What else do we want to talk about? I do want to congratulate legal. Oh, Melissa, go ahead. Oh, speaking of that, Melissa, I asked the hub if they would like to receive the proclamation on overdose prevention. And they said yes. So they will be there on Tuesday to receive that Tuesday, the August 4th.

Perfect.

Yeah. But what was your other thing?

Oh, so my other thing had to do with the planning and zoning board because Greg Richter was appointed to the CRA. His term does not start until August 21st. So he'll be on PZB through the August meeting. But we do have to, there is a vacancy to be filled. So I wanted to ask if Um, we would, you know, put it out there that we would be having interviews and appointments because it's only one spot. Um, at August, August 18th, we have a regular meeting at six. If we should add a special meeting at five and take care of that so that in September they have their full board.

I think that's a good idea. Do you have the dates that people do? There's no term limit on PNC, right?

Correct, but I have the date they were appointed.

Yeah, if you could send that to us. I mean, I don't know that we would make any movement, but it would be interesting to know how long people have been on that board.

Yes, I could do that after this meeting. I'll send it.

And while you're doing it, you might as well do the historic board too.

Okay. And the other thing is for the education advisory board. Yes. We need... We need a staff liaison for that. We don't have a staff liaison. Every board has a staff liaison. So just throwing it out there.

You mean as opposed to a commissioner liaison?

No, I mean in addition to. Oh, okay. Because not every board has a commission liaison. Just really the... I think officially just the CRA and the... Education Advisory Board. Well, actually, it was the Education Task Force.

Right.

Because there wasn't an Education Advisory Board, but I was just thinking about it the other day, and I was like, we really need a staff liaison who would help coordinate the meetings and the minutes and all that.

Okay. Madam Vice Mayor, I don't mean to interrupt you. I just wanted to let you know I have to sign off. Okay. Apologies.

Okay. Mr. Perry, then would you... see about finding a staff liaison for that?

We'll take a look at it and see. Okay.

Okay. Mr. McVoy, do you have anything else for just me and you? If not, I'd love to let staff go back and give them a half an hour back in their day.

No, I think we no longer have a quorum, so I think we're off deck.

All right, well then, staff, thank you so much for everything that you guys do for us. It's really, it makes it a pleasure to be a commissioner here. Stuart, you have something, and then before Stuart goes, I just wanted to thank Legal for handling the previous, the case that came forward with the old police officer. That was good news. It will save the city a lot of money, and thank you for your hard work on that. Stuart, go ahead.

Yes, I cross-talked with City Manager Mr. Perry, and he asked me to bring this up just for, I guess, input. So September 11th, coming up this year, is the 25th anniversary of the terrorist attack. Almost 3,000 people were killed, and then thousands of first responders died from the side effects of those toxic fumes. So we're recommending to do a ceremony of remembrance and solidarity. However, there is a pre-agenda meeting on that day. So two options that we could recommend, shift the pre-agenda meeting that would normally be Friday at 9 a.m. to that Thursday, or we can do the remembrance ceremony and the walk of solidarity at 1028 is when the second tower fell. So we'd kind of like to just kind of get some direction there from the elected officials.

What was the first time? Wasn't it 9 or something?

When the first plane struck was 8.46 a.m.

Okay.

So typically most ceremonies would begin at that time, but it could still be appropriate to do it when the second tower fell. So I just wanted to kind of get direction on that, please.

And are you thinking that the residents would be attending? What kind of a day is it? Oh, it's a Friday, obviously.

It's a Friday morning. So the general concept is it would be in the cultural plaza at the time we choose for it to be, 846 or 1028 on that Friday. Okay. comments from elected officials uh ringing of of the bell approximately one ring for every hundred people that were killed that day moment of silence there will be some first responder vehicles there they'll turn their lights on and then walk up lucerne back to station 91 group photo and then everyone goes about their day from there so in public would be invited to attend if they uh wanted to um mr mcfoy what do you think

I guess what am I choosing here? The time, whether to do it at 8.46 and move to pre-agenda?

Yeah, or he said 10 whatever, but I don't think it would. If we did the pre-agenda from 9 to 10 and then expected everybody to be prepared and ready at 10.28, I think that's too close.

Yeah, I was going to say the same. I mean, I could pull it off, but it would be a hustle.

Right. And it'll be hot, hotter. So I would be okay with moving the pre-agenda to Thursday or and then having that morning for however you want to schedule it. I would be okay with that, but I don't, we can bring it up as a, Why don't we have Mr. Perry bring it up on Tuesday during his comments, and we'll get a final decision on it since there'll be more of us there.

Understood. Thank you.

All right. Mr. Perry, do you have anything else for us, or are we good?

Nothing, Madam Mayor. I mean, Madam Vice Chair.

I like that.

Sorry about that. But nothing. No, nothing from staff.

All right, well, Steph, you guys have a wonderful weekend. Do we have anything this weekend in the city?

Not that I'm aware of. Lucy, do you have anything?

No special events. There is the Benny's doing. It's a private event. There's a beach cleanup on Sunday, but again, it's a private event. The Bandits will be playing preseason, and they're going to do an update to the commission on August 4th, but no special events.

Okay, wonderful. Well, then everybody have a great weekend and thank you for attending.