City Commission - workshop

Madam Mayor, it is 9 o'clock and we are live.

Thank you very much, Madam Clerk. Good morning, everybody, and welcome to the September 10th, 2026 agenda meeting of the City of Lake Worth Beach. May I have the roll call, please?

Yes. Mayor Betty Rush.

Here.

Vice Mayor Mimi May. Present. Commissioner Sarah Maliga. Present. Commissioner Christopher McVoy.

Here.

Commissioner Anthony Segrich.

Present. Great, we've got everybody. Okay, welcome to yet another edition of the City Commission Gets Together during the week. It's been a marathon and it's not over yet, but a very important week. To start out with, we have the agenda. Let's talk about the agenda. Does anyone have anything that they would like to speak about about the upcoming issues on the agenda?

I would be looking... I guess my hand's up. There it is.

There it is.

I would look for a little clarification from staff on the Benny's one. That was a meeting where I was not there and not able to participate remotely. I looked at the backup. I wasn't sure I totally understood it.

Right. And I think our attorney is here, perhaps? Yes. Could you talk to us a little bit about that?

Ms. Elizabeth? Good morning. Sorry, I was trying to get off mute. Yes, so this is a lease amendment for the Benny's on the beach complex that's on the pier. And This is the commission approved as bringing forward an extension to the lease that was requested by the tenant and for there to be an increase in the rental rate through that extension. There are two options in a proposed lease amendment. One is for that rental increase to start with the first year of the extension and the other is for the increase to start with the second year of the extension. So we're just looking for you all to approve one of the versions, and then we'll get that all wrapped up.

I think I got all of that. The sound got a little...

There was some broken... Yeah, you broke up, Elizabeth.

But I think I got all of what you said. I don't know about everybody else, but... I didn't. Were you looking for the attorney to repeat a little bit of that

Yeah, please, Elizabeth, if you could. You did break up.

Sure.

Oh, you're still breaking up. Sorry about that. Great spot today. So there are two options for the extension. One is for the approved rental increase to start on the first year of the extension, and the other option is for the rental increase to start on the second year of the extension.

Why would it start on the second year?

That's for you all to decide which one you want to put forward.

Okay.

There are two options presented.

Okay. I see some hands are up. Let's see what, Mr. McVoy, do you have an opinion?

Yeah, and just for clarification, what is the, since I don't have it right in front of me right now, what is the time period of this lease?

We did this, it's 10 years, 10 extra years.

Yeah, I wasn't there at that one.

Well, I mean, it's in the backup.

Yeah, I'm trying to get that, I had it up and then I shut my computer down by mistake. Hold on, hold on.

All right, in the meantime, let Mimi and Anthony have their hands up. You want to talk about this, Mimi?

Sure. I do. I wanted to talk about something else, but I can jump in on this. I guess my question is, for staff, why are we being given this option of one or two years? Where did that come from? And financially, how does that change based on those two? What is the... First, yeah, what's the precipice? Where did it come from? And secondly, how is it going to affect the financial arrangements if it starts on the first versus the second year?

I believe that this was raised by the tenant. And so there seemed to be some confusion of what the commission's intent was in granting the extension with the increases. And I am not sure about the financial impact, but I can make sure that we get that to you.

Yeah, I mean, that would really make a difference in how we made that decision.

I think I've heard, and I think it would be about a $400,000 loss to the city if we started on the second year, is what I've been told by somebody.

I couldn't remember if it was $400,000 or $40,000. It was a fair number, but I'll get that.

I think it was $400,000. Did the tenant give us any reason why he had a question about it? Do you know?

My understanding is just that they felt that it wasn't clear. Okay. And so the intent may be misinterpreted.

Okay. Mr. Segrich, I see your hand up. Mr. Segrich, okay.

Uh, Thank you. I doubt the impact's 400,000. Careful, throwing a huge number like that around. It would be, you'd be missing the percentage increase on one year, and then the compounding increases on that increase, which would probably, over the course of 10 years, be closer to something like 40,000 than 400. As the motion maker on this, I thought it was clear in our discussions that the increases were going to be every two years, starting on the second year. So that was my impression of it. It can be interpreted either way. And I think Glenn had a question as to which way it be interpreted. So.

Okay. Thank you. Mr. McVoy?

Yeah. No, I'm seeing that this is an extension from 2033 to 2043. And that the increase of 5% would not be an annual increase of 5, but every second year. And as I say, I was not there. I believe this is when I was flying out to Arizona to bring Olga back. And I have to say, I'm astounded that we would give, after we've all expressed that we want to be very careful about how we lease or sell or whatever city properties, I'm astounded that we would preempt future commissions out to 2043. It just, and, you know, the- If we had this discussion, I'm sorry, Mr. McQueen, we went through this. I mean, I'm sorry you weren't here, but- But that we would do this at the request of the tenant, which is obviously very much in the tenant's interest, not in the city's interest, not in residents' interest. And of course, all the other tenants at the beach are going to come around saying, well, if he got that, why don't we just ask for it too? And I've already seen, I don't know if they're on the agendas yet, but I've seen something go by with at least one other tenant asking, and it would be business foolish for the other ones not to ask for similarly

I don't mean to cut you off, Christopher, but the issue is, does this start in the first year or the second year? The extension has been voted on. So let's focus on what's in front of us right now, which is, do we start on the first or the second year? You know, I think, Ms. May, do you have your hand up?

No, well, yeah, I mean, I can I can opine on this, but it's leaving my hand up because I don't want to forget that I actually have something else. But for this, I believe that one of the reasons that we talked about it was for stability when it comes to one of the one of the most popular restaurants and restaurants. One of our largest tenants, I believe it is our largest tenant. So we wanted to make sure that there was some stability coming forward. Um, even as we made discussions regarding what we wanted to do at the beach complex.

Um, so do you have an opinion about the first or second year?

Um, yeah, I mean, I think that there's no reason why we can't start right away. I don't think that that would be the end of the world for the tenant. Yeah, I agree. Well, we'll, we'll talk about that on Monday or Tuesday.

Okay, so we'll move on then. Ms. May?

I just wanted to know about the... Or suggest possibly that we reorder our new business. I think there may be a lot of people who want to tune in and find out about the city manager selection. And I also know that the candidates are going to be watching and not, I mean, it really isn't the end of the world to have people watch through the whole meeting for the, the discussion and new business D. However. in all kindness to people that are kind of tuning in just for that one, as well as for the candidates to have to sit through there without really knowing, I would move that we move that to an earlier part of the meeting.

I agree with you because also, as our last meeting showed, we sometimes don't get to the last issue on the agenda. Yeah, I don't think that'll be an issue. I know, but we never know.

I have no problem with that.

Thank you, Mr. Segridge. You want to make a new business A? I have no problem with that.

Okay.

So we have consensus.

What about Sarah? Don't forget to ask Sarah.

Sarah's quiet. Where is she?

Hi.

Good morning. I'm fine with that.

Okay. So Ms.

Clerk, Madam Clerk, can you move that to A?

Thank you very much. Thank you.

Anything else, Ms. Maye? Not at the moment.

Okay. Mr. Secretary, I see your hand is up.

Yep. Thank you. I was wondering if Von could talk a little bit about the sub-regional cleaning. I saw that come in. I know the community is ecstatic that we are doing this. Could you just give kind of an overview and maybe timeline and what area that does cover? And then there's been some concerns raised about, you know, the addition of Madison Terrace and Pinnacle on 6 coming online into that infrastructure and maybe some thoughts on that.

I would love to. As you guys know, we are also very eager to get this project started and completed. The proposal indicates that the company would start the cleaning within two weeks of notice to proceed, which is if approved, I will issue notice to proceed on Wednesday, September 16th. And so that would mean that hopefully we would be getting started top of October. The schedule proposed for this project is, I believe, 15 days. It is overnight work. So unfortunately, it will sound like a loud truck in front of the residents' houses as they are working. I would reassure the residents by saying, you know, it would only be for one night and they are constantly moving so as they complete each manhole segment they will move to the next one um so hopefully only a couple of hours of the noise of a loud truck each night um what else can i say about this project the this will hopefully clean up that problem that they're having with the odor down there so badly so um The areas affected will be, they're going to start at the manholes near the master pump station. Actually, I take that back. They will be starting at, I believe, 15th Avenue South and South B Street, because that is kind of the tail end of the gravity interceptor line, moving their way east on 15th South. Then it will turn onto Lakeside and move north to the master pump station. So the intent of this is to start at the tail end where the debris will not be as bad, but push it all towards the master. The debris does get removed at the end of each segment. So each downstream manhole, these combination cleaning trucks will remove all of the debris. But just for sake of process, it's going to go in the direction of the master pump station And like we've discussed before, we anticipate regaining about a quarter of the capacity in these pipes, which is huge. As far as the overall odor and capacity concerns with new developments coming online, this is really the first step that needs to be taken in order to get a fair assessment of where we stand as far as capacity goes. Once this pipe is cleaned, the study on the Lantana force main and the gravity interceptor will continue. And that will get us data on, you know, the actual available capacity and where we stand. It will also allow us to inspect these pipes and make any rehabilitation efforts as necessary. So really this is just kind of, you know, It popped up as a roadblock but it's also a massive opportunity so we're very excited to get these pipes cleaned and inspected and we don't plan on stopping. The study will resume immediately, because we are already under that task order and two of the flow metering devices have been collecting data, this whole time. Two, we'll be able to resume collection once the cleaning is completed and that study will give us much more information regarding capacity. It will also project the benefit of rerouting the force main from Lantana directly to the master pump station. And like I've said before, I'm very confident that that will be the permanent solution to all of these issues.

Wow. And one or two follow-ups on that. So when you guys are doing the cleaning, just like logistics, do you shut off the Lantana force main coming in, or is that still flowing while you guys are doing the cleanings?

So the Lantana force main enters at 6 south, so it won't affect the lines upstream of 6 south, where we're starting on 15th south and moving up lakeside. Once we get to that portion where Lantana is incoming, we have made efforts in the past to shut off Lantana in order to do some of this work and they can't. That is their master pump station. So that is the entire sewage flow from the town of Lantana. They cannot turn it off. They would have an overflow. So what we will use is flow through plugs which is essentially inserting a, it's exactly what it sounds like. It's a plug that has a smaller diameter hole inside so that flow can continue. No overflows should occur, but it will limit the amount of flow so that we're able to complete the work in those pipes.

And as we're, and that's Good for the residents to hear, because I know that a lot of them have asked the question, can't we just shut them off and solve the problem? So it's good for them to understand that, no, we cannot. As we're going through and cleaning these and going through, are you immediately then following running cameras to see the condition of these pipes? Because the amount of debris that's in there, I would assume, a lot of these pipes have been compromised. And if they have been compromised, I at least know on a smaller scale with some of my cast iron pipes when, for lack of a better example, we had a plumber come through and do a cleaning, it ended up breaking them. And we had to do a complete replacement. Is something like that a possibility while we're doing this? Could we see failure?

It's already part of the proposal. So the proposal includes two combination cleaning trucks and one camera truck to be on site. Well, the camera trucks won't be on site the whole time. One will be hauling the debris to the ECR wastewater plant while the other one cleans. And then they will continue to switch places throughout the night so that it's continuous work. And the camera truck will also be on site to immediately inspect and give a PACP score, which is Pipeline Assessment Certification Program. That's a very easy digestible number. It's scaled one through five. One is the best, five is the worst. And so upon completion of this project, we will already have all of the videos and all of the PACP scores for these pipes. And then we will be able to take action as necessary for rehab.

Okay. And I apologize. There's a lot of questions on this from the community. Because of the backflow and so on, Do we know whether or not we've had, and it's almost certain we have infiltration from stormwater into that sewer line at some point, but do we have any evidence that would suggest that we have sewer making it into the stormwater and then out into the intercoastal and our outflows there?

No, we don't have any indication of that.

Have we tested it?

We have tested it, actually. We did several samples at Bryant Park of both soil and surface water close to the shoreline, and it was fine. So we don't anticipate that being a concern. However, this would be our opportunity to see if that was the case.

Got it. Okay. Well, thank you very much for that clarity, and I know the residents in that immediate area are basically waiting for this to happen, and we're really glad that we have at least this first step.

I'm really excited to be going through with the project, and hopefully their enthusiasm will allow them to forgive the couple hours of noise late at night while we're doing this, but We're ready to get it done. A small price to pay.

Yeah. Understanding the timeline and so on, there might be a neighborhood association meeting in between now and the start. Do you think it might fit into the schedule to have someone from your office maybe attend that meeting and just answer questions and set their minds at ease?

Well, fortunately or unfortunately that someone from my office is me. But yes, I would be happy to do that if it fits into the timeline.

Okay. I will let the neighborhood association president know and they can reach out accordingly.

Okay. And I would also, oops, sorry. I would also encourage everyone to read the proposal because that is an extremely impressive proposal and they gave so much detail about what they're doing and why. So I think that's a great resource for people looking for more information and it's in the backup for the agenda.

Yeah, it's a lot. It's a lot.

Thank you.

Sarah, your hand. Are you done, Mr. Segwitch?

Yes, madam.

Okay, is that South Palm Park Neighborhood Association or Bryant Park Neighborhood Association?

It might actually be both because it connects. No, I know.

Yeah, that's the source of my question. Thank you. Ms. Sarah, you had your hand up.

I did. Thank you. Mine is on the consent agenda. I just wanted some clarity under the change order number two for the time extension. Um, I had questions of when we do these, can we make sure that we're putting North or South on 10th and 13th street? Um, then you get customers that are customers residents that, you know, question where this work is being done. Um, and I'm assuming that this is South.

There was no map in here, but actually it's North it's work on the golf course.

Okay. So yeah, if we can just clarify that next time, um, there was no map in here. I know it's consent agenda, but, um, for those that are paying attention, right?

If we can clarify where it is. Sorry, typically the project title is 10th and 13th Avenues North Stormwater Outfall. So if the north is missing, that's just an oversight.

Okay, yeah, and it didn't mention the golf course. Otherwise I would have been able to figure that out and clarify that. So I appreciate that. That's the only question I had, ma'am. Okay, thank you. Ms. May.

My question is not on the agenda. So if anyone has other questions on the agenda, I just want updates on three projects.

Okay. Anybody else on the agenda? We have any questions before we move on or if we move on? Hearing none. Oh, I do have a question.

Is Melissa going to give us an update on the proclamations? I know she sent the email. Oh, yeah. What are they? Let's see.

Well, that would be for the next meeting. Yeah.

Yeah, but usually we give her a yes or no. But I did speak with Julie Siever, and she would attend for the LGBTQ history one to receive that.

And I will reach out about the domestic violence.

And I can reach out for the Guatemalan Day one.

The domestic violence one, could we get Tendrich?

Yeah, and there's groups in the county. I'll start with her. There's quite a few... advocacy groups.

Got it. Breast cancer? Yes. Yeah, I'd like to do that. What about Florida Climate Week or Florida City Government Week? Florida City Government is requested by the Florida League of Cities that we do that. But what is it? It's just a proclamation declaring that we learn about the Florida government?

No, they've got a whole platform for education on what the city does, celebrating the work that cities do.

Not a bad idea under the current circumstances.

No, it's not, but I'm wondering if that's a proclamation or if it's more of a... It is a proclamation that we've done in the past. I'm sure we can show it to ourselves. Red Ribbon Week is drugs?

Yes.

Yes.

OK, I definitely want to do that one. Yeah. And the Human Rights Council's request to United Against Hate Week. I would ask that we do that one. Yep.

And then I got a request from a young woman who's a youth environmentalist. Her organization is called Pennies for Penguins, and she requested the National E-Waste Day. We haven't done that in a while, but we did do that in the past, I remember.

And I would be in favor of that. I would encourage us to maybe combine it with talking to Solid Waste ahead of it to say, hey, can we have some collection points for e-waste in the town, at least for a little while, maybe a e-waste amnesty day kind of idea. It doesn't really need an amnesty, but Right now you have to haul it to the Lantana place, which is doable, but if we could have a couple of pickups in town, that would be nice.

Or maybe at least education about where to take it. Will the kids, will they be here, Ms. Coyne?

I will reach out because I wanted to first see if there was interest. So if she or someone from the organization comes, we'll have it under presentations. Otherwise, it'll be on consent.

Perfect. Thank you.

So I just want to clarify that except for that one, the e-waste, depending on whether we have an attendee or not, is everything under presentations? Yes.

I think so.

Well, not if we don't have somebody to give it to.

Okay, so I will reach out to whomever, and if there is no one, and for those of you who are reaching out, please let me know. We'll either put them on consent or on presentations if there's someone there to accept them.

What about the Florida City Government Week? Are we going to have somebody there for that, or is that just...

Well, maybe if Representative Tenderich comes for the domestic violence, she could do that one as well. I could reach out to Representative Gregory and her. In fact, she or someone from her staff might actually be at the meeting on the 6th.

That's state government, actually.

Right. We need local.

Oh, I see. Well, you're all there.

I can reach out to the local, the Palm Beach County Yeah, and see if somebody will come. I'm on that board, but I think we should have somebody else be there. I'll find out. And I'll let you know, Melissa.

Okay, thank you. And one other quick thing is I want to schedule the advisory board interviews. And my suggestion is October 20th to proceed the regular meeting. That'll give us time to Advertise, we do have actually some applications. It would be for three boards. It would be for the Business Advisory Board has one vacancy. Planning and Zoning has one vacancy. And the Tree and Landscape Board has one vacancy. So the interviews would be for those three boards. And we have a meeting on the 20th, so we've been doing them at five, which seems to have worked well.

And maybe we can put the word out again to see if more applicants would be, there's time enough to see if more applicants would be interested in any of those boards.

Yeah. So I also reached out to everybody who had a current application, meaning we hold them for a year. And several of those people do intend to be interviewed again and a couple declined.

Great. Thank you. Okay.

Ms. May, your hands up. Both of you have your hands up. Yeah, I still, because I was going to bring something up and then we went on to consent. So I just wanted to know, update on the boring project. Where are we on that project?

It's not boring. It's very interesting.

It is very interesting, but we are boring through the water and the land.

Morning, Madam Mayor.

Good morning, yes, Mr. Perry.

I don't see your head on the line, but I can just give you, I know there are no hiccups or anything, but I can just provide you a written update because I don't see him on the line to provide a comprehensive update.

That's okay. Yeah, or even on Monday, I was just wanting to be updated that we're on time, it'll be done, blah, blah, blah. The next one is an update on 1900 after we approved the funding, so I wanted to see if that's back on track.

and William Waters online, so you can provide the update on that one.

Good morning, Mayor and Commissioners. We never actually stopped work on it, and I don't know why I haven't. That's, gee. What? I'm here, but there's... background noise, and I don't know how to stop it because I only have one thing open, and that's Zoom. We can hear you.

Can you turn your camera on, Mr. Waters?

Yeah, can we see you? Can we see you? I have some severe bruising on my face, so I don't have my video turned on.

You've got to stop those barroom fights, Mr. Waters.

I had a fight with my dermatologist. She won, actually. She went on vacation. Anyway, 1900 never stopped work. We are back gaining some ground on the structural system. We have one more demolition piece to do. The structural engineer resolved that conflict with the contractor yesterday, and that work should proceed. probably tomorrow or Monday, and we're still on track to be back in by mid to late March. Planning and preservation have moved back into the space in 1900, and co-compliance will move back in part of their staff later next week.

Thank you. Great. They'll be glad to get back in. Yeah, that's great. And the third one is just an update on the start date for park rangers.

We have to improve the budget. Good morning, Madam Chair. As a matter of fact, yesterday we had a meeting with the PBSO trying to discuss what needs to be done, what type of forms to be filled out, et cetera. And I believe the start date will be on the 12th with a more, I think it's on a Saturday, but a more Solid started, I think we'll be on the 16th where they'll really have them all out there, but starting on the 12th. So yesterday we made arrangements on what's their responsibilities, where they're going to start, how they communicate. So what we're going to do is put together a memo that talks about exactly what we're going to be doing, have numbers where we can reach each other as far as communication. and so on and so forth. So we did meet yesterday, but you should see them out there starting the 12th, not the actual range because they're still in training, but they're going to provide some coverage through the deputies of the 12th, like I said, with a more comprehensive start date on the 16th.

Of September.

Yes, but they'll be out to start as well.

Right. Do we want to do something with the PIO and welcoming them to the parks?

As a matter of fact, the director of Legion Service had a good idea yesterday, so we are going to do something with the PIO. He's also going to introduce them at a formal meeting so we can all meet them and find out what's going on.

Yeah, that would be good. I think it's important for us to see the result of that meeting that you had, for us to

have an opine about that and i saw mr sword's hand up were you going to talk about that mr sword yeah mr uh mr troy covered it uh well i was just going to add the uh on the 16th leisure's uh briefing at the citizen municipal institute so i'm going to introduce the two senior park rangers to that audience and then working with the city manager's office and pbso we're going to do an official kickoff we just don't have that date yet but probably about 45 days from today

Okay, thank you. Can I just interject on that? And I don't mean to be snotty, but I would prefer us to get to meet them before the citizens in the academy.

Yeah, I think we need to be included in this more with a meeting, you know, with what people expect them to do so we have a better idea. And it would be good. I agree, Ms. May. Understood. We'll hold up on that and we'll...

We'll work a time and place, perhaps.

Or let us know and we'll be at the academy. But I just think that it would, I don't want to say it's insulting, but it kind of is, that you would go there first.

Well, I think it was going to be more of a concept of the park rangers, because like I said, they're still in training. So I don't know if all of them are going to be there, but it's more of a concept of a park ranger. project because a lot of people are asking but i understand but we'll we'll make arrangements to meet you know meet with the commission first once we get them all on board and then we can move forward that's fine it's not a problem i mean i i'm speaking for myself i would love to hear what my colleagues think if they disagree then we'll go i mean i'm up we'll go with consent i think it's important i think it's important i i agree yeah i agree okay mr mcvoy do you agree without just do you agree or disagree with that and we have four

I agree.

I do want to make a correction. They're going to start on 9-12 with a larger compliment on Monday, September 14th. I apologize. I say September 14th.

Okay. Those are my questions. Thank you.

In terms of updates, Mr. Perry, the only one I would ask, the signs about the referendum, I thought the signs would be up by now and I'm not really seeing them. Me too.

I apologize for that. As a matter of fact, I saw yesterday, well, the website information was sent to a legal yesterday again to take a review of it, but I'll get what... I mean, it's pretty simple. I mean, don't miss... Well, we just want to make sure... I understand, but we're just trying to make sure that the language is correct, but we'll get them out.

Okay, but every single city around us has already... We're so late on this. We're not reinventing the wheel on this. This is ridiculous. I mean, time is ticking.

Yeah, I mean, this is what your tax dollars pay for.

It doesn't seem like there's much legal need there. And I think Commissioner Malega's point that look at the language of other cities, good enough, let's go.

I don't know why this hasn't been up like a month ago. But if we could get that up this week, next, I mean, it's a sign, print the sign, go to instant print and put them up.

We'll take care of it, Commissioner. We've been working on it. It's not like we haven't been working on it.

I know, but it seems like something that could have been done a little faster. Mr. Segrich?

Thank you, Madam Mayor. Since we have the board interviews coming up, could we please get an update on the board attendance records?

Madam Mayor, I will resend that. I did send that out.

You did?

It was a while back.

When did you send it?

I don't know. You had a lot of questions, Commissioner Segrich, and I answered them all and did an update, but I will resend it.

It was like three weeks ago. It was a few weeks ago.

Nothing has changed since then. We have one vacancy on the three boards I mentioned. The Business Advisory Board, Planning and Zoning, and the Tree and Landscape Board.

Okay, but if you could resend that, the attendance, that would be helpful. We do get things get buried.

Yes, I will do that.

It's for all boards? Yeah.

Yes, so I did send for all boards. I'm just naming the ones that have vacancies. Okay.

I'd like to talk about the tree board, the landscape community greening. It's on the agenda, which if we don't mind going back. I think it's great they're giving away trees. I'm a tree advocate. My concern is that, you know, here's your tree. Go plant it in the right place and go take care of it in the right way. My concern is the follow-up. I mean, I completely support this, but I just wish there was a little more follow-up. And I'm a prime example. I got a couple of trees, God, 20 years ago, and I planted them too close. You know, so now I've got this, you know, issue with close connections. poinsettia trees but um i would just like to ask the tree board or whoever would be the greening people is there any follow-up once they get a tree do they because they could sit in the backyard and not get planted and die and i'd rather see them um live so if we could from community greening if we could reach out to them or maybe i'll reach out to them and find out what do they do about a follow-up that's my only concern anything else anybody has

Mayor, just to confirm, you say follow-up as once you issue the tree, are we following?

Yeah, here's a tree. Does anybody call them two weeks later and say, did you plant the tree? That sort of thing. I understand. Yeah. Tomorrow morning we have the 9-11, which I hope we have residents come to that. It's a very important moment. Anything else, folks?

I do want to talk a little bit about the difference between the official tree board and nest and the involvement in projects. And I think that it's great that the, that they're so involved. So I'm not saying that it's a problem. I just want to make sure that we're, they are sunshine boards and if they're participating in advocacy in some way or another for projects, like for instance, the pinnacle on six with the tree, are they representing themselves? Are they representing nest? Are they the tree board? I don't know. And I don't know if it's an issue, but it's been brought to my attention. So I thought I should bring it up.

Okay. Yeah. Also, I received that same concern last week. So that's something that I am checking into and trying to provide some type of clarity in the responsibilities of both boards. That's been a concern of others. So I just want to make sure that you know I am checking into that and

Yeah, and NEST is not a city advisory board. They're a volunteer advocacy board that is aligned with what we want to do.

But a lot of them are on the tree board, so it gets a little bit sketchy.

Is Gail Silverplant on the tree board? She's the only one I've been dealing with is Gail. And I forget if she's on the tree board or not.

I don't believe she is right now. I don't think she is. I don't think so either, but Yeah.

And I don't want it to sound like I'm coming off as negative about it. I just don't want to minimize the work that they can do based on some legalese.

Yeah, I don't think Gail is on it. Mrs. Lanehan?

She's not on there. What? She's not on the board.

Oh, thank you. Gail is not on the board. I appreciate that.

If I might?

A question regarding the duties of the tree board and their involvement in advocacy for other projects that don't come before their board has been raised. I think we sent communication to all of you about that, but we can really send it out so that you have that fresh in your inbox.

Thank you. Mr. Maboy? Thank you. I just would comment that in the big picture of things, we want local expertise in our community to be contributed into our process to improve, you know, how city government works. Absolutely. There is a long history with the tree board of frustration of members that the support for what the tree board has to do by the city has been less than fulsome. And that's been an issue for decades. And it leads to tree board members getting frustrated and leaving. So in the big picture, I would hope that we err on the side of encouraging people to contribute their expertise and knowledge and experience, not the other way.

Yeah, there have been some times where it seems like the tree board should have, I mean, they're a board, you know, they're not the way planning and zoning, but it seems like their opinion for some of these projects that go in, it would be, it wouldn't be, it would be appropriate to have them have a say because there have been a couple of times where I think with the street landscape thing that, that, that didn't happen. So I agree with you, Mr. McFoy, that they need to be a, given a little more attention and authority. Mr. Segrich?

Thank you, Madam Mayor. I agree with Commissioner May on this, and I do hear what you're saying about having them have more involvement. The individuals who contributed to the Pinnacle on 6th, it really was invaluable, their feedback. And I think it created a better project. And so I look at the tree board and I I question why we don't include them on some of those projects. A major site plan at least, where there's a landscape plan and so on. I do have concerns with sunshine and overlap between nest in the tree board, if there is any, um, we just have to be mindful of that, right? Because, you know, obviously this is a passion for, for many of these residents who are volunteering and coming up with these designs and so on. We just got to make sure that there, there is an overlap, right? You know, so if it's kind of, if you wanted to be on, on nest and, and, and You really can't be on the tree board because you'll hamstring yourself because some of the NEST projects have to go before the tree board for their review and recommendation to the commission, or at least they should, right? So a little clarity would be good, but I definitely want to encourage and underscore that they do have an important contribution to make, especially as, as we're trying to do infill projects and, and infill projects are going to affect existing trees on those lots and are going to affect those neighborhoods. And I think we had a much better outcome because of the, um, involvement than, than not.

Yeah. And I did check with Gail before I met with her about that, you know, she's then confirmed that she's not on the tree board and thank you Ms. Point for confirming that. Um, Yeah. And I mean, if, if, if let's, for example, use this as an example, you know, Gail is not on the, she's on net. She's not on the tree board. You know, I met with her. We talked to the developer.

I'm sorry. It's all good. I think.

No, no, no. All right. I was just going to say, you know, if she was on the tree board, like one of us will come into our commission, which is a sunshine, obviously, and say, Hey, listen, here's an idea that I have. We can, you know, an individual can bring, something to a board is just my point that gail could come in and just say here's here's what i did even if she was on the tree board um because she would have she would just disclose whatever she's done like we do okay um anybody else what's up what's up what's going on in our city that we need to know about or that we should talk to mr secretary hands up

Yeah, no, I just wanted to return to the attendance question, because I went back and I looked through my emails. I was requesting the attendance for all boards. The 724 email was only for planning and zoning and HRPB. And we're supposed to be maintaining a monthly attendance record for all boards. And that is the document I've been asking for.

Okay, so I have them for all the boards. And I'll just, I have them separately for each board. Or planning and zonings together, I'll just email everything that I have rather than, I don't have one like master list.

Right, that's fine.

Okay, I will be happy to do that. I misunderstood your request.

Finance department, we have a budget meeting tonight. What can we expect?

It's just a quick recap of all the workshops, nothing in details. It should be smooth unless you have questions that cannot be answered, which I doubt.

I have a question. For many, many years, I have been begging to get something on the Beach Club dining room audio. Begging. And no one has ever paid any attention to it. And we just were all at the Beach Club the other night, and we once again experienced the

Very poor acoustics. Very bad. I second the motion.

Could we put something, I mean, we're talking about the budget. Can we put something in the budget to finally fix that problem? We have such a great place up there. But even when we have the debates for commission for different things, you cannot hear it. And it's just so frustrating. And I really am begging.

Madam Mayor, as we speak, about it. Ten minutes ago, I sent an email to Legion Services and Public Works asking them to get together and go get some quotes that we can bring to the commission to find to determine how we can address those two facilities. I just said about 10, 15 minutes ago. I will follow up and I'll get you that information before the board so we'll know how much it will cost.

I appreciate that, but I want a commitment that we're going to, Mr. Finance, Mr. Yannick, I want a commitment that we're going to find money in the budget to do that.

It shouldn't be a problem. If we don't get a quote in time, we could always have a placeholder and then adjust accordingly if the commission approves that.

Yeah, it's our facility. It's ours to maintain. Thank you. I'm not going to prattle on about it, but I would be so gracious, so grateful if that happened.

Thank you. 100% with you.

Mr. Segrich. I would consent to that, but I definitely want to see quotes.

Well, of course. I mean, we see quotes for everything. There are different ways to do it. So maybe, but I just, as soon as possible.

Okay. Anything else that anybody has?

I want to thank the staff who's not with us today, who's not on this. They did an amazing job hostessing this week with people coming and going. Some lunches were more successful than others, but they did everything. And they really, they're wonderful hostesses. And we thank them. We should thank them individually. Mr. Secretary. Oh, Mr. Perry. Mr. Perry wants to.

I was going to piggyback on that. I do want to commend staff for how they put a lot of time and effort in at such short notice. The tours, everybody going on tours. I really appreciate that.

Thank you. And we appreciate it.

I was just going to echo your comments, Madam Mayor, from the community event. Please, please, please email us your thoughts. You know, the communities know about the opportunity to meet these candidates face-to-face, and many members did take advantage of that. There are video initial interviews within the backup. It's within the PDF. You kind of have to look for it. There's a link to a YouTube video and a password. You put that in and you can watch their initial interviews. And then, of course, there was the public meeting interviews. where again, members of the public were invited into the process and actually got to ask questions again of our candidates. And I would encourage everyone to watch those interviews. Initial feedback that I've gotten is that people's minds changed from one to the next to the next. And I, you know, watch all three and, and, and everyone's all four. I mean, all three events for the night. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. You know, super important. And we would love your, your feedback and, and please email it to all of us so that we, we all get your, your feedback. Cause that's very important.

Yeah. I was very surprised yesterday that only I, less than a handful, uh, a palm full of, um, folks came. I was, I mean, it was a daytime and people work. I understand that, but there are some people that come to day meetings and we didn't see them. Mr. McVoy.

Uh, just to echo, well, both of you, but, but commissioner Segrich to really encourage the public, anybody who's listening or sees this, please do, um, spend all of us, your, your input, your thoughts, and, uh, I agree also. I heard similarly that people who saw yesterday, you know, adjusted, you know, came away with different impressions. So try to look at all of them. It's a little bit of work, but we want to make as good a decision as possible.

Exactly. Exactly. And I think we do have some, we have some good candidates. We have some good candidates. So Yeah, please take the time. We're taking the time. Please take the time. We need input from our folks.

Where would they find the, I guess the three are the initial interviews, which Commissioner Segrist pointed to the backup for the 15th meeting and also it's in the backup for last. What about video from the Beach Club? That wasn't video.

That wasn't video.

Yeah. They can probably only get access to two of it if they didn't attend.

So the, and the second one would be yesterday's meeting, which would be in the usual YouTubes for yesterday's meeting.

Yeah, it was up. I rewatched them last night. Cause I'm a dork.

Yeah. We love a good dork. Um, the, uh, Yeah. And if anybody has a question, like if you're looking at something and they have a question, send the question to us because we can ask, you know, we still time between now and then a few days to find more information out. So thank you.

Well, I have a quick I do have a question about that. You know, I mean, I'm not an expert in human resources and hiring people. However, when one is hired, usually you call background references and. Do we do that? Have you guys done that? Is that something we should be doing? I think they did it. Do we know that for sure?

I know they did a range of that. I remember reading that in some of this stuff from the hiring consultant, Warren Hutmacher. I don't know. I sort of had the impression that was initial. I would assume that for these four, they've gone further, but you're right. We should confirm that.

We should definitely confirm that. I don't want a surprise coming. Hey, we hired this guy. And next thing you know, something pops up.

Exactly. Very good point. We have Tiana and we have Valentina. Your hand was up first.

Good morning.

Good morning.

I just wanted to confirm that we do have a contract that we do background checks for all of the employees. I know that HR does this, so I can speak to that.

Can you confirm that for these people, for these four people? Could you do that for us, Ms. Estonia?

Yes, I will discuss with Lauren and then we can work on that.

Yeah, can you just send us an email or something confirming that everybody passes with flying colors or whatever?

Yeah, I just don't, I don't want to, we don't need any surprises.

No surprises, please. We have enough surprises. Thank you.

Okay. Tiana should have her hand up. Tiana, did you have something to say?

Yeah, I'm wondering, Tiana, do you still want to say something? Good morning. I was actually going to follow up on that and mention that I would check with Mr. Huttmacher on that. So thank you, Tina. Okay.

All right, great. Thank you very much. Well, it's almost 10 o'clock. Do we have, oh, no, I see no hands up. Does anybody have any final statements or comments or questions?

See you tomorrow morning.

Mr. Perry has his hand up. See you tonight. No, Mr. Perry has his hand up.

Yes, yes, thank you.

Yeah, Mr. Perry, I just see that, Mr. Perry.

I do want to confirm, I believe the meeting tonight, it's at five o'clock. No, 5.01. 5.01.

5.01, I'm sorry.

That's what it is. Thank you.