Regular City Commission Meeting - Regular Meeting

Hey, good evening, everyone. I'm going to call this meeting to order. This is the regular city commission meeting, Wednesday, June 3rd. The time is 636. Please call the roll.

Commissioner Schwartz? Here. Commissioner Simone?

Here.

Commissioner Rosano? Here. Vice Mayor Caggiano? Present. Mayor Serrio?

Here. All right, now we're going to do a moment of silence in the pledge. If Stephanie Cleghorn can come up. I believe she has a friend with her as well. So we're going to do a moment of silence. And then when you're ready, you can begin. Come on, friend.

Pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the Republic of which stands one nation under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all. Stay there. Stay there.

Mayor. Mayor.

Yes. The church. Oh. We've got some t-shirts and a city pin.

Thank you so much. Thank you.

Mayor, I'd like to ask that we move item 6A up right after the presentations and before public discussion.

Okay. Anyone opposed to that? Okay. Next up, we're going to do the presentations recognizing the 2026 Concept Science and Engineering Fair winners from Broward Math and Science Schools. We are proud to recognize the following students from Broward Math and Science Schools for their exceptional performance in the 2026 Concept Science and Engineering Fair held in Illinois. These 10 students earned three gold, six silver, and one bronze medal in this nationwide event, showcasing the remarkable educational talent at Broward Math and Science Schools and the city of Margate. We are incredibly honored that Broward Math and Science was able to represent Margate on a national scale. We've really, you know, the city doesn't control the schools. However, we try everything that we can to make the community clean and safe and work with the schools. So when they make these accomplishments, when they get A-rated for the first time in years, like Margate Elementary and other schools, And when Broward Math and Science is winning national competitions, we really pride ourselves with that. So now we're going to announce the winners, because without them, none of this would happen.

Oh, and I believe the Vice Mayor had something to say. I just wanted to add that this isn't a one-off for Broward Math and Science. They've won national awards before. They're just winning a cornucopia of them, just a huge amount. and the mayor and myself we've been to the school we've read to the kids we've spoken to the kids and as they know i'm a huge fan of the public school system but i'm going to tell you something brow math and science kick spot they're an amazing amazing charter school and they do an amazing job

What I'll do is I'll call each winner up, present you with your certificate, and then if you want to stand over here, we'll get a group photo of you for our social media. The first winner is Shayhill Baptiste, eighth grade. And he won environmental science first place. And this certificate is proudly presented for honorable achievement to Shehil Baptiste. The city of Margate proudly recognizes your exceptional performance at the 2026 Concept Science and Engineering Fair. Congratulations to you. Next up, we have Logan. Rudnick, eighth grade, electronics and engineering, another first place. And I like reading, even though it's repetitive.

Each child deserves to be recognized individually, so I read each certificate.

Certificate of recognition proudly presented for honorable achievement to Logan Rudnick. The city of Margate proudly recognizes your exceptional performance at the 2026 Concept Science and Engineering Fair, signed by myself, the mayor.

the Vice Mayor and the City Commissioners.

Congratulations to you.

I'd like to mention that regardless of why you are here, please take the time to recognize these kids and the outstanding things they've done. And if you come from a paper to take a picture, take a picture of them too.

Okay, now next up we have April Vasquez, eighth grade physics, first place. This certificate of recognition is proudly presented for honorable achievement to April Vasquez. The city of Margate proudly recognizes your exceptional performance at the 2026 Concept Science and Engineering Fair. Congratulations. Next, I got Leah Jane Baptiste, fifth grade, electronics and engineering, second place. This certification is proudly presented for honorable achievement to Leah Jane Baptiste, The city of Margate proudly recognizes your exceptional performance at the 2026 Concept Science and Engineering Fair. Congratulations to you. The budget's coming up, so we'll put a new camera in there.

Congratulations to you.

OK. Next up, I got Sahila Baptiste. Did I say that right? Fifth grade, experimental project, second place.

How do you say your name?

All right, this certification is proudly presented for honorable achievement to Sahela Baptiste. The city of Margate proudly recognizes your exceptional performance at the 2026 Concept Science and Engineering Fair. Congratulations to you. Next up, I got Stephanie Cleghorn, eighth grade, microbiology. This certification is proudly presented for honorable achievement to Stephanie Cleghorn. The city of Margate proudly recognizes your exceptional performance at the 2026 Concept Science and Engineering Fair. Congratulations. OK, next up we have Chloe Dorman, eighth grade, Earth and Space Science, second place. OK, this certification is proudly presented for honorable achievement to Chloe Dorman. The city of Margate proudly recognizes your exceptional performance at the 2026 Concept Science and Engineering Fair.

Congratulations.

Jayana Roberts, fifth grade, zoology and engineering, second place. All right. This certification is proudly presented for honorable achievement to Jayana Roberts. The city of Margate proudly recognizes your exceptional performance at the 2026 Concept Science and Engineering Fair.

Congratulations, Jayana.

And next up, I have Dariana Severo, seventh grade, for health, second place. All right. This certification is proudly presented for honorable achievement to Dariana Severo. The city of Margate proudly recognizes your exceptional performance at the 2026 Concept Science and Engineering Fair. Miriam El-Hafidi. Is Miriam here? Miriam is seventh grade for Botany, third place. This certification is proudly presented for honorable achievement to Miriam El-Hafidi. The city of Margate proudly recognizes your exceptional performance at the 2026 Concept Science and Engineering Fair. Congratulations. next one oh that's for the teachers okay so that's going to conclude for these students but we also have some recognition for looks like four teachers we want to proudly recognize the following teachers who accompanied and supported these students at the fair whose dedication and guidance contributed greatly to this outstanding achievement first up we have Tamika Henry With all successful students is successful and good leadership. So congratulations. This certification is proudly presented for honorable achievement to Tamika Henry. The city of Margate proudly recognizes your exceptional performance at the 2026 Concept Science and Engineering Fair. Next teacher I have up is Evli Pallelium? Pallelium? My apologies. Okay, LV Pallio. This certification is proudly presented to you for honorable achievement. The city of Margate proudly recognizes your exceptional performance at the 2026 Concept Science and Engineering Fair. And if I mispronounce any names, I'm sorry. I'm working on it. I've gotten better through the year. But if it makes you feel better, Commissioner, Vice Mayor Caggiano informed me that when they were announcing the commissioner's names at a recent graduation, they botched my name and his, so don't feel bad. Morett Solmaz. certification is proudly presented for honorable achievement to murat solmaz the city of margate proudly recognizes your exceptional performance at the 2026 concept science and engineering fair okay and the vice mayor wanted to do the last one absolutely last but not least um this is for gemma ward gemma please come up

Gemma is phenomenal. She's in charge of student activities and this is the kind of job she does for student activities. She's amazing. This has been many years of award-winning and she's just a phenomenal mentor, role model, inspiration. I mean, she's just amazing and I'm just thrilled Listen, I'm thrilled that you're in Margate. I only wish it was Margate math and science instead of Broward math and science. But other than that, I'm just thrilled.

So this is for you. I'm a county commissioner.

That's all right. That's all right. And I'm proud to read the certificate of recognition. This certification is proudly presented for honorable achievement to Gemma Ward on this day, June 3rd, 2026. The city of Margate proudly, and I mean proudly, recognizes your exceptional performance at the 2026 Concept Science and Engineering Fair in Chicago. They went out to Chicago, and they competed nationally, folks, nationally. And it's signed by the mayor, myself, the vice mayor, and our commissioners up there, and I'm just thrilled to give this to you.

There will be so much I could say, and you know, it will take us hours. So and I don't want to take your time. All I want to say is that it wasn't just a one person effort. It was a team effort. When we got the awards, we didn't know what we were getting into. What they did, it was a work of three quarters done in two weeks. And I told our principal, I said, I cannot do this alone. I can only do it with the support of the team. And I will go if you let this and this and this person go, and I'm all for it. And here we are. And all I can say is thank you to the parents for believing in us. But a special thank you to the students that two weeks felt like two years. And when we were getting called up on stage, we were like, what else? What else? What's coming? Because we do have here gold medalists that have been three years in a row gold medalists. So they're no joke. These are the people that are going to be leading our future, our future leaders of the country. And I can only say that I'm more than honored to say that I've been your teacher for I don't know how many years. We've been through so much together, tears, laughter, books, and so on. And just thank you to everybody. And thank you for just giving this important time to us, Broward math and science.

And if I could add, while it's lovely that we have two young men there, notice we have eight females.

So I think what stood out the most is it wasn't just one winner. It was 10 or 15 of them, which is most impressive. What we're going to do now is we're going to take about a three-minute recess so that those that came for the presentations, if you want to leave, I know you still have school for another few more days.

Are you guys free?

They're the last day, so go and celebrate. And if you want, you can, for the three, four minutes, we're on recess. If you want to take individual photos under the Margate seal here, feel free to do so. Congratulations, everyone, and we'll be on recess for a few minutes. We are now back from recess. Please take your seats. We're getting started. Excuse me, the meeting has started.

Let's go.

We're getting started. Take their seats, please.

Let's go.

Which item was it?

6A.

OK, we've moved 6A up. So we will now have 6A.

Item 6A is a resolution of the City of Margate, Florida, approving the First Amendment, the Facilities Amendment, to the Interlocal Agreement for Solid Waste Disposal and Recyclable Materials Processing Authority of Barrow County, Florida, providing for conflicts, providing for severability, and providing for an effective date. This resolution is before you for your consideration this evening.

We have a presentation. For those of you that don't know, Sam Mayer, former, well, he, to present. This is Sam May, former Margate Public Works director and city manager. Welcome back. And resident.

Here we go. All right. Clicker working here. Good evening, mayor, vice mayor, commission. Nice knowing everybody when I say that, you know, knowing them all. City manager, city clerk, city attorney, and IT director. Good evening to the residents here. I don't know a lot of the residents, but I do know some of the residents. So I'm here to present on the Solid Waste Authority. I'm going to make a brief presentation. But first of all, I'd like to introduce, we have also Commissioner Horland from, I'm sorry, Council President Horland, right, from the city of Plantation, who is here. Mary Luke Tye from Broward League of City is here. And also Beam Fur with Broward County is here. And I'd like to just have Beam come up and just kind of just introduce the authority a little bit and kind of get it going.

Hold on to the clicker. Good evening, Mayor, Vice Mayor, Commissioners. It's an honor to be here. First of all, I love how you guys start your meetings. That was wonderful just to see all the kids and the teachers. You got some great kids there. And it's great to see the future right in front of us. So I think that happened the last time we were here. And so obviously, you guys do it on a regular basis. So it's nice to see. I also want to thank your commissioner, ,, who has done a fantastic job on the executive committee. He has helped. He has represented you all tremendously over the last, I don't know how many years you've been on there now, but a lot of years, but has been instrumental in helping to write the master plan that the 28 cities of our county have put together. And it has been every two weeks, almost, for a couple years, meeting on a regular basis to hammer this out. And it's something, you know, this is a big lift. As you probably know, the RRB, many, many years ago, I was in the RRB when I was a Hollywood City Commissioner. And that fell apart many, many years ago. It's a lot harder to put something back together. And this has taken years and years to put it back together. It has been through some really, really good efforts on your fellow city colleagues' behalf. The county has very little Other than the fact that we, from the county's perspective, we deal with making sure that there's a place to take your garbage. But you all, as you know, and I knew as a Hollywood City Commissioner, your residents are mainly worried and concerned with when they take the trash out to the curb that it gets picked up. None of that's going to change. What will change on this is you're seeing a very big effort to decide to determine where this garbage is going to go and how and how it's going to be disposed of in the most economical way the most cost-effective way and the most environmentally correct way so we're working on both of those angles and I think what you've seen through the 28 cities that have been working on this a lot of effort to try to diversify because We are running out of landfill space. We are at capacity at the waste energy plant. Once the RRB fell apart, what you saw was our recycling rate was cut in half. We were almost at 60%. It's down by 30% now. And our landfill rate doubled. That's where we're at right now. That is not a good place to be. And this is a way to change that. So you're going to see a presentation by Sam May. and Daniel Deitch from our consultants. I think both myself, Denise, Mary Lou Tai, and we're here to answer any questions. But tonight, you're voting on the linchpin. And I want to thank you for going along on this entire journey with us. It has been a long journey. You've been there from the get-go. And I want to thank you for that. It has taken that kind of faith that the city's had that we could do something. that we really could put this back together as, you know, from the cities together, working with the county. And we think we're about, we are on the precipice. We have to pass this by August 14th. We have had 16 cities, I believe, pass it so far. We are well on our way. We can't wait to add Margate to the list. And I just want to thank you again. And again, Commissioner Caggiano, thank you for all your work and dedication on this. You have certainly done a yeoman's job on this. And as being vice chair, I can't thank you enough. So thank you. With that, let me turn it over to Sam.

Thank you, Commissioner. I also want to thank Carrie Ann Yap, if she's in here. I know she's probably here somewhere. She's with the Department of Environmental Engineering Services. She's on the TAC Committee, Technical Advisory Committee. Okay. Hi. And she's been very instrumental, too, in helping out here. This is not part of my presentation, but I can tell you I was sitting over here when the RRB was falling apart, basically, and there was a lot of litigation. There was a lot of animosity back and forth between the county and the commission. I was over there in that seat. And this is not RRB. RRB was county controlled. This is controlled by all the cities. Every city on here.

Sam, just so people know what the RRB is, the Resource Recovery Board.

Resource Recovery Board, right. And that was kind of the, it was a, I I guess it was a board that was made up of comprised basically of the county controlled board that had cities input into it more than this is a board made up of all the cities that the county has input, just like the cities have the input into it. They're one of the, one of the 20, well, there's 28 cities that are involved in the ILA plus the county is makes it 29. And so they, they have a vote on the governing board, just like other cities have votes on the governing board. They're on the executive committee just as, Commissioner Caggiano is on the executive committee. I'm sorry, Vice Mayor Caggiano, pardon me. But yeah, the structure is completely different. The executive director is an administrator that's just part of the answers to the governing board and the governing board only and the executive committee. So there's major differences between the two. I think that maybe the goal should be the same thing was to get lower rates, but I just wanted to throw that out there, because there are people here that have a lot of tenure. Most cities don't have commissioners that have tenure that even know what it was even about. What's that? Right. Right, exactly. But this city does, and there's a lot of pasts there that they remember, and remember the litigation and everything. So I just wanted to throw that out there. So I normally don't even talk about it at all, because it's not something to even talk about. Okay, let me keep on going here. Normally I show this slide here. It shows me and I just say that I've been serving for 40 years. You guys know how long I've been serving. You were here when I was here. I started out in Margate in 1988, so I've served in Broward County. I started in engineering. Of course, I went to public works and then public works director and then the city manager. And so I'm not just somebody from the outside. I'm somebody who's been here and knows what's going on. And that's really enough about me. Let's talk about the cities who are here. There's 15 cities right now, 15 in county. That's including the county. So there are a lot of cities, including Plantation, Sunrise, neighboring city here, Coconut Creek, Tamarack. Coral Springs will be voting on June 17th. Wednesdays from now they'll be voting along with Oakland Park and Hollywood and I don't think there's any more between now and then but as you can see it's on the website BrowardSWA.org and it says you know votes or whatever and it tells you when the the votes are so you can go to BrowardSWA.org and you can see everything on there you can see the entire master plan all the papers everything that was everything that's been developed as far as This presentation is just a very brief snippet out of it. And this is a big overview of the SWA, what I'm going to show you. It's time for action. We can avoid the solid waste crisis because that's basically what we're in. The waste energy facility is past its maximum capacity right now. Its capacity is 750,000 tons. They're bringing in more than that. It's being shipped out. So, um, you know, we have a fragmented system. Everybody's kind of on their own. We do have the global agreement. Luckily that the county has put together that the people is able to get great prices on that global agreement for the people who are in it. I say the people, the municipalities are part of it market being 1 of them. There are a lot of cities that aren't part of the global agreement now. Um, that, um, are paying a lot more, um. City of Hollywood, Margate's paying $57.49 for solid waste, regular solid waste for the disposal. City of Hollywood's paying $65.08. It's a big difference when you're talking 100,000 tons or something like that that they have. So that's what we're looking forward to, bringing the prices down for everybody. The master plan, as I said, everything that's in here is in the master plan. It really has the foundation of everything, of how everything was spelled out and laid out. A little bit of background, there's about 5 million tons collected overall. That's including C&D. C&D, of course, is a construction demolition debris. It's being landfill. We only have a 39% adjusted recycling rate, and that adjusted recycling rate means what's going to the FCC or the waste of energy. It's really probably down in the 20% range if you took that waste of energy out. The thing is, is that Everything we don't recycle is having to either go to waste to energy, which is a form of recycling, or it's going to the landfill. And if it's going to the landfill and it is recyclable, then that material is just gone for good. You're not getting any value out of it, and it's just filling up the landfill to where future people won't be able to use the landfill. So that's the big thing with that. So why has change – oh, I don't want to hear this. It's not on our sheet here. This is showing us, and another big difference between, I guess, what was in the past was that what was in the past had facilities that were built. And those facilities that were built were, there was, you know, a lot of discussion on how they would be split up at the end. And that discussion with how they were going to be split up, there was nothing in the RRB that explained that in their documentation or their agreement. What the SWA is, What SWEA is going to do, the Solid Waste Authority, is utilize the existing infrastructure that's already existing in the county. There's enough in the county right now that we can utilize everything that's there through flow control and get the best prices that are available. Now, almost all of these people that are part of this infrastructure here, the processing facilities and the disposal sites are all in favor of this because they know that they'll be able to get guaranteed tonnages coming to them. And they can, if they need to improve their infrastructures, they can improve their infrastructures because the disposal contracts will be 20 year contracts, minimal, and they'll be able to, you know, improve their infrastructure and get a return on their investments whenever, you know, and be able to recoup their money back basically on their investment. So big impact, minimal costs. We've got an over-reliance on landfills right now. Oh, I'm sorry. wrong one here I'm just gonna take this one just toss it away because this is what we have here this is the old one I will recycle it. On average, what's it going to cost everybody? It's about $3 a year. It's like, how can it be $3 a year? Well, it is, and I'll show you how it's going to be $3 a year. Plus, everyone will get the most favored nation status. If there's lower rates, the lowest rates in the county is what we'll be able to get that's part of the SWA. There will be a robust recycling education program taught through the schools and taught through our PIOs. The PIO here is Lisa Hurriash. I don't know if she is in here tonight or not.

Hi, Lisa.

This is where we are. But she's a PIO here. And so all the information will be disseminated through the PIOs and also in the public school system. We'll be getting information to them so they can have a curriculum for recycling. And that's what it's going to do is change people's mindset on the recycling. There'll be convenient recycling drop-off centers. There'll be built eight convenient recycling drop-off centers. So if you have throughout the county, kind of dispersed throughout the county. And it'll be for household hazardous waste, for your electronics, for your paint, for things like that where you're taking it. I think there's like one place up in the county right now where it's going to. that you can take stuff to, but up here on Powerline Road. And there's a couple, but there's one for this area here. There's only one that you can take it to, and that's the one on Powerline Road. But there'll be eight new drop-off centers that you'll be able to take things to. And overall, hopefully it'll create cleaner, healthier communities. So how's the authority funded? Average single-family home produces about 1.3 tons of household waste per year. from looking at everything that we have here, produces about 1.7 tons. And we found that the cities that have higher amount of vegetation have a higher amount of household tonnage. The reason being is because they trim their trees more and they put their trees out. So that's why they have more tonnage than some of the other cities have. But they're about 1.7 tons. Currently, the rate is $2.22 per ton as a surcharge. And so you multiply the $2.22 times 1.3 tons. It comes out to $2.89 a year. With Margate, it's going to be, it comes out to, based on 2025 numbers, is 1.62 tons times the number of residential unit service, which is about 12,186 residential unit service It comes out to $3.60 per year divided by, you put this on your utility bill, so you're looking at an additional 30 cents per month. That's what the fee will be to be part of the SWA. It's 30 cents per month on the residential unit services utility bill. Commercial people will be charged on their tonnage, on their rates right now, it's at about 11 cents per month. cubic yards, so if you have a dumpster, that you've got a four yard dumpster and you're dumping it twice a week, you've got eight cubic yards going out, it's about 11 cents more, so it'll be 88 cents more per week on that dumpster. So the dollar amount is a very low dollar amount for what you're getting out of it. The cost differential that you'll gain, that we're looking to be able to gain out of combining everybody's tonnages and getting RFPs for everybody's tonnages will far exceed that $0.30 per month or the $2.22 per ton. So this is the funding flow, and it talks about how the funding will come to the authority. Basically, up to 2027, it's based on population. From 2028 on, it's based on tonnages and what the tonnages are per household, and that's a more fair way to do it because that way they're also then the commercial people will pay their part in 27, and prior to that, when ILA was in existence, 27, 26, and 25, the amounts were based on population. I'm sorry, yeah, on population. And in 2020, I'm sorry, 2031, it'll still be based on tonnages, but it'll be a solid waste assessment. So there'll be a line item on your tax bill, it'll just be a solid waste assessment, and it'll be whatever this dollar amount is, $3.60. So then your water bill should go down by $0.30 because it would be a $3.60 charge on your solid waste assessment. I'm sorry, solid waste assessment would be a non-advalorum tax on your tax bill.

Do you know what this proposed ballot amendment for the elimination of property taxes? I know that they're putting other restrictions on cities to increase their fees or to offset costs somewhere else. So is that, if it passes with the voters, is that going to prevent you guys from adding a non-ad valum assessment?

Yeah. And you know, some cities have, I'd say probably, most cities have a, not all of them, but a lot of cities have their Solid waste assessment is a solid waste assessment. It's like it's a bill that's part of a non-advalor. It's like on your assessment, like your fire, your EMS bill or whatever it is that is on there. Your fire assessment is on your tax bill. And for those that definitely won't change it. I don't I don't believe you have the attorney up there.

Well, you know, the legislation was just passed yesterday. The ballot question beyond in November, you know, we're we're still looking at it, analyzing it. But it's it's focused on ad valorem taxation based on assessed value. So you know, we need to look to see to the extent that something isn't impacted by your assessed value, then it may not be something that would be affected. But as we analyze it more, we'll come up with a better answer.

Thank you. Yeah, it will be a non-ad valorem assessment that will be there. So let's go on to the next slide. The next slide just kind of goes a little bit more into it. It talks about 2027. It's population-based, and it goes to 2028 as surcharge, and then 2031 it goes to the non-ad valorem assessment. Just so you know, though, right now Margate is paying, kind of a funny thing I said, Margate is paying When I was in North Lauderdale, as you all know, I was in North Lauderdale for about six years. And every time I make a presentation, I would say Margate instead of North Lauderdale. I was like, oh. I'm glad to be back here and I can say Margate. It just rolls off my tongue here. But anyway, but Margate was paying in 2028 $43,880 based on the population. I'm sorry, $69,398 based on the population in 2027. It's going to go down to $43,880 based on tonnages. And so however you split that up amongst your – you may have been sending it out on your tax bill already, putting that on there. If you were, that's going to go down. Or not on your – I'm sorry, not on your tax bill, on your water bill already. Some places were already adding it into their assessment. Some places weren't. Some places were subsidizing it just through their general fund. That's however you're doing it. I don't know. But it will be going down. So this is the maximum service charges for materials. that the master plan has and those rates right there that you see are basically the rates that are part of the global agreement they will go up per year based on cpis just as a global agreement goes up based on the cpis of the um you know the trash cpis that there is industry cpis but those rates are based on the global agreement rates so the 57 49 the 52 56 for the um class 3 waste um the yard trash. So those rates are based on that. So I just wanted to let you know. The global agreement, though, also has an expiration date of 2028. So if this doesn't exist, if the SWA doesn't exist past August 15th, will there be an extension? There is a one five-year extension on the SWA. Beam can maybe speak a little bit more about that. But there's one five-year extension that possibly could be extended out. but that would be it and then the race could go to whatever they are you know like miami i think miami's paying somewhere around 70 a ton right now so that's a big difference what we than what we're enjoying the rates of 57.49 right now so and there are cities in broward county that are paying close to 70 a ton also that are not part of that global agreement that didn't get involved with it so they're they're looking hard at this also What do you get? Lower comparable processing and disposal costs. You get stabilization and predictability. You know what your rates are going to be. The industry knows what their rates are going to be. They know what their tonnages are going to be. That's how you're going to know what yours are and then you can predict it and budget for it in the future. There'll be expanded programs, yard, bulk, food, hazardous waste, as far as being able to have collection points around and create a circular economy so that mulch can come back around and some of the other items can come back around through the reduction and reuse of items that will be recycled. Environmental stewardship, not putting as much into the landfills. That's the last place we want to put items that have useful life to them because once you put them in there, they're gone. If you want to incinerate them, you still get something out of it, but once it goes in that landfill, it's gone. And you maintain control of the, the cities maintain control of their collection services. It doesn't, you know, if you have, I think it's now with, who's your collection service here? Republic. Republic. So you keep your collection service. If you want to have your bulk pickup, you know, one day a week or one day a month. It doesn't matter. It's whatever you have. You know, there's some people, there's some places that have bulk pickup twice a week, believe it or not. And but some places only have it one day a month. So whatever is up to you, what you want to have. We're not getting involved in the collection side of it. What will the authority fund? Establish surcharge infrastructure, develop, operate, and staff eight permanent drop-off sites. We talked about that a little bit. Secure binding prices for the processing and disposal. Standardize recycling rules across member communities. So no matter where you are, everybody's kind of doing the same thing. That's the main thing. We want to establish Yard waste, because yard waste is about 20% of the total waste that goes into the landfills. So we want to be able to utilize that yard waste, not put it in the landfills if we don't have to, and utilize that so everyone will be utilizing their yard waste as part of the program. And nothing's going to change. If you have contracts with your hauler right now and you've got a contract that hasn't mixed, nobody's going to make you break your contract and go to another contract. stay with your contract. When that contract's up, you can renegotiate or when that new contract comes up, that's when you would change things over. So it's not something that's like immediately going to happen right after August 15th that it's going to cost cities money. The goal is not to cost cities money. The goal is to save money for the cities. Maintain consistent education and outreach programs to support sustained behavior change and build capital reserves for future infrastructure needs. If there needs to be something that needs to be built, we'd have capital in there to do that with.

I have a question. In the middle here, bullet point, standardized recycling rules across all member communities, single stream recycling equals lower collection costs. To me, single stream, it's kind of a love-hate thing because it is convenient for us residents City Council Chambers, throw it all in one can it here says here lower collection costs, but it's one of the big contributors to contamination and I know the county has certain recycling goals, so how does that. City Council Chambers, How are you going to improve the recycling percentages if we're single streaming and contamination, a follow up to that is, I believe, as part of this they're going to be teaming up with.

One of the, was it environmental or what?

I forget the abbreviation of the company, but they're going to be adding an incinerator?

No, there's no incinerator added, FCC. FCC? Yeah, their proposal is to, if the Solid Waste Authority moves forward, is to add an additional boiler, not to add additional stack. They'll increase their capacity.

the boiler helps to increase the capacity right so in a single stream situate thank you but right that's what i so it hasn't if they're not selected then that won't happen if they are selected they'll have the additional boiler can you incinerate something that's been contaminated yeah you can incinerate most things but you can't incinerate cnd doesn't incinerate too well that's why then cnd right like you couldn't incinerate toxic chemicals but for example From my understanding, if someone throws a pizza box in a single stream, it contaminates the whole container. Under incinerating, in that scenario, you'd be able to burn that pizza box that would normally be contaminated, and it gets converted into energy, and there's some sort of recycling credit.

Correct. Correct.

That's what I was trying to get to.

And if you've been to the new recycling center, if you haven't been, they've got tours set up that anyone can go to them and see the new recycling center. I saw the old one and I saw the new one. The new one is incredible what it does and what you can put through it. And when you put it through there and what's left over is things that aren't recyclable. And then they take all that stuff that's not recyclable and they run it through again. I've seen the old facility.

It was fantastic. really neat how everything gets sorted out. All the Publix bags that get wedged in the machines and every so often they have to stop to clean it out. But it's an interesting process.

The new one is really crazy how fast it goes and how they sort everything out. The cardboard especially, everything. It uses AI, believe it or not, to do stuff. And you say, how does it do that? But if you go and see it, you'll see what it is. It's pretty amazing. Yeah, so keep on going there.

Okay, thank you.

I could have Daniel come up and he could talk to you for about 30 minutes on that recycling thing because he wrote the white paper on that stuff and, you know, about recycling and... Okay. I'm serious. He's good. Why does this not change in there? There it goes. Okay, yeah. OK, so this is really about, you know, you've already signed the ILA and you're part of the solid, you know, the solid waste authority through the ILA. But the facilities amendment is really what has to be signed to move to move this thing forward. And the facility really was in front of you tonight. And the facilities amendment tells you things that you can and can't do. You can build transfer stations, or the authority can build transfer stations, recycling centers, drop-off centers, inorganic processing centers. They can't build a new landfill. They can't build a waste of energy. And if they do that, if they say that there's a need in 30 years to build that, they've got to go back to all the cities. First of all, it's got to be voted on by the executive committee. Then that's got to go to the... governing board. And from there, then it has to be voted on by all the cities, just like every change in this. This is a change to the ILA. This is the facilities amendment. It's got to be voted on. Some of the things have to be voted on and have 80% of the cities voted on by population. And this is one of them that we're doing right now, this facilities amendment. Some of them, if you change the duration or anything like that of the contract or how the executive board's made up, it has to be voted on by the executive committee, then that goes to the governing board, voted on by the governing board. If that moves forward, then it has to be voted on by every city with 100% voting by the city. So the city of Lazy Lake with 11 houses in it, and 30 people literally can stop everything. They can say, we don't want this, and we want it to be just like it is, and stop it. And so it's pretty amazing that how, you know, how tight this thing is now compared to what things have been in the past, let's just say. So everybody has, and everybody created it. It was all created by governing board the whole plan was created by the governing board it wasn't created by the county it wasn't something the county made up and and brought to the governing board it's something that the governing board spent many many many hours and vice mayor caggiano was part of that those many many many hours you know they brought you know daniel with his team with scs engineers and arcadis and some of the other consultants brought just massive amounts of information to them over a time period and it you know it Over a five, six year period, they've developed the master plan. And that was voted on. Now we're bringing it forward to the facilities amendment. Some of the things it does have, it has to own a solid waste disposal facility. Amendments need 80% population approval. All members have the right to inspect the facilities. There's maximum service charges set in the master plan. If you increase those maximum service charges, you have to have the executive committee approval, governing board approval, and then two-thirds vote and the county approval to increase the rates. And the big thing, the big thing is there's a provision in there called the wind down. And the wind down is what there wasn't before. The wind down has spelled out 100% how things will be split up when either sun sets or if everybody decides to just break it up, the SWA, because all the people can vote this to break it up if they want to. They can, you know, I think it's two-thirds vote. They can break it up or 80% vote. if the governing board decides we don't want to have the SWA anymore. But at the end of the 40-year period, I think there's two 10-year extensions. But at the end of 40 years, they say, no, we don't want to have the extension. We just want to end the authority right then. Then there's provisions in there exactly how to end the, it's called the wind down provision. And that wind down tells you step by step of how things will be divided up. And it was, once again, it was, developed by the people on the governing board and people on the executive committee. So I think your city attorney could probably speak more on that wind down. One of his counterparts, the firm that he's with is the legal counsel for the Solid Waste Authority and was extremely involved in all of it. So there's been a lot of effort there. There's also something here that's at the bottom. You see that's written in there called the Second Amendment. There's another amendment that's gonna be coming out and it's actually, it was voted on at the last governing board meeting and the governing board and executive committee meeting. And that second amendment had an opt-out period because there was time, people, there was, as I said, Mayor Mrakas, Anyone can do the governing board can bring something or something back to the executive committee say we want to make a change or a city can make say we want to make a change to this, and so there were cities that wanted an opt out there, you know there was there was. There were some workshops that were had, and there was just cities that said, we want to opt out. So there was three opt outs that were sent out. One of them was for opt out right at the beginning when the RFPs went out and they came back. If they were higher than the maximum value, if any one of those five RFPs for the disposable waste came back that was higher than the maximum rate that was set in there, any one of the municipalities could say, hey, I want out. And they could get out. There was another opt-out at the 25-year mark. And it was really, the 25-year mark was like a halfway point. And it was really the 25-year was really like a 20-year because it's already been in existence for three years. And so most of the disposal rates or contracts will be for 20 years. And it was a one-year contract. Timeframe to to develop the RFP get it out and advertise to get it back and then for the people wanted out They would have a one-year period they have to say they're gonna be out So the new the next RFP would have know what the tonnages are. So it's really it's a 25 year out After the thing was voted the for the Second Amendment that it was voted on for just the first opt-out at the very beginning once again People came back and said hey There was enough, there was at least five cities that voted no on it. There was actually a 10 to 8 vote, but five of those no's said they wanted a 25 year out. They didn't want just the first out. They wanted a 25 year out. And then there was, during workshops we had, there was a discussion of cities that wanted to have the 25 year out also. So we said, you know what? One of the, actually the chair at his, at Sunrise, he said that he was going to bring it back to us. He was on the prevailing votes that he was going to bring it back at the next executive committee governing board meeting for reconsideration of the vote to add an end to where you'd have a 25 year opt out also. So that's going to be coming back to the June 15th meeting or 25. So it'll be also there'll be another option will be added. It'll be for the this one here, which will be at the 2027 based on the RFPs. and also the 25-year opt-out. That's going to be the motion that will be made to bring that one back. So just so you know that there will be a way to get out because that was basically the wish of the commission, the wish of the board was to have that. After it spoke about it, and it wasn't from everyone, but it was enough people that said they wanted it that nobody wanted to say, hey, we don't want to have a split decision here. We want everybody to agree to it. And so that's coming back and just to dispel anything that, you know, a lot of people, a lot of people wanted that even though no matter how good the door is and how, how good the room is, they want to walk in a room and have it locked behind them and not have a way to get out. So I understand that completely. So that's really, that's the second amendment. So the decision is yours. You have a chance to join the authority and get the best pricing and do the right thing for the environment by keeping recyclable material and any material with any value out of the landfills. Or you can stay on your own and pay higher prices. That will come. We know they'll come. The people who are not part of that global agreement, they know they'll come. That's really it. So it's up to you. And that's the end of my presentation. If you have any questions, I'm here to answer any questions. And Daniel is extremely knowledgeable. He's the subject matter expert on all of it. So he's with SCS Engineers and has been working in this field for many, many, many years, including his education in college was on solid waste.

Commissioner Schwartz.

Thank you, Sam.

I actually have a question for you. For those of us who remember years ago, the city of Margate actually got money back on its bills because we hit 60% or better recycling. Then suddenly that stopped happening when it said single stream there. So now there are a couple of us who sit up here who still put newspapers, rinse out our bottles, the ones that say you can keep the caps on it, we do that. And then we watch them go into the truck, where the styrofoam is sticking out of the next person's thing and ruin the entire truck. Single stream then says to me that maybe education won't be that difficult because perhaps we won't really have to say that much if you're going to allow it all to go into one truck anyway. Would I be right with that?

You are. Dual stream, there's advantages of dual stream as well, but the single stream process is way cheaper on the collection end of it. And I'll tell you what, I'll let Daniel come up and speak on it. that single stream versus dual stream concept, if you don't mind, Daniel, because he can give you all the details on it.

Because I work so hard to make sure that the right things go in the right place, and then I look around the neighborhood and know it doesn't matter.

Okay.

Commissioner, Mayor, Vice Mayor, members of the Commission, City Manager, City Attorney, Town Clerk, Daniel Deitch, SCS Engineers, for the record, you raised very valid points. As we were preparing the master plan, there were a series of white papers that we analyzed, we produced. One of the questions that we were challenged with is compare and contrast single stream versus dual stream recycling. What are the advantages, disadvantages? But the key takeaway was every community that is recycling, provides curbside recycling in Broward County is using a single stream system. going back to dual stream would add costs at a time where where cost sensitivity is very high just made higher yesterday so even though i put it in the blue blue container it doesn't matter is what you just told me well to your point the master plan one of the pillars of the master plan is behavior change and the way that we effectuate or achieve behavior changes through a very robust education and outreach program i'm a firm believer that if we educate people, which is why there's a member from the Broward County School Board that sits at the governing board meetings. That person also sits on a subcommittee to the Executive Committee on Education and Outreach. We know that a robust and engaging education program will help people make better decisions.

I've said a dozen times here when it comes to things that we do, I'm not interested in finding someone. I'm interested in educating them.

We agree. Thank you.

Before I call on the next commissioner, I just received a note. Commissioner Rydell from Coconut Creek is on Zoom. He's also on the board as well. And if there's any questions for him, he offered via Zoom. The next light lit is Commissioner Rosano.

Josh, can you hear me?

Give him a second to unmute.

Yes, Commissioner. I can hear you.

Sam, welcome back. Yep. He's there. Yep. Josh, tell the family hello. Absolutely. Sam, welcome back.

Thank you.

If Cal wasn't here, I'd say you're my favorite city manager. So thanks to see you. Thank you. Thank you. All right. You said 8-14. Was that a cutoff date? 8-14, the date is what? The cutoff date where?

If I may, Commissioner. It's actually the 15th of August. It happens to be a Saturday and y'all work hard enough. So we're keeping it at a work day. In the interlocal agreement, there was a defined time period to approve the facilities amendment. So the facilities amendment is the first amendment to the interlocal agreement. And it was three years or 36 months from the date that the last community signed on to it, which brings, so that was August, I think it was 14th.

Is there any cities that are opposed to this right now? I've heard one city is opposed. I'm just curious why they're opposed to it, if you know.

The only ones that we've heard that were opposed, and I'm not going to mention names, were cities that were opposed because of the opt-out. The opt-out was a big, big thing for it.

But you're saying that's going to come back? That's coming back.

That's coming back. What they wanted on the opt-out was a 25-year. Some of them wanted that first one, but some of them wanted a 25-year, and so we're going to bring that back. Okay. That was a big, big thing that the cities wanted to have on there, is the ability to not be stuck into something for 25 years. Okay.

I can appreciate that. Thank you guys for coming, and I think it's a no-brainer, honestly.

Okay. Thank you.

Oh, my.

Any other questions from the Commission? I believe before we do public comment, let's see if there's a motion on the table.

I'll make a motion to approve.

I'll second it. Commissioner Simone, your light is flashing.

Thank you. You talked about a robust program to educate the people. I know years back they used to have these little games on the computer that you could play to when incentives, and there were incentives given, I think, movie tickets and different things to get people more involved to recycle. Has that been in any of the discussions where there is some sort of incentive program to motivate people to recycle the correct way?

Yeah, we have looked at that. Probably the most popular program of that sort was called Recycle Bank. That provided incentives. Economically, it just added cost So there were people that absolutely took advantage and were able to benefit. But on balance, the reason that you don't see it very often is it ultimately wasn't cost effective and practically effective. But one of the things that is important, and you all do a good job at this already, but leading by example. So at community events, engaging your community and sort of meet people where they are. And that's part of the education program. So really, the ability to lower costs for everybody is probably the single greatest incentive. And I will also say, while the maximum service charge rates that were presented on the screen on the recycling line, that is a tipping fee. And some of you are probably aware that what comes out of a recycling facility are commodities that have value. So there is an expectation that there will be a revenue share that is tilted towards the municipal partners, right? But we don't wanna exclude the processor because we want them to be incentivized to do the best job possible. But the better we recycle, the less waste we put in the recycling cart, the greater the financial benefit.

And the hope for future generations. Well, that would be an incentive.

And we think of this as a generational decision. This is a unique opportunity that is before the authority today. And if it is not successful in continuing past the middle of August, you will be continuing to operate for the time being under the global agreement. But as Sam said, that will end at some point. And the open market, free market, is going to have a field day.

Commissioner Rosano.

Yeah, Josh, are you there? I am Commissioner Rosano. Josh, you guys do a cardboard, you have a compactor for cardboard.

If this goes through, would you continue that?

Is there any benefit for that?

We have a glass crusher, actually. We purchased a glass crusher, but I guess the difference with what's before you tonight is consistency. This is going to bring consistency because, for example, how we recycle in Coconut Creek, how you recycle in Margate, how someone recycles in Tamarack or Dania Beach, it's all different. A big portion of why we're doing this is, I hate to call it like this, but it's like the BJ's or Sam's Club roadmap to put everyone in the county consistent to guarantee better rates so that if someone's living in margate living in coconut creek and they move to pompano then it's going to be a consistent plan forward which is allowing to commissioner simone's point this education component so that you're not relearning different methods in different cities so we have a glass crusher but i don't want to digress into that but the benefit of this is this consistency argument you got it thank you josh all right

Commissioner Schwartz.

This comes up all the time. Is there any way that we're going to do something with textiles? When people throw out clothing and things like that, certainly you don't want it buried in the landfill at any time.

Yeah, it's funny. The same question came up in Lauderdale Lakes. I guess we're like-minded people. There are a lot of, and it actually was on one of the slides. We want to, that's part of the reuse strategy. So collection boxes, exactly how we're going to do it, what nonprofits will benefit from it, we don't know. But we know that providing that opportunity will keep those materials out of the waste stream. We've applied what we refer to as a zero waste lens to this. We want to, in the first instance, generate less waste. And then we want to maximize the beneficial use of materials so that what ends up at the end of the pipe is much less than it is today. Textiles, while a relatively small component of the total waste stream, has value. And we want to make sure that we're extracting that value through beneficial reuse.

It's so nice to see that instead of us at some point saying we could have, we should have, and we didn't, we're actually forward-looking, which quite frankly, in all due respect to all governments, doesn't often happen.

Credit goes to the authority, the governing board and the executive committee, They presented a great challenge to us, and we looked not just locally, we looked at best practices from around the world, and we tailored our recommendations to be a good fit for Broward County.

Thank you.

All right. Thank you for the presentation. We're going to open it up to the public to speak on this particular item. If anyone has any public comment, please come up. You have 3 minutes. Good evening, everyone you could just provide your name please for the right.

Yes, my name is Stephanie Pearson I'm here today representing the League of women voters of Broward County. The leak has studied the issue of solid waste and recycling here in Broward going back at least 35 years as a point of information on I represented the league on the technical advisory committee of the old. resource recovery board. So the history goes back quite a way in 2017 when discussions first started and solid waste working group was formed. The league was there. We have been at every meeting given our input along the way. It has been a long and arduous process. Well, we're very impressed and encouraged that a master plan has come out of this with an emphasis on source reduction, reuse, and effective recycling, but it's also practical and realistic. The plan is to divert as much waste as possible before needing to landfill or burn it. It includes plans to reduce our waste, support reuse, and effectively recycle what we can, just what you've heard today from that very good presentation. We are convinced of the necessity of Broward cities and the county banding together for the long-term benefit of all of us. With more than 5 million tons of waste to dispose of and no place left to put it, cooperation is the best way to ensure that in the long term we will have a system that will be less costly and will give the public more control and will benefit the environment. We do not want to cede control of the solid waste disposal to for-profit private entities. Those companies on most of the disposal facilities and the public owns very little. Our leverage is negotiating together with most favored nation status. If this collaboration fails, we'll all be subject to greater costs and have no choice as to how our solid waste is handled. I hope you've all had the opportunity to read the email we sent to you a few days ago. It addresses some of the concerns that some of our cities have mentioned. We know you are all concerned about the impact of reduced property taxes on your budget. But in our mind, this is all the more reason to decide now to ensure the future solid waste disposal costs will be kept under control. So please approve the facilities amendment to help get this plan underway. Thanks very much.

Thank you.

Hi, Susan Steinhauser, the 5842 Eagle Case Circle in Coconut Creek. Hi, Commissioner Rydell. So I had planned on getting up here and saying, Basically what Stephanie said or Julie said because I wanted to get home and see the Knicks. However, after listening to Sam's presentation and your questions, I have to let you know that in the back of my car are my boyfriend's old clothes because we went to drop them off in one of those boxes and it wasn't there. So I'm going to find another one in Tamarack. And absolutely for incentives. And while I separate all my recycling because we've got the drop-off boxes, I totally get it about the contamination. But the education and what Commissioner Rydell said about moving, not only is it just moving from one location to another, but I'm about to table at an event in Deerfield Beach on Saturday. I hope you guys will all come. Happy Ocean Awareness Month. And when people come to Deerfield Beach, they don't necessarily recycle the same way. Just for the day, it could have a really great impact. That education is huge. I know I only have not even two minutes left. Four things I want to point out that really excite me about the master plan and the facilities amendment. Not only do the cities and the county all have input through the governing board, but we residents, we've been speaking at meetings, and our voices have been heard and respected. We've had an input into this master plan. The master plan is a living, breathing document. It's not set in stone so that when one or more of the students that receive those awards today, right, from Broward Math and Sciences, develops the next best, most sustainable way for treating solid waste, the governing board, the executive committee, the governing board can study that and decide to adopt it. And we can just lead the country. We can lead the world in real true zero waste lens, getting this done the best way possible. Thirdly, I want to point out that Sam did mention yard waste. And yes, yard waste is heavy. And yes, we're going to save money by getting that out of the landfill. What excites me more about the money savings, even though I love to save a dollar, is that I co-chair the Climate Reality Project, our local chapter, North Broward, Palm Beach County. Getting that yard waste out of the landfill reduces methane emissions, reduces greenhouse gas emissions. That's what's going to partially help curb climate change. We need to take every single step we know how to. So I just want to thank you very much. I live in Coconut Creek. I work in Tamarack. I drive through Margate every single day. Anything that I can help to communicate to your residents about this, you can count on me. I'm here. So thank you.

Thank you.

Hello. My name is Dr. Julie Long. I live in Plantation, Florida. I'm also a league member and have been attending these meetings and following this, and I'm here to ask you to support the facilities amendment. When the ILA was formed in 2023, it was expected new facilities would need to be built. However, after years of study, it's been determined that new facilities will not need to be built, especially with improved management of the waste stream. I had some other comments prepared, but since there was questions about recycling, one of the things that wasn't emphasized as much is that technology has changed. So the although dual stream recycling in the past was improved. The new there's two new recycling facilities in Broward waste management has a brand new $90 million facility. Coastal has a new recycling facility. Both of those are using optical scanners. I've toured them both. The technology has changed, thank goodness. And we have businesses in this county that can do effective single stream recycling and save the residents money um so i think that's really important and we'll benefit from that so i just um hope that you will uh approve this plan i think it will be not only cost efficient but it will be healthier um for our children for this these young people that we see they they deserve better than what we are they don't deserve to be having to manage our waste thank you so much

I like the informality of not having to sign cards. This is wonderful. Your name? My name is Rhonda Roth. I live in Weston. I had the sincere pleasure of seeing my city commission vote unanimously in favor of the facilities amendment two weeks ago, I believe it was, or one week ago? Two, yes. I've never actually been that happy at a city commission meeting. It was wonderful. I'm a chemist. I worked in consulting engineering in New Jersey, coming up, moved here in 96. I do mostly water quality. but I've done a lot of climate and energy and waste is a very big part of that. I'm a mom of two and I believe firmly looking at the mass balance of what we take in and what we produce and what we dispose of that this is something we have to work together on as a county it's something that we we all have to do together we don't each town does not have its own landfill space or incinerator space ultimately I'd love to see us reduce the amount of products plastic everything yeah especially plastic so for our children Or as Susan was saying, for the climate, for the climate impacts of the methane and the plastics, and then the PFAS that we're just learning about that's getting in everywhere, we need to reduce, reuse, recycle. And I think this is a really, really good start. So although I'm not a Margate resident, I appreciate your interest in this, and I just want to share how proud I was of my city for doing the same thing.

Thank you. When you were talking about signing a card, you're talking about to come up and public speak, correct?

Yes.

I appreciate that comment because we have critics that will come up and try to say that we're not welcoming public input and free speech and that we stifle free speech. And there are cities where you only speak at public input, not after each item, and you have to sign up. It happened to me at a school board meeting. And I didn't sign up in time, so I couldn't speak. So I thank you for pointing that out, that in Margate you can come up and say whatever you want.

It's casual. I feel like I'm in your living room.

Thank you. That means a lot to us.

Good evening, my name is Alexa Pavan and I am a Broward County lifelong resident and concerned citizen. By trade, I am a climate communicator, but my background is in biomedical science and public health and I have some concerns. I have concerns about how the Solid Waste Authority hopes to extend and expand waste incineration, which is the most expensive and polluting way to manage waste streams. SWA's co-chairs Mike Ryan and Mayor Beam Furr have made their preference for incineration very clear, and Mayor Furr has sought to begin the permitting process for a new incinerator as recently as last September. There are six ways in which the incineration is still on the table, and I'd ask that the city not sign anything until there is an ironclad agreement that all of these are not options going forward. They are paying for the expensive end of life of the existing trash incinerator, paying for a fourth burner to be added to the existing trash incinerator, Paying to replace the three existing burners at the existing trash incinerator. Building a new trash incinerator. Note that Solid Waste Authority has only committed to not to build a new one at a new site, but could potentially do so at the site that is existing, that the existing incinerator is at. Building a new yard waste paralysis facility, which would essentially burn our compostable yard waste. And building a new sewage sludge dryer at the county's Alpha 250 site in Pompano Beach.

Thank you.

Any other members of the public wish to speak? Okay. Please call the roll.

Commissioner Schwartz? Yes. Commissioner Simone? Yes. Commissioner Rosano?

Yes.

Vice Mayor Caggiano? Yes. Mayor Serrio?

Yes, and congratulations. I know some of us were a little questionable on this over the years, but as more information came out, it helped us make an easy decision. Can I?

Can I say a quick thank you to Carrie Ann over there on the TAC group to make sure that you look for Margate's interest in all of this? Carrie Ann, thank you. You did a phenomenal job bringing this forward.

Okay, next up is going to be public discussion. I know there's some new faces here for... I can probably guess what they're gonna talk about. So I just wanted to mention some housekeeping rules here. You'll have three minutes to speak. It needs to be something city related. You can criticize, that's fine, but no personal attacks. And if anybody outbursts from the seats or speaks after their time is up, you may be subject to immediate removal. We're not going to keep warning people and telling people five times to not yell from the room. So just be cordial, say what's on your mind, and have fun, all right? So anyone wishing to speak for public input, you now have three minutes.

Good evening, my name is Ron Roberts. I am a resident of Margate. Larry Wallach has a decades-long history of cruelly exploiting wild animals for profit. He does not love these animals. He dupes people into believing he cares about them so he can continue using them to support himself financially. One of the people he has duped is a Margate city commissioner. Wallach is presently offering his dubious services without payment so he can build support for his plan to open a pet store here in Margate, where he intends to exhibit his unfortunate captives for profit and sell exotic animals, none of whom are native to the area. We have already seen the results of selling non-native species here in Florida, where we are dealing with the consequences of such greed. Inevitably, these animals escape, breed, and cause havoc to our ecology. Burmese pythons have killed 90% of Everglades mammals, and we are spending millions of dollars to eliminate them with little success. Iguanas and Muscovy ducks have displaced native wildlife. Have we learned nothing from this? Do we really want a person with over 60 USDA violations to sell reptiles from a storefront here in Margate? Do we want to encourage a person who parades around with a terrified baby kangaroo? What happens when the baby becomes a six-foot adult, completely removed from anything resembling a natural environment? And now, this longtime violator of the Animal Welfare Act wants to make sloths the mainstay of a business in Margate. forcing them to endure a terrible existence bereft of anything natural to them. According to Dr. Rebecca Cliff, PhD, a Costa Rica-based zoologist and founder of the Sloth Conservation Foundation, allowing hands-on contact is not ethical. Sloths are solitary, non-domesticated animals. They are the prey. Humans are the predator. And their natural response is to stay still, often mistaken as contentment. Unquote. There is nothing educational about interactions of captive sloths and children. They learn nothing about how sloths live in their natural environment. Instead, there are fascinating documents.

Thank you, sir. Your time is over. Thank you. Three minutes. No, no, no, no, sir. Thank you. Because we're going to have to give other people that time, too, and we're not doing that. Thank you.

Rhonda Ruff, Weston, Florida. I've actually spent three months in a combination of Bolivia and Brazil and have seen sloths in the wild. It is abundantly clear that They cannot respond to stress in a way that we can see it because of the way they move so slowly. If you see a sloth moving its arm, that's lightning speed. So we don't even see the stress they are feeling. And the possibility of stress that could even be fatal, we've witnessed that this year during the cold snap. And I don't think it's worth the chance. I understand the desire for zoos and the love of the beautiful critters and people want to see them. But I don't think that it's appropriate for them. And there are sayings that are maybe misquoted in a million places, but judging a society based on its how it treats its weakest members. It's sort of attributed to Gandhi, I think. The way a society treats its animals, I really do believe it tells us a lot about the people. And it's a big self-sacrifice to have to not have that pet. I'm a horse girl. I don't have horses because it's just too hot and miserable and buggy for them in Florida. And it breaks my heart. But I just don't think they're happy here. I've had some and I just can't do it to them anymore. for the sake of the sloths. And knowing that the man who is proposing to have the business in this city might have some animal cruelty background, I wouldn't want him living in my neighborhood. There's a connection between animal cruelty and then victimizing humans that sometimes comes after that. So I worry about that from a psychological perspective. So I hope that Margate will not entertain I'm not sure what it's called, a wildlife encounter business. I don't think that Margate needs that stain on its reputation. Thank you very much.

Hello, my name's Catherine Loper. I'm a resident of Margate. I wanted to talk about the ordinance that you're planning to have the second reading of tonight.

On that item, you'll have to wait till that item comes up on the agenda. This is a public comment on items on the consent agenda or other city business.

Oh, I'm sorry. That's okay.

But when that item is called up for second reading, you'll have an opportunity to speak at that time.

Okay.

Thank you.

Sorry about that.

Hello. My name is John DiLeonardo. I am an anthrozoologist, licensed wildlife rehabilitator, and the executive director of Humane Long Island. I flew from New York today to urge you not to allow Larry Wallach to repeat and margate what he did in Long Island. Most importantly, Larry Wallach does not currently hold a USDA exhibitor's license. so he cannot legally exhibit wild animals to the public. His USDA Class C exhibitor's license was canceled in June of 2024. Wallach has been cited for more than 60 violations of the Federal Animal Welfare Act, including critical violations involving public safety, animal handling, veterinary care, and lying to federal inspectors about the bite of a child at his facility. In 2013, he also served a six-month USDA license suspension. In 2024, an investigation documented Wallach's staff hitting sloths and mishandling injured animals. Wallach later faced criminal contempt charges. His Long Island storefront was shut down by the Supreme Court, and his USDA exhibitor's license was canceled. Wallach also pleaded guilty in 2023 to unlawfully trafficking prohibited Nile monitor lizards and was found in civil contempt of court. That same year, he was named in a Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission investigation involving alleged trafficking of Kodiak bear cubs to an unlicensed individual in Florida where the cubs escaped. Wallach is also, on video, electroshocking an injured young tiger and threatening a dog with an electric prod. Former associates have alleged deaths of animals under his care from causes including aspiration, hypothermia, and blunt force trauma. As recently as January, Wallach was cited for harboring a sloth and a kangaroo in his vehicle on Long Island before returning to Florida. He has now filed formation documents for Wildlife Adventures, though he is apparently not a tenant at the listed location, raising serious concerns about the legitimacy of that filing. Commissioner Rosano's wife, Amanda, has publicly described Wallach as her ex-boyfriend and best friend. Given that long-standing personal relationship, any matter involving Wallach's proposed business warrants careful review for conflicts of interest and the appearance of impropriety. During a TikTok live stream last month, Wallach also made derogatory remarks about black and Asian individuals, raising further concerns about his judgment and fitness to operate a public-facing business. I urge you to take all appropriate measures to prevent Wallach from establishing operations in Margate. Allowing him to operate here would expose animals and residents to preventable risk. Thank you.

Perfect timing. Wow. Wow, that's...

Hello, my name is Monica Chickhart, spelled T-S-C-H-I-C-K-A-R-D-T. I'm a resident of Altamont Springs, Florida, 11 miles north of Orlando. We're 56. We know for sure 35 sloths dead, but we don't know where the other sloths are at this time. These are the 56 sloths that died for Orlando's sloth world. The owners, Ben Agresta and Peter Bondre, were the... the culprits in this matter 13 of the sloths were surrendered to the central florida aza accredited zoo there were now nine survivors there are four that died one was the first one was bandit the next one was i forgot There's Habanero and Mr. Ginger. And we know that these sloths were not from here. They're from Central and South America. Apparently, you can't get them from Costa Rica. They are protected over there. The Orlando sloths came from jungles of Peru and Guyana. And they were wild and free until they were snatched and dropped from their tree homes. The sloth experts from Costa Rica, Dr. Rebecca Cliff and Sam Troll were in Orlando. And they stated that the necropsy report showed that they were malnourished, they were dehydrated, very stressed, and that they suffered spinal fractures. She suspected from when they were taken out from the trees. I don't expect to change your minds here. My goal is to get the word out about sloth exploitation and help ban sloth imports permanently. Thank you, New York residents, John DiLeonardo, for sounding the alarm about Larry Wallach. I wish we had a loud alarm about Sloth World in Orlando and about these owners, Ben Agresta and Peter Bondre, who are responsible for 56, supposedly 56, we know 35 for sure, dead sloths. I find it interesting that Peter Bondre has an incredible pet store in Melbourne and is a self-claimed expert in sloth care. Obviously, that is not true. I hope to see all of you who fight to stop sloth trade at the FWC meeting in August 5 and 6 in Panama City. Let's ban the sloth trade. 56 sloth deaths will not go unnoticed or be in vain.

I just want to let you know. Yeah, that's why I'm just letting you know I'm gone.

Hi, good evening. Thank you for letting me be here. I'm Linda Landers. I live in Coconut Creek. My concern with the sloth exhibit and sloth encounter business is in particular with the individual who wants to run it. That's my primary concern. His history is not something positive in his handling of the animals. In 2024, Larry Wallach's USDA license was canceled. He has pleaded guilty to wildlife trafficking and accumulated more than 60 Federal Animal Welfare Act violations. Federal inspection reports and court records document allegations of serious animal mistreatment, including improper handling and care of sloths and other exotic animals. a humane world for animals formerly HSUS investigation documented staff striking sloths, stressed sloths in crowded conditions, and a wounded sloth struggling while Wallach himself roughly grabbed his head and neck. These are just some examples of the concerns that I would have for someone that plans to open up something similar here in Margate. These animals don't have a voice or a choice of what happens to them. It's up to us, and that's why I'm speaking here today. And I thank you. Good night.

Good evening, Mayor, Commissioners. My name is James Wildman. I am the Humanity Educator for the Animal Rights Foundation of Florida. Like many people here today, I am asking that you do not entertain the possibility of a sloth encounter store opening in your city. Considering the enormous public outcry that has just happened in Orlando with Sloth World, where over 50 sloths have died, it seems pretty callous and a little tone deaf that a man wearing a live sloth like a man purse was welcomed to a city commission meeting and allowed to speak and promote his business. And then a few weeks later, that same man wearing a sloth, like a man purse, was paraded around the Margate Elementary School graduation like he was the Grand Marshal. There are so many things wrong with this. First, Larry Wallach, the man wearing the sloth, has over 60 animal welfare violations and has pleaded guilty to trafficking dangerous animals. It just seems terribly irresponsible to not only welcome and encourage this man into your city hall chambers, but to have him front and center at a graduation ceremony for elementary school age kids on city owned property seems beyond careless. My job is to go into schools and teach kids the importance of being kind to animals. I have to go through a background check every year. During the summer, I give presentations to city camps, and I have to get fingerprinted, level two background check, to make sure I have no criminal record. If I had the record that Larry Wallach has, I would never be allowed in a classroom, and especially not a graduation ceremony for elementary school age kids on city-owned property. Secondly, as an educator, this is anti-education. Sloths are solitary, non-domesticated animals. Whether they were born in captivity or not, they are still not domesticated. Repeated handling can cause significant stress, disrupt natural behaviors, and compromise their welfare. These animals should not be passed around from person to person for entertainment reasons. This is teaching kids the wrong message. And finally, Larry Wallach doesn't have a USDA license. Having him parade around a sloth and baby kangaroo is against federal law, and it even goes against your own animal display ordinance that you all passed unanimously not too long ago. As the leaders of this city, it is your job to uphold the ordinances that you create. Please take heed from what happened in Orlando when they tried to open a sloth encounter business. Please do the right thing and don't entertain this business. Thank you.

Hello, my name is Amanda Brody. I live in Sunrise, and as a lifelong South Floridian, I am urging you to not allow this proposed cruel sloth encounter business to move forward. This is not just about one business. It's about a clear, documented pattern of disregard for animal welfare and the law. Larry Wallach has a 25-year history of violations. Federal inspection reports describe deeply troubling incidents, including a sloth struck by an employee, sloths kept in inadequate housing, even in a garage, veterinary instructions ignored for an injured tiger cub, and a member of the public bitten by a sloth, which Wallach lied about to a USDA inspector. These are not isolated incidents. Despite all of this, Mr. Wallach is now attempting to open a hands-on wildlife encounter business here in Margate without the required federal exhibitor's license and an apparent violation of city code. He has already exhibited animals locally, including at an elementary school event just days ago. The commission should not reward noncompliance. Wild animal encounters are inherently harmful and cruel. Sloths are extremely sensitive animals who spend most of their lives resting in stable, quiet environments. Sloths belong in their forest homes with their families, not passed off from person to person. Exposing them to noise, lights, and constant handling causes stress, fear, and suffering. There's also real risks to the public. Wild animals can bite, scratch, and transmit disease, something that has already happened in this case. And we have seen where this leads. As you all heard recently, more than 50 sloths died at a Florida facility offering similar encounters. That tragedy shows what happens when animals are treated as props instead of living beings. Margate has a responsibility to learn from that and not repeat it. Allowing this business to move forward would send the message that repeated violations, lack of licensing and disregard for both animals and public safety are acceptable. They are not. I respectfully ask you to uphold your city code, enforce the law and protect both animals and this community by ensuring that this business is not allowed to operate in Margate. Thank you so much.

Hi, I'm Anna Campos. I'm a Broward County resident. I want to first pick up where Ron Roberts' speech ended, where he was saying that sloths need to live in their natural environment. And instead, there are fascinating documentaries that you might want to look that show about sloths in their natural environment, that nature intended for them to which they are perfectly adapted. He posted a link to the PBS nature documentary on his Facebook page, which is Ron Roberts. And you can click on that link. It's safe. And he encourages everybody to watch this and learn what magnificent creatures sloths really are. And they are deserving of our respect, our concern, our protection, and the lives that they live are perfectly adapted to. And he implores the commission to not allow this travesty in Margate of opening a wildlife sloth encounter. And let's send Larry Wallach packing into the complete obscurity he so richly deserves. So that said, I do want to acknowledge this commission for, even though at times it's a rocky road, you always do right by animals, I feel. In 2010, the commission passed a bull hook ordinance, which I still proudly say about you guys, banning torturous weapons, chains, electric prods, all that stuff, and that is a big deal. Then you pass the pet store retail ban. Again, right thing to do, and you are all educated because I watched the commission meeting where you discussed that on the first reading, and I'm not gonna talk about that, but each one of you knows what you're talking about. Then in 2022, you passed section 6-24, which was the animal display exhibit after the craziness with the banana derby, the pig racing, everything that goes on sometimes with the fair. And you passed that because ultimately, I think that you do care about animals, not just some of you, but all of you say that you care about all animals. larry wallach is far worse than sloth world that's the truth sloth world only killed 55 sloths larry has had blood on his hands for at least 30 30 years 40 years 30 seconds he has no usda permit i assure you what he's doing is he's parading the sloth and a kangaroo around margate He keeps the kangaroo in his bathroom. He has a sloth in a dog cage. These animals don't have the quality of life that they deserve. And I would hate to see him open a store here with them. And I wanted to just remind you that I know that you guys do care about all animals.

Thank you.

That's it. Thank you.

Jonathan Kraljic, Margate resident. To start, I have a commendation to Gio and his team. Last meeting, I let him know of a pothole and it was patched the next day by lunchtime. Now on to the meat and potatoes. The mayor has continuously chipped away at the public's First Amendment right to redress their government at city commission meetings. In August of 2022, when the current mayor last presided as mayor, At that time, he skipped over public comment on the consent agenda. Although it was in the rules and even stated on the agenda, the public would have three minutes to comment on the consent agenda. When one member of the public wished to speak on the consent agenda, the mayor then removed the warden from the agenda so that the public would no longer have three minutes to comment on the consent agenda. although he did not have a vote by three commissioners for a rule change as required by their own rules of procedure. Now the public must use their three minutes of public discussion to not only speak about what is not on the agenda, but what is also on the consent agenda, which as we see tonight can consist of multiple items, five tonight. Next, it was abolishment of public comment over Zoom. The mayor, who was previous to this current mayor, allowed public comment over Zoom, but this mayor does not, silencing those of the public who can't physically make it to City Hall to comment in person. Starting this year, the mayor began to not recognize public discussion when both of the two required monthly meetings are held on the same night. Therefore, 24 opportunities for the public to comment at commission meetings has now been reduced to 19. although the rules state the second item of each commission meeting shall be public comment again a majority of the commission did not vote for a rule change as required by the rules of procedure the rest of the commission sat by idly to allow the mayor to do all this It is as though this commission and mayor do not value the opinion of the public. By doing so, you did not uphold your oath. It's pretty shameful when the public knows more about the oath that you swore to uphold better than you. God willing, that comes to an end this November with new faces who put their oath and the Constitution before their egos. Thank you.

Okay, thank you.

Hi, good evening. I'm Mindy Lee. I'm a resident of Margate. Although I do support all of the animal activists here, right? I'm an animal activist, and I think they did a wonderful job. Tommy, I think that was very immature of you to bring a five-foot sloth to a protest knowing the circumstances here, but that's your personal preference. I'm not here to talk about that. I'm here to tell the commission and to tell Commissioner Arcerio that I have filed an ethics violation against you. You're probably wondering why, but Commissioner Arcerio has been on the commission for about seven years, and during that time, he's probably published a handful of newsletters, email blasts, text messages, things like that. In fact, he's only done three, I think, in the entire seven years. And one of them was about the birth of his child. And then all of a sudden in the last two months, every time I open up my phone, I'm getting email blasts, newsletters, publications, text messages. We all know that he's running for commission re-election in November. In fact, everybody knows I'm challenging him for his seat. And I'm honored to think maybe you're doing this because of me. But I'm here to say that although you put an advertisement on all of these publications saying that it's not paid for by taxpayer money, and that is paid out of your house office funds, you actually use the city's email blasts in order to distribute all of those publications, which are considered abusive power of city resources for personal and political gain. You can sit there and shake your head. The ethics committee that I filed to complain against our serial, they'll investigate and determine whether or not you are using it. Because I know for a fact, I have never given you my personal email for you to send email blasts to me. So exactly, but you're using the city resources in order to blast out those email blasts, unwanted solicitations, and I'm one of them. I get a kick out of reading about you, although you're trying to use the disguise of the city to advertise, oh, hurricane readiness. Nothing in there really about hurricane readiness, but there is a little blip about you and seven years of your active duty as commissioner and what you've done for the city. Well, excuse me, what you claim you've done for the city, because we all know what you've actually done for the city and what you've claimed you've done for the city are far, two greater different things here. So I just wanted to let the commission know that I would think that he would take a more responsible approach. And if you want free advertising, you ought to start to look somewhere else and not use city resources. But I'm not the one that's going to make that determination. The ethics committee will decide. And I welcome that too. And I absolutely am looking forward to whatever you plan on blasting out for the next five months prior to the election and the campaign. So that's all I wanted to say here tonight. But I do want to say, Rosano, you need to own up, man. This was wrong. and the way that you treated those people out there were wrong, and maybe you didn't do your due diligence as a city commissioner, but I personally went to two events and stood next to you where you personally told the police that you invited Larry to these city events, and all you've got to do is just Google him, and you'll see all the stuff that pops up. So in your capacity, you have a fiduciary responsibility to protect us and protect what you bring into the city, and I think you've failed in this particular area. So that's my time. Thank you, everybody. Have a good night.

accusations around and she can file all the complaints she wants you can file a report you can file a complaint doesn't mean it's true i've never used city data which by the way would be public record you can just make a records request and get it i never did please don't yell from the crowd please don't ask in the crowd that's fine i welcome it i've never asked for the city data i've gotten it on my own it is public record voter data is public record I'm sure you'll figure that out on the campaign trail. And I welcome, thank you for coming and giving public input, but there's two sides to every story, and let her complaint play out, okay? It's election time, and these things are just gonna get worse and worse. We see it every cycle. So, go ahead, ma'am.

Hi. My name is Dena Cohen, and I don't know if everybody's aware of this, but Larry Wallach's daughter was bit in the face by one of his animals, which was a cockatoo, as recently as only a few months ago. Her stepfather provided images of her injury to Humane Long Island prior to this meeting, which John will share with you upon request. Instead of giving her proper medical attention, he reportedly superglued a chunk of her nose back in place. If Larry Walla cannot protect his own daughter, how can we expect him to protect Margate? And here is a picture of his daughter with the injury. That's all, thank you.

Anyone else?

Lauren Baraka, Margate resident. Well, I'll start with the first thing. I don't know who is responsible for the canals behind 70th Lane in back of Margate Boulevard. I had been walking with a friend and somebody invited me into their backyard. It was disgusting back there. People paid to live on the canal and it was so filled with green stuff. It smelled. The person whose house I was at told me that they can't even keep their windows open because it smells so badly for the canal. That is not maintained. They said that they had called and written complaining about it and that nothing was done. So I was hoping that, I don't know if I should have said this before or after what I'm going to say next. I don't know who's responsible for this, but we need it taken care of. It's not just one person. And when I looked down the canal, it was gross. I mean, people don't live on the canal to keep their windows shut. So because they can, you know, stand the smell and looking at it, it was really poor. Okay, that's one. Secondly, so when that woman came up and said, wherever she came from, that they had to sign cards in her city to speak, both the mayor and vice mayor have taken away the Margate residents right to speak on Zoom. Not all of us can make it to the meetings.

30 seconds.

So not all of us can make it to the meetings. So you're taking away the right of the handicapped, the ill, seniors, people that don't drive anymore, and patting yourself on the back because one person from another city said you have to sign cards. That's too bad.

Mrs. Baraka, just so you're aware, I think Mr. Benitez, Mr. Gio over there would be happy to know the address of Batista. Yeah, I started to think of a TV person for some reason because it said Gio. But anyhow, he'd be happy to take the address down for you.

Hi. Nina Culver, Margate resident. So came up with some happy news. So over the last weekend, the nonprofit side of Margate Neighbors and the Margate Fire Benevolent, Lowe's Home Improvement and the mayor came out. And when the nonprofit and businesses and members of the community get together, I always say wonderful things happen. We were able to redo a preschool at the south end of the city. where it is mostly underprivileged children that get to go. It's mostly ELC. I'm losing the word. The ELC, the scholarships.

That's the word.

The scholarships to go there. It is so important to make people feel loved and appreciated at every stage in life. The south end of the city, and I know everybody says, you know, oh, it's fine. It's great. It's been picked up. It's a mess. It is a mess. Everybody in the city pays the same amount of taxes. And that side of the city gets neglected time after time. And I've spoken to some of you. on your own and you have suggested different things to do, but you can't get a consensus. We need to get a consensus to bring up that side of the city to match the north side of the city. Same taxes, guys. Thank you.

Early learning coalition. Yes, that's it.

Thank you.

Hi, my name is Melanie Wolf, and I live in Delray Beach. And I read that there was a sloth exhibit that was going to be opening in Margate, and I thought, that can't be. Margate has always been against animal cruelty. They banned the circus. They've always been wonderful with animal cruelty. It doesn't make any sense. So I don't know anything about sloths. So I thought, well, you know, I'll Google it. What could it be? So I Googled it and I read that holding sloths has been banned in popular tourist destinations to protect animals from fatal stress, disease, illegal poaching, constant human handling, severely compromises their health and welfare. And then I googled, has a sloth ever hurt someone? Two-fingered sloths can bite anyone who approached them too closely with their four sharp teeth, which resemble big canines. If left untreated, a wound from a sloth attack can become severely infected due to the bacteria they carry, which can bring a lot of health issues, and you could even lose a limb. And I googled it further. And it said that you should avoid touching or holding a sloth because human contact causes these wild animals immense, sometimes fatal, stress, hands-on encounters spike their blood pressure, and their natural defense instinct is to freeze, making them appear calm when they are actually terrified. Oh, and then I read about Larry Wallach, and he's the owner of Sloth Encounters, and he's pled guilty to wildlife trafficking and accumulated more than 60 Federal Animal Welfare Act violations. But from what I understand, he's very good friends with someone, one of the commissioners who is actually exhibiting a sloth doll. And to me, that just says... 30 seconds, please. That tells me that there is a huge conflict of interest here, which I'm sure the other county commissioners or city commissioners, rather, would not condone. Thank you very much.

Any other members of the public wish to speak? I think we have one more coming up. Yeah. How do you do? The portable one should be right up next to.

All right. You're good. All right.

That's fine.

Your name, sir. Adkins Ross. I'm a resident here. I'm a resident here at Margate. Let me get out of the way here. What I was concerned about is how it's going to have impact on the children, being that just as an example, I was close with Marjory Stoneman Douglas And I used to bring her poetry children for environmental poetry. And so what I'm concerned about is how the children are going to react to this, call it incarceration is what it is. And the other, thing I'd wanted to mention is that being that we're celebrating the 250th anniversary, that we should be promoting freedom and not incarceration. And I'm actually a direct descendant of one of the signers of the Declaration of Independence. So I'm speaking on behalf of Ms. Douglas, and for our celebration of freedom. And I'll leave it at that. All right, thank you.

Okay, seeing no other members of the public wishing to speak, public discussion is now closed.

Can I ask you for a favor? Go ahead. Three-minute break for those of us who haven't walked out in between. Take five. So much.

We've now reconvened. We are at Commission comments. Commissioner Schwartz.

First, I'm going to repeat. I thank you for those of you who came regardless of the topic you came on to come to the city. I'm glad you got to see the kids. get their awards every month when school's in session. We do a student of the month from every school and a teacher of the month. And we have been doing this for probably over 20 years. First, I wanna again congratulate Denise Steele on her 42 years with the Northwest Focal Point Senior Center in the city of Margate. She's the activities director and 42 years is certainly something to be proud of and to celebrate. Secondly, I'd like to, tell you to look at the 250th sign that's above the flag that's there, and I wanna thank our SRO officer, that school resource officer from Liberty Elementary who happens to be sitting there, Paul Lindeman, for having made that, because I think that's beautiful. And I'm gonna guess he gave it as a gift. Oh, then I won't say that. He does absolutely beautiful work, and we are very proud to display that there. And with that, considering the length of the meeting, that's all from me. Thank you.

Thank you. I may be a little bit long tonight, so.

My time.

Please forgive me. The first thing is I would like to congratulate our marketing team, Lisa and Jonathan, on the Teller Awards that they received for the city. They had two videos. One was called Puppies Preview, Our Bark in the Park Event. It was absolutely an amazing video where Jonathan was interviewing dogs for a dog event that we were having and he was asking them questions and it was just precious. If you want to put a smile on your face, please go and watch that video. It will definitely give you something to smile about. And the second one was for honoring Daniel Agami. He was, it was called a hero bridging communities. He was a veteran in the military and sadly was killed in action. So a bridge over Sample Road and 441 was dedicated in his honor. And that video is very touching as well. Our PIO team, just did an amazing job on those two videos. So if you get a chance, please view them. Summer is upon us, so make sure that if you have a child that does not know how to swim, that they get swimming lessons. We have swimming lessons here at our Calypso Cove. If you register with Swim Central, you get a $55 voucher towards the cost of the lessons. It's from six months. and older for that uh june 6 at also at calypso cove from 4 to 6 p.m we have sun and safety events which would should be an amazing event for every resident to participate in and see cpr in action and life-saving skills in action so please come out and support that and we have paint giveaway tomorrow. You were supposed to register. I don't know if it's too late to register if they have extra paint, but that is tomorrow from 8.30 to 10.30 in the morning at Oreo Park, and they have four colors available, gray, terracotta, off-white, and beige. And lastly, for city announcements, sounds of sundown. The band is going to be Good Bread, and it's on Saturday, June 6th. So that's always a big event for our city. Now on to sloths. Just to give the residents a little education on the lifestyle of sloths and a little bit about them if you don't know, sloths live in high rain forest canopies in South and Central America. They're omnivores, eating leaves, shoots, twigs, and buds. Their entire life is spent in high trees eating sleeping, mating, and giving birth while hanging upside down. They rely on thick trees to move around. They are physically unable to walk on the ground and can only crawl slowly with their claws. Their natural environment receives significant amounts of rainfall, over 99 inches. which keeps their skin moist and allows blue-green algae to grow in their fur. Humane World for Animals, in their report June of 2024, and I quote, sloths should never be used in public interactions. They are quiet, reclusive animals, and being handled by or even close to people can cause a sloss blood pressure to rise. They are nocturnal, sleeping 15 to 20 hours a day, and their natural sleep pattern is disturbed by public handling. While sloths may appear complacent while being petted, they respond to fear by holding still and may actually be terrified. Loud noises cause stress in sloths, and that's from the USDA. This individual who wants to bring a store to Margate has repeatedly shown he is not a friend to animals. He has little to no regard for their health and safety as documented in reports and has no regard for the law. Allegations. Documented in the inspection reports include improper handling of exotic pets, dangerous conditions to both public and animals, misleading federal inspectors, and abuse of treatment, including lack of poor, proper medical care for animals in his care. These are not one-time mistakes, but repeated offenses. as stated by the United States Department of Agriculture, and I quote in their report, the gravity of the violations herein is great and include repeated failures to handle animals in accordance with applicable regulations. Respondent, Mr. Wallach, has not shown good faith. Respondent has repeatedly failed to notify APHIS which is Animal and Plant Health Inspection Services, as to the itinerary of his traveling animal exhibits, therefore thwarting AFID's ability to conduct inspections and further warrants of the act. I have read 32 reports out of the 60 that were filed on him. Out of the 32 reports, 15 times showed inadequate veterinary care given to these animals that are in his possession. 14 times he has failed in his records of where he received the acquisition and the disposition of animals. They include a black bear, tiger cub, a bear cub, a wallaby, a tiger, a tiger and a bear, a wallaby and a bear, a wallaby, a sloth, and a serval, and a sloth and a wallaby. He cannot account for the acquisition or the disposition of those animals, 14 times out of the 32 reports that I read. And the reports show improper handling and care of animals, unsafe conditions, living conditions, Inadequate veterinary care. No records of animals, the acquisitions and the dispositions. Not notifying the USDA when animals are relocated or being shown. Not responsible adults on the premise for inspection when the inspectors went to inspect the property and the welfare of the animals. No responsible adult was on premise. Inadequate living conditions. owner not being forthright with the inspectors. Improper nutrition, not giving the animals the vitamins that they need, the calcium. Sanitation issues. Some of the things that I read and I will share with you. A tiger cub had a fractured fourth metacarpal bone of the left front foot. The vet recommended treating with confinement. The video that they took, that's the USDA, shows the licensee, Mr. Wallach, allowing the tiger to run and jump with his dog on and off a coffee table. There's a video of a tiger cub interacting with an animal that was 100% wolf, but the licensee said that it was a wolf hybrid. There's a video of pulling a tiger's tail to get it to stop eating. And Mr. Wallach said, quote, she's angry, told the inspector. May of 2021, a member of the public was allowed to enter an enclosure with a 10 month old female white tiger. The member of the public entered with his dog in the enclosure with this 10 month old female tiger and an electric cattle prod. He gave false information to inspectors a sloth named Edward, bit and or scratched a member of the public. He has allowed hand feeding of the sloth by children and adults, but told the inspectors that he always uses tongs to feed the animals. In April of 2023, there was an improper handling of a juvenile kangaroo during feeding. It was being held horizontally on its back, which should never be done for feeding this species. It can lead to aspiration and accompanied aspiration pneumonia. An exhibited sloth was shown to be grabbing with its claws toward a person's repeated finger pointing and wanting that person wanting to touch the sloth. The sloth was attempting to bite with an open mouth and its hair was puffed up. There's a video of hitting a sloth, employees hitting a sloth with a spray bottle. The licensee can be seen grabbing both sloth by the back of the neck. Both sloths in the video show signs of distress, flying arm motions and attempting to bite. Two sloths in a video were fighting. One fell to the ground. The other had an injury around its mouth. One of the sloths, named Eddie, is thought to be an instigator. by Mr. Wallach. He says, Eddie is a bully and will go after sloths, including Cosmo and Sonny. The current sloth enclosure did not provide separation, physical or visual, for any of the sloths, even though he knew this sloth was a bully and went after the other ones in the enclosure. There is an official warning from the USDA notice of alleged violation. And I quote, it's under handling of animals. During public exhibition, any animal must be handled so there is a minimal risk of harm to the animal and to the public. with sufficient distance and or barriers between the animal and the general viewing public so as to ensure the safety of animals and the public. That is not done. Hasn't been done in Margate and it hasn't been done where he is exhibiting these animals. I didn't want to do this. I really didn't. Sometimes you question what you read and hear. But when you see it, well, as they say, a picture is worth, in this case a video, is worth a thousand words. I'm going to warn you right now. The two videos that you're going to see are extremely disturbing. and children should not watch. I've watched these videos a few days ago, and I have to tell you, I am still haunted by the images that I have seen. They play over and over in my head. Not only that, but the laughter that is coming from Mr. Wallach at what is being done to these animals. Jennifer, if you could please play the videos.

Yeah, I would get up from there.

She's so cute though. yeah i told you watch that fight did i not

you

Sit down.

Sit down. Up, up, up, up. There you go.

No. No.

No. No. No. No. No. No. This is what goes on.

Go play.

Go play. Mindy? Yes, Mindy?

You may not believe the reports.

but it's hard to dispute what you have just witnessed on these videos. We don't need an individual like this coming to Margate and opening up a sloth encounter store or a store with any wildlife. Sloths are very sensitive to temperature and humidity and require a temperature of 75 to 85 degrees with 60 to 80% humidity. In one of the reports, a sloth was not given the right humidity temperatures in which to be okay. Sloth should never have been allowed a couple weeks ago in City Hall, nor allowed at a graduation for Children at the sports plex. It goes against our animal display and exhibits. And let me read you what we all signed and agreed to. And it says section 624. No person or entity shall exhibit or display to the public for entertainment, amusement, or promotion, whether gratuitously or for a fee, any live animal on property owned by the city, the Margate Community Redevelopment Agency, or on city owned property under lease without approval of a temporary use permit from the city commission. That was not done when this sloth was brought to City Hall. That was not done when the sloth and the kangaroo that was in a towel like a baby being paraded around at the graduation. That was not done. My question is why? Why did the city not enforce its own rules and its own ordinances? I hope it's never done again. I will be, if this store opens, I will be the first and I hope it doesn't. I will try to do everything in my power legally to stop it from opening. But should it open, I will do everything I can and I will be the first to be out there protesting. I can guarantee you that. The gentleman also on SunBiz has also put on SunBiz that he owns or he has leased the store in Margate and has given the store's address as his mailing address and as his primary address when he has not had a lease to the store. How do you do that? How do you falsify a record like that? This is not the type of gentleman that we need coming to our city or having anything to do with animals. in our city. I'm sorry to say that. I'm sorry to speak poorly about somebody. But after what I've read, after what I've seen, I can't sit by quietly. I need to voice my opinion. Thank you for listening.

Commissioner Rosano, you're up.

Thank you. Thank you, everybody, for coming. I'm going to talk about the sloths for a couple minutes. As you know, I brought my sloths here tonight. I hope you guys enjoy them. There was a woman that came up and said something about my sloths tonight. She can say whatever the hell she wants. That's fine. Before I get back to the sloths, let me just address that, because I told her I would talk about it, and I talked to her in the back about it. What you're doing, Antonio, there's nothing wrong with it. Every commissioner up here, when they were mayor whatever did the same thing it went out i told her i was going to bring it up and i said it's dirty politics it's been going on for years nobody's done nothing all of a sudden somebody signs up now they're going after him so it's not a good start let me get back to the sloths i understand a lot of you are here many of you are here from when we did the uh the monkeys in the monkey derby the pigs So no matter what we do or what anybody does, you guys are going to be upset with any sort of animal thing. I get that. I totally get that. And I appreciate all the homework you've done. But then again, it was all stuff. I mean, the video, of course, with the dramatic music and all that, I get it. I get it. It's played. I get it. Whatever. But to sit here and to bash, you know, the guy hasn't even come before us yet for... the business let's get all our information and that's what I was talking to you guys outside about you know a lot of you guys I put this out on Facebook some of you are really nasty totally nasty you know kill Tommy this and that I don't care but just the way you guys speak you guys want to sit and have a conversation but your nastiness is just horrible And no matter what it is, you guys will never be happy. And when I say you guys, I don't know what it is. You have a horse track down in Hallandale, correct? Is that still there, the racetrack? Why aren't you guys out there? But I don't get it. It's going on in Morgay. Let's go. Let's do this. Let's go. Let's go after this guy. He knows Tommy. Whatever. I appreciate you guys coming, and I enjoy talking to a lot of you. But You know what? Until we have all the evidence, until the guy comes forward. You know, I heard a lot of stuff tonight. I know it wasn't true. I know, and I told a bunch of you back there. But whatever. We'll see what happens. Paul Lindeman, thank you for this. Awesome job. Fourth of July is coming up. If anybody would like to join in the parade, come on in. We've got a bunch of businesses. We're going to have signs up and stuff like that. And the last thing is graduates. My son, Michael, graduated this week. Congratulations to all the graduates. I think school's over as of today. So congratulations, everybody. And you know what? I know the election's coming up. Just be nice. That's all. Just be nice. You don't have to attack people, go after people for whatever reason. If you're going to serve up here, be nice. That's it. I've been through four elections. Three? I don't even know. And it does. Right around three, four months before, it gets nasty. Articles start coming out.

We would all be in jail if you listened to the stuff that... Well, let me tell you something.

I've heard of people hitting dogs and going to jail. After reading that, seeing that, the guy's still after. He's parading around with a sloth. Getting back to the politics, it's got to stop, guys. You know, he's a good guy. We're all good up here. He's not doing anything wrong, so... It is what it is. That's it. Thank you.

Vice mayor.

Wow.

Wow. Wow. Wow. Wow. Wow. Wow. Wow. Wow. Wow. Wow. Wow. Wow. Wow. Wow. Wow.

Wow. Wow.

Wow. Wow. Wow. Wow. Wow. Commissioner Simone, thank you for all the information you gave us this evening. sure that the USDA and all those other all the people who made up those forms and those complaints aren't lying I'm sure they're not lying and I'm sure they don't just write that stuff up because they have nothing to do on the weekend It's not like having a cat or a dog. Cat or dog can live anywhere. They don't need rainforest. Um, but I'm going to go in.

Thank you.

Well, I'm going to say other than that is this what I, which is what I say year round. It's June 1st is the start of hurricane season folks. There are those who don't believe in global warming. Well, too bad. Because the oceans are warming up. The storms are getting worse. They're coming more frequently. Yes, they're going up and down the coast now. But when they hit, they hit hard. So please, please, please, please, stop preparing. Buy an extra couple of cans of food. Get yourself some gas cans. Get yourself a generator. Get yourself stuff now so that when the storm comes, the shelves aren't empty and you don't have it. Start preparing now. I say this every year. We have been lucky over the last few years to not be hit. You know eventually it's going to happen. And the worst thing that's going to happen if you plan early is that you'll have extra food at Thanksgiving and Christmas that you've been saving up for that you didn't need to use. Just start planning because one day we're going to get hit. And if you said we didn't, oh, I didn't prepare because we haven't been hit in the last five years. Well, from Andrew to Wilma, we didn't get hit for what, 10 years? A lot of people. 10 years. People forgot about hurricanes. And then, Arlene and I lived on the same street for years. We were without power for two and a half weeks. Just imagine if you're without power for a week. Start preparing. I'm going to sound like a broken record between now and Christmas, or at least now to Thanksgiving, but I don't want anyone to ever say you should have said something and you didn't. Start preparing.

Antonio?

Yeah, just to add on to that, because that's been my theme this month, whether it's my press release for warning residents about hurricane season or my beautiful text or my beautiful newsletter, which I'll talk about shortly, that's been the theme is to be prepared. And while the forecasters this year are predicting an average to maybe hopefully slightly below average season for once because of El Nino. You just need one. It only takes one. And I will remind people for those that may not have lived here in, was it 1992, Andrew, or 92? Right. In 1992, August 24th, when Hurricane Andrew hit, it was during a strong El Nino season. So just like we have now, it wasn't supposed to be an active season and Next thing you know, category five is knocking at your door. As far as waiting to the last minute, we saw it with Irma. We saw it with Wilma. People hadn't been in a hurricane in a long time. They waited till the last day or two to get supplies. They couldn't get supplies. People were running out of gas in the line, you know, running on fumes. So, you know, just be prepared. Have a plan. There's no storm out there right now. But we, you know, if you have a generator started up, if you have certain medications or, things that you're able to stock up on, just take the time to do it. Ms. Culver brought up a community give back that I was a part of this past weekend. We teamed up with Margate Neighbors, Lowe's, the Fire Benevolent Association, and we beautified a school playground in the south end of town, a lot of underprivileged children there. And the place needed a lot of work, and it was just so rewarding to be out there with members of the community and surrounding communities to make a clean, safe, and enjoyable place for these children. And I got to see a video of the children playing on Monday, and it was just, makes you tear up almost to see how happy these children are, so. Now with that, thank you Commissioner Rosano for pointing out the nastiness this time of year. I remember you mentioned this when you were up for reelection last time, and it seems like every two years, six months out, all of a sudden people just start coming in, never showed up to a meeting, don't even know who they are, they're filing left and right, they wanna split the vote, that's fine. But you never hear them. The one lady comes in here, Talks about ethic violations, but campaigns from the podium, which is against city rules. She's breaking rules. You can Google her name. You can Sun Sentinel search her name. They don't have a lot of nice things to say about her when she tried to run 10, 12 years ago. Okay? I'm not campaigning. So you want to talk about following the rules. Now, they're upset because I'm putting out newsletters and text messages. I'm sorry if I'm communicating with my residents. This is something that I've done for years, and it's something I do in my official capacity as commissioner, mayor, and vice mayor. But don't take my word for it, folks. We have state statute right here. 106.141. You want to write it down? Go ahead. There's a whole list of things that I can do with an office account. And you're not limited to this list, by the way. But one of the things it specifically mentions, people with an office account can spend money on costs to prepare, print, produce, and mail newsletters. So you want to come up and file an ethics complaint? Go ahead. People file complaints about us all the time. Doesn't mean they're true. They're reaching for anything they can find. And I don't want to go there, but people want to throw complaints around. I got a complaint on someone that is so serious they may be uneligible. I'm not going to say what it is or who it is. but I'll wait for the right time, all right? So let's be positive. You want to attack me, you want to say, criticize, that's fine, but don't make up stuff, all right? And for the folks that come to us all the time and tell us how great Margate is and how much they love living here, which is a majority of the people, don't believe the drama that you hear. If you have a question, call me, 561-997-4647. You can email me, A-A-R-S-E-R-I-O at gmail.com. If you get my newsletter, my contact information is on that as well. Not only do I respond, but I copy you in it so you know where it's going and that you can get the appropriate response. So, again, people want to make false claims, that's fine, but I will continue to communicate with my residents, with my personal funds and my office account funds, how I see fit in my official capacity. And by the way, voter data is public record. There's no secret. There's no proprietary information that I got from the city. Ooh, it's public information. You can go and buy it. You pay a few bucks and you can get the information online. It's no ethics violation. So with that, let's go ahead and have a good meeting now that all of the drama is out of the way. Go ahead, Commissioner Schwartz.

It seems like the right time to do this and end on a happy note. In July, the school grades are gonna come out. So I'm gonna tell you in advance, Liberty Elementary is an A school already. Margate Elementary is an A school already. And Atlantic West in July will be an A school as well. So we will have all three of our elementary schools will be A schools. Margate Middle is a B school, very close to an A school. So just to end on a happy note in the middle of all of this, I thought it would be a good idea to share this. And since I'd forgotten it before, I'm happy I remembered it now.

put that in my next newsletter the school grades thank you but you say i told you it's it's a city with great parks and great schools the reason why people move into your neighborhood okay uh city attorney you have anything uh nothing this evening uh then it's always great to be here in the city of murray thank you city manager

Thank you, Mayor. Good evening, everybody. First, congratulations to all the graduates of this school year. I have one graduate, so two down, three to go. And then secondly, obviously in the news, everybody's heard about tax reform. The legislature has passed a tax reform bill that's going to put some pretty significant benefits Tax reform on the ballot in November. And yes, should it pass, which requires 60% of the vote, the impacts to all the cities, but specifically city market, are pretty significant. The first year that's proposed in this language is a $150,000 homestead exemption. would result in over $7 million in a loss of tax revenue to the city. And the $250,000 in year two of this tax reform would result in over $12 million in tax revenue loss to the city. I'm very proud to say that we run a very tight ship here in the city of Margate, and we have. And that's evident by us being in the bottom of the cities in this county in terms of revenue per capita. I think we're 27th out of 31, which means the amount of revenue we bring in compared to other cities in providing full service, we are at the bottom of that list. And so that's a good... list to be at the bottom of. I'm very proud of that and with all what our directors do. However, the big but is should a ballot like this pass and we are hit with those revenue reductions, that is simply not something that we can absorb. Um, we would be, you know, looking at service level cuts, um, and we would be looking at higher user fees or permit permits for registrations or, um, you know, all the things that we provide in the city at that, at that little cost that we do. So just wanna, you know, make the commission aware of that. I've already sent you some information and email about that and just wanted to talk about it publicly here. Um, I think it's important to get that information, um, out what those impacts are. Um, And that's all I have tonight. Thank you.

Thank you. I was hitting the old light.

I know over one-third of Floridians voters are renters.

Think twice. Because the cost will be offset. Make no mistake. You don't just... And this is tough because as a... As a, no, not as a realtor, as a resident, as someone who pays taxes, who has a young family, no matter how good you do, I don't think anyone's having a great year. We're all feeling the economy clamp down. So it's tempting. And I still may vote yes. I don't know. But I can tell you one thing is for certain. The money's going to have to come from somewhere. And if you are a renter, your costs could increase significantly. So just keep that in mind when you do your research.

Yes. So I'm going to tell you why what you said about what you might vote is the worst thing that you could possibly do. Because when people vote against their own self-interest, very easily said, if you're homesteaded, you cannot go up more than 3% a year. When you lose that, 37.9% of our budget is funded by that. But of the entire budget, 79% goes to pay personnel. Fire. that's been protected, police that is now protected, the school system that is now protected. Where do you think that money is gonna come from? So you're gonna give up a 3% increase to an across the board assessment somewhere because you want your streets paved, you wanna be able to flush the toilet and see to it that the other people who have union contracts that we are bound to pay, get paid. So before it looks like a great thing and you hurt your city, you hurt yourself because it's your services. And just like people say, I don't use the school system because I don't have kids, why should I pay that? Thank God I've never needed a call to fire a police, but for 40 years, I've had no problem paying that so that someone else gets the advantage. So before you think this is a great thing to vote for, it is not. You're gonna give up protection for nothing. And at the end, we're going to have to find the money because you're going to demand that your streets get paved and that your parks are opened and that we still do the things we do in this city to make it what it is. So keep that in mind because once this becomes a ballot question, we are prohibited by the governor from discussing it with you. So I'm going to say it now.

We are allowed to give our opinion on it. can get but we can't recity we can't have this conversation resources to do it but we can so i just just want to let you know so don't think it's a good idea and just to clarify i didn't say that i i said i'm not sure it's very sad i might i might i might well now i'm telling you why you shouldn't because people are are hurting and we do need to save costs but you're going to hurt more but i also pointed out that there are cons to that the money will have to come from somewhere And and and so people need to make a decision that and I understand and possibly to if you vote. For the tax relief is going to relieve your pocketbook but, at the same time it's going to be offset in other places, and so you know you just really have to consider it if you're going to vote. Against property taxes, then you need to be okay with diminished services and that's a tough decision and i'm not going to tell someone one way or another, when they're sitting at down at their kitchen table trying to figure out how they're going to pay their bills. but they also want their community to be successful, it's a tough decision.

Well, I'm just going to give the other side. But it doesn't come without consequences.

If I might, so it is already a ballot question. It is on the ballot.

I apologize now.

No, no reason to apologize. And you do not lose your First Amendment rights as a city commissioner. But I know it's been...

I know you can information like, we can't send out a newsletter right?

And since I just want to make sure that you, you understand that when you're speaking here, you're speaking your own personal opinion. And the Florida legal cities has produced some information to help guide cities and and elected officials in what they can and can't do with respect to that. And we'll make sure that you have that so that you can operate over these next few months till that comes on the ballot in November.

In that case, as my own personal opinion, don't vote for it. You will hurt yourself at the end because we will have to collect the money from somewhere. Instead of worrying about your homestead, write your people in Tallahassee about your insurance because that hurts everyone. And you don't want to see your sales tax go up either, because it's regressive against those people who make the least and then wind up spending the most. So just like when eggs were too much, we stopped buying them, maybe we need to use some force and lobby the people in Tallahassee who really need to remember, or as I said at a meeting recently, Don't tell me what's good for my city till you walk a step in my shoes. And so maybe we should have a referendum that says you don't go to Tallahassee until you've sat in a place like this and understand what hurts people as opposed to tell us what they think is for our benefit. So much for my lecture for today. Thank you.

Vice Mayor? I 100% agree with you, Commissioner Schwartz. I 100% agree with her. Everything from From the beginning to the regressive taxes, if they do go to sales tax and increase the sale tax, the poorest people are going to get hit the worst. Because unlike the rich who can write stuff off, the poor people can't. And you're going to get wiped. You're going to get beaten over the head. And if you're a renter, the people who are buying your homes are going to be paying more money for them, and your rents are going to go up. Instead instead of being and instead of having the guts to go after the insurance companies They're gonna go after your quality of life And it makes no sense to vote against your quality of life I'm done Believer on the city manager report I'm all done.

Thank you, sir City Clerk nothing at this time All right, we are going on to consent agenda.

Thank you, Mr. Mayor. Let me read through the items that are on your consent agenda this evening. Item 5A is approval of the City Commission minutes from April 15, 2026, regular City Commission meeting, and the May 6, 2026, regular City Commission meeting at 6.15 p.m. We have Item 5B, which is a resolution of the City of Margate, Florida, approving an interlocal agreement with Broward County, Florida, for the sharing of resource burdens of the system-wide services associated with the National Pollution Discharge Elimination System, and PDES, Municipal Separate Storm Sewer System, MS4, permit program and authorizing Broward County to conduct technical activities required by the permit, providing for an effective date. We have item 5C. which is a resolution of the city of Margate, Florida, approving the partial funding of the National Night Out event to be held August 4th, 2026, to promote community involvement in crime prevention and police community neighborhood spirit and police community relations And to encourage neighborhood camaraderie as part of the fight for safer streets, approving waiving of bidding for police awareness promotional items and services, providing for funding not to exceed $70,000 from the state law enforcement trust fund, providing for additional funding from general fund and donations, providing for an effective date We have item 5D, which is a resolution of the city of Margate, Florida, approving the third amendment to option and lease agreement with new singular wireless PCS LLC for the existing telecommunication site at 2500 Rock Island Road, providing for approved monopole height, providing for facility modification review, providing for CPI escalator for renewal terms, providing for an effective date. And we have item 5E, which is a resolution of the city of margate florida approving the waiver of bidding for the sole source purchase of environmental dynamics international edi disk diffusers and other replacement aeration parts for the department of environmental and engineering services wastewater treatment plant providing for compatibility with existing system providing for an effective date these items before you as part of the consent agenda this evening what is the wish of the commission so moved second go ahead join you guys

First by Simone, second by Casiano, first by Orlean, second by Joy, second by thank you. Simone, please call the roll.

Commissioner Schwartz. Yes. Commissioner Simone. Yes. Commissioner Rosano. Yes. Vice Mayor Casiano. Yes. Mayor Serio.

Yes. 6A we went to already, so we're at 6B.

Item 6B is a resolution of the City of Murray, Florida, approving purchase of equipment and improvements related to the expansion and enhancement of emergency medical services with acquisition being funded from impact fees at a total cost not to exceed $197,984.50, authorizing procurement through a combination of self-sourced purchases, piggyback contracts, normal procurement procedures, and waivement bidding where necessary, providing for an effective date. This resolution is before you for your consideration this evening.

Wish of the Commission so moved second I'm sorry public Commissioner Schwartz.

Yes, Commissioner Simone. Yes, Commissioner Rosano. Yes. Yes mayor cereal. Yes succeed

Item 6C is a resolution of the City of Margate, Florida relating to the provision of fire rescue services, facilities, and programs in the City of Margate, Florida, establishing the estimated assessment rate for fire rescue assessments for the fiscal year beginning October 1, 2026, directing the preparation of an assessment roll, authorizing a public hearing, and directing the provision of notice thereof. providing a vacancy adjustment for recreational vehicle park property, providing for application of assessment proceeds, providing for conflicts, providing for severability, and providing an effective date. This resolution is before you for your consideration at this time.

What is the wish of the Commission? So moved. Second. Public? Please call the roll.

Commissioner Schwartz? Yes. Commissioner Simone?

This is a buyer assessment item, yes. Preliminary for average.

So what is it being set at?

The preliminary rate is being, is recommended at $350.

So it's going up $50 a year? Yes, sir. Okay. Wait, yes. Can I speak on it?

That's the notice that they have to send out, but no more than.

No, I know that. Can I speak on it?

Yeah, but real quick, I thought that we noticed last year for the highest amount, so that my understanding, we don't have to notice again?

We don't have to notice everybody. We still have to notice new people, correct, yes. But we still have to go through the adoption of a preliminary rate, and then it'll come back to you, I believe, in July for setting the final rate.

Yeah, I'll open the Florida for discussion because I have some comments too on this. Go ahead.

Okay, thank you. Just for the record, you have a motion in a second. So you're going to start the voting over again then after discussion.

Okay, thank you. Okay. So right now, if I say anything wrong, just correct me. The fire fee set at 300 and we're proposing to put a possible cap of 350. Okay.

We are proposing to increase it to $350, correct? And what can it be increased to? $373.

Okay, so this is less. Okay. No, I know that. I'm just, it's a joke. So I think I remember a couple, one person up here last year saying maybe we should do it in increments of $5, which I don't really have a problem with. But going by what's going to be happening from Tallahassee, which... I'm not opposed to it with the taxes. And I'll give you my reasoning real quick is because I think the county got very greedy with money. Our budget went up almost 60% in the last five years, which is incredible. So it's almost like giving somebody a crack or giving them a drug and then taking them off the drug. So I think a good way to start would maybe raise this to 305. but not let the residents know that we're going to go 350, and then in a couple months later, it's going to be a ballot question, and the city's going to say, well, we really feel that you should vote no on it. Well, I can't tell you how we're going to vote, but I've heard from the days tonight from several that it's not a good idea. Let me tell you, when does the gravy train end? And that's what's wrong with government, because all you've got to do is raise taxes. We need to come up with ways to bring in revenue. So to me, I'm not fully... Proving to go to 350. I'll go up, maybe cap it at 305 and let the residents know that the possible it can go up is 305. But I'm not going to hit them with the 350, scare them off, pack the room and then say, well, you know what, we're going to make it this. So I will make an amendment or there's no motion, right? I thought you said we had to pull it off.

No, he said, yeah, but yeah, you can make an amendment.

Okay, I'm gonna make an amendment that we put the mailer out at 305 and I'm gonna tell you guys, I think the raise of this is $50. It comes out to $500,000 for the year.

$50 comes up around 1.6 million, 1.6 million.

Okay, so I'm not confused there for a second, but I've already talked to the city manager about cutting half a million dollars in certain areas in the city. I don't think residents would have a problem with so just something we're gonna have to make cut soon so I don't believe in gouging the residents right now do it in five dollar increments because you know what we're gonna really have to tighten our belts up if this passes which I'm gonna tell you what it's probably gonna pass probably Broward will probably the only County not to pass it but like you said the insurance if I live here I'm paying ten thousand fifteen thousand dollar your insurance My neighbor's paying the same thing. However, because I've been in my house for 25 years, I'm paying $6,000. My neighbor, who just bought their house in my neighborhood across down the street, is paying $30,000 in taxes, and that's not fair. So the system was broke a while ago, and the city's just fed off the gravy train. Tallahassee saw that. They're cutting it. I don't blame them. That's it.

I will second that for discussion and thank you for making that amendment because that's what I was going to do last year when this came about first of all I had suggested that we see every year we notice and then we don't do it or we do it and it's less but people come in and they and they should be concerned they're they're they're stretching their finances so I had suggested that we notice for the max amount by law we don't have to keep noticing every single year and scaring residents we just have to notice new people that come in but also at that meeting i had suggested because what happens is we we don't raise the fee we run lean then we get to a situation where we need to raise the fire fee 25 bucks and people come in because times are hard and they're upset and hear all the reasons about how you know they don't want to see uh they don't want to see that increase But if you just did $5 a year for five years, it comes out to the same. So to me, it's better to do it in increments. I know several cities that do it where they just automatically do 1% or 2% each year. I had brought this suggestion up. Last year, like you'd mentioned, some of my biggest critics, I remember even joking at the meeting asking them to repeat themselves. It might have been you, agreed with me on the gradual increase. So I think it's better to do $5, $10 a year over the course of time versus not raising it five years down the road, hitting residents with a big surge. So I will vote yes on the amendment. I see some lights flashing here. Did you want to say something?

No, I was just saying you haven't called for the vote. You have to vote on the amendment first. Right, but there's comment on the amendment.

So, Commissioner Caggiano, if you want to comment on the amendment.

I want to comment. We just decided to, A, not go to BSO, which would have increased our costs on our fire department tremendously. And to do that, we kept our fire department, and we increased our costs dramatically. Everyone talks about we need to pay our heroes everything that they deserve. It costs money to do that. We can't continue to give pay raises out and not raise the money for it. It makes no this makes no sense. It's going to count the increase of the contract with the fire department just by itself. for the year because we gave them 5% raise, we moved them up, we changed pricing for levels. I mean, what are we talking about? What we increased?

What I'd like to add is I certainly respect the opinion of Mayor and Commissioner Rosano of trying to do incremental increases. But over the last two years, we've made several significant investments in the fire department and emergency services to ensure that we have adequate resources to ensure that we are not facing attrition and having turnover issues. You know, one of those investments was in 2024, and that's where we increased the minimum staffing to where we were at a three and two model. We've gone to a three and three model. And to achieve that, we had to hire 12 additional personnel. You know, that comes at a cost of a year one cost of $1.6 million on its own. So, you know, incrementally increasing the fire assessment rate, you know, even though if we do it $5 a year for 10 years, you know, it's going to take us 10 years to get that 1.6. But by the time we, you know, get to that 10 year mark, that 1.6 is already increased due to step plan and cost of living increases and whatnot. In addition to that. As we were evaluating bso and as we had our fire department union asking us to seriously consider going to be so because of their pay and benefits. And then once your field arrangement and it came public and we pulled back from that. We had to take a strong look at the environment of not only fire, but our police services as well, and to make sure that we're keeping quality people and that we're attractive and that we have a good training program, that we offer a good contract that does make us a place where good candidates want to come to, they want to stay at. Both of these things were approved in public, had wide public support for, and was made very clear that this is something we are going to have to pay for. This is not something that we can absorb. And so, yes, I'm aware of the history of trying to increase the fire assessment rate and what that does when those notices go out and the people come in and the heartache that causes. Certainly if there is again, this is just setting the maximum rate. Um, if there is no intention on, um, you know, keeping it that at the final, then yeah, I don't suggest creating that angst out in the in the public. Um, but given the investments that we've made, um, given that they are your one cost to this to the city, um, and given the potential for what is to come should tax reform happen, I believe now is the time to take a serious look at increasing this assessment rate. It's not going to the maximum amount. It's going somewhere in between where we're at. And I think we can, you know, it won't be easy. I'm sure we will have residents here that are upset that we're increasing it. But those dollars are going directly towards

essential services our fire rescue services They're going to our emergency response So my point was that we still pay for EMS and the city subsidizes like 80% Yeah, this fee does not cover the entire it's raised or not we're still gonna I don't want people to think we're not funding our our higher by voting. They're still going to get funded. It's just you're asking the residents to pay an additional tax or an additional fee. Had we done this gradual increase, as I mentioned a few years ago, we'd probably already be at the 325 mark.

Didn't you just mention it last time this came up?

I mentioned it with a lot of emphasis last year, but I've had discussions with the city manager over the last several rounds of this. Why don't we just do a gradual increase?

If that had passed last year, we'd be talking about 305.

But I've mentioned it in years prior to that, too. But again, I just, look, it doesn't sound like we've got the votes to do that, but.

I just asked you a question. That was all.

No, no, no. That's fine to ask the question.

I've mentioned it for several years now. I think that we should do gradual increases.

We don't know if this is going to pass. I mean, I know it sounds tempting to a lot of people, but it may not pass. It needs 60%. There was a lot of, you know, Governor DeSantis was gung-ho that his abortion thing would pass. It didn't, right? Medical marijuana, very popular, bipartisan, didn't pass by a few percentage points.

So just because something's popular doesn't mean it's going to get to 60%.

You have a third of Floridians that are renters. They're not going to benefit from this at all. How many people own property in Florida that don't?

You know, it's a second home or something like that.

I just don't know if it's going to pass or not. And we're making assumptions. And we want to rush to go increase fees for everyone before this happens. I think it's a little premature. You know, maybe we look at our budget. We start, you know, tightening our belt and cleaning the budget when that process comes up. But to just run and increase fees now, I don't think it's the right thing to do.

We increased our nut over $1.5 million. How do we absorb a million and a half dollars?

And that's just on the minimum staffing. That's just minimum staffing. The contract that was approved is another million a year or so.

Okay. And how much additional millions do we receive in property taxes? 1.6 million.

Okay, so that just covers the extra staffing. It doesn't cover the cost of the increase in the contracts.

Like I said, I would be more in favor of a gradual increase over time.

But we'll never get that money, because every year, with the increase in the actual...

But it caps anyway, so you're going to get a point down the road where you're never going to get... They're never going to stop asking for a raise. Once we get the $375,000 and we can't legally raise it anymore, then what do we do?

What will happen is that every, what is it, every five years they do a reassessment?

You do a study to determine. Every five years, right?

Yeah, but state law, I believe, has a cap.

No.

No. No.

The assessment is based on the study. Based on the study.

We're still capped by a study. So at some point we're going to hit a point where we can't increase it.

I don't even know what to say.

I mean, it's pretty simple.

I don't even know what to say. You want to do it right now, 25 bucks. I'm saying do it over the course of five years.

And I'm saying over the course of five years with all the extra percentage increases every year, we're not even going to cover the cost. We're not even going to cover the cost. Look, I'm not saying that I'm going out there with a flag saying let's raise fees, but we sat here with our residents and we said to them, do you want to keep your fire department? And people said yes. And they knew that we were going to have to do matching type of contracts. Even if we went to BSO, our costs were going to go up. And with BSO, we knew that they don't even follow the increases that they tell you they're going to give you. I mean, look what they did. They tell you, oh, we're going to max 5%. They're hitting people off for 12%. We did the right thing. Let's do the right thing and pay for this because we can't afford... can't afford to swallow this and go for it just makes no sense to look it it's not like i'm out there saying let's raise people's taxes but this is something that the people wanted they wanted to have a mortgage fire department it's going to cost us just an extra 1.5 million just on the extra 12 people not covering the increases to the contract that we had to do to keep them here how can we justify not not doing the right thing and paying for this opinion that's it i'm done but it's not that we're not paying for it we're subsidizing it already and how much can we say dollars that people already paid into and now we're asking them for another fee we're asking for for them to increase listen when you increase your costs you have to increase your income tax revenue we just got an extra 1.6 which only pays for the extra 12 people and it doesn't pay for the increases year over year And the $5 doesn't come anywhere near the new contract that we gave them. This is math gone crazy. This is not sane math. This is math gone crazy.

Every couple of years, we get into this situation. We gradually increase it every few years. We don't have to come back every three, four years and ask for a big increase.

So just a reminder.

It's $4 a month, folks. It's $1 a week.

I know, but you've said at one point it was $0.60 a day, and people were so upset about it. I mean, people are hurting.

This will still come back before you. You're just setting the maximum amount. preliminary rate right now. And Mayor, you know, I support your idea for a incremental increase. We haven't been able to do that. This is probably the third year in a row that I've come and asked for some sort of a increase to the assessment rate. So had we had a incremental increase, this would be less of a ask, so to speak. But again, I just, I recommend that we seriously consider, specifically at this point, adopting this preliminary rate of 350.

Let me ask you this, because I try to compromise. Is there any amount less than 25? Like, would someone go to 10 or 15 with a gradual increase each year? But again, I just... I don't like the idea. And I know it's 25 bucks, but to some people that's a matter of getting 50 to go to 50 bucks. That's a matter of, you know, a few copays for your medication. That's your phone, you know, potentially your phone bill or one person. But there's there's residents that have come in here that that $50 is a big deal to them. Commissioner Simone.

This is where smart redevelopment comes into play.

Well, I've mentioned that too.

You're right. I do agree with you on that. You're right. But that's not going to be for a couple of years with the pace everything's going at. Sure.

Joanne, you stole my words. And you know what? Imagine in six months, if this does pass with the taxes, what we're going to do here? Can't raise taxes no more. We're going to have to come up with smart development. So let me ask this. The apartments down on the south end that are being built right now, is that your job? That's going to bring in us all the money. Don't worry. But there's no money coming in from there, right? Right now? Supposedly next year it's gonna bring in I would assume over a million bucks.

I Don't think it'll be no maybe total but you will get our share of that, you know, the third of that Okay, but this just goes to show it's good.

We're gonna have that smart development. I keep talking about Lemon Tree Lake 70 acres of untouched property Not saying to fill the whole thing in but to develop it we got townhomes which I voted against at the end of Margate Boulevard selling for six hundred thousand dollars and It's big money coming into the city. So at some point, we're going to have to be creative and come up with stuff that's going to make the majority of the people happy. That's a proposal coming for the golf course, which I'm against, but it will bring in money, hate to say, but it probably won't be touched if the taxes go through. I don't know. We'll see. But we've got to be creative and come up with stuff like the town hall, we call this thing the motorhomes those properties in there. They're not homestead correct and they can't be homestead. Maybe we look into doing developments like that and the future of non homestead properties where the snowbirds will come down by the homes and it will cover us for the future taxes.

A lot of maybes we got to pay bills now I don't know you miss my point I guess 6 months.

You're talking about $1.6 million now? Six months, Cal, if it passes, what are you going to be short?

$16 million? $1.8 million.

Yeah, that's why we need to be smart now.

It's not smart. It's being lazy and saying, you know what? I can raise taxes.

Tell me where you're going to raise it. I'm going to raise it. You're going to bring money in. She just said it's smart development. You don't know. Come on. We need the money now. Tell me when now we're going to raise the money.

It will come. If we all agree as a board. Well, first off, you don't give away.

Summer and winter.

You don't give away 60 acres of property with a 99-year lease with no guarantee. You're not giving it away.

It's still ours. You're not giving away anything.

You're better off selling it. You're using the wrong words. You're better off selling it. No, you're not. You don't know what you're going to get. I mean, I'm just using that as a point. But we're going to have to have smart development. So, Matt, you're going to have to come up with something. Seems like you represent everybody in the city. Come up with smart development.

That's all. There's a motion and a motion and a motion. There's a motion to increase it up to 305. There was an amendment. Public, I guess. Does my number not count? Oh, yeah. I'm sorry. Go ahead.

I'm the chair, don't listen to him. I try not to listen to any of you.

Commissioner Schwartz, go ahead.

Just out of curiosity, can you tell us how many years it has sat at $300?

I believe nine years in a row.

Nine years. And I can tell you that in 2018, when it went up $75, I asked, how about 25? And most of the people sitting here, with the exception of one, So that the rest of them are aware, would you do me a favor the next time this comes up and show over the last 10 years, the increases, how long they stated where they were, how much they went up, and how long they were, I think I repeated that, but just so people will see. And I remember that when that went up, nursing homes bused people in, nursing homes that didn't, the people who did not pay those things that they brought in to tell us, and I broke my heart to hear people say, I couldn't buy medication that way, or I couldn't do this, or I couldn't do that. Yet you don't see anybody, including us, telling the legislature how they ought to do something about homeowners insurance, about reserves, and about those kinds of things that are really hurting people, as opposed to maybe $4 a day. So, just so, eight, how many years you say? Eight years? Nine years. Nine years it has stayed where it is. Tell me what else you bought that for nine years hasn't gone up and then you've gone to the vendor and said, hey, why don't you bring that back to where I can afford it?

I don't disagree with you. That's our mistake. Why did we not increase it for nine years gradually?

Because people here will tell you, and it'll happen in July, I don't vote to increase the budget, but we'll let somebody else do it. People up here will say, I never vote for a tax increase because they know that, and I was mayor at the time and had to break that tie because otherwise nobody was going to get paid. And so sometimes doing the right thing may not be the popular thing, but it's the right thing. I'm not gonna go into age. But the right thing is the right thing. We are here to see to it that the right thing gets done. We're still buying expensive fire trucks. We still redid a fire station. We need to do another fire station. That money has to come from somewhere. And while this doesn't subsidize all of that, You know, telling people to pull in their belts and do those things, again, 79% of your budget goes to payroll. Who would you like to cut? Which one of the employees should we tell they are no longer entitled to make the money they do? Because that is 79% of your budget. We are actually number 26 out of 31 in what we get in property taxes and what we do with it. We are 33% of your bill when you get it, not 100%, 33%. Somebody go after the other 67% for a change because they don't do. And when you talk about a slush fund for the county, they're not offering to give you anything. We all taxed ourselves for transportation we never got. We taxed ourselves for the school system for raises they never got. But we have no way of doing anything about it. And we paid for that. So go after the people who are gouging us as opposed to what we do for our city. And while I don't like raising anything, I won't vote for $5. Instead, why don't you just simply tell me I shouldn't pay for it at all because I don't use those services, but I'm willing to pay for it for other people. There comes a point where you stop making what sounds nice to the public and you do what's right. It is time after nine years to raise that assessment. I pay $9,000 a year for insurance, impact windows, brand new roof, impact doors, monitored alarm system, fire hydrants on my property, nothing left to do, concrete block house, $9,000 a year, never had an insurance claim, including during Wilma. Go after the people who are gouging us, not for the services that we actually give people. that alleged lectures of night over.

Commissioner, can you clear your light? Commissioner Rosano.

I just wish everyone up here owned their own business or was a business owner because you would realize that when the money stops coming in, the owner is the last one to take their pay. Then you got to make cuts. But in government, You can raise taxes. I would love to say, you know what, I have unlimited money coming in and I can increase it when I want.

But who is going to stop taking their pay?

Well, Arlene, that's where you got to put your big boy pants on and say, hey, listen, let me go over each department, figure out what's going on. Our budget, like I said, has gone from when I got here, it was 60 million. It's over 200 million now. Population went from 53,000 people to 56,000 people. Where did the money go?

But you're counting the building department.

Government's theory is whatever comes in has to go out. That's how you balance a budget. That doesn't happen in business. It doesn't happen in any sort of business except government. So we need to start realizing cuts are going to have to be made. You know, just because it's a government job, it's not the cushiest job where you can't leave.

But who are you going to cut? Which group of people under union?

I talked to the city manager already about what I think. But again, it's my opinion. But you've got to understand, to go from a $60 million budget to $200 million, it's a little ludicrous.

Kale, would you let him know how much of that is not our budget, is not capital budget? That's not what I'm saying.

I'm saying as a business. You're giving a false. You're giving a false.

Not true.

The city of Margate budget, Kale, from 2012 was how much?

I don't remember what I'm talking about, but there's... What was the approved budget last year for the city of Moorgate? For clarification, when you're talking about going from $60 million to $200 million, you're including the enterprise fund, which is...

Okay, Cal, what was the total budget last year? I can look it up. I don't have it in front of me.

I think the actual budget was about $84 million.

$200? No, no.

The one that we can use.

I'm saying the entire... Because then again, think about it. The water and sewer department, they're on their own budget?

Yeah, you can't touch them.

So the money coming into them? Okay. It's theirs. We can't touch it. That's fine. The building department, the same way? Yep. We can't touch it. That's fine. Everybody else. You're comparing. All I'm saying is the budget from last year. total from 2012.

If you don't mind answering that. When you're looking at that, the big difference is why it's gone up $100 million is we've added in the water and wastewater. Of course you are, Dale. Of course. That's why it's up. I understand that.

That's what happens in business as well. And no disrespect to you, but that was poor planning prior to you. So we have to go out for a $200 million, whatever that bond was. I don't even know. So it's just you take the gross number here. You take the gross number there. How much has it gone up? And that's it. It's simple economics. You're an economics major.

You know what? Numbers can lie in Europe. Numbers do not lie. You know what? Liars figure. You're mixing apples with oranges. No, I'm not. And then you're trying to make a salad out of it when a salad can't be made because the money has.

When your life comes on, you can talk.

You would say that. You just approached me and said you're this, you're that. I said you're a business major.

You said you're a business major. That's all I've been hearing since I've been up here.

I've been a business major. And you make your money off government loans, off government grants. Keep advertising every time there's a government grant. Is it illegal? At least I pay my taxes. I pay my taxes. What they told me to pay, I pay. Hold on, guys. What they told me to pay, I pay. Hold on. See, here we go again. It's all about the flexion. It's all about the flexion. All I said is that you said your rebates is major. And I pay my taxes. Now you do. I pay my taxes. I've always paid my taxes. I get a tax bill, I pay it. Not the proper one though. Well, now you're the one who's the judge.

Might I suggest the mayor remember that it's his meeting and at this point that stuff needs to stop.

I'm just waiting to hear from my city manager before I was rudely interrupted. That is all. Whenever you get the number, that's fine. No hurry.

I've got to give you... You guys want to keep debating? So our general fund budget for fiscal year 26 was $85 million. I'm talking the whole budget. Total budget is $253 million, right? Okay. There's $100 million in there that is for water and wastewater bond projects.

That's not what I'm asking. I'm just saying the total budget was $253 million. Correct. What was the total budget in 2012? That's all I'm asking. That's it.

All right.

Hold on.

But the point I'm trying to make is when you're involved with government, you have the luxury of raising taxes. People don't like it, but it's an easy way for the commission to gain revenue rather than come up with smart development. Because that's all you have. The only thing you have in your city is development. That's it. That's all you can do. Especially if this tax thing goes through. It's going to be very interesting. I'm done.

So right now we're on the amendments, which is $305. It's to amend the proposed resolution to include the $305 as opposed to $350. Correct. Any member of the public wishes to... No, you just vote on the amendment. Then you'll have the actual final motion, depending on what happens with the amendment.

Okay. All right. So they still have time to talk on what the final... Correct. outcome is. All right, so please call the roll. This is on the amendment.

Go ahead. Then the 375 that went out to everyone else and your comment that this is only for people who weren't affected by that. What does 375 mean?

New people that moved in. No, I got that.

But since, so you have two different rates that we're going to talk about? No. For some 375? No, no, no, no, no, no, no.

It's who gets noticed.

I know, but they're going to get the notice for the lesser amount. I understand English.

Whatever you set the rate at tonight is the rate that we will advertise.

Then you're going to change the original thing.

No, because we already set the cap as high as it could go. We're just advertising to the new people that it's going to go up this amount.

God. Okay. Now I understand.

And in terms of the budget, the best I can do because we don't have all of those budgets archived on our website is go back to 2022 where the total budget was 159 million.

I can.

So if we can upstairs in my office, I can give you the 2017. I can't pull it up on our website. Please call the roll.

Commissioner Schwartz.

No.

Commissioner Simone. What is this on the amendment five?

Just the amendment to change the number from 350 to 305.

As the maximum.

As what's going to be proposed in the notice that would go out this year.

With the understanding that it's still going to come back no matter what it is that he's discussing for the public to speak on. Yes.

Mr. Rosano?

Yes.

Vice Mayor Caggiano? No. Mayor Serrio?

Pleasantly surprised. Surprised, yes.

All right, so now you have the motion to approve the resolution on item 6C that provides for a proposed assessment rate for the 305.

I don't see any lights lit.

Now you can let the public. Yep. public?

Good evening, Elsa Sanchez, Margate resident. I am on Social Security. I really don't have a lot of money. But I want the services that I want and I want to have my city give me the best help that they can give me when I need it. And when I need the firemen to respond and when I need the police to respond and when I need the fire department to have the correct equipment and the correct teachings and everything that they need to provide me with the best that I need and what I need. I don't care if it's $4 a month. It's $50 for the whole entire year. Come on. You're not taking away anything. It's only $4 a month for the entire year. It's $50 for the year. It's not a big deal. We want to get the best, but we want to not give the ones who are giving it to us, we won't want to give them what they need. It is important for us to to support them and to give them what they need. They are absolutely the best. They have won awards. They tried their hardest. And we decided that we want to keep them, that we want, those are the ones we want. How come we don't want to give them $50 a year? It's, I mean, it's just so, to me, if I can afford it on Social Security, If I can afford it and I know I need it, why not? It is to me is just not right. This is for the residents. This is not for any luxury. This is necessity to supply our firemen and the things that they need and the support that they need and for them to keep giving us the best. Thank you.

Nina Culver, Margate resident. So I'm sure this is going to be quite unpopular. The cost of gas to silicone to Absolutely everything our first responders need in both departments has gone up tremendously. We offer services that are paid for to half the city. So you can't raise it $5. You have to raise it higher than that. You'll be back here in six months crying that there's no money for something else that they need. Do they have training equipment sitting there that they're not using yeah. That's another that's a whole nother discussion. You have to raise it higher than that you know what what is that going to do to the police department's budget when when it comes time for them to come to negotiation. You're going to cry that you don't have money for them are we are we going to lose our law enforcement. Fire police water you have no city without those 3 things. And not for nothing, um, to manipulate the fact of adding the water department's budget into our budget and calling it, oh my gosh, look at how much money we have that we're using improperly is not the way to go, but that's not what this is. Yes. Tax revenue has gone up. It has not gone up a hundred million dollars. Um, that is playing games. That's playing games. I've looked at that budget several times, frontwards and backwards. I completely understand what you're saying. One included it and one didn't. I think you should go look at the budget. Yeah. Okay. Now that he's done wasting my time. We have to raise it higher than that. It's You know, people aren't going to be happy, but you have to make the adult decisions. You're never going to make everybody happy. I don't want to pay more, but they have families. We need them. We can't cut their services. We can't cut any of our services. So the whole thing with the tax thing that's going through the homestead, the veiled threat of us having to cut our services, is never going to happen. So if you guys want to explain how this is going to hurt our city saying we're cutting our essential services in order to make that is not the right argument because nobody believes that. Thank you.

I was just cutting services.

This is a measure to avoid having to cut. But no, if we don't pass this, we've got funding that we can use. I don't like being in a position where we are drawing down on reserve funds.

You can only draw down for so long. But it's not cutting services for so long.

If the tax proposal passes... That's not what I'm saying.

I was talking about this, and it's not... Yes, please police don't have a police fee we fund them we give them everything that they asked for. Yeah, mass is not covered under that this is just a way to get residents to pay more so we can just go and take it from the general fight find the money there.

If we're increasing our costs annually more than our revenue is going up. We are going to run out of money. Unless we reduce services. It's as simple as that. You have to cut.

Well, that's why I think that the state is in the position that they're in is because people didn't properly manage.

Lauren Baraka, Margate resident. surprisingly i agree with the mayor and commissioner rosano maybe it doesn't seem like a big thing to some people that are not living paycheck to paycheck the gas has gone up the food has gone up the insurance has gone up I look on the internet and I see teachers' salaries with the health insurance, and they can't afford to pay health insurance for themselves and their kids. So, yes. It doesn't sound like a lot to some people, but it is a lot to other people that are living paycheck to paycheck. Every penny makes a difference. Surprisingly, we agree.

Any other members of the public? Seeing none, so now we're going to vote.

the item as amended correct mr. Schwartz no mr. Simone yes mr. Rosano yes vice mayor Caggiano yes beer cereal yes all right next item I believe that's gonna be 66 D

Item 60 is a resolution of the City of Margate, Florida, temporarily suspending enforcement of Section 40.706G of the Margate Unified Land Development Code as it relates to feather banners for a period of 12 months, providing for an effective date. This resolution is to be for you for your consideration.

What is the voice of the Commission? So moved to approve. Second. I have a couple of comments. I have no problem with this. I'm very easygoing on signage, as many people know. So I think intent of this is great i do think though that we should put um just like all other signs i know our sign code's a little wonky right now but one thing that is consistent is that it's five signs per property so i don't think that we can have some signs a different number of days and others i think that there should be a cap on this too we can't we can't adopt additional regulations under this resolution cannot if you want to amend the code you would need you would need to amend the code to do what you want to do so this resolution is strictly advising staff that you're suspending the enforcement of the provision of the feather banner but okay so something we may I support this but something we may want to consider and as this pilot program goes on is to restrict the amount because while I think it's good for business to be able to advertise what we don't want is to have like 20 feather banners on each property I think that's not a good look either so just something to consider down the road, but I support this. Commissioner Schwartz.

I think the intent of this is not, it's for those people who can't get on the monument signs because the owner, yeah.

I just want to make sure that 20 of them on each property.

And they don't have the visibility. I think that at least, I know where this started because the person who came to me about it, because on a weekend, no one saw that they were open or could see any of that. And in this particular little plaza, there aren't five people who would put them out anyway. but I think it also has to do with visibility and how hard it is sometimes for people to be seen as they're being driven by because of the way the plaza's built. I happen to support it as well.

Anyone from the public?

Nina Culver, Margate resident. I'm actually really glad this came up tonight. When we were redoing the preschool, the director had come out and had said to me if I knew anything about the feather banners. And I said, I don't think you're really allowed right now, but I know that they were discussing it, but I didn't know when. The school got fined for putting all the way back, and it's far back from the road, feather banner on either side that simply said now enrolling. And they were told they absolutely cannot do that. And which I think is sad and silly, especially from I mean, I know you have to treat everybody equally, but a school that helps so many underserved families. So to get those kids in there to have normalcy is necessary. Thank you.

Any other members of the public? Seeing none, please call the roll.

Mr. Schwartz.

Yes.

Mr. Simone. Yes. Mr. Rosano. Yes. Vice Mayor Casciano. Yes. Mayor Serio.

Yes. Seven ordinances. Second reading seven a

Item 7 is an orange the city of murray Florida conveying the city on property adjacent to 24 1, 24, 3, North State red 7 Murray, Florida parcel ID for 8, 4, 1, 2, 4, 0, 1, 2, 2, 8, 0, 2, tropical development group Inc authorizing the mayor and city managed to execute a quick clean deed to the purchaser to no cost to the city, provided for conflict severability, provided for an effective date. This ordinance before every second reading any public hearing has been scheduled at this time.

What is the wish of the commission?

Question to approve.

I'll second it. Seeing no discussion, public. Go ahead, Commissioner Simone.

Oh, sorry. Yes. Uh, the first go around. I voted no on this. Uh, but I am going to change my vote on it tonight. I'm going to vote yes, but I have reservations.

This is on the conveyance of the property, right? Is that what you're referring to? This is the sale of the property, not the way.

Oh, sorry. Sorry.

That'd be the next one. Public.

Please call the roll. Commissioner Schwartz. Yes. Mr. Simone, yes, Mr. Rosano, yes, yes, yes, 7 be.

Item 7 B is an ordinance of the city Murray Florida many chapter 41 development code article 2 definitions section 40.2 a 1 in article 3 administration division 2 applications review procedures in public notice section 40.3 of 7 reserve of the city Murray code of ordinances to provide for process for the granting of a special waiver. for certain development projects, provided for conflict, provided for severability, provided for codification, provided for an effective date. This ordinance before you at second reading and a public hearing has been scheduled at this time.

What is the wish of the Commission?

So moved to approve.

Second. Go ahead, Commissioner Simone.

Yes, as I was saying before, the first go around, I voted no on this. I'm still not happy with it, but I understand the benefit of doing it. The thing that gives me pause on this is that three commissioners can vote for the waiver, even though it goes against all code. That kind of bothers me. But I'm thinking of a project in particular, your favorite building, Harborview. When they came before us and on the side of the building, they have three large rectangular shapes.

Fake windows.

And they wanted to put a mural or mosaic in those windows. And it was against code, and they couldn't. And every time I drive by that building, I look at it and say what it could have been had they been allowed to have a waiver. The other thing with that same building is they had a wall on the corner there, and it was not objectionable, and they wanted to put the name of our review on it. and they were forced to remove that concrete wall because it went against code and instead there's just some shrubbery there right now. That would have enhanced the property. I know there's another development that is being built that I understand wants to put their name of the complex in cascading letters on the building. And that's not allowed by code. But they could apply for a waiver now if this passes, and they could beautify their building in that way. So that's why I'm going to vote yes on this, because I realize it could be a benefit. I still don't like that three commissioners can vote for something, and it goes against all code. But I understand how it could help the businesses. Yes, but I have reservation. So we'll see how it goes.

Commissioner Schwartz.

So then continuing on with Commissioner Simone, if somebody were told no, what would stop them regardless of coming to the city commission? Nobody has said that they cannot do that. This is simply bypassing the Board of Adjustment. But nobody stops someone who is denied from coming to the City Commission. That's what an appeal is. Or if somebody had wanted to put the mosaic, the... I think it had to be a hardship.

I know, right. And that's the thing. So I know it's easy to say that it's skipping. I can understand why people perceive it as you're skipping the Board of Adjustment. which, by the way, three unelected people could set law, which is scary. Oh, clearly scary. But not everything qualifies as a variance. So there are situations where they can't qualify. No, no, I know that. Right, so.

I'm saying if they don't get or it doesn't qualify, what stops someone from doing exactly what Mr. Scott is doing, showing up here and asking us to do it?

That's the whole point of the special waiver program is there, see, like, City ordinances, city rules have meaning. That's why we set them. But just like we say one size doesn't fit all in Tallahassee, one code doesn't necessarily fit all or equal all or work well for every property in Margate. There's projects where every one of the commissioners up here and staff sometimes want, but because they can't fit The exact number of landscape medians in the road or something that we're going to stop a project that we all want. Because technically it goes against code on like a technicality. So this is giving them a means to come in front of the commission and say, listen, you all want X project. You all want it to advance at five. Oh, but in order to build something, that's going to be nice. We need this extra little space. And so we can't build three landscape medians. The commission can say no, we could say yes, and we could set conditions like, okay, you know what? We really want this project. We're going to allow you to not build those two or three landscape medians, but we want you to landscape extra along the road, or we want you to contribute to a landscape fund or something. We can set conditions.

So I guess I have a question for Mr. Tulses so that everybody remembers you're still here. Is this specifically for something that could not come before the Board of Adjustment? Is this specifically special for people who would not be able to get an adjustment there? And therefore, we waive a condition that otherwise, in other words.

No, if they didn't want to go to the Board of Adjustment and they wanted to file a separate application under the special waiver process to request the relief or to request the approval they're seeking for, they could do that.

All right, but I heard you say, didn't want to go. Right. And so, I'm a little concerned about, and there have been times I've shown up in front of the Board of Adjustments to give my opinion, which I've told I can, because again, they make law, and sometimes that can be scary. i don't want to set a precedent where everyone skips the board of adjustment and comes because they have a pet project and therefore wants us to wave something i would rather see us actually do something that probably hasn't been done in years and look over the code and have a code review board because i understand that happened years ago but i don't think one of us ever got to read any of it

So the genesis of this ordinance was the fact that an applicant had gone to the Board of Adjustment to seek approval of a development, and they needed all kinds of variances and waivers and whatnot. they ended up, I think the recommendation was no thank you, and they came to the commission, and the commission said, the commission approved it, but they're like, why do they have to come here, and why do we have to consider all these waivers for this? Isn't there another process that we can provide that would allow somebody that has a good project that we want to come forward and not have to request all these variants and waivers to parking, to landscaping, know to to access whatever it might be and so this and and i believe it was mentioned at the time that there were that a neighboring city has a process and that we should look into that to see if that's something that the city commission wants to do so we look we looked at other ordinances we worked with your uh your land development staff liz and andrew and chris and everybody there and this is the ordinance that we brought back at your request so what this does is it provides a different avenue for a applicant to pursue

in order to get their desired development approved by the city commission second question then shall i assume though that when that applicant comes before us we will still have our planners telling us what they still need to do that they might have tried to that they didn't like hearing from the board of adjustment now that they didn't go to the board of adjustment yeah it'll be a separate review process but your staff will still provide an analysis as far as

you know, what the issues are with respect to development, why it doesn't fit into our current code, whether they support or whether they don't, you know, don't support, and the facts as to why, you will still have a quasi-judicial hearing on the application. Take testimony, take evidence, and then make your decision based upon what's presented at the hearing. The main thing that this does is it bypasses that portion of the code. And we've removed the use of the term hardship is used a lot. It's not necessarily in this section of the code if it's adopted. There are other requirements, though, while not hardship, are still going to have to be approved by the applicant in order to be able to have the city commission grant the relief that they're seeking.

When I originally spoke to somebody about this, it had to do with an individual bringing something before us. Now clearly it is no longer an individual. It could be a law firm and a group of people who have certain things they want to build in the city that there are certain things they want to get around doing. And I get the fact that that may have certain things that are good for the city to waive certain things. but I just didn't want to open up the floodgates where everybody bypasses the Board of Adjustment because it's easier to talk to three people up here as opposed to speak to five people who weren't elected, but give us the opinions of regular citizens, whether they know all the laws or not, but have the advantage also of listening to city staff. So I'm really on the fence with this because I get the fact it's easier to eliminate a step and then come to us afterwards if that doesn't work but i'm not so sure it's the best way to do things depending upon whether it opens up the floodgates for everybody to bypass the board of adjustment and kind of makes their existent moot yeah and and that's something if this is adopted that's something that we'll have to see you know what happens what what people choose to do and um ultimately the city commission can decide they don't like it and change it

there so there's no period it's just it isn't like we just did for the feather benefits for 12 months this is an amendment to the code yes thank you commissioner well i i understand the philosophy this is to speed things up i get that however the board of adjustment is going to be null and void and and joanne i respect what you say too because it is a little sketchy But it's also going to cause probably a situation where staff is going to have to come up and present something that they're not really comfortable with, but knowing that there is a majority of the commission that are already in favor of it. So it's going to make it very difficult for staff. And I could tell you this years ago when Applebee's came. Andrew, you might have been here, but I don't think you were any part of this. When I went to the grand opening, They said that they were, I asked them about their colors, and they said that the city wouldn't allow them to put their colors from Applebee's, so they had to go off of some palette or whatever. They weren't happy about it. And I said, well, why didn't you move it forward? And they basically said they wanted to piss off staff. So I could see this both ways. It's going to be interesting, though. If I had a crystal ball, I could probably spell it out for everybody.

Maybe we should put six months on there.

You know, the only way to fix it is to fix the code. And we tried with a code review board. I think Joanne and I were here. We tried a code review board. We had residents coming out here. But it's just so much stuff in there. And just to try to get one code.

70 years worth of. You're still never going to get it right. You never will. You never will. And I respect some of the concerns. But again, if it's a project that This board or future boards want, and I love staff, but why should unelected staff be able to tie it up? Why should three, and I started off as a volunteer board member. I've been on both the boards. P&Z is a recommendation board, but the Board of Adjustment sets law. Here's the thing. If they deny something, people can come here. but if they approve it and we don't like it. That's why you show up. That's why I don't know if it's necessarily a bad thing. If people do just come right here again, if, and, and developers, they meet with us, they have their, they schedule their lobby meetings. If they meet with all five of us and all five of us want a project, and now they're being told they got to come in front of this unelected board that maybe doesn't have all of the information that we have. Why would they want to go there when they can just come to us and ask for permission? We can set conditions if we choose. We could still say no.

David, Arlene asked a question. Is this something that should have went or could have went through via Board of Adjustment and come to the city? And I heard you say no. It's something that had to have gone through the Board of Adjustment.

No? If this ordinance is approved, applicants will have a separate pathway to come directly to the City Commission without going to the Board of Adjustment.

Correct, but They, before this passes, they would have had to have gone to the Board of Adjustments. Correct. But here's the problem.

But not for every circumstance. If it's not a hardship, they can't go.

That's what I was going to get to, the word hardship, because I've heard many people.

But they have the right to submit an application and go to the Board of Adjustments to try and prove their case. And then the Board of Adjustments has got to decide whether or not there's a hardship or not.

Exactly, that's what I'm saying.

So where does the hardship come into play? In this process, it doesn't. There are other factors that have been included in this ordinance that can be utilized to analyze whether they're entitled to the relief. It's just going to be the will of the commission to? Correct.

Just like a special exception or anything?

Based upon, it is a quasi-judicial process, so we have the same kind of hearing, testimony, evidence, and based upon the criteria, the commission would decide whether or not to grant it.

could all be opinion related if you like it if you don't like it all right based upon the facts and testimony presented at the hearing thank you commissioner simone cale do you know what cities do this i think coral springs has been doing it for years coral springs is the the one that i'm familiar with um and you know i have had a conversation with their city attorney about it they've had it on their books for a long time and they have not had you know, a end run on, you know, everybody coming in for these special waivers or whatnot. It's been a successful process for them.

And we can, you know, approve it. We can approve it with conditions. We can deny it. We can defer it. Or we can request additional review. So we have many options before us. And basically it's for landscape, building design, traffic access, lighting.

Okay. It's for anything that's in our land development code.

Thank you.

So it would be for parking, colors, height. anything and i think i heard commissioner rosano say there's also a problem at least when five independent people have an opinion it doesn't hurt to hear what citizens say as opposed to worry about who you who's who you might kick off up here because we're friends of friends of friends so i'm not so sure having an independent group look at something first is a bad idea because you've got the opinion of five different people

You're going to have staff review this the same as they would review a typical variance and present to the Board of Adjustment. And they're going to present the same way that they do to the... No, I wasn't...

I'm talking about...

Right. I also don't believe that with this process in place, that we are going to get a flood of applicants in here trying to build, develop, you know... something that is you know just completely and utterly against city code these are going to be you know in in my opinion you know uh few and far between one only hopes we don't know but you know like like you've said you know there's no one code that fits all right um you know parking is is obviously something very near and dear to this commission's heart. The land use attorney that is used on many of these projects, I think knows what is important to this commission and what maybe he can get an applicant to get a waiver on. And so I don't think this is just throwing our entire land development code out of the window, but as different projects come up, size of that site you know whatever unique characteristics of of that site are there's there's almost always issues in designing a a project when you when you compare it to code and you know the applicant's going to have to take make a decision you know do i want to you know work on a redesign of this to you know meet code at 100 or do i want to go through a process present in front of the commission to see if I can get a waiver and not knowing what conditions get put back on me or not.

Last question, Mr. Tulses. If you were to give a waiver to someone for a particular project in a particular area and someone else with a similar project in a different area, could that be denied for exactly the same, could that be denied or do we set a precedent?

You don't set precedent because each case is considered on its own factors.

Thank you.

All right.

Let's go to the public.

Matthew Scott. I reviewed the ordinance and I thought I could provide some insight that might be helpful because there was a lot of talk of how this would kind of do away with variances. So the first thing I wanted to share is Almost every other city that I do work in has a waiver process that exists for situations where you don't have a genuine non-self-created hardship. So Boca Raton, Pompano Beach, Coral Springs, Fort Lauderdale, Hollywood, Delray Beach, all have different waiver processes that exist when you don't have, Commissioner Simone's example is a great one. The mural would never be a variance. That is a completely self-created hardship. It's just a preference they want. But everyone agrees it's better. So you couldn't ask for a variance. Legally, the commission couldn't approve it.

And so- Wait, wait, why couldn't the commission approve it?

It wouldn't meet the criteria at all.

But you don't call it a hardship. You just come and say, we'd like to do that. How about that?

No, but that would be improper for the commission to do that. It would be improper. And so applicants, so what I tell my clients is don't even apply. That's not even close to a variance. So I just want the commissioner to be aware you are not sort of stepping on a ledge here. In fact, you're somewhat playing catch up with what the vast majority of municipalities in South Florida do, which is create a process that allows for some relief when it makes economic sense or it benefits a project or it's something that the parties agree, the city and the applicant agree would be beneficial. That's the first thing. Second thing I wanted to share is this wouldn't do away with variances. So as an example, The most common variance that I do is like for a pie-shaped or triangular-shaped single-family home lot. It's an odd-shaped lot, and it can't possibly meet setbacks. In that scenario, a variance is better than a waiver or special exception because the waiver is meant to be, do you like it? Are there conditions you'd want? Can we work together to make this a better project? The variance there for like a single family homeowner that isn't doing a site plan or anything is them saying we have a right to this variance because we have this odd unique issue that is not our fault. That would be the preferred approach. And so there still will be variances. The waiver approach is more of an honest way of coming to the city and saying this is not a matter of the shape of the land or some unique thing like some famous tree or something quirky. This is because economically the deal is better and it's better for the city and we want to work with you to give you a better project. And your code just doesn't allow it because codes can't possibly think about every single scenario for every type of project. And so that's the idea of it. And you did just update your code two years ago. So it's not that your code is so antiquated.

No, most of it is antiquated, mostly.

Well, we did a major code rewrite. Anyway, I just want to share that content.

Can I ask you a question? Sure. On one of my favorite projects that you did. When the ALF across Lemon Tree Lake Waterway, the back of what's going to eventually one day, if we live long enough, be our city center, wanted to cut the amount of parking. Did that go before the Board of Adjustment?

Yes, of course.

And was it denied?

Yes.

And then it came to the city. What benefit? I'm just curious because it's already happened. Did that have for the city to cut the amount of parking? It had a benefit for the client. But what benefit did that have for the city that this commission, because I remember sitting and listening to it in a hotel room, went and said that was okay when they gave up something like 36% of the parking they needed.

I don't know what that has at all to do with us discussing that the city might adopt a new process to address future situations.

I'm trying to ask how that would have worked. Would you have not had to go before? I'm trying to figure out, would you have had to go to before the Board of Adjustment with that?

If the special waiver process existed then, then that would have been something that would have been discussed and considered with that client to see if they wanted to do that. I mean, I don't know. Going backwards,

Because I'm doing it because it's already happened.

What I can tell you is this, is that there are many people, shopping center owners, property owners in the city that would love to make improvements and upgrade these 40 and 50-year-old shopping centers. And when they look at your code or they meet with your staff and your staff does the right thing and says, hey, you can't do X, Y, and Z unless you do all these other things and that it can't work because of that. And staff's not wrong. They're saying this is what the code requires. And so you had a discussion about fire fees and property taxes. and how development would help with this. This is another tool in a toolkit to help promote smart development and the city commission maintains control of it. The city commission gets to say you're going too far or you're asking too much. There's guardrails clearly in place for it. And so this is a forward thinking way to help certain property owners or developers to do good smart development in your city. That's the idea behind it.

And the reason I asked you is because that's the only example. And I wanted to see what process that could have gone through. That's why I asked you about that.

Right. And I can just share that in the vast majority of cities where I work, where there is a waiver process, it comes up on projects all the time. And they say, hey, we can't make this thing work. Do you think the city would be okay with it if it's not too extreme? If it's a minor deviation, if we work with the city on this, if we agree to install taller trees.

Yeah, I know. The give and take.

And it's a win-win. And so why wouldn't you want opportunities for win-win, particularly with your shopping centers that must average 30 to 40 years old that have vacancy issues, that need upgrades, but because of the requirements, they can't make all those upgrades. Why not say to that type of property owner, hey, there's a path for you to do some nice things. You got to work with us. And so that's the idea.

When everybody's finished, if they have a question of him, I'd love to ask Mr. Penny a question.

Hello. I'm Catherine Loper. I'm a Margate resident, and I want to talk about this ordinance, which I really don't quite understand. I feel I'm in good company. I'm glad for that. I don't usually come to these kind of meetings, but because I live in Holiday Springs, there's a lot of discontent with the idea of the development being planned for the golf course, the Carolina Club. Now, with this ordinance, there's the code specificity. I don't see where it's really worked out. I don't see where you're coming from specifically. And I don't pretend to be an expert in any way, shape, or form. But to me, I just don't get it. Somebody mentioned that the staff or whatever shouldn't be able to make decisions that you should make. But staff has a lot of education behind them. So I'm not knocking it, but I just think that they should be listened to. And I understand when that one particular project was coming up, there were many things raised. And I haven't seen any of that addressed in any of the things that I've been reading about or following up on. Now, neighborhood protection I think is also important with this ordinance. developers are a lot different than people that want to put signs up. And they will take an inch when you give, they'll take a mile when you give them an inch. So we're concerned because they have not really been including the community. They may say they're including the community, but it's our board, our rec board, that is the one that is moving this forward. And next Tuesday, they're going to have another meeting. We had a town hall meeting, and that's what kind of got me started. Because in that town hall meeting, I couldn't understand what the rush is. Why do they care so much? to have a letter presented to them, which is outdated already, that the Lakes of Carolina developer, Rosemargie Acquisitions, wants to secure a letter from us to get a chance at our property, which is our clubhouse, our swimming pool, our outer clubhouses, and that would be land that they would tie up, I assume, because what they read to us, was not giving any real answers. And every time we tried to get answers, we're not even sure who the developer is. Rosemarie was Campbell Rosemarie, the real estate people that I knew. And now we have other people coming into it. And it's like it's a little consortium of groups that are involved in this. And we don't know who's who. And the thing I'm asking is, you know, what's it?

I had three, she had three minutes.

She can finish her thoughts. Okay. I'm just, I'm concerned because The people that live in Holiday Springs, I'm not talking about the golf course residents. I'm talking about the 55-plus community. That is our greatest asset, the pool, those clubhouses, and the mid-century clubhouse. If we give them that land, and somebody is saying, oh, $2 million, $2 million, whatever. Can I have a couple of thoughts, please?

Because you are, over the time, I'm

But it's ridiculous. I mean, what I want to get across is that this ordinance could be the thing that sends them through. They have all the lawyers. They have all the people. We don't.

If I may, when you get home, Google Infill Redevelopment Act, they can build there tomorrow.

I'm not saying about the whole thing. I'm talking about...

If you are over your time now, I did have you close up your thoughts, but I'm going to ask you that you... Okay. Thank you so much.

My thoughts based. I've turned off your mic. Time is up. Thank you.

Good evening. Elsa Sanchez, Margate resident. Well, this was presented to the PNC and we discussed it and we got all the information. Andrew was marvelous giving us the answers that we wanted. There were questions made and we voted for it. It was approved. It was fine. But then at the first reading, there was a comment made that it really bothered me. It bugged me and worried me. That it was said that the variance would be presented and then if the board If the commissioners would allow it, they would say, okay, we'd allow it, but you have to give us $10,000 for this or that. That bothers me because that makes me feel like somebody can come with money and buy their way in. That part bothers me. Not the part that the variance is given, but the part that they are paying money for this to go through, even though it is going to whatever in the city that I would like clarification and to know whether that it's going to be allowed or not. Thank you.

You know, Elsa, too, on special exceptions and other quasi-judicial hearings, we set conditions all the time. No, it's a valid concern.

Jonathan Kraljic, Margaret resident. This has the potential of being abused. The board of adjustment is chosen by you. If you don't trust their decision, what are you doing by selecting them to the board? Volunteer board members don't have motives, open campaign accounts, or operate PACs to be influenced. They're residents who have to live here with the development. Regarding smart development, instead of designing projects to fit the code, developers will begin to design projects that benefit them, not the city, to maximize profit. Examples are how there are newer residential buildings in Miami where delivery trucks and rideshare vehicles have to stop on the road holding up traffic to make deliveries or pickup passengers. Meanwhile, they could have been required to have dedicated loading or pickup zones. Instead, they're blocking traffic on the same streets that have been there for more than 40 years and haven't been upgraded. That's not smart development. With this proposed process, the petitioner only needs to go before a commission who have campaign accounts where they can accept contributions from the very same petitioners who are asking them for the special waivers. I can't help but notice the attorney who represents developers in this city did not have a three-minute timer. I guess there's rules for some. Meanwhile, No rules for others who have thousands of dollars to contribute to Commissioner campaign accounts.

Thanks.

Any other members of the public?

All right, seeing none, let's call the roll.

Okay, you're like- Asked if I could ask Mr. Penny a question.

Go ahead.

We got stuck being here, might as well.

Good evening, Andrew Phinney, senior planner. How can I help you?

All right, so just because I heard it, If indeed you think a project is good, but our code either doesn't address it or is too antiquated, would it be unreasonable for me to expect that you might come to someone, whether your department head or the city manager, and say, hey, you know, this is a real problem, and maybe we ought to take it up at a commission meeting and change some of this because it's antiquated or oftentimes it becomes a stumbling block to a good project?