Regular City Commission Meeting - Regular Meeting

We're going to get started in about 30 seconds. Oh, yeah, yeah, yeah. I know. Okay, we're going to get this meeting started. If everyone could please take their seats. I'm going to call this meeting to order. The time is 7 p.m., Wednesday, August 19th, 2026. Please call the roll. If everyone could please be quiet and take your seats, we'd appreciate it. The meeting has started. Please call the roll.

Commissioner Schwartz? Here. Commissioner Simone? Here. Commissioner Rosano?

Here.

Vice Mayor Caggiano?

Present.

Mayor Serrio?

Here. And we're going to do a moment of silence in the pledge. I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the republic All right, so seeing that we have a full house and I know that there's a lot of students in the room and it's a school night, so if no one has a problem because their item is the last item tonight and it's going to be a late meeting, if we can move that to right now. I have no problem with that. Okay, so we're going to go to 7A, City Attorney.

Thank you, Mr. Mayor, David Tulsa, City Attorney. We're going to item 7A, which is discussion and possible action, provide direction on how to proceed with the unsolicited public-private partnership proposals. received by Fort Lauderdale Football Club, LLC.

So before we get into some discussion, City Manager, do you want to give us an update as to where we're at and what options we're looking at?

Sure. So good evening, everybody, again. As you're all aware, we received an unsolicited proposal from Fort Lauderdale United to operate a competitive facility football program, travel soccer program. There's statutory requirements on how we handle public private partnerships and unsolicited proposals. We presented that proposal to the commission a month ago or so. and seeking direction on do we want to entertain it, do we want to follow state statute's process on it. The commission gave us direction to hold a town hall style workshop so that we could hear from Margate community and the soccer community as to what their needs and desires are for competitive sports. soccer and developmental soccer and so we held a very I think productive town hall we heard a lot of residents speak about what their desires are for soccer in in the city and so we're back here to have a further discussion on that with with you commissioners and members of the public that I'm sure will want to speak on it further and then we have some options that we can choose from on how we proceed from here um and I think you know until we get to that point I think it's up to the board to discuss um have the public speak about what what we want to do um at this point based on what we've heard from the community is that there is a desire to have a developmental program in the city a competitive program in the city that is really for the margate community and that is affordable those are the i think the two high priorities that we've heard from this community and so if it's this board's desire to find a provider that that can do that we have a couple options where we can explore to find a partner in in doing so and we can get into the details of that

As we yeah, I was going to ask for so that we can have some more thorough discussion. Can you please explain what our options are? I believe there might be three of them.

So we've we've provided three options and one is to move forward with the unsolicited public private partnership proposal that we received and follow the state statutes which require us to publicly advertise that we received this proposal and that we are interested in receiving proposals from other competing providers. Option two is to reject the proposal we received, craft our own RFP and put that out to bid for a provider. And option three is to reject the bid and continue to operating the way we are, which is the city runs recreational soccer and then our fields are available for rent on essentially a first come first serve basis.

Thank you. Yeah, I have a couple comments, and I know that there's some lights lit here as well. So as explained, this was an unsolicited bid that came in from Fort Lauderdale United. What this has done is really opened my eyes to how sports are run, not just in Margate, but in the local area. And I started to ask some questions because I didn't know, you know, I wanted to know actually did we have a current agreement in place that was my first question to the city manager and the answer they got is no there's no agreement so that that was interesting for me because we've always said that you know we have this wonderful soccer program and they've been here for 30 years but there's no agreement so the way I look at it is we have a wonderful group of people okay dedicated coaches volunteers, parents that are involved. There's a bunch of players, student athletes that are here. And I think that they are very important to our community. And I wanted to start off with that because I want to recognize those efforts. But when you look at on paper from a city perspective, we don't have a soccer program. What we have is a wonderful group that is renting our fields. And I want it to be more than that. I want to have guarantees, protections for the soccer programs and the city. Right now, there's nothing stopping another organization from coming in and renting the fields out.

Am I correct? Correct.

So what I think is as a city, we should have a program that's ours some type of partnership that we can say is ours that there is a contractual agreement in place with with terms and conditions that benefit most importantly the athletes but also benefits the program and the city as a whole so I am interested in having a conversation as our options I'm interested in The first two, either moving forward and advertising the bid that we received and taking new bids, or doing an RFP and having bids. I think just keeping the status quo of a great program, but simply renting our fields, I don't think is the best practices, especially when you look at how governments operate in today's day and age. I think that we need some sort of agreement in place. I did not go to the town hall because I don't want to have any type of influence or sway how that goes. I wanted to see how the comments would come off organically. I've listened to the meeting. I've read all the Facebook. Please no yelling out, or if you do, you could be removed. We have a large group tonight, and we don't need anyone yelling out. And now they lost my train of thought. But I'm going to open up the discussion now. I see Commissioner Rosano, your light is lit.

Thank you. First, I want to say thank you all for coming out tonight. It means a lot when I see the parents and the kids come out. I've been involved with coaching over 20 years in the baseball side, and I've seen what happens. And I know that most of you are here for the travel thing. I just want to let everybody know in Margate, the Margate rec soccer is not going anywhere. I promise you that. So the rec sports in Margate will always be there. However, you go to the next level and like baseball, we had a group come in that were mom and dad travel people. They were running the baseball league. However, I found that a problem when I went to go play my game in Margate, I got pushed over to North Lauderdale because there was a travel team playing in Margate. So that kind of pissed me off. So now moving forward with you guys, everybody I've spoke to, I went to the meeting and I heard everybody who spoke, you guys want something for the next level. And I totally agree with that. If you have your kid involved with REC and you want to move him to the next level, you have a great program in Margate. And from what I heard, Mike, Marlon, whoever runs it, Daryl, you guys do a great program. And I don't have a problem with it. I talked to a bunch of you tonight about what you guys want to do with this because like I said at the meeting and I spoke, I'll be your voice. I have no problem. I said I'm a big voice and I got no problem helping you guys out. But I want to make sure you guys exactly know what you want. So tonight when I spoke to you, option A, moving on with the Fort Lauderdale, whatever it was, group. Not one person said they wanted to do that. Mostly everybody I spoke to said, let's go to option two. And option two would be to get the information from the people, do an RFP, do a request for proposal. Let's see what we can get to make everybody here happy. So if that's the step you guys want to take, know if you guys want to raise your hand and go for option two we could end this meeting real quick and we can move on to option two if you guys want to go to option three option one but to have everybody come up tonight it's going to be i don't want to say a total waste of time because this board does what they want regardless of what you guys say so whatever you guys want to do let me let me know let us know i mean mayor if you guys want to just want to raise their hands for one two and three and see where it is and then we just move from there but to sit here and drag this meeting till nine o'clock and have everybody come up and speak for three minutes i don't think it's gonna be productive That's it, I'll leave it as that. And I wanna thank Sean for getting involved with this, man. You really stepped up and you got a lot of these people here. So thanks, man, good job.

Before I lost my train of thought, I was mentioning that I had listened to the town hall and I also read a lot of the comments that are online. And I always thank Mr. Fletcher for being very thoughtful and fair And I read a lot of his comments, which seemed to go in line with what I interpreted the town hall as, affordability, protecting rec, but also giving students a pathway into travel that maybe can't afford it or wouldn't have that opportunity. and then potentially a pathway from travel into, whether it's professional soccer or collegiate, D1 or D2, whatever, collegiate opportunities. So I think that was important too, was having that pathway. Option one, if we were to go that route, it still has to go out to bid, but I don't have a problem going, either way, I don't have a problem. I think we should be going out to bid. We lose absolutely nothing by seeing what's out there. It's like some people don't have to sell their house, but they want to. And they're like, I'll just throw it out there on the market and see what happens. And you'll get several offers. You don't have to accept any of them. So I just want people to know tonight, whatever route we go, it seems like one way or another we are going to go out to bid. We're going to look at those options. We're going to go back and discuss them and see which one is not only You have to look at terms, but who's also capable. Someone might come in and offer all these things, but they're not capable of executing it. Maybe we like one a lot, but another one has a good idea. And we say, you know what? We're going to work with the one that we like, but can you also add this from another proposal? So again, I don't see anything wrong with going out to a bid, whether it's option one or option two, and seeing what we have. If we don't like any of them, we reject them all.

but option three to me is you know just the status quo and I think we lose more sticking with option three but I would like to go out to bed Commissioner Schwartz I think you misunderstand I was at the meeting also I think you misunderstand what option one is there's no need for an RFP because an RFP allows the city to spend a fortune come up I understand option one well I'm gonna explain it to other people who might not So option one allows you just to say, this is what somebody offered. Let's see if other people will offer that or more, because very honestly, it's the first time I've ever seen anybody offer to take care of the fields that they destroy, which was residents' tax dollars. that's fixed up. So I have no problem, and RFPs take too long, cost them too much money, when all you have to do is simply say, here's what was proposed. Are there people who are willing to match or do better? That's the same thing as an RFP, except that there are specific things in here that are quite amazing because I've gotten, as the rest of you have, a quick understanding of what goes on in soccer, what it costs these parents to be able to try and fulfill a dream. But in honest, not everybody has a Messi. And once in a while, my kid played soccer too. There are times when he was watching grass grow that I realized that's probably where he was gonna stay, in rec ball. But it's only fair that they also see the things that are being offered. the extra scholarships the tickets to games and whatever else it is that we would never have thought of that they never thought of so i have no problem with option one so it doesn't cost a fortune for the city to do this or that we forget the things that are important to parents because we're laymen doing this so put out what's out there say hey take a look read what he has offered meet it or beat it because now this is better for the city

And I think the example with option one, that's what the CRA board just recently did with Ace Hardware. They came to us with an unsolicited bid, and now it's out over the next 30 days or whatever the statute requires. But there are things here we would never have thought of.

Correct. And quite frankly, it wouldn't be bad if someone helped maintain the fields. But if this is better for kids and better for their parents, and quite frankly, I've been told that parents spend anywhere from $20,000 to $50,000. That's obscene. Nobody should do that and take that kind of money from you for a dream for your kids to do better So I'm I'm fine with option one.

I don't see a need for an RFP Commissioner Vice mayor I agree 100% with Commissioner Schwartz.

That's all I need to say Commissioner Rosano I just want to tell you guys this for those of you that did come here The option is going to be option one whether you like it or not. I just heard it from three commissioners I don't think that's why you guys are here I think the option one that is being proposed is from a bigger soccer corporation some from somebody who can give all these incentives benefits but you know what it comes down to a cost and everybody's saying well you know they're gonna give the city the most that's not what this comes down to it comes down to what the residents want so if you guys are gonna go with option one I totally don't agree with it if you want to go to option two I would consider it but going with option one and just saying we're gonna take You don't have to take anything. You don't have to take anything. But the presumption, the precedence you're setting is that you're going to go with option one.

Yeah, but you don't have to take anything.

Arlene, there's something in there, correct me if I'm wrong, that says $100,000 given back to the city. Am I right about that?

For the fields, it says.

For the fields.

Just for the fields.

Okay. Do you think that, I don't even know if Daryl's, the guys that are here now, But I'm sure that most of these people are here, probably here because they like the way it's going. I don't know. Maybe not. But to say, okay, thank you. Thank you for speaking up. But to say that the coaches that are here, and I don't know if it's Coach Mike, Marlon, whoever. Can you guys, okay, coaches, can you guys put up $100,000 to match this guy's offer?

He shouldn't have to. No, it's not for them to do it. It's for the company they're being sold to.

that's what I'm saying if the program is not broke but what you guys are hearing right now is option one was given right the Florida I don't even know the name of the group United whatever it's called they made a great proposal yeah is it good financially yeah is it what the residents want no So I don't understand how you guys could even consider option one. You said option one was great. You said I totally agree with what you said.

No, I said it's better than an RFP. That's what I said.

But I think that options... My light is lit, all right? Let me speak. I didn't ask you a question. I just said you agreed. So you said it, you agreed, and Antonio, you let off with it. It was probably one of the better options, better than the status quo. It's a status quo. There's nothing wrong with it. And these people are here to fight that. We like what we got.

Freaking leave it alone. But why not have them put a bid in? Because there's no way that they're going to come up. Right now we have zero agreement. So if he wanted to, Fort Lauderdale United can go in and schedule the fields out right from under them, and there's no protection. Okay, that's a great point. If you want to protect, how do you protect?

I'm going to tell you how you do it. For now on, if we do do this, whoever's going to solicit it, they have to get at least 250 signatures from existing players now that are happy with it.

Why?

That's not the demand. That is their demand. They like the way it's going. They have no problem with it. But yet you're going to go for a guy that has not one kid from Margate on his league, doesn't even have a league, and you guys are going to invite this guy in because he's given a check for $100,000. Why not make it where you've got to have at least 100? Thank you. All right. But why not put in the proposal? If you want to submit, we don't care about the money. We want to know how many existing people are going to support your group. Because that's what this is all about. It's not about money. It's about a soccer league. They're happy. They love it. They're great the way it's going. You know what? The fields get used. They get used. They pay taxes. That's what the taxes go to. So to have somebody come in and say, hey, I'll give you $100,000 check. Oh, I'll take it. You know, next year taxes are going to get cut. Your homestead exemption is going to get cut if you vote yes. Okay? And what happens is cities are gonna start taking a hit. So cities start looking at how can we get money? How can we get money? And this is like, you know, this is like, you're waving drugs in front of somebody saying, here, you want the 100,000? You're gonna need it next year. It's not the way it works, guys. These are the residents. They're telling you what they want. You heard them clap. Do what they want. They vote for you guys. You don't vote for them. They pay you. You don't pay them.

Okay, so answer my question. How do you protect them from someone else who's going and renting the fields? Because right now, we don't have an amazing group of people. We technically do not have a Margate soccer program. It is a company that's renting our fields. How do we better that? How do we protect... some big company maybe bigger than him to come in and say i'll rent out the fields for the next five years see you later suckas how do you protect so i think as a city we should have some type of agreement and i didn't say i was definitely for one i said that we should go to bid that we should at least see what's out there maybe there's something even better than what's been offered I don't know. But how do you know unless you put a bid out and see what comes in and then look at it and then go back to the residents and say, look, this is what we're looking at. And either take it, leave it, go back and negotiate with two or three companies, pin them against each other and say which one can do better.

Do you want me to answer that, or do you want to wait until my light is back on? No, go ahead. I'll answer it, because I think the way that they worked in baseball was that it went rec. There was a policy in place. It went rec, travel, and then Margate Residence. So the group that's here now, if you want them to be that travel team, work out a – partnership with them, that if the soccer fields are not being used by the rec teams, travel, the Margate travel, which would be you guys, would get next priority. Because you're right, you can't have somebody with big money come and say, I want the field every day. The problem with them is, from what I heard, is that you guys can only rent the field maybe a month in advance or maybe for the next month. something like that but if we made a partnership with this group that would protect them and that would protect the city and it wouldn't have some big guy coming in saying hey I want the fields for the whole next five years well you can't you got to go through the travel if the travel doesn't do it obviously you got to go through rec but rec is first then travel then the outside so do it the same way as the policy that we've written I think it was ten years ago just go back to the policy that was approved by the not this board but the prior board that's my answer

Vice Mayor, the light's lit.

At no point are we forced to take any bid. We can do whatever. We can say no to everybody. So it reminds me of an old adage. So if you think that the cost of an education is expensive, what is the cost of ignorance? We have an opportunity to get an education for free. to find out what is out there, what is offered, and what can make each one of your kids have a better life if given that opportunity. We don't know what's out there. You guys deserve to find out what's out there. And at no point do we have to take any of it, correct? So what's the problem with learning something? Are we scared of learning something? Are we scared of learning something and possibly, you know what, people liked walking and riding horses Till cars came and all this stuff. People learned. There's opportunity to learn. And that's all we're asking is an opportunity to learn. See what's best for the residents. That's all. We can say no to all of them. But why not learn something? I don't know why not learning something is what people are looking to do now. I think learning to do something is of critical importance. And if you don't like it, you can complain. Obviously, you guys are gonna be looking at the proposals, and you let us know what you see in the proposals that you don't like. At least you'll have an informed opportunity to say something. Thank you. That's okay. That's all right. Well, you know, you got an audience that wants what was and have no interest in what could be, and I can live with that.

Any other Commissioner comments? Okay, we're going to open it up to public comment. Each person will have three minutes.

W. Lee Margate resident. An unsolicited bid.

Hold on, wait. Ms. Lee, I'm sorry. So just for the members of the public who haven't been here before, I'm David Tolstice, City Attorney. You have three minutes to address the commission. Address the commission only. Don't address other folks in the audience or what something might have said, and we'll get through this a lot more quickly. Thank you very much.

Okay, Mindy W. Lee, Margate resident, unsolicited bid. So maybe, Arcerio, you can call it an unsolicited bid, but isn't it true that the man that owns that sports league donated to your campaign earlier this year and then- That's actually false. Oh, really? He didn't donate to your campaign?

My campaign? No.

Oh, his daughter did. That's right. No. His daughter did. And isn't it true that that same owner of that sports league owns West Lake Towing, also the same company that donated to your campaign?

No.

Really? Donations are online. There's been all these things on the Margate Government Accountability Facebook page.

And there's nothing on there for that, but that's fine.

All over Margate Government Accountability Facebook. Oh, your page? No, that's not my page, but thank you. There's a rumor that it is my page. It is not, but thank you for that, flattering. I don't have time to do that. I did request public records and received tons of public records, and I did give them to anybody that wanted copies of them. And one of those people happened to be ones that received it. So all of those things that he posted about the alleged fraud that you're allegedly committing, that's not me.

Like your campaign violations?

No, that's not me, OK? So all the fraud that's listed on the Margate Government Accountability

Ms. Lee, Ms. Lee, can you stay focused on this on this agenda item?

Okay, so please look up on the Margate Government Accountability Facebook page on the Soccer League issue that was posted just last night and copies of the donation links that he received from the owner of that Margate Soccer League and then unexpectedly an unsolicited bid came into the city that they want to take over the soccer league that's my time everybody do your research and you can look at those reports you will not see a donation on there but it just shows how misinformed that she is are you ready

All right. Thank you for the opportunity to speak tonight. I want to take it, acknowledge it. I'm sorry. Sean Fletcher, Margate resident. I want to first acknowledge the Parks and Rec Department. I had some great conversations with Mike Jones. He's fantastic. They have done a lot to help us maneuver through this. I urge you to choose option two. And Commissioner, I understand what you're saying for the cost, but this is one time where I want you to spend my tax dollars on the right thing. By doing option two, we, the residents, are going to tell the city what we want in a soccer program. We've done that through the town hall, but there needs to be more conversations there. It needs to be a broader conversation. There need to be more people involved. We need more commissioners there. We need the city manager there. We need the parks and rec department there. We need to go out during the rec program which starts in a month for it, and we need to talk to parents. What can we give you to make our soccer program advance? If your children want to do this, what can we do? I don't disagree with the education. That's a big part of this for it. And there are a lot of organizations out there that can provide that. But I want you guys to write what the residents want, not take the proposal on the table and go out to bid and simply say, hey, can anybody match this or do this better? It is about money, and I do agree. If the referendum passes in November, it's going to be difficult for the city, for all of us, for it. But that's why we need to do this right now. We need to do it the right way. We need to go back to the parents, get you guys to write a proposal of what you want for a soccer program. Springs did it. Was it costly and messy? Absolutely. Did it work? Yes. They heard what the residents said. They went back with the program they wanted for it. This is a turnout that happened in 24 hours for it. This is us organizing. This is us getting a petition online and saying, hey, we want you to listen to us for it. This is one of those things where, for me, I'm passionate about it. I'm passionate about education. I'm passionate about soccer. I'm passionate about my kids. This is where I chose for them to grow up. They learned to play in those fields. I don't want to give them up to another organization. So this is one time where I'm pleading with you. Listen to us as parents, as coaches. We are trying to do the right thing here by saying to you, give us a chance to give more input draft a proposal that the city can be proud of that five years down the road ten years down the road it's still standing and we can say hey this is really good we become the model for the rest of broward county and for palm beach county there are plenty of soccer programs in this county it's a tribal warfare when it comes to fields for these are the things we need to protect are we going to get the money to be able to pay for those fields absolutely because there are other clubs that can do exactly what they've offered for it but you need to put together a proposal Bid it out like that. Don't take what's put in front of you. Give us a chance, please.

Go ahead.

Good afternoon, everyone. My name is Michael Polo. I'm director at Marga United FC. I think we treat our club or the organization that we had as if it's starting from zero, as if we're nothing. We've been here for a long time and we're ready, we're just waiting for that green light to build that bridge program that our residents and that you guys have mentioned we can do. We have the infrastructure, we have the staff, we're just waiting for you guys to say yes. If we can do that, fantastic, and we keep everything with the ties within the city. I've been here, I've lived here my whole life, And that's what we want to see. Why not see a program grow from where it's born and continue and flourish? Why do we have to bring an outside program over here with no ties to the city? Let me see, got a whole list. When you're done, I'd like to ask you a question. Sorry, yes.

No, no, use your time first.

I'm sorry. No, no, use your time, I'll ask you afterwards. We mentioned about keeping it affordable for everybody, and we have. If you ask everybody in here, especially the market residents and four more market players, there has been players that have left to seek higher opportunities, but they've come back because now we have to offer more and still at the same cost that when they left, meaning they're playing at a higher level for the same affordable price. They have discounts. Ask them and they will raise their hand and they will say yes. It's affordable and it's at a high level. Now, again, we're just waiting for that green light for you guys to say yes. What else, what else can I say? So yeah, no, it just goes back into that. Something that was born here and continue going off of that. We have coaches that have been, that played in the program where it was years ago and now are back as well. So our ties are very, very close to the city. There's no reason why we should, if it's not broken, why fix it? But I understand, right? We want money. At the end of the day, don't sugarcoat it. Money is what it is. If it's money that you want, we're ready to actually give more. 100,000? That's a dollar for what we can offer now. We're just waiting for the green light. That's it.

I believe the commissioner had a question.

My question to you. What organization are you affiliated with that isn't?

Market United FC. Yes, ma'am.

What's the bigger organization that you belong to?

We're being funded by ACF. So Athletic Club Florida. Yes, ma'am.

Okay. And do they have an affiliation with the city of Market any more than Fort Lauderdale does?

Yes, through me. Through you.

But in all due respect, then you're fronting for another organization whose coaches and people make over $200,000 because I've become really... interested in looking this up. And I am amazed at the multimillion dollar organizations behind this feeding off our kids. And that's how I look at it. So in fairness, people need to know that Margate United is not exactly all Margate, that there's a bigger organization fronting them that belongs to yet a bigger organization whose people make $275,000 for one office and another $275,000 for another office because I really did look into this. I looked into what Coral Springs did.

Some people are not happy with what... That's why I always came back here and worked for free. Well, this doesn't work for me. I worked at other clubs and I got paid there and I still ran this club for free. Same thing with my father.

I just want it out there that it's understood. that you may be grassroots, but you are attached to organizations who are attached to other organizations that are way past that.

Which is how we have to go about it, right? If we want to build that bridge program and continue going up, upwards on the ladder, we need to do that. If not, people just leave.

I just, like I said, I just wanted to make sure that what I had heard was correct.

And everybody knows how. You have to, there's a lot of questions from you guys just to learn. The thing is, No, yeah, wait till he finishes, right? The thing is, just to learn. You have to live in it in order to know it. And not to, I don't know how lightly else to put it. These parents and these kids probably know a little bit more, probably know a little bit more than, respectfully, than the people sitting up there, right? So it's like, and I don't know how else to put it. Respectfully.

I had a question. On that bigger company, didn't they come along recently?

since last year.

So this is my concern. When I just look from 30,000 feet up, we have no agreement. We're thinking, people are thinking it's your club, and it was merged with another club. Then is it going to get merged in another year and then merged again? So that's why we need some sort of contract agreement, a partnership with an organization.

And listen. I'm listening.

I want the best. If they want you, that's fine. Then put a bid in. There's nothing stopping you from putting a bid in just like everyone else if we were to go out to bid. It's to protect the athletes and the city and your organization so that we know, like what if in a year from now this company merges with another company? We have no say in that right now.

So we will always be market United FC. If something were to happen to them, We continue being more united.

We don't have any type of partnership agreement right now. And that's what I just want. Listen, I understand you know more about soccer than me. We work the city. We run the city government. I need to look out for the best interest, not only of the athletes, but all of the taxpayers. And I need to make sure that all of the taxpayers are protected with some sort of agreement in place. And so I just want you to understand it's not anything against any club organization, but we can't just stay the status. I'm not saying we can't stay with you guys. You guys are the best, better, great. But we can't just have a club renting our fields. And I'm not trying to downplay anything. I appreciate you working for free. I appreciate all the volunteers and coaches. But we don't have a program. There's no protections right now. And that's the issue that we have from our standpoint. I just want you to understand why we are interested in going out to bid.

Okay. No, I know the big sum as to why. There's a loose agreement. There's always been one. You just have to step into the hearts of the right office.

But in government, you can't do loose agreements.

It has to be an agreement. It shouldn't be a surprise now. It's like we speak as if we're surprised.

Okay. Thank you very much.

All right.

Go ahead.

So just so I'm sure, you're a 30-year resident, correct? Yeah. You're a bridge to a bigger company that you're not getting paid for from the Margate residents? And we have a loose agreement with you? If any, do you want to call it an agreement?

We have basically no agreement.

So the city's looking for something to protect its residents, which majority are here for the future of Margate. This is your answer right here. Why not just make, hold on, why not just come up with a contract, let Mike Jones sit with him this week, come up with a contract with Mike and his group and move forward. It's very simple. I mean, now, the question I heard from Commissioner Schwartz was, I thought it was going to go and you were going to say you're getting paid mega bucks to do this and you're taking money, but you came up with it. honest question that you weren't. You're basically a bridge. Now, if something happens, your name is going to have to be on that. If you go with that company in the future, which I don't think you would, you're leaving these people. I don't think you'll do that. So I have no problem investing in you. I have no problem come up with a contract with your group. So to me, this is a no brainer. We just come up with something next meeting. We work it out and we make sure everybody here is happy. And here's our answer right here.

Thank you. How's it going? I am Mike Dowling. I work for the company that I believe you said was the bridge company to Margate United. I just want to start by saying one thing.

Can you give me an address please? Address please.

Say it again. I live at 2100 Northeast 4th Avenue. I do not live in Margate. I'm not a Margate resident. What you said to Mike about that we are benefiting off the kids' dollars, I believe you said? No, I never said it. What did you say?

I simply asked if he was fronting for another company that was not actually affiliated with the city of Margate. And then I said that there are other companies that that company belongs to. where people make a ton of money.

Okay, so when we first came here, we previously met with Parks and Rec to try and make some type of agreement, I believe you're calling it, to be involved more with the city. We showed our interest in developing the program, helping with the program. Obviously, we came in with Mike, who's at Market United. And since then, we've took meaningful action in showing our commitment to the city. We've invested in qualified coaching staff. We've provided scholarships to the players. Not one kid is paid more than they did at Margate United. We did free clinics the whole summer. All summer, all of these kids, we did clinics on the fields for free. Everyone came, they got to play. Nobody got charged a dime. We re-engaged players who left the program. So because they didn't have a sustained, like a big program, we've attracted so many players back in this area, back into Margate, Margate players that went elsewhere, obviously to play in the club here with Mike. So that was a huge benefit. We've created a bigger pathway for them to have a higher level of play. We've established a program with Mike that continues continues to expand week by week. This program's gone through the roof. All the Margate players, all the Margate residents. To date, you talk about money and benefiting the residents. To date, we have given over $100,000 in scholarships to these kids to ensure that nobody doesn't miss out. We have not turned one player away. In light of our ongoing investment and being active in the community we were shocked when another party was getting entertained for a proposal as I said when we first came here we wanted to do something with the city so we were really disappointed to hear that after we've invested so much in the program already we're not seeking a preferred treatment or All we want is a fair crack at the whip. So if you want to bid it out, we bet on ourselves every day of the week. What we've already done for the kids, what we can do for the kids, we'll put ourselves against anybody. So if you want to do that, perfect. Because I believe that we will outshine everyone and we'll do better because we really do want to be all of our coaches. I mean, this is kind of quirky to say. All of our coaches now play men's league with all the boys at Margate and the Knights when they have the men's league. We love being here. So whatever we need to do, whatever we need to show, happy to do so.

What's the name of the organization that you said you're with?

ACF. Athletic Club Florida.

What organization are they with afterwards?

I work for Athletic Club Florida. I moved here. I was at a...

I'm sorry, you work for who?

I work for Athletic Club Florida. The badge I have on my sheet.

I can't read it from there, but okay.

Yep. No, that's the company that I work for.

So that's like two more companies.

It's ACF.

Is that what you're saying?

I'll be honest with you. I've done this for a really long time. Okay. And you kept saying, you know, this person made $275,000. I've seen it. Oh, you may have seen it on a different company, not our company, and I know that verbatim. That's why I was asking you the name of the company. Otherwise, I would have pulled up in a Lamborghini, and I would have a big car, but I don't. We're soccer coaches. We invest in the kids. So if you've said that, if you could pull that up and you show me,

Do you have any connection with a company called Prime?

That was a previous company, I believe, when I moved here. I came from a big club in Jacksonville, as I said. I just moved here, and I work for Athletic Club Florida.

But in any way, shape, or form, is that in any way affiliated with a company called Prime? Because they make the $275,000 each.

When I came here, now, all I know, Athletic Club Florida. So I would be lying to you if I tried to answer and tell you something different. Say it again.

So then you don't know if your organization in some way, shape, or form is associated with that group.

My organization is Athletic Club Florida. The only thing with these kids and these families is Athletic Club Florida.

Okay. Thank you.

No problem. Thank you.

Good evening. I'm a market resident.

Your name?

Mariana Uribe. address please sorry 61 24 northwest 22nd street uh i know you know at the end of the day it's all about money but let me give a small story about my family or my family my kids have been in recreational soccer since they were like eight years old when that field in market was just grass and dirt there was nothing there so now that with our tax money we have a really nice field nice lights walking trail and everything I just don't understand how we and my kids have to move because we would be forced to move. I know Fort Lauderdale United. I worked closely with them for the past. I have people in France that go to Fort Lauderdale United. You were asking the previous gentleman, oh, what kind of ties do we have? We are from Margate. We are from here. We have more ties than Fort Lauderdale United because they are not from Margate. They are a professional soccer team. They are the first female professional soccer team. I support the team because we are a soccer freak family. We go to their stadium.

They have the money.

They have probably more money that they can come out this in the flight that we cannot do. But we as residents, we want to have the chance and the opportunity to stay where we are. You say that we should have the chance to learn something different, but why do you want to move from something that you like? These kids have been building this team and they are going. We love the training. So I don't understand why we should have the opportunity. If you want to go to bed and you want to have the chance, I just want to stay where we are. And I'm just saying, because now we have a beautiful field, they want to come in and take it. And I don't think it's fair that we will have to move and look for something else when we are market residents. We pay our taxes. And I've been here for 15 years, and I love my city. And it sucks. OK, now we have a nice field. Now another team is going to come and take it. I just don't see it fair. They're from Fort Lauderdale. They are in Davie. They have a stadium. They are close to Nova. They train at Nova. They can go and pay the university all the money they want, and they can take the field from there. I'm just talking as a parent. of a child that, you know, trains soccer and leads from, you know, soccer, and I have a lot of parents here that are my friends, and we all feel the same way. We have a good system right now that we are new to it, and we like what we have, and when they say, oh, no, for Lord of the United, can we make a bid out of nowhere? We are like, okay, come on. They tried to do it in Coral Springs. Now they want to do it here. So we just want, you know, the opportunity to stay where we are and to play a really nice program.

30 seconds. 30 seconds.

sorry oh yeah no I think I'm pretty much done thank you good night my name is Jason Mirage I live at 69 99 Charleston Court Margate I've been living there for the past 26 years I also coached at Margate with Mike and Marlon for about eight years and I too went out to give my children greater opportunity. Now that I heard that they're putting things in place, I've decided to come back and I'm back again with Athletic Club of Florida because of Margate. I listened to the Honorable Mayor speak and two things stood out to me. He said we need an agreement to get things better, which I agree. And he also mentioned that we have a wonderful and dedicated group. Also agree. I would like to see these two things taken into consideration going forward. But I'd also like to mention what I don't want. Too many times I've seen people, because they have money, they can speak to people anyhow they want, they can do anything, and they think there is no recourse. As a coach, I always try to instill the right values in our kids, whether they play soccer, whether they don't play, whatever. And I think it's very important that all our values come from the top. I know you said you did some financial research. I am urging you also to do personal research. Look at the people we're getting in bed with. because I know it's a business and it boils down to money and proposals, but I think sometimes we need to pay more attention to the intangibles. Who is running this program? How are they going to interact with our kids? Because from some of the stories I've heard firsthand to my personal friends, I would not want my children to experience those things. to be shouted at, to be screamed at, to be disrespected and to be belittled. So I hope, I mean, this is just my personal view. For those of you who have kids, I'm sure you feel the same way. So again, I urge you, please dig a little deeper and see who we want to bring in to our communities.

Thank you.

So I took the liberty of bringing you copies. Hi, my name is Gabriela Marte. I'm actually a Miramar resident, and I drive three, four times a week to bring my son from Miramar, go by his club, right past his club to come to Margate to train at ACF. Okay? Last night, a group of parents decided to do a petition, to petition

Do you have a copy for the city clerk of what you passed out?

I had five copies. I don't know if I had enough. To petition to you guys to do a transparent process in this selection of whoever is going to run your public-private partnership, okay? It's important that you don't take a bid that comes from Somebody that says it's going to do X, Y, or Z. By the way, I did take a look at it. I do have a business, and I assess other businesses. And I had many, many questions on that bit. And as I took a look at it, I understood $100,000 in operational funds through the fields, I think that's actually something that has been happening right now. $100,000 in scholarships, you heard it. It's happening right now. So what is not happening right now is an agreement. And I did, before I commit to the club, I asked, is there an agreement in place because I want fields and I want to make sure that if I'm going to drive this long, it's going to be, I'm not going to be changing, okay? And I understood the city of Margaret was not ready to take that step yet. So if you're ready to take that step, then be clear on the process and provide opportunity for people to come in and give you a proposal without being biased by what somebody else says that he may or may not do. I agree with Coach Jason. You need to take a look at who you're going to bed with. I drive by Davey and I come to Margit. I believe in the coaches. I believe in the structure of the training. I am very, very vigilant in my child's education, in my child's upbringing. And I think many parents here are too. So these are the voices of your people. 281 surveys in less than 24, in less than, you know, like even 20 hours. So yes, and I will tell you, out of those 281 signatures, 81% from the city of Margate and surroundings, 33063, 33068, 33071, I think it was. It was... I understand, but 81%. You do the math. Let the petition go, and you're going to get even more numbers. This is truly the voice of your community.

Thank you.

Good evening, good evening. My name is Lionel Brown and I think I'll probably speak from a little bit more of a unique experience than anyone else here. I grew up in Margate. I was a part of the first ever travel team we had here and I played here up until 2004 when I moved on and went to college. So for me, Mike mentioned it, it's a full circle moment coming back here and coaching. went the collegiate route, played professionally. So from an experience standpoint, had the capacity to give and advise the kids more than the majority does, right? So with what we're doing, and I get, like I said, they've elaborated on a lot of it. I think it's more so just to make sure that we have the ability to make a partnership because that's the plan that was in place for us. And Margit wasn't ready for that at the time. So give us the opportunity to do just that. Do right by the residents. Give the players that can play at a higher level the opportunity to do just that. And to your point, being educated. From a staff standpoint, if you look at the coaching staff that we do have, A coach, A licensed coaches across the board, coaches played at professional level. So we're well versed when it comes to having the right people around the kids for them to grow, for the city to grow. But give us the opportunity to go out and do that. And that's what I'm asking from my standpoint, because I grew up here, I played here, and now I'm back here as a coach. And there's not a lot of people that can say they've done that.

Can I ask you a question? The shirt you're wearing says what?

ACF.

Okay, so explain to me as a novice why it doesn't say Margate United. I don't understand. So explain to me why you have to connect with another team, why you are not part of Margate, why they have to partnership with you to get whatever they need, because I don't get this.

And if you're talking from a league perspective, for example, they weren't, they were playing in, I want to say maybe the South Florida league, which is a smaller league. So nowadays, especially the majority of kids are going to look, if you're going to, if you want to go to college, you want to play MLS next, you want to play ECNL. We provide that platform. So in order for those kids to actually get the exposure that's necessary, we now merge with them so the kids aren't limited in where they're playing, so they have the adequate exposure to get the opportunity to do that. You're not going to do it at the level that they currently are. So how do they do that? They now brand and merge with us, and those same kids now have the opportunity to perform.

They merged with you, so are they Margate United? We're ACF.

We're ACF.

Why are we talking about Margate United if you're changing your name?

But I'm just answering the question that you asked.

No, I'm trying to understand which team I'm talking about. It's 30 seconds on the clock. No, I didn't want to take his time.

No, that's all right.

I just want to understand, am I talking about Margate or am I talking about ACF?

That's why we give them the opportunity to play at the level. You're asking what's the difference. They weren't at that.

No, I understand the difference. I'm just understanding why it isn't all part of Margate United as opposed to being part of ACF.

because we have the rights to the league, Margate didn't. So that's why we do it as one now.

Thank you.

Hello, how you doing? My name is Carlos Gutierrez. I'm a resident of Coral Springs. So I pass a lot of clubs on the way to Margate United. To answer some of your questions, why you asked that it's not ACF, what it is, ACF was a club that came before anybody else to bring an opportunity to Margate, to have that exposure that they didn't have before. And I get a little nervous speaking in front of everybody, so... But I know, you know, what I feel very unfortunate is that we're putting money in front of the kids. And in the United States, we have a problem with that, where it's pay to play. We all acknowledge that. So these kids have to play a lot better. The parents have to pay a lot of money to get exposure for these kids to get in front of the colleges, get in front of professional opportunities. None of that happens overseas. And it's a very bad reputation that we have here in the U.S. So to say, oh, they're going to give you $100,000 or whatever they're going to give you, where the coaching staff and ACF that's here, that's already working with these kids and already creating opportunities for these kids. We were here, ACF. I say we because I really believe in ACF being my club for the kids. It would be so disconcerting to have to move and have to do all that stuff. And I know you... mentioned, you know, a lot of information that you researched on ACF. I find that, you know, a little this... Yes, I would have loved for you guys to look at both sides and to look how bullishly Fort Lauderdale has been, you know, taking out other clubs and doing what they're doing and putting, you know, not the kids first, in my opinion, you know, where ACF, I think they put the kids first. I'll tell you a quick story that kind of backs that up is that We unfortunately had an incident where one of our parents got picked up by ICE, you know, and it was a horrible opportunity. I managed a few of the teams. The second that I mentioned that to both the coaches, all the coaches, they immediately suspended any, you know, any costs to that family while they dealt with that. Today he's back home. It was a misunderstanding, thank God, and he's working through that. But what I wanted to let you know is that I'm not sure any other club would do that. It was instantaneously when I came to them and said, hey, this is what happened today, they suspended everything. So they're not money first. We shouldn't be thinking that way. We should be thinking about these kids that are here today. You know, they didn't have to be here, obviously. You know, the parents brought them, but it needs to be kids first. You know, we... We have to put that first and Margate doesn't have a program and I'm not sure Fort Lauderdale is coming over here to try to bring a program to Margate. I heavily, heavily doubt that. So just as much as you put research into what ACF is doing, I would highly recommend you guys look at this group too. That's all I have to say.

Daryl Morrow, 2100 Northwest 62nd Avenue, Margate, 50-year resident. I created East Florida United back in actually 1988 when I was a coach at one of the private schools. I just want to say with partnership, I spoke to, I actually know Lionel Brown as a kid, the one Jimmy Sodder, I coached with him. I coached a lot of their kids in the schools. We talked about a partnership. I spoke with Sean Bubb, who is the, I guess, the main fellow from ACF. We want to work together. We want a partnership with everyone, not just one identity. And we can do that. Mr. Mayor, you said you looked into how it was and there is no partnership. I would like you guys to go back and speak to Jane Dexter, who actually ran Margate Soccer back in the day. I was part of that board. I ran the equipment and I also ran the travel side of it. It worked great, but then what happened is we got people to come in and there was a coup and they destroyed what we had. We have a great director from Parks and Rec who grew up here. I think he has the quality as a person and as a leader to go out there and bring us all together and sit down. One of the things I am asking, Saturday, my club starts their league games. We cannot now say, hey, we can't play. I have the fields permitted for the next Saturday in the month, and then I have to request field availability to have these games. If we don't have availability, these Margate kids aren't going to be able to play. Like I said, I spoke with Sean. I'm willing to work with them. I worked with Prime last year, who most of them came from. My best players went there for their EC&L, correct, Lionel? Yeah. I want to promote the best kids. Not every kid is messy, like you said. Most people wouldn't know good football if it bit them in the keister. I'm sorry to say that. And it was the example of what we saw on the United States soccer team. One last thing. I sent... 14 kids to Olympic Development this past week, they all made it. Most of them from right here from Margate. The one thing I want to say to these guys over here, never have to come to the field when I'm out there. My kids respect them, and the same thing with the leadership in our city. And we want to keep it going.

I only hear good things about you.

Well, thank you. I would just like to see us all get together with that leader over there and whoever wants it from up here. And let's get all of us together on the table and make this happen for the best of the Margate residents. That's what I want to see.

Tracy Van Winkle, Margate resident. I am a resident that speaks my mind, and you all know that. I tell the truth, the old truth, and nothing but the truth, and a lot of you up there don't like it. Sometimes. I do want to say I don't have any kids that play soccer, but I'm here for the kids. It's all about the kids. I heard the mayor say several times, well, there's no contract. What can we do? How about you work on something to help the Margate residents and the Margate kids and get some kind of contract for them instead of selling them out to somebody that's going to give the city $100,000? You guys tried to farm out baseball a while ago and it didn't work. Margaret had to take baseball back. Let's don't sell out soccer. Let's don't do it. The residents want to do something. Let's do it. They're already out there. And you sit there and say, well, if they have money, they can come out and they can rent the soccer fields for five years in advance. Why would you give it to them for five years in advance when you only give it to the residents for a month at a time?

Fair point. So they rent it out a month at a time, but what if someone beats them to it? Someone calls first.

Why would they beat them to it?

Because there's no agreement right now. That's what we're trying to say. We want to protect the organization.

So you make an agreement for your residents first. Residents come first. Correct.

We don't have an agreement right now.

If you're going to talk back to me, you can stop my time.

I'm not talking back to you. We can stop your time, but there's no agreement.

Then you make an agreement for your residents.

And that's what we're all talking about tonight is seeing what's out there. And you know what? You guys are the best, and you're going to win the proposal.

But you guys get an unsolicited bid. And we've talked tonight about going out to the moon. And nobody in the soccer world knew about it. They had to hear through Facebook.

It's unsolicited. We didn't know about it until it came in either.

You're not telling me that somebody can't let a city worker that does soccer know that, hey, there's a meeting about it. Come on. That's under the rug. You're trying to hide it, trying to pass it through. It's not fair. You're not out for the residents. Let's be for the residents. And these children, it's about the children. How would you feel if your child was playing soccer and they were doing that to you and you were on this side?

I would want the best opportunity for my kid, and I'd want to see all of the opportunities that are out there.

But you would want to know ahead of time.

When I had to put my daughter in 20 seconds. You would want to know ahead of time.

You need to stop it if he's talking.

I could have taken my daughter to private school or charter school. Margate Elementary is an A-rated school, and that's where she goes. But best believe that I still looked into all the other opportunities that I could send my daughter to just to make sure that Margate Elementary was the best. And that's what we're saying here. All we want to do is see what's out there. And you know what? If Margate United or ACF or whatever organization they're merging with, if they're the best, then that's who's going to get it. But it's funny to me. How do you know it's the best if you... don't have but why take one bid and say okay we're going to take it we've talked the whole night about going out to bid and getting multiple bids someone gave us now you are someone gave us i'm letting you talk someone gave us a bid we have to by law at least look at it okay so now we're saying you know what we want to go out to bid that was the first thing i started off the night with was saying we want to go to bed go ahead go ahead

Well, I find it funny that I'm not a parent of a soccer player, and Tommy Smith personally wanted to talk to me. Why didn't he call any of these other parents? Did any of them get a phone call?

I'm not Tommy. I don't know.

No?

Thank you.

Thank you.

Donna Fellows, Margate resident. I say, Arcerio, you had said before in other meetings that if the residents want to be heard, they need to come to the meetings. Okay, this went out yesterday. asking for these residents to come. Look at these residents. Look at the kids in this audience that is here. This is Margate's future, not this. This is Margate's future. And this will always be Margate's future. The residents, the kids that live here, work here, go to school here, and everything else. This is Margate. And I'm glad to stand here. I don't have any kids anymore. Mine are grown. My grandkids are grown. But let me tell you something. This is Margate. Otherwise, you wouldn't have had. If they weren't interested, you wouldn't have had them here in 24 hours. There's no way. But this is Margate, these kids, they're our future. They may be our next mayor sometime. They may be a commissioner. They may be a president. Who knows? But they're our future. Give it to them. Don't sell them out.

And I don't disagree with you. And the gentleman that put it out on Facebook was Mr. Fletcher, Mr. Reasonable. And he said tonight on the record to go to bid. The leader of getting everyone in here.

Don't sell them out.

We're not. But Mr. Fletcher came on the record and said, the one who's organizing this, we should go to bid. We're not out for bid. Someone gave an unsolicited bid. We have to at least look at it. We have. Now we're having a conversation and we're discussing about going out to bid. Which, if you minus the coaches that talked, okay, and you minus people that don't play in the league that talk, the two or three parents that came up, I know Mr. Fletcher, the lady from Miramar, they all said there should be a bid. So I have to, not that I discredit coaches, again, I'm gonna thank them again for what they do, but they're involved in a company too, let's be real, right? So their opinion's gonna be a little biased. But the parents that spoke so far, that kids play in the league said to go to bed. Am I making that up? Okay, one didn't. Okay, okay. Okay, so two of the four parents that spoke.

Just the point of personal privilege, would you stop calling it a bid and just simply call it a proposal? Nobody's buying anything.

No, but we're going to go to bid, correct? It's a proposal. It's not a bid. Commissioner Schwartz, there's two elements here. I'm going to ask the city attorney. There's an unsolicited proposal that came in, correct, but we are also, most of the conversation tonight has been about do we go to bid or not, correct?

To me, it's a proposal. I don't understand the bid part.

You'd be putting out a request for proposal. Yes.

Okay, it's a bid for proposal. Same thing. That's not true. Okay, public discussion is now closed because there's no up. One more. There you go. Go ahead.

Okay, thank you. Jonathan Crouch at Margate Resident. Decisions from the dais need to be made based on the people's wants and demands, not by who gave the largest contribution to a campaign or PAC. The turf fields at Southeast Park were paid for with Margate tax dollars. Now that the fields have been redone with turf, an out-of-town for-profit business wants to swoop in and take control of the Margate soccer fields and have exclusive use. The people spoke today. They want the program to be Margate based, ran and operated by the people of Margate. The soccer program and fields were paid for with the tax dollars of Margate and should not be sold to the highest bidder because Margate is not for sale. Listen to the people. Keep the soccer program Margate based. Thank you.

Hello, Theresa Booker, Margate resident. I, gosh, so I do agree with Tommy, the soccer and the soccer players here, let them develop the program that they want within Margate. Margate should be for Margate. We should wash our own hands, nobody else's. I do not agree with commissioners. I know it's going to come up later. The commissioners are going for a raise for themselves. I do not agree with that.

This is just on the soccer item. So just keep focused on this item. There'll be opportunities later in the meeting.

Oh, there will be. OK. OK. Thank you. OK. All right. So I also want to thank Parks and Rec for being here with the Margate Fire Department and the police department. Thank you.

It's now closed Excuse its fellows miss fellows, please On this item it's the public's input discussion conversation is now closed Okay, Commissioner Simone your light is lit you have the floor Thank you my suggestion is for Daryl and

and Mike and Sean to get with Mike Jones, the city manager, and work out an agreement. Margate United and ACF all come together for the benefit of the children. And that's... So that's what I would like to see, and that is my suggestion. I don't believe that because this is discussion and possible action, we can make a motion on it, but that's what I would like to see.

Commissioner, are you done? Commissioner Simone? Commissioner Rosano.

Yeah. The item is a discussion and possible action. So first I would like to say that we go with the Option three, which is reject this, the bid with Florida, what are they called? Florida United. So we reject that bid. So I'm gonna make a motion that we reject the bid. Now I'm gonna need a second.

Second.

Okay. Quiet please. Technically that there's a motion. Now it opens up for public discussion again for everybody to come up. and vote, but if, Mary, you can handle it the way you want. We'll do a roll call and see what happens.

Well, there's still commission discussion too. So you're proposing to reject the bid.

Well, I was going to go, okay, let me just finish that. I proposed to reject the bid and I proposed to make an amendment that we go with Commissioner Simone in which she said, Exactly. And we can read it back that the players involved work with Mike. And if you guys want it to feel comfortable, have one of the city commissioners. I would recommend Commissioner Simone to sit in there or one of us to make sure everything goes well. And this way, when it's presented next meeting, it'll be smooth and we can make it for a limited time of maybe two years and see how it goes and look at it then. but at least we'll have something to work with. So my first thing is to reject the bid with Florida United, or Florida, whatever they're called, and then go to what Commissioner Simone said, and we have a meeting, whoever wants to show up, and then we just have something ready exclusively with the Margate group that's there now, and whoever would like to be a speaker of them, to represent them, that'd be great, so.

so if the city attorney just wants to clarify the motion for the record so promotion is to uh reject the right that's what option three i think that was rejection that's what i would i would under this the statute you need to have a motion to reject the unsolicited proposal then if that passes then you can make a second motion to direct staff what to do exactly what i want to do okay but you need to make them two separate motions so i did i made a motion every second Right. So that's what we're dealing with. There's a motion to the motion that was made. And second, it is to reject the unsolicited proposal.

Correct.

So then but then you could still reject it and then go to bed, too. That's an option.

That'd be your next discussion. That'd be your next.

Quiet, please.

If you know, I you need to let the commission act. Otherwise, we're going to be here for a really, really long time. So thank you.

So I have lights lit. Commissioner Rosano, you're last.

There was a motion and a second, so I don't think the public wants to call.

Commissioner Schwartz?

If you're gonna ask people who are currently part of this group, who may not know the other groups they're part of, to just sit down, then I would suggest that they look at what the proposal was, because if there are other things that they realize should be given to the kids who live in this city, and I appreciate the fact that someone comes from Miramar, and someone comes from Coconut Coral Springs. However, my first concern are the kids that comes from Margate. And that will always be my first concern, because it's Margate people who paid for Margate Fields, and I am one of them. And what I did not hear is how many kids actually belong to the group that is now being represented here that are actually from Margate and how many of them are being promised that they will stay on that team regardless of whether somebody has a better foot than the next kid. Because again, my concern is that. So I would rather see all the groups sit down with Mike and come up with something because maybe there's something in the unsolicited proposal that would benefit everyone. And I'm not talking about money. I'm talking about developing kids who get free tickets to go to games so that their love of the game is continued or whatever else.

Excuse me, please do not yell out. We need to be able to make sure.

In no other city meeting can you yell out from there and still wind up sitting here. So I think you don't look one-sided. If there's something in this other proposal that's better or that they can match that's good for our kids, then you don't throw it out. You don't throw the baby out with the bathwater. As I said, I'm learning a lot. Maybe they need to learn a lot also about some of the things that they could be offered that they're not, because he just never knew to ask for it. So before you throw everything out and then favor one team over the other, let them all sit down and discuss. Maybe as a group, they all do something for one another. I don't know. But I'm not willing to just throw everything out and stay with what you have. You know, I have an expression. You don't know what you don't know until you miss a deadline. You don't have a clue what you don't know because you're only doing what you've been doing forever. Once in a while, there are better ideas out there, whether they get incorporated with the current group or not. I'm not for doing that and I'm not for an RFP because if people want to tell us what they want tell us what they want people in purchasing don't necessarily come up with the right questions if they want to tell us what's good for them then don't do it in RFP let them look at the proposal let them take a look and say you know some of this is good some of this is bad and some of this we never thought of And so I disagree with that because I don't think that allows for open discussion. You just keep what you have and you don't know what you're missing. That's my opinion.

Commissioner Rosano.

I would just like to say this. Arlene, you're never going to get all these people to come to any kind of a meeting again.

No, I don't mean all of them. They have representatives.

I know, but you're not going to get, I don't know if I heard you right, but having the representatives sit down from all the groups.

The names of the people that were just thrown out there.

I'm all for that, and I don't have a problem with that, but first, like I said, we've got to reject this bid.

You don't have to do anything with it tonight. It's only a discussion.

No, no, no. Discussion of possible action, if you read it, it says to... Possible doesn't mean you do it.

Yeah, possible. So you just got the discussion.

So the way I feel is that the people leaving this room tonight, what they want to hear is the rejection of the bid, and then... And then... Donna, this is pretty cool. This is like the most people ever cheered for us at a meeting. So I'm kind of enjoying this now. I was actually just going to say that. So let me run with this a little bit. So what I'm saying is. Nothing like male ego. No, no. Well, Joanne's got the ego. I mean, everything's rolling for her. So it's all good. It's all good. So I think what the people want to hear is that we reject this bid. And what Commissioner Simone said, we have Mike sit down with the leaders of the group. And moving forward, and who's the English guy? I forgot your name.

I just, the accent.

Mike? Mike, you said you've given over, Mike, you've given scholarships to kids. And that's awesome. That speaks volumes, man. Because that's basically what the other group was going to do. I mean, $100,000, it was a good kicker. But you know what? Seeing the smile on these kids' faces and having them show up. You can't put a price tag on it. And it's awesome. And I think you guys, if you guys want this, and I think you guys do, we should do it. And just next meeting, we approve it. And hopefully you all show up, bring everybody. And then we all just pop a bottle of champagne and we party after this. This is fun. See, we haven't had a meeting in a while, so I'm trying to milk this one a little bit.

Oh, you are milking it.

Yeah. You are milking it. But I'm liking it. I'm getting good milk.

The head is getting about this big.

So, Arlene, I hope you vote for it to knock this down.

But I told you what I believe in, that they should all sit down and talk.

I'm hoping that you're going to vote with the residents and say, you know what?

We all vote for the residents.

This is all about the residents.

We'll see tonight. We'll see right now. You guys are going to see in a few minutes. There's that one person here that said, you know what? Keep the thing. Keep the solicitation.

We're all elected residents to vote for the residents.

So you haven't heard one person say it. And the woman from Miramar, 250 votes. I mean, 250 signatures. 80% from Margate. I mean, it speaks volumes. You don't even live in Margate. And you showed up. And you had your kid play here. So I appreciate that. It speaks volumes.

I think we all appreciate it.

So, guys, you're going to see right now how they vote for the residents. They represent the residents. That is not fair.

That's not true. No, that's not fair. Okay. That is not fair. I'm a 44-year resident. Do not say that to me. He's a bully.

He doesn't play fair.

Do not even start that crap.

It's not starting the crap, but you know what?

Do not say that we don't care about the residents. You care about the residents, then here are all the things that are better for the residents, not just one, because there are people who've been mentioned here.

And that's why the vote right now is to reject the proposal, Arlene.

But do not make it personal about what I believe in.

It is personal, because you know what?

If it doesn't go with you, then it doesn't count. These people are here to reject the proposal. Do not start with me.

Watch.

If it doesn't go his way. Yeah.

So you guys are seeing how your representatives watch out for your back.

Really? That's how you're going to make it? Do you have any clue how much a man by the name of Sean Bubb makes? Who's part of that? He makes $2.75 for this, $2.75 for that, and $2.75 for the other. And he's part of the other group that they're belonging to. Have you any clue the kind of money that they're making off the back of these people?

That's not what I'm saying. I'm just saying reject this offer. That's all. Reject the offer. That's all.

You know, you're asking me to go for three, and I will not go for three. That's all.

Reject the offer.

Then change your thing.

I did reject the offer.

You didn't ask to reject the offer. You said go for three. It's not a matter of reject the offer. Hold on. Hold on. David, let me...

Right now, there's one motion, and that's to reject the offer.

The only motion I made was to reject the offer. So you're going to see how your people vote.

We don't have to take the offer one way or the other.

Your way we don't represent.

I'm not voting for an offer. I'm voting for people to get together and speak. No, that's not the difference.

So the attorney, can you explain what the vote is going to be on?

Oh, I understand yours.

What's the vote going to be on that we're going to vote on right now?

Fine, then I'm going to amend that. How do you like this? He's making it sound like I'm not for the people here. I resent that. We're not going to play that game.

It's funny how the people who want to bully call people bullies. But the people who represent the people, I'm the bully.

You're the only one who represents these people.

I'm glad you're enjoying the show, guys, because this is the way it works. Watch.

It's great when you're running for re-election.

So the vote, David, can you repeat what the vote's going to be on? Mr. Mayor, the vote is to reject the offer from Florida.

So you currently have a motion to reject the unsolicited proposal and you have a second.

That's it. That's it.

All right. All right. Let's call the roll.

Commissioner Schwartz? No. Commissioner Simone?

Yes.

Commissioner Rosano?

Yes.

Vice Mayor Caggiano?

No.

Mayor Serio.

No.

Now I'm going to make a motion.

Quiet, please.

Now I'm going to make a motion that the parties who are essential to this, if we're going to have them sit down with our city parts and direct person, that they all get to do that, that they all discuss what's important to them.

Okay. Do you have a second?

What do you mean by...

Well, it was suggested that certain people sit down with Mike.

Right. If indeed that's what people want. Certain clubs? The names of whomever was mentioned. Commissioner Schwartz, since the bid was not rejected, you still have options just to either go RFP or to publicly post this proposal. And it still has to go out to the public for people to submit additional proposals. Hold on, let me finish. So depending, you're probably assuming you're going to make a motion, but depending how it goes, we're not selecting Fort Lauderdale or the United. We're just simply saying we're going to post online that we have this proposal and invite anyone to submit.

And whatever comments.

And whatever, right. And we're not bound. That's one.

We're not bound by anything.

We're not bound by any proposal that comes in. That's right. That's another one.

And it can go back. And we can still go back. And it can go back to the original one to start with.

Correct.

So my light being on, now I'm going to make a motion. that the city sits down with Florida, Margate United, is that the correct name, Margate United? Sits down, and here's what they have to say, and presents it at the next commission meeting. Exclusively Margate United. And ACF, ACF? Okay. And Daryl, okay. So that's my motion.

hopefully i'll get a second and you guys could sit with mike jones exclusively and then we'll hear it next meeting and then hopefully the city will vote on it to reject it or keep it hopefully it'll keep it so i'm going to ask the attorney a question since we voted and the next thing was his life was no longer counted still being on because we had just voted on it i would have thought that my proposal came before his based on robert's rules

Well, I don't think we can just simply go to what you're suggesting. No, I'm going to change it. We still have the unsolicited.

I'm going to change it. But the fact that his light was on, we already voted. That doesn't count anymore.

No, I understand that. We voted.

No, I want him to understand that. I know you understand it.

There was a motion made. Is there a second?

We voted. No, but you didn't. I made a motion. I didn't get finished with it. Just like you like your light thing on, so is mine. So I'll let the attorney decide.

I made the motion prior also, and I was told to wait till after, which I did with my light still on. So now I'm continuing my motion.

That's not the way it works.

How does it work? Well, hold on a second. It works if we vote. Attorney, because we still have the unsolicited proposal. It didn't go away.

So I'm about to say something.

I understand that. Right. But that's not the motion. I made a motion. If you guys don't want to do it, that's fine.

Knock yourself out.

Quiet, please.

I'll let the attorney decide.

So, Mayor, can I ask, so now that my motion was made, can somebody second it? Was it done properly? See the games that are being played now? You got one pissed off commissioner over there. So now it's like, I'm going to get him. So, Mayor.

Throw up. Hold on a second. What do we do with the unsolicited?

Under Florida law, the city received an unsolicited proposal. So we have certain statutory obligations that the Florida legislature has directed us to follow. In this situation, you have the option to move forward with the unsolicited proposal subject to certain notice requirements. You have a second option, which is to post a notice and ask for other entities to submit proposals for that same qualifying project, which in this instance is the soccer league in the city of Moorgate. So at this point in time, you need to decide under the statute that the legislature has drafted and has directed you to do which way you want to go.

David, the option other one was to

throw out the bit we rejected so we rejected the bids so that this call goes away no you didn't reject the baby we've got the option three the this year which was get rid of the solicit a bit but that motion failed the unsolicited proposal is still pending before you talk about excuse me i didn't i didn't get out of yet that's it no no if that's our guys no you're not the motion that you made commissioners on a failed three to two okay i got a pass target so is so at this point in time Under this statute, you need to make a decision as far as how you want to proceed, either directly with the unsolicited proposal or to advertise that the city is willing to accept other proposals. When they come in under the statute, you can evaluate them and you can decide what is in the best interest of the city or you can reject them all.

Again, I apologize. I thought the first vote was a rejection. I apologize.

So is there a motion? Commissioner Schwartz?

So I want to understand why the second thing you said can't be applied to the first, which is that we put the unsolicited proposal out there and then ask people to send in their proposals.

That's an option.

And it's a lot faster because they have a... That's option one, and you can make that motion. Because that's right. I'm saying that, but he mentioned... Correct. Because they have games they want to play.

Correct.

And a season that's about to start. So yes, I would go with option one.

So is that a motion?

Yes, that's a motion.

All right, so you have a motion and a second to proceed with publishing a notice with respect to the qualifying project under the statute, which is the soccer league in the city of Margate.

Okay, can I amend it to exclusively work with Florida United?

No, under the statute, you can't. Sorry, guys. I mean, they'll have the opportunity, just like anybody, other company, to respond.

Well, can I add something to the bid, that they have to have over 100 signatures or 200 signatures of Margate residents? No.

That doesn't – it's not – it's – It's not provided for under state law. You simply have to publish the notice that you've received the unsolicited proposal and that you're opening the door to receiving those in response. That doesn't mean that the company can't provide those signatures, but it's not a requirement. Sorry, guys. And there's no more public comment regarding this. There's already been... there's no more public comment ma'am I'm sorry if we let you speak we're gonna have to live I'm sorry miss miss no thank you thank you thank you have a nice evening thank you okay let's call I have Commissioner Simone I have a question so Daryl Shawn and Mike ACF

and United, Margate United, cannot sit down and have a discussion with Mike Jones?

They can put a bid in. Subject to Mr. Jones' schedule, he can sit down and talk to them, but they're going to have to submit, if the motion passes, they'll have to submit a response to the notice that the city would publish. In order to be considered.

So Margate United and ACF can get together with Daryl and put together one proposal. Sure.

Yeah. Absolutely. Whatever they want to do. We encourage that. We don't get involved in how the proposals are put together.

Okay. So there's no parameters of the proposal? What does it entail?

As of right now, no. There's no parameters. So can we put parameters in there? That would be you would reject the proposal, and then we would craft our own RFP based on your input. So you guys should have rejected it.

You don't want the RFP. No, you do not want it.

But I mean, we should have put something there that says that it's got to have 100 Margate resident signatures or something in there. That ties it back to the Margate soccer.

You can always ask them. Because you know what's going to happen?

Or you can reject it all. The next person is going to, like we said, $100,000. It's not about the money. It's not about the money. If it's not about the money, then you would have just said, you know what? Let's get a proposal done with this group right here. Soccer League is starting. Let's get it done by next meeting. Let's let them all leave here happily. But you did.

We have a motion in a second. If we can call the roll.

Commissioner Schwartz? Yes. Commissioner Simone?

So this is allowing the three groups to get together and put one proposal and submit it to the city.

This is, this is my understanding. This is option one where we are going to publicly notice that we've received a proposal and we are inviting any other group, any other combinations of groups, current group to submit a competing proposal.

no wait they've already set limits to what they want they can they come back and change theirs this the statute provides that we post published notice that says we've received an unsolicited proposal regarding this a copy is available here they can see what the proposal is and then they can submit their own proposal

So they could resubmit.

They could do whatever they wanted. Yeah. We will. And there's a time limit. Proposals will have to be received within a certain time. When we receive those proposals, we'll bring them back before this board for you all to take a look at and determine what's important to you. You can have another workshop on it. And you can direct, at that point, myself and the attorney to negotiate an agreement with the club that you so choose. Or you can reject all the proposals.

Okay, so I'm going to speak for Joanne, but this is going to allow those groups to talk to Mike or whoever, and the next meeting is going to come before us. Not next meeting, no. Why can't we make it next meeting?

It has to be at least 21 days, but no more than 120 days.

Gosh, why do you guys drag this out?

This is what the state legislature has drafted. Well, it should have been denied in the first vote. It should have been rejected. Okay, you're in the middle of a vote on a motion right now.

And if this fails, then we can have them work with Mike Jones? Let's finish the vote first.

No, that's an important question.

long as you have the unsolicited proposal sitting out there we're still going to be bound by state law there's nothing that prevents anybody from going to talk to anybody at the city parks and rec director city manager city attorney regarding this fly in their ceo from wherever he is and they can work with mike made a proposal and talk to mike absolutely this is getting so like beyond when you talk about stuff like that it's so beyond of what this group really wants commissioner simone so there's still a roll call

Yes.

Commissioner Rosano?

I'm going to say yes because it gives you guys the opportunity. So I hope you get it.

Vice Mayor Caggiano?

Yes.

Mayor Serrio? Yes.

All right. So the motion passes. So I'm speaking for the city manager, but we'll work on getting that published as soon as possible.

I'm going to ask for a 10-minute recess. Sounds good. 10-minute recess.

We are going to continue the meeting in about 30 seconds. We're gonna be starting the meeting in about 30 seconds. Okay, we're gonna start the meeting. If everyone can please take their seats. This meeting is now in session. So now we're going to go back to item number one, public discussion. You have three minutes to speak about something that's not on the agenda. Or you could speak on anything that's on the consent agenda.

Donna Fellows, Margate resident. I want to thank Kale for taking care of my trash because, again, they keep not picking up my side of the street. They like the other side, but not my side. That's fine. But thank you, Kale. Now that you all have tore up the asphalt in front of where the elevator company building was, You have torn off all that driveway from the street. There is no sidewalk. I saw a man in a wheelchair have to go out on the street, almost fell over because of the unevenness because they didn't put a sidewalk back.

ADA rules, you need to have a sidewalk where there was a sidewalk.

So I think the city needs to go ahead and Look at that and put a sidewalk in because if that man would have fell and got really hurt, that would have been on the city. Wouldn't have been a good look. Again, Margate doesn't need to be in the city for negative things or in the news for negative things. On another note, I know this isn't your city business, but I do wanna share with you something that is in your city. And it's the Northwest Hospital. That hospital I was in on the third. I had to spend the night. I spent the night in torture, literally torture. I cried, I screamed, I hollered for people to come. Nobody came. When the final nurse finally comes in, I say, how do I call you? I've been pressing this button. Oh no, that doesn't work on the bed. It's only on the remote. Well, where's the remote? Oh, it's on the floor. Okay, I just had surgery. I cannot get up. I'm not allowed up. I'm a fall risk. And so now guess what? I'm laid there in pain.

30 seconds.

The next day I'm calling people, nothing. Just to make it short, the hospital lost my prescription, narcotic prescription. antibiotics, prescription, and all my discharge papers. Now my identity is out there. They have my name, my birth date, and my medical record numbers.

Thank you.

Please fix it.

Hi, Mindy W. Lee, resident of Margate. I want to bring up something that Commissioner Arcerio said at the last June meeting, and I couldn't make it in July. And we know that you turned off public comments, so I couldn't speak. So here I am. So the last June meeting, Arcerio, was a few days before Juneteenth, the federal holiday on June 19th. And you made a comment that City of Margate doesn't really recognize Juneteenth as a federal holiday, and that we don't do an event on June 19th. Do you know that we're the only city in South Florida that does not do an event on June 19th? That's pretty sad, right? And your rationale was that it's a new federal holiday, It has been a federal holiday for five years. Same five years you've been sitting up there as commissioner, two of those years as mayor. Currently sitting as mayor right now. And you made a statement that you want the city to look into next year, not this year, next year the city should possibly look into doing an event on June 19th. And I think that's wrong. I mean, we celebrate International Day, right? We celebrate Veterans Day, right? And I'm not knocking veterans. My father was a veteran. served in four different wars, but I'm just saying how it's wrong that the city chooses and picks what residents to celebrate and what residents not to celebrate. I don't know what's going to happen in November and who's going to be sitting up there next year, but I do hope that this commission next year does not look into doing an event, but they actually do an event on June 19th, just like every other city in South Florida and probably the entire country celebrates so that we can send a message out to the city residents of Margate, not just the black residents. but that all the residents of Margate, we celebrate them equally. And for the record, Margate Government Accountability Facebook page is not me. I'm impressed that you think that's me, but it's not me. I don't know who's behind it. I'm not affiliated with them. They're not helping me. But I do encourage everybody to take a look at the Margate Government Accountability page. But again, I was told by someone, our serial, that I now have a target on my back because you think that that's me and you actually said it tonight, that I'm behind that page. I do hope the person or people behind that page come forward because I'd like to meet them, but it's not me. So anyways, getting back to Juneteenth, please. I don't know who's up there next year. Tommy, I know you guys are up there next year. Please, let's do an event on Juneteenth. It's embarrassing that the residents from our city have to go to another city to participate in that event. That's my time. Thank you.

So I'm glad that she, because there's some words that were twisted, I'm glad that she agrees with me because I've been up here for years asking for Juneteenth. And I made a, yes, oh God. And I was thanked by... multiple people of color staff thanking me I asked at the last meeting that you're referring to to do it and I made a motion and no one second in it so yeah that was embarrassing to be quite honest with you and I'm disgusted that this Commission and not pointing fingers didn't act upon it But I've asked for Juneteenth. I know you just started showing up to meetings because you want to sit up here one day. That's fine. But going back from before you started coming to these meetings, I brought up Juneteenth on multiple occasions. Have I not, Kayle? Excuse me. Please don't yell out from the crowd. Or I will ask.

Well, we're moving. Mindy, I don't want to have to have them remove you. So please, you had your time.

Thank you. You had your time. People are entitled to their own opinion.

They're not entitled to their own facts.

You know, have I brought in in public and private conversations about Juneteenth? Thank you. And Commissioner Casiano is wearing a Juneteenth bracelet here, the vice president of the Black Democratic Caucus.

OK, we should have seconded it. I don't know what happened. I don't know what happened.

I don't know what happened. Possibly.

You're blaming us. I'm not.

I mean, look, I'm the one that made the motion. It didn't go anywhere. The other thing is, again, this shows. Some people's lack of knowledge, they want to sit up here, but the lack of knowledge, things have to be bargained for. You can't just give the holiday up. It has to be bargained for with the unions. So there is, ma'am, if I, I'm going to have to ask you to leave if you keep talking, because you're disrupting the meeting and you're losing our train of thought. It has to be bargained for. Is that correct, Kale?

yes if for union employees we are recognizing a holiday as a city closure day and it's it's paid for employees to be out then that becomes a bargained issue and there are certain employees that are shift workers that instead of getting a paid day off they get holiday pay for it so it is a it's a contractual benefit that gets bargained for

So I'll ask again if we can start bargaining and doing events for Juneteenth.

I've never had a problem with that.

So then we'll put it on for a discussion of possible action at a future meeting. But I just wanted to set the record straight that I've advocated for Juneteenth since it's been a holiday.

I've recognized it. I wear it. I recognize it every day.

Anyone else from the public? Facing none, public discussions, oh, go ahead.

Lauren Baraka, Margate resident. So I spent the last week campaigning for school board candidates and And it ended up turning out well with the people that won because it's going to be a new precedent for us. They're both They're not political people. They are parents who volunteered for years and years and years. And I think that it is a wonderful thing that being a volunteer myself for, I mean, from when my daughter was in school on, that finally volunteers are getting the respect that they deserve to have. And well, I'll leave one part out of it. So I'm thrilled of the way it turned out. Margate now has the first, I believe, margate resident who is the school board member and a carl springs one the parkland lost out on their much wanted seat and last night we celebrated and had a wonderful time um recognizing that those of us that have volunteered forever and ever, that know what the kids want, care what the kids want, what the parents want, the teachers getting their salaries, I'm just ecstatic that it happened, and for whatever reason that I looked into the candidate that I did, I'm ecstatic for that reason. So I'm just happy to say that volunteers are being recognized, and that's it. Thank you.

good evening my name is rosalie machado and i am a resident of margate um i just want to say that i'm glad that the in front of the new legacy margate apartments in coconut creek there was a one inch at least difference between the road and the sidewalk there and i'm glad that's fixed but it did take at least two weeks and I was riding my mountain bike, and if I felt that, I can only imagine how difficult it was for somebody with a wheelchair or little scooter wheels. Other than that, I think Margate sidewalks are okay, but I do wish there was more vigilance in that. Talking about mobility and overall cycling. I really like the Cypress Creek Greenway behind the houses of Margate. I do have to say, and I'm sure you guys are already aware of this, that people cross the roads to go from one side to another. They do. And if you look at the new median, there was a new median in Rock Island. You can already see people are making a path there. And I understand that completely because it takes at least five minutes to get from the outside of the path, the Greenway path, and to properly use the traffic lights and then to get back on it. So I completely understand where they're coming from when they take the shortcut. That being said, it is dangerous. And I hope that we can make a pedestrian walkway there to make it easier for people for their safety on the Rock Island section and on the State Road 7 section. You have signs there already, so you are aware that people do cross there. I just hope the actions are taken to make that safe for them in a proper legal way. Thank you.

Okay, public discussion is now closed. Commission comments. Commissioner Schwartz.

I want to echo what Mrs. Baraka said. We got a great win yesterday. Nicole Morse for school board. And Cynthia Dominique, which means the first time in the 44 years I'm living here, we have a Margate resident with a Margate kid in school representing Margate, which means that maybe Margate Middle will finally get the revamp that it needs, which is not putting $30 million into old pipes, but possibly building a new school. So for the first time ever, somebody who really sees the issues here will represent us. And for that matter, I believe Nicole has a small part of Margate besides Coral Springs. So we have two volunteer advocates who understand, and she has kids in the school system as well, what's going on as opposed to people who are either there for not necessarily the right reasons. So I look forward to that. And the fact that besides those two, we have two at large city school board members. So actually of the nine, we should be able to at least whisper in the ear of four of them. And so they are already elected because for whatever reason the August primary elects the school board except for Adam Severo, which really surprised me, will have to go through a runoff. And regardless of party and regardless of who put him there, he happens to be one heck of a school board member because he doesn't mind saying what's wrong and he doesn't mind saying it loud and clear regardless. So I congratulate them and all the other people who actually won Last night and the rest of them will be going through the regular election November if you have not Re-registered is as far as getting a mail-in vote Yeah, you have to do that because every two years at the end of every election that Expires for whatever reason so you have to do it again if that's the way you want to vote And with that in mind, thank you.

That's all Commissioner Simone Thank you

So you have gently used sneakers you no longer want. Instead of throwing them in the garbage, which end up in the landfill, you can recycle them and help pets in need at the same time. Good Karma Rescue Group has partnered with Got Sneakers, a Miami-based company that collects and redistributes or recycles new and used sneakers based on their condition and they pay from $7 to $25 per pair. Every pair of sneakers collected supports rescued dogs and cats and helps raise funds for them and gives animals a second chance. So I'm going to be asking the commission for a consensus to allow Good Karma to put a collection box for these sneakers at City Hall. I know there's one collection box already in Margate, which is at Margate Barbell, 4900 West Atlantic Boulevard. Sneakers can be of any size, every kind, including athletic cleats, but there's no Crocs, no flip-flops, no dress shoes, and they're asking that the sneakers do have laces on them. I was gonna ask you

If it's just the rubber soles, because some shoes you can just go in and don't have laces, but they got laces. They need the laces.

So I'd like to ask if it's okay with this commission that we contact Good Karma and we allow them to put a collection box?

Yeah, I have no objection to it. I just, as long as staff can just vet them and make sure that they have all the proper documentation, just like we would for any other organization, I have no problem with that.

I believe Kale has already done that.

any objections i have no problems either thank you very much and that's all i have for this evening thank you commissioner rosano you caught me off guard jimmy i was waiting for a bunch of stuff so i want to talk about a uh a meeting that was held um last month it was a planning and zoning meeting in case you guys didn't see it there were a couple of board members that um went a little overboard i was at the first one of the first planning and zoning meetings with the new board members and Again, the two board members were going crazy, going at it. They went at it so bad, they went after the city attorney and it's all documented. You can watch the video, okay? There was actually even a letter in by the city manager to put sort of some sort of perspective as to the way things should be handled at the meeting. I know that we get to pick the board members, but there was a letter written and I heard it from many residents that the board member Richard Zucchini should be removed. So if the board wants to remove them or if the board wants to give the ability to the planning and zoning to remove that person, I don't have a problem with it. I don't think that's allowable. So I'm gonna ask that we remove him because if you want, I was gonna put the actions on the video and show it. I don't wanna embarrass him. I don't wanna embarrass the city. But the way he's been acting, he's using that as a private platform. It's gotta be stopped. And it was so bad that the city manager even had to write a letter. So I'm going to ask that we remove him.

Could you bring this up the next time so I can go watch the meeting?

I think you'd need to put it on an agenda.

Yeah, I'd like to see it.

Why is it going to be put on an agenda? Because you're asking for the commission to take action, and it's not on the agenda.

Just an FYI, I was always told that any sort of action can be taken except if it was a financial action. That was what I was told in the past.

The only thing with that is removing a board member It's a pretty serious decision, and it probably should be noticed.

Well, I don't talk to the guy, so maybe whoever put him on the board might want to let him know that the actions are going to be displayed at next meeting. So if he wants to resign, he can resign.

So you'll play the whole video and not just excerpts that you've clipped? I won't clip them. I'll ask the city to clip them.

the actions of his. But David, I don't even ask you, but there was a meeting that I went to where they attacked the city attorney, the two of them. The next meeting, Richard Zucchini went, did the same thing. It has to stop. And Tony, I know you're his friend. I used to be his friend. I'm not doing this for anything personal. I don't care about the guy. But when he's going to represent the city and do that, not as an elected official elected officials get a little bit more leeway because you guys are our boss but if he's going to do that and he's picked by this board i'm going to ask that he be removed that's all i know it's probably not going to go anywhere but two two meetings it was the last meeting two appointees to the board first one was i think his name is epi okay yes okay okay okay at the end of the first meeting where they were elected to serve and not only that but i spoke to several of the board members that want him removed if you want the names i'll ask if they'll give you their names but there's probably a majority of them that want him removed but if you watch the actions They went after the city attorney pretty heavily. And they have their own little agenda that they want to do. And it has to do with Aztec as being one of them. So I'll leave it at that.

But you can watch the meetings.

Now, the second meeting wasn't as bad for the one epi guy, but the Richard Zucchini. Just watch the meeting. That's all. And then look at the letter. I don't know if the city manager wrote one letter or two letters about the- I didn't see his letter, but I did see the member. Not only that, but I think the agenda had changed because of the actions. I don't even know if they allow board member comments anymore.

No, board member comments are not on the planning and zoning board agenda.

And there's a reason for that. Okay? So if you don't see the problem, watch the video. If you want me to play the video, I'll play it next time. But it's just, it shouldn't go on. It shouldn't be like that. All right, what else I got? My daughter, congratulations, you graduated at FAU. So thank you. Last thing I have is I was driving down Sample Road today and I noticed a sign on the golf course. So I think there's a, can somebody explain what the sign is? On the Carolina golf course.

I believe that's the notice of public hearing for the land use plan amendment and rezoning of the property that's scheduled for September 2nd.

Okay, so the next meeting we have is going to be about the golf course. And correct me if I'm wrong, but months ago there was a developer's agreement signed with the developer who wants to build on the golf course. Not yet. Well, it was agreed upon. The first developer's agreement had two readings. Am I correct? It was approved.

That was for the initial zoning, but the actual development agreement, there is not in place right now.

And I would just caution discussing anything because it would be coming up at your meeting.

except okay so it's going to come up to be voted on about the golf course okay now if anybody wants to correct me if i'm wrong here there's an infill redevelopment act senate bill 1434 that was passed and let me tell you who it applies to it applies to miami dade roward and palm beach and it basically says you must apply you must approve housing on qualified Now, what is a qualified area? They qualify the area as a golf course, at least five acres, has contamination on it, and it's been vacant for 12 months. So basically, eight years ago, when the word was that they're going to build on the golf course, this commission was still here. Every one of us voted against it. the development at that time years went by and have always been against it okay there have been even our lobbyist came up about six months ago and said you better watch your hands are gonna be tied with home rule even though I didn't like the side he was on he was representing the developer but we were paying him as a city lobbyist telling us what to do about the golf course what he was saying it happened so basically When the vote was cast and I voted against it, I said, you know what, let's try to negotiate. Let's try to get that building in the front. Let's try to get money so we could rebuild that building, at least get something. There was a little bit of negotiation until this passed. Once this passed, they could basically do whatever they want now.

Without permission.

Without asking us. Without asking us. So just want everybody to know that I don't have a crystal ball. But going back eight years when we stood firm on it, we should have stood firm. We should have done something then. And this is going to come back to bite us in the ass, I'm telling you. Because basically they can do what they want on that property. So this whole thing with the September 2nd meeting, just a formality. Basically if we say, you know what, can you do this? They could say, we don't want to do it. We're going to do what we want. I hate for the gloom and doom, but.

And what you forgot to say is the longer they wait, the more they can do it.

Yeah.

Yeah. And it's sad. Now, is there any protections?

No.

There's a couple. Single-family homes, they have to have a 20-foot buffer. The neighbors, they can negotiate to purchase the property behind them, which I hope that the developer would actually even consider because I had people ask me. we purchased a property behind us and the last one was what i found interesting they have to pay double impact fees for parks so i'm going to ask this board tonight and david i don't even know if we can do this but whatever our park fees right now are for development like this we quadruple them no you can't do that tonight okay can we be creative in some way

Yes. If they deal with the infill up, they don't have to do parks.

I know they don't have to do parks.

They have to pay double the impact fees.

Yeah, they have to pay double impact fees.

So if they don't do parks, they don't have to pay anything.

If they do parks, they don't have to pay anything.

Before you get the train too much further down the tracks, I just want to remind you that this is coming before you.

I know, but it doesn't mean nothing. Hypothetically.

So I don't want the applicant to be able to say that the applications have been prejudged before they make their presentation. I hear what you're saying. There's nothing we can do. That's fine. We can talk about the Florida Info Redevelopment Act. That's fine.

If there's any AI lawyers out there that want to look and see what we can do, because the end is near with this golf course, if somebody can come up with something creative where we can possibly prosper out of this, because I don't see it being good. From what I'm being told, if they wanted to build apartments, they could build apartments.

Can I add something?

Is that correct? So when we didn't want the apartments, we didn't want the townhomes, they're getting what they want. Not only are they getting what they want, they're going to get everything they want and more.

Can I add something?

Yeah.

Only in fairness, because I've been warning the public about this for about two years now. I know Casiano has as well. And at one point, it was said by one of the members up here that that ship had sailed. Well, maybe with Live Local, but they went and just created their own law. It's my understanding for the meeting on the 8th, it could be a formality. But it's a business that has a reputation of working with cities. And they've also gone so deep because the law changed towards the end of this process that it's my opinion. I'm not making a predetermined judge. I'm not making a decision, yes or no, how I'm going to vote at that meeting. I believe it's their last ditch effort because the city did they did reach out to the city and start that formal process and the city has we all received a letter the city confirmed that that property does qualify and it confirms that they don't need a developers agreement I think this is the developers last ditch effort to make some sort of deal that's palatable but just my knowledge in real estate, that property has gone up just because of that act. And potentially, if it doesn't go the way that they want it to go, they could just assign it to someone else, make a ton of money, go off into the sunset, and the new developer is going to do the infill act. And it's not going to be like another couple of years. It's going to be like instant. And it's no public input. They could go back to apartments. Right now, the HOAs all agreed and signed agreements they have developers agreements the HOAs do as far as no apartments and those sorts of things pocket parks walking trails but under the infill act they wouldn't have to do any of that so I'm going into it with an open mind but you are correct the infill act is real it was signed into law by the governor and it's not a Republican it's a bipartisan thing there were actually many there were many state representatives in South Florida that voted for it. I will go on the record to say our rep, Christine Hontrowski, voted no. So she does deserve credit for voting no on the Infill Act, but unfortunately a lot of her other colleagues in South Florida voted yes on it. They're basically tying our hands on a lot of development in the city.

I don't disagree, and I agree with everything you're saying, actually. I'm just saying how they went after Miami-Dade, Broward, and West Palm Beach.

Oh, we were targeted 100%.

And it's just sickening because that property went, what it was appraised years ago was just for recreational for $4 million. It's now worth $40 million. And what's the city get out of it? Nothing. Nothing. We don't get a penny of it. We're going to get the taxes, obviously, but we're not going to get what the residents deserved out there. And this has been going on for eight years. I'm just saying I wish the board eight years ago the way they stood, they should have stood that way the whole way, and the developer would have made some sort of concession to say either, you know what, I'm gonna sell it to a golf course, or if you guys wanna purchase it. But he waited, he played the game, it's business, I get it. But hopefully we can get something. So no gloom and doom, but it's just the truth. But it'll be the next meeting. I think that's all I have. That's it, welcome back everybody, thank you.

Vice Mayor.

I'm just going to start off. But the end is near. We've been singing that the end was near for two years. And that we need to make deals with these people before they just went over our heads and stepped on us. And the governor allowed that. And now that's what's going to happen. So all those times that we were talking about making a deal and we're being booed, well, guess what? They should have let us make a deal. Moorgate Middle School, it's amazing. They're a B school. They're working towards being an A school. They're really working real hard with the kids. And so I was over there with Commissioner Schwartz when they opened up for this new semester. And the joy that was there, it was really nice. As I always say, it's hurricane season, folks. Please. Just buy an extra can of this or an extra can of that when you go to the store. A lot of our worst hurricanes have come towards the end of the season. So please prepare. Listen, if we don't get a hurricane, so you eat the stuff in November and December and January. But at least be prepared for a storm if it happens. Your daughter just graduated FAU. My daughter just started FAU as a junior. She went to Broward College for two years, got an associate's. And I just want everybody to be happy. We are having Sounds of Sundown the first Saturday of September. It's going to be there. And we would hope that. And I think we have a Doc Reno event this weekend?

No. Also September.

Also September. OK. So other than that? Just stay healthy and please prepare for a hurricane. If it doesn't happen, but if it does happen, don't go to a place that's empty shelves because you waited.

Congrats to your daughter on FAU and congrats to your daughter starting. I'm an Owl alumni, so go Owls. Love to see the university grow. When I went there, it was not the greatest school. I wasn't the greatest student. That's why I'm glad that my daughter is ranking very high nationally, because I did not.

And you just put that on the record.

Listen, that's fine. I don't care.

I got my third degree from there. I would never say that.

I'll give you another one. If I applied today, I wouldn't have gotten in. But the school has. But you're sitting up here as mayor. I'm amazed. It's amazing. Political science. It goes a long way. I actually use my degree, everyone. But no, the university is moving up the ranks. It was probably like 500 when I started. It's in the top 100. And in certain categories, they're even higher than that with some of their sports MBAs and their school of nursing and things like that. So anyone that's thinking about going, I went there. I lived on campus. So I got the university experience, but was still close enough. home on the weekend so it's a great option for people um i want to congratulate nicole morris and cynthia dominique on their election to the school board um i want to talk specifically about cynthia because her district basically makes up a majority of margate while nicole is technically has some homes and she's my rep west of rock island but they're they're not tied to any school, which is kind of something that the school board's messed up on. How do you have a board member that doesn't represent stuff but not our schools? But anyways, going back to Cynthia, combat Army veteran, nurse, mother of three or four children that all attend Margate schools, I couldn't be more proud for her. I knocked on many doors, including Paradise Garden, your neighbor too. And the warm welcome that we got from the residents and the excitement to have a Margate resident on the school board, I think speaks volumes to the excitement that there was. And if you look at the election results, she outperformed every other school board race. She got over 60% of the vote. And in Margate, she was getting 75% plus. on the vote. So I am confident that she's going to do good things. Not to sling mud, but our previous school board member, in my opinion, was useless. And so you can only go up from there. But I think that she's going to far exceed our expectations. So congratulations, Cynthia. Last week, I Was that coffee with a commish with Holiday Springs? I believe a lot of us, yep, Simone Schwartz was there as well. There were some issues that came up. One of them was in regards to the sidewalks, especially going from the clubhouse north to Sample Road. The next day, Cale had the city out there grinding down the sidewalks. And I believe once the budget year starts, October 1, there's some scheduling that's going to be made to repair some of those sections where the trees are lifting up. And it's especially important because a lot of the residents walk there, whether it's to the mosque or some of the senior residents that don't have cars that need to walk to the bus stops or to the intersection there. We want to make sure it's safe for them. Also, there was a concern about the northernmost canal that divides Holiday Springs from the Carolina, one of the neighborhoods. I think it's like Fairway Point, if I'm not mistaken. And I guess, I don't know, the city, Holiday Springs was complaining about the canal. The city went out there and then ended up sending violations to Holiday Springs, which they felt was a little bit unfair. And in there, they had a whole history of that canal and who had maintained it over the years. And it was basically the master association. And then at some point they stopped maintaining it. Holiday Springs does have a little bit of shared responsibility. They have to maintain the South Bank And they have record of doing that. But the problem is, is they clean up the South Bank and the next day the garbage just keeps, you know, and the algae and everything keeps flowing over. So I believe staff has reached out to the Master Association. They were properly cited. But also my understanding the Master Association has promised to start maintaining that waterway again.

So it's a unique situation. The body of water that separates a single family home development to the north and a multifamily condo associates into the south has split ownership. The condo association owns half the canal and then individual single family homes, property lines go and cover the rest of the canal. And so at some point, and I haven't been able to trace you, at some point there was one organization that was maintaining and clearing and keeping this canal free and that has stopped. And so the canal has become overgrown and water doesn't flow through it properly. So when code compliance got a complaint about the canal, they went out and cited the owners of that said canal. And so that's created some discussion and calls to the office and calls of attention to the commission. So we've looked at it a little bit further. It looks like the master association has some responsibility for it. So we've made contact with them from what I've seen in emails today. master association is coordinating time to meet the code officer out there to go over what needs to be done and hopefully take care of it if half is owned by one side and half by another wouldn't it be great if they've sent out people to clean it at the same time so that both sides got clean you're you're talking about a one condo association coordinating with eight or so single-family homes and

But better than getting cited.

hear you it was it was a shock to I think everybody involved that got cited and so it sounds easy in theory to get people to coordinate and clean a canal like that but it it takes quite a bit more work than that you know agreeing on a contractor to use it's not as simple we're not talking about somebody going out and mowing it just would make sense that they get together and do it at one time because

we believe we've narrowed it down to one association that is going to take responsibility for it and handle it yep okay um interestingly enough something that came up at that meeting you could probably guess who brought it up but aztec came up um I'm not going to dive too far into that but there were some concerning comments in regards to CEOs being open up sorry building permits being opened and purposely not close so that they don't get a CEO because when you get the CEO then everything resets with the county on your property assessment so I've asked kale to look into that kale has gotten back to me with information from our building official. There are some open. permits that need to be investigated a little bit further it's not to the extent that is being alleged. But there are some open permits that have been open for quite some time, a majority of them, though, are still in the process and. Depending. On schedules and things like that I do plan on meeting with the city manager and the building official and.

only discussing those specific properties but maybe making a site visit as well go ahead because i was here when originally that became an rv park they were never allowed to build permanent structures not 700 000 homes they had a deal with the city for 10 years to pay taxes which then fell off and aren't done anymore. Correct. But they were never supposed to build. They got a pad where they had sheds that, quite frankly, were more expensive than my house. But now I understand they have full-fledged homes there. That's against their agreement. They are not assessed because it's considered commercial property or whatever it is. And so I can see...

They are absolutely assessed appropriately. But they're illegal. I don't know if they're not illegal.

It's an RV park. That's how it was sold. There were 600 pads for RVs, never for permanent structures. And they argued about that when the city looked at it because their sheds were one room efficiencies with showers and everything else. But that's how they got away with this for the longest time. But they are an RV park. That's how the city approved it. That's what the city was supposed to be, now an upscale RV park, but never allowed to build what they had built. So if that's going to change, and that's not what it is, then somebody needs to look at the original agreement, which none of you were here for. But I was.

sometimes we need the sense of history so talk to nancy well in terms of um property taxes i can tell you that they are paying you know the assessed value on those for years they weren't

Because I can remember speaking to the chief building official and saying, hey, when I met them in 2017 and went in there and looked at the Lamborghini, the Rolls Royce convertible, and the other two cars and parked it in front of a house, I asked about that. So either something has to change or legitimately what they've built is illegal.

CARES BEEN IN THERE IN TERMS OF PROPERTY TAXES, THEY ARE BEING ASSESSED APPROPRIATELY. I LOOKED AT ONE TODAY THAT'S PAYING 23,000.

I'M NOT SAYING HE HASN'T DONE IT NOW. I'M JUST SIMPLY SAYING FOR YEARS THEY DIDN'T. BUT THEY STILL BUILT STRUCTURES THAT ARE ILLEGAL.

I'LL LOOK INTO THAT. I DON'T IMAGINE THAT THEY'RE BUILDING STRUCTURES THAT ARE ILLEGAL. WE WOULDN'T BE PERMITTING THAT.

NOBODY CHANGED THE DESIGNATION. YOU NEVER VOTED ON THAT.

I'm not aware of any restriction that would prohibit them from building a permanent structure.

And I don't think we'd be issuing permits for that if that was the case.

Okay.

All right. I've got a couple more things. It's been a while since we've met.

Yeah, go ahead. About the RV park. How many residents of Margate live in there? Not many.

None.

It's all Canadians.

there's a few there's a few but it's it's the one that's very angry and apparently because the point i'm getting at is aztec was designed for margaret you can't be a resident of the city to live in there i don't think that's exactly how the agreement is phrased but for for purposes of residing at a unit in margate they are residents of margate whether they qualify under florida law for homestead whether they qualify for voting those that's a completely different issue but with respect to the fact that they have an rv and they reside in margate for part of the year they're residents of margate

so is it safe to say that they can vote in the city of margate no i'm saying okay okay so that's different follow me on this that's different you can't vote in the city of margate correct if you live in there however to be a board member don't you have to be eligible or a city um member a city resident well i know that there are i know there are people who reside there that have driver's licenses that say that their address is margate

That wasn't my question, but... So we don't have a clear definition in our code as far as what it means to be a resident for purposes of serving on a board.

Okay.

Well, I think that our board members should be Margate voters' residents.

If they're not, they shouldn't be on the board. I don't disagree with that.

Because there is one board member that...

So if the property were owned by an LLC, that would not make that person a resident, correct?

I go back to what I said before, they reside. The individual resides. I know it's legal.

In the future, we should look at that and make sure that they are registered voters.

If they're going to make decisions for the residents of Margate, then it shouldn't be six months and out.

All right, thank you. There was a post in one of the community groups obtaining a police report and the costs associated with it. I forget if it was for a car. It was something pretty common and basic, like a car accident or trip and fall or something like that. And they had to pay $17.45. But there were a lot of other comments of people having to pay even more for something that seems pretty simple. Is there, and a lot of people were don't like to use the word complaining but they were basically complaining that they couldn't find like a fee standard so do we have a fee standard for police reports and can we look into why it's costing so much i understand staff has to review sometimes and do redactions and things like that but i believe it just falls under our public records request and and you know the time for producing that record and copies that need to be made if if something if a

Police report is requiring, I imagine it's not just a simple police report. It's something more extravagant than that.

I mean, I don't know. I can't look into every comment, but someone said they requested body cam footage and were quoted like $600 or something like that.

Body cam footage, there's significant redactions that need to be done. And so that takes a lot of time to process.

Under Florida law, the city is entitled to recover its costs that are incurred with respect to extensive public records requests. And that would include any body camera footage, any records that may have information that is supposed to be redacted under Florida law. And that charge goes to the requester. And in order to receive that record, they need to pay for the city's labor and materials.

Yeah, I have no problem. I'm actually a believer in that. I just wanted to make sure that we're not just randomly coming up with pricing. And that it's, you know, there's a standard that's being applied. We're treating everyone fairly. This comes up every year. I was actually surprised that Mr. Hall wasn't here at the start of the school year. But when I sent out my newsletter, he did respond because I asked if there were any non-emergency school safety concerns. And so he had discussed the charter school by Coral Bay. He comes in every year and talks about the traffic flow. And I always like to revisit this because it's our understanding we've, at least since I've been up here, every year we contact Coral Springs. We've gone out there. We've met with them. Each of us at one point or another has been to that site. We cannot compel another city to do or tell them how to control traffic on their roads. I understand that they're blocking off one lane, but it's in Coral Springs until they pass the school. So have we exhausted all of our efforts? Is this something that maybe Coral Bay needs to take legal action on? I know we're not giving legal advice to them, but has the city exhausted all of our efforts as to what we can or cannot compel another city to do as far as traffic flow?

Right. We can't compel another city on what to do in their jurisdiction. We do have relationships with Coral Springs. I want to say two years ago, we were able to work with Coral Springs and the charter school to alter their drop off and pickups where they moved the majority of it inside their parking lot rather than out on the road to alleviate some of those traffic concerns. I don't want to say we've exhausted all our efforts. You know, we're always going to continue to try to improve traffic flow and traffic safety. And I know our traffic unit rotates over to that area often to help deal with any cars that are going through the school zone.

know aside from mr hall's um you know comments i'm not aware of any standing issues out there okay thank you and last but not least i want to talk about a group that was mentioned today things are getting really nasty out there as november gets closer the attacks on family and friends it's disgusting Someone came up to me in front of my kids at a city event because they were upset about a potential alleged violation that I found on them. Guys, if you have any questions, you can call me. You can text me. People are entitled to their own opinion. They're not entitled to their own facts. I don't care what's posted on these groups, but I'm going to address one of them. They talk about travel. I have an office account. It's not taxpayer money. It's not taxpayer money. And the law allows it to be used when traveling. I went to a conference two years ago. I stayed at the hotel of the conference. And I ate dinner at the restaurant in the hotel where the conference was. And it's alleged that I'm abusing my position because I used an office account. and it was accused of my family benefiting. First of all, there's case law. Not only was it the election commission, but appeals court said, and I don't have the case in front of me, but I can always go back and quote it. I have the opinion. There's an inherent benefit. Just because someone allegedly shares a piece of food or something like that, you're not misusing your position. But I still want to address that. And while the receipts of an office account are not public, because I know people have requested them, I've got one. And this is public because I just made it public. This is from 2025, last year's conference. It was alleged that I used my office account to buy everyone dinner. Here's the receipt right here. You looking at it? OK. I ordered a one-person meal. I had an appetizer, a wedge salad, a steak, and a mac and cheese. It's a one-person meal. I didn't buy a meal for my family. That was my meal. I know what you're going to say, oh, well, your wife ate the food. No, I have the receipt for that. Because I'm smart enough to take pictures of all my receipts when I go to these things. This is my wife's meal. that I personally paid for. And yes, it was almost $300. And I am blessed that I could do that, OK? But the fact is, no one is benefiting from that. And you can laugh all you want. That's fine. I hope that that accountability page covers all of the other candidates' alleged violations that they're under investigation for. And I'll leave it at that. And I only brought it up because they brought it up. But here's the facts. And I got my receipts. You want to come at me, come at me.

i will be up here on november 4th have a good night everyone let's have a good rest of the meeting city attorney nothing other than it's good to see everyone it's great to be here in the city of murgate city manager thank you mayor i'd ask the commission to pull agenda item 4f from consent as i've gotten some questions that require clarity

with any guard to I'll do that the fee structure okay I'm another than that nothing else thank you city clerk nothing at this time okay we are now on to consent agenda are we gonna do the pulled item first or no first but on the consent okay so we're gonna vote on the consent first what is the wish of the Commission so moved second all the roll please and this is

The consent agenda includes every item under 4A. You want me to read them? Yes, please. Item 4A. APPROVAL OF CITY COMMISSION MINUTES FROM JUNE 3, 2026 REGULAR CITY COMMISSION MEETING JUNE 17, 2026 REGULAR CITY COMMISSION MEETING AND JULY 1, 2026 REGULAR CITY COMMISSION MEETING 4B A RESOLUTION OF THE CITY OF MARGATE FLORIDA TERMINATING AND RELEASING PORTIONS OF EXISTING EASEMENTS ON PRIVATE PROPERTY LOCATED IN THE VICINITY OF 7800 MARGATE BOULEVARD FORMER EXECUTIVE GOLF COURSE PROPERTY aka nova of coral edge margate florida 33063 providing for a public response providing for an effective date item 4c a resolution city of margate florida approving the waving of bidding for the sole source purchase of original equipment manufacturer parts repairs maintenance and technical services from android separation inc for the belt filter press system at the department of environmental and engineering services wastewater treatment plant providing for compatibility with the existing system PROVIDING FOR AN EFFECTIVE DATE. ITEM 4D IS A RESOLUTION OF THE CITY OF MARGATE, FLORIDA, APPROVING AND ACCEPTING EASEMENTS, 110-FOOT WATER EASEMENT AND 120-FOOT CANAL MAINTENANCE EASEMENT DEDICATED VIA THE SUBDIVISIONARY SURVEY OF A PORTION OF PARCEL B INTO MARGATE 2. ACCORDING TO THE PLATFORM AS RECORDED IN PLATFORM 154, PAGE 13, THE PUBLIC RECORDS OF BROWARD COUNTY, FLORIDA IS MORE PARTICULARLY DESCRIBED HEREIN AND REFERRED TO AS CMB, LOCATED AT 1900-1950 BANKS ROAD, PROVIDING FOR AN EFFECTIVE DATE. Item 4E is a resolution of the City of Margate, Florida, approving an agreement with TCMC, Margate Apartments, LLC, PROVIDE REMETERING OF WATER METERS ON PROPERTY KNOWN AS LEGACY MARGATE LOCATED AT 5205 5231 COCONUT CREEK PARKWAY MARGATE FLORIDA PROVIDING FOR AN EFFECTIVE DATE ITEM 4G A RESOLUTION OF THE CITY OF MARGATE FLORIDA AMENDING THE SCHEDULE OF FEES AND CHARGES FOR WATER AND WASTEWATER SERVICES PRESENTED CHAPTER 39 WATER AND SEWERS DEPARTMENT OF ENVIRONMENTAL AND ENGINEERING SERVICES PROVIDING FOR CHANGE TO INITIAL METER FEES PROVIDING FOR AN EFFECTIVE DATE Item 4H, a resolution of the City of Margate, Florida, approving an agreement with the School Board of Broward County, Florida, for partial funding of four school resource officers in Atlantic West Elementary, Margate Elementary, Liberty Elementary, and Margate Middle Schools, providing for return, providing for reimbursement, providing for an effective date. These items before you for your consent agenda. You have a motion and a second.

You just wanted to hear him read all that.

Please call the roll.

Commissioner Schwartz? Yes. Commissioner Simone? Yes. Commissioner Rosano? Yes. Vice Mayor Caggiano? Yes. Mayor Serrio?

Yes. Now we're going to go to the item that was pulled.

So that's item 4F, which is a resolution of the city of Margate, Florida, awarding RFP number 2026-007, towing services to J&J Towing Inc., providing for rates and fees, providing for a five-year initial term with an option for administrative renewal for an additional five-year term without further commission action, providing for an effective date. This item is before you for your consideration this evening. And I'll just say, we did leave with you on the dais the revised language in... I believe it's section four that clarifies the payment of the administrative fee by the individuals whose cars are towed versus the fee that is paid to the city.

Mr. Mayor, the recommendation through the selection committee is to enter into an agreement with J&J Towing as a top-ranked firm. The reason I ask that this be pulled from the consent agenda has to do with questions that require clarity on the payment of administrative fees to the city. So state law caps administrative fees that can be imposed upon vehicle owners at 25%. J&J Towing has volunteered to remit 37% of their tow rates to the city. The agreement, the original draft agreement had that 37% in there. What needs to be clarified is that the contractor, J&J Towing, may impose up to a 25% fee on the vehicle owner. And that's the cap that they can impose. But they will remit 37% of that tow rate to the city. while they're only going to charge up to 25% the owner 37% is going to be remitted to the city another section of their proposal has to do with tow rates the tow rates are established by Broward County they set the maximum amount of tow rates for class a class B class C in some cases J&J Towing submitted a fee that is lower than the maximum and in some cases they submitted a rate that is higher while we will graciously accept the lower rate they will be capped at what the county sets at the maximum rate for those tow fees those are the extent of the amendments or clarification that is needed for you all tonight

Okay. We don't get involved in the bidding process, so were there any, once the ranking is done, the other companies that bid can make objections?

Were there any made? Were there any challenges to the ranking?

I don't believe there were any challenges to the ranking. Is that correct Spencer? Okay.

Out of curiosity, what set them so, I mean, because they scored significantly higher than the others. But I was kind of surprised, to be honest with you, just because of the size and scope of their business being significantly smaller than some of the others.

What made them rank so high? I was not a party to the selection team. Sergeant Crabtree, you interested in. Sorry.

I think, if I might, you have your scoring sheets, and so while she may be one of the individuals, you can't necessarily inquire as to each individual's intent in their rankings.

I'm not asking for her specific vote, but as a whole, why did they rank so much higher than the other companies?

The board discussed.

Yeah, sure.