Town Council - Regular Meeting

All righty. Can you hear me? Yes. Perfect. Good evening. Today's date is October 21st, 2025. Regular town council meeting. I want to welcome everybody. Meeting was called for six p.m. It's six oh seven p.m. Meeting officially called to order. Roll call please.

Mayor singer. Here by smear Luskin here council member bernstein here council member i'm saying here council member mandel excellent if everyone could please rise and officer to julio.

Excuse me, you could lead us in the star spangled banner. everybody.

Peter Haslund, United States of America and to the Republic for just dance on Asia one major God divisible with liberty and justice for all excellent good job.

Peter Haslund, want to welcome everybody. Uh, today we're going to hold off on presentations. We're waiting on somebody town manager. Let me know as soon as he arrived. So we could do the recognition of officers of the quarter next on the agenda motion to set agendas, additions, deletions, removal of items from the consent agenda or change the agenda. I have none council.

9 step town man mayor members of the council this item we pulled an item earlier in the week. The public may think that the item is still on. There's only 1 ordinance ordinance. Number 1 ordinance 2 was pulled over the weekend. And so ordinance number 2 will not be heard at this meeting.

Okay, that was pulled already. That's fine. Anything else. That's it. No, move on to good and welfare. Is anyone here for good and welfare clerk?

Yes, sir. We have a member from the Golden Beach Youth Leadership Group, Mia Masakovich.

Hi, I'm Mia Matukovich, and I live on 577 Golden Beach Drive. I'm 10 years old, and I have lived in this town for four years. I'm a member of the Golden Beach Youth Group, where we plan fun and meaningful events for our community. Our next event is a beach cleanup coming up on November 9th, Sunday. I'm really excited to be part of this group. A big thank you to Vice Mayor Luskin and Michael Glidden for all their support. Thank you.

Oh, thank you. Excellent anyone else for good and welfare?

No, sir.

No. Okay. Uh, moving on to, uh, mayor's report. I just have a few quick comments. 1st is obviously the 31st is the Halloween party. It was scheduled to start at 6. PM. I think we're changing to starting at 5. PM to North Park. It's a great event. I recommend that all residents come. Old and young or young and old and bring your costumes. Uh, it's it's, uh, the town's probably 2nd, biggest event. Of the year, and, uh, we're very excited about it. So that's Friday. October 31st, obviously. Second comment, it's the end of our fiscal year. The town manager is going to give us a little financial history of how we did last year, but hats off to the finance department and the administration. We had a phenomenal year and not only did we meet our budget, we beat our budget. and uh really held control of our expenses so considering all the projects that we've done uh it's very very exciting and all our projects that we did accomplish last year we were within budget and on a timely manner so that's very very exciting hats off to uh again uh town manager and the administration i want to congratulate councilwoman vice mayor judy luskin It was a great little spread on you in the newsletter well, deserve and as we heard this evening, you've been working the youth leadership group for years and you do a great job and I know the children of golden beach. Appreciate you and myself and the fellow council members really appreciate everything you've done. You've really helped change the. The youth in the in the neighborhood and done a great job and thank you. So congratulations to Judy. I want to also thank our town manager, our town attorney, Steve Helfman. We've been working on several issues, especially with the sea walls and some other zoning issues. And I know you've worked diligently and have done a great job and really appreciate everything that you do. One thing, Michael, that I've asked for before and I want to do is we've talked about dogs on the beach to have an event. Uh, every quarter to do dogs on the beach. So, uh, I meant to tell you this week, but I really like to see 1 before the year end. Okay. In the afternoon for an hour, uh, in by the beach pavilion. And obviously, if anyone's dog is aggressive, or it doesn't get along with any other dog. you know obviously do not bring it and but it's we've had them in the years past and it's been a great event and we usually get great participation and I know there's so many dogs in this neighborhood so it's a good time for a social event and also for the dogs so they can meet other dogs and become friends But with that, uh, that's all my comments, uh, with that, I'm going to move to council comments 1st, with a vice mayor Luskin. Any comments?

Okay. Uh, just a few, um. I've been walking early in the morning. Actually, it's still somewhat dark out there. And, uh, the lights Alex, sometimes they're on during the day. Sometimes they're off at night. The street lights. I think they're improving, but they do need a little bit of work. The flooding, the king tides, I mean, it's draining quickly. I know some residents have been upset by it, but it drains very, very quickly and kudos. To the town staff, they clean it up immediately. An hour they're out there afterwards and it's very clean. So I appreciate that. As Mia said, there's a beach cleanup November 9th. The Golden Beach Youth Leadership Group will be sponsoring it and doing it. I want to remind everybody Veterans Day is November 11th. It's going to be a spectacular program because it's the birthday, 250 years of America. So that's going to be the theme. So it'll really be an exciting program. I also want to announce that we're going to take a significant group of the students from the Golden Beach Youth Leadership Group to Tallahassee. The Florida League of Cities, the Youth Council is having legislative action days, January 27th and 28th. They get to meet the legislators and they get to roam around the Capitol and see what it's like. So it's a very, very well done program. And I think we're gonna have quite a significant group of kids going. um i think uh last but not least as a compliment to you alexander you know how singer park kind of eats away at me it looks beautiful at night when it's lit up and the waterfall is going it's clean it looks better i do look forward to the day where there's no garbage truck there anymore it's not it's not oh But I will tell you that park looks beautiful though. I don't know if it's new lighting. But that waterfall is clean and it's working well. And it really is a beautiful addition to town. So, thank you for you.

It's a catchment Einstein.

Welcome everybody to the meeting. Um. Again, Vice Mayor Luskin, you had a beautiful article. Well deserved. I echo the Mayor's comments. You are just one of the biggest assets to this town and thanks for all your hard work through all the years. Real quick note, I've noticed there's a tremendous amount of construction and we have not that many roadways it seems there's been a few times when i've seen cars side by side you know garbage truck and another construction truck making traffic hard to get through and i think just uh police if they see that a reminder general reminder to these people i think most of the people are Mindful of it, but I just like to be proactive in terms of that situation.

Mayor if I may Sergeant through here, what's your opinion on that matter as it relates to traffic on Golden Beach drive and whether or not we should do some more enforcement action on it. Yeah.

Thank you town manager.

Yeah, I mean, you look around town, you look at. The construction on the ocean, I mean, we are. Exploding, I mean, you know, 1 house after the other and bigger. The town is really becoming. Uh, the envy of a lot of South Florida. Uh, we're getting the wellness center together. Uh, tweet the new, uh, reimagine parks. Uh, you know, I really got to take my hats off to the council and the foresighted manager and administration. For the direction we're going in, it just seems to be getting better and better.

Thank you. Councilman Bernstein.

Vice Mayor Luskin, I just want to concur with everybody here and just say what an amazing job you do. And I really feel when I grew up, we always had this an officer friendly program with the police officers that I thought was so great because it just made us very endearing with the police and just such a favorable impression. And I feel like you're the officer friendly of the council and you, you make a. You make all these incredible connections, and I just really want to concur with that with the Youth Council and the Veterans Day and just so many events. So an honor well deserved. Thank you. Additionally, oh, additionally, a couple of different items. First, I want to say that during the king tides, I have certain areas that I just see so much rain build up. And I really think that the town has done an amazing job James Pfeiffer- handling it, I know there's been one or two occasions, but the amount of rains, we had any the few events that we've had have just been very well managed and. James Pfeiffer- Usually it's because of some sort of something breaking down, I also thought that the fitness centers doing fantastic and I want to raise to the Council. James Pfeiffer- The just the continuation of what i've preached before, which is about the sport of paddle which I just see growing everywhere. and to be thinking about, I've talked to the council to, Alex about it, but just to keep in your thoughts, this is probably one of the faster growing sports. And I was the other day at a condominium where they had about 12 different tennis courts in Key Biscayne. They have three paddle. They replaced one tennis court with three paddle and the paddle are always being used. It's less noisy than a pickleball court that doesn't have the insulation and just something to think about. Additionally, I want to bring up Alex, that the city of Aventura, and I think somebody here raised it 1 or 2 meetings ago about the e-bikes that have been going around through the city. And it just looks so dangerous to me. These guys riding on e-bikes and the city of Aventura has started to come up with some sort of a way to handle it. And I just want to make sure that we're on board with it also, because I just see people flying down here. They have no helmets and. Scooters, and they're not necessarily even in the bike lanes. They're acting like they're cars at times.

The state statute on that changed on October 1st, and so there's more state regulation as it relates to where scooters and e-bikes can be used.

Okay. And finally, I'm very excited about the Halloween party and glad that we switched it to five.

Thank you moving along town managers report please.

Sure. Mr. Mayor members to council. Let me just kind of bring you guys up to speed as to what what's going on because there's been a lot of questions concerns. So, 1st, I want to wish everyone a happy city week as, you know, this week is the Florida city city week. It's an opportunity for cities to celebrate what they've done and here in golden beach. We're going on our on our video on the website. If you go on the website, you'll see all the great accomplishments. And I want to thank the members of the group for putting that video together. Also, as a reminder, we're currently working with zoning in progress as it relates to zone 1 and issues related to zone 1 and I'll be issuing a, I'll be issuing a memorandum of a memorandum explaining the issues in zone 1 as your town flood administrator. So that would help. focus the conversation moving forward as it relates to the zone one issues so anyone who's here for zone one that item was pulled there'll be a memorandum issued that will give guidance as it relates to that this evening your ordinance first you have an ordinance for uh first reading as it relates to retaining walls on properties um and that is going to be clearing up an administrative order that was issued in 2015. also as it relates to halloween we did move halloween from uh five we'll start at five pm and it will go to midnight so the members of our Jewish community who observe the Sabbath will be able to enjoy it from 5 to 640 when the sun sets. So we're glad that that change has been made. There's a lot of concern going around in the Golden Beach chat about flooding. And in this month's edition of the newsletter, I posted an article. I'd just like to remind the community that Golden Beach has invested over $50 million of free money F-R-E-E, free money, that we've been able to secure on behalf of our residents to pay for projects in our community. So any indication that the town just doesn't have the resources and doesn't want to address the issue is just a false narrative. Let's be clear. We have a two type system of flooding control in our community. We have a forced main pump station that deals with the areas where we own real estate. As it relates to the flooding in North Island, South Island and Singer Park, it is not a matter solely of money. is a matter of real estate and money. To put in a pump station, we need real estate. And no one who lives in the cul-de-sac, which is the only real estate that I own, wants to see a pump station, especially since one of the cul-de-sacs is in front of the mayor's house. So we don't want to put pump stations in the cul-de-sacs that affects so many people. So this year we will be applying for $900,000 from the Florida State Legislature, asking them to help us fund one pump station project on the islands so we can continue to alleviate the flooding that we have. And let's be clear. The sky is not falling. When we have had king tide flooding, which is the rare occasion, It has been inches, not feet. So for the mass hysteria that's going on in our community, we're talking about inches of water over the roadway that dissipates within minutes, not hours of the issue. And it occurs twice a day during the king tide periods. It's not because the administration doesn't want to spend the money or put the energy forward on addressing the matter. It's because of the logistics, and it's important for our residents to understand. We do deploy temporary pumps to the areas of North Island, South Island and Singer Park. And those pumps, as you could only imagine, do not have the capacity to deal with those flooding issues. So we do ask our residents. But let me be very clear. The town's position has completely changed because most of the flooding that we're seeing is caused by your own neighbors who have failed to secure their seawalls and invest the necessary resources to bring their seawalls up to date. That is why this administration has issued 33 citations to homeowners, who are very upset because their seawalls are beyond repair. And so we've directed the town attorney to take all legal and corrective actions to bring seawall into compliance. It is not fair for people to be building new homes, to only have an existing home next to them, not want to invest in protecting the property. And yes, I will say it publicly, For the residents who have been calling me at 2 in the morning, very upset because we're not doing anything about it, as the town's position on this matter is very clear. We will provide a course of correction through the town's ordinance, and that process can take years. If you guys remember Barbara Shaheen, may she rest in peace, took us 11 years. if you think that you can get something done faster i strongly support that you seek legal civil action between two private parties and sue your neighbors the town cannot cannot do anything but what we have prescribed in our code so if your neighbor is damaging your landscaping sue them because that may help expedite the matter and i know that that sounds horrible for me to encourage that but our position our hands are tied as what we can do as it relates to private parties and the damage that's caused beyond between those two part private parties um in addition to that uh i want to just also say that um there's a misnomer circulating in the community that for some reason this administration, and I'm sad to see the people in the hallway left because this relates directly to them, there's this misnomer going around the community that this administration and this council is somehow financially in deficits. This past year, we have grown our fund balance to the highest levels ever. And in fact, I'm pleased to announce that at year end, we're going to be growing our fund balance by an even more considerable amount. in excess of a million dollars. So the town has been doing very well as it relates to identifying resources and cutting back expenditures so that we can grow our fund balance to be able to provide you with additional projects. None of our projects have come in over budget. And in fact, we have been able to continue to grow our fund balance. although there are many projects contingent on us being successful in the way we manage the community uh we we do so in a very systematic approach so mayor uh there is a cleanup item on the budget uh in here so i'll talk in more greater detail about the finances of the town when we get to that item um and i think that is it for my manager report okay uh I also want to just make I'm wearing pink is breast cancer awareness month and I just want to just remind everyone that is breast cancer awareness month and the town has done its part. And as it relates to e-bikes, there's a new or new state law that governs e-bikes that went into place on October 1 and we are enforcing it. In fact, I had the privilege of working as a police officer on Friday night and we had a powwow about do's and don'ts on how we govern that. Mr. Mayor, the members of the presentation for the presentations are here. Oh, so I want to go to one last thing. I'll come back one last thing. Um, I've, I've announced it now twice. Um, but we have more Casey, our new building manager to please stand up. You guys all know Casey. We all know. So Casey was promoted to building manager. Uh, and so she has, she has big shoes to fill. Um, but it's always nice that we can promote someone from within. Uh, she got her degree and she's been super excited and she's going to build her own team, but we've already seen some great things for her. So Casey, thank you for being here tonight. Um, and we're the kids. All right. So, but, but Casey's here.

Excellent. Uh, Steve town attorney report. That we're working today, we're going to recognize go back a little and recognize officer of the quarter. We have 2 officers that we are going to recognize the mayor and the town council of golden beach proudly recognize officer Ryan Kramer. and Officer Lay Rivaba of the Golden Beach Department for their outstanding monthly deliverable efforts. According to the department's monthly statistic reports, June through August 2025, these officers consistently ranked as either the top performers or close runner up of key personnel metrics. These sustained excellent and collaborative spirit reflect a strong commitment to the mission and the goals of Golden Beach Police Department. The initiative and dedication to promoting public safety and enhancing community well being truly commendable and meritable for this formal recognition. The town of Golden Beaches recognizes them and congratulates them for attending service of their and selected of their honor. So today first we have Officer Ryan Kramer for October 21st, 2025, and also lay for on October 21st, 2025. If you guys could stand up and I'd like to recognize you guys.

Mayor, if I may. So, if you guys remember Ryan, so Ryan started as a, as a lifeguard. And then he went into the CSA role, and then we sent him to the police academy. I got to tell you, he is our top performer. I mean, when it comes to not just citations and the like, he's our top performer. He actually took over late . What? Officer Rivacola, who attended the academy with me, is our Marine Patrol officer. And Mayor, one of the things that is near and dear to your heart is making sure that our Marine Patrol is active. But both Officer Kramer and Officer Rivacola have done a phenomenal job. We haven't done officers of the quarter or the month. This is for the family. in almost five years because the officers haven't been providing us this level of output. And so when the chief came to me and said, I want to recognize them, I knew that it was important that we do so because our officers perform, right? But this is for going above and beyond what's expected of them. And when I looked at the numbers and there's an email that I haven't hit send on, but when we looked at the numbers, it far exceeded what The average is for our agency and so lay and Ryan, thank you so much for everything. If you could introduce the members of your family who are here with you tonight, and then please join us and then for dinner on the time.

Plus, I'd like to give you your recommendations, but please introduce your family member. My girlfriend here, Maria, and my grandmother. Wait, wait.

Yes, sir.

I got my son. I got to be in South Korea. So unfortunately, my wife is working late. You guys can come up here for pictures.

Here's your leg.

Get closer.

You don't have to roll your arms. Keep your arms straight. Put them on Ben's. Don't tell me how to stand. I got the best. That's right. Thank you, guys.

Great job.

grandma do you speak english thank you thanks guys we didn't hear the council meeting who said that i want proof of that Thanks, guys.

Does Rudy ever see this? I don't think Rudy has ever done this. He remembered you? It's so funny.

By the way, Ryan is either one that I think.

Excellent. Thank you, gentlemen. Thank you for your hard work and dedication. Okay, moving right along, we have ordinances first reading.

Mayor, apparently I misspoke. So maybe we haven't done this since 2023. So the last two years, cause Sergeant Trujillo actually was off to the corner of 2023. I must've forgotten that for other reasons that we won't mention today.

I was gonna say, I knew I didn't want to correct ordinance.

1st, reading, uh, number 1 ordinance, a town account, uh, town council, the town of golden beach, amending the town code for ordinance chapter 66 zoning to clarify construction or a perimeter retaining walls.

An ordinance of the town council of the town of golden beach Florida amending the town's code of ordinances by revising article one in general section 66 dash six general construction requirements within chapter 66 zoning to clarify the construction of perimeter retaining walls, providing for severability, providing for codification, providing for conflicts and providing an effective date.

Okay, new motion to approve. I have a second town manager.

Uh, Mr mayor, so we've actually, this has been the policy of the town as, you know, uh, my office has the right to issue administrative orders to correct areas where the code is silent or wherever I feel we need additional enforcement. Um, the only difference between this and the executive order that I issued in 2015, um, is that in 2015, we allowed for, like, interlocking pavers and and block. This is a structural wall. So we require you to put in a retaining wall on all three sides of your property prior to going vertical on your home. And the reason we require it is because everyone always argues that it's harder to put it in after the fact. So this is nothing new to our developers. This has been a policy of the town since 2015. We're just codifying it now in ordinances.

Hold on. Excellent. All right. First, I'll open up to Council. Vice Mayor.

so we spoke about this earlier um this is for new construction correct only new construction or wherever we've wherever we look yes this is the waste rain is for deconstruction but we try to negotiate with people who are putting in uh perimeter walls or fencing to let them know that you know it may not make sense to put what they're doing if the wall isn't in because eventually they need to put the wall in You need it anyways, because the elevation changes that we're having also.

Well, what if somebody has an offense that's in total disrepair? It needs to be a chain link fence.

They can replace it without putting the wall.

They can replace it without the wall.

Yes, it will apply where there's what's known as a substantial improvement to the property, which is basically if you're doing more than, let's say, 50% of the work on the house, you would have to put in the wall. I'm giving you a rough number. There's a calculation that's used for a substantial improvement.

Okay. I just want to make the comment. Occasionally I see between 2 homes, a chain link fence. And during high tide or lots of rain. I see their spillage of land and or water. Spilling over from 1 side to the next to replace a fence. With another fence does nothing to alleviate that.

I don't disagree.

A small retaining wall makes a huge difference. I understand there's a huge difference in cost. But I'm looking further down the road in terms of keeping the town dry.

Well, as a race to that issue, and we're seeing it, in fact, I just spoke about it during my report.

I'm getting photos of it.

So remember, your ordinance requires that any water on your property stay on your property, right? So even if we don't go the route of forcing the wall and we had this recently, I got into a nasty, nasty fight with with with an absentee owner because they were spending thousands of dollars to put in a chain link funds. And my position is you're going to need to put the wall in. we're your neighbor, let's share in this issue. And they're like, you can't make me do it. It's not in the order. So we're codifying this because now they know that a wall will eventually need to go in because right now it's only through administrative orders. But we agree. We think that the appropriate thing to do before you spend any money on a Chainlink fence is that you prepare your site. The code doesn't require that.

But if they do more than 50%, it does require it.

That's a very big threshold. That's what that's a very high threshold, but yeah, but I agree with Steven. That's that's typically what we do is substantial complete substantial upgrades is 50% of the value of the property.

So, if if you have a neighbor who's. has water that's going onto your property from their property.

That's a code violation. We would issue them a nuisance violation, asking them to correct it. They could do that with putting in more ground material to kind of elevate and keep the water onto their property, which is what most of your homes today, when we give them a water going over, they bring in filled dirt and just raise their property, and then we solve that issue.

If you have a seawall, but the water is coming in from a breached seawall from the other side, is this retaining wall going to go deep enough to?

No, it's not going to prevent that. Well, hold on. I love this question because I was waiting to see how I can get an in here. How you can get what? An in. And you just opened the door for me. You just opened the door for me. So if you notice, this ordinance, it's kind of silent on this because there's only been one developer, and I love responsible developers who want to take care of our community, not just make a buck off our backs. There was one developer who actually did the right thing. He actually put in the retaining wall in front of his seawall because what he wanted to do is provide another layer of protection to not keep. So he put in a retaining wall and then and then the seawall to add another layer. What you're seeing with seepage is that in the for some reason in our code. When we updated the seawall code, we lost the contiguous seawall portion of the code. And the assumption was that because you have to bring your seawall to the property line and this person has to bring the seawall to the property line, they abut each other and they're sealed. Not a single new seawall in the last four years has connected to the neighbor's seawall. like with an intricate like something. So what we're seeing in in the 33 cases that we talked about earlier, about 12 of them are new sea walls that the water seeping through the sides. And so our attorney, her bellows, Stephanie, her bellow, which is who Steve has appointed to deal with this issue, is working on how do we mandate the closure of that gap so that we don't have water coming through those gaps?

But I got a question relating what Ken just said. Say he fixes the seawall and there is a gap. Is it the neighbor's responsibility to close the gap or his?

That's what attorney her bellows working on, right?

I mean, if it's dead in the middle, whose responsibility is it?

Well, they. That's the question. How do we compel a property owner to tie into his neighbor's seawall? And that's what we're looking at now.

But he can't go beyond his property point.

So if he goes to his property point, the other neighbor goes to the property point, there might be... We're looking at sort of what would typically be known as a party wall, a concept where there would be a... An agreement as between the 2 properties on how they would.

You know, you have to do it. Otherwise what's funny about this is that. 99% of our seawalls prior to this ordinance change connected. They just did. I mean, if you look at your neighbors, they all connect. And then for some reason, when we changed the cap height and we changed it, they just stopped connecting. It's like mysteriously why it happened. There was no language in the code.

Would a shear wall be sufficient to mandate a shear wall if there's property coming from the other side? If you have right now, A nonconforming, or I guess it's not even not conforming. If you have right now a property where water's leaking into it. And it's going into your neighbors, would you require a sheer wall in addition to the retention?

Well, that's what these that that. That's what this ordinance is supposed to deal with, which is the side property line, a solid masonry block wall along the side that would go all the way to the rear property and then the water could not flow through. But if their seawall

was being breached by water and going into their property. And so there's no side seawall between the properties. Right. There's no wall in between the properties. The property next door is going to get all the seepage of that underneath their property, even though they have a seawall.

Yes.

Yes.

So how do we prevent like, that's what he's trying to do. We're trying to come up with an engineering solution that we can incorporate into the code.

We need to do that.

So that's good. That's going to compel a, a method of construction that ties them together is what we're doing.

Yeah, I'm kind of from an Einstein.

So I understand that. Let's say you have a new construction by my house. Okay. He's putting up a retention wall there. And I own the adjacent lot when that, if that gets developed 1 day. Will, because there's a wall there already. Do you have to build another wall right next to that wall?

In principle yes, even though they're sharing a common balance, can't rely on somebody else's property to to meet our code. Yes, unless unless you guys both build it on the line and share the cost and we accept that.

Yeah, because he's on his property. You're not on your property on your property line.

And not only that, but from a water management perspective, and not only that, but from a water, not only that between you, let me just real, let me just finish real quick. Not only that, but from a water management perspective, you want to be very careful that you're not causing damage to their wall by not protecting your water from going onto his property.

I understand that. I understand it. But for that fact, um, It just seems like these walls, you know, a lot of times you do have common walls in communities, you know, they don't, I've seen it where you have two walls also, and it just doesn't look so great.

You know, this guy had his wall and that typically happens when somebody like when an adjacent neighbor refuses to share the fence, right. Right. Cost for the shot fence. And then if there's no, if there's no meeting of the minds between those parties, we, as a city can accept that to be the complying friends, because each property owner has an obligation to meet that code. Now, both property owners say, look, we're going to split the cost of offense and we're going to put it down the middle. Then under that scenario where there's a meeting of the mind and both parties agree, then that benefit could be shared by both. But that isn't the case necessarily in all matters. By the way, I want to be clear about this. This is nothing new. We have been doing this through administrative order, as, you know, in the town of golden beach through your ordinances, the mayor, and I have the authority to issue administrative orders along as he and I, he or she who's ever in that office. Agree on administrative order, we issue it, we publish it and we keep a book of administrative orders on file for the community to look at the reason we're adopting an ordinance is we, our methodology and approach to this issue has changed. And so we want to codify it because. Although it was intended in the beginning to be a short term solution. It is now a permanent solution.

A question going back to. Your comment about people bringing sand in to raise their property. Do we have any resolutions or ordinances? Yes.

Excellent questions that I'll remind the council and the members of the audience. Your code. this is where i've been a very nice manager don't ask me to be naughty because your code requires that you maintain your elevation okay and that we can inspect your elevation to make sure that if you need to bring phil in then you bring phil and in fact your ordinance even talks about the frequency that phil should be coming onto your property if you drive down golden beach drive You will see on, I always say 20% of our homes, this dirt line across the front and across the side of the property where the fill has just continued to be compacted. And in fact, you see the bumps going into driveways. Some people kind of have to like rev up to get into the driveway because the driveway has fallen. Your code has a provision on maintaining the elevation of your site. We just don't enforce it unless we see a very negative impact on the neighbors.

Does it require a permit?

It requires that you notify account, but there's no permit for maintenance. We don't we don't charge maintenance permits. There's no, if you're doing maintenance on your property, we don't charge your apartment.

Okay, I'm going to close it to the to the council any public comments on this. You come up to the podium please.

Hi, I'm for. This is way back. I just want to understand a comment that you mentioned. The pumps are going to be placed on the cul-de-sacs of North and South Island?

No. In fact, I said quite the opposite. What I said was on North and South Island, the only real estate that we own are the cul-de-sacs. So in theory, those would be the areas that we would have to explore. But because nobody wants that kind of a nuisance, the pumps itself... In the cul-de-sac, because of the close proximity, it's unlike any other area. So in most of our pump stations, there's at least 20 feet of clearance between where the pumps are located. Okay. And the property line, if we put in the cul-de-sac is less than 8 feet of distance where the pumps are located, not the controls.

north island has very little flooding zero almost so north island's the highest elevation of all the islands when they built golden beach they developed it they did north island first it had the highest the best muck and the best foundation and it's used it's higher than center island higher than south island so it really doesn't flood

If I remember correctly, the proximity to the house was not an issue for the Center Island Pumps.

It's not. Well, a couple of things, and I find it misrepresenting the town's position. So unlike Center Island, where the town owns the real estate, right, And in fact, because of consideration for the neighbors, you being 1 of them, the pumps were located in an area that was not ideal for us to locate those pumps. And so we did make accommodations as to where we located those pumps. And I, like, I just stated a few minutes ago, the proximity to the property line on center island to where the pumps are located is more than 20 feet away. Okay, not the controls, but the pumps. If we were to put pumps in the cul-de-sac, the proximity is too close, and we don't have the real estate in there. Unlike North Island, where we own the tea, and we should be able to enjoy the property that we own and provide it as a benefit to our community, out of respect to the residents, we haven't done that. And in fact, the tea on the north side is almost unusable because of the developments that the neighbors have done.

OK, so to understand your answer, the pumps will not be placed because I mean, if there's no other place, the North and South Island will not have pumps.

So I don't want to get into back and forth tonight, but like I mentioned earlier, we are applying for a $900,000 grant from the state to provide pump relief. Now, that may come in the form of above ground pumps similar to that of what you already see today on South Island. When you go over the South Island Bridge to the left, We have a permanent temporary solution for pumping. So it is not a new concept to provide above ground pumps like what we have in Turtle Park. In fact, Turtle Park pumps are above ground and they're enclosed in a pump station building. If we go vertical and with exterior above ground pumps, we believe that we have the real estate in the right of way. It's a little bit different than real estate in the right of way on both of the island bridge approaches that we can create an enclosure to provide above ground pumps, not below ground pumps. And so we're applying for $900,000 of free money to explore that option to provide some relief in both North Island and South Island.

I will end my comments. Those are very, very noisy for the neighbors that are next to those pumps.

Yeah, and again, I don't want to really get into the weeds, but those enclosures are sound barrier because they're actually in a building. And so they become very muffled. And most, if you drive throughout Dade County, most of the stormwater system that you see throughout South Florida, and in fact, the city of Miami is going above ground pumps because you can't go below ground. But we're exploring all options. The point was we're not ignoring the flooding issue.

Thank you. Thank you. Any other public comments? With that, I'll close it to the public. Roll call, please.

Mayor singer.

Yes.

Vice Mayor Luskin. Yes. Council member Bernstein.

Yes.

Council member Einstein.

Yes. Motion passes moving right along ordinance. The 2nd, reading there. None item number L resolution. There are none major project update and presentations, wellness center, annex a 1, a way finding and other projects in less than 3 minutes town manager.

Cancel the presentation. It was 33 minutes long. I'm kidding. All right, Mayor members of the Council just real quick, because the audience is still here for those that were out in the hallway when I made the announcement, the town will be issuing a memo to clarify the issues as it relates to zone 1 and it's our official position. So if you're still here thinking that that ordinance is on the agenda is not, there'll be an administrative memo issued by the town's flood administrator. That is me that will clarify our position on the matter. So, for those that were out of the hallway and just enter the room know that you missed that statement there. As it relates to the Wellness Center, I was glad that we were able to send out a cute little video showing everyone that we've gone vertical. There's a couple. All right, then on the annex, pleased to announce that we have taken possession of the annex and we've already built out. Let me finish. So a couple of things we were able to to change the enclosure to add an additional 550 square feet of enclosed space at the ground level. We're going to be having the second largest pour of the building now. We just finalized the site plan for paddle. I am pleased to announce because I had told you that we couldn't, but we can. We will have a court, not just a half court, but a court basketball court on the north side. And that's going to be released. We're actually meeting with vendors as we speak. We had a meeting today with a paddle ball vendor to do paddle and basketball in the first quarter of next year. The had a great meeting today also via zoom with Copeland. They're the largest playground manufacturer in North America. They're going to provide us a free rendering at their cost. They're going to do a site planning for us for the top area. And Mayor, I'm going to bring to you at the November Council meeting the road realignment that segues into our annex. So right now, what we're doing for the annex is we need to put it in the parking bays and we need to extend the road west. So, for the properties at 100 golden beach drive to the South know that we are going to be taking back the towns right away and moving our road. We're shifting our road to the West in that area that will provide for greater greater turning radius to park your vehicles in front of the wellness center. And it will also provide for the parking that we need at the annex. Uh, the annex will be doing a tour. In fact, dinner will be write this down stuff. Dinner will be at the annex for your November reading. So we'll eat in the annex and then we'll walk over here. So you can see what we've done at the annex for our police substation. It looks beautiful at night. It says golden beach police. Nice and it's illuminated, but it's not too bright. Doesn't wake up the neighbors and we're going to have beautiful landscaping and a gate now that closes the alleyway so that our neighbors when they're going. out to work in the morning, they don't have to see all of the mess that we have. But it's turned out really, really well. And we're proud of the work that's there. We finally have a great break room for our public works employees. We're going to get seven lazy chairs for them to have their breaks. They have their showers nicer than the shower at my house. So they now have a locker room with a shower and it looks great. I'm very happy for what we've done there for them. So we'll take possession of that for the November meeting. The wayfinding project, yes, it seems like it's taken a long time. But it hasn't stopped raining here in South Florida. And so the rain has really hampered our stuckwing business. And we're also trying to get the right volume of water flow for the fountains to look perfect when they're on. So we're hoping that we'll get the wayfinding project completed hopefully by the end of this month, if not the first part, definitely before Thanksgiving. And if you haven't seen yet, we've expanded our wayfinding project. We've authorized $80,000 of additional landscaping on A1A. That's why all the sod looks burnt and dead. We're ripping out all the sod, and we're going to be putting in green ficus where there's green ficus and Fakahatchee grass. The idea is that we mirror the first median and the last median throughout the entire median. So we have a more enhanced look for Ocean Boulevard. The sod wasn't really working. It was costing too much to constantly replace it and it was always brown. So the Fakahatchee grass and the trinets are gonna look beautiful and we're gonna get that done. It's my goal that we've hired a separate landscape designer and a separate landscape company to do the landscaping on the annex on the two minute left other projects. So we delivered the bocce. We've delivered the putting greens. We've done some enhancement. We've done some enhancements at the beach pavilion. We are working to get a historic preservation certified company to come out and look at the beach pavilion and the beach pavilion bathrooms because we believe that the roof needs to be done. If we're going to do the roof, we'll do the building at the same time. We have money in the budget. We've allocated money. And we're doing a lot more landscaping enhancements. And we continue to deliver landscaping. If you haven't seen the back of the tennis park, My last point is this. Pennywise, pound foolish, right? So when we decided to put in the pickleball courts, we did not create a structural slab underneath the pickleball courts. We decided to go with the compacted earth method. So when you compact earth, the idea is that water won't seep through it. It rained every single day in July, almost every other day in August, and almost every week in September. The volume of water in the ground in Golden Beach, you could feel it when you're walking in your yards. So what happened is the ground got so saturated that there is a there's an there's like a fissure that's coming out through the pickleball courts they're going to come out they're going to fix it just be careful while you're paying it's not that big of a tripping hazard but there is a structural crack and we're going to get that replaced things like that will happen that's why we have a maintenance budget in your parks budget because you see you know these type of issues and know where wouldn't even if it wasn't expensive we wouldn't put in a structural slab for something like pickle um but know that we're working on it and we'll get it fixed mayor that's my projects report

Are you going to show the video or no?

No video.

Oh, I thought you had a video.

We have it. I'm just I don't want to I don't want to bore you with it before I move on.

We move on. I wanted to say, and I know the council as my feelings that our thoughts and prayers go out to the iglesias family as penny. Iglesias was a long time resident of golden beach. Her husband Joe iglesias was on the council probably for 4, at least 4 years back in the early nineties and. He passed away probably eight years ago, 12 years ago. And Penny, his wife, who was a University of Miami physician and professor at University of Miami, longtime resident of Golden Beach on South Island, she passed away the last day or two ago. And our thoughts and prayers go out to them and their family. So I just wanted to mention that. So moving right along on consent agenda. Item number and letter and the following 9 items are on the consent agenda. Item number 2 minutes of the September 3rd, 2025 fist 1st budget hearing. Item number 3 official minutes of September 3rd special town council meeting item number 4 official minutes of September 16th, 2025 final budget hearing item number 5. Official minutes of the September 16th, 2026, regular town council meeting item number 6, a resolution of town council, approving a donation of 5000 dollars to the Jewish adoption and family care option. Jeff go and evening of a miracle event. Item number 7, resolution of town council authorizing a payment of 10,000 dollars to the best buddies international item number 8, a resolution of town council, approving an agreement with David as a government relations, Inc. Item number 9 resolution of town council, approving the purchase of and equipping a 2 police patrol vehicles item number 10, a resolution of town council, authorizing the purchase of a lift and doc extension to the police vehicle on center island. Item number 11, a resolution of town council authorizing acceptance of hot wire proposal to install security cameras, CCTV and access control system to the new police annex and public works building. Those 9 items on the consent agenda on favor say aye. Anyone oppose.

Mayor, just let me make 2 statements.

Motion passes. What's that?

Let me just make two statements as it relates to these items. So for the record, for the auditors, just be aware that the items related to spending will come out of the fiscal year 24-25 budget, not 25-26, and the second part for Hotwire. All because the town council approved this item tonight. That does not mean that the council has given consent as it relates to the recurring monthly fee. The council only authorized the purchasing of the equipment, and it did not give this consent as it relates to the monthly recurring fee. Thank you, Mr. Mayor.

Thank you. Item number O, town resolution. Item 12, resolution of town council, improving agreement between Craig A. Smith's associates for civil engineering services related to the civil center complex.

A resolution of the town council of the town of Golden Beach, Florida, approving a civil engineering contract with Craig A. Smith and associates for the Tweedle Park site improvements, providing that funding shall be paid for with state grant monies, providing for implementation and providing for an effective date.

Any emotion to approve motion to approve any a 2nd, 2nd, town manager Mr. mayor real real quick.

So, as you know, when we gave Craig Smith, the wellness center site, it did exclude all of the activities related to the grant and the activities related to the reimagine total park. So, this item was always forthcoming. What this does, it allows Craig Smith to be the engineer record for both the resiliency program, a part of reimagine total park and the wellness center site. So your votes.

I have a quick question. Is that all the civil work that includes park and everything?

So this is completes our civil work for that project. Everything. So the civil engineering work. So this is the design, the blood, the lighting, the elevation, the topography, all of it.

Okay, with that open any council comments. No, no. Any public comments. Nope closer to the council closer to public roll call please.

Mayor singer.

Yes.

Vice Mayor Luskin. Yes. Council member Bernstein.

Yes. Council member Einstein. Yes. Motion passes. Motion passes. Thank you very much item number 13 resolution town council.

Approving amendment 2 to the fiscal year 2024 2005 operating budget, a resolution of the town council of the town of golden beach, Florida, approving amendment number 2 to the 2024 2025 fiscal year operating budget, providing for implementation and providing for an effective date.

The emotion to approve motion to a 2nd, 2nd, Mr. mayor, this is a housekeeping item.

We do it every year, but since there's residents in the audience, and there's residents watching at home, so this doesn't mean that we've gone over budget or that we had to have permission to do this. So, throughout the year, we bring to you items for your approval and approve those expenditures. And at the end of the year, what we do is we do a clean up item to bring our balance our budget, the balance and preparation of our audit. So, all because departments went over budget. That doesn't mean that we went over budget without permission. It means that the council throughout the year authorized those expenditures and what we do is we bring 1 clean up item. Mr. mayor, I do want to just say that we had a phenomenal year. We did have close to. Well, I don't want to give a number we had a lot of revenue come in that we weren't necessarily budgeting for. Um, and so when we did this clean up, even after this clean up, we're still going to see a considerable amount of money going to your fund balance. That's why tonight I took the 1st time we've ever done. This is we authorized expenditures for new things that we need to buy out of last year's budget. Because the money has been there, and we want to make sure that what we grow to the fund balance is a manageable number because we still have projects that we need to be funded. So just know that your finance team under the direction of our finance director, Maria Camacho and Ingrid Gooding. And of course, all of your director staff members really held back. And we had a very phenomenal year as it relates to being able to grow our fund balance. Let's knock on wood and hope that it happens again next year. And the fact that we didn't have any major activities really did help.

I would just want to comment that excellent job to Maria, the finance department and town manager for a great budget year. Any other council comments. Nope, close to the council. Any public comments. Close it to the council to the public roll call please.

Mayor singer. Yes. Yes. Council member Bernstein. Yes. Council member Einstein. Yes. Motion passes.

Mr. Mayor members of the council. I just want to make a few announcements for the record before you adjourn as a reminder to the residents that we have moved our Halloween party beginning at 5 0 PM on Friday, October 31st. Couple of things that that's very important to be aware of. Given that we changed the time to five o'clock, the town will be closing the strand for all visitors at 430, just like we've done for the last five years. So please don't give your feedback on this. This is the way we've done it for five years. The strand will be closed at 430. All residents who, all of our council who have invited guests, make sure that they know that the strand will be closed at 430. If not, they have to come to the south gate, okay, to enter town. Only those guests that can park in your driveway Not in the town streets will be allowed to come into town and parking your driveway. If you're accounting for your residents to park on the streets, they will be told we will be towing cars this year. Okay, last year it was a nightmare. We couldn't get an ambulance to town last year because of the amount of cars that we had. So residents must park their guests in the driveways. Any cars parked on the road will be towed. They have to come in through the South key. Okay. The event will start at five o'clock. You are allowed to invite guests so long as they park on your property or they could park outside of town and they could Uber in or walk in. It has worked. It has worked. We have never had an issue.

Point of clarification. When you say they're going to close the strand at 430, but people can park in owners houses. Does that mean. But does that mean if somebody's guest comes after 430. South key. would just come through the south south key but how did they come through they would park and stay at the prop no they cut their soft key and then they go up okay we've done it every year every year but i thought this is all closed now it's not

So, so cars can be driving through the, like, we do in the shop. So, so the, the, the alleyway that connects the, the terrorists to terrorist, you know, to golden beach drive is still open. Um, so you come in just like we did last week when we had the closure on the money.

So, all the all, sorry, I'm thinking the parties there, right?

So, so, yeah, excellent. Excellent observation. The party is in North Park this year, not on a Halloween. I see why you're confused, but Southgate so. So that's number 1. so that's issue number 1 number 2, because it's their last council meeting before Veterans Day as a reminder. Veterans Day is going to be held on. 1111 at 5 o'clock at the beach pavilion. That's important to the council. If you have not responded to the Jeff, go invite or best buddies. We do need your invite response because we need to be able to plan accordingly. And as a reminder, save December. That's important save December 13th, December 13th. Please save the date. That is the employee holiday event as Sophia's in the design district. So I'm giving you plenty of notice December 13th 13th.

Next council meeting is the 8th.

And the next council meeting is Tuesday, November 18th. So, if that motion to adjourn is always appropriate. Casey, congratulations and thank you for being here today.

That's a Saturday, the 13th. I'm sorry, the 13th. The next council meeting is the 18th. Did Jeff go on Thursday the 13th? Who is thinking of going Thursday night?

Which night?

The night before. Saturday is going to be Best Buddies.

I'll go to Jafco.

Is that Thursday for honoring Elise and Ronnie?

What time is Jafco set?

I think 6.30. Here, what did did you see it down? I just put set.

I'll go.

I want you're going.

Yeah. And I'm going to best buddies, but I'm a separate table. Best buddies.

Without a motion to adjourn is always with that.

Hey, with that, I make a motion to adjourn. I need a 2nd, 2nd, all favor. Say, aye. All right.

Good job guys. Okay.

So, that I found my home and then I'm going to finally, and it's hard.