Village Commission - Regular Meeting

work. Close.

Close. That's that nice lady all the way on the end there. She's the village clerk. That's the title. That's the name of the job. Well, she's letting people into our meeting.

Whatever you say I do that.

All right, everyone. So go ahead and call our meeting to order now.

Oh, what is this?

John in here but he knows how to fix that and that he was looking for.

Captain

It's a. All right, Jonas, we're going to talk. Hello.

All right, everyone. Well, while we work on the monitor issues here, Madam Clerk, we are still live and streaming on YouTube. Is that correct? Okay. So we're still streaming. We'll have these fine gentlemen here help us with the monitor. And while we do that, why don't we move forward because we have some special guests here in the log cabin this evening, it looks like. Hey, we got it. All right, great. Captain John, thank you guys both. All right, so we're calling to order our meeting. Today is Tuesday, October 7th, 2025. And before, let's just quickly call the roll and then we'll see who we have here with us. Madam Clerk, would you call the roll for us, please?

Mayor Groff.

Here.

Vice Mayor Samara. Here. Commissioner Ansler. Here. Commissioner Gonzalez. Commissioner Huntington.

Here.

Mr. Mayor, you have a quorum.

Thank you, Madam Clerk.

Mr. Mayor, I think the cat is out of the bag at this point, but we have the Girl Scouts here with us to give us the Pledge of Allegiance.

Okay, so this is troop number what? What troop are we? Girl Scouts, yes. What's the number? That was very good. It was in unison. It was all at the same time. So who's going to lead us in the Pledge of Allegiance? Everybody, right? You're all here to do it? Okay, so do you want to tell everyone out there to stand up for us, please? Girl Scouts, whenever you're ready, the flag is right over here. You can go ahead and lead us, okay? What do we do? Where do we put our hand? On our hearts. Where is that? Is it over here? Is it up here? All right, go ahead.

and which it stands one nation under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all.

Good job. Now you know why I was wearing a hat, actually, because I'm a veteran.

Well done, Girl Scouts. Thank you for helping us.

Thank you, Mr. Mayor and members of the commission for the Girl Scouts. They asked it last month if they could come and give it help with the pledge.

Thank you. All good. I think I think we got the Cub Scouts coming next. So perfect. Let's practice. Excellent. All right, great.

I'm sorry.

I don't know if that's an issue with the link.

That's by clicking the link in the agenda. On the calendar? Yeah. Different one, you want to share it?

Commissioner, I just used the link on the calendar and it worked. Maybe that one will work.

Yeah, mine is not working. It says the meeting is scheduled for Tuesday, November 4th when I click. We refresh in case anything happened i'm going to come out and come in again. yeah, let me see because I see a different link there live enjoying. Maybe you see me now. Now. There you go, thank you.

All right, so let's go ahead. Let's move on to our additions, deletions, and withdrawals. Do we have any this evening?

Yes, I have some.

First off, I don't understand why we're having all these on the consent.

These are the discussion items.

So I like to move A, C, D, and E on nine. And then I like to move up 13A for discussion. Repeat those, Commissioner? Yes, I'm sorry. 9A, 9C, 9D, 9E, and 12A, I mean, excuse me, 13A for discussion. Move it up if we can. That's okay, I'm sorry. 9A, 9C, 9D, 9E, and then 13A up for, move it up.

Where do you want to move it? We only have two ordinances ahead of discussion.

Oh, it's not going to make, I mean, if you don't think it's going to make that much of a difference, I just, that we have a couple of attorneys that might be here and I don't want to.

Well, it wasn't going to make a difference, but now that you moved everything out of consent agenda, it's going to make a difference.

Make a difference.

That's, yes, that's what I was thinking.

It's going to make a difference.

It's going to make a big difference.

Make a big difference because we're going to have all those items for discussion.

Well, why don't we table moving 13A up right now and find out if there are any, any other changes to the agenda before we finalize it.

Move it up. Okay, fine.

All right, so right now we have a request to move A, C, D, and E off of consent. Are there any other proposed changes right now?

Go ahead.

Okay, that's fine.

I have some. So I'm just going to say mine, and you tell me maybe they're duplicated with Commissioner Samaria. 9A, I'm pulling for discussion. 9B, pulling for discussion. 9D, pulling for discussion, and 9H, pulling for discussion. Additionally, I am going to propose and make a motion to move, and I'll tell you which ones. nine E resolution 2025 51 nine E and nine I so that we move them to commission to I'm sorry to managers report instead of having them the consent agenda. I'm making that proposition. I mean, that's within the purview of the manager. I also was a bit confused to see them here.

Which ones again, I'm sorry, nine what?

So I'm gonna say them, allow what they are not to create confusion. So nine E, resolution 202551, Joe's Landscape Tree Service in Norfolk. That's something that already happened. Nine E, resolution 202553, Joe's Landscape and Tree Service Black Olive. And nine I, which is the job description regarding the assistant village clerk. I would put them in the manager's report. That's my motion. And then the rest keep.

Okay. Are there any other requested changes before we discuss these? No? Oh, yes. Sorry, Brad. Go ahead.

9D, which is Resolution 2025-50 related I don't think that's going to work.

We have a few people on Zoom. What about, Isa, can he try your mic? It's not the mic. Ouch.

I think it might be working now.

Oh.

On is it is if he changes mics. Would that help you any idea Each if he uses he says Mike, they share a mic.

So, if I may better there we go so regarding nine e i'm sorry nine D as in David resolution 2025 52 which is approving a settlement agreement with Roberto Navarro just. We have amended the actual agreement itself so if it's approved tonight would be the agreement as amended the provision. dealing with Mr. Navarro being assigned to the HSI, Homeland Security Task Force, is being removed from the agreement, and the agreement would be amended to state that Mr. Navarro will be assigned to, at the discretion, assigned to tasks at the discretion of the people. So if you were to approve that tonight, I would ask that it be approved as amended.

Okay.

All right. Thank you, Brad. Um, all right. So I think I have all these down. Um, we have at least one, two, three, four, five. I see six that are being moved off consent to discussion. Um, so let's revisit very quickly. The vice mayor's request to move up 13 a, do we want to move up 13 a to come before the resolutions that have been pulled for discussion?

I don't think there's much to that discussion. It's just to determine if we're going to go forward with the request that we had of the city manager, meaning that we can start interviewing the other candidates. I think that's what, if I'm correct, that's what the discussion is going to be about.

All right, so then it would, so then the way that the agenda will read as amended is we'll go into our presentations, we'll go through public comment, we'll get to the report section, we'll go to consent, and before we move into the resolutions that have been pulled in the ordinances, we'll discuss 13A first.

Is that what I understand you're asking?

Yeah, I think that, that's fine by me. Okay. That'll be working better.

All right, so I think I have all of these down correctly, so do I have a motion and a second to approve the agenda as it's been amended?

Sorry, I make a motion to approve the agenda as it's been amended.

Is there a second?

I'll second.

Okay. All in favor? Aye.

Aye.

Aye. All right. So let's get started. So our first item for this evening is going to be our presentations. We have two. Do we have Derm here with us this evening? James? Yes. Great. Okay. So, James, we received your slideshow. Yes. Thank you. Madam Clerk, are we able to load that up on the screen for us? Now, James, I'm going to unfairly ask that we not go too long. It's an important topic, so we're kind of stuck in between kind of an unusual situation where we have a lot in front of us here this evening. But I don't want to cut into the time for either presentations that we have this evening because both are very important. And both are topics that Biscayne Park has been waiting to hear from for quite a while. So while I don't want to say cut you off at 10, 15 minutes or so, you know, I do want to just try and keep track of our time. Okay. So I just want you to be aware of that. That's all.

While the presentation's up, I'll just introduce myself. My name's James Duncan. I'm the Division Chief over the Urban Forest and Tree Division for Miami-Dade County. This division was created towards the end of last year as kind of a clearinghouse for the county to provide guidance, policy guidance, and implement urban tree canopy initiatives within the county. And in the request for the presentation, there were two topics that were requested me one was information about the county's prohibited species ordinance and kind of our practices around prohibited species and invasive species in general, and the other information on on birds. So that covers the title slide.

Are you still in presentation mode? Because maybe we were able to see it if it wasn't in presentation mode. So maybe if you exit presentation mode, we will be able to just see it up on the screen, maybe just not at full screen.

All right. So I think we can go to slide two. So the first of two topics, what are prohibited species?

I'm so sorry to interrupt you. I don't think it's being shown. I think we're the only ones seeing it. So if you give us a minute.

Oh, it's up on the screen.

On the Zoom.

Oh, on the Zoom.

So everybody can see it as well.

Thank everybody for coming. We always like to see a lot of people at the meetings, so I appreciate that. Thank you.

All right, ready to go?

All right, all set.

All right, so second slide, under 10 minutes. What are prohibited species? Prohibited species, that term reflects part of the county's code that provides a minimum standard countywide about the removal and the prohibition of propagating invasive plant species because of the outsized risk that they pose to our community and to our natural habitats. I put the code reference up there and it's kind of hard for me to see, but essentially propagating, planting, transportation, and importation of prohibited species is prohibited. And when properties in the county get developed or redeveloped, they're supposed to be maintained free of those species. This includes a lot of tree species that folks know about. familiar to folks in their urban areas. Things like Malaluca, Brazilian pepper, umbrella tree, Australian pines. Most of these species are also restricted by the state and federal governments because of the outsized risk that they pose. Next slide. So a lot of the questions that were posed to me were about Australian pines. So here's a a very brief history and natural history. These are a popular street tree nation, sorry, worldwide, especially in tropical climates. Here in Florida, They were planted heavily as landscaping in the 19th and 20th centuries. The purpose of the landscaping was street trees, windbreaks. Here in Florida, their lifespan is much, much shorter than it is in other parts of the world. They only grow to about 40, 50 years old. Here they grow very tall, very fast, which I'm going to get to as to why that's a little bit of a problem. They've been regulated since the 1980s. This is not a new thing. That was one of the the questions was, why are we regulating them now? We haven't, it's been on the books for a really long time, and it's a federal noxious weed. Next slide. So what is the harm to planet and people? So they aggressively colonized any kind of upland habitat, any disturbed area. This photo was taken not too far from here. Here you have a swan where a storm toppled some invasive Australian pines that had been growing on the side of the road. They are what we call allelopathic, which means that they prevent or poison especially young trees in their beginning stages. It's hard for me to see all my bullets, but I'll try to do it from memory. They don't grow the same way our native trees grow. What I mean by that is that they're not hurricane adapted. Remember when I said they go tall and fast? That's not what our native trees do. They like to grow kind of wide and short so that they don't get toppled over in storms. The Australian pines provide probably the biggest risk to the coastal habitats. It's expensive to manage them in an environment They're a management target, particularly around displacing sea turtle habitats along shorelines and beaches, and also the risk that they pose for erosion control. There's a couple other kind of like, I would call them minor, but they are pretty important. That duff layer that they form restricts kind of habitat utilization of open ground, and that's also another key component that wildlife needs to have access.

Next slide.

So current challenges in Miami-Dade County related to Australian pines. Well, they were planted a lot. They make up a lot of historical landscapes. A lot of them are kind of dying. They are also, because we stopped planting them so long time ago, that the ones that are present are kind of fully grown have decay and susceptible to collapse. They have what we call ecosystem services and disservices. The quality of the tree in the kind of urban habitat as an ecologist, it's lower functioning than some of our native trees. The picture that you see is a stand of Australian pines in a county park next to Biscayne Bay where we actually chopped the trees and treated them in a way that they could still be used as bird perches. That's some of the things that we try to do when we're assessing and removing these tree species to see what we can do to kind of make the ecosystem better, but also retain some of the utilization. There's another note about Australian pines and other invasive plant species. they don't get better over time. They tend to get worse because people tend to bring new populations, new kind of hybrids, and that provides a lot of genetic material for them to become more and more invasive. They don't have their predators here, so they can select for things like growing faster instead of resisting herbivory from insects. Next slide. So migratory birds, and we did have a wildlife photographer in our tiny work unit. He retired, so these photos are much better than my tree photos. So the county hosts birds all year. We host bird residents, i.e. birds that don't migrate. We also host a lot of our migratory birds in the Atlantic Flyway, the kind of tunnel down here. And we have outsized importance for birds on the east coast of the United States. Next slide. So there are a lot of risks. So these are the impacts. And there's a lot of variations to this chart. But the top three impacts to migratory birds and birds in general, they're vehicular vehicle strikes, domesticated animals, cats, and windows. Those are the things that kind of cause loss.

We do have some bright notes, though.

There's been some recent research in the People and Ecology Lab, I think I said that right, at Florida International University that indicate that there's increased utilization of urban areas and urban habitats by migratory birds in the county that's that's really great for us, because we tend to lose so much so that's a from an ecologist perspective that's a really bright spot our urban hammocks which is actually our easiest. or one of our easiest plant communities to recreate, those are the most utilized. And in non-natural areas, we do have some species that are very utilized. The champion is ficus aurea or strangler figs, which again, there's a little bit incompatible with a lot of urban areas because of the roots, but there's other things like gumbo limbo and wild tamarin that are very heavy hitters. Next slide. So I know a lot of the questions were about nesting for night herons and our wildlife photographer didn't have any night heron photos. But we were able to, I was able to talk to some of my friends at Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission and some of the biologists that we have on staff. It is very unusual for night herons to nest in Australian pines. Generally, we'd see them in Green buttonwood mangroves Brazilian pepper, believe it or not, is a plant that they really, really tend to like. It's also kind of common on the transition from coastal area to upland area or disturbed area. The bird habitat. Habitat is that they like to be kind of sheltered. They like to be covered. And... I'm not sure what oh and the species this actually a pretty important consideration, the species of the utilization of species or urban areas is resident resident to like. Mid migratory that means like they can stay here year round, but they can also leave for long periods of time next slide. And that concludes my presentation, I think I did eight minutes.

James Thank you very much. So generally what we do for our presentations, James, is if there's we try to get a question or two. And if any of the commissioners has any specifically what I might ask you to do, I don't know what your schedule looks like for the rest of the evening. But if you have a little bit of time, maybe hang around with us at some resident. We have a lot of residents here. Maybe some might have some questions for you. I know. Your information was up on the screen there your email address so that's, of course, always available, but i'm just.

I can stay till about seven.

Okay, I very much appreciate that Thank you so i'll just at this point if any of the question Commission has a question for you that i'll go ahead and ask them to do that, but thank you very much for the presentation, thank you for being here, yes.

Questions questions.

I do. Thank you, James, for coming. Good to put a face to a name. We've been back and forth on when we had our issue with Australian pines back in February and recently on a tree removal that happened in Griffin. I guess it wasn't scheduled to happen. So I appreciate you staying in touch with that, trying to resolve it. I'm trying to understand, this is maybe for you as well, for the rest of the commission. What's the intent of bringing this topic right now, both birds and the Australian pine? What was the brief to you in order, what's the next step?

the next step from here or before this?

I'm just trying to wonder, and maybe the rest of the Commission has a better idea, what are we doing with this information ourselves, right? We have some few left over Australian pines. So I was wondering if there is a certain recommendation that has to do with those specifically, and the reason it was to hear from an expert and what the perspective is. So I just wanted to put context to it.

we have kind of history in a variety of different scenarios of accommodating a bird's nest and nesting habitats and also removing species that are causing an impact to the county. So from this, as a next step, you guys can, submit proposals and we could try to vet it through a through through our group of scientists um the county doesn't regulate uh birds and most of our policies around nesting habitats are our master plan which doesn't necessarily apply in the the cities the only part of the county um kind of framework that I presented on is the code requirement around prohibited species upon development or redevelopment and that they not be planted. We do have a variance process for that. It's not often that people come for variances though.

Yes, thank you. And I'm sure there'll be more questions if you can stick around. I appreciate it. Thanks.

I do have one question the Commissioner mentioned a Australian pine that was removed on Griffin Griffin to the county road, could you expand on that if you do have any information was there an assessment done on the tree.

So I redirected the Commissioner to the group that removes those trees in our county parks department um my understanding is that I think part of it had already i'm not sure if part of it had collapsed or that they had deemed it to be very. That. that it was essentially a dangerous tree or a risky tree, I guess.

So my other question comes with a concern about when you have a dangerous tree there, there's another tree right next to it. There's a number of Australian pines still left in Griffin. What does the county normally do? What is your best practice procedure for assessing invasive noxious weeds that are on county roads? Is it by report or is there proactive measures that are done?

So if there's an intersect with germ, we'll generally tell

James, it sounds like we just lost your mic. Well, unfortunately, it's not going to work for the people on Zoom. The captain's going to help you out. No.

So we have a plan review process on and especially when there's intersect with the natural resources permit. That extra trailer.

I don't I don't know that it's on.

There you go. Go ahead. All right. So we have a plan review process, particularly when there's an intersect with the natural resources permit. You'll see the condition around prohibited species. The county knows that this is a big problem. And we have a couple of programs and projects in the infancy. We've had a couple of proposals. We were shortlisted on a NOAA grant on how to do risk reduction around an urban tree canopy. We didn't get that grant. We are inventorying some of the major county roadways where we do have planting practices. And one of the primary, there'll be a lot of functions, but one of the primary functions is to inventory and characterize all of those prohibited species.

All right, James, thank you again. Very much appreciate the time and you being here with us for the presentation. If anyone is interested in speaking with James, he's with us for another 20 minutes or so. And for the time being, we will go ahead and we'll move on to our next presentation. So our next presentation, excuse me, is the South Florida Water Management District. Yes. bringing over some new batteries. So, um, commissioner Huntington, we might be co-opting your mic for just a little bit. So, um, are we, how are we doing? Are we ready? So unfortunately we, we got batteries. Are you in this? Are you in the zoom meeting?

Okay.

All right, back.

Okay, great. So I'm going to go and give you the floor if you wouldn't, if you just mind before you get started, if you just introduce yourself and let us know what what presentation you're here for this evening.

Of course. Good evening, everyone. I'm Carolina Moran. I'm the division director for flood control and water supply planning with the South Florida Water Management District and chief of resiliency. I'm here to present about this project, which is one of the key projects that we have in the agency right now, priority for our fiscal year 26 implementation. This is a project located at what we call C8 basing. It's the basing that is related to the C8 canal that runs through Miami Shores and Biscayne Park. So we are here just to present on the status of the project, some information, and answer questions. So thank you for the invitation. Here with me I also have Armando Villaboy. He is the regional staff from the agency external affairs that is here for Miami. He is able to really answer very specific questions. He is located here in Miami and is here with me and will help me with any of the specific questions. So I mentioned CA basing, I mentioned CA canal, and linking with that is the S-28 coastal structure. So this project specifically is the enhancement of this structure that helps us manage canal levels overall and drainage needs in this basing. I'M JUST GOING TO START BY FOCUSING ON THE JOINT ROLE OF FLOOD PROTECTION. WE ARE ONE AGENCY, BUT WE PARTNER WITH LOCAL GOVERNMENTS, WITH HOAs, WITH THE CORE ON OPERATING THIS ENTIRE SYSTEM. SO OUR FOCUS IS ON THE PRIMARY CANAL. SO C8 IS THE PRIMARY CANAL. S28 IS A STRUCTURE LOCATED IN THE PRIMARY CANAL. SO WE MANAGE LEVELS DIRECTLY IN THOSE CANALS. operate the system jointly and there are several canals that we call secondary canals operated by Miami-Dade and other tertiary canals that really helps us on the drainage and flood control mission. We focus recently on also incorporating change conditions beyond urbanization. So this system was designed and constructed 70 years ago. Situation was completely different at the time. We had about 2 million people in the area served by the project. We have 9.5 now. Very much a lot of urbanization happen, dense urban areas around all those canals. And we have, this system is gravity-based. That means we need to discharge and drain to the ocean based on the water levels. And the water level inland needs to be higher than the water level in the ocean for us to have the capacity to discharge. With sea level rise, what's happening is we lost capacity to drain because by gravity, we have a higher, one of the sides higher, the ocean is higher, already six to eight inches. So that means we have lost capacity to discharge waters and protect communities against flooding. The chart on the left show the number of hours that our gates are closed. And you can see an upward trend, meaning that there is more hours that the gate is completely closed because the ocean level is higher. And if we open, we are going to allow saltwater intrusion to go inland and also impact water supply. We have aquifer, well fields and aquifers really close to the coast in many of those locations. If we do allow saltwater to enter, we are impacting water supply sources as well. So very tight system, not a lot of flexibility. Very, very close system. This is the video that we had during king tide. It's actually happening again. It happened again today. We have photos during high tide. What's happening is the ocean is so high that it's overtopping the gate. The gate was designed with a freeboard, a margin of safety to avoid this happening. And we are going through that today, tomorrow again. in a lot of those locations, meaning we need to enhance those gates and we need to make sure that we are also monitoring those changing conditions. So the project here is exactly that. It's a primary flood control feature. We are gonna be touching the CA Canal S-28 coastal structure. As I mentioned, these floodwaters are drained by gravity, and this project is managed by the district. We also have components that are managed by Miami-Dade County, and we work very closely with local governments. This project aims to reduce flooding from rainfall and also helps us on managing the sea level rise impacts. We will protect water resources and prevent saltwater intrusion and it is the replacement of this coastal structure aiming to recover, restore the capacity that we had in this location without the sea level rise, without the increase in the elevation of the ocean. So with that, we will increase the overall level of service. So today, we provide a level of service in this basin less than it was designed. So the chances, so we have, the system was designed for a 4% chance event, meaning 25-year rainfall, 4% chance we should be able to handle the volumes associated with them. Today, we have pounding occurring in locations even when we have a 10% chance event in this basin. So more frequent flooding. Benefits from this project is, we are talking about 132,000 people benefited. So the entire basin cover, all the cities listed here, and really when we look at the property that are protected from the flooding risks, we are looking at three times the return in investment. We also look very carefully on the water quality aspect on the Northeast Cane Bay. We work very closely with Miami-Dade County. We were just discussing this. We have several projects in place focusing on the water quality aspect. This project specifically is not solving water quality questions. It's a different project, a different process. But we collaborate very closely with Miami-Dade. We have a series of initiatives that we are looking at that. And we are a partner on the reasonable assurance plan that is really limiting some of the pollution loads to the bay. So the replacement of S-28 structure itself includes the demolition of the 70-year-old structure. That's the structure located in the golf course today. We are going to replace this structure, the existing structure, by a more robust corrosion-resistant and really elevated structure with elevated gates that will prevent from those impacts that we are observing, for instance, today with the king tides. We will have a pump station that will help us pump the water. So we are not fully dependent on gravity to discharge those volumes and protect the communities against the flooding. And the project also provides storm surge protection to areas upstream. We're gonna find areas that we can tie to higher land. There will be additional sea, canal banks elevation that will help us to also avoid water that is coming from the surge to bypass, because if you have an elevated gate, you don't want water to go around. So we will have a structure that has way lower risk, longer lifespan, and really again, as I said, tying this structure to higher ground. The component of the pump station is a power pump station. This will be integrated to the operation of the gate. So the gate that we have today, S-28, is a spewer gate. We are going to have a structure on the side of the gate, so we can either open the gate or turn the pumps when we need. The capacity of the pump is much lower than the capacity of the gate. We are just talking about storing lost capacity that we had on the original design. So here we are proposing three 500 CFS pumps, 1,500 CFS. We will have backup power and also we'll have an enhanced debris collection system that is part of the pump operation that will be built is a trash rake. This is the proposed site. We are under review of this site right now. This is the latest and greatest design that was provided to us by the consulting team. At the same time, we had just performed geotechnical and survey analysis in this project site, and some of the design will be modified. They are not going to be... huge modifications, but I just want to point that this is not the latest. We are undergoing some small modifications right now. So what we are aiming with this design is to limit the impacts to the golf course. We are working very closely with the village on this side to allow operation of the golf course throughout the construction of this project as well. We really are focusing on minimizing the footprint of this structure and the pump to the maximum extent possible. We will provide, as I mentioned, the increased flood protection with this tie back against the surge. And we will have separation of the golf course and the pump throughout the operation to really ensure public safety and add security to the site. So next steps on this project, we are gonna complete the design. As I mentioned, we are doing some final touches. We are also gonna be working on some design considerations from the city in terms of the style of the building outside, and we completed those geotechnical investigations. We will continue on additional public consultations. As soon as we have this updated design, we're gonna come back and present to the village, to the city here, Biscayne Park, and continue to coordinate Our goal, as I mentioned, is to initiate construction mid to late calendar year 2026. We have budget in our fiscal year this year to begin construction. And we will work very closely on the sequencing of this construction, again, to minimize impacts to residents with the village of Miami Shores and also Biscayne Park, and also ensure that the golf course renovation is occurring in parallel to this project. As I mentioned, just waiting on this golf course we designed as well from the village. They are working in parallel with us and really hoping to align schedules there to allow for an efficient project implementation. We will continue to do the public input as the projects are being advanced, and we will continue to coordinate with Miami-Dade County. We have a series of efforts, especially on the coastal side. I mentioned this project does not solve water quality. This project also doesn't solve coastal risks. There are significant coastal risks that will remain in this area that will be advanced through additional studies. With that, I'm opening for questions. Thank you.

Well, thank you very much for the presentation. So I think we'll just kind of follow the same format. Follow a very similar format where, you know, this was set up as a presentation. So I think first we'll just kind of start with the commission and present some questions to you, if that's all right. If you can hang around with us for just a little bit to answer some questions. I do have... Kind of a, I guess, overarching question for you. Can you speak a little bit to, you said this was approved or began seven years ago, is that right? Approximately.

The project itself is started. So we did a first study in the basin, C7, C8, C9. I believe it was 2014, 15, the first assessment on the basin, identifying that we had flood vulnerabilities. So understanding that the risk of flooding was increasing.

Understood. So the reason that I asked the question is because I'm kind of just interested in in timeline of this entire project, you know, kind of from conception to completion. Because, you know, this is I think, a lot of our residents the first time they may be hearing about it, specifically with respect to some of the details of the pumping station. So could you just kind of give us an understanding? I know you said 2026, you're looking to start construction, potentially. Yes. So, but at the same time, the designs are you're waiting final approval. I mean, how do you, how do you kind of reconcile those two things?

So we already submitted the designs. So the modifications we are doing on the designs now are not major that would impact the permits. So we are going on the final review of the permits right now. We have submitted that to the federal government and the state. We need permits from the Army Corps and also the state. So we are hoping to get this final permitting resolutions in the next two, three months while we close the design. And then we're going to go to the bid process a few more months. And then again, hoping to initiate construction at the fiscal year 2026.

And when those things happen, do you anticipate coming back to do kind of these sort of town hall presentations to residents? Because this is going to lead into my next question, which is going to be, can you explain a little bit about the impact on Biscayne Park and our residents? Because this is obviously very close to several of our homes.

Yeah. So overall, there is a lot of benefits to Biscayne Park. Let's put it that way. We are really protecting all the communities located upstream of the new gate. There will be enhanced flood protection, so a much higher capacity to remove flood risks from all the properties located upstream. We will drain, we have the capacity to drain, and again, working very closely with Miami-Dade County on the secondary canal, so we make sure that the water gets to the primary canal and can be drained out of the basin. They are also working on enhancements to the secondary canal. So that's, I would say, the main point to focus here is in a lot of those benefits, flood risk reduction. We will be, as I mentioned, minimizing the footprint of this project to avoid any impact to the golf course. The location itself helps because it's located not very next to residents and existing property. We will have a pump that is an electric pump that has a significant lower level in terms of noise. The project design already accounts for some, I don't know if I can use this word, but acoustic inside the building that prevents some of the noise also of going outside is traditional in our buildings, especially in urban areas. And we will be working And we're going to also have additional, I mean, landscape adjacent to the building itself to allow for the integration with the surrounding areas.

And I apologize, I'm kind of monopolizing the time, so I'm going to stop in a second. Do you have an understanding of how long the construction is likely to take? And going back to that The one slide where it showed the kind of the aerial picture of if you wouldn't mind backing up just that one. So do you anticipate access to the site for construction along this this road here that's coming off of 107 is that is that where we would anticipate a lot of the traffic to be going

So mostly yes, but we have not finalized all the sequencing on the project and we really depend on this final details that will be also part of the redesign of the golf course. So we are waiting to get all those pieces in place and have a proper sequencing for the project. So yes, potentially the access through our existing easement that we have that is on the back of the Miami-Dade County School is the main access to the project site and we will investigate other options in terms of how we can do that with minimal impacts, but the time.

I'm sorry.

Yeah.

I'm sorry. I interrupted you. I apologize. So the expectation, I guess, is access for construction is going to be off of Miami-Dade County or Miami-Dade, Miami-Dade, Miami Country Day. Excuse me.

Country Day School. So yes.

Okay. Okay. And then what about lifeline of how long you expect construction to take?

Construction is estimated four years.

Four years? Yeah. Okay. Okay. Yeah, go ahead. I'm going to stop. I've asked enough.

Just a quick question. You said that the floodgate primarily is going to continue to be gravity driven, right? Yes. So how much higher are you raising the floodgate from what it's currently at?

The floodgate will be, I believe, is two to three feet higher than what it is today, I can give you the exact dimensions, but yeah the gate itself will be elevated about three feet high.

So the concern that I have is obviously in order for that to function, it would seem to me that the internal water has to also raise in order for that to function properly correct.

No, not necessarily. The reason we don't need to raise the internal water is because we'll have the pump to help us on the discharge.

But then it won't be gravity-driven. It'll be pump-driven.

When the ocean is high. So when we have, during events like now that we have king tides, that the ocean is higher, we'll need to operate with the help of the pump. When the ocean is in normal levels and we have the capacity to discharge, we'll continue to discharge through the gate.

When you say gravity-driven, to me that sounds like it's going over something and into something. Or are you saying that's not how it works?

No. So the gate just stops the water, splits the water from the ocean and the inland side. So basically... When you open the gate, you elevate, the waters connect. And if this level on the water is higher, there is nothing that it's it just drains naturally towards the lowest side by gravity. So it's just it's it's, to be honest, a very. Great system. I mean, it doesn't use energy. It was designed very smartly back in the 50s.

You don't expect the water, the internal waters to raise at all.

No, we are not. None of the simulations include raising internal levels. No. Yeah, that's not. We are not going to change any of the operational range in the inland side.

And the last question, I think you touched on it, but I just want to make sure, you know, this has been, this is a very hot topic in our community. I've gotten a lot of calls and a lot of questions in regards to this. And so people want to be able to ask questions, kind of like the Miami Shores thing. So has anybody talked to you about perhaps coming back and doing a workshop with?

I'm more than available to come back and do a workshop that we can have specific questions and also bring the designing chairs together. have the numbers right on their head and can answer some of the specific questions.

Tonight we have a very short time, right, obviously, but I think it's really important that you come back and let the community ask, because there's a lot of questions coming in.

I recommend we do as soon as we have this update on the design, because then we know it's the final. We are so close. We are a few weeks away of getting these updates. Thank you very much. Okay.

Thank you. I think my questions, most of them were answered. I was also going to propose a workshop. I mean, there is a lot of interest, not just from what we've seen happen on August 14th in Miami Shores. Some of us were there, and it was very engaging to see people come with their questions. On that behalf, I know after that, a lot of questions came back, and how are you taking in? Is this a stage where you're taking in those questions? What do you do with that next? That's one of the questions that I've been asked many times. So if we do do this workshop, does it have a purpose? Does it have an impact? And how do we see that? So that would be my first question. And the second, and I think to add to what I've heard, is the cost associated with four years of construction at an environmental level, at an infrastructure level, So if you can help me get some feedback as to what's happening to our roads for four years, who takes care of those expenses, and then how, when you say mitigate, considering we're a work sanctuary, we have all this canopy, you just heard from them, noise is an issue. So how have you been sort of answering to all these questions I know you've had already been placed in front of you? Yeah.

No, first of all, we really appreciate the opportunity to really listen and engage with the community. I think it is our mission to be able to talk about the project, to clarify questions, to educate, to express how we are thinking and how we are addressing a problem. So that meeting that was held at the golf course was an important meeting. We are open to continue to answer questions. We took the input from the residents' initial inputs in terms of some of the design concepts for the building, and we are going to be working on that. We have been having those coordinations for quite some time. This design had changed from an initial design based on input that we received early on. So, this is a process that has been coming up for about a year and a half, two years now, really modifying the design based on that input. So, a lot of the input that we received from early on has been already integrated to the updates that we have on the design. A few of those more... recent comments are now being addressed through this design refinements that we are working right now, and we continue to work very closely with the village and the city. We continue also to engage with Miami-Dade County. They are doing also part of the permit, and also Army Corps, so responding to every environmental question that is part of the permitting process. In this specific project, we do not have a significant impact in terms of canopy. which is great news. So less of the impact in terms of the projects that we work so closely with James Duncan here. We do have, as I mentioned on the noise, we have made considerations on noise reduction. We don't have a generator in this site. We have a very innovative solution that we are super proud of, which we have kind of a hybrid motor in the pump that we can do use fuel when needed and use electric power most of the time, it is a foot control feature. So we need to have a backup plan, but we are doing without the generator that is the biggest piece of the noise. And a lot of the reduction in the footprint also came from this newest and very innovative solution that was provided to us by the electrical engineers. So we have been taking those comments very seriously. We are reaching a step that we are really landing towards the end of the design of the project. But access, like you just mentioned, how we're going to be taking care of the streets and working throughout the construction, isolating a portion of the golf course that will not interrupt the operation of the golf course, those are all considerations that we are right now refining and really finalizing in coordination with the residents and the village and you.

thank you um one last question what do you remember when was the last or first I mean first presentation sort of started on the assessment 2014 prior to this meeting when was the last time you guys came to the village you might have better

So, when we did the outreach to the studies, we sent out letters to all the municipalities involved in the basins. We didn't we didn't have a direct outreach to the village until it would have been last year. And the reason for that was, there was not a complete design and there was nothing to present at the time. And we didn't want to exacerbate some of the information that was out there. There was already kind of, I don't want to say misinformation, kind of a misunderstanding about the project. Right. And we didn't want to exacerbate that. So we wanted to make sure we had design and something to present something solid to make sure that we minimize that that kind of misinformation that was out there about the project. We didn't want to, you know, put some things out there that would change in the future and that we'd have that back and forth. Right. So, you know, conversations and previous conversations about six or seven months ago, I know we met over at Miami Country Day and that might have been a year ago. We had the conversation and we spoke to to, you know, several of the electives and told them, look, as soon as we have a proper design, we'll sit down with everyone. So there's no confusion about the project and we'll give you a timeline and we can share some design. so it wasn't really until last year that we started having the conversation um and then we started presenting this year so we did the golf course and then here so that's been the timeline and the reason and the reason for the lag was one was a study for the basin and that was at large and we did send out letters mostly to the floodplain managers and to several other folks in the government there were public meetings held on that and then coming towards the project we just wanted to make sure that we had all the right information to share so that would have been last year

Okay, I appreciate it. I think that has been one of the main concerns I've heard. A lot of people not knowing this is happening. Of course, you guys are at a bigger agency coordinating with other agencies. It becomes a monster sort of to follow for any regular person living their day-to-day life. So I wanted to put some context for those that were asking, how come we didn't hear about this before? And, you know, if the workshop is an opportunity, I appreciate it. And if we can make the most impact of what comes out, you know, given that this is this will be the first opportunity you're going to hear from our residents. So.

Slide as well here. So from the study conceptualization and the assessment of the flood risks in the basin, we started engaging in 2020. I just had skipped this one because of the time, but we do have some of the dates and some of the meetings that we hosted workshops. But the design itself, that's what Armando was saying. Like when we got to the specific determination of what is the design is when we waited to have the information very clear. And that's the first time we presented to the public

Got it. Absolutely understand.

Just to quickly add that moving forward, we're looking at something like maybe three months, maybe, or not even that long to come back and present again. Obviously, we would do a workshop when you're all available and have time to have that workshop. But moving forward as the project, as we get more information on the project, as Geotech comes in and some of those other details, we'll probably be scheduling something else to update what we've already discussed.

Okay.

Yeah.

I appreciate it. If you can share with us the presentation for today. I also try to get the August 14th. I thought it was more completed in terms of amount of slides and the information that was there. I try to find it. I actually went around. I appreciate it if you do.

We have everything published in our website. I will publish this again, and I will send the link. We have a link for this specific project on our website, so I'll make sure that I share with you. That's where we're going to be publishing all the information as well and updates.

Okay. Thank you very much.

Questions from the rest of the Commission?

I have no question. I just want to thank you for coming. And I definitely agree, the workshop's very important. Residents need to know what's going on. Because they do have a lot of questions. So again, hopefully we can have the workshop. Hopefully it's promoted better, that the residents know that we're having a workshop.

Perfect, yes. We can help on any... The outreach to get to the really local, we depend on the connection with the village and the city. So yes, we appreciate it.

Okay, thank you.

Both my questions were answered with the degree of rise in the interior water levels and the impact to our streets with the access for construction and ongoing maintenance. So I just want to say thank you. And I echo what the commission says about having that second meeting, that workshop. That'd be great for us to continue the conversation as these designs get finalized. Thank you for presenting. My pleasure.

I already sent you an email to schedule that second workshop. Before I forgot. All right. So we're going to try and get to a public comment now. So we'll close the presentations. Thank you both for being here. James, thank you for being here as well. The information was very helpful. Looking forward to the workshop coming in the next, hopefully, month or so and some updates on the design. So thanks very much for being here with us this evening. Thank you. All right, so with our presentations having concluded, let's go ahead and get to our public comments. So we're going to start with public comment here in the log cabin. We'll move on to Zoom after that. Just as a reminder, our public comment is limited to three minutes per participant. And if you would please remember to give us your name and address before you comment, that would be helpful.

Can I just make a suggestion? I think James is still here. I don't know if you have much time. Maybe questions related specific about this presentation before they leave.

Can I hang around for a little bit? Well, public comment is more just an opportunity to comment, but if there's maybe something that we get to after that, it just depends on your schedule whether you can stay or if you want to speak to anyone privately.

I didn't want to put you on the spot. You're free to go.

You're up, Gage. Hello, everyone. Good evening. Gage Hartling, 1029 Northeast on 14th Street. Thank you for the presentations. Um, I, um, I for the new flood control situation. I'm just kind of disappointed. It doesn't seem like they've actually done much of outreach here into the village. The referencing just kept referencing the golf course, which we don't own the golf course. It's not us. We have You know, there's concerns about the noise, traffic. I mean, how loud are these motors going to be? Is there going to be light pollution at night? I mean, is there going to be lights on this thing that are going to be right here? These are the residents that actually you back up to your house back there. Your new structure backs up to their house. They say they haven't even heard from you. So how does the new structure impact their quality of life? And they're literally, if you look at that survey, they're right there next to the parking lot. So I'm hoping that these things are addressed. I mean, we got a lot of homes that actually face the new pumping station. So hopefully they, you know, some kind of barrier or protection or wall or something is going to be provided to preserve those residences' quality of life because they're We got to remember that those are people that are our neighbors too. Regarding the agenda, I just want to state I'm opposed to anything to do with ICE. So I'm glad to hear that there was some revisions to that. And then I look forward to working with the a village attorney regarding the new recovery residences ordinance. I know we've been in communication and I'm looking forward to them coming to the planning board. I think that's something that the state is mandating on us and it needs to be addressed properly so that we're in control of what's happening within our village when it comes to any type of assisted living community homes or recovery residences. regarding the rest. I think everything looks good. And I appreciate that. And also, I do have a question for Derm. I'm just curious to know what trees are protected and cannot be removed, if any, on private property, when new construction and things like that. And, you know, if you can address that at some point, that would be just curious. All right. Thank you.

Good evening. Thank you, commissioners. My name is Janet Goodman. I live at 1174 Northeast 105 Street in Miami Shores, and I live on Biscayne Canal, also known as C8 Canal. On January 11th, 2022, The Village Commission here at Biscayne Park, in a unanimous 5-0 vote, adopted a resolution number 2022-05 that expressed opposition to the Miami Shores Ordinance, which was to amend the zoning map and the future land use map to allow a gas station. to be built on Biscayne Canal adjacent property. For years, my neighbors and I living on Biscayne Canal and Miami Shores fought against this gas station proposal and eventually we won. It was never built. With the help of your commission, there is no gas station on the water on the CA Canal. We are forever grateful for your support. But now we are faced with the possibility of a more extreme danger to our canal and to Biscayne Bay, which is a 30,000 gallon fuel farm proposed by South Florida Water Management District, which was not really mentioned here tonight, their 30,000 gallon fuel farm on the water. This is outrageous. This proposed dam or pump will put endangered species in harm's way. We have manatee and certain species of shark that breed downstream from this pump just a few meters away. And the fact that this monstrosity will gush out untreated water into the canal and the bay is unacceptable. Thank you.

Hello, Melanie Oliva, 590 Northeast 121st Street. I'm really glad to hear the news about Navarro's, I guess, assignment changing. I didn't know before this was put in the consent agenda that the Eldorado Task Force was part of ICE and part of Homeland Security. Thank you, Barbara Kuhl, for alerting us. or that the program is condemned by the ACLU because it's essentially policing for profit. I think it's still important to talk about because we've participated in this program for years. Investigations into money laundering often center around civil cases which do not require convictions for seizures resulting in unethical and aggressive forfeitures of money, assets, and businesses without due process. People are hurt and they're often innocent victims. Officers are given more immunity by the feds, making it difficult and costly for the victims to get their property or businesses back. According to the Institute for Justice, this program is one of the gravest abuses of power in this country today. I'm really glad that we shifted focus. I think we've had a lot of the public speak about this, which I know when we know more and know better, we do better. So I'm glad I know more about this. I can only assume you guys were not aware of how dirty this program is or we would have stopped our participation years ago. I think it's a complicated situation, but our end goal should not be complicated. I did receive some documents from a public records request right before this. I haven't gone through them. I did see something about a hostile work environment related to Navarro. I think we've got to avoid that at any cost as we move forward. So I hope I trust you guys to do the right thing But I think we have to think about this very carefully and what's right right now As it relates to hurting people with ice About the Durham presentation I don't think our herons got the memo that they don't like Australian pines. That's definitely the trees they prefer here in Biscayne Park for whatever reason, I don't know why. But there have been, I guess, there were like five groups of nests that were taken down. And I know there's other nests in the Australian pines on Griffin as well during nesting season. So that's what we're trying to do is protect our birds and our bird sanctuary. Regarding the South Florida Water Management District project, I also want to echo what the speaker before me spoke about with the pollution potentially harming manatees and other species. And also lastly, the last thing on the agenda, thank you Commissioner Amsler for working with MDAS to TNR our cats and educate the community around best practices in controlling their population, which will hopefully deter future abuses towards them, like the poisonings that occurred by Chaim Gubitz earlier. Thank you, guys.

Hey, everybody. Mike Oliva, also 590 Northeast on 21st Street. I will also make sure and let the yellow-crowned night herons outside our house on January 1st know they're not supposed to be there. I'm just kidding. I couldn't resist. But the thing I really came to talk about is the civil asset forfeiture program and how horrified I am that we have ever participated in this as a community. This program, as my wife mentioned, is really – rife with abuse and the potential, at least for abuse, within our community. And the idea that we would ever unleash something like that on our populace horrifies me. So I really hope that we would not, in the future, continue to engage in that program. I'm going to try to be quick about this and give you a personal example. I have friends from all parts of the world and all walks of life, and not all of them are angels. And one of them is this friend in particular, a guy I met in my last job. So he is a very talented construction person who could build anything. The man worked really hard all his life, lived at my, born and raised really in Miami-Dade County. had a house, had a car, had a boat, and couldn't make ends meet really, so he decided to leverage his green thumb ability and he started growing weed. It's maybe not necessarily the right thing, definitely not really, and he acknowledges that. The Civil Asset Forfeiture Program came in and robbed him of everything he owned. He told me very clearly that this was overzealous prosecution by a police officer They took everything he had. You know, he did go to prison. Okay. You know, paid his dues, did his time, came out to nothing. That's a difficult place to be when you're 40 years old and have worked your whole life. I guess I would advocate that we never participate in that type of enforcement program because I don't care how many, you know, cool cars we get out of it or whatever. It's not worth that. It's not worth selling our souls of people. So thank you for your time.

Thank you.

Barbecue 777 Northeast 111th Street. And I agree with everything that Melanie and Mike said. I was going to speak about our involvement with ICE, and then the attorney said that now that's no longer on the table. But it was a little vague that this officer is going to be assigned someplace else. So... One of the big questions that I have is, can the village manager negotiate a settlement agreement with an employee if he's threatening a lawsuit to sue the village and not bring it before the commission? Because the manager told me he could. He said, I put it on the consent agenda, but I didn't even have to. And to me, this wasn't a consent agenda item. So is this the kind of power the manager has? I don't think it is. I think the village commission needs to be able to approve this. It should not be, this isn't a simple case of hiring somebody. It's a case of something much more involved than that. The other question is, because I was told, actually, that the reason they were doing this is because the ex-officer said he was going to sue the village, and this was... Our insurance carrier recommended an attorney, and they recommended making a settlement that it would be more beneficial for us. We wouldn't lose money. But in this agreement, we would have been losing $200,000 a year because it was a two-year contract. The employee would be getting at least $100,000 a year wherever he was working. It wasn't going to be in Biscayne Park. Why are we doing things like this? The employee was terminated, they said he was terminated for a hassle, attitude, environment, I'm not even sure. His suit said that he was fired without due process. So it's two different things. So now you're talking about hiring an employee that, as far as I'm concerned, I don't even know if we want. Because nobody's really investigated, did he create a hostile environment? Do we want him back? And are we going to roll over just because somebody says, oh, I'm going to sue you, so now you have to take me back? And I think this commission too many times has kind of given in and looked the other way when hostility in the workplace has been brought up. I listened to the tapes, Gary and I listened to the videos of the officers that came up here and talked about the hostile work environment with one officer that resigned that day. We've had a commissioner complain about a hostile situation. And it seems like the commission doesn't seem to take that seriously. And now we have an officer that now we're gonna be hiring back. I think you really should look at your priorities because this isn't what I want. Thank you.

Gary Kuehl, 777 Northeast 111th Street. I didn't want to be here tonight. I had oral surgery today. and it's not comfortable for me to speak. And I realized, regardless of the fact that this idea that we were gonna assign somebody to Homeland Security, that that's been pulled, I really wanted to speak because I'm just incensed at the idea that we have a village manager that has taken us down to the road to ICE twice. Only this time he was gonna put somebody in ICE. And did any of you really understand? Was it explained to all of you what's involved here? The task force is a branch of ICE. Participants in the task force get deputized by the feds. They are, in fact, ICE officers. Now their duties are limited to seizure, not immigration enforcement. But here you have an ICE officer who's got this limitation, and you've got this fuzzy line between enforcement and seizure. And we have an administration that doesn't recognize hard lines, let alone fuzzy lines. And so, in fact, here we are paying for somebody to get trained possibly, quite possibly, quite realistically to be in ICE as an immigration enforcement officer. And you're quite naive if you don't believe that. And I really don't feel, speaking to some of you, that you would go along with this if you really knew this. And I really, really, really furious at the idea that we have a village manager that twice has tried to slip stuff like this under the rug without exposing it to the commission, without exposing it to the residents. This is not the kind of village manager I want. Thank you.

Good evening, ladies and gentlemen. My name is Rohan Prashad Singh, and I reside at 10700 Griffin Boulevard. This project directly and significantly affects me and my family as the proposed structure is adjacent to our home, right next to the fence line. We've lived here for over 35 years and we chose this neighborhood for its tranquility and green space, both of which are now at risk of being permanently disrupted. Concerns about the project. And before I go on, let me just say, I know we've touched a little bit on some of my questions that I have here or, you know, but I'm just going to go ahead and skip through them anyway, because I have them here. And I'd like to get my voice out there. So you guys kind of understand our, because we live right next to that fence line. Understand? So number one, lack of transparency and documentation. Where are the detail engineering drawings and schematics? we need to see exact measurements and distances from our property to understand the full scope of this project.

And I get what you explained. You're waiting on final drawings, but it's very important.

I'd really like to see that. Number two, failure to notify affected residents. At the last meeting in the country club, we requested clear communication. Why were directly impacted residents in Biscayne Park not informed of the project details? It almost feels like we're kind of, intentionally kept in the dark in some ways. That's what it feels like, okay? Number three, diesel tanks and generator noise. The installation of two 10,000-gallon diesel tanks, and I understand now it might be 30,000-gallon diesel tanks next to our fence lines suggests the use of large industrial-grade diesel generators. These engines will produce significant noise and emissions, creating a constant disturbance of and visual blight, especially with a 35-foot high structure looming in our backyard. And folks, that's what we're going to see from our backyard, okay? Number four, maintenance facility disruption. The proposed maintenance facility will bring early morning noise from lawn tractors and equipment starting as early as 4 or 5 a.m. in the morning. This is unacceptable in a residential area and will severely impact our quality of life. Number five, tennis court lighting and noise. The addition of a tennis court with possible stadium-style lighting will introduce nighttime noise and light pollution. making it difficult for our families to sleep and enjoy our peaceful evenings. Number six, traffic safety on 107th and Griffin. Traffic is already, and I know you guys already mentioned this, is already hazardous due to the speeding around that bend, right in that very corner. There's a lot of speed. Guys come barreling around there a lot, and it's dangerous in that corner, okay? So I know that. I live right there, so I see it all the time. In fact, the tree that's sitting, that oak tree that's sitting right there, the reason it's carved out is because over the years, guys come barreling around there and they just run right into that tree. So I know a thing or two about that bend and speeding, okay? So my point is, how will this project affect traffic flow and pedestrian safety in the area? Number seven, canal and seawall modifications. Will the canal and seawall directly behind our property be replaced, widened, or raised? If so, how will... I'm sorry. How much land will be affected and what are the implications for our property line? Number eight, possible impact on our septic system. Will our septic tank or drain field be affected by construction or changes to the land? Excuse me. Guys, we need clear answers and assurances. Number nine, I'm about to lose my voice here. Bridge replacement plans. Will the pedestrian bridge directly behind us be replaced? If so, will it remain in the same location, and how will it affect our view? In conclusion, this project represents a major disruption to our lives, our property, and our communities. We're not opposed to progress, okay? We understand that the whole saltwater intrusion thing, so we're not against that, but we demand transparency, accountability, and respect for our residents who will bear the brunt of this development. We ask that you reconsider the scope, placement, and communication strategy surrounding this project. Ladies and gentlemen, thank you very much.

Thank you. Hi, everybody, commissioners. My name is Carol Ennis Respondick, and I live at 1162 Northeast 105th Street. I'm a resident of Miami Shores on Biscayne Canal for 30 some odd years. Although I certainly understand and appreciate the need to relieve the flooding pressures upstream and the other six municipalities besides Biscayne Park, in the C8 basin, I don't believe the choice to quickly dump the polluted stormwater into the canal, releasing it into the salinity structure and into the lower canal is environmentally sound. South Florida Water Management District does not plan on retaining the stormwater upstream, which is currently the only way to effectively clean the stormwater. I urge the district again to work with Miami-Dade County to locate and secure other retention sites upstream, such as the state-owned land under 95 at Golden Glades, the county-owned Opelika Airport or Hialeah's Amelia Earhart Park. Dumping toxic stormwater into the canal without retention will harm our federally threatened manatees who have called Biscayne Canal home for many more years than my 30-something on the canal. Manatees breed in this canal east of the salinity structure. They must be protected. This is not just my wish, but this is a federal and state law. Additionally, I'd like to know how South Florida Water Management plans to reroute the water and what they were going to do with our canal during the four years of construction. We haven't heard a peep about this, so I'm looking forward to hearing. All those answers, how do you plan to protect the residents upstream from flooding as well as the residents east of the salinity structure? Again, and what about the marine life? The planned addition of the 30,000 gallons of diesel storage in tanks in the huge parking lot that is currently green space is an environmental disaster waiting to happen. You heard from Janet earlier in Miami Shores a few years ago, we fought against a proposed gas station on the canal and won. Thanks in large part also to you guys. Some of you were here then. And thank you for your signatures then. And again, we applaud it and we don't understand why we're in the same situation again, but even worse in so many respects. This one is close to you. That one was close to us. In either case, it affects our marine habitat and it affects the people who are going to breathe all those fumes. I hope also that you can explain, I heard tonight for the first time that the entrance, the construction entrance would be Miami Country Day School. That's the first I've heard. If that is true and if you can elaborate on that, either tonight or another night, I'd love to hear that. But so far, all I've heard about is the entrance to the construction entrance and the future entrance to the salinity structure and South Florida water management entrance. area would be on 107th Street. And as Rohan said, this is really a no-go for all of us in this area. That road is already very, very congested and dangerous. Putting more traffic on there, especially the construction traffic for four years, would be absolutely, unbelievably dangerous for everybody and would cause a lot of grief for all of us. I'm hoping that you will revise your plans. We understand that we all need the structure updated, so we're not expecting nothing. We understand you need to do something. Absolutely agree and understand. But we don't want to see the expansion that you're describing now on our canal, especially in this crowded residential area, especially on this vibrant, beautiful canal.

Thank you.

Good evening, Mayor and Commissioners. My name is Maria McGinnis, 1250 Northeast 101st Street, Miami Shores. I echo what you've heard tonight. I'm not going to repeat those points. I was at the workshop I've been involved with opposing the gas station in Miami Shores for all the reasons that have been stated. What I want to bring to your attention, because I think it's relevant to this community and the municipalities that are going to be directly impacted by this structure. It's gray structure in a residential neighborhood. Unprecedented. 35 feet tall. We're talking about additional lands, the Miami Shores Golf Course that need to be acquired by the South Florida Water Management District. They are a taxing district that we contribute to with our taxpayer dollars. So, public interest, public benefit. We also have to look at the impacts. As Carol just said, there's so many environmental impacts that have already been identified. But what I want to bring to your attention is that the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers has issued a public notice that requests public comment not only by municipalities directly, but the public and anybody else directly impacted by these proposed projects that are along the C-7, C-8 and C-9 canals. And the deadline is October 15th. There was a notice published on September 15th, but I believe there's been a revision that I just got notice of today. And it identifies, they've already done some preliminary things, but the Corps of Engineers obviously has to do certain permitting because of Clean Water Act and other federal acts that are impacted, fish and wildlife, things like that, environmentally protected species, all of that. which we know we have here with the Indian manatee, with the American crocodile, and other species that are going to be impacted. Also tonight, I do think, I want to thank you, Carolina, for coming and the presentation you gave to us in the workshop. I highly commend you for wanting a workshop and allowing more participation because knowledge is power for everybody. I think everybody benefits when we know more and we can work collaboratively to solve the situations that we're facing. So I do want to thank you for being receptive to us and also staying for as long as you did at that workshop. It was really beneficial to all of us. But I did want you to know that there is, I'm just going to give you the email that you can address it to is Ryan J. Poland. There's a dot between the J and Poland at USACE.army.org. That deadline is, like I said, less than a week away or a week away. And I think, again, I just want to say the location of this on this canal is unprecedented. We're not just talking about replacement of a seven-year-old salinity gate. This is a massive structure that's going to require a large building to house the pumps so that you can crane remove the top of the pump in the structure And you're going to need cranes coming in and out of this street to access that. They need more land just to be able to have a crane come in and turn around. I don't know how frequently they'll have to be fixed, but that's part of it. There's wear and tear on the roads. There's noise. There's all these other impacts. But I thank you for taking the time to listen to us, to listen to the presentation and to engage your residents because everybody's impacted. The environmental impacts on Biscayne Bay, what the oxygen, I'd like to hear the science. I know we have engineering, but I'd like to hear the science that backs up this location. There's three vacant parcels owned by the state of Florida between 7th Ave, Northwest 7th Ave 441 and I-95 on the CA canal, three vacant lots that are owned by the state of Florida. Why is that not an appropriate position? Why is it in the middle of a residential neighborhood on a golf course, private golf? Well, it's a public golf course. Thank you.

Can I, can I ask you for that email address one more time, please?

I will give you the email address is, um,

Ryan J. Boland.

It's Ryan, capital R-Y-A-N, capital J, dot P, capital P-O-L-A-N-D, at U-S-A-C-E, dot Army, dot Mil. There's another one, too. There's an HTTPS one. I don't know if you want that as well. And it also says you can request a public hearing.

Thank you very much.

Within the time of the deadline. Great. Thank you. Thank you.

Good evening. My name is Robert Menji, and I live at 1102 Northeast 105 Street in Miami Shores on Biscayne Canal. I'm here tonight because I'm concerned that there hasn't been appropriate dissemination of information regarding the South Florida Water Management District project. As far as to the public, I understand they're almost completed with the design, but they're expecting to get a permit within the next six months and start Construction I don't understand that if they really haven't got enough comments from the public or answer the questions that were provided to them at the recent meeting in the village of Miami Shores for many years This came Bay has been neglected and used as a toilet to flush untreated stormwater septic tank leachate and roadway oil grease and chemicals from the inland basin. If you look at the map that they showed us today, all of that area that's going to dump the water is inland, and it ends at the salinity structure as far as the basin is concerned for what they're going to do. It's going to add more pollution to the bay. It's going to add more pollution to our canal. And yet, beyond that structure, there's nothing about flooding. The impact from those pumps are going to raise the level of water in that canal, and it's going to prevent the gravity on the east side of that structure from being able to drain. So it's going to flood everything along the coastal area. It's going to help inland. There's no question about that. However, one of the major issues that I see here is that I don't see anyone from Miami-Dade County and their stormwater utility addressing their part in this program. Many of those questions need to be answered by Miami-Dade County. They own most of the property that's inland that could be used to retain and treat stormwater before directly flushed into Biscayne Bay. That's one of the major reasons we have fish kills. There's too much fresh water and it kills all the seagrass. not to mention the breeding areas, the manatees on Biscayne Canal. There are a lot of endangered species that need to be addressed. We've been looking at this from an engineering standpoint. What happened to science? What happened to water quality? The mission of the South Florida Water Management is to safeguard and restore South Florida's water resources and ecosystems. They also protect our communities from flooding. and are able to acquire and manage lands for water retention, treatment, and management. The other ability that they have is to reroute water to different basins. If they want, they can reroute more water to C7 and C9. And I haven't seen any of that in any of these reports, and they haven't been answered by any of the questions. I appreciate you giving me the time to speak tonight, and hopefully we'll get more answers in the future. Thank you.

Thank you.

Okay.

Good evening, Commissioners. I'm glad that the situation has changed with Officer Navarro. The investigation... Can I have an address with the record, please? Barbara Watts, 720 Northeast 118th Street. Sorry, I forgot. The investigation, as quoted in the agenda backup, asserts that there was not sufficient evidence of wrongdoing to warrant termination. I haven't seen the investigation, but I haven't that much faith in it, given the shoddy, albeit shoddy, investigation of several months ago about the police officers. So I beg you to look into that more carefully. The fact that I hope that if everything is fine, why should Officer Navarro be deployed or assigned to something place other than Biscayne Park, given that we had an exodus of police officers sometime last year. If he had did nothing wrong and contributed to nothing, no ill will amongst the village, I can't see why he doesn't come back and help us with our traffic problems, et cetera, and so forth. um and also the a mere idea that we have anybody uh assigned to something can an agency connected to ice and indeed the el dorado task force was connected to ice and part of its agenda our mission is aggressive proactive investigations actively engaging and leveraging federal state laws and regulations. Now, we know, especially given this administration and the government, how malleable such mission statements are and how they can be interpreted in different ways. This is the actions of ICE, arguably, and I think they truly are, utterly deplorable. And I would not like Biscayne-Tavara to have any association with it whatsoever. Then one other thing about the couple of other items, especially because we will be playing Navarro's salary, I think that he should be assigned to some place in Biscayne Park. um regarding the um agenda item on consent with the village clerk and hiring maria camara to do website design or fix the website and i have nothing but esteem for maria i know her well but i think that such a position or even just working on this should have been advertised for others who are who are more qualified than she is actually in web design and graphic design On that, I must make one other mention about the email that came out advertising noticing this meeting that we should come. The language within it telling us what we had to bring with us to prove our points and all was offensive, and I don't think it's part of the ethos of Biscayne Park, no matter how apt is the legalese of that language. Then finally, Please thank you, Commissioner Ansler, for your initiative with the cats. And I hope that the whole village is reminded that trapping without the neuter and release and poison is illegal. My cat was poisoned by neighbors last fall.

I did sit on the resiliency committee in El Portal for a number of years also. These issues are incredibly complicated and I'm deeply passionate about the environment, about the manatees, about the outlook for our properties in terms of flooding. There's so many things that we have to balance in these conversations. I wanted to come up and talk because I heard another resident in talking about Our structure here on the Biscayne Canal, talk about diverting water into one of the other canals. Well, the C7 is the Little River Canal. It is also about to get a pumping station and a rebuild of its historic water control gate there. And they in El Portal are also dealing with similar issues. And in fact, their sea level is lower than it is here in Biscayne Park. So this isn't something that we can sort of push to the side and not deal with directly. And I think the thing that I want to encourage the village to do and my neighbors to do and the council to do is to consider talking, like getting together. We've already been talking with the Shores and the Shores residents. It was great to see you guys here. I think that we have to deal with this more holistically, certainly in a tri-village area, and maybe more broadly, because also, in addition to, I mean, we're on the downriver side, but all of our development and our neighbors upriver from us here and on the C7, you know, like the interests that are involved in these conversations, it's the municipalities, it's the organizations like South Florida Water Management and DERM who oversee the environment. It is our neighbors on the east sides of these water structures. It is the development interests west of us who continue to build. It is the industrial areas in between where we have trouble controlling dumping into the canal. It is water keepers. It is surf riders. It is Pelican Harbor Seabird Station. There are a lot of interests involved in these conversations, and it's very scattered how we talk about them. So I would like to encourage the village, as part of the process of inviting people to come talk to us, that we also, not just you guys, but all of us, talk about bringing together certainly the tri-villages for these conversations. Because I haven't really heard septic tanks addressed here also. This is part of a larger problem, having to do a septic tank conversion, stormwater control. I mean, it is complicated. So I think it's so complicated that sometimes we feel disempowered as individuals by this. So as residents, one of the things we can do is get engaged in a broader community conversation. So at least we have weight, our own weight in place at the table, not just as individual neighbors, but as a community and as a community part of a much larger discussion. So I just want to advocate for that and would be happy to participate in that as well. Thanks.

Thank you.

Janie Anderson, 11905 Northeast 11th Place. Veronica, I want to thank you so much for bringing forward the TNR program, but I hope that you will get the kind of support that we haven't given that program in the past, which just like you say, in your agenda back up, It's got to be ongoing, and it's got to be all inclusive. When we've done it before, it's been kind of once and done, and then everybody throws up their hands and says, it didn't work. Well, no, of course it didn't work. But it's really simple, basic math. The fewer cats that reproduce, the fewer cats are on our streets getting hurt and even killed. My only concern is there's a mention in the backup several times about colonies and colony management and healthy colonies. Just a reminder, and the two folks in the back of the room can correct me if I misspeak. Our code is very strict in that encouraging of more than four animals for feeding is against code. So we don't really want to see encouraging of colonies. We want to see the TNR works to reduce our outdoor population. Thanks.

Any other comment in the village or the log cabin before we turn it over to Zoom? Going once? Going twice? No? Okay. All right. So we'll go ahead and we'll turn it over to Zoom at this point. If there's anyone on Zoom that would like to provide public comment, please keep in mind the same rules apply for Zoom commenters as they do for log cabin commenters. And just raise your hand and the clerk will unmute you and ask you to provide comment. They can't hear.

You can't hear me.

Vicki, can you hear me.

Looks not even.

Yeah.

Yeah, there she is. I can hear you fine. I just don't have a comment.

Thank you, Anna. Would it maybe be just her audio setup, Melanie, maybe? If she wants to, I don't know, if you want to tell her that she can unmute and provide her comment, she can.

It's my turn? Yes. I don't know. I keep being thrown out of Zoom back and forth. It has been a kind of an nightmare. And just so you know, It's not that I am crazy trying to do science or whatever, but the audio was off for quite a long time, not only in Zoom, but also in YouTube. Well, first of all, I just wanted... That's good news that actually, you know... you guys decided to not have Navarro with the task force. Like all of my other neighbors said, it was really concerning. And, you know, I also write an email. I just want to say something. Dan, I know that you love to have a room full of people, you know, in the meetings. The reality is that I don't know if you want us there. The only reason we are all here is because we feel you guys are not doing your job. So with that said, it is not a good note that we have to come together and kind of micromanage you. And with that said, I would like for you to micromanage our manage. Because that's part of your job too. I'm grateful that you guys move the item because it was very extremely concerning about having this officer attached to the task force that is attached to ICE. And like the rest of my neighbors said, next time we need to think through it because if somebody That we put in there as a manager or whatever is making mistakes and then we get sued. It can happen again. So what we are going to be doing? Keep patching stuff up? Okay, moving to the next one that I kind of don't understand much. I'm on vacation, so I couldn't read it. I'm on, you know, I have the phone and it was difficult for read. But I know that you guys are going to be talking about firefighters. alarms or fire inspection for short-term rental or something like that i just want to say because i did hear it in the last meeting i i have a short-term rental but i rent rooms i live in my home um and so i apply every year and they come and they do the inspections they check every single one of my fire alarms i don't know if what you guys want is something extra with the fire department i would like to know a little bit more because i'm kind of affects me but on top of that uh i i kind of don't know what exactly and always is like at the end of the meetings and everybody's tired after four hours of meetings so it's kind of i don't know if you guys can clarify in an email or tell us what exactly is going on i will appreciate it and and that's it you know Thank you for bringing Navarro into the task force, and thank you.

I don't know if you can hear me, but thank you.

You're welcome.

Is there anyone else on Zoom? Seeing none. OK.

Hi, this is one quick one. John Holland, 844 Northeast 119th Street. Just a quick note. I'll be very quick. I just wanted to say thank you again to the Commission for doing what you do and to remind folks that this is not their job. They are essentially volunteering. All of them have jobs. They're doing this out of concern for the village. And they all are very busy people outside of this role that they serve. So again, I applaud them and say thank you.

Thank you. Okay, thanks, John. I think that concludes. I didn't hear anyone else. I don't see any other hands. If there's one last opportunity, anyone on Zoom wants to provide a comment, certainly now would be the time. Once or twice. Okay. All right. So let's go ahead and close public comment at this time. We'll move on to our commission reply. I personally don't have any specific reply to our comments because these are all kind of baked into our agenda items. But I do want to thank everyone for being here with us. You want to thank all of our residents concerned, raising those concerns. because I think that as a direct result of some of the things that we heard, we've seen some changes in some of the things that were set before us in tonight's agenda. So I thank everyone for providing their comment, for paying attention, for being with us this evening. Is there any other commission reply to public comment at this time?

Yeah, I just wanted to comment. I think it was Maria, just to comment to her. I wasn't, you know, I did say about the, I have to apologize because I said about the people here. I forgot to say about the people that are on Zoom. So I just wanted to thank everybody that's on Zoom for coming because you're just as important as the people that are here. Thank you.

On my end, yeah, so I just want to be clear, because we have you guys before you leave, so is it you as a mayor, Jonathan, you'll connect with the manager to put the date and set sort of what's up next?

Yeah, so as... Moving past the commission reply portion, Armando, I sent an email to set up a, to remind us to set up a time for the workshop. And just for anyone listening, for anyone here still, we do have a lot on our agenda still. So to get back and forth in a back and forth session right now with the South Florida Water Management District is probably not really in the cards. We do have a workshop coming up that's going to be a little bit more, a little bit more, question and answer oriented, similar to what you all did over at the Shores Country Club, where you took questions, people came up to the mic, people provided. James, you're still hanging with us, so I appreciate you being here with us. I think kind of same sort of scenario, you know, we've heard from everyone in the presentation, you've heard some public comments, you have an understanding of what our community is concerned about, and we have a workshop coming up with you folks, so I'd like to just Leave it at that for now. I sent that email, so we'll get something on the calendar. So I just want to, again, thank you both for being with us here this evening.

And on that note, thank you. And there was a wonderful point brought up about the tri-village efforts. Is this something that you see on your role? And just to answer to a lot of that, to connect with maybe the mayors of each one of the villages to do this workshop in unity, or maybe it's not the workshop, but how can we make that happen?

I think it's probably a two-phase thing. I would prefer to get our residents here to give them ample time to have a discussion with South Florida Water Management District and then maybe a separate session with the county because I've had several conversations with the mayor of Miami Shores both following the session at the golf course and then following the district four mayor's meeting that we had. So he and I have been in contact. with respect to the basin project. So we've had those discussions. I think it would be useful to have kind of a tri-county one, but I don't want to fill a room with so many people that you won't be able to address all the questions. I'd like an opportunity to monopolize you for our community at least once. So I think probably two-phased.

Thank you. That was it. And thank you for everybody that came from our neighbor municipalities and our residents on all this input. I know that for specific the presentation we had was a short time. Some of you asked for the presentations. We didn't have them. Hopefully after it will be distributed or posted on the website for everybody to have. So thank you.

All right, so if there's no other reply right now, let's go ahead and let's, you know, reports. I want to point out one thing about our amended agenda. There was a conflict between a few of the items that were pulled for discussion and earmarked by Commissioner Amsler for movement to the manager's report. Specifically, Commissioner Amsler, you had requested 9C, E, and I be moved to the manager's report. But Vice Mayor Samaria, you had requested that the overlap C and E be pulled for discussion. Is there any consensus among the commission on what we'd prefer to do with those? I think that the manager, I think if it's going to be on, the onus is going to be on the manager to have him discuss these items with us or present anything within these resolutions to us, then the report might be the appropriate place rather than a discussion. But, and to kind of, put a second point on that because manager Childress is not with us this evening. I think we're probably going to end up rolling over some of those things anyway. So we'll, we'll address them vice mayor. I think just once he's here with us.

No, I, I have no problem. And I think that's what I should have done. I should have just said to pull the item and that's what, because it's, it's put on consent agenda. We need to have a discussion about it. and a very serious discussion about it. So I would, sorry, I would rather have it when he's here. So I agree. If it's possible, can we, Mayor, change it a little bit to where we can pull the item?

Well, we'll just, I think, probably roll it over when we get to the manager's report because these are items that he needs to discuss with us or that we have questions for him. So I think we'll be moving it anyway. So I don't know if that's pulling it or if that's just asking to roll it over procedurally, but that's 9C and 9E are the two overlaps. And 9I, you also mentioned.

Mr. Mayor, if I may, please, just from a procedural standpoint, if you're going to defer the item. Yeah. Okay.

Yeah, motion.

Okay, well, we're at the manager's report now.

So let's, let's address that before our acting manager reads the memo onto the record for us before we get into the report.

So the items that Commissioner Amsler asked that we move to the report, which I would now ask that we move to next month's report, so Commissioner, I'm sorry, so Manager Childress is with us, is 9C, 9E, and 9I. So do I have a motion to... Let me move, roll those. C, yes.

I make a motion to remove 9C, 9E, 9I to the, well, he's not going to be here next month, so it's going to have to be December. He's not going to be here in November. That's what I was told.

I didn't know that.

Yes, I was told he's not going to be here in November. His planned vacation that he had from last year.

Oh, yes, because he has the conference, you're right.

Okay.

It's going to have to be moved to December.

Well, in the possibly unlikely event that he may end up being with us, why don't we move it to November? If he's not here again, we'll move it to December. So the motion would be then to move 9C, Charlie, 9E, Echo, 9I, India to November. Is there a second on that motion? All in favor?

Aye.

Aye. You got those three, Brad? All right, so that... I'm sorry, Madam Clerk, do you have them? Okay. Which leaves for discussion A, B, and D. But before we get there, let's go to our reports. And forgive me, I'm just going to keep going. Madam Clerk, forgive me, I'm just going to keep going. So our reports, let's start out with 8A. Issa, our acting manager.

I'm sorry. So what about 9H? I had both for discussion as well.

Well, for discussion, not for part of manager's report. Correct. Do you want to move that to next month as well?

Yes. I mean, I was hoping to have the manager present for that one. So if it's, I don't know if it's going to be here, maybe the following. I don't know how you guys see that in terms of deadlines.

As I understand, there might be a time component to age.

Yes.

Funding and sensitive in order to encumber and

Commissioner, might I request that we just leave it for discussion at this point?

Yes, I'm 100% agree. Yes. All right, great.

All right, so we move those items. So, Issa, you had something you wanted to read for the manager's report. Would you please? The floor is yours.

Good evening, mayor and commissioners and residents and guests. Per the manager's request, he asked me to read this into the record and add it additionally to his report. Good evening, Mr. Mayor and village commissioners. Once again, I wish to apologize that I cannot attend this meeting this evening. Unfortunately, a medical procedure was scheduled for today that cannot be changed. I have left you in the very capable hands with your acting village manager, Issa Thornell. I promise I did not edit this. I will be out for several days following the procedure. Concerning the meeting this evening, you have two ordinances on first reading. Both of them have been vetted by our code compliance department and our compliance director. With respect to the renewal of our insurance, we were able to increase some of our deductibles that reduce our overall premiums from last year by $68,235. We continue to look for ways to reduce our cost in everything that we do. The village of Biscayne Park has retained the services of a local arborist to inspect trees in our medians that are unhealthy and need to be removed. The arborist has indicated that this has not occurred in a number of years. We are doing this in stages. As you drive around, you may see trees with ribbons around them. Those trees have been identified as hazardous and will be removed. At the end of this month, our village will be holding one of the biggest events in the village. our Halloween celebration. This year, the event will be on a Friday evening. We are anticipating large crowds since it will fall on a weekend night. The Police Department, Code Compliance, Public Works, and Recreation Department will all be working together to make this event the most successful that we have had. Recently, we have received three quotes for upgrades to our IT and audiovisual equipment for the log cabin. We will be bringing that item to you for consideration at the November meeting. Also, as you are aware, a bid went out to repair the road around the log cabin. We received two bids for that work. We are still under the cone of silence, and once I issue my recommendation for the November agenda meeting, the cone of silence will be lifted. Again, I did not edit this. Finally, I had sent you an email that Issa had shared with me concerning the evaluations that he received during the presentation at State Parks and Recreation Conference in Orlando. From those reviews, we are able to learn that we have known for a long time that we have one of the best parks and recreation directors in the state of Florida who cares about his community and loves his job. Mr. Mayor. Mr. Mayor, that is the end of my report. I will be available by emails and by phone beginning Thursday morning. That concludes his report.

It was nice you conditioned that. That was good. You didn't need to. He said, thank you very much. Are there any questions for our acting manager before we move on to our next report?

Oh, hearing none. Okay, I would just congratulate you on some great reviews from your presentation and your last conference and to wish the manager speedy recovery.

Great.

Yeah, go the sentiment. He said thanks so much for all your hard work. We appreciate it. Um, okay. Uh, so let's move on to our code compliance, uh, report. Uh, I know we have code here with us this evening. Thank you for being here with us. Uh, are there any questions for, um, on the code report or for our code, uh, department? None. Okay. Uh, parks and rec, any question for, uh, ISA on the parks and rec monthly report?

I do. I know the meeting with about the grant and the meeting that you had, I got to hear was very populated as it was expected and hoped for. Do you see a benefit of redoing it?

So, in regards to the FURDAP grant where we had a community meeting on Saturday at the end of September, I think it definitely is something that we can put on the agenda to redo. The application has been submitted. Of course, fingers crossed that we do get approval for that grant. And as the community meeting we discussed and also at the Parks and Parkways meeting, um that's for a new playground structure so a 75 25 percent split a 150 000 playground which will in turn cost the village only 36 000 if we are awarded that grant so kind of a no-brainer and a wonderful i have uh absolutely no problem with holding another community event um and putting it far in advance so we can kind of just get push get the word out on that um so definitely

It could be even, Tim, I was thinking with the workshop, we're going to have a lot of people come over. It might be mixing different audiences, so I don't know if that's the right approach, but I thought if you're going to ask and pull for people to participate, we might as well tell them what's going on. We've heard about the South... florida water and management district but um this is a great news uh to also share some of the infrastructure changes so uh that could happen in you know together i don't know if that's the best approach but i think it would be a great idea isa

Sounds good. And you just reminded me, Parks and Parkways, the joint workshop with you all. I think you all received an email regarding a possible date for October 18th from 2 to 4 p.m., if I'm correct. So we would like to try to see if we can get a consensus on you all's availability for that day. It's a Saturday.

17th or the 18th?

I think it's the 18th, October 18th. Saturday, October 18th, from 2 to 4. That's the Joint Commission in Parks and Parkways Workshop. So I know we have the chairwoman, Anna DeLong, on as well. They have already agreed that at least three of their members can be there for that date. So if we can get some consensus for you all.

I need to come. I'm doing my best to be part of it. I just can't confirm right now. Yeah, I'll let you know. I just got a reminder. Yeah.

Okay.

If I may, there were also some other weeknight days that we had suggested. I don't know why the 18th was the only day that was proposed to you all as commission, but we had also identified a couple other days. Okay.

You know, the days offhand offhand.

No, I don't, but I can, I'm pulling up the email right now. I don't want to say one second.

Sure. October 9th. I don't have a calendar in front of me. October 9th, October 13th, or the 16th. 6.30 p.m. on either one of those days, which are all weeknights, I believe. And then the other option was Saturday, October 18th, from 2 to 5. October 9th, October 13th, and October 16th.

And I certainly wasn't anticipating it to be a two-hour, but that was the window that we could do.

Yeah, October, I'll be out of town on Thursday, Friday, Saturday.

And October, how is everyone with October 16th?

Sweet.

So that leaves only the 18th, Anna?

Is that right? Yes. Okay.

I will, yeah. I mean, I think you have three commissioners already, right? Yeah, I'll do my best to participate. I just can't confirm now, but I think you have three already.

About 85% sure that I'm here.

Okay, just so I'm understanding correctly, then we can plan, expect the 18th?

That sounds like that's the day, Dana. I don't think the other days were available. So I think that's the one.

Then I'll work with my board to make sure that they are all informed. Thank you.

Thank you very much. Okay. All right. Let's move on to our next report, which is police. We have our chief here with us. Chief, thanks for being here. Are there any questions for the chief on his report this evening? None. None. Okay. Okay. Chief, thank you. And our last one is our village attorney and our village attorney. Oh, I'm sorry, Public Works. Excuse me, John. I almost jumped you. Any questions for our Public Works report?

No, I just wanted to say I think I understood it correctly. There was a tree by the rails. It was removed in the middle of the night, right? There was an effort put together. Thank you so much. I don't know how you guys managed to do this in the middle of the night, but the fact that that happened, I appreciate it. Thank you.

John, thanks for being here with us this evening. Okay. And our last report is from our village attorney. Brad, I understand if there's anything in addition to your memo, let us know. But other than that, the floor is yours to discuss the memo.

I mean, the memo speaks to itself. I was going to summarize it. Sure. Please, yeah, please. Just briefly, the legislature passed a Senate Bill 954, which was signed into law by the governor. And essentially what this bill does, it requires all counties and municipalities by January 1 of next year to adopt an ordinance, which basically establishes procedures for the review and approval of certified recovery residents and provide for a process for those applicants that are trying to establish these certified recovery residences within the village for requesting a reasonable accommodation if your land, excuse me, if your land development code prohibits their establishment. And essentially, right now, under your code, you have no provision for establishing a reasonable accommodation for an applicant that would attempt to establish such a facility. And I know there are some questions that came up. This only relates to alcohol or drug recovery centers. I know that the... and the proposed ordinance which I've attached, which I'll discuss in a moment, address the ADA and other such federal regulations, it's because the reason why they're listed in there is addiction falls under those categories as well. That's why it's addressed, but this only deals with drug and alcohol substance establishments. And essentially what this would do is presently, let me just say presently in your code, provision in your code that really regulates these types of facilities is in section 4.4 of your land development code, which deals with the siting of community residential homes. which are recovery residents or recovery home would fall into that general category. And what your present regulation provides is that these facilities are only available in sector or it's only as permitted use, I'm sorry, in sector D as established by your land use code. So if somebody under the frame that's being proposed and what's required under the ordinance, if somebody were to try to establish one of these residences in another section of the village, they would essentially be denied under the land development code, but they have to have an opportunity and a process

By which, excuse me.

Yeah. They have to have an opportunity and a process by which they can seek a reasonable accommodation, similar to somebody requesting a variance, as you've all dealt with, a variance from your land development code. process as I envision it. And again, the ordinance that you have, I know you all want these proposed ordinances for discussion before they come up for first read, which is why we've done it this way. It's a very rough draft. It's going to change a bit between now and first reading. I will get it to you all ahead of time before first read so you can look at it, you can digest it, and if you have any questions for me, you can reach out. I've talked to Gage, who left. OK, I had talked to Gage, because under your code, it has to go to the Planning and Design Review Board for them to provide their input before it's finally approved. I've told Gage that I'll be more than happy to go to the meeting of the Planning and Design Review Board and go over the first draft or the draft for first read with them so we can answer any questions so they can appropriately comment as they see fit. But essentially, this is something that's going to be required. And the way, as I said, the way I envision the process is the applicant would go to the planning and design review board to seek approval. If the planning and design review board provides approval, it stops right there. If they deny the application or the request for a reasonable accommodation, the applicant would have an opportunity to come before the commission who would sit as an appellate level to see whether and make a determination as to whether or not the denial was sufficiently based on the evidence that was presented during the planning and design review board. So with that, I'll cut it short. And I'll take any questions if there's any questions. I know, commission, that may not have been short, but I was trying to be short.

All right, but thank you does Commission have any questions on the manager report or i'm sorry the village village attorney report.

No, thank you.

Brad Thank you. Alright, so having concluded our report section let's move on to our consent agenda, do I have a first. that's after a consent agenda. Do I have a first and a second to approve the consent agenda.

Make a motion to approve the consent agenda. Second.

That's amended.

OK. Just to be clear, that's 9A, correct?

No, I have it as FG. I'm going to go slow. It's on the consent. This remains on consent. I have F, G, J, K, L, and M. So we have a motion or a second. All in favor?

Aye.

Aye.

Aye.

All right. The amended consent agenda is approved.

Commissioner Huntington.

Okay, so now let's go ahead and move on to our discussion item that we elevated, which is 13A, which is our discussion of our village attorney candidate. Now, this is a memo that was written for us by the manager, and he's not with us to introduce it. Issa, are you prepared to provide any introduction, or should we just go by the memo that we have? No, no worries. All good. So just for the benefit of those listening, the memorandum is dated October 7, 2025 from our manager. It's a discussion item that's been placed on the Village Commission agenda with respect to the Village Attorney's yearly compensation and the five resumes that were recently forwarded to the members of the commission. As a quick reminder, at the last meeting that we had when we had a discussion with respect to the requested commission, raise or increase in annual compensation from our current village attorney. And certainly the commission can correct me if I'm wrong, but I believe the direction to the manager at that point was to kind of canvas the available attorneys that work in this same sort of practice area and understand what the market rate is and what other attorneys might charge for similar services that were provided. Now, candidly, I don't know that if what we received from each candidate has a detailed understanding of the level of work that's being provided by our current attorneys. But as I understand it, in the closing argument or the closing portion of the background of the memo is that several of the candidates that submitted resumes advised that they would be willing to do the work for an annual compensation of a total of $125,000. And just as I recall it, again, Commission, please correct me if I'm wrong, as I recall, the request that we had on the floor or on the table before we moved on was a request for an increase in annual compensation to our current village attorney in the amount of $135,000. I think it was 137.5. I'm sorry, 137.5, thank you. Okay, so having understood that, I know, Vice Mayor, you mentioned that several, or at least one of the candidates is here with us this evening. I think at least some folks sitting in the back that appear to be dressed for the occasion. So so I think at this point, if if you wouldn't mind just kind of coming up to the to the podium here.

No, we were going to do that tonight. I thought we were just going to discuss whether or not we would put up the five candidates because I haven't had a chance to talk to any of the candidates.

I understand. I have not either, but we have them here with us. So maybe a quick little introduction would be helpful.

Sure. My name is Raul Gastesi. Our law firm is Gastesi, Lopez, Mestre, and Covillera. Tonight, I have Lorenzo Covillera and Melissa Armenteros with us. We would probably be the three.

Sorry, it's pointing down a little bit. Yeah.

There we go. We would probably be the three out of the team that would be helping you out with anything you need. We have more lawyers, obviously, available. We have Mr... Uh, who was, uh, vice mayor and mayor of Miami lakes. He's also a partner in our law firm. Uh, if zoning issues would come up, he would probably be the one who would be here to help you with that. Um, we, the 1 thing that to us is key is providing you service, returning your calls, um. If we submit a packet to you, our packet will have probably every councilman that we've ever worked for since 2013 recommending us, except for one. That's former Mayor Pizzi, which I think most of you know I had extensive litigation with. But other than that, up until last year, every single one of them would recommend us and actually sign letters. We'll do whatever it needs to be done. We're available 24-7, 365, believe it or not. Needs come up, and we have the manpower, the personnel, and the willingness to do it. We like this area of the law, and I think we'll do a good job, and hopefully we're a good mix for you.

What was your name again? I'm sorry.

I'm Raul Gastesi.

Raul, thank you so much for being here and taking a minute. I put you on the spot. Don't worry.

Just a quick question just to follow up on something that Jonathan said. Have you discussed at all with a manager or anybody else for that matter as far as the scope of work that we are requiring for this position?

A little bit, and I won't say that I took a deep dive into it because I haven't. But I think we can handle the work, and I think the confidence, from what I've seen and from what we've looked into, I think it's something that we're very interested in doing. You know, we can handle Doral. We can handle Miami Lakes. I believe that.

You don't know us. All right.

Thank you.

there's anything else, we'll be around. We're going to observe tonight's meeting just to get a flavor.

Thank you. I put you on the spot again. Thank you very much for taking a minute. So anyway, so Vice Mayor, to your point, yes, so I think it was more of a discussion, but they were here, so I wanted to give them an opportunity to step up.

And yes, I have to tell Vice, four, five, six, four,

So I have a question. So I actually asked the manager to share and through the clerk the email soliciting the information because that was unclear what was being asked. So for me, the conversation tonight was to get sort of a brief summary of the different firms that were approached to understand what our current scope would go at a market base at any other firm. just because we're in the midst of understanding of our negotiation with our current attorney and our firm, it's proper. And so that would be the baseline. I wasn't expecting a full range of credentials at this stage. I don't think at any point, at least in my intention, I wanted to clarify that on the record was to go and sort of get the extension to meet you guys tonight, which I think it's wonderful. But I think where I stood is are we, you know, when this conversation comes from our attorney asking for more money, is this a good range to be considered? I also didn't see specifically in the proposals that were sent that all of them, at least in writing, were accepting that 125 was, and again, there was no scope attached to it. So it's a very informal, and I really don't understand to what. There is no correlation price to a scope. So again, we weren't that far. What I was hoping to hear is within the 125, 137.5, that's the range of the services we currently have if that analysis was provided. So that's my question. I know the manager's not here tonight to answer. You know, if the scope was actually put in front of you, what effectively we currently have, what's expected in terms of service, so you could do an evaluation, proper evaluation of what your services could go for. Based on what you just came, I thought it was more of generic. Yep, go ahead. I mean, I don't know. It's the mayor to say that.

That's fine.

Yeah.

Do not want to hijack your meeting. No, no, no. Yeah.

This helps clarify.

Yeah, sure. We essentially, everything that you need, we draft ordinances, resolutions, review contracts, give you advice on potential litigation. There might be some personnel issues that you need some advice on. That's all included in the retainer, payable monthly, et cetera. If there's litigation, we do bill that separately. We have been billing Doral and Miami Lakes at $200 an hour plus costs. Any out-of-pocket costs that we incur, we obviously pass those on to the city. Sometimes there are special projects, things that are large. And once, if we see something like that, we typically approach, you know, usually the council, the manager, hey, this is something that's, you know, a really large project. It happens very rarely, and you'll know it. You know, you'll know it, and we'll have a discussion. Look, if the client says no, we obviously would have a decision to make, but we typically have not had an issue yet. in all these years with any of our councils over our fees or our costs. We are very transparent. The one thing I believe in is communication. Listen, this is a lot of work. Can we talk about this being a special project? Or sometimes when there's a large development, we'll ask to pass that cost on to the developer as part of the costs and things like that. We've been around for a long time, and there's a reason for it. If you've got any questions, I'll answer them. But I think this is something that our firm would fit in very well with, and we would be honored to represent you in that sense. All right?

Thank you.

So yeah, so that was my intention for today. I wanted to have a comparison of apples to apples, understand what the brackets of different firms are quoting. And I didn't see that in the emails. I mean, I have five different emails. in an answer that they all would take 125. And again, I don't know what was solicited, so I'm hoping to see the public record emails so that I just have more understanding as to what you guys were also hoping to hear from us today. But that's on my end.

So I know a lot of these, the resumes, the scope of works, the presentations, a lot of these kind of came to us within the last week's time. From what I've heard from, I think what I've heard from two commissioners so far is that Conversations haven't been had with these folks to make you comfortable with the prices or I guess the amount that's being quoted. I don't want to put words on anybody else, so somebody please feel free to speak up if I'm speaking out of turn here. But... I can say while I did not speak with any of the folks that submitted submitted the resumes to us, I very much appreciate you folks being here with us this evening. It's it's it's it's it's a very nice show of dedication that you came here to answer some questions and you sit here with us until we get to this to this point. Yes. But I did you know, I did speak with some folks that, you know, look, I work a law firm that touches in these industries in this in these practices. And I did speak with some folks, and the amount that's being quoted to us, and quite frankly, from my understanding, the amount that's being requested by our current village attorney, these are all basically within market. These are not outrageous requests. So I, you know, that's an important consideration for me. So I had some of those conversations. Again, I haven't spoken with the folks that had submitted things, so I think it's just kind of up to the commission at this point. Do you all want to spend the time speaking to each of the people, each of the firms and individuals that submitted resumes and quotes, I guess, for lack of a better phrase, before you're comfortable having a conversation? Your mic's off.

I think I maybe misunderstood. I just thought that we asked the city manager to come forward with five, three to five people. And if he does that, then we can go forward with the next step, which is to interview, you know, to look into the three or five plus our president attorney and go through the process. That's what I thought we were doing tonight.

Understood. Is that what everyone else understood as well?

No.

That is what I understood, because I don't see how you could have an accurate representation of this firm can take 125 versus that firm will take 125 without seeing their credentials, seeing their resume. Just to hear, okay, I got five firms that say yes, I need to see resumes and credentials. So what the manager provided to me was perfect. But I see two paths here. One, we either continue negotiations with our, now that we know the range, and we know 125 is the number that other firms that are able to do this work, that have experience doing this work, will ask for. We continue negotiations with our current firm and we see if they'll take 125 and then we see where the chips lie with that. Or we move forward with a special meeting and select, you know, and basically treat this like we did our village manager search. Select our three favorites and continue the process from there. I'm fine with either, but now I know the range. I know 125 is the number. That's kind of where we were leaning before. I think the commission should decide whether or not we want to continue negotiations with the firm we have, or if it's a service delivery issue and we want to move on to see what else is out there, that's fine too. But those are the two routes forward, I see. Okay.

Can I ask a question? So was it proposed to you that you take a range or was it a specific number? Because the range is between two numbers. So was it given that you need to take 125? Yes.

I haven't looked at the email, but I believe, you know, I was asked if 125 is something that we'd accept, and I said yes.

Okay.

And I think I responded to.

And again, I'm sorry I asked. I just don't have those.

No, I responded to the manager, and I believe Mr. Gonzalez, Councilman Gonzalez asked, and I told him the same thing. Yes.

Got it. Thanks.

Mic's off. I'd like to leave the mic on in case I say something I shouldn't say. I just think that we should go to the next step and look at, since we put out to see if there was five individuals or five law firms included in our law firm that was willing to do it, I think we should go through the process of seeing if we can either keep our present attorney or go for another law firm. We already invited these people.

Commissioner Gonzalez yeah you listen I I'm not normally this quiet but I just wanted to hear all the different thoughts behind this process I know that effective October 1st we agreed to increase our current our current law firms price to 137.5, right? So they're effectively getting 137.5 as of October 1st, right? We agreed to that, right? So they're already getting their increase. From my perspective, I think... I didn't open this door. Someone else opened this door. And I think that now that it's open, we should explore the possibilities. I'm not saying that there's going to be any change. Maybe there is, maybe there isn't. But I think now that the door is open, and again, I didn't open the door, then I think that we should just explore. It doesn't hurt to explore the possibilities. Having said that, I don't know if the number of 125 is an accurate number either because I don't know exactly if the law firms that have been asked to present have been given the actual scope of work that is required by this village. I don't know because I haven't seen that. Perhaps they were, perhaps they weren't. Perhaps they're saying they'll do it for 125, but when they really see the scope of work, they're going to say it's not 125. So I don't know the answer to those questions. And before... we can make any logical decisions. I think we need to have those answers because we need firm answers to questions. We can't just, oh, okay, yeah, I'll do it for 125, but do you really understand what the scope of work required by this village is, right? I don't know if they know that or not. So... Again, I'm open to exploring this and moving this forward and allowing the firms that have presented to come back to us with, you know, fully understanding their positions as far as what is expected of them and whether or not they're willing to do it for 125, right? And just to hear them out. Doesn't hurt. Doesn't hurt me. So I don't see why not.

I want to add something, if it's okay. So we're talking about $12,000 difference, and we're talking about, if I hear Commissioner Gonzales correctly, if I understood, going and asking firms to come so we can start evaluating these firms. And I think Commissioner Samaria, you're on the same boat. So for me, first off, we've never come back to our attorney to understand whether 125 works or not. I think it's a disservice to go out and look for attorneys when we have not yet negotiated with our own. So I guess the question is more, is this a performance issue that you guys are trying to correct? Is this an opportunity to expand scope of work and therefore look what's included? The way I understood it is it's a request related to the base hour and the cost per hour that's being charged by the firm. And, you know, and that was a high ask versus what we used to have. I also put in and I just I want to share my thoughts behind this because we've had four. Correct me if I'm wrong. I saw, I think, an email from the manager, maybe four to five years where we've been paying the firm about 100 grand. So there hasn't been increments or it was a four or five year.

It was last, I think if I remember correctly, I'm doing this off top.

I think the first was retained by the village. It was at $8,000. It went up to about 80, 80, I think it went 83, then 80,

it started 75 i'm sorry so and then at some point it went to the low 80s to the and then i think it ended up at the in the mid 80s around 86 and stayed there for a little while yeah which uh and then last year we we made an additional ask which brought us i think 99 996 it's like So that's an even number is where we've at. And then we're here discussing today.

Thank you. So that's been this sort of a price tag that has been low in the past. So we've never had that jump. And I think that's what the reaction of the full commission is like. The request original at 175 hit a high mark. But understanding that the feedback is that the 125 is within range, I will look forward to explore if the firm is willing to work with us for 125. And if that's the answer, I'm comfortable with paying 125. That again, because for me, there is an enormous value of keeping two key pillars in the village. History comes from a vendor such as finance director who has been with us for, I believe, over seven years, and our firm, actually our law firm. When I read things that we're missing resolutions that haven't been signed since 2023, 2024, some of 2025, that it's a huge liability concern. um and the history is whole by this firm and again not having service issues in the past i've never thought that would be a part of the conversation so for me i i see tremendous value paying 137.5 that was why originally i was hoping to meet in the middle but haven't seen that the manager has gathered firms with Similar scope of work. Again, I don't know to what extent at 125, if that's something that the firm feels is a fair process to evaluate at 125, I would like to have that conversation.

All right, so it sounds like we're a little all over the place. so um i i've heard a few of the commissioners um ask brad um if 125 is within the realm of reasonableness for your firm look i don't want to be disrespectful to you folks that have come here this evening and took the time to to respond to an email provide the information because um i i place a tremendous value in the time that You've taken out of your schedules to come here to be with us. So I certainly don't mean to be disrespectful because I think what what's important to me is that this process was not a process to simply just have somebody come in and undercut our current attorney's request so we could justify bringing him down. I don't think that was the intent. And I would you know, I don't want anyone to hear this or Brad for you to hear this, that I don't think that was the intent. And I don't want that to be the takeaway. For the record, Brad, I think 137.5, based on my conversations, is within market, and I would be fine with it. I have heard two people say it. So does the commission want to ask if the current attorney's firm is willing to take 125 based on the information we've received? And while he goes back to ask his firm that question, if that is the question, do we want to take the time to have some calls with the folks that submitted resumes to vet the individuals? Because as a few people have said already, they've taken the time. We've opened the door. It doesn't cost us anything to have those conversations and speak with them. So does that sound like a reasonable step forward on a double front?

Can I ask a question? So are you ready to provide a feedback on 125 today, or do you need feedback from the firm?

So... As I said, when we first started these conversations during the first budget meeting, the number we presented was intent to open up negotiations with the village. Obviously, it's the only way we could do it. And so I'll put it succinctly. If the village's response to the firm is 125, take it or leave it, then we'll take it at this point. If the firm's willing to negotiate closer to the 137.5, obviously we're willing to talk. We'd like to talk about that. But if these are the negotiations, if that's the point where that's where the village is and that's what the village is offering and not offering a penny more, so to speak, yeah, we'll take it.

Okay, so let me just be clear then based on what I've heard from the commission so far because there was a couple of questions about whether our current attorney would be willing to take the 125, which is some of what we've heard some of the other firms would charge. I just want to make sure I understand Brad correctly because I don't want to put you in a position where you're Okay. That's fair. Thank you. So understanding that now from what we've heard from the attorney, is there any change in opinion based from any of the commissioners on what the process would look like?

Go ahead. No, no.

Your mic is off. Your mic is on.

That we have an evaluation of a law firm? I mean, it's not the money. It's also the evaluation of the law firm. We do evaluation on the city manager. We should be doing an evaluation on the law firm. I have concerns. Everybody knows my concerns that I have. And I think that we need to open it up and see if possibly, you know, we need to have evaluation. If we're just going to pay the law firm the money, then, you know, I just think that if we have evaluations for everybody else, we should have evaluations for the law firm.

Let me, can I just clarify my position? Yeah. Because maybe I didn't speak clearly enough. Brad's firm is currently getting the 137.5, right? It could last another month, it could last another two months, it could last another three months. The only reason that we're even here is because they came back to us and asked us a ridiculous amount of money, in my humble opinion. I'm going from 100 to 175, right? And that's the reason that we're here today, that we find ourselves in this position. We've opened it up. By the way, I just want to clarify something else. I have zero issues with Brad and Brad's performance here in the village, his responsiveness to me, his advice. I have zero issues with that. Having said that, now that this door has been opened, I have no issues exploring it and seeing what else is out there. I have zero issues with that. It's a business thing. This is business. Brad has said it very clearly. This is not personal. This is business. So as a business person, we have an opportunity to see what else is out there. So for me, given that opportunity, and maybe we don't find something that we like, but maybe we do find something that we like. So I'm open to it. That's it.

For me, I tend to concur Commissioner Gonzalez on this one. And Mayor, you said something that struck me is that the intent to go out for requests for proposals or bids or just information was not to undercut our current attorney. And I would hate for the respondents to feel like we did that. If what I said makes anyone feel that way, that's absolutely not true. and i would like to do the due diligence of at least giving them the opportunity to present they they did the time to send response to us giving them the opportunity to have those conversations with commission have the conversations here in the log cabin i think is is we owe them that at the very least i uh you know appreciate that the the attorney has uh offered 125 and i think that that provides a level playing field with the other respondents but i think we owe them that at least to invite them here let them present and sounds like another special meeting okay make sure anything further

Sorry. So for me, this was the objective, to get an agreement with our attorney. And I want to say thank you, because I know you started at $137,500. That would mean that the firm would have to go down to $125,000 effectively next month in our cycle, whatever that is. This cycle. Yeah, this month. So... Yeah, so for me, with that in mind, again, it was never the intention, and I think this got completely derailed into let's look what out there is without understanding the value that we currently have and the potential issues of losing a firm that's been with us for so long. So, again, not a performance issue. It was more of a budget circumstance, and I am happy that you agreed to 125. Thank you.

Okay, so it sounds like we have a consensus from three of our commissioners at least so far on the recommendation that we move forward with discussions. I was just assuming that we have discussions with those attorneys that set another special meeting, but is that what, Commissioner Huntington, you said sounds like another special meeting. Is that what you envisioned, or is this a discussion that we have with the folks that had submitted the resumes? And then we kind of come back and put this on

I'm fine with both. I think maybe the proposal for the media path forward is take the month to have those conversations, put this on as a discussion item again next month, come back and decide whether or not we've come to a decision or we need more time, we need them to present. I think that's the bare minimum proposal I would give right now is take the month and put this back in discussion next month.

For me, I would like to see them together. So also residents have an opportunity to see them and hear them, not just us. If we decide to move in a different direction, they're going to be working for the residents as well, right? So I think the residents should have an opportunity to hear them out. So for me, it would be probably a special meeting to have them come back. make sure that the manager has given them full scope of the work that is required, and then hear them out. And then from there, you know, we decide what we want to do. But I think it's important that the residents get an opportunity to listen to them as well.

Okay. I see some head shaking in what appears to be agreeance. Do we have an idea of when you would want to put that special meeting forward? Does anyone have a proposal for that?

Here all in November. Yeah.

All right. What about, oh, that's Veterans Day. That's Election Day.

You have to pick a couple dates because we don't know what the other law firms, sorry, what the other law firms will be able to be, well, they will be available. Yeah, we'd have to pick a date and ask. No, they have to be available.

Yes. When's our November meeting? Is it? The 4th is election day. Are we having an election day?

I believe we moved it to November 5th.

5th, is it Wednesday?

I'm sorry. We don't, but the village will be used for the election.

Yeah? No, we don't.

Not in the log cabin. Yeah.

We can have it? Yeah.

Yes. Did we move it, though? I didn't think we moved it. We did. We did.

We did move to the 5th.

We did. Okay. At the time, Commissioner Kennedy made a recommendation to move it.

I'm sorry, I couldn't hear that.

It was a recommendation to move it from the 4th to the 5th because of Election Day.

When?

Remember, calendar in your December meeting, setting your calendar for the year.

Okay, and do we need to pass this by resolution?

If you want to change it.

Got it, okay.

If we want to change the regular commission meeting.

All right.

Well, it's already set for the 5th. I don't know that there's any reason to move it unless anyone feels very strongly. Do we, setting it an hour before the regular commission meeting usually gets kind of dicey. We end up bleeding into the regular meeting. What about the 11th is Veterans Day. What about the 18th? That's the Tuesday after, unless anyone wants to do it on like a Thursday. Thursday the 13th.

Okay, with the 18th.

We do November 10th. It's a Monday, the day before Veterans Day, but it's November 6th.

November 6th, I am available.

Well, the only reason I'm saying is, well, I guess it doesn't even matter because the meeting's the 4th. So the 18th? 18th, we'll go. Commissioner?

I don't know, but I'll let you guys think, and then I'll confirm.

Can we look at the 18th? No, this is November. We're a little further out. No issues with the 18th? All right, so why don't we tentatively set it now for the 18th? So that's what we're looking at now. This is how it works. We end up several weeks further out. All right, so then that's a resolution moving forward. We'll set a special meeting for the 18th. We'll ask that the candidates please be available to attend either virtually in person. In the time between now and then, the commissioners will reach out and try to have some discussions with them to prepare for that meeting. And Brad, I guess, will be holding an abeyance until then.

Yes, the question. Do you want a presentation from the phone at that meeting?

We've had a whole lot of material submitted by the firm when you first made the request. I don't need to see anything further from your firm. I don't know if the commission needs to see anything further from our current firm. Doesn't sound like it. Okay. All right. So the 18th it is. Better put it in my calendar now. All right. So unless anyone has anything else, that concludes our discussion item. Thank you, folks, for being with us here again. We'll be speaking with you in the coming weeks and we'll see you again, hopefully, on November 18th. All right, so let's get now into our resolutions that were pulled from consent. We begin with, which was previously marked as 9A, which is Resolution 2025-49. Brad, would you please read the resolution for us?

Yes, sir. Resolution 202549, a resolution of the Village Commission of the Village of Biscayne Park, Florida approving a second amendment to the professional service agreement with Maria C. Camara for clerical and administrative services authorizing the village manager to execute said agreement and take all necessary steps to effectuate this resolution providing for incorporation of recitals, providing for an effective date.

Okay, Brad, thank you. Do I have a motion or a second to move the resolution to discussion?

Motion to move to discussion, limiting discussion to five minutes.

Do I have a second? Yes. Vice Mayor.

Vice Mayor. Yeah, I think a couple of questions that I have, and I just wanted to add, and just for clarity, the city manager keeps asking for more money. It's over the procurial amount that we set. And don't we have to put, we put bid out for this work, even if it's small jobs from one after the other. We're hiring an assistant, we're paying for an assistant clerk, and we also are hiring a person to do or rebuild our computer. Why would Maria be doing that? First off, I have a lot of respect for Mia. I knew when she was the clerk here, so it has nothing to do with her personally. But it's just that we were hiring an assistant clerk, and we're also hiring somebody to rebuild our computer. I don't know if she has the experience to redo our computer. I mean, not computer, excuse me, website. And I just think that if we're paying somebody to do a website, that's the person that should be doing it, not somebody else that doesn't have the experience to do it, unless she's a website designer. If she isn't, I look forward to having her do the whole thing. I don't know if that makes sense.

No, I think it makes sense, but I don't know that this is a design related resolution. I think that this resolution is to clean up the information that's on the website that's available to the public. This isn't necessarily a user experience, a design element, a creative issue. This is more I think connecting the dots and making sure, as we see here, you know, in the backup that there are resolutions that are either not there or they're mislabeled or they're categorized wrong. It's to follow the paths on here to make sure that the correct resolutions, the finalized resolutions are all living within the publicly available spaces where they're supposed to be. That's my understanding.

Isn't that what the assistant clerk is supposed to be doing? I mean, what's the purpose of the clerk that we're going to be?

Commissioner, we're hiring one. We don't have one. We just deferred the employment agreement for the next month. The manager's not here to touch on it, but we received an email from a resident saying that our resolutions were not on the website. And I had a very long discussion with the manager about that.

We went through the website page by page by page looking to see what's missing.

And he discovered that there was quite a few things that were missing in our website and chose, I think, from this item rather to act on it now than to wait for an employment agreement and a person to come in because we have a responsibility to have a resolution, to have our proclamations available on the website, and we're deficient. Even more deficient than we thought we were before with the minutes. So I think that this allows the manager to go out and utilize a great asset who's willing to do it for a great price to fix it in a short order.

Can I ask on that? So the resolutions there are missing. It says they're about three years. So are they missing from the website or are we just missing? They're nowhere to be found?

I think it's a combination of things based on my understanding of the backup is that it's based on the problem that we're seeing is that not only are some missing, but some we have broken. They're not missing? They're missing.

Okay, so they're not missing. That's the point. Okay, so if they're not missing, there is no urgency to make sure. I mean, they can be made available via public record request. So I had a similar question. For me, we just approved $55,000 to go to an assistant clerk position to provide assistance to the clerk. That is a job description on itself, but also we have professional services for about five $50,000 that was gonna get us the catalogs of websites. So that was all in redo of the website, not go retouch what we currently have. So for me, adding money to the pool already that we've spent trying to fix something that's gonna be completely redone, meaning from where it's at, the content, the user experience on the website, all of it is gonna be changed by a new website with the money we allocated that was promised to us. since that additional money that we don't need to spend. So that was my main distinction was if it's not something that is missing and exists that could be pulled by via public record, there is no law that requires them to be living on the website as I understand.

I may please. So no, there isn't. But if I might just expound, just answer the vice mayor's question as well. There is a limit to how much the manager can increase this agreement, which is which is up if it gets to $10,000, which is caps at 7500 for the total. value of the agreement then the manager could no longer extend this agreement he would have to come before the commission and seek the commission's approval under your purchasing code it doesn't have to go out to a bid because it's a professional service agreement which is exempted from from the requirement of either an informal or formal bid by by your purchasing code um mr mayor you're absolutely correct there this is to fix it's a temporary fix for some holes in your website I don't remember, maybe about a month ago, the manager, myself, Madam Clerk, and Ms. Cremera had a meeting where we, we had a Zoom meeting where we pulled up the website and went through the functionality, and there were some some holes and some issues with the website. One of them, Commissioner Amsler brought up previously when it talked about communications, the email page referenced constant contact, which the village no longer uses. It had a link to constant contact. the village no longer uses so this was something that maria could um could clear up at least in temporary so that people when they're registering or registering their emails in in the proper proper place so to speak um i can tell you that i tried to pull commissioner gonzalez's email address to send an email off of the website and when i cut and pasted or i'm sorry i clicked on commissioner gonzalez's village email When it populated into Outlook, it was Vice Mayor Samaria's email that populated onto the website. You'd have to physically cut and paste it, because if you use the link, it doesn't even take you to the...

There is a thousand of different issues with the website.

I agree. So I guess my point is, and I'm speaking for the manager somewhat here, I've given you the legal perspective, because I was privy to the conversation. The intent of this was for Ms. Kamara to fix, put those band-aids on the website until you can have your vendor come and retool or replace the entire website, whatever the intent is.

Okay, so I'm going to ask, because my question, is it must have legally to have all resolutions posted on the website?

No, I thought I answered that first.

I didn't hear that, but it might be me. No, no, no, it might not be me, but okay.

Maintained as a public record. Yes. Be able to make requests for them. Yes, okay.

So having that said, so that was my main concern. Okay, so that can be, we've lived with a website forever like this. This is not something that just happened yesterday. This website has been, in the same condition for the three years that I have been a commissioner. Not much has changed. Truett put some other sort of fixes of bugs in here with bandages, but it really has never been fixed. So put in $7,000 to a vendor that is not bidded, specifically hire for website which no capabilities of website, I mean, you have to know about programming somehow or framing somehow to do it. When we have an assistant clerk just approve as well, it's a money disbursed for no reason when we're gonna have a new website developed by a vendor. So I'm okay with waiting the time, put this out for bid with the proper company, the credentials needed, the money in the budget, because that's the other question. I don't know if you can answer, Isa. Where's the money coming from, the $7,500? Actually $2,500. $2,500.

The original agreement, yes. So the last amendment to the agreement raised it to $5,000. You're basically raising the cap to $7,500. So it's a $2,500 increase. The balance has already been the $5,000 already been expended.

Okay. Okay. That makes a difference because I have 13,520 as a total reason why it needed to come for the commission approval because it's over the 10 grand limit.

It is not. No, this is within the manager's authority.

Okay. Okay. So I added it up. That's what I'm saying. I added all of it is 13,520.

No, this was within the manager's authority. Still under the $10,000.

Okay. So wait a second. So it is under there. So where are we approving?

Approving the second. The manager is asking you to approve the second amendment, which would increase. So your original agreement, which was entered in, which you approved, was on February 4th of 2025. For $5,000. That was within the manager's discretion. He sought your approval. You all approved it. On April 1st, you increased it to $6,020. Because she had actually gone over and she needed to get paid. And again, within the manager's discretion, he wanted to secure approval. And now... It's going from the $6,020 to a $7,500 cap, which again is under the $10,000. Okay, okay. Seeking your approval to increase total cap from inception to today, not to exceed $7,500.

Okay, so for me, that's why I thought it was coming to the commission because it's over the 10,000 by adding all the expenditures we've had. Okay, so again, so he's within his privy to do this. So the reason for us to approve this is what? It's just to get a consensus from the commission that we're on board when doing this?

They're seeking it.

Yeah, okay, okay, yeah.

I think the only difference that we had in the past, because we had a city manager that did that once before where it was under 10,000, she always made the number under, but she never came in front of the commission. This one, a city manager is coming each time to ask for more money. So I don't have a problem with that. He is asking, but we have had in the problems where we say to this city manager, you have $10,000. So they will get something under, let's say 5,000. It's on the, where the city manager doesn't have to come in front of the commission and it kept on doing it. But at least with this city manager, he is doing that. So we've clarified, this is only $1,480 increase, not on the- $6,020 to 70.

Yeah, which is 1480. I'll make a motion to approve.

I'm sorry, 1480. How did you come to that?

I'll second it. It's going from 6020 to 7500. That equals 1480 is what we're adding to this agreement. We got a second on the motion to approve.

Hold on, Ryan. I just want to follow the math you have because I am not getting the same number for some reason. So I want to make sure I get it right. Give me one moment. Okay. Yes. Okay. I see. Got it. Thank you.

We have a motion and a second to approve the resolution. All in favor? Aye.

Aye.

No.

I'm going to say no.

Passes 3-2.

All right, so our next resolution is 9B, I believe, which is resolution 2025-50. It did pass 3-2. It did, correct, yes. Okay. Never mind, we don't need to go there. Yeah, please.

Resolution 2025-50, a resolution of the Village Commission of the Village of Biscayne Park, Florida, approving an agreement between the Village of Biscayne Park and Lago, I can't pronounce it, Lago MHR, Inc., from the review, I'm sorry, for the review and updating of the village's employee handbook, providing employee training and human resources consulting services, authorizing the village manager to execute said agreement and do all things necessary in furtherance of this resolution and providing for an effective date.

OK, Brad, thank you. Do I have a motion and a second to move the resolution to discussion?

Make a motion to move it to discussion. Second.

All in favor? Aye. Aye. OK, let's discuss. Who? I don't remember. Yes, go ahead.

I have a couple of questions. So do we know, Isa, maybe what the expected timeline for completion of the updates is?

The vendor is here if you'd like to ask questions.

What's that?

The vendor is here if you'd like to. She's here.

Oh, hi. Nice meeting you. Thank you for being here.

Give it a tap. Tap. On the mic. On the front of just to see. I wanted to hear if it was on. It's back.

Can you hear me now?

Yes.

Thank you. Hi.

Thank you for being here to answer some of the questions. My pleasure. So I was wondering, in best practices, because that was quoted, how often does this need to happen?

The employee handbook?

Yes. How often is it revised?

Usually it's updated every three to five years, which I actually did your handbook, I believe, in 2019, 2020.

Okay, perfect. So we are needed of that, clearly, as the manager stated. And then I just wanted to know when is needed a refresh. A refresh of that is not, so we would have to wait three, four years to go and pay the full amount to redo everything. It's not something that you, as you go, can be hired to update here and there.

Absolutely. So the employee handbook is supposed to be a living, breathing document. You're supposed to update it as often as you possibly can. Usually, if you update a specific policy, you would just issue out that change and you can have the employees acknowledge that they received it. But it's impossible to assume every type of scenario that would happen in the workplace. And you can imagine that employees surprise me all the time. And then I create new policies for those circumstances. Right. So as you go updating it, you can have the employees acknowledge it. But in this particular case, the manager wants to start off with updating the employee handbook as a whole. And then he also wants to utilize my services just with other employee relations matters. It could even be to adopt certain standard operating procedures within the human resources department. It could be any sensitive employee relations matters. So he put, to my understanding, like a total budget for what my services could be for for the year. And it's basically as on an as needed basis when he needs something in that field, he would he would call me.

Wonderful. So in the timeline for completion review and updates, when do you think this is done from the beginning?

So the employee handbook, I would say it would take anywhere from 30 to 60 days. I would have to get reacquainted with your employee handbook to see if this employee handbook is something that has to go to the commission for final approval or not. Sometimes it's just presented as a courtesy so that the commission knows some of the things that were implemented. I would work with the with the village attorney to make sure that um he's in agreement with any proposed changes um and if there's any um collective bargaining agreement um you know union representatives we also like to involve them just to get their input and their feedback so i would say anywhere from 30 to 60 days but we could push it out pretty quickly and then does it have to i don't know does it stand as a policy comes to the commission for approval or can be implemented by the manager

It's historically come before you for approval.

Okay. Okay. I would like to see it prior just so we have a discussion of what was done. I think it's a great opportunity to see that. And then I just had one comment. In 2023, from the beginning of 2023, we did a strategic planning session And the commission at that time developed with a vendor that we outsourced values, mission values, the mission, the vision, the values for what we envision the organization should look like. And the idea with that was a start point what culture eventually should feed from. I would like to see that document incorporated because right now it sits standalone. At the time, you know, we had the handbook on one side and we had this process that we started and got us into what now is our capital improvement plans. We talked about goals, et cetera, but that part was just left on the website, never touched since. If this is the best opportunity for you to grab as a commission, we define that mission, the vision and the values should be for practice, obviously, when it comes to what we're hiring, but as a policy document incorporated in the handbook. Do you see that feasible?

And even to take it a step further, the manager discussed with me kind of revamping like performance evaluations and have like an actual performance program. And so that mission, vision, values that you just discussed, that would actually be incorporated as well into performance evaluations to make sure that every single employee, it doesn't matter what type of position you have, right? Every single employee and their role matters. with this organization is professionally representing their city every single day and they're doing so with that mission and vision in mind right so that would be incorporated into a performance plan that is something that we discussed as well perfect that was it thank you thank you yes i'm sorry uh yolanda menegasso i wasn't even going to try with the last name so i apologize it's okay thank you that's what i said when i met my husband too i was like what what but yes it's menegasso

Well, thank you very much for being with us. I don't have any questions. If there's no other questions from the commission, then I'd ask for a motion to approve.

Motion to approve.

All in favor?

Aye. Thank you.

Thank you.

Yes.

Okay. So that's B. Let's go on now to 9D. I scrolled way too far down. 9D, Resolution 2025-5-2.

Right resolution of the village, Commissioner, the village of this came part Florida approving a proposed settlement and reinstatement agreement with Roberto Navarro. authorizing the village manager to execute said agreement and do all things necessary and furtherance of this resolution and providing for an effective date, and I will just remind you all if you're approving it it's as amended as we stated earlier.

Okay, all right, do I have a motion and a second to move to discussion.

Motion to move to discussion.

All in favor? Aye. Okay. So Commissioner Amsler and Vice Mayor, I know that you both requested we move this to discussion. I don't know who wants to get us started. Okay. Commissioner Amsler?

90, right? Yes, okay, I got it right. Yeah, so I just wanted to have opportunity to shift, to walk me through what was the changes? I mean, we got this resolution drafted, I believe it was yesterday, Brad, that you included in the agenda or was it today?

This went out with the original agenda. The BEA agreement is the one that you got.

That's what I meant. Sorry. I got confused with that. Just if you can tell me why, you know, there was a lot of questions as to why are we doing this. And the initial thoughts of why we've done it even in the past, you know, came my way. Can you talk a little bit about why it was considered?

Okay, so I think you have several questions here, so I want to make sure I answer correctly, especially when this involves a legal matter. you're asking about why this was done, are you talking about rehiring Navarro.

I think all of it, I think there's two separate items.

need to ask the Attorney that okay.

I don't mean to shut you down.

No, that's what I said. I think this is something that the attorney should answer.

So the background, just so we're all on the same page and understand what happened, is this was a situation where Mr. Navarro was terminated by the village under Chief Cabrera's, when Chief Cabrera was the chief of the police department. Mr. Navarro, without getting into all the details, had filed a complaint against Chief Steele at the time when he was the chief, but in reference to when he was a police commander, alleging that he conducted certain investigations into Mr. Navarro's alleged conduct in violation of the Bill of Rights and was not afforded his due process rights that he's entitled to under the Police Officer Bill of Rights. There was an investigation, as you all well know, that was had. There was an investigator that was retained. He conducted an investigation and he came out with his findings. And without getting into all of his findings, a nutshell of the findings was that to some extent, Mr. Navarro's claims were correct, that the police officer's Bill of Rights was not followed as it related to the investigations that were done. that these alleged investigations he was never made aware of. They were not maintained in his personnel file the way they were supposed to be. And essentially Mr. Navarro had reached out to the village through the village manager subsequent to the investigation results being finalized and presented to the commission and sought his reinstatement. There were some negotiations that were had that myself, the manager, and Paul Winklejohn were involved in. And initially, Mr. Navarro was asking for back pay and attempting to be made completely whole. We rejected that offer that he had made as far as reinstatement. There was a point where he, in our negotiations where it appeared to be shut down and we were not gonna be able to come to any type of meeting of the minds. And there was, Mr. Navarro had sent a correspondence indicating that he was going to retain counsel and potentially bring suit against the village. At that point, we then notified our insurance carrier and made a claim to the insurance carrier. The insurance carrier provided counsel to assist the village in reviewing the allegations and determining what, if any, resolution would be appropriate, if a resolution, in fact, would be appropriate. That was Weiss Sirota. It was Brett Schneider from Weiss Sirota, who was the Carriers Council that was appointed and his team. They engaged in negotiations with Mr. Navarro. They kept myself apprised of various different matters were sharing draft of agreements with us and and points of of the agreement i was sharing those with the manager we were engaging i think it was acting chief rosero initially and then chief avila um in those decisions and ultimately the meeting of the minds um with regards to an agreement that was effectuated by um mr schneider and And Mr. Navarro is what you have before you. There were discussions, obviously, with the chief. Is this a person that you want back? Is this a person that you think can be an asset to the police department? And the chief indicated affirmatives to that. And I'll let him speak more about that. But from the legal perspective, there's no back pay in here. And based on the allegations and based on the evaluation of where both Mr. Schneider and I believe the village may end up, if in fact we were in litigation, we thought it was in the best interests of the village to come to some type of settlement if one could be had. That's really where we're at at this point. And I can tell you that part of the evaluation was looking at if we were to go to litigation and have to defend a suit brought by Mr. Navarro, our key witnesses in that suit are former Chief Cabrera, former Chief Mark Steele and former city manager Chris Truitt. Those would be our key witnesses that we would have to present to try to defend in action like that. And I'm not going to go into all the details, but that was part of it. No, I'm not going to. And that was part of the evaluation process with this potential resolution.

Thank you, Brad.

And so that gives context as to the reason why it was terminated. I'm asking you why your decision is to reinstate him.

Well, I was sent the agreement to see if I agreed with it, basically. I'm being told by the village attorney by the village insurance company's attorneys that this is the settlement agreement. I was asked to review it. I looked at it. I was okay with it. If he comes back to work, he works for me, and I'm his boss. You're all approving for him to come back.

So I think the other question, I think it was Barbara Kuehl that asked and left it on the comment, and this is a question for the attorney for Brad. Are these matters needed to come in front of the commission? If I'm not coordinating correctly, the manager had said that he has no obligation to bring the settlement to the commission that was choosing to do that. So I just wanted to understand that.

I can answer that.

So, yeah.

Manager has all the authority to bring him back without bringing it back to you.

Okay, that's what I wanted to understand.

Yeah.

Yeah.

If the manager wanted to bring Mr. Navarro back, he could have done that without Yeah.

However,

The wrinkle in this is that this is also not just a reemployment agreement, but it's a settlement agreement. And the reason why it's a settlement agreement is as a condition of the village bringing him back for employment, him being Mr. Navarro. he is giving up certain rights. He's agreeing not to bring suit against the village at any time related to this. He's agreeing to give up back pay, contributions, and all the things that are potentially out there had this reached litigation and the village obtained a negative result. So the settlement agreement itself, the manager does not have authority to settle. That's what I was asking. The settlement portion of this could have been, had to be brought. But quite frankly, the manager, as you said, could have brought Mr. Navarro back, had him working, and done the settlement agreement after the fact for your approval. That was discussed. That was against my recommendation. So we'll see how we are with that.

Okay, got it. So the settlement portion was what I was wondering. I think that was what Barbara was asking as well. Okay, so that settles the part. This is what we're talking about. We have to approve the settlement that the commission needs to approve from. And then the other part has to do with the task force. So that's why I got a lot of feedback as to two different things. You know, why are we choosing this task force? What is helping the past? We are today saying that is amended and the task force for you to decide where it goes. So what does that mean?

So, well, it's up to me basically by law where he goes or where any employee under my command goes. However, After seeing what went on this weekend with all the turmoil over HSI, which it's unfortunate because nothing could be further from the truth of everything that has been said. The unit that he would have been going to is not ICE. It is a separate arm of HSI. HSI doesn't work for ICE. ICE works for HSI. HSI is a branch of government that has many arms. And this task force has nothing to do with ICE. Every chief from every department that has somebody detached to a federal agency has the ultimate authority over their employee. They go there, they work there, they work under the rules, they get deputized. as a federal officer, but when the chief calls you back, you come back. If the chief says, no, you can't do this or that. So if you were working for HSI and he was called from the task force and I'm going to use general words, because remember, we're talking about federal agencies that are doing very dangerous work, taking money from dope dealers all over the world. And I don't want to disclose anything that could jeopardize anybody's life. So I'm going to speak in generalities when I talk about these investigators who are assigned to do this job. They do a very dangerous job. Whatever their assignment is, the chief of police of the agency gets informed of what they're doing. And if it's something that I don't agree with, I will pull them out. immediately or I will not have him or allow him to have any part in it. That's under my authority. But based on the fact that this has become a political hot potato, a decision was made to go ahead and see if he was amicable to not going to HSI. He is and I won't send him to HSI, period.

Okay. So it was just two pools, right? I don't know if it was Samaria and myself. I think the three of you did not object of having this item pulled from the agenda. Am I correct? It was just me?

Well, it wasn't that I didn't object. I had multiple conversations with the chief about this as well as the manager. So I'm well versed into kind of what's going on. So that's why I didn't pull the item.

So I just want to reiterate my question. So that was just me pulling the item. It was also some areas or not? Okay, so the two of us, all right. So I just wanna understand also why it was in the consent agenda. Clearly the manager felt they had three boats for today. I wanted to do this publicly. The ways of working are very different among each other when it comes to the manager. So this is the first time I'm hearing from you with my questions in public, transparency. You've heard a lot of the comments that came in today. The disappointment is that it is a sensitive issue, as you've heard, and people have a lot of questions, and the questions come out convoluted between political pools and interests, and it's a complex one, especially in the turmoil of very recent investigations. So we're starting to talk about Navarro. We talk about the other investigation that happened to the manager. It was all at the same time. It was a lot of stuff going on. So I think.

If I may.

Yeah.

Here's the problem I have with what you're saying, and I'm not disagreeing with you. Okay. We've had somebody on the task force since 2021. It's 2026 almost.

Yeah.

So I don't understand. I mean, I look at this and I'm like, and I wonder.

Yeah.

Why is it now? Why is there a problem with it now? Obviously, it appears to be political.

Well, I was going to say, I mean, you can understand what the issues come up has a lot to do with the circumstances that we are. The circumstances are not the framework of the political environment. The circumstances are in the change of management, the ways of working, the ways of communicating. So I think to my stand, again... I feel disappointed that it's come this way. I understand what is being tried to be made. You know, settlements are for this reason. I think in my conversations with the attorney, I was trying to understand if this is a common practice. Do we settle by rehiring people that have been fired? I don't know that the answer is yes or no. Maybe you can tell me. I don't know if that's happened.

I can answer that, too.

I want to know in the history of the village.

I can't speak to the history of the village. I can tell you that there have been circumstances with other clients where somebody... Where somebody has been terminated and it's been determined either by the courts by the employer or by some arbitrator, depending on what, depending on what the processes that the termination was either unlawful or improper and that individual gets their job back on. There are occasions where not only they get their job back, but I mean, I've had arbitrations in the law enforcement world, binding arbitration pursuant to collective bargaining agreements where the arbitrator has found that there wasn't just cause to terminate that individual. And the arbitrator's binding order was not only is he or she being returned to work, but that they're compensated with their back pay, their benefits and made whole. So I mean, does it happen? The answer is yes. you know, am I saying it's going to, it would absolutely happen in this circumstance? I'm not saying that there's no lawyer that's going to tell you an absolute of how the court case is going to come out. Yes. But, and I can't speak to the village because I don't know whether the circumstances happen. I mean, we've had, we've had, we've had police officers terminated here that are fighting to get the job back. We haven't offered settlements because we believe we have justiciable defense to their claims.

So, all right, so that answers it. And again, I was trying to go with the history of the village that we reinstated someone that has, you know, but it doesn't seem the case. So I think there was a lot of sensitivity when it comes to that as well. But, you know, I'm going to tell you where I stand. I think we're ready to move for a vote. I don't know if that's the case. And just to finalize my point, not be impressed in the manager as well. The communication, the issue putting in the consent agenda, two sensitive items, the context of economy, I'm sorry, the politics. I think all of it raises what you saw today. I think there is a better approach to have. I wouldn't have put in a consent agenda at all. This should have been a discussion item. This sort of discussion openly and transparency with everybody that came today would have been felt much less pushed in by three votes already had. They had no questions to be asked in public, right? We have a lot of comments today. This would have been consent agenda approved next. And that is a concern. That is a concern I have. And this is feedback from me to you how I work. And I think if we can have that open communication, I would suggest this sort of items be avoided, be put in consent, and be placed for discussion.

If you give me a moment to respond to what you just said, because I have no authority, not one single authority to put anything on the agenda, to tell the manager which way to put it anywhere.

It's a management.

I do know when I saw it is that to be quite honest with you, I don't even understand why he put it on there because he just, he could have hired, we hired Navarro whenever he wanted. So, I think in an abundance of caution and an abundance of respect for the commission, he puts it on the agenda. And I think if I'm not mistaken, he put some other things on the agenda that he does not have to do. Correct. But again, I'm not the manager. I follow orders.

And I think that's a very good point you make. My feeling with that is we're seeing it from a different perspective. My perspective is the manager has a role. For example, today we saw things in the consent agenda that does not need to come for the commission. When you do that, you share accountability, and I'm not okay with that. Because you're saying you're okay with hiring someone for $2,000. I mean, that's a management decision. It's not a commission decision. The moment we bring those issues, we are against our charter. Actually, our charter is very specific with the roles. And so this is upscale, upwards pushing the accountability. And I don't feel comfortable with that. So like you said, I will rely on the manager making the decision. That's why he was hired, even if it's a hot potato seat. and instead of sharing sort of how we test the waters and so later on it can be the commission was okay with it i would want him to own that and that's why i think it needs to come for a discussion that's that's all i wanted uh i had a that kind of frame what you just said but i appreciate the feedback thank you

I get into what I'm going to read. For me, this has nothing to do with Navarro going to the other agencies. This is, for me, bringing him back. This is my only objection. It's not whether or not he goes to another agency or so on. So I want to set that record straight. Thank you, Mayor, fellow commissioners, and residents of Biscayne Park. I want to take a few minutes tonight to address the resolution 25XX, the measure that reinstates former Assistant Police Chief Roberto Nevada and his claims his termination was improper. I must state for the record, the information presented to this party is both factual, inaccurate, and legally flawed. Allowing this resolution to stand as written would undermine the credibility of this commission and the integrity of our public record. First and foremost, the resolution contains fundamental factual error that states Mr. Navarro's termination was a result from illegal misconduct or malfeasance by former Chief Mark Steele. That statement is false. When Mr. Navarro was terminated on December 7, 2023, the police chief of Biscayne Park was Luis Cabrera, not Mark Steele. Robert Navarro was a probationary at-will employee that would be terminated with or without cause at any time. This is not a matter of clerical oversight. It is a fundamental mistake that inviolates the reason behind the resolution and the so-called independent investigation that supports it. If the core fact identified who led the department at this time is wrong, then every conclusion that follows from the assumption is unreliable. It is important to understand that every employee's decision involving Robert Novato included his disciplinary actions, probation, and eventually termination was reviewed by and included the advice of our village attorney. Once these so-called critical errors or concerns were originally presented for his termination, they should have been presented to the commission. He's not the client for the village manager or the police chief, nor is he the employee. He's the client for the village commission, and by extension, the residents of Biscayne Park. I have other concerns regarding the investigation. As previously expressed, I think this selection and investigation was not done properly. I think that the investigation had critical flaws that did not present a fair outcome. until a proper investigation is conducted, I think we should not use these findings. It is important to note that it is not the first time concerns have been raised regarding Mr. Roberto Nevada's workplace behavior. In fact, this exists A prior hostile work environment complaint documented in his resignation letter by the former Major Sandra Roman, which specifically referred issues involving Mr. Navarro. Just to set the record, I wasn't on the commission, and I think Al Gonzalez wasn't on the commission, but Major Sandra Roman's resignation letter was given to all the commissioners. So they had it, that explained exactly this. This record demonstrates a continued pattern of similar conduct and previous critical contacts that should have been considered before any decision to reinstatement. The existence of multiple complaints of compatible nature against the same individual should have raised serious red flag for both the village attorney and the commission. Ignoring this history undermines the credibility of the investigation, causing to question whether the reinstatement was made in the best of the village and its employees. Our obligation as commissioners is to the truth and to the public trust. The people of Biscayne Park deserve transparency, integrity, and accountability from the elected officials, from those who advise us. in this resolution is based on falsehoods, unlawful actions, and have a moral and legal duty to correct it. The truth must come before conversations, and the law must come before loyalty. At this time, I don't think we can ethically move forward with such a resolution. Thank you.

Go ahead, Brent.

Is your mic on, Brent? I believe it is. I'm just not close enough.

So I said, I'm not going to address the investigations. I'm not going to relive that, but I just want to address a comment that the vice mayor has made with regards to the resolution, which he's saying is inaccurate. The whereas clause that he's addressing and saying that it's inaccurate, And let me just read it into the record. It says, whereas on and about January 23rd, 2025, Mr. Navarro presented a complaint to the then interim manager, Albert P. Childress, in which he alleged that his termination was improper due to alleged misconduct, misfeasance, or malfeasance by former police chief Mark Steele and the village's failure to comply with the police officer's bill of rights. I'm not saying that that provision is parroting what Mr. Navarro put in his complaint. That's not my legal conclusion. In no way have I made that legal conclusion. However, I will say that based on the investigation that was done, that was the background that precipitated the proposed settlement that's before you.

OK. Thanks, Brad. Yeah, please go ahead, Art. So just a couple of comments. Number one, I completely agree with Commissioner Amsler in the sense that I've had a conversation with Al, and I said, Al, why are you bringing these things, if they're in your purview, why are you bringing these things to the commission? It seems like you're just scared. You're being overly cautious about making decisions, and I think that that's what you're here to do, is make decisions, right? So... It's your job, it's your responsibility, so make those decisions, okay? So I agree with Commissioner Ramsey that he should have, doggone, make this decision. Now, as far as Mr. Navarro is concerned, none of us here had anything to do with what happened. Not the current chief, not the manager, none of us that are here on the commission had anything to do with... I don't like the position that we're in. I really don't like it.

But if, in fact, this gentleman... Audio is off. Nothing is being heard.

Yeah, I think the village manager or the clerk accidentally ended her meeting. She's offline. She's not on here anymore. It says that Vicky's hosting the meeting now. And just when it was getting juicy. Oh, well. How you doing, Judy Sue?

Doing all right.

I'm signing off, kids. Buenas noches.

I sent a text to Art. Let's see if he catches it or not.

Yeah. I think she might have just been scrolling through stuff and accidentally turned off the meeting, which I think happened earlier today. That or they're having bandwidth issues and it just kicked her off. Just passing my bedtime anyway.

Bye-bye. All right.