Village Council - Regular Meeting

With leadership, with Senator Jones, with Fabian, and with Danny Perez. So that was interesting. So just to get a little bit more into the overall budget, what passed, what didn't pass, and then specifically the Ball Harbor items I think is relevant. All this should have been sent to you in an LTC yesterday, I believe you should have gotten it. But just go through some of it. So there was a $1.4 billion gap in the budgets between the House and the Senate. Just so you know, the governor's budget recommendation is $117 billion. So I guess it's a little bit over 10% of a gap. Alejandro? which means the one thing that they're constitutionally required to do, they still haven't done yet, which is pass a budget. They will. Just so you get an understanding of the two things that are happening, the House was trying to take what they call right-sizing the government. They're trying, we're in a good financial state in the state government, so they said, okay, let's spend less money, not more money. Seems to make sense. The Senate is going the other direction. They want to spend a lot more on rural infrastructure and larger environmental allocations around the Everglades in particular. The rural infrastructure is interesting. Just a little bit on that. If you know on the one big beautiful bill, that's what it's actually called. They passed $50 billion for rural health care transformation. It's called the RHTP program. Every state has applied for it. And it's now getting money. It's about a billion dollars per state for rural health care transformation. It's not supposed to be a subsidy for hospitals. It's supposed to actually be to improve technology and things of that sort to be able to bring health care to rural America, which is really a huge gap. So that's really the pushback of the Senate trying to put more money there. There's a lot of money coming in and you have to be able to absorb that. That's really the big friction point, and then, like I said, the Everglades restoration program. I'm going to go straight now just to Bell Harbor, and then we'll go to some other things. Like most of you know, we had two appropriations requests this year. One, which was, in my perspective, the critical one, was the Camden Drive sanitary sewer replacement. That's a major program to replace, actually, the sanitary sewer there. It's a big program. We requested... just under $750,000, $748,188. The funding came in a little bit inconsistent. The Senate actually put in their budget almost $600,000, so $598,000, and the House put $374,000. I spoke to Fabian today, Basabe, and here's a quote. As he said, I'm going to quote you specifically because it's going to bring hopefully some confidence in an otherwise... inconclusive time where he said we're strong and we're in the final round. He said that actually about both of those things, for sure when it comes to this bill, we're going to get funding it looks like on something. The next question is if it gets vetoed or not. We'll get to now when they're going to do that. The next was we went for an allocation for $750,000 to enhance the inlet, the waterfront corridor, to install the overwater-looking platforms that we had in the original design many years back. The Senate gave us $350,000 out of the $750,000 that's in their budget. The House gave us donuts. Gave us zeros for that. But because we were in one of the budgets and the budget hasn't been reached between the two of them, when they go to a budget conference, we're still alive, right? So it could still be debated in the conference. You could still actually get all of it or get half of it or get a piece of it. That's going to be decided when they come back for a budget conference, which I'll skip to that part. We don't know when that's going to be yet, but it should be in April, it sounds like. They're likely going to bring things back, try to bring everyone back together. I guess that's the hope. So that's where we are on both of that. What Fabian said on this, and we reached out to Chev's office and haven't heard back specifically on this yet, but he said, look, at the end of the day, even with regards to this, it's all speculation. He's confident that because of some positions he took that the leadership is going to be favorable in the House, which looks where we're going to need some help. on this because he backed away on certain other issues that they asked him to back away from. So usually those are the cards that they trade back and forth. He also asked me to convey to everybody that our district was very well received by leadership this session. So from him, I think he was sending a message on the work he was doing, but also just in Bell Harbor, we've had lots of back and forth with the legislature behind the scenes when we make appropriation requests. We know the way we're perceived, and they think we can pass around a bucket and just pick up money for projects, but that's not how it works. So we wanted to make sure everyone knew that it was well-received, and really we felt the same in our interactions with them. The next big issues, and I'll take whatever questions you guys want, is there'll be an upcoming special session set already for the week of April 20th, and that has to do with congressional redistricting. Lots of people ask about that. Those redistricting usually happens every 10 years. Everyone, if you're following the news, you know there's a national fight back and forth state by state to redistrict. Depending on the state in California and Texas, now in Florida and some others, whoever's in leadership, if they have the power to do it, they're trying to redistrict to gain more seats. There was a big Florida Supreme Court, a case that went up to the Supreme Court that was just rejected two weeks ago to block redistricting. this effort. So the effort is moving forward. It doesn't mean there won't be more legal challenges. There will definitely be more legal challenges that will delay whatever they decide. The goal, I think George, if I'm not mistaken, asked me this, or Ramiro, earlier this week, the goal or the intention is to get three to five more Republican seats, net, in the congressional map. So you get an understanding. I looked this up just to figure out where are we now. Right now we're at 20 Republican seats and eight Democratic seats in the state. So they're trying to solidify more around the state. Same thing California is doing on their side. I'm not commenting on whether it's good or bad. You guys can all do that yourselves. But it's all about what impacts us here in Bell Harbor and in our area. So the three districts that can most likely be impacted by this that are related to us are FL 23, 24, and 27. 23 is Moskowitz's seat. Jared Moskowitz, he's a Democrat from the Parkland area. He was the executive director of the Florida Department of Emergency Management. He's a friend of many of ours. It's a blue, blue, blue seat in Broward County. There's a big push to try to make that seat at least more competitive. Representative Salazar is 27, Maria Salazar. That is a swing seat right now. So it's challenged heavily every single election. So they're trying to see if there's a way to solidify that. The way they're doing that, there's other districts that are impacted in these maps. They're going to the more firmly read districts that are around. and taking from them and pushing them trying to draw them into those districts and the last one which is probably the one that's most controversial is ours which is 24 federico wilson's seat there's lots of speculation as to what they're going to try to do there but it's uh that's the danger zone for the governor and for the legislature as far as challenges that can that can happen as to why challenges are being made for gerrymandering issues So those are the ones to look out for. Next, we'll talk about property taxes. That's what everybody wants to know about. I'll start with the end. Nothing has happened yet. So there's been lots and lots of proposals. The House had... four different bills on property taxes. One was slash all of them immediately with the exception of school property taxes. The next one was a 10-year phase-out. The next one targeted only seniors to give seniors some relief. If I'm not mistaken, that was Juan Boris. who proposed that one, and then one for those with property insurance. The one that went through in the House was 203, HDR 203, which was a 10-year phase-out of property taxes. There was lots of news around that that it passed and that it's happening. Most people jumped the gun because of social media, right? They don't really understand what happens because the Senate blocked all the measures. The Senate didn't take any of them, so none of them passed. The governor is pushing for a ballot initiative to reduce or eliminate non-school property taxes for primary residences. That's his thing for Homestead while keeping them for investors and real estate and rental properties. So that's really the goal. There will be a special session on it. First, there needs to be a budget. Then that will happen. So we're probably looking at three special sessions. If you speak to the legislators, none of them are happy about it. They all have other jobs. So they're looking to get back to their lives. And there's a lot of this back and forth. There's a good argument to be made that the property tax won't even happen because the governor is in his last session. So, you know, his political push is a lot larger. lighter now, if that's PC enough. He's in a difficult spot being basically lame ducked now at the end of his session. So we're still looking at that. If you speak to anybody on it, they all have an opinion, but nobody knows really what's going to happen. So you have to take that a little bit with a grain of salt. The last thing that we've been following very closely throughout the session is Live Local, the Live Local extension. What Live Local 4.0, there's different names for it. Really what it does is 1389, the past, it authorizes multifamily and multiuse residential developments on properties owned by counties, municipalities, school districts, and religious institutions. So that's really the big widening. So you're going to actually now see real estate developers going to schools. The Miami-Dade Public Schools, for example, owns tons of properties of schools that are not being used. People are going to want them now and to create affordable housing projects on them. Same as synagogues, so maybe Vice Mayor Wolf, if at the shul when you put on your other hat as president, you guys want to build affordable housing, I'm sure Surfside will be excited about it. And they have an election tonight, so we can talk about it today, not yesterday. We don't want to affect their elections. It also took away a few of the tools that cities have been using with setbacks, for example, and a few others to try to make sure that the intention of Live Local sticks. Not to get too specific in a public forum, the issue that we were following in particular with our dispute didn't come up and wasn't touched this session. So that's something we were really looking at closely through the last second amendment and making sure that there was nothing slipped by us. A bunch of other interesting stuff like voter rights. We see them fighting about it in the federal government. We're going to now have stricter citizenship verifications if the governor signs it. And a few other interesting ones, including HB 399, which we'll call the Fountain Blue Water Park legislation, which passed in much too many people's dismay, including our local state reps and senators. everyone else down here, except those who are excited about it. Just a little bit of background. The way we've been handling things for now, I just want to address very quickly. meeting regularly with George and Ramiro. We're shifting that up a little bit now as things move forward based on some feedback, which I'm always happy for. The next steps are going to be focusing on the budget conference when they get together to push to make sure that we stay in the budget on the legislative side. Once we do, go work with the governor's office to make sure it's not vetoed. So that's really the... the key the key issue and it's an again a very interesting session so to understand the dynamics of why people are being pulled in each way but it looks like we're going to be in a good spot and then uh in the next couple weeks we're going to be working i'm working with george and ramiro we'll be sending around and we'll set it for the next council meeting like hopefully a priorities list for dealing with the county on several issues and possibly federal government it's mostly driven through the county on lots of issues that people uh that that that the council really cares about, and the residents as well. It has to do with sandbar dredging, traffic mitigation, beach re-nourishment, sargassum plan, even the food boat truck issue that we have out there that many people complain about. In the gated community, everybody talks about those. So those are all issues. We'll determine those together, obviously. Food barge. Food barge, is that the name? We're going with food truck, a floating food truck. Yeah. But I was never accused of being a marketing guy. So we're going to do that in an organized way so that way the idea is for Bell Harbor to have a really strategic effort in our engagement both with the county and the state so we can not just call them when we have an issue but have a strategy to move them forward and be the squeaky wheel that we all want to be so we can bring back results for the residents. If you have any questions.

Thank you. Thank you for that wonderful summary.

Any questions from council?

Not for me. Okay. Thank you so much for all your efforts and we look forward to continued good reports from you.

If you make it on time tonight, if I can, for one second, there's a guest at the Bal Harbor Shul, Eli Sharabi, who was a hostage for 491 days. He wrote a book called Hostage. I read it the quickest I've ever read a book. I read it on Saturday. David lent it to me. Vice Mayor Wolf lent it to me, and I read it in about five hours. You can't put it down. And he's going to be here. I'm interviewing him. Supposedly starting at 8 o'clock, but we know nothing starts on time. So just letting you know.

It's not going to start until the President shows up. Not until the President.

I was going to say, if you need to get in, just text the President. Thank you, Jeff. I'm going to drive with you.

I wasn't planning on it, but he's got to be there. Okay. Thank you for that. I'd now like to recognize Ms. Taylor Wilmoth, who is the coordinator of clinical education for the University of Miami Athletic Training Program and the South Florida representative for the Athletic Trainers Association of Florida.

Hi, everyone. I'm so pleased to be here today. Thank you so much for having me to talk to you a little bit about athletic training and athletic training month. Athletic trainers are licensed health care providers in the state of Florida who serve not only in sports, but also in industrial settings. You'll find them at the airport assisting the individuals who unload baggage at construction sites, making sure that things are done correctly in the Army and the Air Force as well. We're seeing them at training camps for fire and police. Athletic training is really a beautiful profession because we have the opportunity to marry initial response to an injury with evaluation and rehabilitation of that injury to allow individuals to return to play. In garnering respect for the profession of athletic training, we have our National Athletic Training Association that has worked actively to have March named as National Athletic Training Month. And so I wrote to the village of Ball Harbor and Mayor Salver. to request that Ball Harbor and the residents here embrace National Athletic Training Month as the month of March to recognize the athletic trainers in our own community here who serve and work to better the lives of not just adults, but also high school and elementary, secondary school children around the village. So thank you so much for having me. I'm pleased to be here.

Thank you for coming. And after that, I'd like to just, I, therefore, Seth Salver, Mayor of Bell Harbor Village, Florida, do hereby proclaim March 2026 as National Athletic Training Month in the Village of Bell Harbor. And I call upon all residents, organizations, and institutions to acknowledge and honor the dedication of athletic trainers whose commitment ensures the health, safety, and performance of individuals in our community. If the council would join me for a picture with Ms. Wilmeth.

Oh, thank you, that's wonderful.

Where do we go? Where's our camera?

Beautiful. I love it. Hey, everybody look this way, one, two.

One more, one, two. It's also Parks and Rec directors. Oh, I love that. Maybe you can talk to them. Yes, absolutely. Thank you. Okay. Next up, I'd like to call upon our illustrious police chief to give us the police department operational review. In brief. In brief.

Okay.

Good evening, Mayor, Council, City Manager, and our residents. It's that time of year where we go over, we do our year-end review, and we share some of the things that the Police Department has done in the previous year. So, we're going to move right into it. Oh, I got the clicker. All right. So... Bell Harbor, we all know, is a very distinguished community and elite destination, such as public safety reflect the standards that defines our village. So our village, our policing style is concierge style policing. It's our commitment to delivering high level of service. That means that our officers are not just policemen. We don't just show up to call. We go above and beyond. We take the time to really resolve whatever issues that may be. We maintain a visible presence throughout the village. Also, we're addressing quality of life concerns. And then we balance a firm enforcement with hospitality and discretion. So that's some of the things that we do that's unique to other police departments. That's why I refer to it as concierge-style policing. All right. As you know, we never close. We're open seven days a week. We broke the village down into four different zones, and that's strategically so we can have efficient and effective patrols. Zone one is our gated community. Zone two is Collins Avenue West. Zone three is Collins Avenue East.

And zone four is the beach and the ocean.

As part of our community, I'm sorry, as part of our concierge style policing, our community engagement efforts really, really is one of the tenets that we hang our hat on. We engage our residents. We honor our residents. We make sure that the officers interact with them. And most of the times our residents know our officers by first name basis, which is a testament of our concierge style policing. Again, there's a few other community engagement things there. We ran into Danny DeVito here in Bell Harbor. I thought that was pretty cool. And Spider-Man. Spider-Man and I was on patrol that day. Our community outreach efforts as part of our Bell Harbor Legacy Foundation that was founded in 2018. Through that Legacy Foundation, we have our outreach efforts. And our outreach efforts to this day since 2018 has assisted over 25,000 families, students, seniors, and veterans throughout Miami-Dade County. And we couldn't have done that without the support from you guys up here and the support from our community. All of the donations and monetary donations received are from... our residents. Majority of it is from our residents. And we've really made a significant impact to those deserving families throughout Miami-Dade County. Now, throughout all of our community engagement and our outreach efforts, we still remain steadfast in our mission and commitment to safety. As you can see on this graph, we spend about 93% of our time on self-initiated calls. What's self-initiated calls, Chief? Those are our disturbances, our accidents, our emergency calls for sick and injured individuals, and sometimes we get calls to the shops for shoplifting. So most of our time is spent on self-initiated activity as opposed to calls for service. And that's just another graph indicating what I just talked about. So 2025 activity, our village-wide activity. So we did a total of 14,000 area checks and high visibility details. Those area checks could be the east side of the condos, the west side condos. It could be the beach path. It could be up and down Collins Avenue, inside the gated community. Those are all area checks. We did about... Almost 8,000 ordinance investigations. That's code stuff. Security checks. Again, the security checks could also be when someone asks us to put a watch order on their home or going in and out of the buildings on the east and west side. Code area checks. And as you can see, our traffic details. We're very proactive in our traffic details as well as our traffic stops. Activity inside the gated community. We have quite a few area checks inside the gated community, as you can see. Ordinance investigations, we have quite a few construction sites inside the gated community. I think it's over 20 now, if I'm not mistaken. So we're really proactive inside the gated community, as well as the code checks, and then it tells you what the traffic details and the traffic stops that we've done inside the gated community. Here's one I like to brag about. Not going wood. We, Val Harbor remains to be one of the safest communities in Miami-Dade County. And as you can see, overall crime decreased about 34%. That is significant. And on top of that, I'm pleased to say our enforcement efforts and traffic proactiveness has resulted in zero auto thefts in the village. There was a time where we were having, you know, maybe two a year, four a year. And one year we got really up there because the guys were targeting the high-end vehicles in our community. And some of the things that we run, we work with the gated community. We have our condo calls with the east side condos and their valets and their property managers. And we're proud to say this year, well, last year, there were no vehicle thefts reported out of Bell Harbor. It gives you an idea of what our restaurant were from trend from 2019 to 2025. I'm not going to go through it. You can kind of see it real quick. Same with our code compliance. You saw that earlier. Now let's talk about our major accomplishments. Obviously, we've made significant strides with the overall crime decrease. We spearheaded our regional law enforcement conference calls. That's something that we started here in 2020 during COVID. I kind of got the idea from our village manager where he used to organize a call with all the city managers in Miami-Dade County and all the mayors. So I go, well, if he can do it, why can't I do it with the Coastal Chiefs? And since 2020, we've been doing that, and that has been a great resource. It's one of those things where we can pick up the phone and call one another whenever we have an issue or we discuss things that's trending in our communities. We coordinate efforts with other agencies, such as when the prime minister was here, You guys know that that was treated as if the POTUS was coming to town and we relied on the Coastal Chiefs to give us a lot of support, law enforcement support, both on the local, state, and federal level. We invest in our officer training, obviously. Marine patrol, we cross-training some of our officers. We have an officer assigned part-time to the Joint Terrorism Task Force. We're going to put another officer on the State Attorney's Office Human Trafficking Task Force part-time. Autism awareness training. We're like the sought-out agency for autism awareness throughout the state of Florida. As a matter of fact, there's some new legislation that just passed as a result of Detective Gonzalez's hard work. There's some new legislation that just passed the House waiting on the governor's assignment that will make every officer there's going to be a blue envelope that a person that's on the spectrum has to keep with them. And when that person is pulled over by the officer, he gives the officer the blue envelope. Every officer in the state of Florida will be trained on, okay, when I receive this blue envelope, I know I'm dealing with a person that's on the spectrum. So that way it avoids, you know, that the officer or that the person that's being defiant is not complying with the officer, the officer knows that they're dealing with somebody that's on the spectrum. So that is huge. We started that here in Bell Harbor and it's took place and now it's become a state law throughout the state of Florida. And Struggle Well is an officer wellness program. Our future goals, we all know that the advancement of technology is out there. We've got to use it. We have to leverage technology. We want to expand our license plate readers. We want to bring more surveillance networks throughout the village. We want to put cameras along the jetty and along the beach path, so we want to expand that coverage and also on the Collins Avenue corridor. We want to replace. We're going to petition a fine for a grant for the replacement of one of our vessels. The bigger vessel that we have is a 2009. It has a tremendous amount of hours on it. It still looks good. You guys probably see it on YouTube a lot. It still looks good. Very, very good vessel, but it's getting in other ages, and so we want to try to replace that. And if we get the grant, I think the grant pays for half of it, and then we have to find the funding for the other half. My traffic mitigation efforts, we've been working very, very hard. I know traffic has been a challenge in our community the last few months. I understand the frustration we all deal with it. I get stuck in it sometimes. The council gets stuck in it sometimes. Mary gets stuck in it sometimes. We all get stuck in it. But I got to tell you, DC has really, really been very proactive and has been meeting with the shops, with the construction crew every Wednesday at 1030 in the morning. He meets out there on site and then they go over the different plans. And he's been able to. Get them to take things out of sequence to accelerate the progress of it. The rain messed us up last couple days, but today they did most of the pouring. So we're hoping by Friday, southbound Collins Avenue will be completely open. I know, I'm going to go out there and do a cartwheel right on 960. So that's how our future goes. And Lastly, we had a few retirements. And I got to tell you, Bell Harbor, the word is out. Still is one of those premier law enforcement agencies. People know that we got an officer counselor that supports the police department. We got a great city manager that supports the police department. And we got the best community that anybody could ever ask for. So the word is out. So we have no problem hiring individuals here. Thank God. Other agencies struggle to find quality candidates. To be in the police department, you know that the D.C. and I, we're very, very selective because everybody can't work in Bell Harbor. So we're very, very selective. We're very picky, and we go through a very, very hardcore selection process. And I'm going to ask the new officers and the new employees to come on up so you guys can meet them. I'll call the names out. Come over here. All right. Right across there. Well, right across here would be better. That way everybody can see you. We're going to start with Officer John Sabatier. He's the tallest one there. Sabatier is, we stole him from FIU. He was a sergeant with FIU, and we were able to steal him from FIU, and he's been doing great. He's now one of our officers in charge on the midnight shift. Next to him is a very, very familiar face. He's glad to be back home. Noel Martinez. Noel was one of the GMs at Capaccio's. And so now Noel is back here in Bell Harbor, and he knows everybody, and he's doing, he's assimilated very well. Next to him is, raise your hand, is Giselle Estopian. Did I say it right? Oh, shoot. That's that high level of me. Giselle is familiar with the area. She was recently with Bay Harbor Islands. So she grew up in the area. She knows the area. She was a cadet with Bay Harbor Islands. So she fit. She hit the ground running. Next is Jeffrey Rivera. Jeffrey came to us via Hialeah Police Department. Oscar Mejia is not here today. He had death in the family. Next to him is Kenny with one N, Kenny Gonzalez. We call him Kenny G. We rescued Kenny G from Miami Guards Police Department. And next to Kenny is Dahlia. Dahlia is one of our newest dispatchers. And then next to her is our code officer, Janai Coughlin. Now, Janai was our intern for, what, two years or three years? Two years? Two years in a row she was our intern. And we had an opportunity to bring her back and let her be a part of the team. She has a BA and her master's degree, and she has really hit the ground running as well. So, Mayor and Council, these are our new officers. And new officers, these are your Mayor and Council, so if you pull them over, make sure you look at them real good.

So we're honored to have you join us. Thank you.

And that completes my report. Thank you, guys.

Great. Thank you. Awesome.

Any questions?

Okay. Okay. Not from the public yet.

You have a question?

No. Yeah, go ahead. We're going to do it in public comment. Okay, all right. Sorry. Yeah, okay. Thank you, Chief, for that. Requests for additions, withdrawals, and deferrals? None. We're going to move on with the consent agenda. Motion to approve the consent agenda? So moved. Is there a second?

Second.

Okay, all those in favor say aye. Aye. Consent agenda is approved.

R5A, Mr.

Clerk.

Sorry. R5A, an ordinance of Bell Harbor Village, Florida, amending Chapter 10, Marine Structures, Activities and Ways, Article 2, Use of Public Beaches, Section 10-31, Prohibited Acts, and Chapter 19, Traffic and Motor Vehicles, Article 2, Operation of Vehicles, Section 19-27 of the Village Code. Relating to the operation of electric bicycles, motorized scooters, and other motorized mobility devices on paths and sidewalks, amending Section 2-191's schedule of civil penalties of Chapter 2, administration to create related penalties providing for severability, inclusion in the code, conflicts, and for an effective date. This is the second reading ordinance.

Thank you. Mr. Manager.

Mr. Mayor, thank you. As the clerk said, this is second reading of an ordinance that you requested. Over the past few years, we've had a conversation around the ubiquity of the e-scooters and e-bicycles and the proliferation of them on our sidewalks, on our bike paths, and on our beach paths. As you know, we're kind of limited in what we can do but a couple months ago you instructed us to go ahead and bring to you what we can do, and that is what this is doing, which is to prohibit these uses on the beach path, what we call the hard pack, essentially, which is the path... nearest to the buildings to make sure that that is reserved for kind of safe usage by our pedestrians, our families, our walkers, our joggers, etc. Since first reading, and I'll ask Susan to kind of walk you through the details of this, but since first reading, The state legislature also passed a bill, we'll see if in fact the governor will sign it, it's expected that he will, that further enforces some activities relative to these e-bikes everywhere. You do not need to amend the ordinance to have those take effect. Those are state laws, so we will be required to abide by the state laws once and if they get signed and approved. But Susan, if you would, why don't you kind of walk through some of the particulars, or Mo, if he's the one to do so.

Yes, sir, through the mayor. So the 2026 legislation does not interfere with anything that we've proposed in our ordinance that's before you for second reading this evening. And as your manager has indicated, it does not require us to take action for it to become effective. It is only a statute that affects e-bikes. Our ordinance goes farther than that. It touches scooters and other kinds of devices. And what it says is that essentially... On sidewalks, e-bikes have a 10 mile per hour speed limit when they're located within 50 feet of a pedestrian. For shared paths, such as we have on the hard pack path, the new statute says that e-bike riders, if allowed, must yield to pedestrians and give an audible signal before overtaking a pedestrian. And these violations are non-criminal traffic infractions punishable as a non-moving violation. The statute then goes through the process of creating two data sources. One is a new task force with representation from a wide range of stakeholders. At least three or four of the representatives are from various kinds of local government interests to come together and think fully about whether we need to do more to this statute and straighten it out and make sure it's working and make sure it's providing for safety in our communities. They have to report back by October. Separately, the statute puts a mandate on all of our sheriffs and our police departments to start reporting the incidents that occur with these devices. What the background in the statutory analysis says is that Frequently, these get lumped in with motorcycles and not reported separately. So they're specifying, let's see exactly what our experience is. And that, too, goes to the state, is packaged, and provided to the legislature so that they have more information to address the issue next year. And it becomes effective upon becoming a law. So that could be whenever the governor gets and signs it.

Any discussion from counsel? Okay. Any questions for Deputy Chief?

Okay.

Is there a motion? Oh, well, okay, is there a motion? I'll make a motion. Do we have a second?

Second.

Public comment? No comment. No further discussion from council. This is a roll call.

Roll call. Vice Mayor Wolf? Yes. Mayor Salver? Yes. Councilman Sklar? Yes. Councilman Fremark? Yes. Councilman Levy? Yes. The ordinance passes on second reading 5-0. Excellent.

Thank you. R7A. Mr. Clerk?

It's R7A, a resolution of the Village Council of Bell Harbor Village, Florida, approving the acceptance of additional grant funding through a new grant agreement number 26SRP24 with the Florida Department of Environmental Protection, FDEP, under the Resilient Florida Program for the Bell Harbor Village Stormwater Pump Station Project in the additional grant-funded amount of $1,250,000, providing for implementation and providing for an effective date.

Thank you. Mr. Manager, I guess you're going to tell us that someone wants to give us free money?

Well, these go in the obvious yes category. As you know, you heard former Mayor Groisman talk to you about some of our activities relative to the earmarks that the state has the ability to provide. We nonetheless apply for any and every grant that we think we are eligible for that would fit within some of our projects. Project number seven is the project that is doing the major stormwater pump station upgrade inside the gated community. And that's a general fund project, although there's a lot of grant money already in that project. It's in excess of $7 million. This will go towards that project as well. We had come up a little short on the grants, and so we had to put in some general fund. This will now allow us to pull that money out and allow this to be almost entirely grant funded.

Excellent.

I want to thank the staff for doing that and moving forward with all of our grants. We are very aggressive in that regard.

Yes, and we are fortunate beneficiaries of that eagerness. Is there any public comment? Seeing none, any questions from council? Do we have a motion to accept $1.25 million from FDEP? Is there a second? Second. It's been moved and seconded. Voice vote. All those in favor say aye. Aye. Us is unanimously. Easy come, easy go. R7B. R7B.

Resolution of the Village Council of Bauer Harbor Village, Florida authorizing the village manager to purchase a Gillette generator powered by a Volvo diesel engine for sanitary sewer pump station number 2PS2 located on Collins Avenue behind the truest building from MTS Power Products in the amount of $1,100. $111,400, subject to annual budget allocations providing for implementation and providing for an effective date. Thank you. Mr. Manager.

Mr. Mayor, thank you. Not quite the same project, but we're in the business of utility. So this is another one of our upgrades. I'll let Julio Maradizo, who's the department director, kind of walk you through it and tell you what we're trying to do.

Thank you, Mr. Manager, Mayor, members of the Council. The Public Works and Beautification Department manages, maintains two sewer pump stations. One of them is inside the gated community, and the other large one is on Collins Avenue behind Truist. This item gives us authorization to purchase a new generator for the sewer pump station on Collins Avenue. In December, you gave us authorization to purchase a new generator for the sewer pump station inside the community. That generator was not functional at the time. We expect that one to arrive within the next month or two. This particular pump station, the generator is operational, but it is 22 years old. So the idea is for us to come this time next year to have two brand new generators at both pump stations and not have to come before you or another council for the next 20 or 25 years. And with proper maintenance, that's how long they should last.

Excellent. Thank you. Any questions from council? Is there public comment?

Rahab 128 Balfour Drive. I have a question regarding the oil generator. Do the village can get something for this? I mean, is it good condition to be sold or secondhand or whatever and get some money back for use for something else or not?

Is that the extent of your? Yeah. Okay. Any other comment? I don't know if Julio or the manager wants to address that.

Sure, we can address it. I mean, as Julio mentioned, it's 22 years old. It's beyond its useful life at this point. We, when we replace vehicles or other pieces of equipment, we do do that. We get a residual value where we can. In this instance, I doubt that there's anybody taking a sewer pump station, which is not subject to, you know, you don't want any emergencies there. So it's likely that it's not worth anything.

Okay. Okay.

Yeah, I mean, maybe just the components, the steel. I don't know. Everything has value.

Okay, you just got to pick it up and take it out of the sewer. It's a little dirty.

All right, it's a generator. Okay, so we've had comments. Is there a motion to approve the purchase? Is there a second? Second. It's been moved and seconded. Voice vote. All those in favor say aye. Aye. Passes unanimously. R7C. Mr. Clerk.

R7C, a resolution of the Village Council of Bell Harbor Village, Florida, accepting the annual report of the village attorney and approving an increase in compensation, providing for implementation and providing for an effective date.

Thank you, Mr. Clerk. Mr. Manager. Manager.

Well, Mr. Mayor, thank you. This item is the annual review for your village attorney. You had a workshop session earlier today where you had an opportunity to meet with your colleagues and with the village attorney and give her feedback on performance. At that meeting, you all reached a consensus of the report on her performance evaluation, which you did. You can share and summarize that yourselves. but you all agreed to the proposal to keep the annual retainer fee, monthly fee flat for the second year in a row and adjust the hourly rate by an increase of 5%. Susan, you have the math. I don't have it. I have the math. You have the math.

Yes, so that would be to fill in the blanks on the resolution. It would be the hourly rate for, I guess, attorneys would go from $327 to $343.35, and the paralegal rate from $149 to $156.45. I don't know what we want to do with the pennies, but I'll leave that to staff. The pennies? Do we round to the nearest dollar?

I'll take, just round it, 343 and 156. Okay.

Sounds good. Okay. I will say on behalf of the council that we gave Susan a very positive response. review and feedback and we're very pleased not only with her work but with the work of Weiss-Sarota and we're happy to continue with this relationship and reward your service. So thank you. Thank you very much. Anyone else has anything to add?

No?

So do we have a motion to approve the resolution to the increases as previously stated?

I'll make the motion.

It's been moved. Is there a second? It's been moved and seconded. All those in favor say aye. Aye. Approved. Oh, I didn't do public comment on that one, did I? Is there any public comment? Okay. Sorry about that. We were just so excited. Okay, R9A, Vice Mayor Wolf.

Yes, thank you. I think Ramiro will give us a little update. This came across to me. I thought it was an important item for us to support as well. And something I actually learned about UDB boundaries, which I'm not sure if everybody's aware of. But again, they are trying to be expanded and have development outside of our current urban development zones, which means into the Everglades and into other areas. Our local communities have also supported this as well, so I thought it was important for us to support it. And so, Ramiro, if you could just share your... Mr. Vice Mayor, thank you.

Good evening, everybody. Yeah, just to follow up on the Vice Mayor, you did a nice job summarizing it, as you know, and there is a proposed resolution in your agenda packet, so I'm sure you had a chance to review it, so you have some of the background involved. But the urban development boundary, the UDB that the Vice Mayor referred to, located in western Miami-Dade County, is the geographic boundary that really puts a boundary on developments before it starts getting into land that starts to affront the Everglades. So the UDB was established as a growth control tool to prevent urban sprawl, protect wetlands and farmlands and the Everglades, and to safeguard water resources. What the Vice Mayor referred to is in January of this year, the Miami-Dade County Board of County Commissioners approved a project that would allow development, a commercial development, to occur within the boundaries of the UDB, inside the UDB. Mayor Levine-Cava vetoed. This action a few days later. So what a few cities have been doing, including the city of Miami, the city of Miami Beach and several others within Miami-Dade County, they've been passing resolutions to support or to request that the Board of County Commissioners not overturn the veto to basically protect the UDB. So specifically what the reso that's in front of you today does, it really does four things. It urges the Miami-Dade County Board of County Commissioners to uphold the mayor's veto of the proposed action that they took. And then in addition, three other things. It also urges the Florida State Legislature to oppose any legislation at the state level that would weaken the boundaries of the UDB. It also encourages advancement of attainable workforce housing within the UDB to address housing affordability issues within that area. And finally, it designates the preservation of the UDB as one of our state legislative priorities for the village. And lastly, the Board of County Commissioners was scheduled to hear this item at their meeting this Thursday on March 19th. That meeting's been canceled. So as far as I understand, they now might hear it in April. So the passage of this resolution would certainly be timely to present to Miami-Dade County. And the last thing I'll say is that there was a bill filed. Former Mayor Grossman didn't mention it. We didn't ask him to, but there was a bill filed this legislative session that would have weakened the UDB, although that bill did not pass and it failed. So good news on that front.

It was part of the Fountain Blue bill that he... That piece was stripped out of the bill on the last day of the session. The UDB piece, but the Fountain Blue piece was kept in.

Sausage, huh? That's a sausage being made up there. Let's...

Vice Mayor, I'll turn it back over to you.

Yeah, so I appreciate that summary and I appreciate Vice Mayor Wolf bringing this to our attention. I know that this is a resolution, but it's a discussion item. Susan, are we able to maybe open it up for public comment and then pass the resolution in that manner?

The resolution is here.

Yeah.

The resolution is here, so you can do that if you wish.

Perfect. Okay, so we're going to upgrade this from discussion to resolution. Is there any public comment on this item? Go ahead.

We have 128 Balfour Drive. One thing I would like to know, I don't know, what was the vote that it was vetoed? I mean, is it a chance that they cannot overturn the veto? That's number one. Well, I think this is the... And the other thing is I do support that limit the urban development. Everglades is the last source we have. I think it should be protected. We've been wasting too much urban planning without actually planning it. So I would urge the council to support it. Thank you.

I appreciate it. Thank you. Yes, we're certainly in favor of that.

Yeah.

i don't know not recently but she has always been a udb supporter so i suspect that she's uh in support okay excellent so um any further public comment no any discussion from council

Do I need to? Oh, yeah, you should read it. Yeah, read it. It's a resolution of the Village of Bell Harbor Village, Florida, affirming support for the preservation of the Miami-Dade Urban Development Boundary UDB as it currently exists to protect downstream water resources, including the Biscayne Aquifer, regional groundwater supplies, and connected coastal waters, as well as the Everglades wetlands and agricultural lands, urging the Miami-Dade County Board of County Commissioners to uphold County Mayor Daniela Levine Cava's veto of the proposed development outside the UDB, urging the Florida State Legislature to oppose any legislation that would weaken the UDB in the Miami-Dade County Charter. encouraging advancement of attainable and workforce housing within the UDB to address housing affordability without expanding development into environmentally sensitive lands, designating the preservation of the UDB as a state legislative priority for Bell Harbor Village, providing for implementation and providing for an effective date.

Thank you. Any further public comment? I just want to ask him one more time since we read the resolution. Vice Mayor Wolf, would you like to make the motion? I will make the motion, yes. Thank you. Is there a second? All those in favor say aye. Aye. Passes unanimously. Thank you for bringing that up. Now, general public comment. Oh, okay. Any further? Okay. Okay.

I don't know what, after the meeting we had when we said that remove some lights and maybe pass it by, that traffic is a lot better in the afternoon when I'm coming back, so I appreciate it, Chief. Because before it used to take me about 40 minutes from all over coming back, but these days after three o'clock, it's a little bit better. Because I think we discussed what we could be doing, so I appreciate it. The other thing is I'd like to remind the council Maybe they know, maybe they don't. On March 20, this Friday, on 1045, 59 seconds, is the Spring Equinox, and 400 million people celebrate it as a new year. So I'd like to wish everybody a happy new year, and thank you very much.

Thank you. Thank you. Okay. Village Manager's Report.

Mr. Mayor, yeah, not really a report, just kind of advising you.

Is there more public comment? I have an email.

Oh, okay, go ahead. So it's an email from Valerie Bogacek, and she just left her phone number. She says, good afternoon. I am in desperate need for help. Please, who can the resident speak to regarding the constant traffic on Collins Avenue? I understand that it's FDOT's project, but the traffic is way out of hand for way too long. It should not take us hours to get from Bell Harbor to somewhere else. It has become impossible to drive when nobody works during the day. There is no need to block traffic for this long if nobody is doing anything for residents to be constantly in traffic jam from morning till night. It should be Bell Harbor Village that should take initiative to solve this issue for all residents and everyone passing through Bell Harbor Village. It has gone way out of town for way too long, and I am requesting an answer to my question. Please, thank you.

Okay, well, Valerie, if you're watching at home, the chief said earlier that, you know, hopefully by Friday, and if not, probably the following week. So thank you for your patience. Southbound. Southbound. Yeah, I think that's what she... That's what everybody's biggest... That's the issue. Thank you. So no further public comment. We will move on to Village Manager's report.

Okay, Mr. Mayor, just to kind of advise you and others that... The mediator's report that has to do with the litigation between the Bell Harbor shops and the village on all of the live local, there's like four or five different cases, so I'm not going to get into the details, but, you know, it has to do with the live local project application. The mediator's report is nearly final, which will then be made public. The expectation is that subsequent to that, we would hold a public meeting of some sort. That is likely in the next 30 to 45 days. I'm sure they want it as fast as possible, but we'll deal with the logistics of coordinating a proper notice and proper public meeting. You just approved the change to the April meeting to April 20th. That could be the date or we'll try to find another date that makes sense for this community to hold a proper meeting to hear through that and hear his recommendations.

Thank you.

As soon as it's set, we'll make sure. Well, the April 20th meeting. Oh, yeah.

Right.

Okay, we can do that for sure. That we can change. The next one, whether it's on that day or a subsequent day, we'll... Yeah, so public service announcement.

Thank you. In case you didn't notice, we passed in the consent agenda the April council meeting is now the 20th, not the 21st. Monday night. Village clerk's report? It's in your package. Village attorney's report?

In your package.

Thank you. Motion to adjourn. Okay.

Thank you.