Village Council - Regular Meeting

Yeah, so can we do the LPA like after?

Okay.

Okay. You can do the LPA any time before the... Yeah.

Okay, you'll do it. Okay.

So we're just, yeah, we're starting the village council meeting. Good to go.

Thank you. Okay. Yes. So I'd like to call to order the Bell Harbor Village Council meeting for January 20th, 2026. Mr. Clerk, with the roll, please.

Yes, roll call. Let me get the right time here, 6.50. Mayor Salver? Here. Vice Mayor Wolf? Here. Councilman Fremark is not here. Councilman Levy? And your mic is off.

Excellent. And we are going to start with a special presentation. What did I just do with the... My remarks are here. So now that, happy new year everyone, now that we're in 2026, this is significant because Bal Harbor will be turning 80 years young this year. And to kick off our 80th anniversary year, it's my honor to recognize Dr. Elias with a Bal Harbor, sorry, what is the official name? Morgan's with Bal Harbor. With the Portraits of Bal Harbor recognition, I'm going to read some remarks. We have Dr. Elias here with his family. So, good evening. As part of the village's 80th anniversary, we have launched the Portraits of Bal Harbor program, an initiative created to honor residents whose lives, service, and accomplishments have made a lasting and meaningful impact on our community. Through this program, we celebrate individuals whose stories reflect the values, history, and excellence that define Bell Harbor. Tonight, it is truly an honor to recognize an extraordinary member of our community, Dr. Louis Elias. Dr. Elias has been a cherished resident of Bell Harbor for 53 years. And this past August, he celebrated a remarkable milestone, his 100th birthday. Born in 1925, Dr. Elias Dr. Elias's life has been defined by service, dedication, and excellence. After graduating from Princeton University and Columbia Medical School, he proudly served our country as a captain in the United States Air Force and as a flight surgeon during the Korean War. Following his military service, Dr. Elias devoted himself to medicine, first opening a private practice in Montgomery, West Virginia, where he served as a family physician to his community. After relocating to South Florida, he established a nationally respected medical practice here in Bell Harbor. Over the years, his exceptional care earned the trust of countless individuals, including former President Richard Nixon, CEOs, nationally known politicians, financiers, entertainers, ambassadors, prime ministers, and sports team owners, all of whom came to rely on Dr. Elias's unique and compassionate approach to medicine. In recognition of his lifelong contributions, Dr. Elias received the Ellis Island National Medal of Honor in 1998 and was honored as a Miami Dolphins Everyday Hero in 2019. Even after retiring in 2008, following more than 60 years of his medical practice, he continued to serve, contributing his time and expertise to Bell University, multiple boards of directors, the Pharma Development Group, and as the author of Common Sense in Medicine. Dr. Elias has not only built an extraordinary professional legacy here in Bell Harbor, but a deeply personal one as well. Together with his wife, Deanna, of 62 years, he raised his two sons, Robert and Jamie, and his daughter, Tara, who continues to reside in the community. At this time, on behalf of Bell Harbor Village, it is my great honor to present Dr. Louis Elias with the award as a small token of our appreciation, recognition of his remarkable life, his lasting contributions, and the impact he has made within our community.

Yeah. I think we got a match by Bay Harbor. No, this is the board game.

I present to you Dr. Chris Elias, the 2026 portraits of Val Harbor, A Life Well Lived. This is for you. Wow.

All right, let's take a few to pray.

Get your mom in there, Robbie. Yeah. OK, perfect. All right. All right, everybody ready? I'm going to take a few. All right, perfect.

So we can take a few, too. Is this no more? Ready? One, two. All right, great. Thank you. Thank you. Oh, wow. Beautiful. Beautiful. Beautiful. Beautiful. Beautiful. The agenda took most of the hit there.

I'm sorry, I didn't hear him.

Okay. You're $7,500, not mine. Exactly.

Okay.

Honestly, this is the most expensive.

Is it okay?

I'll see it. Those are built to be like water resistant.

Thank you.

Thank you. Good night.

Thank you for joining us this evening.

You smell like coffee for a bit.

Okay. Okay, so we're going to temporarily recess the Bal Harbor Village Council meeting and open up the Bal Harbor Village Local Planning Agency meeting.

Give me a second.

Mr. Clerk, when you're ready to open up the council meeting.

We are ready, so you can go. Yeah, you want me?

Thank you. Do we need another roll call? Okay. So we're back in action here in the council meeting. We're going to start with a proclamation recognizing Holocaust Remembrance Day this coming week. Whereas the Holocaust represents one of history's most deliberate and systematic campaigns of genocide resulting in the murder of 6 million Jews and other victims, including Roma, persons with disabilities, LGBTQ plus individuals, and political dissidents. Whereas in 2005, the United Nations designated January 27th as the International Day of Commemoration in memory of the victims of the Holocaust, marking the liberation of Auschwitz-Birkenau in 1945 and underscoring the continuing obligation to remember, educate, and reject Holocaust denial and distortion. And whereas the UN resolution also called upon communities and institutions to preserve places and records that bear witness to these crimes, so that present and future generations understand the consequences of hatred and dehumanization. And whereas anti-Semitism and other forms of hate persist, and Bell Harbor Village reaffirms that the safety, dignity, and equal rights of all people must be defended through civic leadership, public awareness, and solidarity. And whereas the village is strengthened by its diversity and shared commitment to respect and inclusion, and recognizes that Holocaust remembrance deepens our resolve to confront prejudice, reject propaganda, and uphold the values that sustain a free and democratic society. Now, therefore, I, Seth Salver, Mayor of Bell Harbor, Florida, do hereby commemorate January 27, 2026 as International Holocaust Remembrance Day in Bell Harbor Village and encourage commemorative and educational efforts that honor the memory of the victims and the courage of survivors, promote accurate historical understanding, and reject Holocaust denial and distortion, we further renew our commitment to oppose anti-Semitism and all forms of hatred, bigotry, discrimination, and violence, and to affirm the dignity of every person. Thank you so much. Okay, we've already done PA2. Now on to the consent agenda. Is there a motion to approve the consent agenda?

I'll make a motion.

I'm sorry, I didn't do a request for additions, withdrawals, and deferrals. Seeing none. Okay. Now, consent agenda. We have a motion. Is there a second? I'll second it. All those in favor say aye. Aye. Aye.

Councilman, sorry, Vice Mayor Wolf, did you have something? No, I said aye. Oh, you said aye.

Okay. Passes unanimously. Thank you. R5A.

Ms. R5A, an ordinance of Bell Harbor Village, Florida, amending Chapter 21 zoning Article 4, supplementary district regulations of the Bell Harbor Village Code of Ordinances to create Section 21-367 to establish procedures for the review and approval of and reasonable accommodation for certified recovery residences or other federally protected residences in accordance with state law, providing for conflicts, severability, inclusion in the code, and providing for an effective date. This is the first reading ordinance.

Thank you, Mr. Clerk. Mr. Manager?

Thank you, Mr. Mayor. This item is a statutorily required amendment to our code to deal with a certain type of, what are we calling them, recovery residences and the establishing a process to handle accommodations that they may seek. Your LPA heard it earlier today and is recommending approval. I'll ask Susan, our village attorney, to walk you through the details of it.

As covered during the local planning agency, we're enacting this ordinance to comply with state law. It creates a procedure for how we would handle requests for certified recovery residences to locate in the village as well as any reasonable accommodations that they may require to be able to have their federal rights be satisfied. Thank you so much.

I'm happy to answer any more questions. This didn't require a business impact statement because it's statutorily required, correct?

Yes, that was the exception. Things that are mandated by state or federal law do not require such a statement.

That's so nice of the legislature to cut us a break on that. Any questions on this from the council? Nope. We just heard it, so I know we're all excited to approve it now. Any comment from any members of the public? Seeing none, I guess, do we have a motion to approve?

I'll make a motion.

It's been moved. Is there a second? It's been moved and seconded, and we need a roll call vote, Mr. Clerk. Yes.

Councilman Levy. Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes.

Thank you.

4-0, yes. Thank you for the clarification. Okay, next item is R7A. Mr. Clerk.

Resolution of the Village Council of Bell Harbor Village, Florida, approving an agreement with Beach Raker LLC for the provision of beach cleaning and associated services at an annual cost not to exceed annual budgetary allocations, providing for implementation, providing for an effective date. Thank you, Mr. Clerk. Mr. Manager?

Okay. Thank you, Mr. Mayor. We've had some conversations around this, but, you know, Councilman Sklar has been the champion of trying to make sure our beaches are as impeccable as they can be. And over the years, we have relied on Miami-Dade County to handle the sargassum that inflicts our beaches. on a seasonal basis. Sometimes they're really heavy, sometimes they're not so heavy, but this past year you all recall that it was a really, really extraordinary year for Sargassum. And in that light, through our mini retreat and then through our budget process the council authorized us to allocate funds to engage a company to do more augmented service for our beaches primarily the beach raking service on a daily basis and then also help enhance what the county otherwise does for us as one of the four hotspots that are already This service is not to supplant Miami-Dade County's effort and level of service. This is to, on the sargassum anyway, to be areas outside of that 800 or so feet of frontage that the county does. It's the same provider that the county uses. It's the same provider we've used in the past. Prior to COVID, we used to do a beach raking service. Chip Jones is here. owner or principal of Beach Waker, which is the company that has been doing it for us in the past and has been doing it for us on behalf of Miami-Dade County and will now also be doing a daily Beach Waker service for us. I'd like to have him come up here. He's kind of If there's anybody else that knows the beach better than he, I'd like to find them. He literally spends his days out there really proud of the work that he does. The county will continue to provide the daily beach service that they provide, not sargassum, just the blading and cleaning that they're supposed to provide on a daily basis. Beach Raker will then augment that as well. So our beaches on a daily basis will be cleaner, nicer, and better maintained. And then during sargassum season, this is supposed to be additive. Chip, we talked about this last week, and I think in fairness, you should share some of the challenge you're dealing with now at the county level vis-a-vis the the service they're providing so that every everything's on the table and perhaps um councilman sclar or others may wish to help make sure that that doesn't uh get diminished so okay great thank you very much um and appreciate you having me here today uh george and uh mr mayor and council members thank you very much for your time

It's been a privilege over the years to be able to be a partner with the village, and we're looking forward to continuing that relationship that we had prior to COVID and provide you the level of service that your guests and residents expect here within the village of Ball Harbor. So thank you for that time. There is twofold, and I'll talk about what the resolution that is being put forward with the village first, and then I'll talk about the new contract that was just put in place in November that George just referenced with concern to the hotspot. that the county has put us in there and we've dealt with for the last six years out in front of the Ritz property. So with the service, particularly the resolution covers, that will be basically the remainder of Ball Harbor that is not covered by the county contract. So 96th Street North all the way to the Ritz property. What that will consume is we'll service you seven days a week, 365 days a year. That will be an enhanced service to the county. The county will still run an efficient system through there. The effective point is how much sargassum we have, but they do provide a base level of service, and we will come through and make sure that at least once a day that that service is enhanced in order to be able to provide you a clean beach, and that that morning time, once, you know, turtles are the primary focus here, but once the turtle clearance is given, that we provide you that clean beach one time in the morning. I want to reiterate that based on the amount of sarcasm that we have at any given time, the next wave or the next low tide will give you sarcasm back on your beach. But we do our best to make sure that when we leave your beach each day that that is pristine. I have pictures of each one of our municipalities. And I can provide that to Julio or George if there's any questions that your residents may have concerning the enhanced service that you guys are authorizing tonight or hopefully going to authorize tonight so that your residents can see that there is enhanced services taking place out there, that you do have beach raking services throughout 96 through the hotspot on a daily basis. Now to the second side, if there's no questions about the resolution, it's probably more interest on the new contract and what is set forth. So the contract for beach cleaning services went out to bid earlier this year, or excuse me, earlier in 2025 for the county. It went through a competitive bid process. RFP was reduced, competitive bid process, the procurement cycle took place, and PROS put a recommendation in, which procurement accepted and placed forward to the BCC at Miami-Dade County. That was delayed due to some budgetary constraints for a couple months, but when it came forward after about six months, There was a, one of the bidders that did not win put forward a recommendation for a best and final low price recommendation. That went in front of the county and there was a recommendation to basically go on price only and to take a company that had no experience. Beach Raker is committed to Miami-Dade. It's committed to the village of Ball Harbor, all the municipalities. We do 22 municipalities. We're the largest beach raking company in the country, and we weren't going to allow that to happen. So that being said, we were forced up in front of the diocese to basically accept the contract that was proposed by the low bidder. Excellent. So what this has done is this has changed the service that you've received for the last six years into the service that the RFP presented is paid for. So what that looks like, and B-Trigger is provided above and beyond the service that is paid for in the previous contract. For example, currently, this is the previous six-year contract. During this period of time, which is the off season, Miami-Dade County was paying for four cleanings a week. Wednesday, Friday, Saturday, Sunday. What Beach Raker was providing to the village of Ball Harbor was 14 cleanings. That was seven days a week at 7 a.m. And seven days a week about 10, 30, 11 o'clock in the morning, we would come through there. And the attempt was, and the reason we did those two cleanings was to try to make sure that we hit a low tide. So one of those two would get us close to a low tide each day. Our main cleaning would be that seven o'clock where we would sift the upper beach and do the rack line. The rack line is the seaweed portion of the beach. And then at that 1030-ish cleaning, we would do just the rack line. What that is reduced to now is that we come through four days a week at the rack line, twice a month on the upper beach. During the season, what we were providing you was seven days a week. The county was providing seven days a week rack line service. And then what Beachacre was providing, which was above and beyond the initial contract, was 14 cleanings again. We would come through in the morning. We would come through again at 10, 30, or 11. Or we would be out there all day in mid-July through the first week of August when we were pumping 200 or 300 trucks out in that period to try to clean up that area. It was about 272 trucks that we took out in that three-week period in order to get that out there. I was personally in a tractor. on Bell Harbor during that period of time. So I can tell you how exhaustive that was. And I appreciate the support that we received, especially from the police department, making sure our trucks got in and out of that jetty. I know it was very difficult during those three weeks, so I really appreciate that. What that has changed to now, though, is that Beach Raker was committed to providing 10 to 12 tractors throughout all four hotspots on any given day and the ability to flex additional tractors as required. The new contract is set for four tractors for the entire county. If you look at any one time, we had more than four tractors during the season on just Ball Harbor. And Mr. Councilman, I know that you can see us out there running you know, nonstop as we're circling the loops right there. So this is definitely a concern. PROS is voicing this in what they call a red flag issue. Council Member Steinberg is all over this currently. They're trying to come through with the resolution of what took place. But this is currently, it started November 1st, and that is the contract that we're currently, unfortunately, operating under. We probably won't see an issue until we really start to see the ramp up of sargassum. Right now we have very favorable winds. So, you know, really, you know, kind of trash and ocean debris is really the only thing you're going to see on the beaches currently. But once everything starts to ramp up, you know, March, April time frame will be a significant degradation in services in the hot spot.

Okay, well, yeah.

So I want to touch on our contract first. Yes. And then I'll get to the Miami-Dade. First of all, I really want to thank you and the team. I mean, I'm out there every morning. I see the turtle truck go by, gives the thumbs up. I see four or five trucks going out there during, you know, when we really needed it most. So thank you for that. Really do appreciate you and the team's hard work. I see it every day. I'm out there walking my dog at sunrise. So it really is appreciated. Right now what I'm seeing, though, is because of the re-nourishment, we have a pretty big berm that's really starting to form. Are you guys helping at all leveling that, or is that part of our contract, helping to level that, or is that something we need to take care of?

So, great question. This is twofold. During the re-nourishment process, the berm is built up a little bit higher than what it's going to initially end up being. The Army Corps of Engineers basically sets it so that the sand doesn't immediately erode back into the ocean. So that's one piece. The second piece is that the northeasterly winds and the cold front that's been driving through here basically gives us a rip there that creates an escarpment. that takes place. It's actually a little bit worse. You don't want to hear that, but a little bit worse up in Sunny Isles than what we've seen here. We try to manage it to the maximum extent possible. So if it's something that we can hit, then we will. And we will manage that for you. It's no additional cost. And the county will come in, and they do a phenomenal job, if we call them, and I'll work with George and Julio, in order to run the dozer through there. We just want to be very careful because in order to scrape that, we're scraping it towards the ocean, and you're generating then more erosion.

I'll tell you the problem is a lot of the people, you know, they want to get into the ocean, and then there's all of a sudden a four-foot drop, and there's no way, so... We actually, at our building, had our guys put a little ramp in the middle of it just so they could get to the water. Any help on that would be greatly appreciated, so thank you on that. Now, about the county contract, unfortunately, a low bid contract, we know what happens. It's basically we're going to lose service, which is obvious. What can we do as a municipality?

I think the importance of the number of trucks and the duration that you've seen over the last six years, what's been required in order to complete the task is important to be able to communicate through Commissioner Steinberg. And she communicated that clearly to the BCC, but then to have the additional support behind her. I don't want to speak on her behalf, but I would think that to have that information to her so that she can present it to the BCC. They asked me point blank, would there be a degradation in service? And I said, yes, there will be. And the response was, well, let's try this for six months and then see if we get any complaints.

I'll reach out to Mickey tomorrow and see what we need to do to help move the needle back to the right direction. I mean, it got so bad last year that you guys couldn't even get it removed. I mean, it was four feet deep in some sections. It was. And it got to the point, and that's honestly the reason I brought this forward, is I don't think we should ever let it even get to that point. So with proper maintenance. So you guys are also going to assist within that 400 feet. So it's not just county. If we see a buildup in that 400-foot county. It's 800 feet. It's 800 feet.

So the county does not touch the 800 feet. Right. It's only Beach Raker. But where. No, that's what I'm saying. That's their county contract. That's correct. Is the 800 feet. But where you saw us before running until 8 or 9 o'clock at night, at noon we'll be done.

so what took us three weeks but does our contract also overlap that we're going to be able to do those are two those are two completely different areas and i went over that when we so we don't touch any of that yeah we purposely drew a hard line there because we didn't the fear i have here is the the count it's kind of playing out as the as we augment the county retrenches and before you know it but again

That's just coincidental.

No, for sure, for sure. And so what we were very clear with Chip is, look, you need to make sure that what we're paying for is additive, not supplanting, whatever you do with the county. He alerted me to this circumstance now, which we should, and I may actually suggest that for next month we'll bring a reso or something that... encourages the county to restore or rebuild the full funding or whatever so that you know we're trying to you know enhance not supplant here and so the contract we have is to stop at the at where the hot spot starts okay but but my only problem with that is that's the worst granted you know we definitely need help for the rest of the beach that's you know why but

If we're just going to rely on the county contract with no additional help in the worst area, that really makes no sense. I mean, the whole idea is for us to also give additional help in that area, not just where the demarcation point comes. That's the worst area that there is.

In those 800 feet, we can't – legally work faster than what we're doing and what i mean by that is that uh based on what the federal or statewide turtle constraints are we have to have you have to wait for that truck to give you guys a thumbs up in the morning no no the thumbs up in the morning but i can leave no pile at the end of the day So I might be able to pull out that entire corner in one day, but I can only truck it out of there. I'm restrained on how many dump trucks I can get out. It's about 16.

I've seen that.

You're working at capacity already. You're working at the capacity you can provide.

To that point, how do we not let it get to the point where it was last year? So I guess that's the overall question. So there's a couple of things that we saw last year.

So historically, You know, 2018 was a bad year. 2022 was a bad year. 2025 was a bad year. 2022 is still the worst year at about 27,000 cubic yards out of the four hotspots. Last year, we saw about 24,000 cubic yards. The only reason why it seemed worse is that it was actually squished into about three weeks. I think that there was two factors that made the village of Ball Harbor see that worse. And that first is you had a renourishment, which created basically a U-shape. So normally you just have one side catcher's mitt. But when the winds shifted, and it should have helped us, the winds shifted and it put it right up against that renourishment mound. And then the wind shifted back and brought it right back to us. And it becomes more difficult then because it already started to decay and it becomes like coffee grounds instead of sargassum pickup. That's the one issue we had. The second issue we had, which you're going to mitigate by adding additional service from 96 to the hotspot, is that you had a... I'm not going to say, we have a tremendous relationship with the county. They do a phenomenal job with the resources that they have available to them. But with the resources they have available to them in their areas, when the sargassum gets that heavy, they don't have the ability to give you everything that you need coming up on the beach. When you enhance the services that we're going to provide you, we will be dealing with some of that sargassum that's on shore in the morning. at, you know, at 98th or 99th, you know, before it gets to the corner. So we will limit some of that sargassum coming in there. Not all of it, but there will be a reduction. But as far as the corner, the corner is at capacity based on the number of trucks you can physically get out of there.

It's not the amount of CV we can pick up, it's the number of trucks we can get. That makes a lot of sense. There's only so many hours a day and so many trucks you get in and out of there, and that pile cannot be left.

Right. I don't remember how long you've been in that area right there, but in 2018-19, we used to leave a pile, the turtle lettuce, but then the residents, I mean, that pile got out of control. It was huge.

Yeah, and then when it starts to decay.

Yeah, because we were getting it as fast as we could, but it was taking, because again, the truck limitation, it was taking days to remove the pile, and the pile would stink worse than what it would. Yep. Just in the water. Okay. Thank you so much. I appreciate you.

Thank you for all the efforts, and we know that you've been working diligently to try to correct not only what's going on in the county, but even over-delivering throughout. So we're confident this is the right approach.

But I definitely think of Rezzo, and I will reach out to Mickey personally and see what I can help do.

We also are going to invite the responsible parties to come in February so you guys can hear directly from them as well.

And maybe we can have some visual.

Yeah, we'll do whatever we can to make sure that the level of service doesn't get diminished. Because otherwise this kind of almost gets lost in the shuffle. And we really want this to show, not just get lost in the shuffle. And I know Chip's going to do a great job, but it's still, you know, that you can't do what you can't do, you know.

Yeah, I mean, we can't be contracted for four tractors and provide 10. Right. I mean, they're a quarter million dollars apiece. Yeah, I understand.

No, it makes sense. Okay.

Yeah, just one, thank you again for being here and sharing all the information. Just one quick question for my own edification. In the service agreement, I'm not sure that answers. It says, during sargassum season, beach rake overconcentrate on managing the influx of seaweed and sift the beach minimum of two days per month. But outside the season, you're going to be doing it five days per week. So, right.

That's the upper beach, not your sargassum. So because because we have there's there's just more time available. So we need to be focusing on the sargassum, which is where you want us at. But in order to, you know, we want to give you the best speech you can. But your upper beach busy season is outside of sargassum season. So November, December, January. To the dune line to the rack.

Yeah.

We will provide you with sifting five days a week during that period of time. Gotcha. And then in seaweed season, we're going to be focused on getting that stinky stuff.

And the seaweed season is considered from when to when?

March to October.

Okay. And the last thing, which I don't think you can do anything in because I got a lot of pictures from residents sending me. If people leave glass on the beach, I know when you guys go over, it breaks it up and then there's, you know, glass, broken glass on the beach. I mean, there's nothing to do, I assume, for that.

So the tire pressure is set at 10 PSI on those. They should not be breaking the glass. The tractor should not be. And those surf rakes will pick up up to 10 mils. Now, does that mean it'll get every shard if it breaks, or does that mean it won't break? Right. That's not, you know, absolutely not. But we pick up an awful lot of bottles, more bottles than broken glass.

Okay. What you're going to see is a cleaner beach. Yes. For sure. Yeah. Which is something I know you've heard from some of your residents as well. So for sure this enhancement will clean the beach. It's the sargassum thing that I'm concerned about now.

The five days, are they specific days or random days?

Yes.

If you have a specific day, we'll do that. Normally, we don't do Tuesday, Thursday. That's fine.

I mean, I think weekends, there's more people on the beach.

I mean, that's kind of the thought process. You hit the Friday going in, you hit the Monday coming out. That kind of thing, and then hit it in the middle of the week. I mean, obviously, Saturday and Sunday is – I was just saying, like – Yeah, got it.

Okay, perfect. While we're on the topic, the one area that we have to concentrate, because the rakers can't get that close to the jetty – to the jetty. So there's a lot of trash buildup. I'm sure your guys see it too, right up against the concrete. So that's where our team needs to go out there physically as a person and get it raked up and picked up because that's the worst area for buildup.

Where the jetty meets the sand, right there. The rock areas. We try our best to back up against it, but there are a couple rock pieces there, and we're at the mercy of the tide as well. But, you know, the tide brings it up and slaps against those rocks right there.

Because I remember we had someone that was specifically just working the beach. Is that position still filled?

It's still budgeted. Who is that filled?

I wouldn't – I can work, if so desired, I can work with whoever company you bring in there. I wouldn't say that they were as efficient as they maybe could have been, and we could probably work together to make it a little bit more efficient. Not offering to do it. I'm saying we could work with those crews to make it more efficient. Well, we appreciate that. But last year was effective, not efficient. We would like to be effective and efficient. We appreciate that.

Definitely. For a lot of folks that come to Bell Harbor, the beach is all they see, certainly all they remember. So I want to make sure it's the real Bell Harbor experience. So thank you for that. Thank you, George, for putting this together. And thank you, Buzzy, for really pushing us to do this.

We talk football with each other.

So we have heard from the council, but is there public comment before we continue? No public comment then. Is there a motion? Make a motion. I'll second it. All those in favor say aye.

Aye.

Aye. Passes unanimously. Thank you.

Thank you. Look forward to the partnership.

Yes.

Thank you so much.

Okay. Now, discussion items. Mr. Manager, you're up first.

Do we know if Jason's on? Yes. Jason's on? Great. Welcome, Jason. Excuse me. Mr. Mayor, as you know, one of our priorities from our capital program and directions you've been giving us over the years is to... you know, develop a design and program for a new village hall, which is on its way. A year or so ago you authorized us to enter into contract with Wanamaker Jensen and partnership with Wilkburg Alvarez to work with us to design, develop the program, and then ultimately draw the construction documents associated with that capital project. In the last week or so, you've had an opportunity to meet with Jason individually, again, so that you can get a better sense of the progress and where we are as a status update, which is what this is today intended to be, a status update, not a final update. You gave comments, you gave feedback, but those were individual. This is an opportunity for you to now discuss amongst yourselves together with Jason as necessary and give us direction. We believe the next two steps that are necessary is subject to today is to schedule like a community charrette of sorts so we can inform the community and let them hear from the architect and give their feedback. And then ultimately in our process is we have a public meeting at a council to have what is called our basis of design report approved. When we approve the basis of design report, we expect that that's the That's what the building's gonna look like. That's what we then allow the contractors, the architects to proceed with CDs and developing the detailed specs and the drawings. The comments, the feedbacks, the changes, the reiterations that might occur should occur all before we finish our basis of design report. Because once you're into CDs, it starts to get very expensive as you make those changes. And so we have in your package, I can also show it up on the screen, and we have Jason. You've met Jason. You've heard his presentation. I don't expect him to... go through the entire presentation again, but Jason, I'll control the slide deck for you. Oh, you're going to share it. Okay, good. Then you can control it. I don't have to do that. This reflects already some of the feedback we received from you individually, but I do think that you should collectively discuss amongst yourselves, give feedback, and if you're okay with it, authorize us to start working on that community charrette.

Good evening. Jason Jensen, WJ Architects. One, just housekeeping, it's Okay, I think it is allowing me to share now. I appreciate all the input. We had great conversations. This represents a tremendous amount of effort from staff. Everybody has had a great working, collaborative working environment to push forth this. uh solution and we appreciate all the comments that each of you have implemented into it as well we've already began to implement those comments and what we're showing you today is slightly updated from that previous proposal and just want to show you that we're moving forward with with each of those comments and collaboratively as we invite the community we'll incorporate additional comments as well all right And we'll see if, so it's sharing. Are you able to see my screen? Yes. Okay, perfect. I won't go through the upfront as much as we've already discussed those items. Some of the upfront massing heading towards the beach. We've updated some of the photography of inspiration to more closely reflect the geometry proposed in the site plan. So you see some of the the curves and the materials and the richness of the paving and potentially the water element, some of the lushness of the landscape incorporated into those pictures. We've incorporated some of the comments in the landscape, specifically increasing some of the buffer zones, continuing to refine some of the geometry and some of the seating along this pathway as it connects around the building. So continuing to refine that with some of the comments. And again, the iterations about the flexibility, the first and foremost is to provide a landscape that behooves the the village hall and make sure that we provide a buffer to some of the streets that are nearby. But if some of those spaces could be used for other purposes, we certainly want to make sure that we are future proofing to what future events may hold. The main application is to provide a landscape that's flexible. We began to develop some of the landscape elements, some of the specific trees that you'll see coming into the basis of design. Continue to update some of the inspiration, some of the materials, lightening some of the facade. So you'll see some of that in the renderings. Now as we come to some of the renderings, we've increased some of the window sizing for some of the office space. We've lightened the material of the office space based on some of the comments, provide a really uplifting light backdrop to our council chambers and lobby. making sure the signage is very visible and continuing to develop some of the landscaping This is a new view to the presentation. Mary, you mentioned about making sure that the backdrop of that office, like how would you see that maybe if you're traveling south? So we took a view that you're traveling south down Collins. You see some of those windows opening up more. They're protected more from the south and open up a little bit more to the north to help with that sun shading. so this gives you a better view of how that works. And going back to the view looking back to the north from the south, and again, lightening up some of the materials to make sure that it's bright and lively. Moving into the site, a very similar image that you've seen before. And then from the west neighborhood coming into the site, looking at the facade, we added some screening to that view. And in the next iteration and the basis of design, we have taken, had pictures taken from this side. So we're going to collage some of those actual photos in so you can see what that view will be. These images have stayed the same. Shows the section of the three stories. As we move inside, there were some comments about having some of the same material come inside. So we've adjusted that material to be the same material and also to have some additional transparency in the chamber from the lobby. So we've added the similar transparency that we have outside to inside and then gradually go to a more solid as it goes behind the dais. We've also incorporated a little bit of planting, protecting the space underneath the stairwell. Again, just small adjustments in some of the interiors. Obviously, you have the material inside that's going to flow outside. adjusting that stair a little bit. We mentioned having some flexibility of the chambers. We talked about potentially adjusting this in different locations that the curtain can modulate this if it needs to be dark. We can change it very quickly if it needs to be more open. That can also modulate how much acoustics you need if you're using it for different types of meetings or events. The plans have stayed the same since you've seen them, so no updates particularly on that. And then at the nighttime, you can see, you know, again, just more glazing at the office, and we're looking at a couple different types of panels. It was mentioned maybe to look at something that maybe had a lighter potential for it, so we're exploring that as well. Thank you. So that is the update.

Thank you.

So you've each individually kind of given your thoughts to Jason. Hopefully we've captured it properly since last week and certainly since we started this. Ultimately, this is a collective decision that the council needs to approve. We have, we're doing some additional studying on the, you know, the delicate balance of building a building that you know you're going to want to use for 60, 70 or more years and balancing the, what are our current needs from a space perspective versus what can we foreseeably see as those needs and i've asked jason and staff to kind of look at the layouts to make sure that we we have everybody who needs an assigned space today has an assigned space today we've looked back at uh over the last 10 years what has been our typical growth for staffing generally speaking that growth has been in primarily though not exclusively in the area of service provision, so whether it's the parks or operations or in PD. And so our staff growth that is administrative that would be in office space has not been dramatic over the last 10 years. That's not to say it might not in the future or something we don't even know about yet that might require additional office space. We're also looking at the space layout with a sense towards, okay, so maybe there are spaces today that are being used in a certain manner, a conference room, storage, or the like, that if required or were necessary sometime in the future to be repurposed and are that to be used as office or other needs at that time. And so identifying that to make sure that the building is future-proof. Similarly, we want to make sure that the base floor is as elevated as we can to make sure that we protect against flooding. And so that's still going on. But the sense of this building and the largest focal point of this building is the council chambers and the arrival lobby area. And those two elements are larger than what you have today. And that's something that you all need to acknowledge and accept and know that it's built for a capacity of about 120, 130 people, the council chambers. And normally what you do is you lay out the lobby to be proportionate to your occupancy, which should satisfy just about every council meeting issue you have. foreseeably. There may be an occasion where, in fact, it's such a contentious issue that you need more space, in which case we always have the option of either the Waterfront Park or what we've done before is use the Seaview room for those extraordinary events where you're having, you know, two, three hundred people show up. But otherwise, I think the building satisfies our need for today and allows for that future proof in a way that I think, you know, is elegant and efficient and, you know, proper for a Battle Harbor type building.

Thank you, George. I guess I'll start us off. I appreciate your presentation and you being able to work in some of the comments that we were able to provide you on our one-on-ones, including my own. I see that. I see it's a dramatic difference. In fact, I think the renderings in our packets are the old renderings, and these are updated ones. So I appreciate that. And I know, George, you mentioned that there will be a Charette scheduled

Yeah, we did not want to go forward from a public perspective until you all had an opportunity. So that's what we're kind of crafting today. At that point, then, we'll do a public meeting with the architects and so forth so that the community can see it and give feedback and kind of understand, you know, why things are the way they are. And then that will come back to you for a vote after that. We're hoping, you know, hopefully that charrette happens in the next 30 days or so, subject to dates and the like. But that's what I see as kind of the next steps, but I don't think it appropriate for us to go and have that meeting without you all having an opportunity first.

For sure. Thank you for that. Vice Mayor?

I just want to reiterate what you said. Okay. I really appreciate that you took a lot of our suggestions to heart and ran with them. I love that you guys opened up the wood in the hall and now you can see through. I think that was really important that people could actually see in from the lobby area into the chamber. Yeah. I appreciate you guys taking all of our stuff. Yeah, and the stairs. Yep. So, thank you.

Yeah, and the way I see that hall, I mean, that could be an overflow room. You can use AV equipment to project any meetings so that we can really avoid the Seaview because the Seaview might not be there always.

Oh, for sure. That lobby area consolidates all the lobby areas you'd otherwise have. And it... If you needed to, it can be structured in a way that it's overflow space in the event that you do have an issue that exceeds the capacity of the council and we just manage by item or however it goes. Will that happen often? Not likely. But you never know. I mean, there were times here when I first arrived that you did have 30 or more people at all your council meetings. Now, not so much, but that doesn't mean it could not happen again.

Yep.

So it's certainly appropriate at 80 years to be looking at the next 80 at least, right? Any other questions, comments from council?

Yeah, I'll just register some of my thoughts. Again, beautiful building, incredible, really great work by the team. It's just going to be a large project. And I just want to make sure we're not... You know, Bell Harbor's not growing. We're not going to go from 4,000 residents to 8,000 or 10,000. We have a limited size. And it's a very expansive building and a very large, you know, expenditure of public funds. And we talk about a lot of things that are much smaller than this. And so I'm just... I'm concerned that we're not, you know, yeah, we have a big council chamber. We're going to make a big council chamber for once every two or three years that we may have a big meeting. So I just think it's something for us to think about as we move forward. As I did a little bit of research on some other cities, other cities significantly larger than us spending the same amount of money that we're spending on a new village council. And obviously they also have it all integrated, the police force and everything. um i mean we're spending the same kind of money that some cities that are 100 000 people and larger are and so it's a concern concern of mine again it's a beautiful beautiful space but are we gonna have this big giant beautiful space with not a lot of things happening to it and and is it something you know we'd say 50 to 70 years but i don't know what we're not i don't know what's going to happen in 50 or 70 years to give us more requirements and so it's just a concern of mine and i don't just know that uh you know are we effectively spending uh dollars correctly it would be my concern and thought process for us to think about

I definitely appreciate that. But the antithesis of that would be everything under one roof now, which we don't have. Our police department's split up. Our EMS is across the water right now. You know, so I think from a efficiency perspective, having everything under one roof is really the way to go. And I definitely agree with you. I look at, you know, what Golden Beach did. You know, they built a beautiful, giant building, you know, right on Collins Avenue. They have less residents than us. And I think their budget was almost the same, if I'm not mistaken. No. What was their budget? A million bucks. No.

There's no way they built that for 10 million.

No.

It's a little smaller. It's not much smaller. But for these, again, I appreciate what you're saying.

Two separate issues. Of course, I agree we have to bring everything under one roof. And most of these other new ones that are built are doing the same thing, efficiencies and bringing teams together for sure. But I think there's, again, a lot of... significantly large, open, and grandiose spaces that I think cost a lot that I'm not sure are needed to bring everybody together.

Well, yeah, I actually brought that point up in my one-on-one. We don't need another public space to do a flea market. We have a beautiful waterfront building we just built, you know, so that was a big part of what I brought, you know, during my one-on-one is, you know, we don't need another place to have public stuff outside. We really don't. We're, you know... For me, it was more of a true village hall building, not a place that we're going to host big events. You know, so that was my concern also.

Okay. And so, you know, again, I think we go down the line so it's, right, so we have this beautiful rendering now. We go to make drawings and everything, and then we go out for bid, and we find out dollars are significantly greater than maybe we thought. So I think... We're also not making a decision. We're just making – I mean, who wouldn't want that building? It's a beautiful building. Everything's beautiful about it. Who wouldn't want it? But I don't know. Maybe it's going to come out costing $50 million. You're right. So I'm concerned with that, and I'm not sure how we address – like you said, George, we don't go down the line and develop all the plans and do everything and then say, oh, we want changes now. It's going to be – so I'm not sure what the thought process is and how we look at that.

Well, look, if you look at this building, the large element, but your signature element, is the council chambers and that lobby. Right. The office space and the parking that's taking place behind that is pretty straightforward. I mean, that is, you know, you have X number of people, you have X number of space, you've got to build it, you've got to build 80-something parking spaces. And so now that's the bulk of the cost is that. But really I think your question should be is that – What has been designed as your grand feature, your council chambers and your rival lobby space, which is your sense of place, is that it's beautiful. Yeah, no one's going to say it's not. Is that what you all as a council want to reflect and represent from your village hall? It could be smaller. It doesn't have to be double high ceilings and stuff like that. It could be smaller. But you all need to decide, what do you want to buy? And you're right. The challenge here is, we give a design to budget. And that's what Jason, if you recall, said, you're not going to have change orders. And so it's his obligation to design this building to that budget. He's not a contractor. He doesn't build. And so until we put it out to bid, we won't know for sure what the cost is. But it's designed and we do, as we go through schematics, DDs and CDs, we do probable cost estimating and quality assurance of the design so that we make sure that it's still within the realm. But at the end of the day, no matter what you do, when you put it out to bid, the circumstances that exist at that time, and we'll be bidding about 12 months from now, tariffs, you know, steel, concrete, whatever we can't even control is what's going to drive that market at that time. The one thing you can do now is, if that is more than you're comfortable with, is to not do that and do something different. On the grand side, the office space, I'm going to tell you, there's not a lot you can really do.

That's the least, that cost per square foot is much less in just the building, square footage, and office space versus the grandiose spaces.

That'll be the class A piece. Yeah, that's where you're going to do your class A, of course. So I'm... I mean, a charrette is an opportunity for you to get your community to kind of give you some feedback as well. And then that will inform... You're not asked today to approve or not approve. And so that will inform your decision when it's time to do that, which is in the next 60 days, if not sooner. So it's not like it's coming off. But... We didn't want to go and do that publicly without you all having your opportunity because I don't want you guys blindsided somehow and say, what's going on here?

Councilman Levy, do you have anything you'd like to share or add on this?

Yeah, on my presentation that I got from their team and George, one of the questions that I asked, which is basically what Councilman Wolf just mentioned, is what are the costs in the future? This is going to cost us more in the future, and I've got the same answer that all of you are discussing now. From the village perspective, If we look where we are right now, in the hole that we have right now, it's really limited to us. It doesn't have the facilities that the team needs to perform the daily job. It doesn't build a good rapport among village staff. And it's not functional. So having something better, I think, is a great idea and something that is paramount for the future of the village and functionality of the village. Eventually, the police department is going to be kicked out from the Dalharbour shops, so having something for them as well is important. A big number is scary in terms of cost, and especially if we look at the other scenes, like what is going to happen with... The property taxes, what is going to happen with, you know, so many other grants that we get and we might not get in the future. But I do support the idea of having a space that is useful for everybody. And the cost is important, but I do fully support having a village hall that is functional. I don't know if I answered your question, Mayor.

Yeah, no, that's perfect. So this, I think the next step would be the charrette. I think that was the consensus. You had already had that on your agenda, George. So I guess I'll close discussion on this. Okay, very good. Next item is mine. Thank you, Jason. Appreciate it. Thank you. Thank you. Appreciate it.

What?

Yeah, I was a little confused by that, too. No, I think his name on the screen was different than his own. That's why I hesitated when I was referring to the architect. Sorry, I let my son use this. Oh, okay.

You're still there.

Hi. I'm like, are you a judge, too, in your spare time?

Yes, justice. Thank you.

Very cool. Okay, well, have a good evening. Next item is discussion requested by me. So one of the things that I've heard a lot about from our residents is a lot of near misses, and unfortunately some folks have been hit by scooters and bicycles. And I think it, you know, I've been discussing this with Susan and with George recently, I localized the issue to the east side sidewalk on Collins. And that is because we have the cutouts for the trees. It creates a very narrow pathway and a good part of that sidewalk. And I've seen in other municipalities where they've created dismount zones. where we're not saying you can't have a bike or an e-bike or a scooter or electric scooter or anything like that, but we're just saying when you ride along this space, you need to get off the bike and then walk and... hold it so that you're not going 30 miles an hour into pedestrians that have nowhere to go. So I know, Susan, there's been a little bit of back and forth. I know you've done some research. I want to hand over the conversation to you. How feasible is it, A, to do that? And B, is there, if it is feasible, is there a willingness on the part of the council and police and stuff to create this sort of dismount zone on that affected area?

So thank you, Mr. Mayor. The situation on the east sidewalk on Collins really is not different than when we had this conversation a year ago. The law provides for municipalities to have some ability to regulate. but only if the road is within the jurisdiction of the village. And so really the immediate obstacle we face is working with EFTOT. Now, when we approached them about this conversation last year, which was not the same idea that you're floating now, the dismount zone, They were initially open and then communicated that they were not supportive. We can certainly, if the council desires, try to reach out again and see if that has changed. But as you look around the region and the state and you see cities doing various things, It's always really important to ask, you know, is that a road over which they have jurisdiction? And we are quite unique where essentially we have no roads over which we have jurisdiction. We've got, you know, the private roads behind the gate and we have FDOT. And so it's just complicated compared to some of our fellow cities that even cities that are coastal that have some actual local streets over which they have more regulatory jurisdiction. That's the bottom line here about the idea. We would need to coordinate with the state to see if they're supportive of creating a dismount requirement and how that could be communicated. Certainly, in our experience, and Mike is the one who works with them the most, FDOT always has a say in any kind of signage that goes along there because it affects traffic. So I'll stop there and let you all discuss what you would like to do.

Thank you for that, Susan. I mean, I think this is a much narrower scope that we're asking. So I could, I think it's worth a try.

That's what I would say. I'm not clear on what you, what do you want to do?

So on the east side, and I included a picture in the, actually Susan found that picture. Basically, the east side sidewalk on Collins Avenue has the cutouts for the date pumps. Could we put that on the screen, actually? So everyone can see what we're talking about?

It's in the backup.

Yeah, it's...

If we can share the memo. Dwight is working on that. Oh, I am. There we go.

Someone is. Oh, okay. This is one example. where you can see there's three cutouts within like a, I don't know, like a 30-foot radius. And just imagine walking in that little skinny part and a scooter coming at you at 30 miles an hour. So what are you saying? I'm saying that this condition starts, no, I mean, I wish, but that would involve a big budgetary requirement. And we'd be removing trees that people have grown to love. So what I'm saying is beginning, I think this condition starts around the Balmoral. And it continues all the way down, I think, to the harbor house. And, in fact, there the sidewalk gets really narrow, even without – It gets – the narrowest is actually in front of the new construction.

Right. We have the crosswalk, and then we have the pole to press and the light fixture. So, I mean, there it goes to literally two feet.

So it would really – really the only areas that – Well, it's the east side of Collins. For whatever reason, the sidewalk is much narrower, even though that's where you have most of the walk pedestrian volume other than 96th Street. But I'm not even talking about 96th Street because the shops basically redid those, and you have very ample space. So it's really just creating a dismount zone from, let's just say, the Balmoral down to the Jetty, where if you are on a bike or scooter, and I don't know if we want to... I'm putting it out there. I don't know.

Doesn't the state say that you must treat them equally?

The general rule is that they must be treated differently, but then it goes on to say, however, municipalities have certain regulatory jurisdiction. The problem is that however doesn't apply to us because it's not our road.

My question was, if you regulate a bicycle that's human powered versus electrical, can you treat them differently or must you treat them the same?

They're treated differently now in the village code. Okay. But because we don't have jurisdiction, it's not something we can really enforce.

Electrical dismount, I guess, and walk the bike?

I don't know. I think what I'm saying is whatever we have the highest chance of getting approved from FDOT, because it's clear that we have no control over this, unfortunately. But I do think it's an issue, and it's only getting worse because these, you know, especially the e-scooters are becoming more and more prevalent. Forget about the fact that kids are riding them without helmets and all this stuff. And I don't know if there's anything we can do with that.

I can tell you about what changed last year. There was a bill last year that allows us to adopt an ordinance providing for minimum age requirements to operate an e-bicycle. and that they possess a government-issued photo ID while operating the e-bicycle, and it also specifically says that local governments can engage in training on the safe operation of electric bicycles.

So we do have some authority to regulate e-bikes, but not e-scooters?

Age requirements and training. That's not what you were asking for, which was dismount. Right. That is something that was created in 2025 that creates additional local authority.

Are there any helmet laws?

I believe that's one I don't recall, but there may be.

Is there like a minimum age that you're saying that you have to be a certain age to...

There was not the ability to have a regulation of a minimum age. Now there is.

Chief, what is the minimum age to get a Florida ID? Is there an age for that? So if you're requiring an ID, then 15 is probably your...

I believe some of the cities using this authority have said 16. But this came out of Keep His Gain because that was... They had the greater concern over the age. You have the concern over the regulatory jurisdiction, the width of the sidewalk, and the other kinds of concerns.

Right. Because that's where the kid ran into the woman on the bus.

The woman, yeah. She died. Yeah, yeah. Um... Yeah, so, I mean, I guess if we had to treat them the same, meaning the mechanical or electrical and man-powered bikes and scooters, what my ask would be to require that if you're operating one of these on the sidewalk, that you have to dismount beginning at the Balmoral.

So you're saying that...

But only on the east side. You've got to walk it. The entire... Yeah, and this affects me. Yeah, this affects me too.

Why, are you riding an electric scooter?

No, not electric.

I'm saying both. I do. Are you saying anything? I'm saying both. It would be this... It would be a self-powered scooter person you want to get off and walk the entire way. Yeah.

I just want to clarify.

I'm saying, I don't know. It seems like you have to be... No, no, in your perfect world, what would it be? Forget what... Oh, okay.

In my perfect world, I would just do it for electric. Okay. And man-powered, I would say, could remain the same, but I don't know.

A bicycle could be on the sidewalk. Again, I...

Mayor, quick question. What about putting a sign? I don't know if this is feasible or not, but can we put a sign asking the public, please dismount? Instead of enforcing something, please dismount for, I don't know, whatever word we want to use. Or just put a sign with a picture instead of actually stating something. So therefore, we're not telling people what to do. We're just asking them to dismount. That's forgiveness without permission law.

I think that's something to talk to Mike about.

It depends on what the sign says. I mean, if it's like a yield to pedestrians or, you know. I think we have those already. The problem is that they don't, they're, they, you know.

It just says bicycles.

You know, like a lock, this, you know, keeps the, the person who's going to observe the law is going to observe the law. The person who's not is going to ignore the sign. And so it sounds like the sign alone isn't going to make what you want accomplished accomplished.

That's why I think, that's why honestly for this to work, I think we have to say all, like all scooters, bikes, whether man-powered or not. And that would create a very safe walking condition. Yeah. You'll get some feedback. You want to do a charade on that?

That's for sure.

You want to do a charade on that? I don't know. I don't know. I'm just putting it out there. I don't know how.

And Mr. Mayor, I do recommend that you think about all these permutations because unfortunately this statute, as you know from the past discussions, is very nuanced. And each device has different rules and they change them every year. So, you know, rather than, you know, try to... aim at the current laws, it would be useful to understand what the council's desire is at this moment. As of last year, it was not to do anything. What is the desire now? Oh, I disagree. Okay.

It's poor people's desire. Oh, yes.

When I say council, I mean the majority. But you definitely voted for it, Councilman Sklar, I recall. So if that has changed, then we can go work on what is feasible. First and foremost is what FDOT agrees to. But beyond that, there may be nuance about variations on your preferred solution.

So who's the appropriate party to parlay with FDOT?

Well, I think there are relationships between your staff and FDOT. We also have relationships at the attorney level that we can talk. And you can lobby. Yeah.

You can put that on their plate.

His role is not simply during session. It's the executive branch and it's year-round.

But you need to tell us what you want him to go advocate for. We need a council direction.

I think taking that next discussion item and grouping them together is really important.

Yeah, exactly. It's a different location, but it's similar. It sounds like it's similar issues.

Why don't we go into the next one?

I wish I would have thought of all this. Sorry, guys, one more thing. It's impossible to get that data from Fire and Rescue in terms of the amount of accidents that we get from e-bikes or electric scooters and perhaps that could you know help move the cage with the legislators so you can actually show that the things are not the things i think when there's not a vehicle involved there's not necessarily a report but um i don't know chief or deputy chief would you either of you be able to discuss like what you've seen on your end in terms of reporting

And also near misses don't get reported either.

Right.

Now, if there's an injury and they call the police and they report it, a fire rescue responded, then it's documented. We have it documented somewhere in our cash system. If it's the near misses, like, oh, my God, I almost get hit, that's probably something that's not collected.

Mm-hmm. Okay. Good initiative. Okay. Thank you. I guess let's go into the next one and then figure out where we land this plane. Vice Mayor.

Yeah, so I know Councilman Sklar's brought this up before and we had this conversation before, but and I think at the time we said potentially that we couldn't necessarily do it or we didn't want to move those people or whatever it was again. And I attached a picture of it. They're doing it just south of us in Miami Beach before you get to the beach. It doesn't say anything about sidewalks or on the west side of the buildings. It's just on the east side on the path. And it does exclude them. So that kind of triggered me again to say, why don't we address this on the beach side where there are a lot more pedestrians and a lot more people walking and a lot more dogs and a lot more things. They obviously have an arrogance for this. I'm not sure why we couldn't also do the same thing.

No, I know.

I don't know if anything's changed or not.

Same exact thing. I brought that up also. I said I want to do it on the beach path, and everyone said, well, then they're going to move to the sidewalk or the street. And now we see there's a problem even without moving them on the sidewalk and the street. So I'm in full favor of it because, to your point, David, People with dogs and leashes, you know, that's six feet that they have. You know, older people out there walking that don't have the reflexes younger people have to those near misses that the chief spoke about. I mean, it's bad. I mean, I'm out there every day. When I'm not out there, I'll sit on my balcony, which is basically out there. And it's... Any Saturday, you know, when people are out walking, you know, to and from Shul back there, and then you have this one kid going 30 miles an hour on his e-bike, never even pedaling. Like I said before, it's a very dangerous accident waiting to happen, and we have to be proactive on this. So I'm glad everyone's seeing it.

Susan, did you find out anything you want to share with us on this?

So this also is the same as it was last year. We already have section 19-27 that says it's unlawful to operate motorized vehicles, but it says specifically on the jogging path or sidewalks within our jurisdiction. It does not apply to the beach vehicle access road. We do have the ability. This is a different place. It's called a multi-purpose path or the beach. There's a couple of different ways in which we could describe it. And in each of those ways, there is regulatory jurisdiction. What was confounding to the council, appropriately so, is to understand the interaction between these things. And so there was that push and pull between if we do something on the beach, does it drive things to the street? If we do something on the street, sidewalk, does it drive it into the street or to the beach?

The quick question, don't we have that designated as a park? Yes, we did that. We did that two years ago that we designated it as a park. So it's pretty simple to say no electric vehicles allowed in our parks. I mean, that would be the lowest hanging fruit to be able to pass something like this, wouldn't it?

We do have some park regulations that we adopted at the time of the waterfront park because really we didn't have a full-fledged park and rec program before. And we created rules for bikes inside the waterfront park, which are fully within that gate where people have to dismount. But that set of rules don't currently address these locations. They're very specific. And we were specific. It could be drafted differently.

But the ordinance that was before you, about a year ago, right? Yeah, about a year. Remind me, I think it would benefit everybody. I think it was to focus on the path, right?

It was to say ban it on the path, and as a result... We wanted to go after the low-hanging fruit first, and then we were going to try and figure out a way to get something done on the sidewalks.

And George, to be specific, at first reading, we were proposing both. And then between first and second reading, FDOT said no.

Right.

And that's why at second reading, it focused on the beachwalk.

The path, okay. Yeah, the danger of that is that it feels like it's a yin and yang. If you ban it on the path, does it exacerbate?

I think we should just print out extra signs and put them on Collins and let FDOT rip them down.

Is there a way that we could congruently get both of them done? Because one without the other doesn't work. It really doesn't. I mean, it has to really be – we know that we could get it done on the beach path. That's easy. So that's something we could do. How do we put something together for the sidewalk that we feel we could get FDOT's approval or – You know, again, you know, sometimes it's better to ask or give us some permission that we could actually put it as a, you know, a dismount zone. You know, Collins Avenue Eastside is a dismount zone. So sort of that will take care of both. So we don't have to worry about people going from the beach path to the sidewalk.

Maybe you do it in two phases. You do the path. And let's see if, in fact, what we think is going to happen happens. And if it does, that gives you even more argument to then tell FDOT. Statistics work. We assume that they're going to go to the sidewalk, but will they or won't they? We don't know.

But I think to David's point, the path... It's dangerous. It really is an accident waiting to happen. And to the point where they even have electric, I think I brought this up last year, electric bike tours where you have 10 people. And I think I presented a picture of that last year. They're literally going down our beach path, 10 people on electric bicycles at 25, 30 miles an hour.

Yeah, and I think the issue is there's way more people walking on that path than there is walking on the sidewalk.

And it's going to get worse once we have a beautiful jetty.

Okay, so I guess the consensus is to proceed, I guess, bringing back that ordinance. We'll have to do two full readings again, right? Yeah.

Well, may I suggest that before we go to first reading, we make a decision about whether we're going to, like, the second reading ordinance was just the beachwalk. So are you saying you just want to bring back that second reading ordinance and address the beachwalk first, the beachwalk? I forget what you call it, the paved path there.

Hard pack.

Hard pack, there you go. Service road, yeah. Having a brain.

I think what we can do, we should try to do, because it is clear that the situation is getting worse, not better.

Okay.

And at the same time, I think I have support for this, that we try to engage whoever we can to start talking to FDOT, figuring out what we can do. About the college? Yes, because that's still...

Ordinance for the beachside research strategy and lobbying on the sidewalk. I get it. Yes. Thank you.

Right? Does that capture everyone's? Yeah, and again, by then we'll have some data if they are really shifting. I mean, I'm hoping no one gets hit. Yeah, exactly.

Okay.

Thank you guys for actually bringing this back up. I really do appreciate it. Yes.

Thank you, Buzzy.

Because of you that we brought it back up, so.

Speaking of you, Buzzy, cars loitering.

Yeah, I remember Councilman Albom a few years ago brought this up, and it's getting worse and worse as Ubers are really getting more prevalent, especially with the black suburbans. They're just literally parking on private property, whether it's on the west side, inside the parking areas, just waiting for fares. At our building, it's pretty insane. They literally just park right in the middle of everything. We can't have our valets and our teams really go out there because it's starting a lot of confrontation with these guys. Like, oh, I'm waiting for someone. Right? We know you're not waiting for someone. You're just, you know, waiting for that little Uber machine to go off. And from an environmental perspective, they're keeping their cars running the whole time. So it's almost, you know, having these guys sitting, loitering, and, you know, I know on Miami Beach, they actually passed an ordinance. I'm not sure if it was when you were there or right after you, George, that any cars or trucks or anything that stopped, it's an engine off. It's an engine off. Yeah, the no idling law? I think you were there for that, yep. So, you know, whether we do it as a no idling law to make it, or I know the police can't go out and trespass every single car that's out there, but we've got to figure something out. I mean, they're using, even under the bridge. They're all hanging out under the bridge in their SUVs and just waiting for fares to come and taking up spots and idling down there too. So I don't know what can be done, but something has to be done. I wish I had a solution in my head.

I am... I see this as multi-layered. You know, the no idling is something that we can legislate. That's something that I assume Susan can craft something and get us there. where they're idling or where they're loitering, depending on the verb you want to use. If they're on private property, there's a certain limitation as to what our PD is out there doing. Under the bridge, it's a parking lot. We want to make sure that they... I don't know, but I mean, it's a public space. They can occupy it. As long as they're paying the spot. Exactly. We can go write a ticket, but if they're writing a ticket, normally what they'll do is they'll leave, I guess. But to your point about private property. Private property is the one that I think is your biggest concern.

I want to push back on that because I had a great conversation with the chief over a year ago. Since we patrol private property behind the gate, we can give out tickets there. we've set a precedent as a municipality that we could go on a private property and give tickets. Yes. Well, Chief, why don't you come on up and...

There'll be public comment. If we're summons and we receive a complaint from a resident saying this car is blocking my roadway inside the gated community, or if there's an accident or something inside the gated community, then yes, we can issue parking citations and do parking enforcement. You know, if they park in front of the fire hydrant and those type of things, we can do enforcement action there.

What if someone blows through a stop sign behind the gate?

If someone blows through a stop sign, that's a traffic infraction. And then we could sign for traffic.

Right. So the same thing because we did it actually between Harbor House and the Ritz, remember, for a little bit. We had those stop signs that are on that roadway. And you guys were incredible on getting out, you know, people blowing those stop signs. So we have set a precedent, as I said, of us enforcing on private property. Mm-hmm. Right.

Now, the difference... What are you going to enforce? Is it the no idling?

They have to be called. They have to be called. No, no, no. They don't have to be called.

I think what we should do is, when we're talking about rideshare vehicles on private property, the first point of contact should be a representative from the individual property. Right. Say, hey, look, this is private property. You need to leave. Just like a towing is handled. If the person doesn't leave, you can avoid the confrontation and then call us and then we'll come out and say, with that representative there, that you have to leave. If they don't leave, then we issue a trespass warrant.

Okay. That's how you have it.

Okay. So can we somehow communicate this to the buildings?

We have.

As a matter of fact, I actually – Speak about the program we have that week here.

Yeah, we have the condo call, biweekly condo calls with all the buildings. particularly the ones on the east side and some from the west side. And the last call, I asked Sylvia to, when she'd do her recap, to send an email out to the individual buildings to see, I wanted to see if this was centralized to one location in the village or if this was like a widespread thing. So the response we got back was from two buildings. It was the Ritz and the St. Regis. I'm sorry, not the Ritz. The St. Regis and the Majestic. Majestic. The Majestic was saying that they were parked on 96th Street. And then the Ritz says, hey, look, you know, they pull up in our driveway. They don't like to, you know, they like to move. Now, what we've done was we've asked all the buildings, you know, we talked about this, about the WeCare signage program. And as of this date, we only had three buildings to sign up for the WeCare. That's another avenue, another two that the police can use if the buildings are willing to sign up for the WeCare.

What that is, is that's the trespass where you can have the sign up and then PD can... We'll authorize agents now to come onto the property and do that.

But as of this date, there's only three buildings. That's the Ritz, Admiralty, and what was the other one? One other, I forgot. Oceana, in the Oceana.

There's signs that say, like, Bell Harbor Police is allowed to ask you to leave in my building.

Yeah, it's a week or so, but the property person, the representative from the property, have to sign an affidavit giving us authorization. And right now, the affidavit is good for one year. So we need that authorization in order to take any type of enforcement action. Okay. So we communicate that to them. We'll do it again, Sylvia, on our next condo call.

Appreciate that.

And see if we can get more participation.

I think the problem is, especially from what I'm hearing, like the valets are usually that first point of contact. They're to the point where, you know, these guys are getting threatened. They don't want to deal with the confrontation. So they're almost like at a hands-off position already.

And since we talked about it Friday, I've made our officers more aware. I appreciate that. So they, you know, they've actually, we created a signal to try and track this and see if, to see the type of action, to track the type of action that we're taking now.

I appreciate it. Thank you, Chief.

I appreciate it. You and the guys, as always. Okay. Is there any further discussion from council before we open up for public comment?

Okay.

Seeing none. Public comment on anything?

Rohab, I want to add a couple of things. I know it wasn't on your agenda, but since you brought it up, I would like to make a comment. As far as the village... drawing is that the approved drawing for the village hall to be that's the way it's going to look like has then been approved because i've seen so many before so i don't know if this is the final drawing of the village but to mr wolf's point this is a village it's not a city and you guys keep forgetting we're a village For 50, 60 years, you said this is our 88th anniversary. For 50 years, this little place here had the police department, had everything in it. We don't need such grand things, and you have to consider the taxes and all the money to go into such a huge place for a village. Our population is not going to go improve. So whenever that meeting, public meeting, has to come in, please take into view because This building, the way it's designed, is not going to last 50 or 60 years. And the second thing is I really would appreciate if the person was actually, since you're paying him, to be present here instead of on think for whatever reason he should have scheduled it. Since we, the people here, are paying him, I'd like to see him in person instead of on a video. In regard to e-bikes, since you mentioned your concern was the children i think she said there was a wave that at least for benefit you is that if that age requirement because most people who are adult and have a license they will be on the road not on the uh on the sidewalk Okay, so at least you limit a certain amount of people or children that you're worried about with those equipment. As far as the taking dismount, in essence, basically you outline. I don't think FDOT is going to approve that because you're basically telling walk. Get off your bike or get off your thing and walk a mile the entire distance. Maybe somebody can't. Maybe somebody has a problem. That's why they have a scooter. So I think that part is going to be difficult since we're dealing with the FDOT. As far as the beach path, I've been opposed to... than being on it in the first place. People who go on the bike, they want to get the view of the beach and biking. I don't think it will affect those people or the same people who's going to come in our sidewalks. So I think that beach path with no electric or whatever because I've been hit almost hit by the time they come into groups and it's going so fast you can't even see it. So I think that's the step you should take and I don't think it will be any side effect of it coming to the sidewalks. And the sidewalks you could take care of it by what she says if they need a license so you take 12, 13, 14 or whatever they will be able to use it. So if you're going to do it I want to put my two cents worth.

Any further public comment? Seeing none, closing public comment. Village manager's report? Village clerk's report? Village attorney's report?

I'm about to go. So my report is in your back pack up, but I need to announce some shade sessions. So just indulge me for a moment. I request that executive sessions in the following litigation matters be scheduled at a time to be determined pursuant to Section 286-0118, Florida Statutes, for the purpose of discussing settlement negotiations and strategy related to litigation expenditures. And these are the Bal Harbor Shops cases. For simplicity, I'm going to refer to them as their nicknames, the Live Local Act lawsuit, the noise lawsuit, the supermajority voting requirement lawsuit, and the regulatory taking and illegal taxation lawsuit. Those four are still pending, and the clerk will have the case numbers. We still have a request for... an executive session pending on the village of bell harbor versus iscovich and i'm just noting that for the record now i'm not making that request because we still need to schedule that one in the future uh thank you very much thank you motion to adjourn move adjourn

Don't think so.