Council - Regular Meeting

Good evening, ladies and gentlemen. I would ask that you please take your seats. We are going to begin with special presentations in advance of the council meeting tonight. Council members, please come to the well. It is a well. It's the well of the chamber. All right. So with that, tonight we are here to honor, or we're gonna start our night by honoring some special individuals, two of whom gave their lives to public service in the form of providing public safety to the community, not only in Miami Lakes, but beyond, and also to the Ruiz family that are legends here in the town. So with that, we're gonna get started. We're gonna take them one at a time in turn. And I want to begin with Deputy Carlos Ortiz. If you would please come up here. Deputy Ortiz has been with us since we were founded. So basically since 2001, right? We were founded December 5th, 2000, you know, but obviously it takes a little time to start putting the organization together. So he's one of what the kids would say, the OGs here. So with that, in recognition of your many years of service, we're issuing you a proclamation making August 20th, 2026, Deputy Carlos Ortiz Day in this town. And the proclamation reads, whereas Deputy Carlos Ortiz began his law enforcement career on January 22nd, 1996 in the Cutler Ridge District as a road patrol officer and later transferred to the newly formed town of Miami Lakes in 2001, continuing his service in road patrol, Whereas Deputy Ortiz later served the Special Services Unit, now the Neighborhood Resources Unit, as a bicycle officer, strengthening community partnerships and enhancing public safety through numerous town-sponsored events, including Battle of the Stars football tournament, Hurricane Irma recovery efforts, post-COVID food distributions, the culinary bike ride, the reindeer run, the Veterans Day parade, the Fourth of July event, the bike rodeo, the Spring Fling, the Brianna Vergara 5K, and Coffee with the Cop. whereas deputy ortiz are you sure you didn't miss one there whereas deputy ortiz served as a police explorer advisor from 2007 to 2013 and again from 2021 to 2026 a member of the honor guard from 2021 to 2025 and received over 50 commendations for his professionalism dedication and exemplary service whereas throughout his career deputy ortiz received numerous honors including a recognition of exemplary performance, five certificates of commendation, a recommendation for department award, officer of the quarter, and police officer of the month. And, and this is the last one, whereas after 30 years of dedicated public service, we congratulate Deputy Carlos Ortiz on his well-earned retirement and wish him many joyful years ahead with his beloved wife, daughter, and son. now therefore i joshua diegas by virtue of the authority vested in me as the mayor of the town of miami lakes and on behalf of the town council and 33 000 miami lakers do hereby proclaim august 20th 2026 as deputy carlos diaz day sorry we're gonna we're gonna have to change that out there's a little misprint at the end there so sorry about that here come join us over here a second

Yeah.

Next up, we have retiring from the town of Miami Lakes, another OG in the town police department, Sergeant George Soto. Please come up to be recognized. Congratulations. so that way this way you don't have to fight with him you know we gave you a separate day so so the proclamation for sergeant soto reads whereas sergeant george soto began his law enforcement career on september excuse me everyone please take your seats quietly we are honoring our law enforcement officers who are retiring mr barron please take a seat when you can thank you All right, whereas Sergeant George Soto began his law enforcement career on September 25th, 1995, serving in road patrol in the Northwest District before assignments to the Priority Services Unit and the Community Oriented Policing Squad. Whereas in 2001, Sergeant Soto joined the newly formed Town of Miami Lakes as a bicycle officer, continuing his commitment to community oriented policing and public safety. whereas promoted to sergeant in 2005 sergeant soto served as a road patrol supervisor before joining the neighborhood resources unit where he served as a unit and administrative sergeant organizing and overseeing numerous town sponsored events including the battle of the stars football tournament hurricane irma recovery efforts post-covered food distributions the culinary bike ride the reindeer run the veterans day parade the fourth of uh july event among others you guys are in a competition then Whereas, throughout his career, Sergeant George Soto received over 60 commendations recognizing his rapid response, dedication to duty, teamwork, astute powers of observation, enthusiasm, and professionalism, along with numerous recognitions, including police officer of the year finalist, multiple officer of the quarter recognitions, and a recognition for exemplary performance from Miami-Dade Police Department Director Carlos Alvarez, and whereas after more than 30 years of dedicated public service, we congratulate Sergeant George Soto on his well-earned retirement and wish him many joyful years ahead with his beloved wife and two daughters. Now, therefore, I, Joshua Diegues, by virtue of the authority vested in me as the mayor of the town of Miami Lakes, and on behalf of the town council and 33,000 Miami Lakers, do hereby proclaim August 21st, 2026 as Sergeant George Soto Day.

You want to say anything?

Thank you both for your service to the community. At this time, and everyone, please keep your volume low. We are in the process of honoring members of our community, please. So please keep your conversation to a minimum.

Okay, I may have to use the gavel here.

Okay, I'm going to invite Richard Ruiz to please come up here with the family. Anyone else that is with you? For those who don't know, his father, Mario Ruiz, recently passed away, unfortunately. He cut many of our hairs here in the town, including mine when I was a kid. So the Miami Leagues Barbershop has been a staple of the community for many, many years. And so it was a fitting honor to go ahead and recognize the contributions of his father. They brought an image here as well for those who maybe want to put a face to their name. And I'm sorry for your loss though, sincerely. We are proclaiming August 2026, the entire month, as Mario Ruiz Month in the town of Miami Lakes, whereas Mario Ruiz was born on January 19th, 1934, in Placetas, Cuba, and later immigrated to the United States in the 1950s. building a new life and raising a family. Whereas Mario dedicated his new home and career in the United States to the barbering profession, eventually proudly owning and operating his own business. Whereas in the 1960s, alongside his brother, Mario opened his barber shop in the town of Miami Lakes. Please, I would ask everyone, please cease your conversations, thank you. Whereas outside of work, pardon me, in the 1960s, alongside his brother, Mario opened his barbershop in the town of Miami Lakes where it became a cherished gathering place for community leaders, neighbors, and locals alike that made everyone who visited feel welcomed. Whereas outside of work, Mario's faith was central to him with being a member of Immaculate Conception Catholic Church, serving as an usher and later as an active member of Our Lady of the Lakes Catholic Church. And whereas Mario made a lasting impact on his community and leaves behind the legacy of love, and a family that includes his wife, Hilda, his four children, five grandchildren, and five great-grandchildren. His memory will continue to live in the hearts of all who had the privilege of knowing him. Now, therefore, I, Joshua Diegans, by virtue of the authority vested in me as the mayor of the town of Miami Lakes and on behalf of the town council and 33,000 Miami Lakers do hereby proclaim the month of August, 2026 as Mario Ruiz Month. Congratulations, Richard. And I'm sorry again for your loss.

Good afternoon. On behalf of my family, I want to sincerely thank our community and everyone who made this special honor possible. Today is an emotional day for us. My dad was not only a great father and a loved one, but also a businessman who was proud of his community. He worked hard to build relationships and served others, and giving back to the place he called home. Although he's no longer with us, seeing him honored with this proclamation reminds us of the impact of a person's life continues long after they're gone. His business was more than just a livelihood. It was part of the connection to this community and to the many people he met and helped and worked alongside throughout the years. I know this community meant everything to my dad, and I can only imagine how proud and humbled he will be to receive this recognition. to everyone who supported his business, believed him, worked with him, became his friend, and helped make this honor possible. Thank you from the bottom of our hearts. Dad, we miss you every day. We're incredibly proud of what you and will continue to carry your memory and your legacy with us. Thank you very much.

Congratulations.

Thank you, that concludes the special presentations. We will start promptly at 6.30 p.m. Alright, one minute. Ready?

6.30.

Good evening, ladies and gentlemen. The time is 6.30. I am now calling this regular council meeting of the town council to order. Madam Clerk, please call the roll.

Council Member Cuadra Garcia. Present. Council Member Fernandez.

Present.

Council Member Garcia.

Present.

Council Member Herzberg. Present. Council Member Sanchez.

Present.

Vice Mayor Morera.

Present.

Mayor Diegues.

Here.

Mayor, you have quorum.

Excellent. And Major Ulloa, please make sure that all the doors are closed because the noise is going to filter in here and it's going to interrupt our proceedings. With that, everyone please rise for the Pledge of Allegiance, which will be led by Councilman Sanchez. Thank you, please remain standing for the moment of silence, which will be led by Councilmember JC Fernandez.

Please bow our heads. Heavenly Father, we come before you with humble hearts, asking for wisdom, clarity, and unity as this council gathers to serve. Guide our minds to seek truth, our words to build up, and our actions to serve with integrity and grace. Help us listen well, to respect one another, and to pursue the common good. We ask these things in your name, amen.

and then thank you you may all be seated council we're now in the order of business before I get there there I was just approached by miss Soto asking that because her son is sick to move up the Education Advisory Board report to before public comments so that's one change there does anyone else have additional changes yes mayor councilman Garcia

like to move um new business item if it's okay with the vice mayor because jakey's family's here uh number j of new business items to after public comments or after actually after the um the education board um so before public comments but after the education advisory board yes and also my my item as well um which is in the same vein i don't see it here Okay. Okay. Okay.

Can you say the names again in the order that you want them or the item numbers?

Your J and K. 16 J and 16 K. Yeah. Right after.

after the education advisory report so yes and then I don't ice mayor since we're both items are almost the same would you like to combine them Sir we can combine them and I was going to invite the entire Council to co-sponsor absolutely co-sponsor okay so 16 J and K will be heard together after item 10 a I think it's H and K H and K okay okay so sorry you're right yeah H and K okay so H and K 16 H and K will be heard together after 10 a and then I propose moving the items related to the grattany ramp to immediately after public comment so that would be let me pull them up again there we go 16 a and B And with the wasn't there a third one related to the the will related to the improved the cut through traffic which was out. Because they should be taken up. Okay got it. Okay, council, I'm gonna read it back. So the changes we are making is immediately following this motion, we have item 10A, 16H and K, then public comments, and then following public comments, we have 16A, B, and I. Anything else? Okay, seeing none, is there a motion?

I move.

It's been moved. Second. Seconded. All those in favor say aye. Aye. All opposed no. You guys have it. The motion carries and the item or the agenda is amended as stated. With that, Madam Clerk, we are now in public comments. Go ahead and read the rules into the record. good evening welcome to the regular council meeting if you're here and you would like to provide public comments please you may do so now you just i apologize madam clerk again i'm just force of habit because this is normally the technique but i just re-read it let's begin with miss soto from the education advisory board to go ahead and present her report so we can handle that and then we will go again to 16 h and k my apologies

Okay, good evening, council members. Thank you so much for letting me go. So for the Education Advisory Board, so far our approved budget is $1,000, which covers our spelling bee, which has been very successful, and the Education Awards of Excellence at the end of the year in May. and we have two proposed new initiatives. The first one would be for a Miami Lake School Olympiad, which will be a field day event at Roberto Alonso Community Center the month of February to highlight and showcase the six schools and their educational programs in the community. It's only gonna be around $500 really for us, maybe less, because most of the expenses will be covered by the schools themselves and our fundraising from the graduate banners that we've been doing and the food that we will sell at the event and the book fair, which I believe you approved already, which is coming up, would be for November 7th. That's the second initiative. and that's run by the Good News Book Fair, a non-profit that promotes the joy of reading in young children through clean reads that promote virtue and love of country, and that one's gonna be held at the Mary Collins Center on the 7th of October, or May of November, excuse me.

I move to approve both of the events. Is there a second? I'll second for discussion.

Seconded by Councilman Sanchez for discussion, and we go to you to begin the discussion. Thank you. Ms. Soto, good to see you. For the Olympiad, it sounds more like a school fair where parents can come and see what potential schools their kids can be going to. An Olympiad, to me, is more of an event where schools compete against each other, like a spelling bee.

There will be. There will be a competition between the schools. So it's a combination, really, of both.

Do you have categories more or less of what they're gonna be competing against?

We're gonna have a meeting, a subcommittee meeting on Monday of next week, and that's where we're gonna finalize all those little details once you all approve for it to go forward, yes.

Would it be both mental challenges as well as physical challenges?

Yes, we're gonna try to have both for a variety to meet different needs, yes, absolutely. It will not just be physical.

Okay, then I'm in favor of it, thank you.

Any other discussion on this item? Okay, seeing none, all those in favor say aye. Aye. All opposed, no. You guys have it, the motion carries. And if anything else that's it.

Thank you so much.

I have a problem and I'm wishing his son of speedy recovery. Next up we have 16 H. You're recognized to go into the end. Oh first and foremost, I'll actually just move a waiver of section 7.2 of the special order. All right, there's a motion is there a second second and solely on the issue of the waiver all those in favor say aye aye all those no the ayes have it the rule is waived.

Thank you, Mayor. I think most of you took the opportunity to read my item, and obviously this was written at a time where the statue of J.K. Duque was still missing. I did want, if it's okay with you, Mayor, to open the floor to the Duque family, who I believe wanted to make a statement. So at this time, I'd like to invite them to the podium.

Yeah, they can come on up and present here at the podium. here I think they were right outside if someone wants to call them in hey can somebody get the Duque family please and let them know that we're thank you director back down oh perfect excellent welcome guys the mic should already be on by the way

I just wanted to say thank you personally. The amount of man hours, technology, just how many hours were spent recovering Jakey's statue. Jakey's statue is of our son, but it means so much to Miami Lakes. I think it was a representation of that logo, and not to sound cliche, I heart Miami Lakes. Miami Lakes has a big heart, and that's what this was about. Sergeant James, Detective Morales, and the entire team, the outpour of people that literally would drive down in disbelief, the amount of tips, the outpour that we got and we continue to get, we wanted to say thank you personally, because it means a lot to us and it doesn't go unanswered. Jakey started a big movement and tugged at so many people's hearts, and we see that, and it continues. So we are very adamant to say that this isn't our park, and I think it's evident. and we just wanted to say thank you.

Thank you so much, appreciate it.

Of course, we're glad that it was recovered and we look forward to when we reinstall it with appropriate security measures moving forward to also go ahead and have a nice community event with you guys and we'll coordinate that as soon as possible.

yeah um about that i know that the officers um an observation of all this lighting and surveillance is super important in that area so we definitely want to see if we can have help with that and i did talk to lopsy dopsy from joe dimaggio and she's on board for the re-unveiling of the park and is ready to do it um and bring back to our lady lakes jakey where he belongs in the park awesome thank you thank you god bless you guys likewise

Because what we said was to combine H and K. or yeah so number one i wanted to thank the duca family for coming out obviously this was important to them this is important to our town that's why there's a new business item for it but that's also why there was so much discussion online on the facebook groups uh on whatsapp chats uh i saw all sorts of community involvement on this um and i will say right on the one hand this this act of stealing the the statue shows potentially some of the worst that our society has to offer, right? Someone of that level of a depraved mind taking, stealing the statue of a child. And if I remember correctly, there's a little plaque that says exactly what happened with Jakey and that that would be there and that they would still make the decision to take it. It just shows a depraved state of mind. But at the same time, this also shows us the best of our times, right? When this family, this community, came together to look out for the Duque family, to submit the tips, assist law enforcement, and ultimately arresting the suspects. And it was really very much a looking out for your neighbors kind of ordeal. But that being said, my item is primarily related to, I'm not going to lie to you, I didn't think that statue was coming back. I thought it was a goner. And I'm incredibly happy that I was wrong about that. BUT THE INTENTION OF MY ITEM, IT WAS ORIGINALLY GOING TO BE TO MAKE AN INSURANCE CLAIM BECAUSE IT IS AN EXPENSIVE STATUE, TO MAKE AN INSURANCE CLAIM AND GET THE BALL ROLLING AS SOMETHING THAT YOU GUYS KNOW HOW GOVERNMENT IS. GOVERNMENT DOESN'T WORK two day shipping like Amazon. So we take long to do things. So I wanted to get the ball rolling on an insurance claim, get it funded and get it replaced as quickly as possible. Thankfully, we no longer really need to do that. But I do want to have a discussion amongst my colleagues about potentially any repairs or changes that are needed to the statue uh because i did see in the photo that the fish that he was holding was separated i don't know if that's that it's broken or what it is what needs to be done to bring it back but also any potential modifications that need to be made to it to accommodate extra security measures that are going to be discussed today and thank you for bringing your item because it's more up to date with the current events right of let's specifically look at um lighting security cameras i think we already um mr manager do we already have power at that little park i don't think so jeremy right no but there may be other alternatives solar power and some there's there's some solutions that maybe will not require actual power there okay so so i think at this point we'd be simply I'M GOING TO MOVE TO DIRECT THE MANAGER TO EXPLORE ALL OPTIONS, BUT I'M WILLING TO HEAR FROM MY COLLEAGUES WHAT OPTION THEY WOULD LIKE TO SEE HIM COME BACK TO US, AND I WOULD LIKE TO SEE IT COME BACK AT THE SEPTEMBER COUNCIL MEETING.

IS THERE A SECOND? SECOND. IT'S BEEN SECONDED, AND WE'LL GO TO COUNCILMAN GARCIA. THANK YOU SO MUCH.

THANK YOU, VICE MAYOR. AGAIN, I WANT TO THANK THE FAMILY. GOD HEARD their prayers and the town's prayers to bring back the statue. And as the vice mayor said, we can always find something good out of this. And I believe the real unveiling of this statue will bring attention and much needed funds to childhood cancer. And with the Joe DiMaggio Hospital and whatever we can do as a town to continue to remind us that life is fragile and we need to protect it and do everything we can So the Vice Mayor mentioned, and I would love all my colleagues to co-sponsor this, if you can. We'd love to see what we can do. We need to get lighting at that park. We need to get cameras at that park. And we need to do anything we can to strengthen the base so that won't happen again. So that would be an additional motion, or adding to the Vice Mayor's motion, to make sure that doesn't happen again. And also I noticed there were some issues with the fencing and some issues at the park that need addressing. Perhaps we can take an opportunity there to also make sure that park is at the standards that the Duque family deserves and Miami Lakes deserves. So that would be my motion at the time.

I'll second and co-sponsor Sanchez and uh I'm sorry hold on guys remember like you know to give me a chance to catch up so with that uh it's been seconded by Councilman Sanchez and Madam Clerk please let the record reflect that we are all co-sponsors on this item are there any other is there any more discussion on this item And I would ask that everyone please silence your cell phones. Thank you. It's gone off a few times with that. All those in favor say aye. Aye. All opposed no. The ayes have it. And the motion carries. Congratulations, gentlemen.

Okay, before we go.

Mayor, can I make one? I know, I'm going to reopen the. No, no, but there's something else. Okay.

There are apparently some folks that somehow were parking over here in the eastern parking lot inside the black gate. That's the police parking area. And they need, if you're parked in there, they need you to go over there now and move your car. they may start towing cars in about 15 minutes. So if you're parked over here on the east side inside the black gates, that is a restricted parking area only for law enforcement vehicles. Thank you, Mr.

Manager. With that, I'm gonna move to reopen the order of business in order to, well, let me start there. It's been seconded by the Vice Mayor. All those in favor, say aye. Aye. All opposed, no. The ayes have it. The Sports Hall of Fame Committee would like to also move up their presentation. So item 10B, I would like to hear it now so we can allow them to go home already. With that, that is my motion. Second. It's been seconded. All those in favor, say aye. Aye. All opposed, no. You guys have it. The agenda is amended as stated, and we now go to the Sports Hall of Fame Committee to make their recommendations.

Why does it feel like this?

Good evening, Mayor, Vice Mayor, Town Council, Mr. Manager, Ms. Clerk. Thank you for having us this evening. My name is Roman Garcia. I'm honored to serve as the chairman of the Sports Hall of Fame Committee. This will be our 10th year in existence, and we look forward. We will be recommending our ninth class for induction. THIS YEAR WE HAVE THE HONOR OF, BY THE WAY, I'M JOINED BY MY SECRETARY IN COUNCIL AND COMMITTEE, JIM HAMILTON, AND OUR VICE CHAIR, MARIAM OCHOA, IS TRYING TO MAKE IT, BUT SHE'S RUNNING A LITTLE BIT BEHIND. WE'VE MET NUMEROUS TIMES OVER THE LAST COUPLE MONTHS TRYING TO SECURE OUR CLASS FOR 2026. And at the last meeting, we were able to come up with what we feel is a very solid class for our ninth induction ceremony in December. So I'd like to present to you guys the nominees for induction. Our first nominee is a former coach at both college and pro levels, including being the head coach of the Cincinnati Bengals from 92 to 96. And he's the son of a member of the first class of the Hall of Fame. David Shula will be our first inductee this year. Our second inductee this year is a former professional football player who crafted his game at Hialeah Miami Lakes High School. Went on to play at Penn State where he won a national title. Holds numerous track and field records in NCAA, including a national championship in football with Penn State in 1986. Went on to play in the NFL for the Patriots among other teams. His name is Michael Timpson. Our third inductee this year is a former quarterback at HML. Went on to play four seasons at the University of Miami. And his name is Ryan Collins. And our last inductee this year is a community builder who willingness to volunteer leads him to this honor. He was an assistant coach just to be around his kids, led him to become a head coach. From there, he became the commissioner of the soccer program here in the town. became the commissioner for the Miami Lakes Optimist Club at the time. From there, he went on to become the tournament director at the Junior Orange Bowl, where he led it to where it is nowadays, and his name is Don Tufts. So that would be our recommendation for a class. Our event will be on the second Saturday of December, December 12th, I believe it is, at the Optimist Park. We would love to see you guys there. And I am here and Jim's here for any questions on these nominations.

Any questions? Seeing none, I move to accept the nominations. Is there a second? Second. I'll second. Seeing no discussion, all those in favor, say aye. Aye. Opposed, no. The nominations are accepted. Thank you very much, gentlemen. Thank you. Thank you. Have a wonderful evening. Now, Madam Clerk, we move to you for public comments and to read the rules into the record. Thank you.

Good evening and welcome to the regular council meeting. As I was gonna state earlier, all the public comments will be heard now at the beginning of the meeting and three minutes will be afforded to each speaker. All comments and questions from this public shall be directed to the mayor in a courteous tone and to ensure the orderly conduct and efficiency of the meeting, three minutes maximum per person. As well, I always welcome the people, the individuals that are participating online via remote public comments. And we will begin now. Just approach the podium, state your name and address for the record, and welcome.

Good evening, Mayor, Vice Mayor, members of the Town Council, William Perez, 7280 Miami Lakeway South. I'm going to do a closing argument. I'm going to present five reasonable doubts against this project. Each one of these reasonable doubt is enough to vote no. Reasonable doubt number one, what is GMX's motive and intent? When I was at the meeting with Councilman Sanchez, he asked a direct question about removing the two exit lanes, the two exit ramps. And GMX said, we'll have to look whether or not it is profitable because they profit off of toll revenue. Their whole business model is to make money from tolls. So that tells you something huge. That tells you that GMX's business model is about maximizing toll revenue. It's not about alleviating traffic. They hope that traffic becomes more congested on 67. They hope there'll be thousands of vehicles. The one thing we haven't seen is their monetary business model. They didn't include that in the package, but they have one because they have to analyze whether or not removing those exit ramps will make it fiscally feasible now. Reasonable doubt number two, what happens to the property values in that area? the realtor knows what happens, with more noise, more congestion, more activity surrounding those neighborhood, those property values are going to sink. It would affect the quality of life, and when the quality of life declines, property values decline, and people lose their life savings that was built in that equity. We should not approve a project that creates a foreseeable reduction in property value. reasonable doubt number three what happens to crooked palm crooked palm will be blocked in when the gmx engineer was asked about that his response was we'll put us put a street light put a signal light when asked about who funds that he said the county we all know the county is broke We know it. I mean, I found out at the chamber meeting, they told me directly, we're broke. So, and also you gotta ask yourself, why would a county fix something that we created? We create that problem and we expect the county to fix it. So GMX saying that they wanna help us with approach to county and stuff like that, it's empty promises. Reasonable doubt number four, excessive noise. I really appreciated the engineer talking to me. I got the environmental report that they had. I read the entire environmental report. It identified 67 areas where the noise level will meet or exceed the legal threshold. They admit that due to the residential area and due to the topography of the area, but their mitigation will be minimally effective. the other thing they admitted and this is a councilman sancho sancho's question which was really a good one was when he asked have you done similar projects to find out if i've made just got one more 10 seconds to conclude your remarks thanks if they could find similar projects that could that they did noise studies on after they failed them they said no they don't do that Reasonable doubt number five, there's no predictable recourse for predictable secondary effects. The impact in traffic, the people running shortcuts will go through Miami Lakeway South, and there's no way to address that. Thank you very much.

Thank you. And that additional 10 seconds will be afforded. An additional 10 seconds will be afforded to everyone as well so that we are fair with the time allotted. But keep in mind that because there's so many of us in this room, we need to be considerate to our other neighbors and give them an opportunity to speak. So please try to adhere within the time frame. So thank you very much. Madam Clerk.

The timer is set for three minutes. No, no, that's fine.

I will manually, in my mind, I will go ahead and do the countdown, but again, I want to afford everybody the opportunity to have a little extra time to conclude, but again, we have a lot of people, as you can see in the room, so in order to hear everyone, I ask that you please be considerate to our fellow residents. Go ahead, please state your name and address for the record, and you may proceed.

Thank you. Lattice Almaguer, 14008 Lake George Court. Thank you, everybody, for being here. I was supposed to go first, by the way, because tonight the speakers are long-time residents, business owners, parents and grandparents in neighborhoods. They're not paid consultants, they're not lobbyists. They've spent countless of hours reviewing engineering studies, environmental studies, traffic reports, analysis and scientific data, not because they were paid, but because they have something to lose. Their concern is not opposing progress. It's not a desire to stop Miami Lakes from growing. It is a commitment to ensuring that growth is responsible. But engineers are supposed and meant to solve problems, not create one. The proposal does not simply address the congestion somewhere else. It is creating a new expressway access on Northwest 67th Avenue. It will bring additional traffic lines into Miami Lakes and place new pressures on the streets that serve our homes, our community, and our neighborhoods, essentially. You cannot introduce additional vehicles into a residential community and call the resulting congestion an improvement. That is not solving a problem, it is creating a new one. Good engineering are supposed to accommodate growth while protecting the community that that growth is meant to serve. You will hear about the concerns of increased crime along with noise, the pollution, and the loss of the peaceful character that Miami Lakes has been defined for generations. You will also hear about the birth sanctuary and the environmental resources that cannot simply be replaced once they're lost, and as well as potential impact on our property values. For many families here, their home is their largest investment that they will ever make. They should not be asked to place that investment at risk for no benefit. Above all, listen carefully when they speak about the safety of our children. Buried within GMX PD and its study, it's a word that should concern everybody in this room. It's the word fair. That is the rating assigned to a child's safety. Fair, not good, not excellent, fair. Every school day, children walk through the area that is affected by this proposal. Some are as young as six years old. No parent would ever accept fair as an adequate standard for their child's safety. And nobody here should do that. When you are designing infrastructure for around children, fair is not enough. If they cannot simply rate our child safety's higher than fair, then that should have serious consideration. The additional traffic will be here, the noise will be here, the environmental impacts will be here, safety concerns will be here. Now, this does not mean that Miami Lakes cannot grow. Of course it can grow, but community,

Thank you.

A community that can grow without surrendering what it's worth protecting. They're asking you to find a new solution, not to create a new problem. They will speak carefully, they will speak respectfully and with evidence. Please listen to them.

Thank you very much. Jose, you want to come up?

Good evening, Mr. Mayor, council members, and staff. My name is Jose Soberon. I live at 6870 Bamboo Street, and I'm a Lake Hilda resident for the last 37 years where I raised our family. I want to state my opposition to the Grattan expansion project for many reasons. This project has very limited physical space to get everything that they want to build. starting with a staging area that is in a very limited space. I don't know how they're going to do it, but it's going to be very hard. And also to build what they propose is already a lot of restrictions to the space and things that can be damaged irreparably. So they have not provided us with land surveys, no tree surveys. to see what is being affected. The drawings that they have provided lack many dimensions and specifications as to the space taken, and this is very critical because there's a lack of space. So anytime you're gonna move a canal towards the lake and the buffer zones are there with trees and a lot of space that is very limited, and if you start bringing them two together and putting a ramp, with several lanes, that's gonna bring a lot of problems. They also, I said the drawings, they also like many dimensions provided for specification, like in the bulkhead walls. Retention walls and this kind of thing one important item is pile driving Piledriving is going to be done extensively their sheet piles made out of steel Pretty large and they get driven into the ground and they also have four by four. I'm sorry two by two pilings made out of pre-stressed concrete and reinforced steel those are Square in the size of a telephone pole. So that's a problem. When they start driving those, a good word for driving is hammering. Because that's what they're going to do. They're going to take it to the ground and pound it until it mechanically enters. That causes vibrations and it causes waves to travel through the land. That reminds me of what's happening to our neighbors in the west with the with dynamite and the actual blasting. So we can anticipate by the shaking that takes place, we can anticipate foundation damage, walls, pools, cracks that could happen anywhere. So that's one of the problems. a very serious problem because it's very costly to destroy our homes and make them less valuable. Also, the traffic that is being brought closer to us is going to be very hard. There's also the, I'll take 10 more seconds. There's the land taking that is gonna take place at the end of the lake. And that's going to, that's on a ramp from the sidewalk at 67th Avenue.

I'm sorry Jose, I really gotta move on. But I know which property you're talking about from when we were at your house yesterday. You were talking about the townhouse there in Crooked Palm.

Yeah, they're taking the land there, and it's a sloping, so whatever they bring, it's down the slope closer to the...

Thank you, Mayor. Thank you, Jose, and I'm sorry about that. Next speaker, please. Either side, either side. Perfect, yes.

Good evening, Mr. Mayor. Council, Vice President Kenneth Wilcox, 13920 Lake Handler Court. When it was brought to my attention about the GMX project, I took into consideration, I looked at a lot of factors, being that I'm a police officer for 24 years for the city of Hialeah. I know what the traffic congestion will do to 67th Avenue. I've monitored, you know, with my unit, we come here, we travel down 67th Avenue a lot. Just trying to commute from 57th Avenue that runs into Miami Lakes East. You know, we run into traffic. I've monitored the traffic in the morning time going to work or day shift now. One thing as being a first responder and whether you're working as a police officer or you're working as a paramedic, when we get calls, especially when it's an emergency call, sometimes we run into issues with traffic. And believe me, the last thing you want to do is be stuck in traffic, running emergency calls. That puts a lot of stress on the police officer. It puts a lot of stress on the fire personnel, especially when you're trying to get to a call for the citizens. I bought a home here in the town of Miami Lakes. I was a police explorer here in the town of Miami Lakes in 1986. Graduated from Miami Lake Senior High. Went to Miami Lake Senior High School and graduated from the police academy. But when I did decide to buy a house here, I choose several cities, and Miami Lakes was where I wanted to have my home at, because it's probably one of the safest communities. And if you look at statistics, and you compare statistics with Miami Dade County, with the city of Hialeah, it's probably the safest place to travel on in the rural way here. Okay, the last thing we wanna do is have citizens here get hurt, okay, because what happens is when people are pressed for time, people usually have times when they try to go from point A to point B, whether it's a parent dropping off a child at school, or just trying to get to work to a doctor's appointment, And I know that because I give a lot of citations. I stop people, I always afford an opportunity to explain to me, what was the purpose of you driving faster? What was the purpose of you doing what you did? And they tell me, hey, I'm just trying to get to work. And I understand that. So the last thing I want to do is see the citizens here in the town of Miami Lakes, where we put a lot of trust in law enforcement, to begin citing accidents. It's gonna happen if we have more traffic coming down 67th Avenue, and if you look at when you get to Miami Lakes Drive, okay, how congested it was. When I came over here today, I looked at the traffic and it was horrendous. So the last thing we need is more traffic over here. All it's gonna do is create more accidents, and most of the accidents you see happen out here when people are traveling, whether they're going north, you see a lot of rear-end accidents. and what is that happens is because either the traffic up front was congested in a vehicle in front of the other vehicle stopped the other driver wasn't paying attention if you got commercial vehicles coming through here and god forbid if it's in the school zone and i know because i work traffic unless you stood out there and you've been in the busy area you direct traffic you wouldn't really know what it is it's very dangerous so i please accept you taking consideration that uh to reevaluate this project for the safety of the citizens of the town of Miami Lakes, and I think it's probably one of the best places to live at, and the safest place. Crime rate is very low here, so that's something we gotta take into accountability.

Thank you, sir.

Good evening, Mayor, Council, and members. My name is Patrice Morales. I live at 6291 Lake Patricia Drive. Thank you all for your service and GMX for the project that they've completed. I'm here tonight asking the Council to oppose the Grattany Interchange at 67th. I understand this project stems from efforts 10 years ago and with past Councils as a result of the continued construction and development by our developers. However, a decision of the past does not have to dictate a decision today. After reviewing the GMX public hearing materials and its detailed interchange justification report, I believe GMX's own numbers raise a fundamental question about this project. The project at the interchange will increase traffic on 67th Avenue, 8%, resulting in thousands of additional cars passing through there every day. Likely non-residential and commercial coming off of 57th, cutting into 67th. At the same time, GMX projects modest reductions at 57, 826, and 154, combined for an average of 6.7%. So the project does provide benefits, however, only by redistributing the traffic onto 67th Avenue, neighborhoods, and to the elementary school. So that raises an important question. If the congestion the town is trying to relieve is primarily west of 67th Avenue and associated with access to the Palmetto Expressway, why is the proposed solution an interchange at 67th? We don't have a problem there, so why add one now? Why isn't Northwest 87th Avenue interchange that's part of the master plan the furthest west where the actual congestion exists, not the priority? This is important because the residents of Patricia, Hilda, and Catherine will have to live with the consequences every day of increased traffic, changes in access, cut through traffic of hundreds of cars a day, noise, pollution, exposure to pedestrian, bicyclists, including our own police officers on bicycles, right? This, in addition to property values. I believe the council should require answers to two questions. First, why should 67th Avenue accept the 8% traffic increase to achieve relatively modest reductions elsewhere? Second, why is 67th Avenue the location when the congestion being addressed is further west, and why the alternatives, including 87th Avenue, are not the priority? Miami Lake should solve the congestion where the problem exists, not simply relocate it from one part of the community to another. Until it is demonstrated that the benefits clearly outweigh the impacts on our residential communities, I respectfully ask the council to oppose the project. Thank you.

Before you speak, Mr. Manager, has that final vehicle moved their car? I got a text from you saying there was one more vehicle.

Yeah, there was one more car. A Mazda, a black Mazda CX-5 is still in the police parking lot. unless you want to be told you please need to get out there move it away from the law enforcement party okay well with that I thank you very much welcome please state your name and address the Mary Lorenzo 14365 lakes on the candlewood court.

Good evening, Mayor, Vice Mayor, Council Members, Town Clerk. I'm speaking today as a Miami Lakes resident, a homeowner, a real estate broker, a mortgage broker, and most importantly, a mother. I strongly oppose the proposed entrance and exit ramps connecting the Gratney Parkway to Northwest 67th Avenue. As a real estate and mortgage professional, I see every day how important property values are to a family's financial future. A home is not simply where we live. For most families, it's their largest investment, their equity, their retirement security, and an important source of generational wealth. This is why I'm extremely concerned about the huge impact the increased traffic will have on our property values. There's research supporting this concern. A study conducted by James E. Larson of Wright State University examined 9,670 single family homes. Home sales in Kettering, Ohio from January 1998 through March 2011. The study found that homes located on or adjacent to high traffic streets sold for an average of 8.1% less. I am not suggesting that Miami Lakes home will automatically lose 8.1%. Our market is different, but we cannot ignore evidence that increased traffic can negatively affect residential property values. Homes in our area are valued at about $800,000. An 8.1% reduction on an $800,000 home represents $64,800 in value. On a $1 million home, that is $81,000. As a mortgage broker, I also know that property value affects borrowing power. A reduction in value can mean less equity available for refinancing, education, retirement, investment, or emergencies. This is not only about money. My oldest daughter recently started driving, and as a mother, that changes the way I look at traffic and safety in our community. Every time she gets behind the wheel, I worry. We can teach our children to drive carefully, stay off their phones, watch their speed. You can tell how emotional I am about this. But we cannot control the drivers around them. Adding highway access at Northwest 67th could change or will change traffic patterns and potentially bring more vehicles and cut through traffic onto the residential streets. I'm on Lake Underwood right by there. Once these ramps are built, we cannot easily undo the consequences. Miami Lakes families have spent decades building this community and investing in their homes. We should not be asked to risk our safety, our quality of life, and hundreds of thousands of dollars in family equity to solve a traffic problem. Please find another solution. Protect our neighborhoods, protect our property values, protect our families and our children. Thank you.

Good evening, Mayor, Vice Mayor, and members of the Town Council. My name is Joanne Ewart. My address is 14021 Lake Candlewood Court, and I am asking you to deny the GMX Gratney project at Northwest 67th Avenue. i come before you not only as a resident and mother but as a public school teacher who has served children and families for over 26 years i understand what it means to make decisions that affect children's daily lives their safety and their future that is why this project is deeply personal to me my son attended hialeah miami lake senior high school where he played on the basketball team. On game days, he and his teammates would often walk to Domenico's restaurant for a slice of pizza and then continue their walk to our home. Those were ordinary, beautiful moments in a community where young people should be able to walk, gather, and get home safely. A highway ramp project that brings more fast-moving traffic into this area makes those ordinary moments less safe. This is not just about convenience, it is about risk. The Miami Herald article titled Florida's Second Deadliest State for Pedestrians Rising Toll and Epidemic reported that Miami-Dade and Broward are among the most dangerous places in the county for pedestrians. and that the Miami Fort Lauderdale Pompano Beach area ranked 14th among the 100 largest metro areas where pedestrians are most likely to be struck and killed by a driver. The article also reported that the greater Miami Fort Lauderdale area had a total of 954 pedestrian deaths from 2016 through 2020. Florida Atlantic University's April 27, 26 study found that pedestrian and bicyclist deaths have risen 68% since 2000 and now account for about one in five traffic deaths and posing a far higher risk per mile traveled than driving. That describes exactly the concern here. This area is not just a roadway on a map. It is near schools, homes, restaurants, and the paths our children's and families use. GMX says this project will improve and provide congestion relief for Miami Lakes and Hialeah, but the verifiable public reporting I found does not give a clear percentage of traffic alleviation for Miami Lakes. What it does say is that the project is intended to accommodate a projected 17% increase in traffic over 25 years. I respectfully ask this council to stand with residents, families, students, and homeowners. Please do not approve a project that may shift regional traffic burdens into a local community. The decisions you make today will help shape Miami Lakes for decades to come. This is part of the legacy you will leave behind. The true measure of that legacy will not be how many vehicles move through our town, but how well you protected the people who call it home. For these reasons, I respectfully urge you to deny the GMX Gratney project at Northwest 67th Avenue.

Good afternoon. My name is Maximo Alvarez, and I am a resident I'm a resident and registered voter that lives on Lake Candlewood Court. I actually recognize some of your faces because they came knocking on my door during election time, so now here I come knocking on your door asking for your help. My company, Sunshine Gasoline, is the owner and operator of the mobile gas station on 13901 Northwest 67th Avenue. It used to be an Exxon station, but if you haven't been by there recently, we converted it to mobile. I'm standing here opposed as a business owner and a resident of Miami Lakes to the proposed 924 Grattan Key Parkway partial interchange on the basis of how it will drastically harm our business. Looking at the proposal for ramp B exit, we see that GMX has proposed to close driveway A and driveway B of the shopping center and limiting it to a single entrance between the mobile station and the shopping center. This will effectively kill our business and our service station. The ingress and egress of any gas station are equally important as pricing and location. Our business model is predicated on ease of access, the property known as the convenience part of the convenience store. Simply put, if we make it inconvenient for our customers to get in and out of the site, we lose business. This has been proven time and time again in our retail industry. In addition, GMX also plans to build a protruding median along 67th Avenue that will prevent left turns into the site and outside. This is going to definitely negatively impact the rest of the tenants adjacent to the shopping center. And not just for us, but for other tenants there in the shopping center as well. We are projecting up to a 65% decrease in customer traffic because of these restrictions. The harm of these proposals cannot be overstated. Sunshine Gasoline has made significant investment in the property between the remodeling, upgrade, dispenser, fueling equipment, overhaul, car wash tunnel. Our company has spent well over a million dollars in renovations on this one location alone. These improvements were based on the current traffic count. Had the GMX project gone out sooner, we would have never spent this kind of money into this site. Please take these points into consideration. And also one last thing that my neighbor Jose brought to my attention that I was not aware of. We have three underground storage tanks. 10,000, 12,000, 20,000 gasoline and diesel. These tanks were not rated for any type of shockwave damage of low frequency shockwaves. If there is any kind of rupture, I would not wanna be held liable for any underground contamination as this site has had before, which we had had to clean up when we bought the property. Thank you for your time.

Thank you, next speaker.

Mr. Mayor, Town Council, Town Manager, and Madam Clerk, my name is Jim Hamilton. I live at 8528 Glencairn Lane in Miami Lakes. I am here tonight with my neighbors to strongly oppose the expansion of the Grattany Expressway to 67th Avenue. We understand the urge to optimize traffic flow and expand the feeder system for commuters, but convenience for passing motorists cannot come at the steep, permanent expense of the people who actually live here. Quality of life must take a priority over a minor reduction in traffic times. There are 76 townhomes in Lake Hilda, with a resident count of 222. Many of these homeowners are retired and never thought they would be challenged like this project presents. Currently, it is difficult to enter and exit the Lake Hilda townhouse section, but it would be a nightmare if this project were approved. Between a median, the increasing heavy traffic flow, and the closing of an entrance to the Lake Patricia Shopping Center would make it impossible to turn left and head north. This alone should be a non-starter for the proposed road expansion. Lake Hilda townhouses are the closest to the project and will suffer the most damage as presented tonight. Now, Miami Lakes prides itself with a slogan, growing beautifully, but it should not grow over the residents with detrimental projects that downgrade our quality of life. The human element is missing in this decision, but it should be the first and most important part of a formula to protect the homeowner while looking for ways to improve Miami Lakes. This road expansion has too many unanswered questions, and we the homeowners respectively request you to vote no on this road expansion project. Thank you.

Good evening, gentlemen. My name is Maggie Caceres. Oh, sorry. I'm Maggie Caceres and I reside at 14131 Lake Candlewood Court. I wanna continue with everyone's conversation. So as if all of that were not enough, what's already been mentioned, You know, I wanna talk about the Grand Dairy Canal. So as you know, most of the manmade canal or lakes in Miami Lakes are drainage ditches, but the Grand Dairy Canal is different. The Grand Dairy Canal influences our local waterway, sits above and connects hydrologically to the Biscayne Aquifer and feeds into the Florida Everglades Watershed boundaries, realigning it, which basically means moving it over, And adding several acres of impervious ramp surface alongside it changes how water will move through this basin. This realignment will not only eliminate some of our precious decades old canopy and brush, it will destroy local urban wildlife and sensitive migratory corridors that tie back to the Everglades system. I'd like to mention, I wasn't gonna get into detail, but there have been documented sightings of bald eagles, adult and minor, hunting along the Grand Dairy Canal on the side of Lake Patricia. And on the side of Lake Hilda, we actually have videos from a neighbor and pictures of manatees in the water. Both of those are federally protected species. So that's something that we need to keep in mind, okay? OK, so this build also puts us at risk of severe local flooding and contamination of the canal and our lakes could be adversely affected and affecting the receiving waters, which are the Biscayne Aquifer and the protected Florida Everglades. As you know, in order to protect our sensitive ecosystem, we have reached out to local conservation advocacy groups for assistance. We needed to do that. But let's take a step back for a second and just bird's eye view this whole thing. So aside from endangering our children, lowering our property values, increasing traffic by turning the heart of Miami Lakes into a release valve for 57th Avenue commercial and non-residential traffic, trapping and ruining the quality of Lake Hilda residents, ruining the quality of life for the Lake Patricia section one, and that is via noise because I have it in my backyard and I'm not even that close. I'm midway through. and also ruining the Lake Catherine, which is here represented, they decided to join us. Damaging the small businesses and causing local job losses in the Lake Patricia Center, basically just turning the beloved east side of Miami Lakes into an undesirable place to live. We are treading on thin ice when we threaten our federally protected waterways and wildlife.

Thank you, thank you.

Thank you.

BEFORE I BEGIN, WE'RE GOING TO BE PUTTING A VIDEO ON WHILE I SPEAK.

HE'S GETTING IT READY.

THERE WE GO. Ordinance 23-315 was codified to make sure that Miami Lakes continues to be recognized as a bird sanctuary. A local photographer captured the bird species we are blessed with from an osprey by the lake to the 2015 story of nesting bald eagles that halted the 87th Avenue expansion and roadway improvement project on 181st Street. Hope still remembers nesting owls that used to be underneath the Palmetto Expressway, never to be seen again. Falcons, Egyptian geese, birds that spread their wings to capture our sun ray as they dry after fishing in our lakes, trees and birds, their habitat and tree canopy loss along the canal corridor would be devastating. The canal corridor and the adjacent tree and brush ecosystems function as an urban wildlife refuge, supporting mammal species and resident and migratory birds. Canopy removal, brush clearing, and heavy construction activity will displace the wildlife and will not be reversed by replacing trees after the fact. When homes were originally purchased in the first communities, Lake Patricia, Hilda, and Catherine, the beauty and tranquility of our surroundings was sincerely appreciated. We want you to resolve to be against ramps on or off at 67th Avenue. You may have campaigned to resolve traffic concerns, but the council continued to approve developer projects which increase our traffic. GMX Chief Operation Officer clearly said on record that GMX would not proceed and go elsewhere if the Council or the residents were against the project. Well, property owners are 100% against it. Please hear us and represent our interest, leaving no doubt that after the due diligence done by the property owners, you understand the serious issues that would surface otherwise. The unified homeowners and residents of Miami Lakes are against GMX ramps. Just say no.

Good evening, Mr. Mayor and council members. My name is Eliana Colombo. I live at 14031 Lake Candlewood Court. I'm a retired pharmacist. Healthcare is very important to me. And I moved here into Miami Lakes because Miami Lakes and the Graham Company build an excellent community, master plan community that was renowned with envy of many developers, winding roads. quiet, friendly place to raise your children and that's why I bought here. I didn't buy for noise. I want to explain to you, and I hope that you hear me, what noise does. The biggest study on noise was done by the World Health Organization. It was a study that involved 53 countries and it was over 39 years. They actually followed patients for 20 years. The result of that study is that continuous noise, 65 decibels and over, leads to, is linked to cardiovascular disease, type two diabetes, insomnia, dementia, weight gain, and in children, a loss of learning ability, loss of memory permanently, autistic children are severely impacted by noise. This, just on that alone, This project should be rejected completely. They will not do a noise abatement that's gonna reduce that noise below 65. In fact, according to their draft, which I looked over, it's a draft, Okay, first of all, the numbers are inaccurate. Why are they inaccurate? The rush hour is 7 to 9.30 in the morning and 4 to 7. If you look at their numbers, they took most of them, at 9 something in the morning, 9.45, at 6.52, way past the rush hour. And even so, they documented right there on that intersection where the gas station is, 77. And that's an inaccurate number, because it was done at 6.52 in the evening. That means, and their conclusion of the study, is that there will be no further noise abatement done on the Grattney, only on the ramp going up. And that, by the noise abatement criteria, only has to go down seven decimals to two sectors. Two sectors, that's it. So of the 229 residences that are going to be impacted, you're talking maybe 11 are going to be, have a noise abatement of less than seven. If you're hitting a noise level of 80 minus seven is 73, that's way above 65, okay? Thank you.

Good evening. I'm Sam Budlong. I live at 14411 Lake Childs Court. I am 72 years old, a baby boomer and a child of the 1960s. My parents fought in World War II, part of America's greatest generation. People who sacrificed for their country and then rebuilt America for the greater good. people of strong character, hard work, and substance. They understood the meaning of doing the right thing, something deeply ingrained in me. The 60s were a decade of great turbulence, unrest, and challenge for our country. I saw a president get his head blown off, his brother shot and killed at point-blank range, I saw the greatest American advocate for civil rights murdered. I saw Detroit decimated by violence brought on by police brutality. I joined a half a million brothers and sisters protesting the Vietnam War in front of the United Nations. Oh, and I also got to see the Beatles on Ed Sullivan and managed to attend a festival you may have heard of, Woodstock. The 60s were a time of great pain and violence for Americans, and peaceful protests throughout the land emerged, seeking change. They sought a better direction, a better life, better governmental representation of the will of the people. These peaceful protests came to find four words that were used again and again and again to put into perspective what we, the people, wanted, peace, fairness to others, and that our voices were not just to be heard, but to be acted upon by those of authority. I want to say those four words And I ask that after I say them, those of you here tonight who, like me, wish to deny the Grattany Project, raise up the paper with this symbol and phrase and repeat with me as I say those words three more times. Those four words are power to the people, power to the people, and power to the people. Now you gentlemen know a little bit about what it was like to be in the 1960s. It was a great time to be an American, standing up for what the Bill of Rights tells us, whom we are to the core. We are here to ask help. to help us 60 years later to remember those four words and act as your constituents' voices beckon the right thing to be done. Show us your character, your substance, and vote unanimously for the right thing and deny this project. Remember the words spoken last month at 7.50 p.m. by GMX COO Claudio Dias Ferrio. It won't happen unless we get the support of the council.

Madam Clerk, the time passed, correct?

Okay, thank you. I do have one sentence for the clerk. I will end my comments by asking Madam Clerk, please read into the record all the names of emails opposing the Grattany Project at 67th Avenue. Thank you very much.

Thank you.

Well, I don't think I'm gonna top that, but I have some comments. My name is Karina Nogueras. My address is 7014 Holly Road. Good evening, town manager, mayor, and members of the town council. I'm here tonight to strongly oppose the Grattany Partial Interchange on 67th Avenue. As is evident from the number of residents who have spoken tonight, I am not alone. You have heard from many residents tonight who do not want this expansion in their community, each with their own valid reason. We have yet to hear from a resident that supports it, People choose to live in Miami Lakes because of its small-town character, its tree-lined streets, and its well-kept neighborhoods. Those things don't just happen. They exist because the town's administration, its elected body, and residents have time and time again chosen to embrace our town's slogan, Growing Beautifully. While development and change in South Florida is inevitable, this proposed interchange comes at the expense of the town's identity. Instead, it risks what is now a welcoming gateway into a small town, highlighting the difference between our neighbor to the south into a gridlock afterthought, like we see in Hialeah, where developments are approved without a second thought. The people who purchased homes here did not choose Miami Lakes because it looks and feels like every part of Miami. They chose it because it doesn't. The difference is stark, and the premium, in my opinion, is worth it. We should not be asking not only whether this project can accommodate more traffic, but whether it is compatible with the community so many before me have worked so hard to preserve. The proposed project contradicts the motto, Growing Beautifully Entirely, creating an eyesore of an interchange that will fundamentally change the town's character that makes people want to live here in the first place. Again, you have heard from so many residents who oppose this project and not one comment in support. I trust that you will consider our comments when a resolution is brought up for a vote. Thank you.

Hello, Derek Sintron, 14821 Lewis Road. Greetings, everybody. And thank you so much for those of you who wrote me back from the email I sent out. I really appreciate that. There's so much to say but a lot of people said it so eloquently before so I'll try to stick to something that hasn't really been mentioned a lot There all there are alternatives to this as you know as I've talked with you about them That will work better for our traffic situation that will work much better right now what's going to happen if you put in these ramps even just the on ramps is People are going to either, if you put on the off ramps too, they're gonna get off on 67th instead of 57th, and they're gonna drive into town, and they're gonna turn west on Miami Lakes Drive, and they're then gonna be at the same intersection that is the heart of all of our problems, which is the Palmetto, and Miami Lakes Drive. That is the worst intersection by far in this town, and it is created because it is the only conduit between the east and west sides. So no matter where you put a connection to the Gratigny, those people will still have to make their way over to Miami Lakes Drive. Now, if you connect 87th Avenue to I-75, you take thousands of cars out of the equation for the intersection of the Palmetto and Miami Lakes Drive. If you put in ramps on our side on 170th to connect with I-75, and on the Hialeah side on 154th, you have no pass-through traffic yet you still have access if people want to go through the towns it just discourages them from going through the town to pick up the palmetto they can just get on i-75 and then get to the palmetto so these three things that are relatively easy constructions it's just a ramp up to a bridge which is already existing and that's it a light at that intersection and it's a done deal these are very simple construction projects as far as roads are concerned and they would do 10 000 times more to relieve all the pressure in miami lakes traffic and um i know there's concern about you know oh well what if they start you know over developing the middle of town or you know there's more development that happens on the east side That can also be addressed by this, because as you reclaim those points of, well, you'd have to also synchronize the lights on 67th and 57th so that they have better access there to the palmetto but you'd now have three reclaimed intersections to the palmetto and you wouldn't need the grittigny the second grittigny connection because we already have one on 57th okay thank you sorry good evening mr mayor weiss and all the councilmen

I'm resident of Lake Glen Helen, long time. And this time not only come for myself, on behalf of all my friends, my residents, all the living here. The problem we have with the Dade County, which cannot take no longer exercise classes. And we need that. Most of them, most of us, have no rides, cannot drive, and does the program we like it. And we requested to you and the Council of the Miami Lake, please take a part and continue this program for us. We need it. OK, we need that program because most of them is just cannot even drive it there. And we need for our, you know, like keep us in our health and shape. And we need that. And we hope very hopefully with the Mr. Mayor that you can support us and take the course of the program. And we'd be very thankful and we'd be very happy if you give us a chance again. And we count on you. We love you. We love our town. We love Miami. And then hopefully in the future, we're going to look further for you, for your help, your cooperation.

Can you say your address for the record? Okay. We were missing that. Yeah. Your name and address.

I can hear you. Your name and address. Okay.

See, there is something wrong with that.

Give it to you?

No, just say it out loud.

My name is A.S. L.A.M. K.H.N. Khan, 15130 Fintry, F-I-N-T-R-Y, P.L. Place, Miami Lake, Florida 33016. Please, and I receive your letter to appreciate for that letter.

Yeah, no, and again, I'm sorry. There must be something going on here with the mic. I don't know, you know, but with that said, Director Backdown is going to meet with you to address that. I know that with some of our programs, we've had some issues with certain partners not signing off when they need to, but absolutely, we're here for you, and the director will take care of you. He's the gentleman right over there in the yellow, excuse me, the green blazer. Thank you very much again. No, of course, of course.

For your cooperation. We appreciate that.

No, thank you so much.

Good evening, Mr. Mayor, council. My name is Sean Schwinghammer. I live at 14501 Dade Pine Avenue. The older I get, the younger the council gets. But a little word of advice from when I was elected in this city 25 years ago or whatever, look to the gray hairs. And there are a lot of gray hairs here, including me. We've been around a long time. We've seen all these things before. We've had a lot of things hyped up to be great. We were going to have Texas turnarounds on 57th Avenue as well. That didn't happen. this monstrosity on the golf course. Where's the right-hand turn lane that we were promised in all the beautiful pictures? That's not happening. We were promised a lot of other things as well. I don't want to get too much into it, but the reality is we all accept that growth happens. But one of the reasons that we created this town was to make sure that the burdens of others don't fall upon us and that we don't change as a community because of the problems and the planning problems of other areas. And I think it's incumbent upon anyone in the elected office to see where we came from and decide where we're going. And I didn't want to repeat the wonderful statistics that everyone put out there, but I kept looking up at the logo. And I asked you to look at our town logo as well, because I remember when it was drafted. I remember the different decisions and the one that we chose. We chose a logo that didn't represent where we were at the time or even our past. We chose a logo. And someone said, this is what I want Miami Lakes to be until I die. and that was mary collins she said this is what we're looking for is to preserve this an oasis in northwest state county now things do change there are things we need to do but i ask that your number one responsibility be to preserve the legacy that was handed to you and you get to you were lucky enough to serve us and we're grateful that you serve us but we elected you to keep the other people's problems away and to preserve what we are. And I look at that entrance in 67th Avenue and say, my goodness, every time you walk into Miami Lakes, you go under the dungeon that is the parkway. And then you've got the lake on this side and the canal on this side. And you see more trees than most places. This project eliminates the view of the canal on the right. It eliminates the view of the canal on the left. destroys even more trees, puts in extra lights, and blocks off one of our oldest business operations in Miami Lakes. That's not the legacy some of us are looking to preserve, and I don't think it's the legacy you want to. So when you look back in your legacy when you're my age, you say, wow, I really got that 8% traffic better on 57th Avenue. Is that what you're going to think about? Are you going to think about, I preserved the essence of our community? And that's what I'm asking you to think about now. Thank you, guys.

Hello, my name is Lourdes Tella and I live at 14311 Lake Childs Court, Lake Patricia. Of course, my area is going to be very impacted by these ramps, which I strongly oppose. So I stand with everyone here who has given a lot of facts and a lot of opinions that are very valid. I'm not gonna go over that again. I think they've all done a wonderful presentation, and I hope that the council is listening to us and our concerns. I don't know how many of you live in Miami Lakes, and if that's a requirement to be a council member, so great. I don't know how many of you live east of, okay, great. So you well know what that's gonna do to us. So I do oppose it for the very many reasons, good reasons that have been expressed here already. I have another reason why I'm here today. And I appeared here at the last council meeting and I received a very nice letter from Mr. Herzberg. thanking me for being here, and the topic and the problem that I presented to council the last time I was here is the lack of services in the sense of classes for the elderly, for the seniors. I'm a senior, and our classes, exercise classes, have been suspended. Of course, those I understand are funded by the school board, and apparently they're not very, reliable and they have not even advised the teachers now. We were supposed to start classes again yesterday and they don't even know why we're not having the classes. So we're all wanting to know what's going on with that, and I thank the council for giving us one week here, and we did the exercise right here, it was very nice, but what are your plans to be able to help us, the seniors, not only the exercise classes, but there's other classes that are very important to the seniors, and there's computing, there's sewing, there's many classes that apparently the seniors are not getting. So please look into it. Your letter, Mr. Herzberg, says that you were going to work diligently towards seeing if there's something that can be done, funding. So I hope the council finds funding for us, the seniors, who are taxpayers, and I don't know about the school board they forget about us you know in our taxes we fund them so where is the funding for the seniors so please consider it and please I would like to know what your thoughts are what you're planning to do

Well, just so you know, we do not go into a back and forth during public comments. Of course, we will be more than happy to work with you. Jeremy, just off the top of my head, the issue that we had with some of these classes was that there was a school board official that had not signed off timely on these classes. Okay, yeah.

okay yeah so the issue is not even funding the issue is just the school board dragging its feet i know they're they're very inconsistent with the services to the seniors so maybe miami lakes the town of miami lakes can do something for the seniors that live here and i have a lot of my

and again I was I was with you guys we did an exercise and I'm telling you the issue is unfortunately the school board is probably the worst bureaucracy that exists in my opinion hopefully with any superintendent we'll see some changes you got it from you guys from the council when can we hear whether you can do something about it through Miami Lakes not the board got it yeah but we'll have to address that at another time thank you so much appreciate it thank you

Esperanza Reynolds, 8465 Mendiez Terrace. Last June 29th was my 57th anniversary of arrival in the United States. On that day, Sam Bodlong asked for my support against highway entry and exit ramps on 67th Avenue. I replied, why would I get involved? We can even resolve our own special tax and district issues. But Mr. Budlung inspired me to help Eastside property owners, and I have met many intelligent, dedicated, and passionate individuals. over 30 published articles, countless GMX, City of Hialeah, and Town of Miami Lakes public records requests to date. Last night, we learned new insight from Jose Soberon, who explained how ramps are built. Crews remove rocks, trees, and old buildings from the construction zone. Bulldozers and excavators move dirt around to create the correct slope. Workers pack down layers of crushed stone and gravel for a strong road foundation. Bridges and walls go over and under another road. Workers build concrete pillars and set giant steels on concrete bridges beams in place. BOUNDING, NOISE, POLLUTION, A DIRECT CONFLICT WITH THE EXISTING LAYOUT OF THE LOCAL WATERWAY. IN FACT, IT WILL REQUIRE A COMPLETE REALIGNMENT OF THE GRAND DERRY CANAL. EVERYONE ON THIS COUNCIL HAS BEEN INVOLVED WITH BLASTING ISSUES. AND WHAT? With an ongoing legal case, we're willing to create the same trauma on Eastside properties. Why would Lester Collins say about tampering with Lake Patricia, his first 1962 drawing? What would the Graham founders think of our evolution? Over 400 Miami Lakers have signed the petition to stop this project. On the record, GMX Chief Operating Officer Claudio D'Aferia said that GMX will not do something that is against the wishes of the council nor the residents. So hold them to that promise. So what is our hope and prayer, since you don't like hope and change, for tonight? I don't. WAVE SECTION 7.2 OF THE SPECIAL RULES OF ORDER, WHICH WE FREQUENTLY LISTEN TO, MOTION SECOND AND UNANIMOUSLY PASS A RESOLUTION AGAINST GMX ON AND OFF RAMPS PROJECT AS IT HAS NOT ACHIEVED THE CONSENT OF THE GOVERN. TIME IS OF THE ESSENCE. Procurement of design building team is scheduled to be completed by fall 2026, so just say no. If anyone is not sure what the community is saying, just answer straightforward. What part of no don't you understand?

Next speaker please, come on up.

Good evening, mayor, vice mayor, and council member. My name is Maria Santelises. I live in Lake Glen Ellen, 15205 Dunbarton Place. I am completely, completely, I'm going to speak as a teacher, completely against the MGX project. I taught at Miami Lakes K-8 Center for over 30 years. I am a retired teacher from that school. But it's not only the Hialeah Miami Lakes Senior School. It is my school. It is Lake Glen Ellen. It is the middle of Miami Lakes Middle. But the other one is also the Optimist Park. That park have the kids at night and it's from 9 to 10 o'clock at night playing. And lately, I've also seen coming from the Shula gym, people running all over and taking 67th Avenue to do their running exercise, whatever it is. To me, it is dangerous, okay? But in my thing, besides completely against this on 67th Street, I think you should take time to look at 154th Street. Okay, because it's getting jam-packed. The traffic is horrendous. They're building that horrible looking building at the, Miami, what is that called? The golf course, okay? They have built it right at the sidewalk. Anybody can go. Then I was counting from there. They have to put a traffic light at the entrance. From there to 82nd Montrose Road, it is seven traffic lights. Okay, something needs to be done on 154th. I don't recall the exact number, but I think we have five more years before opening 154th all the way over to I-75. Okay, and then the other stuff that happened when we were presenting the seniors building that they were gonna supposed to construct back there. uh... they kept saying about how much will uh... uh... they will be sold and we were told that it was not being sold that it was the rentals i imagine all that five hundred and forty one uh... apartments are going to be built are rental and the answer from one of the grand pat they have people was we're here to make money that was your answer and i walked out and then the other stuff that i am was brought up, and I have it in my little notes, about the seniors, things that we've been taken away from. And I enjoy it, I look forward for social and mental exercise. So I wish you'd do something, but please keep 67 completely off. And start 154th. Thank you. Okay, you're welcome.

Good evening. My name is Rick Gomez. I'm at 6335 Lake Patricia. I too am opposed to the 67th project. Maybe not so much the on-ramps, but definitely the off-ramps cannot be approved or shouldn't be approved. The other item that I would like to talk about, I know this might not be the appropriate time, but I wanna put the seed in your mind, is I am really focused the remaining of the year and next year on trying to modify the rules of having your boat on your property for 24 hours. I would like to extend it to 36 or 48. There's many reasons why. People that have campers, people that have boats. We're not allowed to keep them on the property, but we should be able to keep it a little bit more than 24 hours, when 12 of the hours is nighttime. So if you can work with that, I'd be grateful. Thank you.

Thank you. Next speaker.

good afternoon guys alex lagani 6920 bamboo street uh may it please the council some attorney jokes okay um i am i'm here on behalf of a lot of neighbors of mine people that live on bamboo street along the canal into my community um i understand and i don't think there's a person here that's against progress i don't think there's a person here that loves traffic right i think traffic is an issue obviously everybody can see it it took some time to get here for god's sakes you know but But at the end of the day, you guys are the ones that ultimately decide whether sometimes the juice is ultimately worth the squeeze. I've heard a lot about reports and citing numbers and percentages like gospel. We got a GMX report, we got $6 million from Rene Garcia to get a DOT report and by golly, it's awesome. At the end of the day, there's a lot of these numbers that are thrown around, and sometimes you gotta go ahead and look at who drafts these numbers, who are behind some of these numbers. I think the good Colonel here a little while ago just specified that GMX was a good part of a lot of these reports, and go figure, they're recommending it a certain way, right? Shocker, right? And my line of business, that's called the conflict of interest. So, you know, and I remember I think some of you here have experience, I guess, in the white quarry, you know, issues, you know, back in those days. And I remember a lot of those reports and nobody mentioned explosions and damage to cracks to houses and all that. You know, so I mean here we are and it's almost like deja vu. We're talking about another project that a lot of people that stand to make a lot of money are ultimately recommending and saying that nothing's going to happen to those people. And then ultimately at the end of the day when things ultimately do happen to people, things start exploding, cracks start happening. insurances don't cover it, we have committees, and then you got a lot more people over here making complaints and more Laker columns. At the end of the day, we have an opportunity to go ahead and see if we can stop it. I frankly am concerned about the noise, right? And a lot of people, we've heard a lot about a lot of things in here, but nobody's really talking about the potential noise issue, the noise pollution and the quality of life of some of these people who live along this roadway, right? At the end of the day, I mean, I don't know if you guys noticed, but construction workers don't typically work during the day. It's too damn hot. They work at night. We all sleep at night. That is what a lot of us are gonna be hearing. Not for one month, not for two months, but for quite a while. I actually know a couple people in here. One of them has a three-month-old, four-month-old. These are kids. Some of these people couldn't be here because they're taking care of their little kids. They have a hard enough time keeping those kids asleep at night, let alone with... All right? So that's an issue. That's an issue and that's an obvious concern. I understand progress, but I don't know how much of 154th is gonna get alleviated by this monstrosity. Maybe it will, maybe it won't. But at the end of the day, I personally think you might just be causing alleviating 8% there to increase traffic on 67 by quite a bit.

Thank you.

Mr. Coote.

Welcome back, Mr. Coote.

Mr. Mayor, Mr. Vice Mayor, Council Members, Mr. Town Manager, Madam Clerk, Mr. Town Attorney, and our law enforcement, good evening. My name is Michael Koot. I live in Miami Lakes. My address is protected by 119. Let me say, to some degree, I understand the argument in favor of the project, insofar as the proposed interchange may relieve congestion at some locations, including traffic approaching the existing Grattany and Palmetto connections. Having said that, the point I would like to make is a simple one. What is good for the regional traffic network is not necessarily good for the people who live in Miami Lakes. I reviewed the GMX traffic presentation, and one number really caught my attention. GMX's own study project that the proposed interchange will put an additional 1,000 to 2,500 vehicles per day onto 67th Avenue, an increase of 3% to 8%.

This isn't just a theoretical concern by GMX's own account.

It's a traffic analysis that shows that conditions at key intersections within Miami Lakes at 154th Miami Lakes Drive and Northwest 67th will actually worsen worsen with the interchange. So while this project may improve traffic in some places, it will make traffic conditions worse here on the east side of Miami Lakes. Those cars don't disappear when they leave the expressway. They enter our town. They enter a road network that was designed for a relatively low-density community, and they will have to go somewhere, onto 67th Avenue, past the Miami Lakes K-8 school, onto Miami Lakeway South, Miami Lake Strive, and other roads that our residents use every day. And that's where I think we need to think beyond the immediate benefit of relieving congestion somewhere else. Are we relieving congestion, or are we simply moving regional traffic into Miami Lakes? there's another issue i think that deserves a very serious answer gmx is using 2025 traffic conditions as its existing baseline projecting conditions out to 2050. the presentation anticipates substantial growth including 21 population and 18 employment growth but miami lakes has already experienced significant residential and commercial construction we have 541 residential units approved on the west 278 residential units with commercial development on this side. Were all of those already approved and underway developments incorporated into the traffic projections? Or are we looking at even greater numbers? So because if we're going to make a decision about transportation infrastructure that affects us as a community, I think we need to, one last point, and that is we need to consider induced demand. When you make access to an expressway easier, you don't necessarily just redistribute the traffic that already exists. You create new travel patterns and attract additional traffic onto roads that feed into the interchange. Thank you, Mike. I'm sorry, but I didn't mean to cut you off there. Thank you.

Anyone else in chain? Is there anyone else in chambers wishing to speak? Welcome, thank you.

Good evening, Mayor, Vice Mayor, Council. My name is Constancia Laguna. I live on 14111 Lake Saranac Avenue. And I'd like to thank some of you because you replied to my email and I appreciate that, appreciate your time and support. I moved into Miami Lakes about 30 plus years because this is a town, not a city. And it's a beautiful town with a lot of parks, a lot of bikeways. If you know where Lake Saranac is, I'm right by 67. And actually, traffic as it stands, take my road to miss the school and miss the traffic. So I can only imagine what this project will do. My kids live here now, my grandkids live here. We go to the park, I have two parks straight. I bike, my kids bike. I'm not sure this project is gonna benefit that. And so I diddle with a lot of my residents, or should I say my neighbors, residents, community, but I please, I plead you to hear us. Been involved in other presentations with the Graham, and it's never been positive, so I hope this is not a done deal, and we voiced, because we live here, And I actually commute an hour and 15 minutes every day because I work downtown. And the reason why I do it is because I come back home to my town, and I don't have to worry about traffic here. I thank you, and please hear us.

Thank you very much. Are there any other speakers in chambers? Seeing none, Madam Clerk, is there anyone online that wishes to speak?

Yes, we have several participants, and I'm gonna be calling their name as I see them in my screen. The first one is Miss Amy. No last name, and I see your hand is raised. Raised. Good evening, Amy?

Hi, can you hear me? Yes, we do. Go ahead. Hi, I'm Amy Lipsa Morales. I live at 6944 Bottle Brush Drive. Good evening, everybody. I'm speaking tonight as a parent and I honestly cannot understand how we are even considering taking one of our towns traffic problems and deliberately redirecting it into a residential community and practically into a K-8 school zone. The proposed Gratney ramp would put cars and trucks coming off an expressway within about a block of a 15 mile per hour school zone. Think about that. Drivers would come off an expressway and almost immediately be expected to recognize that they are entering a school zone and slow from 40 miles per hour to 15. In an area where children are crossing 67th Avenue, there's a bus stop directly across from the school and pedestrian, sorry, I get so nervous. Traffic is extremely high during arrival and dismissal. What are the odds that every driver unfamiliar with the area realizes where they are and slows from 40 to 15 in time? WHY WOULD WE INTENTIONALLY CREATE THAT RISK? AND THAT CONCERN ISN'T HYPOTHETICAL. RESEARCH USING INSURANCE INSTITUTE FOR HIGHWAY SAFETY ANALYSIS OF FEDERAL FATALITY DATA HAS IDENTIFIED PEDESTRIAN AND BICYCLE FATALITIES OCCURRING IN THE VICINITY OF HIGHWAY ENTRANCE AND EXIT RAMPS. RESEARCH ALSO SHOWS PEDESTRIAN FATALITIES ARE HEAVILY CONCENTRATED ON MAJOR ARTERIAL ROADS. SO WHY WOULD WE INTRODUCE AN EXPRESSWAY RAMP PRACTICALLY AT THE EDGE OF AN ACTIVE K-8 SCHOOL ZONE? But here's what should concern every resident. We haven't even experienced the traffic we're planning around yet. The Shula's golf course development isn't finished. Hundreds of additional residential units are still coming online and the Palmetto exit is already a mess. We know that situation is only going to become worse once that development is fully occupied. but the congestion at the Palmetto is concentrated at a major expressway interchange away from residential neighborhoods and away from the school zone. Trying to alleviate that congestion by dumping it into a residential area is not a solution. It is unfair and it is irresponsible. These ramps would create an obvious alternative route for that additional traffic through Miami Lakeway South directly past Miami Lakes K8 and onto 67th Avenue toward the proposed ramps. We would literally be creating the cut through ourselves. So think about what we would be concentrating in this small area. Existing commuter traffic, freight traffic, cars coming on and off the Gratney, hundreds of additional residential units feeding traffic into the area, school traffic, buses, pedestrians, and most importantly, children crossing the street. So before we even contemplate something this drastic, what happened to the traffic improvements that were already supposed to mitigate the Shula development? What is the status of the two additional right turn lanes that were reportedly funded through escrow? When are those being built? And will a signal be reconfigured so vehicles going straight or turning left don't prevent right turning traffic from reaching those two lanes and continuing backing traffic toward the Palmetto? Why aren't we implementing these improvements, fixing the existing traffic flow and evaluating their effectiveness before even entertaining an entirely new interchange into a residential and school area? This is not about moving cars. This is about more traffic, more freight trucks, more noise, more exhaust, more cut through traffic, pedestrian safety.

Thank you. I'm sorry. That was 10 additional seconds. I just want you to know that.

No worries.

Yeah. I do want to ask all the members of the audience not to clap while they're speaking because it makes it very hard for us to be able to hear their input. So keep your applause for after they speak. That helps us out. With that, Madam Clerk, next speaker.

I will call the next speaker. And IT, I will ask you to please time so that the participant online can see it as well. Please use the timer. Mr. Frank Pellegrino.

Hi, can you hear me?

Good evening. We hear you, sir.

Awesome. Thank you for the time. Frank Pellegrino, 14851 Lewis Road, Miami Lakes, Florida 33014. I just want to say, acknowledging all the concerns raised here today, I still find it important to think about the average Miami Lakes commuter. For example, every evening my commute home requires me to decide whether I'll take The exit off I-75 via A-26 north ramp into Miami Lakes. We're continuing on the Grattany to exit at 57th. An additional exit off the Grattany at 67th, the proposed project, would save an invaluable amount of time each day that would allow me to return home to my wife and soon-to-be newborn baby. All that being said, Honestly, I would rather have to park my car on I-75 in Miami Gardens Drive, be given a broken pogo stick, and forced to pogo myself all the way home to Lake Catherine rather than see this project approve. I say all that to demonstrate, given the spectrum of concerns raised here tonight with public safety on the most significant end, good business sense in the middle, and commuter convenience on the least significant end, there aren't really any tangible benefits to be gained from this project, and I don't think it takes a structural engineer to say that. My family's been a part of this community for the last 57 years, and I know all it takes to see the lack of benefits from this project are well-intentioned Miami Lakes residents that see this community for what it is, their family and their home. So I respectfully request that you give this project the seriousness it deserves and not approve it. Thank you.

Thank you. Madam Clerk, any other speakers?

The next speaker, I don't see a name, but it's the telephone number 786-602, and it ends at 47. I see the hand raised, so I assume you want to speak. Again, it's a telephone number, 786-660, and it ends in 47. The hand is raised, which means that you would like to participate in public comments. Just unmute yourself. Okay, moving on. The next speaker is Mr. Oscar R. Corvera. If you want to speak, please just unmute yourself and welcome to the meeting. If not, I will continue down the list of names that I see of participants. We hear you very... You're very muffled. Yeah. It's not very clear. Mr. Corvera, do you want to participate in public comments?

I'm not sure if you can hear me a little clearer. No, no ma'am.

We hear you, but thank you. We're moving on with the list. Mr. Ben Pierce. Next speaker, Mr. Adonis Sardinas. I'm just making sure that I don't leave anyone out. I'm calling everyone by the name that I see on the screen.

No, I'm good. Okay.

Thank you, sir. Mr. Keith Henning. Okay. Again, if you are in remote public comments and you want to participate, it is the time now to unmute yourself. I have called everyone. I just don't want to leave anyone out. So I just want to make sure if you want to participate, just unmute yourself and welcome to the meeting. okay mayor i don't think anyone else participating online but i do have a long list of emails that were sent that i need to read into the record as i always do we only read the names and the subject matter so i'm going to start with jennifer rodero in opposition to the proposed off-ramp state road 924 grattney parkway interchange And again, let the record reflect that all these emails that I'm reading, the name and the subject matter, were shared with the town council. Mr. Frank Murphy, in opposition to the Gratney 67th Avenue. Mr. Frank Murphy and Josefina Murphy, two different emails. Ms. Eliana Colombo, in opposition to GMX project, Ms. Eliana Hambleton, in opposition to the proposed exit ramps onto 67th Avenue.

Madam Clerk? Yes. I apologize, but because there are those that spoke that are being repeated in those names, and we really gotta get moving with this meeting, I'm gonna ask that we dispense with the reading of the names, and I don't know if perhaps we'll get started in discussion, and at some point you can just tally the number for and the number against. That'll make it easier, that'll just, for our purposes, obviously this is a public record, so anyone that wants to see where the emails broke down and more detail can request that, but otherwise we're gonna spend another half hour just trying to.

Well, I can state from memory that all of them were in opposition with the exception from Mr. Luis O. Martinez from the Grams Company. He's in support of the project. And. Excuse me. And former Vice Mayor Jeffrey Rodriguez, he specifically stated that he's in favor and support of Mayor Diego's item 16A. And as well, I need to read this into the record, he is in support of the item that just got approved earlier tonight the jakey Dookie Memorial statue as well we received an email from Mr Albert aguilar a again questioning question asking questions about the police budget Mr so sorry Mr. Brian Patchen, in support of the Jakey Dooky Memorial Item. Miss Ellie Simon, also in support of Jakey Dooky Park. and again what I always do I include the names of all these individuals in the minutes what I can do for this time if it is your wish of the council I can include their the names but I can also include the emails they can be part of the the minutes I don't mind at all maybe that's more fair so that people see it Councilman Herzberg

I think it's a good idea. First, we all got the emails, I agree with your recollection, the vast majority were in opposition, so I think you should just add the emails to the minutes. That's a public record anyway, and then it'll be clear on the record who opposed or didn't.

Very well, I will do that in the minutes from this meeting.

Thank you, Madam Clerk. Thank you. All right, so we're now done with public comments. And unfortunately, I see a big chunk of the crowd has dispersed, which I think is unfortunate. Because part of our job here is to not only debate these things among ourselves, but also to provide an education function as well. So, but before I continue with that, I wanna first thank the Soberons for inviting me to their home yesterday and to meet with the residents, and for taking the time to educate me some more about the construction side of the project, which has prompted me to ask some more questions about that. We do have a representative of GMX here that at some point I hope would address some of those concerns and some of the other concerns that he's heard. But before I get there, I need to introduce my item to get us in the proper posture for discussion. And before I begin, I wanna also start off by reminding everyone that I am also a lifelong Miami Laker. I have been here with my family since 1989. My office is here, my family continues to live here, my kids, not my kids, not yet. But my nephews and my niece play in our parks. Those are my priorities, and to preserve that small town feel that I grew up with, right? Going, again, I've brought up before, but I'll reiterate it again. I still remember having the arts and crafts show there on Main Street, buying my pop guns and the sand art and everything with my family, as my mom would buy orchids. Those were the special core memories for me that I remember growing up here. I remember looking out my window. I grew up at 7220 Poinciana Court, right? And I was there until I was 30 years or so old when I could afford my own place, because obviously it's not cheap to buy here in Miami Lakes, right? So growing up there, I also saw much of the wildlife, right? At night you see the possums, during the day you can see the mockingbirds, the blue jays. I even saw Baltimore Orioles, at least one, outside my window growing up there in my corner room. I have a deep loving abide, don't you give me that smile. I have a deep loving abide for this community. The idea that any one of us would want to do something that is going to take away from that, I think just, I understand that there are many people who are frustrated, but I need to dissuade you from believing that way. We're here, and obviously many people are not gonna put themselves up here on the dais to be pilloried just because they enjoy it. They're doing it because they care. And the truth is that I wanna clear up something about development in this town that unfortunately many people don't understand because many of the laws are actually written in Tallahassee far away from public view. Here you can come to town hall, you can see us, you can talk to us, but with Tallahassee, who's gonna drive up there in most cases? But here's the reality. In the state of Florida, and in terms of the recent projects that you've seen, there is a trend to benefit the developers, unfortunately, right? The most recent law is live local, which every year they continue to tighten, and the gist of that law is in essence to allow developers, if they meet certain requirements, to bypass local governing boards like us to be able to develop these projects. And these are not low income projects, right? These aren't Section 8 projects, and they're not, in some cases they're workforce housing, but in other cases it's just whenever a project has rents that reach a certain percentage of what's called area medium income. So it's not low income, I just wanna reiterate that. And you'd be surprised how many of the grand properties actually, even with the rents that they charge now, as high as they are, a mortgage payment in many cases, not more than a mortgage payment, actually qualify for that standard. And again, as long as they meet that standard, they can bypass public approvals. They don't have to sit here and hear what you have to say about the project. And they also are entitled to all sorts of tax benefits in the process that can range, I think it's from 25% all the way to 75% tax exemption for their projects for a period of 30 years or so. And that's an example of just how bad things are getting in Tallahassee. The word is preemption. They are literally preempting us from being able to control local development. And it's getting unfortunately worse year after year. That's number one. And with that frame of mind, I wanna agree with you that the numbers are off on these studies. They're way off. Why? Because they're accounting for conditions today. And the population growth that those studies are accounting for don't include projects that are not permitted or going through that process. Isn't that correct? That for example, I'll come back to you in a second, sir, when I ask you to come up and please explain. But to my knowledge, These studies don't account for the courtyard apartments. That would be the older apartments right next to the Catholic Church, right next to Our Lady of the Lakes, that the Gramps have acquired, and currently sits at... I just had it here, at 448 units. If the numbers I got from staff are correct, under the town center district, which was approved also around the 2015, 2016 era, they can redevelop that project to bring it up to 800, or pardon me, to 900 units. So from 448 to a maximum of 900. Even if they go lower, do the math on that. Multiply that by at least two people, right? And without our approval, because they already have that zoning change. So they would only be coming to us for what's called a site plan approval, which is basically the placement of things on the property. It has nothing to do with the scale of the development itself. Additionally, the executive apartments right next to the current golf course project that's going on is what I think they're all this project right now. You know from there there was called a B to district that is a commercial district exactly the sort of district that a live local project can go into that current district is approximately I believe RM 36 Mister attorney correct.

But that's correct currently they have a 158 units Mister mayor and they can go up to 366.

You know, so these are, and again, as somebody said it, and you know, I forgot where she went, it was actually one of my friends from the Elderly Affairs Committee, but the Grams, you know, they are in business to make money. It's just a fact. So the reality is that again, laws in Tallahassee are not making things easier for us, and we have to live within that framework. And again, I just gave you two projects that are primed for redevelopment. So I just want you to also think about the other projects within this area, like Bull Run Apartments, Meadow Walk, New Barn, and think about potentially what could be coming our way there. With that frame of mind, Looking five to 10 to 15 years from now, thinking about the town we want to be in, if we want to preserve our character, we have to start getting serious about how we address traffic. And to me, I understand the concerns, but it would be irresponsible not to seriously consider this potential option. And I wanna also, as part of that, address a couple of things, right? And Councilman Sanchez, eventually I'll get to the motion, but if you don't mind, I'm going to kind of amend mine to incorporate what your item was. Just one of them, the remove over MP. But what I wanna bring up in particular as well is that we don't have to go to Ohio to look at those studies to know what's gonna happen to property values here. Miami is ultimately a different community. Just look at what happened at the Northwest 170th Street Bridge when that opened up. I guarantee you property values have not tanked there. And I think that that would be probably the closest correlation and similarity in terms of examples of what would happen. I don't believe, I actually believe it would be worse for our property values to sit back and do nothing. This is the second time now over multiple generations that this project has been rejected. If we reject it now, I highly doubt, in fact, the executive director has said they won't be coming back for a third. So we could be missing the boat here and dooming ourselves to a very sad, polluted future. Okay, I'm sorry, I'm sorry, I'm addressing you, and so I'm asking you to please let me finish my thoughts. We were here listening to all of you, and I think, to be honest with you, I respectfully disagree. As somebody, again, who grew up here, lives on the east side still, by the way, you know, and has been studying this issue for some time. And the most common thing I want to bring up is that it seems as if the concern from most of you even now has to do with what's called Ramp B. That would be the off ramp onto 67th Avenue. I would like to go ahead, and this was what Councilman Sanchez had proposed, and give direction to the manager to go ahead and request that GMX go ahead and redo the traffic study, but without ramp B. And to come back, and also to incorporate all the resident concerns that we have heard throughout this public hearing process, not only in our council meetings, but in their public charrettes. And also to come back with a recommendation as to whether they would move forward without Ramp B or not. But again, showing us some strong numbers as for Ramp B. Again, it doesn't mean that it's moving forward, that it's just getting even more information. Thanks to the Soberons, I wanna get more information on what the construction impact would be to their homes if this were to move forward. But again, we need to really think about this and not just let it go. because we are one community at the end of the day. What happens on Miami Lakes Drive will affect you. Just look at how bad today was. So we need to really look at all these options seriously. Again, I even gave you some numbers. Again, these are numbers, and at some point, I don't know when, these communities will be redeveloped. The reality is that having a ramp on the west side, which we are working on, is not gonna be enough to resolve traffic here on the east side. And by then, that ship may have sailed. But that is my motion. And I'll open it up for, or rather, is there a second? I'll second. It's been seconded by Councilman Sanchez. Go ahead and kick us off in discussion.

Sure. So I was here for the public workshop that GMX did about a month and a half ago. And I saw everything and I during public comments, I got up and spoke about the offering specifically in 67th Avenue. We all saw the traffic today on 67th Avenue going northbound. Today was a bit of an outlier just because it was an accident in front of our Lady of the Lakes. But even on a regular school day, we're outside of summer already. We're back in the normal routine. Everybody's back to school. Everybody's back to work. It's we're getting back into the flow of things north of Miami Lakes Drive towards 67th. The backup is just not fair. to get out of Miami Lakes, right, when you're going north on 67th Avenue. So to add more cars into 67th Avenue from that off ramp just doesn't make any sense. On a street that's already rated between a D and an F, which they rate A, B, C, D, E, and F, D and F is just bad no matter what time of day that you're in. to add more cars to that just doesn't make sense in addition to that it was brought up earlier the gas station at the lake patricia shopping center i'm happy to hear from sunshine gas about how they are opposed didn't have their contact information however lake patricia shopping center is owned by those of you that had a little bit of a response to it by the gram company and louis martinez so the email that he sent in reply to being in favor of it was in representation of the lake patricia shopping center However, that is very true. The Grams do own Lake Patricia Shopping Center. The gas station, they do not, but they do own the shopping center with Chase and Vicky Bakery and the barbershop. So one of my biggest things has always been, since I've been up here and even before, is traffic mitigation. During my prayer at the last council meeting, I said specifically, let us represent the needs of the many over the needs of the few. I said that and I was applauded for it. We need to see this as a macroscope instead of a microscope. Of the four of us that live up here, that live on the east side of the town of Miami Lakes, I am one of them. I didn't grow up in Miami Lakes, but I've spent more than half my life here after I returned from the U.S. military, from the Navy. I grew up next door in Hialeah, and my goal was always to be in Miami Lakes because of what it is, the jewel that it is. But right now, Miami Lakes is good, and it could be great. We, my item, specifically, of the three ramps, the two on ramps and the off ramp, completely eliminates the off ramp because we know exactly how fast cars come off of a highway, especially into a school zone, into Miami Lakes K-8 Center. My sons went to K-8 Center, my father, now he's much elderly, was a school crossing guard at Miami Lakes K-8 Center. My kids are here, my entire family, we're here on the east side. west of 67th and just north of Miami-Lakeway South. So this isn't falling on deaf ears. Now, I had a meeting with GMX where Colonel Bill Perez was present as he mentioned at the beginning of his comments. And a lot of questions were asked about sound mitigation, about traffic concerns for later on for Crooked Palm. And I also have an item here in the agenda for tonight, instructing staff to work with FDOT, the county, and GMX on traffic mitigation solutions for Lake Saranac, for many streets where cut-throughs could be possible. But even those cut-throughs would be possible, would be made by town residents. But there is one factor that isn't being spoken about, and it's related to schools. And like the mayor says, there are decisions that are made up in Tallahassee that we do not control down here. That's called school choice. We have the blessing of having some of the best schools in Miami-Dade County. And even then, some schools in Miami-Dade County are currently closing. But our schools are still to a good amount of capacity because we have A schools in Miami Lakes, which drives individuals from other areas, not even just state county, from Hollywood. My sons go to school in Miami Lakes. They have classmates from Hollywood Beach, from Miramar, from Pembroke Pines. It drives those cars into Miami Lakes. Those border schools that we used to have when we went to grade school no longer exist. You can go to any school you want to. And because of the excellence that we have, we drive those cars into Miami Lakes. Yes, we had a project years ago that was on the horizon to do Texas futures on 57th Avenue to extend 167th Street from the west side of Miami Lakes into the east side into the perimeter road. Unfortunately, that was put on the back burner due to some gas line issues and who was gonna pay to move those gas lines. But if we don't do something now, what is there later on when every single industrial commercial zone CAN POTENTIALLY TURN INTO A LIVE LOCAL WHICH COMPLETELY BYPASSES EVERY SINGLE ONE OF US HERE AND THE COUNTY. THEY HAVE EVERY SINGLE COMPANY OR EVERY DEVELOPER THAT OWNS AN INDUSTRIAL COMMERCIAL ZONE DOESN'T HAVE TO COME TO THE TOWN OF VIAMI LAKES OR EVEN THE BOARD OF COUNTY COMMISSIONERS TO ASK THEM CAN WE BUILD THIS. THEY COMPLETELY BYPASS US. SO WHAT'S GOING TO HAPPEN FOR EXAMPLE THE SENIOR VILLAGE THAT RIGHT NOW HAS 540 UNITS. THAT WAS 22 ACRES OF INDUSTRIAL COMMERCIAL THAT COULD HAVE BEEN 1100 UNITS. was to say that they're gonna come back to us later on and say, nevermind, we're gonna do it anyways. They can't do it anymore because we rezoned it to residential. They can no longer do it. But there's still a lot of Miami Lakes, especially here on the east side between 67th and 57th that is zoned industrial commercial. And in business, we all know everything can change from one month to the next, from one owner to the next. So my idea is to have them. This is not gonna happen from today to tomorrow. What we're asking GMX to do by eliminating the off ramp is giving us a buffer of three to four months while they do that research to come back to us. And that buffer of time gives us more time to do our due diligence. To come back with FDOT and the county to do traffic mitigations. Does it take, like they do in Coral Gables, the roundabouts and streets that enhance the image of Miami Lakes with plants. What things can we do? Our police officers can enforce our traffic. You haven't heard it tonight, but after this, our police major is gonna give us a full rundown of how many tickets have been given. What is crime like in Miami Lakes? That's gonna happen right after we have this vote. So that's why I second my original motion that the mayor brought forward to let's look at the numbers once they come back with the removal of the off ramp, to not have those cars coming off of the Gratney. and give us a chance, instead of taking seven streetlights to get from Miami Lakeway South to the Palmetto, to be able to get onto Palmetto and get out of Miami Lakes, give us a chance to be able to get onto the Gratney and alleviate traffic for the east side to get to the Palmetto. And from those that are going northbound, and for those that are going northbound to get.

Excuse me, excuse me, please, we must have order. So please, I need you just to let him speak, We had the public opportunity to be heard. At this time, the councilman has the floor. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Mayor. Now, somebody brought up the idea of an exit on 87th Avenue. If you bring up over the bridge that crosses into Hialeah, if you lose an aerial view on that bridge 10 feet away from that underpass, you have an exit onto 138th Street. It's way too close. They won't, FDOT will not approve that exit, that entrance being so close to an on-ramp. 170th street one of the first things that we introduced when i came on this day was a resolution supporting on ramps onto i-75 at the bridge on 170th little did i know that was a project that was already in the works for quite some time and earlier this year we received six million dollars from represent from congressman mario diaz ballard to start the pd e study to create those on ramps to help the west side that's already in the works But what's in front of us now gives all of us, the entire town, 35,000 residents, those parents that are at home right now because their kids are working on their school assignments and can't be here, but they call. We're here for them. It's all-encompassing. It's all-encompassing. We are here to represent you. We are here to, if I may, if I may just for a moment.

Excuse me, actually, council member, I need you to suspend. I need there to be order. If you cannot be part of this meeting, then I need you to please step outside. If not, the sergeant at arms will have to maintain order. We need to allow others to speak. Thank you.

We are here to represent you, but you equals 35,000 residents of the town of Miami Lakes. 35,000 residents that when they leave their homes by Royal Oaks Park on 87th Avenue, takes them 45 minutes to reach the Palmetto. We are here to represent the residents in this town that when they try to go north on 67th Avenue to get on the A26 Highway to go either southbound or eastbound to get to I-95 or the Golden Glaze Interchange, takes them an extended amount of time. but doing it in a safe and proper way. There's no black and white. It's doing it in a safe and proper way. It's doing it in a way that it's beneficial for all encompassing and not just a few.

Excuse me, sir, I'm sorry, but I cannot have these outbursts. I don't know how many times I've had to say it. We are all adults here. We are all capable of just listening to one another. We were listening to you, and so now I'm asking you to let us have our deliberations and to hear us out because we are trying to address your concerns as best as possible. Thank you.

I've traveled the world. I've seen how bad the world can be. I've seen it on deployment, even on visiting port countries that you would assume were nice for vacation. And I've seen things there that I don't want to see here. Miami Lakes is a jewel. It will always be a jewel. It will continue to be a jewel. But the quality of life is also in the balance here. If it gets to the point where we go from 35,000 residents and Live Local affects it to get to 45, 50,000 residents, what then? It's going to take an hour, hour and a half to get to the Palmetto. So it's an all-encompassing, it's an ecosystem with many layers. And that's what I have to say about this.

Thank you, next we go to Councilman Garcia.

Thank you, and I wanna thank everybody for being here, taking time out of your busy lives. This is very important to the town of Miami Lakes. I'm gonna keep it simple. I'm against the off ramps and the on ramps, and I'll tell you why. We just celebrated one of the oldest businesses in the town, Miami Lakes Barber Shop, the oldest shopping center, the oldest neighborhoods. I've talked to people in those neighborhoods, Crooked Palm. There are two schools, even if we just do the on-ramps. There's K-8, which Vice Mayor Coiazzo fought a long time, and so did I, to get the school zone extended to Crooked Palm, because people were racing through there. And then there's kids coming from Hialeah and Miami Lakes that are trying to cross back into our town. We put off-ramps there. It's gonna make it a lot more difficult. It's just way too much infrastructure for that little space. And the one thing that I know every town member loves is leaving the town, coming back to the town, and once you get under the underpasses, you know you're in Miami Lakes. Because of the trees, because of the lakes, because of the canals. If we had underpasses, I mean on-ramps and off-ramps, that's just gonna kill that. plus we don't know what's going to happen to the lake patricia area people cutting through what's going to happen with that ex the traffic that we just can't see to me it's just not the area to put it in because we have 57th avenue entrance to the grattany less than a mile away If we didn't have that, then I would say maybe the on-ramps. But it's just, that area is just too tight, too close to homes. The noise mitigation is not guaranteed. But I agree and I understand everything the mayor said and my colleagues say about that. If it was any other area, or if it was on the other side in the Hialeah area, it wouldn't affect us too much, but it's just gonna destroy the character of one of the oldest neighborhoods, the oldest neighborhood and the oldest shopping center, and it's gonna be horrible for, people in Crooked Palm won't be able to get out. So I'll be against that. I'm gonna let my colleagues speak, but I'm gonna put forward a motion that we tell GMX, and by the way, thank you for coming, because they spent a lot of time and a lot of effort to explain to us, but it's just way too much right now. But I'm gonna be putting a motion later on to just put a resolution to say we're against the entrances and the exits.

All right, Councilman Herzberg.

Thank you, Mayor. First, thank you for coming. It's important that residents participate. It's nice to see people come and speak. I will tell you that right now, the way the project is, whether with or without off ramps, I was told that GMX would want to answer today, however, And I'm not going to vote for a project without the numbers, right? That's my problem. The numbers we have right now, I don't like the project. I don't think it provides enough mitigation. I don't think it solves the real problems like 154th and 826. one of the numbers is a 12 second and a 15 second a.m. and p.m. savings. I'll rather sit in traffic for 15 seconds than build on ramps or off ramps. But the question is, If we move forward with the mayor's item, is GMX going to come back to us and give us the data? For example, I don't believe this data, I had a discussion with the town planner, I don't believe this data shows us is there savings for northbound on 67-5, which is a choke point too. I don't have the numbers here, so I can't vote for it without the numbers. If it's a matter of GMX coming back and saying, well, here are the numbers for just on ramps because I am 100% against the off ramp, I think it seems like we all agree that the off ramp is useless, especially 57th Avenue is right there. I've never had issues with 57th Avenue. A little bit of irony is a lot of the people that would benefit the most from these ramps are the people that live here, live in the area, and a lot of them don't want these ramps too, right? But I understand traffic is regional. And we have very, very limited tools as a town, especially a town of our tax base and our low tax rate, to fix traffic. So these ideas that say, hey, let's do 87 FAB, let's do I-75, those are massive projects. We don't have the money for those. Those are different levels of projects that we have no idea if they'll ever come to us, and if there's an opportunity to mitigate traffic, we have to take it very seriously, and that's something I've done. I've looked at the numbers over and over and over again. I've spoken to a lot of residents about it. If the vote today is to vote on the project on itself, I would just vote no all around. If the vote today is to have GMX come back with real numbers, with a no off-ramp project, then I'm okay with looking at more numbers. I'm not promising I'm gonna vote for it, because I do believe there's a character of the area issue. I studied geography in GW. It's funny, one of my projects in my senior year was discussing the history of transit in Washington, D.C., and there was this big fight, expressways or metro lines? I get it, it's not that big of a fight. but DC made the right choice. They didn't choose expressways cutting through their cities, right? Here, the expressway's already there. This is about whether or not it makes sense to add more cars, because no matter what we do, more cars will be added to 67th Ave. It's what relief does it provide? So if GMX wants to come back to us and say here's the data, here's why the two on-ramps with no off-ramps work, I'll look at the numbers, I'm not promising anything. The numbers need to match. The numbers here don't make sense for me. It's just too little of mitigation at choke points and adding too many cars. I assume when you get rid of the off ramp, adding the cars to the area should go down, I don't know. And there's a good point about the population studies and what type of numbers they're using in their traffic data, because we want accurate numbers. And the mayor made up a good point, that we can't control the future development on the east or west side for the majority of our zoning, right? That's just what Tallahassee has given us, unfortunately. So I will allow GMX to come back to us. If GMX says no, we don't want to come back, then I'll just say no, because I don't have the numbers to be able to prove to any resident, whether they're on the west side or the east side, that this makes sense. If we can get numbers that prove it, I'll look at it again. I can't tell you if I'm a yes or no in the future. But right now, the numbers just don't make any sense. So if they want to give us new numbers that make sense, then I'll take a look at it.

Councilman Cuadra-Garcia.

I'm not gonna speak much. I'm a no-nonsense person. After listening on these two sessions to our residents, okay, I have traveled through the area. I live in the west side. I go pick up my pizza at Dominico. I have not seen any issues the need for it. So my philosophy is, if it ain't broken, we don't need to fix it. And that is the bottom line. And I will not support. I will listen to what the people want, and we'll need to figure something out, but it's a no for me.

Mr. Vice Mayor.

Thank you, Mr. Mayor. I want to start off by thanking the residents for coming, for all the emails, the text messages. Ms. Colombo, I got all those text messages while I was on my cruise. It's important that you come out here because I don't want you to think that you're hearing what some of our colleagues are saying up here and that that doesn't mean you were heard. It simply means that We do have considerations beyond one particular area or one particular person's opinion, sometimes even contrary to our own. And I'll be one of those that puts their hands up and say, I live on the east side. I live on Lake Hilda. I am directly affected by this. But I'm reminded of another time in our town's history when this desire to, what was the word someone said, preserve the essence of our community or keep our town small, which for no one here is increasing the size of our town, at least nothing in this decision is increasing the size of our town. It's simply addressing the way in which our town addresses the fact that we have already grown. I'm reminded of a different time, and that's back when this town had the opportunity to annex what is now the Hialeah Annex. when we had the opportunity to take over all that land to the west of I-75, and we said, nope. And why did we say no? Because we wanted to stay small. Well, as a direct result of us taking that position, the city of Hialeah said, okay, we'll take that. And then they decided to sell almost every inch of those hundreds, if not thousands, of acres to Lennar to build the most high density possible housing that they could, how many residents are there? Like 10,000 plus? More than that? I'm sorry. I thought I was being conservative. 10,000 plus units being built out there, clogging up our roadways because then they forced the opening of 170th on us. And then every single one of those cars on that side started crossing 170th onto 87th Avenue and then making a left on 154th and clogging up that intersection even more than it already was. And we're all kicking ourselves, because hindsight is 20-20. Well, doing nothing on this is absolutely one of those things that not tomorrow, not even two to three years from now are we going to be seeing the fruits of what we do here, but rather 10 to 15 years from now. Because I guarantee you, you will see population increases in this town. you will see the redevelopments that the mayor was talking about. By the way, he left out, if you look at that map over there, you see all those little white squares on the bottom right side of that map? That's 60th Avenue. That's those big warehouse on 60th Avenue, very close to the cemetery. Like half of that is owned by the Grams. That can also be redeveloped into multifamily residential, just like what you have around the golf course. Just all those recent developments, they can do those there too. There's a lot that they can do. Unfortunately, our legislature has handcuffed us in the ability to protect you from that. That being said, I am more than open to listening to the residents and I am more than hesitant on the off ramp, on ramp B. My issue with the off ramp for my colleagues is number one, the apparent taking of private property, or not taking, let me rephrase, obstructing, because it would involve the closure of one of the entrances to the gas station. And I actually do agree with the owner of, Sunshine, thank you, of the gas station, that it would truly, detrimentally harm that gas station, the exit ramp specifically. Almost every single one of the concerns that have been raised here are directly addressed by removing the off ramp. The noise, if you look at the two on ramps, they don't really change the shape of the, well, first of all, one of them is in Hialeah. One of the on-ramps is in Hialeah, so it really doesn't affect us at all. The other one maintains the exact shape and contour of the Grattany, and at least in the current renderings, has a very large, I think it was like eight or 15 feet sound walls. So, and I believe in the most recent versions from my meetings, it was like half of it would be the concrete, the other half would actually be a visual screen, but it has the same sound properties. That's at least what I was told. Like I said, I live on Lake Hilda. I'm not trying to increase any amount of noise. Because I hear it, it bounces off of the lake. And it actually, the lake serves to increase the sound. So I'm not trying to do anything that would increase that. But to try to argue that the on-ramp, either one would increase noise in our town, I think that that's a superfluous argument. However, the off ramp, it really needs to be looked at. I was also, by the way, told that there was some sort of deadline. So I would like some clarification on that if the gentleman from GMX wants to clarify.

Well, actually, are you talking about the email that we received?

Oh no, not from anything today. It was actually during my meeting. Mr. Manager, can you address that?

Repeat the question, please.

Is there some sort of deadline on us saying yay or nay or one ramp, two ramp, three ramp to GMX?

I think that they are looking to move forward. I think a difference of a month or two would not jeopardize the project. So, I mean, if you tell them, we wanna tell you a year from now, I think that they would move on and redirect the money to some other project within their network.

So, just to make it, can you clarify or restate your motion real quick?

It's just basically, you know, telling them that we won't accept, you know, this ramp, unless Ramp B, excuse me, that we won't accept this project unless Ramp B is taken away and that we want a study and they would have to do the study anyway to come back to us with what that change looks like. Because their main concern is additional traffic coming to the town. Obviously without the off ramp, that solves most of the issues we're having. It certainly solves Mr. Alvarez's concern with the gas station. But we need to know what those numbers are, right? And they need to know what those numbers are too to make sure that they can make it make sense on their end as well. And then obviously I also wanted them to include all the feedback that we have had in these meetings, our town meetings and their public charrettes. That is what the motion was about.

Thank you so so just to be crystal clear yes or no yours is right now as of right now if we were to vote yes, it's we we do oppose the any solution for now that includes the offer.

Yes, we're opposed to anything that that includes rampy rampy.

Okay, so that to me is the most important thing because I don't see a, during my meeting, I even started already discussing other options with them. If we were to proceed forward with the on-ramp only design, including doing something like what was done in 57 with the always go lanes, you know, the ones that are like the green arrows, with the protected left turn, for the people coming north that way it's because I'm trying to minimize the traffic light because the last thing I want to see this town council make the mistake of doing is what happened on one fifty four with forty seven intersections you know lined up what right next to each other. I don't want to see that on sixty seven already adding one very close to the 138th intersection is already kind of making me cringe. The thought of potentially having to add one on Lake Patricia, that scares the daylights out of me. And I don't like how nonchalantly that was thrown out by GMX, because again, it's kind of like not their problem, not their concern, but it's very, very much our concern. So yeah, as long as we're voting on no, No ramp B. No off ramp, no ramp B, then I'm okay with that.

Yeah, no ramp B, and before we go to our second round, I would like to invite the gentleman from GMX to come up and address some of the concerns that have been raised. For example, you have a fellow engineer in Jose Soberon here who has concerns about what the impact would be with the pylons, and the impact on those adjacent homes along the Gratney there on Bamboo Street. And again, just please address that, address a couple other things. Mr. Alvarez, I did want to go ahead and also, you asked me yesterday, Max, you had asked me if the town would have to issue a permit. We do not have to issue a permit, so I just wanna be clear about that. But sir, if you can, to the best, I know there was a lot mentioned here today, but to the best as you can, if you can alleviate as many concerns and answer as many questions, I think that would go a long way.

Thank you, Mr. Mayor. My name is Godfrey Lamptey. I'm actually a business owner in Miami Lakes. My office is in 14750 NW 77 Ct, Miami Lakes 32016. So I'm pretty much, I use the roads here every day. As far as the construction, This project basically is going to be, is being designed based on the FDOT standards. GMX, you know, follows the FDOT, all the FDOT processes. Currently where we are, we are in the project development environment study phase and basically what that phase is, is looking at different alternatives. We have, you know, the concept that we have currently is one of the alternatives that we chose as the preferred alternative. However, we always listen to what the resident as well as the elected officials also have in place and then we take some of those and then we add that as part of our final evaluation to determine what is the best option to go with as far as the project is concerned. So by no means is this project like it's been basically like finalized. It's something that is still ongoing and that is why we keep coming to you all to be able to understand and get input from you and understand your positions. Now as far as the construction is concerned, FDOT, as I mentioned, GMX follows FDOT. And FDOT has a process, you know, where construction is basically when they are doing construction that involves pile driving, that requires them to monitor, you know, the buildings that are, you know, within the immediate vicinity of that area. So they have, you know, vibration monitoring as well as also settlement monitoring. All of these are taken into consideration in any project. you know, that involves any pile driving or anything that goes into the ground. So all of that processes will be followed. These are done for any projects, you know, that involves any bridge construction or, you know, as I mentioned, pile driving or sheet piles or anything like that. So the project would follow that process if it gets into construction to make sure that it ensures that we are not going beyond, we are not causing any settlements or any vibrations that are beyond what it needs to be. There are standards that are established based on FDOT specifications and that is what we follow. And that is done throughout the state. I know there were a couple of Other questions that were asked as it pertains to the traffic, traffic is regional, okay? So as far as the traffic is concerned, if you have different connections, the issue that currently is facing Miami Lakes is there are very few access points. from the town. And I think we all know that. As I said, I work here, I own a business here, and I come here every day. Today, 87th Avenue, 154th, 154th was basically jammed from 87th Avenue all the way to Palmetto. Same thing coming up here to this meeting, 67th Avenue, as you mentioned, it was all jammed. We need to have the way you help alleviate traffic is by providing additional access points so that the traffic basically does not all funnel through one point. they go through different points and that is pretty much the essence of this project to be able to have that redistribution of the traffic to ensure that all the major roads are able to you know handle some amount of the traffic and not all funneling to just one point same thing you did mention uh i-75 that is currently in the pdne study right now similar to what we are doing they're a little behind us But they're also going to be looking at different ramps that connects to, you know, 178th as well as also I believe there was a time they were looking at 154th as well. So having all these different access points helps to redistribute the traffic. And this project, what it does, it's not a capacity improvement project. It is a project that redistributes the traffic. You have some alleviation at 57th Avenue as well as also 154th. You know, so, and I know you did mention about the having only just a few seconds, but just consider that it's only per vehicle. If you account for all the vehicles that use that, that is a lot of time that is being saved, as well as if you convert that to travel time savings and monetize it, that is a lot of money on an annual basis. So this project basically is not just, you know, to provide a you know just impact on 67th avenue but it's basically looking at the entire area to be able to redistribute that traffic and help alleviate you know traffic for the entire miami lakes town of miami lakes thank you what is a good email perhaps that the residents can email you their questions directly because i know again i know mr jose sobran has a lot of questions

And I think that's more detail.

Yes, they have Terry Garcia. She is the PIO, the Public Involvement Officer. Do you have her email? I have to look it up, but I think a lot of the residents have been emailing her and you know, the was a very no manager has the emails. OK, see they have a contact you have it.

OK, can you read it read into the record just so that those for Jose and others.

So the email for Teddy Garcia is T Garcia. At GM X dash way W a Y dot com.

So I know you have a bunch of questions, a lot of variables that you wanted them to actually home in on. So I would recommend that you get into contact with Terri and she can probably guide you better. But for now, again, this is about opposition to Ramp B, right, and getting the study. that is without it. So we're gonna begin our second round. We're gonna start with Councilman Sanchez since he had asked me before we went to the gentleman here. And then we'll go to you, Mr. Vice Mayor. And then we'll go to Councilman Herzberg and to Councilman Garcia.

so to what the vice mayor's point earlier about if this is going to extend the timeline one of my questions during my one-on-one session with the gmx team was if the off-ramp component is removed what happens then they said they would go back to the drawing table it would take somewhere between the two to four month range for them to do the complete analysis to see the the toll gantry where it would be located things of that nature before they would come back and say yes it's feasible yes it's not feasible which is why i brought up the whole thing about this just this isn't a decision saying yes we're going to do this right now it's for them to do that study and come back to us at a later date to see if this is something that can work for all parties involved that was the one point that i wanted to touch on and you were part of that meeting as well yes correct

Thank you, Councilman Sanchez. I'll go ahead and come over to me. My question is actually, it seems like one of the biggest impediments towards feasibility of the removal of Ramp B seems to be the relocation of the toll gantry. However, I don't see how the removal of Ramp B at all affects the location of the toll gantry. Right now, your renderings and your plans show a new toll gantry on the entrance ramp, ramp A. It does not show one on ramp C, but it says here, a existing mainline tolling gantry to be relocated but it kind of seems like you guys are relocating it because you feel like it, because it's way after ramp C, like way after. So I don't think that that needs to be, if you're relocating it, fine, but it's not because the ramps are making you do it. And then I see no toll gantry on ramp B, most importantly of all. So how exactly would the removal of ramp B affect to use a vulgar term, the profitability of GMX's project, because it doesn't seem like it would at all.

When it comes to the financial, that is beyond my- That's not your game. But let me explain to you how the toll gantry gets affected. In order to be able to have an exit ramp coming off from the freeway, you need to have what we call a deceleration lane. So basically, cars coming off from the, let's say they're going westbound, as they get to the ramp, they have to decelerate. You say maybe you are doing 65, 70 on a , as you get to the ramp, you automatically slow down. So the way we design it is that we need to have a deceleration lane so that the cars can slow down before they get to the intersection. So that deceleration lane requires additional widening of the main line. And that white end of the main line is what affects the toll gantry. So that is why you'd need to relocate that toll gantry because where it is located right now, it is actually in the way of the deceleration lane. Same thing with the is bound on ramp. When you are getting onto an expressway, you need to accelerate. We need to provide you that additional room to be able to accelerate and almost be equal with the mainline speeds. And that is the additional lane that we also provide, and that also impacts the tow gantry that is on the mainline as well. So that is why we needed to relocate the tow gantry, because it's in the way of those acceleration and deceleration ramps.

Just to be clear, and I don't know how much this really, the location of the toll gantry goes into engineering, which I know is your forte, but again, just the way I see it, in this most recent version that I guess I'm looking at, the toll gantry is at the deceleration lane. I guess what you're saying is, i could see how maybe saying that the tog entry would need to be modified maybe but now it doesn't need to be relocated it would probably just need a minor modification to extend it make it a little wider so that it catches that deceleration lane so that if you're trying to get off sorry you're still getting charged i get it you know you guys gotta pay for that um but um i just don't What I don't want to hear, right, is I don't want to hear this come back in a few months or whenever and say it's not feasible because of a financial issue, because of the location of the toll gantry. I'm saying, I'm calling, as the young kids would say now, cap on that. That is not at all the case. You already have an incoming toll gantry on ramp A. Ramp C would be covered by the existing toll grant tree as modified, and actually even more so, Ramp B being there negates the need to relocate. So again, I don't see, you just actually said it yourself, nevermind.

If you take out Ram B, we have to go back and as you said earlier, we have to go back. It makes the project a lot cheaper. Yes, it would make the project a lot cheaper. I'm saving you money. Let's go. We would have to look at whether we can save the TOGA entry if we take out Ram B. Yes.

Yes, I can answer that one for you. You definitely can save the TOGA entry as long as it's working today, which I'm pretty sure it charged me today, so it's working. All right, all you.

With that, we go to Councilman Herzberg.

Thank you, Mayor. A few questions. You mentioned the vibration monitors and things like that. How is that done? Is that done on site? Do you provide vibration monitors to the homes nearby? What precautions are taken? Because that's something I know that's interesting.

Yeah, they do install monitors. you know, to be able to monitor the vibrations. You know, that is not my area of expertise, but I do know that, you know, they do install monitors so that they, you know, as on a daily basis, they would, you know, get readings from all these, you know, monitors to see what's the level of vibration, what is the level of, you know, settlements or anything like that. So that is something that is done on any projects. As I said, most of the big projects have that provisions.

Right, now I'll ask somebody else, but you just don't know if they install them only at the project and certain geographical location away from the project?

There's there is typically there is a buffer zone that they typically go. I don't recall that of the top of my head, but there is a buffer zone that where they monitor all the the properties in those areas so that they can be able to determine what is the level of vibration that is going on.

Okay. And again, this is a big concern of mine on what this motion is. I don't know if you have the answer to that. the direction I'm okay with giving is that you look at the project, determine, take rid of Rempe, because I think that's off the table for us, I believe it is, and come back to us, and then we can see the figures. Do you have any idea how long that would take to provide different traffic data on that?

I think we had mentioned in some of our discussions with you all that you're going to be looking at maybe three to four months to get a good assessment because the way it's going to be is when you take out the ramp, we use the original model. This is the model that is used by all three of the tri-county, Miami-Dade, Broward, and Palm Beach County. It's the same model all three years. counties use. And that model basically has all the, you know, the roadway network, developments that are ongoing, all the new projects and everything. And that is what we use to forecast the traffic. So if we want to know how traffic is going to get redistributed, you add a link into that model. And then the model will tell you, basically, okay, when you add this link, this is the amount of traffic that is going to get diverted. And it's all based on traffic. Basically, everybody's looking for what is the fastest way can I get from point A to point B. So that's what the model does. The model has different things in there. And it's able to determine what will be the fastest way, what will be the best route to use. And it reroutes the traffic, redistributes them. And that's what we use for this. So when we take that ramp out, we have to rerun the model again to understand it.

And do you believe that, or is it common for projects of this scale to move forward with, for example, a 4% to 6% savings, or from an F to an E, or do projects typically proceed with those type of numbers?

Well, for this, you know, for these projects, we are able to demonstrate that we can be able to provide benefits. Now as to level of service, just looking at level of service and stuff like that, there are some intersections that you need to do a lot more to be able to get it to work. For example, I'll give you a very good example on this project, 138th and 67th Avenue. That is a major intersection that if you don't do anything, no matter what you, just the traffic growing by itself, it's gonna be failing. Right now it's failing. this proposed project is adding additional lanes to that intersection to make it operate from a level of service f all the way i believe to a level of service d or something like that so that's a huge improvement another intersection is a 138 and 57th avenue you also experience significant improvements as well as also um the miami lakes drive and the palmetto So these are all improvements that we have, you know, that shows that this project is viable. And that is really what we look out for on any project, the viability of the projects.

Thank you.

Before we go there, again, Mr. Peterman, I just came over and I just asked you about if we can get more detail about that home monitoring and everything else, as Councilman Herzberg was asking. I think we're all interested in the answer to that, so just if you can BCC the council on that. Councilman Garcia, and then we're going to bring this in for a landing.

Thank you, Mayor. Thank you for being here again. I have a question on the entire Grattany ecosystem. Are there any exits or entrances that are 100 feet from a end of a school zone or 100 yards less to a school?

I'm not aware of there is any, you know, on the Grackney. I mean, the Grackney basically has 57th Avenue and then 37th Avenue. 37th Avenue is practically next to the Miami Dade College. It's not a K-8. Well, not Miami Dade College. It's pretty far away. It's pretty far away. Yeah, yeah. So it's a no. So I'm not aware. Let's put it like that. I'm not aware.

In the entire GMX system?

Well, the entire GMX.

Do you know of any exits that are 100 feet from a school zone or less than 100 yards?

I'm not aware at the moment.

The answer is probably no as well. I mean, we can look, but my, again, can it help? Will it help a little bit? Yes. Is it, even the entrance ramps, is it too close to a neighborhood and a school's Hialeah-Miami Lakes entrance on the other side, on the Hialeah side or our side? It's just way too close to a school zone, way too close to a neighborhood. way too much infrastructure, the pile driving, the moving of the canal is just honestly, to me, that is my issue with that. And I already did some of the research and I looked at maps for a while and I couldn't see a school zone that close or a school that close to an entrance or an exit. And that would be my, and I would ask the mayor, would you rather wait till all of us speak before I make a motion or would you rather me make a motion now? I wanna make it as easy.

I would prefer you make it now because like I said, I wanna bring some for a landing.

So I don't wanna waste anybody's time, I don't wanna waste GMX's time, which you've done a great job in educating everybody and the residents. My motion right now is to not only include the exit ramp, but also the entrance ramp, and at this time, not approve or not, as a council, not approve an entrance or an exit ramp to the- I just wanna be clear on the phrasing that we're not approving anything.

It's about a recommendation, a favorable recommendation or not.

A recommendation not to accept an entrance or an exit at this time.

Is there a second? The motion dies for lack of a second. Anything else, Councilman Garcia? Okay. Madam Clerk, please call the roll.

So on the motion by Mayor Diegues, which was seconded by Councilmember Sanchez, Councilmember Garcia?

No.

Councilmember Cuadra Garcia?

No.

Council Member Herzberg.

Yes.

Council Member Sanchez.

Yes.

Council Member Fernandez.

No.

Vice Mayor Morera. Yes. Mayor Diegues. Yes. The motion passes.

Thank you, by your vote the motion carries and we now move to 16 I by Council Member Sanchez. Yeah, that would be the road improvements to the Lake Patricia area. Thank you very much, sir, for your time. Thank you.

Appreciate it.

All right. So to speak a little bit on the background of this, it has to do with the item that we just voted on. It's anticipated.

Please pause, Councilman Sanchez, while we wait for the chambers to empty.

Oh, wait, before. What happened? We need a waiver of 7.2.

Oh, okay. Okay. yeah so okay yeah i need to let's take care of that go ahead a motion of section seven one uh 7.2 of the special rules of order there's a motion to waive section 7.2 of the special rules of order there's been a second by the vice mayor all those in favor say aye aye aye all opposed no The ayes have it, and the rule is waived. Go ahead.

Thank you. So the proposed GMX interchange that we just discussed project is anticipated to result in an increase of vehicular volume and elevated vehicle speeds along Miami Lakeway north and south, Lake Patricia Drive, Lake Saranac Avenue, and Lake Candlewood Court. At present, no traffic calming infrastructure exists in these corridors, leaving police enforcement as the sole means of speed mitigation. It is recommended that the town council...

Please suspend, Councilman. Again, if you're having conversations in chambers, that includes you, David, I see you, I'm sorry. Please move outside. Thank you. All right, you may resume.

In anticipation and to get ahead of what could possibly be, it is recommended that the town council direct the public works department to coordinate with Miami-Dade County to evaluate the implementation of appropriate traffic calming measures including, but not limited to, speed humps, roundabouts, or other engineered solutions in the affected corridors in order to proactively mitigate anticipated increases in traffic volume and vehicle speed resulting from the possible GMX interchange project. Second.

All right. It's been moved and seconded. Mr. Vice Mayor, do you have any discussion?

Just to say, as far as Miami Lake way north and south, I definitely think that we've already seen an uptick in speed there. So I think that this is very beneficial for that. I do want to just point out, I also don't think that we need to... how do I say, answer a problem that doesn't yet exist as far as some of the other streets mentioned, Lake Patricia Drive, Lake Saranac Ave, and Lake Candlewood Court. Those were referenced by several members of the several residents that live in those areas as though those were going to be used as back alley speedways for people avoiding traffic on 67. And as someone who loves back alley speedways, I have a lot of experience in this, those streets do not make any sense as back alley speedways. They're kind of like off the beaten path, but just also, but I only say that in the sense of i don't think we need to rack our brains over it but as far as your motion is asking for the manager to look into potential options that we have there i'm not going to oppose that at all right always give me more information rather than less but but i also just want to caution my colleagues on kind of going crazy and Trying to do all the mitigations when it really might be overkill Miami Lakeway north and south have already been requesting this kind of relief so I definitely agree with moving forward on that and I would only ask that in the research that the manager includes more than just merely speed bumps that that include potentially adding uh three or four-way stops where applicable um as well as maybe small roundabouts where where the right-of-way is large enough for it uh i can never say this word right chicanes chicanes which naturally possibly also um curbing to narrow the road all of that which naturally reduces that the the the speed of traffic rather just beat him. I can tell you someone who used to live in the story and had to take 13 speed bumps to get in and out every single time. It sucks and so we don't want to also cause an unenjoyable ride in and out of town for for residents of right, you know, this matter if you're just consider non speed bump options.

No non speed bump options. Yeah, also consider speed bumps were applicable but but don't make that like the limit of now if you if I may one thing that you want to just may want to start to think you don't have to decide today is some of these areas have already been assessed for speed humps for instance Lake candlewood was a speed study was done it qualified, but when we went to get concurrence from the residents. They said no so not today, but at some point when we report back to you have to consider whether you want because that's a self imposed restriction right that we get concurrence from the neighboring residents. So one of the things that you're going to have to consider is whether we want to put them in whether people say yes or no so just the future decision.

and just to be clear if we were to say no because we don't want to overrule the residents on that uh that nothing stops that if somehow this project does get built and it does suddenly start creating back alley speedways they can come back and ask for it again we're not prohibiting that right okay councilman fernandez

So this item actually, I was waiting for something like this because I had a meeting with my brother. My brother lives on Lake Crescent Place. And these were the streets actually that he brought up. I mean, I spent two hours with him. so i was waiting for for this project to whether or not we were going to know if it was going to move forward or not but i i do think that even though we may not have gotten the some agreements from some of the the residents if it did move forward i think and i think that we could find some of them there may there may be some that opposed putting in speed bumps but i think we could find residents who it would it would be okay with them if

The only one that I know for a fact that we did it and we couldn't get it was like and it was right on the wall says all of them and we're in work with the county and seeing what other alternatives other than speed humps may be available some of them may be costly roundabouts are not cheap right a lot more than speed humps but you know there's a lot of uh space there especially on miami lake way south that there's a lot of space there that could uh tolerate a uh roundabout but i would i would include also the no no left so what he included in you know regarding roundabouts

regarding uh speed humps speed bumps and also no left turns because that would actually deter people from using those cut through to be able to to move further north and south on 67th avenue a left turn off of lake patricia no left turn on lake patricia it was installed at one point my brother brought that up in my meeting with him but it somehow it fell down and it was removed and it was never reinstalled so i think that would be yeah and it could be something that's time sensitive right so

only two or three hours in the afternoon or those kinds of things, those restrictions. Yeah, morning and evening.

We can look at all that. Okay.

Okay, any, Councilman Sanchez.

Just to get back, the reason why I put these items into those specific streets, Mr. Vice Mayor, is because of the experience with Royal Oaks being used, 79th Avenue, as a cut-through for those individuals that go down 82nd Avenue, cut into Royal Oaks, and they speed down 79th to get to Miami-Dade Drive. So the path that I see here is if individuals are trying to get to the Gratney Expressway, for example, from Eagle Nest, they wouldn't have to go all the way to 67th Avenue. They would cut through possibly Miami Lakeway South and into all those streets, Lake Candlewood, Lake Patricia, and use those streets to get into an easier access, especially in the morning rush hour when there's a school zone right at the intersection of Miami Lakeway South and 67th Avenue. That's why I included those in there as a precautionary. Yes, north and south, absolutely. But I added those just because of the experience from 79th Avenue inside of Royal Oaks.

Anyone else? Councilman Herzberg and Councilman Cuadra-Garcia.

Thank you, Mayor. So one thing I wanna talk about just on this, and you'll hear about it from next month, is the timeline for implementation, ASAP. Two reasons why. One, I think we gotta make sure to give the manager an idea. And two, this is a good idea regardless, but obviously there's no guarantee that the Gratney project moves forward, whether GMX comes back to us or even we vote for it. I was really being really serious about that. It's difficult for me to vote for the project. That's why, I just wanna make sure that we're using resources correctly. Regardless, there's a speed issue on Lakeway anyway, and I do wanna look at other mitigation efforts other than just speed bumps, because speed bumps, they're okay. They can work in smaller streets, but maybe there's some other things that, of course, there's a cost.

May I rebut?

to respond, yes.

So the implementation is not the implementation of the actual, the physical barriers, is the implementation of them going out to get the ideas?

No, I understand that.

Because I know it's not gonna take from one day to the next.

Agreed. You'll hear from me next month about, on that issue. Okay. Thank you, Councilman.

Councilman Cuadra-Garcia. Thank you, Mr. Mayor, Mr. Chair. You guys took my word away, roundabouts. You get to see them in in in different parts of the county for gables need to look into these round about there. They're they're going to be they're the things that will help us with the with the issue of the speeding so that's that's the key right there round about it will be my next meetings. And the I put it in round about.

Anyone else. All right. All those in favor, say aye. Aye. All opposed, no. The ayes have it. The item passes. That was 16 aye. We are now on appointments. Being appointed and sworn in, we have Audrey Tomlinson to the Blasting Advisory Board by Councilman Steven Herzberg. We have two individuals who resigned. We have an individual who was removed due to absences. And we have an individual who requires a waiver. That is Mr. Eddie Mena, who is right here to the Veteran Affairs Committee by Councilmember JC Fernandez. Councilman Fernandez is currently awake. so i will go ahead and move the the waiver i want to note that he is a veteran as well so even though he may not live within our town boundaries just like mr uh cardenas you know gary cardenas uh he is somebody who obviously cares about that community a whole lot so with that that is my uh second i'll second for discussion okay well what do you want to do i have to correct the mayor in calling mr mena a veteran mr mena is a marine oh and once a marine always a marine okay i'm sorry i've had navy marine guys you know like go figure well with that said um it was seconded by the vice mayor all those in favor of the waiver say aye aye all opposed no the eyes have it and congratulations eddie welcome to the world yeah the club i mean you're always here anyway so you're welcome sure. If you want to add anyone to say anything really quick.

I'm sorry, no, the mayor think you guys may or think you don't speak with thank you the manager. I've been part of many leagues for a long time I used to live here many lakes are you used to live in Wimbley got married moved to Hialeah uh but i i am very very active very very active here in miami lakes i'm involved with the church lady the lakes i'm involved with the veterans day parade i'm involved with the with the fourth of july party i always bring people there i've been doing that for 20 i think 24 years so yeah i'm a very active person here in miami lakes and i do care about miami lakes a lot and i am honored to be in the veterans board committee And I would do my best to help out the residents of Miami Lakes. And thank you once again.

Councilman Garcia, you're recognized.

I just want to thank you. My son's a Marine. He's in Norway right now, training with NATO. And, you know, he's loving it, man.

I was in from 84 through 88. Awesome. So, yeah, I traveled the world as well, so it was pretty cool.

He's loving it, man. Oh, not that long ago. He's in Strongheim right now. He loves it. Norway is beautiful, he says.

Oh, that is a beautiful place.

And I'll tell you, by the way, just as a last concluding point, and I'm sure Councilman Sanchez will echo my statement here, it's the same statement made to every single member of the of the vc which is you need something let me know and I'm sure he'll echo my sentiment on that with all of us really it's one of our are several we have a lot of little treasures but that one we we hold really close to us it's hard to your car yeah it's hard we hold it very close to our hearts so thank you for serving in both the military and in our committee thank you once again all righty with that we are on to the next item which is the monthly police report

Good evening all. For the month of July, obviously our numbers continue to stay down. We're currently at a 38% deficit in reference to our targeted crimes within the town. As a part of the mitigation process in reference to, I know a lot of concerns obviously were traffic related. We issued 176 citations and also educated a total of 88 times in reference to the drivers for any infractions that they may have caused, totaling to 264 contacts for the month of July. um uh besides obviously the obvious that we had obviously uh you know last week of the the statute uh theft i'm really happy obviously that uh the community came together and our guys did a magnificent job in reference to closing out that case and uh you know obviously we continue to do the very best that we can in reference to mitigate any issues that you guys bring upon

Councilman Sanchez, you're recognized. Well, as always, outstanding job and great job on the first day back to school. I know the street lights were a little bit of a nightmare there on 79th, but the whole department handled it the way that we know, the excellence, the gold standard. That is Miami-Dade County, and you're the crown jewel of Miami-Dade County. On Saturday, though, around 3 p.m., I was coming off the Palmetto, heading home, and I dialed 911 because of what I saw. There were a group of about 20 to 30 teenagers on dirt bikes doing wheelies, passing in front of the golf course, heading westbound. I know there's an item later on on the agenda that addresses it from Councilman Garcia about creating a task force. Are there different things that we can do to try to mitigate that

just be before we get to the task force item or is just 911 the best thing that we can do I mean absolutely I mean um you know comedy is the truth of the matter is is like with any when it comes to like anything reference to bikes dirt bikes whatever those are all traffic mitigation issues right So those get addressed the same exact way as a speeding car or illegal U-turns. It's really mitigating no different. Obviously, more eyes and ears are obviously better for us. Obviously, like everybody knows, we can't be everywhere at once. And obviously, we drive big Christmas trees with lights on top. So obviously, when they see us anywhere near, they typically don't do it. And they just kind of ride along like they're supposed to. when obviously, you know, mommy and daddy are not around. Obviously, they act accordingly, I guess. So with that being said, I mean, obviously, you know, the best route is obviously to call dispatch, obviously to do it in a timely manner, obviously. You know, and I know that obviously there's concerns in reference to e-bikes and scooters and e-motos, et cetera, but again, those are all like factions that we have to deal with no different than any traffic concern because it just runs into the same issues that we always run. They're allowed to be on the road. Obviously, they're not allowed to do wheelies and that kind of stuff. That's a totally different animal. But nonetheless, the mere fact that they're on sidewalks or on the road and riding, unfortunately, that is part of what is allowed in reference to the state laws. And obviously, I understand the whole task force aspect of it, obviously, for safety reasons. But unfortunately, a lot of those things are tied into traffic mitigation issues.

The worst thing we can do ourselves is take physical action. We cannot go after them, obviously. Absolutely not. That's law enforcement. We are not law enforcement. You are law enforcement. Yeah. Right. Okay.

Yeah, I mean, like, I mean, a lot of, like, you know, some towns like Palmetto Bay, I know that they've, you know, tried to do, like, educational campaigns in reference to, like, the e-bikes and stuff like that. I mean, that should be something that we should probably look into. I figure, like, with, you know, the Public Safety Committee, those are things that we can obviously work with. I know that...

uh just like golf carts there's no no different like golf cart safety you know these are the same exact uh same exact things you know and unfortunately they are part of traffic mitigation thank you major thank you any other comments or questions uh councilman guadalajara thank you mr major uh great work congratulations on the team effort of uh getting that uh I thought it wasn't going to be recuperated, but it was. Great job. I had an encounter with those gentlemen, actually not one time, but two times, with these gentlemen popping wheelies, going northbound on 79, and literally just popping the wheelie, and I'm going like, okay, where are you guys going? And they're doing this to me. I mean, literally... doing the birdie and I'm going, okay. So I happened to be able to talk to one of them and I said, well, I'm sure that your mom and dad educated you a little more. Why don't you tell me where your mom and dad are? Says, come on, follow me. So they took me all the way into the guard gate and passed JC's street there and they made a left there. But what happened is, the dead end there's a dead end right so right i said well where do you what are you guys taking me are we close to your house and right when we got to the dead end they just left through the dead end and they have you seen them before these kids that are popping the wheelies and

I mean, we see them around the town, obviously. But there's been instances where, for example, I've addressed it, like seeing it at Main Street. Obviously, I live in the town as well. So those are things that I've been able to mitigate and address at that moment. once they're gone they go right back to it and it is it is a social media trend um you know there there is like a very cult following in reference to what these kids are doing on the bikes in reference to willies so it's it's it's more geared to to a trend more so than you know them being rambunctious in reality so councilman harzberg

Thank you, Vice Mayor. And you just said Main Street, so it reminded me, I got a phone call from a resident about Main Street. I think it might have been on Thursday, but it was during summertime. They said there's just a lot of teenagers out there past 8 p.m., 10 p.m. Obviously, that's a private property rule. I think the curfew is 11 p.m., right, on weekdays.

Well, so in reference to the private property.

Well, private property is private property.

Yeah, but the Gramps Institute have added, I mean, and obviously Garcia knows this, their curfew is 8 p.m., but they have to enforce that. right uh their security no because we have to go based off state law now since it is private property what we do is that we we're like a secondary line of defense for them so if they if they're enforcing their their curfews um and they encounter issues and obviously then at that point we trespass warn and and do that that back end because it is private property but on the summer's over now so weekday shouldn't be happy it shouldn't be an issue i know on friday and saturday there's usually some units there i assume those are overtime those are those are off duties that are hired by the ground by the grand pump but those are only on fridays and saturdays fridays and saturdays correct and so in the summer in the summer we we have a bigger footprint so it turns out to be more officers on friday saturdays and they add sundays during the summer, we do that also during spring break. So winter break, those are times when the kids are out of school, obviously, you know, obviously they support us in that end and it obviously helps out a lot. Um, unfortunately enough is like, it's the same thing. It's like the footprint typically concentrates itself on the main portion of main street itself. And I have to obviously, you know, send my guys over to like the park at middle walk, et cetera, because obviously when we start giving them a hard time that they have to leave and they're being pushed out, they just scattered to other, to other locations. And so it is, you know, it was just kind of like a cat and mouse game with them the entire time.

Okay, perfect. Just want to get some details on that. Thank you. You're welcome.

Any other comments? Just, you know, great job on getting the statue back. I know, like he said, I thought it was gone. And I think I saw some of our detectives were involved directly in figuring out where it was as well as accumulating all the tips and all stuff so thank you guys for everything you guys done and for the numbers which still do not lie thank you and shows that you guys are doing a phenomenal job thank you thank you so much all right have a good evening thank you all righty we are on to 8b public works monthly infrastructure report director Santos good evening council

So go and highlight to prod to items. First one is the Miami lakes drive traffic ops and feasibility analysis that report has been completed the managers distributed to to the council just to get a a quick review and then we plan to we're planning to bring the consultant to do a formal presentation during the next meeting just some highlights. The consultant concluded that the 4 options are feasible to some point and they they do recommend proceeding with the next phase of doing a further analysis to determine if they are Completely feasible to get to a construction but we'll go into more detail as far as to the findings of the of the analysis during the presentation and

Omar before you leave that item. I just want to talk to the tell the council and I may have mentioned it to some of you in our briefings is my intent as long as there's no objection is with that feasibility study since it is for different options is to get a develop a field trip with all of the stakeholders at that. TPO they County public works. You obviously the council of county elected official our state officials and get them out there so they could see it in person. And and that way whenever we go to take the eventual hopefully next step which is for asking for assistance with appropriations with the funding some of these alternatives that they have a much better grasp on what it is that we're talking about so as long as there's no objection, I'm going to start working towards that that end.

The next will be our 59th Avenue project our consultant has already responded to at the OT comments were waiting for the feedback on that see we can close out this review phase and the same has occurred for the county DTP W reviews. Those have been uploaded into their portals are currently waiting for feedback to see if we could wrap up this phasing continue to our 90%. And then the last project I like to highlight is like the last time is our Park was we've completed our negotiation face of the CIA are currently in the process of getting the contract executed to be in construction so in the next few months.

Comments, questions?

Through the chair? Councilman Fernandez. It's, it's not a comment related to anything that you brought up. I just wanted to, to state this on the record that I got a phone call from a resident in Royal Oaks where he reported a sinkhole in front of his house or at least something that could be developing. I brought it up to Omar Santos as well. I, I copied the manager and I'm not, I'm not even not exaggerating but an hour maybe within an hour I drove happen to drive by I wanted to see it whether it was present from the 82nd Avenue and there was already a cone placed on where on where the supposed sinkhole is so it was just addressed immediately and and I think that that shows the staff and and specifically you the great job you're doing

Thank you.

Councilman Cuadra Garcia.

I don't know if it's for public works, but I sent a pictures to our town manager this morning reference to how the area over at Advanced Auto Part area is starting to look. Mr. Mayor, Mr. Manager, did you see them? It started to look like a pig pen over there. Yes. Really bad.

That wouldn't be public works. That would be code enforcement. Code enforcement.

Would you look into that, please? Yes. Thank you. But now that I've got the director here, where we at with my baby, the canal?

So like I mentioned we are in the process of developing an ITB which was the the I guess the consensus during our last discussions. To get a contract for repair and maintenance and then we would budget which we already already made a note to have an allocation and repair and maintenance budget to do repairs on the canal bank.

Okay, so basically let's say we approve the budget and all the good stuff what warranty what warranty are we going to get.

We're going to get a great warranty so part of the repair would be documentation of findings and that we would determine if there's a cause for action against the war in 10.

Okay now, but if we do decide to do the maintenance that you're stating that are we going to have a better warranty than the one that we have now.

Well typically the standard warranty on labor and materials is a year.

So okay, so we're we're working we're working on.

Yes, thank you. Let me clear up so I make sure on the same page maintenance there usually isn't there isn't a warranty on the maintenance right we're just preparing or we're getting a contractor to make actual repairs that they would then warrant for a year.

Yes, it's like our our our roadway contract if they have the patches that we've done in several areas of the fields within a year we will look at it is it due to the workmanship of the material that the use.

So then we request for them to replace it was not if it's a truck fell on it that it's something that right so so the the actual areas of the canal bank that are repaired replaced repaired Those would be under a year warranty. And of course, it depends on how it's used. And the funding for the maintenance comes from stormwater, right?

Stormwater, correct.

Okay, perfect. So you got a year to look at them, right? To make sure they're doing a good job. Got it. Thank you.

When we actually get started.

Let me take one more, my privilege.

Give me one second to ask a question about that. And it's, I just don't recall us voting in favor of the repair part. I remember, yeah, the maintenance, yeah, obviously we maintain what's ours. But I don't remember voting for the piece by piece. I remember us, me moving the canal bank stabilization project and they're getting voted down by Councilman.

So I just remember that getting shut down so so what project are we doing here so it was not a project says there was an extensive discussion at the end the agreement was we have to do something. So one of the things I mentioned was we can do an invitation to bid to have a and on an as needed basis repair and maintenance contract similar to how we will have in the roadway my understanding that that the agreement was yes, let's proceed with that and then we would budget who determine when it becomes needed. Well, we know there's a need for repair now so we'll have that just add up to more than whatever was the proposal that got shot down.

Over time.

If I may so I the numbers were there I remember one numbers like 700,000 another one of hers about a 100,000 years of like that that was your estimate that those are all in approach the 700 was all in.

Yes, so this will be in on an as needed basis so we would determine based on what is approved. Per the budget every year.

like priority. This is what needs to be prepared first and here's your 100,000 and for all I know you might run out of the money in the first 3 months could based off that they saw the can we do it in sections will say we only have enough to do the first 30 feet will do the first 30 feet so right now we don't even have this item budgeted we would be in this fiscal year right but in stormwater, yes, out of stormwater okay, I got there so.

What does it cost us every time we do I don't know if you call it flag or a piece of concrete. I think they some people call it a flag some call it a slab. So every time we do a slob because a route is lifting it up. What do we roughly pay whatever contractor.

So. Each each 5 by 5 flag is about 2.7 the square yards. I think right now our contract don't quote me on this but well quote me for now, but the although which I think is around $55 a square year for the 10% mobilization fee so from that you can get your per flight cost.

No, it's not $2.00, $170.00, it looks like.

$170.00 per square foot. Per flag. Per 5x5. Per 5x5. These flags are not 5x5.

The typical ones are, yes. The residential ones. The only ones that get bigger are like Commerce Way, Miami Lake, where you get some bigger ones.

That's super cheap. Okay, all I can tell you is... Okay, so all I can tell you is that there's a lot of them that are being done, and they're not even... They're not even a year old and they're cracking their lifting up because the roots are doing that again. We're not putting root barriers. So we're going to be talking about those root barriers real soon again.

But if you recall, I don't know if you were a council member by them, but we discussed this in several meetings in the back in the past. depending on the size of the tree we may not be able to install a root barrier and that's something we can discuss later come into more detail instead of you know taking all the time here but if you want we can discuss that later beautiful um like councilman fernandez my point is not really one of the things that are mentioned here um and you can feel free to keep your answer as brief as you want and we can discuss it more offline but

Something you said earlier about the options on Miami Lake Drive kind of just jogged my memory. That time that we met and discussed the whole AI timing thing with the synchronization of the lights, the last I heard about that was like a while ago, and we were still waiting to hear back on some permits from Miami-Dade County. What has happened since then? Has it finally gone active? What's going on?

So since then, the county, we had to do some legwork on our end. The county has approved our documentation and the final part is for the contractor to schedule an inspection on site with the Miami-Dade County inspector. They'll close our permit. As far as that portion going live, that is something the county would work on. I know they've been upgrading the cabinets with new hardware. You know, I don't know if the ultimate goal is to get that live in the Miami Lakes area, but they have been working on upgrades to their system.

Does that, when you say the hardware, does that mean essentially that whatever we paid for as a town, the whole AI thing, was basically just a waste or is not going to go active? Well, not 100%. That's the part I'm not understanding. Yeah, some of the things we did. I'm trying to understand what exactly we paid for and what's going to happen when it goes active and will it ever go active.

that I would have to get the answer what about that that that takes a decision that's what you're talking about. But other things that the town worked on where the cameras are currently be used by police. I don't see those being taken out by by the county as part of the work they're doing and they are being used.

Any other.

Coming from my house on 79th, going towards 154th Street, you've got the hotel there. I call it the motel. What's it called? The Quinta? I called it the Quinta Motel. Right there, when you get to the light, to make a left, it doesn't even give you a minute to be able to make a left. and it just backs up there what is going on is in a light supposed to give you at least a minute for cars to be able to turn.

That would be up to the county traffic timing engineer to determine what's appropriate timing for those for those movements and it may change on the time of the day rush hour, midday and an afternoon rush hour.

I encourage J. C. you live. Councilman J. C. you live in my have you experienced the same issue make

It is rough, but I think that it's not really through the town that makes those moves on the timing. I think it has to do with the county. So if they're having an issue, which sometimes I feel it, sometimes I don't. It depends on the time of day. But I think we've got to take that up with the county.

It's early in the morning. I've had the residents tell me.

Sorry to interrupt, but that's what I was going to mention. If you have a specific time, we could always send the question to the county.

So, I mean, the specific time is always because when I'm driving at 9, 10 o'clock at night, it just makes no sense. Obviously... In the morning, we hear from residents a lot. I thankfully avoid that area in the morning. But I think last, on the Saturday at 10.30 at night, I get off, I get a red light, it goes to green, then it's red again. It makes zero sense. I mean, in my opinion, there's been absolutely, a monkey is deciding the timing change because nothing makes sense. And I feel like it's different every single day. I know it's not, but it just, it doesn't make any sense. And I would love for there just to be I liked it at night when they used to turn the lights off. I don't know why Dade County stopped doing that. I guess it was a safety thing. It made a lot of sense. Yeah, that was great. I mean, I feel like there's a few lights in town that do it, but not many. Most lights stay on. I don't know why. There's no need for a lot of these stoplights at night. But I would love to just, how do we see, isn't there like, can't we ask the county for, this is the current signalization plan or is it just random like I think it is? It's a really good question the laser way for the town for through the manager to ask the county like what is their plan for this. What it would there's got to be a number of what was the cell she write what was something that says yeah, we're going to get a 9 this is what the timing is between 1012 I would love to just see that and then say well this doesn't make sense.

is your just going back to the the both items the concerns specifically to the 79th avenue intersection or just that entire it's a whole thing in my opinion i'm going to ask this last question and then i think we really should just move this into uh sunshine honestly um because i think this is actually a very prudent discussion um and it's could something be done sort of like what was done with the speed bumps where maybe the town real sorry the county relinquishes that very tight grasp that they have over the signals and allows us to do it under certain criteria the way it is with the speed bumps where it we don't have free reign to install speed bumps wherever we want we have to do the study we have to meet all the criteria as the manager said earlier about uh i forgot which street it was it met the criteria for it and if it doesn't then then we can't do it without the county's approval can we have something like that with this my my initial thought is no but

We can always as a question, but the reason I would say no it's because that is with a software system that they manage internally so that was essentially mean they would give. The town authority to access their system to control the lights within the town and then we wouldn't know how that impacts traffic coming from highly at our that's where the area would come so that that's the difficulty and that's where they they maintain his umbrella.

coverage or authority i think that it's a fruitful discussion to be able to make the ask right like if they say no they say no but but i think that that you're saying about the concern about how it affects hialeah or unincorporated data or whatever i think that that's where the criteria come in and obviously we cannot set all of our lights to permanent green so that we're just jamming up all of hialeah streets obviously um there has to be as great as that would be just kidding UM BUT BUT AT THE END OF THE DAY WE CAN ASK AND IF THEY SAY NO WE SAY NO AND AND WE MOVE ON ALL RIGHT THANK YOU UH DIRECTOR SANTOS ANYTHING ELSE FROM YOUR REPORT NO NO ALL RIGHT CONNECT UM WELL THE MAYOR'S BACK BUT WE'RE ON TO THE NEXT MANAGER'S REPORT WHICH IS THE CHAMBER DISPLAY AND DIAS PRESENTATION AV ENHANCEMENTS MR CURE WELCOME BACK TO THE PODIUM IT'S BEEN A MINUTE

Very nice. Yeah, it was hard to find something that was good. Good evening council members, staff, member of the public. This is Hermann Cure, technology officer for the town of Miami Lakes. Before you is a report that provides modern upgrade options and cost estimates for improving visibility, presentation capabilities, and overall meeting experience within the council chambers. THIS REPORT FOLLOWS ITEM 16C FROM THE MAY AGENDA PRESENTED BY COUNCIL MEMBER GARCIA. DURING THE DISCUSSION OF THAT ITEM, ADDITIONAL INPUT WAS RECEIVED FROM THE COUNCIL MEMBERS REGARDING OPPORTUNITIES TO IMPROVE RELATED ASPECTS OF THE CHAMBERS, INCLUDING DISPLAYS AT THE DIAS AND PODIUM. THESE ADDITIONAL IDEAS WERE INCORPORATED IN THIS REPORT SO THAT WE COULD EVALUATE IMPROVEMENTS AS ONE COMPREHENSIVE EFFORT. THE GOAL OF THIS REPORT IS TO PROVIDE COUNCIL WITH AVAILABLE OPTIONS AND ESTIMATED COSTS TO HELP GUIDE THE LOCATION OF FUNDS WHEN THE COUNCIL DETERMINES IT IS APPROPRIATE. SO THE REPORT IS DIVIDED IN THREE MAIN AREAS. CHAMBERS DISPLAY OPTIONS, DISPLAY ENHANCEMENTS, AND PODIUM DISPLAY IMPROVEMENTS. ON PAGE ONE AND TWO, WE HAVE SUMMARIZED EACH AREA. Starting with the chamber display options, we evaluated four potential approaches. Number one, install TV monitors on each side of the seating area behind you. Number two, we'll be installing two projectors on each side of the chambers, which is an alternative display solution to the monitors. Number three, we'll be installing three projectors, two projectors on the rear wall behind the council for viewing by the public, and one projector facing the AV room to provide display for the council members. And the four options is using rolling TV displays. Any questions on the first? Through the chair?

Yeah. Councilman Garcia, but I just want to state for all my colleagues, we now have less than an hour before we need to start having motions to extend. And remember that per the charter, we have a hard cut off at midnight, and we still have a lot to cover in the agenda. So let's just keep our discussions brief and to the point. Councilman Garcia.

Thank you, Mayor. And I will be brief. Thank you so much for taking the time and doing this. I mean, the options look great. What I have incredible trouble with is the price. I'm on the Best Buy website. There's a 100-inch TV for less than $1,000. They're correct, yes. Okay. You have two TVs here and a rolling cart for $6,000. Now, I don't know where you got those prices. I'd love to ask you, but Best Buy is telling me I can get a 100-inch TV for $1,000, and I'm sure a cart is not more than $200. So if I look at what's on Best Buy and what I can get compared to the prices, and these are the rolling carts, which require Wi-Fi, no connections, it's $6,000. Can you explain the disparity between what I can get at Best Buy and what I can get for probably $2,000 and what costs $6,000 to the town, not including... you know, cables or anything like that. Where's the disparity in the cost?

It varies, yes. You can get from Best Buy, from CDW, from, you know, any suppliers. A couple of items or things that you have to keep in mind, you know, is going to be these places are going to be turning on and off. They're going to be staying on for a long time. Number of outputs or inputs that you need. So yes, you might find something $1,000, not feasible, not really good fit for the town, probably $2,000 would be more in range of what we require. So of course, if the decision is made, we will look for the best price, but this is like an overall. Also, one thing that drives a lot is technology is varying a lot. So I can say $1,000 now, but the time that I'm going to place the order is going to be $1,500. So $2,000, we think, is very conservative numbers. And rolling carts, yes, again, you can find something very sturdy, something cheaply made. So I think it's a conservative number that we have in there.

You're telling me that $6,000 for 200-inch TVs and two carts, $6,000 is a conservative number?

Yes. You have to run some maybe electrical. We have to find it. We have outlets close by.

Okay, one more question, sorry, Mr. Mayor. Okay, because I think this is an eye-opener to all of us here, and no disrespect, because I know this is your, you're an expert, you're just me in this. The whole point of my item was to help the audience. As you saw today, they had to be looking sideways and backwards, right? And that's very uncomfortable, especially if you're a senior, you have problems with your neck. So I'm willing just to do that little, the rolling cards, or for the presenters, that little arm with a 22 inch thing so they can see what they're doing. Here at the podium. Yeah, the cost for that is $1,000. You're telling me that a 22-inch with an arm is $1,000?

Just the monitor itself, it could be $600, more or less, and then you have to add the labor.

How can a 22-inch monitor cost $600 when a 100-inch monitor costs 100? I'm just, maybe because I'm not into that, but again, Electronics though the wiring you have wiring installation and cabling 21,000 almost 2 thirds the cost of the actual upgrades if we put 2 screens projectors up here. We can't get a local AV guy from Best Buy to come out here?

This is actually a local AV guy. What drives most of the calls on this installation, hardware is a small percentage. Labor is the big ticket item here. If you see this building, when it was constructed, there were no additional content that you usually find in construction that you foresee in the future expansion. So all this cable has to be run. It's a pretty high building. You have maybe a lifter or two, and you have to run all the wiring from here all the way back to the AV room, and that includes also electricity and everything cabling and anything related to the AV connection.

Okay. What I would ask is, obviously we're not going to spend all that money, but I honestly think that this is way, way out of line with costs that, I mean, honestly, I know what you're saying, but two 200-inch televisions on two, what was it, two carts? Rolling carts, yes. Man, that shouldn't be more than two grand. And I think that, you know, I can't, we need this here. But even that, even that little arm with the 22-inch, I'm sorry, man. What if I go buy a 22-inch TV with an arm and get it for 400 or 500 bucks? Would you install it?

Of course.

So if I can do it, that's what- No, if you find it, yes, we'll do it. I just found on Best Buy, I'm just saying, guys, I'm a little frustrated with the exaggerated cost. There has to be local construction guy, electrical guy that'll give us a better price than almost $25,000, $21,000 for installation. Now, when the building was built, and this wasn't considered possible future AV conduits or anything like that, was it put in?

No, that's what I'm saying, that everything has to be built from scratch.

Okay. I don't want to waste your time. Guys, my colleagues, is there anybody else who feels, and I know that this is just way, way too much for stuff that we can get for a third the price on the street?

mayor mr mayor real quick i know we're pressed for time i'll take seconds we're gonna go we're gonna go uh still in order i'm still i'm i wasn't trying to say that we need to rush like through everything at the speed of light but let's also just be cognizant of how much time we're taking i will come to you now let's be with the vice mayor and then we'll go to councilman guadalajara i don't know if captain herzberg had anything to add okay fine so we'll after councilman guadalajara go ahead go

I actually don't think the price is that crazy. I've seen IT costs before. They do seem that way, right, to the average person. In option one, for example, $14,464 out of the, they're charging 17,000 for the hardware plus the AV upgrades plus the accessories. What exactly are the AV upgrades and the accessories that we're talking about there?

That's a good question. If you see how many TVs we have here, we have one, two, three here outside. Inside the room, probably have another two or three. Everything that connects to the AV switch is already maxed out. So there is a need to fix, I'm sorry, to upgrade that AV switch.

So there are more ports? Correct. Okay. So my experience in my own purchasing for my law firm is Quality in these kinds of things matters. The last thing you want, and personally, I just have to say, I don't like the projector option. It is the most expensive option. And I just don't like the idea of having a projector hung 20 feet down from the ceiling. It's just going to look weird. um the the tv option is far superior but then now you have to wonder if for a considerable period of time it is going to literally show something that looks like that right kind of like a placeholder image correct The last thing you want, you buy a bad quality TV, it's going to burn the image into that TV and it will never come off and then it'll look like bad quality. This is one of those areas where I'm just trying to say, honestly, we're not poor. We're really not. And I do really appreciate you originally bringing this item up, but this is now a council item, and I'll just go ahead and do it just for the sake of moving time. I'm gonna move option one for the chamber display, and I'm going to move option, well, option one, the only one, for the dais display options, and I'm gonna move the C, podium display, all three of them.

All right, is there a second? SECOND IT'S BEEN SECONDED BY UH THE UH BY COUNCILMAN EXCUSE ME COUNCIL MEMBER FERNANDEZ CAN YOU GO AGAIN SO YEAH OPTION ONE OPTION ONE WHICH IS THE TWO TV'S YEAH FOR A THIRTY TWO THOUSAND ONE ONE ONE YEAH ONE ONE AND ONE YEAH IN EACH CATEGORY IN EACH CATEGORY PERSONALLY I'M NOT CRAZY THOUGH EVEN ABOUT THE TV'S I MEAN FOR ALL THE MONEY THAT WE'RE GOING TO SPEND THERE I MEAN you know like and the truth is I look even even I you know from here I can have that TV right there you know I can see you know what's going on I mean to me it just if it's going to cost as much we're better off just not doing it at all I mean that's just my two cents but I understand where you're coming from like you said you're just trying to move this forward a councilman and then councilman Herzberg

Thank you. I know you love this this this town. If we can't do better we can't shop and get a better deal. I'm going to agree with with the with the mayor. It's either a better deal or or nothing. So try if we're going to have it try to try to do the negotiation and try to get us a little better deal.

Of course. Thank you.

Councilman Herzberg. So I don't even like option one. I don't like the look of it. And I really don't think how much we're gonna use it. I'm all for option four. I think it is a little overpriced. I think we would get a decent quality TV, which should cost between $1,500 each, 18, maybe 2,000. Option four is a conservative number. I agree with you, it's definitely not what I would expect the town to spend on it. But I understand why sometimes you wanna put conservative numbers. But I honestly don't like having, I like having, in God we trust, a seal and nothing else. I don't want to put TVs behind us. I don't see the need. How often are we going to use this for site plan reviews, someone has a presentation? I don't even see, I mean, I have my computer here. I can just log on to wherever I need to go where the manager can just provide us the PowerPoint ahead of time, right? I do believe, right, no, but that's why I said I think option four is good to, when we need it, You bring it out. When you don't need it, we don't have it. And then I put 100%, we gotta put something on the podium. That's a no-brainer. The people that present to us should have that benefit.

So do you have an amendment?

Yeah, I'll amend. I would amend the motion to then go with, instead of option one, option four, I don't believe we need any dais visibility. We all have our own computers and iPads and then we go with the podium visibility. So option four for chamber display and option one for summary for podium display. I'll second that.

It's been seconded by Councilmember Garcia. I have a question before we continue though. What are we solving again by putting it at the podium? Is that for presenters? Yes. Okay, okay.

Because now they're looking sideways and they can't see either.

Okay, got it. Yeah, I just wanted to clarify that. Okay, Vice Mayor Morata, I believe you had your hand up.

Yeah, out of all the options, that's not my least favorite because my least favorite is the projectors, but it's very close to being tied for my least favorite, primarily because, I don't know, it just gives me PTSD from school when they just rolled in the little TV cart. but also I think it's a gigantic waste of space in our council chambers whether you put it there they're also where are you gonna store it because we have a lot of special events in this chambers and that thing's gonna break if you just leave it out here so so you could try in there nothing fits in there yeah I'm into the amendment no I'm just saying I'm gonna vote no on the okay okay

Yes, or she's a is a challenge for those to use if you see the room is already packed.

Thank you. Madam for please call the roll on on the on the amendment.

The amendment by councilmember Hurstberg seconded by councilmember Garcia councilmember quadra Garcia, it's a big no. Councilmember Garcia. It's a yes, we can find a better price councilmember a friend and it's yes. Councilmember Sanchez know. Council Member Herzberg.

Yes.

Vice Mayor Morera?

No.

Mayor Diegues? No. The motion fails.

Thank you. All right, so that's on the amendment. I'll try one more amendment, which is just to do the podium display. Second. Okay, it's been seconded by, huh? No, no, no. Let's move on, let's move on. All right, so it's been seconded by Councilman Herzberg. All those, Madam Clerk, please call the roll just on my amendment, which is a strike all amendment, just to do item C, option one.

thousand dollars for the podium uh uh display okay and the and who seconded the amendment by me okay perfect council member hersberg yes council member sanchez no a council member cuadra garcia council member fernandez yes council member garcia yes Vice Mayor Moreira. Yes. Mayor Diegas. Yes.

The motion passes. Thank you. Now final passage of the main motion as amended. All those in favor say aye. Aye. All opposed no. The ayes have it, the motion carries. All right. Thank you.

So it's just a podium item.

Just a podium.

Thank you. Sorry, but thank you.

We gotta move on guys. Okay. Too late now. All right, so with that, we are now on protecting the town's tree canopies, and I know Director Bagdoun will do a good job at moving us as quickly as possible through this.

Good evening, Mayor and Council, Director Parks and Recreation Jeremy Bagdoun. The item we have before you is coming off of direction from the Council to look at ways to establish potentially a policy and fines for vendors that do harm to our trees, unknowingly to the residents that hired them. Essentially, the report in front of you goes out all the due diligence done by the town and by staff to look at different various permits that are issued by the county, other types of programs that have been done in the past by other communities, communities of high standards for their arbor management, and existing town limitations as far as what we can already do. In review of that, essentially what you'll see in the report is the recommendation due to some Florida statutes and due to some prohibitions on what we can and cannot license or create a registry that requires these levels of standards, we would look to develop and coordinate um educational initiative that looks at getting ahead of before any residents hire any of these landscapers kind of some quick facts some flyers that we can develop some social media campaigns that we can push around that looks at educating our residents to what we should be looking for what are some of the town standards as far as the red the vendors we use and then looking at placing these documents, these social media campaigns, and even printed documents at our community meetings, our HOA meetings, taxing district meetings, and kind of getting the word out about different ways at looking at how you should be looking at the vendors that you are hiring. And that is the report. Are there any questions?

Councilman Garcia, we'll go to you since this is partly your item.

Thank you so much appreciate the time you put into this and the whole point of this was to avoid for you know poor citizens getting a bamboozled into cutting a tree when the actual you know landscape or no you can do that here. So as far as the encouraging use of tree care professionals and recognizing that what are we going to do as a town, I know we do something but how to make sure that we have a list of recognized landscapers that we approve.

Correct. So we do have a voluntary program and looking at tree trimming vendors within the town that have met all of our standards. They would meet the same standards that our contractors do that are licensed to trim on the town. And essentially our goal here would be to go out and solicit more vendors that we know are of statute that have these accreditations that maintain the criteria and looking at putting them on our website. The more vendors we're able to get to buy in to the process, the more options our town residents can look at different vendors that we know won't create these type of these types of issues.

Yeah. So that's great. So I know my colleagues have questions, but at this point, I'd like to go ahead and and move that we accept your recommendations and develop the particular canopy education initiative, including all the bullet points that you included here.

Second, I'll second. It's been seconded by Councilman Sanchez. Is there really any discussion on this? OK, all those in favor say aye. Aye. All opposed no. The aides have it. Motion carries. Thank you very much, director. Excellent job. All right. We're now in the attorney's report. Mr. Attorney.

Thank you, Mr. Mayor, Council, I have nothing to report.

Amazing, all right, we're now in the consent calendar. Is there a motion?

Move.

It's been moved by Council Member Fernandez. I'll second it. All those in favor, say aye. Aye. All opposed, no. The ayes have it. The motion carries and the consent calendar is passed. We now move to 13A, ordinances on first reading employee performance review policy. Mr. Attorney, read the ordinances to the record.

Thank you, Mister Mayor. Employee performance review policy and ordinance of the Town of, Council of the Town of Miami Lakes, Florida amending chapter 2 administration article 3 officers and employees of the Town of Miami Lakes code of ordinances creating section 2-57 titled Employee Performance Reviews providing for a baseline performance review requirement, providing for an ongoing review schedule, providing for Town Manager discretion and delegation, providing for outcomes and review to remain within the discretion of the Town Manager, providing inclusion to the code, providing for repeal of ordinances in conflict, providing for severability and providing for an effective date.

Thank you, and I remind everybody that this is first reading, but I go now to Councilman Herzberg to go ahead and make his motion.

We already approved the concept that just the minimum standard for employee renewal reviews. The town manager's already implementing his own standard, which meets this ordinance once it's passed, so I move that we pass the ordinance.

Excellent. Second. Seconded by Councilmember Fernandez. Madam Clerk, please call the roll.

Ordinance and first reading, item 13A, Councilmember Herzberg. Yes. Councilmember Fernandez. Yes. Councilmember Cuadra Garcia. Yes. Councilmember Garcia.

Yes.

Council Member Sanchez. Yes. Vice Mayor Morera is absent. Mayor Diegas. Yes. The ordinance and first reading item 13A passes.

Excellent. We are now on ordinances in second reading, beginning with 14A, modification of chapter 35, article two, utility facilities in public right of way by Director Santos. But first, Mr. Attorney, read the ordinance to the record.

Thank you Mister mayor and order to the town council tell me the sport of many chapter 35 utilities article 2 utility facilities in public rights of way of the town code of ordinances to align with the town regulation governing the insulation means removal of utility facilities within the rights of way with current for statutes provided for moments of definitions registrations insurance and then vacations terminations permitting and other related provisions provided for several ability provided for inclusion to the code provided for complex provided for an effective day.

Excellent, thank you. This being a public hearing, I'm opening the public hearing. Seeing no members of the public in chambers, Madam Clerk, anyone online?

I see two individuals. I'm just going to ask. They don't have their hands raised, but I'm going to ask. If anyone is participating online, remote public comments, for ordinance in second reading 14A, please unmute yourself now. It is the opportunity to speak right now.

Okay, the public hearing is now closed. Director Santos, you're recognized to introduce the item and then we'll entertain motions from there.

Okay, good evening. So this item, like I mentioned in the last meeting, is more of a cleanup item for chapter 35, article two. Our attorneys did a review of the item to make sure it's in compliance with current Florida statute and the changes that you see reflected here are based on that.

Thank you, is there a motion?

Move it.

Moved by Council Member Garcia. Is there a second? Second. Seconded by Councilman Sanchez. Madam Clerk, any discussion? Okay, seeing none, Madam Clerk, please call the roll.

Ordinance and second reading item 14 a council member Garcia. Yes council member cuadra Garcia Council member Sanchez. Yes council member Herzberg. Yes council member Fernandez Yes, vice mayor Moreira is absent mayor. Diego's. Yes the ordinance in second reading item 14 a passes I

excellent we're now taking up 14b amending chapter 38 of the town code special taxing districts by director bag down mr attorney thank you mr mayor in order to the town council the town of miami lakes florida amending chapter 38 special taxing districts of the town code of ordinances amending section 38-2 to provide a definition of capital improvements and to establish a uniform process for the adoption of special assessments for capital improvement projects within the town's special taxing districts Providing for seven ability providing for inclusion to the code providing for conflicts and providing for an effective date This director you may proceed

Good evening, Mayor and Council. The item before you in its second reading is essentially looking at cleaning up Chapter 38 and adding the definition of a capital improvement, defining its parameters, as well as going ahead and creating and establishing the same policy identical to adjusting the ordinance itself, but in order to create a one-time assessment or a capital improvement, the process for approving a capital improvement project.

At this time, I am opening up the public hearing. Seeing no one in chambers. Madam Clerk, anyone online? Just the same two?

Same individuals.

Okay, we'll give them five seconds for one.

If you're listening to the remote public comments right now, section of the agenda, please unmute yourself if you wanna participate and provide feedback, provide public comments. On 14B.

on 14b yes ordinance in second reading amending the town code for special taxing districts definition okay uh no one uh closing the public hearing and with that um I'll go ahead and move it is there a second second it's been seconded by Councilmember Garcia any discussion seeing none Madam Clerk please call the roll on this item

ordinance in second reading item 14b council member hersberg council member fernandez yes council member cuadra garcia council member garcia yes council member sanchez yes vice mayor moreira is absent mayor diegas yes ordinance in second reading item 14b passes

excellent we are now on 14c budget amendment for contribution of 1.56 million for senior center project provided by the grams this is between uh miss director grant and director hernandez over there uh with that mr attorney go ahead

Thank you, Mister Mayor in order to the town of Miami Lakes, Florida amending ordinance 2025 3.46 approved fiscal year 2025 2026 annual operating budget to recognize an appropriate contribution from the Graham companies in the amount of 1,000,560,000 for the construction of senior center project, providing for increase of capital funds, park improvements, revenues and appropriations in the amount of 1,000,560,000 dollars as set forth in exhibit a providing for authority, providing for implementation

providing for repeal of ordinances in conflict providing for severability providing for inclusion and providing for an effective date okay um well you know what uh does anybody really want to need them to present it again this is just okay yeah all right so perfect uh so with that i'll move it is there a second second it's been seconded oh wait before i forget just procedurally correct The public hearing is now open. Seeing no one in chambers, Madam Clerk, once again, nobody online willing to comment on 14C? Nope.

I don't see anyone, but again, I'll just stress, if anyone is participating online and wants to provide public comments in ordinance in second reading item 14C, please unmute yourself now.

Okay, I was now closed the move in second that already actually so with that a discussion seen a man for please call the roll yes and see.

14 C ordinance in second reading councilmember Sanchez, yes, councilmember quite a Garcia. Councilmember her spirit, yes, councilmember Garcia, yes, councilmember Fernandez, yes, vice mayor more data is absent mayor D again, yes, ordinance in second reading item 14 C passes.

Excellent, okay. We are now on 15A, authorization to apply to the Florida Recreation Development Assistance Grant Program by Ms. Shock. Go ahead, Shock us.

Hi there, so this would be a grant program that we were looking to apply to to redo two of the pocket parks, replace playground equipment at P79 and 83. This would be $50,000 each and there is no required match for this program.

Excellent. I'll move it. Is there a second? Second. We've been seconded. Any discussion? Seeing none, all in favor say aye. Aye. Opposed, no. You guys have it. 15A passes. You're back up, Ms. Schock, for the authorization to apply to the Resilient Florida Implementation Grant Program, Lakeland Island Phase 1. Again, that's 15B. Go ahead.

Yeah, absolutely. So again, this is a drainage improvement project that would provide for a construction of a new drainage system over in the Lake Glen Ellen neighborhood. Project map is attached. This is a program requires a 50% cost match with the total cost being $1,638,000. So that'd be $819,000 coming from the grant and $819,000 from the town out of stormwater maintenance fund.

Excellent. Okay. I'll move it. Second. It's been seconded by somebody here. Right here. Take your pick. Okay. Council Member Garcia. All right. Any discussion? Seeing none. All those in favor say aye. Aye. All opposed no. The ayes have it. 15B passes and we are now on 15C once again by Director Schoch authorization to apply to the Biscayne Bay Water Quality Improvement Grant for Florinda Estates.

I have my two in the wrong order, sorry. So for Florinda Estates, there we go. This one is again, this program is for again, drainage improvements, similar scope, replacing a drainage infrastructure along in the Florida Estates neighborhood. This was a total project cost of $1,796,150. And this program requires a 20% cost share match. So it'd be about 1.4 million coming from the grant, and then approximately 360 coming from the town, again, out of storm water funds.

Thank you. It's been moved by the vice mayor second second seconded by who was it again. Councilmember Garcia. All right. Any discussion? Seeing none. All those in favor say aye. Aye. All opposed no. You guys have it by your vote 15 C passes and we're now 15 D authorization to apply to the Biscayne Bay water quality improvement grant for rural gardens estates. Go ahead.

Yep, so same thing as the last one, same grant program. Just again, in the Royal Gardens neighborhood, again, drainage improvement infrastructure, similar 20% cost match. So this is about 1.6 million in total cost, 1.2 coming from the grant, and about 321 coming from the town. So again, instead of stormwater maintenance, or stormwater.

Moved by the Vice Mayor, seconded by Council Member Garcia. He was faster than me, sorry. With that, any discussion? Seeing none, all those in favor, say aye. Aye. All opposed, no. The ayes have it, item 15D passes. And thankfully we are now on 15E authorization to apply to the Florida Local Government Cybersecurity Grant Program. Go ahead.

So this one just provides the town with cybersecurity software, proof point email protection software that we've been, we were awarded this grant about two years ago, so we've been operating with that software. We didn't receive it last year, but we'd like to apply again to receive this. There's no funding and no match source for this. Again, it's just for a software license. I'll move.

On that one, Council Member Fernandez, I think that's who I heard first. But all right, seconded by the Vice Mayor. All those in favor, say aye. Aye. All opposed, no. The ayes have it, 15 e passes, and thankfully we are now in 16c by Councilman Herzberg, commercial waste franchise fee.

Okay, here we go, fun. Everyone loves fees, right? Listen, I don't like bringing this up. I don't take pleasure in saying let's charge a fee, but it's the fiscal reality we may be in come November. I've had discussions with the town manager. I mean, there is an argument to just do this regardless. My position is we implement this if Amendment 3 passes because that is the consequence, and I've been telling people that. When people talk to me, I said, listen, there's positives and negatives of Amendment 3. It's up to the voters. They can decide. This is going to be one of the consequences of Amendment 3 because we have police officers that need to be paid. We have roads that need to be paved. So I think it's responsible for us to at least get the wheels moving on a waste franchise fee in this town. The ordinance is already there. There needs to be some touching up. my position personally i don't know what you guys feel is we implement this if amendment three passes because we're going to have a buff a budget deficit it's going to the money just isn't going to be there next year and this will help soften the blow and and allow us to continue to to provide the services we just heard from residents they want us to fund services right that's that's this is what it takes right so um my motion is to I have direct staff to proceed with drafting the ordinance. I think staff could come back to us at next meeting with a draft ordinance for first reading, and then we can discuss in more detail, or we can discuss it now. The biggest issue would be what is the percentage that we want to charge, what is typical in Dade County. But that's my motion, to have staff come back to us with an ordinance. A second.

that sorry councilman Fernandez get him next time all right discussion beginning with the vice mayor yeah I definitely think that this is uh more likely than not something that it's regardless of what happens with the amendment I agree um and and the primary reason is You know, we see what's been happening with our police budget. It's just ballooning and it's not really a cost that we're able to control. So I do see this as, you know, a secondary source of funding to possibly fill some gaps. The only question I really had was whether we knew whether we know or have any estimates of what that would generate.

Yeah, we did some estimating extrapolating from some information that we got from some of the bigger entities in the town that use private haulers we believe that the revenue should be somewhere in the neighborhood of between 4 and $500,000 and that's why it may be something in order to truly budget this and really have a better idea it My personal recommendation would be to implement it no matter what like you were saying that way we can get a track record and see what the what it'll be because currently in our current version of the budget. There are there's no allocation for funding of the sinking fund and last year the sinking fund was underfunded by over $200,000. So this could be something that could be targeted for the sinking fund in that way you're you're not really altering operations, but you're at least funding the sinking fund and then we can have several months of a track record be able to know what the revenues are truly going to be so through the mayor to Councilman her there was that was the motion tied to the amendment.

No, honestly, the motion is for staff to come back with an ordinance. Regardless, we can decide. Well, I mean, we can decide. If the will of the council is to just push it through October, like we'll vote second reading October, then we don't know the results of the map. Hold on.

The town attorney's got a question. Just through the mayor, council member, we already have an ordinance on the book, so it would be just to kind of tweak it and bring it back.

Right, but to clarity, that is my personal take is on Amendment 3. If the will of the council or someone can convince me that we're ready to just do it regardless, which honestly is not a terrible idea based off our budget, that's something we can discuss in second reading, honestly.

That's what I wanted to stress is that regardless of whether he meant it to only be conditional on Amendment 3 passing or whether in the case, as you pointed out, and others, I'm sure, that we should do it regardless, we will have plenty of opportunities to hammer that out. Remember, we have first and second reading to hammer this out. Correct. All right. Councilmember Fernandez.

No, I was going to suggest that exactly, that we move it. And if we want to remove it or later on just pull it back, we could do that in first or second reading. But I do think that we should move it to ask staff to come back with, I think it's just tweaking of the current ordinance right now. Yeah.

If I mean they're absolutely going to the biggest question I have and I think staff should have is what's the percentage. What's the tax percentage of their will come back with first or maybe that can tell you what their position.

Yeah, I mean I've shared some of the with councilman councilmember Herzberg is we've done some analysis of what other municipalities do and it's it's a little bit of a wide range. I would say they range somewhere between 15 to 25. So our recommendation would be to come back with this currently it stated in the in our code. At 15% we I recommend that we put it at 20% it'll be right in the middle of where most of the cities are and I think that that's the estimate that we use are the percentage that we use to estimate the 4 to $500,000 potential revenue.

THE ACCOUNTS MEMBER FERNANDEZ SO I JUST IN THINKING ABOUT THIS WHO WHO IS GOING TO BE PAYING FOR IT I MEAN SOMEBODY ENDS UP PAYING FOR IT RIGHT COMMERCIAL OWNERS AND THE CONSUMERS WILL RIGHT CONSUMERS AND WHENEVER WE GO AND WE SHOP AND WE SPEND MONEY IN IN OUR IN THE RETAIL SPACES SO YOU KNOW WE WILL END UP PAYING FOR IT BUT IT'S NOT GOING TO BE ATTACHED TO OUR TAX BILL

yeah and and look i'm interested in this this was something that was previously passed it just we you know it was paused on the collection side and to me as another opportunity to eventually provide tax relief and become less reliant on property taxes anyway uh i think this is worth exploring so with that all those in favor say aye aye aye all opposed no no one no madam clerk and with that um okay preventing illegal use of vehicles on our roads for councilmember garcia

Thank you, Mister Marion, I'll try to be as brief as possible. I think we've all seen what's happening in our streets nationwide. We've seen it on Instagram and Facebook, illegal riders or riding legal vehicles just not following laws. So what I'd like to do in order to save a life before it becomes a tragedy here in Northwest state is coordinate with the sheriff's office, coordinate with our colleagues, Mr. Mayor, perhaps we can coordinate with the League of Cities as well and put together a task force to see what we can do not only to strengthen the choices that the police officers have given them more tools, make make any changes to our ordinance to beef them up, to be given them the maximum amount of LEAWAY TO DO WHAT THEY HAVE TO DO, WORK WITH THE COUNTY AND ALSO AT TALLAHASSEE TO STRENGTHEN THESE LAWS BECAUSE, AGAIN, NOT ONLY DO WE HAVE CHILDREN RIDING THESE ILLEGAL VEHICLES, BUT THEY'RE ALSO RIDING LEGAL VEHICLES ILLEGALLY, BUT ALSO We've got to start holding parents accountable. If a parent buys a quad or a dirt bike for a 12-year-old and he's running around the streets and something happens, God forbid to that child or God forbid to a citizen, we've seen cars being hit. They get out. They complain. They get attacked. The parents should be held responsible. They should also get fined, and that vehicle should be confiscated, and that money should be taken to be used for police, for this actual enforcement when it comes to stopping this. I guess it's to ask the town, talk to the major, see what we can do to talk to other towns like Miami Gardens, Hialeah, Hialeah Gardens in our area to strengthen our position and give the police officers everything they need to stop this from happening. And also an education program so we can quickly identify these number of rioters and have police officers come out and try to stop them or try to, you know, use some They're there to flash the lights are going to go away.

So for the second for discussion, it's seconded by Councilmember Sanchez, Councilman Sanchez.

So I love the spirit of this item. I really do. Councilman Garcia. I just I see this more fitting within the scope and the mission statement of the Public Safety Committee. They love to do publicity. They love to do those training types of videos where they can reach out to those other municipalities, especially with the success that we had last year with Cards for Heroes, where we had first responders from as far as Homestead come to our town. So I really do believe instead of doing a separate body in its own, is feeding this through the public safety committee and developing it through that methodology.

And I understand that. And I agree that that's part of their scope and they should be part of this. However, this has become a huge national and regional problem. And I think it's to the point where regular citizens and ourselves are tired of it. We've got to stop it. The only way to do that is get to the next level. And the only way to get to the next level is talk to our town, our county, our representatives in Tallahassee and strengthen the laws to give the police officers the ability to stop this. And if someone runs away from a police officer and given a lawful order, even if it's on a tricycle, a bike, a skateboard, or roller skates, or roller blades, they should be held accountable, and that has to stop. We have to stop this here. I think we should take, I know you like to take leadership in a lot of things, and if we can all co-sponsor this, and as a town, take leadership in our area of Northwest Miami-Dade, and maybe make this a county-wide, and I've reached out to Pembroke Pines, Councilman Fernandez up there. He also was trying to pass an ordinance as well to beef it up for the police. Maybe we can make it regional as well. So just take a leadership position, but I understand that our safety committee should be part of the education part of it. Yeah.

Councilman. Councilman Cuadra-Gracia. No, I'm good. All right, anybody else? Anyone else? Okay. All those in favor, say aye. Aye. All opposed, no. The ayes have it. Sorry. The ayes have it. The item passes. And we are now on a 16E by Councilman Cuadra Garcia, request for improved street lighting at Jacaranda Lane and Miami Lakeway South intersection.

Thank you, Mr. Chair. Basically, I just want to, when we're talking- My apologies.

That requires a waiver of 7.2. I'll move it.

I'll move it. Second.

Thank you. It's been moved and seconded. All those in favor, say aye.

Aye. Can you, Mr. Mayor- All opposed, no.

The ayes have it, the roll is a wait.

I have second hand embarrassment. Is it Danny Angel's beautiful shirt? Ah, now I got it. I'm slow, but I got it. You guys, at least we're having some fun, right? Okay, basically, after getting several calls from residents in that jacaranda um street of having um guys please this is serious mr mayor this you know when when a resident calls me and tells me they're they're cats they're animals They're they're like part of our family. They've been killed due to light outage there. You know. Basically what I'm asking that when we are in the process of a budgeting that we can budget to get a couple of light poles in that area to get better lighting right here at that intersection of Jack around there has been 4 accidents.

Well or cry so do you have a motion.

My motion is to request funding to get better lighting in that area.

Second. Seconded by Councilman Herzberg. Discussion beginning with Councilman Herzberg.

No, I don't have a friendly amendment.

So, Mr. Vice Mayor, go ahead. Just a friendly amendment to go along with it is just to have the staff analyze and check out that intersection, see if there are existing lights that may potentially be out and need repair or replacement. If not, what the cost would be to get power to that area and what exactly would be needed to properly illuminate that intersection. And then potentially presented to us in time for the budget season.

I'll second that motion.

All right. That's been seconded on the amendment. All those in favor say aye. Aye. Aye. I'll oppose no. Any discussion on the main motion as amended? Councilman Sanchez.

Yes. Councilman Angelo Cuadro Garcia. Before accidents, three of them were in the daytime. One of them was in the nighttime and it's been over in the span of four years. So adding lights for the it would really be for one accident in the span of four years. Now, if I may, Councilman Cuadra Garcia, there's also, you know, there's a few of us that live right along that street, and I drive it every single night. Yes, there are parts that are dimmer, but there's also the neighboring, the people that live in that neighborhood, like on Jacaranda and on Big Cypress, that enjoy a little bit of that darkness. Now, for those residents that let their animals free roam, I do remind that we have ordinances where your animals are supposed to be leashed. When they are not within the home, if they are letting them roam free, they're willing to take that risk of animals crossing the street and cars coming along. Because even if there are lights, the amount of speed, even going at 20 miles an hour, and an animal darts out, it's very unlikely that you'll be able to stop fast enough in order to prevent hitting that animal. But do remember that we do have ordinances, county ordinances, where animals do need to be leashed when they are not within the home. So we also have to make the owner somewhat responsible for what happens to their animals when they're not doing the proper methodology.

Can I rebuttal on that one? Yes.

Yes, I agree with you.

We have 15 minutes. Yes, I agree with you 100% on that one, but it is extremely too dark over there. Let's consider looking on getting more light. Mr. Manager.

Yeah, we can do an assessment of the lighting in that corner and then come back with a recommendation.

Thank you. Okay, all those in favor say aye. Aye. All opposed, no. The ayes have it. The item passes, and we are now moving on to item 16F, license plate reader cameras, inquiry, staff response, and proposed resolution, which this requires a waiver of 7.2.

So moved. It's been moved.

Second.

Vice Mayor, is there a second? Second. Second by Councilmember Garcia.

All those in favor of the waiver, say aye. Aye. All opposed, no. The ayes have it. The rule is waived.

And Mr. Vice Mayor, you're recognized to proceed. Thank you, Mr. Mayor. I'm going to try to make this as brief as possible and not completely long-winded like my NBI is. And I hope you all had a chance to kind of review it. This is basically a constitutional protection scheme, right? We have seen the proliferation of flock-style cameras throughout the country and the privacy concerns that

arise with their proliferation.

This is aimed at number one, ensuring that the concern originally arose in me, hey, we have these LPR cameras that we're incredibly proud of and they serve a very legitimate law enforcement function. However, my concern was, okay, well, what's being done with the information that is being collected from these cameras and can that information potentially be fed and turned into flock style surveillance? That definitely got a lot louder. My understanding from the response from the town staff is Under the current contract with the privacy policy that is in place, the answer is no. You guys know very much, though, that I like to make sure that this council, which is smarter than all future councils, ties the hands of future councils so that they can't create flock style cameras or at least they have to go through some loopholes or through hoops. Thank you. uh in order to do so so that's why i presented the attached resolution where basically the town council affirms that public safety is the primary paramount concern of this council however not at the cost of essential liberties and so with that i will move the adoption of the resolutions

SECOND SECOND BY COUNCILMEMBER FERNANDEZ OH GOOD JOB ALL RIGHT UH ANY DISCUSSION ON THIS YEAH REALLY QUICK UH COUNCILMAN GRACIA THEN COUNCILMAN HERSBERG IS YOUR CONCERN THAT OF COURSE ANY ANY VIDEO OR DATA IS ONLY USED BY OUR POLICE OFFICERS NOT SHARED WITH THE GENERAL PUBLIC UH TO STRENGTHEN THOSE THOSE RULES HERE AND IF ANY CONTRACT WE HAVE WITH THESE CAMP WITH LPRS OR WITH UH IN A VERY SIMPLE MANNER YES OKAY I just, the only thing I don't want to do is tie the hands of our police officers who can use it as tools that are, you know, cameras are used as tools and they're able to trace back, even when they don't have OPRs, they're able to trace back suspects walking through neighborhoods, driving through parking lots, and a lot of suspects. So I just don't want to make sure that anything we do doesn't tie the hands of

My understanding is that as it stands, they cannot do that. They only really have live pings of the license plate readers.

No, I'm talking about the LPRs. You're talking about flock cameras. Those are two different things.

Well, this all started because my concern was that the data from the LPRs could, in theory, be manipulated and turned into flock. So this is specifically aimed at preventing flock. It doesn't tie their hands at all.

It sounds like the mosaic theory that we learned in law school, you know, under the Fourth Amendment. All right, so with that. I'll second that if nobody seconded it. Oh, okay, that's fine. I forgot that Councilman Herzberg also had something. You good?

No, yeah, I have a comment. Thank you, Mayor. First, I appreciate the Ben Franklin quote. That's nice. I'm more of a Madison guy, but Ben Franklin's a good one, too. I'm going, obviously, I'm going to approve this, but I would like to see this come back as an ordinance. resolution any we could say i don't care what they did 10 years ago so my recommendation i'm not making an amendment i would like you to bring this back as an ordinance as well if we really want to it still doesn't it still doesn't codify it still doesn't tie a council's hand but then they got to go through two readings uh all they what right now all they have to do is in 10 years from now uh flocks are the best thing ever and let's just ignore the resolution so i would i would like you to bring back an ordinance on the same timing so are you moving the majority requirement

Yeah, exactly.

So let's let's bring ordinance back.

So are you amending the motion.

No, I'm just going to ask him to bring back the ordinance.

Well, OK. We're going to bring it back anyways because that's been the practice of the council even when a resolutions ordinances are attached. We always bring it back similar to like the ordinance on the employee review policy. So we can bring this back. We can massage it into an ordinance instead of a resolution and we'll bring it back next month. Okay, as long as the vice mayor's okay, this item and that will also give us to councilmember Garcia is a point that will give us an opportunity to really look at the fine print with the money day sheriff's office and make sure that we're good.

Okay, all those in favor, say aye. Aye. All opposed, no. The ayes have it, and we are now on 16J, Veterans Memorial at Veterans Park, which requires a 7.2 waiver. Wait, what?

Gary Cardenas, Veterans Committee.

Oh, my apologies. Yes, you are correct. Okay, so let's go back to 16G. I crossed it off by accident in anticipation of it being next, so that's what happened on my list. All right, so 16G, Gary Cardenas, VC.

So waiver. Yes, I need a waiver. Okay.

Move by the vice mayor. Second. Second. Seconded by Councilmember Garcia. All those in favor of the waiver, aye. Aye. Opposed, no. Ayes have it. Rule is waived. Go ahead, Councilman.

So due to a personal family health-related issues, Gary Cardenas missed several meetings, which caused his removal from the Veterans Committee. Since then, his situation, his family situation has improved quite well. And it is my recommendation that Gary comes back to the committee with a waiver of Committee Rule 11H due to the 180-day requirement.

I'll second your motion.

And we'll start with you for discussion if there is any. All right, does anyone have discussion? All right, all those in favor say aye. Aye. Opposed, no. The ayes have it. And the motion carries, which brings us now to 16J, Veterans Memorial Veterans Park, which requires a 7.2 waiver. So moved. So moved. Is there a second?

Second.

It's been seconded. All those in favor of the waiver, say aye. Aye. Opposed, no. The ayes have it. The rule is waived. Mr. Vice Mayor.

Thank you, Mr. Mayor. Again, this NBI speaks for itself as written. But I did just kind of want to give the quick background that I was approached by the Colonel at the last Miami-Dade Chamber of Commerce luncheon at which Mr. Brian Avila as well as Tom Fabricio and Alex Rizzo were present. And apparently he was able to actually get Senator Avila to to commit hey if you guys make the request we can probably get you the money right now veteran items are kind of hot and and not getting the veto pen so so uh if we amend our our uh budget our appropriations priorities to include this that there's a solid chance of getting it so this is simply that I again I provided a proposed resolution if the if the town staff wants to massage it they're more than welcome to also second it okay perfect I'll give it to Councilman Sanchez and discussion do you mind if we co-sponsored with you

I mean, it's going to be part of our amended list. You're welcome. I'd love to go.

Madam Clerk, reflect the entire council as a sponsor on this. With that, all those in favor, say aye. Aye. All opposed, no. The ayes have it. The motion carries. And before I continue, I'm going to ask for a motion to extend to 11.10 p.m. It's been moved. Well, you mean, oh, yeah, you're right. I asked for it. All right. I'll second that. and uh with that all those in favor of the motion to extend say aye aye opposed no the eyes have it and so we have now then until 11 10 to wrap up our business and there's only two more left so we are now on 17 a mayor council member reports beginning with the standards of conduct and competence I want to begin by saying that repeatedly over the last couple of months, especially over the last couple of years, I've made it very abundantly clear that there is an expectation that we live up to what is expected of us as council members and that we comport ourselves that way, but also that we are prepared. And I have to say, respectfully, Councilman Cuadrado-Garcia, I feel as if you have been giving us a lot of heartburn lately. You did good today, you were with it, you weren't confused as to what we were voting on, and you were able to keep up, which I appreciate, but we need that effort all the time. More importantly, though, You know, I was very disappointed, and this is the only chance really that I get to speak about it. So, you know, I need to bring it up. I was very disappointed to read the cease and desist letter that we received by the owners of Vista Memorial Gardens. And, you know, I just want to say that I expect so much better out of all of us. Okay, when we wear the shirt, that says council member or in my case mayor we are representing the town our conduct needs to reflect that you know it and we also need to respect the responsibilities that properly rely or reside with the code department and let them if you have some concern about something going on you you communicated to them through the manager right but again that could result like your actions that you took could result in legal jeopardy for the town and is a problem And it's not the first time that I've been contacted, by the way, and the manager knows what I'm talking about, where there have been others that have complained about your conduct while you're carrying yourself as a council member. And that is just something that I specifically needed to call to your attention to make sure that you understand the seriousness of this. Understood? because again there's a certain standard that when we are elected that we are expected to hold ourselves to and running around conducting freelance inspections you know wearing a council member shirt is not one of them right you know and it's a violation of their Fourth Amendment right I would add so from what I understand Mr attorney you know the attorney Mr Yaffe has indicated that he is not taking any further action is that correct

That is correct. At this time, he's not taking any further action. Okay.

But, you know, that, again, I do not want to see that happen again. And I just want to be abundantly clear about that. Understood?

think we have uh the information totally confused it would take some time i want to clarify that but it ain't going to be right now so we need to prepare a sunshine meeting so i can explain everything so we can clarify it because i need to make it very clear and basically and i'll tell you this in front of whoever i am so i will bring the media if you want to that day so we can put it on tv

Well, why bring the media then to a sunshine meeting when you can just say right now on the record?

Oh, okay, great. That's good. Let's take it on. So let me make sure that I clear myself, okay? There's things going on stating, okay, that I have a vendetta with this funeral home. Let me tell you something real brief, okay? I do not. There are numerous, numerous, pay attention to me, because I'm gonna be very clear now. I hope so. You open that up, I'm going to close it. Good. Okay? This cemetery has hundreds of hundreds of violations, and they have hundreds of letters that I can bring them to whoever they want. They have numerous complaints. Whoever tells you that a building not having proper painting for 35 years is not a violation, and having rebar popping out of the concrete is not a violation, and let me clear it again. I went there, and I went there with my shirt. I was told by somebody else that I didn't commit a violation by using my shirt. Okay, let's say I used the shirt, but I never went there to tell them what to do. I went there representing myself. My family is there. I have over eight family members there. I have talked to them in the past. Over 20 years ago, I have talked to them. So what actually got me upset was, so you guys all know it, in 14 years ago, My little brother died of cancer, and I called them from hospice. They sent me an individual to go pick up my brother's six-foot, three-inch body, and the gentleman that came to pick up the body, okay, must have been on some type of meth. I told the guy, I said, buddy, you're not picking up my brother. Well, to make a long story short, he went into the room, he didn't listen to me, and he dropped my brother's body from the gurney. Happens to be that once he drops my brother's body He opened the hole in my brother's forehead I did a grievance that I said and I'm gonna follow you. It's two o'clock in the morning I'm gonna follow you to the cemetery. I'm sorry I'm a little emotional and I think that if some of you would have passed through this you guys would probably be emotional also So make a long story short, okay? He made a hole in my brother's head. I went to the cemetery and The next day and they I said bring on my brother's body. He brought my brother's body I said this hole wasn't there when my brother passed So they and I and I I did what I had to do. I have no vendetta with them Somebody needs to go there To see what I'm talking about they have the place is falling apart and They haven't painted the place in years. And if violations aren't what I have videos, pictures of, I have pictures of, listen, I have pictures of right where my dad is buried. Listen, this is important. Pieces of concrete almost killed my mom one day. So there are violations that we're looking and using the blind eye. So you know what, I'm gonna let it cool down, but somebody else is, and I believe that God is gonna take care of it, but you know what, when somebody from here goes there and sees it, we don't need to be scared of people. The dead don't scare, the live ones are gonna scare me, but there are violations, there are violations But to you, it might not be a violation. But anyways. I never went in there to tell them anything. I just said, here are letters that people have sent in where there's complaints on how you've treated their family members while they're going through a grievance. And they go, no, no, no, it's not here. It's over there. And over there said, no, it's over there where John is. All I went to do is just nicely went to talk to them. Just talk to them on my name. I never use the town on my name.

the problem is that when you're wearing our uniform regardless of what you intended and then you start bringing up legal concepts like a code violation which you know is not your call to make by the way you know that is creates a problem the only issue is that they had an issue the lady told me with a with an elevator and they said it they took care of it but i never told them i never told them i never i never went in there telling them how to do things

And if I did use my shirt.

Well, no, you did use your shirt. I did use my shirt. You acknowledge as much.

I did use my shirt. And I never even intended to even use my shirt. I even told I'm probably not even going to wear that shirt anymore.

Yeah, and for the record, I was already working closely with Danny Angel and the manager and the folks there at Vista to resolve that elevator issue. You did not need to go and handle it yourself, right? There are appropriate channels to go through. But with that, Mr. Vice Mayor, he's been chomping at the bit to add something. Yeah, so first and foremost, I wanna say,