City Commission - Regular Meeting

Okay, everyone. Welcome. Thank you very, very much. And welcome to the Pembroke Pines City Commission meeting of 05/06/2026. I always hate to start a meeting with a sad note, but I was just informed that former Congressman Larry Smith passed away.

Larry Smith represented Broward County for a very, very long time, not just in Congress, but also as a lawyer and as a representative of governments at the federal level. I will always remember him as one of the easiest guys in the world to talk to, very down to earth. He loved Broward County. And he loved government. And he loved the law.

And He will be greatly missed. And I just want to send all of our condolences and sympathies to his family and to his friends. And in his honor, I would ask for a moment of silence. Thank you very much. Mr. Clerk, will you please call the

roll? Commissioner Good.

I am here.

Vice Mayor Hernandez, I am here. Commissioner Rodriguez. Here. Commissioner Schwartz.

Here.

Mayor Castillo. Here. Assistant City Manager Bonilla. Here. City Attorney Goren. I'm here. We have a quorum.

GREGORY Thank you very much. Today, the pledge and the national anthem will be led by Corina Joseph, who is a music teacher at Abundant Life Elementary. And she's also studying in college. And a very, very capable singer who has sung for us before. And let me also recognize Angelina Lemus, who is the new Pembroke Pines 2026.

And to she visit us. And I'm so very thankful that you did, and congratulations. And so if you will all rise and remain rising through the pledge and into the national anthem, which Corina Joseph will lead us in whenever you're ready.

I pledge allegiance to the flag of The United States Of America and to the republic for which it stands, one nation under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all.

Oh, say, can you see by the dawn's early light What so proudly we hailed at the twilight's last gleaming? Whose broad stripes and bright stars through the perilous fight or the ramparts we've watched were so gallants, least streaming.

And the rockets reclare,

the bones bursting in air, gave proof through the night that our flat was still there. Oh, say does that star spangled banner

Wow. Marina Joseph, thank you so very, very much.

That was great.

Was that amazing?

Yes.

Another round of applause. Carina Joseph, thank you so very, very much. Just lovely. Mr. Clark, announcement of items to be pulled from the agenda?

No items, mayor.

Okay. I'll just come around now. We'll do presentation. Vice mayor, if you'll join me. All right.

Well, this is a proclamation of the city of Pembroke Pines, Florida for A1 athletics roulette cheerleading team. Because if you wanna know how to get it done, you gotta come to Pembroke Ponts. Here he is. So I'm gonna ask vice mayor if he could read this.

Bear with me. And I'm not going to say every cheerleader's name because you know who you are. But I'm going to go through the entire whereas. Whereas A1 athletics in Pembroke Pines is a youth sports organization dedicated to development of young athletes through competitive cheerleading and athletic training. And whereas during the twenty twenty five, twenty twenty six competitive season, A1 athletics all star elite teams, aces, queen of hearts, and roulette earned bids to the all star worlds.

And team roulette received a full paid bid paid bid. And representing the organization at the highest levels of competition. And whereas team roulette demonstrated outstanding skill, perseverance, and sportsmanship throughout the season, earning multiple first place finishes and grand champion titles, and achieving a historic milestone as the first I'm going to say this really slow as the first A1 athletics team to reach the podium at the All Star Worlds, where they were named silver medalists. And where I'm gonna have to read every name. And whereas the A1 athletics roulette cheerleading team is as follows.

Oh my goodness. Okay. Giada Artenis, Melanie, Tony Bido, Bido, right? Bido? Mia Bolanos, Chloe Bolanos, Camila Castel Blanco, Nicole Chang, Evelina Chircu, M Davis, Catalina Doranza, Mia Gallardo, Olivia Gonzalez, I don't know this next one, Alyssa Hernandez, Selena Lamas Catalina Morale, Chloe Porter, Annalise Raynott, Juliana Ruiz, Isabella Ruiz, they're sisters, Alexa Sanchez, Mia Sanchez, Chloe Sealy, and Alexandria Smith.

And whereas the athletes, coaches, families of A1 athletics have shown unwavering dedication, teamwork, and commitment to excellence, proudly representing our community, the city of Pembroke Pines, and inspiring youth through their achievements on the national and international stage. I can't read this part because I'm not the mayor. In

light of all that, now therefore, I, Angelo Castillo, mayor of the great city of Pembroke Pines, Florida, together with the city commission, do hereby recognize and commend A1 athletics and especially team roulette for their outstanding achievements, historic performance at the All Star Worlds and contributions to youth sports and extend heartfelt congratulations to the owners, athletes, coaches, their continued success. There it is.

I'm not going to

do a speech.

Thank you guys. This was once a dream for Asia and I and standing up here and receiving this recognition from the city is amazing. Thank you parents, thank you coaches, thank you athletes. Without you, this would not be possible. A1 athletics is here, Pimer Pines. We have tryouts coming up.

I did have a couple things to mention, but I need Commissioner Rodriguez to come up. This is A1 athletics is actually in her district. So it's across the street from mine. It just so happens that someone that I know is Ada A1 athletics. And I had some remarks to make very briefly to Coach Paola and Coach Eija.

You chose to open a business in the city of Pembroke Pines. I love that it's cheerleading. I love that we're all benefiting from it as a community. But you chose to open a business in the city of Pembroke Pines, which means we should celebrate you Because you using you made sure that families from this city and some from neighboring Miramar, which we are okay with. We're okay with it. Okay? We're okay. But you should stay in Pembroke Pines. So we wanted to recognize you all for this historic achievement. I believe we're the only competitive cheerleading gym in the city of Pembroke Pines.

And we just won just to give you a little context, and I hope I get all the facts right, worlds in Orlando had 30 invitation only teams that came. Four of them had paid bids, which means they placed so well in other competitions that they actually paid, the tournament paid for our young women to be there and to compete. And it's the strangest thing if you ever go to a cheerleading competition because when they get to the top 10, you actually hope, and this really really I didn't get this because I play basketball and football and it's like you win, you win. This it was, no, no, no. You have to hope they don't call your name.

I said, what do you mean? They said, no, no. You have to hope that they don't say A1 athletics until first place, till the very end. So I was just confused. And I kept looking at Christine and my mother-in-law like, what's going on?

We came in silver, first time ever that that happened. I wanted to recognize not only, because this is roulette, but also the tiny clubs, spades, aces, and the queen of hearts to coach Jess, is a former Pembroke Pines you need to stand up. She's a former Pembroke Pines Police Department employee. Maybe you come back. She's actually the one who spoke to my wife and said, you know, your daughter knows how to backflip.

She knows how to do things. Maybe you should try try her out for a cheer. So you should also come up here at Coach Jess. And I know Coach Billy helps everyone with tumbling lessons. And coach Adrian. Who could forget him? And coach Vifi. So again, thank you for being here. Thank you for what you do for our city. I'm really sorry.

We don't have a pool. And I know that every single time that we won a competition, this young man decided to jump fully clothed into the pool. However, there there is a lake right over there when you walk out. So thank you all for everything. I think we invite them up to take the photo. Come on up. Thank you. Congratulations.

All right. Okay. We have a couple more to do. And I hope that you'll stay for at least for presentations because these are very, very interesting. This is a proclamation of the city of Pembroke Pines, Florida.

It's turquoise takeover week. And I will ask Michael Garcia, if you would, to join me. Whereas approximately two and onetwo minutes excuse me. Whereas approximately every two and onetwo minutes, a person in The United States is diagnosed with lung cancer. And whereas lung cancer is the leading cause of cancer related deaths among both men and women.

And whereas lung cancer screening saves lives, advocacy and increased awareness will result in more high risk individuals getting screened. And whereas public support for research funding will result in new treatments and better methods of early detection. And whereas Lung Force, a national initiative led by the American Lung Association, is dedicated to defeating cancer. And whereas my good friend Michael Garcia has done everything that he can in what little time he has left over, he always makes time to make sure that all of us stay healthy. And we're very, very thankful to him.

Now therefore, I, Angelo Castillo, mayor of the city of Pembroke Pines, Florida, together with the city commission, do hereby designate May 2026, as turquoise takeover week throughout the city of Pembroke Pines, encouraging all residents to learn about lung cancer, its risks, factors, and the importance of early detection. Michael, we can't thank you enough for everything that you do. Will you please say a few words about this important cause for us?

So first, I want to thank you, Mayor Castillo, Vice Mayor Hernandez, the commission, and the city of Pembroke Pines for partnering up with the American Lung Association. I've been involved with the American Lung Association for about ten years, raising awareness about lung cancer. As the mayor stated, lung cancer kills more people than anything else, more than breast cancer, more than any other cancer. Unfortunately, most people are not aware of that. Three hundred and fifty six people a day die from lung cancer.

The majority of those are women. Disproportionately, lung cancer kills more women than men, for whatever reason. And hopefully you young ladies will not start smoking, because ninety percent of lung cancer is traced to smoking. Ninety percent. There's some ten percent that's not, but ninety percent is attached there.

As the mayor said, two people get every two minutes someone gets diagnosed with lung cancer. In Florida, about twenty five thousand people die. And early detection is important because most people don't screen for lung cancer. And by the time they diagnose it, it's stage three or stage four. Percentage of survival drops to nine percent compared to early detection.

So on behalf of the American Lung Association, we thank the city because this is a really important thing. I don't smoke. Fortunately for me, when I started this, I knew no one. It affected no one in my family, no one I knew. I did it because it was something good for the community. Unfortunately now, my mother-in-law has lung cancer. So for ten years I've been doing this. I'm continuing to do it. And for you young ladies, please do not start smoking. Because that's ninety percent of lung cancer diagnosis. Thank you so much for everything.

Okay. I'm going to break with tradition for a moment, and I'm going to have a conversation with you as your mayor. I'm about to present two awards two proclamations that the city of Pembroke Pines has been presenting for years. And it's quite likely, very likely, that these will be the

last

time that, as mayor, I will be able to present these proclamations because a new state law has been passed. And I want you to know what it's about. And I want you to know why it's there. The two proclamations, one of them is Jewish American Heritage Month, and I'm going to take my time reading it. And the other is Haitian American Heritage Month, and I'm going to take my time reading that.

Because they may be the last two times that proclamations like this can be presented, not just here in Pembroke Pines, but anywhere in Florida. The state legislature recently passed, and the governor signed into law section 166 of the Florida statutes. And it is called the DEI bill. It defines diversity, equity, and inclusion to mean any effort to promote based on a person's or group's race, color, sex, ethnicity, gender, identity, or sexual orientation shall be prohibited by local governments. The things that we can declare are federal holidays or certain state holidays.

Now, want you to understand the context of this. And this is why I never do this. But I'm glad young people are here because I need them to understand it. We in Pembroke Pines have from the start and we're 66 years old now as a community we have from the start been an incredibly beautiful, diverse family of residents. There are people here of every color, from every country, of every religion, from every race, the fullness of God's characteristics of birth or chance are plainly visible anywhere that you go in The United States.

One of the things that make us special and we are by no means unique, but there are a lot of cities that do not have this blessing is that even though we are very diverse in fact, I will say, because we are very diverse, a certain tone exists in this city that we all get along. It just does. That tone is taught in schools. That tone is set in this city hall. That tone is taken out into the community by our staff because they hear us, and they take that tone with them.

That tone exists in the community, And that tone is natural to us. It doesn't matter where you're from. It doesn't matter what you believe. It doesn't matter what your characteristics of birth or chance are. If you land in Pembroke Pines, you are welcomed and you are respected.

And that is a tone that this city has set for a very, very, very long time. And there are some who are saying, you know what? It's gone overboard. We're not celebrating being American. Let me say something to you that I heard I'm actually old enough, yeah, to have heard this.

Ronald Reagan, when he was leaving office, in his last goodbye speech, said the following words. Listen carefully. You can go to Japan and learn Japanese and live there for twenty years, but you won't be considered Japanese. You can go to Turkey and you can learn that language. And you can live there for thirty years And you won't be considered a Turk.

But anyone can come to The United States and be an American. This is the only nation where that is possible. And if you look on the money that's in your pocket, or in your mom or dad's pocket, it will say, e pluribus unum, from many, one. That's what that means. So when we talk about diversity, we're talking about who we are.

And I think that who we are should be celebrated. When we talk about inclusion, inclusion is necessary for united, for unity. We are The United States. How do you stay united unless you're inclusive? And when we talk about equity, well, that's in the Constitution. Right, counselor? It's called equal protection. Now let's just say that's what I believe. But let's just say you decide, you know what? Mayor, you got it wrong.

I don't agree with that. I kind of like what they're doing up there in Tallahassee. I want to put this to you very, very simply. If we have that disagreement, let's resolve it in this room near where we live, close by to the homes where we live, where our beds are, where we put our children to sleep at night, where we go to sleep at night, the place we call home. I don't want somebody six forty nine miles away deciding by one standard what's best for us and best for the whole state.

Because the last time I looked, we sent them there to lower home insurance rates, not tell us how to believe and what to do and how to keep a community together that is very much together. Now this is going to be hard. It's going to change how we do business. But I'll tell you what, it's not going to change. It's not going to change this.

So the two proclamations I'm going to read to you tonight, they kind of make history because they're the last times you will see these issued here. Because both of them have to do with ethnic groups. Now one of them has to do with a religion. Religion is not barred by this law. It just so happens that this religion, along with some others, there are court cases that say that they together form an ethnic group, right?

Yes, sir.

And if any of us should violate this law, we are subject to removal from office. Pretty severe, right? So our effort to celebrate all of us together could result in our inability to do anything else for you. And I resent it. This is a proclamation of the city of Pembroke Pines, Florida declaring Haitian American Heritage Month, whereas the city of Pembroke Pines is proud to celebrate the rich cultural history, heritage, and contributions of Haitian Americans who have greatly enriched our community.

And whereas the Florida legislature recognized in May 2026 Haitian American Heritage Month pursuant to House Resolution 8,031, which is very nice of them, but House Resolution 8,031 is not a law, correct?

That is still correct.

And whereas Haitian American Heritage Month is observed each May to recognize the achievements and influence of Haitian Americans in all aspects of society, including education, business, government, arts, and civic life. And whereas Haitian Americans have played a vital role in shaping the cultural diversity and economic strength of the city of Pembroke Pines, contributing to the vibrancy and unity of our community. And whereas this observance also includes Haitian Flag Day on May 18, which symbolizes freedom, resilience, and national pride. Now therefore, I, Angelo Castillo, mayor of the city of Pembroke Pines, together with the city commission, do hereby proclaim May 2026 as Haitian American Heritage Month in the city of Pembroke Pines. And I encourage all residents to recognize and celebrate the many contributions and cultural traditions of the Haitian community.

This proclamation follows a long line of proclamations that we have issued here to people from every color, from every religion, from every ethnicity. We do it almost every single week. And we do it because by celebrating each of you, we together create a tone where all of us can be a community. Mr. Ron Surin is here to accept this proclamation. And I thank you, Ron, for coming.

I was very moved by the presentation of our mayor. Mayor, thank you. Thank you, vice mayor. Thank you, commissioner, counsel. I will not be held in contempt.

No. No, sir.

Pembroke Pao has been home to me for twenty three years. And for all those twenty years, I've had great experiences. And I believe that my people have, since they migrated from Kendall after Hurricane Angels, well, of course, you never heard of that. And so we make Pembroke Pines home, and it's been a great experience. I was I was appointed to the diversity board by yours truly, and I was witness of the diversity of this city.

And I think right now, you can even look around and you see the diversity right here. So we are very good melting pot where we live each other and grow with each other. And we do appreciate the love, the appreciation, and the recognition the city has offered to all of us, especially us Haitian American. And I've said that many times, and the mayor has been consistent in presenting this proclamation for many years. But every time I had a chance, I said that Haitian heritage is world heritage.

If you're American, if you are black, if you are Greek, if you are Jewish, in fact, Latin American people, if you have a blue and red in your flag, you need to find out where it's come from. All of those from Haiti, heritage from Haiti, contribution Haiti has made to all those nations. So not only we serve, we had the history where we support each other or the nation, but we are grateful to the service our people have been able to give in this community. In the field of law and medicine and health care and hospitality, we do everything. And we have found a great place, a great home in Pembroke Pines.

I think we live really shortly for a brief period of time, we had a bad encounter with officials here. But for the most of the history, our people have been well treated and will continue to be very strong together. The law may the Tallahassee may change the law, but the government cannot change our heart. We still be the same people whether the law change or not. So we'll continue to be a community where we all live and go with each other and work with each other and continue to support each other.

No wonder Pembroke Pines has been known as the city of the the city the happiness. What was it? The happiness because city we enjoy each other's company. So thank you, and it's a pleasure always to be here to watch you, to look at you guys knowing that we are the great place. My peoples are go are going through a tough time. 350,000 of them are facing deportation by the June because the government refused to extend the protection for them. So but we always find comfort and have no fear residing and continue to progress in the city of Pembroke Pines. So thank you for the recognition. We are very grateful for it.

And it's not March, but I won't be able to do St. Patrick's Day either. And that also breaks my heart. This is a proclamation of the city of Pembroke Pines declaring Jewish American Heritage Month, whereas Jewish Americans have contributed meaningfully to the strength, diversity, and success of The United States since their earliest arrival, helping shape the nation's civic, cultural, and economic foundations. And whereas the values rooted in Jewish heritage include the importance of education, family service, and justice continue to influence and enrich American society and public life.

Whereas Jewish Americans have made lasting contributions across all fields, including government, business, science, education, arts, and community services. And whereas strengthening communities through the nation, including the city of Pembroke Pines, has been a central goal of our local Jewish community, and whereas The United States maintains a longstanding partnership with the state of Israel, reflecting shared democratic values and a commitment to peace, security, and cooperation. And whereas the current one hundred and nineteenth Congress, pursuant to Senate Resolution two forty six, recognizing Jewish American Heritage Month and called on local leaders to educate the public on the contributions of Jewish American community and uplift Jewish stories. So that's something that I would very much like to do. But starting January 1, I will be forbidden by law to do that.

Now, therefore, I, Angelo Castillo, mayor of the city of Pembroke Pines, along with the city commission, do hereby proclaim May 2026 as Jewish American Heritage Month in the city of Pembroke Pines and encourage all residents to honor and celebrate the contributions, history, and culture of the great Jewish American community.

Mayor, I'd like to be able to accept that on behalf of the Yes, Jewish

commissioner. I just about to

Thank you. Rabbi Korf could not be here this evening. Mr. Mentioned the Haitian people, the beautiful people of Haiti. If it wasn't for the Haitian people, and you young folks can look this up the Revolutionary War would not have been won.

If it wasn't for the Haitian people, the Louisiana Purchase would never have happened. Haiti was the beacon of democracy in the Western Hemisphere. The NAACP, the first two presidents of the NAACP, were white Jewish men. To be Jewish, you're born by a Jewish mother. To live by Judaism, you can just accept it.

There is a fabric that winds through all of us. And Mary, your words were eloquent. In The United States, only 15% of the population is Jewish. Only in Florida, in Miami Dade and Broward County, are schools closed for Jewish holidays, leaving out 65 other counties in Florida. Mayor, I hope there's a day that this is not historic, but the start of a new conversation. God bless everyone.

Mayor, I appreciate that these cheerleaders and their parents are here. But I know that they had a dinner planned. So if you all need to go, by all means, you all can go. Or you can stay if you'd like. I just know that you all have a dinner or some get together afterwards.

I know this is riveting. I have a few more. No, seriously. If you have plans, please. Just please exit quietly so that we can continue the meeting.

And I want to thank you all for being here again. It's good to see you again. Okay. Ladies and gentlemen, we have a very special guest. Miami Dade County Commissioner Raquel Regalado is here to make a presentation to the city commission regarding the Florida Neuro Inclusion Toolkit.

I want to thank you so very, very much for coming up to see us. I hope the traffic wasn't too much. But your name is well known here, as is your career in public service. And we're honored to have you. Commissioners, county commissioner, Miami Dade County Commissioner Raquel Rugalot. I

wanted to thank the commissioner, and she's going to make her presentation. Before she was a commissioner in Miami Dade County, she was a Miami Dade school board member. I don't think I have to go into her family history, but her father is also well known in Miami Dade County and served as City Of Miami mayor. More importantly, she reached out to me and Christina Golding's in the back. Commissioner Regalala reached out to me when she read that our city had finally completed the criteria to become an autism friendly city.

She is an expert with what she's going to present. I won't steal her thunder. But I did want to thank you. I know it's a three point five hour drive from Downtown Miami where you were up here. And I really appreciate it. I just wanted to point out our assistant city manager, Christina Golding, is running point on all those initiatives. Our city manager, who is ill tonight and can't be here, also thanks you for the information that you sent to him, commissioner.

There's a

button there that says

There we go. There's the button. Fantastic. Wonderful. Well, first and foremost, it's a pleasure to be here with all of you. Although I am from Miami Dade County, I am the former chair and currently the vice chair of SFRTA Tri Rail. So I do this trek a lot. We meet in Palm Beach. So for a Miami Dade resident, I'm a little different in that I'm constantly moving between the three counties. So it's a pleasure to be here with all of you.

And first and foremost, like Commissioner Hernandez said, congratulations on your designation as autism friendly. It's so wonderful to see you really taking that step. And UMCard is such a wonderful resource. And it's really important to all of us who love neurodivergent people. So a little bit about myself.

The reason that I ran for a position on the school board is because I am the proud mother of two neurodivergent children who are now adults. My daughter Isabella is 22 and my son Sebastian is 20. They are both in the autism spectrum, but my daughter Isabella is also diagnosed with ADHD. So she has ADHD. And when I got that diagnosis fifteen years ago, it was a very, very different world.

And going to the school board talking about autism, it was a tough road for the first eight or nine years. But today, we're in a very, very different place. And I tell people all the time that I really believe that neurodiversity is having a moment, and we need to lean into it and really start talking more about autism and about our families and resources and about what our plan is for our community. As the mayor mentioned earlier, diversity and inclusion, I believe, is in our very fiber here in South Florida. And this is no different.

So when I talk about neuro inclusion, what I'm asking us to do as a region and as a state is to lead in the acceptance of intellectual diversity. Because the only difference between myself and my two children is that I am neurotypical and they think differently. They are amazing human beings. And while I would have given anything when I first got the diagnosis to have them be neurotypical, and like most parents, I tried for many years to make them neurotypical, I wouldn't change a thing about them. They have actually changed me more than I have changed them.

They have made me a better person, a more patient person. And they see the world much better than we do. And I aspire to be like them every single day. So with that, I'll tell you a little bit about the toolkit and the work that I've been doing over the last decade. So the toolkit was actually a result of conversations that I had with people in Tallahassee when I was visiting up there talking about tri rail and other issues.

And people would ask me specifically about autism. And they would say, well, we would love to do that in our county, but we don't have the resources that Miami Dade County has, or we're not Miami Dade County. And I would always explain that while Miami Dade County is the place where we decided to do some of this work, all the work that I did was pilot programs. I never created systems. I embedded changes in existing systems because I wanted it to last.

And I went out of my way to make sure that it was fiscally responsible and that it could sustain for more than five or six or seven years. So a lot of the work that you'll find in this toolkit actually has little to no cost. And I'll give you a prime example of one of the easy starts, and that's sensory friendly events. We currently partnered with the Youth Fair. It's a three year partnership.

We started the first year. They had and SU card make them a sensory room and social stories. The second year, I helped them with a sensory friendly map so that parents could go to different locations where things were a little bit calmer. And this year, we actually did sensory friendly hours. Every Saturday and Sunday from noon to 03:00, they just turned off all the music and all the lights.

And as a neurotypical person, I could tell you that I appreciated it. But definitely my neurodivergent children enjoy the fair a lot more. So I just give that as an example of the information that you'll find here and the resources to allow you to just consider neurodiversity when you host events or when you do different things. So with that, why is it neurodiversity and neuro inclusion and not autism? As I mentioned, my children are autistic.

In autism, the numbers have increased since my daughter received her diagnosis. We are now one in thirty one are being diagnosed with autism and we have a lot of adults that are being diagnosed in the spectrum also. But autism usually runs with another neurodiversity. Rarely do you have someone that's in the spectrum that doesn't have another neurodiversity. And that is true for all neurodiversity.

So for example, ADHD has a tendency to move with dyslexia or with OCD. And now we're finding that a lot of folks that have epilepsy also have autism, that Down's also have OCD. So when you look at the spectrum of neurodiversity, in that spectrum in developmental delay, have autism spectrum disorder, ADHD, Tourette's, dyslexia, Down syndrome, and OCD. And then in the middle you have traumatic brain injury, which are individuals that because of an event become neurodiverse. And then on the other side you have developmental decline, and that is dementia and Alzheimer's.

And that's important because a lot of the work that's in the toolkit is actually very important for that population. So when we speak of dementia and Alzheimer's, while most people think of memory loss, the first thing that those patients exhibit is sensory disorders. So while on the neurodiversity side when we talk about delay, about seventy percent to eighty percent of those individuals have sensory issues. When you look at neurological decline, more than eighty percent have sensory issues. So issues with light, with noise, with inability to properly denote senses and to have to be overwhelmed.

So a lot of the forgetfulness and the things that people see when you talk about dementia and Alzheimer's actually starts with overwhelm. So I say that all to say that one in five Florida residents is neurodiverse when you look at that entire spectrum. So that's not an outlier anymore. That's not a parent asking you to do a favor, right? That's not a small group of people that need an accommodation.

That's actually a very large group of residents that are being systemically excluded from public spaces, from public events, and from access to government services. So I started with training as infrastructure because I wanted to focus on the crisis points. I started with police training and fire training, but I also trained everyone in our park system. We just got our autism friendly designation in our park system. And we're currently training everyone in our transportation system.

We also trained everyone in our libraries. And we did social stories for each one of our libraries, social stories for each one of our parks, sensory kits, and really trained everyone on how to host sensory activities. In our transit department, we use the sunflower lanyard. So if you see this, this is an internationally recognized lanyard. And it denotes an invisible disability.

We have a wonderful program at MIA. It's called MIA AIR. It's in the toolkit that allows parents and their caregivers to do a dress rehearsal at the airport, where they come in, they get their boarding pass, they go through TSA, they learn about TSA Cares, they sit, they board the plane, they meet the captain, they turn on the screen, and they get to enjoy the entire experience without the strain of having to fly at that moment. And for so many of our families, it has made flying a possibility when before it was not even something that they would conceive. Our airport also has sensory rooms in all the different concourses.

We have two. And as part of this program, we take the parents and the kids to the sensory room. And then obviously we eat Chick fil A because we have a Chick fil A now in MIA. So who doesn't love Chick fil A? And so that's one of the programs that are in the toolkit.

And we're working with different transit organizations to expand programs like these where they allow neurodivergent individuals to come and use transit. I personally have done a series of trainings with our adult schools in our transit stations and really educated them. And I give these away. Our airport gives these away. And this is really a great resource and a very easy training for your staff so that they know that there is an intellectual disability.

Then the other thing that we focused on was providing access to government services. So in Miami Dade, we started with a tax collector and all of our constitutional officers providing a neuro inclusion day. It's the third Saturday of every month where one of the tax collector's offices is available for neurodivergent individuals to come and get their IDs. IDs are really important because in the state of Florida two years ago, the law changed. And now you can voluntarily add your disability on your Florida ID.

You can request a Florida ID starting at five years old. And for parents of children in the spectrum and with neurodiversity, having a real ID that has the disability is now a way of proving that disability at any crisis point. So whether you are having an interaction with a first responder or at an airport or even traveling internationally, now you have access to a record. And the way that it's set up, it allows you to put in contact information and also de escalation information. The other thing that we rolled out before the sheriff became an independent office was our decal and registration.

So we have a county wide decal that is tied to our nine eleven system. And I created it. It's called the Occupant with Autism decal. And it specifically has information whether the individual is verbal, nonverbal, what's their neurodiversity, what's their name, what's their de escalation, and their parents' information in case there's a crisis point and someone is missing and can't provide that information. The firefighters and police officers then go into the home armed with that information on how to de escalate that particular human being.

And it has reduced our Baker Acting and unnecessary arrests. Currently, Miami Dade County has trained over four thousand first responders as a part of this initiative that I started in 2020. We do it with and SU card. It's an in person training. And we actually have our officers and first responders meet neurodivergent adults that have been detained, that had to do a drug test so that they can hear from their perspective what it's like to be detained and the inability to de escalate and why they're trying to self regulate and how that self regulation was misunderstood.

This year, the sheriff augmented that program, which has been very successful. And we added car registrations. So now in Miami Dade County, you can also register your vehicle. And you can place the decal in your home and in your vehicle. So these are all things that, as a region, we can work on.

And the way that we did it in Miami Dade County could be done in Broward through the 911 system so that everyone can have access. The other thing that we did was help cities create disability task force and committees. This was really a great opportunity for parents and caregivers to come to one place and talk about their needs so that government wouldn't be duplicating services or guessing as to what this population needed. The original one was in Coral Gables. And what I did was, along my district, we started having the cities create them.

And then we would have our members from Coral Gables go and shadow them and show them how to run the boards so that the parents and the caregivers could run the board. And then there would be a commissioner that would be participating in that. So the boards are also a very easy thing that you could do that gives parents a place to voice whatever their concerns may be, specifically about neuro inclusion. And finally, the other part that I mentioned here is April and October. So obviously, we just finished with April.

But what I ask municipalities and counties and transit authorities to consider is using April and October as goal setting and goal celebrating opportunities. So not just it being performative, but actually establishing what you did this year and what you're going to do next year. October is very big for us in Miami Dade County. We celebrate Disability Employment Month. And I've made a lot of changes to the way that we hire in Miami Dade County and how we give neurodivergent people an opportunity.

I'll give you a simple example. One of the things that we did is instead of bringing someone in for an interview, we give them the questions ahead of time. Because a neurodiverse person is going to need some time to review those questions and to be able to come prepared to answer them. And then instead of making every interview an opportunity to have an intense conversation where everybody has to make eye contact, we allow people to actually do the work. And as part of our intern program, we actually have spots specifically for neurodiverse people.

And we train the trainers that are going to be supervising them. I've created adult programming with Miami Dade College and other places. And we've used the county and other government entities as the first step for those internships. And finally, when we talk about countywide programs, another one that's in the toolkit that's very important is we have a zero drowning initiative in Miami Dade County with the Children's Trust. And I changed that item when it came before the board to include neurodiverse individuals.

Because specifically for autistic children and adults, drowning is the number one cause of death. So it's now a priority for Miami Dade County to teach autistic children and adults at any point possible. And we found wonderful partners that have provided us with pools and with training so that we could do that. And we're really hoping to come out with that data and the reduction in those deaths as a result of that training. So with that, I brought you the toolkit. And this is the QR code. It has all the legislation. It has all the data, how we did it, how you can replicate it. And I'm here to answer any and all of your questions. And I really hope that you do some more of this work.

I'm glad that you took such an amazing first step. But we can always do more. And I believe that as a community, if we do more, not only can we make neurodiverse individuals feel seen and appreciated, but we can make them an active part of our community. That's what they want. And I think together, we can do that at a very rapid pace. So thank you.

Thank you so very, very much. We're incredibly honored that you come and talk to us about this issue. When we talk about inclusion in Pembroke Pines and how everyone matters, we really mean it. And that's why we're doing many of the things that you've talked about. And some of the things that you're discussing are just fantastic. And I'm very, very interested in learning more about it. Vice mayor?

I wanted to, again, thank you, Commissioner Regalado, for coming up and really taking this on. Because this is outside the scope of the very, very challenging job that you have as accounting commissioner representing roughly 400,000 constituents.

And

the fact that you haven't done it kind of like a side project. No, it's been your mission. Yes, I live in Pembroke Pines. I'm in Miami Dade County most days for work. And I can assure you, you hear it, you feel it, what it is that you are doing. It is having an impact in all 34 cities in that county and the county government. So I thank you, yes, for coming. I hope this is the beginning of us working with you in some way with the limited amount of time that you have. But I appreciate it. I'd like to get the QR code if you're going to

Yes.

I'm going pass it out now so you can see it.

And on your way out, I'm going to introduce you to Assistant City Manager Golding. But thank you so much for what you do. And of course, my colleagues can ask any questions. But thank you for taking this on and for willing to I remember my former boss in Miami Dade County said there were two structures that were visible from space, the Great Wall Of China and the Miami Dade County Broward Line. And I'm glad that you have proven

I don't have that problem. Right.

You don't have that problem. And you're willing to come up here often. And you do it in Palm Beach. And you do it I know you've gone to Hillsborough and Orange and basically every county that has welcomed you. So I know we're not a county government. We're a city government. But we're the second most populous city in Broward. It means a lot to me personally that you came. And let's keep it going. So I'll turn it over to my colleagues if anyone has any questions.

Thank you.

Commissioner Regado, I got to tell you that I am enjoying the passion. I'm watching you. And it's like watching my wife, to be honest with you. Her name she's a former Broward County School Board member, Patty Good. And her and then Broward County Commissioner Barbara Sharif, who is now Senator Sharif, jointly participated in putting the autism in flight program for Broward County, doing exactly what you had expressed about giving that role play opportunity, which was highly valued by all the participants and, as you say, a learning experience for many others who participated to support those programs.

You have a great wealth of information, amazing to sit and listen to your knowledge base, very impressive. Just wondering what company you work with. But I know Miami Dade County, right? But really, you for bringing your expertise here. Thank you for bringing us the material that we can rely on. And certainly, I personally will look forward to sharing that information with some of my colleagues throughout Broward County. So again, thank you for making that minimal trip up here to Broward County. Short trip. No, if she goes to Palm Beach County, I've got to say.

Thank you.

Thank you again.

Thank you.

I just wanted to say thank you. I've been watching kind of from afar. I used to work with County Commissioner Tim Ryan and he was on the SFRTA alongside So with I've been watching not only what you've been doing on neurodivergent care, but also on the transportation. So shout out to that and everything that you're doing through Miami Dade County on that topic because it's something that I'm very passionate about. So whenever I'm researching some things, I'll look over to see what SFRTA and Miami Dade are doing because you guys are really on some cutting edge ideas on the topic.

And as shown by what you're presenting now, Like mentioned, we're not a county. But this is something really that maybe we can also rely to our county commission as well, and our county commissioner for, I guess, the two of them that we have for this area, to be able to help implement those and kind of at least make the connection to that as well. Because while we all have such great resources in the city of Pembroke Pines, I hope that this we're not just I think Miramar, I believe, also got their designation, but that we can be the catalyst for the rest of our 31 cities to be able to do something similarly and be able to be as advanced in the topic as you guys have been in Miami Dade. So thank

you so much. Thank you.

Commissioner Regalado, it's a true honor. I've only seen you through the TV. But I've admired your leadership. And my wife and I share a very similar personal story about raising children. And because of that early experience, I've been advocating for public education to do more with the ESE departments and the ratios of teachers and students.

The city of Pembroke Pines, the largest municipal owned and operated charter school, has a nine to one ratio. Broward County Schools is 19 to one. If what you're saying that 20% of the Floridian population, we need to do more in public education statewide to support those who need it most. As an educator, someone who's also in aviation, tomorrow I'm going to be reaching out to my friends at the national level, let them know what MIA is doing so that we can replicate this throughout our country. This should not be kept a secret.

This should be out there for everyone to see. Again, thank you so much for making that short trip to Pembroke Pines because we're twenty minutes from everywhere. Thank you so much.

Wonderful. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. I will say one thing because I did meet with Miramar. And I want to thank you for that. I mean, as much as you can spread it, fantastic. I'm going to be presenting before the Florida Association of Counties and then also I'm doing NACO. But in Miramar and in Aventura specifically, I was asked about adult programming because, to your point about education, but that ends at 22. So good or bad, it ends at 22.

And one of the things that I try to educate folks about is when we say that our kids go home, our health care system is created for elderly people who go home and have home care for five, seven, ten years. When we graduate our kids to the couch, we're saying they're going be home for fifty years. That is unsustainable. So in the North, right now, we have a lot of good pilot programs for adult programming that are really innovative. But they're in the South and in Central Miami Dade.

So we're trying to get more of them to kind of replicate in the North. So I'll keep you posted on that because that has been the request from Aventura and Miramar. There's just not a lot of programming for adults in North Miami Dade or in South Broward. So that's the other thing that we're working on. I'll be talking more about that in October, but there is some information on that in the toolkit.

All right.

Mr. Mayor, for just a moment, and Commissioner Regalado, we actually have one of those adult programs here in the city of Pembroke Pines called the Life Developmental Center. It's on our eastern edge of our city. And if you are ever interested in taking a look, please do, because they do the adult care facility from a wide range of the spectrum.

Do they do employment? Because that's one of the things that

we've working on

is adding volunteering and employment, even if it's just a few hours. Because obviously, having a job is such a large part of That's being an

sort of like what Arc Brower does.

Right, Arc Brower, yeah. Exactly.

So if you're interested, I would love to introduce you to them.

I would love that. Thank you so much.

Thank you. Thanks again. Okay, now we have the Natalie Belmonte Award for District 4. Mr. Stam?

Mayor, we're here with the Paraza family. Anna Paraza from District 4 in the Chapel Trail neighborhood. So she is our winner for District 4 for the month of April. We're proud to recognize her in

her home. I'm going bring

her home up here and let you hand it off

to her. And

as you can see, it's just absolutely amazing. Again, just setting the standard out in Chapel Trail. The Paraza family has done an amazing job.

Wow. It's just beautiful. So what's your secret?

My garment. Your garment?

Lots of water.

Lots of water. Well, we have an award for you for having a beautiful house. And together with our thanks for showing a great example in the community for how to keep a house really, really looking great. And it comes with a $50 gift certificate at Home Depot. Who's going to get the $50

My husband.

Oh, he's going to get it? Yes. All right. So this is for you. Vice Mayor Hernandez?

Thank you for what you do. I'm the commissioner of the area. But I'm also a Chapel Trail resident. So I love what you're doing. And I hope that every single I hope it serves as a competition with your neighbors so that they all do the same thing. Because when your city block looks good, the rest of the city looks good. And it makes us an even more desirable place to live. So thank you so much.

Mayor, thank you. We'll be here next month, District 1. Appreciate all your support with this program. As

always, I want to thank our code compliance people for doing all the hard work that it takes to get these awards out. You're terrific. And we really, really appreciate it. Okay. The next presentation that we have.

Mr. Mayor, if we move on, can we ask just one real quick question?

Sure.

So when code enforcement does the selection, how much before the commission meeting is it known that they're the winners?

Mr. Vina, do you know? Mr. Stam?

Mike Stamos, the city manager. So, commissioner, it's a combination of code enforcement. The code enforcement team's obviously out in the street all the time. So there's nominations that come in also from the public. So we review them sporadically as they come in. My team goes out there. Code enforcement makes recommendations for certain houses. And we'll go and check to make sure those houses don't have code violations. We're trying to reward some of the positive that's out there. It usually depends about three weeks, two weeks typically at the latest. We also have to make sure they can be here for the meeting. If

it's possible that the representing district commissioner be advised the moment that award is recognized or the selection is recognized that it be provided to us? I can work towards that.

Sometimes we just got to make sure they can be here, because sometimes they can't

be here for

certain reasons.

But even if they're not, it would still they get a sign in their yard, right? They're notified that they were winners. So when that happens, if the representing commissioners can know at the same time, that would be really helpful.

Not a problem.

Okay. Thank you.

Okay. Now we have a presentation on water safety. Assistant City Manager Goulding And Chief Danny, welcome.

Thank you. Mayor Castillo, city commissioner, city staff, and assistant city manager Bonilla, thank you for having us here. Department's once again proud to collaborate with the Department of Health, the YMCA, our police department, and our recreation and cultural arts department on this critical issue of drowning prevention and water safety. May is recognized as Water Safety Month, and it's a time to reaffirm our collective responsibility to protect the safety of our community, especially those around pools and waterways, much of which we have in our city. Drowning remains the leading cause of unintentional death for children ages one to four.

Florida still remains ranked highest in The US for fatalities related to drowning. And on average, approximately eighty children die a year in our state. And most drowning deaths occur in residential pools. That being said, drowning prevention is not just for children. It's a lifelong safety issue. And all are affected. And we need proper instruction for adults as well as children. Drowning is quick and silent. It's the leading cause of death for children with autism, just as Commissioner Regalado pointed out earlier. And distracted caregivers are the primary factor for children driving incidences.

Supervision of these children is crucial. We understand that water safety education is essential in our cities and that the good news is that drowning prevention is preventable. Through education, layered safety strategies, and community partnerships like ours, we can and we are making measurable differences. Right now, we are doing a learn to swim class, and we are providing vouchers for our residents. We have a partnership with the Department of Health and the YMCA.

We have a pool and door alarm installation program for our residences, as well as community CPR training. We've established a water smart community for the third year in a row, and we're doing community water safety events. Our safety this our event this past Saturday was a great success. We had well over 150 participants, and we look forward to doing this again. Most importantly, are committed to drowning prevention and safety.

This is a big initiative for us. We will not stop this. We know that every drowning is preventable, and in this case, we will not stop. But most importantly, we do have some QR codes here just to not only stay informed, but so that you can log in and get access to all these programs that we offer for free in our city. And right now, I'll just pass it over to assistant city manager, Golden.

Thank you. Let

me have

the spot. Yeah, get out

of my way. Thank you.

So thanks, Danny. As he said, drowning is a serious issue. And in many cases, it happens quickly and quietly. It's also something that's preventable with the right awareness and actions. And what we also know is that while information is available, most people don't actively seek out this information. So the question becomes, how do we ensure that water safety is top of mind to people in a consistent way? So we developed a campaign. And the strategy is simple. The idea is to display a number across our city digital signs. If you've seen them already, you would have seen it.

You know what I'm talking about. But you'll look for it now after today. The sign is updated daily. And again, it's on all of our digital signs. And what does that number represent? It is the number of days since the last drowning in Pembroke Pines. So why this campaign? Again, like I said, most people don't seek this information out. So the idea was a changing number on a digital screen that doesn't give any context. It's just something that changes.

It creates curiosity. It creates an opportunity for people and residents to become curious and seek out the information. So this is what our residents are seeing now, one hundred and fifty five days since the last drowning in our community. It was November 30. And that number is not big enough.

But we approach this one day at a time. Again, why does this matter? Because every day without a drowning isn't by chance. This is a reflection on the work that we are doing as a community. And it is the work that Danny and his team are doing in fire prevention with swim lessons, with water alarms, with door alarms, with education programs, CPR training, making people aware.

So again, this is a simple ongoing reminder that water drowning prevention matters and just trying to create some curiosity for our residents to come and try and seek out the information from us. And so while this campaign is a new step to expand our awareness, it's just building on the foundation that we have for a long time with fire prevention, with the YMCA, and our other commitment, which is the Water Smart Community Gold Standard designation. So with that, I'm going to bring up Mario Sosa from the Florida Department of Health to join us to present our city with the Water Smart Broward Community Gold Standard designation. Good

evening, commission. I'm Mario Sosa with the Drowning Prevention Program at the Florida Department Health in Broward County. Today, have the privilege to bestow to the city of Pembroke Pines the Watersmart Communities Award. This award is given to municipalities within Broward County that actively participate in our initiative dedicated to addressing and preventing drownings within their communities. By completing the yearly requirements to identify water related hazards and by implementing proactive safety measures, these municipalities demonstrate a strong commitment to protecting their residents.

Through their ongoing efforts to promote drowning prevention strategies and advocate for water safe practices, they've shown dedication not only to safeguarding lives, but also to fostering an environment where water safety remains a top priority. This award has three levels based on the requirements of field, with gold representing the highest level of achievement. Pembroke Pines is the first city in Broward County to have achieved this award at its highest level for the third time, setting the standard of what it means to be a water smart community. I am honored to present this plaque to the city of Pembroke Pines in recognition of their collaborative work across numerous city agencies in achieving yet another gold water smart communities designation for 2026. Congratulations to you all.

Okay.

Great vision. Is a proclamation thank you so very, very much. This is a proclamation of the city of Pembroke Pines, Florida, whereas Pembroke Pines' future depends on the long term health, safety, and wellness of the community, children, teens, and states, and whereas drowning is the single leading cause of death for children ages one through four, and the second leading cause of injury related deaths for children up to the age of 14 in The United States, affecting not only victims but also their families, emergency personnel, and hospitals of our community as a whole. Whereas drowning and aquatic related injuries are preventable, and a child should never be left unattended near water for any reason. And whereas evidence based strategies like using barriers and alarms, constant water supervision, adult and children, but learning basic swimming, and water competency skills, use of life jackets around open bodies of water, learning CPR.

We'll engage in our community in water safety for people of all ages. Whereas during the month of May, the city of Pembroke Pines, led by Pembroke Pines Fire, Police, Recreation, and Cultural Arts Department in collaboration with Water Smart Broward, YMCA of South Florida, and other community organizations will engage our community in water safety for all ages. Now, therefore, I, Angelo Castillo, mayor of the greatest city in the world, Pembroke Pines, Florida, together with the city commission, do hereby proclaim May 2026 is water safety month in the city of Pembroke Pines, and urge all residents to participate in efforts to reduce the risk of drowning and aquatic injuries. Thank you so much for all you do. One hundred and fifty five days.

Okay. Right. Items at the request of the public. Are there any items at the request of the public?

No items, mayor.

Commission ordered a report?

None, mayor.

Appeals of the board adjustment decisions?

None, mayor.

Any announcements or committee appointments? No, mayor. Today's consent agenda consists of items one, two, three, and four. Commissioners, what is your pleasure?

So moved.

Moved by Commissioner Rodriguez. Is there a second?

Second.

Second by Commissioner Good. Any discussion on the consent agenda? No. Seeing none. Any from the public? Seeing none. All those in favor, aye. Aye. Any opposed? Show passes unanimously. First reading ordinances, city attorney.

Thank you, mayor and commission. If you will, item number five is a motion to pass proposed ordinance number twenty twenty six zero three on first reading, which is an ordinance of the city Of Pines, Florida, submitting to referendum amendments to the charter of the city of Pembroke Pines.

Be placing this on the And and we will to discuss the the reading in advance of the second reading. So I wanna thank you all for that. Are there any regular agenda items?

Mayor, just for the record, if I may, quickly? Yeah. In the context of the deferral of the second reading, that is a legally adoptable item on the mayor and commission's part. The second reading has to occur not less than ten days after the first reading by the commission. There will be a public hearing.

As if and when this item can be set by the mayor and commission and by administration, it will be and will be timed along with the other pending matters that the commission has already considered, including the charter issue that you've seen before the March to November election issue and the prospects of having a bond referendum, which we're working on as well, all of which will be timed in the context of providing for public access to the nine public forums or some number thereof that were asked for by the mayor and commission and others, and will be timed legally to make sure that they're all validly in the hands of the supervisor elections who represented to you all during a public meeting that the delivery date would be no later than August 18 of this year. Thank you, mayor.

Thank you very much. Before we get to regular agenda, we have a presentation on the We Love Pembroke Pines strategic plan. Assistant City Manager, Goulding, you have the floor.

Thank you. So mayor, I'm just going to quickly go through I'm not going to go project by project. I'm going to go through some of the milestones and then talk about the categories of where the different projects fall into within the two different groups, which is recreation and roadway and infrastructure. So quickly, the key milestones related to our strategic plan. You all adopted this plan in December 2024.

In August 2025, the commission asked us to come back with a phased project approach. We presented it to the commission, and that was as a result of the bond not passing. In October, we brought to you a revised plan that included a recommendation to approve year one funding for both recreation and roadway. In October, you approved $5,600,000 for recreation. And then we came back in November, you approved $4,200,000 for roadway and infrastructure funding.

Important to this process, in January, this past January, the commission approved a architectural and engineering consultant pool. And that was important in getting a lot of these projects off the ground. And then, of course, March 31 is the first quarterly report that I present to you. So in the recreation projects, you approved 21 projects for year one funding 10 playgrounds, three artificial turf conversion design only projects, three full park renovation design only projects, one of which includes a splash pad, one new walking path, a boardwalk renovation, a parking lot renovation design project, a plaza renovation design project, and a citywide park monument signage design project, which Commissioner Rodriguez, that speaks to one of the items you brought up at Visioning. It is in here.

For recreation, the projects that are in design, these are all of them listed here. All of these are anticipated. I am working on them. And they will be coming to you on May 20 as work order authorizations under the architectural and engineering consultant contracts. I've given you in here in this presentation the estimated design. All this information is also in the quarterly report. Projects that are ready for procurement. In June, I'll be bringing you an invitation to bid for the Chapel Trail Nature Preserve Boardwalk renovation. This project was designed by SRS, And we are about 97% complete drawings. So that'll be coming to you in June to go out to bid.

These are all the playgrounds that you've already approved. And they are in permitting. We have two that are confirmed installation dates. And the rest of them, we are just waiting for them to roll in. But they will all be done this summer. And then two playgrounds that are still pending your approval. One of them is Silver Lakes North. That's going to be the inclusion playground that we briefly talked about when we did our autism friendly designation presentation. I anticipate bringing that to you on May 20. And then the last one is Flamingo South. That is a signature playground. It's at Flamingo Park. We're making it a baseball theme. We're still working on the design. So I probably won't be bringing that one to you until after your summer break.

For the roadway projects, again, in summary, you approved 30 projects. We have 13 speed feedback signs, 10 traffic calming safety projects, three drainage projects, two roadway expansion projects, and one traffic calming study. The projects that are in design work order authorizations that are going to be coming to you in June, they're listed here. The traffic calming study will also be coming to you in June as a work order authorization. We anticipate that to be done, if approved, by January 2027.

These are five projects that were identified to be deferred in the waiting on the completion of the traffic study. So pushing that along to be done in January and then revisiting these because as a complete plan for Districts 1 And 2, making sure that these five projects still make sense, which I think they will. Projects that are ready for procurement. So we will be bringing to you an RFQ for a design professional for Southwest 208th Avenue. As I pointed out in the quarterly report, that project exceeds the thresholds for CCNA continuing services.

So we have to do a separate design professional procurement for that project. And then we will bring you the invitation to bid for the Taft Street Drainage Project and the Southwest 178th Avenue and the 12th Street, the crosswalk improvement. That one, we'll be doing the procurement. It doesn't require a formal bid because it's less than $100,000 And then the speed feedback signs. These are being designed by our in house engineers, and we will be bringing a formal solicitation for approval of the equipment to you in August.

This project here, we're working with Broward County. This is task treat and hiatus, do not block intersection signs. That one we're hoping to be completed in October. And then the last one is the project that staff looking at it determined was no longer warranted because of recent enhancements to the corridor, which was bike lanes that were added. So that was everything that I have. I'm available for any specific questions It's to the a

very aggressive presentation, aggressive plan, ambitious plan. It's funded. It won't raise taxes. It'll make the city markedly better. And is all of this information so for a resident wanting to know the projects in particular, is all this information on the website that they could take a look at it and see the updates and so forth?

Yes. The website is www.peapines.com/blueprint. And this quarterly report is the first thing that they'll see. And then what I don't have up there yet, but I am close to finishing, is the interactive map where a resident could click on the location, see the park, see the actual update directly within the quarterly report.

I'm so incredibly impressed and so very, very thankful for not just the plan, but for the way this is moving forward, the way it's being phased in. I only had one question. So we had a traffic master plan.

What

is it that we're studying again?

This was something that was approved by the commission in November when we brought the year one proposed funding for strategic plan. This was a request by the commission to do a traffic calming study in Districts 1 And 2. And this was more about open communities.

Yes, yes, yes. I remember now. Okay. Remember now. We did ask for that. Going to escape my notice for just a second. Thank you very much for reminding Any other questions on this?

Comment, this is actually not for you, Assistant Manager Golding, even though I appreciate everything. Mr. Kennedy, I just took a photo to send it to them. Page 64, if I'm not mistaken.

So

that's what was the subject of the no, you don't have to come up. I'm just pointing out to you. That's the subject of some of the emails that you and I had with Silver Lakes. So I'm about to copy you on an email with that, given the fact that I just had it in front of me. I know what the update is, so thank you.

Well, you can tell them it'll be completed in December.

Well, yeah, that's why I snapped a photo. And I'm going to email them and copy Mr. Kennedy and

Mr. England. Thank you. City's moving forward. It's great to see it. Any other comments? Mayor, if I

can ask Ms. Golding, can we package your presentation that you just made, I guess, onto the website? So some folks like to read. Some people like to audio it. Thank you for the presentation. It was succinct, easy to understand. And I'm hoping that the public can start seeing the amount of work that's been put in to make this possible.

One of the things, too, we're the website, now that the website's done and, mayor, they're going to go out within the next week is the signage that you requested that says, pardon our progress, improving your city at no increase in tax dollars. It'll have coming soon. Something to that effect. But Pardon Our Progress is what we were using. And it's for the playgrounds. And so we're going to be putting that at these locations where we can. Fantastic. Anything else?

Yes. I know that this isn't a bond and a bond report as we have done in the past. But I think one of the conversations in the idea of fiscal transparency as well, I'd like to see how these are advancing under budget, over budget, on budget, and when we start completing these as we go along. I think that that's already part of the plan, but just wanted to emphasize that. Because I want to make sure that our residents know that when we set a budget and a timeline, we're keeping up with that budget and the timeline to get done what they've asked us to do.

Inside of here, I think it was page. So the one that's the blue and white, in here it has what the budgeted amount is. And then for those items where I know what the dollar is going to be, what the spend is going to be, I list that spend. But then in addition to that, when I come to you and a project is maybe over or under and it happened with the playgrounds. So we made an estimation when we did the playgrounds on some of them.

We said about $125,000 for the smaller ones, dollars 200 for the bigger ones. Some of them came in a little over $125,000 Some of them came in a little under 200,000 So when I came to you as an agenda item and said, please approve these playgrounds, I also asked you to approve a budget adjustment to balance them out. So I think most importantly, and I think what you're trying to get at is making sure that I don't go over the $5,500,000 $5,600,000 mark. Because when I do come to you and you'll see it at the next commission meeting there will be a little bit of

Of a balance. Yeah, I understand that individually the project to say that we're going to be exact on every single playground is a lot more complicated. But I want an overall report on the finances of this, how we're moving the money along, because that's what people want to see. And it's also like you see physically the item, the playground there. But you want to make sure that it was at least on budget or close to it.

Maybe you can put a percentage of what it was and then an overall report. This is how much we've allocated the $5,000,000 for the year one. This is how much we spent. And in an ideal scenario, we're not spending over that. And if there is, by some chance, because construction is always iffy on that stuff, there's valid explanations for each of those delays or each of those increases in budget. But just so that we are abundantly clear to our residents that we are looking at all of this with a strenuous eye on the budget as well.

Yes. And while this first report, it wasn't a lot of action on your part taken. Because of all of the work that we've been doing, by the time we get to the next report, this blue and white spreadsheet that's inside the report

will Because have

lot more filled

we all had a lot more work moving.

Could I just ask one more time? Could you repeat the website?

Www.peapines.com/blueprint.

Got you. Thanks.

You're welcome. Good comments. Anything else? Thank you so very, very much. Great presentation.

Mr. City Manager, regular agenda? That's it, sir. Okay. Reports of the league and MPO representatives?

Last general meeting for so that's the evening one for League of Cities. We did the scholarship meeting. And it was really fun. We got to see I think it was four students, if I'm not mistaken, receive each chunk of change to be able to kind of use towards their secondary education. And it just goes to show just how involved the League of Cities is with all aspects of our community life, including our students. So that was great. Unfortunately, I'm not going to be in attendance. But Commissioner Good will be there tomorrow. I have a wedding to attend to. Another minor event.

Another minor event. This time, not my minor event. And so then I won't be there. But I did want to mention, because it kind of comes into the scope of what we're doing within our cities, I went yesterday to Transit Forward two thousand and forty Vision Plan meeting that the county was putting on. I don't know if anybody else had attended, I think, the District 1. Unfortunately, wasn't able to make the one in district. Steve Gallers of District five was the closest that I could manage to get to. And I spoke to Assistant City Manager Bonilla about it. The plan is there. It is an unfunded plan currently.

It's kind of just, as the title states, it's a vision for what the county is looking to do, possibly with surtax money, possibly with other kinds of funding sources about the future of transportation throughout our county. One hesitation that I had on the plan is just how much involvement there has been on the city side. Because when I asked one part was the data or the plan itself. I trust that they were looking at some kind of data. But I want to understand where that was coming from for all of us, because it didn't kind of match some of the ideas and concepts we've been having about transportation.

And I wanted to check with them. They had said that they had reached out to the cities when they first started in 2020, 2019. Obviously, I wasn't here. I'm not sure how much we were involved in that. And then I asked, when is the second round now that you have kind of put the plan together in coming back to the cities on this and said, well, this is it.

This is the second version. And to me, they said, well, we did talk to the city. They had a meeting with Assistant City Manager Bonilla and Jay Schechter. But I feel like it's a need and a crucial need for them to come to talk to all of us. Because while administration is very knowledgeable about what the transportation system within the city is, I think we have maybe a little bit more of a pulse of what the needs might be within our individual districts and citywide.

And so Bonilla had already asked them to come during that initial meeting with administration to present to the city commission. I've reached out to the county commissioners. Because I went to Steve Gellers, I reached out to his aides to kind of push from the county commission, because I think it's crucial and essential for the cities to have an input in this and it not simply be the community meetings. Because we are working internally on a lot of different aspects and a lot of different things, whether it's micro transit, the shuttle bus system, and things like that. And that goes incongruence with what they're working on there.

And so we want to make sure that we have that open line of communication to be able to push what we think is happening in the city of Pembroke Pines, and then for them to explain to us why they might have put what they called micro transit, an on demand hub in the super West part of the city of Pembroke Pines, which I understand is supposed to complete the lack of public transportation all the way out by US '27. But I do think we all have a little bit more input to put in. And so we're going to double down on asking them to come and present the plan to us. Eventually, I assume when it gets funded, it might go through the MPO. And we'll hear it kind of down the line on these individual projects.

But I think if they're planning a vision, kind of going back to what I hopped on a little bit last on the workshop, is we need to be participating in that consistently and regularly. And this time, it seemed like they weren't really coming to us. And I said, Okay, well, we're going to make them come and listen to our perspectives because we want to be part of that plan as well.

I think that that's a great idea to have them come. And I don't think that we've had this discussion together on this commission. It's been a while since

Yeah, I think it was before at least Right. Vice Mayor and I were on the board.

But I have to tell you that in my view, the number one mass transit missing component in Pembroke Pines is expanded school busing. We suffer from a huge amount of unnecessary traffic because parents just don't have another way to get their kids to school. And I have spoken to school board members, dozens of them over the years, explaining to them how can you pass by communities within the two mile rule with a bus with eight kids on it and not just do a stop to pick them up and help parents get to school. If we can get kids to school on four tires, that saves us another 30 tires on the road. And in time, parents will begin to trust the system and place more kids on it.

And it's just very, very frustrating. And I have spoken to I don't know how many lobbyists about how many firms. And no one seems to be able to come up with a private sector solution to this. There are families in Pembroke Pines that would be only too happy to pay a couple of bucks to make sure that their kid got to school and came home safely. It would improve their quality of life.

It would reduce traffic in the morning. It would improve the livability of the city. And the kids would enjoy it more, too. It has to be safe. We have to make sure that any driver has a level two background check.

There's a lot that goes into this. But it incredible that we, for lack of options, choose to have the most traffic inefficient way to get kids to school is the most prominent way in Pembroke Pines, which is won by car. And there just needs to be a solution to this. There really isn't a good reason for this two mile rule. And especially when you look at these buses, none of them are full. There's eight kids, 12 kids on a bus. Those buses can sit what is it, forty, sixty kids?

60 kids.

60 kids. There's eight and twelve on a bus. And they're passing they have to pass by the communities that are between the two mile and the school. Why don't we just put out a couple of bus stops? We could make them look attractive.

They can be covered areas, lighted areas, where kids can pull up and get on a bus. I just don't understand why we can't partner in some intelligent way to get that done. And it's very, very frustrating. So I mean, when we start talking about what the ideas are and stuff like that, I'm going to mention it because I know it's

I think that because I've inquired about this as well is a bit of a twofold scenario. Yes, the two mile radius and things like that have its limitation. But specifically after COVID, a lot of parents, because of COVID and just safety fears and things like that that parents come through, that has also helped the decline. Probably not the best way to say it, but it's added to the decline because a lot of parents just feel that that is an unsafe space. I know it wasn't unsafe for me. I rode the bus all the way through twelfth grade because I didn't have a car.

I rode public trans.

So I think we also have to be a part of the education factor to tell parents, hey, this is safe and put kind of what do we see in our microcosm of the charter schools? Are we having the same problem with unfilled buses, things like that? And so if we are, maybe start with those conversations. And if we are doing a really good job on it, what do those conversations look like? Can we expand that to the school board and see where that may lie?

Because I do agree with you that the two mile radius is an issue. But it's also the parents not wanting to take their kids. That I see consistently as we ask around what those concerns are.

We got stuck in that very same place. And I'm saying this acknowledging the veracity of everything that you're saying. We got stuck in that very same place a couple of years ago. And I forget what the name of the movie was. Kevin Costner was in it. If you build it, they will come. Build a dream or something. Ah, there it is. If you start showing parents that the kids can go to school and that it is safe and that it is clean and that it is reliable, the first year you'll get fifteen percent. The next year, maybe you're at twenty percent.

At the point that you get to thirty percent, you start to approach the Columbus Day syndrome. I don't know if you know this from your work with the South Florida Water Regional Planning Council. But Columbus Day, nationwide, is one of the best traffic days out of the year. And the reason for that is even though many people go to work, because a lot of people don't get Columbus Day off, a lot of people are off. And so traffic nationwide on Columbus Day is usually down by about a third.

Suddenly F roads become C roads. Suddenly highways, you can get everywhere you need to be. If we could reduce traffic in the morning by a third, the livability scale in Pembroke Pines would shoot miles up in the air. And emergency vehicles would be able to move faster. And the kids would love it.

And sometimes what you have to do is you've got to provide something so the kid can say, hey, Ma, I need to be on the bus. Just the other day, I was at Pines Charter. And some mom was dropping her son off. Jonathan, this kid looked to me like he was shaving twice a day. If I was a high school senior or whatever, and my mother was dropped I mean, I don't know. I just imagine how My mom dropped me off senior year.

My mom dropped me off senior year Did she? Once in a while. GREGORY DELL:

I'm just kidding. Well, anyway.

GREGORY No, my parents definitely dropped me off. I didn't have the privilege of having a car.

Well, but

you don't shave twice a day. But you know, I'm just saying, give the thing a chance by putting together some sort of plan. And traffic will improve. Quality of life will improve. And we'll spend a lot less having to widen roads. And I think the simple solutions sometimes are the best. Anyway, end of sermon.

Mayor, while the focus of this has been on the yellow buses, I haven't seen anything from the county expanding public transportation South Of 595. The last time they were here, that was the last presentation they made.

So that's the funded primo plan. This vision does on their website, it does increase. Public transportation, including not only the shuttle bus system here in the city, but as well as more frequent buses. And it's planning on going further south and further west. So while this isn't funded, I think they're in hopes on the right track. They at heard us the last time that we were talking.

And implementation would be great.

And just, yeah, ideally. And one other point, kids can also ride bikes. And we have to make it safe for them to also ride bikes at school, protected bike lanes. Just a little plug DELL: for that.

Well, I'm going tell you, though. I'm going to tell you, though. They would do a lot with ridership if every bus stop was covered, if there was a bus bench, and especially at night, that had some lighting on it. You might need some jitney service in order to promote express bus. I've been telling county transportation for I don't know how many years, what would it take to get you on a bus?

Would you stand on an uncovered bus stop surviving our heat, surviving our rain, surviving by the time you get to work, you're sunstruck, you're soaking wet, and you're bug eaten because it creates difficulty. And yet the vast majority of our bus stops in Broward County have no shelter. We had to fight hard, thank god for Mike Stam, fighting hard just to get the few we have. And we still have bus stops without every time I pass a bus stop sign that doesn't have a bench or a shelter, I cringe.

Mayor, you remember when we had the nicest looking bus stops and there was no bus? Remember when they pulled the funding on that?

There's a city. There's a city that has the most beautiful bus stops I've ever seen.

And no bus.

And they don't have a bus. I don't

have a bus.

I did want to mention, and to Commissioner Rodriguez's point, because we constantly discuss the city's representation, our lobbyists. Mayor, I graduated from the school of law known as ChatGBT. Perhaps we want to look at Mr. Goran. I hear you. Section ten eleven point six eight in the Florida statutes. And potentially, all of us vote on that at the appropriate time on the two mile rule. I'm not saying that it's something that will pass. But given that it's a state issue if I mean, they preempt everything already, right? So perhaps there's some flexibility.

But for your consideration now, obviously, we're not voting on it now. I'm just saying, your consideration, maybe adding that to the list of issues that our lobbyists take up there. But thanks for what you're doing at Commissioner Rodriguez representing us at the county and making sure that, yes, they do have to I think they do a very good job working with administration of municipalities. And I love every one of our folks, but the five of us vote on the policies. So if they could come out here kind of like school board member Rebecca Thompson did, she showed up.

She represents one of several schools in our city. I'd like to see that from their municipal planners, countywide planners coming out here. Thank you.

Great

run. Good run. Anything else on this item? Okay. Mister city manager, mister city attorney.

No reports, mayor. Mister mayor, if you will.

Yes, sir. Thank you.

If you wouldn't mind, I'd ask that Carina Naguerreis approach the podium briefly. She's one of our assistant city attorneys. You met her before. We were exploring some legal issues with regard to the Department of Business and Professional Regulation in connection with condominiums as well as HOAs. We published a memo this past week that we think would be helpful informationally. And we're asked to take a look at that. And if you wouldn't mind, just a brief indulgence for a meaningful, but short and meaningful presentation by Karina, I'd appreciate that. Thank you.

Thank you very much. Let me set the stage for this, commissioners, because I asked for this item. So we have all heard from condo and HOAs the horror stories that come from residents. And we all feel the frustration that comes from legally not having any jurisdiction in this area. That's not going to change. Well, might change. But it's not a change we can make. I was struck by the thoughtfulness of Mayor Calvo in Hialeah. And obviously, that's a different form of government. He's a strong mayor there.

But he created a committee to sort of begin looking at these concerns in Miami Dade County. And my thought was whether or not that would make sense for us. And as city attorney began talking DONALD to the Department of Business and Regulatory Affairs Regulation. PRESIDENT Regulation.

PRESIDENT Yes.

PRESIDENT they came up with a different scenario, which I actually thought was a better idea. So without further ado.

Mayor, thank you. Good evening, assistant city manager, members of the commission. City attorney Goren kind of went into it and gave a good synopsis. And Mayor Castillo, thank you as well. But like he said, I did reach out to the Department of Business and Professional Regulation.

They oversee condominiums. And they offered to come and hold mobile office hours or a condo resource fair here at the city. If it's a successful event, they're willing to make it something that's recurring. And essentially, they would be hosting and answering any questions that residents may have, receiving any complaints, and also directing them or giving them guidance on some of the complaints or concerns that they receive. What the agency is asking for is essentially a dedicated event space to be able to hold the office hours.

And they also suggested coordination from either Pines PD or code enforcement to also be present to educate residents when something falls outside of their purview. They also mentioned that they're available to do these in English and in Spanish, depending on whatever the constituents in the particular area may be more likely to speak or may be more comfortable with. But if the commission or the administration wants to move forward with this, that is essentially the two things that DBPR is asking for.

For my part, I think this is terrific, that we should give them they could have space in the lobby, Jonathan, or somewhere else where it's appropriate. Maybe we can assist them in terms of organizing their appointments so that they can hear these stories and whatnot. I also believe they license HOAs. Is that not the case?

So they have limited enforcement authority with HOAs. HOA disputes are generally resolved civilly. Or if it's a criminal investigation, it's typically reported to PD to handle. But they do not have enforcement jurisdiction over HOAs other than maybe voting disputes within the board members?

Well, but I think that that's a very good thing to tell people who are in HOAs because they think that the department has plenary jurisdiction over HOAs. And you're making it clear that that's really not the case. So even that bit of information is empowering to people. Now, we have great HOAs and great condo associations and some that have not done so well. So this isn't a shot at any of them.

This is about empowering people when they have a complaint or a concern to understand what their rights are because they're paying lots and lots and lots of money. And we're constantly hearing all five of us hear complaints about condos or about HOAs. And a lot of it has to do with language barriers as well. And I just think that this is a great idea to open our doors to state partners so that residents can come in. That is my point of view, and I would support it. But it's up to you

all. Mayor, I welcome that. And have a website rewrite, whatever we're doing. I think there's an opportunity on the resources, specifically for condo associations, specifically for HOAs, for that guidance. I would ask administration to consider a specific email address for questions, like we do with budgetpee ponds dot com, for the citizens.

Because we know that we get the calls about the condo, about the HOA. We're having some issues here, there, the other way. And then we provide them guidance. I appreciate the DBPR making themselves available. I believe that some of it may be able to get resolved through administrative without having a dedicated time and day.

But certainly, I am certainly open to have whatever office space is available to have these discussions. I would encourage the DBPR to potentially host some education events in lieu of people asking questions. I think it would be more effective, at least from a launch standpoint, to put them front and center, to be able to roll out the website, to be able to roll out an email, to be able to roll out whatever assistant city manager is going to be tasked with the incoming potato throwing, that sort of thing. But I welcome the DBPR. I think it's fantastic that they're open to that.

I'm also interested in knowing their enforcement powers and historically how effective they've been when condo associations have come forward. It's one thing lodging the complaint. It's another thing seeing where things stand with it. We also have yeah, I'll leave it at that. I'll get with you, Karina, on some of the District 2 scenarios where I think this would be beneficial? Because I can think of a handful of folks who I can make a phone call tomorrow doing help is on the way.

Absolutely. So I don't have information regarding the enforcement, but we can certainly look into that. But in terms of the educational outreach, they did tell me that that is something that they also offer. They have a couple of topics that they kind of have prearranged that we would be able to pick from. Or if there's something in particular affecting Pembroke Pines, we can also present that to them.

And they're available to present that as well. In the other municipalities where they have these programs, they have said that normally they've started off with kind of like the office hours and the complaint section. And once they see that residents are spreading the word, then they move on to the educational programs so that more people participate.

Good. Any other comments? So

the DPR that we keep speaking of, is this the ombudsman that we're speaking of? Okay. Correct. And they have a local office?

CAROLINE I'm not sure if they have a local office. I know their main offices are in Tallahassee, but they are willing Regardless. To come down here.

Okay. And this is more geared towards condos, not HOAs, what you said, right?

Correct.

So question that I have is, who is responsible for overseeing the process for dissolution of an HOA? Because that statute just recently passed. And is that not the DPR that's going to be handling guidance for those kind of things or what?

I don't have the answer to that.

I'm not this familiar with Representative Porres' item? That did not pass.

I didn't think Porres

would I didn't think think he's referring it

dissolution of an HOA, though, did that pass? I understand that it did, but maybe I'm missing something here.

If it was the bill brought forth by Representative Porres, that did not pass. I'm not familiar with the specific bill you're referencing.

Okay. So I'll withhold on my statement for the time being until I have a certainty on that. But I meant to believe right now that it did

move forward.

We'll definitely look into it.

All right. Thank you. And you know what? That's an excellent point, because I think part of why Representative Porres' item had trouble in the beginning is they didn't think through to a solution dare I say, there's a pattern here what happens with the common property. So let's say you dissolve your HOA. Who takes care of the pool?

Who owns

the pool? Who's taking care of the pool? What about the tennis courts? What about the clubhouse? What about the roads? What about the guardhouse? What about security? All these things that are built into an HOA, very easy to say, what? Do away with the HOA. Now we don't have an HOA. Well, who's going to take care of those things? Don't dump it on me. Don't dump it on us. Because we don't have the money. And we don't even have title to these things.

So I really think that it has to be thought through. It's easy to say, well, why don't we just dissolve the HOA, as you well know, commissioner. But then how do you make that work? And it's tricky business.

So

what do you think? You want to work with them and give them some office space? Vice mayor, what do

you I'm in full agreement.

Okay, so we have consensus.

We will make it happen, sir.

If you can go ahead and please email us and let us know how this is going. I really want to thank you for it was refreshing, The emails that you have with the states were helpful and engaging. It was almost an out of body experience. So I mean, they

It was a great experience. They

do. Well, so welcome aboard. You're doing great. Definitely. Mr. Mayor, this

Thank you, everyone.

JULIET The secretary was actually communicating with her. And I stepped aside and said, this is wonderful. Because they focused on Pembroke Pines as being a resource and a venue that they had an interest in, which was very nice to see. And I commend you for getting into that discussion. It's like the Ritz Carlton of legal work. It a was guidepost to get to here.

I would save this tape when Sam and you were discussing McCorman's review.

Wonderful. Anything else? Mayor, just one quick item, which

I will research further. Thank you, A developer in Oakland Park, references Oakland Park Dixie LLC, has filed a lawsuit against the Broward County School Board, Broward County, and Broward County with regard to the school mitigation fee issue, which was discussed by the commission on which you have a public resolution which you adopted. I just got a copy of the complaint today. It was a recently filed lawsuit. I will brief you all individually and otherwise by memorandum as appropriate.

But this is challenging, as it were, the school board's imposition of the collection of the mitigation fee that was opposed by the city commission and which asked the school board to reconsider its decision making on that basis. Where are they on that? Well, apparently they're in a lawsuit now.

No, no, no. What I'm saying is were they going to change that policy?

I think not.

Because that money wasn't a gift. Was in exchange for new school seats. But if they're closing schools, they can't make that argument. So why should that money be paid?

And for full disclosure, our law firm represents the city of Oakland Park. They're a defendant in this lawsuit, just FYI. But we'll study it. We'll update the commission without getting into an advocacy role. We will let you know what it looks like, and we'll seek your guidance.

Much appreciated. Else? Anyone else have anything? This meeting is adjourned. Thank you very, very much.