Community Redevelopment Agency Board - Regular Meeting

Okay. Good evening, everybody. I'd like to conclude the closed door session. The executive closed door session of the city commission is now terminated, and the public meeting is now reopened. It doesn't matter. I'm just saying what has

to be said. Okay.

Good evening, everybody, and welcome to the city commission meeting this 12/16/2025. Thank you all for being here. I can't make myself any louder. It has to be our our our audio folks. Can you raise my can you raise the level of my microphone? Okay. Is that better? A little better? Okay. So thank you all for being here.

For those of you who are here for the first time, welcome and I want to thank you all for your patience. I'm sorry we had a delayed start because we had a very lengthy conference meeting this afternoon. So for those of you who have not been here before, we begin our meetings with a pledge and a moment of silence, and then there are various housekeeping rules that we'll take care of, and then we start with presentations. What are presentations? Presentations are opportunities for the Commission and the community to recognize individuals, events, things like that, and tonight we have three of them, and we're very proud to invite a member of this Commission to make each presentation tonight.

Having said that, I'd invite you all to please stand and join me for the Pledge of Allegiance. 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, liberty, justice for all. Thank you. Please be seated. She was she hasn't shown up.

Okay. Yeah. Think it was looking like that.

Yeah. I asked, and they said she wasn't here. No. This has been a very well, I anyway, she's not yes. We can. Is Courtney McCoy here? Oh, now you're telling me she's here?

Hi, Courtney.

Where's Courtney? Courtney, come on up here. Courtney was supposed to join us in the pledge and lead us in the pledge tonight, and I was Thank you, Courtney, for being here tonight, and and we have a little gift for you. Thank you. Thank you. I apologize for the mishap. Okay. Okay. Thank you. I'll run the meeting.

Thank you so much. So this has been a very difficult week for every community and those around the world. And a lot of unfortunate mishaps and tragic events occurred, and I'd like everyone to join me in a moment of silence. Okay. Thank you so much.

I'd also like to

take a moment and recognize a couple of employees who are now going to be leaving the city after a number of years of service to us. First is Ernest Theme, who has been a lead facilities worker in public works, has been with us for twenty five years. Congratulations, and thank you. And I also understand Clarence from CRA. Clarence, where are you? Clarence Woods? Guess

he's already left.

I guess he left already. No, he's

not. Wherever you are, Clarence, thank you.

This would be his last meeting. He's been with us many, many years, and I want to thank him for his service and his contribution to working with us on the Community Redevelopment Agency Board. Having said that, I'd like to now ask the clerk to please call the roll.

Vice Mayor Herps, Commissioner Glossman. Here. Commissioner Beasley Pittman. Here. Commissioner Sorenson. Here. Mayor Trentales.

Here. We have a few agenda announcements. We're going to ask, that r four and r six be deferred. R four is regarding the conceptual design regarding the Los Oles mobility project and R6 is referring to the parking garage at Holiday Park. We had a lengthy discussion this afternoon on that, but because of some the need to find out more specific information on that, the commission decided to move it over to the first meeting in January.

Mayor, can I just along with that deferral for Los Oles Mobility, so I got a phone call from mister Weymouth while we were on break, and both he and mister Hudson are gonna be out of the country? I think being that they're the two principal property owners on Los Oles, we may wanna consider pushing it back one more meeting to allow them to have the opportunity to participate.

Sounds fine to me. What about the rest of the commission? Are we good with that?

Yes. Sounds I'm in agreement.

January 20. That would be the second commission meeting in January. Okay.

Thank you.

Thank you for bringing that to our attention. Walk on motion approving an increase in the contract cost capacity for talent booking agent prequalified pool that will be brought up as a walk on. And we have a couple of agenda items, correction, CM4, page one, the last paragraph of the CAM was revised to correct the year from 2028 to what it should be, which is 2025. So do I hear a motion to approve the agenda for tonight as amended? Moved. Second. It's been moved and seconded. Please call the roll.

Commissioner Sorenson? Yes. Vice Mayor Herps? Yes. Commissioner Glassman?

Yes.

Commissioner Beasley Pittman? Yes. Mayor Trentos?

Yes. And that agenda for tonight is now approved. So now let me begin with the presentations. I first like to ask Commissioner Beasley Pittman, who will be presenting a proclamation regarding the sixtieth anniversary of the Alpha Rho Boulay of Sigma Pi Phi Fraternity in the city of Fort Lauderdale. Did I get that right? Is Tim Hogan's here? Is Tim Hogan's here? Come on, Tim. Is alpha Rho is boule another Greek letter that I'm not familiar with? What is that? Okay.

It's coming.

Get a truth.

I forgot to push the button, y'all. Thank you. Good evening, everyone, and happy holidays. Good evening, everyone, and happy holidays.

Day. Do

you not?

Oh, come on. This is a joyful time of the year. Right? Okay. It is my honor tonight to be able to present this proclamation from the office of the mayor, the city of Fort Lauderdale, in recognition of the Alpha Rho Bole Sigma Pi Phi fraternity.

Whereas Sigma Pi Phi fraternity, known as the Bole, is recognized as the oldest existing Greek letter postgraduate fraternity. Whereas established on 05/15/1904 in Philadelphia, and Philadelphia excuse me, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. The Bolle was found by the black professor professional men. Whereas Alpha Rho Bolle, a Sigma Pi Phi fraternity, was founded on December 1965 in Miami, Florida under the direction of grand sire Archen Oliver w Hill, was assistance with the Alpha Zeta Bole of Tallahassee and the Phi Bole of Tuskegee. And whereas the development of the Alpha Alpha Ro Bole was influenced by 10 charter members such as Ira P.

Davis, Clifton G. Dyson, James L. Bass, Samuel O. Coyne, also G. Brenton Sells, David M. Dolls, John O. Brown, Elmer A. Ward, Warren W. Cooley, and Robert L. Smith, who were active in medicine, business, and education across South Florida.

Whereas among these chartered members, doctor James Linwood Bass of Fort Lauderdale's first black American dentist in 1939 and played a pivotal role establishing the provident hospital, Broward County's first hospital serving the black community. And whereas, over the decades, members of Afrobe Ale has been instrumental in advancing assets to public accommodations, educations, employment for black Americans in South Florida, contributing a numerous social and civic achievement. Whereas, Alpha Robo Ale continues to serve the region through scholarships at Florida Memorial University and Florida International University and through its sponsorship of the Black Health Summit. Whereas the city of Fort Lauderdale recognizes Afrobe Belay sixtieth dedication, achievement, and services to the community across South Florida and appreciates its continuous commitment to serving and supporting residents and advancing education and strengthening civic lives. Now, therefore, as the city of because the city commissioners of the city of Fort Lauderdale, Florida, we do hereby proclaim 12/03/2025 as the sixtieth anniversary of Afrovalade Day in the city of Fort Lauderdale, and this was dated on 12/01/2025 by the honorable mayor, Dean Trantellis.

If you can all just give us a hand. And we're gonna ask mister Holden if he would like

to say something at

this time.

I'd like to recognize my colleague, mayor Wayne Messam, who's

Yes.

Traveled all the way from the other side of the county from Miramar to join us tonight. Thank you.

Good evening, everyone. Good evening, everyone. Good evening. To the mayor, commission, city manager, entire staff, we are so humbled for this moment. My name is Tim Hogans. I serve as the president of Alfa Romeo Bouley, as mentioned, here based in Miami and Broward Counties. It's an honor to have served for so many years in the community, various boards and different organizations. So it's good to see a lot of friendly faces in the the room tonight. But specifically, we wanna say thank you again. We really appreciate it.

Sixty years of hard work, dedication. Within Sigma Pi Phi fraternity, there's only 5,000 members throughout the world, with most of our chapters, if you would, in The United States, one being in London and one being in Nassau. But I'll conclude there by thanking my colleagues for being here as well, the mayor, Wayne Messam, and Joseph Gay as well. There's 60 active archons within South Florida, if you would, and we're just really happy to be here. Mayor, thank you again for all you're doing and the entire commission. Thank you.

And congratulations. Mary, you want to say a few words? Never to be shy.

Well, it's good to be here in Fort Lauderdale in your temporary commission chambers.

It's also But

of on Sigma Pi Phi, Fort Lauderdale is part of our service area, and ARCONS far and near enjoy coming to South Florida. And whenever we have an opportunity to be of support and service in our community, it is our charge. We mentor young men and young ladies as well, and our members are in various leadership positions throughout South Florida. So thanks so much for opening up your home and presenting our AlphaRoe Bouley, which is our local chapter here with such recognition. Thank you so much. Thank you.

Great. Now I'd like to invite commissioner Sorenson who will be presenting a proclamation as Rick Case Bike for kids day in the city of Fort

Lauderdale. You, mayor.

Miss Case, you wanna come on up? You bring anybody else with you? You

have you have other Rita's mother's here with her.

Okay. Do you

wanna Andrew, do you wanna

come on up? Yeah.

You sure? Okay. Alright. Rita, thank you for being here. Thank you for being such a stalwart advocate for the community and helping so many.

It's just amazing we were talking to Mayor about all that Rita does across the community and the whole team across the community with Boys and girls club, bike program, helping fund students going to vocational schools. I mean it's just it's just awesome. So Rita, have a little proclamation I'll read and then turn it over to you to love to hear some words for you. So from you, this is in recognition of Rick Case Bikes for Kids program, whereas the Rick Case Bikes for Kids program began in 1982 by Rita and Rick Case and the Rick Case Automotive Group in Ohio and whereas the Rick Case Bikes for Kids program works in conjunction with the Boys and Girls Club, local charities, churches and schools to collect donated bicycles and share them with deserving children in time for the holidays. And whereas hundreds of bicycles were distributed to children last year and more than a 122,000 bikes have been provided since 1982.

And whereas in celebration of the program's forty third anniversary, we encourage Fort Lauderdale residents to donate unused bicycles and invite their friends and families to join in helping fulfill children's holiday wishes. And whereas the delighted recipients are children whose holidays are brightened by the generous benevolence of the community and everyone engaged in the Rick Case Bikes for Kids program. Now therefore, we as city commissioners hereby proclaim December 16 as Rick Case Bike for Kids Day here in the city of Fort Lauderdale dated the December 16 by your mayor, mayor D. J. Trantellis. Yes. Well,

every year I come and I really appreciate the city always, you know, recognizing the program that we started in Ohio when we had 14 bicycle and moped stores. We are now celebrating forty years here in Broward County. We moved here when we opened the first Acura and the first Hyundai dealership in The United States and we felt Fort Lauderdale would be a great place to expose that brand to the country. And with that, we brought our bikes for kids program that we started in Ohio. And I just wanted to clarify, it's, used bikes, not unused.

We're looking for the bikes that are in your garage, you no longer need, you've outgrown, your kids have outgrown and they just sit over there in the garage to go to the maybe next homeowner. We'd like them to come down, just drop them off at any one of our dealerships between, October 1 is when it starts each year up until December 22. It gives us a chance to get them to all those children in time for the holidays that wouldn't have an opportunity to have that bicycle. We all remember our first bicycle, that sense of freedom, get away from mom and dad, get away from the siblings, you know. And so there's a lot of children that

Well, there's an incentive.

Yeah. Can that

cannot have a bicycle. And this is a way for us to take bikes that you're no longer using, match them up with a child that could use them. And it's not just the Boys and Girls Club though, that was the first organization that we learned we could give the bikes to. Since then, after forty years of doing it here in Broward County, we have so many organizations, churches, even the, the public school system asks asks for bikes because they know children that need them. So thank you very much. We're honored to be here in Broward County. You guys have done a great job helping us build our business, and we wanna do just as much to give back to this community because it's a great place. Thank you so much.

Thank you, Rita. Thank you. Thank you, Rita, for all the good work you do with our community. Our last presentation, I'd like to invite Juan Carlos Samuel, who's the ASCE Broward President and Public Works Department employee, Lauren Johnson, Carla Jimenez, Elias Guivera, as well as Brad Cain, Mark Rhodes, and Brandi Layton. Are they all here?

Any of them here?

Yes, mayor. Also have a topic to our deputy director of public works.

And this will be the presentation of the Small Project of the Year Award to the Public Works Department by the American Society of Civil Engineers Broward County Branch. Who would like to introduce this? Can you push the button at the bottom of the speaker? Great. Good

evening, everyone. Again, my name is Juan Carlos Samuel. And on behalf of ASCE Broward branch, which is represented tonight by myself, which I do currently work with the City for Lauderdale, our past President, Elias, our President-elect, Lauren and Secretary, Carla Jimenez, would like to present the twenty twenty four-twenty twenty five Small Project of the Year award to the City of Fort Lauderdale Public Works Department for the 48 inches product water main infrastructure project. This project was designed by Chen Moore and Associates and constructed by David Mancini's sons.

Congratulations.

Can

I suggest you all kind of move in front of the screen so we get the whole picture of Fort Lauderdale on there? You want to do it here? Yes. Okay. That way, I get to be in the picture.

Come on, folks. Anybody else? Great.

Thank you, Mayor. I just wanted to, thank our entire engineering team who worked on this. As someone who sits as the Vice Chair of the, American Public Works Association for Broward County and my professional organization, ASC is an outstanding organization. So for our team to, be able to obtain award like that, it's just an unbelievable dedication and commitment that I'm so proud of. And I just wanted to thank Brandi personally, Mark, Todd and all of our team in Public Works Engineering for this outstanding achievement.

Thank you. And this is just part of a continuing effort as we continue to invest in our infrastructure throughout the past. Past.

We're very pleased Works team in for everything that they're doing and the light that they're shining on Fort Lauderdale.

Okay. Commissioner Beasley Pittman would like to take a moment of personal privilege here, and she has a special presentation that she would like to make.

Okay. I'm commission and also from the city. If I could ask at this time, D. Wayne Spence, if you could come and join me at the podium, please.

Yeah. She said you had

spent mister Spence.

Yes. Let us give him a little bit of more claps there. On behalf of the city of Fort Lauderdale, we would like to present this award to Dwayne Spence. In appreciation for your outstanding service as our interim city attorney, not once, but twice. So we thank you for your service and your leadership and dedication during a critical time in our city's history.

We will never you will never be forgotten, and we are surely, truly just have a heart for what you have done for us in this interim of time. Thank you for standing into in the gap in this community. We thank you. God bless you. Would you like to say something?

City mayor and city commissioners, I am and staff and residents and neighbors of the I really appreciated the opportunity to have served in this capacity in the city. I've shared with the commission that I felt like I grew up as a lawyer in the city of Fort Lauderdale. Came here in 2010 and was an Assistant City Attorney I, and this organization has truly nurtured me, and allowed me to grow and develop and gave me an opportunity to serve as its, city attorney on the interim basis, and I really appreciate that, confidence that was shown. So I appreciate this, token of appreciation from you all and for the opportunity. Thank you again.

Yes. It's quite a trophy there. Okay. That concludes our presentation. Thank you, Commissioner Beasley Pittman, for that special recognition.

And at this point, we have what we call the consent agenda. And the consent agenda is where the Commission has the opportunity to vote on all the items at once, unless, of course, a member of the Commission chooses to ask to pull one of the items, and we'll discuss and vote on that separately. So let me begin by asking the vice mayor, do you have any items you wish to pull?

I do not.

Commissioner Beasley Pittman? None. Commissioner Glassman? None. Commissioner Sorenson? None. Okay. I have none as well. So do I hear a motion to approve all the consent agenda items?

So moved. Second.

Do I hear okay. Move and seconded. Please call the roll.

Commissioner Sorenson? Yes. Vice Mayor Herbst? Yes. Commissioner Glossman? Yes. Commissioner Beasley Pittman? Yes. Mayor Trentov?

Yes. And all the consent agenda items have now been approved. If you are here on any of them, you're welcome to stay for the rest of the meeting. Otherwise, your item has been approved. We move on to M1. This is a motion approving a memorandum of understanding with the North Broward Hospital District, DBA, Broward Health, to implement a whole blood exchange program. We have several members who have asked to speak. Is the fire chief here? Yes. Do you want to come up and tell us a little bit about this program?

Absolutely. Good evening, Mayor, Vice Mayor and Commissioners. This evening, I'm honored to present a partnership with Broward Health that represents a leap forward in pre hospital trauma care. This is a program that will undoubtedly save lives in our community, and it's the gift of whole blood. This motion this evening will have a partnership, a bond with Broward Health that will bring whole blood to the community at no cost to the taxpayers.

This makes us unique than any other whole blood program that is currently out there in Broward County and shows survivability when you look at medical journals across the country, increasing survivability in traumatic patients up to eighty percent. That's truly unbelievable when you're giving someone an 80% better shot at life by this simple administration of blood. So I have the team here tonight, and I also have Shane Strom from Broward Health who made all this possible. Without this partnership with Broward Health, we wouldn't be able to increase survivability by eighty percent. So mister Strom,

would like to forward and share a few words with us?

All right. Well, good evening. Mayor, Vice Mayor, Commissioners, good to see you again. We're doing a lot together. Broward Health and the City Of Fort Lauderdale. Those kind of goes on the same theme, right? It's about collaboration, coordination, working together, partnerships. This is spectacular partnership that the Board of Commissioners is actually allowing us to enter into being able to do something that's great for our community. I really look at this as an additional trauma bay, right? The stories that you're going hear tonight is actually addressing the patient in the field and giving them a high probability of survival.

The story you'll hear this evening, will really encourage you to make sure that we can do everything we can. We feel like this is a Broward Health and a City of Fort Lauderdale gift to your residents, to all the people here in the room to make sure that they not only have speedy access when they're at Broward Hill, but when they're having field trauma, they're being taken care of with whole blood immediately.

Thank you so much. Thank you.

Next, I'd like to invite the Livingston family up real quick.

I see we have Michelle Livingston, Andrew Livingston, and Steven Livingston. Absolutely.

Good evening, commissioners. My name is Andrew Livingston. Steven Livingston is my son. I'm gonna tell you a little story. So this happened back at March 17. 02:02AM. We're fast asleep. Steven's not home. I get a knock on the door. Dog's startled. I'm startled. 02:02AM. As I walk past the kitchen to see the time on the microwave, two Fort Lauderdale officers at the front door. Open the door. They ask us a few questions.

It was, who owns a black Honda Accord. Michelle said she does. Instantly, she said, someone who's involved in an accident. I know my time is limited, but I you guys gotta hear me out. The moment I looked at the officer's eyes, eyes, officer Taylor and Becca from the city of Fort Lauderdale, understand that we I live in we live in Plantation. So it's kinda odd to see them here. And I said, came here. Instead of making a phone call, he said, yes. We want to come and tell you in person that you guys need to go to the hospital. I said, okay, we can go.

I'll probably go to Umbraud because he explained the accident occurred on Umbraud Boulevard by the BSO and the checkers. So we got in the car, we went there, we got to the hospital at three a. M, about three a. M. To find out, our son's name, Steven, is named Trauma Child. So the Trauma One Hospital at Broward General, Broward Health. And upon sitting in the waiting room, we're escorted to a conference room in the back. Doctor comes out, tells us what happened, scans Steven a few times, one, two, three times internal bleeding. Femur left femur was broken, compound fracture. Right knee had a laceration deep to the bone.

Right tibia and fibula fractured above the ankle. A chunk of the bone was missing, flesh, bleeding out. So we sat there. They wouldn't allow us to see him. They had to go in surgery to stop the bleeding on his spleen.

We went home, came back around 09:30 that morning. Come to find out, talking with the doctors there, the newer surgeons, the trauma team at Broad Health, that upon admission at 12:07AM, he was transfused whole blood on the way to the hospital. Paramedics, firefighters, even played baseball, so all of his parents, friends, or paramedics reached out to me and said, he was nonresponsive when they got there. So this is a story that brings Fort Lauderdale PD, Broward Broward Fire Rescue, Fort Lauderdale Fire Rescue Station. Was 42, and number two responded because there's one other person in another vehicle that was injured.

And when I tell you, when I see the paramedics talk to me and tell me what happened in the eyes, with the thousands and hundreds of thousands of dollars of equipment on their trucks, what does a pint, a unit of blood, really cost? Right? And that's what would have transfused to him on the way to hospital by BSO captain Jennifer Ariola. And that's when he said when he got there, he's gonna be okay. I said, why?

He goes he started pulling the stuff out of his throat from being nonresponsive at the scene. I gotta also mention, sorry, the tactical unit that responded. I found that out when we met the firefighters at the station house. Steven wanted to cook some barbecue for them. So we did that. I met and got so I got the story. And let me tell you, if you guys don't believe that there's somebody up there, there is somebody up there. Watching over this kid doesn't deserve it. And the reason I say that is the United very

proud

went over the Turnpike, not Turnpike, 95, saw the flashing lights. He was the first paramedic that was there. And then that's when he called the tactical unit to remove Steve and extract him from the car, cutting the roof off. The whole side of the car was cut off. So this year is a good year.

It's still ongoing. He still has a long journey to go, and I want to thank BSO for the blood and the whole blood that our Christmas card this year will have five members of our family and not four. And that's a story that it's it's real. I wanna say god bless and thank you guys for the time. Good evening. Good evening. Luckily,

I can say that I am the living, breathing reason that whole blood should be everywhere. But if you're not gonna do it for me, do it for the many people who bled out and died before Broward Shower's office could get there with the whole blood. And when I had the reunion with the first responders who saved my life, first of all, thank you again. But I received challenge coins. And my favorite challenge coin I received from the Broward Sheriff's Office from doctor James Roche, and it says do it for Taylor on it.

And every time I look at it, I think of all the people who bled out and died and didn't have the opportunity to get whole blood like myself. I was able to stay alive long enough until Broward Sheriff's office could arrive with the whole blood. So if you're not gonna do it for me, do it for all the people who bled out and died before whole blood was able to get there. Or if not, do it for Taylor like the coin says.

Mr. May,

clarify one thing. Taylor is, doctor Roche's niece, who was in accident in Naples, similar situation, bled out. And so bringing it to Fort Lauderdale, to me, it's a no brainer.

Thank you so much.

So since 2020, we've been relying on Broward Sheriff's Office to provide this whole blood. This partnership this evening will allow us to administer the blood ourselves and we'll take it further into the community. Before we were relying on Broward Sheriff's not being on another call and being available, This means that we will have it on three units in the city of Fort Lauderdale and it will always be available to every citizen in Fort Lauderdale. Thank you so much. Happy holidays. Thank you.

And again, we want to thank Broward Health for their partnership in this effort. Okay. Moving on to R1 resolutions, appointment of board and committee members. Mr. Clerk.

We still have to do the motion to approve that one.

I I can't hear you.

We need to do the motion to approve m one.

Oh, I beg your pardon. I'm sorry. Do I hear a motion to approve m one? Been moved. Do I hear a second?

Second.

Been moved and seconded. Please call the roll.

Commissioner Sorenson? Yes. Vice Mayor Herbst? Yes. Commissioner Glassman?

Yes.

Commissioner then

we're we're we'll able

to

sure record.

Thank you, Mayor. The 01/06/2026 resolution, Citizens Committee of Recognition, Mary Peloquin nominated, it's a consensus position for the Council of Fort Lauderdale Civic Association president or designee. Code Enforcement Board, August Puyos, nominated by Vice Mayor Herps General Employees Retirement System Board of Trustees Jill Prisley, Consensus Elected Employee and Paul Vandenberg, also Consensus Employee. Insurance Advisory Board, Jonathan Perillo, nominated by Commissioner Sorenson Mark Schwartz, nominated by Commissioner Sorenson Ted Hess, Sr, nominated by Commissioner Sorenson and Joseph Pichura, Sr, nominated by Commissioner Sorenson. Police and Firefighters Retirement System Board of Trustees Susan Grant, nominated by Mayor Tramtales Derek Joseph, that's Consensus elected employees police officer Keith Costas, elected employee firefighter.

Public Art Emplacement Advisory Board, Phoenix Lynn Marks, nominated by commissioner Sorenson Walk of Fame Induction Committee twenty twenty six, Gina Ellis, nominated by Mary Trentellis Ina Lee, nominated by Mary Trentellis. And for tonight's resolution, Beach Business Improvement District Advisory Board, Alvaro Hernandez, alternate member for representing the Bee Ocean Resort Fort Lauderdale Budget Advisory Board, Jason Jeffress, nominated by Mayor Trentellis Central City Redevelopment Advisory Board Juan Carlos Guerrero, nominated by Mayor Trentalis Code Enforcement Board Donald Ray Carney III, nominated by Commissioner Glassman Community Appearance Board Matthew Till, nominated by Vice Mayor Herps Community Service Board Shelly Goren nominated by Vice Mayor Herps and Wizmi Sias nominated by Commissioner Glassman, Insurance Advisory Board, Steve Botkin nominated by Mayor Trentellis and Parks Recreation and Beaches Board. Actually, that one is not going. So that rounds it out.

Okay. Are there any modifications or additions to that list? Okay. There being none, would someone like to introduce the resolution? Introduced. Resolution has been introduced. Please call the roll.

A resolution of the city commission of the city of Fort Lauderdale, Florida, appointing or nominating, if applicable, Boarding Committee members as set forth in the exhibit attached hereto and made a part here of. Commissioner Sorensen? Yes. Vice mayor Herbst?

Yes.

Commissioner Glassman? Glassman?

Yes.

Commissioner Beasley Pittman? Yes. Mayor Trent House?

Yes. And R1 is now approved. I want to thank all those individuals for your volunteerism and your commitment to our community. R2, resolution accepting the twenty twenty five State Housing Initiatives Partnership Program, that's the SHIP program, as approved and prepared by the Affordable Housing Advisory Committee and authorizing its submission to the Florida Housing Finance Corporation. Two people have signed up to speak. Susan, are you here? Susan Sprague? You don't want to talk? Okay. And Chris Nelson, you sign up to speak.

Hello, mayor, vice mayor, commissioners. Merry Christmas, everybody.

Merry Christmas.

Alright. Chris Nelson and excited to speak for this one because anytime I see affordable housing, I think about all these projects where it's this social engineering type thing or taking money from here and putting it over here, stuff like that. And really the best way to give people affordable housing is through a property tax cut. So when you're doing the doing your budget every year, affordable housing for middle class regular people like myself would be to give us a break on our property taxes. And, you know, that that makes things a lot less complicated, a lot less bureaucracy involved with everything.

And and, you know, it's just the most the most simple way to do it. And I do hope that the FAFO office or the Florida Department of Financial Accountability or

how are

they doing? FAFO. Yeah. They that they do audit for a lot Dale and and do one of those one of those audits is the office of the chief financial officer Blaise Angolia because I think it would be good to see, you know, how much government here has grown and how much it could be pared down for next year. And that's how it relates to affordable housing because then a property tax cut would mean a lot more affordability for the good people of Fort Lauderdale. So thanks for letting me share.

Okay, thank you. Anyone else wish to speak on this item? Here being nobody else, would someone like to introduce the resolution?

Introduced.

Resolution has been introduced. Please call the roll.

A resolution of the City Commission of the City of Fort Lauderdale, Florida accepting the affordable housing advisory committee's twenty twenty five affordable housing incentive strategies report and authorizing the city manager to submit the AHAC report to the Florida Housing Finance Corporation delegating authority to the city manager to execute all documents necessary or associated therewith and providing for defective date. Commissioner Sorensen? Yes. Vice Mayor Herbst? Yes. Commissioner Glassman? Yes. Commissioner Viza Pittman? Yes. Mayor Trentellis?

Yes. And R2 is now approved. R3, resolution approving and ratifying a memorandum of understanding between the City of Fort Lauderdale the Teamsters Local Union seven sixty nine. This is regarding collective bargaining agreement providing for additional compensation for employees assigned to operate a personal rescue watercraft. No one has signed up to speak. Someone like to introduce the resolution. Introduced. The resolution has been introduced. Any questions? There being none, please call the roll.

A resolution to the Of Lauderdale, Florida approving and ratifying a memorandum of understanding between the city of Fort Lauderdale and Teamsters Local Union number seven sixty nine affiliated with international brotherhood of Teamsters and authorizing the city manager to execute the memorandum of understanding. Commissioner Sorensen? Yes. Vice mayor Herbst? Yes. Commissioner Glassman? Glassman? Yes. Commissioner Beasley Pittman? Yes. Mayor Trentels?

Yes. And R3 is now approved. R4 has been deferred to the second meeting in January. I

think we want to do a motion to defer. Just want to double check.

Do we have to do a motion to do that?

In the beginning of the meeting, you acted?

Yes.

I didn't

hear you.

I didn't say

it again.

It's sufficient what you did in the beginning of the meeting.

That was sufficient? Okay. Just a quick question. The second meeting in January is the day after Martin Luther King Day. Do we do you folks need to bump that over to Wednesday because you have your gender review meetings usually the night before?

Fine. You're good? Okay. All right. R5, this is a resolution authorizing the city manager or designee to proceed with the site plan alternative 1A for the Fort Lauderdale Beach Park project and approved parks bond improvement project.

A number of people have signed up to speak on this. Hold on just a moment.

20,

I have is named Jaris. Is Jaris here? And Okay. Those are people that want to speak on R4, but they were mixed in with something else. Okay. R5, this is regarding the site plan Alternative 1A. A number of people signed up to speak. I'm going to call your names three at a time. And but does the city staff want to make sort of a presentation before we begin to explain what we're doing tonight?

Thank you, Mayor. So we've discussed this item with the commission in the past during conference meetings, and we've gotten feedback. And I believe at one of our recent meetings, it was requested that we bring this item forward for discussion and for a vote. We just really need some clear direction on the alternatives and the site plan that's being proposed so that we can move forward with the design and permitting process. We do have certain obligations tied to the interlocal agreement with the Bahia Mar Community Development District with certain deadlines.

We also have parks bond funding that we want to utilize and maximize in a timely fashion. So we're hoping that this discussion will allow staff to have that clear direction on how to proceed with the improvements at Fort Lauderdale Beach Park.

Okay. So to bring this into context, for those that did not understand everything that you just said, there about a year ago, the City Commission approved an agreement with the developers of the Bahia Mar to allow for the construction of pickleball courts at a certain site where currently there are now basketball courts. And the idea was to transfer the location of the basketball courts to a different location on the beach and allow for, I believe, was two pickleball courts that we're obligated for, right?

That's correct. The interlocal agreement called for placing two pickleball courts at the site of the existing basketball courts, adding fitness equipment and relocating some operational equipment.

And also okay. And but did we also discuss relocating the picnic tables in the barbecue area and building new ones and better ones?

We have talked about enhancing the amenities at Fort Lauderdale Beach Park, utilizing the funding available through the Parks Bond program. We have talked about consolidating the funding sources both through the Baham RCDD as well as through the Parks Bond program to augment the amenities at the park holistically, including the picnic tables and the grills. We've also had discussions with the commission and shared communications with the commission related to relocating the basketball courts to the southern end of Fort Lauderdale Beach Park.

And that's what the 1A alternative talks about. Correct?

Yes, mayor.

So we're looking at exhibit one, which is the site plan, and it shows the basketball courts at the southern end of the parking lot, which is sort of right near near the Be Ocean Hotel. Is that correct?

Yes, Mayor.

Okay. And so all right. So that's basically what we're voting on tonight. I know we've had a lengthy discussion of this in previous meetings. And so let us begin the public comment. We have about a dozen people who have signed up to speak, and I'll call your names, and you'll have a couple of minutes to speak. So let's begin with Tracy Powell, followed by Dan Santoro, followed by Sally Alshaus. Are those folks here? Is Tracy here? Come on up.

Paperwork I'd like to submit for the public record.

Alright. Give that to the clerk, please.

Who's the clerk?

Alrighty.

You're on.

Great. No problem. Alright. Good evening, mayor and commissioners. My name is Tracy Powell. I'm a Fort Lauderdale native, and I live in the district directly affected by this decision. I grew up on this beach, and the basketball courts across from Viejo Mar are part of the fabric that has always been a part of this place. They're visible, active, and open to everyone. They work where they are. The plans before you show the existing basketball courts, beachfront basketball courts, being removed from their current location and rebuilt elsewhere in the park.

That is a relocation, not an in place improvement. Nothing in the funding or reimbursement framework requires the courts to be moved. Relocation is a design decision and choice. And for location based public amenities, location is the value. I grew up here. My father always told me location, location, location. I think everyone in Fort Lauderdale understands that. Once those courts are gone from the spot, there's no practical way to bring them back. This makes tonight a one way decision. I'm asking you to pause this plan and direct staff to return with a revised site plan that keeps the Basilball courts not where they are.

This does not cancel the project. It simply improves the park without erasing something that already works. Thanks, sir. Thank you. You're welcome. Actually, I love working for Friday. So please state clearly tonight whether you support keeping the basketball courts in their historic beachfront location. Yes or no?

Alright. Thank you so much. Dan Santoro. Is Dan Santoro here? You wanna go for okay. Let her go first? Okay.

Are you Sally? I'm not Dan. Yes,

sir. Okay. There you go.

Have a

day. Very much. And good evening. My name is Sally Alshouse. I'm here to address agenda item r five and in opposition to the resolution.

I am a lifetime member of the Daughters of the American Revolution, an organization that is proud to support historic preservation. The beach is and always will be a spiritual place and the location of the original fort built in 1838 by major William Lauderdale and his troops during the Second Seminole War. Hence, the name of the the name of our city, Fort Lauderdale. In 1929, the Himershey chapter of NSDAR placed a marker commemorating the fort and replaced the marker in 2005. In my view, changing the basketball court could lead to the EMR's new owners removing all historic elements.

Thank you for your time and consideration.

Okay. Thank you.

Dan Santoro, followed by Chris Nelson, followed by Vicky Mowry.

Yes, sir. Good good evening, everybody. Thank you for having me, mayor, Trentellis. My name is Dan Santoro. I first came down here on spring break nineteen seventy nine. And you still have the t shirt. And I still do. I'm serious about this.

So I got out the wardrobe.

That's So I got out the dress black t shirt because I'm serious about this.

Okay. Okay.

In 1979, I came down to my first spring break. And the second day I was here, I was overwhelmed. Bikinis, beer, beach. I'm walking towards the swimming

hall contest. Yes.

Yep. I'm walking towards the Swimming Hall Of Fame because I wanted to see it. And as I'm getting down to DC Alexander Park, I see kids with a basketball. And I look around them, and I see other kids playing basketball. I'm like, wait a minute. The the heck with the Swimming Hall of Fame, there's a basketball court here. So I go down there, and there's, like, a fraternity from Maryland playing against a bunch of kids from Michigan. And on the other court, there's a bunch of kids from, Massachusetts against some guys from Rutgers. I'm like, wow. This is great.

Not just, you know, drinking, but working something to drink off. And the next year, I got all my friends together. We played a few games, got from my team in Connecticut. And we got together, and I never forgot the basketball court. So I moved down here in 1986, and one of my first jobs was at the Button. So we would go play basketball before we would go to work and build up a sweat and get people to come to the button and all that. The basketball courts are not a big draw. They were back then. Things have changed. People have changed.

They're not a big draw. They could be a bigger draw. But the thing is they have been there for decades. Mayor Trantalis, as you know, I wrote this book about the history of Fort Lauderdale Beach. I could not find information as to where or when the basketball courts were originally put in in the nineteen forties or fifties.

I believe it has something to do with what was the Yankee Clipper at the time. George Gill and those people, they put the courts out there for something for their customers. But from what I understand, going back to Nikki Grossman in the nineteen nineties when she tried to give some the beach away to a developer, Hugh Taylor Birch in nineteen o four and John MacGregor Adams, they donated the entire strip of the beach to the city of Fort Lauderdale with the caveat that no commercial enterprises be built east of a one a. And if you're gonna put pickleball courts connected to Bahia Mar or anybody else, that violates that, I believe. You know, the lawyers are gonna have to look into that.

But the basketball courts are good where they are. I live in Pompano. Well, I'm thank you for calling me allowing me to speak here. But I tell everybody I live in Fort Lauderdale. Why? Because Fort Lauderdale Beach is still the best beach in America, and the basketball courts are part of it.

Alright. Thank you. Thank you. Prabhish? That that concludes your comments. Thank you. Thank you. Chris Nelson, followed by Vicky Mowry, followed by, whoever Jaris is is only using one word, one name. And you're from Loxahatchee? Are you here tonight? Is that you? And you're from Loxahatchee? I can't hear a word. Okay.

Chris. Hello, Chris Nelson and mayor, vice mayor, commissioners, you need to keep those basketball courts exactly where they are. Okay? Let me remind you something. Let me remind you something.

The people of Fort Lauderdale elected you, not the developers that put tens of thousands of dollars into your kitties and their overpaid lawyers and mouthpieces. Remember who you represent. You're here to protect us from people who are trying to encroach on our rights, on our private, on our public beach. And I want to point out something to you, this video that I came across that made my skin crawl. And I want to call them out by name.

These were two realtors. One Ekaterina Brosda from Brosda and Bentley and the other one was I know I can't remember her name, but it was another one. And they were there, they're there on a video for Bahia Mar, realtors and the St. Regis saying, oh, okay. You see all this right here?

Now all the citizens, all the little plebs, they can still walk along the the water because it's a public beach, you know. But these amenities over here, the pickleball court and all this stuff, that's or or the basketball courts, this is all gonna be gone. And then the amenities are going to be yours exclusively to use. Did any of you see that video? Yeah. Who are these people? And are and are is are these the people that have that have buttered you up in your in your super packs? Are these are these the people that you represent or do you represent us? You don't represent them. You represent us.

Now I gotta also think when I look at these basketball courts, I was just down there and commissioner Glassman actually gave a great speech for why it should be a Please conclude your remarks.

For why

it should be a a historic landmark before he was commissioner. That was a very good speech. Hey, Come on. I don't know what happened. But I can't help but think that there is also a racial element to this because I'm looking at who's playing basketball and I look at who plays pickleball.

Do you play basketball?

I don't play basketball on those No. But I think that we've got a situation where you're trying to move the people, the young people of Fort Lauderdale off of our beach and put them down in a corner so rich, wealthy tourists or people that only come here maybe a couple months out of the year can come and take over that area. I'm all for redoing the grills. My wife and I love going down there, redoing the grills, redoing the playground, all that stuff. But keep the basketball courts where they are. Tell these two realtors here to slow their roll. The beach doesn't belong to them. It's a public beach. And keep those basketball courts where they are.

Thank you very much. You brought your fan club with you tonight, Chris. Good

evening, and happy holidays, whatever you celebrate at this really fun, wonderful time of the year. Tonight, all of you have an opportunity to represent and serve the people who put their trust and their faith in you when you were elected by us. You can take a stand for the citizens of Fort Lauderdale and don't give away any public beach to any developers or private entities, anyone. The beach isn't yours to give away even though you are part of Fort Lauderdale, so you yes. It's yours like it is all of ours.

Leave the court where it is, preserve the historical marker that is there, and protect the dunes and the seals. And I'm sure you know what I'm talking about because something's definitely going on with the sea oats down right there in the very spot where we're going to supposedly possibly put pickleball courts. You might wanna go take a look if you haven't paid attention to the pictures that have been floating around. Acknowledge that you aired previously on just this matter is all I'm talking about. You never had any public outreach on this.

The public didn't know anything about what was going to supposedly transpire. You can stop this and you can change it, and you know you can. It might take a little bit of courage. I don't know. Do you all have it or not?

We're counting on you to do the right thing, to vote no, go back to the drawing board, so tomorrow morning you could face yourself in the mirror knowing you have served the citizens as you were elected to do. Lastly, I wanna thank whoever put up the signs at the basketball court and alerted us all to something going on, and that was months ago because that lit the flame and started this fire. Thank you.

Jarris? And could you tell us your full name, please?

Yes, sir.

I'm Jarris Biccaro is my maiden name. Goss is my last name.

What's your last name again?

I'm Jairus Biccaro.

Okay. Because the we need it for the record. Okay.

Thank you. Yes.

Alright. Good evening. Very results. To the about And Under site plan, alternative one a includes new earthwork and soil disturbances. I understand that through prior hearings and staff review that these were heard already.

The project has gone through. From my perspective, it's not clear where the evaluation of alternatives were were done, particularly rehabilitation construction. It's not documented per what I can see how or how environmental impacts from repeated groundwork and soil disturbances were considered, including long term safety and public health in the area. I'm sorry. Excuse me.

Public health in an area with significant historical community use. So my question to you, can you clarify for myself and a few others who carries that long term burden if something were to happen, and who was and how was this decision considered?

Well, this isn't a question and answer period. This is you ever an

opportunity to speak.

And so please complete watch.

Believing that I'm just understanding for the public to understand how we just keep moving soil and on, you know, taking trees out and replanting them and not considering the the ramifications of that. I So do apologize if it's not a question you can handle.

Okay. Thank you. Mikaela Conka. Mikaela, followed by Nancy Thomas, followed by Sandra McCarthy. Is Mikaela here?

Nancy?

Good evening.

Good evening.

I'm here to talk about what is insufficient meaningful public notice regarding major proposed projects, particularly those on public property. First, in 2023, the commission voted in favor of replacing the beach basketball courts with pickleball courts as requested by the Bahammar St. Regis developers. While this request likely was part of the commission meeting agenda and backup for that day's meeting, there was no public response until a small sign was erected at the basketball courts by the city earlier this year. That single sign informed hundreds of citizens rising to thousands who were alarmed and upset about this decision generating significant public backlash.

That's one example. Then on December 16, the four selected contenders for building a new city hall presented their renderings and cost estimates at the afternoon conference meeting. At the evening meeting, the commission chose a top and secondary choice. Only three community members spoke against the design and lack of public notice, very likely because the agenda item had more than 1,000 pages of backup and was published on the city's website the night before the Thanksgiving holiday and just five days before the meeting.

Nancy, can I just interrupt you for a second and I'll stop the clock? This is gonna take more than a couple minutes to read.

Okay. I'll skip through.

Yeah. Because and try to stay on message because

Okay.

You're talking about many other things other than what's on the agenda.

I understand. Okay. Understand. But I signed up to talk about

Everything in

the This

is an example of not enough public input, insufficient public input.

Okay.

Okay. So in the case of the City Hall, as soon as the Sun Sentinel published a photo, you got tons of response. The point is that the city has defended the process used for these public projects on public property, stating that all the information is available on websites. However, Commissioner Herps admitted that was true, but the information was difficult to find. Meeting agendas clearly not an effective way to advise the public of important issues to be voted upon, including the basketball court issue, the one a.

Tonight, I'm asking that a majority of the city commission vote to pause in the case of City Hall and in case of the beach basketball relocation and schedule effective, well advertised opportunities for the public to weigh in. Also, that the city modify its public outreach process going forward. It just isn't working by putting things on the website or putting things in meeting agendas, including the basketball court relocation.

All right. Thank you. Nancy, just to give an example, with regard to the City Hall thing, we brought that up in August and we posted all four designs on the website and we got over 6,000 hits. So apparently 6,000 people were aware of it, maybe you weren't, but there were a lot of people who were. And not only that, but there were subsequent meetings in which the subject came up again and again.

So unless we go knocking on your door to let you know what's happening, the city makes an effort, I think significant effort, to try to make the public aware of what's going on, whether it be basketball courts, whether it be any issue. So I know you brought up a lot of different issues, and I know tonight we're just focusing on the basketball courts. And I think there's still more to be said on that. So we'll wait to see what the rest of the folks that have signed up to speak have to say. And I think there are members of the commission who also want to add their point of view on this.

So thank you for coming tonight. Sandra McCarthy. Sandra, are you here? No. Greg Bruton. Greg? Followed by Christine DiMarco and

Good evening, mayor and commissioners. Greg Bruton. I'm generally not here to speak on, with so many people saying they're in opposition to something, but I do wanna bring a different perspective of this entire initiative as as you've heard it, tonight. For for one, the the the I don't think there's an issue that's on the table to removing the basketball courts entirely and that there will be no public access for basketball on the beach. And and so I I think that's an inaccurate description of what's Relocation.

Relocation. So but they're still on the beach, and they'll still be public. Take it from someone who grew up here in Fort Lauderdale. And the one issue that I do wanna have a conversation with you about a gentleman talk talk about he saw a video about some realtors talking about what was gonna happen on the beach. I also saw a video that described the basketball courts as having a a significant role in the desegregation of the beach.

I took exception to that. I lived that. Those people who made that video didn't live that. Fort Lauderdale Beach was segregated. Nothing on the beach about basketball had nothing to do with the desegregation of that beach. I take exception to that. I think that's wrong. I think that's inappropriate. And for people like myself who had to live through that era, you talk about it being something that the community enjoyed. There was also a movie made where the boys are.

I suggested a few years ago, it should have been another movie where the other boys were. That was Fort Lauderdale back then. This is Fort Lauderdale today. Changes happen. It is not historic. Thank you very much. Thank you.

Are you Christine? I certainly am.

And I'm my own person. I'm not Chris Nelson's part of his PAC, just so you know. Okay. I oppose r five twenty five dash twelve fifteen. And the reason I oppose it, number one and foremost, are two reasons. They are public lands. Your mission statement in Fort Lauderdale as a commission and mayor clearly state the mission mission is to serve the public, not the developers. You are serving the developers by changing the basketball courts to pickleball courts. Send the pickleball players over to the fort. They have plenty of space. We have plenty of pickleball.

Alright. Come on.

I know, Steve, you love the pickleball. I say enough. Secondly, there are environmental issues that have not been disclosed nor settled on with moving the basketball courts, they'll never get built because if the EPA comes in and sees where some of the alternatives might be, they may never, like I said, get built because of the environmental issues. Tate also stated that he'd be happy to concede to the basketball courts if he had not printed marketing material and spent 100 of thousands of dollars, and I heard this live. Take that million dollars and let him print new marketing materials.

I just say no. I hope you all will say no too because it's the right thing to do for your residents. Thank you.

Barbara, before you speak, I just wanna ask staff a question. With regard to these pickleball courts, they're not privatized. They're open to the public. Is that not correct?

That's correct. They will be public amenities available to the public. To the public.

Well, I just okay. Alright. Please please don't scream from the audience. I just wanna

make sure everybody is in here.

Well, I just I just wanna make sure that when we when we speak and we make decisions that everybody's making decisions based on facts and not just rumor. So the suggestion tonight was that we're privatizing the beach for the sake of developers, but in but what we are in fact understanding is that the pickleball courts are open to the public, and they're not being privatized for anybody. So please go ahead.

Okay. Well, on that note, Barbara Stern Barbara Stern, proud resident of Fort Lauderdale. And Mr. Mayor, you might be interested in hearing this description from the St. Regis Bahia Mar. Residents will enjoy the unparalleled luxury of having their very own pickleball court for spirited matches, leisure play, and wellness focused recreation. I'm very upset that Jimmy Tate is not here tonight to explain his own marketing and advertising. They have advertised as an amenity beach basketball courts, not nearby amenity. They declared as their own amenity. So I think the public has

pickleball courts. You said basketball.

Excuse me.

Pickleball.

Pickleball courts.

They have advertised it as their own amenity. It doesn't advertise as a nearby amenity, their own. Smear, you you do real estate. One cannot convey a greater interest than he or she owns. They don't own that land. They cannot advertise it as theirs. It is a public

disagreeing with you or your

other person? Well, mister Tietz should be able to answer his advertising.

Clarify it before you spoke that this is a public amenity. It's not

Can we do I get my time positive for you?

Worry. You'll get your time. Go ahead.

Well, that is where a lot of this outrage is coming from, mister mayor, because you sat here and just said, just minutes ago, that there's public outreach even for the basketball courts. Would it surprise you that after a meeting couple of months ago when we had to hear from commissioner Glassman that there wasn't enough outreach about Melrose Park for ten years, I did a public records request for the outreach that was done about converting the basketball courts to pickleball courts. They answer from staff. In response to your request, staff advised that there are no responsive records. There was no public outreach.

You yourself admitted that on the record, 01/09/2024. Bill Brown stated on the record. John Burns stated on the record. There was no outreach before this decision was made. The vote that was at issue on 01/09/2024 was about the air rights.

That's what people were concerned about. Nobody was focused on the basketball courts, which were improperly described in the interlocal agreement anyway. Mister mayor, you guys have a chance to do the right thing. The interlocal agreement specifically states that the city possesses the authority to substitute and replace certain improvements as may be reasonably necessary based upon certain costs, permitting and other factors. Any substitution or replacement of improvements requires consent of the CDD, which shall not be unreasonably withheld.

It is unreasonable to ask us to now come back and keep the basketball court, but just move them. Spend money to move them and then to also spend money to convert the basketball courts to pickleball courts. It doesn't make sense. Keep the basketball courts where they are. Relocate the pickleball courts further south on the beach. It is a cost savings to the city. It makes more sense. You're not disrupting the environment, and it is unreasonable to say that the people at the Bahia Mar cannot walk less than a quarter of a mile to a public pickleball court. They are not theirs. They are not exclusive to them.

It is not their very own. They are there for the public. And if the public can walk to them, so can the people from the BMR.

Okay. Thank you.

And I would like

Devin Thomas, followed by John Rodstrom, Chris Stokowski, and then finally, Susan Peterson. Are you Devin?

Yes. Yes.

Good evening, Devin.

Hi. Good evening. Good evening to the mayor, vice mayor, commissioners, general public, both those here for preserving the courts and those in opposition because god is love, so we love everybody. That's the first principle. So I wanna get that understood before I convey my message.

So first and foremost, I wanna be thankful for this opportunity during the holiday season, everybody getting ready to be around their family. Everybody loves to be around their family around this time of year, whether you've been through good or bad, because it allows you to be able to reflect on the ups and the downs. I remember times during fourth in July, during Memorial Day when I've been out by the courts, been able to have time with family, friends, loved ones, and be out there and really just have a good time. I don't know if any of you guys play sports, not even basketball or pickleball, just any sports if you have athletic exercise because it's great for your health. And there's an acronym TEAM, t e a m, taking exercise as medicine, which is what I employ, and a lot of people use those holistic practices, through methods like basketball and other methods as well.

So I just think that as far as the public land is conserved, again, is public. So through the public process, we may have to make sure that the whole public is in agreement with it. And I think the overwhelming majority is not in agreeance with this. And I personally, through my studying of law, am willing to, as a public resident, be able to take what legal action I need to if the proper, justifiable action is not taken on behalf of the people. And I know there are people that are with me.

So we will go as far as it takes to make sure if it is voted against, that we can make sure that the proper legal actions are justified on the environmental end and for the rights of the people. I had a lot more I wanna say, but I'm gonna keep it short because actions beat lot louder than words. So I just want my actions if the right actions are not taken on your end because you all have a conscience. You all know in your inner compass what's right, and I think I don't need to say too much more. You have a great evening.

Alright. Thank you. Is

John Rodstrom here? I'm here. John? Okay.

Mayor, commissioners, vice mayor, I come here as a third generation resident for Lauderdale. I grew up about a quarter mile away from the basketball courts. What are we doing here? I mean, seriously, what are we doing here? What we're we're doing is giving a developer who has already gotten so much from our community even more. Ten years ago, we gave them a piece of land, a public piece of land for almost nothing. And for years, I've been told, well, we're gonna get all these tax revenue from the development, which hasn't really happened yet. It's the buildings haven't started. We're still kinda waiting. And then we gave them the air rights, and now we're giving them part of the beach.

And just I just know, when does it stop, right? So Barbara Barbara Stern read an out for you guys in the contract and it talked about the authority the city has to substitute or replace certain improvements. One of those things is costs. This project is costing much more than you all originally contemplated when this happened, even though we didn't really contemplate this at all. Most of you didn't even know this was part of the interlocal agreement. But it also says other factors. Do you know what the other factor is? Our community, the people in this room, that's other factor, right? So you look at that, you have the absolute ability to change this contract. Right?

Public land, guys. I mean, how many times do I have to come here and beg you, please, just take care of our public land? You ask why ask why people don't want the basketball courts move. There's so many reasons. But another reason I'll give you, the basketball courts right now are about a 100 and feet 150 feet away from the water. They're gonna be to over 400 feet away. It's a totally different area. It's further down the beach. It's not where it's been for over eighty years. Leave it alone.

I'm going come back to a statement my father said, at City Hall at the time, and I believe, mister mayor, you were the only one on the commission when he said it to you, but it was the vote when we gave Bahia Mar away. You are public stewards of public lands. Shame on you.

Mister Stokowski, followed by Susan Peterson. Is Susan here? Yeah. There you are.

So how did we get here? We got here because we didn't know anything about this

until a little yellow sign was put

on the beach, which shows lack of transparency on your part. You, the people we elected to to protect and serve us, not the developers. This is getting really crazy how every time we turn around, there's another land deal going on in favor of developers. Why? Why do it?

It's fiscally irresponsible to spend more money to move what is iconic desegregation area area, basketball courts. They've been there for for decades. I'm fifth generation Fort Lauderdale native. You don't need to spend the money to build more basketball courts, leave them where they are. Move the basketball courts down around the corner across the street. You know, currently, BMR has that pickleball courts. Anybody knows that. Right? They're empty. There's plenty of land over there for mister Tate, and his $2,000,000,000 project will not be blown because of his pickleball courts.

What will happen is we will not be in support of any of this stuff. Your lack of transparency has caused all this. Each and every one of you that voted to go ahead and keep pushing this along and deferring it and deferring it and deferring it, it's ridiculous. We don't deserve this. We didn't elect you for this. And if you're not gonna resent re represent us, I got one word for you, all of you, recall. Yeah.

Good evening, commissioners. I'm Susan Peterson from River Oaks, and I'm a local history writer. And here is the ad that was in The Sunday New York Times Magazine on December 7. Exquisite, where beach meets bay. Here's the picture. There's a very pale lady's legs. Her head's on the she's lying in a hammock. There's nobody there, no children, no family, nobody else. It looks like Little Palm Island or something. And there's a man, I guess that's her servant, in white clothes, sunglasses, and he's got a tray in his hand with a drink. So this is the image they're projecting.

Who is they?

That's not our Fort Lauderdale, our fun, sexy, sporty city with opportunities for everybody. And right now, last night, I went to the Sabre Cinema. They had a special program, and it was about desegregating an amusement park right outside of Washington DC. And how they did it was students from Howard University and members of the Jewish community. And one leading lady had five children, and her husband was a union organizer.

So they organized picketing for almost a year and succeeded in getting it desegregated. I've heard some talk about this St. Regis is supposed to be like Monaco and Fort Lauderdale. My Monaco connection is my swimming coach, Mary Freeman Kelly, was Princess Grace's sister-in-law. She was married to John B. Kelly Jr, who was, at one time before he died, President of the Hall of Fame and Head of the U. S. Olympic Committee. These were wealthy people who gave back to the community. They did not live a life of luxury or they could have.

And I was watching on TV before I came here, there was a wonderful Rita Case receiving the award for donating over 100,000 bicycles to children. How can you not recognize that this is a treasure of a city, one of four beach basketball courts in the whole country? How can you before Christmas even consider taking away this amenity, which has been here since the mid-60s? I first came here in 'sixty two, and I did not know the beach was segregated. But my first national championships, I had a taste of segregation when I flew through Nashville to Bartlesville, Oklahoma, to the headquarters of Phillips sixty six Oil Company that had a swimming pool in their corporate headquarters.

And there in Nashville, I saw for the first time colored and white bathrooms and drinking fountains. My coach was a black prison guard, navy veteran. Used to meet him in a pool in Harlem.

We're not talking about desegregation tonight. We're just talking about

Well, I'm talking about it because it's a very important issue that we should look at this as a community. Know, but your

last remark is going to your time.

My last remark is going to be, I can just imagine the salespeople saying, we gotta get those people out of here. We can't have them opposite our sales office. That's my impression.

Okay. Thank you. Is Dana Coronado here? You just signed up. Anybody else wish to speak on come on up. Anyone else wish to speak on this item? Okay. Did you sign up? You have to sign up. Go out in the front and sign up.

Thank you so much for letting me speak. I appreciate it. Good evening, everyone. We've heard a lot of different stories here tonight opposing 25 dash 1215 relocation of the basketball courts. Number one, obviously, I just as an ROI, I'm a business mind. It doesn't make sense to me. Seems like we would want them. People here were all speaking up.

We

all like where they are now. I know that there's a lot of regulations in moving this, doing land use and development law. And I just am not confident that they'll actually be able to be pulled off and relocated, and that's a community issue to me. So as we're doing this, and the reason why I even say this is because when this agreement was first discussed, the interlocking agreement, you guys posted it, but all the appendixes of where the pickleball courts were gonna go were not correct. It it said in the agreement that they were gonna be located South Of The Bahia Mar Bridge.

Well, the basketball courts are north of the Bahia Mar Bridge. And they also don't say anything about replacing a basketball court anywhere. So, you know, there's always this joke, like, you know, there's only two jobs that you can do completely wrong and still get paid. A kicker in the NFL, you know, he can miss the goal and he still gets paid. And, you know, the weatherman, he could predict the weather wrong, still gets paid. And also the Fort Lauderdale surveyor because he didn't put anything in the right places and yet he still gets paid. And who pays that cost? Right? The people. We're all paying that cost.

And, you know, listen, you could have got 6,000 clicks, but those clicks didn't see the right the right appendix. They didn't show the right agreement. So that's concerning to me because did the people really know? So once the people did find out, the signs were put up posted up, we started contacting. We started organizing. It was beautiful. What a beautiful community we have that stood up for this, and I'm proud to be part of it. My last point would be is basketball as as a citizen here, I grew up playing basketball on those courts. I went and played in college. That led to a great business career.

I not only, you know, went to law school, got my MBA, and I stepped out on those courts. And every single time, those men, those those boys I'm playing with, you take that shot. You hit that basket. You deserve to be out here. You deserve to crush it. And what do I do? I go out in business. I crush it. I I speak up. I come to a meeting, and I stand up. I learned that from my community. And you know what? I don't know. They don't give NCAA pickleball scholarships yet. So that that would be my thought. Let's let's get our kids paid. That nil money, that's real money, and that could give them back into the community. And we wouldn't have to wrangle over a million dollars. Those kids are making millions.

Alright. Thank you so much.

Thank you.

Thank you. Greg

Risley.

My name is Greg Risley. Pretty much born and raised on this beach, Fort Lauderdale. I've seen that this is the first time I actually got up to speak. I I can't believe that you guys are even contemplating with the public of what the outreach is. But there is one thing that you guys did with this situation is you brought our community together, all walks of life of people.

The people I saw at the historic society, there was at least 70 to 80 people speaking on behalf of this, which they wouldn't let us speak. They said there was too many people to speak. They were gonna deter us till the next month, the next month. So how can we vote tonight on something that the historic society said we have to wait two months now to or January to speak? It's something that commissioner Glassman, spoke heavily of in 2017.

I didn't know you then. I can't paint for you after hearing that speech at City Hall two in the morning. And at that time frame, all that was talking about was the public, I guess, the public land. I don't know if everyone understands it, but EMR, we own that land. At that time frame, it was how could they sell condos on public land because it would be technically a co op. And would we have access to walk around the marina like or bike ride like we do? They wouldn't give us an answer at that time frame. The developers actually then later on said, oh, yeah. We're gonna have this area that will do this and for the public to go. That was 2017.

Now it's 2025 and we're fighting not no one's even talking about that. We're talking about the beach. I rented beach chairs on the beach for mister and missus Perry for 25 years. I was blessed every day to go to that beach. Saw hotels come down, hotels build up. I saw the Ocean Club next to beach next to next next to the beach place, so get tore down where the candy store was. You were talking about belly flop contest. The first time that something was going in that hotel wasn't the Ritz Carlton. It was the St. Regis that was built as the St. Regis and it got something happened later on, then they went bankrupt and Four Seasons bought. So what happens when this happened? Ritz Carlton.

Ritz And it didn't go bankrupt. They just rebranded it.

They were taking deposits as the St. Regis condos as the St. Regis.

Mhmm.

And then they rebranded. What's it say? They don't do that now.

I don't know.

Yeah. I mean, it's the public wants

to basketball courts here. Now I'm talking about hotels.

The public, it seems, really wants their beach, and it's not pickleball versus basketball. It's the public beach.

Okay.

First, our developers.

Alright. Thank you, Thank you. Thank you. There anyone else who wishes to speak on this item? Okay. There being none, do I hear a motion to close public hearing?

So moved.

Second. The move is seconded. Please call the roll on the motion to close public hearing.

Commissioner Sorensen? Yes. Vice Mayor Herpst? Yes. Commissioner Glassman? Yes. Commissioner Biesler Pittman? Yes. Mayor Trentales?

Yes. And public hearing on r five is now closed. So, what's the pleasure? Distort commissioner, would you like to begin this conversation?

Sure. Thank you, mayor. First of all, thank you everyone for showing up. I think it's incredible when we get so much input, and it's very valuable, and I wanted to say thank you. I have some questions for the city attorney and for the city manager.

There were some references made by the way, just to correct the record because I know, Nancy, you wrote 2023, the the commission actually entered into that agreement in January 2024 with the BMR district. Correct? That's correct. Help me understand because it was brought up several times tonight, I wanna be really clear on this, that according to some of the speakers, we have the ability to go back and revisit, and the development side, which in this case is the district, I believe, the taxing district, the community district, they cannot hold they cannot withhold that agreement unreasonably, whatever the language was, I think it was. They they cannot be unreasonably withheld.

So from our legal perspective, can you please just talk to me about that? I really need to understand that really clearly because what I've heard from that district, the BMR community district, is that they have no intention of acquiescing to any change from that agreement that we did in January 2024. So I need to hear the legal opinion. A little closer.

I I will read that

section You can pull it closer. Agreement. You can pull it closer to you.

Yeah. Just move the whole machine.

I'll read that section from the interlocal agreement. Is paragraph 3.3.

It's on. Yeah. I know. Just keep talking. I know. It's hard.

I will speak up.

The paragraph 3.3 of the interlocal agreement possesses the authority to substitute and replace certain improvements as may be reasonably necessary based upon certain costs, permitting and other factors. Any substitution or replacement of improvements requires consent of the CBD, which will not be unreasonably withheld.

I understand. That's exactly what I did here. But I need you to explain to me the unreasonably withheld part. And I guess what I'm saying is if we were to renege on that on that agreement, what would be the legal consequences or what would be the grounds that we would have to do that in dealing with that language that you just read?

Suggesting that we would not abide by the terms that require the pickleball courts to be placed where the basketball courts are?

Exactly. Because that is what we agreed to in January 2024.

And we are obligated to abide by our agreement.

But what about the unreasonably withheld part?

Well, that would be their their entitlement. Right? They cannot unreasonably withhold our request to make a change.

And help define that for me because that to me is is very important to this. Because what I'm getting at is I I don't want to get into a legal conflict over this because I I'm I I Excuse

me, folks. Please, let the everyone had a right to speak tonight, and now the commissioner has a right to speak with

I the didn't groan or moan when anyone

spoke at the podium. Just keep going.

So can you please help me understand that? Because I think that's really crucial to this. Are you speaking

to their rejection of any change and whether they would in fact pay for the replacement of the basketball courts another location?

No. I'm not. Well and I'm gonna get to that in a little bit because I I need to just correct some of the things that were said about that as well. No. I want to know what that exactly means that if we if we went to the table and we went to the Taxing District, the Community Development District, and we said, we do not want to replace the basketball in that location. I'm not talking about the basketball further south. But if we decided that we did not want to do that, what would be the response if they said absolutely not, how do we hold someone accountable to those words unreasonably withheld? I need I need a little bit more clarity about those words. Well, would it

burden the project? So would it be unreasonable to agree or disagree to do that? An aspect would be whether it would have burdened the project. They would have an opportunity to say that we don't concur that and then you would say that their objection is not reasonable because it would burden the project.

Okay. So what for instance, and I've heard this because I've asked this question and I definitely have had this conversation with BMR community development district. But I'm told things like, well, more than 30 units have been sold. We have offered that. It's on our model. It's in our materials. Is that a good enough reason to say that you would put those sales in jeopardy? Is that an excuse, if you would, that the developer could actually say?

The term unreasonably withheld requires sort of an interpretation of good faith and fair dealing. So we would analyze it in terms of whether it was good faith or fair dealing and some of that would be subjective, Commissioner. But we certainly would expect them to, assent to a reasonable condition. And unfortunately, words unreasonable and reasonably held are very subjective. And so that's when we get into difficulty because these things aren't specifically defined.

Right. And that to me is something that I'm having a little bit of difficulty with on this. I also wanted to mention, and I know that people have talked about the history. I will tell you that when I and I this has been referenced several times, so let me just address this. But when I did speak in 2017, that was a night that went almost till 3AM.

And our main objective that night was to make sure that that site plan did not get approved. And then when the commission came back, the next commission came back, the mayor and I worked with the development team to make sure that that project was scaled way back, that we had a lot more public space, including a two acre park on the Western end of the peninsula, and that we were able to get the boat show out of a garage and give them that space. Those were the main objectives of what was addressed in 2017 when we fought that site plan. We lost, but then the next commission, we were able to, actually go back to the drawing board. So I just wanted to correct that record as well.

The original basketball courts, because this has been mentioned as well and several people I I I know that the author is gone for the evening, but I want you to know that the original basketball courts were much closer to Los Solos and a one a. I have photos. I've I've gone to the historical society to view that information. They were much closer to Los Oles in A 1 A. Actually, the site of the waiting where we have the monument sign right there commemorating the waiting. That's where the courts were in the sixties. The courts that we're referencing now across from Bahia Mar did not come till the mid eighties. So I know I also heard someone say they've been there for eighty years. That's not true. They've been there for about forty years. So I just wanted to make sure people understood.

Please don't yell back and forth.

Thank you.

Thank you very much. I I would also want to just mention that I wanted to clear the record also because it was a little confusing. The original agreement with the developer in January 2024 contemplated the replacement of the basketball court with the pickleball court. It was not contemplated at that time that we would actually be saying, okay. Hey.

We still wanna keep basketball. Let's find another site. It actually called for the elimination of the basketball courts and the with the replacement of the pickleball. When when this commission did hear from folks that there was a big concern about eliminating the basketball courts, that's when we went back to the drawing board and said, can we please figure out if we can do both? Because we didn't wanna get into a legal entanglement over the replacement in that site of the basketball with the pickleball, but we also heard the public saying we still want basketball on the beach.

So what we did was we asked the city manager to come back with us, and please show us how we could accomplish that, making sure that we were staying east of the, I'm sorry, west of the coastal construction line, making sure that we'd be able to get to a point where we would be able to have that. This is all done in conjunction with also cleaning up the area under the pedestrian bridge, getting rid of all of our storage areas and bins, replacing all of the fitness equipment, and also replacing the picnic tables and and the grills. So all of that is the amenity package, correct me if I'm wrong, that we're talking about, in terms of how we're going to improve the park, the beach park. All of those amenities would still be accessed by the same parking lot. Correct me if I'm wrong.

The beach parking lot from the north, to the south, that same that same length of beach. So this commission did hear and did listen to the fact that people wanted to still be able to play basketball on the sand. But, again, because of that legal

that

legal obligation, from January 2024, we tried to come up with a plan that would work for everyone and still have all of those amenities on the beach and to the tune of a million dollars. Right? I think that's what we said from the development team. They were still doing a million dollars for those improvements, plus we had funds also allocated from the parks bond for the beach, correct?

So there's $1,000,000 that is available for eligible improvements as specified in the interlocal agreement and we cannot exceed million dollars based on those improvements that have been listed. Right. Just wanted to add to your comments. We are also contemplating replacing the playground at the beach as one of the improvements.

Are you talking

about the one north at around Sebastian, that playground? Which playground? By by the bathrooms. Oh, by the bathrooms.

Yes. Okay. And so that would be under the Parks Bond funding Okay. Separate and apart from the interlocal agreement funding.

Okay. Thank you. So that is part of it as well? Yes. I understand. Okay. So I just wanted to clear up those those issues because those are just things that I've been hearing tonight and I wanted to make sure, that everybody understood. So thank you for that. I it helps, and I I appreciate the clarity. Thank you, mayor.

Okay. I I there's couple of other things I want to make sure we are all dealing with the same set of facts. You mentioned the $1,000,000 I believe that was what the developers agreed to pay for the relocation of the basketball site, no?

I could clarify that, Meyer.

Would you do that for us?

The 1,000,000 would be available And

I apologize. Let's be precise on this because we've had a lot of conversations between developer and CDD. Be very, very precise. Know how I like precision and

Which entities we're talking

about. Which entity we're talking about. So that I think it's very important in this conversation to know who's offering to pay for oil.

Yes, absolutely. So the interlocal agreement that the city has with the Bahammar CDD calls for up to $1,000,000 to be provided to the city for eligible improvements.

In

addition, the developer, which is separate from the CDD, has offered to contribute $500,000 toward the relocation of the basketball courts.

Okay.

Could I interrupt on this because I had a conversation earlier today and that's not the takeaway that I have. The takeaway that I have is that the developer has offered to advance funds to the CDD because the CDD at its inception has no money. So what they've offered to do is advance funds to the CDD to the tune of $500,000 So I do think it's very

In addition to the $1,000,000

No, no, no. So the $1,000,000 is coming from the CDD as part of our inter local agreement. The CDD has no money to fund any improvements at this time. It's my understanding and I really want to make sure we confirm this because I'm getting conflicting messaging around this and I think it's important we're all on the same page, is that the developer has agreed to advance funds to the CDD in order for all of this to take place now. That doesn't mean that we're getting $1,000,000 plus 500,000,000 for a total of $1,500,000

I will say that I believe that the first portion of what you're saying is accurate. I do believe that the developer is under impression, and this impression was given by the city, that the eligible improvements pursuant to the interlocal agreement would amount to about $500,000 and not reach that $1,000,000 threshold.

Correct.

I also believe that the developer is willing to contribute a separate $500,000 toward the relocation of the basketball court for a combined contribution between the CDD and the developer to $1,000,000 so not 1.5.

All right. So I think we're all getting different information.

Right. So what I think, Mayor, if I may, so what I think the suggestion is, is that the CDD has agreed to fund up to $1,000,000 What we're saying now is that the totality of the enumerated improvements at the beach are only going to be $500,000

The eligible improvements. The eligible improvements. So

we're not going to be getting $1,000,000 from the CDD, we're getting $500,000 from the CDD?

That's what we're estimating at the moment. If those costs go up, we have up to the $1,000,000

I think we need to get something in writing that clarifies all this because what I'm hearing is my belief, my understanding, this is not a criticism, please don't take it this way. But when I hear my belief, my understanding, this is what I think we're going to get, That's very problematic for me because I'm hearing multiple conversations that don't seem to be saying the same thing. And again, specificity, transparency and clarity on an issue is imperative. It's of the utmost importance. I would like something in writing at some point from the CDD, from the developers, from everybody.

So I know what we're getting and what we're obligated for because the city is going to be stepping up and covering whatever shortfall there may be outside of these agreements.

Okay. So, to continue, it's going to be important that we have more specificity with regard to the obligations that have been represented to us. It was my understanding from the beginning that somebody from the developers team or whether it be the taxing entity that the city was going to have up to $1,000,000 to spend to relocate the basketball courts and also to contribute to the other amenities that we spoke of on the beach and that we could use it any way we want as long as it provided assistance for the payment of these amenities on the beach, which would include the barbecue grills, the picnic tables, the playground equipment, anything else that was on the beach and that our parks bond money would be used to augment any project that we have within that discussion. So because there's no clarity there, we need to make sure we firm that up, number one. Number two, there seems to be a misunderstanding about what the salespeople for the St.

Regis are saying. And if there are people doing videos that are saying that the St. Regis has dedicated private pickleball courts and so forth, yes, going able we're so that. We're can I just to finish? Do not that. Yell. All right? Let's understand that. I'm speaking. You all had a chance to speak.

Please don't interrupt. So during this discussion, the broker for the project texted to me a copy of the brochure, which specifically references the pickleball courts on the site, not the ones on the beach. So if you folks have a different brochure, I'd like to see it. But right now, they're referencing just the ones on the site, not on the beach. Anyway, so we'll get clarity on that too.

All right? There seems to be a misunderstanding about that. Thirdly, building pickleball courts on the beach east of the coastal construction line is going to be an issue because right now, those basketball courts are built east of the coastal construction line. If we tear them up, we have to go back all over again and get the state's approval to build east of the coastal construction line. That's always a challenge.

So there's no guarantee that we'd be able to build pickleball courts, even if we wanted to, east of the coastal construction line in place of where the basketball courts are currently. So we have to have clarity on that before we go anywhere further. And just to reiterate what has been said on the commission, we have been talking about this for a long time, and there are people who have said to us throughout the year that they're very happy to have the pickle the basketball courts remain where they are. But some people have come to me and said as long as we have basketball courts on the beach, it didn't matter to them. So there's gonna be a difference of opinion.

Well, I I'm just letting you know what other people you're not the only people that have opinions on this. There are other people who have come to me. There are other people that have come to folks, come on. There are other people that have come to me and have had difference of opinions. Alright?

So I'm not saying that who's has the most opinion and who's in the majority, who's in in the minority. I'm just letting you know that there are other people that have other opinions besides the ones that you've expressed tonight. So I'm not sure that this issue is ripe for a decision tonight because we have some matters that really need to be cleared up, especially the issue of whether or not the state would even permit the building of pickleball courts east of the coastal construction line. So and how much money is going to be dedicated towards the improvements that we have contemplated here. So that's my point of view.

I don't think we're prepared to do it. And frankly, I'm not even sure it's even necessary to go forward on this. I think let's just leave the basketball courts where they are. And but, anyway, let's let's just get some clarity on some of these issues, and then we'll make it we can make a decision whether or not to go forward.

For the city manager, can you do us a favor? I believe there is a timeline in that agreement that we're obligated to meet. So I wanna just make sure that we don't get into trouble with that as well because it will take time for permits. It will take time to do whatever we need to do. But I believe there is a deadline. There is a deadline

in there. It's based on the effective date of the agreement, and it is January 2027.

That they have to be completed?

Yes. And we also have the cost breakdown for the proposed improvements in the exhibit. It's page one of five of exhibit number two. So it provides an estimate of what we think it may cost. We work with AECOM on that.

In order to fully assess whether we will be able to get this project permitted, we wanted to get feedback on the number of pickleball courts. There was a discussion about two and three and four What's and the original agreement contemplate? Two pickleball courts are what are required based on that agreement. But in order to really advance the discussions and exploration of the permitting, we would need to know which direction we should be headed in. So that's part of the reason why we wanted to get the clarification because we won't be able to fully understand whether a permit is feasible if we don't know the extent of the scope.

Have we reached out at all to the state to find out if that's even feasible then to take the footprint of the basketball court now, replace that with pickleball even though it is, as the mayor said, east of the coastal construction line. Have we been able to ascertain if that is even doable? Or because of the fact that we're not building anything new, is that site being that it's already got pavement, etcetera, etcetera, is it grandfathered in or not?

We've begun that process of exploration with the state, but we do not have a definitive answer at this time. We have not submitted for a permit. We've just had some preliminary outreach to the state.

What does that mean exactly, preliminary outreach?

I'm gonna call Ben Rogers, assistant city manager, to share more on the conversations with the state.

While we wait for Ben, so just so I'm clear, if we stay on the same footprint, right, so if we do three pickleball courts, right, we could do three pickleball courts on the basketball courts. We're staying on the same footprint. We're not expanding the footprint of the concrete that is already in place. I'm assuming that that But John,

might be a legal nonconforming use, rules may have changed since the basketball courts were first installed. So I don't want to use that as a false premise that we can go forward with pickleball using the same footprint. They always change the rules, right?

Fair point.

Just Just like crosswalks.

Anyway, I

don't mean to bring up another sore subject. Well, go ahead. So

to. Good evening. To answer the question, I think that there's varying levels of permitting that goes through on this process. So AECOM has started having some initial conversations with, FDP on what that looks and feels like. To Vice Mayor's point, if you take the existing asphalt that's there, repaint it, it's probably an easy ask for the state because you're not impacting the usable space at the beach.

You're not changing any of the factors. However, once you start installing four foot fence, six foot fence, eight foot fence, if you're going to put screening on those fences, there's different breakaway conditions, for the requirements. And so as the City Manager indicated, one of the things that we're seeking from the commission is a site plan concept that we can then go and have these conversations with the Department of Environmental Protection because based off of each one of these different conditions, there might be different path to get to the answer that we need to get for the commission to make a final decision on this.

Alright. Then, I haven't heard from you tonight. What are your thoughts?

Thanks, mayor. Appreciate it. So, I think we need to keep the basketball courts exactly where they are. And as, you know, the city attorney mentioned, I think the next step is we need to work with the CDD to assent to a reasonable condition to keep the basketball courts exactly where they are. I think we can do that.

I think we should add two more, don't you? Anyway, what about Pam, what are your thoughts? I want to try to get a little bit of a consensus here on what direction we should go in before we ask staff to commit any more time and expense on moving them to a different location. What are your thoughts?

Well, I agree where the basketball courts are. They're they're there. They're where the community utilize them and that they're familiar with. So if that's the case and they are able to stay there, without us breaching the agreement that's in place because there's still that agreement that we haven't discussed. It was read by our attorney, but before when we discussed this, it appeared to my understanding that we both would have to be in agreement in order to, let them stay or move them, whatever the situation comes down to.

So the way I sit, let them stay where they are, but also understanding also understanding that we are in an agreement that we are we have to abide by as well.

Commissioner LeMay, you're making an excellent point. It will potentially come down to that. You may wish to keep things as they are, but you have to deal with the language and the agreement that you've already signed. It does require, that they give consent, but that it cannot be unreasonably withheld. So we have a little back and forth there. Perhaps there is some room for that, but that would have to be addressed.

Could we go back to that for a second? I know Commissioner Glasson brought that up, but I just want to kind of touch base on that a little bit. So we have certain enumerated positions within the agreement. One of the things we've talked about is if there were leftover funds, could we add additional amenities to the beach, right? When I think about consent not being unreasonably withheld, I think of it more in the context of if we wanted to add more barbecue grills, more picnic tables, more things of that nature, it doesn't impact the substance and nature of the agreement itself.

It's merely expanding what we have. But if you're talking a complete replacement of one of the enumerated features of the agreement and they object to that, it would seem to me that there's more of a basis for them rejecting that request than something that's somewhat more innocuous. So when you talk about unreasonably withheld, where does that come in to specifically enumerated features of an agreement?

Well, you're substituting or replacing certain improvements. Are identified specifically. And so they would have to agree to those major changes. And I think to your point, the identified items, are very specific and those are the ones to which they would have to give consent.

And that would include the pickleball.

It would.

It would, yes.

It would. So is it more reasonable then to is it more reasonable then for them to object to specifically listed items in the agreement than it would be for us to add additional items. I'm just trying to get a sense of where that unreasonably withheld comes into play.

If it goes to exceed the intent, right, the intent of the agreement is to come together for the benefit of the public and this property and to put specific amenities, which we call improvements. It goes to that intent. And that intent is to have at least two pickleball courts where the existing basketball courts are. That's those are the identified amenities and some other things, the fitness park, those things. And the, CDD will provide up to $1,000,000 to assist with that.

That's what the language is. So the intent is to have these specific items. The city, it's addressed here, has the opportunity to come along and say, well, you know, we want to make a couple of changes in these amenities. We don't particularly want these. What say you? And so your question then is, well, what would it matter to them? Threshold? What would be reasonable to object to and not to object to?

Within that context then, would we have to articulate a reasonable basis for the substitution? Do

they have to dictate a reasonable basis to deny the Correct.

Well, I'm wondering if it has to go both ways. I mean, so

How to read it that way, Vice Mayor.

So we don't have to articulate a reason as to why we want to do a substitution. We can just simply ask for it.

They can simply ask

for it. And they can accept or reject that. And from that point, next step is mediation litigation?

No, no. They can accept it and Or

if they don't. I'm I'm saying process from

as they have suggested that they are not amenable to what we are suggesting. What are the steps? So I know we're dealing now with another governmental entity and I know having gone through this before, what is it, 164 proceeding where you go through mediation?

Yes. That would be a process. At first, you're still going to have to have some discussion with them about what is reason, what they would object to. I don't know that that is the case. I don't know that anyone does, whether they're they would object to that. It would be such an entanglement to then have to proceed and to unrest that and still comport with your other obligations under the agreement because you're obligated to complete the project within three years. And now you're getting mired in some disagreement, which would prevent you from completing the project, which creates other problems.

Okay. City Manager, don't we have some preliminary indication from the CDD that they were not receptive to the idea of a substitution or an abandonment of the pickleball?

Yes. I did attend a CDD meeting over the summer or early fall, and that was what was indicated at that time. I do also want to highlight in the agreement what might be somewhat of a caveat as to what is reasonably necessary. So the city possesses the authority to substitute and replace certain improvements as may be necessary based upon certain costs, permitting, and other factors. Other factors?

We don't have any specificity on what the other factors are, but I think that was an attempt to qualify what would be reasonable or not or what would be the basis for a substitution or replacement. And to your point, I think that

So it's like beauty, it's in the eye of the beholder?

Yes. I think the other factors could be public opinion. So Well,

and that but but thank you. Actually, mayor, I I appreciate you bringing that up because I wanna know if that's the basis for another factor. And Mayor, you were here back in 2003 when a city commission decided to undo a previous approval that the CRA had done at the beach, and we were in litigation and tied up that parcel of land over there for the better part of ten years. What was the name of that parcel?

What was that? Some started with a P.

What was It

was at the La Solos Marina. It was It

was just on the other side, that

vacant lot over there. Yeah.

So Well, and we won. We we did. Shocked it. Took us took us a decade.

Held out for ten years. But So

mayor, can I make a suggestion?

I think it had like a a name of a city in Italy or something.

It did. It did. Not not not Palazzo, Lanza. Palazzo. Palazzo, Lanza. Palazzo. Not a city, but I love that much old people up here Palazzo, last a lot. Years ago. Palazzo. Yeah. The Palazzo.

Well, so so so when the so when the public not you, sweetheart. Not you, sweetheart. You know, we we we need to listen. I think that that's a justifiable basis. I think

mayor, I think I think

that going forward, you know, we should try to work with the developer and see what other alternative methods of trying to find recreational facilities on the beach that suits their their expectations, the same time, suits the community's expectations. So there's an opportunity here to compromise. And Ben, did you want to say something?

Yes. No, thanks, Mayor. Completely agree with you, Mayor. And my suggestion would be that if I think it might be helpful to have a single point of engagement and dialogue with the CDD. I think that should be you, mayor Okay. And with the city attorney to start the dialogue, exploring the possibilities, and then, let us know how it's going. Okay.

And city manager and city attorney, I really again, I know I've made this point before. I'm just concerned about the timeline in these agreements. I'm concerned about one thing leading to another and pushing things back, back, back. I'm just concerned about any bit of risk that we might be facing. That's why it's so important for you and also my colleagues. We just need to figure out what we're doing here, but we're gonna need information from you because we really need to understand the whole picture. Again, it said three years from that agreement to get all of this done. Correct. And now we only have 12 left. So and we know what happens with litigation, and we know what happens with mediation, and we know.

So does that add another problem for us? I just wanna understand the entire picture here and what we are facing, what we could be facing so that we can make a decision that benefits the whole city. I just

Let's I really need to have see what we can work out. My experience with the developers is that they're reasonable people, and I'm sure we'll come up with some solution that will be that will work for everybody. So let me take the responsibility of meeting with them at the city manager and the city attorney and we'll figure something out. In the meantime

Thank you.

Alright. So in the meantime, with regard to r five, can, why don't we, why don't we just defer this, or do we wanna just, vote it down?

I think we need more information from our city attorney and our city manager. I think we just defer this like we've been deferring everything all day.

Alright. So I mean, I I don't wanna be sarcastic. I wanna want to be correct.

Citi If Treanor it's your wish to pursue some more information before you act on this, then I recommend that you move to defer.

Let's just defer this indefinitely? Okay. Well,

that would be your choice. Indefinitely might not be the best option, but it's Well, really

we'll defer it until we don't.

Okay. Mindful of your obligations under the contract Do and

we need to vote on that or just defer