Village Council - Regular Meeting

Testing. All right, we are live. Good evening, everybody. Good evening. That manager, he's so noisy talking. Well, happy July, happy Independence Day, happy 250th anniversary of our great nation. I am going to do a little bit of reading because I wrote comments and I, as of late, for some reason, get a little bit weepy. So I wanted to be able to stay on track. And this is probably, to me, one of the most special groups for those watching from home. Tonight, we are recognizing our freedom through service, and those servants are the public servants, the directors that serve our residents each and every day. Our staff, I know we have many staff members that are here. We celebrate you every single day, and I know that you're going to celebrate your directors this evening. So I would invite my colleagues to join, but they seem to be nowhere in sight. But I've got Council Member Cody here. You'll be my helper. And Mr. Manager, I know you said we're not going to recognize you this evening, so I will honor that, sir. But could you come on up and help me honor your staff? So if you'll indulge me just a little bit. You know, we just had July 4th. How many of you got out and celebrated I know, Parks, you had the year off, so you must have done something really cool, I hope. I had the opportunity, as I have for the last 12 or 13 years, to celebrate in a small town celebration in Mango Wood, where they did the flag raising, and we had a flyover. And it just reminds me of all the amazing things and people here in our community. But when we were talking about recognitions for the month of July, To me, the folks that we're recognizing this evening are really top notch. This year, as we've had the opportunity to reflect on what has always sustained the United States of America, it's not really just ideals. It's people who put the ideals into practice every single day. As our nation celebrates 250 years of freedom, to me, it felt only fitting to take a pause recognize and honor those that carry the spirit forward right here in the village, essentially the ones that are carrying the water. I know I've said many many times you guys are where the rubber meets the road but you do not only carry the spirit of our great village but you do most of the work along with your teams in making the good things happen. We're really great at creating good policy, I hope it's good policy, Most of the time, I think it's pretty good policy for the village. And then we have you all that help us to implement. You're the men and the women who quietly show up before dawn, stay long after everyone else has gone home. You solve problems that none of us see and make sure that the village continues to thrive. You rarely look to us for recognition. As a matter of fact, I would say you never look to us for recognition. I actually felt, I said to the manager, I felt a little bit maybe embarrassed to ask all of you to stay, to come this evening, but I felt important to recognize and I figured regular council meeting, we're going to have quite a few of you here. You simply just answer the call to serve. I've always believed that service is freedom. Because of your commitment, our residents enjoy the freedom to live in a safe, beautiful, and well-managed community. Your work gives people confidence in local government and pride in calling the village of Palmetto Bay home. For nearly 12 years, I've had the privilege to serve with many of you. Along the way, you've become much, much more than colleagues to me. You've become family. We've shared challenges, celebrated some amazing victories, and stood together in service of something greater than ourselves. And thank you to the family members that came out and colleagues, to the families and colleagues that are like family, thank you. Because every hour that you share, I'm sorry, every hour you shared with this village was an hour that they sacrificed time away from family. Your loved ones' love, patience, and support has made service possible. and our community is truly better because of it. So as America marks 250 years, I hope we remember that our democracy has always depended on people willing to serve. Tonight, we're honoring those who have done just that with integrity, humility, and unwavering dedication. And to each of you, my extended family, thank you. It really has been the greatest of honors of my life And I know of my colleagues. To serve alongside you. Congratulations. And may God continue to bless each and every one of you. Your families. And of course the village of Palmetto Bay. Now I'm not going anywhere for five months. So don't think. I'm not cutting this short. So I'm looking forward to five more months. Of really good times. And more service. More fun. More dedication to the residents of the village of Palmetto Bay. But. As I term out, I just wanted each and every one of you to know how important you are, not only valuable to the residents, but your value added to me each and every day. Thank you for making us look good every single day here in the village of Palmetto Bay. I would apologize for the politics that sometimes rears its head, and you all take that in stride as well and just continue to do the work that you have to do. I thank each and every one of you. I'd like to call each one of you to come on up and join us for just a moment. And I know we have a couple folks that are not here this evening, but I will recognize their names. Department of Building and Permitting, Dean Clement is not here this evening. Department of Finance, Desmond Chin. Department of, and yes, this is like three departments rolled up into one, Human Resources, Communications, and Grants, Olga Kadoval. I know Eric is not with us, but we spoke with him at length at the budget meeting, Department of Information Technology, Eric Machado. Department of Parks and Rec, Fanny Carmona. Department of Planning and Zoning, Javier Gonzalez. Department of Public Service, Facilities and Maintenance, Dio Torres. And for the record, Dio, the manager told me if I was going to say anything cringeworthy to say it to you, but I'm not. Everything's heartfelt tonight. Our new major, but not a stranger to the village of Palmetto Bay, Major Antonio Rodriguez. And then our village clerk, who I knew even before I started my service, your assistant to the village clerk, Missy Orocha. I know that the village manager is standing right next to me, but he did ask not to be recognized, so. I'm not recognizing the most amazing manager in Miami-Dade County, Nick Marano. So while we're distributing certificates and a little token of my appreciation, and it's not a gift card, unfortunately, I'm going to pass the mic to the vice mayor and across all of my colleagues to say a few words.

So first of all, thank you to all the family members who came out tonight to recognize these amazing staffers here. Round of applause, yes. I will say, I really do appreciate each and every single one of you. A lot of you I've actually known since I was about this tall and about 14 years old. Parks Director Carmona, back when I was on the youth board, our village clerk, Messia Rocha as well. I've known both of you for a very long time, and it really speaks to your dedication to this community to be here for over 10 years, actually at least 12 years now, because I was elected or not elected, appointed in 2014. So it is truly special to have long-standing employees here. If you've been here longer than that, also thank you for being here. I know I didn't recognize you, but thank you to each and every one of you who strive to make our village great every single day. So I'll pass it on to Councilman Fiore.

Thank you, Mr. Vice Mayor. Yeah, it's a little melancholy for me to be in here the longest since November 2010. I've gotten to know everybody. Some of you are new, but many were here then. And I will tell you a quick story. So in 2010, I'm knocking on doors and I get to these apartments. around Publix, and I'm knocking on the door, I see the name on my list, Carmona. So I knock on the door, and I see, I said, oh, hello, Ms. Carmona. My name is Patrick Fiore. I'm running for Palmetto Bay City Council. She goes, I work there. I said, oh, okay. I said, well, I'd like to work there, too, maybe as your boss's boss. And here it is 12 years later, so... Congratulations. I hope you all stay in touch with me is all I can say. Thank you very much. Thank you.

And thank you so much for putting up with me. I appreciate it. I work all the time, early in the morning, late at night, weekends, holidays, and I send a lot of questions and comments, and I appreciate your response. I really do. It's been a pleasure working with you. Many of you for eight years, some of you for less, but you've been great. You're wonderful. Thank you so much.

You know, to an amazing group of department directors, to our sheriff, municipal district major, I want to thank all of you. I've been here six years and you all have made this the most enjoyable and rewarding point in my career. And I want to thank each and every one of you for the work you do every day. I don't think enough people realize how lean the village staff really is. In most cities, at the director level, you've got a deputy director. You've got a number of assistants that are highly capable and there to do much of the heavy lifting in the department. Not so Palmetto Bay. These department directors are not only the leaders of their departments, but they're also the primary action officer that actually gets everything done. We're going to talk a little bit about the budget tonight, but this village is one of 12 cities in the state of Florida with a AAA bond rating because of the amazing work that these individuals do throughout the year in managing their budget in the most frugal way to the taxpayers. So I want to thank you, not only for the leadership that you show every day for the people within your departments, but for the amazing work that you do. And I really and truly appreciate each and every one of you. I'm sorry, Councilman Cody.

Thank you. And as I learned in law school, always try to get the last word. So that's why I grabbed the microphone now. I don't know. We're going to have a foot race later. and see who's faster. Now, I also wanted to pass on my thanks to you all. The first person I met at a department head level was Missy Orocha. I was in a wheelchair. I came in to talk to her about running for office. In fact, I showed up on the last day, practically the last hour, with my paperwork and my checks. And she gave me encouragement, and I said, I have to win this race because I want to work with this lady. And since that time, I am frequently down here at Village Hall. My son Nick likes to bake, and we constantly are running around dropping off baked goods at the various different departments. And there's a sneaky reason I do that, because I like to keep in touch with all of you and find out what's going on, what we could improve, what we couldn't improve. Doing that over a chocolate chip cookie I found is a really good way to get information. But I've been here for six years. I've got at least two more, maybe another four beyond that, you never know. But I've enjoyed working with each of you. I'm glad that the, what used to be the lieutenant, sorry, in my head I always say the lieutenant, but now the major has rejoined us. And regardless of the number of times he's been asked, He has never arrested me, which I think is a terrific compliment. So thank you, Mr. Back to you, Madam Mayor. And thank you all for the work.

As my mom used to say, never say never. Say hasn't happened yet. So hasn't happened yet. I think these folks deserve a round of applause. So let's give it up for the village directors. Thank you to each and every one of you. We're going to start our meeting in about seven minutes. Oh yes, absolutely, I forgot, yes, please, come on up. Family members. Extended family, come on up.

Ready?

Come on, you didn't come here just to sit.

All right.

Robert, can you look at them and tell? Because some of these folks, you're not going to see them. They're in the back. Yeah, come this way. Javi, bring your family over here.

All right.

Have a good evening. Thank you. I don't like banging the gavel, but I'm going to ask you all to get quiet. Our meeting actually started a couple of moments ago when we went live, so thank you so much. Appreciate everybody's attention. Thank you. So we're going to go ahead and start our regular council meeting. Today is July 6th, and we're starting just a couple minutes late. I think it's 7.04. With that, I turn it over to our village clerk. If she would call the roll.

Mayor Karen Cunningham.

Present.

Vice Mayor Mark Meritzer.

Present.

Council Member Patrick Fiore. Present. Council Member Steve Cody.

Here.

Council Member Marsha Madsen.

Here.

Quorum is met.

Thank you. With that, I turn it over to Council Member Patrick Fiore for invocation. Thank you.

We can all bow our heads in prayer. Tonight's reading is from Isaiah 33, verses 16 and 17. He shall dwell on high. His place of defense shall be the munitions of rocks. Bread shall be given him. His water shall be sure. Thine eyes shall see the king and his beauty. They shall behold the land that is very far off.

Amen. So we have a special treat tonight. I can't say the youngest anymore, but one of our youngest Palmetto Bay family members, Miss Eva, could you come up and could I get everybody to please stand? Eva is going to, she goes to True North in Pinecrest, just one city away. And she is the beautiful daughter to Missy and Eric. Missy is our village clerk. Miss Eva, is the mic on? You want to just double check that for her dad?

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

Let's give her a big round of applause. Ms. Seva, we are so proud of you. You are growing up very beautiful. I'm not going to go ahead and read the decorum statement. I will just say before we get rolling here, we have a lot of items on tonight's agenda and some of these are probably going to require some significant discussion. I'm just asking if we could keep our comments as brief as possible as we kind of work our way through it. If you've got longer comments you want to make, I'm happy to stay even later so we can get those on the record during our council comment portion. But if we can kind of condense our comments for the items, it would be a huge help. And I know we're keeping time. I don't see the screens on anymore, so I'm going to have to rely on when we do get to comments. Oh, I guess we just have to touch it. I'm sorry about that. All right, so I don't think that's going to be an issue, but if we're able to do that. And I'm feeling pretty good this evening, pretty confident that we're going to get done by 8 o'clock because we have USA versus Belgium in soccer. So let's see if we're able to kind of do that. I'd also want to take some items out of order, if that's okay with the council. But let's get through the first part, which is the approval of minutes. Could I get somebody to move the minutes from June 1st and June 15th? It's been moved by Vice Mayor and seconded by Councilwoman Mattson. All those in favor?

Aye.

Anyone opposed? Okay. So I know we also have troop, is it 2311? 2311 in the house. This is going to be your opportunity to speak during request petitions and public comments. It's also an opportunity for all of you to speak. We have a very long consent agenda, and I know some folks came out to speak to items thinking, They might not be on the consent agenda. So this will be the time to speak to that as well. So with that, I turn it over to the public for requests, petitions, and public comments. And if you don't mind queuing up, it'll just make things go a little bit faster if you're able to stand.

My name is . Thank you for allowing me to speak. And ladies and gentlemen of the city council, but you forgot to mention one person who is very important to recognize, and that is you, because you did an amazing job as a mayor and as a city council previously, as you've been the mayor. And I'm very privileged to be a resident while you were in your administration. Also, our Councilman Fiore did an amazing job. You guys do an amazing job, and you should be proud of yourself. I think as a resident here, and I've seen... manager before. I think we have one of the greatest managers, I'll say in South Florida. I'll say in the South Florida.

So if you like that comment, you can do this.

Thank you. And one of the things I wanted to say, I know when you were running before, it was really hard and I'm very thankful to our sheriff's office to protect him. You know, I'm very privileged to be a resident to have one of the most amazing sheriff's offices in here and also in South Florida. And I'm very glad to be here. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you.

We just do this. We try not to applaud, but this shows a sign that you're happy with the comments. Thank you.

Good evening, everybody. Mohamed Taha, 14599 Southwest 82nd Avenue. Actually, I'm going to wait until all the ordinances and the resolutions are presented to speak at that time. But I was wondering if we can, like, streamline two things on the agenda. 11C and 14A, they are related somehow. If we can do it concurrently or first or whatever, you know, your preference is. Like you see, we have a lot of people present, you know, to hear these two things. parts of the agenda. And we would love to see that being pushed up front, if possible. And as I said, 11C and 14E to be heard first, if you don't mind. Thank you.

Thank you. Next speaker.

Hi, David Singer, 8360 Southwest 154 Terrace. I'm going to speak on, I think the item is 10B, and the reason I have to speak is because I'm going to be leaving early. It's my son's birthday. Anyway, there are current council members who are serving the village of Palmetto Bay who pay zero real estate taxes, don't own property, but are getting a paycheck from the village. It is very easy for them to spend residents' money without a thought of how hard people work for a paycheck. That's why it's unfortunate the same individuals to push legislation to the consent agenda. They could give a damn about what certain items cost because they don't pay for any of them. They live in a comfortable world where they don't have to figure out how to pay bills as far as electric, food, and insurance. I've seen a lot of legislation trying to get passed in the village. This item could be the worst. It's beyond short-sighted and needs to be voted down. It's just another reason to deny residents transparency. All it does is hurt residents' pocketbooks and leaves no room for debate among elected officials. I agree with Gary Pastorella on this item. It should have never gotten three votes to move forward. No public input from residents deserves a no vote on any item that costs village money that we, the taxpayers, are footing. It's unacceptable. legislation for legislation's sake, which is constant, by the way, in this village, is just bad legislation. Some members of the council need to realize that. Thank you.

Thank you. Next speaker.

Gary Pastorella, 6940 Southwest, 142nd Terrace. I have to, I'm in shock. that David Singer agrees with me. I actually support his position on this. I'm hoping that you'll, on 10A and B, that you'll go ahead and remove those so that we can get back to normal as it pertains to the consent agenda. The other items on the agenda, I'll speak to individually as they come forward, but I just wanted to make sure that we go ahead back to where we were, and I support David Singer on this. Unbelievable.

Good evening, Madam Mayor and Council. Peter England, 7620 Southwest 171st Street in Palmetto Bay. I'm also the Chief Strategy Officer for the Economic Development Council of South Miami-Dade, and I'm speaking to Item 12F, which is on the consent agenda, to thank you, the Mayor and the Council, for your support of the continued support of the EDC. We could not get done what we do without you. With you and the other municipalities in South Miami-Dade, I think we have a very unique part of this county. I don't see that kind of regional cooperation taking place anywhere else. We recently concluded this strategic plan for economic development for South Miami-Dade County. And with the help of you and your managers and your planning directors, we hope to be able to implement some of the recommendations that are called for in the plan. Once again, we can come up with all kinds of plans, but without the cooperation and support of you, the municipalities here in South Miami-Dade, we could not get it done. So we are here to thank you very much for your continued cooperation and support. We very much value you as partners. Thank you.

Thank you, Peter.

And we're going to miss you when you're gone. You and all of your buddies up and down US-1. This is a changing of the guard. I hope that the new guard is up to the challenge that the old guard was able to meet. Thank you very much.

Thank you. They will be, I'm sure. Thank you very much. Next speaker, please.

Good evening. Good evening. Good evening.

Go ahead, sir. Your name and address, please.

Dr. Turk Shebby, 16450 Southwest 90 Avenue. Can I speak about 11C or I have to wait?

If you're not going to speak now, you won't be able to speak later when the item comes.

All right. Thank you. Good evening, Mayor, Vice Mayor, Council Members, and members of our community and our city manager. Madam Mayor, I remember a few years ago, you came to my house and we gracefully supported you. Six of our family members voted for you and we're happy we did that. So thank you for giving me the opportunity to speak tonight. I stand before you as a proud American and as a member of the Muslim community I am here with a simple request, not for special treatment, but for equal treatment. Throughout the year, our beautiful city graciously recognizes the holidays of various faith communities through messages on its official social media platforms. Those greetings are more than words. They tell resident that they are seen, respected, and valued as part of our community. Unfortunately, when the two most important Muslim holidays, Eid al-Fatr and Eid al-Adha, arrive, that same recognition is absent. For Muslim families, especially our children, that silence send an unintended message that their celebration are somewhat less worthy of acknowledgement than those of their neighbors. Our request is simply this. If our city recognizes the holy days of other faith traditions, please extend that same courtesy to the Muslim community. As American, many of us have recited, and even a few minutes ago, those words since childhood, and it was a good example a few minutes ago. One nation, under God, with liberty and justice for all. Those words are not merely a patriotic tradition. They are a promise. Liberty and justice cannot be reserved for some while overlooked for others. Equality is meaningful only when it includes everyone. Our Constitution reinforces that promise. The First Amendment guarantees the free exercise of religion. Thank you.

I'm going to give you another 30 seconds, but then you'll have to wrap it up. Thank you.

Our nation also has demonstrated that people of different faiths Faith can come together in mutual respect. And I'm referring to the Abraham Accords showed the war that Jews, Christian and Muslim can build relationship based on uniformity, but on share, not based on a firm, but shared you have value and we stand in a cooperation, whether internationally or locally, the principle will remain the same respect began with recognition. Thank you very much for your time. And I really appreciate that opportunity.

Thank you. Next speaker.

Good evening. Jerry Sershman, 13250 Southwest 74th Avenue. I'm here on behalf of the Cure Cystic Fibrosis Miami Foundation and Palmetto Bay resident Bonnie Banker, who I think most all of you know. Bonnie's unfortunately not able to be here. So we have been incredibly fortunate to... hold our celebrity kickball tournament at your beautiful Palmetto Bay Park for 10 years. And we were also fortunate this year to be given the key to the village by the mayor at that event, and we can't thank you enough for that. And we want to thank you for all your years of support and service to us that have allowed us to continue to raise money to find and fight the cure for cystic fibrosis. Bonnie's unable to be here tonight because Delaney has been in the hospital recently at the Cystic Fibrosis Clinic at Joe DiMaggio Children's Hospital, and now she's actually at a facility in Boston, outside Boston, for CF-related complications, and she's gonna be there for probably four to six weeks at minimum. So... The fight continues for us to be able to find that cure. And I must say, I'll take this opportunity, it's really appropriate that you all were recognizing your staff tonight because your park staff is beyond amazing. Fannie and the team are incredible to work with. They have been incredible partners to us. and we can't thank them enough for all that they do, and Fannie specifically has been incredibly supportive. So I want to thank the village. I want to thank you all for that support, and just it's greatly appreciated, and this community should know how supportive the village is of causes like this. So we can't thank you enough. We have a little token of gratitude.

Thank you. I just asked if Fannie could come out and accept it on our behalf. We can give a round of applause for the Parks Director. Thank you. And your item passed. We'll hope it's on consent. So you're good. Well, welcome, young ladies. How are you? Very good. Can you pull the mic down? And why don't you let mom just give us your name and address. Is that all right? These are all minors?

Yeah, that's absolutely fine, yes.

Good evening. My name is Jennifer Messamer-Skold. Address is 28231 Southwest 136th Place, Homestead 33033. Thank you.

Hello, good evening. Thank you for having us here today, Madam Mayor, city council members, and members of the audience. I'm Savinus Gold, and I'm also joined tonight by Mackenzie, Tori, Amber, and Ayanna. We are members of Air Base K38. Girl Scout to 2311 and we are currently working to complete our bonds award which is the highest award that fourth and fifth graders can earn we chose to help stray animals as our service projects we are currently working with this is the dog which over this past month we've been working with them to ship animals to their new homes and socialize them the other animals that haven't found a home yet. And as a result of all of us choosing this service project tonight, And one of the reasons we chose this service project is to earn the Bronze Award. And me and my sis ourselves, me and my sis Mackenzie, ourselves feeds homeless cats in our community that we consider ours. And now Mackenzie is going to share some additional information on how we are trying to help.

Use your big voice, okay? You pretend you're outside on the playground because my ears don't always work. Good. Thank you, Savannah.

And thank you, Madam Mayor, for having us here today. We are partnering with This is the Dog to help dogs and cats have better lives. Dogs and cats either get abandoned or surrendered. So that's why we are providing homes, food, shelter, and water for them. But it gets really expensive. That's why we are axing the village of Palmetto Bay If we can place a donation box at a place you guys recommend so people can donate cat food and dog food or just scan the QR code to donate on the app. Your donation can help a lot. Every little bit counts. No one likes seeing cats or dogs or just any animals on the road. Dogs and cats deserve homes. Thank you. And we recently just rescued a baby kitten that went up in my dad's Mustang. So as a result, we named her Mustang Sally. Thank you. Now I'll be passing the microphone to Tori.

Thank you. Thank you, Mackenzie. Our community is not perfect, but if we work together, we can improve. It may seem like the amount of strays here in Palmetto Bay is small, but it is not. The volunteers at This is the Dog noticed and didn't wait for someone to do something. These volunteers have been single-handedly helping strays, and a donation box will just make what they do help more animals across Palmetto Bay. Thank you.

Thank you, Tori. Helping This Is The Dog is important because it saves animals' lives. It gives dogs love and care and a safe place to stay until they find a home. Supporting This Is The Dog also makes our community kinder, safer for everyone.

Good evening, mayor and city council members. My name is Amber and I am a Girl Scout from Troop 2311. Thank you for giving us the opportunity to speak today. We are here on behalf of This is the Dog because we believe every pet deserves to have enough food to eat. Sadly, many families in our community struggle to feed their pets and local rescues work hard every day to help animals in need. Our bronze award project is to place a pet food donation bin in our community where people can easily donate unopened dog and cat food. Even when one small bag of food can make a big difference for a family or an animal waiting for a forever home. Now don't worry, the donation box bin won't bark, chase squirrels, or ask for belly rubs. Its only job is to collect kindness. You might be wondering, will people really donate? We believe they will. Our community is full of kind and caring people who simply need an easy way to help. By giving them a convenient place to donate, we can bring our community together to care for local animals. There is no right way to say this. but animals are part of our community too. They cannot ask for help so we want to be their voice. Today we are asking for your support and allowing us to place a pet food donation bin in a public location where it can help collect donations for local animals in need. There is so much more we would like to say to convince you to help But the point is simple. We are asking for your support. Together we can make a real difference, one donation at a time. Thank you for your time, your kindness, and your consideration.

So This is a Dog is based in South Dade. Troop 2311 has visited both the cities of Homestead, Florida City, Cutler Bay, and now Palmetto Bay. And these donation boxes, with working with staff or whoever you designate as a contact, would have a QR code on it. Or we would also ask to indulge us if you were able to promote it on your social media channel as well. So if anybody were to stop by whatever location the box is in and doesn't have a bag of dog food or cat food, they'd be able to scan the QR code and have it directly donated to their project. This is a dog partners with the animal services location down at South Day Government Center. There would be opportunities if there's residents in Palmetto Bay. that find themselves in need of having animal food, cat or dog food provided to them. They can go at a first-come, first-served opportunity when they schedule it and would be able to take advantage of the animal food. The girls' hope is that by making it easier for families to get food is to keep the animals in the homes and prevent family members being surrendered due to financial hardship.

Thank you. So if I'm understanding, and we don't usually go back and forth during request petitions and public comments, but if I'm understanding correctly, you're asking for two things. One is a location to place a box, and two is assistance from our communications department in sharing that location. And I would leave it to the manager to say no to these young ladies' faces. And I don't think he's going to say no. But here, I think he is going to give you his card And if you could follow up with him tomorrow, he'll likely have Parks give you a call. And could I give this? I know I left one. One young lady came a little bit late. You guys did a great job. Let's give Troop 2311 a round of applause and drop off your items.

If you'll indulge us, we can take a group shot in front of you all.

Sure, yeah, sure. Let's move quickly, though, okay? Ladies, very good. Thank you. no no we've enjoyed it thank you thank you very much thank you thank you so much you're welcome ladies thank you all right so if it is we have one comment by form for request petitions public comments the office of the village clerk received one public comment submitted by form

All the forms that are submitted into their record, they are read for a time allotment of one minute. The public comment was submitted by Mr. Eric Tolberg, 7884 Southwest 179 Terrace. Palmetto Bay just installed half a mile of six feet wide sidewalk on the north side of Southwest 184th Street. They also put in an ADA ramp at Southwest 82nd Avenue and 115 feet of six-foot sidewalk west of Southwest 84th Court. There is now a continuous sidewalk on both sides of Southwest 194th Street from Ocala Road to US 1. This is thanks to Dio Taurus. That's the end of the public comment submitted by forum for this section of the agenda.

Point of order, Madam Mayor. In deference to a number of people who are here tonight and Mr. Taha who requested it, I would like to move that item 14E, which is a resolution, be moved up on the agenda to be heard at the same time as 11C. They deal with a similar topic, religion policy.

Second. Just for the purposes of discussion, and I'll tell you my thought process, I was going to ask if we could do the millage rate first. Well, we're all fresh. Then 14E and 11C, back-to-back, which covers what you were requesting. And then we could move into our charter review items. There's an ordinance and then two resolutions and get those banged out. Does that work for everybody? Very good. Just so that I know I'm kind of moving, skipping around here, but Were any items pulled from the consent agenda? I just want to get those. I want to cross them out. It makes me feel good when I'm crossing out items. No items were pulled from the consent agenda. Very good. Then could I get someone to move the consent agenda?

Yeah, Madam Mayor, if I can be added as a co-sponsor to the EDC item that you brought along with the cystic fibrosis item, I'd like to be added as a co-sponsor for that, please.

Sure. That's great. Thank you. Okay. So it we move the consent agenda items now that's been moved this or second all those in favor anyone opposed okay so not for nothing we got done through item a to i so i feel good like we accomplished a lot all right very good if it's our if it's if it's also okay with the council if we could forego the um the three reports this evening With one exception, Mr. Manager, I know that you had put out something regarding a survey. I did, ma'am. And maybe we could have that discussion, if that's okay. Yeah.

And I'm also wondering, right after the millage, if we could also bring up the dependent district, because it's also linked with that. So I'm wondering, right after the millage rate discussion, we can bring the ordinance related to the dependent district.

And actually, I didn't. I don't even think we voted. I think we just kind of nodded on the motion. So just to go back to the original motion, it was 14A, 14E, 11C, 14B. I'm missing one. It was 14A, 11C, and 14B. I took it as unanimous consent. Okay.

All right. I just wanted to make sure. 14E or B? I'm sorry. It's 14B. B, right, for the... Oh, E as in Edward. Oh, no, sorry, yes, E, sorry.

It's 14E as in Edward.

Okay, if we could, and you're right. So it's 14A would be the millage. We'll do that first. Then it would be 14E and 11C, both dealing with villages, social media. We'll just do them back-to-back and... be done there's there's three charter review items so it would be um 10a which is an ordinance and then 14b and 14c and then you had what did you have so 11b is directly related to 14a which is the special district okay i understand what you're saying okay so then it would be 14a and 14b

14A followed by 11B.

11B, I'm so sorry. Is that good with everybody?

Just one question. We are taking those before ordinances on second reading, or are we taking them...

Yes, before ordinances on second reading. Although 10A will be heard... It'll be 10A, 14B, and 14C. Okay, got it. but those will be grouped together a little bit later. Yes, of course, I'm sorry, Missy, I made the decision right after you left the meeting earlier, so I apologize. So let me try it again for the clerk. We're gonna do 14A and then 11B, both of those dealing with our budget. Then we're going to do 14E and 11C, Both of those are dealing with village social media policy. And then we're going to do three charter review items in this order, 10A, 14B, and 14C. Got it? Okay, very good. All right. I guess we're not going to finish at 8, but we'll keep pushing in that direction. Could I get someone to move the board and committee reports? Move it. Is there a second? Second. All those in favor? Aye. Anyone opposed? Okay. All right. So off we go. Item 14A. Would somebody move it?

Move it.

Is there a second? This is the millage rate.

Move it. I'm a second.

Madam Clerk, can you please read the item?

Item 14A, a resolution of the Mayor and Village Council of the Village of Palmetto Bay, Florida, relating to ad valorem taxes, establishing the proposed maximum millage rate and setting the dates, times, and location for the first and second budget hearings for fiscal year 2026-2027. This resolution is sponsored by administration and prepared by Finance Director Desmond Chin.

Public comment. Thank you.

Gary Passarello, 6940 Southwest, 142nd Terrace. I'm going to ask you to approve the highest rate possible. I know that a few of you will vote against it, but given what legislation has been passed in Tallahassee, it's absolutely necessary in order to maintain funding for our village and other municipalities that we retain the highest millage rate possible so we don't have to make major cuts.

Thank you. Next speaker.

David Singer, 8360 Southwest 154th Street. I absolutely am in agreement with Gary Pastorella. It doesn't mean that you have to keep that rate. It just gives you more leverage as far as moving up and down as far as the budget is concerned. I've never liked the budgets in the past because I think that there's a lot of waste. A lot of waste in the village, but this at least gives you the opportunity to sit there and have the highest rate and then move the budget either higher or lower. So, yeah, I agree with Gary. It's just as unbelievable.

Thank you. Next speaker.

Ali Chinkechith, 7740 Southwest 177th Street. I implore the council to approve the higher millage rate One, because of the budget hearing that we recently had, definitely everything that our village is and has all these amazing services comes from that. But we just also honored all of our administrators that have made this amazing village. And if they don't have the relief that they need to hire new people for the services that we want, With having the lower millage rate, I hope that our village can continue to be this amazing place that we love and, you know, cause a community. So, thank you.

Thank you. Next speaker.

I actually think that we should have a higher mileage, and one of the reasons why it gives us ability to provide amazing finances for our sheriff's office. and the fire department, and whatever that's in the village. One of the things is that we haven't had, thank God we haven't got an officer hurt here in the village. It's the reason why, because our officers have amazing equipment. And I would like to keep that, because we don't want our officers getting hurt. They provide safety for us. The reason why we sleep safely at night is because they go out and they patrol the streets. And if somebody disagrees with me, you can put on the badge and put on the gun and do the same thing as they do. and see how that works. Thank you.

Marta Gillette. I'm at 15721 Southwest 83rd Avenue, Palmetto Bay. My concern about raising the millage rate to the highest rate possible is we don't know what's going to happen with the referendum and what the outcome is going to be on that for us. And so I would hope that you would leave some room to be able to make adjustments if things do not turn out in a favorable way for us. let's say it passed and there's part of that referendum that states that all of our properties will be revalued on January 1st, 2027 at just market value, which means that potentially all of our properties could then become valued at the rates that homes are selling for now. And so if the millage rate is very high and that passes and it turns out to be something that we weren't expecting as an outcome, meaning we were not going to get property tax reform, we're going to get basically our properties revalued very, very high and that could be a very serious issue for a lot of people here in Palmetto Bay that are seniors and on fixed income. Thank you.

Madam Clerk, do we have any comments by form? One public comment was submitted by form. From Eric Tolberg, 7884 Southwest 179 Terrace. We have a lot to do. Do not set the rate too low. My property taxes are less than half of my house insurance. That's the end of his comment.

Thank you. And Mr. Manager, because I skipped right over it, would you mind talking about the survey during, while you're talking about the budget?

I sure will, Madam Mayor. Perfect segue into it, actually. Could you put my computer up, Olga, please? Okay, Madam Mayor, members of the Village Council, members of the public, I have put a printed copy in front of each one of the members of the Village Council of a proposed electronic survey that we would do via the SurveyMonkey website. We did a similar survey last year. We had about 400 or so responses from it. I think the importance of doing a survey prior to your July budget workshop is it just extends the amount of public feedback on some of these important issues that we're getting ready to talk about this evening. And I think if you look at it that way, as it's additional public comment, we are not holding this up to be a scientific survey. I frankly put every survey into just a box that it's a data point. Here's the information that it's provided. When I go into the actual meat of this survey, it does have demographic information that we are asking for. And I think for an opt-in type survey that we are proposing here, That allows the village council to kind of see who answered this survey. And again, you're able to look at it. It's a data point. It's not necessarily the ground truth. I frankly don't think any survey is. But this gives you enough feedback on who answered it to give the proper context of the information that you're looking at. Per the village resolution 2019-94, if the administration is proposing to launch a survey, I have to provide it to the village council. The village council has three business days to either comment on it or object to it. In this case, one council member did object to the survey. That's why I'm bringing it forward here this evening. What I'd like to leave with is something, whether a majority of the council says, yep, we like it, launch it, whether you want to modify it, all of that is certainly your purview, what you want to do from this point on. Let me just go through what is in front of you, and especially for people who may be sitting out here in the audience or watching on one of the various video channels. So I'm going to start with, demographic information we talked about. Property owner or not, how long have you lived in Palmetto Bay, what is your age group, property address, that is optional information, and your property zip code. Again, that allows us to then look at the data and have the data in context as to who answered it. So starting with something very similar to what we did last year, question number six, we ask residents to rank what they see in terms of importance of all the village functions, everything from police protection to the tree canopy and urban forestry. Question seven is another ranking question where we drill down on what we think will end up being the top four responses just based on previous surveys. And I think the members of the village council have either interacted enough with the community or have seen previous surveys and would agree with me that these four items tend to float towards the top of all the responses. Question eight gives a little bit of detail on the current millage. and where that puts us in terms of fiscal and structural solvency. And I want to make a very important caveat here. We have an amazing sheriff's major here who manages, and before him as well, Major Guerra, but Major Rodriguez manages his budget in the most responsible possible way and brings it in under the budgeted amount. He has no control over the budgeted amount. We get that from the sheriff's office directly. However, we have to budget what the sheriff's office gives us. And in a year where we don't have any named storms or any other type of very unusual situations, then we are fortunate that we have a major that can bring the public safety budget in under the budgeted amount. This year, for example, the sheriff's budget increased just a little over 8%. And to put that number into context, historically, most of your revenue sources have increased in the years that they do increase, and there are many years where they decrease, but in the years that they increase, they increase between 3% and 4%. The sheriff's municipal district budget, again, is increasing at a rate roughly twice what your revenue sources are increasing. So that's the challenge that the village faces every year. How do we square that circle? And as the years go on, it gets harder and harder to square the circle. I'll go into more detail in my millage brief. I don't want to get ahead of it here. I'm just going over the survey itself we did draw very modestly on our reserve fund question number nine this current budget year we drew from a budget point of view two hundred and fifty thousand dollars from our reserve fund to cover current operations never a good way to do business if it's a one-off year no big deal obviously that trend can't continue and we ask We provide additional information in question 9, and we ask residents to provide their opinions on that. Question 10, another very important question. Most residents, when they get their property taxes, unless they look at that trim notice in detail, they don't realize that only 13 cents of every dollar they pay in property taxes goes to Palmetto Bay. The other 87 cents goes to all the other taxing districts to include the Miami-Dade Fire and Rescue, which is important because the Miami-Dade Fire and Rescue tax assessment is greater than the village tax assessment. So every resident, every property owner in the village actually pays more in property taxes just for fire than he or she pays for police, parks and every other village function that we provide again just kind of put the the the amount of property taxes paid to the village in context so and question 11 is a value type question when considering the value of your home how important is it that the village continues to invest in public safety infrastructure and things such as parks again we're looking for the person to to rank those. November ballot measure, we talk about what could be a very significant revenue shortfall if the ballot measure passes. In year one, the village would look at about a $2 million shortfall, and that's in a $22 million budget. So in year one, the village is looking at a 10% shortfall. Year two, that literally doubles. You're looking at a 20% decrease in revenue. So we're looking for the resident or actually for the respondent to actually say what he or she would do in that event. I do think it's important, those of you who know me, you know I'm a conservative, there are other ways to get at a increase in the homestead property tax exemption, which is what the ballot measure would do. One of them would be, well, increase the amount of commercial properties in the village. I know that's a very difficult political question, but I think it's important to ask because this would not cost any property owner any additional funds to just increase the commercial tax base within the village. those properties are not covered by the increase in the homestead exemption again question 14 requests further amplification on that particular question and then 15 is kind of the final question what would you support the most to maintain village services and we're asking them to rank them raise the millage rate allow higher density development reduce expenses or draw from reserves while studied. So that's kind of the ultimate final question there. So with that, Madam Mayor, members of the council, I am happy to take your input, your edits, or answer any questions.

I'm going to turn it over to Councilman Mattson because I believe you're the one that sent in comments. Yes, I did. Thank you.

Yes, I'd like to say that The manager and I have quite a vigorous discussion over this survey. And I did object to this survey, the reason being that it's not a scientific survey. And what that means is unless it's a scientific survey with randomization, validity tests, and reliability tests, it doesn't mean anything. And the greatest danger of a survey like this is that people will take it to be the expression of the people of the village, and it's not. It's like if I just threw a bunch of surveys out of a helicopter and then gathered them up, like whoever answered them. That's not the way science is done. I recommended to the manager that if he wanted a survey which meant something, which actually surveyed the opinions of the residents, that he should hire a professional firm to do it. That's easy enough to do, and then you'd actually know how the people would feel about these budget questions. So I do object to using this anecdotal survey. It doesn't mean anything, and the great danger is that people will think it does mean something, and it doesn't mean anything.

Thank you. Thank you, Vice Mayor.

Yeah, so first of all, I appreciate you taking time to put this together. My core concern is this. I think with something as delicate as the budget, so many of you have told me your priorities over the last couple of years since I took office. Things like traffic, things like our parks, and a whole slew of other priorities that you have. I think that conversation that we need to have with residents actually belongs in person, in people's homes, at our parks, at our village hall, as frequently as we can. And I actually remember Councilman Madsen, Mayor Cunningham, and myself, we all traveled up to Tallahassee, and the number one piece of feedback that we got from state lawmakers, especially in the context of the ballot measure that so many of us have been talking about lately, is that we need to meet directly with our residents and explain to them the situation. So my personal preference is, instead of doing a survey altogether, that we as a council and also we as a village take the time, whether it be in August, we're going to have about... actually about two months before our next budget meeting where we actually decide on our actual budget on September 14th, I think it's worth having that conversation directly with neighbors. And that's something that I will be doing personally over the next couple of weeks to listen directly to you. So I would just say don't do the survey. Let's see if we can have even more budget workshops, town halls, and meet directly with residents so that we can understand their priorities more effectively. Thank you.

Thank you. Council Member Cody.

Thank you, Madam Mayor. I am in support of doing the survey. It gives us a data point. The councilwoman cries for scientific accuracy, and yet meeting with people who are willing to talk to us is not scientific at all. It's not, I don't think, a valid substitution one for the other. I think that this can give us a talking point. And we can find out from people, see where they live, see what their preferences are. And some of this is a survey that, as the manager went through it, is intended to inform before people take a stand on something. I'm all for it. Survey with a scientific survey would require, I believe, for 25,000 people, which is the size of our population, probably about 400 to 500 valid, actual, completed, randomized surveys. In an area as small as we are, that's going to be very tough. I'd rather have some information than no information. So I'm going to support this.

Thank you. Council Member Fiore? Well, I was the one that asked for it, so I definitely support it. I asked for it last year as well. Vice Mayor, I would just say, comments not directed at you, but I agree with you. I also consider this one tool to use. We should definitely be engaging with as many residents as we can. I try and do that as often as I can. I'm a little handicapped right at the moment because I can't drive for another few weeks, but I have met with many residents at their doors and think that this would just be an additional tool. Not the be all, end all, just an additional tool. So I support it and hope we're able to move forward with it. Vice, you have an additional?

Yeah, can you mention maybe just really quickly The core concern I have with the survey as well is it's trying to do two things at once. If we're trying to get feedback, I think that's a valid thing to do. But as someone said, it's essentially a talking point or a tool. If you want to get a message out to residents and explain what's actually happening, which I think is part of the intent of the survey, I think the explaining and trying to get feedback should be two separate vehicles instead of having it all in one piece of survey. Because I think if you want genuine responses from people where they give you feedback unprompted, I think that's usually a more valid way of getting information. So I would just ask that we do that. Thank you.

Council Member Fury, I hate to do it to you, but I'm going to have to call for a vote on it because we have a survey. I don't know if you have any comments. No. Okay. Okay. If it's okay, can I just do a real call vote real quick to run through whether we move forward or don't move forward?

Yeah, that would be fine. I want to give them some direction. The managers are seeking direction.

Yes, exactly, exactly. Okay. Madam Clerk, can you just call the roll on supporting moving forward with the survey that was presented this evening?

Vice Mayor Mark Meriter?

No.

Council Member Steve Cody?

Yes.

Council Member Patrick Fiore?

Yes.

Mayor Karen Cunningham?

Yes.

Council Member Marsha Madsen?

No.

Okay, thank you. That's 3-2 and I think you have some direction.

Thank you, Mayor and members of the council. Olga, if you could put my computer back up, I'm gonna run through the maximum millage presentation. Fantastic. Okay, I know you all have seen the slide before. Here's a summary for this current budget year. The left pie chart represents all the revenue sources coming into the village. The right pie chart represents all the expenditures or the funds going out of the village. Let me get my laser pointer here. If you look at the large light blue piece of pie here, that's property taxes. The dark blue slice on the bottom are utility taxes. This light green aqua color is franchise fees. This dark green slice of pie are intergovernmental or sales taxes. You've got charges for services, fines and forfeiture, and other income here. Where does the money go? About half, just under half of your revenue are property taxes, and just over half of your expenditures go to the sheriff's municipal district. 16% go to parks and recreation. 8% go to general government. They are the contracts that support all of the departments in the village, things like utility bills, gasoline, copier contracts, all that type of stuff. all your other departments, with the exception of Public Works, all clock in somewhere at two or three percent. If you look at the general fund revenue from 2008 here on the left to 2026 here all the way on the right, you can see in absolute dollars how the revenue has increased over time. The dark blue represents Everything except property taxes, the green represents property taxes. This graph, in a nutshell, represents the argument that the proponents of the ballot amendment are making. However, when you factor in inflation, and this slide does factor in inflation, here's that same period of time, the same revenue, 2008 on the right, I'm sorry, on the left, 2026 on the right here's that same revenue but now I've applied the effect of inflation over time and you can see where we were in 2008 there was actually a reduction in real dollars that the village actually had available until we reached 2024 or 2025 and we've actually taken a step back from 2025 to 2026. Again, this slide represents the effect of inflation on village revenues. Here's a very important slide. I want to take a moment just to talk about it. Look at my pie chart here. You'll see each one of these slices of pie represents the millage of different taxing districts that every property owner in Palmetto Bay pays. You've got the largest slice in red, that goes to the school districts, or that goes to the school district. This light blue slice goes to Miami-Dade County, and this purple slice goes to Miami-Dade Fire Rescue. This dark blue slice is what goes to the village, and that pays for all of your parks, all of your police, all of what is here in village hall as well as all of the planning and zoning that supports the village as well the village currently has a 2.3018 millage so using the current taxable value of a residential property in palmetto bay 394 000 again that's not the market value that is the median taxable value from the property appraiser's website, that works out to about $900 a year that the median homeowner pays to the village for, again, all of the services to include police from the village. That's less than that homeowner pays to just Miami-Dade Fire and Rescue. The rate that is in front of you here that I'm proposing this evening, 2.69 mils, would increase that tax bill, again, for the median taxable value from 907 to just over $1,050 or $1,060 every year. That's an increase of about $150 a year. or about $12.76 a month. Again, that's for the median taxable value within Palmetto Bay. If you look at all of the, here are all 34 municipalities in Miami-Dade County. The maximum millage that a municipality can charge in the state is 10 mils. And we actually have a couple of municipalities, Opelika, and Biscayne Park that are bumping up to that 10 mil limit. Palmetto Bay here at 2.3018 is one of the lowest in Miami-Dade County. If the village does go in September with a 2.69 millage, that'll put the village right here. We'll still be one of the five or six lowest municipalities in in Miami-Dade County. We're not talking about a massive increase in terms of the millage rate. Over time, here's 2004 at the left of my slide, here's the proposed millage. For much of the village's existence, we've had something along the lines of a 2.447 millage rate. That is where the village built its service delivery model. And again, if you can picture that one graph where I factored in inflation, you can see how the lower revenue numbers created from these millage rates here in the late teens and the early 2020s really caused that drop in revenue to the village, while we were also trying to keep the same service level that the village was built at. We're currently here at 2.3018, and I'm recommending a maximum millage this evening of 2.69. For people, and I'm going to go into more detail about where the money actually goes in a little bit more granularity, it's not going to people. This is our staffing summary. If you look at our full-time employee number, proposing in the budget this year a final staffing level of 62 that's down from 68 last year it had been 68 for a number of years and it had been as high as 71 full-time employees so we're we're reducing the amount of employees at the same time we're facing dramatic increases in other costs that the village has to confront. I'm going to go into a little bit more detail in those. So this slide I want to put up because if we do nothing, right, and that's not going to happen, but if we do nothing, here's what the imbalance in revenue and expenditures would cause. I want you to look at the green graph. that represents a millage of 2.69. The current millage is here in red, that's 2.308. And these two graphs show you what happens to your general reserves, your general fund reserves. With a 2.69 millage, you can see you're structurally balanced and each year up through 2029, a projection for 2029, you're going to maintain about a $10 million general fund reserve. If you keep a 2.308 millage from the current budget year through 2029, you see the reduction from $10 million in general fund reserves down below $4 million in general fund reserves. This goldish-yellow line represents the recommended minimum that the village should have in terms of general fund reserves, and you see by 2029, if we do nothing, that the amount of reserves is lower than the recommended minimum. As I said, that's not going to happen. It may not be the government that you want, and it may not be the service level that you want, and I don't think it would be, but whatever the millage rate is that this council determines is sufficient, we will make the budget fit to. But again, this does illustrate if you do nothing, here's what would happen with the current millage. So within that maximum millage framework, let's break it down and compare what the village council can approve according to the state statute. This evening is a simple majority vote. You can set the maximum millage with a simple majority of three council members. In order for you to maintain, and I want you to look at my left columns here, in order for you to maintain your current millage, you cannot do that with a simple majority under the law that went into effect on July 1st. A simple majority vote of the village council can only approve the rollback rate, which is 2.1802. What's the rollback rate? That is the millage rate that generates the exact amount of property tax revenue for the village next year as it does this year. Sounds good? It doesn't factor in inflation or any other increases in costs. If you look at what the village council can approve with a four-fifth or a super majority, that can be 110% of the rollback rate, and that number tops out at just under 2.4, 2.3982. So if four members vote for it, the maximum you can approve in September, not this evening, is 2.3982. A unanimous vote is required again in September for anything above a 2.39 vote or anything above a 2.39 millage. Let's look at where we actually balance out. I talked briefly a couple of slides ago about structural balance. My left graph represents revenue numbers. Here's 23.5 million, here's 25.5 million. So 23.5, 25.5. So you get an idea of the difference between the graph sizes. The light blue represents all the recurring expenses, I'm sorry, all the recurring revenues that the village is expected to have The right or darker blue column in each one of these series represents the expenses, and you can see at the current millage next year what the gap would be. It would be about a $2 million general fund gap between revenues on the left and expenses on the right. With a simple majority rollback rate of 2.18 mills, that number would increase by about 700 or so thousand. And it would go, you can see the difference between revenues on the left and expenditures on the right. Where do you structurally balance next year? Well, at 2.69, which is what I'm recommending here this evening. That's where we project that the revenues and expenses would balance. I'm gonna talk in a moment about capital, and long-term capital projects that the village has been very fortunate in investing over the past five years in. What would that number look like if the village wanted to have, say, an additional $400,000 available each year for capital projects? That would be about a 2.75 millage. And I put that just as an illustration of where your structural balance is and what would really be something that would be optimal in terms of being able to afford a healthy capital program. I think I've already covered most of this. A little bit more detail gives you the actual numbers in either the structural deficit or the surplus. in the case of the 2.75 millage. If you did adopt a 2.69 millage, this is what Palmetto Bay would look like compared to the other 34 municipalities in Miami-Dade County. Again, you're still one of the very lowest in Miami-Dade County. I want to talk for a moment about capital because it's important that you consider that the village doesn't only need to balance its budget, but you need to come in with a surplus every year. The department directors, the major, the finance director have all been very diligent over the years that they have been in their jobs, and we've returned a surplus every year. But it's not something that has been necessarily budgeted in a strong way. If you look at the last five years, the village has spent a total of $32 million on long-term capital projects. That's an incredible number. And that is something that the village is going to be able to use for quite some time. The largest category or the largest department of where that capital spending one capital spending went is parks and recreation nearly 50 percent 49.8 percent or 15.98 million dollars and in parks you can pick out a number of the big projects the car reef park building for 5.3 million dollars pickleball for 3.2 million dollars or 3.3 million dollars veterans park phase one $3.3 million. So we're already over $10 million in park capital investment that represents a big chunk of that 15 million that went into parks. Second largest, stormwater. Total of 9 million, of which nearly 6 million was grant funded. So stormwater, 9 million. Transportation, 2.7 million. Other village facilities and infrastructure, 1.7 million. 1.1 million in water infrastructure. That was the well abandonment program at Cardy Road, as well as the well abandonment program on 143rd Street. Community development, you can see, comes in at right under $900,000. environmental and resiliency has paid a huge dividend for the village as we have reduced our CRS rating from an eight to a five and very soon we should be at a four and that translates into real dollars, 25% savings for anyone who has to purchase flood insurance in the village and finally technology and software. I talked a little bit about how it was funded. My left column here, ARPA, we got about $12 million in one-time funding from the federal government. We've been very competitive in terms of grants and either state or federal government appropriations, $17.7 million. So again, 12 and 17.7 is 29. The village had just over 32, about $32.5 million in capital Where did the rest of it come from? Your general fund surpluses that you build up every year. So about over that five-year period, the village has averaged about $800,000 a year from a general fund surplus that has been reinvested in long-term capital projects. And that is the reason why you need the millage rate to not only balance, but also provide that additional capital funding every year. Finally, the administration recommends a 2.69 millage this evening. That is a simple majority vote. If you do want to vote on that in September, that would require a unanimous vote in September. This evening, it would require a simple majority. And again, I've covered this. It fully funds operations. And with that, Madam Mayor, I am happy to answer any questions.

Wonderful. Thanks for the great presentation. Questions for the manager? Council Member Cody, then Council Member Fiore. Okay.

Thank you, Madam Mayor. You gave us some figures concerning what the impact would be on the median house here in palmetto bay what would be the difference if you can do a back of a napkin kind of thing between what it would additionally cost going from 269 to 2.75 i'm going to ask the just in the interest of time council member if you don't mind i'm happy to answer additional questions in less

Your next question depends on that. Finance Director Chin is going to crunch that number for me. Okay, thank you. Yes, sir.

Thank you. You'll hold? I'll hold. Okay. Council Member Fiore? Oh, I'm sorry. I thought you had a question. Vice Mayor? No. Council Member Mattson? Yes.

Now, in this presentation and the budget workshop, I only heard the Vice Mayor talk about cutting expenses. So I'm going to ask you, is there any plan to cut expenses?

Yes, ma'am. We cut expenses every year. I've cut eight full-time employees. I've kept a number of them, not all of them, but I've kept a number of those positions vacant for actually this entire budget year and even beyond that. When you look at the village, when you look at any government, a government is an organization of people who provide services. And in order for you to achieve any big savings in your expenditures, you're really talking about people. We look at contracts also every year. I mean, every contract that comes up for renewal, we look to achieve either greater efficiency or re-advertise it to see if we can get a lower amount for the contract. Again, it all depends on the conversation here this evening. If a 2.69 millage passes with a unanimous vote, then Director Chin and I, as we build the detailed budget, we'll use that in our work. If it doesn't pass or it passes with a 3-2 majority, then our calculation is going to be different. So again, what we look to reduce is really going to depend on the debate here and how the village council votes.

Thank you. Any other questions? All right. I think we have an answer to a question.

Councilman Cody, I have that number.

It would be an additional $28?

An additional $27 on an annual basis.

You're talking a little over $2 a month.

Something like that, yes.

All right, thank you, sir. Thank you.

All right, discussion. Council Member Cody.

Thank you. I know that for politicians, the idea of we should cut taxes and we should cut expenses is something that's very appealing. Everybody wants that. Just like everybody wants to wake up younger, better looking, and personally richer, but often that's not going to happen overnight. We have gotten ourselves in a situation because of the tax rates that we have adopted on the last two budgets, we have caused the plane of Palmetto Bay, instead of flying level, to begin losing altitude. And every year that we are forced to go to the rollback rate or near the rollback rate, we lose more altitude and that guarantees the following year that we'll lose even more. I frankly would like to see us adopt a 2.75 rate because that allows us additional headroom and it gives us the ability to devote money for capital projects. It's not enough just to take care of the day-to-day things. Yeah, we'll be able to fill the potholes that we have but will we be able to put in new sidewalks? And in fact, some of the charter amendments that we're going to be getting to is an aspirational item that they want us to basically put in sidewalks and bikeways on every one of the roads here in Palmetto Bay. We have, I believe, and Dio can correct me, 175 miles of roads here in Palmetto. That's going to require eating up quite a bit of front yards, and that can only happen if we use eminent domain. And we can't do that if we, by the same token, say we're going to reduce, we're not going to keep pace with inflation. And frankly, as we just heard, the difference between what's being recommended and 2.75% is only about two dollars more a month i don't know too many people who would say no the comfort of my family the services that my family receives here in palmetto bay another two dollars a month is just way too much therefore i'm going to be proposing that we amend and take the rate up to 2.75 which we can do in a majority, but that will give us the headroom to deal with as we get into the actual adopting the amount with the budget in our September meetings.

Thank you, Councilmember. Vice Mayor comments? No?

yeah so a couple things um i really wrestled back and forth with where to land on this and this is an incredibly difficult decision tonight so many people have told me and this is something that i genuinely mean the budget that we're going to adopt as a council is the biggest statement of priorities that we can have as a community It's not found in our comp plan. It's not found in our zoning code. It's not found in anything other than our budget and what we spend our money on. So this is something that I take incredibly seriously. And tonight we're talking about setting potentially the highest tax rate in village history. And how we got there I think is a subject matter. Plainly, a couple things. The first is that at the moment we're engaged in multiple challenges with lawsuits. And I would say that our legal fund is literally probably going to be approached like Morgan & Morgan levels. If it was its own department, it'd be either the second or third, actually the third department, largest department that we fund here in the village of palm metal bay and a lot of that has been initiated by members sitting up here themselves so that is a genuine challenge that we're dealing with and hopefully those challenges will not continue into fiscal year 2028 or 2029. the other challenge as well and this is something that's an incredibly important point for us to discuss as a council is that there's a number underneath everything that we're dealing with tonight which is that we want to have the best law enforcement services in all of Miami-Dade County. And we have a record low crime rate here in the village of Palmetto Bay. And that's not by accident. That's because we have taken action as this council to fund them appropriately. And whatever funding they need, they should be able to access and get. So that's going to be a separate conversation coming up very soon. but tonight what we're actually looking at is a couple of things and i want to be clear that the decisions that we made in the past did not create our underlying challenge but they certainly burned through a lot of the cushion that could have bought us time to solve it and today by the village's own projections we have about two years before we hit that minimum reserve from what our own policy requirement requires and i took a lot of positions last year and a lot of them i lost three to two and those challenges that we have in front of us are now part the budget that we're looking at tonight so looking backwards though won't balance this budget and my job now is to deal honestly with the situation that we have and make the best decision that i can and leave this village in a better shape than i found it so yes i want to have a discussion about our rate and i think we have to and i think it's we need to have an honest discussion too so I don't think anyone in this room wants to pay more except for the five people who came up here. So many people, when I was out their door, told me, do not raise my taxes, please. And I don't blame them, especially if you bought a house recently here in Palmetto Bay. You're assessed at over a million dollars. It's a nightmare to deal with. So a couple of things. And I think we brought up, I actually brought up during the budget workshop, the situation regarding cutting. and i think it's important that we actually have a couple items on our agenda tonight that would get us towards a more close position to where we need to be in terms of adjusting where where our millage rate is so for example there's an item coming up related to specifically our fee waivers that we give out my personal position after reading that the list of fee waivers that we've given is that we should not be looking residents in the eye and asking them for more while giving multi-million dollar corporations like Baptist Hospital fee waivers here in the Village of Palmetto Bay, or at least we need to have an open and transparent conversation about doing that. And it's another thing as well where we have to also be transparent about our legal costs, because again, it is our third largest department here in the Village of Palmetto Bay. That's another item coming up tonight. And lastly, and most importantly as well, we have an item that will directly put in front of our residents the cost of law enforcement separately on their bill And I think something that's important to me is that every single dollar that we would raise taxes ever in the village of Palmetto Bay needs to go to law enforcement. Because when I talk to people anywhere in this village, their number one priority is public safety. So I want to essentially have that conversation to see if we can essentially separate out our law enforcement from our... um rest of our budget so that's coming up later tonight but to me I I do think we need to have a conversation about reducing some expenses a lot of them have been voluntary by this council um and a lot of them I think need to progress as time goes on I'm not willing to commit to a specific rate tonight I think there needs to be some kind of adjustment but that adjustment also needs to have a conversation with residents about how we can cut expenses especially the ones

that i had been told that people feel are wasteful so that's where i'm at tonight and i'm looking forward to the discussion thank you well this is it this is the discussion uh council member fiori no councilman matson yes i looked over this budget very carefully the manager and i have had uh communication back and forth about it the two main issues are Our legal costs are skyrocketing. They're going to be over a million dollars. One of them has to do with a case that has been ongoing since I've been on council eight years, and it should not be continued. And the other one is a part of that legal expense is lawsuits generated from one of the council members. So that has to be addressed. I have an item on tonight about getting some kind of, acknowledgement for fiscal responsibility and transparency about legal expenses. Another issue is the police budget. That's going up. The new contract is a million dollars more than last year. And, of course, we all want safe. We want a safe community. I'll be interested in hearing what the vice mayor has to say about his proposal of a police district But my feeling is that we have to cut. I think we have to cut. And I never hear this in any budget discussion. I think I voted against at least the last four millage rates and budgets because I never hear about cuts. I only hear about what we need to continue on to build or do this or do that. But I never hear about tightening the belt. And that's what I would like to hear about is tightening the belt. I would like to hear that we commit to decreasing our expenditures by a certain percentage. And I'm not sure what that percentage would be, perhaps something that would equal cutting it to the equivalence of one million extra for police and one million extra for legal in order to support those two huge expenditures. But I would like to see I would like to see expenditure cuts, and I'd like to hear a commitment to that. Thank you.

Thank you. Well, I am going to support. First of all, what we're talking about tonight is the maximum millage rate. It's not the millage rate. I think it just gives the manager some direction and his staff in putting together the budget, which we'll hear in July. Is that right? July 20th. July 20th. Thank you. you know we can point fingers till after the USA Belgium game is over and probably into tomorrow and the next day and the next day I see well our property values have increased I also I while I'm hopeful I do believe that we have kind of set ourselves because of our decreasing the millage rate and with the homestead exemption reform we've kind of set ourselves on a bit of a path here things cost more money just like they do for the public in you just trying to maintain your homes I kind of equate our budget I know it's probably really watering it down but how I make decisions in my own home am I going to take care of my driveway or am I going to take care of my swimming pool I got to figure out how to do both of these items. Is there a vacation slush fund? Not in my household, there isn't. So I think setting a millage rate that the manager has proposed, and that's a maximum millage rate, which all that means for the general public is that we can't go more than that. We've got to figure out the budget. That would be the max that we could look at when we approve a budget in July. The modest increase, at least, I know not everybody in the audience today, but many of the people that were at home were paying attention to our last budget workshop. And a modest increase is going to do things like protect our public safety, although we have a very interesting item coming up. It'll be the next item that we'll hear to kind of maintain a public safety district, just like other districts school districts, lighting districts, other districts that the county and the village has, maintaining our parks and recreational programming, strengthening reserves, which I think I'm not as hopeful that the trajectory for the future, I do believe unless we figure out a way to build reserves in light of increased costs, decreased revenue because of the potential for the homestead exemption reform we're kind of setting ourselves up for failure although I know we have a guarantee from the manager that you know he'll keep things on track as best he can while we're here you know I think there are going to be decreases in some services and I disagree at least with the colleague that mentioned that we don't hear about cuts. We do hear about cuts every single year. We made cuts last year. We're proposing cuts, at least in the proposed budget that the manager presented to us just a few short weeks ago, a couple weeks ago, of eliminating full-time positions that have just remained open So I think we are moving in the direction of having to make cuts. Those of you that were here for the recognitions, the manager mentioned, we have a very small staff here in the village of Palmetto Bay that do a tremendous amount of things. You might find someone from parks covering the front desk when you walk in the door. Somebody from public services helping out in one of the other offices just to kind of keep things moving. So I will support hopefully an increased millage rate so that we can begin our little nest egg as as we wait and see what's going to happen with the homestead exemption reform and it's one of the reasons why i support the survey as well uh educating people about what's happening i think uh is important as well so that's it is there are there Are people prepared with motions or other things that they want to present with this item? Okay, Councilmember?

I would move that we change the number from 2.69 to 2.75.

That is your motion. Is there a second?

I'll second.

Okay, it's been seconded. Discussion? Vice Mayor?

Yeah, a couple things. The first is that our legal budget... is enormous. I mentioned that during my comments. It's over $1.5 million. I am hoping that we have a more prudent council after November where some of those legal costs can be resolved and also we're not, for lack of a better term, spending time summing each other four different ways to Sunday, which is a literal statement, by the way, four different times since the last year. And maybe some of those savings from our legal budget can go into a capital investment fund to fund things like parks and other things. So I won't be supporting this, and I think that if we want to have a capital project, we need to have a stern look at the rest of our budget and find ways to save money, both in unnecessary cost and also ways to be a more efficient government. So thank you.

Thank you. We're on discussion for the motion. Anyone else? Okay. Madam Clerk, do you want to call the roll if there's nothing else?

Council Member Marsha Madsen? No. Mayor Karen Cunningham? No. Council Member Patrick Fiore?

Yes.

Council Member Steve Cody?

Yes.

Vice Mayor Mark Meritzer? No.

Okay, we're back on the motion unamended. If there's nothing else, I'm going to call the question. Madam Clerk, we are on the original item.

Council Member Patrick Fiore?

Yes.

Council Member Steve Cody?

Yes.

Council Member Marsha Madsen? No. Vice Mayor Mark Meritzer? No. Mayor Karen Cunningham?

Yes. So just for my understanding, we just needed that simple majority, and that'll give you some direction.

I don't know exactly what direction, but some direction as you move forward.

I got it. Yes, ma'am. Thank you. All right, we are going to move forward. We move some items. Sorry. Item 11B, would somebody move it? Move it. Is there a second? Second. Madam Clerk, can you please read the item?

Item 11B, an ordinance of the Mayor and Village Council of the Village of Palmetto Bay, Florida, relating to public safety, creating the Palmetto Bay Public Safety District as a dependent special district pursuant to Section 189.02 of the Florida Statutes, amending Chapter 26 of the Code of Ordinances by creating Section 26-1. This ordinance is sponsored by Vice Mayor Mark Meritzer and is being heard this evening on first readings.

Wonderful. First speaker, public comment, come on up. Do you have comments by form, too? Thank you.

Gary Pastorella, 6940 Southwest, 142nd Terrace, almost where I lived. This, the absolute last thing we need, is a special taxing district, another district, just to provide additional funds for the law enforcement. We already provide, and we have within our budget, and we've established the numbers necessary to support our law enforcement. This is as dumb is as dumb does. Absolutely, positively, no need for this whatsoever, and I have no idea where the Vice Mayor came up with this particular idea. I'm sure he read it somewhere, maybe studied it in school, but it just doesn't work here. It won't work here as we have a very competent manager He's gone through his procedures as the cost as our budget. This is the last thing we absolutely need. It's going to take money away from our budget and force us to put monies towards law enforcement. We already do that, and we already know we have an increase to take care of. They can do that within the budget. This is absolutely positively not necessary.

Thank you. Next speaker. So in several states, there's what you call a forfeiture fund, where officers stop somebody for narcotics and they take the money and they go to court and that money becomes to a police department. I think this is a great idea to have the special district where U.S. 1, it's a great way to stop somebody who's heading from, whenever they're heading to Key West, And probably most likely transporting narcotics. Why not have a special officer with our sheriff's office have that car stop and use that money also provide extra funding to the police. I think that would be a great idea to have that special district. Thank you.

Thank you. Next speaker.

Carter Gillette, 15721 Southwest 83rd Avenue. I'd ask you to vote no on this. I think it's redundant. I think it's going to siphon money away from one part and put in the other, and then we're going to all of a sudden see our taxes increase because we have this special district. We all love our law enforcement. It's already in the budget. It's already part of our village. Please vote no. Thank you.

Thank you. Next speaker.

Welcome, Mr. Vice President.

David Greenwell. My home address is protected by law, but I can give you the work address, 10680 Northwest 25th Street. On behalf of the police union, the South Florida Police Benevolent Association, we would be in favor of it. Anything that carves out and protects the funding for police officers is a good idea. And to say that it's derogatory statements is ridiculous. I don't know what... talking about this is insane to do this it's not insane the fire department does it other people do it so i don't know what's insane supporting our fine men and women of law enforcement thank you thanks and madam clerk you have one comment by form

Eric Tolberg, 7884 Southwest 179th Terrace. Separating police services from the budget does not provide them with more money. That is why we vote on an annual budget. That is the end of his public comment submitted by form.

Great, thank you. All right, Vice Mayor.

thank you and i'm really excited to present this item tonight because i think it's one of the most important things that this council will hopefully be doing this meeting there's many other things on the agenda but this is something that's super important because public safety is the most important thing to our residents here in the village of palmetto bay without public safety nothing else follows whether it be opening up a business here going to work you name it our police are the backbone of our community and this item specifically gives them the ability to have, just like the fire department at Miami-Dade County, structural protection from the rest of our budget. So what this means in practice, and I'll explain the specifics of the item, is that when you get your trim notice, which is actually what we're discussing tonight, it's a notice you'll get in the mail discussing what your property tax will look like under the Palmetto Bay line. If this passes, you'll see two things. The first is our general government, which is a separate fund, which can cover things like our parks, our transportation, the general services that you care about. the other side of it will be the police district which is just money that can go to support our law enforcement and it's essentially providing transparency and glass into what our village spends its money on so essentially all this is this does not create a new tax this does not raise revenue all it is is showing our residents what portion of our funds will go to police which i think everyone in this room can agree on is one of our top priorities and what portion of it will go to other services so that we are structurally protecting our police from whatever discussions that we have long-term. And I would hope to have your support with this, and I'm open to any questions. Thank you very much.

Questions? If I could, is it possible... I appreciate your explanation, but it was a very short explanation for such a big item. So is there, like, presentation that we're going to have uh is there i i don't know from the do you want sheriff's office or is yeah that i think at least that would because i think part of what's happening is that we're i mean i've read it and we've talked about it but i also think maybe some of the comments are because people don't understand it uh i had originally asked if this would go to a committee of the whole, and I still am going to put it on the committee of the whole for further discussion.

If the village attorney can talk about the process, I'll jump in at the end of that. That'd be great. Thank you. Yes, ma'am.

So this is actually the first step in, if this is something that the village is interested in, this would be the first step in multiple steps to get you there. Within Miami-Dade County, there's also a provision within the county charter that that talks about how this is done. And you also would need to get approval from the county commission. uh, in order to do this. Um, it's set forth in section for anybody who's listening and is interested. It's set forth in section 18 dash 3.1 of the county code, which talks about municipal special taxing districts. Um, so this would be, uh, the county requires the village, the municipalities go first. So this would be the first step. Um, if the village is interested, we would then go to the county. The county would then go through with their process. The county would need to, to bless it under the, uh, their powers within the county home rule charter, and then it would go forward from there.

Can you explain the mechanics of it?

Yeah, so this, it's... There are a couple of items that you'll see on your, most people will see on the tax bill. There's, you have municipal fire districts, there's the library district for instance has that as well. Those are set, Those are set as part of the budget process, but they show up as a separate line item within your tax bill. So those funds are supposed to be used only for the specific purpose that is used in that district. And so that would be set by your budget process, but then the funds would be used within that district for the purposes of that district.

Yeah, to some degree. I'm in a special taxing district in my area, so I'm familiar with my tax bill.

I mean, some people are familiar with it, like with a guard gate or something like that in terms of their property. that might have a special taxing district where you've got kind of like an HOA is the ones who oversee it. This would actually be overseen by the municipality. And so the boundaries of the special taxing district would in fact be the boundaries of the village of Palmetto Bay as it's proposed.

Mr. Manager, there was some questions regarding how it impacts the rest of the budget. Can you give us some highlights? Right.

don't know if the vice mayor wanted to jump in first I'll be happy to answer that yes yes so a couple of things so all this does is so in Florida law there's two ways of essentially creating a new line item in a tax bill all this does is essentially have us separate out from a budgetary perspective completely the police from the rest of our budget so essentially what will happen during the budget process is we'll sit as a village Palmetto Bay Council like we do now and And then during that same meeting, we'll essentially adopt and approve both the millage rate and also budget for the police under this district. And this process, and I want to give you all some background as to how this came up and what the process was with this. In discussing a lot of the, I guess, structural conversations that we have with our budget, especially around police costs, I think it's wise to have this separated out. And essentially what prompted this was discussions with both our Police department, our sheriff's office, now sheriff's office, and also thank you to David for coming out as well with PBA. And essentially what this would do is give the exact same protections that the police have, sorry, the fire department has to our local police here. in the village. And it's essentially, I don't know if you've seen the county budget process, but you'll see essentially a separate item as part of their budget where they separate out the fire district. And that's essentially a pot of money that's only set aside for the fire district that they would discuss and go over. So essentially what it would be is We as a council would be sitting as the board for this dependent district, decide on the tax rate, decide on the budget, and approve that separately from the rest of our finances so that essentially our finances are totally separate from the police, and the police are totally separate from our own finances, and there's that structural insulation between the two of them. That's the impetus of this. That was the background of it. And that's functionally what it is. And really for our residents, the end result of it, the only difference that they're going to see is that this does not raise taxes or lower taxes. It just provides insight as to where their money is going and structurally protects the buckets of money for people's tax bill. So that's what you'll see as a resident. You'll see the Palmetto Bay Public Safety District in addition to our regular millage. And that's the intention of this. So happy to answer any questions.

Question?

Thank you, attorney.

Yeah, I was actually going to mention something, and it actually piggybacks off of what the vice mayor just said. This would be designating, as the vice mayor said, would be designating the village council as the governing body over the special taxing district. So think of it like how you all sit as the LPA. You would kind of take off your village council hats, and in that you put on your LPA hats. Here you would, during this budget process, you would take off your village council hat and put on your special taxing district hat. and that would be, but it would all, it's all part of that process, but you would be acting as the governing body of that taxing district when you're talking about that.

Councilwoman? All right, so a question for the Vice Mayor. Would this then be one millage rate that would appear as the sheriff's, the municipal district, sheriff's municipal district, and there would be no millage rates then for the rest of the budget of Palmetto Bay. We would finance the rest of the operations of Palmetto Bay with our other revenue sources, including sales tax, utility tax, and so on. So there would only be one millage rate, and it would be keyed to the police contract. Is that the case?

So that would actually be up to the determination of the future council. So this item before us tonight does not decide what the tax rate is or how we're going to make that split between our operations side and the police side. All this does is create that second line item. How we as a council decide to allocate that is gonna be up to the determination of next year because this cannot legally take effect and appear on someone's property tax bill until the following year. So essentially, if you wanna have a structure that you're mentioning, that's certainly a possibility where the public safety district will be the cost of the police and potentially we have zero i don't know what that could look like but structurally speaking um that would be an option but it's again up to the next council and again all this does is add that new line on someone's property tax notice just like the fire department and just like the library and just like how the county sets its own budget process they could theoretically if fire was their only expense or if the libraries were their only expense they could decide to wake up one morning and zero out their county general fund i don't think that'd be a very good idea That's an option for them, and it's essentially up to the next council to answer your question.

Thank you.

Council Member Cody? Thank you. I've got a question for the attorney. As Ms. Gillette pointed out to us, we're going to be going, if the amendment passes on the state constitution, to a system that at some point properties are going to be revalued based upon their market value what do we do in a can right now our police department eats up more than our total millage we put in probably a couple of hundred thousand just my back of the napkin again kind of computation a couple of things one Would we then be setting the maximum amount we're going to be spending on police? And if that causes us to reduce the amount of the police budget, can we do that in light of the state statute saying you can't defund the police?

So this would not be a way to circumvent the state statute in terms of the maximum percentage you could reduce the police budget under that, I wouldn't say recent law, but relatively recent law. So no, I don't think anybody could use this as a means to circumvent that. I think we would still be... whether it's the village or it's done through the special taxing district, I think we're still going to be bound by that maximum reduction percentage under state law.

Okay, my follow-up is what happens if we get into a situation like we had during the Great Recession where property values in the village dropped and you have a situation where you're being assessed on actual property values, property values drop, And the amount we collect is less than what we have been collecting before. Are we then required, because we set up the special taxing district, to say, no, we then have to go and go outside of that taxing district to make up the difference for the decrease in the value of home values? Or could we say, you know, police department, you got what you wanted and we pegged what we're going to use to budget you to the value of homes and we just had a bad year. So we're gonna cut five, 10 cops. We're gonna put the boat up into dry dock that we police the canal with and maybe put a couple of police cars on blocks until we can get some more money in. Could we do that or would we, be forced to, under this proposal, to say, okay, now we have to take other monies that we're getting in and cover that shortfall to fund the police.

I think if there was a shortfall, I think that that shortfall will be made up through the Special Taxing District, that there would be an increase in the amount. So if I'm understanding what you're saying is the police budget is X, And the following year, property values declined by 20%, we'll say. And there's a shortfall. I think we still are required to meet the police budget. I can't remember what the percentage is. There's an amount that you can go down by. I can't remember what the percentage is. that we are still required to meet that threshold, and I think it would be made up through the special taxing district line item. I don't think it would have to be made up through other areas.

Let's say we have a situation where we have a village council like this, where at one end, we probably are not going to be raising taxes, and at the other end, we're also not going to be raising taxes. We have a shortfall. Would... we be required to make that up without the input of the village council? Would that just be overridden by whatever the people on either end of this council want, and we don't get unanimous to raise that millage rate for the taxing district?

I wasn't following. Say that again.

We just went through the experience this evening of setting the maximum millage rate. And then when we get to our actual budget, we're going to have to adopt the effective rate. Right? With me? Okay. Now, if we have a situation where the home values drop and we suddenly don't have enough coming in via property taxes to pay for the police department that we want, you know, it's like Rumsfeld once said, you don't necessarily go to war with the army you want or need. You go to war with the army you have so we we have a certain amount of money coming in with the millage rate that we have set it's not going to be enough we have two people on the council who aren't going to vote to raise it so that means we're going to have to cut the budget can we do that are we or is that choice going to be taken away from the council and said you know you've got a special taxing district your property taxes are going to go up even if um

can you ask your question if you don't mind sure to kind of keep things moving that's my question I think you'd have to fund the you would have to fund the special taxing district based upon the the expenses that are in it I think the vice mayor wanted to chime in yes yeah so this is a really important question so two different things we're kind of conflating apples and oranges here in a situation that councilmember Cody is describing

essentially what would happen is the tax rolls and the assessed value would go down. That would essentially actually put us in a situation where I believe the majority rate for our millage would be actually the same rate as last year because you're in a situation where your assessed valuation has gone down. The only reason why we're in a situation like this year where the rollback rate is lower than the actual rate we adopted last year is because property values went up. So I don't think that would be a situation um in reality the other side of it as well and this is the important point without the district we're still going to be in a situation where you have to figure out a way to fund the police regardless and with the potential challenges that are coming in november after the save our homes amendment we're going to be in a potential situation where we're going to have to make some very hard choices and i would rather insulate police from all those choices and essentially give them that insulation long term so Essentially, the situation you're describing is not a thing, because if assessed values go down, the majority rate's actually gonna be the same rate. And also, even right now, without this district, we'd have to figure out ways to fund the police. So, one thing has absolutely nothing to do with the other. Again, all this does is create a process for us to separate out those two costs, and it doesn't have anything to do with the line of questioning that you're going down.

And if I could interject, first of all, I just make comments. Obviously, I have great respect for our policing unit, sheriff's department, sorry. And we all know public safety is number one in our community. And David, thank you for, Vice President Greenwell, thank you for coming out this evening. Where I'm struggling here just a little bit, and I do respect the opinions of both our manager and our sheriff's office is I wish we would have these conversations with full-on presentations at the Committee of the Whole or during the budget hearing so that we can better understand. I can read the words that are on the paper, but what I'm hearing is I think, I think, I believe, I believe, I that's not capturing it for me. Now, based on public testimony, I'll go ahead and support it tonight. But I would really implore you, if you could bring it with a visual... This is a big step we're taking. And I know while you... It's no criticism, Vice Mayor. Actually, it's kind of bold, and I like it. that you're thinking outside the box. I hope you'll also think outside the box when it comes to the military because all of these things are interconnected. But if we could put together a visual presentation so that it is understandable for a first grade teacher. And I'm not minimizing myself. I'm just saying, again, I can read all the words, but I don't understand how all of this is going to play in. So for me tonight, In good faith, I'm going to say, hey, I'm going to support it tonight. I know the manager has said this is a positive thing. The major has said it's a positive thing. PBA has said it's a positive thing. And so I do believe it's a positive thing. But I would really like to have a visual presentation, because I keep asking myself the question, how is this different than what we're doing? We have always funded our police department and made that the number one priority, insulating I like the idea, but I also don't like what I heard when we did the millage, setting of the maximum millage, which is, you know, we were going to insulate you. Obviously, police, public safety is number one. But then over here, I'm not quite clear on what direction we'll take in terms of the millage rate and for all of the other very important services that we provide and how your item kind of combines with just the regular process. And maybe I'm just old, Vice Mayor, I'm sorry. I do wanna understand more though, because I really wanna support it. I just wanna understand it better. So, Councilman Matson.

Yes, I think we do need more information because at this point, I'm not quite sure whether we're having two millage rates or one millage rate in which the police get the part of the millage rate that is their contract. And then we adjust the rest of the village millage rate to the police millage. In other words, there needs to be more explanation. And I would also like to see a prepared projection showing the combined millage for the next five years with and without the district. So that would be helpful. And whether any other entities in Florida do this kind of thing. And what has been the effect of having a dependent sheriff's unit as part of the municipality? Vice Mayor?

Yeah, two things. One, I totally agree. I'm happy to bring this to a cow. I think it's an important conversation to have. And I appreciate the willingness to engage with this on good faith. And again, I thank Sheriff Rosie for her support with this. I thank our local sheriff's unit here for working with me on this and also to our manager. So

I'm sorry to interrupt. Are you closing? Because I think Council Member Fiore.

I wanted to get to, I want to answer your question first. Yes, we'll do a CAL. Yes, I'll put something together. And yes, I will have some conversations to make that happen. The second part to Councilwoman Madsen's question about the five-year projections or rates, this does not change the process under which we adopt a millage for the combined rate at the end. So essentially the projection is going to be entirely up to the future council. This doesn't bind us to any future tax rate. This doesn't bind us to anything other than separating out our police costs with the rest of our budget. That's the decision that will be in front of you tonight, is do you want to separate out the police costs with the rest of our budget to insulate them whatever discussions that we have um from the rest of our our budget so again we can't set a rate with this we can't raise taxes with this we can't lower taxes with this all this does is provide transparency in a separate rate um it'll be it'll be an entirely separate rate again you'll see the public safety district as one line in your item and then the palmetto bay general millage on the other what those two rates are have to comply with the process under state law that we're actually undergoing a little bit tonight and in the future. So I can't give you any numbers because that really depends on what the future council wants to do. So that's it.

Okay. Council Member Fiore, and then did I cut you off before? Well, I wanted to make a motion. Okay. Do you want to speak first?

Yeah, thank you, Madam Mayor. First of all, I haven't spoken to the police major or the PBA or the manager on any of this, so I don't want to vote on something that I fully understand. And I would say, Mr. Vice Mayor, you keep talking about the future council. Well, if it's for the future council, then why don't you bring it up for the future? Why do we need this generosity at this time? I mean, bring it up. I mean, I think it's a good idea, but I don't have enough information to make a a valid decision on it at the current time. I'm sure it's meant well. Answer his question?

Let me ask. I think you might have another question. Are you making a motion? Making a motion. Vice Mayor, go ahead and answer. Your motion's next.

So the reason why this has to be brought this year is that if we want to have this in place for next year, we have to undergo the process that our village attorney mentioned, which is get approval from the county and also work with our property appraiser and other county staff to make this actually appear. And also there's a provision under state law that says that whatever district we adopt this year cannot levy or do anything in terms of separating out that millage until the following year. So essentially what would happen is if we postpone this to next year, this won't come back until potentially 2020 or 2029. So we have to work now to essentially set this up for next year. And that's why I'm bringing it this year.

Okay. Sorry. Council Member Cody. Yes, Madam Mayor. I would move that we defer this item until the regular council meeting in September. And I know that our village clerk can give us that specific date. Because I think that we have a lot of unanswered questions. And I would feel better if... rather than going back and forth. We actually have an opportunity not only to run it through a COW, but to actually have Desmond give us the numbers. So that's my motion. I'll second that.

Discussion on the motion?

Is the motion to go to a COW or to defer and go to a COW? Or what's the motion?

The motion is to defer it, and if it's not my item, I can't put it on the cow. But if Mark wants to put it on the cow, then that would be fine. That would give him enough time. He already indicated he would. But that way we don't have to take a vote before we get the facts and figures that we need to make an intelligent decision.

I'm in agreement. I would be comfortable with that, especially now that I'm learning it's not going to actually impact this year's budget. So we'll get a very clear presentation. We'll be able to read it. That would be now, right? Is it July? July. If you're able to put something together for next week and then September we could have the item back in front of us.

Okay.

Is there other discussion?

Just a question for legal. My understanding is if we adopt this by October, we're still on track to levy this and go through this process for fiscal year 27?

I think so, yeah. I double-checked, so I think so. And I also asked my partner, Lori, to see if she was available during the CAL for next week because she has just a great grasp on the budget process. I think that based on some of the questions, I think it would be a good idea for her to be there if she's available too. To answer your question, yes, I think we're on the road.

Thank you. I'd also like to encourage a visual presentation. I'm a visual learner, so I'd like to be able to see what's going on. All right. Yes, ma'am.

For the record, I would like to state that the next Committee of the Whole workshop is scheduled for July 14th, and the next regular council meeting shall be held on September 14th.

My motion is to move this to September 14th. Do we need to make a motion to put it on the Cal agenda? Was it submitted for the Cal agenda? I'm emailing the clerk right now to do that.

Okay. There you go.

All right. I would amend my motion to say to also add the item to our July 14th Cal agenda, and that way we've got both covered.

All right. Is that okay with you? Because you had seconded the motion prior. Yes, ma'am. Thank you. Madam Clerk, call the roll on the motion, please.

Vice Mayor Mark Meritor?

Yes.

Council Member Patrick Fiore? Yes. Council Member Steve Cody?

Yes.

Council Member Marsha Madsen?

Yes.

Mayor Karen Cunningham?

Yes. Unanimous, I might add. Thank you.

And it was something that I put forward.

All right, we're going to move on. We've got 14E and 11C. Does anyone care which one goes first? I'd like to do mine first, please. Which is yours, 14E? It's the 11. 11C. 11C. Would someone move it?

Move.

Is there a second? It's been seconded. by the Vice Mayor. Madam Clerk, can you please read the item?

Item 11C, an ordinance of the Village of Palmetto Bay, Florida, creating section 2-25, Village Communications, relating to the recognition of religious, cultural, and heritage observances through village communication channels. This ordinance is sponsored by Council Member Marsha Madsen and is being heard on first reading.

Thank you, public comment.

Good evening again. My name is Muhammad Taha, 14599 Southwest 82nd Avenue. This ordinance seems to provide equal opportunities for recognition of faiths, of all faiths, cultures and traditions among village residents. It declares that equal treatment, mutual respect and inclusions are fundamental community values and recognition of such promotes goodwill, understanding and civic harmony. Our village is strengthened by the many different backgrounds, beliefs and traditions that make up our community. Recognizing the observances that are meaningful to our residents is one small but important way we affirm that every neighbor matters. and that everyone has a place in the civic life of our village. I support passing of this ordinance with the following comments. There was one part of this, which is on page four of eight, section C, number five, line 29. It says to publish a request if and when space and scheduling limitations permit publications. This may be reason to deny any requests, and I recommend that should be deleted from the ordinance. Any person could conclude or say or indicate that, you know, we don't have time for this or we don't have, you know, space to have it, and this should restrict any future requests. So my recommendation is to delete that from the ordinance. As for the whole or for the remaining of it, we recommend that the board vote favorably for it and say yes to it. Thank you.

Thank you. Next speaker. Do we have comments by form? Thank you.

Gary Passero, 6940 Southwest, 142nd Terrace. I thought that this might have... not provided for equity and inclusion and diversity, but apparently it does. So as long as everyone is treated fairly and equally and have access to all the above, I would support it.

Thank you. Madam Clerk, the comment by form.

The public comment submitted by form was received by James Woodard. His address is exempt from the public record. I heard one of our residents address the council recently. unable to understand why the village would not recognize a particular religious event on social media. He was Muslim. He got no explanation. I support the item as it relates to requests made by residents to acknowledge any established religion. What we do for some, we should do for all, or not do for any. That was the end of his public comment.

Thank you.

Councilman Manson. All right, this ordinance came about because a resident who is Muslim, requested that a notice for a holiday, Islamic holiday called Eid al-Adad, was denied by the village. And I looked at it. I didn't agree with the denial, and I thought that we should really take this to council and discuss it and get an official village-enabled notice. policy for village communications regarding notification of religious observances. So let me start by saying, before I talk about the ordinance, let me start by saying that in Palmetto Bay, we have diverse religions. Right across the street is a Hindu temple. And in fact, there was a proclamation or recognition given to the members by Commissioner Fiore last April. Well, actually, it was October 3rd, 2022, sorry. We have invocations at our council meetings, typically from the Bible, typically from the Bible. We provide fee waivers for churches and for synagogues. We have a Hanukkah festival at Village Hall, which is co-sponsored by the village. And we allow a Jewish... religious observance of planting trees in Ludovici Park. We also have a big festival, Christmas festival for the holidays. And actually, Mr. Taha was kind enough to send me an announcement that or a expression of congratulations on the part of Mayor Levine Cava on April 5th, 2026, recognizing that Easter was a, or pardon me, that, pardon me, Eid al-Adad was a wonderful holiday and she congratulated. Also, I know that I've searched our social media, and I've seen that the village also recognizes Easter on its social media. So this prompted me to continue to recognize the diversity and, uh, expand the community involvement into other faiths and an understanding of them. So what I did was I worked with the attorney to write this ordinance. And this ordinance is actually fairly narrow in that it pertains to notifications on village communications. and it creates a standardized policy for requesting recognition of religious, cultural, and heritage observations in village social media. Now, one of the things that I put in was only a Palmetto Bay resident or a religious organization, cultural organization, educational organization in Palmetto Bay can request this notification for their observance. The notice has to contain factual information and comply with all laws and has to be neutral in its viewpoint. The village retains the rights of authorization, whether it will, what the message or the notification contains, and the manager will devise a standardized application process and issue a yearly report. So it's simply tries to treat all religious faiths in terms of notification on social media equally and fairly so that not one or two religions are preferred over the other religions. So I hope you will support this. Thank you.

Thank you. Questions? Council Member Cody?

Thank you. This is a question for the attorney. Well, actually, two questions. One, we have had a law that was enacted by the legislature prohibiting any expression of diversity, equity, and inclusion. Would this ordinance be considered in derogation of that?

Potentially, yes. And I say that with equivocation, and I'll mention why in a second. One thing is that bill, the effective date of that law is not until January 1st of 2027. The reason why I say potentially is that in that, you're talking about what's commonly referred to as Florida's anti-DEI law, which is SB 1134, I think it was. In that bill, there was a provision that says a municipality may not promote, adopt ordinances, et cetera, that relate to diversity, equity, and inclusion. And the reason why I say is it might is there are some definitions of equity, or I'm sorry, of, and one of the things it talks about is based upon religion, not religion, I'm sorry, ethnicity. Let me just pull it up, but But the key provision is ethnicity. And under some definitions of ethnicity, religion is included as part of that definition. So it's not clear on the face of the law that the intent is to include religion when it talks about ethnicity. although it could certainly be argued that it was because they did provide some carve-outs of that for exemptions for state holidays and Christmas, Easter, those types of, I don't know if Easter is, but Christmas is a state holiday, state and federal holidays, and so some of those religious holidays would fall under that Yes. So I think that there if you guys were proposing this after January 1st, 2027, I would be cautioning you and probably recommending against voting on this because that is that question is up in the air. And because there's a provision in the law that says a municipal elected official, if one if a municipal elected official. violates this section it commits um misfeasance and malfeasance of office so i would i would caution you pretty strongly if this was taking place on january 1st 2027 or any time thereafter but does it open the door potentially for litigation against the village after january to knock it off the books uh yes potentially for the reasons stated yes all right

And the second question is, the way it's written, would we also have to give recognition to atheists and agnostics?

Yeah, it's all. So this would include atheist agnostics. You know, you heard, I think it was up in Surfside maybe six months ago or so, the Satanic Temple. I mean, it's all religions, yes. And I would include agnostics and atheists as well.

And so we might be including the satanic temples holidays in our greetings?

Yes, they would, yes, they're a religious organization and yes.

Now, does it make any difference if the religious group that's making the request is not located in Palmetto Bay?

Under the terms of the ordinance right now that's proposed, the only people that can make the request are within Palmetto Bay. I need to clarify and confirm before second reading that that's okay.

So if, for instance, I went to the Eid celebration at the mosque, which is located on the other side of US 1, the way this is written, could they make that request of us to include their holidays in this, even though their mosque is not located within the, not the barriers, the borders of Palmetto Bay?

If the congregation is outside of it, no. But if they had a resident that lived within the village, then yes, they could make that request. The resident could make that request.

Okay. All right. Thank you.

A quick question, and this is for the maker of the item. I know you worked with the attorney. So here's where I have some concerns. And I will say, first of all, thank you all for coming out. Appreciate having you out. I was very pleased to be able to recognize Ede through proclamation. It was probably like three months ago. I see there's a whole list of exclusions, and here's my actual concern. nothing to do with the reason you're here, just specifically to the words on the paper that I'm reading. It says exclusions, and I really feel like this is putting some kind of unnecessary weight on a staff member, or I guess it would be the village manager, who would have to sit and determine these exclusions. The village shall not communicate content under this section that promotes unlawful activity. contains obscenity or material unprotected by the First Amendment, encourages violence, terrorism, or criminal conduct, promotes discrimination against persons or groups based upon protected characteristics, supports or opposes political candidates, political parties, or ballot questions, constitutes commercial advertising or fundraising unrelated to the observation, I first have no idea how the village manager or any staff member is going to be able to come to conclusions on what is excluded. And my concern then is that, for example, we do have a group in the village of Palmetto Bay that practice Santeria. I know this for a fact because I know it for a fact. I don't know if that would fall under... unlawful activity. I don't know if it would, one would, maybe the manager would not see that as violence, terrorism, or criminal conduct. I personally don't think we should be highlighting any santeria and the injury or killing of animals through, even if it's religious practice. That's my personal belief. Is he supposed to be able to determine this? This is basically what you're saying here. And then the other part I don't get, annual report. The village manager shall provide an annual report to the village council identifying the number of requests received, the number of requests approved and denied, the reason for each denial. I mean, to me, if this was something you wanted to see pass, it would just be something very simple to say, hey, equal treatment for all religions. It makes me lean towards making sure that we are not posting anything related to holidays or religion in the village. I'm just telling you, you can't say no to me because it's me. I mean, that's the way that I feel because of what I'm reading here. I feel like a simple one pager saying, hey, treat everyone the same would be kind of cover what it is you were looking to accomplish rather than putting all of this eligibility criteria, administrative procedures. I think we're placing an undue burden. I think the easiest thing to do is to say, no, we don't do anything, at least based on this item, based on the item that you have here.

May I ask you a question about what you're saying?

Sure.

Your last comment. My feeling is that we shouldn't do anything based on what is here. Is that what you just said? Yeah, my feeling is... By no notices or... Right. Everybody should be noticed.

Well, if this was a simple item that just said treat everybody equally and if a request is submitted, go ahead and place it on or treat all religions equally, I would be kind of supportive of it. You've outlined like a whole administrative process and decisions that I don't know that I want the manager having to make. I think we're creating a process that I think eventually somebody is going to sue the city and say, hey, I didn't get a report. I didn't get a written denial. I didn't this. I didn't that. And I think it's just, for me, it seems extremely complicated.

If you don't mind, I'd like to respond to that. That is my goal is to treat everybody equally so that they can, everybody can ask for a notice on their religious observance and it will be treated equally. And so I am totally willing to substitute your motion for this entire thing because that is my goal. I only set this up in this way because I worked with the attorney on it in order to come up with a structure and a policy and so on. That is my goal, is for everyone to be treated fairly and equally, and whoever asks for a notice about their religious observance to be published in Village social media. That's fine with me. That's my goal.

I would say bring back an item that looks like that.

I can make a motion right now to amend it.

Madam Mayor, can I be recognized? The only reason, if I may, If the village council voted in the affirmative, it would largely moot the resolution. This would be an ordinance. I have a resolution in front of you, so it would largely moot that. If I may, just kind of present the rationale for kind of the mirror image of this policy. Would that be okay?

I don't have a problem with it.

So I think we had two speakers who supported the ordinance, and they used the exact same three words. They said, if we recognize one, then we need to recognize all. And that's the purpose of my resolution. If a part-time social media specialist put out a Hanukkah recognition a year or two ago, What I think the proper remedy to that is we're a government entity. We don't really have any purpose in doing any of this. And in fact, it opens us up to some groups that are truly noxious that we would be forced to recognize. And that's why I think the only fair way to do it is, again, we're a government entity. We're not going to recognize any religious holiday. And I went through the religions that at least I could find via census data that are here in Palmetto Bay. Christianity, Judaism, Islam, Hinduism, Buddhism, Sikhism. We have Baha'is as well as Santeria. If you look at all the major religions religious holidays for those groups. I came up with 114. That's more than two a week. Now we could quibble as to the number, but we're gonna end up with like one a week we're doing. And that's not even including, you know, again, some truly noxious, you may end up with a satanic temple who will come here and demand that we recognize their holidays. That's why I say as a government entity, regardless of what some social media specialists did in the past, we don't recognize any religious holiday. It's the only fair way to do it. It's the only way that really does actually protect the village. This is nothing to do with any core government mission we have, and I would respectfully submit we should just stay out of this entire issue. Thank you, Madam Mayor.

Thank you. Okay, well, back on this item, and I understand why you're presenting because that is the next item.

Yeah, okay. Vice Mayor. Yeah, I have a comment. This is for both items, so I'll just give them all in one. My core concern is this. We literally started our meeting with a prayer. I mean, that's part of our meeting process. So to say that religion is separate from our governmental function is just antithetical to what our government is right now. And what I would also point out is our village and our government should be a reflection of our residents and the people that we serve. So I thank you for bringing this because that's what I think this is trying to do. And that's what I think we should do as a government, which is be a reflection of the people we are trying to serve. And unfortunately, and this is what bothers me about this specifically, is there was no reason to essentially have our village be on the front page of WRN once again for like the 10th time in a year for all the wrong reasons. We should not have a village that is essentially now being featured in news articles saying that we're denying resident request for stuff like something as important to people as Eid. Whether or not it's important to us or our government mission, I think is beside the point because it's something that's important to our residents that we serve as a whole. So to me, what's super important is that we try and do our best to represent the people of this village. And in doing so, we have to be a reflection of our community. And look, I mean, this is the same village government, by the way, that last meeting or the meeting before is literally renaming one of our village-owned roads after the Chabad, which, by the way, I support and I think is a great idea. And I think we as a village need to recognize all religions equally. So I really think that this item should go through. I think we need to be a reflection of our village. And I think we have to stop being featured in the news for all of the wrong reasons. And this was entirely avoidable. So thank you for bringing this.

I would like to make a motion to amend, please. Okay, I'd like to make a motion to, in deference to the mayor, to delete sections E, which are exclusions, G, which are administrative procedures, and H, which are annual reports. Second.

I would say this, bring back the item, as you've discussed, rather than just removing while we're here. And it'll be supported. That's, you know, from my opinion.

I would, in terms of some of the exclusions, I mean, I would like to talk about that a little bit because whatever we, if this passes, whatever we put out is government speech. And so the village needs to have some parameters as to what it's putting out because if we're just literally taking whatever some entity says we want you to put this out and we're putting it out once we put it out it's government speech on our behalf so we we need to have some we need to put out what we're comfortable with. We need to be able to say, you know, we're going to draft it or whatever it is. It's a request for a recognition. It's not a request to, here's what I want you to put on your social media content because otherwise that would open us up for potential liability as government speech.

Okay, well, I'm trying to satisfy... The mayor and her concerns, and now the attorney has brought up his concerns, and actually that section was from the attorney. So I would like to reframe my amendment in hopes of getting this ordinance passed and to delete G and H, G being administrative procedures and annual report is H. So that's my new amendment. Second.

I thank you. Council Member Fiore.

Thank you, Madam Mayor. Well, I don't know what to say. You see, this all could have been avoided. All we had to do was just put the one thing out there like we were supposed to, whoever makes that decision. I don't know. This could have all been avoided. And for us to sit here and listen to the hypocrisy that comes out of Tallahassee and Washington is horrible. I've got to speak from the heart here. We can't be, can't. So I'm going to support the item after this, what is it called? A motion, an amendment. And I would defer to the city attorney. The law doesn't take effect until January. So it's really irrelevant what we do now. Mr. Merwitzer is always talking about the next council. Well, if the next council has to deal with it, they have to deal with it. So I'm going to support the item after the amendment. Thank you, Madam Mayor, for the time. You're welcome. Vice Mayor?

I was actually going to say something very similar, which is, like, if the attorney and councilman work together on this, then I'm open to supporting whatever comes out of it. And to me... whatever is in here is has to be the process. So I am grateful for it seems like there's going to be support tonight. And I'm really glad we can get over this hump as a village and reflect the values of who we are as a village. So thank you.

So what is the what is your motion as your amendment is to delete G and eight? The attorney you also mentioned Another section.

Right. The section, I'm reframing the amendment and keeping in E on the advice of the attorney.

What I would say is if you just want to keep in E2, I think that would satisfy me where it says E2 talks about the village retains the right of authorship over anything communicated on village channels. We're not required to communicate specific language. I think that would be sufficient if you wanted to remove E1 and the subsections under E1. that would be fine with me as long as we have E2 in there.

Okay, then reframing the amendment, correct? So we delete exclusions, that's E, except for 2, number 2 under that. Is that correct? Except for number 2 under E, number 2 being line 17, page 5 of 8. on an attorney's advice.

May I ask you respectfully, is it possible that this is something you could bring back with your omissions, the stuff that you've removed or want to remove to our next council meeting, which would be in September, so we don't have to kind of slog through it?

I'd rather not. I'd rather not have this continue on. I really would not. I'd rather have it decided.

Unfortunately, I'm not going to support it then. It's super simple to sit with the attorney, go through everything, pull out the things that we've discussed this evening, and bring back the item that's clean rather than eight pages long. but that's your prerogative. I'm amending it in order to support the amendment, but I won't support the item once it's amended, but I'll support. I think there's eight pages of restrictions for the village staff here, as far as I'm concerned, and I'm not going to support that. Okay, so we're on the motion. We've removed G and H. Madam Clerk, can you read the motion?

uh that was uh moved by councilman matson and seconded by the vice mayor the amendment is to delete section g delete section h delete section e with the exception of e2 which is lines 17 through 21.

Very good. That's the motion. Madam Mayor?

Yes. Just one point. Then why don't you get rid of the reports? We don't have to have staff doing any kind of reports or anything. Oh, they're gone? Okay, thank you.

I mean, if people vote for the amendment, the report's deleted. Oh, H is in there? I'm sorry. Thank you.

That's okay. All right. We're on the motion to amend the item as was just read by our village clerk. Can you call the roll on the motion?

Council member Marsha Madsen.

Yes.

Council member Patrick Fiore.

Yes.

Council member Steve Cody.

Yes.

Mayor Karen Cunningham. Yes. Vice Mayor Mark Meriter.

Yes. Okay, now we're back on the item as amended. Is there anything else? Madam Clerk, call the roll.

Council Member Marsha Madsen?

Yes.

Council Member Patrick Fiore? Yes. Council Member Steve Cody?

No.

Mayor Karen Cunningham?

No.

Vice Mayor Mark Meritzer?

Yes. Item passes, 3-2. Thank you all for coming out this evening. Thank you, everybody. Quick question. We had Item 14E. I guess we can... Oh, okay. All right. So we're going to bring up... Would somebody move Item 14E? Is there a second? I'll second. Madam Clerk, please read item 14A.

Item 14E is a resolution establishing a content-neutral policy governing the village's official social media accounts under which the village shall not post, publish, or disseminate content that recognizes, celebrates, commemorates, or acknowledges religious holidays or observances, providing for scope and exceptions, providing for implementation by the manager, providing for the repeal of resolutions and conflicts. This resolution is sponsored by administration and prepared by village manager Nick Marano.

Thank you. Public comment? Do you have comments by form? Thank you.

Good evening again. Muhammad Taha, 14599 Southwest 82nd Avenue. I just had the cover sheet for this item. I didn't have the details until I got here and I was able to see the rest of it. My question to the attorney maybe, does this cancel what we just voted to approve? It seems to me that it does. And is this kind of a sneaky way to get things done opposite to what we've been doing and what we've been talking about, what we've been arguing about for a long, long time? It seems to me... This item, we're back to square one. And tell me if I'm mistaken. No?

It's an item on the agenda, so we're going to hear the item.

Okay, I understand, but I have concerns and I need an explanation. Is that something that I...

I can't go back and forth with you during public comment.

So what's the use of me being here to discuss items? This is not the proper way of doing it, as far as I'm concerned.

You can let us know if you support or oppose the item.

I'm going to speak about this item. I will take my time to do it. The item basically deletes or delves away from what you just approved, in my opinion. It has exclusions, and the exclusions there puts us back to square one. The exclusions that you have in there basically says you can do... what you've been doing so far, but you cannot add more to it. So to me, that's like a sneaky way of getting around things, and it's misleading in contents. I know that the manager, the mayor, and Caput are this, and they're doing things in a way that is not really appropriate. You're interrupting me. This is my time.

Excuse me. Excuse me. I don't know what your point of order is, but Please don't call out individual folks. Nobody's in cahoots. This is an item that's being brought by the administration.

Based on what I'm hearing, you're the only two that is in disagreement with what we're trying to do here. And obviously, I mean, there's no other way to describe it other than that. But anyways, in any event, I urge you to not approve this item. That's all I have to say. Thank you very much.

Thank you. Next speaker, please.

Sally Chankachith, 7740 Southwest 177th Street. Our village celebrates its diverse community, and in my opinion, that includes religious diversity. My own story reflects that diversity. I grew up in Homestead, Florida, in a Buddhist family sponsored by my Irish Catholic godparents, Joe and Paula Dundon. at the age of four, I began attending a Baptist church with my Hungarian neighbors. And when I was older, I converted to Christianity. Now through South Florida's public school system, I learned about Judaism. So I have a very rich, you know, religious history, I think. Later, I married into a Muslim family. And because of this journey, I've come to love our village for how it celebrates, you know, Christmas and Hanukkah and recognition of other religious faiths at the council meeting, so I find the ordinance no longer recognizing holidays on the social platforms quite unusual. So our constitution was founded on recognition of religious freedom, and I want to emphasize that word, recognition. So let's continue to celebrate our village's diversity, one that's inclusive of religions, and I request the council vote no on this resolution. I understand that there are reasons that we might want to be as mindful to our government, but it's one of those things where recognition of who we are as a country and our people is really important. Thank you.

Thank you. Next speaker.

Good evening. Mash Zahid, 7740 Southwest 177th Street. I stand here tonight to offer my strong, full support for the compelling points made earlier by Dr. Chubby, Mr. Taha, and of course my wife, Blaselli, for me. But at the same time, I also want to recognize that these are hard decisions. And watching you all debate those hard decisions, I just want to recognize that thank you. Thank you for going through this in a congenial, appropriate manner. This is what democracy is about. And we need to work through it. And to highlight the point that my wife and others have also said, and members of this council also highlighted equally, all of you, from your heart, that we're trying to do the right thing. Please keep at it. That's all. Thank you. Thank you.

Comments by form?

Eric Tolberg, 7884 Southwest, 179 Terrace. Are we going to close for Christmas, but not for other religious holidays? I find happy holidays too politically correct. Tone it down, don't eliminate it. End of comment.

Thank you. All right, Mr. Manager.

Thank you, Madam Mayor. Again, I presented a little bit earlier And my proposal very simply intends to treat every faith equally, keep government out of the religious space. It is a very slippery slope. And we will all find that out, I think, very soon if we don't adopt this policy. Thank you, ma'am.

Questions? Vice Mayor.

Yeah, has any other community in Miami-Dade County or the state of Florida adopted a similar policy?

The ordinance that you just passed on first reading, no.

What about this item?

I believe this is the default policy for most government entities.

I think Surfside might have passed something related to their flags. I'm sorry, I think Surfside might have passed something related to their flags, if I remember correctly, a couple years ago. But off the top of my head, I'm not aware of anything other than that.

Question of Councilwoman Matson.

Question of the attorney. All right, I'm just mirroring what Mr. Taha was concerned about, and that is, if this resolution passes, does it negate the ordinance that the council just voted for?

Ordinances prevail over resolutions.

Thank you. Any other comments?

Yeah, I'll just add one other thing. I mean, the reason why I asked that question is I don't see any other community having this challenge that's in front of us. I'll also point out, however your political leanings are, one of the most conservative sheriffs in all the state of Florida, Sheriff Rosie, who I think has done a great job here in Palmetto Bay with crime, But nonetheless, her personal account a couple of weeks ago even wished Happy Eid. So this is something that people across the political spectrum recognize. And I feel like we're the first and also I feel like the only community that has this challenge in front of us tonight. And I just wish that we could have taken a different path here. Thank you.

Thank you. Other comments? Once again, thank you for coming out, Mr. Taha. I'm sorry if you think I'm in cahoots with the village manager. I think what I said previously was simply that I think the fairest thing to do is to eliminate religious postings and take some of the heat off of our staff. You can't call out from back there, sir. I'm trying to explain my perspective. I have received your emails. Frankly, I was a little disappointed by a couple of your emails to me. I did not know, no one reached out to me from WLRN, but I hope they do. Now, I'll be happy to explain my thought process as it relates to the two items. To the other resident, thank you so much for, I know you've been to many, many meetings, and I appreciate, Mash, your comments. Yeah, the decisions that we make are sometimes difficult. There's certainly, I'm sorry if one or two folks think that, It's a bias, it certainly is not. But in my opinion, this is the best way to address this particular situation, if you will. With that, are there any other comments? Nope, okay. We can actually call the roll if you don't mind.

Thank you. Vice Mayor Mark Maritzer?

No.

Mayor Karen Cunningham?

Yes.

Council Member Steve Cody?

Yes.

Council Member Patrick Fiore?

No.

Council Member Marsha Madsen?

No. The item fails. We heard you. The item fails 3-2. All right. With that, we're back on track for item 10-A. Would somebody move it? Is there a second?

Second. I'd also move to extend the meeting until 10-30. Okay.

Is there a second? Second. All those in favor? Aye. All right, 1030 it is. 10A, Madam Clerk, read the item, please.

Item 10A, an ordinance of the Mayor and Village Council of the Village of Palmetto Bay, Florida, repealing and rescinding Ordinance 2026. 01, repealing all ordinances or parts of ordinances in conflict herewith, providing for severability clause. This ordinance is sponsored by the Village Council, passed on first reading at the special council meeting of June 15, 2026, and is being heard on second reading.

Very good. Mr. Attorney, I think I'm going to turn it over to you.

Sure, yeah, I'll be quick as we have this on first reading. As you all recall, this was an ordinance that originally there was an ordinance that was passed that directed that all Charter Review Commission proposals go directly on, go straight to the ballot, creating like a ministerial function for the council. This is an ordinance that would repeal that and would revert back to the charter provision. And this, we're here on second reading after it passed on.

Very good. Sorry for standing, but I have to move around a little bit. Okay. Questions of the village attorney?

Vice Mayor? Do we have public comment?

I'm so sorry. Public comment?

That was a good question.

Gary Pastor, L6940 South. I support this. I support the removal and bringing the choice back to the council.

Thank you. Were there any comments by form, Madam Clerk? It's 10A. Okay. Thank you. All right. Questions for the village attorney? Comments? Council Member Fiori.

Yeah, thank you, Madam Mayor.

You're welcome, Council Member.

I'm going to perk up a little there. How many meetings we got left, Mr. City Attorney? Three regular monthly meetings, thank God.

As long as we don't add any specials.

I won't be here for all these laws and all this stuff. Madam Clerk. To our esteemed Madam Clerk, could you please read back my comments, if it please the court, could you please read back my comments verbatim from the last meeting so that this entity and the other entity, which is the CRC, with the exception of one member, can for the second time understand my meaning of what I said last time that no one seemed to understand, almost like the same thing that went on.

She doesn't have your comments.

No comments, Madam Clerk?

I don't have the record in front of me, Councilman.

Okay, disregard. I have nothing else.

I thought maybe you had worked it out with her prior. Okay, Councilmember Cody? No. Vice Mayor?

I remember your comments, and I'm actually inclined to agree with you and vote for you this time around.

Councilwoman?

Yeah. Do you mind explaining what you're talking about? That went right over my head.

Yeah, I mean, I'm inclined to agree with Commissioner Fiore on his comments last time. I mean, I agree with all of their items. I think we should make one or two changes. I know there's an amendment that Councilman Fiore does not want. I share that position, and I'm happy to push this through and get this process done because the CRC deserves to have finality on this. And I'm hoping with the next item that I'm sponsoring, we can get this taken care of. And we don't have to be here past 1030. Thank you.

Thank you. All right. Is there anything else on item 10A? All right, Madam Clerk.

I would just like to let the audience know, the residents watching it, what this item is. This item is rescinding the ability of the Charter Revision Commission to place items directly on the agenda. And we did pass a resolution and then we passed an ordinance to allow this because the CRC had been informed by the previous village attorney that this was their right. And then the opinion was changed with a new village attorney and they objected to that saying that they had been working under the previous instruction. So, Long story short, what this will do, we'll reverse what is in the charter. Section 6.03 of Miami-Dade County Charter says that a council can set up a method for determining how items get on the ballot, and we did. We set up a method which was the CRC puts the items on the ballot with the council simply sending them off, voting to send them off to the Elections Division. So this is also, at the same time, this is potentially settling a lawsuit filed by the councilman from District 2 to stop this process. So this is a very important ordinance in terms of the power of the CRC today, the power of future CRCs, and also settling a lawsuit which challenged the power of the CRC. So this is a very important vote. I just wanted everybody to know what it was about.

Thank you.

Thank you. All right, anything else? Okay.

Yeah, real quick. I'll also just say I mean, I had conversations between the last meeting and this meeting with members of the CRC on how they want this handled. And members of the CRC intimated to me the best path forward and I am inclined to agree with them is to dispose of this lawsuit entirely dispose of any kind of legal claims related to the CRC process entirely. and just put cleanly the item that I'm bringing on the ballot, um, straight to voters. So that way you can't litigate the CRC processes, the exact same items that the CRC brought. And if we want to make one or two changes, I know the commissioner wants to make, I'm open to them too. I brought one change, um, that by the way, several members of the CRC were also comfortable with me bringing. as well and I just want to dispose of this because I think they deserve that finality and I think that's what we're hoping to get tonight and I'll put it to you this way I won't support anything other than those that conversation that I had with the CRC and essentially it seems like this is going to pass anyways so I I would rather be in a position we're able to work and just get this onto the ballot and finish this up and call it a day so that's that's where I'm at thank you all right anything else Madam Clerk call the roll

Council Member Marsha Matson?

No.

Mayor Karen Cunningham? Yes. Council Member Patrick Fiore? Yes. Council Member Steve Cody?

Yes.

Vice Mayor Mark Meritor?

Yes. All right, item passes 4-1. Moving on. Item 10B, would somebody move it? Move it.

Your item, are you going to?

No, that's the CRC item, correct?

10B is the consent agenda.

10B is the second reading on the consent. I'm so sorry.

Yeah, my apologies. We'll go back to that one. 14B.

Okay, we're on 10B or 14B?

Well, I'm so sorry. We were on 10A. We grouped all of the Charter Review Commission items together. The next one would be 10A. Or 14B, is that correct? Okay. Yes. Okay. 14B. Somebody moving it? Move it. I'll second so we can keep moving here.

Item 14B is a resolution calling a special election on November 3rd of 2026 relating to proposed village charter amendments provided by the Charter Revision Commission in accordance with Section 6.2 of the Charter providing for requisite ballot language for submission to electors of the proposed amendments, providing for notice of election, providing for the village clerk to utilize the services of the Miami-Dade County Supervisor of Elections to place the amendments on the ballot of the special election scheduled for November 3rd of 2026, providing for inclusion in the charter, providing for copies of the charter amendments to be available for public inspection. This resolution is sponsored by the Charter Revision Commission and prepared by Village Attorney Jamie Mayer Esquire. Thank you. Public comment?

Gary Pastorella, 6940 Southwest 142nd Terrace. If this takes all of the recommendations from the Charter Commission, Revision Commission, to go directly to the ballot, then I'm completely opposed. They are not elected. district three representatives was incorrect. I've only once Did one lawyer say that it could go directly to the people? All other charter review commissions went before council. They are the elected representatives. You are the ones who decide what goes to the people. The people on the charter revision commission are not elected and are not duly authorized to take whatever their recommendations are and go to the people. So in the past... The chairperson of those committees came before this council and spoke to each and every item individually, and you, the council, had to choose which items went to the people. And I think it needs to be that way because this particular charter review commission was the most dysfunctional, mismanaged commission I've ever sat through. I was appalled at the rudeness and the obnoxiousness of the people involved, how the mistreatment, if you go back and look at the tapes, how they mistreated the attorneys, how they even spoke over each other. They spoke over the attorney. I even asked that they apologize at the last meeting. These people, whatever they've proposed, need to come to you.

Thank you. Next speaker.

Marta Gillette, 15721 Southwest 83rd Avenue, Palmetto Bay. I am completely opposed to having anything coming from that Charter Review Commission to go directly to the people and not come before you as it should be. They are not elected. They don't get to just make things up and then all of a sudden have it be on the ballot for people to vote on. There needs to be discussion and we need to be able to also stand up here and say yay or nay to every single one of those things. So please vote no against any and all proposals to go and bypass this body, which we did elect, in favor of listening to these people or allowing these people who nobody elected to have sway or somehow have power to put this on the ballot. Thank you very much. Thank you.

Next speaker.

Sally Chankachis, 7740 Southwest 177th Street. I agree with the comments of my previous residents who are here, but I'm speaking on behalf in the capacity of a chair of the resiliency committee. I would love to have some policies that our committee have to go straight into policy without having it to come through the board, to be honest. But our resiliency committee was commissioned to produce ideas for the council to look at and to consider and to see if it's for the public good. And I think that the CRC was commissioned to do the same thing and to give them that much power and sway in terms of revising our charter that affects all residents as well as the council is a little bit too much power in my opinion so i would request that the council vote no against for this particular policy thank you thank you uh any comments by form madam clerk thank you mr attorney

Yes, these are the proposals that came from the Charter Review Commission. We worked with, if you all recall, John De La Gloria was working with them through his agreement with the village. We worked with John as well as the CRC to prepare the language so that it would be legally sufficient based upon what they're seeking to propose. I can go through all eight of the proposals and just highlight each one. There is one I will mention that we did get a phone call, and I'll ask for an amendment on it. It relates to charter proposal number seven. I will explain that I sent an email to you all while I was away because we got a phone call from the supervisor of elections office and they asked for this amendment. I'm sorry.

Well, Madam Mayor, before he gets into the review, I would make a motion to divide the question. And under Robert's rules, what that does is when you have something that is easily divisible, Each item stands on its own and each item is voted on in its own. So we would be voting on proposed amendment one, then proposed amendment two, proposed amendment three, and that is my motion.

So we would take up each item individually.

I'll second it. I just have a question. So we've got this item, then we have the vice mayor's item. Can you help with some clarification here? Because Does this particular item then put everything right on the ballot, or is now we've got this motion where we're going to go item by item?

So I'll break that up in a couple. First, the vice mayor's item, as I understand it, is virtually identical. The only difference has to do with ballot language as it relates to what I'll call the bike and pedestrian. I'm making sure I'm not getting that incorrect. But that's where the difference is there. Otherwise, the other ones are identical. So however we deal with them here, we would have We would have already dealt with them. Whether the council approves them or disapproves of them, it seems like it would moot at least the identical ones. In terms of does this place it automatically on the ballot, this resolution would put it on the ballot, but it's subject to the approval of the council. It's subject to any potential... uh, revisions and amendments, uh, approved by the council. Um, so it would put it on the ballot, but it's not an automatic pass through. It's subject to the consideration of the council and, uh, and whatever you all. So if there's one, you say we don't want it to go forward. then you would vote it down. If there's one you want to go forward, you would vote it up. And then if there's any amendments, like I mentioned, I do have some language from the supervisor of elections office that they would like us to change. And I would ask for that as an amendment. And if it passes, then I would ask it pass with that amendment.

The second question, and this is really just about process. So we go through this. Let's say we go item by item as you've just motioned. we could still hear the vice mayor's item. We could carve out, we would carve out, the only change is, if I'm understanding correctly, is the bike path language. So then what will we do? Carve out the other stuff or just make the change in this item?

I think you could do it, and I see the vice mayor has his hand up, but I think procedurally, yes, you could do it if you wanted to make a motion to substitute the one from the vice mayor's proposal for this one, and then you could just take it all up immediately.

yeah so just to get a little bit into the process and why I brought my own separate item and this is essentially it because of the litigation surrounding the CRC I thought it was best that the council just initiate its own item and forward that to electors that happens to be identical to the CRC and if we don't adopt this item we can take up my item it's the exact same but without the legal controversy that we have with the CRC And it's just cleanly within our powers to do this. We don't have to litigate whether or not there's this power to send it directly to voters. Um, it's just something that we directly can do as a council that is enshrined in us, regardless of the CRC. And I think it's a cleaner way to do it and it has the exact same results. So I would just urge that we reject this motion and divide the question on this item. reject this item entirely we bring my item and then we can have that discussion there just because i feel like that's a much cleaner approach and it's not what that way we avoid all this controversy uh surrounding the crc and it's just a clean straight pass through so i'll defer to the attorney on his comments on that but we had a conversation over the weekend and i'm just hoping um that we can just follow through on essentially what i just said of pushing this aside and then putting my item up and we go through my own item and pass that on to electors.

You could do it that way as well procedurally. You could vote item 14B down and take up all the same ones under 14C, whatever you prefer.

Question for the Vice Mayor. So are you going to support dividing the items in your item?

Yes.

Okay. Okay. All right. Other comments then?

questions all right then let's call the question on this particular item for a point of clarity i believe we have a motion on the floor which is which was to divide the questions individually and it was seconded i will go ahead and withdraw my motion thank you thank you all right now can we call it mayor karen cunningham no vice mayor mark meritor no council member patrick fury no Council Member Steve Cody?

Yes. I mean, excuse me, no. Sorry, no.

Council Member Marsha Madsen?

No. OK. So, the item fails 5-0. We will move on now to item 14C. Move it. Is there a second?

Second. Can I make one comment for this? Yes. I just want to mention and I'm sure in case any of the CRC members are watching there, that committee would now have sunset because their proposals have come before the council. and you took action on that. So I wanted to make sure they're aware because that means they're no longer governed by Sunshine Law going forward.

Thank you. Okay. Madam Clerk, can you read the item 14C?

Item 14C is a resolution calling a special election on November 3rd, 2026 relating to Village charter amendments, including certain amendments proposed by the CRC, providing requisite ballot language for submission to electors of the proposed amendments, providing for notice of election, providing for the clerk to utilize the services of Miami-Dade County Supervisor of Elections to place the charter amendments on the ballot of the special election scheduled for November 3rd of 2026, providing for inclusion in the charter, providing for copies of the charter amendments to be available for public inspection. This resolution is sponsored by Vice Mayor Mark Meritzer.

Thank you. Public comment?

Mary Pastorella, 6940 Southwest 142nd Terrace. Now that you've brought this forward, we, the people, need to be able to, you need to read each recommendation, and we, the people, need to be able to understand it and comment it. So if you're going to go forward with this and break it down, now we the people need to be able to speak to each individual item separately.

Mr. Pastorella, I would just say you had three minutes. You could speak to each one of those items in three minutes.

I don't have them in front of me. Nobody's provided the items to the people.

The items are in the agenda.

but they weren't being brought forward at that point. Okay, if I'm gonna speak to one item, the one particular item that breaks up the voting.

The items are a part of the item.

Whatever item deals with individual or breaking it up into districts, I'm against that particular item, but I still wanted to be able to speak individually as you called individual items up.

Thank you. Next speaker.

15721 Southwest 83rd Avenue, Palmetto Bay, Florida. I'm wondering why we have to not have conversations about each specific item. I'm wondering why these unelected people are able to make up all of these things that they want to put on a charter commission review and force it into our charter and we're not allowed to look at them one by one and come before you and state what our preferences are. I did attend one of the meetings and I was very poorly treated by the chair of the meeting and basically insulted. That can't happen. And those are the people, or he represents the committee that basically is bringing forth a lot of these charter amendments. And I don't agree with it at all. And I looked on the website. I did not find the charter amendments anywhere. People don't have time to be looking for hours for what should be. If you're going to have an agenda item and you're going to have something as important as charter amendments, then you should have a special meeting actually to discuss with the public what those amendments are and get the public, the ones that care about this stuff, allow them to come and allow them to speak to you. And then you decide what is important, what is not important, and you vote on each of those items individually before you put them, just kind of pass things on a whatever. I mean, it's good that we have these committee meetings and reviews and stuff like that, but I think that these people have just been given way too much power and it just can be manipulated. Thank you.

Do we have any comment by form? All right. Go ahead, Vice Mayor.

Thank you. So essentially I have two quick things. One is to respect the wishes of Commissioner Fiore and the second one is I just want to add a whereas clause if the attorney is okay with it. Just for extra clarity, I'd like to just add a whereas clause saying notwithstanding the recommendations of the Charter Revision Commission, the Village Council, acting as the governing body of the Village of Palmetto Bay, chooses to forward such items to the electors of the Village of Palmetto Bay. Is that permissible, and would that be okay to do?

Yeah, I'm fine with if you'd like to make that amendment.

Yeah, and it also would be pursuant to Section 6.1 of the Village Charter and 6.03 of the County Charter. So, just add that, too.

If we're looking at amendments, do you want me to mention the one about the supervisor of elections now that they requested?

Well, can I make a first motion to divide the question? I'll second.

Is the motion debatable? I mean, my question is to Commissioner Fiore. I think you had a challenge with one of them, which was the actual cost of reimbursement. I'm comfortable making a motion to strike that just to save time. And also, it's already 1020. I don't know if it displeases the council that I feel like it's up to the commissioner, in my view, because to be blunt, he's deciding about here by the looks of it.

I will say this. I just asked you in the last item if we could divide divide up the items which in my understanding was that we could go item by item i appreciate that you're respecting what council member fury has to say but i'm here too and i'd like to be able to weigh in on some of these as well so that's fine and look i'll support it then but my core concern too is like we if we divide the question would we have to have public comment for every single one because um or that be a separate item that's my question i don't know do we have to have do you want to have public comment for everyone he's looking now

no i think you can have public comment on the on the item you guys are just dividing it for purposes of uh of your consideration okay that's fine so my first motion then is what i just said about adding the whereas clause and i'll go to the attorney for that and then i'll entertain the motion to divide the question and then we'll go from there is that okay okay so that's my motion regarding the whereas clause okay can you repeat the motion please Notwithstanding the recommendations of the CRC, the Village Council, acting in its authority as the governing body, chooses to forward such items to the electors of the Village of Palmetto Bay, pursuant to Section 6.1 of the Charter of the Village of Palmetto Bay and Section 6.03 of the Miami-Dade County Charter.

Discussion?

Can I just ask if this passes, if you can send that language to me and Missy, so... So we've got it. Yes. If you have it written down, if not, then we'll go back and listen. I don't.

I literally made that up on the fly.

Okay. We will listen to the recording.

Okay. Questions? Discussion? Madam Clerk, call the roll on the motion.

Vice Mayor Mark Meriter. Yes. Council Member Steve Cody. No. Council Member Patrick Fiore. Yes. Mayor Karen Cunningham. Yes. Council Member Marsha Madsen. Yes.

The item's been amended. That amendment passed by 4-1. All right. My motion to divide the question. Okay. I seconded it. Discussion? Okay. Call the roll, please.

Vice Mayor Mark Meriter.

Yes.

Council Member Steve Cody. Yes.

Yes.

Council member Patrick Fury. Yes. Mayor Karen Cunningham. Yes. Council member Marsha Madsen.

Yes. Okay. That motion passed 5-0. All right. So how are we proceeding now? Are we going to the first item?

Yeah. Starting on page 14, the exhibit has the actual language of the proposed charter amendment, the language that would actually go into the charter. So I would just, you might want to start on this 2,100. 14 of 23.

I'm looking electronically.

2,117.

Okay. Well, I'm looking electronically. It's page 3 of 23. So I'm assuming. That's the ballot language.

What he's talking about is exhibit A, if I can jump in.

Go ahead. Yeah.

Oh, I see. We could look at either one, you know. And it may be easier just to look at the. Yeah, the charter language, excuse me, the ballot language itself.

Do you want, we just read it, or you want to just read it out loud? This is public speakers, home address, disclosure, and written comments.

Sure, if you're going, let me go, I was on the charter change, so let me, the first is, yeah, public speakers, home address, disclosure, and written comments for distribution. Do you want me to read the ballot question? Okay. The Village Citizens Bill of Rights provides that the public can be heard and submit written comments to the council, board, agency, or department regarding village issues. The proposed amendment would only require submission of the speaker's name and municipality of residence and that written comments be submitted and distributed prior to any meeting of the village council, board, agency, or department.

A quick question. How is this different from what we're already doing?

It's, I guess it's an explicit statement that the village is not going to require an address.

That part I understand, but as it relates to written comments, I'm just curious because we get the written comments, they're distributed prior to the meeting.

Yeah, as I read it, I don't think it really changes anything. It just, it has to come in before the meeting.

Okay, so now do we call the roll on each one? What are we doing?

Yeah, since you divided the question, I would take a vote on each individual proposal.

All right. Call the roll on the first proposal.

Vice Mayor Mark Meriser?

Yes.

Council Member Steve Cody?

No.

Council Member Patrick Fiore? Yes. Mayor Karen Cunningham? Yes. Council Member Marsha Madsen? Yes.

Okay. proposed ballot charter amendment number two, sale, conveyance, exchange, license, or lease a village-owned property. The charter currently requires a majority vote of electors to approve the sale or exchange of village-owned park property and for any lease of such property exceeding five years. The proposed amendment requires a majority of voters approval for any sale, conveyance, exchange, transfer, lease, or license of village property except for leases with a term of six months or less.

questions anything okay well I I've got a question I think the ballot language is a bit misleading because it speaks on line 109 about the lease of any such property exceeding five years and then at the bottom it says except for leases with a term of six months or less so which Which one is it?

The first is page 109. It relates to what the charter currently requires. And then the six months or less, the exception. So the first sentence of the ballot question is what the currently requires. The second sentence is what's being proposed.

Any comment? I think that this is incredibly ridiculous because if we lease our property snack bar in the village Quarry Park. That has to go to a vote of the people if it has a term of six months or more. And we have to fund the cost of that election. We may not get back from the lease of something very small, what it costs us to put that election on. So I think that this is just a bad, dumb idea. And I would encourage you all to vote this one down.

Thank you. Yes.

I was just going to point out the way lease is defined, it also includes a right of use. So I just want to make sure you all are aware of that. So like the farmer's market, you know, Coral Reef Park, and if that was for more than six months, then it would be considered a lease under how it's defined here. I just mention that because I know we normally think of leases in terms of the standard way, but it's also defined as a right of use or occupancy.

I have a question for you. Would we have to have a special election every time something comes up, or would we have to wait and do it every two years?

It specifies, I believe it specifies at the next regular...

It's okay. I don't need the information.

I believe it's at the next regular election. I don't think it's a special election.

So to have a farmer's market, we would have to wait until a regular election and put it on the ballot for the voters to vote on?

Yeah. So you would – basically what I would recommend as your lawyer is you would have a – you would want your, like if we're using the farmer's market as an example, you would want the agreement to be at least for two years because your next regular election is not going to be for another two years. So, you know, in terms of like the position we were in just now where we terminated it and then had to start all over again, we could only do that if the lease was for less than six months.

All right. Anything else?

Madam Mayor? Mm-hmm. Yeah, just, so why don't you make it, well, not you, all of us, except for leases with a term of three years or less. No, three years or more? What am I saying, Mr. Attorney?

If you wanted to take it beyond the, to at least give you the time period, yeah, two and a half or three years.

Yeah, three years, because that would push it out to an election for four years, not two years. I think that would be better for staff. OK. Is that a motion? That's my motion.

Three years. Can I get someone to extend the meeting?

Move to extend to 11.

OK. Is there a second? Second. All those in favor? Aye. Aye. Anyone opposed? OK. A councilwoman said no. OK. So you've made a motion. Is there a second? There's no second. So we're back on the ballot amendment or the charter amendment as it was originally proposed. Anything else? Yes, Vice Mayor?

Yeah, I mean, this is something that the Charter Revision Commission recommended, and I think it's fine as is, and I think it should go to voters. And this is their recommendation, and based on prior conversations publicly on this council, I support all of them. So I'm going to be supporting this as well.

Okay. Madam Clerk, call the roll. Council Member Marsha Madsen. Yes.

Mayor Karen Cunningham. No. Council Member Patrick Fiore. No. Council Member Steve Cody. No. Vice Mayor Mark Meritor.

No. Okay. So item.

Madam Mayor, I move to reconsider the item.

Okay. Okay.

I'm going to take up your amendment, Commissioner, if it's dependent on your vote. I was on the prevailing side, so I believe I can make a motion to reconsider, correct?

You can, yes.

I'm going to move to reconsider the item. If it comes back under reconsideration, I'll vote with Commissioner Fiore on his change. Thank you.

He's making a motion to reconsider. Don't we have to do it right now on the...

Okay, so there's a motion to reconsider. Is there a second? Second. All right, there's a second discussion. I... I'm going to just throw my two cents in. I think this is extremely convoluted. I don't think even removing the six months, it says the proposed amendment requires a majority of voters' approval for any sale, conveyance, exchange, transfer, lease, or license of village property except for leases with a term of six months or less. I think, in my opinion, there's two or three items, and this is one of them, that just ties the hands of the village council, it ties the hands of the village manager in making decisions. Why are we even here? What's the purpose of having elected officials? What's the purpose of having public meetings? It doesn't make any sense to me. I believe that this is probably directly connected with the pickleball. I'm just thinking outside the box here. I listened to many meetings but chose not to come because of the lack of decorum and respect that I felt like the group showed individuals when they came in. So I'm going to vote no on the amendment and vote no on the reconsideration and vote no on the actual amendment as well.

Madam Mayor, a question for the attorney. So I made a motion for the three years. Is that what the reconsideration is?

No, it's a motion to reconsider the vote in its entirety, which was to vote no on the amendment. And then it would bring it back, and then it would restart everything. So, yeah.

I'd be able to bring back your amendment, Commissioner. Which amendment? The one with the three years.

Madam Clerk, can you... Well, that's what I... I'm sorry, Madam Mayor.