City Commission - Regular Meeting

GREGORY And welcome all of you to the 05/20/2026 meeting of the Pembroke Pines City Commission. Mr. Clerk, will you please call the roll?

I'm here.

Commissioner Good?

I'm here.

He's here. Vice Mayor Hernandez? I'm here. Commissioner Rodriguez? Here. Commissioner Schwartz? Here. Mayor Castillo? Here. City manager Dodge? City attorney Goren? I'm here. We have a quorum.

Thank you very much. Two points of personal privilege, if I can. I am very, very thankful. Both Lisa and I are very, very thankful to announce the arrival of my first grandchild. So his name is Anthony Angelo Rocco Hoffman.

And he's twenty inches long and seven pounds and twelve ounces. And he was born yesterday. He and his mom are in perfect health. Everything went exactly the way it was supposed to be, except I had no idea that they were going to give him a middle name Angelo. So I'm holding my grandson. And my daughter says to me, what do you think of Anthony Angelo? And I said, what's this all about? And she goes, yeah, we decided that months ago. And I asked my wife, did you know about this? And she said, no.

I said, you're slipping. Anyway, welcome. And also, I don't know if all of you know this, but Charles Horowitz, who was an aide to state representative Robin Balderman and also state representative Daryl Campbell, who's from Pembroke Pines and who's been here many, many times I'm sure you all remember him just called me to tell me that he was accepted to Harvard Law School. And nothing greater gives pride than seeing our own do well. And so congratulations to him as well.

I'm going to ask you to stand for the pledge and also remain standing for the national anthem, which will be led today by the Gay Men's Chorus of South Florida. Thank you, and welcome. 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. Wow. Thank you so very much.

Thank you. Thank you so very, very much. Announcements of items to be pulled from the agenda?

No items, mayor.

Okay. We'll go straight to presentations. Okay. This is a proclamation of the city of Pembroke Pines, Florida for the Flanagan High School Color Guard silver medalist in the world championship. You here?

Come on up. Principal Fetu is here. Welcome, welcome. It's just a small

group. They're crossing proudly.

Okay. Well, thank you.

From one event to another.

Well, I'm glad that they're here. Whereas the Flanagan High School World Guard achieved multiple first place finishes, including at the WGI Winter Guard International Color Guard regionals in Tampa and Stuart, Florida, as well as the South Florida Winter Guard Association championships, earning recognition as the number one guard in the state of Florida. And whereas, the Florida High School World Guard earned second place at the twenty twenty six WGI Color Guard World Championships held April '10 at the University Of Dayton Arena in Ohio, marking the first time the program has placed in the top three since 2015 and bringing distinction to the city of Pembroke Pines. And whereas, under the leadership of color guard director Nicholas Rodriguez, the 23 member Falcons team achieved a score of 97.9 in the Scholastic World Competition, the highest score in the school's history. And whereas the Scholastic World Competition represents the highest level of color guard performance, featuring 26 elite teams, while more than 500 high schools from across the nation participated in the twenty twenty five WGI Color Guard World Championships, highlighting the significance of this accomplishment.

Now therefore, I, Angelo Castillo, mayor of the city of Pembroke Pines, Florida, together with the city commissioners, do hereby congratulate the Flatteningen High School color guard for their dedication, perseverance demonstrated by each member of the team, as well as director Nicholas Rodriguez, and all parents and supporters who contributed to this outstanding achievement, proudly recognizing them as the twenty twenty six WGI Color Guard World Championships Silver Medalist. Congratulations. Principal Fattu, do you want to say a few words?

I just want to say thank you, mayor, for recognizing the students and what they've accomplished. It's been a long tradition at Flanagan to excel at the highest level. So for them to grow up as tiny as all the way up, now they're in high school and performing at that highest level is admirable. So they know that our community has love for them and then now they know that the city is right there with them. So thank you.

Congratulations. You did well. Thank you so very, very much. All right. Commissioner Rodriguez, will you join me?

This is a recognition of students from the Academic Village High School participating in the inaugural twenty twenty five-twenty twenty six City of Pembroke Pines internship program. And commissioner, I just want to thank you very, very much because I know that you're behind a lot of this stuff that involves interns. And you've done a fantastic job with it. It's sort of new to the city. We've had interns before, but never as well organized as we have it right now. And so I just wanted to thank you for that and hand you the microphone so that you can announce the participants.

And if you are here, you

can come up when we call your name.

And first of all, I want to just thank our Academic Village staff for taking on this concept and this project. I know we've been working on internships in the past, but formalizing it not only in our Academic Village and in our high school, but also in the city. I think it's super important for our students to be involved at all areas of government, especially at their local level. And at least this is a little bit of a gateway into what we do at City Hall. And you guys being able to connect with local businesses, organizations, and things like that that not only give you some insight into what work life can be like afterwards, but give you that education and hopefully some really good resume bumpers so that you guys can do your best moving forward after high school.

So the following participating students will be recognized. Andres Arenciba for fire,

Brianna Bradley for our police department, Maria Benedek, Academic Village. Jaslyn Bonilla, Community Services. Giovanna Colaferi, Academic Village. Aliyah Dejokaj, and you gotta repeat that. You gotta say it on the mic because I couldn't say that correctly.

Aliyya Jokaj. Jokaj, okay.

For next time, I'll know. Jaslene Gomez for Community Services. Gabby Jarvis for recreation and cultural arts. Madison Marriott for human resources. Kristen Martinez for community services. Anna Martins for Procurement and Sustainability. Gracie Mortman, Procurement and Sustainability. Shaina Mortman, Procurement and Sustainability. Nora Nicholas, community services. Leah Noriega, academic village.

Destiny Ortega, public services. Mia Placencia, fire. Mariela Plaza, clerk's office. Alina Carishi, community services. Camilla Rivera, community services.

Gabriela Rivera, academic village. Mackenzie Rockefeller, community services. Zoe Roman, Community Services. Anima Stark, Recreation and Cultural Arts. Leila Taylor for Police. And last but not here, you see her, Jacob Williams, Academic Village. Congratulations.

Thanks for being the first in this group of students. And hopefully in the future, we can expand this to all students in the city of Pembroke Pines.

Thank you guys so much.

Okay.

Is someone from NAMI here? Okay. This is a proclamation of the city of Pembroke Pines, Florida declaring Mental Health Awareness Month, whereas NAMI Broward's mission is to enhance awareness and provide right over here next to me awareness in Broward County that supports a world class system for the treatment and recovery of individuals facing mental health challenges, delivering support, education, and advocacy, to foster understanding coping skills and positive outcomes for individuals and their families. And whereas mental health conditions are widespread, treatable conditions and concerns and comprehensive health care must include accessible mental health services for all individuals regardless of race, gender, age, sexual orientation, socioeconomic status, values, or cultural beliefs, ensuring an inclusive and supportive community. And whereas the mental health crisis significantly impacts both children and adults, with one in five adults experiencing a mental health condition each year, Half of all conditions begin by the age of 14 and seventy five percent by age 24.

Yet many individuals do not receive treatment due to barriers and stigma, despite the fact that early intervention improves outcomes and recovery should be supported and celebrated. And whereas mental health challenges are not criminal matters, yet individuals with such conditions are disproportionately represented in the justice system. Initiatives such as the crisis intervention training, which our police department participates in, diversion programs, and mobile crisis response teams improves public safety, reduces incarceration, and supports individuals in leading meaningful and productive lives. Now therefore, I, Angelo Castillo, mayor of the city of Pembroke Pines, Florida, together with the city commission, do hereby proclaim May 2026 as Mental Health Awareness Month in partnership with NAMI Broward County and encourage all residents to increase awareness, reduce stigma, and support those affected by mental health challenges throughout the community. I just wanna thank you for everything that you do.

Thank you so much. And I just wanna let you know this really is an honor and a privilege. And thank you to the city of Pembroke Pines, mayor, city commissioners. I know that each year, the city of Pembroke Pines recognizes the National Lands for Mental Illness. We're one of six fifty affiliates throughout The United States. Grassroot organization. All the services are absolutely free. And so that's what's important. When you're looking for services, when you're looking for community support, NAMI is there. All board members, including myself, we're volunteers.

But we love what we do and it's really important. I want to thank the city for joining us. The CIT officers, that's a huge shout out to them. And we really appreciate it. So thank you very much on behalf of NAMI.

Thank you so much.

Thank you.

This is a proclamation of the city of Pembroke Pines, Florida declaring national safety safe boating week. Is anyone here for this? Please come forward. Whereas for over a 100,000,000 residents, boating remains a popular recreational activity enjoyed across the nation as individuals and families take to the water to boat, sail, paddle, and fish. And during National Safe Boating Week, the US Coast Guard, the National Safe Boating Council, and their federal, state, and local partners promote the responsible enjoyment of America's waterways.

And whereas safe boating begins with proper preparation, and the US Coast Guard estimates that human error accounts for the majority of boating accident accidents while the use of life jackets could prevent nearly seventy five percent of boating fatalities. Emphasizing the importance of safety, measures such as carrying emergency distress and communication equipment, completing boating safety courses, participation in free vessel safety checks, and remaining sober while operating watercraft. And whereas National Safe Boating Week serves to raise awareness of critical life saving practices that help ensure recreational boaters have a safe and enjoyable experience on coastal, inland, and offshore waters throughout the year. Now therefore, I, Angelo Castillo, mayor of the great city of Pembroke Pines, Florida, together with the city commission, do hereby support the goals of the safe boating campaign and proclaim May 16 through the twenty second, twenty twenty six as National Safe Boating Week and encourage all residents to practice safe boating habits year round to protect themselves, their passengers, and others on the water. I just wanna thank you for everything that you do to keep us safe.

Mayor, commissioners, I want to thank you for drawing attention to this. There's a common misconception that only boat owners and people who live near the water are the ones who get affected, and that's not the case at all. If we look at what's happened this year, we've already had some serious accidents at a higher number than last year. And I do want to acknowledge division fire chief Ernie Spreitser, who has cooperated with us, and we have put on a class this past Saturday here in Pembroke Pines at the fire training center. And we had 10 students from local areas here.

And I think this is the beginning of a good partnership.

That's fantastic. This is for you. Chief, would you join us please for a photo? Okay. All right.

Somebody's going to college. We do a raffle every year. And we're going to pick a winner. So Doctor. Suraj, if you would come forward, and Mr. Bonilla, if you would as well. Now here's the way it works. They're gonna pick the winner of people who paid to be in a raffle for a four year scholarship, correct?

That's correct.

To a Florida school. Now in the beginning, when I was brand new as mayor, I picked it. But now I just announce it because I think that's a better way. So Doctor. Suraj will pick the winner, and I will tell you who it is.

All right. Ricardo Regalado. No, That's the purchaser. Daniella Regalado.

She

is Pembroke Pines Charter West Middle, and she's in the eighth grade. Daniella, you're going to college. And it's paid for. Isn't that great? Fantastic. Congratulations. All right. Now we're going to have Doug Brightwell, who's the director of Broward County Animal Care Division. And he will be making a presentation on updates to the Broward County Pet Registration requirements. And we're so very thankful that you're here with us today. The podium is yours. There's a button there that says speak, if you could just press it.

You're

on. Thank you, commissioner. Thank you, mayors. Thank you, mayor and commissioners. Sorry about that. I've the director for Broward County Animal Care for about two years now. We've made significant changes with our programs and our licensing program for the last couple of years. We have a robust volunteer program. We want to thank the city for the collaboration we receive from your police department, occasionally your fire department, when animal related incidents occur within the city. So we appreciate that collaboration.

We have an adoption facility at our shelter. And we also take in all the strays from the county and from the cities who have their own animal control agencies as well. So we take in animals, stray animals from throughout the county and all the municipalities. Last year, we took in over 9,000 animals, which is the most we've taken in in a good number of years. We also had the highest adoption rates and return to owner rates of lost pets that we've had in almost a decade.

So we've made some good changes there to our systems to try to get more animals back to their original homes and into new homes if we can't return to their original homes. We've made some significant changes to our licensing program. We now have a tags for life, which is when you much like your automobile tag now, when you get your pet registration tag starting in 2025, that tag number stays with that pet for the rest of that pet's life as long as you own it. So you don't have to get a new tag and a new registration tag number each year. You just have to renew that tag.

Up until May of this year, that tag had to be renewed annually. We changed our county ordinance so that moving forward, you can renew your pet registration tag either annually or when you get a three year rabies vaccination, you can renew it for three years and not have to do it again until that registration or that vaccine expires. We changed the structure for how the tags are based as well two years ago because our main mission is to get animals who are lost back home with their owners. The two best ways to do that are pet licenses and microchips. So we connected the two.

We removed the sterilization requirement and then linked our pet registration tags to whether or not your pet is microchipped or not. So if your pet is microchipped, you pay the $25 fee for a one year registration or a $65 fee now for a three year registration. If your pet is not microchipped and on file with us, then you pay $55 for a one year tag and I think $75 is that how much is three? Three year and I almost tripled that for a three year tag. Because we want to incentivize people to microchip so that the animal can go home as soon as it walks through our door because we have current address and phone number information in our system.

The goal is to return pets to their original owners and not have to find new homes for them because then they end up staying with us a lot longer. When I arrived with my new staff at Animal Care, our dogs were staying with us for over thirty days per length of stay, which is a very long time for a single dog to stay in a shelter. We've changed our systems and our processes, and we now have the length of stay for a dog down to just over nineteen days. So in a year and a half, we lowered the length of stay for dogs by eleven days per year, which is a significant reduction for dogs. So we encourage all citizens, all dogs and cats in the county are required to be registered with the county tag.

So we encourage you to register with your veterinarian or register with us to get those tags in place and get those pets back home as quickly as possible.

I really want to thank you for your presentation. And you should note the city, like most cities do, has a public service TV station. And if you have any video that lays out these concepts, if you could just provide that to us. And I'm sure we'll be more than happy to air it. You've got a tough job, but a necessary one.

We in Pembroke Pines are very proud of our Pooches and Pines program. It's been around for a long, long time. It's one of the things that's near and dear to us. I want to make sure that everyone knows that that program exists and that your program exists as well. I got a phone call the other day from somebody who just dialed me because they saw an individual pull over into a swale on Dykes Road and just let a dog loose.

Unfortunately, that happens a lot.

Yeah. And it's very, very concerning for people to do a thing like that. Thankfully, he has some facility with dogs and was able to catch that dog with the help of one other person. And I just want to thank the Pembroke Pines Police Department that did such a great job helping to resolve that case. But very, very important stuff that that you all do, and we really, really appreciate it. Commissioners, any questions? Yes. Commissioner Schwartz?

Thank you. Thank you for coming. Yes, sir. Very smart move by the county to consolidate and to incentivize shipping. What we have found over the years, older pets that have been chipped, the chip company is actually out of business. So what steps has the county taken to ensure that, I guess, what's the process to be chipped? Is there a what reliability can we get from a chip of a company that may have gone out? Is there a way that we're consolidating information?

What happens is when the pet is registered with Broward County Animal Care now, once we put that pet and owner information on the tag number and the microchip is entered in our database, our computer system updates every night with all new chips and tags entered on all pet owners with their information with a company called twenty four Pet, which is a tag registration company. They sell microchips, but they also sell software to shelters. So that registration is done for free when it's registered with us so that if the pet gets lost and goes to a local veterinarian and they go up to the microchip lookup site, after it takes about a week for that registration to show up online with the chip company. Then if they look up the microchip, it'll say it's registered with twenty four Pet. They can call twenty four Pet and get the owner information, or they can call us during the business day and get that owner information and get that pet back home.

And if it comes to us, we'll get it back home.

So our organization, Pooches and Pines, they've done such a good job that the surrounding communities know that we rehome. So we've become a dumping ground for some of these animals. Based on your knowledge, the animals who have been let out of the car and wish them well, are you finding the majority of them to be chipped or not chipped?

Majority of abandoned animals are not chipped or tagged or have an identification of any kind on them. The owners will normally remove the external stuff, but that's the beauty of the microchip is you can't remove it.

Are working with the sheriff's department for those who have chipped their animals and let them out the door? Are we working with the sheriff's department to ensure that we don't have

If we can prove that the animal was dumped and did not escape, we can issue civil citations to those pet owners. And we do issue a number of those already. We have people drive up and dump them in our parking lot and drive away not realizing we have cameras and people. So we drive up to their homes and knock on their door and ask them to come reclaim their pet. And we give them a ticket for abandonment.

I'm thankful that Broward County is leading the way in protecting animals. We're currently contemplating our administration and city attorney's office is looking at horses and basically the treatment of animals, making sure they have proper spacing and that sort of thing. So it's not just about the cats and dogs. In Cumberland Pines, we care about all living things, whether they have wings or four legs.

Yes.

Thanks. Thank you, sir.

Anyone else?

Just one oh, go ahead.

I just had a quick question. And if you can provide maybe this information to our city manager that we can share. I used to previously work at the county, and a lot of the questions that we got over there were regarding the spay and the neutering program. I know that there was some hiccups, to say the least, right after COVID and getting that program up and running. So if you can have a short update or if you can provide some of that more updated information to us, that would be great for us to put on our website as well.

We have it on our website. We still have a voucher system for free TNR surgeries and for free spayneuters for cats and dogs over forty five pounds that are owned because those are the two groups of animals that fill our shelter, which, by the way, we are significantly overcrowded and all of our adoption fees are waived right now. So if you're looking for a pet.

So don't shop.

But the key to the sterilization fund, which funds our vouchers, is it's tied directly to our licensing program. So that's another incentive we're trying to educate people on is money from every tag sold goes into the sterilization fund. And the more tags we sell, the more money we have for free sterilization services for all of Broward County citizens. So we offer free sterilization for TNR cats, which are the community cats. That's a separate program because it has to be done differently. Not all veterinarians are going to sterilize feral cats. So there's specific clinics for feral cats. And then we have about six or seven normal veterinary clinics around the county that take our vouchers for the free sterilization and microchipping.

Okay, perfect. Thank you so much. And if you can provide that information or just the link to that website, that would be really helpful. Thank you so much.

Do have a question?

Well, that's why we're doing these media tours around all the cities. And staff, my PIO, Zach here, is doing a lot of media interviews on all the TV stations so that we're promoting registration and adoption to try to get as many people in the Broward County area as we can educated on this. We do twice a month, we do free clinics around the county. We're not going to have any during July and August, but we'll pick them back up in September, where citizens can come as first come, first served. We do about 100 citizens in a clinic where they get free vaccines and free microchips.

So we're trying to do as much of that as we can. If the pet comes through our shelter, it is now required to be microchipped for free before it goes back to the owner so that we have that on record and have the license as well. So we're trying multiple avenues to get the word out and educate as many entities and folks as we can.

Thank you. Vice mayor? I was going to ask

what Commissioner Rodriguez asked for. But also, since you mentioned him, that young man is wonderful at what he does. And I wanted to congratulate you for bringing him in as PIO. And I checked. I did give you an A in our class at FIU. I was his adjunct professor. But thank you for what you're doing. If I could also get the info that you're providing, Commissioner Rodriguez, just so we can all share on our platforms as well, I'd appreciate it.

Thank you.

Thank you.

I just have one Commissioner Good, did you have it? I just had one additional question. So do they sell like air tag related collars for dogs that sort of run away? I keep seeing on social media, if you see this dog, aren't there isn't there a technology that can sort of help you

to You can buy an AirTag. And there's collars sold to hold AirTags if you're an Apple user. There are also two or three different specific companies. And Tile makes on that specific GPS tag for a dog collar so that you can put that on their collar and then you can track it with your phone. You have to have the app and you have to link it to your pet's device. And it's just like if you lost your phone, you've lost your dog. We have a number of people who do that as well.

I'll tell you, I hope that in the video that you send us, you include that idea. When I discuss that with people, they're like floored about how basic a notion that is. But so few people actually do it.

Because it's finally becoming affordable because you can get the air tags and the towels for $25 or under now. It used to, it was a very expensive endeavor and people didn't do it. But now that's a good augmentation to all the other things we're doing as well.

Well, I think that that's an important thing. Because if you go to any one of these social media out next door or whatever it is, you'll just see post after post after post, have you seen this dog?

Unfortunately Social media gets a lot of animals back home. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Also, we bought scanners at the beginning of the year. And we gave free scanners to all fire department stations in the county who wished to have them. And we've still got some less. So if your police department would like to get some of those, we can arrange to get some of those for your police department as well. I'm

sure they'd

love show them how to

use them. I'm sure they'd love that. Thank you so very, very much for everything you do.

Thank you, mayor. Thank you, commissioners.

Okay.

Mayor, if we could get the city administration to post this information there to dog parks, I think it would be beneficial for them to QR code it, spread the word. Remember, the information is only as good as what's being shared. If

you have a banner, yeah, we can reach out to the parks department.

We have two. We have two really nice parks.

Wonderful. Thank you. Thank you so much. Okay. Next up, we have George Corin and Kit Jordan who want to talk to us.

There's a button there that says speak. George, can you push that button for her? It says speak. You're on.

Good evening, mayor,

commissioner. Could you just lower that? Thank you.

I'll write you then.

Your name and your address for the phone.

Kitt Jordan, 7030 Southwest 10th Court, Pines Village. Welcome. KIT The current water and sewer project in Pines Village has been in the works for approximately forty years. This is not the first time I've experienced this type of construction, but it is the first time I've had to tolerate the lack of consideration. Weren't we supposed to be notified if we would be inconvenienced as per one of the first meetings?

Yesterday, I was trying to leave and blocked again. Mister Lopez told me, if I didn't want to go through the arch, I could just wait till they were done. I tried to explain to him why I didn't want to go through the arch because of previous damage to my car with over $1,000 worth of damage. I was given no choice but to let mister Lopez guide me out. I have been previously blocked in for two days, and recently, half my driveway was blocked, and trying to get out was not easy or safe.

This has this has to be the most disorganized project I've ever seen. Our streets are like driving back country roads, ruts and all. Even at five or 10 miles an hour, it's shocking how you and your car shakes, and it's not even safe to walk. Trust me. I understand construction haven't been in the business. All I expect for us having to endure months of this is to be kept up to date and advised when they have to block our property ahead of time.

Thank you very much.

Mr. Corrin? Just going to start off by saying good evening Pembroke Pines rather than do an individual. I think I might be just a tad over three minutes.

But I'd like to go

to completion if I could.

We're going need your name and your address.

My name is George Corin. I live at 6751 Southwest 11th Street in Pines Village. Welcome. Okay. The ongoing water and sewer project in Pembroke Pines has many residents very upset.

They are not living up to the terms explained to residents at the first homeowners meeting, notifications for work on your street. Will you need to make parking arrangements to ensure you can get to and from your home? Will the streets be passable, full of ruts, holes, and equipment? The contractor has created havoc over our entire area rather than segment the work as much as possible. It seems there is a lack of coordination in the work being done.

Why can't multiple connections and stubbing be done during one dig instead of re digs for each item? Dust control in higher traffic areas is a concern. Sprinkler repair must be to include proper irrigation of the remaining lawn areas, not just capping a damaged line. The residents realize finalization will be done as the project completes, but system functionality must be maintained. The rainy season is now upon us, raising the need for understanding and coordination of efforts.

Other similar projects in Pines Village have not had the degree of difficulty we are experiencing. Please relay our concerns to the proper authorities. Item two, Broward County Aviation Department has failed again to deliver on promises for testing our air, soil, and water for pollution and measuring noise levels created by North Perry Airport. We now have a water and sewer project in Pines Village digging up sixty years of pollution. Heavy metals such as lead do not dissipate from the soil.

They continue to collect. So God only knows what is blowing around our neighborhood at this time. The noise and the air pollution from piston engine, gas burning airplanes is well documented. Over the years, Broward County Aviation Department's answer has been to conduct inspections and actions inside the fence, netting insignificant results for the residents of Pines Village. All BCAD wants to do is add operations for North Perry Airport at all costs.

I have been waiting for three months for an answer to an email through Broward County Commission regarding testing and flight schools at North Perry Airport. Flight schools now number double digits, and operations exceed 315,000 a year, of which 75% to 80% of travel goes over Pines Village. Is it any wonder we would like to know the levels of the toxins we are being forced to live with? Let there be no doubt, North Perry Airport has changed the way we live our lives. We know the only possible help to give any relief is the reduction of operations at North Perry Airport.

BCAD's standard answer is to switch to low or no leaded aviation fuel. Over 50% of operations are by aircraft that cannot use this fuel. So by adding operations, which they constantly do, you are at best maintaining or increasing the pollution noise for sure. More schools are now offering dual engine certification, two larger engines, more fuel, more noise, more pollution. It is by gut belief the men at the top of aviation in Broward County, Mr.

Mark Gale and Mr. Michael Nonnemaker, are aware of the conditions I speak of. They can also see the consequences of following through on promises made. Science and medicine are on the side of the residents, and it is long overdue to expose the truth about the problems resulting from North Perry Airport operations. Pembroke Pines, please help us in our quest to save the birthplace of our city. Thank you very much.

Thank you very, very much. Mr. Dodge, if I could ask, could you please provide us with an update on the status of the sewer program in Pines Village. And George, I will be speaking with the county commissioner very, very soon. And I'll provide you with a direct response on what the status of the promised reviews are. And I want thank you for all you do to keep it alive in people's minds. Thank you very much.

Mr. Mayor? Yes, sir. I believe Commissioner Good has a lot of information because he's had these meetings with the counties. We've had community meetings. And it seems that the contractors running this job in the county commission, they're saying it's a city job. This is not a city job. This is a county job. It's county utilities. And as many times as we've had meetings with the interruption and discomfort to our residents, in particular the schools and the traffic, It's been horrendous.

I don't know if Commissioner Good wants to add anything, but certainly we'll explore it further and see what we can do. But we've really, the city really has been trying very hard to communicate with the county. And it seems their contractor doesn't care. You would think they would do one thing, do one street, get it over with, and move on. But they do a little small jobs on each one, then move to another area. It doesn't make any sense on how they're doing this, but we will follow-up, mayor. Commissioner Goode?

Thank you, mister mayor, and thank you, mister city manager, for sharing some of that. Yes. The two items that, mister Corn brought up are two very, very constant concerns right now for me in this district. I'd like to first say at least about the Perry Airport. Mr. Manager, if we can follow-up with what is their intentions on it. I know that they've told us on several occasions that they were going to do some sort of a study, an environmental study, and yet we still haven't seen anything. We should at least ask where are they at in that process.

Yes, we will.

Last time we asked, they made us believe that they were in some sort of procurement process.

They actually were. I did see it on their agenda. I will get you a more definitive statement from the county. Okay. And in regards to

the construction, Mr. Corn is very polite in the way that he presented it because certainly there are some people that are a whole lot more angrier than that. There was a couple weeks ago, a Pines Village meeting, where a number of residents just dominated the meeting with complaints about the construction project. It's almost like nobody's being held accountable to what's going on to the respect of the community. I mean, there are occasions and staff can confirm where we're kind of helping out the best we can where they're at wit's end and they contact the city and the city staff is able to connect with the right people at least to get some immediate relief, but it doesn't transcend into some sort of continuity of respect throughout the community.

So I know Mr. Manager has expressed that we're looking at it. We've had conversation. The intention is to try to get this elevated to a much higher level. Because we did have a rather large meeting at the school because they chose to do this during school time instead of during school recess, which lack of common death of common sense really was what that was. But that school was going through an incredible amount. But all the players were there. The county was there. The project manager were there. The consultant was there.

The contractor was there. We were there with our staff, inclusive of police. And it sounded like everything was going to be resolved. Just everybody walked away from the meeting almost like nothing got really done. And so that was expressed with the city manager.

And he's also received an interest from me to have a meeting at the higher level, from a city manager to the county administrator level of conversation, to see if there's a way to get this point of view across. But what's really most important is that a lot of people are not recognizing this as a county project. I mean, they're seeing this as a city problem, even though everywhere you look it says county project. But people are looking at this as a city problem because it's happening in the city of Pembroke Pines. It's happening at their home.

And the expectation is for us I just recently saw a response back from the Pines Village group that coordinates these meetings. And they have listed made it very clear to come into these meetings and speak at these meetings about the problem. So I probably expect more people probably were going to see them in the audience to speak about this project. So the hope is that we can find a way to get the county to reach into that layer of delegation and get some accountability out of it so that people are feeling at least they recognize. I mean, everybody recognizes that it has to be done.

They know it's construction. They know it's a pretty intense project. And most everybody is really can accommodate that. But it's when all of a sudden, as Ms. Jordan just spoke to, where they pull up and they just cut you off from your home with no advance notice.

I mean, if you've got to do a DIG operation in front of somebody's driveway and you're going to have it like that all day, you would at least think to walk up and knock on a door and say, in a day or two in advance, say, hey, we're going to be doing this. You might want to move your car at least to your neighbor. So at least you can get out and do that. Because I've had several other people call me pretty upset because they're missing doctor appointments. And they can't get to medical needs because of what's happening.

And if we just turn around and say, well, it's the county, then they look at us as being inept leaders in this city. And we really need to find a way to change that paradigm and get the contractor to do the right thing, to get them to be more engaged with the pre communications, at least, with what they're going to be doing and to address some of the problems that you've heard right here before you. It's not me telling you the problems. They are. But I could tell you that staff will be able to share with you that there's plenty more type of problems as well, too.

So thank you, Mr. Corn and Ms. Jordan, for bringing this up here. And Mr. Manager, thank you for your continued effort in trying to access the highest level in the county before we have to take it to another level beyond that. And thank you again. Thank you, Mr. Mayor, for allowing me to speak

to May I

Thank you both. Yes.

Not necessarily directed to this, because obviously it's a county project, not a city project. But it brings up something that I've mentioned in the past as well, and that Mary Anne from Communications was talking to me a little bit about when we did our meeting on the website updates, is a notification system and a text messaging system for our city when we do have these city projects. When we had road resurfacing out in the trails, I contacted Mr. Kennedy about updates. There was a bit of a delay.

And then I send out a text message to the HOA, and hopefully it spread that way. But we do have the possibility of us, ourselves, sending or the city sending a text message saying, hey, these are the updates happening for road resurfacing, for any sewer projects in the future that we might do. All of those things, I think this sounds like, obviously, it's a contractor issue. But the frustration from a lot of our residents when projects are being done is not that it's being done. It's obviously for the betterment of the community.

But the lack of notification on some of these things. And we've been really good at putting out the billboards and the things that explain what it is. But when you're driving by and you're seeing, oh, Okay, the intersection of 172nd Pines is being redone, that's good. You kind of notice it. But if it's anything more intimate that affects your day to day by your house, I think we need to have a system in place.

And I know communications is looking into. So I want an update on that as soon as possible, and maybe something explained to the city commission as to when we're going to be looking into those services a little bit more deeply. Do we have a contract? What's kind of the update on that? Because I think that's essential, especially when we're doing some of these projects from the future of purple prides, our project, our big project that we're doing with the $60,000,000 that I'm forgetting the name of.

But making sure that each of those, we are notifying. If there's something going on in a park, at least like texting people in the area, hey, the park will be closed because then you'll show up and you take your kids and you realize, oh, the park's closed for renovations. It's a good thing. But we should be notified in advance. And there's plenty of systems to do that. And if we can get an update, I'd greatly appreciate it.

I love the idea of the notification text. Mr. Dodge, if you could ask staff to let us know what the status of that is. I will. Much appreciated. Thank you very much.

Mayor, if I could I want to thank Commissioner Good for his steadfast focus on this sewer project. I see it every day. It is painfully slow and extremely unacceptable. And I remember when Commissioner Good brought it to us what was it two, three years ago, trying to say, you know what, how about Broward County not do it and we just take it to avoid this exact situation. Because if it was I can say this.

If it was a Pembroke Pines vendor, we would not have the pain. We would have dirt. We would have inconvenience. But we would not have the pain. It is incredibly to look at it from the viewpoint that I see it from, you have the contractor on the same section of the street for days, days, starting 7AM in the morning, working till the wind starts blowing.

And you've got stuff blowing it's just blowing all over the neighborhood. Now, since December, TECO has been tearing me up. Since February, FPL's been tearing me up. I tried to get the information out to residents through a town hall, unsuccessful in doing that. And I'm asking the city to triple its efforts.

What Commissioner Rodriguez just said, please have our communications department communicate. Please have our PD utilize that. Let's communicate with our residents. It is unfair to anyone in this city to seek out information from any of the electeds because administration isn't effectively communicating. We get the calls because we're like the last stop.

Commissioner Good, please tell us what's going on. And Commissioner Good will say, this is what's going on because I know what's going on in my district. And we all do that. But what we can't do is the same thing over and over and over again. TECO is destroying Pembroke Lakes.

The sign that we're going to talk about later tonight is probably the best thing that's happened to them since February because they have been annihilated for months. See, the sewer truck, that whole thing, they'll sit in front of your house for a day or two. The TECO, they just hodgepodge it. You don't know when they're going to show up and when they're going to fix stuff or when they're going to communicate with the city that half the sidewalk is gone, that they broke a pipe. I'm sending an email out to administration tomorrow.

I want to find out how many times Jacobs has had to go out to fix stuff that they jackhammered and broke. This has been going on for six months. And I'm tired of it. I feel the corns. They are representing a lot of people. And the East side of the city is getting tore up by public service companies that we have no whether it be the Comcast, the Tico, the FPL, FDOT is coming through. We have Palm Avenue. We have Douglas. We have University. And they got the signs up.

I saw the sign on Palm Avenue. This is what's coming. And guess what? Their sign is crooked. At least have some pride and make it straight. Jesus Christ. It's not that hard. If it's a Pines vendor, we get it done. I don't know what's going on. I think at this point, I don't want to burden additional tasks for code enforcement. But they have to be able to see what's going on. They drive in the neighborhoods. If they see a front of the house all jacked up and they know it's not a resident doing it, it needs to be reported. Our engineering department, they can't work miracles if they don't know what's going on. We have Sherrell from the building department emailing us, letting us know where the project is.

Because residents are reaching out to the building department. They're reaching out to the engineering department. They're reaching out to elected officials. So I'm going be reaching out to TCO tomorrow because I'm done. I'm done with the promises. I need to have stuff delivered. The county, we have a focus there. I am concerned that we're dealing with the public utilities up in Tallahassee where there's like hands off. We can't touch them or do anything. We're at the mercy of their indulgence to do the right thing.

At least with the county, we have some control. So that's all I really have to say about that. This is a East Of Flamingo issue with multiple vendors. And it's got to stop.

I appreciate that, Commissioner. So I did have a question, though. You mentioned that TECO is destroying Pembroke Lakes. Who at TECO have you been working with to try to improve their communications about the new lines that they're putting down. Who particularly have you been talking to there? Well, I lean on

the city manager to handle those affairs. They did the affairs. City manager had a resident stop him at an establishment back in February Talking about specifically that project and the response, I'll say this. I need the full support of the administration to get with the state of Florida because this is a public utility.

But my question was, The name of a person, who and at what level, if you have

their There's a supervisor. Have you been talking to I it on my personal social. I can get you that number tomorrow. I'll email it through the

public I appreciate that. Because if you've spoken to them and you haven't been able to do it, I'd like to try. Yes, Mr. Manage. Yeah, I'd

like to respond to that because I spoke to Carl Kennedy because a lot of those concerns go to him. And we've had very DELL: few

calls. The most recent one I got from the commissioner, I don't ever recall speaking to any resident in

We talked about it.

Because I wish you would tell me who it is so I can And I asked you that once before, you didn't tell me. I live in that neighborhood. I drive those streets. And I can honestly tell you, in my block, it started in November right by Thanksgiving. And they really didn't finish much before March or April. That's true. But I can't tell you they're tearing up the streets. They're doing it house by house. I found them on almost all the blocks. And my area was at least five months.

They were very neat. I've stopped and talked to some of the workers and said, why are you doing this way? And they explained it to me. As far as the repaired, they're not going to come out and fix homeowners A asphalt and then have to come back two days later to do another. They're completing the job and then they're going to come back and do all the asphalt work and then they're going to repair all the sod that was torn up.

And I can give you those areas and I've talked to them. I think it's overly exaggerated. I've only had one communication, and that was most recent from Commissioner Spoartz regarding it. And many times, people talk to our staff. We explain to them what the process is and what's going to happen, and they're happy. We had one the other day, not related to this, I think it was a lady in Century Village that was concerned about something. We had staff talk to her. She says, I knew nothing up about it even though letters went out. We did emails. We did, social media.

She says, I don't have any of that. Yeah. All I have is emails. So we walked her through it, got her onto our website. She saw what it was. She was so appreciative because now she registered with us her email address. So anytime she has a question, she can email us and we can respond back. But she felt unconnected to the city. Most of the time, it's just talking to the resident and explaining it to them. I live in the community, and I might have had a neighbor that said, hey, what's going on?

And I explained it to them, and they're perfectly fine. But they may be saying that to me because they know I'm the manager. But Carl will be here to address commissioner Schwartz's item, although he addressed most of it now. And we can explain to you the statistics that we have. They're totally different than how he's relating it to you today. But we will continue because we think it's very important that the community stay informed about it. Now unfortunately, when Tico was finishing up, another utility came in and started doing the same thing. It's really a shame that those utilities can't get together. And when they're

And what utility was that

doing the work, they could do it simultaneously.

Doesn't always utility that is. Is that FP and L?

FP and L. Think AT and T is out there. I know AT and ET was in my neighborhood recruiting to switch from Comcast to AT and T Internet. I didn't do it, but eventually, all those lines are gonna have to be connected to the homes. Right. And that's gonna be additional work that they're gonna have to cut right through my yard and give me gas. There's nothing I can do about it. But when they do that, they have to restore it the way it was.

Well, I I I welcome this conversation. Anything that we can do to help coordinate better, inform the residents better, I'm all for it. Commissioner Schwartz, if you could just ramp up that I'd name and the like to follow-up directly with Hold on a second. I'd like to be able to follow-up directly with Yeah, if I If you could send that over. Thanks, Stephan.

I think what Commissioner Schwartz is saying, he got cut off on his town hall meeting. When he had that town hall meeting, he never mentioned that he wanted talk about any of those issues.

I did, sir. I don't want relitigate it. Your parents

to ask John to be

with you.

Hold on. Specifically knew what I was going to talk about. I'm sorry. I'd like to address Commissioner Good real quick. You had an item for the state with the telephone poles, right? And I supported it. But here's the thing about the FPL project. You ready for this? What's also on the FPL poll is Comcast. Agree? So what they're doing is they're burying the lines for FPL. They're removing the power lines off the polls. After one year, those polls are no longer the responsibility of FPL. And do you know who it's going to belong to? Comcast.

Well, that was a mistake, DELL: too, at the time.

We have no control over it. No, I'm saying that this is happening

They're right bury the FPL lines. Agree with you. They should have buried the Comcast lines at

the same GREGORY That's happening. But there's no incentive for Comcast to expend money to do a bury.

GREGORY Well, once upon a time, they used to come here and get permits.

I know. Imagine.

And then the state legislature decided, you know what? Utility companies don't have to get permits anymore. And that's

changed when the only cell towers

and the line yards. What's good about that, folks, is you're all going to get a reduction in your costs because that's a reduction in their fee. Not only did I not see the reduction in the cost, I did not see an improvement to the coordination.

GREGORY We did get a reduction. We got a reduction in the lack of service. That's what we got. A lack of customer is a reduction that they So promised us. I

I think this conversation is good. We're straying a little bit. And if we want to revisit it, we can. And I'm 100% for what Commissioner Rodriguez said in terms of sharing information. But really, this is their information to share. Yeah. If this was as Commissioner Good very correctly said, if this had been a city project, it would have been handed differently. So whether it's the county or an FP and L or TCO or AT and T or whoever it is, they owe their customers the information. And I don't want it to be that just because we care about the people in the city that suddenly we're responsible because we didn't tell people what's going on. That's how a mitzvah becomes a nightmare.

And I'm not interested in that either. That didn't resolve your concern.

GREGORY All right. So we actually have all the information. When I Good. I had forwarded the information to administration beginning of February. Administration sent an email out to all of us saying, if you get any calls, this is what's going on. Here's all their contact info. So that was provided three months ago. So I apologize. I don't have it in front of me tonight. But we all have it. We all have it in our email sent from Mr. Dodge at the beginning of February.

Mr. Dodge, can you find that email, please? Absolutely. The only And way share would with all see of us again?

GREGORY Going back to February, we'll find it. I've only received one complaint that I have personally gotten. It was one that Commissioner Schwartz gave me a couple days And homeowner signed it.

I didn't the give information, sir.

We have a long agenda. Came directly

from Sherrell. We were copied

Commissioner, on the we have a long agenda. That'll be the last word on that. We have to move along. If else wants to bring this up on another item, we'll have to do it. Commissioner Good, you'll have the

last word. I just have a question to ask and maybe to the attorney. But the first question I have is, any time they do any of these projects, whether it be the utility company or even the county, they're required to get a permit from the city. Is that correct?

I don't believe Carl, are you here?

I don't believe so. Let's ask. Carl?

They might not need to pay for it.

They notify us of where they're going to be, but I don't think they require any kind of permit.

Carl Kennedy, city engineer. The telecommunications company and utility companies are allowed to work in their easements without our permission, when they go through the public rights way, we have to review their plans and issue them a no fee permit. So any time that they go through the public rights of way, we permit that portion of the project.

Right. Thank you. We may not pay for it. We may have very limited capabilities. That's where I want to take this for a moment because they are still required to get a permit.

And to the city attorney, are we able to incorporate into our permits conditions sort of like what we're speaking about tonight, whether there's advanced communication requirements for them to give to residents prior to impacting them or a time period for restoration, things like that. I'm just curious, what is the limit? And I would need my colleagues to support that the attorney could look to see what would be the limits on a condition of a permit so that if they did violate and they are doing something that disrespects a community of sorts or is not being accountable to the community, that then we can take some sort of action just on that piece of it, not on the fact that they're installing the infrastructure, but how they're doing it. So Mr. Attorney, you understand what the question was?

May I respond there? I do. And frankly, before the change in legislation, there might be a different answer. But I'd rather withhold that answer publicly than look at that item. Because frankly, there are some limitations. But there are also not a waiver on the city's project conditions that you described. You didn't walk away from them just because the law changed with regard to the

Okay. It'd be nice to know what the

parameters are.

You'll take a look. Thank you very much. Okay. Thank you, Mr. Mayor. Today's there are no announcements of Boarding Committee appointments.

None, Mayor.

Thank you very much. Today's consent agenda includes items one through 18 plus addendum two. What's your pleasure?

Some of. I'd like to pull items 14. Hold on.

14.

Yes, sir?

And I'd like to pull add two.

Which one?

Addendum two.

Addendum two.

Anyone else? Motion's been made by commissioner Schwartz. Is there a second? Second. This is, a vote on all items except for 14 in addendum two. Anyone from the public wanna be heard? Anything further on this? All those in favor, aye. Aye. Any opposed? Short passes unanimously. Commissioner

Good, you're recognized on item 14. So item 14 is motion to approve the minutes of the March thirty one, twenty twenty six workshop meeting operations management of the billing department and the 03/31/2026 regular commission meeting.

Is there a second? Second. Second by the vice mayor.

So I'm going to make a recommendation that we defer this to the next meeting unless there's information that can resolve this. So when I look through the documents, I don't find the workshop meeting. I find two sets of the commission meeting, but not the workshop meeting. Was there any corrections to these minutes? Mr. Clark?

Give me one second. Let me look at the attachment.

You know, if this is not of the I don't know that we have to approve the minutes today. Why don't we give the city clerk enough time to review it? We'll just bring the item back. One second, man.

Because I don't do books. I do the hyperlink. And the workshop is not there, Mr. Clerk. It's just a repeat of the cycle.

So I just moved to defer this item to

the next meeting.

There's a motion to defer. Is there a second? Second. All those in favor, say aye. Aye. Any opposed? This item is deferred. Commissioner, you're recognized on addendum two.

So addendum two is motion to approve the Fourth Amendment to the Grant Administration Agreement between the City of Pembroke Pines and Community Redevelopment Associates of Florida Inc, C R A F L A Inc, to extend the term of the agreement to 08/31/2026.

Is there a second? Second. Seconded by the vice mayor. Go right ahead.

Thank you, Mr. Mayor. So I'm just curious. This is a contractor that we've used for a number of years. And I'm assuming that we are using the same contract that we've been using in the past. So can some staff explain to me what changes in the contract?

Mr. Stam, or city manager?

Mike Stammis, city manager. So as noted in the Monday memo, the contract with the vendor, we wanted to make some subtle changes. Again, they've been in place for many, many years. We've looked at the billing cycle and how they bill us. So we wanted to make revisions with the vendor in mind. We sat down with him. However, there was a little bit of delay. Marty was on vacation. We just ran out of time before we got to this point. The plan is to bring it back in June.

But the contract was set to expire May 30. As you know, this contract along with the contractors, the estimators, all those other items went through the whole procurement process. We have made subtle changes over the years as we work with the vendor. This time we were really looking at some of the billing to make sure that we always had funds available looking at those items. We So wanted to make sure we incorporated all those changes. We were working with the vendor.

So when we go out when we put the RFQ out, do we actually put a copy of the contract in the RFQ, a sample of what the agreement would be? I'm going to defer to

the procurement department on that end. I don't have the entire package in front of me at this moment.

I understand. Just a question.

Good evening. Mark Gomes, assistant city manager. Yes, we typically do include exhibits such as template contracts. However, some contracts go through further revision and negotiation upon award.

So was the contract that was provided in the RFQ adjusted to what you speak to? Or did you adjust the agreement after the commission gave the award? Didn't give the award, but accepted the recommendation of the RFQ?

I don't believe the payment provisions that Mr. Stam's talking about was included in the draft contract that was included in the RFQ.

Okay. So I mean, hard for me to accept the fact that somebody's on a vacation and have been conducting business with us for quite some time. And to have a brief if you say a subtle change to the contract, means to me it's like less than a page worth of changes. That

So commissioner, obviously, want to be able to bring this back to the commission and work with our vendor on some of these things. As we look through the billing, we want to make sure that we always have funds available. There's been situations where the vendor has built through the edge of the contract. And as you know, they're funding through SHIP and CDBG, which run on different cycles. So we want to make sure that we're always in good standing as we're moving through this process. So we've seen some things. My department took this over during the last contract phase. So now that my department's in charge of it, we've looked at it a little bit differently. We have a housing specialist that's working with our vendor. Our vendor's here tonight, or his staff is here tonight.

They do a great job. But as we've been looking at this, again, my department took it over. We wanted to make sure that we were literally dotting all the I's and crossing the T's. It also must be noted that we were up against a deadline. This procurement process took a little bit longer than normal. Historically, I provided in the Monday memo some the levels of time that we've gone through procurement. This is kind of a unique contract because we don't get the bidders like we have historically. It's kind of a unique space.

Doesn't matter. We've kept picking the same vendor.

I mean,

But coming they've years selected 20 plus? Over twenty years, correct. Yeah. So I guess where let me just I'm going cut to the chase here because I'm not questioning whether they can do the job or not. That's not the question here. The question is a matter of process. The fact is the contract expired. We gave one hundred and eighty day extension by the city manager. We got all the stuff done in time. We gave our approval for you all to have that conversation.

There's a subtle change to the document, which seems to be common sense to me, would be a quick review and understanding of what needs to be done, I guess, after the review. But we have another meeting still, correct, This is before we go into a summer break?

We have two meetings. So why are we

pushing this off to August 31, which is another ninety days?

Well, this contract expires May 30. So we anticipate bringing it back to June.

Where today is we're May what? Ten days from now. So why are We

meet again June 3. We won't we would not the contract would have expired before we could have brought

And I'm not opposed to giving a bit of an extension here. But what I'm opposed to is giving an extension of another ninety days, because it says August 31, meaning that it might not come to us June 3 or might not come to us to the meeting after that because we've given you till August 31. And so for me, I will say I know that we're going to see the contract again. But my preference would be that if this contractor agrees because if they don't agree, this is an RFQ that means we go to the next highest ranked vendor. Is that correct?

Potentially.

Potentially. Well, if this vendor says, I don't agree to those terms, and you hold your ground, then we go to the next vendor. But if we do, if this vendor does choose to proceed, I don't think we should be signing a contract that is starting after August 31. I think we should start a contract that starts June 1. So we should make that a retro date on the contract as June 1, not September 1, which means that they got another ninety days out of this contract, which I think it should have been that way.

Do you need ninety days?

I don't believe we need ninety days. We put in ninety days simply because we Do want

to suggest an amendment?

June 30? June 30 or even to the next commission meeting. The second commission meeting in June, which I think falls on the fourteenth seventeenth. 17. Commissioner?

June 17?

I'm fine with that. Just You'll move

that amendment?

Expedite the the process. Then I'm You'll

move that amendment?

I move that amendment. Okay.

Mister mayor Is there a second to June 17? Second. Any any discussion? Any from the public? All those in favor, aye.

Aye.

Thank you.

The amendment passes unanimously. The item as amended is moved by commissioner Good?

Yes,

sir. Seconded by the vice mayor. No. Oh, seconded by who?

Me. Oh,

seconded by Commissioner Rodriguez. Any discussion? Any from the public? All those in favor, aye. Aye. Any opposed? Show passes unanimously. Thank you very much. The next item is resolutions.

Mayor, if you will. Yeah. Thank you. For the record, the item regarding resolutions number 19 is a motion to adopt proposed resolution number twenty twenty six R-eight, which is a resolution of the city commission of the city of Pembroke Pines, Florida, proving and authorizing the execution of the municipal elections agreement with the Broward County Supervisor of Elections for the city's special municipal election to be conducted on 11/03/2026, in conjunction with the county wide general election, directing the appropriate city officials to take any and all action necessary to effectuate the intent of the resolution, directing the city clerk to transmit a copy of the resolution and the executed municipal elections agreement to the supervisor of elections, providing for a conflict, providing for severability, providing for an effective date. The record mayor and commission item 19 is on the floor for consideration.

Number 19.

Vice mayor moves the item. Is there a second? Second. Seconded by Commissioner Rodriguez. Discussion?

I would like to congratulate this commission and the administration because although I was an English and political science major, I did some quick math with the help of CHAT GPT. And originally, the cost I hope it's right. The original cost was estimated at $345,000 Right now, we're looking at $92,742 which is a reduction of $252,258 or 73%, if Chad GBT is correct. But regardless, I just think it's very I did message the supervisor of elections thanking him for working with our commission and appearing virtually. I know he was not in Florida at the last meeting when he had participated.

But we raised objections with the cost to taxpayers. And I think we were more than effective. So I thank the body and Manager Dodge and your team for working on this together.

Anything further?

I want to understand a little bit of the Thailand because if this goes on to the ballot, what is the limitations that the city has in order to communicate on the ballot question?

Mr. Attorney.

Mr. Mayor, if I can. At the moment you raise a very valid question. At the moment, there is no item on the ballot for November. There are three items which the commission has discussed, two of the three of which are ordinances that the commission has passed on first reading, both of which relate to changing the charter, one of which relates to changing March to November elections.

You have already conducted it on first reading. The second ordinance is a charter change to consider changing the four fifths vote to three fifths vote for hiring a city manager and for hiring or firing an acting city manager. Those two items are ordinances which will change the charter if and when they're submitted to the election process in November. They have not yet been considered for second reading. The third item, which I was going to discuss briefly under the city attorney's report, is the proposed bond resolution for the purpose of the police and fire public safety complex.

That's a resolution, not an ordinance. It's a one time read. It only requires publication as required by state statute. And it would be on the ballot as well as the other two referendum questions if the commission approves the two ordinances on second reading and approves the resolution formally and finally for one final reading. Under chapter 106, 106.313, there are some I'll use the word severe regulations and severe controls that were placed into effect over the past number of years, which the city was bound by this past year in the context of the election which it conducted.

The word public forum became a common phrase. The city commission conducted many public forums in various and sundry places for public comment, public input, public review, etcetera. We know clearly under state statute that the government is not allowed to spend money of any kind in public, public funds to advocate in favor of a referendum's passage or failure. The other side of which is that education is not prohibited, but the method and means by which communication is given to voters must be very carefully crafted. The statute is a limitation.

The legislature has changed that statute from the way it was ten years ago to some years thereafter until recent vintage, essentially putting severe prohibitions on the expenditure of those public monies. The discussion which this commission conducted back during the workshop was the timing. And I used the word defer. And you also agreed on the deferral, which is to defer the second reading of both ordinances and potentially the resolution for the bond transaction to a time when there was no existing ballot item that could be otherwise regulated strictly by that statute.

And just as clarification, this is not that vote. That vote is an ordinance, and that will be taken later on. This That's is just the resolution for

it. And I raise it because you raised the right point, commissioner. Because if you had adopted both those ordinances today or at this commission meeting and adopted that bond resolution, the restrictions

We must.

GREGORY in play because you then have an item that's going to be on the ballot. If you have town hall meetings and public meetings that would otherwise allow the public to be heard on the proposed bond resolution and the proposed ordinances for charter change, all three of which have yet to be formally approved by the commission. What we do know on the record this evening to the mayor and commission is that we know that the supervisor elections committed on the record during your public meeting, our public meeting, that August 18 was the end date for delivery of any charter questions or ballot referendum items to his office to be printed for the November third election. That was asked by the mayor. It was asked by individual commissioners.

It was asked several times. Joe Scott was very clear about that answer. Initially, was maybe in June sometime, maybe in August sometime. But at the end of the day, when the specific question was asked, that was a target date that was given on the record. We sent emails to the general counsel for the supervisor to confirm that.

August 18 is that outside date. So theoretically, if I may continue, Mayor, just for a minute or two, if the mayor and commission were to have a second reading, for example, on the two ordinances and a final review of the resolution on August 3, I think, the commission meeting or August 5, I forget which. Or forgive me. If you consider the ordinances for a second reading on, I believe, August 5, you'd have sufficient time to then submit them to the supervisor before August 18, as well as a resolution in formal and final fashion on August forgive me, Mr. Clerk, is it third or fifth, I forget, for the August meeting, first meeting in August?

Survey says it looks fifth. My notes say August 5. I think that's correct. So that between today and August 5, I believe that you have I don't want to suggest complete leverage, but you certainly have more opportunity to educate and to informationalize and to discuss and to do so not inconsistent with state law, but because not any one of those three items is actually before the voters as an elector item that is totally constrained by the statute. And that includes notification of electors and other things that the commission can do that it theoretically could not do during the last time around.

So I'm not acting to defy the law, but to simply work within the confines of what it prescribes, what it it doesn't allow you to do based on a schedule, if that makes sense.

Makes sense. Thank you for

the clarification Thank you, Mr. On

Okay, anything else on this item? Motion to be made and second. Anything from the public? Seeing none. All those in favor, aye. Aye. Any opposed? Show passes unanimously.

The Recamerion Commission item number is 3947, permanent number. Thank you.

Thank you very much. Reports of the league and MPO representatives. Commissioner Rodriguez.

I did not attend. I was not in town for the last director's meeting, but I believe Commissioner Goode went in attendance.

And

that was it. Actually, I am a council member for the South Florida Regional Planning Council, and they provided some information on data centers. I know we've kind of touched base on that. It seems like most of the ordinances and regulations for that fall under the county. And we have County Commissioner Steve Geller in attendance and very interested in working on an ordinance or a resolution regarding data centers.

But I'm trying to figure out if anything in particular could relate to us and bring that back if needed. If not, then if this county decides to do something, I'd greatly appreciate if we show some kind of support, whether it's a resolution or a letter or something of the sort, in order to at least place our standing on data centers making sure that we're taking care of our water. I know FPL put out some information regarding electricity power limitations that they may be able to, I guess, limit the data centers. But the water does fall within city limits. So I want to make sure that we're on top of that in the case that something comes up prior to something coming up.

So I believe our city attorney also has that information. We were both at that meeting. So we'll look into it a little bit further, but wanted to put that on your radar as well.

Thank you very much. And the Florida League of Cities sixty ninth annual event is on the thirtieth. And everyone knows about that. That'll be at the hotel in Hollywood Beach. I had mentioned once before I don't know if I mentioned it on the dais, but I did mention to Mr.

Dodge when I went to the US Conference of Mayors meeting in winter, they were talking about data centers and how cities are putting up these data centers, which are essential, of course, to support AI. And they're making a lot of revenue on it. There's a lot of revenue in these data centers. And I'm not sure whether that's something that we should look into. But I have to tell you that there are cities all across America who are owning and, to some extent, operating data centers.

And I think that's certainly something that we should be considering. It's perfectly suited for potentially I mean, unfortunately but it's something that's perfectly suited for a vacant school among other types of buildings. So I think it's something that if not us, if not the county, if not the private sector but it's certainly not unusual for a government to own a data center and to lease the space. So it's certainly, I think, worth looking into. Anything else on the league? MPO? Yes, Mr. Mayor.

Thank you. And I did attend the Broward League of Cities directors meeting. And sort of uneventful, the current president mayor from Plantation, Denise Hordland, is not the mayor. I'm commissioner, right?

Commissioner. Council members.

Council member, right, president. They have a strong mayor, right? Yeah. Thank you. But that was her last meeting. And so a lot of that was geared towards giving her a lot of accolades and her sharing her appreciation for a lot of folks there. And of course, too, they also had another opportunity to memorialize Ms. Matamer?

Ms. Matamer.

Matamer. So that was about the end of that meeting. So they didn't have a lot of business. That would be from Danger Beach. I just had her name Davis. Commissioner Davis. Yes. Dania Beach. Right. Dania Beach. Right.

Okay. Anything else?

Yes. So for the NPO, I just want to share I'm going to pass some stuff this way, and I'm going to pass some stuff this way. What you're getting here, the surtax came to the MPO and sort of gave all the cities a document that showed all the surtax projects that are going on in their cities. That's what I'm just providing you right now. It's a map and along with a description of all the projects that are going on along with all the costs that are associated with those.

So one of the things, too, is I'd like to Mr. Manager, if we could probably put this on our website. It's not a bad thing to share with folks, let them know that some of our tax dollars are being spent here in the city. And Mr. Mayor, you'd be happy to know at least that the question that was brought forward by the city of Pembroke Pines was, what is the process that cities can follow in order to be able to enhance the dollar amounts that were provided in some of these surtax projects that were initiated a long time ago, certainly before two waves of inflationary events, one being, of course, COVID, then supply chain, and now the war.

And so we are certainly aware of projects that we have in the city that were actually pulled from what we call the TIP, which is the MPO's funded programs. And it was put into the surtax projects, it was funded at those levels. But eight years later, we certainly have a shortfall today because of those inflationary measures. So the question was, what process should the city follow in order to be able to ask for additional dollars? And through a long discussion, it essentially came down to that we would have to amend the interlocal agreement that we currently have.

So there may be an opportunity going forward, should cities agree, the county would have to be in agreement as well to amend the interlocal agreement in such a way that all projects that are underfunded should be able to be brought to a funded level. But again, as we know, the interlocal agreement process is pretty arduous. But nevertheless, it is a process. And it was clearly identified by and it was Gresham Cassini who made that presentation. But that was her last presentation to make because she is leaving Broward County.

And they did also tell us that they were handing the reins over to somebody else to be the surtax director. So this is good information to look at and to share with your constituents and things of that nature. And hopefully, there is a way to find a secondary source of funding. And I know that we're working through some of that right now with some of our projects.

Commissioner Good, I have a question. I see on the document one of the points for the funding year 2019 to 2026. There's Panther Run Elementary School Zones. And I know that they have a representative from the school board. Was that brought up as something that unless it was already done previously? No.

None of these projects were talked in any kind of detail. It was just more of presentation about the surtax and here are the projects you're all doing. And the school board person was there too, but didn't have an opportunity to speak to anything other than hear

the presentation And we of can mention it to the school board member. I believe it is our representative as well to bring this up. But at the next one, if you could just make sure to highlight it's not your job. We'll ask them. But if anything, to highlight, make sure that in the redefining process, they eliminate some of those schools or some of these programs because the schools are being shut down. Thank you.

Anything else? Yes, Mr. Mayor.

So there's another thing that I'm sharing with you all tonight. So this is the University Drive Project celebration Built for Broward week, which will be on May 27 at the Pembroke Pines City Hall. So the Built for Broward week is an MPO initiative that runs from May 25 through May 29. And it immediately follows what we have as the National Infrastructure Week. And the reason why they created a separate week is because Broward Transportation certainly deserves its own spotlight, separate from all these other infrastructure issues.

Each day of the week, the MPO is going to be highlighting one transportation project from one of the Broward five MPO districts, which we are part of one. And just they're going to highlight where different stages and where they are in under construction. However, the University Drive event is essentially the signature moment for this week. And it is on Wednesday. And it's under the theme Built for Regional Mobility.

And University Drive earned that designation because the corridor serves commuters, businesses, schools, and neighborhoods across a wide stretch of Central Broward. So about the University Drive celebration, it will be hosted here at Pembroke Pines City Hall. And it marks the official celebration of the construction starting on University Drive roadway improvement projects. The program will begin at 10:30AM. The program features remarks from several speakers representing different agencies and other partners who makes this project possible, giving everybody a full picture of the collaboration behind what we're going to see that's going to get built.

So it'll have project drawings, photographs, three d renderings of the completed corridor, and offering a preview of what University Drive will look like when construction wraps up in 2030. A special shout out to our Congresswoman Debbie Wasserman Schultz. She had a major role in this. This project is $43,000,000 cost. And she secured $5,000,000 in federal community project funding that helped make this project possible.

And everybody here should know that her commitment to Pembroke Pines helped us get to this groundbreaking. So what is the University Drive improvements going to be? Well, the project runs from Pembroke Road to North Of Johnson Street. And it touches nearly all dimensions of the corridor, meaning safety, mobility, lighting, drainage, and multimodal accessing. Northbound University Drive will get a dedicated seven foot bike lane from Pembroke Road to Pines Boulevard.

And then it will get from Pines Boulevard to Northwest 13th Street, a new 10 foot shared use separate path, which gives both pedestrians and cyclists a continuous connected route along one of our busiest roads. The traffic signals at Airport Road, French Drive, and Johnson Street are being upgraded to modern mast arm signals. And street lighting throughout the corridor is going to be converted to LED, both of which directly improve the safety for everyone using this road day and night. Drainage improvements and canal cross section restorations mean that the project is also investing in long term infrastructure resiliency, not just the surface level fixes that we typically see. Sidewalk, curb ramps, signage, and pavement markings are all being upgraded through the project limits.

The details that make a corridor genuinely accessible and usable for everyone. And the estimated completion is in fall of twenty twenty nine. So this is a multi year commitment, but it is going to begin at the end of the month or at the end of the next month. So sir, that's my report for oh, and by the way, too, and I'd like to actually put this on the website as well because I recognize that we don't have this as the announcement I just provided to you, the invitation, so that our public can know, should they want to attend this celebration, that they can attend it Outstanding. Here at City

Thank you very, very much for that. Anything further? No, Mr. Mayor, thank you very much. Report to the city manager.

Yes, mayor. Tomorrow, you will be the commissioner will be receiving an email with the dates, times, and locations of the town hall meetings, the mayor that you addressed. I'm gonna read them tonight so everybody's aware of it. District 1 is going to be on June 2 at 06:30. The location is going to be Commission Chambers. District 2 is going to be June 1 at 06:30. The location of that community meeting is Southwest Focal Point Community Center. District 3 is going to be June 8 at 06:30, and that's going to be at the new Dream Park. District 4 is going to be June 10 at 06:30. It's going to be at the River Of Grass Theater.

We have established at Century Village a June 11 date at 10AM, Colony Point, May 28 at 10AM, and Holly Brook and Park Place, we're still awaiting for a commitment from them to a date and time. So we have set up all of those pre meetings to talk about the referendum questions as well as the bond referendum for public safety. I'll be providing you ahead of time with our presentation so you know what to expect. So that covers the entire city and two of the main four condos in the city. And we should be completed with that hopefully by middle of June.

And if there's a need for additional, then we'll do so. But those dates I've confirmed with the mayor for his town hall meetings.

Mr. Dodge, do you believe ten days notice

I'm sorry, I can't hear you.

Do you believe ten days notice to the residents over

We'll be publishing these dates over Memorial Day weekend.

Is ten days notice enough time? I think so.

Yeah. If we publish these tomorrow, which is May 21, you have ten days. The rest of you have ten days in May. And then June 1. And then we have June 1 and June 2. The first one is June 1, yes. I believe there's ample time. And again, we can publish them. We can put them on social media. We can send out emails to those people that we have them. But you can't force people to read stuff or to look at it.

Are we going to utilize the I'm sorry. I can't hear you, Commissioner. Will we utilize the Red Alert HOA system?

We're moving away. You'll find out we have Everbridge, which is a better system. However, unless somebody registers for it, they're not going to get it. GREGORY Agree. GREGORY DELL: But we're going to encourage that. We're publishing that

on our website. Digital boards, digital signage? What's that? Digital signage is

Yeah. Will all go on the digital signs throughout the city, the seven.

Okay. And when will it go out on the digital signs? Will I'll that be

get them out tomorrow, I imagine. I'll speak to Mary Anne. It's a very simple once we have this published, I just want you to aware of it. We'll get it tomorrow.

You're do some sandwich boards as well, right, in the districts?

GREGORY Well, that meeting for that district, yeah, we could put up sandwich boards.

I think that would make sense.

Okay. Jonathan, you got that?

I have a comment. On the May 28, so the person that I I do monthly meetings at Colony Point, usually on the fourth Thursday of the month, exactly the '28. I spoke to Joan who organizes the events. She said she's not available, and I had to cancel my May 28 meeting. I'm not sure if it was because this meeting was going on or she wasn't going to be in town. I want to understand who coordinated that. And at least for while I understand they're seniors and they might be retired, I don't know if a 10AM meeting is ideal. I host

They selected a commissioner. We'll follow-up with whomever they spoke with.

Okay. And then in addition, I understand that for some communications, people have to sign up. But there is public data available as to at least voter people who are registered to vote. And we can get that data from the SOE. Because this is so crucial and because this is a shorter time span than I would prefer to be able to express to our residents when these events are. If we can find a way to let them know on a more individual basis, either emails through the SOE has or text messages, I think that's essential. If the city can't do it, I'm going to

have to

find a way to do it on my own, because I want every single person to attend these meetings. And at least to me and my residents at Colony Point, I don't believe seven days is enough of a time frame. They're seniors and sometimes they're home, but a lot of them still work. I want to find Well,

the commissioner, we're going to have other meetings as well. These are the initial. And I understand what you're saying. We will confirm with Collyny Point again. Because I'm I'm not sure who they spoke with that gave us this date and time.

I usually work with their, like, events coordinator.

I don't know

who they Exactly. It might be a different person.

Said it. And if we need to move this meeting of the twenty eighth later, we will. But let's establish a schedule. And if it needs to be modified, we can do so.

Okay. And then for future reference, this is not enough time. And I understand we want to get them done. And we can have more. But even when we announce those additional meetings, we need, I would say, at least fifteen, twenty days to be able to announce this MICHAEL and get the information

I'm curious why we're not looking at, to Commissioner Rodriguez's point, July. Like, why is this being so front loaded in the beginning of June? If I may,

we had hoped to do this in May. We originally, when we talked about it, we tried to figure out a way to do all of these town halls in late May. It's been pushed back because of information that our administration is frustrated they're waiting for. There's a series of meetings that is being set up now that include all of us in order to share that information. We're on a timeline.

By August 18, we have to get all of our information in. And attendance during the month of July is very, very difficult because people, including us, are away or might be away. So administration indicated that the month of June is when they were going to do it. I've heard these dates for the first time just like everybody else. And I think it's very, very important that these meetings are not easy to do.

They're not easy to schedule. If additional meetings are necessary in the month of June, I'm happy to duplicate them if they are necessary. But I think that what we should do is we should all figure out a way to pull this cart in the same direction. And if there is a means available to any of us to get this information out more efficiently, let's Well, Mr. Dodge, it may take a couple of bucks in order to make sure that people are properly notified.

I like the idea of emails. And if we don't currently have that internal capability, I have absolutely no problem with us spending a couple of bucks to get that done. We need to be able to do this. Now, there's and it's important because after we pass, assuming we pass second reading, we can't add the only thing that's available to the general public is that which has already been spoken. So there will be videos that are on the website because those sessions had already taken place.

There will be visual information that's available on the website that we can point to people and we can say, here, you can go to the website. Because those were predated the second reading, correct, Mr. City Attorney?

So far, yes, sir.

So all of that information is going to be there, which are things that we didn't necessarily have the last time we had a ballot question following the adoption of this new state law. So I'm going to ask you all, and I'm going to do my best as well to cooperate. If I have to move things, if I have to do some different things, that's what we have to do in order to make sure that these meetings take place, that they are well attended. I like the idea of the text or the emails or both. If we have to whatever it is that we have to do to let folks know, please gather with us.

And then if they can't make it, there will be information that's available to them. We can do mailings after that. We can talk about a series of things that can be done before the second votes.

Mr. Mayor, if I may, in response to Commissioner Rodriguez, the supervisor of election emails is something like 48,000 of them that are within our city. They're going out tomorrow, those emails.

Okay. Okay. Okay.

And then in addition, the SOE also provides phone numbers and text messaging.

Whatever they we have everything they provided. But at least the emails will be going out tomorrow. That's why it was critical for me this evening to let you know what those dates are and Yes. What's going

That makes sense. And then in addition to that, I wanted to I had something. Come back to me. But I had another question on it. I'm just forgetting on it now. Okay.

Mr. Mayor, can I Yes, sir? So when you talk about outreach and communication, I know that somebody I don't know how we may do it or if you already have it, but a lot of these community groups, HOAs, and things like that have a pretty extensive email listing. I know I've seen some of them. Of course, I don't know if they're willing to share, but you might need to push it to the HOA groups to push it out to their If

they're not part of the 48,000 that are listed for the supervisor election, that means they're not registered voters.

Well, none of Mr. Dodge. I to correct you on that. So not every registered voter gives the supervisor of elections their email address.

Well, it's what we have.

What we know is that all the emails we have are voters, but that doesn't mean that only voters are only those that we have emails for. So Well,

what we'll do is look, mayor.

If the HOAs and the condo associations want to

Share those?

Share those with their Yeah, we just gave

it to can do it multiple times.

That's fine. But certainly

we'll check with that as well. Yes.

And so if I may also say, DELL:

too, you mentioned June 2 would be for District 1. Is that correct?

One is

June June two.

Two.

So I'm out of town. I'm not available. But I'm not opposed to moving forward, as the mayor has indicated. For me, what's important is we start moving this information quickly because the way I see it is that constant it's continuum for me in terms of me being able to hear from people. Because once the word starts getting out, it spreads. And then that's when the feedback starts coming. And some people may be at the meeting, but more of the conversation is going to probably be on the streets.

Well, 06/02/2001 will be live streamed here, and we'll be able to replay it because it's going to be the same presentation.

So when you say live stream, what does that mean? That means can I Well, I mean is

you can go on and watch it? I hope so. You can watch it remotely. We can we can make We'll put that presentation on our website so that anytime anybody wants to go look at it because all of these presentations are going to be identical.

Maybe we can zoom Commissioner in if he's got a free hour. I'll do.

Yeah, Okay.

I remembered what I

was Jesse going Patty.

One of the things

He has to get permission.

That we I want to clarify is that while we aren't putting this on the ballot until later on in August, November. But the deadline to do it is August.

Right, August 18.

After that, though, while we are limited in what we can say in the communications, but we're not limited in communicating whatsoever, which is exactly what we did. The bond town halls that we had earlier last year, we were able to go through up until basically election day communicating just the facts of what was going to be on there. So I want to clarify that this isn't the only kind of information that we're getting out to the people that in the future, past this August 18 limitation that we're going to come into, that we still continue to have these communications with all of our residents with the legal limitations that we may have.

That's for the city attorney to respond to.

We will have that conversation. I totally understand what you said.

Mayor, if I may. We have been, I guess, notified in the last two or three days that we've been asked to sit down with the design team for a public safety building. Based upon the emails I received, some of us are scheduled and others are being worked out. I anticipate well, actually, our commission aide notified us that the item will be on the June 3 meeting for our consideration. That being said, we, as a collective group, need to make that decision on the record.

And if we have something scheduled on May 3

I'm not aware of anything on June 3.

Well, may not have been copied on the email. Was Udan has sent us

I'm speaking to John.

The June 3 meeting, commission meeting, mayor, we discussed, this is when the architect are going to come and share with commission the public safety project and what it entails.

So it's a general item.

Yes. That's a commission meeting. The individual meetings, mayor, was to give you some additional time to ask any questions. And it gave you the opportunity to hear it first.

So my concern is the May 28, the June 1, and the June 2, we haven't deliberated any of that. They're coming to you to talk to you. Respect to the meetings with the public and the ability to talk about a potential bond. We can't say anything about it because

we haven't deliberated it until June 3. Commissioner, that answer comes when the city attorney gets his turn. That's the next thing that we're going to talk about.

And Mayor, secondly, this is to give you information about the scope of the project. That's it.

Is that not the cause?

You're not voting on it or Yes.

The course

will be there.

The June 3 is a resolution that the city attorney will talk about. And I don't know if that resolution is June 3 or if it's June 17. I thought it was June 17.

Commissioner Schwartz, if you could just hold that Yeah. Because it's it's it's very relevant, and it is the next item that we're gonna be talking about when we get to the city attorney. Anything further on on on this side? Mr. Dodge, anything else?

No, ma'am. That's it.

City attorney's report.

Thank you, mayor. Briefly, just to refine my last presentation in response to Commissioner Rodriguez, we know that there's an outside day for submitting ballot referendum questions. That's August 18. We know that there is a city commission meeting on August 5. We know that the city commission has taken action to approve on first reading both ordinances that would change the charter, the March to November election and the fourfive to threefive vote on manager issues, hiring and firing the manager and hiring and firing the assistant or the acting city manager.

The third item is a resolution for bonds. Part of the driving force of the bond resolution is the fact that within a bond resolution, you have to tell the voters what they're voting on. And that bond reso is prepared by not just our office, but by your bond lawyer, by bond counsel, Jalinda Herring from Bryant Miller. I spoke with Jalinda as early as this morning. That document is being finalized.

What's legally necessary is that the bond resolution must have a dollar figure in the title, in the question, so that the voter knows that they're voting for a maximum potential bond amount for a public safety complex. That number has not yet been provided. I think that's what the manager was describing to you moments ago regarding meeting with the design team and others to get to a number. So your finance director, your financial advisors, John and Jerry Ford, and your bond counsel, and Lisa Chung in our office. We're working on trying to finalize that resolution.

It would be my recommendation and Mary, me out through this discussion. But it is my belief that if you were to, let's say, August the two meetings in June are June the help me out here. The

third and the seventeenth.

Third and seventeenth. If the commission were to consider for review the bond resolution on the third or the seventeenth, but not adopt it until the August meeting, you would then have the opportunity to say on the record that the item is not yet placed on the ballot. With me? You have second readings coming up on August 5 for both ordinances. And you just need to work through a date sequence that would allow the commission more flexibility under that statute than not.

Yeah. So I had a conversation with the city attorney. And this is a little bit different than the ballot questions because with the ballot questions, we enough authorization to talk to residents about those items just based on first reading. Second reading will be reserved for when the item is due. By that time, it'll be completed.

But we can tell them we've already had first reading on this item. And we are authorized to have this conversation with you in advance of the second reading. With the resolution, there's only one reading. So what I was talking to the city attorney about was because you can't have the conversation without all the components. You have to have an understanding of what the building is going to be. You have to have some sense of drawings about the building is going to be. And you have to have some sense of the cost of what the building is going to be. Otherwise, discussing this matter with residents is a waste of time. You've got to have all the information. So Mr.

Attorney, the conversation I had with you was that we would first entertain the approval of a draft resolution. The approval of a draft resolution signals the interest or the intent of the city to deliberate on the actual resolution. And I think it would empower us to have a conversation with taxpayers about that item. Do you see anything legally wrong with approving a draft resolution before we start this town hall meeting series?

The short answer is no. The qualification is that so long as you don't approve it in final form. You just simply approve them the format of a document with which can be discussed in more liberal terms between now and the final adoption on August 5, which is the date that you'll approve all three items.

All right. Mr. Dodge, are you capable of will you be able to provide the city attorney with a number for this building prior to the first town hall meeting on June 1.

I can provide it to you all this evening. But yes, the answer is yes.

Okay. Well, if that's the case, today's this is the second meeting in Yes.

This is the twenty first.

If you all don't mind, I don't mind calling a special meeting at some point before the town hall meetings start for the sole purpose of looking at a draft resolution that has all of the information. I want to make sure that every bit of information that we have is available to the residents

at the town halls. So mayor, I'm unavailable next week. However,

the architect is You're unavailable even for a phone call discussion?

Allow me. I don't believe I'm going to be able to sit down with the architect until June 1.

Well, sir, you're going to have to rearrange your

Well, sir, I'm only following the instructions I was given.

Okay. Well, I'm explaining to you

So here's what have Here's what happened. You're going rushed through a bond initiative that failed a

year ago for this. Enough. Enough. I'm trying to get business done here. I'm asking you as your mayor. You you need to rearrange your schedule in order for the business of this government to proceed. And I will leave that between you and the manager to do. I don't wanna hear that you're not gonna be available for weeks on end. I don't

want to hear it. Mayor.

Okay? But that's it. I don't want to have this conversation any further. I need you to figure out a way so that this city can do business.

May I ask the city manager a question?

Go right ahead.

Because about fifteen minutes ago, he said there was no cost. Okay.

He just said Now he said He never said that I'm not sure. I'm not sure.

I don't know if it's where

I'm sitting. I don't

know because he can't hear me and I can't hear him.

GREGORY Well, can hear you when

you speak into the mic. Right.

Well, City Manager Dodge, I asked what the presentation was going to be. And you said it was going to be design. Now you're offering that there's going to be a cost.

You can provide us a cost by tomorrow. I can provide the cost to tonight. I wasn't asked that question. We have three different options. And I was going to present that this evening so that the city attorney

It's not on the agenda. So it's not fair to ask that question because it's not on the agenda. That should be an agenda item. And it can be part of the discussion that we have when I call

the special meeting. Or it would have been on the June 3 meeting.

Right. So I'm just letting you know that it is my intent to call a special meeting to discuss this bond matter completely.

Now we will be working

with each commissioner to the best of everyone's ability. And I'm going to do whatever I have to do in order to become available so that that meeting can take place.

Okay. I just want a little bit of clarity. So the special meeting and I'm Okay to do any evening time next week. Obviously, the twenty fifth is Memorial Day. The first meeting on the town hall is May 28. So is it intent to call a special meeting on the twenty sixth or the twenty seventh?

That's my point that I was trying to make. Because at this point, we have literally tomorrow or we have Tuesday or Wednesday next week.

Well,

the city administration because we heard from two commissioners now with concerns about outreach ten days notice, can we move the twenty eighth, the first, and the second, and put it on the back end so that we can I

have no objection to that

we can digest the information without Mr? Madger, I have If no objection to

we can get to Colony Point.

The only issue that we have with it, we're ready to put these emails out tomorrow to give the proper notice, at least 44,000 of them tomorrow to the people. If now you're saying you want to change dates, that's going to delay it even further. Was upfront to let you know what those dates were. The email is going out tomorrow. If we're going go back and forth with requests for different days, then we can't put anything out tomorrow. Because that that'll confuse the residents even more if we're telling them on June 1, District 2 is gonna have a meeting at a time and where it's going be located. And now you want to move it at the back end.

I'm sure that by the twenty eighth, there will be sufficient information. And if we have to come back to that one location to double back, I'm more than willing to do so. So let's just proceed and try and get this thing done. Anything further, mismanagement? No, mayor. I'm done.

Okay.

We're on commission items. Mayor, don't intend to sorry.

I'm sorry to interrupt your question. Just to conclude my presentation, if it's the wish of the commission to bring back a draft resolution on the third, we can do it on the third, or we can do it on the seventeenth.

Yeah, I would get ready to probably do this sometime early next week.

Understood.

If not Monday,

then certainly Again, just for the record, have a

No, I can't do it Monday. Tuesday. Probably Tuesday.

We will coordinate with both Lisa Chung and with John and Jerry Ford and certainly Jalinda Herring. I have a draft of that document in my hands. The issue is that the manager can provide an upset number, which gets inserted both in the title and in the body and in the question. We can get it done.

Thank you. Okay. Vice mayor, I'm going to pass the gallops to you. Though I don't plan to make any motions today because we don't have the information. But as we all know, Pembroke Lakes is not the first community in Pembroke Pines, but it is one of the first communities in Pembroke Pines.

And we care about it deeply. For the vast majority, as far as I know, if not dating back to the beginning, It was a deed restricted community. And I'm still not sure, Sam, whether those restrictions on those deeds in Pembroke Lake supply and the community association simply can't enforce them, or whether it's the community association that missed a deadline in Tallahassee. So they're disbanded. I'm not exactly sure.

But the bottom line is they had erected signs. One of them survives somewhere in the area that's it in the Benfier in Deano Park. And the other one was located on Taft near Flamingo. It's been there for years and years and years. It was struck, as I understand it, in an accident. And it was destroyed, the one on Taft And Flamingo. We received an email

from a resident who

happens to be a member of the highly respected member of the Parapines Police Force and says, you know, we really should replace the sign. And I have to tell you, I 100% agree. We should replace that sign. Whether that is done with city funds because the median that's involved is city property, or whether we give it to the We Love Pembroke Pines Foundation because that's part of what they were created to do, which is to improve communities, is a recommendation I would prefer for the manager to come back to us on. This is an endemitum because I wanted to deal with it right away.

I feel that strongly about it in terms of dealing with it right away. But we still don't have the costs. We still don't have the understanding as to whether or not a sign this old although I suppose it can be done can be made. I would like to my personal preference is that they should be comparable. I do not know whether a deed restricted community should be on that or not.

And if not, it really should be removed. But at any rate, the purpose of this was to elicit any discussion that you might have. But my hope is that city manager will come back to us at our next city commission meeting with a plan to restore the sign, pay for it, whether it comes out of the foundation, whether the city, or some combination, or something else. This community association is no longer in existence. It expired.

And it wasn't renewed. And city attorney wrote a memo on this, gosh, I don't know how many years ago, five maybe. And there's nothing that can be done about it. And so there's no mechanism through which residents can chip in anymore to do the sign. And frankly, I think that they would all very much welcome their city assisting them in putting back the sign. So those

are

my thoughts. And unless anyone has an objection, Vice

Can Mayor the commissioner weigh in?

Yeah, you can. I don't think the manager said this into the mic when you asked the question about a deed restricted community. But he did say it doesn't have to be there.

It's not a deed restricted community.

Exactly. So that portion has of the be removed. It has to be removed, he just said. So it's no longer deed restricted. Since he didn't speak into the mic, I wanted to make sure that you all heard it. Go ahead, commissioner.

That's probably why I didn't hear him earlier. So this accident happened some time ago. I've been working with members of the community to pursue getting reimbursed by the driver that smashed into the sun. Makes sense, right? That's what insurance is for.

The challenge is the organization no longer exists. So you can't file a claim and try to get a check if you don't exist anymore. Now that we have that put away, I do have signed quotes. They are provided to me. I told the members of the community I was willing to kick in a few bucks out of my own pocket this was months ago to go ahead and get the sign rebuilt.

The We Love Pembroke Pines initiative, I think it's ripe for us to consider doing that. I think that would be the best path forward. But I also want to take the opportunity to remind the commission that many years ago in Streetscape 2, there was a commitment for neighborhood sign identification, places like Pembroke Lakes, Westview, Sunswept, and the Pines Village, to erect signage that would identify their neighborhoods. So I'd like for the manager to expand his view or the role in, I guess, sign erection so that we can include the commitments that we made years ago. The communities that I just mentioned were certainly excited about the opportunity.

Mr. Dodd, just for your recollection, this came about in Streetscape 2. The commission made a shift in where the funding went, and two point zero never really happened. We went towards the digital signage. We went towards a few different things. COVID hit, and the money is no longer available. So since the public dollars are no longer available, perhaps the Wheel of Pembroke Pines Foundation could do its part to fulfill a commitment that was made some years ago.

You mentioned, commissioner I'm sorry, finish. No, go ahead. No, you mentioned that you had quotes, right? I do. Okay. But you're sharing them here tonight, you're sharing it with administration?

I have not received

GREGORY No, no. Mr. Dodges was not aware of

what it is he's referring to as to who has quotes and how Well, they're

yeah. So I received them a day or two ago. And they're local businesses, so I like the fact that they're still within the city. But again, this has been something that the residents of Pembroke Lakes and I have been working towards a solution for many months now. And I appreciate the mayor putting this item on.

I want to get the signage in. As far as the part that's going to be removed, if you recall, many months ago I asked I had an item for an overlay district that would have protected the community with code enforcement. But that didn't go through. So at this point, what the residents are asking for is neighborhood identification. I do have the contact information of the wife of the original designer of the sign who procured it, who erected it, who designed it.

So I'm happy to help and work with the administration on getting this project done. I just don't want to leave out Pines Village and Sunswept and Boulevard Heights and Westview and other communities, Commissioner Good and District 1, that don't have HOAs, that we made that commitment back probably 2017, 2018 range, if I had to take a guess, when we moved the two point zero streetscape into a more digital format. Mr. Mayor?

Oh, I'm sorry. Vice Mayor, are you the chair? I'd be very happy to deal with that. But that has not been communicated with me at all. If you have quotes on signs that haven't been provided to me, no one has spoken to me. So I'm hearing this for the first time.

That's fair. I mean, look, we all get different emails. I'm happy to forward what I have to you. I can do that. Well, if

you're working with staff, I'd prefer it go to me and not just

No, I didn't say staff. Again, I must not be leaning into the microphone. I am happy to forward the information right now that I have to you so you can leave here tonight with some opportunities to review the

That's assignments. Fine. If you provide it to me, then we'll review it, and I'll discuss it

with Give me staff. Fifteen seconds, and you'll have it in

your I box. Don't know if you provided that information to staff already.

GREGORY No, I did not provide it

to staff.

Have the information from the residents because we thought that initially, thought I I was going to kind of like do a GoFundMe. I was willing to kick in a significant amount of money out of my own pocket

to didn't make how much this you want to pay for it.

Well, here's the thing. I want to protect they did, I guess, bidding. So I want to protect that process. I'll forward what I have to you. And then you can decide how you want to go. But it's well within here's what's interesting. It's well within your purchase ability without getting commission's approval. Again, I don't know how the foundation will work, mayor, as far as dispensing of expenses and that sort of thing. I don't know if we have that structure set up yet for the foundation. But it's something that we should probably at least have a discussion on how the money would be pushed out, who approves it, certain thresholds, that sort

of thing.

Okay. Mayor Kustee, you'll

have The foundation is an independent board. It has nothing to do with me or the city. You all have to vote on how you want to expend the funds and how you set that up to handle it.

I like the idea of the foundation doing a project like this.