City Council - Regular Meeting

This meeting to order. Today is Wednesday, September 11th, 2024. The time is now 10.07 a.m. Madam Clerk, please call the roll.

Mayor Hapkorn. Thank you very much. We will now rise for the Pledge of Allegiance led by Councilman Pinedo. Thank you. Before we go into our invocation, which will be led by Carmen Colmenares from our Faith-Based Advisory Board, I'd like to ask for a moment of silence in memory of September 11, 2001. Thank you to all who joined us this morning in honoring those from September 11th. And we'll now ask Carmen Comenares to please come up and do the invocation.

Thank you, Calvin. Beautiful. All right, we're going to proceed to the agenda order of business. Is there any items that would be removed or deleted, starting with the city manager's office?

Thank you, Mayor. Through the Mayor? Yes. I'm going to pull 6D, 6O, 6P, as in Paul, and 6T, as in Tom.

6D, like David, 6O, 6P, like Paul, and 6T, like Tom. That's it for me. Okay, vice mayor.

Councilman Cabral. Okay. I don't have any items to pull either. Yes, Madam City Clerk.

Yes, thank you. All right. If that is all the agenda order of business, we'll move on to public comments. The public comments portion of this meeting is now open. You have three minutes to speak to this council in a respectful manner. Please approach the podium, say your name and address for the record. I will start with our comment cards that have been filled out. If you have not filled out a comment card, please make sure to do so by approaching the city clerk after you speak. We'll start with Louis Mar Zabedi Garza.

Thank you. Any other public comments at this time? I have no more comment cards. Okay, if there are no more public comments, public comments is now closed, and we'll move on to our consent agenda. Madam Clerk, can you please read the items?

Through the mayor? Sorry, I need to make a correction to the items I pulled. So I'm withdrawing, if you guys are all okay with the items I pulled, because I was looking at the old agenda. So they have different numbers. Okay, so here we go. I'm gonna pull... 6N as in Nancy, 6O as in Oscar, and 6S as in Sam.

Yes, there's no T. So I'm sorry, NOS, correct? So D is no longer pulled. Okay, all right, Madam Clerk, can we please get a full read on what we're actually approving?

Motion to approve by Councilman Pinedo, second by Vice Mayor Queen Corving. Madam Clerk, please call the roll. I'm sorry, all in favor say aye. Aye. I was still fixing my agenda. All right, now I need a motion for the minutes. Motion to approve. Motion to approve by Councilman Cabral, second by Councilman Pinedo. All in favor say aye. Minutes have been approved. Now we'll move on to presentations. Item 8A, Keep Draw Beautiful Business Award. Okay.

Yeah, come on up, Cecilia. Thank you so much. Would you like to say a couple words and then we'll take a photo? Thank you. You sure?

Thank you very much, for your delicious empanadas. Keep us all going. All right. We'll move on now to the next item.

Thank you, Madam Clerk. All right, we'll turn this over to Planning and Zoning.

Thank you, Chelle. Mr. Jimenez, twice in one week. Lucky me.

Thank you, Mr. Jimenez. Any questions from my colleagues? Through the mayor.

Yes, Councilman Porras. Thank you for bringing these great events to our city and also being you know part of our city My my quick question is I know that we are supporting the sponsorship for the police department budget, and I just wanted to Because I know that during our conversations. We had a conversation about an exchange or some sort of You know gift for the city, and I just want to see if you can mention that just very very

Any other questions? Well, I just want to say that thank you for bringing that up, Councilwoman Porras, because I was going to comment something about the in-kind, because the amount of the in-kind really represents almost two full-year salary of one of our full-time employees in the park. So I was going to make a comment, but now that I know that you, Colleen, are going to be doing the contribution to the city, then I will be flexible when it comes to the contribution that you're requesting.

And thank you for the trees. I know Public Works was super ecstatic about the trees, so I'm going to trust them on this. So thank you.

Thank you very much. Okay, we need a motion to approve. Motion. Motion to approve by Councilman Pinedo, second by Vice Mayor Puig Corvey. Madam Clerk, please call the roll.

All right. Thank you very much. We look forward to the nutcracker.

Thank you. So this is a request for the waiving the court rental fees for two pickleball tournaments in support of the Help for Venezuela Foundation. We previously approved one earlier this year, and this great foundation would like our help again with two tournaments, one for Saturday, October 19th, And the other one for November 23rd. The one for October 19th, one of the organizers has sent out a flyer. It's going to be dedicated to women's history or women. And so the flyer, I think, has been circulated to Councilman Cabral and Mayor Fraga. I think you have seen it. So they're seeking appro

Second by vice mayor put Corby maybe speaking to though. Oh sorry, I didn't hear. I think the mic was on.

That's comes to a woman. This is your item.

Yes, thank you. So I think that it just speaks by itself for us to be able to include and to define the role of the city council in supporting department-led initiative at events and ensuring the participation and recognition is distributed fairly across all city office. Our city attorney worked with me within this item. I don't know if you would like to add something to the...

Perfect. No, thank you so much. So I think that this is just a fairness and to be able to be to ensure that the involvement will be for all city members and to have established clear guidance. So this will help also the Department of Public Affairs. them to understand how is it the protocol has to be proceed. So I hope I will have support of my council members on this item. Is there any questions through the mayor?

I'm fully supportive of this. May I suggest that in bringing something back, we provide some sort of protocol guidance agreement with whoever's asking to use our logo, do an event in partnership with the city, because at the end of the day, You know they are representing us the city and I think that they should be able to follow the same protocol guidance That we have in place for our city events I think that's a you know a suggestion that I would make and also to again, you know avoid a lot of confusion that comes with events that are have our city logo and our city seal or anything or using

That's just my only suggestion. That would be fine. We can also add, we can amend and add that part too. That would be okay. Okay.

and it'll be brought back, right? You'll bring it back.

Okay, there's a motion to approve by Councilwoman Cabral, I mean, I'm sorry, by Councilman Porras, seconded by Vice Mayor Puig-Corvey. Call the roll.

All right. We'll move on to Mayor's report. Mayor, the discussion items that were pulled. Oh, that's right. We're going back to item 6-0. 6-N. 6-N. 6-N. N-O-N-S. Yes. Yes.

Yes, so the items I pulled, NOS, I just really want a presentation. I think it's good to have it on the record and to have the residents and the audience hear what the data is and what all of this is. So for the next three items, that's what I'd like to hear. Thank you.

Okay, any questions for Public Works? Yeah, through the mayor.

Yes. Did we add, and I know I think we talked about adding all of the pharmacies to the senior freebie?

Right, Navarro was the one that I kept getting asked for. Yeah, yes, we have.

Motion to approve by Councilman Porras, second by Councilman Pinedo. Madam Clerk, please call the roll.

Councilman Porras? Yeah, we just heard the presentation on it, so I'll just do a motion to approve. Motion to approve by Councilman Porras, second by Vice Mayor Puig Corbin. Madam Clerk?

All right. Thank you. I just want the presentation. Yeah.

Yes. Can you tell them for us? Just to confirm, so we're going to integrate the study that we just approved recently on transportation alternatives, the green policies that we've adopted here on the council, everything's just going to be incorporated in here?

Motion to approve by Councilman Porras, seconded by Vice Mayor Puig Corby. Madam Clerk.

Okay, thank you. Yes, thank you. Mayor's report. We've now exhausted all of our discussion items. We'll move on to the mayor's report. Very quickly, just wanted to thank Parks and Recreation Department for their very well job well done with the Doral Central Park opening. I know there was running around with the change of date due to the weather, but it turned out to be great and thank you. to everyone who came out and made that a possibility, as well as the manager's office and everybody who participated. So just wanted to recognize you all for that. I wanted to also bring to our attention fo

I also wanted to express my gratitude to the Dora Police Department for their continued active presence in our schools, ensuring the safety for our community during this challenging time, especially following the recent tragedy in Apalachee High School. Your continued effort is really appreciated.

Okay, thank you, Councilman. Yes, Councilman Pinedo.

Thank you, Mayor. I also want to take this opportunity to commend the Parks Department for the hard work to make Doral Central Park a reality. Now we have a park, and I want to say thank you. I know a lot of people have put a lot of time and effort. Lazaro, thank you so much, sir. And Erin and everybody that was involved. And certainly to our police department as well, because they have been part of this process when it comes to safety and the opening of the park. And speaking on that, I would like to suggest to have maybe a park ranger on site, but full time instead of rotating the park range

Thank you, Councilman. Any other Council comments?

I'll just echo what my colleague said. Thank you all for the great work and continue to do great things. Thank you.

All right. That exhausts our Council comments and our Advisory Board comments were deferred to the following month, so we'll move on to the City Manager's report.

They kind of look the same. Whatever we did last year.

Thank you. We'll move on to the city attorney's report.

Yes, thank you, thank you Lorenzo. I think this is an absolutely important decision and prudent that we are prepared and that he, will he be participating in the meeting on the 17th with us? Yeah, I think it's gonna be important for the city to have representation there to put on the record our position and also an argument to our favor should we need to proceed. I think you have consensus. Yeah, thank you. All right, we'll move on to the city clerk's report.

Yeah. Okay, so we'll also be joining us at the 17th meeting to make a statement on behalf of the council. All right, perfect, great. All right, we can move on now to a full report from the city clerk's office.

All right, very efficient. Thank you. And now we will need a motion to recess for our 6 p.m. Motion. Motion to recess by Vice Mayor Pui-Corvey, second by Councilman Pinedo. All in favor say aye. Aye. We'll see you back here at 6 o'clock. Thank you.

Good evening, everyone. Welcome to our evening session for our regular scheduled council meeting. Today is Wednesday, September 11, 2024. The time is 6.14 p.m. This meeting is now in order. And just give me one second. Let's rise for the, I'm sorry, Madam Clerk, please call the roll. Call.

Present. Mayor Hapkora. Thank you. Please rise for the Pledge of Allegiance led by Councilman Cabral.

I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the republic for which it stands,

Thank you, everyone. Agenda order of business, is there any additions or deletions to this agenda? No? Okay. We'll move on to public comments. The public comments portion of this meeting is now open. If you would like to speak, please come up to the podium, state your name and address for the record. You have three minutes to speak in a respectful manner towards this council. I will start with our comment cards. If you would like to speak and have not filled out a comment card, please make sure to visit the clerk so that you can fill one out after. We'll start with Louie Mars and Betty Garcia.

Thank you. Would anyone else like to speak at this time? This would be your opportunity to address this council on anything on the agenda or anything germane to our body. Being none, public comments is now closed. We will move on to presentations. We have a presentation from Parks and Police for Kids Foundation.

I have a comment. Thank you. Thank you so much for the presentation and really great job that you guys are doing and wishing you much continued success. I just want to mention that we did approve the 35,000 in the last, in the first hearing. So you have, in the first budget hearing. So you have that in the budget already. Thanks to my colleagues who joined me in approving it. And we've also, you're going to get a call eventually as well to see how else we can help. So thank you guys for the great work. We really appreciate you engaging with our community with our kids and our police and parks

Okay, thank you very much. We're gonna hear from staff. Okay, we're gonna hear public hearing first on this item. So we'll open up public comments for item 24-5841. If anyone would like to speak on this item and this item alone, please approach the podium at this time. Okay, being none, we'll close public comments and we'll now hear from staff first.

THANK YOU VERY MUCH, MICHELLE. WE'LL NOW HEAR FROM THE APPLICANT.

Thank you. Any questions of staff of the applicant from my colleagues?

Motion to approve by Vice Mayor Puigcord. Second. Second by Councilman Pinedo. If there's no more discussion, Madam Clerk, please call the roll.

Thank you very much. All right. Congratulations. Thank you. You too. Move on to the next item, Madam Clerk.

All right, this is item B and we're gonna open up to public comments. This item is now open for public comments. If you have any comments, please come up to the podium. You have three minutes to speak on this item and this item alone, item 24-5842. Being none, public comments is closed and we'll now hear from staff.

Thank you. Can you explain a little bit about the parking and whether it meets the requirements?

Any other questions for the applicant? Can we see the site plan one more time please? I think ID can put up the, or if you have one here on your report. I just wanted to see the traffic pattern very quickly.

Is there a way we can see, I think the rendering that the city had to see it from, there we go, that's it. This one? Yes. The street. Oh, there we go, 36th Street. So there's only one ingress and egress from the light that's there currently, right? From the main entrance of the other property? Yes. But their gate, the thing is that because you can't see it, I had looked at this previously, but you can't see the entrance of the property that's next to it. I was concerned about stacking, but it's far back enough.

Yeah, he's talking about the actual entrance to be able to go into the driveway of the bank.

Right. Okay. It just seems like such a small space when you drive by it and in front of it.

Okay. Quick question. Yeah. Follow up on the parking. Where will your employees park? It's going to be a full-service bank, right?

And that's, so it's meeting the requirements for parking right now? That's correct. With that?

That's the property. That's what I was trying to get to. It's like a 1,700 square foot. I thought it was like 1,900 square feet. So it's not that big.

OK. All right. Any other questions? OK. Being none, we need a motion. Motion to approve by Vice Mayor Puig Corbett. Second by Councilwoman Cabral. Madam Clerk, please call the vote.

Now move on to the first reading. Thank you very much. You're welcome.

All right. Thank you very much. This item belongs to the city attorney.

Okay, is there any comments? Through the mayor? Yes, Councilwoman Forrest.

I have a couple of comments. The first one is under section 14-18, under candidates. So now we're requiring three documents, right? you're changing the city clerk from May to shall include at least three documents and then you list the documents I would propose keeping the shall include at least three documents proving residence, including but not limited to the ones that are enumerated and listed there. Not everyone will have three of these, but there may be other documents that can be used to prove residence that are not on this list. I wouldn't make this an exhaustive list. That's my first

Same section, but five. If you can clarify what the other disqualification means. I think it's a little big. I'd like to know what that means. And we can start with those.

Thank you. And again, I'm proposing to change the language from shall include at least three documents proving residence, including but not limited to the list that's on here. I don't know if my colleagues have any opinion on that.

I agree with those changes, with your suggestion.

I would also like to include actually in If we're moving to include those changes in that same sentence for utility bills, I would say include utility or other bills in the candidates' names for a period covering the durational residency requirements within the city.

So I would propose, I'll make a motion to approve with the changes I proposed, which are, again, I'm gonna repeat them, under section 14-18. Second. Two.

So again the documents presented to the city clerk shall include at least three documents proving residents including but not limited to and then you know the list and adding under utility bills I would add utility or other bills and And then same section number 5 removing other disqualification unless we can define it. Motion to approve with that with those changes.

We have a motion to approve. I can't remember a second by Councilman Cabral with the amended changes. I'm going to go ahead and open up to public comments at this time for this item. Normally we do public comments and second readings for ordinances. Okay, but we'll go ahead and open up to public comments.

Thank you very much. Would anyone else like to speak on this item? Please approach the podium. This is item 24-5859. Being none, public comments is now closed. Yes, absolutely.

Okay. Thank you very much. We'll now move to second readings.

OK, thank you very much. First, I'm going to go ahead and take ex parte communications, and then I'll open it up to public comment.

This is hypergenics. I don't have anybody there. Any expert communications? OK. Being none, we'll open up to public comments at this time. Public comments is now open for 24-5715. If you would like to speak on this item, please approach the podium and speak to this item and this item only. Being no public comments, public comments is now closed. And I think we can hear from staff quickly.

Motion to approve by Vice Mayor Puig Corbett, second by Councilman Pinedo. Madam Clerk, please call the roll.

Thank you very much. We'll open up to public comments at this time for item 24-5773. Anyone who would like to speak on this item, please approach the podium. Being no public comments, public comments is now closed. I don't know if we need to hear from staff again since it's second reading. Any quick update? We're good? No changes from first to second? Motion to approve by Vice Mayor Puig Corbett, second by Councilman Pinedo. If there's no more discussion, Madam Clerk, please call the roll.

Thank you, Madam Clerk. We'll take any expert team communication at this time. I've met with the applicant and it's not influencing my decision.

Thank you. Thank you, Councilman. I as well have met with the applicant. It will not influence my decision. Okay, let's go ahead and open up to public comments. Public comments now open on item 24-5775. Anyone who would like to speak at this time, please approach the podium.

Is there any other public comments at this time? Good evening, Mayor.

Let me just remind the public that public comments is not a debate. You come, you put your comments, and then we have presentations after.

We don't normally answer questions from the dais, so we hear your comments, and then staff, as well as the applicant, will make their presentations, and the council will address any discussion at that time.

Thank you very much. Please make sure to see the clerk to fill out a comment card. Sir? Please make sure he's here. Mr. Pierre Christ, I think you had a comment card. Oh, OK. Any other public comments at this time? OK. Being none, we'll now close public comments. And we'll hear from staff.

I'm okay. I don't know if the applicant wants to make up her presentation, and if we need you back, we'll ask you, Michelle.

Thank you, Ms. Tapnes. Any other questions at this time?

Second. Motion to approve by Councilman Pinero, second by Councilwoman Cabral. All right, if there's no more discussion, Madam Clerk, please call the roll.

Okay, thank you very much. Thank you. Thank you.

Okay, thank you very much. We'll open up public comments for item 24-5801 at this time. Anyone who would like to speak, please approach the podium. Mr. Pierre-Christ, I believe you have a comment card for this. He showed me.

Thank you Thank you, mr. Chris any other public comments at this time Being none public comments is now closed comes on process your item I

Thank you, Mayor. I would like to first address that question. Actually, I was just speaking with the attorney about it, if you don't mind, Mr. Attorney.

So it will apply to all private parking, including communities? Yes. So outside of that clarification, I wanted to add one other thing, and it may have been already part of the implementation plan, but to do an awareness campaign or some sort through the code compliance department or whichever department is deemed appropriate.

Thank you. If I may, Councilman, also, I want to further clarify, I think, Pier Christ's concern. The state statute allows the charging of parking on private property regardless. This code is just being implemented into our code to make sure certain regulations are being met. should they decide to charge on their private property. We would not be able to prohibit them from doing that regardless whether they're an HOA or a commercial center, it's still private property. If they choose to do so, this code only requires them to make sure that they're putting full disclosure that it is a private p

Yes, correct. You're allowing the engagement? Come on. There was no engagement. We only were responding in the time of discussion, not during public comments. Thank you. You understood. All right. Thank you very much. Okay, if there's no more comments, then we need a motion.

No one seconded your motion to adjourn anyway. No, no, no, no, no. Because Councilman Porras did not get her ordinance. Okay, motion to approve by Councilwoman Porras, second by Vice Mayor Puig Corvée. Madam Clerk, please call the roll.

Okay. Now, Vice Mayor Puig Corbett's favorite motion of the evening. Motion to adjourn. Motion to adjourn by Vice Mayor Puig Corbett, seconded by Councilman Pinedo. All in favor say aye. Aye. This meeting is adjourned. Thank you very much. Have a great evening.