Village Council - Regular Meeting

Thank you. I'd like to welcome everyone to the July 13th regular council meeting, Bell Harbor Village. Mr. Clerk, with the roll, please.

It's good to have everyone back here under one roof. We'd like to begin, well first, are there any requests for additions, withdrawals? Oh, sorry, the pledge.

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.

Thank you. And happy belated July 4th. I know everyone who was in town really enjoyed the party. I certainly did. Before we begin, the day after July 4th is actually July 5th, which is the Venezuelan Independence Day. Fun fact, for those who didn't know.

I'd like to call upon... Do you want additions?

Oh, sorry. Let's do that after the moment of silence. I'd like to call upon the wife of Councilman Levy, who is a chaplain, Ariel Levy, to lead us in a moment of silent reflection for Venezuela.

Thank you for that beautiful reflection. Request for additions, withdrawals, and deferrals?

Yeah, I'd like to pull C7A and put that on for discussion.

Okay. So let's actually move into PA5 then, Government Affairs Update, Grace Manelisi.

Great. Yeah, we'll hear from you. Thank you, guys. Thank you. Okay, so Mr. Clerk, can you read C7A? C7A.

Thank you, Mr. Mayor. So first of all, Gabe, thank you so much for all of your help on this. It's really appreciated. Just to give a little education, when we say hotspot, that's the first 800 feet from the jetty, 800 feet. So that basically only covers the area of the Ritz. That's the only area right now where we're actually removing the sargassum. The rest of the beach, which, again, I think, I can speak for myself and I think a few other members of the dais. When we hired Beach Raker to take care of the rest of the beach, we had to give them a year contract. We budgeted the $250,000. I thin

We'll get a great photo op, but nothing will happen. We don't care about photo ops. We care about action. And we literally have this conversation, I think, this time every year. when we're overwhelmed, and we always say, you know, and again, I always say I'd rather be proactive than reactive, and unfortunately, here's another year where we're trying to be reactive, and we really have to figure out a way to get out in front of this as much as humanly possible, because it gets to this point where it becomes unmanageable.

Okay, we're going to open up for public comment in a second. Any questions from council?

As per our meeting last week, we were told it's going to be restored. We were told that it's going to come back. But as per our meeting last week when we had with them, it was still 25% less that has not been restored as of yet.

Okay. A public comment? Patricia Cohen? I got you.

So to that point, George can attest to this, a few years ago we met with a company and actually we had the ritz involved about providing what's called a boom technology. The boom technology basically is, it's about a foot high, it floats on top of the surface, and it keeps it off the beach. These guys were very gung-ho. We actually got the ritz to pay for a very big chunk of this. And all of a sudden, the company that we were dealing with, we had it probably at the five-yard line. disappeared, dropped the ball once we told them, hey, go to DEP, go get permits, go make it happen. We're fully be

So any further public comment? Seeing none, I'm going to close public comment. Any further questions or comments from council? Seeing none, is there a motion? I'll make a motion. Okay. Is there a second? A second. It's been moved and seconded. Voice vote. All those in favor say aye. Aye. All those. Okay. Passes unanimously. Sorry, we jumped around a bit here. So PA2 is going to be deferred. Mr. Franco, unfortunately, couldn't make it today. I'm going to now pass over to Councilman Levy for PA3. Thank you, Mayor.

So it's a few times in... in life that you have an opportunity to present something that really means a lot. New Zealand's a city, in a personal way as well, and I see that as a village, we should be very proud of this foundation. It's led by Sheila. I met her six months ago something like that and she will tell the story better than me but i will read from the proclamation that is for your foundation then you can say a few words okay of course thank you so about harvard village proclamation do i read the whole thing whatever you want All right. Bahá'u'lláh Village Proclamation, where July is

Let's go take a picture. On the count of three, one, two, three. One, two, three.

Okay, our next presentation is not on the agenda for obvious reasons. For those that do not know, tonight is a little bittersweet because it is our village clerk for the last 11 years, Dwight Daney's last meeting. So let's give him a round of applause. So Dwight, we couldn't ask him to do his own proclamation. I think that would have been a little strange.

So I'm going to read this. Certificate of appreciation. Be it known to all who bear witness that this highest honor which may be bestowed is awarded to Dwight S. Dainey, the village council, and your coworkers wish to express our sincere thanks and gratitude for your over 11 years of dedicated service to the village and to the community of Bell Harbor. Your knowledge and commitment to excellence have long inspired all of us and will be remembered for years to come. We all wish you good health, happiness, and continued success in your retirement. And it's signed... has all of the employees' nam

Yes. So let's take some pictures with Dwight.

So, back to regular scheduled programming. PA4, Parks and Recreation Month Department Update.

Okay, thank you for that, Sylvia. Consent agenda? Is there a motion to approve the consent agenda?

It's been moved and seconded. All those in favor say aye. Aye. Opposed, none. Passes unanimously. There are no ordinances this week, this month. Resolution R7A. Mr. Clerk.

George, can I just interrupt you there for one minute? That is not just a number you pulled out of a hat. That was based on your conversations with our attorneys, right?

Okay, thank you. We don't have to read any sort of statement. No, that's in September. Yeah, that's in September. Okay. So I guess any questions from counsel before we open up public comment? Oh, okay.

George, we budgeted 1.2 last year for 26. What did we spend out of that 1.2? I've got that. And the same thing for the previous year, for 25?

Okay. Is that all your questions? Thank you. Any other questions from council before I open a public comment?

Yeah, two things. George, let's just say, for argument's sake, if we could wave a magic wand and this would be done tomorrow, the funds that would be there, what happens to them since it's allocated to this specifically?

So my perspective is that, kind of going back to what you said, number one, we heard from the community and every single person I spoke to, and I don't know if anybody else has, but said we have to do whatever we need to do to fight the battle as best as possible. And I'm wondering why we went so conservative. From my perspective, we should be going to the maximum. We should be putting whatever money we can. If it's instead of $99, it's $199. I don't know if you don't have that calculus. Yeah, on the maximum. But we're not losing the money. And I think the most important thing you said was we

But again, my perspective is I just want to make sure this is a very important topic and we're not being short-sighted by increments to taxes, which I know everyone's very sensitive to and we should all be sensitive to, but this situation from my perspective is very different. I agree. It's very different. You know, even having some conversations with the people over in the board at the St. Regis, I mean, their litigation was significantly smaller than what we're dealing with. I mean, they hired the best lawyers, but they spent $10 million on their legal defense. Put that in perspective, yeah.

Thank you, Mr. Mayor. I am in dramatic agreement with Vice Mayor Wolf. I have long been advocating for us to take the fiduciarily responsible means, which in my mind are twofold. One, we have heard from the community at at least three public meetings at the Seaview, including one just a few months ago, that we are not to back off. It is to be full peddled down in terms of this. Secondly, we need to be fiscally responsible as well, and that is not to find ourselves in a shortfall position. We know several things. Once you get into litigation, the costs only go up. And when you're dealing with a

Just one quick question. What would be the difference, like when you have a condo or you have... residents that have like a special assessment for a specific cause. Can this be done instead of increasing the mileage? Can you create like a specialist assessment for this litigation instead of having a mileage rate increase? Or is that not feasible?

Is there a thought? Alejandro, is there a thought process around your question?

I just think that increasing the military rate has a tax implication moving forward to people. I'm not a tax expert, but I do believe, remember reading something about it. That was the reason for my question. But again, I'm happy to support, you know, increasing to the maximum as well.

And I, for one, was willing to see how the council would feel, but I hear it every day. This morning I had a meeting with one of the associations in Bell Harbor that the community is serious, the community is unified, and they want us to do all we can to preserve our quality of life. So I'm certainly in favor of proceeding with the maximum rate. I don't know. You just put that maximum rate.

For me, really, I don't really see this. We're talking 1.6 versus 2.2. We're not really talking about significant dollars.

What does that represent? A 10%, a 15% increase over the rollback? Or what's the...

I think it's important enough to do. Okay.

I think we should know the statutory maximum for unanimous. Got it.

Okay, so then should we go? I'm going to 7B and she'll come back. Procedurally, do we table this? Or Susan, what do I? We don't have a motion yet. Okay. Okay, fine. So our 7B, conceptual design. Dwight. Just a second.

Do you want to put on the second tab? Yeah. Can you try hitting F11, see if that improves the… Do anything? There you go. Okay.

I just want to thank you. I know you spent a lot of time and effort on it, and I know there was a lot of different companies, and I bugged you a lot, so thank you for your efforts. I mean, I think... These are great options. I did see the equipment in the North Shore, and the equipment does look great and durable and so forth. So I guess time will tell, but it looks great, and I think it's great options, and I think it's a great addition to, again, our healthy environment, our walking environment for people to be able to do these exercises and so forth. So thank you for your presentation and y

And just to clarify, George, like you said, this is just approving this proposal that will then get sent to DEP because they have to see what the finished product is supposed to look like?

Thank you. Any other public comment? Seeing none, we're going to close public comment. Council discussion?

No, the only thing I would say is, I mean, I hear comments. I think that, you know, on a beach path, this is normally how you see it happen. I mean, if you go through Surfside, you go down further south through Miami Beach, you know, you don't have the only place where they have one beach. Big one altogether is all the way down in South Beach where it's actually an entire workout, and they probably have 10 or 15 machines or something. So, you know, this is not supposed to be a full workout like you're going to the gym for an hour. It's supposed to be a time for people to be able to walk on a p

Is there a second? I'll second. Moved and seconded. This is a voice vote. All those in favor say aye. Aye. Opposed? None. Passes unanimously. George, are we ready to resume that conversation or are we still crunching numbers?

Well, George, let's see what the other, if I could make a suggestion. What is the number you think we need? And then let's try and back the millage into that number.

Well. I mean, you're the one that's dealing with the bills. You're the one that. Yeah.

Not much happened this year besides mediations. Again, the truth of the matter is that easily doubles if we go to court, easily doubles.

Mr. Mayor, may I? And I think the big thing is, which we've discussed many times, Eitan's great up to a point, and then there comes a point where we need the bulldog. And your hourly there doubles or more. And we don't have that bulldog right now. So that being said, the hourly from Eitan to the bulldog doubles and triples. And how many hours are they going to spend? So that, I mean... You really have to take that into consideration.

Two and a half or even three million is not out of the range of possibility. 2.27 was the max that you put in your thing. 2.27, right. The max at four votes.

I was just saying, I know we're going to put on the nose, but I think communication around this is key to this process. And if we make the decision, don't wait for a bill to come out and everybody starts screaming. I think we definitely need to have communication out to the community because if the community understands this and understands what we're doing, everyone's going to support it. For sure. The education piece is key.

More important than anything we're going to do on this. People have to understand why their taxes are being raised, especially since this is what they asked for.

And as well, if the dollars aren't used, it's not like they're going somewhere else. They can go back into the budget. They can reduce the millage rate by that amount of dollars. I wish we could say the dollars aren't going to be used, but that's not the case. I'm sorry. Go ahead, Jeff.

I think that the community is going to get it. This is not a sell to the community. From a messaging standpoint, it's to the Bal Harbor shops. They knew that we were taking it seriously when we started this. They need to know that we're taking it certainly more seriously, and we're anticipating that if they're going to ramp it up, we're going to ramp it up and be ready. That's the messaging.

My initial thought would be, say, to put it to $4 million. I think Jeff just brings a great point as well, which I didn't say, which I think is messaging out to them as well. Hey, we're ramping this up. We're not sitting back. We're not going to shy away from this guy.

They're taxpayers, too, so they're going to shoulder a bunch of this. Yeah, they bear that cost, too. Is it going to be open to public so we can say something? Yeah, but you're out of order, okay? We're discussing here. I haven't opened public comment. We haven't voted on anything, okay? That's it. Please don't speak out of order. Please do not speak out of order. Okay. So we're waiting for Claudia, George. You're doing the math? Yeah. Okay.

If we're talking about increasing mileage and we're talking about having enough funds for litigation, there are two things that I don't understand. Number one is the hyper shops are listening to this, so they know what we're doing. That's number one. And number two... That's a good point. It is a good point in terms of, you know, go and screw yourself. We're going to get you, number one. But number two isn't... Vice Mayor Wolf has mentioned that the Ritz just fought a litigation case for $10 million. I foresee this going to those numbers. Is $4 million going to be enough?

Right, that was over the course of a few years.

One quick question. Yes, sir. If we see the 3.6 isn't enough, there's still money in fund balance to fund extra.

Just wanted to make sure. I'm going to open up for public comment.

Thank you. Any other public comment? In a closed public comment, I'd just like to clarify that we are not voting on the millage tonight. We're voting on the maximum millage that can be set at our budget hearings, which are going to be noticed to the entire community, going to be voted on twice. So with that, George, do we have a millage?

Mr. Mayor, could I just say one thing? I just want to know if we have a number.

I just want to say I think we are being very responsible in a fiduciary way to our community. And the reason we're doing that is because we're making sure that we have enough money to fight on behalf of this community the way the community wanted us to fight. So I will take offense to saying that we're not being fiduciary responsible. Thank you, Mr. Mayor.

9654. Well, I just want to know what the full millage is. .19654 plus 578? Yes. So 2.5132. Can we bring up the county slide with all the millage rates? Sorry, so what was the number again one more time, George? 2.5132.

Okay, and still lower than Surfside and Bay Harbor. That's not your concern.

Okay. Thank you to staff for getting us all that information here on the fly. Public comment has been closed. Is there a motion? I'll make a motion. Okay.

Yes. Can you set a maximum millage rate at the north?

Why don't you make it a little higher just in case we, because this is going to be the maximum.

Don't put it on the trim higher if you don't have to.

And do that. Okay, that's fine. I'd like to make a motion on 2.5132. Okay? Second.

What would be the impact on people's pockets? Oh, boy. It's almost double from the two. It's twice what I showed you and then a little bit more. It was $99 to $300 max, give or take. Hang on.

I'll tell you right now. I had a – We'll go there.

Okay. Okay, so it's been moved and seconded. This is just a voice vote, right? Yes. All those in favor say aye. Aye. Opposed? None. This council is unanimous on that. Okay. R7C. Mr. Clerk.

Yeah, I'll jump in. I had the pleasure of meeting Warren Garcia last week and I really feel good about this choice. I appreciate the effort that went into it, the search committee and going through all those resumes. While Dwight is irreplaceable, Juan will be an excellent addition to our team, and I look forward to working with him and having him be here and allow for a smooth transition. As you can see, Dwight is still here to train him and to show him where all the... all the things that the clerks need to know. There's like a passing of the baton, so to speak. So I'm glad that we'll be abl

Okay. Should we make the motion? Yeah. I'd be honored to make the motion to ratify the selection of Juan D. Garcia as the next village clerk for the village of El Harbor. Second. It's been moved and seconded. Oh, public comment. Of course.

Very nice. Okay. Any other public comment? I mean, is it about the selection of the new? Because I think it would be more appropriate if we're going to, you know, I'd love to hear nice things about Dwight, but I think maybe we should do that in public comment. But I didn't know that you were going to speak about threat. I would have said the same thing. I apologize. So anyone that wants to comment on the selection of our new clerk? Seeing none, I'm closing public comment. And all those in favor, say aye. Aye. Opposed, none. Passes unanimously. Welcome to the team. Would we invite him up? Yes.

Stay where you are on one, yep. I'm gonna grab that so you can follow along. Please raise your right hand and repeat after me.

Can I ask him a question? Who are these fine folks with you?

Hi, guys. Welcome to Val Harbor. Thank you. I think we should all take a picture.

Okay. Let's continue. I think that's it for the old business or current business. So new business and council discussion. R9A. Mr. Mayor, just one thing. One, we have a lot of things to discuss.

You could take your kids home. You don't have to stay.

Yeah. Okay. I agree with what we got. Yes, so R9A, Councilman Levy.

Thank you, Mayor. So this item that I'm bringing for discussion is based on a conversation that I have with Commissioner Melissa Castro and also discussion that we have here with our council members particularly. when we were discussing ways for us to promote business for Bell Harbor. One of the things that we did a couple of weeks ago was to bring on board that soccer ball that is shown in the Bell Harbor shops, that is also shown in our beach path, and that cost us $300,000 or something like that. I understand where it came from, and I understand the payments.

Yeah, it was a hundred and thirteen, but it was supposed to be multiplied by two. Anyhow, so that was the original offering. So what I thought is, you know, why don't create some sort of, I wouldn't say partnership, but like a friendship with similar or like partners. where we share some of the same exclusivity that Bell Harbor shares. So, of course, going to Coral Gables, looking at one of the most exclusive neighborhoods in Miami, and what they offer to the public, I thought this could be an initiative that we can create with them, and then if it works, continue with other cities. This is no

George? Did the number change? Before we leave. 5.7. The bonus pool fund, right?

Thank you. You're sorry, Mayor. In terms of what the City of Leek does and what the city managers do, I fully get that. But what about promoting each other? What about promoting, for example... one of the events that we're doing here or one of the restaurants or one of the events that we do

So you're looking at it more from a marketing perspective. That's precisely what I'm looking for. Policy perspective, I guess.

It's more for marketing. I was looking at it as like a collaboration with another city that's similarly situated, you know, best practices, you know, that sort of coordination where we don't have, you know.

Did you have something to add, Vice Mayor?

I was just going to say, you know, from your thought process of like a marketing and collaboration, I mean, I would like to get maybe Romero's perspective as part of the resort tax and marketing and any thoughts on this from your perspective. Maybe you want to – sorry to put you on the spot. Yeah, thank you.

Thank you. Appreciate it. Okay. So I guess the direction is to see where it goes, like continue.

R9B, Mosquito Spring. Thank you, Mr. Mayor. First and foremost, Celia and the team, 4th of July, did an unbelievable job with that production. But anyone that was out there, Got eaten alive. It was terrible that night. And again, no fault of ours, but I definitely think we need to reach out to the county very quickly and make sure that we are getting sprayed for mosquitoes on a regular basis out on that beach path.

We didn't have any wind, which was great for the drones, but then obviously that comes with other things.

Appreciate it. Yeah, just if you decide to spray, just spray by the buildings and don't spray anywhere else. Spraying is quite detrimental from a health perspective.

No, they're not allowed to use those types of pesticides.

Okay, but I'm glad to hear they're doing traps and stuff. Yeah. Much better.

Okay. And then R9C. Yes, R9C. And D are basically the same kind of, sort of the same item because I remember a few months back we pushed our jetty project out due to the beach reclamation project because they were going to do a pump and dump with the sand and the was going to go over the jetty. So we said, why stop our construction? We're going to have this giant pipe sitting over the jetty. So I want to know where we are with that re-nourishment project. And then with that being said, when will the jetty project finally commence?

Right. But then you have 90 days on the ITB. Yeah, you give it 60 days. So it could still be January, February. There's still a lot of opportunity for January. Great. Because, honestly, that's one of the questions I get asked all the time by residents is, when's the jetty finally going to start?

You're welcome. R9E. Update on Sister City.

Sure. Thank you very much, Mr. Mayor. While in Israel on a family trip a couple of weeks ago, I had the opportunity to have lunch with Mayor Isaac of our Sister City, Hafa Carmel, in the beautiful town of Qasariya. And he was very excited about a couple of different projects that are being worked on with folks here at Powell Harbor Village, just to update people on. One is a visit by members of their first responders, a good number of their first responders, to give them the opportunity to work with the chief and the police team here, as well as get some R&R coming off of what have been some v

Do you have a public comment? No, she wanted to say something before.

It wouldn't be bad to have a female chaplain, honestly. Okay.

Okay. It's already been said, but I think it's worth repeating again. I don't know if they really had a chance, because for the work and everything that Dwight's done for 11 years, I think from my perspective, I've only been here four, but as I told Warren the other night, I said, it's the highest level of service that we've gotten from Dwight. And you have, again, a high bar and big shoes to fill. From the first time I came in here and I didn't know anything, you were there. You were there to help me. You were there to teach me, really. You've been an incredible resource. And I know Penny's r

Is there any other public comment? Seeing none. Do you want to say anything? Can I say something? No, no, no. No, no, no.

Thank you, Dwight. Right. Wait, so village manager's report? No report. Village clerk's report? It is in your package. And village attorney's report?

Thank you. Motion to adjourn. Are you expecting that? Yes. See you in September.