City Council - Regular Meeting

Well, good evening, everyone, and welcome. I'd like to call the City of Homestead Council presentation meeting to order. We have just one presentation this evening initiated by Councilwoman Avila. Floor is yours, Councilwoman.

Thank you, Mayor and Council. It is my honor and privilege to recognize one of our officers of the Homestead Police Department, Officer George Valdez, which you can come up to the front with me now with your family if you'd like. And Chief Knapp, if you can come up. So George Valdez, he was recognized as Rookie of the Year Officer at the recent PBA Gala, which we attended and supported. And it was one of the most recent recognitions in a while, right? My understanding is we haven't had a PBA recognition for, do we have a number? Years. So I said we have to make sure we do this here in the cham

Thank you and all of the police officers of our wonderful police department. Thank you for all that you do, all the hard work, all the sacrifice. Thank you to the families and obviously our children. So thank you for your support.

And I'd like to invite Mayor and Council to join us for a group picture. Thank you. And command staff, please come up and join us.

That concludes the presentation ceremonies for this evening. Wait just a few moments, we will shift the record keeping and move into the Community Redevelopment Agency meeting. Again, congratulations to our officer and his family and everyone who supports him and what he does for us each and every day. Ready? Okay. All right. I'll give these guys a couple of seconds to get out. Okay, good evening, everyone. I'd like to call to order the City of Homestead Community Redevelopment Agency meeting. Today is June 2nd, 2026, and it is now 5.15 p.m. Madam Clerk, if you could call the roll, please.

Thank you, appreciate the presentation. Anything to add, Mr. Beck, before I go to the board for comment?

Very good. So vice chair, this is your district. I'll afford you the opportunity for first and last questions and comments.

Thank you, chairman. So I have been a big fan of this idea since day one. Just sometimes you can envision something. And I really think that you guys were onto something great when that idea came up. As far as the ask, those are items that stay within the city. There's been talk that the stage and the restrooms could be used for bigger events at different parks for us. So that of course is a win-win. Two weeks ago, two or three weeks ago, I attended something that the Seminole Theatre did, kind of like those going around scavenger hunt type things, and they had an amazing turnout. And that is

Okay, thank you, Vice Chair. Who would like to go next? Board Member Avila.

Thank you, Mayor. I did have an opportunity to sit with the proposers and review the concept and I was, you know, very excited to see what could come of activating that site and i am excited to kind of see finally something come to fruition we've been talking about homestead live for a while so thank you to our director cra director and staff um i one of my main concerns prior to even meeting with them is trying to make sure i had a grasp as to who are we going into business with and You know what are some of the proven concepts, and so we did talk about that as well, one of the. The. characte

Thank you. And this isn't so much specifically towards this operator, but I would assume that this is kind of setting a precedence for other parcels around the city that we may want to activate in a similar fashion. And so it's really important to me that we have that the city has those protections in place to be able to, you know, switch hands and switch operators. City Council Chambers, seamlessly and with as minimal exposure as possible, but overall great presentation and I appreciate the opportunity to. City Council Chambers, To enjoy homestead live soon, thank you.

City Council Chambers, board member goski.

Thank you, I do not believe in coincidences. Last Wednesday, I was invited to coconut grove what was entitled to me as food truck park, which now I have learned is foodie town, so I have experienced. The sensitivity and the setup and I have to say it was simply stated very comfortable Javier you were very hospitable the concept was. Genius, in my opinion. If I could elaborate on my experience and how the setup was, there was food trucks of various different flavors of food, internationals. So there were no two that were competing together, which I valued that. There were two kiosks you could o

Anyone else? Member Roth? Member Fletcher?

Thank you. I'm sorry for my delay in getting here this evening. It is still my understanding that we're just here to provide direction to the CRA director to enter into negotiations, basically. We're not signing a deal for sure tonight. To bring back an agreement. To bring back agreement to us.

Which by necessity would include our commitment to provide that capital funding. Yes. Well, capital improvements not to exceed $175,000 that we would do. We would procure and we would do. Not handing money to anyone.

Yeah. So I had the opportunity to speak with both of these gentlemen the other night. It was very informative. And I may have some more questions as we move forward. And I appreciate Councilman Alba's questions. Thank you.

The only thing I would say is we don't have another meeting until July, so that delays their process. So is there anything we can do to speed that up?

I would think it would take that long to bat an agreement back and forth. Unfortunately, that's just the world we live in, but our target can be the meeting for July 7th. Does that work? Okay. And the question was potentially not any World Cup activities, and while the proposers indicated to me that would have been really nice, it's not crucial to this.

And I don't know that we could, even with another meeting this month, anyway.

All right, so do we have a motion to support? Yes, Councilman? Okay. All right, so moved by Board Member Canabal, seconded by Board Member Konski. Let me ask if there's any public comment on this item.

Ms. Ramirez, I don't think you are really in a position to directly query any of our staff. Okay, no problem. And if it's something that we need to know prior to the meeting where we approve the agreement, we'll have those individual conversations privately with our esteemed staff member.

I will ask additional questions the item will come back for us for for confirmation of the contract, but I did ask during present during our briefing about this having gone out to 163 if you can just clarifying the history on that and the results we got Thank you.

an RFP as suggested here for operating agreements?

And when you say it came to us, it was unsolicited?

If I may further clarify, Mr. Beck, it came to you. It did not come through the manager's office. yes it came to the cra directly this wasn't i guess what i'm getting at is to your knowledge this was not filtered through the manager or the deputy prior to it coming to your attention no i do your knowledge okay thank you and just for the record there's cameras and there was a meeting that everything was held so just for the record Okay, so we do have a, does that conclude the public comment? So I'll close the public hearing. If there's nothing further from council, I'll ask for a roll call vote

Yes, but with reservation to continue discussing at the next meeting, thank you.

Thank you. Mr. Beck, does that conclude any business you have for the CRA agenda this evening?

Very good, thank you. Council, any further CRA business that you would like, or board, any CRA business that you would like to touch on this evening? Board Member Avila?

Thank you, Chair. I wanted to get an update regarding the negotiations or the, at least, information fact finding and hopefully a timeline for when we could receive... items for discussion on the property in the Southwest that we visited? Sure.

So do you think that July's meeting will have a theory item on the agenda?

And that item would be for direction to negotiate, or would there be an actual negotiation already conducted for our executive director's area? Is that the plan?

Thank you. So, Board Member Avila, in that regard, is this the DeForest Street and Chrome Avenue area, Parcel, you're referring to?

The one that we'd held the Sunshine Building.

Right, well, I think I consider that the northwest, it's not the southwest, but either here or there, that's what threw me. So let me ask, Mr. Beck, has there been, given that there is this insistence that we provide a third-party property owner with some sort of access relief, Has there been any preliminary analysis about how access through that vacant lot were the city to acquire it? How that would impact the construction of a parking lot?

That answers the question. There seems to be this drive toward giving this third-party property owner access across city property with no basis in law or fact. I want to be real clear that if we go down the road of acquiring that parcel for parking or whatever it may be, that implicit in that, I would certainly not support any grant of access or right of way that would infringe upon the ability to maximize the use of that parcel by the CRA for public use.

All right. Anything further for the CRA? All right. Hearing none, I'll ask for a motion to adjourn the Community Redevelopment Agency meeting. Okay. It's been moved and seconded. All in favor? Aye. Any opposed?

So as soon as the clerk signals that their office is ready to go with the recording of this meeting, we will open the regular council meeting. Very good. All right. Again, good evening and welcome everyone. I'd like to call the city of Homestead regular city council meeting to order. Today is Tuesday, June 2nd, 2026, and it is now 546 p.m. The invocation this evening will be given by Pastor Alfonso O'Brien of St. John Missionary Baptist Church of Howard, with a Pledge of Allegiance led by Vice Mayor Bailey and the Homestead Police Explorers. Could you all rise, please?

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Forward march. Love, love, love, love, love, love, love. Thank you. Pleasure to see you.

Okay. We're now at the portion of the agenda where we entertain public comments on any and all subjects, including those on the agenda. I'll first take those who have pre-registered, followed by those who are present who wish to speak but are not registered, and then we'll go to anyone online. Okay, the first registrants are, this is a duo of, is it Arthur Sori and Adrian Lazarga? Oh, okay, okay, okay, very good, I'm sorry. All right, so the last registrant is Brandi Ramirez.

they're great events that you guys are putting on but it's got to get more information that's all thank you okay a couple of things to your inquiry the code reduction i understand has requested a deferral for tonight that will not be going forward tonight but you did have a bigger picture question and maybe you've been attend in attendance or watching online over the last several months where other property owners have come in and asked for additional reductions. We do, the council does have that discretion. It does not end with the special magistrate or special master here. Thank you. That's

Thank you. All right. Is there anyone here in the audience who would like to make a public comment this evening? Come on down. Are you here for the street naming? Well, we're going to bring that to the head of the agenda. So if you just want to wait a few minutes. Anyone else? Yes. Good evening. Good evening.

Was your offense having a sandwich type sign? What was the A-frame sign? Yes, A-frame. And that provides a lot of clarification. Secondly, what we are addressing tonight is a small segment of the sign code that deals with window signage. This does not address your issue. I hope that before I leave here at the end of next year, we will have overhauled the sign code to be more with it. I'm not saying that an A-frame sign, you know, We're constrained by county rules. May not be in our code, but we are constrained to a certain extent by county rules. And what I would like, the assistant city manag

Allowing and overlooking are two entirely different things. Let me ask real quick, and not to get too far out in the weeds. I know clearly no signage is allowed on the right of way. So let's jump to the claim of the second citation. Are A-frame type signs a prohibited sign when placed on private property, let's say during business hours?

Council any any other questions, yes, Council woman, thank you, this gentleman has brought this item to us for discussion, a few times it's nothing new. Unfortunately, we've have not found a solution to this, and I know that there are some opinions that we should not have a frame signs for the businesses in the city and it really isn't. fitting of the mold in terms of what is traditionally allowed in plenty of areas around Miami-Dade County, and specifically like for restaurants or downtown type areas, we have to come up with a solution. And I do appreciate that there is something later on in

But never in the right of way and never violating the setback.

But we don't have an option for either of those, for any kind of A-frame signage. So what the setbacks are in those examples, we'll discuss. But I'm still committed to trying to find a solution for our business owners, because this is affecting their ability to pay their rent. It is costing money for someone who's been in that spot. How many years?

I've been working there are the business been there for 19 I've been working there for 16 for him to be spending his time sitting here when he obviously has business to attend to to Repeatedly bring this problem forward. It's not because he's got nothing else to do This is a real situation for a lot of businesses in our downtown and we should be making it a priority so you have my commitment to try to maybe pass a resolution urging the county to change the rules to make it allowable so that it then trickles down and we don't have the excuse anymore and But for right now, there's no answer we c

Your benefit here tonight is we've all heard the same thing at the same time. And that's important. That's very helpful for us.

So you're just encouraging us to ignore county code.

Anyone else in person? Okay, is there anyone online? Oh, I'm sorry.

Thank you. While you're here, Mr. Manager, let me ask you, is there any process or procedure in place? Because while everybody can support this cause, that's just going to throw open the door to anything and anybody to want to do some kind of drop off, you know, at any number of locations throughout the city. And is this the first you've heard of this request?

I would think that you wouldn't find anyone here tonight in opposition to enabling that. Certainly, Councilman.

Thank you. As a fellow Girl Scout leader, thank you for everything that you're doing to lead these girls into service. And I'm curious, this is so that you can earn your which award is it? Your bronze award. So as juniors, you have to strive to solve a problem, right? So it's very good of you to do that. And whose idea was it to get food for the animals? was it a collective idea okay well i love the team effort i absolutely support the box being placed at the community at the dickinson center there's plenty of space in the lobby it would be one of those rectangular boxes i assume similar to li

Is there anyone else in the house that would like to make a public comment? Seeing none, is there anyone online? No one online. So, I will close the public hearing. Mr. Manager, are there any additions, deletions, or deferrals?

Right. So do we have a motion to defer to July 7th? MOVED BY VICE MAYOR BAILEY, SECONDED BY COUNCILMAN CANNABAL. ALL IN FAVOR? ANY OPPOSED? ALL RIGHT. SO NEXT WE HAVE I BELIEVE THERE ARE ANY CLOSET JUDICIAL HEARINGS. THAT TAKES US TO TAB 2.

everyone comfortable waving the the staff report moving right into uh questions or comments who would like to open the discussion councilwoman thank you mayor this item um i did have a briefing on it um and while on the surface it seems like it's you know providing um you know clarity and giving uh some tools to our code and pd to you know conduct and solve noise complaint issues. I do think that this is, and I'll use the mayor's example, a solution in search of a problem. We don't have an issue with our officers being able to handle noise complaint calls, and by passing this ordinance, you're

Council, any response or commentary regarding that? Any input from the police department one way or the other? That's what I was going to ask.

Thank you, Mayor. I was just going to add the way that I understood it was I can imagine PD getting called out for a noise complaint and not having anything to base it on. So sometimes it could be right. And that this would maybe provide a little more standard across the board that it had to be at a certain number to qualify as a violation. That's how I saw it. Thank you, Mayor.

I'd like to also add sorry, Mayor. Thank you. This request. Did it come through Homestead Police Department?

So that's no, this was not a request made by the Homestead Police Department for us to add these tools to their toolkit. This was a code enforcement driven initiative, correct?

Mayor Mrakas, hey Thank you, Mr manager. Mayor Mrakas, And I didn't forget we're going to go the street naming next I got ahead of myself. Mayor Mrakas, i'm going to support this, I think it's necessary as someone who doesn't have the protection of a gated community, I think this. objective means of measuring noise, whatever it is, loud mufflers, loud car stereos, or music playing three blocks away that sounds like it's in my backyard, I think it's a much needed tool in the toolkit. And it's interesting. that on the one hand, general noise isn't a concern, but I was inadvertently in the loops

All right. So if there's no objection, let's move to tab 10 regarding the street naming. Mr. Pearl.

Thank you. I know that we've all been briefed and we have the letter from the Aaronsmith Post of the VFW making the request to honor a hometown kid, hometown young man who lost his life in 2004.

i want to thank you and commend all of you who who picked up the mantle and brought that forward i think it was just a few well enough days ago but barely that you contacted both myself and vice mayor bailey and asked for this and it's something that we jumped through our backsides to uh to get on the agenda and get done i understand that you know the family will be in the area in january around the time of uh Lance Corporal Segura's birthday, January 17th, that will help you coordinate a formal unveiling and ceremony. And so we do have plenty of time to get the signage. The county controls th

Any questions, comments? Have a motion? Move by the vice mayor, seconded by Councilman Roth. Let's have a roll call vote on the street naming.

Motion carried. Thank you. Thank you. And we'll keep coordinating. Okay, so I think that takes us to tab three, Mr. Perl.

Thank you, Mr. Pearl. Is there any objection to waiving the staff report? I know we've all been briefed. Any questions or comments from council on this item? Yes, Vice Mayor.

Thank you, Mayor. Just as we were speaking earlier, that You know, I hear the 25% of the window, and it brings me back to the murals. That's not a mural if it's on 25% of your wall. And I know the look we are trying to get away from, but at the same time, I think there are a lot of tasteful ways for businesses to be able to advertise. and 25% of your window isn't the best for advertising. So for me, I'm just curious what other areas are doing and if there is maybe a want to look at different areas within our city to see if we do wanna section out, carve out some areas that would allow for more

Okay, Mr. Manager, I think Mr. Rios did some research on... Actually, it is the Assistant City Manager, Crystal.

I'm fine, I think, if it's in our package, unless anyone wants it. Also, I know in past years, and maybe this time too, there's always been discussion about safety of law enforcement officers where the big issue is today, as I understand it, window decals, for lack of better expression.

the wraps wrap type for for windows where perhaps the bad guys inside can see out but officers can't see in just as we don't permit dark window glazing um you know that that higher percentage could put some of our officers at risk is there any anything further you'd like to add chief knapp uh no sir i i uh it's actually something i've never really considered um

Thank you on vice mayor to your point what this does is that provides an amortization period or an end date for folks to come into compliance. helps them, you know, not have to take down something they've recently installed. And again, my, you know, my comment to Mr. Hazard earlier is that whatever it was, you know, not enforcing is really no excuse on on our side and that one year period gives this council the opportunity to address some of your concerns but we need to go ahead and and you know we folks are now on notice but anything more right now anything more than 25 window coverage is in

Yeah, just something for thinking. If we are trying to keep those A-frames off the road, would we not then prefer a tasteful full window coverage if it's helping our small businesses thrive? I appreciate having the year for people to comply, but as we're having these discussions, just food for thought.

And I appreciate your use of the word tasteful, and I agree with that, but we don't get to legislate what's tasteful or not. Kind of like art's, you know, beauty's in the eye of the beholder, right? And I know some pretty bad examples were circulated over the last few weeks from... from other folks, Council Fletcher.

And I just want to point out as well, we have some city owned sites that also have full window coverings. So we need to make sure we're policing ourselves first before we're set the standard for everyone else.

Absolutely. So to my right, Councilwoman.

Thank you, Mayor, I would be more in favor of of committing to having the workshops to start working on a sign code revision and putting a moratorium on sign enforcement or something soft that allows us to. Prioritize this as soon as possible. Since I've been on here in 2020, we've been talking about rewriting the code. The sign code was not enforced for probably 20 years. We have a robust code enforcement department that is enforcing everything, which that's their job. It's in our code. They have to enforce it. We have to respond to these issues and these challenges and act on actually making

But without enacting this, you must give them a shorter window of compliance. In effect, the adoption of this ordinance creates a one-year moratorium.

Or we could put in abeyance all existing violations. That's an option too.

But what's the difference? We need to put people on notice that they're not in compliance. I'll say it before and I've said it again, desirable affluent communities don't allow the stuff that we have been ignoring for two or three decades and we need to decide if we're gonna be the future homestead or we're gonna be Hialeah and Florida City, you choose. That's not cultural revolution, that's just basic community aesthetics.

preferring to actually resolve the problem with coming up with a code we all agree with because the rhetoric has been that we don't agree with our sign code and it may be one of us does you know that's obvious but I don't think the majority is in favor of the sign code that exists and the people that actually live here work here the majority of them probably need to have this relief sooner than later

You know what? Signs aren't on buildings. Signs are right here in your iPhone. End of story. And look, a lot of things these people are calling signs are window decor, and we have to treat it as a sign. I think it's trashy. Drive up and down Chrome Avenue. from 15th street all the way south down to the southern city limits go out to to audubon plaza and you tell me if you think that's an acceptable look for the community i think we need to adopt this so that we can continue to let violators know that there is an issue and that there is a year to comply, which I happen to believe is a fair amor

Thank you. So you bring up Audubon Plaza, and I agree with you, it's a little overkill there. But during my briefing, I started questioning different scenarios, the life safety issues with police officers and holdups and burglaries in progress and not being able to see inside. And as we debated some of the information, there's nothing in our code that keeps anybody from hanging curtains on the inside of their windows, taking out and blocking visualization inside of a property. And I went to the extreme, is what if they bought curtains or blinds and had advertisement placed on those, they're no

I think she had a qualification for her second.

It was just a second with direction to schedule the workshop on the sign code.

And just one last thing to think about. You mentioned the blinds inside, and I've been trying to find the right way to describe it. You think of department stores, and you think of their window setups, their window displays. This is, in essence, the same thing. I think you were referring our downtown business, our building, right? We put that on there because that's what we want to see when we look into the window, right?

One of them where we have the mannequins talking to each other.

I thought it would be so funny if they put little Easter eggs of us in there. But anyway, that is how I envision it. I see it as a modern way to dress up your windows and advertise what you have. And like I said, it does have to be in a tasteful, just like our signage can't just be neon on Chrome Avenue, right? There's still a color. thing that we need to follow so if there is a way to have these window treatments fall within the requirements of the actual signage no bright lights right no neon and that it still was tasteful and fit the downtown i think that we can definitely come up with and

All right, so we have a motion and a second with the implicit request, I think, from all of us to let's have some further off-the-dias discussion in a less formal setting. So does that conclude comments? All right, so let's have a roll call vote.

Move it. Moved by Councilman Fletcher. Second by Councilman Canabal. Let's have a roll call vote.

Thank you. Moving on to tab five. Mr. Perl.

Thank you, Mr. Pearl. Any objection to waiving the staff report? And do we have any questions or comments from council on this item? Anything to add, Mr. Manager? nothing new okay moved by councilman cannibal we have a second second by councilman fletcher any final comment or question from council let's have a roll call vote on tab five councilwoman avila councilman fletcher

Thank you. Any objection to waiving the staff report? Moved by Vice Mayor Bailey. Second. Seconded by Councilman Canabal. Anything further from Council? None appearing. Let's have a roll call vote on tab six.

And for our packed house tonight, there's a lot of neat stuff we're going to auction off. Cars, trucks, generators, telephones, all kinds of neat things. Check out the list. Okay. TAB 7, Mr. Perl.

Thank you. Councilwoman, this is your item.

Thank you, it's my honor to bring back for consideration the interfaith advisory board and this ordinance would provide for a seven member voting board with each member of city council appointeen one members would be should be active within the faith based community and reflect the cross section of faiths within the community. The board would serve strictly as an advisory capacity to the City Council with responsibilities including advising Mayor and Council City Manager on relevant community matters, serving as a liaison with faith-based and spiritual communities, recommending cooperative ser

Thank you. I'm going to let Vice Mayor interject very quickly, and then we'll go to you. No, no, no.

It's really quick. I didn't know more than one pastor was getting up. All I wanted to say was thank all of you pastors. I know most of you personally. Thank you for all that you do in the community. And you had mentioned the National Day of Prayer. I just wanted to ask and throw it out there that as you're considering your board to just make sure, as I know you always do, that you do include all of our denominations. The last two years, we failed to have any Haitian pastors be part of the National Day of Prayer. I know when your board was there, you did do that. So I just wanted to put it out

Anyone else? Oh, I'm looking out in the audience first. Anyone else? Okay, Council Fletcher.

just a quick question as to i know we created this board a couple years ago and how did it fall through the cracks that we have to recreate and and do it again it's unsetted we we put a date on it at the time are we going to do that for this are we going to leave it open open ended not built in perfect that way it doesn't fall through the cracks again thank you okay

Yes, Councilwoman. Thank you. Great question. The original board was set up as an ad hoc, so it comes with a sunset. This is codified like our other committees now, and we're not discussing budgets or anything at this time. That'll come during budget planning and whatnot, but... certainly to be a thermostat or being able to have meetings and and promote attendance etc you know there would be costs i mean the national day of prayer has been put on without us financially um you know covering those expenses and through volunteerism and whatnot, and I would expect that those services would continu

the the groups that you serve is essential in my opinion so i appreciate the support on this item thank you okay thank you so i come to this tonight very reluctantly because i'll be very candid with you when this was brought by one of our former colleagues i viewed it as a political stunt and the fact that it kind of, and that's why I asked for a sunset to be put on it, because who's gonna be perceived as the one who votes against God, right Clemente? Yeah. No, it is. This is as well. I view this as a campaign stunt, but I wanna be real clear It's, I understand that the, other than the way it'

Thank you, Mary. The intentions was to create the confines of this committee as we have with all the other committees, which are all advisory in nature. And there is a liaison assigned from council to work with them. And any events, especially starting back up again, would be put together as a proposal, as was intended for us to come back for approval and discussion on. There's no budget in this document. There's no budget in this document. No, that's correct. But there was.

Well, no, it was mentioned. by one of the speakers in support of the item, making a clarification, and I'm making a further clarification, that there could be and should be a budget assigned to this committee so that they can serve in the capacities that this body sees fit. How they propose their work and what items in their plan and all that is yet to be seen, and not to be debated tonight. But the goal is to form the committee for it to be a branch of the city, just like the agricultural committee will be, just like CRB and SWAC and several other committees that we have. So I'm not asking fo

Well, but we just need to be clear that as a recommendory committee, There is no authority in this document to initiate any event or spend any money without council approval for the specific official event of the IAB. I want you all to be clear on that. Again, as I said a few minutes ago, kind of went far afield last time and I think we need to stay within those rails. And what happened today in Tallahassee changes everything. There is the great unknown out there as to what we will be able to continue to do to even provide some basic services as a city. There's just, it's chaos and real uncert

Okay, is there any other public comment? Is there anyone online, as long as we've opened the gate? Okay, so we'll close the public hearing and we'll have a roll call vote on this item.

Okay. Something I should have done earlier, I'd like to jump to tab 12 very quickly on the Sports Hub item. Mr. Ferrell?

Thank you, Mr. Pearl. Okay, I know we've all been briefed. Are there any questions or comments with respect to this item? Councilwoman? No?

Thank you, Mayor. I see that proposed. This item was proposed by a council member, but I just wanted to get clarification. They're requesting these funds? Because I thought this was negotiated part of the contract. It feels like a slippery slope of changes being made. And there was proffering of the scholarships. My understanding is that's not happening. Now we're being proposed a residential community. So it's like now I'm seeing they want us to pay for development. fees when it was all part of the agreement to or did did our attorney make a mistake and now we negotiated the contract like thi

Mr. Mayor. Mr. Fletcher. Yeah, you know, based on just different conversations I've had since we initially performed this contract, yes, this was something that I had discussed with SPH folks that, you know, I think it's only natural for us to look at offsetting some of these costs for somebody who's is basically placing 250 million dollars worth of infrastructure in our in our city and we're going to have public use of that facility it's part of being a public private partnership you know instead we're going to ask them to spend the 250 million dollars and also pay the the 28 or 30 or $50,000

This has to do solely with the greenfield portion of the project. This has nothing to do with the arena, it has nothing to do with the academic village, or some ambiguous other project that may or may not ever come to bear. Now, you ask about the negotiation. I was there in the room most, if not all, of the time, as was our team of attorneys and the city manager and their ABLE team of attorneys, and it's something that was just overlooked on both sides. But again, to Councilman Fletcher's point, if we were doing it ourselves, we wouldn't pay permit fees. They, you know, and now they're coming

half of the permit fees and cost recovery again limited solely to the green fields thank you mayor i i appreciate the explanation i i don't think it was something that was overlooked i i recall the briefings and if they were going to pay 100 for the build i will support this item tonight only and purely out of support for you councilman fletcher We need the money it's already been expressed, we are we don't know what's coming and we could use the dollars in our account, but.

i'll rest there, and I will support this item for you tonight, or they could go away and we'll have to find 120 million dollars to do the greens fields is that what you suggest, are you suggesting they're not committed to complete the project. If they don't not not not at all not not not in the the least. but supporting Councilman Fletcher, because he brought it, implicitly says you don't support the project.

I think we're overreaching with these comments. No, not at all. We are, we are. Not at all. I think everybody is very well aware how excited we've been about this project. But I'll tell you, I was also surprised by it because it does seem like such a small percentage of such a huge project. And it's alarming. So I understand your concerns. I appreciate your explanation. But let's not kid ourselves that it does feel like it is, no pun intended, coming out of left field. and my other concern was when asking staff what does that mean dollar amount wise for us and we have absolutely no no idea so

If you look at it in a way that we're really waiving fees and not footing bills, it also makes it easier. But yeah, we are equally committed. We want to see this happen. So thank you for the clarifications.

Councilman Fletcher, if you'll move it, I'll second it. Second. Co-second, co-second. Okay. Any further from council? Seeing none, let's have a roll call vote on this item.

Thank you, Mayor. This is about getting serious about our commitment to preserving the agricultural roots of the city of homestead. We're going to have a field and a tractor in our logo. We might as well have an agricultural committee. And all the comments made prior to this item with relation to the other committee all stand. So I do hope that there are plenty of events and plenty of engagement forums and. and i do hope for us to be able to assign a budgetary allocation for it to be able to function efficiently in the future but for right now those are not up for debate this is just to pass t

committee any different stature or standing in terms of of budgeting or or authority no no standing committee will ever in an ordinance will ever have money allocated that's a budgetary decision

The last line where it says to preserve and promote the city's agricultural identity. I think it would be more accurate to say, and again starting at the beginning of the last line, initiatives intended to recognize the city's agricultural heritage. We're not preserving and promoting any agriculture by the establishment of this committee. Let's get real about that. That's out of our control. And I don't want this to be used in the future to springboard into something more than it was ever intended to be.

I don't, I don't understand the challenge because of preserving and promoting the city's are you you referencing that the city currently does not have an agricultural identity?

That's your people all know where homestead begins and ends and the theory of homestead still being agriculture is misplaced because of a general public knowledge or misunderstanding of where the the boundary lines of homestead are we have a heritage of which means in the past. We have a past agricultural heritage. And we're going to recognize that, and we're going to promote that. But the word preserve to me has a whole different meaning.

Okay, well there are existing community gardens that exist within the City of Homestead right here off of, I think it's Flagler. We just talked about the other day of a site that we are conveying to a developer to include programming for community garden experiences within the City of Homestead. That's well within our borders of what this is meant to preserve and promote. So while I appreciate that there is that perception that the city of Homestead is not the Redlands and the city of Homestead is no longer or is eliminating farming communities, I don't agree with that. I want to try to revers

We're going to spend the next year and a half spitting at each other anyway. But as Ms. Konski, I think, if she were honest about it, would tell you that a backyard garden and a community garden is not agriculture. Agriculture is putting millions of dollars at risk, buying millions of dollars in equipment, being subject to markets and weather and, you know, the... The the wrath of God or the the the blessing of God on on your crop backyard gardens do not create an agricultural community neither do Community gardens which I understand, please point me to that garden i've never seen it.

Maybe not maybe it's I don't want codes being stuck stuck on them, so the challenge that I hear you saying is that. I don't think anyone has any less respect for the true, true farmers that were here or that still exist within the greater Homestead area. And I think the state has expanded the definition of agriculture to also include agritourism. I think you're nitpicking here, but you did mention there was some other verbiage that was not consistent with the creation of the committee. Is this the only example?

No, different in terms of the thoroughness of the language, which, you know, the attorneys represented that, you know, no difference. You know, two different sides of the same quarter. I appreciate it. No, it's just that, you know, We're really kidding ourselves if we think we're going to preserve agriculture by any action we take here.

I can understand that lack of faith, Mayor, and I appreciate Councilman Konski's support and her participation in the sunshine meetings that we've had leading up to this and for her commitment to do what she can with her passion, her experience, and her connections within this community to revive what little agricultural flame may exist that you perceive. I think that agriculture was still a big part of our identity and I'd like to preserve it. I'll leave that. Thank you.

So would you like to make a motion on the item? Okay. We have a motion. We have a second. Seconded by the farmer's daughter.

That's right, the farmer's daughter. May I?

May I speak? Sure. Though farming is not done in the city limits of Homestead, you're absolutely correct, not on the scale that we are known for and depicted in our logo. I would say that many of the farmers are homestead residents, though the farming is done in the redlands. As an as a farmer, there are many resources that they contribute financially out of their need for the resources to the city of homestead so they're drivers for employment and out of necessity for provisions and services resources so yes, can we. revitalize agriculture we don't know you know probably not to be honest with

all of the east side, Waterstone, Malibu Bay, Oasis, Vineyards.

And the villages, before 1980, whatever it was, they were built, was all farmland. And I shared a little story with, in my meeting, that when I had the restaurants, the Royal Palm and Larry's All American, They used to come to my back door with sacks of potatoes for $5 for a 50 pound bag of potatoes. And that kind of went away. And so there is a lot of heritage to what Homestead was. And I'm thinking as you guys are talking, the fact that we asked the developer to put fruit trees in people's backyards is a testament to heritage, right? We may not get the groves that we had in the past, but we

Thank you. Any further? We have a motion and a second, so let's have a roll call vote.

I WASN'T SURE WHAT TAB WE WERE ON. WE'RE ON THE AG COMMITTEE. IT'S A YES.

SO WE'LL RECORD COUNCILMAN FLESHER AS A YES. OKAY. MOVING ON TO TAB NINE.

Thank you, Mr. Pearl. So this item is subscribed to me. I'll give you some quick background. Recently, well, within the last couple of years, we've had two approvals. that abutted the boundary lines of the city of Homestead, where subdivision essentially was in the city and just outside the city. The one was Aspen West, probably three years ago, and then the more recent Lennar project also contained a few homes outside the city limits. So it occurred to me it really makes no sense neighbors backing up to each other. One calls Homestead Police Department, the other calls Miami-Dade Sheriff's Of

Mayor, thank you, I see that says it says exhibit one exhibit to exhibit three and during briefing just trying to get through it all. I did not notice there were not actual exhibits like so i'm familiar with them penco West property that's the linear project we'd approved and the. D.R. Horton and Aspen Estates, but the Miami-Dade County property area there, that little piece of that carve-out, I'm not familiar with that one. So is there an exhibit that's supposed to be part of this packet that showcases what it is? And then with regards to the taxes, I mean, this is, Councilman Konski is in yo

for her district but do we really want to add more potential non-taxpayers to our list of people we have to service potentially they may not pay the taxes but now we're adding them to us that's my question yeah in reality these these houses let's let's say because irrespective of the height that's out there there's only something definite that exempts the first 250. any 250 000 Anything beyond that has not really been jailed. It is not in this. And Mr. Pearl, last I saw it seems to kind of leave it to municipalities.

Okay. We have to see. But what we know is there's a phasing in of up to 250. So to answer your immediate question, those homes and those subdivisions are going to be selling at a lot more than 500 or 600 thousand dollars so if they're exempted for their first 250 of value they're still taxable value there and we're talking about i think 24 houses that in those two subdivisions um the other the other parcel further to the east uh constitutes one home on a very large piece of property if you're familiar with the home of former mayor fred rhodes on 21st street the big house with the with the high

thank you mr mayor um i question a few things one why one parcel and as exhibit three versus you know we've talked about how irregular our district is if this is an asset the way if there are no changes to the property taxes and it would be an asset and there will be but um why not square it out because these are all residential properties

And you're speaking of the four immediately to the north of that parcel?

There's four. There's even one property to the east of Fred Rhodes' house that's on the corner.

Well, there's only one to the north, sorry, to the north of Fred Rhodes' house.

The one to the north of Fred Rhodes' former home is in the city, absolutely. So those four would bring in 296 frontage?

Correct, correct. So if we were to square it up, if this was an asset to the city, why not take the whole block of 296, square it all the way down?

Well, you know, we could, I think we probably need to, you know, in terms of, and it makes sense on one hand to square it up. They already use our electricity. They use our water. I don't know if they're on sewer there. I don't think they are. So we're already deriving income from those properties. Probably going to be a policy decision I don't know what each one of those are assessed at. Some may continue to produce tax revenue, some may not.

And then I question on the other side, the flip side, will it become a liability? You know, depending on what happens with property taxes. So are we assuming a liability?

Well, again, the new houses are going to be beyond that cap. They would still produce revenue. right and the valuation of the of the one on 21st street its taxable value is in excess of a million dollars now so again if you bring that in and the tax exemption is even a half a million dollars you're still deriving revenue on the difference between a half a million and a million plus okay

I don't really see what we're proposing. I don't really see as a drain given the math right now. Yes, Councilwoman.

Thank you, Mayor. I would not want to subject city secondary levels of regulation on top of any existing property owner. So exhibit three, unless you're seeing it as a potential sale to a developer in the future and it gives us the ability to then curate the property development,

i believe that based on that very same thing that city of homestead could do it better than what may be permitted under the county rules right now and it faces and abuts a lot of city properties from that perspective i can understand the benefit of having at least a regular regulatory developmental control um but as long as i think that's important all right thank you thank you Okay, so do we have a motion and perhaps include those four residences to the north?

Oh, that's, that's, I'm asking for the motion. Councilwoman Lekoski, would you like to make the motion and also, you know, amend this item to include those four residences north of the smaller parcel?

Yes, thank you, Mayor. I guess I would make that motion to include those four properties. Right.

There's four single-family residences that would round out that block. Square out the block. Okay, so we have a motion and a second. Is there anything further? Yes, Councilwoman.

Sorry, one more question for clarification. Would this have a second reading where it gives those property owners an opportunity to come and object and vocalize?

Well, there's a huge annexation process.

They would be notified and everything, right?

Yes, and at some point it's out of our hands and is in the hands of the county.

The answer is yes. We're not sneaking it in on anyone. And again, Lennar and DR have already signaled their concerns. There's nothing there yet.

And in reality, to the concerns expressed by the representative of D.R. Horton, The reality is that annexation is such a protracted process, they will very likely be completed, nearly completed, inspected with COs before the annexation is ever finished, and whatever the final plat would be. Yes, Councilwoman.

Sorry, one more question. How much is this going to cost us, this process? It's a whole, we have to go through a whole bunch of hoops.

Well, again, that's part of our final approval of the package. that we're gonna send to the county. The cost of the submission would be included in our next vote when the whole package is brought to us for approval.

Not very intensive info. Okay. All right, so we do have a motion and a second subject with the amended issue of bringing in those additional four existing residences. So let's have a roll call vote on taking the first step for annexation.

So that takes us to 11. Okay. Mr. Pearl.

Thank you, Mayor. There is a revised verbiage for the question for number one, the mayoral term limit that's been distributed. This more accurately reflects the intent and gives clarity as to why this is being proposed. And I did not get any updates during our briefings with regards to any research or paperwork. and costs involved with the boundaries related to the single member voting district item. So I was curious if we could get an update on that. Staff was supposed to do some research and talk about it between last council meeting and now.

Okay, so while that was very much a significant item of interest from voters that I had engaged with during the last election, I do recognize the importance of needing to have that data and for us to be able to continue the conversation in a responsible manner. I have also had time to consider the Charter Review Committee, and I would suspect that this would be an item of discussion for them as well. But, you know, I am going to voice my disappointment that there really hasn't been any update with regards to even costs of what a consultant would be or do we have any maps that we can look at or

thank you so let me jump out there first and you know we we had some discussion last time you brought this up and you know i'm i'm certainly not at this point one one four year term in i i think we need to let it play out but the language that you propose is very misleading probably unintentionally so but it's very misleading because Any time the mayor has to run, whether it be a four year term or a two year term as mayor. There are three council members who are not up for election, therefore, if any one of those three who were not up for election wished to run for mayor, they would have to re

Well, I mean, the challenge we have is that we have to fit it all within 73 words. And so with trying to, you know, being tasked with trying to be as transparent as possible and stay within 70 or 73, whatever the cop is, This is the best way that I could express that we are fixing a problem. There is a permanent disparate treatment that exists under the current election. Three council members will, in perpetuity, would always have to forfeit their term time in order to be able to run for any mayor election.

that they do anyway, even under a two-year term.

No. They would run two years after. Correct. They have the opportunity. This balances and creates the same opportunity across the board. So this is not misleading. What you're trying to say is misleading. You're saying that what we have now is balanced and this would unbalance it.

No, I didn't say balanced. That's a hold it and look, I know what's going on here. But let's cut through this.

Do you have a suggestion to adding the word balance? No.

I think if you're going to do this, and I don't support this, and I hope three of you will join me and see it for what it is and allow at least one more cycle of the mayor having a four-year term. Okay, so. know how about the the city charter per currently provides the mayor's elected to a four-year term shall the mayor oral term be reduced for two years period this shall not reduce the mayor's overall term limit of eight years that's transparent that's to the point all of the rest of this stuff is And look, we have brilliant and well-paid attorneys, and I'm assuming that this is something you

This is a combination of multiple draftings, and this was reviewed. Thank you.

Well, it may have been reviewed, but it's not well-written.

This would not be. Any verbiage can be challenged, but this is fact-based. This is fact-based.

It's misleading. It absolutely is misleading. Council members representing three of the city's six residential seats must resign their office to run for mayor. That is misleading because the four-year term does not create that issue. The staggered terms of council members create that issue.

The four-year term intersects with the other staggered terms. We didn't have this problem before. We have it now only because of the change of the four-year term limit or term.

Are you kidding me? So when I had a two year term, or when any mayor had a two year term, there were always three members who were not up for election. And if one of those members wanted to run for mayor, they would have to resign

to run that's correct that has always existed i'm not saying that doesn't exist what i'm saying is now those other three members are perpetually now having to forfeit to run and cannot wait to a mayor a cycle where the mayor is on their ballot to run okay i get what you're saying but that's not what it says here this make it makes it seem nefarious and unfair and we can go back and get the

the records and see who voted to put the four-year mayoral term on on the ballot and if y'all hadn't been so never mind vice mayor thank you mayor i also thought about that

to recall my notes and words um obviously these charter decisions they're huge I remember our very lengthy conversations I you know I feel pressure obviously on all of our decisions but these are just even more and not because I don't trust our residents to vote for what they want, but the truth is that there are many times, especially this upcoming ballot, which is supposed to have a lot of items on it, how many people I have personally heard just say that they do a little picture or do a, I'll do this here and this there without really understanding what's happening. I am sure that there are

It would probably create as many as it would alleviate.

So out of curiosity, what are some issues? That comes to mind first. Figuring out how to get to that point where someone's not losing a couple years or gaining a couple years.

I don't think there's any way to do that transition. Either you're going to have to add to somebody or take away from someone to get to the point in the future where everyone is up for election. That is not to say it can't be done.

vice mayor if i may on that yeah your suggestion i i i find a lot of value in the staggered because where would i be without you having been here for me to learn from when i came in um so if you if you do the full and maybe i'm misunderstanding but if you did the full ballot election with everyone on it you could have a total wipeout and then zero experience on the days and

Florida City is experiencing that now, where they only have one veteran member, and I came to realize this weekend at the League of Cities gala that due to term limits in Palmetto Bay, only two of the five will be returning and one is a brand new member and the other one is very controversial so you know those will be the only two with any level of experience and you'll have a lot of new new folks now look i think right now if you threw that out there to the public and said should we throw them all out they'd probably say yes

I would like for that item to be discussed with the charter review, along with the single member voting district, because that could be a fresh start for the whole city in that kind of scenario.

So, okay. We'll table that. I agree. I agree completely. I was trying to come up with some really bad reasons for it, and that in itself was enough. Yeah. I feel the same if I didn't have somebody on there before. So for the mayoral term, the reason that I believe I was a yes in the first time off, and again, it was trying to balance pros and cons. There's not a very clear black and white for me on this one. I can see how both of you, when I first read this, I thought, no, someone is always gonna have to resign to run, but that's if they're deciding to do it that year. Right. But it is a very

I'd like to hear from, we live in a bubble. As much as we like to deny it, we to a certain extent live in a political bubble. and i know that probably more so than a lot of prior councils we're out and we're we're conversing with with people but i i would tend to agree that you know i don't know what the hurry is here on this one we could put it on the the ballot next year but you know you you've brought this and i think and it deserves a vote to go a vote to go forward

Well, I can clarify that. By voting to add this on this November's ballot, the people would have the opportunity to shape the future of the leadership of the city four years into the future. So they would vote on this year's ballot to make the change. If they do want the change, then next year, 2027, the mayoral candidates would be running for a two-year term, not a four-year term. So it is very, very impactful on the future of the city, and the voters, in my opinion, should have the choice after, you know, we've already gone through it through a couple election cycles. We just had the mayor's

You know, it's interesting. And I'm sure you could go find some minutes or somebody's probably given you some minutes where many years ago in charter committee when the city was much smaller and had much less going on, I was a proponent of two years for mayor. with the ability of hindsight now as we have more than doubled in size since the first time I left office and the things we have going on like sports hub and these industrial projects um you know the distraction of the perpetual you know and that was a big I think a big part of our discussion when the you know and that was a big I think

Mayor, that would be in the scenario of a single member voting district. So that would be for charter review committee to fully consider and make any extra changes. But, you know, it is hypocritical for you to sit there and say that the burden of running an election is so burdensome. But yet you you and your example, you ran three campaigns. And you were not on the ballot, so you know, while the intention absolutely was there for that to be a relief to a sitting mayor that's not the case, all the time okay obviously in practice, but it but aside from that. This is correcting this change is cor

in the driver's seat as to what they want to see do they want to reaffirm their choice or do they not and that's what i'm asking and that's fine but this language and look i'm not going to vote for putting this on the ballot but if you all do you need some better language some legally drawn language but councilwoman you just hold on yourself this is punitive to me a mayor who is in the last 16, 18 months of a term, and you're saying it's not fair that I ran campaigns that you didn't agree with when I wasn't on the ballot. So what you're really after is you're trying to handcuff a mayor from bu

Mayor, everything I said now, I said it the last time we discussed this. This does not affect you in any way. This change, you're termed out. So that is an example of... I know what your math is. This is an example... You aspire to sit here. Mayor, this is an example based on the comments you made. So while this is a strong council leadership... And that is what I seek to preserve is for our city to have strong council member leadership. Okay? This has nothing to do with you or punitive damage, retribution or anything like that. This is fixing a problem.

What's this strong council stuff? I've never heard of that form of government. So you want to diminish the mayor. You're going to make the mayor work twice as hard and twice as long You're diminishing the position of the mayor.

The mayor should be working collaboratively with every single council member. And if that's being done, then you wouldn't have, you know, people wouldn't be voting you out.

Agreeing all the time is not democracy either, is it?

And a lot of people were against what you were campaigning for.

First four years you were here, you weren't very collaborative, were you? So it's pot calling the kettle black. Okay, so we've got the other issue of... that you brought before asking the voters to give you a free ride for the first 20 months of your service on council. Because that amendment, if passed, would apply to no one else ever in the history of the world.

Mayor, if anybody comes in to serve in a vacancy for six months, they would lose their term completely based on the retroactivity benefits you rather than going forward. And you asked for four more years without any retroactive carve out. Yeah, I already said this would allow me to serve a full fourth, a full third term. Okay, this is I volunteered to serve in a vacancy. I didn't run an election.

And that's just it. You got a free ride and you haven't provided for people who get elected to a partial term to get the benefit that you're going to get.

The people will vote to decide whether the person should continue to serve a third term or not. That's what this will do. It will allow them to vote whether or not someone with an appointed time should count or not count.

Well, we've got to give her her time. Okay. So.

We're not changing the charter here, guys. We're just asking to put it on the ballot. well and i think people will be reading the ballot this november i think that is one of the the the the specialties of this election with the whole tax thing people will be reading the ballot and paying very close attention and coming out to vote well let's so we have your you're withdrawing the single member district question i have no documentation to discuss on it all right now so

If either one of these two questions, either exempting appointed service from the calculation of term limits and changing the mayor's term back to two years, affirmative action on either or both tonight is merely a direction to the attorney to bring back final ballot language at our July 7th meeting for approval for placement on the ballot. So we're not necessarily approving

if there's concerns about the ballot language you can address them and i will try you can let me know and i will try to incorporate anything that you're looking for for placement on the july 7th july 7th agenda agenda okay and then after we dispense with these two i'd like to talk about a third concept that i believe needs to go on the ballot and and we can dispense with with that so The first item would be the concept of reducing the mayor's term, not term limit, but term from four years to two years, commencing with the 2027 election, correct?

Mr. Mayor, if I may. Yes, Councilman Fletcher.

Yeah, so I mean, tonight this sounds pretty two-sided. It seems like it's you against the councilwoman or vice versa. And in my view, let's talk about the mayoral term. This was approved an election and a half ago to increase to four years based on the information that basically if you're a mayor of a city and having to run every year and a half, you don't have time to build any momentum and work towards the same items that we each have that ability to during that four year time. I think if we're going to move forward with something like this, it's important for the community to provide input.

Yes, just just as a response. It's a coincidence. You mentioned that, but and maybe not because we have the charter review resolution on here. We've been making calls to discuss appointees and whatnot, and I too also spoke with somebody who had served previously on charter review and this specific question, the mayoral term limit. They had voiced that they were in favor of the item back then when it passed and that they really are encouraging me to push forward because they did not foresee the consequences of it so. They'll remain nameless for the purposes of this conversation, but I do agree

Okay, so let's get a motion on the floor with respect to the concept of the mayoral term of it. Vice Mayor Bailey? Did you? Yes. I didn't know if you said may I or do we? Oh, well. Okay.

The single member district, definitely for the committee. And again, every you just you think through these things, and you think of different different scenarios, I have no interest in becoming mayor. But the way that it is stated right now, anyone on the west side, anyone on the northwest or the southwest would always have to resign their seats. I know, but I'm thinking of the west side. You guys still have other chairs, other seats in the in the east. that was just the look of the draw when that was passed right and that's very unlucky for us um it is a completely different setting the east

I agree going forward, but it's retroactive to also include the councilwoman's free 20 months.

During our sunshine meeting, I made it clear, and I would expect the same from all of you, is we're voting on something for the good of the city. Whether it serves one of us right now, we need to consciously be making that call for the city. And if it happens to affect us, so be it, knowing that the intention is there.

Well, but we can do it for the good of the city by adopting it prospectively rather than retroactively also. But let's get a motion on the table to have the city attorney bring back ballot language reducing the mayor's term from four to two, not the term limit. Moved. Moved by Councilman Roth. Second. Second by Councilman Canabal. If there's nothing further, let's have a roll call vote on that concept coming back.

And then the next one would be the exemption of the period of appointment. Moved by Councilman Roth. Second. Second by Councilwoman Bailey. Roll call, please, Madam Clerk.

Now, if I might, the other concept, and I think this is very... this is time sensitive and appropriate to go on the ballot, my opinion, is that, and this would not apply to anyone who is in office now, but for those who are elected to a fresh term for the first time, commencing in 27, as to council members, they are limited to an eight-year term rather than 12 on council. There's a little nuance. This does not change the 12 consecutive year limit that we have now that would not prevent a council member from jumping from council to mayor so long as they're within that 12-year limit consecutive

the mayor's eight-year term limit councilwoman before you say anything because i think it was your idea um i see so much value in having tenure in councilman roth's position council councilwoman or vice mayor bailey's position um i think uh Councilman Fletcher has been in and out of office for a while as well. But you're on your second term, Councilman? I can't imagine not having you up here for your third term with us. I'm assuming you're running. I hope you run. Of course. But the amount of historical knowledge that you have and that you bring, and this will be a sound bite, I'm assuming, in

You could at any time, right. But I wouldn't support that item. I see the intention and the desire to, I don't know, I guess get fresh blood into the mix. But the way we stagger accomplishes that. So I appreciate it.

Councilman? Yeah, the only scenario that you brought up for the 12-year continual. Which exists now. Right. If we don't change the two-year term for the mayor, that penalizes somebody in their sixth year. Because if they don't get elected, can they run for mayor after their eighth year? yeah because you can do one you can do two twos or one four and to get to a total 12 years of service but if it the way it is now the way it is now you could leave people that that can't run for mayor right now that have to leave their seat would have to sit out the two years and then wait for that mayor's race

Well, they get to reset their clock too.

Well, then they could do another 12 years as mayor as well. So, I mean, that's just one of the things when you look down the road, what did we do? And we restricted somebody from being able to actually do 12 consecutive as they can today. I'm okay for the eight year term. but I think we have to think about a lifetime limit as well of time served. I think 12 is a long time. Some of them are younger than we are and I know I'm not coming back. So, because in the current situation, if I even wanted to and come back as councilor mayor, that'd be four years. No, but there wouldn't be an election for

That's right, take her seat when she's termed out. But it ain't happening.

So just some stuff to think about, right? I'm all with you on that, but the other thing.

But as a side note to that, As we conclude this one, I'd like to talk about the vice mayor spot as well. Cause I think I spoke to somebody in my briefing about it, how other cities do it. And most of them do it from the dais, right? We vote for who we want us to represent us on the dais as the vice mayor as well. So we'll have that conversation, I think after this one, because I think we can figure that out too. I think it's confusing to be on the ballot in two spots. And I think we can figure that part out. So we'll talk about the eight years now, and we'll go on to that.

Well, if you want, you'll need to bring that up. And that may be something that we need to work through the committee to implement in 29, because we're bumping up against an election this year to be effective in 27.

Well, would that be an actual charter change?

The charter controls how the vice mayor title is bestowed. Yes.

Yeah, we can do it, but as long as we get a plan in place. Oh, yeah. Thank you, Mayor.

Thank you, Mr. Mayor. Yes, Councilor Fletcher. So I appreciate the comments from all the colleagues up here. And I've always been a proponent of less time submitting. And I look at our national elections to see that people are in these positions for way too long. But again, the voters chose to put them there. But I think by limiting that, I still think, council member or a former council member it's our duty to provide insights to the new council who might be here and provide that perspective whether or not we're elected or not that's just something we need to do and I haven't seen that in the

Not casting curses on anybody who's up for election next year, but I see the potential in an election blowout, there will probably be, there will be a new mayor and potentially four new council members. Because if the mayor's two-year term change doesn't pass, I think we're going to see a resign to run. So we're going to have four, potentially, you have to run like you're always losing. In 27, there could be as many as four new members. Those four new members would enjoy the benefit of 12 years if we don't go forward for this cycle, reducing it to eight. It would be those who were first electe

It's your point. Okay. Again, I understand. It's up to the community.

All right. So if there's anything else on that concept, if we could have a motion on the concept of Eight-year council terms commencing for new folks coming to council in 27. Do we have a motion for that? Okay, moved by Councilman Canabal. Yes, Vice Mayor.

my head so i wish that this would have passed last year and that i didn't i wouldn't but that's easy to say now listen it would have been one of those bittersweet things um i'm watching you guys on the video tonight i would have said this is one of the sweet ones to miss um I see the benefit, but now, in case the mayor's term is changing to two, I feel like I need to wrap my head around this piece and plan out some scenarios in my head also. What is coming back to us in July is to approve

So is there an opportunity to say that this one goes on, but then we have another chance, yes, well well.

Correct. Not applicable to, in this case, Cannonball and Fletcher. Their grandfather with the 12.

But again, I think to your question, we will see this one more time. If it dies tonight, you won't. If it lives to fight another day, as the first two have, We'll see it again. We'll see these first two again.

So after thinking this one specifically through, at the next time, if the verbiage comes back and we do not agree with it, we would vote that down and it would... You can make a motion on the floor to amend the resolution to remove that particular item if that's something that you wanted to do. Okay. I feel like I need to wrap my head around that one a little more. Thank you. Okay.

So yes, I just want to say Vice Mayor, I'm so happy that you can be here serving a third term. I really am. And I think the only people I've ever heard and the all the time I've served and throughout the campaign that anyone has ever complained about the 12 years is us because we feel burdened and obligated to continue serving if we have the ability to serve. And those are the servant hearts that we have, you know, but I think there's so much value in us being at 12. Thank you.

You never heard the phrase burden of service come out of my mouth. Okay, so Councilman cannibal moved to direct the attorneys to draft language reducing future Council terms limits from 12 years to eight years we don't have a second yet nobody else wants to second it, I will. Okay, so second by the Vice Mayor any final comments before we vote on the reduction of Council term limits. Okay, let's have a roll call, Madam Clerk.

Does it carry? It carries. It carries, okay.

All right. So we have dealt with tab 12. Okay, it takes us to 13. All right, Mr. Pearl.

Thank you. Background. This came out of my angst, and I'm sure the angst that all of you share with the BRT chaos. It occurred to me again that the straight line linear mass transit, whether it be BRT, whether it be elevated rail, does not really serve the majority of our community. I think it's fair to say folks who live on the east side, who represent the majority of our population, who have to get on the turnpike every morning to go to their place of employment even if elevated rail came all the way to homestead would probably not that make that drive back across town so in thinking that wi

Yeah, I was surprised that this, I thought we had a study, and I learned we didn't have a study. And I was like, but we have all these transportation planning meetings, but this is transit, right? It's different, so.

Yeah, with regards to the TPO, Waterstone Boulevard and 137th Avenue still does not have a clear answer with regards to the traffic light. So I would like for you to ask, I thought you had already put it on there, but I guess that was a different list. There's like two lists, one's a TPO list, one's a county list, but... I'm told by our public works department that funding is approved and I asked the county and they're saying no. So departments are not speaking to each other, department directors are getting conflicting information and the reality is that there is no traffic light in sight for

In Kingman, that we had been advocating for, and so that's now approved by the TPO. So if it's a matter of just making the ask, please make the ask.

We will. And I know there are a lot of different clarifications of which agency has its hands in the pot.

Yeah, but the people need a straight answer. I don't have one. I mean, if there's one today. Okay. I mean, if staff can give me an answer now, if there's been any further information, updates, what is the status with the line? If not, I will rest and hope to see it approved soon.

Thank you. We have a meeting with the director later this week, and certainly that will be on the list. Councilman Roth?

This is just to figure out where people are going, right? Correct. Because we also have a large contingent of people that go south to Monroe County for work, too. Yeah, it's where do you go and how can we better get you somewhere else? yeah because I when they mentioned it to me in my briefing I was like well, we have so many modes of transportation and take people. Around the city, we have freebie we've got trolley we've got Miami dade county buses somebody mentioned sts which is all over the place too, but that's a little bit more challenging. Even Uber, but it's not a free service.

But our folks are on the turnpike going somewhere at 530 in the morning.

Yeah, so I'd be curious to see if people would actually respond and tell us where they go for work and stuff like that.

To see where the employment hot spots are. I think it would be very enlightening.

Yeah, and we ask specific questions like 10 to 20 miles, 20 to, you know, to try and dive into what those details are.

Well, you know, if they, if we ask them, for example, give us the closest intersection to your job. Wherever that is, kind of that, that hot spot map. Yeah, how do you get there? Yeah, where do you live? Do you live east of US 1 or east of the Turnpike? Or west, or west of US 1? Where do you go and how do you get there?

Mayor, sorry, I mean, have we, this would also include staff working with Economic Development Council, the EDC, Chamber of Commerce, they might have studies.

I don't know that they do, but maybe they could help fund it. maybe i mean we give them funding but the point is is let's let's ask what already exists it may be supplementary in nature but let's not ignore the data that may be out there thank you let's be collaborative with the effort you know and i i i filled in the mayor's coalition last week with you know where we were going and what my thought process were and the edc was there and and you know there was no mention that they had that data either You know, for me, it's kind of like one of those, wow, I could have had a V8 moments. We're wr

All right. So we're almost at the end, but let's tidy things up and have a motion to extend to 9 o'clock. We're going to be out of here before then. That's 21 minutes. Okay. It's been moved and seconded to 9 o'clock. All in favor? All right. Councilman Cannonball, you're first on my list. You going to save us time? Got anything tonight? No. Okay. Councilwoman Alva. Okay. See, I'm in such a hurry. Mr. Manager.

You had it right the first time with your life, you know, take your life, yes.

Thank you, Mr. Manager. Mr. Attorney? Nothing. Councilman Canabal, already declined. Councilwoman Avila?

Thank you, I did want to bring up for. discussion, no discussion, I just wanted to know, are we bringing a curfew item for for youth that are tormenting hooky. I had brought it up after I did my ride along I think I saw an email circulate do we have to do any formal passing of anything, and if so, do we need to have it a special call on it. so support the police department and enforcing you want to take that did you see the memo he circulated i saw the memo i didn't get to read it all the way to the end so i wasn't sure if the actual formal action of the board was was needed or not i mean are

Okay perfect so you just let us know if you need something and we'll pass it i'm sure. With regards to our activities, thank you very much for putting on military appreciation day I was not able to go as a military wife, unfortunately, because I was attending my daughter's recitals, but I do appreciate the representation. at the event and also wild fork they opened and did a ribbon cutting congratulations to them thank you to staff for facilitating their grand opening event and for everyone who was able to attend to support that new business in my district i did not go to that either same reas

quickly a great event on saturday out at the homestead regional park with uh the keone mcgee sponsored the uh the youth soccer clinic and uh there was about 130 kids showed up councilman cannibal was there with his kids a great event for the community it'll be bigger and better next year

and more good news to come out out at the homestead sports complex area with that i'll let everybody go home early tonight relatively thank you councilman roth thank you mayor uh no one's mentioned it yet so we don't have another meeting this month so i'd like to invite the public out to our 250th Fourth of July celebration, right? We don't have another meeting, so we got to talk about it now. Somebody give me details times. We're going to have like a 45 minute fireworks show this year, right? Not a three minute fireworks show. Yeah, I can just slow it down a little bit.

When you say tiered, access to specific areas or different areas? Yes, sir. So how would people obtain access or tickets?

I'm not speaking about us. I'm thinking about the public that may want to.

some going off to college, some just getting out of the grade they're in now and moving on to the next grade. And hopefully some haven't been held back because they didn't perform well. So wish them all the best of luck in everything they're doing. The Seminole Theater is having a bingo night, June the 12th, the same night as the Soiree. Tickets are available at SeminoleTheatre.org, and that's Seminole, T-H-E-A-T-R-E.org. And my last thing is, did the Spay and Neuter Clinic open up yet?

If I may, Councilman, the county responded that they would hope to have an answer from their legal review team this week. So I expect that there will be another update this week.

We've done what we needed to do. Got it. That's all, Mayor. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Mayor. A couple things. Friday and Saturday, I will be attending the League of Cities IEMO conference, which I am super excited about. Maybe I won't be so green when I come back. i also the homestead commerce park yesterday that was exciting there was some public comment about more building more traffic i don't see it that way i see that building as businesses here so we're getting closer to live here work here play here so that's very exciting and lastly i am sponsoring an event that i invite you to attend which is the first annual havana nights benefit dinner and it's bringing

We honored this man named Gunther, who I've had the pleasure of meeting before. And just such amazing stories come from so many of our vets. So I proudly stood there for you guys and apologized for you. But kudos to staff. It was a really nice, really nice setup. And the music, just we are doing so good with our events. I'm really proud of us. Thank you.

Thank you. Okay, yeah, I've only got six minutes. Y'all burned up my time on purpose, didn't you? Okay, so Council Fletcher, I know several weeks ago we had a meeting, a Sunshine meeting that was initiated by you to talk about putting some guardrails in place for the use of council discretionary funds. So assuming that's not out the window, not out the window and i'll be bringing it up during our budget discussions budget discussions to establish some guidelines and to the manager i believe this is in your purview i'd really like some policy and direction distributed to council and council ass

Move it a second with a comment. Thank you, Barbara, for keeping the lights on in Homestead.

As you're discussing with the spay and neuter, don't forget the comments, the plenty of comments about being able to serve and help with the larger dogs. Right. If that comes in.

Well, but no, this is private practice. this has nothing to do with the county services and and we haven't forgotten that but that would be the opportunity to locate offices in spaces that are no longer that not now permitted for new veterinarians yes all right thank you all good night