Town Council - Regular Meeting

Let the room come to order, please. Thank you. Welcome, everybody, to our May 20th, 2026 Town Council meeting. Would everybody please rise and join me in the Pledge of Allegiance.

Mr. Clerk, would you please take the roll? Council Member Lord?

Council Member Duncan? Here. Council Member Ramirez? Here. Vice Mayor Callahan? Here. You have a quorum. Thank you. Before I move the agenda to the floor, I am going to make a correction. I'm going to move item 3D. up uh just because we have a one or two folks in the audience that i think need to get home for homework so i'm going to make that make that change uh are there any other changes additions deletions nope all right hearing none and with that change then i'll move the agenda to the floor and then at this time we will move to the recognition of the soccer teams So I'm going to read the

Spread out. Spread out over. Let's everybody move a little this way. A little to your left. Two steps to the left.

On behalf of the mayor, who could not be with us this evening, and my fellow council members and the entire town of Cutler Bay, we want to say congratulations and great job. You've certainly represented this community incredibly and we're very, very proud of each and every one of you. Just as a side note, I played Cutler Ridge soccer way, way, way back when I was a kid. I was a goalkeeper. Yeah. And the very first game, I got hit in the head with the ball, and then next week I was a swimmer. Again, congratulations to everybody. You don't have to stay around for the rest of the meeting. I know

Guys, we have the rest of the meeting we have to get to, so.

all right i think we have the room back all right we're we're going to uh resume the meeting at this time i'm going to open up the floor for uh public comments anybody wishing to speak uh please step forward okay seeing no one approach the podium oh we got one oh i'm sorry

Obviously, because we know you, but for the record, your name and address.

okay seeing no other folks approach the podium um mr clerk anybody in the queue there's no one in the queue right no one in the queue then we're officially going to close public comments move on to the next agenda item um age friendly community so i'll turn the floor over to council member lord

Thank you, Vice Mayor. We have with us tonight some of our age-friendly community committee members. I will call them up to the podium in a moment so they can give a brief synopsis of the work that we do. I had the privilege of acquiring this committee when I was first elected to office six years ago. This is a very hardworking committee who is quite influential in the town. and in the state of Florida, recognized by AARP for the work they do. They work tirelessly for the entire community, not just for the elderly. The impact of this this committee I see it firsthand. It helps combat ageism. I

Thank you all. And if I may quickly just say, all three of you said we're just an advisory board.

You guys are very integral to the work that we do as a town for all ages of residents. And also highlight what Abhi just said, that the town has been recognized by the World Health Organization by being one of the friendliest towns for all ages, and that is significant. That is very significant. And that's because of you guys and your work. I also want to point out that right now we're working on modifying our master plan. These meetings are open to the public. You guys are welcome to come in and add to these ideas that we have a wall of ideas that we're writing down. And I welcome anybody and

I would also like to give a congratulations or a shout out, is that what the kids nowadays say, to Council Member Lord for her tireless work on chairing or the liaison to this particular committee. And you've done a great job. picking up uh right where uh susie loisel left off she was so passionate about this and um i mean fought for the uh the committee everywhere she went and um you you filled those shoes and you've pushed it forward so congratulations all right we'll move on to our next uh our next item well I tell you what, before we move on to our next item C, we are in the town council r

Yeah, no, you can hold it. Yeah, I guess. Why wasn't a teacher?

All right. Proclamation. I'm not going to make any promises that all these words will be pronounced correctly. Whereas public works professionals focus on infrastructure, facilities, and services that are of vital importance to the sustainable and resilient communities, as well as public health, high quality of life, and well-being of the people of the town of Cutler Bay, and whereas these infrastructures, facilities, and services could not be provided without the dedicated efforts of public works professionals who are engineers, managers, and employees, and sometimes state, public works winne

Whereas items three through D have now been completing. Therefore, we will move on to agenda item four reports. 4A, the town manager report. Turn the floor over now to our town manager, Ralph Casals.

Any questions from the council? Council member Duncan, you're recognized.

Thank you, Mr. Vice Mayor. Just one quick point for clarification, and this could be for Emma or for Ralph, is the delays that we're experiencing through DERM and getting approval for phase one for the soil remediation, This seems to be a little excessive, but maybe I'm being naive on that, but is this typical as far as the amount of delays we're facing on this for other projects? And if not, then why is this one seeming to drag on longer than it should?

Right. Yeah. the storm water correct storm tension so but that that doesn't prohibit us or does it prohibit us from moving forward with other vertical builds such as water sewer electric and so forth

Right. Okay. I just want to make sure that we can get some shovels in the ground out there and we're not sitting on the sidelines waiting for Durham.

Hey, Vice Mayor. Yes, just one quick question. So presently, Cranjo is open to traffic up from 184th until Martinique. Is there a plan for it to open up to through traffic from Martinique anywhere beyond the rest of stage four and stage five prior to final completion? Or are we anticipating that from Martinique to Old Cutler, it will remain closed to through traffic until the project is 100% complete?

Thank you very much. Congratulations, Rod. Thank you for all the hard work that you do. I remember the days sitting up here getting beat up because we never communicated enough. The town does a great job, and of course, a tribute to Rod on getting the information out to all of our residents on all of our many projects. All right. We'll move on. Town attorney report.

Can you make something up? Sure. Okay. Listen, they gave me the shortest agenda in the entire world. So, you know, I got to stretch this out. That's by design. Yeah. Wait till your contract comes up next year.

Daniel? I'm going to start going through the audience in a minute. All right, we'll move on to agenda item five, the consent agenda. Any pulls? Seeing no pulls, need a motion to approve. So moved. Moved by Council Member Ramirez. Second? Second by Council Member Lord. All in favor? Ayes have it. And then we'll... open up the floor one final time for public comments. Anybody wish to speak?

It's our decorum that we usually don't answer questions in public comments. It's just an opportunity for the residents to express opinions. I would encourage you, though, maybe directly after the meeting to meet with our town manager, and he can certainly provide that information for you.

All right. Seeing nobody else, anybody in the queue? No one in the queue.

All right. With that, that'll bring our May 20th meeting to a close.