Town Council - Regular Meeting

Good evening, everybody. Welcome to our town of Cutler Bay regular town council meeting. Today is Wednesday, March 18th, 2026. Mr. Clerk, if you could please take the role.

Here. Mayor Maribod? Present. We have a quorum. Okay. Councilman Duncan, I understand, will be here very, very shortly, so we'll let him correct the record when he shows up. All right. If you could all please join me and rise for the Pledge of Allegiance. Good evening, everybody. Welcome today. It's a nice town council meeting. We are expecting two speakers today, but they're not here yet. So we are going to be hearing from two of our state representatives today. Actually, our state senator, Alexis Calatayud, and hopefully Omar Blanco also, who is our state rep from District 115, will kind of

Again, if anybody wishes to speak, I ask you to please come forward and get in line. I'd like to move the meeting along as well.

Is there anybody in the queue who wants to speak?

All right. Public comments is now closed.

We're going to go ahead and work through that. Correct. So again- You're asking questions, probably you'll address, so-

All right, public comments is now closed. That'll take us to our town and council announcements and reports. Oh, sorry, you're right. I'm going to move Ralph's, one of our presentations. Senator Calatayud is in attendance with us. If you could please come forward. She's, again, I spoke highly about you while you were away. But this is Senator Calatayud. She is the one who represents us up in Tallahassee. And she's got a fine history of doing a great job for us. So I'm interested. Thank you, first of all, for being here. and giving us an update on what's going on in Tallahassee.

Right. Senator, thank you very much. I do appreciate it. Again, you know, the work that you do up there fighting for just the tax dollars that come back and make our community better has been great. I love your stance on UDB, which is one that I think that we support. As you know, Cutler Bay has been a leader in trying to protect the environment. So that goes a really long way towards that. So real quick to see if I have any questions for the council. Councilman Duncan.

Thank you, Mr. Mayor. Just a quick comment on behalf of myself and the mayor, who we both have an item on the agenda today specifically tailored to the UDB, urging the Florida legislature to protect it, keep it intact. I do want to thank you preemptively for protecting it ahead of even this vote tonight. So just thank you for looking out and continuing to serve the town and protect the overdevelopment from perhaps happening in that urban development.

You're good. OK, that's right. All right. Thank you.

All right, thank you so much. All right, that takes us to the Town Council Announcements Board Committee Reports. We've all submitted our reports, and we do have one item on there, 3B, Park and Rec Advisory Committee. Rob, it's going to be you leading us off, or is it Vice Mayor Callahan? Okay, Vice Mayor Callahan, the floor is yours.

Thank you very much, Mr. Mayor. Thank you. At the last council meeting, I had requested that the pool report be referred to the Parks Committee for further consideration by the committee. On Monday, March 2nd, at a regularly scheduled Parks and Recreation Committee meeting, the committee was asked to consider the technical memorandum dated January 28th, 2026 regarding the Cutler Ridge Park Aquatic Facilities Repair Evaluation. This was in addition to the Aquatic Facility Condition Assessment of Cutleridge Park and Mechanical Equipment Report that was dated September of 2022 by Terry Gallant of

Thank you. Thank you very much, Vice Mayor. I'll open it up for the council for questions.

Councilman Ramirez, you recognize? If we can, if the town manager would give us a little update as far as, because I believe at some point in order to do some of these repairs, we have to actually raise the pool. We have to raise the pool from its foundation and do repairs underneath. That's not where we're at anymore?

I think what the Vice Mayor is proposing right now is a comprehensive engineering expert look to really itemize what needs to be done at the bare minimum and what the actual cost of that would be and also how long it's going to take to do that.

What I'm requesting is that we move forward with the plans and permits. for the repairs. The identified repair, the total identified repairs that are needed to bring the pool back into operation is $358,076, right? But there are other line items that may be required once we get into permitting. The health department may require that the pool lighting be fixed. They may require a new collector tank resurfacing and markings. We won't know this until the plans get into permitting. And these are things that have been identified but have not been called out in the 40-year report. And those costs ar

All right. Well, Councilman Duncan or Councilman Member Lord, do you have any questions on this at this time? No?

Thank you, Mr. Mayor. I guess the question that I have, and I'll defer to the Vice Mayor on this, just from your expertise and the Parks Committee. Do we know yet what the timeline would be if the council were to authorize an amount up to $50,000? How long it would take once that is allocated and spent to determine the next steps on this pool? And what I ask that in that If we do have the $4.3 million pool that we're building in Legacy Park, and that has already been approved, we already have those plans, and that is slated for end of 2029. I'm curious as to how much time that this current poo

Yeah, thank you very much, Council. I guess I should start by saying that if the pool is to be considered to be reopened, it must go through this process, okay? There must be plans and permits, okay? So it's not that we can fill up the pool tomorrow and open back up. okay because we have to do the required repairs we have to do the bonding we have to do the gutter drain you know these are things that have been called the electrical panel repairs these are things that have been called out uh that need plans and permits um God, if I could give you an exact answer as to when a permit would be iss

At that time, we would have a much better idea as to what the city is or what Miami-Dade and the health department are going to require. Are they only going to require the $358,000 or are they going to require the entire $600,000? We would probably have that answer within 60 days. Okay. It's going to take about eight months to complete the repairs. Okay.

And then I guess a follow-up question, and this really is just a question for the council to at least consider writ large. If the determination, so we invest $50,000, determine what the cost is, we get that back 60 days. Whenever we get that back, the pool's inoperable until any sort of work potentially happens. Let's say it comes back, and whether it's $300,000, $700,000, or more, from an economic efficiency standpoint, I guess the question that I have for the rest of the council to consider would be, Are you prepared when we have a new pool at the Legacy Park in the future to either operate

Well, we have spent a lot more to get a lot less. right we spent a lot of money to get aqua a brand new i don't i don't know if you remember when we were researching the aqua facility we spent a lot of money to get those plans and those plans are basically in the garbage can right i think that an investment of up to 50 is i'm not saying it's going to cost i'm just saying that it's a it's a it's a estimate of up to fifty thousand dollars to have the plans and permit drawn to be able to tell us exactly how much the cost is. And I'll be honest with you, it's just my opinion. If the cost is $358,0

Thank you. I have four pages of notes here, and I'm going to not go through all of them, just for your benefit. I do have some comments, though, that I think need to be shared. One of them is Ralph Casals, it was within his discretion to close the pool. And at the time that he decided to close the pool, We that month spent another $36,000 on a water leak and I know that the ideas we should have been fixing the pool up to that point. But I can tell you that if we are continuing to hemorrhage $40,000 a month and water leaks. I would venture to say Ralph Casal's job might have been in jeopardy at

First off, thank you, Council Member Lord, for your deep dive. That was very interesting and very, you know, information, you know, just put out there like that, and Council Member Duncan as well. So I have a question. Like the hypotheticals here, let's say that they do the whole study and everything, and, you know, we can do it for $300,000, all right? What is the lifespan of those repairs going to be on that pool? Is it going to be two years, five years, another 40? So it's an estimate. I know there's probably not a solid answer, but what would the appropriate lifespan be? And before you ans

Yeah, thank you, Councilmember Ramirez. And speaking with the engineer, he is pretty confident that the repairs would hold through three years until we open up Legacy Park.

Councilman Duncan? Thank you, Mr. Mayor. I do have one other comment. This council has previous, we have set a precedent previously for parks that have been in need of repair that have served our community for multiple years. And that precedent is Franjo Park.

where after extensive hurricane damage, even within our own plan for the town, was that if the park was ever to be destroyed to that point, we would not renew the baseball fields. We would just make it a passive park. But this council... Previously, you know, earlier on when I was first on the council, this council approved, I believe it was up to $2.8 million to restore Franjo Park, really for the exclusive reason of we've had generations of Cutler Ridge kids going and playing baseball at that park. So with this Cutler Ridge pool, it kind of puts us in a similar situation where we have a pool

I'm going to have to go ahead in this discussion. We have this quasi-judicial is required to start at 7 o'clock on the button, so I want to try to see if we can. wrap this up in the next three minutes or so.

I'll make it real quick. Okay. You know, again, there's only two pools as old as ours in the county, ours being one of them. All the rest of them have been closed. And we know that this pool is not going to last forever. We knew this pool was in need for repairs, but we're hoping to be able to keep putting the chewing gum and duct tape on it until our new pool opens up. Unfortunately, that didn't happen. Thank you very much for your comprehensive report on it and also the rest of the council's input on the importance of things like this pool, Brangel Park, part of the legacy of the community t

Don't get too excited, folks. There's so many problems. As Councilmember Lord pointed out, we are the most fiscally responsible city in the state of Florida. And we're going to try to be that. Sometimes we spend money where our heart is, but most of the times we don't. But we do want to do what's right. So let's please, let's not get our hopes up. The pool's in bad, bad shape. We know that. So we're just going to take a closer look at it because we know how important it is to the community. With that being said, we need to go ahead and move on to our quasi-judicial, which starts at 7 o'clock o

Councilman Duncan, recognize? Thank you, Mr. Mayor. Thank you. I want to thank the applicant for considering making changes. If you have curriculum or if you have things that are not serving you, you know, yourself as the applicant, but as well, the residents, the citizens, and replacing it with nursing and things that are going to benefit our aging community. I think those are definitely positives. The only question I have with specifically South Place City Center, Does your client have a long-term lease or what exactly is that? How do they relate to the redevelopment and how that's going to

I'm going to open it up now for public. Oh, you have a comment. Okay. Yes. Vice Mayor, you're recognized. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Mayor. Yeah, just a couple of quick questions because I certainly was, you know, part of the council when we entertained 1937. And, you know, so there were several concerns that we had when we approved 1937, right? Because the college came before us and was asking for additional space to open up a culinary school, right? And so we just we needed to make sure that it met certain conditions. And And one of the other things, too, was the increasing space, retail space that the college was continuing to take up. And so we kind of said, OK, the culinary school sounds sounds like a lo

So currently, the college is operating in several locations. And so what this is doing is reconfiguring into a general space. And as part of that, we're increasing the footprint by how many?

All right. All right. Anything else? No. All right. I'm going to open it up for public comments now. Thank you, sir. Board is now open for public comments on this item. If you wish to speak, come forward. As there is none, public comments is now closed. I'm looking for a motion on this item. Board's further discussion. So moved. We have a motion by Councilman Ramirez. I second. I second. We have a second by Councilmember Lord. We'll call the vote, please. Council Member Ramirez. Yes. Council Member Lord. Yes.

There you go. All right. We're going to jump back. Thank you very much. We're going to jump back in and try to get back on track here. So we are at the consent agenda. Oh, I was going to skip that because he already talked. Ralph, we'll go to your town manager report.

Right. Please pass on our thanks to Omar for the hard work he does up there for us. He does great jobs.

So much. All right. Town Attorney, you have your presentations that you want to do, Ro? Oh, yeah. Sorry.

All right. Thank you, Vice Mayor. I recognize you.

Thank you, Mr. Mayor. Emma, just to clarify, when you state that the community center and pool you're pushing forward to possibly be open or finished in 2027, you're talking about the public being able to use those facilities? And if so, how is construction of the

when or how confident could you be in getting more of an exact time when phase eight would be completed? Because that really affects a decision that we talked about earlier in the meeting.

That's fine, yeah. Next council meeting's fine.

They could actually, that information can be shared, if known, through the talent manager to all of us at a time. All right. Councilman, Councilman Lord, you're recognized.

Thank you. Emma, as always, thank you for the report. When I was sitting in the Everglades Coalition Conference and I started worrying about the cost of LEED, which is why I asked for us to have a breakdown of those costs, nowhere in my mind that I think it could be up where upwards of $4 million. So I really appreciate now that we have options and we're not tied into the two to $4 million bracket. So thank you very much for putting my mind at rest. And also, I'm sorry that all our pool people have already left and didn't just hear that that that comment about the pool. And we have one left he

Just real quick, Ralph, I just want to clarify for the record, okay? The process of the plan review is dissimilar, right? So the timeline is going to be dissimilar because Miami-Dade County, Durham and all, they're reviewing the entire set of plans. Where we were requesting just to submit the pool plans, right? So the time, we're not going to be able to use that as a good example because they're going to be taking months and months to review the entire construction documents, just not the pool. So there's going to, you know, I just want to clarify that.

No, no questions. Thank you very much, Angel. Thank you so much.

All right. Town clerk's report. No report this evening. That takes us to a consent agenda. There's no vote. Looking for a motion to approve. So moved. We have a first. Looking for a second. Second. Second. All in favor say aye. Aye. Real quick, we did touch upon the town council announcements, board committee reports. Council member Lord had an addition.

I do. I'm sorry that it's later in the meeting. We were kind of taken out of order. I have an addendum to a line item in my council member report. I did report that I attended the auditor selection committee meeting on March 5th. I now chair that committee. I wanted to give you guys an update. But first, I want to thank Ralph Casals and Robert Daddario, our financial director, for being in that meeting. I have a special thank you to the other two committee members who are Desmond Chin, the financial director for the Village of Palmetto Bay, and Alfredo Riverall, who's the chief financial offic

more women in our town run for positions in this in this um wonderful council and happy women's history month thank you for your time all right thank you that takes us to our next item which is item 10a uh we still have public comments okay over for public comments there is nobody here um question to speak it's not closed All right. We can read item 10-8.

Thank you very much. All right, I'm going to open public hearing on this item right now. Anybody wish to speak on this item? Nobody has come forward. Public hearing is now closed. Council, do you have comments or questions? We have done. Looking for a motion on this item.

We have a motion by Council Member Lord. Looking for a second. Second. Second by Vice Mayor Callahan. Roll call vote, please. Council Member Lord. Yes. Council Member Duncan. Yes.

Looking for a motion, please. So moved. We have a motion by Council Member Ramirez. Looking for a second. Second. Second by Council Member Lord. All in favor say aye. Aye. Passes. Can we take 11A and B and C together, or do we have to take them separate? You can vote them separate, but you can read them together. Okay. All right. Read them together, please.

Great. Thank you. Also, questions on these items? When I'm looking for a motion, item 11B, please. So moved. We have a motion by Councilman Duncan. We'll confer a second. I second. Second by Councilmember Lord. All in favor say aye. Aye. Looking for a motion on item 11C. So moved. And we have a motion by Vice Mayor Callahan. Looking for a second. Second. We have a second by Councilman Ramirez. All in favor say aye. Aye. With that, ladies and gentlemen, that concludes our business for tonight. Good work, and you have a great evening. This meeting is adjourned.