City Council - Regular Meeting
The Virginia Gardens Village Council recognized the U12 boys soccer team as state champions, approved the appointment of Enrique Leon to the Beautification Board, and received updates on local drainage and FPL undergrounding projects.
About this meeting
- Government Body
- City Council
- Meeting Type
- City Council
- Location
- Virginia Gardens, FL
- Meeting Date
- May 20, 2026
Published excerpts
Only published remarks appear here. The full transcript is not published.
79 sections (from 93 segments)
good evening ladies and gentlemen welcome to the regular council meeting today is may 20th 2026 we can call to order at 6 32 and we please rise for the invocation led by councilwoman cedar martinez and the pledge of allegiance heavenly father we ask for your guidance this evening as we set about to do village business keeping in mind those that we serve here in the village we ask also
that you keep people watch over our residents, that they are safe, and if they need help, let us know. And keep our service members, our first responders, and our police personnel safe. School will be ending soon, so when that comes, help keep our kids safe. We ask for this and more in the name of your son, our Savior, Jesus Christ. Amen.
Amen. All right. Meeting. Roll call, Madam Clerk. Here.
Present. All right. Meeting notice is nothing to report. Presentation of award recognizing the U-12 boys team as the 2026 Commissioners Cup Florida State Champion.
Hello. Hello. No, you should leave it off for a little bit.
Sir, please state your name and address, please. George Washington.
Introduce you to coach Andres Rodriguez. You take it over. All yours. You got a speech ready? Okay. It won't be long, I promise.
the state champ, Commissioner of Cup champions for the state of Florida for U-12. So congratulations. And to the coaches as well. So great job, coaches. Okay. Don't be shy. Come on up.
We were told there was about a 10-minute speech, so we're ready.
Hey, Carlitos, tell them where you went two weeks ago. Or three weeks ago, yeah? He was chosen. We had our event out here, our PP event, and the organizers chose one random selection, and they chose him. Unfortunately, you can only invite one person to sit with him. So sorry to other Carlos. It's his mom. It's his mom's birthday. All right.
Whatever your mommy's feeding you, keep eating, boy. I wasn't that tall until I got to high school.
And last but not least, last but not least, thank you to the parents out there. That's a lot of work goes on day in, day out. I live on the field. I see you guys out here and support your children. Some of these kids are like young adults over here. They already got beards, man. They're already shaving. But on a serious note, A lot goes in. My kids grew up playing soccer. I know the commitment is and having to wake up early on your weekends, going to those tournaments, having 8 a.m. games, having to beat the park at 7, and then getting home late Sunday night, getting ready for work. So, you kn
Approval of the minutes for the regular council meeting that was held April 16th, 2026. Do we have a motion on the floor? We have a motion by Councilwoman Tira Martinez to approve the regular council meeting and a second by Councilwoman Conover. Any other discussion? All those in favor say aye. Aye. All those opposed? Motion passes. Mr. Mayor, on to the Mayor's report.
Thank you, Council President. The one item I do have is an update on the central... training improvement project phase two. So the bid opening was this past Friday. Let me see if I can move this damn thing. Okay, what do you guys do over here?
Okay. So we had five, one, two, three, four, five bidders that bid on the project this time. One of the ones that bid last time did not bid this time. They got our, I guess apparently have a job they're going to be tied up on the next six months. So it's a good thing they didn't receive our last go around. So these are the contractors, Pabon, their total pay was $749,500. Who's that second one? JVA. JVA.
No, that's not JVA. No, JVA is the third.
No, it's all the way to your left. We're going from left to right. H&R Paving was $916,050.
I'm going through each bid here from left to right.
H&R is 916, 055. JVA was 786, 165. Metro was 824, 913. And Headley, Headley Construction was 565, 500. So it definitely had some concerns with that first bidder, the lowest bidder. What... They were the lowest on the paving portion by quite a bit. So I know our engineer reached out to them, had a conversation with them. They are confident with the price that they bid. We received all their information today, I believe. Was it today? Yeah. All their insurance liability, everything from them, licenses. That's Hedley?
That's what we're vetting now. So we're still going through the vetting process. We're going to reach out to their, you know, of course, they're going to put people who, all these companies are going to put people who they want to, they're going to put a company that, a municipality or a business they had an issue with, but we are going to reach out to their people that they put as recommendations, and we'll come back next month with the final, the council they want to go with, who they want to go with.
I mean, We've never had an issue with JBA.
We have not, but look at the price difference. It's a big pill to swallow. It's not like it's between JBA and Pabon where it's a price difference, but they're pretty close.
Sounds good. Anything else? No, that's all I have. Anything for FPL?
Yes. I'll let Les talk about that when he comes up in our public works.
On to administrative items. Administration doesn't report beautification. Mr. Hector Martinez.
So what is that noise? Oh, what the heck is going on over here? So is your condition immediate for who?
Enrique Leon, yeah. What number? 2. B2. Oh, no, not on there. You're on the wrong number.
So you want to tell us a little bit about your can?
We have a motion on the floor to approve Enrique Leon to the beautification board. We have a motion on the floor by Councilman Narcy and a second by Councilman Conover. All those in favor say aye. Aye. All those opposed? Motion passed to accept Enrique Leon to the beautification board.
Well, you skipped over number one, Tree City USA, the application.
I see somebody's residents requesting tree trimming. Have you already done a work order for them? Yes, and I already contacted Israel. Okay.
Because I've had... I mean, McBeth sent an email today. So I thought it said 30 days to sign the agreement. It's 30 days. We must sign the agreement within 30 days once we receive it. It takes up to three months to receive the agreement. So we just found this out today. So we're almost a month in dealing with DEP at a state level. It's a pain in the butt. Always. Always.
And we have two things. We got a grant for tree trimming. We also got a grant for planting trees. One's at $30,000 for tree planting. The other one's at $28,000, I think. What? $23,000 for tree trimming.
So we'll get it just in time, in the middle of hurricane season, maybe. Yeah, they're in frame and plan. Is Israel still with us?
I haven't seen her in a long time. Going back to the work orders, have you checked that the work orders have been done properly the way you were requesting last time?
I'm saying so we don't wait until the end of the year to then say, oh, there's this and that.
Just really don't want to hear at the end of the year. Oh, no, no, no.
But where was this tree six months ago that we tripped? I mean, it's a lot for me, too. I mean, normally when that signs off, I hardly ever do any. Very seldom do I do any. And if I do, of course, I remember because I'll put the address and what type of tree. But, you know, trying to go back eight months ago. So as long as we do it quarterly, it's going to make things a lot easier. No, no, no.
I just got to get our trimmer swales. Those aren't native.
Thank you. Thank you. On to planning and zoning. The meeting for the month of May was canceled, so we can move on to public safety. Chief Hernandez. Chief Hernandez. Chief Hernandez. I mean, absolutely. Mayor, council? Hello, sir. How you doing, sir?
Oh, before I forget, and since I'm looking at you, and it's not really part of your agenda, but who's going to be riding in the 4 July parade this year? That's what we need to know. Who will be in the parade? What are we doing? Same thing as I. We get into one of the police vehicles, one of the trucks.
I won't be here. You won't be here. Will you be here? Okay. Are you going to ride inside that vehicle? Yep, let's go. Okay. You won't be. I won't. Will you be? We need to know. Son, wait. Son? You're inside of a vehicle, riding inside of a vehicle.
Just cars. Each individual car, but we need to know within a week if you're going to be in a parade or not. So think about it. Let Marissa know by next week. You'll call me in.
Well, that was easy. That's easy. I do have a quick question, and maybe I should have called you for this, not here, but where are we with the seniors band?
When we set aside last budget, there was money for it, and then this year there was supposed to be another... Right? Yeah. Okay.
We didn't buy it. We budgeted last year for a vehicle. We set it up. But looking at about $38,000, those vans cost about $100,000. Yeah, about $100,000.
Every time I see one of the ones from one of these genie guys or medical centers.
So it's coming, it's coming. We should at least look into it while we're getting it. If not, years are going to keep passing by, and the seniors are going to be keeping in mind. Some of those vehicles require a CDL, too. No, I looked into it, not all of them. I already looked into it. I sent the chief one time. No, we cannot. I don't think we should keep it. We're hat on. Oh, we can't do that because of this.
All right, I'll go. Well, why don't you be a neighborly council member and knock on the door, man?
All we could do is either no parking. You can't force people parking as well. And unfortunately, the homeowner, like the one who lives on 40th Street, he always parks his vehicle on that side.
It takes away all parking. So if you live in a corner house, now you can't park on the corner house.
Yeah. I'm pretty sure they're residents. How can you separate them? You can't. You can't. There's no parking. One of the two. You can't separate that.
Sign City USA. Well, it's not like that. Now you're taking away parking from the residents.
All right. Thank you, Chief. Anything else? Are we off? Thank you, sir. Good job, Chief.
I just want to confirm, if the homeowner, they're going to be restoring whatever they disturbed?
Because they went into front neighbor, catty corner. And the whole boring machine would be the property across the street. I'm panicking. I'm like, no, no, don't worry, don't worry, don't worry. They're going to fix whatever needs to be fixed.
They got to go back and that's the right word to use here. Restore. Restore.
Let me ask you, how, like, is it projected? What's the determination, the end date of this?
I'm delaying it. We'll talk later if anything. But just curious, that same neighbor was telling me he has turf on the outside where the power is. He goes, how are they going to come up? Do they have to rip out the turf to bring up? I'm like, I don't know.
Sure. Okay. I have one other question. Yes, we'll hope. Thank you.
Our power goes into the house at the back of the house. So we have a patio and the grass in the back is the drain field. Are they going to tear out?
They're not going to the back of your house. They're going straight to the side of your, like this is your house here. Here's the back of your house here. It's on the back wall. They're going right down here and straight across here. They're not going to the back.
Because we, the guy. They probably already did. Are you sure they're not bored yet? They haven't. They dug a hole by the tree. But they haven't done anything else.
Hey, if they hit your drain field, you get a new drain field.
Wait, I'm so confused. That's a good idea. They go from the side around the back of my house right through my drain field. That's where my drain field is. It's not up against your house. The drain field is not abutting the house. It's from your house.
In some cases, they have to hand dig. Yeah, they do a lot of hand digging when it comes to stuff like that. I'm telling you, they came over here. put a tarp down. I had a lot of rocks there. They dug everything up, put everything back, and put the rocks back.
But yeah, whatever it is, they're going to resell.
So they spread the love. They spread the love. I'll keep my fingers crossed.
They ran my wires on cables on Saturday. They knocked on my door, came over there, looked across from me. They ran all of, whoever's going to that transformer, they ran all the lines. So, yeah. Thank you. It's coming along.
I don't entertain them. So they come to my house? No, no. I was away. I let Rosa talk.
I had one young kid come the other day. He's trying to sell a security system for the house. Yeah. And then he would say, no, because he goes, let me check the back door. I'm like, no, no, no, you don't have to check on the back door. He tried coming in. I'm like, no, you don't.
Let me get it, and I'll give it to them. On to recreation. We just saw that the U-12 won the state championship.
I just found out last week that Zoya's daughter's team won D-Cup, too.
Doing good. We're doing good. Our recreation department's doing good. Resolutions, nothing to report. On to attorney's report. Mr. Attorney, before we get to you, I just want to make sure were your, not demands, but your requests of your water selection fulfilled or not?
Okay. I just want to make sure for the record, if your needs were met, the only one perspiring right now is that one. The rest are like, Look warm.
Nothing to report, Mr. President. Thank you, sir. On to old business, nothing to report. New business, nothing to report. Does anybody have good and welfare? Happy birthday.
All right. On to adjourn. Do we have a motion to adjourn the meeting?
I make a motion to be adjourned. Second.
We have a motion by Councilwoman Jenna Martinez and a second by Councilwoman Conover to adjourn at 7.17. Thank you very much, and everyone have a good evening.
These excerpts are remarks by officials whose identity a person confirmed, from a transcript generated automatically from the official public meeting video and presented unedited. Accuracy may vary; view the original recording for reference.