City Council - Regular Meeting

Our Riviera Beach regular city council meeting. First, let me apologize for the miscommunication. We started something new and this actually was my suggestion. We decided to move presentations to the third Wednesday and in an effort to get through our agenda in a more timely manner. But what we didn't discuss, we're still working out the kinks, is that if nobody came to the city with the presentation that we did not have schedule of 5.30. So my apologies, we're still working through the kinks and staff and I have had a discussion and I take full responsibility for that because it was actually

Thank you. We'll have a moment of silence followed by the Pledge of Allegiance led by Vice Chair Spirtis.

Agenda approval, are there any addition, deletions, or substitutions? I have one deletion, the issue dealing with the drones. I want to bring that back. I've been trying to have meetings with the applicant and our schedules haven't connected yet, but I would like to bring that back at our next meeting. What number is that, Madam Clerk?

Okay, I'd like to pull that one from the agenda. Are there any other additions, deletions, or substitutions? Hearing none, I entertain the motion to approve the agenda as amended.

Okay, it's been moved by Councilwoman Davis-Panier and seconded by Vice Chair Spiritus. Is there any discussion on the motion? Hearing no further discussion, Madam Chair.

Okay, next item. Yes. Chair, I'd just like to disclose that I do know the owner of one of the properties, the senior citizen property that's on the agenda tonight. He does own property in Lake Park next door to property that I'm involved with.

Okay. Alrighty, we were getting down to that item of disclosures right as we go into the consent agenda. I see that their community awards are on this program. We have none on this evening. We will go into the consent agenda. All matters listed under this item are considered to be routine and action will be taken by one motion. There would be no separate discussion of these items unless a council person so request in which event the item would be removed from the general order of business and considered in its normal sequence on the agenda. Does any of my colleagues like to pull any consent it

Yeah, I have a couple I'd like to ask the questions about.

Okay, what items would you like to pull?

And also two... with the minutes, is it July 1st or July 15th?

Thank you, Councilwoman Lanier. Are there any other items that the council would like to pull? Hearing none, are there any further disclosures? Hearing none, I entertain the motion to approve the consent agenda as amended. So moved. It's been moved by Vice Chair Spiritus. Seconded by Councilwoman Davis-Preneur. Is there any further discussion on the motion? Hearing no further discussion, Madam Clerk.

Thank you, Madam Clerk. And we'll go right into the pooled items.

I would entertain a motion to approve resolution 4A. So moved. It's been moved by Vice Chair Spiritus. Seconded by Chairwoman Davis-Preneur. Is there any discussion on the motion?

A couple of questions about the actual grant. I know that it'll fund two positions, but how long is that for? One year, two years?

And so what happens, how long has the city been getting this grant?

Okay, because the reason when I asked is that I wanted to make sure that if it did stop, what would happen? Did the city have to put in money for it to continue, or how does that work?

And are there any Performance measures, I think I asked this of all the grants. How do you provide that information to the public and to the council in regards to do we know that this program is working? What are the measurable outcomes? How do you do that?

And those reporting requirements are required by the state. The city has none that you have to report for.

Okay, because I've never seen 1, so I definitely like to see what that looks like. All right. Thank you very much. Those are my questions for that particular item.

Okay. Are there any further questions? I see that someone visited.

Is that a county or city advocacy program?

Good. And so obviously we have budgeted for this, which is badly needed. I'm glad to hear that we are taking a lead in something so meaningful to people at

What does our funding cover? for the largest yet?

Just salaries? Just salaries. So you all go out and find additional dollars when someone is in a crisis? Or is there an organization that you all have a relationship with or organizations?

That should not be. Even if we were not or had not budgeted for certain items, I think things like that should be reimbursed to a reasonable extent. There should be some guidelines need to have a brief discussion tonight amongst us. We're going to approve our budgets tonight.

Any further questions? Yes, I want to ask, the police department has a huge budget, so I'm sure that they can certainly take care of that. But I really wanted to ask, give me an example of what you guys do. Because I have in my mind homicide victims, maybe somebody in the house, but I'm not sure how that works.

That is something that is badly needed around the country, quite frankly, victim advocacy. And I'm glad to hear that we do have a program in-house. I don't feel that employees should be coming out of their pockets for the service and not being reimbursed by coming out of your pockets, period. But we'll have that discussion later during the budget. Are there any other comments or questions? Hearing none, Madam Clerk.

Okay, thank you, Madam Clerk. The next item that was pulled from the consent agenda was 4C.

I will entertain a motion for approval. So, it's been moved by vice chair spirit. Seconded by Councilwoman Davis-Perdoneer. On discussion, Councilwoman Lanier, if you'll pull this.

Yeah, I just wanted to ask, I'm always very curious and reserved about piggybacks. At our last utility district meeting, there were at least seven or eight that were a part of the agenda. And I have a problem with these because it really does not give Florida-based or even locally based vendors and opportunity. So why is this going through the Minnesota Cooperative and not a Florida-based cooperative?

No, I understand that. But there's still an issue with it going through Minnesota Cooperative than with the Florida-based cooperative or with the Palm Beach County Cooperative or with the Riviera Beach Cooperative. I just have problems with these bids or these purchases going outside of the city, the county, the state. So were there any foreign vendors given an opportunity to compute?

So are these replacing vehicles or are they just new, brand new vehicles? I'm sorry.

So this $50,000 price is a not to exceed cap or is that the price? Okay. That's not your issue, Chief. That's a procurement issue. And I've got an issue with that. That's not me. You go by what they tell you to do. And I got a problem with all these piggybacks and not giving Florida vendors or local vendors an opportunity to even compete for these dollars.

Okay, are there any further questions or comments? Hearing none, Madam Clerk.

Thank you, Madam Clerk. Those were the two items that were pulled from the consent agenda. We would now move down to unfinished business.

Thank you, Madam Clerk. I will entertain a motion for approval. It's been moved by Vice Chair Spiritus. Seconded by Councilwoman Davis-Preneur. On discussion, staff.

I apologize to the council and the public for not being able to quickly answer the question upon initial ask and research at this table.

Do we have any public comment cards? Mr.

OK. Is there any further discussion from the dais?

I want to ask the question, what is the total estimated value over five years? Is that up to $300,000?

So how much can we realistically expect to offset?

Mr. Sherman, will you please come forward? Okay, Councilwoman Lanier, what was your question?

The question was, how much can we realistically expect to offset with our earning credits?

So is there any penalty that we terminate early?

You know, like if somebody comes in and says, hey, we got a way better deal. I'm not sure I follow. No, I mean, there's a contract. And the contract is for five years. And if we wanted to terminate that early, do we have a penalty for that?

Right. So the last question we asked is, so is there any, is there were like three or four people that, companies that actually went to bid for this? Yes. So is there anything that has, that includes provisions for like local banking or community reinvestment? Because we went with you, you know, could you give us something for... you know, some type of local reinvestment, some type of community reinvestment, local banking for employees for free or something of that nature.

Well, we need to ask for these types of things when we do a business with people, because if we're spending $300,000, then what do we get? Thank you.

Thank you, Councilwoman Lanier. I was going to ask a similar question. I don't know if it's considered incentives. Do they provide anything to our employees above and beyond the regular banking services?

Um, what about early caching of their checks? Like, if you get paid on Friday, it may be available on Thursday, or Wednesday?

Are there any further questions? Hearing none, Madam Clerk.

Thank you. Madam Clerk, I entertain a motion. So moved. It's been moved by Vice Chair Spiritus for approval. Is there a second? Second. It's been seconded by Councilwoman Lanier. On discussion of the motion, staff.

I got all of my questions answered. About four pages worth, but I got them answered.

Okay, is the applicant here? Okay, will the applicant come forward? I understand that they are responding to some of the questions. Mr. Chair. Or the questions. Yes, Mayor.

Thank you. And while the applicant's coming forward, I did have some questions on staff that addressed the concerns that I had with the traffic, the drive-through, and the location with going through the community, which were seen feasible actually toward the site and the potential site as well. So they answered my questions as well. Thank you, Mr. Chair. Thank you, Mayor.

You want the question? Okay. Let's go straight to the question. Do you have a copy of the question?

Brevity has its place. Okay. You can read the question and answer.

Hopefully it includes 12 months and different times during the day. Okay. Repeat that. That was the shadow study?

Do you want to see it? It's a shadow study how the sun relaxes.

It shows the shade being given off by the building at different times of the year and different hours during the year. So you see what the impact would be on the buildings adjacent or close by. You see what the shadows. If you had a swimming pool in the backyard, you'd know whether or not you're still going to have sun in your backyard or whether you're going to have darkness in your backyard.

Chair, this is a little difficult the way you did this. I mean, normally we have a cassette shadow and we show morning, afternoon,

Are those the townhouses or the single family houses? The single family. So two of the single family houses will have impact? Just the two of them, correct. For how many months of the year?

And how many hours a day are they going to be impacted the whole day or just?

I believe in my agenda review I asked about the communications with those two homes, correct? And we did notify them of the things and did any of them express any type of concerns with anything at this point?

Okay, you can read the third item out as well.

I think Councilwoman Lanier had a question about that as well. But please come to the mic and introduce yourself.

Chair? Yes, thanks, Chair Spiro. So my concern with this is that this is basically a county project. This is not a city project. We can't say that the only residents that are coming in here are going to be City of Riviera Beach residents. These are people that will be coming from all over the county in here who will be providing the services. You know that facilities like this, and by the way, just for the record, I support this type of housing. I even support transitional housing. Very few communities would accept this in their backyard. You'd be hard pressed to find communities to take prope

Well, those are fees, right. So we will be sending police officers there on a pretty regular basis with our fire department. as well on cases like this. And I'm just saying it's only fair that the municipality that you're going into, and this is maybe not your issue, it's the county's issue, before they provide funding for projects like this, they should be working out payment in lieu of tax deals with the local municipalities to make sure the local municipalities are getting the appropriate funds that they need to provide services to facilities like this. And there should even be a little bit

Chair, I just, the only reason I'm bringing this up is because there may be many other projects like this, and I wanna send the message to other developers that are coming in here to do similar projects that when they do their budgets they better make sure that they have a payment in lieu of taxes in their proposal before they come to us because we can't afford to do this over and over and over again uh these these properties especially large properties like two acres uh would be better off being on the tax rolls rather than off the tax rolls So that's my concern. I'm just looking down the roa

Thank you, Vice Chair. Councilwoman Lanier.

I think most of my questions did get answered, but I know that you cannot restrict applicants from housing projects from other places. geographic areas. And also, too, Berkeley Landing was not a Riviera Beach project either. And also to say that because it's low income, it may need a lot of police does not sit well with me. Hold on. And I say that because people have that that connotation that because it's low income, because, um, people, you know, maybe paying $700 rents that maybe this kind of place is going to have police over there all the time. And I do not like that kind of connotation b

Okay. First, I just want to refer, it's my understanding that we cannot give preference to Riviera Beach residents. I wish we could, but it's my understanding under the law that we cannot do that. But secondly, Councilwoman, you misunderstood what I was saying. It was based on the age of the people in this facility. It had nothing to do with the income of the people in this facility. This is a senior citizen facility. And very often I have it just where I live, as a matter of fact, which is mostly senior citizens. You'll see a lot of fire aided calls. and usually very often will bring a police

Thank you. Gentlemen, thank you for the investment into Revere Beach and for bringing this type of product. We want to make sure that it's the right product for our residents. So I just had a few quick questions. What percentage of local contractors will actually be able to participate in construction and development of the site?

Thank you. We follow up to that. So thank you. So the local subcontractors and the outreach, do you have a schedule of when you would be doing and how you'll be doing the outreach for local contractors to participate and to see this project come about? Because with the large vendor that's coming in, there's a lot of subs here that we've built, established. This facility we're standing in was built with over 50% of local minority women businesses in our community. that benefited from contracting and city dollars to build the facility so if we're building a facility of this caliber i'd love for

And you said that the prime has not been selected as yet? And what process are you going to select the prime?

So it's not a full RFP process, so you can essentially select your contractor, and that's something that you could possibly bake into the contract where local participation is something that could be held for that contractor, correct?

And that's why those subsidies from the county come in and I do know that this approval, but when we're building this caliber of facility next to single family properties in the main corridor of our city, we need to make sure that the city benefits and always possible. Because, as my colleague said that these are projects that a lot of communities may not be jumping for joy at. We do need housing in our community, but we also need to benefit every aspect of the community when it comes to construction development facilities and infrastructure. So we have needs in the community that need to be a

I'd love to see any legally permissible options of allowing for SBEs to benefit when you're procuring your prime contractor. So if we can draft it into the contract, I know that the margins are very tight for you, but that would definitely benefit the entire investment for the city and for the residents that are going to capitalize on this great opportunity. Thank you.

Thank you. And the point was just made about, um, the applicant providing us reports on who have been hired and what they're paying them. I would like to make that a condition of approval. Mr. Chair, if I may.

Well, the conditions need to work for us.

Well, understood. It works for us. One second. The other thing is the question about funding Avalon taxes. Have you secured enough funding to complete the project or are there any gaps in funding?

No gaps in your funding is what you're telling us. That's correct.

Chair, will that require, if we add the condition, will that require an amendment to the motion?

The motion was made with the existing conditions, so yes, with the amended condition of approval.

So, Chair, I amend my motion to include these conditions that you requested.

Is there a second on the amendment to the motion?

Okay, back on discussion, we have public comment cards. Mr.

Okay, so noted. Mayor Lawson, and then public comment.

What would the process be for applicants for residency at your facility? Once complete.

Welcome, Joe, and thank you. So to answer that question, more in regards to opportunities for residents, I understand that we cannot limit or restrict Riviera Beach residents from benefiting from these facilities, but coming up with an idea and a strategy of how we can market and advertise and work with some of our local, some of our adult facilities, heritage states, local communities, work with our parks and recs department who has a great senior program to see if we can provide those housing opportunities for current residents.

Well, I think we're going to get through building facilities and come to that piece, but we want to make sure that we have a roadmap of how to get there. So thank you for that. At the time, we will address that concern. So thank you. All right.

Thank you. Okay. Thank you very much. Public comment cards.

Thank you for your comments. Mr. Sherman. the the level that the applicants are going to be serving the constituency and their income level and the ami and all what document is that in they're coming to us affordable housing and low income chair yes i believe that the county agreement that they have for funding

locks them into 30% to 80% AMI on this project. They even list the specific numbers of units for each of the income levels at the 30%, 40%, all the way up to the 80% level. Okay, so what?

Okay. What city document is that going to be documented in?

Understood, understood. Chair? Yes, Vice-Chair.

Yeah, I can amend my motion to include the income, the AMI, as per the county and their requirements.

We've got to move on. OK, this is the Second Amendment. Is there a second?

Oh, this is just to get to the discussion part. We take a motion and then there's a discussion on the motion. yes uh in a minute just let me get through my parliamentary procedures is that second on the the second amendment second it's been properly moved in by vice chair spiritus and seconded by um councilwoman On discussion of the motion, Madam Clerk, would you please call the public comment card, speakers?

Thank you, Ms. Brown. Mr. Chair. Mayor Lawson, and please call the next public speaker too while he's speaking. I think that was it.

Mayor Lawson. Thank you. And to the applicant, I think there were some concerns of making sure the residents are benefiting from the entire project. So the options of housing and residency, of giving them first right of refusal, we can't limit that, but finding the best way to market to them. I think we asked that question. You guys addressed it clearly and articulated it. In regards to protection of the community and the access points, we addressed those too. So I think we addressed a lot of those concerns so that the residents can clearly know that we're looking into the project. We're ident

Thank you, Mayor Lawson. Councilwoman Davis-Bernier.

And I guess I had a question as well as far as the maintenance, because a lot of times when we're working with our seniors, a lot of times they have issues with, you know, anything that's going wrong in their places where they dwell. How is the maintenance? Is there going to be someone full time? Do they directly report to you? How does how do those things get resolved?

Okay. And we're going to have to wrap this up. The tenants, are they owning the units that they are? Strictly rental. But it is annual leases. Annual leases, normal. In most lease cases, the management company will maintain certain repairs. You said if something happened in their unit, they have to deal with it. That seems a little unusual for me.

That's where the air conditioning goes out.

The lifestyle, I think I know where you're going.

Yeah, I just need some clarity there because it came out like they were going to be responsible for everything. Okay, as long as we have that understanding.

One more point before we have these gentlemen standing there. One of the questions that I did ask was about the parking because it did come up. And we even suggested possibly that open space that you had leading to Blue Heron might be available or usable for parking. Have you looked at that?

We need to know if you meet the standards. We meet the standards and the standards are well written. Okay. We can't stay on this all night. Okay. Any further comments or questions? We have to keep the meeting moving. Thank you for your comments. Madam Clerk.

I tend to interrupt you, but we also have senior citizens that like to participate in the pool area.

And let me say this before you speak. I know we want you to expedite the process, but not at the risk of the quality of what you're doing.

Mr. Bailey, who name you have on your jacket? No, no.

Let me ask you a question about that. Our weather permits the pool to be open year round. Who made that decision to close it those months?

We're going to address that now. We're a year. Yes, Councilwoman Lanier.

And we're talking about year-round. I still say that it's a long time for one pool. But anyway, with that being said, there needs to be some type of heat to that pool. The senior citizens have issues with cold pools. They don't go to a lot of these gyms because the pool is too cold. they get sick, they cannot handle that. So if we're going to have a pool that is going to involve senior citizen, it has to be heated. So please make that note.

And let me say this. I know there are times during the year where the pool need maintenance that may need to be closed, but not for six and seven months. That's the only point I'm making.

Yes. Vice Chair Spritter, let me say this. Having a hard bid up front concerns me. the best quality work um we you get what you pay for and sometimes they don't bring the skill sets those who be at the lowest and if the council will like for part b to be on the rfp um if you're doing it up front i'm sorry um vice chair spirit is okay i i just want to make sure that when you do your rfq process you're going to hit the how you how are you going to do that how you can advertise that

Okay, Chair. I have no problem with this process. I've seen this before. It works well.

Thank you very much for your presentation. Madam Clerk, next item, please.

I will entertain a motion for approval. So moved. Then moved by Vice Chair Spiritus. I need a second.

Seconded by Councilwoman Davis-Preneur on discussion on the motion staff. I have a quick question before you start. Is this the operations budget included in this too?

9B. Okay. Staff, do you have a presentation?

Okay. Are there any questions or comments? Hearing none, Madam Clerk.

Okay, I would entertain a motion for approval. So moved. It's been moved by Vice Chair Spiritus. I need a second. I need a second. I'll second it. It's been moved by Vice Chair Spiritus and seconded by me, the Chair, on discussion of the motion.

Okay. Where did Chief go? Oh, right here. Chief, go ahead. Okay, Chief, we had a discussion early on about the advocacy program, and you indicated that it was not adequately funded. The advocacy manager indicated that sometimes they have to come out of their own pockets. Well, I'm sure it's accurate, but why is that?

Councilwoman Lanier alluded to the level better cover the advocacy program, maybe not fully. Are there funds that you can shift around within your budget?

As it relates to that specific program, and I don't know if you can answer this question, how much additional do you think we may not be but to put you in a better place where employees don't have to come out of their pockets.

I could answer that for him. It's probably going to need at least a half a million to be able to operate this program effectively. And I think it's something like 2 million that they really actually need to actually do this job in the city. But I digress.

THIS QUESTION, I DID HAVE SOME QUESTIONS ABOUT HOUSING AS WELL. SO I KNOW THAT WE HAD SOME PROGRAMMING, AND CHIEF IS GOING TO FIND US SOME MONEY. FORFEITURE FUNDS WOULD BE A GREAT WAY TO ADD SOME ADDITIONAL OPPORTUNITIES AND FUNDING, BUT WE GOT TO GET THEM SOME MORE FORFEITURE.

and having a quota of what to represent and cover. But on a serious note, we need to figure out a way to provide at least some additional funding to this program. And before we pass this budget, that's why the operations budget, this is our last vote on the budget, right? It is, yes. Chair.

yes i also wanted to say that and i understand that this is a significant need for for the community but we also don't want to forget uh i don't know if we've added or not in regards to the um the housing program the housing infield program the i think the mayor was alluding to that as well the the first time home buyers uh down payment assistance program that the cra has because what is happening is that people cannot across the city engage in that money because they're not in the CRA district. And we've had conversations about making sure that people And the entire city have access to down p

Not being able to access those funds because they don't understand. Let's finish this advocacy program. That's how to determine. Do you have any vacant positions that you may be able to shift some funds into that program?

Okay. Mr. Sherman. Okay. Thank you, Chief. Yes, sir. And we're going to get to this housing program too. I know our budget is tight. I don't know about the city manager's budget. I know about it, but I'm saying that It's embarrassing to have employees having to come out of their pocket, at least for me as an elected official. I think we have a $79 million, what's the operation budget?

I guess. Let me ask you, we've got to approve this tonight. Can we still move funds around after we approve the budget?

I wasn't thinking that much. I know that's what one of my colleagues said. I was thinking more realistically.

Vice Chair Spiritus, Councilwoman Miller-Anderson. Did I hear you, Miss? No, it was Councilwoman, near then, Councilwoman Miller-Anderson. Mr. Chair, don't forget to add me to that list. And Mayor.

Thank you. Did you still have the floor? They can go ahead. It's in reference to housing. Thank you, Mr. Chair.

Chair, I would recommend that we look at the former MIA program and maybe do an ordinance change and give a percentage of those funds towards this program.

I've been thinking about it. Okay. Okay. Can we do that after we approve the budget? Okay. Good idea, Vice Chair. Councilwoman Lanier.

He's gonna go back and figure out what that is, but my issue is with housing.

With housing, okay. Yes. Councilwoman Miller-Anderson.

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. Mr. Chairman, do we have, I know we talked about housing. Did we ever get a report on the MHOP spending? I know we'd asked for it in a previous meeting.

No, the new ordinance was just approved. I'm talking about the ordinance has been implemented since 83. So what have we done with MHOP spending? Because I really want to identify where we use those funds, where those money, and then what are we going to do moving forward? Because I heard a recommendation to move some of the MHOP funds, but we haven't collected any of the new ordinance. And part of the discussion I also want to have is housing. Right. So...

Okay, so with the new ordinance and the program running a deficit and that being closed out at the time, when was that closed out and moved into general fund?

And we haven't collected any funds since 2014? Correct. Okay, there's been no projects that have qualified using MeHOP since 2014. Right. Understood. The MEEHOP that we assign now, I know that we want to do a housing department division. Do we have any money allocated in this budget to go directly towards housing, whether it's programming, whether it's down payment assistance, whether it's acquiring property?

So in this budget and moving forward, we have no money allocated for that. And we're planning on waiting on some funds to come in? correct on both points, yeah. Okay, so Board, that is one of my concerns. We definitely need to address some of the housing as Madam, I'm sorry, Councilman Lanier stated that we wanna have some funds available for programming, whether it's through working with the CRA, the Renaissance and Reclaim Program, or it's acquiring property. through with a bond and trying to stabilize some housing options. We had a developer that came in here that's looking at affordable ho

Thank you, Mr. Chair. Thank you, Mayor Lawson. Mr. Sherman, the Mayor and Councilwoman Lanier and others have expressed an interest in having We're asking where can we find some funds?

The properties on Broadway, which ones are you referring to? The old subway and all of those properties?

Do you know when that sale is supposed to be completed, consummated?

Okay. Mayor Lofton, Councilwoman Lanier, what do you all I think he agrees with that possibility.

I really want us to allocate some funds in the meantime and repay what we possibly spend. We've talked about housing, and I think we have to be more intentional about allocating some funds and being clear to pull some funds from somewhere to put into housing programming.

You just mentioned something critical that you kind of glossed over. I've made available from the sale?

From the sale and from MHOP. Programming, we've been waiting on money to come in from MHOP. So Mr. Sherman is saying that we're going to be receiving checks. There's a few projects in the pipeline that have been waiting on the MHOP to approve. And once those are approved, and if they are approved, That money will come into MEEHOP, but they were waiting on us to actually do first and second reading. So that's what I think we're waiting on and why we haven't addressed some of the housing needs, because we had to redo our MEEHOP program and then wait for these projects to actually close and fund

Mr. Sherman, didn't we just do a project on Military Trail through the MEEHOP program?

So that is the point. I'd prefer that since those funds are waiting to come in, we can't just sit around and wait on funds to create the program. We need to budget and allocate the funds now. And when those funds come in, we can repay them to wherever else we pull them from. But we need to move forward with some housing options. And we've been waiting on that. We did just approve a project. So hopefully those will come in, but we need to budget now with our budget.

Sure. It was Councilwoman Lanier, then Vice Chair Spiritus.

Yes, I have to agree with that wholeheartedly. I don't know how many times I've heard that people want to access housing through the city, but they cannot because they're not in the CRA district.

Me too. I've heard it a lot. Vice Chair Spiritich, and then we're going to get some direction from Mr. Sherman about where we can borrow some funds from and repay them at the time of the MEHOP funds or the sale of the property. Vice Chair Spiritich.

So if I can ask Mr. Sermons maybe on the MEHOP program, the project on military, I believe they already have one or two buildings already up. So how long do we have to wait to get those MEHOP funds?

Okay, thank you. Okay. Yes, Councilwoman Davis-Preneur. Your mic is not on.

Just clarification with the housing program. We're also talking, we're talking about mimicking similar programs that the CRA is doing. So we're talking about home improvements as well, not just home ownership. Okay.

Okay. Mr. Sermons, where would you recommend

So we're looking for some funds that can be secured right now. To be transferred and repaid at the time when the MEEHOP and maybe the seller property come in.

Vice Chair Spiritus, and then we're going to have to move on to the next item.

Okay, so my question is, do we have the ability to do a short-term bond and pay it off with the MEOP program?

I would suggest you call J.P. Morgan. They did about $600 million worth of bonds for us. Maybe they can do us a little bit of a favor and give us a deal on a small bridge loan.

Okay, we have to move forward. Mr. Sherman, question about procedure. I remember there was a specific time, and it may have changed now since I've been up here, during the meeting that these budgets had to be approved. Does that still exist regarding the time during the meeting?

All righty. Any public comment on this item?

Chair, before we vote, can I just ask one housekeeping question to Mr. Sherman there? Mr. Sherman, in this budget, we have a little bit of confusion in the City Council's budgets. Have you budgeted for the full amount and overtime for our administrative assistance in this budget?

Well, the total with the overtime you're saying is 30 hours per week?

Right, but I think we did agree to go back a couple of the administrative assistants. We agreed to give them the retroactive pay. When we gave the other employees pay, they didn't receive it, and we agreed to do that. At the meeting when we discussed the budget at that time and the salaries, are we going to be able to take care of that and get these people paid the additional money? You're talking about the COLA? Well, we gave a 15% raise to employees, I believe, that these administrative assistants didn't get. It might have been a COLA as well. I don't know.

OH, OKAY. YEAH, I WAS- YEAH, YEAH. SO YOU CAN GET WITH- WE'RE GOING TO MEET TOMORROW. OKAY, MADAM CLERK.

And we're going to go right into the general public comments. Public comments shall begin at 7.30 PM unless there is no further business of the City Council, which in that event, it shall begin sooner. In addition, if an item is being considered at 7.30 PM, then comments from the public shall begin immediately after the item has been concluded. Please be reminded the city council board has adopted rules of decorum governing public conduct during official meetings, which has been posted at the front desk in an effort to preserve order. If any of the rules are not here to the city council chair

Thank you for your comments. Next speaker.

Okay, I entertain a motion, please. So moved. It's been moved by Vice Chair Spiritus. Seconded by Councilwoman Davis-Preneur. Discussion on the motion, Mr. Sherman.

What area that the streets are in? I know some council people may want to know that.

Yes. One moment, Council Member Miller. I know that's in your district. But just to reiterate, this is actually gonna be a loan and not taking it from the project. So the project's still gonna move forward. Councilwoman Miller-Anderson.

Mr. Sermon, is that the question? Not the person, but yeah.

Understood. And I guess it determines the amount to that. Yes, Vice Chair Spirtis. And then we need to talk some numbers and wrap this up and move on to the other items on the agenda.

Right, Chair. So this is why I'm suggesting that we do a bridge loan or a short-term bond or borrowing and using the NEOT money as a guarantee. on that program so we don't have to put off a project like Avenue E and the other projects that do need road work. And I wouldn't put those projects off. I think they're very important and we should move forward and we should just look for other sources. Mr. Sermons, I do believe that when people are homeless and we give them a home, that's affordable housing. But if you would like, we can certainly do a text amendment pretty quick on what our UMEA pro

I do know that the state instituted some We obviously have to comply. But what the discussion has been is there was a desire to have a replicate of what the CRA is doing regarding repairs and helping the elderly with their homes and those type of things. So we need to make sure that when we're complying with what the state pertinent and relevant to the And with additional money, those people who may just need some assistance, who's down on their luck right now. So, Mr.

Okay. Now let's talk in the Mount because we cannot discuss this all night. Let's talk in the Mount and see if we can come up with it so we can move on to the next item.

Mr. Chair? Yes. In addition to the Mount administration of the program, We've had previous conversations about who's going to administer the funds, and we don't really have a housing department or division on the city side. We talked previously about creating one, but how are we going to get those funds disseminated into the community once we have them allocated, and who's going to be accountable for them?

I would suspect community development, but that's a discussion that can be had at staff level, or I know we just approved an

this project. I bring that up, Mr. Chair, because the reason I don't want to wait for it to be appointed at staff level is we did this in previous years. I approved this at the board with some of my colleagues in past years, and it was never actually implemented. So, I want to make sure that we're clear with, if we're putting this budget together, who from staff is taking accountability to making sure it gets to the residents. Because we also talk about possibly partnering and working with the to have them work the program using the Renaissance and reclaim. And I think they have capable staff

C. R. A. C. R. A. would be excellent to handle it. Um, I believe also working with the CDC, we have those options as well. Um, our, our former. housing neighborhood director i believe she works with the cdc as the director as well so we need to make sure that we have those funds allocate them and put them into the community and make sure they're appointed to the community um the housing authority we have three uh entities we can work with right now okay sure um yes and then we have to wrap this up i have two things so uh with reference to uh the housing and uh the housing department i guess is

and what we're trying to develop here. And I think that very often in municipalities, the planning and development department handles housing as well, usually has that in most municipalities. They have under their development portion in their planning department, they will put a housing person or a housing group together within there. And I think that would be very appropriate to come under neighborhood services since you have all of those staff people available.

So I just think that we should check and make sure that under state law, the CRA can do this outside the CRA district. because it is cra money it's paying for that staff so you just better check to see whether or not it's legal or not for them to do it otherwise once again i would recommend planning and community development is the name of a lot of these departments and municipalities throughout the country and they do come under that umbrella so that is for a long-term uh answer i think that's something that we should look into now my second question is for mr sherman on the capital improveme

I don't think you need a million. I think the number is closer to 5 million, 4 to 5 million is what we're going to need. I thought that the money that we used to pay the county last time was from the previous year's budget.

This year we didn't use any of it. We should have a million dollars budgeted for our share of the grant, correct? 26, not 27. 27, we're going to need another million dollars to meet our requirement with the county. Right. Which would be to give us two million.

Well, I do know that sometimes the insurance, the amount of money that we have to keep in insurance and reserves, those are a little bloated sometimes. Maybe we could take a look at that area.

Okay, so you're all going to coordinate and get together, take a look at it. We need to put a pin in this. We're going to take a look at the CRA and ex-CRA attorney to research whether CRA funds.

So I'm not being sarcastic now. I asked to have an attorney to research it. I understand that we've been doing it that way. I need some confirmation from an attorney. That's all I'm saying. And we'll take a look at that to make sure that we're complying with the law. And I like statues that tells me that this can be done, data documents and evidence. And once we get that confirmation, we're moving that direction. And I know we've been doing it, and maybe we can. I'm just saying, I like data documents and evidence. Okay, and the amount that we're discussing is what? Come on, Ms. Lanier and Mayo

And how much has been the CRA budget? $2.5 million. Can we find that in the capital?

So we will get with Mr. Bailey. And this will only require resolution. Okay. Mr. Chair. Mayor Lawson and then Councilwoman Miller-Anderson, then we are voting.

Yeah, I'd like to see it on that agenda in October, colleagues, if we can, just so that we can work with our CRA, our CDC housing authorities, implement these programs and get them moving. Like I said, this is... Like a repeating record. I want to make sure that we allocate, we define staff, we get it into the, Mr. Chair, if we can't finish the comments, I know we want to get through the budget, but this is one of the most important pieces and the only piece we need to do. So if we can't finish with giving them proper direction, approving the budget and going through the system, because this i

Chair. Mr. Sherman, please coordinate with the engineer, Mr. Bailey. Yes. To ensure that. And we've got the move on.

Chair, I think I brought this up at the last meeting or meeting before, but there was a sale during the Safe Harbor project. where there was going to be a certain amount of money split. I think it was for the abandonment of one of the roads. And part of that money was supposed to be split between Park Manor and Lakeview Park. If someone can look into that and staff where the money is, because now we're ready to do the paving.

Okay. Last thing, Mayor, you mentioned you wanted some specific direction. You have any suggestions? Yes, sir. To recommend? Yes, sir.

What's your recommendation? If we can bring the resolution before the end of October, that will give us opportunity if we don't make the first meeting in October at least by the second meeting of October to bring those items back to allocate the funds of 2.5 million to allow for creating programs for renaissance and reclaim and to work directly with the CRA staff with legal sufficiency documented saying that we can work with CRA and I think we've already told them that we want them to work with the CDC in executing some of these programs because we're going to be adding on an additional probab

Thank you, Madam Clerk. I entertain a motion for approval. So moved by Councilwoman Davis-Preneur. Seconded by Councilwoman Ludner. Discussion on the motion, staff.

Thank you very much. Please introduce yourselves.

We are- Chair, I have a question. When you're saying all religious institutions, so I can go and form a church tomorrow for $250, form a corporation, and I would fit into this?

Okay. So you're going to keep that in the code. Okay. Yeah.

I just wanted an explanation on that. So you're saying you're going to let the downtown zoning, that's eight stories? Oh, three stories. Okay. You're going to limit it to three. And then on the Miop, if they want extra floors, are they going to be eligible?

So are you suggesting, what if the, you know, I did a couple of these projects up north with the Union Baptist Church and Antioch Baptist Church and one of the Greek churches up there. And it's a difficult program now because a lot of these entities want to form a not-for-profit to run the housing portion of this project. So will that be considered one? Will you consider that as part of the religious entity, if they set up a 501c3, a separate 501c3 to own and operate this facility? Because usually for funding purposes and liability purposes, they usually prefer doing it that way.

Is there any way we can separate that or permit the not-for-profit to own the property? Because for funding purposes, very often they want to see the ownership in the hands of the organization that's going to be doing the development.

Yeah, but that doesn't do it for the funding purposes. Yeah. If you could look into that, maybe if the church put a certain number of members on the board of the 501c3, maybe if they had a majority of the board, that would be acceptable. I don't know, but I would look at that because for these projects to work, you have to have control of the site.

Right, right. We don't want to develop a coming in there and giving the church a few dollars and then developing the project. Correct. Okay, please continue.

Okay. Public comment. And then I have a couple of questions.

Thank you for your comments. Chad, GBT did you well. Thank you for your comments.

Thank you very much for your comments. Okay, I have a couple of questions as it relates to the mandatory requirements. One of them you mentioned was it had to be three acres. My question is, does that have to be on one parcel or can it be contiguous? What is the requirement for three acres?

Contiguous. So it can be on a separate parcel, but they have to be next to each other. okay my other my other question i'm sorry mr sherman's wanted to add it must be plotted together okay then it becomes one parcel okay that was my question so it has to be one parcel okay um but it can start off being continued with it but and what is the time frame that it has to be plotted

Okay. Through the PLAT process. And is there a timeframe after being approved, after the application being to complete the plat process.

Okay. All righty. Thank you. My other question on that. No problem. That's fine. Um, is there a statutory definition for religious institutions as it relates to this particular, um, Florida statute requirement that they define?

Okay. Thank you. So that is compliant with Florida Statute 170.201 . Correct. Okay. Those are questions I had. I heard Vice Chair Spiritus and Mayor Lawson.

Okay, so I have a couple of technical questions. You know, I want to see this work. You know, I support faith-based projects. I've been involved with them and I think this is a great thing. But my question now is taxes. as we were discussing before. How does that play here if the church owns it? So if the tax rolls?

So can we look into maybe a required pilot in the ordinance, depending upon the income requirement, the income levels, who it's who they're providing it for. 30% maybe is nothing. Maybe when you get to 60%, you pay a certain amount. It could even be a graduate, 50% the first year, 55% the second. Over 10 years, they're paying 100%. Something on that order I think we should look at And that was my main question there. I'm sure I'm gonna think of other questions while we have this discussion. Did you have any workshops in the community? Because this is a pretty major change to our zoning that's

I would suggest, I would suggest holding a town hall meeting or a couple maybe in the community before we do the second reading. I think that's important. to do that. Like I said, this program goes back, I hate to say it, but it goes back to the Bush administration with the faith-based program. So this has been around for a long, long time in the country and very successful. You just haven't heard a lot about it lately, but it is one of the best programs probably in the whole country. Mr.

Thank you. Mr. Chair. Mr. Need had a comment. We have no problem to do just that. Mayor Lawson, then Councilwoman Davis-Preneur.

Thank you. And even though Mr. Sam Brown didn't give me a shout out, I was working with them as well and a lot of the board because I know that the Housing Coalition- You're all up in the video. I was trying to be, but he didn't give it to me. He left me on the block. But the Housing Coalition, they did host- Mr. Chair, control your board. But the Housing Coalition did host numerous housing meetings and community meetings. I know that they had them in the community and worked with a lot of the churches. Sunita, can you go back to the slide with the number of churches that actually qualify? So

And they have to have a special exception for the less than three acres. What does it go down to? So that's what we're proposing today. Is there a minimum acreage that they can qualify for?

Okay. So as long as you can fit it on based upon, based upon the live local Yigby pathway?

Which is three, which is three, which is three stories. Right. So the general downtown is what type of density would be allowed?

Okay, so as long as they can fit it on their parcel, they can do this project. So with the community threats that were happening before and this actual ordinance that's on first reading, multiple churches will qualify for this?

Okay. And I'm asking these because I did do the agenda review, but there were a lot of residents that were a little confused with this ordinance that was coming on the agenda because they wanted to make sure and see if their church would qualify, if there's going to be additional housing density in their areas. And then what are the parking requirements or restrictions for these type of parcels? Are they going to be the same standard that the city already holds?

You answered that for me in our agenda review, so thank you. But I want to make sure that we had that on the record so we could know how many units, how many parking, what the parking is going to look like. Can the parking be on an adjoining, adjacent, or offsite parking site if they have a lot that's across the street, down the block, or somewhere else?

Because what I've heard is that there are some churches that own adjacent lots, adjoining lots, lots across the street. So they're referencing possibly having the housing project on one and then parking across the street if that's part of the ordinance and allowed for that. So that's why I want to make sure that our ordinance addresses that, that we don't have over parking in our communities and that the church still can accommodate, even though most of them are only occupied on Sundays, except for Sunday. my dear friends who operate seven days a week over there the lewis's do a great job but

Okay. The reason I ask is there's nothing prohibits us from actually putting additional time. Okay. So board, with my agenda meeting and meetings with the residents, this is something that they desperately want. I think additional community threats are good. They've had a lot of meetings, especially a lot of churches have already met. and had a lot of these discussions so this is an ordinance i really want us to push through and move forward with between first and second reading but also make sure that the churches are updated on this program this policy and we can walk them through the proces

Chair. It was Councilwoman Davis-Brenier.

No, I'll be brief because Mayor Loftus said a lot of things that I was going to say that we discussed in a lot of the different committee meetings that we had. I'm ready to move forward with this. I'm really trying to figure out the timeline. If we have these community charrettes, are we planning to have one? How soon can we get them scheduled so that we can continue to move forward? And I thank you all for the You guys did a diligent job with, you know, considering all of the things that we need to be concerned about by offering this program. I want to thank the Lewis's for their commitment a

Chair, what is what is the procedure if we want to just move forward and not have another community? Because I heard that come from one of our council people.

We would just vote on it. Yeah. Well, Mr. Chair. It was Vice Chair Spiritus next. Then you, Mayor.

Okay. So, Counselor, my question, well, first of all, when I did these projects up north with the religious institutions, we permitted daycare centers, whether it be child or senior care. we actually encouraged that and we built those into the project. So we're going to permit that use in these buildings.

Okay, and my follow-up question is the shared parking. I would recommend that you tighten up on that. I think a certain percentage of the parking should always be available to the church and not be shared. It should be a certain percentage should be open just put aside for the church itself and for the housing.

Are you done, Vice Chair? Yes, thank you. Thank you. And I believe my point earlier for the charrettes that was done by the community and the conversations that have been happening was that more of the conversation community charrettes after we approve this item is to educate the church, an educational campaign and a campaign to push forward because these meetings have been happening consistently. I don't think we need additional community charrettes with all the work that these community organizations have been doing to delay this ordinance. I think we need to move it forward as quickly as possible and then allow for us after we've a

Vice Chair Spiritus, and then I have a comment.

I hear what everyone's saying, and this council and previous councils, very often we change ordinances and the community has no idea what's going on. I think it's very, very important. There's no rush here. Nothing's going to happen within the next six weeks, development-wise or construction-wise or anything else. You've got to do this right. I think that the community deserves the right to weigh in on this, whether it be they like They want four stories, two stories, one story, setbacks. I mean, this is going to impact people's homes. There's no doubt about it. So just let them have a say. Wh

Okay, there is a motion on the floor. If the motion passes, the ordinance move forward now, unless there is an amended motion to include the charrette. And if that is supported, then we will go that route. The motion on the floor now is to move forward now. But I have a quick question before Madam Clerk called the question. And you may have already said this, what statute allows for going less than the mandatory? What allows us to do that? Do you understand what I'm saying?

So I'm assuming that that's still applicable. You said correct the mandatory the one in 2026 didn't supersede what was already in place

Okay. Just clarification. There's a motion on the floor. If it passes now, the process continue to move forward without the charrette, but there will be some educational sessions after that to educate the public.

Chair, can I ask one more question before we vote? Can you tell me, do we require the church own more than 50% of the project?

Right, but they may not own the project. So they can, a private developer can own 80% of the project. and control everything, including making the money. So I would rather see it so that we make it so that the church is the beneficiary, not a private developer.

At least 50% or 51% of the project so they can have control.

The amendments that are being proposed, I think that we need to have them recited to us and we'll make a determination which ones that we want to come back to us in the second reading. Like this one, the 51% on We can do a little poll. We're going to do each of those. Is there any opposition to requiring 51% of the religious institution to own 51% of the project? In opposition? Okay, no. Shared parking. There was a question about... yes the um percentage of development and church spaces and i think that was i'm not sure maybe just a question for staff what would be a reasonable number to requi

Chair. Yes. Okay. So, Mr. Sermons, but don't, I mean, churches still do work seven days a week. They do have staff coming. They do have programs. There has to be a certain amount of parking spaces available for them seven days a week. So we just want to make sure that the development doesn't take over the entire site. They'll meet their requirements. What are the church's requirements? Do they get reduced when this project happens or they still have to have the same number of parking spaces under the code?

Okay, I would just make sure that the shared parking, that the church has a certain percentage during the week for their staff and for the programs that they're holding. So I would get a percentage of that taken out and reserved for the church itself.

A certain percentage of shared parking should not be shared. It should be 100% for the church.

Okay, and... And what percentage are you recommending, Vice Chair?

Right. Yeah. A reserve for church activities. An objection to that.

Yes. So, basically, what I'm saying is that they're, they're permitting you to use that same spot for the housing. And for the church. And I'm just saying that a certain percentage should just be available for the church during the week, not used by the housing, so they can have their activities seven days a week.

For their parking, so I'm saying that we have to take out with a carve out a certain percentage. So the church will still have parking 7 days a week.

So what I'm saying is you have to take that 10% because you're letting them use what's overbuilt. It could be 50 spaces are required for the church, and they're meeting their requirements, and then they have 50 spaces for the housing. Let's say it's senior housing, and it's only one space required per unit for senior housing, but we know that everybody usually has two cars, not one. So we have to be realistic. We can't just put our heads in the sand. We know what's really happening.

So I just want to make sure the church has the ability to function. Colleagues, do we want the 10% or not? How many want it? How many don't? It doesn't matter to me. It's not much opposition. Put in 10%. What was the next item? Or was there another item that was suggested? Was that it?

Chair, you're also going to look into the 501c3 being able, the church being able to set that up, a private 501c3 and still be considered the owner.

Any objections? If not, anything else? If not, I entertain an amended motion to include the items that were just discussed. It's been... amended motion has been moved by um councilwoman davis preneur i need a second on the amended motion seconded by vice chair spiritus uh is there any further discussion on the motion hearing none yes um so we take away the meetings the charrettes okay yes okay That's not included. We're going to do an educational series after it's approved. Madam Clerk.

Thank you, Madam Clerk. Next item, please.

Okay, Mr. Sermons. And to tee up, this was a request that I made of staff, A recent Florida statute was passed and please look while you're going out, please. Ms. Bram, please. So the statute now addresses areas that have been heretofore covered under city ordinances. But now this statute has been passed at the state level that can now impact how we handle certain developments. Mr. sermon. And both of you can introduce yourself.

I'm not to interrupt you or your train of thought, but what type of activities may have participated on those particular land areas, i.e., fueling station, golf course. Give us some examples of the type of properties that would be impacted by this.

I love that. Go ahead. Tell me the statute.

Yeah, not to interrupt you, but when you're going back now, in layman's terms. Okay.

So when the local government makes the designation of a brownfield, what are the requirements that we have to follow? Do we have to do a phase one and phase two environmental... Can we just sit here and say we decided that's a brownfield, or do we have to do actual studies to determine that a site is a brownfield site?

I'm talking about the local municipality designation, not the state or the federal government. That's what I'm responding to.

But I still don't see how scientifically we as a council can determine that a site is a brownfield site. I mean, we could look at, I mean, How do we know whether or not there's carbohydrate product in the dirt enough to determine that we should do something different than we would do with a regular normal site?

But council, designated by who? A designated site, designated by the city council?

What I'm trying to get clear in my head is that it's really not a brownfield. You're just saying if it needs economic development, we're calling it a brownfield. I'm not saying that, no. Well, that's what I'm asking. Do we have to do an environmental study? Does an environmental analysis have to be done prior to this, to us moving on this? Or can we just make a designation? Or can someone just come in here and say, you know, I need economic development and I want you to stick this under the brownfield designation?

And we have to address the time, but we can set parameters if somebody come in here and want to do a project and require them to do a scientific analysis. And this is very new. 2026, that's why I want it. We may not have all the answers today because it's so new. That's why I wanted us to be aware that there's a statute that could impact us, but I need a motion.

Chair, I make a motion that we extend the meeting till the business is completed.

Okay, is there a second? It's been moved by... by Chair Spiritus and seconded by Councilwoman Davis-Preneur that we extend the meeting until the business is complete, which shouldn't take much longer. Is there any discussion on the motion? Hearing none, Madam Clerk.

Okay. Let's drive the discussion home. If there is property, a golf course, somebody comes in and want to develop on it. They want to go under this FICA, a fire law. Does the council have any say-so or authority in that, or does the statute supersedes our authority?

overrule that which is in the statute concerning this infill redevelopment act so we don't have the authority to stop a project if they come under the environment this statue and it meets the requirements of the statute on the environment to protect the impacted land correct so even if we wanted to stop it we could

So... But what requirements do they have to, since they don't have to come to us, what is the process? Is it administratively? How does that work since we can't do anything if they meet those standards going on certain types of properties?

You said ordinance. I beg your pardon. Wait, it was Councilwoman Davis-Preneur, then Councilwoman Lanier.

So I know this is new, but so have we had any inquiries or applications using this act at this point? Yes. Okay. And based on what you said, if they qualify for the particular act one way or the other brownfield or the other way environmentally there's nothing we can do we have no legislative action that we can take to prohibit or deter it based on what you said

Okay, thank you. As long as it meets certain requirements. Correct. Mr. Chair. Councilwoman Lanier and then Mayor Lawson.

So are there any properties that can potentially qualify? I'm asking specifically about Lone Pines.

So we're looking at the Florida Infield Redevelopment Act as a precursor for development of that property.

Has an official application been submitted? Mayor Lawson, I'm sorry.

Those are the questions, so if you can answer that one, and then I'll ask them. Thank you, Mr. Chair.

okay mayor lawson thank you mr um environmentally impacted what testing what requirements what designates that because i understand the local government council has to designate a brownfield what designates an environmentally impacted site or land

My chair is a mind reader because he's just asking my questions, so I appreciate him. Just two more, Mr. Chair. The county just workshopped this recently. Did we follow up as a staff with what the county workshopped and did we also identify some of their findings and what the Palm Beach County actually found when they workshopped this?

Okay. So I did take a look at it and I actually watched some of the workshops just to prepare for this because this is an item that we've talked about for a while. Once I saw this past, I was very concerned because this identifies a lot of parcels across the state and one that's very comparable to mine here in Riviera Beach with our Lone Pine Golf Course. Are there other projects that qualify for this in Riviera Beach besides that golf course?

Do we have any defined or assigned brownfield areas in Riviera Beach?

Would we be required to define an area as Brownfield?

My question is how they can. does a local council have to define an area as a brownfield under that statute?

I'm not sure if that really identifies, though, the course of action for Brownfield. And that's more of not understanding the process of what it takes to define a Brownfield area or site. Would someone have to submit an application to determine that this is a brownfield and request with testing, with results? I'm just trying to gather, how would we identify or designate this as a brownfield site or area? And are we required to do testing? Does Florida statute say, it says that we can't put any restrictions. But what is the steps of actually assigning something as a brownfield site? And does th

And not to interrupt, but those are good questions. I think we may need to allow staff to go back and do further research. This is 2026 statute. Yeah. So they're not going to have all the answers tonight, but we have questions that they need to go back and research.

So these questions that are being posed now. brand new statute, very new. Most communities are not familiar with it. So I don't expect you all to have all these answers right now. This is a 2026 statute. But the county has done, from what I'm told, some in-depth research. you all to also coordinate with the county to determine what they have discovered and some of their conclusions. And I would like an update at our next meeting from your research on these questions that have been asked now and on what the county found down there and what their determinations are. I just like to compare. But t

So my question, by the way, Mayor, thank you for asking that question. That was where I was going before when I was trying to figure out you know, what is the actual designation of a brownfield and how do we determine that? More research. Yeah, but at this particular point, who also determines when the site is clean? Does the state do that or does the city do that?

Because, you know, you can use bioremediation, for example, on a carbohydrate product and certain other chemicals. But if you're talking about a cleaner's, You're going to have to use a strip because it could take years and years and years to clean the site. So this is really a very complicated task in determining whether a site is clean, clean enough to be developed.

Okay. You have the questions. We're going to expect some answers. Ms. Lanier, and some questions may take longer to get a definitive answer. Some of these our next meeting. So don't feel pressured. You've got to come up with all these answers with this new statute that just came out. Everybody's still learning it. Councilwoman Lanier.

Yeah, I have a list of questions because I figured that this was the route that this was going to take in regards to loan lines. So I want to be able to submit my questions to Developmental Services for their answers. There's a list of them, so I don't want to go through them tonight, but certainly to get back to the public to be able to get that information.

Absolutely. Okay, does anyone have any further questions that you want staff to go and research and come back to us? Again, this statute was just passed in 2026. Mr.

Go ahead. Mine was really quick, and I just want to confirm that I remember what you said. And you said this is just Dade, Palm Beach, and Broward County because of the need, the high need for housing. Is that correct?

Mayor Lofton. It's real quick, Mr. Chair. I just want to make sure staff that even though it's a new statute, we've got a pre-application. So we may want to get answers quickly, hopefully by the next meeting to be able to address concerns and conversation. It sounds like this is a state legislation that's not going to be much, but we can at least inform, educate, and prepare our residents for what's coming. Because what was also mentioned during this presentation is that there's probably only one site that currently qualifies, and there's a pre-application. So I don't want to be blindsided and

Okay, thank you, Mayor. Thank you, sir. Good job on your initial report. You have some homework to do. I have a lot of faith in both of you. And also with the county, please see what analysis they have done already, too. It may save you some work. You can just verify what they've already done. But thank you. Thank you very much. Good job. Madam Clerk, next item.

Okay. Any questions? Hearing none, next item, my clerk.

Okay. Any questions or comments? Sure. Vice Chair Spiridon and then Councilwoman Lanier.

Yeah, I want to ask, so there is no owner's rep for the utility district?

Right, so there's no owner's rep for the actual construction of the water plant?

So why would you say the utility district? I'm sorry? Why would you say the utility district needed an owner's rep?

Waterline and a force one. Okay, it's the water.

All right. So my question, too, is that if the current proposals or the current rule has been expired, why have we not gone out? to locate these entities. I think that, and you admitted to the fact that maybe we should have went that route, that each of these projects should have had competition for an owner's rep, period. These are huge projects. I can see it being a pool for something as small as maybe, I don't know, complex or whatever, but to have Marina itself is a billion dollars, and you have to put this out now for owner's reps, for the city's interest to be protected.

They should be on a project by project basis. Thank you, ma'am.

So now I'm like kind of caught on this one in between. You know, the utility district is going to have a lot of projects that happen that we don't even expect. And it's nice to have a pool there so you can grab somebody right away and say, OK, you're going to be in charge of this project. You know, we know right now, for example, we're adding water lines on North Ocean, probably from Pine Point all the way to the water glades. That's a project no one's even, you know, we're working on it, but you're going to need an owner's rep on that project. But at the same time, you have the Intracoastal W

I think that just quickly, I just think that we may need to send we may need to put together. a threshold, meaning that if the project is over a million dollars, then it should be put out to be the project is, you know, less than a million. It should be in a pool. The council can set that set that standard so that at least we know that if the project is a billion dollars, then we're certainly going out to be, but if the project is half a million dollars, then maybe we just need a pool for it.

All right. Sounds good. And we can, have discussions with staff about what each of us think would be, or we can bring it back next week and have that discussion about what the threshold should be for a pool or for individual on this route. Any further questions or comments? Thank you, Ms. Ammons.

Okay. Are there any further questions or comments? Yes, it is, Mr. I heard Mayor Lawson, Dan, Councilwoman Miller-Anderson.

I think there was a misstep because I think you said acting city manager. He's just, what is Mr. Coppin's role?

I just want to clarify the record. I know. And in regards to expediting this process, we have to bring in a committee to review the solicitation, then bring it back for the board for approval. We spoke previously, and I mentioned this previously, about a firm that we negotiated with. Is that possible for us to go to that firm? What would be the steps if we went to the firm that did the search for our CRA and our utility district?

So here's my question. And you guys can pass the mic back and forth. But if we're going to go ahead and select the same vendor we used previously the last two times, the timeline for selecting that vendor, for proceeding with the search to bring in a city manager, and to bring some applicants to the table. versus the timeline that we currently have, because we're still looking at not getting any potential candidates for the next probably three to five months, depending on how long it takes to review, how long it takes for them to go out to secure, and then how long it takes to interview. My th

It was Councilwoman Miller-Anderson. Are you done, Mayor? Yes, sir. Councilwoman Miller-Anderson and then Councilwoman Lanier.

Okay. The majority of the council, but y'all know what y'all want. I'm asking that question because we had talked about doing the and they would do it and they would advertise it. But then you said, no, we'll go out and we'll do this. So now you're coming back to that. So I just need to figure out what do y'all really want to do here? Because you already have given us a timeline. You've already said that this is how it's going to work. She's working that timeline. Now you're going to change the timeline? I'm not sure what's happening here.

Mr. Chair? Mayor Lofton, then Vice Chair Spiritus.

I think just to address my colleague's concern is just I want to expedite the timeline. I've been saying this from the very beginning. And to that same point, I want to see what is the quickest way for us to bring this and bring some candidates to the table for us to have a vote on. And the reason it's even brought back up tonight is because I'd like to look at expediting this timeline in a fashion where they've brought this up. We've talked about HR. We've talked about other options. What can we do today to move this board forward and bring some candidates to us as quickly as possible? So I'm

Yes. And chair, I need to know why now the expedite, why not originally? And we could have done this two months ago. I'm saying that I'm saying that because I've gotten used to one timeline and now y'all want to change it. And I just, I'm not sure which, how y'all want to do this. And you're saying that now you want to be expedited. Yes, that's fine, but now we've gotten accustomed to how this thing was going to work in the timeline that you gave to us and voted on and said that this is what you wanted, but now you're coming back saying now we want to expedite it, which we said from the beginning, but I digress.

I apologize to Vice Chair Spirit if you were next, but we're allowed.

What is the exact date if we follow through with the process that we're doing now that we'll actually be interviewing or we'll have candidates sent to us.

Okay, Chair, so I think that we should follow through with this process. I don't see the emergency right now. Let's follow through with this process. Let's get some candidates here in December, January, and make a decision at that time. I think that we should look at other firms. I wasn't really... more than thrilled with the firm that we used last time. So I think we should open it up and look at other firms as well, because this is going to be a pretty major decision we're going to have to make.

And I agree that we need to stick to the process that we agreed upon.

Okay, what is the pleasure of the Board to have said that they want to stick to the same process? What's the pleasure? Miller Anderson, one quick second. Thank you. Are you prepared to,

Mayor Lawson. Thank you. And just to make sure my colleagues understand, whatever process is selected or we decide as a board to go forward with, it's about just expediting this process. So sticking to this process, yes, but I need staff to bring this back in an expedited fashion in a timely way of making sure that they have the selection committee selected. get an approval for the election committee, reach out to them so that as soon as this closes, the next day we can proceed with the process. Because to your point, Ms. Lanier, we've been talking about expediting this and I agree, we need to

So I'm just wondering, do we have a certain number that we look for when we're looking at candidates? Because I just remember that CRA process that you all did. Yeah, they did. You weren't here. And it was a long process, and then they interviewed people, then they went back out and recruited some more people. So that process was extended. So do we have a... strict timeline. Okay. I'm just asking, because again, I want to make it, want to move it along, but also want to make sure that, you know, there's not going to be any hiccups with the process. If we get five candidates, are we going to, y

Okay. Well, at least that's my position.

Okay, so it appears that we're going to stick to the process. Get back to us. Did you say November?

November would be what? What is going to come back to us in November?

Okay. And after that, then what? Once we approve a vendor?

Okay. All righty. Thank you very much. ACM.

Comments. The educational grant process was supposed to be brought back to us. Where are we on that?

You all can do that, but whatever it is, that you all determined you need to bring it to us. It's always going to be different comments coming up. So we would like to know what the process is now to move forward and get it to us because there are countless people who want to chime in on the process. Thank you. So we need to understand what the process is. That's really what we're looking for. What is the process now? Yes. Not really changing it based on comments right now from the public.

But, Chair, can I do add that? Because the person did quote off a lot of dates that were already, and I have not been given any of those, and I requested that. Yep.

Okay. Any other questions or comments for the city manager? We're in comment section now. The city attorney.

Thank you, Mr. Chair. Library director just asked me to make sure that we know that there's events going on in the city starting on October 26th all the way through, I'm sorry, September 23rd through the September 30th. Please check the city website for digital literacy programming, family reading out loud. One foot in front of the other. read the book, and we can work it out workshop. The programming at the library is excellent. We just need to make sure the residents know about it. So please check our city website. Make sure you participate in these library programs that are going out. There

Thank you, everyone, for your hard work tonight. Thank you.

I'd like to wish all our Jewish residents a Shana Tova, Happy New Year, and hopefully after the Day of Atonement, Yom Kippur, you were all written well in the book of God. That's all. Thank you.

I want to speak to the elephant in the room. I think that at our next meeting, we need to make sure that we have an update on our fearless leader. Mr. William Whittle said that the public and the staff can be, any fears can be elated.

Okay. Okay. Councilwoman Miller-Anderson.

Okay. And I have one comment. That's a document for everybody to sign here before you leave. Please sign it. And that's all I have. Meeting adjourned.