City Commission - Regular Meeting

Hey guys, it's 545. Sergeant Risco, let the mayor know it's 545. 545, folks. All right. Madam Clerk, good to go. Mr. Attorney, good to go. Colleagues on the commission, good to go. Mr. Mayor, give me a thumbs up, good to go. Thumbs up. All the time. All right. Here we go, folks. Roll call, Madam Clerk. Please stand for the invocation. Would anybody like to give the invocation? All right. Dear Heavenly Father, thank you for granting us the gift of life, the gift of family, the gift of friendship, the gift of freedom, and the gift of service. Service before self, service to our country, our stat

all right item four the city commissioner is sitting as the local planning agency will consider the following ordinance an ordinance of the city of sweetwater providing for adoption of the proposed year-based amendments of the city of sweetwater comprehensive master plan is required by chapter 163 florida statues amending each of the plans elements future land use housing transportation economic development sanitary sewers storm drainage potable water recreation and open space capital improvements and special educational facilities providing for conflicts providing for severability and providi

Great, I have a question. Does that, At any point in time, we can go ahead and revisit this. If we want to go ahead and make any amendments, we don't have to wait for the next seven years. Is that correct? Correct. Great. Does anybody have any questions? Does anybody want to make a motion? Motion. Motion by Commissioner Reynaldo Ray, second by Commissioner Idanianu. This is an ordinance. Roll call, Madam Clerk. Yes.

Yes. Motion passes four to zero. Note the absence of the other commissioners. Motion for adjournment. Move. All in favor say aye. Aye. Meeting adjourned.

All right. uh regular commission meeting date monday august 3rd 2026 the 6 p.m commission chambers 500 southwest 109 avenue roll call madam clerk even though we just had a local planning agency meeting we're going to give another invocation please stand for the invocation would anybody like to give the invocation all right let's bow our heads Dear Heavenly Father, thank you for granting us the gift of life, the gift of family, the gift of friendship, the gift of freedom, and the gift of service. Service before self is how we should operate here as city leaders. Please continue to bless our cit

It's a special presentation, employee of the month award.

That's a big enough wall. He's bringing it. You got a big house by the end of the day, you know?

Everybody knows that makes me happy. Reports of officers, boards and committees. None additions and deletions to the agenda. Petitions, communications and remonstrances. Consent agenda. Do I have a motion? Motion by Commissioner Rinaldo Ray, second by Commissioner is on the annual all in favor say aye.

Any opposed? Motion passed consent agenda passes. that was items a b c and d staff items a an ordinance of the city of seawater amending chapter 54 of the city code establishing penalties for collection of solid waste without a permit and for late payment authorizing the mayor to revoke permit after proper notice increasing required insurance for permittees providing for authority providing for severability providing for an effective date first reading mayor diaz This is a public hearing. Anybody wishing to speak on this item, please come forward. Seeing nobody come forward on this item, the p

All right. Does anybody have any questions for the director? Yes. Yes.

Scott, this is only, um, you say municipalities, so every municipality is doing the same thing.

Thank you. So, um, our police department used to do the background investigation to all the tow truck companies and all the, um, waste companies, garbage companies, and that was done every year. And there was a packet that was sent to city hall. Is this more or less what you're talking about?

Got it. All right. Well, good catch. Thank you. Do we have a motion on this item? A motion by Commissioner Zaniano, seconded by? Second. Commissioner Sal Diaz. All in favor say aye. Aye. Wait, this is a, sorry, roll call, Madam Clerk. Roll call, Madam Clerk. Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes. Good catch Scott. All right. Item passes unanimously. Uh, item B an ordinance of the city of Sweetwater providing for adoption of the proposed ear base amendments of the city of Sweetwater comprehensive master plan is required by chapter one, six, three Florida statues. amending each of the plan's elements, future land

All right. Do we have a motion on this item? Motion by Commissioner Idaniano. Seconded by? Second. Commissioner Reynaldo Ray. Roll call, Madam Clerk. Commissioner Diaz? Yes. Commissioner Ray? Yes. Commissioner Manasilla? Yes. Commissioner Reynaldo? Yes. President Villanueva? Yes. Item passes unanimously. Item C, an ordinance of the city of Sweetwater, Florida, amending the city code of ordinance by including section entitled requests for supervisors during law enforcement encounters, providing that compliance with a request for a supervisor to respond to the scene is discretionary with the off

Yes, I do. Commissioner Saldias, you have the floor. Yes, Chief, I would like to ask a question. Maybe you have the answer, but I would like to ask the Chief. I mean, I support the police department too. But what's our standard when it comes to something like a resident or anybody wants to talk to a sergeant? Is this part of the rules that we already have established to the sergeant to come by? So, yes. Yes.

sergeant for the whole entire city or not all the time not not all the time no sometimes we have more than one more than one yes we have other units other than patrol how many how many areas do we have in the city of sweetwater three areas and every on those three areas you got one supervisor no

That's fine. I'm just trying to understand it because, I mean, I've been around and sometimes when I see like a car accident or something like that or just a call and I pass by my Harley Davidson motorcycle that I have. I see the supervisor there all the time.

So I can understand it. You get one supervisor and one lieutenant a night on shift? Sometimes more. Okay. All right. Thank you, Chief. Yes.

And so just be sure of that. I'm sorry. And I want to ask the city attorney. I mean, you obviously you went through and you saw this. I mean, I'm trying to look for the better of the city, not a lawsuit or something like that. As an attorney, can you?

Okay, I was gonna ask you that. Now, I was gonna ask, in any other municipality, do they have this ordinance, or this is the first one that you hear from?

So let me, let me respond to, uh, commissioner saw these. Let me, let me paint you a better picture. This ordinance gives our officers the discretion to contact the supervisor. And let me pay you a better picture. Officer goes ahead and takes a traffic stop because somebody's texting and driving, right? Or somebody who's videotaping while they're driving, not a, not a felony, just the traffic infraction. The officer goes ahead and takes, A traffic stop notifies on the radio. Now all the other units in the area know that that officer's taking a traffic stop at that location. When that officer a

Yes. I thank you because I understand you know exactly what you're saying. I can give you a very simple sample. My son came over on Friday to see me and he says that he stopped this guy on the turnpike because he was speeding, but he stopped. He says, I need to call 911 because I don't know who you are. He said, really? With a patrol car and dressed up? The guy did call 911. And then he got a call and says, I'm here. I mean, so I know exactly what you're saying. You know, you get all those people that watch too much TV, and that's exactly because that's, I thank you very much by doing that.

Thank you, sir. So I want to reiterate, nobody ever calls the police for something good. Nobody's ever called 911 to say, by the way, my daughter just graduated from kindergarten. We're cutting a cake. come on by and invite the firefighters, because, you know, invite them too. Nobody ever does that. They always associate law enforcement with something negative, right? They're killing me, they're raping me, they're raping me, they're robbing me. And a traffic stop, no one has ever gone, ooh, yippee, I'm getting stopped by the police. I've been stopped by the police. So it's not a positive inter

Yes. Commissioner Reynaldo? Yes, this is first reading. We're going, okay, thank you.

Yes. Thank you for that support. Item 12, reports. Mayor's report.

Thank you, Mr. Mayor. Commissioner's report. Any commissioners wishing to report? Commissioner's stuff? I do.

Commissioner Reynaldo Ray. So just a few days ago, I was together with some of the guys from Station 29, and they were giving me information about the station itself, and I wanted to reach out. I told them that I'll reach out first to the mayor and make sure we get something done for them. along with the commissioners and, you know, the city. This is their 50th anniversary this year, and they want to see how, what we could do with them together to maybe do something, you know, with the city, you know, maybe with us and them together there, and, you know, just give them something and, you know,

one thing I want to add to that because I do always, I'm always going to get on that point because we're going vertical now and with what's coming into little Abner, it's just on another level we did receive station 68 which i remember you were there as well and i remember scott being there for station 68 but there's no rescue there and you know i know i'm you know i'm preaching to the choir and i'm going over and over again but this is something that i want to get not to use someone up in the county to make sure that that happens

Mr. President could actually testify to that. I want to continue hitting that because we only have Station 29 and 58 is a little out west, but they also have their share.

Great. Any other commissioners wishing to speak on anything? All right. So I want to congratulate you, Mr. Mayor. I remember many years ago being a very young kid and seeing those two uh hurricanes in 99 and then the no-name storm in 2000 um i had never been a part of anything like that as an employee and i i know that it shaped me in public service i've seen many municipalities try to emulate what we've done when it comes to disaster but i think we've perfected it Just my personal opinion. And right, wrong, or indifferent for all the administrators that have come through Sweetwater. You know,

Yeah. I want to again congratulate you, Mr. Mayor, for Scott. I can't believe I'm going to say this out loud. Scott Mendelsberg, our finance director. We've had plenty of bouts out here. Scott, you're doing a kick-ass job, man. Keep doing what you're doing. uh if i got something bad to say to somebody i'm gonna say it if i got something good i'm gonna say it i i could care less about people's opinions it's just how god created me and how i am so keep up the good work to you and your staff thank you um i want to congratulate our parks a director who's not here and our park staff they've really

Yes, I totally forgot about it and it's my mistake. I have to congratulate all the cadets that participated in the Venezuela event. There were 12 of them. They're working very hard, yes. They went more than once, they went twice. So I have to thank, like always, that's a program that whatever we need, the cadets are there. I only have to make a phone call, and they will be there to serve us, to help the city. So I have to thank them for the job that they did. Not only in Venezuela, every time we have a movie night, we have 12 cadets helping out.

Yeah, I thank you for bringing that to our city. We've been begging for that for years, unfortunately. the last administration we didn't have the best of uh relationships uh and look we have moved the city forward leaps and bounds and a lot of things but we do have some deficiencies because we're asking our police department to work in conditions that they've outgrown our police our police station or this building was building what 1972 um and they've outgrown that office back when we were 22 full-time police officers and now last i checked i think we're uh 85 full-time, is that accurate? Some

All right. If you could give the commissioners a little private what the hell you're talking about. Email. Sure. Instead of speaking in tongues. I'd appreciate it. Sure. Police report. Attached. Building and zoning report. Attached. Code enforcement division report. Attached. Public works. Attached. Finance is gone. Attached. Community and elderly service report. Attached. Parks and Recreation. Attached. Unfinished business. New business. Good of the order. Motion to adjourn.