Town Council - Special Meeting

Okay. Good evening, everybody. Welcome to the official agenda for the June 9th, 2026 regular town council meeting. Want to welcome everybody. Meeting officially called to order. Town clerk, roll call, please.

Just want to correct myself. That's Assistant Town Manager Linda Epperson. Welcome and thank you very much. You're welcome. If we could all please rise. And Chief Rudy Herbelo, if you could lead us in the Pledge of Allegiance, it would be appreciated.

Okay, thank you for that. First, this evening, we have some presentations today. We're going to have two presentations. One is called Curative Health Insurance Presentation, and the other one is Sidecar Health Insurance Presentations. And we appreciate you coming this evening. I do want to point out we have a long council meeting, so We try to limit the presentation to 10 minutes. And then if the council has any questions or anyone from the public has any questions, we will go from there. But who's going to speak first? If you could come up to the podium and introduce yourself.

Can I stop you for a second? You're talking too close to your mic or your phone. You're hard to understand. Can you just try to slow down and just go through it?

Before you go, I'm going to ask if my fellow council people have some questions. I have a few questions, but I'll let them go first. Councilwoman Luskin? No? Councilman Bernstein?

Can you go back to the first slide showing if you participated in your baseline? There were three different columns that you had. Can you go back to that first slide?

He'd like you to go back to the first slide.

The one that had the three comparisons that said if you were out of network. That one. So with the out of network, potentially you could be $10,000 a person. Is that what I'm seeing is the exposure that somebody has $10,000 for each family member?

And is it like I've seen issues where we're getting somebody in network might take several months or much longer than is normal. Is there something like if it takes somebody five months or four months to schedule something where you give them a break on the out of network where they If they can't find somebody in network, I've seen that happen often. I'm just concerned about that.

When you say out of network, how big is your network in South Florida?

Because you're pretty new to South Florida, correct?

What pharmacies are you associated with?

Okay. Can you explain one more time the cash card? I don't understand the difference between the cash card and the PPO. I'm just trying to understand it. But give me a short, abbreviated version and talk slowly.

Yes, thank you. Councilman Einstein, you have a few questions? Yeah. Ken, were you done?

I'm skeptical of medical insurance in general, so I'm going to take this from your first thing about being screened for the benefit to get the max benefit. What if you screen somebody and say, oh, we don't like this particular individual? He's got too many pre-existings. What do you do with that individual?

What if they don't follow your proactive recommendations?

We can't understand you. We can't understand you.

I'm going to use a situation where somebody was diagnosed with a blood disorder 15 years ago, and they received a certain treatment for the past 15 years. with the medical provider out of Memorial Hospital and have been given certain modalities for those past 15 years. They come into your network and you say to them, you know, we don't like what you're doing because it's going to cost us too much money. And this person says, yeah, but I've been doing for 15 years and it's kept me alive. What happens in that situation?

What if that doctor is out of your network?

And what if they don't agree to both of those terms? Maybe I don't know what your cash card is, and I don't know what your contracts look like, but let's say that doctor says, I don't want to work for that amount of money.

Thanks for the presentation. provide a list of the providers that you have in the South Florida area or in this region.

Thank you, Ms. Granger. Appreciate it. Okay. I didn't know, but did staff have any questions for them? Go on.

Yes, she left. We can always ask her. Okay, we can ask her.

Where was she located, by the way, on the Zoom? Oh, we don't know.

Yes. Let me see if anyone has questions because you're over the 10-minute time. Sure. So I'll start with Councilman Einstein. Do you have any questions?

Yeah. Tell me the negatives of your programs.

I'd be surprised. I heard your John Hopkins thing, but if I was a... Doctor, and I was at the top of my field, I would find it very difficult for me to discount my services when I knew I could get a higher dollar. I mean, they're forced to maybe take Medicare a lot. The higher end doctors drop Medicare. I would find it difficult to imagine that some of these doctors are agreeing to take this discounted plan for a refund to the customer.

And again, if we could get a list of those.

The member side. Yeah, because it's a lot of work on your members. Correct me if I'm mistaken. So there's work to be done for the member. You have to submit stuff.

Gotcha. We have a long council meeting. Yes. And I'm sorry, Ken, you have a question?

A couple questions. Sure. Following the onus of putting the onus on the patient to get in all the bills, which I find daunting sometimes just looking at where I've been, much less go through and say, okay, I went to this doctor and he did this, this, and this, and if I miss something, I'm not sure that's handled, but is it possible or... When you go to the doctor's office, you can say that I'm in sidecar. Can you put in the paperwork for you? Or that's not a possibility?

Second question with regards to you showed a flat rate. Does that flat rate kind of change with the different type of doctors? that maybe a dermatologist might be $150, a cardiologist might be...

The example you gave of seeing a hip replacement, It cut it off before the physical therapy. Is physical therapy something that's also included with you? Correct.

So if a doctor says you need 20 or you need 10 visits to a PT and then you go back to him and he says you need another 10, is that automatically approved?

And one last question. Sure. Just with preventive medicine going forward, and I think a lot of people with Outlive and these different books that are out there that everyone is looking for wellness, is something like the... Like the cancer one that was just suggested in the last scenario, are those type of, like if you just want to go get a cancer screening, is that something that you could just say, hey, I want to do this? Or is this something you would need to go to a doctor?

Gotcha. And my last question. You were kind of saying what wasn't covered at a certain point like in terms of you were saying some exclusions, right? So things like so like things that like were path it was something a Few years ago that I never heard out. That's kind of an alternative to statins But just two three years ago. I was hearing that that's really far out Is that something is those type of medications come out or those always included or is that something?

I just mean, they're just, they're just, they're kind of cutting edge stuff, like rapamycin type of. R-E-P what?

But these are more like cutting-edge medicines that are just coming out.

Whenever we want. There's no circumstance at all where a doctor's office is going to say, we don't know what sidecar is. We don't take it. You can't have an appointment.

Okay. I want to thank you very much. We're over our time limit. Go on.

Sure. I had a dermatology situation with my nose, and I opted to get radiation on it versus Mohs surgery. Mohs surgery would have been a lot less money. The radiation was point of treatment, and the gross billing for that was $30,000. I was a little surprised, but our insurance carrier, they approved it ahead of time. It might have been billed $30,000, but it might have gotten reduced. Radiation is a big number for most treatments of anything, cancers, whatever. It's a moneymaker for hospitals. How would you treat that? How would your company treat that situation? I'd first have to get an appr

If I want to go Sloan Kettering, what happens?

Okay, thank you. I want to thank you very much. Absolutely. Thank you.

Thank you. Okay, moving on to the agenda. Uh, we have motion to set agenda additions deletions removal of items from the consent agenda or changes to the agenda I have none fellow council Town staff.

Okay. All in favor, say aye. Aye. No one opposes? Okay. Those changes were noted. Moving on to good and welfare. We have anyone here for good and welfare?

Well, I think maybe we could pay the beach personnel who are there.

Do a pull-up America. We'll pull it from now. But just, I think the point being just a little bit nicer than what we normally do, just 250th anniversary. You bring up a good point.

We might be. I will be. They're doing real big things in longevity medicine. We'll spruce it up a little bit more.

What's the population? I just think we should do more.

We'll talk it over with the manager. We'll see what we can add. Thank you for your suggestion.

Moving right along. Anyone else from Good and Welfare? Thank you. Thank you. Moving right along. Mayor comments. I got a quick few. Great news. This will be the fifth time since I've been mayor that we'll be lowering the proposed millage rate. It's the first time since I believe 2016. The new millage rate we're budgeting for, we're shooting for 7.99%, which saves the residents of Golden Beach will save a total of approximately almost a million dollars, $900,000, okay? The average resident should save approximately around $2,500, and that's even before the new homestead exemption raise, which i

What's that? Is that 150, 250 already? No. No, it's not signed by the governor.

Voted on November, right. And I do not know if it's going to be implemented this year. Because we vote on November and the tax bill goes out prior to that, so I don't know how they're going to implement that. But with that said being, the Wellness Center is moving along based on the projection today. The Wellness Center should be ready to operate in December of this year, and that's what we're shooting for. That's what we're excited about. The parks are closed except for Pickleball and tennis and pickleball will be closed probably within the next week tennis. We're gonna try to prolong as long

The town grounds and the common areas have been really looking very good. Especially I see main guy working on the, I call it the buffer on the west side of Golden Beach Drive. It's never looked so good. I don't know if they're fertilizing or what, but the streets look beautiful. The hedges along the scene. We just keep cutting them down shorter and shorter. Can't we let them grow to kind of conceal? I think they just don't realize that we don't want to trim. I want to also thank Eric, Michael, and Lisette for all the help they give me for Veterans Day and Memorial Day. It's really very much a

And hats off to both Councilman Bernstein and Councilman Luskin, who took the plunge and did the jump, which is very, very impressive. I never thought you guys would do it.

Wasabi probably would be OK with that. He's a little caliente. Spicy. Sure. I want to say first thank the town and Fabian. What an amazing, amazing event. for the Golden Knights, a thrill of my lifetime. And being there with Judy after all these years, I can't believe something could bring us so much closer in just a few hours. But it was really an incredible thing. It was surprising to me to see how many people in the town were down there cheering us on, greeting us, and really marveled at the Golden Knights and their precision of how well they landed and how orchestrated was and especially c

Yeah, first of all, you know, I'm going to go back with that statement. There is no place like Golden Beach. There really isn't. And Judy Memorial Day, Ken and Judy coming down on that parachutes, the community coming together. And that's it. Golden Beach is community. You know, it's a very affluent community, but people still want people and they want to be part of a group. And when they come together in an event like that and you see everybody interacting and, you know, there may be in a squabble about something that but that was such a good feeling with everybody happening. The Golden Knigh

If we had a public, we'd never have to leave.

I know. Okay, moving right along. Town manager report.

Okay, moving right along, town attorney report. Steve, you have anything? Okay, ordinances first reading, there are none. Ordinances second reading, there are none. Quadratus resolution, there are none. Major project update, town manager.

Okay, moving right along. Consent agenda, item number O. Following two items on the consent agenda, official minutes of the May 19th, 2026 regular town council meeting. Item number two, a resolution of the town council and the mayor and the town manager to take any and all corrective measures to rectify stormwater system energizing capabilities in the town during emergency services. Those two items on the consent agenda. Excuse me, all in favor say aye. Aye. Anyone oppose? Consent agenda, two items pass. Item number P3, town resolution, resolution of town council. Accepting the general purpose

Okay. Any questions? Council? Okay. Any public comments? Closer to the public. Roll call, please. Mayor Singer. To the amended just want to make just the face sheet would needs to be crushed fine.

I'm just so used to having whatever we're proving up on I'm sorry This is the clerk's not here today. So we don't have that. This is the face sheet of this is your financial statement Okay approved

Thank you. Okay. Moving right along. Item number four, resolution of town council, adopting a proposed millage rate for the fiscal year 2026-2027.

Right. The only question, Alex, that I still have is the tax collector said 40 percent of our homes are homes.

So out of all the homes, they're telling us that only 42 percent. of our residents have homestead exemption. It's funny because since I got that number, I've asked like five different people their homestead and everyone told me yes. So maybe I'm asking the wrong people or they're not telling me the truth. What?

A lot of foreign people who can't get homestead. A lot of foreign residents. If you're a foreign resident. You can't get homestead. Can't get homestead? Okay. You cannot get homestead. And we have a lot of foreign residents.

OK, so I mean, they can't they can't vote in the election either. Right. But I don't think 60 percent of our and again, I'm not questioning. It's just it's a no, Mr. Mayor.

Right. So it's $250,000 we calculated, even if it's double that.

By the way, isn't this very objective, easy to get information? I mean, I know it's each individual house.

It should be able to say each one of them says what's homesteaded. It says homesteaded right there. It doesn't say if it's homesteaded. If you go to the Dade County...

So I'll go bring it on the website All right.

No, I I think So does anyone have any Comments on the proposed millage rate and funding strategy and funding strategy well

I do, and Alex, if you already kind of said it, then I'm sorry. No, you have very valid points. But one of the kinds of, well, I'm very excited to see this, and we've always been trying to push it down. We just have a lot of things going on, just a lot of different projects, and we haven't sat down to see what CIP projects we want to push. And I would like to just caveat this with the abilities is we're going to be meeting in the next few months to go over that Alex basically gets the new projects that we want to do and that we look at that and make sure we have enough money for those and that

We can caveat that. The problem is that your tax bill goes out.

And they're not going to be done. Even if we started, for example, take one project at a time, if we started the guardhouse after the fiscal year. Time we go and decide what we're gonna do as a council, go out to bid, proposals, whatever. You probably look into the following fiscal year. And the beach improvements, some of the improvements we could do quickly, it's not gonna cost that much money. And, you know, if you and the lighting on A1A, a lot of these projects, if you look when we started the wellness center to the time we actually had to do expenditures, it was over a year and a half la

And I don't like to think on the come, but in the next three years, the other properties that are going to come on board and the controls are going to be pretty simple.

I believe we have, Linda, correct me if I'm mistaken, 42 homes under construction? 32 homes? How many do we have under construction?

But they haven't hit our tax roll yet. No, they haven't. We're a couple years out on some of the mega-megas, you know, where they paid a million dollars just for the land. Not a million. They paid $100 million for the land.

Can I ask this then? If we have the ability over the next few months to reduce it, We have the ability to reduce it. What is the urgency to do it right now versus to wait till we have the numbers?

Hold on, hold on, hold on, hold on. Correct. Correct.

Right. Because then what happens is Dade County adds their tax. They get their tax bill and they're going, they didn't save me any money. That's why you have to do it now.

And we've gone through the budget. Alex and I have gone through the budget several times where we feel very comfortable that we can make it work.

And in our policy of keeping three million dollars, there's not a policy. It's my policy. Yes. I'm saying your policy of keeping three million dollars. Does that are you OK to move that down a little?

And I don't have the numbers in front of me, but it's if the general restricted the unrestricted was like 2.8 So right now an unrestricted general fund balance cash on hand.

Let me ask you, in the event of a hurricane,

No, but now what the government's saying is the first $300,000 of cleanup, the town is responsible.

And after that, then we don't have to. FEMA writes the checks or what? Don't we have to wait for FEMA approval?

I think the elevated, after being a resident of Coconut Grove after Andrew and seeing how long it took for streets to get cleaned up. We'll provide hurricanes. That's just one of my biggest. Mr. Mayor, Mr. Mayor, our millage rate.

But back to Councilman Bernstein's question, we do have sufficient cash. Yes. But God forbid a hurricane hits us, you know, to handle it and not affect the financial statements. Okay.

Any public comments? Okay. Roll call item number four.

Yes. Approve. Congratulations. I think it's very exciting that we're lowering the millage rate below eight bids.

Below which the millage rate has ever been.

Hats off to town manager and the finance director. Thank you very much. And I know I've been on there, but yes, you we try to get to this number. So very, very exciting.

So we were proud that we were able to stay on a combined 8.4 for all those years.

Right. And this doesn't impact our ratings at all.

Okay, item number five, a resolution of the town council amending the town's schedule of building permit fees and other fees.

I need a motion to approve. I need a second.

And thank you for all your years of service.

So when you say it'll generate enough to cover the cost, I guess we're always subject to whatever building is going on. Right now, we've been going through a building boom over the last four or five years. What happens when that slows down?

There was something I noticed I'm sorry. Just I didn't I thought be on the computer

I remember that there was like you had the ability to come forward three times. And then after that, it was charged the same fee again. Yes. The re-inspection fees. For inspection fees, I guess you had three inspections. And then on a re-inspection fee beyond that, it was the same amount. The re-inspection fee, if you did four times.

There was there was a fee that showed When you come in there that you come in there three times and on the fourth time I don't know what you're talking on the fourth time that it was gonna be the same rate I'm not sure we're not following you Alex while he's looking for that just to move the meeting along I

When we had the parameter that your fees could not be greater than what the cost of your building department was, and I hope I framed that the right way, is there a parameter now in place under the new law?

It's the same. It's the same, but what are we doing? Is there a difference now?

So just for the person who uses outside resources for their permitting and things like that on the ocean, What is our control over?

Correct me if I'm mistaken, Alex. Our building official goes and checks to make sure that they're signing off on the right?

But that's if the homeowner selects that. Ben, they're paying for that. It's not like it's free. So they're going to pay the architect or someone a few hundred thousand dollars to be, because their license is on the line if it's screwed up. So it's not like the wah-wah-wah.

So you went through this whole thing. We don't set forth on the premises. Two years later, Glenn singers invited mayors invited to a party at the house. He sees they built this whole first floor Situation ever on the plan that's zoning.

Okay Any other comments? No. Any public comments with that? Did you guys figure that out?

I defer to our building code. Okay. I just want to make sure we satisfy you. Yes.

Roll call, please. Mayor Singer. Item number five, yes.

Yes. Okay, item number six, the resolution of Town Council approving proposals for the purchase and installation of landscaping and irrigation improvements of the Civic Center site.

Yeah, just real quick. When you said that 8,000, because 8,000 has overhead and profit and things, insurance all built into that. We get an $8,000 a raw plant, or are they going to say, well, you know, it's really 6,000 because we got, you know, 10% budgeted for insurance, overhead and profit is another 10%. So, you know, 8,000 real dollars.

In terms of Alex, the town manager delivered me some of these. Am I to understand that all of these products are going to be there?

I brought this up for you to see what the tree looks like.

There are a couple of things. Just while we're here, and I'd like Council to kind of get on board or listen to this because I think Councilman Luskin and Mayor Singer was probably on when we did the first Strand project and a guy came in he had the feather in the cap.

Do you remember? Okay, so is that expensive?

He brought us in Alex Very it was beautiful plan, but he brought in very exotic items He did not know Golden Beach. And that's why I just mentioned main guy for a second. I you get used to what will live here and what won't because there's salt tolerance. Even on A1A, the firecracker things we had, a guy came in, oh, we want color, we want this, we want that. And again, I saw the plan. I'm not sure.

The only thing, I just circled a couple of items here. Because there's a couple of trees here. They sold us. They told us that the sable palm, for example, is the native Everglades tree. To me, it's kind of this tree here. We kind of all know it. They try to put it in and they say it's native, but it's kind of ugly. Just...

I hear you. I just sent you one tree that exists in Golden Beach.

And the tree I'm talking about, if you guys. It's Michael Klinger's old house on North Island. It's beautiful. There's two of them. Maybe we could buy it. Or eminent domain. I don't think they were that expensive.

Got to be 20 feet high. No, 30 feet high. What I've said often here and to Alex many times is

that when I look at the park, the idea of having these type of trees long-term. Who was that, I doubt. Over the kids park would be beautiful.

I didn't realize Kathy's completely gone.

I know that's such a great job. I know we're reluctant on the donation thing. I know it's complicated, but like. Donate a tree type?

Okay, roll call. Any other comments? Any public comments? Close to the public, close to the council. Alex, you must be extremely exhausted. Roll call, please.

With that, I'm just letting you guys know there's a 90% chance I am out of town September 1st.

Yeah, you can go. We could do it at Burning Man. That would be great. I'm not sure. I'll give money to everybody. With that, I'll make a motion to adjourn. All in favor, say aye.