P&z Board - Regular Meeting

Thank you. Thank you.

All right, ladies and gentlemen, we're gonna begin with the special presentations portion of our meeting. We have one proclamation that we wanna hand out today. For those who don't know, this month, September, is Childhood Cancer Awareness Month. And in the town of Miami Lakes, unfortunately, we have been hit with this scourge too often, right? We, as a matter of fact, have a statue honoring Jakey Duque, who passed away from from brain cancer at a very young age. And there are others in this community as well who are suffering. And in coordination with Those residents, we went ahead and prepared this proclamation, which we will get over to the appropriate organization, but this proclamation proclaims September 2026 as Childhood Cancer Awareness Month in the town of Miami Lakes. Whereas cancer is the leading cause of death by disease among U.S. children between infancy and 15 years of age, and approximately 15,000 children each year in the U.S. are diagnosed with cancer before the age of 20. Whereas childhood cancers cross all racial, ethnic, geographic, and socioeconomic backgrounds. And each year, tens of thousands of children face the battle of cancer with incredible bravery and inspiring hope. Whereas while progress against some childhood cancers has been made, Cure rates for many forms of childhood cancer remain less than 50%, with the incidence of childhood cancers increasing at a more rapid rate than any other age group. Whereas we acknowledge that these burdens are shared by countless dedicated healthcare professionals, organizations, charities, and parent advocacy groups, which support patients and families by offering advice, encouragement, hope, and financial assistance and working tirelessly to lift the spirits of children suffering from cancer. And whereas Miami Lakes recognizes the devastating impact that this disease has on members of our own community and the importance of increased research on childhood cancer, Now, therefore, I, Joshua Diegans, by virtue of the authority vested in me as the mayor of the town of Miami Lakes, and on behalf of the town council and 33,000 Miami Lakers, do hereby proclaim September 2026 as Childhood Cancer Awareness Month. This goes out to all the survivors and all those who are still dealing with childhood cancer. With that, where is JV? JV, was there a representative that was gonna be here to pick up the proclamation or we're gonna get it to them? All right, so we'll get it to them. Thank you very much for listening to us. We're gonna begin at 6.30 sharp and we, oh, okay, but actually, sorry. We will begin at 6.30 as soon as we, wrap up here with this photo.

Good evening. The time is 6.30 PM.

I'm calling this regular council meeting of the town council to order. Madam Clerk, please call the roll.

Yes, good evening. Council Member Fernandez. Present. Council Member Cuadra Garcia is absent. Council Member Garcia.

Present.

Council Member Herzberg. Present. Council Member Sanchez. Present. Vice Mayor Morera. Present. Mayor Diegues.

Here.

Mayor, you have quorum.

Excellent, everyone please rise for the invocation which I will give to Councilman Fernandez today.

Thank you, Lord, for all that you give to us, Lord. We ask that you bless this meeting, that you give us wisdom, that we always do what's best for the community and we remove ourselves from any ulterior motives. We ask that you hold Rose and Al Hammer in your presence, Lord. She is somebody who's been a resident for a very long time. She impacted a lot of us, a lot of her colleagues that worked with her, and many others in the community. And we ask all these things in your name. Amen.

Thank you. Please keep your heads down for an extended moment of silence, though, in memory of Rosanelle Hammer, who passed away yesterday at the age of 16. Thank you. With that, we are now going to conduct a Pledge of Allegiance. Please, hands over your heart. I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the Republic for which it stands, one nation under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all. Thank you. You may be seated. Council, we are now in the order of business. Are there any additions, deferrals, or deletions? Councilman Garcia.

I'd like to move 11 A, B, and C till after public comments.

11 A, B, and C till after public comments. Any other changes being proposed?

Yes, Mayor.

Councilman Herzberg.

16 E right after police report, but the major just come up once. 16 B after police report.

E. E. Oh, E. Okay, got it. After, okay, so that'll be taking them back to 8 A. Any other changes?

Yes. On behalf of Council Member Cuadra Garcia, he is withdrawing his new business item 16 be okay until further notice and he also asked me to see if it could be moved his um the resolution and i'm going to tell you the number 15 b to be discussed right after public comments

Is there, yeah, 16, or 15B, no, 16, sorry, 16B.

Yes, 16, I'll repeat it, 16B to be withdrawn. That's the new business item. But he also requested 15B.

Is there anyone that is sponsoring that change? All right. I'll move it. Well, no, no, not moving it, but just are you incorporating that change? Yeah, I'll sponsor it. Okay, so 15B after 11A, B, and C, which will be after public comments, okay?

Also, I'd like to remove 12B from the consent calendar, please.

12B from consent?

Mm-hm.

anything else actually yes okay councilman hersberg sorry there is one thing we removed from consent i had a discussion with the town manager here uh this is fleet replacement so that is give me a second 12 yeah 12e from consent as well okay any other changes

Yes, Mr. Mayor, thank you, and sorry that I'm running late. Mr. Mayor, if you could please have my item be moved to be the first item heard on the consensus item.

Well, we're hearing it after 11 A, B, and C after public comments. Thank you, sir. Yeah. So, anything else? All right, I'm going to go over the changes one more time. The proposed changes are 11 A, B, and C after public comments. After that, 15 B. Followed by moving up 16E to after 8A and then withdrawing from consent 12B and 12E. Anything else? Now we'll entertain a motion. So moved. I'll move. Second. It's been moved by the Vice Mayor, seconded by Councilman Sanchez. All those in favor of the amended agenda say aye. Aye. All opposed no. The ayes have it and we are back. on the order of business and moving on to public comments. Madam Clerk?

Yes, good evening. Welcome to the regular council meeting. If you're here for public comments, I will ask you to please just approach the podium, state your name and address for the record, and we will give you three minutes. And as I always mention, all comments or questions from this public and also from the public online shall be directed to the mayor in a courteous tone. Three minutes will be given to each individual, and please, no clapping, no applauding, heckling or verbal outburst in support of or in opposition to a speaker. Should a member of the attending audience become unruly or behave in any manner that disrupts the orderly and efficient conduct of the meeting, such person will be asked to leave the meeting. Then I also want to welcome the public attending online. I can see some participants welcome. Again, IT will allow you to speak. The only thing you need to do is click on the reactions icon and select raise hand and IT will allow you to speak. Just give us a little bit of time and patience. If you're calling in to listen to the meeting or as well to participate in public comments via phone, the only thing you need to do is please raise your hand by pressing hashtag number nine. And again, welcome to the meeting.

And again, given the amount of people here tonight, we will be holding strictly to the three-minute timeframe for public comments. With that, the floor is open now. Colonel, welcome.

Good evening, Mayor, City Council, Town Council. William Perez, 7280 Miami Lakeway South. I want to go over some findings of facts. Last time I gave you a closing argument. This time I'm giving you findings of facts about GMX. Finding of fact number one, we know their intent. We know their mens rea. I have to just do the lawyer talk. Their intent is to make toll revenues. If your intent is to make toll revenues, you do not want to alleviate traffic. You want to increase traffic, period. Fact number two, there are 67 different areas where noise will meet or exceed the noise threshold. And they admit in the report that their mitigation plan is suboptimal. It won't be able to address all that. fact number three they have and they offer no funding for any way to implement traffic mitigation for the surrounding area they won't be able to pay for a traffic light for crooked palm those folks are going to be trapped they won't be able to pay for any speed humps or speed mitigation on miami lakeway south those folks will be trapped and by the way i just found out from reading the report that miami lakeway south is considered a major urban corridor I did not know that my small town street they consider a major urban corridor. Look it up. It's there in black and white. It's supposed to feed the ramps. That's what it says. A feeder system to go onto the ramps. Fact number four, property values will be depressed in that area compared to the rest of the Miami Lakes. Those property values will not rise and may go down as opposed to the rest of Miami Lakes. Fact number five, 67th Avenue around the school will become a traffic nightmare during the school period before and at the end of school. because even on the on-ramps, if you take off the off-ramps, you're still gonna have a traffic nightmare. And then fact number six, we know that GMX does not validate their data. It's all computer models as to noise. It's all computer models as to traffic. We know that. I heard that when I was sitting there with Councilman Sanchez. And what does that tell you when some organization doesn't want to validate their data? They want to hide something. They want to hide the truth. Let's not be their guinea pig and be shown once again that we have been fooled again. This will not do the intended purpose that they hope. Their hope is to make money. Our hope is to make this place a great town. And by the way, I oppose my street being called a major urban corridor, for the record. Thank you.

Thank you. Next speaker.

Mr. Mayor, Council, my name is Sean Schwenghammer. I live at 14501 Dade Pine Avenue. I'm speaking on two issues today. First is Councilman Garcia. I know him, I respect him, I visited the funeral home with him because I have many relatives who are buried there, unfortunately. And I've been more than disappointed with the way it is kept in comparison to most other cemeteries in South Florida. And he showed me issues that as a town, our code enforcement would not allow anywhere else. He may not have addressed these issues artfully, but he has at least been trying to address that when a business And that means any business. When a business doesn't meet basic standards in our town, they should be held to consequences. So I ask you to please not censure him for bringing proper attention to an issue of concern. It's not just to him, it's to me. It's a concern to many people, and the cemetery should be held to the same standards as any other public place in our town. Regarding GMX, I'm back here again. Thank you for allowing me to speak for less than two minutes. Nobody wants this, but we're still proceeding, still negotiating about it, and that's a little odd to me. To me, this is akin, say, for the betterment of Dade County, somebody wants to put a 600-bed prison in the middle of town. And we come out, we say, we don't want a 600-bed prison. You guys, don't worry, don't worry. We're gonna make it a 300-bed prison. That doesn't really satisfy us. It's a negotiation against ourselves for something we don't even need. More accurate to my thought on this is our county needs another incinerator. Let's say somebody wants, The town council says, someone on the council or one of our administrators says, we wanna put the incinerator on the old par three golf course. We would come out, we would be outraged, and he'd say, don't worry, we're not gonna do it, that would be horrible, we're just gonna leave a landfill there, don't worry about it. It's the same thing. You see, you're negotiating against ourselves, our own best interest here, and that's what always happens. You don't compromise with something, you can't compromise with something you really don't want. There is no compromising on this one issue. There are many other ways we can mitigate it. Someone's gonna talk about AI, which I think is very possible. There's consideration for the 87th Avenue on and off ramp. And there are issues for missing turn lanes and other things that we can do. Like I said, nobody wants this. So to compromise and ask the community to accept a compromise, that's why we're so upset, at least myself. I can't speak for everyone, but I know. I've been talking, I spoke to 76 people over the past week. I've written it all down, and everyone has the same thought. There's no reason for this. We don't want it, and no compromise is going to satisfy us. So that's my opinion. I appreciate you listening to everybody else, and you guys have a great evening. Thank you.

Good evening, Mr. Mayor, council members, and staff. My name is Jose Soberon. I live at 6870 Bamboo Street.

They're asking for you to bring the mic a little closer. There we go, thank you.

Better now? Great, sorry, I apologize. Must start over. Good evening, Mr. Mayor, council members, and staff. My name is Jose Soberon. I live at 6870 Bamboo Street, and that's on Lake Hilda. I come to request that you vote no on the expansion of the granny parkway. The pile driving alone will produce shock waves that will cause the sand that makes up the subsoil of our land to undergo a sifting effect. And that will cause it to settle. Once it settles, it settles under the foundations and it will crack the foundation, therefore crack the walls and it'll damage our homes. Additionally, there's an extremely limited physical space. in the area in the proposed westbound on-ramp at 67th Avenue. The ramps end up less than 50 feet away from the homes at Bamboo Street, one of those homes. The limited physical space is supposed to accommodate the Gratney Overpass wall that supports it, the Graham Dairy Canal, the westbound on ramps, a wooded buffer zone, bird and wildlife habitat, and Lake Hilda. This is not a small ramp. It contains two lanes, two road shoulders, one on either side of those lanes, two new retaining walls for that ramp, and they take up a lot of physical space. One lane is for the traffic coming north from Hialeah, and turning left towards the on-ramp going westbound. The second lane is for traffic going south towards Hialeah along Northwest 67th Avenue, turning right onto the westbound proposed ramp. The new right turning slash storage lane, because it has to accumulate some traffic, requires land taking from Memento Lane or otherwise. from the owner of the townhouse located at 6700 Crooked Palm Terrace. Sitting tall on an elevated access ramp is a tall collection gantry that has to provide a minimum 14 foot clearance for semi-tractors and trailers. That's already on the ramp and then 16 foot clearance is a humongous behemoth those physical space limitations require detailed engineering drawings a precise customized design that addresses those space restrictions pretty much like the town miami lakes required details when you submit for a building permit addition to your house you can't just tell them i'll take care of that when it comes up gmx plans to use the design build method for which You do some of the engineering in the beginning and tackle engineering design problems as they appear as you work the project. This method falls short in anticipating and designing against intrinsic engineering and space limitations, as is the case here. This is not adequate for an urban area with such great physical space limitations. Doing the engineering as you go along is a recipe for trouble.

Thank you, Mr. Soberon, but we do need to move on. Thank you. Thank you very much.

Good evening. My name is Ileana Colombo. I'm a resident of Miami Lakes at 14031 Lake Candlewood Court for over 40 years. I'm a retired pharmacist. I'm really astonished that you want more information from GMX, from a computer analysis that they have made of noise and traffic without you council members and mayor asking for an independent study of noise and traffic this noise that they have recorded in their pd e is inaccurate and by their own inaccuracy they're claiming 67 houses or points, sensitive points, that would have deadly noise forever and ever and ever. I suspect the level is higher. One hour of that piling noise, one hour, will leave you deaf because it's over 100 decibels. It's irresponsible for you gentlemen to ask GMX for other numbers from a computer analysis, what you need to do is take away that little deferral, rescind the deferral motion, and put in a motion to X out GMX. This project will not reduce traffic because GMX makes money from traffic. More traffic, more tolls. That's how they make their money. Granted, they're investing all the money. You could say politically, oh, I have fixed traffic and not putting in any money, wrong, because it's costing us. It's costing us our health. It's costing us our financial ruin. It's costing us our safety. And it's gonna hit all of you, You might not think you're getting noise now, Mr. Moretta. I thought the same thing when they put that gratinee there. I was busy working my little tail off as a pharmacist that had just graduated, and I didn't hear it. Over the years, with more traffic, more noise, I lived 600 feet from that thing. Monstrosity? I cannot enjoy my backyard. And that soon will be coming, unfortunately, if you approve this to Lake Hilda in a worse way. All of you will feel it. Nobody wants to live in a town where there's expressways going through it. You know anybody wants that? Because you get more crime, air pollution, noise pollution, and your property values go down.

Thank you very much.

Bonnie Cintron, 14770 Lewis Road. Good evening, Mayor Diegas, council members, Mr. Peterman, and staff. I hardly know how to begin or what to say to spur your thoughts so that you would understand how big a deal this GMX decision is for our town. You may have been led to believe that a compromise just to allow on-ramps would alleviate traffic in other areas of our town, but maybe some experts who conduct traffic studies may have said that, but you have to ask yourself, who are the real experts in this issue? We residents who have to face the traffic every single day, we're the ones who know what the true story is. We experience firsthand what goes on on our streets, so we know best. It is just simple common sense that GMX and the developers support this project because they know it will make more money for them in the future. Otherwise, it wouldn't even be considered. The project opens the door to possible future growth in this town, and we all know that future growth, more population means more cars and more congestion, period. That's just simple common sense. you would be voting to sacrifice the well-being of residents in one area supposedly for the benefit of the rest of the town. But that's a very bad idea because it's based on a false premise. Those of us who live here, especially seasoned residents such as myself who have lived here for 52 years, We know what the detrimental effects are from overdevelopment, and I'm not foolish. I do know that change is inevitable, but there always has to be a stopping point, and a balance has to be maintained, a reasonable balance. I've always been a patriot and I've always been idealistic and optimistic, believing in our Constitution that we were protected for our rights to life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness. But lately it has been feeling as though our local and state governments have stipulated policies which are damaging our quality of life. It is demoralizing and I cannot tell you in words strong enough to convey our disillusionment and stress because it feels as though our elected officials are not listening to us and they're not really looking out for our best interests. In closing, I'll make a quick analogy to illustrate my point. Let's say a woman works hard for years, saves her money so that she can finally go to a world-class designer like Versace or Dior to get a one-of-a-kind outfit. And it's very elegant, classic, and she's well-pleased. But along comes a lesser designer, and he says, wait, we need to put some decorative buttons here. And she says, I don't want the buttons, but they get put on. Then he says, we have to put some shoulder pads in there. And she says, I don't want that, but they get added. Then he puts a bow in the back over her protest and the final blow comes when he puts ruffles all around the bottom. So the original outfit is ruined because no one listened to that woman who knew that all growth is not good. Just think cancer cells for another example. I'm saying you must say no to this GMX project because it's just the beginning of future plans for more growth in this town. And growth is not what we need and it's not what we want. So thank you.

Good evening, mayor and council members. My name is Gisela Soberon, and my address is 6870 Bamboo Street by Lake Hilda. I respectfully ask that you say no to the grating additions to the ramps. My family and I have lived at this address for 37 years. If this project is approved and built, its distance to our home would be less than 100 feet. The effects of this project will be devastating on our family and the families of many other residents living in close proximity, some under 50 feet distance. The extremely close proximity to residents homes must not be ignored. The close proximity is a fact. facts do not change here are some key facts there's very limited physical space available for the construction of the westbound on ramp and turning lanes this is a fact i would like to bring to the attention of the mayor and council members a letter that my next door neighbor deborah rodriguez at 6880 bamboo street received last month The letter comes from a law firm that specializes in eminent domain. It indicates that GMX has identified her property as requiring a taking for the project. My neighbor Deborah has not been notified by GMX and this is very concerning since the start date for the project has been already announced. The project also calls for a turning right storage lane at 67th Avenue, which will add additional blockage to the only entrance and exit for the townhomes on Crooked Pond. Additional taking of land from the townhouse at C6700 Crooked Pond Terrace is required and documented. Because of the very limited space, there's no buffer zone that will provide protection between the proposed ramps, the homes, and other facilities. We, the residents of Miami Lakes, urge you to place a heavy weight on the facts and less weight on future projections. Facts do not change. Projections do. I urge you to consider also the pain and suffering that will be inflicted on your fellow residents. Many of you, I know, are faithful people. Love does no evil to the neighbor. Hence, love is the fulfillment of the law. Letter to the Romans, 1310. Sometimes a way seems right, but the end of it leads to death. From the Book of Proverbs 14, 12. We urge you, mayor and council members, vote on a resolution to end this project now.

Thank you, Mrs. Sobran.

Good evening, my name is Maximo Alvarez, and I live on Lake Candlewood Court, and I want to thank you for your time today for hearing us out. As I mentioned during the last meeting, I stand before you as a Miami Lakes resident and a Miami Lakes business owner, both of which are against State Road 924, the Grattan Gate Parkway partial interchange as proposed by MDX. In their proposal, GMX stated that they would have minimal impact to the businesses, minimal impact. I would like the representative from GMX to say that to my face because nobody ever came to us and consulted us about the impact to our business. This project would gravely affect us. If they did, I would let them know just how much that their proposed modification would hurt our family business. Gentlemen, if there were gonna be minimal impact to my business, I wouldn't be here today. I'd much rather be doing something else. THAT SAID, I RECOGNIZE DURING THE LAST PUBLIC MEETING, THE BOARD OPTED FOR MORE INFORMATION AS IT PERTAINS TO THE EXCLUSION OF RAMP B, AND WHILE THIS IS A SMALL STEP IN THE RIGHT DIRECTION, PLEASE NOTE THAT MY CONCERNS ARE NOT JUST WITH RAMP B, BUT ALSO WITH THE MODIFICATION THAT GMX IS PROPOSING TO ALTER NORTHWEST 67th AVENUE, WHICH INCLUDES THE RESTRICTIVE MEDIAN AND THE REMOVAL OF THE EXISTING CURB CUTS. In addition, who at GMX can guarantee that there will not be any damage to my underground storage tanks during the construction of this interchange? Because if there is, there will be a significant groundwater contamination that I will be responsible for remediating. I would like to go on record that I stood here today before you to warn of such disaster happening should GMX be negligent in their due diligence or construction practices. All of this fact finding and data gathering will not mean much if there are those on the town council that continue to push for this project. I understand that some of you feel that this is the right thing to do for all of the Miami Lake citizens and that any level of traffic alleviation, no matter how small, will be a net positive for the town. You clearly stated your position at the end of the last meeting. I know a lot of you campaigned on alleviating traffic, so I can at least understand that.

But this is not the way to do it. Please silence all phones. Thank you. I'm sorry, go ahead, Mr. Alvarez.

So, I know you're just following through with your campaign promises to help alleviate traffic, but this is not the way. I implore you to consider the cost, and I'm not just talking about money. There is an entire room full of residents here that oppose the project, and to go against their voices will definitely have a cost. For me, the project will cost me a significant amount of business if it proceeds as is. So I will continue fighting for my family's sake. Thank you for your time. Thank you, next speaker.

Mr. Mayor, town manager, the council, and Madam Clerk. My name is Jim Hamilton. I live at 8528 Glencairn Lane in Miami Lakes. I also own a townhome in Lake Hilda that I rent out to a family member. I have owned my townhouse for 53 years, and that is why I have joined my neighbors in opposing the GMX expansion at 67th Avenue. I firmly believe that the Lake Hilda townhouse will suffer from structural damage due to the concussions caused by the power driving into our foundations. These are needed to build the ramps, but at a cost. This is similar to rock mining blasting that we are all opposed to. Also the significant increase in traffic noise due to the proximity of the ramps to our homes and the clear reduction in our property values from our backyards becoming a highway instead of the peaceful lake it has been for the past 60 years. Our backyards will be less than 100 feet from the ramps, so growing beautifully will not be what we see, and our quality of life will diminish. Nothing has been shown or apparently considered to allow the Lake Hilda townhouse residents to exit their community, and with an increase in traffic on 67th Avenue, only a traffic light would solve this problem. but who will pay for it, the town, the county? I doubt if it will be GMX. These are my real concerns because neither the town nor GMX has disproven them. GMX is the real problem because they do not provide proven answers to the many questions and concerns of the Miami Lakes residents. When GMX does respond, it is with inaccurate or incomplete information so that an intelligent decision cannot be reached. When you deal or negotiate with a government agency that does not provide factual proven information but either hides it or delays it, this should end the discussion. I have seen cost estimates on this project for over $70 million, which should mean that every detail is already calculated, but they still delay the answers. So the real question is, has GMX demonstrated with reliable evidence that this project will actually improve traffic enough to justify its impact on the Lake Hilda residents less than 100 feet from their backyards? i say no because gmx has not proven that lake hilda residents will not be adversely affected by safety concerns increased noise levels the environment nearby school impacts and property values thank you mr hamilton thank you very much

Esperanza Reynolds, 8465 Mendiez Terrace. These are the pet peeves of hope. A councilman and a state rep suggested to the Know on GMX group to ask for my support in their efforts, and we have worked very hard to encourage participation from this group. But on August 18th, we were told that if the group interrupted proceedings, we would be removed from the chambers by the Sergeant of Arms. While you have every right to do that, you waive sections of the Special Rules of Order, in particular Section 7.2, so why not also waive to allow free expression just like they do in the British Parliament? The Sheriff's Office does a superb job to build relationships with residents of Miami-Dade County. As a constitutional office, their priority is to defend and protect constitutional rights. So on the 250th anniversary of the United States, let me remind you that we are United States citizens. very involved, educated, and active. We are the purpose of the government, its employer, your constituents, the reasons why you are public servants. We are the voters you seek come election time. Stop the evolution into hyper-effective meetings. If by midnight you are unable to deal with agenda items, defer them to the next month. Better yet, Consider limiting the agenda items. Gratigny Parkway was built in the 1980s, officially dedicated on January 6, 1992. Miami Lake successfully fought and blocked construction of ramps at Northwest 67th Avenue in Gratigny back then, when the original plan was designed by the Florida Department of Transportation. with full intersection access points. The concerns then were heavy traffic, noise, tolls, and disruption of residential neighborhoods. FDOT completely deleted the Northwest 67th Avenue interchange from the blueprints before construction began in 1987. Therefore, my final point, and most important argument, since when are you, our council, our representatives, supposed to vote for further analysis of a project? We have resoundingly. unequivocally and clearly said not to proceeding with plans. What part of no don't you understand? Please motion to rescind your previous vote to request additional information from GMX, second and vote that motion to notify GMX that the council and the residents say no on the entire project. Make sure to second and unanimously pass it through, thank you.

I'm going to take a moment of personal privilege just to point out that we are obviously allowing clapping, even though it goes against our rules. But to clarify the statement that Ms. Reynolds was making, I just want to make it clear that it was in response to a gentleman who was having an outburst in the middle of the council deliberation. So it wasn't during this portion of the meeting. I just wanted to clarify that.

Mr. Arellano, go ahead. Alex Arellano, Lakeland Ellen. We researched the arguments used by other communities that oppose GMX's continued expansion projects. GMX is, after toll dollars, a tax imposed on drivers. GMX is fully funded, they said, and require no taxpayer dollars. Every dollar they make is derived by vehicular taxation. We have mobilized against ramps on or off at 67th Avenue and Gratney. We object to infrastructure that encroaches on established neighborhoods, ramps less than 50 feet away from local home backyards. You tried to shut down comments about noise as a superfluous argument. but severe noise pollution and structural vibrations next to a bedroom community is prohibited under Chapter 16 of the Municipal Code of Ordinances of the Town of Miami Lakes. It would be unreasonably loud, excessive, and unnecessary. You tried to shut down the argument that property values would plummet because the studies were done in different places, not South Florida. We will vote yes on Amendment 3 in November. We need relief from the negative impact of taxation. You must agree that at some point we should be allowed to own our own homes. Please resend your previous vote to request additional information from GMX, motion to notify GMX that the council and the residents say no on the entire project, and make sure to second and unanimously pass it tonight. On another note, I learned a new phrase during the last meeting you had, strike all amendment. Was this thrown in to confuse the elderly? The whole debate over time limit for response was ridiculous. May this come back to you when you are our age. Thank you.

Good evening, mayor and council members. My name is Joanne Ewer and I live at 14021 Lake Candlewood Court. I am here tonight to express my opposition to the proposed GMX Gratney 67th Avenue interchange project. As a public school educator for more than 26 years and as a parent, whose children attended Miami Lakes K-8 and Hialeah Miami Lakes Senior, I have a unique perspective on this issue. My son often walked home from school along the very corridor where this interchange is proposed. Because of that experience, I understand firsthand the importance of safe routes for students, families, pedestrians, and bicyclists. The project's own community impact assessment acknowledges that traffic on Northwest 67th Avenue is expected to increase following construction. More traffic near neighborhoods, schools, parks, and recreational areas means more potential conflicts between vehicles and the people who use these spaces every day. Recent Miami-Dade pedestrian crash data shows pedestrian crashes increased from 1,796 in 2022 to 1,876 in 2024. Preliminary 2025 data reported 898 pedestrian crashes and 25 pedestrian fatalities. These numbers remind us that pedestrian safety remains a serious challenge throughout our region. The Federal Highway Administration has long recognized that higher speed, higher volume roadways can create barriers within communities. discourage walking and biking, and increase safety concerns for nearby residents. These are exactly the concerns many Miami Lakers have expressed to this project. We already have access to State Road 924 through the existing Northwest 57th Avenue interchange. Before building another interchange in the heart of our community, residents deserve a clear explanation of why existing access cannot be improved first. The repeated claim that this project will improve emergency response times is not backed by measurable data and GMX's community impact assessment. There is no evidence showing how much these response times would actually improve. While GMX may build the interchange, increased traffic often requires additional pedestrian protections, traffic controls, crosswalk enhancements, and neighborhood safety improvements. Therefore, this project creates obligations that extend far beyond the ramps themselves. If the county cannot or will not shoulder the burden of these costs, it will be up to the town to do so. Residents deserve to know who will pay for these and when they will occur. As an educator, a parent, and a resident, I believe our community deserves more than assumptions, and if evidence cannot be clearly demonstrated, I respectfully ask for you to rescind the motion to defer and put a motion to stop the GMX 67 Gratney Avenue project and choose community safety, neighborhoods, and future generations of Miami Lakers. Thank you.

Good evening, Mayor and council members. My name is Mary Lorenzo. I am a Florida, oh, 14365 Lake Candlewood Court. I'm a real estate broker and a mortgage broker, and I hold a master's degree in international real estate from FIU. At the last meeting, I raised concerns about what these ramps will do to property values. The mayor made a fair point. He said we should not be looking at studies from Ohio when we're talking about Miami Lakes. So I went looking for Florida evidence. In 2015, researchers published a peer-reviewed study titled, Measuring Highway Impacts on House Prices Using Spatial Regression. It is more sophisticated than simply comparing the average sales prices of homes near a highway with homes farther away. The study analyzed actual residential sales in Orlando. The researchers found significant price discounts for homes adjacent to highways and homes near high-traffic highways. There is also much more recent research. A 2025 study titled The Welfare Effects of Transportation Infrastructure Improvements analyzed about 600,000 Florida homes and examined the effect of reducing highway noise. When highway sound barriers reduced traffic noise, property values increased. For the homes closest to the barriers, the increase was about 6.8%. The effect continued for properties farther away. Think about what that tells us. When you reduce highway noise, Florida buyers are willing to pay more for homes. So highway noise has a measurable economic cost, and the sound mitigation proposed by GMX does not properly address the excess noise. fdot itself recognizes residents as noise sensitive land issues uses when evaluating highway projects i want to make something very clear i'm not arguing that access to an expressway is bad as a real estate broker i know that convenient access to highways can be an amenity but there is a major difference between being conveniently located near an expressway and having an on or off ramp introduced immediately next to an established residential neighborhood We're talking about additional traffic, acceleration and braking, pedestrian safety concerns, highway noise, headlights, permanent changes to the residential environment. We purchase our homes based on the neighborhood that exists today, and property values are not theoretical to us. Our homes may be our largest investments and our greatest source of generational wealth. The residents of Miami Lakes ask that a council member make a motion to reconsider the previous vote to request additional info and instead vote no on the entire project. Thank you.

Good evening. My name is Kevin Bryan, 14001 McKinwood Court. You've heard everything, you've heard all the people say that they're opposed. No one's walked up to say that they agree with it. That should speak volumes, especially with average town hall meetings, you get four people in here. Now with this, it's completely filled up. Well, two months ago, it was flowing outside. So basically, the way I look at it is you guys were losing faith in our elected officials. We have a voice, we're telling you in numbers, and you guys are going against it. I haven't really seen where you guys have been able to show, hey, this is a good thing, except, oh, it's gonna reduce traffic by whatever. It's such a small number and the Size of the project and what it's going to do doesn't add up. You gotta look at the pros and the cons. With all the driving of the pilings, you're gonna disrupt all the habitat that's in that canal and Lake Hilda. So all the fish that have the beds there They're not going to be able to have next generation of fish. So you're actually going to destroy the lake just by the vibrations alone. And it's not going to reduce any of the traffic over on 87th Avenue, the Palmetto and 154th. So it's one of those, you don't have the benefit to outweigh all the negative to it. like you know today I see you everybody's paying attention to us talking the last couple meetings what I've observed is going to grab coffee talking amongst yourselves being on your cell phones being on your computer doing everything but looking like you're listening to what we're saying so today is actually nice that I'm looking and I'm seeing everybody engaged so that's a shock And as far as the noise, with the study, they're dealing with the cars that are just driving at 60 miles an hour, whatever the speed limit is, running at 2000 RPM. You gotta speed up to get onto the on-ramp. So therefore, their studies with GMX, I don't believe GMX has come in in good faith and actually given you guys the information that is needed. It's more like, here, we're doing the project and we're worried about details afterwards. How can you vote on something when you don't know the facts? That's the other thing. Oh, it's gonna be a site build. Well, then you're voting on something that you don't know. what it's gonna turn out to be. And then what you turn around and go, well, we tried. Well, no, get the facts. If they're not willing to give you the facts, then you look elsewhere. Talk to the state, get a grant. I know it's expensive, but get the help from the state to go ahead and get projects that's actually going to benefit instead of disrupt everything.

Next speaker, next speaker.

Good evening, my name is Clementine Adams Botlon, and I want to yield my three minutes to Samuel Botlon.

Okay, Sam, come on up. madam clerk uh being that she did come up to the podium and state that she was yielding her time we'll uh we'll go ahead and give that to mr budlong so no more than six minutes though thank you my name is sam budlong i reside at one four four one one lake child's court uh the majority of you may feel somewhat under siege after all

When have you seen this room so crowded with so many people having views opposed to yours? I don't envy you. I am here to lecture, to guide, and to advise you on a path where your campaign promises to improve traffic can be achieved, and you can do so while appeasing the concerns you see in this room. It's called a win-win option. Nowhere do the discussions, disclosures, assumptions, formulations we have heretofore heard from you or GMX address with any significant detail the most consequential option you may have ever faced. Before I say what it is, allow me to be critically analytical of the opinion offered thus far. When GMX has presented what they have presented is a 20th century option to traffic congestion. Phrased in three words, build more roads. But allow me to point out the obvious. We are more than a quarter of the way through the 21st century, and mankind has evolved now to be able to offer what history is likely to record as our greatest leap forward in productivity ever, alternatives to build more roads by using artificial intelligence systems of traffic control that have proven factual applications and results around the world are present everywhere. Hangzhou and Shanghai, China, Sao Paulo, Brazil, Bogota, Colombia, Wolfsburg, Germany, Barcelona, Spain, Coventry, the United Kingdom, Pittsburgh, Los Angeles, Boston, Detroit, Maricopa County, Arizona. The systems are being deployed as we speak here in Miami, where I spoke yesterday to Miami-Dade County's chief traffic signals and signs, Mark Place. In fact, after demonstrated measurable reductions in traffic times and congestion on Northwest 36th Street, the county received a National Association of Counties Award related to adaptive signal control deployment using AI technology. These successes are not assumptions. And the tangible realized relief provided to traffic congestion is far greater by miles versus what the GMX assumptions have told us on 67th Avenue. And these systems are adaptable, not just today, but into the future without having us stuck in the 20th century and using the outdated and inappropriate build more roads solution. The key argument is the growth is occurring throughout Miami Lakes, not exclusively at Northwest 67th Avenue. Congestion already exists at multiple locations, Northwest 154th Street, Miami Lakes Drive, State Road 826 intersections, commercial districts. AI traffic management addresses all of them. AI improves existing capacity before new capacity is built. The real issue is not to build more roads but to find but to first improve management of roads already in service through centralized intelligent traffic control that has often brought international improvements amounting to 15 to 25% and sometimes much more without adding a single new interchange. AI allows us to optimize what already exists before spending large sums building new and possibly unnecessary infrastructure. And AI scales with growth. The system becomes smarter as traffic volumes increase. A fixed interchange cannot do that. Lastly, allow me to accentuate a point of critical concern to the citizens who object to the GMX proposal. Whether it is legal or not, the ethically unsupportable conflict of interest in having the town manager serving also on a GMX board, an entity who stated mission is in part to create more revenue through tolls without being recused and who has failed to provide a full evaluation of the AI option. And I can't counter strongly enough here that the argument that the county controls the lights, therefore the council can't counter something beyond the control is utter and incomplete hogwash. when I myself have garnered support from Miami-Dade County Mayor Cava and her transportation leaders, inclusive of project implementation, details, timelines and benefits. This omission, this failure to delve deeply into an option that all those behind me would readily applaud is of such severity as to constitute a dereliction of duty that were you to attempt this as an attorney on your legal practices, you'd get fired. And the same goes for working in a corporate environment. You'd get fired for such an omission. In the citizen's mind, and I dare say that when I speak it, in the minds of my fellow citizens, you have been led down a primrose path and it's filled with thorns. You need to wake up and smell the roses. Lastly, how about a citizen's committee to help you? This project has lacked adequate representation and input from citizens from the get-go. I will be the first one to volunteer. Anybody else care to join me?

And my last comments.

I think I have a few seconds left. My last comments are on positivity. I'd like to think that I stress positivity in my life, and I believe you guys do also. We're being suppressed here as an audience, and I think that you guys, in turn, should be the ones to give an applaud to what you've seen tonight and for the last two months. You should give us a round of applause, maybe a standing O, to acknowledge that democracy has been working here.

Thank you, Sam. Okay, thank you.

Thank you, thank you. Next speaker. No, go ahead, Bob.

Order, order. Thank you, Bob. Good evening, my name's John Haskins. I live at 6708 Crooked Palm Terrace for the last 50 years with my wife and my daughter. I would like to invite all of you to coffee with the residents at the corner of Crooked Palm Terrace and Ludlam from 7 a.m. till 9 a.m., any day you choose. And maybe we could even walk some of the kids in the neighborhood to school. And you can see where you have sidewalks where the trees are growing in the sidewalks, and you have approximately 22 inches between the speeding cars going down 12th Avenue, and the kids that are walking down the sidewalk. So I invite you to coffee with the residents. Thank you.

Thank you, John. Now, former Mayor Pizzi, before you begin, I've been told that you are- I'm going to speak as a resident. Okay, and not as a legal representative. I'm going to speak as a resident, yes.

Okay, understood. Go ahead, Mr. Pizzi. I'm confident on both counts, but for these three minutes, I will speak as a resident. My name is Michael Pizzi. I live at 8501 Northwest 138th Street in Miami Lakes. I've been here for over 30 years. I'm also a business owner. John Adams once said, who we are is who we were. Miami Lakes became a city so we could go to our local council, the mayoral council, to fight for us and not fight for outside special interests. And Miami Lakes has a lengthy history of leaders, Mary Collins, Roberto Alonso, Peter Thompson, who over the decades went to Tallahassee, went to the county, and went to Washington, took buses all the way to Washington to take residents, and they sat in the county commission chamber. They went to the FAA and sat there for three days to fight, to fight to kill commercial aviation at Opelika Airport, to fight to reduce the intensity of the rock mining, to fight to not have a landfill in the middle of Miami Lakes. You're there to fight for the people. We once had a council meeting, and on that council meeting we had fighting rock mining, fighting the Peel's landfill, fighting commercial aviation at Opa-Locka Airport, and fighting increased user fees from Tallahassee, and fighting the mitigation fee. And Mary Collins, Mary Collins, rest in peace, said the following. She said across the dais to myself, Roberto Alonso, she said, Michael, I really wish that as a mayor and council we could wave a magic wand and lower the intensity of the rock mining and threats of commercial aviation and increased utility season Tallahatchie, but it's out of our hands. But we still fought and we fought hard. Tonight's a layup. You're one of the first town councils in history. You don't have to go to Washington. You don't have to drive down to the county. You don't have to go to Tallahassee. Today's a layup. You have the ability as a mayor and a council to fight for the residents of Miami Lakes and in five minutes end the residents' misery and solve this problem by telling GMX to kill this project tonight. It's that easy. Let me say this. You know who loves this project? Somebody living in a multi-billionaire or millionaire in West Palm who can drive here and park in what used to be Lake Hilder and Lake Patricia. When those residents have to think about moving out, are you gonna support the people coming outside Miami Lakes who don't care about our quality of life, or are you gonna stand tonight with the residents and end this problem? Great leaders. Throughout our history, great leaders fight hard, affirmatively and aggressively for their people. Politicians debate and study and punt and pass the buck. Tonight, stand with your residents like all prior councils and tell GMX tonight to kill this project tonight.

Thank you, Mr. Busio. Now!

Now! Next speaker.

Please come up. Thank you.

Good evening council and residents. My name is Sandra Garcia. I live at 6661 Lake Blue Drive and I don't have a lot of statistics. I know what I'm gonna tell you is from my heart. I came to Miami Lakes in 1994 and it was the first home I ever bought with my then husband. My first daughter was born in 97, my second in 99. And since then, they've grown up in this area. When they were little, we used to go to Publix, walk over to feed the cows carrots. We don't have that anymore. The cows are still around, but they're outside of the main street and the main Miami Lakes area, right? And if we wanted to see them now, actually, we would have to go down 154th to fight traffic because there's always traffic down to get to any piece of the expressway. So right now we have it on 154th and on 67th. At any time and peak hours, you just can't drive through there. Luckily, I also work at the Miami Lakes K-8, where I've been an educator there for the last five years. It's amazing that I can live and work. Let's not forget, I also attend Our Lady of the Lakes Catholic Church, which is down the street. And not to say anything, but Our Lady of the Lakes actually started off as a barn in the middle of land and cows and stuff. That's how that church began, in a barn. So how much more spiritual can we get? I've seen growth. There is growth. There's growth in traffic. There's growth in apartment buildings now where it used to be golf course. It's getting very crowded and it's very congested. from my heart, from my daughters, who, by the way, my oldest just recently passed the boards for, she's a veterinarian now, and she works at the Miami Lakes office over by Miami Lakes, no, in Dixie, on the other side. So I'm saying from my heart, please don't do this construction, thank you.

Good evening, Mr. Mayor, Town Council, Town Manager, and other staff. My name is Juan Pena, 6923 Sea Grape Terrace. I live on Lake Hilda. My mother-in-law lives on Lake Hilda. She lives in Crooked Palm. There's roughly 80 townhouses in there. There's only one way ingress, egress out of there. As was mentioned previously, the safe site distance doesn't meet current conditions. There's on the looking towards the left, towards the north to come out, there's trees, there's utility poles, there's signs all in the public right of way on the blocking and the sidewalk. Visibility is bad. I had an accident there about three or four months ago coming out of there. um because of the visibility i sent an email to miami-dade county public works the traffic engineering division requesting a traffic signal and their response was no there's no need for it we're just going to paint do not block the intersection in the pavement which had nothing to do with the visibility problem by the way I have been a traffic engineer for over 43 years, 35 of it at Miami-Dade County Public Works Traffic Signals and Signs. Um, so the problem is with, uh, one of them is the ingress egress out of there. The second one is, um, when back in June 24th, when GMX was here, their lead engineer who spoke said that the level of service adding the new signal would be, says is good or better. I find that hard to believe. You're installing a new signal less than 300 feet from an existing one. Traffic backs up right now southbound to Crooked Palm, AM and PM peak, and he says traffic conditions are going to be just as good or better. I find that hard to believe. On the taking right-of-way, they're gonna take, by eminent domain, I'm sure the citizens are not gonna sell part of their property to GMX. By eminent domain, they're gonna take part of a townhouse there on Crooked Palm and also the gas station. And the gas station, they're gonna close one driveway and make all the traffic that wants to go south exit by the driveway by the bank, which lines up with Crooked Palm again. Um, that's going to increase the pedestrian safety. They are at the shopping center at Vicki bakery. And it's just, you know, besides what everyone else has said, where's it going to end? Where's it going to end? I also asked that day about, uh, the new Westbound on-ramp. about the noise if they're gonna build a sound wall, and their response was, no, just on the mainline expressway, GMX said, not for the on-ramp. Again, someone mentioned earlier, the traffic accelerating creates a lot of noise. I see I'm out of time. Thank you very much. Thank you.

Hello everybody, Alex Degani, 6920 Bamboo Street. I'm not here to basically discuss some of the obvious points that have been made here before. I'm not here to discuss, although it's tragic, the issues with the animal issues with respect to the canals, nor am I here to discuss the obvious conflict of interest that's at the core of an elected official on this board. Although that in and of itself I think is something telling and should have been disclosed to the public earlier. I'm here to basically discuss some issues that I guess are less clear, right? It's clear that there's traffic, right? Everybody hates traffic. Nobody here loves traffic. I think nobody here is in support of traffic. But there was a basic on the last time we all met that this project would actually address that traffic, right? That's kind of like the assumption. And then there was a lot of discussion about whether the sacrifice was worth the pros, the cons were worth the pros, whether the juice was worth the squeeze, that's basically it. And some people on this panel were essentially saying, well, no, I'm responsible to 80% of the constituency, not necessarily 20%, not necessarily expressing, but implying that, unfortunately, there is a piece of this constituency that may have to be sacrificed for the good of the whole. My issue is, and I have a question that I would love and maybe you guys could educate me on, how is it that, let's assume that a ramp was actually created, this project went through, GMX got that exit and the on-ramp, and we had now an exit and an on-ramp on 67th as well as 57th, because people tend to forget that there's currently an exit and an on-ramp on 57th as it is, right? How is it that somebody who currently resides at Satori, somebody on the west side of Miami Lakes, who I believe, maybe I'm in the minority here, but I believe is probably 80 percent of the traffic woes of this city. In fact, however you want to dice it, the way the west side of Miami Lakes was actually constructed was highly dense. It wasn't constructed like the east side of Miami Lakes, just in terms of ratios, the houses per plot of land is just not the same. Everybody on the east side of Miami Lakes was constructed in the 60s. Everything on the west side of Miami Lakes was done later with more liberal construction standards when it comes to just packing everybody in. Everybody that resides on the west side of Miami Lakes are limited to one exit. That exit is 154th, however you want to dice it. They can go 87th, but let's say they gotta get to work, and they work on the south side of Miami. They gotta get on the Palmetto. Guys, no matter what you do on the Grattany, whether you add one exit or four exits, Whoever works in South Miami and is driving on 826 South is still gonna get off in the same way. Nobody is actually gonna get off on the Gratney, unless, of course, you reside on the east side of Miami Lakes, at which point?

Alex, remember that I had to, at the top of the meeting, I said that I needed to keep it to three minutes. Yeah, yeah, okay.

Thank you.

Thank you, Alex. We need you to speak into it because remember. No, no, I have a loud voice. No, no, no, no, we need you, because we have to record it for the record and we also are broadcasting. So we need it for the record to capture clearly what you're saying and then also for the residents that are watching. The further away you are from the microphone, the harder it is for that record to be established.

Okay, my name is Maria Santelises. I live in 15205 Dunbarton Place, thanks to Rose Mill. She's the one that got us the house. I am here, I agree with everybody's topic and the expression and everything, but my main concern are students, okay? I worked for over 30 years at Miami Lakes K-8 Center. And looking at all this, at the process that you guys want to do and everything, my concern is how are the students, the high school students, going to go to HML? to the Hialeah Miami Lake Senior High School. Okay? How? Because the majority of them, they walk. ride bike, and now with a little, whatever it's called, I'm not good at all those stuff. But also my main concern is Miami Lakes K-3 Center where I work all these many years. And the other day I went to speak to the principal about what is going on here, but besides talking to her, I spoke to every single parent, grandparents, and anybody that was in my way about what is going on here, and they were shocked, shocked. To get in and out of that school is hard because it happens to be exactly at traffic time, okay? Half of the people who care less about the policemen that are there directing the traffic, because I've seen it all these many years. Imagine opening this to the people, to all this. Then you go to Our Lady of the Lakes, it's the same thing. The middle school, the park, that right now the park is beginning to get jam-packed, and a lot of these kids are in sports. They go over there walking, walking, okay? And the last time I didn't mention the library, the new library that they are redoing. How about the traffic? To get there and to get out of there. You have to think about that. And the other stuff that you need to think about it is the fire station. God forbid that there's an emergency, the whole traffic has to be stopped. So how are they gonna go in and how are they gonna go out? Those are things that you have to have consideration over 67th Street. And God forbid when we start with 154th Street, because when I was coming over here, I decided to come the long way, not the short way, and the line to get into the Palmetto Expressway was past Fairbank Road, okay? It's bad. And in the afternoon, Miami Lakes way south is horrible because of the school. And to get into the school, you have to go through all that circle. So please take all that into consideration. I'm here for my student, and I'm happy to have a student here that I didn't know that she worked for the city. And one thing she told me, thank you for your way of teaching me that I was able to work. Thank you very much for listening to me.

My name is Brian, and I live in 6060 West 21st Court. I'm here tonight to speak on agenda item 11C regarding the Miami Lakes Drive Traffic Operations Study. Miami Lakes Drive is a vital arterial road, but it suffers from heavy congestion and gridlock during peak hours. Just today, while driving through Northwest 77th core, I experienced firsthand a five minute delay, simply waiting to turn right towards the Palmetto Expressway. Item 11C outlines four alternatives, but alternative four, the channelized northbound right turn lane, specifically targets this exact bottleneck. By allowing right turn traffic to keep moving without holding cars at the main red light, it addresses the queue coming off Northwest 77th Court efficiently. I urge the council to support carrying Alternative 4 forward into this phase two analysis to help provide much needed relief for Miami Lakes drivers. Thank you for your time and consideration. Thank you. Come on up.

Good evening, Mayor Diaz, Vice Mayor Morera, council members and staff. My name is Carolina Cuba, 19611 Northwest, 52nd Avenue, and I'm a high school junior at Barbara Goldman Senior High. Today I'm here before you to speak on behalf of item 15C, which is the reestablishing of the Youth Advisory Board. This is a board that is one that is really important to me because I've been advocating for it for about four years now. It started back then in 2024 by my peers and I when we were in eighth grade. It was not only meant to be created as a space for youth, for their perspectives to be heard, but also as a space for youth to be able to directly contribute to the town of Miami Lakes and also have a direct seat on the table. I want to especially thank Vice Mayor Morera for taking the time to work with me for these past couple of months and also hear what I have envisioned for this board. If it wasn't for him, I honestly wouldn't have been up here right now with the Youth Advisory Board being right now as a resolution in the agenda. I also want to thank Council Member Garcia, because ever since this board was first brought up in 2024, he has been a constant supporter of the board. And I generally and actually really appreciate it. He's one of the reasons why I keep showing up to the meetings day and day, because I know I have his support. I also want to thank Mayor Diaz and the rest of the council for taking the time into consideration of actually hearing about this item and actually hearing about the youth of the town of Miami Lakes and what they have to say. This board started as a project citizen competition project actually back then in eighth grade with an idea for it to become something bigger. So seeing this right now as a resolution for the reestablishment of the board actually means a lot to me, and I'm really excited for what the Youth Advisory Board has in store. Thank you.

Good evening, Mayor Josh Diegas and council members. My name is Isaura Valdez, 1825 Northwest, 179th Terrace. I am a junior at Hialeah Miami Lakes Senior High and a former student of Miami Lakes Middle School. This evening, I'm here because I want to speak not only on item 15C, but also because tonight is a full circle moment. When I was in eighth grade, I stood in this room for my first ever public hearing. At the time, a group of students from Miami Lakes Middle School, including my friends, Carolina Cuba and I came before this council with an idea to establish a youth advisory board that would give students in Miami Lakes a meaningful opportunity to advise the town on the issues that affected our lives. We knew that students might not have a formal vote on the council, but we also knew that we live here, we go to school here, and experience our community in ways that deserve to be heard as well. That resolution passed, and while it took a while to get here, I want to recognize the people who helped turn that resolution into something real. In particular, I want to thank Carolina for continuing to push for this over the past several years, as well as Vice Mayor Brian Morera and Councilman Ray Garcia for working with her and helping to move this initiative forward. But more than anything, I want to thank this council for being so willing to listen to its students. I think back to that eighth grader who walked into this building for the first time, not understanding just how much that experience would shape her. Being able to participate in local government at that age showed me that civic engagement isn't something that you have to wait until you're 18 to participate in. Your voice can matter before you can vote. Since then, civic participation has become a really important part of my life. Tomorrow, Richardson Popular will host its fifth annual Constitution Day Quest event here in this town hall, and I will lead the advocacy empowerment table, the same table that I sat at five years ago, not as a leader, but as a middle school student. So tonight, I just want to say thank you. Thank you for listening to us then. Thank you for supporting us now. And thank you for showing the students of Miami Lakes that when we engage in our community, our voices really can become part of that process too. Thank you.

Thank you. Next speaker, we're going to go online. All right, Mr. Cruz.

Good evening, Mr. Mayor, Vice Mayor, and Council. Romero Cruz, 8515 Northwest 169 Terrace. I'm going to start by saying love that neighbor as I have loved you. And secondly, in God we trust. And now probably the main question is can we trust you guys? My answer is yes, I believe we can. Why? Because I know that you guys will do the right thing tonight. And the right thing to do is on GMX to say no. You have been lectured already on this. I don't have to go into details. All I can tell you that I've been living on the west side for 38 years. My son lives on the east and my daughter too. One of the other ones lives on the west. It's impossible for my son from Our Lady of the Lakes to drop off my grandkids any longer in my house because of the traffic. Do we want the same thing on the east? No, I don't care. I'm on the west. We're already messed up. There's no solution there unless we build a second floor or we start renting drones or whatever. That's it. We open 170 and somehow, someday, 154th will have to be open as well. That's a reality and we can't hide away from that. So I hope that you do the right thing. and you vote no, tell GMX the residents don't want this project. Tell GMX the council and the mayor don't want this project. And this project is no, N-O. Say no. It's simple. You've been lectured already on this. I don't have to do that. Secondly, another item you have on our agenda in reference to Councilman Cuadra. Councilman Hershberg, I always stay with me when you say we're different. I used to believe that when I moved to Miami Lakes 38 years ago. But somehow we lost our way. Somehow I don't think we are any different than any other municipality. Why? Because of the decisions that have been made in the past and the decisions that can be made today. Today, you guys have the opportunity to do the right thing with the GMX project and to do the right thing with Mr. Cuadra. Let go. Last month you had an opportunity, you voted on it, you gave him a slap on the hand, he understood, he's not a polished politician, but all I can tell you is that Mr. Cuadra had 8,500 people voted for him, more than any one of you sitting here, and that is a fact, okay? And he cares, he cares about Miami Lakes. And you know what you guys should do? Help him, teach him how to be a better councilman because he's already a great person. I've known him for 40 something years and I know he's got a great heart. So I ask you to withdraw that item from your agenda and drop it and let it be. Thank you.

All right, going online.

So we have participants, oh, you.

Good evening, my name is Brian Marrero Capote. I am a freshman at Hialeah Miami Lake Senior High School, and I am here because I wish to speak about an issue that impacts every subject that a student wishes to pursue after math, which is where the foundation is built in the first place. In our local community, the town of Miami Lakes has an Education Advisory Board that's dedicated to assessing the needs of local schools and programs, supporting many initiatives ranging from STEM courses to educational initiatives. But through these opportunities, I believe we need to ask a harder question. What happens when a student reaches high school without mastering basic math skills that they were supposed to learn years before? According to Miami-Dade County Public Schools, only 66% of students passed or performed at grade level on the Algebra I EOC and 60% passed the Geometry EOC. So basically, 66% and 60% pass the finals of their respective courses. In mathematics, getting an answer wrong on a test doesn't mean anything. But mathematics builds on itself. What you learned in elementary, such as fractions and decimals, becomes algebra. And algebra becomes calculus, statistics, science, and countless other careers. Without a doubt, Miami-Dade is already making steady progress. In 2026, the district outperformed the state average in every fast mathematics assessment by four to seven points. But you don't stop at the middle of the mountain, do you? At Hialeah Miami Lake Senior High, the new space hub program offers various opportunities for a growing field. But I've seen students that cannot do basic long multiplication or long division. Because of this, the opportunities of other students are hindered. Students who want to have a physics or higher math class cannot have it physically because there's not enough students to fill in the slots. I instead believe that what should happen is that the town of Miami Lakes and Miami-Dade County Public Schools make foundational math a priority. We should identify certain learning gaps as early as can be. Students who are having trouble should be given free and direct tutoring and to track their progress and see if these students improve. If we already focus so much on education, we should build on our investment to the future of our community. After all, the first step to let a plant grow is to water it. We shouldn't lower the standards. We should strengthen the roots that allow them to reach for the sky. Thank you. Well said.

Thank you. We now go to online public comments, and that'll be the last round.

So I'm gonna call the speakers or the participants that I see online. As I see them on my screen, I'm gonna start with Miss Mariana Bedoya. You have the hand raised. Good evening, Mariana Bedoya. Just unmute yourself and welcome to the regular council meeting online.

Good evening. Thank you for letting me speak tonight. I am a senior at Miami Lakes Educational Center, and I wanted to speak regarding the item 15C, the resolution to reestablish the Youth Advisory Board. As a student, I think it is extremely important that young people have opportunity to participate in their local government. many decisions made within our community affect students directly whether they involve education public safety parks community events transportation or opportunities for young people as a student myself this is my first time speaking in public and i'm nervous and until i heard about speak out september i wouldn't have had the or the nerve to do this today. So I believe that we should have more of these youth do this more and having youth advisory board will be helpful and giving a voice to the young of our community. Thank you.

Thank you, ma'am. Madam Clerk, call the next one.

The next speaker is Mr. Mauricio Perez. Welcome.

welcome mr mauricio perez good evening council members my name is marcio perez and i'm a senior attending miami-dade educational center and i'm here today to talk about something that affects every student in our schools which would be artificial intelligence and how we choose to use it right now a lot of the conversation around the eye in education is about what we should ban which i understand because we don't want students to cheat themselves and the schools out of an education but i think pivoting to a different frame of thought for this topic could be something productive. And the frame I'm thinking of is self-directed education. Autodidactism or self-education has always been an option for students, especially now in the digital age with laptops and phones. But the issue with that has been that it is very hard to start without a certain basis, which is what teachers are for. But I think with AI or a tool, a chatbot that has the ability to communicate in an educated manner about a certain topic could be made, could be implemented as part of the standard curriculum. So a student could, for example, have a conversation with something like ChachiBT and learn about, let's say, coding or foreign language or some very specific interest that AI can go back and forth on. And it is, in a sense, a study partner that never gets tired of the questions and always tries to explain things in ways that are best understood by a student, which can sometimes be a trouble for teachers, especially with a large class sizes and the pressure to keep going with the content. So I would like to ask the Council to consider supporting a clear and thoughtful guidelines for this type of AI use in our schools. for self-education and we should, to complete this, we should fund digital literacy programs that teach students how to use these tools responsibly and to not restrict themselves and cheat themselves out of a good opportunity. Thank you. Thank you, Mr. Perez.

Madam Clerk.

The next speaker is Mr. Adrian, or Adrian Gonzalez.

good evening mayor and council members my name is adrian gonzalez and i'm a student at miami lakes educational center most schools can easily afford a scoreboard for basketball but they refuse to buy a violin what does that tell you to me it says we need change see i used to be an anxious and stressed kid back in middle school and so how did i come to terms with that I sat in a room full of other band kids expressing themselves through a beautiful medium, and that is playing instruments and feeling the stress melt away when words weren't enough. Every student in our schools has experienced stress, pressure, or even burnout. Yet, schools continue to underfund band programs, even though they serve some of the most overlooked students I know, who are band musicians and marchers. A study by Yang Xiao found that after participating in structured music appreciation programs, depression and paranoia dropped significantly among a group of 36 college students. And 83% of those participants showed improvements in negative emotions. Many people think music is only entertainment for the listener, but these numbers argue otherwise. See, increasing funding would allow more students to experience these benefits instead of struggling without knowing where to turn. But well-funded music programs also help students grow socially and succeed academically. Research also shows that 55% of students become more active in their school environment after musical intervention. Music can help more introverted students overcome feelings of isolation and reduce the sense of inferiority that is often linked with depression. Opponents might say that specialized programs like band only benefit a small group of students. And while it's true that band programs can sometimes feel exclusive, the solution isn't to reduce funding, it's to expand it. Giving more support to an underrepresented program like music increases its availability and allows more students to participate. Cutting funding doesn't solve inequality in schools. I encourage all of you to take what seems to be a small contribution to this cause for one of the most meaningful and powerful things you can do. Support stronger funding for our school music programs. Although it may not seem like one decision can do much, it goes a long way. We can make students feel understood. I appreciate you guys for listening. Thank you.

Thank you, sir. Thank you, Mr. Gonzalez. Madam Clerk.

The next speaker is Gabriel Sanchez. I don't see a hand raised, but I see your name, Gabriel Sanchez. Okay, the other person is Ms. Raquel Celaniquio, but I believe that she's gonna be presenting to us later tonight. And no more participants. Gabriel? Gabriel Sanchez? Okay, very well, no more speakers online. I do have for the record several emails, three written public comments that were sent to me and that as I always do, I share with the council. The first one is from Mr. Abel Fernandez. The title or the subject matter of the email is Letter for Town Council in regards to the first budget hearing and the turnout of the meeting. The second written public comment is from Ms. Esperanza Hope Reynolds. Subject matter is regarding as well what happened or what transpired during the budget hearing, local government realities, and the chair's duty to assist. And the third and last written public comment is from Crooked Palm. I believe the name is the concerned homeowners and residents of the Crooked Palm Place Impact Corridor. the subject matter or title of their email is a public comment and legal objection to the GMX project nine two four zero eight all of these written public comments were shared with the elected officials and That is it no more

Thank you, Madam Clerk. Public comments is now closed, and we are on item 11A, that would be special presentations beginning 11A, Miami-Dade County Public Schools. But for what reason do you- Just a quick question.

I'd like to ask the parliamentarian a question about procedure.

Well, okay, sure.

Well, I would ask you, I guess.

That's called a parliamentary inquiry. So you're recognized to make a parliamentary inquiry.

to the town attorney if i would like to make a motion to direct the manager to stop pursuing the gmx project would i do it through when he does his manager report regarding that item or can i do it right now

Well, I can answer that for you, and I'm sure the attorney would be more than happy to respond, but being that you were not on the prevailing side, you would not be the party that would be able to make that motion.

Well, remember, I made the motion and wasn't seconded, so there wasn't a vote on it, so I wasn't on the prevailing or the losing or winning side.

No, but there was a vote as far as to transmit with the change with respect to the traffic study, right, and to come back to us with that. You want to undo that, correct?

I want to, instead of, this has nothing to do with traffic studies, is to stop projects totally.

We have no control over that.

Recommend projects.

That would be literally changing. It's the second bite of the apple. I mean, and the attorney, I'll let him opine if he wants. Well, no, that's the answer.

That's the question I'm answering. I had a little plug. Yeah, it's the second bite of the apple.

So another, go ahead. What you're asking for, essentially, council members, a reconsideration of the vote. The council moved to ask GMX to come back with a traffic study and then for the item to be considered. If you're asking for that process to be terminated, then that would be a reconsideration of the motion and you would need to be on the prevailing side in order to make that motion.

Okay, so any of my colleagues could at this time that we're on? Any of your colleagues on the prevailing side. On the prevailing side.

But also they can't make it right now because that item is not before us. We're on item 11A, the parliamentary inquiry has ended. Okay. And we are on item 11A, Miami-Dade Public Schools special presentation. For that we go to Mr. Roger Medet, a fellow Miami Lakes resident. who is chief of staff for school board member Roberto Alonso III, who represents our area on the school board, and unfortunately was unable to make it here tonight. So with that, Mr. Medea, please continue.

Good evening, Mayor, council members, town manager, town attorney, and members of the community. My name is Roger Moret. I'm the Chief of Staff for Board Member Alonzo. Address is 1450 Northeast 2nd Avenue. With me is Dr. Aled Diaz from the Office of Intergovernmental Affairs, also address 1450 Northeast 2nd Avenue. Thank you for the opportunity to join you this evening. On behalf of the school board member and our superintendent, Rafael Villalobos, I bring you greetings and sincere appreciation for your continued partnership and support of our schools, students, families, and employees. Our municipalities are among the most important partners. The connection between our schools and community that serve extends well beyond the classroom. And I'd like to briefly highlight some of those accomplishments. We are proud to say that Miami-Dade County Public Schools is an A-rated, fully accredited district of distinction that ranks of the top performing schools in Florida. Miami-Dade Public Schools achieved a 95% graduation rate in 2025. All Miami-Dade County Public Schools VPK programs successfully passed the Florida class assessment. More than 16,700 students participated in dual enrollment, providing opportunities to earn college credits while still in high school. Our seven accredited technical colleges offer more than 60 career and technical programs, including apprenticeship opportunities and pathways for high demanding, well-paying career. Student safety remains a top priority. Our Miami-Dade County Public Schools Police Department, along with our officers from the town, are one of the largest school-based police departments in the nation. Our school supported more than 18,000 surveillance cameras throughout the district. We've included this information in the folders that we've provided that has all these information, and Mamie Lakes continues to be a well-rated, A-rated district. We would like to also take this opportunity to express our sincere appreciation to the Town of Miami Lakes, Mayor of the Town, Council, Education Advisory Board for their continued partnership and commitment to our students and schools. Your generous support directly benefits students at Bob Graham Educational Center, Miami Lakes K-8 Center, Miami Lakes Middle through investments in STEM and other academic programs. At Bob Graham Educational Center, funding supports schools' vocabulary course through teacher supplements and instructional materials designed to strengthen instruction and student achievement. At Miami Lakes K-8, funding supports a teacher supplement for vocabulary honors course. as well as instructional materials and supplies for their STEM activities. At Miami Lakes Middle School, funding provides teacher supplement for eighth grade English language teachers in the Cambridge program, supporting schools' rigorous vocabulary curriculum. We are grateful for these investments because they represent much more than the financial support. They demonstrate the town's commitment to expanding opportunities for students and strengthening the schools that they serve. Miami-Dade County Public Schools offers educational opportunities for learners of all ages. Our Pre-K Sprouts program provides three-year-olds with an early foundation for learning. Beyond K-12, our adult and technical education programs help individuals earn credentials, develop new skills, and prepare for high-demand careers. Additional information about these programs will be included for you in this folder for this evening. Miami-Dade County Public Schools is proud of our strong partnership with the Town of Miami Lakes. At the Optimist Park and the Youth Center, programs provide important daytime educational and enrichment opportunities for adults with special needs. By utilizing existing town facilities, Miami-Dade County Public Schools and the Town of Miami Lakes are able to expand educational and community services while maximizing existing resources and avoiding additional capital expenses. These agreements are another example of how our partnership with the town extends beyond our schools and allows us to serve residents of all ages through the Miami Lakes community. Strong schools also depend on strong families and communities. Through the Parent Academy, families have access to workshops, webinars, and resources in multiple languages designed to help parents support their children. we also invite our businesses organizations and community members to become directly involved with our schools through mentoring volunteering internships and school partnerships our municipalities are uniquely positioned to help us with these connections and we welcome opportunities to work together to connect our students our people our businesses and experiences available right here and in our community Again, we thank the Town of Miami Lakes, its leadership, and the Educational Advisory Board for their continued partnership and for the many ways to support our students and schools. At this time, it is my pleasure to turn over the presentations to Dr. Alet Diaz from the Office of Intergovernmental Affairs, who will share additional information. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Moret, members of the council, Mr. Mayor, vice mayor, town manager. As you've heard this evening, we have tons to be proud of with Miami-Dade County Public Schools. And all of these initiatives and the accomplishments and the accolades are thanks to our incredible teachers who are ensuring that teaching and learning is taking place in each one of our schools. We are equally grateful for our school police officers who work tirelessly to ensure that schools remain a safe and conducive place for learning for all children. That brings me to an important portion of our conversation today. Our superintendent of schools will be hosting a series of town hall meetings across the district. The one closest to Miami Lakes for the residents is at Hialeah Gardens Senior High School, where members of the council, members of Miami Lakes will have an opportunity to engage with district leadership, engage with our superintendent of schools, and learn a little bit more about the Secure Our Future referendum, which will appear on the November 3rd ballot. 100% of the Secure Our Future referendum renewal, which passed in 2018, it passed in 2022, and it's now up for the vote in November 3rd, goes strictly for teacher compensation and school safety and security. Once again, 100% of the Secure Our Future referendum renewal goes towards teacher compensation and school safety and security. We invite you to visit www.secureourfuture.dateschools.net. That's secureourfuture.dadeschools.net for more information. We invite you to the town hall meetings hosted by our superintendent of schools. And once again, we truly thank Miami Lakes, the mayor, town manager, council, for your endless support and years of support for our shared public schools here in Miami Lakes. Thank you.

thank you very much yeah I just wanted to comment to our guests you know number one thank you guys so much you guys are educating our future I did want to point out I don't know you mentioned it or not but here in the packet that you gave us I did just want to call out the fact that I Every single one of our schools in Miami Lakes is an A school. I really want to give it up to all of our students here. And then I think you got a little bit of a taste of the quality of our students today during public comments. You got to hear some of them. So I hope that you take the news back to Mr. School Board Member Alonzo as well as Superintendent Villalobos about this AI Step Up program that the students were bringing up because obviously they're advocating for it here. So it's clearly important to them. Thank you, guys.

through the chair councilman Garcia Thank You Mary yes I mean I was I was about to say it and straight A's how can you beat that we're very lucky to have a school board member who's from the from this neighborhood and really understands how important schools are to the fabric of the town of Miami Lake so I want to thank you as representative also very lucky that we've had superintendents who are thinking out of the box constantly And with these programs, the older programs and new programs that I'm sure the new superintendent is going to bring forward, we have a bright future ahead. I would only ask what we can get together maybe in the future with the mayor and see if there we talked about. Students talked about math and how math is super important. And we still have a gap there when it comes to algebra and calculus and just the basics. What can we do to work together to fund tutoring programs to help our students get to the next level? Because an A is great, but there's always kids that are left behind, right? And maybe they're a little embarrassed. What can we do to work together with our Education Advisory Board, the town, to maybe try to fund from your budget a little bit more, some of these tutoring programs, so I appreciate that. Thank you so much for this presentation, and it's only gonna get better.

Anyone else? Councilman Herzberg.

Thank you, Mayor. I just appreciate you having me. Two of my kids are in public schools. Phenomenal school. It's great that we have six schools here. I'm a big supporter trying to support it. We've done it last year during the mid-year, so we'll hopefully try to do it again. I know it's important programs that the town helps. And thank you again for reminding us on the vote this November. That's an important vote. I'll be for it because obviously it goes directly to the teachers, and I've seen firsthand the teachers in Miami-Dade Public Schools are phenomenal. So thank you.

Anyone else? All right, seeing none, thank you both for your time and I look forward to seeing you all in the community very soon. Thank you very much. We now go to 11B, Arts for Autism program, which is being presented by Ms. Audrey Amadeo. Welcome, welcome back I should say. If you want, give it to the clerk and she'll distribute it to everyone, thank you.

Good evening, everyone. My name is Dr. Audrey Amadeo. I am the founder of the Arts for Autism Foundation. And we've been partnering with the Town of Miami Lakes since 2020. So thank you for the continued support. And I'm here today with the support of the Special Needs Advisory Board. in asking for the next evolution of Arts for Autism. So currently, for those of you who are new or maybe unfamiliar with the Arts for Autism Foundation, we're historically known for our spectrum dance therapy classes hosted on Saturdays at Mary Collins. So we're asking for the Special Needs Advisory Board to move from supporting just a singular dance class to the next evolution looking like funding scholarships so that the students can take classes amongst all different arts categories. So whether that be music, dance, gymnastics, martial arts, anything within the town of Miami Lakes. So what that would look like is truly making it an inclusive arts community where the Arts for Autism Foundation will partner with local Miami Lakes businesses. Then we will implement training and support for their staff to make their local business more inclusive and supportive of individuals on the spectrum. And then we would roll out an arts scholarship to where the Arts for Autism Foundation will then fund for these participants to participate in classes that take place in those businesses that we've already assigned and trained. So essentially, the model was supporting events, about two to three events every year is what the Special Needs Advisory Board currently supports, and the dance class. So now we're moving away from the dance class and using the funds that were already allocated for the dance class into a scholarship model instead. And so they were very happy to hear of this next evolution. We already have some local businesses very excited to roll out trainings and to roll out a scholarship program to bring in more children to their programs. And so we're hoping to still maintain the same mission of an inclusive arts community. It's just now evolving and expanding to more local businesses beyond just one dance class. It will give them the opportunity to truly explore the arts community available to them here in the town of Miami Lakes. So essentially, it just provides opportunity for more inclusion, stronger local business capacity, direct access for individuals with autism, and continued progress towards a model town for inclusion.

Thank you. The chair will entertain a motion at this time. Are you announcing the partnership, or you wanted our permission to go ahead? Yeah, we would need your permission to go ahead. Yeah, I'll move it. The chair is entertaining motions, if anyone wants to make a- Move it. All right. Second. Moved by the council member, by council member Garcia, and seconded by council member Fernandez. Any discussion or questions that anyone wants to add? Yeah, I guess I kind of missed- Vice Mayor Morera.

What is the effect on the committee's budget?

It says here up to a $10,000 cap. Am I reading that correctly?

Yeah, so historically, annually, the Special Needs Advisory Board has funded our program, and that is $10,000 annually is what we've received to keep our program running. So the ask is the exact same in terms of investment. It's just reallocating it from just one dance class to a scholarship and training model.

I just wanted to make sure if it was existing funds. Perfect.

Yeah.

all right uh with that all those in favor say aye aye aye all opposed no the ayes have it congratulations thank you so much thank you we are now on item 11c miami lakes drive traffic operations and feasibility analysis phase one presentation good evening council my name is omar santos public works director

We are here to, I would like to present our consultant, Kimberly Horner Associates, represented by Raquel Salaniquio and Chris Hiduate.

Hiduate, sorry.

They are here representing Kimley Horne and Associates and will be presenting the phase one of the Miami Lakes Drive Traffic Operations and Feasibility Analysis, which this council approved the work order for a few months ago. So with that, I'll let Raquel begin.

Thank you very much, and good evening, mayor, vice mayor, council members, residents, staff. My name is Raquel Salinicchio with Kimley Horn, and tonight I'll walk you through phase one of the Miami Lakes Drive traffic operations feasibility analysis. We looked at four improvement concepts that your staff put on the table, and I'll tell you what we found, what each one would take to build, and what it would cost. The town brought us in because of what everyone here already knows, Miami Lake Strive backs up every morning and every afternoon, especially near the Palmetto. Our job in phase one was to quantify and document what's actually happening out there today and test whether the four concepts your staff identified are buildable. The study is split into two phases. Phase one, what you're seeing tonight, covers existing conditions analysis, field observations, conceptual design, and planning level costs. Phase two is where we project future traffic and can actually compare how each improvement, each alternative improves the network. We collected turning movement counts at the study intersections on Wednesday, April 22nd, during AM peak from 7 to 9 AM and PM peak from 4 to 6 PM. The FDOT peak season factor for that week was 1.00, so no seasonal adjustment was needed because we collected during the time of year that is considered to be the peak season and should capture the worst conditions along the corridor. We also went out and watched it ourselves, confirming lane geometry, signal timings, lane utilization, if vehicles prefer to use one or two lanes instead of all of the lanes that they have, queue lengths or queues extending beyond what the model was showing, and pedestrian activity as well. And all of these details are very important and matter because we want the model to fully reflect the entire story of the corridor so that we start changing traffic patterns and adding in improvements. We get a real sense for how this corridor will react. And one thing we noticed was that cues the models were showing for how many cars were stacking up waiting to get through the signals was less than what we were seeing in the field. And so we calibrated and adjusted the model to match the real-world conditions to capture those extended cues. Here's our core findings. High demand and closely spaced intersections means traffic can't progress through the corridor. Vehicles clear one signal only to stack up right up against the next one, and that is creating gridlock. At the signalized intersections along Miami Lakes Drive, the northbound and southbound approaches operate very poorly. They experience higher delay and longer queues because fewer vehicles are able to be served in each cycle on the signal. Eastbound and westbound operate somewhat better than north and south, but several turning movements still have queues that exceed the available storage alongside the queues that are extending along the through lanes and east and westbound along Miami Lakes Drive. So with that, we have our baseline. Here's our four concepts that we evaluated. And these next slides show a simple version of what the alternatives will do, and then we'll get into the concept sketches for each alternative. Alternative one is the new westbound right turn connection from Miami Lakes Drive to Northwest 77th Court over the canal. The intent is to give that movement a more direct connection and reduce its dependence on the signalized intersection. You can see in the right arrow on the screen. Alternative two is an additional southbound left turn lane on northwest 77th corner Miami Lakes Drive, which would provide three southbound right turn lanes. This targets the southbound left turn queue directly by adding storage and increasing the number of vehicles that can move during each cycle of the signal. Alternative three is a new connection from Northwest 77th Court and Northwest 149th Street to the southbound Palmetto ramp over the canal. The idea is to give the ramp-bound traffic another way to get to the highway instead of funneling everything through Miami Lakes Drive. Alternative four, as one of the previous residents mentioned, is a channelized northbound right turn lane at Miami Lakes Drive and Northwest 77th Court with direct access to the southbound Palmetto on-ramp. This is what we refer to as a hot right. This will create a dedicated movement for ramp bound vehicles and separates them from having to wait within the signal and within other vehicles that are bound for the on ramp. It would be a free flowing right turn. For each alternative, we developed a preliminary concept so we can evaluate what it would take to build right of way needs, permitting, utility, constructability, additional considerations to keep in mind, and planning level costs. Alternative one, just to repeat, this is the connection over the canal that would give direct access for westbound vehicles to get to the north side of 77th Court. Alternative one would require canal limited access right away and coordination with multiple permitting agencies. The planning level construction cost is approximately $1.612 million. Additional analysis would be needed for the merge lane configuration and that geometry, along with final survey of the existing surface elevations. Alternative two, which is to provide three southbound right turn lanes at 77th and Miami Lakes Drive, has the smallest anticipated right-of-way impact, approximately 200 square feet associated with sidewalk improvements on the south side of the intersection, but that impact is on private property to the property of the fire station. It may require a driveway modification for that fire station and improvements to the existing mast arm. This planning level construction cost is approximately $2.6 million. Alternative 3, which is the direct southbound Palmetto ramp access through 149th and 77th Court, would require approximately 1,350 square feet of canal limited access right of way and the broadest permitting coordination, including county, FDOT, South Florida Water Management District, and the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers. This planning level construction cost is approximately $3.455 million. Final survey of the existing surface elevations would also be needed. And something very important that phase two will help inform is the geometry and control needed at the start of the new connection. Alternative four, which is the channelized northbound right turn lane, like I said before, what we call a hot right, would require approximately 350 square feet of canal limited access right of way. It also involves county, FDOT, SFWMD, and town permitting. And it will require improvements to the existing mast arm. The planning level cost for this alternative is $1.8 million.

How much again?

1.8. Okay. This table summarizes what I detailed for each alternative, the right-of-way impacts, permitting, cost, and key considerations for each alternative. And I have one more slide, but we can jump back to this if needed later. So where does that leave us? Phase one findings confirmed and quantified the congestion that Miami Lakes Drive suffers. The next step is for the town to provide direction on which alternatives should be carried forward into phase two. From there, we'll be able to project future traffic conditions, analyze those conditions, and compare the changes in level of service and queuing to determine what the relative benefit of each improvement would be and prioritize which alternative would be preferred. That wraps up my presentation. Thank you so much for your time. I'm happy to take any questions.

Thank you, and just to be clear, what you're asking from us then, or maybe this is a question for Director Santos, but what you're asking for us is to rank the various alternatives in terms of our preferred alternative, and then, you know, sending?

So, and Manager, if you wanna jump in, but it's not really for you to make the decision right now. We also have a site visit that we're planning to meet with other agencies that are involved in this, that would be involved as one of these goes forward and i would say once we have that information along with this information at that point this body and could decide if all or or a few of these will be carried over to phase two and how how would that look so so what do you need from us tonight if anything i don't think any action mayor the objective of the study

was number one, do any of these make sense? Will they improve traffic in the vicinity of the Palmetto 154? And secondly, if they do, to take that information and that ammunition to pursue funding at the state level or the federal level, and that was, I think, this proved that all four of the alternatives would improve traffic. The one thing, can I ask a question?

Yeah, go ahead.

Alternatives three and four. Are they three or four? Or is it three and four together would also be conceivable?

There definitely could be a mixture of the alternatives, but the way we've modeled our current plan for phase two is we would analyze them separately, and then if requested, we can combine alternatives and look at different configurations.

Okay, yeah, I'm just wondering if three and four would have an extra benefit than just having, let's say, alternative three.

With my engineering judgment, because they're both providing access to the southbound on-ramp in a similar location, the benefit would probably only be captured by one or the other.

Right, okay, that's what I thought. So it would probably be, if we were to pursue, let's say all of these, it would be one, two, and then three or four, not all four.

So for funding, it makes a difference for the total package. Yeah, I just wanted to clarify because literally on the slide titled Next Steps, it says town direction on alternatives to be carried forward. So I just wanted to clarify that that was not asking us to take action tonight. You know, I wasn't sure. Excuse me a little bit. Who was that? It was me. Oh, okay. So for questions, we'll begin with Councilman Garcia. Yeah.

Thank you. Thank you for this. This is amazing. I guess I have a couple questions. Number one, out of alternative three and four, which one would alleviate the most west to east traffic trying to get on the Palmetto?

So I can't quantify that yet. That would be phase two. We would be able to get those numbers and see exactly how each alternative would improve the traffic on the network.

Okay. The other question I have, I mean, the hard right, you still, residents from 87th Avenue still have to get all the way to the Palmetto, but the overpass over the canal on 77th Court, there's multiple ways to get there. There's at least three different ways to get there. How would that affect through traffic in Commerce Way, on 77th and- Oakland. Well, you can go through also, you can go through 82nd, I believe, where the park, Veterans Park is through there as well. How would that affect that traffic through there and that area through Commerce Way to get back there?

Yeah, it definitely would affect it, and what our study in phase two would do would be analyzing how all of those travel patterns would change. We would run a model that would simulate that new connection and project how folks might peel off earlier on Miami Lakes Drive and cut through Oak Lane or other roads as well.

I'd like to see that, because if it's spread out between three ways to get there, but if there's a bottleneck there, because there's no light there, right? Would you create a light there? How would they cross? It was a four-way? anticipated it's currently just it's a t intersection and it's only stop controlled on one of the streets so um it's anticipated that we probably would need some sort of signal that's part of phase two as well looking at the geometry and the control needed i mean that plus the hard right i think would go a long way in in cutting down the the uh the time it takes for somebody to get from 87th to the palmetto i think would be so i'd love to see that that information as well for those two alternatives thank you

Yeah, that'll be forthcoming. Anyone else? Yes, Mr. Mayor. Keeping in mind that questions like that, she's going to study it, so let's not bombard her with things that she's going to be looking into anyway. Go ahead, Councilman Cuadra-Garcia.

It's simple. Just wanted to make sure that what you said, that we're not making any rulees today. We're going to keep studying this.

Yes, exactly.

That's all.

Mayor Hartsburg. Thank you. So it's sort of a question of that phase two to director. It's like a subscription model. We've got to pay for phase two, right? Is that correct? That's correct.

And to clarify to Councilmember Cuadra-Garcia, this would be something that we would have to bring back as a separate approval for phase two.

Yeah, no, we got that, yeah. We got that now.

Right, so we need to, you need to come back to us with the cost of phase two. I don't know if it. We already have it. Oh, we have the, did we already budget it?

Well, we don't, we would have to identify the budget, but we have the cost.

The proposal, the proposal that they originally gave us had the two phases split out, so.

and then speak with the partners and see which ones are most feasible. And then we can pick two.

So the idea would be to first meet with the outside other agencies, and then after we got that information, make the determination.

Yeah, I think the objective was to get to this point, to give us enough ammunition to go beg for money. And once we get commitments at the either state or federal level, then we can come back, do the more fine-tuned study of looking into the future, and then go in and make sure that which of these are the most viable and will help the most.

Seeing no further questions, thank you very much. We are now done with item 11C. And going back to the amended order of business, we are now on 15B. That would be the censure resolution. I'm going to go to the attorneys to introduce the item since Vice Mayor Morera is not here at the moment.

Yeah, I'm going to start off. Look, this is something that we hope is put to bed today and that's it. I want to make sure there's no exposure to the town. I just want to get this done and over with. We have to bring this resolution back, not to rub salt on any wound, but because it was a new business item and it passed. All kinds of resolutions get signed after these meetings because they're new business items. New business items today, new business items from last week are all having resolutions signed. That's the only thing that's coming before you today.

Thank you. Councilman Sanchez, since it was actually your motion at the time.

thank you mr mayor yeah um you know i i remember the last meeting where i moved to center and i did it in a way to to protect the town from potential liability in the future um you know we we all as elected officials there are things that we have the ability to do and there are things that we do not have the ability to do And this was meant to bring attention to Councilman Cuadra-Garcia on things that we cannot do. We do have a limit on ability, as I mentioned before. And I don't want to be like other municipalities where we have private entities, private businesses that can come after. and make Miami Dix liable for actions that we take as elected officials, even in our own capacities or as a collective. So this is just to make sure that it doesn't happen again. And if it does happen again, the town is protected.

I'll second it. And I'm going to begin by kind of addressing some comments that were made from some board members of the Civic Alliance, as they're called. First and foremost, I want to be very clear that this was not an intent to bully or otherwise demean Mr. Cuadra-Garcia, right? So I had a mayor's report at the last meeting simply expressing the standards of conduct that we are expected to be held to, right? We have to comport ourselves within the bounds of the law and we have to treat our neighbors with respect. Following me voicing my concerns that the councilman, although he's been doing better, I'll give you credit for that, that he was continually and habitually unprepared for our meetings. And I also raised my concern because of a cease and desist letter that we received from an attorney as a result of what could have been, or rather was alleged, but ultimately not pursued as a potential unauthorized inspection using town resources, right? Obviously, we all know the Fourth Amendment bars against unreasonable searches and seizures. When you are wearing your councilman polo, as occurred in this case, and you now start going onto a property alleging that there are multiple violations, at the end of the day, you're now acting as an agent, or at least with apparent authority as an agent of the town. And that is not our purpose. We are not code inspectors, right? So I just wanted to clarify for the record the genesis of how we got to this point. There was a pattern of behavior that needed to be corrected. It was not. And so this is simply the most serious tool that we have in the toolbox to be able to let one of our members know that it is unacceptable moving forward to act in this manner. plain and simple um with and again this is not a new censure motion i just want to be clear this is simply formalizing uh the action already taken before and this has nothing to do other than you know ensuring as you know to allay some concerns that were that were raised with respect to due process rights and whatnot so um with that madam clerk or rather is there anyone uh councilman hersberg

thank you ma'am so i understand what the town attorney said uh yeah i was very torn at the meeting last time i was and i said that and i asked the process of this i honestly thought that was it we're done i think the council member you know went through the process we talked to him about our concerns and i didn't want to see this again i do not like this going i had no idea i Looking back, it makes sense that there would be some formal resolution. Honestly, I don't know if the town's ever censured anybody. I don't believe we have.

Not since I've been here.

I agree that there has been some matters that I think the council member could do better at, and I've offered my help often to say, hey, let's get together, let's get things done. But we are just taking a letter for the fact That adds up, it's completely true. The council member defended himself. He might have opportunity to do that now. I just don't like the process of putting this on the record, putting this in the resolution books. I think what was done was done. It's in the minutes. It's already in the minutes. It's already done. What we did in August, it happened. The vote, I don't regret my vote because it's in the minutes. It's there. It's over. I didn't like it coming back. I'm not going to be for supporting the written resolution. I don't see the point. I don't see the need. We did censure him. It's in the minutes. It's there. And we move on. And that's why I thought we were done that day. That's what my understanding was. That's what I believe we all wanted, honestly. I understand the need to bring it back for official resolution. I don't see the need. It's something that we can discuss looking at our special rules of order at some point. I do think we need to all sit down and look at them on how this process can go in the future. uh hopefully we never have to use it but that's our that's our job to think of worst case scenarios such as lawyers right so um that's why i'm not going before putting this in the i hate the language the permanent record of the town i just i don't see the need i think i think we we've done enough um the discussion has been had and we move on

Well, I just want to point out that it is in the permanent record because it's in the minutes. It's already there. I agree. It's done. I think you might be looking too far into it. And at the end of the day, it's simply formalizing the vote that you took with the rest of us. So I just want to point that out there. So with that, Councilman Fernandez.

I was also torn that day. I'll say this about it. You mentioned, and we heard it from some of the residents, Councilman Hertzberg mentioned that we're different. Our municipality's different. We don't want to be in the spotlight for any negative news. I think that we had some blemishes in our past and we've moved on from there. And we just want to remain our sleepy town, just leave us alone. I think this just brings it back up. I did vote the first time for it, and I agree with Councilman Hersberg. I think that I'd like to just move on from it and just let it be. That's my stance.

I'd like to put something in the records, Mr. Chair. I'm going to take a couple of minutes to slowly put this into the records. This is very important to me. Okay. Mr. Mayor, members of this council, and residents of the town of Miami Lakes, I condemn this proceeding as a hateful, ugly, and cowardly abuse of legislative authority, untrusted to this council by the people of Miami Lakes. It has become a communist style spectacle in which this institution is being used, not for responsible government. governments, but to attack an intimate and disparate, a duty, an elected public official. One who has won elections with one of the highest vote counts, as you all have heard, one of our town residents in Miami Lake's history. I'm not trying to be proud of it. I did what I did and the people spoke. We should be particularly troubled that baseless, defamationary, and fraudulent Allegations are being accepted by a few members of this council as proven and established facts, despite knowing full well that they come with a self-interest hired gun whose apparent purpose is to intimidate, bully, and silence a public official. Allegations do not become facts because they are repeated in places on an agenda or given this council approval. The authority of this council should never be abused to legitimize improvement, execution, or to punish a member of exercising his constitutional rights or performing his civic duties. I'm going slow, so it goes right into the record. And I have my minutes, so thank you, Mr. Mayor, for allowing me that. Those who have chosen to misuse the legislative powers of counsel should understand that such conduct carries consequences.

They carry consequences.

Potentially serious legal and political consequences for those those responsible for this abuse of public authority and for this disrespect it shows to this to this forum and to the residents it was elected to represent and what a mocking this is of the people of miami lakes our town faces serious and pressing problems that require the urgent and individual undivided attention of this council. The residents selected us to govern, govern, okay, solve problems and serve them, not to indulge in a hateful political spectrum. of this nature. I have made my position clear. I will not dignify this proceeding with further participation. I expressly reserve all my rights and remedies at law including the right to take legal action as deemed necessary to defend and vindicize my good name. as some of you are trying to tarnish my name, and you guys know who that is. Let's leave it at that. Defendant Vin decides my good name, my reputation, and my legal right. With that said, I have nothing further to add to the record.

That was some wonderful fiction that you just read into the record, which I'm gonna directly respond to now. First of all, as you may, as I just, once again shared for everyone's benefit who was not here that night the motion was not born to silence you out of anything that is a flat out lie and you know it number two it was in response to my item to try to get you to be more prepared when you show up to these meetings you have been lost in the sauce whenever we are voting, when we are having discussions, we have repeatedly had to call your attention to it. That's how it started. Secondly, what happened from there is I also brought up the letter, yes, the cease and desist letter that contained allegations. that I, yes, have deemed to be true, right, based on other conduct that you have engaged in that has made its way back to me from even your own neighbors, as I pointed out. You are on record, by the way, also admitting that you have a personal vendetta with Vista Memorial Gardens, right? That is on record. You can't take that back now. And by the way, what is communist is when you go posing as a government official to conduct an inspection that you are not authorized to make, that is beyond the scope of your responsibilities. So don't give me this whole communist BS. Don't give me this show. That shows me that you haven't learned your lesson. So I am 100% inclined, again, whether it passes this time or not, because some of our colleagues want to be nicer to you than they probably should, I am inclined to vote yes for this because, again, based on that remark that you just made, the remarks you just gave, it shows me that you are digging in and now trying to fling mud at the wall, right, instead of just accepting that you were wrong, right? Isn't that exactly what Councilman Hertzberg asked you last time, is for you to admit that you wouldn't do it again, and you said yes, that you wouldn't do it again? Councilman Garcia did the same thing with you at the end of that proceeding. So again, that tells me that you have not learned your lesson and the censure is unfortunately the only acceptable way for me to get your attention to start living up to the responsibilities that you were elected to do. And by the way, your electoral total to me says more about your opponent than it does about your campaign with all the respect. So with that, Councilman Fernandez.

I just wanna add that I don't believe there's any vendetta. There were many of my fellow council members that actually supported you in your election. So I don't think that a vendetta is, yeah, I know, I know. But I don't think that that's what is behind it. I just think that I'm gonna vote no because I wanna move on. I'll leave it at that.

Councilman Herzberg, thank you.

Ah, man, I mean, I almost want to change my vote after you read that. I'm not going to because I respect you. You're my friend. I've known you since 2020, but that's not you, and you know that. That writing right there wasn't you, and you know that. I'm still going to vote no because the process already occurred. You were censured. It's in the minutes. It's done. I just don't see the purpose, but that didn't help. That's not you, you know that's not you. I know who you are, and that wasn't you, and that doesn't help, but I'm still gonna vote no, because I already said it, so let's just get this over with.

Councilman Garcia, then the Vice Mayor, and then Councilman Sanchez.

Thank you, Mr. Mayor. Councilman Cuellar-Garcia, when we spoke last time, you mentioned things you were going to do to make sure that that type of behavior didn't happen again. I was satisfied with that, right? And that's why I voted no that time, and I vote no this time. You took some personal responsibility last time, when we feel that we've done something that, again, this hasn't been proven in a court of law, this hasn't gone to an ethics committee, there has been no ruling, just a letter from that business saying they cease and desist, again, but again, that doesn't make it true, it doesn't make it you did everything they said you did. you did some things that you felt were asking questions and you even said, maybe I went a little too far, but that doesn't make you guilty, but it does make you say to yourself, hey, we need to make sure we're following the rules and regulations. What you just read there, was not appropriate to what we're dealing with right now. I don't think, honestly, sir, anybody here, in fact, all of us here, if not any, has fought against communism and I will give my life to fight against communism because my family has given their life against communism. So I do not take that lightly because most of our families of here have lost family members fighting, that ridiculous monster of a dictator, and that, to say that, sir, to me, was disrespectful in that sense. However, I'm not gonna change my vote because what we talked about last time was address this situation. But please, I ask you in the future, do not take it to that level when it's not necessary to make your point because none of us here either accept or agree in any way to socialism and communism, and all of us, I think, would fight to the bitter end to fight them. So I would ask you to think twice before you make those accusations, but again, I'm gonna vote no on this, but again, sir, I think you went too far on accusing our members here of being communist or even in that same sentence. Thank you.

The Vice Mayor and then Sanchez as previously ordered.

Thank you, Mayor. I'm not gonna lie to you. I was originally on the fence on this item because I don't recall the council giving staff a direction to bring back a written resolution. And I thought that what happened last meeting happened and it was done as one of the residents, Mr. Cruz mentioned, here's your censure, take it and move on, right? it came back for whatever reason uh and that made me tend in favor of not supporting it i'm not gonna lie i was probably going to be a hard no on this what you just said is i'm gonna go a little further than councilman hersberg i will be changing my vote to a yes i don't care if that's a losing vote um on this dais but what you just said clearly shows that you either did not understand what this council is explaining that was done wrong, but also that you're proud of it and that you believe that it's us who are acting communist for censuring you, when in reality, we have business owners right now in the audience. I don't think any single one of them would tolerate a member of this council showing up with a town polo or even not in a town polo, exercising, as you said, exercising your civic duty as a elected official in a place where you have no warrant. You're on the one hand advocating for small government and at the same time reaching people's constitutional rights And this could have been just a slap on the wrist last month and call it a day. And at the end of the day, to piggyback on something the mayor said, no one is silencing you. A censure is not a censor, okay? A censure is a statement by this council that we do not approve of your actions. And if you can't understand that, then I'm sorry, but we are not censoring you. We are censuring you. Censoring would be saying you can no longer say this, this or that. We are not saying that. You can continue doing whatever you want and so be it. What we're doing is separating ourselves from your course of action as it relates to that particular business. And I also want to clarify something else. We had a resident come up during public comments and say, I think it was Mr., I won't even say who it was, don't censure him for bringing up issues at the cemetery, bringing them up to attention. That is not why you're being censured. You're bringing them up for violating someone's constitutional rights. I don't think someone would like a government official showing up to the gas station and performing warrantless searches of their back rooms and gaining access to private areas that they shouldn't have access to as a government official without a warrant or proper notice at least. You know, that's what's at issue here. It's not about whether or not there are problems at the cemetery. It's about the core principles as Americans, as not communists to protect the property rights of the individuals who reside in this in this town. So I'm sorry, but truthfully, I was actually going to vote no on this because I just don't see the purpose of doing this in writing after already doing it last meeting, but seeing that there is no contrition, I have no choice but to vote in favor of this.

Mr. Mayor.

Previous order was already called, which comes now to Councilman Sanchez, and then we'll go back to you.

Councilman Cuadra Garcia, you stated in that letter that everything is allegations but two seconds before you said it was an allegation you said i did what that letter says you verified it on this day is that you did what that letter states there have been other instances of things that a cease and desist hasn't been provided but i'm going to use it i'm not saying i'm going to use the police department but i'm not speaking specifically about our police department you can be anywhere in florida and there have been moments and we've all experienced that where we're at a red light and we see a police officer, and I'm not saying at all that our police officers do this. I'm putting that on the record. I've never seen one of our officers do this. But they get to a red light, and they don't want to wait at that red light, so they turn on their lights, they cross over the intersection, and then they turn them off just because they didn't want to wait, which is technically an abuse of power. Right? We have to set the standard. We have to set the example for the rest of the town. If we as the seven of us violate laws what's to say to the rest of the town oh if the elected officials can do it why can't i we set the standard we set the bar i know about visits that you've done to the to the advanced auto parts store on 57th avenue i know instances where you have used your title to try to get off tickets so i am aware of this But it needs to, we are not, I'll never forget the first time that I told you we shouldn't be doing that. We were at a bingo event, and you had parked your golf cart on top of the sidewalk at the Robert Alonso Community Center, and I said, Councilman Cuadra-Garcia, you should park that golf cart. And your response to me was, if it was a cop car, would you tell me the same thing? Councilman Cuadra-Garcia, we are not above the law. We actually have to hold the law to our standard. We have to do it. There are other municipalities where businesses have sued municipalities in Dade County because of actions that commissioners and council members have taken against that business. It happened recently. It happened in the last two years. We could not give a chance to make the town liable because of actions that you or anyone, any one of seven of us can take against a business in this town. We can't. This is the lowest level of what could have been done. It could have been an ethics review, it could have been a state attorney's review, it could have been, this is the lowest thing that could have been done. It is. And this is us telling you, it cannot happen. Our duty here, first and foremost, is to protect this town. It has to be. And litigation is something that we don't want against a business in this town. There are boundaries. It's the same thing if I see something illegal going on, I'm not gonna chase after that person in this town. I'm gonna call 911 or I'm gonna call a non-emergency line and tell them I see this going on. I'm not gonna reach out to town staff or to our local police because that is what we need to do. We don't have special privileges and things like that to that extent. This is gonna show you, the purpose of this is to show you that, that we are the standard. that we have to set the standard. Because other people see us doing that, oh, if he's doing it, I can do it too. And it's not that way, Councilman, it's not. So obviously I'm supporting this because I'm the one that brought it up. Because I want to see the protection for this town, not just from you, from anyone up here. Because we can all have a bad day. But we also have to remember what we represent, the 35,000 people in this town, the six square miles, and all the businesses in this town. we represent that the seven of us do thank you mr mayor thank you we go back to councilman guadalupe

Thank you, Mr. Chair. I just want to put in the records that if I stated anything to injure or state anything wrong as the words that I stated, I take anything that affected anybody, I apologize. Thank you very much.

Mayor, I have a motion, amendment.

Okay, we'll go ahead. You're recognized to make it.

Thank you. I guess it's a strike all amendment. Basically, I'm not asking the council to remove the censure. What happened happens in the minutes. My strike ball amendment is simply, let's not memorialize in resolution. It happened, we move on, and that's my amendment. That's my motion.

Councilmember, your motion would be to uphold the censure but not to memorialize it in a resolution.

Uphold it but not memorialize it in a resolution. I don't see the need to do it. There's nothing in the rules of order that requires to do it. It happened and we move on.

Well, for the attorney's benefit, I think what he's trying to say though is I mean, well, I'll come back to that, but I know what you're trying to say. I was just thinking about whether or not I would even be supportive of that, but I think his point is that he feels it's already been memorialized, right? So there's no need to, you know,

beat a dead horse I guess but but no mayor I do want to make a point we're not necessarily getting like if we vote this down we're not saying it didn't happen I want to make that point right so my motion is to we're not make it clear we're not voting it down we just don't need to memorialize the censure it's in the minutes it's done for the mayor it's to uphold the censure you're upholding what happened you're not sending it but just you're deciding not to memorialize in this resolution

Yeah, although I personally will be against the amendment just because I think, again, now we're hearing the contrition again, but it's like, how long until we get the other fabricated version that we heard earlier? So, Vice Mayor, go ahead. You had a point of information?

Yeah, wouldn't a no vote to the main motion accomplish the exact same result? Pretty much.

I guess I want my point to be, I don't believe we're trying to overturn the censure. That's all my point is, okay? I just don't see the need to .

Go ahead.

Just a point of parliamentary procedure. Yeah, let's clear this up. Voting no on the main motion does not take away the censure. Voting yes on Councilman Herzberg's motion does not take away the censure.

Yeah, but it accomplishes the exact same thing.

We end up in the same place. Legally, I'm okay with it. I just want this done.

Just one thing is just not signing off on the resolution.

That's his amendment. All right, so is there a second?

I'll second. Okay, we're seconding what?

Okay, all right. You know I love you. Okay, so with that, I guess it's been seconded. Do you wanna go ahead and discuss further, Councilman Fernandez? Okay, and Councilman Herzberg, was that you that was trying to get my attention? No, it was the manager. Oh, Mr. Manager.

Yeah, I just wanna be clear that the item appearing on the agenda with a resolution It's not an aberration. It's not the exception. It is the norm. In fact, there's multiple items on this agenda. The first reading ordinance on town sanction sign was born first of an NBI that came back now as an ordinance. The first reading ordinance on solid waste franchise fee is an item that was born first of an NBI and came back. The other two resolutions on this agenda that are both Vice Mayor Morera's, the license plate readers, was an NBI that is now back before you as a resolution, as well as the Youth Advisory Board. So it is our normal MO. From staff's and the attorney's perspective, we have done nothing out of the ordinary. It's obviously a much more sensitive topic, but the process, the MO, has been the same exact one that we do with every NBI that gets approved. It always comes back with legislation.

If I may, Mayor, this isn't an NBI. This is the first time we've ever done it. So nothing about this is a norm. So that's why I'm taking this position. And I don't believe we should even be saying this is the norm. okay i understand that that's what the that's what the normal policy is but this isn't the norm because we never even at least our town attorney doesn't remember doing it and there's been a lot more conflict on this council than this i want to get me and the town attorney to share the same thing let's just get this over with you know let's just move on

Well, last thing I'll say on the amendment is, again, I agree with you. It's not the norm, and nor should it be the norm. But also, even in prior, more contentious years, where the council was 4-3 on most things, nobody was going around engaging in the acts that, again, he said he engaged in. So I know that my colleagues are very generous, and they feel bad for the position that he finds himself in. We're all adults here, right? There are consequences to the things we do. And while I agree with you that the censure is already in the record, again, I would argue that the person we saw at the top of his remarks is the reason why I supported the censure in the first place. But with that, on the amendment, the strike all amendment, Madam Clerk, please call the roll.

Council Member Herzberg.

Yes.

Council Member Garcia.

Yes.

Council Member Cuadra-Garcia.

Yes.

Council Member Fernandez.

Yes.

Council Member Sanchez.

No.

Vice Mayor Morera.

Yes.

Mayor Diegues. No. The motion, the amendment passes.

Excellent, all right, we're now on the main motion as amended. Call the roll, Madam Clerk. Yes.

Council Member Sanchez.

No.

Council Member Herzberg.

I'm a yes. You did a strike all amendment. Right, my motion, yes.

Council Member Cuadra Garcia.

Yes.

Council Member Fernandez.

Yes.

Council Member Garcia.

Yes.

Vice Mayor Morera.

Yes.

Mayor Diegues. No. The motion passes.

I don't think your mic's on. Is your mic on? My apologies, I'll start from the top. For the record, for those who are watching, we are on seven appointments, and Gary Cardenas is coming back to the Veterans Committee, a Veteran Affairs Committee, and is being appointed by Councilman Alex Sanchez. Next up, we have Eddie Mena being appointed to the Veteran Affairs Committee by Councilmember JC Fernandez. If those individuals, I don't see Eddie, nor do I see Gary, so congratulations to them, but we'll move on to to the next item. Point of order. Mr. Vice Mayor, you're recognized for a point of order.

Thank you, I'd like to move to open the agenda.

Well, that's not really a point of order. The order of the meeting. No, the point of order has to do with the rules being followed. With that said, okay, there's a motion to reopen the agenda. Second. It's been seconded by Councilman Herzberg. All those in favor say aye. Aye. All opposed, no. The ayes have it, and the agenda's back open. What would you like to amend in terms of our order of business, Mr. Vice Mayor?

Thank you, Mayor. I'd like to have 15C, the Youth Advisory Board item, pulled to immediately following the resolution of this motion, and then immediately followed by item 8, D as in Delta, update partial interchange on Grattany at 67th, the revised traffic study. So I think that's what a lot of people might be waiting to hear.

So really quick, it was 8D to when again? It was 8D to immediately after 15C, which we're moving. Okay, so 15C next. And then after that. A, E, or D, yeah, sorry. And then take up the remainder as amended. Yep. Okay. All right, so any other changes while we're here? Ideally the last opportunity to make those changes, okay. With that, is there a motion and a second on these changes? So moved. Second. It's been moved by the Vice Mayor, seconded by Councilman Garcia. All those in favor of the amended agenda, say aye. Aye. All opposed, no.

you guys have it the agenda is amended and we are now on 15 C that would be yes reestablishing the youth advisory board so with that mr. vice mayor go ahead Thank You mr. mayor so this is an item I brought to you guys I believe two maybe three months ago as you might recall this this board was originally created back in 2024, right before I got elected, but then nothing happened. There was no follow-up. I want to give a lot of credit to Ms. Carolina Cubas, who brought it up and also pestered me for the last three months to make sure that I revised the language according to our Sunshine meetings and got it up on this agenda. She's a true model of civic engagement. That being said, you will find that the red line I've provided for you on page 619 through 621 of the agenda has some red lines on it. Those red lines are primarily intended to cover all of the issues that were raised during the Sunshine meeting, correct? Such as, Mayor, your specific item on the preference for Miami Lakes residents, that's all covered in there. So with that, I'll move the resolution on item 15C. Second.

It's been moved by the Vice Mayor, seconded by Councilman Garcia. Do we really need any discussion on this? All right, all those in favor say aye. Aye. All opposed, no. The ayes have it. Item 15C passes, thank you. I love unity.

don't we all okay with that that brings us now to item 8d which is the update partial interchange on grattany at 67th avenue provides traffic study manager peterman you are recognized to explain or to give your report yes this is just an informational item that requires no action by the council all this is is feedback to the council from gmx that we as directed by the council approached gmx about conducting a revised traffic study that eliminates the off-ramp, and they have agreed to do it. They have promised a return date of 60 to 90 days, but they believe they can do it sooner. Our hope is to bring it back to the council for reconsideration at the November meeting. That's it.

All right, thank you. So we are now on item 8A, police report by Major Ulloa.

Good evening, council. As it pertains to our total numbers for up to August 31st, sorry, August 30th, we are down 30% in reference to our overall crimes. Additionally, for the month, we issued 307 citations. Issued between written and verbal warnings, we issued 99. And we also issued 52 parking citations in the meantime. I know that last meeting we already went over the Jackie the Dookie statue so No need obviously I figured to reiterate the same thing. We already spoke about last month So I really don't have anything further unless you guys have questions for me

Any questions of the major? Mr. Vice Mayor. Thank you.

I don't know if it was already covered on last month's agenda, but I did notice burglary residential up two as opposed to prior year to date. Did that happen in the last month, or was that already there?

No, it's been there. So out of the three, we technically truly won, and the other two were attempts where we made the arrest on the individual. That's right.

We already covered this. All right. Thank you.

You're welcome.

Councilman Cuadra-Garcia.

Major Viola, I've got a quick question, simple. I know of the issue with the LPR cameras. What is going to happen moving forward? Do you have any update on the issue with these LPRs? So they're pretty much off right now?

So right now we're just in a suspension time frame for the most part in reference to under the sheriff's orders. Predominantly the sheriff is supportive of the LPRs, but she wants to make sure that the legal guidelines and there are parameters set in place by the agency to ensure that obviously us, or anybody else from MDSO isn't violating any policy. So it's pretty much more of legal ramifications and policy implications before they reopen the ability to use the LPRs again. So right now we're just on a timeout per se. I guess that's the easiest way I can explain it.

Okay, thank you.

Thank you. I believe Councilman Herzberg had moved his item 16, I think it's E, right? Yes. E as in echo? Yeah. Which is discussion regarding suspension of licensed play reader program to immediately after your report. Correct. If you wanna go ahead and bring it up now, you can do so.

Yeah, thank you, Major. I figured we'd do this, only have to call you up once, because we might have some more questions, just like the Councilman had. So we all know the license plate reader program was suspended. Municipalities actually can continue there, some have, Miami Beach and some other cities, unless it's on state roads, right? But since we contracted the Sheriff's Office, we're not allowed, the sheriff's position is to suspend it for the foreseeable future, so really, I mean, my understanding is, and this is more of a, unless somebody else has an idea, it's more just getting the input from the major on what the next steps are and what the history of it is, because my understanding is we haven't had any well-publicized abuse of the system and how the system works is there's a lot of, we actually have your flock camera resolution coming up. This isn't facial recognition cameras that are out there. So if you just give us an idea of how the system works right what does it actually track and then your understanding if you have any of do we expect there to be something that happens within the next fiscal year because there's cost involved in our budget on on getting these things back up back up because you i believe you've been you've been the fan and the prior major has been a fan prior councils have been a fan of the system because it helps it works uh and you know we're looking at a legitimate public policy concern with Some how some of the cameras operate how some officers have used those cameras and the stories you see in the news But is that really an issue that we have in Miami Lakes?

That's what I want to try to figure out No, I mean in reference to to us and using the vendor that we have obviously We haven't had any any violations of any policies or misuse of the system as a whole Additionally our system Even though it's got AI capabilities, it doesn't capture faces. It doesn't do facial recognition. It's just very simple. It's just the AI. It's just kind of a detection of vehicle makes and models, vehicle colors, the tags. Additionally, we've even had to get with you know with omar santos in reference to like even some signage that we've had to kind of move because then it you know it gives us like bad readings those kind of things so it's it's pretty straightforward in reference to to us um you know like the capabilities of the cameras that we use are legitimately pretty basic and straightforward is there technology out there like in like as part of flock that that exceeds what what our cameras do absolutely uh but they're not in the town itself so in in that aspect um while while us as ndso deputies we have access to the the departments and the agencies uh flock cameras as well I mean, predominantly our sole focus is just solely what we have here in the town, unless we're trying to find a vehicle that might have come outside of the town, like, let's say, Hialeah or whatever other agencies that would have access to the LPRs, but that's it.

Anything else? Thank you, Major. You're welcome. All right, we are now moving up, anything else? We're now moving to item eight, or rather 16E, which we had said we would take up after 8A. Oh, okay, whoopsie. I had it as a different letter, so that's what it was. Okay, so skip that. We're now on the Public Works Infrastructure Report by Director Santos, 8B.

Good evening, Council. so i'll highlight three projects one of them the 59th avenue one of some of the progress we've made with that project the plans have already been submitted to faa for review by the miami-dade aviation the same is being done with the south florida water management district we just got to pay the fee and that that will be in review and we're also in communication and that real estate for the agreement of the actual use of their their land in the opelika airport area for our park west oh and there's one more item that's here in the consent agenda is for right-of-way services the reason for that item is during our last meetings monthly meetings with the florida department of transportation their right-of-way team informed us that We still need some right-of-way services from a qualified consultant for the last private property to the north. So we're bringing them in. There are some additional items there that may not get triggered. It all depends how the acquisition of that property moves forward. But we need to be prepared to have those services on hand if they are needed. That's why that's there. And not having to come back and use more time. Our Park West project, We are already having our kickoff meeting next month, early next month, and soon after that, we'll have our pre-construction meeting. So we're anticipating some initial construction activities, hopefully end of October, beginning of November. That's our current estimate. If any of that changes, I'll report in the next meeting. And lastly, and i'll stop with this one our stormwater master plan update number four we've already uh gone to the final stages of our grant for that project so we were able through the work of olivia we were able to get a grant for that and not use town funds uh what this will do is we'll review again our existing stormwater plan and how the the projects that have been completed are performing how the rest of the system are performing and identify additional critical areas that will need improvement in the future. So with that, I conclude my hearing report.

Vice Mayor, go ahead. Thank you. Just speaking of the stormwater, I see items number 10, 11, 12, and 13 on your list. They're all drainage projects, all in the closeout phase, all at 99%. Fair to say we're gonna get a few ribbon cuttings soon, hopefully?

Yes, and the reason we haven't done it, we're just waiting for us, both, and administrators.

We're happy, because you're done.

He's been there for a while.

Okay, good, good. All right, just wanted to make sure that these are the ones that we broke ground on, so it wasn't too long ago, so good job on the pacing. Thank you.

That's thanks to our team.

Where are we in terms of the big Cypress project? We just got the, or rather we celebrated getting the money with Congressman Diaz-Balart, and then we subsequently started celebrating it with our state legislators as getting the money. So I just want to see where we're at with that.

So once we get the official award, we still have to go through a grant agreement process signature. My understanding is that, and Olivia, if you want to jump in, but that has already been executed on our end, right? Or this is not that one, sorry.

Let me not.

Omar, while she's walking up, that is a project that's already been designed. So once we get the agreement, we should be able to go into construction or it still needs design?

No, design is completed.

Okay, good.

hi there so for that one with the federal grant we actually just they had the kickoff meeting today this morning um so i just attended that we just received notice that they've put all the stuff into the portal that they do so now we have to go through the process of giving them all the information the narrative that they want starting on the environmental review so then we can start the grant agreement process but they just actually sent that stuff out today so please

And a revision to my response to the manager. So since this one is a, we have a lot of projects. Since this one is a federal project and it's managed by HUD, we do have to go through an environmental review process. So we actually, we had our internal meeting and we're reviewing how that process is gonna go. In the past, we've been able to do some of this internally. I think we may be able to do the same. If not, I may have to recommend going with a consultant. But that's to be decided.

Based on past experiences with these kinds of grants, what do you calculate would be the time from now until the first shovel in the ground?

Six months? I would need to finish my review of the current environmental process guidelines to see if it's similar to what we have done in the past. You're doing a K on me.

Yeah, sorry. Alright, anyone else? Seeing none, thank you very much. We are now on item 8C, report on installation of historical marker of right-of-way, which was originally by Councilmember Fernandez, but we'll go to Director Santos to go ahead and provide the information we need.

So, and I'll be brief and then I'll hand it over to the Councilmember, but in excuse me for this, but a few council meetings ago, Council Member Fernandez introduced a new business item to construct a historical marker to exhibit the first homes that were constructed in that area of Miami Lakes. After that council meeting, we got some more information from the council member as far as the construction method and the aesthetics of this sign. So what you have in the report, in the memo, is an example of what it could look like the installation location was mentioned by the council member in his mbi which is the corner of 67 and lake patricia and in addition in that item in the memo as well you'll have some estimates based on uh on a tool that's available by one of the manufacturers that was recommended by a vendor that we use There's two, the reason there's two prices is that one is aluminum, one is bronze. So that's where you see the difference in prices. And then the last portion of the memo is recommend the language that the council member will go into.

Council member Fernandez, what is your pleasure here?

I'll be brief. I mean this when I say that Rosa Nohammer had a really big impact on me and the love of the history of the town. I sat next to her for about five years while I was at the Kyes Company, and she chatted with me about so much. And she has so much documentation and so much of the original pamphlets that she once was one of the sales agents for the Grams. But anyway, putting that aside, I hope that you guys support it. I know that it's a little bit pricey. I think that we have the money for it. It's really important, I think. So I ask for your support.

Which item or which option?

I would like the bronze if I had a choice.

All right, so Council Member Fernandez moves to go with the bronze option. It's been seconded by the Vice Mayor for discussion, and we'll begin with him.

I guess I'm just confused about what exactly is the bronze part, because I'm looking at the mock-up with the blue sign. What's bronze, the pole?

The blue sign itself is bronze. Would be bronze. Yeah, it just, this is just, I just pulled the one that was available on their site, so.

But would it look something like that?

The shape, the general shape, but the colors, the text, you can choose that.

I think that that is typical for all the historic markers that you see when you go down through Savannah and these other trails.

But the color would be bronze.

You can choose the color. So you can choose the color of the text. The size can be bigger or smaller.

Okay. I only think that the aluminum may be superior for long time weather resistance, as well as the ability to put colors. Like if you did want to put the seal on that little circle at the top or something like that, I think aluminum handles color better than bronze, if I'm not mistaken.

We can ask the people that manufacture. It's also cheaper.

Yeah, we can probably bring a couple samples, right? Can we, or? I can ask.

That's something I can research. But I do wanna say something. So go ahead. That this pricing is based on a 30 inch by 24 inch. you can modify that to go smaller and that will reduce the cost or you can also go larger if you want for visuals uh but again that will increase and do we have a proposed location for it like is that one of the pocket parks in that neighborhood Yes, it's a park, but it's a long park on the corner of 67 and 154. Got it. 154? I mean, 67 and Lake Patricia Drive. My apologies.

Okay. Yeah, no, so I think as far as this is a report, and a motion isn't necessarily needed, but I think that

the direction would be at the budget hearing to to include the funding that's the most important part without funding is just you know concepts right so I would recommend that this be considered as an a for you guys somebody one of you to bring up as an amendment to fund it in the budget hearing next week because I think it's just

Practically speaking that aluminum might be better for color purposes and potentially for a long-term wear, but I do think that the Gravitas of bronze also that is a factor So I'll inquire on that and I'll let you know through the manager if we can't get a sample.

All right councilmember Sanchez.

Well, I love the idea. I love you because you know the history that Miami Lakes has But I feel like we're putting a cherry on top on a cake that's not yet finished baking. Because to me, safety is a very big thing in this town. And I'm going to relate back to the Sunshine meeting, the site visit that we had regarding safety just south of Barbara Goldman in that field where it's a total price of $5,000 to install bollards so that nobody can drive into the canal or anything like that that can help with. with car insurance mitigation. And unfortunately, we have been able to secure the funds for that. It was five months ago, and it's $5,000. So if we have to pick one project over the other, I'd rather go the safety route and use those funds. Because mind you, if I understand correctly, this price does not include installation. This is just the price for the sign. It's a few thousand dollars extra for the installation. So I'd like to first focus on safety before putting on the cherry on top of the cake.

Through the chair, through the mayor?

Go ahead.

I just, and I appreciate that. I understand where you're coming from. I would support the $5,000 for your bollards if you support the $10,000 for my- We're here in a public meeting, why not?

Mayor. I do, before I go to Councilman Herzberg, I do wanna point out though, you say 5,000, but with the gate option though, that's more than 5,000. If I recall correctly, 5,000 was the wooden bollards with the chain, correct? But for the gate, that was gonna tack on like an additional couple thousand. I just wanna know what the exact number is. I don't remember that.

Remember, you're probably not making the decision tonight, these decisions, because it's funding, right? So this decision would probably be more appropriate to decide whether you fund them one or the other or both at the budget hearing. I get it, but I'm asking a question. Yeah, I think Omar would know.

I just wanted to know what it was. The bollards at Goldman? The wooden bollards plus the gate was going to be how much? I think it was seven total between both. Okay, so- Okay. Yeah, this was back in April. This was back in April, yeah. All right, well then obviously he wants to bring it up at the second budget hearing, so just make sure to try to get me that information beforehand, please. I just want to know what the data was. I mean, I have it somewhere, but it just would make it a lot easier for me. Okay, Councilman Herzberg.

thank you mayor i mean it's it's funny i i have in my agenda booklet i wrote carry forward i really feel like this is an appropriate project for the mid-year boat projects uh but i'm supportive item i like the the aluminum i don't know if the director has a preference on what would last longer but i like it because We can almost do two for the price of one. It's not that far off. So I would like to find other spots. I'm a big fan of showing our history and making sure residents and kids know about it. People think of Miami, just Miami in general, they don't think there's any history. There's plenty of history here, and even Miami Lakes, right? So I'm a fan of it. Let's talk about it in the budget season. I think you're right. Let's just see if we want to put in the budget, or... We put in the budget in April, but I think we'll get both of your guys' things done.

All right, anything else on this item? Councilman Cuadra-Garcia.

Thank you, Mr. Chair. Basically, I want to find out where we are with my item of the canal embankment. I think the attorney, the was going to talk about it. Do you want to tell us where we are?

It's an item on our attorney's report, councilman, so we'll be talking about it during our council.

I can't hear you, I'm sorry.

We have it as an item on our attorney's report, so we'll be talking- Okay, so we're going to get there.

Yes. Okay, thank you. All right, all those in favor say aye. Aye. Aye. Aye. Aye. Aye. Aye. Aye. Aye. Aye. Aye. Aye. Aye. Aye. Aye. Aye. Aye. Aye. Aye. Aye. Aye. Aye. Aye. Aye. Aye. Aye. Aye. Aye. Aye. Aye. Aye. Aye. Aye. Aye. Aye. Aye. Aye. Aye. Aye. Aye. Aye. Aye. Aye. Aye. Aye. Aye. Aye. Aye. Aye. Aye. Aye. Aye. Aye. Aye. Aye. Aye. Aye. Aye. Aye. Aye. Aye. Aye. Aye. Aye.

Aye.

Aye. Aye. Aye. Aye. Aye. Aye. Aye. Aye. Aye 8E, report on landscaping solutions for Veterans Park. Director Bagdow.

Good evening, Mayor and Council. Jeremy Bagdon, Director of Parks and Recreation. The item you have before you is in response to an NBI in July looking at ways to increase the drainage and flow of water at Veterans Park, our widely used large event space that houses our larger events like Fourth of July, Halloween coming up, and our Spring Fling. The report goes over some options as far as how we can move water in this park. There are options are going to go from the least expensive to then eventually getting to the most efficient ways of moving water. You have four options before you. At this point, staff's kind of recommendation is if the goal is to increase the most flow of drainage and move the most water, our first approach should be to look at a feasibility study that takes into account what is the environmental conditions in the site. That way we know entirely what we can and cannot do. Short of that, you do have an option to do something that is quick, that can increase drainability immediately after taking effect. you have an option to regrade and re-sod, and then there's an option to go ahead and add subterranean drainage. If there's any questions, I'll just time them. Oh, go ahead.

First, I saw Councilman Sanchez's hand up, and this is his item, so we'll go to him for a motion before we go into discussion.

Thank you, Jeremy, and the entire Parks Department for all the hard work that you did on this. I very much appreciate it. I do want to bring up an item that isn't on here. It was on the first version of the report, and then I received some feedback on it, and then I came with new ideas. Something that isn't on this report is something that I think the Vice Mayor will enjoy very much because he will be vice mayor will be able to enjoy very much because he will be able to consistently frolic in the park on a more consistent basis i was unfortunately unable to attend the the september 11th event but from the papers that i saw the grass had reached a pretty high level the option i'm speaking about is about bermuda grass Bermuda grass is very short. It stays that short for extended periods of time. I understand it's a costly option, and the concern by staff, the first feedback I received is that it can lend itself to become a field for organized sports, right? So after I received that, I received information about possibly adding in that same field a four foot wide, an extension basically of the walking path that we have. It would be a big T and it would create four sections of that grass in that area. I understand that it can be a little bit more costly to maintain than the current grass that we have there, but it also lends itself for more picnics and different events that we do already in the town. Fourth of July, Mental Health Fair, Nightmare on Montrose, the 5K, all the events that we do because it is our most used park for events. Now, something that I do want to know, what other parks do we currently have in the town that the fields already have Bermuda grass?

The only two parks that are going to have it are your athletic sites, so Optimus and Royal Oaks. They're two different breeds. What was presented to you at one point was Bermuda, which is solely at Optimus, and then we have Seashore Paspalum over at Royal Oaks Park.

Does it cost the same to maintain those two?

Seashore Paspalum tends to be a little more expensive, but essentially they're about the same cost. The maintenance practices are the same for those two different types of breeds of grass.

Now, I ask that because in the most recent email that I received, it said that the annual cost to maintain those four acres of Bermuda grass is about $40,000. However, I have the budget pulled up right now for the next fiscal year, and I'm looking at Royal Oaks Park, and to maintain those grounds, it's also $40,000, but that's way more than four acres.

No, so you'd have to take a look at only the items, essentially, that are going to affect turf and not affect other items. So you have the monthly litter pickup that's included in there. I just need to make sure you actually looked at every single line item.

Repair and maintenance grounds, $40,000.

No, so that's just repairs of grounds. That's not the actual contractual value. So which item would be the- So 0017217546000, that'll be your contract for our Royal Oaks.

Did you say that off the cuff?

Yes, he did, it's 412,000. That's impressive.

Okay, so $40,000 a year to maintain the four acres is what you're estimating? Correct.

Okay, to borrow a term from the Mayor, before we get lost in the sauce, make a motion.

Yeah, so- my motion the okay so the total cost of doing the bermuda and this includes the hundred and seventy five thousand dollars in sod forty thousand dollars but that's not really included in the first spring correct so you would in this case it would be the total would be minus

It should be listed in that email. I think the total comes out to year one is $550,000. With a recurring cost of $40,000 for the practice of just those four acres.

That $550,000 also includes the $40,000 of maintenance.

Correct, for year one, yes.

So yeah, that includes the sod, it includes the maintenance, it includes the sidewalks. So you would have four feet wide from the basketball court towards the playground and ending at the walking path. And then east to west, it would just be the same, but east to west on the park. So it would create four divisions. It would also include a full drainage plan, which includes a brand new irrigation system. That's $550,000. I move to accept that and to receive those funds through either possible appropriation from Tallahassee or if we can use those funds from, which is why at the budget hearing I requested about the funds that are being used for Optimist, doing this instead of using the totality of those funds for park improvement for this.

I'll second. seconded by motion made by councilman sanchez seconded by councilman fernandez just just a really quick comment that i i wouldn't want to touch any funds i i'm all for it i'm 100 with it but i i i'm still moving forward with optimus you know they've been sliding for many years

Councilman Garcia.

Yeah, I'm gonna second that from Councilman Fernandez. I'm opposed to moving anything, even short term, from Optimist Park. But I understand what Councilman Sanchez is saying when it comes to trying to make that field a little more friendly. However, my personal observation in Veterans Park, because we were all there in Fourth of July. We got rained on, we all got, I thought, or for the amount of rain that came down in that little short time, which must have been an inch and a half, that it drained pretty well. And yeah, of course there were some areas that stayed flooded, but that's what happens when ground is saturated. I guess my question to you is, How do you feel the drainage is holding up? And this is aside from changing the grass, because Bermuda grass is always nicer. You don't have to cut it every day. It doesn't grow as high if the rain comes, because that's what happens. You can't cut when it's flooded or it's raining. You just can't do it, because the equipment gets all clogged up. What are your thoughts on the current drainage right now? Is there any way to mitigate those little pockets with fill, right, and with making sure we're aerating on a regular basis like we always do. What are the conditions you feel the park drainage right now in Veterans Park?

Councilman, you mentioned a few good things there. So the biggest thing is aeration we don't do, that's not a maintenance practice on common area grass, typically. We have done it more recently at Canine Cove and we have seen some improvements. That's why that's one of the options that was listed here. To look at including aeration to help kind of perforate through that root zone and move water down out of it so that when we do have these rains, close to an event time, that water is able to move quickly out of the root zone and out of kind of what we feel and what we can actually sense. That way it dries up quicker. You also mentioned some of the unevenness in the pockets. That's gonna be the biggest area we have to gain. Obviously we can create any type of positive flow just at the soil level and at the actual leaf level of the grass. That'll help move water out of the central area. So that would be one of the biggest things I would say is the takeaway is finding ways to grade and level the field. would be a big plus to helping actually move the water out of the main usage areas. But currently, through the chair, if I can follow up.

Currently, is the flow right now, is the drainage flow, is the angles, is it graded right now to your satisfactory, or do you feel that it does need attention? Because honestly, when we went to the 9-11, I didn't see it rain the night before, I didn't really see... i didn't see any any puddling or anything like that so it seems to me that it's it's draining off past the sidewalks into the where the trees are on both sides all the way around but do you see an area that you see floods there there is one area that in the walkthrough with the vendor to go ahead and get some of these costs we identified was a much higher level pushing water to the center

Other than that, the field from, I had staff that attended the event and was there, essentially brought forth that it did pretty well. We did get severe rain the day before and then prior to the event, but that's not to say there aren't smaller things we can do to help move that water a little quicker.

Yeah, so those areas of opportunity, but I still don't feel that regrading the entire area might be just, right now, we don't have the money to do that. If we had the money, I would love to. Adding additional walkways is a great idea, Councilman, because it's true when you're walking through that grass and the grass gets high it's it's difficult especially for for seniors and for kids and people with strollers I understand that adding maybe adding a square there Bermuda grass Would that help with the drain? We have to aerate it, right? Because Bermuda grass, you have to aerate. You just can't leave it there. Correct. Because it compacts and the water would just, so do you think Bermuda grass would be a better alternative?

Bermuda grass tends to help perforate the water a little quicker. It has a better rebound time. There are benefits to it. Now, there is, just as you mentioned, there is going to be, for those benefits, you have maintenance practices that must be done that we weren't doing previously. Aeration being one, top dressing being another to maintain the level.

So knowing seeing our budget knowing what we can achieve and not touching Optimus Park trying to get funds from from from the State and other other grants. What do you what would I know you put different? But what would you recommend if you could do a magic wand knowing our budget? You know issues I Don't think it's the biggest bang. So hang up. So biggest bang for the buck right now.

I

At this point, the next thing we can do is evaluate, take a deeper dive into how it's moving water and how it currently acts after rain events to see if there is something needed further than that. But at this time, the quickest fix is going to be a regrade and move the water from the center. That is going to be the easiest surface level option. okay and that's the cost for that is again that would be option two at st augustine it's 235 and at the total number of uh of bermuda would be adding 172 000 to that well that's

That's a number right now that if we will get funding, I would love it.

It's essentially the difference between St. Augustine and the option of Bermuda is about a dollar more per square foot, and there's about 172, 174,000 square feet in those four acres.

So if we asked you right now, hey, just identify the pockets that floods, you know, the lower and just fill it in and redo the grass with regular grass at grade, what would be the cost for that?

I can take a look at it. I'd have to actually measure that zone only and only measure that square footage because I don't have that.

I think what the councilman is saying is true. We don't want these areas to be basically, you know, mud puddles when we're having events and we can deal with that first low hanging fruit first. uh i would be open to maybe in the future if if we're able to get funding or some sort of grant to do it but as of right now that that number seems way too excessive for the fix you know the juice isn't worth the squeeze for me right now with how good that field absorbs at the moment so that's that's my two cents on that

Mr. Vice-Chair? Mr. Vice-Chair, to wrap this up, well, I guess after Councilman Cuadra-Garcia, but gentlemen, we are now at 9.48 p.m. We're therefore almost an hour away before we have to start moving to extend time, and then remember the charter requires that we cease these meetings by midnight. So if we want to get through the substance of the meeting, we got to move, we got to pick up the pace. So with that, Mr. Vice-Mayor.

Yeah, I'll keep it short then. Councilman Sanchez, you know, I tend to like your ideas, and I think that this one comes from a good place. I cannot support this one at all, and I don't like any of the options. I don't want to do anything to Veterans Park, to be honest with you. What we need to do to Veterans Park is currently being done to it. You guys spot treated certain areas where you removed and replaced grass that was, I think, infected or had some issue going on with it, which is, by the way, why you saw some long grass at the 9-11 event was because they, I believe, might have skipped a cut to allow it to even out or something like that.

Yeah, you essentially wouldn't mow when it was still establishing. Exactly. Because if not, you'd stress out the church.

So that's why you saw the unkept grass for September 11th. It was unfortunate that it coincided with that event. But nonetheless, that park, I've always seen it well-maintained. I pass by it every single morning. And as far as, I definitely object to spending anywhere near $235,000 or $300,000 to this, but I think it's also sending the wrong message. Veterans Park is very much a passive park, and I really, really harp on avoiding doing anything to Veterans Park that makes it more of an event venue. um yes we do host events there yes we have the fourth of july event um and and the halloween event mental health fair any number of them i'm not trying to make it to to where we can have more uh i i do think that that park needs to be maintained especially if if uh you know god willing we get the funding for that monument for the veterans it is meant to be a solemn place it is meant to be a place of reflection a place of outdoor walking outdoor exercising and that's it the bermuda stuff you're basically turning it into a sports field you're gonna then have a flag football league pop up at any moment i don't need that and again i do really um echo the sentiments of councilman garcia that you know very well I was unfortunately caught in the deluge on Fourth of July in a chair in an umbrella because I had my very very senior citizen neighbor with me and she cannot move very quickly so we were stuck out there in the storm in our chairs and we were looking all around us that that field handled that deluge like a champ within an hour Everything was back up and running. No one was tripping and falling and breaking hips. So again, for what it is as a passive park, I don't think it needs those improvements. I think that those improvements would only cause us to see it more or less and less as a passive park. I'm getting there. So I can't support your item.

Wonderful way to conclude. Short and concise, or rather concise. But with that, I just want to go ahead before I go to Councilman Cuadra-Garcia to close this out. I just also for the reasons that the Vice Mayor alluded to, you know, being out there in the rain and everything, seeing how well it handled it. and how it handles other downpours at other events that we've had i just i i'm just not there yet to support it especially if it's going to come from a funding source like what we just approved for the optimist park which is which was a hard one accomplishment in itself um so for that reason i can't be with you on this one um you know but i agree it is well intentioned um but with that councilman cuadra garcia

all right i got the end uh part of the uh of the uh item and i just thought you were talking about um the optimist park and i said we just gave a whole full box full of money to the optimist park are we giving more money no okay so therefore that's i understand i know thank you a councilman sanchez and then madam clerk after he speaks call the roll

so i had mentioned a few um revenue sources which is why at the at the budget hearing i had mentioned if we could the list of all eight projects that we're going to do at optimist to see if we could squeeze a project like this into those top eight maybe move number eight on the list of priorities out of the way to fit this type of project in or go through state appropriations now With reference to flag football and things like that, that was the whole purpose of coming back with the sidewalks that go vertically and horizontally on the park in order to break up the field so it doesn't lend itself for organized sports. Families can go out there and they can do a nice picnic on a Saturday and lay down a blanket. Even if the grass hasn't been cut in three weeks, it's still very short and very enjoyable. It will be cut in three weeks. No, no, I get it. But to the point where it doesn't get that it's, you know, it's scratching the top of your ankle because of how high it is. You know, and I also believe that Bermuda grass also tends itself to not be a good habitat for insects and things of that nature, if I'm not mistaken.

It has to be maintained a little higher, so often it's killed off because of the frequencies for IPM, for insect and pest management.

Right, so it has a ripple effect into that. So I would like to amend my motion to just have it pass if we're able to receive appropriations from Tallahassee to do this improvement on one of our most prestigious parks for events in the town. That is my amendment. Is there a second?

I'll second.

All right, go ahead and kick off discussion.

I mean, I stated I was in support of the item before, but I just didn't want you to ask for any money moved from Optimus Park. So even more so, if it's just going to be based on the qualification is we have to get funding from other sources, then I'm all for it. Thank you.

Madam Clerk, on the amendment, call the roll.

Council Member Fernandez? Yes. Council Member Sanchez? Yes. Council Member Herzberg?

No.

Council Member Garcia?

No.

Council Member Cuadra Garcia?

No.

Vice Mayor Morera? No.

Mayor Diaz? No. The amendment fails.

All right, we're back on the main motion. Madam Clerk, please call the roll.

Council Member Sanchez?

Yes.

Council Member Garcia?

No.

Council Member Cuadra-Garcia? No. Council Member Herzberg? No. Council Member Fernandez? Yes. Vice Mayor Morera?

No.

Mayor Diaz? No. The motion fails.

Thank you very much. We are now moving on to item 8F, STD Automation Improvements and Vendor Rate Increase Request by Councilman Herzberg. But we'll go to the director first to go ahead and introduce the item before we entertain a motion.

Yes, the item you have before you comes on the heels of a NBI to look at ways to increase automation within the security districts to find a way to leverage costs by reducing where we can some manpower and bringing in some automations to reduce those labor rates. In doing so, you have a report that goes over five different options. Each option is laid out with the impact to the budgets of each security district. as well as the second portion of this agreement is based off of looking at current rates only, which this report only looks at the current labor rates for SFM under their current agreement, there has been a request for an increase, and essentially that request would also then potentially change some of these figures moving forward, as well as potentially change some of the fiscal year 26-27 budget. So with that, at the bottom, you do see options for council that do provide three options that we are looking for recommendation on how you would like us to approach, knowing that this may affect the continuing of operations for next fiscal year. With that.

We'll go to the council members for a motion before we go into discussion. And then I understand that we have a representative from SFM here, if you would like to speak after we have a motion and a second. If any, we'll go ahead and turn it to him.

Thank you, so first I don't expect anything to happen this fiscal year. Like I said when I first proposed this evaluation, this is a one, two plus year project because we have an ordinance to deal with. You see there is opportunity for significant savings if the residents of those districts show they want it. The option actually I was most, I most wanted wasn't in here but I did get the numbers, which for example is, is having a remote guard 24-7, remote as in how it's set here, but then having a law enforcement officer patrol each district. I don't know why, Loch Lomond, I'm not planning on changing any of Loch Lomond unless they come to us. And I don't believe section one would want anything except for a reduction. But for the Royal Oak sections, you actually would save money. You would save $100,000 for each section based off these numbers, I believe. If you had the remote guard during the daytime, 24-7, and then had a law enforcement officer patrolling each district, Eroics East and Eroics West would each get their own law enforcement officer patrolling it from 10 p.m. to 6 a.m. That security would cost $100,000 less a year than what they pay for right now based off these numbers. What we pay for in Roe Oaks, correct. So you get a police officer just in each district, not even sharing. This is based off the numbers I have, we'll confirm them. And we would save money. I think that's a phenomenal improvement of service.

I'll second for discussion.

So let's, well, yeah, go ahead. So my motion is to continue to have staff come back to us and I also need the town attorney to come back to us with codifying the ordinance in our town code as well.

So all right with that I'd like to hear from our current vendor really quick before we continue with the council discussion if there's anything you want to add for context

Good evening. My name is Christian Infante with SFM Security. I'd just like to add that, as many of you know, minimum wage has gone up every year by $1. So in the last two years, it's gone up by 15.5%. What we're requesting here is 2.9% increase to our bill rate. Like I mentioned to your staff, if we can't get this increase, I would respectfully request to re-bid the contract because we just can't afford these large increases. As you know, our major expense is labor. I mean, it's very simple math. If our labor costs have gone up by 15.5% and we're being denied increases, which are out of our control, it's a state-mandated minimum wage rate increase. So that's basically where we're at, and I was just here to see if anyone had any questions or if I can clarify anything. Thank you. Questions?

Well, I get let me do my own point order here. My motion has nothing to do with that. I think we need two motions here. But I'm happy to, I don't know why I'm taking on the CD project. But anyway, I'm happy to, my understanding is with this 2.9% increase, we have the money in contingency, we don't have to change the rate. Is that correct?

Yeah, this report has two parts to it.

Right.

The feedback on your item with automation and then the other part that I'm not sure if Jeremy got to.

Right, so my motion is only for the town to continue to work with us on getting back feedback and working with the town attorney to get the ordinance codified. Again, this is a year plus project in my book, but the numbers I received shows that we can get better service for less money.

Through the chair.

No, I think it's sticking to that side of the item. It's just on the automation right now. Right. Council Member Fernandez.

Well, these are actually exact opposites. We're discussing on getting rid of the service and so I'm gonna let the discussion the moving in the direction of at some point having kind of opening that discussion as to whether or not we want to move into the police, the police officers. But for now, when it's time appropriate, I will make a motion to raise the rate by the 2.9% that he's requesting.

Through the Chair.

Councilman Garcia.

Thank you, Mayor. I mean, honestly, this idea ticks all the boxes. The special tax industries wanted to find ways of saving the money without lowering the service level. And with the idea of automating plus adding roving security plus an actual police officer roving and still saving them money, over $100,000, I mean, this is a win-win for everybody. And especially knowing that 2.9% increases are coming and inflation's coming and all that stuff is coming. If we're able to provide that same security at a lower cost, a hybrid formula, and still save money, I mean, this is a no-brainer to me. So as long as the residents agree in each of these sections and say, yeah, I like that, absolutely. We'll listen to them, and this is a great idea, sir.

Right, and that goes to Council Member Herzberg's point where this is not something that can flip a switch and it happens, right? So there's several measures and several steps and checking with the residents and all those different things, ordinance changes that will have to happen before we get there.

First and foremost, we'll go to Councilman Sanchez, then the Vice Mayor, and I want to just state for my colleagues, we are now in the two-hour window, 10.03, so be aware.

Just to be fast, just with my background in the Navy, I'm a very big believer of having a physical body on post because it's a deterrent. When you're driving up to a gate and you see somebody standing there, is it can be already a perceived value of deterrence. You know, when I was on the Eisenhower and having a midnight to four in the morning watch on the flight deck of a carrier in the middle of a military base, it kind of sounded redundant. Like, who's going to attack a carrier at that time of night in a military base on biggest on the eastern seaboard? But it was a purpose for it. It is a physical deterrent. So, you know, I like the police concept and I know eastern shores, man's theirs. their post with North Miami Beach, our North Miami officers. But we also have to treat this on a case-by-case basis, special testing district by special testing district. But I will always be in favor of having someone physically there on the post as a deterrent.

Mr. Mayor.

Wait, I had announced an order, which we will go to the Vice Mayor next. Thank you, Mayor.

I think that the idea is Great, well-founded, it's all well and good. The only problem is it's not appropriate for us to consider at all. There is a procedure in place. It's codified in our code as to how we amend an ordinance. And the ordinances are very specific. Manned gate, not unmanned gate. meaning to deviate from that, you need an amendment to the ordinance. And as it's actually laid out in the item itself, it says, establishes that the process, chapter 38, which governs district amendments, establishes that the process requires initiation by either a mandatory HOA, which we can obtain from Loch Lomond and from Royal Oaks, but you're not gonna obtain from section one because it's like seven different HOAs, or 10% of the homeowners. Meaning step one is get 10% of the homeowners to say, Hey, we'd like to see if we can change to unmanned, uh, gates. Then it goes to council authorization. Meaning right now, us even bringing it up is inappropriate. We shouldn't be doing that without, um, notice to them, uh, specific notice to them, even on this item. Uh, so for that reason, I cannot support it because I find it as, contrary to our code, contrary to the process of keeping them as an active part of the process of amending their own ordinance. So for that reason, I can't support it.

All right, we now go to Councilman Cuadra Garcia and then Councilman Fernandez.

Thank you, Mr. Chair. Mr. Infante, I think you're a gentleman and a scholar. I really, sincerely believe it, but I'm going to refer something that my colleague, Mr. Sanchez, stated of the bodies. I'm going to talk just strictly on Section 1 of my guard gates. I have been involved in those guard gates for 26 years. I've seen it from day one to the present. The other day, I had, and I'll make it brief, Mr. Mayor, I know you want to roll fast, I had, and this has happened 20 times, okay, where I tracked one of your officers, just so you know, and I'm putting this on the record because this is true. She got there at around 2 in the afternoon, and by 9.30, she had let everybody, almost everybody in, so i i asked her just as a resident i said are we just allowing everybody to go in without taking any pictures she said to me she said oh i'm just looking if they have a little sticker on the window i'm letting them in so i said with all the cars that just came by and me i don't have no sticker and she's oh my bad so basically stating that a body is a deterrent don't know about that so basically I'm going to support if we're going to save $100,000 I definitely have to support that item that my colleague brought where we have officers your your service in the morning and and at night it's a great idea to bring also an officer so that's pretty much where I stand and I thank you for being a gentleman and a scholar

I just want to correct one thing. It's not that I like to roll fast, I like to roll efficiently. There's a difference. Councilman Fernandez.

I just want to say that if you ever do see what occurred, I think that it should be addressed and we should bring it up to the attention of staff and it'll in turn go to SFM. But I do think that they do an outstanding job, especially on the east side where you and I both live. I think they do an outstanding job. I think that for the most part, 90% of them, are doing a good job and do what they're asked to do. So for that reason, I'm going to move with your suggestion, although I do think that we should get more feedback from the residents. But we're going to be discussing the raise and what they're requesting, and I think it's fair.

All right. Madam Clerk, call the roll.

Council Member Herzberg. Yes. On your motion. Council Member Garcia.

Yes.

Council Member Fernandez.

Yes.

Council Member Cuadra Garcia. Yes. Council Member Sanchez.

It's absent.

He stepped out.

Vice Mayor Morera? No. Mayor Diegues? No. The motion passes.

Thank you very much. We're now on item eight.

Well, Mayor, there is the second part of this report, which is the question of the 2.9%.

This is purely staff. I want to approve the- Yeah, let Jeremy- And just, I have one point of clarification, Mayor.

sure very fast very fast just to go over the contingencies yes every uh every district has to cover the contingency except for loch lomond who falls just short um i don't know if that's something that depending on the decision we can negotiate that difference which is pretty small with sfm That way it stays within the existing budget and we're not exceeding the contingency. It will be contingency that we have to reinstate to 5% the following year, but we will not be spending outside of the current proposed budget. All districts would have to go up. Their 5% would have to be reinstated.

All right, I second the Vice Mayor's motion. Discussion on this item?

I just want to make sure. I don't want to raise any of the current rates. Is that your motion, Vice Mayor? To allow the 2.9%, but not even increase Loch Lomond's rate. But then it would be a small difference. The current rate that we passed already. Not passed finally, but the, go ahead, explain.

Correct, so right now, essentially passing the 2.9% increase can be eaten by existing contingency, not increasing rates, with the exception of Loch Lomond, who is slightly over, and they don't carry enough for their contingency. It's a difference of $3,300, more or less.

We can have a conversation with the vendor on that one district.

That's something that we address in the budget.

Right, but if we just allow the 2.9%, then either we don't do the full 2.9 for that, we're gonna increase Loch Lomond's rate slightly, don't get me wrong, slightly, or we don't give Loch Lomond the full 2.9%. We can discuss at the budget hearing, right?

Yeah, Jeremy can have a conversation with SFM.

Yeah, I'm sure you guys can figure it out before the budget hearing.

So that it'll be flush and covered by contingency. Okay, perfect.

All right, Madam Clerk, please call the roll.

Council Member Garcia.

No.

Council Member Cuadra-Garcia.

No.

Council Member Herzberg.

Yes.

Council Member Sanchez. Yes. Council Member Fernandez. Yes. Vice Mayor Morera. Yes. Mayor Diaz. Yes. The motion passes.

Thank you. We are now on item AG, reallocation of funds for the Elderly Affairs Committee. Mr. Peterman. Yes. Manager Peterman, go ahead.

Yeah, this is just a perfunctory thing. They wanted to move some money around from one line to another, all within their budget. There's no budget change, but it exceeds my authority. So moved.

All right, I moved it. Okay, there we go. I'll second it. All those in favor say aye. Aye. All opposed, no. You guys have it. Madam Clerk, just for your benefit, the Vice Mayor moved the item, which I seconded. We are now on the attorney's report, 90, report on recent legislation.

All right, we're going to make your lines shorter and this meeting shorter. We've passed out a handout. Lorenzo put a lot of time into this. We attended a seminar in Orlando discussed all of these things and everything else, but we're gonna leave the his Presentation of it till the next meeting just because we're so far into this meeting, but take a look at it There's a lot of good information number two. I am meeting with Omar next not this Friday the following Friday to discuss the canal stabilization we put quite a bit of time into some research and things and we've got some ideas but I want to discuss a few technical engineering construction issues with them and then we'll report back to you for the next council meeting but we've done quite a bit of research and we've got a few ideas that's that's the clip notes version of our report

Any questions? Seeing none, thank you, Mr. Attorney. 10A, Economic Development Committee. We have Matthew here ready to present. I'm so sorry. I did not realize you were still here. No, he is not sorry at all. Okay. He said he wanted this outcome. All right, but let's let him go ahead and make his presentation. Make sure the base of the mic, is the mic on? No. Yeah. That's coming out of your committee budget.

My bad, my bad, my bad, my bad. All right, all right, all right. We'll do this quick, we'll do this quick. Attendance has been great. Oh, and hello, everybody, yeah. Attendance has been great. Budget's good to go. I'll just talk about the current events that we got going on and initiatives and invite you guys to stuff. So Main Street Live, it's been good. I think it was a lot better this year. We put money into advertising. It went great. Gonna try to coordinate again with the Cultural Affairs Committee to see if they want to keep it going, and I hope so. The business networking socials, those have been going great. We partner up with the town chamber and also with the local B&Is. We're hoping now with the chamber's new funds that they got from the government that we can hopefully kind of expand on those a bit. We've got the business boot camp. It's happening this month. It's happening September 25th, so if you guys are welcome to come, it would be great. We'd love to have you guys there. It's the fourth year that we're doing the event. We're not really entirely sure if we're going to keep doing it. So this is kind of the penultimate year. We're going to see what goes on. It's kind of stagnated the past couple years in an effort to kind of keep the budget going in a way that makes sense. We kind of want to see how this goes. So we want it to get around 70 to 80 members of attendance. If not, we're going to really take a close eye to it and see if we take it a different direction. And last but not least, we've got the Best of Miami Lakes, which we put a lot more effort into this time. I'm not sure if you guys have seen, but we've been doing a lot of posts on the Instagram account or on the different social medias. We've been doing advertisements as well, and it went great. We had 1500 people sign up and give different nominations. We have our third subcommittee finalizing what the finalists are gonna be on this Thursday. So we'll have that ready to go and we're gonna announce them officially at the bootcamp and hopefully have them there so they can show themselves off a bit. When it comes to the future, like I mentioned, we're going to take a closer eye at the Business Boot Camp, Main Street Live. I'm going to reach out to the Cultural Affairs and see if we keep it going, see what we can do to grow it. And again, the big focus for us is the new business recruitment. So we're going to try to really hone down and hunker down with the Chamber and what they've got going on and their new funds to see if we can really start to focus on the bigger ideas that we've had before in the committee, kind of like a billboard for Miami Lakes and doing business here and things like that.

where we haven't really had the funding for that but maybe we can through them and uh that's all i got i got nothing for you guys to approve it was just a report thank you and i'm going to turn it over to the council but no well done the out of board comments right you know it takes time you know so do you have something yeah real quick okay okay fernandez has a question i i nominated my wife's company can you tell me if she's on the list

It's a secret, you'll find out at the bootcamp.

You know what, I'm going to refer you to the ethics commission, no. I kid. Because you also need to be taught, you know, I'm just kidding. All right, I'm glad we can have fun up here. So with that, we are now on the items pulled from consent, which would be 12B, authorization to award change order number two to HDR Engineering for additional right-of-way services for the Northwest 59th Avenue Roadway Extension Project. This is bold. by Councilmember Herzberg, so I will go to him. No, Garcia. Oh, sorry, Councilmember Garcia, so we will go to Councilmember Garcia to explain why he pulled it from consent.

Absolutely, well, as you know, any changes to the 59th Avenue project, I mean, we're all very interested in that, and it was explained to me by the manager. I just wanted to, a question I have, when you say right of way and having that, pulling the money for the consultant, Can you go a little bit why we need the consultant for this? When you say right away, you mean from the school board and from Caterpillar?

This is only for the last private property, essentially. Which was? Caterpillar. Okay, that's what I'm interested in. We are required to follow certain procedures when dealing with a private owner when it comes to notices. What I mentioned during my infrastructure report is that there are items here that, depending on the path that this acquiring that piece of right-of-way takes we may not need to to use but we have it there we have those items in there in case they are needed and we don't have to come back and slow down the process

That capital has come up a lot, and I know you're going through the process, but it seems to me that that is the bottleneck that we're gonna face, that we haven't been able to come up with an agreement that's satisfactory to them. Is that correct? Is that the reason why we're doing this, just in case we need to?

This has nothing to do with any kind of disagreement or conversations. This is... We're required to have that. I have not. EFDA requires, whenever there's any even consideration of acquisition of a private property, property and that position means not only ownership even an easement or a license or whatever that we're required to use the services of a right-of-way consultant to help guide us through that process make sure that there's no hiccups okay thank you so much certain notices and things that happen okay and just a follow-up question related to caterpillar where are we in a sense where have we come up are we close to an agreement with them are we

i know they had an issue with their trucks not being able to make turn and things like that where are we with them are we where we want to be are we behind where we want to be are we ahead we want to be in that negotiation well answer from the engineering side our engineering team has done some analysis based on the trucks they use and have come of the conclusion that they will be able to operate their vehicles in in the in the proposed constructed area and that's what they have they don't agree they haven't agreed to that yet

I am not aware of any- Yeah, the representative for Caterpillar reached out to us. There's a meeting that's going to take place tomorrow. between the town attorney's group and myself. We're gonna go meet with their representative and Caterpillar, and we hopefully will see what the posture is, and we believe, we hope that there will be some, similar to the warehouse, that there'll be a negotiated conversation that we can get to a conclusion.

Well, one thing is for sure, which is that we need this to pass in order to continue moving the project forward and not create an unnecessary delay. So I'm going to go ahead and move that we pass item 12B. I'll second that. It's been seconded by Council Member Garcia. Any other discussion? Seeing none, all those in favor say aye. Aye. All opposed, no. The ayes have it. Item 12B passes. Thank you. We now move to 12E, which I believe it was Councilmember Herzberg who took that from consent, which is authorization to proceed with fleet replacement phase two. Councilman?

Let me be efficient. At the budget hearing, we agreed to two cars. This says three cars. We should agree to two cars. That's my motion. Make the amendment.

I'll second for discussion.

It's been moved by Councilman Herzberg, seconded by Councilman Sanchez. We'll go to you for debate. Perfect.

I just want to make the remarks that I wanted to make that night of the budget hearing, but I wasn't able to. I know that we did three cars last year. We're meant to do three cars this year. We're also going to do three cars next year. I know the motion that you're introducing is because of the Tacoma has 48,000 miles, but I think we should save the idea of the Tacoma not being replaced to next year, considering what might happen with Amendment 3, because no matter what, we still have on the horizon 3 this last year, 3 this year, 3 next year. I think it should be 3-3-2 if you really want to bring it down to 2. So I do believe that it should be left at 3, and then next year, due to the possible referendum, bringing it down to 2.

So I just wanna be clear, your motion was for the two, to pass but with two vehicles being replaced.

Right, to be consistent with the motion we passed in the budget amendment. I'll say the same thing I said last time, that's next year's problem. But I understand what you're saying, but it's the lease too, so it's recurring cost. We're in this year's budget, I get it, but There is, I don't know what the staff's position is on the other fleet, other cars for the third phase. All I know is for this phase, one of the vehicles does not need to be replaced. It has 48,000 miles, Toyota Tacoma, that will do some work on the car a little bit, but it's just that car can run for the rest of the, I'm alive. I mean, that car will run for a very long time.

Then in that case, I want to turn to the manager and ask, Mr. Manager, is the Tacoma one of the three vehicles that's being replaced within this item?

The Tacoma was scheduled to be one of the three in this item. Okay. So that's the conversation that you guys had at the workshop. Is there another vehicle that you can replace the Tacoma with? Omar, is there anything else that would have been in year three that can be moved into year two?

The next ones, and I may have to respond to you later and correct this if it's incorrect, but the next set included vehicles for code.

So not replacement, just getting new ones? Yes. Okay. So this was the last year of replacement.

One of the goals is to have the code enforcement staff in marked cars that are town cars.

The Crown Victoria?

Crown Victoria has been taken care of.

Okay, it's gone.

It's already been replaced. So then I would replace two cars and create a new one for court enforcement. Because we have three for court enforcement next year, correct? You have to state it in the form of a motion. So I move that we remove the Tacoma from the three cars that are scheduled. We do two of the original ones and one for court enforcement to no longer have to pay out the stipend to the court enforcement individuals. I'll second.

I'll second. Can I just chime in? I think it's gonna be, since it is a new dynamic and a new model of delivering service for the code enforcement officers to be in our cars, I'd rather do those wholesale and do all three at one shot as opposed to piecemeal one at a time. So my recommendation is, although it makes sense what you're saying, But to me, I think operationally, it'll be better to do them all three at the same time to save those three for year three. And then the Tacoma, like what Council Member Herzberg said, we'll leave that one for further down the road because it could be still two or three or even four more years before we have to replace that.

Then in that case, I remove my amendment. Yeah, thank you.

Wait, wait, no, no. Once it's moved and seconded, it belongs to the body. We have to move to lay it on the table, all right?

That's true, Mr. Chair.

Yeah, hold on. Is there a motion to lay that on the table?

I move to lay it on the table. Is there a second?

Second. Seconded by Council Member Herzberg. All those in favor of the motion to lay on the table, say aye. Aye. All opposed, no. You guys have it. The motion is laid on the table indefinitely. With that, we're back on the main motion as proposed by Councilman Herzberg. Councilman Cuadra Garcia on the main motion.

Thank you. Basically, I'm just going to put my two senses on. My question to town manager, do we need three vehicles or do we need two vehicles?

Well, there was a third one, which was the Toyota Tacoma that has, I think, almost 50, 48 or 49,000 miles. How old is it?

the year i don't have but the reason it was included there was because if we keep it we do need to do we need to put some funds in there to upgrade uh certain items like the lights wipers the paint on it but i think part of it is to repaint it and brand it so that will take care of that and there's a few other items that we need to to work on, including the AC, but if we get funding for that.

But we own that car, correct?

Yes.

So no lease payments, right. Again, it was purely based that this car will last a very long time. I don't see the need to replace it.

So basically, I'm going to approve two vehicles, and that puppy, that Toyota Tacoma, will last you and me and all of your fleet of cars.

Yeah, but we're going to put some lipstick on that.

Yeah, put some lipstick on it. Yeah. And I think that it'll last your whole entire fleet. So therefore, I will support only two vehicles.

Thank you, sir. Please call the roll.

Council Member Sanchez.

Yes.

Council Member Herzberg. Yes. Council Member Cuadra Garcia. Yes. Council Member Fernandez. Yes. Council Member Garcia.

Yes.

Vice Mayor Morera.

Yes.

Mayor Diaz? Yes. The motion passes.

Excellent. With that, we are now on the consent calendar. Is there a motion? I'll move it. It's been moved by the Vice Mayor. Is there a second? Second. Seconded by Councilmember Sanchez. All those in favor of the consent calendar, say aye. Aye. All opposed, no. You guys have it. The consent calendar, the remaining part of the consent calendar is passed. We now come to ordinances on first reading, 13A, town sanctioned signs. Mr. Attorney, please read the ordinance into the records.

In ordinance of the Town of Miami Lakes, Florida, amending Chapter 13, the Land Development Code, Article 9, titled Signs, by amending Section 13-1902, titled Definitions, to add a definition for Town Sanction Sign, and by amending Section 13-1903, titled General Requirements for All Signs, to authorize the installation of Town Sanction Signs with the public rights of way and to establish standards for their design, placement, maintenance, and removal. providing for repeal of conflicting provisions, providing for severability, providing for inclusion in the code, and providing for an effective date.

Thank you very much, Mr. Attorney, and I just want to remind my colleagues that when it's ordinances on first reading, it is not typical to have extended debate because you will have that opportunity at the public hearing at second reading. So in the interest of time, as it is now 1027, I would encourage us to be, again, efficient. With that, Councilman Garcia, being that this is based on your new business item, go ahead and make your motion.

Thank you. I move to pass this in first reading. Second.

Second.

All right, it's been moved and seconded by the Vice Mayor. Any discussion? Seeing none, Madam Clerk, please call the roll.

Ordinance in first reading, item 13A, Councilmember Garcia. Yes. Councilmember Cuadra Garcia. Yes. Councilmember Sanchez. Yes. Councilmember Herzberg. Yes. Councilmember Fernandez. Yes. Vice Mayor Morera. Yes. Mayor Diegas.

Yes.