Remarks by Ken Fairman
212 remarks on the record, newest first · Page 3 of 9
- Play at 19:33
“I might add that it's not micromanaging. It was not part of the original design. It wasn't part of the original purchase of the artwork, which we're spending a lot of money on. And I'm cool with that. It's going to be very pretty. But to add this sort of thing, it's not going to get used. You're getting a 20-foot bench because somebody felt, in their professional opinion, they wanted to sell it to us. Pinecrest doesn't exist for the artist or the architect. We use them to get done what we want to do. This was not part of the original plan. It could be thought differently and fit beautifully…”
Village Council · Jun 11, 2026
- Play at 21:38
“So Mr. Mayor, I want to pull it because I did go by the playground out there by the community center. It is kind of in shambles, so it's definitely money worth spending on redoing it. And plus, they're doing something interesting. Part of this playground area is turf. with like a jungle gym on it. And the other part is the rubberized surface with a lot other features to it. But they're going to cover the rubberized surface with the same turf because that rubberized surface is extremely expensive to repair and replace. So I think it's a great experiment as well to see how that turns out. So it…”
Village Council · Jun 11, 2026
- Play at 32:26
“Any other questions? Yes, Vice Mayor. How do the Littles come to you or are you to them?”
Village Council · Jun 11, 2026
- Play at 48:04
“So we've reduced the rate of growth, perhaps. We have.”
Village Council · Jun 11, 2026
- Play at 49:08
“20. Actually, Katie Sorenson was on the commission. I remember she sent Anna Hokemer an email just a few years ago saying, It was a big mistake. We never should have done it.”
Village Council · Jun 11, 2026
- Play at 51:05
“I believe also there's an issue that a lot of districts don't have the peacock problem. Right. So they're not.”
Village Council · Jun 11, 2026
- Play at 51:15
“Now, did you, Jim, did you see the resolution that Coral Gables sent to us? Did you see the red, because they're, Coral Gables is all on board trying to do something more as well.”
Village Council · Jun 11, 2026
- Play at 55:59
“And Mr. Mayor, I'll say with the program that we have going on right now, It's a beautiful way to do another program because we can offer this sterilization and keep peacocks and tag them. And we can also allow people. So we can allow people to do that. And we can allow people to perhaps trap them from their yard as well. So you could co-exist to some degree and let the people put their money where their mouth is.”
Village Council · Jun 11, 2026
- Play at 58:34
“Could you comment on having caught 13 of these things? Huh?”
Village Council · Jun 11, 2026
- Play at 58:39
“The old way is they set up this cage, gate would be open, coin would be in there, and they tell the homeowner, call us, we'll come close the gate. Well, the peacock's usually gone by then. Or when they walk up to the gate, the peacock leaves. Attacks it. So... I'm going to pat myself on the back for this one. I instituted the rope trick, where you tie a rope to the door, run it into your garage, and when you see it through the window, it funds money, exactly. That paid off. You pull the rope, the door closes, and you catch them. So it's never been very, it's never been extremely efficient.”
Village Council · Jun 11, 2026
- Play at 59:29
“We need to improve efficiencies, definitely. I'm very proud that we do what we do.”
Village Council · Jun 11, 2026
- Play at 59:49
“And just as a side note, based on Council Member Meyer's numbers, you could fix 62 peacocks for the cost of the bench.”
Village Council · Jun 11, 2026
- Play at 1:19:14
“One question. Will at any time the portables and the existing classrooms be in use at the same time?”
Village Council · Jun 11, 2026
- Play at 1:35:45
“Nope. They'll love it. I think they'll enjoy coming, actually. Oh, I can have a ball.”
Village Council · Jun 11, 2026
- Play at 2:03:19
“OK. I'd really like to move this forward. But I really want to move it forward with a sincere look at reducing the scope and saving, trying to shave at least a couple million dollars off this project. I think it's blown out of proportion. So right now, I'd have to go with the idea of putting on hold. we're letting it force our hand on this and I think we need to take control of it. And if we don't want to take control of it by reducing the scope and bringing the cost down some, then we have to look at it from another route. So that's where I'm at.”
Village Council · Jun 11, 2026
- Play at 2:07:06
“Well, it is a tough situation because even if we find things to take out of the project to save money, will we get the value of that as a discount off of the contract from the contractor? Don't really know. That could happen. It may not happen very well. Ms.”
Village Council · Jun 11, 2026
- Play at 2:07:26
“Whether it be engineering, I've got a little issue with because it's not like I want to make something cheaper. I think we should look at decide, do we need a bridge over the pond? Do we need certain things that we can save money on that we can reduce future maintenance on? Whatever we do, we can have a beautiful park. It doesn't have to have. every fancy thing we can think of. And I know the public brought in a lot of ideas they'd like to have and they brought it together, but the public at that time didn't know it was gonna be $14 million. And with that knowledge, maybe you make changes…”
Village Council · Jun 11, 2026
- Play at 2:10:21
“GARY GENSLER- Coral Pine Park's a beautiful example of that, yes.”
Village Council · Jun 11, 2026
- Play at 2:24:13
“I think we're, interestingly enough, I think we're all right to some degree up here. This whole conversation, we're all making points that are correct.”
Village Council · Jun 11, 2026
- Play at 2:24:27
“Yeah, I don't know if it's who's more right, because it would be a bad gamble to bet that we're going to get the same prices or better prices in the future.”
Village Council · Jun 11, 2026
- Play at 2:24:41
“That's a bad gamble. And there's issues with the bonds and everything else. And we bought the land because the public said we want parks when they begin we bought the land, we're gonna make it a park. I just have a big problem about us not willing to make things not quite the perfect and try to save some money, especially when we know the cost, the anticipated costs went up much higher than we thought they would. For me, I just feel that we need to watch the people's money a little bit and make some sound decisions. We have a beautiful park and if we can save, $1.5 to $2 million, something…”
Village Council · Jun 11, 2026
- Play at 2:27:30
“Right, I agree with you. Like, Joseph, how many people came to the public forums that we had? Hundreds?”
Village Council · Jun 11, 2026
- Play at 2:27:45
“My guess we had maybe, I'll be generous with you, 500 people come and give us input on things that they would like in the park.”
Village Council · Jun 11, 2026
- Play at 2:27:53
“You know, they put little dots on stuff. It's a lot, 500 people. Right, it's pretty good, but it's not 18,000. And you've got, and then you take, All those ideas, and we give it to somebody who comes up with a design, and they're off doing what they're doing. And yeah, we gave them some blessing on input, the things that we like, not knowing the price of everything or what it's going to cost. And then it comes back. And to not be willing to say, maybe we could do with less when costs go up and there's uncertainty in the future.”
Village Council · Jun 11, 2026
- Play at 2:28:45
“I think that's absolutely possible. So what do you wanna do? That's what I wanna do.”
Village Council · Jun 11, 2026