City Commission - Regular Meeting

Test, test one, two.

Testing, testing, one, two.

Test, test, one, two.

Welcome to the Pembroke Pines City Commission meeting of August 5th, 2026. I hope you're all doing well. And please, Mr. Clark, if you would call the roll.

Commissioner Good.

In attendance.

Vice Mayor Hernandez.

Present.

Commissioner Rodriguez. Here. Commissioner Schwartz. Here. Mayor Castillo?

Here.

City Manager Dodge? Here. City Attorney Gorin?

I'm here.

We have a quorum.

Thank you very much. Vice Mayor, if you would, lead us in the Pledge of Allegiance, and if you will all please rise and remain rising through the national anthem.

Thank you. Thank you.

Thank you very much. Please be seated. Announcement of items to be pulled from the agenda?

No items, Mayor.

Thank you very much. Well, welcome back, everyone. During the month of July, we don't meet as a city commission, but we're still kind of busy. I just wanted to go through some of the things that we did during our break. And I hope everyone enjoyed their break here on the dais. There were five ribbon cuttings that were attended, led by our great Miramar Pembroke Pines Chamber of Commerce. We had an employee Independence Day lunch here that was very, very well attended by staff. Independence Day 250 was a tremendous hit, even though we had... the threat of rain pretty much all day, and it actually did rain. Our park staff were terrific in both interrupting and then reorganizing the... The event, it was a great turnout, about 5,000 people, and we had an amazing fireworks display. Play Ball was an event that was held here for youngsters, getting them involved in baseball, thanks to Major League Baseball and their U.S. Conference of Mayors event. sponsored event. Play ball is an event that happens all over the United States in conjunction with Major League Baseball. Commissioner Alexandra Davis had a back-to-school shoe giveaway at the Southwest Focal Point, the Carl Schechter Senior Center. There were shoes for kids going back to school donated by by brands. The shoes were great, and the smiles were even more rewarding. And we want to thank her and all the staff for helping to put that together. We started the renovations. Actually, the tax collector, the Broward County tax collector started the renovations on their new office location at the Claire's building. That's just behind 129th and Pines Boulevard, next to, well, sort of next to the Walmart there. They're going to be closing down that old facility that dealt with licenses on Pembroke Road and University, which was 2,900 square feet. It had been there since about 1950. And they're opening up 29,000 square feet of new space with a private elevator and no waiting outside. Everyone will be able to go up there and not only renew their car registrations, but also get driver's licenses. And you can also pay your taxes there. And it's going to be absolutely fantastic. Pembroke Pines is fantastic. is going to be thrilled to see it. We look forward to the ribbon cutting soon. We met with the Cedarwood CDA about the Excuse me, the Cedarwoods HOA regarding the Benfior and Dino Park, and we had a good conversation. I want to thank Commissioner Schwartz for joining me there and all systems that go with that project. They had some suggestions to make. Thanks to Christina Goulding, we jotted them down, and we're going to implement it, and they're going to have a beautiful new sidewalk there. in front of Cedar Woods that is going to lead to the beautiful Benfire and Dino Park. The police department held two America 250 barbecues. And I want to thank them for putting those together. They were terrific. And we really, really enjoyed it. I got to cut the ribbon on the Douglas Road Memorial Hospital emergency room. And I have to tell you, it's the most amazing emergency room that I've ever seen. I saw every square foot of it. They have their own labs there. They have their own CAT scan. and imaging center. It is absolutely amazing. And if you go to that emergency room and you need transport, they will transport you for free. So it is really a great asset to have here and a great lift for Commissioner Good for your community and all of Pembroke Pines. And then we had two kids playground testers, one on Northwest 18th place and one on Northwest 108th Avenue where we're previewing our our parks renovations program which which is already underway and That was well attended and the kids really really enjoyed the new the new equipment there we had a condo and HOA resource fair and I want to take you to take a little moment to talk about this because We had a lot of people here and Commissioner good. I know you were able to attend and The thing of it is, the city of Pembroke Pines does not manage condo or HOAs. That's a state function. They license them and they regulate them. But we get questions and concerns, because we're their elected officials, all the time about these organizations. And we really can't answer them. But thanks to Kristen Noguera on Sam Gorin's team, our assistant... city attorney, she was able to contact the secretary of the Department of Business and Professional Regulation, Melanie Griffin, who was here. She actually came, and it was great that she was here and brought her staff, and they answered a thousand different questions for people. People were really, really happy to get the answers to their HOA, and Resource Fair. And it's a great thing because even though we in Pembroke Pines can't answer their questions, we can put together an event like this that does answer them. And State Representative Robin Bartleman was there, as was State Representative Marie Woodson, and we thank them all. And Senator Barbara Sharif, as always, is there to help, and we really appreciate it. And last, we did two community surveys, which we're going to hear about later on today. And it was a very, very busy July. Luckily, Lisa and I got to stay home, because we're enjoying a new grandson. And so we did not go away this year. But I can't help to feel like it was the nicest July that we've had in a very, very long time. So welcome back to everyone.

On presentations today. Yes, sir. I'd like to recognize, have a moment of silence for a community member who we lost over the summer. Marco Laughlin battled courageously. And I want to first Let his family know that this community is thankful for his service, his volunteerism, serving on city boards, wanting to make our community better. Mark's smile, his energy, certainly his captioning of photography and video is going to be certainly missed. On behalf of everyone in the city, I just want to say that Mark O'Loughlin made a great impact on all of us. And with that, Mayor, I'd like to have a moment of silence.

Without objection.

Thank you, Mayor.

Thank you very, very much, Commissioner. He was a special guy, and he'll always be remembered here in the city of Pembroke Pines. Our first presentation is the announcement of the winners of the District 2 and 3 Natalie Belmonte, Great Yard Awards for June and July of 2026. And commissioners, if you will please join me. Districts two and three.

So Mayor and Commissioners, Mike Stamm is the City Manager and Director of Planning and Economic Development. So since we take our hiatus, we have to take this opportunity to recognize two districts, District 2 and District 3. So if the Hotchkiss family and the Del Monte family, can you all come up for us?

And then mayor and commissioners.

Let's take a look. So here we go. So our district two winner for June, Frank and Janet DelMestro, they've just got an amazing yard with great tree canopy. These are the models that we look after. And this shows competition, because the neighbors in the area have already been starting to spruce up their yard. So one of the goals of this program is competition. So the Mastro family, thank you. We also have the Hotchkiss family, since we had a break. So James and Marianne, this is their house. And just, again, the amazing landscaping both these families have put together into their homes and the way they maintain their homes and keep their homes together is award-winning. So congratulations.

So what's your secret? Well, a lot of hard work. It's nice to see that somebody was paying attention.

We're out there watching, even when you don't think. Congratulations. Well done. And it's your house also, right? So what's your secret?

Well, like you said, it's a lot of hard work. And just over time, we had a couple of mentors, Jim and Jan Scarth, our neighbors who were no longer with us, who we learned a lot from and are continuing, hopefully, to keep our neighborhood bright. And also Florida Nursery Mart, where our daughter worked, helped us out a lot with plants and everything.

Thank you all so much. So Frank and Janet, there's two things I want to give you, right? So we have to do this in priority, right, Mayor? So Frank, I have a certificate for you, okay, to thank you for all of your service, right? And Janet, we have a $50 Home Depot card that you can spend anywhere, okay? Is that how that works? How many years have you been married? 27 years. God bless you both. Okay.

All right, let's take a photo. One more.

I just want to say congratulations. I've heard you're the gardener, so you do get the $50, but we can split that $25.25 with the wife. Of course, thank you.

Thank you all so very, very much.

Beautiful yards is what we appreciate, so thank you very, very much.

Mayor, next month we'll be here with District 4's winner. Commissioner Hernandez, you're on deck. Vice Mayor, you're on deck.

OK. So is Mr. Ross on the phone? Mr. Ross, can you hear us?

I can hear you.

Can you hear me? I want to thank you for, I know that you're in, is it Minnesota?

Yep, Minneapolis.

Minneapolis. Well, I hope you're doing well there and thank you for joining us remotely and for your community surveys and the floor is yours to present.

Thank you, Mayor, and Commissioners, it's been a pleasure getting the opportunity to work with the administration and Pembroke Pines over as we've gone through this process. I want to start first, I want to make sure, can you see my screen that I'm sharing?

Yes.

Okay. I want to start by making a few things clear for everyone. So when we do these surveys, we do them to be scientific. And when we do surveys, just like anyone else who does political polling of this sort or polling for cities of this sort, any kind of scientific poll, not everyone gets it. When you see the president's approval rating on whatever your choice television station is or get it from a local news outlet, you're not seeing a result that resulted in every American chiming in. What you're seeing is a representative sample of the country. In this case, our goal was to get a representative sample of Pembroke Pines. And we set out to get a minimum of 600 responses. We massively exceeded that number. I also got a few questions from commissioners about certain people that reached out to say that they didn't get the survey. Some of them we may have not had contact info for. We have a pretty extensive database of Pembroke Pines voters. Um, but certainly not covering a hundred percent. Some of them, it may have ended up in their spam box and other ones may have been on kind of a do not email list that we don't have any control over. Um, the vendor we use that actually pushes out those emails to people, um, kind of has a blacklist on the backend that people don't necessarily sign up for like a do not call list, but can end up on based on patterns and things that are a little too technical for me on, uh, on that side. But I want to make clear, nobody was expressly excluded. Our sample was a representation of a large swath of Pembroke Pines. And as you'll see momentarily, and as some of you saw when we did our one-on-one briefings, we have a very extensive number of responses that was able to give us a really high quality level of data that you can rely on moving forward. So first, Everything you're seeing here tonight, as I understand it, will be made available to the public tomorrow morning. So anyone who is watching from the public will have access to the exact dashboard that most of you have already seen, and everyone is seeing me walk you through this presentation. So when you land on this dashboard, the first thing I want you to notice is at the top here, you'll see there are links to two different surveys. As you all know, we took two surveys of the community. To see the results of the first one, you simply click on this Wave 1 link. To see the results of the second, you click on the Wave 2 link. You'll also see as I scroll down the page, those links are also at the bottom of the page. So here we have a place to land that allows people to get a snapshot of what we got from these two surveys. And the first thing I want to point out here is that 2,876 registered voters in Pembroke Pines participated in this process. That is nearly 3% of the registered voters in Pembroke Pines. It's an extraordinarily large number for a city of Pembroke Pines' size. That resulted in a total of 2,569 responses over the course of the two surveys. You'll see as we get into survey two, the percentages on people that took both, as well as people that just took one. but I'm gonna start with the real headline numbers here and point out they're excellent. I've done a lot of surveying throughout South Florida over the last six years, and these numbers are incredibly strong. 80% of your residents are satisfied with the quality of life in Pembroke Pines versus 10% who are dissatisfied. 63% think the city's heading in the right direction versus 14 who think that the city isn't headed in the right direction. Another extraordinary number. And one of the things that I regularly talk about in our work for cities is a city is only as good as it is safe. 84% of your residents said that they feel safe in their neighborhood versus only 4% who said that they feel unsafe in their neighborhood. These numbers are really extraordinary and something that the administration and the commission should really take great pride in. As we come into the surveys, Survey one was really about finding out what works and what doesn't, where people are satisfied and where they aren't. And then survey two went into some deeper dives on some of the things that came up in survey one, as well as a question about the bond that the city is considering putting on the ballot. Two things that really stood out that you'll see a little more in depth as I go into the two surveys. The first one is we asked people in survey one what ways they want to receive communications from the city. And the second most popular answer was via text message, which is something that the city doesn't yet offer. So in survey two, we went a little deeper on that and asked people if they would sign up if the city offered text message updates. 82% of your population said that they would sign up for text message updates. If there's one piece of low-hanging fruit that comes from the results of this survey, texting is it. It's something I'm very familiar with that we've helped another city implement. It's not particularly expensive to do or particularly complicated to do. And it's something that your residents clearly would love to see. The second is transit. And I'm gonna start by making clear that when you see a number like 40% satisfied, that does not mean that 60% are dissatisfied. In most cases, when you see those kinds of numbers, we had very large numbers of neutral responses. And when we get into the individual surveys, you'll be able to see the breakdown of those positives, negatives, and neutrals, as well as the extent of them, things like very satisfied versus somewhat satisfied. But 40% satisfaction with public transportation was one of the lower satisfaction rates for city services, which quite honestly is something that you should take pride in. But that led us into the second survey where we asked the question that led to 48% of your residents saying that if the city offered free on-demand ride service, that that is something that they would want to avail themselves of. Now, I want to be clear when we point out these things, whether it's texting or transit, these things all come at a cost to the city that you have to manage. This is telling you what your residents' feedback is. It's not giving you the clear pathway to pay for a service that may be very costly. That's something you obviously have to work through to see if it's viable, but this is giving you an idea of what they want. On survey two, one of the big focuses was the bond. We tested it two ways, and we were very careful about the method we used to test it. The first time we asked the question, we used the draft language word for word as it would go on the ballot. and simply asked people to tell us whether or not it's something that they would vote for at this point. 27% said yes. Then after they answered the first six questions of the survey, we then gave them some more information about the state of the facilities and the need for an upgraded public safety complex. That brought the number up to 42% yes. We designed this survey so that once somebody answered that first question and got to the second one about the bond after getting that information. They did not have the ability to go back and change that first answer. We wanted to make sure from a scientific standpoint that we got a clear answer without information and then another answer with information. So from there, I'm going to dive into these surveys. So here coming into survey one, we had 1,933 Pembroke Pines voters. who participated in this survey. Again, our goal was 600, so we're at more than three times that number. And what you'll see as we go through this is that it's broken down first on this key findings page by some things that we thought were particularly noteworthy to take a look at. And then as we go through, everything you see, you can see broken down by district as well as citywide. I'll also point out here that you have both weighted and unweighted responses, and you can go back and forth between them. What that means is when we take a survey, we want it to look like a representative sample of Pembroke Pines. So if any one particular demographic, whether it's age or race or gender, is under or overrepresented in the survey, we use a mathematical model that adjusts it to make it accurate to your actual population. And this is all weighted based on the registered voter demographics that exist in public record. So you have the ability to see either one, but for this presentation, I'm going to stick to the weighted because that's where you're going to get the most accurate information. The modeled band here is what's normally referred to as a margin of error. Modeled band is a technical term, but for practical purposes, it means the same thing. So we talked about these top numbers about quality of life, heading in the right direction, feeling safe that are tremendous. Where the city does the best. Neighborhood safety, quality of life, city buildings and public spaces, fire rescue services, park and recreation facilities, and police response times. Those numbers are all tremendous. where the biggest opportunities for improvement come in. And I want to talk about this first one first because it's something that we ask the question because it gives us a sense of how your population is feeling. But it's not a city-specific question. We ask about affordability of living in Pembroke Pines. But the truth is, when we survey people about affordability, what we're getting is a snapshot of how they're feeling more broadly. It's not specific to Pembroke Pines, even if we ask it characterized as being specific to Pembroke Pines. Obviously, the city doesn't have any control over major factors that we see impacting affordability, whether they be the cost of gasoline, milk, eggs, meat, all of those kinds of things factor into somebody's perception of affordability. When they're strained more on that side, then the cost of rent or the cost of something else suddenly feels like a greater burden. Beyond that, traffic flow and congestion management, this is very typical of what we see in South Florida. Traffic is an issue. It's a regional issue, not usually a city-specific issue, though there are some things a city can do. It's much more broadly a regional issue. Public transportation, and that was one I referenced before, 40% are satisfied, 17% dissatisfied, 43% had a neutral response to that question. Code enforcement, which particularly tied to one district, but it's something that comes up and you'll see as we go deeper, including in survey two, some more specifics on that. Permitting and building services. And again, I'll point out we're at 46% satisfaction and only 15% dissatisfaction. So we're talking about what has the most opportunity for improvement. When we get to this last one, the majority of your residents are telling us that they're satisfied with community events and cultural programming. This is not something where we're seeing any alarms going off on any issue in Pembroke Pines. So these are the areas where we saw the most room for improvement. Issues that residents name the most, again, cost of living and affordability, taxes, traffic and congestion, public safety and crime, flooding, education and schools. Again, by the time we get down to education and schools, we're talking about a number in the teens. And then here, it's where the districts differ the most. So these were simply the areas where you had the widest spread from the districts that scored the highest to the district that scored the lowest on each of these things. But I'll also point out some of the districts here where you see a wide spread, it doesn't mean that the score on the lowest one is a bad score. If I took the lowest numbers cherry-picked from each district in Pembroke Pines on each issue, I would still be telling you that your numbers are really excellent across the board. But here is an example on neighborhood safety. District 4 has an 88% rating. Fantastic number. District 1 has a 70% rating. It's still a very strong number. Street lighting is another example where it's 74 versus 58. If I come down here to permitting and building services, District 2, it's at 39% satisfaction, where District 4 is at 53% satisfaction. And once you guys have the opportunity to really dive into these numbers, I know some of you have already, you'll get a sense of where those differences come in. As we come down here, I come back to that question where I brought up texting. It was the second most popular way, according to your residents, for them to be reached by the city, only surpassed by the email newsletter. The city website and social media were also popular answers. And what you see here is the percentages of they're getting information versus how they want to get information this darker bar is how they get it the lighter colored bar is how they want to receive that information public transportation measured against everything else and again i'm going to remind you not a bad number here this isn't 40 positive versus 60 negative it's 40 positive with a very large neutral um from district to district here you'll see there aren't a lot of standout numbers But what you'll see here is traffic and congestion is obviously a big concern. It's more of a concern in District 3 than it is in the others. Satisfaction with public transit comes in around the same number except in District 4 where there's a bit more of a level of satisfaction. And my understanding from my discussions with the administration is that largely is probably because of the senior population there that relies on public transportation a little bit more. Down here, and I'm going to come back to this on another portion, is where you'll see answers to a couple of written response questions that we had. So if you come back up to the top here, you can go to map and filters. And I just want to show everyone how you can actually change what this looks like to go through. So here you have a drop down menu where you can choose from all of these different categories and different questions that we asked. For the moment, I'm going to leave it on quality of life. Here you can sort by whether someone owns or rents a home. Other would typically be someone who's living at home but doesn't own it. They're maybe living with their parents, but they're adults. They're registered voters. By how long they've lived in the city and also by these different age ranges. So when you come in here, you can click on a particular district and you'll see the information here change. So here you'll see the scores for the district. You'll also see how they compare to the city as a whole. You can also see here top issues. So I happen to click on District 4, you know, cost of living and affordability, taxes, traffic and congestion, public safety and crime and flooding were the top five here. As you come down here, you have the ability to adjust this to the district you're clicked on. You also have the ability to click through to all of these different categories to see different types of questions. On each question, you can click this Compare the Four Districts option and see those numbers side by side. It'll give you a sense on every question of how it compares. If you want to see that comparison more broadly side by side, you can come over here to District Compare. where you can actually see the numbers side by side. You can also see at the top here underneath each district name and the commission or who represents that district, the number of responses that we had from the district. Now, again, this was weighted to create some balance. So where we may have a lesser amount of response from one district, it doesn't mean that district is underrepresented in the overall numbers. The districts don't all have the same number of registered voters, and that does factor in. But the districts are all represented appropriately based on the number of registered voters they do have. So here you can go through and you can see the side by side on all of these different issues. If you click on one of them, it will take you back here to the map and filters page. And it will adjust to that specific question. Again, you can click here on the map to see the different numbers. Also in District Compare, if you want to do a deep dive, you can click on the specific district and go through. You can see where it trails the most in the city and also where it leads the most in the city. And these numbers down here remain. You can also click in to see things like the numbers by age, by how long they've lived in the city, and by whether they own or rent. If you just want to see what we normally would call top line results, you come over here to the all results tab. This will show you the questions exactly as they were asked and the answers as they were received. Again, if you want the raw answers, you would click over here to unweighted. I'm showing you just the weighted. You can also click in to see the answers just for one particular district when you're on this page. You also have the ability here to click download CSV and download an Excel file that has all of that data in it. You also on all of these pages have the ability to click print slash PDF to either print or save as a PDF and here to copy the link to the dashboard. This is my favorite part of the presentation I have for you tonight, aside from telling you how great the numbers are, which is our written response section. We asked two questions that we gave people the opportunity to simply write an answer in. There was no multiple choice. They could choose to write something. They could choose to write nothing. And we didn't put any particularly tight restriction on them. So the first question was, what is the city doing well? And the second was, what can the city improve on? And we start here on what the city is doing well. And what we get from the analysis of the written responses is public safety has overwhelmingly favorable responses. 30% of all comments that were positive referenced public safety. Public maintenance, cleanliness and maintenance of the city, the roads and infrastructure, landscaping, all do well. And then communication and community life, also drawing praise. As you come down here, inside of this dashboard, you can read every response that was submitted to us. There's nothing left out here. What we did here is you'll see these ones are starred as representative. What that means is that something within that response is representative of the general sentiment that we saw from the overall responses. Some people wrote in about a variety of issues. It will come up as representative based on just one, so it doesn't mean their full answer is representative if it's a longer narrative. You'll also see which district each response came from. We don't want to identify people by anything more specific, but we thought it was valuable information to know where those numbers came from by district. On this left side panel, you can actually see the categories. So if you click into Public Safety and First Responders, you'll see here a summary of the sentiment that we received, how many comments, and you can scroll through just the ones on any one particular topic. And if you come down to the bottom left of this panel, you can do the same thing but by district. So as you're here, you can click into just one district's numbers on any particular topic. And the same thing applies here, where we ask about what residents want improved. So mobility being the biggest thing that was talked about in the comments on what can be improved, livability, and then there were some comments about things like recycling and waste. Again, you'll have the opportunity to go through every single comment here. And the same thing applies. You can click on one district down here on a particular topic. The darker it is, the more responses we had that talk about that particular topic. Also, coming back up to the top, if you just want to see one district, you can click into whichever district you want to see. You also have the ability here to type something in if you want to search for a particular keyword or phrase that might come up. Lastly, here we have the About and Methods page. I'm not going to take much time on this, but for anybody who's interested in the methods that we use to conduct the survey, they can come to this page and read it in detail. Coming back here, I'm going to go into survey two. So, I'm going to go through this one much faster, but the highlights here. Before we gave people information, 50% of them said they weren't willing to pay more taxes to fund a new public safety complex. 82% said they would sign up for text messages, and 48% said they would be likely to use a free on-demand ride service. Again, here, this is information on the bond. You can see the before and after. You can also see how people moved here, before and after information. We've talked about texting already. On transit, what we got back, by far the most popular answer was on-demand ride service. followed by senior and mobility focused service broader route coverage and regional transit connections code concerns varied a little bit from district to district but you see here some of the top ones you'll also see here where the districts differ the most on these individual questions just like the first time around and then here we have bond support by district by how long people have lived in the city and also by whether or not the person took both surveys or only took the second survey. And I'm going to touch on that for one second. Again, here you have the weighted and unweighted. And here you can have all respondents, which is what I'm going to stay on while I do this presentation. Returning means respondents who filled out the first survey and have also filled out the second. And first time means people who did not take the first survey but did take the second. It was 42% of people, I believe. Yep, 42% of people that took the second survey were people that took the first survey, 58% were new. Coming through here again, same exact thing as you saw before with the way the dashboard works. You can go in and work through different questions. The map is clickable and you can see numbers by district. You can go through these questions by category. You can also come here to the District Compare. You can do those deep dives I talked about, as well as see the side-by-sides for all of these different questions. The All Results page works the exact same way. And the About and Methods page, once again, explains how we went about conducting the survey. And with that, I'll take any questions you have.

Well, I got to tell you how impressive this is. When we had our one-on-one, I took a look at it, and I said to myself, I've never seen anything quite this impressive in terms of a community survey. I think Pembroke Pines has gone above and beyond in terms of not only listening to, paying attention to what residents have to say, but organizing it in a way that they can see what they think. Tomorrow, this will be on the internet, and all of the, as I understand it, all of the maneuverability that Mr. Ross has demonstrated will be available to everyone. The same information, the same ease in finding it, the same ability to process it will be available to every resident in the city that cares to see it on our website. And I think that's very, very important. at a time when it's more important than ever before that we draw consensus and figure out what it is that we agree on. This is the voice of the voters in the city of Pembroke Pines, and Mr. Ross, I really, really appreciate your work. It will definitely inform our work here as we think about strategic planning, how to improve areas where we're doing well, Very, very, very helpful. Commissioners? Oh, Vice Mayor?

Go ahead. So I wanted to begin by thanking Mr. Ross because, yes, I'm currently a Vice President of Communications at a foundation, but I've been involved in political campaigns my entire career, which is a little bit over 20 years now. From 2010 until 2014, I worked for a firm based out of Washington and New York City that had veterans from the George W. Bush and Bill Clinton administrations, actually their research teams, I worked in, I just wrote them down to make sure, but it was 10 countries, one of which is the United States, which was fairly easy to poll in. But I also worked in very difficult countries where you could not easily gather public opinion. One of them was Mexico. The other one was Iraq, where I spent six weeks in Baghdad. You don't survey in Baghdad like you do here. You also... When you are surveying, I think I posted a photo on Facebook once, you wear a helmet and a bulletproof vest walking around Baghdad. So I learned a great deal what it is that polling was and what it is today. I also know that I'm looking at wave one and wave two. Statistically, and I just searched it, based on registered voters, which are by far the most engaged residents in any city, in any county, in any state, A representative sample of the city of Pembroke Pines would actually be around 400. The fact that wave one has 1,933 And wave two has 1,636. You are way above what is, this is a good thing, but you are way above what is a statistically representative sample, plus the maneuverability of it, which the public is going to enjoy, I feel, I think is excellent. That's my first point. Second, I want to commend Manager Dodge. I think Assistant City Manager Jonathan Bonilla was also a part of this. We are agents, a public agency. We're a government. So everything we do operates in the sunshine. Therefore, we couldn't exclude bad results from a survey. It's illegal. You have to show it to the public. So the survey results are everything that was asked and that was answered. And I appreciate that Mr. Ross went through this here, but I also had a one-on-one briefing with him. And it takes a great deal of courage on the part of a city manager and assistant city manager in the state of Florida where you have Sunshine Law to conduct research that is available immediately to the public. So I commend Manager Dodge, our assistant city manager as well, who worked on it. I also think that... This is something that cities everywhere probably would want to look into, especially because it's a barometer on how your government is doing. They didn't ask the approval rating of Mayor Castillo or Commissioner. That's not what this was. This is an in-depth survey into city services, your thoughts on those services, uh... one question related to the potential of a bond on public safety complex but very very detailed and granular information. I also received a couple of emails. One was a resident in Miramar, which I thought was amazing. I love the city of Miramar. But she said, I didn't receive the Pembroke Pines survey. And I said, well, ma'am, because you don't live within our jurisdiction. And I appreciate very much your enthusiasm for the city of Pembroke Pines. But if you don't live here, and this is a survey of individuals who actually live here, pay taxes here, and are registered voters within our city, that is who the survey will be geared towards. you could still use our parks and drive through our cities, but you're not a taxpaying resident. So that was one portion of it that I think we needed to clear up because this was of registered voters in the city of Pembroke Pines. And finally, congratulations, city of Pembroke Pines. And I'm referring to not only the residents because I think Other cities and counties would be envious of these types of satisfaction surveys across all four districts of our city. No matter where you live, the satisfaction survey with our police officers and our firefighters Really, really high. If you're traffic, you're screwed. No one likes traffic. We can't do much about that. Obviously, we talk about public transit here as well, and it's important to take that information. But I really do believe, Manager Dodge, the workforce of the city of Pembroke Pines is to be commended for, and I'm not just referring to you. I'm also referring to, we're a little over 1,100, I believe, employees, contractors that serve this city. Yes, police department. Yes, fire rescue as well. So congratulations to each of you. I do believe that, yes, this is wonderful to do it one time. Personally, you don't necessarily need to survey the general public of registered voters every quarter. But this is the beauty of what I refer to in my private work, evidence-based communication. Evidence-based communication is you're not just putting your finger in the wind and determining what you think people say. or going on one particular social media platform and saying, well, that's representative. No, you're researching a community scientifically based on statistics, based on what is genuine, real, and verifiable, and planning on how to communicate or how to serve your public better. And if the results were not positive, they'd still be public. So I commend you all, but I think we also can go more granular if we do authorize the manager for further surveys under his authority that he does have. I do believe that maybe owners of businesses, I think Mike Stamm I randomly asked you how many we have. It's probably 5,000 operating within the city. There are several different ways that you can actually go out there and survey more granular than just registered voters and have that more specific audience that you are trying to extract public opinion from. I can't say it enough. You only really know what your residents think if you ask them. You can only really ask them not by standing on a street corner. It's by allocating funds to scientific research, making it available to everyone, and always using that as I don't want to call a roadmap. Let's call it a North Star, however you want to frame it, to how you serve the public. So Mr. Ross, congratulations. I thank you for the briefing. I know it went. much longer than your presentation because I kept asking more and more granular questions. But I appreciate very much the work. And again, Manager Dodge, Assistant City Manager Bonilla, great work. You have my support if you'd like to, again, broaden the research for other groups, other segments of the City of Pembroke Pines population and business community. Thank you.

Well, I got to tell you, I agree with you. And I'm so glad that we had a communications plan as part of our strategic plan. And these surveys are part of achieving those strategic goals that we all approved of. So I'm really very, very impressed. Commissioner Rodriguez.

I'm gonna try to keep it short because I know we have our Broward County Public Schools here who were supposed to go first so I apologize for that. But this is also very, very important for us to understand not just the vibes of the city but be backed by that raw data. I do work in politics and I see polling come across my desk quite often but never in this form in which it is so easily digestible by any of our residents. And I think it's a great prime example of how we should be communicating a lot of the things that we do here in the city. And I'm just glad to see that texting is on there, because I've been talking about getting a texting platform up here and better communication from the city of Pembroke Pines in a variety of ways. And this was simply a good way to get some raw data behind some of those things that I've been hearing out on the street even before I was elected, and now we see it obviously in black and white or green and red here on this website, as well as the on-demand access to transportation. Obviously, you see our districts out west with Vice Mayor Hernandez as well. We do lack that transportation, and it's not just something we see or kind of hear about. when we're out in our communities, but now it's backed by that data. And I hope that in the future we can continue to do something like this because it's a great way of communicating with our residents and not just one way, not just us letting you all know what's going on in the city, but for you to have a really easy access point to get to us as well. And we hear it all the time, our inboxes, our doors are open, but sometimes it takes, as we say in communications, you have to meet the people where they are. and sometimes it's via text message and email and a sample survey to be able to let you all know that we are hearing what you're saying and that we're going to take a lot of this to heart and be able to define, hopefully, the next coming years in what we focus on here in the city.

Thank you very much. Commissioner Good?

thank you mr mayor i do gotta say uh kudos mr ross yeah i too had an opportunity to get a personal tutorial on on on this model and all i can say is just a super outstanding product and attending anybody who's out watching this commission meeting really should be encouraged to go and and look at this survey The most important thing probably that stood out to me, I don't do political stuff like this, right, surveys. But I do, I'm very, very familiar with municipal surveys. And I could tell you a typical municipal survey, which is like 99.9% of the surveys are like just one standard response. You get a result, and that's it. And you can ask questions. You're lucky to find somebody who knows the answer. But that's all it is, just a single number representation on a question. This here, this model is super dynamic. Anybody can go in there. The Vice Mayor made reference to the accessibility of the details. You can go into this and literally, on your own, determine what route you want to take in finding out all the details on how you develop the final results that are being presented for the survey. I just can't get over the access to the community in many, many different ways. It's just very mind blowing. And also, again, too, I also echo the Vice Mayor congratulations to the entire community who responded to this survey, it just shows with the numbers that we have a community that cares. They care to participate, they care to give us input, and man, that is awesome. You know, the last thing we all up here want to do is hear crickets, but this was not that case. So thank you all for participating, and please, we all look forward to future surveys where more of you do participate. Thank you, Mr. Mayor. Wonderful.

Commissioner Schwartz, anything? Thank you. And I'll be quick. My friend at the school board, I'll be brief. Mr. Ross, good evening. Thank you for taking time this evening. And first of all, it's been a while since we spoke, but congratulations on your wedding. And I want to thank you for bringing this forward to the city commission. I worked over the summer receiving some communication between you and the administration. So my inquiry is going to be based on the information I collected over the summer. Who formulated the questions? How were the questions wound up in the survey? Was this your approval? Was this your suggestion? Was it the administration providing? I saw a couple emails where at least two elected officials weighed in on portions of the survey. I was not one of them. How did you come about, I guess, the final product going out to the community for input?

Sure. Thank you for the question. We came in and had an initial meeting with the city manager and assistant city manager, Bonilla. We talked through the kinds of information that they hoped to get out of this survey. And the focus was to kind of get what I would normally call an index. you know, things like quality of life and public safety to find out where people stand on them. It's something that you can test over and over, over a long period of time to see if you are moving in the right direction or the wrong direction. So that first survey was really about getting those core high level numbers. And they gave me a sense of what they were looking for on that first one. The second one was intended to cover two core things. One was that test of the potential bond question that the city is contemplating putting on the ballot. And the other was to take a deeper dive based on whatever the results of Survey 1 showed. So as an example, in Survey 1, we had that question where people told us they were interested in texting. We had a follow-up on texting. We had some code enforcement information that came up in the first one. We tested it to get a little deeper on it in survey two. And of course, transit, which we talked about, came up as something worth going deeper on in survey one. So we went a little deeper into it on survey two. The actual questions were always formulated on our side and sent to the administration for approval. I understand that they passed along drafts to the commission and administration for feedback. We didn't make any substantial changes based on feedback. I believe there were a couple of very minor changes made. And that's how we ultimately ended up with the questions that went out

Thank you, Ms. Ross. I think it was quarter four last year I had an item on the agenda requesting that administration go out to the public for a survey. It didn't quite get the support I was looking for that evening. However, I feel like you're here tonight because of that conversation that we had just about a year ago. I want to thank you for the level of engagement. The product is certainly easy to understand. JUST FOR TRANSPARENCY PURPOSES, YOU AND I HAVE NEVER WORKED TOGETHER IN THE PAST AND YOU'VE NEVER WORKED FOR THE CITY OF PEMBROKE PINES BEFORE, IS THAT CORRECT?

CORRECT.

HAVE YOU WORKED WITH ANY OF MY COLLEAGUES IN ANY CAPACITY PRIOR TO THE SURVEY GOING OUT?

SURE. I MEAN, THERE ARE THINGS OUT THERE THAT ARE PUBLIC THAT ANYONE CAN FIND ABOUT SOME PAST POLLING WE'VE DONE IN PEMBROKE PINES. WE'VE ALSO DONE SOME WORK FOR THIRD PARTIES. in Pembroke Pines that is not public. Nothing that would present a conflict here, but I certainly have done some work in Pines in the past.

Okay. On behalf of the city, on behalf of an elected official, on behalf of a political action committee?

The one that I know was public was some polling we did when Mayor Castillo was first running for office. That's the only one I can recall that's public.

OKAY. THANK YOU, MR. ROSS. AND FINALLY.

AND I CAN TELL YOU IT'S BEEN A LONG TIME SINCE WE'VE DONE ANY WORK FOR ANYBODY IN PEMBROKE PINES.

YEAH, THANK YOU. SO I'D ASK THE ADMINISTRATION TO PROVIDE, I GUESS, A SCOPE OF WORK AND WORK PRODUCT. THIS IS A PROFESSIONAL SERVICES CONTRACT. SO AS A RESULT OF THAT, IT NEVER CAME THROUGH PROCUREMENT THROUGH OUR CODE. IT DOESN'T HAVE TO BE. SO I WAS LOOKING FOR THE SCOPE OF WORK. I DID SEE AN E-MAIL AS FAR AS HOW YOU WERE GOING TO BREAK THINGS DOWN, AND YOU CERTAINLY executed everything that you had promised that you would deliver on. And I want to thank you for that. I really do. If we do move forward, however, I would like to be able to see that scope of work approved by the commission, because now we have a work product that we're going from right so i know the city of miramar they're doing a qr code survey in-house it's probably related to what you know commissioner good has seen uh may have related to as far as like what those outcomes are this is certainly psychometrically valid surveying this is certainly something that we can uh we can say to residents are um are the our snapshot in time for our residents. What I really found interesting, Mr. Ross, and school board, this is my final thought, is when you doubled back, those who had already surveyed, It appeared that their percentage was pretty much inflexible, meaning that the folks, the movement was less than 5% for the majority of the stuff at least you had shown today. I imagine maybe a deeper dive may have a wider delta, but I found it quite interesting, and I'm not sure how... from a psychometrically valid standpoint, going back to the first round of folks, how that might skew an independent result if you've already asked them one time. Because sometimes people get annoyed being asked the second time. They're happy to do it the first time, but they're not expecting to do it two weeks later. So just keep that. That's something that kind of jumped at me. I want to thank you again for your work product. City administration, thank you for providing me the information I needed so I could make an informed legislative decision.

Yeah. Thank you for your comments. This was not done at your behest. This was done in satisfaction of the strategic plan. You had proposed a plan. a survey of, if I can recall it correctly, not to exceed $75,000, which this didn't come anywhere close to. And it had to do with only polling the people that voted in the last March election. We, for a fraction of that money, we got to all of them. And Mr. Dodge, I really, really want to appreciate your work again. And I have no interest in reviewing the future questions for polls, because I think that we need to take politics out of it. And so if anything, this process has shown us that the less we do in this area and just wait for the results from the people, As they report it, the better off we will be. So thank you very much for this conversation.

Point of clarification, Mayor. Do we, and this is actually for the city attorney, I imagine, because I don't know what I legally would need to do, but if the majority of the commission or the entire commission unanimously voted to REQUEST MORE OF THESE SURVEYS. IS THAT SOMETHING THAT WE HAVE TO DIRECT THE MANAGER OR NOT BECAUSE IT'S UNDER HIS SIGNATURE AUTHORITY OF 100?

THE LATTER, IF I MAY, MR. MAYOR. THE LATTER. BASICALLY THE MANAGER UNDER THE CHARTER IS THE CITY MANAGER AND HE IS THE CEO FOR THE CITY ULTIMATELY. TO THE EXTENT THAT YOU WOULD DIRECT OR REQUEST HIM TO PERFORM A SERVICE, HE WOULD DO SO. AND HE CAN INDEPENDENTLY PERFORM THAT SERVICE AS WELL SO LONG AS IT'S IN HIS PROCUREMENT CAP AND CONSISTENT WITH HIS AUTHORITY.

So, Mayor, it's up to you. I would just like to place on the record again, I think we should have the manager under his authority authorize more of these surveys, not necessarily only for registered voters, but whatever he and, you know, speak to the assistant city managers. I'm sure there are parts of subsegments of the population in our city that they'd like to hear from, etc., I guess it's not a direction. I am encouraging the manager.

Yeah, I think we're all encouraging it. He's already authorized to do it under the strategic plan, which he's required to carry out. So he has all the authority he needs to do additional service. All right. Thank you very, very much. Good conversation. Thank you, Mr. Ross, again. And have a safe trip and a safe flight home. The next presentation.

Thank you so much, and thank you for accommodating me.

Thank you. The next presentation will be the school board of Broward County, and I want to acknowledge the presence of my good friend, school board member Rebecca Thompson, who is here.

All right.

Hit the button. There's a button there. You're on.

All right. Good evening. This one's going to get me in trouble. I appreciate the apologies for the wait, but you guys talk way less than my board members.

Your name and title for the record.

Right, yes. John Sullivan, Chief of Staff to the Superintendent. He does give his greetings. Let me introduce some of our team members who are here as well. Our deputy superintendent, Angela Fulton, and one of our regional directors that support your schools, Mr. Santana. So just a disclaimer, this presentation is only informational. We cannot advocate, only educate as it relates to the referendum. We'd like to start with some highlights from the district that are our successes, which really belongs to all of us here in Broward County. We couldn't do this work without our municipal partners, especially you guys have been a great partner to us. So we received our third consecutive A for the district from the state recently. And more importantly, we have no D and F schools in the whole county, which is a huge accomplishment with a district our size.

Congratulations. Wonderful.

Thank you. And also, the highest graduation rates we've seen over in 25 years with 97.5 percentage rate of our students graduating in our traditional high schools. We're also number one in funding for APA student enrollment and industry certification. That's important because it demonstrates the access that our students have to higher courses and also opens up better opportunities in terms of scholarships. This year alone, our graduating class received over $600 million, which is a huge number for us. So we're excited for that. And just a little about us. You guys know we're a large school district, sixth in the country, second in Florida. So I won't go too much over this, but I'm the largest employer in the county. So this is just our school grades. Again, I won't go over this too much, but if you see the trajectory of when Superintendent Dr. Hepburn started to now, We've really made tremendous strides. And he's really made academic excellence the standard now here in Broward County, following our third consecutive A and no D and F schools. For this, I'm going to turn it over to Ms. Thompson, your champion on the school board.

Thank you, Mr. Sullivan, and he's very lucky that we can't fire him. I just wanted to say, first, I, as a proud Pines resident, I thought the survey was incredibly interesting, and especially all the shout-outs to the amazing schools that we have here in Pembroke Pines. As you can see here, all of our schools were A's except two. And I think that's because combined with the commission, with our community, our families, we really work hard to put education first. And I'm very excited to be your representative on the board. And that's really all I wanted to share. I also wanted to thank everyone for supporting the beautification blitz we've had. Commissioner, Vice Mayor Hernandez for Monday and then Commissioner Rodriguez for today. We've been, and tomorrow at Silver Palm, so there's still a chance. So we've been really welcoming our students back and also all of our SRO officers are really happy to be back and have been very delightful. Well, there you go.

Thank you, Ms. Thompson. All right, so to the main topic for our presentation is the referendum. The voters have really got accustomed to seeing this since the 2018 primary ballot. Due to the statute, now we're no longer allowed to go in the primary. So we're in the general. So this referendum measure will be presented to the voters on November 3rd. And again, this is a renewal of our existing one mill property tax. It's not new. It's been in effect since 2018. And this would impact the school year 27 and 28, beginning those years for four years. Across Broward, it would generate $358 million across the county, including charter schools. Your charter schools also would benefit from this referendum. We use it the same way you all use it, teacher compensation and staff compensation, school safety personnel, and mental health personnel. So again, not a new tax. This has been in effect since 2018. It was renewed also back in 2022. And these are just some of the items that the current referendum and future referendum would fund. So again, our supplements for our teachers and eligible staff, which is our frontline workers, our bus drivers, our cafeteria workers, our custodians, so really the frontline workers and school-based employees. And that would continue under this. And when you look at it, there's a lot of competition in terms of where our teachers can work at Tri-County. Both districts in the north and south have this referendum for a similar purpose. So if it wasn't in effect, it would definitely impact our ability to recruit. And we believe this really has helped us in achieving the academic excellence as demonstrated by our A rating. And of course, we are very thankful for the city for their partnership in our SRO program. We know that is a burden for the city, so we do appreciate the city's financial support. This referendum does support those funds. Prior to 2018, I believe the contribution rate for us, for cities, was about $56,000. We've achieved almost 120,000 contribution rate. If this were to pass, there would be additional funds to see how we can continue to make those increases to lower the burden with the city. And again, we do appreciate that partnership. And of course, our mental health services for our students and families, that's also provided. So very important three items that are funded in the current referendum. On the screen, the voters, your residents, which again, we appreciate the opportunity to not only educate the commission, but also your residents, since ultimately they will be part of deciding whether to support or not support this. They'll see this on the November 3 ballot when they're deciding whether to continue this referendum. The current referendum is funded a little differently in terms of the breakout of the percentages. The new one, 90% would go towards teacher compensation and salaries. Then 10% would be remaining for our school safety officers, which includes SROs, and again, would allow for continued conversations of how we can increase our contribution rate towards the SRO program for the cities, and then continue to fund our mental health services. What does this mean for the average property owner across the county? Again, these are averages, so it all depends on how much your house is worth or your property is worth or assessed. So these are just averages. So for the average homeowner, it would be $418 a year, about $35 a month. For condominium owners, it would be $230 and about $19 a month. And again, that would generate across the county $358 million, which again includes charter schools. If this were not to be renewed, of course, those $358 million would not be made available for those purposes. We're limited as a district of how we can generate funds. It's very scripted from the state. We know they don't provide enough, especially for our ability to compensate our teachers appropriately. You guys face the same issues with your charter school system within the city. So without this, those supplements that our teachers have enjoyed since 2018 would more likely go away because the district does not have it in its general fund to make up for this $358 million. So again, I know I said a lot of information. I know you have a long agenda, so I was probably a little too quick. But we do have a QR code for your residents if they want to have more information on the referendum. And there's also a website is on the screen, and the QR code would take you to that. And with that, Mr. Mayor, we'll take some questions if you like.

Well, thank you very much, and I appreciate the information. Any questions?

A comment and a question. First of all, thank you for not only being here tonight, but my wife tells me you had to drag a lot of stuff up the stairs at Chapel Chair Elementary.

I did it with my superintendent.

Yes, both of you did. And I very much appreciate it, especially the fact that, obviously you, but Superintendent Hepburn went personally. And I know he's visiting several schools, but... selfishly as a dad, that he visited my daughter's school during the beautification project that board member Thompson led. I also want to

What can I say, Mr. Gorin, in terms of this referendum? You can ask, if I may, Mr. Mayor? Yes. The folks on this side of the dais are governed by the same statute that those folks are governed by, 106.313. And factual questions and answers are certainly within the ambit of what they can answer and what you can ask.

But we can't advocate or oppose or anything like that, is that correct?

and you're not spending any public money. And oh, by the way, this is what's called a public forum, clearly a public forum. So that's where it has to happen.

A factual statement is my children are in Briar County Public Schools, and I'm a proud parent. A factual statement is that I think Rebecca Thompson is doing an excellent job as my school board member. I guess I'm still within the letter of the law. Florida, man. Another factual statement which you made, Mr. Sullivan, is that this referendum would impact traditional public schools as well as teachers in public charter schools, including the city of Pembroke Pines. And finally, a factual statement is that we are in an affordability crisis in South Florida and our teachers, our treasurers, community, it's still a factual statement, as are our educational leaders. I think I've gone as far as I can with factual statements. So thank you for being here, Mr. Sullivan and Board Member Thompson and colleagues.

Commissioner Rodriguez.

Thank you so much for the presentation. My ask of administration is, is there a possibility to link some of this information onto our website as well? Because typically, we do have information about upcoming elections, whether obviously we're on the ballot or or not our our election we will have at least something on our on the ballot come november as well so the page should be active uh regarding those questions and i think adding this as a part of that would um just help inform the community as to what they're going to be seeing on the ballot because everybody has the right to vote here and you should vote here And I just think it's really important for us to aid in the communication, at least to inform our residents of what they will be seeing on their ballots. And then an additional shout out to Rebecca Thompson and her Beautification Blitz, which I was there this morning. at Lakeside Elementary and we got to clean a lot of laptops and I was going to mention it after the list of the mayor's accomplishments for the summer and that's been something that I've seen really, really appreciated through a lot of our residents that that initiative had taken place and thank you to the school board for supporting as well as our Chamber of Commerce.

Mr. Dodge and Mr. Gorin, can we add this to to our TV station and social media and that kind of thing? Is that allowed?

Short answer is yes.

Good. Congratulations, by the way, on the incredibly impressive academic achievements. I've been in Broward County since 1997, and to see this happen really warms my heart. You guys have really done a great job academically, and it has to be noted. Very, very difficult job to do, and very, very impressive. Anyone else? Commissioner Good?

Thank you. Welcome, Mr. Sullivan, and you as well, member Thompson. Good to see you all. Could you introduce the rest of your team, by the way, that is here with you? Are they with you?

Sure. Thank you for giving me the opportunity because I messed up the deputy's title the first time. Anyway, our deputy superintendent, Angela Fulton. Hi, Angela. And then Mr. Santana, who's one of our regional directors who supports the schools within the city.

Great. So I just want to set one record straight. You opened up with saying that we do talk less than your board members, but you did not put the caveat in that there's five of us and nine of them. So I saved you. But only one other question real quick. Aside from this here, Is it possible that sometime in the near term that maybe you all can come back and talk to us a little bit more about the Palm Cove Elementary plans that has been closed? We've been receiving a lot of comments. And any other schools that are? Well, this one here particularly for me is in my district, and I am getting a number of, request and of course I try to redirect them to you all but I think it is a good opportunity for us you know for any of the schools that are impacting Pembroke Pines we at least just get an update even if it's tentative because typically sometimes we don't get it until hey we're ribbon-cutting this is what we're doing and I think it's important I appreciate that. OK, that's good.

We're happy to do it. Thank you very much. We'll work with the city manager on what that would be best for you all. And we are about to start our third iteration of redefining fire county schools. So there'll be new schools that come out on those lists, which may or may not impact this city. So we're committed to be good partners and come back and report back.

Well, I only have one more traditional public school in my district. So hopefully it stays. All right.

Anything else? Thank you very much for your presentation and for your presence here.

We appreciate the opportunity to keep you all informed. Thank you so much for having us.

Thank you very much. Next presentation is the Children's Services Council. A button there. See it? There's a button there. There's a button there, Cindy. Talk.

There you go.

There we go. Your name and affiliation for the record.

Yes, sir. Cindy Ehrenberg-Seltzer. That's not us. Cindy Ehrenberg-Seltzer. I'm the president and CEO of the Children's Services Council of Broward County. And it is a pleasure to be here. Mr. Mayor, I don't know if I'm allowed to reveal the fact that he is responsible for my being in Broward County. He recruited me back in 1999. I'm going to tell this story.

OK. So I was human services director in 1998, was it? 99. 99?

Well, it was 98 December when you interviewed me, and I started February 1st.

And there was a retirement, and I needed a director of children's services. And I reached out to the Kennedy School, and I said, I need to find the best children's services person you could send me. And they sent me Cindy Ehrenberg, and I hired her. And look what happened.

And look what happened next.

So we've known each other almost 30 years.

And I am forever grateful for that opportunity that brought me to Broward County. Enough of that. Let's get to this. Yes, and now let's get to the show. So I started out at the county, but then the voters of Broward in – are you doing it?

Oh, cool.

Thank you.

Go right ahead.

The brilliant voters of Broward County in September of 2000 voted to create the Children's Services Council. They were looking around at the crises that were happening in the foster care system and the number of children that we had being arrested and said, we need to put some prevention services in place. They authorized and said they were willing to be taxed up to $0.50 per $1,000 of taxable value for the purpose of helping children. That's me. I am the first and only president of the Children's Services Council. So sometimes when you hear me talk about it, I may sound like I take it very personally, because actually, I say both of my children share a birthday. Children's Services Council was born September 5th of 2000, and my beautiful daughter Leah was born September 5th of 2006. So there's something cosmic about that. So yes, we can go past me. You can see me in the flesh. We should have 11 council members. At the moment, we have 10. We have one gubernatorial vacancy, but we have six people who are there by virtue of their position, as you can see. Dr. Hepburn is one of them. Then we have a school board member, Ms. Hickson, the head of the Department of Health, Dr. Thacky, the local head of the Department of Children and Families, Bobby Shea. Great County Commissioner Nan Rich, and the Honorable Lauren Alperstein. And then at the moment, we have four gubernatorial appointees. So our mission is to provide the leadership, advocacy, and resources necessary to enhance children's lives and help them to become responsible adults through collaborative planning and funding of a quality continuum of care. Now, if you listened to that and thought, that is the longest mission statement I've ever heard, and that is ridiculous, I will tell you it is long, but it has truly guided all of the work that we've done throughout the years. And we take each aspect of that mission statement seriously. So our total funding in 24-25 was $133 million, almost $134. And we serve nearly 200,000 of Broward County's 400,000 children. They get served in a variety of ways. But I do want everyone to know that we get less than $0.02 of every dollar paid in property taxes. And of that money, only 4% is spent on administration. There's 3% we have no control over. We have to pay the property appraiser and the tax collector. And 93% of it goes to the programs that we fund. So we do a lot in Pembroke Pines itself. I'll get into the details, but a few things. 4.5 million in 2024-25, serving 8,510 children. One thing I know that's not in the slides, but it's OK. We're good. We fund the city of Pembroke Pines to run your excellent special needs camp over the summer. It's something we've been funding for many years. And we hold every program we fund to very high standards. We do a lot of monitoring. And you have hit it out of the park and therefore have been funded for many years. So congratulations to you for that. So some of the big areas that we fund are early care and education, $11 million countywide in early care and education. And parents and caregivers report benefits of the respite. They're able to maintain employment. They're sometimes therapeutic in nature. One of the proudest things is the next one, which is $24 million in family supports. I mentioned that one of the reasons the Children's Services Council was created was because of the crisis in the foster care system. So the very first request for proposals that we had on the street, the very first day that we had taxing authority, October 1 of 2001, was for family strengthening programs. At that time, it was $3 million. Now we're up to 24. But we help thousands of families every year, whether it's light touch, like I have a baby and I don't know what to do with them, and they go to a group where they learn some techniques, or whether it's dealing with a recalcitrant teenager that they can't figure out how to manage, and everything in between. And we have reduced the number of children in out-of-home care from almost 4,000 in the year 2000 to now close to 1,000. We know prevention works. And nobody else wants to fund prevention services. Moving along, youth programs. Again, we talked about that there were so many children being arrested. There were over 14,000 arrests of children in 2000. Over 12,000 children a year, 14,000 arrests. We're now at about 2,400 across the county. Prevention works. we have in the youth programs. It's after school programs. It's summer youth employment. It's a variety of programs where we are looking at building resilience, building a vision for the future, teaching them pro-social activities, and then helping them find their way to, in many cases, a permanent job. Out of school time, the $20 million in out of school time, is for the elementary school age children. And those are across the county. All of these programs we have for children who are typically developing and for those who have special needs, whether that be behavioral needs, physical challenges. There are programs that are either exclusively for them or, to the extent possible, integrated with children who are typically developing, which is the preference of most parents. But if it can't be because they need more intense supervision. We want to make sure that those children are taken care of. And that gets us to the next slide, which is special needs. We invest $19 million in programs specifically for children with special needs, whether those be physical or developmental, including those that teach them life skills that, if possible, will enable them to be independent as adults. So some of the things specifically in Pembroke Pines, you may not realize it, but 3,000 of your residents have called 211 and gotten connected to services. That's kind of a hidden 3,031. It's a hidden service that people don't realize. But we are the largest funder of 211, specifically not only for the general hotline, but we set up a specific hotline for people who have children with special needs and those who may have a mental health diagnosis and they're trying to figure out where to turn. That's a message I hope that your residents will hear today and recognize that if they have those issues, please call 211. It's your best connection to the social services that are available. School nurses, 2,064. Residents of Pembroke Pines have been served thanks to the school health, the school nurses that we provide in 23 schools in Broward. Swim Central, 1,316 of your youngsters have gotten water safety lessons. We want to make sure that no child in Broward drowns. Sadly, we have not gotten that number to zero. But I can tell you that for those that have taken advantage of the water safety lessons offered through Swim Central, none of them in the 25 years that we've been funding this have drowned. So again, it's a resource that's available to the children. The families need to sign those permission slips and make sure that their children are taking advantage of those services. And for the little ones, the zero to four-year-olds, coupons are available. You can go to a mommy or daddy and me class, start them at six months, make sure that they're not afraid of the water. And I hope you're distributing water watcher badges, because no matter if the children know what they're doing, we still want to make sure that when children are around water, that there is an adult that knows their eyes have to be on those children at all times. A little outreach in Pembroke Pines. This was a recent event that just happened.

Mm-hmm, the shoes.

Mayor, I'm afraid we were ships passing in the night that day, but it was a beautiful, beautiful event when we distributed shoes. Those kids are so happy that they got shoes. I can't even tell you. It always makes me happy when I'm out there with the children, and they were. It was like Christmas morning. They were ecstatic. And then I just want to make sure that all of you know how to find publications. We have always prided ourselves on being transparent and accountable to the taxpayers. This is nothing new. We produce an annual report, a comprehensive annual financial report, a popular annual financial report, funded programs guide, annual performance report. If you want to know anything about any of the nearly 200 programs that we fund, you can find it in little bits of information, intensive amounts of information, whatever you want to know about our finances, the outcome measures, all of it. is available on our website and the funded programs directory. You all should be getting, I'm sure we send them every year to you, the annual report and funded programs directory and the family resource guides that I trust you have in your public places so that your residents know how to find services for their children. All right.

Did we give them already?

Ken is going to give you, this is Ken King, our director of communications and community outreach. So what he's giving you is our annual report, the popular annual financial report, which is an easy to read summary of the financial parts. And then if you're looking for resources, little summaries to let you know how much was budgeted, how much was spent in each area. So there are many others. I only cited for you the big numbers of the children that are taking advantage of some of the programs. But there are hundreds of children in after-school programs from the city. There are children who've gone through CareerSource. They've gotten help through Legal Aid. They've gone through diversion programs. They're getting mental health services. Each of the programs are serving 50, 73, 16. So it would have been too long a list to hand you. But there's three pages of providers that are serving your children, thanks to the Children's Services Council.

That's it for me. Very impressive, by the way. But every once in a while, you have to reauthorize, as I understand it.

Actually, we weren't supposed to, no, but we did have to in 2014. That's good through when? Or is that it? The way the statute was written, we were authorized unless and until someone decides that we need to go back on the ballot. OK, wonderful. Yes. Though we are our sole source of funding, as I indicated at the beginning of this is property taxes. What the voters voted for in 2000 and in 2014, both by large margins, was that they were willing to be taxed up to $0.50 per $1,000 of value for the purpose of helping children. That is the only revenue source for the Children's Services Council.

And how would Amendment 3 affect your funding stream?

We are part of that, and so as a countywide When you look at the homesteaded properties countywide in the first year about 15 million dollars and the second year About 28 million dollars was the last estimate that we had that would be eliminated And and the rest would would stay Well, so until his full elimination of the home so as I understand it today I The homesteaded properties are the only ones that would be impacted. So if there's full elimination on homesteaded properties, that would take about 37% of our budget out, over $60 million.

OK. Any questions for Cindy on the Children's Services Council?

Yeah. Just a thank you. As Commissioner Rodriguez mentioned, thank you for all you do for us.

Thank you.

Wonderful, wonderful, wonderful. OK. Thank you so much.

Thank you so much. If any of you need any funded programs guide, resource guides, or anything, or you have a constituent that needs help, please feel free to reach out.

Much appreciated. Thank you so very, very much. OK. I have now items at the request of the public. And I have two people signed up. The first is Robert Riber. Your name and your address for the record, please.

Robert Riber, 2030, Northwest, 107th Avenue. First of all, thank you for the time, Mr. Mayor, Vice Mayor, Commissioners, and Mr. Dodd. First off, I'd like to thank Commissioner Schwartz. Jay has worked with me on the phone over a concern I have in our area, Section 2 of Pembroke Lakes. A lot of the mature trees are being taken out. Now, this doesn't sound like a lot, but when you look at the neighborhood, if you drive through there now, tomorrow, it's like an open plain versus the beautiful rainforest look we had. I moved here in 1985 when we were young, Mr. Dodge, and I remember Mayor Flanagan adamantly Swearing those trees were the best thing in this area now. He swore about a lot of things yeah, and You're all familiar with them I Did my own survey it's 100 the size of your survey presented tonight Which was very interesting I? Walk every morning It's a health thing, retired. I like the shade. The heat is unbelievable. Of the 20-so people I see every morning, every one of them has asked me, what's going on? So I'm asking all of you to be aware of what's happening, look at it, see if there's anything that can be done. I mean, some of the trees being taken out are 40 years old.

Mayor, I'll shed some light on it for you.

I'm not going to tie you up any longer.

It's been a long meeting. Thank you very much. Commissioner, could you bring an item on this back for us?

Actually, I want to get some action tonight. Thank you, Mr. Robert. I want to get some action tonight. It's not on the agenda. I understand that, and neither was the speaker. However, I have been... No, the speaker is here under... Public comment. If you would extend the courtesy, you want to know what was going on. Go right ahead.

But we're going to need an item if you want action.

So the city got sued. And the city lost. And the city has to fix sidewalks for ADA. Do you recall that? So the city hired a consultant to go around and tag trees. that potentially could be in violation of the court's order. We do not have an arborist for the city. We have landscape certification. So the city went out and hired a consultant to go ahead and mark trees up. Now, I am in Mr. Riber's camp. I don't like the canopy being destroyed. I don't want to see a chainsaw get into something that is unnecessary. I have another resident, not too far, who actually works for Miami-Dade County, who has been, we were supposed to get together earlier this week to go tree by tree so I could help staff identify things. Because right now we are locked into what the consultant said. I'm asking the city administration to reevaluate through the city attorney's office in compliance with the order from the judge, and let's save what could be salvageable because the canopy that's going to be destroyed is about a shade coefficient that's only going to allow us to have category two and three trees to be planted, and it's going to take a significant amount of time to increase the shade coefficient, and we're already the hottest city in Broward County.

Well, well, well, well stated. Mr. Dodge, have you and Commissioner Schwartz spoken about trees in Pembroke Lakes?

Okay.

So if we want to do something about it, Commissioner, you have to communicate with the manager. And the best way to deal with that is to put an item on the agenda. that explains what the issue is, that shows what this lawsuit is, that shows what your plans are, so that we can get our arms around it. Bring us an item that we can act on.

The administration did not notify the commission that they hired a consultant to go ahead and tag trees. How did I find out? When residents like the Rivers contact me going, why is this tree being ripped out? So I reach out to administration.

I'm glad they came forward. We're all happy to deal with it. There's no item before us. And you haven't spoken to the city manager about it.

I've spoken to the city administration.

Okay. So why don't you take the next week or so to put together an action plan.

Bring us an item. I'd like to take the next 10 minutes and get a commitment from the city manager that trees will be re-evaluated.

Excuse me, but the item is not on the agenda.

I don't care about it.

Okay, sir, you're now disrupting the meeting. So I'm going to ask you to please come back with an item We're all about doing something, but it has to be done correctly. We don't know what it's going to cost. Sir, you're now disrupting the meeting. That's the second time I'm telling you. All right. We will fix this once an item comes before us. We don't know what the parameters are. The public is entitled to know what the issue is. Let your commissioner bring an item back to us, OK? Thank you very, very much. And I appreciate it.

Do you want me to give a little explanation real quick, unless you want to wait for the item?

I think we should wait for the item. I have other speakers ahead of us. OK, thank you very much. We look forward to the item, and we'll get to work. But there has to be some item so that everyone here, including the public, is aware. We don't take things like that anymore. Not here. Okay. So the next person is Mrs. Jack McCluskey. If you come forward, please, your name and your address for the record. Thank you. Go right ahead. Jack, push the button, please. There's a button in there. There's a button there.

You're on. I wear hearing aids, and I cannot hear you. I never heard Sam giving you advice. He talks too low. None of you are speaking loud enough so that they can hear you out there. Anyway, I come before you to strongly urge you to vote against item number 16, to vote no on its second reading, the question of whether to place on the November 3 ballot the hiring or firing of the city manager or acting city managers by a simple majority vote of 3 to 5. I have lived in this city longer than any of you, 57 years, and I'm older than any of you, including Charlie. Because of this, I would assume that wisdom has been gained, but that too is questionable. But during that time, I have observed the timing of the hiring and firing of more city managers than any of you have ever experienced. During that time, the last two city managers have spent over 50 years running this city. And they have made us one of the best run cities in Broward and in the state of Florida. I speak again on item number 16 on tonight's agenda. The hiring and firing of a city manager deserves more than a simple majority. vote by this body. It deserves a super majority, a real confident vote of four votes out of five. If you look at the rest of this charter, it provides that it will still take four votes to hire or fire the city finance director, the city attorney, and the city auditor. Are these people more valuable than the city manager? Look at Fort Lauderdale, who with three votes has rid themselves of their city manager with only 15 months on the job. She's the fifth city manager in seven years in Fort Lauderdale. The Pines had 13 in its first 11 years under a simple majority vote. Even then, it took four votes to fire because we had a seven-member commission at the time. We don't need that to relive that type of firing or hiring Again, we settled this question a few years ago with a four-fifths supermajority vote. I sat on the most recent charter review board, and no one even mentioned this item. No one from the commission came before the charter review board and even asked us to consider it. We don't need to resettle it tonight.

Thank you very much.

I urge you to all vote no when it comes up later tonight.

Thank you very much for your testimony. Thank you so very, very much. Okay. Today's appointments. We have two. Two. There's a motion to appoint Karen Trent to fill the advocate for low-income persons vacancy on the Affordable Housing Advisory Committee. Does anyone want to make that motion? I'll move it. Moved by Commissioner Schwartz. Is there a second? Second. Second by Commissioner Good. Any discussion? Yes, Mayor.

I'd like to thank Director Jay Schechter for his time and service on that board. He did a great job, and I look forward to having Karen Trent.

Thank you very much. Anyone else? Any from the public? Seeing none, all those in favor say aye.

Aye.

Any opposed? Motion carries unanimously. The next item is Commissioner Schwartz. Thank you, Mayor.

I've been serving now 14 years. I've only had two appointees to the Economic Development Board. The first one was Samia, and she did an excellent job. Larissa Hernandez. was appointed several years ago. She was my appointee after she served on this board. She's the current vice chair of the Economic Development Board. Larissa did an excellent job. Sit up front.

We may not be able to help the microphones, but you could sit up front. It'll help. Go ahead.

Larissa, due to personal reasons, needed to step away from the board, but her service certainly is appreciated. It's my honor to appoint Kevin Blake, who is going to be an outstanding advocate for the business community. His personality is bigger than life itself. Wonderful. And Kevin's going to do a great job. So here? Kevin could not make it this evening due to a family commitment, but this won't be the last time you will hear about Kevin. And I'd like to recognize Chairman Cruzetti from the Economic Development Board here. Thank you, Mr. Chairman, and please extend my thanks Thanks to everyone who's serving on behalf of the community.

Thank you very much. The consent agenda today consists of items 1 through 14. What is your pleasure? Poll number 1, please. 1 for Commissioner Schwartz.

Number 11, not because I oppose it, but because I want to make a comment.

Number 11 for Vice Mayor. Any others? Huh? Any from the public? All items on the consent agenda are before you, but 1 and 11, is there a motion? So moved. Moved by Commissioner Rodriguez, seconded by Commissioner Good. Any discussion? Seeing none, any from the public? All those in favor say aye. Aye. Any opposed? The show catches unanimously. Item number one, Commissioner Schwartz.

Motion to approve a work order authorization with CTS Engineering Incorporated for Professional Engineering and Surveying Services for Strategic Plan Project REC 13-Ben Forandino Park Pedestrian Pathway Improvements in the amount of $151,870. Is there a second? Second. Second.

Seconded by Commissioner Rodriguez. Yes, Commissioner.

Through the city manager, I'd like to have Ms. Golding come down, please, if it's OK with the city manager. Colleagues, whoever asked the question in the Monday night memo, thank you.

Christina Golding, assistant city manager.

Thank you. Christina, thank you for putting this item together.

You're welcome.

Historically, I've opposed a sidewalk extension for reasons that I'm voting no tonight. What I'm not going to do is rip apart the community. Staff organized a meeting with the Cedar Woods HOA I found out about it after the fact. I went to the meeting at the bequest of a board member, and then I watched, let's just say, not having consensus, Commissioner Good, about HOA. The last thing I'm going to do is rip a community apart over concrete. It's just not going to happen. Now, that being said, there are things I love about this project. and I expressed to Ms. Golding what I can get my hands around and support, and that's everything but the sidewalk piece east of the renovations. I received phone calls after the meeting from residents who were afraid to speak in that room because they didn't want to be singled out. And it was the same thing over and over again. Crime, crime, crime, crime, crime. Cedarwoods, especially on that front end, and it was mentioned the street that has the biggest issue, has been the face of burglary in Cedarwoods. They come in, they get out. There were concerns about utilizing assets inside the community. Now, some people do like it. I acknowledge that. But I'm not gonna rip the community part over it. If I had unanimous support and consensus, oh my God, Commissioner, we love this, please make this happen. Thank you, City of Pembroke Pines. That's different from, you know what, let's make Schwartz look bad, let's push this thing through. That doesn't sit well with the community. It really doesn't sit well with the community. The survey shows how engaged I am, the one that Mr. Ross said, how engaged I am with the residents. I could have taken a blindfold test and written out the percentages of basically what Mr. Ross said in District 2. I want to support the project. I'm asking the administration to carve out the one thing that we can't get our hands around from a consensus standpoint. When two board members say no, and then families that were in there are calling me the next day, how can I say yes? Now, there were some suggestions about putting some bushes up and blocking it. But a sidewalk to nowhere with bushes is still a sidewalk to nowhere with bushes. I can get my hands around, and the community can support the improvements. However, colleagues, I had a meeting with Assistant Chief Serino last week and mentioned to him what some of the communication was with the residents from Cedar Woods, and that's the adult activities that are happening in Ben Fornino Park at night. And until they see that resolved, they don't want to have additional issues. So for that reason, colleagues, I raised my objections. This will be now the third time. Please support this commissioner, not because he doesn't want to sidewalk for the community. He wants to support the community of the things that they do want. And that is Ben Forandino improvement. And perhaps if we get that adult activity cleaned up a little bit, we can revisit this. But I don't want to set aside monies that's going to divide the community. I just don't want to do it. That's just not how I'm going to operate. So for that, colleagues, I'm ready to vote.

OK. So I was at this meeting that you were at. And I see Brandon Carrero here, who was the property manager at Cedar Woods. And Ms. Goulding was there as well. And there were questions about the sidewalk, which were answered. And while anything new sort of strikes people as a little Challenging, I think, sometimes, particularly when it involves their community. I think everyone understood that a sidewalk is necessary there for compliance with Americans with disabilities. It is not a sidewalk to nowhere. It is a sidewalk that continues the sidewalk on the other side of the street to the park. And then from there through the park, it connects to the rest of the sidewalk that is in that area, which I see every day. So I just don't understand what the problem is with this sidewalk. And if, in fact, this community is concerned about crime, I think that what we have to do is figure out a way to deal with that entrance. Mr. Carrero, I hate to call on you, but could you come forward? Are you the property manager at Cedarwoods? Would you come forward? I just have one quick question for you. Good evening.

Brandon Carrero, 1571 East Sandpiper Circle.

And you are the property manager at Cedarwoods? I am the community association manager for Cedarwoods. Do you recall the meeting where you and I and Commissioner Schwartz and Assistant City Manager Goulding were there? It was just a couple weeks ago.

Yes, sir, I do. It was a great meeting.

Was it your impression that there was this uproar of opposition to the sidewalk at Benford and Deerland Park?

Quite the contrary, sir. What I witnessed was everybody wanting to collaborate around the topic and finding a solution. I didn't find it adversarial, nor did anyone approach me as a community association manager that they were opposed to it. Certainly, they were concerned just with privacy matters and standard residential concerns, but there was no animus towards the sidewalk, sir. OK. All right. Thank you very much.

Anything further?

Yes, Mr. Carrillo, please.

How long have you been the association manager, is it?

Approximately since thereabouts December, sir, of this year, or last year. I'm sorry, how long? About December, since December.

All right, eight months, nine? August, yeah, thereabouts. Okay, do you have security at, do you pay for security in Cedarwoods?

We do, sir.

And how often, how many days a week are they there?

We have our Honourable Pembroke Pines Police Department present on Friday, and we have FPI there three more days, and vocalizing this kind of security protocol could be an issue for our community, sir.

Okay. Certainly. I have more questions. So we have an off-duty detail with Pines PD? Yes, sir. On Friday. Okay. I had arranged that years ago. I'm glad to see that it's happening. Now, FPI, is there a reason why we're not using the finest police officers in the city?

We still are, sir.

I understand that. Why are we not doing it four days a week?

Richard, you're straying from the question.

I'm not straying from the question.

You're straying from the question. I will decide. You're straying from the question that is before us. The question that is before us is the Ben Furandino sidewalk. We're straying. And the property manager has just said, has just voiced a concern about ongoing questions that could put the community at threat. So I'm going to allow you to continue, but please be aware.

Is there a reason why they're not there four days a week?

We were over budget, sir.

OK. I extend my collaboration to welcome you to the community and to help you. A community that I've been a part of now as an elected official for 14 years. It's not my first rodeo inside Cedar Woods. We had a meeting. Okay? The viewpoints of those who were there, I will respect their viewpoint. But this commissioner can't support ripping the community apart.

Okay. All right. Thank you very much. Anything further on this? Am I excused, Mayor? Thank you very much. Anything further on this? I have a question.

Yes. I think Christina had something to say, and then I'll have a question.

Yes, I just wanted to reaffirm to all of you that this is step one. As all the other projects I've brought to you before on the strategic plan, this is just a design. This will come back to you. It will come back to you. And at that point, with the renderings from the architect, you can look at them and you can make decisions.

And if we need to have another community meeting, I'm glad to ask for one. Absolutely. Is there anything further on this?

Yes, I have a question, and maybe one of our police officers can answer. Extension of a sidewalk, is that any kind of concern, as mentioned by the commissioner, if a sidewalk is extended and leading into somewhere else, would that promote more crime in a community, if anything? I know it's kind of an arbitrary question. But if they have any experience, my personal train of thought is I really do like walkability. And I think, if anything, it's the walkability of the community members into the park and so forth. And I understand that. Unfortunately, if crime is going to happen, they can walk through. And I don't think a sidewalk is a determining factor in someone committing a crime. They want to get in.

They're going to walk across the grass. OK, anything further? Yes, Mr. Mayor.

Yes. Yes, thank you, Mr. Mayor. So I am a little confounded here in that, you know, I agree with the commissioner in the sense that this is his community, he understands his community, and he wants to support his community. I think all of us would stand behind that. I'm also hearing, though, at the same time that, you know, from you, Mr. Mayor, as well as others, that there isn't this type of conflict. The question that I have, it immediately comes to is, is Cedarwood is the community in question? Is that correct?

Yes, sir.

Okay. Do we have a letter of support or any kind of written documentation from Cedarwood regarding this project and whether they are in support or not in support of this?

After the meeting that the mayor and I and Commissioner Schwartz attended, the president of the HOA sent me an email saying that he was in support of the project and requested that I keep him in the loop on the progress and design.

I want a clarification for legislative purposes. That was an individual, not a board-directed vote, Commissioner Good. There were board members who were opposed to it. And so for those reasons, I don't want to have, you know, we've seen these letters before where HOA presidents or officers act in the capacity on their stationery, right, but did not have the authority to speak on behalf of the board. And that's what's missing in this email. So let's make sure that we're working from the same set of facts. OK.

So Mr. Mayor, if I may, because I hear and I sort of understand that concept about email versus letterhead versus maybe a board action type of thing. So we don't have a board action necessarily then. Because that's the representation of the community, right?

Correct.

OK. So is there any reason why we can't wait until the next meeting where we can get that letter?

When's the next meeting, Brendan?

Mayor, can I ask, can I offer this?

How many times are we going to put a sidewalk off?

Can I offer this? Commissioner, in the bid package, in one of the, I don't remember which exhibit it was, but I showed it to you, there was three segments. There was an A, B, and a C. And Commissioner Schwartz had expressed to me, correct me if I'm wrong, that you were fine with, I think it was A and B, and you didn't like C, or maybe it was A, whichever one is the sidewalk that you're talking about. But when I talk into the consultant to remove a segment, there's a lot of other legwork that has to happen, surveys, things like that. So drawing in a sidewalk is not a huge value. Let's do the project. It'll come to us in segments. And then once we see the design, we can present everything to the community, ask for a directive. But to continue to put the project up, we already lost the whole summer getting the work done. I'd like to just get this project done.

off the ground it will come back to you it will come back to you and to decide how you want to proceed to procure for construction okay anything further so if i may mr mayor so um so i understand too the uh the timing of uh of this work and uh commissioner schwartz i think i think a good valid point was made that you know moving through the design doesn't necessarily make that happen until there is a construction component. And then, of course, too, as you said, I don't know, what is the deliverable timeline along with the design here?

I want to say it's seven to eight months, but there's so many going on right now without looking it up. I'm not 100%, but it's about seven to eight months.

So if the design is that long, I mean, it looks like, you know, probably when in a 30-day period there could be a meeting, we could have, you know, a letterhead yes or no, which then would allow us to give direction on, you know, exclude that from the design piece or move on, right? So I think, Mr. Mayor, if we can, can we just somehow go ahead? I agree. Let's move forward. But I do want to take into Commissioner Schwartz's concerns into consideration. So making this sort of like some sort of contingent with a 45 days where you would get Another instruction from the commission saying continue or don't. And for me, and it would be predicated on having an HOA letter.

Are you making a substitute motion, Commissioner Goode?

OK, so how would I substitute that out here?

You just make an amendment that says that we're going to proceed tonight and take next steps subject to a letter of support from the HOA.

As Mr. Mayor's an alternate motion, and if we were seconded, it could be considered by the- No, it doesn't have to be an alternate motion.

It could be an amendment to the current motion.

If it could be.

All right, so I make an amendment to the motion that we extend the final determination for another, I mean, we proceed, but we extend for a final determination, give it 60 days.

I understand.

time where it comes back to the commission.

We'll get the contract started and I will meet with Mr. Carrero to get that.

Is there a second to the amendment? Seconded by Commissioner Rodriguez. Any further discussion on the amendment?

Clarification on the 152 grand that's going to go. Are we approving 152,000 tonight or is it going to be a 60-day delay?

My amended motion move was to allow the project to continue forward, full amount. And in 60 days' time, we get further instruction to the staff on whether to continue to proceed in that way or to change course based on the response that we get back from the HOA, the formal response.

So you want 152 out the door tonight? That's what you're authorizing? No, sir. That's not what he said. I'm looking for clarification.

The clarification is the amendment is about moving forward tonight. Within 60 days, Christina will have A design, there will be another meeting with the community, and we will ask them for a letter of support.

And Mr. Mayor, if I make a further clarification. So yes, it is to release the project, but the expense of the project is going to be predicated on what? There are deliverables.

Yes, sir. There are milestones, deliverables in the project, yeah.

Get phase one done, you get paid phase two. This will come back. Right, so all that money is not going to be expended. No. and it's a seven-month deliverable, is that correct?

Yes, but as Mr. Carrero said, their next meeting is August 20th, so you don't have to.

You'll get it back sooner. You should be ready for that. We're giving you 60 days, and the point is that I don't think all the funds will be expended. I think that gives you plenty of time in order to give amended direction to the designer for whatever it is that we decide at that time.

Okay, anything else? On the amendment, all those in favor say aye. Any opposed? No. One is no. Okay. Now the motion as amended. All those in favor say aye. Aye. Any opposed? No. Show passes 4-1. Thank you very much. Item number 11, Vice Mayor.

Motion to approve the purchase of emergency vehicle warning equipment packages, related accessories, and vehicle graphics for police department vehicles from Shift Group Upfit Services, Inc., DBA, Strobes R Us, for a total amount not to exceed $1,315,165.68, utilizing the Broward Sheriff's Office, otherwise known as the BSO, bid RLI number 23004A P as in Paul, pursuant to section 35.18 C as in cat of the city's code of ordinances.

Is there a second? Second. Seconded by Commissioner Good. Vice Mayor.

So as I mentioned before, I'm in favor of this, obviously. I want our police department to follow through with what it is they're doing. This isn't specific to police. This is specific, once again, to procurement. And I did ask the question in the memo. I received a response, very long response on this question. We have been piggybacking, it's not a technical term, but it's what they say in government, off of the Broward Sheriff's Office contract since the year 2016. That's not recent. That's 10 years. That's a decade. I know that oftentimes you do need to piggyback based on, and I went through this with Miami-Dade Sheriff's Office when I worked with the Miami-Dade County Mayor. I understand there are times where you should piggyback off a contract. It's the responsible thing to do. I also know we have small businesses in the city of Pembroke Pines or around the city of Pembroke Pines I prefer in the city of Pembroke Pines, who could also be invited to offer their services, their equipment, their expertise. I know we've gone out in the past and asked them, but for this particular item, it's been 10 years. So I would encourage, although I'm voting for it, I'd encourage administration, not later, but soon, to please look towards small businesses within the city of Pembroke Pines, preferably, for this type of equipment, these types of services, not specific to the Pembroke Pines Police Department, but in general for our city's procurement processes. But again, I'm voting yes. I just wanted to state that on the record.

Okay, any further discussion on the item? Mr. Mayor, if I may?

Yes. So I certainly agree with the Vice Mayor and his focus on small business, city of Pembroke Pines. We need to support our own. So to further your thought process as well, because I did read the backup, the responses, I am very familiar with these type of installations on these units. I will say, though, that some of it I got it, and some of it I was like, well, maybe we should be thinking about carve-outs, pieces of it. You don't have to do the whole thing from A to Z. Maybe they could do the A part, and whoever does the rest of the parts, so long as it doesn't interfere with the progress and the timing of getting things done. But don't overlook the ability to do carve-outs.

Anything further? Anything from the public? All those in favor say aye. Aye. Any opposed? Show passes unanimously. Thank you very much. That's the end of the consent agenda. Second reading ordinances.

Thank you, Mayor, if I may. Please. Item 15 is a motion to pass Proposed Ordinance Number 202602 on second and final reading. Proposed Ordinance Number 202602 is an ordinance of the city of Pembroke Pines, Florida, submitting to referendum amendments to the charter of the city of Pembroke Pines, amending Article 1, entitled Creation and Powers And in particular, amending section 1.10, references definitions, to change municipal general elections definition to the city election held in November of even-numbered years, amending Article III entitled legislature, and in particular, amending section 3.02, referenced as commission members, section 3.05, mayor, to change the election date in the city, to occur in November of even-numbered years, amending Article III, entitled Legislature, Section 3.06, Vice Mayor, to change the date for the city's vice mayor to be elected annually by the city commission at the first meeting in December, pursuant to Chapter 75-350, Laws of Florida, as amended, providing for extensions in the current terms for the mayor and commissioners in Districts 2 and 3, to extend until the November 2028 election, and for commissioners in districts 1 and 4 to extend until the November 2030 election pursuant to section 5, chapter 75-350, laws of Florida as amended, providing that this ordinance, when adopted, shall be submitted. TO THE QUALIFIED ELECTORS OF THE CITY OF PEMBRO-PINES ON THE NOVEMBER 2026 GENERAL ELECTION BALLOT AND IT SHALL BECOME EFFECTIVE AS PROVIDED FOR BY LAW. PROVIDING FOR THE ADVERTISING OF THE REFERENDUM ELECTION IN ACCORDANCE WITH THE CODE OF ORDINANCES AND THE CHARTER OF THE CITY OF PEMBRO-PINES AS WELL AS THE STATE OF FLORIDA ELECTION CODE. PROVIDING FOR CODIFICATION, PROVIDING FOR CONFLICTS, PROVIDING FOR SEVERABILITY AND LASTLY PROVIDING FOR AN EFFECTIVE DATE AND MR. MAYOR FOR PUBLIC HEARING THAT WOULD BE FOR THE RECORD, MAYOR. NUMBER 15 WHICH IS ITEM 2026.02 ON THE FLOOR FOR CONSIDER

Move by the vice mayor. Is there a second? Seconded by Commissioner Rodriguez. Commissioners, our vote on this will place it before the voters in Pembroke Pines. And we have discussed this before. It is a very popular item in Pembroke Pines because it will vastly increase voter turnout for city elections, and save us a ton of money. And I think the time has come to move it forward. Is there any further discussion on this item?

Just a comment that I obviously wrote about this in the Sun-Sentinel. I've been interviewed about it. Just restating, and Commissioner Tom Goode, I erroneously said that I was the only Pembroke Pines elected official who's been on a November ballot. You were for the drainage district. I'm sorry. But why I did it is I was on the March 2026 ballot, 9% turnout, $75,000 fee for the city of Pembroke Pines. The November 2024 ballot, which I was on because it was a special election ballot replacing this gentleman here who had become mayor. That cost us, at the time, $21,000, a little bit less than $21,000. The voter turnout for the commission seat, there was more than 70% that voted for president. But remember, there's the top of the ballot, and then there's the bottom over here on page one. That was all the way down here. You still had upwards of 65% of voters in my district, District 4, who voted for commissioner. The total turnout was somewhere around 20, just for my election, was 20,000. Something, whatever it may be. But 20,000 voters, I'm sorry that I forgot what it was. I also, this is a long time ago, but wanted to echo Commissioner Rodriguez's comments from, I guess this is two months ago, when we were discussing it up here. I think it's better for democracy, but more importantly, According to Supervisor Scott, who was here a few months ago, every future municipal election in Broward County that is on a November ballot will not incur a cost.

For candidates.

For candidates. If you're talking about a referendum item on another issue, it will. But it would go from roughly $21,000 in 2024 for my race to $0 for mayor and commissioners. I am an advocate of this for the reasons that I mentioned. I don't need to belabor the point. I'd like voters, there are other spots in the state of Florida that didn't want to take this to voters. I think the voters have to have the final say because it is a charter amendment. So I'm fully supportive. I hope my colleagues are. I'd like our voters to have their say November of 2026. Thank you.

Anything further? Yes.

Thank you, Mr. Mayor. So I clearly understand. Yeah, we've had a lot of conversation. I clearly understand the position of it's a convenience for people. It brings more voters out. There's a longer time frame for people to vote. and I understand all that. I do want to reiterate my position then, as I still do now, because I still have a number of constituents that are still concerned about giving up local issues in favor of either the national or state issues. So though we are going to be paying less money, we will be wrapped up in federal and state issues as well. So some of our local concerns very well may get diluted, and may become more of a national or a state perception as opposed to the local. The local is where the people are most impacted. It's your street lights. It's your roadways. It's your water. And we're the ones who make the decisions. And when we get lost in a national or a state vote, We don't necessarily, in my opinion, pick the most appropriate people. So even though there's a small number of people that vote in the march, they are all very intelligent people. They know exactly what's going on, and they make good decisions about who sits up here and represents them. And I think that they picked some of the best people sitting up here to represent them today. Henceforth, that's why the vice mayor is also bringing this forward. So though I do not support the concept of moving the vote from March to November. I do support the concept of the people making that decision. And so I will be voting in the affirmative on this tonight.

Thank you. Anything further?

Yes, ma'am. So I want to echo Commissioner Good's thought. This is really conflicting, because the headlines would be, Commission decides to move elections to November, you decide. Or it could be someone voted against it, so they don't believe in democracy, and you got that nonsense going on. But this is what we do know. Deep in my gut is if this commission put a ballot item on that will prohibit special interest money from being contributed to campaign coffers? Commissioner, that's not on the item. That's not on the item before us. Sir, I'm allowed to express the concerns of my constituency.

You, sir? Am I not? I'm telling you. We have an item before us, which is November elections, not campaign finance. So I will give you a little bit more leeway. We're not going to go on a magical mystery ride down the campaign finance. The item before us is elections in November. Thank you.

Echoing what my constituents have asked me to bring to the table is my legislative duty.

If you wish to bring an item to the table, bring an item to the table. The item in front of us now is elections in November.

So by moving elections to November, there's a few things that we do know historically, historically, the last 20 years in Broward County. Historically, political parties generally are the supermajority or the unanimous party for the community in which they represent. So if there's more red, there's red. If there's more blue, there's blue. And by moving it to November, you don't have the ability to have diverse dialogue, debate, and the voters deciding which path to move forward for their nonpartisan seat. Number two, the premise that we're not paying anything for the November vote is based upon the position of the current supervisor of elections, which is an elected position which may change in the future. And that next supervisor may have a different financial viewpoint on whether or not cities should or should not pay. I think we all agree that we shouldn't be paying anything since we pay county taxes. I don't think any city should be paying anything for elections since our money goes downtown and they fund the supervisor of elections. So the fact that they charge us over $300,000 for a special election in March of 25 is a little nauseating. So. Back when this item first came up, there was a discussion about, I guess, organic, door to door, people that don't have a lot of money wanting to run for office. A November election shuts them out of that process. It becomes incredibly expensive. I can tell you from my election in 2024, it's all on public record. The mayoral candidates were like $300,000. Mayoral was $300,000. That's citywide. That's what they raised and most of them spent for 30% of the vote. How much money is going to be necessary For a November election- Sir, you're drifting.

The item before us is changing the vote from March to November. It's not a discussion about campaign finance. So- I have to ask you for the second time to please stay on point, otherwise I have to move along.

So historically, when you look at the data of incumbency protection, The November election favors an incumbent. I'm ready to move the question.

Thank you very much. OK, anything further? Anything for the public?

I'm just going to say I get where you're coming from. I completely disagree on the fact that it shuts out any kind of grassroot intent because a lot of this, and I say that because I work in campaigns and some that fundraise $100 and that's it. everything mentioned is responsibility of the candidate themselves. If they don't want interest money, they don't take it. If they want a grassroots campaign, as I've run in the past with very little money, you can do it. And you can do that in November, in January, February, March, whatever month you decide. That is not up to the city and the voters. That's simply up to the candidates themselves.

OK, anything further? Seeing none. Mr. Clerk, member of the public.

Yes. Mr. Mayor's part of the public hearing process.

Yes.

Yes, sir.

Name and address for the record.

It's on? Here we go.

Thank you.

Brandon Carrero, 1571 East Sampras Circle. I'll make this quick. I'm in full support of this amendment. No question. Cost makes sense. And winning the hearts and minds of voters for Pembroke Pines, whether as Commissioner Rodriguez said, grassroots, makes sense. Allowing us candidates or candidates to reach more people for the electorate to allow for more people to participate is always the right decision. And the fact that we're leaning on a simple majority in March to vote for the next four years is exactly the wrong place to be. The place to be is more voters, more residents out, lower cost, higher turnout, more grassroots candidates, and by God, democracy reigns today.

Thank you. Thank you very much. Anything further? Mr. Clark, will you please call the roll?

Vice Mayor Hernandez? Yes. Commissioner Rodriguez? Yes. Commissioner Good?

Yes.

Commissioner Schwartz?

Yes.

Mayor Castillo.

Yes, and by your vote, this will go before the voters in November, and I want to thank all involved. And we'll see what the people of the city say.

For the record, Mayor and Commission, the permanent number will be 2058 for the record. And the clerk has the appropriate instructions to transmit. And we will coordinate that with him in administration tomorrow or the next day to the supervisor on a timely basis, as you heard from the supervisor at the June 17th meeting.

Thank you very much. Next up, Mayor is number 16.

Thank you, Mayor. This is the next item. 16 is a motion to pass proposed ordinance number 202603 on second and final reading. Proposed ordinance number 202603 is an ordinance of the city of Pembroke Pines, Florida, submitting to referendum amendments to the charter of the city of Pembroke Pines, amending Article 4 entitled Administration. And in particular, amending section 4.02, reference to the city manager, appointment and removal, and compensation pertaining to the appointment and removal of the city manager. AMENDING ARTICLE 4 IN TITLE ADMINISTRATION AND IN PARTICULAR AMENDING SECTION 4.03 REFERENCED AS ACTING CITY MANAGER PERTAINING TO APPOINTMENT AND REMOVAL OF THE ACTING CITY MANAGER PROVIDING THAT THIS ORDINANCE WHEN ADOPTED SHALL BE SUBMITTED TO THE QUALIFIED ELECTORS OF THE CITY OF PEMBRO-PINES ON THE NOVEMBER 2026 GENERAL ELECTION BALLOT. and it shall become effective as provided for by law, providing for the advertisement of the referendum election in accordance with the city's code of ordinances and the charter of the city of Pembroke Pines, as well as the state of Florida election code. providing for codification, providing for conflicts, providing for severability, providing for effective date. Mayor and Commission, for the record, item number 202603, the ordinance is on the floor for consideration. Just as a quick sidebar to you, Mayor and Commission, in the backup, there is also a reference as alternate one and alternate two. The alternate two references the decision made by the Commission at the June 17th meeting to provide for amending language that can be and shall be, to your extent that you've supported, in addition to the code and to the charter, and to the ordinance referencing a change in the vote count that was discussed by the vice mayor during that meeting, both of which are legally before the commission. The title is the same. The body changes to the extent of the change provided for in the alternate, both of which are, you have to decide one or the other from the standpoint, or neither as the case may be, but both are legally before you, as we discussed would be the case when we had the meeting in June 17. Thank you, Mayor and Commissioner.

Thank you very much. I remind the commission that if an item is not moved and seconded, it is deemed failed. Is there a motion on this item? So moved, Mr. Mayor. OK, moved by Commissioner Good. Is there a second? I'll second it. Motion made and seconded by the Vice Mayor. Tom? Yeah, seconded by the Vice Mayor. Moved by Commissioner Good, seconded by the Vice Mayor. Any discussion?

Mayor, if I may, just to be clear, if you look in the back of what I know you all have, You'll see version one, which is the same version that you approved at the June 17th meeting, which is reducing the vote count from 4 5ths to 3 5ths for hiring and firing of the city manager, as well as the acting city manager. The revision number two, or version number two, which is in the backup, CHANGES THAT SLIGHTLY IN THE CONTEXT OF THE VOTE COUNT REGARDING APPOINTMENT BEING A THREE-FIFTHS VOTE REQUIREMENT AND REMOVAL AS IT SAYS IN SECTION B OF SECTION 4.02, REMOVAL THE COMMISSION MAY REMOVE THE CITY MANAGER BY A THREE-FIFTHS VOTE OF ALL COMMISSION MEMBERS FOR CONVENIENCE AND FOUR-FIFTHS VOTE FOR ALL COMMISSION MEMBERS FOR CAUSE. THAT'S VERSION NUMBER TWO. THE TITLES ARE THE SAME. The body would change minimally to the extent that this change would be effectuated. The commission has the policy-making prerogative to make a decision on either version one or version two as proposed. Okay.

Thank you, Mayor. We held a number of town hall meetings around these ballot questions. Not a lot of people came. I think they advertised it as best they could. This was not a popular item. We did not put it into the community survey. And somewhere about a month or so ago, I began having a conversation with the city attorney because something was just jumping at me from the charter language. My interpretation of the charter language is because of the time that it was written, because in the way that it was written, Jack, can you hear me? Because of the way it was written and the time that it was written, it's my impression, telephone, it's my impression that the language was written for employees that would serve as city manager or so forth. But the charter provision for the approval of contracts is crystal clear. It's majority. I expect city manager Dodge to continue being the city manager of Pembroke Pines well into the 3000s. However, at some point, he's gonna retire and some city commission may have to replace him. And when that happens, I think it's highly unlikely that we will find a city manager that wants to come here as an employee because we no longer have a pension program. That ended in what year again? 2014, was it? Where's Dan? 2014. 2014. So it's not taking any more members. So there would be no benefit. They would get the same 401k that they could get on their own. Next city manager, Pembroke Pines, is going to be on a contract. And the provision on contracts is crystal clear. It's by three-fifths. I'm a little bit embarrassed that this hadn't occurred to me before. But the city attorney says that's a perfectly plausible interpretation of our charter. Is it not, Mr. City Attorney?

It is certainly a policy decision which the commission, as the owners and operators of the charter, would have a right to consider. So I don't know that we need this anymore.

And I've been sitting on that quietly. We haven't been meeting, and I'm not allowed to speak to you all about it. But I've been sitting on this for a month now thinking, wow, why didn't this occur to me before? But it occurs to me now that we just don't need to cite it. And so if there are two votes here, I'll be the third. If there are three votes against it, I'll be the fourth or the fifth, whatever. There's no question that if you wanted this standard, you can put it in the charter. And I guess that's better. But we're free to do it now if it's a contracted scenario. As you all know, City Manager Dodge is an employee. So the way my thinking has evolved And though, I have to tell you, of the ballot questions that were on in March, this one did pretty well. It didn't pass, but it almost passed. I don't know that we need it. It can't hurt us, but I don't know that we need it. That's my comment. Does anyone else want to be heard?

May I?

Yeah.

I'm thinking about 2012. I'm thinking about 2008. Actually, let me go back. 2008, the same manager at Dodge was a corporation. 2012, June of 12, I placed an item not to renew that corporation. City Manager Dodge said he would come back as a city employee. And Mayor Castillo was with me. We never contemplated three-fifths in 2012. Never thought about it. But I can tell you who thought about corporations running the city as a city manager, and that was the Charter Review Board. And they didn't want it. Colleagues, I want to be crystal clear. The residents of this city do not want a corporation running this city. So that would be an individual on contract. You know, Commissioner Rodriguez and I voted against this on first reading. I'll let her speak when she returns. But essentially, she said one election should not change an entire direction of a city. And the four fifths was the protection, if I understood Commissioner Rodriguez, would be the protection of having disruption because only 3 fifths of the commission votes in 12, 16, 20, 24, 28, and so on. And districts 1 and 4 are basically during the Winter Olympics, even but not as many people that participate. And it was a really profound viewpoint that I took home, and it was very impactful. So if we were to say yes and put this on the ballot, may I please, for clarification purposes, and the voters were to approve what's here, There would be no difference between a contract and a city employee?

It would be three-fifths?

That's correct.

OK.

But what's also in our charter already is we can hire an interim with three-fifths.

They don't have to be permanent. Interim. Mr. City Attorney, I think the acting city manager requires four votes too, correct?

That's my understanding. I would have to rethink.

Not if they were a contract.

That's the argument that's being raised.

That's correct. We could actually hire an interim with three-fifths. That's the legal argument.

By contract. By contract. But you wouldn't be able to elevate a current employee to fill that slot.

Without four.

Without four.

And that would satisfy Commissioner Rodriguez's concern about having the Winter Olympics versus the Summer Olympics elections.

I don't know what that means.

Meaning, well, I mean, okay. So there's a ballot item. The voters are going to decide whether or not we're going to have elections in November. Yes. So we know that in presidential elections, more people show up than in the governor's race. Yes. So we're still not equal. So you can have November elections, but you still have a difference in the number of people who show up.

Governors run in November, too.

They do, but our governor runs in November. in this cycle, in 26 and 30, whereas the president runs in 28. And more people are going to vote in 28 than they will in 26.

That is a bona fide fact. Are you anticipating a change then?

Well, I can tell you it doesn't really matter because in March of 26 or March of 24, it's still the same percentage. There are less people participating in voting in this city when districts one and four are up for election. When those seats are up, there's less people involved.

You're straying from the question. The question in front of us is three-fifths or four-fifths, not when people show up to vote. Please stay on the items. Commissioner, we must stay on the item that's in front of us. That's what we're here to debate right now, not anything else. Please focus on the item.

Let me focus on what was presented to the public in June. The question of the city manager.

Yes. Yes.

Do we need, I don't want to stray, it's a question. Thank you. You said that your viewpoint of three-fifths on the contract. Is there any way we can get that codified? If you wish. And who would codify that?

We would.

By determining that's the policy or that's the interpretation of the charter? City manager, a city attorney.

Can respond mayor the concept that you're describing is having an ordinance that would otherwise Clarify your charter and that's that that is a legal function which you can implement If it be the wish of the Commission and on a policy basis to move in that direction so city attorney It's possible that a future Commission may have a different viewpoint and change that policy again may respond there the answer is legally correct That's why we have a charter

Because a charter can only be moved by people, not politics.

It's not necessarily politics, sir. We, as a city commission, are the entrusted body to interpret our charter. I understand that. Okay. So that's not politics. That's duty.

Well, we have how many charter officers on contract?

Two. Who are they? The city attorney and the commission auditor.

Can I respond quickly, just to correct the record?

Yes.

The manager has a very simple form contract for record.

He has an employment contract.

He does. It was a simple form document that was approved by the commission.

Though he's an employee. No, he's under contract. He has a contract. He's under contract. Okay.

Yeah, that was my point. Because when the manager came back, remember, he retired. And who's the contract with? The city.

And who's your, is it with you personally? Yes. Not a corporation? That's correct.

Yep, June of 2012. If I may, Mayor, that was the premise to engage Mr. Dodge at the time.

Because when I was in the bathroom, I heard corporation. I didn't mention a corporation. Go right ahead.

OK, so are there any? City Attorney, clarify. Do we have any charter officers that are not on contract in the city presently?

No.

I'm sorry.

I didn't hear the question.

Are there any charter officers who are currently not under contract working for the city of Pembroke Pines? Lisa Chong.

I'm asking the city attorney to answer the question. I may respond there. My best understanding is that Lisa does not have an actual formal contract with the city.

Okay. And what is the approval process for our finance director under the charter? City attorney.

Recommended by the city manager and ratified by the commission. By how many votes to the attorney? I believe it's a majority.

No, it's four.

It went to four. It was three-fifths. It went to four-fifths. It's four.

Right. So I just want to point that out, that right now we have all but one charter officer who only requires three-fifths to be removed, if that's what we're looking to codify.

Which supports my viewpoint.

Well, I'm just for clarification purposes.

For clarification purposes, which supports my viewpoint that the four-fifths only applies to employees. Otherwise, we'd do it by three-fifths. Anything further? Anybody else?

Mr. Mayor?

Yes.

Yes. Yeah, you brought up a very good question. And in the ensuing conversation, there's a lot of other interesting components to this. So if I'm not mistaken, and to the city attorney, you're saying essentially that if we hire a city manager under a contract, that the, well, let me put it this way. If we have a city manager under contract, what supersedes the contract or the charter?

It's not a hire, it's a retainer. So it's a contract and it's the, in my view, the applicable standard is three-fifths. If we hire him.

I just need to hear the attorney on record. I just need to hear him say on record that if we have a city manager that's under a contract, the contract rules the employment of that city manager as opposed to the charter.

May I respond, Mayor? Yes. Just to be specific as to Mr. Dodge, my recollection without having the contract in front of me was it references the charter and references a four-fifths vote in that document, as I recall.

It does.

Because the commission at the time, that's what they wanted to do. They wanted to hire the manager individually, not through a corporation.

Yeah, the terms of the contract requires four-fifths. No, the terms of that contract requires four-fifths.

It references the city charter as the premise, as you said, Mayor.

Which is four-fifths. That contract references that. We could have entered into another contract. It didn't occur to any of us.

So any contract that we would enter going forward would then be able to have language that would allow the commission to terminate on a three-fifths, regardless of what the charter says.

Yes.

I just need him to make the statement.

If I may, Mr. Mayor to the Commissioner, the answer is yes to the extent that this commission, as the owners and holders of the charter, would interpret it to, in fact, conclude as you just described it. That's your decision to make. And you get to interpret your charter under flow law.

Well, is that legally defensible, sir?

Well, the answer is it depends upon who you hire or who you choose to fire, because they could challenge it. But the engagement is when you initially hire somebody, whether their decision to be hired is consistent with their request, their comment, their engagement, whether they want to be hired on a three-fifths vote or a four-fifths vote. But you get to interpret what your charter says. You do, as a commission. So you could theoretically adopt an ordinance at some future moment to, in fact, interpret your own charter for clarification without, technically speaking, changing it, although the current charter does say for all the four direct reports, four-fifths.

It's interesting, right?

Yes, it is. So, you know, Mr. Mayor, at this point, I don't know if... if the vice mayor is willing. But I really would like to actually engage this a little bit more. And I'd like to withdraw my motion.

I'm good. After that legal discussion, I need Tylenol, to be honest with you. I'm good with withdrawal.

OK. Is there another motion and second? I hear none. I hear none. Is there a motion and a second? The item is withdrawn. OK, now we go to number 17, Mayor. Sorry?

I'm sorry. That was 16.

17. 17.

Yes, 17. First ordinance. If I may read, Mr. Mayor? Yes. And for the record, either version that were in the Green Book backup, those are both handled by the same withdrawal. Correct, Mr. Mayor? Sorry? They're also being handled by the same withdrawal, both of which have been withdrawn. Version 1 and version 2. It's dead. Dead. Thank you, sir. Number 17 is also an ordinance. It is a motion to pass proposed ordinance number 202605 on first reading. Proposed ordinance number 202605 is an ordinance of the city of Pembroke Pines, Florida, amending chapter 38 of the city's code of ordinances, which provides for the retirement income plan for general employees of the city of Pembroke Pines, Florida, to completely terminate the plan in accordance with the provisions of section 38.070 of the city's code, specifically amending section 32.002 entitled definitions, section 38.005 entitled active participants, section 38.025 entitled benefits, section 38.0 031, pardon me, entitled Deferred Retirement Option Plan. Section 38.042, entitled Disability Benefits. Section 38.052, entitled Optional Forms of Distribution. Section 38.053, entitled Election Procedures. And last but not least, Section 38.070, entitled Termination and Limitation for the Purpose of Effectuating Determination of the plan is more particularly provided for herein, providing for codification, providing for conflict severability, and providing for an effective date. Item 17, 2026.05 on the floor consideration. Mayor, thank you very much. Is there a motion?

Motion.

Moved by Commissioner Good. Is there a second? I will second. Seconded by the Vice Mayor. Discussion?

Mayor, I have a question for the City Attorney. Yep. As a participant in this plan, am I allowed to vote on it? Do I have a conflict?

The answer is you're legally entitled to vote, and for the record, Deputy City Attorney Julie Klaar is on the phone. We have researched the question and the issue. It should have come up because of the affected parties, and we concluded that there is not a legal conflict in the vote.

Thank you for stating that on the record. I said it on the record. I had asked the same question.

Yes.

Ms. Klaar, do you have any other further questions?

If I may, Mr. Mayor, just to confirm.

Mayor, may I do that, please?

I'm sorry?

Julie?

If I may, Mr. Mayor. Yes. Julie Klaar. Good evening. In answer to Mr. Warren, I agree with him.

Okay. We reviewed it. Anything else?

Sorry. Can we get a non-legally explanation to this? More for the public. I read the item. I understand. I was able to talk to city staff about it, but as it reads, and we received a couple emails and commentary on it, that it looks like... It could be, if you're not reading into the details, that we are terminating the benefits for our employees. No, we're not. We're not. I know we're not, but it could possibly be interpreted if we can have a simple explanation as to what this actually entails. I greatly appreciate it, just for the public to understand a little bit better.

Point well made. Mr. Dodge.

Yes, Mayor. Do we need Mr. Rothstein? Yeah, I would like Mr. Rothstein.

Mr. Rothstein, will you come forward, please? Your name and affiliation on the record. There's a button there that says talk.

Good evening. Daniel Rothstein, special projects manager for the city. The summary of the plan, basically the plan has been closed to bargaining unit employees for 16 years since 2010. It's been closed to any new entrant participants since 2014. So the plan is- Now, this is just general employees. General employees.

This is not police or fire or- Or teachers.

This is just general employees.

Teachers, no, no. Just general employees.

General employees were switched to a 401 back in 2014. What a plan is closed like this, and when a plan has no new participants, the bright thing to do, a lot of companies and institutions do, is they look at actually closing the plan and transferring the plan to a financial institution, such as an insurance company. And there's about 23 insurance companies that actually take on these type of programs. What would happen for the employees? Now, keep in mind this is employees that are receiving a monthly benefit in the drop currently. These are former employees that are retired and employees that are vested or terminated employees that are vested but not receiving. We tried to give every option possible. So what happened in this program, employees will have the option to remain the same. The only difference is somebody who's not in drop now will not be at an enter drop, but they could start receiving their benefits at age 55. It just would come directly to them, not to a 401 . Employees can cash out and take a lump sum. They could take it in cash. Unfortunately, they'd have to pay taxes, potentially a penalty up to 159 and a half. They could roll over to an IRA, traditional roll over IRA, and do whatever they want with their funds. And we even have a provision in there that if they're not 55 and they want to start receiving a monthly benefit, they can do that as well. And there would be a reduction based upon their age. And lastly, there's another option. If somebody who is currently receiving benefits, a payment, or not receiving but an active participant, they can change their election if they want to and add on a spouse or a dependent partner if they want to do that. So these are all the options that, by doing this, we give everybody to do. The process is a long process. We've engaged an outside firm to help us with the selection. We will be following the Department of Labor 95-1 policy on our fiduciary obligation and how we look at certain providers. We're not looking for the cheapest provider. We're looking for the best provider. That includes financial. That includes service. So that's what our number one goal is here. It's a very common, and it's a lot more common in plans that are funded well, were funded very nicely. We brought our rate of return down to 5%, which is very low compared to most plans. So we are in a perfect position to do this and give employees all these separate options. And just to give you just a quick idea, there's about nine active members currently that they know that they would be It's frozen in it. We have about 147 terminated employees, meaning they left the city, that have a vested amount. And we have about 428 retirees currently receiving payments. The other thing we did for the terminated but vested, which is a very positive thing for those individuals, is we were making them 100% vested. So in 2010, if they were 50% or 60% vested, they'd become 100% vested. So that actually will increase what they'll be able to get either on a monthly basis down the road or in a lump sum. We have taken about 170 phone calls or in-person meetings so far with retirees and employees. And I don't have the number from principal how many they've taken, but they told me well over 100. Well, lump sum. It's a lot of people, yeah.

100 people out of 500 want the lump sum.

No, no. They call for questions. When it comes to how many people want a lump sum, we have a better idea next week. The first two weeks, you don't get that many, but they had over 25 so far, which is high when they have to mail them in or fax them in. I would say by next week, that number will probably be double. For a lot of people that were frozen in the plan, keep in mind this gives them an opportunity to take that money, invest it, and if they don't retire for another 10 years, 5 years, 15 years, for that money to grow because they were frozen and it does not grow when they were frozen.

It's their money.

Correct.

But it doesn't affect the health benefits that they might buy for themselves or for their families, right?

Does it not impact retiree health at all? Right. Not at all. And if they roll it over, they could also roll over their 401A money when they leave and put it all together. And keep in mind, a pension can be good for some people. Some people are having a lump sum. They want to be able to pass money on to children or grandkids. Pay off the house, whatever they want to do.

Thank you for the clarification. More for, obviously, the public that might have been a little confused with the deep jargon and doesn't get to talk to staff.

It does not involve police. It doesn't involve fire. It does not involve teachers. It only involves general employees. That portion of them that were in that plan, which ended a while ago.

That's correct. Just one more point, Mayor. You said, oh, over 170 that have been contacted either by your office or that of?

Personally, by me or by my office. And we spend as much time. We can't give advice. We can explain the options. We can explain some of the benefits that some people may not understand either way. But they have to make their own decision. Like I tell everybody, the good news is you have options you never had before. But now you have to make a decision. Right. but you have options, which is, and the numbers can be very significant on what people can get.

Anything else on this item? Thank you. Okay. Anything from the public? Seeing none, all those in favor say aye. Aye. Any opposed? Show passes unanimously.

The record, Mayor and Commission, this item will come back for a second and final reading at some time. Mr. Rothstein in the near future, correct? Mr. Rothstein, we're looking to get this back on, when on the agenda? We're looking to put this back on for second reading after notification to the state. So the second reading could be on the 19th of August. Okay, I just want to make sure because there are notifications required once you take action this evening to make notifications. Ms. Clark, anything else we need for the record in the context of state compliance?

No, sir.

Done. Thank you.

Okay, item 18.

Thank you, Mayor and Commissioner. 18, for the record, is a motion to pass on first reading proposed ordinance number 2026-06, which is an ordinance of the City Commission of the City of Pembroke Pines, Florida, amending ordinance number 2052, that's 2052, providing for an amended budget for the fiscal year 2025 through 2026 for the City of Pembroke Pines, Florida, providing for conflicts, providing for severability, and providing for an effective date. This item is on the agenda as 2026-06 for first reading and consideration. Thank you, Mayor and Commissioner. Is there a motion?

Moved by Commissioner Rodriguez, seconded by the Vice Mayor. Any discussion?

Yes, Mayor. Yeah. I want to thank Commissioner Good for his inquiry at the last meeting. Through the City Manager, if I can have Lisa Chung come down. I just want to be able to share with you the same information I have.

Ms. Chung, could you come forward, please?

I want to make sure you guys have the same information I have. While she's making her way down, I want to thank Ms. Chung for providing me the information. I asked colleagues since 2012 through last year's budget the value amount of the adjustment and when it was adjusted or when it was approved by the commission.

Lisa Chung, Assistant City Manager. Good evening. How are you good?

All right, so correct me if I'm wrong how I read it We've always had the adjustment in November in those years from 12 through 25 That's correct This first time we're doing an adjustment mid-year since you've been our finance director. Yes, that's correct How many years you've been here now I

Finance director. No, not as finance director. I brought you on board for that, but before that.

26 years, 27. When Renee Gonzalez was our finance director, do you recall, while you were working under Renee, did you ever recall a mid-year adjustment?

No.

Thank you, Ms. Chung. Commissioner Good, I want to thank you for bringing it forward. And I looked at the minutes that we just approved. It was kind of spot on. The questions you were asking, the way that the minutes were codified, was really spot on. So over the summer, I asked the administration for some clarity. Does this have to be approved before an item that might be coming up, as alluded to in Ms. Chung's letter to all of us, a future item? While I never got the concrete, it absolutely has to be. There's certainly some, let's say, unresolved opinion, viewpoint. So Commissioner Good, your questions were spot on. And I want to thank you for doing that. I had some discussions with the city attorney's office early on in this process. And it's being deferred to the finance director. Mayor, we don't have an item for any land purchase in front of us tonight, nor do we have an expectation that one's going to be in the future unless a sequence of events occurs. But what we do know

Sir, this has nothing to do with the land purchase. This has to do with moving money so that the city's order to move the strategic plan can move without further delay. I know that you have been against that movement of the plan, but the majority of the commission wants to see our parks and our roads fixed. Ms. Chung, let's get right down to it. Why are you bringing us this at this time?

I'm bringing this just to make sure that we understand what the working budget is and being able to basically adopt that number so that there's no question in anyone's mind that what we're going to be using for the calculation.

Okay. But isn't it true that you're bringing this forward because you need the cash in order to advance the projects under the strategic plan?

Those items were already approved by commission, but we have not formally adopted the budget amendment. But those items were already approved by commission to move forward.

Yes, but doesn't this amendment move the money so that you can enter into these contracts and advance the projects?

I would say that I would leave that to Sam to answer that question, but technically, no, because you have already approved it as a commission. So then why are we doing this now? Because there were questions as to what budget are we going to be using for the calculation for the sale. Mr.

Dodge, I am utterly confused. You and I had a conversation where it was made clear that the purpose of this amendment was to provide cash needed on hand in order to move the strategic plan projects.

What is going on with this amendment? What this does actually is codifies that so that the money that you've allocated for the strategic plan is now officially in the amended budget. Well, I just asked that question, and she said it wasn't necessary. And you're allowed to do this at any time. Why we waited in the past in November was because state law stated you must have it completed by November. But the fiscal year is over. So once we've closed those books, you can do it at any time prior to that.

Well, I think that's a point well taken. I've heard that from Ms. Chong. And then I independently asked the commission auditor Because I know that Commissioner Good asked this question. And the commission auditor told me and wrote to us and said, there is nothing wrong with moving this money at any time that the finance director needs to.

That's correct.

But I was told, and I need to hear it from the manager, that the purpose of moving it now rather than waiting to the traditional date, though we can do it at any time under the accounting rules, is because that money was necessary to advance the road projects and the parks projects. Is that or is that not correct?

The money to demonstrate within the budget officially, yes, would need to be there in the budget.

I don't know why we're dancing around a very straightforward question. All right, so Mayor, if I may have the floor back.

Go right ahead. I appreciate your questions and mischaracterization as far as what I support and not. I'll leave that for another day. I asked Ms. Chung specifically, does this need to be adopted prior to any land sale, and I never The only answer I received was that this will be on the agenda prior to any land sale item. That's the closest I can get to an answer. And therefore, when the commission adopted the strategic plan, And in January, it pushed it to $100 million, around $100 million. I don't want to be off. Lisa, help me out. The combined $100 million that we're talking about tonight, between the strategic plan and the carryover. I asked multiple different ways to get to an answer. And I was told to ask the city attorney. And the city attorney says, ask the finance director. And then we received a memo from, I'm just letting you know, it was a long summer. I'm letting you know what I worked on all summer. I want to make sure that I am comfortable supporting items that are in front of us in good faith. The question is whether or not a calculation was operating or adopted. Am I off, Ms. Chung, for the... Correct me. It's a little bit off, yes. I am open. I would say it's a little bit off. OK.

The idea is right now we're operating under what we call a working budget. It's based on items that have been approved by commission at some point in time that have been carried over by approval from the city manager. Right. OK. So those are the carryovers. The other things are items that the commission approves during the year. And we make those adjustments after the approval has been happening. So let's say the strategic item. So those go into what we call our working budget or appropriated budget. It changes. But in order to really amend your budget formally, it has to have an ordinance. So normally we would go through the year, we would wait until the end, and then we would make that adoption. But I don't want there to be a question as to what budget do we use for the calculation or as an operation for the city.

Calculation of what, Ms. Chung?

The calculation in terms of the charter, what is required for the sale, as well as- Sale of what, Ms. Chung? The sale of the Reliant property. Okay. So there wasn't any question as to what budget to use or what budget number are we using. So I brought forward this item because you can amend your budget at any time throughout the year. We normally wait until the end, but you can do it at any point in time. So that nobody is questioning what that number really is. You can do it multiple times during the year, every time you do it.

Any time she wants, she can amend the budget.

Right. So in theory, we could do this in September, but what's being done ahead of, potential land sale. I mean, those are the facts. It's being done ahead of a potential land sale. That's not in front of us tonight. That will be behind this item on August the 19th.

And assuming that was the case, so what?

Okay. Call the question.

Because do the accounting rules allow for this? Yes, it does. And the commission auditor did say that this is... And is the 15% an accounting rule?

That's on the charter's rule, not on the county rule.

Mr. City Attorney, do you see any problem with this, moral, legal, or ethical, or county-wise?

With the adoption of tonight's ordinance? Yes. No, sir.

OK. Of tonight. Of tonight.

Just one comment. Ms. Chong, you're an amazing professional. Thank you for always answering my questions, some of them very dumb because I'm not a budget.

19 is a motion to pass proposed ordinance number 202607 on first reading. Proposed ordinance number 202607 is an ordinance of the City of Pembroke Pines, Florida, adopting comprehensive plan amendments to the future land use, infrastructure, and conservation elements of the City of Pembroke Pines comprehensive plan, adopting an update to the City of Pembroke Pines 10-year water supply facilities work plan, that's the WSFWP, Providing for compliance with Florida statutes and Florida administrative code. Providing for codification. Providing for conflict severability. Providing for an effective date. Item 19, which is 20-26-07. First reading on the floor for consideration. Thank you, Mayor. 19.

Is there a motion? So moved. Moved by Commissioner Good. Seconded by the Vice Mayor. Any discussion? Yes, Mr. Mayor.

Yes. So does this, I just need to ask a question. So in the 10-year water supply, are we anticipated on having the ability to draw more water than what we currently are allocated for today?

Who can answer that? Not in this ordinance. Tim is here if you want him to address it.

Mr. Welch? Mr. Stamm?

Good evening. Tim Welch, utilities director. We are not intending on seeking additional water.

But in the next 10 years, we will have. So we're satisfied. I mean, the only reason why I'm asking this question is because we had this conversation several years ago when somebody wanted to come in and buy millions of gallons a day from us and put us at a cap where had that happened, we'd have probably been limited on our ability to do any development.

Things could change if something like that were to happen. But at this time, we don't see anything on the radar that would require us to ask for more water from the district. OK.

Thank you.

Anything else?

Anything from the public? Seeing none, all those in favor say aye. Aye. Any opposed? Show passes unanimously. Thank you, Mayor.

For the record, this will also, I believe, based on the notification here, would be on the second and final reading on the 19th, Mr. Mayor.

Yes, sir. Thank you.

That would be on for a second reading, I believe, on the 19th, Mr. Mayor.

OK, item 20.

Number 20, for the records and motion to pass proposed ordinance number 2026-08 on first reading. Proposed ordinance number 2026-08 is an ordinance of the city of Pembroke Pines, Florida, amending the future land use element of the city of Pembroke Pines comprehensive plan by providing a text amendment to the permitted uses in the agricultural land use plan, providing for compliance with Florida statutes and the Florida administrative code. Providing for codification, providing for conflict civility, and providing for an effective date. Item 20, which is 20-26-08, ordinance on first reading on the floor for your consideration. Thank you, Mayor.

Motion, please. Moved by the Vice Mayor. Is there a second? Is there a second? Second by Commissioner Rodriguez. Any discussion?

Yes, Mr. Mayor. Oh, go ahead. No, please. You're good?

Okay. Could I, Mr. Manager, could we call up Assistant City Manager Stan? Yes, please do, Mayor.

Good evening, sir. Mike Stam, Assistant City Manager.

Mike, Mr. Stam, excuse me. I asked in the Monday memo about this definition of communication facilities and public utilities. Essentially, I'd like to know, because it's somewhat popular and controversial at this moment, Would data centers, or whether they call them AI data centers or data centers in general, and maybe this is to you and our attorneys, would they be allowed in that category? I don't want them. I'm asking them. That's my question. Because there are concerns with their presence, not only environmental, but also in terms of space, et cetera, et cetera. Water capacity. Yeah, water capacity as well.

Vice Mayor, we've heard similar concerns. Currently, our comprehensive plan is silent on those issues. Senate Bill 484 still provides a lot of guidance and coverage. Say that again. I'm sorry. Senate Bill what? Senate Bill 484, part of the Monday memo, provides a lot of backup and coverage in terms of deferring to the city's comprehensive plan and their zoning ordinances as it pertains to data centers. Based on your Monday memo and the questions that you had, we consulted with the city attorney. And to provide additional protections for the city, because this is still kind of a gray area, we believe that we could add the words excluding data centers to both the communication facility side as well as the public utility side to provide that additional coverage. even though it's silent in the code today. Can we do that now? We can do that now. Again, if that's something that a commission is comfortable with. At first glance, I don't believe they're allowed, but we could do this as additional coverage to provide the city with small coverage.

And that's totally illegal? City attorney?

May I respond, Mayor?

Yes.

The reference that Mr. Stamm is referring to has actually now been codified in the laws of Florida, 2026-65. It has been codified in state statutes as chapter 373. 373.203 defines a data center, and as Mike Stamm correctly asserted. And as Vice Mayor has asked questions regarding that subject, there are some preemptions under state law. Tallahassee had a field day this year with preemptions. Tallahassee preempting cities?

No way.

This apparently was one of the subjects. But the limited discussion which you're having about this land use amendment and regulation that otherwise could be imposed without filing Senate Bill 180, which is also hovering above all of us in the state of Florida, I think you can do it. And I believe you can. And I think that we can craft a language. The language you provide, I think, will not be incompatible with 373.203 or 373.262. And we will.

So the short answer for non-lawyers is it is doable. It is. I love when you translate to non-lawyer. My pleasure. Um, colleagues, that was just a concern that I had. I think you should make a motion. But, can I, well, I know Commissioner Good had something to say, so.

You're fine? Okay, so. Make a motion to strike a data sentence from the language. In the language. Could I help with the motion?

Yeah, help me. Like, actually read it for me, sir.

To include in definition of communication facilities, excluding data centers, and to include in the definition of public utilities, excluding data centers. City attorney, correct me if I'm wrong. So far, so good. We'd be comfortable with that language.

So far, so good, yes.

OK, that was a lot. Let me just make sure. And I know there may be more conversation. Add the language to exclude data centers from communications facilities.

Correct.

And public utilities. Correct.

Is there a second?

That's my motion.

Seconded by Commissioner Rodriguez. I think this is great. And I want to thank you, Vice Mayor, for bringing this up. As you know, I asked you through your office to investigate data centers because it is a phenomenon now. I don't want to see them in Pembroke Pines. I've seen where other cities have business deals associated with it. That wouldn't fit with us because we don't run a utility, an electric utility, so it really wouldn't work for us. And this is just not something that the people of our city want, much less me. So I welcome the amendment and will support it.

mayor before the commission takes a vote i just want to be very very clear we're not going to take a vote now there's other people want to speak um this is specifically to the agricultural land use section of our comprehensive plan so i just want to make sure that's clear right um there could be future interpretations for different sections of the code comprehensive plan

So what's your, well, go ahead.

I was just going to say, we can pause, just go on with this, and then could we ask administration to put something together with, obviously, the consensus that we're not looking to do any data centers within the city of Pembroke Pines in however way that we can limit based on state statute and throughout the entirety of our code, and that be brought back to us as a separate item. Mm-hmm.

Again, if that's the will of the commission, we can work with the city attorney's office to see where we can add those provisions. As the city attorney alluded to, Senate Bill 180 is kind of a,

Wet blanket. It's a legal wet blanket for local government.

It's a challenging statute right now that prohibits a lot of new restrictions. However, since it's not a use in this section already, adding the exclusion, we don't believe is a price of conflict. But we may have to evaluate what you're asking. OK.

So then the direction would be for you to evaluate all possibilities that we have within statute violating any kind of state law. So if you can go out, do your due diligence, and come back to us on all our options regarding data centers within the city of Pembroke Pines, we'd appreciate it. And then, I guess, move on with this.

Without objection, on the amendment, anything further? Anything from the public? All those in favor of the amendment, indicate by saying aye. Aye. Any opposed? The item as amended. Anything more on the item as amended? Anything from the public? All those in favor, say aye. Aye. Passes unanimously. Thank you very much.

Thank you, Mayor. The second and final hearing will be as provided for by law. I can't suggest it's 19, but it could be.

Yes, sir. Mayor, one little quick clarification on this item and the previous item. Yes. Sam suggested that the last item might be back at the next meeting or in September. Land use plan amendments have to travel a different path. It may come back in October. I just want to be clear for the commission. That's why I raised the issue.

Then I'll see you in October.

We'll see you in October.

It could be sooner, but there's no guarantee because of the publication and delivery. That's the problem.

Can I ask Mr. Stamm a question? Yes, sir. So B2, B3, that's a challenge under 180?

Separately, modifications to our more... Sorry, how do I say this? Zoning. If we were more restrictive in our code, we're creating new restrictions in our code. And Sam, I'm walking my way here. 180 triggers. So far, so good. Senate Bill 180 at this moment in time would not allow us to become more restrictive in our code.

So I know years ago, it was before 180, but we had the whole charter school and where should they exist, in a shopping center or in a brick and mortar standalone? Data centers are defined in state law. They are now. They are now. It has to be more than three computers connected to the internet, right? So I'm saying by size.

So there's two definitions in the backup that I provided you and the Monday memo with 484 that go along with that. And it has to do with kilowatts and a bunch of other items.

I got three computers connected to the internet in my house.

Sir, you have a micro data center.

Yeah, that's what I'm saying. Because here's what happens up in Tallahassee is they'll just change the word. Like, we don't have speed humps anymore, right? We don't have speed bumps. Now they're called cushions. What the hell is a cushion? So I know what they can do to twist things around. I guess the question is, based upon 180, Is it staff's intent to look at where it could possibly go and work with the administration versus just a blanket? And if it's only in certain areas within the city, does that create a 180 deal? That's not being answered tonight. But basically, pockets within the city versus a blanket, nothing's going to happen here.

So commissioner, based on the direction that I heard from the consensus of the commission, we would bring those options back to the commission working with the city attorney's office to see what we could bring forward at this time and what may have to come forward at a future date based on 180. So I think you might hear both sides.

Is that October or is that something that could be memoed ahead of time just for more discussion?

I think we could probably have that by probably by September.

OK.