City Commission - Regular Meeting

Thank you.

Pompano Beach City Commission meeting to order on May 26, 2026. If I could ask everyone to please silence your cell phones or put them on vibrate during the meeting, that way we don't get disrupted by a telephone call, that would be great. So please silence the cell phones or put them on vibrate. Appreciate that. Mr. Alford, let's go ahead and call the roll.

Commissioner Fezzik?

Here.

Commissioner Perkins?

Here.

Commissioner Sigurdsson-Eaton?

Here.

Commissioner Smith?

Here.

Vice Mayor Fournier?

Here.

Mayor Hartin? Here. Thank you. Our invocation this evening is going to be given by Elder Harold Wesley of the Newborn Holiness Church. Can we all please rise for the invocation, which will be followed by the pledge? Thank you.

Amen. All wise and eternal God, first let me say thank you on behalf of all who gathered here this afternoon. Thank you for your many and abundant blessings. Thank you for life itself, for the measure of health we need to fulfill our calling, for sustenance and for friendship. Thank you for the ability to involve in useful work and for the honor of bearing appropriate responsibilities. Thanks as well for the freedom to embrace you or the freedom to reject you. Thank you for loving us even so from our boundless and gracious nature. In the scripture, you have said that citizens ought to obey the governing authority since you have established those very authorities to promote peace and order and justice. Therefore, I pray for Mayor Rex Hardin, various levels of city officials, and in particular for disassembled Council, I'm asking that you would graciously grant them wisdom to govern amid the conflicting interests and issues of our time, a sense the welfare and true needs of our people, a keen thirst for justice and righteousness, confidence in what is good and fitting, the ability to work together in harmony even when there is honest disagreement, personal peace in their lives and joy in their task. I pray for the agenda set before us this afternoon. Please give them an assurance of what would please you and what would benefit those who live and work in our surrounding beloved city of Pompano Beach, Florida. These and all are the blessings we ask in the name of the Father, Son, and of the Holy Spirit. In Jesus' name we pray. Amen.

I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the republic for which it stands, one nation under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all.

Thank you. You may be seated. Can I get a motion approving the regular city commission meeting minutes of May the 12th, 2026? So moved.

Second.

Moved and seconded. All in favor say aye.

Aye.

Opposed? Motion carries unanimous. Thank you. Mr. Harrison, any changes to our agenda this evening? No, sir. Very good. Can I get a motion?

I have a question on the agenda.

Okay, sure.

So items four and five were previously on an agenda and were voted on. How did they end up back on an agenda with a first reading again when they were voted down?

Well, a city manager can put items on the agenda. That's how the city manager put them back on.

without anyone from the dissenting side asking?

That's correct. That was a 3-3 vote. So anyway, we're bringing it back because we have information that will be presented in a different way to help everybody understand the ramifications of the actions. Okay?

Was that information sent around in advance? Okay.

I'm not sure.

Tammy and John are gonna be the presenters so you can determine that when you hear their presentation I'd like to make a motion just to strike items four and five There's been a motion to strike items four and five like commissioned by a vice mayor seconded by Commissioner Fessick Okay any discussion on the motion Commissioner Smith I

If there's a different way to present this to us, why would we not want to hear what they have to say? Instead of striking it, let's just go ahead and have them make their presentation.

Very good. Further commission discussion on the motion?

Mr. Fessick?

Thank you.

Well, first of all, I guess Mr. Harrison gave us his explanation, but I was a little bit concerned to see this again as well because it was on the agenda and nothing changed in our backups And so I actually had it flagged to actually ask Mr. Berman, because it failed, if it returns now, like less than a month later, it's 28 days later, is there something procedural here that we're missing? Or is Mr. Harrison correct? So if it's not been modified, it wasn't in our backup as modified, it's on rules of procedure, what is your determination?

And the question is, can he put this back on the agenda? I'm trying to understand the question. I'm sorry, could you pull your microphone a little closer to me?

Sure, sorry. So if it has not been substantially, if it's not changed, if it's not modified in a major manner, or even a little bit at all, as far as I can see in the backup, what be the rules or what would be the charter provision or rules of procedure that would warrant it coming back onto the agenda without somebody making a motion to reconsider.

There's no rule or charter provision I'm aware of. The city manager has control over setting the agenda and what goes on the agenda. I assumed something was different or something will be presented that's different for your consideration. You still have the option of voting yes or no on these items or as you're indicating now to strike if that's your desire. I'm not sure what communication there was or has been with you as to why it's back on. But again, it's on. He has that discretion. It's not inappropriate. It's just a matter of you determining whether it should be reconsidered, and if so, what your reconsideration is.

But just to be clear, a 3-3 fails, right? This is the same as a 2-4, right?

It wasn't approved. It's not like, you know, if you look at some of the zoning things to go back in front of the Zoning Board of Appeals, for example, there are time limitations when something can come back. There's no such thing in our code for something like this. Thank you. I think it's on because the manager wanted you to reconsider for some reason. Thank you.

Very good. Further Commission discussion on the motion. Vice Mayor.

I'll tell you what kind of communication there has been about what possibly changed, and the answer to that is none. The backup is the same. The city manager didn't reach out and say that they had anything to inform us that anything had changed or there was anything different. I don't think we need to go through this again at this point. If there's new information, I'd be happy to be briefed if the city manager wanted to reach out and tell us that in advance, but that did not occur. Thank you.

Very good. Further discussion on the motion to strike? Seeing none, let's call the roll.

Commissioner Fezzik? Yes. Commissioner Perkins? Yes. Commissioner Sigerson?

No.

Commissioner Smith?

No.

Vice Mayor Fournier?

Yes.

Mayor Hardin?

No. All right. Back to approval of the agenda. Can I get a motion approving the agenda as printed?

So moved. Second.

Moved and second. All in favor say aye.

Aye. I think we should call the roll.

All opposed? Nay. Very good. Let's call the roll, Mr. Alfred.

Commissioner Fezzik?

No.

Commissioner Perkins?

No.

Commissioner Sigerson?

Yes.

Commissioner Smith?

Could you clarify what we're voting on?

The approval of the agenda.

Yes.

Vice Mayor Fournier? No. Mayor Hardin?

Yes. Very good. So, Mr. Berman, can you explain what our options are now, since we can't get even a simple approval of our agenda to be considered tonight?

This is a first in 30 years. Can you proceed, the question is can you proceed on an agenda that has not been approved? I think it's more of a formality. Approval of agenda, there's not cited anywhere in the code, it's just done as a formality. You can decide whether to move forward with an agenda that has not been approved versus an agenda that has been approved. I don't think it stops the agenda from moving forward. It just hasn't been approved, I mean. Okay. Honestly, it's never happened. I've never seen it. If you haven't approved the agenda, I could ask for a few moments, take a look and see if I can find anything in the code that would deal with this. If you'd like to recess for a few moments, for five minutes, put the pressure on.

I'll go with your preference.

learned council there as a i expect you're probably right uh... is so in a in other words there's really no reason to have the approval of the agenda on our on our agenda it's a procedural matter it's done uh... more as a uh... courtesy to move forward it was never i don't think intended to stop proceeding forward with business there's really no discussion of it in the code or the charter in terms of approval of the agenda. This is just more of a formality, I would argue, than anything else at this point.

I mean, perhaps we should take a five-minute recess and let you determine. If this is in our code, then perhaps there is something that's, some reason where...

I'm not aware of anything, but I'm going to take a quick second look.

Okay. Let's recess for five minutes.

Thank you. you

This meeting, May 26, 2026, it's approximately 6.20 in the evening. All right, Mr. Berman, did we give you enough time to do a little research?

Yeah, as much as I'd love to take the evening off, I don't know if they're the hockey game on tonight, but... my understanding from what i can see is there's usually no legal requirement the commission first reach a consensus to approve the agenda before a meeting can proceed unless there's something in the city charter or the city code there isn't uh... adopted procedural rules or there is none as far as i can tell uh... for that and unless there's uh... i didn't see anything in robert's rules in my quick review saying if the agenda is not approved you can't move forward Um, under Florida statutes under chapter two 86, as long as it's a public meeting, as long as there's reasonable notice, there was lawful public deliberation and, uh, you don't have to, this is not based on unanimous consent on the agenda beforehand. So if there is notice and an opportunity to be heard and all the other requirements under Florida law and there is, we should proceed or could proceed.

Very good. Then we should just ignore the approval agenda. Would that be accurate?

I think you can't ignore it. It was voted, but not let that stop the meeting. Note it for the record.

It's not approved. Noted for the record. The agenda was not approved. Now we'll move on. Okay. On to our consent agenda discussion. This evening we have item number one is on consent. It is eligible for discussion during audience to be heard. Thank you. OK. That takes us up to our special presentation this evening, Unity in the Community Scholarship Presentation. Unity in the Community will present six local high school students with a $3,000 scholarship for their hard work and acceptance into their respective college or university. Mr. Blanger and Tom McMahon over here at the side will talk about some kids. All right. Great job. Thank you.

Good evening, everybody, Mayor, Vice Mayor, Commissioners. Tom McMahon, President of Unity in the Community. Mike here has a pretty detailed speech, but I just wanted to say thank you for your continued support. Without the City of Pompano, we wouldn't be moving forward with Unity in the Community. And also, Broward Sheriff's Office, shout out to you guys. You guys always make the event great, so I'm going to hand it off to Mike now. Thank you.

All right.

Thank you, Tom. We also want to thank the great people at Parks and Rec, Bosset, Nick, Eric, you guys do a great job on supporting us. Thank you so much. BSO, Tom already told you, but Sergeant Galindez and Deputy Wells, they do an outstanding job. They are very, very beneficial to our group, and we just can't do it without them. We also want to thank Captain Pete at the Fire Department for all of their support and help as well. This was one of our best years that we've had. This was our 15th year Unity in the Community Family Fun Day. It was one of our best. We estimated that we had over 4,000 participants there at the event. And we just love doing this for you guys. We just love doing it for the city. We wanna let you know that we've already started planning our next event. It's gonna be held on January the 23rd, 2027. I know that's a long ways off, but put it in your calendars because we will be looking for the community to come out and enjoy all the festivities that we put together for you. We also want to thank a lot of our additional sponsors. We have Coastal Waste, who is a great sponsor. We have Atlantic Tax, Superior Concrete Polishing, Harrah's Casinos. Jets Pizza is one of our major sponsors, Mount Pisgah Baptist Church. And we got so many other sponsors on our list that support us and help us reach our goal and help us to be able to do this with our young people for the scholarships. The heartbeat of unity is the volunteers. I don't know if you all know this, but none of us get paid. None of us get a stipend. None of us get anything. We do it because we enjoy doing this. We enjoy putting on events. We enjoy seeing the kids have fun. We enjoy just doing work in this great city of Pompano Beach. We got Tom, our president, Susan Gingrich. She couldn't be here. She's our newly elected vice president. We got Alice, Jillian. These guys just... go out all the time just making sure that all of our activities, all of our events are all well planned. So thank you, volunteers, for all that you do. Of course, Carolyn Mann, absolutely. On a sad note, we are mourning the passing of Ron Bold. He passed on Tuesday, May the 12th. Mostly everybody know Ron, he's been around Unity from the beginning. He was one of the original members of Unity in the community all the way back in 2010. He remained committed to this organization as an active participant and a contributing board member. Ron was our coordinator for the event until his passing. Ron was a great guy, a little bossy. A little persistent, sometimes a little frustrating, but he loved unity in the community, he loved this city, and he loved his country that he served in the US Army all the way back in the late 1960s. If you don't mind, Mr. Mayor, I would like to ask if we can pause just for a moment of silence for this dedicated warrior of unity in the community and all that he did for us. Thank you so much. Rest in peace, Ron. This year, our Unit in the Community Scholarship Committee, led by our chairman of the committee, is Carolyn Mann. We renamed the scholarship To the Colleen and Connor Sheridan Memorial Scholarship. Colleen Sheridan was a very active and always present to support unity in any way we needed her. But her real passion was promoting the scholarships and encouraging school guidance counselors to get students to sign up. She solicited donations for the auctions and the raffles. She sold tickets like no one else did. just so we would have the funds to give great scholarships. Connor was a proud resident and graduated from Pompano High School, and he also went to FSU. And his dream was to provide affordable housing. Colleen and Connor's life was tragically ended just over a year ago in their home here in Pompano. UIC, the unity honors their memory through this scholarship program. So for the very first year of the Colleen and Connor Sheridan Memorial Scholarships, we have six wonderful, talented students who are seeking to extend their education to the next level. All of these students must meet every requirement to be eligible for the scholarship. There's two of these requirements that are very important. One, the student must be a resident of Pompano Beach. That's one of the major requirements. And the students must excel in their service hours, because Unity is a service organization. We look for our students to be able to give back to the communities. So let us meet our students tonight. We have six, each of the students. will get a $3,000 scholarship to help them with their tuition. They will get an Apple iPad that is sponsored by Mr. Joe Usman, and they will get a swag basket from Raising Cane's Restaurant. We have some sponsors that are gonna be here with us. John from Coastal Waste and Recycling.

Come on up.

We have Michael from Jets Pizza that will also assist us in giving these scholarships. Our first one, my list is not as it is written in the program, but my first one is Mr. Connor Hughes. This is one of the coolest guys I've seen in a long time. Connor went to Fort Lauderdale High School. He will be going to Bethune-Cookman University for performing arts with a 2.5 GPA and 232 service hours. Congratulations, Connor. Over here in the front. Our next student, Desiree Beliveau. Desiree is graduating from Atlantic Voltech. She is gonna go to Florida A&M University in Tallahassee to study pharmacy. She has a 3.68 GPA and 148 service hours. So congratulations. Our next student, Melonde Moray. This young lady is simply amazing. We was at the presentation at Ely High School with her, and she was just honored so much. She'll be going to Florida State University. It's not Gators, but she'll be studying pediatrics. She has a 3.87 GPA. And she did 687 service hours. Our next student is Rashi Lee. She may not be here tonight. She is from Deerfield Beach High School. She will also be attending Florida State University doing accounting. Rashi had a GPA of a 3.98 with 252 service hours. Our next student is Jaira Henry Bruce. She is also from Ely High School and will be attending Broward College to study pharmaceuticals. Her GPA is 3.98. And her service hours, 322 service hours. Great job. And our last student, Stanley Arno. We're so glad to see Stanley. He gave up his banquet for lacrosse to come to this presentation tonight. Thank you so much. Stanley will be attending Florida State University as well to do pre-law. He has a whopping 3.77 GPA, 345 service hours. Congratulations. Let us give these amazing students another round of applause for their hard work. We look for them to go and graduate, come back to Pompano, and be a community worker to help others in this community. Great job. We're very proud of you.

I'm just going to have to get a picture. Get a picture. Get a photo of me. Don't stand behind me. There's only one person I can see.

What's your name?

All right, quite a group of students there. Thank you so much for that. All right, that takes us up to our proclamations. Our first one up is Haitian Heritage Month. Mayor Rex Hardin will proclaim May 2026 Haitian Heritage Month in the city of Pompano Beach. Pastor Hector Clairvaux and Abner Clairvaux, board members from Redemption Baptist Church, will attend and receive the proclamation, as well as Pastor Deverno from the First Haitian Baptist Church right here in Pompano Beach as well. So please, can all the pastors come up?

Yes. Yes.

Oh, yes. Pastor Dumonet. Oh, yes, of course. The founding pastor from the First Haitian Baptist Church. Yes. Bring him up here as well. Absolutely. I didn't know he would be making it out. Just for some context, this past weekend we celebrated the 50th anniversary of the First Haitian Baptist Church right here in Pompano Beach.

Yes. Yes.

Pastor Dumonet, he was the founding pastor, and Pastor Deveno, he's taken over the reins there, but thank you so much. Appreciate you guys being here. All right. Whereas, the city of Pompano Beach proudly joins communities throughout the state of Florida and the nation in recognizing May 2026 as Haitian Heritage Month, a time to celebrate the rich history, vibrant culture, and contributions of Haitian Americans. And whereas, Haitian Heritage Month recognizes the strength, resilience, and determination of the Haitian people and commemorates the anniversary of Haitian Flag Day on May 18th, honoring Haiti's historic role as the first independent black republic and the first independent nation in Latin America and the Caribbean. And whereas, Haitian Americans have made invaluable contributions to the cultural, civic, economic, educational, and spiritual life of South Florida and the city of Pompano Beach through their leadership, entrepreneurship, public service, arts, healthcare, education, and community engagement. And whereas, the Haitian community has enriched the diversity and character of Pompano Beach by sharing traditions of music, art, cuisine, language, faith, and family values that strengthen the social fabric of our city. And whereas, Haitian Heritage Month provides an opportunity for all residents to reflect upon the many achievements and contributions of Haitian Americans while reaffirming our shared commitment to inclusion, respect, and equal opportunity for all people. Now, therefore, I, Rex Harden, Mayor of the City of Pompano Beach, on behalf of the entire City Commission, do hereby proclaim May 2026 as Haitian Heritage Month in the City of Pompano Beach, Florida, and encourage all residents to recognize and celebrate the cultural heritage, accomplishments, and lasting contributions of the Haitian community, done this 26th day of May 2026. Rex Harden, Mayor. Thank you so much, gentlemen, for all your impact on our communities.

Thank you.

We would like to thank you Mayor and the commissioners for giving us that honor. We have a lot to go. We have a lot to do, but we know we are part of the community. And our prayer is that we will continue to go with you as you are growing. As I can see, Pampano, I came here in 1978. I cannot believe what Pampano is turning to. So I pray that we will continue to grow together. Thank you very much.

We are deeply honored and grateful to receive this proclamation from the city, and this recognition is a testament to God's faithfulness, to the love and service and dedication that our church family has poured into this beautiful community throughout the years. We thank the mayor and the city leaders for this meaningful acknowledgement, and the First Haitian Baptist Church of Pompano remains committed to being a light and blessing to this beautiful city, Pamplona Beach.

Let's get a picture. There's that.

Thank you, ma'am. Okay, let's turn this.

Cassandra's going to take a photo for us. There's that. Good. Very good. Thank you, gentlemen. Thank you. Thank you for all you do for our community.

Yeah, I just wanted to say, Mayor, that it was very fitting for us to acknowledge our Haitian heritage. And when you say first Haitian Baptist Church, the first thing that comes to your mind is Pastor DuMontier, who they just celebrated their 50-year anniversary. And I think you were there Sunday. I was out of town. And Pastor DuMontier, I know, came here or built that church on Martin Luther King, I want to say in the early 70s. And I met he and his congregation, I want to say, in 78, 79. So we've been connected ever since. The other person that was standing here, Abner. Where's Abner? Stand up, Abner. Abner and I, we go back about 40 years. Abner has had a business in the city of Pompano since 1989. Is that right? Yeah, so back in the day, I had this television talk show, and Abner was my first guest on my television talk show almost 30, 40 years ago, and we're still connected. But I just think it's so important that we stay connected with our Haitian community. We have a large population here in Pompano, and they work well together, and we work well with them, and thank you again.

Next up, we've got a special one. Proclamation in honor of Anthony Tony Pelli, represented by his daughter. We're celebrating a wonderful 102 anniversary for Mr. Pelli. He's got a birthday, 102 years old, and this is his daughter, Ann Marie. Ann Marie, nice to meet you.

Yes.

Commissioner Fessick, thank you for bringing this forward also. This is great. It's always great to recognize someone who's spent more than 100 years here, I'll tell you what. Whereas – oh, we've got – which should we do first, the proclamation or the thing?

It's up to you.

You're in charge. Let me read this first, and then we've got a quick video, I guess. Whereas the city of Pompano Beach is proud to recognize and celebrate the remarkable life and legacy of Tony Pelli on occasion of his 102nd birthday. And whereas Anthony Joseph Tony Pelli was born on June 19, 1924 in Brooklyn, New York, and spent much of his life in Mount Vernon, New York, where he built a loving family and a life defined by hard work, patriotism, resilience, and gratitude. And whereas During World War II, Tony proudly served his nation in the United States Army Air Corps from March 23, 1943 until December 12, 1945, as a mechanic, supporting military operations throughout Miami, Naples, Foggia, Rome, Arno, Sicily, Morocco, the Suez Canal, Bombay, and Burma. And whereas, following his honorable military service, Tony pursued a successful career in the entertainment industry, working as a movie projectionist and on sound crews for live television production and movie sets, while continuing to exemplify dedication and professionalism. And whereas, Tony and his beloved wife, Tomasina Visoshipeli, built a strong and loving family together, raising two children, Anne Marie and Anthony, and creating a lasting legacy that now includes grandchildren and great-grandchildren who continue to cherish his wisdom, humor, and spirit. Whereas throughout his life, Tony has embraced his passions for golf, marble sculpting, baking, and enjoying great Italian cuisine, all while inspiring others through his positive outlook and personal mantra, quote, keep moving, unquote. And whereas in April 2023, Tony relocated to South Florida to enjoy the sunshine, warm weather, and the palm trees that he loves. And in January 2024, he was honored through the Florida Panthers Heroes Among Us program for his military service and patriotism, an experience he described as one of the greatest honors of his life. And whereas Tony Pelley's extraordinary 102 years stand as a testament to courage, perseverance, gratitude, family devotion, and unwavering love of country, and his life continues to inspire all who know him. Now therefore, I, Rex Harden, Mayor of the City of Pompano Beach, on behalf of the entire City Commission and residents of our community, do hereby proclaim June 19, 2026, as Tony Pella Day in the City of Pompano Beach. Yes. and encourage all residents to join in celebrating his 102nd birthday and honoring his remarkable contributions and service to our nation and community. Done this 26th day of May, 2026. Rex Harden, Mayor. That is amazing. 102 years. Say a couple of words.

Go ahead. Share some pictures and stuff that you can show.

I'd like to thank Mayor Hardin, Vice Mayor Fournier, and all the commissioners, especially Commissioner Audrey Fessick, for bringing this forward. On behalf of a very humble and grateful World War II veteran, I say thank you to all of you, and I accept this proclamation on my dad's behalf. And there are some photos of him up there.

Very good.

Thank you.

So we knew that he wasn't going to be able to make it, so what we decided is we would bring the party a little early to him first. So we wanted you to be able to see this and for this to be part of the proclamation so you could also celebrate his birthday with us and with him. So we had a little happy birthday birthday cake.

Happy birthday, dear Tony.

Happy birthday to you. And then Mayor, after there's a couple pictures, but Mayor, he had a very special message for you as well, which I thought was really sweet. So just cake and pictures.

That was blowing out the candles.

Go ahead.

Wow.

And there was one more.

There's one more. Yes, one more. In his own words. And Mayor, I think this one you'll love. In this honor,

My name is Tony Pell, and I would like to thank the mayor of Buffalo Beach for bestowing this honor for me. Very nice.

Very nice, yes.

Yes, congratulations, yes. Let's give a bow. Let's give a bow. You can hold that. Let's see.

Is Sandra over here? All right. Now, last but not least, we've got Faith and Family Month. Proclaimed June 2026 as Faith and Family Month in the city of Pompano Beach. We've got Pastor Bill Carlson here this evening to accept this. Pastor Carlson, please come up.

Yes. Bill, good seeing you. Thank you.

All right. Thank you for coming also, Ingrid. Appreciate that. All right. All right. Whereas during Faith and Family Month, the faith community places an emphasis on families and encourages participants to be family-centered for the entire month of June. And whereas the objective of Faith and Family Month 2026 is to encourage all churches and businesses to support and encourage families by creating events that will educate, inform, and help deepen family relationships. And whereas churches and businesses are urged to organize service days, informative conferences, and reiterate the fact that loving families help strengthen our community through striving to avert lives of addiction, crime, violence, and imprisonment. And whereas on Father's Day and throughout the month of June, churches will preach, teach, and share resources to strengthen the spiritual, financial, and physical needs of families. And whereas, Faith and Family Month will make our city stronger by inspiring and strengthening families in Pompano Beach as they regularly worship and practice their faith together. Now, therefore, I, Rex Harden, Mayor of the City of Pompano Beach, on behalf of the entire City Commission of Residents, do hereby proclaim the month of June, 2026, to be Faith and Family Month in Pompano Beach and ask all citizens to join in efforts to promote the betterment of our community and supporting the well-being of families. Done this 26th day of May, 2026. Rex Harden, Mayor. Bill, thank you so much for bringing this forward, for being here, for accepting this. Care to say a few words?

Yes. We have 14 municipalities who have done this on the west coast of Florida, and we're coming over here. Rex was the first one on this side to agree with it. This is a proclamation about the future, that we're planning to do some faith and family events and turn up the heat in the city of Pompano with spiritual power because you guys passed the laws, okay? The police enforce them. We've got faith and family, home and school. It's the church that gives the atmosphere when we preach the good news and tell people how to live for God. That's what we need is to put that moral power inside of us. drug addicts, thieves, you know, whatever the problem is. So faith and family is important. And we just want to thank you for giving us this proclamation.

Absolutely. Thank you, Bill. Appreciate it. Thank you. Very good. Thank you. Good seeing you guys. Thank you.

All right. Moving on.

to our presentation actuarial valuation report presentation of the actuarial valuation report for the city of pompano beach general employees retirement system as of october first two thousand twenty five as preferred preferred prepared by cab mac actuarial consulting services and presented by mister todd b green president good evening sir good evening how are you i'm well thank you

The room was full earlier. Nobody wants to hear the actuary.

They heard you were coming. How's that?

Don't worry, I'll put you to sleep. So I'm here to present the October 1, 2025 actuarial evaluation of the general employee's pension plan. So to start off, why does the plan need an actuary? So as an actuary, basically, I'll just have you focus on number two and three in there. But basically, as the actuary, we measure the assets and the liabilities of the plan. And then from that, we determine the annual contribution. So we're measuring things as of October 1, 25, but it is payable for the 26-27 fiscal year on December 31, 2026. So, in order to do this, we have to make a lot of assumptions because this is a traditional defined benefit plan, and one of the conditions of receiving a benefit is somebody has to make it to retirement first, and then once they make it to retirement, they have to continue to survive to receive the benefit. So, as a result, we make a series of assumptions. So, these are demographic assumptions. So, turnover is leaving employment prior to retirement. retirement is once you're eligible to retire, do you retire immediately or do you wait? You know, some people have that the first day they're eligible, they're out the door. And some people either, you know, don't mind working or maybe they don't have as much savings. They just don't have the confidence to pull the trigger the first second they can. And then finally, we have mortality is just continuing to survive. And here we use tables published by the Society of Actuaries that encompass only public sector retirees, public sector retirement plan data. So those are demographic assumptions. Here we have economic assumptions. So these are pay-based plan. It's based on a formula times years of service times the final average salary at retirement. So we have to estimate salaries at retirement. And then finally we have the discount rate. So the discount rate is what we expect your assets to earn and grow with. And so right now we assume, based on the current asset allocation, we assume 7.25% a year. So here on this slide we show the projected benefit payments for everybody in the plan on the valuation date. So you can see that, I can't see that far anymore. But you can see that we're starting off in 25 and then it maxes out around 2050 and then starts to decline after that. What's important about this is that this is just the people who are in the system on the valuation date. So the plan is not closed to new entrants. So in reality, the benefit payments won't look exactly like this, but when we make our measurements, we don't assume new people enter the plan. So we're trying to determine the liability based on these future benefit projections. The other thing I'd like to point out here is that when most people think of pensions, they think, oh, that's my money in that pension plan. The members of this plan are not due any money unless they withdraw their own employee contributions. But they are due the benefits out in the future. So it's important that they do not have separate accounts or anything like that. Their future obligation of the city is the benefits that you see here on this slide. So here we have some highlights from the valuation. So the first one I point out is the asset return. So you'll see that on an actuarial value, the plan earned 9.51%. So that exceeded our assumed rate. And on a market value, we also exceeded the assumed rate of return. actuaries like to use actuarial value of assets because we smooth in gains or losses over a five-year period. And just to point out here is that the actuarial return, because of the smoothing process, actually exceeded the return on a market value basis. And right now, in the smoothing process, we have an extra $13 million that is not being recognized in the actual evaluation right now. So that is going to be recognized over the next four years. You can see the other thing to point out is the funded ratio improved from 69.9% up to 73.8%. So that is on an actuarial value basis. On a market value basis, the plan is nearly 77% funded. And that includes that 13 million that we're not including for all our measurements. And then finally, another nice highlight is the unfunded liability decreased from 123 million down to $113 million. Very good results. I didn't put the contribution in here because I want you to pay attention. So in that previous slide where you showed all the benefit payments that we estimate to be due out in the future, so in order to do that we have to collect data on everybody in the plan on the valuation date. So you can see here in 2025 we have 577 active members and 525 retirees. Here we have the average salary of the active members. So it's just over almost $83,000, $82,468. And the average benefit is $37,532. And then here we show the total payroll and total benefits on the rolls as the valuation date as well. So the plan had $47.6 million in payroll and $17.1 million in benefit payments, according to the data on the valuation date. And so what's important about the data slides is this is the basis for our projections going forward, using all those various assumptions that we said that we use. So those slides would be used to determine the liabilities. Now we want to compare those to the assets of the plan. So you can see here that we show the market value and the actuarial value on the valuation date. And I noted earlier that the market value is $13 million higher than the actuarial value. And we smooth in gains or losses. And the reason why we smooth in the gains or losses is to reduce volatility in the employer contribution rate. And not so much going up, but really for going down too quickly. Because what happens is budgets, when money is budgeted away to something else, it's no longer needed for one reason, it's going to get budgeted away to something else. And if we are on a market value basis, if you just look back there at 21, the market value was really high. It was followed by a year where the market value dipped because of poor returns in 22 due to the inflation shock. And the city's cost would have gone down and then way back up. And so when the money gets budgeted away, It's very hard to get back. And so the whole reason for doing the smoothing is just to reduce the volatility in the contribution rates. And if the assets continue to earn 7.25% every year for the next four years, the market and actuarial values will be identical, and there will be nothing to smooth. So we compared our liabilities to the assets, and now we get to the answer. And what is the required contribution? So I mentioned earlier that this is determined on October 1, 25, but it's not payable until December 31, 26. So there's various components. We have what's called the normal cost rate. So that is the cost of the active members for their additional years of service that they accrue. So a year of service, it costs 26.24% of pay. From that, the members contribute 10%. So the employer's normal cost is 16.24%. So that's just for the active members. They're going to work a year of service. That's what it costs. that needs to be put into the assets and has to grow at 7.25% in the future. In addition to that, the plan has an unfunded liability. And so we have to have a cost to pay that off, because it's not unfunded. It's funded through contributions. And so that is 23.58% of pay. And then we have a small, we have an amount that we call the interest adjustment, and that is just due to the timing from the measurement date of October 1, 25 to the actual date that it's deposited on December 31, 26. And so the city's Total contribution as a percent of pay decreased from 46.17% down to 44.36% of pay. And you can see that the actual dollar amount of contribution basically stayed the same from the prior valuation. And then you can see there that the funded ratio increased. I've already mentioned that. And you can see the decline in the unfunded accrued liability as well. Here we have, as actuaries, we like to say one of the things we disclose in our reports is what we call our gain or loss analysis and how did we get from the beginning of the year to the end of the year. So here we are just showing this in terms of the required contribution. So we started out at $21.6 million. We had a reduction due to the asset performance because I mentioned that the assets earned 9.51% earlier. And then we have some additional increases due to some methodology things that we do with how we amortize the unfunded liability. I'd like to point out that the second, that 2.4 annual increase due to payroll growth assumption, we've actually, we're phasing that out. We stopped doing that going back in 2017. So any new unfunded liability that gets established every year gets funded as a traditional mortgage, like a level dollar. And so you can see that adding all these together, we get from $21.63 million down to $21.622. So a slight reduction in the cost. Here we have the sources of the unfunded liability and the valuation. So the orange is what we call the experience gains or losses. And so that typically, the biggest variable in the plan is typically the assets, because the assets are invested in the market, and it has a standard deviation of like 10% to 12%. So there's a lot of variability. uh... and so so that's one component and then lately we've been saying uh... salary increases have been another source of uh... experience losses and that's because we're kinda coming out of this you know twenty two we had the shock due to inflation prior to that inflation was practically zero for about ten years so And because of that, salary increases were dampened because the starting point of pay increases, well, what was inflation? Then we had merit components on top of that. The other source of the unfunded liability are assumption changes. So you'll see there that back in 2016, there was a state law that was passed that we had to implement these mortality tables that are used by the Florida retirement system. It was a significant impact in terms of liability, but I would like to point out that this assumption has been dead on ever since. There has not been sources of gain or loss due to mortality, essentially. That's important because You know, as actuaries in the short term, all these numbers we come up with, they're all assumption-based. So the long term, the cost is going to be whatever the cost of the plan really is. So in the long term, if you're not estimating, if your assumptions aren't, you know, match reality, costs are going to grow to match reality at one point. And so as the actuary, we like to get ahead of that because it's actually cheaper to do that. It's cheaper to get out in front than it is to wait and tackle it at the end. And then the last piece are the benefit enhancements. And so the last time that this was done was in 20 and 21. The good news is that there's only seven years left to pay on that. And so once that's paid off, you'll see that the city's costs will continue to decline. And that you can see here, and this is the amortization schedule, the unfunded liabilities. So you can see that big drop from 2031 to 2032. That's when those benefit enhancements will be fully amortized, essentially. The other thing I'd like to point out, too, is that where this plan is in such a great condition is that you can see how it's stepping down really good each year on the chart there. That means that our contributions coming in are paying principle. they're not just all going to interest. So if you think of your brand new 30-year mortgage, well, that's all going to interest. So even though you're making a payment, it's really just treading water. Well, at this point, we're doing way more than treading water. And you can see how we expect the amortization schedule of the unfunded liability to decline. And then here we just show the historical employer contributions, and this tracks with history, but you see starting in 2001, you had the tech bubble. In 2008, we had the mortgage crisis, so you can see costs have just basically gone up as a result of that. Basically. And then on top of that, you can see starting in 2017, we've been changing. We updated the mortality table, but we've also been reducing the assumed rate of return down from 8% to get more in line with future expectations. And then finally, we're showing the historical funded ratios. Ratio, that's the orange line. And essentially, it's just been flat due to assumption changes. And you can see the growth in the accrued liability. Those are the dark blue and the light blue bars there. Um, the good news is, you know, looking at that prior slide with the stepping down of that unfunded liability, um, and we also have $13 million that we're not using right now. We're actually more funded, better funded than this. And due to the fact that our contributions are going to come in and stepping down that unfunded liability, we're going to see some really, we're going to start seeing some growth in these, in the funded ratio going forward. And so finally, that concludes my presentation. We do present to the board, and I know there's copies of it, around the actual full valuation itself. If you're having trouble sleeping, it could be good. And then finally, I'm a member of the Academy of Actuaries, and I'm able to issue the opinions therein. So with that, I'll take any questions.

Very good. Thank you for that. Excellent presentation and excellent results last year. Also, any questions? Vice Mayor.

Thank you. It is nice to get some good news and to see that the contribution is actually going to be slightly less year over year. When we had the presentation from the actuary for our firefighter pension, we talked about risks also. One of the things that came up was potential for new mortality tables from the state. Is that something that... Yes. It's on your radar?

Well, so there are new mortality tables. So right now, there's a Pub 2010. I'm sorry. We just implemented the newest mortality, the Pub 2016 tables. So that was the thing. So back in 2016, when we put in the table not only was the table updated, but it was also switched to generational mortality. So what that means is that we are building mortality improvement into the assumption today, meaning a 65-year-old 20 years from now will have a better chance of survival than a 65-year-old today. So any adjustments, any changes in mortality at this point are just adjustments. They're not significant cost impacts.

Okay. And are you concerned about market volatility this year and the return?

I mean, there's always market volatility. So, I mean, right now I would be assuming, I would guess that they're exceeding their assumption today. They've got to make it to the end of the fiscal year. But that's why we use the smoothing, though, too.

Are there any other risks?

it seems like very good news and it all makes sense i'm just trying to see if there's anything well yeah there's anything else we should i mean there's a lot of risks i mean the biggest risk is the assumptions don't come true right i mean so um but you know we you know like to use our professional judgment and all those things so you know and your processes bake in these you know things over time or average things out so nothing impacts it significantly yeah i mean the biggest the biggest risk that you face is the market volatility i mean and that's because if your if your portfolio has a 10 standard deviation and you're expecting 7.25 well there's a a 66% chance that you can be 10% above that or 10% lower in any given year, and you shouldn't be surprised. But that's why we use smoothing to smooth those things out. And I would point out that you have exceeded your assumed rate of return more often than you haven't. It's just that when you don't, Um, for instance, back in 22 year minus four, well, that's not a minus four loss. That's a minus 11 loss. So, so, you know, the one single bad year kind of hangs around, you know, but, um, most years you're exceeding the assumed rate. So.

Thank you for your work on this. And it is actually really refreshing to get some good news on, um, the state of the pension. Thank you. And our, and our contribution.

Very good. Further commission discussion questions seeing none. Thank you very much. Appreciate the presentation. Thank you so much. All right. Thank you.

Have a great meeting.

You too. Very good. All right. That takes us up to audience to be heard. Do we have anyone signed up for audience to be heard? Mr. Alfred.

Yes, Mayor, we have 20 speakers.

20, okay, well.

Yes, of the 20 speakers, there's five of them that listed that they're here to speak on item number two on the agenda, which has to do with the name changing of a road. So those speakers, they're in the audience, they'll know that they'll have an opportunity to speak when you call item number two up for discussion. There are three speakers on the other hand that submitted their application, their form after the call order. And I just want to make it clear to the public that in the future, if you're filing a form to speak, please submit it before the start of the meeting to myself or the clerk representative that's in the lobby area. Otherwise, it won't be accepted because it's clearly noted on the agenda. Moving forward, Mayor, I'll start calling the speakers.

Very good.

But I will accept, they have been accepted. They've been told as well, but moving forward, just to ensure that they'll become in compliance. Right. All right. First speaker, Mark Entregula, followed by Pat Anderson, followed by Brandy Zabadel, and followed by Michael Skowierski.

Just limit your comments to three minutes, and please give your name and address. Thank you.

Mark Entregola, 1401 South Ocean Boulevard, Pompano Beach. Mr. Mayor, Vice Mayor, Commissioners, I watch the meetings usually every time. I can't say I would sat through the entire actuarial thing, but I do pay attention. I want to talk about two things. First, the parking garage, or the lack thereof. At the last meeting, the Vice Mayor proposed a compromise to try to move a parking garage forward. Prompting snarky comments, you voted against it. Taking a trip down memory lane, the city wanted to award a $32 million contract to their preferred contractor. That contractor was some $11 or $12 million above another contractor, whose proposal Dr. Good unilaterally adjusted until they were disqualified for being too high. When the contractor came here to discuss his proposal, the city attempted to silence him using the cone of silence clause in the process. In addition, the city manager let it slip during that meeting that the preferred contractor is the same guy that was running a concrete crushing operation in violation of his permit and torturing an entire neighborhood with concrete dust that was unhealthy. So the real question for me is not why three commissioners voted against that contract. My question is why the mayor and two commissioners voted for that contract. Certainly it's not because we trust the experts, because we all know that we passed a zoning change against the recommendation of the experts to allow an emergency room to be built in Pompano Beach. It's obvious to everyone paying attention based upon that discussion that the entire process is to delay until November to see if you can get a majority to pass the proposal for the contract that you prefer. The second thing I want to talk about is the BSO contract. I have no idea which way it should go, whether we should get our own police or BSO. But I will say this. It's reckless for a commissioner to sit in front of the public and say, and I'm paraphrasing, we have to give them what we want because we have no other options. I wish somebody sat across from me when I was in business negotiating a contract and said, here, do whatever you want. Here's a blank check because we have no options. There are always options. And if I instructed somebody that worked for me to negotiate a one year deal and they came back with four and said, I'm going to do this unless you tell me otherwise, that would be at minimum a reprimand. And then if they came back and said, I'm sorry, I misworded my memo, I really have to question whether that's the person that should be negotiating the deal in the first place. Thank you.

Very good. Next speaker.

Pat Anderson, followed by Brandy Zabadel, followed by Mike Skoborski. Pat Anderson?

Good evening, this is Pat Anderson-Westine. and I'm here to support front and family churches. And I think we owe a big apology to the Pink Church, which is next door to me on Sailfish Canal. Rex Hardin, I'm gonna put you in charge of making This not happened. It did happen. And it's been seven and a half years of illegal smash to the house on this canal, my house, without code inspections. And I have suffered quite a lot being here for seven and a half years, talking to you twice a month, OK? So this is the Pink Church, and I have 20 nonprofits that I work with, including Winterfest, including the one called with Carol Mann, I worked with her on unity and community. I have 20 of them, okay? I'm not up here to be a politician. I just want you to be fair and give this pink church a lot of money, because they have lost. due to this corruption of not having any inspections code. Mario, where was he? I asked him, well, where were you? He said, well, I was told to leave it to John . I said, well, OK. Who told you that? He told me who said that. And I want you to know that when my permit expediter Miguel Nunez was fired by Greg Harrison. That was a very fine man. You fired him because he was upset and he stormed out. Well, we have a David Ricor that's back in town again. You know, you can't fire a person for being upset.

Please address the chair.

That's OK. OK. All of you. You too, Mark.

That's OK. Please, Ms. Anderson, address it.

I would like to put something on the agenda to help the Pink Church. I would like you to put it in your budget to put the infrastructure that you have on billboards, these billboards in our area, about all the canals getting stormage, but not the Pink Church Selfish Canal.

Very good. Thank you, Ms. Anderson. Appreciate it.

And I would like you to have it on the agenda next time to straighten this out, Rex Hardin. I'm going to leave it to you.

Very good. Thank you.

Thank you.

Have a good evening. Next speaker.

Hello, everybody. I'm Brandy Zabidal. I live within the Highlands, the Pompano Beach Highlands. And not only do I live there and call it my home for almost my whole life, it's also where I volunteer and I spend a good portion of my time. And I'm here today. I don't know if you guys knew this, but our city is named after a fish. And so I say all that just to say that the kids at the park are not allowed to fish at North Pompano Park. And also, it's been brought to my attention that the water is contaminated. I got this in an email, and it was a recent development to me, seeing as how my whole life I fished there. There was a floating dock. They built the apartments. And then what? Now it's contaminated? Is that because we hope to build something there? Is that because the properties that sit on On Federal Highway right there across from Lighthouse Point, they maybe are worth a lot of money. I'm just really trying to figure out why it is that my children are not allowed to fish there. And when I tried to bring forward a program for Chaos Rod and Reel to bring and donate their time, energy, and resources so that children could fish with their parents in their free time for free, I was told no because it's dangerous. So I just really, really am concerned. Should I tell my residents that live in the highlands that like we should just like not fish there i'm just i'm really concerned and confused and i'm really looking for answers so can somebody give me any mr mayor well it's mr scott moore is scott moore here tonight scott yeah there he is he just raised his hand you can go discuss those issues with scott moore he's in charge of a parks and rec Oh, I'm familiar. I'm just wondering, because we go back and forth in emails. And one email, it says that we would never put up no fishing signs. But I mean, saying that the water is contaminated gives me great pause. Are we not going to be able to fish there because the water is contaminated? Who completed this test? Why was the test given? You should know these things, Mr. Mayor. It's your city. Thank you, ma'am. That's OK. In addition to that, I also would like to know why there are no fishing programs. Even at Harbors Edge, it would be nice to have a fishing program. Seriously, my children are getting to the middle school. My son is in middle school. And he's getting to the age where there's no programs for him. There's nothing for them. Their entire age gap, they're getting kicked out of the park for riding their bikes. They're getting in trouble for riding their bikes in the road. If they're not able to have a place that they belong, I mean, the city of Deerfield Beach, of Vita McKeithen, our Tigner Center, they have a podcast room. And they also have many resources for the children. They have tournaments where the kids play video games together. Is there something for my children? Or when they find trouble, will that be? Will that be on us? I just want to know, are we creating an environment? We're not cultivating something that they can have a group of people that they belong to. I'm just trying to figure out, why are parks in? The three parks that sit within the Pompano Beach Highlands have no programming except for football. Why? I've asked. I've given multiple proposals. There's still nothing, and it's been nine months. There's nothing. My children have nothing. No answers?

No. You can go talk with Scott Moore. I'd recommend that. Thank you, ma'am. Next speaker.

Mike Skawerski, 1630 Southwest Fifth Avenue. First thing I'm going to bring up, and only you would probably know it, and Mark, the great Manny Fernandez passed away. Remember him? All the tackles he got, I think, against the Redskins. He was one of the best. I met him years later because he owned a title company, but he was a good guy. The other thing, this happened a few years ago. Remember, you brought something, something failed big time, and then it was brought back up and it passed. In fact, this has happened twice. We won't say what that was for, but it was for a Palm Air project. So that has already happened. The other thing, since it was just brought up, the kids fish all over the place. I see them. See this? Why I'm not white? They fish in the ocean. They fish in the canals. They fish over the bridges. They fish at the intercoastals. I see them all over fishing. So maybe I'm the only one that goes outside that's in this room. I don't know. I think I am. I really do. The last thing, I was here several months ago, and I stated that the McNabb Bridge, one side should be left open. Now we know it was 100% correct. We stated, well, it was going to cost a little bit more. I've been over to some of these businesses. So I know this is on TV. The Brewfish Bar and Grill is off McNabb Road. The only way you can now get to that is if you take McNabb and head west. Please go to this restaurant. There's a few other places over there. Please go to these places. I have to drive all the way around to get to the pool place. on McNabb, but I'm still doing it. And it's a shame because these companies are really struggling. And no, we're not going to supplement them. You should have listened to me. Because if you would have listened to me, we wouldn't have any problems. And because of that, now all the businesses are struggling. If anything, when you all vote yourself raises, maybe with the raise, what money you would receive out of that raise, hand it out to all those businesses that are now struggling. Because it's terrible. You didn't think properly. The other day I was driving down Federal early in the morning. Traffic was backed up from Northeast 18th Avenue, which is Cypress Road, all the way to Federal. That's ridiculous because you shut down the one road. I mean, it's terrible. And this company that got the job, they're way, way, way behind. This isn't going to take what you said it was going to take. It's going to take much longer. And like I said, we don't need to supplement these businesses. We should supplement it out of your pay because you didn't listen when I said to leave one side of the bridge open and now look at what's happening. And I hope these places survive.

Good. Thank you, sir. Next speaker.

Vicente Thrower, followed by Jocelyn Jackson, followed by Thomas Thurbell.

Vicente Thrower, Pompano Beach. Mayor, I want to address the issue of the school board. Even though this is the city of Pompano Beach, you and the council still have a fiduciary obligation to look after our schools, correct?

We're concerned about the schools, always, of course.

Well, Mayor, recently our principal departed, and now the school board has placed a new principal at our school, at Blanchetta High School, but they didn't talk to the community. Mayor, something has to change. I mean, they come to us, they come to you all, they ask for money, we supply goods and services and financial aid and whatever they need from us, but, Mayor, we deserve respect. The chair of the school board went with one of her other colleagues and met with the city of Fort Lauderdale, the city commission, and they gave a presentation and they talked about Lauderdale, da, da, da, and what they're doing. Mayor, will you have a problem with sending an invitation and asking them why won't they come and do the same for our city? No problem at all. Because I don't understand how they're choosing principals in our backyard without public input and talking to our community, Mayor. I mean, we deserve some respect. They are not the ones putting up with these rotational principles. It's our family and friends that have to put up with it. That's the first thing there. My last thing is I want to thank the public works director and the building official for their years of service in Pompano Beach and their retirement and wish them the best. And I hope that we can keep moving forward and make sure that our neighborhoods stay clean and take care of our people. Thank you so much. Thank you, sir. Next speaker.

Thank you.

Good evening everyone. Sorry. Sorry. Good evening, everyone. Jocelyn Jackson. Commissioner Perkins, last meeting, you stated that I was in violation.

Miss Jackson, Jocelyn, Miss Jackson, address the chair. Don't make this personal. If you've got issues, Miss Jackson.

Could I ask the attorney a question? Allow me to ask the attorney a question. No, this is audience to be heard. Attorney Berman, on the last meeting we had, could I?

Ask me the question. Ask me the question.

The last meeting we had, right? When I left the podium, the commissioner made a statement about the food trucks on my property. The clock is still going.

That's fine.

On my property, correct? Right?

Yes.

Okay. I wasn't able to respond. So I'm responding to a statement she made in reference to my property.

Okay. You want to correct the record? Yes, I am. I want to correct the record. You address the chair and go ahead and correct the record. You don't have to address any. You don't address commission.

Okay. Okay. Fine. I want to correct the record.

Okay.

Correct it. Well, could I get my time back, Mayor?

Come on.

Because you interrupt. Give me my time back, please.

Curvin will take care of it.

It ain't going back yet. I'm waiting.

Okay.

Well, don't waste any more. Let's go.

It got to come back.

We're working on it. Okay. Go ahead, Ms. Jackson.

Okay. He's working on it. Okay. I'm going to address the board. Is that the right terminology, the language?

That's correct. Through the chair.

I'm addressing the board because when I left from speaking in reference to the statement was made about the violations at my place of business. Okay. I'm here to address that. And it's a big concern for me. That has caused action taken against me. I'm being singled out for reasons related to an ordinance compliance. As you all know, there are multiple trucks operating within the city that are stationed in locations not permitted under the existing code. These violations have been ongoing and visible, yet not comparable to enforcement. Action has been taken against them. My request is straightforward, board. I would like to understand how you expect me to comply for the same ordinance that you're not imposing with the others. In the same circumstances, they're not held to the same standard. Consistent enforcement is essential of public trust. I respectfully request clarification on how the city intends to ensure equal and unbiased enforcement moving forward. Another concern in regard to elected officials, when you respond to community residents with personal criticisms and attacks, instead of addressing their concerns, it becomes evident that you either do not understand the realities we face, or you simply do not align with the needs of the Northwest community. Our voices are not optional. Our experiences are not up for debate, and our community deserves representation that listens, respect, not one that deflects or dismisses. And I stand here today, when we leave this podium, when we are dressed, It's not fair for us that we cannot respond. So we want the same respect as you guys want us to give you all. And please, I'm asking each one of you, do not come on my Facebook page if you don't want me to allow me to address you here in these chambers. And you have been warned. That's it. And I have provided for you, those are the places where the food trucks lies. So as y'all say, transparency, I gave it to you. Now I'm going to sit back and see what happens. You see that boat in that yard? That's Vince Johnson's yard. Thank you.

Thank you. Next speaker.

Thomas Thibault, followed by Delvin King, followed by Roderick Phillips. Thomas Thibault.

This right here, this right here is my massage stick. It secures my pain better than a morphine shot every six hours. This right here solves an opening problem. A massage stick for nerve endings, feet, hands, and ears. Not one professional knows what I know about them, what I've learned about them. I was a professional mechanic for over 30 years, so it gives me a very factual thinking process. And that's where I came up with the understanding of using the nerve endings to be able to solve the pains that a person has. But I am the owner of the plantation. My name is Thomas Jerry Thebo Jr. I'm from Kansas City, Missouri. But I've been traveling the continent for over 30 years. And Jesus literally came out of the spiritual realm of hell for 2,000 years and took a seat to ride me in the limbo for the 1,000-year reign we're in right now. I am the owner of the plantation. Jesus accepted the seat next to me because he knew I was the only chance he had. It's not that I have forsaken him. Mankind has forsaken the facts of life. And Jesus is both, the Christ and the Antichrist. He's both together. He took on both roles because he had a perfect mind. He knew he could handle both roles. He's the only one that could. That's why he chose to take that place, that placement, because he knew he had a perfect mind. He could take on both roles. Originally, at his wedding ceremony, that's where he stepped down. He was going to walk the path and become me. He realized somebody else had to take on the second role, and there's nobody else who could or would be able to do that. So he chose to take on the second role, step down. But this COVID, that's the main thing I want to talk about. It's going to put mankind to sleep. The life system has already set in an emotion to completely obliterate mankind from being a thought process and creation of mind. It has given me absolute understanding of why mankind was created. And it was the reason it gave me that understanding because it wanted me to fix that problem so that mankind won't even be a thought process in creation. I don't want that to happen. Mankind is fighting for it to happen. Black matter, don't come here and stay. It comes here and goes away. That means there's a place where it comes from and a place it has to go back to. There's a dimension of black matter. Absolute nothing. No energy. Nothing. Zip. Absolutely nothing at all. That's what mankind is going for. Mankind is fighting to go there. Life system, that's what it's going to send you.

All right. Thank you, sir.

Next speaker. Delvin King, followed by Roderick Phillips, followed by Gloria Lewis.

Delvin King, 2601 Northwest 12th Street. Today I wanted to speak about public speaking. We need to follow policies and procedures when we call up public speaking. What I seen last week was just pure chaos. If somebody name is called for public speaking, or if it's put in a certain order, nobody, no resident gets to come and pick and choose when they can come and speak, just to be the showstopper. The show ender. Whatever curvings, whatever order it is, you need to follow by that order. Don't allow people to come up here and bring you paperwork, bring you all this and that, just to think they can do what they, because it seems as if certain residents run the meeting. I see certain residents run the clock, tell you when the clock go back and go forward. But when I asked a couple of years ago for my clock to be changed, you didn't do it. So it works for who it works for. I guess it's depending on the people that got their hands in the cookie jar. But that's neither here nor there. I want to thank Public Works and Parks and Recreation for helping us out and working with us for the youth under construction in Blanchette High School pre-prom. It was a great success, unlike other people, I put in all my applications. I put in my city applications and I made sure I ordered BSO. They didn't want to pick up the detail. They never do. But I had Florida Highway Patrol come out and make sure the event was a great success and make sure that everybody was safe out there. So I just want to thank, again, Mr. City Manager, thank you so much for approving the event and making sure that this went off and went off great. We didn't have not one incident or one problem out there, even though somebody said it was a fight out there, but that was at Mitchellmore Park. So we want to thank you and to all the commissioners. Majority of you are doing a great job. And to lastly address some of the foolishness that I've seen on Facebook with, because we're going to get past this today with the Kodak Black situation. let me say this i never seen and i'm on social media a lot i've never seen any commissioner on this diet say anything bad about the haitian culture or kodak black i've seen a couple of commissioners address the process in which the city uh manager and the mayor chooses the person to be to have the key to the city so we need to talk about the process in which the city chooses someone to receive the key to the city not the person the person already has the key It's over waves. Thank you.

Very good next speaker Rob Phillips 2620 Northwest 10th Street Pompano Beach, Florida I'm here to remind the city that uh My organization, New Life Group, is having their fifth annual Homeless, Substance Abuse, Mental Health Awareness Day. And as always, I'm inviting everyone in the city to come out. I want to thank Allison, Darlene, and Rhonda Eaton for their participation in this event that I have in District 5. Also, I was commissioned to come up here and talk about DIA, diversity, equity, and inclusion, which Governor DeSantis has decided that he wanted to dismantle that. And it's coming to forefront eventually sometime next year or before the end of this year, what you are able to help in the community, what you're allowed to do without being reprimanded because of diversity, equity, inclusion. So on June the 4th, there's a committee of community leaders that are going to address and inform the public of what is coming down the pipeline that's going to harm people of color. You know, we black folks, we catch hell left and right, no matter how you look at it. We got Even the president trying to send us back somewhere. But it's anti-diversity equity and inclusion law that has passed by the state of Florida. So on June the 4th, at the Word of the Living God Church, 149 Northwest 26th Avenue, Palm Beach, Florida, At 6 p.m., we have a forum. This is not a candidate forum. All of those candidates are welcome. This is not an event for some to show up and judge what should, could have been, or would have been done, but it can be perfect just the way you want it. The meeting is to facilitate awareness about the harm that is headed our way and maybe how to adapt and adjust to minimize harm to our community. And that is an invitation to all of the commissioners on the dais that would like to come and be a part of this community meeting. Also, addressing this, looking on the, well, I'm not going to talk about it because my time is up.

Thank you. Very good. All right, that concludes, audience, to be heard at the first portion of our meeting. We'll take up the... But, ma'am, we've gone through the first half hour. I'm sorry. We've got to suspend it until the end of our meeting. Thank you. I apologize, but that's the rules. Very good. All right, that takes us up to our consent agenda. Can I get a motion approving item number one?

So moved. Second.

Moved and seconded. Any discussion? Seeing none. All in favor say aye. Aye. Opposed? Motion carries unanimous. Very good. Takes us up to our regular agenda. Item two is a consideration to dual name Northwest 3rd Street, Lorena H. Holly Street. Mr. McGahn.

Good evening, Mayor, Commissioner Rahmakhan, Public Works Director. This item requests you to consider dual naming Northwest 3rd Street, Marina H. Holly Street. The backup documentation in the agenda item provides justification for the dual naming in honor of Ms. Holly's contributions to the Pompano Beach community. The dual naming of the street is bound by Powerline Road on the west and Northwest 21st Avenue on the east. The Historic Preservation Committee and the Pompano Beach Historical Society both reviewed the application and recommended approval. If you agree to the dual naming change, a resolution will be brought forward at the next meeting to formalize the change. That concludes my comments, and I think there are some in the audience tonight, Mayor, that would like to speak on this issue.

Very good. Thank you for that. This is a public hearing. Please come forward. Anyone who wishes to speak on this item, come on down. Just name an address for the record, please. All right, right here at the center podium. Thank you.

Good evening. My name is Barbara Holly Atkins to our mayor, vice mayor, and our commissioners. I would like to yield the floor to Walter Atkins, Coral Walls, Mother Foster, and Maddie Curry.

Okay. Hi, my name is Walter Atkins. I stand before you today with deep pride, love, respect, and honor the life and legacy of an extraordinary woman, Miss Lorena Howard Holly. My renaming street in the city of Pompano Beach in her memory, some people live in the city, others helped build it. Miss Holly helped build Pompano Beach through her service, leadership, compassion, unwavering dedication to her community. Miss Holly was a lifelong resident of the city of Pompano Beach, who called 2160 Norfolk 3rd Street her home more than 65 years. She was an educator in the city, attended a historic Pompano Beach Color School, now known as Blanche Ely High School. Her roots were planted deeply here, and throughout her life, she remained committed to improving the community she loved. As one of the matriarchs of the Pioneer family in the 1960s, Ms. Holly became a powerful voice for progress in Collier City neighborhoods. She advocated for better living conditions and support or adverse throughout the streets of the city of Pompano Beach. Very nice.

All right, good evening to the mayor, commission, and the members of the city of Pompano Beach. My name is Cora Walls, and I stand before you today as the youngest child in this family, but also as a proud daughter carrying the legacy of a remarkable woman, my mother. I have been a teacher in Broward County for over 32 years, and the last 27 years, I have had an honor of serving at Deerford Beach High School. As an educator, I know the importance of legacy, service, and how it impacts one's life has on generations. That is why I'm here today to ask that my mother legacy continues to live on through the renaming of her street and her honor. My mother was more than just a residence here in this community. She was a pillar of it. She was the kind of woman that treated every child like her own. She fed those who were hungry, closed those who were in need, and opened her home when families needed shelter. Long before the community outreach programs exist, my mother was always doing the work from her heart. She believed deeply in faith and in young people, and every summer she organized a vocational Bible school at her church that lasted an entire week. pouring love, guidance, spiritual growth, and children's in this community. Even after her passing on July 5th of 2012, her work did not die. My sister, Barbara Holly Atkins, has faithfully continued the ministry each summer, proving that my mother planted seeds are still growing today. She also took children from this community to Miami to Bible Youth Camp at what was then Florida Memorial College and now Florida Memorial University. She gave children the opportunity to learn, to grow, to travel. She planted seeds that are still going on today. And for those children to dream beyond what they saw in themselves. My mother also supported the youth program locally, helping me, OK, provide lunches for my girls group at Wade Horn Park, which is now McNair Park in Carrier City. She understands that sometimes a meal, a safe place, and the encouragement can change a child's future. Mostly important, she believed in education. When I began my college journey, she started giving me care packages along with every friend in the community that was leaving for college, showing them that they were supported, that they were valued, and she expected them to succeed. My mother didn't seek recognition. She didn't ask for any applauses. She simply served others because that was who she was. Today, I ask that you guys consider renaming the street in my mother's name and keeping her legacy alive.

Thank you. Very good. Thank you.

Good evening. My name is Maddie Curry. Maddie Fortune Curry. I, too, speaking on behalf of Ms. Lorena, she was like a mother in the neighborhood. And the reason why I really wanted to come, because when she got a petition and signed for them streets to get paved, I was number one gladiator, because I got tired of walking. I was raised at 300 Northwood, 21st Avenue. That was my mother home, facing that street. The streets was muddy, dusty. By the time we walked from that side over to Charles Grew Elementary School. And she not only went further, When we left Charles Grew Elementary School and moved over to Margate, they didn't have a bus, don't want to come in the area. She signed a petition, got the buses to come through and pick us up so we didn't have to walk from Coyote City all the way over to Margate. Y'all excuse me for laughing, but I'm just thinking back them days. Because when there was a canal that ran along there when it rained in the overflow, We didn't have the jointed streets. It was a board that we had to walk across to get to the other side. I was scary anyway. So it was sometime it would overflow. All kind of feces would come out of the ward and everything. And when she started that petition, everybody was backing her up. And I think right down the street from her, Mr. Thurston, he was there too. I said, everybody better get in this line right now. Because she signed that, got that petition signed. They came in. They closed up the canals. And they paved the streets. And we didn't have to walk to Chargou School no more with no dusty shoes because the children laughed at us, but they didn't know the area that we lived in. Even all the way over in Hunter's Mountains, all that was all back there, nothing but rocks. When it rained, we had to walk in the muddy rain. And too, as she came, Maddie, let me tell you something. If you ain't doing that, I want to get. She got me in Herber, Outline 211. She got me in the Chapterwood. And I continued to do work with her in the neighborhood. She didn't just look out for her kids. She looked out for the neighborhood. So we grew up over there as a family. And I thank God that she did what she did because I was so enough tired of walking with them dirty shoes on. I think she deserved to have her name placed somewhere on the street sign or wherever because she was nonstop. God knows that lady did her part in there. Her, my mama, she'd get them together and they were just like a trail of them. And they didn't nonstop. And I appreciated that she got us that bus over there so we didn't have to walk all the way over there. My time is up. Thank you.

Thank you. Appreciate it.

I want to say good evening. You will foster 2856 Northwest 13th Street, Fort Lauderdale. I received a call from Miss Lorena's daughter, and I was happy to answer the call. As I knew Miss Lorena Holly, my family lived at Collier City, too. As a child, I knew Miss Lorena to be one of my mother's friends. She was a kind and compassionate person. Sometimes I would babysit for her. She was a good mother to her children. And if I recall, she was a single mother. Her family and our family were friends. Occasionally, my father and mother would have disagreements, and my mom would go to Ms. Lorena's house as a safe place. My mom had three friends on Ms. Lorena Street. That was Ms. Ella Mae, Ms. Cowles, and of course, Ms. Lorena. Miss Lorena would deter my dad from finding my mom by hiding her. You all can kind of figure out the rest. Also, one summer of 1962, I was 12 years old. We had disobeyed our parents and went to the Rock Pit, now known as Esquire Lakes, to teach our friend, Mary Ellis, how to swim, not knowing how dangerous this place was. There was no pools in our neighborhood at the time, so we thought the rock pit would be the best place to go to teach our friend how to swim. We got into the rock pit with our foam floaters, and shortly after, Mary Alice panicked and turned loose her floater and climbed on top of my head. At that time, I felt like we both was going to die or drown. Just so happens that Miss Lorena's son, she has a son, Carson, He held out a stick to me and he was able to pull both of us out of the water. So I have always thanked him for saving my life. Later the story was told to his mom and of course we never went back to the rock pit again. Years after my mom had passed away, I would often go back to the neighborhood. to visit her friends. And with Miss Lorena still residing in that neighborhood, I will go and check on her. I feel like this will be an honorable thing to grant her children's request in bearing Mrs. Lorena's name on that street where she lived so long. I thank the family and others for allowing me to participate in giving honor and praise to the life of their mother and overall such a great person. God bless.

Very nice. Thank you. Anyone else? That's it. Very good. Further input from the public? Seeing none, public input closed. Commission discussion.

Yes, Mayor.

Commissioner Perkins.

Thank you. That was a very good history lesson. And in my opinion, that is what community involvement looks like. When you're helping the children, you're helping the seniors, you're helping the sick.

We need more of that today.

So I want to commend you for the work of Ms. Holly, and I think it's so deserving that we named this the street after her. I would advise you, too, to contact Mr. Greg Jones at the E. Pat Larkin Center to make sure we have her name displayed there in front of the center for the work that she has done for this community. So, yes, I support this naming 100%. I do, I do. SO I MAKE A MOTION THAT WE MAKE NORTHWEST 3rd AVENUE A DUAL NAME, RIGHT? A DUAL NAME TO HOLLY STREET.

VERY GOOD. THAT'S PERFECT.

WAIT, LET ME DO IT RIGHT. I'D LIKE TO MAKE A MOTION THAT WE MAKE NORTHWEST 3rd STREET A DUAL NAME ADDING HOLLY STREET.

Thank you.

Oh, you want a first name? Lorena. Lorena Holley. Entire name.

As per Mr. McCann's description of the area, right?

Yes, as Mr. McCann.

Very good. Seconded. Moved and seconded to dual name that street as per Mr. McCann's recommendation. Great. Commissioner Seegerson-Eden.

Yes, and what a lovely thing to do to honor your mother, your friend, your Sounds like an awesome person, and it really is a beautiful thing that you're doing. So I will fully support this. Thank you.

Very good. Further commission discussion? Seeing none, let's go ahead and call the roll.

Commissioner Fezzik? Yes. Commissioner Perkins? Yes. Commissioner Sigurdson-Eaton? Yes. Commissioner Smith?

Yes.

Vice Mayor Fournier?

Yes.

Mayor Hartman?

Yes. Very good.

Mayor, let me just say one thing before Rod. I'm pretty sure that the family would probably want to have an unveiling. So what I've noticed in the past, we always place the signs up before the family has been notified. Can you please not? post the signs until the family has been notified.

Right.

Or myself.

So we rely on Broward County Traffic Engineering to fabricate and install the signs, but in advance of that, we will provide a sign to the family and they can have a ceremony however they would like to. But it's going to be at least 10 weeks from now, based on historical actions of Broward County, before those signs go up.

So is it Broward County that places those signs? Correct. Oh, Broward County places them.

Yes, that's correct. Commissioner, we're just glad to get them up. It takes so long. We don't get enough notice for the family. I noticed Northwest 27th Avenue, I happened to drive down the street and saw that they were up. Right, okay. So it's unfortunate. But we can give a sign to the family and they can have a ceremony in a church or wherever they would like to do that. We'll do that for sure.

So can you... stay in contact with Broward County.

Absolutely.

We can get some type of timeline so we can say, oh, it looks like it might be two or three days from now that we might be placing the sign up. We might not be able to get the exact date, but something to give the family a heads up. Sure, I'll ask. Because I did get calls the last time, why did you all put the sign up? So I was thinking the city was putting the signs up. I didn't know it was Broward County. Okay, so we just want to make sure the family is informed as much as we can. Thank you.

Very good. All right, let's take a 10-minute recess.

Thank you. you Thank you.

No worries. Don't break a hip. Don't want to do that. Okay. All right. Let's call this meeting back to order at about 8.12 here. Thank you. That takes us up to item number, yeah, three. Okay. Three is a resolution.

A resolution of the City Commission of the City of Palmetto Beach, Florida approving and authorizing the proper city officials to execute an infrastructure development agreement between the City of Palmetto Beach and Habitat for Humanity of Broward Inc. to provide for the reimbursement of costs related to design and construction of utilities and roadway improvements, providing an effective date. So moved. Second.

Moved and second for discussion.

Mr. Siropoulos. Good evening, Mayor, Commission, John Siropoulos, City Engineer. With the pressing need for more affordable housing, Habitat for Humanity will start building six new single-family homes this fall with a targeted move-in date of spring 2027 for deserving families who have the dream of home ownership. Pompano Beach has always been a champion and advocate in investing in these efforts. In your backup is a... proposed reimbursement agreement between the city and Habitat for Humanity in the amount of $577,000 to cover the cost for the design and construction of the necessary utilities and roadway in support of these homes. And these costs are proposed to be shared between CRA and the Utilities Department. The location is along Northwest First Street, west of Powerline, north of Atlantic, and Habitat for Humanity has selected Jackson Land Development for the construction of the infrastructure. Thank you, and I'd be happy to answer any questions.

Very good. Thank you for that. This is a public hearing. Is there any input from the public on this item? Please come forward. Just name and address for the record.

Hi, Clinton Mueller, 1080 Northeast 20th Avenue here in Pompano Beach, Florida. Really cool, actually, a little bit, is I served for a number of years, actually, as the Executive Director for Habitat for Humanity in the Tampa Bay area. Very nice. I think it's a critical thing that you guys are doing, taking affordable housing and moving this to where it is. I also think for the public as a whole, too, there needs to be an understanding that with Habitat for Humanity, it's not a giveaway program. It is a hand up. not a handout the people who get these homes basically have to individually go out and put sweat equity hours into their homes they have to pay for the homes there is due diligence there is volunteers it is a labor of love and it couldn't be a better fit for the city of pompano The only other thing that I'll add, if I can, is I was really excited when I walked in and saw a room full of people when it started. And I thought, man, this is democracy that's really going to get going here. And of course, as the day goes on, we've had less and less people here. And if people, I know we live stream this thing, if people are watching at home right now, if people are basically taking a look at this two weeks from now, Come out. Be active. Get engaged. Tell the city what needs to happen in your neighborhoods now, please. And again, thank you, and thank you for the team for partnering with Habitat. It's a great organization. You won't regret it. Very good. Thank you.

Further input from the public? I'm sorry. Does Habitat wish to make any presentation? No? It's all up to John. Thank you. Okay. Okay. Just wanted to check.

Jocelyn Jackson. Is the Habitat already done, purchased the property? Is this a new bill? What are they building?

It's six single-family homes. They do own the parcels.

Okay, they own the parcels. Did they buy them from us? Did it was originally owned by the city? No, just private parcels? Okay. Where is it located, please? I missed that part.

Northwest First Street, north of Atlantic, west of Powerline.

North of Atlantic, west of Powerline. By 28th Avenue. That means it's in the Cuyahoga City area.

Yes.

Okay, now what is Habitat asking me? Because I know Habitat- Proposing, I see the infrastructure, right? Over half a million dollars.

Correct.

Okay, so this is my concern with Habitat. I'm a licensed realtor. I'm going to start with that. And my concern with Habitat is when they come in the community, that the person, the buyer who purchased these homes never will own the ownership. Another thing... And if you had a, like if I, you know, with my children, like the interest don't pass to the family members. They start the loan all over again. So I would like, I would like for Habitat representative be transparent to when these homes get built, like when they build the contracts, so our residents can understand. Because a lot of residents don't know. You won't be the owner. You've been at this place 30 years and tied it on transfer, the interest on transfer to their loved ones. Another thing when they call, Habitat got a lot of money. They have a lot of money. And I don't think it's a good idea for us to give them over half a million dollars, because we need to use that money in our northwest section for our small businesses that was spoke about two commissions ago. Because Habitat got a lot of money. This is just my personal opinion. But I would like for them to be transparent with the residents who will be purchasing the these homes it's very important to our residents to understand the contracts in layman terms not that sophisticated language in layman terms so they'll understand what do they get themselves involved with and again i said habitat have a lot of money thank you that's my opinion next speaker

Mayor, I need to correct the record what Ms. Jackson was saying. We are not giving habitat this $550,000. We're fronting it. They're paying us back.

Very good. Thank you. Further input from the public. Seeing none, public input closed. Thank you for that clarification, Mr. Harrison. Commission discussion, questions, concerns? Vice Mayor?

Thank you. I'm a little confused now. So we are paying now for these improvements through CRA and utility funds to do this infrastructure work. Then there's money coming back to us at some point.

No. They are doing the designs, the permitting, the construction. After that's completed, that's on their own dime initially. Once that's completed, we do reimburse them that amount.

And that's this amount?

Correct. A maximum not to exceed that amount.

Okay. So do they have bid process? Have we looked at the numbers and sanity checked it? Do we think it's a reasonable amount for the scope of the work? Since we didn't put out, you know, we didn't pick the company, so we're just accepting the numbers, the estimate from Habitat.

Well, not blindly. We did. They went through procurement process, they bid this out to three qualified contractors, and I reviewed the three bids as well against the design plans.

Okay, so you've sanity checked these costs, and they are in line with what you would expect for the scope of work, and then the funds are coming from the CRA and from utilities. Are those already in the budgets?

They are 50-50 split. 50-50.

Okay, so 50 of it's coming from the Northwest CRA, and it is going into the Northwest community in the form of infrastructure improvements here, and then the other half is paid for out of the utilities fund.

That's correct.

Okay. Thank you.

Mr. Perkins.

Thank you, Mayor. I am happy that Habitat is going to build some more homes, but I'm cautious to say that When you're building homes, and I don't know whether it's just happening in my district or my area, I'm concerned about the materials that you use. Those 77 homes that was built, Rick Case by Habitat, I've had several complaints with termites. Some of the residents had not even been in their homes six months. And I'm very concerned about that. I did speak with Nancy about it, I think, once or twice. There are a lot of issues that we're having with those 77 homes, and I've discussed that with Nancy, and I would like to get those problems corrected, those 77 homes, before we move forward on this, because those residents have a lot of concerns. A lot of them want to relocate, want to move, want to get out of that, but I say to anybody that's getting a Habitat home, Before you sign any papers or anything, get yourself an attorney and have your attorney read the fine print so that you know what you're signing into.

Thank you. Very good. Commissioner Fessick.

Thank you. I think Habitat does a great job. I actually have worked a lot with raising funds for Habitat in other cities. So my concern has nothing to do with the dollar amount or what we're proposing. I have a question related to the funds that we have it coming from. So because this is a CRA project, correct? So that the well it is a steering that in the Northwest CRA the CRA is covering this development project I Know that we have so many things coming down the pike with our utilities department through utilities there's a there's a lot of things that the utilities department did not expect that they were going to have to cover and my concern if any is really just the allocation of 50-50 sounds nice, but we don't split the tax increment funding 50-50 with the CRA. They get 95, and we get 5 for the Northwest CRA. So what 95 and 5 looks like, just in case anybody knows, I remember I did the math last year sometime. It was in 2024, out of the tax increment funding for the entire Northwest CRA, the Northwest CRA collected just under $9 million, and the city's share of that is about 1.9 So there's a big difference. I think we should definitely support this. My only concern is, is there any way that the CRA can handle 95 and we cover five? Because that's what the split is with the CRA. Is there any opportunity for that to happen?

I don't know. That would have to be something we discuss with Nguyen and budget.

Also, we have Josh coming up.

Hi. Hi. Joshua Waters. I'm the city's budget director. So this was a new capital project in the CIP from fiscal year 26. The initial cost was $300,000. As proposed in the proposed budget, it was funded 50-50 between the CRA and the general fund. As part of the final budget action by the commission, the commission instructed us to find another 0.5% reduction to the millage rate. Part of that solution was to take the general funded portion of this capital project and move it over into the CRA. And in discussion with the CRA director, it was an allowable expense. So that's how the 50% of the funding wound up with the CRA. Of course, the final numbers came back a little higher than was budgeted. So those funds will be reallocated elsewhere in the budget. to make up the difference. But the idea is to still fund the project 50-50 between the CRA and the utilities department. And it's for, I believe, the construction of the roadways and the underlying utilities for that road around the development.

So just while you're standing there, so it was originally $300,000 when we were budgeting it originally? Correct. Okay, so now we're at $577,000. So that's quite a bit more. When we're begging for paving and utility work and projects, I'm just concerned about that number. But outside of this, is that possible from a budget standpoint? Is it something that you would say that you've seen before where we could try to reallocate some things?

I mean, as the appropriating authority, I don't think that it's disallowed, although the budget has already been set for the project and has been allocated accordingly within the utilities department and the CRA for the year. So it's already part of the funding plan, at least the initial amount that was approved by the bodies with the CRA board.

Thank you.

Very good. Further commission discussion? Vice Mayor?

I guess I have some questions about, based on what I've heard here also about the sales process and Habitat and the homes. Do they come with some, and you might not know the answer to this, but is there some warranty on the homes themselves?

I don't know that voice.

I assume that that question is for someone else.

Did you say warranty?

Yeah, so is there a one-year warranty on homes? You said that there are issues even right after move-in, so I'm wondering if they come with some kind of guarantee for these new homeowners.

Can the folks from Habitat address that and just identify yourself first?

Yes, sir. Alex Nassar, VP of Construction for Habitat for Humanity.

Rick, do you? Hi. Rick Kurtz, Development and Habitat for Humanity.

To answer your question, ma'am, yes, there is a warranty. There's a standard one-year warranty on all work done on these homes. And to answer Ms. Beverly's question, there were some problems identified, but then we did go back and fix them. We haven't finished a complete turnover of that development. And before it's complete turnover, we're gonna make sure those homeowners are happy with the product they were provided.

Okay, and do you ensure that these homebuyers have access to their own legal representation or encourage them to do so?

I can't really speak to that, but I am.

It sounds like the contract is non-standard, and we might need to just ensure that a little more oversight and understanding in layman's terms of what they're agreeing to when they purchase one. And when do you expect to start this work?

Infrastructure should start in the fall with vertical construction, like shortly after that.

Okay. Thank you.

Very good. Further commission discussion? Seeing none, Commissioner Fessick.

Just one more question. In the past, have we done this before? Have we done this same deal before?

We have for the 77 homes. We also did a reimbursement agreement.

Okay. Thank you.

Very good. Further commission discussion? Seeing none, let's go ahead and call the roll.

Commissioner Fessick? Yes. Commissioner Perkins?

Yes.

Commissioner Sigurdsson-Eaton? Yes. Commissioner Smith? Yes. Vice Mayor Fournier?

Yes. Mayor Hart? Yes. Item number four is the first reading of an ordinance.

An ordinance of the City Commission of the City of Pompano Beach, Florida, approving and authorizing the proper city officials to execute continuing contracts between the City of Pompano Beach and Design Collaborative Architects Planners, Inc., Walter Sicari, Associates PLLC, Curry Sowers Aguila Architects, Inc., Design to Form LLC, and the Tamara Peacock Company Architects of Florida, Inc., for professional architectural services. RLI 26002, providing for severability, providing an effective date. So moved. Second.

Moved and second for discussion. Mr. Siropoulos.

John Siropoulos, City Engineer. Our continuing architectural contracts expired on May 3rd, 2026. This ordinance is to approve five new continuing contracts for architectural consulting services. RLI number 26-002 resulted in 15 proposals, and the review panel selected the highest five ranked firms, and the scoring matrix is included in your backup. The five proposed contracts are all the same with the exception of exhibit C, which is the fee schedule, and the contracts will be effective for five years. I would like to now turn it over to Dr. Good who will explain how we have previously used these CCNA contracts and also what the consequences are if we don't have them in place. Thank you.

Very good. Dr. Good.

Dr. Tammy Good, CIP Manager. So I did want to ensure that we're doing our job and we're making sure that all of you are well informed to make a good decision. So I look back at the projects that we have recently or historically secured these services. And of the, through the CCNA contracts, and of the 15 or so projects that we had secured services through this type of contract, probably 12 of those 15 contracts came back before this commissioning body again for approval. THESE ITEMS AND THE SUBSEQUENT ITEM AFTER THIS ONE IS SIMPLY TO RANK THE CONSULTANTS TO PROVIDE DESIGN, PROFESSIONAL DESIGN SERVICES. IT HAS NOTHING TO DO WITH THE CONTRACT AMOUNT, THE CITY MANAGER SPENDING AUTHORITY. I KNOW THAT WAS MENTIONED IN THE LAST MEETING. SO I WANTED TO BRING THIS NEW INFORMATION TO ALL OF YOU SO THAT YOU COULD MAKE A WELL-INFORMED DECISION. UNDERSTANDABLY ALSO, THOUGH, We have current projects that were under, were solicited, or I'm sorry, secured under the CCNA contract, and we now have to hire them for additional services, construction administration services. Some of those projects include the South Riverside Drive stormwater project, which we've opened the bids on. That'll be under construction soon. The Skolnick Center addition, the MLK signalization project, Safe Streets for All grant, uh the charlotte bury connectivity um and there are several other uh namely that all all of the new uh cip projects that will be budgeted uh with the new fiscal 27 monies so this mechanism needs to be in place in accordance with state statute that allow us to hire these pool of design professionals not based on price but based on qualifications only And providing the scope of service and the costs associated with those services would dictate whether or not we come back to this commissioning body for approval. And again, I just wanted to preface that historically, 80, 90% of the projects secured under this type of contract come back before this commissioning body for approval. It's very rare that we have small projects that are under the spending threshold that do not require commission approval. And I'm available for any questions.

Very good. Thank you for that. Appreciate that input. This is a public hearing. Is there any input from the public on this item? Seeing none, public input closed. Commission discussion. Vice Mayor.

Thank you. I guess I just want to reiterate what I said at the beginning. If you wanted to provide new information or ensure we knew something different or add something, then I think we would have received an email, a phone call. Someone would have reached out and said, hey, we want to tell you this in advance instead of just putting it on the agenda and doing it now. I think that's not the right approach. So my, I understand what these are, and I understand what you're saying, and you just said that most of these come back anyway because they're over the spending authority of 200,000. All I was asking was to reduce it. So if most of them are coming back anyway, what is the downside of reducing that threshold to 100,000?

Vice Mayor, the item on the agenda is to approve the ranking. It's not talking about any project or any amount or anything of that nature. It is the ranking of these individuals.

Dr. Good was just talking about projects and amounts. So you're telling me I can't talk about the exact things we were just discussing?

She indicated the number of projects that came back to this commission.

I don't appreciate you interrupting me right now when I'm asking a question that is directly in response to what dr good just said very good advice but i'm just asking you to stay focused on the item before us i don't need you to i understand that you may have other issues also but this has to do with the ranking of the individuals it actually has to do with yes the ranking and then executing these contracts so it is not just approving a rank order Yes, implied in this is the scoring and we are executing contracts with the top ones that are scored, but we are actually executing these continued service contracts also, correct?

No, we're asking you all to approve the ranking. We're not executing any contract. So depending on those... the scope and the fee of each of those subsequent contracts would dictate whether we come back to you. We're just trying to comply with state statutes, so we have a mechanism in place because what the state statute requires is every project, that incurs design costs in excess of $35,000, we have to have a CCNA in place to be able to secure those services. Understood. And what is a CCNA? It's the Consultants Competitive Negotiation Act, Florida State Statute 287.

And what is it you have to have in place in order to be compliant with that? Is it a contract? We have to have these contracts for ranking only, not a service contract with an associated fee. But in the backup, there are the agreements, and we are... Executing agreements here. It doesn't mean that we're going to ever even hire some of them. I understand. Some of them may not ever be hired. I understand, but I don't appreciate the characterization that this is just approving a rank order because it is implicit is the rank order, but we are approving these as the contractors that we're going to use going forward on specific projects.

But with all due respect, I think that's a whole separate issue under the competitive ordinance 32.35, the one that I brought before commission. One that I've always had a problem with. 22 and 23. So that we could address later, but we need this mechanism in place to comply with state statute. to ensure that we're abiding by the law. And that's all we're asking for. And I wanted to make mention that a lot of these projects come back before you anyway. And I know you say, well, some of them don't and some of them don't. And the reason why we don't think that it's advantageous to lower that spending threshold is because It's a very arduous process for an in excess of $75,000 contract, which rarely happens anyway, to come back before commission, put it on the agenda. So to expedite and be efficient with city resources and a fiduciary of city funds, we felt that the $200,000 threshold... is completely appropriate. Additionally, when we hire these services, we're hiring a prime consultant who also hires sub-consultants. So it isn't like there's this large amount of money that's going to one entity.

I understand. And if I had any confidence that we as a city and as a board would address the ordinance that you just referred to, the competitive bidding ordinance, then I'd say, OK, let's do this. If 90% of these contracts are coming back anyway because they're over $200,000, then I'd like to reduce. So $200,000 is the highest in the county. We are the highest spending limit of any city in this county. And we've seen contract after contract signed at $199,000 without any disclosure to this board. So I would like to work on the competitive bidding ordinance, and here is an opportunity to do that. With these, I would like anything over $100,000 to come back to us.

That's not what we're asking you to approve tonight.

I understand what you're asking us to approve, but if we don't approve this, then what? I'll tell you. I don't actually want an answer to that.

Dr. Good, please, let the Vice Mayor talk. Vice Mayor, please stay focused on what we're dealing with here.

These contracts are the mechanism by which we... do larger projects and we use these contractors to execute agreements and some of them will come back to us and some of them won't and i want all of them over a hundred thousand to come back to us that's it thank you very good yeah the discussion commissioner fessick thank you so i had actually planned to talk about this pretty much um biggest question is why even came back here when we already said no but um

I want to address a couple different things. One is five years, and I understand the continuing contracts. I understand the dollar amounts. I have more to say about the specific dollar amounts, which is related to the next item, because I pulled some of those numbers. And in some of those numbers, based on vendor payments, the majority of them, just so that the vice mayor can understand, the majority of them were actually less than $75,000. But the problem is, is not that the, because the checks were written multiple times, and it was over, you know, they were written for less than $75,000, and the cost of business, obviously, was different. So I actually would like to know more about, I think this comes back to this for me, right? So at what point do these administrative solutions or convenience, at what point does that override commission oversight and obligation to see what we're spending our money on.

Commissioner, I'm going to ask you, just like I asked the Vice Mayor. This is actually a question. Please stay focused on what we're dealing with. We're dealing with the rank, Commissioner.

I am focused.

Please stay focused with what we're dealing with. That's the ranking order of these professional firms.

And you're asking us to rank and approve contracts, so I'm asking you.

No, no, no. Commissioner, this has nothing to do with dollars at this point in time. This is simply ranking these companies so they are then eligible under state statute.

I believe I have the floor. To deal with the item as asking a question related to the item we can do this couple different ways. We sure can I'm asking specifically at what point does the administrative convenience override Commission oversight?

That's there is no administrative convenience That's not that's not part of this commissioner fessick.

Yes. This is this is part of the oversight process. I So it is. It is part of the oversight process. I have a few questions. So is anything related to our procurement department for this? I'm sorry? What was your question?

Procurement director.

Is there anything related to what? I'm saying is there anything that our procurement director might have to say about any of this? That would be a question for her. Okay. I think we have, I think we just have a problem here and I, until I'll just stay on this. I think this is absolutely ridiculous that you guys have brought it back so far and it's completely the same for the most part.

Thank you.

Very good. Further commission discussion. Vice mayor.

Thank you. I just want to clarify again what we're doing here. I think there's been this – I can see what happened at the city. You all want this to pass, and you spent the last month huddling, figuring out how to spin this a different way and how to put pressure on us to make it seem like it's catastrophic if we don't. And the powers that be in the city got together and decided we're going to just call this a rank order. And it's nothing else. But when you read the ordinance, it says that the proper city officials are hereby authorized to execute said agreements between the city of Pompano Beach and, and it lists the contractors. So yes, we have selected those five contractors, but we are entering agreements with them through this ordinance. Is that correct, Mr. Berman?

Yes, Vice Mayor, that is correct. Thank you. It's a no-cost until there's work authorizations issued, but we are entering. It's not just approval of the ranking. Thank you. It is entry into contracts so they are ready to do the work when authorized.

Thank you. I appreciate that clarification, because the mayor told me I couldn't even talk about contracts. It was just a rank order, and that is not what the ordinance says here. And all I am asking is, I agree, Mr. Berman, and with Dr. Good, this is a rank order. We are entering these contracts. No work is performed yet, but you can use them to do work. And I just want anything that's over $100,000 under these CCNA agreements to come back to this board for approval. And if we're already seeing 80% to 90% of it at the $200,000 threshold, that shouldn't be a big deal. Maybe we see a couple more. But I think it's important that we start chipping away at this massive $200,000 spending authority that I think is out of line with any other city and is not serving the residents of Pompano, given the number of contracts that are being signed at that threshold without being disclosed. SO I FULLY SUPPORT YOUR NEED FOR THIS AND I WOULD JUST MAKE THE MODIFICATION THAT ANYTHING UNDER THESE CCNA AGREEMENTS OVER THE NEXT FIVE YEARS THAT'S OVER $100,000 COMES BACK TO THIS BOARD. AND THEN YOU'LL HAVE MY VOTE. THANK YOU.

Okay, mr. Seegerson. Thank you. Thank you. My first time on this issue. So He's It may be that the counties we may be the most forward-thinking city in the county with this $200,000 threshold, but I believe if memory serves me The state statute is, I believe, up to $500,000. I could be wrong. Does anybody remember what the state statute allows for? Okay. Well, we can check on it. I remember it was quite a bit more. And I also just want to point out those are sort of two different items, Vice Mayor. We're sort of dealing with. how we conduct business and procure a business relationship with firms. And I know you understand that. And it's with firms that are preparing to do business for some of the projects we have in all of the different districts that our residents really have been waiting on to get done. And this does put a, it puts a big monkey wrench in the process. But I mean, there's a possibility that we can we can bring up the separate issue of the contract threshold at another time. I just don't see the logic in holding our CCNA contracts sort of at bay and the progress that our city needs on the projects that are going on. I'd like to see some of the projects that I've been waiting years for completed. And this mechanism, the same with the next item, this mechanism enables the city to do it. So I do have a question for both Tammy and John. Can you give me an idea of what the process would be like if we don't have this a slate of contractors that we can use if we need them. Can you give me sort of a narrative on what that would be like?

So we have a couple options. We could advertise with a separate solicitation, which is what we do now for very large projects that are in excess of $7.5 million in construction costs, or the design fee is over $500,000. state statute requires us to advertise in a with a separate solicitation we could do that but again we would be bringing that item back before commission for approval of a ranking just as we are now it doesn't mean that we would be bringing the contract back unless it's over a certain dollar value And for clarification, when I said 90% of the projects are under $200,000, that was above $75,000, under $200,000. So a lot of those projects are under $100,000. I know, Vice Mayor, you said you'd like the spending threshold to be minimally $100,000. But a lot of these projects were already under $100,000, so those would not have come back before commission either.

Okay, so... You then would, on each separate project, you would do exactly the same thing that you have done here and go through a ranking process.

Which takes about four to six months. It's a very lengthy process, just as, you know, we're at the seven-month mark with these contracts.

Okay, so you'd have to put, I call it a request for proposals or qualifications, letters of interest, whatever. So this whole process for every, has to be repeated every time for every project is basically what you're saying. And we are basically ending up in the same place we are right now. Correct. With approving. RANKING FIRMS. NOW, TALK TO ME A LITTLE BIT ABOUT THE FIRMS, THE DIFFERENT, THEY ALL HAVE DIFFERENT SORT OF SCOPES.

SO THE COMMITTEE MEMBERS WERE SELECTED BASED ON THE USER THAT WOULD HAVE THE NEED FOR THESE SERVICES. SO FOR THE CIVIL, THAT'S THE NEXT AGENDA ITEM, WE SELECTED AN INDIVIDUAL FROM THE UTILITIES DEPARTMENT For architectural, we selected individuals from the engineering department as well as an individual from CRA, because those would be the entities using these services. We then advertised for construction. The committee ranked the firms. I was on one of the panels. And we try to pick firms that have varying levels of expertise. size of firms, and again, per state statute, we can only rank them in accordance with their qualifications, not based on price whatsoever. And so that's how we come to the ranking that's before you today for approval.

Alrighty. One additional thing. I would be happy. I will make the motion after we get through this item. I'll make the motion that we put on the agenda, further discussion on the policy of the spending threshold of the city manager. I'd be happy if you want to have that discussion. I'd be happy to put that. I'd happily make that motion so we can look at that if that is part of the problem.

Let's deal with this.

Okay.

That's it?

Can I just answer Commissioner Eaton's question about the state statute?

No, thank you. I've got Commissioner Fastic.

Thank you. Just a quick question. So outside of the annual budget and the CIP adoption, is there any other public notice mechanism aside from, you know, for the smaller dollar amounts on a project-by-project basis the public can actually see?

Um... Well, so all of the monies that we're spending under this CCNA contract has been previously approved in the CIP budget. When we hire a consultant, is that, well, it would come before you depending on that spending threshold. But other than that, no, it would just be through the adoption of the CIP where the public notice would occur. Okay.

Over the past, I mean, so we've had these contracts in place for quite some time, as per the previous contracts. Do you know, and just maybe might have to go through somebody else, but do you know what the, let's just pick one of the firms, but the aggregate dollar amount of, the dollar value of work authorizations, like issued under prior,

Not for each individual firm, but I can tell you that if there's new monies coming in to the CIP budget, on average 7 to 10 million annually, we're spending about 10% of that for professional design services. And it's spread out. We have multiple consultants that we want to choose from. As you see in this item here, we want to select five architectural firms that we can choose from. for various projects based on our needs and the services that they can offer us. And so we try to be equitable and distribute the services accordingly among the firms that we choose. Okay.

I think we have a communication breakdown, and we have had one. So as I stated the last time we discussed this, It is a concern that there isn't, in many instances, there isn't the way that if there's a project happening that we get notice or any notification. I understand that some of these projects can be maybe even between the $10,000 and $25,000 range because it's just something that might be needed on a one-off. But a lot of times it's like little piece, little piece, little piece, and we're still spending significant amounts of dollars. Let's just put it, since it was brought up, let's just put it as a hypothetical. We discussed a $75,000 threshold, so if we did that and it was adopted tonight, what would you, what would your department, I guess, need from us as a commission to make sure that that was... I'm sorry, what would I what? What would your department need from us if we're going to talk about a $75,000 limit?

Commissioner, we're not talking about that. We're talking about...

It was brought up by Commissioner Sigerson-Eaton, so I just want to make sure that was... That was part of the discussion. Okay. But if you don't want it to be part of the discussion, that's fine. I'm still, I think we have work to do on this. Thank you.

Good. Further commission discussion. Commissioner Perkins.

Thank you, Mayor. We're going around and around with this as we have been in the past. The reason that we have one-on-ones, I guess, is for staff to explain to us Exactly what will be printed on the agenda which it did not happen in this case And I've said several times sitting here that there's an awful lack. There's a lack of communication with city staff And some of the people select few to sit on this dais This issue could have been easily resolved If the city manager would have called or communicated to say I'm putting this on the agenda, we've made some adjustments, and I'd like to get your opinion before we place it on the agenda. This happens all the time. It's been happening ever since I've been up on this dais because there are a lot of things that are placed on this agenda. Regarding my district, I know nothing about it until it's there. I don't know how many times I can say that when it comes to our city manager and staff, there's a lack of communication with certain commissioners. And this is not, it's going to continue as long as you keep doing it the way you're doing it. And I think people will agree and understand better when you communicate with them. Sometimes we might not agree, but we can understand it enough to just go along with it. But we're here because of lack of communication with the city manager. And he hasn't said very much since he's been sitting down there. Do you have anything to say, Mr. City Manager? Do you have anything to say? Thank you. I'm done there. Very good.

Further commission discussion? Commissioner Smith.

Since I've been on the commission, it's come up multiple times about the threshold. I would like to have it as an agenda item totally separate from being connected to anything else. I would love to discuss that. I would love to talk about other cities and where we came to be at this point and where we should go. But I feel so strongly that it needs to be its own agenda item and not attached to another ruling that we're doing. And I would support also putting it on an agenda and having that discussion. and I've even had, I think Ann Bosworth mentioned that Commissioner Moss didn't support it, which was my predecessor. I would like to find out why. I would like to have that conversation with residents, with the previous commissioner, and let's talk about it, but let's make it an agenda item, not something that we're just deciding on the fly at the dais. So I would like to see us in compliance with this Florida statute of ranking so that we can go ahead and do business of the city and let's not connect it to something else, but let's have that conversation, but let's have that conversation in an agenda item that is respectful of our time and of the discussion and research to get to that point. Thank you, Mayor.

Very good. Commissioner Seegerson-Eaton.

Thank you, Mayor. I just wanted to add that according to the Florida statutes, for CCNA contractors, ranked firms, however you want to term it, the project limit is $7.5 million, and the engineering and architectural contract maximum is $500,000. So again, I wanted to just say, Whenever a project comes before us, we will go through the ranking process, no matter what it is. If we need an engineer, it could be Chen Moore, it could be Keith, whomever. It's a small pool of expert firms, and we will be going through this process for every single project. We will be doing the ranking on every single project. Instead of ranking them as a whole and using them as needed as we go forward doing the Burry Center connectivity, the completion of the Skolnick Center addition, the drainage on Riverside. We're gonna be doing the same thing And it just slows everything down if we don't approve these ranked firms. All highly respected and established firms. So thank you, Mayor. That's all I have.

Very good. Further commission discussion. Commissioner Fessick for questions only.

So, Mr. Serafos, you said that the state statute thresholds are the reason why the city can't just select a pick firm and sign a contract. We have to, that is the statute that we're working with, right? Are you also, but are you, is it also, it's my understanding, and correct me if I'm wrong, does the CCNA prohibit a city from imposing internal commission approval thresholds below their statutory minimums?

No.

Thank you. You mentioned, so I want to switch gears for a second to how the vendors are selected.

Commissioner, ask a question. Question, get to your question.

You know, if every time I speak you interrupt me, it's very difficult to get my question across. So I am phrasing it as a question. It is there. Please do not interrupt me again.

Commissioner, I'm just going to.

With five firms in the pool, how is work allocated round robin? By project type, by lowest fee proposal, per task order, or city manager discretion? I want to know how that's decided.

We have our discretion to use whichever one we want. We don't necessarily go, we try and share with all the consultants, but that's really at our discretion.

Thank you. And the last question I have is, given the extensive consultant involvement across city and CRA operations, what mechanisms are currently in place to ensure that consultants are not shaping policy direction or project implementation beyond formerly authorized scope?

Can you please repeat that question?

Sure. What mechanisms are currently in place to ensure consultants are not shaping policy direction or project implementation beyond formally authorized scope?

Well, I mean, they don't shape it. We shape it through our CIP, through our master plans, and so forth. We direct them.

Right. But you're also selecting at your own discretion?

Correct.

Okay. Thank you.

That's all. Very good. Further commission discussion? Um, Mr. Mr. Harrison, just out of curiosity, um, are any contracts or, or, or things of that nature ever done without disclosure?

No.

Okay. Cause I thought someone mentioned that things were done without disclosure. I just wanted to make sure that that was correct for the record that things are public and everything is disclosed, um, including the ranking order of these firms.

Mayor, all this agenda item is, is purely with a ranking of the listed firms. The architects on agenda item four and the agenda item five is for the engineers. That's all we need in order to keep on doing business. Am I correct? Isn't this the third five-year renewal for these architects and engineers?

They're five-year contracts.

Right.

Renewable each year.

Five years before.

Correct.

I know since I've been here, I've been here going on 13 years.

That's right.

And I know we had at least one before this one. So, I mean, we've been conducting business like this all these years, and it hasn't caused any problems.

I understand. I understand. It's a shame where we're at. All right. Very good. Nothing further? Let's go ahead and call the roll.

Commissioner Fezzik?

No.

Commissioner Perkins? No. Commissioner Sigurdsson-Eaton?

Yes.

Commissioner Smith?

Yes.

Vice Mayor Fournier?

No.

Mayor Hardin? Yes. Item 5 is a first reading of an ordinance.

In ordinance of the City Commission of the City of Palmetto Beach, Florida, approving and authorizing the proper city officials to execute continuing contracts between the City of Palmetto Beach and Kimley, Horton & Associates Inc., Baxter & Woodman Inc., Keith & Associates Inc., Thompson & Associates Inc., Civil Engineering, Chenmore & Associates Inc., Munson Design & Consulting Inc., McKim & Creed Inc., and Arcadis U.S. Inc. for Professional Civil Engineering Services, RLI 26-003, for funding for severability providing an effective date.

So moved. Second. Moved and second for discussion. Once again, Mr. Siropoulos.

John Sparopoulos, City Engineer. Our continuing civil engineering contract expired on May 3rd, 2026. This ordinance is to approve eight new continuing contracts for civil engineering consulting services. R line number 26-003 resulted in 21 proposals and the review panel selected the highest eight ranked firms. And the scoring matrix is included in your backup. The eight proposed contracts are all the same, with the exception of exhibit C, which is the fee schedule, and the contracts will be effective for Five years dr. Good's previous presentation is applicable to this item We'd be happy to answer any questions. Thank you.

Very good. Thank you for that. This is a public hearing Is there any input from the public on this item? Please come forward just name an address for the record Limit your comments three minutes

Clinton Mueller, 1080 Northeast 28th Avenue here in Pompano Beach. I just had a question about this because it looks eerily similar to another agenda item that actually got brought forth a couple sessions ago. Is any language in this, is there anything to do with the air park in this scope of what you guys are trying to approve here? No. There's nothing?

No.

Okay. I just wanted to make sure I noticed that Kimberly Horn was on there, and I know that they're part of the Air Park Master Plan. So that's why I wanted to make sure that there was nothing involved.

Correct. Okay.

Thank you so much, then. I appreciate it. Thank you.

Next speaker.

Good evening. Gloria Lewis, former Gloria Lewis from the city of Lauderdale Lakes. And I want you to look at me real good, but I'm going to address you, Mr. Mayor, because I respect my commissioner. You got a hard time up there. You remind me of us as the first black women. I'm saying this because listening to the back and forth, but we got to understand this ain't personal. This agenda item up here is for our community. We got to make sure whatever come through, y'all need to vote for it because you're making us look real stupid in the city of Pompano with this personnel's attack. I'm sitting in here. I love this city. I'm sitting back there knowing that y'all want to get the work done. As a city commissioner, I'm thinking, do y'all have workshops to discuss this prior to your meetings? Because this is an embarrassment. We need to support this and then come back and talk about it because these are renewal contracts, not nothing new. But if we've been on this day, it's this long, all of us as commissioners need to know we can do better and it is not personal. Y'all are looking real beautiful up there. And turn it around backwards. Thank you.

Thank you. Further input from the public? Seeing none, public input closed. Commission discussion, questions, concerns? Commissioner Fessick. Thank you.

I agree. It's kind of crazy what has been going on here. Something that came up, this is the third five-year renewal period, Mr. Harrison. What point do we, or would it be a good idea for us to perhaps allow some new blood in and not have this be the third time that this five-year comes back to us? That's what you're saying.

Mr. Fessick, I did not mean to indicate that these were the same exact firms. I was pointing out that this is the same process that has been used in the past. There are different firms in each one of these five-year approvals.

Okay. And you also said that you didn't think it caused any problems, and I think that there's a lot of people in the community that would disagree.

Well, I have not heard from them. They do not come to me.

Okay. So I... Also, in response to the audience member who asked if we had workshops, I just would like to make sure that it's put on record that many, many, many, many times we have asked for workshops to happen so that we can discuss this well in advance of these meetings. And many, many, many times it has been voted down 3-3. So when we ask for transparency and we're asking for the numbers so that we can understand this and we can give the public the opportunity to weigh in what they think, since we are working together as a community, that opportunity has not been provided to us. Look, I can go through all this, but the one thing I wanted to make sure, specifically related to some of these same companies that we're working with over and over again in a lot of different ways, is that when I pulled the numbers just on these checks and the number of checks that were written, again, I just want to say there was 525 checks, and this is from old data, not new data, but over a three-year period, And I want to make sure I pull it up. 525 checks, $4.5 million, and 99.6% of those checks were under $75,000. So the only two that crossed the $75,000 to $200,000 work order ceiling was, there were two of them. So 525. we're under $75,000 and two, we're between $75,000 and $200,000. So look, I think we're just back to this. I'm not going to beat a dead horse at this point. But standard practice is not the same thing as proper oversight. And that is what we need to work on. Standard practice is not the same as transparent and proper oversight.

Thank you.

Further commission discussion? Vice Mayor.

Thank you. Does anyone remember how many times I made the motion to discuss suspending authority before in order to in an effort to prevent situations like this. I'm very glad to hear that Commissioner Seegerson-Eaton and Commissioner Smith are interested in talking about it at this point. But you voted no countless times when I've made the motion to discuss it. So my intent was always to avoid situations like this and to get us more in line with where we need to be. But I'm glad you're finally open to that. you know in terms of workshops i do believe we asked for a procurement workshop we still haven't had it it's been over a year so there are a lot of things that could be happening here that would prevent situations like this but it doesn't seem to happen even when we request it so this is the same i have the same issue with this as i have with the other one i i will not do this unless we lower the spending authority on these, the underlying agreements and contracts that get signed as a result of this, these agreements that are in place, these contracts. So, and I also just want to address the state statute, and I know it's not completely the right way to think about it, but if the state statute says $500,000 and you prorate the WHAT OUR SPENDING AUTHORITY WOULD BE AT THE STATE BUDGET VERSUS THE BUDGET IN POMPANO BEACH, WE'D BE AT ABOUT $2,000 THAT WE COULD SPEND. THAT'S WHAT OUR SPENDING AUTHORITY WOULD BE. SO I DON'T THINK WE SHOULD BE LOOKING AT WHAT THE STATE MAX IS AND APPLYING THAT HERE. WE ARE A MUCH SMALLER ENTITY, SMALLER PROJECTS AND MORE LOCAL CONTROL. THANK YOU.

VERY GOOD.

FURTHER COMMISSION DISCUSSION? SEEING NONE, LET'S GO AHEAD AND CALL THE ROLL.

Commissioner Perkins?

No.

Commissioner Sigurdsson?

Yes.

Mr. Smith? Yes. Vice Mayor Poitier?

No.

Earhart? Yes. Item 6 is the first reading of an ordinance.

An ordinance of the City Commission of the City of Pompano Beach, Florida, approving and authorizing the proper city officials to execute a three-year labor agreement between the Pompano Beach Professional Firefighters Local 1549 of the International Association of Firefighters and the City of Pompano Beach, providing for severability, providing an effective date. So moved.

Second. Moved and second for discussion. Good evening, Ms. Sonego.

Hi, Lisa Senego, Human Resources Director. The revisions that were discussed at the recent executive session, they've been incorporated for your consideration into the collective bargaining agreement that's up for ratification tonight. The union has ratified the revisions to the agreement, and this is the first of two readings.

Very good. Thank you for that. This is a public hearing. Is there any input from the public on this item? Please come forward. Just name and address the record and limit your comments to three minutes.

I'm going to be short, Mayor.

Okay.

Jocelyn Jackson, I would like to say our firefighters are doing an amazing job. I love them. I love their cooperation with our schools. And I'm in support for what they are doing in our community. Also, they're part of the Blanche Ely thing Blanche Ely school with the firefighter, you know when they first started out So I'm in support for the firefighters. I pay good taxes in this city And I'm in support for them. I rather get our firefighters Very good.

Thank you Further input from the public Seeing none, public input closed. Commission discussion. Vice Mayor.

Thank you. I agree with Ms. Jackson. Look at that. This board has been through shade meetings and a long process here to get to this point. So there were a lot of opportunities to ask questions, to understand different options and trade-offs. And I appreciate the team that worked with us and with the union representatives to get us to THIS PLACE THAT IT WAS LIKE I SAID NOT STRAIGHTFORWARD AND A LONG PROCESS. SO THANK YOU TO EVERYONE WHO WAS INVOLVED. DO WE KNOW WHAT THE VOTE WAS? I WENT BACK AND WATCHED THE LAST MEETING WHEN WE APPROVED THE CONTRACT IN 2022 AND THEY TALKED ABOUT WHAT THE VOTE WAS. DO YOU HAVE ANY IDEA WHERE WE GOT TO? The commission vote? No, the union vote was mentioned. The union vote? And the letter here just said the majority. So I was curious if you knew that. If you don't, it's fine. But it wasn't.

I'm looking at the letter that they give to the union. And Pete, do you have that? 165 to 33 in favor of, yes.

OK. Thank you for that. Yeah, I mean it's hard to thread the needle and and and get to a place where everyone is satisfied and and obviously we had challenges that we've been facing with the pension costs and other things. So but we we definitely like Miss Jackson said have to take care of our firefighters in our fire department because we do I think have the best one around. So thank you.

Very good for the Commission discussion. I've got Commissioner Fasik then Commissioner Seegerson Eaton.

I just wanted to say thank you for all your hard work. I know that it took a lot to go through the details, and I want to commend you. A lot of times that we say we're always asking for transparency, and I want to make sure that when credit is due somewhere that we make sure we apply that. And so I want to say thank you for being very thorough with your communications with us in all of the discussions and all of the hard work it took to get this done. Thank you.

Mr. Stegerson-Eaton.

Thank you, Mayor. I also want to give a big shout-out to the negotiation team, and to the fire department and their team. We came to a good agreement. And obviously, we want the fire department around. So I just want to say I appreciate it. Thank you.

Very good. Further commission discussion? Seeing none, let's go ahead and call the roll.

Commissioner Fezzik? Yes. Commissioner Perkins? Yes. Commissioner Seegerson-Eaton? Yes. Commissioner Smith? Yes. Vice Mayor Fournier?

Yes.

Mayor Hardin?

Yes, item seven is the first reading of an ordinance.

An ordinance of the City Commission of the City of Pompidou Beach, Florida, approving and authorizing the proper city officials to execute service contracts for well rehabilitation and maintenance between the City of Pompidou Beach and Florida Design Drilling Corp, AC Schultz of Florida Inc., and Allwebs Enterprises, Inc. to provide potable water production and related services, RLI 25-056, providing for severability, providing an effective date. So moved. Second.

Moved and second for discussion. Ms. Muhammad.

Good afternoon. Renuka Muhammad, the Utilities Director. We are seeking commission approval to execute three service contracts under ITB 25-056, well rehabilitation and maintenance. with AC Schultz of Florida, All Web Enterprises, and Florida Design Drilling Corp. to provide ongoing well rehabilitation and maintenance services on an as-needed basis in support of the portable water production operation. The city's water treatment system relies on 25 active rural water wells and eight associated monitoring wells, which require ongoing maintenance and rehabilitation to ensure the safe and reliable delivery of high-quality drinking water. The solicitation was advertised on November 9, 2025 and closed on December 3, 2025. In accordance with Section 1.1 of the solicitation, The city intends to award contracts up to three qualified firms based on responsiveness, responsibility, competitive and compliance with the solicitation requirements. The agreements will provide operational flexibility, improve response times and show continuity of services for both scheduled and emergency well maintenance activities. Each agreement will have an initial term of three years with two one year renewal options. There is no immediate fiscal impact as work will be authorized on an as-needed, task-by-task basis through an approved operating and capital improvement budgets. Thank you.

Very good. Thank you for that. This is a public hearing. Is there any input from the public on this item? Seeing none, public input, please come forward. Just name and address for the record. Please limit your comments to three minutes.

Delvin King, 2601 Northwest 12th Street. This might be a little off topic, but my goodness, the RMA and the broker points, direct deposits must have hit today. They all at the door, on the front row in suits, all over the place, can't even focus in this meeting. I just want to know, did the direct deposits hit? Thank you.

Further input from the public? No. Seeing none, public input closed. Commission discussion, questions, concerns? Seeing none, let's call the roll.

Commissioner Fezzik?

No.

Commissioner Perkins?

Yes.

Commissioner Sigerson? Yes. Commissioner Smith? Yes. Vice Mayor Fournier?

Yes.

Mayor Hardin?

Yes. It takes us up to additional audience to be heard. Mr. Alfred?

Give me one moment, Mayor. Sure. Capturing the votes on the last item.

I think Gloria Lewis was going to be next.

Yes. So we have Gloria Lewis, Gonzo, Nakia Robinson.

And thank you, everyone, for your patience to get to this point.

Good evening, Mayor. My name is Gloria Lewis again, former commissioner of the great city of Lauderdale Lakes. I stand here tonight to come to to thank you personally and Commissioner Beverly Perkins. I know as of last year, January the 14th, 2025, Bishop Ralph Grissett from the city of Pompano Beach as a milestone and a Bishop and a community activist in helping people. You guys took the time out of your schedule to come to Bishop Grissett's funeral. And I'm here tonight standing in front for his wife to tell you all thank you from the bottom of our heart of what y'all did because you made a difference because they are strong voters in that house. And it's about 10 of them. And the way I come in here tonight, and I want to say, as being a commissioner, I seen something on Facebook. And I said, I know no commissioner didn't write nothing like that, because you know IG. The Inspector General Office always teaches us we go to class. We go to the emo class at Florida League of City. They tells us we got emo one. Emo 2, Florida City Legal Cities, Emo 1 and 2, they tell us that's our first priority. Do not engage in social media as an elected official because that kind of stuff get us in trouble. And when they send that kind of information to IG, the inspector general, it's nothing nice. Because I'm one of the commissioners that's been done called down there to IG for little stupid stuff that I have done. I'm not perfect, but I want to say tonight, when we start talking about anybody and belittling us peoples, That's not good for us as elected officials. Let the street talk. But we as elected officials up there, we got to stay focused and take care of the residents. I'm not going to say the big word, constituencies, because all of us don't know these words. But we as elected officials need to stay focused and stay on point and take care of our residents. You all know this year is the election year, 2026, and then it's going to be a 2028. And I don't think nobody don't want Gloria Lewis to come to Pompano to be a Rottweiler because we need to make a difference. And I ask you, commissioners and mayor, y'all need to come together. And you commissioners got power. All of that, what y'all was talking about, you can bring that back and make motions to make it happen. Then just keep on moving. Thank you.

thank you miss lewis appreciate your service thank you next speaker good evening everyone my name is gonzalez joseph and i stand before everybody here as a product of the Haitian community imported. Nonetheless, I'm part of the community. I send as a testament and sacrifices that I made in service to this country. And I will never fail to remind you guys up there on that panel, especially you, Commissioner Fezzik, especially you. No, no, no, no, no. I'm addressing the board. And she's part of the board. All you guys are part of the board. But I'm especially saying her. And I will get to my point. In the military culture, there is a saying, all gave some and some gave all. Ever since every service member writes a blank check to the American people and the United States government, payable up to and including our very lives, my service, my sacrifices, and my giving some should not go unnoticed. Although I dream of one day returning home to my beloved island of Haiti, I cannot do so in good conscience without so giving some work back to this community. Speaking of community, I would like to sincerely thank the city of Pompano Beach, the mayor, and the body of commissioners for the proclamation recognizing Haitian Heritage Month. However, I can't help but wonder if it's a dollar short and a day late, because Haitian month is actually the whole month of May. This proclamation should have been made in April. I can't help but wonder if this proclamation was not made because of the political season that's coming up. Furthermore, the people that came up here to receive the proclamation only represented a small part of the Haitian community. Those who were up here were friends of Commissioner Perkins, not the entire Haitian community. If anybody is qualified to represent the Haitian community, who has reflect the Haitian community, giving while facing struggles, it's Kodak Black. And Kodak Black qualifies to be up here. While we're giving our community This proclamation for recognizing the work that we have done in our contributions to the world. At the same time, we have three commissioners on that panel that's tearing down our son for receiving a key to the city. A son that has done just as much work to reflect his culture. Yes, he's faced a lot of troubles, which I believe that's what the commissioners are disagreeing with, but so has Haiti. Haiti has faced political problems. Haiti has faced tornadoes. Haiti has first faced countless embargoes by the United States of America. Starting in 1915, when the Marines were sent to invade Haiti by Woodrow Wilson. And still, we contribute, we contribute. And Kodak Black is part of our contributions to this community. And it's kind of hypocritical, for one hand, to be giving us a proclamation, and on the other hand- Thank you, sir. Okay?

Appreciate it. Thank you for you. Next speaker.

Nakia Robinson, followed by Clinton Mueller, followed by Larry Slappy. Nakia Robinson, are you in the building? Okay, next speaker, Clinton Mueller.

Clinton Mueller, 1080 Northeast 28th Avenue, Pompano Beach. I sent all of you on May the 20th an email about the situation where the air park is related to the tower and the location of the tower. And you'll notice in the speech, by the way, that there's no reference at all, not one reference at all to noise, because this isn't about noise for the umpteenth time. And I hope someone up here finally hears it. This is critically about safety, safety, safety, safety. That being said, are you able to get the presentation up or no?

Mr. Mueller, Mayor, earlier in conversations with Mr. Mueller, he did provide a presentation. I didn't really get a chance to fully review, but grant me the privilege to go on over to the panel there, the computer there, just do a quick assessment of it, and then we can present if you're okay with that.

Okay. We'll just take, I guess, just two minutes. He's only got three. We'll give you extra time.

Yeah, I was going to say, either that, or if you guys have any discomfort with doing it that way, I can go through it. I sent it to all of you. All of you have the presentation, but obviously the visual will kind of help as well.

Okay, so Mr. Alford will get it queued up there for you, and he'll have to stay over there and kind of follow along. Okay?

Kerbin, if I may, at the end there's reference to Robinson Aviation. I'd like to try to make sure that that just stays for the commission and the mayor to basically review and take a look at the commentary that's there. other than basically come out and bring that forth publicly. So that being said, so FAA Order 6840 is a mandate. It states that visibility from the tower must be an unobstructed view of all controlled movement areas. The visibility must allow unobstructed view of all movement areas. The word is must, must. And where they're moving the tower to right now does not do that. They're moving it right next to the existing tower and moving it up 50 feet. Now, if you go, perfect. Thank you, Curvin. So if you take a look at that photo there, that's the layout, obviously, of the Papua New Beach Airpark. You see runway 624, 1533, and runway 1028. For people here who don't know, 1028 runs east-west. The tower is actually located in the bottom left-hand corner of that situation, as you, Mr. Mayor know, as you, Vice Mayor know. How can you tell me that putting a tower right next to that is going to give you complete visibility of all three particularly when our own airport master plan which was dated 2021 gave his reason for a new tower gave his reason for a new tower that the current tower as it stood was inadequate and was not able to see all the runways as it existed right then couple that with the actual airport meeting in 2024 where a member of the tower came and said the reason why runway 1028 was prioritized over the other three runways was because it was the only one that they could actually see with their ben without using binoculars the only one they could see consistently without using binoculars. That is not a safety issue, that is a convenience issue at the expense of safety. Now if you go through this as well, you'll see obviously by putting it right next to that, there is a geometric limitation where it exists right now and putting it right next to it and making it 50 feet higher up does not resolve that. In fact, we also have people in the tower who don't have what I will say better than average or at least adequate vision without needing glasses like you and I do. So that just further reiterates that how are you gonna move something up 50 feet and then be able to drive that through? I'm asking you guys, there's three three every single darn time that comes out of here. This is common sense, this is safety. This is something where if you move the tower to the center of the airport, It covers all three runways adequately, correctly, and ensures that whoever's in that tower right now with all the students that are coming in and out of there is able to make safety decisions on the fly with nothing compromised. Thank you.

Very good. Thank you, sir. Appreciate it. Thank you, Kervin. We appreciate your IT tech over there.

Kervin, thank you. You're welcome.

Now we need you back over there.

Larry Slappy.

Hello, this is Larry Slappy. I'm sleepy now, my God. 1369 East Sample Road. The reason why I came here today is kind of an anomaly. It's not... to talk about any agenda, is not to address any of the issues that's going on, but I did notice a lot of passion coming from the residents that I love, and I see a lot of passion coming from the commissioners also. My main reason here is personal. I recently moved my office, and I come here with a sense of gratitude. It made me feel great. It made my agents feel great. It made my family, the community, and my vendor partners feel great. We had the CRA came out, and I know all the commissioners could not make it, but two in particular came and gave some great words, Audrey and Rhonda, They came and gave some great words of encouragement. And for any business that is to survive in Pompano, it's very important that they get the commissioners and the elected officials to give them that boost. And I came with a great sense of gratitude because you gave us that sense of boost and all of my agents It was telling me how pleased they was. And all of my vendor partners was pleased that we had the support of the city that we chose to put our new business back. Well, not a new business. I just relocated. Thank you very much.

Thank you, sir. Appreciate it. Next speaker.

That concludes audience to be heard, Mayor.

Once again, thank you to all the audience to be heard, members who had to wait until the end. Appreciate your patience there. All right. Next scheduled meetings. We have June 9th, 2026 at 1 PM, a regular city commission meeting followed by June 23rd, 2026 at 5 PM, a budget workshop followed by June 23rd, 2026 at 6 PM, a regular city commission meeting takes us up to reports. Mr. Harrison.

Yes, sir. I have a few items here. So for the second consecutive year, we're proud and honored to have earned the Gold Level Bell Seal Award for Workplace Mental Health from Mental Health America, the nation's leading nonprofit dedicated to advancing mental health and well-being. Fewer than a quarter of employers across both public and private sectors meet the rigorous standards for the Gold Level of recognition. which evaluates workplace, culture, benefits, compliance, and overall wellness. So Lisa in HR department, good job.

Congratulations. Great job. Yes.

Is there something you want to show?

Yes. Mental health is important. It certainly is.

Yes. So just a real quick, so we received the certificate for the second year. And we are really happy to receive this. It is a group effort. To that point, BHAP, our Behavioral Health Assistance Program, is the cornerstone of our whole mental health program here at the city. And it's built on a simple principle that when we care for our people, they are better able to care for our community. And the program provides comprehensive support focused on mental health, resilience, and overall well-being through confidential resources, professional services, and trained peer support. And our peer support is made up of employees in various departments around the city. And so they're available to employees. They're actual coworkers. They don't have to go somewhere or come to someone, which we have that as well. And so those individuals are trained, and they're available to people while they're here at work and after hours. And BHAP also promotes proactive wellness through resilience training, stress management, education, wellness initiatives, health fair, all those other types of things that we do. And also, while BHAP has extended crisis response, we do that as well. So we are here for individuals in true crisis situations. Through its daily presence, it strengthens the morale and the retention and reinforcement of mental health so we care for our people. So we're happy to have this and glad we were bestowed upon it again by our mental health peers out there.

Very nice. Congratulations. Thank you for your efforts. Appreciate it.

Thank you, Lisa. Second item is over the busy Memorial Day holiday weekend at the beach. Pompano Beach Fire Rescue lifeguards rescued 22 swimmers. Wow. They were caught in the severe rip currents. So this speaks well to the professionalism, diligence, and quick actions of our Oak and Rescue team and training team. that fire chief leads for that department. So thank you, Pete. Everyone is safe.

Yes. Thank you to everybody involved out there.

Okay. You all will, I believe, have already received this from Sandra. She told me to come and announce it to you, but then I see that she emailed it to you before I had a chance to announce it. So anyway, let's pass the word about this gun buyback. It's on Saturday, June 6th at EPAT Larkins, and the recipients can receive a gift card up to $200, no ID required. And last but not least, Rob McComb, would you stand, please?

Uh-oh.

So we had a reckoning. Is that what we'd call it, Rob? Anyway. At our last meeting, told you guys that Rob and Mike were retiring. But now Rob is not retiring.

Yay. Staying with us.

Staying with us indefinitely. All right. So now we just got to work on Mike.

There we go. No pressure. No pressure, buddy. Yeah.

All right, Rob. Looking forward to continuing on.

Thank you. Thank you for your dedication and service.

And he does a great job.

Yep.

Thank you.

Great job.

Those are my remarks, Mayor.

Very good. Thank you for that. Mr. Berman, City Attorney.

Thank you. I guess Rob's now got to go sell that boat. No report. Thank you, Mayor.

Very good. Mr. Alfred, City Clerk. No report, Mayor. All right. Moves on to City Commission. Oh, I take that back.

Yes, I take that back. I will need everyone's devices. I know that no one likes when I take the devices. I'm going to need the device. I promise I will have it in your offices early in the morning.

Okay. So everybody has to leave our iPads.

Yes, please leave your iPads behind.

Okay. Kervin's going to snoop tonight. Very good. Commissioner Fessick.

Thank you. I just have a couple things. Mr. Harrison, do we have an update for that mobility mat for the beach area? I think last I heard it may or may not have been ordered, and I just wanted to make sure that that was.

No, I know it was ordered, but I don't know. Have we received it yet? Scott, Rob? So simple phone call. I can get that information to you with one simple phone call.

I understand that. But there's a lot of people that have expressed interest. And so it's a lot easier if I just ask you here. And then I don't have to email back a lot of people at the same time. So thank you. For the McNabb Road project, I would just like to say I know that it's very difficult, and I want to thank everybody who has been very supportive to the businesses that are there, and just in general to everybody who's working on this project, because let's just remember, construction is always a bear, right? So it doesn't matter what you're doing. It's always an inconvenience, but it's for the end result, which will end up being something that we all need and want to have the sidewalks and the roads finished and then As many times as we say paving here and ask for paving projects, this is a paving project. It comes with some headaches. One thing that has been asked, and so I would just want to make sure that I put it on the record, is maybe if we could have just a little bit more back and forth with the city. I know that they've done a little bit of a great job lately. I want to just make sure, again, where credit is due, I'm going to point that out. Saw that there were McNab Road updates posted on the city's Instagram and Facebook page So I want to say thank you for that and I'd like to see that continue if we can Even if it's just more frequent updating of that page specifically so that we can make sure that residents kind of know what's coming I just want to say thank you for that. So miss King did I know that her team was working on that? Do we have a date yet for our airpark meeting going back because I We had some issues with looking at what was said and what was asked for. Do we have a date yet for our air park meeting? Because I believe we were trying to do that before we went on hiatus. And also, I know you have a trip planned as well. So could we get a date on the calendar for that pretty soon, please?

I'll have to check with Steve in the morning.

Thank you. Okay, so I have one other thing, and then I'm going to be— happily shorter this time. At the last CRA meeting, I raised a concern about our McNabb Park lease. And for the public watching, the reason this matters is because it's simple. The entire project itself depends on the city's lease of the public park land to the CRA. And that lease wasn't just a permission slip. It's basically the basis of how we're able to move this project forward. It included deadlines, obligations for capital improvements, and if those obligations were not met, the lease may have consequences, including default language. So before we move forward with any additional spending, grants, bond planning, procurement, construction activity, I believe the Commission and the public just need a clear written answer on the status of the lease itself. So with that, I'm just going to ask Mr. Berman, I'm happy to get you a... list of some questions, but basically it's just a written public memo addressing whether the CRA satisfied the capital lease improvement obligations and deadlines under the McNabb Park lease, whether any missed deadline constitutes a default or major breach, whether the city has issued, waived, or considered issuing a notice of default, who has the authority to enforce, waive, amend, or cure any default, and Finally, whether the continued spending or project activity relies on the lease being active and in good standing. So I'll get the copy to Mr. Berman as well, but it's not about debating the whole project tonight, and we're not going to do that. It is just a threshold governance question. So if the lease is the entire legal foundation for the project, then the public needs to know whether the lease is in compliance, whether it's enforceable, or if it's already in default. That is pretty much it. I want to say thank you very much to Parks and Rec and the Pompano Cemetery and Mr. Bernard Ventura, and Mr. Mayor Hardin, and my fellow commissioners, Commissioner Smith and Commissioner Seegerson-Eaton, who all joined us for the Memorial Day parade and ceremony. I just want to say thank you. That was beautiful, and we all had some great times remembering those who did give all. And my last thing, I was taking a page from Commissioner Smith. I've heard a lot lately about some folks being concerned that I ask a lot of questions. And I can tell you the very first person that was frustrated by my asking of questions was my mother because I asked her why as a toddler all the time. I have never stopped asking the world why. I want to know how things work. I want to know what the intent was. I want to know why. I want to know what people's intentions are. I'm always going to ask why. And that's why I think this has been so absolutely, be it frustrating sometimes, absolutely wonderful and a gift. So when I do ask questions, I just want to make sure it's clear that you understand that, for me, oversight is not obstruction. It's the job. Everything that comes before us, before we spend any extra money on any more public money, approve more contracts, give more contract authority perhaps, or move further down the road on public land, every decision we make does shape our community. I will continue to keep asking those questions because I truly believe that I'm not necessarily the person in the room slowing projects down. I'm just the person in the room slowing things down enough for the public to actually understand what is happening and give them the opportunity to say what they think and give us the feedback we need to make the right decisions for the community as a whole. So I want to say thank you very much, and we've made it this far. God bless you. Thank you.

Very good. Commissioner Perkins.

Thank you, Mayor. I want to know why. Why we haven't gotten our traffic light on Northwest 18th Avenue and Martin Luther King. Most consider ugly corner, I call it pretty corner. Been waiting on this light, or we've been waiting on this light for four years now, going on five years. And as I stated at the last meeting, the county has approved it, and I have no idea what the delay is, but very concerned because it's a safety issue for me and the community. We've had a lot of accidents at that intersection. And I've been trying to get this traffic light working simply because we have new residents are about to move into the new apartments, the 100 apartments in Golden Acres called Providence. And I was hoping that the traffic light on that intersection will be working. They will be moving in the end of this month. So I also want to know why we have not received the stop signs on Northwest Sixth Avenue where the roundabouts were taken out. That is a safety issue because we have the little rays in the road. But when people are traveling, north and south on 6th Avenue, Northwest 6th Avenue. They're not quite sure when they get to 6th Street whether they should stop. They're not sure if they should stop at 6th Street as well. So there's some hesitancy. You go, I go, there's no stop sign on one way, but there is another way. It's a safety issue. And it's very important that we put those two, the traffic light and those stop signs in place. I mentioned them at the last meeting. Last but not least, Commissioner, I think I have you by a few years. I was out of town the weekend, and we celebrated Ms. Majo Fulton's 109th birthday. So she was 109. I set it up, made sure the mail was there, fire department was there, police was there. This is the first one I've ever missed because we do a drive-by for every year. And I just wanted to say happy birthday and be looking forward to celebrating 110 next year. As you all remember, she was at the last year, she was at the commission meeting for 108. So hopefully we can do something big and grand for 110.

Thank you, that's all that I have. Very nice.

Commissioner Perkins, I know the situation on your Northwest 18th MLK traffic light.

Okay.

So that is a project that we are working with FDOT on. We're working with FDOT on $400,000 grant in connection with the project.