Council - Regular Meeting

I'll call you talk to him first and then I'll talk. I'll give him good afternoon. This is the regular city council meeting for uh the city of Riviera Beach. Today is March the 18th. The time is 6:43. Madame clerk,

Mayor Douglas Lawson, chairperson Charlene Laneir here, chairpro Tim Kosama Miller Anderson, council person Bruce Gton here, council person Dr. Glenn Speritz here. Council person Forcella Davis Pier here. City manager Jonathan Evans present. City clerk Deborah Hall is present. City attorney Don Wen here. Madam Chair, you have a quorum. You may proceed.

Uh yes. We will have a moment of silence followed by the pledge of allegiance by Councilwoman Davis Premier. 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. Do we have any additions, deletions, or substitutions for the agenda this evening, staff or council? Yes, madam chair.

Yes. Go ahead, sir. Um, Mr. Evans, I requested that an item be added to the agenda. Um, I don't see it on here. Why is that? That

I just I just asked Mr. Evans about an item that I requested to be on the agenda and I'm asking him where it is. Madam Chair, if I may. Yes, go ahead. Uh, pursuant to the conversation that I had with the chairperson concerning the preparation of the agenda, that item was removed. Yes. Wait, one question. Um, did you reach out and advise me that it wouldn't be? Did I miss the email you telling me that it won't be on there? So, you can give me some courtesy consideration to let me know that it won't be on the agenda. Madam Chair, if I may.

Yes, go ahead. No, there was not an email correspondence that was provided. We posted the agenda the same way that we normally post it, but if it's the desire board members when items are removed, we can provide them correspondence accordingly. Okay. Um, Madam Chair. Yes. Go ahead, sir. I have one item to add. That's the consideration of the city city manager's contract. Okay. Are there any objections of the board in regards to this item? Very good. We will add this item as

what is the last item madam clerk on this agenda? That would be item 13A which is discussion and deliberation. You can add it as 13B please. 13B. Yes ma'am. Madam Chair. Yes, ma'am. Um, is it possible for me to move my presentation, which was left off the original agenda, to the first um, awards presentation so that my student so that my student and parent can um, you know, leave after the presentation?

Sure. There's there if there are no objections from the board. Hearing none, let us move, madame clerk, the presentation for Councilwoman Davis Premier to the top of the list. Madam Chair, let's go ahead. One more request. Um, is it possible for and this will be my first time. Is it possible for me to um add a question to uh Miss A, Director Ammons, regarding uh when we talked about at our workshop the contract or the prime versus the subcontract. just had one point of clarification I wanted to you can you can add it on the discussion okay thank you madam clerk could you please add that item as well madam chair

yes go ahead sir thank you madam clerk you can let the record reflect and also if we can uh have a brief discussion or conversation in regards to there's a few special events that have been in limbo I know that we put it on the it's on a workshop Mr. for the 26, but there's a few that's been pending and are are looking for some clear direction. Um, can we have a discussion about special events to talk about what what steps Mr. Evans can take in the interim so that they're not in uh limbo even if it's just for the next week or two? Uh, any objections from the board? No.

We will add that as 13C. Madam Chair, the council person, I'm sorry, Walter, could you make sure that our microphones are loud and clear? The council woman has added her item uh that is under presentation. She wants it to be first. So, we are putting her presentation first on the list under awards and presentations. Hers is 6D. We're going to move it to 6A. Madam Chair,

yes. Go ahead, sir. If we can ask Walter, I think there's speakers in the back that need to be turned up. If Walter, if you can turn the speakers in the back up for us uh so that all the residents in the back can hear as well. Thank you, Madam Chair. Thank you. Any other additions, add additions, deletions, or substitutions? Madam Chair, just a question for clarification. Yes, sir.

I see that we have workshop items on the regular agenda. normally workshops um is a meeting within itself and I see that we're mixing meetings now and I'm wondering why we're doing that. Um my understanding is that this is how it has to be listed because of the changes to the code in regards to the impact fees that it has to be listed as a workshop. Uh it is basically on a second reading because we had this at our last meeting. Mr. Evans, you want to opine on that?

Yeah. Wait, before he does, my my my question is not about um um the reason that we need to address it. My question is the workshop is normally a separate meeting from the regular meeting and why are we mixing meetings? That's my question. Yes, sir. Procedurally? Yes, Mr. Evans. Madam chair, members of the board. Yes. Go ahead.

On all your agendas, you do have a title there that is uh provided for workshops. And so this particular item is an agenda item that is categorized under a workshop for the purposes of facilitating a um an item that requires two workshop discussions before the legislative body before you look to act. So the presentation that you will hear associated with this workshop item is the same presentation that you heard at your last regular meeting concerning impact fees. So it fulfills the statutory obligation that we have to have the two workshop meetings before the city council and then you would have subsequent actions that would be contemplated at your future meetings. So this is just a uh a procedural item that's actually on your normal agenda when it's published. we as the city haven't used it uh very much historically, but it's already a part of your agenda.

And and I'mma I'm going make one more comment and then

I think we need to address this because this is procedurally um not the best practice. you can do it. But when you have workshops, you dedicate that time just for those issues and not convoluted on the regular agenda. That's why we normally plan workshops on a separate day or separate meeting or after the regular agenda meeting so that we can give it the time that is um um required in order to take a deep dive if need be. But at some point we need to discuss about um not convoluting workshop meetings with regular meetings cuz that is not the best practice for a meeting in my opinion. Thank you.

So noted commissioner Gen. Are there any other additions deletion substitution for this agenda this evening? Are there any disclosures from staff or from the commission in regards to the items that are listed on this agenda? Hearing none, a motion to approve the agenda as amended. So move second. Madam clerk. Council person Davis Pier. Yes. Council person Geden. Yes. Council person Dr. Spiritis. Yes. Chairperson Laneir. Yes.

Unanimous vote. Uh we are at our agenda item for the consent agenda. All matters listed on this item are considered to be routine and action will be taken by one motion. There will be no separate discussion of these items unless a council person so request in which event the item will be removed from the general order of business and considered in its normal sequence on the agenda. There is one item um on the one resolution on the consent agenda. Do you want to pull it or can I get a motion to approve the consent? Motion to approve resolution. Thank you, Madam Clerk. Council person Davis Paneer.

Yes. Council person Gon. Yes. Chairperson Dr. Spiritz. Yes. Chairperson Laneir. Yes. Unanimous vote.

Thank you. We are at awards and presentations. Madame clerk. Madame Chair, Council Person Forcella Davis Paneer's Emerging Leader Spotlight Series and Neighborhood Navigator Initiatives. Good evening residents. Welcome. We would like to call Miss Jade Rosier and her parents, Mr. Spencer Rosier and Miss Melva Harris Rosir to the front. Give them a hand as they come. Today I am honored to recognize our March emerging leader, Miss Jade Rosier. Jade is an outstanding student at the Alexander W. Drifus School of the Arts where she maintains an impressive 4.34 weighted GPA and will soon be recogniz Yeah, clap it up. um and will soon be recognized as a Ben Carson Scholar, which is a national prestigious honor that celebrates both academic excellence and dedication to community service. Jade's leadership extends well beyond the classroom. She is the co-founder of Leading Learners, a student-led service organization that partners with groups such as the United Way of Palm Beach County and the Legal Aid Society to support local communities. She also serves as vice president of Best

Buddies, one of my favorite organizations um that partners students with um other students who have intellectual or developmental delay delays. And I'm so um excited about that. And she also volunteers with the boys and girls club and continues her leadership journey through the 20 pearls youth group which is part of the alpha capital alpha sorority incorporated. Right mom? Ah

in addition to her academic and service accomplishments. Jade is a competitive dancer with industry dance company and recently earned a scholarship to attend the Joffrey Ballet Hip Hop Intensive in New York this summer. Awesome. She's gonna be representing Riviera Beach. We love it. We love it. Jade truly exemplifies resilience, responsibility, creativity, kindness, leadership, and determination. She leads with her heart and a genuine commitment to uplifting others. Please join me again in congratulating Jade Rosier and her parents, our March emerging leader for the incredible impact that she is making in our community and beyond. Obviously,

thank you. Congratulations.

Thank you all. Well, I just wanted to thank Councilwoman again for the nomination and thank everyone that came to support me. Um, I'm so grateful for the impact that I've been able to make in my community thus far and I can't wait to continue making more. Thank you. All right. Thank you, Councilwoman Davis Paneer. I really appreciate your um you working with these young people. It just really just warms my heart to see these young people up here. It really is something for us to look forward to. So, because we're, you know, we're getting old, we old people, so it's time for the young people to take over. Thank you so much for your efforts. We really appreciate it.

Thank you. Madame Clerk, Madame Chair, we are now on proclamation from the office of the mayor recognizing March 2026 as Florida Bicycle Month. Mayor, thank you, Madam Chair.

Madam Cler, So, someone that actually reached out and was made sure was intentional about getting this done. Miss Sanita, if you could join us at the front, please. Thank you. Give it up to some of our staff that's here in the building as well because it's been a phenomenal journey. And this is going to be an official proclamation from the office of the mayor declaring March 2026 as the Florida bicycle month. Whereas residents and visitors of the city of Riviera Beach engage in bicycling as a practical form of transportation and a valable valuable means of physical activity and recreation. Whereas the Florida Bicycle Association designates March as Florida Bicycle Month, Palm Beach County recognizes this locally as well. Whereas Florida Bicycle Month features fitness activities, educational programs, races, commuting opportunities, and charity events for riders of all ages and abilities at parks and locations throughout Palm Beach County. Whereas recognition of Florida Bicycle Month raises awareness of bicycling and promotes physical activity, healthy lifestyles, and bicycling as a valuable a viable transportation option. Whereas the Palm Beach Metrop Metropolitan Planning Organization plans, supports, and recommends projects that improve bicycle access and safety as well as promotes community education efforts to enhance safe bicycling practices. Whereas bicycling friendly communities contribute to improve public health, quality of life, and economic vitality,

tourism, traffic safety, and student outcomes, which reduce congestion and wear on local roadways. Whereas electrical bikes are an increasing popular mode of transportation in Palm Beach County and encourages all road users to share the roadway responsibly. Whereas Palm Beach County has expanding network of designated enhanced bicycle facilities totaling approximately three 300 miles and several local municipalities have adopted complete streets and policies advancing a safe, connected and accessible transportation system for bicyclists. Now therefore, this March 2026, I mayor Douglas Lawson proclaim Florida bicycle month in the city of Riviera Beach on today's date, March 18th. Woohoo.

All right. the sermons. Thank you so much.

Let's get to our next presentation. Madam clerk, madam chair, we are on 2 GH will provide a status update on the progress at Ocean Beach Park for the construction of a new boardwalk and renovations to the park amenities. Mr. Edmonds,

Madam Chair and members of the board, um back in 2024 when we did go ask the voters for a general obligation bond, the first general obligation bond the city has done in its history, we facilitated um looking to uh put monies away for parks and recreation. Uh in total $55 million. as part of that overall um bond there is monies that is appropriated for the purposes of the uh ocean park. Then in a subsequent conversation that we had with the city council, we talked about the opportunity to bring additional capital to the ocean park for the purposes of facilitating uh some recreational amenities that we would like to share with the board. We have had uh conversations with the district representative and they've been involved in the process and so this is an opportunity to share with the board conceptually uh some options that are on the table concerning some improvements that will happen or will likely happen at the ocean park to get feedback from the board and then subsequent conversations will occur with the community. So, George Jen Teal uh with 2GHO has a presentation to uh walk the city council uh through some of the recommendations associated with the ocean park.

Madam Chair, may

go ahead. Thank you. Um glad to be here this evening to give you an update on the the um River Beach Municipal Beach Park. Um we were very fortunate to have done the original master plan on this park back in 2009. Uh and uh we're glad to be working with you on the renovations of this um uh this great uh asset to the uh to the city of Riviera Beach. Um uh this is the uh master site plan. It's relatively the same as it was in 2009. This plan specifically shows specific areas that we're addressing. Um, we held a public facility uh public participation meeting uh back in 2005. Um, I know that uh the district uh councilman was there as well and several other uh people from your uh your city uh staff. Um for tonight's presentation, we set up uh these sections A B CDE E and F. And um I'm going to start at the top top at the north end and just go over what items that we're going to be changing uh that are already uh areas of development in the park itself. Um this is uh area A uh in improving the tennis and to relocate the tot lot which you'll see in another area in a in a few minutes. This is allowing for um a pavilion to be set up for the tennis courts and to provide a little bit more open space in this specific area. Um area B as we're moving from the north to the south. Uh this is uh adding more picnic pavilions. You can see the um specifically the um uh tree uh tree area, the flag area that's in the center where the trees are

uh specifically um in symmetrical form there. And up top, we've added more picnic pavilions um uh to provide more use of that area uh for the residents and users of the beach park. Moving down to area C. Uh this is near the open sand area. Um uh we've we've looked at uh several areas of this to increase the entry plaza. You'll see another picture of it as we as we get down uh farther into the presentation. Um but this is uh taking that entry plaza and giving it a little bit more um uh direction and a little bit more emphasis. Uh this will be the this is a concept for the sign which will go uh directly at the east end of the plaza. There's uh two columns that you can see they're holding the sails. Um, and there are two wall sections and a flat wall. And that sign will be put there, um, uh, noting that this is a Riviera Beach facility, uh, using your new logo and using the, uh, lettering that, uh, you all have adopted in your, um, programs. Moving farther south, uh a little bit farther south, as I said, uh the area to the bottom of the screen, uh we are providing uh additional uh picnic pavilions in this area and a larger area. And this is where the new tot lot will be going. You can see it down in the far uh lower portion of that picture. Uh moving it away from the north and putting it into this location, which we felt was a a much better location. um and providing shade and other elements to that section of the park. Um and then going to the last piece that is on uh area E which is along the uh roadway uh section of the

park. Um these are improvements that we've added. We've added pickle ball which is of course on a major trend in this country as a major sport facility. Um, we've done a half basketball court in this area and we also provided a fit uh fitness equipment and uh to actually engage a lot more age groups in this area of the park itself. Um, and the uh tot lot is just above that. So, as parents are in this area, they still have a view of the tot um and uh to watch their children. So, this is the uh those items. Um, and I'm going to go into item F, which is next. Uh, but these areas here, we've estimated the cost of the improvements that we're doing here at about 3.5 to 4.5 million. Um, uh, they can be phased or they can be done all at one time. But this section of the park is uh is approximate that uh that amount of money. And these are certainly very rough cost estimates. Um uh but uh we feel pretty comfortable that we're we're in a range here on this mad chair.

Yes. Go ahead, sir. Thank you. And thank you so far for the presentation question. As we're going through the top lot and the pickle ball courts, those are on the south end, you said, of the the pavilion. They're just they're on the south end of the uh the pickle ball courts are if I can just go back go back two slides. Yeah, if I can go back slides. The current restaurant. This is the this is the south portion and this is where the more active uh so for residents to know the the current restaurants here that's currently there is I believe Johnny Longboats. Johnny Longboats. Yes. So this is would be across so this setup would be across from Johnny Longboats.

Right. And this was the this was also originally uh done as a tennis facility and and uh beach volleyball. Then how many additional picnic uh pavilions were we looking to put in in the in the several areas? There's probably four to six uh uh in in in the whole area of this side of the park from the north end to the south end. And this budgeted cost that you put up on the next slide between three and a half and four and a half million that is already we already have that budgeted. I believe we already have the funds for that as well. I believe that's correct. That was okay. Perfect. Thank you, Madam Chair. Thank you, sir. Madam Chair, may I go ahead? Thank you.

Um,

we have worked a lot on area F uh with the with U the staff um and the um district commissioner in this area. Um looking at a way to possibly get more uh visibility and access to the waterfront. Um, and we we we have three concepts here and they're at different levels. And they're at different levels because this area is going to be extremely difficult to permit any kind of a boardwalk or dune walk over or anything in this area because of the coastal setback line. So, uh you may not see this too much, but there are this is concept A. Um there are two small walkouts at each end of the sand area that's in the middle of the park. Uh and they are uh raised boardwalks and they come out to an observation deck in this specific area. I'm going to go to this may help you with it. You can see the two decks. One at the top uh boardwalk that comes out and gets to the beach area and then one on the south. Um, we anticipate these these would any of these boardwalks you're going to see here are going to be um HDA or handicap accessible because we need to do that. Um uh and this is one concept uh that is very similar to what we've done um just north of here uh at one of the resort hotels and and was able to get a fairly easy permit from the FD to do that type of observation decks and walkways in that area.

Madam Chair, yes. Go ahead. Okay. So, uh, George, how wide are those boardwalks that you're planning in this in this frame here? These are about, uh, I think they're 12 feet wide. Yeah. I I just think you might need something a little wider because I think there's going to be many more people than what you think using this.

And we have some options here. That's I'm I'm trying to though show you. This is the raised boardwalks. It has obser observation decks um on both sides. And um we we look at this as being um in the and I I can't read my glasses, but I'm sorry, but I think it's 1.4 to $2.3 million for those two decks. That's in the range of of construction. This one are these are a little bit more simple than some of the other ones that we're going to be showing. And um you know, I think that this is an option though in talking with the coastal engineers in this area. This is definitely a fairly easy permittable option that we could uh we could look at. Right, Madam Chair?

Yes, go ahead. Yeah, I I just want to make it clear that uh I brought this up to the staff, you know, close to two years ago and we've been working on this and the whole purpose is to give the community the the ability to go up and see the ocean and the beach without having to walk in the sand. They can have a cup of coffee and look at the ocean. uh they can go buy lunch at one of the restaurants and and bring it up there and uh you know enjoy themselves without having to uh trek into the sand and see the ocean. So that's the purpose of this. Thank you.

And we've taken the uh the square footages of those decks and did a recent cost that was allocated to very similar boardwalk uh structures and put that to the and that's why you see the cost there. and we did that to each one of them and I'll explain that. So this is concept B. Um this is a little bit more aggressive in regards to uh connecting um the and providing access and ocean visibility from both ends of the uh walkways around the sand base in the middle and taking them also into the center area where you have the uh guard structure um uh located. And that provides access from the center of the park as well as the north and the south end. Uh these are uh the same type of boardwalks as you just saw earlier. They raise up bring people above uh that area to see the uh see be able to see the ocean and sit out there on that deck and uh observe the ocean. And then they can go off and as uh um the councilman said uh we uh it would prevent them from having to walk on the beach. They could get access uh and observe and enjoy the ocean at that at that level. Um this is a little bit closer view of it. Uh this is raised boardwalks. They have observation decks. Uh they're ramped up um to to meet ADA requirements. Um, and again, this provides loop accesses to to the center portion of the park so that you could uh go to that point, get on the sand pathway or get on the pathway around the sand area and go back out the main entrance. And this is uh u I'm sorry, let me just go back one minute. And um this is in

the uh uh 2 um 2.8 8 million to 5.5 million depending on the permitting that will have to be done on this and the structure that'll have to be put in. It's a lot more area of deck and um but it does provide for a great option again for total access from anywhere in the in the park. Uh this is one that we did show the public. The uh the other two are newer concepts. This is the one that we did at the public uh facility. Uh this is a very wide boardwalk. Um it allows for vehicular access. It takes you up and provides you uh an elevation that is above the the dune area. Um I'm going to go closer so that you can see it. Um this one uh is ADA accessible on the north and the south side. Uh this also accommodates um vendor kiosks underneath it because of the height of this boardwalk uh which could be utilized uh in the park for vendors to sell um uh drinks or uh other uh beach items that uh might be appropriate for those people going to the beach. There's kiosks on the top as well that can provide services um uh and uh uh you know coffee, soda uh and those items that could be brought up and it would be uh wrapped around the second floor of the um the guard facility uh and uh maintenance facility that's in the center. Um this one is estimated uh because of the width this is a lot wider. It also is has the structures underneath at about $16 million to $20 million.

And that is uh this is probably um uh will also take quite a bit of permitting to do because it's a larger structure uh and it is eastward of the coastal setback like the other ones are, but uh a lot more aggressive structure uh but also providing a lot more services to the to the residents of uh Riviera Beach and their guests that come here. um taking the uh three concepts and adding in the original items that I showed you, the renovations of the other areas of the park. Uh concept A is about uh 4.9 to 5.8 million. Concept B is about 6.3 to 9 million and concept C is 19 and a half million to 23 and a.5 million depending on how uh much we put into that. So, um, Madame Chair, that's, uh, an update of where we are. Um, uh, we anticipate coming back and meeting with you, uh, based on staff's direction on this,

Madam Chair. Yes, ma'am. Thank you. Excellent presentation. Can you go back to concepts A and B? Um, construction time. What does our construction time look like for those boardwalks if we go with well as a whole actually uh with the renovations with the park the um but most importantly I want to know about the board I I would anticipate that uh the A and B uh with the other portions of the park uh are going to be at least in permit processing because we're still eastward of the coastal setback. Um, it would probably be maybe 12 to 14 months for construction and permitting.

And are we going to do those simultaneously with the boardwalk? If the board chooses to go forward with a boardwalk in addition to the park upgrades, would we do this simultaneously? Does it have to wait on anything else?

No. The the biggest the biggest item is permitting anything eastward of the coastal setback on Right. Um we did the Palm Air boardwalk over there uh which uh took about uh it was about 6 months uh in permitting. Um and uh they built that in in less than a year. So somewhere in that range. Now uh the this one would take a little bit longer because it's a much larger area of boardwalk. Um, you know, this might take uh 18 months to go through the permitting and construction, including all the other areas of the park, the other elements, but they could all be under construction. We would need to want to try to phase the boardwalk and then and the reason this se this plan and C are good because we can close off the north end, build the north boardwalk, close off the south end, and do the south boardwalk. Um, I mean you can phase all three of them, including C, but uh the first two would be somewhat easier to keep the park going. And then you could phase uh items A through um E.

Okay. And then concept B, uh could you go back to the price points one? This is about uh 1.4 four to total cost including yeah the total cost I'd have let me go let me let me go down here yes sir yeah I have the total cost in this one there that one yes and what do we currently have budgeted or what do we have in in bonding Mr. Evans or Mr. Madam Chair, if I may. Yes. Go ahead.

The the money the money that was authorized uh that's provided for as part of the 2024 bond is roughly about 3 million. Uh then we asked the board to appropriate additional monies in the $60 million item that we look to bring back before the board for further discussion to the tune of about $3 million. And then we would look as part of the budget appropriation as part of our capital project to be able to get to roughly about $8.5 million that we could facilitate as part. But as as it relates to the bond that was authorized in 2024, there's $3 million that has been set aside for the ocean park. So 2024 Ocean Park has 3 million. Uh staff came to us recently and we inquired an additional three. Uh, Councilman Spiritish, you mentioned about increasing that. Was that for this project, this boardwalk project?

Yes, that was for this project. Okay. So, increasing that additional dollars because we talked about three, but we talked about also increasing it possibly by to five, seven or 10. Okay. And madam chair, if I may. Yes, go ahead. Um, also there are, you know, with park projects, there is a lot of funding that's available through, you know, foundations and, uh, Furdap, which is the state and the fed. So there is monies that we would look to capture once this is a bonafide project to reduce what is the actual taxable dollars that are brought to the table. So you could have a situation where you can get some matching monies uh for this type of project. Madam chair. Yes. Go ahead.

All right. So I'm glad you brought that up. Uh city manager uh Evans. Uh there is resiliency money that's out there in every government agency. And if we put a wave wall underneath this boardwalk running from north to south, it would protect all this the ocean wall itself from any storm surge. Uh and I think we would be able to get some additional money to do the boardwalk itself, which is what was done uh in the city of Long Beach in New York after Hurricane Sandy. So we might want to consider doing that as well. Okay. Any other question? Thank you, Madam Chair, if I may. Yes. Go ahead.

Uh, we would need direction from the board if there are if you would like for us to advance all three options uh to some public conversations and discussions uh because we have shared one of the concepts, but we haven't shared uh the other concepts with the community. And so, we wanted to get if there's anything that the board we're on the right path, we're not on the right path, we need to make some changes. uh because then we would look to facilitate some community conversations and then bring you back what is a final project portfolio. Madam Chair,

I hold on a second. I think that that this needs to go to the public um for input first. Um all three concepts uh matter of fact need to go to the public and they can weigh in on this. Um we've gotten concerns about water bills. So, um, we definitely need to have the public to look at this to be able to make a decision because it is their money. Um, and whichever concept the public wants to pursue, then I think that that is what we need to do as well. Go ahead, Dr. Spears.

All right. So, uh, since you brought that up, I just remind you that we do have a $55 million recreation bond. Singer Island is getting $3 million of that, but yet the taxpayers are paying 53% of that bond. So, please keep that in mind when we make our decisions here. Uh we have to spread this money out fairly. And I think that this is a good way to do it. Uh by picking one of these projects and moving forward one of these projects. Uh uh Mr. Gentiel, uh my question is I have I have no problem with any one of these. I I think the number B is probably uh more attainable right now. I mean, I would love to see C. That would really put the city on the map. There's no question about that.

Uh but I think that you have to work with a minimum of 30 feet wide in order to handle the types of crowds that we will have at certain times. So, please just keep that in mind. Madam Chair, am I respond? Yes, go ahead. Um, yeah, we can look at that based on the square footage costs that we were provided for the last contract that we had done on a similar structure and just take that and do that calculation and let you know what that would add to that. Madam Chair, yes.

One more followup. Uh, are you planning on using uh concrete piles, wood piles? What what are you planning on doing with this? Uh basically the smaller structures are definitely would probably be using um a wood piles. They might be recycled materials or whatever. But uh on the larger one, we'd probably have to go to concrete if the if the state would let us do that. There's a there's there's some rules in regards to excavation. Although you have such a large beach, we can keep the sand on this site from any excavation of those columns. So it it it provides an easier um uh permitting process if it if we're doing that. So

Okay. Thank you. Um Dr. Spiritis, you know, you often say that, you know, Singer Island pays 53% of the taxes. We pay 47% of it on this side. So it's, you know, it's six a 6% difference. It's not like it's a 60% difference. So, you know, we understand that the money has to be distributed fairly um amongst the entire city. So to say that the island should get more because they pay 6% more then they get 6% more but to say it as if they're paying 60 or 70% more than the mainland is is kind of misleading. So I just really want to say that

okay and I think that let me finish and I think that you know when we're talking about these projects uh we all are going to enjoy these projects. So, I think that that's why I mentioned that it needs to go out to the public for the public to weigh in on how this should go and what we should spend. Um, but just to be clear about, you know, the the percentages, madam chair. Yes. Go ahead.

So, follow up to what you just said, uh, please keep in mind that about 25% of the mainland's taxes are coming from industrial and commercial properties, not residential properties. Uh but uh regardless, this park is used by everybody on the mainland as well. This is a city park that probably is used more by the people on the mainland than it is by the people on Singer Island. You know, people on Singer Island have their own beaches. Uh this is a public beach for the entire city. Thank you. I I agree. Is there any other questions in regards to this item, Madam Chair?

Yes. Go ahead, sir. I'm I'm just lost because I'm not sure how we got to that whole conversation when we just asked for a community sharet. So to that point, colleagues, I agree. I think we should go forward with a community sharet have uh engagement. Can we get a timeline? When is this community strats going to start? Uh how long are we going to be expecting so the community can be notified and making sure that our communications department is getting it out to all residents so that they have multiple opportunities and times. Those are the biggest issues we run into. Sometimes we place them at times that are not accessible or available for our residents, especially the working ones. And because this park is going to be utilized by all residents, I want to make sure all residents have an opportunity to be there. So, can we get a timeline of what do the community stress look like,

Madam Chair? Yes. Go ahead. Uh we can we can send out some uh some information for community meetings, but we can start community meetings as early as, you know, the next couple of weeks, next two weeks, and we can have a series of maybe two to three meetings to facilitate that. I'll get with George and and his team and see what their availability is and obviously work with uh with the council as well with with regards to their availability. Follow up, Madam Chair. Yes, go ahead. And two to three meetings. Mr. Evans, how long are we looking to uh to take to do these sharetses, the surveys, conversation with the public uh because we want to present this as quickly and as possible. We have the bond funds available. So, I believe we want to move forward with the project. So, Madam Chair, if I may, let's

go ahead. We we would like to see this as it relates to the community meetings and getting authorization for this project, you know, well before the summer at least, you know, agreeing that this project is a bonafide project to move forward. Uh because again, some of these uh facilities, we have to time it when when season is, when there is not season, you know, how we're going to go ahead and deploy that. So, we would like to see it move sooner rather than later because this is one of the projects that takes very little time and could be shovel ready. As far as the amenities, the the boardwalk is going to take a little bit more time, but some of the other amenities could be done very quickly. Thank you, Madam Chair. Thank you. Very good. Questions in regards to this item? Thank you, Mr. Gentio, for your presentation. Madam

Chair and council members, thank you. Thank you. Next item, Madam Clerk. Madam chief item is update on citywide spring cleanup event hosted by public works with support from good company. Mr. Adams.

Uh madam chair, members of the board, uh the public works department uh would like to move forward with a uh basically a spring cleaning program. a program that allows for residents basically amnesty for our residents for you to bring any trash, waste and debris to certain specific locations and the city would take those items away and and dispose of them with our partnership with the good company at no cost to our residents. So staff has put forward a presentation that they would like to share with you um and they would like to move forward with this program and the date that has been tenatively selected is the March 28th date. So that would be a Saturday. So, at this time, I'll turn the presentation over to our public works director, Mr. Chay.

Good evening. Uh, good evening, madame chair, uh, mayor, councilman, and women. Uh, Bernard Bakintete, the public works director. I'm here with Miss Darlene Henry. Just wanted to bring her to introduce you uh to to her to you. Uh, she has been handling the team that manages the uh, solid waste uh, uh, service provider. Uh Miss Henry is here to uh support me and answer any questions. Uh so together with the the good company uh we wanted to engage our residents um as part of our efforts to clean the city. Uh we picked Saturday March 28th uh to have a few events and I'm going to share them uh so that our residents will know about them. Uh the first one is we are uh reaching out to uh community and neighborhood groups. Uh the goal is to have uh a group uh if they're interested uh to uh clean up any area that they choose. Uh public works will be providing pigstakes and vest and bags. Uh we're going to have our staff um you know riding around and picking up whatever is collected. Uh so that's something that we'll be we'll be uh uh working uh with the team that are are interested. We currently have the park manner team uh they've committed to work with us. Uh we are engaging other community. So we wanted to use this avenue to uh let residents know that if you're still interested you can reach out to us and we'll put uh something together for you. Uh the second item is the placement of rollup dancers. Uh we have seven locations that we've identified. Uh we're asking residents to bring in uh unlimited bulk items. Uh no judgment, no restriction. Uh this is obviously to encourage folks to get rid of things that they don't need in their garages. Uh so that we don't see them ending up on the side of the road. So uh they will

be at the following locations. Can park, Dan Callaway, the Wells Center, Schulz Park, Sadi McCrae. Uh we're going to have one in the uh the C ambassador center uh parking lot. If you know where the the ambassador parking offices are, there's a parking lot adjacent to it. We're going to have a roll of dumpster for our residents on the east side. We're going to have one at the Lone Pine Park as well. Um we're only taking bulk items. Uh so the following items are not allowed. uh we don't want to take in vegetative debris, tires, construction debris, regular garbage, commercial waste, etc. The third item is to uh facilitate some document shredding. So, we're going to have two locations uh with a van uh that will be taking in any document that you need shredded, receipts that you want gone. Um all you need to do is, you know, bring them over. We're going to have some beans. you dump them in the bins and then these will be safely shredded and and and disposed of. Uh we have a flyer that is on our website. Uh we also have them some in the back. Um staff will be handing them out as we go through the city especially next week. Um, and then as part of our of of the public works uh uh education, we wanted to take this opportunity uh to put out a few reminders. Uh, please don't put out your trash uh way ahead of your schedule. It should be not more than 24 hours before your scheduled time. Uh, b trash has its own day, so please don't put it out. Uh, you get bulk trash once a week, so please don't put it out early. Um, we had a meeting with some residents and we brought up uh an item that they said they were not aware of. So, we figured we'll use this

avenue. When you have loose vegetation from grass clip uh grass clippings and you know leaves that you you rake in your yard, please bag them before you put them out for pickup. What happens is if you just put them out very loosely and the truck picks them up, there's going to have some uh remnants that's going to blow away. They're going to end up in a storm water system. Uh so if you have any loose leaves and grass, please put them in a bag before you put them out. And then obviously we asking that if you have um more than six cubic yards of of of trash or vegetation, h please call and and schedule a pickup. If it's more than six yards, the vendor will not pick it up and we'll have to reach out to you. So these are just a few things we wanted to remind our residents to make sure that we keep our city clean.

Thank you very much. Thank you, sir. Any other any questions in regards to this? Thank you, Madam Chair. Thank you so much. The the printed flyers, are we planning on doing printed flyers uh to disseminate throughout the community? Madam Chair, yes, go ahead. Yes, we are.

Okay. Uh the flyer that I saw, we need to update with some of the additional locations. I know Lone Pine wasn't on there as of yet. Adding that one on. And then I also wanted to possibly inquire about another location, maybe at the VA. um talking to the VA about our old fire station to see if that could be another location because we have some northern uh areas, Woodbine, uh Arbor Park, and some other facilities on military because I believe looking at the the locations that was the only one on the western uh side of the city. So, if we can do maybe one additional um one additional dumpster somewhere on one of the facilities over there in addition to Lone Pine because the residents in Lone Pine will have access but everybody on military will not. Uh the second thing is updated flyers. uh printing flyers and then making sure that we're dropping them off. The CRA does a great job of taking them doortodoor, but going to churches possibly this Sunday, restaurants, uh community centers, and anywhere else that we could possibly look at.

Thank you. Thank you, madam chair. Thank you, sir. Very good. We thank you for your presentation. Thank you.

Uh we'll move on to our next item, but before we do that, it is 7:36. So, we're going to go into public comment. Public comment shall begin at 7:30 unless there is no further business of the city council which in that event it shall begin sooner. In addition, if an item is being considered at 7:30, then comments from the public shall begin immediately after the item has been concluded. Please be reminded the city board the city council board has adopted rules of decor governing public conduct during official meetings which has been posted up front. In an effort to preserve order, if any of the rules are not adhered to, the city council chairperson may have any disruptive speaker or attendee removed from the podium, from the meeting, and or building if necessary. Please govern yourselves accordingly. Madame clerk, how many public comment cards do we have?

This is Andreas. Um, I'm sorry. Yes, go ahead. Andrea Joseph, we have 12 public comments. All right, call the first three, please. The first speaker is Sandra Dorley Dorset. Uh the second uh speaker is Holly Stewart followed by Michael Jordan.

Thank you. Uh, Miss Dors Dorson technology malfunction. Hello everyone. My name is Sandra Dorsce.

Okay. My name is Sandra Dorsce. It's a pleasure to be here in Riviera Beach. I want to say thank you to the mayor, Mayor Lawson, and all the council members and all those who serve on in this city. I am running for Congress in district 20 where we stand right here in district 20. It is an honor for me to be able to stand here before you and ask you for your support. I stand with the residents and the workers in this city because I understand what the needs are. I know that everyone here has been speaking about affordability. affordability, which means that when you come home and you calculate how much you have left after you pay all your bills, if there's nothing left, then that's an issue. And I want to help resolve this for you. I hear there's high there are some things of course in Congress we would not be able to do such as resolve the cost of utilities but what we can do is I can do when I get to Congress is to help bring um companies here that can help you gain higher wages meaning by employing you in the field that you choose so so that your paychecks can expand Florida is a great place for uh for workers, but what Florida is not known for is highpaying jobs. And I'm committed to making Riviera Beach one of the places where we will have more highpaying jobs. And I would be again humbled if you would consider supporting me in the 2026 election. Again, this is District 20. So if you have any questions, you can reach me at Sendra. It's s n d a for congress. It's the

letter f o r.com. And I say my tagline is send SRA to Congress. Thank you so much. Thank you. Next,

the acceptant of public comic cards are closed. Next speaker speaker is Holly Stewart followed by Michael Jordan and Lloyd Brown. Good evening. My name is Holly Stewart. I am the executive director of the recovery community hub of Palm Beach County. I am very excited to announce our grand opening uh will be March 31st and I'm here to invite the city council uh especially since we've also invited our honorable mayor to uh present a proclamation. Um it is going to be our largest community center here in Palm Beach County. We do have three. The one in Rivier Beach is our flagship site. It's just down the street on 20th and Broadway. For those of you who don't know, the hub is a nonprofit community center that specializes in providing support services for people in recovery and their families. And we do this at all stages recovery. Whether you've been in recovery for 20 minutes or 20 years, what we do is we provide a safe community space. We are not a treatment center. All of our staff are peer specialists who have been certified by the state of Florida to provide one-on-one peer support and they're all individuals in recovery or like myself, a family member of somebody who has been um affected by substance use. We operate under the guidance of a leadership team from individuals right here in Riviera Beach. I will not point one of them out, but she is here today and she is the one who invited me to this meeting. um they help us determine what are the services and supports most important to Riviera Beach. So, starting April 1st, we are going to be providing homeless outreach. We're right over by St. George's. We know that they don't have hygiene items right now according to their um website. So, I have ordered hygiene items and hygiene bags. We'll have a clothing donation closet, but we also have what we call a not so little library, so people can come in and borrow books from us or exchange a book.

We will have snacks uh for individuals coming in. We have coffee. We have water. We truly want to be the place that anybody can come in and feel welcome. And the first thing we will ask you is how can we help your recovery today? We don't duplicate services provided by other providers, but instead we partner with many of our um local agencies. So, uh they will come in, they'll offer services in their site. And we're really happy to say that starting May 1st, we are going to have a full-time peer specialist. Currently, she uh attends drug court, which is a diversion program at Gun Club, she's also going to be in mental health court. And she'll be working very closely with your own river beach re-entry team, helping those individuals who have a justice history and sub co-occurring substance disorders really get incorporated into our society. We provide employment supports. We provide a free career commat academy for individuals seeking certification in this field and we just want to invite everybody to attend and learn more about us. So I'm leaving some invitations here and thank you very much for your time.

Thank you. Next speaker is Michael Jordan followed by Lloyd Brown and Annette Dragon.

I would like to say hello uh to the council and everyone in their respectable places. As always, you know, I come and respect, you know, everyone. So, uh, first of all, I would also would like to congratulate Mr. Val Davis who retired from, uh, years of service with the, uh, fire department. So, when someone works that long, that mean that they evidently had a passion about their job. They care about the city and care about the people that they serve. I also would like to give uh, uh, a thank you to uh, Mr. Josh and Mrs. McCrae who always uh go out and extend a limb being professional with following up and taking care of whatever concerns anyone may have. I know they have done that for me. Also to connect uh Mr. uh Lawson, thank you for getting back with the young lady uh and the group that needed to connect with you finally and I thank you for that. Also, uh I like some of the things that where y'all trying to make uh infrastructure improvements. That's positive. Community enhancements, uh safety and sustainability, um you know, in the city of River Beach for advancing the new water treatment plant. Okay. We do know we still have some issues with that and some things still need to be worked out, but I respect the moving forward with that. Also, with the um with the upgrading of the Sadie McCrae Park. Now, we do still do have some lingering issues because I see that, you know, subpoenas were served. You know, I know it's a federal investigation going on and the first thing that stood out to me when I read the literature is about mismanagement of monies. That's what they said. And that don't mean everything that they say is always right, but something is going on. You know what I mean? and the residents don't have to be aware of everything that's going on. But before it hits the public like that, you know, we should know, hey, something is going on right now. We can't tell you the extent of it, but we have to let you know that we have it under control. One thing that you

can't do everything without the residents. You know what I'm saying? We have to have that partnership. As I always say, and it may sound like a broken record. People may get tired of it, but it's my time. I'm talking. Okay? So, like I'm saying, we have to have the partnership to respect one another. And like I said, I respect each and every one of you, but to put that in the paper like that, to have that to be in the paper for mismanagement of funds, that don't look good. So, sometimes I'm not sure if this is the best city to work, live, and play in because a reputation, you have to have a reputation for the city that you living in. Okay? So, like I'm saying, let us work together. Maybe it's something, like I said, that we can help you all do. I always want to be in a positive light with everybody. You know what I'm saying? And and like I said, when you all do well, I also let people know it's a great place uh, you know, to work, you know, but I can't defend everything cuz like I said, we getting too much negative press. So that mean everything that's going in the press spells corruption. You know what I'm saying? And you may not think so, but one thing about it, the trail will tell. So let's just work together and just get those things corrected. Next speaker is Lloyd Brown, followed by Annette Dragon and Dolores Williams.

How you doing? Uh my name is Lord Brown. How you doing everybody up there? Uh, you know, I think I told you people a while back about uh closing off that canel because see I already saw it once over by Good Mark when they closed the canal on the other side of the park. Miss Lane and them house flooded out and then you went and you started closing them in Lake Worth a lot of them canals are still open in them neighborhood and you don't have floods. I'm saying, but you know, I told y'all now the people who houses the flood out, are you the people who voted that in for that man to fill in that canal? Are you people going to be all liable if any water go in these people houses and there's some kind of problem? Cuz I mean though when you close that canal, that's that's like a drainage. And the people way before y'all were probably even born, they set that up so that you can keep the water from draining here, you know, from fouling up. Okay, that's it for that. I just want to say this, the award, I don't mind you giving people awards, but let's not get up here and every meeting where we got all this other stuff going on. We got other things going on and y'all want to get up here and give out awards when we got a water plant that's got bad water. And then we got here it is, we got members on the council who got the FBI chasing after them and you want to come in and give out an award. And then a lot of times these awards give out let's like my dogs I feed them they love me to death. If I ran for something they gonna vote for me. So when I come out here and give you people awards say I don't need I don't need these because I got a deep voice. But when I come out here and give you awards I'm looking for something in return. And I mean that's what these people are looking for when they come out here and give you this. Don't think it's because they giving you that grassroot. Oh these people are really great. No. They want you to look at them like the Flimline man on the corner. He'll let you win a couple times and next time you come

through there, he got you. There you go. Right there. I'll take a polygraph right now about the things I said about the person up here. I'll take a polygraph in front of all y'all if he'll take one. And I'mma tell you like this. You can tell you know a sheep a wolf, right? You talking to the mic, Mr. Talking to the Mic. They can hear me.

A wolf. a wolf, right? He gonna come out there and you're gonna know what the deal with him. But a fox, a fox, he gonna outf fox you. He gonna come in a sheep thing, you know, and he going to be out there, but he going to Yeah. Yeah. I got this for you. Soon as you get close, we got to And I'mma tell you, and then too, as far as over there, we all going to do things on ocean, the beach over there. We can't even go over there. Can't go under the bridge, fish no more. can't go around the curb, which is owned by Palm Beach County. You can't fish over there. So, why should we worry about putting our taxpayer money into something over there when we can't even go over there? And they closed it down one time when we had something. Y'all know that.

Next speaker, Anette D Dragon, followed by Dolores Williams and Cindy Martin. Cindy Marsh.

Hello everyone. Hope everyone's well today. I wanted to start off and mention Monroe Heights. I don't live in Monroe Heights. I live in Lone Pine, but I saw an item on the news on Monday about people driving through at least 12 in of water. Now, I I don't know who here lives in Monroe Heights, but that's criminal. We all pay for storm water drainage and so forth. Why are the storm water drains not working quickly enough? These people have got cars. The cars going through water get ruined. They can't claim insurance because the car gets total. So, they end up with no car and being marooned in their houses. What are you guys going to do about that? Next subject. Did you know that Riviera Beach is the second highest millage rate in Palm Beach County? That says a lot, doesn't it? We the citizens of Riviera Beach are paying far too much in property tax. Maybe change the millage rate to drop it somewhat so that we, the residents who are here already, don't have to bear the burden for new construction. Third point, why are you all entertaining high-rise buildings all over Singer Island, all over Broadway, and elsewhere? There's plenty of places in land that you could build high-rise properties and make them more affordable for people coming into the city. What you're doing is catering to the uber rich. And I don't want to see Riviera Beach turning into another downtown Miami or Fort Lauderdale where you've got to fight through lanes of traffic that are far too narrow. You've got to fight your way around potholes that are so deep and never get fixed. What are you going to do about all that when Riviera Beach is like that? I'd like to

know that. And finally, I really would like to know what you guys are doing with your appropriations. I would like to see an itemized statement from every single one of you that is sitting behind that table up there of what you do with your $140,000 a year, what events you actually spend the money on, and what items you're actually spending that money on. Also, I'd like to know whether you pay the cost of your own legislative aid. They get a lot of money for doing very little at the moment. And finally, when are we going to see some federal funding? I saw that Lois Frankle got all kinds of millions of dollars this this month and has handed them out to all kinds of different things all over Palm Beach County. Did we get any of it in Riviera Beach? If so, what are we spending it on? Transparency is the name of the game, guys. I want to see more information. Thank you.

Next. Next speaker is Dolores Williams, followed by Cindy March and Bane Losman. Good evening to the council and the board and all. Hallelujah. Nobody here. Hope y'all watching at home, but I just like to say I met the lady for was up here with the telling about these different things that they're going to be done and I'm glad they did something about it. Goodman and the thing I had something else for about two weeks at the end of my street on my driveway. But thank God it is clean as a whistle and I thank her for it. Just something uh they can do all these events here. I think y'all should have the spring cleaning should be every 3 weeks. go around this city where all this grass need to be cut, where all this trash and stuff uh piled up. We as a city could do that ourselves. You can get those kids from the school. You got them for the council, junior council people. You get them out there, train them out, really go how it should be. So, I just like to uh thank them and I had to call and they did exactly what I asked them, not command them to do, but I asked them that what they would do because I really don't want to get up here and talk about them at the council meeting. So, but I just like to say for the parks and the ambassadors, I don't think they have any over on the west side. Maybe they do, I don't know, but they do. I if

I do see him and like have a bass, I say, "Hey, congratulations. I'm glad you over here." So, I want to let you know that Mr. Goodman, I need to have more contact with them as a citizen for Goodman. I'm not here to bash them or nothing cuz they had a hard time getting in here. So, but I like for you say, "Mr. Gen, I guess you say I'm always going to call your name when I get up." I like you, Mr. gotten. But I just want to do more for the city. I think you I used to say try to used to get them up there. You be getting them, man. You be sticking it right to them. So I want y'all to just help get the young people get the city really cleaned up and straighten up. I pastor talk Mr. Lawson a while back. I told I used to take pictures and bring you tell you about where the stuff is messed up. Then the Mor Lawson. Okay. So, anybody you see something wrong, call these heads or these people here and talk to them and get it done. You don't have to just try to put them down and out. But we here to clean up our city and they say the parks and everything. I want you to come to say the money over there going to be up. I I want you to really come over to Sierra. Come over Australia to Ninth Street. I want to see some work done over there. Okay. Next speaker is Cindy Marge F followed by Fain Loman and Margaret Shepard. Good evening, Council Cindy Mar. I just want to say it was a pleasure going to one of the events that Schilla McCorvvic had on Friday night and it was very informative. I just want you all voters to know, don't just have your voter registration card and your government

ID. You're going to need a passport or a birth certificate. Okay? You see what happened in the election down in Boca Raton when they did that recall. Every votes matters. One vote. One vote a person won. So don't sit back on this election. We got less than eight months. I must say I've been supporting Sheila McCorb since she got here. She has done a lot not only for the black community or the white community. She has done a lot for everybody, the Haitian communities. And she's still representing us. And I I appreciate it. You know why? Because women's are on the rise, whether they white, black, Haitian or whatever. And this is what we need. You can't always believe what you hear. So if anybody got indicted and ain't been arrested yet or going to jail, wait till it play out. Don't hold that against her, don't let nobody tell you who to vote for, but see what they stand for. See all the laws and stuff they have passed since they've been up there as a congresswoman. Shilling McCorbin has represented us very well here in this district 20. And I will be casting my vote. And I'm asking everybody to ask everybody else and your Ken and your friend, look at what she has done since she's been in office. She's a beautiful spirit and we're going to try to get her back in there and I'm going to do everything I can voluntarily to get her back in there. She represent us very well to the city of River Beach. I said it once and I'm going to reiterate it again whether you like it or not. City of Rivera Beach is corrupt and it sometimes start with management and it start with our leaders that we put into office. Once again, stop voting for your friends. Vote for what they don't do cuz it's a lot hasn't been done. And city of

River Beach is a very rich city where we would love to live, work, and play. My heart hardened me at night. I pray, I cry. Get up in the morning crying. Why we can't do better? Every time you turn on the news, city of River Beach, city of River Beach, the news people right here, right now. And you know what? It's going to follow us till we get this corruption out of here. And we do want to know why are you all worrying about Singer Island and River is one city. And must I say Glenn Spiritis have came over in Monroe Heights with the project where the water flooding and stuff and try to see what was going on because we don't already gave it to the big developers. We're going to have to stop letting the big developers tell us what we need in our community and especially unaffordable high-rise condominiums. It's a funny things the way this clock go fast when I speak, but corruption is here in the city of River Beach.

Thank you so much for your comments. followed by Margaret Shepard and Rochelle Hughes.

Good evening, Fain Wesman. The media has had a free-for-all talking about five or six FBI agents coming to the city and serving subpoenas for information on Doug Lawson and Bruce Giden or Shirley Laneir. Over the last 20 years, I have a lot of contacts in the community and outside the community who share information with me. And unless I have something solid, I don't accuse people of misconduct. What was brought to my attention because I said, "Who did they shake down?" And I was forwarded an ethics complaint from a few years ago where former councilwoman Julie Boutell filed a complaint with the state ethics board where she accused Doug Lawson of corruption. Specifically, she said that Lawson vote in order to vote in favor of proposed ordinance to change zoning and land use. He wanted the financial support for the candidacy of county commission Richard Riy and if they were also to hire Dale Holiness as their attorney. She notorized that swore to it. That complaint was dismissed because it was hearsay. She she said what somebody said, not what that company actually said. But the bottom line is who is a confidential FBI informant? Is it Botel? Is Boutell bringing disgrace to this city because she was not reelected? Somebody needs to go look at that ethics complaint, the public document. I have a copy of it and say, "What is she doing?" You know, she spent years targeting me. Now she's targeting Lawson. Who else is she targeting up there? So I think we need to go back and see what kind of havoc has motel brought on this city because all this negative attention affects people wanting to move to this city, affects property values, affects the reputation of this city. This woman

put me through hell ever since she was in office. I was unaware that she tried to do the same to Doug Lawson. But we need to figure out who is behind what's going on here with these complaints. And the first place to look would be to look at Julie Boutell. And anybody wants to complain, I got it right here on my phone. Separate se second separate from that ordinance 805 was passed in 1969 and it showed where the city limits are, the boundaries of the north part of Singer Island. the city attorney and city manager have unilaterally determined that well they want to change the boundaries and they've done that without having the five final policy makers agree to it. They change the boundaries and they're letting people trespass on other properties saying the boundaries were in the wrong place. That needs to have that needs to be addressed. Why are we allowing a city manager and city attorney to usurp the authority of the five final policy makers? I also have I'm going to leave with the clerk ordinance number 805 for your review. Thank you.

Next speaker is Rochelle Hughes followed by Margaret Shepard and Loretta Poe. Good evening again, um, council, city staff. Okay, so I'm going to be all over the place. One, Ocean Park. I saw the presentation and and I just can't fathom that we would spend that much money over on a park that now I don't go to. And you know why? because now you got to pay to park and you got to give up your personal information on a on an app if you want to get your two hours for free, which I won't do because it's going to a third party. It's not going to just the city. It's going to a third party. So, I have not been over to Singer Island. I have not been to any of those establishments over there since the parking went into effect. That's pretty sad. I know other people too, same thing. They haven't gone over there because of that. I don't know how the businesses are doing. I don't know if their business is down. If it's up, I have no idea. But um that much money on a park, you know, we have other parks in the community, so it needs to be divided, I think, equally or somehow someway. That's just my opinion on Ocean Park. Height restrictions. We need height restrictions in this city. I am just beyond upset that we approved something and I wish I would have known better to allow 20 stories along Broadway or in the CRA district or whatever. We don't need 20story buildings. I certainly don't want to

live in Fort Lauderdale and Miami. That's why I'm here. West Palm Beach, I'm sorry. They've they've destroyed that area with all of the tall structured 20 30s story buildings. I don't even go there anymore. I used to love to go there. Now I don't. But here, the city that I live in, I would hate to see that happen. We do need height restrictions. We don't need 20story buildings along Broadway, Blue Heron, over on Singer Island. what I've seen being proposed for the other side of the bridge, 30 stories, N O in big capital letters. Also, in regards to the marina here, I think because it's city-owned property, the residents who live here now should have the say in what is going to be built here. Not the CRA, not just five people. It needs to be the city. We need to be able to say, "Hey, this is what we want in the marina because this belongs to the residents. It doesn't just belong to developers or whoever. It belongs to us." And so, I think that needs to be put out there for this the residents to vote on. Do we want a 99-year lease? No. I don't want a developer to have a 99-year lease. So, I hope we all think about that. Thank you. Next speaker is Margaret Shepard, followed by Loretta Paul. And the last speaker is Mary Brown. Margaret Shepard, Riviera Beach. U Mr. Evans, that was a very good tailgate party for our Sun Coast Chargers. I enjoyed myself. I was stuck in the house for two months. Missed the uh ribbon cutting, but it was very nice to get out and uh just enjoy one another, enjoy the game. Uh, Summer

was one of the first charges. She was only four years old and um she was a cheerleader and it was so funny because Miss Franks told her she was too small and you know they travel and Summer said she was only four and she said Mrs. uh Miss Mr. Olivia Franks she says I'm four but I can take care of myself and she pats on my head. I never forget it. She says yes. you talked so much. I don't know where you got it from. And she looked at me and I said, I don't know where she got it from anyway. So, it was just a joy to see the children uh and and our people, our people uh win that uh game. Thank you again. It was really nice. Um, last week as I looked at that sign and the way you all were carrying on up there, somebody in the order kept saying point of order, rules of decorum. I know Mr. Gayton was speaking and I know I wanted to listen to whatever he was saying, but I couldn't get it because they kept charming in and I thought it was just so ignorant. uh we didn't have the paper so we didn't at least I didn't know what you were talking about but at least if you're going to do this I think that you should go by this because one thing this is America and you can't tell people uh what you can and cannot say. So, I really wanted to hear it and I just thought it was just so rude. And if they don't apologize, I apologize because you had the floor and you were talking and they're talk. Yes. The charter says that you all are not supposed to get an everyday conversation with the city manager. That is the charter. And until you change the charter, I think we

should abide by the charter. But coming into uh this particular uh uh gentleman, something should have been done. I don't know. I'm not going to even comment on it. But if you're going to ruin the quorum, and I think it's so ignorant whoever did this because we cannot see you and Doug sitting here with this big board. The board really should be turned around to you because it was quite a spectacle last week. Just ignorance. I've never seen a bunch of use the n-word. Sit there with the foolishness going up there when one person is talking. Let us hear. I want to hear. I don't sit in this cold room because I'm beautiful. I sit here in this room because I want to hear you. I want to hear you, you and you. Thank you.

Next speaker is Loretta Paul, followed by uh Mary Bram, the last speaker. Good evening. My name is Doretta Park and I'm a citizen of Riviera Beach and I just want to commend as Miss Shepard said those mighty mighty Sun Coast Chargers on their championship win. We're very proud of you. very proud of coach uh Powell and the entire team and um also the young lady who was here, Jade Roir. What an accomplishment. What an accomplishment we have with this young lady. This is our future. One of our futures. And I want to talk about Yes. about the uh the height of these condos that's going on. is just too enormous in my view. We have the infrastructure now that is so so terrible what people are going through. Broken sewer pipes, broken water pipes, floods everywhere throughout the city. How are we going to accommodate saying 25 or 30s story condos? How do we how do we even phantom even doing such a thing like that to the citizens of Riviera Beach? And I just hope that you all go and uh

take this back on the agenda and limit some of the height on this uh condos because we are suffering with this. I live on 20th off of 20th round G Avenue. They've had several sore breakage in my neighborhood within a year's time. two different ones. So, how are we going to phantom this? This is wrong. This you all have to think about us as citizens and what we are going through. And as far as this water, the stipen fund that you all are getting. You know what? Let's put that to use about having this especially seniors or mothers with babies. Get some water. case the water and you know you hopefully you all would think about that what you're doing with that money because many of you all up here have good jobs paying jobs and you councilman Giden said okay I want to bring in the mayor to get the his uh fund also so you all getting this extra fund it won't even affect you all paying your water bill because you got all kind of money to pay the water bill but it's is affecting the seniors. It's affecting people like me who cuz we have to go ahead and pay this. No way we can go around this. We have to increase to get this water plant. But you all taking the very money that we need from the water plant. And thank you Mr. Evans. The chairs are beautiful. Thank you. Thank you.

Last speaker is Mary Brown. Good afternoon, good evening, Miss Mary Bram, Rivera Beach. Uh, I just want to say the floors and the chairs are absolutely beautiful. The coordination, the colors are very gorgeous. I would like to tell the residents something here, but first of all, I'm going to speak directly to the board here. Whatever is going on here, I want you all to buckle your lips. Why Miss Bramley is saying this? Because whatever litigation or whatever attorneys, you get with your attorneys and then you all can come back and then address or say whatever you desire to say because the slip of the tongue can cause some devastation upon each and every last one of you. So, Miss Bram just wanted to share that with you. the legislation. Our governor, Governor Ron DeSantis, he has passed a lot of legislative here, not just him, but his whole cabinet. One is I hear all the time when you advocate when the contractors come forth you all always saying my people don't do that because D EI is on the books now and that government and that governor in that legislator so you all can look it up they can remove the mayor the council people the attorney the managers counting peoples, any legislative body. So, Miss Brown want you all to be cautious. I want you all to be cautious in how you govern residents for us that

pay our water bill. We gets this in the We gets this in our water bill resident. We get this. It breaks down. It have explained our capital projects, the things in which the city here is doing and how we move. Yes, it cost, but it will cost all of us, not just Miss Bram, the police department. Let me tell you, we had a mass shooting in our city. I stood up here and I said it. We all going to have to be on guard here. This is why your police department is so vital to your city here. This is why they need stability. I got some calls from the congressman up in Washington DC because you know why he know Miss Brown because when we build that complex up over there and tried to get it Bill, Dr. Bale, she's sitting back there. She can tell you too. The first thing they say, Miss Bram, what is going on? You know what I told them? We got it under control. And thanks to our blue men's there. And they also asked me what room are they in? You know what I told them? And I'mma tell them chief what I told them. You all do not have a building. And they said shame on this city. Shame on them. So a job well done.

Thank you so much. And you all keep up the good work. Thank you so much. Thank you. Uh we're going to go to our next item, but Mr. Evans, could you please address some of the items that were uh brought up by the residents uh here this evening? Oh, I didn't know you were out here.

Uh yes, Madam Chair. Uh with regards to the uh rain incident that we had a couple of days ago, we did have almost 18 inches of rain in two hours. Uh so we had significant uh rainfall and and that occurred all throughout Palm Beach County. So, we did experience a lot of localized flooding in the area. Immediately when that did happen, we dispatched the appropriate staff to make sure that they were uh clearing any obstructions that were in some of our storm water infrastructure and then placing the appropriate signage. But just the volume of rain that we got in that short amount of time did create issues for multiple communities uh throughout uh Palm Beach County. That's something that we are uh going to be going forward with uh some drainage infrastructure improvements and you'll see that when we do bring some of our roadway projects um because we do have a lot of streets in our community, believe it or not, that were constructed and there was no storm water infrastructure that was put in place. And so as we look to uh go through a lot of our roadway projects, we are looking to do curb and gutter and and the appropriate drainage infrastructure. Uh it was mentioned about the canal and the the the piping. That particular canal is a conveyance. Uh so it is intended to move water, but we didn't get any reported areas in the properties that were adjacent about localized flooding. But like I said, we did have a lot of rain uh over the last uh well that particular rain event and then the next couple of days. But you know, from a drainage perspective, I think it it operated in the sense that it didn't create any issues. Um, concerning the millage rate, there was comments about the city of Riviera Beach having uh the second highest millage rate and and that is in fact the case. Uh, but Pal but also um our millage rate is 8.3500 mills. West Palms is 8.13

uh 0 mills. So, uh we are um high but there are other municipalities that are also high. But I will talk about property tax reform that inevitably is going to be a decision that voters are probably going to have to make um here in November. But we are going to be having some of those those tough conversations because you have to make a decision whether level of service um and appropriate um reductions to be able to reduce what is the taxable value on the residents. But I can tell you I think and and Mr. Sherman can provide additional commentary in our in our comments associating property tax reform. I don't think we I think we've kept that millage rate pretty static uh through the entire tenure of uh my term as manager and I think even with the uh with the city council. I don't think we have in fact uh moved that mill rate. And so um I can't recall off the top of my head when we if we did make any adjustments to to decrease it slightly. Um there was a comment with respect to the budget appropriations that are provided for in our published budget which is online associated with the city council members and the city council members individual budget. That individual budget please when you look at it incorporates salaries, wages for the elected official but primarily their legislative aid. of that whole $140,000 is not available for allocations for events and and activities and the like. Um contrary to that, there is little monies that each elected official is provided for for activities and events. There was also a question with regards to federal funding. We have received federal funding. We did get from um Congresswoman uh McCormick's office. We did receive $7 I believe $50,000 for a mobile command bus which we should be in receipt of that particular vehicle in the next 30 days. So we have received federal funds and we are working with

our federal partners and our lobbyists to go after additional federal monies to the tune of anywhere between 6 to10 million. So, we are pursuing aggressively opportunities for federal funds and we have been successful in obtaining federal funds even through the CRA that is roughly about $4 million for affordable and and workforce housing. So, that's something that we partnered up with the Lakew Worth Beach CRA. So, the the city has received monies from the federal government in the past. Um, Ocean Park, we are going to be having uh additional community meetings. We understand that uh people's concernation or or issue with regards to parking. We are probably going to have a conversation with the board uh in some time here to to discuss our parking program because when we did bring our parking program forward, we did promise the board that we would come back and get any additional uh perspective to the board and see what they would like to see changed. Um height restrictions, you do have for height restrictions, but you do have provisions in the code that allow for density and intensity b bonuses. Um but there is in specific zoning district there are um height restrictions and for the marina development that is a project that is on the the CRA's part of the ledger and so that is an active item that's under the cone of silence so I can't speak on great specificity to that that's probably a better conversation with the executive director of the CRA and that concludes my comments madam chair

thank you so much for that um let us move on to our next item which is a workshop Item. Madame Clerk.

Madam Chair, we are on item 7A, ordinance number 4304, an ordinance of the city council of the city of Riviera Beach, Palm Beach County, Florida, amending the schedule of fees contained in ordinance 2977 section 8 entitled computation of the amount of the impact fee providing for severability and providing for an effective date. Madam Chair, we did have one resident was it submit a comment card. So I'm not sure if you're taking public comments for this. Um yes, Mr. Ivers.

Madam Chair, members of the board, if I can have the CFO, Mr. Sherman, to make this presentation. Sherman.

Yes. Good evening, everyone. I'm Randy Sherman, chief financial officer for the city. Um I will first say that the purpose of these workshops okay are to take public comments um so that we can finalize the ordinance on on the impact fees. So uh the public comments certainly are welcome. Um again this item this item has to do with impact fees. Okay. uh impact fees uh when you adopt the rates are really only good for four years. That's your phase in period. Then you have to do another study to reset the rates. Last time we did it was in 2022. Um and therefore that's why we're back. This is 2026. This is our year. Um we have done the study. Study is attached to the agenda. Um and the individual who did the study was here two weeks ago. uh and we'll come back uh at the time that we actually are bringing the ordinance back. Uh impact fees uh you're only allowed to increase them 50% over current rate. So if an impact fee right now is $100, the most we can increase it is $150 and then you have to take that $50 increase and actually spread it out over the four years. unless um you have an extraordinary condition um and you can prove that there really is a need to go to a higher a higher level. Uh and that's really what we have uh here that and that's why we're holding these two workshops um to give you an idea of the study. This slide is pulled right from the

study and it is only for road impact fees. We have impact fees for police, for fire, for parks, for roads, for public facilities, and for the library. So, I just pulled out this one slide. This is only on roads. And I'll just for simplicity purposes again, just focus on the uh the first line. There are impact fees for every type of commercial building, uh, every type of retail building, every type of residential building, every size. Um, but for simplicity purposes, what I'll do is just focus on the top line so you can see uh the uh recommendations that are coming out of this study. So on this top line here, uh just looking at an 800 square foot residential property, the current amount of the impact fee that is paid for roads from a residential property is $1,429. The second column tells you what the actual cost, the actual impact of that single family residence is. It's $7,424. So, it's almost $6,000 that we could be collecting that we are not currently collecting. So, if you follow the statute and you only do the 50% and you phase it in over four years, that's what you would see up there in the last four columns. So, we would go from $1,429 to $167. Following year, we'd go to uh $1,786, then $1,964, and we would cop out at $2,143.

But the true cost is the $7,424. So, if we follow the statute, okay, even by the end of four years, we'll still be short $5,000 for every single family residence of 800 square f feet. So what staff is recommending is that we actually go to the maximum and in order to go to the maximum we have to hold these two workshops. Okay? And we have to show the justification for why we need to have the higher rates. So again I have slides in here that show all the different categories. Uh but the real issue is um is why do we need to go to that rate? So first if you if we look at the comparisons that we have with the other communities um you can see that the rates that other communities have they're all over the place. The reason is they do their studies. If they're not doing any capital projects to the magnitude that Riverier Beach is doing capital projects or they've already done their capital projects, uh the rates are never going to match, right? That it's certainly not going to match. Um but as you can see, even down, you know, Riviera Beach, it's a highlighted field down there. The red numbers up there, that's where we would go if we stuck with the statute and just did the 50% increase. Okay? And you can see that again, our numbers still would be lower than most of the communities even though we're doing all these capital projects. The blue numbers up on the screen, the second set of numbers uh with River Beach is those are where the numbers would be if we go up to the max. Okay. Now, can we go up to the max? We believe that the justification is there

and that's what the consultant after these two workshops will come back and put together the study that is required and show you know the whether it's justified or not. The main reasons that we see main reasons that we see um that we are justified is we clearly are experienc growth. the population growth, the developer growth that or the developments that are coming into community are going to put a great strain on the community as a whole. We're going to put a strain on your roads, going to put a strain on your parks, going to put a strain on your libraries. um if we don't raise the impact fees to be able to pay to enhance or increase the uh the capacity of all those facilities. Okay, we will not have the money to do it um and meet the needs that are coming in. The second item is as we all know uh construction costs have gone um you know up every year. Uh we certainly look at like the police station 15 years ago, you know, when we're looking at a police station, it was 12 million, $15 million. Now we're over $50 million. Okay. A point out um that if you do, you know, impact fees are paid by developers. If you do not collect the impact fees today, you cannot collect them retroactively tomorrow. Okay? So this is a an opportunity to collect the amount to have the developers pay for their impact on the community. Uh the third item out there again is to collect the the full impact. Okay, again this is your opportunity to get the adequate funding to come in to do these enhancements. you just had a presentation about the ocean park. Okay,

those are the types of enhancements that these impact fees come in because it's providing more for the for the new residents that are coming into the community and the current residents. And then finally, um you know, as I mentioned, we have projected revenue losses if we don't implement this. Again, you can't go backwards. The as the developments are coming forward, that is the time to collect the impact piece. So, I know you've all seen this slide, you know, a number of times. Um, you know, but this is this is where we are today as far as our capital project. We still have uh multi-million dollars of needs. Uh certainly in the streets, in the facilities, and we talked about the parks. Um this we believe is really your justification. Population growth, cost escalation, and the actual capital project plan that you have. Uh again, I will point out that the impact fees can pay for debt service uh two weeks ago when we talked about that $60 million worth of bonds. Um these impact fees certainly could be used to pay that debt service on those bonds. Um but again, that's that is the presentation. Madam Chair, um purposes of this workshop again is to take comments from the public. The ordinance will be brought back for first reading on April 1st and then hopefully the second reading would be on April 15th.

Okay, very good. Um so when it happens that way, when it goes goes into effect that night, 15. So once the uh the ordinance is adopted, we have to post the new rates for 90 days before it can go into effect. So, if you did it on April 15th, it'd go into effect on, you know, July 15th. And again, I will point out um if I didn't say it already, in order to go above the 50% in the statutes, in order to, you know, go up to the max, it does require unanimous vote. But this will bring in tens of millions of dollars based on the developments that, you know, are just on the table right now.

Very good. Um, public comment. How many do we have?

Madam Chair, we have one public comment. Mary Bram Rivier Beach. Apparently you all workshop this. I think about a week ago and it was supposed to come back to so that the board itself in it in the entirety can have their input as you can see that the city is moving at a pace. It must move. It has to move but it it is always how it will move. Those impact fees are are set to also enhance and progress the other entities that you as a board and city would like to do. So now the finance director told you they cannot be retroactive. Either you make that decision now and we proceed because it is noted that we do have growth in here. Nothing will stay the same. It's not meant to be that way. Your city and our livelihoods exist on that same merit. some things that we say and we look at and say that we cannot meet but it's not in our eyesight because when the end meets the road rubber meets the road this is where we at

either we stay stagnated or either we see bill out and your impact fees will help you do that impact impact. So when these developers come to you all, you you all can you all can even set some courses that you know so that you all can get can get something a little bit more out of them because it it is predicated on your city and especially with the things up there now with our capital projects when I when I spoke prior how the finance and the city manager and you as a board that you all mail out those things to we as residents no renters you will not get those pamphlets because anybody does not pay a water bill you don't get them. So this is why things are filled out so that you can know exactly what your city is doing and how your city is moving and it it will only move because of progress. This is not 1960, not 1962 when the city was established. We are in 2026 and it is hardcore decisions that have to be made whether Miss Bram like it or not. But I see the growth in this city. I see the beautifification of this city. So I am hoping that you all really take some heed to these. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you so much for your comments. Are any other comments from the board in regards to this item?

Yes, ma'am. Chair. Yes. Go ahead, sir. Uh Sherman, can you tell me if any other municipalities have a special rate for affordable housing projects being done by the housing authorities or a CDC?

Um they don't have a special rate and I'm going to focus on the county. Uh after you asked, I spent a lot of time looking at how the county operates. Um there has to be a nexus or relationship between the impact of the development on the services and facilities and then how that money is spent um and benefit those developments. Um the rates are required to be fair and equitable across the board. So the impact that an affordable housing unit has on roads and libraries and parks should be similar to a market rate housing's impact on the roads affected. So the rates need to be the same. Um what the county has done is the county has set up an affordable housing assistance program to help buy down the impact fees. Um so similar to what we do on the utility side where we you know we help seniors pay their bills you know by that front we have to have a pool of money available to then draw on to help developers pay those impact fees. Now, property tax reform aside and and other budget issues face, we're fortunate in that the city has adopted the MIHOP ordinance. Um, as currently written, it probably would need to be tweaked to, you know, provide this opportunity, but I think that that is really the source. Um, so we would have to come back. We can have that discussion, come back, uh, build the program out, uh, figure out which affordable housing units are going to get, what the buy down would be. Uh, but it would actually be a separate

program outside of the ordinance. Madam Chair, yes, go ahead. That's a great suggestion and thank you so much for that and doing the research. I really urge the council to look into uh using the MIOP money to buy down the impact fees on these projects because if the water hookup fees and the impact fees are added to these projects, they will no longer be affordable. So, I I think this would be a good use of the MIOP funds. Thank you for your suggestion. Thank you. You're welcome. Thank you. Any other questions in regards to this item?

Thank you for the presentation. Thank you. look forward to seeing it uh as an ordinance on April 1st. Um next item, Madam Clerk.

Madam Chair, we're on item 7B, ordinance number 4305, an ordinance of the city council of the city of Riviera Beach, Palm Beach County, Florida, amending chapters 22 of the codes of ordinances entitled buildings and building regulations. Article six entitled road impact fee by updating and revising section 22-187 entitled computation of the amount of road impact fee providing for severability and providing for an effective date. Madam chair we have two public comment cards in this item. The acceptance of the cars is closed.

Mr. Evans sorry a motion to approve ordinance number 4305. Madam Madam Chair, that M Mr. That's the workshop. Mr. Sherman uh made the presentation for both items. Oh, okay. All right. I see. So, that's 7A and 7B. Madam Chair, I would encourage you that if you do have public comment cards on that, you still accept those. All right. Go ahead and do the public comment for those items.

The first speaker is Fain Loseman, followed by Erica Davis. That's fusman. When I look at the impact fees, it brings up conversation I had with the former chief building official. If a building is converted from a condo to a residential hotel, from a residential hotel back to a condo, should those impact fees be retroactive? Because the impact fees for year- round year-round residents that live in condos is higher than for a hotel. So I think when we're looking at the Amir scandal that's going on, if that ultimately does become a residential condo, then those impact fees should be retroactive.

Erica Davis, Erica Davis, Riviera Beach. I'm happy to know that the impact fees will be um spent on the residents needs, the roads and everything, the parks, whatever we need because lately in the past, they were going somewhere where they shouldn't have been going. So, I'm really happy for that. And I want to make sure that who whomever build on Broadway or anywhere those impact fees can't impact on the west side of the of the city because we're not getting any money on from the CRA development only the taxes that we need. So we're suffering over on the west side of town because we're not having any development on the west side of town. So, I'm glad to know that these impact fees hopefully you're going to enforce them to go to things that we need on the west side of town as well as the east side. Thank you,

Madam Chair. Let's end the public comment. Very good. Let us go to the next item, please. Madam Chair, we are on item 13A, workshop discussion on property tax reform, discussions in Tallahassee and potential fiscal implications for the city of Riviera Beach. We do have two public comment cards on this item. The acceptance of cards is closed.

Thank you. Uh Mr. Evans. Uh yes, Madam Chair, members of the board. Uh the intent behind this item is to communicate to you that obviously and the residents that uh property tax reform has been an item that has been discussed in Tallahassee uh for some years now. And so there are uh pieces of legislation that are still um in play in Tallahassee even though the legislature was not able to successfully pass their budget and decide on a bill that would effectively go to the voters in November. Um there is a special session that has been called and they will effectively adopt their budget and staff anticipates that there will be some type of property tax legislation that will uh make it to the ballot. the information that we shared with you all uh as part of the agenda pack. It really looked looked at uh HJR203 and this was a piece of legislation that would provide a $100,000 exemption um beginning January 1st of 2027 and then it would be an additional $100,000 in subsequent years uh to the tune of over a 10-year period you would see roughly about a million dollars whereby properties would be if they had a value that was within that span of a h 100,000 to a million dollars that the advalorum property that is collect property taxes that are collected by local governments namely the the county and the city would see a significant reduction in in its revenue. Uh so we looked at what the impact could be as a result of this particular legislation if it did in fact impact the city of Rivier Beach. And the reductions if it was a reduction in revenue the reduction would be anywhere between five to could be 20%. A 5%

reduction is roughly about $3.7 million. 10% reduction 7.5 million and 20% reduction $15 million. I think it's important to note that we collect roughly about $75 million in property tax revenue. And when you take the component of property tax revenue that looks to fund public safety, you're talking about 55.6 million or roughly 76% 74% of the property tax revenue that we collect goes to fund public safety. in the particular pieces of legislation, public safety is exempt whereby if you were to make reductions, you couldn't make reductions from those particular um departments. So, you would look at your other quality of life services that um that the city provides. So, city staff has been looking and started to look at different ways to be able to prepare for what property tax reform would look like. Uh we're going to be doing uh some budget exercises within departments and going through what is a exercise that if we had to reduce our budget by 5 10 or 20% that we would be prepared to show the board what are some of those options. The other side of it is related but unrelated the sir charge that the city of Riviera Beach has routinely charged to Mangonia Park for providing services outside of the municipal boundaries. there was a bill that passed in the legislature that effectively has reduced um the city's ability to collect that moving forward. Now, we don't know exactly when that comes into place, but that was something that was floated in Tallahassee for some time. And so, uh we anticipate that there's going to be something that's going to be on the ballot, what iteration that looks like. We've seen bills where it's providing for exemptions for homesteaded properties and persons over the age of 65. We've seen a different variety of different uh bills that have made its way uh through

at least one of the chambers in Tallahassee, but we can anticipate that uh something is going to make its way to the ballot and the voters will have to make a decision in November. One of the things that's important to note that we as a city are prohibited statutoily from advocating um against anything that is pre presented to the voters. we can only state what is the facts and the information. So, um, as we continue to watch what's happening in Tallahassee and and we're working with the property appraisers office, we have uh multiple spreadsheets that give us different options of every type of bill that's up there in uh in Tallahassee. And I do want to provide the the CFO if there's any additional information that uh he wants to provide. But it it's long-term uh impacts that it would have to the city um both in the immediate and then in the long term. Uh because if you do get a $100,000 exemption every year compounding, you're going to see a situation where a lot of the homesteaded properties in the city of Rivier Beach was roughly about 7,800 um will effect we would effectively see those being removed off the tax roation if it's passed as it's currently constructed. Mr. Sherman.

Yeah. Again, uh Randy Sherman, chief financial officer. Yeah, just to add a couple of points. So, we have roughly about 17,000 properties in the city. Uh, as Mr. Evans said, it's just over 7,000 are homesteaded properties. Um, so we've been, you know, again, taking the information getting from the property appraiser and run some scenarios. The interesting thing that we find is you do the 100,000 in year one, it's about $7 million. to the 100,000 in year two, it's about $7 million and then it drops almost 25% to just over $4 million. Um, so that just tells you that about 25% of your properties are in that $200,000 tax bill range. Uh so the the major hits will be in the first couple of years but they will continue to be hits over the next you know up to 10 years is I I guess is what the plan is right now. Um what it in essence does uh initi it rolls your budget back to 2020 2021 that that's effectively where we were with revenues if we lose those kinds of revenues at this point. So that kind of gives us the guide on, you know, where we need to be um as a as a point. And again, you know, we we've added staff, we've added programs. Um doesn't mean that those are the same staff and programs that, you know, are going to have to be cut, but again, it kind of gives you that that measure um where we were five, six years ago. In regards to this, I think that um the discussion that the audit committee had was

um the budget that has been printed out that we need to start looking at cuts. Um we have to balance something. We have high water bills. We have to build a water plant, police station. It's just so much that we have to accomplish and on top of that, we may be getting funding or our budget cut because of these property taxes. So, I think that sooner rather than later that we need to start looking at what that looks like for the city. Um, and because of this, I can't see why the voters would not vote for this. They're saying that I'll get a $100,000 increase on my homestead exemption, but I think the the difference is that they don't know that that will cut into public safety. That will cut into, you know, police, fire, and anything else that the city that they live in provides to them. So, I don't know how the ads are going to go in regards to selling this, but um I think that it may be something that passes and we have to look at this. Um and this is in November, which means that we really have to look at our budget to be able to take this hit um in regards to uh our our our budget, especially with our public safety being half of our budget. um you know issues like employment, issues like insurance, those are the things that we have to look at because those are our big ticket items but at the same time we have to look at the fact that we still have this huge capital um u projects going on. So, it is a balance that this council has to um and the public has to come up with a happy medium for the future for the city.

Mr. Evans.

Yes, Madam Chair. And uh to your point, one of the things I think is important is that they are in fact exempting public safety. So, so public safety um is not going to be impact theoretically not going to be impacted is really your quality of life services, your you know your programs such as the library and parks and recreation and YEP and and the scholarship programs those quality of life things that make a community a community. uh those are the programs that you would see and one of the things I would also encourage the board to do on the other side if this passes the implications on the CRA are a lot more steep from the standpoint is the CRA would lose what is the city of Riviera Beach's contribution and then it would lose the county's contribution as well. So, you know, the CRA is is probably going through similar type of exercises because, you know, they do get tax revenue or revenue to fund their operations from advalorum taxes. So, it would in fact impact a lot of CRAs throughout the uh throughout the state. The other item that is a a tough threshold, it does have to get 60% of the voters to to pass because it's a constitutional amendment. So, if it doesn't get um on the on the ballot for some some form or some fashion, we can anticipate next legislative session or special session probably being called to to probably facilitate some form of property tax reform. But there's, you know, they are trying to find one that can be reconciled in in both the House and the Senate and that ultimately would would make its way to the to the ballot. But we just wanted to inform the board that we are uh starting as as early as this week to go through some of those exercise and activities. We will have subsequent conversations with you all. We will have discussions that show and prepare for what is the worst case

scenario. What is the you know secondary alternative and what is if nothing happens. But some of the decisions that we're looking at internally is, you know, if we have vacant positions, holding those positions, not filling some of those positions because it may be a situation where an employee may be displaced from one of those other services that we can move into those. So, we are we are looking to to better position the organization because we we do and in the m in the city manager circle, we do believe that some form of reform is going to make its way to the ballot and and invariably probably pass. So what does that mean for for our budget? So if it passes in November, what are we looking at in terms of money? What are we looking that we won't receive? How much are we talking?

Depends on um if if it does pass, we would see it would affect not our 2027 budget, 2028. So it your next budget would be what is status quo, the one that's adopted here in in September. But then your subsequent budget cycle, that's when you'll see you probably can see a reduction of about $7 million. And then you know obviously subsequent years you know it's an additional impact associated with that. Yeah. And if I and if I can mad chair that's $7 million that you can't reduce police and fire. So half of your budget is protected. So that 7 million has to come out of the other half of your budget. Madam Chair,

yes. Go ahead, sir.

What are we basing those scenarios on? Um was that just what was passed at the House, not the Senate? What what are we saying that the reform because you're saying that they're not going to impact the first responders, but there is going to be some type of impact. They're going to possibly dictate that the funds can only be allocated for um first responders services on certain hours. they may say no community policing. So when we say there's no impact, I want to make sure we're clear, especially with our police department, that they will be impacted, especially if all the other services are impacted. So that was the first concern. And then we talked about the numbers. We're just throwing out numbers right now. Based upon what though, because we have 7,000 homes based upon legislation that hasn't passed yet. It's an idea, but I want to make sure the residents understand what legislations are out there or what's the possibility of this homestead exemption. Uh and and madam chair if I may. Yes.

Um so as I as I communicated earlier u when you do look at public safety yes there there's probably quality of life services. So community policing may not be community policing. You may do it in a different way but programs like PAL may be a program that is that is not supported. There's there's certain things but largely responding to calls for service police and fire will will remain intact. And that's based on, you know, um, HJR 203 that we we dug down into. That was the one that looks like it was getting some momentum. It made its way through the House. It was it needed 24 senators to approve that. They they weren't able to get that that done, but we can anticipate that bill or some form or some iteration being discussed in greater detail. And so we have looked at and we get information from the property appraisers website or property appraiser themselves that runs different scenarios for all the municipalities. So all the municipalities are getting spreadsheets based on this potential piece of legislation and this potential piece of what the impact is. So when we get into what are those budget exercises, we're going to go and be able to identify this may be proposal A, proposal C, and proposal D of multiple pieces of legislation that's out there floating, but the one that seemed to have the most promise was the one that we explained that we shared with you all tonight. And that was merely from the perspective we wanted to inform the board what's going on. And then there's going to be things that we're going to be doing organizationwide to be able to prepare what if something happens. And so I just wanted to make sure that in the spirit of transparency that you know that this is out here and we're going to have to look at things a little bit differently as we go through uh what is your budget process that we're already building out and working on what a schedule would be to have those conversations with you because there are some decisions that the board's going to have to make. Follow up mam.

Yes. Go ahead. So, what I would say is if we come up with the scenarios and work on different uh budget options and then have that in our budget talks possibly in June, having those ready because if it does get to the ballot, I agree that this will be something that will pass. My my thoughts and concerns are the impacts and then also being able to educate exactly what is going to be impacted our communities because there's this narrative that police, fire, and education is not going to be impacted. But our communities police and fire operate very differently than other communities. So they will be impacted because we require certain amenities like uh the PAL program like our community policing programs that is a necessity for here. So that would be my only concern with the with uh what's being relayed to our residents uh versus what's actually going to impact Rivier beat. So all the scenarios Mr. Evans that you have if you can have those prepared and then having those as part of our June um conversations for budget talk. Thank you, Madam Chair.

Madam Chair, yes. Go ahead. Okay. Uh, Mr. Sherman, can can you tell me, have we done a study on how much increased tax revenue was going to come to this city based on the projects that we've already approved for Broadway uh, and other areas? The answer to that be no, we haven't done that. Um, we did we've done it, believe it or not, on the utility side, but not on the property tax side. I would suggest that we do it on the property tax side. Uh also followup. Uh madam chair. Okay. So

how much money I think I think we discussed this once before but I don't remember the number the exact number but the CRA district on Singer Island pays how much money? Shoot. Um I believe it's almost about half of what they bring in. So it was like5 or $6 million they pay. That's recurring money, right? Yeah. That's recurring fund. So that could always go to the city's budget if we were to eliminate the CRA district from Singer, Iowa. Thank you. Any other questions as it relates to this tax reform? Thank you, uh, Mr. Evans, Mr. Sherman, for that presentation. We will go to our next item.

Madam Chair, we still have two public comments. Um, the first would be Erica Davis, followed by Mrs. Brown. discussion.

Mr. Evans, I think you need to speak a little louder in your microphone. I mean, like really loud and then they need to take notes cuz obviously they don't listen to what you're saying. You said that they're going to put some bills on the ballot that's going to impact the taxes in in the city. Is that correct? If it impacts the city, the development too is going to be impacted. Our quality of life is going to be impacted. If we're going to put these tall buildings on Broadway and they cut out the taxes, homestead taxes. That means we'll be stuck with concrete on Broadway. and the developers will be getting richer. Mr. District 4 and we won't be getting anything is we're going to be impacted either way. It does not matter. And if we're going to do all this overdevelopment in the city that's going to impact our quality of life, you better believe we better be making some money off of it. It's going to happen. District 4. One way or the other, we know that, you know, you have your people that's working to do this development, but let's face reality here. We have to be prepared for this. And I think Mr. Evans just spoke about that. So, I don't care what you all say, we're going to be impacted and y'all better figure it out. either you get rid of the CRA, bring the people over on the city side and bring all the revenue right now as fast as you can in the city so everybody

can get some and benefit from it because it's going to be a problem either way. Even if they didn't do the taxes and we kept the taxes, the entire city does not benefit from them anyway. So, you know, y'all take notes when the man is talking cuz then you'll come back and say, "Well, he didn't say or he you dis he disrespected you and this and that and the other." Nobody wants to hear that. Take notes. It's going to happen whether you want to hear it or not.

Last speaker is Mary Graham. It's Mayor Bram Riviera Beach. Uh, as another suggestion for the board, we do have our lobbyists. We know that the governor board are implementing these things here. Whether or not they proceed forward, we use the wisdom that we have to just in case this is passed here. We as a city here, we must use some wisdom here. Now, we must look at the things that are detrimental. See, Miss Bram say detrimental. Why I say these things here? Because Miss Bram is a widow now. So, Miss Bram knows that her survivorship is predicated on what is in my boundary. The things that I know that is necessary with my wisdom, I must do those things there. The finance director said we have 17,000 properties in this city here. See, Miss Bram listens. And not only that, with your budget there, we may have to roll it back to the budget of 2021 or 2022. So what does that tell you? We as a city here, we will have our backs up against the wall, but it's how

it is how we navigate through what we will have to endure. This is not a scare tactic. This is this did not come from you as a board nor as the city leaders. This came from our governing bodies that oversees every municipality that it is. So when we say that what we can look at in our budget and I am asking you as a council person here, we've wasted precious time, we wasted revenues. Now it has caught up with us. So, but we still can come out of this if we look precisely at the things in this city here that are critical to meet our needs. It's okay. Miss Bram had to cut out some things because my survivorship depends on it. Your city runs on that survivorship based on your budget. What is in your budget? What can you put in this category here to offset that of to offset that expenditure? It's dealing with your expenditures in its totality of your city and you as a governing board. This is what you all going to have to look at because it's coming down. So get with our lobbyist and get on the things that they are participating on implementing.

Thank you. Is that we have for our public comment? That was the end of public comment for that item. Madam Chair, item which is uh Jonathan Evans's contract that was placed on the agenda uh for uh with um Commissioner uh Gayton. I want to say because this Mr. Ever's contract and special events was added to this agenda. I'm giving an opportunity for public comment now. So, if you want to have public comment on either of these items, please bring your card to the front because these were added and we need to make sure that there's public comment uh associated or given the opportunity for public comment for these items.

This is Mr. placed on the agenda by commission. If you want and there's another item uh placed by the mayor on special events. If you want to comment on either of those, please bring your cards forward so that the clerk can provide you with an opportunity to respond to any of these items um that we will be discussing. Mr. Gen, you can go ahead and get started um while we take the last of the public comment cards.

Okay. I thought you said you were going to allow them to speak first. Oh, you you do your presentation and then they speak. Okay. Madame Chair. Yes, sir.

Um I put this item on the agenda. Actually, I emailed Mr. Evans three times last week to put it on the agenda. I understand that y'all went through something, took it off. I want to give the public ample notice that it was coming. Um this item is on the agenda because um for the past several meetings when I tried to be transparent with the public about what's really going on behind the scenes. Um and one of the speakers said it tonight, people will cut me off up here. No, we can't talk about that in public. It's the wrong venue. Um there's a charter um situation. But let me say this. If we're going to be transparent, we're going to be transparent about everything. Most of what the public get to see only are ribbon cutings, events, public meetings. All of those events are orchestrated to give a public image. The true story is what's really happening behind the scenes. And what's happening behind the scenes is not a pretty picture. U when I ran for office, I said I was going to come in, do an assessment on Mr. Evans, and then give the public my opinion. Tell you what I found out when I came here. Under Mr. Evans watch behind the scenes the city is out of control. In my opinion, the park

have gotten into shouting matches in front of Mr. Evans. Nothing was done. the common denominator of many of those out of control interchanges. Randy Sherman Randy Sherman has been able to do whatever he want to do, how he want to do it with no discipline. Anybody else?

We can't we can't have uh members of the public. We gave it opportunity to put in a comment card and once Mr. Gidton has made his presentation then you can comment but please do not or refrain from commenting while he's speaking. Thank you. Go ahead sir. What I was told when I first got here is that um there's a lot of disrespect that's going on among the employees sometime at the residence and and it became very evident that the staff is very fearful of speaking picking up because of retaliation. Mr. Evans is quick to use. The charter says that we can't mingle in the dayto-day. The charter does not say that he has the authority to mistreat anyone and I've got to sit up here and be quiet. That is not going to happen with me. If I feel an employee being mistreated, I'm going to say something. He's leading us down a road to a lot of lawsuits. Mr. Evans is terminating people, firing them, and he gives some of them severage pay. If you're firing them, you should have the evidence that would sustain any legal challenges. Why are you giving them some of them severage pay? I asked Mr. Evans, what criteria are you using? If you meet this, this, this, then you get severed. He's doing it subjectively. He giving it

to whoever he want to give it to. And he doesn't even bring it to us. And he's using money that was designed to use on procurement. And we had this discussion up here. And some probably notice I kept saying that that money as it relates to his authority should only be used for goods and services and professional services. He's been using some of it to give to people to leave the city. I think to keep him quiet. All of this is not common practice. We have a problem and I'm going share with everybody under Mr. Evans watch. We got fined a million dollars. People tried to say that he didn't know. We pay him to know. He should have had the checks and balances in place to determine if we had a problem over there. There's no other organization where they can get fined a million dollars and the CEO is not held responsible. Nowhere else but Riviera Beach. The way this city is run is going to run us in the ground. Mr. Evans has a lock. him and Randy on employees. They cannot talk to us. The department heads had to sign some kind of form saying that you won't talk to city council people. If you do, you got to inform me and such and such. Fine. He need to know when employees talk to us. I that I don't have a problem with. What I do have a problem

with is the employees feel so fearful that they can't talk to us because if they talk to us things that are not right going to be revealed and for years he's had the city in a in in a stronghold. I'm not tolerating it. The the other thing that really really bothered me is that under his watch, the city got referred to the state attorney about our water plant. He is the man in charge. When does he be held accountable? Nobody that I know of who is the CEO doesn't ever step up to the plate. Mr. Evans has never stepped up to the plate and said, "I'm responsible for everything that happened in this city, including what goes wrong." When something goes wrong, he throwing his department heads under the bus and let it roll back over them again. He would say, "Well, I've assigned this to this person and that you're in charge. If you're not in charge, you shouldn't be sitting in that seat." And one of the one of the things that um has really disturbed me is these um water rates that we're about to encounter. Randy Sherman, Mr. Evans negotiated a $400 million bond that's going to put our residents in a situation that they can't afford. In October, there's going to be a 30% increase.

Next year, it's going to be an additional 30% increase. That's 60%. Now the year after that another 30% increase 90%. After that another additional 30% increase. Our residents cannot afford the rates that we have now. Why would you negotiate a contract with so short of a time to pay it off? Miss Evans and Randy have this city in a position that we may not be able to get out of. We say that we're going to go look for money. We're going to try to defra cost that should have been done a couple of years ago. Now we into the increases. This is the time that we needed. 30% this year, an additional 30 next year, additional 30 the year after that, and another 30%. All this water rates Mr. Evans and Randy put on our backs. The council approved it. I wasn't here, but they're our professionals. the council, I can't speak for them, would rely on them bringing us something reasonable that won't break the backs of our residents. If you all think that the residents can afford a 30% this year, another 30% 60% and another 30% 90% and another 30% delusional Mr. Evans, that's what he did. Lastly,

we have been doing a lot of development. We came in here a new council holding people accountable. Mr. Evan staff start leaking false things about certain council people to try to distract from what he's not doing. So now y'all look over here. Don't look at what I'm not doing over here. All of this drama, it didn't just come by stance. There was a reporter that got on TV and said that I talked to two staff people and they gave information about what was supposed to be and I don't know what the information was confidential information. I asked Mr. Evans is he investigating any of these leaks? Nope. I can't really. The city is out of control. If we try to hold them accountable, the leaks start going false information. Let's make them seem like the bad people. I'mma stay focused. My responsibility is to the masses of the residents. I appreciate everything. Everybody get to that mic and say, but there is a silent majority out in this community that also calls council people. Sometimes, you know, we think if we get to the max, this the only opinion we should consider. No, there are different opinions that are different from some of the people that come to the mic. And I get those phone calls. I think it's time to move in another direction. And I'm prepared to put a motion on the

floor tonight to terminate Mr. Evans contract without cause. That's my presentation. Very good. Um, are there any comments from the board? And to be fair, uh, Commissioner Giden, we will give, uh, Mr. Evans opportunity to respond. Mr. Evans, do you want to respond to any of these items? Uh, madam madam chair if I may. Yes, go ahead sir.

Um, professional, right? And there's there's some information that was that was provided for that is is not accurate. And um and I and I'll just I'll just share with you one of them, right? We and the city attorney can attest to this. We are the ones that self-reported to the state attorney's office as it relates to the water thing. We were the ones, Miss Jacobs and I, that went over to the FDO and provided them with the transposed documents. Um but I'm not going to go into point and counterpoint and and the like. I I respect um Council Person Gayton. He's duly elected by the residents of this this city and I respect all the council members in their respective places. I love my job. I love what I do. I love this community. My daughter's from here. Um and you know, the board has the the authorities within its you know, purview to to make a determination as to how how they want to to move the organization. Um, as long as the board would have me, I would love to serve in in the capacity as as administrator, but again, um, that that's a decision that you and you alone as the board have to make. And so I I'm not going to, you know, I I respect the the community and I respect the the board members enough to um not go point and counterpoint. And so, you know, Madam Chair, and I appreciate the opportunity to um have a discussion with you all, but I I think at this particular moment, it's not appropriate for me, and I want to retain um my ability to to seek guidance from legal counsel should I need to. So, I'll leave my comments as that.

Madam Chair, yes, go ahead. Um one last point, too. Um one of the issues I've had is about Mr. Evans not being truthful. Um, as a matter of fact, one, um, Walt, would you pull up my, um, documents that I sent? Okay. Um, that is a, um, settlement agreement. Uh, walk us through this. I'm sorry. I said walk us through this.

Okay. Um, I'm just going to hit a couple of points. This is this is the general settlement agreement. We gave Mr. um Evans uh $190,000 of the taxpayers money. Okay. Um, Walt, go to page three of that document.

Okay. H look what it says. Employee hereby agrees that he would not seek employment with employer at any time in the future. Employer employee further agrees that he would neither apply this is very critical. Neither apply for any position with employee employer nor will the employee accept any position offered by the employer. He signed a legal document that says that he would never apply and even if we offered it to him, he would not accept it. Why is he sitting here? I mean your your word is your bond and you can laugh.

No audience I listen audience we will give you an opportunity to respond. Please we'll give you that opportunity. Madam chair I'm I'm I am pointing out that Mr. Evans signed a legal document that he would never return and he sits here now. I do not trust Mr. Evans, let me say that. Audience,

yeah. Yeah. We have to have quiet people

and and anybody that'll sign a legal document like this and then turn around and violate it, those type of people are untrue. In fairness to Mr. Evans, there is an amendment But he's already agreed that he wouldn't come back even if we offered. He signed a legal document in writing. Um Walt put put up the the other one where where he came back and the city council changed the language and said that we're going to remove that sentence. Now he's already signed a legal document. They did an amendment to get him back to remove that line that says that um he would not come back. They took it out. He's already signed the legal document saying he would even come back. So, I'm not sure what that amendment was for because one thing that I know is that we need people in that position that are going to be truthful, going to be honest, and not going to treat employees differently. Mr. Evans put his foot on Keith Golden neck and ran to walk around here doing whatever he want to do with no punishment. One last thing. There was a narrative out here about Keith Golden that that he was at an incident. It appeared that he was at an incident giving directions that resulted in the car going down. Lies, lies, lies. Mr. Evans knew it was a lie. He didn't step up to say anything. Keith Golden

wasn't even on the site at the time the car went down and this man is walking around here with people thinking that he was the one out there that giving instructions. So I wanted to pull up the footage. The attorney asked me not to. So I asked the attorney to come over and take a look at the body cam to see if Mr. Golden was even on site when the car went down. Mr. attorney. Was Keith Golden on site before that car went down? Not in the video that I saw. No,

thank you. He wasn't even there when the car went down. The community walk around thinking that somehow he gave some bad instructions and then it resulted in the car going underwater. Mr. Golden wife was in the hospital life support. His dad had died. He was going through a lot. Mr. Golden had never been written up in 30 years. This was his first write up. First write up. On his first write up from Mr. Evans. Now he's going through all this traumatic things in his life. On his first write up, Mr. uh Mr. Evans suspended him and put him on final notice. First write up. Never been written up in his career. That's something called progressive discipline. Mr. Evans has been mistreating employees for a long time and hiding behind the charter. I'm not accepting it. on his first write up if this man wife is on life support his daddy died the first thing I'mma think I would expect Mr. Evans to say can we help you I mean this your first write up so it's out of character if you are doing something out of character you you never been written up in 30 years and I know you're going through a lot in your life Mr. Evans put his foot on his neck and suspended him figuratively and gave him a final notice. Really, I'm telling you, there's a lot happening behind the scene that is not right and I'm not going to sit here and let it go.

And if you notice, he never said anything I said was incorrect. Everything I've been saying is true. I'm done. Madam Chair, if I may. Yes. Go ahead, sir.

So, with with regards to it and and I don't make a habit of commenting on personnel matters because it it's it's a confidential matter and in some cases some of the information is HIPPA protected and we shouldn't be talking about certain elements. But I will tell you it the video, if you look at the video, the assistant chief arrives on scene probably 13 seconds after the vehicle has submerged. So he is on scene. The information the the the information the information is the information is all contained in the report. Two different investigators looked at multiple situations and it is not predicated largely on the situation that happened in the canal. There are other items that are contained in that report. And so when I looked at the entire situation, I looked at it holistically and I looked at all the other complaints and all the other information that was provided for. Now, as it relates to the discipline, I administered the discipline that I thought was in fact appropriate, but I just want to make sure that it is not because of the incident that occurred in the uh canal. And I and I don't want to continue to uh speak about one particular employee in, you know, we as an organization have moved on. We're working with him. We're we're we're moving forward with regards to that. I don't hold any animosity or grudge or or anything with regards to that. And so I just wanted to, you know, Madam Chair, you gave me an opportunity to respond and then there were some additional comments that were provided. So, I only thought it was appropriate that I that I had an opportunity to state the the facts.

Madam Chair, one last point. We clarification move. But she wants some clarification. What is the what is the final notice? What what does that mean? Madam Chair, if I may. Yes. Go ahead.

He's on a performance improvement plan. Uh so the plan outlines some different things that he needs to do. And if he accomplishes those things in, I believe 120 days, the performance improvement plan goes away, he's okay. If he doesn't accomplish those things in that 120 days, then he's slated for termination. But he meets with the assistant city manager and the chief to go through items that are outlined. So he understands what the goals and objectives. There's no gotcha moments. There's no curveballs. He understands exactly what the object and it has to be measurable. It can't be something that's nebulous that you put forward and he can never achieve it. It's a plan that he has to work through and then at the completion of that the um the performance improvement plan goes away. We've put many employees on performance improvement plans.

Um sir could if you if you don't mind could we get the public comment and then you can Yeah. Well, let me let me say one thing while they come. They can start coming calling out names.

There were two investigations that Mr. Evans mentioned by law firms with the expertise to do this. Two investigations, two, not one recommended suspending of final notice. Not one. Two law firms did an investigation. Mr. Evans exceeded their recommendation on someone who hasn't been written up in his whole career. And and for and for a man who for a man who career is his life and then he never been written up and Mr. Evans decide that I'mma suspend you even though your wife and and your father had died. I'm not going to get you into help. I'mma suspend you and give you a final notice trifling.

Madam chair, if I may.

Yes. Okay. That's after that we got to get the public comment there. there there's a lot of information that I think if if the board would be inclined to listen or talk to the fire chief um there was support and there was help that was provided but we as an employer and as an organization are not going to put people's personal business out as to how we look to help them during that time and so there there was help that was extended um and in every investigation that we have this was probably the first one that they ever recommended discipline. Discipline is not something that is subject to an investigator providing. They recommended discipline. And if you look at the recommendations that were provided, there was recommendations all across the board from from the fire chief, from HR, from administration, and then it came to me. And so I sat on the the issue and I think you all saw the sequence of emails that I that I received from the fire union with regards to the issue and I made the decision that I thought was most appropriate based on the total package of what was going on. So to have it you know said that it's isolated to what occurred in the canal is a mischaracterization of the entire incident.

All right. Thank you. Let us mad let us get to comment please. Do we have we have eight um speakers ma'am. The first one will be Julie Vel followed by JB Dixon and Erica Davis.

Good evening. I'm Julie Bautell. I live on Singer Island in Rivier Beach. And let me say for the record, I I'm not a FBI informant. Sorry, Mr. Loman. And I'm speaking tonight not as a former city council woman, uh, but as someone who has lived through what a decision means to terminate a city manager. And I want to be very clear about something. I ran for office first because in September of 2017, the city council voted to fire Jonathan Evans. And that was the moment I had not been deeply involved in city politics before that, but I could not stand by after the city dismissed one of the few steady hands capable of moving Riviera Beach forward. And when I stepped into that community recall effort, I met residents from every part of this city, both the west side and the east side, and they all felt the same way. They weren't talking about politics. They were talking about stability, about honesty, about finally having a city government that felt like it was moving in the right direction. And they asked me to run. I did not seek office for myself then and I do not seek it now. But I ran and I won by an overwhelming majority. Overwhelming majority. Why? For one reason. Because the people of this city wanted stability. They wanted professionalism. They wanted continuity. And they wanted progress. They wanted us to bring back Jonathan Evans. That's why we made that amendment. We asked him to come back together. We did that. We gave them a stable council and a highly capable city

manager. We moved the city forward. And now tonight, you are being asked to take us backward. backward. Many of us remember what this city was like before Jonathan Evans came and fixed it for us. There was a time you may remember in the press. We were known as a city in turmoil. That wasn't a slogan. It was a warning. It took years of steady leadership to fix that. This vote is not just about one person. It's about whether the city chooses stability or risks slipping back into dysfunction. Whether we continue moving forward or reopen a chapter that costs this community dearly. And I'm hearing from residents again who are saying, "What's happening to our city?" And I will say this clearly and loudly. I did not seek this fight then. I do not seek it now, but I will not shrink from it. We remember how to run a recall campaign. I hope it doesn't come to that. I sincerely hope it doesn't come to that. Thank you so much,

JB Dixon, Erica Davis, and Fame Mosman. I'm JB Dixon from Singer Island in Riviera Beach and I too only became active in caring about Riviera Beach uh when Jonathan Evans was fired. I first bought in this city in 1977 and I have been paying taxes here ever since on multiple properties. I had probably never been across the bridge from Singer Island. Not because I was afraid like some other people because I'm from Detroit and Detroit makes Riviera Beach look like a princess. Okay, we were we're Riviera Beach on steroids. So, I'm not afraid of anything in Riviera Beach. And I'm certainly not afraid to take on the same fight that we took on back then. And it was the first time that anyone could recall where the south side of the west side and Singer Island worked together. And that's how I got to know people in Riviera Beach and make friends of many, many people in Riviera Beach and have continued to work with them since. We brought back Jonathan Evans. We got rid of the people who had voted him out. got rid of them right away. If you doubt that, ask yourself where TD Davis is now. Ask where Lynn Hubard is now. Ask where Never mind.

We when we got Jonathan Evans back, we got projects going again that had been ignored like the water for 30 years by councils on which Bruce Bruce Gton sat. Okay. And now we have things actually happening. We have progress being made. Is there really are there really three people on this council who' be crazy enough to try to get rid of Jonathan Evans in the middle of huge projects which are being managed? Who's going to manage them? Who do you have in mind to replace him with? And how long will that take? And will it be a buddy? The whole thing about the about the employee who was or was not at the site is Bruce Gayton's ego has been hurt because some employee raised his voice at him and he demands respect for whatever reason. We don't know. And then the ego is my good good friend was you know was given a disciplinary action which everyone had recommended. Don't shoot yourselves in the foot again Riviera Beach because we will

Thank you ma'am. bring him back and we will get rid of any of you who vote to get him out.

Thank you so much ma'am. Thank you so much. The next speaker is Erica Davis followed by F Lman and Detta Pulp. Erica Davis, River Beach. Oh boy, it's like deja vu all over again. But this time, since we want to talk about transparency and uh it went against my better judgment to put you back in office because I knew you was going to put be pulling some crap. So, we want you to answer on your expense report $1,178 worth of Delta, $1,600 worth of Morris Clark in $1,300 worth of Josh Cloier, Josh Bank. Uh $1,028 on Delta. Uh Marriott City Creek, $842. Delta again, $918. And answer this question here. Are you a mayor? Because if you're not, why did you spend $2,36 on some US mayor's convention meeting or whatever since you want to be transparent and you only been here one year? Just one year. And I don't see anything that was credited but oh nothing totaling up to 18,24481 since you want to be so transparent and have all the mouth. Mr. Lawson, shall I go shall I shall I uh go to yours next

please? Mr. $53,977 every number.

Uh shall I shall I call out yours too? But but but he has too many of them. So, I what I'm going to do is probably post them on Facebook or I'm going to uh make some more copies and pass them around since they want to be so transparent about everything. See, we've been going through this stuff every time you turn around. We're going through the same bull crap with you idiots. And I am so sick and tired of this same old stuff. This man has not done anything. And by the way, Mr. uh Sherman was suspended for two weeks without pay. And Mr. Mr. uh Evans has the right to fire anybody that he feels like it. That's not your department. Your department is to run this city and make proper decisions, not steal our money and use it for traveling to Africa and buying you some clothes.

Wait, wait, wait. Okay. But no money used to go to Africa. I don't care. But you still spent it. You spent no money to GO TO AFRICA. MR. TRANSPARENT. And and and by the way, BEFORE YOU GO TALKING TO PEOPLE. UH, I hope you're getting this channel. I hope you're getting this channel. Hello. We need nothing to go to Africa. Commissioner K, while I'm speaking this my time, I HAVE 14 SECONDS. SO, WHILE YOU TRANSITION A lot and and and like I say, THAT'S RIGHT, MR. WATCH IT CUZ WE CAN RECALL you for this. YOU CAN BE RECALLED. I WOULDN'T CARE. I There was no money spent to go to Apple. We will have order. Wait, wait, wait. No, no. She threw something out that it wasn't true.

Sir, hold on a second, please. I have I'm giving everyone in this building an opportunity to talk from the commissioners to the public. If they tell a lie, I need I've done that. I've done that because we want to hear from everyone. This was an item that was placed still on the agenda. The public has the right to talk. But, Mr. And I understand and once we once they there was not one penny ever spent to go and I go to Africa. Mr. Giden on my own diet. Mr. Giden. Mr. Giden. If you want to respond, could you wait until the individual has finished speaking? She's done.

But you were trying to talk to her while she still had time on the clock. Okay. I apologize. I apologize. But she just threw a lot there and thought it was going to run. I spend my own money to go to Africa and I travel uh out of the country once a year on my own dime. Let's let's let's have order. Okay. And and and let me just say this. Anybody who want any financials from my office, you don't have to get them from Erica. You don't have to get them from um um Mr. Evans. Call my office. I give you everything that you want and I tell you what it was for. Madam Chair, very good. Go ahead. Madam Chair, will you be entering a motion to extend the meeting?

Uh, there's a motion needs to be made for the extension of a meeting. So move second. Madam clerk, council person Davis Pier. What? What are we? Yes. Yes. Council person Gon. Sure person. Council person Dr. Spiritis. Chairperson Lane Lenir. Yes. Unanimous vote. Madame Chair, the next three speakers are Fain Loseman, Detta Pulk, and Rochelle Hughes. Mr. Losman. Yes.

Mr. Giden, you're forgetting something very important. The former mayor Felder suspended the city manager for two weeks. There was 36 hours of testimony from employees who complained about the following items. as well. I don't know if I have it here anymore. Complained about racism, sexual harassment, um, retaliation, favoritism, racism, a toxic work environment. Felder had asked the city manager for 500 days to do something with the employee morale, and he didn't do it. And he got 36 hours of transcripts, and he suspended him for two weeks. He still did nothing. He took a deputy city manager and put her in a windowless room, a woman who had a master's degree. He he treats people like

Um he's ter he's terrorized me for the last five years. Dan Taylor, whose father owned Little Money Island and he still owns property now. Dan Taylor had his hip replaced back in 2021. Three weeks after the operation, we went to the Ambassador Center. We were invited there about a singer island project. That man looked at while a cop pushed Taylor with a surgically repaired replaced hip out the back door and did nothing about it. He was be he never return he didn't return $190,000. By the way, when he took his job back, he didn't get back the money. He kept the money during the pandemic without getting the council's approval first. He paid himself over $400,000 and then said, "Oh, well, that's what FEMA gets." And then his three cronies back there, Boutell, who's one of them, gave him the money. Bautell told me that she hoped children would drown on my property so I would go bankrupt. I told the city manager, "I need electric. I need a fence. We paid for a fence." And he said, "I don't care that I report to the council." I go, "That's not the council you're reporting to. You're reporting to Bell." Botell ran this city until you showed up. Bautell gave him all kind of orders. In exchange, she made sure that he kept his job, but she gave orders like she was the the person in charge. Employee, if you go around, sure, you can talk to an employee. The mayor can suspend any employee he wants to. If you go around and talk to employees, they would probably sign a a petition saying that this man doesn't have the leadership skills to run this city. That's what Felder did. You know, Boutell hired a 17-year-old kid who never graduated high school at that time and they didn't have three years of experience. Bautell and I I complained about that young man, Sammy Brown, what he was how he was terrorizing me and uh tail on our properties. Nothing. He goes, "I can't

do anything. That's Botel's aid." I'm telling you, Felder solved the problem. Felder has the evidence. Thank you so much, sir, for your comments. Thank you, sir. Should be fired. Thank you, sir. Thank you for your your comment, sir.

Madam Chair, the next speaker is Detta Pulp, followed by Rochelle Hughes and Cindy March. Good evening. My name is Doretta Park. Councilman Gayton, do you remember you first you said um I'm a a man of my word. Do you remember the conversation you had out there with me? You talk to me and say, "Miss Park, I'm trying to run for counsel so we can end this chaos that you said we had here on the DAS. Help me, Miss Park." Did you not say that? I'm lying. I'm You said help me, Mrs. Park. Don't say nothing. So, M.

Help me, Mrs. Park. Wi win this election. I said, "Long as you don't come out with any chaos like you said. I'm here to help Mr. Evans. I'm here to build this water plant." You didn't say that outside. Stop it. He said this to me. You gave me your signs. I go in my community and they say, "No, Miss Park, we're going to be letting the fox back in the hen house." No, Miss Paul, that's the wrong one. He just as bad as all the chaos we had before. And they said it over and over and I said, "No, he said he's here to help us." And as far as Randy Sherman, Mr. Sherman, he was disciplined without pay, he was. As far as Mr. Evans, the uh inspector uh uh general said that Mr. Evans nor Dearra Edric Dearra Jacobs knew anything about this water that was done. They kept that from them. And you say they're supposed to know if people don't come and say, "Oh, Mr. Evans, we got a problem. This how would he ever know? He was entrusting these people and it was wrong." But he was cleared and we wanted this lawyer who's talking about the sandbox to come back and talk to us and explain this report that she had. We couldn't even get her to come back. Then Mr. Tro uh McCoy, he gives her $5,000 more for that report. These people's lives are on the line here. You I guess if you

go ahead and Google either one of them, what would come up? They were clear. Stop this. You said that how disrespectful he is. You have been so disrespectful to Mr. Evans. That man on my right, this that and the other. You have. So you need to come and observe what you do because you have not been professional up here. You have not been kind up here. Thank you so much for your comments. So you told me that you want to come here and make it better for us. You told me. Thank you for your comments, ma'am. Thank you so much for your comments. I am Thank you for your comments, ma'am.

Thank you. Rochelle Hughes, Cindy March, Mary Brown. Madame Chair. Madame Chair. Yes. Could you please make sure that you recognize me as being on the board tonight? Oh. Um, Commissioner um Anderson is Yes. Uh, VI via phone for this meeting. Uh, could you please recognize her? Madam clerk. Yes, ma'am. Madam Chair. Yes. Was Councilman uh Kashama Miller Anderson on for the whole meeting or did she just come on now?

It doesn't matter because I'm allowed to be able to be on here regardless. Um so yes, uh she is on now. I'm sorry, Miss Rochelle. It's okay. I'm so sorry. Go ahead, please.

It's okay. Hello, Michelle Hughes. So, I'm just gonna say something. All this stuff going on. I don't, you know, I I've worked fine with Mr. Evans. He's He's, you know, anytime I send him an email or a phone call, he gets back to me. And the chaos. Yeah. So, I'm going to just I'm going to rattle off some facts. An amendment to a legal document becomes part of that legal document. So if the council and the city attorney work together on putting together an amendment to that legal document, it becomes a legal binding part of that document. In regards to the fire chief, assistant chief, here's what I heard on the TV stations. I heard on channel 5, channel 12, and channel 25, the union wanted Assistant Chief Golden. That's what I kept hearing. I thought they were crazy, but that's what I kept hearing from them. They wanted him fired. In regards to the water, there were three public meetings held in, I believe, December of 2024. I went to two of them. And in those meetings, Mr. Sherman and his staff produced what was going to be the water plant and how they had to come up with that $400 million in order to even start that project, how they were going to fund it. and they had to do it with rate increases. They showed them to us, they gave them to us, whatever. But it still had to go before council

and Mr. Spiritis, Miss Laneir, and um Mr. Lawson were on the council. It went before council and they had to approve it before the water treatment plant could even get done. They could have said, "Hey, we don't want to have that much in the in the rate increase, but they had to approve it before it could even go through." So, let's remember that. Let's remember it wasn't forced on anybody. The council had to approve it, in which they did. So, I I hate I hate this tit for tat. I hate this disruptiveness. We are going down a good road right now with with some of the developments that are in process. Some of the developments coming down a new water treatment plant. We've got how many new fire stations? A couple. So, we're creating chaos where we don't need it right now. Let's remain calm and stay strong. The next speaker is Cindy March, followed by Mary Bram and Margaret Shepard. You know what? I'm heartbroken. You know why? Because these people sit up here and they cover up for Mr. Evans. 2017, Lady Marge went through a lot trying to do her job being honest and transparent. We had fights to break out in here. And I'm so glad God changed me cuz I probably be throwing rocks at the chain game if I hadn't have been chained because it had got that bad in here

because they was covering up about the water. They was covering up about the employee morale. A lie is easy for anybody to tell. But the truth will stand forever. It's enough already. We're going to move this city forward. It's time for a new city manager. You got to do it the right way. My niece went to jail, y'all. Bail, she instructed this. Lady Mars Gold Wire. Her life was tumbled for five consecutive years. I'm not taking up for her because she's my niece. I'll take up for any of you all if you're right. Bail walked around here. She ran this city to the ground. The the the the thugs and the pimps are coming on Singer Island. CLOSE UP YOUR RESTAURANTS. THAT'S WHY THEY don't have no restaurant business because of you. Because of you and JB Dixon, please address.

They don't tell me what TO DO. PLEASE DON'T TELL ME WHAT TO DO. PLEASE DON'T TELL ME WHAT TO DO. I HAVE HAD ENOUGH OF YOU, MA'AM. I have had ENOUGH OF YOU. PEOPLE HAVE CURSED AND EVERYTHING IN HERE. I haven't threatened you or anything. So, can you allow me to talk? Of course you can. I just need you to address the council, ma'am. Just Just let me talk cuz YOU AIN'T INTERRUPTING NOBODY in here. You didn't get the police. Every time I speak, YOU GOT SOMETHING TO SAY. MA'AM, I And you the one doing THE THE SPENDING 200 TIMES AT THE UM CHEESECAKE FACTORY.

Are you serious? $80,000 worth of wasteful spending of taxpayers MONEY? YOU AND KASHAMA, Y'ALL SPENT ALMOST HAD THE CITY TO SPEND ALMOST $2 million to keep paying $60,000 to somebody that didn't do anything wrong. YOU TELL ME, YOU ASK YOURSELF, "What if it was my What if it was my What if it was my daughter?" And then you got these little quads in here saying anything they want to say out their mouth to make one of y'all look good when you got bad leadership. Let's do it from the heart. Let's talk from the heart. I have spent here for over 30 years being nice to people. I don't I don't play by my bloodline. When they right, they right. You all have been despicable with your attitude. You lied about the ecoli in the water. That's why Troj GOT INTO IT. WE'RE DONE. BECAUSE TROJ WAS TRYING TO TELL US ABOUT THE ECOLI IN the water. You didn't stay in the hospital for 11 days and didn't know whether you going to make it out. Thank you so much for your comments, Madam Chair. The next speaker is Mary Bram, followed by Margaret Shepard and Terrence Davis. Ma'am, we have we have other speakers. Ma'am, uh officers, you might have to um ma'am, you'll have to leave. Thank you, ma'am. Thank you, ma'am. Go ahead, Miss Miss Miss Brown. Miss Mayor Bram Riviera Beach, you know, I'm going to say this. I've always tried to lead and dialogue with

wisdom. And I have to say this because I have to correct this because I'm a firm believer that when you tell a lie, it would travel all the way around the world and it'll still come back alive. In 2017 was when we voted for the city manager. The board, the previous board that sat up there, they got rid of him. You know why? Because it was so much of talk about this white man. He's white. We don't want no white man running this city here. And that has been an ongoing thing here, even with some of the other employees here. See, bigotry runs both ways. It can it can exist within our counterpart race as well as our race. They took him to court. And what they don't tell is the court found no reason. It was no misfe. I was over at I was over here when we moved from over here to over here and it was that got you moment just like it is here now. Midnight midnight we was in here midnight and Miss Bram stood there and told them in order to move this city here forward here we can move it forward but we have to take ourselves out of it. that $190,000. They didn't tell you. The court said that he could have it because why? It was no misfe. And what was being done, it was wrong. So the voters the voters

got up and said petition and everything else court as well as outsiders bring him back. He stayed away for two years and we brought him back in here because the first mission from 2017 was to build a water plant and to build a police station. Why? Because Miss Brown was on the police advisory board. That place over there was horrific. It was horrible. We needed a water plant. So when they say 2019 that who did this and who did that? No, no, no. WE GOT ON TRACK IN 2017. Now it's up to you all as a board what you all are going to do. But I I caution you all to be wise and to be careful and judge with denency. Not because of somebody some of your friends left out of here.

So much Miss Graham. Thank you. Or somebody else was suspended. so much for your comments. Thank you so much. Next speaker is Margaret Shepard, followed by Terrence Davis.

Margaret Shepard, please. Um, Miss Miss, there's a person at the podium. We need to hear them. Um, we have someone at the podium. We need to hear them speak. Could you please start Miss Jeff's time over? Um, ma'am. Ma'am, we need quiet so that we can have our speaker to be heard. Go ahead, ma'am. Margaret Shepard River Beach. I will not get into it about the city manager. Um, well, Mr. Giden has the right to speak. He has the right to, I guess, inform the public what is going on. He has that right. He is that right. I've been very privileged to talk to the employees. They come to my house or they see me on the street. Some of the horrific stories that's being told plague my soul. She was talking about Lady March Goldwire. Lady March Goldwire said when she got out of jail, she just could not hold the urine. It just came through and soaked the whole car. She said, "Miss Shepard, my heart was broken." We have a gentleman that went over to Afghanistan, two tours, came back home, and yet he was treated by a director that was disrespectful and has caused chaos right now with this young man. Another one that was demoted, he was ex police officer and his wife told me he has a heart ailment. Now, another one said he had a paycheck that he didn't get for a whole year. He didn't know how he was going to live. These are just some of the horror stories.

We have some of the best employees, but yet our employees are suffering. I'm grateful to them. I hope they hear me. I thank you for coming to sit down and counsel with me. I feel privileged. I very privileged that you allow me to say one thing. You have a job. They said yes, put your head down and work that job. But this to go on for a second time, our city in a turmoil is heartbroken to me. What will my children say? They told me they'll never come back. They're up in Fort Pierce. Two of them over in Australia. Never come back. I'm heartbroken. I'll leave it like that. Mr. Uh, mayor, I talked to you two times and I need to see you about this thing going on at the Heron estates. It's a little much over there. They have council people come and deplore that you take care of some. If they take care of them, they're going to take care of my rent. It's not there. I live on a budget income just like everybody else. And if you all going to f play favoritism, you're going to play favoritism with everybody. You could look up Margaret Shepard, Ivy Green, and I'll do it again. I'm a little old now, but this has got to stop. Thank you so much for your comments, ma'am.

Madam Chair, the next speaker is Terrence Davis.

Good evening, Mayor, council, members of the public. Terrence Davis, 420 West 31st Street, Brigade Beach, Florida. The one so city I love. Um, since I last last left the council years and years ago, I've made a commitment to my late father that I would never come and do something negative towards to hurt this city. I have reached out on numerous occasions and the city manager will tell you we have had some healthy conversations on what I can do to be supportive of this city whether he does it or not, but I've always lended that hand out. But I was washing my dishes, putting my kids to bed, and I listened to the meetings on YouTube. that I heard my name called. It's that type of attitude when people use words like war in legislative meetings. You see what's going on at the national level. Let people do their jobs. We have to stop fighting one another in the community. Don't let folks come from the outside and separate us to start attacking each other. I see folks coming to this mic and attacking certain council members like Gen sometimes. I'm like, a lot of us grew up in the same neighborhoods. Same neighborhoods. I'm not going to speak on what's going on with Mr. Evans. That speaks for itself. But when I came to speak tonight was because why can't I just enjoy my family or my name being called and be related to war? My kids heard that. Can we find a way to allow people conduct business? Can we find a way to work together? Because 20 years from now, whoever that new city manager may be, we still live here. Let's tone it down. Let's conduct business. I was pissed. But I had to get myself together and say, I made a commitment not to fight. Nobody in this room,

regardless of what you say about me or anybody on this desk, I'm not going to speak on the contract. I'm going to speak to the attitude of the people in this community. We deserve better. Respect the council. Respect the position of the mayor. Respect this position of the city manager. He or she has a job to do. They have goals and objectives to do. Let them do their jobs. Let's encourage our employees to do their jobs. When you see them on the side of the road, buy them lunch. Ask them how they doing. These things are important. But I just want to leave a helping hand today to make sure that we bring better attitudes when tough decisions are being made. I'm a proud father and I'm going continue to conduct my way myself as such. So ladies and gentlemen, I love this city. I love everybody in this room. So, please do not use war in this wonderful city.

Madam chair, there's any public comment on this item? Thank you for your comment, sir. Um, any comments from the board in regards to this item? Yes, madam chair.

Yes, go ahead. You know, it's unfortunate that this issue is being brought up tonight when many people knew I wouldn't be there. I was here when this exact thing happened in 2017. It was brought up, as someone said earlier, at midnight. It was not on the agenda. There were people that were upset for various reasons, but what it all comes down to then and now is that Mr. Evans was holding people accountable. And because of the people being held accountable, they were not used to that. They have never gotten used to it. And here we are again. Having been on the council since 2015, and I served with Mr. Gayton back then, not a damn thing was happening. No progress was being made. We're dealing with the issues now because they were not being dealt with then because we had what people don't understand. It's not that you just have to have a competent city manager. You also have to have council people that want to see the city move forward. We didn't have that combination for the first few years I was on the board. We then got it. We had bits and pieces

of it. We went down a road where people didn't want to be held accountable. We went down a road where people wanted to do what they wanted to do on the council regardless of whether it was right or not or regardless of whether it was morally right or whether it was ethically right or whether it was it should have been done but because they were being told hey you may not want to do this or hey this is not um the proper way to do something but hey this is the way we've been doing it just because that's the way it's been done for many decades that does not mean it is right but because it was being brought to the attention of some of the council. They didn't want to hear it. They wanted to do things the way they wanted to do them, whether it was in the best interest of the city or not. Nothing got done. But we we did have a stipen that was uh approved back then just as we've now gone back to the same situation with this stipen coming. Now, that may not have anything to do with what is on the table right now, but it goes to the fact that we are going back down a road that we were in many, many years ago. You're repeating what was done previously. And the thing about it is what I don't I'm a little confused because there's a couple people on the board right now who got in because of what happened in 2017. Mayor Lawson got in. Chairwoman Shirley Lir got in.

Mr. McCoy got in. Former Mayor Fielder got in. All of them got in because of what was done back in 2017 terminating Mr. Evans. Also, Dr. Bautell got in because of that same reason. Now, I don't know if it's fortunate or unfortunate that I'm still here and have been here through all of that. All of those people that were there and made that vote then I'm the only one that is still here.

There was a reason for that. People were not happy with what happened. There was a reason they were finally happy to see people being held accountable, things getting done in the city. Now, people may say, "Hey, we, you know, you all are doing all these fire stations, you're talking about police stations, you're talking about all of these things." But guess what? None of that was happening. But you had the water. Everybody, nobody complained about feces being in the water or E.coli being in the water. 2016 stuff was being hidden then and it was brought to it finally came aboard. It came out, but things were being hidden back then. This was before Mr. Evans came.

You are part of the problem,

ma'am. But the thing is the water wasn't being addressed then as it is being done now. But guess what? The meetings were 30 minutes long and a stipen was being given. Now we're doing a stipen again. But yet, you know, you can maybe somewhat justify you all taking that $1,000 stipen again because you're doing the work. We're getting a lot done with addressing the water. Something that was not done for decades. If you many of you that you have been able to celebrate the successes that we have had, you have cut ribbons that we were never able to do for decades. You didn't have a problem being up there smiling, cutting that ribbon. It has to be noted that none of this was happening prior to Mr. Evans coming on. Now the thing about it is it took the council as a whole to work together. That is something that was not happening before. The council finally got to together as a group in the meetings to say this is what we're trying to do. We're trying to make progress happen. We're finally able to get people in the community to believe and trust in what this council can do and stay above board and get progress happening in the city without the nonsense. The city of Riviera Beach had been a running joke for years. Nobody wanted to do business with the city of Riviera

Beach. The reputation has finally gotten to a point where people actually want to deal with us. And now we're pulling this crap again. I I promise you, you do not want to be in a position where nobody takes you seriously, where people see you as a joke because your name is going to be attached with nonsense. But again, this is what you all want to do. If you feel like this is the best thing to be done now to stop all the progress that has been made, then you all do what you need to do. But understand there is a p a price to pay for that. And the biggest price is the people of the city are going to now have to deal with the fact that progress will be halted. Now, whoever you all got in mind to take the place, I don't know. I mean, they could be an outstanding person, but it it's not all it's not all about that because what people really need to understand is that you might get somebody in there that may be okay. You think you're okay with them now, but then you get in there and then you want them to do this, you want them to do that. You got all these different people wanting that person to do XYZ. They might be all right with it now, but when they start getting pulled in all different directions, that's not going to continue. or maybe you beat them down into submission

and then they start doing what you want. That's part of the pre problem Mr. Evans has had is that he's trying to stay above board and and this is not just for the people who are currently on the board. This has been since he's been here trying to stay above board, but people want to do what they want to do or want things done the way they want them done instead of letting the city manager be the city manager and the council person be the council person. It's always been somebody trying to interject into other roles. We set policy. We don't run the city. We set policy. We set policy. We have the city manager implement what we put into place. We got people want to be the city manager. You want to be the city manager, go apply to be a city manager, not a city council person. And you all know I have great relationships with everybody on there. So guess what? It's not personal, but what this is and you all are entitled to whatever vote you make, right? But what I'm trying to say as a council, as a council, right, if you want, if you're truly here for the city, if you're truly here for the people in the city, you would be honest with yourself and and since most of us on the council have were born and raised here, right? You've been here for at least four, five, six decades. You know what this city looked like for years. You know the changes that have happened since 2019. I'm going to say 19 because he was only here for six months in 2017. And he was doing a great job

then. And then uh I mean deja vu he wasn't bending. He was trying to have some sort of ethics and morals and and just trying to do his job, but he couldn't do his job because you had people trying to be the city manager. So, I mean, we're we're back at square one. But if you all are okay with not having progress in the city because you can't just put somebody in there and think we're just going to continue regardless of how much experience they may have. It It's not the same. Riviera Beach is different. Unfortunately, it's very different. When you talk to other people outside of Riviera Beach, Riviera Beach is different. Why are And we're different. Not in a good way sometimes, but it doesn't have to be that way. Again, you all can do whatever it is that you feel is best to do, right? Because you all know I'm not voting tonight. You already know that because I'm not sick. So again, do what you all feel you need to do, but I just wanted to go on record that this is not right. It is not what is best for the city. If you want to continue to be here for the residents, make things better for them, you would not pull this stunt tonight. That's all I have to say, Madam Chair. Thank you.

Thank you. Um, I I want to say that um my goal tonight is to ensure that whatever the board decides to do that we do it the right way. This was an item that was added to the agenda. I took it off the agenda because there was a member who was not going to be here. And if there's going to be a decision made about the termination of the city manager, it should be done with five members who are here who are voting. It should be properly noticed. We should know what is happening before we get here. And it is not my job to defend the city manager. It is my job to defend the city and its process. And if we want to move forward with terminating the city manager, then it should go on the next agenda, it should be noticed. And whatever the board decides to do, then they that's what they could do. But to do this at 10:30 at night, it not being advertised, it is not fair to the residents. It is not fair to this board. I had no idea about this happening until I got here. That gives me no time because it's not to defend the city manager. It's defending that seat he is in. Whatever he may or may not have done is of no concern to me. Now, what is of concern to me is the process here. And that if we're going to move down this road, if we're going to do this, then we need to do it fairly. We need to do it transparently. And we need to do it the right way. And I want to table this until the next meeting. We come back. We have a transition plan. We have a severance package if need be. We go through the contract. We have to be able to if we're going to do this to bring somebody right in to keep this moving. But we cannot do this tonight

because we are we don't have the tools to do that. If this is the will of the board to move forward with this termination, fine. but give the public and this board the opportunity to be able to look at the contract to be able to make suggestions about uh about uh replacements about a transition plan. Who is we going to bring in? How are we going to do that? What the service package look like? How long we going to give them to be here? It is something that we have to discuss and not make on a whim. We did that before and it cost us 200k and I want to do this legally, fairly, and with the input of the public. And if it's the will of the board to terminate this city manager, then so be it. But it needs to be done in a fair and transparent way, I suggest we put it on the next council meeting, which is April the 1st. it is noticed, the city manager, the city attorney can speak with the individual council people to look at what that termination package looks like, what that secession plan looks like. But to do that tonight puts the city in peril. It looks haphazard. It looks chaotic. And it looks like we don't have it together because we have not had the opportunity to vet this. And there are five members on this board and there's one that can't even vote because they are not here. They're here on the phone but they can't vote. And that is the reason why I pulled it from the agenda. So that is what we want to do. That is what the majority of this board wants to do. This goes on the next meeting. We the the city attorney has conversations with each council member on what that looks like.

Madam Chair. Yes, ma'am. Yes, sir. Um, there are some shenanigans being played tonight. Let me tell you what they are. I emailed the city manager three times so that this would be properly noticed. Three time. Not once, not twice, three. Somebody decided to pull it off. Me. You decided. Yes.

Fine. Nobody gave me a call to say, "Mr. Gayen, you know, one of the council members not going to be here, so I pulled it off." Shenanigans. If I were trying to do this under the radar, I would not have emailed him three times and then nobody get back to me to tell me that a city manager, I mean a city uh city council person is not going to be here. I did not know that. Nobody communicated with me, Mr. Evans or you. So now this delay tacted is said, well there's a vote not here now and not telling me since I'm the one that put it on there that somebody's not going to be here. So now we want to delay it another two weeks. I don't I did my due diligence to make sure that it was on the agenda and properly noticed and nobody said anything to me and now you get to the meeting saying that oh it was properly know oh no as Sherlock this is all shenanigans we could have been advised that a council member was not going to be here and I could have made a decision okay well Hey, let's move it to the next meeting. You all ain't giving me that opportunity. Didn't say anything to me. Let me first also for the people out there that saw me kind of snap tonight. When people lie on me, I kind of snap. Um there was some said tonight was completely untrue and I didn't want it to be out there. I apologize for that. But um last thing, the city manager said on the mayor's report over two close to two years, people are still suffering today

because the city manager has done absolutely nothing because we have people on this dis and in the community that gives him a false sense of security like he can't be touched. Almighty. All I'm saying is that what I know is employees are suffering. Mr. Evans hasn't been truthful and we have people still trying to protect them. It's time for us to move in another direction. The the the the other thing we have an obligation to protect our employees. Mr. Evans and Mr. Sherman run it like it's their own little prison camp. In my opinion, my opinion. He has people clocking in from department heads all the way down to the hour employees. I've been a salary employee all my career. Never never punched the clock. You know, it's something about getting um trust and respect by giving it. Why you having department? They run it like it's their own little camp. Like everything got to come through them. If anybody say anything about it, then one, you're going to be attack. Information going to be leaked. We're going to start putting negative information out there on them. So, everybody can look a different way. I'm ready to move tonight. They're employees that are still suffering in that mayor's report. I had one come to me crying, crying because they have no hope because they say we don't hold Mr. Evans accountable because they the charter says we can't send it. That's total BS. It doesn't say that we have to allow him to mistreat employees. That's not what

the charter says. So, I'm ready to keep this train moving. I did my due dil diligence to make sure they were properly noticed. Y'all pulled it off. Didn't say anything to me. And now y'all sitting here saying that we don't have a I didn't know she wasn't going to be here. I didn't know that. I'm ready to move forward. Very good, sir. I think Madam Chair. Yes. Go ahead.

I just wanted to make a note um as to, you know, so people are understanding of why I am not able to vote. I'm not The only reason I'm able to vote um the only time we can vote when we're on Zoom or on the phone is if we're out sick. I'm not out sick, but I'm unable to be there. So, that is why I'm unable to vote. And it was very well publicized to the people that I know that I was not going to be there tonight. So whether people say they knew they weren't going to be there, I wasn't going to be there. I'm sure majority of people knew I wasn't going to be there. So that's all. Thank you, Madam Madam Chair. Let me say this. Well, Madam Chair,

hold on one second, sir.

One second, please. And I'll give you an opportunity. Listen, I'm not asking anyone to change their mind about the manager. I mean, you if you got your mind made up, that's what it is. I'm asking to change the timeline. give the public notice to be able I can't make a decision about an I an issue that I just learned about four hours ago. It is a major monumental decision and it has nothing to do with Mr. Evans. Nothing at all. I'm not even going to debate his performance. That is not what it's even about. This is about process and about how the public views this city. And if we're going to do that, we need a succession plan. We need a transition plan. We need to be able to do this the right way legally. Mayor, thank you, Madam Chair. There's been a few a few um allegations and insinuations that have been just thrown out all night and from this dis and from the public. I I I think the discussion was that Mr. Giden wanted to put Mr. Evans contract on the agenda. he has concerns that he's addressing and the public immediately got defensive

the conversation and and to that point I I it was I heard one of the former council members whether you like him or don't he made very clear and honest comments

he was okay the former council member made very clear and honest comments that the public was very divided and that at this time he wanted to protect his peace and his family. Going through as an elected official, we go through a lot on this dis for decisions that need to be made because we have to hear from our staff and the community to be able to reflect the decisions of the community. There were attempts made to have this discussion tonight and our chair decided to pull it off. She has the right to do that. But the divisiveness that's been created tonight is causing for more hurt within our community. One of the comments when my colleagues, Miss Miller Anderson, made was that it was well publicized that she was not going to be there. And to Councilman Gayton's point, he's never been someone that's lied. He says he he didn't know that the concern here was not about whether I was going to be here or I wasn't, whether somebody brought up an item or it was a gotcha moment. The concern is what are the facts. Mr. Evans did not notify Mr. Giden that his item would be pulled off. That's what Mr. Giden's asking for. that his item was to be noticed and it was not going to be noticed because once the entire board was noticed about the agenda, that's when it was advised. There's a lack of communication and a certain level of respect in the quorum that we as board and that Mr. Evans as city manager deserves and needs, but I don't believe that the community or this board gives it to either one. We've had a few concerns and issues in in regards to the contract.

we want to postpone or ask for or ask for decision. Madame chair, you've said that you want to make a decision for postponement, wait till the next meeting, figure out transition planning. We don't know where anyone stands in regards to this contract. So to even make those insinuations to have the city manager prepare a plan or a strategy, we would need to hear from the board first. So to have this discussion, I'm okay with having the discussion. I would want to know if Mr. Evans is going to even renew his contract because the contract expires this year. I have concerns that I've addressed with Mr. Evans privately and that we've talked about, but the public and the biggest issue with the public is them not knowing all of the transgressions that happen amongst the city, amongst the board, and amongst the community and amongst the developers. They only hear what happens in these three four-hour meetings. So, I want us to make sure we're transparent and never limit the comments of any of my board members who are concerned with how they feel and how they approach certain situations. So, to madame chair, to your point, I would like us to discuss the item before we make any decision and see if this is a direction that we are going because if my council member wants to put a motion on the floor, he has the right to do that and we can do that tonight. we do not have to wait till next week. But to that same point, it was also at the discretion of our chair that pulled it off the agenda. So if we're going to be transparent with the public, I want the parent public to know everything about every item that has transpired so that we can be very clear. I'm not going for a tit for tat with the issues, concerns, or discussions I've had with Mr. Evans. I I I respect him and and the professionalism that he's had as a city manager. There are shortcomings with all of us, but I'm not going to sit here and just bash him of everything that has

happened. I'm going to just discuss as a board what do we do moving forward. And if the board decides to move in a different direction, that's the direction that this board is going to do. And I believe we need to do that if that's the direction. But madam chair, you've you've put the idea of coming up with a plan and a strategy, but I I guess you need more time to figure out if this is the right fit, and we also need to understand if Mr. Evans is even wanting to renew his contract. Oh, Madam Chair, I I Madam Chair,

hold on one second. I just wanted to say that um I pulled the item because I knew that um the council woman was going to be out. I did not know that. you did not know that she was going to be out. My position here is the same. It is not to defend the city manager. It is to defend the process that we're going to undertake because if you put this on the agenda tonight, you had every intention of firing him tonight. Let's just be honest. Okay. I put it on last week. Yeah. And you have And if you have every intention of firing him, that's fine. But I want to be able to have something in place before this happens.

I just have a question. Yes, go ahead. When the when everyone was the um item pulled before our agenda reviews or was it still on there when everyone had their agenda review? It wasn't on there. No, it was pulled before the agenda review. I get the draft agenda uh and talk with the city manager and the employee. I mean, and the staff about uh what is going to be on the agenda. I got beat up. I got beat up the last time about all the presentations on the agenda. So, that is that is what I do. So, so everyone knew well before tonight that it wasn't on the agenda. I know Mr. Gen said something about

um Mr. Evans did not contact him to let him know it wasn't going to be on there, but we all have agenda reviews. uh before like a day or two or three before the meeting. So everyone knows what's on the agenda, you know, unless something's pulled, you know, at the actual meeting. But the agenda reviews happen well before the meeting, days before the meeting. And so it was pulled before it was even posted to the city's website. If if the chair says that she pulls it before it's posted to the website, then it was never on the agenda from the six or seven days prior to today's meeting. So tonight is not the first time that anyone should be surprised to see that it wasn't if you knew you had put it on the agenda and you didn't discuss it at the agenda review, then it was tonight is not the first night you're finding out that it wasn't going to be on the agenda. I'm pretty sure

your agenda was posted a week before. I think you It's It's posted a week before and I think at this time the agenda probably was posted the Thursday before last Thursday and it was posted. But either way, it wasn't tonight. tonight. No, no, it was posted last Thursday without it on the on the agenda because you were not going to be here and it's such a monumental decision that I felt that all of the council people should be here to make that decision and have their input. Uh, Councilwoman Davis Premier, a couple things. So, when is the when is the um manager's contract up? Is it July or I think it's May or June, Miss Evans? 13th, if I may. It's the third July 13th. July.

July 13th. So, but you have to give notice to us. Uh, what is how does that work, Madam Chair? Yes. Go ahead. I don't know if there's a I don't know if there's a amount of days. I have to look at it. I I don't have it in front of me. Um, but I do have to provide notice in a reasonable time for the board to consider um a contract or provide you notice. I think it's 60 days that if I'm not going to renew or something, that would be June that would be May 13th to hear. Hold on a second. She's not finished. Yes.

So, um, at this point, I I definitely would not mind having more time. I would love to meet with the manager a couple times about some of my concerns, but I do have a I mean I hear my colleague um Miller Anderson um about the you know people the staff not wanting to be accountable, but we also need a manager that's accountable um to the board and you said it yourself kind of like well if we get somebody new they're going to follow this person and then they're just going to do what they want and well that's kind of how I felt when I got on here. felt like the manager followed certain people like certain people he was you know well he was in you know I pretty much followed their lead or what they said so that's going to happen anyway so and then another thing I want to say and I I I respect Mr. um Mr. Evans in his role, but I don't like that we give one person that much power. You're trying to you're saying to me that if if he's not here, we are just going to go to cahoots. I know that there's somebody else out there that can be a manager. And I'm not and I'm not even talking about fire him, but I just don't like when we speak like that because that again gives someone this this mindset that they're irreplaceable and and that's not how anybody should walk around. I don't walk around like that on my job. Nobody up here. Just like we get yelled at all the time on the day about we gonna get rid of you, you do this, we doing that. Okay, everybody should come to work feeling like I got to do my best. I got to do my best not just for me but for everybody that I work with and that works under me because I am replaceable. And so when you say that if you know we get rid of everybody, oh it's everything's gonna stop. No, I disagree with that. I disagree with that and I don't think we should be putting that out there. I know you may feel strongly about him and I I I I do feel like he does a great job in certain things, but there is someone that can do this job just like he came

after someone and did a great job. Someone else can come and do a great job as well. So, I don't want to put that out there that, you know, like we we are going to just cease um from being a a a functioning city, you know, without one person. I I just I do have a problem with with that. Um um the other thing I wanted to say, you know, I do I do have a heart for this for the staff and I know the mayor did his town halls early on and you know and I and I told him I came to support him but I'm like you know this is not all this not all real stuff because these people are still coming pulling me to the side saying how are we going to speak our truth when the manager is there when the assistant manager is there? We can't really tell you what's really going on because they are in fear. I have a and I told the manager when I got here, I am a people person. I do respect people. I respect how people feel when they come to work. I want everybody to do a good job, but I want people to feel supported. And I am still disappointed. And I told him and I told assistant manager Jacobs, I have a problem with how that report was handled because no one I still haven't heard anyone address the concerns of the original people that complained and had issues. No, everybody went into defense mode about let me defend myself. You are a manager. You are assistant manager. You really who who's going to fire you? You guys are going you guys work together. I told you my frustration. I'm still frustrated because we still haven't done anything with that except hired a a lawyer to clear stuff. I get grievances at um in in the school district. It's a process. You grieve. I I can say I don't agree with it and then we talk about it, but I don't go get a lawyer because to try to clear my name. It's just we talk about it, we decide if it's true or not, and we do an investigation and that's how it

goes. So, it it's a lot of stuff that I feel like, you know, that I I definitely need to talk to to the manager about. And like I said, I haven't made a decision one way or the other, but it's just it's it's it's a bigger it's a bigger picture. It's bigger thing. It's a lot of other things that, you know, I feel like have have to be considered. And I do think that, you know, he is great, but everybody can do better. I mean, it is what it is. And I I mean, I know some of you all may think he's perfect, but I don't think anybody's perfect. So therefore, there's room for improvement for everybody. there's room for improvement in in the city staff as a whole. And I hate that we are in this pos we're we're a lot of hurting people, a lot of people that are not being treated fairly. A lot of people who have gone have lost their job who were given severance and told who I thought were great workers for years. So yeah, I I have some concerns. So there you go. But I'm I'm in agreement with you know the extra time because I feel like where we are now is a lot going on is where we are with I I told people like some of the stuff that's coming from the state. I mean I think that we you know we have a lot of

big issues going on and I hate for this to be another one but you know it has to be addressed and I'll let you go uh Commissioner Miller Anderson. I really want to speak to that issue of saying that Mr. Evans, if if something happens to him, it's it all is going to fall apart. I do not believe that.

I do not believe that. I do not believe that. I believe that uh he's a city manager and we could get another city manager. I believe that. But I also want to do this fairly. I want to do this the right way. We did this before and it did not work out in our favor. What is two weeks to be able to get this transition plan in place if he wants to stay? We got till May actually because then that is when you're going to say his performance is not good and then you make a decision. But to make a decision tonight without even an evaluation from all of us, it just doesn't really make any sense because now the man is talking about he might want to, you know, seek legal counsel. Come on people, we don't have any money. If we're going to do this, let's do this the right way. It's just that simple. And I don't think that two weeks is going to be a a long time to be able to come to a decision if that's what the will of the board is. My job is not to defend the city manager, but the seat and the city. And we want to avoid at all cost additional money that we're going to spend that we don't have. So, Commissioner Miller Anderson.

Yes. Councilwoman uh Davis Pier, I I absolutely agree with you and that is one of my things that I say all the time. Everybody's replaceable. That that I live by that and people that know me will tell you that is what I say all the time. So it that's not what it's about at all. Um, I've worked with six, if not maybe more, city managers here while I've been on the council since 2015. So, I'm not when I say what I say, I'm saying it from having worked with about five or six different ones. So, I can make a comparison. I'm not saying that he is the only one that could do the job. Obviously, that's not true. Everybody can be replaced. What I am seeing is based on my experience of being here for 11 years and watching an iteration of people change council seats and make various different decisions and see whether or not we at the time were we making progress or what we're not making progress. I can make those comparisons. I was living it. I was in the seat when it all was going on. It is very different being a resident or being someone on the who's not in the seat to see what is going on and see how things work when different pieces are put together. You have a competent city manager, but you have a board that's dysfunctional. or you have a board that works together and trying to make progress, but you don't have a city manager that can follow the and implement what they want. You have to have both. Now, I'm not saying that you can't find that again,

but what I am saying is that I have been there with a number of city managers, a number of city council people. I have seen and experienced firsthand. is not with somebody telling me. This is what I have been through. And I have seen when even our bond rate ratings are based on how volatile the council is, how much um chaos is going on. All of that, all of this that's on the news, all of these things that are going on, it is not for good business. For one, people are not going to want to do business. They're going to have to see that, you know, everything's okay. And again, not saying whoever you all want to bring in here is not going to be able to come in here and do the job. That's not my point. But what I am saying having some stability and seeing this play out again is going to bring pause to some people. And I just want to make sure everybody keeps that in the back of your mind when you make this decision. But you know, if you're you're set on doing whatever it is you're going to do, I mean, you you I'm not going to be able to convince you otherwise, and neither would nobody else. But I'm just trying to say that I'm telling you what I've experienced, not what I've heard from people, not from talking to other council people as a resident. I was there. I was living it. So yeah, there are many people that could do the job, but and I do believe people can be replaced. I do believe as uh you know the saying, I don't want to say it because it may not be politically correct, but you know, one somebody don't stop the show. We know how that

goes. We know what they're saying is, but I do want it to be pointed out that it does make a difference when you have someone who's capable of doing the job and you have a council that has committed to working together for the betterment of the city. Now, I do want to address, you know, the fact that people are, oh, you're defending the manager or you're defending Mr. Evans. No, I'm defending the city because guess what? Again, I've been there. I have seen how things play out. So, when I saw someone who was actually making the city move in a right direction, I didn't know Mr. Evans before he came here. I have only worked with him since he's been here just as I have worked with four or five or six other city managers

and I was able to make a comparison and I said this before but that's where that comes from. That's why I can feel as much as I feel and say what I say because I have worked with others. Are you you want me to stop? Mhm. We We have to let the council person speak. Once she's finished, we'll have Dr. Spiritis to respond. And then uh Hold on a second, ma'am.

Hold on a second. This is a this is a monumental decision. You're going to have to leave because this is a a big decision and we're not going to sit here and act like it's not. the council people. We have given the opportunity for the public to speak on this. I make sure of that. This is a decision that has to be made by this board and we can talk about it as long as we need to to ensure that we don't spend any more money that we have to and we do this the right way. Madam Chair, Dr. Ma'am, I wasn't finished. Who Who said that I needed to stop talking? Somebody said I need to stop. Miss Shepherd, don't don't do that.

Okay. Okay. All right. I'm not worried about that. Um, again, and and the thing is,

so I I can't do it. We We Hold on. Hold on a minute. We This is This is getting out of hand here. We have given the opportunity I'm going to say this the last time. We have given the opportunity for the public to talk. Finish up. Uh, Commissioner Miller Anderson, and we'll go to Dr. Spirious, please. Like I said, I just wanted to wrap this up by saying it's not about the one person. It is simply about having experienced progress and having experienced chaos and dysfunction and not having any progress happen. That that's what it's about for me. Um I don't want to see us go backwards

and and that's the end of my comments. Thank you. Thank you so much, Dr. Spiritis. Right. I I was just going to say, chair, that uh clearly as we just stated previously, we have to make a decision by May 1st whether we're going to renew the contract. Uh we have to give a 60-day notice to the city manager. City manager has to give us notice. It is time for us to start having these discussions. Uh, and I just think that we should just move forward right now and and just continue the discussions and make a decision in the near future.

Thank you so much. And and I just really want to say this and I'm going to be done with this. You know, we want to attract qualified individuals for a city manager. And if we're going to fire somebody that's not based on performance because we have no uh uh u evaluation, we have nothing. we're going on what we're talking about tonight. So, let us please have this conversation. If we want to move in that direction with a new city manager, let us do it the right way because this is a democracy. If three people up here say it's time for him to go, then it's time for him to go. It's just that simple. But let us have a plan in place when he does leave. If he leaves, because that's what I said is a democracy. With that being said, um, somebody put a motion on the floor of to, uh, move this. Um,

I resend my motion. I see that the majority of the board want to have further discussion. Right. Um, Dr. Spiritis, how do you want to board, how do you want to proceed with this? Because we need to get this right. I can't we can't spend any more money that we don't have. Well, I I guess we have to ask uh the city attorney, should we be going on a retreat and discussing this in executive session because this could end up being litigation, legal, this is a legal issue. Uh or should we discuss it out in public at the next meeting? Uh that's up to the the board whichever way they want to go.

We have to get this right. Yes. Go ahead. uh mad uh attorney, there is no litigation. Therefore, you cannot have a closed session. You have to discuss it in public. That's fine. That's good. That is fine. Um we can put this on the on the agenda for the next meeting and we can talk about the contract. We can talk about how we move forward. We can talk about if he wants to stay. We can talk about if he if we want him to go. We can continue this discussion, but I do not want to spend money that we do not have. And we're going to do this. Let's do it right. Uh we have a motion that has been rescended. Um that is the end of the conversation for that item. Special events. Mayor, would you like to go with that item? Sir. Yes, ma'am.

Go ahead. Thank you, Madam Chair. Uh Mr. Evans or Madam Clerk, announce the item. Um Madam Chair, I think is the permanent dire I think there was a quick question that council person Yes. Yeah, there was a question with the procurement director. Please, please, please. Yep.

Councilwoman um Miller Anderson, you still there? Yes, I'm here. Why? What's needed? Okay. Cuz I mean my question. So, Madam Chair. Yes. Go ahead. Okay. Do you need to introduce yourself or anything? Yes, please. Good evening, Latana Ammons, director of procurement, city of Riviera Beach. Okay. Thank you. At our workshop, there was um the the issue came up about the prime and the subcontractor

and you know how our uh contract is with the prime only. So my go and then when I said that I was like okay and they can go around they can hire them then they can get rid of them and uh council person Miller Anderson said yeah it had been done here recently. Can you tell me more about what had been done here recently because I didn't get any information on that from staff or the manager?

I'm Madam Chair. What what are we referring to Miss Davis? Um when I when I spoke about the the prime when we're talking about the sub the our obligation is with or our contract agreement is with the prime not the subcontractors and I said okay so they can be on the proposal they can come all around do the presentation but then the prime can get rid of them get rid of them okay you're talking about from last week's right from the workshop yeah you said that it had happened recently So I wanted to know about that happened recently and two what is our recourse? Yes. Yeah. And who did it happen with?

Okay. So um just for a point of clarification um did did I say it happened recently or I I think that that what is happening is that No, she councilwoman No, no, it was just councilwoman. So

okay. Um, so I believe that um we may be talking about a situation that happened recently. Are we talking about a recent You heard about a recent solicitation? Okay. So recently um council uh voted to move into negotiations for the city hall um contract which is move into the negotiation phase and you all went forward with um Son Blick and so I'm remembering this from the top of my head. No problem. I just one thing you answered.

Yes. So we u moved into negotiations with Mr. Sonlick. We were um at a negotiation meeting and Mr. Sonlick um asked for us to remove um a particular individuals who were um initially a part of their proposal but um they were no longer on the team based upon Mr. Sonick and their relationship. So number one, let's begin with the board approved us to go into negotiations with Zonablick.

Okay? So everyone who's in the room because negotiation meetings are not public meetings, but they are recorded and become a part of the procurement file after the close of the negotiations. So Mr. Sonick stated that he would like the gentleman to be removed. Um at that time the vendor M madam chair go ahead

how did they know that the meeting was taking place like how did they know to be there okay so interesting point interesting question thank you for the question so at the first meeting the first negotiation meeting um I don't know how they were made aware but they did ask me because they were at the first meeting to please make sure that they were included at the next meeting I said okay because they were present at the first negotiation meeting that is how they were um uh present for the second negotiation meeting but it was at the second negotiation meeting that Mr. Sonnlick asked them to be removed because Sonnlick submitted the proposal. Sonnick signed the proposal. The company is registered in Sun Biz under Robert Sonnlick. He is an officer and because we realize he is a developer, he has a right to remove and select those persons on his team and if there was a fallout or disagreement that is with that relationship is between the prime and the sub.

You you have given me enough. I just want to know who the developer was was and that signing blick. Yes. And how many do you know how many subcontractors were impacted by that? Like how many were there or you not really sure about that? I can't speak to how many overall subcontractors have were impacted. I'm just aware of at least the one that day. Okay. Thank you. Thank you, Madam Chair. Second. She's got to finish. Yep. Follow up. Follow up. So, was this emailed to us or was because how did one council person know and I did not know.

Um I'm not sure. Um, what I do know is, um, I did recommend to the impacted vendor that if they had a question that they were to submit it in writing. So, we will all have a record of the ask. They did kind of protest um, us asking them to remove, but they don't have a standing because they are a subcontractor. And so, I responded to them in detail. So, my communication was that day. So, others were present. the vendor um did email us. I responded to the to the vendor and those that were on the email. Go ahead. Thank you. So, manager Evans, how did she know? And I didn't know. Did anybody else know? Madam Chair,

first of all, that did not come from manager Evans. That it didn't come from manager Evans. And the thing is, it was not a I don't ma'am. Ma'am, ma'am, it was ma'am. Ma'am, I'm asking I'm asking manager ev. He can answer that. But he can answer that. I got you. I got you. But go ahead, Madam Chair. Yeah. I'm not sure how that information got to the particular council person because I didn't provide it uh to you all because as we're in part of the negotiations, I don't want to intertwine the active negotiations. So, I did not communicate anything to the board with regards to that.

Thank you. That's all I need to know because I need to know if there's if I'm supposed to be looking for this type of information because this would have been the first time like I've not heard about any negotiations. I haven't got any feedback on negotiates until I sit here. So that's why I was trying to see if there is there is there supposed to be something I'm supposed to be looking for from you or what have you. Okay. Thank you. Can I finish, Madam Chair? Madam Chair. Yes. Go ahead.

So it was not a specific um situation. This is not the first time that has happened. That has happened a number of times. And so when I made that comment, it wasn't specific to anything. It was the fact that I know this has happened on numerous occasions. And so it wasn't that I got it from anybody or got it from the manager or had any inroad on or knew anything that nobody else knew. A lot of people in the community are aware of when people have been used to come and get when the prime comes to try to get the contract. they have all these people out in the audience or on their team, but then once it's time for it to be awarded or once they're, you know, moving forward, they drop some of these people. And so that was what my comment was about. It wasn't that I I knew something from, you know, on the inside that nobody else knew. So, I just wanted to make that clear. That's not what that was about.

Okay. Madam Chair, no problem. I just heard you, you know, you said recent. That's the only reason why I knew to follow up because when you said recent, then of course I I started hearing stuff about it. But I I I was wondering, you know, if that was a recent thing, why I didn't have that information. So I think manager Evans answered my question. So I'm good. Thank you, Madam Chair. Stop the spiritage.

Okay. So, director Ammons, so you're telling me that we could put out an RFP or an ITN and they could put related Ross is a subcontractor in the project and they can get rated based on that subcontractor through the through the process of rating. and then we can make a decision based on these people being in the proposal and then they can just wipe them out and that doesn't affect the procurement procedure. That person can still have the contract. Madam Chair, I mean they're inducing us, aren't they inducing us fraudulently if they do something like that?

Go ahead.

Um Dr. spirit is first I would have to look at the each individual solicitation to determine if part of the evaluation factors included the makeup of their team or if they receive points. A lot of people put a lot of information in their proposals but they aren't evaluated necessarily on that particular information. So without looking necessarily at a specific solicitation if we gave them points um regarding the makeup of the um their subs of the process then um to answer like the first part is yes they can change out I mean they aren't evaluated. So if they aren't evaluated that means that once the um if that's not an evaluation factor if the evaluation team if it's not a factor then they didn't put that you know they didn't factor that in when we came up with the um the overall recommendation. Remember it's um evaluations are objectionable based upon the factors that are listed. That's number one. But then number two, um, we have a relationship with the proposal, the proposer. And so, and unless it's a joint venture, then we have a relationship with both. And so, for these large development projects, I haven't seen where it says you must keep that initial subcontractor because things do change. The market change, if there's a delay um, on a project and then what if the subcontractor is no longer available? What if they have filed bankruptcy? what if they are sick? So, we do not hold them to say you must use this particular contractor. Now, thirdly, in some solicitations, um if we have a goal, let's say of 20% for a particular category, they may um give us an example of how they are going to reach that goal. But again, things could change and as long as they reach a goal at the end of the project and they have fulfilled the terms of the solicitation.

Okay. Uh followup, please. Yes, go ahead.

Right. I would suggest in the future we do not have uh subcontractors coming here and standing next to the person putting out the RFP. Uh, you know, I can tell you that I weigh people. I can't speak for the rest of the council, but when I see subcontractors that are local subcontractors that I want to see have the ability to participate in a project in my mind and when I'm doing my evaluation, they get a lot of points for that. And then when you take that away in the middle of the process, you know, after after we've already made that decision, then my whole rating system went into the toilet bowl. Didn't mean anything,

right? So, I think that I'm being induced improperly to vote for someone based on who they're telling us is their subcontractors. So, I would suggest that you leave the subcontractors out in your proposals. If that's if that's the position you're going to take, then don't even don't even bring it up to us.

I think that the the bigger question is how do we track that? If they come with subcontractors and say this plumbing company is working with us and then we find out three months later they got rid of the whole plumbing company. How do we you know there should be a process that as he said we are making decisions and giving points because I think that that is a criteria local participation. So if we if they get rid of them in three months then what does that mean? How do we track that? How do we know? And maybe that's something for procurement to go back and try and figure out how do you track that because that is a part of the overall presentation and they receive points based on that. Madam Chair,

if if I may and I think this is part of, you know, some education that we need to provide the subcontractors, they should facilitate contracts and agreements. That's right. So in the event that there is a substitution, there is at least a monetary payment in lie of that because to your we we've seen it happen many times here. So, I think the education component needs to be to our subs um that they need to execute contracts and don't be included in a proposal that the city's going to consider if in fact you don't have an agreement in place.

You're absolutely right because uh Commissioner Millie Anderson said it correctly. There have been numerous times that this has happened. So that is a uh lesson for subcontractors to have if they're going to come and and talk to us about them working with this particular uh uh proposer, then they need to have a contract with them, right? We know that that's secured. Yes. Go ahead, sir.

Yes. So what's troubling, of course, I mean, they could sit there and say they're using the best architect in the world and list him in their list and he can show up at the meeting and then they can hire some local person that just came out of college and get rid of that. We have to have some way of securing maybe maybe you require contracts. If someone's going to use a name in their proposal, it should be a contract. There should be a contract in hand before that even before they're allowed to do it. Yeah. The letter should be a part of of of the presentation. Yeah. Okay. Very good. We're good. All right. Very good. The mayor has one more item that he wants to talk about. Mayor, you have the floor.

Thank you. Um, and before Miss Emmens, I know you just walked off, but that subcontracting piece, if you could come back up, we talked about that subcontracting and we had the conversation um about the dog and pony. We had this whole conversation, data collection. Um, that is what we're going to want to see because to justify and document the data that's necessary. Um, the state has outlawed any discussion or language in regards to DEI.

Small businesses, SBEs, and locals are the ones that can benefit. So, we don't want to get in trouble for having DEI conversations, but my business is locally. I do not have the data from your office and I understand that you're working on it, but every time we bring it up, I'm going to ask for it and I'm going to keep a record of it because I need the data because years ago, we've been given these instructions to collect the data. So that's why I want to make sure we can justify documents so that when these contractors come in and say that they're bait and switch or these developers are saying that they're going to spend x amount of dollars, then I want to make sure that they spend it with our local contractors. And then you're also researching, which we talked about at the last workshop, what does it look like for subcontractors and subs and primes to actually be contracted. I don't think that we should not have them standing next to the primes because that does help incentivize these locals to benefit, but I do think we need policies in place to protect it with the data justifying it. Um, the item, Madam Chair, and I wasn't sure how we got to this item. Was this just a

It was a question that a question from Miss Okay. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. So, I have a question before. Hold on a second. Yes. We do have five public comment cards for the procurement piece for special events for the Are we on special? It's a discussion item. It's a discussion unless there's action that's unless there's action. Madam Chair, it's just a discussion. Is there action? No. Okay. Well, then we don't need time for that. Um, Commissioner Miller Anderson,

I just wanted to kind of piggy back what um, uh, Councilman Spiritis and the mayor said about the um, about the subcontractors are. So, I know he asked already, were we able to require the um, a memorandum of understanding or some kind of contract in hand? And then also when they come up um are they can we make sure that they let us know whether or not the there's a principal partner proposal that has been put into place because that should be shared as well. Is that something that we're able to do, Miss Ems, or something that you've heard of being done before? Um I want to un um I couldn't hear you um very clearly so I want to repeat back what I I think the question was. Number one is to require a memorandum of understanding or a contract between the sub and the prime at the time the solicitations are due.

Yes. Okay. We um I'm going to research that a little longer. I mean, it would be nice to have the contract. The contract really is for the benefit of the sub and the prime versus the city and the subs. Our relationship again is with the primes. Um, so I would think anything legally binding. I mean, it could be, it could be contracted, whatever you call it, but something that's legally binding so that six months down the road when the prime wants to get rid of three of the subs who are local, there's some type of recourse. Madam Chair,

could this is a question for procurement. Could you put language in the procurement that any substitution of of subs that are local subs require notification to the city and the board still reserves the right to reconsider? Can you put language in the solicitation that they have to provide notice and then you all as the board reserve the right to bring the item back for subsequent consideration? Yes, but before final contract approval because what if it's what if they've already what if you all have signed the contract the buildings have done and they make a change right before the contract is executed right

and then you could have maybe some language in the contract that speaks that if it does happen as it relates to the contract that you they need to provide by the time we execute the contract they should be able to provide you all the subscript that you need.

Madam Chair, and following up, it's it's procurement's researching it, but the issue is is also the the primes have said that the subs are not performing or they have to get rid of them or that they eliminate them from the project or something's happening. So, we need to create as much flexibility as possible. But what we don't want to see is that dog and pony. And that's why we've already given you instruction for that. So, if you can continue to research that, but bringing it back sooner than later. We need timelines as to when it's coming. I do not want this delayed because we have too many projects in the pipeline and we've heard too many horror stories of people being paraded out here and then not getting the work. Yes, sir. Thank you. Thank you, Mayor. I know that you have an item coming up with special events. Would you be amanable to having it on the agenda

for the next? Well, it it wasn't much of a discussion. I could I can just give them during my comments and I know we want to close off. So, it's I can just do them during my comments. It doesn't have to be a whole discussion. All right. Very good. Yes, ma'am. Comments by the city manager. Um, I don't have any comments this evening, Madam Chair. City attorney. No, thank you, Madam Chair. Dr. Spearis,

your issue. I've received major complaints from uh the businesses at the Ocean Mall that people are paying uh they're supposed to get two hours free. And what happens when they go out to pay the extra hour? They're being charged for 3 hours. And I'm being told by staff that that's the way it's set up. Clearly, that is not what the intent was when we passed uh the resolution for the parking. Uh people have a hard time figuring out how to use their phones. They don't understand the signs. I really think that we should uh really revisit this uh and pro maybe even stop the parking right now until we figure out how we can resolve these issues. I think they could be resolved, but I think we have to resolve it because right now it's basically out of hand. Uh I would like to see uh a noise ordinance for the Ocean Mall uh because I went by there on Saturday night. Brand new restaurant opened up by the way. Everybody please try it out. It looked great.

Uh I think it's called the uh the Ocean Yeah, it's called where the old Mulligans was.

Okay. Yeah, it's uh I forget the name of it, but I went by it was it was jam-packed. But right next door was a another restaurant that had drums and music playing. And this is an upscale restaurant right next door. I'm sure those people did not appreciate hearing the drums banging away all night. Uh I know the people in the Ritz Carlton are not happy about the noise that they're hearing on their decks uh all night long. So we have to either come up with a noise ordinance or or something in the lease that the people have uh you know at the ocean wall but we we have to be cognizant of the fact that uh you know especially after certain hours uh that noise is bothersome. Uh that's all madam chair. Thank you.

Thank you sir. Uh commissioner sure just want to congratulate the Sunost Chargers on their championship. so proud of them and coach Powell and um Granger is a great thing for u our city. So congratulations. Also want to congratulate um Chief um Ball Davis on his retirement. I am jealous. And then I want to say a shout out to Officer Nance and the PAL um program. We were out on the beach Sunday morning cleaning up and a lot of um uh the the people that were enjoying the beach were very happy to see us out there, you know, trying to keep our beach clean. So, shout out co uh Officer Nance. Thank you, ma'am.

Mayor, thank you, Madam Chair and Mr. Evans. Special events. Um we were supposed to have a discussion about it for the workshop. It got pushed to the next meeting. There's organizations that are waiting in limbo. What can we enact immediately to make sure that something can be addressed in the interim while we're waiting on the board to have a workshop? So, Madam Chair, if I may. Yes, go ahead.

Uh, the board did set a workshop for March 26. So, we do have a workshop on the next Thursday to handle the last three remaining items. If in that workshop, the board provides for I would argue what is legislative intent. So if you communicate that these are some things you want to see go forward. Yes, I need to bring it back in some different form but in a in a resolution to approve. But if the board provides legislative intent that it wants to help and support X entities for special events, I can then authorize that get the things in place and then get a resolution or an item before you at your next regular meeting to memorialize what the actions of the board is. So if it is something that can conceivably wait till next Thursday, the board can get tell me collectively what they want to do and then I will feel comfortable moving in in that particular space.

Well, are there any special events between now and next Thursday? Madam Chair, if I may, I'm not aware of anything that's in the hopper right now as it relates to special events that are between now and this Thursday. Okay. Uh next question is uh again congrats to Sun Coast as well. Uh there was a parade discussion that we had. Uh the actual city hosted a watch party which was excellent. Thank you Miss uh Kiki, Mr. Evans for that. What are we going to uh what are we going to do about a possible celebration of the team? Madam Chair, if I may.

Yes, go ahead. Um, I did uh send an email to to staff authorizing them to have begin having conversations with representatives from the school to facilitate a a smallcale event in close proximity to the school and then dovetailing into the school and maybe a pep rally that you know for the general public in the outside and then maybe something the inside. We do want to make sure we can incorporate the student body into the celebration. So staff is working on that. I know that one thing that um was discussed about after spring break um so when spring break uh and the faculty and staff are back, we'll be able to nail down a date and then we will provide that information to the community and um and the board to inform you when the event's going to happen, what's the the parade route. It's going to be a very very small parade, but it's going to be something that's going to be done of quality um that uh uh that that is um communicated to the public. Can we invite the community out?

Thank you. Thank you, Madam Chair. Thank you, uh, Commissioner Miller Anderson. Commissioner Miller Anderson, I'm sorry. I'm trying to get it unmuted. Um, I don't have any comments other than, of course, like everyone else has already said, congratulations to Sonos. Um, job well done. and um the youth council will be participating in the March 28th um citywide cleanup. So um if there are others that are going to be participating that more the better. So we'll we look forward to being out there on the 28th. Thank you everybody.

Thank you. I just want to briefly say I'm I want to give a shout out to Miss Lena. The city of Riviera Beach has a spring break camp that is awesome. These kids have gone all over uh with this camp and Miss Lena and her staff are doing an excellent job with all those kids. And this meeting is ajourned.