Council - Regular Meeting

Please have a seat. We are about to start our city council meeting. Please have a seat. We need quiet and we need quiet in this room so that we can start our meeting. Thank you so much. This is the city of Riviera Beach regular city council meeting. Today is April 15th. The time is 6:48 p.m. Madame Clerk, Mayor Douglas Lawson here. Chairperson Charlene Lener here. Chairpro Tim Kasha Miller Anderson. Council person Bruce Gton here. Council person Dr. Spiritis. Council person Davis Pier here. City manager Jonathan Evans

present. City cler Deborah Hall is present. City attorney Don W here. Madam chair, you have a quorum. You may proceed.

Thank you. I still need quiet from the audience, please. We're going to have a moment of silence followed by the pledge of allegiance. Before that, before I begin this evening's meeting, I would like to take a moment, please, I need quiet, take a moment to recognize the lives and legacies of two remarkable individuals who have made a lasting impact on our community. First, we honor Captain Patricia Amore, a true trailblazer who made history as the first black female fire captain and the city of Riviera Beach and all of Palm Beach County. Her leadership, courage, and dedication to public service helped pave the way for future generations and will forever be a part of this city's history. We also recognize Leantine Brown, a dedicated community leader and advocate who worked to elevate the narrative of African-American civil engagement and organize peaceful large-scale demon demonstrations across the country. Locally, she remained deeply involved in civic and community organizations, contributing her time and leadership to initiatives focused on equity, empowerment, and public service throughout Palm Beach County. Both women exemplify leadership, service, and a commitment to uplifting others. At this time, I ask that we all join together in a moment of silence in honor of their lives and their lasting contributions. We will have the pledge of allegiance by our mayor.

I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the republic for which it stands, one nation under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all. Thank you. Are there any additions, deletions, or substitutions for this agenda this evening? Yes, Madam Chair. Yes, sir. I would like to add two items. Um, one is the reorganization uh a discussion of when we're going to reorganize the city council.

Speak up. Can you hear me? Yes. Go ahead. Okay. I said I would like to add two items. One is a discussion on when we're going to reorganize the city council, have the reorganization meeting. And the um other one is we got a an email from the city manager regarding extending an outside council's contract. I'd like to add that to the agenda as well for discussion. Uh what was the first item?

Reorganization of the city council. Uh discuss when and we're going to do it. Not tonight. I don't plan on doing. So both of these items are discussion items. Yes. No objection. And no. Number two is I'm sorry. Number two is what? My second item. Yes, sir. The um the discussion of the the extension of Mr. Gain's contract.

Uh Madame Clerk, could you add that uh under number 12, please? Yes. Yes. Go ahead. wanted to add under a presentation a brief presentation on the all-American city award under presentations. Yes, Madam Chair, just one second. All American City Award. Oh,

um Madam Chair, uh hold on one second, sir. Um Madame Clerk, uh that'll be 6D. Hold on a second. Uh, Commissioner Gayton, Commissioner Davis Fer. Um, I just wanted to know if I can add um, well, change 6B to 6A. Um, so that my young man I got a bunch of young people out here that I get it. And that's what I need. Bunch of them. There'll be a lot of pictures and everything. I don't think so. Okay. Thank you.

Okay. It's just to recognize them as a whole. That's it. I hope we've done it before, but Okay. Okay. Um, Commissioner G. Madam Chair, well, I guess this is a question. I would like to move one item up on the agenda. Is this the appropriate time? Go ahead.

I would like to move 12A up. Okay, we can add 12 A2, Madame Clerk. We can add that as we can add that before 11A. Okay.

Any other additions, deletions, substitutions? A motion to approve the agenda as amended. We moved it right before 11A. It's the first item on the regular agenda. Oh, okay. Okay. All righty. Thank you. All right. Very good. Any other additions, deletions, substitutions? I need a motion to adopt the agenda as amended. So move. Second, Madame Clerk. Council person Davis Pier. Yes. Council person Gton. Yes. Chairpro 10 Miller Anderson. Yes. Council person Dr. Spiritis.

Yes. Chairperson Laneir. Yes. Unanimous vote. Madam Chair. Yes. Go ahead, sir. I I'd like to make a about roll call. Um, can we have the clerk kind of mix it up sometimes? We we go to the same persons all the time. Council person Gon, we follow the we follow the Robert's rules of order and the names are called in alphabetical order and the chairperson's name is called last. Okay.

Thank you. We are at our consent agenda. Uh all matters listed under 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. Are there any items on the consent agenda that you would like to be removed hearing? None. A motion to approve consent agenda. So move second. Madame Cler,

there are no comment cards on the consent agenda. The acceptance of cars is closed. Council person Davis Paneer. Yes. Council person Gton. Yes. Chair Miller Anderson. Yes. Council person Dr. Spiritz. Yes. Chairperson Laneir. Yes. Unanimous vote. Thank you. We are at awards and presentations. Madame Clerk. Madame Chair, we are on item 68, Parks and Recreation Department recognitions of Chargers Elite 7 V7 Flag Football Teams and Chargers Elite Cheer Teams.

Very good, Mr. Casey Young. This is just a introduction uh and a recognition for these young people. Am I correct? Good evening, uh, chair, mayor, council persons. Uh, Casey Young, parks recreation director. Uh, yes, our our item 6A is to recognize some of our youth that have been participating in some of our recreation programs. I will introduce uh Mike Pinkney, who is the assistant director for the parks and recreation department. He will give you more information, more detailed information on the programs.

Good evening everyone. Uh, if I could, could I have my uh cheerleaders and football players come up and stand beside me, please? So, a little backstory to this is, uh, these are new programs to the city of Riviera Beach. Um, our 707 team is something that's new, our first year in existence, and our Charger elite program for Chile is their second year. So, um, these it's it's a a more of a travel team based type program is to give these young athletes and young people an opportunity to compete at a high level. And, uh, as you see when you come up here, they have been doing very well and representing the city of River Beach. So, uh, start with our boys first. Our 12U football team has done an excellent job this year. They've also competed up in their division at the 14U level. Um, we're expecting big things for them coming up front. Uh, these programs also help the kids when they go to high school. Uh, these are some of the similar programs that they will run at the stage, too. Our 14U boys, I don't know who has the trophy. someone has the big trophy for the boys. Uh on March 28th, our 14U team uh won a tournament. So, uh they competed against top teams in South Florida and they come out uh with a great victory in the championship. So, I want to applaud them.

So, I also want to thank to their coaches and the parents of that team. Um, as you know, these programs, they have up to 12 to 15 hours of of participation time in the program. So, it is a dedication to not only our students and athletes, but also to the family. So, I I do appreciate them, too. Thank you so much. Congratulations. So, now to our ladies. All right. They have been excelling at a high level. All right. Uh, I think I'm right. is every competition that y'all competed in this year, y'all come in first place. Is that correct?

All right. All right. They also are rear Beats state champions for what? What division, ladies? 14.

Tenu and 14. They are the state champions. All right. So, the the little banner they have back, that's our hang it up in the gym. So, it shows that we are state champions for this year. They've also already already qualified for nationals in Orlando in May. So, these girls are doing a great job. They also too put in a lot of hours of work. Um they're they're doing uh not only practice but tumbling practice. So, if these ladies would like to have opportunity to compete in college or maybe at the high school level, we've given that opportunity to learn it early and be proficient at once they get there. So, uh, once again to their parents and also my coaches, I want to thank them for the dedication to the young youth in our in our programs. Um, without our parents and our coaches and our volunteers, we don't have a program. So, I want to thank them, too.

Oh, wow. Huh. Oh, so the these programs also too will lead into our our charger programs in the fall. So we also look for them doing big things. But the the the the big point about this this we all rear beach here. All right. Uh everybody is a success. Um without every department here um this wouldn't a big success from procurement to all other departments. We all come together to make this work. So I want to thank everybody. Thank you. Thank you so much. Um I think that you guys can step outside for pictures

again. Uh again, thank you for this opportunity, the city manager and council for uh providing support for these these young athletes in the parks and rehearsal department and we continue to do bigger better things. Thank you. Thank you.

Excellent. All right, we'll move on to our next item. Madam clerk, madam chair, we are on we are on item 6B, emerging leader spotlight.

Thank you my dear. Good evening. Tonight we want to recognize our April emerging leader, Mr. Amari Benjamin. Would you come forward, Miss Latoya Benjamin? Miss Latoya, would you come up please? Um, he was nominated by uh Miss Latoya Benjamin. It is with great pride and sincere admiration that we recognize Mr. Amari Benjamin as one of the city of Riviera Beach's emerging leaders. Omari Benjamin is a remarkable graduating senior who has distinguished himself not only through his achievements but through his character, compassion, and integrity he brings to everything he does. I can attest that he is a very motivated young man. He completed all of his high school requirements in three years and is graduating a year early from Riviera Beach Preparatory and Achievement Academy. We are very proud of him. Amari's commitment to service is evident through his active involvement and leadership, including being named the youth of the year for the Riviera Beach Boys and Girls Club, a welldeserved honor that reflects his positive influence and dedication to uplifting others and being a true leader. At Riviera Beach Prep, he participated on the varsity basketball team. He's a part of the WPRP radio I mean video production program and he has made honor role each nine weeks that he's been at Riviera Beach Prep and I can attest to that because I am his school counselor with a heart for helping those in need. Amari Benjamin took the initiative to

organize a blanket drive to support individuals experiencing homelessness, addressing a critical need in our community with empathy and purpose. This act of service is just one example of how he leads not by words alone, but through meaningful action. What truly sets Amari apart is his resilience and his desire to create a lasting positive legacy. He inspires those around him by leading with kindness and encouraging others to give back as he prepares to take the next step in his journey with plans to pursue a degree in mechanical engineering hopefully at FAMU in Tallahassee.

Yes. Yes.

We are confident that Amari Benjamin's determination and passion will continue to drive meaningful impact both within and beyond our Riviera Beach community. he did receive a full scholarship to college and he also received the Buffalo Soldier scholarship um from Palm Beach County. So on behalf of the city of Riviera Beach, we proudly celebrate and congratulate Mr. Amari Benjamin for his leadership and service. His future is bright and his impact is already being felt. Congratulations Amari. We wish you the best. All right. Thank you. Congratulations, Amari.

Our next item, Madam Clerk. Madam Chair, we're on item 6 C, recognition of Major Josh Lewis upon his retirement from the Riviera Beach Police Department. Good evening everyone. Chief Michael Coleman, could I have all Josh and his family over by the uh by the time clock? All current and um retired employees.

Yeah, you look retired. any other retired but thank you guys for allowing us to present uh Josh Lewis his um a recognition after 30 years approximately 30 years of service you know a lot of time in law enforcement a lot of a lot of lot of law enforcement practitioner don't make it to 30 years uh but Josh made it to 30 years so we uh want to thank you guys for allowing us to recognize him on behalf of all the men and women of River Beach Police department. Congratulations on your retirement, Josh. After 30 years of unwavering dedication and service, Major Josh Lewis leaves behind a legacy that would never be forgotten. He rose through the ranks to achieve an executive leadership role and has notably served as interim chief of police in the city of River Beach. Throughout his career, Major Lewis has consistently demonstrated integrity, strength, and a deep commitment to the community and his colleagues. His work on high-profile state and federal task forces reflect not only his expertise, but also the trust and respect he earned beyond his immediate department. Major Lewis have made a lasting impact on law enforcement efforts and the lives of countless colleagues and citizens. As he embarks on his well-deserved retirement, we extend our sincere appreciation for his years of commitment, leadership, and service. His efforts have been instrumental in shaping the department to what it is today and his legacy will continue to inspire future generations. We wish him continued health, happiness, and fulfillment in a new chapter of his life. Congratulations, Josh, for the approximate 30 years of service. Chief Chief Gordon, can you uh show uh Lois and the family what we uh was able to uh get him for his retirement? A lot of time we go through the ranks of

our 30-year career, we lose all our medals that we have on our on our body. So, we was able to find a lot of the medals that Josh wore over the over the course of his 30 years, and we want memorialize that in a and a a plaque or a shadow box. As you see, you know, Josh has been um been through this agency where a lot of uniforms have changed, badges have changed, and of course, we changed too. We come in this organization with hair and we come very and now we uh we weathered the test of time and we retired. So at this time I would like to turn it over to um uh commit councilman guidance so he can say a few words.

Thank you. Um as soon as Mr. Lewis Major Lewis get done with his photo, I'd like for him to come over here after your photos. Um, and while he's doing that, um, when I, um, was informed that Major Lewis was about to retire, I could not let this opportunity pass. Um, Major Lewis uh, has been in this community, as indicated, close to 30 years. That is a lifetime. And for him to survive in the city of Riviera Beach for 30 years, that is a major accomplishment. Let's give him another hand. Mr. Lewis has um Major Lewis has served this community selflessly. Um I would like to thank his wife and child for allowing him to be with us for 30 long years. and it is greatly appreciated. And while he's doing that, I have just a paragraph here to read about Mr. Lewis. Um, Major Lewis is a highly decorated law enforcement leader with almost with 30 years of service with the Riviera Beach Department in Florida, where he rose through the ranks from patrol officer to major uh, and ultimately interim police chief. Throughout his career, he has led complex investigations, supervised large-scale tactical operations, and partnered with federal, state, and local agencies to combat organized crime, narcotics trafficking, and violent offenders.

during his tenure as police chief and I think you served two times in that capacity. Maybe one one time. During his tenure as police chief, um Chief Lewis helped lead the department to achieve the lowest violent crime rate in 31 years while also guiding the department through Florida accreditation standards and strengthening community policing initiatives. He has extensive leadership experience managing patrol, investigative, narcotics, and tactical units, as well as overseeing department budgets, personnel department, and critical incident responses. Let's give Major Lewis one big hand one last hand. You ready? Your family, too.

Okay. Major uh Major Harris, would you come forward, too? Assistant Chief Harris,

Assistant Chief Harris, would you say a few words before I make a presentation? Hello, Council and citizens. It's great being back in Rivier Beach. see a lot of familiar faces. Now, I want to congratulate Josh for 30 years. He's always a great employee. I want to thank the chief and Mr. Gayton, Councilman Gayton, uh, for this uh, time to speak to you all and just enjoy it. River Beach, best place to work. Say that. All right, my brother. Thank you.

At at this time, I would like down. Okay.

Oh, okay. Um, this is my last time at the mic. I have a nice plaque for you here, U, Major Lewis, and it reads, "Honoring a distinguished career, presented to Major Josh Lewis. Thank you for 30 years of unwavering service, bravery, and leadership in protecting and serving our community. Your dedication has made a difference in countless lives and will continue to inspire those who follow in your footsteps. Congratulations on your retirement from the city of Riviera Beach, office of city councilman Bruce Gitton. at at this time. Josh, I know um 30 years is a long time, but can you give us five minutes more uh 10 minutes to say a few words um to the people who respect you and um and came out to honor you?

Hello everybody. Um, it's this is definitely it's lack of words, but uh I want to thank Councilman Gton. I want to thank the council and staff that helped put this together. Uh, it's an honor to be here. I want to thank my family for allowing me to work so long in such an environment that requires you to miss holidays uh miss holidays and special events and stuff. Um, but I did it for the community because I love the community. I love you guys. I love serving in Riviera Beach. I would never work anywhere else. And it's been a pleasure to to be a part. I consider myself a stakeholder. I'm not just a guy that came to work for 30 years. I'm a guy that became a stakeholder in this community and I'll I'll never forget it. Uh, to the cops of River Beach, they're the best. They're the best of the best and I've watched them I've watched them three decades ago when they had very very little to work with and now they have more than anybody in the county. So it just it's a testament to how much we've grown and if they were doing so well with less, look how they're doing now. They're great. So to the Riviera cops that I work with, I love you guys. I'll always be here for you. Uh I want to give a special thanks to my mentor Dave Harris. Uh I I couldn't have done anything without his support. So I thank him for that. Um and I want to thank uh assistant city manager Kevin Coppen uh for guiding me while he was here as well. He's a class act and I really appreciate him. So once again, I'll keep it short. Thank you guys. I really appreciate you. It's bye for now but not gone. So thank you.

Thank thanks everyone. Thank you so much for your years of service. Thank you madam clerk.

Madame chair we are on item 6D allamerican city award.

Uh vice chair. Thank you, Madam Chair. Um, there is a an award that the youth council decided to apply for. Um, it's called the All-American City Award. There was also another one called the by the Florida League of Cities. It's called the Youth and Excellence Award. We have heard from the All-American City Awards. And I wanted to just show a video because what will we'll be coming to the council and the residents, the business community as well as our nonprofit organizations to ask you to help us in moving forward with this award. So Walter, if you could show there's like a three minute video. It kind of gives you an idea as to what the All-American City Award is about and then I'll give you a little more information right after that. Walter So, I'll go ahead while he's pulling that up. Just to give you a little background information, the All-American City Award was built on a belief that has only grown o urgent over the time. For the past 75 years, they have invited communities to earn this recognition, basically apply for the award. Um, this is the first time that I'm aware of that we've applied for the award, but it has become a very important award and I do believe there have been some that are down here in the South Florida area that have won it. So, we're looking forward to being able to represent the city of Riviera Beach. You can go ahead.

City awards. Every year, the National Civic League recognizes communities across the country with the Allameric City Award. This first time, All America City is Lamar Texas. It's the All-America City of Watkinsville, Georgia, the eight time all-America city of Rowan Oak, Virginia. NEW FOR NEW VIRGINIA.

This award recognizes the community's ability to bring residents, organizations, and government together to solve the challenges in their community. We did it. We did it. The experience has been great. I feel that this has been a great place to learn, to grow. This experience has been amazing and I have to say like our um our team has grown closer through this experience. Oh, it's been amazing. I've gotten to meet so many new people from other cities. I think it's just been really wonderful to get to see all the great things that people are doing around the country

from the sessions that we have uh of working and having dialogue with one another to the skits and the practices that we come up here for. It's life-changing. It's moving. The main thing that I take away from it is the relationships that we're making as well as connecting with other cities. Each city is what strengthens America. Each town, each hamlet, that is what makes America strong. You are all what makes America strong. We have police officers in the room. We have our youth commissioner. We have Rotarians. We have city administrators. And just talking as everyday folks who believe in our community, the power of change, sharing ideas and best practices. It's it's really a beautiful thing. Let's roll up our sleeves. Let's work shoulder-to-shoulder. Let's figure out what the hard problems are. Let's take them on.

The All-America City Award event features workshops, panel discussions, dancing, and a chance for communities to share what makes them special. Communities send dozens of leaders, volunteers, and young people to help tell the story of their community. Each community presents to a jury of nationally recognized civic leaders. This is their chance to talk about their community and the powerful work they're doing. The reason why we're here is to share and to hear from everybody else, to collaborate and go back home and make things better. Winning All America City doesn't mean we're doing everything perfectly. It means we recognize where we could do better and find new and innovative ways to address it.

This was an amazing experience from the moment we stepped into this space. This experience gives me hope that we are changing the world together. Thank you so much. You are representatives of everything that is good in this country. Give yourselves another hand. There's nothing wrong with America that can't be fixed with what's right in America. And this is what's right in America. BEING here with you all this weekend has meant so much to us. What we've learned from every single city. What you all are doing is beyond incredible. And maybe we'll see you again in the next few years here at All America City. We love you so much. Thank you.

And Walter, if you can show the map that I I sent you. There's a map that shows um the number of people who are now considered the finalist. And there's 20 finalists. And I'm happy to announce that the city of Riviera Beach is one of the 20 finalists from across the country. There's only two in Florida and I believe the other one is Opa Laka if I'm not mistaken. So Opaaka and the city of Riviera Beach will be representing the state of Florida. Um the 20 finalist communities, they span 16 states, range in size from 12,000 residents to nearly 500,000 residents. But what unites them across different sizes, the geography and politics is a deep pride in place and a shared conviction that residents deserve a real voice in decisions that shape their lives and homes. And so when we did the application, the application was based on how we how well we do civic engagement activities. Uh one of the big things about the application was about re-imagine Riviera Beach. Um some of the other items that helped us to get to this 20 finalist position was the Riviera Beach Youth Council because it was about how are you engaging young people? Um the other the second program that we submitted was about the Riviera Beach Citizens Leadership Academy which is another avenue where we're engaging our citizens and making decisions here in the city of Riviera Beach. And then the third one was the neighborhood stabilization program in the CRA. So based on those three programs and the examples that we gave and how we engage our citizens when we're making decisions, that is what put us in the top 20 finalists. Now this is where you

all come in and this is going to take the entire city. We have to go to Denver at the end of June with going to Denver. It's the youth council. We'll probably have some people from the citizen leadership academy. We will have some people who have been participants in the neighborhood stabilization program. And then we also would like to they like to see a mix of business community people, residents, nonprofits, and just everyone that makes up the city of Riviera Beach. There'll be more information coming that if you're interested in participating in this event, we could certainly get that to you. But I wanted to make sure that you understood that all of the great things that we've been doing, and this was based on the past five years. Um, we had to submit examples of all of those great things that they're looking for that they say make a great city is keeping our residents involved and that is something that we have done with more than we've done in many, many years. Um, and so I'm just happy to report that we are the top 20 finalist. when we go there, we have to do a 10-minute presentation. And so that's why I said if anyone is interested in participating, we'll be getting the information out by next week because we do have to start practicing for the presentation. And so I just want to thank um I certainly want to thank Miss Latron, Dr. Lat Hayes, and Miss Kiara Hester for helping out with getting the application um prepared and submitted. And of course um Mr. Mayor Lawson and Eric Graange who we have all worked with the youth council and they're going to be spearheading a lot of this here. So just wanted to make sure that everyone was aware that we are now considered one of the top 20 finalists across the country for the All-American City Award. Thank you. Very good.

Excellent. It is about 7:25. Our um public comment starts at 7:30. Uh Madame Clerk, how many public comments do we have?

We have 30 comment cards. Madam Chair,

uh we will start our public comment. you can uh make an announcement at exactly 7:30 uh that the comment uh card portion is closed. Uh if you're here and you want to do a general public comment, you can get your pars in in the next four minutes to be able to do that. Um can you call public comment shall begin at 7:30 unless there's no further business of the city council. Please be reminded the city council has adopted rules of decorum governing public conduct during official meetings which has been posted in the 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. Um madame clerk, you can call the first three individuals residents up for public comment, please. Madam Chair, the first speaker is Annette Dragon, followed by John Miller and Lloyd Brown.

Hello again everyone. Annette Dragon Lone Pine. Another request and I've made this once before. Can we please get these city council meetings going on time? In order to facilitate that, perhaps the special utility district meeting should be held earlier or even on a different day. Secondly, since the agenda was published, there should be no additions to the agenda at any of the city council meetings. That's time wasting and adding time not only to you as councilors, but to us as the public. We have homes to go to as well as you and we'd like to be home at a reasonable time. Also, I believe that petitions and awards and proclamations and so on should be limited in a in the number that are done at a city council meeting. Granted, the fact there are dozens of these things that are welld deserving and so forth, but they all take a very long time. And again, we're all limited for our time and we don't want to hold you guys up longer than is absolutely necessary and we want to get home at a reasonable time, too. Thank you. Thank you for your time.

The next speaker is John Miller, Lloyd Brown, and then Robert Silva.

John Miller, citizen of Rivier Beach. You know, I came here because of the fact that I heard they want to some people here on this council want to get rid of Jonathan. We went through this nine years ago. What's this uh Groundhog Day again? We were called the city in crisis back then. We don't need to do that again. We have good people here. Evans is a good person and a smart person and a person, anybody that's a leader, you have to be you have to take the lead and you're not going to please everybody. Period. That's how it is. We got we got him back. He's doing a good job and we need him to stay. Um, next thing I want to talk about is uh conflict of interest. You know, I work construction all my life, worked for uh um Fortune 500 companies and I can tell you that we got all this work going on here, right? Anybody that's a professional what developer this that or the other um can be an elected official but they must recuse themsel because they're tied in with so many different contractors and it makes sense why you know we we didn't elect we we're not electing people we're electing them to sit up there and make decisions not be in other words for for any other thing than that period and I'm asking that you start looking at this and and figuring out. Last thing I want to say is that uh I I know the police department contract is up four or five years ago. I forget how many years ago, maybe it was longer than that. I get up and said, "Come on, we got to get these cops what they deserve. They protect and serve us. They should be number one. Period. You are all doing your job. They're doing their job sing out for us. So, please let's work this contract out for them and give them a fair contract. I

know that we're I know that we're in other words, we have a lot of money we're spending, but by the same token, we got to take care of them. And you guys, from what I heard, some of us are getting $1,000 a month because of that like you had years ago, and then that got voted out. Now, it's back in. Well, maybe you don't need that thousand. Maybe you didn't need that thousand, but the cops needed enough money to support the families. Period. Thank you. Thank you, Madam Chair. The acceptance of public comment cards for general public comment is now closed. The next three speakers are Lloyd Brown, Robert Silva, and James Quisinski.

Hey, why? Oh, my mama got a baby from the FBI. You know why I said that, right? Oh, Chief, I ain't going to bother you. But you know what? I'mma tell the people out there that's in the city because uh you people ain't going to do nothing for them. Let me tell you citizens, anytime you spend a dime in these other people's stores, I mean, every dime you spend with these other people, I mean, you are you starting to destroy your own neighborhood, whether you know it or not, every dollar you give them, it goes to the demise of your own neighborhood. Not only for you, but for your kids and your kids' kids. So, I'm saying these stores you shopping in, they don't charge, they don't have receipts, so you don't even know what the stuff is. And then another thing, I ain't trying to get on you. Uh, you know what I'm talking about. But if a man is on the corner and he has a can of beer and it's in a bag, okay, that's showing you that this man respect you. So, it's like that'll be the man that's going to save your life one day, whether you know it or not. But if you go up there and throw this man or whatever and do what you're going to do to him, anybody that acts with an attitude toward people, I don't care if it's the police or anybody, you don't get a good return from that individual. And I'll be honest with you, you know, I used to go over the bridge, underneath the bridge, and I used to swim like from high tides to low tides. I used to snorkel. I used to run over there and then go to the gym and come back. It's a shame that I went over there and the tables aren't even under the bridge no more. And you know these people, they say, "Well, at least we can go over there and play dominoes and drink beer." Well, they did the Indians like that. They let them drink beer. They said, "Oh, y'all can have the property, the land, everything. And if we keep these people in here, eventually we ain't going to be able to come over singers under that

bridge because they haven't said anything about what's going on under that bridge where they close down them tables. None of them. It was uh the other male we had here, not Felder. He would have been over there standing over Singers Island saying, "Come on, man. You got to let my people, they live in the neighborhood. They've been going here. I've been going there 70 probably 72. Let me see. 62 years. Since I was 10 years old, I've been going over there. And now here it is. I can't go over there no more. But you want me to renourish the soil? I mean, the sand over there with my taxes. I don't see why. Eventually what you're going to do, we ain't going to be able to come over Singers Island with these people here because they act like they don't really care about what's going on in the neighborhood. And then when these people come in and bring a business here, you not coming to my city. You live right by a a work whatever place, you know, where people come in labor. He live right next door. But he don't even get those people next door to come over here and try to get a job. And he right there by him. And that's the mayor.

I don't want to forget that. Thank you so much, sir. I got a lot.

The next speaker is Robert Silva, followed by James Corsinski and Joy African. Mr. Mayor, councilors, residents of Riviera Beach, my name is Robert Silva. Um, I just wanted to inform you I've had the honor to attend the leadership academy for Riviera Beach. If people don't know what that is, you sign up and you have the opportunity to meet everybody in the city and get introduced. Uh last night was an honor to meet up with the fire department at uh station 88 and going to see that the police chief uh fire chief he's going to be leaving and retiring. And I saw the passion that he was still developing and showing to every resident here. I highly recommend anybody wants to get involved with this next project. It is uh an amazing thing to see the passion of the employees that work around here and the the people that you see. They show up at night off hours to dedicate their time. I know that the city uh manager and Jonathan was there every week that we were there and we appreciated that. Now, I understand as I get into this, it was um it was Latonda Hayes who managed this really well. She's there every week. She deserves a shout out. She's been really uh helping her out with these residents. She's way in the back there. And I understand that um that Kashm, she started this whole thing. And I really think we're in the third or fourth year of that one there. It's a great program. Um, so and also with the I'll give you a little little layout here. We and you guys I know everybody seems to be

arguing about certain things, but they all deserve a shout out. And we went out to the the um the finance department, the human resources department. We went out to the city office, the procurement office, the public works office, the police department. We went to the fire department last night. The re-entry program, an incredible program with the passion that we have as citizens. You have to see what they're doing that you just don't read about. Get out there and get involved with this community. It's amazing. I've been here 40 years and I'm just starting to learn about everything and what it means. And with this police department here, they're amazing. Amazing people. And I had a big speech. I'll wait on that police department with the uh the new department they need in the building. But I want to thank everybody and please get involved. Thank you.

The next speaker is James Quasinski Joy and then Jeffrey Sheen.

Good evening. I'm a resident of Singer Island uh for 25 years. um living in my present uh high-rise condominium for 21 years. My dilemma or the owner's dilemma in in the the building is the condo board wants to change our address and change the name of the building arbitrarily and they're getting legal counsel to help them on the way. Now, it may not sound like a a real big problem. But when you think about all the owners there changing their address with their family, friends, doctors, and uh Department of Motor Vehicles, and whatever else, it's a big problem. And uh as far as I know, they don't have no legitimate reasoning other than it may make the price of our condos go up. That's what I heard. So, if I can get any assistance in what direction I should take or maybe you could help me uh along in this endeavor, I would appreciate it. Thank you.

Thank you, sir.

Next is Joy Aricano, Jeffrey Sheen, and Lee Innocenti. Hi, hot mic. I'm uh Joy Apricano. I am here tonight. Thank you for having me. I'm here tonight as a biologist, a science teacher. I'm a nature tour guide, a snorkeler, a scuba diver, and a resident of Singer Island. I'm here to ask you to keep the building that is being proposed at 2525 Lake Drive which is Blue Heron and Lake Drive to keep it to a maximum. I mean I would prefer nothing but I understand money has been already spent and the to purchase the property but let's not put in the 25story building that monstrosity that is the size of two football fields vertically. We're talking about a massive building right there where we have this amazing unique habitat. And as a science teacher, I'm going to explain why it is. We have this unique habitat there. And one of the reasons is the largest current in the Atlantic Ocean is the Gulf Stream is one mile from where we live here, which is unique to the entire eastern seabboard of the United States. So with the Gulf current which goes through the uh atlant around the Atlantic Ocean, it comes up from the also the Caribbean. This is where all the large animals like from Finding Nemo, the turtles and all around that large current. So they with the tides come into that area. So you can get on a boat and go out in the ocean to scuba dive, but you can also just put on your

equipment and walk into the water and see all the amazing animals right in that unique habitat. The other thing are the tides where we live here. There's high tides and low tides every six hours. So with high tide the water ocean water comes in that brings in the animals but also brings in um nutrient rich um water or nutrient-rich waters to feed the organisms that live in that unique habitat and then at low tide it's coming from the other direction the estuary and that too is nutrientrich. So they are wellfed and it is that's why so many animals are attracted there. What they're proposing is a massive building putting in docks right where right next to this habitat which would of course is going to interrupt and affect it that's going to shadow this area with the 28story building. Um I don't know if you know though the the reefs that are there were humanmade. There's some Eagle Scout projects that are that have been put there and artists also put some artifacts in there. We need to keep preserve it. We need to keep it. And please don't put a monster building right next to it. We do enough damage to our environment. Let's save it. Please comment.

The next speaker is Jeffrey Sheen Lee Inenti and Mari Alexander.

Good afternoon. Uh, city council chairman and mayor, I'd like to talk about the previous project, 2525 Lake Drive. If any of you look at it and look at the study that was done for the shadow study that's online that starts at 9:00 in the morning, last time I know, but the sun comes up maybe 600 6:30. They for some reason decided not to show the early portion of the sun shade which happens to shade this whole area that the previous lady was talking about. So if you look at the study online ask for the complete study not the one that they decided to p to publish and obviously you guys know that nothing over eight stories makes any sense there over the most sensitive portion of the island there. 20 stories is ridiculous. You all know it. Now you need to do the right thing and vote against it if it ever comes up. At the same time, I live at the Emirate. The city employees and some council members knew that the developer was selling condos, not hotel suites, and turned a blind eye to it. We saw several times at city council meetings that you guys talked about it and they just didn't do anything about it. The city let uh a inspection service, a private inspection service called CAP do some of the city inspections there. For some reason, lots of those records are lost. They don't have it. Inspections are non-existent. Maybe they weren't done. Maybe they were done. Nobody really knows. The city building officials are not standing behind CAP and saying they need to go in and look at whatever's wrong. Many things have been brought up to him of what's wrong with whether it's sewer coming out out of the pipes, the pipes not being put in, right? And he they refused to even

look at it. That's not what we expect from our city. At the same time, the HOA requested copies of the records and the plans, which they had the right to, and they had to sue the city to get their own plans. The city used a small section of the law to try and get around this that they knew at the time was wrong. It all had to do with how many units were there. There was under 350, not more than 350. They do it. They spent tens of thousands of dollars of our city's money going against the homeowner association and then settled and they're probably going to have to pay our our city attorney's fees, too. So, what I expect is Riviera Beach is a beautiful area with a great potential, not a mess that's not a mess that the way it is now. We expect you to do better. We expect you to do the right thing. I've talked to many of you and I think you're on that direction. Rivier Beach needs to not play politics anymore. Singer Island is part of Riviera Beach. We love Riviera Beach. Thank you. The next speaker is Lee Inenti, Mari Alexander, and Erin Senas. My name is Lee Inacenti. I live on Singer Island and I'm an active voter here in Riviera Beach. I used to always tell people I lived on Singer Island. I never mentioned Riviera Beach. But the last couple years I've been telling everybody I live in Riviera Beach. And why is that? Because Riviera Beach is galloping, not walking, not strolling, but galloping forward. Why are we galloping forward?

Because up until now, our government, I think, led by Jonathan, has achieved so much. Specifically, as you vote tonight on Jonathan and renewing his contract, I want you to keep in mind he has fixed our health care plans, saving the city 1.5 million. He saved approximately 15 million by expanding the public work ps complex rather than constructing a new one on AvenueU. He fixed our utility of water infrastructure by increasing our water wells from 9 to 22. He advanced the planning and implementing of our water treatment plan. So important. He fixed our public safety. How about our police department reducing crime by 24% in the last year? I mean, we all benefit from that. and he also expanded the code compliance with 1,200 cases making all of our life better and he led the city through COVID 19 which was not easy. He has in addition to fixing things, he also built our fire station 87, fire station 88, fire station 86 and the design he's worked on with many others. I'm not just saying Jonathan only, but he leads it of our new police building. He's built infrastructure. How did he do that? He led the approval of 115 million in general obligation bonds.

He's helped with the design and planning for the Dan Callaway recreation complex. He's worked on community and education by helping bring the new Riviera Beach High School to fruition. He's also secured funding. He let him secure the 115 general general obligation bond. He secured 1.9 million in state infrastructure funding and help secure 40 million in grants. Much for your comments. Thank you so much. The next speaker is Mari Alexander Erin Cineas and Fain Loseman.

Good evening. Just can't be talking in the audience. We have people who are having comments. Thank you, sir. Thank you, sir. Go ahead. Uh, ma'am, Riviera Beach is in the middle of one of the most significant periods in the infrastructure investment, redevelopment, and occupational operational modernization in its history. And this progress should not be jeopardized through unnecessary leadership disruption. Jonathan Edwards served this community redevelopment agency for two years without any compensation, two additional years at only $20,000 a year, saving the city over $200,000 annually. Several hundred residents have already signed petitions supporting the continuation of Jonathan Edwards leadership. During this time, he's modernized the police department, which has achieved full accreditation for the first time in its history. He's modernized entire police vehicles, fleet, improved reliability, safety, and operational readiness. In the time, he has also secured funds of over 160 million. He has saved the city over $18 million. He's organized a cultural workforce development, creating the re-imagination of the Riviera Beach University and the city's first two-day employee inservice training program focusing on culture, service, and performance. During this time, he's implemented cyber security upgrades of over $80,000 annually, modernized ERP, Tyler payments and payments processing systems, and upgraded all the networks, firewalls,

and fire and wireless infrastructure citywide with over currently underway requiring continuation of the leadership. Some of the programs he's now working on is over a hund uh $394 million water treatment plants, $115 million Goon capital programs, new police headquarters, fire stations, 86 underway, completed 87 and 88 fire stations, municipal beach park redevelopment, utility redundancy subsacious water and sewer uh mains project as well as the multiple active redevelopment and housing projects. We need to keep him underway in his position so that we can accomplish all these. City of Riviera Beach is wonderful place. We love everybody coming to the beach. We don't want to keep anybody out or this any of the facilities and restaurants and wonderful areas and parks that are on Singer Island. We want you all there. We don't want anybody to be left out. Thank you very much.

Thank you for your comments. Thank you for your time. The next speaker is Erin Zenas Fain Loman in the America Davis.

Right. Good evening everybody. uh city staff, council, um and of course our residents. Uh my name is Irwin Senise, a senior organizer with SEIU Florida Public Service Union. Uh we actually cover 193 of your employees under a collective bargaining agreement. Um I'm here today uh because I've had uh several issues that have come up um from our members I've been trying to seek solutions on and I feel I've been getting a little bit of the runaround. So, I wanted to um bring it to this forum to to you guys. Um one, I've been getting some um responses from our members in utilities. Um one just feeling that there's been some inconsistencies and some of the job hiring. Um some of it being with uh some of our folks who have the proper experiences and um tenure here who have been overlooked for positions and things like that. Um those uh those inquiries have led to or prompted an investigation that we still haven't gotten the responses for. I've asked about it. Um been told that, you know, it's been held up for whatever reason. Uh so would love for those results to come um out. Um the investigation was prompted um on the uh director of the utilities just to look into those hiring practices and still don't have those results. And all that has also just led to just a low morale within our utility department um just in general and uh you just want to get to a solution for that. Um, also I received some uh calls from uh some of our parks and Rex members who had a concern about safety when it came to a mobile uh stage um that they were given a very brief video to watch and I've been told it's a very dangerous um mechanism to take care of. I think it's a $200,000 U piece of equipment that's being managed by folks that um you know we're not really paying very much to and not

the sufficient type of um training. Um I did reach out to Jonathan Evans to his um uh credit. He did respond long lengthy email about things that were going to be done including um reaching out to parks and reccks and special event planners to make sure there was a qualified vendor that could take care of that. But yet, lo and behold, um the old school reunion just passed and we had one of our members that was out there setting that stage up that they weren't properly um uh trained on. And so that's that's a concern. Um, and then also lastly, uh, a lot of our, uh, I got calls from members from our, um, BTR, um, business tax receipt, um, and now permit text where, uh, that position was combined between the business tax receipts and permitting was combined. And I have emails dating back to 2024 of when that reclassification happened. There was supposed to be an incentive for those folks who went into that position, an extra 5% and a pay grade bump. And um I forwarded those emails up management since 2024 and those um adjustments were not made for those folks who were under that reclassification. So just ask for some some solutions and some real stuff. Thank you.

Thank you so much. All right. Appreciate it. The next speaker is Losman followed by Erica Davis and RD Williams. Loman. Madam Chair, if you read the agenda, this is non-aggenda public comment. You have to you talk about things now that are not on the agenda. This is general public comment, sir. No, read read what it says on the agenda. It's non-aggenda. If they want to talk about the city manager, they have to wait for the agenda item. They don't get two shots at it. And it's clearly labeled non-aggenda items is what we're talking about now. And if somebody's talking about agenda item, they're off topic and they should be pointed out. Wait till the item is called. I'll look into that.

I have a problem with the city attorney. The city attorney sent an email where she didn't bother to read the case a judgment and in this judgment it moved the western edge of our property on Singer Island on the north side of Pinepoint Road. The city attorney said not only did it move the western edge, it also moved the northern edge. And the judge said, "No, it did not." Cuz they didn't want that by moving all those lots north, they didn't want it to quote cascade to Maine. Based on what she has done, she sent a letter or email to the police department saying they do not have to enforce trespass on our property. That is She has to she cannot tell a police officer what to do when it comes to trespassing. We have the property appraisers printout. We have the property appraisers plat. We know where the southern boundary is. They wanted to move it. Mr. Kant, but the judge said, "No." He said, "I'll move the western edge 30 ft and that's it. I am sick and tired of having people walking on our property, cutting our mangroves." And more importantly, they said, "If I go on the property," one guy said, "He's going to blow my head off and argue stand my ground. don't have to be threatened by what this city attorney has done. It's it's very it's creates a lot of anxiety for myself and my guests when we go over there and I know how it started. Glenn Spirit has said he was going to take a survey that they wanted to have for our property. He's going to take it to the city manager and city attorney and say that they're going to move it even though the court said no. That is telling a city manager to do something individually without the council doing it as a whole. You just can't go moving people's property line because they want to have access to a beach that's on private property. What are we going to do about this? What are we going to do about it? I should be allowed to go on my property,

not be threatened and get my head blown off by the guy on the south side of the street. What are we going to do about the city attorney competency that she is moving lot lines that a judge said we're not going to move? How are we going to address that? Are you going to censure your Glenn Spiritus for going around and telling a city manager to do something that wasn't before the board? We have to do something about this. I don't want to wind up dead from from this guy blowing my head off one day because he said, "Oh, well, here look at the city attorney's emails. He said it's okay to go on to go on my property. We need to do something about this

today." Thank you very much, sir. The next speaker is Erica Davis, followed by Arty Williams and Maline Irving Mills.

Erica Davis, Riviera Beach. You know, I am sick of getting up here with this same stuff over and over again. Every four, three years, every time election season come up, we back at Jonathan again. And I am so sick of all the plotting behind the back to bring your outside friends Lawson in here talking about bull crap when they come in here. All the outsiders, not citizens of Riviera Beach coming in here begging for money, our money for events. Now you just spent you just took what? 80ome thousand 10,000. I don't know how much it was, but you better clarify it from the CRA or parks and Rex for this old school and we don't have any money like that. What did the city make off of that? Please tell me, but yet it's still You want to come over here pointing your finger at Jonathan. I'm sick of you all coming in here stealing money indirectly and then taking it giving it to your friends from the outside. They coming in here plotting to speak. They don't even live out here. All of this money that comes from out of our budgets to go to your friends for events and we don't get any money out of them. We're sick of that. And going forward, I'm going to be the gatekeeper of all the finances like I've already been. I'm going to go to finances and get everything that you spend so I can tell the residents what's really going on here. And as far as Jonathan's concerned, do what you will because when you do, and if you do, you're going to be famous because ain't none of y'all innocent up here. All of you are crooks.

And we're sick and tired of the same old same old BS every time we turn around. And residents, I have 57 seconds. I want to let you know that all of these tall buildings you complaining about the one on Single Island, but all the ones the developers putting up here on Broadway, guess what? We don't get any tax money on the other side. Only the CRA gets it. So, I want you all to understand that. And you black ones on the west side, you're going to be priced out. As soon as they go up, the rent's going to go up. the the the the uh taxes are going to go up and you're going to be priced out of here cuz they're coming. Thank you. The next speaker is Arty Williams followed by Maline Irvin Mills and Margaret Shepard.

Good evening everybody. I'm here representing Mothers Against Murders Association and Youth Recreation Association and and just want to talk a little bit about um going down this road again with the city manager. U we've been there before and I don't think we should go there again. I think Jonathan doing a great job. I think we could should continue uh to keep him on. Uh sometime I know you guys heard the saying about be careful what you wish for or the the grass and always green on other side. It's not I mean whoever you bring in is not a guarantee that you're going to like what they do that well we're going to be back in the same situation again. I I see that the city is moving forward and I think we should continue to do that. Um every sign of trouble that somebody and I'm hoping it's not personal reason because if it's personal reason or agenda driven uh then you not speaking for us. Let it be something factual because we don't want to have someone make a decision for us that we didn't give you the to authorization to do. I mean, you guys represent just one of you guys. It's you're one person, but you represent thousands of people and collectively you you represent over 40,000 people. Your voice is for 40,000 people or more. And your voice is going to make a difference ultimately on the decision. But when you came into the churches and you made your pitch about want to be up there, you said you're going to represent the people. Listen to the people. Don't make this about you. Make it about the city. Don't make it about you. This is not personal. You're not going to agree with everything he does. He doesn't agree everything you do. We don't agree with everything you do. And you don't agree with everything the people in the residents in the city does. But we got to work together. You guys are supposed to be a team. Your guys is the general manager. He's the the coach. you feel like he's not doing a good job. Now you want to fire the coach and then the people who are the owners going to fire you. So let's do we don't have to go through those things. I mean you guys work together. I don't

have a problem with anybody up there. But I have a problem when you want to continue to try to put the city uh uh in a direction to go backwards. I think we're making a great strides and I was in a meeting uh last week in Palm Beach Garden. Soon as I walk in, they said, "Where are y'all doing it again?" you know, this is what they think of us. You know, we always in the news of something that's that's that's going to be a hurtful to the city. Don't let that speak for us. We guys say we are the best city to live, work, and play. If you really felt that way, we wouldn't be here tonight trying to address this situation because that mean that you really don't believe that, you know. So, if you're going to say that mean that that is going on today. So, don't say it today if you don't mean that because that if you did, you would be trying to get rid of the city mansion. who else whoever is up there trying to do that. So, I'm hoping that we can just um work together as a city, continue to move forward, and I I think we have a good foundation to do that, but don't let personal reason are driven uh agenda driven to make a decision that we all going to suffer from because we don't know who we're going to get. Thank you.

Thank you. The next speaker is Maline Irving Mills followed by Margaret Shepard and Mike Jenkins. Um, yes, you do. Excuse me, ma'am. Uh, we can't have outburst in the yard. Uh, I'm going to give you one warning.

Go ahead, ma'am. Good afternoon, good evening, council, city manager, and I guess the city attorney is absent or you know. However, as a taxpayer and homeowner here in the city, I was very appalled to watch the meeting online and to hear uh Councilman Gton openly display a legal issue that the city is facing now regarding um an assistant chief. What bothers me is that he coerced and I I won't even say coerced because she's down with anything the attorney to concur with this was a certain person there. That fact was not provable because of the fact that he said hearsay of Mr. Evans is telling the streets and all of this here stuff that Diaz is very dignified and we want dignified people to represent us. Not bullies, not harassment of the manager because not any time have I been notified of the plans of this board to terminate or negotiate a contract with our city manager which you work for us. And that's what Mr. Giden so eloquently put in perspective he works for us but Mr. Gidton forgets he works for the residents and what bothers me the most is this chaos continues instead of rallying and cheering on the accomplishments that this man makes this tireless and endless things of him being dedicated he does not air our dirty laundry like Mr. Giden does. He chooses to cover up just like a good leader would do because he don't want he does not want to bring shame to this city to

place it in a city of turmoil. Lies have been told, statements have been made. And it is the general public that hears these things and we are frustrated. And I hate to say we because I don't like when people get up here and talk for me cuz I got a big enough mouth I can talk for myself. But I know the people that I do talk to, we're tired of the foolishness. Get along with the manager. He's progress this city. Let's stay on this bright line train to let's move it forward.

Thank you very much. Our next three speakers, please. Speaker is Margaret Shephard, Mike Jenkins, and Brett Schneider. Margaret Shepard, River Beat for the podium, please. Go ahead, ma'am. No, it's still not on. Hold on a second. Let me just switch on. Yes.

Could you just switch it on? Is it on? Just get that one right there. Switch it. Just Just give her that one. Just get one. It's not on. Go ahead and give her one of those yet. Thank you, Chief. Go ahead. You can start our time over. Okay. Very good. Go ahead.

Margaret Shepard, Rivier Beach. I want to go on a different level than some of the rest of them. And I thank the public for talking uh to me. I think a lot of them really kind of gravitate to me because I like to do the truth. Um, Mr. Evans has never done anything to me. Uh, the things that I have to do in the community, it is my duty to go to some of the council people and gravitate to the city manager. A lot of people are upset with Mrs. uh uh Jacobs. I had to go to Miss Jacobs a couple of times uh for things that happened over Lindsay Davis. I had to gravitate to Mrs. uh Julie Patel and uh get some things done in Lake View Park after she left. I had to gravitate to Mr. Spiritis and then I had to gravitate to uh when when Summer was growing up, Mr. Lydia Franks Edwards and Gwen Oaks, Keith Golden, I had to gravitate to him just the other week uh to take care of something with my little granddaughter. And of course I had to gravitate to Bruce Gton when my granddaughter was growing. I'm saying to you that is my duty as a citizen and as a caretaker of the city of Rivier Beach. I cannot indulge in such behavior. Mr. Evans is the city manager. You brought him back. It is my duty to not get into a fight with this manager. I think that Mr. Gon did not think it through because if I'm thinking right, the charter say three. You have to have three votes. If you look over here, you do not have three votes. The charter states, now you can get mad and say the charter states you should

not indulge in the city manager's business. What do we do now? We have to change the charter. I want to say to Miss Irvin, I am extremely sorry for how I reacted. It is my duty as a member of the city of Riviera Beach to try to pull the city together. Yes, they tried to silence me, but the truth is the truth. We should not be going down this rabbit hole again. What's going on is Mr. Gayton is his boss. It should be a mediation. Whatever should be My mother used to say, "Whatever going in my house, keep it in my house." It's something going on. I don't think that uh Mr. Felder told a lie, but I think that we should not expose this man again. It's something happening. We don't know, but we should not get involved in this mess. Thank you so much.

The next speaker is Mike Jenkins, followed by Brett Schneider and Milo Despinish. Hello. Everything working so we don't get it. I'm not here to speak about any individuals. I'm here from the Emirates. Uh there will be numerous ones of us here. We need your help. We implore you to come out for and do some inspections. The inspections process, I would say, needs review for the city because it affects not just the folks at the Emirate in this case, but every level from top to bottom uh any piece of real estate. We've got plumbing issues. We've got fire detection issues. the fire fire alarms in our units aren't work. We aren't hooked into the city properly. Um, and we need your help because the inspections weren't done properly. You allowed them to have independent inspectors and they didn't do the job and it is your responsibility to follow up to review those documents and make sure that they're done in the correct way. So, we just we need you to come out preferably tomorrow because we've got sewage. We've got uh water coming out on the floors. We've got, like I said, I've talked about the fire issues and uh so the ball's in your court, but we need your help. Thank you.

Thank you, sir.

The next speaker is Brett Schneider, Milo Despanich, and Anthony Curtis. My name is Chris Hickeyi. I'm speaking for Brett Schneider. I'd like to tell a story. One, thank you for the councilman and your service. It's my first council meeting meeting and I listened a lot tonight and uh you guys hear a lot of gripe and both. I'm going to tell you a story. Here's a story, right? There's some people like myself that came down to Florida to bring jobs. My name is Chris Hickeyi. I I run an AI technology company and I relocated from New York to come to Riviera Beach. And part of that was relocating my residents and I picked the Emirate and I met some of the greatest people in my 40-year career at the Emirates. And they were smart, hungry businessmen that all brought jobs to Riviera Beach. All of them. One guy bought a laundry mat and he owned seven laundry mats. Another guy brought a funeral home and he brought 17 funeral homes in the last year. They brought jobs here. I brought my entire company here. But I was misled. I I went to this amirate and I was promised homestead. I was promised a lifestyle where I didn't have to worry about septic sewage or I didn't have to worry about fire alarms. I I was misrepresented. And I know the people from Riviera Beach met with the Emirate and they said, "Hey, look, we're going to fix this problem. You were completely fraudulently misrepresented. Smart people bringing jobs to Riviera Beach, employing people at Riviera Beach. I'm I'm going to put a hundred jobs into Riviera Beach. And I came here with this unbelievable fantasy that it was an incredible condo. It had a wellness center. I lost 100 pounds in a

year at Amir. I lost 100 pounds. Wasn't easy, by the way. But I but I all of a sudden met this builder who told me, "Hey, I'm going to give you Homestead. I'm going to make sure that the inspections are done." And the inspections weren't done. And we never got Homestead. And the people are really upset right now because they were fraudulently misrepresented. Now, you might think it's only about Homestead. Who cares about Homestead in the end? I care about all these smart businessmen that are bringing these jobs into Riviera Beach and they might leave. They might physically leave and all the jobs leave. And if the jobs leave, then smart people like you, right, who really care about people here. I believe you didn't come to public office because you didn't care. I believe you're good people. And I believe the people here are amazing, but all we want to do is bring jobs and be happy. And we were misrepresented. So, I'm going to meet with you. I'm going to set up meetings separately. I'm going to tell you our story. And I think when you hear our story, you're going to look back and say, "We don't want anybody from the Amir to leave. We want to give them the homestead. We want to make jobs come to Riviera Beach and we want to be happy." And I think you're all good people. And you're going to hear our story over the next couple of weeks. And I think you heard the stories tonight. And I think when you hear it, you're going to say, "Hey, we're going to solve this problem." Thank you.

Thank you so much. The next speaker is Milo Despinich, followed by Anthony Curtis and Cynthia Curtis. Good evening, council, mayor, and city manager. I'm not going to uh repeat too much. You've heard a lot from my uh fellow neighbors, so I'll try to keep this a little short, but hit on one main point that's rather serious. So, what you need to understand, we could have probably had another 140 of our fellow residents here, but we don't want to turn this into a circus. But what you need to understand, we have compelling compelling evidence and and it's not pertaining to you, but that previous city people that they knew willfully and knowingly allowed this developer to sell hotel units as condos. We we know it. We have evidence of it, but we're now trying to figure out a path forward. And we're not quite sure, you know, where this is going. But we need your help to make this go away. And you need to understand something. You, as city officials, you take an oath. You're held to higher standards. I think you follow me. You need to figure this out and make this resolved right away because it should have been resolved a year and a half ago. And I'm not going to sit here and talk about anything else. I want you really to think about this now. It's pretty serious. Thank you for your time.

Thank you, sir.

The next speaker is Anthony Curtis, followed by Cynthia Curtis and Ellen Frank. I'm Anthony Curtis. I am a resident at the Emirate Ocean Resort. Uh we I've been over there two and a half years. We've been trying to get homestead for at least two years now and we believe we're being denied homestead because of some deal that the developer made with the city council back many years ago that so he could get density and more units at the Emirate Resort. I think that we've been all misled and we need the city council to help us to get homestead because we want to be residents of the of the city of Riviera Beach. I mean, I have personally my condominium docu my my condominium purchase agreement states that I can get homestead. So, I was deceived from day one from this developer. And the Riviera Beach Chief of Police has the power to refer this fraud to the State Attorney's Office in Palm Beach County, the 15th Judicial Circuit, to file criminal charges against this developer. There's over 250 victims here. I believe this is the only way to get his attention. We've been we've been we have sewage problems like everybody else has said. We've had misrepresentation. I think it's time for the city chief of police to take this guy up and file criminal charges. And there's a way for you to do it. Thank you for your time.

Thank you, sir. The next speaker is Cynthia Curtis, followed by Ellen Frank and David Frank.

Hello. I just want to let you know I'm really nervous to do this on speaker. So, I'm just going So, if I start shaking, just excuse me. So, tonight I learned from the city that you're all trying to compete for the all-American city award. And in order to be able to compete for this, one of the components is to protect everybody's civil liberties. With that being said, today I stand in front of all of you to tell you that our civil liberties at the Emirate Ocean Resort are being denied one basic civil liberty. And I know this is going to sound silly, but it's called mail. I could not get mail at my home because the city of Riviera Beach officials who gave our parcel numbers to Palm Beach County to collect condo taxes and they're glad to take 50,000 or 40,000 from us. But when I asked to just get mail put in my mailbox, all of us here could not get mail because the city wants to play a game and say it's a hotel when they know that they have residents there. So what happens is voter fraud. There are people that are missing their ballots. There are people that are missing their credit cards. There are people now sitting here that are missing their birthday cards or unable to get their children's cards from their grandparents because what? The city of Rivia Beach wants to play a game and not tell the United States Postal Service that yes, in fact, there are condominiums in there. All I'm asking for you today, if you want to compete for this all-American city award, give us our civil liberties. tomorrow when I turn in that package to the United States Post Office, please just let us get our mail and say there are residents living there. That is my ask of the city of Riviera Beach for the

Amir Ocean Resort residents that have already been wronged. Thank you. Being that I didn't use all my time up, I'd like to say one more thing. If you go online, I I can't let you go. You had your time. You had your three minutes before, sir. All right, I'll give it to somebody else. Thank you. Thank you so much, sir. The next speaker is Ellen Frank, followed by David Frank and Shedric Lane. Ellen Frank has authorized me to take her time. I understand, sir, but we can't give away time to someone else.

It's only going to take one. He's He's going to have to She's going to have to come up and talk. Pardon me. She's going to have to come up and talk. That's her time. We can't give time to somebody else.

He's going to talk for me. I have a throat. So here it's online for everybody to see that Dillip Dillip Barack hosted a meeting at the Emirate Ocean Resort for he was honored as a host at a panel discussion mixer looking who's investing in South Florida 2018 Global Business Alliance. He goes on to say that the Amirit will also offer buyers the investment opportunity of a rental program and homestead exemption. That's why I want you to file criminal charges against this guy. You want to read it? It's right here. It's online. You can read it today. He's still advertising that we can get Homestead.

There's a police officer at the back. So could you please Yeah. talk to them about that. Who's the next speaker? David Frank, Shedric Land, and then Shereice Quitell. Hello. Hello.

I believe in our institutions and I believe in you guys and I believe that you will do the right thing. We have been defrauded. 300 of us have been defrauded. We can all read our documents. There was nothing in those documents that implied we were buying a hotel suite. This is wrong and this should be writed by our government. We want to be here. I love Riviera Beach, but I will not stay here if we do not get Homestead. It's wrong. And we need you. We're asking you to defend us against a rogue developer. He should be thrown in jail. He has defrauded. Thank you all. This guy is a slub lord. People have gotten murdered in his Thank you. in in his section 8 housing projects in Miami. It's been documented. This this is the way this guy operates and he needs to be stopped. The guy needs to be deported. He has come to this country and has taken advantage of our laws that were made for the good for the people who needed it. For the people who can't defend themselves, we will defend ourselves. We the people of the Amirate will defend ourselves. But we need you and we need you to change your docks. We need Homestead and we need our property to be residential, not a hotel suite. You don't put a laundry in a hotel suite. Thank you.

Thank you, sir.

The next speaker is Shedric Lane, followed by Shereice Quatel and Dino Ladi. Good evening everyone. Good evening, Mayor Lawson, City Manager Evans, and Commissioners. On December 15, 2025, my life was forever changed. My oldest sister suffered a phalamus stroke. and it was due to the conditions right here in our community at Indian Trace Apartments. We're still trying to figure out exactly how, but we know for sure that it was. So, I'm here to bring attention to those conditions over at uh Indian Trace. And I just want to acknowledge that I really appreciate the mayor Lawson and city manager Evans for their quick response in responding to those conditions. We have people living in deplorable conditions, people living with black mold. You're going to hear stories of people passing out, and these people retaliating, these big-time developers retaliating because we reached out to them. These people, you should see some of these conditions. As a matter of fact, if you saw Channel 5's coverage on Monday, you saw that. And if you haven't, I I encourage you to go to YouTube and look at that video. you would you would be disturbed at what's going on. That's why we're here to ask you to stand with us on May 2nd. We're going to stand out in a protest because if you think Amir is bad, if you think Amir is bad, you know the ceiling like a black carpet. Seriously,

roaches everywhere. And when you go to address it, their response is to retaliate. You're going to hear other stories. Other people going to speak behind me. But I want you to really understand this is happening in your community with your loved ones, your friends, your families. My sister had a stroke. It's grace of by the grace of God that she's still here today. And that is the reason was a catalyst as to why I'm here to fight for her and the other people that live in that community. So, I encourage you all to please stand with us on May 2nd to make sure that those situations are rectified because that's that's not right. And I reached out I sent an email to you, Councilwoman uh Councilman Laneir and your staff and we didn't get a response. But I really appreciate the fact that you all deployed city manager, you deployed I really appreciate it. you deployed your uh code enforcement and the fire department to address those issues and they are being addressed but these people are retaliating against those folks and they're threatened with eviction. My sister walked into the office say, "Why am I being charged $3,700?" The property manager at that time threw her checkbook at my sister and told her get out of office or she's going to evict her. This is a true story. So, we need your help. Thank you.

The next speaker is Sher Shereice Quitell followed by Dino Lady and Cindy Marge.

Good evening, Mayor Lawson, city manager Jonathan Evans and council members. My name is Shereice Catel and my reason for speaking tonight is that I want the city to know what is going on in the in the area if you already don't know. As I'm peeking back after Mr. Lane. I live in Indian Trace Apartments and it's owned by Blackstone and managed by FBI management. We started a tenants association and I was appointed president. So I can speak for those who cannot speak for themselves. Myself and other residents are living in deplorable living conditions with mold, roach infestations, water leaks, cracked foundation, appliances that do not work. Some people have one burner on their stove, no hot water, and AC units that do not work. We have residents that go without AC for two weeks. This is Florida and state of Florida. AC isn't um mandatory. It's an emergency when it's not working. The regional director and upper management have gone years and not addressed residents concerns. I've seen six managers in two years since I've resided in Indian Trace. The most recent manager was let go because she was advocating for us and bringing code violations to to attention. She got mold in her system from entering one of these moldinfested units and she passed out and had to be sent to the hospital. I am asking the city and council members to step in and do what is right for the residents of Indian Trace. April Housing has not stepped in to assist with anything. There are over 50 cold violations at the property and I'm requesting that the building official is sent out there to inspect the property. The fire mar fire marshall gave management until tomorrow to clean 320 units. um dryer vents as they've never been cleaned and that is a fire hazard and not one dryer vent has been cleaned. Just because we live in affordable housing does not mean we deserve substandard living condition. And I want to say again thank you to Mayor Lawson, city manager Evans and the council for their time.

The next speaker is Dino Ladi followed by Cindy March and Dolores Williams. Good evening. My name is Dino Lodati and I am from the Emirate. I've been listening to all the complaints today. And what I understand is that we rely on you to do the right thing. I am not a lawyer. I'm not an expert. But when we buy something in a city, it should be something that we believe the city has done the right thing. Now, my father used to say, "If you allow bugs in a house, they're going to bring other bugs." Well, the man that developed the Emirate is a big bug. So, why did the city allow something like that to happen? If if you want a great reputation, then you have to do the right thing because this guy has managed to cheat everybody, including the city, the people, and everybody else. So, we the people over here rely on you, that we don't have to go through this. We tried everything we could with this, I don't know what to call them, to fix this problem, but he never shows up. We had mirings. He never shows up. That's because he's guilty. You know he's guilty. We know he's guilty. So set an example for the next person that wants to do the same thing to Riviera Beach. Set it really a terrific example that you don't allow something like this to happen again. So as I said, everybody else is is asking for your help. You know what to do. You got to do the right thing. So do the right thing. Thank you. The next speaker is Cindy March,

followed by Dolores Williams and Charlie Bergman.

Good evening, council. This is Cindy Marge. I came to speak about several things. First, for the Emirates, I applaud you for standing up for yourself. I know this is a new council, but you need to request who was the council and who was the chair that voted for that because I'm going to let you know it was Julia Bautell. I went to the federal court when Lady Gold Y was the building official and that was one of her cases with the amoris not being turned into um you could not turn them into condominiums. But she wasn't running as a building official. Julie Bale was because no disrespect to you, Mr. Evans, they were so into bringing Mr. Evans back. So Julie Battel said it was okay to turn them hotels into condominiums. Ain't no hearsay. I was at federal court. Okay. So I'm not up here reading from a speech or after Easter speech. It is what it is. And it's bad that you all got to suffer. I've seen on the news where one man say he paid over $2 million and could not even live in that condominium. That is a hotel. That's utterly ridiculous because we as residents, we hold you all accountable for standing up for these people. You all don't even represent your own. You don't represent us and you look like us. That's the sad part about it. You got that nocha launch attitude. Yes, Evans work for you all, but it just doesn't start with Evans. Some of you all needs to go. Period. You just need to go. I don't have to call no name. You're not putting me out here tonight. I'mma call a spade of state. Number two, this overspending. Lenir has spent over $77,000 is in my phone. You want to print out Amazon. She loves Amazon. You know these are tight pair of dolls.

That's why I am so glad you all from Indian and Tracy reached out to me. Shad I didn't try to put Lenir under the bus. I said well who is the person that represent you all? They say Lenir. I said well you need to speak to her but what you need to do is click on that link. I gave him a link to call channel 5 to reach out to channel 12 because one thing for sure and two things for certain. I'm knock on these people those for over 30 years. I'm an advocate. I'm not a leader. Everybody can't lead and I'm one of them. I cannot lead cuz my attitude is very despicable. But it doesn't come out till you bring it out. I'mma call a spade a spade and I'm going to be honest. You cannot be a leader and don't have honesty and transparency. You can't be a leader. I don't care what kind of doctrine around your name, what kind of master degree you have, what college you went to. You got to have a conscience before you can have a heart. And some of you all don't have neither one. It's time to move this city forward, but we got to move it in a direction of honesty and transparency. Whether you like me or don't like me, I can put the person of the dollar aside and I'll turn it back.

Thank you so much,

Dolores. Dolores Williams, Dolores Williams, Charlie Bergman, and Alicia Franks. Should I get up now or should I sit down? But to the council and the citizens of Riviera Beach, I just like to say I I want to say this. I know we coming back on item number 12, but to me, Mr. Evans, I hope I don't get cut off cuz I'm calling in. I don't have anything against you that I want you to know that straight up front. Okay? But this thing about Mr. Evans and sent out this petition and only got 700 people to get 3,000. That's wrong. But the thing when this happened to the last meeting, all they had to do chairman was ask him was he going to resign? You could ask him. Y'all had us to 11:00 at night doing all this make just a mess. You sit up there. This your area, chairman, where these people are suffering. I live in your area. You don't try to get us to get the ambassadors over there to pick up our trash and do all this stuff. No, you I live in your area. I come to you and talked to you before about something. You might say you don't remember, but I do. But this is need to stop. It need to stop. And they say who caused the ember or whatever that it was Anderson uh the mayor and Bail y'all was on that council when y'all passed that thing. Y'all the one called this city for these people to be suffering right now. And right now y'all council people that these people is

suffering over there with that deplorable talking about the ceiling the roof and people getting sick. You know, just just remind y'all of Stony Brook. Stony Brook. That's how bad Stony Brook was. So jump on it like y'all did for Stony Brook cuz I guess they have to bring the FBI back in here

cuz y'all are failing the people. You are failing the people. I I can came in when y'all passed for the the police department. I love the police department, but I couldn't be there because I had a shooting. I didn't have it. They starting the shooting right in front of me. But thank God uh the police got the spot. They was right there like right on rice to make sure everything was all right. So y'all get on the job like the police. Y'all bragging about the police. Do the right thing. Do the right thing. But the man say I just don't get no respect. R what is his name? Dangerfield actor. LET'S GET SOME RESPECT here for the people. You council Anderson. All y'all y'all sit up and y'all come together. Y'all pass out. You got your legislators text you to tell you what to say. I I'll be watching y'all like y'all watching us. I'm going to do a collage of all y'all when people get up how bad y'all treat people for your special.

The next speaker is Charlie Bergman, followed by Alicia Franks and Rochelle Hughes.

Good evening, council. Uh I'm also a resident at the Amorit and I want to tell you a little story. Moved down here to the Riviera Beach area uh about four months ago and Saturday night, believe me, I b I bought a condo and I realized I did not buy a slice of perfection. Things happen in homes, things happen in condos, but this is beyond anything I have ever seen before. Um, our unit completely flooded this past Saturday night. About a inch of water uh in 70% of the unit. It is not livable right now. So, you know, nothing like spending four months in a brand new condo and having to leave because it's flooded. Now, you might ask yourself, how did it flood? um unbeknownsted to me, we found out that there is substance as tile or mortar in the main line. And then I ask myself, because I've been a part of other hotels, how does a city let people live and pass inspection when you have main lines of a building that is full of debris that shouldn't be there? How does that happen? I have no idea. And you might ask yourself as the city, how does that happen? And how do you allow that to happen? My big question and my big ask to you is not about homestead. It's not about, you know, which is a issue we need to address, but it's about the safety of the people at Hammer. As you know, black mold happens real quick when you get sewer water that

comes into the building. I've seen multiple units with black mold. I've seen uh debris coming out of pipes that quite frankly we should not be seeing in a brand new building that you supposedly inspected and it's right under your noses council. Are we waiting for a major catastrophe in the building before you wake up and do something? My ask is a developer that's running wild again under your noses, doing whatever he wants in the building, taking shortcuts and not looking out for the residents of Riviera Beach as they fix this issue. Is the city willing to step in and make sure it's done correctly so we don't have to stand here before you again with maybe sick or injured people? Thank you for your time.

The next speaker is Alicia Franks, followed by Rochelle Hughes and Detta Pulk. I couldn't sit still in my seat because I hear the wonderful things that you say about the city manager and Miss Jacobs, but I know differently. It's almost like buying a new house and it's all shiny on the outside and the plumbing doesn't work at the inside. So, I want to start by starting I I wrote something because I didn't want to get emotional. Over the last year, around the time the external independent attorney's hiring, my sister, Ladyia Franks, asked questions regarding ethical conflicts in the current investigation. She has been subjected to tactics that appear to be designed to cause physical and emotional stress. My sister is currently on FMLA. I ask you to keep her in your prayers in your thoughts. While on approved medical leave for stress related health issues, Miss Frank's my sister was repeatedly subjected to work-related cause. I've seen this myself. No ordinance is going to hide me from speaking the truth. A lady has been out on PTO pending FMLA approval. And although she communicated that to Mr. Evans on the 8th of April, the 9th, the 10th, the 11th, and 12th. He called to text her every day because he waited until those days to complete his investigation to interview her. A whole year he's had to complete that investigation. She's under doctor's care. I don't know if it's misfecence. I don't know if it's male feasance. I don't know if it's nonfeence, but it's got to stop.

On April 8th, 12:02 a.m., city manager Evans sent a formal demand for a lady to send her documents to him. My sister remains in constant state of fear and high alert. No one could continue under the stress that she and others have been exposed to. The city manager had over a year to make sure the attorney interviewed himself and the other five implicated managers. He waited two business days before it was due to call and harass her continually. Miss Franks has been deprived of being ostracized. Yes, Miss Jacobs, you befriended her, at least she thought. And I wasn't going to talk to you, Miss Jacobs. I'm sorry. But she said, "Miss Jacobs, I have high blood pressure. I need on my PTO day. I need time off." And Miss Jacobs said to her, "I got blood pressure, too." She asked my sister to to submit to her three years of all events, a report that was due that day. Someone's out on that formal. Do you understand what you can do to a person when you abuse your power? Do you understand? It is not squeaky. It is not squeaky clean as you see it. If you guys talk about the residents and listen for your comments,

I'll be back. I have part two. Yes, ma'am.

The next speaker is Rochelle Hughes, followed by Detta Pulk and JB Dixon. Hello, Michelle Hughes. Holy moly. Just going to say what I've heard tonight. Oh my gosh. But that's not what I'm up here to talk about. First off, I'm actually going to make um um compliments and thank you to Chief Coleman, Assistant Chief Gordon, Major Kimone, Officer Meyer. They came out to Lumpine uh last week for a community kind of like a meet and greet and it was awesome. We walked the streets, we met some people. Um, Officer Meyer went over and and and met with children and and it was it was great. So, I just want to commend them and thank them for that coming out. It was great and I hope we do it again. Um, my other reason for being up here is so on the Next Door app, I read that the Marina Twin Towers that are 20 stories has been approved and is on the it's going to start. And I said, "That's kind of funny because it hasn't come before council for the approval of the reszoning because this is a marina district and it hasn't been approved. I know I sat through the CRA. I sat through the planning and zoning, but it hasn't come before council. So, I'd like to know how how is it the Palm Beach Post and these other places can say, "Hey, they're going to be breaking ground." I have a problem with that. Um cuz somebody's telling them this stuff. I don't know who somebody is. Um,

and I'm also going to say too that I'm totally against building two 20story towers in an area that only should go up to eight stories. We talk about Singer Island and you guys not wanting the 28 stories over there. Well, guess what? We should also be talking about the marina not wanting 20 stories or more here. This will take away our us residents to be able to utilize this marina. We need to make this marina about the residents because what I'm seeing, we've got South Broadway condos going over here that are 20 stories. Across the street, you've got Oculina down the street. I'm seeing more and more we're going to be pushing all of these residents that have homes here and over there out because we want to build all these big condos. If you're really about the village and saving the village of Riviera Beach and being a community, let's let's start really thinking about what we what we can do as a city for the residents. How can we help the residents? Not let's just build build so we get all the multi-million dollars. Thank you.

Thank you

Da P JB Dixon and Mary Bram. Good evening. My name is Detta Park and I just want to um my concerns is the last meeting that we had and when I was talking to uh concerning uh Councilman Gton and I stated to you uh that you said outside of the meeting you talked to me and wanted to my assistant in you being elected and you immediately did this indicating and shaking your head as if I was lying. You did state you would not come with any chaos. You stated that you would be definitely helping Mr. Evans move this city along getting the new water plant. You even gave me at least 10 to 15 signs and I went to my neighbors and a great deal of them said, "Miss Park, let me tell you, we letting the fox back in the hen house. He's going to devour all the hens, the roosters, and the chicks." And

guess what they when they pass my house? Miss Paul, what what do we what do we tell you? You know, there's Maya Angelo said, "When someone shows you the first time who they are, believe them. Believe me the first time." And I was just thinking that was so shameful of you to have done me like that, Mr. Mr. Gton, cuz you knew I was telling the truth. And for you to indicate by showing this, that was very hurtful because I didn't think you were that type of person. So, um, and I want to talk about the, uh, TIFF fund. I think that you brought it up to let it come into everyone get that. I think that's wrong because we need that totally in the utility department. And I want to commend uh, Miss Kashamba Miller. This one, this young lady, council person has integrity. She's has professionalism. She has general concerns and kindness for all the citizens of River Beach. That's why she has been elected each and every term that she applied for. We need more people like this on the dis more people. And it's and then I saw on Facebook um Mayor Lawson that you're 45 uh years old had a birthday. Congratulations. And then I also saw that you for your campaign you would like people to uh donate if they can 45 $450,000. We don't people don't have that.

Thank you so much. People are really suffering. Thank you so much. Thank you so much. Thank you very much. Thank you. The next speaker is JB Dixon, followed by Mary Bram and Tanya Bell.

I'm JB Dixon from Singer Island in Riviera Beach. I originally thought that I would come up here to talk about Jonathan Evans contract because it's going to be midnight before I can talk to it as an issue. However, I think everyone here has spoken very eloquently about that. I don't think I could do any better. It obviously is a nobrainer that you should be grateful to be able to extend this man's contract for everything he's done for the city. So, I have been a I usually am asked to talk about controversial things and things that make people angry. So, I will do that tonight. The subject is the project called 2525 Lake Park or something gateway to Singer Island. And this is a proposal that I don't even know how many stories are being requested. Some people say 20, some people say 25. But do I want to see a 25story building there? No. But there's something I dislike the idea of even more and that is the prospect of a 42story building being put there. Everyone has ignored or poo pooed something called the live local law. And you've seen that now finally the media is beginning to catch up to what the consequences of that law is. It essentially takes away the rights of local governments such as this to do something with height as long as this live local project has I think it's 20%

of I may be wrong about that a certain percentage of quote affordable housing. It also goes on to state that they can go as high as any building within a mile of them. The building I live in, the tiara, is within a mile. We're 42 stories. I don't want to see 42 stories there. The opponents who are not above lying about this claim, oh, they'll never do live local. What a $70 million piece of property. I've got to tell you that they can and they they will. There are drawings of such a building. They have done financials. I have seen them. So I can just tell you you need to look at the live local law because people need to make a choice between two things that maybe they don't want. It is better to be able to deal with a developer

than not be able to deal with them. Thank you so much.

The next speaker is Mary Bram followed by Tanya Bell and Quincy Jean Bernard. Good evening, Miss Mary Brown River Beach. I'm going to try to get straight to the point here. And what I'm going to say here in this bag here, I have all kinds of everything that has gone on basically within this city. I have my Robert's rule of order book here. I also have my law book with the various cases and stuff here. I have the constitution. I have all of those things there. Why do does Miss Bram have those things here? Because Miss Bram does deal in these realms here. So, and they try to keep me educated. I'm going to say that residents, when Miss Bram tell you something, she means that this is this 150day plan that the city manager had. Some of it is being executed here. We are here with the water plant here. We as residents SAID WE DO not want to wait till 27 2027 to get it built. Others delayed it months, years, decades. The parking, the parking. Have you all rode out there the gardens there? Here it is. Here that it was approved. Go out there on the garden road when you ask Mr. Evans to do that. And you would see signs up there that's clear. No parking for all of those trucks there. All of those

trucks that ride out there on Garden. Mr. Spirit just was sworn in in February, March, March the 20th, 2024. We was already laboring these issues here with these various boards here, the water, police department, UTILITY DISTRICT, RECREATIONAL, WE WERE doing that. AND NOT ONLY THAT, RESIDENTS, WE WERE EVEN IN VIRTUAL VIRTUAL. WE WAS HAVING VIRTUAL MEETINGS. WE HAVE HAD SO MANY meetings to get the residents involved. So, it's no such thing as that. Our community does not know. and one person came along and he was the savior of the city or she was the savior of the city. We as residents we was faced with these things here and whatever decision that you all would make look at where we were to where we are now. Do we all have faults? Miss Graham have them too

because we are not perfect. We are not perfect. But one thing about Miss Graham, Miss Graham admits, I always speak. If I'm incorrect, somebody please correct me because all of us can be corrected. What have each one of you all done? Thank you so much. Ask that question that for yourselves, too. Thank you. I'll be back. I'm just like the rest of them. I'll be back. Thank you. Next speaker is Tanya Bill, followed by Quincy Jean Bernard. Okay. So, Tanya is not here. So, Quincy Jean Bernard is our last speaker.

All right. Good evening. Good evening. Um, first off, I would like to say um to uh Mr. Evans and also Mayor Lawson, uh I would like to say thank you. My name is Quincy Jean Baptiste and I am the assistant manager at Indian Trace. I am the whistleblower. I am the whistleblower with the team as well. The living conditions of these individuals of these tenants are deplorable. I've been talking to you all directly and indirectly. We formed a coalition with the tenants. We've been pushing pushing pushing pushing where my property manager also had got fired on the 10th of April because of our pushing putting the story out. I want to thank you guys for standing up with us. I want to thank the strength of Mr. Lane with us too as well to come out here and do what we're doing right now. I've been a property manager about 10 years. We took an oath to be true and trustworthy in what we do. And I cannot stand by and let asset living FBI management and Charlene Marshall to come in here and play in your face. We've been out here in these four months that we've been employed with FBI putting out emails after emails asking them for help. Not two people, Miss Bale and myself cannot do it all. She fired our maintenance person that came in that was

doing something, not giving us the things that we need from day one. This been an ongoing issue that these tenants has been dealing with at Indian Trace healthwise. No AC's then they got to call code enforcement to force them to pay for it where they having AC's and washer and dryers that they paying for. That's not working. It's not working, man. How many times do we have to go in there to fix something and put a band-aid something that's not working? This is not 4 months. This is years. Years. Yeah, I'm going to stay it. I'm here. I am that whistleblower. My property manager is that whistleblower, too, as well. It's wrong for her to get terminated and me as well. I stood on it for constructive discharge because I would not stand there and let you find my property manager after she got sick with molding with mo hospitalized. I have to go to the hospital to make sure she's okay coughing all over the place for no reason because of Charlene Marshall not doing what she's supposed to do to get us what we need to do the work at Indian Trace. Thank you.

Thank you. Madame Chair, that is the end of public comment. Okay. Mr. Evans, do you have any um questions that you can answer at this time?

Um yes, Madam Chair. Um couple of things. I I know right now staff is currently working uh with a consultant that's been hired by the residents uh associated with the emirate issue. So we are working towards what is an amicable solution. Also I would ask if the chief of police can come up and and address some of the concerns. Uh I think the first meeting that we had with the Amir residents that council person um spirit has facilitated. I did ask for one of our detectives, Jennifer Jones, who is uh worked with the city for a long time and has uh ties with the state attorney's office to look into this particular issue. So, the chief has an update on that and I think uh he would like to share that with you briefly.

Thanks, man. Uh councelor Chief Goldman Police Department, chief police. I um I met with a group of those young men and women from the Amirit and we're going to have a follow-up meeting next week in reference to their complaints. We did assign this case to Jennifer Jones about two months ago to look into it. We started, we have a open case on it. We have some roadblocks with the case getting documents on both sides. So, we're going to come up, we're going to formalize a plan next week to see can we get those documents that was generated from both sides years ago. Also, one of the issues was that allegedly those documents destroyed in a fire or do water damage years ago. So, we got to backtrack to find out where those documents are located in the house. So, but we are on top of it. We uh we have we're going to formalize the plan. We're going to reach out to the county to see if we can back find those old documents that amate received and uh hopefully we can get some um some movement on this. Get some get these people some release relief and answers to their concerns.

Thank you, sir.

Are there any other uh issues you want to address in regards to public comment? Madam chair, also with regards to uh the building official, the building official will be uh visiting in the entra fire inspectors as well as code compliance officers and some of the inspectors have visited the site, but the building official will uh visit the property as well um here in the next uh next week or so. Unfortunately, he's out of town at this particular moment or he would be there tomorrow, but we will facilitate the building official that has additional statutory authorities. So he will actually visit the the site. Um also there was some items that were brought up uh from the union. We are working to resolve those particular issues. One of those issues that they communicated is currently under investigation and is also being reviewed by the internal auditor as well. But we are looking to resolve the items that we do have um here pretty quickly concerning the permit texts. uh there's some the uh there's some information that's inconsistent with the the contract that we need to get into a memorandum of understanding with both parties to effectively uh make the appropriate modifications. And it does the the issue is larger than just the building uh building techs and and BTR um staffers. It's also other positions that we're looking to address to to cure the issue holistically. And that is it, Madam Chair.

Um Madam Chair. Yes. Go ahead, sir. Um, there was a reference to you contacting an employee that's on FMLA. Is that correct, Madam Chair? Yes. Go ahead. If I may, I I believe attorney Taes and Gaines, who's the investigator associated with this particular matter, may be present in the room to share some information associated with that. I will get to that. I think you've added that to the agenda. Am I correct, Mr. B? We can address that issue. Um, I'm not trying to have another item added. It was a simple question. Yes or no? You added that item in regards to the contract. I did. I did add and we can address that at that time.

Okay, Madam Chair. Yes. Go ahead, sir. So, the the item that's being added, we're going to have the discussion in reference to the um uh Ronnie Felder's report, and that was a discussion where Mr. Gaines is here to talk about. And I think the question for for Mr. Evans was about the employee. So go ahead. Thank you, sir. I understand. So I think the question was the the the question for Mr. Evans was why the employee was contacted.

Um I I'm not sure if that's something that would we would want to have a discussion about. Um, I know we're going to talk about the report briefly, but um, I guess I would want legal to upon before we go too deep into that discussion a when we get to that item because I know that item is is set on the agenda. So, I know why it was added, but I know there's a few questions because there was an email sent, but let's just be mindful of where we are with the employees and with also staff.

I I totally agree with that. Uh, we are talking about uh, Mr. Gains's contract and to uh, talk about specific employees. I'm not comfortable with that. um especially with the fact that the uh report has not been uh given to the public. Well, not to us either, but I want to make sure that we stay away from discussions in regards to uh particular employees. I don't want to put people's business out in regards to what they have going on with the city. That is not fair to them. That is not fair to the individuals involved. So, if there is a question in regards to that, Mr. Uh, Commissioner Giden, I think we can address that uh doing the contract because that individual is the one that is working on that proposal.

Understood. Thank you, sir. Let me just say that anytime there seems to be something that doesn't share, Mr. Evans, in a good light, it's we can't talk about it right now. I I

And I'm I'm not going to sit up here all the time and let y'all run that. So, I'm I'm just letting you know. I merely said that we can address that when Mr. Gains comes up. I did not say you cannot address it. I did not say you should not address it. I said that when that contract piece comes up and you can address it at that time. Let us go to our next item. Madam clerk, madame chair, we are on item 9A under ordinances on first reading. Ordinance number 4199, an ordinance of the city council of the city of Riviera Beach, Florida, amending the code of ordinances, chapter 20, article 5, division 2, cross connection control to enact cross connection control regulations to protect the city's drinking water system from contaminants. Providing a conflicts clause, providing a codification clause. providing for a repeal of laws and conflict, providing a severability clause, providing for a savings clause, and providing for an effective date. Madam Chair, we don't have comment cards on this item. The acceptance of cards is closed.

So move. Motion. So move. Second. Mr. Mr. Evans is not here. Go ahead, Mr. Nemo. Madam Chair, if I may, I'd like to call assistant director Richard Galant to appoint on this ordinance for you. table. Madam Chair, if I may. Yes. Go ahead, sir. Uh Richard Glenn, assistant uh director of the Rivier Beach Utility Special District. So, the ordinance before you is a modification of an existing ordinance.

Uh that the city of Rivier Beach originally adopted in the 50s and then updated again in the 80s and to the best of our knowledge has not been updated since. Um the authority of this ordinance is under the state law as well as in the state constitution the clean water act the safe drinking water act as well as many other acts that have been adopted by the federal government as well as the state government. The city of Riviera Beach is required by law to have a cross connection control program. The purpose of this ordinance is to update our current ordinance to include terms that are more relevant to today's devices to modify the language and to clarify some of the language that has been that is in this ordinance to clear make it clearer to the residents and get visitors of our city. uh what we are doing to prevent contaminants to entering our system as well as what steps need to be taken by businesses non non-residential commercial fire lines and irrigations in the city.

Thank you. Why does this have to be an ordinance?

Because it has to be a legally enforcable. We have to have some type of Currently the only the only the current resolute the current ordinance only allows us to turn people's water off. That's it. That's the only resolution we have. If somebody doesn't get their backflow uh device tested, we just go 30 days later, we go out and turn the water off. That's the only resolution we have. The modification of this ordinance allows steps. It allows notifications to be sent out. Um it actually has a provision in it to where the city can go out if somebody cannot either not necessarily can't afford it but are are unwilling to go out and test their backflow device the city will do it at at a nunal charge that we have we will calculate at that time.

Okay. Any questions uh in regards to this cross connection control? Madam clerk. Council person Davis Pier. Yes. Council person Gener. Yes. Chairpro 10 miller Anderson. Yes. Council person Dr. Spiritis. Yes. Chairperson Lenir. Yes. I see unanimous vote. Thank you very much for your presentation. Next item.

We are on item 9B, Ordinance 4305, an ordinance of the city council of the city of Rivera Beach, Palm Beach County, Florida. Amending chapter 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 don't have any comment cards on this item. The acceptance of the cards is closed. Thank you, Mr. Sherman. So move. I'm sorry. Second. Go ahead.

Good evening. Randy Sherman, chief financial officer. Um, yes, uh, 9B and 9C. I'm going to make one presentation, uh, if that is okay. Uh, both ordinances, uh, have to do with the impact fees. As you know, back in March, we held a couple workshops uh, that were required by the statute to discuss the impact fees. And now we are ready to bring the ordinances forward for uh, consideration. Uh again just a quick background on the impact fees. Impact fees are assessed on new developments. In essence, it's trying to capture the fiscal impact of this new development that is um being imposed upon the community. Um impact fees um we have to be very careful with that. It's not an unconstitutional tax. So there has to be a independent study done and it has to show that nexus between the uh new development and the impact on the community and then the benefit provided to the new development uh in order for the cost to be generated. Uh the study that is uh presented and developed the impact fees uh does meet all of the statutes. Uh, ordinance 4304 uh adjusts the impact fees for police, fire, library, and public buildings. And then ordinance 4305 adopts new impact fees for the roads. Uh, the adopted rates um are required to be rolled in over two to four years. Uh, and staff is recommending uh that we do this over two years. Um, and then the impact fees will go into effect 90 days after the adoption of the ordinance. So,

we have to post the fees and we can't impose them for 90 days. Uh, again, just to give a little background, you have to do your impact fee study every four years. Sorry. Um, Mr. Sherman, I there's a lot of noise from the audience. Please be quiet because we really can't hear when there's noise and conversation in the audience. It may not sound that much, but up here the the the sound travels and we can barely hear our speaker. So, please be respectful. Go ahead, sir.

Have to do your impact fee study every four years. The last time we did a study was in 2022. Uh the impact fees by state statute can in be increased no more than 50%. uh unless we can show that there's an extraordinary circumstance as far as why those uh 50% is insufficient and we can then increase them to a higher level. Um the extraordinary circumstances are included in the report. Um and then after uh tonight in the first reading we will actually make that a separate report um so that it can be posted on the city's website. Uh impact fees may be used for debt service. So, as we've talked about, uh the extra $60 million that we talked a couple meetings ago, uh the impact fees can be used to pay that debt service. Uh and again the extraordinary circumstances and we talk about the increased growth in population. We talk about the increased cost of capital. Um we talk about the impact of not having sufficient funds to produce or generate or construct uh the facilities that you need. Then only add additional costs. uh whether that is borrowing costs or whether that is the cost of delayed uh projects.

Madam Chair, uh Mr. Mr. Sherman, can you we discussed this last time what the impact was going to be on people that are building affordable housing? Yes. And obviously if the impact fees are too high, then you're not really building affordable housing. Uh they're going to have to raise their rents or the cost of the facility in order to pay those fees. and we're actually working against ourselves if we do this. So, have you thought about this? Is there a way around this uh for affordable housing units?

Yeah. So, as I talked last time when you when you asked that question, um we believe the funds in the Miha program um are eligible to assist in something like this. I've worked with the city manager. We have a resolution that we'll be bringing forward on the second reading that that will provide funding to assist in paying the impact fees. Madam Chair, yes ma is so Randy, how how much money do we have in the MIA program right now?

Um, that is a good question. I don't have that answer for you, but I certainly can provide that. Um, but as we look at the projects that are coming forward on on Broadway, you know, we we know that that fund will get to a certain level. Um, but I will have to get back to you on that balance. I apologize for that. Madam Chair, yes, go ahead.

Um, Mr. Evans. Um, I spoke to you about creating a fund to assist residents, not just the senior citizens and disabled, with their water bills when the water bills start escalating every year at 30 40%. Has that fund been created yet? Madam Chair, if I may. Yes. Go ahead.

Uh, no. There's there's not a fund that's created. We have an existing program, but we're going to have to look to expand and have a more robust policy discussion because you're going to have to implement what is the funding mechanism to pay for the utility bills because in your bond docks, nobody gets in essence free service. So, you have to identify the revenue stream to be able to do that. And so, that's one of the things that we're looking at. Most municipalities don't have well actually all I don't have a program set as that. So, we're looking at building something that is from scratch to be able to effectively address address that. Madam Chair, yes, go ahead.

Um, when we spoke about this, Mr. Evans, I identified where I was going to be going to, or not just me, other council people to get the funds. all of those um half billion dollar buildings that's going up on Broadway. I'm going to be asking for contributions toward our uh water rate increases to help residents. Madam Chair, if I may.

Yes, go ahead. Uh, one of the things we had the conversation with the city attorney's office is that we have to be careful with regards to that and how we in fact frame that because it can't be I believe the term is exaction. Um, it can't be perceived as that. But we are we have about 12 programs that I I provided the board with a draft memorandum of about 12 different options that we need to have what is a robust conversation to start that fund to effectively help defay some of the costs for the uh for the residents. Madam chair. Yes. Go ahead.

Okay. Um yeah, we I started this conversation I know at least two months ago, maybe three and the final report was supposed to be to me in February and I asked you about it in March. It still wasn't completed. We have buildings going up now. We need somewhere to put the money if they agree to contribute to that fund. So I I don't want to sit here another two or three months while you talk about what you're going to do and you'd have had four or five months to do it. So I we need I need a deadline when that fund is going to be ready so that there is a place that if the developers agree that it can go into.

Madam Chair, if I may. Yes, go ahead. Uh it's it's in essence easy to create a a fund. It's not a complicated process. We we just have to create what is the program? What is the program? What is the mechanism that's legally defensible that can be utilized for monies to go in there but the establishment of the fund? We would just expand the funds that we do have or the funding source that we do have for our utility assistance program. So the I would say the fund is is in essence there. We just need to have the program to ask for people to voluntarily contribute to to said fund. Um Madam Chair, yes. Go ahead. That's last question. Yes.

We need to do whatever we need to do, Mr. Evans, to get it done. It's been like four months now. So, if we need to have a special meeting, if we need to have some discussion about policy, that's what we need to do other than talk about it. And and and the buildings are going up now. and I want to request funds from these developers to assist with our water issues. So, please put some dates out, talk to the other council members. I just don't want to keep talking about what we can do. Okay, Madam Chair. Yes, go ahead.

Thank you. Um, Mr. Sherman, are we able to look at possibly deferrals for owner builders? I know we talked about we didn't want to wave um or we couldn't possibly wave the fees but possibly deferrals or maybe even um deferred payment for the impact fees maybe on CO or possibly um after the sale of property or something so that we could still collect the fee but then give them a little bit more leverage especially some of this uh owner occupants. Yeah, the current ordinances, which again we're not changing. We're just changing the fees, do provide for them to pay over time if they ask for that. That that can be worked out. Um, is that for owner builders or is that for any any um

anybody coming in that would have to pay the impact fee? I mean, I'm sorry, the the deferral, is it paid over over time? Is that a request? Is an application? Is it income restrictive? what allows for them to actually uh take that advantage of that. The ordinance doesn't get into that specific. It just says that if they want to come in and ask to pay it over time that we can find that finance. In essence, you're you're you're paying it as the units come available, you know. So, that's when you could really um do that payment. You could do the same thing on the utility side as well

because I'm I'm more concerned. Well, the two pieces, the affordable housing component. Um, I know we are looking at it possibly bringing some exemptions or even the owner um owner occupant builders, uh, the individuals that are just building a single family. The impact fees are going from 1,500, $2,000 up to almost 14,000. So, somebody that's coming to build a home in our community or even a a single builder, it's going to be very costly on them and increasing the cost to develop very substantially. So, possibly deferring that fee and making it pronounced to either income restrictive or even owner occupant builders. I just want it to be clear in the code in the language so that we can uh let them know where to go and how to actually proceed if they want to build a home in Riviera Beach.

Yeah, I'd be happy to carve that section out and send it send it to out so people can and I know that it's it's a slippery slope when it comes to waving fees, but at least maybe deferring them or giving them some leverage. Thank you, Mr. Madam Chair, if I may. Yes. Go ahead. Mr. Sherman, question for you. Uh, with regards to impact fees, correct me if I'm wrong. So, if if somebody buys a home and in essence demos the home, they get credit for the impact fees that have already been levied on correct that property. You're correct. Yeah. If it's a replacement, it's not an additional impact. Correct. Right. So, if it's a replacement, you're not doing that. So, but if it's a virgin land that there has it, then you would be required to comply with what the new fees are. Thank you.

U, Mr. I'm I'm sorry. Hold on a second. Could uh police could you guys uh quiet down some of the noise outside because it's really carrying inside? Is it in the back? Where is it? No. It's coming from out here. I'm sorry. Go ahead.

So, this schedule here is pulled right out of the report and it just um it it's one page out of of dozens of pages. It's just a sample for you to look at. Um but again, it gives you on the left side, it gives you some of the sample land uses. So, it starts with the single family residence, does multifamily, and then um as it gets down to the bottom, it's dealing with some of the non-residential properties. Um but the first column of numbers, those are your current fees. The second column that's outlined in red there, that is the maximum. That is the actual impact um of those types of land uses coming in. So, as you can see, what we're currently charging, which is from the 2022 study, when the city wasn't working on roads, wasn't building fire stations back then, those current fees are extremely low as compared to the maximum. uh the last four columns what that does is that shows that if you followed the statute and didn't um use the extraordinary um circumstance provision that would be your roll out. So you know it would go out very slowly and you can see even once you get out to 2029 you're still not very close uh to where the maximum would be. Okay. So, if you if we don't go to the maximum, um you'll never recapture those dollars, okay? Because as the developers come in, they're going to be paying from those other four columns. So, just to kind of give you a little synopsis on this. So, on the box on the left hand side, I've got just a 1500 square foot single family resident. These fees are charged per unit. So if we follow the statute with the limit of only a 50% increase, you can see all the different categories

of the impact fees. A single family home would pay $5,48. If we go with uh what staff is being proposed here, that $5,400 turns into $35,381. That 35,000 is the fiscal impact on the city for by adding a new single family home. And it deals with again all of the facilities, the roads, um, library, police, fire, all of those items. That's the real impact. So, by going to the maximum, you're picking up almost $30,000 per single family home that can then be used to address all of the capital needs. On the right hand side, I just picked a 20,000 square foot commercial building. Impact fees on commercial buildings are paid on a,000 square foot basis. Okay? So, a,000 square feet using the statute limits gets you $9,044. If you go to the maximum, which is being recommended, that 90 thou $9,000 turns into $42,000. So, again, it's almost $30,000 difference between the single family and on the commercial side. So, it's it's significant dollars um which would then allow us again to pay back that $60 million um and even apply some of this possibly to the $150 million for the parks and um police and fire stations.

Madam Chair, yes, go ahead.

Okay, Mr. Chairman, so my question is I don't see on here uh the utility water hookup fee. Uh you know, if it looks like a duck and sounds like a duck, it's a duck. You can call it a fee. Uh you can call it an impact fee. Whatever. It's still the same thing. It's going to be a cost to the person who's developing the property. So how much more on these numbers will that utility uh water hookup fee be? So, the water and wastewater fees we adopted last year back in February, so just over a year ago. Uh those fees are $10,000 uh per hookup,

right? So, that's pretty substantial. Oh, Madam Chair,

um Mr. Sherman on these single family homes. uh if some and then infield housing on the lot. We're just trying to improve the community um with development as opposed to a big developer doing a plan unit development where they have 30 40 single family homes. that person who's trying to do just an infield housing may not have much money will also be um required to pay $35,000 impact fee to

so to the point Mr. Evans properly, if it's replacing something that had previously been there, whether it was demolished understood today or 3 years ago, okay, you would get a credit against these numbers. Okay? You you wouldn't pay it twice. If it is a brand new parcel of dirt that's never had anything on it, the answer is yes.

Okay. Well, person I have a problem with that because it could be somebody who just trying to build their first home or may not have a lot of funds and we're charging them what may be a corporate builder would pass it on to somebody who has the resources to absorb that. So my question is, how can we help people that may not have this corporate uh bank account behind them and may not be of higher economic status, but they want to build a home and it's they bought the lot, they've saved up probably for years to buy the lot. Is there some way that we can help people who may not have these type of resources um to help get their dream home built?

So again, I think that goes back to one what the mayor was speaking about. Can we kind of help people get in the door um and maybe defer some of those payments and then to what Dr. Spirus is talking about is can we get some assistance to get these uh you know to to assist in paying these fees. So again they can come in. Um two two different issues, two different avenues. I I think they kind of both maybe get to what you're you're speaking to. Um but again that'll be the conversation. Um, again, I'll send out the information about the deferrals, but that'll be the conversation when we get to trying to use some of that VIA money to help.

Um, Madam Chair. Yes. Go ahead. Yeah. And to zero in on what I'm saying, can we have two different scales for corporate and individuals who building homes? a corporate builder who may come in want to build a community of 10, five, 10 homes and they have a certain class of economic clients that they're triggering or or or or trying to target as opposed to somebody just trying to build a home and not really in it for any profit margin as corporate builders are. Madam Chair, if I may. Yes. Go ahead.

I I think the the way you can possibly look to accomplish that is is if it's one unit, you can possibly say, okay, obviously if it is one unit, one door, you can do something as it relates to that. But anything it gets to multiple doors, then it it can, you know, so we can we can tweak it and come back with some some options before second reading. But one of the things that I do want to ask the board because in order to facilitate moving forward with the adoption of these fees, it requires a unanimous vote from the board. And so if there is in fact a number or or things that you want to make sure that we address, we want to know what that is. So when we do come back at second and final reading and we may have to put second and final reading out you know a month we accomplish collectively or we bring forward collectively what the board wants to see so it can move forward because as the earlier point if we delay you know there is a situation where you lose out on these opportunities and invariably the reason that things haven't capital projects haven't moved forward in the city for a long time is predicated is we weren't capitalizing izing on impact fees that we should have been collecting historically to defay the impact of construction for the last 20 plus years. And so now we're pay playing catch-up because as you can see, you know, if your impact fees were your impact fees are $157, if you had impact fees that were $3,000 for all intent and purpose 10 years ago, invariably when you went to go expand your police station and go from 12,000 square feet to 40,000 square feet or 50,000 square feet, that's new capacity. You could have utilized all that impact fee money to defay the cost and not have to go out to the bond market. So it is very important that we look to capitalize on this. But the question is to the board, is there something that you want to make sure that you communicate to us so when we go back and create what the program looks

like, we can capture what your your intent is so the item can move forward accordingly. Okay. Yes. Go ahead. So, if I'm a new home um building a new home, how are these fees assessed or how are they built on the front end or how Mr. Surmans, can you tell me when you collect your impact fees? Just restate the question to Mr. Summers. Just restate it to Mr. S. Oh, Mr. Summers, on your way. I was just wondering how are these fees assessed? um to a new builder. Is it on the front end? How is it?

Uh good evening uh madam chair. Clarence Herman, director of development services. Good evening, council, honorable mayor, madam attorney. Um as far as the process of uh impact fees, uh they are paid after the uh permit review process. So they initially submit pay their review fees after the review is complete and the permit is ready to be issued. uh they are provided an invoice of all of the existing fees. Um they take that invoice, pay it either online or in person at the finance department. When they bring that receipt, then their permit can be issued.

I'll follow up. So they are aware of the fees before beginning the process pretty much. If I am um I don't want to um misrepresent the process. I believe when they first apply for the permit, they're notified of existing fees. At the beginning, only uh is due is that permit review fee. The rest of it is due after the permit is approved and they pay it to pick it up to start construction. Okay. Thank you, Madam Chair. M. Yes. Go ahead.

And while you're here, Mr. Sherman, uh Surmans and Mr. chairman. Um the proposed impact be at what point will they be implemented and will a developer currently in permitting will they be grandfathered into the old fees or will they be inclined to pay the new fees or at what point would that take effect if this policy is passed second reading and then takes effect in 60 days? If they're already in the permitting process then they get the old fees. Anything that's permitted after the 90 days would see the new fees.

So, so just follow Madam Chair. So, if we do first reading, it's passed unanimous. It comes back with some of the feedback from the board within one two months. It's going to be second reading. Then we're going to wait is it 60 or 90 days? 90 days. 90 days. And then after 90 days, it's automatically implemented. And then anybody that submits an application that time. Okay. Followup, Madam Chair. Yes. Go ahead. the process of the impact fees, the credits that was spoke about, Mr. Evans, Mr. Sherman, um what amounts because I know that you said they will get credit if there was a property on the parcel previously, is that credit going to be based upon the fees or the impact of fee that was previously paid?

Yeah. So, so I believe if there's a single family home demolished, you're building a brand new home, the impact doesn't change. So, you've already paid that impact fee. May have paid it 20 years ago, but you've already paid that impact fee and contributed to all of the facilities and everything, you know. So, there won't be any impact fees if there was a property on that uh parcel years ago, even if it was demolished. Correct. I believe that is correct. Okay. Let's just make sure that's clear before second reading. I will confirm that.

And just also clearly outlined in the ordinance because um if it's just only going to impact undeveloped um uh partials of land. Now, if it was a previous smaller lot, single family that's being combined or merged with other lots and they're creating additional uh footprints for a larger development. What does that look like for a developer? Because I know that they've combined I'll give you an example, 18th Street. They combine the old um Miami subs with a vacant parcel. What does that impact fee look like for that developer? And then also my follow-up to that will also be the last one on affordable housing. Right. So, you would have had an impact fee on Miami subs. Right now, if you're going to come in and put 10 stories, whatever you're going to put there,

right? It would be we would deduct what the impact fee was initially paid on the Miami sub versus now a new residential tower, right? How do we determine at what point do we deduct? Do we just uh go ahead and allow for it to make it pass on the next impact fee? Um what correlates to that? What decision? what allows for us to make that decision instead of charging the full impact fee of for example a single family versus the new construction how do we determine what amount is actually going to be charged or what's going to be credited so we would I mean we know what the impact fees were for the first

structure okay so then we would take that and just deduct it from what we're we're charging because again now you're changing it from a a commercial structure to a residential structure so if you notice like the commercial doesn't pay for library and parks, right? So now they got to pay for the library and parks. So the change from a residential to a commercial, that's when you do the deduction. Correct. But if it's a residential to either larger residential 20 years later, you're not going to deduct um or you're not just going to give a credit of say $5,000 towards 35. You may have to pay additional. If you're going from a 1500 square foot building out to a 4200 foot residential, there may be additional

I just want that clearly outlined so we can understand what is the exact impact on the residents. What's going to be the cost on the residents so it's just very transparent for them. And um the last was the affordable carveout. Uh that affordable carve out that we're looking into. I know we spoke about that earlier, but the the piece in the policy, I do think that we can actually implement some type of carveouts for affordable housing, workforce housing. So, if we can't bring that back before a second reading, if this passes, we'll do. Thank you both. Madam Chair, yes. Go ahead.

Director Surmans, while while you're up there, can you tell me when uh what you consider the beginning of the permit process? The beginning of the permit process is initiated when someone comes in and provides the application and associated documents. So if they submit a set of plans for your review, you're considering that the permitting process beginning. Correct. Correct. Okay. Thank you. Yes. Okay. I I have no further presentation. So unless there questions, any other questions in regards to this item? Yes. explain

relates to the collection of the uh fees for um water and sewer. That is the actual fees that are charged at the time that the service is colle is requested. Is that correct, Mr. Sherman? When they're ready to have the meters installed and they're ready to start, that's kind of like the last step, I believe, before they get their certificate of occupancy and the meters go in. Yes. I just wanted there's there's two different timelines. Okay. Any other questions? I'm sorry. Go ahead, Joe.

No, no worries. And just one concern. It's the the fees are substantial for small developers. Um we do need to increase our fees. Do we have an outline of what the other municipalities are charging for the fees? Is that in the backup as well?

Um see that before. So this is the slide that we oops I do. There we go. This is the slide we had at the workshops. Um but again the point we want to make out is when you try to compare our fees which are would be the new blue fees that are up there in the yellow. If Boon Beach isn't building anything, their fees aren't going to be as right. I mean, you're building three fire stations, a police station, a a recreational complex. So, you know, your fees are representative of those capital costs. Um, that's why your fees are going to be, you know, much higher. Where we really saw the difference is is more so um in the roads. um you know whether people are working on the roads and you can even see like Boon Beach is far higher than you know Mangonia Park and you know Royal Palm. It's just a depending on on the status of their capital projects.

Okay. Any other questions? Madam Chair, if I may. Yes. If if we can make sure that we incorporate or encapsulate what the board would like to see from staff before we bring this back uh before you all because we want to make sure that when we come to second and final reading that we have um captured all the the items that you want to make sure that we address as part of the the ordinance or the appropriate resolution to look for affordable housing. U Madam Chair,

yes, go ahead. Uh I did speak about um and it was referred by Mr. Evans as singor um project which mean it's only one home being built but two or more would incorporate the increased amount. Um, I would like to see some type of reduction if it's only a single door project, but if they're building two or more homes, um, then they would be required to um, comply with the increased amount or uh, even the single door may go up some, but I don't think that somebody trying to build just one home and pay $35,000 um it should be enough to defay any cost on the impact that that home is going to have. But the um 35,000 I don't know. I think that's a bit much for a single home project.

Okay, very good. Um are you going to bring us back those options for the uh second reading or at least give it to us before the second reading so that we can have some information? Madam Chair, I guess the question is does anyone on the council um oppose or or don't agree with that because the staff is looking for direction now? No, I I agree with bringing back us these the options. I have no problem with that to for us to look at that. Madam Chair, yes. Go ahead, sir.

Okay. So, I think that the staff ought to look at uh especially when you're talking about rental units that we're trying to build workforce housing that if we are if they're anywhere between, you know, below 80% AMI for the county that we give a substantial discount. So, we're looking at reduced fees for affordable housing. We're looking at uh reduced fees for single family homes, one person, one door. So, if you can bring us back some options on that and what that looks like. Madam Chair, if I may. Yes, go ahead.

With regards to workforce, is there a number of doors that we're looking to to incorporate? So if it's a development and it's 10 doors and that you know they're going to be you know a discounted rate because they're at 80% AMI versus is there specific capacity? So Dr. Spirits we looking at more than 10 doors or Well I I think more than 10 doors would would be the right number. Okay. So we're looking at more than 10 doors and for single family one door and for workforce housing. Right.

And and what we'll do is we'll look to make the distinction between because as and we're going to do a little bit more research on the staff side is if it is a tear down rebuild single family home if it's the same like for like is there zero but let's say somebody says well 1500 is not going to work I need 2500. We'll show what that incremental increase will be as well. So, we'll build out a couple of models um to to share with the board and then uh get that out to you before we we bring it back before a regular council meeting. So, we may have it as a discussion and deliberation item before before the actual second reading unless we have to adopt it at a certain time for second and final reading. Is there any specific

No, for the study. No, it has it hasn't been it hasn't been Yeah. Okay. Okay. So, what we'll do is we'll bring it like uh a resolution that shows kind of discussion, deliberation, what are ideas? Assuming you're okay with that, then we'll bring forward audience. Okay. Excellent. Very good. Thank you. Um any other questions, Madame Clerk? Council person Davis Pier. Yes. Council person Gon. Chairton Miller Anderson. Yes. Council person Dr. Spiritis. Chairperson Laneir. Yes, the item passes with council person Gon out.

Um, we're going to move on to our next item, but before that, I need a motion to extend the meeting to uh finish the agenda. So, move. Very good, Madam Clerk. Council person Davis Pier. Yes. Chipper Miller Anderson. No. Chairperson, I'm sorry. Council person Dr. Spiritz, yes. Chairperson Laneir. No item fails with council person ganell.

Let's go to our next item. Madame Chair, we are on item 9 C, ordinance number 4304 and ordinance of the city council of the city of River 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. Chairperson, we have one public comment card. The acceptance of cards is closed. So moved. Madam Chair. Yes. Go ahead. If we only have seven minutes, we're not going to be able to do this item here because we have to stop at 10.

Madam Chair. Yes. Go ahead, sir. Uh if the items has to be renoticed, u Mr. Evans, this would have to be completely renoticed by staff. It's on first reading, Madam Chair. Yes, go ahead. Um if it is yes we would have to well second reading is actually the the effective notice but yes we would have to you know reschedule these items. Okay. All right. Very good. All right. So those are the items that we're going to bring back. Uh what is the next uh meeting? I also too wanted to ask the council for the availability for a uh May 29th workshop.

Um is that May 29th Mr. Yeah. May 27th workshop for uh rules of decorum for the council. Uh because we cannot get to an item in regards to the I'll send a Google poll out for both of those meetings for the workshop and for the mayor's report because we need to have we need to have those um information for that. Yes. Go ahead, sir. Yeah. Can I uh get an opinion from our council, please? You have seven minutes. Yes.

Yes. Uh uh Attorney Win, uh Mr. Gayton was not in here when we took a vote on whether to extend the meeting. Does he have the authority to make a motion right now to extend the meeting since he was not on either side of the vote? The vote did not pass. So, anyone has the um opportunity to make a motion? Okay. So, Madam Chair, I make a motion. I make a motion that we extend the meeting. I'll second it. So, there is no prevailing sign. None. Okay. Very good, Madam Clerk.

Council person Ger. Yes. Chair Miller Anderson. No. Council person Dr. Spiritis, chairperson Lenir. Oh, the item passes with chair prom Anderson and chairperson Lenir dissenting. So, um, who made the motion? That was council person spirit, seconded by council person Gon. Council person Spirits, do you want to go to the end of the agenda? Yes.

Very good. We will go to the end of the agenda. Next item, Madam Clerk. com. Hold on. Madame Chair, we are on item 9C, ordinance number 4304, an ordinance of the city council of the city of Rivier 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 have one public comment card. Acceptance of the cards is closed. Very good. Mr. Evans, madam chairman,

I'm sorry. We need a motion for that for 4305. That ordinance. So moved. Second. Mr. Evans. Madam Chair, members of the board, if I can have the chief financial officer, Mr. Sherman, to make this presentation. Mr. Sherman. Yes. Um, yeah, I actually presented 9B and 9 C as one item. Would you like the same presentation again? No. You want to go to the hotel? No, no, no. Uh, she said that it was already presented and other we can just take the vote. All right. Very good. Madam clerk, we have one public comment card. Madam Chair, go ahead.

Erica Davis, Erica Davis, Rivier Beach. I just want to remind you all that it's very very important that you understand that the city is 1.54 billion dollars in debt and every little dollar that we can get, we need it. And whatever developer that comes in here that's going to make multi-million dollars off of our city and disrupt our peace, they need to be charged. Now, I agree with the one house, the one door, no, you can come with a reasonable fee for that, but anybody coming here to disrupt Broadway, yeah, we want we want our money because we are in debt and we need to pay the bills. And second of all, we do have a a water program. Miss Dolores Jones helps residents every day to pay their water bill. You didn't know that, Mr. Giden? So, yes, we do have that program. See, if you all do your diligence and come in here and communicate with staff instead of trying to point fingers and ridicule, you'll know. You'll understand and stop creating stories. It's ridiculous how we run this city. There is no professionalism in it at all and no knowledge of the of the board for anything. If you want to do business and stop being personal, do your due diligence and your research. The man is right here. Mr. Evans is right here to ask questions. But you always trying to go against against what he says or you're not listening. We have a program, but we do

need our money because we are in debt because of all the things that did not get done 20 and 30 years ago. We are compiled with projects. So if they want to come in here and gentrify our city, we need to get paid for it because you're going to vote on those projects regardless to whether we say yes or no or not. And we want to get paid. It's just business. It's nothing personal. And whatever the highest fee for all of these buildings coming up, we need it and it needs to go to the water plant bill, the municipality bill, the police station bill, and not for any damn concerts that we don't make money off of. And you need to keep your damn hands out of the cookie jar of every department messing with their budget for Hey, uh, Miss

and I'm sick of this, Miss Davis. Please, keep your hands out of everybody's budget for your friends to come in here and party and smoke cigars and we're not getting anything from it. If you're going to do a concert, we better get paid, too. Thank you so much for your comments, Madam Chair. That's the end of public comments. All right. Very good. We have no comments for uh artist number 4305. Is that the one? Yes. 4304. 4304. Very good. Madame clerk. Council person Davis Pier. Yes. Council person Gon. Yes. Chair Tim Miller Anderson. Yes. Council person Dr. Spiritis. Yes. Chairperson Laneir.

Yes. That's a unanimous vote. Thank you. Next item. Madam clerk.

Madam chair. We are on item 9D. Ordinance number 4312. An ordinance of the city council of the city of Riviera Beach, Florida, amending the comprehensive plan of the city of Riviera Beach to implement its evaluation and appraisal report. Amending the city's long range planning horizon from 5 and 10 years to 10 and 20 years for consistency with the Florida Community Planning Act chapter 163 part two Florida statutes providing for transmitt conflict severability and an effective date. Madam Chair, we have two public comment cards on this item. The acceptance of the cards is closed.

Motion for ordinance 4312. So move second. Um, Madam Chair. Yes, sir. Before we get into the presentation, I I have a question. Um, okay, ma'am. Go ahead, Mr. Commissioner Gen. Uh, I said, Madam Chair, before we get into the pre presentation, I have a question for staff um, in regards to this uh, ordinance number. Yep. Okay, very good. This is dealing with the evaluation and appraisal amendments. Okay.

And when I saw it on the agenda, um because I'm in the planning industry, I I I had a question about whether we had submitted the required information to the state and time. uh because they require every community to submit um the evaluation and appraisal amendments uh at a certain time. And I asked if we had the information from the state that we were in good standings and I got a letter back saying that according let me read from the from the state. According to our records, Riviera Beach has not submitted the proposed evaluation and appraisal amendments which were due on June 24th, 2025. Now, we have done some plan amendments that included the proposed police station that we did after June 25th. June 24th uh 2025. So my question to staff is how does the state telling us that we are prohibited from any plans until we come into compliance? How did that impact those projects that we did under those plan amendments? Madam,

yes. Go ahead, Madam Chair. Um, and and I'll defer to to Director Surmans. I'll I'll speak on on one of specific to the the police department. We are invariably going to be bringing that back as a as a result of this particular notification. Okay. Wait, I'm sorry, not to interrupt you, Mr. Madam Chair. A quick question. So are back be because we have to redo that plan amendment again because we didn't comply with the state. Madam chair. Yes. Go ahead. Yes. We're bringing that item back. Yes. Okay, Madam Chair. Because of the information contained in the letter. Yes. Um that's all I have right now, Madam Chair.

Okay. We have a parliamentary ruling in regards to the last vote that was taken. Um, Madame Attorney, could you please enlighten the board and the public in regards to that motion and vote? Yes, Madam Chair. Um, I did some research after the information that I gave you and I was incorrect. Um, that was a failed motion and only the parties on the no side can bring it back and that so that would be either yourself, madam chair or madam prom. And since you all did not bring it back, we do if you aren't going to bring it back, we do need to um adjoin the meeting,

Madam Chair. Yes. Go ahead. So, uh attorney Win. So, how about how's Mr. Ma'am, hold on a second. Hold on a second, ma'am. Yes. Thank you. Good night. H how does how does Councilman Gayton fit into that when he went to to the restroom for two minutes and then came back? He doesn't he can't make a motion since he didn't vote either way. He was out of the room and he missed the vote. Okay. Um we will pick this up at our next meeting. Actually, what we can do is we can schedule a um we can send a send a Google poll for a special meeting. Mr. Evans

the meeting. We need a special meeting uh before the next two weeks. So, Madam Chair, can we adjourn the meeting with Google? We will adjourn this meeting with a Google poll. Thank you. Good night.