Council - Regular Meeting

move thank you yeah that's better now we're now moving to the agenda approval um we're moving to additions deletions or substitutions are there any additions deletions or substitutions from anyone on the diet yes uh chairman we'd like to um remove 12d and push that to a subsequent um Which item is that?

That is the item that Mr. Wilkins put on there. It was his item, 12D.

David? No. I put that one on there. And we've put that off quite a few times.

Okay. Which one is it, 12D?

12D.

12D?

D, yes. Yeah, we've put it off at least three, four times.

The chair, yes, please let the record reflect that city attorney Don when is present.

OK, thank you. OK. As a matter of fact, when we ended our last meeting, we agreed to put it on this meeting. That was the only item that we didn't address. And I would like to move that to the top of the agenda. So we can deal with that early. right after, right before 12A. Yes. And I also want to add the discussion of the awards and presentations meeting. We never discussed the details of how we were going to actually carry that through. And the mayor and I know others wanted to have that discussion about the details, about the agendas and all the other good stuff. Are there any further changes?

Mister chair would that be item 12. I'm sorry would it be item 12 for the more than present.

Yes, do we have a 12.

I'm sorry 12.

Yes, it will. Are there any of their addition substitutions or deletion if not I will accept the motion to that to approve the agenda as printed so move. It's been moved by Dr. Spiritus.

Second.

And seconded by Councilwoman Davis-Preneur. Is there any further discussion on the motion? Hearing no discussion, I'll call the question, Madam Clerk.

Council person Davis been here yet come here. Council person Miller and yes. Chair for him that this period. Chair person getting it yet.

So if she would start here. But she we we we I think that we're at it.

Yes, go ahead. FOR DISCUSSION AND DELIBERATION, ITEM 12D HAS BEEN MOVED BEFORE ITEM 12A, AND THAT IS THE CONTINUED DISCUSSION OF THE MAYOR RONNIE FIELDER INQUIRY INTO EMPLOYEE COMPLAINTS. ITEM 12E WAS ADDED, WHICH WOULD BE THE LAST DISCUSSION ITEM, AWARDS AND PRESENTATIONS, MEETING DISCUSSIONS. MR. CHAIR, PLEASE LET THE RECORD REFLECT THAT MAYOR DOUGLAS LAWSON IS PRESENT.

I'd just like to disclose that George Gentile will be giving a presentation tonight and that he does work for a private development project that I'm working on in Lake Park.

Okay, we're going into the consent and gender and doing that portion that is where we will have an opportunity to reveal any disclosure.

Okay here yet we have to public comment cards one item 3 C one item 3 D the acceptance of public comment cards on the consent agenda is close.

Okay, we are moving to the consent agenda Are there any items that the council want to pull from the consent agenda? Hearing none, I would entertain a motion to approve the consent agenda. Before we do that, are there any disclosures that any of the colleagues would like to reveal before we approve the consent agenda? Hearing none of the spirit is by his bird is your boy noted yes, thank you and we're ready to entertain a motion to move. It's been moved by vice chair spirit. And seconded by councilwoman Davis for near is there any further discussion on the motion. Hearing none, I call the question, Madam Clerk.

Chair, we have comment cards on consent item 3C and item 3D.

Please call the public comment.

The first speaker is Diane Lewis.

Good evening, Mayor, Chair, and members of the City Council. My name is Diane Lewis, and I'm here tonight to express my heartfelt support and appreciation for the City of Riviera Beach Reentry Program. Under the leadership of Director Ori Bullard, this program is doing an outstanding job in our community. Director Bullard and his amazing team are helping individuals who are returning home overcoming barriers. reconnecting to their families, obtaining needed resources and more, and move forward towards dignity and hope. I want to give a special shout out to Sean, Jessica, Malcolm, Tiana, Willie, and Mr. Newball, along with Mr. Ori, for their commitment and their hard work and willingness they're doing in the community. As we partner together with them, I am encouraging other churches, other faith-based organizations, and the community to go and support this outstanding organization. I especially encourage everyone to support their car wash every Friday. Stop by, have your car washed, meet the team, and show these hardworking individuals that Riviera Beach supports their progress and success. director ori bullard and the entire re-entry program team please know that your outstanding work is seen valued and deeply appreciated you are helping to restore lives strengthen families and build a safer and stronger revere beat thank you thank you for your comment mr chair the next speaker is cindy march

Good evening, council. It's Cindy March. The resolution for the city council to approve for a three-year contract for the kids. I'm in agreement with that. The only thing, and I don't want no one to feel like I'm being biased by no one, but, and I love what the kids are doing because they are our future for tomorrow. But can we please acknowledge some other children as well that's not affiliated and knowing Kashama Miller or Douglas Lawson, let's not leave them kids behind as well. I DO WANT TO THANK YOU ALL FOR DOING A GREAT JOB WITH OUR KIDS.

NEW SPEAKER THANK YOU FOR YOUR COMMENTS. NEXT PUBLIC SPEAKER.

NEW SPEAKER MR.

CHAIR, IS THERE ANY PUBLIC COMMENT?

NEW SPEAKER OKAY. I WOULD ENTERTAIN THE MOTION WAS MADE AND NOW IT'S TIME TO MOVE THE VOTE. MADAM CLERK. NEW SPEAKER COUNCILPERSON DAVIS-PANIER.

NEW SPEAKER YES. NEW SPEAKER COUNCILPERSON LENIER. Councilperson Miller-Anderson.

Yes.

Chair Pro Tem Dr. Spiridus.

Yes.

Chairperson Guyton.

Yes.

The pass is with Councilperson Lanier out.

Thank you. We're going to move down to awards and presentations now. The first is 6A is State Representative Javon Edmonds here. If not, we'll move to 6B to GHO. MADAM CLERK, COULD YOU PLEASE READ THE TITLE, PLEASE?

NEW SPEAKERS. NEW SPEAKERS. MR. CHAIR, NO AWARDS AND PRESENTATIONS. WE'RE UNDER ITEM 6B, 2GHO WILL PROVIDE A STATUS UPDATE ON THE PROGRESS AT DAN COUNTY PARK. NEW SPEAKERS.

MAYOR AND COUNCILMEMBERS, FOR THE RECORD, GEORGE GENTELE. I'M VICE PRESIDENT OF GENTELE AND CO. WE ARE THE CONSULTING TEAM WORKING ON YOUR CALWAY PARK AS WE'VE BEEN HERE A FEW TIMES GIVING YOU UPDATES ON THE MASTER PLANNING. AND FROM YOUR LAST COUNCIL MEETING, I UNDERSTAND YOU'D LIKE AN UPDATE PERIODICALLY AND WE HAVE COMMITTED TO WORK WITH TERRANCE AND THE TEAM TO BRING YOU AN UPDATE AS WE GO THROUGH THIS PROCESS. FOR THE DAN CALLOWAY PARK.

BEFORE YOU GET STARTED, MR. GENTLE, I'M GOING TO LET YOU GO THROUGH YOUR PRESENTATION.

I'LL BE GLAD TO ANSWER ANY QUESTIONS AFTER.

IT'S NOT A QUESTION. IT'S JUST TO ENLIGHTEN YOU THAT THE WHOLE PROJECT IS A FOCUS, BUT PARTICULARLY THE POOL. That is what really generated this two-week update. The residents want to know about the status and the timing of the pool.

Very good. That's what I'm hoping to give you.

Okay.

We have been working diligently with your staff since we were contracted. initially to start the master planning process and we have been working with the school board to finalize the land swap that you all are working with them on for your other facility here the new city hall we just received on august 13th their INITIAL REVISED SITE PLAN AND WE HAVE RESOLVED WITH THEM IN A MEETING THE PROPERTY THAT WILL BE SWAPPED FROM CALAWAY PARK TO THE SCHOOL BOARD THAT THEN THEY WILL GIVE YOU THE PROPERTY HERE AT THE FOR THE NEW CITY HALL SITE So that's the first thing that we then we have started revising the master plan to incorporate the school design because they have to work together. You all are sharing some of the facilities. They're contributing to your community center and we have to also share parking. So we've been working to put the two plans together, which I'll show you here where we are today. And then we are now preparing the master plan and the phase one site plan for entitlement review, since we have to go through your planning and zoning department and that will eventually come to you for final approval as we go through the entitlement process and the approval process with the city. We have established a pre-application meeting on that application with your planning staff. I think it's August 25th. We just received the notification today. So we're gonna be starting that approval process pretty quickly. You all know where the site is. This was our original master plan that we had started. And I want you to pay particular attention to the site, to the area to the right of the screen where the Inlet Grove School is gonna be done. This was what we originally had. There was a parking lot next to the football stadium or multipurpose fields. And I'm gonna show you their change now. This was their original master plan for the Inlet Grove High School, which you saw previously. I know this is very hard and I'm gonna make sure that you get a copy of this, but this is the school board's new plan. They've actually taken the parking out that's closest to the multipurpose field. And they've rearranged some of their parking and their retention. IS GOING TO BE REARRANGED TO THE EAST OF THE PROPERTY AND THEY'VE ALSO PUT IN BASKETBALL COURTS UP AT THE NORTH END. THIS IS THE COMBINED PLAN. WE JUST PUT THIS TOGETHER SINCE WE JUST RECEIVED THEIR PLANS THIS WEEK. and we're coordinating now driveways, parking, gates and access because they'll need security for the school at certain times of the day and then they will open up those gates when there's activities going on on both facilities. This is a little bit closer view so you can see it a little bit better. You can see the area now is a big open green area on their property. That black line that you see, there between the sports field and the parking to the right side. That is the new property line for Callaway Park and that's the east side is Inlet Grove High School and again Callaway Park to the left. THIS IS THE PLAN REVISED FROM THE SCHOOL AFTER THE PROPERTY WAS DECIDED WHAT WE WERE GOING TO CHANGE. AND AGAIN THE POOL FACILITY I'M GOING TO SHOW YOU THAT IN ABOUT TWO SECONDS. THAT WILL BE THE PHASE ONE SITE PLAN WHICH WE ARE ALSO SUBMITTING WITH THE PREAPPLICATION. WE WILL BE DOING THIS SITE PLAN CONCURRENTLY WITH THE MASTER PLAN SO THAT WE CAN GET STARTED BUILDING AND DOING THE CONSTRUCTION DOCUMENTATION FOR THE POOL. It'll include a kitchen concession building and kiosks for the entry to the pool complex, the parking area to the left on the screen. There'll be two pavilions, a splash pad and the swimming pool. And then you see the community center building that is proposed that's been in that location pretty much since we started. So let's go over, we will be next week having our, we have to do a programming meeting with your staff and initially on the community building because we need to make sure because this is now getting a little bit smaller site that we wanna make sure we have the footprint correctly and that we're not shooting ourselves in the foot as we call it with the rest of the pool aquatics complex. So we start that next week. We're looking at about four weeks after our pre-app to get our application in for the site plan approval and the master plan approval. We anticipate that we would ask you all to let us start construction drawings since this is a priority project prior to the final site plan approval so that we can just amend as we go through as we hear from your staff. Because the planning and zoning, I'll show you what that date is. So we're looking at in September, starting the construction documents on the pool facility. This is anticipated site plan approval after talking to planning and zoning will be February 27th. should be right after the first of the year they need a they need four to six months we are looking at the worst case here where hopefully we can work with them to uh do that up uh the bid package to procurement if we get started prior to site plan approval um then we can probably get that to them 3 30 27 that would be right after site plan approval And then the city council will take 150 days to award the contract. That's your typical timeframe. You all can maybe work on that a little bit. And that would be 8-31-27. Anticipated start of construction would be 10-1-27. And then we're looking at a eight month time period and opening at June 1st, 28, right when school gets out. And so that's our estimated schedule at this time. And at that point, I would turn it over to Terrence if he wants to make any further comments.

No further comments. We're here to answer any questions you may have.

I do have one question. You indicated, I just want to clarify, that the pool will be in the first phase of this project.

Yes, sir. The pool complex will be a full site plan approval and start the construction documents for the pool. The rest of the park will be waiting for another phase.

Yes. Okay. Are there any further comments?

Yeah, chair.

I'd like to ask for it.

George, have you done a cost estimate on what the pool complex will cost?

We're working on that now, and I will bring that to you to the next meeting. Actually, we're doing a very conceptual cost estimate on the entire park right now so that we know everything. Our civil engineers are looking at the utility modifications that are going to have to take place. AND NOW THAT WE KNOW WHAT THE SCHOOL BOARD IS DOING AND HOW WE'RE CONNECTING, WE HAVE MOST OF THE INFORMATION. SO NOW WE'LL BRING YOU A CONCEPTUAL, VERY CONCEPTUAL CONSERVATIVE ESTIMATE OF THE WHOLE PARK AND THE POOL FACILITY AT OUR NEXT UPDATE. OKAY. THANK YOU. YES.

ANY FURTHER QUESTIONS?

YES, CHAIR.

YES, COUNCILWOMAN LENIER.

I WANTED TO ASK THAT THE TIMELINE THAT YOU HAD, LET ME SEE THAT TIMELINE AGAIN.

Oops.

So this is for the update of the part that the city is playing in Callaway Park. But where is the, I see where it talks about pool, but where is the timeline for the pool itself? Just the pool.

This is just the pool. This is a phase one, just the pool. Everything on the balance of the project would happen after this.

So what is this program, new community center building? What is that?

The community center slash gym needs to be programmed, but that's not on the critical path. What's on the critical path is getting that plan finalized to the quality where we can turn it in for site plan review.

I don't understand.

We need to program the gym so that we can make the building large enough and make sure it'll fit with everything else around it. So we're mentioning it. We still need to have conversations of how many community rooms do you want? How big of a gymnasium do you want? How many basketball courts? That has not been done yet because we're just now getting to that level of detail, but it is not mission critical for delivering the pool by the summer of 2028. It's just an annotation that that is a task that has not been completed IN GENERAL, BUT IT IS NOT CRITICAL TO DELIVERING THE POOL BY THE SUMMER OF 28.

SUMMER OF 28? AND WE'RE BASICALLY IN THE SUMMER OF 27. I MEAN, 26. SO THAT'S TWO YEARS?

YES, MA'AM.

I THOUGHT THAT WE HAD THE CONVERSATION ABOUT A TEMPORARY POOL AT THE SITE FOR ONE YEAR, IF I'M NOT MISTAKEN. and we're still looking at it in a framework of the other items or the other parts of it are supposed to be the whole redo of this part. So two years is not what we agreed upon. We agreed upon one year for that pool.

There was conversation about a temporary pool. And as we did the research on the cost of construction and the health department requirements, it would be almost as costly to do a temporary pool as the permanent pool. And I don't know that the discussion continued very far with doing a temporary pool that we would also then have to spend the money to dig out of the ground and do the environmental remediation for at any of the locations.

So we knew this a year ago.

We knew this a year ago. Yeah, yes. If you'll recall when we began discussing the pool, I predicted it would be anywhere from two and a half to four years depending on the level of time for community engagement. There was a lot of discussion on the timeline. There was discussion about could it be done in two years? I said I thought it would take more like four years and the. A robust discussion occurred about how fast it reasonably could be done.

So you're giving this timeline in the context of the entire project at Dan Callaway, am I correct?

This is the timeline for the pool. Right, but in the context of- The previous conversation was we assume we were doing everything at once, that it would take three to four years. Now that we're advancing the pool as a phase one and not doing the whole park at once, this is the timeline to deliver the pool advanced of everything else.

So why would you do the whole park at once? Why would we?

Why wouldn't you? Because I was told to do the pool right now.

If we were to do everything, that timeline doesn't work. You're going to need to add six to 12 months on the planning side because the scope gets so much bigger.

I DON'T THINK I UNDERSTAND THAT GIVEN THE FACT THAT BUT I WON'T I'LL JUST CALL YOU YOU KNOW TOMORROW ABOUT IT BUT I REALLY THOUGHT THAT THE POOL WAS SOMETHING THAT WOULD BE DONE WITHIN A YEAR AND WE TALKED ABOUT THIS LAST YEAR WHICH WOULD MEAN THAT AT LEAST BY 27 IT WOULD BE A POOL AND NOW WE'RE TALKING ABOUT 28 THAT'S TOO LONG THAT IS TOO LONG TO BE A LOT OF POOL FOR THE CITY So we need to work on this timeline for sure. And also too, I don't see why we cannot do the work that we're doing for this park at the same time, why we can't do it all at the same time. And I understand the different pieces to what I do, but this timeline has to be put up because we've been having this conversation about this for the last two years. And now we're talking about another two years and another year, another two years. No, we're going to have to look at this timeline much, much more closely because this, the way that this is going, this is not going, this will be another three years just for the pool. So we need to come back with something better in terms of timeline because that's not going to work. I mean, we made a promise to the residents that they would have a pool. Barracuda Bay is actually gone. Yes, it is. So... We need to be able to move quickly for this pool. Thank you. But I understand that you're moving based on what the council is telling you and based on planning and zoning. I understand all of that, but we definitely need to look at that timeline. Thank you, Mr.

Chair. Yes, Mayor Lawson.

Thank you. Can anyone provide the dimensions or size of this pool that they're projecting for states?

this pool i'm sorry mayor you're talking about this pool yeah um we're we're developing the size right now so that it's able to handle the teaching aspect that you all have been looking for um as well as uh recreational type use um and then we're we've we've sized it um i i can't tell you the gallonages right now but we've sized it for that activity And one of the things that's happened is that as we lost property to that area, we needed to make sure. That's why we're going to do a preliminary programming of the community building so that we have a conservative footprint so that if we can expand that aquatics area a little bit more, it will help us with that. Because right now it's pretty tight.

So that's why I asked last week, Mr. Bailey, why or when we would have an idea of the pool, because being that we lost... In regards to the land swap, it's going to determine the size, the specs, and the type of pool that we're going to have in the community. Because even to address the concerns that we have with replacing a pool, this seems like more of a training pool versus a full community swimming pool. So those are some of my concerns where we're waiting two years for a training pool. We're still going to be a couple years outside of having an actual community pool. That's the first question.

Do we have anybody from Parks and Recs here available?

I want to address the swim on the GO program.

I don't see him here, Mr. Mayor.

Does anyone have any details on the swim and go that's here? So thank you, Mr. Chair. When will we have actually those dimensions? I know we're doing some community.

We're working on that site plan right now. So we're going to now that we have the school board property line, we can probably bring that to you to the next meeting. Thank you. Yeah.

I was just advised the Rapids MOU is good through December of 2028.

Well, no, the entire program. I mean, that's just one piece of it. So do we have anybody else that actually knows the full program? Because I think that the clear understanding is that we've been addressed with a timeline. but making sure that all of our contracts and stipulations for the swim program, we still have swimming available for our residents throughout the different community pools, the rapids agreement and multiple items.

I know most of the,

items was gauged to run for three years so i'm thinking it should be running through 2029 but i'll definitely check and get that answer for you if we can't get that and send it out to the entire board the swim on the go program the contracts that were executed how long we have that program in place because it looks like on this timeline and it's only being a top pool that swim on the go program is not going to be able to meet the needs of the residents while we're building this so we want to make sure we've addressed that prior to getting that problem yes sir thank you thank you mr chair

it's always been our understanding that this is going to be either a 25 yard or a 25 meter pool for competition is that what you're uh designing as well is that part of this pool uh this this was initially in the master planning phase was a a uh

community pool, but mainly we were looking at doing a lot of it for lessons at this pool. You have another pool that's being planned, another pool complex that's being planned at your city hall site area.

So one pool will be a competition pool and one will not? Is that what you're saying?

That's correct. I have a couple of questions.

Did somebody else?

As we speak about the timeline, a lot of it is comprised with the review process and procurement, which is not unusual. If you look at start of work and construction documents, 930, and then the review process by our planning or staff, it's going to take five to six months. And I have a question for Mr. Sermon. Mr. Sermon, would you come to the mic, please?

Chair, I didn't understand.

Did you need me to answer?

I didn't hear your question. Oh, no, no.

I have a question for staff.

Oh, I'm sorry.

Mr. Sermon, how are you?

I was trying to answer for you.

Would you identify yourself please yes, good evening, Mister chair members of Council parents are director of development services.

The review process that we're looking at 5 to 6 months. That's probably typical. My question is Is it possible for us to retain assistance outside of the city staff with the review process to speed it up?

The five to six months wouldn't be sped up by outside reviewers. And Mr. Bailey and I work together regularly, and we make sure that if it's a city project, especially with significant expectations from this body, it's going to be at the top of the pile. And so the review time will be expedited in this situation. Oftentimes, the biggest variable is the quality of submittals that we receive and the amount of time it takes for resubmittal. So Mr. Gentile, he's working the city for a long time so i expect a high quality product but in situations where we get a submittal when there's lots of comments and there's more and more rounds of review um because comments are missed or not addressed those are the things that protract the the process um in this situation we don't expect that the lower end is closer to four months a big part of that is the notice for the city council meeting the planning and zoning board meetings that have to go out on which uh push those timelines out for the public meetings. But with a a thorough submittal, we can get through the review process in two to three months. And then from there, queue up the public hearing. So we fully intend to compress that as much as possible. But he did put worst case scenario in case something unforeseen takes place.

OK, thank you. Yes, sir. I'm done with my next question is with the procurement package is a month here. From The bid procurement package being received and the anticipated award, that's another five months that's been added. And I see this 150 days here. I'm not sure what that is about.

Hello, good evening. Latonya Ammons, Director of Procurement for the City of Riviera Beach. We estimate 120 to 150 days. Once we receive the bid package, we allow town to review it to make sure that all of our terms and conditions are in the package, and then we have to post. It's posted for 30 days, so now we're at approximately 60. Then we have to allow for the evaluation process and the responsiveness review, setting up those evaluation meetings. Then after the evaluation meeting, there's contract signature, and also trying to monitor the deadlines to submit to bring it to council. And so that's why it's 120 to 150 days throughout that entire process.

Okay.

And everything is done internally with staff?

Everything is done internally and we question or try not to rush it because that's where we make mistakes, small things, you know, so we try to avoid a protest. We try to avoid doing things that we'll have to send it out to bid, anticipate those questions that could come along the way. So that's why we really take our time, you know, peer review just to really look at the particular documents and make sure they're okay before we come to council. Okay.

We do want to ensure that Staff continue to produce a quality product. I wouldn't suggest expediting a Russian at the risk of not producing a quality product. It is my hope that maybe we can put more human resources on it to expedite that product, but in a safe manner. And it's important to, I know most on the council, that we get through this process as quickly as possible, but not at the risk of making mistakes and then have to go back and redo it and repost it, rebid it and all that other good stuff. That's the message. Put as many resources on it as you can without making mistakes. Try to get it done as quickly as possible. When people drive by that Barracuda Bay pool, I get comments almost every day. When is it going to be done? Where is the replacement going to be? and I want to be able to give them some definitive answers. Yes, sir. I understand. Thank you. Sure.

Normally, the normal process, of course, for the city review and everything is when an independent party submits plans and specifications to the city, so we have to wait for them to finish the plans and specifications to submit it to us before we review. Can't we possibly... have George Gentile's team working directly with our staff as he's designing and let them make their comments and reviews at the same time so we don't have to go through it at the end. Can't we do it during the whole process, work together? Because this is our architectural and engineering team. So it makes sense, I would think, for us to be working with George's team during the whole process so that when he's finished and we're finished, we're ready to go.

YES, SIR. WE COULD MAKE SURE TO WORK TOGETHER AS FAR AS MAYBE PROVIDING MORE PROCUREMENT DOCUMENTS, BUT INCLUDING IN OUR REVIEW WHEN WE PUT SOMETHING OUT ON THE STREET IS THAT WE READ THE DOCUMENTATION AND WE MAKE SURE THAT WE ALSO APPLY OR POST THE ADDITIONAL FORMS THAT ARE APPLICABLE. AND SO, YES, WE CAN MAKE SOME HEADWAY AND SHORTEN THE TIMELINE JUST A LITTLE BIT, BUT WE STILL ALLOW OURSELVES A REVIEW PERIOD BECAUSE We do read through the solicitations, all of them. And I've instituted a peer review so someone can come back and check behind us to make sure that we didn't, you know, miss anything where something says 15% and somewhere else says 16%. So, yes, we can institute a process to work along with them.

I hear what you're saying, but I really think that we could really cut a lot of time off if we do this together with the team that's designing it. So at the end, we'll be ready to go. It'll be a quick review because you would have participated in the entire process from the beginning to the end. Yes, sir. Okay, thank you.

Are there any further comments?

Yeah, I just want to say that in regards to rush, I don't think that, I mean, we're all professionals. I don't think that there's an issue of rushing as it is an issue of expediting it. I think that a lot of departments, not just with the city, have expedited processes. And I think that this needs to happen for this particular project, because I don't know how we got here where we're still talking about design when we were talking about this last year. And we need to move on this. And the police department is moving ahead quickly. So we can do the same thing. Thank you.

Thank you. Are there any further comments? Hearing none, thank you very much, Mr. Gentile, staff, Mr. Bailey. And we would hope that you all do what you can to expedite the process.

We will do whatever we can to expedite.

Yes, without making mistakes. Okay, next up is State Representative Javonte Edmonds. Let's give him a hand. I see he's accompanied by Senator Mike Bernard. I didn't see your name here, but you're always welcome.

Thank you, Mr. Chair. Mayor Lawson, Chair Guyton, Councilmembers Lanier, Spuraitis, and Miller-Anderson. It's great to be here. And I'm joined by Representative Edmonds. He's going to be the one who's going to present the big check. And of course, we do have Sempel Chair, who is here also from the Pittman Law Group. And Mr. Pittman was not able to be here this evening. Representative Edmonds and I are really happy TO BE HERE, AND THE REASONS WHY WE'RE SO HAPPY TO BE HERE IS BECAUSE THIS CHECK IS FOR THE RESIDENTS OF RIVERA BEACH, AND LAST YEAR WE HAD SUBMITTED APPROPRIATION REQUESTS FOR THE NEW WATER TREATMENT PLANT, AND WE HAD REQUESTED $750,000, AND THE GOVERNOR HAD VETOED THAT $750,000, AND THIS YEAR WE HAVE YOU KNOW, GREAT NEWS. BUT IN TERMS OF TALLAHASSEE, IN TERMS OF APPROPRIATIONS FOR PALM BEACH COUNTY BETWEEN REPRESENTATIVE EDMONDS AND I, I HAD SUBMITTED OVER 76 APPROPRIATIONS REQUESTS FOR DISTRICT 24 FOR RESIDENTS OF PALM BEACH COUNTY. AND WE ENDED UP GETTING 42 OUT OF THE 76 ITEMS IN THE BUDGET THAT WAS AGREED BETWEEN THE HOUSE AND THE SENATE. AND THE GOVERNOR ENDED UP VETOING 19 OF THOSE PROJECTS. BUT 23 SURVIVED THE GOVERNOR'S VETO. NEW SPEAKER GOOD JOB. NEW SPEAKER AND WE WERE ABLE TO WITH THE WORK OF ALL OF THE REPRESENTATIVES OF PALM BEACH COUNTY, BUT WITH REPRESENTATIVE EDMONDS, BRING BACK $31 MILLION FOR THE RESIDENTS OF DISTRICT 24. AND WE'RE SO HAPPY TO BE HERE TO PRESENT THIS CHECK TO YOU, AND REPRESENTATIVE EDMONDS WILL PRESENT THE CHECK. THANK YOU.

NEW SPEAKER THANK YOU VERY MUCH, SENATOR.

And right before I present this check, I do just want to allow our city lobbyists to say a few words. Sam's here, again, representing Sean Pittman's office, our hometown hero. So if you all can give a round of applause for Sam.

Thanks, Rep. Just very briefly on behalf of Attorney Pittman, myself, and our firm, I just want to thank these two leaders, Rep. Edmonds and Senator Bernard. I know you all see them every day, but up in Tallahassee, we'd be hard-pressed to have better representatives fighting on our behalf. So just really fortunate to have them. And, of course, thank you all for the opportunity to represent you in Tallahassee.

Thank you. Thank you, Sam. Sam actually flew in from Tallahassee to be here today. That's how important it is to him. Senator Bernard talked about the appropriations that he received from Tallahassee. He also represents 18 cities and he makes Riviera Beach a priority along with myself. And I believe the council, the residents, the youth council in the building, I believe that we all have the same goal is to make sure residents and businesses, when they turn on that faucet, that they have clean water. SO THIS 1.5 MILLION IS TO HELP RESIDENTS AND REDUCES TAXPAYERS' BURDEN TO PAY FOR UTILITIES. AND AGAIN, WE'RE BEING PROACTIVE. I BELIEVE THIS COUNCIL IS CHANGING THE NARRATIVE ABOUT RIVERA BEACH, JUST WINNING THE ALL-AMERICAN CITY, AND IT IS OUR RESPONSIBILITY WHEN WE GO TO TELEHASSEE THAT WE REITERATE THE GROWTH AND THE PROGRESS THIS CITY HAS DONE. SO YOU ALL, I WANT TO PROMPT YOU ALL TO COME BEHIND THAT GOLDEN GATE, AND WE WANT TO TAKE A QUICK PICTURE AND SYMBOLIZE THIS IMPORTANCE OF COLLABORATION, BRINGING HOME $1.5 MILLION.

thank you

Thank you.

And I'll come in later during the class. So, I'll see you then.

Thank you, everybody. So much force.

Again, let's give State Representative Devon Edmonds and Senator Mike Bernard another hand. We thank you very much for your hard work. As everyone knows, water and the water plan is a priority, and we're working diligently to try to reduce the cost to the residents. Thank you very much and keep up the good work.

Mr. Chair.

Mayor Lawson.

Thank you. And a special thank you to our state senator, our representatives, for allowing for our youth council to visit last year. We will be bringing them back to Tallahassee, making sure that they got a chance to see the chamber and actually explore. So it was an honor for them. And the Pittman Firm, thank you, Sam, for coming down to participate tonight. More importantly, for representing this on the state and federal level. You guys have done a phenomenal job. I look forward to continued service. Thank you, Rep Edmonds. Thank you, Senator. Thank you, Sam.

Thank you very much.

Chair.

Yes.

I just want to go back for a second for the pool issue. I really want this to be codified in a motion in regards to this pool. We promised residents that we would have a pool in a year. I want the STAFF TO BRING BACK IN SEPTEMBER A EXPEDITED PROCESS, RECOMMENDATIONS FOR AN EXPEDITED PROCESS FOR CONSTRUCTION OF THE COMMUNITY POOL SO THAT WE CAN HAVE SOME IDEA OF THIS TIMELINE BECAUSE IT'S REALLY UP IN THE AIR ABOUT TWO YEARS FROM NOW, ONE YEAR FROM NOW, THREE YEARS FROM NOW. I JUST WANT TO MAKE A MOTION THAT BRING BACK IN THE SECOND MEETING IN SEPTEMBER RECOMMENDATIONS FOR AN EXPEDITED PROCESS FOR THE CONSTRUCTION OF A COMMUNITY POOL. THAT IS MY MOTION.

Okay, it's been moved. Second.

Second.

It's been moved by Councilwoman Lanier, seconded by Councilwoman Miller-Anderson, but I have a comment. I would like to add something. As long as it doesn't compromise the quality of the project. I don't want I'm sure you don't either. But I don't want staff to feel like they have to shorten it so much and it compromises the quality of the project, but they're trying to do what we asked them to do.

No, I'm sorry. The only reason I said that was because I was looking at, there's the Verneka Sterup Silver Aquatic Facility in Miami was done in a year. 7,000 SQUARE FOOT POOL AREA PLUS 4,000 SQUARE FOOT POOL BUILDING WATERPLAY AREA AND RELATED IMPROVEMENTS. THAT WAS DONE IN A YEAR IN MIAMI AT $13 MILLION. SO I KNOW THIS POOL IS NOT GOING TO COST US THAT MUCH. SO A COMMUNITY POOL SHOULD NOT TAKE US TWO YEARS TO DO. There's another one that happened in Washington, Missouri. It was $4.5 million, one year for a new municipal pool. New municipal pool with spray pad, aquatic plate fixtures, diving capabilities, shade structures, et cetera, in one year.

Chair?

Yes, Vice Chair Spritish.

I have to go along with my colleague, Councilwoman Lanier. I mean, they built the Empire State Building in one year. so i mean for us to take two years three years four years to build a swimming pool is kind of ridiculous you know as a developer most developers add their pools on later on in the projects that they build and it's not a long process it's a very short process uh you know just an amenity uh to most projects we were told a couple of years ago i was at fire station 87 when we were told that within one year we're going to have a new swimming pool here that we were going to get this done We're only going to take a one-year break with the community from not having Barracuda Bay. So clearly that didn't happen. So I do agree that we can come up with a safe expedited process to build this pool.

Thank you. Councilwoman Davis-Burnier.

And I will say that I also agree that we do need a safe expedited process because I never at any time thought that the city should be without a pool. So now that we are here, we do need to move expeditiously and safely to get a pool in the city of Riviera Beach.

Okay. Any further comments? It's been moved to direct staff or to act staff to come back with an expedited plan for the Callaway pool. Is there any further discussion on the motion? HEARING NONE, I'LL CALL THE QUESTION. MADAM CLERK.

COUNCILPERSON DAVIS-PENNIER. YES. COUNCILPERSON LENIER. YES. COUNCILPERSON MILLER-ANDERSON. YES. CHAIRPERSON SPIRITUS.

YES.

CHAIRPERSON GUYTON.

YES.

THAT'S THE UNANIMOUS VOTE.

AND IT WAS ALSO PUT IN A MOTION, IF I'M NOT MISTAKEN, FOR THAT PLAN TO COME BACK IN SEPTEMBER. BUT I DON'T RECALL IF IT WERE THE FIRST MEETING OR SECOND MEETING. But I did hear September.

The second meeting in September. A expedited plan.

Okay. Mr. Bailey, you still here? Okay. You heard second meeting in September. Okay. The next item, please.

Mr. Chair, we're on item 9A under ordinances on first reading. Ordinance number 4322, an ordinance of the City Council of the City of Riviera Beach, Florida, amending Chapter 11 of the City's Code of Ordinances entitled Nuisances, Article 4, Noise, by repealing Article 4 in its entirety and adopting a new Article 4 entitled Sound to revise and consolidate the City's sound and noise regulations. including standards for outdoor sound amplification devices, certified outdoor venues, enclosed places of public entertainment, and exterior sound levels by zoning district, providing for definitions, providing for outdoor venue approval criteria, providing for enforcement, providing for codification, providing for severability, providing for conflicts and providing for an effective date. Mr. Chair, we have three public comment cards in this item. The acceptance of cards for this item is closed.

Thank you very much. I will entertain a motion. So moved. It's been moved by Vice Chair Spiritus.

Second.

Seconded by Councilwoman Lanier. On discussion staff.

Good afternoon, Mayor. chairperson, vice chair, and council members. Corey Smith, Assistant City Attorney.

I'm accompanied by Assistant Chief Nathan Gordon, Police Department, Operations Division.

Put it closer to you. Or is that one working?

Chair, Mayor. Assistant Chief Gordon, Operations Division, Police Department.

Okay.

Thank you.

And council members, very briefly, recent events necessitated the revision of the current noise ordinance. After reviewing different things, PD determined that we needed to go ahead and repeal and replace with the more updated version of the noise ordinance. This one is entitled Sound. The main impetus of this is to allow a more nimble enforcement mechanism. Before in the previous ordinance, the only mechanism for enforcement was that police would implement or issue notices to appear, which takes enforcement down a criminal enforcement path. PD didn't want to do that, and I think that's probably not the right thing to do. So we revised it. Well, PD revised it to allow a civil citation to be issued in enforcement of the noise ordinance. That is the main crux of the changes. There are also, you know, standards for decibel levels depending on where you are, residential, industrial, recreational. There's also a variance process that's implemented, I mean, that is included that allows for special events to come in and, you know, go beyond the times and the decibel levels for the noise ordinance. That's pretty much about it, but it was really about making enforcement more nimble and less of a criminal thing and more of a civil thing.

Chair? Vice Chair Sprudish.

Can you tell me what happens, and I believe it should be a civil offense, not a criminal offense, obviously, for the first few times, but if somebody keeps doing this over and over and over again, let's say a restaurant is having loud music and whatever going on on a regular basis, and they're just chalking up these civil penalties as part of doing business. Is there a possibility of turning it into a criminal offense after it's been ignored umpteen times? How do we handle that?

Yes, I'm sorry, Chad, go ahead.

Yes, go ahead.

Yes, so after the civil citation, the warrant and the civil citation, if they continue, then that's when we can do a notice to appear, confiscate equipment, and seize operation.

Great. Thank you so much. Yes.

So would that still be a civil action and not a criminal action, even when you seize? Mr. Yes.

So once a notice to appear is issued, that is a criminal track. It's a notice to appear as the essential equivalent of a charge. But it's an ordinance violation. It will come to court probably at North County Courthouse, and I probably will be the prosecutor on it.

Can there be an escalation of the fines before we institute a criminal action. I'm reluctant to institute a criminal action about music.

That was the impetus behind this entire revision. Because before, the only enforcement mechanism changes that so that we can institute civil citations, civil fines, and remove it from the criminal track. That way, you know, we're not talking about criminal histories and records and that kind of thing.

Yeah, absolutely. Okay. Are there any further questions or comments?

So let me ask, so what would happen if my music was too loud before this, what would happen? It would come out how many times or the first time I'm going to jail?

FIRST TIME WE COME OUT, IT'S DEFINITELY A WARNING. YOU WANT TO WORK WITH FOLKS TO GET INTO COMPLIANCE. IT'S NOT ABOUT ARRESTING OR GIVING A SILVER CITATION. IT'S JUST TO GET THEM IN COMPLIANCE BECAUSE YOU HAVE OTHER RESIDENTS, FOLKS IN THE AREA THAT WANT TO SLEEP AND WANT TO REST THAT NIGHT. IF THEY OVER THAT DBA, THEN WE HAVE THAT RIGHT TO GIVE THEM A SILVER CITATION. AND MAYBE WE CAN PUT IN THERE A SECOND CITATION. MORE TIMES YOU HIT THEIR POCKET, MAYBE THEY'RE LOWER THE MUSEUM AT SOME POINT.

VICE CHAIR.

ARE YOU DONE? I JUST WANT TO MENTION THAT I HAVE RECEIVED NUMEROUS COMPLAINTS OVER THE LAST THREE YEARS FROM PEOPLE LIVING IN THE AREA AROUND THE OCEAN BEACH MALL. You know, restaurants, after the pandemic, all the restaurants started having outdoor music and they expanded their outdoor areas. I received complaints from people as far away as the intercoastal area that they could hear the noise depending on what the wind is that day. I received numerous complaints from the Ritz-Carlton and the single family houses surrounding the ocean wall. So I think that this will make life a lot better for everyone. So thank you for bringing this forward.

Mr. Chairman, yes, to to assuade of customers, the nearest question, there is an enforcement procedure delineated within this ordinance that goes through a process that says basically issue a verbal warning, notice of violation, civil citation and then a notice to appear. So to answer your question, no, you're not going to get arrested the first time somebody calls.

OK, thank you. Is there any time that there would be an arrest or just be a notice to appear?

There is arrest authority for an ordinance violation, but that would be at the discretion of the officer, depending on the, I would guess, the totality of circumstances and the severity of whatever the particular situation may be. But as Assistant Chief Gordon mentioned to you, the goal of this is to to garner compliance. So I would think that Chief Coleman and Assistant Chief Gordon and their officers would take every step to work for the compliance before taking the extreme step of making an arrest.

I don't want officers to get overzealous about music. And that depends on the maturity and experience of the officer. If they had a good day or bad day, to be honest, they are human. And if they come out and somebody might have said something that they didn't appreciate, and if they have the authority to arrest, they get arrested over music.

Chair, may I? Yeah, so just having this extra step in there will probably prevent those actions. Having this extra step in the sound ordinance will prevent those things.

What step is that?

That's the step of giving a silver citation.

Okay.

Because we don't have it currently. So we allowed enforcing it is more of a warning. After that warning, now we've taken it, we escalated into a notice to appear which is an arrest.

and let me make it clear i do support being compassionate and considerate to others after a certain time of night you know you can't be up all night black music i understand that and um and i do appreciate it but i don't want officers to get overzealous about music like you have to start taking people in okay are there any further um

SO I'LL ALSO ADD TO THAT BECAUSE SOMETIMES EVENTS AND I HOPE THAT OFFICERS ARE OBJECTIVE, YOU KNOW, BECAUSE SOMETIMES PEOPLE SEE A CROWD AND IT'S NOT NECESSARILY THE MUSIC BUT JUST BECAUSE IT'S A CERTAIN CROWD, THEN THERE'S A COMPLAINT ABOUT NOISE AND THINGS OF THAT NATURE. SO I JUST WANT TO MAKE SURE THAT LIKE HE'S SAYING THAT THE OFFICERS ARE ACTUALLY OBJECTIVE AND HAVE A SET OF RULES OF WHAT'S TOO LOUD OR WHAT'S REASONABLE IN AN AREA AT A TIME FOR CERTAIN EVENTS. NEW SPEAKER I'LL GIVE AN EXAMPLE WITH THE RAPIDS. I KNOW THEY'VE HAD EVENTS AND THINGS LIKE THAT. I LIVE NEAR IT. I DON'T REALLY HEAR IT BUT I HEARD SOMETIMES THAT PEOPLE HAVE SAID THAT IT'S TOO LOUD. I HAVEN'T HEARD IT. SO I'M JUST SAYING CERTAIN TIMES PEOPLE, YOU KNOW, JUST MAYBE BECAUSE OF THE PARTICULAR EVENT, THE PARTICULAR CROWD, THAT CAN, YOU KNOW, CREATE SOME ISSUES AS WELL. NEW SPEAKER POTTER.

NEW SPEAKER POTTER.

NEW SPEAKER POTTER. NEW SPEAKER POTTER. NEW SPEAKER POTTER.

Officers don't just respond out to the calls because they hear the music. They mainly come in on the complaint. We get a complaint, and we go to that property. We run our decimal reader there. We run it. We don't just, because most of our guys work the events. They work the rapids at the hours. They work the marina events. So those calls come in through complaints, and we just respond to those complaints and just make sure they're within the DBA. Okay, thank you.

Okay, Vice Chair Cerritos.

Assistant Chief, does this include motorcycles and cars that are making a lot of noise? They like to rev them up when they're sitting, sitting around? I mean, that that will be included in this ordinance, right? Civil Code?

Yes, yes. And you can go back and forth. You don't have to come through me every time. Thank you.

Mr.

Chair? Yes, Mayor Lawson.

The only concern I had was the enforcement procedure. I know we talked about the violation is determined to exist, the officer shall direct the responsible party to immediately reduce. And then at that time, what happens? You said that they can have the opportunity to issue a citation or a verbal warning. But if they comply, what happens at that moment? Is it the discretion of the officer to issue a warning or do they have the discretion to issue a citation?

The main goal is compliance. So if they're in compliance, We keep it moving. We call the complainant back or we're in contact with the complainant. We'll let them know that, hey, they're in compliance. So, you know, if the music is read higher, you can call us back and we'll read it again.

So to that point and to take that discretion out of any officer or anybody, I would want to possibly change the language to where it says that they may conclude the investigation and change that to shall conclude the investigation. Board, if you can take a look at section 111-174, enforcement procedures, line 342. If we leave it as may, it's still the discretion of the officer versus changing that to shall, and that will allow for them, if they comply, shall issue a verbal warning and move on. But if we leave it as may, it's at the discretion of the board. And that's my concern. So I'd want legal to take a look at that. And for us to make sure that language in the event that that's a concern, because making sure we change it from may to shall gives it takes up the discretion, it makes it very clear that the officer if they comply, is obligated to move on from the situation.

And that was the only thing that I saw in regards to the language.

And Board, if we can kind of give some opinion and thoughts on that so legal can make a decision prior to this discussion or vote and possibly bring that back at second reading.

Okay, thank you. Vice Chair Sprudish.

So, Mayor, so you're suggesting that we take May and turn it into shall?

Yeah. And that allows for the officer to just issue a verbal and move on with their day. versus having the discretion to issue a written warning notice or even a notice to appear because if the person complies they still have the ability and the discretion to do one of the four or five items listed below sure so i so my my problem with that and i understand where where you want to get here uh mayor but my problem with that is

What if there's a larger situation going on and this is just one of the additional charges that are happening? We're not giving the officer the opportunity to add this on. I think they call those cover charges or whatever. I think we should give the officer the ability because it could be part of a fight. It could be part of a shooting. It could be part of anything. This could just be one part of what happened at the event. AT THE TIME AND I THINK WE SHOULD GIVE THE OFFICERS THE ABILITY TO MAKE THAT DECISION. I THINK WE HAVE TO TRUST OUR POLICE OFFICERS ON THE STREET. THAT'S WHY WE HAVE COMMUNITY POLICING. AND I TRUST OUR MEN AND WOMEN THAT ARE ON THE STREET. AND I SAY THAT I THINK THAT IN THE LONG RUN WE'D BE BETTER OFF KEEPING IT AS MAY AND GIVING THOSE OFFICERS THAT ABILITY.

MR. CHAIR?

VERY LOCAL.

I AGREE AND UNDERSTAND WHY I DO TRUST AND SUPPORT MY ORGANIZATION. THE DEPARTMENT I CURRENTLY HAVE WITH THE STAFF AND ALL THE OFFICERS THAT HAVE COMMITTED, WE'RE SETTING POLICY. AND THIS POLICY TRANSCENDS THIS DEPARTMENT OR THESE OFFICERS, AND IN THE NEXT 10, 20 YEARS, IF THE LANGUAGE IS NOT CLEARLY, PLAINLY WRITTEN, I'M NOT SURE WHAT THAT COMMUNITY POLICING MAY OR MAY NOT LOOK LIKE, BUT I KNOW THAT IF I CHANGE IT TO SHALL, THEY HAVE TO APPLY IT BY THE LANGUAGE IN THIS RULE. I appreciate the work that they're doing today, but moving forward, I want to set this policy that takes precedence regardless of what type of community policing may or may not be in our city.

Chair?

Vice Chancellor.

So my concern is, of course, if somebody complies and then 10 minutes later they do it again, and then they come back and they comply, and then 10 minutes later they do it again, I mean, this can go on all night long. uh once someone gets a violation uh then i believe the second violations are higher monetarily and they and they keep going up until uh until we get to the point where it's going to be an appearance ticket i i think that we we have to keep it this way to protect uh to keep the offices from having to have a confrontation on a regular basis it could be every you know every 15 minutes 20 minutes you know good people are going to adhere to the law other people know the law and they will use it to their advantage and i think that we should have the upper hand not the person that's violating the ordinance what is the actual language that comes after may that's what i was up here looking for um

Mayor, do you have that language?

Yeah. If the responsible party promptly complies, the enforcement officer may conclude the investigation with a verbal warning when appropriate under the circumstance. And because, as you just read, appropriate under the circumstance, that actually addresses Mr. Spiritus' concerns because under the circumstance would be complied to whether this is a basic noise ordinance or a fight or any other discretion that you've addressed. So they still have the ability under the circumstance to address that, whether it's may or shall. So if we read the whole language, it's very clear that the shall and the may will give direction if we're just talking about the noise ordinance and not these other arbitrary items that could or may not be happening.

That first couple of words about complying, what did that say?

On 3.42, if the responsible person promptly complies, the enforcement officer may conclude the investigation with a verbal warning when appropriate under the circumstances.

If they promptly comply, which means that they're complying, and you're saying because they are complying, the officer should be required to close it at that point if they comply.

sir yes sir uh yes okay and mr chair i do have concerns uh there's a lot more concerns that i have with additional policing and concerns when it comes to music especially within our community so i'm very concerned with this ordinance in the first place i appreciate how staff has written it and we've addressed certain items i just want to make sure that we're very clear to protect the residents when it comes to policing in our community when it comes to noise

Once again, as I was saying, when you say shall comply, I don't care what the circumstance is, when it's shall, they're going to have to end the investigation. If it's may, if it happens again 15 minutes later, they're going to have the ability to issue a citation. I think that all we're doing is going around in circles with the police officers. They'll be coming back and forth all night long. you know, under the shall conclude the investigation. I think we're not giving the officer the tools that they need to enforce the noise ordinance. I received, like I said, this is probably the second most emails that I receive daily on noise coming from the Ocean Mall area. Sometimes I get it from the boats. I hear people complaining that the boats are revving up their engines or shooting music out, you know, blasting music out across the Intracoastal and people's backyards. So I get these complaints on a regular basis. So I want to make sure that our police officers have the proper tools to enforce We're taking it from a criminal offense and turning it into a civil offense. We're making it so that the police officers now will have the ability to issue a citation, a civil violation, which they did not have before. So I think that we are bringing it down and making it easier and less cumbersome for someone who's violating this. We're not making it a criminal offense right now. We're making it a civil offense. And I think that our police officers have to have the ability to enforce this ordinance. And if we change that verbiage, I think we're going to have a problem enforcing it. We're going to be right back where we are right now.

Okay. We have some public comment cards. How many do we have?

Mr. Chair, we have three public comment cards.

Okay. Would you please call them, please?

First speaker is Annette Dragon, followed by Rochelle Hughes, and then Lloyd Brown.

Hello everyone, Annette Dragon, Riviera Beach. How can you guys in your right minds condone changing this ordinance? Clearly none of you live in an area where your windows are constantly being rattled by bass music blaring out from a commercial property. There are lots of people that live in Lone Pine where I do who hear the rapids on a regular basis and their windows rattle and they can't get any peace and quiet. Captain Harrison came out on the 31st of July with a DB meter and measured the output from the rapids outside my house. It was actually above the decibel limit that was required by the charter. And what you're doing here is you're proposing to increase the decibel output. Why is that? On top of that, I had reason to call the non-emergency police line two weeks before the 4th of July this year. My next door neighbor was letting off fireworks in the streets at 11 o'clock at night. The police didn't show up. I was not happy. So why are you even thinking about changing this ordinance? It's out of line. There are a lot of people to consider here, and obviously you people don't live where there is a noise that irritates the hell out of you.

The next speaker is Rochelle Hughes.

Thank you for your comments. Next public speaker. Okay, please, please, please, please. Comments in the audience.

Good evening, Council, Mayor, staff. Rochelle Hughes, Lompina State. I have to ask how in the world we're going to change The charter hours. That's my biggest beef. Because in the charter we have today, it's no loud music, loud stuff after 8 p.m. I understand there's been kind of a condition that maybe we'll let it go until 9 or 10. But now we want to change it so that it's 10 all the time for anything, whether it's music. cars, whatever. Um, so I live in a house that's really old. I don't have impact windows or doors. And when I sit in my house and I have my windows and doors rattling because of loud music from either neighbors or the rapid, I have PTSD from dealing with the empire lounge in West Palm beach. And the staff knows, the police force knows what I went through, being woken up at 1 a.m., 2 a.m., 3 a.m. So to have that playing when I'm at home just trying to watch TV and it's 8 o'clock at night and I hear, and it's my windows and my doors. Now, don't get me wrong, I have been able to reach out to the police department sometimes. They just don't let, not the police department, the people doing, playing the music, they don't listen. They don't turn it down. They think it's a, I don't know. But I have to say that changing it to 10 p.m. always, and the same with power tools and construction, letting it go until 10 p.m. at night, are we crazy? I mean... There's enough right now when there's construction going on on the Beeline Highway. Do you know I hear it in my house? I can hear the trucks. So, yes, I love the rapids. I love what they do. I think it's great. But the problem is when you have a DJ that's playing outdoors at night, they act like they're inside. So the decibels do go higher. And we need to think about this more. Because I can't, I mean, like I said, I have no problem with music, but the problem is you give anybody, whether it's commercial or residents, the chance to play louder and longer, they're going to. And then who suffers? I have to get up early in the morning for work. I don't want to hear the loud music till 10 o'clock or 11 o'clock at night. So I hope you guys have them take this back and revise. Thank you.

Thank you very much for your comment. Are there any further?

We have one more speaker, Lloyd Brown.

You know my name and all that. So since you don't want no noise, I'm going to stand here for three minutes and silence because you're making so many different rules. And most of the time, it does affect us people. Only us people. I mean, I didn't really care about what the lady said because I mean, I understand and I don't have anything against her for saying that, but the truth is it will only be us people who are going to have to worry about it. And I know this because you can't even stand on the corner. So you play some music in my neighborhood, our neighborhood, us, then you got the police coming there. Okay, over Singers Island, On the beach, that is loud, but I don't ever hear anybody saying anything about it. And it seemed like if we got so much crime, why would you pull these little pathetic things? I mean, like noise. Come on, please. I mean, it's like everything you do is only put there for people like us. It may start out talking about the rapids and all that. Next thing you know, you're going to have cars pulling up in our neighborhood, which is kind of mixed now. In our neighborhood, they're going to pull up in our neighborhood, and they're going to be bothering the blacks. And I know this. And you can't tell me they're not, because that's the way life is in America. And I feel like this. I don't play music loud no more, because My TV won't hook up to my stereo, but if it did, you would definitely hear it. But most of the things I play, I don't play it loud because my neighbors, they be wanting to hear it. So I get out on the porch and I'll play something. And the things I play are mellow and whatever. Now, if you see these guys riding up and down the street and they got the music really, really loud, those are the ones you're going to run behind. And most of those guys with that kind of thumping music They us people. So I don't think whatever you do, these laws, you got only targeting people like me. So you can put it down on paper like it's going to affect the whole. It's only for people like me. And I notice you can't tell me no different. These rules are only made for people like me, not people like y'all. Y'all have a good day.

Thank you for your comment.

there any more public comment card um vice chair spurred it so uh counselor can you tell me uh can we amend this at the next reading and approve it yes okay so i i would recommend that we go back and we look at the construction time periods because usually construction ends at five o'clock uh If there's something, and then one of the speakers referred to the construction period being to 10 p.m., that's really not a good time for construction to go until 10 p.m. at night, unless it's an emergency, of course. But clearly, it should end at 5 o'clock for construction projects.

Okay. Are there any further comments? Hearing none, Madam Clerk.

Council President Davis been here. Yeah. Council person in the air. Council person Miller Anderson.

The item passes with council person Miller and.

The next item please. Mr. Chair, we are on discussion and deliberation. We moved item 12D before 12A, and that is the continued discussion of Mayor Ronnie Felder inquiry into employee complaints.

Mr. Chair, we have one comment card on this item.

The acceptance of the cards is closed.

Thank you very much. To my colleague, it is So it's 7.30 do you want to go public comment about the next item.

I would like I would like to do this item so we don't lose it again like we did last time.

Yeah, I think what we want to look up the next one. But I agree with it.

It was a public comment to be public comments to you.

Chair, we have 15 public comment cards.

Okay, we're going to go into the public comment portion so that they don't get bogged down with if they don't want to listen to the remaining items. Okay, Madam Clerk.

Do you want to read the rules of decorum first?

I'm sorry?

the rules of decorum. Did you want to read those, please?

Public comment shall begin at 730 unless there is no further business of the City Council, which in that event, it shall begin sooner. In addition, if any item is being considered at 7.30 p.m., then comments from the public shall begin immediately after the item has been concluded. Please be reminded that the City Council Board has adopted rules of decorum governing public conduct during official meetings, which has been posted at the front desk 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 the building if necessary. Please govern yourselves accordingly.

Mr. Chair, the first three speakers are Matthew Woods, Antonio Arte, and Fane Lozman.

As you know, my name is Matthew Woods. I've been here before and I will probably be here again. Last council meeting, or that day, when I came back to my boat the next day, I had this notice posted on my boat. It's very, very upsetting because it tells us about we're going to get $250 fine and all of this stuff. However, I did look at the exceptions and it says vessels lawfully anchored and moored within the boundaries of the ICW is an exemption. So I'm not really sure about that. Anyhow, I went to the police department and I spoke to Sergeant Jackson who was apparently in his past was on the Marine division. He was very nice, and I don't want to comment also, everybody in law enforcement, whether it's the City of River Beach, FWC, or the Sheriff's Department, they've all been very, very polite and listened to me whine and complain. Anyhow, so we are still hoping that the mooring field will go in, and we just were asking for the town to give us something a little more definitive to have a temporary anchoring permit to stay put until the mooring field goes in. According to what I was told, that if you have the FWC long-term anchoring permit, it buys us a little bit of time. We're in compliant, we're not polluting, our boats are anchored properly, and of course we love our boats so we take care of them. So that's basically where we're at and one last thing i want to think about is every meeting you do the pledge of allegiance and the last line is for liberty justice for all i don't even think about that because we need a little bit of justice for the people that own boats thank you thank you for it thank you for the comment next public speaker please the next speaker is on antonio arte fame lozeman and virginia clark good evening

Mayor, Council, this is the third time that I have come here to talk about this issue. Like Matt before me, right after I was here two weeks ago during the meeting, I went to check on my boat and I saw this being posted. We're basically being threatened with a charge of $250 a day. for the first violation, a subsequent violation of $500 a day. What Palm Beach did to the boaters pales in comparison to what we are being threatened with. Like we have asked before, we are the good, responsible boaters. I have personally had my boat moored by the Palm Beach Sailing Club for 25 years without an issue. All of a sudden, we don't have a way to keep our boats. We are waiting for you to finish the mooring field so that we can put our boats in it. But we must be given a chance to keep our boats until the construction of the mooring field is finished. We are therefore, we have been asking for the council to give us, with whatever conditions you deem appropriate, A temporary mooring permit so that we can keep our boats until the boring field is finished. I don't think it's fair for us to have to worry about paying $500 a day for something that for 25 years we're able to do without an issue. I understand that things have changed. I understand that you want to regulate the waters. And I understand that there's an issue with derelict boats. But that's not the case for most of us. And I ask you to please take our needs into consideration. We are your clients. We are the people that are going to be renting the mooring boats from you guys. whenever you get it done so we need to be able to keep our boats until then and we ask you to get between between you all and invite us if you would to come out with a sense of with a with a list of common sense requirements so that we can lawfully and properly keep our boats until the morning field is finished thank you thank you for your comments

The next public speaker please.

The next speaker is Fain Lozman followed by Virginia Clark and Diane Lewis.

Fain Lozman, the boating situation is easy. Anchor your boat 30 days in Riviera Beach. Move it to Peanut Island, anchor it in the county waters for 30 days. Go to Palm Beach Shores, anchor it in Palm Beach Shores for 30 days. Go to Palm Beach Island, anchor it there for 30 days. Go to North Palm Beach, anchor it there for 30 days. Go to West Palm Beach, anchor it there for 30 days. It just hopscotch around in a mile, mile and a half area and you have no problem. I've been coming here for the last year almost talking about the city boundaries were unilaterally moved by the city attorney. She doesn't have the authority to do it. You told me to talk to Wilkins. Where is Wilkins?

He's not even here tonight.

Wilkins doesn't have a clue what's going on, period. You are the final policymaker, then you're shirking your responsibilities when you have a city attorney who is moving the boundaries of the city. She moved the boundaries into the state park. Now, I'm working with the state to get to the bottom of this, but that's malfeasance. I mean, she should be fired for doing what she did. And not only that, she also spent $2,600 to try to cover her you-know-what with Louis Longman and Walker. If you're going to be chairperson, Mr. Guy, you've got to follow the rules. When you hired Wilkins as an interim city manager, you never put it on the agenda. If something's not on the agenda, you can't vote on it and you vote it anyway. Number two, you didn't disclose how much Wilkins' compensation was. His compensation includes severance of 102,000. His total comp is $556,000. 556,863, that's obscene. The county administrator's salary is only 425,000. Why is he getting a higher salary than the county administrator? I don't understand it. Also Medicare, he gets Medicare. The city's taxpayers paid into that for two times he worked here before. Why are you giving him another $28,000 for medicine? You have to represent the taxpayers, not Wilkins. The taxpayers need to be represented. And finally, I saw Ms. Lanier about your letter to the CRA board. I'm just going to give you some friendly advice. If you get a subpoena to appear before the grand jury, you have to go. If you don't go, you'll be held in contempt of court and you can go to jail for 18 months or until the grand jury proceedings are completed. But it's really good news for you because witnesses who appear before grand jury, they're not the ones who are being indicted. Somebody else is. So remember, if you get a subpoena, even if you have no lawyer, Go to the grand jury. Thank you.

Thank you for the comment. Next public speaker.

The next public speaker is Virginia Clark, followed by Diane Lewis and Annette Draga.

Good evening. Mayor is out, but any city council meeting. My name is Virginia Clark. I live right here in Riviera Beach. Some of the questions I'm going to bring up or things I'm going to mention are things that may have been mentioned already before, but I'm one of the ones that's been sitting at home watching TV. I said no more of this because I'm yelling and screaming at the TV of things that I see that's going on here. We never know what's going on unless we come in here and we say something. And for the residents and everybody to hear what we're talking about. One of the things that I'm talking about mainly is, it came up, is that the night that Mr. Evans was terminated, there was no explanation of why he was terminated. And when the question was asked, well, who's going to fill his pot? Mr. Spirit just right away spoke up and said Bill Wilkins. Well, anyway, Mr. Wilkins, we had, you know, we were all sort of surprised at that. You and the residents that were here, we didn't know what was happening. Matter of fact, we didn't know that he was going to be, Mr. Evans was going to be terminated that night. Mr. Guyton kept saying, we got to go. He got to go. And they, sure, we got rid of him then. But while Mr. Wilkins, when we had, while we even hired him, when we had two qualified people here, that were already on the payroll, that were the assistant managers. We had Ms. Jacobs, which has filled in all the time for Mr. Evans, so she knew the job. Why are we paying two? We got two people on the roll and we're going to pay another person to come in that's been gone for 18 years? You know, what was his qualifications that he's come back after this time, which I understand he had been sick and he quit before because the job was too stressful and he had heart problems. You know, you wonder what's going on. And when we bring someone else on the board and pay all of this extra money, it doesn't make sense. I don't know much about the sunshine law, but something is wrong when you already had someone here ready to fill that job that night. And to the surprise of all residents here, we bought three people voted to bring somebody else in. Now, what kind of sense does that make? That don't make no sense at all, nothing. The statement by Mr. Wilkins was more qualified than Mr. Evans. That was a station that was brought up. How could he be more qualified than Mr. Evans? There's so much technology and everything that's going on now. In 18 years, what made him think that he knew more than Mr. Evans? Now, come on, let's be real about this. And it's very disgusting to hear what that's going. What was Mr. Wilkins' qualification? I've heard them ask for a resume. Has he ever submitted a resume yet? Tell him what his qualifications are for the job. If we were going for a job, we would have to be showing our qualifications. And has a resume been provided for him yet?

Thank you.

Thank you for your comment. Next public speaker.

The next speaker is Diane Lewis, followed by Neil Dragon and Rochelle Hughes.

Good evening, Mayor, Chair, and member of the City Council. My name is Diane Lewis, and I just want to take a moment tonight to express my support for the City Works on Ordinance 4321, the Yes and God's Backyard Affordable Housing Initiative. I appreciate the work the city staff, the planning and zoning board, and others have already put into developing this proposal. But every week we get a call from a senior, from a veteran, from a mother that's working poor, trying to find affordable housing, a place to call home, to remain in our city. And I believe our faith institution can be valuable partners in helping address the needs while continuing the work they have already done in serving our community. I simply wanted to place my support on the records tonight, and I look forward to seeing this initiative continue moving through the process. In my research, I see online that the planning and zoning submitted recommendation on August 13th for the ordinance approval. So my question is, please keep this moving. We are in the trenches. We have people that really need affordable housing and we are here to help. And I want you to please keep that ordinance moving. Thank you.

Thank you for your comments. Next public speaker, please.

The next speaker is Annette Dragon, followed by Rochelle Hughes and Cindy March.

Hello again, everyone. Annette Dragon, Riviera Beach.

I wanted to say a thank you to a public works guy that helped me personally. A couple of weeks ago, my car got hooked on a rebar at one of those parking concrete bars that you park in the bay with. And this guy stopped on military trail, got out of his truck, and helped me get my car off this rebar, make the bumper and everything get back into place, and make sure that the car was starting and running and moving before he took off. So thank you to whoever that was in the Public Works Department. I mean, being a woman alone, elderly, unable to lift very much anymore, this was great. Thanks. Secondly, thank you again to Public Works Department for doing our streets in Lone Pine. We are currently getting resurfaced and restriped, and there is a vast improvement already in the road surfaces. It's really nice to be able to move smoothly and without having to go through waves of potholes everywhere. Finally, a question for Deborah Hall. I submitted a request for information on the 1st of July, and I have heard absolutely nothing yet. Pretty pleased with the cherry on top. Can we get some movement on it? Thank you.

Thank you for your comments. Next public speaker.

The next speaker is Rochelle Hughes, followed by Cindy March and Lloyd Brown.

Hello, hello again. First, I do want to thank the board, council, for approving for our streets to get paved. I think it happened last year when the monies got approved for it. Thank you. Thank you to Public Works. Mr. Bernard back there and his whole crew along with All Paving. Yes, the streets look amazing. Can't wait for the striping to come through. So it's really nice. So thank you. I also want to thank some members of the Riviera Beach Police Department. Major Camone, Captain Cathy, Captain Harrison, and Assistant Chief Gordon for all of their assistance in the past couple of weeks with some matters. And the other thing I had was for Miss Nguyen, Back in July, I had sent you an email for some clarification on the charter, because it reads for city marina property, the city's municipal marina shall not be sold. However, the council may enter into management license or lease agreements. blah, blah, blah, for no more than 50 years. I had heard that the lease with Related Urban is for 99 years. And I was looking for clarification as to how that can be done when our charter specifically states no more than 50 years. And just kind of wondering if that's something that the residents should have voted on to allow that or what. And maybe I'm missing something, but I'm just hoping that you could give me some clarification.

And that's it.

Thank you.

Thank you for your comments. Next public speaker.

The next public speaker is Cindy March, followed by Lloyd Brown and Dr. Philip Dukes. Mr. Chair, the acceptance of public comment cards is closed.

Good evening, Council. Cindy March. I'm not nosy, but I'm very observant. That police officer brought in a thing. I hope it's not public comment because public comment is closed. A rule is a rule. I wanted to say that first. You all around here still talking about Evans and Bill. How much money y'all think y'all paid out to Evans to come back here? He set up on an oath he would not come back and seek employment for the city of Riviera Beach and took $190,000 when he left. He didn't pay that back to the tax fair. Then when he came back, He didn't come back just being the city manager. He came back as the utility director. He came back for the CRA director. This man was making more down there than the president was making. So when you're going to set a rule, set it for everybody. I'm not against Evans, but Evans should have never been back here. He's gone. Let him stay gone. And you all have to be very mindful talking about Bill, what kind of experience and resume he had. When that man left here, he didn't leave us in a deficit. and a negative, or not having so much money where we couldn't bond, or we got to be careful how we bond. You all need to be careful when you vote on yes for something. I'm not for that Dan Callaway little pool you all got, because for Evan, this is why we in this position, because he lied and said that the Barracuda Bay wasn't repairable to be renovated. It was sold, and it was stayed in place for 2032. It's 2032, not here yet. Who goes and put a pool over there by the city hall where the police station should have been put by? But what did Everson do? And the ones who killed him, the same three, one of them not here, Julia Botell, because show them a little near. They all with this $35 million bond. And guess what? They tear down the Barracuda Bay. It's a sore eye. It's a sore eye, and you all need to learn your charter before you vote on something. Stop voting on friendship and personal fidelity. Do right by the taxpayers. We need clean water. I don't give a damn that they don't put no food. We need some clean water up in here. And we need to stop dragging our feet about it. Put that on hold, all these musical events y'all having. Put all that shit on hold. We need some water. The same citizens need water to drink. They can't decide whether they're going to put water on their table or food on their table or go get their medication. But we're out here with all these parties costing $200,000. All Americans, $800,000 or $80,000 or $200,000. I love the kids. God knows I love the kids. But what it means to the tight end, we got to do better because we know better. November, we have an election. We cannot sit out that election. I want to congratulate Poole, and I want to congratulate Nissen. And we got more work to do. We need to get rid of some of these people that have been here 9 and 11 years, that shielded Mr. Evans. That's why we're where we at. Thank you.

Thank you very much for your comment. Next public speaker, please.

The next speaker is Loy Brown, Dr. Philip Dukes, and Dolores Williams.

How you doing? My name is Lord Brown. I thought I was going to close it out. Like, you know, last group on Earth, you know, the last band come here. See, I couldn't come up there and pass nothing to them after they did what they did. Say you can't put in no comments. I couldn't go over there and do that.

And see, it's a difference in the way y'all people treat people over here.

It's a total difference. And I mean, honestly, and the guy talking about the votes. Let me tell you, I wouldn't give a damn. Honestly, where you put your boat? I mean, because black people got their boats in their yard and they getting fined for having a boat in the yard. And you worry about you on the water and you should get fined. But a man got his boat in his backyard. You got the code enforcement riding through, writing it up. I'm waiting on y'all to get them little things to stop and look over people's houses. And then another thing, we got so much crime around here. And this is what I can't understand. Y'all worried about noise. Y'all worried about a brother with his light on his bike and we got drugs. Let me tell you, I know more drug holes. I don't even get high, but you can tell just by standing around while I ride around. There's more drug holes around here than anything. But you'd rather run behind a man because he got a light. That's so that you can go to him and you can ask for his ID. Same thing with this noise thing. You have a brother over here in his yard playing the music. It don't have to be loud. You'll get a cop, excuse me, and I know she out there named Snyder. Y'all need to slow that lady down because you know what happened. Everybody I ask, I do this stuff, man, you don't. I do this. I ask them, who's the worst cops around here that y'all know? And you know that name came up a couple times. And then when I heard one of the people in my family say it, I'm saying, come on now. I mean, y'all going to have to treat these people a little different. Like, Don't go back to Jim Crow. You know, Jim Crow ain't gone. It just got y'all doing it for them now. Like these little rules you got, lottery and vagrancy and all that. Those things came back when I was coming up. See, when I was coming up, my neighborhood was Jewish and all that. Now, the people who was racist, they were white people. They weren't Jews. None of these people got together until... This day and time, instead of being Jewish and all that, now they're all white because they get the benefit of the doubt. And the people in my neighborhood don't get nothing. We got neighbors coming to my neighborhood. They don't even speak. They'll come and ride down the street. They don't want to say nothing. And then back to this housing, like the lady was saying, you talking about workforce housing. We don't have no brothers out there working. So what you're trying to say, you're going to build houses for these people who are building these places. That's the workforce. Y'all ride around River Air Beach and look on these roofs or look in these places. All you see is somebody who don't look like me doing the work in my neighborhood when you got a thousand people in my neighborhood who can do that work. So like y'all, like a gilded horse, can't put out no more babies.

Thank you for your comments. Next public speaker, please.

The next speaker is Dr. Phil Dukes, Dolores Williams, and Malcolm Summons Jr. City Council, Mayor, City Manager.

You know, I usually come up here and talk about Black history, but I want to tie what's going on in America to Black history. I want to let it be known that I am a Christian. I do not believe in Black nationalism. Pastor King said that black nationalism is just as bad as white nationalism. But what I want to do is try to speak truth to you from a historical and a present day position. Sometimes say the uncomfortable things to you that you may not want to hear. I have always believed that Revere Beach should be leading the nation on these issues. I've always believed that. Now, if you Google my name, some of you don't know me, just Google my name and look at what they wrote about me in the Palm Beach Post and the Sun Central, then you'll see. I also want to thank the people who sent donations. We're nowhere near where we want to be as we put on, pressed to put on this Love Thy Brother movement. I'm the CEO of Operation Restore, a non-religious organization to serve the community. Now, we have a white supremacist in the White House. Donald Trump is a white supremacist. And it's not funny. Project 2025 is a white supremacist project that he said he knew nothing about. Donald Trump is taking black people backwards. The same thing that was done after slavery. Everything that black people were supposed to have when they came into Reconstruction, presidents came in and took that away. Well, Donald Trump is taking away all our achievements that we've made from 65 to this very day. That's a fact in his policies. We do not live in a nation that is past what we call racial tension. And it's proven every day. How many of you know about all the young black people that's been lynched and killed in these issues? So we've got to go out and vote. I told y'all before I am independent. But I decided to join the Democratic Party. Why? It's not a communist party like Donald Trump's saying because he's going to throw this election. You watch what he does. Donald Trump is a white supremacist. And he has white supremacy in his organization. Stephen Miller. All those guys is lined up with him with Project 25. Russell Vogt, all white supremacists and our evangelicals. Eurocentric evangelicals are quiet about it as he insults black people. And some of us are too quiet because we're afraid of the backlash. I'm saying let's tell the truth and line up on the right side of history in this hour. Go out and vote. A lot of folks say, well, we shouldn't be a Democratic Party. You got to start somewhere and hold their feet to the fire because I'm telling you, I'm not an alarmist. It is not going to get better. Donald Trump has already set stuff up where he can take control of this election and kill democracy for that white supremacist Project 2025. Thank you very much.

Thank you very much for your comments. Next public speaker.

The next speaker is Dolores Williams, followed by Malcolm Salmon, Sr. and Michael Jordan.

Good evening.

EVERYBODY TO THE COUNCIL, THE WHOLE CITY AND THE WORLD. I JUST WANT TO SAY SOMETHING HERE. I HEARD THEM. IT'S A 12B. THAT'S WHAT I REALLY WANT TO SPEAK ON. I JUST UNDERSTAND IT. SOME OF Y'ALL HAVE BEEN ON THIS COUNCIL HERE BEFORE. YOU AT ONE, TWO, THREE TO MAKE SURE YOU DON'T STAY ON THE BOARD BECAUSE THEY'RE ALL GOING TO SAY NO. when you want to say yes, and then when they say yes, you want to say no. So I'm here to tell you, say you keep looking with this proposed timeline with executive recruitment. Y'all going out of town and getting your classmates to say recruitment, you're taking the children everywhere, you're meeting these people. You bring them in, that's the blessing that we got from the state representative at one point $5 million. And everything to me, it seemed like you're trying to seem like these three people not going our city nowhere. But yet you were there. All the same old stuff was still going on before they got in their position. What did you do? You talk on the thing that you want them to support you with. So come on and do the right thing. Let's do the right thing. Don't be like, what's that? Roger Dangerfield say, I just don't get no respect. Y'all don't be trying to get no better respect for the things they do and say. You always want to down them. You always want to, you blackball some of the council people that was in here till they feel like they can never run in this city no more.

Thank you, Mr. Guyton, you came with them.

But God is still good. Y'all got to remember there's a book and a book written You're putting a name on things here, but you better make sure you got your right name and the right book. You better get the right book. You're talking about the wages and what Mr. Wilkins should get. He's getting $10,000 less than what Mr. Evans was getting. I'd like to tell you, I don't have anything against Mr. Evans because he helped the lady I know. But yet, if you look and go back and see things that was not completed under him, why he was saying, Mr. Evans not coming back. Do other things. As you say, this is the best place to work, live, and play. It's like some of you still being a crow on top of the back of the eagle. You're standing around and just trying to make sure it don't work. You're trying to make the council go over because he had a special thing. We don't go late, but you can get on there and ask all these questions. Then you finally get the engineer up there and straighten you out by some thing. Then you say, oh, I didn't know that. Oh, I didn't know that. What you didn't know, but yet you get up there hindering everything. Get with the program and get this council, this city to move. Do what you say you've been doing for 12, nine years.

Thank you very much for your comments. Next public speaker, please.

Next speaker is Malcolm Summons, Sr., followed by Michael Jordan, Derrida Polk, and John Taylor.

Good evening. Malcolm Summons, a retired City of River Beach employee, Public Works Department, 25 years. I was employed with the City of River Beach in 1998. On record, it was 99. Many employees kind of got caught up in that in that rap where we lost time. But needless to say, it saddens me to hear that A lot of people are not happy with Mr. Bill Wilkins. To me, Mr. Bill Wilkins was a matriarch for our city. He did a lot of great things. Not only is he qualified, he can do the job. So if you're not from here, you probably wouldn't know and understand, and I get it. You have to be from here. And as I look around, it looks like, well, it sounds like a lot of people's not from here. You have to be from River Beach to really, really know and understand the things that he put in place, the things that he implemented, the program that he was involved in. So he's more than educated and qualified for this position. And I know a lot of us are still upset about Mr. Evans leaving and We're not getting his contract renewed. That's fine. I want to tell you that Mr. Evans was right in his own little way, but he turned a blind eye to a lot of things. You're talking about a 25-year veteran employee here. And the truth needs to be told. I hear a lot of people come up and I hear all the lies and all of that. But Mr. Evans hurt a lot of people, including me. OK, I was up here before saying the same thing. There's a continuation when we get on this other item. But there was a lot of hurt employees. And you guys don't even know the half of it. There's a mission statement, and I wonder, I don't know if you guys are familiar with the city of River Beach's mission statement. I got this mission statement in 1998, okay? And there are six items, line items. The last two I would give you credit for, but the first four, we failed. The first one is treating others as we would like to be treated. City of River Beach failed. Being friendly and helpful at all times. Cedar River Beach failed. Taking the extra step to provide quality services to all citizens. Cedar River Beach failed. Maintaining clear, open and conscious communications.

Thank you very much for your comments. Thank you. Next public speaker, please.

Next public speaker is Michael Jordan, followed by Dorinda Polk and John Taylor.

Okay, as always, I would like to say hello to everybody. Attorney Don, you stay encouraged, and I want everybody up there to stay encouraged, okay, in doing the right thing. Not saying that you're doing nothing wrong, but doing the right thing. Okay, first of all, I hear a lot of talk about this pool and what's going on with this pool, but I never heard anything saying that it would be accessible for children or adults with disabilities. No one never said anything about that. So I do want to know what's up with that, where that stands. So when he comes up again, that needs to be mentioned. Also, the gentleman that you are using to actually do the pool and correct me if I'm wrong, is Mr. Terrence Bailey. Is that correct or incorrect? I guess you probably can't answer right now, but if so, he's the same one that done the streets in Monroe Heights. So I'm not sure that the pool would be in such great standards because Monroe Heights streets was messed up. Okay, the next thing that I want to talk about, I know that you all want to rush the pool, but I know you all voted on it. But when we rush things, we know that a lot of mistakes are made, OK? And I do not like the pressure that's being put on Ms. Ammons, even though she's not saying this thing. Because what my question would be, if there's a mistake made, even if her staff make it in the documentation or whoever checked behind them, they're not going to go after the staff. They're going to mention her because she's the director. So you all want her to push this. So will you be there to support her If a mistake happens and it's not actually her mistake. That's what I want to know. OK, because I feel like she needs to be supported. She don't know me too much from a can of paint except for coming in here. That's how you know about the right. OK, so like I said, I want all of you all to continue to be encouraged. I want you all to be encouraged to do the right thing. OK, I'm not saying that you're doing anything wrong because, you know, when you do wrong, when the light shine, it comes out. Because the real us don't show up. That's why I can never hide who I am. That's why I have to come in here and be real whether you like it or not. Now, the things that they keep saying about Mr. Bill, he's a great guy. And I want to say this about Mr. Evans. I never disliked him, but he's gone. He's in a lot of hell. He won't be back.

Thank you very much for your comments. Next public speaker.

The next speaker is Dorita Polk, followed by John Taylor and Ayan Suka.

Good evening. My name is Doretta Park, and I just want to commend the hard work and dedication to our Senator Menard and also our representative, Javante Edmonds, for bringing in over a million dollars to the city to help us with this water plant. What a phenomenal job they are doing. And I just want to express that. And I also want to thank the, many thank you goes out to Sincere 2000, Councilwoman Kashama Miller-Anderson, and also Mayor Lawson, concerning the initiative they put for the back to school for the children, and also not, Not leaving you out, Chair Guyton, your initiative that you gave for the Monroe Heights area. This was much needed. There is a lot of people, families hurting. And you all's initiative that you all did for these children, bringing backpacks and also school supplies, haircuts, and the painting of the little girl's nails, that really uplift these children. And I want to thank you all for doing that. and continue that. I went to a fabulous fire department health forum that was here Thursday. Absolutely marvelous. They had found care, Catholic charities there, reentry center was there. NICOLE MASSAGE THERAPIST WAS THERE AND OUR VERY OWN FORMER COUNCILWOMAN, JUDY DAVIS, WAS THERE AND SHE SET UP A BOOTH, A HEALTH BOOTH CONCERNING ALL NATURAL AND ALL INVASIVE, NON-INVASIVE, 100% PURE PATCHES. AND IT WAS, SHE PUT ONE ON ME AND I FELT BETTER. SO A HATS OFF TO HER. And I want to just know, and for the fire department, the form they had, the MC was Mr. Jason and Mrs. Williams and Mrs. Thomas was absolutely awesome. They brought in fire detectors, also carbon dioxide, monoxide detectors. Fire extinguishers. I was able to get a couple of those products because I needed them. And all the booths were wonderful information that was given out. Very valuable information. And I want to know if they're going to be at 21st at the beach, are there going to be a parking space? Would people have to pay for parking? If you can answer that later. Thank you very much for your comments.

The next speaker is John Taylor, followed by Ayan Suka.

Good evening. John Taylor, Island Road, Riviera Beach. thank you to um the City Council and all the great work you're doing appreciate all your efforts um I'm here because I got a notice on uh a very old and modest sailboat that I own um this past week and I wasn't aware that there was going to be a a lot of change and I wish I had attended those meetings earlier but um unfortunately I mean I do disagree with the The ordinance. I feel that I think that I agree that the derelict boats are damaging and an eyesore. But I don't think a few rotten eggs should spoil the dozen. And I don't think laws should be implemented. for everybody when it's really just a couple boats that are causing these problems. And it's a matter of policing on the water to inspect boats and to monitor those boats. The majority of all of us out there are sailors. We can't afford expensive marinas, and there's a precedence here of decades and decades of people being able to drop anchor there. Just like an easement, if you had a neighbor and you were allowed to pass there for decades and decades to access a road or a beach through an easement, and then you acquire those rights. It's a similar thing. I mean, if for 40 years someone's dropping an anchor and then all of a sudden one day someone shows up and says, you can't do this anymore, it's inherently going to create a lot of problems for people. We can't just tow out the boats on the back of a pickup truck. These are sailboats. The cost to bring a sailboat out of the water is not worth the boat itself. It's a tight-knit community. people take care of each other out there. I'll give you an example. I was doing a holiday boat tour and I ran aground on a sandbar. I had my kids on board, probably eight people total. It was 10 p.m. at night. We sat there for an hour. 10 luxury yachts passed us, all telling us to call CETO and pay $1,500. And then One of those live aboard boats passing by under sail was the one to stop a 25 year old kid, went out of his way and simply threw me a rope that I could tie to a hitch and pulled us off the sandbar. So you passed the ordinance. I understand what's done is done, but perhaps you could make a rule to allow us just a transition period until the mowing field is established.

Thank you.

Next public speaker, please.

The next speaker is Ayam Suka.

Good evening, everybody. Good evening, City Council. My name is Jan Csuk. I'm a boater. And I'm here to support our boater community, my fellow boaters with sailboats. And we've just been threatened by the authority to move, to live. Where? we we we follow all the instruction what we get to the uh anchorage permits what we got we registered with the with the state and everything and the only one what are getting tickets are the people who are registered with the um the anchoring permit We have the boat registered, insured, because we had a meeting with the mayor a couple of weeks ago and explained to him how it can be identified, the real boat from the ship-shaped boat. And I said, easy, like on the street. What is the police officer asking you when they stop you? Driver license, proof of insurance, and registration. And derelict boats, they don't have insurance for sure because they cannot get that. And mostly of them are not registered. So in other words, what is all focusing on us, because we honestly register with all the instructions we get, and they have our information and database. And this we ask for you guys to help us until the mooring field will be finalized and we'll be the first one who will rent the balls over there. But we need a little help from you. Like we told to Mr. Mayor, we're asking for some help from your council and, you know, because if we have to pay $250 or $500 a day, that's impossible. Nobody will be able to do that. And where do we have to go? We don't have any place to go. Thank you very much. Thank you for your comment.

Mister chair, we do have one more comment car public comments begin today at 7.25. This card was submitted before the acceptance and close of comment cards. So it's the pleasure of the boy who want to hear the person or not.

What members you want it you want here. Yeah, we did a court was submitted after the time but we have the option of hearing it or not know what time was it a minute.

Are you Kerry Warner?

Please don't speak. Please wait.

We started public comment a little early at 7.25. She submitted her card before the close of the acceptance of comment cards.

Please wait to be called on.

You didn't close it at 7.30?

No, it was a little after 7.30.

I CAN HEAR YOU SAYING IT WAS A LITTLE AFTER 7 30 WHEN THE ACCEPTANCE OF THE CAR IF YOU DIDN'T CLOSE IT AND SHE PUT IT IN BEFORE IT WAS CLOSED AND YEAH.

KERRY WARNER.

I appreciate that the mayor is here for this meeting. That is wonderful. I live in Riviera Beach Marina. I lived here for two years on a sailboat, endless slip, and I paid for it. I also have a sailboat out there on the hook. And I love Florida for being able to take care of us and give us a way to live and make it in a place where it's affordable to actually survive.

Could you speak into the mic, please?

What did you say?

Could you speak into the microphone?

I feel like you can hear me.

Okay, keep talking.

Okay. I am so bothered by the parking here that you guys are starting to make and you're not giving us clean water. And you took away my market on the weekends. All my people used to come here. Because we could afford to come here. There's spices and there's gifts and everything. I love seeing them all. And I don't get to see them no more. You know why? Because you put all these parking meters in here. And you get all this money. You don't even give us clean water. You don't give us parks. Libraries. You want more. I don't know what you're using that money for. I don't live. No. No. I mean, no. Do better for the people, please. I pray for you all to do better for the people here. I love it here. And I love these people. I am these people. And we need clean water. We don't need parking here. We can't even hang out here anymore. We don't even have a market anymore. They don't even come here anymore because we can't pay for parking. They don't pay that many taxes. I'm aware because the trains and all of that stuff. Do better. Please do better. That's all I'm here to say. Let them live here. Make the mooring filled. I mean, help them come out with things where we can pump it out. Please, Mayor, all of us, let's do better together. That's all I have.

THANK YOU VERY MUCH FOR YOUR COMMENT. MR.

CHAIR, THAT'S IN THE PUBLIC COMMENT.

OKAY. NEXT ITEM, PLEASE.

MR. CHAIR, WE ARE ON ITEM 12D, CONTINUED DISCUSSION OF THE MAYOR RONNIE FELDER INQUIRY INTO EMPLOYEE COMPLAINTS. ITEM 12D WAS MOVED BEFORE ITEM 12A UNDER DISCUSSION AND DELIBERATION. MR. CHAIR, WE HAVE FIVE COMMENT CARDS ON THIS ITEM. THE ACCEPTANCE OF THE CARDS IS CLOSED.

Thank you very much. Walter, could you upload that first page of that document for me? Thank you. Okay. I've been very concerned since I got elected that employees who had the courage to come forward and make claims haven't had the decency or courtesy from the city to even have their claims investigated. They articulated what they were, but nobody ever investigated them. That's a huge problem with me. Our most valuable resource Our employees. Our employees are the ones on the front line. Our employees are the ones that taking the heat from the public on a daily basis. Our employees are the ones out in the field as one lady said tonight helping residents when they don't have to. The least we can do. It's when we as an organization get a complaint. We have to investigate it I have never I've been in public service. I'm close to 30 with the county I did for in rural Palm Beach close to 35 years of public service. I'll file at least 5 or 6 complaint to know 35 years. Within a month. I've got a response. whether it's valid or not. And when you don't get a response, that gives the other employees the impression that there's no need to step up and try to convey what the issues are because they're not going to be investigated. That date is July 2024. This is August 26. To my knowledge, how many of those complaints 33 people came forward. How many have been investigated to determine the validity of it? Zero. We're talking about how good we were doing that the city. I have a different opinion. This type of stuff don't reflect well on us as a city. People are not going to want to work here. The people here are going to be very low because if they feel they've been mistreated and we have the council. Not making sure that staff is doing what they need to do to investigate these issues. The morale is going to be very low as it is now, so. um we have to make a decision i do not think that and let me say this i've been quietly getting phone calls about issues that are going on i've been quietly investigating them most of them have proven to be valid even staff would admit, even before I came chair, I come to person, yeah, we dropped the ball here, we dropped the ball there. Why do I have to get involved in order for staff to move? We have a problem. We don't like to talk about problems. We like to put our best foot forward. Everything is OK. And we're just doing just fine. We haven't been doing fine for a long time. For a long time. I had the courage to get up here and start articulating that we have a problem. Then to some people, I'm the problem because I'm trying to reveal the problem. But it is what it is. We're on the right path now. And one thing that I feel is very reprehensible is for these employees to have to suffer in silence for two years. and didn't even have the courtesy to investigate their claim. And some would prefer that we don't do it now. Absolutely not. We need to have an outside independent source to come in and investigate every claim.

Some of them may not be valid.

But instead of investigating the claims, you know what we did at the city? We decide to go and handpick an attorney to clear the people who were accused before we investigated the claims that they were accused of. Some of those claims probably would have been dismissed as being invalid.

But no, our administration run down there. We need to clear our name first.

I don't know who supported that craziness. But we did it backwards. And it is unacceptable to me and it's very embarrassing. We're supposed to be a professional organization. And when a claim is submitted, it is investigated in a timely manner. Two years. I'm going to be asking the council to hire somebody who has no relation to Riviera Beach to do the investigation of these claims. I don't care whether the people are still here or not. Some of them, I think, personally were retaliated against because they saw, management saw that it was not going to go anywhere and they felt they could treat these people the way they wanted. Not all of the managers. Let me let me say that all of the managers are not like this. Let me also say, I know that there are some employees that would try to take advantage of this process of we saying now that everything is going to be investigated. If it's determined that there are some frivolous complaints. That are repeated. They will be held accountable. The employees. But most of these complaints. I think about it. But we would never know until we investigate them. Those are my opening comments. Does anybody want to say anything? We do have some comment cards, but this is unacceptable to me.

Yeah.

Yeah. Vice chair.

Attorney, when CAN YOU TELL ME IF IN THE COLLECTIVE BARGAINING AGREEMENT WITH THE UNION, DO WE HAVE AN OBLIGATION TO INVESTIGATE COMPLAINTS FROM EMPLOYEES?

AN OBLIGATION TO INVESTIGATE COMPLAINTS. AND WE DO THAT.

UNDER STATE LAW, DO WE HAVE AN OBLIGATION TO INVESTIGATE COMPLAINTS?

I'D HAVE TO LOOK INTO THAT.

I THINK IT GOES ON THE HOSTILE WORK ENVIRONMENT. BUT YOUR FIRST ANSWER ANSWERS MY QUESTION. WE CLEARLY HAVE A FIDUCIARY RESPONSIBILITY, A CONTRACTUAL OBLIGATION TO INVESTIGATE COMPLAINTS IN A TIMELY FASHION.

NEW SPEAKER THANK YOU. NEW SPEAKER I COULDN'T HEAR.

Ms. Nguyen said that we have an obligation through the union contract.

What did she say?

Can I hear her? Please stop, Ben. You know, you're not going to come in here and disrespect what we're doing. I know you don't want to hear some of what's being said, but it's the truth. While I sit here, that's what I'm going to tell you.

Ms. Nguyen?

Ms. Nguyen.

Ms. Miller-Anderson, the question Dr. Spirit has posed was whether we have an obligation to investigate employee complaints under the collective bargaining units. And I said, yes, as it relates to those employees who are covered under the collective bargaining agreements, because it only applies to them. So if you're in the union, then yes, if you're not in the union, then it doesn't apply to them.

So the complaints that were GIVEN TO THE INVESTIGATOR, I GUESS, THEY DID NOT HAVE TO GO THROUGH THE HR PROCESS?

THEY COULD HAVE. THEY JUST DIDN'T. IT WAS AN INQUIRY THAT THE MAYOR DID, GIVING THOSE EMPLOYEES AN OPPORTUNITY, THE MAYOR AT THAT TIME, GIVING THOSE EMPLOYEES THE OPPORTUNITY IF THEY WANTED TO COME FORWARD. THEY DID NOT CHOOSE, I GUESS, TO GO TO HR. I WASN'T REALLY INVOLVED IN THAT PROCESS OTHER THAN SELECTING THE ATTORNEY AND ENTERING INTO THE CONTRACT WITH HER. AFTER THAT, I WASN'T INVOLVED IN THE PROCESS.

NEW SPEAKER THANK YOU.

NEW SPEAKER YES, COUNCILWOMAN LENIER.

NEW SPEAKER I THINK THAT ANY EMPLOYEE, REGARDLESS OF IF THEY ARE COVERED BY UNION OR NOT, IF THEY HAVE COMPLAINTS, SHOULD BE INVESTIGATED. AND THERE'S A PROCESS FOR THAT. IT STARTS WITH THE SUPERVISOR, IT GOES TO THE HR, AND THEN IT ESCALATES FROM THERE. BUT ANYBODY, REGARDLESS OF UNION AFFILIATION, SHOULD BE ABLE TO COMPLAIN AND THAT COMPLAINT SHOULD BE INVESTIGATED, PERIOD. THERE WAS A LETTER SENT BY AN E-MAIL SENT BY THE ATTORNEY FOR RESPONSE TO THE REPORT. HE ASKED THAT THIS INFORMATION BE READ INTO THE RECORD WHICH I WILL DO NOW. GOOD EVENING. ATTACHED ARE REMARKS THAT I'M REQUESTING TO BE READ INTO THEIR ENTIRETY. REGARDING ITEM 12D, THEY ARE COPYED AND PASTED BELOW FOR EASE OF PUBLISHING BY READING. TAYSON GAINS, ESQUIRE, AUGUST 19, 2026. HONORABLE MAYOR, MEMBERS OF THE COUNCIL, CITY ATTORNEY, CITY CLERK, FOR PUBLICATION BY READING REMARKS UNDER COMMENTS TO ITEM 12D. THIS IS A REQUEST FROM TAYSON C. GAINS, ESQUIRE, EXTERNAL INDEPENDENT LEGAL COUNCIL APPOINTED TO THE CITY MANAGER'S OFFICE ON BEHALF OF SIX MAIN EMPLOYEES AND FORMER EMPLOYEES WHO WERE ADVERSELY IMPLICATED AND THE MAYOR L. FELDER'S INQUIRY INTO THE EMPLOYEE COMPLAINTS CLIMATE SURVEY JULY 2024 REFERRED TO AS THE MAYOR'S REPORT. I'M REQUESTING THAT MY REMARKS BE PUBLISHED BY READING THEM TO THE MAYOR, THE CITY COUNCIL AND THE PUBLIC IN THEIR ENTIRETY WHEN ITEM 12D COMES UP FOR DISCUSSION. I AM FURTHER REQUESTING THAT MY WRITTEN REMARKS ARE THEREAFTER RECEIVED INTO THE RECORDS OF THE CITY THROUGH THE CITY CLERK. ITEM 12D, CONTINUED DISCUSSION OF MAYOR RONNIE FELDER'S INQUIRY INTO EMPLOYEE COMPLAINT. THIS ITEM IS THROUGH WILLIAM E. WILKINS, BUT YOU DID SAY, MR. CHAIR GUYTON, THAT YOU ALSO WANTED TO BE ON THE AGENDA AS WELL. CITY MANAGER, THE WILLIAM E. WILKINS CITY MANAGER, AND IT STATES THAT STAFF RECOMMENDS THAT THE CITY COUNCIL PROVIDE DIRECTION TO THE CITY MANAGER REGARDING ANY APPROPRIATE NEXT STEPS. I APPRECIATE THE OPPORTUNITY TO BE HEARD BRIEFLY. I DO NOT REQUEST TO BE HEARD TO ASK THE COUNCIL TO REACH ANY CONCLUSION. REGARDING THE PENDING MY INDEPENDENT REPORT. AS THE ONE CHARGED TO PROVIDE THE INDEPENDENT REPORT, I AM OPPOSED TO ANY RECOMMENDATION THAT ACTUALLY BE TAKEN REGARDING THE COMPLAINTS OF THOSE EMPLOYEES AND FORMER EMPLOYEES WHO HAVE ALREADY MADE THEIR STATEMENTS WHICH RESULTED which resulted their professional reputation being tarnished and other adverse implication and severe reputational damage as a result of the development, production, and distribution of the mayor's report. The affected employees, like every employee, simply wish to receive the same meaningful opportunity to be heard before conclusion regarding their alleged conduct becomes permanent. We do know from public statements that those adversely implicated employees and former employees reportedly all understood that their responsibility arose under the city charter and under the direction and supervision of the former city manager, Jonathan Evans. THEY HAVE PUBLICLY REPORTED THAT REGARDLESS OF WHO OCCUPIES THE OFFICE OF THE CITY MANAGER, THEIR COMMITMENTS REMAIN THE SAME, TO FAITHFULLY PERFORM THEIR DUNES CONSISTENT WITH THE CHARTER, CITY POLICIES AND LAWFUL DIRECTION. I RESPECTFULLY ASK THAT THE INDEPENDENT REPORT BE PERMITTED TO REACH ITS CONCLUSION so that all affected employees may have the benefit of a complete record. Whatever conclusion ultimately are reached, they should rest upon a process that is complete, that is balanced, and that is fair. I am requesting that you now proceed with another investigation until you provide to myself as outside counsel all that is necessary for me to complete the report and respond to the report of former Mayor Felder. Former City Manager Evans on March 26, 2026, in response to a question from Councilperson Davis-Panier, advised that the complaints of those who made them in the mayor's report will be addressed in the independent report as well. The only direction that should be given to City Manager Wilkins is that he cooperate and direct all employees under his supervision and direction to cooperate fully and in good faith with me so that an independent report may be completed and presented. Thank you. and that was from the Gaines firm.

Okay. The Gaines firm was hired, I'm not sure by whom, because from what I understand, it didn't go through our city attorney, and that's the problem. So I don't want to speak out of turn. Did you have any involvement with hiring Mr. Gaines?

I did not.

Okay. Our city attorney. I'm telling you, there was a lot going on in this city that was not right. If you're going to hire an attorney, you go through the city attorney. There are six employees that Mr. Gaines represents, not the ones who filed a claim. The other six who were accused of unfairness or whatever the accusations were. The City Council hired Mr. Gaines. He has missed countless deadlines. Not one, not two, not three, countless. He has the majority of what the contract is. I think it was 65. I think he has about 60. Do you know the work product that we've seen from him? The council hired him. He doesn't listen to us. He said he listened to the former city manager when he was here.

Really?

Do you know the work product that we have gotten from him? That would be zero. Nothing. Nothing. Not one sheet. Nothing. If you're our client and we request the work product that you have for now, you have a responsibility and even an obligation to provide. Oh, not him. So whatever Mr. Gaines is saying and I will, I will make this public, too. It's gotten so bad that we voted to file a complaint with the bar on him. And that has happened. You're not going to come in this community and disrespect us. We pay you $60,000 and you give us nothing but a lot of lip. Not why I sit here. It's not going to happen. People can get in their feelings, but you're not going to abuse the taxpayer's funds and then act like you're the victim. Produce a product. And it's not on your requirements. What we ask for, we pay you, you give. That's how this thing works with our client lawyer. He thinks that he can tell us what to do. I'm not sure. I haven't seen that he had a background in any of this that he's doing. I'm not sure who hired him, but I'm sure we have a big problem. That's why we had to file a complaint with the bar. So we have some public comment cards and then we need to decide what direction we're going to take. We need to take a direction chair. Yes.

We ask the question. So I think the first question is, has everybody up here read the entire report? I don't know about everybody I can speak for me okay, and that's the first thing. Secondly was that report not an investigation.

It was a report to retrieve complaint. None of the complaints were investigated that was supposed to be the next step. And in the form of mayor attempted to try to do that. But the Somebody decided they're going to run out and get an attorney to try to defend the ones that were accused before they even investigated the complaints that were there. Now, that is backwards.

So the mayor's report was was presented as fact. No, it was. Well, yeah, I say that because it has investigation in the title. But that's neither here nor there. I think that, as I said earlier, that any employee that has a complaint should be able to make that complaint and that complaint should be investigated regardless of where they stand in the city. Now, with that being said, that also comes into play the process in which an employee does that. And I think some of the heartburn that I had with the mayor's report was the fact that A LOT OF THE COMPLAINTS THAT WERE MADE HAD NOT BEEN ESCALATED TO THE SUPERVISOR, TO HR. OUT OF 33 EMPLOYEES, ONLY THREE OF THEM HAD ACTUALLY WENT TO HR. SO IT'S VERY DIFFICULT TO ‑‑ I WISH YOU COULD CONTROL THE AUDIENCE. I GOT THEM.

PLEASE SHOW SOME RESPECT.

TRY TO HAVE THEM TALK AND THEN YOU HAVE INTERRUPTIONS.

UNDERSTOOD. FINISH YOUR THOUGHTS.

I lost it. But I'll say that whatever investigation, I have no problem with investigations at all. I just want to make sure that the process in which we, that was the reason for the mayor's report slash investigation was that those employees said to the mayor and the other $60,000 lawyer that there were problems. And then when we researched 90% of those complaints, they had not went anywhere but from their mouth during the interview. Now, with that being said, okay, that's fine. But that is a process for people in when you make a complaint. So now you make a complaint in a report and then you expect us to know beforehand what that complaint was when we had no idea. And I had told you before the report was given to us on a Saturday morning and it was made public all over the city and we had no idea what was in it. No idea. No idea that the people who were in it had complaints. no idea that the people who were in it were having issues, no idea whatsoever. So we were put in a position that the first question that we asked is, did the individuals go to their supervisor? Did they go to HR to be able to lodge these complaints so that it got to the mayor's report because it's just nothing has happened? But as I said before, none of that happened. So it took us off guard given the fact that we had never heard these complaints before. So with all that being said, I still understand that if you read that report from front to back, it reads as an investigation, but it also reads as someone saying that they saw someone doing something or they heard someone say something, but then at the end of the paragraph, they say, well, I don't know for sure because somebody told me that. So it's really a lot of hearsay, but even with all that being said, I understand the position of the people who were mostly accused in that report, which is what the THE GANG'S FIRM IS ACTUALLY INVESTIGATING, AND I AGREE. I AGREE. WE SHOULD HAVE HAD SOMETHING BY NOW. I AGREE WITH THAT. AND EVEN THOUGH THE GANG'S FIRM HAS BEEN ENGAGED IN THIS, I DO HAVE TO AGREE WITH THE FACT THAT THE CITY SHOULD HAVE GOTTEN SOMETHING FROM THIS FIRM BY NOW. I CAN'T DISPUTE THAT. So with all that being said, I think that what we need to look at is how do we go from here? What we do a whole nother investigation that, you know, I even suggested that, you know, at different municipalities and organizations, people have, what do you call it? They have surveys that go out to every employee to give them an opportunity to say what's wrong. And I think that focusing on three or focusing on six, let everybody have an opportunity to say this, that, or the other. Because what we've done now is that we've put ourselves in a position where we have 33 people that said that they, and 30 of them had complaints and it was not ever escalated. We hear about it in the report. Then we have six that say, hey, that was not what happened. And then now we're at a situation where we just need to investigate people's complaints. So what does that leave us? What do we do with that?

Well, you just said we have to investigate the complaints. Wait, I'm sorry. Council Member Lannister has the floor.

So we're going to investigate the 33 again? Or are we going to give everybody an opportunity?

We have not investigated these complaints. They only share their complaints. None of them have been investigated to determine the validity, whether there are some fights that can back up what they're saying or not.

So how does that work? I'm just on top of my head. Let me finish. You have one employee that says that they have these complaints. I'm not saying that the complaint is not legitimate, not at all. But when you have a situation where the complaint was never made to a supervisor, never made to HR, how do you investigate that? How do you ask? I mean, you're having the person's word and you're saying, well, why didn't you go to your supervisor? Why didn't you go to HR? It is difficult to process something of that nature because now we're looking at hearsay. But even with all of that being said, I still go back to my original point that any complaint needs to be investigated. It's just how does that happen?

And we're going to have that discussion. But one of the things that I've determined, there have been a few employees coming to me. They don't trust staff. And the reason they don't trust staff is we're sitting here two years into this, and if those were issues back then that you're articulating now, they could have been articulated then, and it could have went up that process that you're suggesting. But nobody brought that to the table. Everybody started taking sides. And that's where everything fell apart. And the only side I'm taking is right. If somebody has done something, they need to be held accountable. If they haven't, they need to be cleared of that. I'm not trying to say that one side or the other has any more validity. I'm saying that we dropped the ball at the city and it's embarrassing because it's two years into the game now.

Yes, I have one thing and I'll be done. One thing, the only thing that I'm concerned about is that you have 500 employees and you have 33 that had complaints. You had three, only three of them that even escalated to H.R. I THOUGHT THAT MY UNDERSTANDING IS THAT THAT WAS WHAT THE ORIGINAL REPORT WAS SUPPOSED TO DO. WHEN THE MAYOR DISCOVERED THAT THERE WERE PEOPLE WHO WERE HAVING COMPLAINTS OR HAVING ISSUES IN THEIR DIFFERENT DEPARTMENTS WHICH REALLY JUST DIVIDED DIFFERENT DEPARTMENTS, WHEN THEY HAD THESE COMPLAINTS, THAT THAT ATTORNEY WOULD INVESTIGATE THAT. THAT WAS THE PURPOSE OF AN OUTSIDE ATTORNEY. FOR THAT PERSON TO SAY, HEY, THIS PERSON IS SAYING THAT SOMEBODY MISTREATED THEM. The purpose was for that attorney to go to HR to do that investigation. I mean, anybody can lodge a complaint. The purpose of that report was to make sure that whoever made a complaint, that it was investigated. These complaints were never investigated, but that was the purpose of the report, because the people had complaints. They were looking for some justice. So the purpose of $65,000 was to get that complaint because anybody can take complaints because so we paid $65,000 for them to just take complaints. The purpose of that report was for them to take those complaints and to run them down and to say whether they were valid or invalid or somebody needs to be reckoned with. That was the purpose of that report. Because anybody can lodge a complaint. Anybody can pay $65,000 to take complaints. But I digress. I just want to say that regardless of any of that, it needs to be in a fair process where anybody who has a complaint should be investigated.

I would agree. Councilwoman Davis-Preneur. And then we're going to go to the public comment card. REALLY QUICKLY.

OKAY. SO REALLY QUICKLY. BUT ONCE WE GOT THE INFORMATION, YOU DID HIRE THE OTHER ATTORNEY, BUT THE MAYOR, IT'S NOT HIS RESPONSIBILITY TO DO THE INVESTIGATION. THE INVESTIGATION SHOULD HAVE BEEN DONE BY THE MANAGER. And that did not happen. And you said yourself that it was an inquiry with different questions being asked, but there was no real answer. That's why we needed an investigation. But here we are two years later. So everybody deserves to be heard, as you said. But can we go back to the original 33 first and let's address their issues? And then if we need to go and address others, AFTER THAT, THAT'S FINE. BUT THESE PEOPLE HAVE WAITED A LONG TIME TO GET THEIR ISSUES HEARD AND WE DESERVE, WELL, THEY DESERVE TO BE HEARD. AND LIKE YOU SAID, MAYBE WE FIND OUT THAT IT WASN'T AN ISSUE AT ALL. BUT I THINK THAT THEY DESERVE TO BE HEARD. AND RETALIATION IS A REAL THING. The process probably didn't happen because people felt like they would be retaliated against or like we said, can't be trusted to talk to the manager, to talk to the supervisor. So we know that it's been a lot of stuff happening and so we can't act like everything has been fair and everybody's been treated fairly and there is a such thing as the sandbox and I do believe it. So I say let's move forward.

And yeah, yes.

Yeah, I think I'm going to wait, wait, wait, wait, slow down. Councilwoman Lanier, Councilwoman Davis for near the floor. And then it's vice chair Spiritus. And then if you want to speak again, then it'll be your turn again.

And so I would say, what are we doing from this point as far as moving forward with investigating the 33? Does it happen with the city manager, or do we have to hire somebody from outside? That's my question.

And we'll answer that. Are you done? Yes. But to answer your question, since I was the one who brought it up, it is my intent to have someone unassociated or unrelated who's never worked for the city to come in with the independent look. There are still people here who have been accused. And if we try to do it through the city manager, those people still around, the people who have made the complaint are not gonna feel comfortable that it was done fairly because the same people are still here. So it's my suggestion to hire an outside firm who've never done any work for Riviera Beach, who have no relations to come in here and give an independent look at these complaints.

AND FOLLOW UP WITH THAT, THAT WILL BE DETERMINED BY THE BOARD? WILL OUR CITY ATTORNEY BE A PART OF IT? NEW SPEAKER Oh, ABSOLUTELY.

SHE SHOULD HAVE BEEN A PART OF IT BACK THEN, BUT PEOPLE THOUGHT THAT THINGS WERE BEING RUN VERY NICELY HERE. VICE CHAIR?

NEW SPEAKER I JUST WANTED TO SAY MY FIRST WEEK AS A CITY COUNCILMAN When I was walking in City Hall, employees were coming out of their offices and coming over to me and filing similar complaints to me. They said that they feared retribution. They were afraid to go to supervisors or other departments. I suggested that they go to the mayor, which they did. I also spoke with senior staff and asked them to follow up and meet with these people and investigate. That never happened. It was the first time that I heard the word, by the way, sandbox. I didn't know what they were talking about. I said, what did they say? They said sandbox. Then I learned what that meant. If you're in the sandbox and you're treated good, you're out of the sandbox, you get retribution. I don't know what that means. I believe that we have an obligation, a legal obligation, for many of these employees to follow through with the investigation. The mayor did start the investigation, but he did not conclude the investigation. He did his report, and he expected there to be follow-up, and that did not happen. So I welcome any follow-up on both sides, by the way. Whatever the facts are, the facts are. But we have to know what they are, and we have to give everybody an opportunity have a say and we do have to uh follow through if people were mistreated the people who are doing the mistreatment have to uh suffer the consequences uh that our contracts and our i guess our code of ethics uh speaks to uh for the city so that that's my position right now thank you

Councilwoman Lanier, then we have to go to public comment.

I just wanted to say that we have to be very careful with this. We have to be very careful with this in the sense that if we're talking about an investigation, the comments in the audience is blowing me for real. No, it's not the truth.

Let's not go back and forth with the audience.

I'm not sitting here trying to say that anyone here is not saying the truth, but there is a way in which you do business. And the issue, what we're talking about here is that if we're talking about an investigation, take one employee, for example, and there was nothing filed with their supervisor, there was nothing filed with H.R. and you were investigating that person's claim, what would you use to substantiate that claim? And that becomes part of the investigation. I think that what happened with the...

Please, please. Stop it. Stop it.

What happened with the investigation was that there was never any follow-up. And I say that from both parts, from the mayor's report and whoever done it, because it was never, it was never even officially presented to us. We got the report. Somebody put a report in my mailbox at home. It never got the air that it needed. If we're going to do this, then this needs to be public. That if we want to investigate anything, it needs to be public all the way. Because what happens is you have a report. that nobody knew anything about. None of the stuff in it could be substantiated by any documents. So now you have a situation where now you're going to do another report and find out that whatever the case may be. But I still say all of this needs to be public.

Okay. Public comment cards, please.

Mr. Chair, we have five public comment cards. The first speaker is Annette Dragon, followed by Cindy March and Tiffany Williams.

Hello again, Annette Dragon, Riviera Beach. I seem to be in a yo-yo tonight. I'm hearing all these comments about investigations and secondary investigations and people complaining and people not substantiating complaints and so on. What I would like to know is how many of these complaints are actually people who are disgruntled with other people that they work with? Is that the basis of an inquiry? Or is it just petty jealousy or envy or whatever? How many of these people are still working for the city of Riviera Beach? If they're so disgruntled, leave. Also, there needs to be a process in place with HR. How many of these complainants actually went to human resources and documented their complaint? And how many of those humanists Complaints were actually investigated by human resources in the first place. Didn't we already have an investigation done by an independent company for $60,000? Where's that investigation and the documents that support that? Why are we even thinking about spending more money on another investigation from an outside person or company? These all should have been resolved within human resources and not given to city councilors or the city manager or anybody else unless it was actually a warranted escalation. I'd like to know what HR was doing, what they are going to do moving forwards, and whether we as the citizens of Riviera Beach can actually see any of this documentation. Thank you.

Thank you for your comment. Next, public speaker.

The next speaker is Cindy March followed by Tiffany Williams and Malcolm Summons Sr.

Good evening, Counselor Cindy March. To be honest with you, these employees do talk. You'll be surprised how many phone calls I get right now today about what happened in that investigation. And I didn't even look at the agenda today because I would have brought my 33-page investigation. When Felder was here, Felder laid out the timeline. I don't know where you all was. Y'all be so busy shielding Evans till when stuff hits you back in the face after two years and 15 months, y'all want to revitalize it to make it look good. Lanell, you should be the last person. You need to worry about that subpoena you got going on. Do you remember? Because I can't remember. Then you suspend Evans. Something towards this matter, I can't remember what the suspension was, and me and you met one-on-one, and you told me your statement was, nobody never know what I'm going to do. Because I told you I was surprised. Y'all was worried my father didn't talk. Soon as he started talking, he was the worst mayor in Palm Beach County. This man had already documented everything. I remember when he passed his aide, which is your aide now, Mr. Guyton. He came and he passed all of y'all a yellow envelope out. And his statement was to you all, I'll be able to leave out of here with my briefcase. But some of you all won't be able to do that. He was sick and tired the way these employees been treated. All I want to say to you all and myself and everybody watch on TV and everybody watch here. I want you all to ask yourself, what if it was me? I work and I train people all day long in security. And when I train them, a rule is a rule. I don't care if it's a personal vendetta, treat everybody the same. Shouldn't nobody come in a workplace and have to walk like they're on a toothpick, don't know when they're going to get fired because you all shielded this man upon this investigation for two years too long. Stop going back and forth. Taxpayers don't need that. Get along with the business. Walk with it like you did with Evans. Let's move forward. In the city, we love to live, work, and play.

Thank you for your comments. Next public speaker, please.

Next speaker is Tiffany Williams, followed by Malcolm Summon, Sr., and Doretta Palm.

Good evening. Tiffany Williams, SEI union representative. So let me tell you, Mr. Aretha Perry retired. After her retirement, the city had five-plus human resource directors that only lasted six to a year and a half. Yes, complaints were there. Where are they? No one knows. And let me tell you, it's going to come up again because every time we get a new HR director, they come with their own policies. They don't go by the city or river or beach policy and the city or river or beach collective bargaining agreements. They go by, oh, this is how it should be. This is how I feel. And this is what it is. The question should be asked when it comes up, where is it in city policy? Where is it in the CBAs? But it's not. Decisions are made on how people feel. It's gonna come back again, the same report. Retaliation, yes. An employee was moved out of our department. Now we have an employee, a director using his little peon to retaliate another employee because he saw his name in report about him. It's going on. It's going on, it's real. Another thing that comes up, we have our BTR colors. These employees were reclassified. with another HR director. They have not received their money. Two years ago, they settled. Guess what? They still have not received their money. HR department. We're going to be lost because of an HR department. Not saying they don't know, it's because they come in with their own rules. They don't go by city policy or our CBAs. So an employee morale is going to continue to be low. It's going to continue to downfall. And the city employees are going to be in trouble again. Thank you.

Thank you, Ms. Williams. And those names that you said were reclassified and hadn't been paid, would you give them to me, please? Those names that you said were reclassified but hadn't been paid, could you give those names to my assistant, please? Next public speaker.

The next speaker is Malcolm Summons, Sr., followed by Daretta Polk.

Good evening, Malcolm Summons, retired former employee, City of River Beach, Public Works Department. So to answer your question, Mr. Guy in the Seat, the problem was Deidre Jacobs, Jonathan Evans, and your HR department, okay? Your HR department was corrupt. I never liked the new logo, but it really stands for what was going on. What's underneath, we'll find out what was underneath, a bunch of corruption. And that's why a lot of the employees didn't go and talk and go through that process that Ms. Lanier is talking about. They should have went through the process. And here's the policies and procedures. And it sounds real cute. Until you are the employee that went through that like me. Yeah, I'm on page 46 of 52. OK, I'm the one that talked to Ethan Stein about being in the sandbox because I wasn't a part of the sandbox. So imagine yourself being an employee who got who fell ill. OK, and wasn't able to return with a doctor's note saying that he's able to return. Mind you, I have an office. I'm a streets and grounds manager. Also, that was demoted from operation manager because Miss Deidre Jacobs decided to put Cedric Clark, who has no degree or experience for that particular position, who's probably still in it now. OK, I was not able to return to work. I had a take-home vehicle. And the reason why I had a take-home vehicle, because I was the on-call person for police and fire. So I would leave my home any time given, day or night, weekends, whatever, to attend to any issues that related in the city. I had a take-home vehicle. When I was out, do you know that Mr. Cedric Clark at the head of Deidre Jacobs, made sure that they came and picked up my take-home vehicle. And I came home. I thought it was stolen. So here, I'm calling the police to get a report and all of that. Come to find out, they came and took it. No one came and checked on me. Mind you, I was in septic shock. About to leave here. OK, I was forced to retire because of that. I became homeless. OK, 25 year veteran became homeless. So, Mr. Lanier, you stated then that it was a witch hunt. It wasn't a witch hunt. It was not a witch hunt. These are real facts. And we were hurt by it. So my number is on the comment card. Anybody that needs to talk to me, I'm always here, accessible. I speak for the employees, and they are still scared. So please contact me any given time.

Thank you for your comment. Next speaker.

Coretta Polk.

GOOD EVENING, MY NAME IS DORETTA PARK. AND IT'S VERY DISTURBING TO HEAR THE COMMENTS THAT MRS. WILLIAMS MADE. IT'S REALLY, IT JUST GOT TO ME THAT TOTALLY REVAMPING NEEDED TO BE DONE NEEDS TO BE DONE WITH HR. WHEN, YOU KNOW, IT'S CHAIN OF COMMAND, AND THIS IS WHAT WE WERE TAUGHT AT THE GREAT FLORIDA A&M UNIVERSITY, THE SCHOOL THAT I GRADUATED IN NURSING. IF THERE'S ANY COMPLAINTS, YOU GO TO THE CHARGE NURSE, SUPERVISOR, AND THEN HR. I DO NOT UNDERSTAND THE FEAR THESE PEOPLE HAD, I GUESS, for wanting their job and stuff like that, keeping their job and not reporting it to the right person, chain of command. This has to be totally revamped, HR. But this has been going on all these years here in the city of Riviera Beach. It's horrible, horrible. And I definitely wouldn't have worked under situations like that. Anything that came up between me and my job or whatever, it's going chain of command as we were taught. Another thing, when our Mayor Felder was here, And we asked also the diocese and also citizens numerous times, have this attorney who did the first investigation come back and explain. They couldn't find this woman, this attorney. They couldn't find her. That's what was told to us. And I just don't understand that. And there were six people that said, Cain said, I want to clear my name. I never said anything that she reported. That's a falsehood. And that should also be investigated. These six people who said they never told that attorney that. We paid $65,000 for this attorney, and she wouldn't even come back to the diocese and explain this. So I think going forward, we need to have a meeting with the employees and let them know these are the rules and you need to, when you have a complaint, go ahead and report it. And that's the way this, all this nonsense and the validations can be cleared up and taken care of. Because to hear that this has been going on for years, In HR, it's totally awful.

Thank you very much for your comment. Are there any more public comment cards?

Mr. Chair, I don't have any more comment cards for this item.

Okay. We're at the point now where we need to... I'm sorry?

We don't have a card for Mr. Lozman.

Do we have a card for Mr. Lozman?

We don't.

Are you sure it was for this item, Mr. Logan? 12. Wait, you're talking and nobody can hear you. I'm going to take a personal privilege. Come on, Mr. Logan. Which one was it? B as in boy? What item was it? If it were 12B, that hasn't come up yet.

We have 12B as in Boyd for Mr. Lewis.

Oh, yeah, he's got, okay, we found your card. It wasn't for this item. You can stay there. You can stay there. It wasn't for this item. We found your card.

It's for 12B like in Boyd.

We're on D like in David. Okay. We have to decide because we have other issues to move on.

Chair, do you have a proposed motion?

Yes, I would like to make a motion to have the attorney to search for a firm with experience and HR investigation preferably who has no ties never worked for the city has no connection to the city. To be retained to investigate. The 33 complaints. To determine the validity. Of the complaint. Whether they can be proven a disproven or it may not be enough information whatever they find it is what it is that we have to keep it moving. That's an emotion. OK it's been moved and properly seconded. Is there any further discussion?

Yes, I have a question. So the person that you're going to hire for an investigation is going to look at this report?

They're going to do the investigation and whatever they need, we're going to give them access. HR file.

No, no, no. I mean, based on the complaints made. Yes.

Yes.

OK, so that that person is looking at that report and going from there.

Yes. OK. That's correct. Any further questions?

Mr.

Chair, none.

Yes, sir. Mr.

Chair. I think I heard Councilwoman Miller-Anderson first and then Mayor Lofton.

I DO WANT IT TO BE PUT ON RECORD THAT I THINK THE FIRST ATTORNEY AND POSSIBLY THE SECOND ATTORNEY SUPPOSEDLY DIDN'T HAVE ANY TIES TO THE CITY AS WELL. SO THAT WOULDN'T BE SOMETHING NEW THAT WE'RE DOING. THESE PEOPLE WERE SUPPOSED TO BE, YOU KNOW, UNTIED TO THE CITY. I absolutely have no issues with addressing the complaints that were mentioned, but it should be noted that a separate investigation, which had nothing to do with this, also mentioned about there were times where people were recruited for this investigation that we're talking about, the original one, So that needs to be known as well. And then also the report that was written, there was way more that was said or not said in the audio. If you heard the audio and you matched it to the report, it didn't always match up. So if you all are going to move to hire an attorney to investigate these complaints, I truly feel that they need to listen to the recordings also and not just go by what's on the paper. Because even some of the people who are in the report said that they either one didn't say that or two, they did not include some other things that could have made it appear in a different way. So if you all are going to vote to hire a third person now, to do this investigation, they need to have access to the audio as well as the written report, not just the written report. Okay.

Thank you. Wait one second. And I'd like to amend my motion to include whoever is hired would have access to all and anything they need to complete their investigation. Total cooperation from all departments. On an amended motion, I need a second to my amendment.

Chair, can you add to that as per the collective bargaining agreement, the city policy and state law?

Some of these employees are not members of the collective bargaining.

They come under the city policy and they come under the ethics policy in the city and they come under state law and federal law.

I will include that as well.

I have a question.

I need a second. On this question, Mayor Lawson was sitting over there waiting next.

Thank you, Mr. Chair. If you want to allow Ms. Millarinson, I'm assuming she had a follow-up to her statement, and then I can address my concern. Because I have a few concerns. Yeah.

Okay. So even the people who are, because some of those people are not employees, like even when they interviewed them, they weren't working for the city at that point.

If they're not, and let me say what I'm looking for. Even if they're not employed by the city now, Their input is valuable because what I want to see is a pattern of behavior. If a pattern of behavior has been established by some of the supervisors and management. So even if they're not working, they need to be talked to because we're not going to tolerate that toxicity anymore. It's not going to happen. So we're looking for patterns of behavior. Would you like anything else?

And I just wanted to quickly ask the attorney, was the audio transcribed?

Yes.

Could you send us a copy of the audio? You have it. I'm sorry, of the transcription.

You have it, but I can send it again.

Yeah, because what it was is that I remember cutting and pasting the actual audio. the actual transcription to the report and it was totally different. I'm just saying that I would like to, that should be done again because what you need to look at.

Please stop in the audience.

I MEAN, I UNDERSTAND THAT PEOPLE HAVE EMOTIONS ABOUT THIS ISSUE, AND I DO AS WELL, BUT, YOU KNOW, IT'S JUST PROFESSIONAL COURTESY, COURTESY THAT WHEN SOMEONE IS TALKING THAT YOU BE QUIET. SO HAVING THAT REPORT AND ALSO MAKING SURE THAT THOSE AUDIO TRANSCRIPTIONS THAT YOU TRANSCRIBE ARE PART OF THAT PACKAGE, SO TO SPEAK. YES.

OKAY. MAYOR LOFTON, AND THEN WE'RE GOING TO VOTE.

THANK YOU, SIR. First question is going to be for staff attorney when the second report that was found where we with that.

He don't have it good.

And how much do we pay for the second report gains report about and how much do we pay for this report.

We follow also recently requesting items either the report or

compensation for the report. A board, I would not have any ability to trust anything in the second report if we're looking at a new investigator.

So I think that we should amend that lawsuit to just request our money back.

First thing, if this report does come back to us, are we going to truly include this into a third part of the report, then have another third party entity look at the full report again, including this report we still haven't received and has missed multiple deadlines and also was possibly hired by our staff versus coming directly from the council or going through a solicitation. So I would actually not even be have any interest in receiving that second report if we go in this process. The second piece would be the concerns of interviewing or hiring or looking at people that were in this report that were either terminated, quit or fired just to get a culture or establishment of where we were three years ago. I have major concerns with that process because my goal was always to look at where we are now and move forward. If we're looking at this, this is going to skew the process because we need to look at all sides, the accused and the accusers. whoever was in the report and took the right to make a stand and make a statement, I want to make sure that we address them. Whether they were here or they were not here, I agree that we should have a conversation, but I'm also concerned with the current culture of what we're trying to establish and how do we move forward. The next question is going to be, what do we look at with the outcome of the current employees versus the ones that were addressed. If we have employees that address certain issues or concerns and they may have left the organization and they were terminated because of this report, that is addressing the culture that Mr. Guyton has spoke of. I had an employee that came to the dais today that talked about the culture. The issue we have right now is that I don't want to put us in a position of being prepared for any possible lawsuits. We're setting ourselves up again by doing a third report wasting more money on an item when we have to just address the current issues of this organization. The question I talked to Attorney Nguyen in our meeting, the timeframe of lawsuits, have we taken a look at that timeframe of when an employee can make a lawsuit or file a lawsuit?

I don't have an answer for that right now.

Okay. We need to have that answer and we need to have that immediately. Because we have to fix the culture today. We keep going back and looking back. And when I first got into this mayor's office, we did a listening event to listen to the concerns. I want to change the culture today. I can't change what happened previously. And it doesn't give us a clear depiction because we don't have the same staff and leadership in place. We have different people that are here, but we have a lot of the same issues in place and the same issues that we have. We want to address them. So accountability, addressing the concerns, working with the new party, and getting our money back from the fees that we actually spent money on and worked on. Because if we have that lawsuit that's currently outstanding, we definitely don't need that report. Status of new employees. If employees were in this report, did they know that they were going to be public record with the first report that was completed?

I DON'T KNOW WHAT THEY WERE TOLD. I KNOW THAT THEY WERE GIVEN PERMISSION TO COOPERATE WITHOUT RETALIATION. BUT I DON'T KNOW WHAT THEY WERE TOLD, FOR INSTANCE, IN THEIR INTERVIEWS.

WOULD THAT BE ON THE AUDIO?

I'LL LISTEN TO THE AUDIO AND CHECK.

My other concern is we're revisiting and opening up traumas of these employees that may or may not have participated and know this was public record. Because I heard from multiple employees that did not know that this item was going to be public and that the discussion they had was going to come out. So I'm not sure if this item was even something they wanted to address or they wanted to remain behind the scenes to address the concerns without the fear of retaliation. And then the claims that some of the individuals made against about the people they accused, I want to make sure that we hear from them. So if these people are having a outside entity come in and look at this again, they're going to have to do the work that this second investigation that was supposedly supposed to do. So we have to give clear direction to our staff. How are we going to procure and secure an organization to do the solicitation, to do the investigation? What are going to be the steps in the process once we receive this report? And what proper training and support are we going to provide for the employees? This is not just a rash, rush decision that needs to be made. We need to make sure we take all the proper steps to address it clearly. Because if we hire a firm, what are we doing with that report? What are we going to do next? And then what is going to be the time frame and the expectations? Thank you, Mister.

Thank you, mayor. I think. Please stop. Oh yeah, I was going to ask the mayor was suggesting that we not get the second report because we paid money for that report I want to it means necessary to get that report.

Mr. Chair, I'm definitely suggesting that I want our money back and that we can use that to go get a different report. Because if we get that report, I believe that it was delayed. I wouldn't trust the quality of that work. And it didn't address any of the concerns that we needed within a timely fashion. And we still, to this day, don't have any information. So what credibility does that report give us?

I don't agree with that.

And we can't answer that because we don't have a product.

Okay, okay, okay. I think we should discuss that second report at the different items. We're here to discuss that first report, and it then spilled over into what we're doing with the second. That's not what we're here for right now.

But, Mr.

Chair, we have to. Mayor, no, we don't. No, we don't. No, we don't, Mayor. We're discussing the first report, and we'll put the second report on the next agenda to determine how we want to move with that. I'm not tying the two together. We got separate issues.

Mr. Chair?

Yes.

The reason we're tying in together, because the inquiry was not complete, The reason we addressed and brought up the second report is because they did not address all concerns for the report. So if we're going to discuss the first report, you have to discuss the second because if they brought up the items in the first report, there were claims that were made on both sides. So I want to make sure we address the employees and the issues within that. But the reason the second report came up and it was voted and supported by this DIAZ in majority and paid for was because there were some concerns in the inquiry that was done. Both sides need to make sure that this is done properly and not any missteps because obviously, the first time was missteps and we're about to do it again.

Thank you, Mayor. I'm ready to take the vote on the motion that's on the table now. Madam Clerk.

Councilperson Davis-Panier? Yes. Councilperson Lanier?

No.

Councilperson Miller-Anderson? No. Chair Pro Tem, Dr. Spiridon?

Yes.

Chairperson Guyton?

Yes.

The item passes with Councilpersons Lanier and Miller-Anderson dissenting.

Please, please, please. Next item, please.

Mr. Chair, the next item is item 12A, discussion on amending the Key West style architecture of Fire Station 86 to a new modernist elevation and adding Singer Island

TO THE WATER TANK.

MR. CHAIR, WE HAVE FOUR COMMENT CARDS ON THIS ITEM. THE ACCEPTANCE OF COMMENT CARDS IS CLOSED.

DID YOU READ THE TOPIC INTO THE RECORD?

I JUST READ IT, YES, SIR.

OKAY. I WILL, IS THIS UNDER DISCUSSION?

THANK YOU CHAIR. I'LL BE BRIEF. THERE WAS A CONCERN BY RESIDENTS ON THE ISLAND ABOUT THE ARCHITECTURAL STYLE OF FIRE STATION 86. THERE WAS A REQUEST TO CHANGE IT FROM THE KEY WEST STYLE TO A MORE MODERN STYLE. SO WITH THAT, WE WOULD LIKE TO BRING A DISCUSSION AMONGST THE COUNSEL ON WHETHER THERE IS AN APPETITE TO ADVANCE WHAT YOU SEE HERE ON THE SCREEN, A MORE MODERN STYLE FOR FIRE STATION 86. IF THERE IS CONSENSUS, STAFF WILL MOVE FORWARD WITH THE PROPER DOCUMENTS. IT WILL BE AN ADMINISTRATIVE SITE PLAN APPROVAL AS IT IS WITHIN THE DEVELOPMENT SERVICES DIRECTOR'S AUTHORITY. BUT BEING THAT THIS IS SUCH A HIGH PROFILE PROJECT, WE WANTED TO SIMPLY BRING THIS FORWARD FOR CONSIDERATION. In addition, there was a request to add Singer Island to the tank above the city logo. And you can see it sort of pictured here on how this new modern style and the logo with Singer Island would look. I HAVE ONE MORE SLIDE THAT KIND OF PUTS US SIDE BY SIDE SO YOU CAN SEE WHAT WAS ORIGINALLY APPROVED ON THE LEFT AND SORT OF THE MODERNIST STYLE ON THE RIGHT. AND WITH THAT, WE CAN OPEN IT UP FOR DISCUSSION ON IF THIS IS SOMETHING THAT THE COUNCIL WOULD HAVE ANY OBJECTION TO ADVANCING THROUGH THE NEXT PORTION OF THE PROCESS.

NEW SPEAKER.

NEW SPEAKER. YES. VICE CHAIR.

NEW SPEAKER. WHEN I RECEIVED THESE PROPOSALS FROM ENGINEER BAILEY, I SENT THEM OUT TO CLOSE TO 15 DIFFERENT CONDOMINIUMS AND CIVIC ASSOCIATIONS IN THE LAST FEW DAYS, AND IT WAS UNATOMOUS FROM ALL OF THOSE ORGANIZATIONS THAT THEY PREFERRED THE NEW MODERN LOOK, VERY SIMILAR TO SOME OF THE FIREHOUSES THAT WE BUILT, THE TWO FIREHOUSES THAT WE ALREADY BUILT. WE DID LOWER, MR. BAILEY, THE HEIGHT OF THE TOWER. REMEMBER, THAT WAS brought up at our last meeting, so you lowered that tower, right? You said by four feet? About four feet. About four feet. And this will match, this is more consistent with the character of the community. Those are all modern buildings directly in back of the firehouse. The whole strip is basically modern. you'd be hard pressed to find anything that's Key Western design on Singer Island. I mean, I know that's Floridian, but certainly not consistent with the architecture in the surrounding area. So this blends in more with the character of the community. So I suggest that we do adopt the rendering that's on the right with the reduction in the height with respect to the sign on the storage tank, it does say Singer Island, it says Riviera Beach, right? Yes, says Riviera Beach. There is no signage on Singer Island where people know that they're on Singer Island. So we just want to give a little signage so people knew that they were on Singer Island, which is part of Riviera Beach. So this kind of brings us together when we do that. I think it's a great option that we have, and I suggest that we move forward. We all know that probably the firehouse should have been built where the old bank building is on Blue Heron. And we could have had a three-bay or four-bay firehouse. But because of the storage tank and the firehouse, we have no choice but to build a two-bay firehouse. The first renderings that we were shown, by the way, for about the last 10 years did show a three-bay firehouse and a modern firehouse. This came to the people in the community at the last minute. They really didn't have an opportunity to review and comment on it. but they have in the last few days, and like I said, it was unanimous that they wanted the more modern look. It is still a Floridian look with the modern design, and the people on the island will prefer that. Thank you.

That's it, Chair.

Thank you very much, Vice Chair Spiritus. Councilwoman Miller-Anderson.

How much is the additional cost for the change?

THE CONTRACTORS PROJECTED THAT TO REDESIGN THE ENGINEERING DRAWINGS GO THROUGH PERMITTING AND SOME OF THESE SLIGHT MODIFICATIONS ARE ABOUT $400,000. BUT WE HAVE CONTINGENCY INSIDE THE CURRENT BUDGET TO ABSORB THESE COSTS.

MR. SPIRITUS, I WOULD CERTAINLY LET YOU HAVE THE POSITION.

YOU SAID YOU HAD A POSITION? I SENT THE COPY OF THE RENDERINGS TO THE ASSOCIATIONS AND CONDOMINIUM BOARDS AND THEY RESPONDED TO ME IN THE LAST COUPLE OF DAYS AND IT WAS UNANIMOUS. THERE WASN'T ONE PERSON THAT SAID THEY WANTED THE ORIGINAL RENDERING. THEY ALL SAID THAT THEY WANTED, THEY PREFERRED THE ONE THAT WAS ON THE RIGHT. AND THAT INCLUDES, BY THE WAY, THE TWO CONDOMINIUMS THAT ARE DIRECTLY ADJACENT. to the firehouse, which is the ocean's edge in the 5000 condominium.

So if you can send that to Ms. Hall so that she can send it out to the board, I certainly want to make sure that, you know, with us making this $400,000 change, it does represent a number of people. Otherwise, we don't have a full view as to whether or not, you know, it can always be someone want one and someone want the other. JUST WANT TO MAKE SURE THAT THAT'S EXACTLY WHAT THE COMMUNITY IS LOOKING FOR.

I DON'T THINK WE TOOK A SURVEY ON THE OTHER TWO FIREHOUSES WHEN WE DID THE DESIGN. AND I DO REMIND THE BOARD THAT ORIGINALLY THIS FIREHOUSE WAS SUPPOSED TO BE BUILT WHEN STATION 88 WAS BUILT. THE $20 MILLION FROM THE BOND THAT WAS PASSED FOR STATION 86 WAS TRANSFERRED without the public knowing without the police without the people on singer island knowing it was transferred to station 88 so they could build station 88 that was confirmed to me by the way the first day that i was on the council and i met with staff and the city manager and they confirmed that that's what happened to the 20 million dollars that was in that budget for station 86. but i'd be more than happy to share what I received from the community. I'm sure that you would be more than welcome to go visit those associations and speak to them yourself. I'm sure they would love to have you come and meet with, same way I go to Lakeview Park and meet with that civic association. I invite the city council to come and meet with the civic associations and the condominiums on Singer Island. They would love to have you come and speak.

I've been there before, but I would certainly like to see the information that you have before I make a decision.

You know the Palm Beach Isles Civic Association. You're close with the president there. So you, Chair, you can speak to them directly. Thank you.