Town Commission - Regular Meeting

And to order. Madam Clerk, if you'll take roll, please.

Yes, Mayor. Mayor Densinger?

Present.

Vice Mayor Van Merge? Present. Commissioner Travani?

Here.

Commissioner Valdosta?

Here.

Commissioner Weingart?

Here.

Mayor, you have a quorum.

Thank you. Moving on to Pledge of Allegiance. Chief, if you'll lead us, please. Thank you moving on to item 1 D invocation Commissioner Trevani you get a chance to Find someone I should have followed up and I apologize.

Yeah No, you're right. I I didn't I didn't I'm sorry. Oh, no, no worries. Yeah next next time Do we see any rabbis or priests in the room?

I? Raise your hand. Your husband's not looking. All right, I guess we'll skip it for this.

Well, I can say that I will bless this crowd and the Surfside employees and the residents of Surfside. May we all have a peaceful and beautiful meeting, an amazing time for this spirit, for this commission. I'm sure we will have, we have an amazing team, actually. Thank you, everybody, welcome.

Thank you. All right, moving on to 1E, agenda and order of business. All right, so we have a limited amount of time every night, or every meeting, I should say. And we've been going to one in the morning. We're not going to continue that way. It's not respectful for the people here, for the council, for the staff. and to the residents. And it's also very difficult to have conversations about complex items at that hour. So what I'm going to try to do is move some of the items that are more time sensitive forward, at least on the nines. I think some of them need to be discussed tonight. Some of them, again, I'd like to discuss all of them, and I'll do our best to move through the agenda. But just some of the things that are more time sensitive. So I would put 9E, which should be two seconds, 9F, 9B, and 9I. 9E obviously should take 1, 2, 3. 9F is the single-family zoning. We've got obviously issues with litigation. I'd like to resolve that. 9B is something that the county, I don't know if they sent us the letter yet, but they were very adamant about us taking out the illegal bumps already because they're getting complaints. I had a conversation with them a couple of weeks ago. I assured them it's going to be in our meeting. So it's important that At the very least, we talk about those items and give direction to the town manager to get those structures that are currently in violation of Miami-Dade County off our streets, lest we get the wrath of the county upon us. And then 9i is a pension plan. Again, if we want to keep moving the town forward, we have to have a quick discussion about some sort of alternatives if we want to attract better talent in certain positions. So again, it shouldn't be. Not overly complex, but I think some of the things that are more time sensitive. So if it's okay with the commission, I would like to move those items up in the nines in that order, 9E, 9F, 9B, and 9I.

To where, Mayor? To which part of the agenda?

Ahead of the nines. And then it would continue down in order as written.

And through the Mayor, for 9E, could we also add for the August meeting a potential change of date?

For which month?

9E, for the rescheduling.

Okay.

See, that's for September, but if we could add August to that.

All right. That's fine by me.

That's like a walk-on item? Yes, please. Changing the August meeting?

So we'll add it to 9E.

All right.

August, September.

Are we open to other amendments?

Can we get this one? You want to vote on this one? Sure.

Yeah?

All right. Is there a motion and a second?

I move to make motion to go with that.

All right. Second, all in favor? I did.

Mayor, I apologize. Is that just for the item for the nines or is that for the entire agenda setting? No, this is my items and then your. Okay. Just trying to clarify. Thank you.

All in favor say aye.

Aye. Aye.

Any opposed? Motion carries.

All right, anybody else? Yeah, so I'd like to remove two items from the consent agenda, 3E and 3H, and discuss them under the resolutions, item five. Does that?

Well, this would just go at the end, and we'll discuss them separately. Resolution.

They're both resolutions, so is that? I mean, I guess it comes out to more or less the same thing, because there's no ordinances.

Yep. All right. Is there a motion and a second?

So, yeah, I move to move those out of the consent agenda into the resolutions.

Well, actually, any commissioner could remove it, so you don't need a motion for that. Oh, okay. You could have removed it.

That's what I thought. Yeah. All right. So I'd like to pull 3E and 3H. All right. And then if we do that, I think it makes sense to perhaps link 9H with 3E at the moment.

All right, we're gonna need a motion and a second for that, or?

I'll make that motion to link to use council topics.

All right, is there a second? Yes, second.

All in favor say aye.

Aye. Aye.

Any opposed? Motion carries.

Mr. Manager, anything you wanted to do?

All right.

All right, moving on to item 1F. Mayor Commission remarks. I guess let's start. Welcome, everybody. Thank you all for coming. Such nice young faces here. Beautiful to see everybody. some of the regular, some of the new. I just wanted to do a quick recap. July 4th was an amazing event, not just because it was the first time in our history we got together with the other towns. Well, it was mostly because of that, but it was a beautiful thing to see for those that weren't able to do that, to be there. It was, again, it's been something that we've been trying to do for quite a while, even as far back as when I was on the planning and zoning, and it just never worked out, and I think accomplishing this this year, again, with the support of the commission and the town staff that made this happen. Thank you, Rudy, for, you know, changing plans last second, getting it done. And really, it's not just about unifying this entire 33154 community, but it also represents a lot of the different projects and the different initiatives, some of the bigger ones that will require all of us. I've touched on some of them briefly, but they're still very much in discussion phase. But, you know, whether it's larger infrastructure projects that we can benefit from teaming up with our neighbors. So it was obviously 250 was very special. to take place on our beach where, you know, the soldiers were preparing for D-Day. It used to be used as a shooting range and a practice area. And then 200, well, it's not 250 years later, all the way back from 1940s, and now here we are to do the event. It was very special, and to do that with our neighbors, not just the three cities that put it together, but we had mayors from other cities join us, and just to show what the unification represents was beautiful. So thank you to everyone that put it together and made it possible, and thank you to everybody up here for supporting this initiative, and to the residents for coming out and smiling and enjoying it. So quick update, over the last month, the Israel Foreign Ministry brought out about 138 mayors from all over the world, myself included, and a few mayors from Florida to the state of Israel, fully covered by the ministry, not the town of Surfside or its residents. And we primarily visited a lot of cities like Ramakhan and different places that were hit very hard during the missiles over the last year or two, and a lot of the focus was not just on crisis management during the immediate aftermath, but also on the resiliency moving forward, whether it was the psychological aspect, infrastructure aspect. So there was a lot that we learned as mayors from all over the world to come here and see those different aspects. I would like to write about it and hopefully share with the community a little bit later some of the details of that trip and what we've learned. I just want to let everyone know that it was an incredible opportunity, and I was very privileged to be part of that, to be with mayors from all over, not just Florida or the states, but from all over the world, and to learn some of the different resiliency, even just speaking with them. Forget about the cities in Israel at night and things. You learn a lot, so it was very beneficial. Again, lastly, we've got a meeting. You know, we'd like to start ending these on time, so we're not here until late. I'm going to try to be a little more business efficient on some of these things. You know, we can't keep talking in circles up here. At a certain point, it'd be nice to just move forward and vote and get on to the next item since there's so many items on the agenda. You know, if ideally we want to leave by 10, 10.30, that's a three-hour meeting, minus good and welfare, you're up here for two and a half hours. So we can spend two hours on one item, or we can try to get town business done. That's my objective. I hope to get your support. We say our pieces, you know, you mill it over, we vote, and we move on to the next item. And that's it, and thank you everybody again for coming out. Madam Vice Mayor.

All right, you're off.

Yeah, hold on. It's a new toy, so I'm playing with it. I just wanted, tell everybody that it's really not fair for the employees to leave every time we have a meeting, to leave so late, like midnight, 12.30, close to one. It's not fair for them, it's not fair for us. I think we have to, because we already asked the commission, and I think some of the people here, we already studied back and forth this agenda. We already know it, so we're not here to lecture everybody. We're just here to make final decisions. So let's just speed it up a little bit, call the roll, and move it along so we can see all the items in the agenda, and leave on time to our families. Thank you.

Good evening, everyone. Hope everyone's having a wonderful summer. Looking forward to a productive meeting. I like this. I come from the world of business, so I could support business space and stay focused on moving town business forward. Thank you.

Yeah, so welcome. I just wanted to say a few words about a couple of emails that I got and some people that I talked to about micromobility that is the topic of the season, I would say just because there's also Miami-Dade County who's looking into that. So it's something that is important to our community. It's, you know, there's different views. And maybe at our next meeting or one of our next meetings we'll have the opportunity to to to talk about that um but i just wanted to let everybody know that this you know emails and messages and they didn't go to waste so um like i said hopefully maybe we're gonna have the chance to to talk about it in the in the in the near future at least personally i'm looking to that and starting it a little bit just to see what we could do for our community, and yeah, and we'll see what the future will bring.

So thinking about the month of July and looking, we're right in the middle of it, looking backward and looking forward a little bit. I want to just briefly remark on one event that I attended this month that I thought was really moving. On Friday, July 10th, I had the pleasure and the privilege of being here in this chambers for this swearing in. of police officer Lovenson Beaubien. And I've attended several police swearing-ins in my prior term, but it was always at the command staff level. And it was really a unique experience to see a rookie cop, somebody just out of the police academy, being sworn into the job. It really offered a whole different perspective. It was really moving. And I was just so impressed by the camaraderie not just in the police department, but really in the larger staff. So many members of the town hall staff were there. And I don't know, I felt like it was a nice opportunity to sort of peer into the work of the people who make the town run every day. And I'm really impressed with that event. I look forward to seeing Officer Bobien around town. And I want to thank Chief Press and Major Metellus and Lieutenant Leon for bringing him on board. Looking ahead, I'm looking at my calendar. We have a scheduled retreat on Monday morning at 10 a.m. I believe we'll have an opportunity to talk about some of our goals for this commission term. I'm really excited about that. I think we are in need of just some open conversation and strategic planning. I say this with a lot of enthusiasm, but also with a bit of a question, because I haven't heard much about the event. I hope it's still on. And I'm hoping we can get some confirmation about that later tonight, maybe during the manager report. But I do think that's something that is just a little bit overdue. And I'm looking forward to having that chance to talk about our goals for the next couple of years.

All right, moving on to item 1G, recognition of the 2025-2026 Youth Council. Thank you. All right. Got a bit of a speech prepared and I'll rush through it. All right guys, bear with me. Civic engagement doesn't start in the voting booth. It starts with our youth. So tonight I want to pause our regular commission business to recognize the young people who served on our youth council for this past year. From August to August, these students gave up their time they could have spent on homework, sports, or friends to sit in meetings and learn how their town works. Local government can feel distant even to adults. This group showed up anyways, asked good questions, and took the work seriously. One highlight, recognizing that their peers needed help navigating college applications, the council organized a college prep series covering applications, financial aid, and what comes after high school. That's exactly the leadership we hope for, not just learning about government, but spotting a need and acting on it. I want to name each of them because they've earned it. And I'll probably butcher the last name, so I apologize in advance. Sophia Batori, Sophia Chavez. Ella Garcia. Jonah Epstein. Lucia LaCour, Jack O'Malley, Isaac Pak, and Denise DeMaltras. Thank you for believing that your voice belongs in this room and for approving it every time you showed up. You set an example for the next group who'll sit in these seats and reminded us that civic engagement is worth starting young. As a small token of the town's appreciation, I'd like to present each of you with a little token of our appreciation. It's a small compared to what you've given us in this town, but I hope it's a reminder of your time here and the differences that you've made. Please join me in a round of applause for the outgoing members of the Surfside Youth Council, and I hope the Commission will join me. All right, moving on to item 1H, appointments of boards and committee members.

Madam Clerk.

Mayor, we still have some vacancies in some of the boards and committees, in the Personal Appeals Board, Pension Board. We need an enlarged appointment for the Police Officer Trust. We're going to need two for the Budget Committee and for the Youth Council.

All right, we're in the middle of...

Through the Mayor.

I have one for Budget Committee that's ready to commit. Oh, you do? David O'Brien. All right. If he hasn't submitted the application, I'll remind him.

I think it's at-large, right? So not at-large, sorry. Not all of them. It requires the approval of?

So the budget committee does not have an at-large, and youth council does not currently have an at-large.

Not at-large, I apologize. It requires the budget, I think it requires the approval of the entire commission.

The pension board and the police officer's trust fund.

One second, we're still on the budget. So Commissioner Weingart has a name for budget. I think it requires a vote by the commission.

I'll defer that to the town attorney.

I'm pretty sure I wrote it, so.

While the attorney considers that through the mayor, if I might ask a question to the clerk. I'm just confirming, we don't have anybody on the Budget Committee at the moment, is that right?

Not at the moment.

Yeah. I mean, if that's the case, I might make a suggestion. I mean, I don't know. I mean, I certainly trust Commissioner Weingart's judgment, but I don't know personally the name that he's suggested. So it would be hard to have a commission vote without a resume or any application. So why don't we just, if we don't have any other nominees, I don't know, just wait until next month.

There's one, Jeff Zomper, right? I think we have him and...

My apologies, yes. That's the only one that has been appointed by the mayor.

Jeff. Ah, okay. Okay. I want to be clear.

Was there a question as to whether or not we needed a formal motion or not for the appointment? No. If it needs to be ratified by the council.

On that board, I think that that is...

I just looked at the resolution. Each town commissioner shall appoint one member to the committee who has applied for and completed the requisite application, met all qualifications and requirements set forth herein, and whose appointment shall be approved and ratified by a majority vote of the town commission. To clarify, Mr. Sompert applied, but has not been appointed.

I actually have somebody, but he hasn't sent the resume yet for the budget board. Can I appoint that person without the resume or?

You could.

I can appoint, and then maybe tonight, later tonight, or tomorrow, that person can send you the email.

The exhibit said each town commission shall appoint one member to the committee who has applied for and completed the requisite application.

Yes, I. He hasn't, no. So he hasn't applied because I think, I mean, I haven't sent him the application, and he is new in the process. So I have to guide him through the process.

I will defer to the town attorney. However, I'm just reading what the resolution says.

I think he needs to file an application before you can make an actual appointment. On the other one, whether it's a motion or not, you can call for ratification and by a voice vote, that's fine also. So the answer is you don't need a formal motion, but you certainly can do it to ratify the appointment.

So wait, as soon as he sends a resume, we need to wait another month for me?

In the past, we've done it, and in the past, we've put them on, they've sent in the resume on condition, obviously, that they meet the requirements. Like, to keep waiting a month, the next month for all our budget cycle, let's just get it going, assuming that they hit the requirements. Make the appointment. What? So you have an appointment, David has an appointment. Let's do one at a time, I guess. David, you add David Rohrer. uh... i'll second it all in favor all in favor of david roar in favor okay guys

What I was saying earlier, I don't know anything about the person. It's not that I don't trust my fellow commissioner's judgment, but we don't have a resume. We don't have an application. It's just a name. And I think under those circumstances, what am I voting for or against?

You're voting for it to support, I guess, your fellow commissioner's ratification of somebody on the board. I do, but it's totally sight unseen. And with the assumption that he fits the requirements, he would be on the board. So it's up to you whether you want to support it or not.

I mean, we're not going to know each of us, the people that we appoint.

The only issue is... The commission. Right.

I mean, if I trust Commissioner David Weingart, I mean, why not? I don't understand.

Yeah, and so if we still have the option, if we appoint him tonight or her tonight, and then the resume comes in and there's some major objections, we can still talk about it at the next meeting, right? Okay.

We can still get him out, no?

All right. To answer the Vice Mayor's question, though, just procedurally, I mean, the reason why we have a ratification, I mean, that was a question for the town attorney. Some boards require ratification, some don't. So there should be a difference that attaches to that difference. If the ratification is purely pro forma, then who cares? But the resolution asks us to ratify I just think it would be nice in such circumstances to actually know who we're voting for.

Because I don't personally know the person. I know him personally. I know his certifications, his qualifications. David knows him. I don't know if Diana knows him or not. But we feel comfortable. It seems that we have three. We're moving on to the next name. We're not going to talk about this for 20 minutes.

You had a name?

My name? The name that I have is Mr. Stefan Tayeb. He's highly skilled. I mean... He will send the resume. He will send the application.

All right, so with the assumption that he meets the qualifications, and again, I personally know him, we'll move on. You ratified it, second. All in favor?

He's very well known in the court.

Aye.

Aye.

Yeah, okay. You know, I'm okay with that.

I mean, I'm sorry, I'm going to interrupt everybody. I feel that we're wasting time waiting for one entire month to again, okay, let's... We're just wasting time. By the time that we appoint everybody, it's going to be the end of the term, and that's it. We didn't accomplish anything. We didn't do anything. Let's just try to... If we have the opportunity now to appoint some people, let's do it so we can move on and start working on real things. Thank you.

Through the mayor, can I nominate Jeff Zomper?

Yep. Second. All in favor? Aye. Aye. Aye. Aye. All opposed? All right. We have a board right now. Great. All right any other boards any other recommendations we still have police pension we have You have personal appeals board pension board police officers trust and Youth Council personal appeals who has an opening because there are some members there are some not I

For the Personal Appeals Board, I'm missing an appointment for Commissioner Trevani, one from Commissioner Velostegui, and one for Commissioner Weingart. For Pension Board, we need one at-large appointment, and for Youth Council, I believe we need three. I have Mayor Dantzler already appointed, and Commissioner Trevani already appointed someone.

All right, so anyone have personal appeals? All right, we'll get back to it. I think we need at least one more on that board. Okay, so guys, please, the three of you, I think, have an opening. So if there's anyone on the personal appeals, the other one's already at large, the boards, if they meet once a quarter or whatever. Again, not an emergency until it becomes an emergency. Nobody's going before the personal appeals board, hopefully anytime soon. But right now we don't have a board yet. So just, yes. All right, moving on. All right, moving on to item three, consent agenda, with the assumption that 3E and 3H have been removed. Let's see if there's public comment on this. Second, guys, the nines. All right, Mr. Zomper, I see 3G.

What are we doing?

Jeff Zomper, 8827 Emerson. I just wanted to point out one onerous clause, I guess, of the agreement with the LifeScan Wellness Centers. There is language in there that small language, but they're pointing it out, so it's very reputable of them to point it out. There's language that says that you need to schedule the full day. So that's nine people that would have to come from the police department on a particular day, and if somebody doesn't make it or several don't make it, you're paying for nine people anyway. So I would imagine that the police department would need better flexibility than that, and it probably behooves them to negotiate that before because they're not going to be able to negotiate it after.

That's a good point. So I'm going to pull that out to the end of it just so we can quickly get a reading on that.

All right. A motion to approve.

Item 3A, 3B, 3C, 3D, 3F. And that's it. Motion to approve. So moved. All right. Madam clerk, if you'd call the roll.

Commissioner Weingart?

Yes.

Commissioner Stavani?

Yes.

Commissioner Valdostegui?

Yes.

Vice Mayor Van Merge? Yes. Mayor Danziger? Yes. Mayor, the motion carries.

Thank you. All right. Moving on to item 3E, which is merged with 9H.

Mayor, can I read the title of the resolution?

Yep.

Resolution of the Town Commission and the Town of Surrey Side Floor, ratifying and approving amendments to the Youth Council's Charter and Organizational Structure, providing for implementation and providing for an effective date. Item 3E.

All right. This was already discussed. This was pulled out by Commissioner Valdostegui.

Do you have an issue with that? Yeah. So, you know, I'd be happy to speak first, but also Commissioner Trevani had 9H, which is related to this. So I wonder, I mean, I'd happily yield the floor to you if you wanted to introduce the item. I would like to say something as well. Yeah.

So, yeah. This is just, I'd like just to propose a minor modification to the document. I've talked to some of the Youth Council current members, and they had some interesting ideas which preserve, I think, the concept that you brought up last time, Mr. Mayor, about the idea of getting new people. but also at the same time to create continuity, because the term is so short here, it's just one year, and there's some things that get started, but then you have to hand them over to the next commission, or next committee, I'm sorry, And if I think we implement a minor modification allowing for some more members from the previous board, so that would allow some continuity. Now, I don't want to speak too much about this because is there a public comment on this?

It was pulled out, so there would be a.

It was pulled out separately, so there would be... Yeah, okay, so I'm going to stop here because I want to hear them and see what I have to say about this.

Guys, I'm going to give you two minutes because we do have a piece.

Do I say my address?

Name and address for the record.

Ella Garcia, 725 90th Street, Surfside, FL. Good evening, the Commission. My name is Ella Garcia and I'm the Vice Chair of the Youth Council. I served from August 2024 to August 2026. First, I'd like to thank all of you for taking the time to hear our perspective. We wholeheartedly support the goal of expanding opportunities for more students to participate in the Youth Council. However, we believe that reducing every member's term to one year is not exactly the best way to achieve it. While the Youth Council certainly serves an educational purpose, our charter also establishes it as a working advisory body. And the responsibilities outlined in the charter require continuity. And our experience over the past two years has shown why. For example, under sections A2 and A4, the Youth Council is charged with collaborating with school clubs and community organizations to support town initiatives and community service projects. We fulfilled that responsibility, which Mayor Shlomo Danziger actually mentioned in our college prep series. But that collaboration took two years to build and execute, and it was only possible because one of our returning youth council members had served as a leader in that club, so we were able to establish that partnership. Under Section A4, the charter directs the Youth Council to encourage and facilitate higher levels of civic engagement among high school students. We fulfilled that responsibility by finally getting our Youth Council Instagram account approved. And this idea actually began during our first year, but it took nearly two years of coordination with multiple town departments and legal review before we were finally clear to launch it. Some initiatives simply cannot be completed with a single one-year term. As many of you have probably learned through your public service, experience is the greatest teacher. And for the Youth Council to fulfill its purpose as an educational opportunity, we believe that allowing students the option to serve as a second term, if they would like to apply for a second year, allows them to not only learn, but to apply the experience in a meaningful ways. Thank you.

Thank you. Perfect timing.

Good afternoon. My name is Jack O'Malley, 9249 Dickens Avenue, Surfside, Florida. Good evening Mayor, Vice Mayor, and Commissioners. My name is Jack O'Malley and I'm a rising senior who served on the Youth Council this past term. I'd like to thank all of you for taking the time to hear our perspective. Like Ella, I want to be clear from the start that we fully support the goal of expanding opportunities for more students to serve. That's the right goal. However, I also believe students actively involved and interested in serving the public and Surfside community should not be limited. Under Section A5 of our founding charter, the Youth Council is charged with facilitating higher levels of civic engagement among high school students. I spent this term working directly on that. Alongside other council members, I've helped plan the Youth Sports Tournament, which we've been building out with the goal of bringing together students from across the community. I've also been coordinating with the Communications Department on the Youth Council, Instagram, working through templates to build a consistent presence that reaches Surfside youth and encourages widespread civic engagement. Both of these are initiatives that take more than a single term to build, review, and carry through, and are initiatives that I plan to continue next term. I also want to speak briefly to the point that the Youth Council is meant to be an educational body. From my experience, it has been exactly that, and a great deal of that learning has come from serving alongside returning members. Watching how experienced members run meetings and see long-term projects through has taught me more about how local government works than a single first term could. Allowing members the option of a second term preserves that peer mentorship, which we believe is a meaningful part of the educational experience the Council provides. We respectfully ask that you reconsider this item and work with us to adopt a compromise that reflects our shared goal of expanding youth participation while preserving the effectiveness of the Youth Council. Thank you.

Thank you.

LUCIA LACOUR, 8950 IRVING AVENUE. GOOD EVENING. FIRST I'D LIKE TO THANK YOU ALL FOR HEARING OUR PERSPECTIVE AND ESPECIALLY MAYOR DAN ZINGER WHO HELPED ME FOUND THIS COUNCIL TWO YEARS AGO ALONGSIDE WITH FORMER COMMISSIONER MARIAN MAISHI. I WANT TO EMPHASIZE THAT WE RECOGNIZE THE IMPORTANCE OF BRINGING IN NEW VOICES. THIS YEAR ALONE FIVE OF OUR EIGHT MEMBERS WERE FIRST TIME APPOINTEES AND NO APPLICANT HAS BEEN TURNED AWAY IN THE LAST TWO YEARS. We believe there is a better way to expand participation than automatically excluding returning members from reappointment, members like Jack, who have spent this past year developing long-term projects they hope to carry into next term. That's why we work together to develop what we believe is a thoughtful compromise. Our proposed charter amendment, which I'll pass out in a second, allows the commission to continue appointing five new members each year while also providing the flexibility to appoint up to five returning members who have previously served on the council. It also limits service to a maximum of two terms, ensuring regular turnover while preserving the continuity needed to mentor new members and carry long-term projects to completion. We believe this proposal advances the same goal we all share, increasing youth participation while preserving the experience and continuity that allow the Youth Council to make a meaningful impact. We respectfully ask that you reopen this discussion and work with us to adopt a solution that expands opportunity, strengthens the Youth Council, and better serves the Surfshark community. Thank you.

Thank you.

Mary Ann Moshai, 9225 Collins Avenue. As commissioner during 2022, 2024, I initiated this project. And I don't know why we're limiting this participation. These are the new people coming up and want to participate. So the whole initiative was to bring the youth into Surfside and not limit it. So I don't know where the limitations came in, but I hope that we can look into the future and not have these limitations. These people want to participate and they are the new people in Surfside growing up. So thank you.

Thank you, Commissioner. All right. Closing public comment. Bring it back to town commission. So heard your point. Want me to fight the kids? Sly devil over there. What I'm hearing again, most of you have said you've sat for two years, right? 24 to 26. Some of you guys caught up. August 24 to 26. It's just two years. So there's a couple of hundred kids in Surfside. Five of you got to be up there, another five. Many of you age out. So there's a limited amount. And you're asking, Commissioner, why the alternative that's being presented is we have the same five kids continue for what, for four years, five years? What is the structure that's going to allow for new kids to get the same opportunities that you had? You guys did amazing events. There's a whole line of hundreds of kids waiting for that opportunity, too. So what I'm trying to understand is, because I'm hearing different things from some of the different speakers, so what is the objective? I know you turned it over to the public, but what is it that you're looking to do?

Yeah, so if you look at the document that Lucia gave us, there's only one addition to item C and the underlying part. So the town commission may appoint up to five additional at-large non-voting members who have served a previous term. No member may serve more than two terms. So that's why I said this preserves the idea of having five new members. You're adding five at-large non-voting members. They're going to basically coach the new kids and ensure continuity between what they have done and what these new kids can do.

And by the way, I like the idea, but what I'm afraid is going to happen is these five new kids who may have their own initiatives and objectives are going to be led by the last initiatives, right? Because it's also their opportunity now for the next two years and the next year to come up with their own ideas. But if what you're getting is the same counsel from the last year to come in and say, you know what we were working on? It was this. And let's continue on that path. they don't get their own originality. So at what point, I think five may be a little overtaking. Are you okay with reducing that number down a bit? Are you like similar to the planning and zoning that has two at large? So there is continuity in there, people with experience, people that can continue some over, but at the same time, not an overwhelming voice to people that have just walked into the room.

Yeah, I think that the number can be different. But I just want to point out one thing. So these additional at-large members are non-voting members. So the new kids are going to be the kids voting on things. So even like this five at-large members won't be able to push, let's say, you know, their own agenda if that's the risk. But if you feel more comfortable with like, I think, I don't know, like three or four of them, yeah, so be it.

Let's see where it goes. I'm okay. You want to make a motion to adopt this change into it?

So moved.

SECOND? I HAVEN'T HAD A CHANCE TO WEIGH IN AND I DID WANT TO COME BACK AFTER YIELDING THE FLOOR. I'M NOT SOLD ON THAT. IT JUST SEEMS I WANT TO UNDERSCORE A COUPLE OF POINTS THEY MADE AND MAKE ONE NEW POINT OF MY OWN. HELPED APPOINT THE LAST TWO YOUTH COUNCILS. WE'VE NEVER TURNED AWAY A SINGLE APPLICANT FOR THE YOUTH COUNCIL. SO THIS IS VERY DIFFERENT FROM OTHER BOARDS. AND A SIMILAR ISSUE CAME UP WHEN WE WERE DISCUSSING MY PROPOSAL FOR THE COMMUNITY RELATIONS BOARD. BUT I THINK THAT THE WHOLE SYSTEM OF APPOINTING THE YOUTH COUNCIL WITH ONE COMMISSIONER APPOINTING is not well-suited to the aims of the Youth Council. We should be very inclusive. We have 11 applicants. I think we should just admit all 11 at this point and let them figure it out. It seems... I don't know, it seems overly restrictive. I'm told, I haven't been able to confirm it, that other cities with youth councils have much larger organizations and they work very well. That's point number one. Number two, I wanted to reinforce something that various of the speakers said about the length of time that it takes to do a project. I worked closely with a young woman whom I met through the Youth Council, even though I knew her parents, Sophia Butori, who at an early meeting of the council in her term expressed an interest in native plants. And that's a big interest of mine, as many people know. And we were... talking about putting together a project, it took all year. The native plant project that brought like 30 masked FIU students to the Little Bay Park to help with gardening and to learn about the plants and to put in the plant markers, that took months to plan. And I know that Ms. Butori wanted to do another one, another such event, but there's no time in one year to make that a meaningful thing. I think the vice mayor was at that event too. I think you saw how nice it was, but so much time. Even something like putting up an Instagram account takes a long time. So I wanted to reinforce that point. The third point that is new, when this change was brought by the mayor at the last meeting, it really took me by surprise, and I don't feel like I had a chance to think it through. But I do feel the need to say this, especially because kids are involved here. We do live in a town where there's a lot of disagreement and political division, and I hate for it to infect something as nice as the Youth Council, but it's a fact of life that we have to take responsibility for. And one of the ways that we can do that is by having impartial rules that are fairly applied and that are set beforehand. And I'm very concerned about the fact that this change to the rules for the Youth Council happened after the applications came in. That's something that we as adults, we're the adults in the room, we should not be doing. We had the charter of the youth council, then six well-meaning, bright-eyed, enthusiastic kids applied, and then the mayor proposed a change that would disqualify five of the six. And I just don't think that's fair. So we got them back now. I think that was an unfair move. I have to say this. Call to order. You're bringing back the last items.

We're going to move up. We've got an entire agenda. But I do have the floor. This is an important point. You've made your point. And you've brought this up before. You keep bringing back three meetings ago. We are going to move forward. I'm going to ask for the roll to be called because we've made a compromise. We brought those five people on. You keep harping on a point that was made three meetings ago. We get it. We're moving on.

I think. They're changing the rules to kids and that's really unfair. Mr. Franski, I want to point out, still hasn't applied. And she got appointed and kids who took the time to do the application are being turned away. That's not fair. And we as adults should do better. We should set a better example.

Mayor, just to confirm, the motion was from Commissioner Weingut, seconded by Commissioner Trevani. The Town Commission may appoint up to two additional at-large non-boarding members who have served previously. Is that correct?

I think it was as written with five, but.

Is as five or as two? As written?

Yeah, as written.

Okay. Commissioner Trevani?

Yes.

Commissioner Valdosegui?

So it's to appoint three at large?

No, it's how it's.

Written here, five at large. I think we should be appointing six, because then we have to reject one person. That seems to me very silly, so I'm voting no. I hope we can reconsider this and appoint all 11.

Commissioner Weingart? Yes. Vice Mayor McGee? Yes. Mayor Densinger?

Yes. I'm going to say it again, because it's your job as a commissioner to go to your neighbors and ask them to bring their kids in. Not to wait to see what the same five kids apply every year, but to go out and do some outreach as a commissioner and bring the youth in. That is the objective of this board. So the fact that you keep having the same kids apply, it's your job. Knock on your neighbor's door and see if their kid would like to join and be a part of it.

And you'll have a lot more than 11. All right, we're moving on. And the accepted applications, that's how the process works. It's not... As with every board, we open up.

Item 3H, engagement of Capital City Consulting LLC, Ruben Turnbull and Associates as government relations board. Madam Clerk, if you'll lead the title of the resolution.

Yes, Mayor. Resolution of the Town Commission of the Town of Surfside, Florida, approving the engagement of Capital City Consulting LLC and Ruben Turnbull and Associates as government relations consultants, providing for authorization, implementation, and effective date. All right.

One second, I think we have some public comment on this. Mr. Zomper, two minutes, please.

I'm making this comment because I don't have the benefit of hearing a discussion about these two groups before the public comment section closes. But unless one of these organizations focuses on Democrats and the other focuses on Republicans, it's beyond me as to why we would need two separate groups to represent us in government relations.

Thank you, Mr. Zemper. Mr. Karukan, two minutes, please.

Michael Carrick and 9365 have it. So I did send an email to each of you. I know the mayor likes us to communicate via email so you have a chance to think it through. So I did send an email on this. Just briefly, one of the questions I had was I couldn't tell if this is replacing the existing lobbyist or in addition to, so that's important also from a budgeting perspective because this new, if I understood the contract correctly, this would essentially be doubling the current budget for the lobbyist. And there also may be a typo in the documents that were in the material. Because one part of the document said $6,500 per month, another part of the document said $7,500 per month. So I wanted to at least ask that you find out and confirm for yourself what the actual monthly cost would be for this either addition or replacement of. So you need to clarify that, I think. The other thing in the wording, it wasn't quite clear if you had the freedom to communicate with the new lobbyist on your own or if you would be required as individual commissioners to go through either the town manager or the town attorney's office, because the way the letter was written, it said, your direction, and the your direction The subject of the letter was actually the town attorney. So I think that it would behoove you to make sure you understand that you should, as individual commissioners, be able to communicate with your lobbyist as needed. Thank you very much.

Thank you.

All right, who pulled this out? All right. Yeah, you know, I don't think we've had a chance to discuss this item before. My understanding is that by hiring the two firms, we'd essentially be almost quadrupling the amount of money that we spend on lobbying, and that's a... That's a big shift. And I do think that we, given that added expense, which I think roughly comes out to, doing the math right in my head, something like $160,000 a year, we should at least discuss what the goal is. I mentioned earlier I was looking forward to the retreat because I thought it would give us a chance to do some strategic planning. But we'd be making this change tonight, at least I would be asked to vote on it, without really knowing what we're lobbying for. Of course, we want federal and state money. I want that, too. I want to be clear. But for what specific projects? Because that's what a lobbyist has to do. And it seems to me premature to hire the big gun, expensive lobbying firms, especially two of them, if we haven't yet charted a course for what it is that we specifically want. So it does seem to me that the item is premature until we have some kind of strategic planning. I want to, again, just put in a quick plug in passing for either the kind of consultant-led planning that that Mario Diaz had proposed back in April and May or for the charrette that commissioner Trevani has proposed or for the retreat that we're talking about for Monday. But I just think we need to know where we're going and what we're asking for before we start spending, you know, 16, $17,000 a month on lobbying without a clear target.

All right.

The only thing that I wanted to say was that I think there is a mistake in one of them that both firms had agreed to the same fee structure. So one of them says $7,500 and one says $6,500 and that's the conflict. So they both should be $6,500.

Okay. So with that change again, some of the notes, First of all, to Mr. Krueger's points, I think the lobbyists take their direction from the council as a whole, not individual. It's kind of impossible to go bit by bit. We've got a lobbyist that, you know, if you want to get things done, you've got to get the best. As Mr. Zomper, it's not Democrat, Republican, because unfortunately Democrat is useless in Tallahassee. It's House, Senate, governor's office. All three of those have to match. The governor's office has to approve it. As you've seen from the last thing, the last commission pushed forward, the governor vetoed it. So if you don't have people that have specialties in different areas in Tallahassee, you're not going to get anything. This is more my area of expertise, as I was the only one that brought in appropriations, probably to date, in decades in the city, and it requires the right people to move things forward. We've got Live Local that we've got to fight now. We've got big initiatives. These other guys up there, to your point, the big dogs, yes, it's 160,000, but with one appropriation, they'll more than cover it over. and the city hasn't gotten any appropriations since i've been there we had just had almost a million dollar one cancelled we have a lot of big ones down the pipeline the money is is insignificant when you're paying 42 000 a year and you get nothing back that's down the toilet when you can get some lobbyists to actually bring back money they'll more than recover their costs so these are the guys that we're going to want to bring in and if we want to get anything achieved and anything done. And to your point, why we do it now, because this is one session, yes, it starts in January, but there's a process to this. From now till December, there's discussions that are happening. From December till March, there's committee weeks. You need to start moving on separate initiatives now, and to your point, we're gonna have, hopefully, our retreat on Monday, we're going to obviously the first and foremost is live local, right? We've got that. It seems to be crumbling. If we can really push and push on it, it may go away from Tallahassee. But our own town is suffering now, and we need to have the right people in place today, not tomorrow like anything else.

Yeah, just a quick question. So right now we're paying 42 and that's gonna be gone? Yes. And we're gonna be paying 160?

This is a replacement.

It's a replacement. And we're going with two because they have two different expertise or?

Each one has, expertise is the wrong word, but they have specialties in different areas. Again, you have people, it's all lobbying as relationships. So you have some that have better relationships in the House with the Senate. completely with the governor's office, some federal, right? So some have stronger positions in different areas. There's no such thing as a one solution for everything. You have Bay Harbor that hired a federal lobbyist specifically for the bridge project. They hired another one for another initiative. Most cities, they'll hire different lobbyists for different initiatives based on their specialties and essentially who they're connected with.

Okay, so then do you know or do you have a... a reason or some scope, I guess, that you're tying to one of the, I mean, to each one of these firms, meaning that we're hiring Capital City Consulting for this, I thought about them for this area, and I thought about these other guys for this other area. What was the thought process there?

Mostly who their strengths are and in which branch.

we get an idea of what benefits we'll see for the town with this?

Well, the assumption is within the year, we'll see millions of dollars come in on appropriations. So again, it'll more than pay itself off. There is a very strong discussion to be had with Live Local right now. So that's an immediate one that we have to deal with sooner than later. And there's just various other, there's the water main improvement, right? The one that was, we've got Abbott Avenue. There's money waiting for us. We just have to have the right people asking for it.

And do you think that could it make sense to go with one of them first and start that route and then, you know, add the second one in case we need it?

Again, it's not really how it works, but it's also knowing the firms, knowing the people, which one, where their strengths are. It's just relationships.

The other thing I think I should mention, because everybody is focused on money, which is obviously important, but The day-to-day ability to reach out to these state agencies is critical. I will tell you that Mario's found that he can't get FDOT to fund your money. That's the ability to have somebody who can help, whether it's dune restoration, whether it's FDOT traffic light issues, being able to have a direct relationship into these agencies. forgetting about the legislators for the moment. There's a huge value in being able to reach out to somebody who can, you can pick up the phone and say, I need to speak to the secretary of DOT now. And you get a call. There's an enormous value in that. I'll just share with you just from my own experience that, and with the governments that I work with, where there is an effective lobbying team, it makes things a lot easier just to work with the state on a regular day-to-day basis.

To the attorney's point, I think it's two years. We still haven't gotten our freebie money back. So, yeah, you want to call the Secretary of Transportation, you need the right people. All right, anyways, just in an effort to move this meeting along. Madam Clerk, you want to call the roll?

Mayor, I need a motion and a second.

All right, is there a motion to approve it? Second. One second, the attorney made a, there was a change to the prices.

Yeah, the change is that it should be $6,500 for Reuben Turnbull, not $7,500.

All right, and I guess the clarification that we're not gonna be with the same lobbyists.

And that we're not gonna be retaining the current lobbyists, that's correct.

All right, is there a motion to approve?

So move. All right. Call the motion.

Second.

All right, Madam Clerk.

Commissioner Modostegui. I do wish I had a clearer sense of what we'll be lobbying for, but I would like Surfside to be well defended in Tallahassee, so I'll vote yes.

Commissioner Weingart.

Yes.

Commissioner Trevani.

SO I'M GOING TO VOTE NO ON THIS ONE, JUST IF I CAN MAKE A LITTLE COMMENT, JUST BECAUSE I TOTALLY AGREE ON THE INTENT, AND I KNOW THAT THESE FIRMS ARE REPUTABLE. IT'S JUST THAT IT'S NOT CLEAR WHAT WE'RE GOING WITH, TO ME, I'M SORRY, IT'S JUST NOT CLEAR WHAT WE'RE GOING WITH, TOO, AND, YOU KNOW, WHO ARE WE GOING TO CALL? This issue, we're going to call this guy. This issue, this other issue, we're going to call these other guys. I wish that was like a little clearer, and then I'd be ready to vote yes. That was my comment.

Vice Mayor Van Merge? Yes. Mayor Danziger?

Yes.

Mayor LaMotion Carries? Yes.

Thank you 3 G quickly I pulled that out I just want some clarification.

Can I have the title of the resolution, yeah, please the resolution of the town commission of the tunnel suicide Florida approving the expenditure to life extension clinics. Inc doing business as life scan wellness centers with updated pricing for life scan physicals for town police department employees fighting for authorization implementation an effective date.

All right. So again, just some clarification, I guess, from the manager. It says nine slots. Do we have nine on a day?

I will say, Chief, if I'm wrong, please come up and correct me. We coordinate with with life scan. we ask all of the staff who wants to take it so that we can coordinate one day where they will all be together. And then I believe they also offer an opportunity that if someone can't make some of those days, um, that they can go over to, to their facilities to do that as well. So it's just regular coordination with staff so that we can be efficient with that. Did I miss anything? There you go.

All right, so just for clarification, they can go to one of their officers and do the same thing?

Yes, sir.

All right.

Through the mayor, a question. Is this benefit, it's unclear to me from the memo, just for FOP members, or are other staff able to...

It's part of the police benefit package when it comes to their collective bargaining.

All right. And in your experience, have we been able to fill the nine slots with police officers?

Sometimes it's been less than nine, and we've been able to work with those officers who wanted to do the examination, and it hasn't been any problems. All right.

All right.

Can we get a motion and a second? I'll make the motion. SECOND.

COMMISSIONER WANGUTT?

YES.

COMMISSIONER TRAVANI?

YES.

COMMISSIONER VELOSTEGUI?

YES.

VICE MAYOR MERGUE? YES. MAYOR DANZIGER?

YES.

MAYOR, THE MOTION CARRIES.

THANK YOU. MOVING ON TO ITEM 5A. WHAT TIME IS IT? I GUESS WE'LL START IT AND GO TO WELFARE IN A FEW MINUTES. A preliminary rate resolution for solid waste management. Mr. Manager, maybe we can knock this out in five minutes.

Can I read the title?

Sorry, Madam Clerk, read the title of this very long resolution.

A resolution in the town of Surisite, Florida, relating to solid waste management services, including collection, disposal, and recycling of residential solid waste in the town of Surisite, Florida. establishing the estimated assessment rate for solid waste service assessment against assessed property located within the town of Surfside, Florida for the fiscal year beginning October 1st, 2026, directing the preparation of an updated assessment rule, authorizing a public hearing and directing the provisions of notice thereof and providing for an effective date on 5A.

Mayor, if I may. Thank you. So every year the commission has to set the solid waste, which is your trash and pickup fee. That gets advertised as part of your trim notice or property taxes. So there is a August 4th deadline to report that to the county. We are doing a study for the rates You're not going to have that back before that deadline. So the recommendation is to keep the rate as it was adopted last budget cycle by the previous commission, which is the cap of 400. That cap was established, I believe, back in 2018 after the rate study was conducted and then through the years. As costs escalates, whether it's for disposal fees or anything like that, the commission adjusts it year over year. I don't feel comfortable, even though it's only going to produce $468,000, which obviously won't be enough. But the commercial and multifamily component helps subsidize the single family side until you get an actual rate study that says this will be more of where you should be. I don't feel comfortable recommending a higher rate. So my recommendation is to go with the 400 so that we can advertise as it was done last budget cycle. until the new study comes in and next fiscal year when you start that, you'll have the updated information so that you can set the rate appropriately based on the market. So just for clarification, 400 is the rate or that's the cap? That is the recommended rate and that is the cap as well, which was approved by the prior commission for the fiscal year 25-26. So it's maintaining the rate as is.

SO THERE WON'T BE ANY EFFECTIVE INCREASE TO RESIDENTS? NO, IT'S THE SAME.

Mayor and Commission, we would need a motion. If the Commission's not comfortable with 400, it can be lowered, and then we would have to subsidize the budget with general funds or other, and we would have to work that through the budget cycle. But we definitely need some type of motion with a number so that we can report it to the county for proper advertising and trim.

We don't know our actuals right now.

Commissioner, again, this even within our actuals, no, we don't. We just finished the fiscal year twenty five reconciliation and we're going through everything. So we're a year behind regardless. This component is essentially setting the rate for single family homes, which is a carryover from last year. And the overall budget for solid waste is more than 468. You're talking about a couple million dollars for the expenditure. So this will not cover the entire total expenditures regardless.

We're undercharging, basically.

All right. In the past, we figured out ways to compensate for that. Let's see what we can do, but let's pass it as is for now. We'll address it after.

Okay, let's call the roll.

Yeah.

I need a motion and a second.

I need a motion to approve. We need a second.

Okay. Making a motion to approve. To approve.

I second.

All right, Madam Clerk.

Sorry, we're approving $400. Yes.

Yes. Mayor, just for the record, there's no public speakers, correct?

I'm sorry? There's no public speakers? There's no public speakers. Okay.

Commissioner Travani? Yes. Commissioner Valdostegui? Yes. Commissioner Weingart? Yes. Vice Mayor Vanmerge? Yes. Mayor Densinger? Yes. Mayor, the motion carries.

Thank you. All right. We are going to take a quick break and move on to good and welfare, 8-15, on time for the first time in four months. If anybody would like to speak on any topic, please fill out a card with the clerk. We will move on to our first speaker. Let me find him. Mr. Kerrigan, three minutes, please.

Okay, more speakers.

Michael Carrick in 9365 Abbott. Thank you very much, again, for the opportunity to speak. Number one, parking trust fund audit. I know it's budget time again. Just to, again, remind everyone, my calculation, there's $331,000 missing from the last two budget books. The budget officer told me there is no such thing as a parking trust fund, which is – completely contradicts past precedent and past ordinances, so you guys need to figure out what happened to that $331,000. Number two, the parking situation. I don't know exactly what the current status is, but I would encourage you to direct staff to bring back those color-coded parking decals. That seemed to have worked for everyone for many years. I don't know why you guys tried to fix something that wasn't broken, but I just would encourage you to try to go back to that. It worked well. Number three, I would hope for that, at least for next year, you bring the fireworks back to 93rd Street. I know that I wasn't there this year because I had to babysit the grandkid. But my understanding is that it was really far away. Some people had a hard time looking at it. I know usually from at least my house, selfishly I can usually see it right from my balcony, so I'm hoping that for next year you bring it back to 93rd Street. Number four, I sent everyone an email about license plate readers. It was mentioned previously about using that technology, which is totally okay with, but I would remind people that the technology is very scary if not properly controlled. So I asked you, there's a series of data management policies that you should consider. I was part of this task force back in 2012. It's the same thing that keeps on percolating back up. The good news is we're not using Flock. We're using some other company, and I'm sure that it's okay, but I would encourage you to ask the town manager and the town staff to make sure that the proper data management policies are in place to prevent any misuse or abuse. Number five, I wanted just a little bit more philosophical there. I've heard on many campaigns and past commissions this concept of team, we have a good team, be part of the team. I would like to remind people like on the retreat that I had the opportunity to go to, there's a difference between a team and a group. You guys are a group, not a team. We want diversity, we want differences of opinion. So when I hear that term team, I know it sounds good and everything, but you're not a team, you're a group. There's different dynamics for each of you. Each of you come with your own preferences, agendas, interests, priorities. So just as a little conceptual difference there between team concept and group concept. You've all heard me talk about this before. which brings me to a point that the vice mayor made earlier about keeping things moving, and the mayor made the comment. The idea that you're here just to come vote yes or no, that's not correct. You're here to, this is the only opportunity because of the sunshine rules where the public gets to hear you have a dialogue, so I'd like you to keep that in mind. You're not here just to vote yes or no. You're here so we can hear your interaction. Thank you.

Thank you. Mr. Zompher?

Jeff Somper, 8827 Emerson. I was going to, during the town manager's report, thank the town manager because there was something in his report that indicated that the outside group that was hired to help finance was looking at the parking trust fund. The $331,000 that Michael mentioned is money that was already in the trust fund that he can't track to the most recent financial statements. What I was concerned about, because I figure that money is somewhere, was the large lump sum payment that was supposed to have been made into the Parking Trust Fund in 2024, which is 10 years after the agreement that was made with the shul for undergrounding, and then perhaps several $990,000 payments also agreed to as part of that resolution that should have started or need to start, if it hasn't occurred yet, when the shul asks for their certificate of occupancy. So I wrote a letter to the town attorney asking that certain information be looked into in regards to that agreement. I know that they said when it was raised previously that it's on their list of things to do. I'm sure that their list is getting smaller, so I'm raising it again. Thanks.

Thank you, Mr. Zomper. Lucila Kaur.

Lucy LaCour, 8950 Irving Avenue. As a graduated senior, this is my last term on the Youth Council, so I wanted to take the time to thank the people who have made our successes possible. Sandra, Genesis, Angie, Rudy, George, Chief Press, Frank, Commissioner Vildostegui, Mr. Diaz, Commissioner Trevani, and Cindy for being so incredibly helpful and kind these past two terms. We also all know politics is a contentious space, so I wanted to thank those of you on the dais who continue to have the courage to challenge the status quo and bring rational thought, humility, and compassion to our town leadership. Thank you.

Mr. Krasner?

Soledad Krasner, 8840 Garland Avenue.

I have three very important issues, and I don't know if the time is gonna be enough, but I would like to request ahead that I may need to extend some. First one is an email that you have all received this morning, and I am expecting that please, everybody, do their part, and especially, in this case, the town manager, to give us a full explanation of what is happening, because I really expect that this administration and our time manager be on top, that the proper people and leadership be higher. I know that we have here a vanity fair where we, the residents, are paying the taxes, but we have tremendous misuse of our facilities. That's my first point. My second point is about the parking, my car was vandalized. I have experienced when I come to swim very early in the morning that there are police cars, working city cars, and workers from the constructions filling up our parking lot here on this site. And I am so sad to say that there are also part of our city that they should not be there, or our police enforcement, that they should not be there because they have the areas. I mean, I love to have our police, but we need parking space for us to also come to have access to our facility. And the other issue is very, very important. It's awful. There is a sign that it blocks the view. You cannot see when you try to get out through 93rd. And then there is mainly, not just on weekends, but there is a patrol park on the area that is not allowed to park. And when you try to get out of the parking lot here on the back of the... of the town hall that you cannot see because the patrol is blocking. So please, I urge you to really, really see that. The other issue is that we, I know that the construction sites pay for the patrol services, but we still paying for the, insurance, the retirement, right, of our police officers. And I love that. I'm okay with that. What I am not okay is that on Sundays that we have the lights flashing, regardless if it's the town, the county, whatever, somebody needs to respond for this. Because even the buses, the city buses does not stop and they go beyond the speed limit. There are cars that they go beyond the speed limit. Nobody stops. I had to go so many times and I encourage you to see Sundays where you will see me trying to block people because they literally does not allow us to pass, okay? So seven in the morning, it's a nightmare. to go in over here. And I really expect that a patrol be there for us too. And my last and very important things, and I am really interested that you hear this. Everybody celebrated 4th of July, and I was very happy, and et cetera. But I would like to know who was responsible for jeopardizing the well-being of Surfside residents. Because you may know that there were one person One dead person and some injured in Florida on the light in 4th of July in several different countries. So why, when the alarm beeps for second times, the people were not encouraged to get out? Why our well-being was jeopardized? And I will light up a really deep investigation in that because we, the residents, and we are taxpayers, deserve that our well-being not be jeopardized. It was 4th of July. It was a great day. But what happened? What could happen to any one of us? What could happen to our city be again on the screens, on the TV, on the front page of newspapers? Because somebody neglect. to say we have this party, but we have a lighting that is less than three miles. Please, I encourage all of you that give us answers, because I haven't hear anyone to talk about this. And you were here, some of you, and some of you maybe were here, but who was alert of that? Who was alert of our well-being? Please, Mr. Diaz, Messenger, Weigut, Tavani, Vildostegui, then Merigui, please, we need answers.

Thank you, Mrs. President. Please, we need answers. Mr. Karp.

David Karp, 9341 Collins Avenue. I wanted to thank the mayor for helping out our building. We live across the street at the Marbella and on the night of July 2nd with the FPL deep pile driving, it shook our building for about a half hour. Vibrations going up and down the west side. I'm vice president and I started seeing it on the chat. I called the police. They said they would look into it, but it, nothing was going on. So I did call the mayor. He came right over. He felt the vibrations. He got them, um, to stop. He then contacted. right that minute, our state rep to see what else could be done to make sure that we were safe and everybody in our building. And the next morning, he convened his town manager and police to see what could be done to help us. Because of that, our not our property manager, but our builder's rep, and our engineering are meeting with FPL to find out how long the project's going to be taking and what vibrations, and if they have changed from the pile driving to the other kind of driving. So I wanted to thank you very much for doing that. The other thing I wanted to talk about was the Community Relations Board. A couple things that were said last time. I was chair of that and it was a very good committee. There was wording about political but there was nothing political about it. Our first speaker we had was simply to calm down. It was right before election time in November and all he did was speak about how we could talk to our enablers. It was a small group of residents that came, but everybody participated, everybody met each other, and that was the purpose of that community relations to get started. It did have five people that were appointed. We were not appointed by commissioners. The last mayor was impatient, so he just appointed all five of us, to be on it without reading our names because we had read my name he wouldn't have approved me but it was I do appreciate being on it and I was glad to be on it we were told at the first meeting to have to get four more so that was in the plan that Commissioner Vildestegui had written I was concerned because I was chair and I thought how am I going to handle nine people but because of the extra people, we had more resources to get into the community and the city to bring ideas to us and real people that could help us speak and talk. We had a community relations day and we could have had many more there. May I have another minute? Please, so we were ready for the nine. There was a 10th one we had to turn down and I had Commissioner Vildestegui try to change the rules so we could have him on it too because we did not like turning anybody down. We had nothing to do with next door. None of us responded on it. None of us wrote on it and none of us, in fact, we were going to bring in one of the one of the chairs of that so we could talk and see how if our committee could help tone it down because it was so negative. But that was out of our power. We thought we'd be helping with more disaster resources. We did have my wife set up a meeting for mothers against gun violence. to honor area gray. And that was a very big turnout with the police chief helping out that night. to coordinate the talk. We helped plan out the Isaac Bathsheba Singer, the book talk. And we were in a big plan with the chief for a bicycle rodeo, just for safety, how to stop at red lights, how to engrave the bikes in case they are stolen. We tried to make every activity not just a Jewish one. So at first there was going to be a Palm Branch won, but we said we don't want to just make this a Jewish event, so we made it an autumn festival event. So we were able to include everybody. We had a local author, Anna Mendendez, and that was a big talk. for her, but also a nice group of people that we came because they like to read books and we had never met them before. One of our members was removed by the commission because they were sticking to the rules of three absentees, maybe without a reason. That was why the one person was removed. So it was a very good committee. I do encourage it to come back on. I'm getting phone calls from the committee members who were on it last year that do want to be on it this year, and it did have a lot of good things for us. Thank you very much.

Thank you, Mr. Karp. All right, I don't have any other cards in front of me if there's anyone else. Sorry, it says Dune Restoration Project. I don't know where that stood, but yes. Well, yeah, yeah, please. Get them off your inches.

Mary Ann Marshy, 9225 Collins Avenue. I just want to comment about the dune restoration. I really want to know who from the town is watching over us. On Saturday, going to the community center beach chairs, I observed one of the signs that on my commission I helped bring about so it was less than two years two or plus years that was just thrown on the dune broken with nails sticking up and um i was horrified who is watching over the dune restoration project uh I noticed a lot of the signs down and broken, but for nails to be sticking up right on the pathway from the community center to the beach, it's not good. And I'm very concerned about safety and who is watching over this project. So that is my main statement. And just, after the last speaker, I attended many of the community events and they were all great. They all brought the community together. There was no, I never felt any political statement. It totally brought the community together and Most of the events were just so great. So I just wanted to comment that it is a great committee and I hope we recognize it as it is. Thank you.

Thank you.

All right, if there's anyone that else wanted to speak before I close the welfare, that didn't put a card in yet. All right, seeing none, closing good and welfare, opening up the commission response. You guys have the three minutes to respond on any items if you want.

I'll just respond to this one. This was a concern I had, and I've escalated it several times. So I definitely, I'm on the same page with you, and this is a concern. Signs that were previously there were torn out on the floor. I felt they were being rough and not managing the work site, and this was escalated to the level of the contract being looked at. I know town manager was concerned Looking further into that together with this team and obviously public you know public works CIP so I've escalated this a number of times over the last week or two Anyone else sure So

quickly there are just a couple things that were mentioned here that I know are very important and I just don't I have to follow up with people individually with Miss Krasner about the traffic issues that you mentioned I just couldn't picture it so I'd like to talk to you at another time soon about that also the parking trust fund was brought up by Mr. Zomper and Vice Mayor Kerrigan and I I have to admit, of all the issues that I am presented with as a commissioner and have been, this is the most baffling. I really don't understand the history or the dynamics of it, and I hope that the town manager and the attorney can help us soon to understand the issue. I want to work on that, and I hope maybe I can talk to you as well to learn more about it. On some of the more on some topics that I could say something about, I do very much agree with Mr. With Vice Mayor Kerrigan that something needs to be done, whether it's the decals about parking enforcement. I did. I hope we can talk about it during the town manager report. But I've observed construction workers parking on that crowded block of 93rd between Abbott and Byron. It's happening all the time. It's happening on his block as well. I've seen it. We need to do something about it. I did receive a number of complaints from people about the location of the fireworks. I do think that was a problem. I liked the idea of having a joint celebration with the other towns, but I feel like we got short shrift on the fireworks, and I hope we can talk about that at some point. On the point you made about keeping things moving, look, I don't want to be here till late. But I do, you know, the vice mayor said this during the opening remarks, and that really wasn't the time for debate. But she said, we've studied at home, and now we're here to vote and do the business of the town. I don't think that's really how a commission works. Vice Mayor Kerrigan said, we're here to talk with each other. That's why we were elected. I come here every month in the hope that maybe I'll say something that will register with you and maybe change your mind, or maybe you'll change my mind. So I don't just study at home and come with my vote. And I hope that's not how you're viewing the meetings, because that's not what they're for. Finally, I want to extend my profound gratitude to Mr. Karp and to Commissioner Maischeid for their defense of the Community Relations Board. I want to say one thing about it. I think this is exactly right. It really worked wonderfully. It did so many great things, and I want to point out it did those things with the exact charter that I brought before this commission. So last month when we talked about this, and I think the vice mayor said, this is going to be next door on steroids, I was like, where is this coming from? Because we actually had two years of experience that was nothing at all like that. And the part that I want to say something about the nine-member vision, which I really stick to, and I hope it can be part of the next Community Relations Board. I hope there is one. What happened, you know, we appointed five. I was very glad that Mr. Karp was one of the five. And I, you know, and then when they picked four more, two of those people were Fred Lansman and Jared Bernabend who had lost the election. Okay, well, let me just say.

By charter, you have up to three minutes. I need to move on because, again, this is, you've deviated from responding to residents to going after other commissioners. Let's move on. I'm not going after other commissioners. I'm responding to the point. By charter, you have up to three minutes. Let's move on because there's an entire agenda to get through.

Thank you, Mr. Karp and Commissioner Maishai.

Commissioner Trevani, you have any comments?

Just a quick comment on the parking fund. I've been talking about this with the town manager for a while. I know that our financial department is, well, we have these consultants who are working on a specific scope now. just to bring us up to speed with everything that was sort of falling behind. And we're looking for a CFO. And so hopefully we're going to find one pretty soon. So this is definitely something that we're going to need to look at as soon as we sort of start breathing again. So, yeah, it's going to be one of the things that that that we're going to work on. Thank you, Vice Mayor.

No need. All right. I'm just going to address quickly, first of all, the comments by Mr. Karp about the building and the safety. And again, I just want to take this opportunity to publicly thank Active Town Manager Diaz, Manny, and Andre for the way they responded immediately and addressed this issue. They put a stop to it. So, you know, I really want to publicly commend the team over here for addressing this and not letting anything slide and the way it's being handled currently. You know, we take the residents' concerns safely, so whether it was approved DOT, you know, has been very responsive. And again, we're not going to compromise and we're reviewing that plan internally to make sure that we don't have that same issue. Just very quickly again, Mr. Kerrigan, I'm going to disagree with you as far as team in a group. If you look at the definition of a group, a group is a bunch of individuals working towards individual goals. A team has one goal in mind, and that's what we're supposed to be up here. We're supposed to be here for the benefit of the town, whether it's an individual project or to move certain things forward. None of that is achieved if we're each working an individual path. So a team is also comprised of individuals, and they have their own identities, but there is an objective. and that is to score a goal or whatever sport they're playing, so too up here with the commission. We have an objective, and if we're not on the same page, nothing gets done. Otherwise, five people on their own voting and pushing their own initiatives won't happen. So again, I would advise you to check the definition. This should be a team. This is not a group of people. I'd like to be a team and come to an agreement, and you've seen that on some items where we can find the middle ground and everybody either walks away upset or happy. But at the end of the day, we're trying to achieve things together and not just go our separate ways. All right, so I'm going to close public comment and move on to good and welfare and moving on to item 5B, which is the approval of the settlement agreement with Joel Lusky. Madam Clerk, if you read the title of the resolution and to the record, please.

Yes, Mayor. Resolution of the Town Commission of the Town of Surfside, Florida, approving the settlement agreement with Joel Selig Lusky and Alexandra Lusky, providing for authorization and providing for an effective date, item 5B.

If you recall the last time we addressed these 180 settlements, there was one holdout. I guess it took them a little while to come around, but we got the settlement that we wanted. And so this is the same as the other settlements there there was an issue of money that was being demanded of us and we were able to negotiate it at the At the number that we wanted which was half of what he was asking for so It worked out So anyway, this is a resolution approving that settlement, and this, again, these are very, very similar to all the other settlements. I guess the names are changed, but otherwise the terms are generally the same. A motion and second is in order. Is there a motion to approve?

Can I ask a question? So we're waiving the PNZ fees and also they don't have to submit their project to the PNZ?

No, no they have to go through the entire process that whatever the process is that's in place. My recollection on this one and they all got a little bit mixed up was they actually had paid the PNZ fees originally and so that they're not having to repay them again.

Okay, because let me go to the section. No, it stays, sorry. It's just that iLegislate takes a little bit of time to load the documents. It's in the initial part, I remember that. Because if that's the case, I mean, I'm okay with that. It's just that I think I read that, all right, here it is. Okay, no waiver releases. Released by the town. There it is. Yeah, okay, 20 days. In addition, the town shall waive all town planning and zoning fees for review of application and meetings before the planning zone board applicable to development. Okay, yeah, they just talked about the fees. Okay, so it's just the fees because they paid them already, but they're gonna go through the, all right, okay. Thank you.

All right, motion and second? No, I need a motion. Motion to approve. So moved. Second, Madam Clerk.

We have discussion, I assume. I would like to just...

Sorry, any clarification? Commissioner Wang made the motion, and who seconded it?

Yes, myself.

Thank you.

Yeah, I just want to say again, for the record, I think that SB 180 is an illegal preemption of local law. I think the town should have continued to defend its right to determine our zoning code. I always favored a settlement. In the previous commission, we were in settlement negotiations with this party. The question is, do we settle by capitulating completely or do we try to defend our existing zoning code against illegal state preemptions i think that because illegal state preemption has been an issue across the board especially with live local we should have been fighting it um nsp 180 as well they are they are they're really two laws that are committing the same wrong to our localities so i do favor a settlement but not this settlement i think the town should be defending its laws

So I personally don't, six lawsuits we've already had to settle because of these laws that are violating people's rights, because as you said, your commission was settling them too. So I'm in favor of paying them out and moving this on. But let's move on, as we've all agreed to. Madam Clerk, let's call the roll, please.

Commissioner Valdostaegi?

No.

Commissioner Weingart?

Yes.

Commissioner Trevani?

No.

Vice Mayor Van Merge? Yes. Mayor Danziger?

Yes.

Mayor, the motion carries.

Thank you. Moving on to item seven, a town manager's report.

Mayor, commissioners, thank you. The typical updates are provided within the manager's report. Just a couple of things I wanted to add to it. We just received notification from FDOT. I had been working to try to, I've been working with the Four Seasons to try to get a crosswalk, a signaled crosswalk. between the Four Seasons property and their parking garage. Right now there's no crosswalk. People have to walk over a thousand feet just to be able to go to the nearest safe one before then tracking backwards. We've had multiple pedestrian accidents out there. I was able to talk to DOT. They are done with a quick study. They've spoken with the Four Seasons property as well, and they are putting in a project to now design and then install a signaled crosswalk in front of the property, which is great news, especially safety-wise. I also want to just report we just received from the Four Seasons $150,000 for their portion of correcting the dune. As I mentioned before that we were talking with them to do it, they've already completed that. So that is also good. With regards to the question on the project, we have both staff and our CIP public works director taking a look, but we do not have full-time inspection to sit on there. So if there's a problem, we'll address the issues with the contractor. but we don't have inspection on that project full time. That's not what's budgeted and that's not how the town has put it. So as a concern is brought up, we go back out, we take a look. If we have to do liquidated damages, we will, and we do address that with them. we also have various reports that they're required to provide especially with regards to the sand to make sure that they get the proper sand we have that we have where they're buying it they're buying it from where we get it we have confirmation from the i guess the manufacturer of where they're purchasing that and then on standby andre and i have identified labs that can come in and test after the fact so that we can verify that the sand, both on the beach or on the dunes or anywhere, will be matching what's required.

I have a question. Sure. So we have code enforcement rolling around on the golf carts, the four-wheelers, and citing things all day long. I get emails regarding some of them when they feel it's excessive, or calls.

And I see them drive through the path as well and pass the Dune project.

Do they not observe safety concerns there as much as they'll catch something of a resident having their trash bins out or something sitting on their yard? That's something that they should be looking at. I would hope. We have a town resource that's rolling around.

I would hope that any town employee that sees something that may be hazardous would report it to to the right person. In this case, it would have to go to Public Works so that we can make sure that our either beach employee or our person or anything like that is addressing it with the contractor. So I would hope that if they see it, that, yes, they'll report it and we'll follow up with staff again to to ensure that. But from an inspection process on the project itself. Again, we don't have a full-time inspector per se. The town doesn't have an inspector on staff either. So we'll keep doing that. There is a request from a group who's putting together a concert and a benefit concert for those in Venezuela. Commissioner Wine got had they've approached Commissioner Wine got to use the town seal. As a sponsor, the only thing that they're asking for is the use of it. Miami Dade has already signed on, City of Miami has signed on, Dade Delegation, and other municipalities as well. Our charter does not allow us to use the logo without commission approval, so I would ask for approval so that we can sponsor the benefit concert that they're putting on. I believe it's in, I've seen two dates, but I believe it's in August. UNLESS IT'S BEEN MOVED UP. BUT GOOD CALL HAS BEEN VETTED AND I THINK IT'S GOOD TO SPONSOR THE BENEFIT CONCERT IF THE COMMISSION WOULD APPROVE THAT. With regards to the concern on July 4th with lightning, the lightning machine does work. The setting, it did go off during July 4th. We took a look. It got cleared. Staff then took a look. The setting was for over 10 miles away. um which doesn't make too much sense to have that far out um so it was put to more an appropriate level um to ensure that um a we're still covered uh but b that we're not looking for more than 10 miles away from um from surfside for for lightning um and once that was done then we weren't just getting the alarms being triggered every couple of minutes and stuff because it was a rainy day, July 4th. So this system does work and it does work appropriately. I want to thank the mayor for his efforts with regards to the vibration. Essentially, the work that was going on, just for clarification, because I know there was some information that's been moved around and I just want to make sure that the record is clear. There was work going on at Knight and Collins because it requires two lanes to be closed for the Ocean House development to connect to the water system. The trench that they were working on, the earth around it was starting to fall in, so they had to change the type of trench protection that they were doing. They started doing something that's called sheeting. Um, they were told you cannot do that at night. The vibrations feel more than what they are. The noise is more than what it is because it's dead silent. Essentially, um, all of our buildings, um, in the, in our code, um, for any, any of this type of work does require seismic, uh, monitoring, um, the buildings surrounding it, um, allowed us to put the monitors in there. So that was doing good DLT. Um, and. I believe the county have a level of 0.5 is the max that you're able to do. 04. No. Ours is 04. State is 0.05. So we just went a little bit below that. Give us a little bit of a cushion. But the vibration levels that were monitored at all times was 0.14. So well below the threshold. However, at night, 11 12 1 2 3 o'clock in the morning where everything is silent you're trying to sleep you're going to catch on to the smallest little thing and that's why we told them you're not allowed to do that during the night we're going to have to make accommodations um they've already finished that work so we're not anticipating any type of shoring to happen again they'll have to go in and finish connecting to a water pipe but we don't anticipate any of that type of work dlt is uh monitoring closely with Andre as well. The next phase of work that will happen on Collins has to do with the electrical power that FPL will be conducting the work. um they're gonna have to work on collins again and then on 93rd street 93rd street won't be a problem it's a lot easier to manage we can do that during the day and actually close down um the street when whenever that's appropriate on collins um their dlt and the town have jointly explained to to fpl and to the developer if any type of shoring or trench protection work is needed It will have to be done during the day and on the weekend. It would create a traffic, but again, it would be more appropriate during that time and we can accommodate and we can also, and I'm sorry, we're requiring them to pay for an inspector on job during the job from the town. So whatever overtime we would have to have or anything on that, someone would have to be there to make sure that they're not going beyond their scope of what they're allowed to do. So we have managed it. We are working closely together to ensure that It doesn't go beyond the scope of what they're allowed to. And then finally, with regards to the parking fund, we don't have a trust fund for parking. It's an enterprise fund. And I think the word trust on the technical verbiage, because it's called the parking trust, what a trust actually is within the financial market is different than how government works it's an enterprise funds for it so it's more dedicated we do have various auditing that we're doing for fiscal year 25 and so forth but that trust or that enterprise fund let me use the corrective average as well that enterprise fund pays for our law all of our parking enforcement it pays for the various upkeeps at the parking lots and stuff like that so all of that is put within the budget and But we'll definitely take a further look at any concerns that are brought up. And we'll welcome the budget committee to also work with staff to take a look at that as well. Check, check, check. And one last item. Miami-Dade is giving away their tree giveaway later this month, I believe. And so we encourage anybody to please go out. Miami-Dade is giving away plenty of trees. take them plant them we need more shade um i know surfside does it closer towards earth day as a part of our tree usa which i think we've had for eight nine years almost 10 years now so that we do on a yearly but whenever miami-dade wants to give something away i always say grab it And that will be all of the report.

I've got two questions, I guess. The signal crosswalk. So first of all, the ones they installed on 90th, 89th, they were supposed to be pedestrian requests, right? Because there's no light going east to west. It's just a southbound light that's supposed to stop traffic as requested by a resident. I don't know what happened from the time it was approved to install, but it turned into like a regular red light. It'll just periodically turn red. You'll have cars piling up on Harding. Again, our objective is kind of twofold to pedestrian safety, but also traffic and congestion. It seems like the town has added to that by installing these lights that turn red sporadically with no light going the opposite direction.

Yeah, it's supposed to be pedestrian-led. I'll talk to DOT to make sure that it's synchronized.

Okay, I appreciate that. And the one that's going in for four seasons, that pedestrian-only, or that's going to be a full-time?

Pedestrian-only.

Okay. Lastly, just an update, I guess, on the Abbott Avenue project. I think it was told 45 days back in May.

Where is that holding?

I know we have, Andre, you might be quicker to the draw just off the top of your head. I believe we do have an update within the manager's report in the CIP section, but can you give us up to where they are today?

Yes, Andre, the mayor, vice mayor, commissioners, they are on track to complete in November. They're currently on 92nd Street and I would say November. Yeah, because it had that extension that we had. In 92nd Street and Abbott, they have put in most of the structures already. They have two of their inlet structures to put in and also the two drainage well structures for well number one and number two. That's between Barron Avenue and Abbott Avenue. And from there, they're going to put in all the pipe work that goes all the way down to the bay.

Okay, no, because the email that was sent to us on May 21st, I'm going to skip the whole thing to the part where it says, residents should anticipate temporary on-street parking adjustments and traffic impact within the active work zone. Construction of this intersection is anticipated to last 45 days.

Right, that's for the intersection of 92nd.

Yeah, that's what I'm asking. Like that intersection continues to be closed.

Yes, they're on track. They had a little bit of hiccups because of some of the, we had some conflicts, so drainage conflicts. conflicts with the water main, conflicts with also some of the sewer pipes. So they're doing, they'll slow it down a little bit, but they're on track to get out of that intersection pretty soon.

Do we know, like, do we have an updated timeline? Just because people ask me all the time. So it'd be nice to...

So one of the last conflicts they had that was just mentioned yesterday was moving one of the structures a little bit, which I anticipate I'm doing by the end of next week. So give and take, they should be out of there within about the next 20 days.

Okay. So additional 20 days. Yes. All right. Appreciate it. Thank you.

Any questions? Yeah.

I'm sorry, ma'am, you had public comment. This is commission discussion right now.

Yeah. So a couple of things. One is, especially when it comes to these utility projects, I've been talking about a different contract for this type of work with the town manager and the town attorney in the past few weeks, especially when you do drainage work. WHAT ANDREA WAS JUST MENTIONING NOW IS PRETTY FREQUENT, LIKE YOU HAVE UTILITY CONFLICTS ALL THE TIME. AND THAT'S WHAT SLOWING DOWN THE PROCESS. SO I THINK, WELL, WE'RE GOING TO TALK ABOUT IT PROBABLY AT THE BUDGET RETREAT. There's a few more projects that we wanna do in terms or that we could be doing based on the last drainage report that we've had back in 2023. So when we're gonna be tackling those, I think it'd be wise to switch to a different type of contract For example, the CMAR or CMGC is a type of contract that is usually effective for this kind of scope because you involve the contractor early on. You overlap the schedule. You finish earlier. And you have the right tools to sort of, you will never be able to catch 100% of it, but to contain more the damage coming from utility conflicts. So that's something that I think we should really be looking into, especially because we have all these things that we want to do with the town and we want to do them sooner. So that's... That's going to help us.

Through the mayor, I have just a quick question. I mean, for the public's benefit and partly for mine, I know what CMAR is, Construction Manager at Risk, but you said another word that I didn't know.

Yeah, yeah, it's basically the same. People call it either CMAR or CMGC, which is Construction Manager General Contractor. The idea is always the same, that you split the two contracts. So us, as an owner, give a contract to a designer, Then we give a contract to the contractor. Then this early engagement of the contractor allows you to get their input during the design. so that when it comes to means and methods, they're there. They can tell you, hey, this is going to work. This is going to create issues. This is the best way to do it. And they incorporate that input in the design so that by the time that the design is done, the contractor is ready to go, and there's way less uncertainties down the road. So that's one thing. And then the other thing about the report, just a recommendation. There is, you know, especially back to your question, Mr. Mayor, about the schedule. I think that the reporting here should be different when it comes to schedule. We are tracking schedule based on expenditures. Like you take the Doom project, for example, it shows 0% were complete, which is not accurate. So I think there should be another line item there. One thing is the invoicing, and another is the actual progress on site. And the two should be monitored together, also to make sure that we don't overpay the subcontractor, by the way.

Good point. All right. Thank you. Yeah, we'll get to that in a second.

I did want to ask the manager about parking. I mentioned earlier parking enforcement remains a concern. I hear from residents about this a lot, including tonight. And earlier today, I emailed I think you and the chief and some others just some photos that I took. I was walking home from town hall and I saw two construction workers going to their parked cars, one of them on the 9300 block of Abbott, one on the block of 93rd between Abbott and Byron. And it's And it seems to be a real problem on that block in particular. Cars can't get through. And I noticed, again, I came to Town Hall early this morning, if you notice, the cars aren't parked there overnight, so I don't think they're residents. The spaces get taken in the morning. So what can we do for enforcement there? I know that Parking enforcement is a complicated thing. I know that people who live on the western side of town don't want to have their nanny or their house guest ticketed. But then people who live on the east side of town are dealing with construction worker parking all the time. Uh, what can we do, especially on the block of 93rd street where there are two construction projects nearby? I just, yeah, I know this issue comes up every month and I never quite know where we, where things stand.

All right. Let's put food for thought. Cause this is town manager report. Yeah, but if we want a discussion, we'll make a discussion item. There's still an agenda that was actually prepared to get to tonight. So it's a very good concept you're bringing up, and it's an interesting point of conversation, but I don't think we're going to handle it all in the town manager report, and it's not fair to delay the rest of the meeting for that.

Okay, but I did ask the manager, through the mayor if I may, just to comment on this issue. What is the state of enforcement? That is a...

Just just real quick, mayor and commission, I have been working to bring you the the item. I just didn't have enough time to make it to the agenda. I've been working also with the attorney. Miami Dade Code is. and I'm trying to untangle what was being done and how the town has been addressing. And so I believe part of the item that I need to bring back to you will be a request to put that program together, send it to the county for approval, see if the county will approve that, and then we can move forward with whatever kind of restrictions or whatever the commission will want.

i'm trying to build on that um item to bring to you for full discussion um i just wasn't able to make it for this meeting thank you all right we have two public comments uh mr zomper two minutes please you're good pass uh mr grookin please two minutes all right

Michael Carrick in 9365 Abbott. Thank you again. I just wanted to comment briefly on the town manager report. I noticed there was no comment in there about the IT oversight function. This, as you know, is huge for everybody these days. It's a technology-driven society. We're no different. Just in the last budget workshop, you guys talked about $350,000 in new IT spending, related spending. In the last budget book, it says that traditionally the IT function was under the finance department. I know that's been a bit of a challenge, that department. I know that it said that it was transferred to the executive department, which you're totally cool with. I just wanted to, I think that you might want to consider confirming with the town manager that the IT function oversight for all the different software products, all the different fees and maintenance fees and whatnot is being covered and managed. Thank you.

Thank you. All right, no one else? Closing public comment, all right. Do we have one? All right, Mrs. Kranzer, two minutes please.

Soledad Cresner, 8840 Garland Avenue. Regarding to the report of the town manager over the lighting, it is true that the light of the alarm will sound 10 miles away, but when the alarm beep, we have an application in our cell phones, and it was about three miles away, the lighting. So I just may encourage you to go and check it out, the log, because I understand. when I got download this application that the town has a lot and I know as well that in a few weeks in the past the alarm was not working properly. So I really encourage you to check it out that because I think there is some issues there and they should be review.

All right. Thank you. There's no other comments up here. We get a motion to adopt or approve town managers report. So moved. Is there a second? Second. All right, Madam Clerk.

Commissioner Wyngott?

Yes.

Commissioner Trevani? Yep. Commissioner Velostegui? Yes. Vice Mayor Memerge? Yes. Mayor Danziger? Yes. Mayor, the motion carries.

Thank you. Moving on to item 7B, town attorney's report. Great.

A few items. I hope I can get through these quickly. These are sort of really updates. First of all, you all have scheduled a special election to have a vote on the four-year staggered term proposal. I have taken to heart a lot of comments that I've gotten about the The item which combines two different concepts within the one question, while I think it is legal, there's certainly no need to create a legal problem for us with respect to that item. So I wanted to tell you that I'm planning on bringing back a separation of the items so that it deals with the four year staggered term as one question and the mayor election in terms of plurality as a separate question so that they're not bundled together as one question. So you have the opportunity to vote on one and not on the other. So I'll be bringing that back to you. I know, I know. we we may need to have a special meeting to in order to do that because i'm being told about the deadline for the county and making amendments but i do think it's important uh i've heard from several people i've re-looked at it um i we don't need to be in a dispute over this particular issue so i want to make sure that we get it right um so that um That relates to the four year staggered term issue and an update on where I am with that. uh... let's talk about uh... the urban design concept uh... you asked the uh... manager and i to go out and do a solicitation type process to try to identify firms that could assist us i'm gonna call it urban design process but IT'S REALLY SORT OF A SPECIALIZED URBAN DESIGN PROCESS. IT'S BOTH AN UPDATING TO OUR 2006 URBAN DESIGN PLAN AND ALSO REALLY A DISTINCT COMPONENT WHICH IS TO TRY TO IDENTIFY SHORT-TERM CAPITAL PROJECTS AND I DON'T MEAN CAPITAL INFRASTRUCTURE IN TERMS OF WATER AND SEWER. I MEAN FACILITIES. improvements that are for the enhancement of the community as opposed to the repair of infrastructure okay so we've interviewed I think I interviewed three, the manager interviewed one. We are now requesting proposals from each of those groups on a structured fee so that they would give us a fee for the long-term planning process. which could be up to a year, a year and a half, and then a short term planning process that could be a matter of months in order to identify actionable projects that this commission could undertake in the very foreseeable future. Things that are not four and five year projects, but maybe a year and a half or two year projects that are community enhancement type projects that would have a direct immediate impact and hopefully a positive impact on the community. So we're going to be bringing back to you the proposals as soon as we get them and you all can make a selection on which team you like. I hope I used the word team correctly. Group, group, team, whatever. And we will, the manager will provide you with the recommendation because we have some strong thoughts about who can act quickly and who can perform that for us. But Commissioner Trevani, thank you. You turned us on to one person. I'm not sure that he'll be selected, but he was very helpful in a conversation with us. So that's where we are with that. The other item which is critical is the recruitment process. You had a meeting, I think it was about 10 days ago, I don't even know now that these things come and go so fast, with two recruiters who made presentations to you about bringing on both a potential interim COO as well as a long-term manager position. we yesterday we received the both of those proposals we'll be distributing those to you they contain not only a proposal for the services but also several resumes within the proposals of individuals who the companies have identified are immediately available should you choose to go with a interim coo and you follow that if that's the path you want to follow. So both are within this. There's a proposal to be engaged to search for a permanent manager and then a proposal to bring on an interim COO. And they're distinct and separate proposals. So you don't have to choose both. I mean, we asked them to separate those functions. So those are going to be distributed to you tomorrow. You can look through them. We need the council sort of needs to decide kind of a direction that you're going to want to take in making these selections. And and at the end of the day, which one of these firms do you want to work with in in pursuing a the candidates? OK, so that together with those proposals that will kind of outline for you the direction that that I think you should be taking. So that's my report. Are there any questions, comments about these particular items?

So a couple items, if you don't mind. First item on the referendum item. Yes. We're bringing it back. We've got, I mean, I've been speaking with people within the community. There seems to be a general consensus from the people I've spoken to, and I know it's come up before on the commission, about the retroactive nature of it, about the placement of it. So, of course, listening to people out there, I think it would be more beneficial maybe to revisit this for the next election, as it should have been, and bring it for November of, what is it, 2020? Well, that'll save me a lot of fast turnaround work. That's good. Yeah, so I think we've got maybe a little time. I don't... At least two of the commissioners have pushed for it before. But if the rest of the commission would be okay to, you know... Again, I still have my... qualms about the projects that we're going to be able to achieve. But if the other project you're talking about, bringing in a capital firm to help us identify some quick wins, I guess, so to speak, two years are not quick wins, but some more achievable, I'd be in favor of revisiting this and bringing it back for November during the election.

OK. So then let me make sure I get there's a consensus here, or at least a direction. So in lieu of trying to rush this through and make the changes you're suggesting, Mayor, that we hold back on the scheduled election and take this up after further consideration of the items? That would be my... We can put it off to the spring. I'm not sure. We'll have to ask probably for another special election. But you're talking into the next year.

I mean, I'm thinking November of 28 along with the next commission election.

Okay, so you're thinking to, okay, as long as I understand that we're not, you're proposing to withdraw it from the upcoming proposed special election at this point, right? Yep. Okay. Let's take it. So why don't we have a motion and a second on that?

If I may, we have three ballot questions in the November third election.

Okay, tell me what, remind me what they are. We have the.

You have establishing the four years target terms. Yes. Election method for vice mayor and plurality vote for mayor. You have the requiring a majority vote of the town commission for the expenditures exceeding $2 million.

and you have the removal of the sixty percent voter approval requirement for any expenditures on any single project purchase or investment okay the last two were at the moment we're going to keep on it's just the staggered term and electoral process that we're going to withdraw we we may end up depending on some work that i'm working on intently and trying to get done uh... we may not need those other votes either there's some

serious concerns that I have with with the enactment of the the limitations on your spending So if I to that last point I would You know, I'd love to talk to you about this perhaps separately, but I do think there is value in still voting on the issue even if there is as you suggested a possible conflict with state law and I would like to see them voted on again just to, out of respect for the residents who voted for it last time. And again, I opposed these measures last time. But I think procedurally, I hope that we could go through with them on the ballot. That would be my preference. I don't know how my colleagues feel. I'm interested in the state law analysis, of course. But if we can persuade the voters, that would be better. I think.

Yeah, well, I'm at the moment I'm I'm finding a significant defect in the process. So it may it may not be that. I mean, you could do a straw ballot or something if you wanted to do that. But it may be that there's no necessity for it.

Mayor, if I may, just for clarification and Steve. Yes. I've stayed at a Holiday Inn, but I'm not an attorney. Haven't used that one in a while. Just for clarification, Commissioner, the town cannot campaign for any measure. So there is no town trying to push getting rid of or enforcing or anything, whether it's this item or a bond or anything like that. I just want to make sure it's clear the town itself as a whole cannot campaign for any ballot measure.

No, thank you for clarifying. I did not mean to suggest that. I meant that if there is to be a change in the law, I would like it to come about through a persuasion of the voters who enacted it very recently. That is the point. The town, of course, takes no position. And I want to clarify, I am using my office. I understand what you're saying. Not in that way.

Okay, so I don't think there was a motion yet, but I think that I'd like to have a motion and a second on withdrawing the four-year staggered term item from the request for a special election.

So I'll pass the gavel and make the motion. I would draw the four-year staggered term from the special election.

I will second that.

Okay. Mayor, can I call a roll? Let's call the roll. Commissioner Trevani?

Yes.

Commissioner Valdostegui?

Yes.

Commissioner Weingart?

Yes.

Vice Mayor Van Meredy? Yes. Mayor Danziger? Yes. Mayor, the motion carries.

Thank you. I guess lastly, just to touch on, thank you. Just touch on the other item with the COO, the manager. Yes. I'm just, look, again, it's frustration, but we're here four months already, you know, through this process. If this was a regular two-year term, we'd be, you know, almost a quarter of our term going and we're still going. Can we just simplify the process, go for a manager, you know, that's another three month process right there, whatever it's gonna take maybe for the, you know, until we get their proposal, until we do the reviewing, let's just start simplifying. I know we wanted COO, we wanted different positions. I just wanna start moving forward.

Well, maybe I had a sense of, and I have not discussed it with you, maybe I'd have sent that and that's why I asked them to split up the proposal, which is to give us a proposal for just serving as a recruiter for managers and then also as a COO. If you want to limit this now at this point, I think it's an important decision of the council that you sort of take the direction that maybe what you want to do now is sort of skip the interim step and just go out and put a full-blown press on to try to get a full-time manager. Yes, you can absolutely do that. And under the proposals that we've obtained, that's a straightforward thing. The fees are there. The proposals are there. You just need to decide which firm it is that you want to work with. So, but if that's the direction you're going to go in, that's great. I'd like to just tell the recruiters that that's where we're going, and then we can set in process a meeting to select which group we want.

I had previously expressed that I would prefer to go the path of, you know, focus on identifying long-term rather than patchwork. So I would be in support of that.

I guess I didn't quite understand the mayor's proposal. I mean, because it wasn't the idea that we may just be stuck in a situation where we don't have a manager, so that we needed the COO as a potential manager given the lack of a long-term contract with the current acting manager. What's the difference exactly? I didn't quite follow.

Well, to your point, you're hiring a COO to take over as manager. Right. Just find the manager.

Right, just because it takes a little longer. Because we might find ourselves anyway, because we don't have control over the current acting manager's plans, we may find ourselves without a manager. So then in that moment, don't we need the COO? I mean...

No. No, you would act just as you're acting now. You've already voted to have Sandra serve as the acting town manager in the event that Mario leaves. So you filled that spot. And you would basically continue with the structure you have in place today.

I see.

In lieu of a COO. Now, the manager... You may decide with your new manager that you want to put in place a position such as a COO, which is not a bad concept. It could be a very effective concept for governance. But as opposed, I think what the mayor suggested, as opposed to trying to fill that role now, why don't you just go out, put a push on, try to get a full-time manager, and begin to work with him on the restructuring of the government as quickly as he can. And try to keep things going in the manner that you have right now. Without introducing somebody entirely new into the mix. That's what I'm hearing? Mayor? Okay.

Can I comment on that? Of course. Yeah. So, and I wasn't here when you guys discussed this, but I watched the videos. And so I remember, I think that you talked about this role being something needed, right? The COO being like a role that would need to be added because it looks like with the town, the way it is now, it doesn't seem like it's a one man job.

right that that's i remember that that's what so true but remember i also had concerns and then you know they they start coming up more after the meeting which is by charter town manager town attorney that's it that's all we should be sitting up here hiring so you know the the loophole essentially was oh we're not hiring an employee we're hiring a firm who's going to manage this guy who's going to act and maybe one day he'll turn into it just seems like a lot of Finagling and I just want to get to the end already. Let's find the guy if you know if the assumption is already Hey the CEO might turn into the manager We're gonna go through these months of process of finding hiring and you know interviewing Let's just find that guy that we feel comfortable with already And it doesn't preclude in any way you Having to begin to staff those critical departments now under your current acting manager

I mean, you know, this doesn't, for example, we all understand that there's a critical need for a financial director, okay? There was pursuit of somebody here, it fell through recently, but there's nothing to keep you, while this search is ongoing, from working with Mario in filling those positions. So you may be able to begin to enhance the team while this process is going without having a COO. Maybe you can fill that position of financial officer, which would be a great help to the overall operation.

I guess what I'm not quite understanding, I mean, and I share, look, I share the mayor's concern. I want to get things going, right? My understanding was that, and the legal question about the COO arrangement is important to me. I wanna make sure that we're doing that properly. So let's put that to the side. But just in terms of strategy of what we're trying to accomplish here, we asked the acting manager to do this analysis of the town and he came back with these serious concerns about our capacities. And I took it that the point of the COO was to immediately start, I mean, to your very concern about moving things forward, that we are able to move quickly on the capacity building during the search for a manager. And I have the utmost respect for our town clerk and confidence in her ability to serve as an acting manager But I don't know that that capacity building function would be something that she could do. She'd be taking care of the town. So in a way, you might end up losing time if we're not doing the capacity building while we search for the manager. Hopefully, you find a great manager right away. But I think we're in a limbo until we do. So as someone who shares your concern for getting things going, My question is just, are we sure that this change you're proposing actually gets that done, or does it actually slow us down, perhaps? I don't know.

Well, what I've seen progressing is the same thing, right? Like, we're creating the same process for this COO position as we are for the manager. So it seems like we're doing the same work now twice. I just want to concentrate it into one area, right? Because we don't have a COO ready to go. We have to do a search. We have to choose a firm. They have to bring us candidates. We got to go. We got to vet them. Why aren't we just putting this effort into the town manager?

Yeah.

At the moment, you have an acting town manager who is quite capable of identifying senior staff people to start filling the void that you're talking about. And if Mario's capacity building, you mean like that? Yes. And so you don't necessarily need a COO to fulfill that role as long as Mario's here and performing that task.

I think I agree that the key phrase is as long as Mario's here.

And then you'll, you know, if that changes, then you'll, you know, pivot.

Okay, so to your point, actually on Monday we're going to be talking about that, about this. Because when we're going to have our budget conversation, the biggest topic is personnel. And now we're going to structure that at the end of the day.

You could, you could, yes, you could continue this conversation then if you like, if they are not prepared to make a final decision now or, you know, either way, either way. But, but I do think that a decision, this is an important decision. If you're going to pivot here and go and attempt to recruit, A senior, as my friend David says, rock star. Um, then the idea is go get them, figure out how to go get them, get them in here and try to keep. The business of the city working well under the format that you currently have and try to fill that capacity issue and have Mario continue to work at that effort.

So I have a, I guess, proposal. So why don't we move ahead with the search for the town manager, like full speed ahead, and then maybe we'll see how the conversation is gonna go on Monday, because like I said, on Monday we're supposed to talk about each department and what each department needs and the personnel and the managers and who's gonna manage what and all that. And if we're satisfied with how we're gonna be structuring the organizational chart, that maybe at that point we don't need a COO.

Well, I want to say I still, like Commissioner Valdesta, I still believe there should be some sort of deputy manager, whatever it is, to fill that role. Now, again, that's not for us to fill. That's for the manager to choose someone capable in that sense, right? But by charter, we're not supposed to be hiring that position.

True.

So, yeah, it's a separate conversation. I'm still of the opinion that there should be that support system for a manager. There should be that fallback for the town in general. but that doesn't take away from what we should be focusing on. That should be his prerogative, I guess.

Right, right. Yeah, yeah. And actually... And actually, that's going to be what we're going to be talking about on Monday because we're going to be funding that position. So he's going to be choosing or she's going to be choosing, but we're going to be funding it. So that's our decision.

In anticipation in the upcoming year that there would probably be, whether you call it a COO, a deputy, a manager, whatever that role is, there probably should be some funding mechanism for that person.

Yeah. Okay. Yeah.

And just to game it out a little bit, if we did find ourselves in a situation where we had an interim manager from the staff, presumably the clerk, could we authorize funding for her to hire a COO? Yes.

Right. Yes. She would have all the powers that the manager has now. So yes, that funding doesn't go with a person. It goes with your budget.

But that's where I'm sort of losing touch a little bit with the difference. If that's what we're talking about, that sounds fine to me.

I think what I'm hearing is that trying to recruit both people at the same time, get a COO in here while we're pursuing a manager, and the transition and having Mario in his position as the acting manager and a COO under him is going to be very complicated and difficult to execute.

But with one of the firms, there was no recruitment. They already had identified an internal... Well, now they've put forward another two names. Oh, I missed that. Okay.

Yes. Well, you haven't gotten... I just got the proposal last night.

Okay. I thought I checked my email.

I thumbed through it, but... And one of the firms has four people as a COO. But it may be that what I'm hearing now is the focus should be on how they can help us identify the best possible manager and try to manage through this process now until we get that person on board. And if you choose at some point, at any point, as long as you have the funding in your budget, you could bring on additional personnel if this is taking too long and you choose to pivot and go towards a COO concept or whatever, you could do that.

All right. All right, we got direction?

I think I have direction. All right, perfect. Okay, so on Monday, you can have a continued discussion, but I'm going to tell the recruiters that the focus now is on the COO and that we'll be making a decision. We don't need any further interviews. Manager. We've met the people. We know the firms. You can decide who you think is going to serve the town better as a recruiter, and we'll take some sort of vote and notify them.

All right, and I think you did mean to say manager, right, just now?

Yes.

Manager, yeah.

All right, can we get a motion to accept the town attorney's report? So moved. I second. All right, Madam Clerk.

All in favor say aye.

Aye.

Any opposed? Motion carries.

All right. Moving on to the nines. We're going to skip the order a bit, try to get some things accomplished before the end of the night. 9E, rescheduling the August and September regular town commission meeting. I guess we can start with the original. Madam Vice Mayor, you had an issue with the September one. Wanted to reschedule September.

What?

I think. Yes, I would like to reschedule it. I think I gave you two dates, no?

Yes, the vice mayor was thinking of September 2nd or 3rd were the two dates that she provided us about.

I have no conflict with you, second.

Second or third of September.

No conflict here.

I generally Wednesdays are very bad for me I I've moved all my work away from Wednesday so I was like two Wednesdays yeah no Thursday's better I do you know and I really I very much want us all to be present for all the meetings and I don't know it seems Commissioner Weingart has a request coming up too so I don't know what the content of it but I just want to say I'm a little bit uncomfortable with the precedent we're setting here. And I want to be clear what it is. The mayor had requested this meeting to be moved. And at the time, it seemed like a one-off thing. We didn't ask about your reasons. I have a lot of things that I have to schedule all the time. The second Tuesday of the month is sacred and I've never asked to move a meeting. I know Commissioner Trevani planned his flight back from Italy for a Tuesday meeting this week. I sort of do that indefinitely. I don't want to get into, I mean, if potentially we reschedule August 2, that's three meetings in a row that we're moving around. And I just, I don't think that's really fair. I, again, I don't know either circumstance.

I don't know why you're so complicated sometimes. You're so like, you want to make a fight in everything. I don't understand.

That's not true.

Yes, you are. You are the only one who always has an issue with everything.

I don't understand why. That's not fair. No, yes, it is true. The meetings, I'm also somebody who...

I'm just asking if the second or the third. I don't understand why you have to make a big deal. Because they're... All right, the third...

I'm sorry, the third seems to work for everyone. I have the floor and I have to... This is, I think, an important point.

I don't understand why you're making a fine. Second or the third?

Because... The meetings are always challenging and we have to plan into the future. We have a monthly meeting and it's just not normal to move them around all the time.

You're so planned to September? To September you're planned... You are planned so far ahead your life from here to September?

I mean, September is two months away. Yeah, I do plan that much. But if I may, Madam, I think that was unfairly personal. I'm asking what the precedent here is. And I'm simply saying that I make a great effort to be here the second Tuesday of the month, and I clear that, and I plan travel around that. I'm sorry, what? Okay, well, she's walked out.

She went to the restroom.

Okay. Sorry, I'm asking what is the precedent we're setting here. There's an additional issue. I mean, the August meeting is supposed, this would create a three-week gap between the meetings, which is very short. We'd be having deadlines for the September meeting immediately after the August one. You know, normally it's four to five weeks between meetings. So what you haven't heard the August 8th so wait for well.

Yeah, I guess in the interim. Let's just assume the 3rd is working better for most of us up here.

Mary by may just have in mind that the September 8th of first hearing for the budget was to us to have. We'll have to happen on the 8th yep.

All right. All right commissioner wine got you had August 8 proposal.

YES, SO I'M OUT FROM THE 10th THROUGH THE 24th, SO I WOULD REQUEST EITHER THE FIRST WEEK OR LAST WEEK IN AUGUST.

I GUESS LAST WEEK WOULDN'T MAKE SENSE IF THE THIRD GOES THROUGH, SO MAYBE THE FIRST.

POSSIBLY AUGUST AND SEPTEMBER INTO ONE.

THAT'S FINE. THE FIRST WEEK OF AUGUST I HAVE VACATION AND I HAVE THINGS THAT I HAVE PLANNED. I guess, may I ask, through the mayor, what are the reasons for these changes? If they're personal travel.

Listen, it doesn't matter. Our code allows for this, provided that this is brought up ahead of time. They're asking for that. that consideration, and you can vote yes or no. That's what's going to happen tonight. You can say no, you can have obvious issues with it, and then just like everything else, it'll go the way it's supposed to, you know?

We could, right, but as a matter of professionalism, I think, you know, these meetings obviously are a huge...

So noted, but again, to sit up here and denigrate your fellow commissioners...

I'm not denigrating anybody, I'm simply asking for the reason.

It's not for you to ask.

And I think that's completely unfair. I've not denigrated anybody. I'm asking, what is the general rule that we're going to use for moving meetings? Because I'm saying, as somebody with experience on the commission, that I plan my life around the second Tuesday of the month, and I expect a level of professionalism from everybody. And look at all the people that assemble on the second Tuesday of the month, all the staff, everybody. We all plan our lives around this. So if somebody's going to say, oh, I'd like another night, it's fair to ask why. Out of respect, last time when you suggested it, I did not ask why, but I think it would have been a fair question. And the vice mayor has left the room. If this is... If it's, you know... I mean, I just can't tell you the number of times I've moved something personally to make a meeting.

I'm just going to let you know there are commissions that have canceled complete summer meetings. Okay. So we're going above and beyond with our community to try to adapt and have meetings in the summer, which is usually very difficult for family-oriented people, people that have lives outside of their homes, people that have kids and their kids are off on vacation. We have to balance that life. Right.

That's why we have a schedule. That's why we plan around the second Tuesday of the month.

You plan around it. And other people have, again, I'm not going to ask what the cause is. And it's not for me to ask. But if they're asking to move it, that's the consideration that we're having tonight. Are you okay with moving? And if not, you've made that very abundantly clear. You can vote no. And we'll see how the rest of the commission votes.

Well, it does depend in part on the August meeting as well.

Yep. We'll see.

So Madam Clerk suggested perhaps a merge now with that network?

After reading our charter, section 19 of the charter says, but no less frequently than once a month, once each month. I will defer to the town attorney to see if that's possible, but that's section 19 of the charter.

I'VE READ THAT LANGUAGE A COUPLE TIMES IN THE PAST NOW AND I DO THINK IT REQUIRES, FRANKLY, I WAS PLANNING MY OWN TIME AWAY AND I SAW THAT AND I SAID, WELL, WE HAVE TO HAVE A MEETING IN AUGUST. SO ANYWAY, I DON'T THINK YOU CAN SKIP A MEETING. I THINK WE HAVE TO HOLD A MEETING DURING THE MONTH. WHEN IT IS, IS TOTALLY UP TO THE DECISION OF THIS COUNCIL. I understand that it's scheduled for the first Tuesday typically that this is disruptive in trying to plan your lives. But you can change it.

Okay, so all I'll say is if we're going to be going with the 3rd of September, then probably the last week, August, makes no sense. So to move it closer to the beginning of August or propose a date closer to the beginning. Because July, hopefully, will still be like today's July. We've got quite a bit of time.

Why don't you pick the second, make the first decision, which is this, because as long as you're going to separate them by weeks, is the 2nd or 3rd better?

I think the 3rd seems, the Thursday seems better than Wednesday. Yeah. Okay. If it's one or the other. All right, so can we get a motion to move the September meeting to September 3rd?

So moved.

All right, I'll second. Madam Clerk?

Commissioner Weingart?

Yes.

Commissioner Trevani?

Yes.

Commissioner Velazquez?

I can make the third, so yes.

Vice mayor Murney yes, mayor Dan singer, yes, mail motion carries thank you all right, let's figure out August August.

So the days proposed assuming we'll do the first half of August.

Was either the first week to between the 3rd and the 6 would August the 4th work.

Thursday seems to be better or.

What is the proposal for first week of August. Yeah. First week. I'm confused. But what that means I mean. No. The week of August 3rd I can't. And again I you know I just don't think this is fair. You know with this short notice.

We've got a month.

and the 25th of August.

Well, then we'd be having another commission meeting the next week, so it doesn't make sense.

I mean, I could do the 25th, though. I mean, if the point is to satisfy the legal requirement, I could do the 25th.

It could be a very short agenda.

Sure, all right.

It just says you have to have a meeting. It doesn't say, and it doesn't mandate that everybody be here.

I could attend any special meeting also in the interim.

Those are special meetings, but a regular meeting, we need a regular meeting during the month of August.

All right, I would just like to space it out as best as possible, so I mean.

I'm not gonna be here on the 25th. All right, there goes that.

Please also have in mind that August 18, it's election, and the chambers will be closed probably for a week, a week and a half.

So we got no choice. Let's do fourth or sixth guys. What works?

Wait, sorry. I mean that way of presenting it. I have to object to then we're just choosing that he gets to attend and I don't and I and I'm the one who planned my Week around the meeting that that's not fair. I can't do the fourth or the sixth And we shouldn't be picking and choosing which Commissioner gets to attend that's not it's not right and I would respectfully ask Commissioner Weingart to withdraw his request, and it's okay to miss a meeting.

On the 24th, is it possible?

No, the Commission Chambers is closed for elections that week.

I know, but for how long? For more than a week?

Sometimes for more than a week. Oh, wow. Okay, okay. It depends on the Elections Department. I don't have those dates yet.

It seems like there's not an alternate date that works, so I'll withdraw that.

I thank you for that. I can't do that first week.

So the August meeting will stay as scheduled?

August 11th, correct.

The 10th?

No, when do you leave?

The 10th.

Okay. Okay.

Mayor, I think the next item will be item 9F.

Next item will be 9F. All right, single family zoning regulations. Mr. Manager, it's got your name on it? Okay.

I'll do a quick introduction and then the attorney can do it. Based on the settlement agreements, we have various applications that are coming in. And so I asked the attorney for direction as to what we do with regards to the code and how do we apply the code to the applications. So he's taken a look at it. provided a memo, which has been part of the agenda. I know that there was a revision to include H30B. So it's just all single family home zoning areas, essentially. But I think it just kind of comes down to the various options as to how the commission wants to address and then give direction to staff. Steve, do you want to? Yeah.

So, Mario sort of summarized it. I hope that this memo is clear and provides the context. We find ourselves in a little bit of a weird place. We have these new regulations which were put in place legally, not legally. For the moment, it's not important as to that particular issue. What they have done is created this potential liability, which we now have seen through these settlements. And now we're looking again at a series of the same problems, which is people are coming forward. They want to file applications. They see that the town is allowed these other people to proceed, and they want to know what are the rules. So the question is, what do you do? You can stick to the rules that are in place and hope we don't get sued and just tell everybody those suits we settled but you know you're you're still under the old rules and we can apply those so we do nothing that that's one option assuming that you want to avoid that situation and you don't want to expose yourself again to more lawsuits and claims and so forth that we've got to resolve then there's really two options one is you make a decision that We're just not gonna apply these, what I'm gonna call down zoning just for the moment, but these modifications and you rescind them and you put yourself back to where you were prior to October 24 with the code in place the way it was, okay? The other thing you could do is temporarily suspend them. so you don't have the risk of lawsuits, take the time to evaluate what, if anything, you want to do with those regulations. Maybe there are some of them that you think are fine and were a good idea, but not all of them. And you could re-look at those regulations and see, okay, maybe there is some value to some of this, but let's study it and let's see what kind of modifications to those we want to make. You also have the benefit during that time to see what happens with the ongoing statewide litigation, which is challenging the 180 law altogether. So you would have the benefit of seeing maybe the result of that. during what I'll call a moratorium. So you can decide to leave it alone. As a lawyer, I hate to tell you to put yourself at risk like that, but you could. We probably will get some more demand letters, and we'll be dealing with them. Or just decide we're going back to the old rules. rescind it, or decide we're going to suspend them for the time being while we await what happens on the 180 lawsuit statewide and while we re-look at these regulations and see whether you want to keep them or not. So there's really sort of three options. But we do need direction from the council on what to do. We have people literally waiting to file applications and saying, you know, do I design the house this way or this way? Can I have my set back here? Can I have this FAR? We need to give direction to people. Okay, so that's the issue presented to you for direction on the manager needs to know what direction you want to take on this. And then we can come back legally and put that in place.

Yeah.

Yes.

Yeah. So I'd like to start by saying that I really think that the SB18 is deeply flawed. I mean, from an engineering perspective, I mean, you look at this and it applies to any project. property within 100 miles from a hurricane path. I mean, we never had in the past year or two, to my knowledge at least, damages from a hurricane here. So that's the first thing that, and trying to use that as a loophole to then build something new is like, like I said, it's a loophole. It's like your property was not damaged. You're just trying to find a loophole to build something different. So having said that, I have a question. So there's a bunch of towns and cities that are suing the state, right, on SB 180. Is Bay Harbor one of them? Ball Harbor, Bay Harbor? Someone told me that.

I don't know if they're, I'm not sure that, yes. I think Bell Harbor is a party to that suit. It's about 28 municipalities.

Right.

That brought the suit.

Because I was wondering what they do. Like, what are they doing?

Like, are they... Well, they're not... Are they in this conflict or not? They're not downzoning anybody. In other words...

What 180 said is that... Oh, they kept the same code. Yeah.