Town Commission - Regular Meeting

VICE MAYOR BIDEN-MURGEE, VICE MAYOR BIDEN-MURGEE, ABSENT. VICE MAYOR BIDEN-MURGEE, ABSENT. COMMISSIONER GIOVANNI. COMMISSIONER GIOVANNI. COMMISSIONER GIOVANNI. COMMISSIONER GIOVANNI. COMMISSIONER GIOVANNI. COMMISSIONER GIOVANNI.

COMMISSIONER GIOVANNI. COMMISSIONER GIOVANNI. COMMISSIONER GIOVANNI.

COMMISSIONER GIOVANNI. COMMISSIONER GIOVANNI. COMMISSIONER GIOVANNI. COMMISSIONER GIOVANNI. COMMISSIONER GIOVANNI. COMMISSIONER GIOVANNI. COMMISSIONER GIOVANNI. COMMISSIONER GIOVANNI. COMMISSIONER GIOVANNI.

Thank you. All right. Item 1D, invocation by Father Juan Sosa. Commissioner Trevani, I believe you made the request. If you want to give a little introduction. Your father has been part of this community for a very long time, probably way before I have been.

Thank you for the invitation. It's good to be back. Father Andrew could not make it, and so I was called to come. And this is just a brief prayer for which we open this. We grow grateful for God's gifts around us. Our gratitude finds a source in many texts from the Bible, especially for me, the letters of St. Paul. And I like to quote just a little line. The Lord is nearby. have no anxiety, put in everything by prayer and petition with thanksgiving, make your request known to God. In that context, we pray this evening as we gather here at the council meeting. Almighty and eternal God, you are the source of peace and justice and have revealed your gifts to all those who recognize your presence, especially during tough times and conflicts or aggressions. We ask you today, as always, to guide all elected officials and their assistants who strive to exercise their call to the people entrusted to their care in this city of Surfside. Assist them with your spirit of counsel and fortitude that their work may find expression in righteousness and peace. Let the light of your divine wisdom direct their deliberations and shine forth in all their proceedings, so that as they seek to promote the well-being of this community with all of its diversity and at times unexpected tensions, they may continue to guard our welfare and do their best for the common good. May you enable them by your powerful protection to continue to discharge their duties with honesty and ability. We pray to you who are Lord and God forever and ever. Amen. And thank you for the invitation.

Thank you, Father.

Nice to have you back.

All right, moving on to Item 1E, Agenda and Order of Business. I have a couple of changes, first and foremost. I don't see as many parents as I thought we would have. But Item 9F has been sitting on our agenda for, I think, this is the fourth month already. School is going to be starting on Thursday, and obviously we've had a lot of concerned parents reaching out I know Mario the town manager has been looking at other options and has some things for us to consider I would like to move this forward I don't know if there's parents here specifically for that if there's residents here for that item but I would like to move that up after consent if you guys are okay with that yeah sure All right and then lastly let's see if we can if you guys are okay adding or moving 5a and b into consent as well these should be standard contracts unless you guys have additional questioning I know we were given an additional or amended resolution if you guys have the opportunity to go through it ahead of time we can move it to consent I don't believe there's any additional cost for what has been added when you want to leave it on its own mayor

I'M JUST FOR CLARIFICATION. WHAT'S BEEN ADDED FOR CONSENT, THERE WAS AN OVERSIGHT WHEN DRAFTING THE RESOLUTION. IT WAS PART OF THE PRESENTATION. BUT THE SHORT-TERM DISABILITY LIFE THAT'S ALREADY PART OF IT, IT JUST WASN'T SPELLED OUT WITHIN THE RESOL. SO WE MADE SURE THAT IT WAS SPELLED OUT BUT THERE IS NO COST DIFFERENCE OR ANYTHING WITHIN THE PLAN THAT IS ALREADY BEING PRESENTED.

All right. And I'm assuming there's some quotes that were added to the item. We're going with the same one. I don't know if you guys feel comfortable putting it to consent, if you had any questions ahead of time that were short enough so we don't get into full discussion. Otherwise, we can just leave it out.

by me we uh i got a briefing on this from the manager so i'm comfortable putting both in i would uh like to suggest two other additions to the agenda um let's just get approval on those two and then we'll move on sure thing um i'll move to approve the mayor's uh changes to the agenda all in favor i'll second it all in favor aye all opposed none all right So I'd like to make two additions. I think we should add a 1G for board and committee appointments. I think the youth council may have missed the August meeting, but so that they can have the September meeting, we've got to appoint the five at large. And I think we should address that as a new item 1G. And then separately, I'd like to add a new item, 9J, I guess, at the end, discussing sort of trying to get clarity on how to communicate to the Florida Wildflower Foundation, which gave us a grant, the recent change in the name of the park. So I'd like to add 9J and then also add 1G for committee appointments.

ALL RIGHT. I UNDERSTAND WITH THE YOUTH I UNDERSTAND WITH THE YOUTH COUNCIL AGAIN THERE'S AT LARGE COUNCIL AGAIN THERE'S AT LARGE WHICH BASICALLY MEANS THE WHOLE WHICH BASICALLY MEANS THE WHOLE COMMISSION OR EACH COMMISSIONER GETS COMMISSION OR EACH COMMISSIONER GETS ONE OF THOSE FIVE. ONE OF THOSE FIVE. I DON'T THINK WE'RE EVER CLEAR I DON'T THINK WE'RE EVER CLEAR ON THAT. ON THAT. IF YOU WANT TO PUT IN YOUR IF YOU WANT TO PUT IN YOUR PERSON IF YOU HAVEN'T HAD THE PERSON IF YOU HAVEN'T HAD THE OPPORTUNITY SO WE CAN HAVE THE OPPORTUNITY SO WE CAN HAVE THE BOARD SO WE CAN START MEETING BUT I DON'T BOARD SO WE CAN START MEETING BUT I DON'T WANT TO FILL UP THE

IT WOULD BE GOOD TO DISCUSS IT A LITTLE BIT TOO BECAUSE WE HAVE SIX APPLICANTS FOR THE FIVE AT LARGE SEATS AND ONE PERSON IS GOING TO BE THE ODD ONE OUT AND IT'S A REGRETABLE SITUATION. I'D LIKE TO HAVE A MOMENT TO DISCUSS IT. I'LL KEEP THE MOTION AS ADDING 1G AND ADDING 9J.

AGAIN, IF YOU WANT TO DISCUSS, I WOULD THINK IT'S APPROPRIATE TO PUT IT INTO NINE IF THIS IS GOING TO START TAKING ANOTHER 45 MINUTES IN THIS MEETING.

Well, I mean, I have the motion, so.

So the motion is to.

The motion is to discuss youth council board appointment so that they can have a meeting and get started in September. I'd like to have that as an item 1G. We can always postpone it, but I think we should discuss it. And then I'm adding a 9J to discuss.

Just to clarify, now we have two members that are being appointed, right?

We the Youth Council I plan to appoint a third and you're gonna be a put and then we have a quorum Yeah, okay so but I but then we have the pending at large applications and I I

So let's separate the items because you want to discuss how we want to manage the at-large and put in your person so they can meet if you have someone and this way the Youth Council could continue but again you want to have a much larger conversation I don't know if it's appropriate to put it over here into a board appointment.

I know I understand the reservation I would again I have the motion to as it is to have the 1G and the 9J is my motion.

Okay, yeah. Well, it should be fairly quick, so I second that.

All right, all in favor? Aye. All opposed? All right, moving on to item 1F, Mayor and Commission remarks. So thank you everyone for coming out here today. It's so nice to see public participation. I don't know if Commissioner, it's because of your video you put out, but I think you said it. I couldn't just state it better myself. There's a lot that happens in this room. And a lot of people don't really pay enough attention. So I'm glad that you know, sometimes it takes an item that affects people personally But to bring people out, but I'm glad to have people out here to see this And see the process that happens here. So again, we will be discussing the bus item. We'll get to that shortly And I just want to thank you for coming out and welcome to today's meeting Yeah Same when I echo that

I posted a video on my Instagram page last night just because it's good to get emails from residents. I think it's a great thing. And there may be a specific item that is picking your interest, but there's a lot going on. Feel free to send emails. Feel free to... speak on the podium it's it really really helps us it gives us the feedback that we need to guide ours are to guide our decisions so thank you for that

Yeah, I'll just say a quick word of welcome to everybody to this August meeting. It is nice to see the turnout, and I agree with what both of my colleagues have said. It was, you know, public engagement is important and makes a difference. So to those of you who have turned out tonight, emailed, I also want to add my thanks. I also want to take a moment to congratulate our new interim chief of police, Jay Metellus, who is here with us. And... You know, it's obviously a very familiar face in these chambers and around this town, but when you see the outpouring of affection and support that he's received on social media and elsewhere, it's no surprise, really, for the work that he's done. So thank you for stepping up, Interim Chief Metellus.

All right, moving on to new item 1G, Youth Council.

All right, so yeah, if I may, I wanted to go first on this. I discussed this with the town attorney today. There's one student whose application I can't consider, so I wanted to just go ahead and make the next appointment so that that person can get fair consideration. There are then three people that I am able to consider for the first-timer slot. And it's a tough choice. I really do wish we could let everybody on. I would prefer, I'm just going to say to my colleagues, I would prefer to change the charter so that we can have even greater participation. But the three applicants, and I want to be as transparent as possible, there's one high school senior and two juniors. And I just felt that seniority should prevail in this situation because she'll only have one chance to be on the council. So I nominate Ms. Veronica Lopez, who is a high school senior, to be on the Youth Council. And then I don't know if that needs any, I don't think that needs a ratification, but we're good. Okay, then I'm proposing that we discuss the at-large seats. And Mr. Mayor, I heard your concern. I just think we've postponed the Youth Council now several times. And just last time we settled on this situation with the at-larges. We've got six applicants for five spots. Some of that is a policy discussion and maybe we should add it as a number nine, but I also think we should just appoint at least five of them so they can get started in September. Yeah, they would have a quorum, but it's the most minimal quorum. And the whole point of having the at-large was to have guidance from the people who've done it before. And they won't have that. It'll just be the three newbies in a room together. And I'm not sure, you know, nobody's chaired a meeting. I just think it would be good for them to be able to get started now since school is starting this week. So I don't know how to proceed. I mean, it's a tough situation where we have to pick five out of six. And I think they're all qualified. I don't know if we can make a motion. And let me just go over quickly. I marked this up earlier. The ones who are eligible for the at-large seats are O'Malley, Dominguez, Chavez, Saifi, Buthori, Epstein, and Pack, if I'm not mistaken. And the clerk, I would ask her to confirm that. Those six have already served on the Youth Council. that's correct so they're the ones eligible for the five seats um i don't think there's anyone else eligible because if i'm not mistaken former chair lacour and vice chair garcia have graduated so everyone who could apply for the five seats has applied and now we have to choose and again mr mayor i understand your concern but we have to choose from these six I don't know, I don't know what, you know, my preference honestly would be to make a motion to pick all six. And that way, you know, I don't, you know, we're not really excluding Commissioner Weingart and Vice Mayor Ben Merge from anything. Yeah, so I mean, the legality of that, it might be questionable. I asked the town attorney perhaps to chime in, but I would just make a motion to appoint all six.

Yeah, I'd be, I'm okay with that. I mean, we did, the previous commission did that as well, right? There were like a bunch of applications and they decided to go. Yeah. So I don't think that there's anything in particular that would, be a problem in this case. I don't see it. And then maybe since that each one of us has to pick someone, then we'll wait for Commissioner Weingart and Vice Mayor to pick who they wanna pick for the regular Youth Council members. I think that could make sense.

All right, so I keep hearing we have to, we have to. And I feel like this is manufactured a sense of urgency. As long as you have a quorum, they can meet. And as of now, they have a quorum so they can meet. And what you're doing is you're being presumptuous and you're deciding, the two of you right here, to choose all five or all six of the seats that are available. Now, you've done this before, and we've had to undo it. Again, you guys have two tonight, and you have the majority, so you can do whatever it is you want here. But understand that that's not right. What you're doing is you're making the decision for the entire commission. These are at-large seats. There's five of them. The intent that each of us get to go out, and again, I keep saying go out because none of you have done that, or at least you haven't, which is go out and ask children if they would like to be a part of the community and be a part of this program. THAT IS WHAT I DID. I DIDN'T FIND SOMEONE THAT HAD COME BACK AND PUT IN THEIR APPLICATION FOR THE SECOND OR THIRD TIME. I WENT OUT TO FIND SOMEONE NEW AND THAT'S WHAT I INTEND TO DO WITH WHAT I CONSIDER MY AT LARGE SEAT AS WELL. IT DOESN'T NECESSARILY HAVE TO BE A TEACHER. IT COULD BE SOMEBODY THAT'S LEARNING IN THAT SAME SEAT. Now there is going to be a member of the commission myself who is going to be sitting with that board and assisting them and teaching them how to make motions and go through the process. So to pretend that you have three kids in a room by themselves is not being honest. So again do whatever it is you want to do. If you want to fill the entire board do that and then just expect that within a couple of weeks we're going to empty it back and we'll all be able to put in one of our own people.

I think, Mr. Mayor, you may have misunderstood, and this is in the resolution, in the charter of the council. The at-large members must be former members.

No, they can be former members.

It says who are. I spoke about this with the town attorney. Through the chair, I could ask the town attorney. My understanding was that the five at-large, it says who are, who have served. We spoke about this on the phone. That's why I was saying this earlier, that the six who applied are the only ones who can apply, and they are all the ones who can apply. That would be the reason for moving forward on this. I mean, it's good to get clarity on that issue, but my understanding is that the way it's worded, they have to be former members, so no one else could apply.

I understand there's a lot of ambiguity in this current charter because that's what happens when we adopt a 16-year-old's charter in this town, quite frankly, without having the attorney vet it. There's already something that we're going to have to review. So again, you do you. You guys got a motion, do what you want, but we will be cleaning up this charter and this board as well.

RIGHT NOW WE HAVE PUBLIC COMMENT. THROUGH THE MAYOR, THOUGH, CAN I ASK THE ATTORNEY? THERE WAS A QUESTION ON THE FLOOR TO THE ATTORNEY. I SAID THROUGH THE MAYOR COULD THE ATTORNEY CLARIFY THE WORDING OF THE CHARTER, PLEASE? BECAUSE IT DOES BEAR ON WHAT WE'RE DOING HERE.

Through the mayor, good evening. I was not here when this charter was adopted. I was handed a copy. It basically says the town commission may appoint up to five additional at-large non-voting members who have served a previous term. You could interpret that to mean that it's not mandatory that commission may appoint up to five?

And may and shall, that's the first thing you learn.

Who may and who served previously, right? But the who served previously is a restrictive clause. The may is that you may go up to five. But I'm sorry, the who have served previously is a restrictive clause modifying the members. It doesn't say who have or have not served previously. So the may, the force of the may is on the number five, as I would think. It's not on the restriction of having served.

I think that's a reasonable interpretation, but again, I don't think that this is super crystal clear, what it says, but I think that's a reasonable interpretation.

All right, I'm going to go to public comment. Ms. Barbara Cohen, Three Ministries.

This is a very personal matter to me, and I think it's a no-brainer. I'm sorry, Barbara Cohen, 9341 Collins Avenue. As a teenager, I was on a board of a community center, and it led me to being a member of a community. And it taught me a lot. I think it's a disservice to kids if they can't serve when they want to. And I just feel that I've served this community. It's been my pleasure. And I don't think I've shamed myself, but I do know that except for the time I was in an accident, I was at every meeting. I don't find that to be the case. We had several times not enough for a quorum. And people have to be aware. And this is a good learning experience. Thank you.

Thank you. All right, seeing no other speakers, closing public comment, and going back to the commission.

I would like to, I mean, because I wanted to get clarity on the question. I appreciate the attorney's answer, but I think the language of that says that they're former members. I also, I do want to address, because this has come up before, Mr. Mayor, and we may have a disagreement about this that I think we should talk about. I have a lot of experience working with teenagers in academic contexts and when they're applying for merit-based organizations and boards like this. It's what I do. And teenagers have a really, especially when it comes to college applications and anything that could go on that, a really highly developed sense of fairness. the people who have applied already put in their applications in some cases months ago. And I just think it's unfair for us to be going out and seeking people when we have qualified applicants who have put in the applications. And the mayor has said on several occasions, we're supposed to go out and knock on doors. That's not really how you do a merit-based thing. You put out the call for applications. We publicize it repeatedly. We've talked about it at several meetings. And the applications come in. If I choose some door to knock on, then it's sort of like my preference. But we let the applications come in, and then we pick the best candidates. And that's how you do a fair process. I say this respectfully, but the student that the mayor appointed never even applied. And I think there's a problem with that because, The message that's sending to kids is, it's not about whether you follow the rules and apply, it's about who you know. And that's not the message we should be sending on a public board. It should be merit-based, there should be clear rules. I'm already, as you know, disappointed that the rules changed after the first round of applications and the names were already in. But again, when people have been applying for months to make them wait because you want to cast a wider net, I don't think that's fair. And I say this also with respect to Commissioner Weingarten and Vice Mayor Ben-Mergi. I don't think we're cutting them out because I think the council charter requires a year of experience. I think that is not just a reasonable reading of it, but I think it is the correct and only reading of it. And so now there is the question of what to do with the six. I would move to appoint all six In the alternative, as part of the same motion, if that can't be done legally, then we draw lots. And I would ask the town attorney to just do a random process to pick the five, though I think it would be unfortunate if we had to do that. So my motion is to appoint all six if legally permitted, and if not, to direct the town attorney to do a selection by lot.

Is there a second?

It's a question. Do we have to go through this again? That's what you're saying.

If this is how we're going to play it, then yes, go for it.

What's the point?

That's what I would like to know.

It's not playing it. I mean, these kids.

Let's move on. You've been speaking for 20 minutes. Let's have Andrea for 20 minutes and then we're moving on. We'll call the vote if that's what's wanted.

No, I don't.

Listen, if,

IF YOU FEEL STRONGLY THAT THIS IS NOT THE WAY THAT IT SHOULD BE SINCE THAT MANY OTHER TIMES YOU WERE ABLE TO INFLUENCE THE COMMISSION, I THINK THAT IT'S POINTLESS TO VOTE ON THIS AND GO ON BACK AND FORTH ON SOME BAKERY. I APPRECIATE THAT.

SO MOTION DIES. LACK OF A SECOND. MOVING ON.

OKAY.

ITEM THREE, CONSENT AGENDA. WE HAVE PUBLIC COMMENT. MICHAEL KURUKIN, THREE MINUTES, PLEASE.

Michael Kerrigan, 9365 Abbott. Speaking on item 3G regarding the audit contract. So I wanted to ask if you could direct the town manager or at least inquire with the town manager if it includes an audit of the parking trust fund component of the municipal parking fund. I've talked about this several times. There's 331,000 that is, at least that I tallied, that it's not clear exactly if all of that fell under 90-77. Also on page four of that contract, it talked about identification of significant risks of material misstatements, and it gives two items, management override of internal controls and improper revenue recognition. So again, I think it's incumbent upon you to ask the town manager what that means, the significance of it. And from my perspective, since it mentioned improper revenue recognition, I was wondering if that meant revenue that had anything to do with monies received under 90-77. Thank you very much.

Thank you. Seeing no other speaker cards, closing public comment. Can we get a motion on the table?

Move the consent agenda forward, but could we get an answer to the question about the parking fund audit?

We need a motion first and a second.

Okay, then I move the consent agenda. SECOND.

MR. MAYOR, YES. NO, IT DOES NOT. THE INDEPENDENT EXTERNAL AUDIT IS OVERSEEING JUST FISCAL YEAR 25 AND THEN PREPARING FOR FISCAL YEAR 26. SOME OF THE CONCERNS ARE RETROACTIVE AND HISTORICAL. AS IT HAS BEEN EXPLAINED TO THE COMMISSION, ONCE THE INTERNAL TEAM FOR FINANCE IS ABLE TO to finalize the closeout of fiscal year 25. We did finish the reconciliation, so they're doing the closeout. Once they hand that off over to the auditors, then they'll start digging through all the historical information that our resident is requesting. But no, this audit does not include a forensic audit of the parking fund. All right. Madam Clerk.

Just to confirm, this includes item 5A and 5B that were moved into consent agenda. Commissioner Cervantes?

Yes.

Commissioner Volostegui?

Yes.

Mayor Danziger? Yes. Mayor, the motion carries.

Thank you. Moving on to 7A, manager's report.

Mayor, it's the bus.

Oh, sorry. I got that over there. Okay, so it's 9F, Ruth K Broad Bus. I know over the last couple of months, again, Mario's been working on different piggybacking off my name of the county and bringing some solutions that we can implement quickly considering school is starting on Thursday. So Mr. Manager, turning it over to you.

Sure. Thank you, Mayor. I appreciate it. And to everybody who's emailed as well and for all of the members of the commission before I give a quick update, because essentially everything that is on the cover memo stands. This is something that we've been working on before the last school year has concluded. THE RECOMMENDATION IF THE TOWN, YOU HAVE SEVERAL OPTIONS IN FRONT OF YOU, BUT IF THE TOWN IS LOOKING FOR SOMETHING MORE IMMEDIATE, PIGGYBACKING OFF OF THE COUNTY CONTRACT THAT WILL ENSURE NOT ONLY THAT A PROPER WELL MAINTAINED BUS IS USED BUT THAT WE HAVE THE APPROPRIATE CERTIFIED AIDES AND DRIVER TO DEAL WITH THE ISSUES THAT MAY OCCUR ON A BUS, WHICH IS NOT SOMETHING THAT WAS DONE WITH THE LAST CONTRACTOR. is is recommended there are three that service this area um all three are um said that they're available and ready to to go if you guys want and it ranges essentially from eighty to a hundred thousand dollars um but we do have two emails from um our um from the commission that they asked that it be read into the record um sandra do you want to read that sure let's find it I was going to get to it after we get a motion. Okay.

That's the quickest recap I can give you. Just very quickly before I request a motion, I guess, for specifics, is there a, there's three options here, starting from 79,200 going up to 99,000.

have we heard back you know if there's any that should be ready to go you know that we can close out yeah so as I mentioned all three are are ready to go and available should you decide which one you want these are based on the current prices for this year based on the contract that this school board has active

IS THERE ANY DIFFERENCES BETWEEN THE THREE AS FAR AS THE DIFFERENT BUSES OR ANYTHING IN THE SERVICE THAT IS REFLECTED IN THIS PRICE OR NOT AT ALL?

THEY ALL MEET THE SAME SCOPE AND REQUIREMENTS THAT THE SCHOOL BOARD PUT OUT. IT'S JUST THE PRICING THAT THEY PUT TOGETHER FOR THEIR BID. THE COUNTY CREATED A POOL OF VENDORS INSTEAD OF JUST RELYING ON ONE VENDOR. AND SO THERE'S ACTUALLY ABOUT NINE VENDORS TOTAL. but only three work in the Northeast quadrant of the county. And those are the three that we got the pricing from. So the day, the Fran Mar charges about 550 per day on a 180 day schedule. The M&M Marroquin charges 450 and the Carlos and Susan school bus service is 440 per day for 180 days of the school year. AND THEY'RE ASSUMING ABOUT 45 TO ABOUT 50 TRADITIONAL YELLOW SCHOOL BUS, TWO KIDS TO THE SEAT AND THAT'S HOW THEY WOULD FILL UP THE BUS IF WE HAVE ABOUT 45.

I HAVE TWO QUESTIONS. HOW DOES IT WORK FOR KIDS THAT WANT TO JOIN THE BUS? DOES IT ROLL OVER FROM LAST YEAR? IS IT FIRST COME, FIRST SERVE EVERY YEAR?

RUDY, CAN YOU COME UP AND TALK ABOUT THE TOWN PROCESS?

Good evening, mayor commission. Um, so we have, um, we send out a notice to all the parents and residents through the red trap or we put flyers out and then we do it on a first come first serve basis, um, until we reach a capacity. And then we start a waiting list and we get the emails, uh, emergency contact information, phone numbers. And then obviously we get the student's information grade. Um, obviously the school, we asked for the teacher's name in case we ever have any emergencies related. We know who to contact as well.

All right, so considering school starts on Thursday, how are we going to fill up this bus?

If this gets approved today, I would have to start working on it as soon as possible tomorrow morning.

All right, so let's start moving on. I guess all three the same, could we get a motion to approve one of them, and then we'll open up public comment if there is. Thank you, Rudy.

Sorry, when you say motion to approve one of them, do you mean one particular one, or just

Well, I'm assuming that since there's a $20,000 difference, we may want to go to the cheaper one, but yeah.

Yeah. The cheapest one? Because there's two of them that are sort of within a small difference, Carlos and Susanna and Eminem. I WOULD LIKE TO MAKE A MOTION FOR CARLOS AND SUSANNA.

MOTION FOR CARLOS AND SUSANNA. I DON'T HAVE ANY SPEAKER CARDS I DON'T HAVE ANY SPEAKER CARDS IN THIS ITEM. IN THIS ITEM. I'M ASSUMING THERE'S A BUNCH OF I'M ASSUMING THERE'S A BUNCH OF PEOPLE THAT CAME OUT FOR THIS. All right. I'll just ask you to fill out a card afterwards.

Carl Alaqua, 9116 Emerson. Thank you.

That's it.

Representing parents, I know some of you guys are here, but I know a lot of people. I have a child. It's really important to a lot of people. Thank you.

Thank you, Carlos. If you can, just fill out a card with the clerk quickly, so she has your information. All right, seeing none, closing public comment, moving on to Commission discussion. I don't know if there's much more of discussion that's needed. Faster we get this, Rudy's gonna run out and start working and sending emails, right?

All right, yeah. Well, I just wanna make one quick comment. I'm proud to have been on the Commission that initiated this service. I think it's one of, the achievements I'm most proud of, and I'm really glad that we can vote tonight to extend it. I wanna say a little bit about why I favor that, because I have two constituents who I consider good friends who oppose it, and I wanna just say something to them. For me, besides the huge benefit to parents who now have an extra 45 minutes in their morning, which is really valuable, I think this is a major traffic reduction initiative and it fits into my preferred vision of how we reduce traffic in this town. Obviously, when you talk about traffic, there's supply side problems and there's demand side problems. I think that you can only increase the flow of traffic so much. I think we should pursue the supply side solutions, but the school bus reduces the demand. If we take 40, or more cars off the road at school time, that is a significant reduction in traffic. 40 cars can fill the entire space between the bridge over Indian Creek from Bay Harbor to Harding Avenue. So 40 cars is like several light cycles. So I think this is a really big achievement, and that's why I support this. With all due respect to the Parks and Rec Committee and to my other unnamed friend who wrote to me against it, this is why I support it. I also just want to say for the record, I tried to, you know, if there are parents who were alarmed and they thought this wasn't going to happen, I tried to get this item onto the agenda for the special meetings that we had on August 6th. And the email went out to all the commissioners. The only one who agreed to put it on the agenda was Commissioner Trevani, and I'm grateful for that. But if you had to wait extra days and you were unsure, It's because we spent all the time on Thursday repealing ethics laws and reducing free speech protections, and that was given priority. I'm glad that we're renewing the bus, though, and I'm glad that the members of the commission have support for it, so... It's a good first day of school.

Just a question. So if we're going to have way more parents that are going to sign up for this, then I think it's good that we revisit that should that happen. So looking at Rudy, see if then maybe, you know, because I think we had like 50 that signed up for last year or something like that. But if we have like 70, 80 this year, then.

So once I get the confirmation that it's approved, I would be in communication with the vendor. And then I would have to get an estimated total amount, how many children can fit in the bus. And that's how we would do our list. And then once I reach my cap, I would have to start a waiting list. But we monitor the children that do attend, their attendants that do ride on the bus. So if they have, I believe it's seven children no-shows then we start looking at the waiting list and we'll contact the parents saying hey we need to provide the service for another child please know that we're going to be removing your child to add this child and see that's how we keep communication and we keep tabs on who's actually utilizing this this service excellent thank you no problem all right uh we have the chair of the parks and recs since i think the committee was mentioned so she wanted to say a few words

I'll keep it real short. The information provided to the Parks and Rec Committee regarding data and the attendance on the bus, we based our decision on that. So I don't know what kind of data you have and what was the difference in the data that we got, but that's what drove the Parks and Rec Commission and the director at the time. So... Thank you.

Thank you, Madam Chair. I would like to, to your point, again, if we have a huge waiting list, I think we've just cut the bill in half from last year's bus. You know, Rudy, if there's another 50 people waiting or another 30, 40, please let us know, and I'm sure we'll want to have that discussion about, you know, increasing the service, kind of like what we did with the freebie and things like that. I guess before I move on, there were two emails that were sent into the town by the Vice Mayor and Commissioner Weingart, so I've just been asked to read that into the record. I wish I had my glasses with me. So a statement from the vice mayor, Diana Ben-Murgy. Unfortunately, I'm unable to present, to be present at tonight's town commission meeting, but I want to make my position and support are clearly, I want to make sure that my position and support are clearly expressed. I fully support finding a way to provide a school bus transportation option for our Surfside children. As elected officials, one of our most important responsibilities is to listen to the needs of our families and work together towards a practical solution that improve the safety and quality of life of our residents. I hope that tonight the members of the Commission can work collaboratively to find a viable and responsible solution that allows our children to travel to and from school safely and give parents greater peace of mind. Our children are an important part of Surfside's future, and when there is an opportunity to make their daily lives safer and easier, I believe we should do everything reasonable within our power to make it happen. Although I cannot be here in person tonight, please know that I stand in support of this effort and of finding a solution that works for the Irish Surfside families. That's the Vice Mayor, Commissioner Wyngott wrote in. Good evening, Mayor and fellow commissioners. Please accept my apologies as I'm unfortunately out of the country due to a prior family commitment and will be unable to attend and vote at this evening meeting. However, I want to firmly place my full support behind the continuation of the school shuttle service. I have read through each and every email regarding this issue and I have deeply internalized the conversations I've had with our residents. I absolutely agree that this service to improve the quality of life for Surfside residents and I am proud to support it. As outlined in our meeting materials, continuing this program provides direct transportation option for residents, students and families. It is a vital service that not only ensures our students have safe transportation to and from the Ruth K Broad Bay Harbor K-8 Center, but it also helps reduce traffic congestions and parking demands during school hours. I strongly encourage the mayor and fellow commissioners to review the options being presented for the Ruth K Broad School Shuttle Bus Program Transportation Service and select one of the available continuation alternatives present for the 2026-2027 school year. is essential that we maintain this community service offering for the families and school-aged children. Thank you for your time, consideration, and continued service to our town. All right, so quickly before we vote, there was, I had a comment. that essentially that there's, again, a lot of misinformation that gets out there, people that like to capitalize on things that are going on. This item was talked about at the commission's first budget hearing. I think everybody up here expressed the support behind continuing a program like this. It's taken the town a little time to bring forward these solutions to the commission, but quite frankly, it's been sitting on the agenda for the last three months. And if we're going to keep talking about every item for 45 minutes, ladies and gentlemen, you could see how big this agenda is. And unfortunately, it just kept rolling over. So we're glad to have this finally completed just on time. I operate in that moment, doing everything last second. But God willing, we'll have this up and running before Thursday. So thank you again, Mario, for the work, for putting it forward. And thank you to the commission for supporting this item. Madam Clerk, let's take the roll, please.

If I may, Mayor, just one comment. So we've approved the piggyback using the county's proposals and the expenditure. We will need to quickly tomorrow use our best efforts to prepare a cover agreement with this vendor that has the standard protections for the town and the children. So Rudy, I will work with you and the manager and see if we can turn that over quickly tomorrow.

So I don't know if the motion maker wants to modify that with the provision and the approval of the town attorney to move forward.

I WOULD HAPPILY MAKE THAT AMENDMENT. SO SUBJECT TO THE TOWN ATTORNEY'S NEGOTIATIONS AND COMPLETION OF THE CONTRACT. SECOND AGREES.

SECOND.

ALL RIGHT. MADAM CLERK, YOU WANT TO TAKE THE ROLE, PLEASE?

YES.

COMMISSIONER DRAWANI?

YES.

MAYOR DENSINGER? YES. MAYOR, THE MOTION CARRIES.

THANK YOU. MOVING ON TO ITEM 7A, TOWN MANAGER'S REPORT.

Mayor, thank you very much. The monthly updates are provided. We made some changes to report as requested by the commission with regards to the capital improvement projects where we have not only the percent paid on the contracts per date, but also the percent of work completed as well. So those modifications were made. SEPARATELY, WE ALSO HAVE OBVIOUSLY OUR DIRECTORS HERE AND WE HAVE ANDREW FEARMAN WHO IS ONE OF THE PRINCIPALS OF THE CONSULTING FIRM THAT'S HELPING US ON THE FINANCE. IF YOU HAVE ANY QUESTIONS FOR THAT, HE'S ABLE TO SPEAK. BUT AS YOU ALL KNOW, THIS IS MY LAST MEETING WITH SURF SIDE. SO I WANTED TO TAKE JUST A BRIEF MOMENT OF PERSONAL PRIVILEGE TO SAY THANK YOU. TO EVERYBODY ON THE COMMISSION. I'M SORRY THAT COMMISSIONER WEINGART AND VICE MAYOR ARE NOT HERE. BUT TO SAY THANK YOU. THANK YOU TO FORMER VICE MAYOR TINA PAW FOR CALLING ME AND CALLING ME AND CALLING ME. to come as well as Commissioner Velazquez and obviously Commissioner for having me to the community who welcomed me with open arms. I appreciate all the hard work that we were able to start doing and stabilizing and moving things forward. You have a great team that truly cares for your community. And it has been an honor to serve alongside them. In my stead, Sandra will be your new acting town manager, who is very, very capable, sometimes does not wish to acknowledge how capable she really is. but she is truly one of the utmost professionals that I have ever met. Her knowledge and historical backing of the town is parallel to none. You are in good hands and I know that your search committee has already started looking through and putting everything together that is needed. I know that you will be in good hands. I am a phone call away if there's a way that I can assist. But I do thank you for the time, for the trust, and for the faith that you all had in me while I was here. And thank you.

So I was going to wait until later, but since we're bringing this up. You have come in, obviously, after quite a tumultuous time in Surfside. There was a bit of turnover, instability, and you were able to come in and not just stabilize but lead through a very difficult era. During previous, before you came in, we had lost a lot of directors, a lot of institutional knowledge. You were able to stabilize that. I don't think people realize how important that is within the town just to keep not that you kept the status quo only but just even as that as an accomplishment was was able to bring this town forward we appreciate you sitting here with us through this time as we transition over very much appreciated you always have a home here in Surfside you know it's it's good to leave on good terms and that is what it is you guys ever want to come to the community center with the family this is this is your home so if you're driving through you know and we wish you a lot of luck in the new endeavors

Mary, if I may, I just want to add, I want to say thank you for all of your service and for being my mentor. I've learned a lot from you, and I hope I can make you proud, and I'll be calling you.

Yeah, I mean, I wish that we could have worked a little longer together. I think this is no secret. But, you know, we are where we are. And again, thank you for everything you've done. It's, I think I have to say that it's, these few months, This period from when we got elected to now, for me it's the first time that I have a public office, right? It's been great to have you by our side because it's challenging. You get flooded with all this information and sometimes you can't tell the difference between up and down, but you've been great at always being able to give us the answers that we needed, not the ones that we liked necessarily. And that's okay. That's, I think, what this role should entail. So, yeah, thank you.

Yeah, Mario, I just want to say I talked earlier about the school bus being one of my proudest achievements, but right up there and probably among the very best things that I did in my first term was to vote to bring you on board and I still remember the League of Cities meeting when Tina Paul spoke with you and she was so excited to learn that you were looking for work. And yeah, it was just a tremendous stroke of good luck for the town of Surfside that you were with us as long as you were. or have been. I continue to believe that you're the best manager we've had in recent memory, and I wish you could stay on. But really, this is about expressing gratitude. And wherever you go is going to be very lucky to have you. But I want to join the chorus of people who say I learned such a great deal from you, and you set a standard of professionalism that we all aspire to. So thank you for that.

And one last, because I'll be remiss if I don't bring them up. Coming into Surfside, it was a 3-2 vote. But before that first meeting that the commission had at that time, that time, I don't know where that accent came from, it quickly turned into a 5-0 support. And so I do appreciate Mayor Burkett and Mayor Rubin, or Mayor, Commissioner Soto, no, Soto. sorry, for their support during that time as well. Again, thank you all. It means the world to not only hear it, but also see it expressed in our day-to-day interactions. Thank you for asking how my kids are, how my family goes. It's not just about business when we talk. And I think that's where true relationships really come into play. And again, my door is always and my phone is always on. So whatever you all need, however I can help, I'll be a phone call away. Thank you.

Thank you. ALL RIGHT. MADAM ATTORNEY, ATTORNEY'S REPORT.

THANK YOU, MAYOR. NOTHING URGENT TO REPORT THIS EVENING ON THE TOWN ATTORNEY REPORT. AS YOU KNOW STEVE AND OR MYSELF KEEP YOU ABREAST OF ANY ISSUES THAT ARISE AND SPEAK WITH YOU CONSTANTLY OR ON AN INDIVIDUAL BASIS. SO NOTHING URGENT TONIGHT.

ALL RIGHT. THANK YOU, MADAM ATTORNEY.

Can I just ask a question to, just an update on the consultant selection for the urban planning? Do you have any update on that?

Yeah, I apologize. You should be receiving an email probably tomorrow with an overall summary, and it will be on the September agenda, so September 3rd, which is a couple weeks away, for consideration.

Thank you.

All right. We do good and welfare, it says approximately 815. It says approximately.

The town code says that good and welfare shall be heard at 815.

I'm just looking at the agenda. All right, so let's take a 15 minute break and come back. Wow, we're going too fast. I know, we don't know what to do. Give me a second to catch up.

It's not fair what he's going to do, I know, but I don't want kids to get pulled off. I guess I'll go there.

Thank you. Thank you. She's watching the video.

All right, ladies and gentlemen, if everyone can have a seat, please. We're going to start good welfare. All right. Let me just get the signal we're on. Good to go. All right. Do I have to call back into order or no?

Mayor Danziger?

Present.

Commissioner Trevani?

Here.

Commissioner Valdostegui? Here. Just for the record, Commissioner Weingart and Vice Mayor Van Merge are absent. Mayor, you may continue.

Thank you. Commissioner Meyscheid, three minutes please.

Mary Ann Maishai, 9225 Collins Avenue. Good evening, Mayor and commissioners. At a recent commission meeting, it was decided that the new Surfside Remembrance Memorial would not include the rubble that is being stored at Veterans Park. I would like you to consider turning these dark ruins into life with artificial reefs. I've been investigating artificial reefs, and I've spoken with Dr. Steven Leatherman, professor and director of the Laboratory of Coastal Research at FIU. You may also know him as Dr. Beach. He worked in Surfside in 2014 with the sand committee regarding threatening components that were found in the sand, our sand. I happened to have sat next to him during these meetings and learned a lot from him. During my research, I have learned that this rubble from the collapse is perfect material to use to create an artificial reef and help propagate new coral. Additionally, I have learned this week that Florida will be receiving $15 million to expand artificial reefs. This is perfect timing. How wonderful would it be to create new life on 88th Street, 250 feet out into the ocean as an extension of the memorial? I'm happy to share my information with you. And this is totally doable. So please consider this meaningful idea. Thank you.

Thank you, Commissioner. 3 minutes, please.

I land on a Salzhauer, 9317 Bay Drive. Actually, it's Commissioner Salzhauer to follow Commissioner Mishaw, and that would be Commissioner Kerouken, Mayor Kinzer, just so you get the titles right, okay? Since you're so interested in titles and how important it is, okay? I'm now the first among equals at this microphone because no one else is here, all right? As much as you've declared yourself the first among equals. i want to thank you for being the gift that keeps giving every time i think you've gone low to the lowest you could go you go lower holding a meeting with barely 24-hour notice last week on thursday at noon in the middle of the day was a new low these commission meetings town government should not be a pop quiz or a surprise these are supposed to be thoughtful items put on an agenda where everyone including the other commissioners have time to review them And the residents, most importantly, especially when you put items on the agenda that affect their lives, which is what you did last week. That agenda that you dropped, surprise dropped on residents and on your fellow commissioners, was possibly the most damaging, damning, self-serving piece of... garbage that I've seen in government in Surfside in at least a decade. Again, it is not surprising that you would be self-dealing in that way, that you would want to change the laws and the rules so that you can go on trips anywhere without having to come back with a detailed report of who you met with, what you spent, and where you went. That's standard procedure in any private company, but you would have to have a job to understand how private companies and employment works. Our tax dollars are not your slush fund. Our tax dollars are not your piggy bank. And I'm sorry that you can't be bothered to make eye contact. I guess you have more important things on your computer. I'll be doing a public records request to find out what it is that you're doing during the meeting when you're supposed to be engaging with residents. when you have a meeting at noon with 24-hour notice in the middle of the week residents are deliberately left out of the equation and residents are who you're supposed to be talking to listening to and serving last week you voted on first reading to to undermine to remove the sensible reporting standards to make sure that you're held accountable for the money that you spent you You removed your, the commissioners are so blinded by, I guess they're so smitten by you, they voted to remove their own power to check out-of-hand government. They voted to get rid of their own ability to override an absolute delusional despot. And that's incredible that they would do that because that's not something you should give up. They don't ever have to use that power. And I guess the two commissioners had something better to do tonight, probably a free meal somewhere or a party or something better. When they were elected, they made a commitment to be at these meetings. This is a regular scheduled meeting and they should be in those seats. You need to have the second reading of those ordinances during a business meeting, a commission meeting after hours, a normal regular scheduled commission meeting where we have the agenda a full week in advance when residents can attend. Thank you.

Thank you. Martin Langisfield, three minutes, please.

Martin Langisfield, 11310 Northwest 53rd Lane. Good evening. I'm speaking here once again with great disappointment with regards to a special meeting that was held with very short notice on July 28th regarding the Surfside Building Collapse Memorial. For those that do not know, I lost my sister Nikki and her husband Louis over five years ago on this memorial. And a committee was appointed by the commission, the previous commission, to work on behalf of families that the large majority do not live in this town. And it's very hard to continue to speak on this subject and continue to fight, if you care to look at me and listen, for what's right. We worked with multiple parties on having this memorial approved in the last commission. including the town commission, the town manager, and Keith Engineering to make sure that what happened on that site is not forgotten. We tried to make the memorial on the site of the collapse, and we understand that's not possible. That was sold by the court, and that's okay. We understand that. But the 88th Street Memorial was put with a lot of effort and a lot of sweat and tears from multiple families to make sure this is honored and not forgotten. And what happened on July 28th did the complete opposite, and so took the families and the community that worked hard to make sure this is remembered. In the words of some of the commissioners, the image of the collapse site is very disturbing and it's hard for people to drive by there because it reminds them of what happened. And the truth is, it's the reality of what happened. 90 people were killed in this town and putting hands hugging each other as a redesign for the memorial is not fit The rubble is the harsh reality of what happened. And it is not right to remove this, to remove the collapsed building design so we simply forget and allow a new development to go up. We need to work together. I'm tired of coming here and fighting. It's been five years of nonstop fighting on behalf of families, simply asking to do the right thing on behalf of my sister and on behalf of multiple others. And you mentioned in the past, Commissioner, Mayor Danziger, that it's one or two families. It's not. There are countless families that reach out in support of this. We want to pass the page. It's been five years. Just work with us, please. I ask you, just work with us, take the no vote back, re-approve what was already approved, and let's work together.

Thank you, Mr. Langesfeld. Jocelyn Kinzer, three minutes, please.

Good evening, Jocelyn Kinzer, 8834 Carlisle Avenue. There are a few things about the last two special meetings that don't sit well with me. The first being that we, the residents, keep complaining about the times of these so-called special meetings. Mayor, I understand that this is your only job. You made that very clear at the special meeting. At a dollar a year, I couldn't afford to do it, but I'm glad you can. But that doesn't negate the fact that the rest of the working world is excluded. While legal, it seems deceptive, especially since the agenda is posted so close to the meeting time, not allowing residents and commissioners adequate time to study the agenda. The packet for the first special meeting was close to 100 pages. I read pretty fast. It took me over an hour to read the entire packet without annotations or notes. So I don't know how you guys are doing it. Please listen to the residents and keep business on the agenda for regularly scheduled meetings. And give us times or give us times that favor our schedules since you represent us. Which leads to my second point, the lack of respect of the right to speak, whether it be the mayor and commissioners to fellow commission members or silencing residents from speaking on all agenda items. Part of the beauty of a democracy, which is a government that is for the people by the people, is the First Amendment right of free speech. Free being the key word. Just because my opinion differs from yours does not make it wrong. If you expect residents to listen to the whining about going home, the bullying of your fellow commission members, and your incessant talking in circles, then we should be allowed to speak and speak for the full three minutes. Thank you for that tonight. Also, please note that if you resort to authoritative practices of throwing residents out of meetings by force, I promise that I will be so loud regarding it that Billy Corbin's social media will be the least of your worries. I nor my fellow residents should not be manhandled for speaking and voicing our concerns. We also will not tolerate the bullying of Gerardo. It's just unheard of. It's disgusting. And it's not just you. It's the other two as well. I do not need to call out this Putin and Castro-esque behavior. Third, you're doing away with your oversight on how you spend our tax dollars for travel. In the corporate business world, there are limits. And you have to report. What makes your trips on my dime so special that you can't disclose receipts? If you choose not to fly commercial, you should pay the difference. Last, I checked. There's no Rich Carlton in Tallahassee. There are four-star restaurants, but none are kosher. So the three who voted against reporting can't even eat there. The one kosher restaurant in Tallahassee proper is a falafel place. I don't understand why you wouldn't report if you're meeting at a falafel place. Also, I ask that you please. Treat those on the DS the way you would want to be treated. The constant talking over and bullying of other commissioners is disgusting. Thank you.

Thank you. Michael Crook in three minutes, please.

Michael Carrick at 9365 Abbott. Thank you, Mayor, Commissioners, for the opportunity to speak. I have three topics. I have a budget question, the status of the town manager, and I also wanted to comment on the right to speak on agenda items. I'll start with that. So I would like to ask if you would consider asking the town attorney to clarify the impact of the proposed modifications to the 1782 that was discussed last week. I'm concerned that based on the modifications to Rule 702, it will restrict the ability of any citizen to speak on any matter appearing in the enumerated sections of the official agenda based on the cross-outs. What that means is, and again, I'm still, would like to get full clarification from the town attorney, but residents, at face value anyway, residents would no longer have a right to speak before the commission on agenda items appearing under the following agenda sections. They would no longer have the right to speak on consent agenda items, contracts, expenditures, appointments, agreements, for example. There might be a rule that allows it under 207, but I'm not sure yet. It would also restrict the ability to discuss ordinances on first readings, resolutions, spending authorizations, grants, contracts, and discussion items. Why would you not want the residents to speak on those things? I'm just wondering why. The other items that I wanted to briefly mention was at the last budget hearing, I made a comment about the $143,000 allocation for what was listed in the budget as a chief of staff. I had publicly said I thought that was just the COO by another name. I had come to learn that that was not the case, that I was wrong, that in the budget you are looking to hire a chief of staff. So obviously I'm wondering what that is, if you have a job description, who would this person report to? I just wanted to get some clarity on that. From anyone on the board since the budget meeting is that we're still in the middle of the budget process And lastly just just my two cents on the the town manager. I think he was great I think he should have been offered the job a long time ago And I think that a degree of professionalism was was desperately needed and I thank him for his service And I'm sure he'll be successful anywhere. He goes. Thank you very much Thank you.

George Kouselis, three minutes, please.

George Kouselis, 9225 Collins Avenue. I want to bring up two things. At the last meeting, the special meeting, the subject of the Planning and Zoning Board came up. You went in a direction where you are looking to come up with a better version, maybe a more streamlined version of the ordinance that you want to get rid of and actually asked for my assistance if I had some ideas on that. So I've crafted something that I think has more guardrails, more specificity. It asks of the town the same thing we ask of developers, you know, excellence in the character of our town. But it also provides for the efficiency that you seek in getting things done. I hope you will look at it and keep the dialogue open. The other thing I wanted to bring up was four years ago, almost to the month, probably one of the most controversial and ferocious items to come before the town. was being argued, the beach chairs. And the beach chairs was actually something that had first come up in Mayor Deitch's last term, I believe, maybe even the next to last term, and had been bounced back and forth. And you may recall that it was quite an issue four years ago. Getting to the solution wasn't easy, but the solution has actually been quite good. I haven't heard a peep about beach chairs in four years. And there were really two parts to this. One was constraining the hotels, and the other one was in the the town's concession for a beach club behind it. And both of them, I think, have worked extremely well. And it kind of shows that, you know, work the issue and the solution will present itself. And there may be a lot of noise and a lot of struggle getting from one place to the other, but if the solution is good and the effort put in to find that good solution, I think we will all benefit. And certainly the beach chairs is a great example. the noise four years ago and the calm since are 180 degrees apart. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Christmas. All right. If there's anyone else that hasn't submitted a speaker card for good welfare yet and they wish to speak, please step forward. All right. Seeing none, we will close good and welfare and move on to commission response. You guys have three minutes if you want to respond to anything specifically.

Yeah, so I just wanted to expand a little bit on that idea of the of the reefs because one of the upcoming items on the agenda, as you've seen, is the street ends. And And actually, one of the issues that we have is illegal boating. So we can actually take that idea to extend out the, well, in this case, corals that would not only help the environment, but also help the cars and avoid this illegal boating. So I think this is actually a great idea.

Yeah. So I want to just begin by thanking Mr. Langesfeld and acknowledging his remarks. I think what happened at that July 28 special meeting was really terrible, to be honest. And I'm glad you're here to say that. I mean, the issue has been presented sometimes as though it's a matter of moving the project forward, as though that was the important thing. And I tried to get my colleagues especially the two new colleagues, to understand that they were basically erasing years of work by a committee of family members. And my appeal fell on deaf ears. And then there's no further review of the design after that. The image that's going to be engraved in stone of the clasped hands, I'm pretty sure was something downloaded off the internet or maybe generated by AI. It's really not an honorable, fitting tribute. It's not at all appropriate. And I'm just deeply embarrassed that the committee that the commission voted to override all that work and to substitute their judgment for yours, for your committees and for all the planning and zoning board of the previous commission, all the people who put their time into it. I also want to add, I mean, unfortunately, there is something still left to fight for. I will fight for it. The canopy design, the punctured canopy, which was really the centerpiece of the memorial, has been removed, and I tried to get that back on, and I made that point at July 28th, and again, it fell on deaf ears. So I don't know what to say. I voted no that night, but I hope you understand and all the families understand that it's not because I opposed the memorial, it's quite the opposite. It's that I was defending the integrity of the design. And we've talked about it, but I wanted to state that. I'm grateful to Ms. Kinzer and Commissioner Salzhauer for bringing up the issue of the special meetings. I debated whether to say something at the beginning of this one, but I couldn't. You know, in a commission, there's always like a kind of rough and tumble aspect sometimes, and to be frank, working with Mayor Danziger, you just get used to a certain amount of bullying, and I, you know, stand up for myself. But we reached, I think, a new low. I got muted when I had the floor. I got repeatedly cut off when I had the floor. But the worst thing, I've never seen it. I've been coming to commission meetings for years. There was an actual item, a resolution, where I wasn't allowed to speak. The question was called and I wasn't allowed to speak. I actually had fewer free speech rights that night than the residents who came and spoke at the meeting because they got to speak. I am an elected official of this town. I'm a duly elected official of this town. I have a right to speak on these matters, not just as a matter of Robert's rules, but as a matter of the First Amendment. And I feel that my First Amendment rights were taken away from me that night. Again, I had a lot of messages of support from residents who I think found the mayor's bullying unfair. I'm repeatedly cut off when I have the floor. I'm not allowed to even intervene to answer questions. It's a serious problem, and thank you for acknowledging it and for giving voice. I am grateful to you.

All right, thank you, Commissioner.

Sorry.

I forgot to say something. I spoke only for about a minute. So sorry because, again, being an engineer, when I hear an engineering idea, then I get carried away. But there were a few other things that I wanted to say. So one was about the memorial. And Martin, we had a conversation about that. And I spoke my mind at the meeting. I believe in process. And I said that even at the meeting when we were talking about that. And so I fully support the ideas that come out from that process. And well, regarding the special meeting, I've expressed my opinion on that a few times during the meeting. It was very hard for me to go through. I believe it was like nine items on the agenda in 24 hours. I really hope we're not going to do this again because it's impossible. It's very hard. Thank you.

We've got a minute left if you want to come back around next time. All right. A BUNCH OF STUFF TO GO THROUGH. I THINK WE SPOKE ABOUT THE IDEA. LOVE IT. IT'S A GREAT CONCEPT. OBVIOUSLY STATE WATERS WHETHER IT'S THE BAY OR THE OCEAN WOULD REQUIRE A LOT OF COORDINATION WITH STATE PARTNERS SO IF THERE'S ANYBODY WE'VE SPOKEN TO ALREADY I'M HAPPY TO HELP OUT AND KIND OF MOVE THAT ALONG. BUT IT'S NOT NECESSARILY A COMMISSION THING BUT I'M SURE WE WOULD ALL SUPPORT THAT AND THEN WORK WITH THE STATE TO GET SOMETHING LIKE THAT DONE. TOWN BUSINESS. TOWN BUSINESS. TOWN BUSINESS. TOWN BUSINESS. TOWN BUSINESS. TOWN BUSINESS. TOWN BUSINESS. TOWN BUSINESS. TOWN BUSINESS. TOWN BUSINESS. TOWN BUSINESS. TOWN BUSINESS. TOWN BUSINESS. TOWN BUSINESS. TOWN BUSINESS. TOWN BUSINESS. TOWN BUSINESS. TOWN BUSINESS. TOWN BUSINESS. TOWN BUSINESS. TOWN BUSINESS. TOWN BUSINESS. TOWN BUSINESS. TOWN BUSINESS. TOWN BUSINESS. TOWN BUSINESS. TOWN BUSINESS. TOWN BUSINESS. TOWN BUSINESS. It was also, just to point out again, we had more people at that meeting, which was so, it wasn't available for people than we do here now. So again, if people care about the items, they'll be there. The Surfside Memorial, again, this town has waited five years for that memorial to go through. Five years and three commissioners. And I'm very proud to be serving with the commission that actually passed it and moved it forward. There's a lot of misinformation, especially from my fellow commissioner who seems very upset about the value engineering that was done during his time in office and approved by him and Mayor Burkett. That didn't come in this commission. That happened in March, not before I was in office, before this commission was in office. So the value engineering, again, to go backwards, was because there was a $7.5 million charge to this memorial, a charge that was going to be put onto the taxpayer. It wasn't coming from the $1.2 billion settlement. The commission had already tied their hands where they couldn't spend more than 5% of the ad valorem. And therefore, they value engineered it down to a $2.5 million plus the million from the state that the city can legally and obligibly pay for. It was redesigned. We approved it. And just FYI, Gerardo, those hands that were approved were approved by the entire Memorial Committee, the town commission at the time. It went through the committee back when there was about 10 people on the committee, not two or three. It was extremely appropriate at the time. There was a lot of thought that was involved in putting in there. There was a lot of symbolism, and it was approved by multiple family members, not just the one or two that you see coming to these meetings here. The lack of respect for public speakers, again, we hear that time after time after time, and I think that's the point. We keep hearing it. There hasn't been any speakers that hasn't been allowed to get up and speak, and they keep getting up and saying they can't speak, but they are getting up to speak. I hope people in surf sites see the irony of that, like I'm sitting here and seeing that as well. As far as the travel, Tallahassee, again, misinformation. Every receipt is provided to the town. And as far as the item that came forward, again, these items are gonna come back for second reading. We can talk about it more in depth. But again, to the misinformation, these items specifically affected what was changed, which was citizens' presentation and public hearing, which is essentially a quasi-judicial. People within the code can still talk on all the items that have any decision-making by this commission. And with that, I've run out my time. So we will close and go to welfare. There is an item I'd like to make sure that we get to tonight, which is the street ends, which seems to be tied to one of the items we just brought up. If we can move 90 up. Since a lot of these things are either the sponsor is not here or it doesn't seem to have gone very far or some of them are going to acquire a lot more input by some of the commission here. And I don't want to be reviewing these things again at the next meeting. So I know 9E was something we've already discussed as a commission, we've all agreed to as part of our budget. Again, without the budget being approved yet, I'd love to hear where we're holding with it, if it's tied to the Charette, if we had a different vision for that to make sure that it starts being moved on faster. I don't know how long these Charettes take usually.

Yeah, and I was thinking about that, whether they should be separate or tied to the charrette. I would propose this being separate, just because the idea of the urban planning is that we get together and we figure out what we want. I think this could be an initiative that we promote as a commission. It's still going to go through a workshop and public input and planning and zoning and all that. So, in fact, it'll be similar. It's just that since that we identified that solution, it could be fast-tracked.

So I guess just for clarity, what would the next steps be if we wanted to start moving on a project like that as an engineer?

So you see what I put in the cover page. I outlined a possible path. that goes through some surveying and then identifying the areas and then evaluating the security enhancement options. So I would suggest that public works review this. the steps and see if we need to add anything. And if we all agree, we can start the process. The idea is that we go through these steps to come up with a plan. So once we have, call it, 30% plans or concept plans, I would do a workshop We get the input, and then we finalize the plans.

One thing I've been meaning to mention, in Miami Beach on Normandy Island, along their Bay Drive, they have street end parks. They're considerably wider than the ones that we would have, but they are a decent model. And I don't know the details of how they're set up. I've only seen them in passing. But they're extremely pleasant. I think they could provide some inspiration to anybody who's looking at the area. And I just want to mention that to the commissioners. If you're ever in that area on the south side of Normandy Island, check out those parks. And I'm curious whether you think there's anything we could take from there. This is an issue, I just want to say, in the past, there has been a lot of controversy about this. I think in this commission, we're pretty in favor of public access to the street ends. But I know that there are a lot of people in the town who have concerns. And so this is a topic that even if we move forward on it, I want to make sure that we have some room for public discussion because there's going to be concern from the homeowners next door. But I generally support the vision of trying to make these nice public amenities accessible to people. So assuming we can address the concerns here, I'd love to see us try to do that. So I don't know if Commissioner Trevani had an action that he wanted to propose. I mean, besides referring it to the staff.

Yeah, and just one second, just to give a little background. So it's not only accessibility, it's security as well. So let's not forget that this... This is coming also from, not the initiative, but this has been triggered also by issues that we saw and that has been experienced by residents who live nearby these tree tents. So at the moment, right now, in many areas, there's no separation. We don't even know where public land is, basically where the border between public and private stands. There's no barrier. So there's reports of people crossing over, going into other people's docks. So that's what I'm saying. This addresses not only accessibility, but security as well. So it's a two-pronged approach. So the motion in this case, I don't know, should we talk about the motion?

Yeah, you can try to articulate a motion if you have one.

Yeah, well, the motion would be to instruct Public Works to go through these 10 steps, verify them, expand on them if needed, and start the process per the steps that they're gonna finalize.

I THINK THAT'S A VERY GOOD I THINK THAT'S A VERY GOOD FIRST STEP. FIRST STEP. WE NEED A SECOND. WE NEED A SECOND. SECOND. SECOND. WE DO HAVE PUBLIC COMMENT ON WE DO HAVE PUBLIC COMMENT ON THIS BEFORE WE MOVE FORWARD ON THIS BEFORE WE MOVE FORWARD ON THE VOTE. THE VOTE. AGAIN, THERE'S SO MUCH TO AGAIN, THERE'S SO MUCH TO DISCUSS. DISCUSS. THERE'S SO MUCH POTENTIAL THERE'S SO MUCH POTENTIAL THERE SITTING THERE. SITTING THERE. I SAW THE 2006 SHORETTE HAD A I SAW THE 2006 SHORETTE HAD A BASIC CONCEPT BUT I DON'T KNOW BASIC CONCEPT BUT I DON'T KNOW IF WE LOSE AN OPPORTUNITY IF WE LOSE AN OPPORTUNITY WH

George Kouselis, 9225 Collins Avenue. This is a great idea. These have been on little green dots at the ends of the streets in the comp plan for several versions, so it's time we did something about them. And dovetailing off of my good and welfare comment, obviously this has been controversial in the past, but don't let that get in the way of a good idea and really pushing this forward and getting the best out of it for our town. Thank you.

Thank you, George. All right, ready to vote? Yep, Madam Clerk.

Commissioner Tavani?

Yes.

Commissioner Valdosta? Yes. Mayor Denziger? Yes. Mayor, the motion carries.

THANK YOU. ALL RIGHT. ALL RIGHT. THERE'S A LOT ON THIS THING THERE'S A LOT ON THIS THING THAT BETWEEN THE CHANGES THE THAT BETWEEN THE CHANGES THE ADMINISTRATION I THINK WE NEED TO ADMINISTRATION I THINK WE NEED TO PUT A PIN ON SOME OF IT AND PUT A PIN ON SOME OF IT AND WAIT UNTIL SOME OF THE COMMISSION WAIT UNTIL SOME OF THE COMMISSION COMES BACK AND I HAVE NO COMES BACK AND I HAVE NO INTEREST IN GOING THROUGH ALL INTEREST IN GOING THROUGH ALL THESE ITEMS AND BEING ESSENTIALLY THESE ITEMS AND BEING ESSENTIALLY BULLIED INTO SOME OUTCOME BULLIED INTO SOME OUTCOME WITHOUT THE MAJORITY OF THE WITHOUT THE MAJORITY OF THE COMMISSION PRESENT OR A LARGE COMMISS motion to adjourn or I'm adjourning.

So, um, I mean, I, I still think there are things we could talk about tonight. I mean, we have it's early. Um, even if we don't make any decisions, there are still topics worth, I think, discussing that we can try to prepare for next time.

So I would rather not go in circles. So I'm going to wait until we have our commission president. So our discussions are productive rather than rehabbing them again in two weeks.

question the the pension because we've already approved 5b right the okay sorry I got lost on that so the pension plan amendment for director hires you still think that this is something that would

I think it's still going through a legal process or the process of reaching out. We can't make any pension changes without going through the pension attorney, through the, what's the name of it? The other person has to look through it and see what the impact is. The actuary, thank you. I haven't slept in two nights, so. I'm forgetting my words not to mention my name so there's there's a process that it's kind of you know based on the Commission's already input on the ability to present another option so we can reach out to directors but there's a process that has to go through there's input other than just the Commission or our town attorney so it's okay so another question the the street lighting

the street lighting improvement program. Because this is, I think, something that we touched upon in the past. I think that there is pretty much interest, right, if I read the commission's intent correctly. Could we maybe try to craft a path forward on that? I know that the issues that we're going to have Sandra wearing two hats here, but maybe this is another one where the path could directly go through public works. Because I think we're lacking a... like engineering plans on that. There's an idea, there's a concept, but we still have to go through, we still need to engage an engineer to go through the plans.

I thought we had some sort of engineering that was done or some sort of study, at least, that it was going to follow. Yeah, we have a study. I mean, the only thing that really has changed from then till now was that the assumption back then was there's going to be undergrounding. So the administration kind of threw it into that. Now we have other options, which is we can do a solar solution or do we tap into the lines? I mean, again, undergrounding is not a dead conversation. But we, I think, recognize that it's years away if it's going to happen. And that's if we want to go the free route, essentially. So I don't know where it's sitting right now, which is why it's kind of just sat there. We have the information that was done previously sitting here. I think there's a proposal the manager had on there, but again, we've got to decide what kinds of lights, see where we're holding, move it to the next step. A lot of pieces of that.

On this issue, really just in terms of planning how we move forward, I had a pretty helpful briefing on this topic from Mario. And since we won't have the benefit of his counsel next time, we were discussing how topics like 9a, 9d, perhaps 9i might fit into the urban plan. I would love to hear from the manager just before her before we lose him and before we Break for the evening whether he has any thoughts about how to how to approach these things whether piecemeal or not You know just as a general strategic Suggestion Through the mayor

There's a lot of different ways. It just kind of depends on what the commission is looking for. Obviously, I think the most cohesive way to bring everything together and to go into a point where I think a lot of the conversation has come from different perspectives. But what I end up hearing is we don't know what our identity is. Right. And part of that identity, Commissioner, you have even brought you like the streetlights to look a certain way that might be different from others. We talked about park benches. We've talked about street signs. And so part of that, I think, is a good opportunity to go through like the Charette um that you guys will have in september and at one point i had even recommend some type of what i call a branding exercise i know most people typically think of branding as marketing but i'm talking about understanding of what the identity of the town is right we know um are we urban chic are we a sleepy beach town are we urban like there's so many different visions within the town because over time, everybody's idea of what they like just gets kind of thrown there. So I think if the town is able to come together and adopt what the vision of what we should be looking at, what our streets are gonna look like, But that's a long process. And to the mayor's point, when he was advocating to extending the terms, and I think you all kind of agreed that, yes, some of these things may take 36 months or more to get to, right? Starting that kind of process, which is a detailed, comprehensive plan, zoning, image, vision plan, 25-year outlook, is something that is not going to be done over the next 30, 60 or 90 days. And I think the intent of the charrette is to try to get something move forward. I think you have the start with that charrette process and that you can then start looking at, hey, could this work to the attorney's credit? When we were just going back and forth one day, Attorney Helfman said, you know, it'd be great if we can if we can get the community to see what we see in the potential and maybe and that's something that we spoke about of maybe taking a block or two and saying, hey, this is how we can redesign this block to address the traffic, address the parking, address the the the walkability and the shade and how we're able to kind of. So there's different ways to approach this. It depends on what the appetite is for the streetlights right now on there, obviously, because it's a singular item that we were discussing, because sometimes when you start trying to group everything together, kind of like what the underground did, it becomes such a huge problem. that you can't get over the immediate step, right? We're worried about step number 12 when we haven't taken step number one yet. And I think to both the point that the commission is trying to find the middle ground is how do we keep step number 12 in vision while still actually taking the first step forward? And I think sometimes that's where the conversation gets stuck at, right? So in order to at least let you know what the design would be, We requested Kim Lee Horn for a quote as a standalone just for the streetlight. They came back. I think it's just under 140,000 or whatnot. I can open it up to take a look. But that's what it would look as a standalone project right now. Again, I think you have a lot of different components that you all talk in a greater scheme of things when it comes to Surfside. And you all talk of those things, how they relate to each other. You guys can be very focused and say, we're going to take these things one at a time, but we're going to have... this idea feed into what the next one is, or you can take it as a whole. It kind of depends on what works best for the group, right? Because not every group thinks the same way and not every group acts the same way. So it really has, you have to come together to understand what works best for you all and how to proceed those projects forward, either as one or as separate individuals.

So the recommendation would be to take this and then lump them into the urban planning conversation so that we can get Sort of.

Yeah, you can you can take it as an individual as long as you understand, like you don't want to approve a street light design that looks Victorian in nature. And then when you're looking at, hey, we're going to talk about what our street signs right throughout the town are going to look like. Are we going to keep the standard county green? Do we want to do like South Miami has with the blue? Do we want now a super urban LED type of thing? You want everything to at least be cohesive in the design. Some people can do that individually for individual projects and everything comes out working the same. And sometimes it's like, that's great, but I need to see the whole picture before I can tell you whether I like something or not. That's why as a group, you all have to kind of... understand what works better for you all, to know which path you're gonna take, either individually or together. It kind of feels like the big conversation may grow too big of a conversation. And then you guys get paralyzed in that talk. So I think each of you, even though from a different perspective, are trying to address minor things as quickly as you can. The problem only becomes you tend to sometimes lose focus on keeping, hey, we've already kind of decided on this style. This is going to be completely different now. Let's kind of come back to Center Road on that. I don't know if that makes any sense, but.

It does. I mean, to kind of bring it down to a couple of words, we can either design out the whole town and do nothing or kind of try to address a few projects. I could say the last commission that I served with, we kind of designed out street signs and lighting. They were kind of ubiquitous in the vision, and that came from five people's input. That never got done, right? So with the new five people or four people, there's gonna be different input, but hopefully it doesn't veer that far off. There were logical reasons for some of those designs, the way they overhang, for example, in the lights, how they spread the lights. I know George was very helpful on this subject as well, but that's how we came to the conclusion. Then it was like, okay, do you want the leafy thing at the end or not? We're gonna have to make a decision at some point because if we're gonna wait for a Charette which is gonna design out the entire town That's what we'll be spending the two years on. So yeah, yeah, and that's why we don't call it sure, right? Near and dear to me but And I find it difficult also, I mean we've got the four seasons We've got some of the older buildings like it's very similar with what we hear in planning and zoning within the residential neighborhood What is the design of Surfside? What is the what is the feel right because you've got modern coming in with some of the older ones It's very difficult to pinpoint and say this is what we're gonna look like moving forward when design and aesthetics change also continuously

So, I don't know, my idea on this, on the street lighting, lighting would be that, again, it's something that I think there's consensus as a standalone project. Same thing as for the street dance, it would still need to go through a workshop that where, I mean, once you get to the 30% plans, you see a few options, you call for a workshop, you see which one you guys like this, that, okay. let's pick this and then we finalize the plans. So I would recommend that if we have a proposal from Kim Lee Horn that we move forward, provided that when we get to a level of plans that we can look at, preliminary plans that we can look at and we can call a workshop on before they finalize all the details at the 90, 100%, we do that and then that way we can change the design based on the workshop feedback.

Part of the reason why I asked is when I spoke with Mario earlier today, we were talking about general streetscape improvements, possibly bulb outs, possibly how do you use the roadway. And I feel like this is where things start to stack up on each other, though. If there was going to be any new space created, could that be used for the streetlight? So it is hard to pick 90. out of a complete Streets remake or a Streetscape redesign. So it is tough. And I share the desire to move forward on certain things. But I'm not sure that one breaks off as easily as you think, because it's going to raise questions about placement and design that then are going to tie into some other things. I did I did have one a couple of suggestions just items that we could discuss tonight potentially that don't That might just be something that that are easy for 9a with the speed bumps the material selection Obviously, that's something that's forward-looking But what do we want to do about the old speed pumps that were put in there's a I get a lot of questions about these and I wonder if there's any I Consensus about that or would we rather wait? To discuss that I I asked this because I get certain residents asking about them quite a bit We're bouncing all over the place guys so The lighting I don't know if there's additional engineering.

We should be getting pricing on 140 grand

You know is there a few other engineers to just scope out was this just the one at the top of the list or so with when you use a CCNA pool you can't shop prices and so they were or next if if you want to maybe get competitive prices then we would have to do a RFP and and not use the CCNA and

I mean, I would just want to go through their proposal and compare it to something before we just.

So that's why we went back to Kimley Horn during the undergrounding. They had a certain scope for the design. The first phase was one hundred and eighty one thousand. Second phase was ninety nine. We won $95,000, and then the third phase was about the same. When we took it out of the undergrounding and we told them we just want this using the 2020-ish study, then they didn't need to redo the analysis. They felt that that was good enough, and so they're just doing the actual design. That's why the price went down to about $140,000. But again, we could definitely do an RFP or an ITB and see if we get different pricings. It's quite possible, especially having that study. It's just with CCNA that we already have, we can't shop. It's against state stats to shop around.

All right. Yeah. I'M CURIOUS IF WE HAVE THE WILL TO MOVE FORWARD ON THIS. AT LEAST ONE PROJECT THAT'S BEEN SITTING IN THE NINES FOR FOUR MONTHS IS MOVING FORWARD OR DO WE WANT TO KEEP PLAYING THE CHICKEN AND THE EGG AND WAIT FOR CARVAL TO BE CONDUCTED BEFORE WE DO ANYTHING?

I HEAR YOUR CONCERNS BUT MAYBE I have a more pragmatic approach.

But I will say though, and I'm sorry to cut you off just to give you some information and context to maybe what you're about to say, is a lot of the planning for the changes to the street call for essentially, if you look both in 2006 and some of the newer pieces, a one-way street where that gives us now with one side parking, the ability to build out an actual sidewalk. So we're not cutting into people's right of ways so that they've been accustomed to with a buffer, you know, grass and things and then a curb. So having the light stay where it is, is good anyways, because it would now shine onto this new sidewalk. So bumping out the streets, so to speak, and I don't know what would come in of a full urban plan. It still benefits from the light being placed where it is. I don't see why it would have to come out and be put on the curb. That's just my two cents. I don't know if that helps or not. Right.

Yeah. Yeah.

Yeah.

Yeah.

Well, it makes sense. Yeah, I mean, I'd be ready to make a motion to move forward with the Kimley Horn. Even time-wise, maybe by the time that they move forward, we have the plans. Maybe we're going to be in the middle. or we're just gonna be in a situation where we're just starting with the urban planning and then maybe we have the chance to look at this 30% design along with all the other things that we're discussing. But at least we move forward. So I would make a motion. THE MOTION IS TO PROCEED WITH THE PROPOSAL THAT WE GOT FROM.

ARE WE BUILDING SOMETHING OR ARE THEY GIVING US A DESIGN?

THIS IS JUST DESIGN. WITH THE REQUIREMENT THAT OBVIOUSLY WHEN WE GET TO Maybe 60%. I mean, we've got to figure out with them. But just in time that they don't finalize all the features, and then we have the time to look at the final details.

So their design, we'll talk about things like placement, strength of the light, things like that. But not all the full design components. Not the full design. Yeah, yeah, yeah.

They're going to come with some proposals, and then we're going to meet and do a workshop, or decide what to do with that.

Great. I'm going to do public input and do those workshops again. Why are you signaling to me? This is Sal's Hour.

Oh, yeah, Sal's Hour, 9317 Bay Drive. I understand the urge to get something done and to hurry up, but it's really important that everything be done thoughtfully and cohesively and have a vision for the whole town. When you rush, like for example, the last time this man was mayor, we got really ugly exercise equipment just stuck on the street ends on the beach that pretty much nobody uses and looks like garbage. We got bad exercise equipment by the tot lot as well because it was hurry up, rush, rush, rush, rush, rush. So unfortunately, government is a slow process. When you have residents and you have professionals and you have a government project, it takes a long time. But look at the park at 96th Street, right? It's a beautiful park. Now, it's five feet in the wrong direction, the building, because they rushed it. Right. And now forevermore, that basketball court doesn't you throw a basket and you kiss the fence because there's absolutely no room there. Now, had they taken their time and said, wait a minute, not rush it, but they wanted to get their name on it. So they wanted to just cut corners. Let's not do that again. Let's take our time and make sure that we're doing something. Last time also, this man was mayor. He wanted to pick out. I thought he even himself picked out street signs that look like they came out of Disney World. They look like that old-timey Disney World when you go to Disney World on that side. That's what it looked like. So everyone has their own taste. We see some of the box, concrete box houses in town. That's somebody's taste. Now, you may be saying here and sitting up here saying, oh, but we're going to have time to review it, right? Let me tell you something. When those two yes-men come back to the meeting, what you thought was going to happen isn't happening anymore. Because all he needs to do is his vision and wine god and Bermuda to say, yes, sir, whatever you want, sir. And your idea, your best plans go by the wayside. There should always be public, when it's government contracts, there should always be looking around and putting it out to bid. It shouldn't be whoever you know that you meet at a party or at the beach to do it. Now, again, you know, we've been through this before. And when you rush something or you do it hodgepodge, it misses. It doesn't have, it looks like it, right? It looks like you cut corners. It looks like that doesn't match that. And you should have, if you're going to do a charrette, you're going to have an overall plan. The traffic is the biggest problem in town, right? That should be where the energy is focused. People are going to be thankful about that The street lighting sucks right now. They just need to change the bulbs. You know, there's polls that aren't working. FPL, we pay FPL. They're supposed to come out there, you know, read them the riot act, get them out there, make them, you know, turn the ones on that are fixed the broken ones. That's what we can do right now that doesn't cost us anything that they're obligated to do that are supposed to be doing it. So let's take care of that and then see what the street lighting looks like. Because if you let people who build box houses and concrete and Disney World things pick your light and your street sign, you're going to be sitting there going, oh, shoot, I didn't know what I voted for. So there aren't any safeguards, especially when nothing has to go through PNZ anymore, right? Like that's the other thing they're removing is the requirement that whatever projects they do go through PNZ. That's another thing they repealed at noon last week when no one was at the meeting. And the reason why people were here was because the commissioners like to bring their families. So the wife and the kids and everyone comes to the meeting. That's who was here last week. These are actually not related to anyone.

Thank you. Mr. Koussos, three minutes, please.

Two things to mention on this George Kouselis 92, 25 Collins Avenue. On the idea of the lighting, in your packet, I think Calvin Giordano and Public Works had done a photometric study of the town. And at the very end of it is this thing that you've probably seen. And basically, the problem isn't that there are light bulbs that are out. Of course, there probably are here and there. The problem is there aren't nearly enough fixtures in the town. The town was set up for the car. And when you have a car that's moving, it has headlights, and it's moving relatively fast compared to people. It can go from a pool of light to another pool of light without much of a problem. People, because of the spacing we have in town, spend more time walking in darkness than they do in light. So that's what that diagram is really showing you, whether it's really 133 or some number like that, but it's a big number. Now, the question is, how do you get there in the near term? And then in the long term. If the long term is undergrounding, I think the question, you know, that appearance and look and layout is a bit different. But how do you get to something that's good in the near term? And there are different ways to do that. The other thing, the diagram that's in front of you, one of the things I've advocated for a long time, when you go to a nicer suburb, it has... lights which are on top of the poles rather than on a mast arm. The mast arm again is really for a car. And so what you do, you basically stagger these things up and down the block about four houses apart typically. And you get nice coverage. It's lower. It doesn't loom into, because when you have a mast head fixture, it is projecting right into the house below it. That's one problem you always hear. These things are a little bit different. You can get modern ones, traditional ones, Victorian hokey ones, whatever. Any style that you want. That's not the point. And you can also shield them. But that's another thing to consider, and you have that in front of you. And on the branding part of this, very quickly, I still have some time. It's a good idea, but it also can turn into Vietnam very quickly if you're not careful. You know, we will try and decide what we are, and we'll have endless arguments about that, and nothing will happen. And there will be a commission three terms from this one that will still be grappling with that. So be very careful how far you go down that. Obviously, you want things to fit together, and you want, you know, this intervention, the street ends, this, that, to all eventually build up to something. But don't fall into the trap of going too far down the road with branding. It will paralyze you.

Thank you, Mr. Kosas. Here's a good point. Again, this town was not designed for walkability. There's no sidewalks. There's no nothing. And that holds true with the lights. I mean, for those of us that live in the residential neighborhood, the corners are pitch black, like pitch black. Can't see anything. And there's not enough lighting. And again, to the other speakers, I'm okay with the criticism that you're going to have for me at the end of my two years. I got too much done and I didn't sit up here and just talk about it ad nauseum. So I'm okay with that criticism as it comes. Anyways, Madam Clerk, you want to call the roll, please?

Yes, Mayor. Commissioner Dostey?

Yes.

Commissioner Travani?

Yes.

Mayor Danziger? Yes. Mayor, the motion carries.

Thank you. Thank you, guys. Appreciate it. You're killing me. I know. I can't even remember my name right now.

But there's an easy one. There's a low hanging fruit. Which one?

Which one's 9-8? Everything else is 9-8.

Yeah, there's a 9-H. This is the entrance to the community center. So right now, if you're walking from this block to the community center, so you're crossing the street, And then you get into a point where you have to do like a zigzag to get in, right? So you turn right and then you turn left again because the entrance is not aligned with a crosswalk.

I think it was done purposely for the children so they don't just run out into the street, if I'm not mistaken. I see where you're going with the ADA. I WISH WE HAD TIM HERE OR SOMEBODY WITH INSTITUTIONAL KNOWLEDGE. I JUST MET WITH SOMEBODY WHO WAS HERE THROUGH THAT PART OF THE PROCESS. I THINK IT WAS DESIGNED SPECIFICALLY TO MAKE SURE KIDS DON'T COME RUNNING OUT AND GET A CLEAR PATH TO THE STREET. THERE'S NOTHING EVER SIMPLE IN THIS TOWN. Yeah. I don't know. Okay. I mean, I can see that, I guess, but the problem would be also... Maybe we can move back some of the hedges and the curb. Is the issue that the chairs don't have the room?

Well, yeah. It's very cumbersome because... It so happens that you also have the traffic signal there, the pole there. So you have the pole, which is in the middle. And so getting in and out is a bit complicated. And actually, this is something that I think Michael brought up to me. So I'd be glad if he can speak about that.

You want to take it back that it's simple?

Let's see if we can do it.

Let's see. I'm trying to get a street view on this.

Yeah.

Mayor, you want the cards or?

You want to just call them out?

Elena Salazar?

I was on 9317 Bay Drive. So I was on the community center committee that had this thing built. And that is exactly the same reason why we moved the entrance to 96th Street Park, right, on that redesign, away from the corner, because the kids run out right to the, they were running out, but the old entrance to 96th Street Park used to be right on that corner, right? And that was a problem. The community center, the way it's designed was that driveway and those hedges are supposed to be some kind of a safety, right? To keep, because unfortunately these kids, because the gates don't shut automatically either. The gates, the way they're designed, they're not the kind that close right after themselves. So it's very easy. They're left open all the time. So you have to come up with some, so that was, they put that there to keep the kids from just running out from the pool right into traffic. That's a major road, right? There's not a lot of, so you do need the barrier there. It absolutely should be ADA compliant. I don't know if you wanna, you know, whatever's not working or whatever, you want to fix that, but you can't have... And the gate area, too, they've changed it recently. They moved the gate. That happened over the past year where the entrance was moved and the gate's different and all that. But there are better gates that they make where you have to reach over. They're more child-proof. So they may need to do something entirely different if you're gonna keep anything. But the other problem that I wanted to mention that's related to this is that the construction people from the Kushner project are apparently, they're parking in that driveway in front of the community center. It's actually a problem. And that's supposed to be for emergency use so that if there's a problem at the pool, you can get an emergency vehicle in there and they're clogging it up with their cars. So this is, again, where the construction companies and the developers think they own the whole town. I couldn't believe it. They just parked their car and left. And I was like, that's a problem. So you wouldn't be able to get a wheelchair. You wouldn't be able to get anything in there with the cars parked there. So you have to look at what the problem is and then, I guess, develop a solution. But it has to keep the kids in. That's it.

I think there is one action item. Sorry, are we?

Oh, apologies.

OK. Michael Carrick in 9365 Abbott. I didn't realize this was on the agenda. Thank you for giving me the opportunity to speak. September 2023, after an event at the CC, there was a crowd of people exiting, standing on the yellow part of the crosswalk. Because of the bushes, it got very crowded. And as the light turned green, my wife stepped into the crosswalk and got hit by a cyclist. By the way, shout out to Hot Seller, they were on the scene within seconds. But the issue, and I've talked to a number of the elected officials and past and current town managers about a quick, easy fix. The mayor actually just made a comment about just cutting back some of the hedges and flattening out that area a little bit so that as people do exit the community center during events, there's a little bit more space for people to wait for the light to change. I actually have some renderings that I created, and I'll be more than happy to send them out. But the mayor actually had a quick and easy fix. It was just to deal with some of the hedges. Thank you.

Thank you. I think Commissioner Trevani's point, that poll kind of sticks into the right of way. I don't know if we can get Andrea, if you guys can figure it out. I know there's like 48 inches required for ADA. If we could just double check that space and maybe there's a conversation to be had. I don't know if we can move it, if it's DOT.

Yeah, it's DOT. We actually found out because we thought that we can do a simple fix behind the edges, seeing that it looks like it's the community center driveway. It's not the driveway of the community center. um is dlt um right away actually so to do anything on the curbing cutting or anything like that moving would require dlt permit which is why there's a proposal for design because they're going to need a design of all that now if we're talking about just the landscape to trim back some of the hedges i don't think we necessarily need a permit from dlt for that um MOVING, YEAH, TO MOVE THAT POLL ESSENTIALLY THAT'S RIGHT THERE WOULD DEFINITELY REQUIRE A DLT PERMIT WHICH WOULD REQUIRE A PROJECT AND A DESIGN AND ALL OF THAT THAT GOES WITH THAT.

THERE'S ONE SUGGESTION I WOULD MAKE THAT COULD ACHIEVE SOME OF THIS GOAL WITHOUT SACRIFICING THE CHILD SAFETY COMPONENT. And this could be an action item I think that we just ask the staff to look into. I can't tell from the size, the width of the curb cut, whether it's really possible for somebody in a wheelchair or a mobility device to kind of get up onto the sidewalk and then turn to the south to access that path. And it could be that if the pole can't move, just a wider curb cut would give somebody more space to get toward that path. And it still maintains the child safety component. You see what I'm saying? I just can't tell how wide that curb cut is, but it looks like it could be wider. And then that could help right there with accessibility. I mean, you know, I wonder if we can just give direction to study the curb coat width and just see if there's really ability for a wheelchair or a mobility device to maneuver that. You know, I also welcome comments from residents who use such devices if they're having any trouble there.

Yeah, we could, we could definitely take a look, um, at that, at that radius. Um, I know the sidewalk itself is ADA compliant per DLT standards cause it's a DLT sidewalk. Um, but any of those small things we could definitely see if there's any improvement that we can make that maybe DLTs open to doing without going through such an extensive type of project for a simple solution.

So I can already see problems if we expand it. If you look at the design, there's one panel essentially comes in at an angle. There's a panel that's flat and a panga that comes back up on that angle to lower itself down. If we extend it,

What do you mean by panel?

A square. So each concrete square or whatever they call it out there. Oh, I see. Yeah, yeah. If we expand that and we move it back, you end up now with a disruption to the path out. And you end up with a path that's going to be coming out to half even, half straight. Like I said, nothing is simple.

So be to two elements then one would be to make this access to the sidewalk a little wider. And the other one would be to trim the vegetation the hedges there be more so that there is also more space for people to stand which was what Michael was bringing up earlier.

I think you're going to get a similar issue, right? Because if you look at the level over there, it's coming in. And then even if we expand back and maybe put concrete, there's a slope. So what happens with that slope?

You're talking about the slope there at the edges, like the curb slope?

Here, right?

Yeah, yeah, yeah. So you would expand that so the slope would be coming up here.

Yeah, if we expanded it out another step, right, because right now it starts here. If we started. Right in front of the entrance. Yeah. So, I mean, the simplest may be just to request DOT move that over four feet. And then this way we have the space we need. We could put a request. I know we have other things on the plate with them. You know, the lights that went in on 90th and 89th are full red lights. Yeah, if you have more space, that is absolutely true. All right, so maybe, I don't know, can we get Public Works, town administration to reach out to DOT and see what we can do? On our end, we'll use the political, you know, email the secretary and maybe we'll get a response from them.

Yeah.

All right, thank you, sir.

Actually, I'll see him next week, so.

you are perfect yeah yeah yeah yeah okay okay thank you guys appreciate it i think uh all right motion to the motion to adjourn motion to adjourn second all in favor aye all opposed no thank you thank you guys