City Commission - Regular Meeting

you you you

Hey guys, it's 545. Sergeant Risco, let the mayor know it's 545. 545, folks. All right. Madam Clerk, good to go. Mr. Attorney, good to go. Colleagues on the commission, good to go. Mr. Mayor, give me a thumbs up, good to go. Thumbs up. All the time. All right. Here we go, folks. Roll call, Madam Clerk. Please stand for the invocation. Would anybody like to give the invocation? All right. Dear Heavenly Father, thank you for granting us the gift of life, the gift of family, the gift of friendship, the gift of freedom, and the gift of service. Service before self, service to our country, our state, our county, and our beloved city of Sweetwater. Please bless us to make the important decisions necessary for the betterment of our residents. Please continue to bless our firefighters, our police officers, and the greatest military in the world. In Jesus' name, I will always pray. Amen. Please remain standing for the Pledge of Allegiance.

I pledge allegiance to the flag

all right item four the city commissioner is sitting as the local planning agency will consider the following ordinance an ordinance of the city of sweetwater providing for adoption of the proposed year-based amendments of the city of sweetwater comprehensive master plan is required by chapter 163 florida statues amending each of the plans elements future land use housing transportation economic development sanitary sewers storm drainage potable water recreation and open space capital improvements and special educational facilities providing for conflicts providing for severability and providing for an effective date uh mr mayor Do you want staff to have the floor to give an explanation?

Good evening. Jorge Vera, planning and zoning official. Basically what you have in front of you is every seven years the state requires that we look over our comprehensive master plan and make adjustments to it and see what sections and objectives we have met and what we haven't met and if any adjustments that need to be made. We also adjust the capital improvement section of it and it's added to this comprehensive master plan, year amendment, and this is seven years since we last did ours. We need to do that so we'll be able to stay in compliance with the state and also be able to, anytime we wanna change our master plan, be able to do it, or else they won't let us do it unless we do this.

Great, I have a question. Does that, At any point in time, we can go ahead and revisit this. If we want to go ahead and make any amendments, we don't have to wait for the next seven years. Is that correct? Correct. Great. Does anybody have any questions?

No.

Does anybody want to make a motion? Motion. Motion by Commissioner Reynaldo Ray, second by Commissioner Idanianu. This is an ordinance. Roll call, Madam Clerk. Yes.

Yes.

Yes. Motion passes four to zero. Note the absence of the other commissioners. Motion for adjournment. Move. All in favor say aye. Aye. Meeting adjourned.

you you you you you Thank you. you you you Okay.

You want to know anything that's going on? Oh, I know. I see him all the time.

He's the one that's pulling the strings over there. I was one of the ones that sent an email to... He's doing a good job. He's doing a good job.

Is that as a fellow former union president? Yeah, former union president. Yeah, we were there. I see the connection. How long have you been on Sabre? And I know you know who I am. Yeah. He will go eat your sandwich at La Maria. Oh, yeah. I bought the house from him. He's born in 17, 18? 18. Next to the Chinese place.

Tony Lamb used to work there. Tony Lamb's parents used to own the Chinese place.

Oh, really? I'm the one with Hialeah Drive.

You're kidding.

I know, because we threw a party.

He doesn't know anybody. But now we're talking about La Maria. I haven't heard that in a while. All right, Madam Clerk, good to go. Mr. Attorney, good to go.

Colleagues on the commission, good to go.

Mr. Mayor, good to go. Staff, good to go.

All right. uh regular commission meeting date monday august 3rd 2026 the 6 p.m commission chambers 500 southwest 109 avenue roll call madam clerk even though we just had a local planning agency meeting we're going to give another invocation please stand for the invocation would anybody like to give the invocation all right let's bow our heads Dear Heavenly Father, thank you for granting us the gift of life, the gift of family, the gift of friendship, the gift of freedom, and the gift of service. Service before self is how we should operate here as city leaders. Please continue to bless our city leaders to make the very necessary decisions for the betterment of our residents. Please continue to bless our staff. If it wasn't for them, we wouldn't be able to have any events or move the city forward. Please continue to bless our police officers, our firefighters, and the greatest military in the world. In Jesus' name, I will always pray, amen. Please remain standing for the Pledge of Allegiance. I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America, and to the republic for which it stands, one nation, under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all. All right, have a seat. We have an action-packed meeting agenda today. Special presentations, Mr. Mayor?

Yes, we do. We have a special presentation. The employee, are we talking already the employee of the month?

It's a special presentation, employee of the month award.

Let's go. We'll go ahead and do them just out of the blue. All right.

Richard Ruby.

We're doing the game, we gotta teach them. It's okay, you hold on to them. Mr. Ruby is our building official and as the building official and all directors, when they have employees that go above and beyond what they do as far as beyond their normal duties and signify themselves further, to us that's very important as a city, as basically like you said in your prayer, are great employees that make it happen for all of us. So we're very proud when there's a certain issue that takes place. In this particular case, it was helping Venezuela after the hurricane. Hurricane, sorry, the earthquake. Earthquake, thank you, close, disaster with disasters. But after this earthquake, we felt compelled to be able to help the citizens of Venezuela, even though the nation has gone through so much, it breaks your heart to see what they were going through in the moment. So the city of Sweetwater in connection with our commissioners, especially these two that are right here, that would not miss a day working, came out along with our employees and started helping as much as we could through the weekends and through the week. in every way we could. And we're very proud of that in the city of Sweetwater, what was accomplished. We not only did this, and I'm taking a little longer to say this because this was very important. Not only did our employees doing an incredible job, we had other cities bringing stuff to Sweetwater and also University that also did a lot of donation and time. But also we found in our city 163,000 foot warehouse. square foot warehouse. And that warehouse, by the time we were done a couple of weeks later, was full from one place to another, from one side to another. So these employees are very significant because the whole time they were there, but they weren't just there. They were working nonstop. Next meeting, I'm going to bring a couple of others that did the same. But these three really stood out. I'm really blessed to have them working for the city of Sweetwater, but also the work that they did was done from the heart and from wearing that patch of the city of Sweetwater and making us look good. So the three of you, would you want to start naming them? Mr. Jesus Rodriguez.

Put it right here for the side. Go ahead, next one.

Mr. Alberto Moises. And Janet Santiago. .

all right and before before we take this picture once again i want to thank you personally for the hard work that you guys did yes sir okay let's go right there one two three perfect thank you

Yeah.

Good evening, Major Mesa, Sweetwater PD, here to read Officer of the Month for June 2026. You might see a familiar face in the crowd. On Sunday, June 28th, 2026, while working in off-duty detail at Dolphin Mall, Detective Arredondo recognized an individual who was wanted in connection with the retail theft that had occurred on June 1st at Dolphin Mall. Without hesitation, he maintained visual surveillance of the suspect while requesting backup, ultimately detaining the individual without incident. The subject was subsequently arrested and charged in connection with that June 1st theft, as well as an outstanding bench warrant. His diligence extended well beyond the initial arrest. Further investigation revealed that that subject was linked to an additional 16 investigations throughout Miami-Dade County, including four with Aventura Police Department, four with North Miami Beach Police Department, one with Sunny Isles Beach Police Department, and seven with the City of Miami Police Department. Detective Arredondo's actions demonstrate that professionalism and dedication extend beyond regular assignments and duty hours. His alertness while working in off-duty detail resulted not only in the successful resolution of an open Sweetwater case, but also significantly assisted multiple neighboring agencies in resolving numerous outstanding investigations. For his exceptional vigilance, initiative, and commitment to law enforcement, Detective Angel Arredondo is again recognized as Officer of the Month, this time for June 2026.

That's a big enough wall. He's bringing it. You got a big house by the end of the day, you know?

He's bringing it.

Yeah, I know.

Okay, perfect. Two, three.

Congratulations. Good job.

That's it, right? .

Oh, God.

That's good. I think there's no other presentation. I don't know.

You got somebody else?

No, I just wanted to alert you guys to... Yeah, one of the chiefs.

We'll sit down so you can...

Okay.

I'll let you pass this around.

Not as big as Redondo's. So good evening, Sergio Diaz, chief of police. I have something written, but I'm going to talk from the heart. So that plaque that I'm passing around is a statewide challenge. And that challenge is called the Florida Law Enforcement Traffic Safety Challenge. This is the whole state of Florida and we were in the category of a hundred officers and less. So what this challenge is, is, uh, is all the traffic units. Uh, we're talking about, 40, 50 police departments that were involved. They give an award for first, second, and third. We won first place in the whole state of Florida for the traffic unit. I am extremely proud at our unit. This happened this past week. We're the first place winners for 100 and less officers for the whole state of Florida. And I wanted to share that with you. I'm extremely proud. It's a big deal. I beat out, thank you, I beat out some friends. They're still hurting, you know. I still got phone calls, oh okay, next year we're on, and I said absolutely. So I just want to let you guys know that our traffic unit, if you see one of our motorman or paw in our traffic unit, congratulate them. I appreciate your attention, thank you. Thank you Chief.

Everybody knows that makes me happy. Reports of officers, boards and committees. None additions and deletions to the agenda. Petitions, communications and remonstrances. Consent agenda. Do I have a motion? Motion by Commissioner Rinaldo Ray, second by Commissioner is on the annual all in favor say aye.

Aye.

Any opposed? Motion passed consent agenda passes. that was items a b c and d staff items a an ordinance of the city of seawater amending chapter 54 of the city code establishing penalties for collection of solid waste without a permit and for late payment authorizing the mayor to revoke permit after proper notice increasing required insurance for permittees providing for authority providing for severability providing for an effective date first reading mayor diaz This is a public hearing. Anybody wishing to speak on this item, please come forward. Seeing nobody come forward on this item, the public meeting is now closed. Mayor Diaz, you and staff have the floor.

Thank you, Mr. President. And this is an item that our CFO, Director of Finance, basically put together along with our attorney because we were brought to our attention through some auditing that our director was doing found that a lot of, especially several entities that picked up trash, commercial trash within the buildings, did not pay the fees that is required by the ordinance that this body put together some time ago. But I'll let him explain it even better.

Scott Mendelsberg, Finance Director, City of Sweetwater. We noticed that there were an awful lot of dumpster companies in areas two and three in the annex that are not currently registered with the city clerk and they don't have the permit. And so they're not paying the franchise fee. Um, I asked the mayor if he could instruct the code enforcement department to do a little field work. They put together a pretty comprehensive report of all the dumpsters within the city in areas one, two and three and all the companies that were collecting trash. We cross reference that with the list from the clerk and found out that we have 17 companies that are not paying the franchise fee because they don't even have a permit. Some of them that have a permit, we're not paying the franchise fees. And these range from large companies to small companies. So I take a look at the franchise ordinance, the solid waste ordinance. I noticed that we don't have any provisions for fines for collecting without a permit. And unlike some of the other municipalities, we don't have a penalty for paying your franchise fee late. So I worked with Ralph to put together some changes to the ordinance. and this is the ordinance at first reading. The next step is to do an audit of our franchise companies. We are going to, once we brief the mayor and give him the details, come up with a company that has done this in many other states that will be going in and looking at the books of those solid waste collection companies and determining whether or not they have the proper controls to determine how they should pay our franchise fee, which is 20% of gross receipts. And then we will make sure that they pay the current fee and any back payments that they owe.

All right. Does anybody have any questions for the director? Yes. Yes.

Scott, this is only, um, you say municipalities, so every municipality is doing the same thing.

Yeah. I mean, all the municipalities I know of, with the exception of Miami Dade County sun incorporated area, I have a franchise fee and municipal revenue is collected based on the amounts that are billed for each company in the collection area. We are not going to charge, obviously, Miami-Dade County, who does our solid waste collection for the residents. But those people who serve businesses and have dumpsters, they need to have a permit per our ordinance, and they need to pay the franchise fee per our ordinance.

And how much is it? Is it a percentage?

It's 20% of your gross receipts, and the franchise fee is a small amount. But we're also adjusting that to make sure they have the proper insurance. Most of the companies that are not doing this are smaller companies, but we do have one that is a very large entity.

Okay.

Thank you. So, um, our police department used to do the background investigation to all the tow truck companies and all the, um, waste companies, garbage companies, and that was done every year. And there was a packet that was sent to city hall. Is this more or less what you're talking about?

There is a packet that is collected by the clerk each year annually where they certify that they are collecting waste in the city, that they will pay the franchise fee.

Got it. All right. Well, good catch. Thank you. Do we have a motion on this item? A motion by Commissioner Zaniano, seconded by? Second. Commissioner Sal Diaz. All in favor say aye. Aye. Wait, this is a, sorry, roll call, Madam Clerk. Roll call, Madam Clerk. Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes. Good catch Scott. All right. Item passes unanimously. Uh, item B an ordinance of the city of Sweetwater providing for adoption of the proposed ear base amendments of the city of Sweetwater comprehensive master plan is required by chapter one, six, three Florida statues. amending each of the plan's elements, future land use, housing, transportation, economic development, sanitary sewers, storm drainage, potable water, recreation, and open spaces, capital improvements, and public education facilities, providing for conflicts, providing for severability, and providing for an effective date. First reading. Anybody wishing to speak on this item, please come forward. Seeing nobody come forward on this item, the public meeting is now closed. This is the same item that we spoke about in the local planning agency. Mr. Mayor, do you want the floor or do you want to just motion?

Just motion.

All right. Do we have a motion on this item? Motion by Commissioner Idaniano. Seconded by? Second. Commissioner Reynaldo Ray. Roll call, Madam Clerk. Commissioner Diaz? Yes. Commissioner Ray? Yes. Commissioner Manasilla? Yes. Commissioner Reynaldo? Yes. President Villanueva? Yes. Item passes unanimously. Item C, an ordinance of the city of Sweetwater, Florida, amending the city code of ordinance by including section entitled requests for supervisors during law enforcement encounters, providing that compliance with a request for a supervisor to respond to the scene is discretionary with the officer, authorizing the officer to satisfy such a request by providing the supervisor's name and contact information, providing for conflicts, providing for severability, providing for codification, providing for an effective date, first reading, Anybody wishing to speak on this item, please come forward. Seeing nobody come forward on this item, the public meeting is now closed. This is an item that I drafted. Let me explain the legislative intent. For those of you who watched on social media, on YouTube, and all these social media justice warriors and all these self-proclaimed sovereign citizens, when they're stopped by a law enforcement officer, that is not the time to file your grievance. When you're stopped by a law enforcement officer, you are to comply with lawful commands. When a law enforcement officer takes a traffic stop and asks somebody for their driver's license, understand that your driver's license is a privilege and you must submit that driver's license to a law enforcement officer. We have seen too many videos on social media. It's happened to plenty of police officers where an officer will go ahead and take a traffic stop and say, give me your driver's license, registration, insurance. And the person will say, I watched Law & Order last night and I feel like I know what the law is because I watch a lot of YouTube. I'm not giving you my license. Give me your supervisor. And they'll go ahead and roll up the window. Well, that doesn't work that way. So this is a way for us to show our law enforcement officers that number one, we support you. Number two, we're going to create a law that shows that we support you. When a person... Upon a traffic stop gets into an altercation with an officer and says you know what give me your supervisor That person assumes that that traffic interaction is gonna stop No You're not entitled to a supervisor Here in the city of Sweetwater you're going to hand over your driver's license registration insurance and if you fail to comply you're gonna go to jail and however that turns out you're gonna go to jail now after the interaction and it is the officer's discretion to go ahead and say, you know what? My supervisor is Sergeant Darius Visco, and I'll give you the station number. And when they say, no, I want his cell phone. No, this is not a hurricane. You can have it your way. I'm going to give you the phone number to the station. Have a good day. Those are your citations. So this is basically showing our police officers we're gonna back them. Does anybody have any questions on this item?

Yes, I do. Commissioner Saldias, you have the floor. Yes, Chief, I would like to ask a question. Maybe you have the answer, but I would like to ask the Chief. I mean, I support the police department too. But what's our standard when it comes to something like a resident or anybody wants to talk to a sergeant? Is this part of the rules that we already have established to the sergeant to come by? So, yes. Yes.

Most departments have a general orders or departmental order that says if somebody requests a supervisor, we'll request it. It really doesn't change anything because after the commissioner called me, I thought about this. A person still has a right to come to the station and make a complaint. and I can assure this commission that every citizen that wants to make a complaint will be listened to and we will take it so all this does is um it kind of diffuses the situation at the moment and then the person can then contact a supervisor there's several ways of doing that they can call and ask our station. They can come in in person. We do have the pamphlet in the front of the lobby if you want to make a complaint. They can make a complaint even without getting ahold of the supervisor. They can fill it out in the front desk and turn it in and the next day or when we can THE INTERNAL AFFAIRS OFFICER WILL GET A HOLD OF THEM. IT DOESN'T CHANGE ANYTHING IN MY EYES. A PERSON STILL CAN MAKE A COMPLAINT. IT'S JUST A MATTER OF THAT MOMENT. SOMETIMES A SUPERVISOR IS NOT AVAILABLE. SO I CAN TELL THE PUBLIC THAT WE WILL INVESTIGATE ALL COMPLAINTS. I COME FROM AN INTERNAL AFFAIRS BACKGROUND. and it's they're going to get looked at any any complaints going to get looked at right i mean this is a very very small department okay i mean i'm pretty sure not anymore it's not as small as it used to be well but did you guys got one sergeant to the whole city or or to a specific no no no we we have uh usually on on an on a crew there's usually a lieutenant and a sergeant but we have other sergeants that work here uh not just we have sergeants in the motor unit we have sergeants in the administration so there's always going to be some somebody available however if i have an internal affairs officer here which we usually do during the business hours that internal affairs detective will take the complaint okay but my my question is i mean you have you have one

sergeant for the whole entire city or not all the time not not all the time no sometimes we have more than one more than one yes we have other units other than patrol how many how many areas do we have in the city of sweetwater three areas and every on those three areas you got one supervisor no

No. Usually in patrol we either have two supervisors, a sergeant, but then there's more. There's a motor sergeant and also the other units that we have that are either proactive or I don't like to get into too much when it comes to strategy.

That's fine. I'm just trying to understand it because, I mean, I've been around and sometimes when I see like a car accident or something like that or just a call and I pass by my Harley Davidson motorcycle that I have. I see the supervisor there all the time.

I see a sergeant on the scene. Right. You're not always going to get a supervisor on every call. That hasn't happened in 37 years that I've been in law enforcement. But they're out there. They're out there. We always have a supervisor on duty, always. That is something that is the norm here.

So I can understand it. You get one supervisor and one lieutenant a night on shift? Sometimes more. Okay. All right. Thank you, Chief. Yes.

Again, as I walk away here, I want the citizens to know that we will listen to the complaints.

And so just be sure of that. I'm sorry. And I want to ask the city attorney. I mean, you obviously you went through and you saw this. I mean, I'm trying to look for the better of the city, not a lawsuit or something like that. As an attorney, can you?

As a lawyer and as a personal observation as well, I don't like reality TV, but I'm fascinated with YouTube videos of sovereign citizens. And this is precisely, Commissioner Villanueva is exactly right on the spot. You stop them, they will ask for a supervisor, they will tell you you have no right to do this, that they're traveling through the town, they're not driving. and it becomes, you get two or three of those at the same time for whatever reason, it becomes a really difficult situation. So is this lawful? Yes, absolutely.

Okay, I was gonna ask you that. Now, I was gonna ask, in any other municipality, do they have this ordinance, or this is the first one that you hear from?

I couldn't answer that. I do not know. I don't know.

Okay, thank you.

So let me, let me respond to, uh, commissioner saw these. Let me, let me paint you a better picture. This ordinance gives our officers the discretion to contact the supervisor. And let me pay you a better picture. Officer goes ahead and takes a traffic stop because somebody's texting and driving, right? Or somebody who's videotaping while they're driving, not a, not a felony, just the traffic infraction. The officer goes ahead and takes, A traffic stop notifies on the radio. Now all the other units in the area know that that officer's taking a traffic stop at that location. When that officer approaches that vehicle, the person immediately takes out their cell phone and says, why'd you stop me? What are you doing? I pay your salary. And now before the officer even has a chance to interact. So when the officer says, I need your driver's license, registration, insurance, the person is now videotaping. No, no, you need to tell me why you stopped me first. Well, again, this is not burking. You're not going to have it your way. Give me your driver's license, registration, insurance now, or you're going to go to jail. And, yes, the officer can make that arrest. When the person says, no, I want a supervisor, what's happening is, and we see this on TV, some officers either don't know the law or their city government or their police department don't support them. They stop the interaction because they don't want any beef. They don't want to catch an IA, and they go ahead and request a supervisor. So now that person is sitting in the middle of the street for maybe 20 minutes waiting for a supervisor to get there with a police officer with their lights on, sitting in their car, waiting for a supervisor to arrive, which is a silly, stupid interaction. The initial traffic stop is the reason for that interaction. So when a person says, I want a supervisor, no, you're not entitled to a supervisor. After we're done with this interaction, I'll go ahead and give you the supervisor's information. Not to mention, all of our traffic stops are recorded on body camera. None of our police officers are taking traffic stops without body camera, which is good and bad. We all have, you know, my opinion. So, if it's all recorded on the interaction, then we shouldn't have an issue if later on it wants to be investigated. The person wants the supervisor's name, yeah, my supervisor is Major Mesa. And his phone number is 305-552-9900. Now, I want to know your name, badge number. They just want to continue that interaction because the greater majority of people who are having these altercations with law enforcement are Karens, are people with a huge sense of entitlement. What I'm trying to do is I'm trying to show our police officers and I'm trying to be an advocate for our law enforcement. Show them, hey, we support you. Go ahead and do your job. You don't have to be worried about doing it. Don't be afraid to do your job. We're going to back you. All right? Mr. Mayor, you have a question?

Actually, I wanted to further enhance what you said, Mr. President. I think times have changed due to either YouTube or any of these shows or social media, and it seems that more and more and more we have these people entitled to do whatever they think is appropriate at that time. therefore i congratulate what you're doing i think this will take a trend and it does already it's like you said it's common sense for a police officer to know but just in case it codifies it even further and that way we support our men and women that are in law enforcement it is a very difficult job and i know you're extremely pro a police officer too uh commissioner diaz and to further enhance what the chief said we make sure that we have act adequate coverage at all times and they've done an incredible job making sure that and having the senior ranks always supportive and be on top of things and inspecting and making sure everybody's doing the job that they're doing so one of the things i did say in the last meeting when we talked about it uh mr president was that i will be extremely supportive of this item And I wanted to make sure that it reflects here, that I will be supportive and also alongside you. And I once again congratulate you. And I hope this is something that will be picked up in the League of Cities and so on, so it can be brought out to other police departments. Because these people that do this job, it's not a pleasant job most of the time. You only see so much glory, especially in a city that protects our officers. We give them that respect. Pat on the back, thank you. Thank you for going the extra yard and so on. But they don't see them when they're out there in the middle of a storm like they were right now with a tree that fell helping us deal with this and things like that. Unfortunately, you have these people that maybe had a wrong day or something happened in their life and they wanna take it out on somebody. So here's the best little pick that they could get because they just got pulled over and that just made their day worse. So with that, once again, I'm extremely supportive and I think it's a great item and it should be picked up by everybody else and all it does is codify because the law is the law.

through the chair.

Commissioner Ioannou.

Yes. I thank you because I understand you know exactly what you're saying. I can give you a very simple sample. My son came over on Friday to see me and he says that he stopped this guy on the turnpike because he was speeding, but he stopped. He says, I need to call 911 because I don't know who you are. He said, really? With a patrol car and dressed up? The guy did call 911. And then he got a call and says, I'm here. I mean, so I know exactly what you're saying. You know, you get all those people that watch too much TV, and that's exactly because that's, I thank you very much by doing that.

Thank you, sir. So I want to reiterate, nobody ever calls the police for something good. Nobody's ever called 911 to say, by the way, my daughter just graduated from kindergarten. We're cutting a cake. come on by and invite the firefighters, because, you know, invite them too. Nobody ever does that. They always associate law enforcement with something negative, right? They're killing me, they're raping me, they're raping me, they're robbing me. And a traffic stop, no one has ever gone, ooh, yippee, I'm getting stopped by the police. I've been stopped by the police. So it's not a positive interaction. But I'm always gonna be respectful, and I expect our law enforcement officers to always say good morning, good evening, good afternoon, sir or ma'am. I expect them to be ladies and gentlemen. I thank you for your questions. I know that you're also an advocate of law enforcement, but there are those myths in law enforcement, like you have to give your name and badge number. That's a myth. There are quotas. For tickets, that's a myth, because if it was like that, I would have won the toaster some months. But there is no toaster. There are no quotas. And again, this is another myth, that in the middle of an interaction of a traffic stop, if you say, give me your supervisor, a force field happens and the officer can no longer do anything. It doesn't work that way. So does anybody else have any other questions? No? Commissioner Saldias, do you have any other questions? No, sir. All right. Do we have a motion on this item? Motion by Commissioner Yano, seconded by? Second. By Commissioner Reynaldo Rey. We'll call Madam Clerk. Commissioner Rey? Yes. Commissioner Reynaldo? Yes.

Commissioner Yano?

Commissioner Yano? Commissioner Yano?

Yes. Commissioner Reynaldo? Yes, this is first reading. We're going, okay, thank you.

Yes. Thank you for that support. Item 12, reports. Mayor's report.

Go ahead.

Mr. Mayor, you have any report?

Thank you. I wanted to first and most thank our parks department Ms. Garcia is not here, but I want to thank her and her team and the people that she hired for the summer to make sure we had an incredible summer camp. It was absolutely astonishing to see how well everything ran, everything was done on time, everything, the kids were extremely happy, most of the time they didn't want to leave after a certain time when parents were trying to pick them up and that said it all. Another thing that they did, it's an event this last Friday, I had to leave early, I had, it was double booked, but I got to stay there for at least for the beginning and see the talent and the people and how those kids performed. It makes us very proud to, to have done what we've done and the changes that we've done and to see those kids really enjoying themselves it uh it was a great thing so kudos to our parks department and putting this together and their whole team um by the way thank you for those that were able to attend i think it's always important to support and show and be with them at all times There's a couple of things. One, Domino Park improvements. Some of you, I know, have gone by and seen all the improvements we're doing on Domino Park. It's the last park. That park was abandoned, unfortunately. When I got to examine it, it was rotting, falling apart. Actually, it could have been pretty bad, the way the roofs were rotting and everything else. and the several other situations going on there. So we've redone everything. We put it really going ahead and trying to get a couple of more spaces in there too for parking. All the conceivables have been, are being redone. I think they started yesterday on the roofs. I don't know how well they've been with all this rain and everything going on, but we should get it done pretty soon. I know we tried to move forward before the summer, but unfortunately it just didn't take place as fast as we wanted it to. National Night Out is tomorrow. The police department was setting up an incredible exposition. of our department and having a great time with kids. We even had an ice cream truck rented to give out free ice cream and everything else, DJ, and everything else. Unfortunately, we can't take the chance in having people go ahead and buy all the stuff and get ready to come over and then it's raining. So we cancelled the event as of today has been cancelled and I want to publicly say that so those that are watching could understand that and we'll we'll do something maybe on a little later and and try to catch up and do the event again in a different way. So that's done. um as far as the mobility study that you guys have been waiting for it's done it's been presented but i have yet to review it and we should get it sometime before the next meeting and scott and we will bring it to you and see where we stand and what we could do to to improve our areas one of the things that i did was we've had some issues with the electrical power in the city We have three blocks, one where actually my own mother lives and former house is, and two, three blocks there between each other and I'm actually living on the other block. Those blocks, the wind blows a little and apparently the trees hit the cable and there goes the power grid for quite a bit of time. We walked out with the Florida Power and Light team to be able to look and see what we could do. We came across certain things and one of the things where we think some of these outdated poles and the service in itself have outdated themselves. You look at one part of it and you got all these, you know, cabling and so on, and the poles, and everywhere. And then you look at the other part of words in your sweet, you know, the parts that were done after the fact, and it's all on the ground and looks beautiful. Very nice. So I'm going to be looking into a study and to see what Florida power and light is to see as we continue to improve our city. And as we've discussed many time to be able to bring the power underground. And that's something that I'm going to be working very hard on along with our team and trying to figure out how best to be done. It's not cheap, but the residents deserve better. And that's one of the best ways of showing an improvement. And also I'm gonna be bringing to you later on is probably that any underground, any new development, any new type of buildings coming in have to work with underground utility and start there. And whatever the area is, just like any other city has done now in the future, even though most, Of course, most new developments already do on the ground because that's what, but this is something that we'll look into for the future. Our water situation, we have a couple of areas on the flooding issues that we're dealing with. They're very small, they're mostly in the, there's a little section off of Sixth Street and about 103rd Court. And we're working on that. We have a grant that was brought by the state of Florida that we applied that was about 800 and something thousand dollars to do a hookup from 103rd Court and 6th Street to the pump station that's right there on 103rd Avenue and so on. So we could not have that area kind of like flood on us. So we're working on that grant that it was cut in half, as you all know, all of you. But hopefully we'll get that done and proceed forward on as soon as possible. But that also brings us to certain areas that we still have to deal with with some of the water issues and so on. So the maintenance. department has gone in and has looked at all our pump stations again. We have gotten ready our emergency management team with with also that we have Martin and Frank that are both uh incident commanders under me to make sure that we're prepared for in case of anything any storm that comes in and so on so we have a lot um going on we're constantly checking adapting looking what we could improve on if there's anything that you guys come up please don't hesitate to come by the office as you do and come by and we'll talk about it uh because uh now is the time And to the report, uh, the safe street, um, grant that we also received, that's going to take a little time to process. We were told that the last one was process as being, no, the last state that's being processed is 2023. and we're in 2026 going into 2027. So also talk to Scott and see how we could start working on our own programs and looking at how we could continue to improve. And that works to the five year study that we wanna make sure that we get and we establish. So there's a lot of things we're doing and we'll continue to do so and any ideas you have, please bring it forth, thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Mayor. Commissioner's report. Any commissioners wishing to report? Commissioner's stuff? I do.

Commissioner Reynaldo Ray. So just a few days ago, I was together with some of the guys from Station 29, and they were giving me information about the station itself, and I wanted to reach out. I told them that I'll reach out first to the mayor and make sure we get something done for them. along with the commissioners and, you know, the city. This is their 50th anniversary this year, and they want to see how, what we could do with them together to maybe do something, you know, with the city, you know, maybe with us and them together there, and, you know, just give them something and, you know, see if we get together. There may be a barbecue or something, and they really wanted to do something to show it out that, you know, they've been strong there. They are one of the busiest stations in the nation. So we got to give back to them. I still hope that that second rescue stays there. But it's a long ways to go. But I wanted to see if the mayor, I mean, if not, I know the mayor will see if we get together and get something done for them.

I'm glad you reminded me of it. That's something that we're looking at and thank you for bringing it up and we'll work together. That is something that's extremely important. This will be my 36 years in office. And before that, I don't know if you remember, I don't know how many years of auxiliary and so on here. And one thing I will tell you, Station 29 is probably the best station of all the stations out there. And it wasn't one of, no, they led the nation several years in calls and in timing of actually getting to those calls in an expedited manner. I know we were small, but still, you could have multiple calls, less like police, and be delayed for some reason. So they led the nations for quite a while. That station, when I was commissioner, I had it rebuilt and Scott had a good hand in there and make sure we built the very best station that could be built. And the naming on the station and everything else, it's been very significant in my life for a long time. And if you, I don't know if you remember, but that's the station that actually worked real clearly during our major floods that we took people and actually delivered them to the station because we couldn't go anywhere else because everything else was kind of underwater. And they saved a couple of lives right there. in the hangar you know in the garage there of the of the station right there and then from people with heart attacks and so on so is very significant and I agree a 100% with you we will do whatever we can to help them because there are vital part of our existence to because they've taken care of our residents for many many many years. So whatever we need to do to help them absolutely.

one thing I want to add to that because I do always, I'm always going to get on that point because we're going vertical now and with what's coming into little Abner, it's just on another level we did receive station 68 which i remember you were there as well and i remember scott being there for station 68 but there's no rescue there and you know i know i'm you know i'm preaching to the choir and i'm going over and over again but this is something that i want to get not to use someone up in the county to make sure that that happens

That's already been addressed. Not once, several times.

Mr. President could actually testify to that. I want to continue hitting that because we only have Station 29 and 58 is a little out west, but they also have their share.

Great. Any other commissioners wishing to speak on anything? All right. So I want to congratulate you, Mr. Mayor. I remember many years ago being a very young kid and seeing those two uh hurricanes in 99 and then the no-name storm in 2000 um i had never been a part of anything like that as an employee and i i know that it shaped me in public service i've seen many municipalities try to emulate what we've done when it comes to disaster but i think we've perfected it Just my personal opinion. And right, wrong, or indifferent for all the administrators that have come through Sweetwater. You know, some good, some bad. I think all of them have done a great job when it comes to disaster relief, but you definitely took the cake. So I want to congratulate you for the food drive that was done for Venezuela. I want to thank all the employees who were there. I really, really appreciate it. It's funny how other municipalities came to Sweetwater and began to emulate, and how you managed to fill 160,000 square foot warehouse is beyond me. I do want to thank Commissioner Saldias, even though he questioned my ordinance now. That's fine. I'm going to throw eggs at your house later on. And Commissioner Yano for attending. I know Commissioner Reynaldo Rey was there briefly. could not attend I was on vacation I wish I could have been there but I want to thank everybody for doing that I want to thank our building director Richard Ruby mr. mayor you did good if you do bad I'm gonna tell you to bet but I gotta say I was a little hesitant I You're a young guy. I didn't think you had a whole lot of experience. I was wrong. You're doing a kick-ass job. So I want to thank you for that.

I will second that.

Yeah. I want to again congratulate you, Mr. Mayor, for Scott. I can't believe I'm going to say this out loud. Scott Mendelsberg, our finance director. We've had plenty of bouts out here. Scott, you're doing a kick-ass job, man. Keep doing what you're doing. uh if i got something bad to say to somebody i'm gonna say it if i got something good i'm gonna say it i i could care less about people's opinions it's just how god created me and how i am so keep up the good work to you and your staff thank you um i want to congratulate our parks a director who's not here and our park staff they've really turned that park around they really have turned that park around that part was abandoned for eight nine years And summer camp last year was the first summer camp in eight years. It didn't go as planned. This year's summer camp was amazing. My kids were in summer camp. They tried to give me the employee discount, which I refused to accept. I'm sure they told you about that. I don't take discounts, unless it's Cuban coffee and donuts. We have three field trips a week. at the summer camp, and again, I gotta say, for many years, it was abandoned. I remember years ago, we used to have great summer camps. My oldest son was part of the summer camps there, and then for nine years, it went to crap. The end of the summer camp show was great. Any type of community engagement, you know, I'm all about it. And I wanna talk about new development. So, we all know how the little trailer park was, vacated the owner of the trailer park told the residents of the trailer park hey i'm i don't want you as as uh my tenants anymore and we lost 905 units um i think based on realistic numbers there was probably about 4 000 people that lived in that trailer park i would think so but um part of the new census little abner 2 and little abner 3 wasn't counted on the new census and those are 650 units um and then we have the upland project which is 1 700 units which are currently being filled and then we have the 900 units um off of 110 and i think northwest 16th street so that's 3 250 units and per fbi statistics uh when you multiply that times 3.5 You have 11,375 residents, new residents that are in the city right now. Now, we all have to prepare and we have to project for our new budget. Everybody knows that my first care in the world is going to be public safety. So I wanna make sure that we have healthy dialogue when it comes to our workshops. I'm gonna be advocating for more police officers. for extra positions without breaking the bank. I will do so tirelessly. So I want to make sure that we all attend our workshop meetings when it comes to budgets. We have to make some tough decisions. I'm not, I'm not never going to raise taxes and I never want to terminate employees. I always, I think the city's moving forward and I think the city's doing an amazing job. It's only going to do a better job having more employees. So if I have police officers, uh, more police officers in the city, I'm going to be happy with that. Other than that, I have nothing to add. Uh, anybody else wish to speak? No? Okay.

One point.

Mr. Mayor, you have the floor.

On when you said before that, and I appreciate your words and thank you, but one of the key things that in order for us to do the emergency management and in order to do what we do is that we all play together. in the middle of a disaster what does that mean that we all work together and we work hard and we all there's no eagles there's no nothing there's just helping the people around and making sure everything gets done right going back to the days with daniel daniel commissioner daniel was uh the head of the civil air patrol back in the day with i think it was 20 some odd kids that or more We used to have 60, 60, 60, but 20 at a time, basically. Yeah. And working on the streets and doing it. It doesn't happen just with us, the administration. It happens with everybody working together even the residents will come out and support and work and from from all things we've done this is a part that makes a special and I just want to clear that that part that if it's not just this everybody working together in the right cause it wasn't just one person trying to do the difference. It's it takes everybody on this. because it's not easy because you don't know, you don't really know how it could go. So we're prepared to the most. we're making sure that uh the city is in a great financial position each one of you when you come and see me as if we as we've done the last three years i know you probably have your wish list of things that you want to see improve and things that want to be done uh please look at the budget as it is raw right now but it's done pretty balanced it's done very well balanced and every director was asked what they wanted and it's pretty much there but again We wanna do the right thing, move forward. Like you said, Mr. President, we can't break the bank because we need to be frugal and making sure that we don't end up like some cities. There's 14 to 16 cities that could disappear. Ours won't be one of them, thank God, because the amount of commercial property we've taken in and commercial type businesses and industrial. But at the same time, we gotta always be cautious. But we always gotta stay with a high level of service. And that's something that you spoke very well and stated it very clearly. So with that, thank you so much, again.

To the chair?

Commissioner .

Yes, I totally forgot about it and it's my mistake. I have to congratulate all the cadets that participated in the Venezuela event. There were 12 of them. They're working very hard, yes. They went more than once, they went twice. So I have to thank, like always, that's a program that whatever we need, the cadets are there. I only have to make a phone call, and they will be there to serve us, to help the city. So I have to thank them for the job that they did. Not only in Venezuela, every time we have a movie night, we have 12 cadets helping out.

Yes, thank you for for saying that yes, I forgot in that part is one more thing. I don't know if the movie nights going to take place on Friday was the other weather goals. But I think that it will take place anyways we just have to move it inside. All right, that's why we have the 2 screens and and so on but out in the field which is the way people really like it might not be able to happen. but I just wanna prepare you all and we'll stay, I think by Thursday we should know which direction it'll go. But either way, I think we could still have a movie night and move forward and that's why we prepare for certain things like this. I don't think too many people have that choice, but we were able to get that choice done.

Yeah, I thank you for bringing that to our city. We've been begging for that for years, unfortunately. the last administration we didn't have the best of uh relationships uh and look we have moved the city forward leaps and bounds and a lot of things but we do have some deficiencies because we're asking our police department to work in conditions that they've outgrown our police our police station or this building was building what 1972 um and they've outgrown that office back when we were 22 full-time police officers and now last i checked i think we're uh 85 full-time, is that accurate? Somebody gave me a head nod or, yep. We don't have 24-hour coverage in our dispatchers, in our front desk. Even though we call them front desk, we don't have 24-hour coverage. We don't have crime scene. So we have our detectives conducting processing crime scenes. We're asking a lot of a command staff that came in that's done a phenomenal job. they really raised the level of policing in our city i'm very proud everybody knows i'm very proud of sweetwater pd so i know that we want to be frugal but there's a time and a place for being frugal and we've had this administration for three years and it's time to go ahead and

Not so fast. City clerk's report. You don't want me to answer that. City attorney's report.

Just quickly, we have a new lawsuit. It's not a major matter. This is by Lady Ramos and Jessica Ramos. And it involves a car crash with a city employee. It was filed in very late July. The matter has been turned over to our insurance carrier for defense. Aside from that, one of the major issues or the many issues I've been involved in with these matters has been essentially coordinating discovery and coordinating depositions between staff and the Insurance Defense Council.

All right. If you could give the commissioners a little private what the hell you're talking about. Email. Sure. Instead of speaking in tongues. I'd appreciate it. Sure. Police report. Attached. Building and zoning report. Attached. Code enforcement division report. Attached. Public works. Attached. Finance is gone. Attached. Community and elderly service report. Attached. Parks and Recreation. Attached. Unfinished business. New business. Good of the order. Motion to adjourn.