City Council - Regular Meeting

Good evening, ladies and gentlemen. Welcome to the regular council meeting. Today is February 26th, and we call to order at 5.31. Can we please rise for the invocation led by Councilwoman Taylor Martinez and the Pledge of Leases.

Heavenly Father, we ask for your guidance this evening as we set about to do village business, that we be ever mindful of the taxpayers that we represent. We also ask that you watch over our service men and women as they battle around or walk around the world, our police, our firefighters, and our EMTs to keep everyone safe. We also ask, again, that you watch over our children and keep them safe as they are our future. We pray for this and more in the name of your son, our Jesus Christ. Amen. 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.

Madam Clerk, if we could do a roll call.

Here. Here. Here. Here. Here. Here. All right.

On to meeting notices, nothing to report, no presentations. Do we have any citizens' comments? We can continue. Announcements of amendments. Approval of the minutes for the regular council meeting held on January 15th. Do we have a motion on the floor? We need a motion.

We have a motion by Councilman Arce.

So we have a second?

I hope they were fixed. I'll second.

We have a second by Councilwoman Tierra Martinez. Any other discussion? All those in favor say aye. Aye.

All those opposed? Motion passes. On to Mayor's report. Mr. Mayor. Thank you, Council President. Update on our trip to Miami-Dade Days in Tallahassee. It was a nice trip, short, long, but all three of our projects are still in the budget as of today. They do go to conference starting, I believe, next week. It might be this weekend, as a matter of fact. So that's when all the stuff starts happening. But if we weren't in the budget at this point, it would not be even talked about. So, again, the good thing is all three of our projects are in the budget. Was it a property tax issue? I have no idea. Nobody really knows. There's been a lot of meetings about it. The House passed one thing that the Senate hasn't passed their portion yet, so I might even go crazy with it until we know exactly what's going on, and we'll see. I know they're meeting every week with the mayor's office of Miami-Dade County. I had not been on those meetings because it's a lot of hypothetical things, and I want to see. I'll wait until they pass what they're going to pass. Eventually, they're going to have a special meeting. I understand. and then it goes up to the residents to vote on it.

So we'll find out in a few months, I guess. Councilman? I don't know whether I was here daydreaming or what, but did we make 8 and 9? What?

Huh? We just did 9. Announcement of the amendment correction. That's 8. He said there's nothing in our 8. Nothing to report. And approval of the amendments. Yes. Okay. All right.

Must be the barrier water.

Must be the barrier. Hold on, hold on. What did you think you made the motion on?

He doesn't know. It's not a good day for my focus.

Okay. So the second item I have is the Discussion and Approval of the Central Drainage Project Bid Phase 2. We did have our, that's what I discussed last week when we had our swearing in of our new council member. We were waiting for all the bids to be reviewed. There were some questions with some of the contractors. Our engineer went through all the bids and tabulated everything. We can go to the bid summary here. They were pretty close. The one that came in the lowest was $460,000. That was a Metro Express. The second place was Bobone Engineering at $479,000, and then Ronglo Enterprise Inc. at $480,000. Those three were pretty close. pretty close in price. Do we know any of them? And then we had H&R Paving at $543,000 and then we had one at United Underground Utility at $865,000. Wow. So my recommendation is that we go with the United Underground Utility at $865,000. No, no. Okay, I'm just messing with you.

Okay, I'm paying attention. I'm looking for that number. I did.

Going back to the lowest bid, we're not bound to go with the lowest bid contractor. This is what he does, our council president. He's out there. He oversees all these projects. I asked if you ever heard of Habon. He wasn't familiar with Habon and even Run Low. You ever heard of Run Low?

I've never heard of Run Low. I don't know. Metro Express has done multiple. They actually have the contract at the Port of Miami. And with the county, they have multiple contractors. And they've done, and I talked to LAV. LAV is on vacation this week on a cruise.

But I did speak to LAV before he left. We discussed it multiple times. Metro Express has done a lot of work in Miami Springs. They just did work on the Circle. They just did work on the Circle, as a matter of fact, a week or two ago. And they've done work in Virginia Gardens, too, smaller projects that we need sidewalk repair. I know Butch would call Metro Express since they were doing a lot of work in Miami Springs. So my recommendation is to go with Metro Express, not only the lowest bidder, but we do have a relationship with them. I've said we, Laz, our public works director does, and City of Miami Springs does as well.

Laz is happy he has had a good experience with Metro as well? Yeah, he had nothing negative to say.

Again, it's about staying on top of them when they're here. You can have the lowest bidder and then have them... the most nightmares of a project. From what I've heard, the feedback that I've received back, I feel pretty confident with Metro Express. We need a motion to approve.

We have a motion on the floor to approve Metro Express.

Second.

We have a motion on the floor to approve Metro Express as the contractor by Councilman Arcee and a second by Councilwoman Chela Martinez.

No, wrong woman.

By Councilwoman Conover. Any other discussion?

They're the ones that did the circle, inside the circle, where the trees are. Sidewalk, benches, areas, stuff like that. It's not gone, it's on the westward island. It's already up. So any other discussion?

All those in favor say aye. Aye. All those opposed? Motion is approved to have Metro Express for the contractor.

We'll bring it back next meeting. So next meeting, the attorney will bring back a resolution to approve them. In the meantime, when Laj returns, I will speak with him. We'll set up a pre-construction meeting. A lot of things have to happen in the next month and a half at least. So nothing will get done in the next month. come back next month for the resolution. Anything else, Mayor? No, I can't tell. I did have a meeting with Manny Perez today. Myself, the Chief, Zoyla, we're preparing a grant to submit to our Congressman Mario Diaz-Balartal on our expansion of our village hall hardening project. So to clear off the council chambers, like I talked about last week, So we're also submitting on a different grant through the hazard mitigation program, which we did before. So something will stick, hopefully, this time. And if we get both, we'll expand it even larger and do what we can do. But we're going to try a different source of revenue this time with a different pile of money from the federal side. Other than that, that's all I have. Thank you, Council President.

Thank you, Mayor. On to the administrative item, beautification. Mr. Hector Martinez. Good evening, Mayor and Council. Good evening. We only have one issue that has been resolved. Mr. Pedro Haber has been going back and forth every month. Trim, take it out. Trim, take it out. We had Israel look at the tree, and the tree had to be removed.

Yeah, Ibn al-Las went over there and they put a rod all the way through. It was hollow. It was a hazard. They didn't have much of a choice to bring that tree out of there. So the tree already has been removed.

Two cities in progress.

Are we close or nowhere near?

Excuse me? Are we close or nowhere near?

Yeah. Okay, perfect. Thank you. Which one? We got two questions.

It could be both.

We're close but far away? Exactly.

We're right in the middle somewhere.

All right. Oh. Anything else? They're not watering, I think, water shortage. Water shortage? Yeah, so I don't see many flowers out there. There's actually one house that I believe they have, I want to say their theme is native plants. Because if you drive by, not that they have a nice, lush yard, but yeah. They have a little RV in the front, a little van RV. I'll send it to you. I think now is a good time. Yes, everyone else is driving, but that's pretty cool that they have native land in their front yard. I'll show it to you. They have a Jeep Gladiator and a little RV in the little van.

Next to the house that concreted the whole front.

That one. Oh, next to that guy.

Next to them, like three houses down.

On the same side?

On the same side, closer to us. Two or three houses down.

That's the house. They do a very nice job. There's two ladies. They do a very nice job with keeping it up. I'll have him here next month.

Perfect. Thank you.

I'll have him here next month. He's working on it. He's close. Okay. Thank you, Hector. On to Planning and Zoning, nominating for the month of February. Public Safety. Michael, Mayor, Council President, Council Members, ladies, welcome aboard. How about the City Clerk? City Clerk, no.

Lady in the back. Matter of fact, a guy came in today and said, who's that lady back there? I said, that's the lady in the back. The stats have been submitted, but I also want to bring up a letter of commendation that was given to one of our officers by Blessed Trinity. A couple, I think, I believe it was probably around a week ago, we had two homeless children that the mother was intoxicated and they were having an issue at Blessed Trinity. Officer Otero stepped up and he stepped up to the plate and had to call DCF and had to take the mother into custody. Actually, for her own good, she didn't go to jail. She actually went to a treatment center trying to find her help. The kids were placed into custody of DCF. These kids have been seen in the past being homeless and living by themselves with their mother under a bridge, you can say, or wherever they were sleeping at. And he took it upon himself. He worked that day to almost 8 o'clock at night making sure those kids were placed in the hands of somebody safe. And I think that was very commendable of him. Blessed Trinity wrote a letter to us and the letter's in front of you that what a good job he did and This is something that I fought for for many years to put an SRO in that school so that we can have somebody watching the kids all the time. And he's done a very good job. He's well-loved, and he does take care of that school like it was his own.

Knowing him, that's no surprise.

Right. He's always a guy who's always looking out for everybody. I want to read a little, just to be a little expert of his letter. It says, Dear Chief Hernandez, I'm writing to formally commend Officer Otero for his outstanding service and explanatory conduct and the performance of his duty during a recent highly sensitive incident involving an extreme intoxicated parent of two minor children who ultimately had to be placed in custody of the Department of Children and Families. Officer Otero demonstrated extreme professionalism under pressure. The situation required not only decisive action, but also compassion, patience, and sound judgment. Officers had to remain calm, level-headed, and focused throughout the entirety of the incident. And that's the kind of officers that we look forward to hiring in the future and keeping here. Thank you.

Chief, now that you said that, I saw Pizza Hut on Pizza Hut.

There's a homeless guy. I know it's totally random, but he said homeless and it clicked. We just had this conversation literally right when I was walking in. Really? Yeah.

I saw him on last Friday, I think it was. And that's... Or the person. I don't know if it's he, she, I don't know what it is. Okay. I just saw, I drove by 36 feet and I saw the guy laying on the...

Probably if somebody has been kicked out of Miami Springs and other areas, so they're trying to find shelter. So we're going to try to accommodate them and and try to see if we can give them help to move on.

I got some nice places around.

George, you found some in RC? Yeah, this kid, there were two of them.

Two of them?

Two of them. Who was paying their money? Yeah, that's what I was curious. That's not...

It doesn't matter if you have vouchers now. So you can go to the school of your choice.

Right, those are vouchers. As a voucher.

You can go to a private school.

Yeah, the state pays for those vouchers. But there's more behind that, but it's just not the right forum to bring it up in.

And just because the mother has some issues, don't mean they don't have money or, you know, they're homeless.

This isn't the place to talk about it.

Yeah, but that's something that we don't need to discuss it.

Thank you, Chief. Thank you. Recreation, nothing to report?

Actually, I do. So we do have some beautiful new windscreens on our tennis courts out there. It was a little mix-up back in July when we closed out the grant. I think it was July or so. Everything was done. We were waiting for windscreens being delivered, waiting and waiting. Well, there was a mix-up. Never had them delivered. But the silver lining is we got our name out there.

I don't know if you can see it from here, but for Judy Gardens and Adam, our logo is on the side.

So it looks really nice. It's facing east on Independence Coast and the other side on the north facing the field area. So they did a fantastic job. McBeth, thank you very much for your persistency on getting that done. Thank you, McBeth. We appreciate you. And Zoila.

Kudos. We appreciate you too. Thank you, Mayor. Anything else?

That's all I have. Thank you.

On to resolution. Mr. Attorney.

Thank you, Mr. President. We have personal solutions to the resolution of the Village Council of the Village of Virginia Gardens, Florida, accepting the Village's five-year capital improvement plan for fiscal years 2023, 2024 through 2027, 2028. Providing for incorporation of recitals, providing for implementation authorization, and direction, providing for conflicts, providing for severability, and providing for an effective deal.

So with this here, part of our DOT project, they require a CIP, cap-up rule of land. So these are some of the projects that we have upcoming. So if you look at that one pedestrian assistance enhancement, it's $1 million for FY27-2028. Even though it's not We can't even, we're still a year and months out from even putting a project out for bid. It's something that DOT requires or a payment in bus to deal with. So we had a meeting yesterday, as a matter of fact. We had to do environmental surveys, water bath surveys. They're already asking us for it. My problem is the last project we did, We couldn't even, we had to go back and renew it because it was over a year old. So we're like, oh, yeah, that's a good point. Let's hold off a little bit longer on that. So there's a lot of requirements that DOT requires, and this is one of them. Even when we apply for certain grants, we need to have something like this in place. So some of those projects, like the central drainage improvement project phase two, that's the one that just got funded from the state for this year. We had the $450,000 that's in the state. right now, one of the projects.

What are we doing to the support pump?

Rehabilitation. Rehabilitation. The control panel, that's the original control panel in there, replacing that.

Upgrading. Upgrading.

The pumps that are there are still working great. They're fine. They're flight, 90 horsepower pumps. It's like a tune-up on your car. You go in there, place the seals, stuff like that. So that's it. That's what we got going on with this. And what's the pedestrian system? Just wondering. That is street lighting. So it's pedestrian slash street lighting. Kind of like the lights we have along Loveland now and 38th Street. They'll be a little bit larger, spaced out a little bit further, but 62nd Avenue. Let me start over here. 66th Avenue, 62nd Avenue, and then 40th Street. So going back to the pump station. 66 already has it. 66 does not have it. 67, 66 does not have it. Coming in from 36th Street, the main road. For the decorative light bulbs? Yes. And 40th has the decorative light bulbs. 41st Street. 40th does, but only up from 59th to 57th. So this will include from 59th to 67th. And then 62nd from 41st up to 37th Street. right around there. That camera they put over here in three seats, an LPR, License Plate Reader. They call that a what?

LPR, License Plate Reader. The name of the company is FLOP, I think. That's what I know.

That's Miami Springs. They asked us to put it in.

Miami Springs asked us to put it in? No, it's their camera.

They put it there? Well, it captures the license plate. If it's a stolen vehicle coming into our area, it sends out an alert. And then my machines can put out an alert to the officers or in us, too. Good. So it's a good thing to have. But it's only for stolen vehicles? Or say a vehicle is involved in a robbery. They can put that number into the LPR system. As soon as it pings, they know exactly where it's at. They caught somebody on 36th Street in one of the hotels. Chief Matt told me they found a couple people. A couple people. So one of them, they brought somebody from ATM, went down Ludlum over here, and the one at Melrose pinged them. So they got the person for anything, got out of Sprint, going down Ludlum Street.

Do we have a motion to approve Resolution H-1?

I make a motion that we accept Resolution H-1. Over here it looks like it's 1080.

We have a motion on the floor to approve Resolution H-1. Do we have a second? We have a second by Councilwoman Conover. Any other discussion? All those in favor say aye. Aye. All those opposed? Resolution H-1 passes.

Attorney? I do have a question before you do. Rich, I thought we were leaving these blank. Because if it failed, then... Okay, okay, okay. Okay. Because if it fails, then we're going to 1081. Yeah. Sorry. Okay, go ahead.

Thank you. Resolution H-2, a resolution of the Mayor and the Council of the Village of Virginia Gardens, Florida, authorized execution of a local agency program agreement with the Florida Department of Transportation, making findings, and providing an effective date.

So this is something also that DOT requires local agency planning, which is a developer in the garden. We have a million dollars that we're going to receive as a reimbursement through this next project, a debt-free and enhanced-end project. We are responsible for the portion for the CEI, and we're also responsible for, I think it's like, I forget the other, 27,000, I think. What was it, CEI, and what else was it? Engineering, so we're responsible for engineering, we're responsible for CEI, but this is a requirement also through DOT to have this agreement, saying that if we put out a bid, project comes in at 1.1 million, we're on the hook for that extra.

Point something.

Yeah. So we did scale the project back. One thing I forgot to mention, originally we had lights going down 41st Street too. We already have all those concrete poles going down 41st Street from FP&O. And FP&O doesn't allow you to connect to them our own lights. So we should be receiving the paperwork any day because I sent the email to our FP&O rep yesterday. The project's been put out. So all the poles along 41st Street will have the streetlights on them. Right now it's like every third pole. So soon we'll have poles on every light going down to 41st Street, which will increase the lighting as well. And even coming in BG on 66th Avenue, there's a couple of concrete poles there that they're also going to increase or add lights to those poles. SPL is adding a light. SPL is. We took away the lights on the plans for 41st Street. It was funny, though. Say this funny.

Yeah.

And we get what we wanted, which would be lighting. That's the most important thing, lighting. I mean, it's not as pretty as the decorative lights, but you know what? We'll take it.

We like the price point.

It'll light up our 41st.

We have a motion on the floor to approve Resolution H-2.

I make a motion to approve H-2.

We have a motion on the floor by Councilwoman Taylor Martinez to approve Resolution H-2 and was second by Councilman Parson. Any other discussion? All those in favor say aye. Aye. All those opposed? Resolution H2 passes. Mr. Attorney, do you have anything else to report? Nothing else, Mr. President. No old business, no new business. I have a question for old business. Yes, ma'am. What's going on with the hotel?

Any updates?

The last thing I got was about a month ago on Saturday. to see real quick here. Update email, December 30th, 2025, confidential. We will update in mid-February, which we're in mid-February, but end of February. It's like never ending.

Debbie, let me get you guys. Don't laugh. Oh, man.

Don't laugh. They shared that feed. Target window, March 1st to March 31st, commencement of initial recovery distribution. So that's, I guess, when the funds will be released, possibly March 1st. So it's going forward. It's still moving forward because, you know, yeah, as far as it can move, it's moving forward, according to the email. We've been through this for, like, the last five years, seven years, six years. We should have done our sign ten years ago. Do you know that's my only concern? Yeah. I want my sign. It's horrible, Ian, but I'm over there. You best say it's going to be a cool sign. We had a beautiful sign there. Beautiful, except for the name, you know.

The name is going to be, I mean, it matches perfect between the village name, the hotel name. It's just going to be a beautiful one. The name should be Sensei. They promised us to put a sign. Absolutely. It's part of the hotel name as well. It's part of the developer's agreement of me coming together.

The hotel name looks like I'd want the same thing as our name.

It could. It probably will. I'll talk to them. Just for you, I don't know the name. It could be called the Gabriel IQ Hotel. Oh, that's right. Thank you.

That's not official. We're working on changing the name.

You're not working on that.

BG something. You keep working on that.

Do you have any updates on when they'll finish the underground boring? No, I do not. They keep hitting the museum gas signs or maybe delayed a little bit, but it should be an eye-opener to have our GIS system moved up. They already marked the lines. They marked everything.

So how are they hitting them? They marked it.

The ones that are hitting are the bars, literally.

Okay, for one more old business, what about the other buildings?

It was supposed to be the car place. It couldn't get the septic tank.

That one has actually for rent.

Oh, it did for rent. What can they do? What was the problem? They couldn't get the septic tank, right? It was a perfect storm. They went in there. They hired an outside firm from Jacksonville. They disconnected from the septic tank on their plans to show they're going to put a new bathroom, relocate the bathroom. That caused a big sink with Durham. There's no sewer connection to hook into, except for a private one next door. It's not in operation right now. It's closed down. Then Kobe came along. So it's just a mess. Right now, their bathroom is hooked back up. It's back hooked to the septic tank. And they'll be leaking, I guess. But for now, the only thing we're missing out on is occupational tax. So to be honest with you, I'll leave it empty for the next six years. They earn nothing. It's clean, quiet. They keep it maintained. And we get property taxes from them.

And Michael, that's the building next to the, you know, the blue, is that a blue, is it blue still? It's gray. Yeah. Yeah.

I talked to him. Maritza was right there when I was talking to him. Right, Maritza? Maritza, were you there?

No, you're talking about the other building. She's talking about the... Oh, where the cars are? These cars are not? Oh, okay.

They're not there anymore. They were there. Oh really? And they must have just moved to Memphis. Anything else for old business?

New business?

Go to welfare? Yeah, I just want to announce that after next council meeting I will be going up north to Michigan again.

Oh, man. Wait, George, when are you gone? In June? April? What month? I don't know.

Whenever they get tired of me.

Because I'm gone March and June. Yeah, but you have a tour.

And I'm gone. And he's gone too. He's a baby. He's a baby.

We will survive.

No, I know we will, but just in case we need to vote on something.

I just made flights for spring break, and I'm leaving right after the next council meeting. Oh, wow. Yeah, that's dedication right there.

See that? That's dedication. I'm leaving the day before. Pete, you're running the city, Pete.

I'm leaving on the 9th. The city's over here, Pete.

So wait, we're all not going to be here? No, you're leaving next council meeting? I don't know if our new councilman has been told, but

After a councilman's first meeting, they're supposed to give a summary of the entire meeting.

His neighbor got them all turned up over.

I don't know if he's coming or going.

No one has told them that every once in a while, you have to turn his mic off.

There's something wrong with his microphone, because look at it. Do we have a motion? I said that last meeting that he needs battery. I make a motion. Oh, you make the motion.

Do we have a motion to adjourn?

Yes.

I make a motion to adjourn. I make a motion to adjourn. We have a motion to adjourn.

I second that.

Do we have a second? We have a second by Councilwoman Jenna Martinez. Any other discussion? All those in favor say aye. Aye. All those opposed?

Who would oppose? What time is it?

Adjourn at 6.03.