City Council - Regular Meeting

Hey, guys. I'm sorry. I'm afraid.

Huh? No, right here. Right here. Right here. I messed up. My God. I hope the movie is full of pranks.

Oh, that's down for it. Here we go. Are you ready?

Here we go.

Good evening, ladies and gentlemen.

Welcome to the regular council meeting.

Good evening, ladies and gentlemen. Welcome to the regular council meeting. Today is November 13, 2025, and we can call to order at 544. Can we please rise for the invocation led by our very own Richard Block, followed by the Pledge of Allegiance.

In nomine Pacifis et Filii, et Spiritus Sancti. Amen. Father God, we're gathered here together through thick and thin, in the midst of adversity and pain, to work on the village business. We thank you, Father God, for all the counseling you give us to do the right thing for our citizens, to make the right decisions, to love one another in this whole village. to make it work better every day. In Jesus' name we pray. Amen. Amen.

Madam Clerk, can we take roll call, please? Right here.

All right, on to meeting notices are the same. Presentations, nothing to report. Citizens comments, do we have any citizens comments? Announcements or amendments directed to the agenda, nothing. On to the approval of the minutes for the regular council meeting that was held October 16th, 2025.

I make a motion.

We have a motion on the floor by Councilwoman Turner-Martinez and a second by Councilwoman Conover. 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. I don't have much to report. Last night I went back and forth with our engineer, Ken Gross. So the plans are pretty much ready. We changed some things up a little bit on 63rd Court in between 38 Terrace and 39th Street. So we had a lot of drains that were clogged, rooted in roots. So we went in there, what, two weeks ago? Last week, two weeks ago? Did the root. Cut the roots out of those drains with Back It Up. So those are all cleared out now. And that's just a band-aid. At least if we have a heavy rain before we start our project, that will take care of that, even ones on 38 Terrace. But with that being said, we're putting in new lines from 38 Terrace to 39th Street. So the plan should be ready to go hopefully by tomorrow, not early next week. And then we'll put it out for bid. Other than that, that's all I have. Anybody got anything else?

Thank you, Mayor. On to I mean, beautification. Mr. Martinez?

You know what? Before you go, it kind of coincides with yours. I just applied for two grants, one for tree maintenance in the village. I think it was about $30,000 we applied for, trimming, pruning. Another one was planting trees, the one that you gave me. I added a couple of trees on there. I think it was 22 or 23 total. Comes out to 27,000 roughly with averaging out $800 per tree.

That grant comes with the trees already bought from a certain company or we have to look for them?

No, we put it out for bid. Just like we did every other time we put it out for bid.

Okay.

So no difference. And those are pretty much, I hate to say guaranteed, but they're pretty much guaranteed. So that's going to save the village a lot of money just by waiting another two months, three months, and getting that grant. Wait a second. Can we coincide that with Arbor Day for 2026? When do we normally do that?

April. No? Well, depending on when we get this done.

Hopefully, if we get this done, at least on paper purchase, whether they're planted or not.

As long as it's next year, it doesn't really matter when we do it. Okay. Yeah, all I need is a receipt that happened this year. No, no, next year. At this point, let's do it for next year.

So this year, I have no trees planted. I have none planted this year. Zero, counted with no.

Well, that's why we need to start removing some and putting new ones in.

And that's what we're doing. OK. So I'd like to at least wait a few months, and we can still plant some more. $57,000 between the maintenance and the tree planting. That's a big dollar. Okay, I'll show you some trees we planted.

Sorry?

Nah, do you want to go take some of our trees? A tree? Well, we can show that we have trimming, you know, is that part of the TreeUSA? Yes. And another thing is I applied for a grant as well for IT, so all of the information was sent today. and replacing all of our IT equipment, our servers, our firewalls. The app?

The app. Is the app going to be a part of that? Oh, I don't know. I would hope so.

Is that part of that? I would hope so.

No, it's not. No, you see, here's the thing. I see that on my phone I got 50 apps. So they're not one VPN, right? Now would be the time to request.

Listen, it took you... 50 years to get on Instagram and Facebook, so congratulations. You were a damn person who was against that stuff before. You know what?

I'm still not on it.

Yeah, you are.

No, I'm not. I'm not. I haven't posted one thing. Him and George go on it together.

Do you have the app on your phone?

Huh?

Do you have the app on your phone?

When somebody tries to send me something, yes.

Oh, okay.

But it only works one way. I'm not active. But the app is beneficial for every resident.

Everybody has a little phone. I will set up a meeting with our IT company.

I think I heard this before.

Yes, I think so too. I think you're right. It's very possible. You heard this. If you want to spend a top dollar, pay your dollars on an app. But if it's coming from a branch, no, that's not included. It's infrastructure and security. That is a security issue. Or stop for the next 30 minutes. I'm going to come back. Security.

Security. Don't give me your old Tuesday, man.

He does. He has it. He's a stalker. No, no. It's like my dad. Hey, my dad knows everything that's going on on Facebook. But, you know, he don't get on it.

Well, anyway, the app is an interesting thing.

All right, Mr. Martinez.

Mr. Martinez.

Peace over.

I will not let this go down. Just say, hey, just say, can we get an app?

Oh, my God. That's right.

It can show where all the trees are. Is that the way it leaves a good record? Behind.

I mean, it's great.

I'd like to announce the winners for the Halloween contest, yard contest display.

Where they at? Did you invite them up?

I'm sorry?

Did you invite them up? They're not here.

I just found out today that this meeting was moved to 530. Okay.

So they're coming at 530?

No, I don't get that email.

I told him, but... Mr. Martinez, anything else?

Yeah, I'd like to announce my winners. Okay, can you announce them?

I'd like to announce them. Thank you. First place, Kathy and Robert Gonzalez of 6655 North 539th Street. Second place, Juan Carlos Martinez of 6347 Northwest 37th Terrace. 39th Terrace.

39th Terrace.

My apologies. Third place, Carl Dino of 3750 Northwest 64th Avenue.

The only complaint I received. What's the first place winner? Robert, he says all of his neighbors are a bunch of scrooges. They don't like to participate. So I don't know who he's referring to.

Well, one of his neighbors is sitting on this.

All right, my next set of minutes, number two.

I'm going to skip number one. Number two, I'm working with Zoila on a letter that –

We're going to go to number one. We're not skipping number one.

I'm sorry?

We're going to go right to number one. We're not going to skip number two. What was wrong with the head? This is the problem. Number one. We have an artist in the village. The front yard can't have more than a four foot high, I think it is, head in the front yard. This resident has probably about eight foot.

I think it's 9 or 10.

9 or 10 foot head. But not only is a... Oh, I know someone that has like a 12, 15 foot.

Yeah, there's a line around.

The front yard along the sidewalk.

Oh, yeah.

Not the front of the house, but in the front of the house. The front of the house. Yes, yes. That front of the house. 99%.

It's across the front.

Across the front, not the side. Here's your house right here. It's across the front of that sidewalk.

9 foot head.

So when you're backing out, there's no way you can see.

Yeah, but from our front of our house to the sidewalk cannot be more than four feet in either. Correct.

So, Chief, I need for you to take a look at that. No, it is. It is.

It's 100% right because I got told about it 20 years ago. From your house forward. From your house forward to the sidewalk.

That homeowner came in here to ask us about that, and I said that that is our ordinance is what I explained to him about it.

And the correct form is to come make an appointment with the chief and speak with the chief, since he's our code enforcement officer, our compliance officer.

So where's the site? Is it front of the house? It's in the front of the house. This way? Yeah. You can't see the house?

You can't see the house.

No, you can't see anything. It's in the front. It's got port of corpus? Yeah.

So make a long story short, yes, he was invited to come up to the council meeting, but we can't discuss citations at a council meeting. That has to be. Go in front of the thief.

Could we be able to offer her that maybe we can both trim it for them?

No, we're not trimming a private property.

It's funny you say that.

He's a landscaper. Absolutely. 100%. And commercial vehicles, too. We've got to crack down on commercial vehicles. Park in front of the people's homes. So you try hiding things, and it brings up more things. So you can do number two now.

Number two.

So what's going to happen with that?

I'm working on a letter with Zoila to allow this to happen. This is our first time doing this. So we're working on the verbiage of the letter. I could give you a template.

Let me ask you a question. They're black olive trees.

Yes.

You want to come up to the mic and say something, or do you want to just keep talking?

So, step like all XPs, two of them. Can we take them on and replace them? Yeah, why can't we just take them off too? And then we'll have two trees.

I will try to know this before I submit that grade. Maybe I can add on another two trees, four trees to replace those. Before you submit it to the county, why don't you hold off? We're getting ready to do a bunch.

No, no, no. Actually, I have a template here of the letter. I'm not doing anything until I run the letter by you and you look at it.

They're my apologies. That's what we put in place years ago.

Yes.

And now with the new state laws, I think we can go in and remove them, to be honest with you. I'm sorry? I think we can go in and remove them. Okay. We have a certified harbor that signs off on it. So... Why don't you and I get together on this issue?

Okay.

And we're going to be planting trees here soon anyway. Right.

Okay. I'll call him and tell him to hold on.

Here we go. Better than X-Files.

Here we go. Want to get the X-Files one? Yeah. Here we go. Excellent.

Anything else, Mr. Martinez?

No.

Yeah. Thank you so much.

Thank you very much.

Was it a notification from the village? Yes.

What type of trees did you want to plant?

He told me he wanted the barewood.

And what other one he said? Barewood was one of them. There were both two flowering trees.

Okay. Let me know. Send me a text. I'll update it tomorrow. All right.

All right. On to planning and zoning. No meeting for the month of November. Public Safety Chief.

Look at that smile. Look at that smile. Council President, Mayor. Look at that smile.

I have two applications that I'm looking to have you guys approve.

One is for Martinez, Lizbelis Martinez, and the other one is for William Rodriguez. I did send you an email.

And I'm looking to bring him in as part-timers.

And again, our new process, they're already vetted before you even get to the council. They've already gone through a lot of background.

Do we have a motion to approve the two new hires part-time? We have a motion by Councilman Arcee.

Second. And we have a second by Councilman Bullock.

Any other discussion? All those in favor say aye. Aye. All those opposed, motion passes. Thank you. Any questions for me? No, sir. Thank you. No, thank you.

Wait a minute, wait a minute.

Public Works? Nothing to report, or do you have something to report?

Thank you, sir. I would like to say one thing. I know I have been out there working with the crew, getting our lights on all of our hedges. I had to have them take them off after they put them on, because they were coming to trim the hedges last Monday. I said, I'm sorry, man. So he dropped them all off. They trimmed everything, put them back on. So the tree lighting... Right now it's scheduled for the 24th of November. Are you closing soccer down the whole week, or are you... 24th of November? Really?

You don't have it next Thanksgiving week, or not?

The whole week?

Why can't we do it after Thanksgiving?

That is after Thanksgiving.

No, 24th of November is before Thanksgiving.

Okay. So we'll do it the following Monday then. That way it suffers back. The 1st.

The 1st.

December 1st. Yes. Perfect.

So we'll do it December 1st. Monday night's are packed.

We can go ahead and what we'll do is Once the lights are up, we'll put all the lights on. We just won't light the Christmas tree up until December 1st. All that work going on and everything in place, so the council's okay with that. You start at 6 p.m., right, soccer? 6 p.m., soccer? Should we do it at halftime, or should we do it right before?

Should we do it at 5 p.m.?

If I don't turn the lights off for the field for just two minutes, then we'll light this up.

The infield lights will stay on.

But the other two in the tennis courts will go off and we'll light this up. Okay, 7 o'clock on December 1st. And then the rest of the lights last. Once everything's up and going, we'll just turn them on and get them going. Minus three. Okay, perfect. All right. On to – so now let's talk about Debbie now. No. Oh, okay. Debbie, are you staying for the dinner?

You're a bad boy. On to... Yes. Okay. We'll FaceTime you.

All right, on to recreation.

Yay! First thing I'd like to thank the chief and his squad, lieutenant. We had a lady fade out on us last Saturday, this past Saturday. The heat got to her. She's 80-something years old, and it looked bad. But with their fast work, I went over and got them. They got the rescue squad here with within four minutes, three to four minutes, took care of her, and she's doing great now.

I'm glad you brought that up, because I know we have a defibrillator, right? Yeah, it's inside there. I'm curious. The reason why I say that, you don't think about it.

It wasn't too long ago. Yeah.

Can you check? There was an incident yesterday. Did the fire inspector check it? Okay.

But on a serious note, there was an incident yesterday with a long-time Miami Springs resident that passed away. Yeah, there sure was. Yeah, so apparently the defibrillator that had the golf course was not working properly or wasn't charged. Uh-oh.

It took 25 minutes for them, for the rescue to get there.

That's crazy. So we need to make sure. I mean, really think about it until things like that happen. Red flag. Red flag.

It doesn't matter. They could have been on call. We have Station 17. We got 35.

We got 59. I mean, we got 35. 35. 35. 35. So we have more stations than anywhere else right around us. We need to check that.

But they were great. We got the police officers, Lieutenant, if he's not there, another police officer, and the kids love it, you know. Once in a while they'll make the snow cones for the kids. They interact. So it's a great thing the chief provides us. Thank you, chief.

Thank you, chief. Thank you, chief. Where'd he go? He left? He already took off. He's checking the defibrillator.

He's going to go check the head, see if it's taller than him. Then he has to get cut. Yes. But we're going great. In a few minutes, at 6.30, we start our two-year-old program. Last Thursday night, there was approximately 25 two-year-olds. That's crazy. And more. It's crazy. It's crazy.

Totally.

So it's great, you know. Two-year-olds, three and four-year-olds, we got 70-something kids in it. Five and six-year-olds, we got 80. The seven and eight-year-olds, we have 50 plus. So, you know, we're up around the 400, a little bit over range of kids this year. And the World Cup that's coming up here, that's even going to be crazier. But everything's going good. The uniforms were a different story. It's been a mess, a total mess. We finally got all of our jerseys, but no shorts, and they sent me a bill. I've been going back and forth with them. I'm not going to pay the bill. Either we get the shorts or take it off the bill.

It's like that with Adidas, all of them.

They sold the company. And then they moved it out of the United States.

Before it was manufactured in California.

They got a brain fart and sold it. And they moved it out to, I don't know, Taiwan or somewhere. And I forget where it was at. And now what happens, it gets stuck in a cargo ship out there. They raise the tariffs. It gets stuck out there. They don't bring it in.

I need to look next year somewhere else.

I know someone ordered Adidas, just got their socks in, took them four months. So we're dealing with it. Besides that, everything's going great for recreation. Any questions?

Yeah, can you find an American company that we can, I mean, be united?

I called up Trump and told him about it. You know? Need to open some manufacturers here. I called Trump. said you need to get the factories back over here you know biden was just ready to get them all back over here you know what and you should move to new york okay bye-bye no but it's hard i got another company coming in maybe here what represents a 30-day turnaround uh umbro Oh, wow.

Yeah, whatever.

Remember, they had a long time ago. We're talking about what, 40 years ago? They're based in New York.

Oh, man.

For real. He's supposed to be coming in next week. I'm going to have a meeting with him. I would like to stay sport. We've been with him so long. We've got the book bags. We've got the soccer balls. Everything's sport. So I'm waiting for the general manager to call me from sport, but that's my problem. Besides that, everything's going good. We got our older kids. Nicholas plays on. The older team, they went to a tournament and lost out by one point to go to the finals, but everyone's doing good.

Thank you so much. You know, I remember when you were coaching Daniela, and she's 41 years old. Thank you, George.

Actually, today is her birthday. Oh, really? Yeah, it's too late right now. Where's the lawyer? He's not out here.

Who?

Bella. Bella.

Bella. She's doing good. We'll talk about it later.

No.

Bella's doing great.

Thank you, Mr. Dino. On to resolutions.

Take care, guys. You too. Go ahead and read them.

Resolution number G1, a resolution of the Village of Virginia Gardens, Florida, approving the amended 2024-2025 budget for the General Fund, Public Works Fund, Water Department Fund, CITC Fund, beginning October 1st, 2024, and ending September 30th, 2025, providing for effective date. Do we have a motion to approve?

Go ahead. Aye.

We have a motion by Councilman Arcee and a second by Councilwoman Taylor Martinez. Any other discussion? All those in favor say aye. Aye. All those opposed? Resolution G1 passes. Resolution G2, a resolution of the Village Council of the Village of Virginia Gardens, Florida, adopting the local mitigation strategy of Miami-Dade County, authorizing the mayor to apply for grants to implement projects under the local mitigation strategy, authorizing the mayor and appropriate village personnel to execute required documents and providing for an effective date. Do we have a motion on the floor?

I have a question. Yes. Is that included in things that you do by or whatever?

No, you're reading the wrong one. That's the one under it. Okay. We have a motion by Councilwoman Tina Martinez.

A second.

We have a second by Councilman Block. Any other discussion? All those in favor say aye. Aye. All those opposed? Resolution G2 passes. Now on to Attorney's Report, which is, I believe, what? Councilman R.C. was talking about. Do I just go ahead and read it for the first reading?

Is this the first reading?

Yes.

I believe it's the first reading, yes.

All right. Ordinance A. An ordinance of the Village of Virginia Gardens, Florida, creating a new Article 3 of Chapter 11 of the Village Code entitled Smoke, Quote, Smoke, Vape, and Tobacco-Free Village Property, End Quote. Prohibiting vaping and the use of tobacco or nicotine products on village property. prohibiting smoking in village and public parks consistent with state law, providing the required exception for unfiltered cigars in public parks, providing for enforcement, signage, conflicts, severability, codification, and an effective date.

That includes marijuana, right?

I believe so, sir.

It's smoke. Do we have a motion on the floor? Well, that's against the law anyways if you have it out on public, even if you have a

Do we have a motion on the floor? We have a motion by Councilwoman Taylor Martinez, and a second by Councilman Arcee. Any other discussion? All those in favor say aye. Aye. All those opposed?

Hector, what does your report say at the back of it? Motion passes. You said your house, right? Your apartment. I know.

On to old business, nothing to report. new business nothing to report good and welfare um 41 years old today congratulations happy birthday to her we have turned her life around one million good to hear um also condolences to the web family for i believe tom webb's situation is passing and then also for the leonard family His father passed also. Any other good and welfare? It's my grandson, Nessie's, Oliver's birthday.

Good for him. Happy birthday to him. Tomorrow is his day. But my daughter-in-law did this on purpose. What does she do? Because mine's on the 14th. Oh. Pushed him out on the 13th.

Just so she could have it.

Yeah.

Look at you. Look at me, shining. Do we have a motion to adjourn?

One more. A good friend of mine broke up with one of my best friends. His mother passed away. She was heavily involved in Blessed Trinity, Ms. Karen Bruner. I'm not sure if you guys know that name, but she was a Sunday school teacher for probably 40 years. She just passed away. And I had the privilege of taking Councilman Block up to the Curtis Parkway, Veterans Day. Veterans Day. Let me tell you, that guy, you walk up there, man, they all know who Richard is, that's for sure.

Oh, he makes himself known, I think.

Richard, are the blocks?

It's on yacht. Okay, the brick that I got, is it already there, or it's still with the shorts of Saga?

I think Jennifer Graham ordered the new back. When do they come in? A couple of weeks.

All right. I'm going to go check. You would do it. Well, why'd you wait so long to order the damn thing? I ordered them months ago. No, it was months ago.

Like it was piling up.

I think I want to hear the River Cities.

Oh, I wore mine the previous year at the River Cities.

Oh. Yeah.

You got me at the actual.

Oh, by the way, we did spring for a bench for Manny.

You did what?

Our architect. Yeah. We got him a bench.

Oh, okay.

Yes, to commemorate him and all the good things he's done for this village and for the whole area. Yeah. So we bought him a bench.

We bought him a bench. And the ironic thing is we're sitting here taking a picture. We had the color guard behind us. Richard goes, oh, there's my block. So the ironic thing is he looks down and that was his. It was my brick. Right there.

That's great.

You know the crazy thing, Richard? I will say this. They kind of screwed up over there because when you walk up, From the east side, the bricks that are there are facing you. You can see them.

Yeah, yeah.

The bricks on the west side, they put them the opposite way, and there's a hedge there, so you can't really see them.

Yeah, I know.

Maybe they need to make another entrance. That's Miami Springs. There's more bricks going.

It's kind of weird. It's Miami Springs. All right. Anything else? We're going to walk around? Yes. Yes?

Oh, we do have something.

We do have something?