City Commission - Regular Meeting - Apr 21, 2026

Good afternoon, everyone. Welcome to the regular commission meeting this April 21st, 2026. If the clerk could please call the roll. Deputy Vice Mayor Marker. Here. Commissioner Mollica. Here. Commissioner Cassell. Here. Vice Mayor Burns. Here. Mayor Carney. Here. We have a quorum. Thank you very much. If you could all please rise for the Pledge of Allegiance. Pledge of 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. Thank you all very much. All right. I got on my other agenda here because I've got two. Mine and theirs. Next item is agenda approval. Mr. Moore, you wanted to talk about item 5A1? I do. And that is we are not prepared to talk about this evening. The initial genesis was to bring on board some external outside experts who can say it says in this consideration. So my interest is to get that all squared away and come back at another time. So I appreciate that opportunity. Okay. That's fine. Are there anybody else on any agenda item? No, but, I mean, I guess we keep putting things on and pulling them off, and it's concerning. His call. Uh-huh. No change. Anything? No change for me. Commissioner Casale? No. Okay. Then I need a motion to approve the agenda. Motion to approve. Okay. All at once. Motion to approve is amended. Okay. Any second? Second. All in favor? Aye. Any opposed? It is adopted. I guess those are on one accord tonight. Huh? That's right. So we have presentations. First is the Excellence in Education Award, and I see Janai coming up to guide us through this. Okay. Good evening, Mayor, Commissioner, staff, families, and most importantly, our outstanding paysetter students. My name is Janai Bowens, and I'm the Education and External Opportunities Manager for the City of Delray Beach. It's a privilege to recognize our third quarter paysetter awards recipients. This award honors students from across Delray Beach public schools who consistently demonstrate professionalism, accountability, engagement, and academic excellence. To our paysetters, your hard work has not gone unnoticed. You are leaders among your peers, and you represent the very best of what our schools and our city strives to cultivate. Keep pushing yourselves and leading by example. I also want to recognize the parents, guardians, teachers, and school staff who support these students every step of the way. Your guidance and encouragement play a critical role in their success. Students, tonight we celebrate what you've achieved, but even more, we celebrate your potential. We are proud of you, and we're excited to see all that you accomplish in the future. If you are present when I call your name, please come to the front of the chamber so you can be recognized. From Atlantic High School, we have Roden's Exilus, Hansel Jean Baptiste, and Brianna Bocamp. From Carver Middle School, we have Wiseline Zulmar, Dally Wood Florestal, and Naika Josephat. From Banyan Creek Elementary, we have Kai Vilmi, Henley Resnick, and Shadwick Estella. From Plamosa School of the Arts, we have Charlie Bareka Garcia, Amaya Finney, and Nadens Filzimi. From Pine Grove, we have Rose Exenort, Anthony Jeter, and Maya Toledo Vasquez. From S.D. Spady Elementary, we have Colin Millard, Coralie Joseph, and Joelle McMahon. From Village Academy, we have Paris Small, Sancino Eugene, and Joanna Jabouin. And from Orchard View, we have Lucia Caba, Daisha Lewis, and Jasmine Macedon-Fadu. Congratulations to each of our third quarter Pacesetter Award recipients. Keep setting the pace. Thank you. Yes, please. Do you want to stand for a picture? Absolutely, we want it. Good. We're going to get you guys up close. Charlie, get the medal. Here we go. Here we go, perfect. Now you've got a final. Anyone should not. Come up, pull the ice. This is how we roll. Great photo. Thank you. Thank you. What's that? God, I wasn't wearing any shorts. I got a trick for you, Mr. Moore. What's that? Well, my brother used to be a show. I got a show. My brother was the first sports teacher at my S.D. He used to have this, he had various coats and ties and shirts and everything, but he did the, he, his sports shows, like, sitting at the top in the morning. So he would show, and that's when they, Mr. Moore, before they had the plastic desk. He'd sit behind him and he'd be wearing his gym shorts, and then after the show, he'd go wear it. I got a trick, I got a show. And he would just hang up his coat and shirt. I think it's worth the wait. Great. Thank you very much. I'd like to welcome Rhonda Geiger from the Palm Beach County Commission on Ethics for her. She comes regularly to keep us straight and narrow, but I would welcome to, yet again, to the Delray Beach City Commission. Thank you very much, Rhonda Geiger with the Commission on Ethics. Nothing like showing up from the Commission after that moment of joy. So thanks for that scheduling. Great. But I am here, as always, just to remind you that we are here as the Commission is here. We're here to answer questions for you. We're here to answer questions for you. You know, just briefly, we do like to remind people that faith in local governance in particular is what keeps our public engaged. Once they lose faith, they stop showing up. And nobody wants to see an empty chamber. That is what means that we have people that care, and the people that we represent, you know, that we're here for them. Not that every decision they're going to agree with, but hopefully having the Commission on Ethics just reassures them that even if they don't agree with it, you are doing it in the best interest of the city and not the best interest of yourself. Just real quickly, I would like to remind you guys, everybody that, and everybody here, too, we a lot of times get questions or concerns about things that have occurred on the dais or with not necessarily this commission, but with every commission. And a quick little thing that we run through before we determine whether or not there's a conflict, just so everybody knows this, we look for three things. Number one, is there a prohibited entity involved? Number two, is there a financial benefit? And number three, if there's a financial benefit, is it special? And that's all defined in the code. I've left code books here. I'm happy to leave more pocket guides. But we have to have all three of those things before we're ever going to have a prohibited act. So make sure that you do that checklist to determine whether you should be doing something, and you guys can do that checklist to determine whether or not you actually have a valid complaint or a valid issue. We have to have all three of those things. You want to run through those again? I sure will. We have to have a prohibited entity. So that's a list. Again, that's in the code. I'm going to spare you guys all from that. We have to have a financial benefit. And then that financial benefit has to be special, which means it has to apply to a small enough class. So an example I would use is if you guys are voting on something that impacts the city, you might receive the same break. Let's say somebody wants to reduce everybody's property taxes by $1,000 a year, and you're going to receive that benefit. Can you vote on that? You're going to receive the benefit. It's not a special benefit. Because it's not special. It's financial, but it's not special. Now, if you did that and said, I want to reduce just my neighborhood's property taxes, and there's 20 entities, now we have all three entities. We have a prohibited entity or all three categories. We have a prohibited entity. We have a financial benefit. And it's special because of the size of the class is under 100. All right? Okay. Got it. Any questions? Any questions? I have a couple. Okay. I figured you would. Commissioner Casale, did you have any questions? Okay. I had a couple. I spoke to you on the phone, of course, because there's three questions that get circulated all the time that I'm hearing all the time. One of them is actually brought up about me at one time, but not necessarily. So I'm going to deal with it. If you are a registered agent for a company, and I got an ethics opinion on this, which went through with the whole thing. But there has been some confusion as to when you serve as a registered agent, whether or not there's a conflict of interest. And I'm remembering from what you told me that if you're a registered agent at the time of the vote, then that's clear that's a conflict. But at what point is it not a conflict? That's correct. I know the answer, but I'm trying to get something on the record here. Sorry, I'm just talking, Alan. I know the answer. Well, I mean, I'll hand it off. Yeah. No. Yeah, once you divest yourself from that, once you divest yourself from being a registered agent, once you divest yourself from the business, once you divest yourself from an ownership entity in anything, it is immediate. We do, in fact, tell people that when they're contemplating things, that, yes, you can do that. You can run for this office, but you will have to divest yourself from this business. So that's the advice we give people. Once you've divested yourself from that business, what component are we missing? We're missing the prohibited entity because council members can't take actions that bring a special financial benefit to a prohibited entity. One of those prohibited entities would be their outside business. So once that is no longer your outside business, we no longer have a prohibited entity to be concerned with. Yeah, and I mean, as a particularly registered agent, which is a ministerial job, I mean, it's not like you, okay, you understand that. But please explain, if you can, when, I mean, there's that other floating around thing out there that's called the perception of a conflict. Please explain how and what you look for when there is what one would say is a perception of conflict. Well, first off, I'm going to say that everything that I have just said is based and operates on the belief that nobody is engaging in any dodgy behavior. This, the code never allows corrupt misuse of office. The code never allows a quid pro quo. There's no tit for tat. You can't engage in an act for another act. That's always going to be prohibited. So that, as the basis of my answer to your question, you are allowed to recuse yourself. And the simplest example that I can give is like your best friend is not a prohibited entity. But let's say you're in business with your best friend and everybody knows you're in business with your best friend and you divest yourself of that business. But you haven't divested yourself of that best friend and your best friend comes before you on a proposal, let's say. What are we, do we have all three of the things we're looking for here? No, we don't have a prohibited entity. Your best friend is not a prohibited entity and you've divested yourself from that business. Does it have the potential to look a little dodgy? Maybe. So we would say in that situation, if you feel that there's going to be a perception of a conflict of interest, that you are allowed to recuse yourself. It's not compulsory, but you are allowed to, and people may understand why you do that. So that would be an example. One of the things that counsel explained to me was you're not just allowed to willy-nilly recuse yourself. You have to vote unless you do have a bona fide. You can't just be uncomfortable. You have to say yes. You can't just pick and choose how you participate in your elected office. There has to be something that you have an honest belief, a true belief, that it would be a perceived conflict of interest. So it's not somebody else's perception. It's your own perception. It's a subjective decision made by the- Well, I mean, I guess it's going to be on a sliding scale. Yeah, we can't, we can't, we don't know why you believe it is. So this is, again, we're going to go back to good faith, you know, just like most lawyers are going to rely on that. So we're going to use your good faith. And I want to segue into something that I'm not, we're not, we're discussed. Oh, great. Campaign, campaign, at what point, because everyone says, oh, that person gave you $500. Now, you could spend $10 million in your campaign, but it's the $500, that's the question. Okay, so at what point do campaign contributions become part of the mix in terms of when does it, is it a conflict? I mean, I know statutorily it doesn't seem to be a conflict. Under the Code of Ethics, as long as it's a lawful campaign contribution, it's not. Again, this is advice on the premise that you're not doing anything dodgy. If you do something dodgy, it is going to be an ethics. That's a quid pro quo. That's a quid pro quo, right. So as long as there's no quid pro quo, we don't comment or legislate lawful campaign contributions. I appreciate your answering my questions. Another one of these practical guides. Are there any changes from the last one you got? No, that's the same. Redline this one. I just had things to pass out, and I wanted to make sure that, you know, you guys had some gifts that you could make sure you don't have to fill out a gift form for, had to keep it under that $100 limit. Well, yeah, this could be very valuable. It is not. Any other questions for anybody? Ms. Geiger, thank you very much for taking the time again to address us. Of course. We're always here, as you guys know. Hopefully everybody knows how to get a hold of me. I just want to make sure that when I call, I'm calling you, and you're not calling me. That's all. Well, you know, maybe I just want to see how your meeting went. There you go. There you go. Thank you. Tune in. Thank you very much. You're welcome. Thank you. We have a financial review of the fiscal year ended September 30th, 2025, first quarter fiscal year 2026. Presentation by Mr. Henry Dokowitz, and there you are. BYOC, Henry. Bring your own clicker. I'll bring your own clicker. That could be a conflict. Good evening, Mr. Mayor, Commissioner, City Manager, City Attorney. So we're presenting tonight the tentative full year results for fiscal year 2025. Still subject to audit. We're in the final stages, final testing of the audit. There may be adjusting or correcting entries recommended by the auditors that we may adopt. As of right now, when we look at all funds, just to give a recap for that fiscal year, the general fund had a budget of $164.2 million, final amended budget of $166. The other funds, enterprise funds and capital improvement funds were generally based on rollovers, where from the prior year there were monies that were not spent and it increased this year's budget. You have the other services, debt service, CRA and DDA. So although the general fund was looking at $166 million, the total for the entire city was $634 million. When we look, now we're going to go into the general fund. Looking at the general fund revenue by type. So looking at taxes, which came in just about on target, that's 65% of our revenues. Most of the numbers came in okay. The $8.4 million is the end of the budget where we want to balance the revenues and the expenses, and we plan for an $8.4 million drawdown from prior year's reserves to balance the budget. If all the revenues come in as expected and all the expenses are consistent. The reason we have a negative balance here is because we did not draw down anything. When we finished the audit, the last entry made to the books to balance it out is a drawdown of reserves. What this shows is as of now, we did not take that drawdown. So we are on the revenues short $10.5 million from the budget. When we look at general fund expenditures by type, you see that we generally have favorable balances, variances. Personnel services, operating expenditures for a total of $8.3 million. If that holds up, we won't need to draw down from the reserves. When we look at general fund expenditures by department, I'll point out number one on the hit parade is Chief Ron Martin of Fire. This is still accommodating the shifts, but he came in with a 3.9 favorable variance for the year. Parks and Rec has several different categories combined. They were $2 million favorable, and IT was $1.1 million favorable. Net for the whole city, we're looking at that $8.3 favorable variance on expenses. When we say favorable and it relates to expenses, it means that our actual $180.8 million is less than what the budget was, $189.2 million. We look at the projected reserves. We started the year, so that would be the fiscal year ending September 3025. We started the year with $50.78 million in reserves. Okay, projected revenues of $178 and projected expenditures of $180, we would have a deficit, a proposed deficit of $2.17 million. If that goes through, then we would have projected reserves at the end of the year, September 3025, of $48.6 million. According to the calculations the commission has agreed on when testing the reserves, we look at the adopted budget of $201 million minus transfers. So that's about $195.1 million, and the $48.6 million would be 24.79% of that total, which is within the range that we talk about for our reserves. Looking at general fund revenues now for the first quarter, we have a lot of timing issues. Taxes, so what we do is we look at the first quarter, and we basically take 25% of the annual budget. That's how we go from $132 to $33 million. We've already received $97.9 million. That's just we got the taxes sooner than 25% in this quarter. That will flatten out as we go through the year. Operating, no, here we are, general fund expenditures for the first quarter. Operating expenditures, we're about on target, 15.67%, but some of that is also timing. A question of maybe, well, these are expenditures. I was doing revenue. Sorry. This is the first quarter. The revenues came in much higher. Charges for services just about on target, miscellaneous revenues into governmental revenues slightly below that 25% measure. Net bottom line, we're ahead of the first quarter, but we monitor it department by department and line by line to make sure it's only timing differences. If we have a slowdown of revenue, if we have an increase of expenses, we try to get on top of it earlier. Looking at general fund expenditures for the first quarter, CRA grants and aides, the reason that's unfavorable is we've spent the money in the first quarter rather than throughout the whole year. Again, it's primarily timing. And with the other services, personnel services, primarily those were vacancies in the police and fire department, which we know about. Maybe their overtime will be higher, but that may persist depending upon when we hire replacements. So basically, we're 12.9, unfavorable, but that's timing, and that should clear up in future quarters. Here we look at the expenditures by department. Again, those transfers are the first one. That was the rollovers. So unfavorable, everything else looks to be right on target. And we look at combined public works, the second asterisk. It includes engineering and the parking facility. Parks and rep, the first asterisk, includes line items known as recreation facilities, special events, cemetery, and other recreational facilities. We've combined this for the presentation based on who's responsible for those kinds of line items. Looking at the full year, we're looking at adopted budget, and then in 25, the fiscal year variance for the year, looking at all the funds, not just governmental funds. So we've looked at the governmental funds of revenues were below expectation by 10 and a half, but they were favorable on the expenditure side. Similarly, special revenue funds, the unfavorable revenues are offset by more than that amount on favorable expenditure variances. Capital funds, we don't have all the revenue, but we have favorable on the expenditures by $99 million. Enterprise, on the other hand, is ahead both on the expenditure control and on the revenue to a tune of almost $160 million. Internal service funds, down by $4 million on the revenue, but up by $10 million on the expenditure. So when you look at the net, the revenues were short by $147 million, but the expenditure control had a favorable variance of $290 million. First quarter, all funds, looking at all the funds, and again, a lot of this is going to be influenced. It's only the first quarter, but the timing, looking at the bottom line, revenues are $31 million ahead. We knew most of that is real estate taxes, and expenditures are favorable by $88 million, but I would expect those variances to go towards zero, both of them, over the next couple of quarters. I didn't have the slide that said questions. I'm sorry. Thank you very much. Is there any questions for Mr. Toculitz? Hearing none? Not at the moment, but I'll probably call you tomorrow. We'll be visiting again on 7A, right? So you're coming back? To find any lost money. Thank you very much, Mr. Toculitz. 5A3, clarity regarding legislative funding and appropriation request processes. Actually, you skipped 4D. Oh, I'm sorry. Wait a minute. Sunshine law. I apologize. I apologize. You're out. I worked so hard on this. You're out. Sunshine law presentation. I forgot to wear my Little Miss Sunshine shirt. So we're going to talk about the Sunshine law, which is Florida Statute 286. We do this pretty much annually, so this is a review for most of you and maybe a little bit of an education for the members of the public. So what is the Sunshine law? The Florida Sunshine law, like I said, is codified under 286, and it's really the public meeting and public records requirement. It serves to promote transparency and accountability for both elected officials like yourself as well as our appointed officials. So a little bit of history. So I put this on there because everybody knows Florida is a sunshine state. Actually, Florida was the first state to come up with a Sunshine open records law, and that happened in 1909 with the first rendition of the public records law. Obviously, it was a little bit different then because we didn't have Internet and social media and things like that. So it was probably easier, but that rendition has changed over time. It's morphed. In 1967, we had the government and the sunshine law, which is the one that we have today. And in 1990, there was actually a voter referendum where the voters were given the right to make the right to access to government a constitutional right that we all enjoy. So that's a little bit of the history of the sunshine. So who does it apply to? So like I said, it applies to both elected and appointed boards. Commissioner Mollico, when you were elected to office, it actually started applying to you basically on that day that you found out that you were a commissioner. So a lot of people don't know that. They think it's when you take office. But really, once you become a commissioner-elect, that's when the sunshine law triggers. Fact-finding or information-gathering committees, they have to be strictly fact-finding. They can't make recommendations or prepare reports. But those fact-finding committees and information-gathering committees, they're not subject to sunshine. And we're going to talk about some other exceptions to the sunshine law. Advisory committees, which are those committees that you as elected officials appoint, that make non-binding recommendations. So even though we all know Planning and Zoning Board, Historic Preservation Board, they are tasked with responsibilities, but they're typically not binding. They can be appealed and things like that. Those boards also must operate in the sunshine, which is why we have them generally meet in the chamber so that it's very clear that their meetings are going to be subject to all the sunshine requirements. So there's basically three legal requirements to the sunshine law. First, the meeting must be open to the public. You know, you can't have meetings at the police department behind a locked door, right? It has to be open for the public to be able to generally enter. You have to give reasonable notice of the meeting to the public, and we'll talk about what reasonable means in just a minute. And then meeting minutes must be taken. So open meetings. This is probably the one most controversial aspect of the sunshine law. What is a meeting? A meeting can be a formal or informal gathering of two or more members of the same board. So it would be between the five of you. So obviously you could meet with members of the Planning and Zoning Board. You can go to lunch with them. You can talk about business of the city because that's not a sunshine violation. The sunshine applies to the five of you. And so you always have to be mindful that when you're in a public place, when you're seen together, unless that meeting has been properly noticed, that you're not discussing the official business of the city or something that can reasonably come before the commission. Official business is any topic that could reasonably come before you. So, you know, it's the foreseeable things, right? It's those things that, you know, you know are coming up on an agenda because we've discussed it and you've directed staff to place something on an agenda. You can't discuss how you're going to vote on something with your colleagues. All those conversations take place here in this room because the public has a right to have access to the information on how you vote, why you vote, and the discussions that you have when you vote. And like I said, it has to be, take place at an open, properly noticed meeting. The next thing is reasonable notice. So Florida Statute 166.0401, it gives us a little bit of guidance. It typically relates to the adoption of ordinances and resolutions and the parameters that we have when we're going to go through that process. Our meeting agendas, that constitutes notice. You know, we publish it. The clerk puts it on the website. We typically, agendas are posted outside on the Bulletin Board of City Hall. So that is considered notice to the public. And sometimes you see, you know, when we do mailers, when they do those big poster boards on property, those are all different versions of notice. Our local rules also provide guidelines on notice because, as you know, sometimes we have special meetings, we have emergency meetings, and then our regular meetings. And so the notice has to be consistent with the circumstances of the meeting. So if you need to have an emergency meeting, you know, remember in COVID, we were having a lot of emergency meetings and special meetings. That does not require the same notice that we have for meeting agendas. Our meeting agendas are typically posted a week before the meeting to give the public an opportunity to review the agenda. But if you're going to have an emergency meeting, that typically is usually, you can give three hours notice because there's typically a sense of urgency associated with whatever the basis for the meeting is. And, again, you would find that under our local rules. Meeting minutes. So this is also sometimes the source of a little bit of controversy. A verbatim transcript is not required. So the law doesn't say that the city clerk is responsible for acting like a court reporter who's going to take down everything. It's generally a summary of what happened at the meeting, how people voted, and comments that were made. So really a summary of notes and notes of the proceedings is going to be sufficient. I always like to mention this because a lot of times you might hear complaints. Oh, the meeting isn't being streamed. You're violating sunshine. There's no video. That's actually, like, a fringe benefit that the city provides. There's no legal requirement to stream our meetings, obviously to nurse everybody's benefit because it adds to that access to the public that allows people to watch the meetings if they're not able to come to the chambers. But there's no legal requirement under sunshine that our meetings have to be streamed or even videoed. The only requirement is the meeting minutes have to be prepared and open to inspection to the public. And as you know, on pretty much all of your agenda, you have to approve your meeting minutes. So prohibited communications. So, as we said, private discussions with each other outside of the sunshine are prohibited. How can those communications occur? Okay, so the easy one is in person. You guys are standing in the parking lot right before a meeting, and you're going to discuss, and I shouldn't say you guys because two elected officials are outside in the parking lot and discussing how they're going to vote on a certain item that's on the agenda. That's prohibited. That's an easy one. Telephone, calling each other is another prohibited communication. The email is the one that's always the most concerning because it's the easiest one to substantiate, right? And so while you are permitted to send each other FYI emails, the best practice is not to do that. The best practice is to save it for a meeting and give handouts to your colleagues during the meeting and have those communications in this room because if by accident somebody hits reply all, great email, mayor, I agree with you, I'm going to vote along with you. Are you paying attention, everybody? Which part? The great email part? So that's going to be a violation of sunshine, even on social media. So, you know, sometimes your constituents will tag Commissioner Mollica. Commissioner Mollica, how do you feel about this? If Commissioner Mollica responds and then Commissioner Casale says, I don't agree with her, she's wrong, we have now a violation of the sunshine. And remember, with public records, once it's up there, we can't delete it. It's actually a formal record of the city. And then text messages, another way, you know, sometimes we get involved in these group chats where there's a lot of people communicating. And even though a lot of the information may be informational, it could lead to a sunshine violation, which we always want to be mindful of. Intermediaries. So the sunshine law contemplates go-betweens, right? If you have mutual friends, if you have mutual colleagues that, you know, pass along information, those people who are not members of the board, they can create a sunshine violation for you. So it's improper for intermediaries, mutual friends of yours, to communicate business-related matters. Not, you know, what the weather is today, but clearly something that's coming before the commission in the foreseeable future that they're communicating back and forth. If somebody, Commissioner Markert, it tells a colleague how he's going to vote on something, that person repeats it to Vice Mayor Burns. That's going to be an intermediary, and that's prohibited. Polling staff. You know, you're going over a gender review with one of the directors, and you say to the director, oh, did you talk to the mayor about this? What are his thoughts on it? If that person tells you the mayor's thoughts, that's considered an intermediary and a violation of the sunshine. So email disclaimers, I know I've spoken to all of you about putting a disclaimer on your email. Again, the best practice is not to send emails to your colleagues. You know, some of it is informational, some of it is an FYI, but we always want to be mindful of the sunshine. If you do choose to do that, you should always have some type of a disclaimer on your email, essentially saying, I'm sending this for informational purposes, do not reply all. So as I stated in the beginning, there are exemptions to the sunshine law. We talked about the fact-finding committees. They have to be strictly fact-finding. They don't make any recommendations. At least four of you have participated in collective bargaining sessions where we have executive sessions. We meet in the back room. Sometimes we start in here and then we go to the back room. But those executive sessions with collective bargaining, those are not subject to sunshine. And I think the public policy purpose behind it is because we want you to have a free flow of information, of communication on what you want to see in a collective bargaining contract without fear that, you know, that information is going to be misinterpreted or repeated or things like that. We want to have those honest, open conversations about the vision that you see policy-wise for collective bargaining. And then the attorney-client sessions, those are limited to litigation strategy sessions where we talk about how we want to defend a case. Do we want to go to trial? Do we want to settle the case? Or if we want to talk about potential settlement of the case, those are done outside of the sunshine. The difference between collective bargaining and attorney-client sessions, and you'll know this when we have these sessions, is that with an attorney-client session, those have a court reporter. And so the law says that after a case is settled, it's resolved, it's gone through the appellate process, and it's over, those transcripts are public records. And so the court reporter basically gives it to us under seal, and once the case is formally closed, then those transcripts can be released to the public. Collective bargaining executive sessions, we don't have court reporters in there for the reasons that I discussed earlier. Exemptions can only be created by the legislature. We, as a commission and as your attorney, we can't come up with our own. They're very limited. There are very – it's essentially these three exemptions. And we always have to be mindful that when we're in those sessions, whatever the subject matter is, we can't veer off of it. So if we're talking about a litigation case, we can't talk about another case that, you know, we're going to be – it's very, very limited because if you do discuss things that are not the subject of the closed session, that is a Sunshine violation. So there are penalties. Florida law, you can institute a civil action against someone if you believe they committed a Sunshine violation. There are also criminal penalties. It's considered a misdemeanor of the second degree, punishable by up to 60 days in jail and a $500 fine if the violation was knowing, like you knowingly violated the Sunshine Act. And it can also be subject to suspension or removal by the governor. So what are the takeaways for today? Sunshine law is a constitutionally recognized right of access. Social gatherings, you can go to lunch, you can go to dinner, you can go to charity events. The only prohibition is that you should not be talking about city business. If your meetings are noticed, your luncheons are noticed, your charity events are noticed, and we try to do that. If we do know that the commission is going to be at the same place, we typically will notice it in an abundance of caution. Not that we believe that you're going to have lunch with one another talking about city business, but because of the perception of it, right? If people see two of you together, we want to dispel any suspicion that there could be some type of violation of law. And the clerk is wonderful, and she will always take care of those notices for us. You can't speak to members of your appointed boards. There's no prohibition on that unless you're the mayor and you're an ex-officio member of a board. So the mayor is an ex-officio member of the DDA. He cannot talk to those board members outside of the Sunshine about official business of the DDA. Again, discussions during closed meetings are limited to the subject matter that is the basis for the exemption, and secret ballots are not permitted. So sometimes when you vote on things up here, even if we use a ballot, it will have to have your name and however you voted, because by failing to do so, that is considered a violation of the Sunshine Law. And I found this quote. Judge Corey Sicklin is one of our fourth DCA judges in Palm Beach, and I just thought it was a great quote. It's like the mantra. When in any doubt as to whether a meeting or communication, either directly or indirectly, between two or more government officials may be illegal under the Sunshine Law, the easy answer is leave, and that's it. And then you don't have a problem, right? And that's it. Thank you very much for the illuminating presentation. Commissioner Malika, you're the newest one. Do you have any questions? No, I do not. Commissioner Markert? No. Commissioner Casale? No, thank you. Commissioner Burns? Absolutely. I have, of course, a couple of questions. So Judy Malika goes on social media and says, I hate to have white fences on blue houses. I'm never going to allow a picket fence in the city. As long as Tom Markert doesn't say, hey, wait a minute, I love picket fences in the city. She's allowed to express an opinion on social media, but one of us cannot respond to that thing. So that is not a violation for her to give an opinion on something, even if it should be coming in front of the commission. Yes, it's not a Sunshine violation, but remember, if it's quasi-judicial, you have to keep impartiality. That's a separate issue. That's a separate issue whether or not you're showing a prejudice to vote on something. That's a separate issue. But it is not a Sunshine violation. That's correct. All right, the concept of two or more, because we've all gone to things where the city clerk sends out a notice, two or more commissioners may be at this event. If it's noticed and two or more people are there, can you then talk about city business? You can. But I said the reason why we typically do it is a perception. No, I'm saying, but I think the rule says, if it has been noticed, we all go to a charity, the three of us go to a charity event. So it's been properly noticed that Markert, Malika, and Carney are going to be at this event. But we start to talk at the visit, what do you think of this? Technically, that's not a violation. It's not a violation. I would say it's not a best practice. It's clearly not a best practice, but I'm just making sure that it's not a – I'm just trying to clarify for people what the law says. Right. Because people throw around, oh, this is a violation, which, as you pointed out, it could be a jail, you can get dismissed, you can get – And can I just say something about that? I feel that we also – we need to be mindful because throwing out an allegation that somebody violated a law, a law that can subject you to removal, that can subject you to criminal penalties, and that could also be a civil action, I think we need to be mindful that – because that leads to defamation, right? And so I think we need to be mindful, even saying that something is a charter violation. I think we just need to be very careful on those types of things. If you believe that somebody violated the Sunshine Law, there's recourse. You know, there's things that we can do to address it, make sure it doesn't happen again. And obviously, if you feel it rises to the level of a criminal charge, you know, you can report it, but I feel that when people – and that's why I want to always notice when I know that you're going to be together, because I just feel that the go-to is to make an allegation against someone that's damaging to somebody's reputation, damaging to the city's reputation, and just not a good look for an elected official, especially when you did nothing wrong, right? And so I just feel that it's just easier to notice it. I know you. I know that when you're enjoying a nice night out, the last thing you're talking about is this. But for perception's sake, I just think it's a better course. And the last thing is it has to do with this disclaimer, because, you know, I have seen articles which I'll send to you on a matter, and I'll copy all of you, and I'll say, please do not respond. I guess the disclaimer works, but you're saying that the best practice would be not to send it at all? I would say the best practice is to either have – Sometimes I'd want my colleagues to see what I'm reading so that they – Sure, but, again, if it's something that, you know, croquet, right? You want your colleagues to have the information that you have. What I think is a better course of action is that it should go through the manager. Let the manager review the information, and if he feels that it's something that would be helpful to your colleagues, he can send it out, because he and I aren't subject to the sunshine law. Right. But the concern is when the mayor sends it out, because it's giving an impression that you're trying to influence the information that your colleagues receive, and that's what we really want to avoid. So it really should go through one of us. That makes perfect sense. Great. Any other questions? Thank you very much for the presentation. My pleasure. 4E, the Florida Recovery Obligation Calculation, the FROC calculation. Here we go. The chief. Very good, Lynn. Thank you for the update. Good evening, and thank you, Mr. Mayor, honorable commissioners, Mr. Moore, Madam City Attorney, and Madam Clerk, as well as the community. For the record, Ronald Martin, Fire Rescue Chief, and with me this evening I have – David Garcia, Assistant Chief. Tonight, it's my distinct honor and privilege, and I'm truly excited about something that really matters a lot to the city of Del Rey as a village by the sea and a coastal community, to present to you a program that we're intending to participate on called the Florida Recovery Obligation Calculator. You'll hear a lot of it over the next couple of years. So the short version of that is FROC. To give you the details, I'm going to turn it over to Assistant Chief Garcia. Thank you. Good evening, Mayor, commissioners. So FROC is a system that was launched by the Florida Department of Emergency Management in 2023, and the biggest purpose of this was to sponsor a program that would standardize documentation and the process on how to recover funds or just, in general, recover from an impacted event, whether it's a hurricane or whatever that may be. So what is FROC, and what do we have to do? So FROC is an optional opt-in program, and just for a quick timeline view, this would be a process for over a year. We would have to opt-in to a disaster readiness assessment, which is known as the DRA. And what that does is the city would opt-in to this program, and we would be assigned a state compliance team that would review our experience in federal funding and also reimbursement, review our city policies to ensure they're aligned with the recommendations from the compliance team and the documentation process as well. It would also go over our procurement process and make sure that's aligned with federal guidelines and our contract administration process. Now, what exactly are they looking for? So the state is very well-versed on what they get RFIs, our requests for more information when a municipality or a county puts in for a reimbursement due to a disaster. So what they've done is they streamlined what those RFIs are being sent in from the federal government, and looking at our policies and our procedures, they give recommendations to the city on how to proceed if there needs to be any type of change or additional language. So as we discussed, why are we participating? So we're looking to get a DRA score, our disaster readiness assessment score. What's this score going to do? It's going to be based off of any gaps that are identified in our recovery policies and procedures, and it's going to strengthen the documentation required for our federal reimbursement. It's going to improve the coordination across all your city departments during a recovery event, and it's going to enhance the city's ability to recover disaster-related costs. Now, the DRA score, the max score you can get is 80%. So what does that mean? Just simple numbers. If for whatever reason we need to recover $100,000, depending on our score, if we would get the best score there is, which is 80%, the state of Florida would actually up front give us 80% of what's expected to be recovered, so $80,000. And those funds would be based off of what the damages are and what the possible recovery threshold is. So it would give us the ability to use 80% of those funds after we go through this process. This is pretty much the Florida Department of Emergency Management, the Division of Emergency Management, saying we've gone through all your policies or procedures, and we feel comfortable enough to give you 80%, or obviously if your score is 50%, you would get 50%. So it's just depending on that score. So implementation and timeline. So this is an internal implementation process. The city staff would be working to put together a workgroup because this is a citywide initiative. The Emergency Management Division would be the facilitator between the FROC compliance team and all the city departments to go over financial policies, procurement procedures, documentation practices, and disaster recovery processes that are already in place. So pretty much we would opt in, and we would give them our policies, procedures, and processes that we have in place. They would analyze those and give us feedback, and then we have an opportunity to enhance or change any type of policies during an abatement period, and then they would give us a score at the end of that. So our internal timeline, we've briefed the executive leadership on this to coordinate with the city departments. I know we have here May 2026, but we like to operate a little ahead of time, so we're here in April to inform the city commission on this program, and the opt-in period begins June 1, 2026. So how that period looks like, so we would opt in June 1, and we have about a 60-day window to opt-in. Then the DRA process would start in October. Then from October, we have until March of next year, we'll have a review process, and then we can make any changes to policies if needed. And then May 31, 2027, we would be locked into our DRA score, and we would be in the actual program effective June 1, 2027. So the participation in this FROC disaster rate assessment will help the city strengthen the disaster recovery and preparedness and improve our ability to recover these costs. I'll open up for any questions. Thank you very much. Are there any questions? Commissioner Casale? Thank you. I was looking at this online, and there are a lot of cities that are doing this, but it talks about the training aspect of it and getting yourself into it is very time-consuming and very costly. But that's not a question is when right now, if we have a disaster, are we recovering from the state or are we just getting it from FEMA? What does it currently look like before this program would be implemented? So for any declared event, the city's municipal emergency management program, if it's a county-declared event, we will fall under Palm Beach County Emergency Operations Center. They then become the applicant for any recovery costs within the declared or impacted disaster zone. So the county becomes the applicant to the state. The state then pushes those applications to FEMA. So by aligning with the FROC program, which our county has already aligned with, makes that process a lot more streamlined. And essentially this program, the best way I can say it to you guys is, yes, there's an internal staff cost as far as time, working through policies, revamping policies, or any deficiencies. But the standardization of documentation that the state has developed to help us and the county apply to FEMA is essentially like putting FDEM on retainer to work for us. If we are using their forms, ensuring that our policies are compliant with the Code of Federal Regulations when it comes to procurement and cost, human resource and staffing, as long as we are compliant and we're meeting all of those benchmarks for the federal level, which is extremely complex, we will have some guaranteed funding reimbursement that the state's saying, okay, we know that this amount of funding you are going to get back and we're going to guarantee that these funds, and if you have any problems, we're going to go directly to FEMA and fight for you. Interesting. So it's almost like FEMA doesn't want to cover the umbrella of all states and they're allocating to where they're going to be putting money, and that's scary and not related to us. But the AFROC, it says it only applies to Category A debris removal and Category B emergency protective measures. Could you describe what the Category A is and then also what the Category B is? So Category A is related to our debris removal and debris management. Protective services are those things that we need to do to immediately provide for life safety of our residents, our visitors, and our community. So that could be anything from upstaffing fire trucks in the police department to bringing in additional code enforcement of public work personnel to immediately provide for rescue and life safety of our community. Now, those are two categories in this very comprehensive document. I don't know if any of you have had a chance to ever look at it. It's online. The PAPG, the PAPG is what we call it, that has several different categories in there. Right. FROC and FDEM are working diligently to get this system and get this process to apply to all of the categories. Okay, that's important. And that is a long-term plan. This is not an easy lift for any municipality. Right. But I can tell you that when we do need to be concerned for a significant event and when we are impacted with a significant event, hopefully we are all on to bigger and better things and retired and sipping pina colada somewhere. But the people that manage that event will be very thankful for the work that we do collaboratively now to put this system in place because I can tell you we're navigating the reimbursement and recovery with a Type 1 event will take up numerous staff time and a lot of additional staff will be needed. Right, and that's the concern. A lot of additional staff will be needed. And I don't know that we... If we're not in this system. Okay, you're saying only if we're not in the system. But the way that this describes what we need to do for our procurement department, it's good that we're bringing somebody on board, but it's going to take the city, it seems like, quite a bit of work to get to where we need to be. And then I had one additional question. Oh, my goodness. It escaped me. Hang on one second because I know it circles back. If we opt in, is there a fee for membership? There is no fee in this program. This is offered to our municipalities and counties through FDEM. What it does, being an active participant in the program, it does give us a starting DRA score of, what is it, 20%. So we get a starting DRA score of 20% for being a participant enrolled in the program, which translates to about 20% of our cost just by being a participant enrolled in the program. Thank you. I appreciate your time. Great. Any other people, would anyone want to be recognized? I don't have any questions. I just want to say thank you for the presentation and thank you for that thorough explanation. It's very clear. Thank you. Mr. Marker. Yeah. Look, I really want to say thank you. I was the one that was loud up here, you know, not that long ago about all the changes that have gone on in Washington with FEMA, and there have been lots of them. And it should create some trepidation for all of us that live in the state of Florida with the amount of potential disasters that we have. And I think this program is a really good one, and I think we are wise to be early signees to get in on this because it's still unclear, you know, what FEMA will bring going forward. I think those, you know, those questions will get answered in the future at some point. But in the meantime, the safest place for Delray Beach to be is actively involved in this program because it will provide us with some relief. So I'm very thankful that we are where we are. Anybody else would be recognized? Go at Brock. Thank you. Thank you all. Thank you all very much. And, Chief, I want to congratulate you. You said you'd come in. You'd save us some money. You saved us $3 million. I appreciate that. Very hard work in trying to do that for the taxpayers at Delray Beach. That is all thanks to my amazing, talented team that I work with, sir. Thank you. Okay. We are now on 5A2. Well, we have comments and inquiries on agenda and non-agenda items. City managers, we're at 5A2. Mr. Mayor, just to briefly introduce. So we made a commitment not terribly long ago to offer a high-level overview relative to claim process. Interest was expressed at the deus level to do so. And likewise, I've asked Director of Human Resources, Dwayne DeAndre, to offer a brief update or an overview in terms of how the process works operationally and administratively. Mr. DeAndre, if you would please. All right. Very good. And can you all hear me? Yes. Okay. So this is a high-level overview of the claims process overview. I'm going to have a short slideshow here I'm going to present. So I'm going to go through the process summary, what the claim intake process is, what the assessment and investigation involves, the liability review, and the final legal review. So what happens? A claim is reported to the city, and risk management is notified of the claim. Risk management contacts the claimant, and the claimant must complete a few things here. So we're talking about a notice of the claim form and any supporting documents included for the claim, such as photographs, repair estimates, repair invoices if already fixed, proof of ownership, proof of insurance, and a police report, if applicable. So once that's done, the claimant returns all the requested documents to risk management, and risk management reviews for completeness and initiates the investigation process. So risk management contacts the applicable department or departments for any supporting documents concerning this claim. And the department completes a third-party incident report, which includes work orders, photographs, contracts, any insurance that may be applicable to the claim. For the liability review, the risk management reviews all documentation from the claimant and the department and works with the department and the director to determine the outcome. There's two possible outcomes, right? So we either have no liability, which is claim is then denied by the staff, or we have some possible liability, where the claim is escalated to a third-party administrator, TPA, and the TPA evaluates the supporting documentation to determine the liability. The TPA provides a settlement recommendation and request approval to accept the claim, if valid, or lets us know that we should deny the claim. Then we go through the final legal approval, correct? So we go risk management sends the TPA's recommendation and claim file to the city attorney, requesting approval to reimburse the claimant, if that's the way we need to go, and the city attorney reviews and may approve the payment pursuant to the TPA recommendations or amend or deny the payment request, and the TPA is notified of the final decision and how to proceed with the claim. Basically, that's a very high overview level of how the claims process is handled here at the city of Dara Beach. Okay. Thank you very much. Are there any commissioners wishing to be recognized to discuss anything? Any questions? I have just a question. Why do we need a presentation on this? There was a request by a commissioner to make that request, and the city did it. Thank you for your presentation. Well, I requested it, in fairness, because that process is not always being followed, and certain people are getting their claims processed and paid without going through that process. And I wanted to know why that was. That's why I requested that. Mr. Moore could have answered that for me. But, I mean, now we're looking at, and people can be giggling out there, but it's a $267,000 claim against the city. I don't find that humorous. Hang on, if I may. It's my time. Yeah, but I'm not, but on advice to council, we don't talk about, we don't talk about individual claims. I'm speaking on a public record, and this is from our advisor. The city, this is the claims consultant from PGCS, did not cause the problem. I'm using, I'm not using the word specifically of what the problem was. The payment was, in my opinion, a good faith gesture. I don't think Delray Beach taxpayers should be paying out on a good faith gesture. Another page, Delray was not the contributing cause. Yep, Delray paid out. And there's more emails exactly the same. The city attorney was not notified. The claim was settled. There was nothing signed to protect the taxpayers from future claims. That's not acceptable, and that's why I asked for the presentation. This is not the way things should be happening. And, Dwayne, what I will say to you very honestly that I appreciate is when I came to your office, you just said it was a mistake. But my concern is more to the point that these claims go to the city manager first, and depending on who they go to first, it seems like they're being handled differently. And I would bring the Weinberg claim into question, too. No, we're not any. No, but you can't be just paying out people. Well, we can under vice of counsel. We don't talk about individual claims. We don't talk about individual claims. And that's certainly what it looks like. I'm done. We're not following our process. We're not following our procedure. I think the other claims were closed. Mr. Weinberg's claim is technically pending, so we shouldn't. I understand what you said, but it was denied, but it's technically pending right now. It shouldn't even be. But I do think that a review of the procedures, we should look in, again, of our procedures to ensure that everything to protect the city is being done, everything to protect, you know. The taxpayers? It's not a small amount of money. This isn't a joke. The procedures that were outlined today are since the commission approved the resolution amending the settlement authority, and I think that will alleviate a lot of the concerns that were voiced from the dais, and we just have to see how it pans out. I mean, I think you just approved it in February, so we have to just see how that works out. So far, open lines of communication have been received. Mr. DeAndre and his team, they're meeting with all the departments on a biweekly basis. I'm getting requests to review claims, so I do think that the process, it's going to work itself out, but the new process, I think, is much better. Thank you very much. Any other questions? You are going to discuss that other claim that I've brought up a couple times for $2.3 million. I'm asking that no individual claims be discussed. Well, I know, but taxpayers should know what's going on here. Over a year and a half ago, someone caused the taxpayers $2.9 million of damage, and nobody looked into it. Nobody filed a claim against the culpable party for over a year. And, Dwayne, when we sat together the other day, you said to me, and I have it, you said, well, that's because we never had a final bill. But when I went back and did a public records request, over a year ago we had a final bill. It's right to you. You sent it to Mr. Moore and said, what should we do with this? $2.3 million of taxpayer money, and no one was looking to get it. And Mr. Moore didn't respond. You don't have to fall on the sword. You don't have to respond. I would really, really not talk about it. It's a lot of money, and it's only because we were bringing people, we're poking around. Excuse me, Mayor. Excuse me. It is inappropriate to talk about individual claims and suggesting liabilities, and suggesting people made fault, and suggesting things like that from a dais when these issues are being handled by outside counsel. Now, it wasn't until it got poked around that they filed a claim on the 8th after it was inquired about five times. In fairness, Mayor, it is coming before you, I think, at the next agenda, so you'll have the information. Then it's an agenda item? That's absolutely fine. That's absolutely fine. The budget amendment is coming before us. Right. Well, the item is coming before the commission. Thank you, sir. So, Mr. Mayor, ladies and gentlemen, I have one other informal item in addition to what's listed on the agenda because there's been questions and observations regarding the legislative funding and appropriations request process. So, myself, along with Assistant City Manager Jeff Forrest, to briefly update the commission in terms of how this actually works. The level of involvement relative to the city commission includes a connection with our state and federal lobbyists. They appear before you all every year. Matt Forrest of Ballot Partners appears before the city commission to outline a series of considerations based on energy initiated by the office of the city manager working closely with the department directors to advise the commission in terms of what opportunities may very well become available. That dynamic also occurs at the federal level. You've had an opportunity to interact with Mr. Michael Willis of the Color Nine Group, who's represented the city of DeRay Beach during the past couple years, actually since about four years now, and that is an opportunity to engage the city commission with respect to what opportunities are available at the federal level. Bottom line, this is not an issue of elected officials or individual elected officials lobbying for specific outcomes, and that is actually generated by way of professional engagement involving state and federal lobbyist representation. Ms. Doris, if you would fill in the blanks for us, please, in terms of specifics. We have filled in the commission before that, particularly with the state allocations, we get requests from the departments, and I work with Mr. Forrest on which ones might be most viable, and we go ahead and we submit those, and generally he will update you on what has gone forward when he comes and does his update, usually in the January timeframe. And I give you, as an example, one of the federal allocations, we, I am not exaggerating, had six days to submit requests this year for federal allocations. Congress, the ruling party in Congress decided to open it up and had to have the applications in within, I think it's two weeks. Our congressperson needed those, needed time to review them as well, so we literally had, I think, from Thursday to the following Wednesday to put together programs and submit those for allocation. Thank you. I, this, this actually, I asked Mr. Moore for this because there was a, I got some calls on, somebody sent an email talking about that I had all these secret meetings about this thing. I actually learned about all these things because I made some calls to find out what were our legislative initiatives and what we're looking for money, and I wrote about a couple of them in a newsletter. But I do think that, so that nobody on the commission is, is, is blindsided, I think it is a fair request that prior to the initiative being undertaken by the lobbyists, and I understand that these initiatives, they're generated by staff. You know, the drone program was generated by the fire department. The, the engineering department generated the Swinton Avenue. I understand that how, the genesis of these things, but it would be, I think it would be better that prior to, you know, our lobbyists, whoever that may be, whether it's a federal or state lobbying effort, that the commission at least be informed, here's what we're going to be looking money for. Bang, bang, bang, bang. Just so we know what it is, so that when the people call us, everybody is informed. And you can follow up or not follow up to the extent you want to do that individually, but I do think that it makes better sense. I know it has not been in the past, I know it hasn't been the custom in the past, but I think going forward, I know I would like to know what initiatives we're looking for, because if heaven takes constituents to ask us, what are you trying to get out of Tallahassee? It would be nice to have an answer instead of having to read it in, you know, in a report filed at the end of legislative session. And ladies and gentlemen, that is actually a fair consideration. We do try our best to accomplish that. Typically in December, possibly January, Matt Forrest does a nice job in terms of providing an overview of relative to specific possibilities in that regard. Nevertheless, we'll be clear. And the process varies from year to year. Mr. Orr, you just gave a cogent commentary relative to the six-day window we ended up experiencing for the most current legislative session. So it's a little bit goofy at times in that regard, but nevertheless, we'll endeavor to be upfront as we possibly can, which is always the spirit of what we intend to accomplish, so that the commission and the public is aware of what specific pursuits are being made available. So that will be our charge, and I think that's a fair obligation. So allow us to look smart in front of our constituents by telling them what we're doing for them in Tallahassee. Agreed. If I may also, one of the things that we often have, too, particularly with the state, we will request money, and they will cut the amount that they're willing to give. Oh, that's always the case. So we have, as we did several years ago with a blocking vehicle for the fire department, we refused the money because they didn't give us enough to make it worthwhile to do the program. No, the way it was explained to me is that the staff or whoever, the department, will make a request hoping to get enough funding to do the project. If we don't get it, then we don't go forward with the project. And sometimes they're matching funds, and we just can't do it. So it's just, but I just, all I'm trying to say is I think it's important for us to know what initiatives are being pursued either in Washington or in Tallahassee so that we have a basic understanding of what money we're looking for. That's all. Do not know that that will be the process. It typically is, however it is fluid, but will tighten up based on the dynamics of any given year. So, Mr. Mayor, ladies and gentlemen, I have one other item briefly I'd like for the public to be made aware of. And this stems from an information letter report I offered back in October. The title of the piece being Actuarial Analysis to Evaluate Cost of Living Adjustments for Retired General Employees. I've had an opportunity to speak to a couple of you all about this recently. And this is a function of an ordinance that was approved by City Commission in January 2024 that essentially mandated a biannual review of retirement and disability benefits provided via the City of Derry Beach General Employees Retirement Plan. So, the intent is noticed to help determine if existing benefits have been eroded by cost of living increases, whatever the case might be. Bottom line, given every biannual exercise, we are obligated to produce an actuarial analysis report by the following April, which is where we are at this particular point in time. So, a report is to be provided to the City Commission within the next several days. We anticipate having it administratively by this weekend, therefore being provided to the City Commission next week, early next week or so, to also include the metric in terms of what the liability would be to the city should there be an interest to make an adjustment. So, again, given what was directed back in late 2023, resulting in an ordinance adoption back in January of 2024, we are involved in this analysis. It's being finalized. And this will be made available to you all next week, commensurate with the April timeframe to do so. So, with that, be on the lookout in that regard, and we'll have an opportunity to engage respective considerations you may deem appropriate as a result. Great. Thank you very much. Is that going on an agenda? It will be an agenda item in the aftermath of my actually sharing the initial report, but within the next several weeks or so, it will become a regular meeting agenda item. So, our obligation is to not take action immediately in the month of April, but to provide the report to you all by April. But it will subsequently become an agenda item in the coming weeks. Okay. And one more question. Are you looking for that on the next year's budget? Is that what we're determining this for our budget process, or are you looking to implement that prior to budget? It will be a function of that. Should there be any specific policy direction, it will become effective October 1, 2026. I'm now contemplating a May 19th City Commission meeting agenda on the subject to be clear in that regard. However, the initial report will be provided to you all fresh next week, and it will become an agenda item May 19th, as I've just committed. Thank you. As we're obligated to do. Thank you. All right. So, commissioners are finished. Now we are entering public comment. This meeting is now open to the public for comment from anybody wishing to speak on any topic or agenda item other than a quasi-judicial item or a public hearing item. The public will have the opportunity to speak on quasi-judicial and public hearing items later in the meeting, as those agenda items are called. For public comment, please sign in, state your name and zip code for the record, and you will each have three minutes. Mr. Richwag. Albert Richwag in 33483. Still miserably suffering through my neighbor's parking, lack of parking. Still wondering how a 25-seat grab-and-go coffee shop became a 50-seat restaurant with no additional parking requirements. I thought it would be appropriate to come talk about that tonight because you're going to be talking about downtown parking later. Also, I experienced the alleyway behind Yama, the 200 block of Southeast 2nd. They've now made all of the public right-of-way parking behind the Yama and Broulet building. That's all now parking, paid parking. The entire parking lot is paid parking. How does a parking lot that is required for the vesting of restaurants become a pay lot? I thought that if you go to McDonald's and there's 50 spaces, they can't just turn it into a pay lot. You need the spaces to go eat at McDonald's, and you can't afford the amounts they're charging. My wife got a $135 ticket for parking in the alleyway behind Yama to go in for two minutes and pick up to go. She didn't realize that they had changed all of the underground parking behind Yama and Broulet and the alleyway, the public right-of-way is what I'm speaking of. They changed that to pay parking. How does that happen? How does the Opal be allowed to charge and block parking on the entire roadway, public right-of-way again, behind the Opal that is along their patio beach apartments? They ticket and tag anybody who parks in all of those public right-of-way spaces across from the fire station. They don't own that land. They can't dominate that land, and the Yama parking lot cannot charge for public right-of-way alleyway parking, and we can't be ticketed for parking there. It's taxpayers' land. It's not their land to rent out. Looking forward to the 90 days for the subculture re-evaluation. Thank you so much for your time. Oh, and the police department is doing an amazing job ticketing the illegal parkers along my business and Federal Highway and on 2nd Street. Thank you. Thank you very much. But you raised a couple good points that I'm going to ask the city manager to. I would like an answer to some of those questions, too. Mayor, could I ask for a point of order to add? And the parking lot there, and I actually had this on my list, they put up a sign that says only residents can park there, and I thought a portion of that parking, when you go up, had public parking. Yeah, I thought there's a ramp there on the 2nd floor. They always had public parking. They closed the ramp, and they have this sign-up that says you can't park there. I don't know if they're— So the condition of approval was that lot be a public lot. Right. Because that was always this place I would go because a lot of people didn't know about it. Right. But I happened to be there for the approval. So you would drive up that little ramp, and that parking was always—that's supposed to be public parking. It's blocked off now in public. It says no public parking. They had some construction up on the rooftop. It's possible that that's it. I'm not sure. It was there for a while. These are good questions. I'm going to get an answer for you because I'd like to know myself. Thank you. Thank you, Mayor. Good afternoon, Mayor and Commissioners. Mike Tang, 33445. Speaking today with regard to Barwick Road spanning Atlantic Avenue to Lake Ida Road. The understanding is that Barwick Road is still under construction, but there are several concerns, namely road width, roadway water drainage issues, and sidewalk width along the southbound lane that's on the west side. The lanes with very—well, for many sections on the roadway are at the threshold of significant safety concern. While the roadway may meet standards, larger vehicles have very little room to navigate certain stretches of this roadway. Coupled with a tight turning radius in and out of many communities along the roadway, this presents very—many safety challenges, especially when larger vehicles such as buses, box trucks, ladder trucks are involved. Road drainage. As it is right now, roadways flood—this roadway floods in downpours. This presents a danger of hydroplaning and safety concerns. Understandably, this may be because work is still in progress and some drains are not yet fully functional. Where the newly installed drains meet the roadway, the drain edge is often inches above the roadway, which leads to poor drainage. They're standing water hours after rainfall. Hopefully, these newly paved areas will be re-poured with a new layer of asphalt to bring the roadway level with the drains. Sidewalk widths. Sidewalk widths on the southbound lane is significantly narrower than the east side. The section closest to Atlantic Avenue has mailboxes installed on the sidewalk itself, as required by a U.S. postal, so it can't be helped. Staff mentioned yesterday at the Planning and Zoning Board Infrastructure hearing, the mailbox placement meets code and is ADA compliant and meets minimum measurements for wheelchair access. However, when coupled with trash cans or vehicles blocking access, it may force pedestrians or cyclists out into the roadway, which pretty much negates the shared-use premise this improved section of sidewalk is supposed to function as. Multiple residents have reached out to the city to address these issues, including WPTV. We hope these safety concerns are addressed to the fullest. Thank you. Thank you very much. Excuse me, Mr. Patton. Yes, your commissioner. I just wanted to ask a question about that because I brought that up a couple of weeks back, and I thought it was my understanding that there has been some additional engineer work, that they're going to be doing some more evaluation out there. That's not true? Well, there is. They're doing a widening on one portion. I know that. I thought there was some additional evaluation taking place. Ms. Burlittle, I think what we're talking about, phase one versus phase two, and I think there's an observation regarding that. So, Ms. Burlittle, I think I just touched it, but I would still like for you to come forward to clarify that, please, if you don't mind, and per the request of the vice mayor. Yes, there's phase one that's under construction right now. It's about halfway complete. Only the first lift of asphalt has been laid on the roadway. There is still the second lift and final asphalt that needs to go down on the roadway. The storm drains still have filter fabric in them to keep them from being contaminated by soil and that sort of thing during the construction activities. And because the construction is not completed, they are somewhat above the ground level where their finished ground will wind up being. So, we expect that all of those drainage complaints that he was talking about will be dealt with at the end of the project. Additionally, there is shared-use sidewalk on the east side of Barwick Road, but not on the west side of Barwick Road. Part of that was due to the very limited amount of public right-of-way we had on the west side of Barwick Road, but especially in front of the mobile home community that is right there. We originally designed the mailboxes to go at the back of the sidewalks. The postal service came in and made us move them to the center. Well, not to the center, but to an area of the sidewalk where the mail can be delivered from a vehicle because they do not get out and walk mailbox-to-mailbox in that area. There is still ADA accessibility on either side. On the beyond the mailboxes, there is a five-foot sidewalk width, which is what is required by ADA standards. There was something else he brought up that I wanted to mention. The road is actually the same width as it was before. But there is now curb and gutter on the side. It is. Please, continue, please, Ms. Prodata. So, yes. So when the asphalt is finished coming up where it's even with the valley gutter on either side, it will be an improvement for the people. As far as the phase two, after there was significant public comment at the first public outreach meeting that we, well, it wasn't the first one, but the most recent public outreach meeting that we had on the second phase of Barwick Road, there were a number of concerns that were brought up. So we have initiated three additional studies that are going to go into the planning process. One of those concerns the viability of guardrails and whether or not they are actually warranted in that area. Another is that we've met with Banyan Creek Elementary School and we are assisting the school with a queuing study so that they may be able to utilize more of the school property for that activity and help them to do a better job of managing the traffic that's in the Sable Lakes neighborhood. And there's a third one. And off the top of my head, I've lost it. I'm sorry. That's a very thorough overview because typically we do not engage back and forth. Public comment is for public comment. We always respond back at an appropriate time. However, Vice Mayor, in response to your specific question, we made an accommodation here. And thank you. You did answer my question. I guess the three additional studies is in phase two. Yes, I am. And according to what you just said, once phase one is completed, then you anticipate that a lot of the concerns will be addressed. I do. I do. Okay, thank you. Change is hard. If I could just do a quick little follow. I am recalling some of the – I read a lot of the materials that there was one or two interchanges that were done where you found they were actually – that they were going to have to be widened because they actually were, as constructed, were too shy. Yes, there was one at Francis Drive. Okay, that's the one I'm thinking of. The initial construction, the contractor had not put the curbing in the appropriate place. They had to dig that up and move it back out again. So has that been done? That has been accomplished, yes. Thank you very much. Thank you, Ms. Barletta. Mr. Patton. Thank you very much. Price Patton 33483. I'm here to follow up on behalf of the Preservation Trust a letter I sent you all on Friday asking you to declare an emergency because if you go to an RFP, it's not going to happen by June 1st. You know, we did find what's been told to me is like one of the best tree movers around. I mean, this guy's moved stuff for Tiger Woods and stuff. So he knows what he's doing. He went out there and personally inspected it. He said it's movable. He quoted an oral quote of $150,000, which I said in the letter. You know, I know you're leery about taxpayer money. There's $77,000 right now in the tree fund. It used to be more, but that is money that's paid by builders. So that's not taxpayer money. You're going to have to pay a certain amount to, even if you have to destroy it, it's going to be $20,000 or $30,000. You're going to be out of pocket. So why not apply that to moving the tree? And the Board of the Preservation Trust, we are not a very wealthy organization, but our Board did authorize donating $5,000 to the city to help in this regard. You know, think of it in another way. I mean, the tree's grown there for 80 years for free. You know, when we first discovered it, it was exciting. It was a champion tree. Everyone said it was great. Then when you ran into the brick wall with the Lake Worth Management District, it's like, well, maybe it's not such a great tree after all. But it still is the type of tree that every tree expert I've talked to in the last couple of days has said it's worthy of saving. And they even found a spot for it outside of the clubhouse so that people could look at it while they're having dinner. So thank you very much. I hope you consider that option and save the tree. Thank you. Thank you, sir. I'm Siobhan Barrowian, 33435. I'm here on behalf of Perry, Winkle, Morley, and Coco & Co. We have three boutiques on Atlantic Avenue, and we've been in business for over 16 years in downtown Delray. I'm aware that the employee parking program is going to be reviewed soon. And I just want to say from the merchant's perspective, this program is definitely working, and I appreciate the commission for that program. I did just want to note we are at the tail end of season, and I think it's worth noting that we continue to hear a lot of negative feedback about the metering of the Roy Simon lot, formerly the railroad lot. The application is confusing for customers. I know I've brought it up before, and I think the mayor had some pushback, which was fair, about a lot of our top clients who come annually, seasonally, some are regular customers, have expressed that they don't come downtown anymore because of parking. And I think the mayor pointed out that seems contradictory because if they're spending hundreds of thousands of dollars at a store, why can't they pay for parking, which is a fair point. That said, the reality is they're unhappy. It's bothersome to them. They're still not coming downtown. And it's not a concern just for my business. It's for all of the businesses. I think it's hurtful for all of us to see parts of the blueprint of Delray leave. If, like, cut leaving is hurtful, we're all sad about that. So we pay a lot in rent, a lot in taxes. So I just hope you guys will take that feedback to heart and consider that as you review parking. Thank you. Thank you very much. Good evening. Thank you, Mr. Mayor and board, for allowing me to speak tonight. My name is Joe Delvecchio. I live at 5145 Northwest 3rd Street in High Point 7, and I'm also representing High Point 7 because I am the president of the board. And my subject tonight is Barwick Avenue from Atlantic to Lake Ida. I have received numerous complaints from our residents in High Point 7. We cannot exit High Point 7 without, when we make the right-hand turn, without going into the southbound lane of Barwick Avenue. And if you watch the video from the newscast, you can see tire marks on the sidewalk that they put in. Not only that, the lane is 9 feet wide. I Googled and asked Google what is the width of a normal lane in Florida, and it said 12 feet. Okay, Google is not right all the time. But 9 feet is much smaller than that lane was before construction. I sent a drone video to some of the members of the board and showed you before and after you could actually see it. We have fire engines and emergency vehicles up and down Barwick, and when they're going up and down, if you have a school bus up and down, and one's going north and one's going south, that fire truck, okay, and that school bus, there's no way to go. It's very tight. There's also construction. We have sanitation trucks that come in to both of the high points, 7 and 6, that are actually on that double yellow line. There are some abutments on the sidewalks they put in. It was mentioned that they were making some adjustments. I haven't seen them yet. They made a lot of adjustments up near the mobile home. The grade was totally wrong. So that makes it suspect to me that maybe that lane is too narrow, and whoever did the previous work did not do the right thing. Also, I think it's actually an accident waiting to happen. A week and a half ago, there was an accident just before Lake Ida. They had the ambulance there, and someone was on a stretcher. I don't know what it was all about, but there was an accident. I asked you to please look into this and make that northbound lane and that southbound lane wider. There is room. Either you shorten up the east side of the sidewalk and use also the west side of the roadway, because there's room there, to make those lanes wider. And at night, I don't want to drive down the street, and that's the complaints I'm getting from the people who live in our community. Thank you for listening. Thank you very much, sir. Good evening, Mayor, President of the Commissioners as well. I'm here tonight just to personally thank two of our commissioners on Sunday. Your name and the post. Oh, I'm sorry. Even though we know you live. I know she already typed it up, so hold my minute. I know she typed my name. Cynthia McFarl-Ridley live at 210 Northwest 2nd Avenue. I know she knows my name already. I ain't worried about it. But I'm personally here to thank Commissioner Burns and Commissioner Malik, who showed up for me and Ann, Stacey Wright, on Sunday, as we was honored at St. Paul Baptist Church in Delray on Southwest 10th Avenue. Again, I want to say I appreciate you guys for showing up. And also a lot of us, about 40 of us from the set, came to honor us as well. So, again, thank you to the set and especially to my special commissioners. Thank you for showing up. And also former Commissioner David Randolph. Thank you so much. Thank you very much. Hello. My name is Rachel McGinn. I live at 236 Northeast 13th Street. And I have been talking to the city for many years. I've gone through three different engineers about the flooding problem on Northeast 13th Street, specifically my property and Albert Ridgewagon's property. Right now we have an emergency because there are four new homes being built on the north side of Northeast 13th Street, and this is where the water is coming from. I know we have plans in the future. They're working on stormwater. My neighborhood wasn't designed with stormwater management. It's an old Florida, you know, it's Delida Park. I'm at the north end of it. So it was designed with larger lots, small homes, and over the years, of course, people put in impervious without permits. That's not the real problem. The real problem is since they're building new construction, there are two being built behind my house, and when they build these new homes, they raise the grade. I know that supposedly the code is such that they have to keep the water that comes off their roof onto their lot. That's not good enough. They raise the grade, which means the water that used to run onto their property runs onto mine. It runs out onto Northeast 13th Street and to the two oldest properties, which are mine and Albert Ridgewagon's properties. I will be flooded out soon. It's not when. It's not if. It's when. So the city is talking about making plans and studying, but we can't study. We need to hurry up. Put some drainage in. As a matter of fact, I don't know why these builders are allowed to build unless they pay for the drainage. Because, I mean, up north, I've seen builder developers put in sewer lines, in entire sewer lines and streets before they were allowed to build and develop. We need to change the zoning, make the houses smaller, make them one story. Our neighborhood shouldn't even be. I'm lucky that the builder on my street is a great builder, and he's going to build beautiful homes. But we have an emergency situation. I have a lovely home. Please come and visit me. I've spent a lot of time and money fixing it up. It was built in 1958. It's a duplex, and I need immediate help. You're between second and the railroad tracks, right? Yeah. I know where we are. I'm the greenhouse on the right of the park. I'm desperate. So thank you for listening, and thank you for your comments earlier. Thank you. Hello, you beautiful people. It is Marjorie Waldo from Arts Garage. I hope you're all doing great. Americans for the Arts, I'm going to share with you something they posted on LinkedIn a couple of weeks ago. The research about the arts as common ground. 76% of Americans believe the arts are personally important to them, one of the rare points of bipartisan agreement in our current climate. Congress recently acted on it. Federal arts funding for the NEA and the NEH was protected at $207 million each, with support crossing party lines. Proposals to eliminate these agencies were rejected. In an era of declining institutional trust, the arts remain one of the few spaces where Americans from different backgrounds still gather, engage, and find connection. 72% of Americans say the arts create connections across different backgrounds, and 78% see the arts as a positive force during challenging times. The arts are not just entertainment, but they are the connective tissue that binds communities together. In a fractured moment, that means more than ever. That's the end of Americans for the Arts. The rest is all me. I want to remind you, and on public record, that we've created a 25% off coupon for our city heroes. I sent it to as many department heads as I could figure out your email addresses. I was hopeless with the finance director's last name. I couldn't pull it off. But I tried to get the information to you. I hope you will use the 25% off code and come see a show. That's for all city staff. You are our heroes. I'm also super excited to see many of you at our 15th anniversary ribbon cutting next week at 530 on the 28th after an Adam Frankel-style CRA meeting. I wanted to name drop. Mayor Carney, Vice Mayor Casale, and Commissioner Mollica are all attending as well as City Manager Moore. I know that, Commissioner Markert, you're out of town. And Commissioner Burns, don't know. Oh, that's probably why you're not coming. Vice Mayor Burns, if I'd have done that right. Okay. I will be coming. Oh, good. I'm glad. Former Mayor Jay Alperin is going to be there. The Cultural Council for Palm Beach's Dave Lawrence plans to attend, as does Palm Beach County Commissioner Bobby Powell, Jr. from District 7. Palm Beach County's Vice Mayor Marcy Woodward from District 4 will read a proclamation celebrating Arts Garage's anniversary. We are leaving for staff volunteers. You've got to bring cue cards for us. We've got to work for the applause. But I'm happy to hear, because former Mayor Alperin, you know, was also with me. I know, on the original board. But we were then called the Creative City Collaborative. Well, that's still our business name. Oh, is it? Okay. Yeah. Arts Garage is our DBA. I'll catch you. Okay. Okay, good. I'm looking forward to seeing you. Thank you so much. You were just waiting for an individual invitation, obviously. No, I've been promoting this thing up around the community for the last two weeks. I don't know why she left me out, but it's all weird. I'll be there anyway. No, I've got to write it in my list. Sir. All right. Reggie Cox, 715 MLK Drive. Zip code. Zip code. Zip code. 33444. And I'm representing the Set Neighborhood Alliance tonight, which is a group, Mayor, as far as time is concerned. Thank you. So, I am here tonight in support of, obviously, agenda item 7G, the Set Transformation Plan, adoption to the amendments to the Set Transformation Plan. And I just want to, I do have something to read from a president of the Carver Park Neighborhood Association, Janice Hill. She couldn't make it. She's taking care of her elderly mom. And so, I'm going to read what she sent because she wanted to attend. You know, this document that I'm holding up here is the 2014-2017 WART Strategic Plan. It was written in 2013. And it is, you can put a point right there in time because what it did was confirm the 20 prior years of what this community, the community's visions in the West Atlantic community, not known as the Set. It reconfirmed all the past plans in 2012. Now, here's 16 years later, we're still on that track for that vision, okay, of having a neighborhood and community comparable with all other neighborhoods in Delray Beach. For example, the cultural plan, the Delray Beach Cultural Plan. I'm sure some of you are familiar with the Delray Beach Cultural Plan. Well, that plan is what was put in place to obtain what we see in Pineapple Grove today, okay? So, we know that plans work in Delray. We know that's the process, okay? It's a means set in. It's a process that we have. It worked for Pineapple Grove. Pineapple Grove was completely built out. Some people would argue overbuilt. But they had a plan to do that. And so, we're very encouraged to do that. Now, I'm hoping that that plan passes and gets approved tonight. But, you know, in the game of golf, I tell my colleagues, you got to play 18 holes. You know, if you're up after nine holes, that doesn't mean a thing. You understand what I'm saying? You got to play 18 holes. And, you know, in the game of golf, you know, we often say those holes ain't loyal, okay? So, we're hoping that, we're hoping for success. Yes, but we're not counting, and we're not going to count our blessings until it happens. Now, once that plan is hopefully approved, it has to be promoted. You know, that's part of the Main Street program. You're all familiar with Main Street. Promotions is very important. As we know, Pineapple Grove was built on Main Street. So, we want that plan to be promoted. And I want to just pass out those years. Thank you. That's just a little encouragement. It's going to take everybody to, not only if the plan passes, but it has to be implemented, okay? And financed and supported through all the collaborative partnerships. So, at this time, I'm going to read the statement prepared by Janice Hill. She is, like I said, the block captain of the Carver Park Association. The president, I'm sorry. Thoughtful of her. Her mother was a teacher to a lot of us in the community. She was a teacher to my mother, actually. And so, we just have a lot of ties in Delray Beach. All right. Here we go. Written by Janice Hill. I'm not able to join this afternoon. However, this is my speech. Good evening, Mayor and Commissioner. I'm here today as both a resident and a witness to the town's history. This community once deliberately divided black and white residents, separated by Swinton Avenue, as we know the history. Yet, despite that division, Atlantic Avenue served as a shared lifeline of commerce, culture, and identity for both sides of town. Today, we are at the crossroads. While the East Business District has been preserved and supported, the historic West District of Swinton area, rich in culture, resilience, and economic potential, has not been given the same opportunity to grow. The excuses not to extend the business district into this area continues a pattern that feels all too familiar. At the same time, new residents are arriving and raising concerns about the very culture that has sustained this community for generations. It's music. It's gatherings. In fact, it's vibrancy. These are not disturbances. They are the story of a resilient community. We are Delray Beach West as well as East. Growth should not come at the cost of erasure or displacement. I'm asking this council, I'll change it to commission, to take a meaningful step toward equity by extending the business district into the historic African American community. This is not just about economics. It's about acknowledging history, investing fairly, ensuring that longstanding residents are not pushed aside as the city continues to evolve. We have an opportunity to correct the past imbalances and build a future that reflects all of us. Thank you, Janice. I'm glad I'm able to share that for her historically. And like I said, we're looking to finish 18 holes tonight. Let's see if we can do it. Thank you. Thank you, Mr. Cox. To Mayor and Commissioners, I'm Olivier Verdier and I live in 33444. Can you hear me? So, I came two months ago to talk to you about Atha Yoga, which is located at 2219 Seacrest Boulevard. I'm here regarding the recurring ecstatic music events hosted by this nearby yoga retreat on the first Saturday of each month from 6 p.m. to 11 p.m. This is not a one-time issue. It's a repeated disturbance that has already required multiple police visits per evening. Despite those visits, the music continues at a level that is clearly disruptive inside our homes. We have tried everything. We spoke directly to the organizers. We contacted code enforcement. We called the police multiple times. I already came to this council two months ago. And after our last complaint during a city council on March 9th, the event was canceled for April. But now it is planned to start again this Saturday, May 2nd. The problem is not just the noise. It's the cycle. It stops temporarily and then it comes back. We're asking for a clear and enforceable solution, not another temporary fix. Specifically, we would like clarification on three points. First, are these events properly permitted? And if so, what are the conditions regarding amplified outdoor music? Second, what are the enforcement mechanisms when multiple police visits in one evening do not result in compliance? Third, what measures can the city take to prevent this from recurring every month in a residential neighborhood? We fully respect local businesses and community activities. But residents also have the right to quiet enjoyment of their homes, specifically in the evening hours. Right now, the burden is entirely on residents to repeatedly complain with no lasting resolution. We're asking the city to have the May 2nd even canceled and to step in with a consistent rule and consistent enforcement. So this issue does not continue indefinitely. Thank you for your time. Can you give me the address where you say it's supposed to be? 2-2-1-9 Secrest Avenue. 2-2-1-9? 2-2-1-9, yes. What's the name of the business? Atha Yoga. A-T-H-A Yoga. H-T-H-A Yoga? A-T-H-A. Atha. Yeah, okay, got it. Thank you. All right. Thank you very much, sir. Good evening, folks. Mark Bertolotti, 33445. I'm coming here tonight to speak about the Barwick Avenue repaving, sidewalk, drainage, that whole project. I'm in high point seven. I don't know if you use your role in tune with what we're facing there. The project, it looks great. It's coming along beautiful. I heard somebody talk before about the unevenness at the sides. I believe that's a binder coat that's down there now, so they'll come back and they'll recover the top of it. However, that's not really the issue that we're having. We're two senior communities directly across from each other. That come out onto Atlantic, I mean, come out onto Barwick Road. They made the lanes so small there. We got 400 plus units in one side. And what is six? 200, 300 units on the other side. That's a lot of traffic coming out of those two places. It's all day and night. You can't negotiate the turn out onto the lanes of traffic without either hitting your tires on the curb there or crossing over the double yellow line into the oncoming lane of traffic. It's setting up for an absolute disaster there. You have to physically go here and see what I'm talking about. Drive into our community. Try driving out again. Now envision old eyes coming out of there after dark and you know what's going to happen. You got 35 miles an hour coming one way, 35 miles an hour coming the other way. You do the math what happens when two cars hit like that. It's going to happen. It's happened last year. It just happened last week. This is a recipe for disaster. Somebody needs to look at this before it goes on any further. The reason I came here tonight is because not only am I interested in the people that I live with in my community, I'm watching out for myself, too. And if we ever have this conversation again, we're not going to have it. We're going to be all talking with my attorney because this is a disaster waiting to happen. You need to physically come out and look at this and put your car in the places that I'm talking about and then drive at it and you'll see what I'm talking about. I think you're going to completely understand once you go there and physically look at it. As far as the end with the mailboxes in the sidewalk, you've got to be kidding me. Like, you have to be kidding me. Is it, does it pass muster code-wise? I suppose if you want to call that. But who's signing off on that and you want somebody's name on that? The mailboxes are literally in the center of the sidewalk. It looks absolutely absurdly ridiculous. Come by and take a look at it and see what you think. That's all. What's the name of the road coming out from High Point down to Barrett? What's the name of your road? It is Northwest 3rd Street. Northwest 3rd. Thank you, sir. Okay, thank you. Jerome Weatherspoon, 33444. Long-time resident of Derry Beach. Res devoted a long time in Derry Beach. A taxpayer in Derry Beach for a very long time. I stand before you to the Honorable Mayor, Vice Mayor, all of the commissioners, and everyone that sits on the dais this evening. I come with a request from myself and on behalf of my family. I come to speak about a great man, a man who was not well-educated. But during this era, they had a term called mother wit and hard work, trusting in God and treating their fellow man as their brother. My father, he, L.C. Weatherspoon, he made a great contribution over the years, long when I was just, I guess you could say I was a gleam in my mother's eye and an itch in my daddy's pants. He contributed a lot. Too much information, Mr. Weatherspoon, but thank you. He did a lot of things such that the people on the dais at that time saw it fit that he be recognized for all his contributions to this city. As a result, they said to him, and this was passed on to me by my mother and my father, that they said that because of the contributions that he made in this city, they want something that his children and his children's children and others could see the great works and contributions that he made in this city. And so, at that time, they decided to name a street after him, Witherspoon Lane. Now, as I said, my father was not a learned man educationally, but he was a smart man, a businessman. And many times, myself and my brothers from grade school, even through high school, we was always called Witherspoon. And they say, well, how do you spell that? I say, just like the weather and spoon, not rocket science stuff. But anyway, my request and my family's request is that we would add on to Northwest 12th Avenue, where my parents reside, where they reared 12 head of kids there, and gave them the same morals and values there, to treat people like people there, and be honest and fair there. We request that, since it probably would be next to impossible, to correct the name Witherspoon because of all the factors involved in it. Continue, sir. Continue. Then we would ask that L.C. Witherspoon be added to 12th Avenue, just like Northwest 2nd Street is underneath the sign. And it had Martin Luther King, just like Elksway and the other ones, yes. All the other ones. And so it is our request, because of the contribution that he made in this town there, our siblings, second generations, they actually say, well, when we tell them the story of their grandfather, our father, of the contribution he made there, they say, well, why is his name not corrected? I say, well, that happened. But we want to give them something that they can pass on to their kids and their kids, as long as we are in this world. And with so many Witherspoon, they'll be here until the good Lord calls us home. And so it is our request, as I said, if you can find within your hearts there to pass this, that we would add in addition to 12th Avenue, because many of the families that reside on that street, it's been a legend on that street. He left a legacy, and we want that future generations, they could see the legacy which he left. Thank you very much for your time. Thank you very much, Mr. Witherspoon. Andrea Bruton, 33445. How do you come behind that right there? So true, so true. The history is rich with the Witherspoon family. I want to start off by thanking the city manager for your recent and prompt response and resolution to the invoice issue. Mr. Moore, thank you so much. Two, I'm curious as to why ribbon cuttings for community parks in other locations or other areas are being held during the week when most residents are working. Are these events for the residents or for the city staff and leadership? There's been two ribbon cutting ceremonies at a park across the street from my neighborhood, a new playground and a new storybook trail. And the residents nor the children of that community were able to attend because we were working and the children were in school. Growing up, these events were usually held on Saturday mornings in an effort to allow the public to attend. Our neighboring cities are accommodating their community by hosting events either on Saturday mornings or early evening. I'm asking that we kind of change that practice of doing weekly ribbon cuttings in the mornings so that the community can be involved as well. We opened a whole neighborhood on Southwest 8th Avenue, and half of the residents that lived there, that bought those homes, weren't able to attend that event because it was held during the week. And lastly, but not least, I also had a statement to read similar to Johnny's Hills, but instead I'll yield to her statement and drop the mic on what she said. Thank you. Thank you very much. Montre Bennett, 3-3-4-4-4, a prophecy of how long, and somebody shot about not long. So I want to know how long. I'm going to read a verse, and then I'm going to go home about my business. If it may be said of slavery era that the white man took the world and gave the Negro Jesus, then it may be said of the Reconstruction era that the Southern aristocracy took the world and gave the poor white man Jim Crow. Yes, sir. He gave him Jim Crow. Mm-hmm. And when his wrinkles started crying out for the food that his empty pockets could not provide, yes, sir, he ate Jim Crow. A psychological bird that told him that no matter how bad off he was, at least he was a white man better than a black man. Right, sir? And he ate Jim Crow. Mm-hmm. And when his undernourished children cried out for the necessities that his low wages could not provide, he showed them the Jim Crow signs on the buses and in the stores and on the streets and in the public buildings. Yes, sir, and his children, too. Learn to feed upon Jim Crow. Speak their last outposts of psychological oblivion. Jim Crow is still alive today. And y'all have the power in y'all hands. Y'all have the power in y'all minds. Y'all have the power in y'all hearts to do the right thing. All right? Don't nobody want to be a slave? Don't nobody want to be head on mental through their slavery, through these emotional challenges, through these emotional chaos outbursts that the world makes us have. We don't want that, okay? We want to be civilized, and we want to continue to be the loving people that we've always been. We gave y'all the history. We gave y'all the maps, the blueprint. Y'all used to say you put it against us. Now it's time for y'all to correct y'all rights and fix y'all wrongs. Do what's right by the people. Thank you. Thank you very much. Mayor, Commissioners, Vice Mayor, Yvonne Odom. This is a proud moment for me because I like to really highlight the power of community. With this set transformation plan on the agenda, I was privileged enough to be on the comprehensive plan when that plan almost, almost got buried. But the resilience of the community say, no, no, no, no. And thank God, I was at that meeting and was able to, and I'm not going to take credit for it, but I witnessed what was almost happened to that plan. The other thing I looked at, every time I go by Atlantic High School and look at that golf course and see how gorgeous that is. Who did that? The citizens. They said, no, we're not going to have a hotel in front of a high school. And former Mayor Jay Alper was one of the lead people, George Williams, those who are golfers. I'm not a golfer, not even interested. But I am so proud. Again, citizens said, no, you're not going to do that. You're going to do what I say. Now, Pompey Park, another one, West Atlantic Development, the set transformation plan. The citizens said, you're going to include us, and I appreciate you listening, because we have to be reminded that you guys work for us, the ones who voted for you and the ones who did not vote for you, the ones who gave you money and the ones who didn't. And sometimes we forget that. Now, I'm still upset about two things that happened in this city that we did not listen to the citizens. I don't need the name. No, I'm going to name the independent CRA board. I was at the right sitting over there when the motion was made. No input from the citizens. And Old School Square. I was in here when that motion was made. No citizen input. But I want to applaud the citizens of Delray to understand. You have to take charge of what you want. These five people. Now, remember, don't take but three of them. Three can determine what they want without listening to you. But in this case, listen to the citizens. That's why we are here, and I encourage you, voice your opinion. And no, we're not going to always agree. But don't take your ball and go home. I understand that when you are elected, it's a purpose behind that seat. And that is to listen to the voters, the ones who voted for you, and the ones who didn't. Thank you very much. Thank you very much. So pass the set transformation, please. Sorry, your time has expired. I know you have my number. I know you have my number. Good evening, Mayor and Commission. I'm Angela 33444. They say persistence beats resistance eventually. So I'm simply being persistent this evening. I'm going to read to you all for a third time what I have written and emailed to you previously. I am here as a long-time resident of the city who cares deeply about the fairness and honesty in how our city grows. Long before any of us purchased homes and opened businesses here, lines were drawn in Delray Beach. Swinton Avenue was a boundary. Policies like Resolution 146, Ordinance 209 determined where black residents could live, gather, and socialize. The West Side became the place where the culture and nightlife were allowed because people had no other choice. Today, those laws no longer be enforced while one is still on the books, but their footprint remains. The entertainment district begins right where that old dividing line once stood, just east of Swinton. Now, new residents have moved west into an area that has always carried music, gathering, culture activities, yet the response has been complaints after complaints about noise, as though the activities arrived after them, when the truth is they arrived after the activity. Downtown from I-95 to A-1A is called one district, but it is not treated the same. On the east side, entertainment is expected. On the west side, it is restricted, even though history placed it there first. Extending the entertainment district west of Swinton also creates opportunities. For years, four empty blocks along West Atlantic have remained empty. Many believe waiting us out. But finally, there is hope of development that will actually serve the neighborhood, a long-awaited grocery store, retail, restaurant, gathering spaces, and locally supported businesses and housing instead of the vacant land and empty spots. So we pray. A community should not have to silence themselves because the population around them changed. When people choose where they live, they should accept the character of the place in which they chose. The west side has always been a cultural corridor. It should not be limited because it has become desirable to some. Extending the entertainment district west of Swinton is about consistency. It recognizes history. It supports the present residents and allows long-needed development to take root. I respectfully ask you to extend the district and be respectful of those that have been here and grown that soil. Thank you very much. You're welcome. My name is Chuck Ridley. I am 33444. I am here to speak in support of the SET Transformation Plan. The SET Transformation Plan, it's more than a plan. It's a promise. A promise that this neighborhood could develop without displacing legacy residents. It's a well-thought-through plan. A plan that had multiple stakeholders involved. Community residents, elected officials, city staff. Here's what's different about that plan. It goes back to 1995 and rolled up into 2017 every plan that expressed how we want to see this neighborhood develop. You have no plan that is more thorough than the one that you have before you tonight. And what will this plan do for the entire city of Delray? It will ensure that you will have a city that working-class families not only remain but thrive. It will ensure that you have an Atlantic Avenue that truly is representative of who this community is. It is the future that you have expressed, all written out and laid before you. You have the easiest part of the work because the citizens themselves have done this in a transparent way for decades. So where are we now? It's in your hands. We will get a chance to see you. But regardless of your decision, we know there is an on-time God. Yes, it is. Thank you. Good evening, everyone. Laura Simon with the Downtown Development Authority. And I'm here with you. Jewel Goliardi Zelman from Zelman Style Interiors and from the DDA Board. So thank you for tonight, and thank you to all the residents that are here. On behalf of the DDA Board, we're here to support many of the items that are on the agenda. One I'll lead with, which is why all the great speakers that were here before us, the residents. But 7G is transformational in our district, in our downtown. And we've been, as an organization, I've personally been a part of this plan and help supporting the SET development and the branding. And the DDA has been a huge part of that all along the way. And it is a very, very integral part of our entire district. And we want to make sure that our board has reviewed it. They've weighed in. They're very supportive of it. And we want to make this happen. So we encourage you all to move forward in approving that tonight. And we're going to be here. I'm going to be here because we have several other items on the agenda. The beautification task force I sent out to you earlier, I think later last week, our board reviewed that last week at our board meeting, sent recommendations to you all based on the beautification task force and the feedback from the board directly of how to move forward with that. So I'm here tonight. I don't want to talk about, I don't need to go through all those now, but I'll be here if there's conversation that needs to be happening during that time. And also parking. So downtown parking in October, the employee parking was put in place as well as many changes to the downtown. I've also provided you all with feedback. We did surveys of over 600 people, residents, and also visitors to our community and employees and business owners gave, took time to fill out that survey and provide their feedback. And you should have summaries of that along with recommendations and recommendations that were given by our board back in August before the plan went into play. But also just based on the feedback that was received, we've also given recommendations that we hope that you take into consideration. It was our understanding that that was all going to be reviewed today, but it looks like you're reviewing the employee parking program, which you are hearing that that is beneficial. It's just needs to be better communicated what we're hearing from the merchants, the communication to the operation, because a lot of people are still getting tickets on that, the functionality of it. And also I did in our email was reflective of the Pineapple Grove District and the private lots also that are impeding and taking over, and we really need to find some solutions around that sooner than later. So, Jules, you want to take the time because I'm out. So if you want to take for your seconds. Oh. Did you add anything? Anyway, I'm happy that it's on the agenda to discuss. And like Laura said, we're here if there's any contribution that we can make in helping the decisions become a collaborative one. That's all. Thank you very much for your time. Thank you. Public comment is actually closed because we've had one hour. Now, do you have something you would like to say, sir? And I will give you, and you are the last. I'll make it quick. Good. I like that. Quick. Yes. Thank you very much, Mr. Burns. Please. Alexius Burns. Two, no, three, three, four, four, five. Mr. Mayor, Commissioners, City Manager, Attorney Jelen. Good evening. I am the son of Robert Burns, King of Zamunda. And, no, I'm just kidding. Three things. Four things I got real quick. Four things. The Entertainment District. One Delray. This is 2026, y'all, right? 2026. We know we have some evil-spirited folks that were in Delray, right? But we're in 2026 now. I'm not going to tell you who I think is still kind of evil, but it's okay, right? We're in 2026. Let's get that done, right? Entertainment District, one Delray, one downtown. 95 all the way to the beach. Two, set transformation plan for, I want to say, since 2016. I know I've been involved since 2009. We've been having meetings, community meetings after meetings after meetings, so many meetings did I say meetings. I'm also on the board of the steering committee for the visions plan. Great meeting. It was, what, 90-plus people there? Nothing compared to the set meetings. They had 200-plus. It's written. It's documented. So if that was a great meeting, then we have fabulous meetings, right? Because the city is involved. The citizens are involved. And I'm still kind of teetering on if you all think that we're citizens and not here in the set. Because you definitely take the tax dollars, but I don't know if you consider us citizens. Being that once you get off 95, there's a clear, distinct difference in the two, right? Thirdly, I have been asking, I don't know for how many times, of a dollar amount. And since we are definitely concerned about taxpayers' dollars, right, I don't understand then why I can't get what the taxpayer dollars were that came out of this community since 1995. Because it has been used to uplift and bring up other parts of the city. Not this part of the city. And we can see that with our eyes. So I would please like to get a definite amount, how much of the taxpayer's dollars have been spent and or wasted. Because we seem to do at least, what, 2.3 million of research that we can say that has been missing. How come we can't figure that out for this side, right? And then lastly, I've been trying to get meetings after meetings with some of you all. I'm going to continue. I could say that we're not going to go anywhere we're here. But I'm going to say we ain't going nowhere. We are here, right? This is third generations now and even more. We are here to stay. We're going to be working. It's smart to work together. Let's just get it done. This is your time now to shine, right? This is your legacy. How is it going to look? How are you going to end it? Thank you. Thank you very much. Public comment is closed because we extended it beyond one hour, which is what it is, which is why it closed, by the way. But fortunately, time for everyone. We are now, I need a motion to approve the consent agenda. Motion to approve. Second. All in favor? Aye. All opposed? Consent agenda is approved. Going on to regular agenda item 7A, which is the resolution 77-26. A resolution of the City Commission of the City of Delray Beach, Florida, amending its budget for the fiscal year beginning October 1, 2025, by providing for supplemental appropriations in the amounts identified in Exhibit A, repealing all resolutions and consistent herewith, providing an effective date and further purposes. Thank you very much. Mr. Dachowitz. Good evening again. We have a number of budget transfers to discuss here. I'd rather go through them sequentially. There's one item in Exhibit A, Budget Amendment No. 8, Summary Resolution No. 77-26. We are looking to move $2,262,764.94 in the general fund and moving it to the Water and Sewer Fund 441, revenue increase and expense increase related to emergency work performed for utilities. And Mr. Hassan Ajini is here. Good evening. This is to address the emergency situation that we experienced January of last year as a result of the activities of the roadway contractor. The name is roadway contractor, LLC, that they stockpiled their material there. And as a result, the underground infrastructure was impacted, which forced us to immediately bring our emergency contractor there because of the amount of the raw sewage that was going to be released into the water body is right next to the lake. And that special lift station handed in over 1,300 homes raw sewage. So it was extremely dangerous, so we had to act, and there we are. And as a result, we can elaborate later, but right now risk management is working actively to hopefully recoup that cost from the contractor or order insurance for the money that is being transferred from general fund to utilities. But the reason is not from utilities fund because it was in no way, you know, because of the lack of, let's say, attention of water work that utilities did. Our underground infrastructure was just simply there, and it was directly impacted by their activities. So do you want to, should we recognize you? Thank you, Mr. Hajimari. I did a records request, and I went through 3,388 emails on the subject. And I just want to thank you because it's evident in your correspondence that you are very much looking out for the taxpayers. And every time you're here, I thank you, and I just want to make sure the public knows that you are doing that. And I know this was an accident, no fault of the cities at all. I'm not happy with the fact that it took a year and something for the city to act on this in light of the correspondence. But I am always proud that you run the utilities department because you do an amazing job for our residents. Anyone else wish to be recognized? No. No questions. Thank you, Mr. Hajimari. Thank you, sir. We appreciate, really, the hard work that went into it. They don't undersell it because they do their job. Second item is from Neighborhood Services Department, Division, requesting authorization to transfer funds between the Designated State Housing Initiatives Partnership, SHIP, General Ledger Accounts. This transfer is required to address a material observation identified during the recent SHIP monitoring review involving funds expended on a household later determined to be income ineligible. Reallocation is necessary to ensure full compliance with the corrective action requirements issued as a part of the monitoring process. The details of the proposed general ledger account transfers, so there is an increase in revenue in the other miscellaneous revenue promissory note repayment SHIP home pay account, and there will be an increase of expense in the other current charges, housing rehabilitation. Reallocation. Great. Does anybody wish to be recognized? No? Yeah. Thank you very much. And we need a motion to approve. Wait, wait, wait. Oh, I'm sorry. There's more. There's more. There's, like, it's a Ginzu knife commercial. Wait, there's more? Wait, there's more. Oh, it's the $8 million you got, too. Yeah, it's a biggie. We have, with the CIP, I think it's the rollovers and then the CIP. Yeah, it's the rollover money. I'm looking at Parks and Recreation. They wanted to request the following budget amendment for considerations. Funds were received in fiscal year 2025 in the amount of $500,000 for the renovation of the splash pad at Catherine Strong Park. The project was not able to be started in that year. We are requesting the funds again to move forward with this from the Geobond Fund. Funds were received in fiscal year 2026 in the amount of $200,000 for the re-sodd of Merritt Park. This field will be artificially turfed instead. We are requesting the funds to be reassigned to sodd Plumosa Park, the funding account. So this is the request for transfers via the Parks and Recreation Department. Questions on this? No, thank you. They're still going to be doing the artificial turf on Merritt, though, right? Is that what we're saying? That is correct. Okay, that's been in the works for a while. I just want to make sure. Okay. Last piece is Public Works. I think it's last piece. Public Works is submitting the following budget amendment for consideration. Golf Course Renovation Revenue Bond Fund, New Appropriation, to amend the fiscal year 2026-2030 Capital Improvement Plan budget by increasing the current budget of $24.5 million to $32.5 million for the Delray Beach Municipal Golf Course Renovation Project. On October 21st, 2025, via Resolution No. 25725, public revenue bonds in a principal amount not to exceed $33 million were approved for this project. This request brings the remaining available bond balance of $8 million into the CIP budget to complete this project. The budget was put in one fund, and then when we borrowed the money, we put the money in another fund. This just reconciles so that all the money is available in the budget for the expenditure of these funds. Right. Okay. Any questions? No. No questions. Let me just make sure there's nothing else. You have to go. I think that's it. Okay. Okay. Then I need a motion to approve Resolution No. 77-26. So moved. Second. All in favor? Aye. Any opposed? It is adopted unanimously. Thank you very much, both of you. Thank you. Item 7B. It's not really a resolution. This is a discussion item. It's a presentation and discussion item. Yes, sir. We're not up to the pilot program yet. We have a clue. Thank you. We're not. Ms. Barletto. C. Good evening, Mayor and Commissioners. Missy Barletto, Director of Public Works. I have brought to the commission meeting this evening my parking team so that you can see the faces behind the hard work that gets done for parking in the city every day. Yep. I have Assistant Public Works Director Cynthia Buisson and Deputy Public Works Director Michael Corrali. And he has the longest title ever. And you know how I feel about these things. Chief Parking Facilities Administrator Joe Josman. Now we're ready for that slide, by the way. Oh. So you're just trying to throw me off my game. Yeah. I'm just, yeah. And you did it. Yeah. If I could have the presentation back. Thank you. Okay. So tonight we're going to talk about the pilot employee parking permit. Just a little bit of the history. The parking and curbside management plan implementation was initially brought to commission for input in July of 2025, we received input from the commission. We brought the items back for adoption in August of 2025 when they were formally adopted. The changes that were approved at that time included on-street meter times beginning at 11 a.m. rather than noon to accommodate lunch crowds who come, get to downtown 11.30 before noon and go into a restaurant and forget to pay. So that was one, the tier, the tier two parking, the downtown side streets was increased from $2 to $3 an hour. The downtown surface lots that had formerly been free but time limited. Became $2 an hour with uniform four-hour time limits to simplify the program instead of, you know, a nine-hour limit in one lot and a four-hour limit in another lot and a two-hour limit in another lot. All of the surface lots became four-hour limits. And then the parking garage rate structure changed from $1.50 an hour and opened 24 hours from free until 4 p.m. in the afternoon and then a $5 flat rate after that with no overnight parking. So people had to clear out of the garage at a certain time every night. So one of the things that you had asked us, we brought you a couple of different alternatives for employee parking, one of them being the one that you favored, which was to create an employee parking permit that cost $10 a month and was available on a recurring basis for any type of downtown employee in the system, those permits, the registrations, the renewals, and payment processing. All of that is available in three different ways, either through the online permit portal from the city's website. They can call into the city's parking division and get phone assistance or they can go to the city's parking division office on the first floor of the Old School Square parking garage downtown and get in-person assistance. And if they want to pay cash, they kind of need to come to the window. So one of the first things that we were asked to create during the pilot program was that there were a number of businesses who were interested in creating an auto renewal program, that they were actually putting all of their employee information into the system. They regulated that employee information. They removed employees that left their service, added new employees in, and they paid for those permit fees automatically in the system. That has proven to be very popular and a good addition to the program. To date, we have 25 different employers who participate in that in the downtown area, and they represent about 373 employees. So we always want to know about the numbers of permits and how popular something is. There are two different ways that employees can park in the downtown area. One of them is to buy the employee parking permit at $10 a month, and the other one is if they're a city of Delray Beach resident, they can buy the $12 downtown resident permit that is $12 annually, not $12 a month, but $12 annually, and they have all of the same ability to park. Those permits are good anywhere except for Atlantic Avenue, the same as the employee parking permit. The only difference between the two is that the employee parking permit, all of the time limits are waived. So if you park in a time-limited space, you don't have to go out after four hours and move your car to a different space in order to avoid getting a ticket for those employees where that would be inconvenient or disruptive to the business. So the employee parking permit has no time limits. The $12 downtown resident permit does still have time limits. So for those employees who live in Delray Beach and can take 15 minutes to go move their car during the day, then that's been very beneficial to them. As you can see in the two tables, in October the first month was a trial period for the employee parking permit. We didn't give any tickets. We gave some warnings. We didn't enforce during that entire first month because we had a very short period of time between when the commission adopted the new program and when it was set to begin. So we initially issued between the pre-permit era and the very first month, we additionally issued about 5,000 permits. As November and December happened, we evened out to about 3,000, between 2,700 and 3,000 permits each of those months. And as you can see, the $12 downtown resident permit stayed low. As the employees caught on to the downtown resident permit and that it's only $12 a year and it's not dependent on your employment but on your residents, more and more of those permits were purchased. So across the year, in the last year, the sale of $12 downtown resident permits has risen from about $600 to over $2,000. So if you look at that and add that to the February number of 1406 and the employee permit, it still comes out to between $2,700 and $3,000. So we don't have evidence that that's exactly what happened, but that trend is making sense to us. In March of 2026, there was a lot of disinformation that was floating around by word of mouth and a lot of people did not sign back up for the employee permit because they thought the program was ending on April 1st. So they didn't sign back up. We did get a number of businesses and employees who reached out to us and were very disappointed that the program was ending and wanted to know if we were going to be continuing it. So the comparison to other cities, there's been a lot of talk about, you know, is an employee parking program a requirement for a city? Many of our neighboring cities do have employee parking programs. Boca Raton and Boynton Beach, neither one of them do have a parking program for employees that is specific. So whatever the parking rates are, they pay the full parking rates. But Delray Beach is the least expensive by far. It's only $10 a month. The next closest is $25 a month. And that, it's very, it's limited to certain zones. So certain zones that are a little bit farther away, they pay $25 a month. And if they want to park right on the street near where their employment is, it's actually, it's $861 for a 120-day permit to do that. That's in Key West. So that's different. So that is the program in a nutshell. We have gotten quite a bit of feedback, feedback that city staff has received, and they're here if you want to ask them any questions directly. But feedback that city staff has received is that they would like to see the program continued. As Laura mentioned, when she gave her talking points before the commission meeting, during public comment, the Downtown Development Authority did do a survey in which they targeted those people who have a direct stake in the program, the business owners and employees. And of the responses that they received, 81% of them actually have applied for the permit. So it's a good sampling. About 64% of that group say that the price is fair. The other 34% really just wants to not have to pay anything to park. And they've made that clear. So some of the, even in the analysis of the surveys that was provided to us by the Downtown Development Authority, they made it clear that there's still a significant number of employees, 35% in that neighborhood, that would like to still continue to get free parking downtown. But also 65% of them would like to see the program continued. As Laura mentioned before, the DDA did make a number of recommendations. They would like to see the commission vote to make employee parking free before 4 p.m. to reduce or eliminate the fee for part-time employees who felt that $10 a month was cumbersome for them to be able to afford. They would like to expand the program to east of the Intracoastal Waterway. When we brought this to you in August, we did actually discuss opening up the Orange Grove lot and the Sandaway lot east of the Intracoastal for employee parking and not close those two parking lots off at night. Those lots are metered and monitored so that it is possible that we could open those lots for employees. But we, as a city, we have not received any input from employees in that area saying that they're having a problem with parking. And then they also suggested that maybe we could provide an annual permit option as well. Initially, we had kind of brought that option to commission, but you had expressed a concern about people who would, especially in the hospitality industry, who would get an annual permit to park and then quit their job and still be able to park downtown, taking up valuable parking for customers. So, this evening, we're seeking commission direction on the future of the employee parking permit. If you vote in favor of it, we will continue it on and make it a permanent program. If you are not in favor of it, then as of next month, employees will be paying regular parking fees. Thank you very much. I think the study was very good. I actually was at the DDA meeting when they presented the full report. It was very interesting to see that the vast majority of the employees thought it was a good program. I understand there's always going to be a percentage of people that want something for nothing. I'm one of them, by the way. So, I'll just let you know. But overall, when you compare the prices that Del Rey's charging at $10 a month and you compare it anywhere else, it is, I mean, we're, it is a huge, it's a very generous parking allowance, essentially, that we're providing the employees here to park in our lots, which we are required as a city to maintain. So, I am, you know, I'm certainly in favor of continuing the program. I'm not, I mean, I, look, I see we want to have, you know, try to make it free parking before four, but we're talking $10 a month. I mean, it's not, I mean, it's not a heavy lift. So, I mean, I just, I mean, I think we should be trying to maximize as generously as we can our city assets because we need the money and we're just, compared to everyone else, we're cheap. But that's just my view. So, who would like, Mr. Markman, anyone want to go forward? Do you want to just make a motion, move, keep me going, or what? No, I'd love to speak about it. Could you go back to the number of, because at one month, there was like 5,000 employee permits? That was actually the pre-permit number and that first month. That was a combined number. So, that's a lot of employees parking downtown, and as you said, taking up, you know, spaces. I mean, I would definitely want this program to go forward until we have an alternative, but I think we need an alternative, ultimately. So, that's what I have to say. Yes, Mr. Markman. I just have a quick question. One of your bullet points, you talked about reducing the cost for part-time employees. How would the logistics of that work? I can't get my head around it. Yeah. I'm not certain what we would reduce it to. That would be a commission decision, but I assume that when they bring in a pay stub to show that they are only part-time, then, you know, we require employer verification of employment. Okay. So, the employer also could verify that they were a part-time employee. Okay. Thank you. Commissioner Burns? Yeah. I think that it's been received favorably. So, are we just deciding on the employee parking? Because some of the recommendations seems it was recommending overall. So, they do have some overall. I, this program has really only been in effect for about five months. Right. It's very, very difficult to analyze the effectiveness of a program in such a short period of time. It, their, their survey that they, their survey that they did on the overall parking program that reached about 500 residents that, that expressed dissatisfaction with paying for parking was, was not surprising to us. Of course not. Nobody likes to pay for parking. So, so, so, there is that. Yeah. If we're talking about just the employee parking, $10 program, I'm, I'm in favor of continuing it. And just a suggestion, if you, if we want to consider a part-time, $5, half of it. So, that's my, that's my take. Commissioner Gasol, we should be recognized. Yes, thank you. Um, well, the option being continue it or don't continue it. We have to continue it because I think it's, it's, uh, otherwise people will be paying full price for parking and that's certainly, and, you know, when it started, I didn't even, I wasn't really interested in doing this. I do concern myself with, um, you know, the jobs downtown are service jobs. These people aren't making a lot of money and $10 a month can be substantial. Um, and, and there's another concern too. And, you know, listen, it's hard to change and I know that. And I know you're tasked with getting us revenues. But, um, what? Okay, I'm just saying $10 a month is like $33. If you're bussing tables and you're trying to have an apartment and you're feeding yourself, it's a lot of money. I'm, I'm telling you. I mean, look at your grocery bill. Look at people's rent. Everything is high. It's, it's a lot of money. Yeah, I will say that there, there is a number of the businesses that have signed up for the auto renewal program That's what I was going to ask you. that are paying the fee for their employees. And they're able to auto renew so it's not as, uh, inconvenient. But, you know, I do think that, um, when I went and talked to some of the downtown businesses, they're experiencing losses and they feel it's directly correlating to this parking. And so the question is, because the daytime maybe is, um, less busy in some instances than the nighttime, perhaps we do think about should we give more daytime and kick up the price at night? Listen, we went to that event when Lefkies opened. I couldn't find parking anywhere. I ended up paying $22 an hour to park. And I did it. I was going out to dinner. And, you know, I'm not saying it's, I wasn't smart. I wasn't happy. But I did it. When you're going out to dinner downtown, the expectation is you're spending a fair amount of money. But how do we help our downtown businesses during the daytime when they're quieter at lunchtime? Really, like, why can't we find a happy medium to still bring in the revenues but help the downtown? And truthfully, I just want to say this to my colleagues, and I know everybody gets frustrated, and I'm going to discuss it in depth at the end of the meeting. But in preparation for this meeting and also in preparation for our budget, I started going through a lot of stuff. And, you know, I'll be honest with you. We're out here shaking down these kids for $10 a month and trying to get an extra $1.50 here from some elderly person who parks in the garage to go downtown. This city, under this management, has lost millions and millions of dollars. And at the end of the meeting, I'm going to lay it all out for you. Not recovered, not collected money that taxpayers deserve and they don't have. And so I feel very uncomfortable going out for these type of revenues when the big revenues we're not getting. And that's not because of your department at all. I put that squarely on management in the city and our oversight. Thank you. All right. So it sounds like we have a consensus to continue this program. And, you know, we're going to look at it. I mean, I guess in six months now we can look at it. You think we need a full year to truly evaluate it. In the best possible case, yes, a full year to evaluate it. If you are interested in seeing, I have some preliminary numbers, but just a quick overview of exactly maybe the difference in the old school square garage. There's been a lot of discussion that this program has minimized the amount of parking downtown. That's not exactly accurate. For the most part, it's breaking even from this year to last year. So, I mean, if you'd like to see some of those numbers, I can run through them very, very fast for you. I would be curious if I may to know, so I worried when you implemented the employee parking program, if I could go park in the garage for free, then I'm not taking a prime spot on one of the side streets. And then, and now you're, so you're getting 150 an hour, but you're giving up a spot that could be generating more. And I was curious how that all played out. Do you have that information? I don't have that information for you today. Okay. That is something that we also had noted and we're thinking about. And we're going to look into that. I also wanted to be able to bring you more information about how much parking there is at peak hours. Right. Which I don't have that information for you right now today. Because I know that there's still discussion about looking at adding additional parking areas downtown. Right now, our highest utilization number is only 50%. So that doesn't warrant the addition of more parking in the downtown area, maybe in the Pineapple Grove area. I think that there is some pretty serious parking constraints there. Right. And in the CIP program, I know I saw Renee come in. She's behind you. Yeah. So Renee and I have a proposed project that we're planning to bring to you in the CIP process for that. Thank you very much. I have a question. Would you read it? Yeah. So at what point do we address the other issues of metering the lots? So right now, we're discussing just the employee program, and we're talking about extending that, correct? Yes, ma'am. We're talking about making the pilot program a permanent program. A permanent program. Okay. Okay. Do we want to just make it permanent, or do we want to just extend it for another six months so we can evaluate it? I think we extend it and evaluate it. What did you say? Extend and evaluate. Yeah, I think extend it for a period of time. Yeah, I think, you know. I don't want to scare the employees. I mean, what is the feeling when it gets towards the end? When it gets towards the end, as you can see from the numbers up there, they get frightened that they're going to have to pay. So extend it for a year, maybe? Yeah, I would hate for them to have to pay more, so extend it for another six months. Even a permanent program is subject to your vote to cancel it at any time. Right. I also like letting a little seasonality come into this, too. We're going to a slower season. Let's see what the data looks like. Thank you. I agree with that. So, I need a motion. I move to... Can I just make a point? Sorry, yes, go ahead. Sorry, I was just going to suggest maybe the motion could be to extend it permanently, but with staff coming back with either quarterly or updates every six months. Six months. Biannually, every six months would be the recommendation. And then at that point, you can decide if you're going to stop the program or if you want to... Modify. I think six months is hard because of what Commissioner Malika just indicated that you can see with the numbers in there on March 2026, you know, there were only 600 because of some misinformation that came out. And if we have consensus on City Attorney said, can I get a motion? Someone else say it. You can just say so. So moved. So moved. That I have. Second. Well said. All in favor? Aye. Any opposed? That's unanimously. I just want to say I made these guys put on suits tonight and I feel like you should at least recognize them. You look very nice. Thank you for coming. They were so talkative. I mean, I couldn't get a word in edgewise. You guys are very nice. You look nice. You look nice. I'm sorry. You should recognize them. So, Missy, I was wondering if it's possible at some point to get the income from the parking that we started because I know Ms. Casale when this was agreed upon talked about a possible summer parking program that would lift some of these fees so I'd be interested to know what income we'd be giving up if that happened. But that's not for this vote. That's fine. Thank you. And gentlemen, you look pretty good. Could I raise my hand and be recognized? Anyone should be recognized? Thank you, sir. Thank you for raising your hand. Can we get a date certain on our next conversation on the data and the parking lots and all that, please? Just so we know, so people know because we'll be, you know, I think we do need to continue to have this discussion and I think it's a step. I will bring it back to you at the second meeting in September. That's six months. No, no, I don't mean this. I mean the other aspects of the parking you're talking about. That's what I'm talking about. Oh, no, that's too long, though. Don't we need to talk about the other lots that you may want to make employee lots and, I mean, should we just, should we continue, we should continue this conversation? To expand the employee lots onto the barrier island? Possibly. If we want to. We can do that at any time. If we're going to look into, you're going to get the additional data we may look at is making it a four o'clock start with higher rates, better. These kind of things are what, when we have the data, then we can have the discussion, right? But when are we going to have that data? Mr. Mayor, if I may? It would be preferable for the program to at least be in effect for a year so that we can see the effects of the season, the slow season, to really get a full amount of input before we bring it back for that kind of a substantial discussion. I appreciate that and I understand you're right because you would want to compare an entire year to an entire year. Yes. But as we're sitting here, if we know that some of our downtown businesses are experiencing a reduction in the number of visitors, then I feel like we need to figure out how to talk about that before a year because they're going to go through the slow summer and then where they're going to be experiencing even less foot traffic. Now, parking is easier at that time and I agree with that but there's still... So you're asking for a date before September? I think it's three different things that we're looking at, right? We're looking at surface lots that used to be free are now metered. The garage that used to be free is now people are paying and the employee parking. We've got the employee parking under control but I think there's still additional conversation to be had on the other two aspects. Right. So some of the difficulty with bringing you the granularity of data that you're asking for on the surface lots are that they're monitored by a track pad as people pull in and out of the parking lots. We've already identified that that is insufficient at both the Gladiola lot and the railroad lot to give us the kind of data information that we need for that and we're going to be installing individual parking sensors in every parking space the same way that we have on street in all of the all of the other places for those parking lots that that don't have have a a single entrance and exit. So the railroad lot you can get in there a dozen different ways and it's the same with the Gladiola lot so it's it makes it difficult that's why I'm just asking for enough time to bring you accurate data but I can bring you some data sooner than that if that's what you would like. Mr. Mayor if I may be recognized please. so given that there's a revenue component associated with this of course and we are preparing for the fiscal year 2026-2027 proposed budget process I would like to work with all involved for a preliminary comprehensive parking analysis presentation for a workshop that will take place let's say in June so that we can do as much as we possibly can to outline any particular opportunities that may make sense with the provider so that we continue beyond that time frame so that we can have a sense of direction and guidance as a function of the upcoming proposed budget process as you all know the obligation is to make a balanced budget recommendation by July we have workshops scheduled for the month of May May 5th May 19th and this will connect in this regard sometime in June so that we can get to a place in which we can offer due consideration so that would be my recommendation I would like to proceed in that regard and again it's not the full scope of the presentation of the full scope of the analysis but a preliminary exercise leading up to that point thank you very much Mr. Moore excuse me mayor I'm sorry does he need consensus for that would you like a consensus I would appreciate it thank you I'll give you my consensus for that okay well yes within your purview authority so yes nevertheless it is an ultimate policy consideration therefore it's appropriate for commission to offer his feedback so thank you okay item 7 thank you Missy what are they 7 7 thank you proclamations and special recognition guidelines who's going to be giving this presentation so mayor I think this was deferred from our organizational meeting back in March yes and I think the consensus was that you were going to review the list of proclamations maybe remove things that you felt were like a one-off and didn't need to be repetitive these are the proclamations that we acknowledge every year the annual ones they're not the special ones that on occasion some commissioners will bring up and ask for special recognition so I think that's what we're tasked with today but we do need to approve it because it was deferred since March I always find it odd that we're doing proclamations for things which are national events so I mean I certainly agree with the basic format of what should get a proclamation what should get a special recognition and what should get a congratulatory letter that you set forth on page two of your cover sheet do you want to go through the list well I mean I mean I've got I mean it's well there's several that I don't know why we're having them because they are national you know like proclamation observers of Labor Day I don't think we really need to have a proclamation for the observers of Labor Day I don't think you know I mean but there's a number of them I mean I guess some people pick up all month in November is important but you know whether it needs a proclamation rise to the level of a proclamation these proclamations I guess that's the commissioner these are based on prior commissions it's based on prior commissioners so on that note ladies and gentlemen it's a healthy experience or exercise to review current practices regarding the issuance of proclamations this had been a robust discussion during our executive leadership teams because for the most part there's nobody in position to actually accept the proclamations upon adoption by the city commission so therefore alienation awareness date that's my favorite any of you parents are alienated from your children please come to the lectern you've got three minutes they asked us for that and they came in and asked us for that and we gave it to them well if someone is accepting the proclamation I can see it but if no one is well all of these apply to you Chuck so don't worry about it okay I would be in favor of keeping the ones that someone is actually asking and accepting but some of these others that are not who would accept kids to parks day I'm sure there's somebody out there the list has just grown we've never deleted for the most part this really has gotten to a point where Mayor can I make a recommendation so why don't we look at the ones through May because some of these are going to be coming up I believe some are requested by the departments like municipal clerks week that's the clerks office small biz that's the development office we had another one that was so bizarre and we took it off thank you so I think so what do you want us to do look at this for the next meeting come back with a list maybe just look at May and if there's anything on there that's not you know family abduction awareness day you know I mean observance memorial day you know everyone's taking the day off so they won't be here to accept the award proclamation and so I don't see get your green on and we do a lot with that but I do see mental health awareness month so is that the same is that do we consider that the same I mean in interest of time my recommendation would be we ask Mr. Moore and staff to take a look at this list and come back to the commission with some recommendations keeping in mind it's got to be someone to accept these proclamations I mean I'm signing them all so I go in there there's 25 of them and they end up I don't know where ladies and gentlemen if I may Mr. Mayor how about we proceed as Mr. Marker just discussed and we can come back with some considerations during the May 19th meeting that gives us a couple weeks to finalize specific recommendations so we have consensus on that well not withstanding all the existing proclamations that day we don't want to punish anybody that falls in the window between now and then so right I think we can accomplish this at our executive leadership team meeting tomorrow and then we can just put it I don't like deferring these because technically we're supposed to do it at the organizational meeting so we should just would you while you're doing your thing consider get your green on proclamation I know that West Palm and all the other cities give it I don't know if they give it as mental health awareness month I think they give it as a separate one so if we can consider giving one well the commentary being offered this evening is very helpful so that we can come back at the next meeting May 5th it is so get your green on is related to mental health I know it is it's related to that so we don't wish to be duplicative we can be duplicative we can do that give it one more try you got it really you got this so there's consensus to add that okay so yes please add that you have consensus we'll hear it next month thank you all right item 7d these are the proposed commission meeting dates this is our second attempt of this some of them were changed to I have it hold on please I have my title so we locked in April and May but we need to add May 26th our joint meeting and then June 2nd and for our workshop and regular meeting and June 9th for our budget workshop and regular meeting we don't have June 9th here we don't have that here no that's what we're changing it to you want a June 9th correct that works for me perfect and then July 14th for our next budget and workshop meeting that gives staff a fair amount of time to come back after they've done the budget that's a workshop or budget workshop and regular meeting on July July 14th and then July 21st is our budget workshop meeting and then August 11th regular meeting August 18th budget workshop you're saying no August 4th correct I'm making it the 11th that gives us about a week and a half off now of course we're going to get some CRA meetings put in here too so Renee I'll get you a copy of this you're the chair there September 1 is stays and September 15th because I think you said the September work for you because you have travel plans and then October 6th and October 13th so the 20th changes to the 13th and then November 3rd and November 10th meetings and then I left December alone because of the tree lighting and then the first January we should do January 19th and 26th and that gives you a little break after so no January 5th correct because then that gives people a little break after the first I mean we have a crazy I'm going to call a special meeting to ruin everybody's holiday so it's okay by me crazy hectic schedule in the city including staff so if we move can I ask so you brought up November 10th no we're in hold on let me go back November 3rd and November 10th is that not worked the 10th the 10th would not for me I'm sorry no it's yes why wouldn't that work for you I like to be here if I can if we can have it so if I could request my one request in all of this November 3rd and November 17th so December 8th and December 15th stays the same it's the 15th December 8th and 15th stays the same and then we make January January 19th and January 26th so only one meeting no there's two 19th and 26th well 26th is your organization no oh no no you're right right right there's not and then February and March stay the same so January 26th February and March stay the same I'm writing you're going to have the whole schedule once we make it official thank you yes what it does is it moves our calendars to give us a little space off and also if Mr. Moore needs to throw in a workshop or something which may become necessary to do that but also you know when the mayor's traveling or like after the 1st of January there's a little bit of space off I need the space right is December entirely off no December 8th we have a meeting from November 3rd to February 6th we're taking two months off December 15th okay got it we're not and then we don't come back to okay and then we come back on January 19th Denmark here I come there you go see oh so we're doing it to accommodate I'm going to Zamunda there you go yes with your king so what's December 8th to 15th and then the next meeting December 8th and 15th and then January 19th and January 26th so that's a big long time off I know I did that for you mayor thank you so much I'll be someplace probably Green Acres someplace right so that's that do you have that so we need to vote on it yes okay so you've got all those down clerk did you get all those down I can double check it with you are we going to approve this list yes sir subject to final review yes and I'm assuming you have them all down I need a motion to approve the meeting schedule as amended so moved second all in favor aye any opposed thank you if you could please circulate the dates tomorrow so I can get my calendar in order because I actually you're going to have a lot of time to visit I don't know what I'm going to be doing with all that extra time I'm going to be calling special meetings but we are having the same amount of meetings for the public to understand we're just maneuvering them thank you thank you for doing that by the way it's my pleasure all right so next item 7E discussion regarding the financial review committee structure Mr. Moore yes there's no formal presentation in this regard however I will offer a few notes to highlight and underscore the distinction between finance review committee and the previously discussed audit committee concept so the reason for the financial review committee structure discussion is because that was the consensus formally offered by the commission that we do evaluate that particular consideration we initially planned to discuss this during the February 24 2026 regular meeting however it was rescheduled to about this time to give commission an opportunity to offer his thoughts and direction my following commentary is actually based on experiences and other city manager assignments I've had in which cities did appoint a financial review committee or finance committee to work closely with the municipalities to address any thoughts concerning budgetary financial planning revenue spending and debt considerations in other words such a committee would interface closely with not only the office of the city manager but the chief financial officer as the principal emissary in organizations in which there is an internal auditor full time by the respective city I have one other experience to that effect that work will continue as it normally does in terms of the annual audit program working closely with the city commission in this case to get to that place however our financial review committee and as I understand it when the city of Derry Beach had this in place once upon a time they did operate similarly to what I just described as far as engaging with the chief financial officer and the office of the city manager with respect to budgeting financial planning revenue analysis opportunities to maximize getting to the absolute best place possible so for that reason ladies and gentlemen this is really an opportunity to offer guidance and direction to that effect as it relates to the subject as a whole so with that Mr. Mayor I yield at this time and I give city commission the opportunity to offer its thoughts so that we can prepare accordingly thank you very much this was kind of something that was brought up by the commission a few weeks a few months ago where we talked about trying to create some kind of a committee we were modeling it after the one that was done prior where it would be it's kind of a hybrid really between the audit and the full review because we are going to be asking this committee to look at certain elements of what we're doing to try to see ways to save money see the ways to run more efficiently a prospective kind of an approach I had occasion to speak with a couple of auditors city auditors this past week it's very interesting the perspective that they have they actually think these kinds of they're not suggesting audit committees themselves are not necessary or not good or not this but they thought the more modern approach of all of these places now are these ones that are seeking to figure out ways for the cities to save money because everybody is looking for more efficiencies and looking for this apparently not all the time city managers are not always happy with these boards because they're questioning or the commissions because they're questioning expenditures and they're doing such that but they all seem to say they have great value and so I'm happy to move forward with it I guess up to the commission but you know the big key is going to be who what the qualifications are for the people that are getting appointed that is because it would be something that the commission would appoint they would report to us but we would have to establish the guidelines of who what kind of person you want to be on this board so I turn it over to Commissioner Malika you have your hands up thank you Mr. Hardin provided me with some past information about the budget review committee it was originally called then it got renamed to more like what we're talking about it and there was a list of professionals which I'll read but largely also defining what they do which is review budget systems procedures technology improvements recommendations regarding revenue salaries and benefits and then it later changed resolution 511 just saying that there's not allowed to be any lobbying for funding or services and there's not allowed to be any city employees on the board some of the professions they wanted a nine member board with five of the members being one of these professions and then four at large and that's obviously up for discussion that was a CPA or accounting professional that's A CPA B accounting professional C a financial professional D certified financial planner E investment advisor F insurance professional G business owner or manager and then H an MBA or MPA degree so that was the makeup of the one in the past and that was in 209 by the way I should have printed that out for you was that a volunteer board yeah so there's no outlay of cash no okay let me let me just say that it's interesting that list because that's the two of the of the the two people the two people that the auditors of these other cities that I spoke to interestingly enough both of them talked about also having someone who has some IT expertise only because of the security elements and all the other kind of stuff that you want to make sure you have so I would just throw into that and I don't know they just called you know the IT advisory was the one that they said and someone who has public sector auditing kind of experience vis-a-vis the other you know just more than just a CPA but someone actually had public sector auditing which they considered to be different than the private which probably is so they want someone out of a Price Waterhouse Coopers or somebody like that no I think they mean like you dealing with like cities or you know I mean like a governmental agency someone who has governmental auditing experience which they view as different than I'm just writing the list of what they said but I thought it fascinating to get the IT person because until I spoke to these people the other day I hadn't even thought of why you would want an IT person on that but it makes perfect sense in the private sector that would be covered off absolutely so what do we just I'm sorry what are we deciding tonight like I think the list is good Mayor can I make a point sure so I think tonight if you give us a direction on how you envision this board I'll bring back a resolution similar to the downtown beautification resolution that you're going to be voting on today so we just we need to talk about the composition how many members the duties the qualifications and basically the term and if you want this in the code of ordinances so it's more permanent or if you just want to make it a committee and we can do it by resolution I would say that I think that it's good that you want to do that resolution I would ask that you each one of us have I think we actually are all saying the same thing we're all using different names whether it's a budget review I mean I think it's kind of we're all want to do the same thing I think so if you could sit down with that works that's always the case because you have nothing better you do and I know you just want to do this so there you go but that would be something I would recommend because I think I'd like to come back with something in writing to show what you're talking about what the scope is what you're thinking they're going to do and so that we can get our teeth into that and maybe tweak it as we want to as a commission I think the 2009 resolutions are really a good starting place I think I've sent it to all of you but I'm going to resend it three that were done the ones I've done which I was involved in the one of them that was done in 2011 so I'll send those to you and then do you have an idea on how large you want this committee to be commissioner Mollica indicated nine as was the case the last time this structure was in place I'm thinking nine would be your outside number because in terms of benchmarking ladies and gentlemen if I may say so seven is a pretty decent number based on other municipalities that have experiences I've had and that works well definitely an odd number composition I think there were seven when I was involved with it which is the benchmark and what about the at large do you want everybody to have one of those professions because at large would just really be anybody that applies because I think you're going to want to go through an application process for this I think the same way that you appoint to your boards that should be followed number one to ensure that these qualifications are met but are you interested in the at large or do you want everybody to have I'm sorry can I speak I think that we need to have if we could have a point one each whether we five and then two at large I think that the general residents need to be a part of it as well so I'm in favor of at large okay Commissioner Casale well two things when I was asking for this we were talking about an audit committee and I want there to be aspects of the audit committee incorporated into this group as you said it should be a hybrid not necessarily you know participating in the selection of the external auditor per se but reviewing the reports monitoring the implementation those kinds of things I think we have to go with the higher number because of this list right you have somebody IT I learned through our auditor and Mr. Stacy is one of the most high risk areas in a municipality you need a CPA an accounting professional financial planner investment person yes or maybe no insurance professional yes or maybe no MBA MPA I like that so I think you've got to go I can't I don't want to say an at-large person won't contribute but I think that if we're going to only do seven we or if we're doing at-large we need to do nine and keep these lists of experienced individuals because you don't want to take two positions out of that the only counter to that is some of these people will have more than one discipline in their background that will be the case if the insurance person may be the financial person possibly but I don't know we don't I'm not saying we haven't had great luck but we don't always have a lot of applications for boards this is a commitment and we would just want to make sure we're covering our bases it's funny I will say that the auditing to people at the one of the largest cities here in South Florida talked about having the importance of having someone with a quote real world background yeah I don't know quite what that means but it means a real you know we can talk about all these numbers we can talk about this but coming back to things but the reality is this is how it's done and so I throw that out there as maybe that's your at large or somebody with yeah business that's a business person real world yeah so I also think it's important to build in some guard rails so this isn't weaponized in any way because this isn't supposed to be an attack on anybody this is supposed to be finding savings for the city right that's going to be up to us to make sure that the people that who are appointed are understand what the resolution says understand what the scope of their of their chore is and because we are going to be the one as a commission essentially giving them the assignment as it used to be why don't you take a look at this contract or why don't you take a look at this department we're going to kind of control that focus for them right I mean I couldn't visualize us telling this committee to go look at a department I think that's I mean that's like you're you that's this no I don't I mean that's professional auditors our auditor does that that's not something you would have somebody who volunteers when you say look at I'm not clear on what you're what give me a hypothetical of what you would see them doing I'm just saying how it used to be ways to make a department more efficient ways to be I mean that's not really an auditing function I think it is policies and procedures I don't know how you would get a group of residents pulled together and say make this city manager department more efficient make the finance department more efficient I don't know how you you could really do that I mean I think that I think we need to individually think about what we would expect them to be doing I was expecting they would more or less be you know assisting us with saying like okay oh for example the DDA audit happened now the city is going back and looking at these things the auditing committee could be the check-in group that says hey this is happening this is not happening the audit committee could suggest to us you may want to look at you know are they going to watch our city meetings how will they gather information I'm not really when you talk about them participating in the budget I don't know I'm kind of trying to understand what you're trying to accomplish out of this I want to get a draft so we can start working on what we want to do because you know we're interested in waste fraud and abuse I'm not necessarily looking at I mean those are components that we have to look at waste is a big part I can I'm going to list out some later and so I think that's where I'm trying to go I'm going to treat this the way we did the downtown beautification where I met with each of you spoke with you I'll rewatch this meeting do you want this group to meet quarterly monthly how often how could they accomplish anything I think they're given a task I don't know that's a good question I don't know I don't remember how they did it before I'll look I'll check I mean they were given an assignment and then they met until they had the assignment complete and sometimes they were able to get something in three months sometimes it took them six I would think a minimum four times a year but it should be fluid if they're working on a project and they need to meet more frequently just like we do so be it and I think it should be a permanent thing why do we need it temporarily it needs to be a permanent so do you want it in the code of ordinances or just a resolution what was it before it was a resolution a code of ordinances makes it appear more permanent because now you put in your code you've had two readings and it's treated more as a more I mean they're both formal you know the preference is usually the code of ordinances because that's what people find easier to locate a resolution you have to go hunting for it and it's not you get a better quality person if they think it's a permanent kind of board than if it's just an ad hoc I think you get more people to commit to it who's overseeing this board it would be as I mean you Mr. Moore would appoint a staffer and it would either be the chief financial officer that's who I would imagine it would I would have thought the chief financial officer considering it's really right up and the board is going to function under sunshine because they're preparing reports and recommendations to you so I think that's one of the guardrails that Commissioner Malka talked about so I'll start working on it and then I'll reach out to each of you and we can have a discussion on what you envision and may I ask one thing if you find this information I don't want to make you search can you tell us give us examples of what they did in this time because I'm just trying to see how we would be utilizing them so I I sent to you and to Mr was it you I sent to I sent to the four I sent it to you earlier the four reports that I had from when I was on there before I sent if I'm not violating the sunshine law I will send the four reports that I had back in 2011 2012 to all of you to look at or I'll send it to you Mr. Moore which you can forward on to everybody I'll get that out tonight so you can see the kind of stuff that they looked at and the solutions and how they work through that so I'm happy to do that thank you that happened to be what I had in my I save everything so you know it was in my arsenal there so okay you don't need a consensus we don't need a motion we're moving forward okay 7F 7F resolution of the city of the city of Florida establishing a downtown beautification task force to review the appearance of and recommend potential improvements to the downtown streetscape providing an effective date and just for the record mayor the version that is on the agenda was what staff drafted I understand that the DDA after their meeting supplied the commission with their edits the version if you were going to incorporate any of their edits we would need to do an amended motion and we would have to address it that way okay absolutely let me just let me at the outset I think that I think this really needs to be a city task force you know that the I understand that the DDA feels that they're principally responsible for the downtown and all that which they are but so is the city principally responsible for it so I read the things and obviously their input is going to be critical but the beautification is really a city wide thing because there's a lot of people that have what they would like to see for the city and I went through some lists and the city should be the one as the implementing person not the DDA this is a city project and I understand that the DDA they have their constituency but people might view beautification different than because the DDA represents these people the group in there and so I want outside kind of people looking at what they want to have for beautification some may say they don't mind to have something outside like selling t-shirts outside other may say well I don't like that idea so I just thought it would be a better idea if we had the city be the driving party here because it's kind of you know we came up with this commission she came up with this idea that we wanted to have this beautification task force I certainly mentioned it and you know comments from the audience are not appreciated so but that's my point this is a city thing I don't we don't city shouldn't have a co-chair we're not this is a city event this is a city project and I mean some of the people that they would like to have on the board made some sense to me but you know I look at some of the stuff they talk about expansion of outdoor dining that's a concern of the DDA that's not a beautification issue you know I mean there are some items here that got very broad which took it out of why I think that it really needs to remain a city thing I'm sorry did you wish to be recognized yes Commissioner Gasol yeah I just have a question I wanted to ask that the DDA is their own can't they have their own task force or can't they have established their own beautification task force yes they could oh okay am I now recognized you are now recognized thank you the whole point of our joint meeting was because we were going to work together on this and they are offering to share the funding of it and they've said that at the meeting so we're going to forego the funding and the input it's not like they have look I know what you're saying these are their recommendations they're not saying you have to accept these recommendations that's what I'm saying you're on that board I mean you could you're on that board exactly but he speaks he provides do we disagree that the task force looking at streetscape and landscape is a problem right cleanliness and maintenance no as I said there's many components of this that I agree with it where I'm saying is they recognize as the key implementation partner and they are the primary organization I'm sorry they are not you don't have to call them key call them partner but the bottom line is when we went into this joint meeting with the two groups it was a partnership and now we're going to pull it from them I just I think we should work together on this and the reason why I say this to you honestly is what they've accomplished in the downtown in Pineapple Grove has been amazing and people have appreciated it as have we simple things like the pulling the lighting this is the kind of stuff we want and I don't see how having a partner that's willing to contribute both informationally and financially isn't something that we embrace I don't I'm I'm not they're not saying you're going to expand outdoor dining they're just saying it's a conversation lighting and night time aesthetics beautification of public parking areas I mean I don't see the downside to having these people involved I just I think I don't think none of my remarks should I say they weren't going to be involved no but you're trying to take away no I'm trying to say that this is the city's beautification program this is the commission's beautification program their input is not only hoped for it's desired so we want to have their input but ultimately ultimately this is a city beautification project what impact could they have on this that worries you they're going to be coming up with suggestions I hope we're going to be working they'll have a member of the board but I'm looking at the different portions of the task force where are you tell me what you're looking at please well I mean they're talking about they're adding the work plan they're adding they want an interior designer I don't see the need for an interior designer and everyone I spoke to didn't see a need for an interior designer we're spending too much time yeah where do you see that I mean look the DDA can have the representative and it can be Jewell I think they put that down because she has already been assigned by their board as the representative so I mean nobody's saying nobody is just some of the language here is essentially the city is giving away its authority how do you read that into this well because I'm a lawyer number one and number two when you use words like primary that means you are primary that means you're the head means you are subject to that everything has to go through them to get approved first before it comes to us there's just several things okay then let's go line by line through what you don't like what I'd like to do is go through the resolution I'm sorry Mr. Marker would you like to be I would thank you for raising look we just got done talking about a task force seven minutes ago and now we're veering off course the DDA is willing to put money into the game and lead the task force and bring recommendations back to the city I don't mayor I don't understand your reticence on that but I don't think they're going to come back with anything that's crazy and they're going to come back with what they come back with and we'll all have a chance to review it so why is the composition of their task force not agreeable to you I'm lost I well in response and then I'm going to recognize Commissioner Malika who's been politely raising her hand and I'm trying to recognize everybody who raised their hand so my question is for the people that I have spoken to they really believe downtown belongs to everybody and I'm not suggesting that there aren't critical components to make downtown work but it does belong to everybody but don't you think it's the composition of their task force that they'll have somebody that fits that other bucket that you're talking about I mean I I'm not having been somebody in the corporate world that's form task forces that's what you do you you get a group to surround a project with different skill sets and I I don't have any belief that the DDA wouldn't do anything other them and they're willing to put money in it and all we have to do is review it we don't have to put more effort into it I don't understand I think we should want because the people that I speak to they say downtown is an important part of the city but it's not the entire part of the city and the beautification of downtown affects us all and so others have a view of how they want downtown to look some people want to have that I'm not the expert but they're going to come back with recommendations and we're going to have a chance to review those recommendations we've got a partner willing to take the lead on it and come back with those recommendations I'm not sure why this is bubbling up I'm not making it into something like that either yes commissioner I'm sorry commissioner that's okay I think that you just don't love the language here but it does say the city commission establishes downtown beautification to serve in an advisory capacity to the city commission so I mean somewhere in there we can put partnership and then maybe we want to streamline what the items that you know this is a working working list here let's streamline or if you don't like some of these or if we want to add something to the ABCDEFGHI list of what they're going to be looking at this task force and also definitely I think we need to re-look at all of the list of people involved in it because you know BPOA has indicated that they'd like to be involved Palm Trail Citizen has indicated that they'd like to be involved so it should be citizen led with the addition of DDA Chamber of Commerce and wait is there a city commissioner in there no but you know then and I'm also keen on including in the because I define Atlantic Avenue as all the way all the way from the I-95 to the beach we should have maybe someone and I said this at the DDA meeting as well as also you want somebody from west of Swinton included on this task force because the beautification is as you get off of I-95 I mean that's really where the beautification has to start that's where it's supposed to start so there are the conversations I had I got a lot I mean I was surprised how many people are interested in this subject I mean I shouldn't have been surprised but people were calling in with all kinds of recommendations I'm sorry yes Commissioner Byrne did you I'll wait till you're done but I have a slight recommendation let me get to Commissioner Byrne I have just a quick comment like I don't have anything against the DDA participating I think that you know since they can form their own verification task force but I want to see this community led in the sentence that's a period yes the document online though that's our document correct correct okay but our document has expansion of outdoor dining that's from our document I intended to raise that issue too okay but you're we haven't gotten there yet because that's why I want but it's what we wanted and it was you can't take them out of the picture because of something that we put in there I think let's reword this and make it work how you want to but I agree with you we need more community I mean Miss Ridley asked to participate when she came and spoke and that's why I thought we need at least three community people involved I think Palm Trail the BPOA Miss Ridley said she wanted to do it more maybe but at the end of the day I'm not turning down somebody who wants to come in and give us money and help us do it I would like to hear what the city attorney has to say recommendation so it's kind of in line what commissioner burns said if the DDA has the ability to establish our task force part of their duties is to create these recommendations and bring them to the city commission and so that's in essentially their charter to formulate long range plans for improving the attractiveness and accessibility to the public of downtown facilities promoting efficient use or remedying the deterioration of downtown property values so a lot of this is already in their task so there's nothing to say that this commission can stop them from establishing their own task force I think one of the one of the discussion items the last time this was before you was having almost too many people but the other thing that I heard was that you wanted it to be community driven and so while it's important to have our partners as part of it you know what happens is is that our partners you know they see it every day right you've heard from them you know what their concerns are I thought what you were looking for was new views new opinions from people that don't normally participate in these types of things but I feel that when there's too many people in the group and too many co-leaders I think that's when you know this was supposed to be a very short-term task force this isn't like the one that we're talking about for the financial and so when you start adding to the list it's you're not going to get what you need as quickly as you want it and so I would recommend if the DDA wants to have their own specific task force they're able to do that if this commission wants to have a task force that's led by the community leaders that come before you you know and some of these specific groups that we put in here that might be and look ideas are a good thing right and so and then maybe we have a joint meeting to present each other's ideas and come up with a plan because the plan is always going to be accepted by this commission you know that I'm sorry yes no matter no matter who and so you know I the more ideas you have that you know staff can be tasked at that point to work with the DDA and come up with one plan that matches everyone's needs talks about the financial aspects I mean the actual committee is not going to have any costs associated with it but and part of the DDA's you know task that they're charged with through their budget is to pay for some of the beautification things so I just think that it's just becoming a little complicated and so you know or maybe you each define the city's going to look at these aspects and the DDA is going to look at these aspects and have those two groups you know but I just feel that right now what you were looking for the last time we discussed this it's never going to get accomplished in the time frames that you discussed which was I believe what was it six months six months no six no we put on I think it said six DDA came back saying they wanted to be 12 yeah I mean I thought that nine would have been my outside number but I mean whether it's six or nine or it's you know I think it really depends on how quickly the board whoever it is gets to work comes up with recommendations and gets back to us we're coming into the summer which is going to be a slow period for some of the people we might want to sit on these task force six months may have been ambitious I think we can do it in six months I don't and like I said I don't think the DDA is going to come back with a whole lot of surprises and the residents are going to have it just like we've done with these outreach meetings that Mr. Moore started we're going to have we will sit down with the constituents in the city and show them what we're thinking about before we all decide I think we're making a mountain out of a molehill there we've got an organization that's ready to do this and do it right now they're a trusted partner I don't understand I think we're just over we're over we're over cooking this the turkey here I this is so black and white to me I don't see what we're arguing about we got a partner willing to throw money in willing to do it it's a trusted partner they're going to bring back the findings to us we're all going to have input into it what am I missing I guess you're not missing anything except that in the process of developing the recommendations which come to farther you know it's got to be everything goes through and gets coordinated by the DDA board and the whole purpose of this was the whole purpose of this was to have a citizen driven thing and so if you're driving it through the DDA board you are taking it out of the citizen totally disagree with that I don't I don't violently disagree with that may I ask a question it doesn't make any sense boss may I ask a question how is this driven through the DDA board what are you talking about well the task force are working with the DDA board of directors and staff throughout the duration of the workshop priorities in collaboration with the DDA prior to submission to the city commission and everything is you can't do anything without their approval where are you reading that I'm just saying what it says I mean you can read it I mean I read it where are you reading that she wants to know what page where are you reading that section five thank you under deliverables deliverables task force recorded directly with the first done findings to the downtown development authority so the task force reports to the downtown development authority and no recommendation can be finalized without prior review and essentially approved will you reference where you're reading things from because I don't read this the same way it's on the DDA direction of this term the task force shall deliver a report to the city commission that includes what are you looking at I'm looking at what are you looking at I'm looking at their recommendation I'm looking at what they gave us it's after the last bullet it's actually after the bill point section five deliverables added it says there's nothing on this that's added well then you don't may not have a complete copy are you looking at the city version no I'm he's looking at the DDA's version and I'm looking that as well are you looking at the city's version or are you looking at the DDA's version okay well here's how it reads to me do I have a wrong copy Laura it says section five deliverables at the conclusion of this term the task force shall deliver a report to the city commission that includes a downtown beautification master plan prioritize project recommendations preliminary costs implementation timeline findings partnerships recommended rules what are you all reading I'm reading the highlights that reflect the DDA changes of April 13 2026 section five deliverables is an added section and it talks about that the task force shall coordinate directly they gave us I think this is newer I'm going to guess that you're looking at something that makes older and this was given to me yesterday so unless they made major changes today then this is what I got from you so I'm not I'm not suggesting I don't have the I mean if there's a later version and I just don't have it okay why don't we just go through it line by line and change it so we can get it done tonight well I'd like to start with our resolution right let's do that go with ours and you know and find it well I don't see what the problem with our resolution was I don't think there's anything wrong with our resolution they're primarily the same but they totally exclude the DDA how does it include it how does it I don't see we have a representative of the DDA on it we have a representative of the chamber we have a representative of the hospitality we have a downtown restaurant I mean you're right we don't have the DDA as a principal board it doesn't say partner that's all it doesn't say partner it's it says it says that they are the implementation partner doesn't say partner doesn't say partner right I think we should just I think that and it's and they want to co-led by the DDA I don't understand why it needs to be co-led by the DDA doing you know I can I I think because if they're going to be working on it with us having them sporadically in and out you have a joint meeting we have this whole agreement then you're pulling them out but then at the end you're pulling them in to implement it they should be part of it throughout then I think that if they then I I am of the view then if that's what they want they should do their own beautification boards but that eliminates the cohesiveness from the beach all the way to the west the idea of doing it as one is that it's so it's cohesive all the way through I mean I talk to people that have great ideas about how this can be and I'm sure but I don't I don't see why you would not include them I think we should too so what do you want to do I mean I I didn't see anything wrong with ours I like I said I don't have a problem with the DDA working with this but I want to see it make sure that it's community-led and this is not the original thought process that I had when we thought about forming this this task force I thought it was going to be community we outlined who we wanted on it possible representatives and I don't see anything wrong with this so that was my view that was I liked our resolution frankly but I don't talking too much about it but I then then where do you say I'm missing sections so I'm not missing I think we should do something look I'm prepared to move forward on the city's resolution so you know which was kind of when you listen to the meeting and you listen to our joint meeting this is what we described and it didn't have all these interfaces in between us and and and the beautification committee that the right beautification we didn't have to report to and get approval from the DDA I don't see approval I just don't know why it doesn't say that leave it if we're no one saying that can I just make a recommendation I mean it does say that any time that a plan is going to be presented to you if it involves the CRA boundaries or the DDA boundaries it goes to that board so that I mean I know it's in writing but that's really the process so it would go before that board for their review and comment the same way that ordinances that affect the downtown area it's the same thing so I you know I am not really sure what the concern is because it would go before that board and so and the other thing is on section three it says the commission shall endeavor to appoint these disciplines so if there's someone that you believe would really be a good fit for this board you have the ability to appoint that person as one of your one of the eleven so each of you would get two and one lucky person would get three and I can take out the outdoor dining I'm sorry I like that you want to make I need a motion you want a motion yes here go ahead so moved what are you going to make a motion as amended as amended do you want me to take I'm sorry but do you want me to take out the outdoor dining is that the consensus because no I mean I'm happy to have it all as discussion items I'm happy to have it all my view is it's not a beautification motion to approve as as presented and then you can always direct your task force as they as they develop motion to approve as amended do I have a second do I need to start something can we second and then we'll discuss second thank you so the amendment was to take out outdoor dining no I'm take out outdoor dining no I didn't I know we were going to I don't care about that so you can amend the motion to just motion to approve 63.26 motion to approve 63.6 and you have a second second what is the motion approving this resolution we've been rounding around the mulberry bush here this one what exactly are we what exactly are we saying the one that the city drafted the city resolution the city so the city is going to now lead this initiative that that's what this motion is is is saying there's still people in the yeah we're going to there's representatives the city is establishing a downtown beautification task force and they're going to be you know having a representative from the DDA representative from the chamber this is what we kind of all discussed at the joint meeting so I don't this is you know it's the DDA is still going to have a presence on the board they're not going to lead it so it's going to be because it's a city task force so the recommendation is that we're going to form a city task force and the DDA will now participate on that task force yes as will the chamber as will the chamber and I still got to find out why we don't believe the DDA can can lead this and provide a neutral response because then it's really a DDA board stop I mean stop that's semantics boss that's semantics well okay that's all it is alright well I mean if you read kind of what they're writing here you know the workshop the town hall and workshop recommendations will be you know the DDA will be having them and they will be presenting the key milestones it is a DDA board I mean respectfully I'm not saying there's not some great ideas here I think they should implement them on their own it's not a city board and it's not what was intended by the city board if I may mayor I think that portion of that is a favor to us because who who's going to do that here Mr. Moore Mr. Orris they're offering to oversee and report back to us and I I would hesitate to say I would urge you to listen to the DDA meeting that I sat in where they talked about we should be doing this we have the expertise we have this we have and I sat there and listened to it all and this is I mean we can control it but I think having the partnership meeting and now saying you're not our partner do your own plan is kind of bizarre I'm not in favor of that downtown as I said to you downtown belongs to everybody we have a lot of partners in downtown we have the people from the east we have the people from the west we have the merchants we have the hospitality we have I mean it's everyone downtown belongs to everyone could I ask Ms. Simon to get up and speak to this please because these are her words this is her report so let's let her speak to her intentions on this if you don't mind Ms. Simon is there consensus to have Ms. Simon speak I'm fine thank you I'll be fine okay fine come on up thank you well thank you I'm sorry that some of you didn't get the email I sent out but these are recommendations we had a joint workshop where we brought the beautification task for beautification of downtown to you all as a joint our board brought that as a recommendation to the city this was not us doing leading this thing so where this is coming from I'm not really sure this is community led there were people missing out of the task force that was presented by the resolution we included four representatives we have four or five different areas of neighborhoods within the downtown the set the pineapple grove the beach side south of Atlantic Atlantic Avenue there's lots of neighborhoods and residents that live in our downtown and outside neighboring in the BPOA they're very interested Lake Eyre everyone's interested and while we love to we want to have opportunities to include everyone this is a task force so what we provided to you all were recommendations and also adding an architect adding an interior designer because a lot of what we're looking at and what our concerns are and as we look at the streetscape is how our old and the new facades everything goes together so that is a strength and Jewel Gilardi our new board member really championed this all the way through from the day she started from our town hall in August to right now so it is really important for us to get everybody's input on this we can't you know I think we had appreciated the mayor's input at our meeting that would have been helpful I think right now for us it's really important for us just to continue to oversee and be part of this process we and our board felt to be included in the process however it works we're not tied to it again these were just recommendations it wasn't us trying to throw something to make major changes in here but it was trying to capture all of our board's input and help guide this task force to see it through and then what happens and how is it implemented what do we see how do we make it go forward for the best for downtown and its future and I'm happy to ask any questions well as you know I was there in a meeting and suggested the way you picked up the set Pineapple Grove beach site I mean I was oh you suggested those were ones that I wanted so I mean I'm agreeing because the whole concept of Atlantic Avenue for me is from I-95 to A1A it is it's all one downtown right and so the city's list was shy on that and I agreed that those should be so it's four we said you know again we gave it a bigger number than 11 we said 14 I know you said 14 and all different disciplines but again the key I mean there's it doesn't have to be all of those but we just want to make sure that our we have a very good diverse group in here and that have some specialties and that just as you were talking about the finance committee and having those specialties disciplines to make sure that we're making guided decisions I agreed with your section four the processes and work I mean what you were trying to do is to create a scope of what they were trying to do which I you know the process by which the assessment I agreed I all of that a lot of this stuff I agreed I only disagreed with the part that talked about that everybody coordinates with the DDA and it has to be run through the DDA and then the DDA decides what they're going to present to us that's where that was the only partiality I mean a lot of what the process and work plan I thought was great we set forth what we're expecting the people to do and we referenced city and DDA objectives I'm not sure it's really a DDA objective it's a city objective but you know I can take that nuance well yes and I I appreciate that I think we've over the decades of our organization we provide a great deal of recommendations that have been implemented by the city and I really and to some and look at the beautification was done earlier and I'm the first to say that the city should have been more active in the beautification process all along considering the city was responsible for clean and safe and I can argue that it's neither so just one thing just to consider so downtowns across the country downtown organizations are very involved in the place management of the and our organizations I spoke to West Palm Beach people on their role in beautification so I think you know having those you know as Jewel participated in the International Downtown Association having those vendors that industry leaders being part of that process from amenities to the usage of the street and the experiences and the storefronts and everything that goes through that is really critical to keep in mind I can't I mean there was a lot of this that I as I said there's a lot of this I agree I like the process and work plan it was only where and I like with the deliverables with the task to deliver a report to the city attorney but then when you when you would talk about that it was kind of had a it essentially became a DDA project instead of a city commission project that's where I deviated that was the only part of you a lot of what you said here I agreed with as I said a lot of it what I agreed with but I don't know that I need it to be run through you and then you have to approve it and then it has to come to the city that's just not the way this task force was supposed to be designed it's a citizen citizen driven not a DDA driven deal can I say something you may thank you very much I appreciate it all I wanted to say was is I think that from the side I feel like we've we've lost the plot on where we were going I brought this up a long time ago I sat with Julie Cassell at lunch before I became on the DDA and said this is a specific thing I'm very interested in because I see changes and I think sometimes we're not catching them and I think that the success and the direction of the city that momentum is really important to catch those things to make sure we're evolving etc etc and if there's any way I can be of use I'd love to participate in that and that became something that we talked a lot about and I think the bottom line is that you just have a group of people that happen to be intimately involved there's sort of an eye on the pulse of what's going on in downtown because that's all they focus on right so their relationships with the business owners the hotels the restauranteurs the shops the community all of those things so they're constantly getting that feedback so they're getting a constant education and then I think you've got a group of people that are passionate about it that care only about the fact that it's super successful and not in any way shape or form that there's any kind of ego or that it should be this way or under the way these people are thinking I think it's about hearing everybody from every corner and how do you see your area improving and then combining that with the people that are experts at urban planning and you know finance and what does it cost to make these things and what are the most cost effective decisions that you can make and then aesthetic things and landscape things like that and then it takes time right we were talking about how much time it would take to get these things done but when you're talking about volunteers and there's a passion and a will for people I mean I have a job right but I'm volunteering so if everybody that takes the time to participate is willing to put in that little bit of extra effort to go a little bit further and do a little bit more and take time out of time with their family or their jobs to help that I think it's a bonus and Jewel I don't disagree with you but my whole point here was it's supposed to be a citizen driven board and when you have that they have to coordinate the town hall workshop with recommendations from the GDA that's everything that I've essentially got a filter no no no I think that what Laura was trying to say is that we literally just had a round table like hey what do you think about this kind of person that person might be helpful and what about this so we threw it all on a piece of paper and basically put it to you so that you could say I like that or I don't like that or maybe that's necessary or to talk about it only if only if again so much of this I did but there's so many different lines here where we have to coordinate with the DDA the DDA does the thing the DDA hit the people I think it's only I think it's only I'm asking to remove the rest of it I like I think it's only because you and I think I want to keep it a citizen board that's all it is and I think that that's all it's intended to be I think all that Laura was putting to paper was that we were willing to reach into our pocket and also into our time to say we feel so strongly about this that we're willing to devote more time than somebody else might be willing to devote and we're happy to review it and then we're happy to bring it all back to you so that you can say yay or nay and that we were just willing to do a lot of the grunt work but that's really all it is we may still have that opportunity it's just but it's the report it's the it's it's you made it everybody has to report to all the things come to you you clear them you do them and then you send them on to the commission that's not the way the citizen well it doesn't have to be structured that way all we're trying to say is you have a willing partner they're just recommendations and we're just a willing partner I like most of it but let's keep it a citizen driven board that's all I'm trying to do is keep it a citizen driven board so mayor there's a motion in a second do you want to take a vote and see where we're at thank you thank you there's a motion in a second so maybe we take a vote and see where we land on it well I'm I'm going to be honest I don't have that piece in my packet so to me it doesn't even exist I don't know if you did because you were saying where is all this language because I don't have it in my packet it was I'm from Laura you probably got an email or maybe you were not on her updated email list because you're a new commissioner that's possible I got it and you may have modified it but we're fighting over one word here and one word there and you're missing the whole point they're supposed to be our partners this is a citizen driven board where everyone someone has to oversee the board and run the board the task force is going to run the board who's reporting to us on what's going on who's going to go do the meetings who's doing all that the task force needs somebody overseeing it mayor so can I just so the task force will elect a chair and they essentially run themselves the benefit of this task force is that as you can see there's a member of the DDA there's a member of the chamber who are astute as to how these groups run and so there's a member of staff that's available in case there's questions and then that member of staff will communicate with the manager communicate with the commission and when the task force is complete they will route whatever they come up with the beautification master plan and eventually it will land on your desk that was the way it was envisioned I hope they do better than we do I gotta say it was never envisioned that way to me and what precedent are we setting going forward so now every task force that we have in the city is gonna have to be city led we don't trust our partners to do that anymore I mean come on guys your task force is our city led because you appoint them a little bit of historical stuff in the old days things used to need to go and they used to require that you couldn't get a project done on the beach unless the BPOA opined on it and it was finally decided that really wasn't the best way to do it so having the DDA run at things and screen all the meetings is not a citizen task force if you want to make it a DDA board then let the DDA do it I'm happy to let the DDA do it then it's not a city board they don't need my resolution if it's gonna be a citizen driven task force then it's gonna be a city board but it comes back to the city for approval they're gonna come back they're gonna come back by somebody else well there's a whole committee that they're outlining that will have input into it just like by the way we did on the golf course there's gonna be all kinds of input into it I'm sorry mayor I'm agreeing I know you disagree I will not can't the DDA do that now without this task force yes they can like right now they have the power to do exactly what you're saying they're asking to do it right now so let's just kick this can down the road and not do it and let the DDA do what you're asking them to do why do we need this if they can already do it you want to let them do the whole Atlantic from the beach I'm just saying if they can already do it I'm good with that we've been on this in hours let's do this let's forego this vote and let the DDA do the whole task force they can pick up the cost well they're not picking up the cost if they're going downtown it's their task force they're picking up the cost well you don't get to decide that universally I disagree that would come to a vote to the commission as to how much money would be allocated I'm pretty certain that the taxpayers will have a lot to say oh I know you can send them an email but at this point in time we have to make a determination okay we have a motion on the floor yes sir I'd like to call a question I got to have clarity on what this motion we're adopting the city's resolution as written and I'm ready to take back my motion and forget about this too I'm ready to vote now which way you want to go it's all good to me I agree with Ms. Burns you want a motion to withdraw I second her withdrawal you don't need a motion to withdraw you don't need a motion you just withdraw you can amend your motion motion it would be a motion to deny resolution 6326 motion to deny resolution 636 626 I agree with that so is that a second is that a second second yes second then you call so it's a yes vote is it a vote tell me what a yes vote would be to deny the resolution okay so you would not create a task force essentially okay all in favor aye any opposed fine motion is defeated right so deny okay good luck good luck with your task force and I look forward to your future presentations hopefully you will work with the chamber and the CRA and I would love to help as well 7G 7G 7G a resolution of the City Commission of the City of Delray Beach Florida adopting amendments to the West Atlantic Master Plan now known as the Set Transformation Plan providing an effective date and further purposes resolution number 19-26 I have a point of order here when did the I mean the last thing I remember the last official act I saw was in 2020 by the City Commission where they called this plan the West deliberately called it the West Atlantic development the West Atlantic Master Plan when did it get to be known as a Set Transformation I didn't see one vote from this body which is the only one that can do that changing the name from what was decided in 2020 to today when did that happen I know you talk about it and they say oh it's the Set Transformation Plan we're now known as this commission has not made the determination that it's not that it is no longer the West Atlantic Master Plan so please tell me in all of the documents that I looked at when that happened with this adoption I guess oh it's with this well you're saying now known as you said okay so you're not saying it's known as this now so what happened with the history of this is this plan was originally called the Set Master Plan and the adoption of a very long community effort was hit some bumpy patches and I remember we had to sit here and go through a strike through and underline projected page by page version I was here yes we'd use that and ultimately it was adopted as the West Atlantic Master Plan at a goal setting Renee and I were talking about this earlier I remember that it was the goal setting at the golf course my back was to the wall she was kind of a corner at the end and she brought it up as whether or not we were going to continue to call the area the West Atlantic Master Plan or was it okay to use the set because some of the commissioners were using that phrase and staff had been very careful not to use that phrase and the consensus at that meeting was yes it was okay to shift to the set thank you you were probably here so I was looking there and so that's when it shifted to the set and with this update the formalization of that name change would be adopted and what is in the plan I'm going to pass this microphone over now I mean there were so many things with this plan that I agree with I agree with extending the business district I mean all of this stuff I agree with but we're trying to market Atlantic Avenue this is a marketing thing and you know everyone who got up and spoke about it they talk about the shared lifeline they talk about extending the business district they talk about One Del Rey but it doesn't become One Del Rey because the branding of half the avenue is going to now be something different than Atlantic Avenue but Pineapple Grove Way was not not Atlantic Avenue we know that we know that and Pineapple Grove Way which you're doing so it's the branding it's the because when you're trying to market something you market it with a common name so all of a sudden they're going to Atlantic but they're not really going to Atlantic it's going to be controlled by another document but as I said most of the stuff is I mean I think it's a great document and extending the business district to include West Atlantic I think that's a great idea I mean there's a lot of stuff that I think is a great idea it doesn't change it's the branding you are we're trying so hard to talk about Atlantic Avenue and we're talking about Atlantic Avenue going you know there's a city avenue going from I-95 to the beach everyone talks about that but now all of a sudden well this is the set right well so we we have a long history and we go back because I was on the downtown master plan trip back in was it 2005 right that was a Treasure Coast led citizens master plan I believe it's the name it was called initially and that was doing most of downtown but not all the neighborhoods then you had the northwest plans and the southwest plans we did a lot of plans and we had the Pineapple Main Street plan for Pineapple Grove Way all of these plans kind of touching on different places this plan is more than just the West Atlantic Corridor it's also the northwest and southwest neighborhood and recommendations within those that are also captured so I don't I think this is a decision for you certainly but we have used multiple plans within different areas some of which overlap there's even a DIA map in the comp plan that shows the different overlapping areas that have been analyzed so I think commercial corridor is a signature corridor I understand exactly why you're talking about it but I believe that this plan is it goes beyond the corridor and makes recommendations and it has over time for the neighborhoods as well so for example you approve of the vending city regulations to make food trucks vendor carts kiosks and other small points of sale permitted within these I mean yes that was one of the things that came out of the public meetings very strongly that okay so we're very careful fine I'm just yes yeah that one was there that came out of the meetings not everywhere right because you don't want to put a food truck and park it in front of your bricks and mortar restaurants that are paying top dollar to be on the app but the West Atlantic Avenue and 5th which is the historic Bain Street they haven't had the buildings even coming in in some cases so this was an idea that came out of the thing and so we're trying to pick out what the C area has created and see what are the LDR amendments that might come forward so they would all be voted on individually they would all be voted on individually as ordinances they came forward so I mean maybe the best thing is to get an overview of what the update adjusts and then as part of your decision you can give direction on the title of the plan but by voting on this I'm just saying are we now agreeing that we're going to reduce the height on West Atlantic this is what this is saying is they want to reduce the height currently we have a height limitation so we're going to agree now we're going to make it lower because what this says is to reduce the height of the West Atlantic so we're adopting this plan to amend it to the highest it can go is three stories just like on East Atlantic we brought through an amendment later where we lowered the height a lot of historic components to it as well so we don't have on West Atlantic correct but even when Sunday Village was approved as Swinton Commons at the very late hour it was moved to go down to three stories at that point as an urban designer I'm not telling this community anything I haven't told you before okay so they it's okay if they don't agree with me it was that your West Atlantic is wider it can handle more height than the East Atlantic but that's not the vision that the community is putting forward in this document that's one thing that's come up over and over again is to lower the height to three stories so eventually if that's a priority of the commission we would bring forward an ordinance for your consideration that explain what that means in terms of what does it look like we would use this document as guidance you know those types of things but that is a consistent that has been a consistent issue for the community that they want the height drop down they don't want to be they don't want the neighborhoods walled off from the corridor they think it's always that phrase that was coming up for 20 years I'm just saying it devalues the land I mean that's okay I mean I said I'm not disagreeing I'm just saying I think everybody needs to understand what they're voting on Mayor may I when I sat on the CRA when we were first contemplating that BH3 project one of the biggest concerns everybody had was the size of that thing and they dropped it down because we said we we did not want it any higher than three stories and I'm telling you from a visual it's in that one extra story is very impactful I share that concern I like three stories I understand that the land has less value to developers but at the end of the day we own it so I mean it's I said I'm not disagreeing with any I'm actually and frankly a lot of these are just suggested policy changes correct I'm saying but you know it talks about requiring it was just I'm saying this is not saying it's a bad idea to require in these public private partnerships that a percentage of it be leased to discount to encourage you know incubators or whatever that's fine but at what point does it end is it after five years after 10 years I mean so there's so many things here that I'm not sure of and I'm just raising the issue now because someone's going to raise them later because it does affect the property right hello all right hello Renee Jadison executive director good evening mayor and commissioner staff Terrence Lynn everyone so this has been a long time coming we've had this project going I have the timeline we kind of jump through it a little bit so I'll just jump right to 2020 where Anthea left off with the adoption of the plan so there's a lot in this plan I think it's more than just it's more than just the Atlantic Avenue it's more than just the neighborhoods there's more than just the city the CRA it's the community I think that's what's different than other plans is that there are different principles within the plan that some are community-led some are not really even much involving the CRA especially after the 2019 changes to the statute it further limited what CRAs can do which is what we tried to capture when we went through this update so while yes these are things that the communities asked for it's not necessarily things that has to happen I guess necessarily if the city commission the CRA does not choose to do so it's still something that you know we would have to go through the food trucks the height restrictions those all have to go through further adoption this is just what the community has put forward as a recommendation what they would like to see and then it's then for the commission and us to collectively decide with the community if we want to go that route or not so there's again this is not the end-all be-all this is just the recommendations that's put forward but a lot of work went into this and a lot of effort a lot of community meetings which we'll go through the summary here all right so we'll jump to 2023 this is when the CRA board started to discuss more seriously about amending the plan formally to change the name from the West Atlantic master plan and changing it to the set transformation plan so that's when we started that process in 2024 I'm sorry I will say during that time we were only looking at the implementation plan which is the end part of the document that summarizes all of the action strategies and the the recommendations in the plan with timelines and things like that but as we started to look at that it was so pervasive through the whole plan that we were kind of taking it in bytes instead of just doing this implementation plan because it would have fully captured what we were trying to do with the update so we decided to start with just updating the demographics the economic data so that started in 2024 and we hired someone to just do that they pulled the Esri data for statistics and demographics and updated all of the charts and pages in the document that had that information so I have those slides at the end if you want to see a comparison of what we did but it was page for page exact changes because this is just an update it wasn't supposed to be a complete rewrite so we wanted to keep the look and the feel and the spirit of the plan intact just updating the data because at this point the data was from 2016 2017 so then we discussed next steps after we updated that data and the decision was to go ahead and start updating the entire document so we started that around May 2024 with going through the document and actually scrubbing and changing the name because I remember with Anthea we sat through and took the set transformation name out of the plan back in 2020 and this was now us going back and putting it back in and so we started public meetings in 2025 we hired inspire placemaking to help work on the actual draft and had four public meetings between May through October and then we started just discuss how we were going to actually go forward with the implementation process the CRA board would basically have to make a recommendation to the city commission to adopt so our board met in December of 2025 and approved that recommendation for the city commission to adopt this also went to the DDA board for a presentation and planning and zoning board which the planning zodia board recommended approval 60 all right so here's a summary of the public meetings the first meeting we just had a brief kickoff meeting and presented the demographic data which again is listed in the end of this presentation then we went into a second meeting when we discussed all of the action strategies which there are six we then followed with two other meetings where they were really interactive and some of y'all went there we had probably over a hundred people almost at all of these meetings we had some rain factors that affected the last meeting but we had a lot of public input and a lot of people who aren't the typical faces I know there's one person that really like impacted me she told me at the end she's like I don't like coming to city things I don't I don't enjoy these things I don't like it but coming here maybe want to get more involved so that's why I really think this is more than just a small group it really was a broader cross-section of the community that actually came out because they just wanted to know what this is about so the last two meetings we did a larger exercise where we had boards that were spread around the room where people could actually sticker and put information or put stickers by the things they knew about they didn't know about and things they wanted to get more information about so we have a full report that goes through every single board it shows every single picture of all the boards for all the public input that we had from those meetings this is just the summary we kind of went through this already but it was a really well attended public outreach effort so getting into the actual document so if you look at the original compared to now a lot of this is again the same and I just wanted to highlight the table of contents is pretty much the same thing as it's as it's currently adopted even the food trucks things like that those are all things that are currently adopted not a lot of things change I went into this thinking this document was going to go from like a hundred something pages to like 60 or less we'd have a hundred outcomes we only would come back to like 60 or so but we really kept a lot of them there a lot of these things were needed we condensed some of them we rewrote them and edited some of them but a lot of those principles and action strategies were made the same because they're still priorities of the community so this lists a summary of all of the guiding principles within the plan which will go through them very briefly to show what's been updated but the overall overview it's community capacity building civic stewardship community wealth building healthy community placemaking and strategic investments right so going into community capacity building so this is one of the action strategies that is more community-led this is where residents is community driven to develop what residents want to see as far as stewardship and ensuring that the change in their community is community driven community-owned and community benefiting so the largest change that was came out of the the public meetings for this section was about the commercial land trust so there were references to a land trust in the document in several places and it was a little bit vague I think not as clear about what the community actually meant by this this desire so we do have a current housing land trust that is started by the CRA and the city back in 2007 and that land trust is a you know reference throughout this plan but this particular land trust is for commercial purposes not the current housing land trust that we have now so we just wanted to make it very clear that the community has a desire to have its own land trust for commercial separate and apart from the current land trust that we have that is created by the city and the CRA so we made that you know very abundantly clear this is a commercial land trust guided by community stakeholders that's a tool for residents and businesses to use for themselves in their community next is civic stewardship so this is for citizens to take a more active role in how to be engaged in their government and also with their neighborhoods so the biggest takeaway from this section is we added this the green bubble to the right where it talks about how to get involved so we just made it a more condensed place where people can go to find out how would they get involved in their community either attending city meetings DDA meetings neighborhood meetings adjoining advisory board getting to know city staff elected officials signing up for newsletters just an information place because again this document is not just city and about planning and those types of things it's really just a resource for community members to go to for many different things so this was the biggest takeaway from this modification next is healthy community which is also a community lab initiative so this is a tool that kind of expands on the on health that expands it to more than just your physical I'm sorry that was I'm sorry jumping to healthy community this community wealth is about redistributing or distributing wealth across generations and assets such as properties and businesses not just income alone so there are different principles that came underneath this action strategy which are listed here these largely did not change we reorganize them a little bit but it is more about how to encourage job creation encourage business growth and development within the community okay now it's healthy community so this is how residents engage on their health and wellness and it's not just a traditional method of viewing health it's more of a holistic culturally responsive response our look at services so it's pretty broad you'll see this is the longest one with many different action strategies that come out of this principle because it's just that important to have your healthy community in many different ways so we just updated the information there to reflect information that came out of the community I think one of the biggest things that we modified was about like mental health and making sure that that's something that's highlighted access to health and fresh foods active lifestyles again so it's more than just going to the doctor and those types of things it's really more of an expansive look on your health overall all right and now place making so this is where we jump more into like city CRA led strategies those so this is discussing how the community might like to see the public spaces and makes recommendations for street safe improvements urban design and connections within the community of the set to other areas within the city and these recommendations are laid out in different I guess priorities so there are priority street improvements which we improvements such as Swinton Avenue Atlantic Avenue 4th 8th 5th 10th some of the major through streets then it talks about secondary improvements also alleys gateways and intersections built environment opportunities and recreations and branding opportunities it's all coming in underneath place making so that's why it's more involving the city in the CRA because those are things that we would be helping with as far as infrastructure city with LDR changes so that is all captured within this section and we updated it to reflect current projects some of the bigger street safe projects like the Northwest neighborhood improvement project needed to be captured here Pompeii Park also needed to be captured in also the office neighborhood improvement project all right and the last one is strategic investments this is also again the city and CRA led initiative so this is to encourage investment within the community and development while preserving the nature the cultural heritage of the neighborhood and these focus on key opportunities to redevelop our parcels and the CRA properties and what this recommendations would be from the community also activating underused frontages of industrial and institutional buildings the focus on 5th Avenue initiative is here because that's still a you know a big major commercial area within the set neighborhood that really needs to be still improved so with there's a section here about that we added in information about the village center community hub that needed to be expanded on because this was older and prior to when there's more that's been happening in that area also neighborhood preservation is highlighted industrial revitalization and mobility within the area so that's an overview of the plan document itself and the changes so not a lot I kind of highlighted some of the things that were within the document not just in the action strategies but those things were largely already in the plan they were just restructured a bit so part of this process also included meetings with city staff to go over the plan sections and update references to land development regulations so they were outdated so we sat several meetings after all the planning meetings to go through and make sure that those things were all reflected in there accurately and next one of the biggest changes that I mentioned was the implementation plan so this the implementation plan again highlights all of the action strategies all the principles throughout the plan into one document is about five or six pages at the end of the document so what we wanted to do was actually make that a separate document that's more standalone because this again started with wanting to update that but updating that would require this entire process so say we needed to wanted to update a couple things in there we'd have to go through this whole entire thing so instead of doing that we came up with having that as a separate document that's kind of managed and held by the city and the CRA and the community together that we can update and modify more fluidly as opposed to going through this larger planning effort so we have the inception which is now so all the information in the plan is in there but if projects change or things come up over the time that can be modified as we go along but the plan itself still stays intact and eventually we look at updating it and we see where we've come along with the implementation plan so that shift was made to where it's a standalone document and it's in the backup information that you have there as well right and so i talked about the updating of the data so this kind of starts some of that we use the esri data from 2024 census data placer ai and costar to update all of those pages within the plan and this just gives you an example of how it was changed so you can see it's we kept the look and feel of the plan the same just updated information so you'll see the highlighted information is what was changed from what was initial so we wanted to make it really clear that it's you know like for like it's the same document just updated the data within and the charts you'll see exactly the same presentation so right so today we're here just for city commission to make the final adoption or consideration of this plan to adopt it into books get it done thank you thank you very much mr market would you like to go first thank you very thoroughly appreciate it quick quick that was quick commissioner malica well it is getting late but i have um attended all the community meetings and renee you can heard some cats you do you did a great job in the community showed up so i'm super appreciative of all the efforts and finally let's get this done in the 18th hole right commissioner casal would you like to be recognized thanks i um no this is great i mean this has been worked on for i can't even remember how long 16 years yeah and i think i like how you took the um the update uh and moved it out as a companion document because that was one of the fears i had when this first started is is the city is the CRA are these nonprofits are these other organizations committed and are we going to fill these slots check these boxes in three months six months five years ten years but now that we know you know we can do this at a at a more i don't want to say leisurely pace but that it's there and we can you know do it at our direction as we go i like it i like this document and um you know let's let's vote great commissioner burns 16 years let's go 18th hole okay i never get past nine so i mean i'm in the um i just have two comments first i i i'm not going to hold this up obviously i think it's a very well written plan i've said that before and that's was well thought out and i was actually at the meeting with reggie and the group when it was worked back 2011 or 12 when we met someplace over there some cafeteria with a big thing for the original the original thoughts of how this is going to go so i i could have i'm fine with it i think it's a mistake changing the name and i'm going to be on record for saying that but i'm not going to let that hold up the process um if that's what the community wants i just say that caution in a marketing thing i'm not the marketing expert but people want to be on atlantic and they they just need to understand that they're they're the different set of rules applying to them i have one i i don't know that it's not i don't want to say that it may be a misplaced concern when the this plan which has been 16 years in the making and i understand that when you talk about the ability to revise the plan we need to understand that the commission has got to have some role in this because the people that are this is a very big plan for covering a lot of areas and a lot of issues governed largely by a non-elected board and governed by people not subject to the sunshine law i'm always reluctant when that's the case so i just want to make sure that the commission still have some degree of control over this aspect even though they can amend the plan here and there that's a do those amendments at least have to come for as i say i don't know what the ability to update the plan is because anything can be you could be establishing well nothing can go through without having to go through this committee first or something kind of stuff you may comment that's a question okay so yes there is no separate i guess oversight or management from a non-elected board or body there is the concept of a community management team within the plan which it was something different in the prior versions of the plan the one that was adopted the one that's adopted now is really a city CRA led group because we recognize that it's not just a planning function it's not just a CRA function there's police there's fire there's economic development it's a lot of different departments that would be overseeing or involved in what happens in the things in the plan and some things as we i mentioned are completely community-led so they may look to the city for assistance but it's not something that we're necessarily leading per se it's just more of a collaboration so there is not a separate body that's going to be doing this and with the modifying and changing it was just about the implementation plan so those are the the action strategies and the principles that come out of it so say we come up with a new public works project or there's a new economic development initiative because the plan got really really specific in some of those places now with that implementation plan being outside of it it's more of like you have the economic development concept and things that come out of it but if other things come up and change and there's other community needs then you can do those because right now you can do these things anyway you can make up other different programs and plans that you would like to see in the neighborhood it's just having that plan that implementation plan separate just gives more i guess leeway to make those changes the plan itself will not change if it's something that is within the plan that we feel it rises to the level of a plan amendment then we would bring that to you not make the change separately thank you for the clarification that's a very satisfactory answer i was just confirming yes i just that there is no separate entity that's going to be doing this that's all i wanted to know then i i think we're all in agreement i need a motion to approve motion to approve don't all say it at once you go motion to approve resolution number 1926 um known as i mean well let's say amendments to the west atlantic master plan now known as a set transformation plan second do i have a second second all in favor aye any opposed it is unanimously adopted hey reggie does this mean we go to the 19th hole now absolutely community where y'all going hold on heading out for it right now so can i can i bring up something before the community leaves okay so statement you want to make well i have a request that i want to make with the with the um with commission with my colleagues yes all right so in reference to the expansion of the entertainment district now that we have formally adopted the amendments to this plan um i want to remind you that i brought this up back in back in november november 18th i'm gonna be like mr moore now november 18 2025 that's correct in the workshop meeting and we discussed the proposed um or norris ordinance and the boundaries of the entertainment district so now at this time i would like to request um to expand the entertainment district westward um and like we we agreed to revisit this at a later date so now is the later date so um i don't know how how do i move forward with like what am i asking now are we gonna i think we should arrange for to have a workshop to actually do it construct the numbers construct our boundaries bring it to a resolution you had concerns about this and we've discussed potentially uh at the last meeting this came up that may be conditional uses in the beginning till we establish what this all looks like is it possible to to consider conditional uses and maybe waive the fees and that just if you waive the fees you're saying to people you don't have to you you do the application but you don't have to pay for it it's not a cost and then we see how it works because i know we did have concerns about and i agree i know what people are saying we will the you know the entertainment district there was entertainment here at one time but unfortunately when they developed the housing there really wasn't any and those people didn't know about it and to just incorporate an entertainment district without sort of testing how does this work here is that possible that we could do it conditionally and waive the fees so people can get the use and and but we can see how it works so you could do anything conditionally waiving the fees um i know we've done that for parking we did it for something to encourage redevelopment you can do a pilot program you can expand it for a period of time miss burns as long as we get it done so well we are we proposing a pilot program at this point or are we proposing a workshop to to workshop this so i'm i'm game i mean i might just do the workshop so we can work out what the parameters of the program should be rather than i don't want to adopt the program in the blind you know we kind of there are residential concerns or are these but i think we're all i think we want to move in that direction i mean i think we want to move in that direction but if the application goes in they still have to come it still has to come in front of us so you you if you're giving it to the option to to them for free you're not the parameters don't really need to be that laid out because that's going to take us quite a while you basically say look put your application and come in front of us and you know if we do it we do it if we don't we don't and that the we test the theory by hoping someone comes in and puts in an application and gets started quickly because that starts developing the data it's whatever your pleasure is we can do a pilot program where we just extend it for a brief period of time test it out we just got our noise meter so we're very excited we're going to start the trainings you can do it that way you can do a conditional use a conditional use would require a change of the code which is two public hearings that's i mean you're if you change the entertainment district you're going to have to change the code also right it's whatever your which is why i thought the workshop would allow us to create the ordinance and then we can just bring it out i would like to do the workshop to create an ordinance because we we've lost two businesses currently because partly because of the noise ordinance um and not having uh the entertainment district so i would like to workshop it so that we come up with something permanent because right now we have this development that's going to happen in the next future in the near future and so what we want to do is prepare for those people because right now the two that we would get the data from are no longer so mr mayor consensus from the commission i'll make arrangements as soon as possible that's fine thank you thank you i think we're all in agreement yes we're all in agreement yes great yes let's get get it set up and let's get it going i agree i mean i said you said i export the agenda you can't say i support it you can't hear mayor mr mayor yes do you want to read the quasi-judicial rules for 7h yes the following is a quasi-judicial hearing i'm going to pull out the rules so everybody can see it we have two items that are there's two of them right i think it's just one the others are public hearings it's just one oh yeah the other public hearing first three is coming up this the following agenda item will be is a quasi-judicial hearing the hearing will be conducted in accordance with the quasi-judicial rules the applicant in the city shall be allowed 15 minutes each to present their case the public shall be allowed to speak for three minutes each or a maximum of six minutes if the person represents an organization or a group of people who are present but agree not to speak the city commission and staff and the applicant may be allowed to cross-examine a witness the city or the applicant will be allowed to offer rebuttal testimony the decision to approve or deny an application or appeal may not be legally made upon the personal views as to whether a project is a good project or not nor may a decision be based on the numbers of citizens who support or oppose a particular project the law requires that all decisions must be made on the basis whether the project meets the requirements of law the comprehensive plan and the land development regulations anybody wishing to speak on this matter if you could all please rise and be sworn by the clerk thank you very much could you please enter the project file into the record good evening anthea geniotis development services director and i'd like to enter file pz 000504-2026 thank you very much disclosure of export communications commissioner casal none thank you commissioner burns none thank you commission none for me either okay so caption i'm sorry i didn't read the caption oh yes please a resolution of the city commission of the city of delray beach florida approving a waiver to the seawall height requirements in section 717 d1 of the land development regulations to allow the construction of a seawall above the base flood elevation for the property located at 1310 northwest 13th street as more particularly described herein providing an effective date and further purposes thank you very much to the applicant all right thank you good evening um mayor vice mayor commissioners thank you for the opportunity to present this application my name is jenna robbins with jj marine environmental and i'm presenting a request for a relief waiver for the proposed seawall to extend above the allowable seawall height per section 7.1.7 d of the land development regulations this property is located on lake ida just east of i-95 at 1310 northwest 13th street the property is owned by the applicants mr william panoff and mrs audrey balbeers and it consists of an existing waterfront lot that has approximately 75 feet of shoreline or it's 75 feet from the north property line to the south property line here are some aerial photos of the site there's a rock wall on the northern part of the site and then a wood seawall on the south side and a wood finger pier that is to remain and here are some existing site photos to give you an idea of the conditions of the wall so at the bottom right there's that rock seawall that you can kind of see behind the turf there and then underneath the turf on the left side is the wood wall there's a steep slope there the property is currently experiencing erosion due to the inadequate inadequacy of the existing seawall um and then um sorry lost my train of thought but the proposed um project consists of a new seawall brought up to an elevation of 11.33 feet navd the new wall will be placed in front of the old wall um and then the existing finger pier is to remain as i stated before the existing seawall will i mean the proposed seawall is approximately 112 linear feet in length that's separate from the lot width of 75 feet due to the fact that the shoreline extends further east as you move southward along the property line per the code under table 717d the maximum seawall height allowable per code is the base flood elevation which based off of the applicable fema flood maps is nine feet for this property the existing seawall is currently at 9.68 so it's important to note that the existing seawall already exceeds this height requirement and then we're bringing the proposed seawall up to 11.33 here's a cross-sectional view of the existing conditions and what we're proposing on the top is the rock wall that's on the north side of the property and on the bottom part of the screen is the existing wood wall that's on the south side of the property at those differing elevations it creates those inconsistencies and leads to upland property loss and creates that steep slope which is an unsafe condition for the residents as well as visitors especially young children so we're proposing to bring it up to 11.33 which ultimately results in a minimal difference of 21 inches to a maximum of 29 inches regulatory approvals have been approved by the florida department of environmental protection who also issued on behalf of the u.s army corps of engineers confirming that there would be no adverse impacts to the waterway and to approve a waiver the code states that these three or four criteria need to be met and as such the project will not adversely impact the adjacent neighbors it confirms or it conforms with modern shoreline resiliency standards there's no impact to public facilities as it's all located on their private property there's no unsafe situation created it's actually eliminating the current hazardous drop off and sinkholes due to the inconsistent elevation of the shoreline and no special privilege will be granted as similar nearby properties have also received the same waiver and then in summary this proposed project prevents the continued erosion and the loss of the upland property it enhances safety for the residents and their visitors especially young children creating a short stable and more predictable shoreline it'll improve shoreline protection as well given the given current and future coastal conditions such as sea level rise the seawall has been designed in accordance with modern coastal engineering and resiliency standards it also establishes a smoother and safer transition from the upland property which the pool deck is right there and the house down to the seawall it will also reduce fall hazards and improve the overall functionality of their backyard and as previously stated dep and army corps have approved the project and similar waivers have been granted so this demonstrates that the request is reasonable consistent and aligned with other how other similar situations have been addressed and therefore this proposed seawall replacement is necessary to address existing structural deficiencies the ongoing erosion and the unsafe site conditions and for these reasons we respect respectfully request approval of the waiver thank you for your time and consideration thank you very much to the city so this is the i think the second or maybe the third or fourth um seawall we've had with the lake the way lake ida's um edge is meeting the water um this is exacerbated by the way that new development is filling the lots but we do not have a limitation on fill right now so now we have somebody trying to just reinforce their shoreline um this is i think there's just a couple small things i'm going to point out you've gotten a very good overview from the applicant this is on in a portion of the lake that is privately owned that these are the lot lines so there's riparian rights for these folk these folks here um this is the existing barrier that is inadequate um again so we had said that if you have your baselet elevation which is the you have to build your your floor to this the building code requires another foot right um unfortunately what ends up happening um is that a lot of new construction then fills the rest of the yard as well so we can't take a step or two coming out of our house and so now the yard is higher than the limit on the seat wall and that's what you've been seeing over and over again um so this is not um unusual if you have any questions about it i think this is a the issue of fill and transition and all of those things as a workshop for another days and it's been a long meeting so we won't get into that um however um based on the existing conditions of the site this wall height is you know going to sort of cap where the dirt in the yard has is coming down from the pool deck at this point um she saw the approvals the docks and the finger piers are existing little pieces will be removed um and you know as part of this construction but there's nothing new in terms of what's projecting into the water that would happen um they have all of their um approvals from our partner agencies and these are the findings that you need to make um to consider this request so great thank you very much this is a public hearing but since nobody was sworn there's anybody here to to speak from the members of the public if so please come up get sworn by the clerk seeing none public comment is closed is there any rebuttal from the applicant or any rebuttal from the city or anything then i will entertain a discussion a motion to approve or a discussion motion to approve resolution number seven eight dash two six second please call the roll clerk deputy vice mayor margaret yes commissioner malica yes commissioner cassano yes vice mayor burns yes mayor carning yes motion passed if i might just have one moment of your time um so our applicant has been waiting for five hours to have this heard and she's the third case we brought forward with this type of relief would you have consensus to direct staff to perhaps identify some thresholds where this type of deviation could be administratively approved yes yes yes especially when the seawall is going to be lower than the center of the yard it makes no sense you'd have to do it because otherwise the whole yard is going to end up to end up in the canal or in the lake okay thank you i was going to ask the same question yes that would have been that was going to be part of my comments this is the third one it's the magic number like can we change the code mr market looked at this and said why are we even doing this thank you sometimes there are layups thank you anyway gosh we're all on one accord hey we're often on one accord um public advisory public art advisory board this is my appointment and i would like to appoint daniel martino i know we don't have to second but i will i'm gonna all in favor aye any opposed mr martino congratulations um this is now that we are now into the um public hearing this is the first reading um would you with the clerk would the the city attorney please read the ordinance into the into the record mayor can i read a and b together since they're both please do because they're companions yes so ordinance number 14-26 an ordinance of the city commission of the city of delray beach florida amending the land development regulations of the city of delray beach code of ordinances by amending chapter 4 zoning regulations article 4.4 base zoning district section 4.4.6 medium density residential rm district subsection b principal uses and structures permitted to allow medical office uses within the medical arts overlay district when co-located with nursing homes assisted living facilities and community residences and by amending article 4.5 overlay and environmental management district section 4.4.18 medical arts overlay district to expand the overlay district to include certain property within the medium density residential rm district providing a complex cause a severability cause authority to codify providing an effective date and further purposes ordinance number 15-26 an ordinance of the city commission of the city of delray beach florida amending the land development regulations of the city of delray beach code ordinances by amending chapter 4 zoning regulations article 4.4 based zoning district section 4.4.12 planned commercial pc district section 4.4.15 planned office center poc district on section 4.4.21 community facilities cf district to relocate medical arts overlay district regulations from subsection g supplemental district regulations subsection b principal uses and structures for consistency with other regulations providing a complex cause a severability cause authority to codify providing an effective date and further purposes these are both public hearings first reading all right this is a public hearing on item we have two agenda items they are companion items um if there are any members of the public wishing to speak on this first first reading please come to the lectern give your name and zip code for the record seeing none um city's not does not want to make a presentation so i need a a motion to approve resolution ordinance number 14-26 so moved second all in favor aye any opposed great motion to approve ordinance number 15-26 second all in favor aye any opposed we are done good eight there we go so um would you like to read in the next well ordinance 21-26 an ordinance of the city commission of the city of delray beach florida amending the land development regulations of the city of delray beach code of ordinances chapter 4 zoning regulations article 4.3 district regulations general provisions section 4.3.3 specific requirements for specific uses subsection triple z transient residential uses to eliminate provisions preempted by the state of florida amending article 4.4 base zoning districts section 4.4.6 medium density residential arm districts subsection b principal uses and structures permitted to allow transient residential use subject to the provisions of section 4.3.3 triple z and reminding appendix a definitions to amend the definition for transient residential uses to eliminate inconsistencies with state statutes providing conflicts cause and severability cause authority to codify providing an effective date and further purposes this is second reading okay this is second reading everyone this this this is actually to bring this is to bring us in conformity with the florida statute so unless there is a great desire to do this because we can't do anything to change it anyway because we're coming into compliance with the law this is a public hearing is there anybody in this uh chamber that we'd like to address the on ordinance number 2126 seeing none public comment is closed motion to approve ordinance number 2126 second all in favor aye any opposed it is unanimous there we go can i ask one question you may is this going to make it more enforceable now because before we weren't able to enforce correct i make it more clear as to what the obligations are because right now when people ask we say what's in the code is not accurate and then they have to rely on staff's ability to interpret what is accurate so it's it's it's it's not going to help with the turnover and it's but it's going back to the pre preemption days and so for notice purposes for people that's what it's doing so if i have an airbnb next to me and i see it turning over more than six times that could potentially be enforceable yes thank you in what time frame what was that in what time frame a year i think it's a year isn't it yeah i think i said yeah i'll read it you don't have to thank you for the presentation no don't bother i i i'll wait here thank you yeah it's a one year it says three right now but that's inaccurate we tighten the rules after we couldn't and this is likely to be changed anyway so it will increase everyone's ability to understand what the rules are and that's important it can provide clarity property owners staff everybody yes thank you very much for the presentation you did you nailed it i'm telling you my god absolutely crushed it if you could please read ordinance number 26 26 into the record in ordinance of the city commission of the city of delray beach florida amending the land development regulations of the code of ordinances of the city of delray beach by many chapter two administrative provisions article 2.1 reviewing officials and authorities section 2.1.5 the planning and zoning board in section 2.1.6 the site plan review and appearance board to establish the authority to approve the use of masonry modern and art deco architectural styles in the central business district and by amending chapter 4 zoning regulations article 4.4 based zoning districts section 4.4.13 central business cbd district subsection f architectural standards to modify city commission approval to a determination by the appropriate advisory board that the masonry modern or art deco architectural style is appropriate for the location and meets adopted architectural design guidelines providing a complex clause a severability clause authority to caught authority to codify providing an effective date for other purposes okay this is the first reading are there any members of the public wishing to this is this isn't a public hearing just first reading oh it's the first reading i'm sorry never mind ordinance number 20 motion to approve ordinance number 26-26 second all in favor aye any opposed it is adopted no no no it's gonna go to second reading i'm sorry what second reading oh it is not adopted it's moved on to the next it's almost adopted almost adopted um where are we city city manager comments i yield at this time thank you good answer city attorney okay well i'm getting to commission comments would you like to go first i would yeah i have members of the weatherspoon family still they've been waiting to hear yeah they've been waiting because as you remember you're wasting time go ahead you're up as you remember i got consensus from uh from you my colleagues um to have staff investigate um the changing uh the spelling of correcting the spelling of the name but it got a little um a little shifted from correcting to changing and renaming the street um it involved um people well there are six homes on that street and it involved and as you heard some of the um members of the family said that the the name was often mispronounced and misspelled however the six people on that street would have to have all legal documents their deeds and licenses and all this change so i had a conversation with the family and they came up with an alternative plan which is what mr weatherspoon presented earlier which was to rename northwest 12th avenue which most weatherspoons live on and on that that that land uh to their father's name um mr weatherspoon's father lc weatherspoon avenue uh you know in conjunction with northwest 12th avenue so i'm getting uh i would like to have consensus so that we can follow through with that yes and i think mr moore has already done the research and staff has already done the research and it would not be renaming 12th but adding mr weatherspoon's name to that yeah we've done it elsewhere and i think that uh certainly the weatherspoon family deserves that can we spell it correctly though oh we're gonna spend it just like the research confirmed what needs to be the spelling so i think we'll be all set there okay thank you and also uh mr weatherspoon you forgot to even mention your service to the uh to the city as a fire fireman when you gave all your credentials thank you for your service yes and we hope we can accommodate you in this in this which we'll have to come back it's just we've done by resolution like we did before with the with the other streets right we just do it with form of resolution it will be in a form of resolution the addition of the existing streets so it will be much like second just near here martin luther king et cetera something so in the next couple meetings or so i think we'll make arrangements for a resolution and once that's adopted we'll assemble the necessary street names street signs under the street naming policy goes planning zoning correct first and then the city okay right okay perfect well let's get it on that agenda all right you got it family perfect all right thank you very much did you want to continue with of course i do okay so yeah i want to get this over with because i think uh commissioner has a power over there um uh we talked earlier you know i i i serve on the the county opioid reoccurring board and whenever we have our meetings i'm always like want to scoop down on my seat because of the way that del gray seems not to use utilize the funds in the way that the county and other cities are and i know we're not them however um i want to talk about this um mobile integration program that we talked about using the opiate settlement funds um i was under the impression that the city could fund this program for a fixed period of time however i received information from the city that it appears that this program is much costly than anticipated and if i'm right it's three hundred and forty four thousand one hundred dollars and this this is not like those funds were not even supposed to be used for for this kind of of service and we can't fund it with what we have left and even the money that we'll be getting in addition to this so um i think that we need to reconsider this this um this this this this program so i see all yes so we come up with that price tag what's concerning you're talking about the paramedical program correct yeah this mobile integrated health program is that are we talking about the same thing the same thing it's the same thing i want to make sure i have that on my list here's the thing that bothers me and again i know you always think i'm giving you a hard time and and i am if you go watch the meetings the people in the meeting are saying to mr orris we should present the commission with the numbers and mr orris says they're never going to go for this anyway don't worry about it or some such like that go watch the meeting don't take my word for it i'm not quoting him i'm telling you and then so so you come and you do a presentation you waste 20 minutes of our time on the presentation you waste all of the staff time that's involved in getting together and all the people that are participating in these boards have have put in their time and you don't have fundamental information for us to make a determination on so now after we see the presentation and there's no money presented to us then we say we're going to do the program now we realize it's not we can't even do it and the point i think i'm trying to make to you which i feel like i'm making constantly and maybe it's the way i'm communicating i don't know how to say this but we waste a lot of time because we don't acquire all of the necessary information prior to the presentations whether it's the economic development presentations that were frankly not very useful or that presentation which ultimately turns out to be not very useful or a whole host of other presentations we're not showing value for our employees time we're not showing value for our taxpayers time and we're certainly not showing value for the time of the people committed to these boards for us that's a good question is the mobile integrated thing where the firemen go out to try to prevent repeat ambulance rides i don't know what that is well it's the paramedical program where we were going to have individuals assigned to sort of assist people with drug issues after they've perhaps overdosed or had an incident and they get in our ambulance the idea was that then somebody could kind of function and help them through this system think of ariana and the way she assists homeless people it would be someone like that now during the meeting i felt like there is that kind of intervention out there and i don't know that but i mean i think now we've got to revisit going back to prevention i always feel that we had we prevention is where it's at and i think we should revisit putting the money into prevention and just do miss the program we talked about with miss spencer for this year and then figure it out next year because so do we want to put this on a future agenda so that you can have updated funds and and are you going to direct staff to and i'll i'll be coming up with something i'll offer an update perhaps this week in terms of when we'll be able to have an updated city commission meeting on the subject do you have a prevention program you have in mind miss spencer provide us us it's a local program for our local children in our schools and suzanne spencer yes she's amazing so i i think we should just allocate that money for her prevention for this year and then figure out what to do next year i just want to see that money go out in the community and support the community which is what it was intended for and also um the last part of what i want to do is receive quarterly updates on the city's use of the opioid funds and their distribution i have no idea where it's going how much we spent so i would like to get like quarterly updates on the use of the opioid funds for the upcoming meeting your first update to that effect will be made regarding the recommendations and the direction for use as you just described so that will be forthcoming okay thank you thank you and i i just i wanted to also mention that um the principal miss smith at um at um pomosa pomosa i went i attended two events i i was i gave the address at their recent middle school um awards program uh honor roll and she announced the uh recognition that they received um and let me see now i have my notes all mixed up i had it here sitting here waiting but i just wanted to commend her on that i i made it's the 2026 florida schools to watch yes yes and she's going to washington dc to to talk about best practices that she does at her school and you know one of the things that i had asked for um in the past was like a showcase of schools so that the commission could see the great things that go on in our schools and i understand that the the school district was opposed to um the principals commenting and making a presentation so it wasn't you know that they didn't want to do it however as much as i get information i will definitely be sharing that information but i think she is to be commended she was principal of the year last year um they have an amazing program i was just blown away i went to alison a production of alice in wonderland and i thought i was at the cravis i mean these children they went from third grade to eighth grade and it was just so professional and then i went back for the the uh honor roll program and the musicians i mean it's amazing and i'm gonna try and get them to come in here play for us for something they gotta play it you gotta hear it it's great so anyway i'm done now excellent do you want me to go commissioner judy mock thank you um just want to congratulate chief hunter for completing the boston marathon he sent me a picture of him i know wow pretty cool stuff and then um i mentioned this earlier in the meeting and it got kind of um passed over but i i feel like for our businesses we should consider a summing summer parking program and i know we just got those fees in place but i feel like the businesses are going to die on the vine if we don't do everything we can to help them with regard to maybe not charging for the garages during the summer maybe having a free monday i mean at least until four o'clock oh i i'm seeing your look i'm seeing that look i've been looking and um and then maybe having like a free parking monday or whatever just to get people to come downtown i and um when i was campaigning i put this question out on facebook and i know we don't govern by facebook but it was all about parking i got 215 comments um saying they don't come downtown anymore because of the cost of parking and um i just think we have to kind of look at that and particularly during the summer months when our businesses have such a difficult time bringing money in even though they're paying super high rates to be here that's all i got mr marker i'll be super quick uh just one thing a shout out to our great fire department they invited me to come over to the station this morning uh to be trained along with a dozen of our great firefighters on pet cpr so we uh you know we we now have a fire department that's going out to rescue scenes and they know how to resuscitate cats and dogs did you put your mouth on i i i did and i'm i'm all in and it's harder than you think guys but oh my gosh no i thought they wanted you because they were we're lacking that one ladder truck and you could have done the work for the ladder i was the only one in the class with a cat so yeah so we love they're very tasty but i wanted to say thank you and i think it's just another step forward for our fire department you know if you have a pet and there's a fire an incident our guys our guys know what to do do you do iguanas oh my gosh oh it's your height you can get them out of the tree without getting that's right that's true henry's laughing at me back there i'm laughing too no he's laughing with you he's laughing with you no he's laughing at me no he's laughing at me commissioner casal okay i'm gonna go um so yeah i was going to also thank the um two departments fire and police for um showing up the ejs uh career day event it was nice to see them um the beach missy i i i got a weird email and i it was cryptic i don't even know what it was about and then there was someone sent a picture do we need to discuss the beach or is everything good i walked down there two weeks ago and it was perfect but okay sam's on it thank you so uh whoever is asking city is on it that's what i'm saying um the okay you talked about the paramedical program sad to see that we lost a police dog uh ike i don't know if he was retired or currently working but i just lost my boy so it's heartbreaking um sorry for the handler and the whole department um mr moore you know it's again we're sitting here and we're always worried about money and the former old school square center for the arts non-profit has been utilizing pictures of the campus and getting donations they have well they're on there they're supposed to have a disclaimer on that website and they don't i was on it yesterday and they've been asked since 2024 and i don't i think jeff has asked them i reminded jeff i don't know why since 2024 they're being asked and they're not doing it but if you go on judy i'm telling you it's not on there so when you click to donate you see pictures of the campus right there's nothing that indicates that they're not on the campus there's no disclaimer and we know that they're getting money because they're they file your you file your 990s right so you're getting money so but the point is we don't know if this money is actually intended for that organization or is this money intended for the campus and people don't know and i think that mr orris has asked multiple times i think he forgot at one point to follow up but i reminded him and it's still that way and it's been that way for years and here are the taxpayers are paying for that property if someone's donating that should be utilized to offset the cost of the dda not going to that organization i can actually speak to that because mr orris did in fact reach out to me last week and he also reached out to um a board member of old school square who in fact doesn't know how to change the website but hired the website person to change it but no donations have come in from that website i don't know because then last 990 was whatever i will say that i raised this issue with with with attorney gentlemen last year there is a lot of confusion a lot on that and and i'm not suggesting that they they could be generating what things but i do think that for the sake of clarity for the public they should know absolutely that if they're making a donation that they're there it it may not be for the benefit of the campus and they do have a tendency to show pictures of the campus when you click to donate it shows the crest theater yeah i mean so it's it's it it looks that way whether that's the intention whether it's a website issue whether there's confusion or donations the language on it saying this is not part of the no there's no disclaimer that they had they had they had one point they had disclaimed it they corrected something when you click on to donate there's no disclaimer oh you know what they corrected if you donate a certain amount you could get like sponsorships to use the facility so they removed that that's all that's not exactly there's not a disclaimer and it's and he's been asking for two years i mean looking for the language just click on do click on donate and you'll see there isn't there's no disclaimer that says this this is not connected to this building no they haven't and um and are we going to talk about the tree because because the preservation trust is going to ask all right you can bring it up um so i am just listen i i take this job very seriously the responsibility to the taxpayers i take it very seriously i ran on transparency with these gentlemen accountability fiscal responsibility and yeah he's a gentleman but i have concerns mr moore and my colleagues serious concerns that you know standards aren't being met at the management level and they're serious deficiencies in financial oversight there's a lack of clear safeguards for taxpayer dollars i don't think it's acceptable and i had to type this up because i have a lot of stuff with it but you know we are facing serious concerns financially and how the public money is being managed concerns me and i'm talking about millions of dollars not small amounts of money and i'll just go through the list just briefly and there's more but now granted you weren't here during this whole time highland beach was a loss to our taxpayers so far of 3.9 million dollars now maybe we'll collect some of it back maybe we won't only 1.4 million of that occurred under your watch but it's still a substantial amount of money um roughly 1 million in losses because of the badger meters the badger meters and mr moore that was directly because we did not secure um the proper representation from them about how they were going to handle this on the outset so we we wrote off i don't remember how much it was i think it was closer to 600 or 700 000 and then we had overtime employees reading meters and all that it came to approximately 1 million dollars that the taxpayers of delray beach lost that's not acceptable and when we talked about you know this in the meeting on august 5th of 2024 it was upsetting and it's upsetting today um the failure to implement impact fees blows my mind since 2020 i was asking for impact fees every development that goes up in this city should be paying an impact fee to our taxpayers because if these development isn't paying it the taxpayers are and we finally got the commission to agree in i believe 2023 to agree to work on the impact fees and then you guys sort of stumbled dropped the ball fumbled whatever that saying is on this and as a result we still don't have impact fees implemented today and there was a blunder a three-month contract that mr orris agreed to then it fell stale then it had to start all over again we're talking about a lot of money when you look at the surrounding communities and we you know you can't calculate what the loss is right in real numbers but boynton's getting over 300 000 a year and and boca's getting over 500 000 a year according to ai i give that disclaimer we should be getting that kind of money for our residents and we're not and i'm not i'm saying that should not have happened um questionable claim payouts we discussed this in our meeting in november where the city attorney requested permission from the commission to initiate litigation the city paid out aside from that 10 000 claim that we're now in litigation over 260 000 the city paid out approximately 500 settled 540 917.44 that's writing off money that belongs to the taxpayers over 500 000 000 um this 2.3 million claim that you just put in last week after people started picking around i have the emails you were notified in august of 2027 the final bill was 2.2 million but it was marked down from 2.9 million the entire summary was sent to you from hr and you know i understand miss wolf the risk person has given her resignation and that's unfortunate because she did her job here um and i hope she's not leaving because someone thinks she didn't because she notified her boss and he notified you and said i want to bring you on in on this this wasn't their fault and that it's not covered by our insurance because our insurance doesn't cover underground wiring or pipes so we knew someone else was at fault and we knew we had a 2.2 something million dollar bill and over a year went by and there was no effort to collect that money for the taxpayers and while i appreciate that you're doing it now i wonder if that's because people have been asking a lot of questions about this when you have agenda sheets where you talk about you know repairs or damage it tells you that somebody was at fault and then i will say to you in those emails it does seem like you were trying to take that money from the utility uh from the general fund utility department and i want to say again i appreciate mr hajamiri because i see emails where he's saying that money is not coming out of this fund this uh this utilities money um waste management contract i don't want to belabor the point but you know the residents incurred a tremendous increase in their costs when they could have put that off for an entire year because the city failed to secure that contract as they needed to do we could have gotten a contract extension but we failed to do so and instead we had to renegotiate the contract at a substantial increase to the taxpayers that that was a lot of money um paying out employee who had was on a last chance i i'm not supposed to get involved in administration and i'm not going to tell you how to handle your employees but when someone's on a last chance for bullying and then there's another bullying complaint letting them go with money you know a number of people have left apartments with a payout when there's questions about were they doing the right thing for the taxpayers and that's something i think you know we we represent the taxpayers and it's not acceptable volunteering and this this i'm going there's some large number items and this is multiples of millions of dollars and i threw out some really large number items and i'm throwing out some small ones too just because i need you to understand what i need as a commissioner volunteering to pay out the league of cities luncheons year after year without checking with us it's a small amount of money but it's your taxpayers money writing off no offense miss burns but i know mr moore attended your event and and stood up and announced that he was going to take care of these uh special events fees and uh miss bruton discussed it today but he he he doesn't have the authority that was taken away from the city manager's department many years ago for exactly the same thing i believe mr orris wrote off items the commission became frustrated with the items being written off in what seemed like a random nature and the commission took your authority away so mr um dakowitz wrote to the city attorney basically asking her to figure out a way to get this done essentially and my concern with that i'm back and forth with mr moore all day long how much oh two thousand to three thousand well is it one claim or is it multiple it's probably 45 to fifty thousand dollars and when you're talking about doing that do we have to do it for everybody if you go look at the events of that year it's 152 thousand dollars where do we draw the line how are we determining who is getting what and you don't have the authority and now that you told them that you're doing it you're going to drop it in our laps during a commission meeting and make us say yes or no which is a very bad practice for a city manager you have the ability to say no to things and yes to things but when you can't say yes to them you shouldn't say yes to them and you know these are not small oversights mr moore when you look at them all together it's a pattern that raises very big concerns for me about how we are handling taxpayer dollars it's not personal no matter how often some people try to frame my situation with you as personable personal i'm just trying to hold you and us accountable to the taxpayers because that's my responsibility and that is also your responsibility and when millions and millions and millions of taxpayer dollars are being mismanaged it's not leadership to sit quietly we need to ask for accountability and asking these hard questions may not seem nice to people but this is about my responsibility it's about transparency and it's about respecting taxpayers who really expect more from us and i have backup documentation for everything i've said and i i hope i don't know if my colleagues are going to do anything about that but i need to see change because frankly i i find this shocking and disappointing thank you mr mayor if i may yes please what i would like to do at the upcoming city commission meeting is offer a clarity clarifications regarding outcomes and assertions haven't been made in this regard i'm prepared to do that i will work with applicable members of the executive leadership team to offer background and clarity including steps that have been taken to remedy any issues or concerns haven't been raised and it does go back to prior times as well so i would like to be able to do that it's a continuous process and there's a lot in which i think we all should be square with there's a lot that's been productively accomplished in terms of financial management and applicable wherewithal so i will be offering a response there will be an agenda item via the 5a section of the agenda may 5th i believe to offer clarity and background to that effect in all fairness i think that's appropriate i take this responsibility and tremendously seriously i always have not only in dairy beach but other municipalities i've served and i think it's only appropriate and fair and transparent that we do what we can to offer an update and clarity regarding the issues haven't just been raised this evening i'm happy to do that i do not require commission's approval or consensus to do so but your support to that effect would be greatly appreciated i'm prepared to get to work so thank you i appreciate that i um yes me yes thank you i will say uh with respect i have been curious about what's going on with highland beach that settlement because as you know i i was a city representative in the exit interview with the auditor describing what they found with the different you were not there were you there i'm not sure um uh but what they found and because we had the state ought the auditor came in and everybody looked at the numbers and there's a number floating out out there i don't know what that final number is 3.9 well there was there was discrepancies no that came from citron cooperman you too um we paid them to do a study and yeah i know i was i was i was part of the exit interview um with the state auditor by the way the the state because remember the state also did it on it 2.2 that came up so i'm curious to know what follow-up has been done on that because that is a big number and we should raise the issue to bring the point with whether maybe we settled with an i don't know what the number is but i mean just say we have a claim we should be pursuing that because that's real money so i i you know as for the others and impact fees and i've had discussions on impact fees forever you know and and how impact fees and if we structure things certain kinds of fees correctly could defray a lot of the costs that the otherwise the taxpayers paying for to running some of these departments so i i that is a bona fide thing that we really need to be looking at um as for the other things they're good points i'm looking forward to your your reply um on a lighter note um if i'd like to get from somebody to to combat i would like and hopefully the commission should um just what the tentative schedule is going to be for fourth of july what events we're planning to have just so we can start planning and thinking about what we're going to be doing so that's not that's your department but they all are your departments but you're not they all are planning them so we'll have an update i'm thinking during the may 19th meeting okay that's fine independence day festivities uh i want to talk about the tree which we all fought so hard to try to save i think everybody was everybody was at the at the meeting um which we did not prevail um there the historic preservation trust wrote a letter the other day uh i'm i i want to say a couple of things first of all we i i would never support depleting the entire tree fund to try to move to a tree and i do think that it's i think they are very ambitious thinking they can move for 150 000 because i was involved with one that was smaller and that was 300 000 because it takes you a couple of months to prepare because you have to actually uproot it get it prepare your root system it's a process whether we would have to go back to the lake worth drainage district and ask them to do that which i'm they're not likely to do but i mean if if you can get it done that's great but i would only be interested in it in a kind of a matching fund situation if historic preservation trust wants to do it up to a certain amount nowhere near no no not our budget it doesn't exist well i'm going to say i thought we only he said we had 84 my numbers are right 60. 77 it's actually 66. may i mr mayor may have the floor thank you if you have so i recently offered an update regarding the current state of the tree trust fund and i quoted a estimate about 66 000 there hasn't been any deposits haven't been made as happened the case in previous years because what developers are currently involved in are restoring trees taking care of trees on sites as opposed to having to replenish the tree trust fund i offered this in the context of a committed presentation regarding the community greening relationship and the tree planning community tree planning program we'll talk a little bit about that during the may 5th meeting and as a result of that the wherewithal relative to any ability to move that program forward is a bit questionable we have to think of ways or reimagine ways in which we can get to the best place we can with respect to continuing that particular program so bottom line if there was ever an appetite or an interest to do something like this the tree trust fund is not the source in which to do so it does not exist and that number is not there is nowhere what it was for the reasons i've stated right so we're in agreement so i'm just saying i don't see how we could possibly i mean i know it's it looks like a pool of money abuse but then we it's not we have a tree fund that's supposed to benefit the entire city and as much as i would like to save that tree and i fought hard for it and i wrote letters and i gave interviews you know at some point we lost we just have to move on and use our tree fund to try to plant as many trees we can throughout the city elsewhere and and you know to the benefit the entire city and we were all there if i may mr mayor we were there may april 15th we made the presentation we made a tremendous yeoman historic effort to get the lake worth drainage district to consider what we've had to offer and we are not in that place the only outcome we were able to achieve was a june first deadline to get the tree removed of which the work has already started okay where did we get the quote for 500 000 our arborist when when they quoted it um in fact i spoke to a couple of people who are some of whom you know talking about what it really costs and what it takes to really move one of those trees and they say you really have to dig the whole thing to expose the roots you then wrap the roots you then moisten the roof then it takes like a month in that position before you can attempt to move it because otherwise you disrupt it and what the way they were talking about moving with this plan there's no assurance that the tree is going to live i mean there's a whole big process to move a tree that not to mention that to get the tree to live so i mean it's a it's no one would ever guarantee that though even if you paid the half a million you're not you can't get that guarantee no there's no we there's no there's that's the problem there's no guarantee no matter whether it's 150 000 or 350 000 i i said 500 000 just dismantled 150 what they're doing if you wanted to cut what they were saying is that the city has been involved with moving some of the trees and one that was smaller in the city's uh proposal was 300 000 so the estimate was this was going to be 400 or 500 whatever the number is but the point is it's not 150 and the whole process took a long time so anyway i'm wasting time on this it's price was quoted 150. huh not in writing but he was no i know i mean those quotes are so mr margaret you're now on the tree unfortunately i think i am i mean i i had asked missy when i was with her on another mission last week if you know we could we could find a way to take a small sprig of the tree or something and that's just missy's way smarter than me and that's just not possible and i i i i think it's going to cost way more than 150 000 to move a tree and i don't think it's feasible i i want to but i just don't think it's feasible what about judy i'd love to see the tree is gorgeous it's absolutely beautiful i just don't know where we come up with 100 well first of all if it would cost 150 but we're minus 5 000 right so 145 145 145 but you but understand the tree would have to be they can't move it as is they'd have to the the portion that could be moved they would have to significantly cut the tree back so the city would be spending 60 or 70 000 to get it to a position to a point where they maybe could move it then i mean it's just it's just did you say you've already started yes the process has been initiated again as we discussed during april 15th meeting we have until june 1st now that was the one extension request we were able to secure however the prior deadline was far in advance of that they were looking to notify us and that whole bit and so we're getting to that place as much as we want to do well we should you know we will i am i am so sorry because i really i had every i we we will when i describe getting started i'm talking about the fact that trimming activities have been initiated so trimming activities have been initiated going back a couple weeks which will help the city of delray beach ultimately prepare to what what was required as of last week with the lake we're finished district so just to be clear whether they describe it to me to move to move the tree they'd have to cut big portions of it which in itself is a disrupting i mean the whole thing that's what i said well my friend landscape architect said that she's seen somebody cut up the tree in half trimmed trimmed and put it back together how much does it cost to take the tree down by the way that's nice roughly well it's actually part of the golf course renovation program so that's a very responsible approach but something like that would be thousands of dollars of course it varies depending on the size of the tree but this is not a separate expenditure activity related to the tree itself it's really a function of the golf course renovation program we thought it would be nice to include this as a feature of the golf course renovation however we are where we are so it's a function of that activity and therefore not as an immediate concern financially so i don't think they're going to give us i'm sorry no way we can move it by june first no the golf course renovation program includes a significant planting of new additional trees all on the site and that's actually being executed at this point that's visible at this particular point in time one can see that drive down west atlantic you'll witness a lot of new trees being installed and planted far more than what they were before and we did describe that while we were involved in a consideration process with the special meeting february 18th before you were elected of course and we did highlight that in preparation for the lakeworth drainage district so again a lot has been squared away and accomplished in this regard within the scope of the project of which we will be on point my issue is i mean what are they going to do if we try to do it my issue would be that they turn around and they say we're not in compliance because part of the permit to do the golf course included this we have to work with them in terms of the permit yes they could pull our permit for do redoing the golf course i mean it's a that's correct but what is the how much i think what ms malika is trying to figure out is what's the cost to cut the tree because preservation trust is saying if you're paying a hundred thousand to cut it then you're just adding another fifty thousand on looking at missy but i don't think we're not paying that much money to cut it it's something to that effect it's a five-digit figure we think and it's part of the aggregate project implementation it's part of the renovation program so if we were to separate that out the way the project budget is structured does not go to that one specific tree so there's economies of scale because it's part of the aggregate renovation program that mitigate expenses in that regard it's not a separate one dollar value associated with that particular tree in the context of the project i'm seeing a potential fundraiser here you know in these places own a piece of the what like berlin wall they kept we could sell pieces of the tree that's a fun no but in all seriousness there's three no's so it's we can move on anybody it's good my last my last comment it has to do with a couple of weeks and it's not so much directed to my colleagues but directed to some other people that have said it to me um that they've said that my and i asked you to review that you were in barcelona when i called you and i really appreciate you taking the call i think you were in barcelona or something you're on a ship and you called me back and i thought it was great and i said well where are you you said well i'm in barcelona i said oh okay she was at epcot yeah i think that's what i think she was you know at the new york casino there in vegas but anyway the issue was there has been some discussion about when i write my letters or i do my newsletters or i make comments that it violates well i they say the charter but it's not the charter because it's not in the charter so it's the local rules but violate the local rules so i asked the city attorney because i want to clarify for everybody that when i write my newsletters and i write the thing that there are particular laws and things governing and the portions that are being quoted to people about saying well this is a violation you're violating this provision i thought i would allow the city attorney to look at those provisions and the local clarify for everybody oh you mean when you after the fact don't support your fellow commissioners that is a violation oh is it what would you please would you please educate the uh i asked her so i actually took a hard look at it and um the the preamble to the local rules says that the they govern our official meetings so what my position is and there's things that we can discuss but it's late the the local rules discuss what goes on in here so you know you have to be courteous you have to be respectful you know not slander your colleagues fine i think that my thinking was and we were in a dark place when we when we came up with this years ago bill bathurst ryan boylson mr frankel i'm not mentioning no i did but wanted the rule change because mayor petrolia put out an email where she didn't like their votes and she put out an email talking specifically about their votes so well that whole rule was implemented for that but i'm saying but the whole preamble says it's i'm going to let you speak listen i don't care so the preamble does say it applies to the local rules and so what i would recommend is the portions that talk about anything that occurs outside of the meetings i can remove if the commission does want to establish a code of conduct that is actionable you would do it by resolution so a resolution would subject somebody to censure or you could do it by ordinance which would become a law and would subject somebody to forfeiture of office all of this being said i think the overall overall goal is to respect our decisions right move forward with our decisions understanding that there is going to be discourse you know you know you don't always have to be thrilled with the vote but if you're going to address it outside of this forum just do it in a respectful manner i think i think that's really what we're what we were aiming for um when commissioner petrolia wrote that thing that people were saying to me that it was about i reminded them of several united states supreme court decisions yeah which talk about political speech which talk about speech she did not defame anybody right she criticized their vote she said they're this they're just and the local rules when you read the float rules that these rules are applicable to the content that takes place in the meeting to try to say that all of a sudden it says you should be i mean you shouldn't disagree with your your candidate would say that in a political speech i can't criticize mr margaret's vote i'm running against him i'm not allowed to do it because i violate the local that's nonsense there's there's there's case law on this is voluminous so you're you're correct right you're right i mean well it's unfortunate though that whole change happened to stop her from talking though and it was effective which i have no problem with your newsletter she did she should have fought it she did not fight it because when i sat there with a whole group of people i said you really don't understand what the definition of political speech is and you just i mean but i will say to you because you're campaigning you're filing reports that say you have no finances you should be filing that you're paying for mailchimp because that's my only recommendation recommendation all of your emails are campaign pieces that you're sending out when you're running and you're sending out from the mayor all right i'm not debating it with you i don't care what you're doing because i had that reviewed by council and got an opinion so if you want i can remove any references that the statements made outside of of the dais you might as well i'm happy to do that i think you all can have your own code of conduct internally and just understand that you know part of endearing the public trust is is how you relate to one another and how we relate out here and even in the public but that's your call that's up to you if somebody says something negative i just don't like when people from the community come and say they've heard that i violated the local rules or they heard that i violated the charter said i think they use the word charter without knowing it's not really the charter but it's not a violation of the charge it's local rules i understand and that's not i'm not that's not my colleagues saying that i mean that's others no your colleagues aren't saying that i would what i've said no i didn't say that what i said is your information is usually inaccurate and that i did say you said i never that i never questioned anything in the last budget that miss burns didn't that mr marker didn't well i know but but you're the mayor you should put stuff out that's true the last round of numbers you put out you say that at 11 we have to take a vote and we can't we're leaving yeah let's not take a vote anybody want anything else i just i want to weigh in on this just real quickly before i do a quick vote before i go to bed two and a half minutes um i i just think it's a slippery slope and i think we got to be very careful of it because um i've not been a fan of these newsletters that go out because newsletters are not newsletters they are points of view letters and the more we put them out there we confuse the public and we've all got our points of view but i believe in i believe in the word team together everyone achieves more and i think this team can achieve more if we are we are together more and i think if we are out there fighting with one another we are not doing what we were put up here to do and it it's perfectly fine if we disagree with one another as long as we do it respectfully and we shake hands when it's over we go home but it's not okay to go home and pen nasty letters and if and if one comes my way i'm gonna punch back i've proven that and i don't like doing it but that's what happens so i i think we ought to not table this and we we ought to talk about this more and see if we can come to some agreement on it because i don't think it looks good to the to the public and i think we can do better than that i think we were perfectly civil today i mean you and i i thought today was thought today was great so you know we disagreed strenuously yeah do you want me to put this on a future agenda i'm just saying when you start dealing with the first amendment i understand and you start dealing with political speech uh although go look at cash patel today and and see what came out on that i mean thank goodness i don't pay well go take a look go take a look at that door that got opened uh with his lawsuit you know again we haven't nowhere reached that level of uh diatribe i hope do you want me to put this on a future agenda for a discussion like june i mean i don't know i mean i i i'm just saying that it i i understand what the rules are and so we know we respect so i mean if you're telling the truth and you you say that you didn't believe someone's opinion that's not being disrespectful that's just that's not the way it's historically gone though angelo i mean i i understand i mean i know that people do things differently than i do but i'm just saying i don't think we need to have a meeting about the workshop i think we all know where everybody stands and on that notice 11 o'clock all right wait a minute i want i take i move that we extend the meeting by another hour and we have dadas to deliver pizza and they don't even have mr moore's going to pay for it i'm writing that down