City Commission Regular Meeting at 5:00 PM - Jan 20, 2026

Good afternoon, everyone. Welcome to the City of Delray Beach regular commission meeting this Tuesday, January 20, 2026. If we could call the roll. Commissioner Marker. Here. Commissioner Casale. Here. Deputy Vice Mayor Burns. Here. Mayor Carney. Here. We have a quorum. Great. If you could all stand, please, to the Pledge of Allegiance. Thank you very much. I want to welcome everyone to my first commission meeting in annual 2026. I missed the first one. I was out with the flu. But I want to thank the city staff for all the work they did last year. I want to thank this commission for all the work they did last year. I want to thank you all for participating in everything that we've done since last year. And we've got the golf course underway. We've got the water treatment plan underway. We've got the beach reclamation project is underway. We're ahead of schedule on some other things. And we're going to have a lot we're working on this year. We're looking forward to all of your participation this year. And it's going to be a great year. And Delray is thriving. And we're here to help you all. And I just want to thank you all for coming to this meeting. Thank you. Anyway, we have an agenda approval. So is there any items on the agenda? I would like to recommend item 7E, which is the appointment of the replacement for Rob Longseat, move to the because there's obviously people here that are going to be talking about this issue. If we could move that to the first item to make that 7A with everybody's consent. Well, it's actually 7E. So I don't know how it becomes 7AA. And okay, so now it becomes 7AA. So we're going to do that first. Are there any other items on the agenda that anyone would like to move, pull, do whatever? Seeing none, I need a motion to approve the agenda. So moved. Second. All in favor? Aye. Any opposed? Great. It is amended as approved as amended. Presentations. Well, this is a great pleasure. Jennifer Boos and I have known each other for far too long. For her sake. She's been wonderful treating me. I've had the opportunity to work with Jennifer, both when I have been on a dais a couple of times and when I was on the other side a couple of times. And I just, I'm so thrilled. She is celebrating her 30 years of service here with Delray Beach and I would like very much to read this resolution into the record. Resolution 25-26. A resolution of the City Commission of the City of Delray Beach, Florida, recognizing and commending Jennifer Boos for 30 years of full-time service to the City of Delray Beach. Whereas Jennifer Boos began her full-time career with the City of Delray Beach on January 13, 1996, and on January 13, 2026, reached a milestone in her career, having achieved 30 years of full-time service with the City. And whereas Jennifer was hired as a part-time play lender in the Parks and Recreation Department on June 23, 1989, giving her a total employment history of over 36 years. Her first full-time position is a Recreation Supervisor, where she was involved with special events. She was then promoted to Recycling Coordinator, Litter Prevention Coordinator, Neighborhood Planner, Permit Clerk, Assistant Planner, and then in 2019, was promoted to Planner, where she currently serves with distinction. Whereas her extensive knowledge and experience as City Government make Jennifer a valuable team member in the Development Services Department, In her current position, she has worked tirelessly to organize and archive thousands of records spanning back decades, and is able to assist her team members with searching for documents. And whereas Jennifer is known for her reliability and excellent recall regarding details of all her projects, big and small, she takes pride in working with residents and business owners, and is always willing to help. And whereas Jennifer was an integral part of many of the community projects, such as Toy Drives, and received several commendations for her contributions to these initiatives, She is proud of her family's history in Delray Beach and strives to carry on their legacy of service. And whereas she displays the highest level of cooperation and professionalism, and holds herself accountable for all her decisions, Jennifer's resourcefulness is appreciated by all who know her. Now, therefore, be it resolved by the City Commission of the City of Delray Beach, Florida, as follows. One, that the City Commission of the City of Delray Beach hereby recognizes and commends Jennifer Booth for 30 years of full-time dedicated and faithful public service. Two, that the City Commission hereby congratulates and expresses sincere thanks and appreciation to Jennifer Booth for her many years of service, and wishes her the best of health and happiness in her continued employment, passed and adopted this 20th day of January 2026. Can we please have a motion to approve this resolution? So moved. Second. All in favor? Aye. Resolution is adopted. Thank you so much, Jennifer, for all the work you do. I will say from personal knowledge that her historical knowledge of this city is tremendous. She would point out the zoning changes and applications when I would go in front of her and say things like, well, you know, in 1996, they would do that. And so she's an invaluable resource in the City of Delray Beach. Let me present you with this resolution. Mr. Mayor and Commissioner, I'm honored to be here to recognize Jennifer's 30 years of service, and we do have a plaque for her, but her director, Anthea Junotis, is going to also say a few words. So we are really here to celebrate a daughter of Delray, for sure. She is proud of her family's legacy. Her father is actually a retired Delray firefighter. She grew up out near Barwick. She ran around on her grandmother's property at 110 Marine Way along the seawalls. She's a graduate of Atlantic High. She attended Clemson, FAU. She has a degree in history, which has completely come full circle at this point, because she is the foundation, as we have transferred out of a paper process into a digital process. You know, she, in the last year or two, has scanned 3,750 paper files into what is the foundation of an online library we are building. But she has, over her 30 years, left her fingerprints through organizing countless community events when she was with Parks, guiding development while she's been with development services. Her team absolutely relies on her historical knowledge. Our longstanding applicants know her, and we'll call her directly to find out what to do. So, she is just, we're thrilled to have her as part of the team, and my team wanted to remind everybody where we started in 1996. So, first of all, Mr. Harden was the manager when Jennifer came aboard full time, so it's nice to see you here. The mayor was Tom Lynch until March when it became Dr. Elprin. For those of you who can remember this, or were alive when it happened, Hotmail debuted the same year. The first flip phone became marketed. The Summer Olympics were going on in Atlanta. The Spice Girls had hit the scene with the tune, Wannabe. The Browns moved and became the Baltimore Ravens the same year. Kobe Bryant made his NBA debut. You were all doing the Macarena, and you were watching ER, Seinfeld, and Friends. And Jen began what's become, like, a legendary run here with the city, and she's not allowed to retire until we're done with this library. So, everyone, she just gave us a great round of applause. And she's going to be proud of it. What Anthea forgot to mention in 1996, a good quarter of my coworkers weren't born yet. So, my family came down from Port St. Lucie. My dad's here. It was really nice. My dad and Yvonne Odom went to high school together, so she was very happy to see him. And Jerome Weatherspoon, who he worked with, is out in the audience, too. So, a good portion of these people I have worked with in one manner or another, and I just appreciate everybody. And I will be around, hopefully, for another five years. Thank you very much. Mayor, we need you for the picture, too. You need to do what? You need to for the picture. Oh, sure. And if you're family. I would be honored. Let me just continue, yes. It's always fun to recognize someone who's had such a great, great experience with the city of Zellerie region. We've all benefited from her experience and working with her. And I say that, as I say, from personal experience. The second item up is our school zone speed detection safety program status update. Chief, there we are. And I'll let you explain what the program is, although I think everybody now knows that we've got these speed zones set up for schools. Good afternoon, commissioners, city attorney, city manager. So, the commission asked for us to provide a school zone detection safety program status update. I have with me Lieutenant Matt Naparsik, who's going to give you an overview in regards to the program. And from there, if you have any questions, I'll be more than glad to answer your questions. Good afternoon, everyone. Can you hear me okay? Yep. I know last time we had to play with this a little bit. All right. So, I'm going to just brief this one. I came with one single slide because I know if we started flipping through, we'd probably have to go back and forth. So, though it's just only one slide, there's a lot of information. So, if I could just orientate you to what's up there. So, obviously, we have a city map. The green icons are indicating locations where cameras, schools that have cameras that are fully operational. And then there's one school, Carver Middle School, planned for a camera, but it hasn't been installed yet due to the ongoing construction along Barwick. So, the vendor has decided to hold off until that's completed. So, I'm just going to talk through this, give you the update, and then I'd be happy to answer any questions. If you'd like to pause me at any point because you have something specific to what I'm talking about, I'll adapt. All right. So, the program, to date, the cameras are located at eight of the nine schools that we just discussed. Carver Middle School, like I said, is on hold due to the construction project. We have the ongoing public awareness campaign in effect and have completed the 30-day statutory period that's required by the law and city ordinance. All the concerns that have been identified during the warning period have been or are currently being addressed by both the police department and other city departments as needed. During the course of that, there were a few things that came up, and that's what I kind of want to just cover with you, guys, and address. So, the camera enforcement times. So, based on the Florida State statute, there are three separate statutes that are utilized during that period. So, I'm just going to kind of walk through them real quick. So, within 30 minutes before through 30 minutes after the start of a regular scheduled breakfast program, it's the regular posted speed limit. So, if it's a 30-mile-an-hour school zone, it's 30 miles an hour during that time period. The schools that have these breakfast programs are the public schools. The private schools do not have them. The next step in that would be within the first 30 minutes before through the 30 minutes after the start of the regular school session, meaning the first bell of the day that starts the school, that's when we go to 20 miles per hour. So, that's when, and I'll get to it in a second, if you look at the bottom right-hand corner of the slide, there are two different types of slides generally throughout the city that you see at the different school zones. And I'll cover that in just a second. So, that would indicate it's 20 miles per hour. Now, for the entirety of the remainder of the school day up until the very end, the cameras are operational, but they're using the regular posted speed limit once again, okay? So, we get to 30 minutes before the end of the day until 30 minutes after the end of the day. So, we're talking about the last bell of the day. We go back to 20 miles per hour, reduced speed limit, and that's how the law functions, okay? So, the signs were a little bit contentious. There was some confusion, and I'd love to take the opportunity now to kind of explain. So, if you look at the slide up there, the bottom right corner, second picture from right, there's two signs. There's a white sign that says speed limit, photo enforced, and then below it, it says school day, 7.30 a.m. to 2.25 p.m. for that particular school. That's Mount Olive. What that sign is indicating is that that's an informational sign. That's telling everybody in the general public that goes through there that there's a camera, and it's operational between those times. That's all that sign is meant for, just telling you that the camera is there. The sign next to it is the one that needs to be taken notice of. That's the time that the reduced speed limit is being utilized in that school zone. For example, that sign specifically says 7.30 a.m. to 8.30 a.m., and then 1.25 p.m. to 2.25 p.m. The remainder of the day is the regular posted speed limit. Do we all, is there any questions? Not yet. Perfect. Okay. So, we've covered this, we've covered the camera enforcement times, the posted signs. The one last thing I want to do is just an example. So, I have had to explain this numerous times, so I just, this is how I found it could be best explained. So, Banyan Creek Elementary School, here's an example of how it works. The camera enforcement times, so that white speed enforcement sign, would have these times, 7 a.m. to 2.35 p.m. So, that means the camera is on during that time period. Now, at Banyan Creek Elementary School, from 7 a.m. to 7.30 a.m., the regular posted speed limit is in effect, and the camera is on because of the breakfast program. Kids are on campus. Then, at 7.30 a.m. to 8.30 a.m., the reduced speed goes into effect of 20 miles per hour, and that's for the start of the school day. And the times will change again from 8.30 a.m. to 1.35 p.m. It's the regular posted speed limit, and that's for the, you know, the remainder of the school day. Until 1.35 p.m. to 2.35 p.m., a reduced speed will go into effect of 20 miles per hour, and that will be for the end of the school day. So, some school zones have flashing beacons, the yellow flashing lights. Those are meant to inform people that the reduced speed is in effect, 20 miles per hour. That's what those are for. Some schools don't have those. Some schools only have the signs with the posted speed limits. So, people have to be aware that there may not be a yellow light flashing and that they have to heed to the times posted on the speed limit signs. Could I ask a question, Mayor? I was going to ask a question. Would you like to be recognized? Thank you. Yes. Yes. Which of the schools that are now that are going to be using camera enforcement do not have signs? How many schools do we have in total? How many don't have the flashing lights? Because the flashing lights are important if we're going to be giving these tickets. So, currently, of the nine schools, Carver Middle School has flashing lights. Banyan Creek Elementary School has flashing lights. Pine Grove has flashing lights. Plamosa School of the Arts has flashing lights. And there is one single flashing light at Trinity School. The remainder only have signs posted at this time. You said at this time. So, are there plans to place flashing lights here? So, Commissioner Casalto, I answer your question. We are in constant conversation with Red Speed regards to your question, Commissioner Burns, with adding additional equipment to what's needed to be able to efficiently be consistent throughout the city for what, you know, we feel to be, you know, consistent application of the equipment that's being utilized to inform citizens and visitors alike. Are there road markings? There are not currently road markings, but we are working with the Public Works Department, with Missy Bartello and her team. She has identified areas. Again, this is what we've talked about in this phase here on working together with Red Speed and our city departments to be able to make sure before we go officially live, because we have not been. This is just the educational component that where we are with this right now. We have not at all. Okay, that's what I'm... Just to make sure that we address some of the concerns that's been highlighted and mentioned to make sure that we take care of those things before we actually go live. Okay, so we are not live. We are not live, so no one's getting a ticket. No one's getting charged. No, just warnings. Right, just warnings. Until we get this thing implemented correctly. Yes, ma'am. Okay, thank you. And I have an... I want to... If I could continue, I had another question, if you don't mind. I came in, like, after this was in process, and I wanted to support the police department, thought this was good, and I'm, you know, I'm supportive of what you feel your needs are, but the money from these tickets, can you explain to me how that comes to us? And that doesn't come to us. That really just goes back to the school. Is that correct? No. Thank you. I wish I had it in front of me, and I don't want to speak non-factual information. If I could just defer to Attorney Jelen. Please. We've had this conversation. Thank you. So you can provide the... You want to provide the response? Thanks. According to the agreement, the city shall receive or retain $39 or 65%, whichever is greater, of the statutory monetary allocation. And what are the restricted uses on that allocation? As I recall, there were restrictions and... Public safety. Yes, it goes towards public safety. Okay, but not public safety specific to the school area. Public safety in general. So, example, you get that money from those tickets. You can do whatever you want with it. You can hire a new staffer. You can utilize it for a vehicle. You can use it in any way, shape, or form. I thought there was some restriction that it had to do with public safety in the area of the schools. No. So there's no restrictions. Okay. Okay. Yeah, for the moment. Thank you. Thank you, Chief. Do I can be recognized? Yeah, please. Just a quick question. So we're not the first ones to implement the camera program. And I've, like everybody else probably in this room, have been reading, you know, what we're hearing from some of the places that are a little bit ahead of us. And it's been kind of a rough road. Have we been able to take a good look at all the feedback that the other communities are getting that are ahead of us and incorporate it into our thinking? So a part of the educational component for us, too, as well, we have reached out to several cities that's actually utilizing the program. Okay. And we are in constant contact with them in regards to some of the issues that they've faced. Okay. Good. And working through those, you know, with some of the issues that we've faced so far and what we have. So that's why the police department, along with other city departments, are working together to make sure that we identify some of those concerns in our city. Again, before we eventually, if you guys, you know, proceed to want to go with this, before we go live, have all of those things in place to make sure that everybody has all of that information ahead of time, such as flashing lights in all of the areas that were identified from one of the commissioners. Yeah. That's great. I just want, you know, because there is a lot of people that are ahead of us right now, which is great. And, you know, might as well learn from those that are a little bit ahead of us. But I agree with what Commissioner Casale said. Not having the flashing lights seems problematic to me. Right. That just seems – I don't know what the cost of putting those in is or the logistics. I think Red Speed would have to pay for that. Well, that's – I was going to say, that's Red Speed. So, again, this is a new product, and there is, you know, some bumps in the roads along the way that we have to fill out. But, again, in our cautiousness, and I say this to all of our residents, that this is not live. Right. This is not live. We're working through this. So, can we – Thank you guys. Let's finish the presentation, because we're going to have other questions for you. So, are you finished with your presentation? Yes, sir. I think he was. You are. Okay. Mayor, can I make a point of order? I located the statute for the restrictions that Commissioner Casale was asking about, and Chief is correct. So, $60 must be retained by the county or municipality. It must be used to administer speed detection systems in school zones and other public safety initiatives. That's correct. In school zones and other public safety initiatives. That's a broad – that's a broad category. It's very broad. And there's not a – not a certain amount goes to in school zones. It's just all – okay. Thank you. I will say that I'm going to share some of the concerns from my colleagues because of the phone calls I've received. I happen to be a member of St. Vincent Ferrer Parish, which I learned was the number one culprit going down George Bush Boulevard as the number one culprit. Did you get one, Mayor? I did not get one, no. I actually follow the speed limit. But – and the biggest argument – well, there were two. Well, three. But the biggest was the lack of notice that there was a speed zone coming up on them. So the lights – because sometimes the flashing lights are in the middle of the school zone, and their view is – and, you know, again, this is a red zone issue. But their zone is that you really should have those flashing lights at the beginning of the school zone because you really don't want people who are driving cars to spend their time trying to read signs when they should be seeing – especially going into a school zone, paying attention to what's in front of them because you could have children, for example. So that was their number one concern. The number two concern was that – the hours of enforcement. I do understand that, you know, obviously the enforcement during the actual – just before and after the commencement and termination of a school day, but there's all this time in between people that are just not used to having to deal with a camera, you know, judging their speed during non – we've all been trained that we – school zones, you know, you slow down, that's fine. But, you know, 11 o'clock in the morning, we're just not used to it. And so they are getting citations, you know, for eclipsing the 30-mile-an-hour speed limit when – I mean, not getting tickets, getting warnings. They're getting warnings. Tickets are soon to follow, depending on what we do with this. So they're – you know, the view is that maybe we should reconsider having these hours of enforcement outside of actual school, you know, the traditional hours that people are expecting to be addressed in a school zone. And the third is really – well, the third is they didn't like the idea at all of electronic tickets, and they believe that the police department, that we should be trying to enforce these rules with the traditional way, with the speed camera and all that, which is kind of really where, you know, we're traditionally used to, like going down Lake Ida or any of those. We're used to having the police officer there with his camera. I understand this is supposed to relieve some of the time that would be devoted by a police officer, but that's just a concern that they've had. So I give you those three comments that I have that I'm hearing from my friends at St. Vincent Ferrer. Could I make a suggestion, if we could, Chief? Perhaps we do an online campaign. You're amazing at those explaining this is happening. We have Red Speed put in the flashing lights in all of the schools. I'd like – you'd like to get my – but can I get my answer first before we – you concluded. Oh, you said – you told him to – I didn't – I thought you said to him, think about it. I didn't think you wanted him to answer. No, I mean, I'm just – I mean – Yes, sir. I'd like your comment on – Yes, sir. So you are accurate with your assessment with St. Vincent. Actually, out of the schools that the data has been analyzed, actually, St. Vincent's has 1,251. The next school is Pine Grove with 1,016. Now, keep in mind, when Red Speed came in, they did a study in all of these areas. Those areas were already highly impacted with speed in regards to that. Now, the second component to your question with the radars and all of our officers, obviously, we don't – That was the third, but yeah, go ahead. Yes, we don't – obviously, there is a lot of areas within our city that's been identified as high-traffic areas where we have individuals at Speed, as long as Pine Grove, St. Vincent's, Trinity Lutheran as well, and Daughter of Zion, you know, with several other schools in our city. So really, as far as the staff-wise, we really just don't have enough people to be able to impact the city like that with regards to the information that we've received from Red Speed through some of the data that we've looked at that have identified some of the high-problematic areas. I do agree with you. And again, Red Speed has all of that equipment, and we're able to – you know, what we want, we're working with them to be able to add that, to be able to maximize the efficiency of the program, to make sure, you know, that we notify, you know, our residents and let them know what we're actually dealing with. And again, part of this educational component, which we have campaigns, we're working with our communication office, is putting that information out there, and I have done PSAs with Red Speed regards to the program and putting that out there, and Commissioner Cancel, we can do more. I agree with that, and we will do more to make sure that we get that out there. But again, there is a lot of issues that have been brought to our concern just as well as you are, and we are working, you know, with our city officials to make sure that we address some of these issues that's been brought forward to us by some of our citizens to make sure. But just keep in mind, once this thing, we get going, and the campaign and the educational components, a lot of the people that's being affected, when we talk about having conversations with some of our sister cities that's already using this, it's not the residents. It's people that's coming in from outside, because the residents actually know now some of these areas, but, you know, my biggest thing, what I don't want to lose focus on is the safety, overall. Forget the money part of it, but overall, the safety aspect, that's what I'm concerned about, because in these speed zones, and we have many of our citizens that are sitting behind me that have called on a continuous basis with regards to people speeding, running stop signs and everything when these kids are going to school, and eventually, you know, something is going to happen, because we just don't have enough people. Now, we do adjust accordingly when we get those calls to be able to make sure that we have people to address that, but I don't want any of my citizens and residents and our kids getting hurt, you know, at the end of the day. I do not. I'm agreeing with you on that. I guess the middle one that I talked about is hours of enforcement. Right. So the hours of enforcement is something. It is now being enforced at hours, which are not traditional school zone hours, and people, frankly, are just not used to. And I'm not saying they're not speeding or they're not doing this out of the other thing, and which they shouldn't do, and that's all bad, but if we are focused on safety of the children, then it's the hours during the school, the traditional school hours. I think everybody agrees that, you know, people shouldn't be speeding through there, and if you want to throw the book at them, that's great. It's the other hours that they're also getting a lot of sight. When you say other hours, you're talking about? Well, like at midday. If I'm driving along at 12 o'clock in the afternoon, and I'm going up George Bush Boulevard at, I don't know, 35 miles an hour, I get a little notice in the mail that I've gone 35 miles an hour. Now, that's a notice, and I won't do it again, but really and truly, it's not a safety issue for the school at that hour of the day, and so why are we enforcing that rule when it's not really has nothing to do with public safety? Yeah, please. Go ahead. So, I've heard this argument before. I'm sure. We're fielding calls for months or weeks. So, this would be my answer. So, this is about changing behavior. Yep. So, we're trying to change the behavior from people don't realize they're not paying attention, they're speeding, to they are paying attention to the posted speed limit, and they are heeding. We are not, the cameras are not going to cite anybody that's doing three miles over, four miles over, five miles over, all the way up to 10 miles over. They get 10 miles over the posted speed limit. Right. At 11 miles over is when a notice of violation is going out. It's $100, non, I don't even know how to say, no points, no, it's not going to affect your insurance. It's basically... And non-appealable. Yes. No, you can appeal. No, you can appeal. We can. Good luck with BPA. I mean, I know, I've had one of those in Boynton. They have an appeal process, too. I love Boynton Beach, but, you know. So, the point I'm getting at, sir, is I understand what the point you're trying to make, and I've heard this exact argument, and I've heard it both ways, and I sat there and I listened, and the argument for the beginning and the end of the day, yes, you're 100% right, I'm completely on board with you, but I also disagree with you when it comes to the middle of the day, and this is the reason why. But Carver Middle School, you're driving down Atlantic, you're going north on Barwick. What is right there? It's the playground. It's the area where the... I was going to say the fire station, but... No, no, no. It's the... For that particular school, that's where the track is, that's where PE is. So, if you have people driving excessively, a car accident occurs, a car goes off the roadway, it goes through that chain link fence, there's children there. That's the rationale behind the entirety of the day, while kids are on campus. That's the idea. St. Vincent's is the same way. I think in the front of the school, at least it's been years since I've worked the detail there, but I think they do the same thing right at the front on George Bush. So, that's just the idea. I know that's the argument you hear people say, well, they're in... No, the kids are outside, they're moving around, kids come and go early, things like that. I just promised to pass it on. Commissioner Gasol, did you want to be right? And I wanted to expound, just for context. So, on our freeways, so, you know, we talk about being over the speed limit. So, typically, it's about, you know, 13 miles an hour, but before... Technically, I don't want to speak for FHP. They can give you... I really don't, but from my knowledge, it's normally, you know, 13 miles an hour. So, what Lieutenant Naparsak is saying, we're talking about 11 miles, you know, 10 miles. Like, it's... That's not a whole lot from where we are in our interstates. Now, you can kill somebody at 10 miles an hour, especially when we're talking about a child. So, it's... And again, what he talks about is behavior, and that's all what we're trying to, you know, to curve is the behavior. And I truly feel that our citizens in Delray, you know, and keeping our city safe, and one of the goals is being the safest city in America, that we will, you know, with the proper educational campaign that we will do, we're working with our communication officers, which does a phenomenal job, and getting that information out there where our residents will be aware and know these areas on, you know, that's being enforced once we get everything that we need to make sure that everybody feels comfortable, such as lights, such as markings, and all of those different things before, you know, you guys agree to want to go with this or wherever you choose to want to go, that we'll have all the information to be able to do that, and it will adjust. You know, people from the outside, then, you know, can't speak for them, but they'll learn soon. Look, I'm agreeing with you. I'm agreeing that, yeah, they will learn. And... But I do think that what Commissioner... Because what we all mentioned, you know, about the notice, essentially, of giving these people a notice requirement, that this is enforcement, not just from 7.30 to 8.30, and from 2.30 to 3.30, but that it's going to be enforced. I don't think they're getting sufficient notice, and maybe that will solve the issue. And that's a red zone. I mean, that's not you. That's the people providing the signs. But I do think there is... I think if people aren't expecting to be dealing with that issue, they really need to be notified that, you know, you better be expecting it. And we will, and I can tell you, as our chief of police, we will make sure, working with Red Speed, other departments, that we will fix that, come back forth with the city manager on, you know, what is it that you all want, and what is it that our residents want to make this something that, if you guys choose to... Commissioner McSally, did you want to be recognized again? Sure, thank you. Yeah, so we'll, you'll go back to them and ask for the flashing lights at all schools. I don't think our city should have to put things on the road. Red Speed should probably have to take care of that. I agree with the mayor in that, you know, it's the, all the signage is confusing, but you're right. It's about changing a pattern of behavior, and you don't want people changing it from 7.30 to 2.30. You want them changing it 24 hours a day. Drive within the speed limit and be conscientious about what it is. Unfortunately, there's going to be a lot of warnings going out. We can see it, including even, you know, with our staff. And look, yeah, I, I, I, I want to support this program because you feel the police department has, you know, felt that it would be good, and I'd like to see as we go how it works. Perhaps we can keep track of, as we are doing these campaigns, are the number of warnings reducing? And then speak again before we actually go live. Because I do think the warning period, I always thought the warning period needed to be longer than one month. And I definitely think we need to do more of an educational campaign, maybe even have the schools be notifying parents and, and that. And then just when, when we go online, let's make sure everybody is aware. And then off we go. So I am working with all of our schools and making sure that I send it to all of our principals, public and private, to make sure that they are aware and they have been sending it out to the parents. I mean, we started that way before and I continue to do that and let them know where we are with regards to the program too as well. Thank you. Did you, did you want to, did you, the city attorney, did you want to weigh in, I mean, on anything here? No, I'm all set. Okay. Mr. Marker. I'm good. Thank you. Mr. Moore. Good to go. So as Chief Hunter Justice Crabb will be collaborating accordingly to implement the suggested improvements as well as public and community engagement and outreach. Okay. Is there any more comments? If there's none, then we're just, we got consensus to move forward with the, I do agree that the extension, I mean, the, the grace, we need to give people a little bit more time for the education curve. And by the way, ladies and gentlemen, we all agree with that sentiment in preparation for the dialogue as just haven't been provided by Chief Hunter and Lieutenant. We had a collaborative meeting with all involved about a week ago to get an alignment in this regard. So I think we're in good company. Including city vehicles. Apparently the city vehicles have been little notices in the mail too. So I mean, you know, I don't want to be spending all our tax dollars on paying off the tickets to the, to the, to the, to the, to the people. So anyway, thank you both very much for the presentation. Thank you, gentlemen. Okay. We are now to comments and inquiries on agenda and non-agenda items from the public. City manager, would you, you're on. Yes, Mr. Mayor, ladies and gentlemen, I actually have one item briefly. And that is both the office of the city manager and that of director of utilities, Hassan Harjimiri, are pleased to report that the city is being awarded a nearly 4.4, actually a little bit over 4.4 million dollar award from the United States Environmental Protection Agency to help the city improve the North High Service Pump Station and the Miller Park High Service Pump Station. And this is a fantastic achievement. And we were working over the last several months to get this squared away. And given the timeliness of it all, I would like to be in position to prepare the necessary documentation to begin the award acceptance process. Likewise, I'm asking for your consensus to proceed along those lines because it does include an approval and authorization step by the city commission, which I would like to facilitate for the February 3rd meeting. Given the clarity I'm offering at this time and the formal announcement as noted, I think this can be accomplished via consent agenda during your next meeting. So everybody in consensus on that? Mr. Harjimiri, great job. Take the money. Well, take the money is exactly right, Deputy Vice Mayor Burns, which is why I was proud and enthusiastic about sharing this news today. Take it before there's none left. I would grab it. So thank you. Therefore, consent agenda item, February 3rd it is. And thank you very much. Great. Okay, we are now up to the comments from members of the public. Any members of the public wishing to speak on an agenda or non-agenda item except a quasi-judicial, which you'll have the opportunity, or a public notice meeting you'll have the opportunity later, please come to the lectern, give your name and zip code for the record, and you will each have three minutes for your remarks. Sir. Good evening, Mayor, Commissioners. I'm Paul Cannon. My zip code is 33483. Though I am a candidate for appointment as the Interim Commissioner, following the vacancy created by the resignation of now State Rep. Rob Long, I'm here this evening to urge you to consider Ms. Yvonne Lee Odom for this appointment. The City Charter gives you the authority and the responsibility to fill this seat, and Ms. Odom represents the strongest possible choice for this moment in our city's history. Ms. Odom is not just a long-time resident. She is one of Delray Beach's most enduring pillars. At just 15 years old, she became the first black student to integrate Seacrest High School in 1961, an act of courage that helped reshape the educational landscape of our city and Palm Beach County. She went on to serve 45 years as an educator, shaping generations of Delray youth with dignity, patience, and unwavering commitment. Her service to this community has been recognized time and again. This commission itself has honored her with a Back to School Day proclamation, acknowledging her decades of leadership, her advocacy for equality, and her resilience as a Stage 4 cancer survivor. She is widely respected across every neighborhood, every age group, and every community organization in Delray Beach. Her appointment would be a tribute to both her and her decades of service, and to the memory of Dr. Martin Luther King, whose life and legacy we celebrated yesterday. Beyond her historic achievements, Ms. Odom brings something essential to this role, trust. She is known for her fairness, her calm judgment, and her ability to bring people together. She has no political agenda, no personal ambition tied to this seat, only a lifetime of service and a deep love for the city she helped shape. At a time in continuity, stability, and community confidence are vital. Appointing someone with her stature and integrity would honor both the letter and the spirit of the City Charter. It would also send a powerful message that Delray Beach values experience, unity, and the people who have dedicated their lives to lifting this community up. For these reasons, I respectfully ask you to come together, unite, and be unanimous in appointing Yvonne Lee Odom as Interim Commissioner. She has already proven that she is willing to lead, and that she leads with courage, compassion, and the best interests of the City of Delray Beach at heart. Thank you for your consideration. Thank you very much. I need to remind everyone, I don't know how many people are going to be able to speak, we have one hour maximum for public comments, so the extent that you can make your comment brief and allow everybody else to speak, that would be great, but in one hour, it will be a cutoff time. Good evening to Montre, Bennett 33444. I have a few things with the cameras and the lights. I feel like this camera right here should not be on MLK. It needs to be right in front of Dozier. That's my spiel with that one, because that's where all the speeding go through right past the school. Yeah, they might speed up MLK, but up the school is where the camera need to be, because they run Stock Science there all the time. I have some quotes that I want to read from Dr. King. Let us be dissatisfied until the tragic walls that separate the outer city of wealth and comfort from the inner city of poverty and despair shall be crushed by the battering rounds of the forces of justice. Truth is taking the first step, even when you don't see the whole staircase. We must recognize that we can't solve our problems. I hate when I do this. We must recognize that we can't solve our problems, but we must have a radical redistribution of economic and political power. Meditation flow into you. Look into your eyes with the eyes of your mind. What do you see? Show this person compassion, grace, kindness, tenderness, and understanding. What happens when you give yourself the grace you give others? Inhale deeply and take a long exhale. Relax your shoulders to receive. Inhale, exhale. Inhale, exhale. I give myself the essentials I want and need from others. In other words, too many lives will sacrifice. Too much breath will sacrifice. Too much blood will shed and sacrifice. And it's on y'all to do the right thing. It ain't but two months. But guess what? The work still has to go. It still has to continue. And remember, it's about the people and it's not about your own personal vendettas. Do what's right for the people and appoint Ms. Yvonne Odom to this board for these next two months until we get a permanent commissioner. Thank you. Thank you very much. Mr. David Hardin, it's truly an honor to have you in these chambers. Well, thank you. I live in zip code 33445. I have a couple of complaints and some concerns. Maybe it's not so. Maybe it's not so. An observation. First of all, my wife wanted me to bring to your attention the median landscaping on Lake Ida Road is being poorly maintained. There are a lot of dead and dying plants, as well as bare areas where dead plants have been removed and not replaced. A second area in need of attention to the Splitter Islands on both sides of Northeast 2nd Avenue from 8th Street all the way up to 19th are in need of maintenance. As far as what's planted in them, a lot of the curbs have been broken up, so that's the minor thing. The major thing I wanted to speak about this evening, for a very long time we've had three major collector streets in the city under construction. North Swinton Avenue, Lindell Boulevard, and Barwick Road. These streets carry a lot of traffic every day. All the drivers that use them have been and continue to be inconvenienced by very rough pavement, temporary one-lane situations, and occasional detours. I'm sure these projects will be appreciated once they're finished, but why are they taking so long? It is obvious that the contractors involved are in no hurry to finish these projects. Several days may pass where you see no one working at all. Then there might be a few workers who pour a little curbing here, some sidewalks there, and a little bit of drainage somewhere else. Why have these city contracts not required diligent prosecution of the work? The manner in which these projects have been and are being built makes no sense to me. I urge the commission and staff to ensure that future such contracts require that the projects be completed in a reasonable time and that the project be worked on in a continuous manner, not in fits and starts. Second, I have a concern. I see that city post-stop streetlights have been installed on the north end of Swinton Avenue and on the north end of Lindell. These streetlights have never before been installed outside the Central Business District and some of the more historic areas of the city. All other streetlights in the city are maintained by FPL. These post-stop streetlights have to be maintained by city staff. These new lights are also different from the lights previously installed in the city. That means maintaining a different parts inventory and different training for staff to maintain them. Why are we taking on these additional future maintenance costs? Furthermore, FPL streetlights were always removed from streets where city streetlights were installed. That is, until a few years ago when city streetlights were installed on Northeast 2nd Avenue or Pantable Grove Way between 4th Street and 8th Street. The FPL lights have never been removed. It seems to be a waste of money to me to pay for two sets of streetlights on the same street. I've got one other little item if I can run through it quickly. Yes, quickly. I see the street projects previously mentioned as well as Southwest 10th when it was redone have all included constructing a lot of closed underground drainage. It looks nice and gets water off the street quickly. It is needed in locations where stormwater tends to stand. However, we used to be concerned about groundwater or aquifer recharge. If you do underground drainage, it drains the water away and gets it off as quickly as possible. It does not allow for recharge for the water to stand a little bit and recharge. Closed drainage does that. I hope the commission, especially the staff, will give more consideration to aquifer recharge in future street projects. Open drainage is also a lot less expensive. Thank you very much. Hello. Stephanie Immelman, Derry Beach Chamber of Commerce. Our advocacy chair, Vivian DeMille, and I attended Palm Beach County Days in Tallahassee at the start of the legislative session last week. At the same time, the Florida Chamber held their legislative fly-in where we heard from the cabinet, senate president, house speaker, and the governor. And in addition, we organized meetings with some of the state representatives and senators. And we were delighted that Commissioner Markert and Commissioner Burns, as well as Renee Jadasing of the CRA, could attend the meetings with us. And the mayor was also there, and he also had his own meeting. So Derry Beach was very well representative in Tallahassee this year, and we were happy about that. We advocated for business apprenticeships, for education and talent pipeline programs, for full-day VPK, because we feel it's an economic issue, affordability issues, arts and culture and tourism funding, as well as the city's two appropriations requests. But we also advocated against any radical changes to the property tax, because we fear what it would do to the city's budget, and also how it would affect businesses, because they pay a lot of the tax burden already. I attend weekly calls with the Florida Chamber, so I plan to stay up to date on any legislative issues, and we'll let you know if anything comes up. Also, the municipal election, as you know, is March 10th for seat two. The chamber's going to hold a candidates' forum on February 4th from 6 to 7.30 p.m. at the Arts Garage, so we'd love to see you all there. Thank you. Thank you very much. George Long, 33444. Brief, only a minute. This is about the beach re-nourishment. I think we should enhance the outcome of the re-nourishing project. We're going to have sand. We're going to have machinery that can move sand. So let's make the highest and best use out of this. I'm thinking maybe a motocross track, you know, a dirt bike track. One way, starting at the anchors, now at the far south end, and going to the sailboats at the north end. Do you recommend speed cameras there, too? No, but we're... I'm sorry. I'm trying to be serious here. I can tell. A lot of the tofu-eating tree huggers are going to get all excited about the turtles, but what you can do is put some flags up there, big flags at the nest, and kind of have a curved area, like a little disc going around them. And then keep them above the high tide line, come back through the dune area with a very, in respect for the environment, a very narrow path, one way, as they come back towards the anchor. So thank you for your consideration. So far, you've turned down every suggestion I've made, but we're going to try one more time. Thank you. But we so enjoy you, Mr. Long. We really do. Marjorie Waldo, very sorry that she stood behind Mr. Long. Arts Garage 33444. I just wanted to let you know that our 2025 annual campaign, which ran from November 1st through December 31st, thanks to two challenge match donations from Helen Rockling and James White and from Anita Perlman, raised 38% above our goal. We had a goal of $40,000, $20,000 in challenge donations, and we raised over $55,000 in a two-month period. So I'm excited about that. I also wanted to say that Stephen Rappaport, our board chair, board member John Engel, Senior Director of Marketing, Seth Weaver, and I have represented Arts Garage at Palm Beach County Days. We saw several of you there. It was great to see you. And it was impressive to me how many people from Palm Beach County were there. I've lived here a long time, and I felt like I was seeing so many old friends. I got to meet with Senator Mac Bernard, who was on the dais here for I don't know how many years. I got to meet with Representative Kevin Steele, Carlos Guillermo Smith, Senator, and many other legislative aides where we were bumped from commission meetings. But most importantly, perhaps, I got to meet with Rob Long briefly on the street to wish him happy birthday, which was that same day. So it was really cool to see all the hard work that these legislators made to make time for people like me and my team when they really don't have to, but they did. And it was great to see, again, all of the efforts that all of you make all the time. It means a lot to the citizens. I will ask you to stop by if you'd like to come to an Artist-in-Residence program. It's free to attend during the day, usually. There are only a few left. Just let me know if you want to come. And I'd love it if you drop by on February 25th at either 10-15 or 12-15 to see about 300, at a clip, elementary school students from Delray as they watch the Pendlestiff Family Circus perform. So that is February 25th at either 10-15 or 12-15. Just let me know so my staff doesn't bounce you out because you're not a child. So thank you so much for everything you do. We just act like children. Right. Welcome back, Commissioner Johnson. One more time. Good evening. Shirley Johnson, 33483. It was the best of times. It was the worst of times. Charles Dickens, A Tale of Two Cities. On this 250th anniversary of the founding of the United States of America, this is how we should remember the State of the Union. One year ago, we installed our 47th president. We have had quite a ride for the following 365 days, including today when he appeared at the press conference, so much so that the city of Delray Beach finds itself in need of a dose of medicine and an infusion of courage. Two years ago, during this election period, during that election period of three seats on the commission, Tom, Tom, Julie, fill the air, and so it became. At this time, when asked how the head of the executive branch would be dealt with in history, the executive branch would be dealt with if his work performance was found not as acceptable, professional, or in any way unfit for the position. Everyone was in favor of taking corrective action. That was easier said, obviously, than done. I would like to remind the commission of that commitment to those who voted for you. I would propose the following. The time has come for the dissolution of the commission. Why? Because you no longer have the courage to represent the people. You like the will to defend home rule, but bend to the rules, desires, and commands of those running our state government. Why? Because of the same old $650 million that's constantly put before you as a bribe or a threat. This has allowed the dissolution of our pride intersection, elimination of our sanctuary city, and the prostitution of our police department via the agreement of an MOA with the ICE department. Outrageous. Shame. Shame. Shame. This is how you want to go down in history. Let me end with another quote. The only thing we have to fear is fear itself. Franklin Delano Roosevelt, 1933. Don't be afraid. Punch the bullies in the nose. Thank you. Thank you very much. I'm Shannon Ewing. Zip code 33483. I'm here on behalf of my employer at work at Good Night, John Boy, as a client relations director. I'm here to address the NOAA's ordinance proposition that you have. Mayor, want to say to me. That is a public hearing, so. Yeah, that's going to be, that's part of the public hearing later when the members of the public will be allowed to speak on that item when it's called. Sorry, thank you. No, no, no, quite all right. You're good. Quite all right. Good evening, Mayor, Commissioners. This is my special announcement from Ms. Yvonne Oldham's. I was one of the players that played. Your name is up close, sir. Michael Collins, I'm sorry. Michael Collins, 33444. I was one of her baseball players that played on a 1976 baseball championship team. There was nothing that couldn't get done with that lead at the time if it wasn't from Ms. Oldham's. So, my thing is, is that to have her to be elected for this board, for Delray, for us, is an honor. So, I'm just asking you all to please give her that warm welcome and bring her to Delray, Commission on board. Thank you. Thank you very much, sir. James Quillian, 33483. I'm here because there's, usually I try to solve problems by calling and working with city workers if I can or whoever's responsible. There's two issues. There's two issues that I'm having trouble with and I can't seem to find who to talk to about. So, also, along Southeast 2nd Street, I guess there are contractors that we're supposed to are, that are supposed to take care of the planters and maybe when they first built them like four years ago, they were filled and taken care of and since then, nobody's taking care of them and it's not, I've talked to city, city workers that, that take care of different areas and they told me they're not responsible for those that, so that's a contractor. So, whoever is being paid through the, you know, as a contractor to do that, they're not doing anything. They've never done anything for four years. So, that's along Southeast 2nd from Swinton all the way to Federal. And then, you know, some of them are taken care of, but maybe by the building there that they're next to. So, another is, we fought for years in Osceola Park, our business district, to get trash cans, you know, the city trash cans for that area and they eventually put in a few trash cans after a long fight. Now, they've removed almost all of them and, and whoever we talked to, they said, oh, October, they're, they're going to bring brand new ones back. But, you know, since I've dealt with this problem before, I was, you know, so, you know, I just want to bring that to your attention. And then, of course, you might see me again about these issues, so, thank you. Thank you very much. We will address them. Chuck Ridley, I'm the co-chair of the Elders Table and chair of West Atlantic Redevelopment Coalition, 33444. Some things are a no-brainer. I watched, and deservedly so, how when Mr. Harden came to the podium, the respect he received from commission. The man gave 20, a generation of his life, working hard for this city. We should not even have a discussion. The moment Ms. Odom's name came on, of course, the democratic process needs to take place. Given her portfolio, and the respect and honor due, suggest that we pay that homage. Are there other qualified candidates? Yes. Are there other candidates that have given to this city what Ms. Odom's have given to this city? I doubt it. Are there people that could read budgets? Ms. Odom's is one. I think that's one of the requirements. Are there people who consider that can use critical problem-solving skills? Yeah. Ms. Odom's is one of them. But who else on that list that you would see an entire city called an icon? And the fact that as a public servant, she honors this city enough to put her name into consideration. We should feel fortunate. I'm telling you, those of us who came out to stand in solidarity with her, we do feel fortunate that she would, for a two-month period, come and serve with you fine folk. Now, I question her sanity to want to come and serve with you fine folk. But the fact that she chooses to says more about who this woman is than anything that I can say. Now, some of my colleagues have shared that they want to see five people. I do, too, that one of those five people is Ms. Yvonne Odoms, the woman that you should bring onto the dais. Thank you. I agree that we should all actually have our own psychiatrists as we decide to go through this route. Because, I mean, it's who in their right mind? Go ahead. I'm sorry. Hello, Arlen Dominic. I was here with a group of my neighbors to talk about the noise ordinance. However, I did not realize that I could not talk about it until the hearing. But I do want to say that if you were going just 13 miles over the limit in a place like France or Germany, you would be paying $200. Well, 178 euros. But that's pretty good. And now that I know that I can drive 13 miles over the speed limit with total impotence, I think I might start doing that. I think we're talking 9 or 10. 9 or 10 miles. 11. We're talking 11. We're talking 11. 11 miles there. And I've certainly been surprised by cameras in a few places, and I don't mind getting surprised here. And actually, the idea of using automation to facilitate or augment our police enforcement capability sounds astounding to me, whether it's for speed or speed on Atlantic Avenue, 5th Avenue, 6th Avenue by our schools, or by cameras and meters to monitor excessive noise. Thank you. Thank you very much. Thank you for your attention. Thank you. Are there any other members of the public wishing to speak? Okay. I see a line back there. I don't know. I'm Reggie Cox, 33444. And we have graphics. And I'm representing the Set Neighborhood Alliance, tonight an organization. And so we're requesting more time as a result of the organization. Is that okay, Mayor? You have six people here that would speak if you don't? I mean, are there six people here that want him to have me? Can I get six? There you go. Yes, you've got enough. You've got enough. Those of you who have raised your hands, you will not be able to speak. Yeah, that's all. So go ahead. Thank you. This is the same prop that I had brought before. And so I just want to say, just remind us of just a few, just some historical perspective that relates to Mrs. Odom. This was 10 years ago. This was 10 years ago. So I think that we've been here before. And as you can see on the poster, it said Mrs. Odom has two votes from 2016. And we're trying to get two more tonight. So that'll equal four, right? Yeah, it's something like that. Yeah. I never understood this new math anyway, so, you know. But in all seriousness, I think that, you know, Chuck raised some interesting points. So for example, just some other history as far as, you know, sitting in a seat where you have to make decisions based on input from the public, based on input from the staff, based on input from subject matter experts, and also, you have to, at times, do the right thing. What does, you know, what does that really mean? Because it's all relative. Like, for example, there was a professor I had once. He was an attorney and just happened to be a developer. And he told us a story about his four-year-old daughter asked him, Daddy, what do you do for a living? And he told her, sweetheart, I count to three. Okay? He counted to three for a living. That means three votes. Okay. So that means three votes. And another story from another municipality that was told about a, one day, a gentleman was cleaning the office as a janitor, and the next day, he was a city commissioner. And so that experience really meant that the experience that you need in that realm is to get one more vote than your opponent, right? It's all relative, right? It's all relative. Another example. As I sat two years chairing the independent CRA board in Delray Beach. Thank you, Ms. Lady, for raising the vote to get rid of the independent CRA. But anyway, there was decisions that came to us many times. Like, for example, in the Pineapple Grove community. One year there, we were contemplating a budget and moving resources to other parts of the city. I think you all probably could guess what parts of the city I was advocating for at the time. And the Pineapple Grove community wanted an arts warehouse. And my colleague, Paul Zacks, after the community came in, the Pineapple Grove community came in, because I was the chair and I wanted to kind of write it out the budget because I wanted resources to go to other places in the city, the Pineapple Grove community showed up. Cecilia Boone, Ann Gannon, they organized and they came in this chamber and they pleaded their case. And they said, you know, Mr. Cox, it was in the plans. It was in the Pineapple Grove plan. It was promised to us. And as a result of community input, community engagement, civic engagement in that particular community, I went with the people. They showed up that night. They spoke. And I went with the citizens. There was another time where the community came in. And, you know, I was the expert on the process, the RFP, the developers, went down the line with the criteria, submitted everything we wanted, down to the letter. Everything, everything, community came in and voiced their opinion. And I made it unanimous and went with the community and made it a unanimous vote on the deus. I think tonight we have an opportunity. Like I said, it's been 10 years. It's a song, 10 long years. I don't know what song it's a song. I think we have an opportunity tonight to write, in my opinion, this is my personal opinion, to write a wrong that was done to a community icon based on petty politics, petty politics, petty, petty politics and retribution. Some of you all know the story. We don't have time to go over it tonight. But the community is back once again in the beautiful yellow shirts, the red shirts. We have teachers. We have architects. We have contractors. We have clergy here tonight. The millenial table here tonight. We are aspects of community engagement, subject matter experts. And really, if we want to consider historic preservation and cultural identity, what greater honor could we do tonight as a community, as the ones who showed up, who thought it was not robbery to show up? Thank you, community. But what greater honor could we do is to honor a community icon and mend some fences, the leverage that we can get out of that for Delray Beach, this county, and in fact, the nation. Thank you. Thank you very much, Mr. Kopp. Are there any other members of the public wishing to address the commission? Seeing none, public comment is closed. We now have the consent agenda. Need a motion to approve the consent agenda? Second. All in favor? Aye. Any opposed? Then the consent agenda is approved. We now go to 7AA, which, coincidentally, is the nomination for the interim appointment to the former Vice Mayor Long's seat. I'm going to pass the gavel here, and I'm going to nominate, there you go, I'm going to nominate Yvonne Odom for a number of reasons. I want to articulate why. I want to articulate why. Thank you. I want to articulate why. Yes, she's been an icon in the city for years and years. I remember when they were active with the National League and the American League, Little Leagues, that she was very active. Well, I remember those days. I remember those days. I've been around a long time, too, as Jennifer Boos will tell you. You know, I remember those days. I remember, you know, people talk about your development experience. You've developed over 300 homes with your community development program in terms of you put your money where your mouth is, so to speak, to develop community housing and low-to-moderate-income housing. And quite frankly, your reputation itself for just being involved and being a community involved is what I think we need here, you know, and it's for a couple of months. And the fact that I think that Mr. Ridley said it best with respect to have you had your head examined, as my mother used to say. But I'm assuming you have. And so I'm going to make the nomination for you to take this seat. Are there any other nominations? I got the decavel over here. Oh, I'm sorry. Thank you. Do we need a second on that? Okay. Are there any other nominations? CNN? Nominations closed. Well, if there's no other nominations, there's elected. Do we need a vote? Do you want to call? Okay. You've got to call the vote. Hold on. Hold on. Hold on. Do you want to make it official? We have to open it for comment. I have a comment to make. I'm sorry. Excuse me. Excuse me, people. I apologize. Let us. We're ordering the court. We want to make it official. Wait. We are going to make a vote. We're going to have a roll call vote. But we also have Commissioner Cassel that would like to make a comment. And I'm very sorry. But I, you know, I can't sit here, Mayor Carney, with this charade that's going on here. Excuse me. If you don't, please allow me the opportunity to finish. If you don't mind. I would appreciate that. Because you deserve to know what's actually going on here. I was approached on December 5th by somebody in Mayor Carney's camp, December 5th, and throughout the course of the weekend to December 8th, asking me not to support Ms. Odom. And asking me to have Mr. Markert not support Ms. Odom. Now, I can't say why. I can speculate a lot of things. Maybe it's development on West Atlantic. Maybe there's a whole host of reasons. But I declined. I got a lot of things waved in front of my face for that offer. And I respectfully said no. Monday morning, first thing of business day, I reached out and reported. Because I was concerned about not only a Sunshine violation, but my part in it. And, you know, in exchange for not voting, as I said, things were offered to me. But the bottom line is, the mayor wanted to be able to nominate Ms. Odom, but not have her actually get the seat. And I'm sorry that I'm saying this today. I was going to bite my lip and keep my mouth shut, but I just can't. I won't participate in the plan. I refuse. And I reported it. And Ms. Odom, I really do appreciate you. I would like nothing more than to work with Coco's grandma and you. But I will say, no, I'm a giant tennis fan. I'm a tennis fan. I'm a tennis fan. But here's the problem. Here's the problem. The applicant, I appreciate that you came here. You put your name in along with all the other applicants to be considered. But I think the best thing to do is nothing at this point in time. Because an unelected person will essentially be the determining vote on all things going forward for approximately two months. And that concerns me. I don't think an unelected person should do that. And I did, on December 8th, report this to the city. So, documented. The fact that you write or say things doesn't make it true, number one. I can back it up with documentation. Number two, that is absolutely a bold face, untruth. No, it's not. To suggest that I had anyone from my camp, I don't know who my camp is. You know who your camp is. I can only tell you what I feel. And Mrs. Odom knew from the very start what I felt, as did many other people in this room. The individual sat with you and your political advisor. You can't just disparage people and say you're right because you think you're right. It's sad that I even have to say this. Right, right, right. Okay, okay, you've had your chance. Now, that's, excuse me, that's out of order. There's no, I'm sorry, I'm not the chair, but that's really not called for. But I will tell you that nobody from my camp spoke to anybody because I didn't want anyone to know what I was going to do. I don't care what you say. What you say isn't always true, and it's not true in this case. And you're absolutely accusing me of a crime. I'm accusing you of a sunshine violation. Okay, good. Well, you know, again. And I reported it on December 8th. Oh, good. You're great with reporting things. You're great with trying to get people not to vote because you view they have a conflict. Or that you try to get people's ethics violations. I do not approach Mr. Marker as requested. City Attorney, are we ready for a roll call? I'm saying it is not, I'm telling you, for the record, it is not true because everybody who knows me knows from day one what I wanted to do here. You do things in the background. From day one. I mean, so the fact that it is said does not make it true. In fact, it is not true. It is categorically false. And I can probably talk to 50 people in this room who know exactly that it's categorically false. And I'm glad you all rose to your feet to say it's categorically false because it is categorically false. You're back to the chair. Okay, thank you. And City Clerk, can we get a roll call, please? No, no, no, no, no, no. I didn't get a chance. Oh, Commissioner Marker, do you want to speak? This isn't what we planned on, obviously. But, you know, there are some things that I planned on saying before all this. And one of the things that has bothered me from day one is I, and I voiced this a few months ago, I don't like the idea of this commission appointing people that should be elected. And I think you just saw why a few minutes ago. This is the danger in politics when you take a handful of people up here and we start doing the things that you all should be voting on, not four of us. Danger, danger. You're Will Robinson, for those of you that are old enough to know that. Remember. So I don't like that. I said that months ago, and I still don't like it. I like it even less now that I saw what just transpired. There's been some accusations that were made up here. And I don't know exactly where the truth lies. I hope we can find out. But in light of what just happened, I would like to see us postpone this. Guys, first of all, you're all out of order. But second of all, I appreciate. Can I finish my sentence before you jump in at me? There's been nobody who's been more respectful to people in Delray than Tom Marker. Period. Please calm down, please. I disagree, and I'm hurt by that, to be honest with you. They wish they would be hurt, too. Okay. Can you calm down? You may as well follow up. Mr. Apologize. Mr. Marker, are you finished? I think I am. Thank you. City Attorney, you have something to weigh in on this? So we can't postpone this. The Charter requires two regular meetings, a vote at two regular meetings. And so if you're not able to appoint somebody today, we will proceed with four people until the election in March. Can we proceed with a vote? You're the chair. I can't do the chair. Yes. City Clerk, please call the roll. Commissioner Marker. I abstain. I'm sorry. I can't. You can't abstain. Legally, you cannot abstain. There's no conflict of interest. You have to vote. Okay. I vote no. Commissioner Cassell. I'm sorry. I'm also voting no. I think mischief is afoot, and we should figure out what's going on here. Deputy Vice Mayor Burns. Yes. Mayor Carney. Yes, and I'm very sorry that it's not going to pass. No, you're not. So if the commission believes that you can. What's that? I've re-got my gavel, huh? If the commission believes that you can move forward with another. Stay on! Please. She knows who she is. She knows why she does that. A vote has been taken to quorum in the chamber. Quorum in the chamber. You may not like the result. You may like the result. No, no, no comment. I'll let it clear out now that I've got my gavel back. Did you want the gavel back? Did you? Do you want to take a recess for a couple of minutes? Do you want to take a five-minute break? Huh? Do you want to keep going, or do you want to take a five-minute break? All right. Commissioner Burns would like a five-minute break. Is that a consensus for a five-minute break? We are breaking for five minutes. I'll see you back here at? In five minutes. Yeah, five minutes. I was going to say 6.31. I was going to say 6.31. Is the mic on? I'm going to turn myself back on. Good evening, chamber. We are starting the meeting again here. It is 6.36. What's 6.37, if that's correct? Mr. Dokovitz, we are now on resolution 2-26, amending the fiscal year 2025-2026 budget, adopted by resolution on 198-25, September 15th. You are on. Thank you. This resolution is a budget transfer composed of several items. I can't hear you, Mr. Neff. You're going to have to speak up, sir. This is a budget transfer regarding several items. The first is Parks and Recreation. They are transferring one position from the Parks and Recreation Administration to the marina. Could we have quiet in the chamber, please? Thank you. The transfer amount is $101,146.57. And this transfer is due to expenses that were unanticipated from Parks and Recreation, and they're funding it through that marina account. It's a straight expense account to expense account transfer. The water sewer renewal is a transfer to cover the utility's share of the Solid Waste Authority's South Central Regional Wastewater Treatment and Disposal Board cost, ratified by the commission on June 25th, 2025. It's a $600,000 item. The funding source is an expense transfer in the Water Sewer Renewal Replacement Fund. There's a project there that's just about complete, and therefore they're transferring the $600,000 for this year's budget to cover the cost of the Solid Waste Authority fee. The third is the Garage Fund. Transfer from Public Works, GPS, and related services for the remaining three months of the current service period. The total is $9,000 expense transfer in the Garbage Fund. Thank you very much. Is there any comment from the city attorney? No, sir. Okay. Oh, did you want me to read the resolution? No, I've read the resolution. You'd like to read the resolution into the record? Please do. A resolution of the City Commissioner 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 inconsistent herewith, providing an effective date, and further purposes. Great. Is there any further discussion on this? Can we have a motion to approve? So moved. Second. All in favor? Aye. Thank you, sir. Thank you. Would you like to now read Resolution 7B, Resolution 24-26? Yes, sir. A resolution of the City of Delray Beach. A resolution of the City Commission of the City of Delray Beach, Florida, approving an agreement with Affinity Golf Partners, LLC, doing business as Bobby Jones Links for Management Services for Delray Beach Golf Club and Lakeview Golf Club, pursuant to request for proposals 2025-032, authorizing the City Manager to execute any amendments and a renewal 0-2, and to take any and all actions necessary to effectuate the intent of this resolution, providing an effective date and further purposes. Thank you very much. Mr. Mitot. Yes, Sam Mitot, Director of Parks and Recreation. Good evening, Mayor and Commissioners. As Ms. Jelen just spoke about, this is a resolution. This is for the management of the new golf course. This is a change in management of the company we had for a number of years prior. But Bobby Jones won the RFP process. We had, I believe, six different firms that were highly interested in this. And this is management for both courses, right? Just to be clear, this isn't just a new one, but they will take over management starting in March of both Lakeview Golf Course and Delray Beach Municipal Golf Club. I want to just point out that this is a 10-year agreement. It's a five-year agreement with a five-year renewal. It's a big investment for one of these operations to come in and staff this up. To get it off the ground is a big move, and therefore we're looking at a little bit of investment in time that they'll be there for some time with a five-year renewal to be able to do that. And just to point out, I know the number looks big at $1.5 million, but over a 10-year period, that is $150,000 a year that it costs us to have this company come in and manage it. So we're excited about this opportunity. They're a highly reputable organization, so they're excited to start here and take over this operation for us as well. I'm here for any questions. Thank you very much. To the commission, anything? I have a question. Okay, would you like me? Right, it's $150,000 a year. What are we paying now? Because one of the biggest issues that we had was there was a question of, are we giving enough? Now, granted, we'll be redoing the golf course, so we'll be starting off with a pristine and beautiful new course. But is this enough money to manage it and upkeep it in a way that we expect to under the circumstances that it's going to be brand new? Yeah, it's a great question. $150,000 is what we pay now. Right, and that's the point. But I just want to point that out, and that's why I think it's a great question, is what we put into our maintenance budget is determined through our budget every year through the budget process. That is what we budget from our enterprise fund. It is not contingent on this. This is simply a line item within that budget of this is the profit, this is the cost for the management company to manage for us. So we still determine our maintenance levels and what we're putting into the course from an investment standpoint. Understood. Thank you very much. Are you concluded? Yes. Thank you. Okay. Commissioner Burns. No, I have no questions. Commissioner Marker. No questions, sir. Well, this is a great – I did research them. They're a great company, and I feel confident that they are going to do a great job for us. They'll have a better course to work with. They'll generate the revenues, I believe, to support the bond, which is key for me. And I think that – I'm just so happy we're moving forward. I'm not being a golfer, but those are golfers that have been looking for this for a long time. So unless there's any further discussion, can I get a motion to approve? Motion to approve. Second. All in favor? Aye. Any opposed? Great. Okay. Thank you. 7C. Who is – is this Mr. Dockowitz again? This is actually Ms. Cassitra Thompson, Assistant Chief Procurement Officer. What did you call her title? Assistant Chief Procurement Officer. Thank you. I'm sorry, Ms. Thompson, can you confirm the mic functionality, please? I don't believe a song. A little red light? Yes. Okay, there it is. So this is the amendment to the purchasing policies and procedure manual. Thank you. So the background. So our Ordinance 2117 repealed and redacted Chapter 36 of the Code of Ordinance, adopted purchasing policies and procedure manual, and established approval with authority thresholds over $65,000 that requires your approval. So the objective of the amendment policies have not been amended by the City Commission since the adoption in 2017. And keep up – if we would have kept up with the increase in cost of goods and services, maintain administrative efficiencies, and ensure consistencies in the application of the PPPM. Most changes, special events exemption will include obligated purchases for events such as the DRA Open, certification, servicing, and collaboration of police and fire equipment. Now, the vendor spending without a city contract, up to $100,000 annually. The current spending is $65,000, which requires your approval. To be noted, if the threshold had been increased by 3% each year since 2017, today the threshold would be $85,000. So the proposed increased city manager approval threshold would be increased to $100,000. So I – we ask around to our different entities within our co-op, and Boca Raton, their thresholds for material and services is $65,000. For their construction for city manager approval is up to $150,000. The town of Palm Beach, anything of under $10,000 requires one quote, $10,000 to $35,000, three quotes, $50,000 to $100,000 town manager approval. West Palm Beach, goods and services, not exceeding $50,000 for city manager approval. And construction, not exceeding $100,000 for city manager approval. So benefits of increasing the threshold for small-dollar purchases. Increase efficiency in the procurement for small purchases. Quicker response time for urgent purchases. Decrease in administrative hurdles. Cost savings. Streamline process. Reduce operational costs. Budget flexibility. Reduce in time to allocate funds for projects. Enhance local business participation. Less formality. Improve local business assets to the city contracts. Thank you. Thank you very much. Is there any comment from the city attorney or the city manager on this? So as you know, and we just did this with personnel policies and procedures at our last meeting, the goal of all of this is just to create an efficient purchasing system for staff to be able to utilize. So a lot of the changes that you're going to see in this manual are really things that over the years we've had challenges with interpretation. So we attempted to make everything more clear. We defined the cone of silence better. There was a misstatement. So it's contractually obligated purchases. And we added that because, as you said here, every year in February, we always have these emergency purchases for the Delray Beach Open. And so in order to try to be more efficient with purchases that have to be made regardless because they are contractually obligated, we added that exception. And then police and fire had asked that equipment calibration and things like that, when it's already been competitively solicited, the actual purchase, those after services would also be accepted out. So a lot of what you're seeing in here is really just things that over the years staff has said, you know, can we make this clear to ensure that we're all interpreting this properly? Now, the city manager's authority, we did ask, we are asking to increase it. That won't take effect immediately because we have to make a change to the code. I didn't want to bring a code change if there wasn't an appetite to change the authorization level to $100,000. But I think the point is, is in other municipalities, sometimes it's a percentage of an agreement. I think that's too vague. So we wanted a hard and fast number. And the reason why we put in that 3%, if we've been increasing this over the years, with inflation and things like that, goods and services have increased. And if we had done the same types of increases over the years to the $65,000, we'd be at a place close to the – it would be at $85,000, which is close to $100,000. So we're giving a little buffer. We haven't brought this manual back to the city commission since its initial adoption. And we just felt now was a good time to bring all of these changes to you. And if there's a desire to make those changes, it's really going to increase the efficiencies. And a lot of it you're not going to see. I did get the question today, you know, are there checks and balances? And there are. You know, you have your procurement team that looks at it. You have my team that looks at it. And then the city manager's office looks at it. So I think those three groups looking at something and making these determinations is going to just increase our speed. And I don't want to make it sound like speed, like we're not going to review it thoroughly. But a lot of these things that come before you, I think sometimes you question it. Why is this before us? And it's because of that $65,000 threshold, which in this day and age is not as high as it was back in 2017. Thank you very much. Commissioner Markert. I'm in favor of this. Okay. Commissioner Casale. Just one question. So we have to incorporate the $100,000 in order to make this work. Understood that. We did change the threshold down a couple years ago, as I recall, for reasons. And that was more on budget amendments. Remember, we had changed moving of money internally. So this doesn't affect that because it's procurement. We will still see the money as it moves. That doesn't change that at all. Okay, then I'm totally fine with this. Thank you. Yes, ma'am. Commissioner Byrne. Yeah, I'm okay with this. You know, things are more expensive than they have been, and I think we have enough checks and balances. So I'm in favor as well. Thank you. You know, I think $100,000 is not $85,000, but I understand the issue. I mean, I completely see the 3% increase. I was in favor. That would have been fine. But if you feel that this $100,000 is really necessary in order to make this system work, and it fills all the holes along the way, then I'm going to support it with the checks and balances that you say we have in place. So I need a motion to approve. Motion. Motion to approve changes to the Purchasing Policy and Procedures Manual. Second. All in favor? Aye. Any opposed? It is adopted. I can hear the cheers. Huh? They don't like coming in front of us? Come on. This is fun. This is another day in paradise. Goodness gracious. Seventeen. Nomination for an appointment to the Green Implementation Advancement Board. Based on the rotation system, the nomination will be made by Commissioner Casal. Yes. Can I push that off? Because I made a phone call to two people, and I haven't spoken to them. You may. We can do this to the next meeting. Is that okay? I don't... Yes, you're allowed. Because the term expires July 31st. Well, you've got... But it is for an unexpired term. So the longer you push it, the faster their term will be over. No, I understand. Thank you. That's all right. But I mean, it may not have even begun yet, is my point. Okay, that's fine. Because it's July 31st. And we're now to the part of the meeting, which is public hearings and second readings. We're going to be talking about... First, we're going to be talking about the noise ordinance. I know some of you people were here to talk about that. And now will be your opportunity. We're going to have the city clerk... Excuse me, the city attorney. Read the ordinance into the record. Ordinance number 35-25, an ordinance of the City Commission of the City of Delvary Beach, Florida, amending the Code of Ordinances of the City of Delvary Beach, Chapter 99, Noise Control, by repealing the adopted Chapter 99 in its entirety and readopting same as revised, in order to amend and update the city's regulations for the appropriate level of noise output, originating within the limits of the city, providing a conference clause, a severability clause, authority to codify, and providing an effective date. And I just have a short presentation, Mayor. Yes. I just need to update the commission and the public on just a few things. Okay. So... Amendments to it, right. So just since we last discussed this, I did do a presentation before the DDA. Some of their concerns were exactly where the measurement was going to be taken using the sound meters. And we'll get into that in a few slides. We did have first reading on December 8th. Since then, we've been having internal staff meetings to discuss some potential changes to the language in this ordinance, as well as the implementation of this ordinance. And as I've stated all along, our goal is to start this April-May with a warning period and a public outreach period as well. So the main change that you're going to see between this ordinance and the version that you previously saw, and I did drop off copies of the proposed language change so you could actually see what it's going to look like. Under landscape maintenance equipment, we had a pretty robust discussion about the hours of landscape equipment. And I think that the consensus was that you did want to make changes to it. But then when we brought it back to you, we discussed how our city employees, their start time is much earlier, and we didn't want to run afoul of our own code, right? And so I just put an exception at the end of that language, and it essentially says, such exceptions shall not apply to landscape maintenance activities conducted on city-owned or city-operated properties. And I think that captures the concerns that were voiced. And so when we move towards adoption of this ordinance, I would just ask that that edit be made or included. We did reach out to the consultants. So once this ordinance is adopted, we will be purchasing the sound meters as well as the calibrators. The price is $1,500 for each sound meter, and you do require a calibrator, which is within the range of $780 to $1,000. The employees that will be utilizing these devices will be trained by the noise consultant, and these are the devices that he uses. Code, I think, indicated that they would probably purchase two. So, and then police will purchase some as well. So I just wanted to briefly touch upon the sound level limits. So previously, we had the plainly audible standard that everyone always talks about. That was a subjective standard. That's still included in this code. So that same language, you'll see it. But it's only permissible when the noise meter is unavailable. Either somebody doesn't have it on them, or it's not working, or the wind speed is too high. At that point, you step 100 feet away from the property that's making the noise, and you determine if it's plainly audible. Can you make out the words to the music? Can you hear it clearly? And we try to avoid that because that's this objective measurement. Would I consider it to be noisy? I'm probably guessing my kids wouldn't. So that's why we're kind of leaning towards this objective level using these sound meters. The sound meter is going to capture the noise at the property line. So who's ever generating the noise, the officer will stand at the property boundary, and the code is very clear on how it has to be set up. I didn't put all that in there because it's very technical, but again, everybody will be trained on that, and they will point the sound meter, capture the sound for a minimum of 30 seconds, and collect the average of the sound in either DBAs or DBCs. We do have mixed uses throughout the city, as you know, and so if it's a mixed-use property or adjoining properties with different uses, the lower of the permitted decibels is what's going to be used, and that makes sense, right? You don't want it to be the higher range. You want it to be at the lower range. So those are the sound level limits. And again, the main distinction, which was a concern at the DDA, was where the measurement was going to be captured, and because of the sensitivity of the noise meters. And these decibel numbers that were tested by the consultant, they factor in the closer range of capture as opposed to the 100 foot. So I kind of just talked about this. Sound levels are measured on the property boundary. Measurement must be collected for at least 30 seconds. If somebody forgets their noise meter, they can't just use their phone, so that's not permissible. There are decibel readers on cell phones, but because we have to be mindful that these devices have to be calibrated and have to be properly maintained, our staff is not going to be able to use their personal devices or applications on their personal devices to collect the sound. Sound, and again, the 100 foot plainly audible subjective standard is only applicable if the sound meter is not available for use. So the next steps, and I'm going to add a step here. So Florida law requires us to file and publicize on our website a business impact estimate. Unfortunately, I neglected to do it. So it has been filed, but it has to be published 10 days before you can adopt. So I am going to be asking that we defer this until February 3rd when it will have been published for 10 days. And we'll just postpone this to a date certain so we don't have to re-advertise this ordinance on there. I do apologize. I don't know how I missed it, but it has been published on the website. In the interim, though, if the commission is indicating that you do want to move forward with this, we will begin purchasing devices. We anticipate training staff sometime in the month of February, both code enforcement and law enforcement staff. I do anticipate that we will be doing community outreach. We'll work with the DDA because really the businesses are going to be most impacted by this. I don't foresee residential, you know, property owners having too much to say about this other than potentially making the complaints. But the businesses are really the ones who are going to be impacted by this. There will be a warning period for about 30 days so that people can adjust to the new levels that are required under the code. And, again, we will commence enforcement. It's probably going to start looking towards May of 2026, and we'll start that process then. But I am asking to postpone this until at a minimum February 3rd so that I have an opportunity to ensure that we did comply with Florida statute. And then if there's any other changes that the commission desires, I can take those into account at that time. And I think that's it. Well, obviously, if we're going to be postponing that, we're not going to be having public comment at this meeting. I hate to say that to the people that have waited. They can comment. Will they be allowed to comment again? Correct. No. So if you comment tonight, you will not be able to comment when we bring this up again. You are free to get up and comment on this if you wish. But, again, we're going to be calling this again in two weeks. Two weeks. Do we have a date certain? I'm going to leave that up to you. I want to hear the conversation first, and then if there's big changes that I have to make, then we can adjust. I believe the second meeting in February is the 24th. I knew he would know. The 24th. Oh, that late. So either one is fine with me. I'm going to go ahead. Oh, of course, the tenant's trying to – I'll go ahead and comment. I understand I can't comment at the next meeting. He said the mayor has to open it up for public comment. Okay. Well, let me call her for public comment first. Okay. We are now in public comment. Any of those wishing to speak on this item may now speak on this item. Understanding, we will be deferring the full body of the document to a meeting, a date certain of February 24th. You will not be allowed to comment at that particular meeting if you are commenting tonight. Name and zip code for the record. Sorry. She needs to be sworn in. I'm sorry. Oh, you need to be sworn in. I'm sorry. Very official. Sworn in, sworn at. By the authority vested in me as a notary of the state of Florida, do you swear or affirm that the testimony you're about to give is the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth? Yes. I'm Shannon Ewing, 33483. I currently – You're going to have to speak up a little bit louder. Pardon? You know, my hearing aid's off tonight, so it's – Okay, now it's not better. Okay. I'm here to discuss, just make comments about the proposed ordinance. Of course, now there have been changes, and I understand there are going to be more changes, and I just wanted to give my input as an employee at Goodnight John Boy. We are a nightclub. We are adjacent to another nightclub, and I just want to give a few points that we think are valid to be – we opposed it as it was originally written, especially with the plainly audible. I understand the sound devices could be helpful. You know, we understand that the goal of balancing residents' concerns with quality of life, and the proposal, as it was written, probably could go too far and risk the undermining very purpose of Delray's entertainment district. Bars and nightclubs with music are a major economic driver for the city. The late-night revenue generated by nightlife brings in sales tax, tourism dollars, parking revenue, and supports hundreds of local jobs. That money would not exist without high-energy music and sound. People are not coming downtown after midnight for quiet drinks. They are coming for nightlife. Although the ordinance not technically require venues to close at 1 a.m., the lowered sound limits and strict bass restrictions effectively do the same thing. Bass and low-frequency sound are a core part of nightclub music. Limiting that to near lounge level after 1 a.m. at all makes real nightclub operation impossible and turns the entertainment district into one in name only. The plainly audible enforcement standard is too subjective. Allowing violations based on unaided hearing creates inconsistent enforcement, and certainly for operators who are trying to comply. Businesses need clear, objective, and predictable standards, not rules that can change depending on who responds to a complaint. The ordinance also risks punishing responsible operators instead of targeting bad actors. Well-run venues already close doors, manage sound, and respond quickly to warnings. Blanket restrictions harm compliant businesses while doing little to address isolated problem locations. Finally, Delray competes with nearby cities for nightlife and tourism. If Delray becomes known as a city where nightlife is muted or restricted, the revenue will disappear. It will simply move to other markets. Once nightlife leaves, it does not come back easily. So we strongly urge the commission to consider modifications to, as it was previously written, I look forward to seeing the different changes for it, and we all want to support the business here. Thank you for listening. Thank you very much. Mayor, can I just clarify? Certainly. So the plainly audible standard is only utilized when the noise meters aren't available. Also, if an officer uses a plainly audible standard, he can't cite the business. The code is very clear. You can only give a warning. Right. Because we want to encourage our staff to use the noise meters, which is the objective standard. Thank you for the clarification, sir. John Mallon, 33444. I want to just give the opinion from the public, because we're located extremely close to Honey and Tin Brook. So our objective or, you know, what we experience is much different than maybe what was just expressing and giving respect to that person. But we know, everyone's talking about how loud do we make loud music. We know these venues can operate at a much lower level. Why? Because when it was publicly announced, you're going to measure noise, those venues easily knocked 20, 30 decibels off their music for weeks. Easily. They still had the crowds. They still had the revenue. They still had the waiting lines. All of that was still present. So the premise that we're going to lose tax dollars, somehow you're going to have to prove that. And it's already been proven. So I don't really, one of the things that I object to is these abstract ideas. Sound is a science. We shouldn't be relying on opinion. And so one of the recommendations, which I'll make, I'll explain a little bit later why that's going to be beneficial. But we've already had, I guess, a 2020-2012 failure where they had hand meters. And this, we just, I'm an engineer background. I did a lot of sound analysis 20 years ago, so I'm a little rusty. So it'll give you a little benefit of that. But if the way this is written, it's going to be extremely hard. Well, first of all, you're not going to get an accurate reading. It's impossible. And it won't be an enforceable reading. And I'll explain that. If you, let's take an example. I'm going to go to Tin Roof's border on the sidewalk, Atlantic Avenue. I'm going to erect a tripod, put a measuring device on it. And it requires calibration before. I don't know where they're going to find a quiet place to do that. And it requires ambient measurement. You can't get an ambient measurement. What do you tell everyone to stop playing the music? Everyone be quiet? How do you get an ambient reading on site? It's impossible. You should follow other jurisdictions. What they're doing is they're taking ambient and off hours, but they're using a 24-hour recording device. The 24-hour device establishes ambient. And there's all sorts of algorithms that are already out there. This is 100, 200-year-old science. There's already algorithms that will calibrate for you based on the ambient you're actually getting. So a lot of, I guess, what I'm seeing from an engineering point of view, we're just missing the science. We're just going by opinions and, you know, what could happen. That's really not accurate. So the other thing is in one of the meetings, not this meeting, it was mentioned that I think we should give the venues another 5 or 10 decibels. 5 decibels human perception is much louder to the point where it's going to generate a noise complaint. 10 decibels doubles the impression to a human. If you give them 10 decibels, my impression is that music just doubled. So we can't really just throw around decibels this way. It's logarithmic. Need you to wrap up. Okay, well, then the real solution is going to have to be 24-hour monitoring where that data goes somewhere, it can be analyzed safely, and it will avoid all the problems of trying to measure sound that's not going to be accurate. And it's going to eliminate all the problems that they're going to experience trying to get an accurate measure, one that can be enforced. Thank you very much. Good evening. Christina Morrison, 33483. So I'm going to speak a little bit in defense of the entertainment district. As many of you know, I've sat on SPRAB for years. I've sat on P&Z for years. And this city very much protects other neighborhoods from noise. We defeated having bounce in the marina district. They had to move to the entertainment district and things like that. So we're very cognizant of protecting the neighborhoods. The entertainment district was established for a reason, because we have a vibrant downtown that people enjoy, and they should be allowed to enjoy it to a certain extent. As many of you also know, City Oyster is my branch office. And when I'm sitting there eating and a motorcycle goes by and the decibels are off the chart to the point I'm worried about my hearing, or a muscle car goes by and wants to rev his engine, that is really offensive. And that's what I would like to have some regulations to limit, because that's not fair. When you're sitting down and trying to enjoy a meal, and the noise is outrageous. So I would like to see some regulations with the vehicle noise. Secondly, the city staff. So other cities have addressed the fact that blowers that are gas-powered are so loud that it's offensive, especially when the city staff starts at 7.30 in the morning. And some of us are still sleeping, you know, or not ready for that loud noise. And they've gone to all-electric blowers within a certain amount of time frame. I highly recommend our city consider such an action, because it would really increase the quality of life for those of us living downtown with that noise. So thank you very much. Thank you very much. Yes, sir. Good evening, everyone. My name is Andre Kulikov, 33444. I've been a resident of Delray Beach for the past 10 years. We moved here in 2016, and we love the city. And thank you very much for doing an awesome job. So we do love nightlife. However, we live right on the avenue. And we appreciate you guys looking into noise ordens as a whole, because that is important, just like loud mufflers that sometimes go beyond control. We have two open-air venues. They're not enclosed. They're not a nightclub that is fully a box. So the noise that emits from those two businesses is well above your normal bar or nightclub. So hopefully we can get something resolved. And again, we appreciate you guys. Thank you very much. Jim Chard, 33483. And my comments are basically in the form of a question. Does this attempt to control the mobile noise sources in this city as opposed to the stationary? And as the city attorney explained, it takes a 30-second reading. The mobile noises move up and down Federal Highway and through the neighborhoods. I'm not quite sure how you would measure that for 30 seconds. But they are very, very invasive. They tend to sort of come out early at night and then go back to their cocoon for another 18 hours before they come out again. And a lot of them just seem to be designed to make noise rather than to move people in a vehicle, whether that's a car or a motorcycle. Thank you. Thank you very much. I'm Queen with the Socialist Civil Circle. My zip code is 33444. I just wanted to actually, I really didn't have anything to say tonight, but it got a little interesting when the lady stood up and she was saying how rude it is for the noise. I mean, the ordinance when you're trying to eat is actually rude for cars to come through and ram up and, you know, hit the muscles and the brakes and skirt off and stuff like that. It is rude while you're eating. I wouldn't want to hear it either because common courtesy is due to any and everybody. So it just reminds me that I think we should take other considerations, just like it's rude for cars to come and make noise while we're eating because we want to enjoy ourselves, especially when we're paying money. It's rude that we have polices around here and they're being rude to us in other ways, disrespecting us in a manner of our black culture that's not in coherence to us. So just like it's rude of you all to hear those cars ramming up, it's rude for us to have officers walking in our face. It's rude for us to not be able to go in and honestly and freely file complaints. It's rude that I have so many black women that would not go in the police department and file a complaint because they feel like there are backlashes and harassments and stuff like that. So I understand in these particular communities that it's rude for that type of noise. And it is. And it's rude for me not to have a city manager or a chief of police mayor for that matter to actually help. So I'm only saying what's rude to us. You need to comment on the proposed ordinance. This is not general comment. You need to comment on this proposed ordinance. And I'm commenting on that. That proposal is rude. So if you have a problem with this noise because of cars, I don't know if I would go along with that because we have ordinance that you guys aren't adhering to. Thank you very much. Are there any more public comment? Seeing none, public comment is closed. I'm just going to say a couple quick things. Some very good points were made here. You know, I mean, I don't want to slow up the process of doing an ordinance because we need to get something on the road, but mobile. But there are some very good points here. And monitoring for 24 hours is one of them because the ambient noises can be a real problem. And I think that Mr. Chard brought up regarding the automobiles. You know, they won't get measured for 30. That's a different standard. No, I'm just saying. That's a Florida statute. You don't have to measure that for 30 seconds. Okay. But I'm just saying we're not – I want to make sure that we're an all-inclusive kind of – because noise is an issue. I respect very much that we want to keep our entertainment district vibrant. At the same time, we've also made the decision that we want to have, you know, a walkable downtown with urban living. And those people really can't suffer either. And so at the times of the day when these – I don't even see them because I've been in bed for two hours by the time these places are operating. But it is a problem. And I want to be able to address all of these issues. I know that you and I have had the discussion about having noise cameras. It's unfortunate they're illegal in the state of Florida, which I did not know. Well, they're not illegal. They're just not criminal. I can't ticket people for it. Correct. I can't ticket people for it. So whether we can impress upon our lobbyists to try to make an amendment to the current stuff that you're doing in Tallahassee, we could maybe get an amendment up there. But it's – I said I don't want to slow up this process, and we're going to have the second reading. But I do – I want to – it needs to be a – we need to have more. And as it relates to the gas blowers, I'm not sure it's not time for us to consider – I mean, I understand why we don't want to do it. I don't want to do it in year one. But there's certainly possible that we could create some kind of a transition period where they're – you know, they have to eventually move, whether it's three years or five years, move to the electric standard, which are a lot quieter, and then have some days of the week where they're maybe not – you know, I mean, 7.30 on a weekend day is not pleasant for people. So we're allowed to let them start at 7, and I think that's a little too early. So those are my comments. Didn't we change it to 8 already? Oh, we changed it. Yeah, we did. The direction was to go to 8 a.m. Page 6. It's 8 a.m. Except for city staff. That is correct. I know. I know. Which is 7. Does – can I have to ask a question? Mayor? Yes, go ahead. Oh, yes, please. You may be recognized. I'm sorry. So does this ordinance include the entertainment district as well, the noises coming from – The entertainment district is always subject to the noise. They just can have it longer. So it extends noise for an extra – I believe that we did an additional hour. But they're still bound to the noise ordinance. And let me just say this. We didn't make up these numbers. You know, these came from our noise consultant. And because of the time that elapsed from when the study was done, I had a second noise consultant review it just to make sure that they felt that these were the appropriate numbers, understanding that we have a vibrant entertainment district where, you know, it's established. So it's not a situation where we're creating, you know, a district to allow the noise. This has been there. It's understood that it's going to be loud for a little bit later. And so the numbers that are there were the recommendations of our noise consultant. And let's remember, we can always make changes. If something's not working – the same reason why I brought this all these years ago, right? It wasn't working. Plainly Audible doesn't work. Anytime you have something subjective, you're going to have all different types of opinions, right, as to how bad is it. And that's what we found. And so, you know, to have our enforcement officers out there and having to get into arguments with people because – I don't think it's that loud. Yes, it is. No, it isn't. That's – this is like a speed limit. If you're over 55, you're going to get a ticket. If you're under 55, you're doing the right thing. You're following the law. It's going to be a work in progress. There's going to be a period where we are going to be testing this again. And if staff comes back and says, I think it's too low, I think it's too high, there's no way that we can gain compliance, we're going to bring that back to the city commission. But I think we have to take that first step, understanding that it's going to be uncomfortable for people and there's going to be a lot of complaints. But I do think that as we progress and as staff is trained and people become comfortable with the limitations, I think this is going to be a better option. And it gives people certainty. They know what that number is. And let's be clear, there's things that you can do acoustically to reduce the noise spillage off of your property. It might cost you money, but there's things that businesses can do so that they can avoid issues with the city. And whether or not they've done it already, I would probably suggest that if they think they're too loud, they should probably start looking into it now. We had issues with pop stroke. They made adjustments to their noise and I haven't heard that we've gotten complaints. It's gotten better. It's much better. So we have a very well-trained staff that can assist with these things and it might require the businesses to make adjustments, but it's for the betterment of everybody. Because like what you said, Mayor, we have to find that balance for the residents and the businesses so that everybody can live symbiotically. I just want to say, having an ascertainable standard, I've always thought is the better way to go, but I was commenting on the sentence here. It said, based on the feedback, it is recommended, this is in our staff report, based on it is recommended for missile hours used for landscape maintenance to be amended from 8 a.m. as directed by the workshop, which is what we all talk about, to 7 a.m. That was because of our staff. This was just a rollover. My apologies. I am just saying that's what this says. Right. When we started... If you're saying it's 8 a.m. and this is incorrect, then that's fine. No. I amended it. Right. What happens is these agenda items get rolled over. It's my call. I provided to the commission my adjusted language, which has 8 a.m. and 5 a.m. I'm just clarifying that... I appreciate it. This is part of the record. They're just clarifying that we are at 8 a.m. It'll be changed for the next second. Because I think that... Well, the record is the record, though. That was the timeline. You don't have to change the agenda. It's in your document that has the actual ordinance. The actual ordinance would have the correct colors. So, if I... Mayor, can I ask a question, please? Yes, please. You may be recognized. Okay, thank you. It says 8 to 5, but then you say exceptions apply to us. I really hate when we make exceptions for ourselves. That was why I brought it up that we start at 7 o'clock in the first meeting, that our employees are out at 7. Having said that, it's difficult, apparently, to change their schedule, and I get that. But maybe we just ensure that when they are maintaining our property, they're not abutting residential. So, the tennis center doesn't really abut residential or wherever... However, we can do it so that we are, you know, in compliance as well. And then, also, the gentleman spoke of the need for ambient reading. My understanding is this handheld technology does not require that. It can read on the spot and then reset and read on the spot. And I want to, you know, just... I think the technology he's referring to would have to be permanently affixed in a location. This is not permanently affixed. That's not what this is. It's transportable, so we can do readings throughout the city quickly. And, you know, it is a trial and error, but, Mayor, when you said, you know, you're not going to... You want to move it forward, but you might have some stuff at the next meeting. I say we need to give this stuff now so that we can have it ready to go, because this has been like six meetings on this. I am agreeing that we should get this going now with the understanding, as the city attorney said, this may have to be tweaked down the road, because I do think there are some... I think the intentions are great, but I do think there are some more specifics that we can deal with to deal with some of the other issues. For example, on Atlantic Avenue with these motorcycles and things such as that. That's a totally separate issue, though. This is really more of an enforcement issue, and I understand that. That's not part of this, though. We have all the technology in the road, but if we don't have our enforcement people in place, then, you know, it's all for naught. The city of Miami Beach, they actually established a task force. I think the initials are NEAT for Noise Abatement Enforcement. So, you know, there's things that we can do. Once everybody's trained, I do believe that we are going to see a difference, and I know that the biggest complaint is the vehicles. Everybody hears it. Everybody knows about it. You're eating lunch, like Ms. Morrison said, so I get it. We don't have the tools right now, because we don't have portable noise meters, and plainly audible doesn't comply with Florida statute. Right. So the Florida... As I said, I don't want to be like, you know, in my day, we walk to school from the snow in Miami Beach for seven hours and things. But back when I was on the commission before, we did have a test where the police went out on Atlantic Avenue and had little sound guns. Right. And they stopped people and gave them warnings. And for a while, it quieted everybody down. So we may have to... All I'm saying is, as we get into this enforcement aspect, and we all talked about it's getting into the habit of what we consider to be appropriate behavior, we may have to do some of that. That's all I'm saying. Commissioner, are you finished? Yeah, I am. I'm ready to move forward. Yeah, we started this great process last year, and I give Mr. Moore credit for this, with these town halls that we were doing. And we did them for our golf course. We did them for our water treatment plant. And it was a chance for residents to come out, hear from city staff, and see what we're thinking about for bigger issues for the city. And I've had so many conversations this week with a lot of people that are in this room and a lot of people who aren't about the concerns about noise. And I would like to see us have a town hall meeting quick, because I want to get this done rapidly as well. But we've had such success with these things where we put these together, we invite the residents to come out, and you can see what the plans are. And I saw it with the golf course. We missed some things. But because the residents came out, they pointed to some of those things, and we got the plans fixed and made a little bit better. And I think that's where we're at here right now, based on the conversations that I've had with a number of residents. People want to have their voices heard. I think this is another one of these big projects. And I think the process that you started, Mr. Moore, with the town halls was a good one, and I'd like to see us do that for this. So if I may, ladies and gentlemen, I think that's appropriate, because, of course, we are obligated to engage in community outreach, collaboration, and that would be in alignment in that regard. So both the office of the city manager, office of the city attorney, and others pertinent will work collaboratively to make arrangements. Can I switch on this? I thought we were, like, six meetings. We're two years ago. We did a workshop. Two years ago. That would have been in 2022, April 2022, the last of which would have been April 20th. Is that going to slow this down, though? The problem is if you have a workshop and then you get public input, that differs from our ordinance. We can schedule this for second reading February 24th. Okay. And then we can have something before that. And a town hall will be sometime thereafter. So this would be a doubt. It would have to be before if you're asking for public input. Okay. Because I spoke with Mr. Mallon today, and he said it's been more than two years since we've had a town hall or something like this. I don't have an issue with that. It feels like yesterday. I think it's a great idea. It does. Time flies. Okay, so if we – Everyone kind of agrees it's a problem. And we just knew, as Commissioner Casales, we just need to get off the dime and get something passed. And I'm really anxious to get something passed. We're going to do it. I feel confident. We'll do it. City manager can work on – with the chief back there enforcing it. Of course. Everyone's getting an oase meter. Okay, so if we can do a motion to postpone ordinance number 35-25 to a date certain February 24th, 2026, at 5 o'clock or thereafter. If we can get that motion. I need a motion to – So moved. Second. All in favor? Aye. Any opposed? We are postponed until the 24th of February. Come one, come all, except those of you who have already spoken. I'm out. Thank you. All right. Ordinance number 726. Would you like to read it into the record, please? 626? So – Oh, excuse me. Excuse me. You're right. Thank you. Well, 8B and 8C are the same. So if I can read them both together, Mayor, do you mind? And ordinance number 0626, 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 4.4.3, Single-Family Residential R1 District, Subsection C, Accessory Uses and Structures Permitted, Section 4.4.5, Low-Density Residential R1 District, Subsection C, Accessory Uses and Structures Permitted, Section 4.4.6, Medium-Density Residential R1 District, Subsection C, Accessory Uses and Structures Permitted, Section 4.4.7, Plan Residential Development PRD District, Subsection C, Accessory Uses and Structures Permitted, and Subsection 4.4.17, Residential R1 District, subsection c accessory uses and structures permitted to remove botox regulations that are not consistent with article 7.9 mooring structures and by amending appendix a definitions to update the definitions of boat lift dock and finger appear to adopt a deficit to adopt the definition for marinas and mooring structures and rename the definition of dolphin as piling providing a complex cause a severability cause authority to codify providing and providing an effective date ordinance number oh 726 726 an ordinance of the city commission of the city of delivery beach florida amending the land of outline regulations of the city of every beach code of oranges chapter 7 building regulations article 7.9 docks offens finger pierce and boat lifts by repealing and replacing article 7.9 to provide updated regulations for the use providing a complex cause a severability cause authority to codify and providing an effective date and these are both public hearings uh anthea geniata's development services director for the record and with me is madison brown she is our development permit manager she's also one of our floodplain managers and has been a a lead working with the long-range team to help us untangle a section of the code that has caused a lot of consternation over the years um so i'm going to give you a brief message i asked miss brown to stay in case you had anything that got too technical for me so so um so just very quickly um there are two um two related interrelated ordinances um one is amending article 7.9 which is where all of these regulations kind of live we're repealing and replacing them in their entirety it just got too messy with the strike through an underline and then um ordinance number 0626 is amending the way these uh this terminology is referenced in the zoning districts that allow these uses um so ultimately in some areas um the existing standards are are too strict um when something is constantly going to the board of adjustment and it's getting approved then that tells you something is not right with your code so um the other thing is there was there were others that um that were kind of out of date um we have certain standards that need to work in concert with dep florida south florida water management district in the army corps and sort of clarifying some of those things with process um basically we've got um all of these uh these different uh rules kind of apply uh to um everything from the intercoastal waterway which is very different from lake ida which is very different some of these uh issues come up to you and you have seen waivers others have been processed experiences and we're kind of trying to and then there's there was also a weird moment where the chief building official is supposed to make a determination on a structure that actually does not live in the florida building code at all so kind of trying to to figure out that um and make it make it a little bit more streamlined and accurate as to the way these things work um we are you know a wonderful waterfront community and um in my opinion when you're paying waterfront taxes you have the right to have a dock and a boat and all of the things that come with those properties but you know the key with these regulations is to make sure that we're maintaining safe navigable waterways right you have to be able to go through with that so um this image is not in the ordinance but it's um it's uh um just for your to understand the things that we're talking about so um docks generally are parallel to the seawall or to the um to the um unimproved i'm like looking at her like the edge of the water um and then um we had for example and then the finger pair is what is perpendicular that sometimes a dock or boat lift is attached to um our definition of finger peer included a width and you cannot get a variance or a waiver from a definition so that sort of standard really belonged in the regulations so that you know it was the type of thing that yes it's the rule but the definition is different so there's a lot of terminology you know dolphin is a marine mammal it's some mahi it's also a piling so you know we changed some of those things just to try to bring those standards in so the main thing uh that's in here is is we're maintaining the standards that these um how far a nominal dock can can can extend that in no circumstances is going to be more than a quarter of the of the waterway because if the neighbor on the other side does a quarter of the waterway you still have half of it free from any kind of impediments um things like that so um the other issue is that while we do have some developments with marinas um they're not really defined um and they're rarely mentioned in the standards and so there's uh some of those um regulations and terminology have been added to the code to sort of clarify the process for when and where marinas are and how they're changed a lot of this is fairly consistent and it's more of a clarification exercise i think there's not really an effort to expand or allow people to have lots more docs than they can it's just that so it was just the way that the um the code was written it was just a little bit difficult to apply and it was very i think unclear into which board you were going to for relief um things like that so the effort in the comp plan is always to streamline to be um very conscious of private property rights but also um you know to make sure the regulations are clear so that's what this effort is um it does work hand in hand with environmental efforts related to seawalls and stormwater and um you know if you've got mangroves things like that so how that would work um the stick of the planning and zoning board november 17th the board voted seven to zero the ordinance number did change because we've now moved into a new year so um it had gone under a different um ordinance number at that time but you know to be clear that you're voting on 0626 and 0726 so we're here if you have any questions great thank you very much this is a public meeting anybody wishing to speak on these two uh ordinances if you could please come to the lectern give your name and address sorry i apologize for the name and address for the record because it's uh this one's just a quasi-judicial right it's not oh it's not so name and zip code for the record uh you will each have three minutes seeing none which i didn't expect um i mean i don't are there any issues with the commission can we can we can i just ask one quick question certainly maybe recommend you had um said that um because there's different lengths than all that so you're going to create a range and then the determination of what size is permitted will be based on what florida says is appropriate sorry it was canal there's a whole stand right that's why i'm wondering where is the standard then coming from you have to keep the navigability yeah there's a whole right i'm just wanting to clarify where the standard's coming from and that it's going to be a range thank you so i'm gonna ask miss brown to augment what i'm about to tell you so we already have in the code the standard of like how close can the dock go to your neighbor which is a standard that is where we have the most violators if you haven't pulled a permit for your dock then we didn't look at it and the standard is generally do not take this as gospel always check on your own property 10 feet or your side setback whichever is greater got it so that's not changing okay that's all i wanted to make sure but then the outward kind thank you i appreciate the navigability and i'm presuming you're allowing if there is no dock and they still want to put the boat lift against the sea wall and it's permitted they're going to be allowed to do that right that's what i thought thank you mr market any any comments on anything otherwise we can no other than uh this is starting to sort out some of the confusion here so i appreciate that we we voted on a seawall issue in lake ida and i learned a lot about that with all the other agencies that are have their hand in getting it done it's it's a complicated process and this is getting us on a little bit cleaner path so i'm appreciative of this i have no issue then i need a motion to approve uh we'll do them separately motion to approve ordinance 06 26 26 okay second would you please call the roll commissioner casale yes deputy vice mayor burns yes mayor carney yes commissioner market yes motion passed motion to approve ordinance number 07 26 second please call the roll deputy vice mayor burns yes mayor carney yes commissioner market yes commissioner casale great yes thank you very much thank you guys now now i have to get a boat well i have to get a house in the water too but i mean there's a lot of things i need a lot of things i need to do to get there but that'd be okay ordinance number 7-26 we did that one we're on 9a huh oh we just did that one of course good 9a first reading here we go ordinance number 10-26 six an ordinance of the city commission of the city of delvary beach florida amending the land development regulations of the city of delvary beach code of ordinances chapter one general provisions article 1.3 non-conforming uses lots and structures section 1.3.2 non-conforming lots of records to remove the definition of a non-conforming lot of record amending chapter four zoning regulations article 4.1 establishment of districts and official zoning maps section 4.1.4 use of lots of records to allow the redevelopment of previously developed non-conforming lots of record and to eliminate relief procedures amending article 4.3 district regulations general provisions section 4.3.1 application of district regulations to eliminate relief procedures and to add allowances for lots of records amending article 4.4 based zoning districts section 4.4.3 single family residential r1 districts amending article 4.7 family workforce housing section 4.7.8 other incentives to add design requirements and setback relief for workforce housing units and amending appendix a definitions to amend the definition of lot of record and adopt a definition for legacy property non-conforming lot and non-conforming lot of record providing a conflicts cause a severability cause authority to codify and providing an effective date and this is first reading thank you very much uh this is a first reading so we're not going to be having taking any testimony tonight no just a motion we just need a motion to approve the first reading second all in favor aye any opposed we're done wonderful comments and inquiries on agenda or non-agenda items mr. city manager briefly we are presently contemplating a town hall engagement relative to the noise ordinance piece thursday february 5th circa 5 30 details to be initiated beginning tomorrow so we'll advise all concerned once we get the details and logistics finalized otherwise i yield at this time thank you okay to the city attorney i have nothing i'm sorry i think you have nothing okay to the to the commission commissioner burns yes i have a couple of i wanted to congratulate gina again on your article in the um atlantic avenue magazine um congratulations on all the work that you're doing um and also want to um stephanie's not here anymore but uh we did attend the legislative sessions in tallahassee uh learned a lot about the process that i didn't know prior to going there but ready for next year and very rewarding experience um so i thank the city for um allowing us to go and represent um also i have i was uh recently made aware of an issue concerning our employee pay grades um as you all my colleagues you know that each position in the city has an assigned grade which provides minimum midpoint and maximum salaries for for the position in 2024 the city conducted a salary study that was unfortunately um not formally adopted um there was a recommendation in that um the adjustments to the city's classification plan as permitted by the city's budget the study suggested that the city make annual adjustments to the entire salary scale not just the maximum based on consumer price index uh i don't believe this has been done across the board for our non-represented general employees so i have been adamant about voicing my concern that our pay grades are not keeping up with salary increases um and why is this concerning because our employees become topped out uh meaning that their salary increases do not get counted toward their uh pension pension earnings their salary stays at the same and they receive lump sum bonuses instead for those employees who participate in our pension plan this is just not fair um i think mr moore you have the responsibility to monitor the city's classification plan which includes the pay grades to reflect the market rate for positions and bring any adjustments to the city commission so i'm seeking consensus from um my colleagues to direct mr moore to address this um address this issue immediately and um i appreciate that the study suggested adjustments to the entire salary scale but we first need to address the maximum annual salary pay grades to ensure that all of our employees are compensated fairly um can i get a consensus a question i i want everybody compensated fairly as well and this is one of the things that every time we uh change a contract and then we start changing pay it's sort of concerning if it's not being done fairly right across the board on the other hand when you look at the finances it's concerning because if you continue on at that path and if you keep doing that the increases become problematic because we don't have the revenue to cover it but i do think we need to understand what steps you have been taking because the concern is if you're randomly giving somebody a pay raise and then another person isn't getting it you're going to create an issue in the city with morale everybody should feel equally valued everybody should be kind of compensated along that same range which is typically a five to something percent annually and so i think you need to sit we need to sit down maybe each of us individually with you and duane and figure out what's going on because i'm concerned about it i don't know that that immediately and then we should probably have a discussion about where we see this going because if you're giving pay raises how are you doing that in within the budget that we've allocated and there's a if i may please sure there's a structure and rationale behind it there's no element of randomness associated therein so if i may ladies and gentlemen i like the idea of my being able to get together with you all individually in the coming weeks followed by a city commission presentation thereafter so i would like to proceed in that regard if i can have consensus and support to proceed i'll begin to work in the coming weeks to get ourselves squared away and again we also have thoughts and considerations that actually align with this commensurate with the upcoming proposed budget process but also to clarify the the lack of randomness as i see it associated with any opportunities being made available so give me the opportunity to visit with you all individually i'll start scheduling individual meetings via my bi-weekly appointments with each of you all over the next several weeks followed by a recommended present a presentation to recommend the updated path forward thereafter for my meeting could you have the uh maybe let's go department heads and a few down the people that aren't in the contracts uh with the salaries over the course of like say the last five years laid out uh and also if you don't mind uh if are there to be budget amendments on these recent adjustments that ms burns is referring to i don't believe so at this point no so how are you that's what i would like to showcase i think we should have an opportunity to to meet with them and then have a meeting on it to see the pre that so we can just talking a number of data budget impacts correct this impacts everything there's a number of metrics that i would like to review with all of you individually because it's pretty intrinsic and that answers the question in terms of how we make it work without an adverse financial impact at all i would we should be having these conversations though probably before these determinations are being made before before the determinations have been made versus after i will start scheduling this over the next coming weeks so that will a lot fall in line in that regard so happy to make arrangements individual meetings followed by an aggregate presentation to the commission which would align with the proposed budget process as we'll get started with that in the next couple months as well so we have the consensus correct yes ma'am all right thank you go ahead so the the last thing i want wanted to say was that i am disappointed highly disappointed that this commission could not come together to fill this vacant um seat for a limited two-month period um our charter allows for this commission to approve someone to fill this empty seat and i am deeply troubled that the discussion included an accusation of wrongdoing by the mayor i'm sorry this type of behavior is just damaging to this commission it diminishes the integrity that our voters depend on us and i am truly embarrassed well it's true i'm sorry i'm just you know we are our voters deserve better i understand and how do you not send out the email and i would have not finished my comment you have your opportunity i'm just we our voters our people deserve better i don't disagree with you i'm finished commissioner marker yeah just real quick i want to echo some of angie's uh angela's comments um we had good meetings last week up in tallahassee i want to also thank stephanie immelman and renee jadasing for um uh participating in our meetings um it we did have some really good meetings i had a chance to meet a lot of senators and some people that i haven't really met before and now the door's open so you know when when we need their help we can we can equally call them and they they can call us so the meetings were good it was a long week it was 27 degrees up there which seems wrong i know isn't that awful um so we're indoors no about so many of the meetings were outside it was crazy but enough whining enough whining but anyways it was i was glad that we were able to participate you finished yes concluded commissioner uh thank you and miss burns i will apologize i had no intention of even saying anything but the the email that went out and basically you know the the comments on facebook calling me and mr market out for not choosing miss odom i found it upsetting considering what i know and i'm sorry and and i agree i don't disagree with you but facts are facts the truth is the truth i was going to also say to um gina thank you it's very exciting that you'll be featured in um the atlantic ave magazine and appreciate all you're doing i'm looking forward to taking one of the cooking classes missy thank you missy uh discovered that there was something uh in the cip budget that was a miss and corrected it uh with respect to the historical society thank you very much missy for that there's an issue going on it's not a city issue but i need to figure out who we can talk to lakes of delray is the uh call it affordable housing over off dodderall over behind the delray swim they have typically gotten free bus transportation there it's through the county i think it's a try uh some kind of a trolley i'm not sure what it is but there was a sign on one of the bus stops saying they're no longer doing that free service to these residents these are residents of low income no no resources that we're using that transport to go get groceries to go get um doctor's appointments and the like i have a picture of the sign i would just like to know who i can talk to in the city that help can help me connect to somebody in the county so that perhaps we can talk about this is that you missy okay because it's concerning that all of a sudden people who relied on a free bus for years are no longer going to have access to a free bus it's frightening and i worry um a lot was talked about again about north federal you know and i really do think i know um anthea we did talk about moving forward with the plan and there was some money in your budget but the faster we can get that done the less likely we are to keep hearing about north federal and what should we do with it because we really need to know what's appropriate i just want to say i don't think anyone from cross ministries is listening but i love their happy new year um letter and when the woman talked about not having a cake for her child's birthday and they helped it's pretty amazing so thank you cross ministries very nice stuff um we went to the some of us went to the um delray police and delray citizens for uh delray police volleyball event which was very exciting and the hot dogs and hamburgers were delicious thank you i still am looking for the date on the run with the chief because i'm prepping and i'm not a runner so we need a date certain because i'm going to run the whole way um mr moore i'd asked you how the league of cities luncheon fell in the lap of delray residents for the third year in a row you don't have to answer that publicly but those kind of things typically came in front of us and the part of the problem is one it's an expense to taxpayers and there are many many cities in this league so this luncheon shouldn't keep falling on us you don't have to answer but i would like in the future you know we should be talking about that because our secretary should be budgeting for that she's going to be paying what four or five thousand dollars plus all her time so that's not in her budget again and i brought this up last time along with all the visioning stuff and if i may we do have a response in store so as far as the visioning piece that will be a budget adjustment i've already worked with the department of finance to identify resources to get that squared away so your next round of adjustments will facilitate that so that that will not be impacted and as far as the opportunity to host a palm beach county league of cities luncheon event that's anticipated in the coming months again speaking to a couple of y'all about it however during the february 3rd meeting there will be an opportunity for the commission to formally offer its but we can't deny them now they're basically planning you've already told them they can come here my point being please again it's just about open communication that's the kind of thing that you usually would get a consensus from the commission but also it it's not a large amount of money and that's not the point but there are a whole host of other cities that are in line to do it before us and we keep volunteering to do it i'm just not understanding that is it um clarification that is three years in a row yeah we've done it three years in a row michelle did it we did it last year and this will be the third year thank you yes michelle did it the year she came in and left she was here one year and miss morgan did it last year and now miss morgan is planning it again for this year so that's three years in a row that makes no sense to me cities are asked to some oftentimes leadership from the palm beach county league of cities would reach out to cities based on venues and that was very generous of you but my point is i think we've been overly generous generous in the last three years and let's not do it next year maybe that's what i'm saying thank you thank you lastly and really concerning is someone uh a friend of mine said oh there's some issue going on with um michael weiner's building so i did a public records request and apparently on may 6 2025 mr weiner wrote to you the mayor and said i've got a problem with the sewage pipes in my building and you uh wrote back to him and said we'll begin a risk assessment claim with you and then apparently he was paid out over ten thousand dollars on this claim and then um uh fast forward to uh september 11th someone wrote to you and said hey we have another claim and then on the 12th they said something about uh you know it's the sewer pipes again and then apparently there was some someone in the city wrote back and said no this is not our problem it's grease in the pipes causing a problem so now fast forward to the latest and i'm jumping through the emails january 15 2026 we have a 267 259 dollar and 51 cent claim against us and my biggest concern is that in reviewing your emails you accepted liability on this early on when you said we will make we will create a claim you sent it to the risk department it doesn't look like there was any verification as to what the cause was through the through the engineering department through the utilities department and we accepted liability and now we're sitting on top of a you know almost 300 000 claim and you've already accepted liability and i don't believe i accept the liability whenever there's a request for a matter to be addressed risk management division has an opportunity to review just because a matter is referred to the risk management division that's not an automatic acceptance of claim nor approval of the money seemed like it was pretty automatic so no ma'am not at all whatsoever so what the office of the city manager and other pertinent members of the executive leadership team are currently involved is to review authorization processes and practices in the risk management division the risk management division for a number of years has had a maximum threshold of fifteen thousand dollars to settle whatever claims once they complete their respective investigation often many of us department directors office of the city manager whomever may get a claim or an assertion of some issue or challenge underway we rely on the risk management division to go about their investigative process to ascertain whether or not we are at fault what this particular experience you described brings to my attention is the need to reevaluate the assessment process to make sure we're on point in that regard as well as to implement other process improvements such that this not become a concern moving forward right so that's the order of the day there apparent it appears as though there was no investigation as to who might have been at fault and perhaps because it was a small amount of money but the problem is that is begetting a larger claim which is not a small amount of money and i think at the outset regardless of the value of the claim before we pay a claim we should determine if we're actually at fault or not and we did not do that in this instance and our interest moving forward is to make sure we're on point and again we are investigating those details so that we can achieve corrective act not so much just corrective action but process improvements so that we can have a very reliable checks and balance process so based on a number of years of this threshold being in the next case we need to do what we can to make the process better more robust in terms of checks and balances so as to alleviate concerns by all involved so what i will also do is as i visit with you all individually i will update you all in terms of what process improvements are to be implemented such that we can rest assured that all will be well moving forward i think we should because we've got a legal letter saying we're responsible for almost three hundred thousand dollars which we do not agree with but nevertheless we will proceed accordingly when you accept liability and on the outset you're gonna kind of have a hard time at the end saying no sorry but i'm not going to debate that with you i think any claim that goes through we have to go back to the when it deals with infrastructure or things like of that nature you have to engage with the department heads relative and that's part of the direction yes ma'am okay we'll do that's part of the process improvement moving forward and again direction has been initiated to bring all parties together to execute those protocols and again once we find that tune that over the next couple weeks or so i will share with you all individually in terms of what that will look like perhaps give us a copy of the procedures manual and the uh um potential amendments what the amendments will be which will be handled administratively maybe that department needs to be looked at as more of a legal department uh well they'll be part of the collaboration shaking her head well we're all working together so i will i'd like an update as soon as possible and how are we responding to that legal letter mayor um the resolution that establishes the settlement authority if changes are made to it that will come before you thank you and those are the recommendations of of course 267 000 it's over 100 no the process improvement the risk management protocols will come before the city commission understood thank you very much so that will be before you soon because we'll be engaging as we speak we've already initiated it fabulous i appreciate that thank you thank you i think that's it for me have you concluded okay um it was a good meetings good meetings were held in tallahassee i spent most of my time talking to people about sb 180 and getting updates from the various people that were initiating you know gap bills so to speak to deal with it uh everyone is very very yes gung-ho but what comes out of tallahassee may be totally different so i mean i think there are going to make some changes i don't know if they're going to be as much as we would like but they clearly going to make some changes um uh i am looking forward to the meeting in february we will discuss the financial review board because i know that's coming up going to be in february and that's going to be because i've received several calls on what the status is on that and i've said that it's already scheduled for our agenda in the first weekend uh the first meeting in february two weeks from the day in february 3rd from today that's great and um mayor so you said because we were going to put that on consent you want that on regular is it is that the way no i i just wanted to i wanted to whether it's on consent or a regular agenda i think just it's very important and you can all meet with the commissioners privately to explain to them how we're going to do it and what the structure is going to be i'd like to be part of that since that was my request i'd like to be part of it's been drafted that would be um it's been something i've talked about as well so i mean i think we we may as well have a presentation on how you want the scope of it to be and what it's going to look like to give us an opportunity to understand you know what the parameters of of the things and get input from us as to whether or not we think it's what we're thinking about or not thinking about um um lastly i'm going to address the issue that um that apparently i'm i'm quite i'm not quite sure what what the issue is first it was on december 4th or 5th that minions of mine or whoever they were operatives of mine went to try to convince commissioner kasal i don't know whether she said it was you commissioner kasal not to vote for um uh ivan odom then it was apparently she didn't like what the people on facebook are saying about it that i threw people under the bus again stuff i didn't write but that's that's quite a right i don't you know i can be blamed for everything um i'm going to look forward to the you said you you alerted the city on the 9th of december i'm going to i am going to look forward to that you said you alerted people it was the 8th actually monday the 8th uh well whatever date you did i'm going to look forward to that i'm going to look forward to the person who gave you that information i'd like to get that person under oath and um because you just can't accuse people doing something which is absolutely i wasn't going to say a word but absolutely categorically untrue you are putting in my mouth things that other people said it is category absolutely untrue so you can you you have the opportunity to deal with that at a later time i know i will you conclude it thank you um and um so i really have nothing further if there's nothing else further