City Commission - Regular Meeting - Oct 14, 2025

Good afternoon, everyone. Welcome to the regular commission meeting this October 14th, 2025 for the city of Delray Beach. If the clerk would please call the roll. Commissioner Market. Here. Vice Mayor Long. Here. Commissioner Cassell. Here. Deputy Vice Mayor Burns. Here. Mayor Carney. Here. We have a quorum. Thank you very much. If you could all please rise to the Pledge of Allegiance. I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America, and to the republic in which it stands, one nation, under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all. Thank you all. Agenda approval. You all have in front of you the agenda. Are there anything anybody would like to pull, delete, modify? I just wanted to pull 6A. I had spoken to the clerk regarding one thing in the September 3rd minutes that needs an amendment. Okay. So should I make a motion to approve without approving? No, you can just pull the entire item, I think, and then... We can pull the entire item, but we'll only discuss the one item, and then we'll approve them all. We don't need to discuss it. I've spoken to her separately, and it needs to be amended. I was missing something. So you want to just pull it from, and then we can approve it at the next meeting? We'll pull it, you can discuss the amendment, and then we'll just approve the whole item. I wasn't going to discuss the amendment, I was just going to pull the one item. I've already discussed it separately with her, and then we can... So it'll be placed on a future agenda. Yeah, because we need to see what the amendment is in order for us to approve it, so that's my point is... Well, it'll be in front of you to approve it at some point in the future. So you want to just... Would you like to remove from this agenda items the September 3rd, 2025, First Budget Public Hearing? Is that what you want to do? Correct. So we are going to delete from 6A the September 3rd, First Budget Public Hearing, and we'll see that those minutes again at another meeting. Thank you. Okay, that's fine. Are there any other items? No. Then I need a motion to approve the agenda. So moved. Second. All in favor? Aye. The next item is a special recognition, this is on honor, of the 100th anniversary of the First Presbyterian Church of Delray Beach. I'm going to read, unless you would like to read it. No, I asked for it, but you can read it. That's fine. Thank you. This is a certificate of recognition, and it's for the First Presbyterian Church of Delray Beach. Let me read you the document. Whereas First Presbyterian Church of Delray Beach was formally organized in 1925 during the early years of the city's development, and has maintained a continuous presence in the heart of the community for 100 years. And whereas the church's original mission-style chapel, constructed in 1924 and still standing today, was listed on the Register of Historic Places in Delray Beach in 1999, and recognized as a state of Florida historical place of interest in 2009, making it one of the city's most cherished landmarks and a lasting symbol of the faith, determination, and vision of Delray Beach's earliest residents. Whereas during World War II, the church provided worship services, hospitality, friendship, and comfort through the airmen and Coast Guard personnel stationed in the area, serving as a spiritual home for those far from their own. And whereas in response to a rapidly expanding congregation, a new sanctuary was dedicated in 1977, enabling the church to continue its growth and expand its ministries. And whereas throughout its history, the church has been instrumental in supporting and funding numerous local non-profit agencies, several of which began their work on church property, thereby nurturing organizations that continue to benefit Delray Beach and beyond. Whereas for a century, the members and leaders of First Presbyterian Church have faithfully served the spiritual needs of the city of Delray Beach through worship, education, fellowship, outreach ministries, building generations of disciples. And whereas the church has been a beacon of compassion, generosity, service, offering food, shelter, counseling, youth programs, music, and mission opportunities that have touched the lives of countless of residents and families. And whereas the guiding mission of First Presbyterian Church, building disciples and transforming lives, continues to inspire and strengthen, not only as congregation, but the wider Delray Beach community. And whereas the year 2025 marks the 100th anniversary of the Cornerstone Institution of Faith, Service, and Civic Partnerships in the City of Delray Beach. Now, therefore, I, Thomas F. Carney, Jr., Mayor of the City of Delray Beach, on behalf of the City Commission, do hereby acknowledge the 100th anniversary of the First Presbyterian Church of Delray Beach in recognition and commendation of the church for its enduring legacy of service, faith, and leadership in the community. Thank you very much. Thank you very much. We have a representative of the church who would like to say a few words. Jennifer Booth from the City of Delray Beach. Hi. Good morning. I actually live in Delray as well, so I'm at 1405 South Federal Highway. And First Presbyterian Church is on 33 Gleason Street. So, as stated, the church was constructed in 1924, and it was one of the only buildings after the 1928 hurricane that stood unharmed during the storm. My family started at the church in 1949, so out of the 76 years of the 100 years, we've had four generations of my family at the church. In 1931, the church had 66 members and continued to grow. And so with the growth, we bought surrounding land on Bronson Street and Gleason Street. And by 1962, we built the Christian Education Building that we still use today. And membership in the early 70s boomed to 200. And so the sanctuary that we are in today opened on 1977 on Easter Sunday. And today, we are 873 members and the strongest church under the leadership of the Presbytery of Tropical, which serves seven counties and 41 congregations. As stated in the recognition, we have supported and funded numerous local nonprofit agencies with several of their work beginning at our church. The Achievement Center actually started at First Presbyterian with six children, and I believe they're up to about 700 children at three or four different sites now. We invite all of you to come out on October 19th. We have a 1925 time capsule that our recognition will go in. We also have a 1925 time capsule that came out of the original sanctuary while we were doing work on it several years ago. And we have a 1977 time capsule as well. So we invite you after the 10 a.m. worship, everybody. They're welcome to come out and take a look at some of the history of our church and join us. Thank you very much. And thank you for everything that your church has done to Delray Pinch over the years. Great. The second item on our agenda is the Citizen Academy presentation, class of 2025. I am looking for Ted White. Ask and you shall see. Also a fabulous emcee for karaoke night. Yes, great time. Among other experiences. Ted White, public safety information officer for the city of Delray Beach. Also facilitator for the 2025 Delray Beach Citizens Academy. This year we had 20 enthusiastic participants eager to learn about how our city operates. From the very first session, it was clear the academy continues to provide valuable insight into local government. Many of these participants, they heard from many key departments to include public works, where they learned about engineering, parking, fleet operations, and capital improvement projects, including beach renourishment and seawall maintenance. Information technology, which highlighted citywide technology services, surveillance, and communications infrastructure. City clerk's office, which explained records management, elections, city legislation, and oversight of boards and committees. HR, human resources, providing insight into workforce management and how city employees are supported to serve the community. And also public safety, including the police and fire departments, showing how our first responders protect the community, respond to emergencies, and engage with residents and many other departments throughout those sessions. These were three-hour sessions. There were five sessions in all at various locations within the city. Participants asked thoughtful questions and were highly engaged, reflecting the curiosity and civic-mindedness the Citizens Academy is designed to foster. Overall, the 2025 Citizens Academy was a great success. It gave residents a clear view of city operations, encouraged meaningful dialogue, and strengthened connections between our community and local government. We're proud of this program and look forward to future sessions that continue to educate and inspire. Thank you for your support of the Dory Beach Citizens Academy. Thank you very much, Mr. White. And we have some of those academy participants who are here in the crowd as well. Well, let's, it's all rise, all rise, academy participants. Thank you for doing what you do. Actually, Mr. Mayor, in the... Yes, Mr. Moore? If it's okay, I would encourage a group photo in front of the dais so that everybody can be recognized accordingly. So that would be fantastic. We had a similar experience last year, and thus I think we should follow suit. So if that's okay, ladies and gentlemen. And if Dittmer's available, I'm not sure, who Montre Bennett. Are we going down or are we going up? There's a lot of them. Yes, Dittmer is here. Maybe we should be behind him. Please enter the table. Okay, maybe I don't ever see him. I know. I have to get him. You sure you don't want to go in the front? But Ted, you're not going to be in the camera? Should I take him? Hey! Come on, Ted. Say much to it. No, you're good. Yeah. Next time we have the short... Good side. Just throw when I'm standing. Thank you. Thank you very much, everyone. Our next item is we have with us today, we have school board member Edwin Ferguson. I see him sitting right there, now getting up to go to the lectern, who's going to be discussing state of the education report for the city of Delray Beach and the county at large. You are on. Thank you, Mr. Mayor, Vice Chair, Deputy Vice Chair, City Commissioners, good people of Delray, city manager, city attorney, city clerk. Don't want to miss anybody. I'm school board member Edwin Ferguson. I do this every year, go to all seven of my cities to give you a report on how your specific schools as it relates to District 7 are performing, and then just have a dialogue with you as the city commission to see if there are any things that I can do to help us accentuate the performance of our students here in the Delray schools. I'm hoping that this is the revised slide deck because I realize, Commissioner Long knows, whenever I go somewhere, I like to give you the same information that I'm relying on, so I don't like to talk about a thing and you not be able to see it, vet it, challenge it, learn from it as well. So I'm hoping that this is the correct slide deck, and if it's not, Mr. Mayor, I apologize. I'm assuming I'll, so that's definitely me. That's a good start. Yeah, that's a good start. So if anybody's interested in downloading this slide deck, you can scan that QR code. It should be throughout the presentation, but I'll take five or ten seconds if you want to grab it now. If it's the correct slide deck, there'll be QR codes throughout, but just in case. So as I do with all the cities, I introduce myself. I've already done that. We speak about the main thing, which is how the schools are performing this year, year over year, in comparison to the last couple of years and things that we can see, that we'd like to see done to help improve those scores. Graduation requirements, I'm really big on bright futures. I'm going to speak about that briefly, and then construction projects that we have going on here in the city of Delray, and then, again, if there are any questions or concerns that you all have as city residents, I'm all ears. All right, so Delray Beach, I can, this is the trick. So I'm trying to get fancy now. I've embedded the school scores inside that link, and I'm not sure if this allows me to do it. Would there be a way to maybe click on it? Thank you. You're looking at the wrong guy. I've got to look at those people behind you. Thanks. I appreciate it. All right, so let's see if we can keep articulating on down. There we go. All right, so kindergarten readiness. In the county, kindergarten readiness is at about 45% this year. I seem to recall that it was at 48% last year, so that tells me that our incoming 5- and 6-year-olds aren't as ready as they were before. So when we talk about kindergarten readiness, there are a few metrics that we look at. One, does a kid know their name? Tom, I'm Edwin. Tom, too. Yeah, Rob. Terrence, do you know your name? Some kids don't necessarily know it when they see it in a written form. That's a problem. Wow. Can they hold a pen or a pencil right versus the baseball grip? When I had small kids, we call it the alligator hands. You know, can you really navigate a pen or a pencil properly? Do you know colors? So Vice Chair Burns, she's wearing red. Some kids don't necessarily know that that's red, per se, or that Mr. Moore is wearing blue or that you're wearing black. Some of these, what we would think are basic things. This is what we're testing for at that age. Can you count to 100 or at least 50? Can you recite the alphabet? Are you potty trained? That's something that was brought to my attention over this last year. I did not realize that that's a real concern, especially for those children who are not coming from child care centers into school. Some of them are at home. Some of them haven't been potty trained. So you can imagine how that disrupts the educational process when you have a five- or six-year-old who has had an accident and now the teacher has to kind of stop the show, help, you know, change the person's pamper and then get back into teaching. I mean, that's kind of odd for me to say a five- or six-year-old having to change the pamper, but it's been represented to me by some principals that we have that issue. We need to work on it. Be that as it may, kindergarten readiness in the city, you all see citywide is at 40%. That's not great. That basically means 40% of our five- or six-year-olds upon being assessed for kindergarten, whether they're kindergarten-ready, 40% of them are, which means 6% or not. So we want to work on that. You see that Pine Grove, the numbers from last year are 21 and the year before are 20. I'm going to speak about Pine Grove later. So Pine Grove actually is an outlier. Normally a school that has a kindergarten readiness score is that low does not perform as well as Pine Grove performs. So kudos to the principal, Ms. King. She's the principal of the year, reigning principal of the year. She may very well repeat back-to-back. But as you can see, the kindergarten readiness at Pine Grove is nothing to write home about right now. Plamosa, also a school that is known for being pretty good, pretty solid. Last year's kindergarten readiness scores were not that high, 34%. Spady, 69%. And then Village Academy is also at 34%. And again, the district-wide average is 45%. In terms of ELA, there's normally a correlation between your kindergarten readiness scores and then ultimately that third grade ELA within three years. So for example, let's go, so for this year, we see district-wide in Delray Beach is 58%. I'm sorry, district-wide is 58% and the city is 55%. Not that far off from the 58%. Obviously, we want to be ahead of the curve, but nevertheless, 55% is definitely respectable. You see Pine Grove is at 48%. Now that's interesting because we just saw 21% for this year, but let's look and see what Pine Grove was back in 22. So in 22, Pine Grove was 34. And there's a mantra that I say, kids who start behind tend to stay behind, and those who start ahead tend to stay ahead. So you would think that Pine Grove at 34% would kind of linger around 34%, but as you can see, Ms. King and her team being the amazing team that they are, they moved 14 points. And I'll show you a slide that would tend to say that that probably should have been more in like the 8- to 10-point range. So they're doing great work at Pine Grove. And so imagine what they can do if we can get those kids, let's say, a 60% kindergarten rating to score or even higher. Plumosa, you see, tends to outpace most of the schools, not just here in Delray, but across the county. Plumosa is one of our top elementary schools, in my opinion, definitely here on the east side of the county. Spady also is doing well at 56%. Village Academy is at 43%. Ms. Dixon and her team, it's a smaller school, which I'm sure you all know that, but I think they do a good job with what they have. So their resources are not as robust as saying Atlantic is because they don't have this number of students. As you have a greater number of students, you have more money that you can use for different programs and resources and things of that nature. So I would always encourage Delray to not forget about Village Academy. Come and say hi, kind of see what resources they need. I'm going to speak to some things that I have envisioned for Village Academy as well, and I think you all will be supportive of it too. And then as you can see with Atlantic, which is a B-rated high school, and generally is about a B-rated high school. Ms. Edwards and her team, they do a pretty good job over there. You can see that their ELA score is about at 51%. Obviously, I'm sure Ms. Edwards and her team would want that to be much higher, but, you know, that's where we are right now. In terms of math, 60% is a disaried average. And basically what that means for, and I'm just talking like you all know what I'm talking about, so I apologize. So when we assess students, we give them a score of 5, 4, 3, 2, or 1. So for simplicity, a 5 would be an A, a 4 would be a B, a 3, which is passing, would be a C, a 2 is a D, a 1 is a F. So when you see 60%, what it's telling you is that the students who are assessed in math, at least 60% of them make a C or better. Okay, that's not so bad. District-wide, when I say that I'm referring to Delray, we're at 57%. So we're a little behind the curve, and I know we can do, we can be ahead of the curve, and that's what I want to encourage you all and everybody watching me to push for that higher mark. Pine Grove, like I said before, Pine Grove, again, kindergarten readiness at 21%, but look where they are even this year in terms of their math scores, 65%. That's amazing to me. Like that school started at 18%. I remember that. I think they started at an 18% proficiency in third grade, which means kindergarten was probably even worse when Ms. King first came there. And now they're well into the 60s, pushing toward the 70s. They're doing a really good job at Pine Grove. I would encourage anyone who has time to go stop by and see the Dolphins. One organization named the Dolphins that actually does something positive here in South Florida. So I'm a lifelong fan. I feel like I can say that. Plamosa. Soda game Saturday. Plamosa is even being outpaced by Pine Grove. Generally speaking, you would expect Plamosa with the different choice programs and what have you to outpace your traditional high school, high schools, forgive me, traditional elementary and middle schools. But you can see Pine Grove is going blow for blow with Plamosa. And I think that's part of the leadership and the culture that they have. They have a true culture. I wish we could, like, can and take that to many of our other schools across the county. And, of course, Spady is always doing well as well when we get into the math of the third and fourth grade assessments. Geometry. Districtwide, 56% of the kids who take the geometry exam make a C or better, basically. Village Academy is down to 36%. Now, what's interesting about the geometry scores, you tend to see the high school students who are taking geometry perform below the district average because the higher performing mathematicians tend to take geometry and algebra 1 in middle school. You follow me? So I'm not really surprised. Well, I shouldn't say I'm not surprised. This is pretty standard along the eastern side of the county. I can't speak to West Bokan, West Boynton. I haven't had a chance to really look at their stats in Wellington, but on the east side of the county, it's not unusual to see your geometry and your algebra 1 scores at the high school level lag the district average. So to that point, algebra at Plamosa, you got a kid that's with it. Look at their performance rate. 91% two years ago, but still 79% this past year, which is well ahead of the 62% average for the district. Village Academy at 80%. Somebody likes my voice. I like it too, but not that much. Village Academy is at 80%. I'm pretty confident, if you ask Ms. Dixon, I'm pretty confident that those kids who are taking that algebra class were more likely in that middle school age group, 7 and 8, 6, 7, and 8, most likely 7 and 8. And then again, Atlantic, again, if you're taking algebra, you see what the numbers are. Palm Beach Lakes, Palm Beach Gardens, Dwyer, those schools all tend to have maybe not that low, but they're still well below the district average in that regard. So the goal is to try to get the kids up to speed sooner than later in the kindergarten years and get them more inclined to do their best work sooner than later. And I think that's how we increase our algebra scores, our geometry scores, our ELA scores, just all scores in general. Science. That's one that's kind of hit or miss. I've noticed that throughout District 7, some schools get it, some schools don't. I've never really had a chance to query the principles, so I'm not going to represent to you that I really know. Aside from the fact that science and math, well, math, I thought it was like it was in the olden days when I was in school, way back when, before cell phones, where you would have like 24 times 36 and you're doing like multiplication on the pad or not with a calculator or 2,453 plus 563, no, they get it in the word problem. So Rob Long has 2,453 pennies in his left pocket and he has 673 in his right pocket and he has 24 in his back pocket, his back left pocket and another five in his right back pocket. How many pennies in total does he have? You have to be able to read and comprehend the work, the problem itself before you understand, oh, this is an addition problem versus, um, city attorney has 5,000 pennies in her left pocket, but she has a hole in that pocket and it just lost 10 pennies, but she has a pocket that doesn't have a hole in the right pocket that has another 500, how many does she have in total? You got to realize I got this minus that plus that. Some children struggle with that part, so the reading comprehension has a big, plays a big role in terms of how well students do in these different classes, so it's not just simply, um, science in terms of whatever they consider science, I haven't looked at the test, but a mammal would be this or an amphibian would be that or a reptile would be this, et cetera, what is a biosphere? It might, it's more complicated than that in terms of them having to be able to read the problem to figure out what the answer would be. Biology, um, similarly, um, high schools tend to lag. Pretty confident that 2024, the students who took the biology exam probably, well, that's not true. Biology is only in high school, so Village Academy two years ago had a good year, last year not so much. But again, Village Academy, I see it as an outlier because the populace is so small. Um, and we're going to work on that, and we have somebody here who I, for when I first met her, worked at Village Academy, so she definitely can run circles around me in regard to Village Academy, so I would definitely encourage you all to, to lean on her in that regard to how we can help Village Academy. U.S. history, you see the district numbers, uh, you see where Village Academy is on this, uh, you see where Atlantic is as well. I can't, I have nothing for you. That, that general, that, that is a surprising number for me. I have to represent, represent to you, at least in District 7, I tend to see our high schools outpace the district average. It doesn't seem like it's the most rigorous of courses, so I'm kind of surprised of those numbers, but I can't give you an account for why that is, but I can't represent to you that most schools in District 7 that I've seen outpace the district average as it relates to U.S. history. It doesn't seem to be the most rigorous of classes. Civics, I would definitely submit to you these days we need a whole lot more of this, but be that as it may, Plamosa's doing really well, buddy for them, Village Academy is lagging a little bit, and similar to U.S. history, oftentimes I see schools in District 7 outpace the district average, so hopefully we can get some voter, voter turnout up in a, in a few years with that too. What did you say, Mayor? Another 10 years, that'd be, uh, yeah, voters make it happen. All right, so if we can go back to the main deck, please. If they can read the ballot. So, oh, sorry. So this was the point that I was trying to get at before about those who start behind tending to stay behind, and those who start ahead tend to stay ahead. I'm going to speed up, because I feel like I'm lagging, and I apologize. So on the, on the right-hand side, is this a red dot, or no? I want to turn this off. Oh, look at you guys. Look at this over here. Get out of here. Oh, man, this is even better. We're advanced. Awesome. Let's stick on that. Yeah, so look at this. It's a seven-point game from kindergarten to third grade for a low-performing school. Kid that starts behind tends to stay behind. Here, a little bit better, right around the district average, 10-point spread. But look at this, at the high-performance school, it's a 12-point spread. And the schools that I've looked at, this does tend to bear out for the schools. That's why it says Pine Grove in particular is an outlier, because you have like a 21% kindergarten readiness from three years ago, but then you see there at like 48 or 50. You wouldn't expect that gap. I've looked at schools in Riviera Beach, West Palm, pretty much everywhere else. I don't know what's going on here in Delray and Lantana, but you all are doing things a little bit different in that regard. I think it goes to the culture of the principles there, being able to make a lot from a less. But as a general rule, though, we don't want to be at 21%. That's generally not going to be a recipe for those kids, because they are always going to be in what I call kind of a triage state of education, always trying to catch up. We're always doing things in a hurried fashion, and that's not really what we want to be. We want a kid that comes in there fully equipped, have teachers that are fully equipped as well that can have that synergistic effect versus, like I said, kind of this triage and this remediation, this constant remediation, constant looking at someone else's backside. These kids should be leaders. And I think that partly is going to depend on the families and the communities that they come from or that they live with. So to that point, this is probably the most important part of these slide decks presentations because it occurred to me that a lot of times we on the outside just don't know what we don't know. So I would encourage you all, if you haven't already scanned these, scan this, share it with your colleagues. It's a lot of great information that can help your child ages two, three, and four get ready for kindergarten. Because again, if they start ahead, they're going to stay ahead. This is something I know that a lot of us don't do, but want to do. And sometimes maybe, I don't know what the excuse is, but in any event, even if it's one to two minutes a night, I encourage you to read to your child. Do flashcards, cite words, and things of that nature. It pays off. It pays off in spades. My children, once I realized the importance of kindergarten readiness, we started tasking them at ages one and a half to two. And they were doing things that we would use to assess a child at five and six. So they were already kindergarten ready at ages two or three. I don't think they're that much more intelligent than anybody else. I think they're in that same standard deviation with most of our kids. So if my kids can do it, your kids can do it too. And that's all I have to say about that. The dolch words, we're not going to click on it now because I know I'm taking up too much time and thank you all for your consideration. But those, those sight words that I was referring to earlier, if you click on that link, the dolch words and the fry words, they're there. Take, try to use five or ten of them a day or whatever your child's attention span will permit. Just try it. Just cat, dog, run, jump. Over time, it's going to help. Because at first, the trick is to get them to learn how to read because ultimately they have to read to learn. See what I said about how some children struggle with the science exams and the math exams. They don't have the requisite reading comprehension to figure out, oh, you're just asking me 20 plus 2 minus 5 equals what? They get all discombobulated with some of the other stuff. The kid was in Philadelphia or whatever. Philadelphia, what is that? You know, I don't know. Some basic stuff like that. Math, science, social studies, curriculum platforms are there. This is how you can help. Like I said, practice high frequency words. I don't want to insult you all to read this, but there's some basic things. Just be engaged. Be part of your SACs and your PTSAs. I don't know if we have any PTSAs in the District 7 schools here in Delray, but I know we have SACs because all the schools are Title I. So you as a member of the city have a right to be part of the SACs. You have a say in how those children are educated, particularly with those SAC funds. So I'd encourage you all to educate yourselves on what SAC is and how you can be involved. And those of us who have a couple of extra pennies in our pocket, let's provide some sponsorships. I mean, the schools do a lot with the money that they have, but honestly, they could always use more. And so we as citizens of this great city of Delray, there it is. I was going to say, as an all-American city, yeah, I'm sure we're going to get another one of those accolades soon. I think we need to be involved in those schools and trying to help raise the tie for all the ships at that school. And then education advisory boards. I know at the city level, you do a great job as well already, so I'm preaching to the choir there. That probably could have been removed. But there are some cities that don't have education advisory boards, and I've been advocating for them. In fact, the city of Riviera Beach, largely due to my advocacy, has just reconstituted their own educational advisory board. So I hope, in short fashion, that it will be as engaged and as productive as Delray's board has been since I first became aware of it back in 2015. Bridges, I'm sure some of you know about Bridges. Again, I don't want to read to you, and you've already downloaded the slide deck. Research Bridges. I think they do a really good job for the community, or here in the community. This is something I want to touch on really quickly without digging too far into it. You all have the slides. A lot of us are leaving money on the table. A lot of us are leaving money on the table. Our public education system here at the collegiate level is subsidized by the state if you hit certain metrics. And I think some parents and students don't really realize how close they were to hitting those metrics. But I think we need to kind of hit it, hit the ground running in ninth grade and never start running until we get that scholarship. But we could realistically, students who have kind of been asleep behind the wheel, could realistically see all of their tuition and board paid by just being a good student, showing up every day, giving it a good go in science class and math class and whatever the case may be. So parents, students, concerned citizens, I invite you to kind of dig into this page. It has a treasure trove of information. Like I said, I'm trying to move this along. I don't want you all not to invite me back next year. But there's a lot of great information that I really would like us to all become masters of. And then we can do it in short time. High school credits at the middle school level. This also helps, I think, increase the likelihood of you getting a bright future scholarship. If you go to a middle school and they don't have high school credits, parents, you need to be asking, why not? Right. Because we have them at a lot of schools. So there should not be any school that doesn't afford a child an opportunity for a high school credit. All right. And you should have that level of expectation. Like the school works for you, not the other way around. It's paid by your taxes and things of that nature. So I want you all to be bold in your expectation of what we're doing with these schools. They're not babysitting centers. I'm as far as that goes. And that's all I have to say about that, at least for today. Community projects here in Delray. I'm happy to say that, let me do it one more time. Give it to me. There we go. All right. Yeah. I'm taking a little bit of credit for the historic Harvard phase, too. A little bit. Just a little bit. But I'm happy to say I had a hand in kind of moving that along. It kind of got bogged down. Mayor, city commission, you are very helpful in helping us kind of move that thing along. But that's the piece, actually, that I was kind of hinting at. I gave you all a tease. Where's Ted? He's gone. Gave you all a tease. I think the path forward for Village Academy is to marry it to the adult ed center that's a stone's throw away from it. So with CTE, I'm a huge proponent of CTE. Everybody doesn't need nor want to go to college. That's fine. But if you have a portable trade, HVAC, low voltage electrician, whatever the case may be, you know, I think your path is set. Much better than it would be just waiting for somebody to give you a job. You make the job. Be entrepreneurial and what have you. So I think that we should be looking to, in the next two to three years, promote Village Academy as a place where kids who have an entrepreneurial bent, who are not necessarily worried about the homecoming games and corals and things of that nature, who just want to go there and learn a particular skill set, they go there and then they spend some time over at the adult ed center. They come out with certification that they're at 17 and 18 years old. However old they are when they graduate, they're out ready to work and provide for themselves and their families. I think that would be an amazing thing, not just for Delray, but for Palm Beach County at large. And here are some aerials of the Historic Arbor Technical Education Center signed to be forthcoming. Mr. Patton, if you're in here. He's fine. You're fine. Okay. Well, you can't hear me then. Plamosa School of the Arts had an addition. I didn't have much to do with that, but still want to give us some recognition. My goals for this upcoming year, like I said, CTE is top of the map. So the same way I'm advocating for here in Delray, I'm doing the same thing at Rivera Beach. They have the marine industry that's a stone-throwed. They're away from them. So it would be a crime if we didn't do a better job of trying to promote some of those kids to get into the marine industry. Those salaries start at at least $60,000 to $70,000. So when you couple that with financial literacy, that kid is on a good foot to be able to provide for him or herself, afford housing and things of that nature. It's just a good thing to do. Expansion of ESE centers. I know in Riviera and West Palm and also down here, I think, well, definitely Riviera and West Palm and maybe to a lesser degree down here. We got to do a better job of having more ESE centers. As you know, a lot of children have been diagnosed as being autistic or downs and things of that nature. Some of our parents are having to travel great, relatively speaking, great distances to get to a school that has an open center, a unit for their child, and it should not be that way because some of them don't really have the means. They're Ubering, lifting. That's kind of like almost like a regressive tax. It's not a regressive tax, but I think you understand what I'm saying. And $10 for them won't be like $10 for me or for you all. And so we got to do a better job of having these sites placed more closely to them so that it's within walking distance or at least a short drive to and from the home. Just kind of some common sense things that we as a board need to be working on. And I think we can get it done if you all start kind of beating and making that demand as well. Don't let me be out here on the island by myself. Native language support. So I was a huge proponent for and still am for having more Haitian Creole dual language programs. But logistically, the problem is this. We don't have enough people who are both fluent in it and also can write it. So it's going to be darned impossible for you to teach it if you can't do both. So what we've endorsed as of last year is what's called a native language support. So let's pretend Rob just migrated here three or four months from Haiti and I'm kind of fluent in Haitian Creole and I'm trying to do a math unit with him and I'm seeing that he's not quite understanding what I'm conveying to him in English. It's okay for me to speak to you in front of the class in Creole to try to get you to get the point. And then I go back to speaking in English. So it's not like the whole class is truly a dual language where today we're only going to speak in Haitian Creole like you expected a dual language program. But if I say, you know, whatever I need to say to you to get you, get the light bulb to come on, the superintendent endorses that. So I'm happy. That's a step forward until we can get more people who actually are fluent in all senses in the Haitian Creole language. And that's it, I believe. And I apologize for taking longer than I expected. But it's important to come down here and let you all know what's going on so that you all can tell me where I need to self-correct or try to self-correct. So thank you for your time. Thank you very much for all the information. Commissioner Markert, would you like to go first? Yeah, I just want to say thank you. I had a chance to meet with you privately a couple weeks ago, and I learned so much. And I really appreciate everything you're doing. The schools traditionally haven't been something that this commission has paid as much attention to as we are now because we are concerned. We want our schools to be best in class. We're not there right now. And we appreciate your leadership and your guidance and your advice in helping us get there because this, you know, the chart, it's not where we want to be. And we're going to do better. Thank you. Commissioner Burns. Yes. I want to thank you for your presentation. And, you know, some of your goals are some of the same as mine. And I was going to ask a question about the dual language program, but you answered it with your statement that the superintendent endorses the language support. Yes. Not exactly what I wanted, but I guess that's a start because we really do need the dual language programs in order for some of our lower performing schools to do well because they're a large percentage of our dual language speakers. But that's it. I mean, I met with district personnel and we talked about the Carver, Historic Carver Technical Center. You know, this has been a goal and desire for the community for quite some time. And I'm happy to see that some of the things are coming into fruition. However, you know, as with everything, it's always, you know, dollars and cents are what's a holdup for a lot of different things. There are a lot of different programs that we talked about that could start, but there's no teacher for it. And then another program that's starting in January, which is a pre-construction or some sort of trade can only take eight people. So, you know, we just need to look at how we can get more and invite more because we are looking for children or young people who are not college-read or who have no desire to move from Village Academy to the Technical Center, which is going to be great for the community. But thank you for your... Mayor, can I follow up, please? Yes, please. So, two things. One, I would encourage you all to query your principles to see who actually is in support of having a dual-language program at their school. I kind of went out there on my own thing at a school board and remember, hey, this would be great. Everybody's not willing to take that, what I would call, heat. So, you all may want to leverage to figure out who really does and then go from there. Well, I think our demographics are different than Delray than a lot of your other school board commissioners really see. What I'm saying is the actual principles weren't necessarily hot and heavy to be, you know, the sign for it. No, no, I agree. Go ahead. I'm sorry. So, I would definitely want to look in on that. And then that second point, Vice Mayor, Deputy Vice Mayor, if it's eight this year, fine. But let's try to have like 20 or 30 people wanting to get into the program. I think that's more like a push process. I think then we could leverage to give the district more confidence and say, hey, if we've got to get another professor or a teacher or whatever, we had 20 or 30 plus people who are waiting to enroll in this program because it may, to your point, may be an issue of finances. I don't know. But it seems to me that it's going to be more of a push process to get this to where you and I, I think you and I want it to be. So, let's encourage as many people as possible to apply. If the seat is not there this year, don't lose heart. Come back next year and then leverage that to try to get the district in a position where it feels comfortable that it can support, say, two teachers versus one. I think that would be one way to approach that, in my opinion. Thank you. Thank you. I'm on it. Yes, ma'am. Thank you. Commissioner Casale. Yeah, I took notes this afternoon on something related. I always appreciate you. I wave signs during your campaign. You're a dad. Yes. And I know you care about education and the future of our children. And we do, too. I sat up here for years and felt frustrated not being able to get anything done on education. We understand the limitations as a commission, but we want better for our children and we're not getting it. And these grades, yeah, there's an improvement, but they still are so bad. And I think we all know, like, if a child can't read and they're not proficient in third grade, they're done. They're behind for so long and they're just always on a hamster wheel trying to catch up. And we can't ever get ourselves to a good place. So I am going to be asking later, and I want you to think about this. You know, we're falling behind. We're not doing well. And there are solutions. I met with somebody, and I think the mayor did as well. I'm going to tour the South Tech Academy. South Tech Academy wants to come to Delray Beach and create a public charter school out of Carver, and I think the residents would benefit greatly. It's exactly what you're talking about. AI is coming in. No, no, no. You didn't say that. Excuse me. I don't want that on the record. It's in terms of technical teaching. AI is taking over, and jobs that are going to be available for people are going to be those they can do with their hands for the most part. So I think we need to prepare ourselves for the future and prepare our children. South Tech is a public, tuition-free school. It would be ideal. They can do K through 8, and they're an A-rated school with a 100% graduation rate. 94% of the children going out of that school to colleges also have a certificate to fall back on. We have tried and tried to figure out a solution to this problem, and we haven't done it, and we can't wait, and I totally appreciate you, but I think we, as a commission, need to start figuring out a better solution, and the law changed in 2025, so a charter school only needs 51% of the parents in the school to agree, and the public school can convert to a charter school. It's academic as well. We finally made a point where you and I are on different sides of it, because I think that's an absolutely terrible idea long-term. Short-term, it sounds great, but respectful, I think that'd be a bad idea. No, listen, I'm okay with you disagreeing, and I wanted your input, but here's the problem. I've been up here three years, a year hiatus, another year and a half, and every year it's the same thing. It's a presentation on how bad the scores are. We're all optimistic, but we just can never get better, and so I want to ask, I'm going to ask at the end of the meeting for a consensus to have someone from South Tech and someone from the Milagro Center to come in and to give us a presentation, because they're interested, and I would also like if we could, I'm going to tour South Tech on the 24th, I think the mayor is as well, to make that an open meeting for the commission so everyone can tour, because it's no disrespect to the county school system, but we're failing our children, and we need to do something different. I really always appreciate you. You're one person in a very large system, but I'm a mom. I represent all the residents here, and I feel we need to do something different. Thank you. Thank you very much. Commissioner. Edwin, thanks so much for coming in tonight. This was a very comprehensive presentation. It shows how focused you are on our city. That means a lot to everyone here, and yeah, Dara has its struggles. That hasn't changed, and it takes a long, sort of sustained effort to do that, and I'm not going to be here for much longer, but I feel very confident that my colleagues are very focused on this issue. I can tell that you're very focused and passionate about Delray Beach, and I genuinely appreciate that, and I think keeping a positive relationship between the school district and Delray Beach is critical. I don't think that's something we've always had here, and I think that's something that's improved more recently, and I think that's absolutely critical, and Edwin, I think sometimes the district, and I had a fiancé who served on the school district, so I know about it. I think you guys get a lot of blame for things that are outside of your control, too. The state comes in and preempts a lot of things that you guys are attempting to do as well, and so a lot of this does come down from the state in terms of funding, and a lot of other issues do impact what the school district can do in the schools here as well, so we need to be cognizant of that, but again, really appreciate you. Thank you, Edwin. Thank you. I appreciate it. Thank you for coming. I always enjoy the – enjoy. I learn a lot from your presentations. Thank you. You know, you're a great lawyer, and, you know, we have an ILA. We have – between the school district and the city, we have this ILA that's been sitting out there since 2015, which talks about meetings between the school board members, not staff, and the commission, not staff. I would like to start that again. I would like to go back to try to comply with that agreement because we – everyone's been slow off the mark because there's so many other things on our plates, but we have really been trying to focus on education this year as a commission because, you know, there was – I had great promise there at Carver with respect to, you know, whether we could put a technical kind of facility there like South Tech, and, you know, that kind of got derailed a bit because I really thought that was a fabulous location, maybe in connection with Village because Village certainly needs a lot of work, and they don't have a lot of students, yet they have some great facilities there. And there's a lot we can do, I think, with that if the school board's willing to step up and help us do that because, you know, I sat here – I sat – I went to lunch with a local guy who owns a bunch of car dealerships in town, and he said they can't find people to work on the cars. And, you know, so they're – these mechanics that are coming out of some of these automotive schools, including South Tech with this certificate, are getting these jobs at $60,000, $70,000. And gosh, gosh, he can't find anyone to work on the electric vehicles, and they're coming in at $70,000 to $80,000. And we have nobody that does this training, and I think Delray has – we have facilities that can be – that are very underused, and I understand there's enrollments in down, and that's a problem that you guys are trying to work on because it's endemic, not just here, but others with the schools are suffering like this, which then affects the amount of dollars you can spend. But we need to do something to try to reinvigorate both Carver and Village. And I go back to – you did such a fabulous job, and I read everything you did out there at Riviera at the high school. We need to do something about Atlantic. I mean, the grades you gave for Atlantic included the IB program. So that is – that makes it even sadder because the IB program used to be one of the top-rated IB programs in the country, and it's now kind of fallen to the second tier. There's – I don't know whose fault it is. I know that we're not responsible for it here, but we want to help you help us get that facility back up and running the way it should be because that IB program, considering the facilities they have and the environment they have around here, should be one of the top in the country. It's not. So I'm pointing a lot at you. You haven't been there. I mean, this has been happening over a period of years, but we really as a commission wanted to stop. So I really want to – we are still working on what we're going to do with the education because my whole point was I want to come back to you all and say this is what we want because I think we need to have different after-school programs than other parts of the county because we do have kids here who do not speak English as a first language, and they certainly have nobody at home who speaks the language. They're either speaking Creole or Spanish or some other language, and we're doing nothing to really help them. I think the idea of having someone come in and teach them that little bit in class is great, but the school board needs to do more because we have genuine issues with language in the demographics of the schools here in Delray Beach. So I'm throwing all this out at you now. I'll follow up with this because, as I said, I really want to get your board together with this board without staff to kind of thrash out what we can and we can't do because we don't know what we can't do. We don't know what we can do, and you're the same. I mean, you know, we've never really tried to work in the last 10 years collaboratively to try to get all these schools to really do what I think they can do because I think we have, you mentioned Pine Grove. They've got a really dedicated crew over there, and they're really trying very, very hard. Orchard View is the same. You have some really good people that are really trying to make these places work. We want to help you help them. I had a question for you, Mayor. Sure. Carver, because that's outside of District 7. It's 184, however, 82 schools, so I don't know them all as well as I do District 7. That's a middle school. So really quickly, can you explain? There was a discussion to take part of that campus, the historic and make it into essentially a full- Historic Carver or Carver Middle? Historic Carver. Oh, okay. But they're two different things. They're two different things. But I'm conflating because we have facilities that we want to be able to do stuff. But Carver itself has done some great stuff. And Plumos is doing some great stuff. But the changes are coming to historic Carver. I'm sorry? I kind of glossed over it because I thought I was talking too long. But, you know, changes are coming to historic Carver. I know they are. Along the lines of what Commissioner Christology did. I understand that. So that's why I mentioned it, because I think that could be a great feature for the Delray to have that kind of center, which is going to train kids with employable jobs. You know, learning to be computers, learning to be automotive technicians, learning to be these things. These are, nobody does carpentry anymore. Nobody does plumbing anymore. Nobody, I mean, I can't find, I mean, when I find them, they, you know, they're former lawyers I worked with. So, you know, because they're doing better as a plumber. But I mean, it's... Maybe. But yeah, charter schools, they don't have the economies of scale that it just has, and they would never. So it feels like a money grab. This is my word, not anyone else. The whole concept of charter schools feels like a big money grab. And the person that's going to, or the people who are going to suffer from it, the greatest are the children who purportedly were attracted. Well, there's a difference between a public charter, though, and a private charter. Distinctly different. Two different. In my opinion, their actual net result is about the same. But like I said, this is, finally we have an issue that you and I are on a different size on. That's okay. But I respect... I think all of these have to be on the table, because if the end goal is to get the kids... Educated. ...where they need to be... Employed. ...then I think that we all have to sit to talk about... I don't want to talk about turf. I want to talk about kids. And that's what I'm talking about. I'm focused on entrepreneurism. I don't think... No, I agree. I agree. They have 30 years working for... We're not far apart. I know what you say. And I understand you're one person. You're one on a set. I understand. But I'm... I'm the tallest of the seven, so I think I'm like... Well, there you go. Well, we have a tall guy, too. We have two tall guys. He's coming up to me, yeah. But no, I respect your position. We have the tallest and shortest commissioners, I think, in the city. I mean... In the city. Oh, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa. But anyway, I was a cheap shot, and I apologize to all the people who are tall or short. Anyway. You're a giant in my eyes. Say that. I don't think you're the shortest anymore. Where's Phil Bathurst? Mr. Mayor? Yes, sir. I'd like to offer a little levity, for heaven's sake. And that's what I'd like to contribute, a little levity, and on a total light note, I'd like to contribute to your observations about old school mathematics. I happen to have an abacus upstairs in my office. If anybody were interested, I'd be more than happy to apply. We should allow him to depart from his presentation. I really do. I'm that serious to stop dinner. I believe you. So I'm my credenza. Thank you. Is it next to your 8-track player? It's next to his little Star Wars history. Thank you very much for coming in. You'll be hearing from us, and I really do appreciate all the hard work you're doing. Thank you. Have a good night. Take care. Thank you. Take care. See you. I tell everybody. I sound like I think I'm tall. It's pretty hard to avoid. And we do have. We have a tall guy. I'm jealous. I used to be whatever. We're now at the portion of the beginning. We have public comments and inquiries on agenda and non-agenda items. City Manager, you are first. Yes, ma'am, sir. I have one item briefly, and it's actually in response to an observation offered by Mr. Stephen Bloom during the workshop meeting portion, and it pertains to the pavilion under construction along Atlantic and A1A. So the report coming from the Department of Public Works, substantial completion by January, project completion anticipated by February. So pardon the inconvenience at this time, but we should have a fabulous facility as a result of the good work currently underway. So thank you. On that note, Mr. Mayor, I yield. Great. This is a portion of the meeting, which is now open to the public for public comment. If you have something to speak, except if it's on a quasi-judicial or a public hearing item, you may come to the lecture and give your name and address for the record. You will each have three minutes. Once again, Stephen Blum, 115 Venetian Drive, Delray Beach, Florida, 33483. I want my contribution back, okay? About 12 years ago, the city was strapped for money, and they couldn't do a new pavilion, so we all had fundraisers, and we all contributed and thought we were going to get a great new pavilion, and it looked great. It didn't take long at all, a couple weeks, and I observed that the screws and bolts were rusting. So I told the city about this, kept on hounding them, and basically they kept on saying, yeah, we're going to get a new city, it's in the contract, and it will be taken care of. Well, obviously, it wasn't taken care of. And I also asked them, it took me about six months to get the wire put up so we wouldn't have pigeons in there, which should have been done beforehand, but that was another issue. They did nothing to fix the problem, obviously, and it's the problem we're running into today. I was recently informed that everybody on that project is gone. Not only that, there's no records, no contract, no bills, no payments. Where is all the information on what happened with our pavilion? Can you answer that, Mr. Moore? Where is all the information? Why is it gone, and we have nothing to go by? So, brings it up to you people. The city is supposedly correcting the problem, 12 years too late as far as I'm concerned. And right in tourist season, why are we doing this now where February, March, it will be complete, but the pavilion right now, if you go up there, looks like crap. The whole place looks like crap. Hundreds of people used to come in there and sit there all day long and enjoy the pavilion and walk to the beach and come back and change your clothes there. They've got no place now to go, and it's during season. So, I want to know why Delray Beach waited until September, October to decide to put up scaffolding and everything and ruin the appearance of Delray Beach at A1A and Atlantic Boulevard. Thousands of people come to enjoy that every single year, and it's not enjoyable. It won't be done until next year. I wanted to speak to Missy Barletto about this, but she hasn't returned my phone call, and you just answered a question for me. But still, you didn't answer the question of where's the information? What happened? Thank you very much. Your three minutes is up. Who dropped the ball? Okay. Comments noted. Okay. Any comments from you guys? We don't generally comment back, no. I see. Okay. Good evening. J. Alperin, 3130, Lowson Boulevard, Delray Beach. Thank you. Are you referring to the golf course? We all knew that, but I wanted to put it on the record, so. You already know. Montre Bennett, 323 Northwest 2nd Avenue. Look into your mind's eye. Look into your eyes with the eyes of your mind. What do you see? Show this person compassion, grace, kindness, tenderness, and understanding. Eternal truth. I give myself essentials I want and need from others. Home Depot is offering free training and certifications for HVAC, carpentry, electrical, and construction trades. Maybe that's something the school board needs to look into partnering with the Home Depot. I would say Lasika Suarez should be nominated for an appointment for a planning and zoning board. She is qualified. As a first-year parent at Plamosa School of the Arts, in the fourth and fifth grade, they are offering those rigorous math classes early so that kids can matriculate faster and get those college credits early. As far as education goes, the city as a whole and the whole America need to combat against testing because those tests do not belong in the pockets of the person who created the test. So, that's not educating. That's just making somebody else richer. And in Japan, Japan banned exams for kids. Japan focused on no grades. They focused on numbers that shape by values. They focused on teaching respect. They focused on being out in nature, being guardians of nature, learning how to care for the environment, understanding that respect extends beyond people, discipline over competition, politeness, order, punctuality. It's not grades that build great people. It's values, respect, discipline, knowledge that lasts a lifetime. We put a lot of attention on the roundabouts on Swinton. But Swinton is a terrible road. Everybody ride on it. And they need to get fixed ASAP. And we do need to reach a true resource center for all these things that's being talked about in here. Health, education, legalities, everything. We need a true resource center for that. Thank you very much. Hi. Good evening. My name is Dana DiDomenico. I am a city resident, 3322 San Fernando Drive. But I'm also here representing Silver Ball Retro Arcade, 19 Northeast 3rd Avenue. I've been with the business for 10 years. I'm sure you all know my boss. He was here earlier. I'm the event manager and coordinator for Silver Ball here in Del Rey. As I said, I've been with the business for 10 years. We are proud to be a local business here in Del Rey. I very much love the city and the community. We feel that, and I feel that, we bring families and friends together. We also attract a lot of visitors who eat at the local restaurants. They shop downtown. We help to keep the local economy vibrant. I'm here because I want to address the recent changes for parking and the metered regulations and how they're directly impacting myself as an employee here, as well as the business like ours and others. So at Silver Ball, we host everything from community fundraisers. Many of you have attended there. We do large private events, corporate parties. The events bring hundreds of guests downtown, and those guests spend money across the board, multiple local establishments. But now, unfortunately, with the parking structure, we're facing a lot of growing challenges that are affecting me personally and also just as a business. For example, we have an upcoming event here in December where the client is spending several thousand of dollars to have their company holiday event with us. They'll be bringing 23 work vans that cannot fit in the parking garages. To ensure that there's enough parking for them and to avoid their team members having to pay individually for each van, we reached out to the city to arrange a flat meter rate. They quoted the rate nearly $700 for what would normally total a little over $7 for three hours per meter. So as a business, I don't know how to justify that to a client and how to explain that where they're paying thousands of dollars to have their company event on top of having them to pay for parking. It's discouraging. It also puts us in a position where we're trying to retain these clients long term. Today alone, doing bookings and proposals when I get to the aspect of parking, I had to lose three potential businesses that decided to go elsewhere to book their event. We understand and I'm very compassionate to the city's needs to manage parking and generate revenue. And I've worked with a lot of the city officials and I respect them greatly for what they do. And I just feel like there needs to be a more balanced approach to not punish our businesses that are trying to grow and bring commerce into the city, especially small businesses. And options like event parking validations or group permits, flexible pricing for businesses related to bookings would go a long way. And I just respectfully ask you to consider and help us come up with a solution because this isn't working right now. Thank you very much. Billy Roach, Seagate Drive, Delray Beach. Got my time. Thank you for pausing my time. So the issues plaguing this city are glaring, yet you continue to ignore them prioritizing your radical agendas over the basic needs of the constituents. Last week, I would listen to this meeting from remotely. When you rose our taxes, you raised the taxes again. Since I've been here five years, we've had Old School Square, which when you were running, when Julie was running against Rob, they had a little meeting on the island. And I took issue with the closing of Old School Square, how it was done. That is a revenue maker for the city. You're talking about $2 a ticket for this Beatlemania thing. You're squeezing taxpayers when there are obvious assets that this city has that you could be leveraging for taxpayers to ease the burden on us. Old School Square was having international acts. Mr. Markert mentioned, oh, it's doing pretty good. You've only been here three years, correct? Yes? In the city of Delray? Yeah. About 17 years. Okay, 17 years. So you know there were international acts performing here. It was packed. There were movies around Halloween. There was guest speakers. There was something all the time that could be monetized to take away this tax burden. It shut down. It's not good. Julie told me he said it was going to be better. It's definitely not better. You've got Rod Stewart cover bands there. They have better music playing at Johnny Brown's than at Old School Square. There should be someone. It's pathetic. Just walking by that place. There should be someone in there every weekend. People with blankets. Monetize it. Put some money back into the city. Also, the Arts Garage. There she is. My wife reached out. So this city is a lack of venues for business owners to have events. My wife reached out to Marjorie about the Arts Garage to rent it for the middle of the week, slow time, for people to fly into Delray from all over the world. It would have generated $250,000 for the hotels, for the restaurants, for the city during the middle of the week when all these people, they're struggling. There's available signs everywhere. And she turned it down. So we're a non-profit. She comes up and shakes her tin cup. Thank you for your money, for the support. You need to monetize that. People want a place where they can have other business owners. Money would be spread throughout the community. And it was just brushed off. She wanted $7,000. My wife did it in Miami for $3,500 with food. People went and lodged there, everything. So it's missed opportunities. There's too much non-profits going around. The city's not doing well financially. You need to monetize it so the burden's not on me. The police, there's 15-minute 911 response times. The police commissioner, I talked to Russ Mager. I talked to all the officers. I've had emergency situations. It takes 15 minutes. Eight minutes is the national average. It's pathetic. You need to get more people on the island. The tax dollars are funding the schools, funding the entire city of Delray Beach. Otherwise, what we need to do is we need to secede. The barrier island needs to secede from Delray Beach because you're pissing our money away. Thank you very much. Good evening. My name's Corey Heyman. You need my address? Yes. Okay. 111 Southeast First Ave, Delray Beach, 33444. Thank you for the opportunity to speak. I will try to be brief. I know you guys have a lot going on and a lot to consider, so I appreciate it. I am the founder and producer of Cocoa Market, which is the free monthly wellness event held in Delray Beach for the last four years. And our mission is to make wellness accessible for everybody. Every first Sunday, everyone is welcome to enjoy yoga and meditation, live music. I'll invite you out. If you've not been, we'd love to have you. It's a place where people come to connect, heal, and feel part of something bigger, and nothing is asked of them. So I'm here as well to talk about the parking fees. These new fees on Sundays will have a real impact, not just on Cocoa Market, but for the downtown as a whole. I feel this is an issue of accessibility and inclusivity. The $1.50 an hour fee might not seem like much, but it creates barriers and it discourages people from coming downtown. At the last event, I heard a lot of people say that they're not going to be able to come anymore, that it doesn't make sense for them. When fewer people attend Cocoa Market, it doesn't just affect the event. It affects the cafes and the shops and the restaurants and all of the businesses around. Small businesses are already struggling to stay open, and every dollar spent on parking is a dollar not spent supporting the small businesses. Cocoa Market is a free, inclusive event. There's no tickets, no barriers to entry, no costs at all, and this parking is creating a barrier to entry for them. So by reinstating free Sunday parking or working with us to come up with some sort of solution, I've emailed all of you so you guys have my information, you'd be helping to keep Delray accessible, supporting local business owners, and protecting the spirit of community that I think makes Delray Beach really, really special. So thank you for your time and your continued support. Thank you. Thank you very much. Good evening, Mayor, Commission, Paul Cannon, 1021 East Heritage Club. I'm going to do something I don't do very often. Let's give a shout out to our police department. Last week, they put on an amazing national night out event. It was extremely well attended. But the one thing that really struck with me, and I talked to the chief about this just before the meeting, is that we were giving out T-shirts with the Pace logo on them. And everybody likes free stuff. People like free T-shirts, right? But how many communities do you know actually want to wear a T-shirt that's got a police department logo on it? I mean, that's all credit to the wonderful work that our chief and his department has done. So I want to give a shout out to him and to Major Quinn for putting on such a great room. On a related note, there's the open house at Station 113 this coming Saturday. I hope everybody will attend. There will be all kinds of displays relating to public safety. And one final thing before I yield is to thank you for providing the Citizens Academy. I had a wonderful time participating in that event. I learned a tremendous amount. Did you know that we have 55 parks in the city? I mean, it's crazy. Anyway, I yield. I'll give my minute and a half to Marjorie. I'm sure she could use it. Thank you. Thank you very much. I got one. Yeah, I had chief owner hooked me up. How did you not wear it? Go ahead. I'm Dr. Janet Stess Allen. I'm the owner of Delray Orthodontics. And we are at 10 Southeast First Avenue, just right off of Atlantic, around the corner. I've been down here for about 35 years, back and forth, back and forth. And about two and a half years ago, opened this orthodontic practice here. And it's been growing. And we're doing well. And we're really involved with the Chamber of Commerce. And trying to increase business in Delray, we certainly talk about it to all of our patients and their parents, or the parents are our patients. And so I'm also here to talk about the parking. As an orthodontist, as a doctor, you know, it was a big deal when we first moved here. And the fact that we had access to the garage right down the street from us, it's the Fetterspiel garage, and our patients did not have to pay for parking if they were in the garage before 4 o'clock. Now, you know, on top of paying for orthodontic treatment, and it's not as if they only come in once every six months like you do to a regular dental office, they come in periodically. It could be in a week. It could be biweekly. It could be monthly. For them to have to pay for parking now is, I think, is going to damage my practice growth. And so I'm very, very concerned about it. I understand, you know, I don't have a problem paying for my employees. But for patients, I just hope and wish you guys would really think about this and hope that there's some kind of solution. I have also emailed all of you, so I'm sure you have my information. But I just wanted to be here tonight to say this in person, and I appreciate you allowing that. You know, I think it's really something that needs to be considered. I think I'm the only doctor in Delray Beach, and so, you know, most doctor's offices have parking spaces outside the office. We don't, but the reason I took the space was because we had the garage down the street that was virtually free parking before four, and our patients are all in before four. And it's weekdays. We're not here on the weekends. So I just wanted to talk about that with you. I appreciate you allowing that, and thank you. Thank you very much. Greetings. My name is Edward Stinson. First and foremost, I want to say thank you, Terrence Moore, for the Citizens Academy course that we got to go through. It was phenomenal. Address to the record, please. Oh, thank you. Edward Stinson, 616 Northwest, 45th Drive, Delray Beach. Extreme thank you for that. It helped me see a lot of the inner workings of the city. It's also important to understand that Delray is not a silo, that we are directly connected to much of what happens with the state. I love that you guys often have that perspective when we're making main decisions. In being here most of my life, I walked to Banyan Creek, biked to Carver, drove to Atlantic High School. I worked at the Aquacrest Swimming Pool as a junior lifeguard. I was at Plamosa for several years as an aftercare counselor. I worked at Village Academy as an art teacher for several years. I worked at the Arts Garage for several years helping. I love the city. And so knowing and seeing that we are consistently aware of and listening to, yes, what our constituents are saying matters. No, we're not perfect. But I also must acknowledge we are far from pathetic, okay? Pathetic has way more examples in the world. We are not pathetic. There are fixes we can have. There are methods we can use to make education better. I'm glad we had an education presentation. My legacy that I worked to uphold is what my parents created visual adjectives. We're a publishing and production company. We specifically are creating and not creating. We've created an ELO nonprofit. I don't care what that guy said. We need more nonprofits. I like having the ability of a company to work with aftercare programs to teach writing, art, and publishing. We need more programs like that. We need more teachers. We need more educators. We need more trade skills. We need more carpenters, more smiths, more cobblers. We need all the random jobs. We need people who are catching up with AI, catching up with the technology. We need to put these programs into schools. Secondarily, also the $150 for parking is wild. Please, if you can, try to figure out how that parking can get back to being free before 4 o'clock. I can't count how many friends I've had to tell. I'm sorry it now costs money to park basically, I don't want to say anywhere in the city, but our city's popular. Most of the street parking is full, and so the parking garage was essential to many people coming to our downtown. I don't know all the finances. I'm sorry if there's a master plan that is necessary for the extra $1.50, but I beg of you, please, please, please reconsider the parking. When we're teaching and working south of Swinton as a historian, I would like to erase the color line that is left over thanks to Swinton that is still there from maybe only 50 years ago. We have to work to bridge the gap of the two communities. It is not black and white. Yes, those are fake concepts, but our country made several centuries of creating systems around black and white. If we are not working actively to be aware of that, then we're going to fall into the same issues where we're looking at the stats of Village and Plamosa. Why are they so different? We can literally go back half of a lifetime and see where the investments in the city were going into why Village is the way it is, why Plamosa looks the way it does, why Atlantic and Carver looks the way they do. Thank you. I love you guys. Thank you very much. I'm Janice Hill, 309 Southwest 15 Terrace. On a lighter note, to the mayor, commissioners, and fellow residents, you are cordially invited to attend the dedication ceremony for a historical monument being presented to Atlantic High by the class of 1971, and I'm a proud member of the class of 1971. The monument dedication ceremony is at 5 p.m. on October 16th, prior to the homecoming football game that starts later that evening at 6.30, and I hear that they're playing Deerfield High School, and they feel real confident about winning. The class of 1971 was the first graduating class from Atlantic High School. The monument has been designed to inform the students and community about the establishment of Atlantic High School in 1970 and to ensure that its history and evolution are not forgotten. The location for the monument dedication ceremony is next to the football stadium next to the Y.A. Tittle statue, a big football player statue. We will be honored if you can join us as we celebrate the unveiling of this important and enduring gift to Atlantic High School. Now, just a little history for people who may not know the evolution of Atlantic High School. Atlantic High School was born out of two separate schools that were in Delray. This was during segregation. The name of the schools were Carver High School and Seacrest High Schools. Both these schools had a strong and proud history, but the community, adult community, school, and students, and I remember this because I was part of the student council, understood the importance of keeping something from both schools. And as a result, Atlantic High School was one of the few schools that took on the colors of Seacrest High School, which were green and white, and the Eagles, the Carver mascot, which was from the Eagles. So I would strongly, strongly urge you to come and enjoy some of this history with us. And if you're a Delray resident, I want you to say, go Eagles, all right? And I think that we have some teachers that taught at Carver, Seacrest, or Atlantic. If you did, would you please raise your hand? And my mom is over there. She's 96 years old, and she taught at Carver. And I want to say ditto about the Citizens Academy, and I look forward to part two. Thank you. Go Eagles. Good evening, members of the city council. My name is Nicholas James Eddy. I live at 681 Lindell Boulevard. I met with some of the city council members directly in response to the Pathways to Progress program that you put through the city and all along the Lindell Corridor. I've raised extreme concerns over the environmental impact of this project. Many of them were not even brought to the state or the Environmental Protection Agency. In regards to the water runoff, the change in watershed flows. In a meeting with Terrence Moore, City Attorney Glenn, Tom Carney, and several other individuals. Rob, I don't believe you were there. My education was questioned. I studied under the best hydrologists and geologists who write the modeling for this program. This Pathways to Progress has done nothing but create a flood zone, changing the dynamic of the neighborhood. It's impacted this. The watershed that they're changing is historic and naturally created. I brought these concerns to the entire group that I met with, including Mrs. Glenn. You were there. Yes. And my education was questioned by a woman who didn't even flip the document over to understand that I have a degree in environmental science. The same concerns that I raised to certain members of this commission weren't even discussed. The meeting was adjourned. The concerns were never addressed again. Several days ago, there was a huge flood in our neighborhood. The watershed is not what it used to be. Huge problems have occurred. The head city engineer, Isaac Abramoff, came out to my property to discuss the possibility of why this is occurring. So a French drain, for those of you who don't know, the water table goes down, and it's just supposed to disperse there. But the water table is too high. So that's like having a full glass of water and putting a straw in it. There's nowhere for the water to go. And just so all the members of the city council understand, he told me he had never fully reviewed the plans of the Pathways to Progress. And I have that on video. So I want to make the community and the council aware that your head engineer isn't even reviewing plants. And he also told me we pay people to review them. So as members of this community, I want you to understand where our tax dollars are going, why construction takes so long, why projects are over budget, and its lack of oversight. And this community and this council needs to be more aware of where they're putting their resources and maybe take the advice of somebody who, quote-unquote, isn't educated to speak on that. But the gentleman who I study under writes the model for the South Florida Water Management District. Be aware of your surroundings. Thank you very much. Hi, everybody. It's Marjorie Waldo. I do not have a tin cup with me today. I do want to mention, as a few extra moments of my time, if I may be allowed a couple of minutes, there was a back and forth about the rental, and I did request $7,000. We are not tasked with being a rental organization. We are tasked with being a performing and cultural arts center, which is where we spend our focus. Our front-of-house team works nights and weekends, adding things in addition to family series, senior series, and the other events that we do during the week is a lot for them, in many cases pushes them into overtime, and we try to pay our people well so they don't leave. It is not our primary objective, and there was some back and forth with Mr. Roach and his wife where I tried to explain that. So, just so you know, the money is a business model, which is something that we were tasked with creating when I took over Arts Garage. All right. So, anyway, I am Marjorie Waldo. I am the CEO of Arts Garage, and I would rather not do rentals. I want to thank the three of you who participated in our annual campaign. Thank you for letting me strong arm you, Deputy Vice Mayor, to come and do the video. I'm grateful. I want to do some bragging rights about all the things that we do for the city of Delray Beach and the region, and if the barrier island, in fact, does secede, we will continue to be grateful to serve any of them who'd like to cross over into the other town. Arts education. Jazz and Java. Latin jazz, rhythms, and musicals with Dick Lowenthal. All improvisation classes with Micah Stinson, and groove classes with Karen King. Those are all adult programmings for season. Family series. We are now partnered with Village Academy, Spady Elementary, and Plumosa School of the Arts. In October, we have Steve Trash, which is a science show, kind of a magic thing. In January, we have Todd Oliver and Irving the Talking Dog. You have seen them on America's Got Talent. And there's two more coming. I'm just in negotiations, so I don't want to jinx it. Theater. We had the Cafe on Main last weekend with two sold-out shows. We have the Boomer Legacy in November. We have, in December, Delray Stories, Fighting for Freedom, Honoring Our Veteran Community. In January, we have Why, An Actor Preparing. In March, we have the Out of the Black Box Theater Residency with an original performance. I don't know what it's called yet because it hasn't been written. Artists in Residence, Serving Seniors, like the Pompeii Park Senior Club. November 7th, they'll get to see the Boomer Legacy. November 14th, Ann Hafton Calloway. December 4th, Delray Stories. December 12th, C.C. Tennille. They'll get to come for an open rehearsal and talk back with the performers, actors, et cetera. We're pushing in our senior series. Just an extra couple of seconds. We're running low on time for everyone. I'm hurrying. Improv and grooving are pushing in twice per month to four different facilities serving memory care patients. Yoko Miwa, Jazz. Sensational Soul Cruisers, Motown and Soul. Monique Marvis, Comedy. We have to be fair to everybody. Veronica Swift, Jazz. Send an email. Kristen McBride. We're at 30 minutes. Thank you, Jonathan. Okay. So what are we now? No, we're more than that. A little bit more than that. That's where we started. I'll make it quick. Go ahead. Thank you so much for making it quick. I'll try. Stephanie Immelman, Dari Beach Chamber of Commerce. I know the City Commission is aware of the Chamber's position on parking. And I've talked to several of you as well. But just to reiterate very quickly, we feel that metering the garages really has a detrimental effect, especially to the daytime businesses. I've talked to attorneys, mortgage brokers, real estate agents, medical services, in addition to the merchants. And their competitors outside of the downtown, their clients don't have to pay for parking. But now, their clients will have to pay for parking when they're in the downtown. So we're just suggesting that the end of the pilot program, or even before, if you could revert back to having the garages free until 4 p.m., we think it'll go a long way to helping our current businesses stay in business. Thank you. Good evening, Mayor, Vice Mayor, Deputy Vice Mayor, Commissioners, City Manager, City Attorney, Jim Knight, 85 Southeast 4th Avenue, Delray Beach. I now have the pleasure of being the chairman of the Downtown Development Authority. And I wanted to mention that I had a meeting with Terrence Moore and went with Missy. And we talked about some changes that happened with the storage area over at Old School Square. It works for, I think, the ceramic facility and so forth. I'm not so sure it's going to work for the running the stage and getting equipment in and out and so forth. I do not, I'm not an operator. I'm not there on site. But in college, at Babson College in Wellesley, Massachusetts, I was involved with a fraternity. And we do fundraisers at the Knight Auditorium. Of course, it wasn't after the family, but I told all the girls it was at. But that's not neither here nor there. But anyway, we'd just like to figure out a solution that hopefully works a little bit better. We were asking to move a wall over by about 12 inches or a foot. There was a comment back that it doesn't work because of fire requirements and so forth. Still hopeful that we can find a solution out there. Two wrapping up points here. One is I think it is the school board presentation earlier. I think it is important to have trades taught. I think it's a huge benefit. I have a brother-in-law that makes probably five times a year that I'd make. And he didn't go to college. And he's doing quite well. The other thing is I hope we do have other doctors slash surgeons in town because I'm having my left knee operated on tomorrow. And I hope it's a fully certified surgeon doing it at Del Rey Surgical Suites. Did you just have one done? The right one was done nine weeks ago. Now it's the left one. So thank you for your time. Jim, hopefully, Terrence, we can figure out something here. I know that we had our meeting. I hope you got noticed ahead of time by Laura. I asked her, too, that we were going to be here tonight. Still trying to find a solution because it is mission critical to our operation. And, ultimately, the end game for this is hopefully to have, whether it's the city or somebody else, take over and run the old school square operation on a permanent basis. Thank you. Good luck tomorrow, Jim. Good evening. Laura Simon, Downtown Development Authority, 350 Southeast First Street. Good evening, everyone. I won't call by name. That would save some time. A couple things just to also support. I know you all know the Downtown Development Authority's position on parking, the parking board, and as a representation of the downtown where parking is being impacted. We are hearing, and we've been working with the city to roll out the parking program, as well as holding merchant meetings and constituent meetings to get feedback on how it's going and help through some of these stages with the employee parking program. We will be conducting a survey, but a lot of the feedback is what you're hearing from people tonight. It is, and from others that are just finding out, Rob, who was here from Silver Ball, on the four-hour maximum, that was not one of our recommendations. It was to allow for continuing, because four hours is, with the three-hour, the maximum's on the spaces, it does limit the amount of time that people are here. So we want people to come back and stay long and enjoy our downtown. And also, just to share a few things that are bringing people to downtown, we are launching a series of events with the set, the Coalition of the Sounds of the Set, that takes place this Thursday and will be bi-monthly. It is at Libby Plaza, and it is an open house and neighborhood event and working with the Blackmer's Market and other businesses around the area. But it will be happening on a more consistent basis to really bring some activation and life to the set neighborhood. Also, we're launching on the 16th the exhibition in the Cornell Art Museum, the Dorothy Gillespie Exposition. It opens this Saturday at 6 p.m. to the general public. We have, which is a, we also left some cards here for both events, but really looking forward to this world-class exhibition, Color in Motion. Maruska has been working very hard on getting this, over a year, to get this exhibition open. So we invite you all to come out and the community come out for that, and that is the Cornell Art Museum that is part of Old School Square. And to Jim's point as well, we appreciate the lots of conversation around the storage facility for Old School Square. But again, this is a facility for the whole area, and we believe that there can be some better solutions for all of us in the long run. So thank you. Thank you very much. Good evening, Mayor and Commissioners. I'm Mavis Benson, 800 Greenswood Court, Delray Beach. I'd like to share this feedback, which comes directly from our October 8th merchant meeting, where, as expected, parking was once again a major topic of discussion, and understandably so. As merchants, they all share the same concerns for both customers and employees. The new employee parking program does appear to be a positive step forward, and many have already signed up. However, it was expressed that even the $10 per month fee may still pose a hardship for some of the employees in our downtown. Throughout the planning process, the DDA suggested solutions, which included keeping parking garages free at all times, keeping service slots free until 4 o'clock with unlimited time limits. These recommendations were meant to be a fair and balanced compromise, something that supports both our workforce and our visitors, while aligning the city's broader parking goals. I know it's early in this program, and changes may take time to evaluate, but it's important to note that the parking concerns have been a consistent theme among the merchants, and from the feedback many are already hearing, there's growing concerns as this moves forward. It's been a challenging summer for a lot of our business downtown. As they look ahead to season, there's hope and excitement, but also real worries. Many fear that the new parking structure, some customers may choose to shop elsewhere, at strip malls or strip centers where parking is free and easy. They may not fit the same quality or experience or sense of community they'd find in downtown, but sometimes free and easy wins. We all want the same thing, a thriving, welcoming downtown, where small businesses, employees, and customers all feel supported. My ask is, as this program continues, we keep an open line of communication and stay willing to make adjustments if needed. That flexibility and responsiveness will go a long way in keeping our downtown vibrant and accessible to everyone. With my appreciation. Thank you. Thank you very much. Hi, Michelle Dadich, 23 Southwest 6th Street. I just came, I wanted to say thank you for allowing me to participate in the Citizens Academy. And most of all, I really wanted to give a shout out to all of you guys, city officials and support staff. While most people do come up here complaining, including myself, I understand that the salaries that you're even getting paid, you could make, I'm sure, 10 times that, working in the real world. So I'm personally here saying thank you, even if we don't even agree politically on whatever topics. I can say I think this is a great city and why people are even arguing over parking, because everybody likes to come to it at the end of the day. So I just wanted to say a couple things of positivity that I had just recently discovered, as a matter of fact, this week, based on MODIS aqua satellite data in the last five years of 1,346 beaches in all of Florida, Georgia, North and South Carolina, Delray Beach was number one for clarity, the clearness of the water, the clearest of the water, and the bluest of the water. I didn't know if any of you all knew that, but I was, like, shocked to read that this week. So, and... We did that. We did that. Yeah, I know you guys had part of that. Also, I did want to give out, I mean, all of the departments, honestly, we have, like, overall some of the finest and brightest people working for Delray in all of our departments, but I really do, I mean, I have to say that it is true, but I really have to give one honorable mention that I discovered working in the Citizens Academy, which I'm not sure if you folks even know this. Delray Beach is only one of three fire departments in the entire state of Florida that has the emergency, like, trauma readiness, and for chemical sort of things. I don't know if people are even aware of that, but that's huge. When you tour their facility and, like, all of the things and abilities that they have, that's just another testament to, I'm glad that they're close here. And I, you know, can't speak for others, but anytime I've had to call fire or police, they're lickety-split. Of course, it hurts to, you know, it doesn't hurt to be nice to the people, right? They know who's calling, but I'm just saying, I just wanted to give you guys a shout out for the work, the hard work that you do, and I appreciate you, and I'm sure many citizens do, even if they don't get up here and say so. Thank you. Thank you very much. George Long, 46 North Salentin Avenue. The answer, my friend, is blowing in the wind. Bob Dylan, 1963. What could be so elusive to be haunting me all that time? It's the parking in Delray. There is no answer. Thank you. It's always so funny. Mayor Commissioner Zivonne Odom, 3905 Lawson Boulevard. I was going to keep my mouth shut today, but Johnny, she's gone. I just wanted to piggyback on what she mentioned about how Delray decided to take the historic cover and historic Seacrest and honor that by keeping the colors and keeping the mascot. I have advocated for that because I am a graduate of Seacrest 1964 and my husband, graduate of Carver 1964. During my tenure at Seacrest, I understood perfectly how proud both schools were, their school. And for years, I have advocated that and we have reinstituted the Hilltoppers Club, which was the white people who supported Seacrest at the time. But Carver also had what was called the Quarterback Club, who supported their athletic programs. So the last three years, because of my personal knowledge of both, we have now the Hilltoppers Quarterback Club. The last three years, we have been able to divide proportionally between Atlantic and Village $15,000 from the generosity of those members. You get four tickets to every home game, to Atlantic, all the sports, not just football, that's what everybody think about, and Village. So we've been invited to go to that unveiling, and I will proudly be there with the Lord willing. But it just goes to show you how historically the black community and white community have always supported each other, even though we've had our disagreements, and Atlantic High School is an example of that, and I'm so appreciative for that class of 71, because I've been talking about it, and so they did something. That statue will be there, because the statue of Y.A. Tittle was there when I was in high school. So a group of citizens moved it over to the new school. Now they're going to have a monument to explain why Atlantic got its name. So I'm very proud to be a part of that history. And, Johnny, I know you've gone, but maybe you'll hear me. Ms. Hill and I work together. And this is another testament of Delray Beach. I love this city, and thank you so much for listening. Thank you very much. Hi, everybody. Alan Costello, Big Al Stakes, and also on the board of directors of the Downtown Development Authority. I noticed in the agenda, I hadn't planned to speak tonight, so my usual horrible speech is, this should be worse. I saw that you were interested in getting rid of the Parking Management Board. I wanted to remind you all that the DDA was created to be the functioning Parking Management Board back in 53 years ago. So we created in-loop parking, which made the city a huge success. We donated the railroad lot for $10 to the city. We donated the village lot for $10 to the city. We got the guys to donate the Gladiola lot to the city. And then in the mid-'90s, the Parking Management Board was created. Recently, we sent information which would have kept the garages free during the day and some other stuff and some other recommendations. But the city went on and created a parking plan without really even talking to the DDA. I don't think that that's good practice as the DDA was created to be collaborative with the city and to work on things like this. The DDA has been doing parking for 53 years. We have a lot to say. We have a lot to say, apparently, from what the people say that is probably correct. So I venture to say there are some of you who probably don't even know you have a Parking Management czar who actually gets paid by the city and is supposed to run the Parking Management Board. He never does, and that's why you're getting rid of it. So give the job back to the DDA and let us do the job that we did really well. And that's it. Thank you. Thank you very much. Are there any other people? Public comment is closed. Thank you all. We are now to the regular agenda, agenda item 7A. This is the approval of a resolution. Do we need to read the resolution or just go and do the discussion on it? Did we do the consent agenda, Mayor, approval? Oh, of course we have the consent agenda. Yes, I forgot. I need a motion to approve the consent agenda. Motion to approve the consent agenda. It was amended, right? So as amended? As amended. Okay. As amended, yes. Thank you. Second. All in favor? Aye. Any opposed? The consent agenda is approved. Wonderful. We are now into the regular agenda. Resolution number 247-25, resolution of the City Commissioner of the City of Delray Beach, Florida, approving an agreement with NMP Golf Construction Corps for Delray Beach Municipal Golf Course Renovation, pursuant to ITBC number 2025-045, authorizing the City Manager to execute any amendments and or renewals or two to take in all actions necessary to effectuate the intent of this resolution, providing an effective date and further purposes. Ms. Baradak. Good evening, Mayor and Commissioners. I'm here again with my sidekick, Parks and Recreation Director Sam Metat. We tag-teamed. He talked last time, so now you have to listen to me. So we're here to request approval of the resolution that Lynn just read to you, the caption for, to approve the construction of the municipal golf course. This is an aerial view of the improvements that are going to be made at the golf course. This is the site plan for the new course. The contract amount is $28,560,667.14, and for that money, what you're going to get is a restoration of all of the nine holes that were designed by Donald Ross, as well as restoration with some minor changes to the nine holes that were designed by Dick Wilson. As I tell you every single time I talk about this, this is one of the only courses in the entire country that features both of these renowned golf course designers and makes us unique among golf courses. In addition to the restoration of the actual golf course design, we're going to be getting new practice facilities, a new irrigation system and pump house, parking lot improvements, rehabilitation of the north vehicle bridge, replacement of the south golf cart and pedestrian bridge, a new maintenance barn facility, new bathroom facilities, new cart paths. You will be getting an entirely new golf course designed the way it was originally designed to be. The clubhouse renovations are going to happen concurrently with the golf course renovation. They are not a part of this contract, however, that will be done in a different manner. So the company that we're asking you to award this contract to is NMP Golf Course Construction Corporation. It's a family-owned corporation founded in the 1950s. They've completed more than 300 golf course projects across the United States. The ones that are in Florida that you may or may not be familiar with are at Quail Ridge, the Waldorf Astoria, and at the Pelican Golf Course. On this slide you'll see to the right is a picture of the club at Quail Ridge, which is a course that has been recently completed. And then down below there are pictures of the construction activity at the Waldorf Astoria, which they completed last year. This gives you a bigger picture of the club at Quail Ridge, which also was completed last year and is a project that is very similar in scope to the project that we are asking you to approve the contract for this evening. So moving forward, if commission votes to approve this contract this evening and we enter into the contract with NMP, then beginning on November 3rd, the golf course is going to be closed as we begin the eradication of the existing turf that's out there on the golf course. The driving range is going to remain open in a very limited fashion. The clubhouse also will remain open all the way through to January. There are holiday events that have been booked into the clubhouse already and we'll be honoring those commitments. As well as there's an election in December, I heard, and we will be allowing people to go into the golf course clubhouse and vote in that election. So also on December 1st, NMP, the contractor, will be mobilizing to the site. You'll start to see their equipment showing up. They'll be bringing their staff in and getting ready to start on construction activities. And then on January 3rd, the clubhouse will actually close to the public. During the time that the golf course renovation is closed, we are going to be working on designing improvements to the clubhouse facility, updating the facade, bringing all of the elements there up to current building code. And the city, because of the very tight timeline, we're going to be acting as our own general contractor and subbing out the individual improvements to the clubhouse with subcontractors that are already on contract with the city to save in that time frame. And that is the total presentation we have for tonight. And before you is our request to approve Resolution 247-25. Great, thank you. Do you have anything to add to Mr. Mita? Okay. To the commission. Mr. Long. Thank you very much for the presentation. I'm excited to move forward on this. Commissioner Marker. Echo Rob's comments. This has been in the works for a long time. Thanks for getting us to the go line, and I'm in favor. Commissioner Casale. Yeah, I would say thank you as well, and also that you got the top choice to reduce down, because the original price, I think, that the base bid was $33 million. And with our 28.5 for our bond, that would have been – well, our bond was $33, so that wouldn't have worked well for us, because there's that extra padding. The staff was able to negotiate their original bid down $4.5 million. It's amazing. Thank you. To you and the entire staff. Thank you. Big deal, Mr. Burns. Yeah. Just thank you. Things do move forward in the city of Delray, so we're ready to go. Thank you. I spoke to somebody over at Quail Ridge, and they are really so impressed with this group. I'm – they know how to do it right. They understand the temperature of Florida. I mean, they've done a lot in Massachusetts and other places, and they're really well-known, but they apparently did a really fabulous job over at Quail Ridge, and they worked very well with the city. They worked very well with the people that lived there. They – I mean, everything – they apparently did everything right. That's great. I'm very happy that we're finally, with the long speech of former Mayor Alperin of thank you. You get the record for the longest speech today. So, I need a motion. I'd like to say you're welcome. I need a motion to approve. So moved. I'll second. All in favor? Aye. Any opposed? Passes unanimously. Thank you very much. Great job, guys. Thank you. Very much. So proud of you. Resolution 7B. Anthea, is you – oh, there you are. Okay. Resolution number 199-25, a resolution of the City Commission of the City of Delbury Beach, Florida, granting an in lieu of parking fee request for the project located at 149 Northeast 2nd Avenue. It is more particularly described herein, authorizing the City Manager to take any and all actions necessary to effectuate the intent of this resolution, providing an effective date and further purposes. And, Mayor, this is quasi-judicial. Mayor, this is quasi-judicial. Okay, let me – this is a quasi-judicial hearing. Let me read you the rules, everyone. This hearing will be conducted in accordance with the quasi-judicial rules. The applicant and the City shall be allowed 15 minutes each to present their case. The public shall be allowed to speak for three minutes each or a maximum of six minutes if the person represents an organization or a group of people who are present but agree not to speak. The City Commission, staff, and the applicant may be allowed to cross-examine a witness. The City or the applicant will be allowed to offer rebuttal testimony. The decision to approve or deny an application or appeal may not be legally made upon personal views as to whether a project is a good project or not, nor may a decision be based on the numbers of citizens who support or oppose a particular project. The law requires that all decisions must be made on the basis of whether the project meets the requirements of law, the comprehensive plan, and the land development regulations. Is there anybody here wishing to speak on this? If you could all rise, please, and be sworn by the clerk. Please raise your hand. If you 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 or truth and nothing but the truth? Yes. Thank you all very much. If the City could enter the project number into the file into the record. Good evening. I'm Thea Janiotis, Development Services Director, and I'm going to enter file number PZ000069-2025. Thank you very much. Have there been any ex parte communications on this application? Not for me. Mr. Long, is your name? None for me. Commissioner, no? None? I have none either. There may be something on the server. Whatever's there is there. So to the applicant. My name is Michael Haycook, and I live at 675 Enfield Court in Del Rey. I am the owner and representative for this project. I acquired this property about two years ago and looking to make some modifications to it. One of those is installing a restaurant and looking for a change of use from retail to restaurant space. It used to be Del Rey Art Framers, which have since moved. So there's two bays and looking to occupy one bay with a restaurant of mine about just under 1,800 square feet. And so there's no more space for on-site parking. We have five spaces in the back right now. We share those with the adjacent space. Proportionally, it would be two spaces that we occupy. But just for argument's sake, I'm looking to claim one space and then request the additional ten spaces in Luffy. So that's kind of where we stand and looking for the city's guidance with that and appreciate the city's help throughout the process. Okay. You finished? I believe so. Okay. Happy to answer questions. Yes. We'll get to you. Okay. It's okay. Thank you, Darcy. Okay, so the reason that this application is before you is it's a change of use. So it's moving from what was a retail bay to become part of a restaurant. And even though it is a small space, if it changes to restaurant or bar, then parking is assessed. And we're looking at in-low. So, again, this is at 149 Northeast 2nd Avenue. And I'll give you that overview. It's a very small space, so this is an image of the building, and there are proposed elevation changes coming. That is not the topic here. You'll see that as an appealable down the road. So, ultimately, there are three bays, and it's the north bay that is moving to restaurant. And the other two remain retail. I do appreciate that in the request there are five spaces in the back. So, this is Pineapple Grove Way. This is what's behind those buildings. So, this is the other bays that are staying retail. And, you know, rather than say, well, all of them are for my restaurant. I only need five spaces. The applicant has been very reasonable to ensure the success of the other tenant spaces to make sure that even though they buy code, because they're so narrow, don't technically have a requirement. It's trying to make sure that they're functional over time, which is very appreciative. So, it's the change in use that shifts the requirement to 11 spaces, counting the one that exists in the back. He's looking for 10 in-loop spaces. And, as you know, we've adopted metrics to help us make these decisions, the first being that that is a small-scale building. It's under two stories. While it's not historic, it contributes to the fabric of the city. So, that is one of the aspects. He's in the area, Area 1. Again, this is not a small investment that he's making to achieve parking, but ultimately, the findings are also that we're accepting this to advance. And, one of the things we've decided we want for our city that we're willing to give parking on, and that's adaptive reuse for the small existing fabric buildings. But, most importantly, is that within a five-minute walk along a pedestrian route, are there other parking opportunities to support this? This is a graphic that the applicant provided, basically showing how close they are to Old School Square, to the Old School Square parking garage, and also to the Banker's Lot row. And, we have, because of the new license plate readers and things in the garage, we can tell how many spaces are being used. We did pull from last year's season. So, that's, I mean, if I showed you the last three months, it's not quite the same as picking it from season. So, and it tells you everything about how many spaces are there, what is the occupancy, what is the occupancy on the day of the week, what is the occupancy by the level. And so, while the new, you know, the free, or the new charges, but then also the employee parking access, which has existed for free now, but which would continue, are not measured in these counts. It is clear to us, and these were provided by the parking manager we have in Public Works, that available capacity exists. It's only 10 spaces. And then further, what's interesting here is no one's coming downtown. I mean, I thought we'd be talking about this around 6, but I'm not sure what time it is now. Anyway, that is the lowest window of time for people using the garage, is Tuesday evenings. So, we're not drawing a crowd, but there must be a while to chance at home. But this is the level that we can see, which is, you know, we've got to step it up. But I think what's interesting about it is I just want you to show the granularity of the data that we're able to pull as these technological advances take place, where we don't have to really rely on anecdotal information, and, you know, and over time, as Public Works continues to develop the goal of the ultimate program, there'll be even more. So, the other, and I think I zipped past or I accidentally hit it, Banker's Row is also rarely exceeds 10 to 15 spaces. So, the other walkable lot has plenty of availability. And in the staff report, or in the cover letter, I did add, like, his, you know, City Hall's parking lot is outside of the five-minute walk, but it's not that far outside of the five-minute walk if, you know, if you were going to that restaurant and, you know, you were more ambulatory or whatever. So, ultimately, when you're making these decisions based on the data we're giving you and the request that he's making, the findings, you know, this is the analysis of the findings that I have to offer to you. Ultimately, you have to decide if adequate parking exists in the area to approve the relief of 10 spaces and if the in-lieu should be approved to facilitate the adaptive reuse of an existing small-scale building from retail to restaurant. And I know we get this question asked a lot. So, while we're talking about parking, the payments that are made do go, yes, they go into the general fund, but they go into a specific account for in-lieu, and that account is limited to improvements we need for parking infrastructure and the bicycle-pedestrian links to those garages. So, while it may not always result in a new garage, which, as you know, is very expensive, there are lots, there are, you know, other things, fixing the elevators, or things that can be, that is used to support the parking system. So, I just, that just comes up a lot, so I figured I would add it. And that's all I have. So, if you have any questions for the applicant or me, we're here. Thank you for that, by the way. This is a public hearing. If there are any members of the public wishing to discuss this, please come to the lectern. Keep your name and address for the record. You will have three minutes. Laura Simon with the DDA. I just wanted to come up, in-lieu parking is definitely a big item, and as we grow, obviously, Michael is very, very excited to see his new addition to this and the investment. He is the owner of Grove, the Grove restaurant on Pineapple Grove, which has been here for a very long time and is very successful and has grown in popularity. So, looking forward to seeing the expansion. However, just really looking at, I support the in-lieu as far as they know the DDA has always been really supportive of this, but really just looking at how we continue to manage it, too. With 2nd Avenue starting to swell a lot with some restaurants, both on 3rd and on 2nd, just looking at really managing, obviously, this turnover as we watch and getting the data is going to be really important for us to keep on top of that as we continue to move versus just approving and then not looking back. So, I think we really need to look at and looking forward of how it actually works, but I do look forward to this new addition. So, thank you. Thank you very much. Are there any other members of the public wishing to make a comment on this application? Seeing none, public comment is closed. To the applicant or to the city, do you have any rebuttal to each other or any further testimony? Thank you for fleshing that out. It was everything I thought to say, but couldn't make it out. Okay. Thank you both very much. To the commission. Commissioner Long. Sure. First, thank both of you for keeping that real quick. Hint, hint, to all the rest of the people who are coming after. I have to say, you have the best restaurant in Delray Beach. It is my favorite restaurant in Delray Beach. Thank you for creating such a unique, amazing restaurant. And you're exactly the type of folks we should be working with. It has nothing to do with what I'm going to say next. I just had to say it. Anyway, this is an adaptive reuse, which we encourage in Delray Beach. It's an area with ample parking, in an area where we encourage walkability. It's going to be an obvious improvement on the storefront that's there and, frankly, the use that's there. And it's going to be an investment in our community that you're going to make. And you have a proven track record of investing in our community and having a restaurant that's been here for quite a long time in a city that has a lot of turnovers. So why wouldn't we work with this applicant on this small amount of parking? So, to me, this is a no-brainer. I'll leave it at that. Thank you. Thank you very much. Commissioner Cassell. Yeah, I love the Grove as well. Thank you. The Nyaki, insanely good. But my concern, to be very honest with you, we had a discussion here a few weeks ago, Anthea, when we talked about concerns with just the amount of restaurants in our city and how do we retain retail and keep it active because you can't just have restaurants. You need other businesses. And one of the things that was said by our staff was that you stop approving the in-lieu because I said, could we just put a hold on the restaurants, see how many we have downtown? Some of our restaurants really struggle. Yours probably doesn't. It's amazing. Some of our restaurants really struggle in the summer months. Some of them struggle with a whole host of issues and creating more competition. While it's not our job to control competition, it is our job to look at what do we want throughout the city. And we need a balance of retail with the restaurants. And every time we convert retail to restaurant, we create a number of issues, parking issues, and just losing some of the value to our city. So while I would love to see you open another restaurant, I'm concerned. And I don't agree that there's a ton of parking there. Many people complain there was a mistake made, I would argue, years ago when the Ray was given all valet parking because what happened is all of their employees who would typically have to park on-site now have to park off-site. And I'm sure you experience this because I believe the owner of your building is my neighbor. But anyway, there are constant questions about parking in your area. So it's not an area that is easy to park in. And while I'm conflicted on this, to be honest with you, because I love your restaurant, but I don't know that we should be giving up retail for another restaurant. Thank you. Thank you very much. Commissioner Burns. Yeah. Well, I'm not such a fan of in-loop parking. However, we did change the policy to make it harder, in other words. And it's only happening in certain areas. We capped the number. Based on the data that was presented, there is adequate walkable lots in the area. And this is, we are approving an adaptive use for this. So I'm in favor of it. Thank you. Thank you very much. I was actually at the ribbon cutting in 2012 when you opened. You remember. Way back when, yeah. Way back when. So I was there. You've done a great listen. I knew it when you opened. You were going to do great. And you've done great. And I really, your entire team does a great product. And I'm going to support this because, look, Delray Beach is a victim of our own success. People like you and others have created an opportunity for everyone to come, want to be downtown or be in Delray Beach. And, you know, parking is never, ever, until we build a couple of parking garages that I've talked about. Parking is always going to be an issue. But I'm delighted with your expansion and effort here. And I'm glad you kept the One Bay retail. And I think that I'm going to support this. So I need a motion. I haven't gone yet. Oh, you haven't gone? No. I feel unloved. I feel unloved. It's okay. I'll get over it. I apologize. You're okay. You're okay. Oh, well, send money. Just a couple things. I agree with what Rob said. This is an improvement to the area. And I went down there and looked around. And I think there is enough parking. I've been one of the anti-in-lieu people, as you all know. And if this one looked to me like we were going to be putting a lot of burden and stress on the parking spots that are there, I'd be against it. But I look at this. I think it's going to be okay. And it's an improvement. So I'm willing to vote yes. Thank you. Can I just jump in just to address your concern? Yes, please do. There's a lot also behind the Grove restaurants. And I don't think it's a city lot, but it's open, available to parking. It's empty 99% of the time. You can go back there right now, and I guarantee you there's not one car there. Thanks for the tip. It's surprising. Yeah. We tell our guests all the time to park back there. It's paid parking, but it's always empty. I would say this on public record. I mean, I would kind of. Thank you. And then also, I am planning to keep the other two-thirds of the building completely retail, obviously, for competition's sake. But also, I agree that there should be a different aspect of the city, just restaurant, restaurant, restaurants. Right. So that's what I'm looking to offset with. Thank you. And if I've made it a mayor, when we say there's always going to be parking issues, and we just have to deal with it, it's created here by our determinations. And it's something we can correct, or at least, you know, we can try to cure, in a way, by our determinations. Gotcha. I need a motion. Motion to approve Resolution No. 199-25. Do I have a second? Second. Call the roll, please. Commissioner Markert. Yes. Vice Mayor Long. Yes. Commissioner Cassell. I'm sorry, no, but I'll come eat there. I'll take your question. For sure. Deputy Vice Mayor Burns. Yes. Mayor Carney. Yes. Motion passes. Congratulations. Thank you. I look forward to going to the ribbon cutting on this one. I hope so. Thank you. Okay. Julie, we banned you from the restaurant. Yeah, I'm pretty sure I'll go. Yeah. Well, now you told her where parking is. That'll never be open again. That's right. Everyone's parked there now. They're all driving there now. It's the pay lot. Don't get excited. Mayor, do you want me to read it? Yes. Would you please read it? We're on 7C. Number 256-25, a resolution of the City Commission of the City of Delray Beach, Florida, amending its budget for the fiscal year beginning October 1, 2021. By providing for supplemental appropriations in the amounts identified in Exhibit A, repealing all resolutions and consistent herewith, providing an effective date and further purposes. Thank you very much. Mr. Dachkiewicz. Mr. Mayor, commissioners, thank you. We have a budget. Amendment. Fund rate amendment. Next slide. I do this. Sorry. So we have a proposed budget amendment for $49,000 with the enterprise fund, which is used for a sanitation fund budgetary account. And the reason for this change is a $49,000 request from budgetary surplus to cover residential service fees for September 2025. We are doing this to cover the cost of the waste management invoice for residential services in September 2025. What? What? Wait. Could you just explain that? Budgetary surplus to cover residential service fees. Yes, in this enterprise fund, we have revenues when we send out bills to pay for this service, and then we have expenses when we pay waste management. There are estimates used. This is the last month of the year. We're short $49,000. We're moving money from surplus within that fund to the line items. Were you saying we're short $49,000? You just said – is that what you just said? I'm just saying that the budget, apparently, the budget for expenses was less than what the actual expenses that came in. So they're moving money from the surplus. In the current fiscal year in the two weeks we've been operating? Or are you talking this is last year? Previous fiscal year, 24, 25. Okay, thank you. I'm sorry I had to look at the slide. For the month of September 2025. So you're concluding the end of the year and cleaning up a budget shortfall of $49,000. Correct, and then next year, obviously, we'll re-estimate the revenues and expenses. That's how we get surpluses. So it's a true up for the last month of the year. It's moving within the same fund from certain line items to the ones where we charge when we get the actual bills. Is that because we had a change of the service fees increased during that calendar year? I don't know. My understanding is you're looking at a total, and they're based on estimates. Okay. And so the actuals came in, and it was $49,000 more than the estimated expense. Why are you guys smirking? It's a $49,000 true up at the end of the program year. I understand, but it's curious that we should know what the cost is if we're in a calendar year. Sure. So part of the Department of Finance's charge is to update its estimates as we engage fiscal year 2025-2026 so that we don't have as much of a concern. Fortunately, $49,000 each year. Is that substantial? I'm just curious. Yes, ma'am. Best way to look at it, and it does occur every year at the closeout of the previous year budget as we wrap it up October-November time frame. Right. So we are very granular in our approach at this particular point in time, and thus bringing this before you all as a singular transaction of $49,000. I appreciate that. Yes, ma'am. Thank you very much. Yes, sir. Ma'am. Any other comments from anybody? I'm short. I'm a guy. $49,000 on a $200 million budget. Thank you. No, no, no. I just wasn't sure. I wanted to understand the transaction. I'm not laughing at you. Any other questions? We're here to answer. No. I'll make a motion to approve the resolution. I have a second. Number 256-25. Second. All in favor? Aye. Any opposed? That's great. Okay, good. Thank you. Thank you, Mr. Dakowitz. I appreciate your time. Item 7D, nomination for appointment to the Planning and Zoning Board based on the rotation system. This is going to be Commissioner Markert. I'd like to nominate Roger Cope. I'll second that. All in favor? Aye. Any opposed? It is passed. Congratulations, Roger. Discussion concerning changes to local rules. This all started last week or a couple weeks back when we talked about people coming up to the lectern to give their names and address and things such as that. And I've actually done a lot of talking with people about this issue. You know, the comment was, well, if they give their address, somehow people are going to be able to follow who they are. If they don't give their address, they don't even know if they're a resident. And so there's a number of options that are out there. The county does things we're requiring if you're going to speak. And by the way, they do it for a good reason because I asked about it. And it's also to time the number of the speakers because if, you know, as we had tonight, people can keep coming up to speak. And you can get into an hour real fast. We didn't tonight, but we could have. And when you're required to fill out a card, you get called up and the clerk knows, well, there's going to be 26 people speaking. So she can count to say, okay, 26 times 3, okay, we're fine. We're under an hour. So that's one solution. But I am concerned about not having any mechanism to ensure that there are Delray residents. Now, maybe we can require that the sign-in sheet has a box where they tick off Delray Beach resident and they give their address because the sign-in sheet is a little harder to get because someone actually has to call in and say, you know, public, you know, personal, a public records request. I'd like the sign-in sheet. How do you ensure that, though? I'm just saying there's all different. I mean, so this is how it started because. Could we just have them say the city they live in and not their address? Just like Delray Beach, Boca Raton, whatever it is. Really give away words. Address is a little more demonstrative because it also lets you know what neighborhood they're speaking from. I agree. And, you know, because there are issues that affect neighborhoods, and so you kind of want to know. So I understand the concern. I'm just saying that no other city seems to think that this has been a concern because everybody. I'm concerned about it. People, somebody's watching at home, and they give their name and their address. Somebody, ask Chief Hunter, somebody's driving to their house right now. The house is empty. I mean, that's not. Well, but that can happen, and I worry about that from a personal safety point of view. I would much rather have the person state their name and then, in writing, give us their address so we can tie the name to the address, but not publicly. But then it's a public record anyway. Anyone can get it. I mean, the problem is the information is accessible to anyone. You're not wrong. Not in that moment, perhaps. You're not wrong. I mean, I will worry about what we're going to do with us. Just hear me out. Like, if someone comes up and says, Delray Beach, and that's required, if they have a neighborhood concern, they're probably going to tell us where they live or at least allude to the neighborhood, right, if it benefits their cause. Otherwise, we don't need to know whether they live at this specific address. And there's no way to hide it once we put it in writing, like you said. It's a public record then. You know, I've seen both sides of this argument. Back when my fiancee served on the school district, they're not required to say anything about where they're from. And there's also no time limit on public comment. And so during COVID, it turned into a nightmare. They would have five hours of public comment. And it would be people coming in from all over the place just to, like, get their little video. And then they would take a clip and put it on YouTube just to say crazy things. Rob, did they have to submit a card? Nope. They had no – provide no information by their names. And everyone – no one had the political will to, like, demand that at the time. I still don't think they have to do that. And it's crazy. So I don't want to see us go to that point where there's no accountability. You can come in from anywhere and just – then you have people come from all over the county, but don't know where they're from, and they come here to politicize commentary and to get on video. My thought about – I just want to make sure that – I just want to know if they're a resident or not. Because we've had several issues where people come, and they talk, and they're not necessarily a resident. Just require that last part of the address, whether it's Delray Beach or – I mean, even if it's, like, West Delray, outside of municipal limits, it still says Delray Beach. I mean, I think, you know, you just – But they're not residents. What about providing their zip code? You could say unincorporated Delray Beach. Well, zip code's good. What about providing zip code? Yeah, you can put the zip code in. Angel Burns, 33445. That's a good idea. I think so, too. Well, let's see, 33445 – 334 – 334-83. Right, 33445. 444. 33444. Those three are solely within Delray – the city limits of Delray Beach? You can verify. What is it – what Angela just said? Just a zip code. Hi, I'm Angela Burns, 33445. Yes. All right, don't say – I'm just confirming. I like it. Yeah, I mean, I just want to make sure – Yeah, that's okay. I think it works. Is that – I mean, let's – I think we should explore that. The only thing I was going to say, Maren, and you brought this up last time, is a lot of you like to reach out to people who come to public comment. Angela Burns, 33444 – We'll never know where she is. Is not going to give you that ability. Right. So, I think the sign-in sheet, I think, if they want to be – like, they can check out, do you want to be contacted? Yes. And then maybe put an email address or something so that you have the ability to reach out to your constituents. Because otherwise, you're not going to be able to do that. Right. And people like to have follow-up. A lot of people come here and express concerns. And, you know, Mr. Moore will reach out or, you know, the commission will reach out. So, that's the only thing I was going to say. Maybe we can amend the sign-in sheet to include – and people can do it at their option. Right. You don't have to mandate it. This is – as I said, nobody else does it. That's fine. Understand. I like the idea of at least having them on the sign-in sheet when they get up to give their zip code so that we know they're at least a Delray Beach resident because of within that zip code. And if they give it, like, an email address so they can be contacted because a lot of times, you know, we may want to contact somebody about an issue. Sure. Right. Even though the legibility factor is, at best, bad. Bad. It's the premiership. They don't teach it. At least it's something. Great. So, you know. So, is it consensus when you come up for – and remember, this is only for public comment. Right. Quasi-judicial proceedings are going to be handled differently because of the due process concerns associated with them. So, when somebody comes in for public comment, Lynn Jelen, 33432. Right. Quasi-judicial they give everything. Quasi-judicial they give your address. You don't live in the city at 33432. I mean, you still get to speak. But – and then we'll have a sign-in sheet with name, email address, and then, you know, do you wish to be contacted. Right. Yeah. As long as the sign-in sheet has some way for us to contact them and there's some way for us to know that they actually are a resident. Not that non-residents don't have valid points. It's just that I – It changes the context. Sure. It changes the context. Or even something simple, you know, FPL issues. If they're not – you know, if they're in the county, that's going to be very different. You know, we don't necessarily handle it for you. Right. They should come here and complain. So – I mean, I'm getting a lot of letters from the issues off of Barwick Road by people who don't live in the city and they're complaining about, you know – Right, right. I understand, but, you know, call the county. So the motion will be to amend the local rules, the public comments section, to only require a name and zip code when someone wishes to address the commission. But the sign-in sheet, we're going to still require them to do – the sign-in sheet is going to have to give the email address. Correct. The sign-in sheet is not in our rules, but that's a separate administrative function that we'll deal with. Fine. Well, I'm happy – come back with something. Let's look at it. That will work. Okay, so I'll write it up and put it on next week's agenda. Well, just so – I mean, yeah. I mean, I think we're – I just like it, yeah. I mean, you can do it orally and then I'll just email everybody the finished copy if you want it in place for next week's meeting. I mean, I like to read stuff if that's okay. I'll put it on the agenda for next week. So that's the consensus? I never liked oral arguments so much. I like the briefs. I think that's fine. I know. So there's consensus for that name and zip code? Yes. Yes. Thank you. Perfect. Okay. We are now on 8A, which are public hearings. We have 8 – well, 8A, this is a second reading. So 8A and 8B are the same property, Mayor, so can I do those both together? I'm sorry? 8A and 8B, correct. 8A and 8B are the same property? Yep. Okay, so – sorry, my book's a little messy. I'm going to read it this way. In ordinance number 08-25, an ordinance of the City Commission of the City of Delray Beach, Florida, adopting a comprehensive plan amendment pursuant to the provisions of the Community Planning Act, Florida Statute, Section 163.3177, and Section 163.3184, by amending the historic preservation element and the neighborhood's district corridors element of the always-delray comprehensive plan to adopt policies for the preservation and adaptive reuse of historic places of worship, providing a conflict clause, providing a severability clause, authority to codify, providing an effective date, and further purposes. Ordinance number 07-25, 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, Based Zoning District, Section 4.4.21, Community Facilities, CF District, Subsection A, Purpose and Intent, to modify the purpose and intent of the district, Subsection B, Principal Uses, which is a lot in structures allowed, to allow adaptive reuse of historic places of worship, and to relocate the principal uses for the Medical Arts Overlay District, Subsection F, Development Standards, to adopt development standards for adaptive reuse of Section G, Supplemental District Regulations, to remove Medical Arts Overlay District, uses for relocation to Subsection B and Subsection F, Special Regulations, to adopt regulations exempting adaptive reuse of historic places of worship from the supplemental regulations by amending Appendix A, definitions, to adopt a definition for place of worship and historic place of worship, providing a conflict clause, providing a severability clause, authority to codify, and providing an effective date, second reading, public hearing. Are you sure, right? Mayor, this is privately initiated, so Mr. Costello has a presentation. No, I'm kidding, I mean, I just, we don't need the file, we need you to just... No, we just need somebody to talk. Get up and give us your thoughts. Good evening, Mayor, Commissioners, Jeff Costello, JC Planning Solutions, Delray Beach, Florida 33444. Here on behalf of the applicant, whose flight was canceled in New York. So this is some history, which you're all very familiar with. You've heard this. We came before you with the land use plan amendment and a rezoning back in 2004, July. And at that time, that was denied. And at that time, it did offer an amendment to the comp plan and LDRs to allow the adaptive reuse of historic places of worship in the CF zoning district, just for single-family residents, just on historic places of worship. Commission gave direction to move forward with that. We've processed it, worked closely with staff. They've been, you know, they study this to the T and go through all the policies. And so we're before you for second reading. This particular proposal includes amendments to the historic preservation element, as well as the neighborhood corridors, neighborhoods, corridors, and districts and corridors element. The proposal is consistent with both those elements, as well as the historic preservation element, housing element, private property rights elements. The amendments support the preservation of community landmarks, supports adaptive reuse, and expands opportunities for adaptive reuse, and provides additional options for the continued use of historic places of worship. Those are the two portions of the comp plan that were amended. The LDR amendments relate to the CF zoning district. Positive findings can be made with regard to 2.4.7.A.5. Specifically, as a permitted use, single-family detached residents resulting from adaptive reuse of historic places of worship. Also included our development standards that have been inserted, you know, up on the screen is the CF compared to, and what it kind of diverts to, to the R1A zoning district regulations with regard to setbacks and so forth. Again, this particular situation we're talking about is adaptive reuse of an existing historic structure. So obviously it needs to go, the provisions are included. That includes review and approval by Historic Preservation Board, findings 451, et cetera, as you would with any historic structure. And then we also included in working with staff, there was a request for signage to identify historic marker. So those provisions have been included as well, as well as the definitions for a place of worship and historic place of worship. And this is the map that just shows the various, throughout the city, the CF zone properties. A lot of them relate to school and larger institutions. This particular proposal really comes down to a handful of properties where it could be applied that are up on your screen. Again, this is if there is the need for an adaptive reuse of a historic place of worship. And that's just an example. You've seen these before in the presentation last year of various places of worship that were converted to residence. And, again, I really want to thank Anthea and her team who worked closely at it. We looked at, you know, all concerns, taking those into consideration. The HPB unanimously recommended approval. P&Z board recommended approval. And we request approval on second reading by the commission. Available for any questions. Thank you. Great. So I will keep it short. This is privately initiated. There was a pretty big gap between first and second reading because comprehensive amendments, you know, go through the state process before everything comes back together for consideration. So the comprehensive plan amendments basically just add this adaptive reuse consideration to as almost a tool for preservation. You'll remember that, you know, the previous request was to rezone a property. And in this case, it's allowing that adaptive reuse without requiring rezoning, and it's adding the potential detached single-family use to those properties if they so choose. So there's a series of new objectives and policies that Mr. Costello went over. There was HPB did add some contributions to the LDRs related to the potential signage and things like that that I think was very helpful in the development of the ordinance. So there's, I won't go through all of these in the interest of time. There's all of the different comprehensive plan amendments that support that. Of course, the city has a long history of historic adaptive reuse. There is a national movement towards repurposing smaller churches as, you know, places of worship to have changed into either extremely large facilities that are more in a suburban type of location or other things. So it's not, it's new to us, but it's not new here. So I do want to just make it clear that any changes to a historic property are still under the purview of the historic preservation board. So just because this option comes in for zoning, it doesn't mean that the board would not be, would not be included anymore. Any exterior changes would, would still proceed through the process to ensure that the historic quality of the buildings were, were maintained. So that's all I have. If you have any questions, I'm here to answer them. That's it. This is a public hearing. Anyone who wishes to discuss this item, please come to the lectern. Give your name and zip code. No, we haven't adopted it yet. We haven't adopted it yet. Next week, give us a zip code. Next week. Name and address for the record. And you will have three minutes. 23 Southwest 6th Street. You know, you may have. Your Social Security number and your bank account number. I was already breached about two months ago as a public record already. Other than that, we don't want any information from you. So I'm going by memory. So don't hold me hostage on this, but you could look it up. I'm pretty certain that I had suggested on the Affordable Housing Board just a couple years ago, this very actual concept of kind of allowing the churches to add housing for affordability because we have an affordable housing issue. I was very happy to see that the state this past year had just changed some of the laws on that. And so from my understanding, I just read them like two weeks ago, but from what I'm understanding, if it's already a CF zoned area and they want to develop whatever in the lot, if it fits within our LDRs, that you don't even need approval for it to get the... We can address it after the comment. So you don't need actually the approval from your zoning. You don't need a variance if you had at least 10% of that property dedicated to workforce housing or like the affordability housing. That's only 10%, which means they can make 90% luxury. Now, the historic portion of it, that was addressed separately, and I believe that they are allowed to do something to the extent of that if... Unless the property itself had been made historical prior to the year 2000. Now, don't get me wrong because I just read it a couple weeks ago, but look up those codes. I mean, I'm willing to bet $100 on it. That's how sure I am. You only have to have 10% for the affordable or the workforce housing, and the rest you don't even need somebody to give you a variance. Just wanted to let's say helping you out in your side. So, right, he's not. But if he rezoned that 10% of it, then he doesn't need the actual, you know... But I'm just saying I don't want to throw... I just wanted to throw that out just to throw it out there so you guys can do your own research on that part. The state kind of made its mandate based on this year's rules. So, anyway, just wanted to throw that out there. Thank you very much. Are there any other members of the public wishing to speak? Is there any discussion? This isn't quasi-dedicial, but I think it's only fair that Mr. Costello be able to respond to that. I'm going to let Mr. Costello speak because it's not a... It was a very conflated piece considering how it worked with a lot of different sections of the code, but yeah. I appreciate it. And good points in the fact of the recent SB 1730. So, this and that applies to religious institutions. So, this is a case where it's a privately owned church or former church, and it's for an adaptive reuse to a single-family residence. That provision applies to religious institutions. This is private. So, that would not apply in this particular case. However, it could apply elsewhere in other locations and already in certain neighborhoods that have churches, historic structures, and so forth. So, I just wanted to clarify that. In this particular case, it only allows an adaptive reuse of an existing historic place of worship. So, nobody can just, like, create a new home that is not in a historic place that was once a historic place of worship. Great. Thank you very much. If I could just add a little bit more, because I was hoping nobody was going to take the $100 bet, because her comments are accurate as part of the 2025 revamp of Live Local. It did open up religious institutions, but, you know, just not a home of a private property, but religious institutions are allowed to incorporate affordable housing on their perimeter under Live Local administrative review, all of that, and only 10% have to be dedicated for affordable. So, that came in with Live Local. We haven't had any of those applications to date come in. This is something different, and this is specifically geared towards a single-family, you know, use within an existing historic building. I know it's very carefully tailored. To the commission, Commissioner Casale. I wanted to speak to Mr. Costello today, but we didn't connect. My fault, so forgive me for that. My concerns about this, and I appreciate that this is happening in areas of the United States, but my biggest concern is that when the application came in front of us previously, it was denied because you couldn't support, there were no findings to support it. Stand by. Ex parte is not required. You're allowed ex parte on public hearings. Yeah, this is not quasi-judicial. Right, it's not quasi-judicial. That's for the only time. No, no, fine, but, you know, when it came before us last time, it was denied because it wasn't supported. There was no justification for the change. The thing that concerns me and the reason why I'm not approving this today is we're taking our comp plan, which is the byproduct of the whole city's work for years to create, and we are amending it specifically to accommodate one applicant, and I don't believe that is in any way appropriate. I would have rather had you all just voted in as it was without the justification than ask the applicant to go and change, make a personal request to change our LDRs, which we shouldn't be accepting those even, and now we're changing these LDRs and the comp plan and the LDRs to accommodate one application, the ramifications of which we don't even know. Sometimes we make these changes, we think we can have an outlook on how it's going to impact the whole city, and oftentimes we are sadly mistaken, and we only realize the consequence of our determination in the aftermath. But what I would say to you is, I said the comp plan was the work of a lot of people, experts, city staff, myself, and this is not something that we should be doing as a comp plan amendment. I think we should have reversed it back and just approved it without the justification, because this policy of saying to an applicant, well, your project isn't supported under our current rules, so what we're going to do is let you go change our rules, our rules. You can privately change our rules, and then you'll be supported. I don't think that we should be doing that. I'm sorry. Commissioner Burns. Yes. So before when this came before us, I actually voted for it without the justification, and I thought that was a better fit for conditional use. However, you have gone, your client has gone and done what this commission asked you to do, so I am in favor of it. Thank you. Okay. I didn't support that at the time. I'm sorry. Commissioner Long, didn't you? I think Deputy Vice Mayor Burns said it perfectly. I supported it the first time. That route made more sense. This commission said do it this way, and you were on board with telling them that, by the way. I think if you watched the video, I was not on board with this at all. I'm mistaken. Either way. Either way, I was supportive then. I'm supportive now. I'm sorry it's taking you so long to get to this point. I'm sorry to your client, because we should be encouraging exactly this type of adaptive reuse here. I mean, looking at those pictures of those churches that people have changed into these properties, and knowing how much your client has probably had spent and is planning to spend on this home and has had to sit on it now for over a year, why aren't we encouraging that here in Delaware Beach? If anywhere should be encouraging that type of thing, it should be here. They're turning an old church, without destroying its historical integrity, into a home so it can be kept as something that benefits the entire community. That's absolutely something we should figure out how to prioritize, not cling to process and find ways to say no. That makes no sense to me. So apologies has taken you and your client this long, but I'm happy we are here now. Thank you. Commissioner Markner. Yeah, I've looked at this. I'm supporting this. I looked at what the other two boards voted, and it was 10 to 1. And I've looked at it. And while I'm empathetic to others on the dais with some of their thoughts, I'm in favor of this. Thank you. I have a couple of questions because I have – I love the adaptive reuse, okay? And I understand the – I mean, I've done step transactions myself when I was on the other side there getting stuff to build to go forward. But my genuine concerns are whether it's ready to be – whether the language is ready to be voted on tonight. And let me tell you where my thoughts are going on this. I understand the history – and I listened to the historic board meeting. They had some very good questions. And everyone loves the concept. I love the concept. What happens if someone is coming forth with a plan to do a residential property, right? The rules, the construction rules and the safety rules and all these different rules are very, very different if it's going to be a residential property. What happens if they say, well, yes, that's fine, but you're going to have to redo the windows. You're going to have to redo this. You're going to have to make substantial modifications to the structure in order for it to comply with the much stricter residential dwelling unit rules, particularly as they relate to having hurricanes. I mean, they have all these different rules. The roofs have got to be different. Everything's got to be different. And I'm just concerned that we haven't covered that type of scenario in the language that's being proposed, because what this is saying is that they can do it, and that's fine if it's an adaptive reuse. But, by the way, if they have to make all these other changes in order to do the residential component, it may require that the building exterior be changed. Right. And that's what I'm trying to avoid because I love the structure. Right. I've seen some of these done. I don't know when they were done. I don't know under what zoning they were done. And I've seen them done up north. They do them a lot up north. They don't have the same windstorm issues. Right. And we have very, very strict window rules and very, very strict rules of how they tie down your roofs and all that. And all I'm concerned about is we haven't covered that in this language because I don't mind. I mean, I think it's a great idea, but I just really want to make sure that the end product, after it's converted to a residential use, is going to look like it looks now before it's the residential use. And that's the issue that I've seen. I don't see covered in the language. That's not because it's – I don't think you can guarantee that, right? So – That's my – if you want to – I'll recognize you later. I'll try and then – So, I mean, unless I'm wrong, unless I'm not seeing this because I'm not seeing that once you're allowed to do residential use and you're saying, fine, you can convert it, that all these other rules are going to come into play that's going to essentially de facto modify what the structure looks like. So, it's more stringent going the other way if you're residential and you shift over to assembly or business. Agreed. But this was not built with the current assembly rules. I'm just saying. Generally, in historic – I mean, this is something that we are looking at when there is no change of use all the time. You know, when you – challenges, the gothic windows are trickier and will have to be special ordered. But I don't think that – there's two ways to go with it. So, the first is that there is not an innate requirement to upgrade the exterior because it's shifting to residential. However, we generally do encourage, you know, some level of hardening of our historic properties. We want them to last for the next hundred years. And that does – and the board is here to make sure that, you know, that those changes are done as well as possible. So, I don't know that shifting to residential is going to require someone to open the walls and start clipping. You can do it, and many of my neighbors are doing it. I happen to live in a district in another city, pulling off the skirt of the bottom, and, like, you hear the tink, tink, tink all day while the studs get married to the silk plate gets screwed into the foundation. So, I think that those upgrades are possible, and there's two ways to go with it. The first is that it's going to be case-by-case, and you have to trust your board to oversee it. And then, if you don't, there are appealables. The second is we don't regulate the interiors. So, there is going to be – and, you know, the Secretary of Standards talks about the use of the property, and there's, you know, those things are going to come into play on a case-by-case basis with that change. The other is to take a position that we have in the West Atlantic Neighborhood Sub-District where the Central Business Code offers a higher percentage of renovation before we trip the entire upgrade, which is something that could be added to this ordinance, which would be that our LDRs aren't forcing you to do it or will let you fix things more. I'm not articulating this really well. Where if you do more than 50% of the value of a structure, you have to bring the whole thing up to code. And I think that's what you're hitting on, right? You're going to do a total reuse of the use. I think we're rubbing against that. And this is why I'm saying I don't think it's ready yet because it doesn't have that language in it. I want to ensure that the structure is going to look the same as it does before they go into their application. Because I think that – and I know this is a tough concept. I've sat on the other side where I've argued that point, you know, whether you've met the 25% or the 50% threshold. I know the point. We could add a provision. It's a historic structure. Mm-hmm. We could add a provision to the LDR that gives a greater allowance of renovation before bringing the entire – before we require the structure to come all the way up to code. We could do that. But it's ultimately – But would that not apply to all your historic structures in Delray Beach? It does. Yeah, that would be bad. So here you are. You have – I'm not sure that's a bad idea either, but – Well, that's the point is it's not incorporated in the CF zone district. I understand. It would be something that you're dealing with the historic preservation requirements. Right. I don't even know where we would put it in this ordinance, Anthea. Yeah. One of them is a rezoning, and the other one is a complaint amendment. So – So, if anything, you would put it in – And I want to help them. I mean, I clearly know it's not going to be a church. So that would – I clearly know it's not going to be the reality as a community facility anymore. I think the historic preservation board, more so than other boards, they actually look more at the design and those types of things that I think you're worried about. So I do think – I saw the passive. I watched it. They did five months. They had good questions, you know. Right. This was not one of them, but they had good questions. The only other thing is, is that because this is privately initiated, I do have some concerns. I mean, it's technically Mr. Costello's draft. Right. So, I think it's – I'm not going to say it's up to you, but I do think that this isn't city initiated. No. And it's – and I respect everybody's opinion on that. And I do believe after working with this and the city staff and working with the code for 30 years, and when we get here, when we adopt the historic preservation regulations in 451, there are ample safeguards in the code as it currently exists. If you want to add more, I would suggest the city initiated, have it put into 451 and not part of this as part of that. Now, the exterior, you specifically said the exterior, any changes currently that the owner would want to do to that structure would need to comply with the Secretary of Interior Standards, the Delray Beach Historic Preservation Design Guidelines, and LDR Section 4.5.1. You can't layer any more – any more layer of review than what you currently have. And to your point, it would be if you're going to do this for one, you really should do it for all your historic structures if that's the case. Do you really want to do it? You had a case of one on Marine Way where you're elevating. There's other requirements when you deal with – I think fortunately in this situation, I don't believe there's a need to even elevate this. So the point is is that you have ample regulations in place for your historic structures. If you want to make them short or allow latitude to not bring them up to a standard, then I'd say put it in 451 and deal with it separately for everybody. Mayor, I think you raised legitimate concerns, but I think as has been stated, those could be addressed separately in a broader, more comprehensive amendment that the city initiated. I frankly think we've wasted enough of Mr. Costello's clients' money and time. I think that we need to move forward on this. We told them – this commission told them to go this route. They did what we asked. What does it look like if we say, meh, still no, and we're trying to hijack his amendment to rewrite our code? That doesn't make sense. They're good concerns, but we need to address those separately. I think we have easily enough to move forward on this. They've jumped through all the hoops we've asked them to do. This is something we should be encouraging. Again, I'm not – I understand the issue. I just get concerned that if someone's going to say, we're the only way we're going to be able to do this if we do that, and we're going to look back saying, well, they have to meet the – this code, so we've got to – but again, I understand the reality of the situation where this is never going to be a church again. And, you know, it probably – I guess it could be a museum of some kind or it could be a – It is. And so currently that's what it's being operated as. If you want to convert it to what would be something more where you're having a larger gathering, you're going to have to meet certain building and fire codes that are greater than a single-family residence. I – listen, I've said my piece, so I – I move the ordinance 825. Second. I guess we call the roll because it's a public – Vice Mayor Long. Yes. Commissioner Cazell. I'm sorry, no. Deputy Vice Mayor Burns. Yes. Mayor Carney. No, because I don't think it's ready. Commissioner Marker. Yes. Motion passed. Great. Thank you. We have one more. Oh, sorry. I move ordinance 725 for approval. Second. Call the roll, please. Commissioner Cazell. No, sorry. Deputy Vice Mayor Burns. Yes. Mayor Carney. No. Commissioner Marker. Yes. Vice Mayor Long. Yes. Motion passed. I'm glad you passed. Thank you. But I'm just – Commissioner, thank you. I pressed my – You encouraged him to do this. This is – And this one issue. Natty. Mayor, can I read 9A and 9B together since they're both related? Please. Would you like to read them together? I would. Okay. Thank you. Why don't you read 9A and 9B together? Thank you, sir. Good idea, ma'am. Huh? Good idea. Ordinance number 22-25, an ordinance of the City Commission of the City of Delray Beach, Florida, amending the Code of Ordinances by amending Title VII Traffic Code, Chapter 71, Parking Regulations, Section 71.023, Limiting Parking Time on Certain Streets, and 71.056, Parking Meter Zones, Installation of Meters to Eliminate the Parking Management Advisory Board, providing a severability clause, authority to codify, and providing an effective date. Ordinance number 23-25, an ordinance of the City Commission of the City of Delray Beach, Florida, amending the land development regulations of the City of Delray Beach Code of Ordinances, Chapter 2, Administrative Provisions, Article 2.4, Development Application Requirements, Section 2.4.11, Relief, Subsection F, in lieu of parking fee requests, to eliminate the Parking Management Advisory Board, providing an effective date, providing a severability clause, authority to codify, and providing an effective date. This is first reading, so there's no presentation. All right. Does anyone want to discuss this, or do we want to motion? I think that first read we just passed. Yes. I figured. Yeah. Motion? Oh, wait. You need to grab that gavel. Oh, good. He's got it. Okay. Motion to approve. 22-25 is first. Thank you. Second. All in favor? Aye. Aye. Motion to approve ordinance number 23-25. Second. Do you need to read it, or did you read them both? I read them both. Thank you. Aye. Aye. Aye. Aye. All right. They both pass. Great job. Boom. Yeah. You're working. Just do it. We're just going to jar it out before I get to it. You're on comments. You should finish this meeting. Move it along. Let's go quick. Comments and inquiries on non-agenda items. City manager. Yes. I actually have one item. Yeah. I'm sorry. I do, too. I actually have a bunch of comments, too. I have a bunch of comments, too. I have a bunch of comments, too, so it was, yeah. Yeah, I know. So it's going to, well, not done, anyway. So my one item pertains to the current steering committee engagement, and frankly, well, I don't have to. Well, you run a fast one. Fast one. Thanks. Thanks. Open to finish. Don't get used to it. So in any event, I've experienced some inquiries and, quite frankly, a little bit of static over the prospect of who shared the function as the steering committee. So Mark, Tom, Kearney, pardon me. You've expressed an interest in that particular role and function, and quite frankly, there has never been consensus on part of the commission to offer guidance and sanction to that effect. It's been discussed. However, I think it would be appropriate if there's an interest on part of the commission that that arrangement had been made. However, working closely with Ref Tellis, since the appointment of the steering committee, there have been some questions and concerns about what path to take in that regard. However, going back a number of weeks ago, communication was offered should any member of the elected body have an interest in engaging with Ref Tellis about any specific thoughts or observations they may have, they had the ability to do so. And I do realize that at least a couple of you all had taken advantage of that particular opportunity. So for that reason, I'm asking for direction and clarity so that we can continue forward, given the fact that the first community engagement exercise is scheduled to take place Friday, November 7th. Nevertheless, there are some other organizational structure that would necessitate others to offer their guidance and support along those lines. That's what I have at this time. So I'm asking for clarity and direction so that we can, in fact, get on with it. Mr. Carney, of course, you fashioned yourself, given some of the experiences you've had in prior years serving in that particular capacity. However, I think it's appropriate that the commission offers what they can to achieve a sense of direction so that we can all be clear. Well, that's fine. I mean, if I may, in May 2024, I was the one who came up with the notion of doing a visionings program because I'd had, as I said, I had chaired the visioning ones in 2020, or the vision 2020, which was done in 2000, actually 2013 was when it was completed, started in 2012. I will say that the person that ran it said it was the best one that they'd have because we stuck to the plan. We stuck to making sure that it was a true visioning process, and I've been pushing it ever since. So, I mean, I'm the one with, I've got the experience here, and it's kind of my vision to do a vision, visioning, whatever. And so that was, you know, so I kind of took the ball and ran with it, and I just, that's That's kind of the issue. So, are we looking to, we're looking for a recommendation for us to chair this thing, right? Well, it doesn't, the Raftelis wants to chair it. Well, I understand. That's the point. We're paying somebody 70. They never chair. I spoke to Raftelis. Okay. I'm glad you spoke to him with that authorization. I did, and that's the concern, and that's why I brought this to Mr. Moore's attention. Well, I was asking a question, and so you're looking for, a consensus on someone to chair, because I think someone from the commission should be there, and the mayor has been the one to keep this thing going. So, I'm in favor of the mayor being the chair, then I don't have to be. It works for me. I'm fine with it. I'm kidding. This is a visioning exercise. It's not a legislative exercise. It's the mayor's baby. If you want to chair it, chair it. I don't want, why, it's not worth arguing about, frankly, in my opinion. That's where I'm at. It's not an argument, but if the organization says, this is typically we run it, we chair it, then, okay, that's very disrespectful, but go ahead, Rob, make your motion. I don't think it's a motion. It's extremely disrespectful. It's a consensus. I don't think we're doing a motion anyway. To do that while I'm speaking is disrespectful. Go ahead, make your motion, Rob. We're not doing motions. This is just a conversation. Oh, we don't need a motion. This is a consensus, so by all means, keep talking. I'd like to be the chair, so there's three. The problem is you called and told her you're going to be the chair. You also told her you wanted to have a meeting with 150 people and do it as a large meeting versus what the person we were paying suggested, which is a bunch of small meetings. You made a number of suggestions. You were doing an administrative job, which you shouldn't be doing, and I brought it to Mr. Moore's, no, you don't understand it. You're not permitted to go around the commission, and you're doing it consistently, and you're planning, you were, because when I asked Mr. Moore, did you know about this? He said, I heard something about it. The woman is saying that she's being directed to speak to you. It's remarkably inappropriate. How do we have these rules of how we govern, following our charter, and how to behave, not follow them, and then look out there and ask all our residents to follow our rules? It's a violation of our charter, and he's facilitating it if he's encouraging them to speak to you individually. I'm not facilitating any such violations at all. That's not what I'm up to. Mr. Moore, you encouraged her to speak to him individually. All elected officials had the ability to engage with her as I've clarified that. After I brought it to your attention. Actually, before that, going back a number of weeks, once we got the committee appointment. We're going down the road of the latest charter violations, because you lied to the city attorney recently. This is a separate issue, but now that you want to roll down this road about having a consensus. We wonder why we can't get businesses to come here when you have accusations like this. It's an accusation. Ask your city attorney. She called me Friday night and asked me, did I give consensus on something? And I said no. Then disagree. You don't have to call them a liar or something. You can disagree. You brought it up. I just said that we all get along. We now have consensus, so let's move on to the next thing. We should agree that the rules are important, and we should agree that we're going to follow them to govern properly. And as I sit up here today, there's no one here that should say the rules are being followed of procedure. Okay. Well, I think we should follow the rules. I'm a rule follower. Thank you. I appreciate that. I still feel that because of the time that the mayor put in, he brought the idea to us that he would be the appropriate person to work alongside the consulting firm to lead this. And I wouldn't disagree, but it should have come to our attention, and we should have been discussing it. Are we doing that now? And instead it goes, no, we didn't. It was predetermined. That's why I brought it to Mr. Moore's attention and why he's bringing it up. And I'm bringing clarity at this time so that we can be clear. So it's clarity, and honestly, I take exception of any insinuations about dishonesty. I don't do that. That's not what I'm up to. I got a phone call on a Friday night asking me if I said something to you and gave you a consensus, which I didn't. And I asked the city attorney to bring you in, and we did a three-way call, so I wouldn't continue on with this path. Nope. I don't do that. That's not what I'm up to at all. So with that... Are you really going to do that? Can I just say the one concern that I have, Mayor, is you're the highest-ranking official in the city of Delray Beach. Yeah. Your opinions have huge weight on whoever you express them to. Yeah. And I worry that when you're doing, you know, what we're calling a visioning exercise or what I would call a strategic planning process in the corporate world, you have to be very careful to not let the CEO's opinion drive what should be a neutral process. As long as you're super, super aware of that... I absolutely agree with you. That's what we did last time, which is why the person said it was the most successful one they had. Because you can't steer. I don't steer. You can't steer. You have to be... I don't... You've got to be Nancy neutral. This is resident-driven. This is a resident process. That's how we did it in 2012 and 13. This is how we did it when Jay Alpert, who is now gone, who was with him when I did it with him originally, back in... That was Visions 2010, so that was probably 2003. I've been around too long. But anyway, it was... That's the way... But you need to know that your statements carry huge weight in this community, particularly with staff. Commission does not weigh in. And with Raftelis. The commission does not weigh in. They don't want to fight you. We do not... It's not... But you're leading the process. Right. I'm not saying no to this. No, I'm saying... I'm just saying you've got to be super cautious. When they did the... When they did the Visions 2020 report, my name was on several different things. I took it all off. Okay. And there was one place that said Tom Carney Chair. Yep. The reason I did is because it wasn't about the commission's view... Okay. ...or staff's view, or the not-for-profits view of what Delray should look like in 2020. Yep. Residents. That is what... It's the residents' view. What do the residents want? Look, it's decided. You're the chair. But going forward, we need to be getting consensus on determinations. That's the bottom line. And we haven't been. We're not. We haven't been. But we need to get consensus on a lot of things. Right. Getting information from department heads on one-on-one instead of the whole commission. So there are a lot of things that we need to make sure that we're getting consensus on. I'm trying better to get to... When I ask questions from here, you're saying, do we have consensus? I don't do that. No, I'm saying, I'm trying... I mean, I understand some of it we let go without getting the thing... And Mr. Moore has chimed in a couple of times, I've noticed in the last couple of months, saying, do we have... I mean, asking for it, because... I'm making a concerted effort, ladies and gentlemen, consistently. I am. And I will. I presume when everybody talks... To help alleviate any concerns and misgivings, which is what my effort is right now. So for any inconveniences, real or perceived, much apologies. Nevertheless, we have our path forward. So in terms of this particular subject, Raph Tellis will be advised accordingly, and all can go from there. Okay. Now, which commissioner would like to go first with commissioner comments? Okay. You can't go first. Wait a minute, but... No, no, no. No, do you have a commissioner? I didn't know you had any. Absolutely. Go ahead. Please. Ladies first. Yeah. Well, yes. So I went to the league meeting, you know, each month, and I try to make as many as I can. But, you know, we have a presentation by someone. So this last presentation was by the public defender's office, which I was very happy to hear from and, you know, to hear information. Some of the highlights were that they handle over 30,000 cases per year, and the high majority of their cases are low-level crimes. And they are developing a program so that they can divert individuals to appropriate services rather than incarceration, because a lot of it is mental illness, drug use, that kind of thing. So I was really happy to hear that, that they are aware that, you know, that drug addiction is not a crime, that mental illness is not a crime. And so they're going to look to mitigate these numbers, high numbers of arrests. That was one of the things. And then also we have to have our ethics training annually. There's an ethics training on October 31st. If you're interested in attending, you can register with the league. It's going to be at the casino in Lake Worth, 8 o'clock in the morning. Ethics training in a casino. Ethics training in a casino. Whereabouts does it make sense? Well, I haven't seen any slot machines. I also attended the CLT end of the year meeting, and we were awarded, the City of Delray was awarded. Ms. Duff's not here. We received an award. Honoring the City of Delray Beach in recognition of 20 years of dedicated support and partnership. I don't think so. But anyway, this is our award that we received from the CLT, Community Land Trust. That's beautiful. Yeah, it is. You broke it. No, I didn't. You broke it. It's gloomy. It's coming out of your pay. Fix it. Okay. What else did I have on my list? Oh, yeah. So, speaking of civics and schools, I attended, well, not attended, I facilitated a meeting to some fifth graders at Village Academy. We talked about a role of a city commission. So, they got their civics class from Mrs. Burns, retired educator, which was a lot of fun. And the kids were very engaged and had lots of questions for me. And they will be, they're preparing to come to the city commission to talk and ask some questions of the commission. I also talked to Mr. Moore concerning an idea that I was talking to one of our nonprofit owners, and we were discussing the schools and some of the, actually, we were at the Pine Grove dedication of their new building. And so, I would like to share an idea that I believe could strengthen our partnership with the schools. You know, there's lots of talk about the schools and needing to be improved. And, you know, we have concerns about our performance in our schools. But there are a lot of great things going on in our schools, but we never hear about them. The teachers are doing it all. They're counselors. They're social workers. They're having to be surrogate parents. They're being miracle workers. And I know, because I've been there. So, and then also, while, you know, expecting to deliver perfect test scores and A rating, so I would like to suggest that we add an education spotlight to our commission meetings at the beginning, maybe 10 minutes, so we can invite principals or their day to come in to come in to share with us some great things that are happening in the schools. I know that, you know, we have teachers of the year here in our city, we have students that are doing great things, but we only hear and we harp on the, you know, the negative things or the things that they're not doing. And so I would like to, you know, suggest that we do that. We add, like, spotlight on education and that they can just come in and give us a 10-minute presentation on what's great going on in their schools. And I just think that we'll strengthen the relationship that we have with our schools and let them know that we actually care about what's going on. And so, you know, and we need not fool ourselves that there is money to be made in failing schools. So, you know, the new charters, new curriculums, higher test scores. So let's just, like, let's spotlight our schools. And so if we can get a consensus to add that to our meetings and invite them. Okay, thank you. And last but not least, National Night Out was a great event. Thank you, Chief, for that. That was a great one. Lots of compliments on that one. And the Duke of Del Rey, I attended one of their events also. And then I had a birthday on Sunday, so I'm a year older. Happy birthday. Happy belated. Thank you so much. Good job. All right, I'm done. Commissioner, you're welcome. Okay, let me rub one. All right, so I apologize. I kind of have a lot here. I thought this was going to be done earlier. So strap in. Listen, after, like, what, three or four meetings, I'm only going to be able to speak in, like, three-minute increments that you're going to be able to listen to me. You're going to have to, you know, soak it up now while you can. All right, so these are some, a couple heavy things. Bear with me. I'm going to sprint through it. So since I only have, I thought three meetings up, I guess four, because it seems like we do have a December meeting. I wasn't. December 1st. December 1st. So I have four meetings left. You're the 8th of December? When is your resignation? So I got one more meeting for October, two for November, and then apparently one for December. I didn't realize that it was the first. There are special meetings in between. Let's do some. Yeah, let's do some. Let's just do a bunch of workshops. All right, so since I only have apparently four left, I'd like to pitch a couple house cleaning style things that I believe would help achieve more long-term stability for the city, which we referenced earlier. I might be leaving this day as soon, but I'm not going anywhere. I'll still hopefully be representing Delray Beach, and I want all of you, I want the city to continue to be successful. So my first proposal is actually a charter amendment that would go on next year's ballot, potentially. It's obviously going to be running down. Sorry, guys. No, no, no. That's fine. Now, this amendment would be that we allow our residents to decide if Delray Beach should return to a supermajority, meaning four votes, to remove our three charter officers, which would be a city manager, a city attorney, and city auditor, instead of the simple three-vote majority that we've had for the last roughly decade. Specifically, I'm asking for a consensus to direct staff to draft a charter amendment for the next election, which is March of 2026. And I spoke with Lynn about this, and apparently there is still time to get this done before the cutoff, so it could be done before March. When is the cutoff? I think it's in December, if I'm not mistaken. So why? Why look at this? Delray Beach ran for many years with a supermajority removal standard, and we enjoyed organizational stability under that structure. I think it was around 2012, 2014 timeframe that the charter rules shifted toward a simple majority removal. And we kind of know it followed, that there's a lot of churn at the top and difficulty finding qualified replacements. That revolving door hurt continuity, morale, recruiting, and public trust, all things that I think we referred to earlier in terms of things that could impact our business environment here. And just a supermajority doesn't block accountability of our chartered officers, by the way. It just forces a broader consensus before we destabilize the organization. So this isn't anything new. Our neighbors in Boynton Beach and many other cities require a 4-1 supermajority. We used to. This higher threshold is a recognized governance tool for stability. Delray Beach once had this higher bar to reduce politicized churn and signal stability to employees, applicants, and investors in our city. So my pitch is that we give our voters the opportunity to make that choice again. We're not making the final call. It's just up to the voters. So our history is the strongest lesson here. Delray was steadier under the supermajority. And the simple majority era coincides with some of the instability that the residents, you know, remember in the forefront of their mind right now. I'm sure I won't get unanimous agreement on this. But it's important to remember this isn't about protecting current staff. This proposal does not shield any individual. Charter officers will still serve at the pleasure of the commission. If there's a real documented cause for removal, four votes should be achievable. This does make leadership less vulnerable to political wins. And if a change is necessary, it improves our hiring. Top tier candidates are far more likely to apply when removal requires a broad consensus. Keep in mind, all I'm asking for is for a draft to then put this on the ballot. We're not making the final call here. It will ultimately be decided by our residents. If they don't want to return to supermajority standard for removal, then it won't happen. So join me in directing staff. I asked for consensus to direct staff to craft neutral ballot language, restoring a four-vote supermajority for removing manager, attorney, and auditor. Delray ran best when removing a charter, took a consensus, not a faction. Let's restore that stability and let the voters decide. So that's my pitch. Okay. Do you want to do it on what you're asking for? A consensus to direct staff to draft. I would need to think about this. I'm not making a consensus on something. This importance and magnitude at this time of night after this meeting, especially how I'm feeling in this moment, I think we could park it for another conversation in the future if you'd like. What kind of time do we have? It's kind of time sensitive. It said until December. I believe it was December, right? But you have to draft the language. You don't have to approve the language. It takes a more robust conversation. This is just to start the draft process. Then we have time to see the draft, make changes, tweak it. The longer we hold off on the conversation, the less time we'll actually have to tweak whatever draft comes before us. Mayor, can I make a point of order? I'm sorry, yes, please. It's an ordinance, so it would have to have two readings before the commission. And then once you approve it, if you approve it on second reading, then it would go. So we really don't have a lot of time. We'd have to have special meetings. No, I don't think so. I mean, honestly, the draft would be done by the end of the week. It's not complicated. It's really just one line, removing three and adding four for affirmative votes to remove somebody. So the only thing I would say is only the manager had a supermajority. City attorney didn't. And internal auditor, when that position was created by the referendum, that didn't have it either. So if you wanted to just make it simple, we could just do the manager. If you were going to revert, I want to revert to what it was before. I don't want to add respectfully to other officers that weren't included in it. So I think I would want that the commission to have a broader power, so to speak, over who their lawyer is. Because that's really what you're saying. I mean, I think so a majority should have that. And I feel the same about the auditor. I think that you would want to be able to have your city manager is different. Sure. That's a much more political position. Back in 2012, when we were having the elections for 2013, we had a charter review committee that came up with a lot of suggestions. This was one of them. It was not approved at that time. The following year, they did it and put it on the ballot and got rid of the then city manager. And I think if somebody does something bad enough, you get the four votes. But it does take the whimsical aspect of, you know, like if you have a change in three votes on a commission, theoretically, they could come in and say, well, I don't like the city manager. You know, I haven't seen us do that. But, I mean, theoretically, it's possible. So I don't know what the risk or danger is to make it a supermajority. That's what it's always been. And most of the other cities have it because you don't want your CEO worried about head counting when you want him to be able to make it. I would agree with that. I don't like him worried about head counting. That's why I feel like we have all the problems we have up here. So, but anyway, so that's, I mean, my consensus, but my view would be draft the language. So we'll have a chance to look at it, improve it, tweak it, say no, you know. But I don't want to lose, if you say that we really have to have it with two meetings to approve. Then we don't really have a lot of time. I would put it on the November 4th for first reading. And then November, what's the next one, Terrence? The 18th. The 18th. And that gives you plenty of time. And I think we put it, we make sure we schedule time on the 4th so that we can debate it. And if you want to have a special meeting beforehand to discuss it, we're shocked to discuss it, we can do that too. Let's throw 20 minutes and just plan on it. I think it's healthy. When you see the change, it's really just striking the 3 and making a 4th. I think that's what they did. That's really, that's what they did when they changed it. I mean, as I said, I feel different about the city. I mean, there's not that much to it. If I want to fire my lawyer, I want to be able to fire my lawyer. I'm just saying. Well, if you're doing it for one, you should do it for all. I think that's fair. I just wanted to be clear that it was not, it was never in the books. I think if you're looking at doing it for one, you should look at doing it for all. That makes no sense to just do it for one. It's never, it's never been the other. It doesn't matter what it's been. It's what you're doing going forward. You may talk. I just, I might just like to wake my turn. So, Mr. Market would be quiet, then you can talk. Okay, Mr. Market, are you done? I'm just, I am in favor of the draft. I've heard lots of conversation over the last year and a half throughout the community. I think the community and residents would be very interested in being, you know, having the say in choosing whether we go back to a supermajority. So, I'm in favor of getting the draft started. Are you in favor for Mr. Moore or all three? All of everybody, I am. I mean. I'm not opposed to everybody, but if you want to just put it back to the way it was, I mean, maybe that's going to be the discussion. I'm open on that. What's the difference in having them all or not? Yeah, I mean. I just think that you, having supermajorities to fire your attorney is. I wouldn't put that to the public. I think that's my fear, is that if we put all three to the public, then the city manager part might not get approved by the public because of the other two. Oh, I disagree. But I don't care. That's my fear now. I'll do it. I gave my view. I think we draft it for all three, and then if we want to pare it back during conversation, we change it. That's fine. Does that work for everyone? That's fine. That's fine. Is there a consensus for that? I don't think anybody should get fired willy-nilly, and I think that they need to do something bad enough to get discharged. Yeah. Agreed. Okay. Awesome. Sure. This is a very tough conversation, but yes, we'll have that draft for you. All right. So you've got consensus, right, everybody? We let that work. We've got consensus. We're going to move forward, so we're going to create language, but we're not agreeing to the change. We're just agreeing to review the language. That's fine. All right. So I don't think I need consensus on these other two. These are easy ones. These are just like PSAs. So this is more of a public service announcement. So I recently met with some of our local Haitian community leaders representing Florida Rising, all of whom you guys all probably know, a statewide, they're Florida Rising is a statewide civic group that organizes with black and brown communities on voter education and neighborhood issues. So we discussed the current enforcement climate and anxiety it's creating for local families. In that context, they shared a one-page Know Your Rights flyer from the Immigrant Legal Resource Center that lists five basic constitutional reminders for anyone confronted. by immigration officers. The flyer is neutral, informational, and available in multiple languages. I have confirmed with our city attorney that community groups may post this flyer on city community bulletin boards, like here at City Hall or the Community Center or Pompeii Park, et cetera, and it will not be taken down. I'm noting this publicly so residents know these resources exist and can find them once posted. This is a simple public service step, allowing advocacy groups to share accurate information about constitutional rights that apply to everyone, regardless of immigration status. This is for awareness only. Federal and state partners have conducted large, well-publicized enforcement actions in Florida this year, which helps explain why many residents are asking for clear rights-based information. Again, this is not about policy positions tonight. It's about making sure people in our city can easily find reliable, nonpartisan resources. So again, this is just letting folks know that these bulletins will be put up. That's all. Okay. Moving right along. So we're going to ask you, that's not consensus yet, so. No, it's not something that we need consensus for. They're allowed to post it. I'm just letting folks know that the individuals will be posting it. Okay, that's fine. Yeah. That's a federal law. Correct. Right. Correct. I just want, I'm just, it's an announcement so folks know where they can go find those resources. Gotcha. And that the groups who want to place them know that they won't be taken down if they put them up. I can't find anything on our website anyway. All right. So last thing. Um, so another heavy topic, I guess. So I've raised, uh, the issue up here of, uh, anti-Semitism from this dais, um, before in the context of strengthening our local decorum rules. Um, I also wrote about this in an op-ed in the Palm Beach Post earlier this year. Um, so a couple of weeks ago in that vein, I met with, um, the Jewish Federation of South Palm Beach County, specifically their VP of public affairs, Brandy Edelson and CEO Igor Alterman. To discuss ways that we, the city of Florida Beach can work with the Jewish community. And we ended up, uh, discussing, uh, the International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance as the IRHA's working definition of anti-Semitism, which is the widely used non-legal definition that helps governments and institutions recognize anti-Semitism consistently while protecting lawful speech. So after that conversation, I, I circled with Linda to check our status. Um, and it turns out that the commission adopted the IHRA definition back in 2022. And so I just want to reaffirm that tonight. Um, our role here is keeping residents safe, upholding decorum, and responding swiftly to hate in our community. We also stand against all forms of bigotry and harassment. So, um, the reason I bring this up is because today, uh, the Federation CEO, CEO, Ego Alterman, sent a very timely letter to our community. And so with the commission's consent, I'd just like to briefly read another record. It's short. So, uh, dear mayor and honorable members of the Dower Beach Commission, more than two years ago, our community and the entire Jewish world was forever changed. Since that dark October 7th morning, we have carried the weight of loss, the fear of our brothers and sisters held in captivity, and the ongoing rise of anti-Semitism. Today, we stand together in a moment of profound relief. The return of the remaining living hostages yesterday marks the end of one of the most painful chapters in modern Jewish history. Families have been reunited, prayers have been answered, and hope has been renewed. Yet, even as we celebrate this long-awaited homecoming, we honor the courage of those who endured captivity with strength beyond measure and remember those who did not return. Their memory strengthens our resolve to ensure the safety and resilience of the Jewish people here in South Palm Beach County, in Israel, and around the world. On behalf of the Jewish Federation of South Palm Beach County, we express our deepest gratitude to the city of Delray Beach for standing firm with our community. Your visible support and partnership have been a force of comfort. In moments of darkness, you reminded us that we are not alone and that this city stands with its Jewish residents. May the days ahead bring joy, renewal, unity, and healing to unite our entire community with appreciation. Igor Alterman, President and Chief Executive Officer of the Jewish Federation of South Palm Beach County. So, anyway, I really appreciated that gesture from him, and so I thought it was worth reading. That's all I got. Thanks for bearing with me. That's it. Hello. Mr. Markner. I'll be quick. I plan on being a little longer, but I'm recognizing it's almost midnight now. My son wrote me twice. He's hungry. I'm hungry. Look at Gary Ferrari. Does that guy look hungry? He's dying over there. I know. I know. But I'll be very quick. I promise. I'm, like, right now, 18 months into my commission tenure, and I thought it would be a nice time to have a quick check-in with everybody and let you know sort of some of the things I've seen and not seen and some of the things that I think we're working on that I do think it lost in the community sometimes because the list is long. I'm proud of the work that we're doing up here. Absolutely, yes. Sometimes up here we disagree. And we don't have a choice in that. Because of the Sunshine Laws, we can't get together privately and have discussions and get things out of the way. In the corporate world, you would never go into a board meeting with your management team misaligned. Wouldn't happen. But because of the laws, we can't do that ahead of time. So sometimes when you see squabbles up here, it's just because we couldn't do it privately, and there's nothing we can do about that. But here's what's going on on my list. We talked about the golf course tonight. That started, God, way before my time. But we've moved heaven and earth, and we've got that going. The money's been appropriated. We've got a plan in place. I couldn't be happier. We own two golf courses. Most people don't know that. This is one of them. The course is in really bad shape. And for the golfers going forward, this course is going to be world class. And by the way, with the bond, the way it's written, if you don't play golf, you're not paying for it. That's right. It's only getting paid for by the golfers, which I think is the fairest way that we could ever do it. So I'm thrilled about the golf course. Second, the new water treatment plan. We need one. There's not a person I've talked to in Delray who hasn't said we need a new water treatment plan. You know, the bond is out there. It's being done. Again, if you don't use the water, you're not going to be paying for the new water treatment plan. I hope you use the water, though. That would be bad. But I'm thrilled. That came up about two years ago. It's been sitting on the docket for a long time. We fought tooth and arm wrestling matches about that. But we got it done, and that's moving forward. Delray should be really pleased about that. Third thing, how many of you know we own a cemetery? I didn't. I had no idea we owned a cemetery. But we do. Okay? You're not checking in. No. Well, you've got to be ready. You've got to be ready. But we own a cemetery. That's the good news. The bad news is it's full. It's full. And this is a problem for us. We don't have any more land, and we're looking at solutions. Right now, what we're looking at are mausoleums. And that's a good solution for some religions. It's not great for all religions. And so we're trying to find the very best solution that we can from a cemetery point of view. We talked tonight about the school systems. Normally, this group wouldn't get that involved in school systems. But we're concerned about school systems. And you may ask why. Well, if you want your property values to go up, make your schools better. Make your schools better. And we want our kids to do better. And some of those scores that the gentleman showed tonight, they're terrible. I went up to West Palm and met with them, and we can't be proud of that. Our kids deserve better, and we're going to do better. Fifth thing, Pompeii Park. If you don't know about that, thank God the CRA is pouring a ton of money into Pompeii Park. And if you haven't seen the plans, go look at it. That is going to be a magnificent facility for a city of our size. And it's all underway right now. And it's spectacular. Baseball fields, a wonderful gymnasium for basketball. I mean, it's going to be fantastic. Number six on my list, have you heard about the Real Time Crime Center? That gentleman and I lived together for a while getting this done. We got a million-dollar grant from the state of Florida. And our police department, they got a little bit maligned tonight by a couple of residents. We have a real-time crime center in Delray Beach. You go in, and there's a room with monitors all over the place that are being watched 24-7. We got cameras all over the city. That's an early detection system for our officers to see crime and get to it before it happens. But, hey, if we miss the crime, we can find the suspects going down the street, and we can alert them where to catch them. Most hamlets of our size don't have a facility like that. We're damn lucky. And so we are a safe city. And I love our police department, and I love the fact that they've embraced technology. It's fantastic. Seventh thing on my list, noise on Atlantic Avenue. That's come up many, many, many times. It has gotten pushed back on the agenda a little bit. It does need to get pushed forward. I know when Chief Major was here, we were talking about trying to find some technology solutions so we could figure out how to better measure the decibel levels of the noise. And it is a concern with our, Laura would know, with our restaurants downtown. We hear it a lot. It's still on our agenda. It has not been forgotten. And, again, we're all on top of that. Gosh, we talked about parking. I'm not going to go there. We got more work to do there. There's little doubt about that, unfortunately. The ninth thing on my list is the West Atlantic Redevelopment Program. I've attended all the meetings. Angela's led a lot of them. It's been great. We've had a lot of input from our residents, what they want, what they don't want. You know, we're now going forward trying to figure out what we can actually get on West Atlantic that meets what the town wants and what the residents want. But it's all in play. Came up tonight, the Crest Theater. It's still dark. Still dark. Not happy about that. We've got to figure out a way to turn the lights on there. There's a lot of debate, I think, that has to happen about that. But it's important to me that we get that theater open as quick as we can. And we've got the rest of the campus open. Again, when we all sort of got here, everything was dark. And everything's working now, really, except for the Crest Theater. So it's the last piece that we've got to get over the goal line. And we will. And then the 11th thing on my list, and then I'll shut up. Well, no, I won't. I got one more thing. Affordable housing. That's a really tough one. We've been grappling with it up here. Unfortunately, we don't have a lot of dirt, meaning we can't build a lot of affordable housing. So as much as I wish we could move faster on that one, guys, we can't. Because we're just limited by what we have. And then if you want to talk about the future, you know, what are the things that are on the list for the next 18 months? Our police department station on Atlantic is tired, and it's old, and it needs to be replaced. Any of us that have been there, if you haven't taken a tour, take a tour. Our police department's doing great with what they have, but the facility's run down. It's tired. It needs a redo. And, Mr. Marker, you all recently approved the necessary design services to get that squared away, possible as a result of the March 2023 referendum general obligation bond approval. Which is great. You're even better than me. Same with our fire station. That's part of that as well. And I'm thrilled about that. We have several fire station substations that also need some remodeling over time. We just got done with station 113. Brand new. On Linton. If you haven't taken a tour of it, I was there for the grand opening. It's fabulous. And I'll tell you the coolest thing. When you watch 911 on TV, you see all the poor firemen and women. They all sleep in, like, one room. I can't think of anything horrible-er. Is that a word? Horrible-er. No, horrible-er. More horrible. I think you made that one up. Did I make that one up? It's horrible-er. But now, with the new station, each of the officers has their own little room with a door. It's cool. I mean, when I talk to Chief Martin about it, it's raised satisfaction so much higher. And that's just so great. And then last but not least, and then I'll shut up, City Hall. It looks great on the outside. When people drive by, they're like, God, the building's beautiful. It looks terrific. Walk around. Our building is getting tired. You know, it is. And, you know, we're dealing with an aging infrastructure here. And what I don't want to do, and I don't think any of my friends up here want to do, I don't want to be the commissioner that pushes things down to the next commission. I don't want to do that. That's not fair. It's not what our residents deserve. We have to deal with these things. So I probably missed one or two. But this is kind of my list of where we are. And, damn it, I think people should be proud of what we've gotten done. And I know we squabble up here, and I hear about it, but it's nothing personal up here. We're just trying to arm wrestle to get to the right place for our residents. So, you know, it bothers me sometimes when people come up. I mean, I love it when they come up, but sometimes they're not informed. And I just wanted to take a minute tonight to put this out there to just say, this is all the things that everybody up here is working on. And I'm super proud of where we are and where we're going. And we're going to get it done. I give you my word. Thank you. Commissioner Casale. You went, right? Yes. Thanks. That was a great update. I appreciate that. I think everybody did. Do Good Del Rey, the chamber, has had this event going on all month, almost every day. Outstanding events sponsored by a for-profit to benefit a nonprofit. They're paired together appropriately, so the event's location is essentially beneficial. We just did the Silver Ball Museum for Atlantic High. There was the Elks Club had, for Cross Ministries, we did karaoke. It's been really fun. It's for a great cause. The tickets are relatively inexpensive considering what you get. And if you can go out and show your support for the chamber, for our nonprofits, and for our for-profits, you'll have a great time. I was wanting, you know, we talked earlier on in the meeting, and I know some people are concerned about is a charter school a good idea or not. But I would like us to have the presentation by Barbara Stark to just show us what our possibilities are. Because my understanding is that South Tech is ready to go in Del Rey, and they have a very proven tech record of success. They are a public, not a private charter school. And if you go online and look, they pay their teachers better than the public schools can afford to. They have better benefits. So there are other factors that relate to it that would benefit the city. And all I'm asking for is a 20-minute presentation. We should absolutely look at them. Thanks. Why would we not? That's our job. So if we could ask her to come in here and do a presentation. Barbara Stark from Milagro. Thank you, Mr. Moore. And South Tech together to talk about this possibility at Carver. Do we have a third, Ms. Burns? Is there a third consensus? Oh, no, it's on my list, too. South Tech is on my list because I wanted to do the resource center. And short of getting that done, we need to create some vehicle here for kids to do it. Thank you so much. I really appreciate that. And what are they going to do? They're just going to do a presentation for us about what they think they could do for our city. And it's called a public charter school? It's a public charter school. It's South Tech. There's South Tech Academy and South Tech Prep. Yeah, I've gone to training. They've got the – highly accredited. Run with a chief. I think that's – chief, is that next Saturday? Not this coming Saturday, but the following at Catherine Strong Park. I'll be there. You know it. Is this you're running with the chief again? Yeah, I love it. It's so much fun. Although I kind of walk – Did I drive by? Sometimes I only run halfway. Drive by the chief. I'm on that one. I'm on the way to breakfast. Super quick. Julie refers it to – Julie referred to it as lapping the chief. I will drive by. We'll wait. Just saying. Lapping the chief event. I mean – Tomorrow, October 15th, 10 to noon at the community center, complimentary screening for seniors, balance and exercise, medication safety, loss of function, hearing and vision, caregiver support, et cetera. So if there's anybody out there who's a senior and not sleeping, feel free to attend. Also, I was at a meeting and I was reminded about the Delray Beach Fire Rescue Program that they have, the Vital Life Program, Yellow Dot and Smoke Detector and the Lockbox, which is exciting. So communities that aren't familiar with this should call the fire department and get a presentation. Someone else talked about the public safety on October 18th, so I don't need to say that. Silver Ball, Missy, the woman from Silver Ball came up and talked about that corporate event. I don't – she didn't mention the time, but if there's a way we could accommodate her by having her park her buses over here at City Hall, maybe that would be something we could offer because I can see where it would be difficult for a bus to, you know, park, and also the cost is prohibitive. So I don't know anything. I just heard her come up and make her presentation, and I think out of the gate she was concerned about, I'm not sure if maybe I think I have her number. What I can do is text you her number or Laura has her number, and maybe we can figure out if we can try and help her so that they can have that corporate event because you do like to see your local businesses making money. And then lastly, I want to say to Mr. Moore, I'm sorry, I was not going to bring that discussion up at all. I was going to leave that between the three of us as it transpired and I felt. But when I'm up here and you bring up Raftelis and I say to you my conversation with them and you say that didn't happen, you're challenging my credibility, and I do not appreciate that. I don't ask you ever to do anything individually for me as a commissioner, and all I've ever asked you is to just follow our rules of procedure and get a consensus. And again, that is two examples since your evaluation and our sit-down meeting with HR where this has happened. And this conversation, I'm going to bring it up now because it came up and it's uncomfortable, and I'm sorry I even brought it up, but I don't like you implying that what I'm saying is not accurate. The city is considering re-implementing a taxing district that could impose a two-mil tax on residents on Atlantic Avenue from Swinton to the highway, two blocks off. Those are probably some of the least capable of paying that tax. Yet, you were putting that on an agenda based on the fact that I agreed to it, along with every one of my colleagues. Yes, that was the conversation. And I said, I did not agree to that. And it came up in happenstance because the city attorney well knows what I am typically agreeing to and not. She said, wow, I just find it surprising that you would agree to that. And I said, I didn't. So we buzzed you into a three-way call, and you explained that you had not, in fact, gotten my consensus. And I said, why would you then say you had? You also indicated you had everyone else's, but then circled back and said you had only spoken to Ms. Burns about it. It's remarkably inappropriate and that it came out at Burning Conversations. And here's the problem. Ms. Burns is entitled to talk to you about whatever she thinks or wants in the city. But for her to go beyond that, you're supposed to talk to me and everybody else. You're not supposed to just put it on an agenda. And that's what you're doing. You've done this in numerous instances, and I've put it in my evaluation over and over again. And I just can't emphasize enough to you, it creates a problem. If Ms. Burns has a great idea and she wants you to put it on the agenda, just come to me and ask. And if I agree and you get three, it goes on the agenda. If I don't agree and you don't get three, then you say to Ms. Burns, I don't have consensus. Or Ms. Burns, bring it up yourself. But to say that I would agree to something and everyone else agreed to it and be putting it on the agenda, not appropriate at all. And that is a charter violation of Section 4.0.4 A4. And this was not an item that Mrs. Burns asked to be on the agenda. Well, you should talk to Mr. Moore about that. He indicated that he had a sit-down conversation with you. That is what he said. But this item was an item that was brought to the City Commission's attention by Ms. Pryor. Correct. And we said that we were told at that time that there was a deadline and we said that there would be community meetings about it. She was doing a survey about it. So, yes, I've had conversations. He indicated that he had a consensus from everybody that we wanted to move forward. No, no. Mr. Mayor, may I speak, please? I need to clarify this. Does the City Attorney want to – because we were in this conversation. I'd like to clarify first. I was referring to the August 19th City Commission meeting presentation. I know when it happened on August 19th and I went back and watched the meeting. There was a robust presentation in which we talked about the direction from the commission was to seek community input. After the August 19th presentation, we talked about the circa November 25th, 2025 timeline to update the state of Florida as to what the interests and desires were on part of the City of Delray Beach. So we made a commitment during the August 19th meeting to come back before the commission October 21st. And, of course, working with everybody, the question came up during our last executive leadership team meeting about the prospect of visiting with individual elected officials. And I said, we've initiated dialogue. You told her you had talked to everybody and you had a consensus. That was a misunderstanding, if anything. I was on the phone when you confirmed that you had said that. But it was happenstance. It came at me quickly. I can't even believe you want to keep on having this same conversation. It's really simple. It is really simple. We vote for direction. August 21st was to commit to come back. I made the decision, since that we have individual discussions, to offer a sense as to what the input is at this particular point in time. We are not in position to make any specific recommendations whatsoever because, of course, there's numerous steps that the city must take. Do you agree that in our phone conversation you said that you had consensus from me and everybody? No, I don't believe I said I had consensus from everybody. Okay, City Attorney, would you mind? You were on the phone. Well, I misspoke then. I apologize for the inconvenience. I don't think that's what I was up to. I'm following what we talked about August 19th. We talked August 19th about that, and, of course, you asked during the team meeting as to did we begin conversations in that, and I said, yeah, beginning conversations. You said you had conversations with everyone. I did not complete conversations with everybody because I've actually started. Well, I'm clarifying right now for the record. It's a little thing, right, and I shouldn't, but you know what the problem is? It's every conversation. You have to walk away asking, how much research do I have to do to figure out if that's accurate or not? If you say that something is on the agenda because people want it, then I find out they didn't want it, and it's on there, like Palm Health, which miraculously appeared on our agenda multiple times, and nobody wanted it. And over and over and over again, Mr. Moore, we have to come to a place where we can just agree that for things to be moving forward, and we're talking about expending taxpayer time and taxpayer money, you've got to get a consensus. You can't pretend you have a consensus. The city manager does not need any consensus to put anything on the agenda. It is the city manager's agenda. That is the law. He's looking to move forward to revive a taxing district from Swinton. He shouldn't say he has a consensus if he didn't get one. The consensus was for an October 21st follow-up presentation regarding community input. That's what I'm working to accomplish. The city manager does not need consensus to do that. I take over to that myself. He shouldn't be saying I have consensus from six people. That's not what I'm getting at. I was referring to the August 19th direction for community input. We have no recommendations. I am meeting with everybody individually to share what the current landscape is regarding input, just to be clear. So I apologize for any misunderstandings of misgivings that may have been experienced along the way. However, August 19th. You represented to your entire staff something that was inaccurate. No, I did not. You can't be representing. That's not what I'm saying. Lynn Jelen will confirm it. You can't represent to your staff inaccurate information. People cannot work with inaccurate information. And I'm clarifying accordingly. That's not what I'm up to. Not me and not anybody else. Respectfully, you've said it six times. You've got it for three. I know, but if he's going to keep debating it, then I'm going to keep saying it. Fine, you don't need a consensus, but whatever you want to put on the agenda, it's unfortunately or fortunately, it's called the city manager's agenda. I have a limited input, and otherwise you need three commissioners to have you put something. That, I understand, is what the code says. Am I – is that incorrect? The local rules. Huh? The local rules. And I will say this. Our rules do allow that. And that's not what happened in this case. I just want to be clear. It didn't come from Commissioner Burns. Thank you. But Mr. Moore did mention in the meeting when you said, why do you – where did this originate? He said his community outreach was through – and that, I felt, was inappropriate because it should be a citywide effort not using – Burning Conversations just as one tool. But it didn't come from Commissioner Burns. He blamed you. So just to be clear. But our local rules do allow each commissioner who has a specific interest to put something on the agenda that you wish to have considered at a later point in time. Right, but we have a process to do that, which is bringing it up, getting a consensus. He's not involved. Exactly. And if the mayor wants to promote something, Commissioner Burns wants to promote something, you can put something on the agenda. We make an agenda cover memo for you, and then you can present it. And that way, there's a line of demarcation, so you clearly know something that Vice Mayor Long wants to push forward and get consensus for versus what's on the city manager's agenda. City attorney, if I may, this isn't about the agenda or even consensus. It's about the fact that you were given inaccurate information. Is that correct or incorrect? I was. Did we not have that conversation? I do feel we rectified it, and I do feel that Mr. Moore, based on our conversation, we met with Renee, and we all had a meeting, and I do feel that now he understands that what was said at the August 19th meeting wasn't necessarily what was going to be on a future agenda, and that he did need to discuss it with each of you individually in a more complex manner after he completed all of the community outreach that he advised the commission that he was going to do. Thank you. Okay. Anything else? Thank you for clearing that up. No, thank you. No, I wanted to be very close. I got four little things and five charter amendments. First of all, I wanted to correct Mr. Markert here, who said if you don't play golf, you still have to pay. I think that the way I play golf, people say I don't really play golf, so I shouldn't have to pay anything. That's my own thing. Secondly, at that meeting that the city manager and I and Lynn Jelen had eight months ago, when that guy came in to talk about, I talked about you when you were out. Excellent. We never, nobody ever questioned his education, we highlighted the education of the people that disagreed with him, but at no point did anybody say, you don't know what you're talking about, he's got his degree, that's fine, he took the course, that was fine. All the other experts disagree with his, but we disagree with his conclusion. I did not disagree or ever comment on the guy's education. I never do that because I just, I just don't do that. You've got my South Tech thing, and I think that, I'm going to disagree with Mr. Ferguson on this. While I understand that, there's a turf floor, I understand it, but the reality is, you know, I'm glad we're going to have, I'm glad we're going to have this presentation because we need it desperately in this city. We need to have kids going to some facility locally where they don't have to go down in South County or North County, wherever else they want to go, where they can get a certification that they can work on a car, where they can work on an HVAC unit, where they can work on these things. There are real jobs out here for these people, and they're well paid. So we talk about trying to create jobs. These are the kind of jobs which everybody says they can't get people for. So let's fill the need by getting it done. I think it's a great idea. As I said, I wanted the resource center. If you can't get that, South Tech's my next best bet on that. Have you public notice that meeting? I'll get you the date and time so that anyone who wants to tour can do it together. I didn't know you were going to. I mean, I put it down to calendar as a guest. I do, too. I want to see it because I've heard so much about it. I saw it a couple years ago. And maybe we can ask Janai if she'd like to join us. I just think this is something that we can, as a city, as part of the ILA, we can actually get the school board. I think it's going to be a win-win for everybody. It really is going to be a win-win for everybody. So, and as for the West Atlantic issue, it's a taxing district. You don't give up your ability to have a taxing district very, I mean, we've got to figure out a way to make something work there because it's a use it or lose it situation, which is safe. As I remember at our meeting a couple months ago, they said, if you don't do something here, we're going to take it from you. I don't want people taking away a taxing district from us. I don't want to tax the residents two mil. Well, let's, let's. You've got to come up with another alternative. Up to two mil. Yeah, you're going to. These are the residents that we didn't want to increase the taxes on, so we didn't, you know. Well, that's your view, but I think it's something we should all discuss as to what the merits are of having West Atlantic have its own ability to control its own destiny as it relates to tax rules. Mayor, do you want to do a workshop on that because I feel that. I'm happy to do that. Maybe with the CRA because I, Commissioner Burns and I. If it actually means for Rob, it gets paid by the meeting now. Let's do it. I think that's fine. There's a go-shed out of my contract. Thank you. I was going to ask, so what are we going to do about that? When does that come back? So a workshop is great. I think it's something we need to seriously consider. Absolutely. In some fashion, I mean, because it's authorization is two mil doesn't mean you charge two mil. Sure, that's right. There's a lot of work to be done before that board would be set. If we're going to do that. The strategic planning process, there's a number of steps. So given, Lynn, thank you for the clarity a little while ago in terms of the path forward. With respect to spending time with each of you all individually so that we can discuss as granularly as we possibly can what this looks like, why we are where we are. Again, we had the discussion August 19th. The commitment was to come back October 21st to summarize public input or community engagement to that effect. It's more to it than just that for the reasons that many of you are highlighting at this time. So to clarify, the deadline before the state of Florida would be right before Thanksgiving. I believe the date is something to the effect of November 25th. Thus, as of last week, direction being offered to meet with everybody at the dais individually so that we can outline some specifics in terms of what that looks like, why we are where we are. So that's scheduled to take place this week into next week. So as opposed to an October 21st presentation, I would propose maybe a workshop meeting right before the regular meeting of November 4th or the 18th. I'll be away the week before the 18th. So I'd like to be here to help facilitate that dialogue and get everybody squared away. But meanwhile, we are speaking individually and I've already scheduled that with everybody as of in the last week. So it would be appropriate for a workshop meeting engagement. I would suggest probably the 18th, which is a week in advance of us having to notify the state of Florida. So if we can convene at 4 o'clock November 18th for this particular purpose, we can devote adequate amount of time. Meanwhile, via the approach that I just talked about, meeting with everybody individually along with appropriate staff, I will be bringing all of you all up to speed individually in terms of the community feedback to date, what some of the next steps would have to be in this regard so that we can have a productive discussion November 18th openly, honestly, and that way appropriate direction can be offered by the commission at that time because we would have the following week to submit a response to the state of Florida Department of Community Affairs, I believe it is, and therefore everybody could have a path forward. But please understand, we are nowhere near in position to make any military adjustment recommendations at all. There are several other steps that would have to be engaged. Oh, you're a long way. We're a long way off, exactly right. And that was the basis of the communication last week. So, that's correct. There's a lot of work that needs to be done. So, again, referring to August 19th was nothing more than a commitment to come back with community input. But since then, with the input, the analysis of what's required, we have to sit down individually to get everybody squared away. So, yes, misunderstandings may have been communicated along the way, but it was not at all malicious whatsoever because, again, we are not in position to offer specific recommendations in that regard, a long ways to go. So, the recommendation would be Tuesday, November 18th, 4 o'clock for a workshop meeting so that we can devote time to this effect. Madam City Clerk will work it out. Meanwhile, I look forward to visiting with the remainder of you all in the coming days for individual dialogue to outline what the specifics are with respect to requirements. Thank you. Thank you. I have no other comments. Hit that devil. Hit it. Let's get out of here. Thank you very much, everybody that stayed. Thank you. Can you hear it out there? Thank you. You want that one? There it is. Huh? Huh? Huh? Huh? Huh? Huh? Huh? Huh? Huh? Huh? Huh? Huh? Huh? Huh? Huh? Huh? Huh? Huh? Huh? Huh? Huh? Huh? Huh? Huh? Huh? Huh? Huh?