City Commission - Workshop Meeting - Oct 14, 2025

That is so loud. Good afternoon, everyone. Welcome to the workshop meeting for the Delray Beach City Commission this Tuesday, October 14th. If the clerk would please call the roll. Commissioner Markert. Here. Vice Mayor Long. Here. Commissioner Cassell. Here. Deputy Vice Mayor Burns. Here. Mayor Carney. Here. Mayor McCormick. Thank you very much. I'm going to turn this over to Mr. Moore to give the introduction to the, we have two work, two items on the workshop agenda, which I'm sure all of you have. I'm going to turn it over to Mr. Moore to introduce the first subject. Okay. Thank you very much, Mr. Mayor, and good afternoon, ladies and gentlemen. So I'll actually briefly summarize the purpose of the workshop meeting in the context of both agenda items. First of all, we touched on this briefly via the current fiscal year proposed budget process a bit in terms of goals and objectives, and the genesis of this comes from the Office of the City Manager regarding economic development, policy goals, objectives, and expectations. I thought this would be appropriate and productive in that there have been an expression of differences in the definition of economic development, of course, that does vary from community to community, and based on the expectations, goals, objectives, et cetera, will determine what level of resource allocation will be required or what type of organizational structure would be necessary to be effective in that regard. As such, as the Office of the City Manager engages and offers leadership and guidance accordingly, I thought it would be appropriate for the Commission to offer their thoughts and considerations with respect to the matter. I've asked Assistant City Manager Jeff Orris, who happens to include, his background actually happens to include being a certified economic development professional, and the initials are reflected behind his name and title on a consistent basis. Thus, he's the duly appointed representative to help facilitate a brief discussion to give some perspective as to what this might look like for the City of Delray Beach. However, it's principally for your benefit and purpose so that you all can offer thoughts and suggestions in terms of economic development policy and expectations. So with that, Assistant City Manager Jeff Orris, if you would, please. Good afternoon, Mayor, Commissioners. Thank you very much. Thank you. I have an extremely brief presentation just to give you an idea of some of the activities our economic development office is currently undertaking. Literally two slides. So this should be pretty quick. Just to give you some of that background on what we are doing right now, currently the economic development office is doing some job attraction. There's not a lot going on. We have very limited space available for us in the city, but we are investigating leads that come to us, either people who approach the city or those that come through the business development board of Palm Beach County. And we do try to assist people in locating a building or a piece of land that may suit their needs. We also have a very close relationship with some of the commercial brokers in town. The idea being they are controlling more of what's going out there than we possibly could be involved with. So we have formed this relationship so that when they do have potential tenants, they reach out to the city and we can tell them how that we may be able to assist them in siting into the city and any other assistance we may be able to provide them. We have a program of small business assistance. You all know we have a small business expo, which, by the way, we'll be changing the name of, we were contacted by somebody who's using that name and has trademarked it. So we won't be using it in that, but it'll be the same thing. In which we have that one day a year when we bring in and invite in small businesses, we tell them how to do business with the city. We talk to them about other business matters. We're also in the process of formulating a more regular business seminar program in conjunction with the CRA and the Chamber of Commerce, which we will present on various topics to small businesses that show up. Everything from why you need an attorney to how to do your taxes to cyber security are the types of things we're looking at providing. Probably on a quarterly basis, we may do it more often depending on participation. We're always looking at different ways that we can participate with small businesses and information that we can disseminate. It is really our belief that the most important thing we can do is put quality information into the hands of our small businesses and our prospective small businesses, those people looking to create a business in the city. We are heavily into workforce development on two fronts. One, both through our economic development manager and our education and external affairs coordinator, we're working on different programs to teach both the younger group and in town as well as adults, various trades. The way that's divided is if it's post-secondary, it's economic development. If it's high school or below, which we're trying to work with, the school board or others to get the program together, it comes out of the education and external affairs. We've done a, we've actually done a fairly admirable job in putting together a number of prospective employees through the programs that are offered in the city and those employers looking for those types of employees. We have hosted a number of job fairs. We have another one currently scheduled for November for hospitality in which we'll put together the hotels and restaurants and such together with some of the folks participating in programs at Palm Beach State College and elsewhere. Also, permitting assistance. One of the things we've bumped into along the way is we have a lot of businesses. I'm going to start off by saying I have every bit of faith in our development services department and they're doing a great job. What we're bumping into is a lot of people who are coming into the city for the first time and not understanding the process, who may not be hiring people who have been involved in the city before and they get stuck in the process. They don't really know what to do. They're not closely listening to our development services staff who I personally believe are giving them excellent instructions on how to keep their permits moving. And so our economic development manager has gotten involved in several projects of new businesses coming to town very successfully. We brought them in. We've sat them down with the people they need to sit with and talk to as a group to hear why we are having problems moving their permits along and the things that their professionals need to provide, which often we have already told them, but getting them to truly understand what it's about and how it fits into the process. Again, we've been very successful with this. Most recently, one of our biggest one has been BJ's is looking to put one of their new concepts in town. It's more of a grocery store than an overall warehouse and they had had some difficulties with the space. It's actually the first time they're going into an existing space and not building from ground up. So they ran into some troubles and we helped smooth those out, brought them in, the principals in, and talked to them about what they need their professionals to do. It actually ended up in there firing their architect and getting an architect who had a little bit more experience locally who could move their program forward. And they seemed to be online to open within the time frame they were looking at. So just an example of that. We will get involved in that anytime anybody's stuck and we need a little bit more assistance moving that through and translating exactly what they need to do, economic development will get involved. That's kind of the highlights of what the program's doing right now. More than happy to discuss with you any other thoughts that you have about economic development and where we should be going. Okay. Who would you like to do? Who would like to start? Well, I'm happy to start. Back in September, I love how that is. Back in September 2021, I believe you were on the commission then, September 21, were you on the commission then? No, I wasn't on the commission. 21? You were on the commission. I was on the commission. Okay. You all had a very, very detailed workshop on economic development. This is one of the, it's numerous things that I'm happy to share with everybody. This is one of the documents that was presented which talked about economic development. I understand the importance of finding jobs for people. I understand the, the, the helping people go through the permitting process, but economic development, you, you reference that you, you follow up on people that are getting leads from the business development board, all of which is important, but if you follow this plan that was proposed back in September, 2021, which got a favorable, favorable reception when it was discussed at the workshop, trying to create different avenues of creating people to come to Delray Beach as to already trying to, as to trying to deal with the people that are already here. As I said, getting jobs for people is important. CareerSource is important, but CareerSource and, and Palm Beach College that you referenced, and also the school board do these programs already, these various job fairs, which are funded by the federal government or the state government. So our doing them is just a duplication of what's already being done. And I think that that is not the wisest use of the money that we're spending for the office, which is over six figures. So my thought was... Not quite. I'm sorry? Not quite. Okay. Whatever. The point is, economic development, in my reading, is different than what you have described. All of these are important aspects of having the city's businesses flourish, helping with permitting, helping people find jobs, you know, visiting, you know, the existing businesses, although, you know, they're already here. And that's, I know that's important, but, I mean, to show support. But I'm trying to figure out what we're doing to get a seat at the table of these various places that are involved with corporate relocations, that are involved with moving real businesses here, not just relying on what comes out of the Business Development Board. And we're not even on their radar. I mean, when we had them speaking here, they, she essentially said all the challenges that Delray Beach has. We don't have a lot of land. I know all that, we all, we know all that. But we do have Congress Avenue, we do have other places in the city which could be a receptacle for businesses. And so that's why I raised the issue before of the Business Development Office, because I'm not seeing what it's doing to attract business here, which is called economic development, as opposed to sustaining development, which is what we're all talking about. And Mr. Mayor, if I can add and contribute. Those are my two points, those are my however many points there were. That's okay. And quite frankly, ladies and gentlemen, that is why we are here, to reengage and offer your thoughts and considerations in terms of policy directions so that the Office of the City Manager can consider the appropriate organizational structure and other resource considerations necessary to meet goals and objectives respectively. I mean, I encourage my colleagues to read this meeting from September 14th, 2021. I spent all weekend going through it. There was like five different elements that they put forth in details about how to attract business, which I think we need because we all, we had the discussion, you know, education is important. Business aren't going to come until we got our education underway. And we got a lot of different, you know, silos we're trying to work on at the same time. And given the fact that you've raised the observations from September 2021, September 14th, I believe was the date, is that correct? September 14th, yeah. Okay. I was on board five, six weeks and I recall vaguely, but if I may please, I have a couple of thoughts in terms of how we would share that information because my interest is consensus, quite frankly, in terms of goals, objective thoughts in terms of where we get to be. Because I talked to some of you all individually about different thoughts, perspective as to what this might look like. And my interest is to establish some level of cohesion so that we can get to work in that regard, one. And two, I can come back and offer commission and update in terms of what our approach will look like in order to get to that place. That's the basis for this workshop meeting. And I hope this is helpful. So for that reason, my interest is to hear from the commission, what is it that you hope to have the city of Delray Beach to achieve so that we can build the necessary organizational and resource structure to get to the best place of productivity? That's fine. I just gave my two cents. So who would like to go next? I'll go next. Sure. Thank you. Look, I sat on that commission and I understand fully the problems, but a big part of the issue is while we were simultaneously having this conversation about how do we attract businesses, votes who are happening to convert over 12 acres of commercial property to residential apartments that nobody wanted, I voted no. You can't attract large businesses that need a certain amount of space if you don't have it. And that's the thing that we can control up here. We have to stop giving away our commercial land use in exchange for residential so that we can have a place for those businesses. I don't necessarily agree with you that the economic development workforce isn't an important factor because when we have these businesses here, they need to be able to find qualified employees so that they can sustain themselves. And that is a problem in our current environment. I would like to see us, if we're going to have a serious conversation, because the chamber very well knows what's going on with the businesses, and they also are working directly with our economic development director and have some input. They're looking to work into the tech industry to see what can come here. Laura Simon sat here and told us, I mean, and Mr. Walsh from, what was it, International Materials, a $4 billion company, moved to Delray in the IPIC building just because of our DDA, so we are attracting businesses here. The Sunday Village, I think the occupancy, you know, it's not ready for people to move in, but they have tenants, you know, people who have committed. So question is, how can we supplement the great things that are happening in the city? We're not going to be probably ourselves going out and getting these businesses to come, but we should be part of a network that is doing that. And that's the county, and that's the DDA, and then, you know, the chamber for their part of how do we make you successful when you're here. And I think if we're going to really engage in this conversation seriously, we need to be doing it with groups of people, not just us. I know that my feeling is, if we don't have the space for these businesses, we're not getting them, and then once they get here, how can we help them be successful? And I think what Mr. Evans has been doing, what he's been working on, is steps in that direction, helping people with the permitting process. I don't know if, you know, I imagine that's helpful. I don't know if part of the development department can kick in some of the funds through the building fund to that, to alleviate your concerns about the limited cost, but to not have an economic development director in the city, to me, seems not appropriate. And that's not at all what I'm advocating, Commissioner. I'm not. I'm speaking to the mayor. I'm not. That's not what they do. If you read the report that was done, part of it talks about expedited permitting, business navigators. And he's doing that. Creating incentives to – for people to come in. And while downtown is important, again, Delray is larger than downtown. We have Congress Avenue. We have different parts of the city that are ripe for getting the type of development which could be situated in the service industry in office buildings and things such as that, which don't need big plants to do things. And you mentioned a company that's operating out of not a lot of square footage at the IPIC building. Right. They have one floor. And that's what I'm saying. So there is stuff that we can be doing to try to enhance the development along the Congress Avenue corridor. And there was a commission back in 2013, 2014 that looked at Congress Avenue. We did a study well after that recently. And came with some recommendations, none of which have been – I mean, we're – as a city, we are really, really good at developing all kinds of plans. Right. And that's – It's the implementation of the plans that we seem to have – it seems to be more challenging. So I'm looking – it's beyond the DDA. It's beyond any of it. This is really what the city should be doing to attract businesses. What are we doing to attract business? And you say, we have to rely on the business development. No, we don't. Boca goes out to these trade shows. These other cities go out to these trade shows. We don't. I'm not saying that. I'm saying we need to work together with the organizations in the city for the collective goal because I don't disagree with you. I mean, we shouldn't be having to go out and look for people because we are a prime location, centrally located between two major airports. We have a beach. We're a perfect location. We need to improve our quality of our education. And we need locations for these businesses. But not only that, you don't have housing that is remotely affordable for their employees. So the problem is much bigger than one guy who's making $80,000 in a particular department. The problem is much bigger. And my point is, we need everybody at the table if we want to have a solution. I'm just going to encourage everybody to read that because you're talking about all the points that were raised probably because you were at that meeting. Because I was working on it. At that meeting. So ladies and gentlemen, just to add to that, for clarity, and Commissioner Casale, you just touched on this briefly in terms of the resource allocation. So what the City of Dairy Beach sponsors employees is an economic development manager position. It's a one-person operation. And as the City of Dairy Beach continues to go forward, the office of the city manager does contemplate any outside support consultancy services that might become necessary to advance specific goals and objectives. And quite frankly, I share that because I am seriously thinking about what that might look like based on the resources presently available for fiscal year 2025-2026. So this is not at all an advocacy, as I've shared in response to Commissioner Casale's commentary, to not nix or eliminate any approach. However, to do what we can to create the necessary resources to really get down the business with respect to goals and objectives. And so what was just talked about is not at all uncommon to engage with any existing community partners to help identify and create opportunities to get to the best place possible. My principal interest is, again, feedback so that we can create the necessary structure to address some of these thoughts and considerations. As far as the September 14, 2021 plan that Mayor Carney referred to, I will have that circulated to all of you all within the next day so that you all can have a chance to take a look at it. But after other elected officials have had the opportunity to provide input based on today's discussion or opportunity for discussion, I do have a suggestion in the two I'd like to share in terms of how we go forward. So with that, Mr. Mayor, if you would continue to facilitate passing opportunities for comment, that would be great. Commissioner Burns. Hi. Thank you. So, you know, I would just like to say I agree with Commissioner Casale that it's much bigger than just attracting new businesses. Yes, we need to attract new businesses, but as you said, the space. And then I think it's twofold that we attract businesses and that we support the businesses that are still here. We have to support the businesses. And I would like to see the program, the economic development program that the city has strengthen itself in acquiring and partnering with other institutions, you know, your nonprofits, the colleges, workforce agencies. We have Historic Carver Technical Center. Phase 2 is coming. I mean, we need to make sure that we are communicating and partnering with these to provide training, and especially with our youth. Because when these companies get here, as you said, who are they going to employ? So we need to make sure that we're working and then affordable housing. And so it all works together to create this new business and, of course, education. So I would just like to see the – to have a real program where people are participating, where there's training, whether the city is providing it or providing it through partnerships with other agencies that can provide those trainings. And, you know, technology is major right now. Everything that's happening now and in the future is technology, and we need to have a stronger presence in the technology field where we're supporting our residents. What else? The rest of what I was going to say has to do with neighborhood revitalization, and we're working on that. That is actively being worked on and creating mixed-use and affordable housing so that, you know, the people who will support these new businesses will be there and able to do so. So basically that's what I wanted to say. I just would like to see a stronger program. And then you said that there was assistance with permitting. So is that just someone from that department working with, or is that a workshop of sorts where people actually get to sit down and learn about this? We've been working with individual businesses as they are identified as having a problem getting through the process. Either they've called to complain, or development services has notified us that there's somebody that doesn't seem to be moving through. We're intervening to try to spend a little bit more time hand-holding. Okay. And maybe some of our educational sessions that we have can include more of the workforce and economic topics so that people can attend a four-week, five-week, six-week, whatever program and, you know, enhance their skills. So basically that's it for now. For now. Got you. For now. All right. Commissioner Markert. Thank you. Can I ask a question and some comments? Jeff, what are the types of categories or businesses that are interested in Delray from the work that we've done so far? We've kind of been all over the map in what I've seen that people have been coming forward and actually is one of those concerns. Normally in a situation like this where we're not really sure where we're going, I would advocate some kind of an economic development plan that gives us the data we need to determine what industries we should be trying to attract. Agreed. We don't really have that. Because we're very hospitality-based and all of our other industries are sort of, it's the best way, they're sort of working off the grid. Most people aren't aware that they're here. We don't really have a central core of a particular business. Gotcha. Because I would say from my business experience, you know, we don't have any room in Delray for plants or factories. So manufacturing businesses, you've got to fish where the fish are. There's no fish there for us. But where I think there is money for Delray is with private equity. And we've had some success with that already at Sunday Village. That's primarily what's going to be occupying Sunday Village is a very big private equity company, which is great. I would say that other categories that we should be hunting in, cyber startups, AI startups, and cyber security startups. And the reason I like all those is there's money being thrown at those businesses pretty heavily right now. They tend to be technology-based more than people-based, which means we wouldn't need as much room in Delray for those businesses because there's machines sitting there as opposed to people. And those businesses are just, they're hot right now. I was just at the GSX trade show in New Orleans a week ago. Thousands of cyber startup companies are there. And they're all looking to make a go of it. So I would recommend that we make a real push toward the private equity companies that are funding these AI startups and cyber startups because that's where the money is going right now. And I'd love to attract a handful of them into Delray. And again, they don't have the space requirements that, you know, I came out of Office Depot when Office Depot was here. I mean, it was a whole campus we had. These startups don't require that much space. So they kind of fit our model. And I'd be happy to help with the private equity world. I come out of that. I understand it. And like I said, we're already having some luck with those businesses today. So I think that's where we should spend some time and some money. My two cents. Commissioner Long. All right. Really good comments from everyone so far. I agree with Lisa. Mostly me. Mostly you, of course. No, I appreciate, Mayor, you kind of driving this. I'm really passionate about this issue. And it's something that Deputy Vice Mayor Burns and I sort of led on back in 2023 when we first got elected. We helped with the streamlining of our development services processes. And Thea and her team did an amazing job. Committed to this huge effort to move multiple things from having to go through lengthy board approvals to administrative processes. We moved a whole bunch of stuff off of SPRAB to planning and zoning. And we cut all this time off of the process. And so that was one of the most effective things I think we've done. And we made that transition over to e-permitting within that time frame, too. And so that, to me, was a major step in the right direction. Maybe there's more we could be doing along those lines. I'd love to meet with Anthea or, frankly, you guys to do it because this is a long-term process. But I think a workshop with development services and having a real conversation about what additional resources can we give that department that would help streamline it. I think the interventions efforts referenced by Jeff are a great start. But I do think maybe there's more we can do. I just don't know. That's the real answer. I don't think any of us know. Like, technically, what could we do to help assist with that process? But I will say, I do think we've made some real progress on this front, both Commissioner Casale and Commissioner Market Reference, Sunday Village. Vertical Bridge, which is a cell phone tower company, they're bringing, like, 200 to 300 employees to work in downtown Delray Beach. That's incredible. A lot of those people will move into our city. They're going to be going to our restaurants for lunch every day. That's unbelievable. And so we have made some progress. On that front. Now, how do we continue? That's the question. Now, I did want to reference Congress Avenue because no one wanted more than me to see the Congress Avenue Task Force findings materialize into this business corridor concept we've been talking about for years. But we went and had that analyzed. And we had a whole staff presentation about it. You probably remember it, Deputy Vice Mayor. And we were told that the market does not support that. The only business that's been built out there in the last few years is Kauffman Lynn. And that's leaving. Right? We were told, and maybe it's changed. Maybe it's worth looking at it again. But at that time, you know, this was only a couple years ago. We were told that that's really only going to support residential development along that corridor. So just putting that out there, it wasn't something that was shelved. It was something that we wanted to move forward on, but, like, the market just wasn't with us on it. And we can't force the market. We can make Delray Beach an attractive place for business. And we can lay the groundwork. But at the end of the day, the market's going to do what the market's going to do. So some other great points that came up. This is the good thing about going last. I can just comment on all the stuff you guys said. I 100% agree regarding education. That is critical. Young families are not going to move to Delray Beach if our education system sucks. And this commission has probably done more work and had more discussion about education than I've seen in a long time, which is a great start. But as we know, we have limited control over that. In many ways, that's the school district. Not that we should throw our hands up. We should, you know, this commission should stay engaged on that topic. But that's going to drive this as well. Housing is going to drive it, too. People can't afford to live here. Middle class people, the workforce we need can't afford to live here and they have to commute. It doesn't look super attractive to businesses. Now, I have the sort of the – I'm grateful to have involvement in a lot of countywide organizations, like the Tourist Development Council and the Transportation Planning Agency. I go to a lot of business development board events. I go to, like, most of their events. So I get to talk to these people. I get to sort of get outsider view from other cities, people that are involved. What do they think of Delray? What are the hurdles to bringing business to Delray? And, you know, we kind of heard a little bit from when Kelly was here and Kelly Smallridge was here. And Delray has a reputation over the last decade or so of not seeming super stable to outsiders in terms of this city. And that's because there was a lot of turnover. Luckily, in the last several years, we've had a stable city manager. But prior to that, there was a lot of turnover. We lost a lot of administrators. That hurts our ability to attract investment here. It just does. It's just not meant to be an indictment on anyone here. That's just the reality. Now, I think that's something that we have sort of dealt with lately. But I'll be honest, and I'm just as guilty of it as anyone, our divisiveness as a commission impacts that too. Right? If we're in the paper, if we're always fighting over stuff up here, like, that's not going to help our cause either. And I'm just simply putting that out there that if we want Delray to be seen as a place to make business investments, we have to show long-term stability. And we have to show that we are a friendly business environment. And we have to show that we're putting in the work to figure out the housing and education issues. But I think step number one internally is, you know, trying to figure out how do we help Anthea in development services? How can we further streamline and assist applicants that are coming into the city? To me, that's step one to show that we are a business-friendly environment. That's how we signal to the business community. But at the end of the day, it takes a long time. It's a very nebulous issue, as everyone here has commented on. It takes a long time to build that reputation as a business-friendly city. And it can be destroyed in just a year or two. It doesn't take long. So, ladies and gentlemen, I'd like to offer recommendations based on the feedback all of you have provided. Can I just do a follow-up to Mr. Long? Yes, sir. And the group before you summarize for all of us? Yes, sir. Most of what we are saying here, and a lot of what we're saying here, is already in our books. Oddly enough, most of this is already in our books. When this was done in 2021, it was 18 months trailing. It was top industry sectors by employment. And all these numbers have changed. So, the point of doing an updated analysis of where really the – who sits in what jobs and what sectors is probably long overdue. Because, as I said, this was 2021. It was an 18-month trailer. So, we're really looking at pre-COVID numbers, essentially, as to what we have in our sectors in Delray. I spoke with some venture capitalists a couple months ago when I was at a meeting in New York. And they do – there is interest in Florida. Now, you know, they know Delray, but they don't know Florida. They all know Boca. They all know West Palm. And, you know, they do a great job. But in a lot of these cyber jobs and these high-tech jobs, you know, they don't need big plants, as you said. They can operate our offices. And I would suggest that maybe the information that – what didn't work a couple years ago – and, look, there are going to be some corridors here that are turning residential because that's just the way it goes. And I understand that. But that doesn't mean that we can't try to focus on – certainly, we've had commercial properties taken off – not due to our fault, which has affected our tax base. But we really need to focus on implementing some of the stuff we already have. And I don't know whether that's creating incubator programs that have special tax incentives. I don't know, which gets your high-tech people because that's the first thing they look at, the startup. How do you get these people to go? Because Vertical Bridge didn't start with those many employees. It started with three guys. Three guys. Great idea. Now they're all billionaires. I'd like to make a lot more billionaires here. I'd like them to pay me a little bit too sometime if I, you know, walk by. But the reality is, you know, I want everyone to be able to have all this. So this is why I really wanted to start focusing on economic development. I'm not diminishing the importance of having job fairs or finding employment for the people that work here or protecting the businesses that are already here. I'm trying to figure out a way to use what limited assets we still have left in terms of property and how do we use those – how do we leverage those places to get businesses to say, hey, we'll give Delray Beach a try. And we may have to be a joint venture. We may have to partner with them. I'm the first to say we may have to partner with them to get them in. Other cities have done it. That's all I'm saying. That's the discussion I'm trying to start. And if I may, ladies and gentlemen, to summarize, and all of that is very helpful. So the consensus, as I will formally ask for that, is that we continue the good work that's currently underway. We summarized that pretty well. The majority of you had expressed an interest that we continue the good work in that regard. We do not deviate in that respect. However, there is an opportunity to accomplish more. And quite frankly, as I was preparing for this particular dialogue, that was my thought process. What more can we do to check the boxes, connect in every way possible? I, therefore, would like to offer the September 14, 2021 plan that Mayor Carney eloquently summarized. And I'm actually glad you brought that up because we will be circulating that to you all in the next day. So each of you all can have it. Commissioner Casale, you will sign the commission at the time in which that was discussed and reviewed. I just walked in the door literally. And secondly, there's merit to have the metrics, data analytics supported in that document to be updated. So what I would like to do is go about the process of accomplishing that, figuring out what that might look like. And I may need to bring on board some external support to get that accomplished in time for what I would propose to be a workshop meeting in December. I like December as a follow-up workshop meeting because it's an opportunity for us to build the necessary structure to execute and define specific ancillary goals and objectives as they relate to economic development. So the calendar for city commission meetings in the month of December are Monday, December 1 and Tuesday, December 9. I'm thinking Monday, December 1. We have a session to begin about 3.30 to also include availability of leadership of the Dairy Beast Chamber of Commerce, Greater Dairy Beast Chamber of Commerce, the Downtown Development Authority, Community Redevelopment Agency, and the pertinent members of the city administrative team. Perfect. So I would like to proceed in that regard because, again, all of you all talked about and recognize the good work that's being accomplished, but the consensus is that more can be achieved in this regard. And my interest today is to have the commission talk a little bit about what that looks like. So with that consensus that I'm seeking in this regard, myself, Mr. Orris, and others on the team will build the necessary framework to come back before the commission July. December 1, 2025. That's one month, one and a half, and one day from today to get ourselves squared away in that regard with the structure to include the potential participation of external partners to the point that several of you all have raised in your comments. Thank you. So if I can be permitted in that regard, I think that would be extremely helpful. December 1, get this squared away. We began our path forward, new calendar year of 2026, based on that guidance. I think we have consensus. You have my consensus. And we all know, as Commissioner Marker said, or as Commissioner Long said, you know, you can build this, the both of them said, you can build this up over a period of years. It can be lost in, like, in a fraction. And to some extent that – We need to now demonstrate that we – I hate to say it, but we're open for business, and there's a lot of ways we can – and I'm not going to talk anymore, but there's ways that we can figure out a way to offer incubator tax incentives and different kinds of – to get people in here, to get the jobs, and give our young people a place to – you know, because if they're looking for these higher-paid jobs in the tech business, they can't come to Del Rey. Yes, sir. Ladies and gentlemen, I'm looking forward, Madam City Clerk, if you would, Monday, December 1, 2025, 3.30 p.m., just before the regular meeting to begin at 5 o'clock that day. So that gives us an opportunity to increase structure. Jeff and I will be a little bit busy getting ourselves together in terms of what's necessary to get to that place. Nevertheless, I appreciate the consensus and feedback. Very helpful in terms of addressing this subject. Okay. We are finished with agenda item number – workshop agenda item one. We now have workshop agenda item two. Would you like to give us the intro on that as well? Yes, I would. Thank you, Mr. Mayor, ladies and gentlemen. Thank you, Mr. Orris. Thank you, Jeff. So, during the September 15th regular meeting, we offered a commitment for a public engagement exercise to take place Wednesday, October 1, 2025, which it did two weeks ago tomorrow. And our interest is nothing more than to offer what that feedback looked like so that the City Commission can offer its thoughts in terms of not so much just direction or response, but to have a sense of understanding as to what makes sense given the current state of affairs across the board. When approaching this particular topic, ladies and gentlemen, and I mentioned this during the September 15th meeting, is the importance of external collaborations and partnerships that may be viable in terms of offering any gestures to this effect. Although there's been some interest that the City does what it can to take leadership and guidance to this effect, there is much merit for external support to get us to the absolute best place possible should there be any willingness to do so. So, when we initiated the meeting of October 1, 2025, beginning at 5 o'clock, we were fairly explicit in terms of that being a focus because there's merit for that to be a particular focus. And some good ideas and discussion was generated as a result of that exercise. Of course, Director of Parks and Recreation, Sam Metod, along with Director of Public Works, Missy Barletto, given their level of expertise and involvement, were able to help facilitate that engagement as well. Thus, I've asked them both to be here to briefly summarize for the City Commission what the input has been experienced thus far so that the City Commission can offer its thoughts and potential guidance and expectations accordingly. Mr. Metod, Miss Barletto, if you all would please do so. Much appreciated. Thank you. Sam Metod, Director of Parks and Recreation. I'm here with Missy Barletto, Director of Public Works. And it is very brief. Three of you did attend the meeting, so you were there. But I just wanted to kind of recap the meeting and what was discussed. We had about 25 residents there. Three, like I said, three elected officials. Laura was there with the DDA and a handful of directors and other city staff were there as well. We kind of did a synopsis of, you know, where we are and how we got there to our current situation. And then we asked to treat it much like a public comment where people within the audience were able to come to the podium or to the microphone and speak on what ideas they liked from the city staff presentation a few weeks back or any new ideas that they wanted to bring forth and let the group discuss. And just recapping some of the main themes, a lot of it is what you've already seen or heard, right, here at public meetings or through the staff presentation. The Pride Street renaming was mentioned a number of times. A water feature. I guess Miami has a rainbow duck, something like that, maybe a water feature. The Rainbow Pyramid, I think that was handed out at the last meeting where some local group is looking at a pyramid colored artistically like a rainbow. That would be more like a sculpture or a statue. A statue itself was mentioned. You know, one commenter really liked the ideas that was presented of lighting up the water tower. Others mentioned the mural on the Old School Square garage as a potential item. And then, you know, others mentioned that they wanted it to be even more inclusive and to include some other groups and focus on the unity. Another idea was poll banners. And if we did poll banners, what would those look like? Putting banners up throughout the city or on the main streets, things like that. Even the idea of All Lives Matter was mentioned. So those are the various ideas. Some received much more support than others from the group. And then just discussion on what factors into each one of those, right? A lot of different things. A lot of focus that maybe this should be privately funded and on private property to get around and to not interfere with some of the current rules and regulations such as what we dealt with with FDOT. Vandalism prevention to make sure whatever we consider that we're at least considering the vandalism, how we would handle that moving forward. Others mentioned they wanted it to be a bold statement. And then we talked about the art pieces and murals and how that would go through a public art advisory process and just discussed how that could be pertinent. And I think that really encompasses the majority of the meeting and the ideas that were discussed. And I know Missy and I are here if you have any questions, but I know a lot of you are there and you will want to discuss it further. Thank you. Great. Thank you very much. Mr. Long, do you want to start on this one? Sure. Well, first of all, thanks, Sam and Missy, for hosting that town hall. I thought overall it was very productive and we got to see sort of a consensus of where people were at. There was a few ideas that I think came up more than most. I don't know. To me, it kind of we got to see what was in the lead in terms of what people were thinking, at least from that audience that was there. You know, I'm not going to die on the hill of this being city funded. That was referenced up here. I've already made that point. If we can find a group that's willing to fund this and that makes this easier to get done and folks are happier with that and it erases the issue of this being taxpayer funded and that being problematic, I see that point and I can get on board with that. So I'm not going to die on that hill, although I would, again, refer back to some of the discussions we've had up here. Now, I would advocate, however, that this is on public property. The original thing, right, the crosswalk, the intersection, the streetscape that we had here was part of Delray Beach. It was more than just paint on bricks. It was a vow to the community that you are included here. And inclusivity means everyone. It doesn't just mean LGBTQ+. It means everyone. That's the point of the rainbow. So it's inclusivity means everyone's included. Everyone. And to me, having that message on public property continues that vow, that the notion that everyone is welcome here in Delray Beach, everyone is safe here in Delray Beach. That's the point. And so what I'll go back to are some of the better ideas I thought came out of it, the most realistic, sort of pragmatic ideas that came out of it was one is, and one is being done in a bunch of other cities that I've heard of so far, is renaming this street. That costs us virtually nothing. In fact, you probably remember this. Steve English offered to pay to change the sign, so I'm going to put him on the spot if we changed it to, if we changed the name. And I know that that may present other issues. There's a process involved, et cetera. Lynn's giving me a look, so I don't, oh, okay. So I, to me, that's one that would be very low cost and make a major impact. So low cost, big impact, right? So to me, that would be a great investment. And that was one that was brought up probably more than any other single idea during the town hall. And again, other people are doing it. We're not reinventing the wheel with that idea. Now, I also liked the sculpture of the pyramid. I thought that was a great idea. It's not too complicated, but it's a powerful symbol. And finding a place to put that maybe in the lawn at Old School Square or something like that. Those were the ideas that I heard. And maybe we can work with some groups to figure out how to fund that. So to me, that's what came out of this meeting. And those seemed like the most pragmatic steps forward that align with sort of what we're trying to do here without missing the point. I know the whole idea of vandalism keeps coming up. And I mentioned this, you know, when I talked at the town hall. You know, if we're afraid to put up a symbol of inclusion because of vandalism, then we're missing the point, right? That's the point of it, is to not let the bullies win, is to not say that we are going to hide our symbols of our culture in Delray Beach. We're going to proudly proclaim them. And I'm hoping that something like a small statue would be something that wouldn't be too hard to clean up if it was vandalized. I understand a street, you know, that's something that's pretty easy to vandalize in hindsight, right? It's pretty easy. Like a statue, maybe that's a little tougher. If there's a camera set up nearby and it's well lit, right? If someone wants to vandalize our pride signs, we'll swap them out. That's not the end of the world, right? So, to me, yeah, they might get vandalized, but, you know, to me, that's a lower risk. So, anyway, I'll pass the torch here. Commissioner Markford. Yeah. Thank you, Rob. Just a few comments. You know, I think, and I said this a couple of meetings ago, we had kind of a dark day when this all happened. It wasn't fun for any of us. But, you know, like Delray always does, we're bouncing back. And I'm really happy about that. I had the good fortune of attending the meeting, which was really good in terms of laying out some possibilities. And I thought we got really good feedback from members of the community on all sides of the issue, which is what we were aiming for. I think Rob used the word that's very important. I do think Delray is a very inclusive community. I don't want to lose sight of that. We talked in the meeting about funding this. If we could fund it externally, that would be good. And I think that's still TBD. We still have to figure that out. We did talk about where to put this. And it sounded like from the consensus in the meeting we would be best to put this on private property somewhere so that we don't have a repeat of this incident. And there are locations that were discussed. And I think for me, the next step would be to cost out some of the alternatives and look at the locations for some of the alternatives. And then I think we'd be in a position to have the community weigh in on it. And I think we've made great progress. I'm happy about that. And like I said, we had a dark day, but we've bounced back. Welcome to Delray. And that's what we're all about. Thank you. Thank you. Commissioner Burns. Yes, I wanted to say that I did attend the meeting. I wasn't there for the full meeting. But I think that there was some great feedback that was given at the meeting. We receive a plethora of emails and messages from people. And I appreciate each and every one of them. And as everyone has said, every email that I read acknowledges the fact that Delray is a welcoming city and that we want to make sure that to everyone and that we want to make sure that we maintain that and that we, you know, just maintain our transparency in whatever we decide to do. I think I appreciate a lot of the ideas. A lot of them were great. So, you know, whatever is best for the community, I hope that we can come to a conclusion that will satisfy the majority. And that's all I have to say. Thank you very much. Commissioner Casale. Thank you. Well, I did not attend the meeting, but we did get emails. And some of them were unpleasant and indicated that the meeting didn't seem all that inclusive of a variety of opinions, which I find unfortunate, especially in the context that people felt that the meeting was the city's meeting. Look, I sat on the commission that implemented the Pride Crosswalk. I voted on it. I'm the only one up here who can say that. But I also accepted immediately that when we got the letter to remove it, we should remove it. I did not want to expend money. I wanted to find an alternative. We expended a substantial amount of money knowing we were never going to win that fight. And here we are today. Now, in my conversations with the city manager, we still expose ourselves if this is on public property. And we still expose ourselves if we're paying for it. So my discussion with the manager involved, if there are people willing to pay for this and it's going to be on private property, well, one, the property owner probably wants to be part of the determination of what it's going to be because it's going to be on his or her property. If something's coming on my property, I probably want to decide what that's going to look like. And two, if someone else is funding it, then they should participate in that conversation. I feel it's time for the city to excuse itself from this conversation if it's privately funded and it's on private property. I think that this issue, which is supposed to be about love and inclusion, has unfortunately become something that doesn't feel like that to everybody in the city. And I'm not happy about it. But as an elected official, our job first and foremost is to do what's best for the entirety of the city. And I think that the best thing to do is allow the private funders and the private property owners to work together to figure out a way. I love the pyramid. I hope that's what they select. But I hope that they can work something out together. I don't think the city needs to be involved in private negotiations. That's my feeling. Thank you very much. I was not in town to go to the meeting, but I did get a good debrief from about three or four people that went. First of all, I'm very happy that the meeting occurred because, you know, when I ran for office and I continually talk about, you know, community engagement, I think community engagement is, like, very important. And I know my colleagues share that view. So I was very happy that we got people out to talk about this. Nobody's happy why we got to this situation, but we're in this situation. I do think that, and I got a plethora of e-mails as well. I wish I could spell it, but anyway. I got a plethora of e-mails as well. And, you know, they were on both sides. And, you know, I do think that even those who were opposed, the people that were opposed were adamant that public funds shouldn't be used. And those who were not opposed were also very receptive to the fact that, you know, maybe we should do this privately. Now, whether it should be on private property or public property, I don't know. I mean, we have public art on public property. If this is going to be construed to be a public art kind of depiction, whether it's a monument, which I liked, I loved very much the pyramid. I thought it could be done very tastefully. And, you know, I'm not so much worried about vandalism, although any public art can be vandalized. I mean, that was something we'd have to address. But I do think that I'm happy that we're moving this along because, as I said, we didn't want to get here. We now have the community engaged, whether it needs to be a city project or a private project. I think I want to let the community kind of decide what they want. I mean, it's got to be done in a way that's not going to offend anybody. It's got to be done in a way it's not going to obstruct traffic. It's got to be in a way – we have to look at all of the issues that were raised to us as to why they had to remove the intersection. So I think we can do it. I think we're on the right track. I think we've got a beginning of some good designs. Your design I liked very much, by the way. I like your design very much. And so I think there's a number – and I don't know about the rest of my colleagues here, but I've gotten a bunch of emails with depictions of where they've seen it in other cities. I got one this morning. In fact, this is one that was down in Miami Beach. So there are lots of different examples that we can look at. We only saw very few of them at the meeting, from what I understand. So I want to continue the process and make something happen here with the community engagement. So I'm kind of – I think private funding is – I'm going on the way of private funding because I can't sit here and say that I think, oh, we should have all these other cuts, but, oh, by the way, we have money for this. I'm not going to be inconsistent, so I do think it needs to be privately funded. But I do think we can determine whether or not a private property is a better location than a public property. I'm not afraid of using public property. If whatever is done is done tastefully and, you know, I see a lot of public art that I find offensive, and it's not supposed to be, but it's just because my views are different. But – so that's where I am on it. And if I want to move the process, I want you all to explore, come back with something, you know, with a lot of different – we've given you – we have all – we have five members and six views up here. So it's – I think that – But you're just saying you want the community to decide, not us. But you want the community to decide. And you're also saying you want them to continue to engage with the community? We need – I'm getting to that point. So I'm asking, I guess, for you to go back to re-engage and get a larger group. Mr. Moore would like to speak on that if you could. So – well, anyway, that's fine. I appreciate your input. Thank you. Go ahead. Yeah. Thank you. So given the sentiments relative to private engagement, private participation, the primary – If you're going to sum things up, let me speak again first. This will be the last time I get to speak on this issue. So I want to – Oh, wait a minute. I want to make a few more comments. If you're going to sum things up, it's going to be more effective if I get to make my point first, if you don't mind. If you would like to be recognized? Yes. May I be recognized, Mayor? Yes. Sorry, Terrence. I'll give you – just give me a sec. So I just want to just – If I could raise your hand, I would have done that. So just to be clear on something, if we're discussing private funding and private property, then what are – we're not doing anything then. That's exactly what I'm saying. We're not doing – I know. I agree with you on that small part of what you said. We're ostensibly not doing anything. We can encourage private owners to privately fund whatever they want now. We could say, hey, you guys go ahead. Put up whatever you want as long as it's code compliant. They can do that now. They could do that before. We're ostensibly doing nothing if we move that route. That's why it's important that this is on public property. We lost something that was on public property. We all sat up here and talked about the alternative over and over and over again about replacing what was lost. So if we're going to replace what was lost, I said I'll compromise and say, okay, let's look for private funding. But, like, if it's not on public property, then we are not doing anything. And to me, that's not what we discussed. My point was I'm not afraid of being on public property either. I mean, I'm happy to – I mean, there's locations, as I say, if we're going to consider this as public art, that you should be on public spaces. And therefore – We should go through the same process all our public art goes through. That's fine. But it should be public art that we work with the community to figure out what works. Anyway, that's all I had to say. We're not there yet. I understand your point. We're not – okay. But I was just hoping that we could get to a point where we had our options and we understand – We're not even – we keep having meeting after meeting after meeting on the same subject. If it's on private property, the people can get together and have it done next week. We're going to have another meeting. Then we'll have another meeting. Then we'll have another meeting. And then what? I mean, if someone is generously offering property and it's down in the downtown area, from what I understand, one of the considerations is right in the downtown area, and it's private property, I say do it. Like, let them just do it. They'll have it done next week. And if I may, ladies and gentlemen, to summarize briefly – Or we could just have two or three more meetings on the subject. And I'm not recommending any additional meetings on the subject. I don't think that's necessary until – I'm sorry, Ms. Barletto. I just wanted to – I think you and I are about to say the same. Oh. Go ahead. I'm going to jump ahead of my boss here. You really did. Sorry. That's okay. It's a dicey move. It's not the first time. Ah! The chair recognizes Ms. Barletto. Woo-hoo! Thank you, Mr. Mayor. Are we doing that? I just wanted to bring into the conversation that we do have a public art board that would review all of the opportunities for placing art privately around the city. Thank you. So there is still an opportunity for them to bring that forward. Did I get you? He's rolling his eyes and nodding, so that's what he was going to say. Yeah, he said what he was thinking. A little bit. The mayor recognizes Terrence Moore. Do you? Can I get it? Yes. Sure. Thank you, Missy. Wait, wait, wait. Missy Barletto, thank you, because that was part of the commentary. However, there's more. Not my last name, M-O-R-E. More. And that is, thank you. And that is the fact that there's one of the ideas had been expressed a few times regarding murals, which, of course, enjoys a bit of a process. Private building, private artists, call to artists, those types of dynamics would necessitate a review process by the city of Delray Beach, as is the case in other municipalities around Florida. Around the country. Therefore, the city will play some element of role in participation in this regard. So, if that's the case, or if there's an initiative underway by private interest to raise funds for a structure, the pyramid was talked about, some other form of gesture in that regard, a brief update is to be provided to the city commission at that time once we get to that place, because there may be an opportunity to strike a balance, public property, private property, whatever the case may be. Quite frankly, the city of Delray Beach, the office of the city manager, the city commission, does not yet know. So, it appears that it would be appropriate for the city commission to charge interested residents and stakeholders, give them the opportunity to employ ingenuity, to go about raising funds, whatever the case may be. When something specific is assembled in the coming months, however long this takes, we would then provide an update to the city commission in terms of what opportunities can be made available, whether on public property, private property, a mural, a structure, whatever the case may be. Because, depending on what the outcome is, determines what level of role and function the city of Delray Beach will play. So, on that note, I don't believe it's necessary for additional input, meetings, gatherings, etc. We've been through a lot. We had two regular city commission meetings in the month of September, September 3rd and September 15th. We all planned for that. Guess what? We ended up having two additional meetings because of this very particular subject and topic. We had the outreach engagement October 1st. We had other informal discussions across the board. At this point, I think the input has been quite productive and satisfactoring. And, therefore, provide an opportunity for residents and stakeholders, give them the opportunity to employ their ingenuity, to come back and outline what that might look like. And, from there, the city of Delray Beach Commission will be able to make a determination what role and function it will play once we get to that place. Nothing further to do at this point until that happens, ladies and gentlemen. Look, I agree. I'm just saying that there is precedent for what we did back in 2012 when I was involved with doing the Boy Scout statue, which appeared on the corner there in the southeast corner-ish of Old School Square property. That was privately funded. Yes, sir. I'm just saying there's all kinds of opportunity options. And I'd like to see Commissioner Marker and the rest of us. I'd like to hear them all. Yeah. That would be my recommendation. And, again, we touched on this in the individual discussions, including ancillary dialogue post the October 1 meeting. So, I'm happy to share as I just outlined for everyone. And it does align with a lot of the input you all have shared publicly as well. So, with that, I think there's an opportunity for public input per the agenda. And from there, ladies and gentlemen, I think that would be the direction if you all can offer your support to that effect because, quite frankly, I don't think there's much further to do at this point. Okay, great. Well, with consensus, then, I'd like to move on, get rid of that, finish with that portion of the workshop. This now meeting is open to public comments. Anybody wishing to comment, please come to the lecture and give your name and address and the record. And you'll each have three minutes. This chair does it all the time. I don't know why. I know. I'll swap with you. Hey, listen, you know. It won't make a difference. I'm losing weight and I'm losing stature. It's great. You know, what the heck. I'm fine with all of it. Thank you all. Am I ready to hear? Yes, you're on. All right. I'm Robert Ovento. I'm the owner of the Silver Ball Museum. And I think you're getting the parking all wrong by making it more confusing, aggravating to spend a day in Delray. Limits to the meters off Atlantic Avenue should be taken away. How are you going to spend a day in Delray if you have to move your car in four or five hours? If the goal is to raise money, then that's the right way to do it. If the goal is to turn people away from Delray, then, you know, meter those lots and you'll see with every ticket that you write, you're telling people don't come back. Modern day retail is Amazon, eBay, online, no aggravation, strip centers, no aggravation, Meisner Park, free parking for everyone in the decks. So I think the parking decks should be free for everyone, a simple message. And if you want to raise money for the city, I don't know where all the money goes, but if you want to raise money for the city, make the meters unlimited so people can park. I'm a destination for state tourism. I'm a destination for countrywide tourism. We have an all-day pass and a half-day pass. If you want to spend a day in Delray, I don't even know where you park anymore. So I think you guys are really hurting the city, and you're going to kill the golden goose. The entrepreneurs built a town, right? And everything came from Atlantic Avenue. So I think everybody has to remember that. This town was nothing 30 years ago without the restaurants and the first group of entrepreneurs that came into town. And I think you're taking it for granted. And you don't, you know, we got a bid now with everything. I mean, because of all this. But I just think it's aggravation, frustration. I have videos of people, older people. It's like the high-wire act of the circus trying to use these meters sometimes. In the middle of the night when it's raining, you're telling people don't come back. And I think it's going to affect business, and I think it has already. Sales are down. And like I said, the modern-day retail, it's not like the old days. People get aggravation. You can call up Amazon. You don't have to shop. You can't walk the promenade. You can't come for a day in Delray. I don't even know where do you park for a whole day anymore. I don't know. I know a lot of people are Ubering, which is fine, but we want to be a destination, at least a regional destination. So we really have a simple message that should be the parking decks are free for everyone and a giant P, like when you go to the city, giant P in New York. You park your car and you have at it. You don't have to worry about the aggravation. Here, you've got to move your car in three hours. You say, what do I do in three hours? I get asked. I don't know what to tell you. Well, my lot now is four hours. I don't know what to tell people. We have parties coming in this weekend. I think it was $680 for the 13 vans to drop off the people. Where are they going to park? And I think advertise the $12 fee. From what I heard in 2024, there was 200 people that applied for the $12 fee as residents. That should be on the signs, too. I just think we've got to make it easy. And I think you've got to listen to the business owners, because I think we're going to kill the golden goose. Thank you very much. Can I say one thing? Thank you so much. You hosted the Do Good Delray event for the Atlantic High School PTSA, and it was amazing. Thank you. Well, thank you. Thank you for your contribution. Thank you. This is Stephanie Emelman, Delray Beach Chamber of Commerce. I just want to bring it back to economic development for a minute. So I'm very excited where you're headed with economic development. I've got one of my board members, Bruce Weinstein, here, and he's head of our economic development committee. And just a couple of weeks ago, we established a tech recruitment project at the chamber just to see if it was feasible to bring tech companies in. So the first thing we did was we involved Christina Morrison. She handles commercial real estate. And the answer is, we do have the space to do it for the main reason that Commissioner Markert mentioned. You don't need an enormous amount of square footage for tech firms to be located here. Creelium is a tech firm. It's located on Atlantic Avenue. They've got projects and employees in New Zealand and Israel, but they're based in Delray Beach. So we think that that's a play that we can make. We talked to a lot of tech firms, and they really led us to believe that attracting tech firms to Delray is a destination marketing play. So what we want to do is get involved with the South Florida Tech Hub, and I believe Rob Evans is on the board of South Florida Tech Hub. Work with the BDB. They just did the Quantum Beach event, which we think is great. And then eventually we would like to do trade shows, maybe in Florida, starting in Florida, Miami, Fort Lauderdale, and Orlando, to start recruiting tech firms to come here. So needless to say, we're really excited to work with the city on this. So I just want to let you know, we've done a little bit of work on it, and we're ready to work with you, too. Thank you. That's awesome. Stephanie? You said that was South Florida Tech what? Tech Hub. The South Florida Tech Hub. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you, and good afternoon, commissioners and mayor. My name is Chris Rhodes. I've lived here in Palm Beach County for 20-plus years, and I'm an active member of the Palm Beach LGBTQ community. And I'm a proud member of the Equality Florida State Board of Directors. Equality Florida is the largest LGBTQ civil rights organization, and on behalf of our 1,086 supporters who are residents here in Delray, I first want to say thank you. I want to say thank you for not taking the easy route and immediately abiding to the power grab of our governor. It was not easy, and you all should be commended for it. So thank you on behalf of all of our constituents. You held the line to the best of your ability and listened. As you may remember, you had the largest attendance, all favorable, in a meeting regarding the Rainbow Crosswalks. Now we must find an alternative way to bring back that sense of warmth and welcome for our LGBTQ community. Delray Beach has always been a big supporter and ally of our community, and I encourage you to find the alternative way, whether it be in private funding or public. We don't want to see Delray Beach seen as the city who gave up on the community. We want to be seen in the headlines. Delray Beach digs deep to show their unanimous support in showing that they are an all-inclusive, welcoming city. The point is for the city to show it's welcoming, not Mr. Smith at his house that says welcome the LGBTQ community. It misses the whole point. But I think we can find the private funding to present to the city for a public work of art on public ground to welcome back the community. Thank you for your time and consideration, and thank you for keeping this conversation alive and strong. Thank you. Good afternoon, Commissioners. My name is Catherine Murphy. I've been a resident in Delray Beach for the past 25 years, and I'm a mother of five and a grandmother of 13. I appreciate the opportunity to speak on the proposed LBGQ Plus Memorial Project. While I recognize the intent to honor contributions from the LGBTQ Plus community, I have concerns about equity and inclusivity. In how we're allocating public resources and space, this initiative seems to prioritize one group while overlooking others who have equally shaped our city's history and sacrificed for our shared values, such as veterans who have served our nation, Christians and faith-based communities that have long provided charity and support here, and other sectors like first responders, educators, or other ethnic minorities who have faced their own struggles. Public memorials should reflect the full diversity of our community, not create divisions or exclusions. Why not pursue a broader veterans' memorial, a faith-based heritage site, or unified plaza honoring multiple groups? Singling out one risks alienating residents and wasting taxpayer dollars on something that feels selective rather than unifying. I urge you to pause this proposal, conduct broader community input, and ensure any memorial truly represents all of us. Thank you for your time. Thank you very much. Good afternoon. Thank you, City Council. I stumbled across the meeting that was recorded from, I guess, last month. Regarding item one. Your name and address, sir? I'm sorry. My name is Jerry First, 6542 Via Trento. Been living in South Florida since 73. City? City. Delray Beach. Yes, sir. Yes. And I'm happy to see the way the meeting that I had watched. It seems like you guys work together very well. It's working. And so I just wanted to say that. On item one, it looks to me as if you've got great opportunities to bring down businesses from New York City. There are tons of businesses, big businesses that don't require a lot of space. I don't know how much an ad in the Wall Street Journal costs or to send somebody up to do recruiting, but that might be an idea. As far as the, let's just say the LGBT whatever, I think that it is divisive. I think that what you're doing is putting, especially if it's on public property, that means City of Delray Beach is putting an official stamp on a lifestyle choice. And I think that we want to be inclusive to have families say, where are we going to go? Delray Beach is a great opportunity. I grew up down in Broward County. I see what happened to not only South Beach and to Fort Lauderdale Beach. And now some families, they just like, you know, there's that rainbow flag being broadcast up on the water tower. It's like, maybe we should go somewhere else. I think that the idea of being inclusive should be neutral. And I say, put it on the ballot. You want to see divisive? Put it on the ballot and let, because Delray Beach is not just Atlantic Avenue, okay? We got a lot of residents, a lot of voters that might want to go ahead and put their thumbprint on any decision like that. So, I appreciate the opportunity to speak on this. And I really, really hope that you don't put, on public property also, I don't know if there's a risk manager, if you're a city manager. I think you're putting the city at risk and the residents of Delray Beach at risk, because it's going to be whether it's just personal safety or just, you attract people who want to have an argument. Thank you. Thank you very much. Good evening, Mayor, Commissioners. My name's Alan Hendricks. I reside at 716 Northwest First Avenue, Boynton Beach. Happy birthday. And happy birthday yesterday. Yeah. And I am sorry that the great state of Florida has put you in this position. That being said, we have lemons. I would like for us to make lemonade. Boynton Beach is also going through this process. We're turning to our Arts and Public Places Commission to build back a, take the same principles and ideals that we as a commission in West Palm Beach, Fort Lauderdale, Delray Beach. Those are all still valid. We want to welcome everyone. It was entertaining for me to sit here and remember some of the arguments that we had previously when it comes to economic development. We want the best and brightest in our cities. And if you want the best companies, the Fortune 500 companies, they will tell you that if you're not inclusive of this, of all of our potential labor force, that's a problem. So it was interesting to see both of those things kind of come to mind on the agenda. I appreciate your support and I appreciate us moving forward. I know it's a bumpy road, but I believe that we can turn this into lemonade. I believe that we can have a beautiful representation that says all are welcome in Delray Beach. It doesn't have to exclude anyone. We should celebrate everyone. I remember when we discovered Haitian art in Delray Beach and how we celebrated that community. This is part of the growth of the city. And I applaud you for your commitment and your diligence. And I think we should stick to the principles that we started with when we came up with the Pride Intersection, which is a visible representation of a city that's inclusive. Thanks. Thank you very much. Hello, everyone. Diane Adams, 3521 Lawson Boulevard, Delray Beach, Florida. I've been a resident since 1989. And I just learned from Julie Cassell, if I'm hearing her correctly, we knew we were going to lose the battle against the DOT, and we spent our tax dollars on defending that. Am I hearing that correctly? No, we did not. We ended up not spending the tax dollars. You spent no money on defending that losing battle. Well, maybe I'm misunderstanding. We spent some money. We spent some money defending a losing battle. Well, to go through an administrative process. Okay. I have a huge problem with that, especially if we know we are going to lose the battle. We knew we were going to lose. I feel very strongly that public money should not be spent on this endeavor because I, for one, when Mr. Long was talking, he said that the rainbow flag includes everyone. It doesn't include me. The rainbow flag feels very uninclusive to me. And I'm happy that people have a rainbow flag, and I love it, but I don't feel that it is my responsibility. I own a business here, and I live here since 1989, and I don't want any of my money to go to an art installation when there are potholes in the ground, when there are homeless people that I'm afraid to walk by when I go to work, that there are people in my parking lot with needles right here in town, and that the CRA built a building next to me, a medical building with three parking spots and two handicapped spots in there. It's going to take over where my business is. So what I'm saying is I don't want any public money going to this until the rest of this, until we have clean drinking water. We need those things done first. And thank you very much. Thank you very much. Good evening, Mayor and Commissioners. I'm Michelle Dadich, 23 Southwest 6th Street. A couple of things. I wanted to just give some input. I'm very happy to hear about the economic development focus because that's kind of important for the city. I myself am a commercial realtor and a commercial loan officer, and I do infrastructure lending specifically for government types of projects, especially like even for the data centers and those types of things. And it's 105% lending, so there's not even a penny that people are out there. People are surprised that that's the cost of it. But on that note, in my opinion, for trying to bring more companies here along those lines, I mean, I have a few suggestions, which you guys already mentioned, like some tax abatement breaks for just some of those conversations to have as a discussion. The property that I know this probably is in the area of like the CRA because they've talked about in the past the train, I think the railroad cars, they were talking about developing that on Atlantic, I think, around 8th Street or 8th Ave, somewhere along there were restaurants that they were proposing. You might want to consider possibly talking about bringing developers in where maybe they can do it as like multi-purpose actual buildings rather than just having some food courts. How about having some food courts and some actual property that you might be able to lease and make some money off of to bring business here and earn official tax dollars for the future? Those are just some of my thoughts to maybe just have as a consideration, you know, conversation. Also, for the green market, I know there's small-level local businesses, but I know there's some issues where people just want to have a little business there. I know the city requires like a $1 million property or insurance clause that you have to make the city as the payee. Those are little small things, but just someone who wants to have a small business on a weekend and have to go pay $2,000 for an insurance policy might be something you guys might all want to look into because that limits local businesses from really doing that. And my last thing is the many-month-long debate on this whole Pride Crosswalk issue has really dragged on, and honestly, it's consumed a very large amount of time and economic resources from our community just on the cost of your official salaries alone, you know, while spending time on this topic. That means you've not spent time on other impending issues, such as our infrastructure. On Swinton alone, I've heard a lot of people talking about the potholes, affordable housing for our citizens, the water issues, economic development for our city. Those are all many issues that fill, I'm sure, all of y'all's inbox, and, as Commissioner Long pointed out earlier, that the rainbow means inclusivity. Well, I would like to point out that most every religion that I've ever studied is also welcome and also inclusive. And you don't want to start having all different forms of religions having things on public property. I would just suggest that this stays on private property as a private-choice lifestyle. That's all I'll say about that. Thank you very much. Good evening. Nicholas Coppola, 3930 Lawson Boulevard, Delray Beach. I am also a member of the board for PBC HRC. And just for clarity, I think it's important that the original installation was not a financial burden to the city. It was fully funded by Palm Beach Human Rights Council as well as the AIDS Healthcare Foundation. If anything, that crosswalk has brought in money to this city, I believe, in community. That was very prominent, that intersection, and we've discussed it. I think it should be equally prominent. It would be great if it was on private property. It would be easy. Unfortunately, I use the term, we would be at the whim of a property owner. Let's say I want to put it. Let's come over here. I'd be happy. Let's put a monument on my lawn, and we can keep it there. I sail my house next month. It's gone. That was a memorial. It was a memorial to the multiple victims at Pulse. And we forget that, that it had meaning. So I would ask you to do that. And as far as comparing it, I have to say it. You know, 12 years of Catholic education, I was a catechist. I'm of ascension. I had active LGBT ministry. I was a member of the Catholic Association of Lesbian and Gay Ministries. And I could assure you, Jesus would approve of the flag, the rainbow flag, because it is inclusive. It welcomes everybody. So on that note, I am simply happy that we are past the debate about if we're going to do something. I am happy now that we are discussing what we're going to do. Thank you all, and I appreciate the continued conversation. Thank you very much. Charlotte Delks, 2916 Southwest 22nd Circle, Delray Beach. I've lived here since 1998. I love the city. I love the people in it, and I love the diversity of the city. The proposal that I put forward, I will now continue to try both directions, private property and the public property. I happen to, my belief is the private property is the way to go. We were blackmailed once, and I don't want us to be blackmailed again. Now, the thing that I would ask from the city is that if it's possible for the legal department to help draw up the paperwork on the private property to ensure that when the property is sold, we don't lose the monument from that property. I don't, I'm not a lawyer. I know nothing about the law, but I do know there needs to be some kind of protection if it is on private property. I thank you so much for listening to me, and I thank you so much for moving forward. Thank you. Thank you very much. Steve Blum, 115 Venetian Drive, Delray Beach, Florida, 33483. Ad nauseum. How much longer are you going to discuss this issue? And the gentleman that came up and said all the Jews would like it, bullshit. They wouldn't like it. Okay? They don't care about it. I don't think he mentioned Jews. I think he said Jesus. He said Jesus. Huh? He said Jesus. Never mind. Okay. We spend time and money on things like this, but what about the pavilion on A1A, which is at the gateway of Delray Beach? The gateway of Delray Beach is not 95. It's A1A, north and south. And to see our pavilion looking like garbage right now is a joke to the people that authorized it. Okay? You've been doing it for 12 years, and, you know, nothing was done. Now, all of a sudden, right before season, when we're going to get a million people in here, you decide to take our beautiful pavilion and just make it useless. These are the things we should be discussing. Not the LBGTK community or whatever it is. I'm sorry. No offense. All right? We shouldn't be discussing it. And, you know, just pull down the gavel and say no. And the person that said it's what we should do, not if we should do, I think it's if we should do. And if means nothing. We should do absolutely nothing for this group. Nothing bad about the group at all. Nothing bad about the group at all. Just like every other group should have it. And you're going to open up a well. You just put one little thing out there for this community. And then every week, another group is going to come up and say, well, we want some private land. We want some property that we want to put a sign up. Every week it's going to be that way. Next. Hi, Mayor. Connor Corzine. 5465 Grande Palm Circle, Da Re Beach. I just want to say thank you again. Thanks for doing this whole fight against this because it's been really ridiculous that we've had to do this. Thank you. As a city. And I want to say thank you for everybody coming out tonight. I've been here three times talking about this. So I'm sure everybody on this day knows how I feel. We should have something for the LGBT community and our community. It's an economic loss not to have anything. And I just wanted to comment on some of the private public funding things. Honestly, just look at some of the things that we've had. I've been a resident of Delray since I was five years old. Been here for quite some time. We have a 100-foot Christmas tree. Is that publicly funded completely? We have St. Paddy's Day Parade. Is that publicly funded completely? We have Veterans Park. Is that a publicly funded Veterans Park? All these things have public money into it. And they are designated for special groups of people. And that's okay. We're all welcome here. That is the point of this. There's really no need to be angry. We welcome everybody. Everybody. I feel like the hatred is misguided. We can work on potholes. We can work on affordable housing. It doesn't mean you have to take one or the other. It's evident by we had the crosswalk for a few years. And we were still working on repairing crosswalks and putting affordable housing in the city. So that's all I wanted to say. Thank you very much, everybody. Thank you. You will be the last speaker because we are now into our 30 minutes. So you have about a minute and a half. Okay. I'll let you finish your three if you need it. But a minute and a half would be better. Then I can keep to the 30-minute. My name is Marianne Cohen and I own Mac Art Galleries. I have two businesses in Delray Beach. One on Atlantic Avenue and one four blocks south in Osceola Park. I have a big commercial building that I have a gallery in as well. I only came to Delray in 2021 and I was excited to come. I thought it was going to be fantastic. And I have to tell you, I'm really disappointed. I know everybody here is a stakeholder. The direction that this city is going is not good. We are losing our lunch to West Palm Beach, Pompano, and a lot of our surrounding cities because we haven't done the infrastructure that needs to be done. There's no landscaping, there's no lighting, there's no cleanliness, there's no cops. There's a lot of things that are happening here. Noise up and down the boulevard. You've all been there. You've all heard it. And it's driving our clients away. It's not creating that nice, peaceful feeling that we want to have in Delray Beach. It's become like a drunken party fest. And I think that's the demise of the city. The city was not really intended to be that. I don't think you want it. I don't think you want it for your friends and your family that are visiting. And I think it's time to start thinking about what we're doing to address those problems. And I welcome you to go out there. I have pictures of homeless. I have pictures of all kinds of debris that's on the street, lack of receptacles. There's just not an attention to the infrastructure. It's crumbling, and we need to fix it. I thank you very much for your time. Thank you very much. Public comment is closed. We are now at the end of our workshop meeting. I'm going to be saying we're going to need to take about five minutes, ten minutes. We're going to take, we're going to, the meeting will commence at 5.20. We're going to be taking a ten-minute break here. The regular meeting will commence. He'll be taking a ten-minute break here.