City Council — Apr 9, 2025

Good evening and welcome. The Wednesday, April 9, 2025 City of Plantation City Council meeting is now called to order at 6 p.m. Ms. Beggarrow, please call the roll. Councilmember Anderson? Here. Councilmember Andreu? Here. Councilmember? Here. Here. Bernstein? Here. Mayor Sortel? Here. City Attorney Israel? Here. Thank you very much. We're going to begin with the Pledge of Allegiance that will be led by Plantation Park Elementary's finest elocution winners. So if they will come up to the front, please. And as they come up to the front, to the podium, ask everybody to rise for the Pledge of Allegiance. Is the green light on? I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the republic for which it stands, one nation under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all. You guys are staying at the podium. So we have with us some of Plantation Park Elementary's elocution winners. And if you are not familiar with elocution, elocution is the skill of clear and expressive speech, especially of distinct pronunciation and articulation. And although I did not have a chance to be at the school to judge this year, I know Councilmember Horland and I think Councilmember Andreu were there. And I was so upset that I missed it. I wanted a second chance to hear from you guys. So if you can tell us your name and tell us what grade you are from, and then we have a special treat for everyone. So who's first? Hi, my name is Griffin Kelly and I'm in third grade. Thank you, Griffin. Hi, my name is Natalie Lewin and I am in fifth grade. Thank you, Natalie. Hi, my name is Taylor Meredith and I'm in fifth grade. Thank you, Taylor. Hi, my name is Cooper Kelly and I'm also in fifth grade. Great. And in case anybody didn't notice, yes, there are two Kelly, the Kelly brothers, right? Both winners. And so now we're going to have a special treat and we are going to have Taylor, right? Are you ready? Okay. So Taylor is going to give us the special treat of her elocution submission and she's going to do it for us now. So if everybody will give her your full attention. Taylor, you're going to look right at me, right? Okay. So whenever you're ready, right in the middle there. The Armpit of Doom by Ken Nesbitt. Today I walked into my big brother's room and that's when I saw it. The Armpit of Doom. I wasn't expecting the armpit at all. I shrieked and fell backward and grabbed for the wall. The armpit was smelly. The armpit was hairy. The armpit was truly disgusting and scary. I wanted to vomit. I wanted to cry. I wanted to flee from its all seeing eye. My skin started crawling with goosebumps and chills. My brain began screaming to head for the hills. I tried to escape but knew I could not. In horror, I found I was glued to the spot. Will somebody help me? I started to shout till fumes overcame me and made me pass out. And that's why I'm here in this hospital room. It's all on account of the Armpit of Doom. I'm still feeling shaken. I'm queasy and pale but lucky I lived and can tell you my tale. So take my advice. If you ever go near your big brother's room, bring a whole lot of gear. A gas mask and goggles, a helmet and shield or maybe a space suit that's perfectly sealed. And then only then when you're fully prepared, step in very slowly and hope you'll be spared. But if you're afraid of the Armpit of Doom, stay far, far away from your big brother's room. Yes. So fantastic job Taylor. Thank you for sharing that with us and thank you everybody and congratulations on your success in elocution at Plantation Park Elementary School. Thanks for joining us today. Okay. So now we will move on to opening remarks, which I have some. So when I started thinking about my comments for tonight, I was watching the Gators victory in the NCAA basketball tournament. And whether you're a fan or not, it was an incredible game. And as I heard in the back, go Gators. There were two things that really stood out for me that were not really about the play on the court. One was the amount of time in which the Gators were actually in the lead. The Gators only led in the game for a total of 64 seconds and trailed by as many as 12 points. This is a great lesson about tuning out the noise and playing your game and playing to the very last second. I think there are a lot of life lessons there too. The second takeaway was after Florida's Walter Clayton Jr. made a game-winning defensive play and the clock hit zero and the game was over and he consoled a very distraught Emmanuel Sharp of Houston who mishandled the ball on the Cougars' final possession. This was a beautiful display of good sportsmanship and maybe brotherly love. I think we can all learn from that in terms of love for our neighbor. However, at the same time as celebrating a Gator victory, I was thinking about the fact that American Edon Alexander still held a hostage in Gaza. We're now at over 550 days, 18 months, with a total of 59 hostages still kept in Gaza. This is 24 believed living hostages including Edon Alexander and 35 bodies that will not be released for burial. This also includes a Thai and a Nepali citizen. Yet as I continue to think about my words for tonight, I was thinking about the holidays of Easter and Passover that are almost upon us. These are both spring holidays that talk about starting anew and rebirth. For those observing the Jewish holy days of Passover that will begin on Saturday night, this holiday is centered on remembering the freedom from slavery of the Israelites in Egypt taking place at least 3,000 years ago. This year, like last year, it is tough for many observing Jews to celebrate the freedom from bondage when there are literally Jews still being held in chains today. So as many in our community are already setting their tables for the Seder, the Passover meal. We are maintaining an empty seat at our table for the hostages, and we are adding a lemon on our Seder plate. As yellow has become a symbol of the fight to bring the hostages home, and you see myself and others that wear the yellow ribbon. The lemon also, the sourness, represents the pain and grief that the hostages continue to endure. Thus, while we continue to celebrate our own freedom, they are still held in captivity. So to conclude, I implore everyone in our beautiful city of Plantation to continue to show brotherly and sisterly love to one another, and if you are so inclined, I ask that we continue to pray for the return of the hostages now. And may the 59 hostages experience their freedom as we do here and as we celebrate here in the city of Plantation. Thank you. Next, we have items submitted by the Mayor. Thank you very much. We have three proclamations today. Child Abuse Prevention Month. Florida's bright future depends on the healthy development and well-being of its children, and whereas adverse childhood experiences, including the abuse and neglect of children, can have severe and long-lasting consequences for children, whereas every child has the right of a safe and healthy childhood. I'm sitting here worried about my elocution now, after watching those kids. Whereas Broward Aware is a countywide campaign led by the Children's Services Council and its partners, aims to raise awareness of child abuse prevention by promoting healthy child development, whereas Child Abuse Prevention Month provides an important opportunity to encourage all Floridians to participate in activities that strengthen families and communities, creating environments where children can thrive. Now, therefore, I, Nick Soto Mayor, and the City Council Plantation hereby proclaim April 2025 as Child Abuse Prevention Month. So, for those of you who don't know, we have a victim's advocate inside our police department, so we coach up the victims, and Debbie Geller has taken that job and basically run with it and built her own empire. So, I'm going to read this and then you'll talk? Yes, sounds good. Okay. Whereas crime affects individuals, families, and communities in profound and varied ways, often leaving lasting physical, emotional, and social challenges, and whereas the concept of kinship underscores the connections that build bridges to support services and shared strength among survivors, and whereas kinship is the foundation of victim advocacy, and whereas through kinship we build peer networks and community alliances that empower survivors, foster resilience, and other pathways to healing, and whereas kinship reminds us of the strength that comes from connection, the importance of listening to every voice, and the power we have to create lasting change when we work together, now there I, for Nick Soto Mayor and the City Council Plantation hereby proclaim the week of April 6th through 12th as Crime Victims' Rights Week. And Debbie, you want to talk? Sure. Thanks. I'm also worried about my electrician after listening to all that. Right? Thank you very much. Thank you Mayor Sortle. Thank you City Plantation Commissioners, obviously for your continued support for crime victims and survivors. I want to acknowledge and thank Chief Harrison in the back, and really all of the Plantation Police Department employees for their continued support of crime victims and survivors. Since 1981, when Ronald Reagan determined that National Crime Victims' Rights Week would occur, the nation really has been working to confront and remove barriers for survivors to achieve justice for all crime victims. In 2025, we observed National Crime Victims' Rights Week with the theme this year of connecting, kinship, and healing. So this year's theme really is a call to action to recognize the shared humanity should be at the center of supporting all victims and survivors of crime. Kinship really is the state of being with survivors, and it drives vital connections to services, rights, and healings. Kinship represents meaningful connections. Victims and survivors should know that they are not alone and that there are people who care and are here to help. Crime victims and survivors can always call the police department. They can always call myself. There are national and local domestic violence resources. There's a 24-7 phone number for women in distress, our certified domestic violence shelter. There's 988 for crisis and suicide prevention. There's a national child abuse hotline, a veterans crisis line. There are many other resources. So, thank you. And last is Fair Housing Month. I sit on the Affordable Housing Advisory Committee, as you all know. We're trying to find ways to make our city more livable to some people, you know, to everybody. And we also know we just can't build our way out of it. You can't build enough houses fast enough or enough space. Okay. Whereas April marks the anniversary of the passage of the Fair Housing Act of 1968, which sought to eliminate discrimination in housing opportunities, and whereas the housing struggle for dignity and housing opportunity for all is not the exclusive province of the federal government, and whereas vigorous local efforts to combat discrimination can be as effective, if not more so than federal efforts, and whereas illegal barriers to equal opportunity in housing, no matter how subtle, diminish the rights of all. Now, therefore, I, Nick Soto Mayor and the City Council Plantation, hereby proclaim April 2025 as Fair Housing Month. That's it, and thank you very much. Thank you, Mayor. Now, Parks and Recreation Director, Tricia Toole. Good evening, Council Members. Good evening. Mayor, Mr. Ezreal. A couple of upcoming events in Parks and Recreation. Friday, April 18th, we've got a Kids' Day Off program at Volunteer Park from 7.30 a.m. to 6 p.m. Saturday, April 19th is our Royal Egg Hunt at Pop Travelers Park starting at 10 a.m. sharp. If you're at 10.01, you've missed it, so make sure you're there at 10 a.m. Sunday, April 20th, we've got our Easter Brunch Buffet at the Plantation Preserve. Please call ahead to reserve a spot. Friday, April 25th, the American Cancer Society Relay for Life at Central Park beginning at 5 p.m. In our aquatics division, we've got a swim and dive program for kids ages 4 through 9 years old. Registration is open and ongoing. We also have a new adult intermediate swim program starting at the aquatics complex. And in our athletics division, PAL is currently registering for cheerleading, flag football, and basketball. And adult athletics is registering for basketball, flag football, and softball. Thank you. Thank you very much. Director O'Toole, I've got a question for you. Do you want to talk about Earth Day celebration? Sure. I'd be happy to. Have you had a chance with your team to do any debriefing yet or follow-up? I have some initial numbers. I actually have the sheet right here. Between 5 p.m. and 7 p.m. during the Earth Day event, we had 1,200 people. Compared to last year, which was a four-hour event at Volunteer Park, we had 1,600 people, so better than last year given the shorter amount of time. The Rock the Park concert got 1,900 people, so a total of 3,100 Saturday evening at the park. From what I've heard from the staff, people had positive feedback about the plant giveaways versus the trees. There's something smaller rather than taking a tree home. From what they've said, and unfortunately I was at the women's final four, so I missed, I wasn't here this weekend, but overall positive feedback is what I heard from the staff. The vendors were happy. The sponsors were happy. I'd love to hear if you had any feedback, positive, negative. I'm happy to hear. First, just some clarification in terms of the numbers. Is that 1,200 arrived between 5 and 7, and then 1,900 came from afterwards, or was it, how are you gauging these numbers? I believe the software that we use registers individuals as long as they're there for at least seven minutes. So it's the 1,200 that actually were there between 5 p.m. and 7 p.m. That was their cell phone pinging that they were in the park property between those hours. And then between 7 and 11 was an additional 1,600 people. I'm sorry, 1,900, yes. An additional 1,900 people? Yes. Okay. And the 1,200 that were there from 5 to 7, do we know whether they were on the Rock the Park side or whether they were on the Earth Day side? We just have the park as a whole. We don't have it split. And the reason why I ask that is because it did seem that even during the Earth Day celebration that there were people who just got there early for Rock the Park. And, you know, there's that group that likes to set up real early and put their chairs down. And I'm wondering as far as the discussion, and I'm interested to hear also from my colleagues in terms of whether or not, one, doing it on the same day, Earth Day followed by Rock the Park is the best for the discrete group of residents that may be coming to each event, and whether doing a Pine Island Park versus a volunteer park is the best location for it. Right. I think there are maybe some benefits to volunteer park, but before I continue, I want to see if any of my colleagues want to jump in. Thank you, Mr. President. Megan did send out an email to all of us today asking for feedback. I wanted to take a little time to compile that, and also I think Matt Zeely, the Magnet Coordinator from South Plantation High School, I saw him on Monday. He was getting some feedback as well that he was going to provide to the council. I think just on the face of it, and I want to give it a little more thought before I respond to Megan, there was a little awkwardness, especially when we first arrived with that second stage. Right. Because of the way that was situated, the mayor and the council and even the dancers, whomever was on that stage, is facing here, and all of the tents are facing in a different direction. So when I spoke to people that were over there, even if it was our sustainability board, they really couldn't hear what anybody was saying on the stage. So it was a little bit of a different focus, and I understand why they were facing the way they were, because they were surrounding the artificial turf and the sidewalks. So I think that was a little, it felt a little disjointed from that perspective, but I know it's a work in progress. Yep. Council Member Ajaya. Thank you. I too will enter the email. The only thing to Council Member Horland's point, I know when we had the Multicultural Festival, we had seating there so that the audience members would at least face the stage and be able to hear and watch. I don't know if that was changed because of exposure to the sun or elements or I'm not sure, but there was no seating for people who, even the parents who came to watch their children perform had no seating available. So that's just one, but I'll definitely craft an email and respond accordingly. I appreciate it. I will say that I prefer to have two separate events. I feel like it just gets lost when we combine the two. Okay. We'll continue looking at it. You know, we're a little bit early, but we'll look at the expenses and the profit based on sponsorship and try to make a better decision. Mayor, I think you wanted to jump in. Yeah. I like having them together for a bunch of reasons. Number one is you attract people who might not otherwise be exposed to Earth Day and you try to grow the audience. And number two is it's more a plantation thing and that when we had the Earth Day before, a lot of it was sunrise, tamarack, you know, a portion of that. Right. And it seemed to me like everybody was at the booth visiting each other's booths. There wasn't any unique content in terms of unique people. And so in that case, we did have more booths on Earth Day then. So if we could grow the booths, do things better, fix the stage, I think it's a more applicable. And it was a slow night at the park because the Gators were playing and it was a Saturday night and everything else. And those numbers were down. They weren't bad even on a down night. Right. So those are my thoughts. Fair enough. Thank you. I just wanted to get a little discussion and have just open it up instead of just responding to the email. But thank you very much. Yep. Okay. So with that being said, we are going to recess the City Council meeting at 621 p.m. And we are going to call to order the CRA meeting. And Ms. Bedwell, I ask that you please call the roll for the CRA meeting. Commissioner Anderson? Here. Commissioner Andreu? Here. Commissioner Horland? Here. Commissioner Reinstein? Here. Commissioner Sortel? Here. City Attorney Ezra? Here. The consent agenda consists of items one through two and may be approved with one motion. Does any member of the commission wish to pull an item? And I see that Mr. Conklin also wishes to speak on the items. Do we have a motion? Motion to approve the consent agenda. Second. Mr. Conklin, only for public requests, not on the items. Okay. Then Ms. Bedwell, please call the roll. Commissioner Anderson? Yes. Commissioner Andreu? Yes. Commissioner Fadgen? Yes. Commissioner Horland? Yes. Commissioner Reinstein? Yes. Thank you. Mr. Conklin. Mr. Conklin. Dennis Conklin. 4581 Northwest 6th Court. As long as we have everybody assembled. Heavenly hosts protect you and your families. Mr. Conklin. I wanted to comment on this because, as I mentioned a little bit further, I pulled out from my horizontal stack of stuff an old agenda. And, as the CRA, you may know, was created in April 2000, and it's good for 30 years, right? We basically have five years left, because this is April 2025, so we've got five years left on it, so we're really clicking down on the clock. You mentioned the game. It went down to the last seconds. And we're sort of that way in a 30-year life, if you look at it as a game. The agenda for August 11th, 1999, announced that the CRA was going to be taken up, our CRA was going to be taken up at the Broward Commission on August 17th at 2 p.m. So I just thought I'd bring that to your awareness. And that is all I wanted to mention on this. I'll yield back my time. Thank you. Thank you, Mr. Conklin. With any other further comments from the public, further requests of the commissioners regarding the CRA? Seeing none, the CRA meeting is now adjourned at 6.24 p.m., and we will now reconvene the city council meeting at 6.24 p.m., and we will begin with public requests of council regarding municipal affairs. Those who wish to speak, we request that you complete a speaker form. If you have not done so already, please do. Please state your name and address, and please address your remarks to the council president, not the mayor, nor individual members of the council. Please keep your remarks to the allotted three minutes. If extra time will be needed to conclude your remarks, please ask for it as your time is expiring and not prior to beginning your remarks. So at this time, we'll begin with Linda Marcus. Good evening, everybody. Good evening. Linda Marcus. 105.31 Northwest 18th Court Plantation. The reason for my visit tonight, I'm representing tonight Park Village. With that said, being the treasurer now on the board, I came up to something that's very confusing to me, and I'm seeking help or direction, how to clarify it. So one of the items on our financial to pay was parcel 310. So I thought it was a vendor. So I reached out and said, well, can you give me, so we have it for our files, your license and insurance. To make a long story short, they sent me this document saying that they're an association. And they gave me their CAM license and proceeded to say that we are members of this association. Then I said, well, who else is a member of this association? Well, they told me three other communities, the Terraces, Lake Point, Rosemont, which is now known in their name, but Sarah Cove. And I said, well, I'm looking at the docks. I don't see us listed there as being a member. And we are forced to pay them whatever they choose to make the fee for cleaning waterways that surround Park Village. So I pursued it more, and I asked for a couple of minutes and or a budget, and they have no minutes. And I asked who was on the board, who is the current members of the board. The person I was speaking to, who is the realtor, the CAM, the president, the secretary, and the vendor that's on there is the vice president. So I'm stunned. I'm not feeling warm and fuzzy about this, and I need to direction how to go about it. They kept saying, well, just because your name's not on the docks, I can point it out on the parcels. And they printed the parcels from Broward County, whatever, and just say, well, this is what you are responsible for. So I'm reaching out to you because this is not normal because I know enough knowledge that if I'm participating in another community, then each member of the community is allowed to be on the board. So I'm not understanding this whole setup, and I'm asking for help. And that's where I'm at. So thank you for bringing this to our attention. And also, one more thing. Sure. The other side of the lake is Lauderdale West, which is not mentioned. And they also are on the waterway that run all the way through. And they're not participating in this thing that's been going on for years. So anyway, I may have opened a can of worms, but I do not like what I'm hearing and finding out. Yes, and it sounds like as the treasurer, you're doing your proper due diligence to investigate. I'm not sure what, in terms of the city of plantation and what the city council can do in terms of evaluating the contractual basis, the bylaws, what you're looking at, the documents you're looking at. But it's not in our docs, so. Well, whatever, what you're reviewing and presenting and putting before us, it sounds like it may be appropriate to seek legal counsel that handles those type of matters. Does, I don't know if anybody else, does our city attorney have any further guidance that we can assist? No, I was going to make that same suggestion if asked. It sounds like it's a private matter for the community to address with their own legal counsel. And if there are other communities that are also similarly impacted, there may be an opportunity to collaborate with those other communities and join financial forces and engage an attorney to review the matter. Okay. I figured I'd start here and make sure I'm in the right direction before spending my wills. And everybody's always welcome to do that, and we appreciate you coming here. Unfortunately, it sounds like it's something that could use some will-specific legal attention. I'm going to turn it over to the mayor who wants to comment for a moment. Sure. So, if I'm reading this right, they haven't asked you for money yet, though, right? Absolutely. Oh, they are? Okay. Yeah, they bill us twice a year. Okay. And everybody's paying it? Because you didn't know. Park is, but the other communities, I haven't reached out to them because they're rental communities. I'm going to ask you. Mayor, I'm going to suggest- Hold on one second, Mayor. Okay. I'm going to suggest that we don't inquire too much in terms of the legal matters and maybe if you want to have a separate conversation, but- Here's my parting comment. If you need help with plotting, call me and I'll see what I can to get you to- Plotting? When you need the documents and everything, I'll get you with the city, and if we can, we'll try to help you with what we can. Thank you. That's what I'm getting. Thank you. You're welcome. All right. Mr. Conklin. Dennis Conklin, 4581 Northwest Six Court Plantation. I wasn't at the last council meeting, just got back from Greece, got off the plane, and had a full-blown call and didn't want to pollute everybody. But I happened to pull that agenda from 1999, and it mentions that item number two on the agenda is invocation. In-vo-cation. If you look at this one now, it's comments, it's this, that, and the other thing and whatnot. What I heard online, I heard the best invocation I've ever heard presented by a council member, and I want to thank you for that. I think that if it's possible, I don't know because of the technology of the thing, I think that our agenda ought to go back to listing the agenda as just the invocation. Our founding fathers, our country was founded on basically God and the Bible. Well, to get on with things, I want to request that the people and the city urge the passing of House Bill 999, sponsored by Chip Lamarca, our own Broward County representative, not necessarily plantations, and Senate Bill 132 for legal tender. I keep mentioning about how the Constitution has provided that the states can make money, but it has to be gold and or silver. So this is legislation to put us on that pathway. Now, why do I keep mentioning this? Because we're sunk. Today's gold spot price was $3,011.50. The CAFR, which I'm waiting for the 2024, but the 2023 CAFR gold was at $1,874.50. That means loss of purchasing power of 66%, 66.0%. And as I keep mentioning with the CAFR, you're sitting on $330,000. So just figure you've lost 66% of that purchasing power. An interesting thing, following up on that, when I bought my home, April 1983, I paid $87,000 for it. If I had used gold, it would have been 210 ounces of gold. Gold at that time, we were off the gold standard, and that's what set us on the rocks. May I extend? 30 seconds. Mr. Conklin, is there a specific request of the commission that you still, of the council, that you wish to make? Yes. Okay. You can have 30 seconds to make the request. I looked at my neighbor across the street from me at 4560, and they bought their house $645,000. So the loss of the purchasing power of the dollar and the loss of the wage value. When I started work, it was $1.25 federal minimum wage. Today, the federal minimum wage is $7.25. If I had, for each hour, those five silver quarters, they would be worth $27.98 closing price today. We are going to address affordable housing later, and I'll speak back. I'll yield back my time. And thank you for allowing me to extend. Thank you, Mr. Conklin. Council Member Andradeo. Thank you, President Reinstein. I normally don't make comments during this portion of the meeting. But I must say that I am not supporting House Bill 999, which is restricting diversity and equity and inclusion and hiring practices and limiting academic freedom in post-secondary institutions. Thank you. Thank you, Council Member Andradeo. Last call for any other requests to speak from the council chambers regarding public comments. Any further public comments? Seeing none, public requests to the council regarding municipal affairs are now closed. We'll now move to- I'm sorry, President Reinstein. I think there were two or three people who wanted to speak and did not submit forms. I need the forms then. I wouldn't know otherwise. Yes. Come on down. Please come forward. Right to the clerk. Yeah. Thank you. Thank you. I didn't see them. Thank you very much. Okay. So, if you look on your agenda, there are different sections of the agenda. So, there are people that have put in their cards regarding specific matters that are on the consent agenda or on the legislative items. Those get called when we get to that period of time. If you have a general public request of council, then please make sure it's indicated that on the cards and I'm happy to call you. So, right now we have public requests of the council from Amy Miller. Hi. Hi. Welcome. Am I allowed to record myself? I'm your city attorney. Nothing prohibits her from recording herself. How about it? My son likes to see. He thinks it's cool. It's also recorded online, so. It's also online. This is 10 seconds. It's cool. As long as he still thinks I'm cool. You know? That won't last for long. Oh, shh. Oh my gosh. Break my heart. Good evening. My name is Amy Miller and I live in the Woodbury House, as everyone knows, at 121 East Tropical Way. One of the most historic and recognized homes in this beautiful city. As for my comments at the last council meeting, I'm here to request of you all a solution to the speeding concerns of the neighbors on East Tropical Way. I feel compelled to bring this horrifying reality to your attention in hopes that a permanent solution can be found. I turn to you, the leaders of our community, optimistic that you will hear these concerns and help find a solution. Since the last council meeting, I have observed on several occasions the inconceivable safety risks that occur with individuals who do not stop at the three-way stop 10 feet from my driveway. Drivers are going well above, as well as drivers going well above the speed limit down East Tropical Way. My son, Charlie, who's eight, and I have sat outside and kept a tally of drivers who do not stop at the stop signs. On Tuesday, April 8th, for example, from 6 to 6.15 p.m., we counted 15 drivers who did not stop at all and zero drivers who did. Today, why I got here a little late, we counted from 5.30 p.m. to 5.45, 18 drivers who did not stop and two that did and two that only slowed down because there was another driver. That's 80 to 100% of drivers that don't comply with the law, 80 to 100% of drivers that put my children and the pedestrians of East Tropical Way lives at risk, and 80 to 100% chance of something terrible happening. And I hope these are not odds this council prefers. Please find a permanent solution. Sidewalks would certainly reduce the risks significantly. I will return to the next meeting with more data and hopefully more neighbors. Hopefully, like I said, we can work together to collaborate for a solution before it's too late. Thank you. Thank you very much. Councilmember Andreu. Maybe you can see Miss Shallon and get an update on the progress with the sidewalk? We had a town hall meeting last year, and we've heard nothing since. So if there is an update, I would most certainly love to hear it. So, Miss Miller, I think what Councilmember Andreu is suggesting that maybe if you want to step in the back and our engineering director will meet you in the back outside, and she can give you any update or at least give you an assurance that she will follow up to give you an update. Okay? Thank you so much. Thank you all. Have a good night. Thank you very much. Next, I have Dominic Jones, please. Welcome, sir. How you doing? How you doing? How you doing, Councilmember Mayor? My name is Dominic Jones. I'm a U.S. Navy veteran, federal officer, and also a pilot with over 8,000 hours. I moved here last year, and Officer Giovanni, he welcomed me into the community, showed me I was pretty safe from where my other property is. And I noticed going around, and also I get to fly around a lot, and I see a lot of cars, either they're flat tires, rusted out, and they're just sitting there in the driveway. So I moved my boat to my driveway, and I was notified of the ordinance, it's 2542 Charlie. It's unscreened or improperly screened. A lot of people have backyards, some people don't have backyards. But mine has a fairly huge driveway that I can put the boat in, it's operational, I'll take it out every week. And I want to see, I saw that the code is pretty outdated. Is there some way that we can bring that up and try to reiterate it and bring it up to the new modern times of something like that, of some such? So, Mr. Holmes, do you have any update on, just general update on how we're doing with the overall update of our code? Maybe you can come to the podium. I know we were, there was a group that was kind of working on looking at overall update of the code. It's been a very slow progress, and all of the directors, different departments are very busy. So we were trying to kind of do that, I guess, in our spare time, so to speak. But I don't know, I know Michael Alpert was one of the ones that was working with helping to lead that effort. But I'm not so sure that what he is concerned about would be addressing that. That was kind of a reorganization and kind of just, you know, reorganizing the code a bit with some modifications. That, this is, it sounds like to me this deals with more of an appearance-related issue, and so we would have to kind of bring an ordinance back to see if it's something that the community and the council would be, you know, willing to support. So typically I think the code now requires that a boat either be in the side yard or with a certain screening or what have you. And that's the way it's been for quite some time, and also for recreational vehicles as well. Thank you very much. So, Mr. Jones, I think the answer is that we're constantly looking at reevaluating our codes. There's nothing right now currently in the works, but, you know, thank you for bringing this one to our attention. And I think the entire council hears your concern, and if it's, you know, something that we take a look at, we'll analyze it a little more based on your concerns. I think the mayor wants to jump in. I'd like to hear from you what you think is fair, what's fair and reasonable, and what would you suggest if you were up here? I would reevaluate the actual rule and see what we can do that's new to it. Because, like I said, there's multiple vehicles. I've drove around. I've even flown around a small plane a thousand feet above the plantation. Took a lot of pictures, and I've seen a lot of them that are rusted out. They're up on bricks. They have flat tires. And a lot of people have both. My neighbor has one as well. And seeing that they can, you know, change the rule if it's operational. Well, just to be clear, though, the examples you're giving sound like they are, in fact, other code violations. So if you do witness code violations, you're welcome to bring it to our attention, and maybe it's something that we're not noticing or have not been observed by others or haven't been brought to their attention. So just to be clear, it sounds like two separate issues, right? One is that if there are immobile vehicles in driveways, flat tires, whatever they are, if that's a code violation, it's something we need to be following up on if we're made aware of it. But you're asking for something separate, which is for us to reevaluate the code in regards to screening off vehicles, boats in the front of a residence. Well, that's partially correct. Well, technically, because of that, because of what I'm seeing, those are violations. But what do we have in stands for operational vehicles, like operational boats that are in perfect condition? My neighbor, he's been living here for over 12 years, and he can't even park his in the front. He doesn't have a big backyard, but he has a huge driveway as well. And he also was hit with a code violation. So it's just outdated. I just think an update needs to happen in 2025. Understood. Thank you very much. Thank you. Sir, if you can just identify yourself and name and address, please. Angelo Sika 8113 Northwest 17th Manor Plantation, Park Village. Just so you know, sir, I have you here for number 17 only. So are these general public requests of comment? Public requests? I have no idea where it fits. I know that there's a development going on at our street. And that's what you would like to speak on? Yeah, the safety of that. Understood. So that will come when we get to the item that is listed on number 17. So that's, you properly filled out the form indicating 17. He indicated he had additional comments that he wanted to make aside from that. Are there, sir, are there additional comments beyond that item? I don't want you to know what the comment is. Well, procedurally, it's not the right time. If you want to speak on the legislative item, we'll call you up when it's time. Thank you very much. That's just the, that's the way we run things here. But thank you very much. So let's, let's move on. We're next going to move on to, with no further public requests of council regarding municipal affairs, we'll move on to the consent agenda. The consent agenda consists of items one through 14 and may be approved with one motion. Does any member of the council wish to pull an item? I know I'm going to pull items two and nine. Any other members? I'd like to pull nine also. So that's the same one. Motion to approve. One moment, please. I don't. Go ahead, council member. I'm going to tell you. Motion to approve items one through 14 with the exception of two, nine and 10. Second. I'm sorry, Mr. Conklin. And we're pulling 13. Sorry. I'll rephrase the motion. Thank you. Motion to approve items one through 14 with the exceptions of two, nine, 10 and 13. Second. Ms. Beggarro, please call the roll. Council member Anderson? Yes. Council member Andreu? Yes. Council member Fajan? Yes. Council member Horland? Yes. Council member Reinstein? Yes. Okay. So we'll first call up number two. It's a resolution providing for discounts for recreation fees, city programs and plantation preserve golf course and club fees for city employees, their immediate family members and retired vested city employees. So this came before us previously for some initial discussion and then we've now received a draft motion. So in looking at looking at the motion or looking at the resolution, excuse me. Mr. Nunamaker, are you going to tackle this one? Part two. Okay. If our parks and rec director could come up please. Good evening again. Good evening. So I want to see if I'm reading this correctly in terms of the entirety of this resolution and the references to specifically in regards to the plantation preserve golf course and club. Uh, and that's the section N with four parts to it. So in, uh, is, is the offer or the, the draft consideration here that, um, so while city employees and retired vested city employees in good standing are eligible to receive the plantation resident rate on golf rounds, we're not, uh, we're not offering any type of, uh, membership discount as thought we had previously discussed and with some consensus at the prior meeting. Um, is, is that, uh, the, the reference in number two, no additional discounts will be granted on membership. Um, that means that membership pro shop restaurant lessons, room rentals, no discounts there. So what, what would actually be the discount that a retired vested city employee in good standing could receive? They would receive, uh, the resident rate on golf rounds. Even if they're not a plantation resident, they would get the resident rate. Correct. And what's, what is that discount? It's just the public rates. I should have possibly included it in your, uh, packet again, but it was in the first discussion. Uh, they vary based on time of day. It's anywhere from, I want to say $53 to $69, somewhere in that. And one of the things I think we had, we had talked about was that the, at least up until the present, the number of retired vested city employees in good standing is very minimal. Is that accurate? Uh, we. That have utilized, let's say that have utilized the golf course to date that we're aware of. Prior to this, we did not track that. Um. Anecdotally. I would say two. Okay. Um, so if we were to, if we were to amend this resolution so that, um, number two would take out on membership and we were to add a, uh, a discount on membership included, um, at least as far as we, we, we sit right now, um, it's a very minimal effect on, uh, on the budget of the golf course. I would say that's true. Yes. Okay. And I'm going to stop there for a moment. I want to call on, uh, council member Fadgen. Thank you, council president. Ryan Steen. Um, number five retired vested city employees in good standing fulfills eligibility requirements set forth by the city retirement system plans and is eligible to receive retirement benefits from the city. So I guess my question regarding that is someone could become vested in the retirement plan, becoming eligible to receive benefits, but are not receiving benefits. So therefore they just left employment and are not retired. I think that we should say and receiving their benefits, meaning they hit whatever their, um, whatever their, whatever particular pension their, um, um, their, um, participant is, is part of the criteria. Okay. So I don't know if any of my colleagues have any kind of, um, consensus on that. Where, where are you citing that? It sounds good, but I, you said number five, there's a, there's several. Hey, sounds good is all I need from you. But there are several number fives. Which number five? Line four, beginning line 49. Section 2A5. Definitions. Page 2. I don't know. Page 205, beginning line 49, A5 definitions. I would, I would agree with that. I would, I would agree with that. You have a comment, Eric? I'm reading. It's a whole paragraph. Give me a second. Well, I'll move on to the second thing. Okay. Uh, section three, um, the mayor and CAO may further, uh, further revisions to this fee schedule for the city employees, their immediate family members and retired vested city employees, except for the plantation preserved golf course and club, which shall acquire a resolution of the city council. Um, should have wrote down, I think it needs to be, I think it needs to be stated in that section that, um, and it can be changed at the discretion of administration, um, and council, because we've had this discussion or I've had this discussion with residents before is that there's nothing that we're doing right now on any matter that can't be done on a future council, whether it's a new council on the next election cycle or a new council 20, 30 years from now. There shouldn't be an expectation that a future council is going to be, um, you know, locked into a decision of a previous council or a previous administration in the mayor's office. So I would like to add some kind of comment to that. This has to do with the, um, assessment of what's happening at the time. And I'd like to think that we will take care of our, um, employees and, and let them participate in the, um, various, um, you know, these services that, um, as a thank you for their employment and thank you for their, um, in their retirement. Um, may I just clarify that you mean discounts not pertaining to the preserve? I I'm talking about everything on here. Now, I think there was an expectation that something that happened in 2006 is that we were bound to, and I wholly disagree with that. Um, even if we change the charter of the city, although very difficult to change, that's not permanent. So my point is, is that I would just like some wording in the resolution saying that, you know, this is at the discretion of administration and at the, um, um, approval by resolution regard specifically for the golf course. So I'm, isn't that what it said? Isn't that what it says? I don't think it's as clear. That's why I'm bringing it up. That's why I'm bringing it up. It says in the guidance agreement that it has to be done by resolution. What's that? What specific language would you want council member Fadgen to change? It's something to just the effect saying that the, um, that this can be, um, changed at the discretion of administration, or I think it's kind of saying, I think I wanted to be more explicit. It wasn't as explicit as I had hoped it to be. I don't want any kind of confusion that, um, that a future council is, is, is locked into a decision that we're making today. One moment. City attorney, please. So any council can change a resolution. So I just want that wording in there. I understand that that's, that is the only, the only, at least my understanding, uh, the, the intent was to provide flexibility to administration to change the fee structure for all matters other than the golf course. I think that's covered. And, and, you know, this, I guess this is specifically for the golf course because the golf course does per the guidance, a contract requires resolution and action by the city council. I'm just saying that, um, that I don't, some wording is saying that this isn't permanent. It could be reassessed by a future council and, and changed. I don't know how to write that. Council member Hoyland. I think where the confusion is, that's basically what it says there because of resolution. I think the confusion and the lack of clarity with what we're dealing with is there had never been a resolution. And I'm trying to address that, that, that cloudiness. But I think Council member Fadgen that by us approving this resolution, now we have a process in place. So if a future council wants to come back and change a resolution, now there's a resolution in place to do so. In reading this, I'm actually thinking that the, the golf course should have been a separate resolution, not combined with the other fees. We wanted to do. Because if you read the beginning of the resolution, it's almost all about the golf course. And then we talk about everything else. Right. Well, in researching this, of course, there was no true policy we could find for the other discounts. Right. And I, we were going to bring it to you, um, during budget time when we approve our fees, but then we figured we're doing this all at once. Let's just do one. So listen, if there's no consensus to what I'm trying to propose, cause I don't think I'm being very clear. Um, I'm confusing everyone, but, uh, that happens. And it's been a very long day. Um, my last comment regarding what council member Reinstein or council president Reinstein was bringing up regarding the memberships. I do not believe that there should be any discounts regarding the memberships. It gives a, uh, there should not be a, uh, greater benefit to a resident or a non-resident that is paying the full board, because that gives you special privileges, um, to be a membership, uh, to be a member of the club. Um, what is the, what is the membership total at this point in time? And what are we, what is our capacity? Because I was told at one point we were over our capacity. That was, it was difficult to actually fulfill the promises of early tee times and, or prime tee times. That's the feedback I've heard, uh, recently. Are we still there? Yes. So we're not even in a position to discount. A discount is to try to get more people to come out. I, I'm just fundamentally against giving a discount beyond what the residents are getting, particularly for something that's the whole point of it is, um, the main point I would think, particularly for a municipal golf course, is to get a prime tee time, in my opinion. That's the way I saw it. That's the way I read it. Um, I know with membership, you get additional, uh, perks, which is discounts at the restaurant, discounts at the pro shop, discount on room rentals, the earlier booking tee times. I mean, if they pay for the membership and they're not a non-resident to get the, the resident, um, um, rate, but to get an additional discount. And I think I read an email and it said it's inconsequential. Well, if it's inconsequential, then it, we don't need to do it either. So, um, I'm just fundamentally against it. Um, particularly since I'm hearing that we have a full membership. Are we accepting new memberships at this point in time? We accept them all, uh, October 1st. Okay. And then they're prorated six months in. So we have a renewal process in it. Yes. But is there a point that we're going to cut off if we're having a problem giving people the prime tee times? Um, that I haven't spoken to Guyton about. I know we have about 125 members today. Okay. All right. I think that's a, I think that's an important number that we need to know. Um, you know, how many can we accommodate? Because we don't want to sell something that we're not able to accommodate. Um, so my, my, uh, position is we can't discount the, um, the memberships. And, uh, I think that's all I have for now. Thank you. Just a couple points in, in response just to clarify is that, um, I don't see the, uh, if a discounted membership was to be offered to retire vested city employees in good standing, I don't see the goal as necessarily just to get more people to come out to the golf course. I see the goal as to benefit, um, our employees by letting them know that their long service is being rewarded by this, uh, by this membership discount upon their retirement. Um, so I, I, although there may be others who have stated that their goal, that they think the goal of this is to get more people to come out. That's not how I'm viewing this. Um, one other point in terms of section three, why I don't have a problem with the general wording of section three in terms of accomplishing, I think what Councilmember Fadgen, um, has been asking about. I, I do think that the language that says, uh, on line 156, retired vested vested city employees should say retired vested city employees in good standing to be, uh, consistent with the, uh, defined, uh, term in, um, A5 of definitions. And drawing their benefits. Councilmember Andrea. Thank you. Um, can I offer a compromise then? So would the council be amenable to grandfathering in those who already were receiving the benefit, which we think anecdotally that those only two retirees who were receiving it. And then moving forward, we would not offer future retirees the membership discount, but still would receive the resident discount. That is my proposal. Councilmember Anderson. Is there a, the member, the general membership fee, is there a resident membership fee and a non-resident membership fee? Yes. So you're saying, and then we're also off, the proposal is to offer them a 20% discount to which fee? The resident fee or the non-resident fee? The resident fee. Right now that's not part of the proposal. I know, but. Well, that, that is what was, that's being raised on the dais. Um, I, I think it could go, it could go either way. Right. And I'm sorry. What did you, I also wanted to, to add to yours. Would you, would you restate what you were saying? Oh, you wanted to compromise? Remind me what you're saying. Sorry. No, we would just grandfather, because I see Councilmember Fagin's point that at the end of the day, right, this is still an enterprise fund. So if we wanted to, since this is all new and to Councilmember Horland's point, we are now, uh, putting this resolution down and we'll have something moving forward in the future. So since it's new and those two members were receiving the discount for, I don't know how long, but for quite some time now. So if we grandfathered those two in, but moving forward, we would not offer retirees the membership discount, only what's currently in the resolution before us. Well, I think they should, if a friendly amendment is that they should at least get the resident rate like we're offering them for golf fees. It's, it's a similar thing. I think that's already in there. To the resident, you said not to give them a discount. You're saying only grandfathered. I'm talking about the membership. The membership fees, the, uh, the resident rate. That's not currently how it's written. It's, it's written that it's based on their actual residency. Okay. So it could go either way. Yes. We have to specify it. I'm sorry. Wait, I'm sorry. Um, can you repeat that? Uh, Ms. Uh, yes. Let me find the, um, section for you right now. It's written that the membership itself would be based on the either employees or retirees, actual residence. I believe it's in the page four or five, section N. Four. Number four. So how does that comport with full, with one, which says city employees and retired vested city employees in good standing are eligible to receive the plantation resident rate on, on, on golf rounds. That's simply if they want to walk in and play a round of golf as a non member. Okay. So membership is not being addressed. Correct. Correct. So we're saying that there's no discount for. Correct. So that's why I said, if we offered and grandfathered in the two people, two to three, I'm okay with the, uh, compromise and then keep it. Um, and then going forward, what's being proposed. So we want to offer no membership discounts after the grant beyond going forward. I think they should get it. I personally think they should at least get resident rate. Like we're offering for golf rounds, but the resident membership rate. Would, would you accept that friendly amendment to your, uh, proposed, uh, yeah. It would be consensus. I'm just sharing my opinion. I'm saying that, uh, tongue in cheek in terms of our, our discussion is that, is that in order to build consensus on that. Sure. Uh, I would be good with that. Councilmember Anderson, anything further? Yes. I, I have a, uh, the, the line 49 number five, I don't feel like the, is it line 49? Uh, that paragraph number five, I don't feel in good standing is hitting the definition is strong enough. Cause we were talking about if an employee maybe is under, leaves under, you know, under less than desirable conditions, but they do submit their two week notice. They're in good standing, but they weren't really in good standing cause we kind of maybe had to show them the door. So I don't think that's very strong there. Would it help if we said, if we referred it back to their evaluation and said they have a highly effective evaluation and in good standing? I mean, I think operationally to keep it simple, they gave their two weeks or given you a card and you're, I mean, you know, this, this, this is going to be difficult to track if it gets a little too. Let me jump to council member Portland, please. May I just on that? Cause I want council member Anderson to finish. I think that, uh, because I was the one who specifically raised this question. I think if someone is offered a constructive discharge or a retirement, they would not be giving their two week notice. So I think that's why that effectively the two week notice, um, as per the employee guidebook would stand. Uh, I'm comfortable with that. Um, because again, if you're terminating someone or giving them that offer, they're not giving their two week notice. But just to ask maybe a follow up as to that in terms of, uh, procedurally is that if somebody is essentially given the opportunity to, um, to, to leave, um, they can then give their two week notice, right? I mean, is that, I don't know in terms of how our, our HR works in terms of that policy. No, and unfortunately recent circumstances, I can tell you emphatically that when that choice has been offered there, it is not considered two week notice. It's not considered or it can't, it's, it's as a matter of, of our rules and regulations, it cannot be two week notice. I mean, I just wouldn't want somebody to essentially game the system, right. And say, well, I want to keep playing golf. And so you're firing me, but I'm going to give you my two week notice so that I can fit into this category. I take your point, but I don't think there's any way in the, at least in these recent examples, they could interpret it that way. Cause they're effectively removed that day. They're not given two weeks notice. Okay. Okay. Thank you. Council member Anderson. I'm fine with that. And that's it for now. Council member Hoyland. Thank you, Mr. President. So, um, I think that, and given the email we had received, I think there may have been a little confusion in our discussion and what their consensus was and what we were, um, what we were bringing forth tonight. My interpretation of what happened at the February meeting was originally it was offered that there would be not no discount for the retirees. And I thought we all agreed. We wanted to see some type of discount. Um, I did not expect a discount on membership because when we start to look, I was in agreement with, uh, council member Fadgen. I do believe that whatever we're giving retirees, we should be offering to employees. There's gotta be equity there. So when we start to look at memberships, if we're discounting memberships, we cannot sustain that as a revenue base. If we're off offering that to everybody, that was one of my concerns. Um, I did speak to guidance today, so I don't know where we are on the memberships. I got the number of 145 roughly, 125, but we're there. But I think the more important, uh, conversation I had that their tea sheets are full until 4 o'clock every day. Um, and I think that council member Fadgen, you had made the comment and I confirmed that, 59,000 rounds going through that course. So, you know, when the golf course, uh, first opened and the city, uh, took it over, we were needing to incentivize people, uh, to get out there and golf. And that's no longer the case. Uh, and we really do need to generate that revenue so we can invest back into that golf course. I think that they told me that last month they had the best month financially they've had in the history of the golf course. And that's saying a lot for, uh, the teamwork and certainly they're working with Miss, uh, Miss O'Toole and administration. Um, I would accept the friendly amendment, um, for the grandfathering the two people in. I did say that I had preferred it would have been handled in a different way. You know, everything kind of, you know, happened and we did not have any basis of, um, procedure other than a memo from long ago. So I think that, uh, administration had to act and it parks and racked had to act. What I had would have had preferred at that point that we would have said going forward, this is what it's going to be, but you continue right now. So, um, I, I would council member Andreu, uh, except the grandfathering in, but I do not believe that beyond that we should be offering a discount on membership based solely on, on revenue generation. Thank you, Mr. President. Councilmember Fagin. Councilmember Fagin. So, okay, I'm so confused. So, um, Um, going forward, as, as the resolutions proposed now, if they're a resident of the city retire employee, they, they, they, they no discount on the resident membership rate. No discount on the non-resident membership rate. Um, but you get the, um, resident membership rate for, uh, cart fees and, and green fees. And we're going to grandfather in the two known retirees. Okay, I'm okay with that. So if the decision of the council is to grandfather in the two that we know of or any others that may we become aware of that fit that category, Mr. Ezra, is it best for clarity to do that in a separate resolution? Do you have a suggestion in terms of the best way for clarity purposes? On the discussion only relative to the grandfathering in we're talking about? Yes. I just want to make sure that however we, if that is what... I'm not clear how you define that category of individual. So it would be something that I would need an opportunity to speak to administration about crafting language to accommodate your requested modification. The only other option that I could think of would be to membership discount for retirees as authorized by resolution of the city council. And then you could do a separate resolution identifying those individuals if you want to identify them by name. So if we were to add a number 5 to N, which is Plantation Preserve Golf Course and Club, and add a 5, which would indicate that upon resolution of council, I mean some language that would allow us to do what we want to do and not have us to redo this one, allow us to vote on the majority of the content of this one, but essentially foreshadow that we're going to do another resolution. Is that what you're suggesting? That was the second option. If we cannot identify the category of individuals today for inclusion. May I? Please. I don't want to get in between the two attorneys. Could we not, if we created that number 5, simply state something to the effect, and again I know you'll have to clarify the language, essentially grandfathering in any retiree who received the membership discount between such and such dates. Again, that's up to you. I just am not clear because if we didn't track, I'm not sure how you know. Right, and I know that was an issue with tracking. If that's okay with you, and you know what you mean. Right, I mean I'd rather not have to name people in the solutions if we can avoid that. No, and I wouldn't want to either, and I think if we use that language, you know, to the extent that somebody would come up out of, that hasn't yet come forward and say they fit into that category, Ms. O'Toole, is that something you think we could deal with at that time if there turns out to be a third or fourth or some additional people? Yes. Okay. I was thinking, can we add in the resolution, people, retirees receiving this benefit apply for the status by a certain date, and then at that point, if they don't apply, then they don't get it. I don't know how to write it, but. Council Member Andrea? I think that could work. April 30th or May 15th, 2025. And then we're grandfathering any retiree as of May 1st or whatever cutoff date we decide upon. I see the mayor wants to chime in. And then if I could just make one more point. I don't want to confuse us anymore, but I did, I was at the golf course yesterday, and then I hadn't heard of this. So there's also a premier card membership. Do we need to state that that will not be part of this? Because there's a membership where they can go to other courses in other cities. No. We don't even need to deal with that. Okay. I just don't want that to, because I didn't know about that membership. That card's been around for years, and there's a protocol. So what if you had to be somebody who was a member at some time before? In other words, we're giving discounts to people who've shown that they want to be members, and they paid memberships at the full price, and that qualifies. Has been a member in the past. Because that shows that you want to continue your membership and keep playing, and you're not just diving in at the last, you know, being an opportunist. Council Member Hoyland. I am not comfortable opening you up that broadly. I think that we, I'm assuming, while we were not tracking who was playing Miss O'Toole, there was receipts of who's paid memberships in the last couple of years, correct? Yes. So I think the two grandfathered individuals, I think if we say we're going to have people apply, that's going to open up a whole other can of worms. And, again, we're affecting that revenue stream. So I think sticking with grandfathering the two individuals in that we are known, and if there's anybody else who's paid for membership that we don't know about, but I would not be in favor of opening that up broadly to other retirees. Mr. Noonemaker. Hello again. Just to try to bring this to closure, I think we have you all's clear intent now. So based on previous conversations, we can narrow the window of people who are eligible for this. So if you all want to give us a final crack, we can put it on the next meeting and stick a fork in this. Thank you all. So unless there's any other discussion, I think that we will not vote unless there's – Well, you could table it. We can table it. It doesn't have to be to a time certain. So that they can put another draft together for us based on this discussion. Is – counsel, I don't think we need – Yeah, there would be a motion and a second, and once there is a second, there's no further discussion on the item. Motion to table. Second. May I, for clarification purposes, one more time, the grandfathering in is 20% the resident rate on memberships. Is that what it was previously? It's actually 28%. 28%? No, I forget it. That I don't know. Well, I think it should be 20%, but I guess now the question is going forward, it's going to be resident and non-resident. So – I'm sorry, it's 28% off of the regular rate, not the resident rate. I'm sorry. And, Council Member Fadgen, what are you proposing? Council Member Fadgen, what are you proposing? 20% off – I don't even know where we're at. I think 20% off the non-resident rate. Yeah, if this is where the consensus is going, it would seem 20% just to keep it an even number would make the most sense. So, 20% off the actual person's address? Yes. Whether they're resident or non-resident. Correct. Gotcha. Thank you very much. So, procedurally, Mr. City Attorney, Mr. Eswell, just to be sure, is that if we're tabling it, are we taking discussion from the public? You do not need to take discussion from the public, and there should be no discussion from the public on the item that's tabled, because there's no further discussion. And the public will have an opportunity to speak before you take action on the final version. Okay. Very good. So, we will move on past item number – did we vote on the table? We did not. Call the question on the table, please. Council Member Anderson? Yes. Council Member Andreu? Yes. Council Member Fadgen? Yes. Council Member Horland? Yes. Council Member Reinstein? Yes. Mayor, did you have something further? I see you on my chart here. Yep. Okay. Okay. So, next on our list is item nine. So, item nine is the Plantation Civic Center Boundary and Topographical Survey. Maybe you could just answer, please, as to why we need an outside entity to provide the information that is being sought in the survey. Charles Spencer, Procurement Director. I will have to defer that to the requesting department that's asking for this service. I believe it's the Engineering Department. No? Yes? No? Multiple? Multiple departments? Multiple people. Don't all come running at once. Hi. Elson Soto, Project Manager Administration. So, the actual survey was brought upon administration and multiple departments' decision to try to build on a master plan for the city of Plantation as we go forward in the design, development, drainage, engineering portions of the city. This particular survey is Plantation Civic Center based on the information from the Broad County Property Appraiser as listed as the actual definition of the location, which consists of City Hall, Development Services, and PD, which is from- That answered one of my questions I've never heard referred to as the Civic Center, so- Yes, that's the way Broad County Property Appraiser has it listed. Okay. The legal definition is- We'll have to talk to our resident property appraiser care there. Okay. Okay. With that being said, we had just finished doing the Liberty Park survey, and because there are some changes that we need to do in regards to engineering portions, the black iron pipes for utilities, the remodeling renovations of multiple buildings, and the departments got together and felt that if we got one general survey for the entire complex, we can use that to make better informed decisions as we move forward with progressing with the actual renovation or improvements for the city of Plantation. So, I'll tell you what my concerns are, and I raised some of these concerns when we had the survey for Liberty Park also, is that, you know, in reading the document by Atwell, that details the proposal for professional services. As I'm reading it, I'm thinking to myself, well, that sounds like something that our landscaping department does. That sounds like something that our engineering department does, and I respectfully see a director in the back shaking her head at me, and that's why I'm here to ask the question here because, you know, I'm looking at some of these sections, for example, task three, arborist report tasks, says obtain tree identifications and measurements. A certified arborist report will be prepared. The section on, you know, boundary survey tasks, easements obtainable from the Platts, and the Broward County public record search will be added to the survey document. I understand the idea of having one company do it all at once, and I understand that, although it also seems to me that we have such amazing people that work in our city that do all this separately, not together, and maybe somebody under our special projects can be that coordinator to collect it all so we don't have to pay this kind of fee, even though, granted, $60,000 is not the hugest that's ever been before us, but it's still taxpayer money, right? Good evening. Samira Shalayan, city engineer. I would like to address the comment in a different facet. Number one, I'm a professional engineer certified by the board of professional engineer. We have also Leonard Dornville, our assistant city engineer, is certified professional engineer. However, my registered license will not allow me to sign and seal a survey. I'm not a registered surveyor. So that's number one why we need an outside surveyor, because that's outside the area of expertise, and by the Florida Board of Professional Engineer Regulations, I will not be allowed to sign and seal a survey. That's number one. Let's start with number one for a second, because I just want to ask a question. I understand that there are lots of projects where you need the hired vendor or contractor to do the entirety as opposed to piecemeal. Would a surveyor, a professional surveyor, which you are not, would they accept the collected information from our city and then base their survey based on everything that we've collected as opposed to paying them to do all the collection of things that are within your purview? Partially, yes. Partially, yes. For example, the plats, the legal description, which actually in the scope, the legal description will be provided by the city, which we already, you know, have it in our files. So we will provide them with as-built, with information that we have. However, the civic center that nobody of us knew here knew that this complex called civic center had a history. So we needed one entity to gather all the information, and toward the end of the day, going back to the professional license, that entity need to gather this information, study it, approve it in order for that professional surveyor to sign and seal. So he needs to verify the information provided by the city. Number two, in order to provide a survey, we need surveying equipment that the city does not have. Neither we don't have also the technical expertise to provide surveying, horizontal and vertical surveying. This is a whole science. Fortunately or unfortunately, we don't have the skill, the knowledge, and the equipment to provide that survey. I served, this is my fourth city that I serve in, and I'm proud to serve as the city engineer of my own city. If you survey other cities, other than the city of Fort Lauderdale, you will not see a surveyor as a staff member. You will have professional engineers, project managers, but surveying is a very professional, licensed personnel, and usually organization, the quantity of work does not support a full staff member or crew member to have an in-house surveyor. I can't speak a lot on the landscaping, but landscaping division require an arborist report. I'm not sure about the technical and the certification that our landscaping employees have, but this survey was vetted by them, and they are the one who requested that particular scope with that professionalism to be there. So I take your comment that, and in other projects, and I'm going to bring, for example, North Acres Park. We hired a surveyor to do a survey. We designed the project in-house, except the electrical and the irrigation, because it's outside our expertise. Let me just stop you for one second. So that based on, and let's take that as the example in North Acres Park, is that although in North Acres Park you found that we were able to do some work in-house and provide that information to the surveyor to do their work, there's nothing in this proposal or this request that we have before us that we would be able to pull out, essentially, to reduce the costs and provide it to the surveyor. Everything that's in here that's part of the surveyor scope, you believe is necessary in order for the surveyor to do without us providing it to them. Reviewing the scope, yes, I will agree to that. Let me turn to Councilmember Anderson for a moment, please. You've hit most of them, thank you. The pricing, I've seen many surveys in my lines of work and personally, but I've never really priced one. It seems pretty high, but I don't have any. And we're under a broad contract with this company, so it's not a bid. We have nothing to compare it against. So I'm blind here about if this is a fair price, I have to tell you. So the unit prices are already set in the contract. I will allow the procurement. So we have several firms within the surveying discipline. They all have the exact same price. So there is no... And do we competitively... How do we... So we competitively... And we're going to be before you next council meeting, but we negotiate the prices competitively across the board. So in this particular library, all the prices are identical. So out of the three firms we have, they all have the exact same unit rate. The unit rate, but then they're picking how many units it costs to measure a tree. Correct. So then the city staff looks at those hourly... The proposed hours and the work that they're doing and align it to make sure that the lump sum fee that you were seeing before you is adequate for the job itself. So to keep going with that, I don't know if I need you anymore, Charles, but thank you for that. The $12,000 for... Seriously, I'm glad you clarified that. The tree survey for $12,000 and an additional $2,000 for the arborist. I don't know if that's reasonable, but to go around and just measure the trees on this campus, is that $14,000? It's just some of these things seem very high. Again, that's not fair because NDELE is not here, but my brief understanding of the scope, they are measuring the trees, the length, the dbh of the trees, which is required in the tree disposition plan, in addition to the health of the tree. So if it is in good condition to be removed, to be replaced, to be relocated, so all of that part of the arborist report. And I think you did say, though, that they wanted... Our landscaping wanted that. That tells me they think it's a value. I assume that. I'm going to assume, since she's not here... I will assume that. That they think it's a value, so... Just, Council Member, just to that last point, is that NDELE is an arborist. He's a certified arborist, so it is a shame he's not here at the moment just to answer at least that part of it. It's a minor part of it, but, you know, goes to, you know, where we're trying to analyze the entirety of it, and you're right, there's more than just one section to this, and so it does trouble me that there are things that it seems like maybe we can do internally to save costs. And I just want to make one last comment on that. You will see in the near future that the engineering department is going to take upon a lot of in-house design, so we need these surveys as the base for our design. So if you allow me to say we're proud of our product as in-house, we work together as a group, whether capital, whether landscaping and engineering, to the maximum we can within the human resources allocation that we have. Understood. Thank you very much. Any further, no further discussion from Council? Is there a motion on Item 9? Motion to approve. Is there a second? Second. Any comments from the public? I don't see anybody has signed up for it. Ms. Bevereaux, please call the roll. Council Member Anderson? Yes. Council Member Andreu? Yes. Council Member Fadgen? Yes. Council Member Horland? Yes. Council Member Einstein? No. Thank you. Follow-up? Can you give me a follow-up on this? Go ahead, Mayor. I don't like the name Plantation Civic Center either. And if you all got a better one, I refer to it as the Plantation City Hall Campus, which seems a little bit better. But let it roll around in your head. If you have a better one, come up, and we can do it. I would like to have something universally that the public can digest. So throwing it out there. Thank you, Mayor. Item 10, Council Member Fadgen. Thank you. I spoke with Charles about this, and my conversation with him had to do with when we renovated the women's room behind the dais. And I believe we weren't sure when we talked, but it was about $80,000, something that we did just for the women's room. That's about right. It was $79,900. It was about $80,000. Okay. And what I was talking with Charles about was that, you know, the average cost of these restrooms is going to be about $52,000 with the winning bid on this. So we missed an opportunity. It certainly would have been a little bit more than $80,000, but we should have done both of the bathrooms behind the dais. Now we're going to be doing – that's going to be part of this bid, doing the second bathroom. So I just want to – and I think I've already had a discussion with Jason with this back when we approved the original renovation of the women's room, that it was a missed opportunity to get a little bit of economies of scale, because I don't think it would have been double, but it would have been a lower average cost. So I'm pleased that we're grouping these all together, do all the restrooms, and I think we did get some economies of scales. It's $30,000 less per bathroom than what we did when we did a single bathroom. So I just really want to make a comment to that, and with that, I'll make a motion to approve this item. Second. Any further discussion on Item 10? Seeing none, Ms. Beggro, please call the roll. Council Member Anderson? Yes. Council Member Andrew? Yes. Council Member Fadgen? Yes. Council Member Horland? Yes. Council Member Reinstein? Yes. Thank you. Item 13, Mr. Conklin. Dennis Conklin, 4581 Northwest District Court. As I mentioned about the condition of the gateway when I was pulling out of my drive to come to the council meeting tonight, it looked like there was a fully involved fire in the gateway 7 and the CRA, so I hope everyone is safe. My request here, again, drawing your attention to the expense for week one and week two. In week one, the gateway to back up. The gateway has an additional millage rate, an additional millage rate to everyone else's millage rate in the city. And I've requested since the creation of the CRA and the mountain of TIF money you get that the relief should be given to the gateway 7 so that they don't have the extra millage rate. So, again, looking at week one, $1,520 of water and wastewater. In week two, $4,348.44 water and wastewater. My point is I think that we could take some of the pressure off those owners, those businesses in the gateway 7 overlaid by the CRA by eliminating the extra millage, allowing them to pay the millage that we all pay for a property. And I hope everything, again, is okay fire-wise out there. I'll yield back. Thank you. Do we have a motion on 13? Motion to approve. Do we have a second? Second. Seeing no further discussion, no further comments, Ms. Beggro, please call the roll. Council Member Anderson? Yes. Council Member Andreu? Yes. Council Member Fadgen? Yes. Council Member Horland? Yes. Council Member Reinstein? Yes. Next up, administrative discussion items. Plantation Midtown Bridge update, please. Good evening again. Samira Shalan, city engineer. I have with me tonight a representative from Marlin Engineering, our consultant for the Midtown Bridge. The goal today, tonight, is to give you a brief on the progress of the Midtown Bridge, plus to discuss the aesthetic look and hopefully have consensus and your vote on how we would like the Midtown Bridge to look. With that said, I have with me Jeff Widener, the Senior Transportation Planner, Chief Planner, Transportation Planner for Marlin Engineering. Thank you, Council Members. Good evening. Jeff Widener, Chief Planner with Marlin Engineering. I'm here today with Yeni Soka, who's also a Florida-registered engineer, and he's the engineer of record for the bridge design plans. Just want to give you an update on the progress of the bridge. There was like a two-year hiatus trying to get our environmental approvals and share with you some of the input received on the aesthetic look of the bridge. There we go. So, first of all, the bridge is located in the green lines here. This is what's called, and I'm not seeing the laser working. But you can see it. It's about 1,000 feet west of where University Drive meets with I-595 slash State Road 84. That was the location that we identified as it fits well with the merge point into I-595, and it lines up with the driveway of the old Aetna building. Just a graphical representation of what the bridge will look like from a bird's eye view or aerial view. It's a 200-foot-long bridge. It has three lanes, two lanes entering and one lane exiting. It has a westbound right turn lane on westbound State Road 84 entering into the bridge, and then there's acceleration space for traffic leaving the bridge and right out turn only. It is right in, right out only. There were no other movements allowed on State Road 84. The intersection at Southwest 17th Street, it will have high emphasis pedestrian crossings. To note, we are crossing or breaking the New River Greenway, and what we're doing is we're providing high emphasis pavement markings and signage both on the greenway and on the roadway approaches. There will be pavement markings, and there will actually be pedestrian activated in-ground lighting for the crosswalk on the greenway. So when you're walking or approaching, and it's even in the daytime, these flashers blink. They have some on State Road A1A along the beach, and they're effective, particularly at night. So I want to share with you where we are. So we started the project back in April of 2021 with the public kickoff meeting. At that time, we had a parallel effort with the environmental documents and the design. We are following the federal process so that you all could access federal dollars, and at 60 percent, or before we can get approval to get 60 percent design, we have to have completed our environmental documents, and we've just done that. So December 9th of 2021, we had a public workshop, and then a public hearing where the preferred alternative was selected in 2022, and then we had issues with getting the Florida Office of Environmental Management to approve planning consistency with the Metropolitan Planning Organization's long-range plan. We went through two rounds of amendments and approvals, but in December of 2024, we were consistent. They found us consistent, and we received location design concept approval on February 28th, and a big deal, the FHWA, the Federal Highway Administration, gave us the approval to access Westbound State Road 84. So this is a big deal. This is like asking for a new driveway into I-95. I mean, they just don't do this very often, and we got that approval. FDOT requested it, and we got the approval. So now we're moving forward again. So I'm happy to say that we're looking at and we're entering the final design to get to 90 percent and 100 percent, and we should have our construction permits by the end of February of 2026. So less than a year from now. It's been a long road. Just some critical items on our Gantt chart. Today, in Dunyany's team, we submitted the 60 percent plans for final approval with DOT. So we're moving forward and beginning the 90 percent plan process. Whatever comments we get from DOT in the next 30 days, we'll incorporate into 90 percent. We're looking to have 90 percent delivery to the DOT in September 26. One thing we're starting now is – correct. No, it's September 26, 2025. Yeah, my bad. I'm sorry. So getting the permits is a long, gone-out process, and you'll see that long line there almost to the bottom. We're starting that process now. We cannot guarantee, just like working with the Office of Environmental Management, exactly when we're going to get it. But we can't get construction permits, particularly until we get the South Florida Water Management District to say, you can build a bridge over our canal. They're the most important partner here. We're looking to submit 100 percent plans January 5, 2026, and having the EPDOT permit by February 18th of 2026. I do want to talk to you about the aesthetics of the bridge. Midtown Plantation does have wayfinding standards, and we fell back and we looked at those. And this is the gateway treatment in the middle that you have at Cleary and Pine Island. It has both your traditional brick look on the bottom, but then it has the logo and the branding for Midtown Plantation. We took that into consideration, but we wanted to show you two different alternatives, just to look at some different choices. So we were talking about Plantation Preserve for a while here, but that's a beautiful bridge on the south side of Roward Boulevard. You have the traditional plantation look, and you have a side-mounted gateway treatment. And then inside Midtown Plantation on 80th Terrace, just north of where the bridge will be, there's a travertine-looking bridge. So we took those styles and made a graphical representation. This is not the scale engineering drawings. We did hear at PNZ about how close the gateway treatment was to State Road 84. It will definitely be pushed back when it's designed, but we just wanted to let you see some of the options. So this is sort of the gateway treatment at Plantation Preserve for the Midtown Bridge, side-mounted gateway. There were two choices for lighting. They look very, very similar. And then there's also potential to do a standalone gateway feature, kind of like what you have at Cleary and Pine Island. And this is the travertine look. And in both situations, we're going to be doing stamped concrete on the median. We had discussions way in the beginning that there's maintenance issues with landscape, and it doesn't always look well. So let's just go with the stamped concrete. Last night at the PNZ board meeting, they had a really good idea to use the three colors, the green, orange, and white, but do it twice so that there's a visual thing that might slow people down. We can move ahead. That's like a no-cost item, but we're moving to 90% and 100% planned, so it's time to make these decisions. So we have three options for your gateway treatment. Stand-alone gateway, Midtown Brand. Stand-alone gateway, the traditional brick look in the Plantation Preserve. Stand-alone gateway, and do a side-mounted gateway that's very much like Plantation Preserve. We have two options for the lighting, and again, they look very much alike, but it's post-top lighting, King Victorian or King Vizcaya. And on March 20th, we went to the Midtown Advisory Board. They wanted a brick facade. They wanted side-mounted gateway, and they wanted King Victorian lighting. Last night at P&Z, we got the same input, and now it's your turn to give us some input, and also open up the Q&A. Council Member Fadgen. Thank you, Council President. Can you go back? Okay. I'm in agreement with, who are the two boards? P&Z and Midtown. Midtown. Yeah, I like the brick. I would like to see more brick bridges when we have opportunities to make these ask or do renovations, and I like the Victorian light, and I like the side-mounted, so that would be my opinion. Thank you. Council Member Anderson. Can you keep going backwards to the, I think it's the preserve bridge? So we don't have lights on that. Aren't there giant lights? No, no, at 595, aren't there huge lights lighting up the entire highway? Why do we need to add lights, which add expense and maintenance and everything, and I can see the metal getting bad and the lights breaking? Why do we need lights when there are already lights there? Why not just do, like, the topper? Based on your look, not needed. It's another option, and, you know, we didn't think of no lights, but you're absolutely correct. I had a light bulb go on saying no lights. And there is street lighting also on 17th. If we're going to stay with the lights, I agree with what Council Member Vagin, all the things Council Member Vagin said, and basically what the two advisory boards said, that you agree with the two advisory boards, right, all three? Yes, I agree, too. But I would kind of consider a no-light option just because, look, actually there's a giant street pole right there where there's light. That's just a tree with no branch, with only one branch. I don't illuminate a lot either. I like the lights. Council Member Hoyland. I can just address that comment. It's easier to do the infrastructure of the light, part of the bridge construction, and then if we want to hold the light fixture itself for a future date, we will think about that. But it's a structural element, so we want to design the electrical and build the electrical infrastructure, if you allow me. So would you just cap it for now if we chose? I like the lights myself, so I like to proceed with the lights, but, you know, because, again, it's an extra safety measure. You just don't want anybody to say, I didn't see, you know. So, yes, it's lit, and it's lit to FDUT standards. However, it's an extra measure entering our Midtown. Plus, it is, like Jeff had explained, it's the Midtown theme, so if you take the design standard of the Midtown, the wayfinding have that look with the light, so to be consistent with our own standards. They have those lights all over the Midtown? No. Like with the wayfinding, this was the standards that was proposed, like for the Midtown, and we would like to stick with them. And, again, for me, it's easier to have the infrastructure in a structure like that, and then if we want to decide, just take the cap off or keep it. So don't go away. I've got another question for you. So I agree if we're – I don't think we need lights, but if we – but if the consensus is to not go with lights, I still think we should have the infrastructure to change our minds later, so I agree with what you're saying. The – actually, the upper-right insert on the top there, the median, many times when you're – when it's a right-only, they'll curve that a little bit to clearly let the driver know you can only go right here. I could imagine someone pulling out of there and taking a left into one-way traffic fast on State Road 84. And, yeah, there'll be a sign and all, but people don't read signs. So I don't – you guys are the traffic and engineers and all that. I know – actually, a lot of those right along State Road 84, if you're coming out of the Pine Ridge Plaza and things, all along there, they curve so you can only go right when you're coming on to State Road 84. I believe they call it a pork chop design, and the exiting right turn should have a – It doesn't sound kosher. I don't know if it would change the aesthetics much, but it would improve the safety a lot. I don't know. Just something I would – We can add that. And, Jenny Soka, the engineer of record, what you're saying – what you're looking at there is not necessarily the plans. Right. This is a lot of representation. It's right. But, yeah, we're definitely going to do the radiuses at the tip of the median to make it flow – the traffic flow. It'll turn the car so they know that's the way they're going. There you go. Okay. That's it for me. Thank you. Councilmember Hoyland. Thank you, Mr. President. I don't want to be the contrarian. I'm not going to differ too much. The lights, they're very similar. They're very traditional. I know that they're consistent. I would have liked to have seen something a little more modern, but we want to stick with consistency. I'm in favor of the brick. However, I would really like to see that Midtown logo incorporated somewhere. I know other than going with the travertine look, that's not an option, but I think we're missing the boat on that one. So it could be incorporated into the plaque. Okay. And I think that I would like to see an option like that. Yeah. With the traditional brass look and then do the leaf. Okay. I'd like to see some consistency with the logo so everyone knows it's the Medina. And since Councilmember Anderson brought up the lighting, I do like it as a safety component, especially denoting that that is a bridge going over the canal. I think the extra lighting would be beneficial. So I would be in favor of keeping that. Councilmember Aranjo. Thank you. The same exact thing. If you could incorporate that leaf logo, I think that I would also be in agreement with both of our committees and include the lighting. Can you just repeat for me, or if you can actually go to the slide that has the orange, green, and white, and that one. Oh, there we go. That one. That one. So you also need us to decide on that as well. And what did you... We heard it last night. It's a no-cost improvement. Do we have to have the stamp design in the design plans? I would think they would know. It's a note. But it's good to have the note, though. But what was the benefit to doing the three colors just to make it more visible and, again, for safety reasons? There could be a safety impact with people visually seeing a change of colors in the pattern. And they asked for five different bands last night. Green. Oh, five. Orange. Then repeating it the other direction. So when you're coming and going, you're seeing the Midtown color branding. Okay. So then, yeah, I think it would tie in nicely with the leaf design and incorporating that, too, so it won't be so stand-alone-ish. Okay. I'm good with that as well. And the five bands. Do we have any other discussion? Thank you. Thank you very much. We'll now move to legislative items. Item 16 is the PFM Asset Management Annual Review of the City's Investment Portfolio. Well, you took the words out of my mouth. Good evening, Mayor, Council President, Council Member, City Attorney Ezra. The next item on the agenda is a presentation of the City's Annual Investment Report. Along with a presentation, it's also going to be some recommendations of the annual review of our investment policy. So we have an investment advisory firm, PFM Asset Management. Their representative is here tonight, Mr. Richard Pengelly, and he is going to give the presentation and talk about the recommendations. Sir, the floor is yours. Good evening. I don't have the clicker. Somebody go get him out the door. All right. Well, I'll get going here, and then we'll have that catch up. Success? I appreciate it. Well, I think the Elecuter, Taylor was her name, described the stock market very accurately in that poem. Fortunately, your portfolio is invested in bonds. So it's a very, very different story than what we've seen in the news today. So I would characterize the performance of the portfolio over the past year or the calendar year ending 12-31-2024 sort of in three ways or three sort of phases that we went through in the markets. Recalibration, and I'm taking that word from Fed Chair Powell, as we moved from the high inflationary period to sort of a pause and then a reduction in overnight interest rates. So, you know, from there, as we moved into the end of the year, the next phase is really uncertainty about what was going to happen with the election in terms of what administration we're actually going to get. And then post-election, what the new administration's policies in total might mean. And then into 2025, where we're sort of in this dependent kind of environment where the Fed is sort of on hold. They've given us a path, but it sort of depends on what we see come out of the administration and how their policies play out. It depends on what we see in the economic data in response to what's going on. So a lot of things sort of depend. So at the high level, the performance over the calendar year, the portfolio, long-term portfolio had a return of 4.6%, outperformed the benchmark, which was 4.09%. It outperformed by 0.59%, sorry, 0.51%. And, you know, we think about things in terms of percentages. You care about dollars. In terms of accrued earnings, over the course of the year, you had $9.6 million in accrued earnings in the long-term portfolio. So, you know, the biggest impact to things really from where we are now is really what's going on with the administration. Coming into the start of the term, there's really four key things that we were focused on, or the markets were focused on. Taxes, the expectation that taxes would get lowered. The deregulation, expectation that there would be a lot of deregulation that would benefit industries like banking, energy, et cetera. And then sort of in the, you know, negative column, tariffs and the potential impact of tariffs and higher costs and potentially driving inflation or slowing growth. And then immigration, which potentially would impact the labor force. And you recall right after the pandemic, we had this tight labor market. So there are concerns around that. I think adding all this together, the market clearly saw all of that balancing towards being pro-growth. And we saw a rise in the stock market post-election at the end of the year, as well as a slight tick-up in longer-term interest rates under the expectation that there would be more spending and more borrowing from the administration. Fast forward into 2025, and in particular, a lot of the volatility around the tariff announcements have created quite a lot of, you know, wild swings in the stock market. In the bond market, we generally see a flight to quality whenever there are concerns in the stock market leading to yields going down. When yields decline, your bond holdings actually increase in value in that kind of environment, and that's by design. Your portfolio is designed to follow your investment objectives, which come from state statutes, which are safety first, then liquidity, and then consideration of yield. So it's really designed to perform better in a market or in an economic environment where there's a slowdown, and you typically see yields decline in that kind of environment. So while, you know, we're getting a lot of questions around what's going on, what's going on in our portfolio, your investments are actually increasing in value. You know, I'll touch on sort of the Fed. So your portfolio, it's a short-term portfolio. It's very tied to where the Fed is setting interest rates and what the Fed interest rate outlook is. And the Fed, since last year, has indicated that it's in a loosening cycle, meaning that it's lowering interest rates, interest rate levels. Before it started, lowering rates in September of last year were in the 5.25% to 5.5% range. It lowered interest rates by a full percentage point last year, and it projected that its long-term view is that rates should really be around 3%, so around 4.25% now, let's say, and it really sees that interest rates should be more like 3%. So it's looking at economic data, particularly the labor market and the unemployment rate. It's looking at inflation, it's hoping for inflation to continue trending down. It's been slow to do that, but the expectation of the Fed is that over the long term, it should continue down absent sort of external factors. So from where we sit now, we really manage the portfolio with sort of that expectation over the longer term, that the longer term expectations for the Fed to try and push rates down, but also cautious about things that might cause inflation to spark up and potentially cause the Fed to either keep rates at the same level or increase them from here. So sort of shifting into your actual portfolio, so we like to include this report. Of course, we monitor the compliance of the portfolio on a continuous basis, but as of the end of the quarter, the portfolio was in line with your policy requirements, which is what this chart shows here on 7. You have diversified holdings. The predominant holding in your portfolio are either treasuries or government-backed securities with other instruments like high-quality corporate instruments to diversify the portfolio and add some yield. The average duration is in line with your benchmark, 1.7 years. Your benchmark is the ICE one-to-three-year Treasury index, and your overall credit quality or average credit quality rating is double-A on the S&P scale. To put that in perspective, the U.S. government's rating by S&P is double-A plus. So it's no surprise since that's the predominant holding. Your average credit quality is in line with that, so very high credit quality. You know, I mentioned the return numbers for the portfolio. Again, you had a 4.6% return outperforming the benchmark, and this shows your accrual earnings over time, which was $9.6 million for the year. So I'll pause there before touching on our policy recommendations. Questions? Okay. So, you know, each year we go through and look through the policy. We'll discuss it with staff and see if we have any recommended changes. And, you know, most years from year to year, we don't really have any changes, or we'll accumulate kind of small changes and then come to you and say, here, you know, here are some changes that we want to make. So in July of 2023, there was an update to the state statute adding some language about the way in which local governments need to make investment decisions. You know, at the time it was called HB3, you know, popularly, or I guess kind of using popular nomenclature, it was really an anti-ESG, environmental, social governance type of bill, saying that you can't make decisions in the portfolio based on ideological or social factors. You really had to focus on, you know, credit and financial factors. And they used a term we hadn't heard in a long time, pecuniary, had to use pecuniary factors. So this policy change will incorporate that language. As it turns out, that was already the way the City of Plantation's investment decision-making was done, like most local governments. So there wasn't necessarily a need to add it in. But since we are making some updates to the policy, we said let's go ahead and make it conform to the statutes. We made some other changes. We tweaked the maximum limits for some of the sectors, in particular the credit sectors, like commercial paper and corporate securities. And that's in line with kind of the general trend and market availability. Going back a number of years, we used to have more federal agency securities in portfolios, which are government-backed securities. Over time, those agencies have not been issuing as much. So we really are relying more on the corporate investment-grade corporate sector to make up for that in portfolios. So I'll pause there again for questions. Please continue. Thank you. No, I'm – that was it. That's it? Okay. Go ahead, Council Member Anderson. Not a question, but a comment. The attachment to the online agenda, when you click on it, the PFM annual investment report presentation, which this is, when you open it, it says Sarasota County School Board on the tab. Not on the cover page, on the tab. So just – it was probably someone did a save as and – or didn't save it. Like in the PDF header tab? Not the title, but up here on the tab, it says Sarasota County School Board. Okay. FYI. Thank you. I'll call someone about that tonight. Council Member Andreo. Just one question. So we didn't really talk about risk. What risk do you see, if any, with our current investments? Yeah. So your primary risk – well, step back. So your primary objectives are safety and liquidity, right? So safety is taken care of by investing in highly rated investments. So things like treasury securities, high quality corporate securities, et cetera. So when we talked about the credit rating of the portfolio, that's really what we're speaking to, was the credit risk of the portfolio. And an average credit quality rating of AA, you know, again, just basically a notch down from the U.S. government's credit rating of AA+, is extremely high credit quality. Within the fixed income markets, actually within the global financial markets, U.S. treasuries are considered the baseline of risk, that they're considered, you know, with quotes, risk-free, and then everything is measured off that. So that sort of speaks to the credit risk component or the safety component. In terms of liquidity, half your portfolio, again, is in U.S. treasuries, which are, you know, the most liquid, you know, biggest fixed income market. So in times of a lot of stress, kind of like we saw, investors sell everything else, when we call risk off, and start buying treasuries. Well, that's what you hold. So, again, it makes it easier for you to sell those things and create liquidity. The other holdings for the city are in, you know, bank holdings and daily liquid pools. So, again, those also are, can be easily converted into cash to make expenditures and are very liquid. So then the third major risk after that is interest rate risk, which is exposure to interest rates basically going up and down, right? So the value of your holdings will either go up or down based on what interest rates are doing on any given day. And so the way we manage that is by making sure we manage to a low average maturity, let's say. So treasury securities or, you know, bonds in general can go all the way out to 30 years. 30-year instruments have a lot of volatility, so their value is going to move a lot with each movement in interest rates. And very short instruments really don't change value as much as those long instruments. So your average portfolio duration is only 1.7 years. So then we manage that risk by keeping the average duration low. Thank you. Okay. Thank you very much. Does this item require a vote? Yes. Yes, it does. Okay. Oh. There's a resolution for you. Motion to approve. Second. And Mr. Conklin has asked to speak. Thank you, sir. Okay. Dennis Conklin, 4581 Northwest Sixth Court. As I've commented before using budget and CRA, excuse me, the CAFR, I noticed that over the years the city has been cutting back on U.S. Treasuries, which is very good because, as I mentioned, we aren't paying off our debt. We are issuing new debt to pay the debt. And it's basically hyper-hypothicating. I mean, they're just flooding everything with money. But we're at, what, $36 trillion of debt, and every 100 days we're adding another trillion dollars because we aren't paying off our debts. Right now, he mentioned the, I believe, Secretary of Treasurer. He has to come up with $10 billion that has to be refinanced now. Back, I guess it was with President Clinton, Rubin, I believe, was the treasurer there. And he took all of the notes to make it look good, excuse me, all of the long-term treasuries, and he went short on them because, as he mentioned, the interest rates are lower and less volatility. But that's what basically, I would say, gave Congress an unlimited credit card. They don't reduce the spending. They've harmed the value of the dollar I mentioned. My house, when I bought it, was $87,000. My neighbor across the street is $640,000. It took $210,000. We were already off the gold standard when I bought. The gold was at $414. It closed today at $3,100, $111. Okay, you're shutting out people from being able to form families, to form households, to buy. We're going to bring up issues here, 17, 18, and that's going to be on affordability housing. I mentioned the last time I was here, the federal government has destroyed the mortgage market because they have basically taken over 70% of the mortgages. The non-performing mortgages are part of what they have to refinance, and nobody's buying the bonds. We are buying the bonds, and they're putting them on our tab. So, again, I want to recommend Florida bills that will bring us into the Constitution for the United States, Article 1, Section 10, for the creation of actual gold and silver for legal tender. And there is no DEI in it. It allows people, if they want to, to transact in transactional gold and not pay as if it was a gold watch or a gold coin, like a new numiskatisk, value by the date. I yield back. No more time to yield back. Thank you, Mr. Conklin. There's no further comments from the dais or from the audience, from the public. Please call the roll. Council Member Anderson? Yes. Council Member Andreu? Yes. Council Member Fajan? Yes. Council Member Horland? Yes. Council Member Einstein? Yes. Next up, legislative item number 17. Mr. Ezra? Yes, sir. Public hearing, second reading of an ordinance pertaining to the subject of comprehensive planning, changing the future land use designation of a parcel of property, specifically amending city of plantation ordinance number 1626, as amended, which adopted the city's future land use plan and map to redesignate a parcel of land containing approximately 12.931 plus or minus gross acres of property from commercial to commercial and irregular 22 residential or within a dashed line in accordance with policy 1.7.6 of the future land use element of the plan, said parcel of real property described as a parcel of land in the section 33 township 49 range 41 east, said parcel including a portion of tract A university plat. According to the plat thereof, is recorded in plat book 82, page 19 of the public records of Broward County, Florida. Together with parcel A, plantation square plat, according to the plat thereof, is recorded in plat book 87, page 36 of the public records of Broward County, Florida, and being more particularly described in the legal description identified as exhibit A, property generally located at 8190 West Sunrise Boulevard, 8050 through 8150 West Sunrise Boulevard, and 1725 to 1797 North University Drive, providing for conflict, severability, and effective date. Thank you very much. Do we have a presentation? Do we need a presentation? Would anybody like to hear the presentation? I'll make a motion to approve. So this is item 17. Councilmember Moreland, did you make the motion? I made a motion to approve. Is there a second? Second. And from the public, we have some comments. Mr. Conklin. Mr. Conklin, please. You're on the top of my list, Mr. Conklin. As he comes, Mr. Holmes, there were no changes between the first and second readings, correct? Dennis Conklin, 4581 Northwest Six Court. Ten pounds in a five-pound bag, that's what we used to call it. You got less space than other developments, and that causes you to have to go higher into the numbers of stories. A lot of this is about rentals, affordability, as I've mentioned. The affordable housing, the agenda that I brought up from 1999, that was one of the items on the agenda. So picture it, 26 years, 26 years the city's been going after this. And as I mentioned, you're going to chase your tail because we have no control over our money. The Bible mentions money, three types, gold, silver, and copper. The widow's mite, you might remember. We're on the path basically because we are not reigning in our Congress, right? Article 1, for the spending, that it drives everything that you're trying to do asymptotically in cost and in possibility of achieving it. What we have to do is you have to get basically so that somebody that's paid today now their wage, as I mentioned, my five quarters for every hour was basically $30 an hour. And the federal minimum wage is $7 an hour. Nobody can accumulate enough money for down payment for ownership. They're driving everybody into 15-minute cities and rent forever, which never has a fixed cost. No ownership. And they say, you won't own anything and you'll love it. That's not the case. For my 25th wedding anniversary, my wife, who happens to be Chinese, we went into China. We were able to get in somewhat legally as a tour. And you could see these 15-minute cities, way more than eight stories, what we're talking about here, and way more than one and two buildings, vacant but built just so that they can spend the money to keep basically the population quiet. And when they crushed Hong Kong and Hong Kong uprose for its liberty, that's when they released the virus that put us all into big trouble. I'll yield back. I'm not for this. Thank you. No more time to yield back, but thank you, Mr. Conklin. Next, we have Angelo. I'm sorry. Hold on one moment. I'm Councilmember Andreu. Just wanted to ask the business impact form that was also attached. Why was that blank and not complete on this item? You will be next, Angelo. While he's standing there, Mr. Seca, why don't you come up, please? Thank you. Thank you for your patience, sir. Angelo Seca, 8113, 17th Court Plantation. Well, first thing, thank you for the city, and thank you for Marcos and the Lena properties that are on the corner of where we live. Beautified, the neighborhood is really fine design. They really made the beautification of the street really beautiful. The increase of the 282 new residents is going to increase a lot of the vehicle traffic on 17th Court. 17th Court is 3,100 feet long. It's straight. It's a drag for kids. And typically they're going about 65 miles an hour. On March 14th at 3 o'clock, Solomon died speeding on 17th Court. He was going 96. I heard the thud. I heard the crash. Horrible. Horrible to actually listen to. So I guess the number one thing I'm trying to say is the safety. It's all about safety. You've got to put a stop sign on 17th Court. Our Park Village entrance is receded in a little bit, so you don't see it. You go and buy it 90 miles an hour. More disasters can occur. And that's it. Thank you. Thank you very much. Actually, I'm going to ask if Samira, if you can come up for a moment, please. Ask our engineering director. And then we'll get back to. Have you had a chance to consider the request for a stop sign on 17th Court? Is that something that's with our purview? Is that? Not specifically stop sign. Part of the rezoning and the application in front of you, the applicant had submitted a comprehensive traffic study that have a planning level traffic study. Part of the site plan, there will be more refined traffic study that identify the impact on the local roadways and the improvement, the proposed improvement. I know we're not reviewing the site plan at this moment, but just a preview. They will be redoing the sidewalk. There will be some improvement. And I'm going to take this note that we heard today, and I'm going to look into the traffic study and see if that particular item was the studies and what the impact on the roadway is going to be. Great. Thank you very much. Mr. Sika, just so you know, I have your letter that you sent in, and I was going to ask the question whether or not you were here today or not. And so just so you know, I think what you've heard is that we're not there yet in terms of finishing up where the site plan will be and what any traffic mitigation will be. But your suggestion, your request for a stop sign will be part of that consideration. I just want to also add something. We met with the Lauderdale West community, and actually we're going to be advancing some traffic calming elements, including some illuminated stop signs. And some radar sign within the Lauderdale West community and on 17th Court. So that will enhance the safety today, regardless of the development. So I just want to add that. Thank you very much. And again, thank you for your patience. Yeah. Councilmember Andreo, I'll turn it back to you. Mr. Owens. I'm using, I legislate, so I, mine is blank. There should be a little, it's a very small check mark. Yeah, it's an electronic form, but it says the ordinance is enacted to implement any of the following, which means it's exempt from having to fill out the form. So we have checked there because it relates to comprehensive plan amendments. It looked like a little dot on the page that, I don't know, mine isn't checked, but that's okay. Mine's blank too. Yours is blank too? Okay. I don't know. I thought it was my eyes. I thought, I looked several times, but thank you for clarifying it. Ms. Carol Sword. Carol Sword, 1621 Northwest 82nd Avenue. Good to see you, Ms. Sword. Thank you. First, I am not against reasonable development, but I am against this development. On this block of 17th Court, we have on one side lean apartments made up of 306 units. Next to it is Park Village with 286 units. On the other side of the street, the developer wants to build a total of 306 units. Since the land is smaller than Lena's, the developer has to go up in order to build the same number of units. The developer wants to build eight stories instead of six. This one area will have nearly 900 units. This congestion will cause a horrendous traffic impact. Plantation is my hometown, and I don't want it to become Florida's New York City. I hope the council members will consider the residents' concerns, since it is the residents they're representing. Thank you. Thank you, Ms. Sword. Mr. Nguyen. Good evening. Joe Nguyen, 944 Northwest 92nd Terrace. I wasn't sure how it was going to be split up between combining the public comment for both of these, so if there's something separate that needs to be addressed in 18, then I guess we can just do that then. I'll add you on for 18, just in case. Okay, just in case. I appreciate it. If not, I'll defer my time. On this premise, and I appreciate opening to comment and discussion, just to address, obviously, the very real and meaningful concerns of safety. First off, the project, when you have developments like this, the developers typically work with the city and commit to traffic infrastructure improvements that may be above and beyond what the city could have afforded to do without having development there, so it will help make those roadways safer. Additionally, 17th, it's big. If you can do 90-something miles an hour on a roadway, it's too big for anything besides, like, ah, excuse me, a highway. So by being able to implement different calming strategies, I believe stop signs are not allowed to be put in as a traffic calming feature, but things like roundabouts and potentially chicanes and other things could be considered. As far as adding traffic congestion, it's unlikely to be significant. One, because a lot of the vehicles that are going to be going out and away are going to use Sunrise to come out. Second, there's a really nice brand-new double bus stop right outside of that property all along Sunrise. It's the 56th and the 36th, I believe. The 56th is a circulator for the community, and then the 36th gets you all the way to Permanente Brothers on the beach. It takes a little while, but you do get there, and you basically, you know, plantation straight to the sand. It does. It almost dumps you right into the water. But if you just cross the street right there, which I'm sure there'll be discussion on different mid-block crossing potentials or just signaling improvements there, you've got a shopping center with groceries and stores and other things that make you not need to necessarily drive. And again, the same premise as always. There's people who want to live here, and if they can't find or afford the housing, they don't just go away. They live somewhere else, and they have to drive into the area. And that adds more traffic than it would have if we just had the housing for them here. And as far as affordability, not having enough housing means that it costs more. It's not completely a supply and demand, but it's a piece of that. It is a component, and when there's high demand, as there is in this area, then by not satisfying it, it means that it'll get more expensive. And by providing it, it does get cheaper. This project does have a nice combination of affordability as well in it. Thank you. Thank you, Mr. Nguyen. Any further comments from the public? Mr. Holmes, just one question for you. I know I spoke to you before the meeting, and I just want to clarify to make sure that in looking at 17 and the land use plan amendment, this does not pertain to the eventual plan and the height of the building that will be requested. That's correct. What we're doing here is simply getting the actual land use, the use, and the zoning in place that then would enable the site plan to come along. The site plan is then when we'll consider height and parking and all sorts of other issues, bulk area, things of that sort. Understood. Thank you. Seeing no further comments, Ms. Beggro, please call the roll. Council Member Anderson. No. Council Member Andreu. Yes. Council Member Fadgen. Yes. Council Member Horland. Yes. Council Member Reinstein. Yes. Next up, item 18, is there anybody who wants any further information from the department or from the applicant from the days? It needs to read it. Go ahead. Yes, sir. Thank you. Public hearing, second reading of a zoning ordinance of the City of Plantation, Florida, rezoning approximately 12.931 gross acres from B2P Central Business District to B7Q Plan Commercial Development District. In accordance with the City of Plantation Comprehensive Zoning Ordinance Chapter 27-92 for property within the City of Plantation, Florida, said parcel of real property described as a parcel of land in Section 33, Township 49, Range 41 East, said parcel including a portion of Tract A, University, Platt, according to the Platt thereof, is recorded in Platt Book 82, page 19 of the public records of Broward County, Florida, together with Parcel A, Plantation Square Platt, according to the Platt thereof, is recorded in Platt Book 87, page 36 of the public records of Broward County, Florida, and being more particularly described in the legal description identified as Exhibit A, property generally located at 8190 West Sunrise Boulevard, 8050 through 8150 West Sunrise Boulevard, and 1725 to 1797 North University Drive, providing for conflict severability and effective date. Thank you very much. We have some comments, some questions from the public. Do we want to take a motion first? Motion to approve. Do we have a second? Second. Any further discussion from the dais? Mr. Conklin, followed by Ms. Sword and Joe Wynn. Dennis Conklin, 4581 Northwest Sixth Court. I wanted to review some history again in Plantation. When I moved here, it was basically a single-family residence municipality. It did have a few condos around the publics here, just down the street. But basically, the rest was commercial. I live adjacent to the Gateway 7 and the CRA, and that was all commercial. And a funny thing happened. Once the CRA came in, they started to nibble away at the commercial and put in residential. And when the real big leap happened, it happened across the street from Plantation High School, and they took a big chunk near the technology park, and they converted that to residential. One of my daughter's godparents live on the other side of the canal in sunrise, and all they see are everything else looking into their homes. When that went up, I tried to obtain promises from that council at that time that they wouldn't come across into Flex Zone 73 neighborhood east of the Turnpike, and they said, no, we never would. And lo and behold, the Plantation Business Park flipped, and now we've got this monster. Everybody that comes in and visits me, they say, why do you have a parking garage there? And it's ugly, and it's supposed to be commercial. And when it was redeveloped, I recommended Ikea go there. This is way back. I'm talking way back. And the city didn't move on it. Ikea went to sunrise. I'll yield back my time. I'm not for this. Thanks. Thank you, Mr. Conklin. Ms. Soar. Just to be clear, I'd like to read something from page 2467 in the agenda packet. It says the site plan and conditional use applications have been submitted in two complete development review committee reviews, with a third scheduled for March 25, 2025. The proposal includes an eight-story apartment building, including an affordable housing component and a one-story bank building. Again, I'm against the change of the zoning designation from B2P Central Business District to B7Q Plan Commercial District. This rezoning will allow 22 units added to the 284 units, with a total of 306 units. And the building will be eight stories high. That is higher than the six-story lean apartments across the street. This area on 17th Court will be severely congested to the detriment of the residents who live there. I do not think this development is in the best interest of the city of Plantation. Thank you. Mr. Wynn, did you want to speak on this one? Okay. Thank you. Mr. Holmes, I did want to ask you the same question that I asked you in regards to number 17, but in regards to number 18, does the rezoning, if approved, does that lock in the requested height by the applicant? Mr. No, it would not. We're rezoning to B7Q. The B7Q District has a maximum permitted height. It's basically five stories that we leave right now. So for the applicant to get to the eight stories that they're requesting, it's going to require a variance as part of the site plan application. So the district in which they're rezoning to does not permit eight stories. Thank you for clarifying that. Any further comments from the public? Anything further from the deus? Seeing none. Ms. Beggarro, please call the roll. Vote slowly. Council Member Anderson? Council Member Andreu? Council Member Anderson is present. No. Council Member Andreu? Yes. Council Member Fadgen? Yes. Council Member Horland? Yes. Council Member Reinstein? Yes. Thank you. Sorry, Council Member Anderson, I didn't see you. It's stepped out. Next, we have quasi-judicial items. And requires quasi-judicial proceedings to be read. Yes, sir. The City Clerk will swear on all witnesses before speaking. Please state your name and whether you have been administered an oath. Any speaker may be cross-examined. If you refuse to be cross-examined, your testimony may not be considered. Cross-examination shall be conducted in a courteous manner. The material on the City Clerk's agenda packet will be made part of the record. City staff will make the first presentation, followed by presentations from the applicant, any affected parties, and the public. The elected officials may set reasonable time limits for speakers. The hearing will then be closed and the matter decided. City Council's decision will be delineated in its motion and rendered in writing by way of a development order, resolution, or ordinance evidencing its decision. City Council may also decide to continue the matter to a designated time to allow for additional research or review. Thank you. Is there a presentation? Oh, we're going to swear them in. Go ahead. Anyone speaking on this, please stand and raise your right hand. Do you swear or affirm that the evidence that you are about to give will be the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth? Thank you, Mr. Chair. Members of the Council, for the record, Dan Holmes, Planning, Zoning, Economic Development Director. This is application PM25-0017. It is a conditional use request approval to allow a 2,275-square-foot indoor recreational establishment known as Cypress Golf in the B2P Central Business Zoning District. Location, as you can see here, is along Cypress Road, 6920 Cypress Road, and it's located within the Cypress Plaza. The agent for this application is Benjamin Mizrahi. The size of the parcel is 2.2 acres. Again, the underlying zoning, B2P, and it's located within an existing shopping center. The area is characterized by the following uses. To the north of the site is Cypress Road and multifamily residences. To the west are office uses. To the south are commercial uses, including the Plantation Town Center. And to the east is northwest 69th Avenue and other multifamily residences. You'll notice the purple line there, which shows a 300-foot notification boundary. Within that boundary, 368 properties were notified of this application. Just a little bit of background on the request. The subject site is developed with approximately 18,979 square feet of multi-tenant commercial uses. The applicant's Cypress Golf Plains occupy the 2,275-square-foot tenant space for use as an indoor recreational establishment. And the indoor recreational establishment is a permitted conditional use within the B2P zoning district. This is sort of a layout of the shopping center. And so the bay that they're proposing to occupy is located or identified here in red. This is an aerial kind of photo of the shopping center. These are some pictures of the shopping center. And this is the floor plan that the applicant is proposing. So you have sort of a check-in desk as you enter the front door here. There are three different simulation bays as part of the business. And then you'll see some seating areas, restrooms, and office uses to the rear of the plan. These are just some pictures typically of what the simulation golf sort of looks like. It's kind of like what some people would say. Sometimes you go bowling. You may have a couple of people that may go with you that kind of sit around and you guys take turns. You know, and it brings up different golf courses, you know, from around the country that people like to golf at. So in summary, the proposed conditional use would be consistent with the general plan. The proposed conditional use is compatible with the general character of the neighborhood, particularly considering the adjacent non-residential uses. And it's consistent with the zoning and development of the property. And finally, the proposed conditional use should not adversely affect the general welfare of residents, visitors, or workers in the neighborhood. In terms of citizen comments, we did get three emails objecting over increased traffic, large gatherings of people, and late-night noise affecting the quality of life of the neighborhood. In terms of violations on the site, we did not find that there were any code violations on the site at this time. The hours of operation for – well, let me go back, because some of the complaints were for late-night noise or whatever. There's Webby's in the Riverside Market that are located in there. They did have some restrictions on their number of hours. We did check into that, and they appear to be abiding by the restrictions that were placed on those uses at the time that they went in. So we are confirming that the restaurants are closing at midnight per the zoning approvals. There were some police comments that were sent. I don't know why there was something sent to Samir, but we did get it. There have been – we did observe there have been like six calls for service over the past year to that shopping center. There was – some of the calls were related more so to the homeless creating a disturbance or a dispute with some couples or something. There are no noise complaints from this plaza for any specific business in particular based upon those complaints, and the data does not indicate that there is generally a significant problem in the area based upon noise or what have you. So in conclusion, based upon the above, staff does recommend approval of the proposed application. Thank you very much. I do have a few questions, and then I'll call on my colleagues. I want to just confirm is that the letter of intent indicated that it would not be open later than 10 p.m., so that's not changing, so it would be closed prior to the other – prior to the restaurants. That's correct. Okay. And I also wanted to confirm that, as it states in the letter of intent, is that there will be no food sales permitted in the establishment. That's correct. And the reference to there will be an option for refreshments ranging from packaged sodas, teas, and water that excludes sale of alcohol. Right. And does that permit that people can purchase alcohol at the neighboring restaurants as well as food and bring them inside the establishment? Those establishments, I think, are COP consumption on-premises, so they should not be bringing drinks outside of those establishments into other establishments. You know, I can't say if someone might – Understood. I just wanted to find out in terms of what the commitment is for the letter of intent. And I also wanted to state is that while I have not spoken to the applicant regarding this project, to the extent it's a Jenny's disclosure, is that I have spoken to some of the neighboring restaurants just to get their thoughts on the opening of another establishment. And I did speak to one of the individuals who sent in an email voicing their concerns, which I don't know if other of my colleagues had also requested that data from the police department. But I did share with at least one of the individuals that, you know, if in fact they're – they have complaints, noise complaints to make, then they need to make them. We can't respond to unvoiced complaints. And I know that – and I see our chief of police shaking his head is that I am sure, I believe that we will be fully responsive, that if in fact there's an increase in a disturbance of any kind, that our police department will be on top of it. So I just wanted to – I did assure that the resident who I spoke to that I would put that out there on the record, that we are aware of their concerns, the residents' concerns in some of the neighboring areas. So thank you. Council Member, who is first? Fadgen, please. Thank you. I think this might be for the applicant. Council Member Fadgen, before you begin, Mr. Mizrahi, did you stand up and were you sworn in? I was not. Okay. So I'm going to ask that we do that, please. Okay. I'm sorry. I didn't realize I had to do that. That's okay. Is there anybody else with you, Mr. Mizrahi, who may want to testify or – There you go. Looks like it. Put the baby down to – All right. I want to hear from the baby. Okay. Please raise your right hand. Do you swear or affirm that the evidence that you're about to give will be the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth? Yes. Great. Thank you very much. Council Member Fadgen, please proceed. Thank you. Just try to, you know, so that your neighbors across the street will hopefully have a peace of mind if we approve this. You know, if you go to Topgolf, it's almost like a nightclub. It's very loud, pounding music. Are you going to have loud music? No. So, you know, our intent with this place is really to be more community-centric and kind of be a place where families with their kids can come when, you know, the weather is, let's say, inclement. They can come and enjoy around or they can do a little practice and be able to converse. We don't plan to have blasting loud music, no. Okay. Very good. Quiz, if someone decides to walk in with alcohol, what will you do? We would tell them they have to finish their drink before they come in. Okay. Tell them to go away. And is it walk-in? Is it reservation? Is it both? So we're going to have an online booking system. Okay. If somebody wanted to walk in, we could accommodate them, but there, you know, there will probably be a wait. Is this your first location? It is. Okay. Are you modeling after an existing business somewhere else? Not in particular. You know, it's kind of an up-and-coming business concept, so we've toured around to the couple that are existing within Broward County that we've seen, but not one in particular. Are you looking to give lessons or anything like that? At this time, it's not something that we've really considered. And what's your expectation? Like two golfers a bay or four golfers a bay? So we're going to have three bays, as you can see on the presentation. Maximum of four people per bay. Okay. Thank you. Good luck. Sure. Thank you. Councilmember Hoyland, please. Very briefly. Thank you. Thank you, Mr. Mizrahi, for being here. I just want to make the comment. And I did converse with the two residents who reached out to me, and I thought their concerns were allayed. I think that when they saw the proposal that it was recreation, they were concerned about noise and a lot of traffic there. But once I explained to them what this was, they were completely fine with it. So I'm excited. I think it's going to be a nice compliment to the Plantation Preserve for anybody who might need help with their swing. I don't know if that's the announcement. You know, I'm happy you brought that up because I think related to the issue that was discussed at the Plantation Preserve, I think this could really maybe alleviate some of that congestion, some of that difficulty. Absolutely. So we're excited. And, again, I think the residents that I spoke to were completely fine once I was able to fully explain what the business entailed. So good luck. Thank you. And, you know, I'll add one more thing. It's that while Mr. Mazari, I didn't speak to you about this project, I will say that in terms of the other tenants and the other buildings and your other involvements in our city, you've always been very responsive. So I appreciate that because I know we've spoken before and been to some of your grand openings for some other businesses that you've opened here. And we appreciate you as well. Thank you. Mayor. Thank you, Mayor. Okay. So how long will it take to open? Do you have to redo the whole thing? A few months? A little bit? Yeah, I think a few months. And you're simulating, you're playing a simulated golf course, right? Correct. Okay. Can we get plantation preservers one of those courses? And can we get retiree discounts? He says yes, so that's a yes. You're cannibalizing our revenue. Council Member Andrey. Thank you. I'm not sure what's happening with my buzzer. You already answered several of the questions I had. The last one really is, are you soundproofing at all? Because I'm concerned about, are you next to Gianna's? Who are you next to? So on the west side is actually a business that I'm one of the owners of, which is the Savvy Studs Laundromat. Okay. And on the east side is actually a chiropractor. And on that wall, one of the staff comments was for us to put some soundproofing material on that demising wall. So there will be soundproofing on that wall. As well as the sides of the bays are going to have soundproofing material as well. Perfect. And then I would like to make a Jennings disclosure. I didn't speak to any of the residents that contacted us, but I think I did email them back and read their emails, and it will not affect my vote. Okay. Thank you. And Council Member Andrey, you were called in the order that I had you here, so I see you here. Not on mine, but in any event. So no approve? Do we have a second? Second. Seeing no further discussion. Thank you. I did. I did not make a Jennings disclosure. I was contacted by residents via email and so forth, but that's it, so it won't affect my vote. Thank you. I received emails. I didn't respond to any of them. It won't affect my vote. Thank you. Call the roll, please. Council Member Anderson? Yes. Council Member Andreyu? Yes. Council Member Fajan? Yes. Council Member Horland? Yes. Council Member Einstein? Yes. Item 20, please. Does anybody need the presentation for item 20? Motion to approve. Second. Seeing no further discussion, no further comments from the public. Ms. Beggarro, please call the roll. Yes. Council Member Andreyu? Yes. Council Member Fajan? Yes. Council Member Horland? Yes. Council Member Einstein? Yes. Thank you. Wonderful. Comments by the Mayor. You don't want him to talk about the mural any, do you? You read enough about it? We just approved it. Okay. I didn't know if you'd want to give me anything to say. Okay. I'm excited for it. I'm excited. We're growing art. And I appreciate Council doing diligence. And the idea that we touch it and work it all through is the right way to do it. I don't have much. I just have one thing I wanted to get Council's opinion on. 2026 is an election season. And I had it on my list to ask about, do we want a sign ordinance? Especially because we get bombed with signs from outside the area. You know? I don't know what opinion is. I'm not trying to create more work. If it's not there, it's not there. But if, I mean, if it's there, it's there. If it's not there, I'll cross it off my list. Do you have something in mind, Mayor? I know we had spoken previously about limiting when signs could go out. Is that where you're heading? You could limit when signs go out. But you could legislatively. Yeah, I know. Correct. Right, right. Or, more importantly, find them if they're not in the right places. Because it's a danger risk if you put them in a median of a road and drivers can't see. And that's what we had last time, especially on election day. People peppered the medians. And it was problematic. So, and I don't know what we can legislate and what we can't. I see where you're heading with that. And I understand the city attorney is concerned and he's raising his hand. Soon he's going to stand up and start waving his arms. But I just want to say, I understand your point. I think it would be very hard to enforce and control because so many other people come into our area. So, I will defer to Mr. Ezra. Or maybe, okay, before you go then, maybe as we give people their stuff, that we include something like, please be nice. Here's what we would like. I agree with that. Mayor, maybe some further discussion between the administration and the city attorney and we'll bring this up at another time. Fair enough. Sounds good. Thank you. Thank you very much. No further comments by the mayor. Councilmember Fatchin. Happy Passover. Happy Easter. Councilmember Hoyland. I'm not going to be that quick. I'm sorry. A couple of updates. As I said to you when we walked in the building, I was on a Florida League of Cities advocacy call. Just a quick update. There was a, Senator Danny Burgess came up with this brilliant, and she said facetiously, stormwater bill. And I received a shout-out on the call that I helped to kill that on the floor today. But I'm not bringing it up because of me. It's because Samira Shallan provided me the information. So, I just, I really bring it up because our directors are so phenomenal that these bills are moving quickly. And oftentimes, the alert comes at the last minute. Sometimes we have a day's notice. Sometimes we don't. But every time I send out an email to any of you, you provide the information I've asked for. And I really thank you. And Ms. Shallan, he actually, the bill was getting killed, and he tried to tack it onto an emergency bill. And because of the information that you provided to me, that I provided to the Senate, they were able to kill it off that emergency bill. So, thank you so much for that. That would have absolutely doubled our stormwater fees for our residents, and it really would have increased inspections much more. So, we're ahead of the game. So, that's quickly. There's a couple of bills that we've been talking about, sovereign immunity, business tax license, and that property tax study where the governor wants to eliminate our property tax. The study was happening this year to get it on the ballot for next year. All three of those right now are stuck, which is a good thing. The committees are ending. So, we never say never until they drop that handkerchief. But I think that we're in a better place with that. Sober homes came back. So, for anybody in class of 2018, we're fighting that for a while. It's one provider who wants to put them into multifamily residential. So, that has been, I will tell you that our lobbyist, Lauren Jackson, has really been working hard with Florida League of Cities on that. So, we're hoping that we're going to push that one over the cliff. The one that came up that was of concern that I want to talk to Carol about is utility relocation. There is a company that puts a lot of money into the pockets of elected officials, not here, but up in Tallahassee, charter communications. And they basically, what that would be is if we have a project where we have to relocate utilities, we would have to pay for it out of our CST. And that could, you know, completely, you know, destroy that revenue source for us. So, that's one that we're watching. And I'm going to need to get some data from the city to fight that one. I am going back up to Tallahassee next week. Quick trip. Lauren has me. And Candace, I'm going to need some leadership, some of these chairs, the committees, so we can hopefully beat back some of these other bills before the committees end. COA bill that I told you we were able to tell our story and provide a lot of good information. It still has legs. But I think most of the most egregious provisions of that bill that would kill our COA are hopefully going to be removed. So, it might be something that we can live with. Right now, there is a $4.5 billion difference between the Senate budget and the House budget. So, this is when the horse trading goes on. They start to trade budget items for policy. So, like I said, nothing is dead until the end. Very quickly, Broad League of Cities General Membership Dinner. Council Member Anderson was there. It was a great presentation by Shane Strom of Broward Health. They're really trying to create, with Nicholas Health, an incredible pediatric hub in the county. So, that was really exciting to hear. Earth Day. Thank you, Chief Harrison. So, you've heard me talk about the collaboration with Magda Love and the $10,000 grant. We're creating this tapestry that's going to be two stories high at South Plantation High School. On Earth Day, which is the 22nd, Tuesday the 22nd, we will be at the Police Outreach Center at Broward Mall. Chief was gracious enough to allow us to have that from 1030 to 6 o'clock. And the community, staff, everybody's invited to come in and help us sew and put that mural together, that tapestry together. I spent two hours on the floor sewing the other day with them. It was not easy. I think it's going to be a lot easier sitting at a table and doing that. And I spoke to Mr. Noonmaker today. What we'd like to do, and we'd have to talk to you, Mr. Thompson, is figure out if we can display the tapestry initially. It's hanging off of City Hall. So, there will be grommets at the top of it. It's about, as I said, two stories high. We'll be able to get some press from that. And then the goal and one of the conditions of the grant is that it has to move around the county. So, I've already spoken to Plantation Walk about, you know, displaying it there. But I'd love to be able to do that May 21st before our council meeting if we're able to do that, Mayor. And light it up because you lit up City Hall so beautifully for Relay for Life. So, thank you again for that. It really was wonderful for the luminary ceremony. I'm trying to go quickly, but I think that's it. I think it's it. Happy Passover. Happy Easter, everybody. Councilmember Andreu. Question for you, Councilmember Horland, and not to put you on the spot, and maybe for Mr. Ezra, but I know you're always our bill follower master, HB 679, which is the term limits for commissioners. So, if that passes, and I don't, from what I saw, it seemed to be doing well and had a strong likelihood of passing, would we have to amend our charter? And for those of you who don't, that would set term limits for commissioners starting in 26th. Right. It's not one that we've been concerned about. So, I'll give you a further update next week, but it hasn't been one that we've been concerned about. Okay. But if that were Mr. Ezra, would we have to amend the charter, or does that automatically go into place and supersede the charter anyway? It depends. I'm not sure. It's not anything that I've really been tracking either. I'm looking at it. It doesn't have to be tonight. It's just like the municipal election bill where they wanted to move everybody to November elections that died effectively. Okay. This one, from what I read, seemed to be doing well. So, just on your radar from when you go out there. Thank you. Yeah, it hasn't been one that we've been concerned about overly. Pardon me? Sorry. I did call you because I know you wanted to respond, but I'll let you go ahead and continue. Take your turn. Thank you. April is designated as the month of the military child and just wanted to recognize all of our military children for their sacrifices. I know that we honored our vets at our last council meeting, and so it's so important that we don't forget the children. So, Friday is the actual day. We're purple on Friday for our military children. And it's also Volunteer Appreciation Month, so I just want to thank all of our volunteers who strengthen our city, serve our community. You are the reason Plantation is the best city in the county, state, and country, is our great volunteers that we have. And, Council Member Hoyland already said Earth Day is April 22nd, so the theme is Our Power, Our Planet. So, let's all commit to even making one small change to protect the planet and have a sustainable future. And I wanted to know what the status is of our body camera pilot and where we are with that. If we can move a little faster, what is happening? And while you're coming up, Chief, can I just congratulate President Reinstein on being the honoree for 2025 for the Bill Kling Award? So, I look forward to that ceremony coming up later this year. Thank you. So, we are – we have ongoing negotiations with Axon right now. They are the person that we're negotiating with. We are nearing the end. We had to get some additional documentation. We have to do some consultation with legal to make sure all the terms and conditions are lined up. But we are nearing the end. We expect to have something to you all by June so you can review and consider the information for the body-worn cameras and ask all the important questions that you're going to ask relating to the program. And I'm sure Chief is going to elaborate more on the program itself. Well, there's a number of accessories that, to put it plainly, that goes into the body cameras, the tasers. It just – you'll probably see it at some point. But it's like buying a car. You can buy a – I'll use a Cadillac or I don't want to name another brand, but one lower than that. So, there's a lot of fluctuations that can raise the price, the years of the contract, which can fluctuate a five-year versus a ten-year, and the percent increase each year. I know Mr. Spencer actually has already got them down a percent just in one of our meetings. So, we're going to try to get the best deal, but at the same time get – really, I'm looking for the future, the best product and the accessories that go with that. So, it may not be the Cadillac, but it's not going to be the lower. Okay. But in June, we can expect an item to come out. I hope so. That's what we're – that's the goal. Okay. And you're currently – there are some officers that are piloting it? So, the pilot – The pilot is already done. The pilot is complete. Okay. And it went well. I guess in June, you can discuss these things with us. It went very well, and that's why Exxon was the vendor selected. Okay. All right. Council Member Andrea, if you don't mind, can I follow up with some questions on it? So, hearing that the pilot has been completed and hearing that we are not going to even finish the contract negotiation and drafting until June, is there any way to – you know, with our relationship with Exxon, it sounds like you have a regular working relationship with them, to maybe extend the pilot or to allow our officers to continue using the body cams until we – such time as we finish this – finish our contract negotiations? So, the pilot program was part of the evaluation tool, and the equipment was provided to the city at no charge. To extend the pilot program means we have to get access to their platforms in order to collect the data, and there's a – Let me just say, we won't know until we ask. And I would just say is that when it comes to contract negotiations, while we're saying June is when we're hoping it, it could go beyond that. And I think we've talked about – extensively when we talked about the body cams that it's a benefit for everybody. So, maybe if we can ask if there's some ability to continue using them on a temporary basis. Well, the pilot program, too, is – there was only a minimal number of units that we were – Would it not benefit us even in a minimal number of units to continue using them? Oh, 100%. But I – we'll have to – We can ask the question. Thank you very much. Thank you. Council Member Andrade, I'm sorry. Thank you. No, that was it. Happy Easter. Happy Passover. Thank you, Chief. President Rice. Council Member Anderson. Could you give us a quick update on the school zone cameras? Speak. Probably next year. What do you mean by next year? We were hoping – next school year. Yes, sir. August? Yes, sir. We were hoping to get it at the end of this school year so we could – Start to prep them and all that. Yes. And, again, we're not going to – I know. You're going to do a – Piecemeal it. It's going to be – All at once. All at once. You can't full court press with notification and social media and warnings for a month or something like that, I recall. Yes, sir. Yeah. And, again, the summer school, we only have a school or two that does the summer program. So, if we can't get it in by the end of the school year, it'll be at the beginning. Okay. Thank you. Happy Easter and happy Passover. That's it. Everything else was covered. Thanks. Thank you. I do have a couple things. Go ahead, Mayor. Can you name the entities that are holding us up? I think we're having problems with FPL and the county. It's the county and FDOT, the state, because the state roads and the county roads – the city itself has – all their permits have been approved. Again, we're waiting for those two entities to give us the okay. Thank you. Mr. Oswald, a question regarding – normally, we bring before – it's brought before the council resolution in terms of charitable entities that we're approving. And we have a list, and I know lawyers reached out to see if we want to revise that resolution. My question is that I'd like to – currently, Island Space Museum is not included in that resolution. Is there a – I'm going to call it a stopgap measure so that we could approve Island Space as an approved charitable entity for our city prior to doing the full resolution? You could place the item on an agenda and make a motion to approve it as an official charitable organization. And is it – But remember, the purpose for that is to provide an exemption under the Broward County Ethics Code for either utilization of staff because – city staff because it is an official charitable organization, or to prevent the required disclosure of the charitable solicitation. And for that last purpose, does it – is it required to be on the agenda? Or if I wanted to make a motion to approve Island Space Museum, can I – can I do that? Technically, it should be an agenda item because members of the public are supposed to be afforded an opportunity to comment on matters like that. Okay. Very good. So I'm going to ask the administration if we can expedite that in any way we can so that Island Space Museum can be included. Does that work? We can do that. Great. Thank you. And the last thing was – Peggy Tingle reached out and was reminding me and maybe us that the Plantation Community Garden is reaching its second anniversary. And I said to her, well, what would you like me to share in regards to that? And this is commending the collaborative effort of multiple departments, Plantation, Parks, and Recreation, Administration, Public Works, Planning, and Zoning, and the Police Department working with volunteers from the Garden Club and City of Plantation Seniors Program on the Community Garden at Jim Ward. And also to recognize that the Teen Garden Club program is designed to offer an array of environmentally related educational events, programs, and classes to teenagers in our city, and offering volunteer hours and hands-on gardening from September through early April. So I just want to make sure to mention them and thank all of our departments, thank Peggy, thank the Garden Club for all they're doing for our city. And saying nothing further, at 9.14 we're adjourned.