City Council — Feb 7, 2024

good evening and welcome the wednesday february 7th 2024 city of plantation city council meeting is now called to order at 6 12. miss beggaro please call the roll councilmember anderson here councilmember andreyu here councilmember fadgen here councilmember horland here councilmember einstein here mayor sortle here city attorney israel here thank you thank you um just a quick little announcement i'm wearing sunglasses because i had a little bit of a surgery on my eyes and i look like rocky or apollo creed in honor of carl weathers uh councilmember reinstein will be leading us in the opening remarks and pledge of allegiance thank you very much in celebration of black history month i'd like to read a poem by langston hughes hughes like black history is an integral part of american history hughes was an important figure in the harlem renaissance and made the african-american experience the subject of many of his writings the poem is called i dream a world i dream a world where man no where man no other man will scorn where love will bless the earth and peace its paths adorn i dream a world where all will know sweet freedom's way where greed no longer saps the soul nor avarice blights our day a world i dream where black or white whatever race you be will share the bounties of the earth and every man is free where wretchedness will hang its head and joy like a pearl attends the needs of all mankind of such i dream my world thank you all right thank you we have no items from the mayor tonight parks and recreation update mr goodrich good evening everyone phil goodrich parks and recreation director again another long list ahead of us today so real quick saturday february 10th we have uh through sunday the 11th we have our golden ticket tournament doubles over at the veltri tennis center sunday february 11th the 18th annual run through central park 5k 6 a.m check-in 7 a.m race starts uh for more information you can call runners depot 954-474-4074 i know we have some uh staff that are going to be participating in that so we're very excited to see that and again always thank you to the police department for all their support and uh helping us put these runs on and blocking the roads and making sure everybody's safe sunday february 11th we have a super bowl tailgate mixer at the tennis center 10 a.m to 1 p.m and head of the game monday february 12th is our recreational spring registration opens for all of our spring programming that is available at all of our community centers or you can register online if you are one of our registered participants from previous times uh wednesday february 14th we have a senior valentine's day painting uh party that'll be held at jim moore community center from 1 to 3 p.m it is 15 dollars per person and pre-registration is required uh for more information on that you can call 954-585-2344 thursday the 15th through saturday the 17th clay court classic over at the tennis tournament it is a tennis tournament that'll be there if you need more information on that 954-513-3540 saturday february 17th we have our next movie in the park we'll be holding uh we'll be showing the little mermaid that'll be at jim ward community center that is a free program no dogs please gates open at 5 30 movie begins at 6. light snacks and drinks available for cash only though saturday the 17th uh through monday the 19th the weston cup soccer tournament is a very large soccer tournament that's held in broward county and it literally brings in hundreds of teams across the entire country a very big event that has been growing over the years that'll be happening at pine island park central park sunset park and pal park i will caution everybody if you're looking to go maybe to one of the local sports bars or restaurants chances are it's going to be crowded that weekend that's one of the benefits of us hosting these big events is that we do a great injection into the local businesses as well as the hotels in the area so a very big week that week sunday february 18th this is a program that we sponsor we sponsor that is actually a broward county parks foundation event that is held at the heritage park a broward county park but we're also a sponsor of it our show mobile will be the stage that will be used and some other services that we do but this is a collaborative event this is the florida youth orchestra and they've expanded that program now they're going to have some more games they're going to have a classic car show and just a nice event that is again the sunday february 18th from 1 to 5 p.m at heritage park monday february 19th is our next kids day off camp at volunteer park 7 30 a.m to 6 p.m that's for kids k through 5 5th grade uh saturday february 24th the hero cup disc dog event and that is event this is our second year holding it uh we were approached by somebody uh and it is what it is it's a frisbee event disc for the professional people uh and they do that at pal stadium and uh it's a good venue to be able to have that gives us plenty of time to get the field back in shape for everybody that is going to use that there so that is again saturday february 24th it's hosted by toss and fetch miami a long distance throw and catch competition and that'll be at pal park from 7 to 3 p.m last on my list thursday february 29th senior trip memphis the musical bus will leave at jim court jim moore community center at 12 30 returns at 5 30. cost is 35 dollars per person again more information call the community jim moore community center 954-585-2344 as far as athletics we have currently open pal spring softball baseball has closed and under good registration so we're really happy to see that and any more information on any athletics you can call 954-452-2508 again thank you all right thank you okay that brings us to public requests of council regarding municipal affairs those who wish to speak request that you complete a speaker form if you have not done so already please do so please state your name and address and please address your remarks to the council president not the mayor or individual members of the council please keep your remarks to the allotted three minutes first up mr conklin if i may approach dennis conklin 4581 northwest sixth court heavenly host protect you and your families really quickly um you know i run through days i'm going to cover two in particular the first and the last one i've been mentioned day 1426 of martial law we're still under it they shut down our schools our churches they have masks and shop mandates it's the loss of our unalienable god-given rights and the middle ones are all dealing with president trump i'd like to get down to day 124 when hamas started war with israel now hamas is the terrorist military element of the muslim brotherhood we have care which is i guess you would say the propaganda element of the muslim brotherhood here but the muslim uh the hamas charter was updated to a new kinder and gentler uh chapter charter and it has 42 sections or paragraphs and number one it does not recognize israel instead it only refers to israel as a zionist project they are against the existence of the zionist project in section two palestine which extends from river jordan in the east to the mediterranean in the west that's what they claim there is no existence for israel if hamas if the mud if the muslim brotherhood and if care exists as terrorist elements uh skipping down to 10 of the 42 jerusalem is the capital of palestine now to go on i sent to the supreme court of florida's report from the grand jury and in that it looks something like this it's 30 pages and very good reading the daily clout has the information i i bought the book for you and they're up to the book was 51st reports they're now up to 94 so you can go on there and catch the last um yesterday was ronald riggins 113th anniversary of his birthday we had like valenza he's the sole survivor and the initiator of the end of the cccp which people may remember as the ussr so he was in ronald riggins library uh basically at the same time that we were honoring kingsley smith here locally and um he began solidarity which was solidarity as we know it and along with pope john paul ii ronald reagan and he they ended the soviet union last but not least i'd like to say kung hee fa choi because this weekend is chinese new year and on behalf of my family i extend to all of you you're the dragon kung hee fa choi i have proposed the uh normal since ronald reagan's uh centennial birthday to request that the city name the city's uh curved street here fifth street to 65th avenue ronald reagan way which i submitted to the uh uh president thank you again that um report from the secretary of state and the supreme court that's what i've been encouraging the city to go after to recover all and any damages okay thank you hannah you have nice handwriting but i i can't read your leah they just hand it to me and i i shuffle it like a card dealer so thank you all for having us here this is amazing is the light on yes okay pull it down a little bit better yeah good now you really can hear me right we want to hear you i'm wearing my hearing aids so i can hear you so here i am i am the chair of the broward sierra group uh broward is one of 17 groups here in florida and we have almost 40 000 members in the state of florida nationally we have almost 6 million so we make a very strong statement we are nonpartisan and we are strictly environmental we look to save this planet and with your help we will be able to do that we formed a junior team last year and uh we're now about 17 members some of which come from plantation to say the least and i'm going to leave you with some documents that i hope you'll circulate we have an earth day coming up in march and we have an art contest for high schoolers and we're lucky enough to have one of yours as one of our judges jennifer andreo is going to be one of our judges great of seven so i'm going to leave these with you okay and i'm going to introduce anaga ire who is our chair of the junior team great thank you may i approach yeah thank you hi um my name is anaga my address is 4817 southwest 183rd avenue in miramar florida and i just wanted to say thank you to mayor sortel who invited the junior team to be here and the rest of the council for listening to us so like i said my name is anaga and i'm a sophomore at american heritage school in right here in plantation and i'm the chair of the broward sierra group junior team we are a group of high schoolers dedicated to preserving the environment through advocacy education and outreach we as youth realized that our future is at stake due to rising temperatures worsening air quality and pollution so the team was formed to give us us as high schoolers a voice to express our concerns we've talked to various city members like mayor sortel the mayor and vice mayor of coconut creek and the commissioner of coral springs and we've also fundraised and tables at a few events and we're actually going to the broward youth climate summit which is this friday at pompano beach high school so leading to what we're talking about today last week a group of uh some of our junior team members who are also going to be speaking went to tallahassee to lobby for various environmental bills that could advocate for cleaner and more sustainable policies so we have three members here to talk to you about what they lobbied for and they also have a few questions for you guys so first we have abigail cole who's a junior at western high school then hannah a senior at western high school and lastly audrey duenas a sophomore at american heritage school so first is abby so we have some extra flyers here would you be willing to walk through there and if anybody wants them hand them out and if not put them at the very back so people can get them when they leave thank you hi good evening council i first wanted to say thank you for the opportunity to speak with you and discuss um the bills and what i spoke with with the representatives start with your name for the record my name is abigail cole i live in 1526 whitehall drive uh apartment 201 in davie florida perfect go ahead so um i spoke i had the opportunity to speak with representatives recently regarding house bill 945 which is the heat illness prevention bill and um what i spoke with them about regarding was we have our outdoor workers our technically our essential workers outside providing us with services constructing and repairing roads and providing us with our daily needs and our forms of transportation i spoke with them regarding a heat illness prevention bill which discusses that if the temperature exceeds 80 degrees workers should be provided shade and um access of rest uh if the temperature is too high these workers are outside every day constantly and due to our florida temperature there are they are at risk for illnesses and um strokes i do know someone personal and close to me from my school who did die of a heat stroke so these things are very serious and their results can lead to death or grave consequences and the other component of the bill was that if the heat exceeds 90 degrees workers should be provided with shade and uh access to water so these are all things that i spoke with the representatives i spoke to representative caruso and representative silvers and i also spoke with an aide to another representative and they were all in agreement to this bill i do believe it is a basic right for workers to be given the access to water and access to shade and access to rest as they are outside constantly working for our community and assisting those in need and also just everybody around us transportation and our crops for example farmers and workers out in fields who are harvesting foods they're all our workers who provide us with basic necessities so i came here to ask you today if you would be in support of providing um these workers with water breaks and providing them access to shade and rest during their times of work all right thank you is there anyone else from your hannah the one with the good handwriting except i couldn't read your last name hi hi i'm hannah newguard 6 6 6 6 6 1 southwest 16th street plantation florida okay so the bill that i spoke with um i spoke with senator osgood's bor Boswell's aide julius aide julie fishman representative gervonte edmunds and um representative uh... representative barth barthornans i think that's how you say their name savannah manager savannah preffer um... so the bill that i spoke with that i was really passionate about was the renewable gas basically it's a bill that green washes so you hear the word renewable and you think wow this is a great thing but the bill doesn't necessarily clarify what renewable is so in this bill it's basically saying that you can take renewable methane gas that's from farming and mix it in with methane gas that is from like oil industries and stuff and whatnot so this bill basically can encourage construction of methane gas pipelines and processing plants which appears as if it's encouraging renewable energy but because it doesn't have that distinct verbiage that clarifies how much of like these oils the methane from like oiling it you know it gets confusing and I would I thought that it was really really important because when I had arrived every single Senate member had approved of this bill and it has gone through all three chambers so this was a very urgent need to get these senators to understand and representatives to understand the issues with this bill and that there needs to be either a clarification or that this bill needs to be opposed altogether so in relation to plantation I was wondering if you guys would commit to zero waste thank you thank you good job hello hi my name is Audrey Duenas and I live in one five one six zero Northwest 7th Street Pembroke Pines Florida three three zero two eight so I'm a high school student from American Heritage and I'm gonna be talking to you guys about the mangrove replanting and restoration bill which we are in support of so mangroves improve coastal resiliency by acting as a natural defense for coastal communities and they can even play an important role in defending against hurricanes because they can significantly reduce hurricane speed which is something really important considering the amount of hurricanes we get over here I'm sure you guys have all experienced this so in this way mangroves can actually reduce insurance rates which is something really significant with because many Floridians are struggling with surging rates so this bill will aim to create more rules to plant more mangroves and address coastal erosion not only that mangroves can increase biodiversity and they absorb large quantities of carbon dioxide from the atmosphere so this bill would address more than one issue when I went to Tallahassee I spoke to this bill that I was really passionate about to Senator Powell and Senator books 8 and they both seem to be in support of it and I had a great time so conversing with them about this bill so I just wanted to ask you and if you guys would be in support of having a composting program we can do better and we will sustainability committee has talked about it some there are some ways to make it work in some ways some concerns and we're trying to figure it out and the fact that the public has an interest in it does make a difference yes thank you so much for your time now it's gonna come and speak again okay I just wanted to make a few closing remarks so thank you for letting these members share their adventures with you guys with with the council and we greatly appreciate this opportunity and if you guys ever need help with anything the City of Plantation the broad Sierra group is here to help and also if you know any kids who could be interested in joining the team please let me know I forgot my business cards but if you can visit the brought you can visit the broad Sierra group website and find my email on there thank you one comment regarding you know getting more people involved take a look at our citizens calendar and come to the sustainability and resiliency advisory board that we have I think it's one of the Mondays okay yeah and we're also friends with Julie over there so what's that we're also friends with Julie long over there well that's all you need then she's the chair you weren't ousted right you got reelected as chair yeah okay you got to fight for it yeah surprise but yeah well thank you guys so much all right thank you all right uh Veronica hi good evening Veronica and M check one one five five zero Northwest 17th Court I am here because I was sent here by paid um I have an issue uh after going to a couple of the paid meetings and going back and forth it's um the drainage on my property on 17th Court and all the houses on 17th Court and across for me so the entire block uh was closed off um by Luima properties when they started building the homes which they never continued building so basically they cleared out the the land they put in walls around there and um put some plants in and they stopped then they restarted with the drainage they took out the swale that ran behind all the homes on 17th on my side of the street on 17th and supposedly putting drainage that has been closed for approximately three years now and so what happens is it floods from more than normal than it did when I moved into Plantation Acres seven years ago um for I don't know what reason back in March of last year they decided to add some decorations to that area that's and at the corner of my home and uh we have no um light at the end of the tunnel on this paid tells me already three meetings that I need to come here at the last paid meeting I was told that this is a city issue um which I believe it's not um then I was told to contact the city commissioner I was also told that code enforcement cannot do anything about this and that uh by Belinda who is the engineer for paid um she said that this appears to not that it's not going to pass inspection in addition to that we also have and I say we me and my neighbors have the issue that we are all aware that Luima properties is requesting permits for another um project implantation and my question is they have not finished this it appears that they didn't do a good job in constructing and I have tremendous issues I will um pass on the letter that I sent to um paid on December 11th um with photos of the damage plus other photos from my neighbors what do I do where do I go who can help me um council member Horland so we typically don't comment on public comment but I actually had Luima properties on my um council comments for tonight and I actually just spoke to Mr. Gale um and Mr. Holmes so I think it kind of intersects so if I might bring it up because I think administration needs to be uh aware so no go for it I was very curious we've all seen the eight parcels on Sunrise Boulevard and 118th that have been empty for a while and I was looking at something else for a resident today and I started to do a deep dive on that and it's Luima properties that owns those eight parcels uh they were purchased in March of 2021 and nothing has happened there when I started to look into and that's when I spoke to Mr. Gale I see that they are now applying for building permits my concern is some interesting things and Broward records about the purchase of the property and mortgaging but they have not paid the taxes on those properties um they've been sold off as tax certificates there's about a hundred and seventy seven thousand dollars of outstanding taxes and my question to planning and building is and apparently there's nothing in our code and I was going to ask the city attorney tonight in council comments what can we do when someone comes in and they want to start building and perhaps not building properly on that when they haven't paid Broward County property taxes on those eight parcels um since 2020 before Luima properties purchased the properties that was the last time property taxes were paid so I think there's a couple of things going on here um I want to make administration and our city attorney aware of that and I just I didn't know you were coming tonight you've got the drainage issues but it's interesting that I think it was Providence that I had that on Yes and it's to talk about because I think before this goes much further um administration needs to take a look at it um and if someone I know that you were sent here by paid which it's really not I've been to a couple of meetings and it's just and and funny enough because there are five members in paid and three of them approved a uh the drainage plans for the new um building that this Luima is supposed to be doing and the other two were very opposed to it let let's wait and and and see why are we approving this because they haven't shown good faith in one project right now this is even worse that they haven't paid their taxes I know Veronica was speaking to Samira Shailan in the back so perhaps the administration can get her contact information and address it and I'd like to hear from the city attorney the specific answer to your question is I don't know the answer to your question because I've not uh researched the but typically it's two separate issues I've never really heard of a building department holding up issuance of a building permit for non-payment of real estate taxes I mean there are consequences for not paying your real estate taxes as you've indicated um also we have to be mindful what we're really dealing with is the uh the building code is a is a statewide building code with local amendments adopted by Broward County uh the Broward County Board of Rules and Appeals is really the regulatory agency and we are the enforcing agency um it is something that I could certainly look into but I'm not aware of anything that would uh uh impose an additional requirement requirement on an applicant coming before the city and requesting a building permit as it pertains to payment or non-payment of taxes thank you Mr. Ezra and I didn't think it would it would be applicable to the building code I just think it's interesting as a matter of practice I mean oftentimes when we get an applicant before us and we have our backup material we look to see if there are any violations on the property I mean and that's one of the things that I tend to look at even have they pay the taxes so now we're looking at eight parcels and the taxes haven't been paid so um I just think that perhaps the administration might want to take a look at what's going on overall and and perhaps speak to uh Veronica about the issues I started coming in and asked what was going on and we connected with Samira okay I don't know do we have anything else to add to it I do challenge the the word you were sent here by paid paid you came here because you didn't get an answer you wanted from paid oh no they told her to come yeah but I mean but you come here on choice they don't they don't grab your arm and drag you here you came here because you didn't get the answer you wanted but they basically said it was a city issue they said it was a city issue so you need to go to live with me then I'm like okay I'm here uh good evening Samira Shalan the city engineer um uh I just want to clarify before I um make a comment that the city of plantation doesn't have any regulatory authority or regulatory regulation authority over drainage in the plantation acres district so let's just identify that before we go further actually I received an email from commissioner Santana who's one of the paid commissioner uh inquiring about the 17th court which for me was interesting because they passed um an extension to the drainage permit up to May of 2024 so they are the regulatory authority and they passed an extension to a drainage permit so I have no answer to that and I'm sorry to say but I have no regulation and no answer the answer is with paid now the difference between the difference between the paid process and the city process working in the right of way we will require developers to put to post a financial security via a bond and if they fail to fulfill their obligation we will go to the bond or we will finish especially if it affect the public health and safety I'm not aware of the uh code in paid if they have the same authority I would and I I hate to do this to the resident I extended a hand and uh inquire to Belinda the same question that the residents are asking and receive no answer so I'm I'm sorry I can't help them I will be sending another email to Belinda tomorrow to follow up and hopefully uh between the two authorities I know that I worked with the city attorney and I'm clear on the limits of city authority over drainage thank you any questions on that Mr. Mayor real quick um I saw Paha walk in have you guys met are you aware of each other can you so you know the story okay good if not I was gonna have you meet and catch up but I figured you all were on it so thank you very much thank you thank you yeah this matters so yeah thank you thank you Mr. Buehler welcome back Jen thanks for call Carol Buehler 68 uh 31 Southwest 11th Street uh plantation Florida I saw a feather lying on my sidewalk this week that triggered a memory of a Friday afternoon in spring of 74 I just received my pay envelope working for United Migrant Opportunity Service and being flush with cash I said hey maybe I'll go trout fishing because next day was the beginning of trout season so I drove up north to a fishing hole near a dam and uh I stopped at a little roadside tavern now in Wisconsin locals uh practice commutely kite and that's defined as a state of a feeling of warmth friendliness and good cheer no sooner I laid down my five spot and ordered a draft beer a burly gentleman moseys up to me and says hey you Indian I thought hey I got a good friend already and I replied hey are you that was the last thing I remember I wake up in the muddy parking lot in a light rain a couple of guys standing on a tavern porch looking down at me laughing before I even thought of heading back in that tavern the porch bigots yell out better get your ass out of here engine before we kill you no gamutely kite here next morning I was fishing with the sunrise and nobody was getting any bites so I turned to an old fisherman nearby and say hey why aren't we catching any trout he looks at me and asks are you Indian no no I am absolutely not Indian a Native American um I'm a hippie from Milwaukee got long black hair I know it was like Danny Thomas he didn't know Danny Thomas he explains well that's good because those engines they're fishing and hunting year-round and taking up all the fish and game they're leaving us with nothing yeah we got to drive those Indians off our land hmm whose lands are they driving the Native Americans off of yeah I said like Andrew Jackson he didn't know Andrew Jackson that's the US president that ran under the slogan the only good Indian is a dead Indian and one I realized then what the ruckus at the tavern was about uh it's not the first time or the last some bigot attacked me as a result of a mistaken identification fact being I don't have a cell of Native American blood in me though I used to take my young daughter to the powwows here in Broward some 30 years ago and she loved it now two weeks ago at the council meeting I feel that a council member mistakenly associated me as anti-semitic supporting terrorism working for Hamas and denying the Holocaust none of which are remotely true after me after that meeting I politely approached him to ask that we meet up at City Hall to discuss his interpretation of my character he angrily slammed his black briefcase on the die threw his papers into it and sneered I'm not going to allow you one more second to support terrorism and Hamas with your lies that's not what I did if you check the tape three times I supported the resolution three times I condemned Hamas but there you have it an antagonistic expression of a bigoted public official speaking from the die attacking a citizen whose only crime was to participate in democracy through public comment thank you thank you Mr. Bior I have an online comment is she here she said she doesn't have volume so I'll try to unmute her and see if she I don't know Ms. Bernardi going once no okay sorry okay I do not have any more speaker forms is there anybody last call in the day in the chamber that would like to make a public comment that hasn't spoken yet with that public requests of council regarding municipal affairs are now closed brings us to the consent agenda the consent agenda consists of items 1 through 14 14 and item 1a and may be approved with one motion does any member of the council wish to pull an item like to pull 1a council member Anderson 1a the public Mr. Corman would like to pull items 4 and 5 and Mr. Buehler would like to pull item 14 and Mr. Conklin would like to pull items 9 and 10 so who wants to make that motion I'm sorry I'm sorry what I have one as well okay go ahead I would like 6 and 7 6 and 7 okay we do not have a consent agenda I'll make the motion all right you want me to read it to you first no I'm just gonna do I'll make a motion to approve items 1, 2, 8 right 1, 2, 3, 8 11, 12, 13 second okay so we have a motion and a second um Ms. Begoreau please call the roll Councilmember Anderson yes Councilmember Andrew yes Councilmember Horlin yes Councilmember Reinstein yes Councilmember Fajan yes Thank you okay so that brings us to item 4 which is 2023 Spartan Metro Star Metro Star, which is Mr. Corman. Sorry. Sorry, I was just waiting for the permission. Rob Corman, 11095 White Hawk Street. I'm going to take the comments for four and five together. A while back, I was frustrated with these kinds of things because they lacked context and information as to what was going on. So I just actually want to commend the administration and procurement and everyone else for modifying the format of these elements so that the information was in there as to exactly why something was rescinded or the effort to rescind and re-approve was given. All that's right there on the first couple pages, however deep you want to go into it afterwards. Great, but that change was really helpful. Thank you. Thank you. So your comment was for four and five. Okay. Can I have a motion for item four? Motion to approve item four. Second. Okay, I have a motion and a second. Ms. Begaro, please call the roll. Who was the second on that? Council Member Andréu? Council Member Horlind? Yes. Council Member Reincey? Yes. Council Member Feigeon? Yes. Can I have a motion for item number five? Motion to approve item number five. Second. We have a motion and a second. Ms. Begaro, please call the roll. Council Member Anderson? Yes. Council Member Andréu? Yes. Council Member Horlind? Yes. Council Member Reinstein? Yes. Council Member Feigeon? Yes. Okay, item six. Council Member Andrea. Mr. Spencer, just a quick question on why these two items, I'll do six and seven together, if you don't mind, Council President, went under the same ITB number when they're now being awarded to two different vendors. I was really great participation. Let me start there. I was really happy to see the participation in the competition, and you saw that especially with the rates for these playground projects because it was a very wide span, and so that's why we want to see this. So that part was wonderful. I just didn't understand. I guess, too, I'm thinking now that if this is going to pass and you're going to continue, you're going to have two contracts under one ITB number. Charles Spencer, Procurement Director. Yes, in the effort to expedite the process of both these playgrounds, we decided to merge the two playgrounds in the same solicitation to just expedite the process. Normally, we will typically advertise one solicitation per playground. These just happened to be delayed processes, so we just merged them all together and separated them in the evaluation process. That's not usually how we solicit playgrounds, but it mimicked the same outcome we would have had if we had two different solicitations. And we were excited for the competition as well. Okay. Thank you. That Mr. Goodrich, I believe, wants to add something. Oh, sorry. That's all right. You're good. Phil Goodrich, Parks and Recreation Director. If you recall, the playground at Jack Carter Harmony Park actually was vandalized. It was burnt. And so the Seminole Park project was a budgeted, planned project, and that had already started the initial phases of the procurement process. And then when that happened after talks with the administration, they allowed us to go ahead and then put those two together. So it was just an effort to really expedite getting both of those done at the same time. Thank you. Motion to approve item number six. Second. We have a motion and a second. Ms. Beggarow, please call the roll. Council Member Anderson? Yes. Council Member Andreu? Yes. Council Member Horland? Yes. Council Member Reinstein? Yes. Council Member Kudgen? Yes. Can I have a motion for item? You did it. Well, we have to do separate motions. So motion to approve item number seven. Second. Okay. We have a motion and a second. Can Ms. Beggarow, please call the roll. Council Member Anderson? Yes. Council Member Andreu? Yes. Council Member Horland? Yes. Council Member Reinstein? Yes. Council Member Fajan? Yes. Brings us to item number nine, ITB number 009-24, Water Systems Rehabilitation, Breeze, Sweat, Park Estates. Mr. Conklin? Dennis Conklin, 4581 Northwest Sixth Court. I pulled the two to thank the city and its continued progress in Plantation Park East and redoing the water system, water supply system. And, again, if this is in a consent agenda, it's sort of just done in a felt swoop and people don't realize it. And that's basically why I bring these things up, let my neighbors know. And also because I knew I had extended remarks and public comments, I wanted to thank the engineer department because we had three critical streetlights out at critical intersections on Northwest 46th Avenue, that being 4th at the park, 5th at the exit for Plantation Park East out to State Road 7, and up on 9th Drive, which is at the townhomes, the curvature road there. And also because they were patching the various defects in the pavement. So that's why I pulled this, and I wanted to thank, again, the city for looking after us out there in Plantation Park East. I will be able to be back. Thank you. I'll make a motion to approve. Second. We have a motion and a second. Ms. Beggaro, please call the roll. Council Member Anderson? Yes. Council Member Andreu? Yes. Council Member Horland? Yes. Council Member Reinstein? Yes. Council Member Fajan? Yes. Thank you. Item 10, can I have a motion? Motion to approve. Second. Ms. Beggaro, can you please call the roll? Council Member Anderson? Yes. Council Member Andreu? Yes. Council Member Horland? Yes. Council Member Reinstein? Yes. Council Member Fajan? Yes. Item number 14, Mr. Buehler. Carl Buehler, 6831 Southwest 11th Street, Plantation, Florida. I just wasn't sure about how the legal expenses are increasing or decreasing because I had a city official tell me a few months ago that because of the situation in Tallahassee, there's been increased litigation against the city, and I wasn't sure how that was being accounted for. I'm not sure if that's true or not. But also, I was concerned about whether or not the city is self-insured or they have insurance for litigation. I don't know, I'm looking here, it says outside fees insurance. I don't know if that's because the city insures itself or has insurance outside, you know, has, you know, another company, you know, defending the city if there's a problem. I'm just concerned about that because if litigation is brought against the city, you know, it's a shame if taxpayers have to pay for it. Whereas if you have insurance, you know, then that's covered. And I wasn't sure how that was set up. I'm not sure because I don't see that explained here. Ms. Morris, do you want to try to explain how we manage our risk? There we go. Excellent. In less than three minutes? In less than three minutes? I'll aim for 30 seconds. Okay. Even better. As you know, the city does self-insure to the limits of our policy. Currently, sovereign immunity limits are $200,000 per individual, $300,000 per occurrence. So our insurance kicks in when our costs exceed that amount. To your remark about increased litigation, just so everybody's on the same page, tort reform essentially took effect March 24th of last year. And part of what that led to was filing of a lot of lawsuits that may have come our way anyway, but filing much sooner in order to get in under that date because many of the litigation rules changed on March the 25th. We are working our way through those cases. I would suggest to you most of them would have made their way to us anyway. They just sort of all came as a clump. But again, we are self-insured up to those limits. And of course, we carry a full suite of property coverage, liability, et cetera. Okay. Can I help? Thank you. Yeah. Do you have D&O insurance? No. Okay. Just checking. Council Member Andrea. And the only other, oh, I only have one other question. Well, do you want to wait or? Oh, no. I'm sorry. Ms. Morris, can you just clarify a comment you made for me? Have you seen an increase, though, as compared to, say, previous years? You have seen an increase? Okay. Most definitely. Because normally those cases will make their way to us over a course of two to four years before the statute of limitation runs out. But, again, because of the rush with the change in tort reform, all those cases got filed in a very accelerated manner. And once they're filed and were served, we have to start the process of defending. Thank you. That's news to me. I was not aware of that. Thank you. Oh, it's lots of fun. Mr. Buell, you had one more question? Yeah, the one was, are these things dealt with then in shade meetings? They get us involved when there's decisions to be made. And since we don't want to let who's suing us know how we're thinking about things, you're right, it's a shade meeting where we discuss things and, you know, they don't get the benefit of, you know, the consensus that we come to for these decisions. And then the shade meetings, there's nothing in here, though, about the number of shade meetings. You don't have to identify the litigants around. It's really a matter of, you know, Carol, Ms. Morris is our risk manager on this, and she makes a decision as to when we need to be informed on things. There's a lot of, you know, there's a lot of process and legal action, and there's things that when we need to get involved. And I think the last one was several months ago. Excellent. So ideally, though, you would avoid litigation as much as possible. A hundred percent. Those shade meetings are depressing. All right. I'm going to say a hundred percent on that. Thank you. Thank you. Can I have a motion? I'm sorry, Mayor. Go ahead. Yeah, a couple of things just for further education. There's a cap, and if it approaches the cap, we bring it to you. If it's under the cap and we can settle it administratively, we talk about it. We use that strategically. We also are well aware that we don't want the reputation as the city that always settles. There's a saying in poker, every now and then you've got to punch a bully in the mouth. So when we see those cases and we see things that we're really outraged about paying money to people that we think don't deserve it, we're not afraid to clench our fists a little bit. And it's us listening to our attorneys and, you know, taking their best advice. Yes. It's a collaborative decision. It's a team decision always. Yes. We're always trying to minimize these outcomes. So can I have a motion? Motion to approve. Second. Mr. Spagaro, could you please call the roll? Council Member Anderson? Yes. Council Member Andrew? Yes. Council Member Horland? Yes. Council Member Einstein? Yes. Council Member Fajan? Yes. Thank you. Council Member Anderson, you had 1A. Yes, Danny, I didn't get a chance to contact you. I talked to Charles, but he said it was to you that I should talk to him. I didn't get a chance to get to you. I haven't ordered a survey area offering, but just surveying two cleared land properties that have been in plantation, you know, is $37,000 a reasonable and customary amount. She seems really high for two. Yeah. Cleared out, flat land, nothing on it. Right. Just to survey the four corners and a few other things on it. To tell you the truth, I don't know what the cost is, what the going cost is for that right now. Generally, when developers come in, they're kind of, you know, covering the cost for platting properties. So I'm not sure. It doesn't sound unreasonable to me that that's probably the cost, you know, to date. But off the top of my head, I don't generally see those numbers as developments come in, unfortunately. I don't have anything else. So how can we dig deeper on that to answer that better? Who can you compare and contrast through what's it look like for other cities? What's another property? What have we done in the past? Yeah. Anything like that? Yeah. I can look into it and get some additional information. Yeah, I appreciate that. Absolutely. But it's on the agenda tonight. I don't want to table it. I just, if you had an answer. So what's on the agenda tonight is really to approve a not-to-exceed amount. The staff still has the ability to go back and monitor the hours served in performing the work to ensure that the work performed is charged appropriately during the process. You're right. I forgot it was for an hourly rate not to exceed. So it's not necessarily going to cost that total amount. But they're going to try to get it up there. But we do need to do our diligence to monitor. Absolutely. Okay. And we will do that. I'll leave it at that. Anybody else? No, I'll wait. Council Member Andrea. If you, on page five of the amendment, too, I think maybe it's the multiplier. But that's, again, standard practice. And that's a 2.75 multiplier, I think, is probably market rate. So I don't see anything that's glaring on that amendment. Right. Council Member Horland. Just a brief comment. And I think, you know, to catch Mr. Holmes, you know, off guard on that a little bit, we really haven't developed much of our own city-owned property before. Exactly. You know, this was a case where we're taking this property. How come you don't know what you don't know? So, I mean. I want to be honest. I don't know. I don't want to tell you I know something and I don't know. I think we've agreed when we talked about this. It's kind of an exciting, you know, endeavor for us to be able to do this in the CRA. So, I just want to make that comment. Okay. I'll make a motion to approve. Second. Okay. Council. Thanks, Dan. Ms. Figaro, can you call the roll? Council Member Edgerson. Yes. Council Member Andreu. Yes. Council Member Horland. Yes. Council Member Einstein. Yes. Council Member Fragin. Yes. Thank you. So, now we're at administrative items, status update, ADA, appropriations, quarterly report. I guess that's just a transmittal or is there? Okay. Legislative items. Item 16, a resolution of the City Council of the City of Plantation, Florida, authorizing participation in a lawsuit seeking a declaration that the provisions of Section 112.1441D, Florida Statutes, that require municipal elected officials to file Form 6, Financial Disclosure Forms, is unconstitutional and invalid, providing for conflicts, providing for severability, and providing for an effective date. Anybody have any comments? Council Member Anderson. Quickly, just a Scribner's error on line 19 of the reso. I happen to have a whole folder full of my Form 1s from 20 years of filing them. It's sources of income, comma, real property, intangible personal property, comma, liabilities, comma, interests. Because it looks like intangible personal property liabilities, and it's not. They're separate things. So, I just need a comma or two in there, depending if you prefer to put them before the and. But definitely, after intangible personal property, should be a comma. And then, does this, this is, I know we discussed it two weeks ago, and I know I read it, but remind me, are we basically in for the 10,000? And then, it also get, I guess, am I allowed to go to the chair directly to the attorney as well? We also allow them to, can they seek reasonable attorney's fees if they, if they prevail? Yes, they can. Right. And so, we're also allowing them to do that. Yes. If they got those fees, are we still out the 10,000? No, you would be reimbursed. You would be reimbursed. That's what I thought. Yes, you would. Okay. That's great. Okay. I have some thoughts about this. First, I do feel that Form 6 is incredibly invasive, and it can't possibly create a barrier for someone who wants to run for office. I don't believe it creates the safety net that the public, net to the public that people think it would create, because, basically, a crook is going to do, is not going to report crooked things. Having said that, I do not feel comfortable expending city money to fight against transparency laws. It looks like we're, it's very self-serving to the council, being elected, because it affects us the most. And I'm not happy about having to file Form 6. I think the organizers of this lawsuit, it probably would have been a better approach to have the, approach the electeds individually and have them contribute to the legal fund, not the public till of the residents of these individual cities and such. So, I am not for this, and I just really wanted to state that. Council Member Horland, you're next. Thank you, Mr. President. I do have some thoughts on this. I wanted to ask Mr. Ezra, I'm assuming this is the rezo that was taken from Weiserota. This is pretty much what all the cities are signing on to? Yes, it is. This is the form rezo that was prepared by Weiserota. And do we know how many cities have signed on, just out of curiosity? So, I had a conversation with Mr. Cole and others last week, and as of last week, 19 cities have joined and 36 individuals have agreed to join. Okay. So, if you do approve the rezo and you want to participate as a named party in the lawsuit, I would need for you to fill out the form and get it back to me so I could transmit to Mr. Cole pretty quickly. Okay. Thank you, Mr. Ezra. I do have some comments, and I'm going to repeat a little bit of what I had said at the last council meeting. When we fought this during the legislative session, we knew it was a bit of an uphill climb. As I stated, one of the things we were able to get out of the original bill was the fact that city managers were originally included in this, and we made the argument successfully that it's difficult enough to try to hire a qualified city manager without subjecting them to this. I agree with Council Member Fadgen. I believe it's an absolute invasion of privacy. I think that when we're talking about transparent, and we are very transparent in how we conduct business here, but I don't think what's in my actual – and when we talk about details, they want details, what's in your bank account. And a lot of details that typically local elected officials are not subject to disclosing. It is an absolute invasion of privacy. Having said that, looking at the resolution that was prepared, and with all due respect to Weiss and Roeder, they have terrific attorneys there, the whereas don't really do anything to differentiate city electeds from statehouse electeds. I – in looking this, you know, we thought that the best argument we had last year, because other electives have to file this, was to try to get a delayed implementation date, because we did not feel it was fair to anybody who decided to run for office to all of a sudden change the rules in the middle of the game. Can I make a comment on that? Can I finish? Yeah. To change the rules in the middle of the game. And we thought if you delayed the implementation date, I thought that would have been a better argument to try to overcome. I don't know if the public's aware, and I don't know if my colleagues are aware, that over 100 elected officials in the state have resigned. And I think that we could have avoided some of that had they delayed the implementation date. And where you're seeing a lot of the resignations or a lot of the beach communities, nobody gets into elected office, especially local elected office, to make money and to enrich yourselves. I would hope not. But a lot of these beach communities, they receive absolutely no compensation or very little. And a lot of those people just felt this was too invasive. Having said all of that, and I did make the statement because last week Mr. Bueller said to us on another issue, sometimes we need to push back against some of this legislation. I do think sometimes we play it a little safe and that we should push back in the legislation. I don't think that this is the issue to push back because I agree with Council President that it feels a little bit self-serving. I'm much more willing to push back on an issue where it's going to affect more of the community. I can make certain decisions about my investments personally and those holdings, but I think to spend city money to protect my privacy, I'm not comfortable doing with this resolution. I was just going to make a comment to the effect that there should have been a delayed. You know, after you serve your term, then you would be subjected to it because that was the rules of the road when you got into office. But, Council Member Andrea? So, thank you all. I think it's a great conversation worth having. I spoke to Attorney Ezra all about this a few times since it was proffered, I think, and then, of course, once it passed. I feel strongly about it. I understand my colleagues. If you all don't want to support the resolution, I am prepared to file as an individual. I think that's something that was said during public comment two weeks ago. I already have my personal views on Form 6 and find it extremely invasive. But at what point are we going to say enough is enough? And we're just going to be silent and allow Tallahassee to strip away home rule and enforce these and other types of amendments and legislation on us. So, I completely understand. I, too, am torn about us using the city dollars. And that's why, if, as a group, you all choose not to, I'm still prepared to continue solo. Thank you. Thank you. Council Member Weinstein? So, a lot of my thoughts have been said by my colleagues. And I think this one is particularly interesting because the last comment by Council Member Andreu is the recognition that if one of us chooses to fight this in our own name, we can do that separate than having the city do it and risk the expense and the cost and the effort to be a part of the litigation. I would just echo that I think that when we run for office that we put ourselves out there. I think some people think that we should be further out than maybe reasonable. And this is an interesting one because it is questioning what is reasonable and hearing how many public servants who have decided to leave office because of this is disheartening. And that's not good for any of us. But that being said, I feel it is too big of a burden for our city to undertake based on how it's currently set out. Okay. Council Member Andreu? I did have another question. I just wanted to clarify a few points, if I may, Council President, with the Attorney Ezra. So, what is the threshold that is used now for Form 6 in terms of accounts? So, is it my understanding, correct me if I'm wrong, if any account that I have, which I have accounts for my minor children, right, that have, is it $100 or $1,000? I believe it's $1,000. $1,000. But, again, I'm not really prepared to advise on the preparation of a report. There's been a lot of training on it, and really the Commission on Ethics is the organization that should be responding to it. And I've even heard, you know, people commenting how you may need to engage an accountant to assist you with completing the form. So, it's a very complicated form. But, again, it's a lot different than what we're accustomed to as elected officials of a municipality. So, and to just the point of my colleagues, so I believe in transparency as well. And I had no problem with Form 1 when we all decided to take this endeavor. We knew about Form 1. We completed Form 1. We've completed Form 1 for years, even in other capacities. But this came, you know, kind of mid-game, if you will. And I had not planned on that level of, I don't call it transparency. I find it invasive to have to, and I think it's the part about the minor children for me that is most unsettling because they didn't sign up for this. And now to even have to divulge all of their personal, private information. Well, can I make a comment about that? I know a little bit of information just to be extremely dangerous with it. There was a council member, a commissioner in Naples, who, it's not in the spirit of the law, but basically transferred all the assets to their spouse. So, she really has no disclosure responsibility. So, my little bit of information that's extremely dangerous is I doubt that your children's accounts would have to be disclosed under your disclosure reporting. They absolutely do. If I'm the account holder and I'm the one who happened to go with them, I went with them to, you know, the bank and opened those accounts when they were, you know, when they're still minors, but when they were young. Very dangerous information. Go ahead. So, it's just unsettling for me and, like, you know, I'm not going to beat a dead horse, but that's why I feel so strongly about it. I just want it on the record because I know probably a lot of people listening haven't tuned in to the details of Form 6, and that's kind of why I wanted to drive that point home about an account of $1,000 now to disclose all of that information. It's a lot, and I will have to have assistance because of activities with family members, your elder, you know, my father, your elderly parents, anything, anything that you're involved in financially. So, of course, you can do things like you mentioned. I didn't recommend that. I'm just telling you. I didn't say you recommended it. There, of course, there are things that you can skirt the rules, but I don't believe in that either. So, following it to the letter of the law, it is extremely invasive. Council Member Horland. I just want to make another comment, and I think perhaps because I was battling this since last year through League of Cities, and I've gone through that whole range of emotions with you, so I understand it. I think, I think, to your point, you even have to – minor accounts absolutely have to be reported, as do college saving accounts, 529 accounts. And as you said, some of us have accounts, you know, we're on our accounts with our parents. But to further go into the invasiveness, this is assets within your home, jewelry, and many elected officials are afraid for their security. So, it is really beyond invasive, and I think that, again, changing the rules for any of us who are elected and who chose to serve in a public capacity in the middle of the game was unconscionable. But it's going to prevent a lot of really good people from running for office, and I think that is the larger issue when we start to look at it. We can figure out some ways to deal with it, but it has far-reaching effects, and I think what we ran up against, it was very hard to make some of those arguments to people who were already filling out the Form 6, and that's what we were getting the pushback on. Okay. Can we have a motion? Motion to approve. Second. Okay. Public comment. Mr. Conklin. Dennis Conklin, 4581 Northwest 6th Court. As was already mentioned by each of you, this intrusion is just too great. I wanted to draw your attention to whereas 5, 6, and 7 begins at line 28 of the resolution, and it has to do with other disclosure, namely HIPAA. I don't feel that the Florida Constitution article and so forth that's described here is prevented enough intrusion, basically by way of individual health and medical freedom rights. And regardless of what action you're going to take here, and it's been mentioned that individually you can act on your own if this fails. I believe that the city ought to get with other cities and get them to include an amendment for the medical and health freedom that I couldn't read it in any of those statutes. And that's what was all completely violated with the COVID stuff, which we are still under, as I mentioned in my opening remarks. But I feel this thing is totally, you know, too much government. And I'll support whatever you support, even if you have to do individual. But what needs to be addressed is the inclusion in this Article 1, Section 23, right, of privacy, because it is not. It is not. Thank you all. You'll be back. Thank you, Mr. Conklin. Mr. Corman? Mr. Corman, 11095 Whitehawk Street. You've heard me say it before. I'll say it again. ATFQ. Answer the question that's being asked. So this one has to do with whether or not we're going to expend city funds to be party to a lawsuit relative to these Form 6 disclosures. I agree with every one of you about what was said. I don't necessarily disagree or agree, though, about one particular element of it, which is that everybody up here on the dais chose to be into this position. As was mentioned, it would be nice if they had, in essence, pushed this off until you completed your term so anybody moving forward had full awareness of what the requirements would be. But that's not what we're left with. What we're left with is a bill that's requiring certain disclosures of financial information. It's a burden or not. You all chose to be up there. If the rules are then changed, you can choose to step down. There are provisions within our code to do so. So the question at hand is, do we spend $10,000 of city money on this particular case? And to that, I would say no, because it is our money. It is not money to protect, in essence, your privacy. I fill out the Form 1s as well on planning and zoning. I get it. I would not want to fill out Form 6. But the law up in Tallahassee has been written, and we serve under that level of the law. What I would argue for is, if this is felt that strongly about it, is there a discretionary fund within the city, whether it is the mayor's fund for cakes, whether it is a discretionary fund that you have for T-shirts, whatever it may be that exists within an already budgeted arena, that that money can be taken out of, that way it is not an extra expense to the people of the city, but still accomplishes that task. Because I do think it behooves the city of Plantation to be party to this lawsuit as far as state overreach goes and taking away the ideas of home rule and the ability for us to legislate everything from what kind of information wants to be disclosed all the way down to vacation rentals. It is a symptom of a larger disease. What I disagree with is the spending of excess unbudgeted money as a line item to accomplish this task. There was just a firetruck, for example, that we're getting for about $100,000 less on the agenda. Money could probably come out of there since that was already somewhere in an actuarial table. But do not spend new money on this particular element. Do not vote yes for this. Thank you, Mr. Corman. Mr. Mayor? Yeah. I did ask the question about using my funds, and I'd like Mr. Ezra to give the answer. There's no reason why you can't use funds in your budget. But not in my discretionary funds. I can't use my discretionary funds because it has to be approved by you all. No. That's what you just told me a second ago. No. No. Are you sure? Yes. The resolution to join the lawsuit needs to be approved by city council. If you want to use your funds in your discretionary account, you can use your funds to fund the lawsuit if council approves the resolution. If they approve the resolution. Correct. If they don't approve the resolution, then I can't do it. You don't have the authority to have the city join in the lawsuit. That's you deciding where we're going to take the money from. Yes. Exactly. So essentially it's on you all. And I'm good with that. My point is we checked out every variable and every possibility, which is what he referred to. He was exactly right, is we don't want to spend new money on it. Okay. But that's up to you. So that is an option if you guys suggest that. I would think about it. I don't think there's... Myself, I'm probably going to spend my own money. I don't think there's new money. I don't think the city wants it. I don't think the residents, I don't think it fits plantation and the way that we tell people we do business, that we would do something for our own. It's a personal game, but you all know what I mean. I don't think there's new money, there's old money, it's all the residents' money. So it doesn't matter where it comes from in my standpoint, it's still the same thing. Council Member Andrea? I think that is an excellent suggestion to use the Mayor's discretionary account if you would be willing to do that. I do, because I have questioned not you, but that account because it never does come to council. So if you decided to buy $10,000 worth of furniture or $10,000 worth of cakes, we wouldn't know and we wouldn't approve and we wouldn't vote. So I think this is an excellent way to use that discretionary account. I'm in favor. Okay. You all still would have to pass a resolution, so that's on you all. Yeah, that's... Whether you want to do that or not. I have no more public comment. Is there anybody that would like to make a public comment that did not fill out a speaker form? Seeing none, we have a motion and a second. Ms. Begaro, can you please call the roll? Council Member Anderson? Yes. Council Member Andreu? Yes. Council Member Horland? Council Member Reinstein? No. Council Member Fajan? No. Okay. Thank you. We're at quasi-judicial. City Attorney Ezra, please read the procedures for a quasi-judicial hearing. Yes, sir. The City Clerk will swear in 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 a part of the record. The 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. The 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. The City Council may also decide to continue the matter to a designated time to allow for additional research or review. Thank you. Ms. Begrove, please swear in all who wish to speak. If those of you who are 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 very much. Thank you. Item 17, PM23-0101, consideration of a request for conditional use, approval for Turning Point MHC LLC. The property is located at 8751 West Broward Boulevard, Suite No. 202, and Zone M-PM, Mixed Use, Plantation Midtown. Mr. Holmes. Yes. Thank you, Mr. Chair. This is application PM23-0101. It is a conditional use request to allow a 1,701-square-foot mental health facility establishment in the MPM Mixed Use, Plantation Midtown Zoning District. The property is located at 8751 West Broward Boulevard. This is just west of North Pine Island Road. The agent is Sherry Porter, Michelle Montero Caissieto. The address is 8751, again, Broward Boulevard, Suite 202. The size of the parcels, 3.3 acres, again, underlying zoning MPM. Existing use is a five-story office building, approximately 69,800 square feet. This is an aerial photo of the site. You can see that the property itself is surrounded by office uses to the north, to the west, the canal in multifamily. To the south, there's West Broward Boulevard in multifamily. And to the east, there is a Chevron gas station. And you also see the notification boundary noted there on the aerial map as well. Just to give you some background information on the request, Turning Point MHC would occupy approximately 1,701 square feet of office space on the second floor of the building. The proposed operating hours would be Monday through Friday, 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. Turning Point MHC has been operating in the city at 6738 West Sunrise Boulevard since approximately 2018. Prior to this location, they were operating for three years at 100 South Pine Island Road. And the applicant, as part of this application, is seeking to relocate to 8751 West Broward Boulevard, Suite 202. The applicant, again, has been operating in the city of Plantation for eight years without incident or without any major police calls to the site. This is a floor plan for the proposed use. You can kind of see there the reception area as you enter the building and then the various office spaces that are proposed for the use. Again, the site plan, the site is accessible both from Broward Boulevard and from North Pine Island Road. And just to give you some general analysis criteria that are associated with conditional use, the proposed conditional use, as staff has reviewed it, is we found it generally consistent with the general plan for the city. We found the conditional use is compatible with the general character of the neighborhood considering the adjacent commercial and office uses. And also that proposed conditional use should not adversely affect the general welfare of residents, visitors, or workers in the neighborhood. The other thing I want to note is that given the size, this conditional use is generally a use that is approved at the administrative level. And we were prepared to approve it. We did get, after we sent the notifications out, we did get one complaint with regard to that. So just in the interest of transparency and the concern that was raised, I thought it would be prudent to bring it to the council for a review and for an open public hearing. And we couldn't get a hold of them? Yes. Yeah. We've tried, after they called initially, we got information and then we reached back out to them. And they never stated why their objections, so, okay. That's correct. And just some other pertinent information, there were, in terms of the notices, there were 108 notices that were mailed out within that 300-foot boundary. And as I indicated, we've received one comment. Also, some other information that there are no current violations on the site at this time. So in conclusion, staff would recommend approval of the proposed application. Thank you. Council Member Horland. Thank you, Mr. President. As Mr. Holmes stated, this should have been approved administratively, and I don't see that Ms. Torello is here, the resident who pulled the item. There may have been a misunderstanding of what type of facility it was. Right. I'm making that assumption. So in that spirit, I'd like to offer a motion to approve. Second. Council Member Reinstein. Just to the extent that I did send an email in response to Ms. Torello, so I wanted to make a Jennings disclosure to the extent that I did not speak to her or have any communication with her. But I did send that correspondence to try and reach out. Is there anybody who'd like to speak to this from the chamber? Come on up. You didn't need to be here, but someone was testing the process. Good evening. My name is Michelle Montero-Gaicedo, and I am the founder and CEO for Turning Point Mental Health Center. I am here because I wanted to make sure that I was able to answer any questions or concerns regarding our facility. Mr. Holmes did a fantastic job explaining what we do. We're a private practice. We are not a facility. We are not a hospital. We've operated in plantation for almost a decade, and we haven't had any incidents. So we feel strongly that we're offering a service to the community and specifically to the residents of plantation. We're happy you're staying. Appreciate it. And I don't think we have any concerns. Mr. Mayor? Overall, I would just comment that some of our codes related to mental health and approvals are really outdated, and when we rewrite it, I presume we're going to make it more modern where it's not going to be like mental health being some problematic area or something. In my perfect world, the stigma would be removed for mental health. Thank you. Thank you. Is there anyone else who would like to make a public comment? All right. We have a motion and a second. Ms. Beggarrow, can you please call the roll? Council Member Anderson? Yes. Council Member Andreu? Yes. Council Member Horland? Yes. Council Member Einstein? Yes. Council Member Fajan? Yes. Thank you. Congratulations. Mr. Mayor, administrative update, do you have anything? A lot of activities this week, as you all know. The Plantation United Methodist Church has an Echo Day from 11 to 2. I didn't know if you all knew about it. Rock climbing wall inflatables. And I think a couple of our city departments have displays set up. I think we try to get public works and utilities or something like that. There will be a big crowd there. And, of course, Reggae Genealogy gates open at 3. The event is at 6. It is called that they're going to tell the story of reggae. It's called an event, not a concert. We've worked hard with them to make sure. I'm trying to grow these events and trying to make sure that we cover a lot of bases, and it's important. So worth stopping by. If any of you all are going to these, it would help me. Oh, and there's another event at American Heritage over the weekend. I don't know if anybody, Tim, you know about it, I think. And I don't know that much about it. So the point is, there's a lot of us. There's a lot of events. If we cover each one, you all let me know. It would help me. Appreciate it. Thank you. Thank you, Mr. Mayor. That brings us to board committee appointments. Does anybody have any appointments they would like to make? I do. Council Member Horland? You want to go first, Mayor? Joe Wynn, Sustainability. Can I have a motion? Motion to approve. Second. Ms. Begaro, please call the roll. Council Member Anderson? Yes. Council Member Andreu? Yes. Council Member Horland? Yes. Council Member Reinstein? Yes. Council Member Fajan? Yes. Council Member Horland? I see Midtown was in two places tonight. I probably could have done this during the CRA meeting, but I'm making a new appointment to Midtown. Drew Tyree, who is the new CEO of Westside HCA, he just arrived in town on Monday, and he was gracious enough to accept my appointment last week. Very good. Motion to approve. Second. Ms. Begaro, please call the roll. Council Member Anderson? Yes. Council Member Andreu? Yes. Council Member Horland? Yes. Council Member Reinstein? Yes. Council Member Fajan? Yes. Any other appointments? Okay. It brings us to the... I'm sorry? I'll fix it later, because I still have to... I'll deal with it next meeting. Thanks. Okay. That brings us to comments by Council Members. Council Member Anderson? Okay. Council Member Andreu? Thank you. So, Council Member Reinstein, thank you for acknowledging Black History Month. I see our wonderful poster here at the podium that administration did. You must have moved it closer to us or something, because it's hard for us to see the whole thing, but it looks great. This year, we celebrate, of course, Black History Month in February, and the theme is African Americans and the Arts. We recognize the influence and contributions in music, film, fashion, culinary, literature, and all of the arts. And that is the perfect segue into what the mayor already mentioned, the Reggae Genealogy, Saturday at Island Space at Broward Mall. So, I know that they would love for all of us to be there. I will be there, I believe, at 7 p.m. is when they will be presenting the three icons that they're honoring for Lifetime Achievement Awards, which are Bob Marley's daughter, who Bob Marley's birthday was yesterday, Marcia Griffith, and Miss Pat Chin. So, I think that's around the 7 o'clock mark, if anybody wants to be present for that particular. Can you all let me know if you want tickets or whatever, email Gregory or something, and Gregory's communicating with them with who's coming and who's not, and they'll put your name on the list rather than just show up blindly, unless you want to do that. Thank you. And then, also, this week is Florida Severe Weather Awareness Week. And I bring this up because, before you blink, we'll be upon hurricane season, unfortunately, again. We hate to even discuss it or jinx ourselves, but we always, of course, need to be prepared. And I know I spoke to Mr. Noonamaker a while ago at one of our briefings and discussed with him maybe a plan for having sandbags available in the event. So, I just thought I would also bring it up here with everybody. And I can assist if you need some additional details on that. But I think that might help some of our residents if we do ever have an impending storm. And I'm really excited about the Helen B. Hoffman Library reopening Saturday, February 17th. So, looking forward to that event also. And, of course, celebrating President's Day, which we have celebrated since 1968 on February 19th, Monday. And I just want to wish everyone a happy Valentine's Day, February 14th. I love our city. I love plantation. And love all of you. So, happy Valentine's Day. Thank you. So much love. So much love. Council Member Reinstein. First, I'll say that when they're ad hominem attacks, it's best not to respond. And I'll leave it at that. I want to congratulate Officer Edwards on receiving a Distinguished Performance Award. The Police Department does an amazing job of recognizing their officers. And that one went out on social media. I saw that. I wanted to make sure to mention that. I also wanted to note that, you know, I think most of us have met or knew, Sir Kingsley Smith. And I did not know him well, but my interactions with him were always very positive. Somebody who cared for and loved our city. And I learned at his funeral the other day that he was knighted by the Queen. And we should have always been referring to him as Sir Kingsley Smith. So, my apologies for not doing that, but I recognize that now. So, Sir Kingsley Smith passed away, and it was a beautiful service, well attended in his memory. I also want to make mention of Rock the Park. I don't think the director mentioned it unless I missed it when he reviewed all the great things that have gone on and are going on in our city. But we had our first Rock the Park event this past Saturday night, and I'm looking forward to hearing some numbers and hearing how we actually did. Because it was our first time that the city endeavored to move beyond the Friday night Rock the Park. So, I want to thank Parks and Rec for experimenting with the Saturday night, and hopefully it can prove successful, and it can be something that we will continue. Thank you. Thank you. Council Member Horland. Thank you, Mr. President. First, I wanted to give everyone an update. The mayor was unable to attend the mayor's roundtable with Dr. Licata's superintendent's office last Friday. It felt like Saturday. It was Friday. Not much to report. He did not want to get into details. He did not really want a lot of details. Basically, I think it was a little bit of a mea culpa. He did say, you know, listen, I messed up with the SRO issue because they had said that they had reached out to the cities when, in fact, they did not. So, I think that's what this was. Basically, it was, again, he really wants to speak to the community, talk to those stakeholders before he starts to get into specifics. We all know, and those involved in education know how difficult it is to decide to close or repurpose schools. I think part of our communication should be about repurposing, reimagining, and not closing, because I think that tends to, I think any time, even here, when we start to talk about things, they're not fully fleshed out ideas. We get everybody all worked up until we have those plans. I think it's best to be really thoughtful about those comments. So, there were some interesting ideas that were floated. I think one of the things that they were looking at, when we start to talk about repurposing, especially elementary schools, is looking at Gulfstream Academy in Allendale. If you've never been there, it's really quite amazing, because they have a full array of wraparound services at that facility, and I think what they're looking at is starting to say there's an under-enroll elementary school, perhaps reaching out to an outside provider to do a preschool at the other part of the building, so that we're, again, not closing that elementary school, but repurposing that building. So, they're open to all ideas. What they'd like us to do, that was the question at the end, what can we do at this point, is really encouraging everyone to attend these school, redefining our school community conversations. We did point out to Dr. Licata that they were only offering three locations, and those locations are not accessible to a lot of working families, so they did agree to add more dates and more locations. One other conversation that came out of that was, and Dr. Licata said, you know, I want to sit down with mayors, and we had a conversation later, and no disrespect to the mayor, but a lot of the cities have a rotating mayor every year, much like our council president, so it doesn't make sense to sit down with a mayor who's not going to be the mayor in a year. He did say he would like to be invited to a council meeting, so I think that would probably be the best avenue to have another workshop or have him come to a council meeting, and really so that he can hear from all of us. But the most important thing is to put this out, so tomorrow night is the first community conversation. It will be at Fort Lauderdale High School, and those are beginning, where is the time? Six o'clock. There will be three of those, so if we could get, I don't know if we put that out, mayor, perhaps we can get that out on the website just to facilitate. And they are doing community survey, and what I would encourage everyone doing that's listening, these are going to be community decisions, and they're talking to all the stakeholders. So if you are a resident in your city, fill out the survey when it comes out and talk about what you want to see in your community, because when they're looking at repurposing facilities, they're looking at, do we want to put a VOTEC school in there? What type of offerings do we want to present to the community? So I think they're open to a lot of ideas. So basically, again, no particulars, but it was more of a, you know what, let's come together and work collaboratively on this side. A couple of things. I'm sorry to cut you off. Sure. Can I also just add, I think it's also being streamed and on Beacon? It is. Thank you. So for those who can't attend in person. Right, it is being streamed. Thank you. And I think if we get that out on the web, on social media, that'd be great. Thank you, Council Member Andreu. In other school-related news, I'm proud to announce that my appointment to the Education Advisory Board, Jesse Valenzuela, has been appointed by Dr. Holness to the Broward County Public Schools Parent Community Involvement Task Force. And I think it's going to be really good for us in Plantation to have an active parent have their voice on that board. I wanted to, I did let Ms. Shailon know that I was going to bring this up. We all received an email from a resident in the Acres about the traffic calming. And I have spoken to her at length and kind of gone in through some of the data, and I spoke to Ms. Shailon before the meeting. My question that I had on this, because she raised a lot of concerns in her email, when we were here and we passed that policy in August of 2022, I remember distinctly we had a conversation, and our concerns were, how many residents does it take to get the study done? So, and I think that was one of the things that we had talked about. So, what was presented in the application, I think it was about 54 people, but then when you start to dig into it, it's about 14 in the North Acres. This is where she resides. And obviously, she was, again, she does not want the speed bumps in her neighborhood. And then when I started to do a little bit of deep dive, really there's only one house that's on 118th on the corner. And then you start to get in somebody who's, I think, the closest, then it's three houses in, then it's eight houses. So, my question for Ms. Shailon, and it wasn't something that we had really talked about when we passed the policy, what constitute affected parties? So, is it just people in a general neighborhood driving down, you know, let's use 118th? Or is it people directly on that street? Because I don't know that we really talked about that when we passed the policy. So, there's two sides to answer this question. Number one, part of the policy, there was an exhibit explaining the affected area and how to define the affected area. It was part of the policy. And again, the policy set a framework for staff to identify the implementation of the policy. Also, there is a provision in the policy allows staff to implement, or the city to implement traffic calming measures when conditions require that. Particularly in Northwest 118, when we did the traffic study, the average speed and the statistic 85th percentile speed was 48 mile per hour on a 25 mile per hour roadway. So, the analysis of the data clearly showed cut-through and speeding. So, there was signatures, there was 54 signatures. I personally, as the city engineer, attended the PAHA meeting several times and get the consensus and the information there, the study data and analysis there. And this is something my department and I personally do in every application. Actually, last week, I attended East Tropical Homeowners Association meeting and I went through the same exercise. I showed them their application, the signature. I went through the analysis. So, this is a typical process we get through every application if we can, if there is Homeowners Association. Sometimes, there's no Homeowners Association and that's actually where the signature lies. When you don't have Homeowners Association, if you have a Homeowners Association, we ask the Homeowners Association president to sign the application, which was done. One, and actually, the Homeowners Association, in this case, was the applicant. Correct. Number two, the city engineer attended several public meetings, the Homeowners Association meeting and got that information there. We got 54 signatures as representative of the affected area. Yeah, 118 is a roadway that goes from Broward to Sunrise. So, if we want to define the affected area, everybody who uses 118, which with all honesty, it's the majority of the acres. It's everyone who uses it and not necessarily living along the road. And I think that was one of, and I'm bringing it up because we all did receive the email and I think it's an important discussion because this is the first time that we've seen it implemented on a large scale. I think part of her concern also is this is not a mandatory HOA. It's a voluntary HOA. So, that was another, you know, point. So, what are the metrics and where are we? So, now you're telling me to, because in many cases, well, the acres are one unified area, one unified district. North Acres, Middle Acres, you know, on other occasions, we kind of separate them because they're a little bit unique. Yes and no. So, the application we received, identify 100, the affected roadway is 118 from Broward all the way to the city limit. Correct. So, if the application said 118 from Sunrise Boulevard to the city limit, then the affected area will be the North Acres community or the surrounding community of 118. However, the application was extending 118 from Broward Boulevard all the way to the city limit. I appreciate it. I think it's an important conversation because it's the first time since we have a passed out policy. I understood her concern when she starts to look at just her area and you start to look at the signatures. There were not a lot of signatures in the North Acres, especially right around that area. So, I appreciate you. And let me just add, I attended recently the Plantation Acres Home Ours Association meeting, went over the implementation of the project and requested the resident to give the city the opportunity to do the evaluation, which usually done six months after the implementation. My evaluation of that meeting, it was just individuals who's against the implementation, the majority of the attendee were in favor. Okay. That's my observation to you guys today. I appreciate the explanation. Thank you. Wait. There's a whole list now. No, it's okay. You want to jump in on that issue. No, no, no, no. Let me keep control of this. Are you done? Yeah. One other thing. There's a whole line now. No, but I think it was an important conversation for all of us to have. No, I'm not arguing that, but. Okay. You want to get out of here. Don't you? No. No, it's important. I'm not rushing you. One other thing that we talked about, two things at the last meeting. Number one, Councilmember Andreu had asked if we were going to be rescheduling that meeting, and I had not heard anything about that. So, I think it's important if we know February, correct? What's this? Yeah. Two weeks. Yeah. The meeting's the 21st. I emailed Andreu and Anderson. Anderson indicated he can make the next meeting on the 21st. That puts us down to four. Okay. Jennifer, I didn't hear back from you. I mean, I already said I can't, but it's okay. I'll just come late. I just wanted to confirm. I'll be, I'll get here when, as soon as I can. I consulted with everybody. Again, it's a team thing. Okay. I consulted with everybody. I said, if we have four, should we go for it? Everybody says, four, we should go for it. Three is a different question. Okay. The only thing I would ask next time is maybe if an email went out from administration to everybody. Yeah, we should have. Yeah, we could update you. Thank you. I appreciate that. No, we should have done that. That's the last thing, and then I will, we also discussed about, we've discussed it many times about communication and how do we best communicate to the residents. And I think that administration has done a very good job about utilizing social media. But I think social media is just one tool. And we have a very good tool that everyone forgets about, and that's gov delivery. And I would really like to see the city pushing gov delivery more because there's so much. I don't go on social media every day, and there's a lot that's missed. Residents miss a lot. I'm thinking about some of the delays in waste management. If they're not on social media, they don't see that. So if there is an alert that goes out, the best way to use it, in my opinion, is gov delivery because people can go in there and put their email address. They can get your updates. They can get anything else that the city is pushing out. So I really would like to see a big push on gov delivery. I'm pushing that out a little bit more. Okay. Thank you. I'm done, Mr. President. Thank you very much. No problem. Council Member Reinstein. Yeah, I apologize. When Council Member Horland mentioned the schools, it reminded me that I wanted to report back about the Caliber Awards. Principal Valise from Mirror Lake Elementary was a finalist for the Caliber Awards, which means that she was in the top-ranked principals throughout all of Broward County. She made a wonderful presentation on behalf of our city and on behalf of her school and all of the other principals. She didn't win the award, but she was a finalist, and that in and of itself was a great achievement. So I wanted to recognize principal Valise. Thank you. Mr. Mayor, are you still clicked in? Yeah, multiple updates, all of which are good. At 7.51, Laura is in St. Augustine for a city manager's convention and says, I've already asked Michelle to share those school community meetings on social media. So we're on that one. Let's see what else. Oh, Lakata, we've talked to him and trying to get him booked here. We've had him on the list. We're working, trying to get him there. Back to schools and everything, the principal and assistant principal from Plantation Middle has been showing up at Mirror Lake Events, for example, and trying to build that pipeline and try to reinvigorate that. They're working their tail off it at Plantation Middle, and I'm really grateful. Don't know what it's going to do, but anything we can do to help him and support him, I know you all are there. HOA, I spoke to the e-mailer, I talked to her last night. She's very respectful of the people who promoted the speed bumps, appreciates that people are working for free and directing things. There's another person in Central Plantation who also doesn't like speed bumps. He's formed a group and is doing a petition drive, and so he's going to coach up the person in Acres. And look, it's a democratic process. If you have a petition that says we don't want them, then we'll look at them again. That's the way, you know, government should work. So it was respectful, and at your points, you reported what she said very accurately. Gov delivery is a great point. That's all I got. Thank you. Thank you. Council Member Andrea. I just wanted to state, that's why I was trying to, I didn't want to interrupt the process, but when we were discussing the HOA for the Acres, because I didn't speak with that resident, but I did respond via e-mail back to her. But even though the HOA for the Acres is voluntary, I have not ever found that they don't allow all residents to attend. So I don't live in the Acres, and I've attended many of their meetings, particularly on the North Acres Park, especially when the city engineer is going to do a presentation. So it does not restrict people, because I kind of got the impression that they were saying, you know, well, if you're not part of the HOA. So, again, you don't have to pay dues in order to, and please correct me if I'm wrong, to attend their open meetings for the Acres. So they still absolutely can, you know, be a part of that and have their voice heard when these decisions are being made. I don't disagree with you. I think that point, to that point, was more about access to other things. I don't think it was access to the meetings. That's not the way that I got it from her, but thank you. All right. I forgot what I was going to say. Now, last week, Broward MPO started a transportation academy, and they're very excited about it. It's something that other MPOs around the country are interested in, and they're going to want to, you know, possibly be the delivering agent of this. So I did sign up for that academy. It's a pretty intense class. It's five sessions, five hours each for five months, and this is not a great time of year for me to commit to that kind of time, but I am, and we had our first class last week. I'm one of 11 of the board members that are participating in it, and I'm very excited about the education I'm going to get to hopefully better represent our interests at the MPO and deal with our transportation issues. So the first class was good, and I'm looking forward for the rest of it. And then on another note, the reopening of the library, a very exciting, on the February 17th, and that also correspond with the opening of the train exhibit, which is always one of the more popular museum exhibits. So if you haven't seen the train exhibit, make sure you head over there after the grand opening of the library. And with that, I believe we are done. Meeting adjourned, 8.04.