Good evening and welcome. The Wednesday, January 29, 2025 City of Plantation City Council meeting is now called to order at 6.30 p.m. City Clerk, Ms. Beggarrow, please call the roll. Council Member Anderson. Here. Council Member Andreu. Here. Council Member Fadgen. Here. Council Member Horland. Here. Council Member Reinstein. Here. Mayor Sortel. Here. City Attorney Ezra. Here. Thank you. So as everyone knows that we rotate on the Council opening remarks and leading the Pledge of Allegiance, tonight's opening remarks are mine and the Pledge of Allegiance will be led by Girl Scout Troop 10409. So I'm going to ask the Girl Scout Troop to come up to the front, please. And everybody, please stand for the Pledge of Allegiance. I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the republic for which it stands, one nation under God, indivisible for the liberty and justice for all. Everybody may be seated, except for the Girl Scouts. So thank you for joining us today, Troop 10409. And I'm going to ask if each one of you can introduce yourself and if you want to share something with us about the Girl Scouts and what you're doing. Go ahead. Who's first? Make sure that green light is on. My name is Olivia Livingston and I attend St. Gregory Catholic School and I'm in 6th grade. Thank you. My name is Nora Bowers and I attend Seminole Middle School and I'm in 6th grade. Thank you, Nora. Hi, Ivy. My name is Ivy DeVant and I go to NSU University School in 6th grade. Thank you. Hi, my name is Natalie Lewin. I attend Plantation Park Elementary School. I'm in 5th grade. Thanks, Natalie. Hi, my name is Fiona Sverick. I go to Seminole Middle School and I'm in 6th grade. Thanks, Fiona. Hi, my name is Kaylee Sverick. I go to Seminole Middle School and I'm in 8th grade. Great. And the public may have noticed that there's maybe something that goes on with Girl Scouts at this time of the year up front here. You want to tell us about that? You have some things to share, some things you're working on? Our troop will be at the Publix at Town Square and Plantation Diner this Saturday and Sunday from 9 a.m. to noon, kicking off Girl Scout cookie season. Thank you. I've already kicked it off, right? Go ahead, Ivy. We recently spent a day of service volunteering with Feeding South Florida where we helped sort nearly 13,000 pounds of food. Thank you. That's great. We created an anti-bullying campaign and helped spread the word against bullying by being an example of kindness, wearing our shirts to events, and handing out our decals with our logo on them. Thank you, Natalie. Anything else you want to share? Yeah? You want to tell us what your shirts say? Sure. Our shirts say, eat, sleep, kindness, repeat. Oh, that's wonderful. Love that. All right. And what are we eating? We can mention it again. What are we eating? Cookies. Cookies. Yeah. Cookies. Fantastic. Well, thank you so much for joining us. You're doing wonderful things in the community. In addition to feeding us cookies and sharing the cookies, you're doing great stuff, great community service work, the stuff you're doing with Feeding South Florida and your other activities. I know I've spoken to your group before, and we've talked about civic involvement. So thank you, and thank you to your parents, and keep up the good work. Thanks for joining us tonight. Okay. So next we have my opening remarks. So in light of having these amazing young women join us from the Girl Scouts tonight, we're going to pop on a video that it is not an advertisement for the Broadway show or the movie Wicked, but there is a beautiful message in the poem that is being shared by Amanda Gorin, our 2017 Youth Poet Laureate. Are we born wicked, or do we have wickedness thrust upon us? Are we born bad or brave? There is a world we miss when we misbehave, but we miss just as much when we misconstrue, when we distrust what is different and detest what is new. History is ridden by the victors, and villains are embittered by the forcible and the few. But through how we live, our children learn what we earn when we're earnest, and what we forge when we forgive. Only with decency do we discover people are not born evil. We are born equal. Green, not with envy, but what we envision in each other. Ever as sentimental mankind finding ourselves even in the dark. There is a goodness that knows in our hearts no one is wicked at birth. We are born to light the wick of the earth. We are all that girl. When something changes within us, something changes in this vast world, we will never be the same. This feeling, fervid as a flame, has a name. Unadulterated loving. Rushing, flooding together. We will stare down the Emerald Tower. We will not cower. We will not let our power take over us, but let ourselves take back our power. We won't just say we're sorry now. Rejoicify that we're glad and grateful just to be seen and not listened to. We will dream, soar into the blue, rise up to a new reality. Because defending the good is how we defy gravity. So if you dare to find us, look to our west-turned eyes. Everyone won't do good deeds, but all deserve the chance to try to be understood as we should. And if this they would mourn as wicked, then let this wicked do us good. Thank you. Thank you again to the Girl Scouts. And next we have up on the agenda items submitted by the mayor. Council President Reinstein, I really hoped you were going to sing Defying Gravity. I'm just holding my breath. We have a special, special proclamation tonight. Jim Dunn-Meyer is retiring. So come on down, Jim. Bring your family. Kind of excited today? Yeah, I get it. Yeah, excited and bittersweet, right? So I'm going to read this now. Whereas James Dunn-Meyer was born in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. James was raised in Burgettstown, a small town southwest of Pittsburgh. James moved to Florida in February 1988, seeking a better job opportunity and to escape the cold. And whereas James and his wife, Cindy, were married on February 2, 2001, but have been together since June 1992, when they met through a mutual friend. They have one adult son, Ronnie. And whereas James began his career with the City of Plantation on December 16, 2002, James' second day of employment was a utilities department holiday party, where he sat with two wonderful ladies, only to find out later he was dining with me, Ray Carol Armstrong. You never know. James was awarded the Water Quality Person of the Year for 2023 by the Southeast Desalting Association. James was twice named Utilities Employee of the Month, served on the Employee Relations Committee from 2011 to 2016, and hosted training classes for membrane operators from Plantation and as far away as Virginia. And whereas after 22 years of service to the City of Plantation, James announced his retirement effective December 27th, James plans to enjoy his retirement traveling and to continue serving St. Benedict's and Relay for Life. Now, therefore, I, Nick Soto-Meyer, and the City Council of Plantation, hereby express our gratitude and appreciation to James Dunn-Meyer for his dedicated service. Thank you, Mayor Soto and esteemed council. Thank you so much. I really appreciate this. So I spent a third of my life and half of my working life serving the City of Plantation, and I really enjoyed all of it. And it was the people that I've met, especially the utilities people. Utilities people will be in my heart forever, and so will Plantation. And on that note, where it said that I was born in Pittsburgh, there was a, when I was growing up, there was a radio station that their slogan was, Pittsburgh someplace special. The same can be said about Plantation. And we told you, you came up, you didn't have to talk. So you're keeping that? Okay. All right. Thank you all very much. Is that going to approve a resume or a recommendation? Is it a resume to approve? Next we have Director Trisha O'Toole, Parks and Recreation. Good evening, Councilor, Mayor, Mr. Ezra Hall. A couple of upcoming events in the Parks and Rec Department. This Friday, January 31st, we have a rescheduled movie in the park from January 17th that is Inside Out 2 at the Plantation Community Center. Saturday, February 1st, we've got a horse show at the Equestrian Center. Also Saturday, February 1st, we have our multicultural festival starting at 5 p.m., followed by our Rock the Park concert at 7 p.m. at Pine Island Park. Sunday, February 2nd, is the Island Space Reggae Genealogy event at the Broward Mall from 4 p.m. to 9 p.m. Friday, the 7th, we've got a senior trip to SeaWorld. That is picking up and dropping off at Jim Ward Community Center. Saturday, February 8th, Sesame Street Valentine at the Plantation Community Center. Also Saturday, the 8th, the Mayor's Chess Challenge at Volunteer Park at 10 a.m. Tuesday, February 11th, we are sponsoring a trip down to the NOVA exhibit down in Miami. The bus leaves at 10 a.m., returns at 2 p.m. from Central Park. Registration for our next Kids' Day Off program, which is the 17th of February, starts on February 3rd. Sunday, February 9th, we've got a Super Bowl tailgate mixer at the Veltree Tennis Center. Aquatics, Thursday, February 13th through the 16th, we've got the Southern Zone South Sectional Swim Meet. Just a note that the aquatics complex will be closed to the public from Thursday the 13th at noon for the event, and will reopen on Monday. And Sunday, February 9th, our annual run through Central Park 5K at Central Park starting at 7 a.m. POA, we're registering for spring softball and t-ball and spring basketball, and our adult athletics is registering for softball, kickball, and flag football. If you need information, follow us on social media or give us a call at 954-452-2510. That's it. Thank you very much. Before you sit down, I just wanted to make a comment while you're up here. I think most of Council received some questions regarding the volunteer part of Bridges, and I know I've been in continuous discussion with you about it as well. Correct me if I'm wrong, but you are working on putting something together regarding the update on the Bridges that is set for our strategic planning meeting on February 6th. Is that right? Yes. This became one of my strategic priorities. I did put a plan together that I'll be proposing to you all for some feedback. I have some estimated costs associated with that plan and some funding opportunities that were grant opportunities that we're looking at to help fund that. So more in-depth discussion will take place next week at the strategic planning session. Perfect. And one other thing regarding the volunteer part of Bridges is just in terms of the boards that are blocking off the bridges, the barricades that are there right now. I just wanted to confirm that you're also taking another look at it to see if we need to at least temporarily replace any of those or add additional barricades. I was there this past weekend. Thought there was some additional boards added to some of the entrances, but I'll confirm, and if they're not, we can certainly add some more. Fantastic. Thank you very much. You're welcome. Thank you. Thank you. Okay. Next, we have public requests of counsel regarding municipal affairs. Those who wish to speak, we request that you complete a speaker form. If you have not done so already, please do. Please state your name and address, and please address your remarks to the council president, not the mayor, nor individual members of the council. Most importantly, please keep your remarks to the allotted three minutes. If extra time will be needed to conclude your remarks, please ask for it as your time is expiring and not prior to beginning your remarks. Right now, I have a few already, so we're going to call up first Mr. Conklin. Dennis Conklin, 4581 Northwest Sixth Court. Heavenly hosts protect you and your families. If I may approach. Please. First thing I'd like to say is Kung Hi Fa Choi on behalf of my family. Today's Chinese New Year, 4723, year of the snake. Two days ago was the 80th anniversary of the discovery, I guess you'd say, liberation of Auschwitz, and I wanted to get that in. I happened to discover a film from 2023. It's called Lee, and it's about an American photojournalist that she was in World War II, and it was her photos that basically were taken and have become part of the record. Request number one I'd like to designate as United Secondary Named Thoroughfare from North University Drive along Northwest 5th Street to Northwest 65th Avenue at Western Sunrise Boulevard. And basically, it's been 14 years I've been asking for this. I've never asked for my words to be used, but I've asked each year that we designate the thrill fare as Ronald Reagan Way. And I'll be happy to pay for the signs. I figured it might be from three to five signs. I don't know. If they're under $200, I'll cough up $1,000 to have that done. Everybody else is recognizing him. He basically ended the Soviet Union without firing a shot. Second request. Since 2001, I've been requesting the defunding and discontinuing of the divisive, mandatory DEI, CT, CRT, ESG training of the city employees. Industry has withdrawn because of the devastating effect it's had on their business and their stocks. President Donald John Trump terminated it in the federal government. Will the city finally defund and cease the mandatory training? Number three, similarly, President Donald John Trump ended the government's electric vehicle manned dates. And I've been asking for some time that the city will no longer spend money on electric vehicles or equipments. Request four, encourage the Florida legislature. May I extend? Thank you. Encouraged Florida legislature to rapidly approve the Florida Bullion Depository and Constitutional Article I, Section 10, Transactional Gold, Silver Money. September 30th, according to CRA, gold was worth $1,874 an ounce. Today, a closed $2,774 an ounce. That's a 48% loss of purchasing power in the dollars that you're holding. Request number five. Please conclude, Mr. Conklin. I encourage Florida legislature to join the Texas and Kansas fraudulent lawsuit against Pfeiffer and its fraud. When I brought up the issue of the pensions, this is what my pension fund puts forth to me every year, and I was wondering if that's what happens with the cities, because if they saw these alarm bells, they would have changed to a defined contribution plan long ago, as you may remember from my distribution to you last year. Thank you for allowing me to extend my remarks. Thank you, Mr. Conklin. Next, we have up Elizabeth Shanker, also goes by Lizzie, and Damian Halson, who are from the Junior Sierra Club. So come on to the front, please. Do you need these with you? I have some. Fantastic. Just say your name and your address. There you go. Okay. Good evening. Oh, wait, my address. Okay. Good evening. My name is Lizzie Shanker, and I'm the chair of conservation for the Broward County Sierra Group's junior team. The Broward County Sierra Group is a local organization and part of the Sierra Club nationally, dedicated to protecting the environment and promoting sustainability here in our community. The junior team is a passionate group of high school students, ages 14 to 18, dedicated to promoting outreach, advocacy, and education to protect the environment. We believe that young people have a crucial role to play in addressing the climate crisis, as the future we're working towards is the one that we're going to inherit. Hi. I'm Damian Halson, and I'm a member of the Broward County Sierra Group's junior team, and I'm also a student at South Plantation High School, located at 1200 Southwest 54th Avenue, Plantation, Florida, 33317. And so we are here tonight so we can briefly advertise a variety of events that will be taking place in the next few months for both the Sierra Group and our youth in the community. These are aimed at educating and empowering individuals to make a positive impact on our planet. We are very excited to be participating in the Earth Day event, taking place Sunday, March 23rd, from 8.30 a.m. to 4 p.m. It will be at Ann Kolb Nature Center in Hollywood, and it's a completely free entry. Visitors can explore and learn information about various conservation efforts. We hope that there will be plantation hikes, oh, sorry, there will be nature hikes, fun activities, food trucks, and notable speakers. Taking place at this event will be our Plastic Waste Earth Day contest for all Broward High School students. There will be exciting prizes for the winners of this contest, notably in a $1,000 award for first place. And we hope that there will be Plantation High School students who are registered to participate and hopefully win. Another important event that we would like to share with you is our 2025 4 film series in collaboration with Climate Reality, the League of Women Voters and Broward Public Schools, oh, yeah, and Broward Public Libraries. Our February 15th showing will be held right here at Plantation's West Regional Library. If you're interested, there's more information on our website. Most importantly, we invite everyone to get involved with the Broward Sierra Group. Our monthly group general meeting in February will be virtually held on Thursday, February 6th at 7 p.m. Mike Ewall, Executive Director of Energy Justice Network, will be our presenter to discuss the terrible effects on our health caused by incineration. If you know any high school students who may be interested in our junior team, please introduce them to the group and take a flyer. This is a wonderful way to learn about the conservation and leadership while having fun with others who want to protect our planet. We also have other flyers for various events that were discussed. Thank you. Thank you both. Thank you for coming to speak to us tonight, and thank you for what you're doing to better our environment. We appreciate it. Thank you so much. Okay. Next we have Carl Buehler. I want to hand this out to Carl Buehler, 6831 Southwest 11th Street, Plantation, Florida. I want to say the Sierra Club, good ideas, but how about working on getting the city of Plantation to put up some solar panels? Been trying to do that for 10 years. No luck. Anyway, I'm here as a peacenik. It's hard to be a peacenik these days because our world is sort of in an Old Testament mode. Everybody's out killing everybody. It's, you know, vanquish your enemy, slaughter them, retribution, women and children, who cares? And that's humanity today? I don't know. Why aren't we doing better? There was 14,000 innocent children have been killed in Gaza. Oh, and 800 of those were under the age of one. Now, on January 24th, our colleague here, Louis Weinstein, had a resolution saying we cannot turn a blind eye to the atrocities in Gaza. And I agree. The thing is, now we have atrocities that are being committed by both sides, and the World Court has issued warrants for war crimes against Netanyahu, the Israeli Defense Force, and Hamas. Most of the Hamas leaders are dead. The problem is the IDF has destroyed Palestine so terribly. There's no food, water, infrastructure. 3.8 million people are homeless, no shelter, nothing. It's called domicile. And we still have an ongoing war. We have no commitment to peace. And what my resolution was, a humanitarian resolution, which I have presented to all of you, and I've tried to discuss with you, has been totally ignored. And I have to ask why. If we're not going to turn a blind eye to atrocities, why would we turn a blind eye to 14,000 innocent dead children, 800 babies? How can you justify that? Seriously. Now, the resolution you have, it's also printed on the back of the sheet of paper. And you've got the pictures of some of the deaths that have occurred. Actually, there's been 48,000 deaths in Gaza and another 11,000 in Lebanon. Enough is enough. It's time for the war to end. It's time for us to show that, just like in January 24th, you do not want to turn a blind eye to those atrocities. It's a simple resolution. All we're doing for is asking for peace, international management of Palestine, and humanitarian aid, which is going to have to be an awful lot, considering the entire state of Palestine has been demolished, in addition to all the deaths. And again, we do have a responsibility. Because remember, it was our weapons of mass destruction that resulted in all those deaths and the annihilation of that country. I hope we end up doing something. Any other requests to speak from the Council Chambers? Any other public comments? Hearing none, public requests to the Council regarding municipal affairs are now closed. The consent agenda consists of items 1 through 10 and may be approved with one motion. Does any member of the Council wish to pull an item? I'm going to pull 1 and 2, and I have Mr. Nguyen for number 7. For the remaining, do we have a motion? Motion to approve the consent agenda with the exception of items 1, 2, and 7. Second. Having a first and a second, Ms. Vegaro, please call the roll. Council Member? Yes. Council Member Anderson? Yes. Council Member Andreu? Yes. Council Member Fajan? Yes. Council Member Einstein? Yes. Number one is our 2025 legislative action plan. And in the plan, we were adding some additional language per our prior discussion regarding homeless. And one comment and maybe suggestion is that if we look at the language in just that paragraph alone, and I'm going to direct everybody's attention to the second sentence that says, Acknowledging the complexity of the issue within our region, the city supports state funding for local governments to help defray the costs of providing services. I'm going to stop there for a sec. But because it's the services that's the services that's the services that's the services that's the key, it continues to the homeless population, including but not limited to housing, comma, services, comma, emergency assistance, comma, and aid to vulnerable populations. The first time services is used, it's a great way to generally describe what we're going to be doing when it's used the second time, it's like defining something by using the same word. So I would suggest that for that second use of services that we add in what we're talking about. So if it's mental health counseling, comma, job assistance, whatever else may be those services that we want to specifically reference, or take out the word services altogether. So I'll open that up to see if there's any comments, questions, thoughts from the council. My quick suggestion, because we're getting kind of lengthy in this document, and I know we've always tried to keep it brief, might be just to insert the word support services. I don't know if that meets the needs or not, but we can certainly amend it any way you see fit. I think you could just take the second one out. Okay. I agree. That's fine with me as well. That was... Okay. We can do that. Motion to approve our legislative second action plan. I think you made the motion, right? I did. I said second. Yeah. I was just waiting for the city court to see if you were ready. Go ahead and call the roll. Yes. Member Anderson? Yes. Council Member Andrean? Yes. Council Member Fajan? Yes. Council Member Reynstein? Yes. Number two is the purchase and delivery of Toro Grounds Master 4500D Mower. Thank you, Mr. Spencer. I brought this one out because there's a few of these on the agenda today that were waiving the procurement requirement. And as we discussed previously, my only concern is that when there's no particular language that expresses an urgency in approving something with a waiver of the procurement, I get concerned in terms of our fiscal oversight. And ironically, I was looking at the January 24th, 2024 agenda, so almost exactly a year ago, and I happened to be looking at that one. And on that one, there happens to also be a purchase of two mowers on that same exact one. And so I looked at that for comparison. And in that one, where were also Toro Green Masters that are being looked at, there was specific language in regards to the formal competitive bid went out. No bids were received. The solicitation was publicly advertised. Once no bids were received, that's when we went and you came back to us and requested the waiver of the procurement requirement. So in that situation, it made sense. The steps were taken. There wasn't a question about any urgency, but the steps were taken, so then we went to it. So my question for you is that, is there a particular urgency for this request that would require an immediate waiver of the procurement requirement? Charles Spencer, procurement director. I will have to lean on the parks and rec director when it comes to – oh, you do. Oh, okay. Council member Fadgie. Okay. The golfer in you, I hear jumping out of your seats. Well, I took a tour of the golf course on Monday, and I talked to the superintendent. This is for the golf course, right? And I asked him about this, and I think we're way overdue, and we're holding another one together by tape and staples and stuff. It's not getting the job done anymore. Now, whether we want to skip the procurement process, why are we requesting the exemption? Okay, right. So we're not skipping the procurement process. This still was competitive. We're requesting an exemption on a specific provision within there that allowed for Internet posting. So anything over $35,000 to $100,000 requires that we post on the Internet for a certain amount of days. That did not happen in this particular case. Given the nature of the equipment, history has shown us that when we do post for this equipment on the Internet, we don't get any traction. Proof being shown by Council Member President Ryan Steen's indication to the January 24th memorandum from the last lawnmower. We don't typically get these bidders to bid on our stuff through the Internet posting when it comes to lawnmower equipment. I mean, I actually had a conversation about it, why we're replacing it. So from an urgency standpoint, it seems like there's an urgency there because we have to get it replaced. And by the way, they are doing a fantastic job. The course has really improved, but the old mower is junk at this point. And I appreciate that. That adds to the urgency. All I would ask is that even if we may have some historic knowledge of futility, right, that it may be an effort in futility to post it for the 30-plus days, if you know you haven't ever gotten a response before, so you expect you won't get a response again. I think unless we, unless I see in the backup that shows why we should still not go through those steps anyway, dot our I's, cross our T's, I think it's required. Sure, and we'll continue to have more in-depth conversation with the departments relating to these matters to make sure that that information is communicated with you all when asking for these types of exemptions. Council Member Nogetia. Thank you, President Reinstein. So in these situations, what I found helpful is to have that, and I know you don't have a lot of employees to really do the same type of vendor outreach that others might be able to do, but to speak to these vendors directly and let them know that going forward they will only be, you know, published on DemandStar. You will have to submit your quote via, you know, the online platform. And we have tried to do that in these particular cases, and what we found is the manufacturer of these types of equipment has bid on such a higher level. These smaller companies just refuse to bid. So the manufacturer has a contract nationally that supports these vendors doing business, but we don't have the provision within our current city code to utilize that national cooperative group to be able to put that in front of you all for consideration. So the only alternatives we have is to use DemandStar or to seek competitive quotes through an informal process by reaching out to them directly and getting quotes. I mean, it's free for them. I know. As long as you direct them. It's just the paperwork. Exactly. It's the paperwork. It comes back to the paperwork. No other further comments from the dais? Does anybody on the dais wish to make a motion? Not at this time. Motion to approve. Second. Go. Public comments on the item. On the item. Yeah. Carol Buehler, 6831 Southwest 11th Street. I was looking at this one. It's the 400D. It's one of their top models. It's made in Canada, and there's not many distributors in the U.S. The only distributors in the U.S. are in New Jersey and New York. You can get a lot of used ones, but I don't know what the service life on these are. Most of the used ones, they run 2,000 hours. I mean, you see how many hours they have on them because they have a device that records the hours. So the hour is running about 2,000 to 3,000 hours, and they run $25,000 to $35,000 for a used one. Now, I don't know if this contract for what, $98,000 includes a service contract on it. It's brand new, so it would have a warranty. And, again, I'm not sure what the lifespan of these are. Most of the ones I saw were the 2,000, $3,000 hours, or 2016 to 2018. And, I mean, there's some others that were less expensive, but they're really old. And, you know, and that's basically, it seems, that's where most of the items that were available were in that price range. I mean, there isn't anything more recent than, say, 2018 or 2019, and those were around $40,000. I'm just, the other thing, the reason I'm saying this is because if you're going to put something on the Internet, it's a manufacturer you sort of have to contact because their distributors are in New York and New Jersey. They're not going to see it. So you almost have to reach out to them. You go on the Internet and find out, you know, who these people are, who these companies are, if they're not around here and they're not looking on the Internet to see, to sell you, to quote this. But, you know, it's not that hard to just call them up, send them an email or some kind of form. I don't know what they call that. What is that form where they ask for service? They say, this is what we want you to do, blah, blah, blah. Yeah, but, you know, I'm just saying that, bringing that up as an option, because I remember I mentioned this before about outreach, that, you know, sometimes putting stuff on the Internet, that doesn't bring in the quotes. Yeah, you're not going to get any quotes because you need a little bit of outreach. And, like, I know Jennifer said, you don't have the manpower to do that. But, I mean, it took me five minutes to look it up and to find a whole lot of well-used ones, you know, on eBay. And they deliver free delivery or whatever for that price. So, that's just my advice. Any further comments from the public? City Clerk, Ms. Beggro, please call the roll. Council Member Horland? Yes. Council Member Anderson? Yes. Council Member Andreu? Yes. Council Member Fragin? Yes. Council Member Reynstein? No. Okay. We are now up to administrative items, quarterly. Oh, sorry, number seven. Yes, Mr. Wynn. And put your head down, and then I forgot that you still, number seven. No, you're up, number seven. Thank you. You're up. Joe Wynn, 944 Northwest 92nd Terrace. Happy New Year, everyone. Hope you're all doing well. Good to see everyone here. I hear there was a lot of drizzly, icky weather for a while. I was out in fire country instead. So, that was cool. You could have sent some of that over to us. That would have been perfect. Orange sun, orange sky. Not great. Don't recommend it. Anyway, to this issue, obviously, I'm in support of it. I have rode and walked and run a lot of those culverts, and some of them are closed, and many of them are in pretty ragged condition. They're a little nasty on bike tires, easy trip hazards, all sorts of things like that. My comment was more just an administrative technicality, that the title of it is labeled Central Park Drive, but some of them are not on Central Park Drive, and I just wanted to make sure that that wouldn't complicate things moving forward, and that's really all. Anything that makes it easier, more comfortable, and more welcoming for people to walk and bike in the area is wonderful by me. Thanks. Thank you, Mr. Nguyen. Anyone else on number seven? Is there a motion on number seven? Motion to approve. Is there a second? Second. Ms. Beggarro, please call the roll. Council Member Horland. Yes. Council Member Anderson. Yes. Council Member Andrew. Yes. Council Member Fadgen. Yes. Council Member Antin. Yes. Before we jump into administrative items, Council Member Fadgen, I think you had an appointment that you wanted to make. I found someone who is willing to serve on the Gateway Advisory Board in the rotating seat, Ms. Jennifer Reeves, who's the owner of BMW Motorcycles Fort Lauderdale and Plantation on Peters Road, so I'd like to nominate her for that appointment. Motion to approve. Second. Ms. Beggarro, please call the roll. Council Member Horland. Yes. Council Member Anderson. Yes. Council Member Andrew. Yes. Council Member Fadgen. Yes. Council Member Rainsby. Yes. Next, we have administrative items, quarterly reports regarding grants. I know this is just for our edification and review, but Ms. Morris, is there anything that you wanted to present? I do have a question regarding the ADA restroom renovations. Do you want to go ahead and ask your question? Sure. So, in the report, and as I indicated to you previously before the meeting, is that it does reference, it's signed January 14th, indicates a status meeting is scheduled for next week and a more detailed update will be provided following the meeting. I know you've indicated to me that there's going to be a request for a year extension from the state because there are some delays in design process and there's also was a change in permitting regarding building department and regarding the building code. Can you speak further as to what we may be able to do to speed this up as far as putting pressure regarding the design process or anything we can do from our end since this really seems to have taken a whole new direction? Yeah, it does feel like it's taken on a whole new life. We did meet with capital projects, as we indicated on the report, talked about the construction schedule, talked about the bidding schedule, talked about ways to expedite that so that we are comfortable that we will have it completed. We anticipate going out for bid next month and then anticipate construction during the following time period so that we are complete by June 2026. Okay. I just ask that maybe as you get any updates that you can also just report those back to us so that we can make sure that we're putting our attention on it as well. You will continue to see the quarterly updates and I would anticipate that the next quarterly update will have us with, hopefully with the bid award and starting to move forward into construction. If there's progress before the next quarterly update as well, we can be hopeful. Council Member Andrea. I was just going to give kudos because really when you look at the majority of the grants, they're all within the timeline and on budget. And so, and I'd also like to really give kudos to our lobbyists because they've been keeping us abreast almost, it feels like almost hourly, but definitely daily with all of the changes happening at the state level and nationally. And so, just for the listening and public that's here, none of our grants are being impacted. I know that you've sent that to us via email. This is a fluid situation. As of today, at 7.15 p.m. As of today, you know, we may experience some situations where there is a delay in the release of funds, depending upon what happens with the freeze that is no longer a freeze. We do have a couple of agreements that we don't have executed agreements on yet. So, I'm a little concerned that they could be affected, but they're not huge grants. So, that's the good news. We will continue to monitor it. Obviously, we are going to continue making grant applications where we deem it appropriate, but this is a bit of a fluid situation. Great. Thank you very much, Ms. Morris. Next, comments by the mayor, advisory board report. Not at this time. Comments by the mayor. Well, we've been running along quickly, but I'm about to change that. I just have a lot of items. Our strategic plan is February 6th. As you all know, it's a volunteer park. And I had the idea of, since we're right at Volunteer Park, right afterward, Samara would gladly give you all the tour of North Acres Park to get an update. So, you guys work that out with her. Drive right up 1-18th if you want to see it. And we can go better ways there. What's that? Boot day. Boot day. Yes, indeed. Yeah, bring shoes. I have to do some math here. The Broward Mall, I always said, you'll like this, Council Member Andreu, I think. I've always said that affordable housing, the math didn't work because it was $5 million an acre. And the math doesn't work. But it's sold for less than $2 million per acre. So I'm going to retract my statement that affordable housing is not feasible at Broward Mall. And I would say Broward affordable housing could be on the table for that site, based on the math as we redid it. So we're good with that update? Okay. We had a good code enforcement presentation a couple weeks ago by us, but we never gave you all time to talk about it and give recommendations. So what I'd like to do is put on the next agenda, five minutes, ten minutes, and you guys bring the thoughts that you have about anything we talked about. You did this. We didn't do this. I didn't like that. You see what I mean? If you have any input. We're always trying to make it better. If you have input to make it better, let's put it on the agenda and take a couple minutes to talk about it. I see you looking skyward, Council Member Horland. No, I mean, I thought we gave a little bit. Okay. It might be helpful, Mayor, if we are provided something ahead of time in the backup material with some of the key points that were hit that night. And I think that will just refresh everybody's memory. Yeah. Okay. Okay? Yeah, I would like to hear from you all. Okay. We ran out of time. Right. Okay. I figured we would discuss it as part of strategic planning. Oh, okay. Yeah, that's true. We got it there. All right. Yeah, that's good. Council Member Reinstein's recycling video is excellent. Sorry, I got to brag on you. It's five minutes. Made the trip, and we're going to be sharing it on every platform. And Sustainability is going to get a copy to share with our people. Great. Thank you. Let's see. Oh, Reggae Genealogies this weekend. You know we have a big weekend. A lot of music. If you can share, if you can do things to tell people about it, I think they'd all appreciate it. That's it. Thank you very much, Mayor. Comments by Council Members. Council Member Fajin. Thank you. I'm going to be real short. Melvin Ray had a great time at Doggy Palooza. Great job. And then I'm looking forward to strategic planning. Good night. Council Member Andreu. Thank you, President Reinstein. I also, I don't want to repeat some of the things that have been said regarding already, like the Chinese New Year, but Project Beauty, which is a nonprofit that gives teens confidence in their inner and outer beauty, they will be having their annual fundraiser Friday, January 31st, at the Old Davies Schoolhouse at 6.30 p.m. And they're giving a scholarship away for the first time. So that nonprofit organization that was started by one of our plantation residents is really growing and doing great work in our community. So anybody who is available to attend that event, it's always great to see all of our teens locally with their black and white pictures up. Also, to kick off American Heart Month, I've joined my colleague next door in Sunrise, Commissioner Guzman, and I'm going to be in her fashion show at Sawgrass Mills Mall on Friday, February 7th, which is National Wear Red Day. So everyone is invited to come out to that. Lots of local celebrities will be there to kick off American Heart Month and to raise awareness about heart disease. As was mentioned already, I think two or three times, but I'm really looking forward to Reggae Genealogy Sunday, starting at 4 p.m. at Broward Mall. We are honoring some real legends in the Jamaican community, in the reggae community, with Lifetime Achievement Awards, Inner Circle, Wayne Wonder, and Donna Fenn Germain. So please come out to that event. It will be a great time for the second annual one. And Saturday, February 1st, kicks off Black History Month 2025. The theme this year is African Americans and Labor, which aims to highlight the significant contributions of African Americans in the workforce and looking forward to planning and speaking to my colleagues about an event I'll be planning for the month of February. And that's all of my announcements. Thank you. Thank you. Councilman Ray Anderson. Unfortunately, well, I'll be attending a wedding and will not make the events on Saturday. So other than that, I don't have any other comments. Councilmember Hoyland. Ms. Gagero, quickly. I have a couple of updates for everybody. I wanted to start before I give an update. I want to thank, even though I've thanked him personally, but Mr. Bill Gale and Carmen Holbert, we had a situation in one of our neighborhoods where individuals doing a complete reno without permits and thought it was a good idea to just have a giant red propane tank in the driveway. Neighbors were a little worried that that was going in without a permit. So when I called Mr. Gale yesterday and he and Carmen had somebody out there yesterday, they had somebody out there today, and I really appreciate the expediency in which they responded. So my update. As you know, two weeks ago I launched my new initiative with a shelter, and I was so excited to tell you that Bella was adopted the Sunday after I featured her that Wednesday. I met her this weekend. She's a sweet girl. Her name has now been changed to Aurora. I took her a little welcome basket, something that I picked up. I supported one of our local stores, Green Paws, and I also gave her a map, NISO tool, of all of the dog-friendly parks where she's able to walk on a leash in the city of Plantation. So Humane Society provided me with another pet, and I'd just like to introduce you to Green Eyed Beauty Neptune. She loves playtime and cuddling, and her adoption fee, if anyone's interested in adopting this cat, it's being covered by Sam Bennett of the Florida Panthers and his Benny Bunny. So really excited about that, and the Humane Society does a great job. They have their big event on Saturday. I'll be starting my day there with the Walk for the Animals if anybody wants to go out there. So thank you, Ms. Begaro. Saturday, it's a big multicultural weekend. We've got the Namaste Festival that will be attending the Indian Festival in Pompano. Some of our residents have invited me to that. We have our multicultural fair, and Reggae Genealogy will be fabulous. Just wanted to give a brief update about S'mores. Ms. Morris, you'll love this. We try to get away from talking about solid waste, but we're going to talk about SWA. As your representative on the Executive Committee for Solid Waste, we're going to start getting, rubber is hitting the road. We're going to start getting a draft master plan soon. And you may have seen the news that the Broward County Commission was dealing with the expansion of Monarch Hill. That was an eight-hour meeting yesterday. It's quite long. We were glued to YouTube. Yeah, so task force, we'll have a, it's really going to be, and I'd like to hear from my colleagues if you have any input that you'd like to share. It's really got to be a multifaceted approach in how we're going to deal with solid waste and recycling in the county. And I really don't want to see this fail. So I'm honored to sit on that Executive Committee at Ms. Morris' behest. But it's really important work. She's very convincing. She wants to have all the seats at the table for plantation. And I'm honored to do it. But really, you know, waste to energy, landfill, all of it's on the table. And if you have any input, I'd really appreciate and welcome that. But that's coming up. We have a four-hour workshop. We're going to do one a month to try to get this done for the next couple of months. So I want to give you an update. South Florida Regional Planning Council, I just, I want to throw this out there. When we're talking about the changing climate and what we're facing here in South Florida, we were in Key Largo for our meeting on Monday. We go down there once a year because our new chair is Ms. Michelle Lincoln, Commissioner from Monroe County. And their resiliency director gave us a presentation. It's a follow-up to what she did a year and a half ago. They are raising the roads and the keys. And the cost is astonishing. I mean, we're talking 2020 numbers of $1.5 billion, and they feel that may have doubled by now. So they gave us the first road that they're starting, and I know utilities and engineering is going to be interested in this. It's a two-mile stretch, and it's going to be $43 million because when you start to get into relaying all of the electrical lines and the cable lines and the sewage, and what they're actually using is injection wells, and to take that water and put it somewhere, what they talked about is we're not even talking about water from hurricanes. They're dealing with tidal flooding. So it's really critical. It's expensive when we're starting to look at dealing with some of these things on a regional basis. And former chair now, former chair Steve Geller did ask the resiliency director, you're not going to be able to fund all of this. You know, some of it's federal grants, some of it's state grants, some of it's just, you know, some grants out there. Monroe County is having to come up with some money. And she did admit there are going to be streets that they're just going to have to abandon, and those houses are not going to be able to be saved. So Army Corps of Engineers coming in, and they're going to try to lift up some of the homes, but there are going to be properties that they're not going to be able to fight back the water. So I just wanted to give everybody a little bit of a picture of what, you know, our neighbors in the Keys are dealing with. South Florida is definitely, you know, ground zero when we're talking about sea level rise. So I think, let me just see if there are any other. I wanted to wish my colleague, Councilmember Andreu, the belated birthday, and congratulations on that last college acceptance for your son. That was a, if you're a Gator fan, that was a big one. And thank you for Councilmember Reinstein for administration getting that NOVA exhibit, that bus. I think that's a wonderful thing for all of us to be attending. Miso and I also had a wonderful time at Doggypalooza. Great job by everybody, and just another reminder, I know we did the video earlier, but Relay for Life, we will be doing luminarias, thanks to administration approving that, at City Hall on Friday, April 4th. Those luminary bags will be battery lit throughout the weekend for the community to come out, and I believe they'll also be selling them if anybody wants to come buy luminary bags. And Mr. Thompson has assured me we're going to have purple lights out front, so I'm excited to see City Hall lit up. So thank you, everybody, for the time. Thank you very much, Councilmember Hoyland. So I have a few things. First, I want to start out with thanking the Utilities Department, Director Apoyo, for the tour that they gave me of our city and various utility issues and assets, and it was very informative. So thank you. I very much appreciate the additional education of some of the things we're working on. Likewise, is that you heard mention from the mayor about my recent trip to Waste Management's recycling location, and it was extremely informative. I'm sure that some of our council members have already been there. I know some have. I finally took the opportunity to go there and spend a couple hours touring the facility. I did, since I brought the demonstrative aids of the cookies earlier, I did bring a recycling bag. What some people may know in our city, but I did not know, is that our recycling bag where we put our recyclables in is not recyclable. And that was something that I was not familiar with. And so I do want to put out there that I have asked the administration to take a look at what some other options may be because that was concerning. It is similar to the pay-as-you-throw system that we use with the blue bags, using these clear bags. There's a lot of anecdotal data, the correlation between the fact that we have one of the lowest levels of contamination for our recyclables because they're in clear bags compared to other cities that don't use the clear bags. So that may be something that will be part of the discussion. So I just want to throw that out there that recently had that opportunity. I also, as you heard mentioned from Director O'Toole from Parks and Rec and Councilmember Hoyland and others, I mentioned about the NOVA exhibition. We've talked about it before. One of our residents, Amy Golden, came to our last meeting and asked for our city to try and make it available for residents to be able to attend as part of our various outings that Parks and Rec does. So I want to thank you very much for putting that together. I do think it is such an important exhibit. I want to add to that is that there was a reference earlier today to the January 24, 2024 resolution that was passed by our city. And that resolution was a resolution condemning rape as a weapon of war. And I do want to – I do believe that there's no comparative resolution condemning rape as a weapon of war to what was passed by this city council on January 24, 2024. And I took a look back at that resolution recently. And in that resolution, there was a reference to two young women, Nama Levy and Noah Argumani. They're two of the women that were held hostage and are starting to tell us of the stories of rape that they witnessed and that they experienced. Nama Levy was released on January 25, 2025, a year after our resolution. She was a hostage for a total of 477 days. Noah Argumani, who was also mentioned in our resolution, she was rescued by the Israeli Defense Forces on June 8, 2024. When you go to the NOVA exhibit, you'll hear about the many that were kidnapped from that exhibit and that were massacred at that exhibit. And it's a horrible thing to witness and to see, but it's something that's important. If you're following the news you're following that, thank God, there is a ceasefire currently. There is an attempt at a lasting peace in the region and in that area. And there's a continued effort at releasing hostages. I know that every day I see and look for the new information for the hostages. And you'll see, if you do follow it, that the oldest hostage is Shlomo Mansour, who's 86 years old, and the youngest hostage is Khafir Bibas, who's 2 years old. And the two of them still have not been released, and there's been no word as to whether they're actually alive or not. So when – so I appreciate that the opportunity for people to go to the NOVA exhibit and see for themselves as to what took place and what started the war. With that being said, meeting is adjourned.