City Council — Jul 24, 2024

we're going to do it right before. Good evening and welcome. The Wednesday, July 24th, 2024 City of Plantation City Council meeting is now called to order at 7-11. Ms. Beggar, please call the roll. Council Member Anderson. Here. Council Member Andreu. Here. Council Member Fajan. Here. Council Member Horland. Here. Council Member Reinstein. Here. Mayor Sortle. Here. Assistant City Attorney Morgan. Here. Thank you. Tonight's opening remarks and pledge allegiance were provided by Council Member Reinstein. Thank you. So normally during the school year, we have an opportunity to bring up students from the various schools to lead the Pledge of Allegiance. And oftentimes during the summers, we can't find those same students. And I thought that it would be really nice and appropriate, especially because we have all Parks and Recreation here, and we are honoring Parks and Recreation Month, is that we have got us some campers that are participating in our Parks and Rec camper programs. So I'm going to ask if all of the campers will come right up to the podium. We have five of them representing all of our camps. And if everybody will stand up for the Pledge of Allegiance, please. Green light on? Yep. Okay. When you're ready. I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the Republic for which it stands, one nation, under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all. Great. Thanks. And everybody can be seated. But campers, wait up. Don't leave yet, Delilah. So if we can go by each camper, if you could just introduce yourself, tell us what your name is, tell us which camp you go to, and what do you like best about the camp. Hi. My name is Delilah. I go to Volunteer Park. And what I like about my camp is we have so much fun and adventures there, and it's so fun. Great. Thank you so much, Delilah. Sterling? Hello. My name is Sterling. I go to Central Park Adventure Camp. What I like most about the camp is we have fun on the field trips and fun little activities at camp. Awesome. Thank you. Hi. My name is Devon. I go to Central Park, and I have fun playing games. Yay. There you go. Games are good. Hi. My name is Gerard. I own a break camp, and we have fun at field trips. You like the field trips. Thanks, Gerard. Hello. My name is Dylan. I go to Central Park at Adventure Camp. The most thing I like about my summer camp is more field trips and more responsibility with our campus stuff. Fantastic. So we wish all of you guys a great rest of your summer. So thank you for joining us today. Good job. So I thought that was a great start to having, like I said, Parks and Recreation. And I wanted to add, since before we go into Parks and Recreation Month and we talk more about them, is that the last time we met was right before 4th of July. And I wanted to take this time to first thank all the residents that came out and all the participants in the parade. The 4th of July parade, if you were there, you know it was a lot of fun. If you weren't there, please make sure you make it out next time. The 4th of July parade is a staple of the City of Plantation and really is a special part of what we do here. But I want to also acknowledge all of those Parks and Rec department members that were contributed to the parade, to the fireworks, and everything in between. They do a lot of things, and I know some more will be mentioned in the proclamation, but we also just recently had a barbecue and school supply giveaway. And so, you know, those are just two of the many things, the 4th of July parade, the fireworks, and the recent barbecue and school supply giveaway that Parks and Rec do. So I wanted to just use my time, especially since you were all here, to say thank you and show you some of my gratitude for all that you do for our city. So thank you very much. Thank you, Councilmember. Mr. Mayor, you're up. And you continued the having kids say the pledge. I see the smile on your face when these kids come up. Councilmember Hoyland is priceless. She started that in 2018. Let's have kids lead the pledge. I said that will last, you know, four or five meetings, and that will be the end of it. Here, six years later, kids are coming and everybody is doing it, and it gives them a sense of being up here, being part of the city, keeps them involved. And I think it's a great way. So it puts a smile on my face, too. So thank you, Lewis, for getting it done. All right. Parks and Rec Month. So everybody come on up. I'll read the proclamation. Every month is Parks and Rec Month, in my opinion, but we're going to make this one special. Come on down. Up or come on down? So I asked the directors today. They said, oh, let's get one or two from each department. I said, how many are you going to have? They said about 15, and it shows the enthusiasm for Parks, because we're pushing, what, 40? This is a good thing. You know this kid here? Tyler has to flex. You have to flex up there, though, right? Yeah. Okay. Let's get the reading going here. Thank you. And whereas Parks and Recreation Programming and Education Activities, such as out-of-school-time programming, youth sports, and environmental education are critical to childhood development, and whereas Parks and Rec increases a community's economic prosperity, and whereas Parks and Recreation is fundamental to the environment and well-being of our community, whereas Parks and Rec is essential and adaptable infrastructure that makes our communities resilient, and whereas our parks and natural recreation areas ensure the ecological beauty of our community, that's true. You drive by, you look at the parks, you drive by, it kind of makes you feel good about our city, right? And whereas the U.S. House of Representatives has designated July as Parks and Rec Month, and whereas the City of Plantation recognizes the benefits derived from parks and recreation resources. Now, therefore, I, Nick Sorto Mayor, and the City Council Plantation do hereby proclaim the month of July 2024 as Parks and Recreation Month. I had a shirt with Leslie Knope's picture on it, but I didn't wear it. This is still version one. Back later, right. You're up. I just want to say thank you to Mayor, Council, but most of all, thank you to all the staff that showed up tonight. It is just an amazing honor that I have to be able to lead this group of people in so many different ways, whether it's somebody that just wants to come and swim in a pool, somebody that wants to come and just relax in a park, sit on a park bench, just watch the ducks swim in the lakes, they affect so many people in so many ways in such a positive way. So I can't say thank you enough. We got some really cool survey numbers that we'll see at the next Council meeting, and I think you'll be very impressed to see that we have made a huge impact on our residents, and that goes by a large effort of this group of people behind me. So thank you. Thank you. Councilmember Anderson, if you'll indulge me just for a second. I worked parks and recreation for four summers when I was out of high school going to college. I worked parks and recs at multiple of the camps, and it was just very, very fond memories working for the city, coming of age, and I went into education. That was part of it because my parents were in it, but that's why I took that job, and I'm in my 35th year of public education. And by the way, Broward Schools is an A now this year, so yes. So anyway, I appreciate what parks and rec did for me in developing me. Great. Great. Thank you. Thank you. Broward Reed's proclamation. Okay. Lori Canning, could you please come up, and anyone else that's here with you, please? New York. So excited you're here. So everyone heard me talk about Broward Reed's and our superhero reading day, which would not have happened without Lori Canning. As I told everybody, I just kind of showed up to the Broward Reed's meetings all the time, and Lori thought I was the appointed representative. But tonight, we're going to pass the official proclamation that was never done in 2017 in the city of Plantation, and hopefully get an official representative. And if it's not me, I'll probably show up anyway, Lori. So you'll have to deal with me. But Lori Canning is the executive director of family and community engagement of Broward County Schools. If you've never been to Gulfstream Early Learning Center, it's absolutely amazing, the wraparound services that are provided there. It's really a marvel, and it's a model that should be replicated throughout the county. So let me get with the proclamation, and then I'll introduce you to Lori. Whereas the Broward Reads Campaign is a collaborative initiative between community stakeholders, including the School Board of Broward County, Broward County Government, the Children's Service Council of Broward County, and the United Way of Broward County, among other community partners. And whereas the Broward Reads Campaign focuses on four critical areas, including school readiness, chronic absenteeism, family engagement, and preventing summer reading loss to ensure Broward's children are reading at grade level. And whereas the Broward Reads Campaign has been partnering with cities within the county to demonstrate a collaborative approach to making grade level reading a priority within their community and throughout all of Broward County. And whereas a Broward Reads City identifies key community stakeholders that can work together to make significant improvements in early literacy. And whereas a Broward Reads City commits to designating a city liaison to attending the Broward Reads Campaign for grade level readings by monthly meetings. And whereas we understand that ensuring children are able to read at grade level is the moral responsibility of everyone in the community. Now, therefore, I, Nick Sortal Mayor, and the City Council of Plantation, Florida, do hereby proclaim that we are a Broward Reads City committed to ensuring grade level literacy for all children. So, would you like to introduce your guests and tell everybody a little bit about what you do? Thank you so much, Denise, for coming to all of our Broward Reads meetings. We love your input. We love everything that you share that you do at Plantation, in Plantation, to help support that great goal of early childhood education and grade level reading for all of our children. As many of you know, you just heard from Mr. Anderson that we are in A District in Broward. We also do have higher grade level reading scores in third grade, and that is our main goal as part of this campaign. We are one percentage point higher than the state, and we are also higher than our neighbors in the north and the south. So, it is all of our goals that each one of our families will have books in the homes as soon as children are born, that families read to their children, and that we, as a community, can help spread that word of the importance of reading and literacy in the home to build strong foundations with our families. As you shared in the proclamation, Broward Reads is made up of four leaders. We have the Early Learning Coalition, Broward County, Broward County Public Schools, and I'm very happy to introduce Ken King from the Children's Services Council. Good evening, everyone. I'm just excited that Plantation is signing on, and we're very excited for the council to work with the city. I'm a resident of Plantation, so I'm excited, and congratulations. Thank you. And I'd like to just add, if I may, and Lori and Ken, we have a council and administration that supports literacy, and we support our schools, but I also want to remind everybody that we just had our backpack giveaway with Parks and Rack. We were all there on Saturday. Lori donated 300 books that we gave away to students free of charge, and we did the same thing last year, and it was really incredible to be able to put books in the hands of children, so thank you for the partnership. I'll make a motion to appoint Council Member Horland to be our representative. Okay. Well, I'll send it to you. I'll send it to you. Is that a real moment? Can I have a second? Second. Okay. Don't you hear us? What was that motion? Yeah. I guess you better get rid of me. You sure, Council Member? I'm going to be. Get in your ticket first. You guys are perfect. Okay. And I made a commitment to Lori. Yes. Through Broward League cities, we're going to get all the cities back on board. Thank you so much. There you go. Thank you so much. Thank you, thank you, thank you. Thank you, everybody. Thank you. So, Denise, I don't know if you heard, but we made a motion for you to be the representative. I thought we were going to do it officially at the end of the meeting. Are you sure, Council Member? No, we're going to do it while they're here. I made the second. Ms. Beggro, please call the roll. I had no choice. Can I nominate you? She's going to be our representative for the Broward Reads. Motion by... President Fadgen's the mover. I second. Sorry. I thought you were my friend. You were going to the meetings. I'm going to the meetings anyway. We're good? We're good. We're good, Mayor. Do you have to do a roll call? 3-2, I can veto. Wait, wait, wait. Do you have to do a roll call? Anyone roll call? Okay. Council Member Horland. Yes. Council Member Reinstein. Yes. Council Member Anderson. Yes. Council Member Andreu. Yes. Council Member Beggen. Yes. Thank you for your confidence. Sorry, Mayor. All good. So we're now on to service awards. Brett Finkel, please come up. 25 years. What's that? I think we do a kick tomorrow, right? Yes, yes. Thank you. Thank you so much. Do you want to come up? White? Do you want to tell them what you do? Anything you want to say? I'll do it for you. I'll just say it. Got it. It's been a pleasure serving the residents for the past 25 years, and I hope to continue serving for many more years to come. Thank you. Tell them what your role is. Lieutenant with fire rescue. Which means you're in the, yeah. Yeah, fire rescue lieutenant. Thank you. Rescue lieutenant. Thank you. How about a picture with his family? There you go. Okay. I'll send it off. Thank you. All right. Oh, you should be holding this. You got it. Thank you, Cindy. Thank you for giving it up. I know it's a team thing. Thank you. Yeah, it's a team thing. Thank you. Okay, five years. Jennifer Lehman, come on down. Finance. Congratulations. Thank you. Your boss did great earlier, and you guys are a great team. Thank you. I think so as well. And I'll be quiet. You can take the damn picture, right? You're hoping in there. Yep. What are you hoping? Good job. Come on. Come on. Come on. Come here. Oh, man. Anything you want to say? No, I just want to say I really appreciate the opportunity. I really love working for the city and the finance department. We have a really great team. It starts from the top with my director, Anna Otiano, and my assistant director, Nancy Romanello. And really, we have, like, a really awesome, great team. And I know everybody says that, but we really do, and I really mean it. And I really couldn't, I wouldn't be here. I couldn't have done the things that I've done and accomplished without the support of, like, everybody in my department and on my team. And so I really, I'm grateful and thankful of that. So, thanks. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. And last is Marcella Reyes, please. Congratulations. Thank you so much. Appreciate everything. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Good. Thank you. Anything you want to say? Yes. Oh, okay. First and foremost, I, hey, I know you. First and foremost, I want to thank everyone, and it's an honor to serve this community. It's a pleasure working at the schools, an honor to work on the road, and a major thank you to Chief Harrison for believing in me and giving me the opportunity to serve the city. You want to tell them what your favorite book is, and what's your favorite book and sandwich that you have with it? Uh, Hot Dogs and Spaghetti. Yeah. What school? Um, Muir Lake Elementary. I did two years there. Oh, okay. Very good. All right. Thank you so much. That's it. Thank you very much. All right. Thank you. Parks and Recreation Upcoming Events. Mr. Goodrich. Good evening, President, members of Council, Mayor. Again, thank you for the proclamation, the kind words. Yes, we did have the 4th of July parade and fireworks show. We were very happy with everything that went on there. I can't give you numbers on the parade because it's too hard for us to get that kind of a number set, but we did have 16,000 at the fireworks and concert in the evening. So, Clary Boulevard, Brouwer Boulevard, Central Park Drive, it was awful. So, police did a fantastic job. Fire did a great job. Public Works did a great job. Everybody who came out and participated in all those activities, we can't do it enough. We can't thank them enough, and we can't do it without them. So, greatly appreciated. If I could get Chief Harrison to come up here for a moment, I'd appreciate it. I think he just went outside. That's all right. I think he's taking pictures. Okay. So, Friday, August 2nd, we have Mother-Son Olympic Fun Party out at Volunteer Park. That is going to be from 7 to 9 p.m. Cost is 20 hours, mothers and sons. Additional tickets are $8 for ages 6 to 12. Tuesday, August 6th, that's what I was hoping Chief Harrison would be up here for. National night out at Pine Island Park, so I wanted to let Chief Harrison go ahead and tell you all a little bit about that program. You could have let me know. No, it is Lieutenant Highfield. As you all know, Lieutenant Brown. Now, Captain Brown was in charge of that, and Lieutenant Highfield, as all the directors know, I'm just a little bit competitive. It seems to have trickled down to the staff, so he has really done a number this year. I think you'll be very excited to see all the things that we've done, to include the school resource officers who will be out there. But, again, he's done a tremendous job. We've got a lot of new things. I don't want to spoil it, but please take the opportunity to come out. I think you'll really enjoy it. Thank you. Yes. Tuesday, August 6th, Pine Island Park, 5 to 9 p.m. That's a national night out across the country. Every law enforcement agency is doing that. We love to partner with our other departments, and this is just a fantastic thing to do. Pine Island Park, we get to show off our new facility right there centrally located in the city, and it's just a wonderful night. So that's why I wanted to bring Chief Harrison up. The first and third Thursdays of the month, we have wheelchair tennis at Veltree Tennis Center. That program runs from 6.30 p.m. to 8.30 p.m. and is free of charge. Saturdays, love serving autism at the Veltree Tennis Center from 10.30 a.m. to 11.30 a.m. We have a junior development tennis camp. Spots are still available for anybody who has a need for the last few weeks of summer, but that program's been up and going, and we're really happy with that. We did just recently host a juniors tournament at the Veltree Tennis Center. I know several have come out and helped them off with the awards and everything. We can't thank you enough, but we had a great time. Weather worked out perfectly for us. And one of the things that is a byproduct of that, our tennis center won a USTA facility award, and they'll be getting recognized at the United States Open up in New York later in August. So it's a great award for them and is reflective of everything that we've been able to do at the tennis center in the upgrades in the last few years. So very happy with that. Aquatics department, we have evaluations for swim lessons going on at weekends between 10 a.m. and 2 p.m. Schedule your evaluation now. It requires, required to participate in any swim lesson except parent and child aquatics, preschool aquatics level one, learn to swim level one, and adult programs. Registration for session six will begin at 8 a.m. on Sunday, July 28th, and run through Friday, August 2nd. We made a very big effort this year to go ahead and get as many kids through the swim program to try and benefit all the children of our city, and the aquatic staff has done a fantastic job with it. One of the other things that we've done at the aquatic center is we do a lot of lifeguard classes. That program will be starting Friday, August 9th through Sunday, August 11th. Something that's happened across the country is a lot of people run short in lifeguards. It's a very difficult thing to keep people, the pools open. We've been very blessed. Staff has done a great job at both training our staff as well as training new people. And when they train them, we also pick the best ones from the group. So it's a double-edged sword that we try and get the best of the best. Swim for Nick Clinic is going to be Sunday, August 18th. It's not this Nick. 9 a.m. to 1.15 p.m. It's in honor of Nicholas Dwark, intended to offer free swimming instruction to middle and high school age swimmers, but all ages can attend. For more information to register, visit nicholasdwartfund.org for more information on that program. But he was a Parkland victim. Correct. So athletics, we have our PAL current registration is open. Fall baseball, soccer schedule to start Monday, July 29th. New participants must register in person. Parent and legal guardians must be there to validate the IDs. Returning PAL participants can register online via the web through our website, or if you want, call 954-452-2510. Adult athletics programs are ongoing, open for fall 24-25 season. We have Monday co-ed softball, Tuesday men's softball, adult co-ed kickball, adult flag football, adult basketball for Wednesday nights, and adult basketball for Sundays, 35 and over. So thank you. Thank you. Public requests of counsel regarding municipal affairs. Those who wish to speak will request that you complete a speaker form. If you've not done so already, please do. Please state your name and address, and please address your remarks to the council president. You guys don't want to stick around. Council president, not the mayor, or individual members of the council. Please keep your remarks to the allotted three minutes. First up is Mr. Carreras. Thank you very much for inviting me up here and allowing me to speak. So I propose that it's actually happening during the Parks and Rec month here. My name is Frank Carreras. I live in the city, 701 North Big Tree Lane. And I'm speaking tonight on behalf of the Plantation Parks and Recreation Foundation. The foundation was established several years ago now by Mr. Weinstein, who had to resign the position because he gained a position on the council. Thank you very much, Mr. Weinstein, for creating this vehicle, this method to create funds to specifically help the city parks and rec, which I, too, also worked for many years ago. And we did not cross paths, but I bet you we did during those summers out there on the pool. Okay, Mr. Erickson. So I'm speaking on behalf of the Plantation Parks here. Plantation Parks, I'm finding my voice doing this, so I apologize. This is my first time public speaking with regards to this group I've become a board member of this past week. And so I'm out here promoting this organization. We have a golf tournament coming up scheduled this year for Friday, September 27th, at 1.30 p.m. at the Plantation Preserve Golf Course. Everyone's invited, and we'll be putting out these flyers out there with QR codes on them on both sides in various restaurants to hopefully generate activity and participation. The fundraising goal is an ambitious one. All right, we're not too shy about what we're going after here. We've spoken with Parks and Recs and feel that the city would benefit tremendously with an additional children's splash pad on the west side of the city in Volunteer Park. So if you visited Plantation Woods over there, the community center there, this is a splash pad. It's also one at Central Park. It would be nice to extend and have another asset over in Volunteer, but it needs to be resident-driven. We're looking at a bill that's kind of ambitious, a $300,000 tab. It's easy to do if you get 300 people, $1,000 each, right? It's so easy. But we're going to try. I've never actually had to do that before, but we're developing a campaign, much like I've done in my business, marketing and so forth, and gaining awareness and shaking hands and kissing babies, which I think all of you are aware of doing out there. We're also doing a membership drive on August 29th from 6 p.m. to 7 p.m. We're going to be doing a night at Total Wine & More, and those events are fun. If you've ever gone to them, you know, you go to those wine places and so forth. You like to taste wines and so forth, but you don't want to buy the whole bottle because you're not really sure. It's kind of a gamble. Well, they offer the opportunity to taste various wines and enjoy. And we'll be at National Night Out with our table should you be interested in more information and say hello. Thank you so much for your time. We hope for your support. And we have a golf tournament coming up. And we have a golf tournament coming up in September. Yes, September 27th. September 27th. And you'll be seeing these around town. All right? All right. Thank you very much, y'all. Congratulations on your appointment to the board. Thank you. After the room cleared out, I noticed that we have a guest here tonight. We have Commissioner John Brody from Coconut Creek. Nice seeing you. You're not as tall as me, so I didn't see you back there. Mr. Conklin, you're important in my eyes. Farida, okay. I'm just in bad order, huh? And we have former Council Member Hillier here, too. Hello. How much time do I have? Three minutes? Three minutes. I can do this. I can give you a little bit more if necessary. Thank you. So my name is Mary Lopez Palma. I'm the Florida founder of 917society.org. We are a group of nonpartisan volunteers dedicated to the preservation of our U.S. Constitution and fostering a love of our country among our youth, our 8th graders. So what I'm asking of you tonight is to join me, Mary Lopez Palma, and our group of 917 Society members that are here with me tonight in this fight for the future for the next generation. I have received the blessing and the green light from our new superintendent of Broward County, Dr. Howard Hepburn. He is on board for us to distribute, again, our second year that I've accomplished his goal to every 8th grader in Broward County. We are focused now with plantation. We have over 14 schools, 14 public, private, and charter, and nearly 1,500 students that will be receiving this U.S. Constitution for free. Our 917 Society team with me tonight is my husband, Armando Palma, and Commissioner John Brody, yes, Dennis Coughlin, as you all know him, Ishmael, and Farida. With your permission, I would like to share the actual booklet that we are handing out of the U.S. Constitution to each of you. If you've never been given one, I'd like to dedicate one to you. So Armando, can you give them? Yes, ma'am. And if I have permission, if anyone in the audience would like a free U.S. Constitution, we'd like to give it to you as well. City Attorney, is that acceptable to accept a copy of the Constitution? I believe it. There's nothing, no hidden agendas, very non-partisan. How much would it be to produce this? That's really the determining factor. I think it's within that. Yeah. Yeah, I think it's within that. Oh, definitely under the, definitely. Thank you very much. Like 80 cents. With the mass production of these, I'm sure it's very. 80 cents, definitely under the budget, the requirement. As an attorney myself, 23 years now. The reason I'm here, obviously, is to ask for your public support as we distribute to your schools and their families. That's the main reason. I thank you, and God bless America, and God bless Plantation, and everything that you do for her. Thank you very much. So, Farida, you don't want to speak? Oh, I'm sorry. I didn't see you over there. Good evening, Council members and City of Plantation residents. This is the second year that they've been distributed in Plantation, right? Yes. Yeah. Great. So, first, I want to say hello to everyone, and thank you so much for the great job you're doing for our beautiful City of Plantation. And really, really with gratitude for all of you, for all of your hard work that you do. So, I'm here with Mary because I have the opportunity to volunteer with her. And as a Plantation resident, it was so gratifying to go into our schools and hand these constitutions out to the kids. And when I told Louis that I was going to come today to talk a little bit about it, he said, I carry a copy in my pocket, and I feel that's something that we wear with pride. It's like a part of our identity. And what Mary has done with her team, she put together 200 people to come to her home. Her home was like a manufacturing, you know, put together the Constitution, get it out, get us all organized to go to the schools, and to go to my own city and to see that she was doing this here is why I'm supporting her. And I would love to see the City embrace what she's doing and support her again in educating our kids and really, really teaching them about our Constitution and everything that it has to offer. And I'd like to yield my time back to you, Mary, if you'd like to say anything else. You've got my support. Do we have the Council's support? Let us know when you're handing them out. If we can volunteer and help out, that would be great. 9-17. Perfect. Yes. Thank you. Thank you so much. Absolutely. Good endeavor. Mr. Conklin. Dennis Conklin, 4581 Northwest 6th Court. Heavenly hosts, protect you and your families. I think I'm going to start backwards today. I would like to request removing electric vehicles, electric equipment, and charging stations from the budget. I would like to request removing the DEI and ESG mandatory training from the budget. And it's been 10 days since the dismissal of the unconstitutional FBI raid 710 days ago of President Trump's home. I had thought it was only illegal. It's been 12 days since the attempt on the life of the president. It happened to occur very coincidentally. I don't know. It was June 13th, and it was anniversary date of one of the appearances of Blessed Mary of the Virgin, the Mother of Christ, at Fatima in 1917. It's 49 days since President Trump was convicted of 39 made-up charges for legal bills as opposed to campaign bills, which Hillary Clinton did the same thing, non-disclosure agreements. Anybody sign one ever? It's been 92 days of the coordinated nationwide college jihad across 22 states, including three of the universities in Florida. It's now expanded to cities, not just universities. So 154 days of violation of President Trump's Eighth Amendment rights of excessive bail shall not be required for excessive, nor excessive fines imposed, nor cruel and unusual punishment inflicted. 285 days since the beginning of the war by the terrorist organization Hamas against Israel, Israelis, and all freedom-loving people. They are the military wing of the terrorist organization Muslim Brotherhood. We have right here in our midst CARE, which is the, I guess you would say the advertising wing for that military, for the terrorist organization Muslim Brotherhood. It's day 285, excuse me, it's day 296 since the summary judgment, violating the President's Seventh Amendment rights to a trial by jury. And it's day 351 since the arrangement, arraignment and gag order of the President, violating his First Amendment rights of free speech. It's day 710, which I mentioned it toward the beginning. May I extend 30 seconds? Yes. It's day 710 since the illegal FBI invasion of the President Trump's family home, once he requested and declassified a crossfire hurricane document. And it's day 1587 of martial law of shutting down churches, requiring masks and shots to be mandated. The city happened to mandate as well. Loss of our unalienable, God-given individual rights. And I'll yield back. Thank you. Thank you, Dennis. Appreciate the extended time. If I may come forward. I do not have any other cards. Is there anybody else who would like to speak in the chamber? Come up. Former Council Member Hillier. Oh. Yep. Thank you. Blue, sir. Thank you very much. In this, David tells quite well with his last comments that today, July 24th of 1974, really changed my life. In that, the U.S. courts read, Nixon, U.S. versus Nixon, was filed. Then that gave me the motivation to enter into our United Nation and work for the Navy. It's still not too bad of a job. But nonetheless, then I wanted to be a Medicaid person as a nurse. And then they ripped up my papers and did some additional skill set that I had and put a good use to it, I suspect. But anyway, the point being is that I feel even a little bit more patriotic today, having listened to Dennis and the Constitution very much and how it was a shaping for myself at college at Mankato State. And then that gave me an opportunity that somebody who may be smarter than myself as my wife was the first American who's American. I don't know if you know who's who. She's pretty sharp. So she does stick with me. And we've had a good 42 years. And today is our anniversary. So it's all tying in together and building up a little bit. Thank you. So I've been both blessed by a great wife. It's your anniversary. Why are you here? Because I'm in deep doo-doo for coming here because there's comments about the acres topics. So I got a little motivation. And I guess I ran this. So I got a little. The dog still loves me. But anyway, the point is, is that we'll get to go to Covenant Village. That's our standing on Saturdays and Tuesdays. And so we're both a therapy dog with cat as well as our service animal. So God bless me even more. And I look at that, that I'll someday see Doc Cannon. That was on October 4th of 24. And then that time, I said, get rid of the amphitheater that they want to put in Voltaire Park. Voltaire Park and still work on North Acres. I hear it's out for a bid right now. And I got some trees for good use of that that would help. And Commissioner Holden's love trees. So I got some trees special for that plant as well. So thank you very much. And it's a great day because how many times you get to marry your wife again. Thank you. Thank you. Is there any comments from the chamber? Last call. All right, public requests to the council regarding municipal affairs are now closed. We're going to move to the consent agenda. It consists of items 1 through 18, but items 8, 9, and 10 have been removed. Jason, do you want to speak to that? Good evening, council. I had an opportunity to speak to several of you regarding those items for public's benefit. Those are work authorizations to R&R sidewalks, the invasive root problems we've been addressing. You know, we've been dealing with severe risk management issues related to trip and fall incidents. But after the discussions we've had, we thought it might be prudent to pull back a bit, maybe schedule a site visit with council. Logistically, it's going to be a little interesting because we'll need to involve the city clerk's office. The public will need an invitation. But we think it's important for collectively all to put eyes on what exactly we're talking about, discuss our plans as far as how we want to engage the respective HOAs on how they'll be impacted. But it is something we do need to address, but we are sensitive to the impact of tree canopy because that's obviously something the city's known for. But it's also costing us quite a bit on the risk side, impacting utilities, impacting drainage. So we're not backing away from the work authorizations necessarily. We just thought it might be an opportunity to have some more dialogue on it, make sure you all are comfortable with our approach. Also give us an opportunity to explore some other issues. I actually had a conversation with a developer today who was concerned about root barriers, their cost, and their efficacy. If we can explore that a little bit further, it might help us in this regard as well. So I just wanted to offer that, that we're not by any means dropping the projects. Just want to do a little bit more engagement before moving forward. Good. Thank you. Appreciate it. So the consent agenda consists of items 1 through 18 with the exception of 8, 9, 10. Does any member of the council wish to pull any items? I'm going to pull 13. I was going to pull 13, but you can pull 13. I had the mic, so all right. So both of us picked 13. We'll both pull 13. Everybody wants to talk about 13 tonight. Any other items from the council? And then the public, I have 6, 17, and 13, which we already pulled. Is there any other items in the chamber that would like to be pulled? So 6, 8, 9, 10, and 17. Well, that's getting confusing here. 8, 9, 10 is removed. 6, and 17, and 13 are pulled. Anybody want to make a motion? Motion to approve 1 through 18, not including. 6, and 13, and 17, and 8, 9, and 10 were removed. I'll second. All right. Good job. Ms. Bagro, please call the roll. Council Member Reinstein made the motion. Horland second. All right. Council Member Horland. Yes. Council Member Reinstein. Yes. Council Member Anderson. Yes. Council Member Andreu. Yes. Council Member Frech. Yes. All right. So item 6 was pulled by Mr. Conklin. You're right. Now. Mr. Conklin, 4581 Northwest 6th Court. Wanted to thank the city for moving along with the drainage study in Flex Zone 73. That's the neighborhood east of the Turnpike. And this is particularly dealing with our neighborhood just to the south of me in Plantation Park East in Country Club Estates, which it sort of involves a little bit of the State Road 7. And that's coming up a little bit later. And I guess it's legislative, and there's no comments on that. And, excuse me, yeah, legislative. And they're going to talk about more affordable housing. That's also at the end of the meeting in that district along State Road 7 in the very narrow car lot. You may recognize it's at 849 South State Road 7. And they are proposing, I guess, to build some more housing on commercial property. And I was thinking that as long as you're looking that way, there's a much better piece just across the street almost at 499 Northwest 70th Avenue, the Professional Center. And we have so many vacancies in the old Winn-Dixie shopping centers that you could probably move the professional offices that occupy that very tiny building into there and demolish it. And it's got so many acres of just empty space parking lot, really. And maybe you could put the housing there for a change and not keep taking away the commercial property in the CRA. So that was basically it. But I noticed on the map that it's a little bit less prone to flooding over here than it is right around where the proposal for that narrow strip of the car lot is. It's a very deep blue over there, and it's very light blue or nothing over here, your next-door neighbor. So I'll yield back my time. Thank you. Can I have a motion? Motion to approve. I'll second. All right. Is there any other comment regarding item 6? All right. Seeing none, can I, Ms. Begrove, can you please call the roll? Council Member Moreland? Yes. Council Member Reinstein? Yes. Council Member Anderson? Yes. Council Member Andreja? Yes. Council Member Fragin? Yes. Thank you. All right. So we're at item 13, and my comment was, you know, there's been several things that we've all been working on as a council since I got on in 2020. And Council Member Andreja got on in 2020, and then the 18 class. And so we listened to you all. We all wanted that park, and right now we're at the doorstep of this park coming to reality. And I love that we have over 40 parks, and I think this is going to be our 43rd park. And I think that says something about our commitment to the community, and I'm excited that we're going to start churning dirt. That's all I wanted to say about it. Great. Council Member. Thank you. Council Member Reinstein? I just want to add that the class of 2022 agrees. And 22. He was involved, too, of course. Sorry. Council Member Andreja. Thank you, President Fadgen. Very excited about this particular item. I know it is long overdue, and the residents are excited as well. I wanted to know what the timeline would be once this is approved, hopefully tonight and a few moments. Sounding good so far. Ms. Shallan, if you could give us a rough estimate of next steps and the timeline. Good evening. Samira Shallan, city engineer and the proud designer of the project. Thank you. The contract is 240 days to substantial completion. I just want to bring to your attention, we are in the rainy season. We have been very fortunate. It hasn't been raining, but there may be delays due to the rain, an unforeseen condition. But the contract, once the item hopefully gets approved tonight, we need to sign the contracts, get the permits. We did already preliminary plan reviews, so the contractor, like we did all the lag work for the contractor. We're going to hand them the paperwork, and they're going to just file for permit. So hopefully the construction and the ground breaking is going to happen very soon, hopefully to see you all there. And then eight months from there is the substantial completion. Great. And then I just have one additional question, if you don't mind, a procurement question, because inquiring minds want to know. So I noticed that we are going with the second lowest bidder on this particular item. And from what I, the research I did, you know, this firm seems wonderful. I know they're doing other work, Plantation Point and other work and projects in our city. But I just want to understand there was some language in there, which is basically why the first bidder was deemed non-responsive. So is that in most of our ITBs, that language about having, I think it was five or seven years' experience? Right. Charles Spencer, Procurement Director. We look at every project uniquely, and we establish qualifiers that are unique to the project. So it's not standard. We look at the project, and we create criteria and qualifiers that are unique to the contractors in that market to make sure that we get a qualified contractor that can serve the best interest of the city of Plantation. So those qualifiers were unique to this particular project, and we work well hand-in-hand with the subject matter expert, in this case Samira, to make sure that the qualifiers are fair and reasonable to maintain good competition. Okay. I was just concerned because that would have saved us an additional $200,000, and, you know, we could have checked their references and made sure, you know, they have the bonding capacity. So I had some concerns there. I want to make sure, you know, that we deliver a great project, but also at the best price. Of course. So I feel like some of that language can be limiting, and so I just ask that in the future we take a look at that. And we do. Like I said, it's unique. It's not, that's not the standard language for every single project. We look at them individually and determine what is fair and competitive on the market for each specific project. Okay. To make sure that we are engaging a qualified contractor for the project that we have ahead. All right. Thank you. Council Member Horland. Thank you, Mr. President. Well, I wanted to jump up and down and say yay. The class of 2018 was sitting up here, the three of us, when Jesse Varnell and Doug Zerlop came up here and pleaded for that bond project to be completed and was told that the funding would probably not be there. So we've all fought the battle for a long time. I want to thank administration and Ms. Shailon and Mr. Goodrich. This is important to all of us. It's important to the community. So, ad nauseum, I've talked about wildlife connectivity. I do still think that we have a real opportunity to be on the edge of Everglades there to create a unique park. And I know that you are uniquely committed to this. This is going to be a legacy project, I think, for you. We're all excited about that, especially some of the drainage issues. Now, I know I've spoken to Mr. Nunamaker, and we're going to sit down. What I want to just talk about publicly, very briefly, is my conversations with Nature Escape. So I know we're not going to mess with the literal shelf. We want to make sure the drainage is there. But would there be an opportunity, because I see that we're going to utilize about $600,000 plus in tree beautification funds. What I've been told is, in my meetings with Nature Escape, is there are grants and there are trees available, native trees. And I really think that we can create a special environment there. So people can go into that park and kind of forget where they're at. But would that, if we do that along the perimeter of the park, the way that you've designed it, would that necessarily affect the drainage? And that's my question to you. Yes. Right. That's our issue there. Yes. Yep. I'm sorry. On the northern portion of the park, there will be effect on the drainage, because there is drainage that's draining the residential community. And again, one of the objectives of this park is not just a park. We took the opportunity to expand the drainage opportunity. We partnered with PAID, and we actually, we redesigned the drainage. We took into consideration all the comments that were received in the public meeting with the community. And the residential community adjacent to the park casted their opinion about flooding their property. So there is drainage at the northern portion, but that's just at the property line. There is between 40 to 80 feet between that property line to the sidewalk. So there is opportunity to fill in with natural landscape. The approach we took, we wanted this project to get into the reality. You know, we keep promising the community there was some delay due to permitting, so we wanted to start. We are in discussion with administration and parks and rec. There will be continuous evaluation during the operation of the park and seeking other opportunities to fill in some of these opportunities. So we will not stop here, and Phil, I don't want to put words over his mouth, but we talked about some of the programs that may be reoriented to this community park or this public park. So based on the needs of the park, on a yearly basis, I will keep talking to Phil. And if there is any need for redesign, addition, deletion, we will keep working on it. I'd like to see that we're open to that, especially if we have that resource available that we could put free trees in there that are native-sourced. That, again, I really think that we have a real opportunity there, not just to create another active park, but to have some passivity there that the residents can enjoy. So, again, thank you for everything that you've done. I think that you've got five very happy council members up here tonight. Thank you for your support. And the mayor. And the mayor, of course. Council Member Anderson. Just my two cents. I'm just so glad the promises of the past are finally kept, and we're very proud to do that, to work with the acres for so many years. And we heard lip service when we first got on, and we made it happen collectively. It took all of us. But I'm glad it's coming home, and I can't wait to – it's close enough that I can probably run to that park and sit on a bench, rest a while, and run. I mean, I plan to make that park a little sanctuary for me, too. Good. Did you want to say anything, Mr. Goodrich? Yes, I would. Thank you. First and foremost, I can't thank Samir enough for the tireless effort that she has made to make this project come to fruition to this point. The countless hours of community meetings, meeting internally with us, and going over plans, and asking and making sure every little detail is taken care of. So I can't thank you enough. Thank you. Thank you, too, and to your team, too. We are still at 42 parks. It doesn't give us another park because there was a North Acres Park already, and we're just adding to it. That's true. But it's going to be a much more beautiful park. It's true. So thank you. Thank you. Let's do a motion, and then we'll take public comment. I'll make the motion. Second. Okay. Teresa. Class of 2022. Call it roll. No, we're going to take public comment. What's that? We made a motion to approve it, Council Member Reinstein, and it was seconded by Council Member Horland, and now we're going to take public comment with somebody I walked the muck with in my dress shoes. Tell her about that day. She asked to meet me at my office, and then we did. We left my office, and we went to the park, and I told her I was like Indiana Jones, and I don't like snakes, and it was horrible. Yeah. Is the light on? Now it's on. Oh. Okay, I'll thank you again. You're good. So I want to thank the mayor and all the council members, but I also want to thank all of the employees for the City of Plantation for all the exceptional work you do each day to enhance the quality of our life in our wonderful city. I also want to congratulate Samira Shalon on her outstanding design of North Acres Park. It's an amazing, and I know she's put a lot of time, a lot of hard work in that back and forth, as Mr. Goodrich said. After 10 years in the making, the time has come for the council to approve the bid to complete North Acres Park. On behalf of my neighbors and myself, we ask that you approve the bid for the construction to commence without further delay. I think we've concluded that. And as Samira mentioned, North Acres Park will play a key role in water mitigation and help ease the flooding we frequently experience. It will not solve all the flooding issues, but will be vital in moving water away from our homes, streets, and into the canals. We need to move forward with the park and as quickly as possible. I'm aware of the opportunity that the city may want to consider, which Ms. Horland brought up, or Council Member Horland, and NatureScape. A Broward County agency can collaborate with our landscaping department to design a Florida-friendly landscape. They would donate an extensive amount of trees for the project, which would provide habitat for native and migratory wildlife, conserve water, and minimize the need for fertilizers and pesticides. In addition to those benefits, we would be eligible to apply for the prestigious Emerald Award, which, if we were to win, would be another shining star for the city of Plantation. And that's it. Thank you. And I've got a great news tonight. Thank you. Have a wonderful evening. You too. Lori. Lori Bernardi, 11681 Northwest 6th Street Plantation. I would like to thank everyone in front of me for the great job, not only for getting parks done, but everything else you're doing for the city. I would like to thank Samira for not only standing before our neighborhoods time and time again for answering our question, and, of course, for bringing into the flooding problems that we have out in the North Acres and bringing that into when she was developing the park to take that into consideration and helping to mitigate it. I also would like to put on the record that not just because it's in the acres have we fought for this park. I think those of us that have been coming to all the meetings for this park would also do it for a park in any of the other neighborhoods. You know how I am about the trees. I am the Lorax, as I've been nicknamed. And no matter where a park is being built in this city, I will be up here arguing for it just like I have been arguing for the North Acres Park. So people have said that, oh, you're only arguing because it's in your neighborhood, and that's not the truth. I will argue for a park in any neighborhood in my city. So I want to thank all of you, and I think you're doing a great job. Have a great evening. Thank you. Is there any other comments? Come on up, Mr. Hillier. Lee Hillier, 1550, 115, 15th Terrace. I want to be glad and even happier with Olstom, our great park system of Central Park of New York and other of Minnesota, and particularly was our family, and this is a larger family here in Plantation Acres. We moved here on May 1st of 1993, and have only enjoyed being here with the acres that much stronger. Seeing that North Acres is expanding, June Quinn's husband, Bob Robert, was the head who dug that little park on the land that we're discussing in the acres, and that whole swale goes west of the canal over there at the B area behind Flanagan's property at that Termas and Fine is on the paid board, which I guess will be a topic later here tonight. But the most aspect is we got the growth. We got some respect for our country, for the kids, and just like Dr. Mr. Anderson was discussing about a little shade. So I have some nice trees, perfect for our foxtails, for that area. But moreover, is that the heat coming from sawgrass, we have a little shade, and every opportunity we have for saving some water and having some shade will lower our temperature somewhat. At least it makes it a stronger family, and that's the part that I'm glad to see the crowd that has come out here and the other speakers as well endorsing it, and I know you guys have a good mindset, and I thank our mayor for saving us because there were others that weren't that deep for our needs. Thank you very much, mayor. Thank you, Mr. Hillier. Is there any other comments from the chamber? All right, seeing none, we have a motion and a second. Ms. Begrove, can you please call the roll? Council Member Horland. Yes. Council Member Reinstein. Yes. Council Member Anderson. Absolutely yes. Council Member Andreu. I want to vote twice. Yes. Council Member Fajan. Yes. All right. All right. Item number 17, Mr. Conklin. Anna, get ready. Dennis Conklin, 4581 Northwest 6th Court. To do with the item in particular, I noticed that the wastewater winds up in one week. The total was $2,476. That's a lot of money. To touch back, because I'm always trying to have that gateway millage removed and whatnot. The issue, I'm for the passage of the item 17. The issue I was thinking about, and I had mentioned about, was transactional gold, and the president mentioned that I always mentioned the mountain of money. And in that mountain of money, we've got basically about $85 million in U.S. treasuries, according to last September 30th. And back at that time, the closing price for gold was $1,862 an ounce. And I checked today, and the closing price for gold was $2,411 an ounce, or a 29.5% loss in purchasing power of the dollar. And because we have so much money year to year in various places, including treasuries, which whenever the interest rates go up, the value of the bonds go down and stuff like that. But I was hoping that you might look into encouraging the state to get into the gold bullion depository, which I know it was taking it up, but it hadn't moved it. There's 25 states now that are in the process. Texas already has it. And then for the next action to take to make that gold in the depository transactional, which you can do that now, pre-market, you can do it with a debit card. Because for the purchasing value that's lost in the money that sits in the various accounts and in treasuries, U.S. treasuries, you probably wouldn't have to raise the millage if you were allowed, and I don't know if the state would allow it until it becomes a depository, to place a good portion of those funds, particularly the U.S. treasuries, because they're probably going to go to zero, in the gold bullion depository. And as the prices go up, you're protected because you're gold for a good portion of the money. And I'm just using the figures from the CAFR. So basically, that's where I got the $85 million in treasuries. And there's $100 million unrestricted of the $330 million that we have. So I encourage you to encourage the legislature to get going on the gold and the depository and transaction. Thank you. Can I have a motion? Motion to approve. Second. Ms. Beggarov, please call the roll. Council Member Orland. Yes. Council Member Reinstein. Yes. Council Member Anderson. Yes. Council Member Andreu. Yes. Council Member Fajan. Yes. All right. Administrative items. Number 19, quarterly grant reports. Is that transmittal, or do we have a discussion on it? It was quarterly grant reports. Is that just transmittal? Okay. Legislative items. Number 20, an ordinance amending the code of ordinances. Chapter 9, floodplain and stormwater management. Assistant City Attorney Morgan, would you like to read it? I'm sure you're about to read the rest of it. You started off for a bit. All right. An ordinance of the City of Plantation, Florida, amending Chapter 9, Floodplain and Stormwater Management, Section 9-3, Applicability, and Section 9-11, definitions of the code of ordinance of the City of Plantation, providing for applicability, providing for severability, providing for codification, providing for conflicts, and providing an effective date. Thank you. Anybody have any comments on it? Can I have a motion? Motion to approve. Second. Any member of the public like to make a comment on it? Mr. Hillier. Lee Hillier, 1515 Terrace. Just want to say we need this over time, and there are some additional quirks, and it's not a quirk one. Out west in Naples, I've been talking about the new river that heads our way for the locks that we have over here by your neighborhood, more or less behind your home. And of which, that water stress that we have in Hyattis Road in our area as well. But the whole floodplain will be now back that you passed in 2022. So I'm just trying to affirm that it's the same plate as well as the monies set for rehabbing the area, is that part of what I understand is part of this motion as well? Curious. We had an expert who came forward and then said that you had to have the muns funds for that purpose. And I didn't really hear if there was a number to tie the two or equation. Good evening. The item in front of you is just a legislative item. What's happened, FEMA is issuing or issued their new flood maps effective July 31st. And it's a mandatory to update our code to call for the new FEMA maps. So that's what the item in front of you. It doesn't have anything to do with the fund. Actually, it does because only six properties in plantation had changed from flood zone X to special flood hazard, which the community, these six properties are going to be required to pay flood insurance. That's all what the item in front of you. Thank you. No problem. Fabulous. Can I ask a follow-up question to that? Of course. Michelin, so who will notify those property owners? So FEMA have a process for the entire FEMA maps, and part of their process, this is a federal process. They published the map. They published the map in January. It was published on their website. It is on Broward County website. We have the data on our GIS, and we're going to push it to the public. After this motion is going to get approved, we will push a social media. We have nothing to do with it. It's a FEMA process, but we will assist. I understand, but will there be, I guess my question is, these six individuals, if they're not actively engaged in seeing, and they still might not realize that they are impacted, even if they see it on social media, they might not look at the map close enough to realize, yes, I'm in that particular zone or I changed zones. So we couldn't send a written notification to those six individuals? Actually, in the resolution, the backup material that I prepared, I prepared a map. If you look at the map, all the six properties have been gone through redevelopment. For example, the public storage on 125th, Plantation Point, so all these properties are currently under redevelopment, and through their permitting process, they are aware. But I will take to your point for now and for the future for further notification from city perspective. Yeah, just because what happened in Texas always haunts me, you know, and they probably were notified previously that they did not have to purchase flood, and if they chose to for, again, financial reasons, whatever, and didn't, and now they're in the zone, and nobody specifically notifies them. Yeah, and most of the changes were on the coastal community. The inland community encountered minor, minor changes. Okay, don't see any other comments. I don't remember if I took a motion or not. All right, good. Someone's paying attention. Is there any comments, any other comments from the chamber? Seeing none. Ms. Beggarow, please call the roll. Council Member Horland. Yes. Council Member Reinstein. Yes. Council Member Anderson. Yes. Council Member Andrew. Yes. Council Member Kibadgett. Yes. All right, item 21, advisory reports. I believe it's transmittal. Mr. Mayor, you are up. Oh, thank you very much. A couple items. Our affordable housing on Thursday committee, we're not going to be meeting August 1st, and EAB on the following Monday is not going to be meeting. And also, we've been talking a little bit about security. I don't know if we got back to you talking to Jason about it. I'd rather do it offline. But we have four meetings here where we don't have security the whole time. You know, we have EAB and people walking out and everything, and we're strengthening that, like after planning and zoning. Do you, may I ask? Yeah. So planning and zoning, I understand maybe a little bit more they're making decisions similar to, you know, what we're doing up here with planning issues. Do you feel, has there been something you're concerned about? Do you feel that advisory boards need security? It's been in my head for a year. That's interesting. Is that I just want to get the building a little more secure, and I think having somebody here to walk people out and that kind of thing. And I don't want them walking out, you know, on their own. So we're looking at what, so my point is, when we get it all together, we'll probably, Jason will probably know, and it would be good if you updated your board members. Let them know, you know, because some of them are here, and they walk out on their own. And right now it's fine, but when the time changes, then it's dark. So, yeah, yeah, it's been rolling around in my head in a while, and we just finally got it going. Also, when I was out, there was a question of FMLA for me or what to use exactly. So I've talked to them and the city attorney, and it would be great if we codified that by an ordinance. It doesn't have to be a charter thing, but it needs to be north. So I'm working on the language for that. If you have input and you have thoughts, tell Jason of what you think it should be, and let's get it together and get it done and get it written and codified. So if that situation comes up again, we can, yeah. You guys good with that? Mm-hmm. Yeah. And Council Member Horland, there's something coming up in August here, a planning council and stuff that I see here? That you guys, there's meetings using. Oh, what I had just sent out. Yeah, I figured you got it. Okay. Yeah, thanks. All right, thanks. That's it. Okay. We're at comments by Council Members. Council Member Horland. I guess I'll segue right into that, Mayor. Thank you. Yes. Council Members, I think you may have received something a week or so ago from the Chair of the Broward Planning Organization. So we're at the point right now where we are revisiting Broward next, Broward County Land Use Plan and Com Plan, and I'm on the Steering Committee for that. And what they're asking, and I had sent it out to Mr. Alpert and Mr. Holmes today, any additions or changes or suggestions you'd like to make to the Broward County Land Use Plan and Com Plan, please forward those, you know, to me or to Barbie Blake Boy at the Planning Council. Well, the Steering Committee is, we're having a Zoom meeting tomorrow. We're going to start kicking things off and have speakers specifically coming in to talk to us about resiliency, affordable housing, and where we need to tweak things in the Broward County Com Plan. But what I had sent out today, and Mr. Alpert did send it out to AHAC, is there is a three hours, two meetings, one day. It's Affordable Housing Master Plan Workshop on the 15th. So I thought that that might be something that would be of interest to AHAC. And that's here? No, it's not here. Oh, it's not here. No, it's not here. But I just thought, and they could attend online, but I thought that would be something that would be of interest to them. So Mr. Alpert did send that out. So thank you, Mayor, for bringing that up. Very quickly, thank you again for the confidence and the support of Broward Reads. I didn't want to take another appointment if someone wanted it. I understand, too. You're going to go to the meetings. I have, but I would just find another way to slip in there if somebody else wanted it. But it's incredibly important to get our children on grade-level readings. So thank you, everyone, for your support. Since we met last, it's been five years since the explosion. And I know that a couple of us had posts about that. I had been interviewed by CBS. It was kind of stunning that it was five years and reflecting back on that. But we spoke tonight about the new businesses opening and the new restaurants. And it's exciting to see what's happening in the plaza. Good on you. Yesterday I saw your two videos online celebrating those two visits. I understand there are cookies back in the back room. So it's just, I think, exciting to see that area thriving again. So I hope all of our residents will go support those businesses. Again, congratulations to Broward Schools on their receiving the A rating after 12 years. And I just wanted to mention one other thing. The Broward League of Women Voters is partnering with Broward County Library. And there's a special film. We've been talking about PVAT, Plast and Microplastics. There's a film called We Are All Plastic People Now. It's going to be shown on Saturday, September 21st at the North Regional Library. I cannot attend, but there's a link online. If you go on to Broward County Library or League of Women Voters, I think that's going to be very fascinating. Probably a little terrifying as well. But I just, and I want to give Parks and Rec another shout out. The backpack giveaway and barbecue is phenomenal, as always. And just I'd love to see what everybody's accomplishing in Team Plantation. So thank you, Mr. President. Thank you. Council Member Anderson. Nothing for me. Everything's been said. Thanks. Everything needed to be said. Was said. Was said. Council Member Andreyu. You know, I always have a little more. I had a question, actually, about the backpack giveaway. It was phenomenal. And again, thank you to all the, all Parks and Rec, police, everybody who was there. All the food trucks, everything. It was a great community event and the sponsors. But I was curious to know if we had contacted our local schools only because as students were coming through the line and we were distributing books, I was asking them, right, what school do you go to? What school do you go to? And I didn't hear a lot of our local public schools. So I was just curious if we had maybe sent the flyer to, you know, Plantation Elementary, Mirror Lake. Actually, Mirror Lake had a little more representation than even Plantation Elementary. Yes. No, because of the timing of it, it's through the summer. We really didn't promote it then. We did it through social media outlets, which we've been very successful with. We had 480 out of the 500 that we did get. We gave the last 20 to our police department for a project that they're working on. But that's where we really. Next year, if we could, because even though it's summer, they all have, you know, they can do an email or a phone call to all of their students. The automated parent. The automated parent link, right. So just food for thought for next year because, you know, we always want to improve from the year before. But it was phenomenal, and we appreciate, you know, the almost 500 students and families that came through. So thank you. Thank you. We did require, though, ID for everybody who came through. Yes. We saw that as well. Yes. And you mentioned the other backpack giveaway. I believe that's July 31st at 6 p.m. at Broward Mall. So with the Plantation PD. So we look forward to giving out more school supplies and backpacks. And for all the parents that might be listening in or be here still, sales tax holiday is coming up July 29th to August 11th to purchase all of those back-to-school supplies and clothes and laptops. So we look forward to saving a little bit of money there as well. I did want to mention to the council members, my colleagues in the public, I spoke to Laura, well, emailed Laura briefly because I know that she is wonderful at taking on new initiatives like the Plantation University, right. And so it was something that I had been thinking about for a little while, especially after the launch of the university. And then it so happened that the Florida League of Cities sent us an email, and they already have the curriculum for a youth council. So I mentioned to Laura it would be great to maybe have a Plantation Youth Council as another new initiative, you know, no time soon, going into maybe 2025. But in terms of long-range planning, but I think that would be a great way to get more youth involved. We mentioned about already. Like a board? It would be, yeah, like a board sounds a little more formal. Something I was thinking about is like adding a, like a non-voting seat to some of our advisory boards, you know, like the Parks and Rec would be a good one for a high school student. Or maybe even put them on planning and zoning with a non-voting role. So can I add on to that? Because I think it's a great, I think it's something that we've talked about generally and other cities do it. To parlay into that is perhaps what you could do with the youth council is have a representative on those boards and then they come back to the youth council and talk about what happens on the board. I think you could tie it all together, but it's a great way to get the kids civically. Absolutely. And I think because Laura has done such a great job in what we've done in the chamber in exposing children and students to our local government, I think it's a great segue. So one more thing on your plate. Carol, you dodged that one. Sounds like we have consensus. But thank you all for that. And last but not least, Tuesday, August 6th, because I know we're not, I think we're, is this a three-week, right? Right. Okay. So Tuesday, August 6th is Jamaica's Independence Day. And it's also, of course, we mentioned National Night Out, but definitely want to celebrate, again, I believe it's the 60, I'm losing count, 63rd Independence. And so lots of activities will start happening at the end of the month. So looking forward to participating in many of those. I think the first one is actually Sunday at the Faith Center with the Council General. That concludes all of my announcements. Thank you. Thank you. Council Member Reinstein. So I wanted to just add that in talking about, like, the backpack giveaway and things that we're doing involving the schools, that that would be another good reach out to our Educational Advisory Board. They're creating great contacts and relationships with their assigned schools. And so making sure that they're reaching out before the end of the year to their schools to make sure that they get notice of some of these great summer programs that we have. And backpack giveaways would be another great role for our Educational Advisory Board. I want to also just bring up, again, we've talked about a number of times that I believe the administration is going to be working on putting together some type of code enforcement workshop. And so we've talked about that. And I just wanted to bring that up again and see if we can get a little further along with scheduling something like that. No need for any comments right now. I just wanted to bring it up again. And I want to particularly mention it because recently there was a local business that had brought to many people's attention that somebody came by from code enforcement and had raised an issue about something that they had in front of their business. And what was interesting is that they weren't cited for anything. They were simply just told this is something you shouldn't have in front of your business. And, you know, it may be one of those things that we can talk about in code enforcement in terms of process and procedures that, you know, if they're going to be so kind to give a verbal warning, maybe it should come with some type of reference to what they're warning about so that it's written. Because I think there was some miscommunication and misunderstanding as to what the businesses were being told they could or could not do. So I'd like to just add that to that discussion when we have this code enforcement workshop. Thank you. Thank you. I get a lot of calls when the video doesn't work. So I guess the question is, do we have a software issue or do we have a hardware problem? Because the last meeting we didn't have a video. And I'm sorry I wasn't able to call in advance of this because I've just been overwhelmingly busy. But I do get text messages during the meetings. I very rarely look at my phone when I'm in the meeting. And I certainly get a lot of calls about it. I don't know if anybody else gets calls about it. But that video is extremely important to the residents. I'm always amazed, like, how many people call me a week and a half after a meeting saying that they just watched the meeting, they agreed with this, they disagreed with that. So it's different than an audio recording than having a video recording. And I think the video recording is extremely, extremely important. So when we identify a problem, what are we doing? Like, are we just throwing our hats down and just say, okay, maybe next time? No. And I appreciate the comment because we understand that people take that seriously. They get very disappointed if they're following a meeting and all of a sudden it flatlines. Yeah, and even when they're watching it live, it's a huge problem. So for us, I think part of the issue, and if Mr. Montefusco wants to comment further, he's welcome to. But part of the issue is we've got a patchwork system here. So we envision redeveloping this system in tandem with the redesign of the room. One of the things I asked Mr. Montefusco to look at is could we do that in advance of the renovation of the council chambers because that's a longer-term effort. You know, can't we install, like, the new equipment and then we just take the new equipment to the next plate, you know? And that's what we're looking at. The other aspect of that is I think the expectations are higher in that, you know, we need an audio-video specialist on staff, somebody who can troubleshoot those issues on the fly, because T.L.'s point that there's an expectation there. And I'll tell you, other entities, their production values are very rudimentary, you know? Well, we're classic, and we're easing into it. But we do want to get there. Okay. So we've had those conversations. That is something we're going to be focusing on. Okay. So we recognize it as a problem. That's true. Did you have anything to add? Just to continue with Jason's point, technical issues do arise at times. A hundred percent. So we do everything in preparation to have a smooth operation, but it was unfortunate that the video stopped during that meeting. When did we know? Sometimes I get a text during the meeting, but in order to fix it, you have to disrupt other processes. And I don't want, according to Ms. Begro, if she can correct me, I think she just needs the audio to be legal. Well, I understand that part, but what I'm saying is that the video is extremely important. And if I think it's a five-minute fix, like if we give the old college a try to fix it, I would prefer to recess the meeting and then start it back up to get that thing going. That's how important it is. Absolutely. We have other residents that are used to Channel 19. I grew up on Channel 19. I was going to bring that. I knew that Channel 19. I absolutely agree. There are some rudimentary things we could probably do to just give it a good reboot. I think just the communication I've gotten, I don't know if anybody else, maybe I'm just a lucky one, but I just think that if we feel that there's an opportunity to try to fix it and you think we just need to shut it down for five minutes, I'd rather take that chance. And if you can't fix it, then that's fine. We tried, and then we move on with the meeting. But it would involve an investment because we are, the equipment is older. Well, I'm talking about a current reboot of, like, if we had a problem like that the last week. I understand that, but if you want a more solid experience, we have to throw some money at it, quite honestly. I think there's money coming into this room, so we'll have to talk about it. And I would love to entertain to see, we used to have Comcast with a full production, as you were referring to. We also had an exclusive contract for people delivering. Correct, and they had the professional video production equipment. If that's an opportunity, I don't know if that's still a thing. We'd love to entertain that. What's that? Having it broadcast through the television. Well, I think they wanted us to pay for it. I think that's why it went away. Well, so if we pay for it, then we would get a professional outcome. Well, I mean, I'm just more talking about working with the tools that we have now. If there's an opportunity to fix the thing, it'll save me a lot of phone calls. Absolutely. I think it'll save some of my colleagues phone calls. We're actually assessing it. I'm just trying to raise the level of importance of it because I do believe it's extremely important to the people who don't come into the meetings, particularly some of our older residents, they're watching these things at home, and they get frustrated when they can't see it. Absolutely. I'd rather watch TV than listen to the radio. Absolutely. Okay. Mr. President, may I comment on that? Yes. Just a question regarding that is that, you know, if we're talking about some, if we try that five-minute shot that President Fajan is talking about and it doesn't work, what about the opportunity for some, whether it's a live YouTube feed or Facebook feed or something that is an alternative for a momentary fix, just so that we are giving residents another opportunity for video feed? We can look at that so long as it's done through Granicus so it's ADA compliant. So that's the only caveat I would offer there. So we can explore to see if there's other avenues we can push that maintain that compliance. Yeah, I mean, it would just seem that in terms of that alternative, whether, you know, we've talked about Zoom before, whether it's our City of Plantation YouTube site, that somehow, someway, we should be able to get up for the residents to be able to see the video feed. It would require using the existing video, and if that's having an issue, it would probably be across the board, but we can entertain. I've relayed my concern, and I feel good about that we're going to try, and there's things on the horizon. I don't think there's this mention, but this weekend's the last weekend for the sandbags. You can still pick them up during the week. I went there, picked some up for my mom, and thank God they loaded them for me. So thank you to that. It's very easy. I was in and out in, like, three minutes, and if I didn't speak to anybody, I would have been out quicker. So thank you to that. Fourth of July, probably, was a great time. Concert was awesome. The crowd's amazing. It's pretty incredible. We could draw in so many people into the city. So when we actually have the statistics, it would be really interesting to see where everybody's coming from. And then this has been mentioned. It's turning into one of our signature events is the night out, August 6, 5 p.m. to 9 p.m. So one more shout-out for that. And, oh, the backpack event, great event. Couldn't find parking, so that's always a good sign of a successful event. And with that, it is 8.48, and we're adjourned.