City Council — Mar 27, 2024

Good evening and welcome. The Wednesday, March 27th, 2024 City of Plantation City Council meeting is now called to order at 610. Ms. Begaro, please call the roll. Council Member Anderson. Here. Council Member Andreu. Here. Council Member Fadgen. Here. Council Member Horland. Here. Council Member Einstein. Here. Mayor Sortel. Here. City Attorney Ezra. Here. Thank you. Thank you. Tonight's opening remarks invocation is going to be led by me. I invited Reverend Tony Durante, who is the pastor of our Savior Lutheran Church and School, to lead us in the invocation. Pastor. And we pray. Lord God, in you we find life, a father who creates it, a son who gave it, a spirit who promises it for all eternity. Graciously regard those who have been set in position of authority among us, that guided by your spirit, they may be ingenious in purpose, wise in counsel, firm in good resolution, and unwavering in duty, that under them we may be governed cordially and peaceably through you, our Lord and Savior. Amen. Thank you. Hello, everybody. I'm Mayor Nick Sortel, and we have some proclamations. The first one is Child Abuse Month. Mr. Hessing here. Anybody from Government Affairs? Okay. I thought he would be. Come on up. Good to see. I'll read the proclamations, then you talk. Absolutely. Okay. Whereas Florida's bright future depends on the healthy development of its children, and whereas adverse childhood experiences, including the abuse and neglect of children, can cause severe and costly consequences for children, and whereas every child has a right to a safe, healthy, and happy childhood, and whereas research shows that parents and caregivers who have support systems and know how to seek help in times of trouble are more resilient and better able to provide safe environments, and whereas it is vital that individuals, businesses, schools, and community organizations make children a top priority, and whereas during the month of April, Prevent Child Abuse Florida, in collaboration with the Florida Department of Children and Families, and the Ounce of Prevention Fund of Florida, implements Pinwheels for Prevention, and whereas Pinwheels for Prevention is a state-wide coordinated campaign aimed to increase awareness of child abuse prevention efforts, and whereas the blue and silver pinwheel displays in this campaign, symbolize the health and happiness all children deserve, and whereas Child Abuse Prevention Month is an important opportunity to urge all Floridians to engage in activities that strengthen families and communities, and that provide the optimal environment for healthy child development. Now, therefore, I, Nick Soto Mayor, and the City Council of Plantation, do hereby proclaim April 2024 as Child Abuse Prevention Month. It's okay to clap because we're supporting this thing. This is, this is, this is Mr. Nicholas Hessing, who's served on committees for us as a volunteer, and now you're on your way bigger and better. Yes. Thank you to Mayor Soto, to the Council, to the City of Plantation, for recognizing April as Child Abuse Prevention Month. At the Children's Services Council, our mission is to help every child achieve their full potential, but that's not possible unless they are raised in safe and nurturing communities, and so cities like yourself, cities that I was a former resident of, which is very exciting, joining the ranks of municipalities across Broward, recognizing this important month, and promoting programming that helps keep our children safe in Broward is moving the needle in that direction. So thank you so much. Oh, you want a picture here? Okay, we'll take a picture. Cover up my skinny arms. Oh. Hey, Julie. Is there anybody here for Food Waste Prevention Week? Come on up. Oh, good one. You're gonna, you got it? Ah, that's a really good school. Yeah. They, they have kids that you never think will make it, graduate. Is Council Member Horland doing that on my behalf? I'm sorry, Council Member Andreu? Yes. Hey, this is sponsored by Council Member Andreu. Whereas up to 35% of all food produced is thrown away rather than eaten, safe and nutritious food that is currently thrown away could help feed hungry people. And whereas everyone benefits from better utilizing food resources, and whereas a family of four can save an average of $1,500 on uneaten food annually. And whereas K-12 schools and universities have a special role in educating the next generation to reduce, recover, and recycle food. And whereas we have the opportunity to save shared resources like land, water, and energy used to produce and transport food that ultimately goes uneaten. And whereas food in landfills decomposes slowly, releasing methane, methane gas, which contributes to climate change. Now, therefore, Nick Sortel, Mayor, and the City Council of Plantation, Florida, do hereby proclaim the week of April 1st to 7th, 2024, as Food Waste Prevention Week in the City of Plantation, and encourage all residents to commit to taking steps to reduce food waste in their homes, workplaces, and communities. There we go. Do you want to come up and tell everybody who you are? Okay, go ahead. Thank you. Hi, I'm Misha Khan. And I'm Lily Overstreet. And we're two seniors from South Plantation High School. For our senior project, we were inspired to work towards the issue of food waste because we can see a lot of food waste in our own school. Just through lunch and, like, sitting in the cafeteria or sitting outside, wherever it is, you can always count on there being food trays on the floor and food everywhere. So, for our senior project, which is supposed to help the environment, we decided that food waste is a good place to start. So, we had a couple different activities. We did two food waste audits to measure the amount of waste from our school cafeteria. From our latest audit, we got 55 fruit cups, around 60 milk cartons. How many apples? We had 32 apples, which we ended up giving to our animal science program to feed to the pigs and the goats that we have. And that ended up saving about 4,000 liters of water just by those 32 apples alone. And, thank you. And this was made to show the impact that food waste has in order to convince our school to get a food share table, which we are in the process of doing. And we hope the next year's students will continue our efforts. We also took our time to present to different clubs and classes at our school. And we presented at the Youth Climate Change Summit at Pompano High School. We gave post and pre-surveys to all of the students that we presented to, to measure how much they learned or how their practices have changed, since we gave them our little presentation about how bad food waste is. Because a lot of people don't realize how much of an impact they as one person can make. We also provided solutions that the everyday citizen could do and things that they could share with their families at home. We just want to say thank you to everyone who helped us with this, as well as Dr. Berman and Ms. Julie Long and Ms. Elaine, who's not here. Thank you. Great job. Thank you, guys. Dr. Berman, you want to come up? Dr. Berman taught all three of my children. Okay, great job, guys. Good luck on your senior project. Thanks for doing that. Is anybody here for Monarch Butterflies? We all are. So do I, do I tell the story or not? Okay. Okay. Oh, oh, you are. Okay. So, you know, it's the Monarch Pledge. All right. Whereas the Monarch Butterfly is an iconic North American species whose multi-generational migration and metamorphosis from caterpillar to butterfly has captured the imagination of a million of Americans. And whereas 24 years ago, more than 1 billion Eastern Monarch Butterflies migrated to Mexico, but in the winter of 2014, only 60 million made the trip. And whereas cities, towns, and counties have a critical role to play to help save the Monarch Butterfly, and the City of Plantation seeks to support these efforts. And whereas every resident of Plantation can make a difference for the Monarch by planting native milkweed and nectar plants. And whereas on behalf of the people of Plantation who have already joined me in creating healthy habitats for the magnificent butterflies, I am honored to sign the National Wildlife Federation's Mayor's Monarch Pledge. Therefore, I proclaim Mayor's Monarch Pledge Day. Anything you want to add? Just thank you so much. I think this is really important. It's a keystone species. We need to reduce our pesticide use, and the City is leading the way. Thank you so much. Mr. President, may I add something? Yeah, sure. So, Mayor, I happen to – I was so pleased to see this on the agenda. I happened to meet with Anthony Gross at Naturescape yesterday, and I'm going to bring something to the city. Great. But milkweed is having a hard time with climate change, and now they're pushing twinevine. Twinevine. Twinevine. Yes. So I don't know the scientific name of that, but that was something that I learned yesterday. So another effort to save the Monarchs. Beautiful thing. We good here, Julie? Appreciate everything you do. Want this? Sure. We can take it to – That's right. So then they'll get it. Okay. So we are on to service awards where we honor people who have spent years working for us, and we are grateful. First off, for five years, Dennis Held. Dennis, you here? Come on up. Family tool. Come on up so you can take your picture. Come take your picture now. Okay. Yes, indeed. Yes. Thank you, sir. I appreciate it. Anything you want to say? Tell people where you were. Sure. Okay. Well, as stated, I'm Dennis. These five years actually went by pretty quick, but I am definitely looking forward to the next 20-plus years of servicing the city. Best job in the whole world. Love helping people in the city and visitors, so I appreciate it. Thank you so much for the award. Thank you. Are you based at one spot or another? Do you have a home base anywhere? All over? Yeah. Okay. Thank you. Thank you. Five years, Jonathan Sanjeev. Sanjeev. Public Works. Thank you, sir. No problem. Thank you. I appreciate it. You got him here, Felix? Anything you want to say? Tell him what part of – what part of Public Works are you in? Are you in roads, grass, that kind of thing? So my name is Sanjeev Jonathan. I work in the grass division section for Public Works, and like the mayor said, it was five years, and, you know, not to sound clichéd, but five years, and it's only felt like a year and a half, maybe two, you know, but I've learned a lot. I've learned so much, you know, I've gained all these skills, you know, and I have the city to thank. Thank you. Very grateful. Very grateful. Thank you. Ten years, John Haneo, Public Works. Here? Brian? He's not here? Okay. Twenty years, Lisa Zeltz, Planning and Zoning. See you again today, Brian. I know. Twice in my day. Have a pen. Thank you. Bad part was she's a Kansas basketball fan, and we know what happened in them. Rock Chalk. Anything you must say? No. I just love working here. It's great. Thank you. We have a big one, a resolution of appreciation for James Dorvatakis. You want to come up, sir? Chief, you want to come up, too? Bring the family up. Yes. Come on, Lisa. So I'll read this thing while the family comes up. Whereas James Dorvatakis was born in Brooklyn, New York, and moved to Florida in 1979, and whereas James has been married to his wife, Lisa Malozzi, for 23 years, James and Lisa met in Davy, they have three children, a son, Kirk Dorvatakis, I did so good, and then I had Dorvatakis and two daughters, Paige Dorvatakis and Demi Dorvatakis, where James began his career with the city plantation in the police department in 1994. During his tenure with the sitter, he has served as a police officer, a field training officer, a detective, a sergeant, a lieutenant, a captain, and finally as deputy chief. He's one of two deputy chiefs that are right under this guy here. In 2020, he also retired from the U.S. Army. He's a member of several organizations, including FBI National Academy, the International Association of Chiefs of Police, Florida Police Chiefs, Broward County Chiefs, the Fraternal Order of Police, and the American Legion, and whereas after 29.9 years of service, we'll explain that in a minute, to the city plantation, James announced his retirement effective March 31, 2024. He plans to enjoy his retirement motorcycling, traveling, and spending more time with his family. Now, therefore, I, Nick Sortel, Mayor, and the city council plantation, do hereby express our gratitude, yes, we do, do hereby express our gratitude and appreciation to James Dorvatakis for his dedicated service to the city. Motion to approve. Second. You get a clap. We'll put here. You should put that. I'm coming in. Council there? Okay. Really blessed with height, so. The higher you go, the thinner I look. There you go. Do you want to talk for a minute? We would love for you to talk. We'll give you three. Three? No, no, no. You have a gong? That's the clock. Let me get my notes out the way. Oh, sorry, sorry. You're good. No, I just want to say thank you to the mayor, the city council, of course, the chief, to the department heads that I've worked with over the years. I want to say this is my fifth mayor, third chief. Not sure how many different, yes, best mayor, yeah. Many different department heads over the years. It's been a pleasure. It's been a pleasure serving the citizens of the plantation. I guess the explanation is I went into the drop seven years ago, so I have no choice but to leave. Otherwise, I would still be staying. If those guys think five years go fast, 29.9 went pretty fast as well. When I started, of course, my daughters weren't even born yet. My son wasn't even born yet. He's even older. He couldn't be here because he's in Tallahassee. But, again, I thank everybody. Thank everybody at the police department, everybody that supported me over the years. It's been a great place to work, the city and the department, really family-oriented and just a great place. Oh, well, no, I was going to say, too, also, obviously, you couldn't do it without the support of my family. My wife is Lisa Malozzi. She's a commissioner for the city of Cooper City, as most of you know. My favorite MPO member. There you go. And that's it. I'm just very grateful and very thankful, and I appreciate it. Thank you. Thank you. April. Oh, you get a key, too. I'm sorry. Yes. April. And you get this key. Council Member Horland made the motion. Council Member Reinstein second it. Please call the roll. You're good, right? Yes. Council Member Horland? Yes. Council Member Anderson? Yes. Council Member Andrew? Yes. Council Member Fragin? Yes. Thank you. All right. If you're part of finance, come on up. We have big awards and honors for our finance department. So our finance regularly wins awards, and we are honoring them for the prestigious triple crown award. That means they obtained the Certificate of Achievement for Excellence in Financial Reporting, the Popular Annual Financial Reporting Award, and the Distinguished Budget Presentation Award. And I – oh, I'm sorry. Frank, you're going to present. My bad. Okay. This is the FGFOA president. Floor is yours, sir. Thank you, Mayor. Good evening, Mayor, Commissioner, City staff, the great residents of Plantation, and all those in attendance. I am Frank DiPaolo. I am the chief financial officer at the city of Dania Beach. I'm currently president of the Florida Government Finance Officers Association, and it is my honor to present you with a very prestigious award on behalf of the Government Finance Officers Association of the United States and Canada. That's the GFOA. The city of Plantation has received the GFOA's Triple Crown Award, which recognizes governments who have received Certificate of Achievement for Excellence in Financial Reporting for the Annual Comprehensive Financial Report. That's the ACFER. The Popular Annual Financial Reporting Award for the PAFER, and the Distinguished Budget Presentation Award. The city has achieved the Triple Crown Award for five years, having received the Budget Award for 10 years, the ACFER Award for 11 years, and the PAFER Award for five years. These awards are presented to the finance team, Anna Otuniano, Nancy Romanello, and Jennifer Lehman, and the entire finance department as they are designated as primarily responsible for preparing the award-winning ACFER, the Annual Budget, and the PAFER. Additionally, the auditors, Keith McCullough, have performed the audit in a highly professional manner. Actually, Bill Benson from Keith McCullough is here tonight. The GFOA is a non-profit professional association serving over 23,000 finance officers across the United States and Canada. After publication of these documents, the documents are submitted to the GFOA Special Review Committees, where they're reviewed by an impartial panel of members of that committee who determine that these documents met the high standards of the awards program. These documents clearly communicate the city's financial story, and this award should motivate potential users and user groups to read them and learn more about the city's financial position and how taxpayer dollars are accumulated and spent. This achievement reflects the professional commitment and cooperative effort of numerous individuals, as well as the high degree of dedication and leadership from Anna and her team, and receipt of this award is a great accomplishment for the entire city. Achieving this Triple Crown Award ensures that the finance department and the city engage in a fiscally responsible manner that aligns with the City of Plantation's mission statement to continually improve the quality of life by providing value-driven, quality public services and facilities that reflect the expectations of plantation stakeholders and confirm the city's high commitment to responsible environmental stewardship. On a personal note, I've known Anna for several years. She's been president of our South Florida FGFOA chapter. The chapter's now thriving thanks to her. She's been a committee chair in the FGFOA for several years, and as an officer and president, I've worked very closely with her, and I know her to be extremely diligent, hardworking, and conscientious. And she's a phenomenal advocate for government finance professionals that we are. So, in closing, I'm pleased and honored to present the Triple Crown Award to the entire finance team and the City of Plantation. Good evening. First of all, I want to say thank you very much to Frank DiPaolo, president of the FGFOA. Frank, I know how busy you are, so getting this award is already a huge achievement, but to receive it from Frank makes it really special. So, thank you very much, Frank. Good evening, Mayor, Council President, Council Members, City Attorney Ezraal. I stand here tonight immensely proud of the finance department and for this achievement. This award, like Frank mentioned, is not about meeting the standards. It's actually about exceeding them, and it's a testament of the hard work of the finance department. And every single member, it's the hard work of every member on the team. Every member has touched this award in some shape or form. But we have two MVPs of the department right now, and that is Nancy Romanello, Nancy Stand-Up, Assistant Finance Director, and Jennifer Lehman, Audit and Financial Reporting Manager. Without their hard work and efforts, these awards would not be possible. So, again, I'm extremely proud of the department, and I'm extremely proud of this achievement, and I accept it on behalf of everybody. And, again, thank you, Frank. Much appreciated. Thank you. Appreciate you, guys. Frank, thank you, sir. Sorry, but we didn't work out fine. It was fine. Mr. Goodrich. Good evening, Mayor, Council. Phil Goodrich, Parks and Recreation Department. First of all, I want to do say a special thank you to a well-deserved award there for the finance team. Anna runs a very tight ship. I will tell you that she keeps us all in line, and we do not get an extra dime. So, very well done and very well-deserved. So, upcoming events in Parks and Recreation, Saturday, March 30th, the Royal Egg Hunt this Saturday, ages 3 to 10. All are invited. The hunt will start promptly at 10 a.m. sharp. So, please get there in time. Get there ahead of time, because it's about eight and a half minutes of madness. So, we've got plenty of eggs out there for everybody, but please be to Pop Traverse Park before 10 o'clock. We do have some extra activities that will be going on, inflatables, arts and crafts, and things of that nature, up until 1 o'clock. But 10 o'clock is the real big thing, and we want to get everybody there on time. Thanks to the police department for coming out and giving us a little hand with getting the traffic situated, and our park staff doing a good job with the parking. Monday, April 1st, resident summer camp enrollment opens. Registration in person only, and the camp goes from June 17th to August 9th. Ages vary depending upon the type of camp that you are interested in. If you have any questions, you can feel free to call us at 452-2510. And those locations will be at Central Park, Jim Ward Community Center, Volunteer Park, and the Plantation Community Center. Wednesday, the 3rd, FRPA will be holding their turf rodeo in the city of Plantation. I am very proud to say that the Plantation Parks Division is the five-time champions of this event. However, we're not going to participate because we're going to give somebody else a chance. So, we've decided that we would host it instead and show off our beautiful city to everybody else. So, we're very happy about that. So, that is a Wednesday, April 3rd. That will be at Pop Travers Park from 7 a.m. to 1 p.m. Saturday, the 6th, a very busy day in Parks and Recreation. We have the community garage sale that will be out at Volunteer Park from 7 a.m. to noon. So, if you'd like to sell your treasures or even come pick up on someone else's treasures, feel free to join us over there at Volunteer Park. Also, on Saturday, the 6th, the Candyland Express, an event being put on by our Plantation Community Center staff. Enjoy chocolates, cupcakes, arts and crafts. It is full at the moment for ages 3 to 10, but you can sign up for a wait list in case a spot opens up for that. That evening is our Saturday, April 6th, our final Rock the Park at Pine Island Park. The Valerie Tyson Band will be there, a very popular band in South Florida. That is a free concert, obviously, Pine Island Park. Concert begins at 7. Food trucks open at 6 p.m. Wednesday, the 10th, is our next Kids' Day Off program that will be held at Volunteer Park from 7.30 a.m. to 6 p.m. for those who are interested in a Kids' Day Off program. Athletics, our PAL programming, we have Tackled Cheerleading and Flag Football are open for registration and open on April 1st, Summer and Fall Basketball. So, we've got a lot of events for the kids for athletics. Thursday to April 4th through April 7th, we have the Plantation Swim Team has a senior invite swim meet with about 300 swimmers from around the area. And lastly, I have is Monday the 8th through the 25th, our second swim lesson session will be open for registration, and that opens on March 30th. For more information on swim lessons, 452-2525. Just a real quick note on swim lessons. We all know we live in South Florida, and there's water everywhere. We made a very conscious effort to promote swim lessons last year. We went up from about 300 registrants years past to almost 800. So, we are prepared this year, and our goal is to have 1,000 come through our door. So, we're very excited about that. All right. Thank you. Thank you, Mr. Goodrich. Public requests of counsel regarding municipal affairs. Those who wish to speak 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 or individual members of the council. Please keep your remarks to the allotted three minutes. Before we start, I just wanted to address a mistake that I made at the last meeting. It was brought to my attention afterwards that there was a person, a resident, that would like, wanted to speak on a consent item, and we did not make a motion, and I mistakenly did not allow public comment. It was brought to my attention afterwards that I should have allowed public comment on that. And it was kind of a perfect storm. I don't think it's ever really happened in the three-plus years that I've been on the council. So, in the past, we've had, if a motion was not made, we were not taking public comment, but we never really had an element where someone wanted to speak to an item, and that's where the mistake happened. So, I apologize for that mistake, and we're always trying to get better. Now, speaking with the city attorney, anything on the consent agenda that's not tabled, we take public comment on. Anything that we get, that the mayor or the administration requests a consensus, we'll be taking public comment. And then quasi-traditional is a different set of rules. You get sworn in, you're a witness under that scenario. Did I cover everything that we spoke about? Yes. Okay. That is a very good summary of the rule. So, this is on video? Yes. You can go back and watch it. So, moving on. Mr. Nguyen, you're up. Was it great? Joe Nguyen, 944 Northwest 92nd Terrace. Good evening, members of the council. I wanted to express appreciation for your adoption of the Monarch Pledge and the support from the community as well. Well, the whole picture with Monarchs, as I've learned, is actually more complicated than we initially thought. It is, first off, the Monarchs that migrate, that's a multi-generational thing. So, no one Monarch actually goes from, like, North United States to Mexico. It could be four or five, six generations or more that make that trip. So, that's just truly amazing. But, anyway, we also have a native population of Monarchs. And those are essentially two, like, separate-ish species to some extent. I mean, they're the same thing, but they're slightly different. And the reason why I talk about that is because the ones that migrate have a parasite that is getting more and more common with them. And, unfortunately, there's research involved in trying to figure that out and figure out what it does. It makes them fly slower, live less. It's not good. It could be related to essentially confining them to smaller spaces for pollinating. And it could be related to any number of other issues. But the issue there is that, from an evolutionary standpoint, they tend to go towards exotics, exotic milkweed, just because of some chemicals that are in it that seem to reduce the impact of that parasite and kind of help them along a bit. And the native ones, local butterflies here, they tend to like the local native milkweed more. They prefer that. And, essentially, what we want to make sure is that as we're building these rest stops and whatnot for migrating monarchs, we aren't also interjecting the native ones into that population because we don't want to inadvertently spread that parasite locally as well. And that's something that will probably best taken up with the UF teams and the horticultural people who know exactly the specifics of how to make sure that those cross-pollinations, pun intended, don't quite happen. On the other sense of that is, if we do, and it was brought up slightly, the use of pesticides on plants, milkweeds, things like that, essentially makes them not pollinator plants. That kills everything. As soon as you do that, as soon as you spray it with that, it's done. And, you know, if we can help HOAs and other communities and developments, even as we build new developments, understand those concepts that if we can plant native, then not only do we get the benefits of not having to care for them quite as much because they're supposed to be here, but we also don't have to spend as much on the pesticides, and we get that pollinator benefit as well. So there's just kind of a whole big picture there, and essentially, we want to have happy butterfly gardens for everybody, and we want to show that that's beneficial. We just want to make sure we don't, like, accidentally get some local bird butterflies a little sick as well. So we just want to think of the big picture. Monarchs is one little piece of the big pollinator puzzle, and if we can do that, I'd appreciate that. Thank you. Mike drop. Mr. Conklin. Dennis Conklin, 4581 Northwest 6th Course. Heavenly hosts protect you and your families as well. Well, I want to harp a little bit because when I saw that this meeting came up during Holy Week and Passover or Purim, I thought maybe there could have been a better adjustment so that maybe – I know it's tough with all the backup material – that we could have maybe had the meeting last week two weeks apart instead of this week, Holy Week and whatnot. It's day 1,475, martial law, shutdown of our churches, mask-and-shot mandates, loss of our alienable, God-given individual rights. Day 598 of the illegal FBI invasion of the Truff family home, violating 4th, 5th, and 6th Amendment rights. Day 239 of the arraignment gag order, which they just had another one, 1st Amendment rights, violation of the president. Day 184, no jury, denial of 7th Amendment rights to our president. Day 173 of the Hamas military terrorist wing of the Muslim Brotherhood war against Israel, the Israelis, Jews, and freedom-loving people. It's kind of interesting because Saturday's reading was from Ezekiel, and I'll shorten it a little bit. At Mass Saturday, it was, Thus says the Lord God, I will take the children of Israel from among the nations to which they've come, and gather them from all sides to bring them back to their land. I will make them one nation upon the land in the mountains of Israel, and there shall be one prince for them all. Never again shall they be two nations, and never again shall they be divided into two kingdoms. My dwelling shall be with them. I will be their God, and they shall be my people. Thus the nations shall know that it is I, the Lord, who make Israel holy, when my sanctuary shall be set up upon them forever. The word of the God. Quickly, recently we had a violation of the Eighth Amendment rights of the president, and that kind of comes from our Declaration of Constitution and then the Bill of Rights. So the Eighth Amendment of that is excessive bail shall not be required for excessive fines imposed, nor cruel and unusual punishments afflicted. And with that, I'll yield back my time. Thank you, Dennis. Mr. Brown. My name is Joshua Brown. My nonprofit is called Step Up. Good afternoon, Mayor, Councilmembers, and Wellers residents. Can you state your address for the address? I actually live in Fort Lauderdale. That's fine. Fort Lauderdale, 2846, northwest 8th row, Fort Lauderdale, Florida. Thank you. I want to say, Dennis, thank you for even coming up here to preach about what you were just mentioning about our candidate in November. Because the whole objective of my presentation today is to talk about Second Chance. Of course, my nonprofit, we, is a nonprofit community advocacy organization, and one of our biggest initiatives is called the Second Chance Awareness Law. We all know America is a nation of second chance, so of course we like to implement those same creed. With that being said, on April 7th, April is Second Chance Awareness Month. Have you guys had to get a chance to look it up? It started in 2018 when a former president, Donna J. Trump, I'm sorry, Donna J. Trump implemented the First Step Act. And, of course, it was to be able to give those individuals returning back from our incarceration the opportunity to rectify their mistakes and also get an opportunity to redeem themselves. Because America is a nation of Second Chance. So, with that being said, on April 7th, Step Up will be doing its annual first official Second Chance Awareness Walk. It will start from 10 a.m. to 1 p.m. with the post-walk of hearing individual stories of the barriers they faced once they completed their sentence and came back to their community. It would be an honor if you guys could come out, whether it's the residents, the walk started at 10 a.m. It's just a four laps around the track, and then we're going to end it with a, you know, stories of individuals talking about their stories of what they had faced once they completed their sentence and came back to their community. It's an honor. Hopefully, to see you guys there, as well as the community. And, hopefully, next year, a year and a year, you'll see this initiative grow to be one of the biggest walks, like my counterpart, walks that's out now. It was a pleasure. Thank you. Mr. Mayor? Mr. Brown? Mayor, I have something to say. May I suggest that if you have cards, leave them back there. If the public's interested, pick up the cards back there. I will do. I appreciate it. Thank you. Mr. Goldstein? All right. Good evening, Council, Mayor, City Attorney, City Clerk. Max Goldstein, 1021 Northwest 115th Avenue. I wanted to talk a little bit about the MMTP that you guys passed last year. It's the Multimodal Master Transportation Plan, with a little bit of the context. So, you guys, back three, four years ago, approved $130,000 of city finances to fund a study with the MPO, and they found another $600,000 from the federal government to make this study for multimodal transportation and plantation. So, you spent a pretty penny. And then they did outreach for three years. They talked to residents. They talked to HOAs. They talked to various civic associations. And everyone bought into this idea of making protected bike lanes, building sidewalks, making it safer to be able to move around in plantation. They got that buy-in from residents. Then the city council approved it unanimously in August of last year. And I was really excited because just by building that bridge across the canal, I can cut out, like, half my car trips. I can just all of a sudden go to Publix on my bike. I can do a lot of my trips without ever getting in a car. And I think it would make everyone in the audience a lot happier to have one less car on the road. And the MPO specifically crafted this plan to make it able to be done very cheaply and very quickly. It's mostly paint and plastic. So, with, like, 1% of the city's annual budget, you could implement, like, the entire plan in, like, one or two years. It's that quick to be able to do. And yet, nothing's been done on this plan, and there's been no follow-through. And I'm not going to name any names. I'm not trying to call anyone out. But my experience with city staff, when I asked when the plan of implementation is going to go forward, I heard that they didn't have a plan, that there wasn't that idea of implementing it because they didn't really want to change anything. And I heard various excuses, like, what if a hurricane comes and rips out, you know, the plastic bollards that we put in? And they asked me to find examples of other cities in Broward that did it. And when I showed pictures of Fort Lauderdale and Deerfield Beach doing that exact thing, there was no response. It just kind of was dead on arrival. So then I looked at the budget of the city, the upcoming budget, and it includes $1.8 million to realign and enhance Southwest 78th Street in Midtown, which is a street in the MMTP plan that's recommended for bike lanes. And yet this project that's going to completely rebuild the street doesn't include any of the recommendations from the MPO. So my question is, why did we spend the money? Why did we do the outreach? Why did we do any of it if we're not going to implement it at the end of the day? So my request to you is for you guys to make a motion to request for staff to come in and make a presentation on the implementation of the MMTP, and what are the steps forward, essentially. Because I think that you guys should be on top of it and making sure that it actually gets done. Thank you. Thank you. Ms. Marcus? Mr. President. Go ahead. Based on Mr. Goldstein's comments, could we get a consensus to ask staff for an update at a future meeting? Okay. Okay. We get a consensus? I agree we should get an update. Yes, very much so. Okay. Yes. Mr. Andrew, yes? Okay. Don't want to exclude you. Hi. Hi there. I'm Linda Marcus. I live at 10531 Northwest 18th Court in Plantation. Hi there. Hi, boys. Anyway, I'm here to represent Chatham Town this evening. We received a letter late September from the City of Plantation to do the safety structural and building inspection for the community of Chatham Town. So by the time we got the letter, and that was budget time, so that was a big hit, we tried to get three proposals like we were supposed to in order to do the engineering inspection for the community. We had to seek those first. That took time because a lot of engineers were too busy. So once we got the three bids, then we all voted for it to get it done. Here we are looking at November. We had to get on the calendar for the engineer. So with that said, we finally got inspected in November, and then it took, because I have 14 buildings, they have so many reports for each building because they have to inspect two individual units for each building. Then they had to do the structure and the electrical for each building. To make a long story short, the holidays came through, got inspected, but then I had to wait for these reports. I didn't get the first batch to the end of January. Then there was some error on their part. They had to redo it and send it to me. I quickly, when I did receive the reports from the engineer, then I quickly got a check made out, and I paid the late fee. So my presentation is because the letter says that I received at the end of September. If I didn't do this inspection within 90 days, I was penalized per each building, $100 per building, and I couldn't talk out of it or anything. And I feel that it's community money. We did everything on our part to make sure and comply, and we've even told the city the stages we're going through. So I'm asking you to abate this. I have already paid it, but I would like to refund it back to the community. I don't think we did anything wrong, and they have the money. They have the fee for the 14 buildings, and they have the late fee. And we're now doing bids right now, as you speak, to find people to do the repairs of whatever is needed for our buildings. And we've complied 100 percent for the community. Mr. Mayor? So long story short, they've done everything they can. They're not asking to get the money back for the permits or anything like that. No. You just want the late fee money back. I, yes. And that's. How much is it? It's $100 per building. We have 14 buildings in Chatham Town. $1,400. So I paid that. For you, it's a rounding error. I know, on your salary. No. But, so yeah, and I don't know who handles this, actually. $1,400. Is it the building? Is that right, Linda? Yes. So wouldn't that have to go through the building? I don't know who handles it. Yes. Building department. I think it's the building official, right? Excuse me. Sure. I would just like the opportunity to, according to the building department, see if that's not statutorily prescribed, so to make sure that that is something we can even entertain. Okay. If we legally can do it, I would be for it. But I also would want our side of, you know, what went on rather than just- This is a late fee. This is not the recurring fine that might come subsequent to it. It's written in the letter. It's written in the letter that if you don't have this done within 90 days from the date of the letter, you automatically get a $100 fine. All right. But this is unfair to the communities that have received this. It's not realistic. Linda, either call me or call the office. Come visit us. I'll walk you over to the building. We'll all sit in the same room. And we'll figure out what we can and can't do. You okay with that, Bill? Yeah. This is not a city-prescribed event. Even though the notices come from the city, this is statutorily done through BOA, through the state. So it's not us doing it. We're the implementers. Bill's smart, and we'll walk through it. Okay. We can't decide it right now. We can't just hit a gavel. All right. So what do I do? Call me or email me. Frank's got my number. Jason can give you his card. Yeah. Call Jason. Jason can do it, too. You want to do it, Jason? Someone else to get evaded and refund me. Call Jason, and you guys will work it out. Yeah. Yeah. Keep me out of it. You and Jason can do it. Thank you, guys. Yeah. Thank you, ma'am. Good to see you, Linda. Thank you. Ms. Sikora. My name is Gail Sikora. I live at 1706 Northwest 81st Way. I am here on behalf of Park Village, which I am a board member and have been off and on for the last nine years. If you know our community, you know that we have no sidewalks. We have blind spots, and it is so dark at night. I've asked previously last year about speed bumps. People come through our community from the other three developments on our service road. They don't obey the speed limit. They don't stop at the stop sign at the pool. They fly through the community. Luckily, nobody really has gotten hurt yet. However, I have had to pick up a few dead animals that I was not happy about. I am also partially disabled. I ride around on a scooter. It is very difficult when you are walking in the road to really be safe. So, I am begging you, please, if you can give us some speed bumps. They come, everybody flies through, and they don't care what the speed limit is. So, we need some help. Mr. Mayor? I am having a busy day today. Mr. Mayor, you will get with her? Our city engineer will get with you. Okay. We have a process, how we do our speed bumps. It is based on math and science. It is not just council members say put a speed bump here. And so, she will put you through the process. We do this routinely with many departments or many HOAs. And if you qualify, then we do it. Okay. When you walk out, hold up your hand, Samir. That is her. Okay. Thank you. Thank you, ma'am. Mr. Combs? I thought he walked out. I will try him back later. Mr. Corman? Point of order. Can I get two extra minutes on my time, please? Yes. Thank you. Rob Corman, 11095 Whitehawk Street, Implantation. We have to set the clock. We have to set it. Cool. Seven minutes. Oh, so close. All right. Thank you. Thank you for the acknowledgement that my First Amendment rights were infringed upon at our last meeting. As you know, I'm a huge proponent of ethics and that I hold everyone sitting on the dais to a higher standard. That is why I was so upset at the process last meeting, which prohibited me from making a statement about the letter of support that the mayor wanted from city council about his housing for educators initiative. I'm going to read my statement from last meeting and further explain why a vote was needed to occur on this agenda item. January 31st, 2024 was the first mention in the mayor's notes of the property on Broward and hiatus. It has been discussed a few times since in chamber, including one particular exchange where the mayor falsely claimed that the board governing one of plantations communities is not a valid governing body and that a plantation resident was not a duly appointed representative of that same community. This blatant lie was picked up by another plantation resident and propagated wider. This is the misinformation problem that I spoke of at the last meeting. A further example of the insidious and frankly irresponsible information can be seen in the mayor's notes about this topic from February 27th, 2024. The mayor links to a Broward Beat article by Buddy Nevins. Nevins included in his article a capture of a document from the mayor that includes two images of quote development potential, images that are tremendously misleading. The one on the left is the original plan that Lenar put forth with 111 multifamily units. The one on the right is the revised Lenar plan for 42 homes, the same plan that was rejected because of fake endorsements from residents whose identities were not genuine. Neither of these plans are allowed according to existing zoning, yet the mayor knowingly included them in a document that went to the school board. So why would the mayor act in such an unethical and misleading manner? Why would someone who professes to be the purveyor of information and openness knowingly mislead the school board, our residents, and this council? According to University of Michigan law professor Barbara McQuaid, quote, quote, In a democracy, the people need a shared set of facts as a basis to debate and make decisions that advance and secure their collective interests. Online disinformation, defined as the deliberate use of lies to manipulate people, is particularly insidious because of its quote immediacy, its capacity to deceive, and its ability to reach its target. There is no doubt that housing is of critical importance in our city, our county, and our state. Nevins acknowledged that the term teacher's housing, used by the mayor in place of the more widely accepted workforce or affordable housing, is a charged term inasmuch as that it forces a reader or listener to have an emotional reaction. How could you possibly oppose teacher housing? What kind of monster would go against such an idea? This is the misinformation problem at work. The public has no idea about what this agenda item meant. The mayor can make promises that he cannot keep or that are based on lies and misrepresentations, but it is your obligation to assure that the political process gives citizens enough information to make informed choices and, likewise, that you have enough information to make well-reasoned decisions. We live in an age of instant communication and limited discourse. It is too easy for misinformation to spread and to negatively impact the political process. Please do not fall into the trap of forcing yourselves and our residents into a corner from which we cannot escape. The letter is performative for the mayor. It could have tangible impacts on the council members who fall in line behind it. Your lack of a strong position, namely not voting last meeting's agenda item up or down, has resulted in today's administrative item 18. Notwithstanding the typo made in the mayor's letter to the superintendent, I have several issues with how this is presented. First of all, if you look at the agenda info, the item declares, quote, with support from AHAC and EAB, end quote, these boards are advisory only. The members you appoint should be discussing the issues with you before taking actions, hence advisory. If one looks closely at the letters from the boards provided in backup, you will notice that they are structurally identical. In my classroom, yes, I was a teacher. I would have called this plagiarism or cheating due to the common word structure and identical phrasing. In this case, I would assume that the administration wrote the letters, gave them to the boards, and the boards rubber stamped them. These letters are now being used as proof that the governing bodies in plantations support the mayor's plan. Good or bad, this is where we are now. By not voting during the last meeting, by not officially taking a stand one way or the other, the mayor has forced your hands. You are now the ones who will have to justify your choices while he sits back and says, they did it, not me. Do not forget, the mayor advocated to remove the position of strong mayor. He now proudly proclaims that power in the letter to the superintendent. Good for him. However, by manipulating the facts, by manipulating our city's advisory boards, by steering you into not voting last meeting, he has put you into a questionable position. More significantly, by steering into the misinformation problem, he has muddied the waters for all of the citizens of Plantation. It is your job to make sure that the facts, not some political show with obfuscating buzzwords, are what governs our interactions in the city and county. Please hold the line on administrative item 18 and hold the mayor accountable for his misrepresentations. Thank you for the extra time. Thank you. Ms. Davis? Yes. Hi. Hi. Hello, everyone. How's everyone doing? Good. How are you? Good. I'm Nicole Davis. This is my son, Justice Santiago. Hi. Hi. Can you state your address for the record? Yes. It's 7300 Northwest 17th Street, unit number 418. Thank you. Plantation. Okay. So can you add two minutes, two extra time for me? Thank you. Okay. Wait. She needs a minute to set it up. Thank you. Okay. I start now? Okay. Thank you. So this is a fun, problem-solving presentation. I would like to start off by doing a little dance. Oompa, loompa, doopity-doo. I have a vision for you. It will bring plantation happiness, too. Oompa, loompa, doompa, doopity-doo. Hello, everyone. I have a vision. I've heard my chair for you. I have a vision to bring more happiness to plantation. We've all experienced the lifestyle of pools, water parks, and beaches. It's no fun and hardship when we have to exit the pool due to severe weather. Please build or renovate a park and rec for an indoor water park. The Great Wolf Lodge is coming to Naples. Grand opening is September of this year. Let's build a smaller version with no hotel, no resort marketing, but a local community indoor water park and rec style. I know how Floridians feel about our parks. Let's boost it up for our community and government fund an indoor water park so we don't have to evacuate when it's raining, thunderstorm, or a lightning. We can still enjoy the water park of peace of mind. The weather is dramatic, but we still can enjoy the water park any month, seven days a week, 365 days a year. With an indoor water park attraction, I know the lifeguards will be happy, as well as the staff, if you decide to make this happen. My son and I are members at the YMCA, and there are so many pool rules, we can't enjoy the water parks the way we want. At Hollywood YMCA, there's an indoor pool. We can't even use it. They said due to COVID, but people are still in the water park outside, and they are not letting members swim in it. The Pembroke YMCA has a beautiful water park, and they only open it in the summer, and the Westin one opens from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. in the summer. I couldn't believe the mental stress I was under when my son and I went to the Pembroke YMCA. We had all our pool stuff ready, and we were ready to enjoy the water, and the workers said we can't swim because they are doing swimming lessons. With registered members only, and they will open up the pool April 1st, and they have a kid attraction that will open up in June. It doesn't make any sense to have all these attractions, and we can't even use the pool. To avoid all this pool drama, please solve this problem by building an indoor water park, because we have to drive all the way to Naples when it is an hour and a half away when we can have an indoor water park in Plantation. I just want one. It makes sense. We shouldn't have to wait until March to go swimming, and please make sure there is a hot tub to our new indoor water park. Thank you. Sincerely, Nicole Davis. Thank you, Ms. Davis. You're welcome. So she kind of established that you need to sing something before you get into your comment. Ms. Scalfani? Scalfani? Sorry. May I submit this petition? Yes. Ms. Scalfani, I'm going to preface and say we've been working on this for eight or nine months and talking about it, and I suggested that she approach counsel and spell it out. May I request? I believe there's always a way. Let's try to find a way. Yes. Hello, everyone. Thank you for having me. I would like to request an extra 30 seconds just for stress reasons. Okay. Thank you. Well, we'll put three minutes on there and then you can go a little bit over. All right. My name is Christine Scalfani. I reside at 1161 Southwest 70th Terrace and Plantation since 1997, and I'm speaking on behalf of my community, Royal Palm Estates, and my neighboring communities along Peters Road. I'm here to address our concerns that affects each and every one of us in these communities. For far too long, our communities have had to deal with the relentless onslaught of traffic noise emanating from behind our homes. In 2022, the average daily traffic for Peters Road was 14,400. Pre-COVID, it was 27,000. Daily traffic will not only return to pre-COVID numbers, but will soon exceed them. Multiple noise studies have been conducted in 2023 in our neighborhoods, and the results are clear. The decibel levels exceed acceptable standards, and these levels will continue to grow as our city grows. But please note, these studies were performed during non-peak time of Thanksgiving when schools were closed and should be retested. Peters Road, a secondary road, was not initially designed to accommodate the current volume of traffic it experiences, and as a result, originally went from two lanes into four, and today sounds like a main arterial road. The incessant noise disrupts our peace and tranquility. Additionally, it has now escalated to become a serious safety hazard that cannot be ignored. The existing wall along Peters Road is crumbling and has not deterred vagrants from climbing over this wall into residents' yard, even with a six-foot fence behind it. This poses a significant risk to the safety of our community members, especially vulnerable children and elderly residents. We, the community, want to ensure that a proper noise barrier is constructed. Recommended noise levels of the FHA and FDOT recommend abatement of noise levels to or below 45 decibels. The city has suggested an eight-foot wall as a remedy. What level of noise abatement would an eight-foot wall provide? Have any evaluations or technical assessments been done from an engineer's perspective? We would prefer that the evaluation determine the height of the wall based on the noise abatement of 30 to 40 percent. Tonight, we would ask the city to make a commitment to its residents that action will be taken based on the scientific evaluation of the noise levels being experienced and a reduction of 30 percent or so of the noise we have been dealing with. I stand before you today to address another pressing issue that has stirred concern and uncertainty among our residents, a possible proposal to assess our communities for a noise well that sits on city and county property. It is crucial to acknowledge that the responsibility for erecting and maintaining noise barriers, such as the proposed wall, should rightfully fall upon the governing bodies that own the property where these noise barriers are situated, namely the city and county. As residents, we should not be held financially liable for infrastructure that is situated on public land. Assessing residents for the cost of a noise wall would have negative consequences for our communities, such as financial hardship, unequal distribution of costs, deterioration of community relations, impact on property values, and legal and regulatory challenges. We are advocating for a fair and equitable solution that does not unfairly burden the residents with the cost of public infrastructure. Thank you. Thank you. Mr. Mayor? Samir, are you going to talk or not? We'll see. So you guys were sent some backup on this. We've been talking about this for months. The stats show that it is their backyards are loud. Their backyards are loud, and we're trying to find out, could we build a wall there? To build a wall, a rough estimate is a million dollars. So what's that? Both sides? No, one side. The north side. The north side. The wall is along both sides of Peter's, and that petition was taken from all of the cul-de-sacs only concentrated on those cul-de-sacs along Peter's Road between Fig Tree or the First Bridge and University where that green wall, south and north side. Oh, south and north. There's only a four-foot, five-foot unsolid wall that's there. It's not a noise barrier wall. I grew up in that neighborhood. If I could build it for free, I would do it. I know that, but when you say a million dollars, is that just one side or is that both sides? Samir has done the math. My point on this is we'd love to do it. Is there a way to get the money to do it? We looked up historically, the last time we built a noise wall was in our neighborhood in Jacaranda Lakes, and the way we funded it was pieces and pieces. Everybody chipped in. We're trying to get county money. We're trying to get city money. May I say that none of these developments are HOAs? Correct, and I respect y'all's opinion on this and your opinion. Go ahead, Samir. Let's figure it out. Good evening, council mayor and city attorney. The estimated planning level cost of the wall on both sides is $3.7 million, planning level. How high is that wall? No, no. Construction cost, but this is what we call planning level. What I mean by planning level, we didn't do due diligence of the infrastructure itself. The county will not allow the construction of the wall within their right-of-way. Therefore, the construction need to be in a wall easement in the backyard of the properties. We didn't do due diligence of what facilities, what infrastructure facility exists underneath or within that. How tall is that wall? The recommendation is 8 to 10 feet wall, which is standard for noise barrier walls. Actually, where are we? Where are we in this process? It's just been, we did our due diligence of saying, does this area qualify for a wall? And later on, you're going to hear from Las Brisas, too, from Roy? Yes. Yeah. Same story. How do we do these walls? Do we want to do them? How do we get the money? All that stuff. Jason can help. Did I get this right? Jason can help. Nudamaker is our CAO. Oh, hi, Jason. You guys have been emailing. So, from our perspective, it's very preliminary. Obviously, we've had the request for the noise study. We conducted the noise study. It meets those minimum requirements. And our initial hope was that the county would step up. But they, as they've done in the past, have offered to potentially work with us on a 50-50 basis. Then we assume maintenance. And the past precedent has been that we do work with the requesting homeowners, homeowners, on an assessment basis. And that's not unique. When there's a particular special benefit enjoyed by a resident, whether it's a septic to sewer conversion, there's been other assessments. Out west, we've done assessment for roadway improvements. So, it's not a unique feature. But as the city engineer alluded to, we've not done any in-depth analysis to what some other barriers may be as far as infrastructure in the ground we might have to consider, you know, utility relocates, things of that nature. So, at least from our perspective, it's still very preliminary. But we're in a process. Yes, sir. Okay. Council Member Horland? I just wanted to – thanks for coming, Ms. Galfani. We did get your information. I just want to caution us to be careful about making promises up here about proceeding with – I think that we all want to solve the problem, but it's not a million dollars. It's closer to four. And as Samir said, once we get in there, we don't know what infrastructure we're going to hit. And I think that while we need to proceed with caution and look at the ways that, as Mr. Noonemaker said, to find that additional funding, you do one development, and now Les Rhesus needs help. And then you look at the – you mentioned Jacaranda Lakes. Jacaranda Lakes residents had to pay into that. So, now you have a spiral effect. So, I think that we need to proceed very cautiously and thoughtfully. Christine, that thing is very clear. I didn't make any promises, right? Yeah. No, you didn't make any promises. I only heard the $1 million. And I didn't say you did, Mayor. I said I think we need to be – yeah, we need to be careful up here of saying we want to get it done. I think that we need to explore it, absolutely, but really understand the hard costs. Council Member Reinstein. Thank you, Ms. Sclafani. We also spoke prior to the meeting, so thank you for coming to present this before everyone. My question really, I think, is more for Samara, is that if we wanted to take a next step to determine further effect on the infrastructure, what would that look like? So, we need to hire an engineering firm to evaluate, to do a survey of the 10 feet abutting Peters Road within the limit of the project, and survey, we need a survey, so a survey and engineering services. I did not get a proposal from an engineer. I was waiting for direction, but that's the next step, to provide a survey, an engineering service to evaluate what infrastructure is there on both sides. Just to follow up, may I, President? Do you have any, you know, based on prior experience in terms of the cost for that type of survey and for the engineer to do that initial determination of infrastructure? I do not at this moment. We have a library of civil engineers, and actually one of the civil engineers on our library is a firm that had designed multiple noise wall in the city of Tamarack. I'm very familiar with them, so I can provide this information in the next meeting if you like. And just one more question. Just a question, in terms of the amount of space that we're looking at, would there also be an issue of taking? I mean, would we need, would we have to move beyond a residence property? It sounds like they would want to the right-of-their backyards. It's a wall easement. We're going to require the individuals to grant the city a wall easement in every property that the wall is going to be erected. And because the county was very clear, they will not allow the wall within their right-of-way. It has to be in a wall easement in the backyard. Okay. Okay. Councilmember Andreu? Thank you, President Fadgen. Ms. Chillon, the current structure that's there, I think it's about four feet. Did the city, was the city responsible for that initially? I guess I'm looking for some of the history as to how that structure was. I'm sorry, Councilmember. I don't have this information. I would be more than happy to find this information and come back with it. Christine, do you have any long-time residents who might know? No. What was the question? I apologize. The existing small wall. The existing small wall sits on city and county property. What was the other question? How did it get there? Oh, who put the wall up? I don't know. I did not find that out. That should be an easy find, though. And couldn't it be, could this wall not be? My apologies, Councilmember Professor. Oh, hey. We got to be heard for the record, so that's why I'm calling you. It might be all at once. It's okay. Good evening. That wall. Can you state your name and address for the record? Daniel Rossi, 7301 Southwest 13th Street Plantation. Thank you. We moved there in 76, the same wall since 1976. Like, people have known that Peter's Road was two lanes. On the south side was grass. And there was a farm where the Jewish community, Jewish temple was. I don't remember. They used to ride their horses down Peter's Road on the grass. Then they moved it to four lanes. And they raised the road. They raised the sidewalks. So now, that wall at the time was a little bit higher. But now it's shrunk. The roads got bigger. But the wall has been there since the 70s. The other, you know, this has been brought up over the years to past mayors. And they laughed at it. Nobody, you know, as you can see, it's expensive. But it has to be done. It's not a noise-bearing wall, okay? I never considered it a noise-bearing wall. No. And the kids like to walk down the street. They practice their karate. And they kick those slates. And they have to replace the slates. So the money you're paying to replace it and fix it all the time. And paint it. And paint it and whatever. You know, they painted it green. But still, you know, it's like putting lipstick on a pig, as we know. But it needs to be replaced. It's long overdue. Okay. It's been there since the 70s. We moved in, like I said, in the 70s. And nothing's ever been done. Council Member Anderio. Thank you. Just one other comment, President Fadgen. I would say that, you know, we have a few communities like this. Because, of course, we also have Park East with that same type of wall. So, you know, in the event that we are looking to assist in terms of budget, we have to add, I think, to Council Member Orland's point, this project would be $4 million. I think we would need to look at other areas of the city, too, just, again, to provide that same equity throughout. Thank you. Thank you. Council Member Anderson? Just piggybacking on all those of the above. I'd like to know, actually, Attorney Ezra, and you don't need to answer on the spot, but are we legally obligated to try? Is it just an attempt to get it to at or below 45 decibels? Are we legally obligated? You don't need to answer me now. Just when we bring this back up, I want you to research that. Because I don't want you to – yeah. I do not. I would need to research that. I thought you were going to know. Yeah, when we did Jacarana Lakes, it was – I was very big a part of that. And it was the Sunrise Boulevard section only, about one mile. And it was city, county, and homeowners association, about a third, a third, a third. Maybe it was a half on the county. And then the other quarter and quarter with the city and residents, something like that. And it was about 1.2 million back then, probably. Well, okay. Where does the city wall sit now? Where does this wall sit now? The wall that would be replaced would go where the wall is now, correct? No. It would not be going where the wall is now. No, it would be in the backyard of the – Why would it then encroach onto residents' backyard? Because the county owns the property then. She's saying over and over they want – But if the county and the city are splitting the cost, why – and it's on city and county property – Because the county wants to maintain their – Well, she can answer you. I'm sorry. Maintain access to their right-of-way. I met with Broward County, and the deputy director of engineering of Broward County clearly told me that they do not allow the infrastructure of the wall within the county right-of-way. It has to be in a wall easement within a private property. So it sounds like a fight between us and the county then, residents in the county. No. They would – they just have to move it right behind theirs, and the wall would go into your lawn several feet in, and then you'd have a new wall, and the county – Do you know how big the easement is? How many feet? Usually it's a 10-foot easement. Oh. So you would lose. Because remember – 10 feet. There's no 10 feet there available. You'd have to go into the street, too. I mean – No. Into your yard, not this way, that way. That's not going to happen. Now, remember, the wall above the ground – What about people's landscaping and their fences and all of that? And that's why – Listen, this is very – Very early in the process, and I agree with the mayor that there's a lot of legwork that needs to be done, and then this stuff would have to be presented to the community to find out if you would still want to do it. Councilmember Horland? And that – thank you, Mr. President. That was going to be my final comment, was that we could get six residents on one side of the block that want the wall and then somebody else that doesn't, and if they don't want that encroaching on their property. So I think that it needs to be a very – it's going to be a very detailed process. So, yeah. Okay. One last question, Samira. Can this be addressed with landscaping? The landscaping will buffer the noise, but it's not as effective. Not the same as the wall. Yes. The reduction in decibel is less with landscaping than with a structural element like the wall. And just to be clear, I have eurekas all along my back from – I have the cul-de-sac of the pie, and it's full of eurekas. I grew up in that neighborhood. My mom's in that neighborhood. And one of the noise studies was conducted in my yard. I understand. So we are 30 percent above where we're supposed to be according to, you know, FDOT and so forth. Okay. Mr. Balakwez? Yeah. And we've done the same thing. We've met with them for months. This one, Jason is suggesting landscaping. Is that right, Jason? I'm sorry. No, because, Roy, we've been talking about it, so I'm just trying to – I'm just suggesting we keep all options open. And since I'm up here, I just want to say there's not going to be any condemnation involved. We're not looking to eminent domain. If we were to proceed, we would want the voluntary easements. We would use consensus. And we would want them all in place before we move to FUD. Okay. Let's get back on track. Mr. Balakwez, why don't you introduce yourself? Roy Velasquez, 201 Southwest 87th Terrace, Las Pudizas, and Plantation. Perfect. Similar to Christine's presentation, we're in the same situation, basically. We're right off of Pine Island Road. We're on Pine Island Road in between Broward Boulevard and Peters Road, or going all the way down to 595. I have to say that our situation, our homes are probably much closer to actually Pine Island Road. And Pine Island Road is one of the, I think, probably outside of University Drive and maybe Flamingo, the most trafficked artery north-south. And in the last census, not census, in the last report that the Department of Broward County put out, in 2022, Broward, Pine Island Road had daily car traffic of 33,000 to 35,000. In the last two or three years, between the other 2,500 units of homes that have come from Cleary all the way down to Peters Road, and we're getting a Wawa in the corner right now, I'm telling you, the noise, I would invite you all to a barbecue in my house. And I'm telling you, we couldn't even speak out there, in the backyard. We have cars, speeding, motorcycles. I didn't think we had that many motorcycles in South Florida. But we are a small community, 14 homeowners. We're all in agreement that we need to do something about the noise and the security. So Pine Island, that's a state road? That's another county, Arteria Road. What's Peters? Is Peters a... County, south of University, no, south of Turnpike, and beyond Turnpike, it's a state. Wait, what? Peters is what? West. All right, start over. I got lost. Peters up to the Turnpike is a county roadway. Beyond the Turnpike, it's a state. Beyond, meaning east of it. Okay, so west of it's county. It's county roadway. Okay, so we're dealing with the same problem with funding and right-of-way and all that stuff. And that's why I went and met with Broward County Engineering, because the first step in the process to see if there is any roadway improvement. Because if there is a programmed roadway improvement, the county will implement the noise study and the noise wall, part of the widening or whatever they are doing. Unfortunately, there is no programmed capital improvement, and I mentioned that in the memo I wrote to your attention. I can say, though, that back in the 80s, when they did expand the Pine Island from two or from four to six lanes, there was that major improvement. From the homeowners, the ones that were around that time, there was talk about putting the wall up. But apparently at that time, hedges, ficus, were put up. Everybody let it go. And at that time, back in the 80s, you know, there was probably 15,000 cars a day. Right now, we are – we have some security issues because we had to – we eliminated all our ficus. We took it down. We just spent $25,000 on putting new hedges up on the little mound that we have. But we have a security problem. Those hedges are not – we got to wait two or three years before they grow. And we really need help. We're 14 communities – I mean, we're 14 homes in the community. Most, I'd say, 70 percent of our homeowners are retired, living on fixed income. We need your help. Okay. We're in the same process as Peter's, right? Correct. So we're in the early stages of trying to figure it out. So we hear you. The mayor is aware. Samir is aware. And we got to go through the process. I will forward you the presentation that we put together and, you know, with our specifics and our needs. And, like I said, just we need help. Thank you. Thank you for your time. Thank you. Ms. Gelfand? Piki Gelfand, 9381 Northwest 18th Place. I want 20 minutes. This is supposed to be three minutes and people are coming up. I have noise outside my – I'm giving my three minutes. Hold on one second. Okay. In the ordinance for governing our meetings, a speaker can request an extra two minutes from the chair. Okay. So maybe I'll need it, but probably not. Okay. Will you request it? But this is what is called public requests of the council regarding municipal affairs. Am I correct? Correct. But I have never heard anyone comment back to me when I have been speaking before you when we were talking about the 8601. I had to contact each of you individually, which I did. You all knew what my problem was. You all listened to what I had to say. And I have noise on Sunrise Boulevard. I live two blocks off Sunrise Boulevard. I have the hurricane-proof windows in my home. My front door is hurricane-proof. Yet, if there's no noise going on in my house, I hear the traffic on Sunrise Boulevard. I want a wall for my community. Everyone down Sunrise Boulevard would like a wall. We're on the other side of Jacaranda Lakes. I don't want you to comment back to me, and I don't want five minutes. I just want you to realize that it's now 735, and a lot of the time was spent. I'm not saying that that lady shouldn't have her wall or whatever it is, but why is it during the three minutes that everyone else gets? Don't answer, because I don't want to use more than my three minutes. I even told it to the mayor the other night. I said some of the things go on and on and on. And when it comes to be 10, 30, 11 at night, and you get up at 6 in the morning, and you have work to do the next day, I'm sure you're all tired, because I sure am. Thank you. I yield my time. Thank you. Okay. No, no, no, no, no. Mr. Joy? If I may request an extra two minutes to be added to the clock. I may not need it, but that way I won't rush. Hold on. We need to set the clock. We've set a trend tonight. I promise I won't be five minutes. No, it's okay. I enjoy this part of the meeting. Very good. You good? I'm sorry? We can be a little quieter. We can hear you up here. It's distracting. Go ahead. Ladies and gentlemen, my name is Ted DeWay, and I've lived at 11901 Terra Drive in Plantation for over 12 years. Professionally, I've been a licensed CPA for over 30 years. I knew I liked you. As a CPA and a taxpayer, I abhor government waste and efficiency. I live across the street from a property that operated as an unregistered short-term vacation rental for over 400 days. My neighbors and I have had to endure numerous loud out-of-control parties with dozens of cars and hundreds of people. In one sense, it took seven police cars and 11 officers to clear the neighborhood of several hundred partygoers in their dozens of vehicles. The city sent a warning letter to the offending property in June 2022 regarding the operation of an unregistered short-term vacation rental. Four months later, there was a hearing to confirm the fine as the owners still had not complied. The fine grew to $228,000 as the owners failed to comply for over 400 days. One week ago, there was a hearing to reduce the fine on the property. Prior to that hearing, I was in contact with city officials and was assured that the city would not, not recommend any fine reduction at the hearing. I spent numerous hours tracking the life cycle of the fines on this property and keeping city officials informed at every step. At the hearing, despite what city officials previously told me, the city offered a fine reduction on the property. The magistrate listened to the story told by the potential purchaser of the property, not the current owner, that her closing was being held up due to the fines and liens on the property. The magistrate then reduced the fines from $228,000 to zero, nothing. He stated that since it was in his power to reduce the fines, he was going to do so. At the same hearing, the city offered reductions in fines on other properties, and the magistrate reduced them even more. The city lost out on almost $300,000 in potential revenue from that single hearing on three cases that could have been put to good use. And I've heard a lot of good uses tonight, by the way. How much more money does the city and its magistrate routinely give away? As an aggrieved homeowner who has had to endure years of nuisance, I'm offended that the city and its magistrate simply chose to waive the entire $228,000 fine for hundreds of days of noncompliance, potentially providing a financial windfall to the current offending property owners. The process of collecting and adjudicating fines for city code violations is broken. And I ask the city to examine its entire process and make changes to the appropriate ordinances, if they exist. I have been working with Denise Horland on this matter, and thank you for your time and your consideration. I'm going to suggest that you talk to Mr. Nunemaker, because I spoke to him before the meeting regarding this, and he listened to the hearing, and he has some thoughts on it. So he can tell you what we're planning on doing regarding that matter. Yeah, and I have been working with Mr. Nunemaker for months, so he and I are well aware of each other. Well, then you're long friends. Very good. Thank you. Thank you. Mr. Erb? I'm sorry. Mr. Mayor? May I suggest that Mr. Nunemaker, because it's a public meeting and people are coming into this, that he gets up and tells us what's going on. Just inform everybody real quick. Yeah. That's fine. You can set the clock on him. Well, I would just say in this circumstance, Mr. Duet's frustration is completely understandable, because I did assure him prior to the hearing that we had every confidence that the fees would not be waived. The mayor has been very emphatic that short-term rentals are one of our priorities. The city council has been emphatic that short-term rentals are our priority. We discussed with the magistrates that process. I'm sorry, Jason. If you're having a conversation, if you could take it outside, we hear you up here, and it's a little distracting. Go ahead. So, frankly, when I got the e-mail when I was on vacation last week that the fine was waived, I was in disbelief. I had thought initially that for some reason, because of the scoring sheet that's associated with the fine reduction, that it somehow indicated that the fine needed to be waived and that maybe the magistrate misinterpreted it. After listening to the meeting, while the scoring sheet did recommend a 20% discount to about $180,000, the magistrate took it upon himself to reduce it to almost zero. He did allow for a couple thousand dollars in expenses. But it's still ridiculous. So the mayor and I have not yet had a chance to close the loop on this, but at a minimum, I think what we're going to do is we're probably going to take some action with regard to the magistrates and who's staffing that, because if they can't follow what our direction is or our expectations or our philosophy on this, they don't need to be adjudicating those cases, frankly. The initial response when I was talking to the planning and zoning director was, let's look at the lien reduction process. Was this administratively implemented? Was this part of our code? It turns out it's part of our code, so we're going to have to do some work on that. We've had a little bit of dialogue with the city attorney on it. You know, as far as this particular case, we have asked the city attorney to explore some avenues. I don't want to give any false hope there, but we are looking at some other avenues to see if we have some additional recourse. But I understand the frustration, but I also want to say that we do not look at code enforcement as a revenue source. But in these cases where there's wanton disregard of municipal laws and ordinances, as you will see later this evening, we do not recommend any relief. We had even explored foreclosure on this property ourselves, but because of the state it was in and the mortgage owed, it wasn't prudent for us. So this was a sweet opportunity, and we thought it was a home run. So it's really unfortunate. Okay. Council Member Horland. Very quickly, Mr. President. Mr. Ezra, would it be appropriate to share the memo that I sent to Mr. Nunnamaker, to the council, to give a little more context about what's been going on? Excuse me, going on. It's a public record. Okay. So perhaps if the three-page memo with a backup material is sent to council, give a little more context. There's some other things going on because I can't send it to you. So I had spoken to Mr. Ezra and Mr. Nunnamaker, so perhaps it will give a little more context. I did speak to Mr. Dewey and Ms. McCormick today on a three-way call and just gave them a little bit of an update. But I think we've got a two-pronged approach we need to. May I add a comment, please? Yes, go ahead. The city scoring sheet that I'm hearing about, I did not hear about this in any of my prior conversations with anybody at the city. I only became aware that there was such a thing as a scoring sheet after the fine had been reduced to zero. I have been assured, and I have emails that say from city officials, that there would be no fine reduction offered, none. Well, I think what we're saying is that we are surprised as anybody. Thank you, Mr. Dewey, for bringing this to us. And I want to thank Mr. Nunnamaker because it sounded like as soon as he became aware of what happened, he's working towards rectifying it, at least in this case and in future cases. I also wanted to ask about this issue with the scoring sheet and the magistrate procedure and this 20 percent discount. I'm wondering if maybe we can also, on the council, get further information on that process and that procedure and if there's going to be a recommendation to change that, if that all can be brought to us as well. So I'm asking if the administration can provide us with further details regarding that process and what has been going on regarding the scoring sheet and any discounts. Jason, we'll work with Danny and get that to them. And one thing, too, I can understand that the purpose of the fines is to ensure compliance. That I understand. That's our main motive until they don't want to comply. But in a situation where I endured, you know, 400 plus days of misery, as did my neighbors for this property, for the fine to go from $228,000 down to zero is just mind-boggling. Council Member Andreo. Thank you, President Fadgen. Along the same lines as Council Member Reinstein, I would like an actual copy of this scoring sheet, this matrix for this particular case. So that that copy could be shared with all of us. And I'd also like to know who is completing that scoring sheet? Who was actually filling that out and submitting it to the magistrate? Okay. P and Z, obviously. And Danny with help from the magistrate. From Marlene. And it's all factual things. It's not opinion in there. Danny's coming up, Council Member. Yeah, you got it. Thank you, Mr. Chair, members of the Council. It's, there's a provision in the code under the code enforcement section which says that any time an applicant applies for a reduction of fine that the application must be accompanied by the score sheet. It's done for all of the notice of violations that kind of work their way through the system. It's not just a planning and zoning thing is done with all of the code enforcement or if something is initiated through building or what have you, this is attached to all of them. And it's supposed to be an evaluation sheet. The thing I want to make clear is that it is not something that I, as a planning and zoning director, was recommending a reduction. This is something that we are required to fill out that sheet. And the special magistrate is supposed to look at the score and try to make a determination if a reduction should be given in that case. And there are things like, you know, did the person attend the meeting, how long did they respond to, you know, there's several things that the scoring sheet asked, you know, that evaluates and tries to give the special magistrate some instruction. And I think it's not exactly correct to say that it's staff's recommendation. It's not our recommendation. It's an evaluation that we're filling out because, you know, we go through the process. We're just as upset after we cite people and we go through this long, drawn-out process to try to bring people into compliance. I'm not going to turn around and say, yeah, wave. Mr. Holmes, you know, I've attended several of these magistrate meetings, and, you know, you kind of see the path he's going down. We can't interject and say that we don't believe this is warranted. I'm curious, like, why we didn't stop this at the magistrate meeting saying, like, we're recommending a 20% discount reduction because this is a bad actor, and they don't want to participate by our rules. So, obviously, it's an oversight. I know there's some other matters that we're going to look into with the city attorney and stuff like that. So, it is what it is. But, you know, I kind of feel like we're there. We shouldn't just be there presenting. We should be stating our case. We should know that we're not interested in, you know, like I said, this is not a revenue-producing endeavor. This is to get people in compliance, cover our costs, but then the bad actors, they've got to pay what they've got to pay. Council Member Anderson? It's also to sway future bad actors by knowing we don't play around. And here, if we – anyway, I wanted to circle back. Council Member Horland, you said something about a memo. Did you write a memo? And to whom? I did. So, no, not to – I can't send it to all of you. But didn't you just say it's public record? It is now that it was sent by Council Member Horland to Mr. Neunemacher. I just asked if it would be appropriate that Mr. Neunemacher send that to everyone tomorrow. Right. Yeah. That's what I want to make sure. And that was the recording of the magistrate. I included that in the e-mail, and that's when Mr. Neunemacher had listened to – Okay, so it's not – we don't have it yet, but we'll get it now because it's record. Absolutely. That's what I wanted to make sure. And, again, just as a reminder, you should not be discussing that outside of a public meeting. Correct. And that's why I wanted to discuss it now. We can get our communication. We just can't reply to our communication. Council Member Reinstein? Yeah, one more comment regarding this discussion about the special magistrates is that since – if the administration is looking at the process and evaluating how our special magistrates are handling their dockets, I've also heard from residents that are coming to speak as witnesses and they're not being given an opportunity to be heard. And so I'm hearing that as well from lawyers that are coming to speak on matters that the magistrates are making rulings without giving the attorneys an opportunity to present their side. So maybe if we're looking at this process and looking at how our special magistrates are handling their dockets, maybe there's some more into it that we need to investigate and evaluate as well. Thanks. Mr. Mayor, I – wait, wait, wait, I – do you still want to speak because I cleared it? You're after. Okay. Mr. Mayor, go ahead. Jason, go ahead. I just want to say that, but, you know, bringing forward any special magistrates, y'all will have to approve that list. So that would also be an opportunity for y'all to kind of give your feelings on some of the events that have gone on, and we'll certainly express that as well. Mr. Mayor. My question is, is it both judges, both magistrates, or is it only the one? It's just a single one. Wait, wait, wait. That's okay. You know better. So, yeah, so the question is, is it one or not? And we'll talk to them right away. Okay. Yeah. If that – I didn't see that happen at the meetings I was at, but if that's going down, we've got to fix that right away. In this case, it was one specific magistrate who was over – who was doing the hearing, and there were only maybe seven cases when you listen to the tape, and there were – I think there were only maybe three fines. Okay. It was small. We'll do that immediately. Okay. All right. Mr. Erb, didn't expect to take this long to get here. Good evening, council members. My name is Steve Erb, and I first came to live in Plantation in 1957 with my parents when they built a home over in the old Plantation Gardens. My wife and I have been residents of the city, full-time residents, since 1977. I will not need any more time than the three minutes. Trust me. I've just come to just make a few comments to you all with regarding the item 17, with regarding pickleball operations. And my comments basically have to do with Central Park. First of all, the facility is beautiful. It's first class, second to none. And what the city has done with expanding Central Park out to satellite operations, for example, at Seminole Park and at Dyke are excellent. Well done. The courts we play, as a matter of fact, just to let you know, because of the situation the way it is at Central Park, my group – and there's – I'm also a member of the tennis club. There's over 20 of us, and my compadre out here will make a couple of comments as well. We've stopped playing. We can't get on the courts at Central Park. And it comes down to one thing. It comes down to management, okay? You – Central Park tennis facility is run perfectly. It's got a reservation system. There's people there. The courts are highly well-maintained. There's nothing that you can say other than it's tremendous. Look at all of the other – we have people – we see people all the time coming in from other areas at the tennis center. My concern is the pickleball courts at Central Park. They're not being managed. Take the idea that, well, it's first come, first serve. It's chaos, to put it very mildly. It's chaos in the mornings until about 10, 30, or 11. You may say, well, why aren't you playing there now? Well, it gets hot. I'm 79 years old, you know, and by 10 o'clock, I'm done with my exercise for the day. It needs better. It can be controlled. To do nothing is worse than making a bad decision. All we would ask you to do is give some consideration to putting a reservation system in some way. In this day and age, it can be somebody with a tablet. It can be anything. You can post a – you can put the reservations in over at the tennis center, post it on the board over there at the pickleball courts. Right now, we, as members of the city of the plantation, being living here, we should be able to have some priority to playing. And right now, it's not. You've got people from Aventura, Pompano Beach, every other city in the county, and Dade County, come down here and play, plus the Canadians, and we won't go into that. But please, when it comes around, and I know I'm getting close on my time here, give some consideration to putting some kind of a reservation system in at Central Park Pickleball. Thank you. Mr. Jenkins. Mr. Jenkins gave me a nickname as a kid. Do you remember? Foot Fadgen. There you go. I coached Tim, and Tim has a large foot, and so he didn't always hit the ball, but we'd say, go foot. Anyhow, I live at 400 Northwest 130th Avenue. My name is Jim Jenkins. My compadre took most of my thunder, and he did a good job. So let me just say that the pickleball situation, it's growing so fast. Most of my tennis group of 20 to 30 players, we're playing pickleball now. We can't get on, as Steve mentioned. Kudos to the way you run your tennis courts. We pay a fee. Non-residents pay a higher fee. That's fair. We can reserve courts. Well, it's almost impossible to get on it for pickleball. You go out there. There's no management. Boom boxes playing. Guys without shirts, that would not happen at the tennis courts. We're not prudes, but there has to be a certain amount of decorum. The recreation department is doing a feasibility study as to how to manage the courts. And they've completed it, and I've read it, and basically what they're saying is let's manage it like it's being managed now. In other words, let's do nothing. They have come up with a $750,000 new building so that they can run it like the tennis courts. But they don't want to do that. They want to run it like it's run now. It's not being run well now. There's no priority given to the taxpayer residents over non-taxpayers. You can't reserve the tennis courts. The cost of maintenance and lights will continue to be borne by the plantation taxpayer, and that's a lot of money. Courts can't be reserved. We feel that running a pickleball court should be controlled and run very much like the tennis courts. And they could be combined, and a good manager could be able to put everything together and do this on relatively few dollars. Plantation residents should be given precedence over non-residents. It just makes sense. And we'd love to see that. There's a lot of opportunity there. We think it could turn into a financial boom to the city. Thank you. Thank you, Mr. Jenkins. Ms. Alpert. Hi. My name is Sherry Albert, and I've been a plantation resident for over 23 years. I also want to let you know that I've been playing pickleball at Central Park three or four times per week since 2020. I first of all want to thank the amazing pickleball courts that have been given to us, and we're super happy amongst the community. I know one of the main topics today in the meeting is how overcrowded the pickleball courts are getting. I feel this is misleading. From my experience, the busiest times are during the school breaks and holidays. This is when you get a large influx of players and have very long wait times. Since coming out of recent school break, the courts have gone back to normal. Most of their time is short wait, and peak time is at 9 a.m. to 10 a.m. and 7.30 to 9 a.m. There's no longer. New pickleball courts are currently being built around the surrounding areas of Snyder Park 43 courts and Mega Pickleball Complex at Sargast Mills. This should help reduce the crowd times during peak times and school breaks. There's other few quick points I would like to make. One is in comparison to the Central Park tennis courts and how they currently charge a fee to play. The tennis courts have a clay surface which requires extensive daily watering, nightly brushing, additional clay placement. The amount of maintenance and court cost of those courts far exceed what is required for the hard surface pickleball courts. The other point in reference is allowing court reservations. I think the suggestion will make the situation much worse. A limited number of people will have access to reserve courts, and the bulk of players will overcrowd the courts. The wait time will be much longer for a large number of people. Also, those who can afford to pay and reserve courts will do so daily, and those who cannot will be forced to wait on other courts. That doesn't feel fair as a public park. In addition, other public parks such as George English, Holiday Park, Hollywood, Sunrise, and Fort Lauderdale have no court charge and just revised the pickleball rules to alleviate wait times for players. During the interim, I would like to propose new pickleball rules for each court during Central Park, which include limited consecutive games by winning team and rotations of them. Since we have 17 courts to play on, I would like to see if we can alleviate the wait times during the peak and busy season. There is no current wait time from 12 to 5 daily, so everyone is welcome to play. I also think it will help to put up signage at the Central Park courts for letting know about the other pickleball courts that are available to local parks. Lastly, there should be no charge, and I repeat, no charge for playing pickleball at our public park. I think the best way to resolve this is over the next 12 months, please reevaluate this issue after the new courts are built in the surrounding areas. Thank you for allowing me and other pickleball passionate players the opportunity to discuss this issue. I thank you again. Thank you. All righty. Is Mr. Combs gone? I think he left. I see someone coming up. Is it public comment? Yes. Come on up. You're next. Mr. Mandel. Hello, everybody. Good evening. Mike Mandel. I'm happy to be here. It's my first time standing at this podium. I've lived in the city for a long, long time. Can you state your address for the record? Absolutely. 103.03 Northwest 7th Street in Plantation. I am a pickleballer. I have become hooked on pickleball. I used to be tennis, and I'm still tennis, but I'm pickleball. And really, I'm here just to make a couple of comments because this topic is ongoing. First, I want to thank the city for putting those courts over at Central Park. I used to be one of those people who said, no, that's an old person sport. You can't go out there. But I've come to find out as I get my butt kicked out on the courts that everybody plays it. Everybody's out there. So a couple of things that I want to say to you guys. Okay, first of all, I know that there was a – I know you were talking about a master plan for redoing Central Park. And pickleball is the fastest-growing sport in the world, really. If you look back at statistics over the last couple of years, it just continues to grow. So one thing that I would say is, first of all, as a city resident, I don't feel for my public parks. My kids play baseball here. Should never have to pay for using the facilities in my city. Okay, that's number one. Number two is I think that what the – what should be done is that there should be a survey asking all the participants who currently play pickleball, provide info about their preferences and input about best practices and facility needs. You know, I'm – I used to be against drop-in play is what they call it. That's where you show up at the court, you put your paddle in. I'm totally for that now. However, I know at the same time, I want to go out there and maybe play with my family members. So I don't know if there's a way to be able to maybe take Central Park gym. You know, they've done this in Sunrise. They took a gym. They've converted it to a couple of pickleball courts indoors. Maybe that can be used for some sort of reservation for – for – for residents. But, you know, I'm not discouraging non-residents to – to come play. I've gotten to meet some amazing people. But I'd like some flexibility. And I don't know what the answer is right now. But I think this is something that the – the city should continue to look at and evaluate. And hopefully, we can come up with a good solution. Thank you all. Thank you. Sandy, I'm not even going to try your last name because I'll just mess it up. Well, good. Then I feel better. Thank you. Thank you. I had no intention of speaking. But I'm – my – Can you say your name? My – it's Sandy Serotowicz. And I'm 6240 Southwest Eighth Court Plantation. And I've been here since 1976. So I want to just speak quickly about – to represent two different types of people playing pickleball. Number one, the old people being me. And for me to get in this exercise at a public park without having to spend more than my taxes afford me is a wonderful gift that the city of Plantation has allowed us. So speaking for the seniors, I think Plantation has a duty almost, but certainly I would think you would want to have something for senior citizens in Plantation. It's a fabulous city. The second thing is, unfortunately, I am a widow, so I go there by myself. If – I used to be a long-term tennis player at Veltri when Mayor Veltri was still around, and I used to play with him. So I appreciate Veltri also. And I love the way the tennis courts are handled. Tennis is not pickleball. I know it seems like we should equate them, but they're really not that similar. And one of the ways they're not is that tennis, you need a foursome or singles. You schedule it, you reserve your court, and that's it. For me as a single person, the beauty is that I can just walk up to Central Park to one of those courts, put my paddle in, and I'm playing with all these young people who let me come in even though they're much better than I am. And I don't have to feel that I have nobody to play with. I don't have to feel that I have to get there at 10 o'clock. It really is a gift. So I'm going to ask city council to really consider what pickleball really is versus what people think it is. Some of the people – I know some of the men who were talking are mostly playing Lagomar. And they – it's private. They schedule things. And I've spoken to them about this, and it's great. So they want to come now to Central Park for free and not have the wait time because they don't have a wait time at Lagomar. But it's two different entities. So I'm not going to take up my full time. I just want to say pickleball is a very unique type of sport. And I've played in many – on many courts in different states. I was playing before we had pickleball here. So I've never, ever had to pay for a public park in any state, including Florida, any place else. If you're indoors, yes, you pay, but not outdoors. So anyway, please accept the fact that pickleball is not tennis, that as our city council gives some of us a break, who really would appreciate it. Thank you very much. Thank you. I do not have any more speaking cards for public comment. Is there anybody in the chamber that would still like to make a comment? This is your last chance. Council President? Yes. If I may? So I just want to – Don't tell me I stopped someone from speaking again. I just want to clarify. He's a pickleball player. I am not, but now I am going to become one. I'm going to go out there by myself. I'm going to put my racket down because – but in all seriousness, with respect to your first comment about the – Mr. Corman and not being permitted to speak, you did ask me for my advice during the meeting, and I answered your question, and you relied upon my advice. And after I – I'll take the hit. Don't worry about it. After – I appreciate that, but again, it was my responsibility. You relied on my advice. I had an opportunity to revisit my opinion during the meeting, and I stood corrected, and I shared that with you. Well, I appreciate that. We had a good conversation, and part of the purpose of speaking before we had the public comment was sort of just kind of lay it out so everyone kind of understands because I think we're under misunderstanding because I think what happened was a unique situation because generally we haven't – when we weren't taking motions, we really haven't had people who wanted to speak to those matters. So it was kind of a perfect storm, but thank you. But it was all right. So all right, public requests to the council regarding municipal affairs are now closed. We're at the consent agenda. The consent agenda consists of items 1 through 14 and may be approved with one motion. Do any council members like to pull an item? I see that the public wants to pull one and eight. I want to pull one. Council Member Reincey wants number four. Anybody else? Can I have four and five, Council President? Yes. Council Member Reincey pulled four. You got five. All right. So anybody would like to make a – I'm sorry. Anybody in the chamber like to pull an item that I didn't call yet? I don't see any. Would someone like to make a motion? I'll make a motion to approve items 1 through 14 minus 1, 4, 5, and 8. Is that okay to say it that way? Yep. You got it. On the printed agenda, it's 1 through 16. I know. On the – yeah, and on the – I want to know what's correct. Yeah. Online, we're up. Online is 14. But what's printed is – wait. Online is 14, and on the printed is 16. I have administrative item 15 is pickleball, and 16 is redefining our school. Those are administrative items. I have, like, what Council Member Reincey has. Your paper? 1 through 14. 1 to 10 is the same. It's the – 1, 2, 3, 4. 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6. I think the issue is – and the printed – we've got general – hold on. We've got – number 11 is general expenditures. Yep. 1 through 20. Then 21st through – I think it's number 12. So 11 is general. 12 is general legal. 13 is gateway. 14 is midtown. But the gateway – yeah. Then we've got gateway legal. Gateway legal. It's broken up. Don't go by the printed? Don't go by the printed. Okay. Okay. All right. So who has the right agenda? So 1 through 14. 1 through 14. Okay. So online is correct. Okay. I'll second your motion. Did you do the exemptions of 1, 5, 8? Mm-hmm. 1, 4, 5, 8. 1, 4, 5, 8. Okay. Add two to it. Got it. Don't. No, don't. Don't. Do not go by the printed. Well, I know that, but I'm trying to figure out where the administrative starts. 15. 14 and 16 are mid. That's correct. I'm at 14. 15 is administrative. Correct. That's correct. But that's actually 17. Yeah, don't go – It's supposed to be 17, and then redefining the schools as 18. Okay. All right. Go ahead. Okay. He made it. I second. I made it. She seconded it. So, the first person who ever was – who was one? For the call to the roll. That's you. Council Member – I'm sorry. You want to call – Ms. Begaro, please call the roll. I made the motion of – I second. I second. Of – 1 through 16 with the exception of – No, it's 1 through – 14. 14 minus 1, 4, 5, and 8. This is correct. Oh, okay. And Denise – I seconded it. Council Member Horland seconded it. 1, 4, 5, and 8 didn't change. 1, 4, 5, and 8. Your fault. So, they're – All right. Are you saying this mid-time legal? It's pulled for discussion. I'm just saying the printed and the printed copy and electronic copy are in disagreement on the higher numbers. But 1, 4, 5, and 8 are all the same. So – It's been pulled for discussion. It's pulled for discussion. We're going to discuss it individually. But just so the record's clear, on the printed agenda, items 14 and 16 do not exist on the online agenda. That's why we have through 14. Correct. And then the rest of the numbering on the printed agenda, I believe, is consistent with the online agenda, but for those two items on the printed agenda. Yeah. It's just that it throws the numbers off on the printed – Correct. You know. Okay. This is correct. Call the roll. I printed the PDF, which for once is – So we have a motion. We have a second. Please call the roll. Yes. Okay. Council Member Reinstein. Yes. Council Member Horland. Yes. Council Member Anderson. Yes. Council Member Andreu. Yes. Council Member Fragin. Yes. Thank you. So I pulled one, and I know a member of the public pulled one. I just wanted to thank Anna and her department, because going through these audits are a lot of fun, and Mr. Benson with Keith McCullough helping us with our audit, who's no longer Keith McCullough. It's Citrin Cooperman. So congratulations on that. And then I just wanted to thank everyone for the hard work, because I know what goes into it. And I, for some reason, don't miss ticking and tying and footing and cross-referencing and all that stuff. So don't call for help. So Mr. Conklin – oh, there you are. I was looking for you over there. Dennis Conklin, 4581 Northwest Hisc Court. Stole my kudos to Triple Crown winners of the Financial Department. I first learned about the CAFRs when I was still sailing and on the ships, and they said, wow, this is where you discover where the government actually has its money, what they do with it. The budget's one thing, but this is sort of the results of that. So kudos for the CAFR. The CRA one I mentioned was a miniature one. It's only 37 pages. This one's 221 pages. I bring it up because I was looking back in 1994, 92, the progress and the refinement of this report's amazing. So back then when I started looking, I was looking for the cash that was basically building up in all the different levels of government, and plantation was no exception. And I was also looking at pensions because I was in a – we just had a tragedy for the port of Baltimore. I sailed out of Baltimore a few times on vessels. The U.S. Merchant Marine is a dying industry, and our pension was a defined benefit plan, but they started in the 70s because they saw the writing on the wall, and we began 401K plans. And at first it wasn't a 401K plan because it was multiple companies, but then they changed the law and it became that. And since that time, I've been trying to get the city of Plantation to go to 401K plans and end its defined benefit plan. Now, I know with the police there's a contract. You can't necessarily do that, but with the government employees, you could have done that. And as I was bringing these reports along, and you can go to the CAFR, and for the general employees, 106 on the physical and 123 on the PDF, you can see the progression towards a point where the city could have ended the government employee's defined plan and gone to a 401K. It was only $3 million, and the police was only $6 million. So you could have also ended the police defined benefit plan because they already have a 401K plan in their contract, and nobody turned the ignition key. So people have to be educated in these plans, and everybody sees that the market went way down because of the COVID lockdown. But I can show you where my plans, they did go down, but they're basically recovered in that time, and the taxpayer is not on the hook, and the city is not on the hook to cover these plans when they're defined contribution plans. So basically, if you'll take a real quick look at that, and one thing I wanted to mention was I noticed that the – Okay, you've got to wrap it up. I'm sorry? The clock went. Resolution 1, when the city was incorporated, was five minutes. And somehow or other, when Councilman Bendekovic got in, it became three minutes, and then it was finally changed, I guess, officially. I thought for five minutes, Dennis, so. All right. I noticed that in the last 10 years that the population of plantation increased 6.4%, but the city employees increased 17.8%. And that impinges on the pension, again, which is unfunded to the tune of $170 million. And just three years ago, we were at the point where it was zero unfunded liability. I yield back my extended time. Thank you, Dennis. Thank you, Dennis. I, too, just wanted to congratulate Ms. Otaniano and her staff. I don't know if it was said earlier, but this is the 11th year that they have received the Triple Crown Award. So, just kudos for a job well done. Motion to approve. She wants the record to be straight. With that, I'll make a motion to approve. Second. Ms. Beggarow, please call the roll. Council Member Reinstein. Yes. Council Member Horland. Council Member Anderson. Yes. Council Member Andreu. Yes. Council Member Fajan. Yes. Thank you. Item number four, Council Member Reinstein. Yes. Thank you. This is regarding the fireworks. We have a wonderful tradition of the fireworks here on Plantation. I remember it as a kid and now bringing my kids to see the fireworks. I know that over the years I hear more and more about how not only those people suffering from PTSD, but also dogs and other animals that are troubled by the fireworks. And I know last year we had the amazing 70th anniversary drone display. And my question is for Mr. Goodrich, for Director Goodrich. And I know he answered, he sent, I believe, all Council Member an email regarding that the 70th anniversary, it was $34,000 for a 10-minute show with 175 drones. My question is that in your email you also add that a comparable show in time and scope for fourth would require an estimated 300 drones and cost $120,000 or more. My question is whether or not that, whether or not we actually have any written estimates for a drone show, whether or not that number, that estimation of $120,000 is something that we've actually received from drone providers. It was not an estimate from a drone provider. It was an estimate. Mr. Neumaker had reached out to the Plantation Walk who had explored that, and that was the information that they provided us. So it was just a simple way to get that, at least an explored option of what it would be for drones. Again, the size of it, we did a very small show. So we had options of what size show that we would do, and it was pretty limited in the number of things available given the budget that we had to work with. Are you seeing anywhere else across the country where drone shows are being used for these type of displays? Primarily, the drone shows have been not during Fourth of July, but they're on ancillary other events. So something where there wouldn't be fireworks going on anywhere else, so therefore you would be the only thing providing those fireworks. Whether or not we have a fireworks show is not going to change whether there's fireworks in the city of Plantation. They're still going to go on, and they're going to go on all evening. I think the aggravation of our show is very limited compared to what's going on in the We're 20 minutes. We're a very fixed time, and we're going to start at 9, and we're going to end basically at 9.20. And we're going for a comparative number so that when people ask, that we have that information available. Yes, that was the information that I got. Again, with limited time to be able to explore something, it was something that we had available to us, and that's what I used. Okay. Thank you. Council Member Andreu? Thank you, President Fadgen. My question, well, to a comment and a question. So I thought this was a great practice. I would wonder if we could do this all the time where I was the one who asked initially about the drones and the cost and everything, and then my question and answers went out to everybody. I think that would be very helpful if we did that universally, if that became a standard practice. It could help our efficiency with the meeting. So I would ask Mr. Noonemaker and the mayor if that's something we could standardize. Secondly, my question really is probably for Mr. Spencer, and I think he's sitting there behind Mr. Goodrich. More about the process. So I know, Mr. Spencer, that you put the budget in this particular request for information, and you did give me the rationale as to why. I don't think this is a good standard practice for us because I think any vendor that we were to seek out is going to go to the highest amount of our budget. So, you know, we could have gotten maybe a quote for $40,000, but they saw our budget was $45,000, so they quoted $45,000. I don't think that that's something we should typically do. We should just put out the quote and let the vendor respond back with, you know, what their number is. I think we're showing our hand in this case. So the goal, as I am to understand it from Parks and Rec, and Phil is standing right next to me, is to ensure that we maximize the display that we are trying to get with the budget. So we intend, and we've always intended, if I understand, to spend the $45,000. We're asking, it's kind of the reverse of what we typically do, right? We always want the lowest price for the show that we're asking for, but because this is a little different, we're saying, we have $45,000, give us the best show for $45,000, and then they bid kind of the reverse, and then we evaluate the show that they're providing us for the $45,000. So it's a little bit of a reverse, if that makes any sense. I guess it makes sense. I just don't think it's a good practice, especially when there's not a lot of, it looks like a lot of competition in this market, so. I guess there's not a lot of vendors for this, right? Like there's, there's like three. So I guess, so my, so my question regarding that is, they're obviously doing other cities, and maybe we need to do a little due diligence to just compare what other people are doing. Like if Sunrise is using the same one, and they're doing a 30-minute show, are we in the same, you know, are we getting the same bang for our, no pun on the words, yes. I didn't even plan that, and I'm, I'm disappointed in myself, but I don't know. Go ahead. Okay. So yes, it, it is a very limited market, to say the least. After the last show, we were asked to, can we make the show bigger? And therefore, that's why we budgeted for a bigger show in our budget. And that information is accessible to anybody, obviously, to be able to look it up. But as far as to evaluate it, we're not experts in what, what shells will be available and what makes the best show. That's what we leave to those. But we communicated we wanted something. Oh, absolutely. Absolutely. And as well, as you know, market price with everything is only going one direction. But this is the best way for us to get the best show for the money that we've allotted. Do we know, I saw the shell count. I want to say it's three, I don't remember. Is that, are we getting more than what we got last year? Yes, we are getting more. Whether or not it's exactly the right amount more, again, not knowing marketplace. We actually got more. We absolutely did get more shells. Council Member Andre, you have your hand up. Do you want to have another comment? No, thank you. Okay, I wanted to make sure we weren't, that you didn't have a follow-up or anything. Thank you. I don't see any other comments from the day. Is there anybody that would like to make a comment from the chamber? Can I have a motion? Motion to approve. Motion to approve. Oh, second. All right. Ms. Begrove, please call the roll. Council Member Reinstein? Yes. Council Member Horland? Yes. Council Member Anderson? Yes. Council Member Andre, you? Yes. Council Member Fadgett? Yes. Thank you. Item number five, Council Member Andreo? Also, very quickly, just, I love the idea. I'm really excited. Next year, when we get to do that same fire training, we'll have a two-story kind of prop house to go up and do the stairs as well. But my question is for Mr. Spencer on this as well. I saw in the attachment in the backup that the pre-bid is mandatory, and then it looks like it was, like, stricken, and then it was canceled. So, are pre-bids usually optional? And I thought one or two of them this time in the backup, they were canceled. So, I just wanted to know what's happening with those pre-bid meetings. No. Pre-bid meetings are a variety of opportunity. This particular project did not have a pre-bid meeting. The writer of this bid, because we used templates, just struck through the pre-bid meeting line rather than deleting it before soliciting it. So, we didn't have a pre-bid meeting scheduled for this particular piece of equipment. So, it never happened because we never had one scheduled. We do perform mandatory pre-bid meetings when appropriate, depending on the security of the site or the availability of staff. We also do non-mandatory pre-bid meetings where we'll schedule a certain amount of dates and say, hey, if you want to come look at the site, please feel free. However, if you don't attend because there's enough information in the documentation, you can still participate in the bidding process. Okay. It was just this particular one because it was so unique. Yes. We struck through it, but we did not have a pre-bid meeting for this particular piece of equipment. Okay. Thank you. Motion to approve number five. Thank you. Second. Yeah. I don't want to do on the two-story one. The one-story thing almost wiped me out. Ms. Beggarow, please call the roll. Council Member Reinstein. Yes. Council Member Horland. Yes. Council Member Anderson. Yes. Council Member Andreu. Yes. Council Member Fajan. Yes. Thank you. Item 8 was pulled by the public, I believe, Mr. Conklin. Apologies. I thought there was an Item 7 as well. Dennis Conklin, 458-1 Northwest Sixth Court. When I was reading the backup, it says that this is a three-year contract with Broward College. I was kind of curious about that, to do a report on the culvert bridges and so forth and so on. Is that sort of like working with Broward College as interns or something like that to produce this? I think there was an upload problem. I think so. What's that? That's 7, I believe. That was part of 7? The Broward College? 7 was stormed during training. 7 was like the Broward College contract. Apologies. 7 wasn't pulled. I'll yield back. Okay. Thank you. You have a comment regarding 8. Go ahead. I see you. Thank you. This is regarding the culvert bridges. And, Mr. Noonamaker, this was back to the question that I raised to you. And the culvert bridges are happening to be bridges that I pass by just about every day off Central Park. And whenever I've seen any work done on those culvert bridges, the people who are doing the work tend to always park right in the middle of the block off one of the streets. And so my question to you was really just what is the procedure for the work on these culvert bridges? Since if you know that Central Park route, depending on where you're parking, it's a blind turn coming off Broward right into where those bridges are if there's a car parked blocking one of the streets. So to my question, were you able to follow up on that? Yeah, the city engineer did reply back. They do register with the city assuming they're following proper protocols. If they're not, then that's something that needs to be called in. And I know you'd said, indicated that, you know, you pass by and it's kind of out of sight, out of mind. But I hear Samir, so I'll let her. Yeah. Go ahead, Samir. Put a bell on her. No, it's the high heels. Oh, okay. Good evening. The culvert bridges, most of the inspection going to be underground inspection because it's going to be inspecting the bridge, the structural integrity from underneath the bridge. However, there is component above the ground and the contractor or the firm going to be obligated to have maintenance of traffic plan presented to the city engineer office and will be distributed accordingly. So I would just ask that if, you know, especially the culvert bridge that is the closest to Broward Boulevard, there is a shopping center right across the street. So it's very easy for them to park their vehicles in there and not block off one of the street if that's possible. Definitely. Thank you. No problem. Motion. And let's go ahead. Yeah. Motion to approve item eight. Second. All right. I don't see any other public comment. Ms. Beggra, please call the roll. Council Member Einstein. Yes. Council Member Horland. Council Member Anderson. Yes. Council Member Andrew. Yes. Council Member Fadgen. Yes. Thank you. Okay. Moving on to administrative items. What? Oh. I thought I missed something. Pickleball operations discussion. We get the city side now. Good evening, Mayor and Council. Phil Goodrich, Parks and Recreation Director. I have with me Tricia O'Toole, who put together a very nice study regarding the information around our pickleball facility, our plans moving forward in the near future with the budget, as well as other states of the industry as we see it today. As you all know, the pickleball has come about very quickly and has grown very quickly. What was once perceived as just an older generation activity has grown very quickly into a legitimate sport in many cases. So with that said, I will turn it over to Trish and let her give you some of the highlights of the information that she put together regarding this. And we'll answer any questions you all have. Thank you. Good evening. Hello. Shall I do an Oompa Loompa dance? I mean, it might be time. It might be time to do it. That was fun. Good evening. All of you have seen the feasibility study that I put together. It took a couple months to research what other cities are doing, kind of gather what other municipalities, especially in Broward County, are doing. Phil and I sit on a monthly call with other area directors and assistant directors. So we're all pretty much in tune with what's going on with pickleball, of course. And so the report just puts together our findings and our thoughts on what we feel other cities building their own courts. I think we've got 70-plus across the county that will be built within the next year. There's some private entities that are also building courts. We feel that, given the status of residents versus non-residents, currently using the pickleball courts at Central Park, where we could pull data from Placer, we think that slowly but surely players are going to start moving into their own municipalities to play as these courts come available. So I pulled a report this morning to just show the first three months of 2023, the first three months of 2024, minus the last week of March. We went from 64-percent residents to 70-percent residents in 2024. So it seems like we're slowly trending in the right direction. What's that percentage? Went from 64-percent, and that's just the first three months, 64-to-70 percent. Resident. Yep. We're also, as some other folks mentioned, building satellite courts throughout the city to try to hit different geographic areas within the city, hoping that people that have been coming to Central Park maybe start playing closer to homes. I know my mom lives close to Dyke Park. I'm there a lot. It is always packed now with pickleball players and tennis players. So we think slowly as the word gets out, some of the stress will be taken off Central Park. Those are our thoughts. Obviously, we're here to hear your thoughts. And with that, we can open it up. Okay. Well, you kind of know my position. I like that the ratio is coming more into the residents level. And I am very appreciative of the satellite courts that we're putting in and maybe a constant analysis of that. But I do feel that Central Park has to be monetized. There's cost involved. So here's a couple of things. And I thought the report was really good. So all my information came from your report. So I don't agree with the thesis that these courts coming online in the surrounding areas is going to hold true from the standpoint of the three-year growth is 158.6 percent. And year over year is 85.7 percent increase. There was nothing in your report that says that it is stabilizing the growth of it. And I think it's similar to soccer 20, 25 years ago. It was always the fastest-growing sport in the country because the denominator was so low. So, I mean, that's part of it. I'm looking at this map, and Fort Lauderdale has got 42 courts. Is that the courts that are coming online, that big facility? Is it open yet? When is that coming? No, it's just in the development stage. Okay, so 42 courts when it opens. We currently have 31 courts. Does that include the community center courts? I don't know what the status of those courts are. That's without the community center. Okay, so this is our inventory at this point in time. And then Sunrise, eight public courts but 14 private courts. So, when I'm looking at the map, I still think we're going to be the destination because people don't want to go out east to Fort Lauderdale, you know, as people out east don't want to come out to central Florida or the central part of the county. Was this brought to the parks and rec board to get their, and what were their comments? It would have been good to have it in this report. What were their thoughts? Well, did they get this to discuss? They did get it, yes. We discussed it at the last meeting. Actually, I don't think they got it. We were going to bring it to the next meeting to show the report. We just mentioned that it was in the works. I believe that we gave them to them, didn't we? Okay. Well, I hope it's a discussion. We did. We went through a very lengthy discussion of it. And while there were some people that had concerns and thought that there should be maybe reservations and stuff, as we discussed it more and more, they actually changed their mind and said, no, we agree that you should. How many pickleball players are on the parks and rec board or anybody volunteered at the park? I know of two. Okay. But there are some, honestly, that I don't know well enough to be able to make that assessment. You know, I definitely think maybe some sort of task force of the players to have a broader discussion. I mean, I don't think we're trying to make a decision now as to whether to monetize it or not. But I look at this map, and I hear what Fort Lauderdale is doing. I haven't seen any plans and all that kind of stuff. But I look at it as Plantation and Fort Lauderdale are the leaders in pickleball. And why don't we want to strive to be the best? And having a non-monetary model, we're not going to be able to maintain it. And I've said this before. I can't think of elements of Central Park from an organized sports thing that they're not paying for lights. And I'll pick up basketball on the outdoor courts. Obviously, they're not paying for lights. But do you have to pay a fee if you're going to play pickup basketball inside the gym or if even there's time available for people to play pickup stuff inside? There is a fee for the gym. Okay. But there's nobody paying for light fees on the athletic fields. Now, we used to have light fees for the tennis facility, and we stopped that during COVID. Are we bringing that back? No. Why? Because monetarily, it cost me more to charge the extra dollar and $1.25 or $1.50. But we were collecting the $5? Yes. And we just built it into the membership fee. Okay. Well, that's fine. And our revenues have gone from around $300,000 to over $600,000. So I think we very smartly have chosen to apply the appropriate fees to cover the services that are being provided. And the majority of that, from a maintenance standpoint, you're comparing apples and oranges when you talk about tennis and pickleball. I know. There is a little bit of a difference, but there is a little bit of a similarity about how it could be managed and stuff. The other aspect that you have to think about, you go to that side of the park during the rush hours, and it's packed. That's a burden on the parking. That means people who have a soccer game or want to go for a walk, they've got to park somewhere else, maybe on the other side of the park. So this is a great problem. You know, I'm not – great job. Don't take this as criticism. This is just me thinking that I want to maintain this. I want to make this the best because I haven't seen any statistics about where are these people going afterwards. Now, are they just high bolting out of town, or are they going to the plantation diner, or are they going to Marin's and all that kind of stuff? That would be kind of interesting to know, particularly if it's outside residence and stuff. On page three, programming builds loyalty. So a member – I think that's another reason why we need to get to a membership program, get to a scheduling thing, charge a court fee. Our central location, Plantation Fort Lauderdale, I think option B and C are the way to go. I do like to see that the ratio is going 70% to – from 64%. I think you heard some of the comments, and I thought it was interesting that, you know, there were both sides to it. So I'm glad that they saw it on the agenda and they decided to come out. There's going to be music playing out there. You know, do we need – maybe if we're going to go this route, we need to have rules and then go out there periodically and say, no, you can't do that. You can put your AirPods in or whatever. But – and then the dress code, I don't – I think that's a fair thing. I do like how we're doing the satellite. How is this $750,000 building coming about? Like, I would never envision that to – Unfortunately, that's the cost of a building. What's that? That's just the cost of buildings. We're building a restroom, and it's staggering the cost of it. I'm just thinking that it's not something that we necessarily need to go that route. I think having some sort of tablet mechanism – I don't know if you can just add courts to the reservation system at Veltri. And piggyback that and then have it tied into. So long-range plans. Is there a plan to monetize this? Because I also feel like when you get something for free and when it's time to monetize it, that causes a whole slew of problems. So is there any kind of plan that we will be monetizing? But this is what we're deciding is the best option for now. Correct. So first and foremost, we want to be good stewards of the city's money and resources. The maintenance of a tennis facility versus the maintenance of the pickleball courts is far more similar to the outdoor basketball courts, both in lighting as well as the surface that they play on and everything. Those original courts were built into – we did the first hockey rinks in 2016. We did the second set in 2018. Did the third set in 2020 or 2019-2020, somewhere in that range. They've held up extremely well. And I have to say kudos to that fantastic parks division staff, those five-time champions. They rose to the challenge. When I watched other contractors come in and resurface the courts, I said, I know our staff can do this. And we were able to do it at a – We did it in-house. We did it all in-house. From the lining to the surfacing to the prep, soup to nuts, we did it. No, I appreciate that. And we will always do that whenever we can to try and save money. I can tell you that some of the resurfacing that's being done now, it's actually cheaper for us to have – it's as – economically, it basically comes out to net zero when we hire a contractor at this point because the cost of petroleum products has risen so much for us. So we can't buy the products. The same thing with the safety surfacing under the playgrounds. We've explored those options to try and do as much as we can to be good stewards of that money. But, again, when we talk about being good stewards of the money, the tennis courts, which we talk about as a great operation and everything, our initial thought process when we started doing the Central Park Master Plan was to try and bring Pickleball right over there with Veltree and, yes, have it managed through literally the same building. And so you would come in the door to check in. You would go to the right to go to the tennis courts. You'd go to the left to go to Pickleball. Resounding in those meetings, Pickleball did not want to be near tennis, and tennis did not want to be near Pickleball. So that being said, our tennis operation, while I'm very proud at the revenues that we've generated, we still net a loss. And the same thing will happen if we go there. We're going to net a loss. While we're monetizing it, that might be one thing. But we're going to net a loss. A long time ago, real quick, a long time ago, I went to South Plantation as well. And that's a good school. I heard it's a good school. Very smart people come from there. A good friend of mine, Bob Hoffner, used to work over at the Seminole Park Courts. And what his job was, he was hired by Veltri Tennis Center to go over there and charge a light fee for anybody that came. So we probably paid him $25, $30 for the night, a part-time kid, to collect $3 or $4. Well, good for that kid. Yes, but that's not good stewards from our perspective. So in charging, we're netting a loss. And is that really productive? I'm not necessarily looking to make a profit off it. But I'm also looking to provide the best service. And if there's a cost overall to the city, because I think it's good that we got all the – it develops a reputation. Like, look what Plantation does. You know, there's a fee to it. Maybe we're not going to cover all our costs, but that's kind of a cost of marketing kind of in my mind. But – and I'm not questioning how you guys are being stewards of the money. I've been very impressed with all our departments with our budgeting process and how we disperse the funds and decisions we make. And then when we change course, how thoughtful we are in that. I guess the last question I have before I move on, take the other comments. On page 10, at the bottom of the page, and I'm just going to look at the top quadrant, it says residents daily users, 8 a.m. to 12, 1,340. So I guess I got confused. It said residents daily users. There's not 1,300 people – residents coming in that time frame each day. So I had to go down a rabbit hole to get to these numbers. Try to stay with me. I had to look at it from the standpoint of we had 17 courts, rush hours, 4 hours of court, and that's – I forget what I came up. I couldn't – I couldn't – what's that? No, I know. It just confused me. Because I was like, you're telling me there's $52,000 of daily fees there? I was like, geez, let's build a dome, you know? I was trying to look at – because obviously I think we have, what, 25,000 users or something, and I was like – 25 unique – okay, that's the – on the first page, 25 unique users who come about 125,000. And I said I can't really say 25,000 times $100 a year. Those 25,000 people are not going to all buy annual membership. So I tried to create a – You confused the CPA. I could confuse you. I tried to create a ratio of – Mission accomplished. Residents and non-residents at the tennis center to just try to get how many people are actually going to buy a membership. So this $52,000 is the estimated fees based on your – the uses. Crazy ratio. Okay. Yeah, I don't know how we came up. I see the cross, but I don't see – okay, Council Member Horland. Thank you, Mr. President. You sure you're done? I could keep going. Okay, I know. Mr. Goodrich, could you remind us how Placer – Placer gathers the data? All of us have apps on our phones. Okay. There's certain apps that you allow them to give you locations or them to track you. And I'm going to use the weather – weather app is a very common one that people leave for that. Placer has rights to extrapolate the data from that phone just for the GPS location of it. Okay. So it's not tracking who you are. It's just saying whatever phone that is that has that weather app is at the Pickleball facility from this time to that time. Right, metadata. And then what we do is, you know, from there, wherever you might go before, wherever you go afterwards, we can also track that information. I should say they do. They do. We just have access to it at this point. Thank you for that, because there were some people here tonight with Pickleball that have since left that asked me that question. So I think the public did not know how we were using that in the parks and how you were generating that data for the report. So thank you. And thank you again for the feasibility study. I remember when we were begging for extra courts, and it certainly – the sport has grown. I will disagree that people do come from Fort Lauderdale to our courts and, you know – Well, no, but Central Park was known, and it's funny because I've been at events in Broward County where people come up and thanked me that we added more courts that live out east. Now, there are courts, I believe, out at Holiday Park that way as well. We've talked about this. I've gone back and forth about monetizing. I'm just going to say up front I'm not in favor of monetizing. I think that we are comparing apples to oranges with tennis. It is not like tennis. I think the beauty of the sport, and you heard both sides tonight, is that you can go out there as a single person, as Sandy said. I'm not going to try to pronounce her last name. And go out there and just pick up a game. And I think that our residents are paying enough in taxes that we don't have to further burden them because there are a lot of families that go out there. I've gone out there with my family, you know, so you have a family of four that are playing, and now you're putting an extra burden on that family to charge them for that. My question would be is – and I don't want to overly police, you know, especially the players that are at Central Park. It's a community. A lot of it is very social out there. So I think that the certain players are going to go, you know, out to our satellite locations, and they'll want that more quiet environment. But it is not tennis, and it's a much more lively environment. So I don't want to overly police them with the music and things like that. But is there a way, without monetizing it, that you've seen where we could manage some things a little better? Because it does get a little – I think you heard one of the gentlemen tonight. Some people do abuse, go out there and stay on the courts for quite a while and are not as generous. I think in the early days, you saw people were being much more polite about that. And I think as sport has grown, some people are taking advantage of the courts. Is there any way to manage that with staff? And I don't overly – I don't want to overly burden staff. Absolutely. We can certainly talk with staff. I've never heard – I've never been given a complaint that somebody's playing music or that somebody's not wearing their shirt or anything of that nature. And we can certainly look at modifying the rules to be more productive from that standpoint. And we can get our staff to monitor a little bit more through those busier times, which is where the more problematic times would be probably. And I think that would be my ask. Yeah, and I think the bigger thing would be with that is that time frame when the college kids are on break. They're used to playing in a much more relaxed environment, and now they're coming to a more structured environment, let's say. Right. And they might be a little looser with that. So we will do our best to try and increase some patrols through there with our park staff. And if we can, we'll try and assign somebody over there. Again, I want to be clear. I think it's more for me the abuse of the court time is not letting other players in. I think the music, again, it's a community out there. It's fun. It can be boisterous. But I think people really use it as socialization. And I don't want to monetize – further monetize recreation because I think this sport – and again, you know, not to compare it to tennis because, you know, that takes a different skill level. And with pickleball, the beauty of it is anybody can play. Correct. People can play at all levels. So – and I want people – I don't want to dissuade people from coming to the plantation. I don't want to, you know, essentially put up a wall and say you can't come in here, whether you're Canadians or you're coming from Tamarack, because people do come and they comment on our parks. And I want to be more welcoming. And I think that your data proves that it's really exploding with – excuse me, within our own community. And it's mostly a residence using – so that would be my only thing if we could try to manage some of that court time during the busier times. We will. And also, Councilman Fadgen initially brought up the thing about the placer, about wanting to know more about where they go before and after. And we'll go ahead and put together a more detailed report showing you that type of information beyond just where they came from, but also both pre and post where they're going and get that to you as well. That would be great. And just my final thing on the cost, and I think when we look at the cost of a building or hiring, you know, a full-time employee out there, there's so much we want to do with Central Park, and I'd rather put that money elsewhere. And I think there are higher priority needs there. Just to tap on that as well, there was a couple of points that were made tonight, one being some better signage, maybe showing where the ancillary courts are. As we get closer to wrapping them up, we're about to start on Volunteer Park. And then we have some longer-range plans for the community center as well. We did that after we evaluated the usage of the tennis courts in all of our facilities and only targeted the ones that weren't being fully utilized. Correct. So we want to make good use of that. So we'll go ahead and do that. The other one was, you know, we've had discussions about a new multipurpose building at Central Park that would have three gymnasiums there. That would give us ample space to be able to do some indoor stuff, and that we could have and we would monetize those times because you would have into now an indoor facility, much like we do with basketball. You can go play on the outdoor courts all you want, and we're not going to charge you there. But when you come in the gymnasium, we have costs now to operate the facility and to manage it and everything, and then we would do that. And we could build that into the structure as we move forward. That's great. With the signage, if I may add one thing, if it's at all possible, if you were able to do the signage identifying the other courts, if we could possibly do a QR code on there that might be able to populate a map. We're very QR conscious now. Yes, I know you are. But if it populates a map, because not all the residents know where all those other locations are. Absolutely. Thank you. Council Member Reinstein. So a number of these things I appreciate. Council Member Horland just hit, and I appreciate that both Director and Trish, that both of you have been listening to everybody that spoke, and you're running with all of these things, because some of them seem that if you're able to spare a person to do some spot checks and to get over there, you know, we could easily deal with the people without shirts or the loud music and do a dress code spot check. And the signage were at the other courts. The other thing with the QR code that I was wondering is whether or not maybe we could add some kind of, like, survey monkey or something to get, you know, people's thoughts and opinions as to this. Because we had a number of residents that were here, but if the lines are that long while people are waiting there, maybe they can, you know, hit one of the QR codes and answer some additional questions. I was surprised that we didn't hear from Andy Rubenstein. I normally think of him as being our, you know, our resident pickleball guru. And I did reach out to him the other day, and he wasn't able to get back to me prior to the start of the meeting. But, you know, everything that I've seen from this department is that if you believe that you were not able to provide the best service without some type of fee, then you would let us know. And, you know, based on everything that I've seen so far and our budget discussions and so forth, it sounds like, you know, we're able to provide the service that the residents want. You're adding more courts. I would like to see that maybe in another three months or six months or as these courts get word-of-mouth spreads. And if you add that signage to Central Park advising people, then maybe some of the residents that are complaining that they're not able to get on a court will find that that's not a problem anymore. The other, you know, the other thing that I've heard a lot of residents speak about is that because of this backlog and this issue is, and because there are so many people coming from outside of plantation, is whether there's any type of proposal of a, you know, hybrid reservation system where there's one court or two courts that during a certain period of time are reserved for resident reservations or residents. I'm thinking that we may not need to even go there with the additional courts and as the word gets spread. But I would like for you to think about some type of hybrid reservation system or some type of resident preferential treatment that may be in six months from now when you come back to us, if the numbers aren't being spread out throughout the city like we're hoping, and if we're not diffusing the, you know, the backlog, then maybe there are other options we, you know, we can look at. So we're going to always look at what possibilities that we can do to do the benefit of the residents as much as we possibly can. But as well, so right now we're at a 70-30 resident to non-resident. There has to be a significant portion of that 30% that are friends of our residents, just like at the tennis center. We have plenty. Let me correct myself there. I didn't mean that if you're coming with other people that they can't play with you. I know anecdotally that I've been out there only a couple times, and I would ask, hey, where are you from, where are you from? And a lot of people at least were not plantation residents, and they weren't with plantation residents. Those are the people that I'm hearing from the residents, especially, you know, you heard Mike Mandel comes with his family. They arrive there. They take the time. No courts are available. And they're asking around, too, finding that people love our courts. But I'd like to see that our residents get the best benefit at it. Absolutely. We certainly understand that. But much like a restaurant, if you wanted to go to Plantation Diner, if you want to go to Broadway Bagel, if you want to go to J. Alexander's, at the peak times, you're going to have to wait. And we have to be careful because... You can give you the non-residents? Yeah, exactly. Well, you could have a court that had... I understand. But, again, it becomes now, do we want to staff at that level? And now you have 17 courts that you're monitoring, or even if you do a portion of them. You still have to go to every single court and look at that. All I'm asking is to consider that and whether there are any proposals that you can make so that we can respond to the residents, that it's something we're looking at as an option if these additional courts aren't making the difference. Absolutely. And we'll also look to FRPA and see what other agencies are doing, which we've already done. But we'll keep on that because pickleball has been a very challenging thing for many municipalities across our entire state. Thank you. Yep. Council Member Andrea. I want to thank Mr. Goodrich for the interest for the comprehensive report and all of the work that's gone into this. I, too, do not believe that we should be monetizing pickleball, particularly for our youth at play, as well as our senior citizens, as we heard from a few this evening. I like a hybrid approach, though. So, if you are at some point able to have an indoor court, I think that that would be more manageable for staff. And at that point, you know, we could probably have the reservation system and be able to charge for those reservations indoor and still leave the outdoor courts free of charge. So, that's what I like to see. And, again, thank you all for doing a great job. I think it is a great service to the city, particularly our residents and even our non-residents that come in. And I, too, get great feedback from people who love to come and participate and play pickleball in the city of Plantation. And I do think, even though we don't maybe have any hard data to support that they're also stimulating our local economy by stopping at businesses, I think anecdotally we probably all have a lot of that data. Thank you. Thank you. Councilmember Anderson? All right. It's most all that's been said now that I'm live. Well, that's why I delayed you. It's okay. If you're going to post things, though, is there a bulletin board? I can't even think if there's one there. Yes. Yes, but we'll use all of our resources, whether it be social media and posts and stuff like that. But we could put the no music, must-wear shirts, you know, that kind of stuff on there. We could put the QR codes and a map for the other parts of the city where the courts are. But could we – why do we have to say if we – okay, let me back up. First off, thank you. This is a good problem to have. We've said over and over. So, please, this is all just us trying to manage the influx of mass. I worry that even though we keep building more, what Councilmember Fadgen was saying, the growth is so high that as we spread, the growth is still overwhelming our – Going over that. Yeah. So, could we set up just a few courts for reservation for only a few hours a day, but not man it, reserved through a system we already own, and it's just posted every day, court, whatever, at this time is this person, period, and it's only for residents or whatever. Yes, they can invite their friends to go, but why do you need a human there? We already don't have humans there running it now. Why do we need to – what was his name? I remember that guy. He was a baseball player, wasn't he? Bobby Hoffner. Yeah. Yes. Six foot six. Yeah. I met him at the same time I met you. Yes. We certainly can, but yes, you do need somebody there because there's going to be inherent arguments over, well, why do you have – well, go look at the – Yeah, but that's going to happen. But if you know these three or four courts are reserved just for between 7 to 10 a.m. weekdays or whatever, and they have it for one hour and it's paid and it's resident-only reservation and everything else is where you put your rackets up and these courts are non-rackets. I just think we could – and I don't think we need to implement it right away. I just think as we try to – if it's still not doing it and we can't – if we're trying to manage everybody – because some of the people I talked to did say when they want to go play with a set, the only way to do it is put a paddle in and join someone else, and you can never really play with your set, with your family or your group or your foursome. Right. You'd have to put your two paddles in as being the challengers, and if you win and then your friends do the next one, then you win. So it's a pick-up basketball model. It really is, yes. But you have to win and then your friends have to get in and then – And you get to stay on if you're good. Correct. So you can play – Or you could always play down. You can play down. You can look for the weakest link. I – portable – I saw the $750,000. There's portable buildings that you could just drop in if it was something small. You know Amazon sells one for $12,000, two-bedroom with a bathroom. I don't think they need a building for eight hours a day. Click it open. I don't know if Annie approved that one. Or Gail. And then I also heard you can – can you – I didn't picture it in my mind, though. The indoor courts now, existing now, can you put pickleball paint over the court so it's basketball sometimes and pickleball sometimes? It just seemed like it would be tough, but they say some cities do that already. The current gymnasium that we have – so Sunrise does it. Their gymnasium is much wider and much bigger. So we could squeeze two courts in, but that's literally all we would be able to get. And even at that, the out-of-bounds distance to a hard obstruction is very close to being right on the line. So if they're going deep for a ball, they could – Correct. But we've got to put – don't we have pads on the ball? But again, too – not the entire wall. Well, again, behind the basketball goals, which is the design use of the facility, yes, there are pads there. They've hurt those walls before. They're not good. They don't give. Mr. Mayor? I'm sorry. No, no, no. I had a punch. Let me just double-check. I think I got it all. I didn't have my racket up. Okay. Well, I cleared you, so – and Council Member Anderson wasn't – I got it all. I'm sorry. Again, thank you, guys. This is a good problem to have. It's just that we're – it's a massive growth, and we're trying to please everybody, and it's a fool's errand, but we've got to do our best at it. I assure you, we feel the same way, because I remember in 2016, I was asked, all I'm looking for is just put some lines on the ground. I know. That's all I wanted. I know. So we've come a long way in a very short period of time. We do currently have 17 courts there. We are going to add an 18th court, because we had the last set. We have a court in the center, only one. We'll move that as we get some time and effort to get the staff out there to do that. So we'll add one more without adding any more space, but it will give us one more court to work with there at the facility. But I do want to just say a real quick message. I really didn't have anything to do with putting all this information together. This is the hard work of Trish. She did a fantastic job of doing research. Doing research, but, you know, we're coming up with something that we don't have, so we have to use rationales that we have access to. Mr. Mayor? Wait, I've got one more follow-up. The Placer app. Does that, this is not a joke. Does that work? This really is not a joke. Does that work on Canadian phones? Does, if there, because I'm telling you, the, the, the, the, the loyal pickleball people say, there is no way, heck, it is two, two-thirds. Two-thirds, isn't, wasn't your ratio about two-thirds resident to one-third, not? They said there's no way. It'll pull up, so when you pull up the report, I only put, like, the top 15 zip codes. I mean, the report will go 100 lines down, but you might get so-and-so from New York, so-and-so from Illinois. You might, you get a few Toronto. You will get a total. We do get, we do get Canadian. I just shrunk it down so you didn't get, like, a 100-page report. Yeah. They just said there's, there's no way it's two-thirds plantation versus outside. It's more like 50-50. Mr. Mayor? Phil, I'm under the impression that you can reserve a court right now. Technically, yes, you can. You can do a reservation. You can reserve a pavilion. You can reserve a basketball court. You can reserve a football field, a soccer field. That capability has been in place forever. So you can permit the usage of a court for a time frame through a permit. How much does that cost? $12.50 an hour at this point. It won't be cheaper to have a membership. It's, it's always been there. Yes. And, and it is something that, again, all of our facilities are. Where would you call for that? Central Park. Nine. Any other community centers. Or 425-2525. Call Philzell. Or ideally the tennis center. Yeah, the tennis center would be the best one. Right, but, but that's, that's what y'all are asking for. Monetize it and get certainty. And we have that right now. So we could go for it. And you're worried it's going to succeed? I don't think we all were asking for it to monetize, though. Fair enough. No, I think the council president was. Council Member Moore, I agree. That's a fair point. But, but the fact of the matter is for those few people, those few people who do have a problem with it, we are serving them. Right. Because they reserve it for lessons, so you can reserve it. Correct. Absolutely. But again, we don't allow that during the peak times. Correct. For obvious reasons. Correct. Because we're trying to keep as much activity there. On the. Right. We're trying not to disrupt the bigger part of it. Yeah. But certainly for a family that wanted to go together, there is a way that they could. Sure. Reserve a time. They could do that. Yes. Thank you again. I just want to comment. Andy, I did speak to Andy yesterday. He did not want to fill the chamber. He felt that if he started talking to pickleball people, everyone would have been out here tonight. So that's why he did not come. And we did. Both Tricia and I did have a conversation with him. And he did concur with what our thoughts process is at this time. For sure. I think that. I think we're all trying to get to the same thing. We want a level of excellency and want plantation to be the best. So I hope that if we're not going to do this now, that we keep monitoring it. And I just don't see how we can't. I don't totally agree that it's not comparable to tennis. So I don't see any other comments or questions. Good conversation. Thank you for your report. I have a supplement. I'm going to talk to you about that. I'm going to give you a supplement. You what? Just some. These are just some before and after photos of the courts we've already converted. They show you plan. They show some action. No. There's a map. Trish was our initial pickleball ambassador through the Pickleball Association. Just Trish the swish. Good old times. Thank you. All right. Okay. Item 16, redefining our school. I saw my other administrative updates I'll do later. Agree? Okay. Okay. So this is coming down the pike from the school board. We are going to have to have some conversations because the school board is going to ask us for input. So I'm suggesting we prepare. I know a lot of us have experience with schools and everything. The one request I'm making is that we make sure we check with our constituents too rather than – we all have a lot of knowledge and we're making decisions, but the step of going back and seeing what our constituents want too is something I would suggest that we make sure we do. So with that in mind, I thought it would be good to hear what facilities we have. Natalie Lynch-Walsh is the facilities task force advisory board chair. So she's got the goods and resident. And I'm suggesting council member – council president Fadgen hit the clock for 10 minutes. But it's your meeting and you guys do what you want. I think 10 minutes will be good. We don't want to be here all night. And we love you, but we'll put you on the clock. The good news is I'm not a night person. That might be bad news. Our strategy worked. All right. I got red bull up there. Wore me out. Thank you very much, mayor and council members. So I did throw slides together. I'm not sure since it's not coming from my computer. Oh, this is that. Okay, cool. And just to be clear, I have nothing to do with redefining our schools per se from the district. And apparently nobody does right now because the person that was leading the charge took another – and to be clear, what appears to have happened is she applied for both jobs around the same time. And Broward Schools always snatches you up before they think through their decisions. So then Vermont – we're not quite sure what prompted her. The board workshop might have been – and then there's been a long-range facility master plan steering committee. But I guess she decided Vermont was a better fit, and I think she made a wise choice. So we're back to square one. So with that said, we here in Plantation are sort of where the rubber meets the road. The slides that I put together, I picked – that's Plantation High School. Right now they're about to start the renovations to the media center, which is the thing with those lovely white shades that look like what they are from the 60s. They're taking the art building and renovating it into the backside of the media center. And they've put a couple million into that, so I believe that the scope for that is good. The media center, what they've been doing throughout the district is what I call zhuzhing up the media centers, where they'll throw down some new carpet, maybe get some new furniture, and you'll see the same ratty old ceiling tiles. And I said, nah-ah. And so they had a solicitation where there was a bid protest. And I'm like, ah, good. It stopped. Let's go make sure you guys have properly funded this thing, because I'm holding them to the ed specs, which there's a laundry list of things that are required, the district standards, called educational specifications. And so I've asked them to compare what's in the scope to what should be in the scope. And then if there's additional funding needed – and I keep having staff go, oh, so the city will throw – I go, no, no. The city will probably advocate that you properly fund the project once we come up with a number that we can share with the city. But you're not getting money from any other city. Don't expect Plantation to be ponying up money. You're just doing what you should be doing. So let's see. Hold on. What? Oh, flip it on. I think. Oh, off. On. And then moving forward. Whoops. Okay. So I threw these together. I even found a typo, but not on this one. So basically, as we all know, our residents are not in Plantation Middle and Plantation High. I was at Central Park Elementary last week, and I asked the question, so who's going to Plantation Middle and Plantation High? No hands were raised within, you know, 13 people at a SAC-SAF meeting. I said, don't feel bad. I'm just asking. So we've got to have some vision for what we want our schools to be and look like, you know, so that we have people to play pickleball in the future in our city. Then you've got to plan and then redefine what our schools are. Oof. That's smaller than I was expecting. But so the condition of the facilities, Plantation Middle was re-roofed. Plantation High is undergoing renovations. There are other schools that have had varying degrees of renovations. But in terms of what they're looking at, the districts, they're also looking at, you know, under-enrolled schools. So I don't think the schools more in the south have had as many issues. Plantation High missed out on having a cafeteria during the recession. So we sort of have a hodgepodge of conditions of facilities. The programs and curriculum, I think we know what we have in each of our high schools and each of the zones. We have IB at Plantation High. We have the environmental magnet at south. The enrollment, the presentation that was done at the workshop, I put a link in this presentation to the numbers. The enrollment, so Plantation Middle and High make the schools under 70%, that are 70% or less. The board had a discussion about starting with schools that were at 60%, but we don't have the luxury of waiting until we hit 60%. And nothing is supposedly going to happen for next year because boundary changes would have already been announced and this, that, and the other. And it takes a while to properly plan. The district, though, in terms of why this is the time to strike and come up with ideas, the district does not have money. Today, the state said, thou shalt pay the $80 million to the charter schools. They don't have it. In order to pay teacher raises, they pulled money out of ARP, the American Rescue Plan funds, that at first, I think they were going to pull it out of facilities, but I was raising hell, for lack of a better word. So suddenly it was coming out of technology. So now somebody else is asking them, well, what are you cutting in technology that was supposed to be part of the American Rescue Funding? Capital reserves, they can't really spend any more this year. Obviously, that gets replenished every year, but there are so many other schools that have needs that we need to kind of make sure we get our needs quantified. So at $80 million, next year, they're going to be starting out $40 million in the hole for raises because American Rescue is non-recurring. And they didn't even get to the non-teacher, pardon? Oh, okay. They didn't even get to the other bargaining units, so they're starting like $40 million in the hole. That's on top of the $80 million. So what is coming, there will be school repurposing. There will be closures because there must be. They can't afford all of the current real estate. They cannot afford to have two half-empty schools next to each other. So, but the problem is, just like with the bond, all the same signs for a perfect storm are in place in terms of putting the cart before the horse, not having data. The data that was shared at the workshop was very superficial and generic. And for this year, it doesn't tell you how they got there. It provides no insight. I had to do a public records request to get that, and I'm the chair of the facilities task force. But I did start getting data. I got some transportation data, which showed that the highest magnet school transportation costs for last year was, guess which school? Plantation, middle. One bus for one student, $4,500. One student, they're providing a bus, and one student is on the bus, and that's a per student cost, then, of $4,500. In terms of countywide transportation, if they look at cutting transportation costs, you could be in trouble at South, because they had a per pupil cost of $1,346. But that's countywide, and maybe they don't need to provide transportation. I think transportation is going to be one of the things that takes a hit. Just for magnets, and I'm still not sure this is totally correct. We're at $4.9 million for the 22-23 school year, and that's without NOVA. NOVA is another couple million. So I think we're going to start seeing transportation being cut. But the other thing, let's see, so it's cool, da-da-da-da, oh, so from the workshop, I don't think that I can access the link, can I? So if I can't, I actually printed it out, because that was, they had a table of contents in there. This is the backup, which you can access from the presentation. I just don't think I can access it right now. And the pages, I listed the pages that show some of the key data. There's been this idea that there are fewer kids in Broward County. There's not. It's the same number of kids, they're just not choosing to come to Broward School. So in the past 20 years, they have lost, they say, almost 60,000 students. And they've lost several thousand just since COVID. So when you start looking at assigned students as a percentage of available capacity, I was surprised that, for instance, Central Park has fewer kids in its boundary right now than it did before. It's like they're at, Peters is way over. And then Plantation Middle, way over in terms of kids zoned, but are not, you know, as a percentage of capacity. So I sort of cataloged, went through the presentation, and these are sort of the pages where they talk about elementary, middle, and high, and the percentage. Also of the assigned students attending, Central Park has reassignments. That's new. They never used to have reassignments when my kids were there. Now they have 100-plus reassignments. And they wouldn't have been any when your kids were there either. So, yeah, so things are shifting because of what's been happening the past few years in COVID. But a lot of it is, you know, are the schools serving our community? Policy 5000, you're supposed to provide standards for long-range planning of educational facilities, and that didn't happen. There was no long-term planning in 2014, so here we are today. And that's in policy. The district has a bad habit of not following its own policies. Also in 5000 is the establishment of and maintenance of feeder patterns that permit students to move forward together from elementary school to middle and from middle to high to the maximum extent possible. Never had a discussion about that because boundaries are hard. You have to be able to look people in the eye and tell them this is in everybody's best interest. And we've certainly hit that point now where we have to – they have to start doing things. We made the list – so high school made the list. They're at 68.7. Plantation Middle is supposedly at 62.9, which if they were – but that's not accurate because the building that was built around 2005 was repurposed. And I did the math, it eliminated 579 seats. And a middle school should not have – right now it has 507 students, and its permanent capacity is supposedly 806. That's too small to sustain a middle school. So, if I can add to that, they built what was going to be a separate 6th grade because people were concerned about safety. They built a separate 6th grade building that held about 500 people. They were so under-enrolled, that is now administrative offices in the 6th grade. Yeah, and the 6th graders are enrolled in 6, 7, 8. May I add to that? I don't want to take away from your time, and I'm glad you brought that up because I was going to speak to that. When we put the IB program in there, and that's where the IB – that was supposed to be the IB building. And I look at that number, and I'm glad you brought it up because that is – it is not accurate, and it's a little disingenuous when you look at – it was – originally, it was almost 1,200 students that were supposed to be in there. I pulled up something today – I think the original permanent capacity was 1,345. Right, and I pulled up something today. In March of 2020, they were listed as below 55 percent capacity. Oh, they were almost closed. And that's when they went ahead and repurposed that building. Yeah. And at what cost? Because now they have a program where one kid is rattling around on a bus. So, here's my typo. So, basically, my – and I shopped this idea to the parents at Central Park. I got to go to Peter's, I think, at there, Sac-Saf, and then Mirror Lake. If we consolidate – because the only rumor I've heard is that they're thinking they're going to put some administrative offices into Plantation High and just walk away and say, we're good. Now, they haven't confirmed that, but my sources are usually pretty good. Because, essentially, do what – do at Plantation High what they did at Plantation Middle. Here, we no longer have, you know, as many seats. Problem solved. Bye. If we do that, then we're dooming all of our residents. If we don't want them stressed over pickleball, you can't imagine the stress that everybody's had over schools the past. My kids are now 16 and 18. One's in college. That entire lifetime of theirs, it's been nothing but stress about where to go to school. People move out of Plantation. And in part two of this conversation, now that I started getting the data, I don't know what finally dislodged it from the district, but now they're flinging raw data at me, which I'm then going to make them analyze. We can see exactly where our kids are in terms of reassignments, because none of that was presented the other day. So I now have enrollment by TAS, codes, reassignment codes for the past 10 years I asked for. We asked for all kinds of data. So that we really understand where kids are going, because that tells you what they're looking for. Lots of kids trying to get into Western, lots of kids at Western, Indian Ridge. If you live north, you're in south and Seminole, and it's a domino effect. So combining the two schools would reduce operating costs and increase efficiency. You could ensure that the curriculum and the schools serve the needs of the students from the Plantation Feeder Schools, because that would be what would be combined as the three feeder schools. A lot of the kids end up at Indian Ridge in advanced classes, and then at Western in advanced classes. If you have a 6 to 12, then the middle schoolers have access to high school teachers who are highly qualified at Plantation Middle. My daughter started there. She had a teacher that wasn't even certified, and she was doing things in the language arts class that was almost malpractice. So that we could avoid that. And then it eliminates the Plantation and Piper split feeder patterns that currently exist. The concerns I got from parents was about separating the different grade levels on campus. The reason that I brought up this picture is right now they have the gifted, and there's two other newer buildings that are kind of on the perimeter of the school, where you could conceivably put middle. I mean, that's not something we're going to sort out today. Whereas the main building could be more for the high school. But they can figure that out. And then another one, providing separate buses for middle and high schools. That's what NOVA has. So it would make sense that you probably would not put your sixth graders in with seniors. But so far, those were the two concerns. From what I've been looking at, like I said, the media center renovations need to be funded to meet educational specifications. Because I'm kind of planning, regardless of what happens, I'm advocating for the media center to get macked out. And then down the road, funding a new cafeteria. We lost the cafeteria during the recession. And they're still operating with that 1964 cafeteria. So next steps, I just got the data, I've got to compile it, and then share it out, and get them to start analyzing data. They need to follow laws, policies, and best practices. There's a law about, and I've mentioned it in here before, the public school interlocal state statute 163.31777 that speaks to the oversight committee. The oversight committee has a superintendent school site review committee. And every time I would ask about that, they would kind of push it off. But this is all the planning that needs to happen behind the scenes and the data crunching. And then there is, I'm a member of the long-range facility master plan steering committee, which consists of advisory chairs and PTA. There's someone representing the Broward League of Cities. We did not meet for six months. We have lost almost a year, because almost a year ago, we were asking for the same data that they're finally coughing up now. I think we need to wrap it up, if you can get to the end. So that is the last slide, actually. Well, perfect timing. And that's why it's called Next Steps. So the next steps is that we're going to have another steering committee meeting, and I will go to the other schools, and we'll be sort of pressing forward on the data to kind of provide a clearer picture of where the kids' implantation are. I will probably be asking for help once I get them to quantify the media center to make sure that gets funded and then provide an update. But that's sort of where we are, and we'll see who's running the redefining our schools. But I think what we need to do is focus on redefining plantation, because I'm not so sure that, you know, they're going to be prioritizing plantation. They're trying to do the whole district. Thank you. Mr. Mayor? So if you're sitting in this chair, what would you tell the school board, and what would our request be? Sounds like you're saying 6 to 12. Consider. And I'm not saying I agree you're not. I'm just saying. Right. To look at the feasibility of a 6 to 12. And I'm curious what you all think, because I see you shaking your head. You might have a different. Because we've had that discussion. Yeah, I know exactly. That's why I'm not bringing it up. Yeah. No, but I'm saying that's what I heard from her. I appreciate Dr. Lynch-Walsh coming tonight to talk about the facilities. Right. And the data. And I think then we need to have our discussion about why this was on the agenda tonight and where we want to go forward. Okay. I don't have a. Something's going to happen, and we're going to have to be prepared to give our thoughts. Yeah. But we need to start with what do we have right now. Yeah. All right. Thank you. Thank you, Mr. President. So I just want to clarify something that Mr. Korman said earlier. The reason this was on the agenda tonight was not necessarily because of the mayor's letter, but it was more because of what happened the day after. So unbeknownst to, I think, most of us, except maybe the mayor and Mr. Noonemaker, Dr. Licata had sent out on the 6th that request for basically a form letter, will you partner with us? When I attended my Briar League of Cities meeting the day after, the Thursday, that letter came up, and there was a very vigorous discussion about it. And I immediately called Mr. Noonemaker when I left the meeting because many people felt, and especially those that had appeared and spoke out and reached out to school board members on the SRO issue, that, you know, it was the type of thing that came out on a Thursday night. We had to react and be prepared by Tuesday. So, you know, in Mr. Noonemaker's wisdom, he said, you know, this really needs to come before the council at your next meeting, which is tonight. So that's why this was on the agenda tonight. The mayor's letter is in the backup, but that really had nothing to do with it. So that was the agreement that we had that, listen, we're not going to rush. If you looked at the original backup material for the school board meeting last week, only nine of 31 cities had originally responded. There were some that came in later, but everybody felt they were being rushed and wanted to have a much more thoughtful discussion with their entire body before they, and that's what came out of the Briar League of Cities meeting. I think, to Mr. Corman's point, I think it was a matter of process that we were not in favor of the mayor going forward with the letter and just decided to let it die. You felt that we should have taken action. That's fine. But I think that it was up to us to have that discussion with school board members, and I think many of us did, that we were not in support of that. And I know the mayor spoke before the meeting last week. Again, we wanted this to be a much more global discussion, which I think you saw in the backup material with the cities that did write letters. How do we partner with our schools currently? And I think that's what we need to discuss. And this is a very long process. You know, as Dr. Lynch-Walsh said, there's a lot that goes into this, and the data is not. Even when you take a look at Plantation Middle, that is not an accurate picture of who's attending that school. And it's not serving the community. It's the elephant in the room that we've, you know, we've been dealing with it for a very long time. And we put that IB program in there, hoping that would turn things around. It did for a short time. Put the magnet in there, and it's not serving the residents of Plantation. I think there's only 300 students in there that are Plantation residents. So what do we do? Mayor, you have the homes for educators. Again, I did not think that we should be site-specific at this time. I thought that we should have looked at that a little more globally. I mean, Plantation Middle, if that were to be repurposed, sits on a transit line. That is someplace that could also be used for that. It could be repurposed for other things. So what I'd like to see happen, to your point earlier, we do need to include the community. There's more than one opinion on this. And I think that Plantation has an opportunity at this point to take the, you know, decide what we want to see in our community. Because this is evolving no matter what. The school board is in a very difficult position. They need to start. And I'm hoping that they will lease some of these properties and not just sell them, you know, and not just give them away, because they need to hold on to some of them, in my opinion. But it's a very huge undertaking. We are not first on the list by any means, especially when you're getting data that's not quite accurate. But we need to start to have those conversations. So what I'd like to see happen is that we, you know, if we sit in the conference room in there and we have a workshop and start to give ideas, there's a lot of good ideas out there. What could even be done with that Plantation High School campus that are being replicated in other, that we could replicate from other municipalities outside of the state. And then I think we utilize our EAB, too, and perhaps hold, you know, meetings at some of our community centers and start to hear from the community. That was one of the criticisms of the school board when they had their town halls. They did not go to enough locations. They did not make it easily accessible. They said people could, you know, look online. But they did not make it easily accessible. And I think that's what the city of Plantation needs to do. We need to make sure that we're hitting every corner of this city and determining what our residents want. Because I don't know what the conversations that Dr. Lynch Walsh had at the schools, but a lot of the people, and I think, Mayor, you had given that presentation at Central Park Elementary a couple of years ago. And a lot of the parents at that meeting were not in favor of merging Plantation Middle and Plantation High School. Oh, you're talking about the 6 through 12? Right, right. I remember the risk. Well, it's a discussion on one of the input. Sure. No, no, no. But if you remember the input that you received. So I think that we need to have a much more broader discussion about that. I think there's a lot of different options, but we've got to be creative about it. So my opinion about what. I do not see any other people want to talk on the dais. Oh, Council Member Andreo. Just, thank you. Just one other comment. I mean, I'm sure everybody realizes it, but a few comments that were made recently. So nothing's happening until the 25-26 school year. So that's just one thing I wanted to state. So it is a long process. This is not happening for August for those who haven't been as tuned in. Another point is if anybody was listening to that school board meeting last week on the 20th, a lot of the school board members also stated that they are not willing to necessarily sell their vacant land. So, again, you know, that conversation might be premature about a project on that vacant land. And we should absolutely meet with our EAB and continue the discussions about what their vision is and their suggestions moving forward. I just, I didn't see the sense of urgency, I think, that we might have thought we needed to have. I know we wanted to participate. I would have liked to have seen the letter that was sent out kind of more state, you know, that the city, and I think some other cities did it, as Council Member Hoyland said, maybe we want to have first right of refusal. If they, the school board does decide to sell a piece of land, I would like to see that type of statement be made. And that concludes my comments. Thank you. Thank you. Council Member Reinstein. So I did attend one of the Redefining Our Schools meetings that the school board held. And as Council Member Hoyland said, one of the biggest criticisms was that there just weren't enough of those meetings in enough locations. And I'm thinking about what I think I heard Council Member Hoyland suggest is that maybe we can continue this discussion on our own in our city by doing some town hall meetings throughout the city. You know, you do one at Volunteer Park, you do one at Jim Ward, you spread it throughout the city, so you give, you know, the entirety of the city a chance to speak on this and get an offer of their input. I think that will help us so that whenever these decisions are being made by the school board, then we can speak with some real sense of commitment and involvement from our residents. Okay. I do not see anybody else who would like to speak. So with that, we're going to move on to legislative items. Item 17, first read of an ordinance amending the code of ordinances to allow for online publication of advertisements and public notices. City Attorney Israel, please read the ordinance. Yes, sir. An ordinance of the city of Plantation, Florida, pertaining to the subject of legal and official advertisements, updating the code of ordinances to allow for publication of advertisements and public notices on a publicly accessible website pursuant to Florida law, providing for severability, codification, conflicts, and an effective date. We have a motion. Motion to approve. Item 17. Second. I don't see any comment from the day. Is anybody in the chamber want to make a comment? Ms. Beggarow, please call the roll. Council Member Einstein. Yes. Council Member Horland. Yes. Council Member Anderson. Yes. Council Member Andreu. Yes. Council Member Fajan. Yes. All right. Item 18, first reading of an ordinance amending the code of ordinances, Chapter 7, Elections. City Attorney Israel, please read the ordinance. An ordinance of the city of Plantation, Florida, pertaining to the subject of elections, repealing sections 7-1, 7-2, and 7-3 of the code of ordinances of the city of Plantation, repealing resolution number 12.841, amending Chapter 7, Elections of the code of ordinances of the city of Plantation, providing for qualifications, providing procedures for becoming a candidate, payment of qualifying fees, and submission of required forms, providing an alternative method of qualifying by petition, providing for campaign reports, providing for a form of ballot, providing for proclaiming elections, providing for an oath of office, providing for initiative and citizen referenda, renumbering Section 2-3, vacancy and candidacy for a member of the city council or mayor, to Section 7-9, providing for conflict, severability, for codification, and an effective date. Thank you. Council Member Horland. Mr. President, I just want to make note that Section 7-2-7 needs to change from Form 1 to Form 6. Saw that. Good. Anything else? I just had a question regarding Section 7-2-A-1, the paying qualifying fees. Do we need to notate that it needs to be drawn off the campaign account, or is it sufficient to just leave it as is? That's a statutory requirement under… So we don't really need to… Correct. …to find it. And then I saw, like, if there's a return check that it can be paid with, I think, a cashier's check drawn off the campaign account. That's statutory? That's exactly wording from the statute. Yes, sir. Okay. That's all I had. I don't see any other comments. Can we have a motion? Motion to approve with the change. 7-2. You got it. Second? Second. Second. Nope. Council Member Anderson beat you. Sorry. I believe Mr. Conklin wanted to make a comment. Dennis Conklin, 4581 Northwest 6 Court. Just very quickly. When a former candidate was looking at this, they saw that the fee for city council is $250 and the mayor was $500. And the candidate mentioned, wow, that seems a lot less than what I had to pay when I was a candidate. So I said, well, that's great. So I wanted to say, if you're lowering the cost for entry for our citizens to throw their hat in the ring, kudos to that. But I didn't know because I've never, since preserves us, I won't run for office. But if that's being the case, it's not. It's always been $250 and $500. It always has. All right. Well, again, I'll yield back my time. I know there's a state fee. So there was two fees that you actually had. I understand it was to align with the state. But I guess maybe we had different fees before. Thank you. Yield back. All right. Good. Does anybody else like to speak in the chamber? Seeing none. We have a motion. We have a second. Ms. Beggarro, please call the roll. Council Member Reinstein. Yes. Council Member Horland. Yes. Council Member Anderson. Yes. Council Member Andreu. Yes. Council Member Fashion. Yes. Thank you. Okay. Item 19, presentation by Express Media LLC for reduction of judgment, discussion, and possible action. Representatives of Express Media may come up and make your presentation. Good afternoon, Mayor, Council Members. Yeah. So I'm the owner of Express Media Printing. I bought the building. Can you state your name and address for the record? Oh, for the record, the address is 420 North State Road 7, Plantation, Florida, 33317. And my name is Ricardo Rutherford. Okay. And you're the owner? Yes. Okay. Correct. Did you get a check on the last time you were going to do like a research on the property in its existence? Did you ever get a chance to look at that? We received backup as part of the agenda. We kind of have the history. So I think the way we want to proceed is for you to present and make your request. And then I'm assuming we'll have questions. And then we'll make a decision. Okay. So, yeah. As you probably know, the building has been in existence for over 50 years. The property never had any curbing, never had any asphalt, never had any landscaping, never had any irrigation. How do you know that? From just research and looking at the property condition when I... 50 years ago? Yes. Never. Okay. Go ahead. If it would have had curbing, I'm pretty sure they wouldn't tear the curbing up in the property. Okay. Continue. Yeah. So we bought the property and for the past previous owners, I think the last 20 years, it was two owners, one from 1990s to like 2005 and the other owner from 2005 to 2017. So that's over maybe 30 years or so. And I don't believe they got not one fine for ever putting the property in compliance or nothing like that. When I bought the property, the property was free and clear, no liens, no code violations, anything like that. And I bought the property, obviously I do printing and I was in plantation on 933 South State Road 7, you know, the Metro PCS Plaza with the new Burger King down the street from the new facility y'all just built. So I was in that place before in plantation for like I think two or three years and I moved all my stuff from out of there and put it in there. And in 2019, they started telling me about the parking lot, which I tried to do because I had the same architect that worked with Dr. Romano on this project to try to get the property in compliance, but Dr. Romano never received any fines. And then finally- Who's Dr. Romano? Dr. Romano was the owner from 2005 to 2017. The only person that probably wouldn't know her, know him, is Lisa Zelts from Planning and Zoning. Okay. Because she'd been here the longest. And so I got the property. They started with the fines, I think like $200 a day. One for not having the parking lot without curbing and striping, which I inherited the property like that. And also the other one for local business tax, which I applied for four different local business tax. But Vicki Brown and I think Lisa, they disapproved the local business tax because of the parking lot. So we've been trying. I had several different construction companies that came out and gave me quotes, took money. One said they pulled the permit. They did some work, never pulled the permit. Another one did asphalt repair in the back. But I didn't know that you needed a permit for the asphalt repair. And I just paid that fine, which was $9,315, I think like two days ago, no, like last week, Friday. And total right now, I paid the city $10,800 so far. But I still have this outstanding lien for $360,000 plus. I think it's $383,000 right now, total, with everything. So I have pictures of like the job that we did and the before. I had a PowerPoint presentation, but I wasn't. I had emailed Needlemaker about what procedures I needed to do, but nobody never responded. You emailed him? Yes. But I asked her if I could use my PowerPoint. I have it on Google or a zip drive. But she told me that I had to do it two days before, which I didn't know. But I had these pictures from the last time that I could show the council members and the mayor, if you guys want to see it, which would show the before and after of the property. Oh, no. Okay. All right. So I got it like this. This is the before and the right is now. Yes. Correct. I'm going to quickly look at it, and I can pass it off. I noticed that covered car is still there. Yeah, that's my car. I just put a cover on it. I mean, if I have to move it. Is it there, or is it stored there? Yeah, that's my personal car. It has a tag on it, but I just put a cover on it. You put a cover on it when you're in the office. Which one? Those two white cars? It's a covered car. I was by the property last week. I went by yesterday, and I see that covered car. Is that your driver, or are you just storing it in the driveway? No, that's my car. It has a current tag on there, but I just figured I put a car cover over it. You go to work, you put the cover on, and then you take the cover off, and you go home. No, it's just there. It's there over there? Yeah. Okay. Okay. Like a third car. Okay. Yeah. Go on. So, yeah, I'm looking for, like, I heard about another fine reduction that somebody had tried to get stopped by a special magistrate. One of my fines was stopped by the special magistrate, by the city attorney that Mr. Ezra sent over, I guess the assistant, and I had to pay $500 there, but I never got the case heard, but the other magistrate got the case reduced from 228 down to zero. You know, I'm not asking for zero, but, you know, I'm asking for something that's, you know, sort of kind of fair. I mean, I have these papers that I got, I can show it to you, that I got, they posted on my door, I think around last year, but I was trying to get the property in compliance with the permitting. But it shows pretty much what it's saying is you just pay administrative costs after the special magistrate reduces the fine. And I don't know if you guys have the ability to do that, but that would be something that would help me get head started. Part of the problem is, is we have a judgment now. We don't have a lien. Two of them, we have liens. One of them, you said you paid off two days ago. The judgment's a whole other matter. You know, that's a long way to get to a judgment, because we're not looking to foreclose on properties. We want to get people in compliance. So, I'm going to ask you again, what are you asking for? As far as like a lien reduction? What, what, what reduction are you asking for is what I'm asking, yeah. I mean, if I could get somewhere between a 80 to 90% reduction, that's something feasible that I can pay. Okay. You, you have other things you want to show us? The Code Adamance program, I don't know if you want to take a look at this. You probably know about this. Yeah. Is it? It's over now, but this was something that you guys had. Fort Lauderdale has one, too, as well. But theirs is a little different. Theirs is like, if you're, say if you're, I know it's a judgment, but say if your lien is $50,000, Fort Lauderdale has one which will drop the lien 90% down, and you'll pay 10% of that lien cost. And you got that when it was active, right? I got this when it was active, but dealing with different construction companies and engineers and stuff like that, nobody could pull the permits. I spent over $20,000 dealing with construction companies, trying to get the permits pulled and everything like that, and I just lost that. I got the names of all the construction companies who just took the money and ran off. I see a council member would like to speak. Do you have anything you want to tell us more on your presentation? Well, my business part, I might want to speak, I don't know, if he. That's fine. You mind? No. Okay. Anything you'd like to add? Yeah. If you could state your name and address for the record. Yes. Wolf Nelson, 420 North, State Road 7, Plantation, Florida. The only thing that I'd like to add to this is that, like he said, the building was never in compliance. We got it up to compliance, and the building looks the best that it has ever looked. We have employees inside of the building that live in the city, and we just want to continue building with the city. Council Member Hornley? Thank you, Mr. President. Thank you, Mr. Rutherford. You explained why you did not apply for the amnesty program when that was available, and I understand that problems can compound upon themselves, but that was available to you. This property has been identified as a blighted property in the corridor, in the corridor that we're really trying to uplift, and I don't know if you were ignoring some of these notices, but it became quite flagrant. One of my largest concerns is we have all the number of police calls to that property since you've owned it, and I'm looking at that right now. There's been 49 calls for service. That's a lot of calls for that property. I never called any police there. I don't know who called skin to you. Other people have called the police on your property. Are you hosting food trucks there also? Well, I had a couple of friends who print stuff with me at one time, and they asked me, hey, you mind if we sit here and sell food on Fridays? I was like, okay, no problem. I don't have no problem with that. They didn't pay me, but they were my print customers who support my business, so I didn't have a problem with it. But then as soon as the city brought it to my attention to remove the food trucks, we removed the food trucks right away. And again, nobody wants to see you go out of business, but I'm looking at this list that we have from the police. From April 1st, 2017 until July 22nd, 2023, there have been 49 calls to service, which means that the police have been called about the property. That's of great concern to me. Yeah, I don't have any recollection of that. I'm done, Mr. President. Okay. You know, in our backup, we got a memo. The apartment complex across the street stopped advertising their apartment locally because of the noise complaints. There was music going on. I don't know if that was part of the food trucks. They actually had to start advertising to lease their apartment out of state. They really had, I kind of looked at them trying to trick them, trick people to come move into their property because anybody in the area kind of had a reputation. I guess some of the questions I have are, you had two magistrate meetings you didn't appear at, and that's where this all started. Because we cite you, actually a lot of times we give you like a courtesy notice to try to get you to get into compliance. We just want you to be in compliance. And then you get to the magistrate, it takes a willful avoidance to get to that point. And I think the two magistrate hearings that are part of the judgment, whereas because you didn't show up to that. It's concerning to me that you applied for a business tax receipt December 19th, 2018, and you didn't get it done until February 26th, 2024. What compelled you to get it done at that point in time? So December 18th, I believe, was maybe the second time I had applied for the business tax. But the property, I had just finally found somebody to pull the permit, I think in June or July of 2023, we finally got the permit issued on September 29th of 2023. They tried to have a foreclosure sale on October 11th. Well, I'm not talking about that quite yet. Okay. I'm aware of that history. But I'm just saying, in order to operate a business in plantation, you have to have a business tax receipt. And you applied for December 19th, 2018, and maybe that's your second application. But it didn't, you didn't come in compliance until February 26th, 2024. That's six years of operating a business plantation, not under the ordinances of our city. At your previous location, did you have a business tax receipt? Yes, we had a business tax receipt at the previous location. The thing is, with the business tax, they would never approve it because of the parking lot. But on the picture that's there is the best windows company who got their business tax approved for the same location with no curbing, with no asphalt, with no striping, with no nothing. Best windows who's in plantation right now. I'll acknowledge that the parking lot looks good. I would say that some of the complaints in some of these past things, there's problems. It looks like one of the hedges have been barreled over on the east side of that parking lot. You know, you have your building, and then the east side of the parking lot, there's hedges. It's kind of like there's part of it, there's a big empty spot to it. So that's part of the polo-tropical hedge. And I spoke to the landscaping inspector about it, and he said he's going to cite them about that. Okay. And that's fine. I appreciate the clarity if that's not your responsibility. The other thing that jumped out at me at the property on the current thing is the shutters on the second floor window. Like, how long have those been up there? Well, the shutters have been up there since I purchased the building, but because I'm not occupying. On that, 2017? 2017. And the reason why that's still on there is because I'm not occupying the second floor, so I didn't see the need to take it off. Well, it looks like it doesn't look good for the district. I'm surprised you didn't get cited for that. And then on the north facade, it looks like it's mildewy. And the north facade, you know, because it looks like the building next to it, the second floor for your building, it doesn't look – it looks like probably what you got cited for. And then the back doesn't look great either. Councilmember Andreu? The back is fully done. If it's mildewy or nothing, that's nothing that we cannot fix. But nobody never cited me for anything like that. Okay. Councilmember Andreu? Thank you, President. My question is that it looks like there was a reduction if you paid by March 22nd, and the amount reduced was $9,315.15. Was that paid on $322? Yes. Yes, correct. It was? Yes, it was. And then another $15,640.30 is due by April 7th. Has that been paid as yet? No, the $15,000, that hasn't been paid. I actually wanted to get an extension on that. But I guess that fine, I didn't have any knowledge of that fine. According to the code enforcement inspector, he told me that that fine was for trash on the property and other stuff like that. But I had pictures where I pay a guy every two weeks to come and clean the property. So I didn't have any knowledge of a lien accruing for over a year to two years about trash. The property always be fairly clean. I'm sorry, it was a little muffled, but will that be paid by April 7th? That's my question. I mean, I can pay that by April 7th, but I mean, I wanted to try to maybe get an extension on that. But if I have to pay it by April 7th, I could find the money. But, you know, I'm just a small business. I just, I've been working in the city for maybe over 10 years now, but, you know, I'm not rich, you know. But, you know, I've got to try to do the best I can to, you know, keep this building and continue doing business in the city of Plantation. Okay, thank you. That's one real quick question. Do you have a county tax receipt? Well, we just got the business tax issued, so I never apply for the county tax because I... I don't have the county tax. No. Okay. Council Member Reinstein? So my concern is there's a concept called unclean hands, and that is that, you know, when you come before the council and you're asking for a benefit, you're asking for a reduction, you're asking for a benefit, but we see this whole history of really not following the rules to the letter of the law. And I recognize that you had some questions along the way as to why you're being fined for certain things or why there's a holdup in the business tax license when there are other people that are not getting held up. I mean, you've raised some legitimate questions here before us that you've had, but it doesn't seem like all those questions were timely raised when the issues first arise. So, you know, the concern, the initial concern for me is that you were operating for a long period of time without the business tax license. No, I was not necessarily operating. I didn't put any signage outside on the building. I didn't put any advertising outside of the building until, like, maybe two weeks ago. Yes, I had my stuff in there, and if I get an order, I fill it because I still had a mortgage on this property. So I understand that you weren't doing everything, but you were operating in that business. You were filling orders, so you were operating when you didn't have the business tax license. I get it that you have reasons that you want to give us, but you weren't fulfilling and following the letter of the law. So there are some concerns there. You know, I see here, you know, I'm looking at this history that also entails the court hearings, right? So you have these hearings before the magistrate, whether you showed up or you didn't show up. You did get some reductions of fines that you maybe now are thinking, maybe I should get some additional reductions for them. But I'm not seeing that you went back before the magistrate and asked for the reductions to the magistrate after you got those reductions or asked for the extension. I'm seeing what seems to be a history of waiting until everything really hit the fan until then coming before us. And, you know, that's what I'm seeing as concern. I'm glad you're here before us. We want to see businesses succeed, but, you know, it's tough to, you know, it's tough when we see this long history of concerns. Well, just to touch back on what he, the mayor, I mean, the president said, the complaints from across the street, that wasn't mainly because of my property. It might have been maybe the guys was playing music and it might have disturbed them. Yeah, but it was the plantation and hotel, a lot of crackheads over there, a lot of sex trafficking over there, and everything was over there. And that's part of the reason why that apartment complex, they had a whole left wing, a whole right wing close to plantation inside that was not rented because of plantation. And so it wasn't just me, you know, just you, but it was you also, somebody else as well. I mean, I don't have any recollection of 49 police calls. This is all your address. These 49 calls are all your address. Plantation Inn has their own sheet on this, longer, and they're gone. But, you know, if you flip it over, there's the balance of the 49 service calls. So I'm shocked that you weren't aware that the cops came that often to your property. So on this list that, this master list you got on this front page, it says 31 stuff, under disturb, I'm guessing that's what was the problem, disturb? There were police service calls coming to your property 49 times. No, but if it's a police call, it's because of disturbance or annunciance, right? Yeah. So under that, it's a, on a disturb, it's two calls for disturb. So twice that in six years. Chief, can you decipher this for us? Just tell them what these calls were about. I don't understand the, I just, I didn't care what they were for. I just know that we showed up to your property 49 times. Can you just tell them, like, what each of the abbreviations mean? Okay. I don't have the specifics on what the disturbance was. But these calls, you've got trespassing. You have a suspicious incidents service call. You had a burglary to a vehicle. You had a stolen vehicle, a structure fire. Structure fire. I didn't have no fire on my property. 420 North State Road 7. I never had a fire on that property. That is back on 11-6 of 2021. Yes. Could that have been, like, in a dumpster or a car, not actually in the building? That barbecue in the back? No, that grill in the back, that's, that, that, that, we don't even use that. I could get rid of that if you need me to, but that, it wasn't no fire back there at all. But you have, you have quite a few suspicious incident calls here. These are alarm calls. You have an abandoned vehicle. Well, a lot of stuff in the back, they do a lot of dumping in the back. And I had a lot of dumping and abandoned vehicles left in the back. And when I call you guys, you guys tell me to call Fort Lauderdale. I call Fort Lauderdale. Fort Lauderdale telling me to call you guys. So then I have to just get rid of it myself. November 6, 2021 was a Saturday night. So perhaps that's when you had people with food trucks there? No, they was on Friday. Fridays only? Okay. Well, the police were coming to your property. And actually, this was at 2.35 in the, I'm sorry, 2.56 in the afternoon. Structure fire? Yes, sir. 14.56. No, that was, I think I remember the FPL had a light pole in the back that burned down. That's probably what that was. Yeah. Okay. That solves that. I remember that on a Saturday. Okay. The watch is there. We had follow-up investigations there. There's always extra watches there on the side on Foreign Tech. They're there for the last two years every night. They never move. They sit there every night. After 7 o'clock, they're there every night. Okay. Thanks, Chief. The recommendation that we received. Can I get that back? Thank you. The recommendation by staff is to not approve a reduction. And my perspective is I'm concerned that if we did give a reduction, that we haven't seen a lot of good faith. And I think it's taken you way too long to address things. And then when was the unpermitted work? Was that, let's see, 10-6-22. I think that was the unpermitted work. So the unpermitted work. It came in compliant on January 19, 2024. Sorry. Go ahead. So the unpermitted work was the guy who was doing the asphalt work, which is, I got his card right here, Ray's paving. He said that you don't need a permit to. Yeah. And unfortunately, that's a story that these contractors tell a lot. But it's really the property owner's responsibility to make sure that you have the proper permit. I know that kind of stinks, but it's just like. That's the one I paid $9,000 for. So it cost me $9,000. Well, what I was saying is that staff is not recommending that we do a reduction. And these things never come to us. This is very unusual for us to be here discussing a judgment and whether or not we should do a reduction. Because all of that, all of the opportunity to have a reduction should have already occurred. And when you were having trouble getting all these permits and stuff like that, I think you probably should have been in planning and zoning and discussing it with the department to find out, you know, ask them advice. I was in planning and zoning numerous times since 2017. Okay. Does anybody else have anything to say? Any other questions? So may I ask why there's no reduction? Because nobody ever got a fine from this building ever for any parking lot which has been in the same situation for over 50 years. And, you know, yeah, I take some blame for it. But I think the local business tax I applied for times, the parking lot took me a long time. Yes, I'm sorry. But nobody ever did it in the whole building existence. The building was built 50 years ago. Nobody ever did it. Any other comments? City Attorney Ezra, am I wrong that this is like we've gone down a very long path to get to this point? And there should have been a lot of getting off the road, fixing this a long time ago. Well, again, the fact that we filed a foreclosure action on code enforcement liens, which we've only done in a few instances in the five years that I've been here. Right. I think I can only think of two. There's about half a dozen or so. Yeah. So, yeah, again, we foreclosed on two of the liens, the two liens that were not reduced by the magistrate. There were two liens that were reduced by the magistrate. And, again, as you know the history, we did get a judgment. We did proceed to schedule the sale. And the day before the sale, they filed bankruptcy. We are dealing currently with bankruptcy, a bankruptcy court. And we did discuss before the bankruptcy court, they were suggesting that there would be a request for a lien reduction. So the court wanted to give them an opportunity to do that. I consistently told their attorney that the magistrate has no jurisdiction to reduce a judgment, only to reduce the liens. I was told that they were going in front of the magistrate anyway, and then the magistrate, based upon our objection to considering a lien reduction for the two liens that were part of our judgment, reduced the two and denied the request with respect to the two that are part of the judgment. Because they didn't have jurisdiction. Correct. Then they came here last meeting, talked to counsel during public comment, and we brought the matter back before you for your consideration. There are several matters that are still pending in the bankruptcy court. There were a couple of hearings that were scheduled for tomorrow that have been rescheduled for about 30 days to deal with the city's motion to dismiss or for relief from the automatic state or proceed with the foreclosure and their approval of their disclosure statement and proposed plan of reorganization. So those matters are still pending before the bankruptcy court. Okay. So what do we need to do? Do we need to, if we take no action, the judgment stands. Correct. If we want to do a reduction, then we have to make a motion with the reduction that we'd be open to doing. Correct. Okay. And just so there's no misunderstanding, the reduction would, that you would, if you were to make a motion to reduce, I would then take that and I would amend our claim in bankruptcy court. Okay. And also take into consideration the fact that there's been a payment of one of the liens which would reduce the claim as well. Okay. So I guess I have somebody who said they want to speak to this. Oh, I'm sorry. Council Member Andrea. I'm sorry. Did you have somebody else who wanted to speak? I was going to make a motion. But if you have another speaker, I'll wait. Mr. Conklin, did you want to speak on this? Dennis Conklin, 4581 Northwest 6 Court. I pulled this because I wasn't sure which way it was going to be going. And I mentioned before that the Gateway 7 and the CRA has been improving, and I think he's trying to do his best here. I didn't realize that he's been in business and plantation for 10 years, so that's a big kudos to us. So I'll yield back. Thank you. Thank you, Mr. Conklin. Council Member Reinstein. Just for, I guess, the sake of completeness, is there anything further from planning and zoning to add? I know that Mr. Hall is not here, but, you know, is there anything from the administration to add that maybe has come up that there should be some further response based on your conversations? Not really. I think you'd covered it earlier. We look at the totality of it. So when I do a monthly review of the outstanding liens, the larger numbers catch my eye. So then it's like, well, what's this about? And then you look at the time frame of noncompliance, and it doesn't seem like the fire really got set until we filed foreclosure. And it should be also understood that in the context of what Plantation Inn was doing, which I would admit is more egregious, the food trucks played into that. We're addressing the whole atmosphere there. I can't speak to the previous 50 years, but I can tell you that we're very serious about the redevelopment of that corridor, and we're very focused on the next six years. So it's unfortunate it's got to this point, but it's also my understanding that the judgment will be paid out over a period of five years. So it won't be due all at once. Who set the term on that? Excuse me. The bankruptcy code. Okay. And the bankruptcy judge. And there is some level of authority, arguably, to even extend that longer, but it's generally three to five years. And the court, the plan that was proposed by their attorney contemplated a five-year payout. Okay. Anything else? Yeah. Go ahead. This may be for Mr. Ezra, is that the plan contemplated by their attorney that's already been presented to the bankruptcy court suggests that they will be able to pay off the entirety within five years and continue their business. That's questionable. The plan that was previously proposed has been, is going to be amended along with an amended disclosure statement. There were certain objections that were raised by me and also by the U.S. Trustee's Office because of the lack of financial feasibility to implement the plan. So there is, from my review of monthly operating reports, without an infusion of cash from third-party sources that have not committed, it's questionable. May I follow? So I think maybe that you've answered a different question, right? So I think that there are two questions. One is whether we think it's feasible, which is what you've answered. The question was whether they think it's feasible, right? They've presented something to the court that we think is not feasible, but they think that they could remain in business and pay out the amount entered over a five-year plan. That is what they presented to the court. That is correct. But again, they are going to amend their disclosure statement, which will deal with all the projections and feasibility. That was one of the matters that was deferred by the court until next month. Understood. Thank you. Council Member Andrea? So I will make a motion to do a 20% reduction. Would it be appropriate, Attorney Ezra? Could I also add to that if the other payment that's due on April 7th is paid on time? That would be an appropriate motion. So just for the record, I'm going to – the amount of $15,640.30 is due by April 7th of 2024. And assuming that gets paid and based upon the fact that the 9315.15 was already paid, that would leave the city's judgment of $350,192.71, which as part of a plan would bear interest at the statutory rate of 7.69%. So I'm assuming then that the motion would be to reduce the 350 by the 20%. We're basically getting rid of the interest. Well, not – More than. You just said it. That is the motion. Thank you. Go ahead. May I? Yeah. Council Member Andreu, did you mean reduce the $350,192.71 by 20%? But since that time, that was October 11th, 23, it's been a 7.69% interest. So it's ballooned past that. Are you offering the 20% discount, the high amount, or the October 11th, $350,000 amount? Oh, I'm sorry. What was the current amount? 434. I thought that that was the current amount. Attorney Ezra, can you clarify that did not include the 7.69% interest rate? The $434,000 figure does not include interest, okay? That includes the $350,000 plus the $35,000 and the $48,000. The two additional claims not adjusted. So one of them was paid. And one is going to be paid as part of the motion, as I understand it. So Council Member Andreu is saying 20% reduction on the $350,192 on the contingency that the April that was already reduced by the magistrate is paid on time. Is that accurate? That's my understanding. Council Member? That is accurate. Yes, that is accurate. And not the 7-point whatever interest. Well, the interest, that's statutory, right? It is statutory, but I think you should address how you want interest calculated. Is interest going to be calculated on the discounted amount? Yes. So where is it, where is it, when did, is the clock running on the interest? Yes, sir. When did that start? The date of the judgment. Okay, which was what? October 11th, 23. No, that was the sale date. 7-13-23? Give me one second here. It's all on that. Well, July 13th, 2023 was the date of the summary final judgment. Right, and then it. Yes. So that's when the interest was accruing? Correct. So we can say that we'll reduce the $3.50 by the 20% reduction, and the interest would be accruing as of that 7-13 at the reduced amount? Yes. Do you have any advice? I mean, it's a business decision for you. I mean, it's dollars and cents at this point. Well, my inclination is the interest would be accruing at that July 13th date. Can I say something? Go ahead. Why will you, like, keep building, like, blocks on the fire? Why are we here? I understand why we're here, but, you know, I think maybe, you know, give me a break on the interest. I'm going to pay by April 7th that I'm supposed to pay. I paid on time, the May 22nd one. I've been doing everything I need to do for the last nine months. You just said you were going to be asking for an extension. If they pretty much would have tried to give me a better reduction and put in a plan, then I would have put that $15,000 into the plan and then figure out to start paying the city monthly. I haven't been open up to the public at all for six years. Matt? Go ahead. I haven't been open up to the public for six years, but I thought you've already told us that you were fulfilling orders. Yes, but open up to the public and fulfilling orders is two different things. We're doing business, so you're differentiating between how you're doing. Correct. Mr. Mayor? I think cutting the interest is anything you can do to give him a break on interest. I do think it's appropriate in terms of the goal is for him to get it. The goal is this has got to hurt, and it's going to hurt. When do you want the interest to start then? You're the one saying that we should. It can't be interest-free. Right. Okay. I mean, it's, you know, so, but when do you, I'm asking. No, and I don't know. But now, three months, beginning of this year, maybe when he has a business tax receipt? Yeah. I think the interest, the interest should kick in when he is doing business with the public because then income is coming in. I don't think that's a good measurable. No, because he could continue to delay, and you're not getting any, there's no. I'm not going to delay. I'm actually ready to go now. I have my local business tax with City of Plantation for, like, maybe going on a month now. Oh, you got it. But I've been, yeah, I've been dealing with this for, like. So what he's saying, I think, is he took orders, meaning if business came in, he wasn't going to turn it down, but he hasn't aggressively gone out there and put a shingle out there and said, guys, I'm open here and ready to get going. Well, I would want is for him to be open and going, and I'd have no problem. 20% is plenty. I understand. I'm not arguing that, but I'm saying the interest does. I understand your point. Yeah. I'm asking you, when do you think the interest has started accruing? When do we turn the meter on? I mean, that's a reasonable question. Our judgment was in July. Right. We had a sale scheduled for October. Yeah. Well, I'm saying the interest is a big part of the fine and that piece of it. So, you know, you're setting him up to fail in this, in that way. And I understand he dug his own bed and I have. But I'm asking you. And you did a fantastic job vetting this. I understand everything you're saying. I'm asking you, when do you want to turn the meter on? Just tell me your opinion and then we can have a discussion on it. My opinion is when the BTR. No, you turn on the interest when he starts. When the plan starts. When he gets active business. Well, I don't think that's a good measurable because. Okay. Well, you asked me. I told you what. I'm saying, like, we turn on the clock when the plan's accepted by the bankruptcy court. And then he has to start making payments towards it. Yeah. I don't know. We can provide for that in the amended claim. Okay. Basically, what you're doing is you're agreeing to eliminate the accrued interest to date. Right? That's what that comes in. Well, is this the, the $350 doesn't include accrued interest. It does not. The $750, if we did an amortization table, it would be able to check the money at this point. I mean, if. And I'm really, I'm not, like, trying to fight you on this. I, I'm, I'm just asking for an idea. So, so 20% of $350 is 70. So, the $350 is going to come down to $280. Right. It's going to get down to $280. But it's going to be $280. But when are we going to start the 7% is the thing. Well, he had a plan right there. Yeah. People don't make $280 in a lifetime. You know what I'm saying? So, like he said, it's, yeah, he probably do. But like he said, it, it, it, it, it is going to, nobody, a lot of people don't make $280 in a lifetime. So, $280 is a large amount of money, you know? I know. And I, I said, like, it, it took a lot for us to get here. Yeah, to get to, I'm sorry. Okay. Yeah. All right. All right. No, it's all right. This is not a, this is for the, for our city attorney. And it's not a rhetorical question because I'm not a bankruptcy attorney. So, my question is, is that whatever we come up with here, if we come up with some type of reduction, it still is going to the bankruptcy court. Is that, it's in the bankruptcy court. And so, does the bankruptcy judge still have the authority to wipe it out? How does that happen? What, what would ha, what, what are the possibilities leaving here when it's still before the bankruptcy court? Somebody could object to the city's claim. Nobody has objected to the city's claim to date. Okay. They have already proposed a plan, although they're going to be amending their plan that provides for payment in full to the city based upon the claim that was filed. The fact that the city is over secured, meaning there's equity in the property above the city's lien, leads me to conclude that it would be difficult for anybody to eliminate the city's lien. That the worst case scenario is that the lien, the claim, whatever the claim is ultimately filed, is allowed and is provided for as part of the plan. So, I guess the remaining of the question, though, is that can there be a further reduction made by the bankruptcy judge? No, because the only ways that a claim can be erased or reduced is if there's no equity in the property. So, you can reduce a lien to the value of the property, right? If it's exempt property. Where are we secured in this? Are we number one? We're number two. Number two? Because there's still equity in the property. Yes. There's a small first mortgage holder that came late to the table. Nobody apparently knew about him. But, yes, there's a $50,000 or $60,000 first ahead of the city. Could we condition any type of reduction on discharging the bankruptcy action? Dismissing it? Dismissing it. I don't think that's going to work for them. I mean, the… Just thinking of the additional work that our city has to be involved in… You're talking about basically them writing a check for $300,000 and we're done. Payment agreement, another contract with the city of some sort to the city so the city doesn't have to continue litigation in the bankruptcy court as they're going to amend and there's going to be further hearings and matters. I mean, you could condition it. I'm not sure that's going to work for them. I mean, if I could get a better number, I'm open to dealing directly with the city. Well, I don't think you're going to get that 80 to 90 percent reduction. Councilmember Andreo, do you have an opinion on when the interest has started since it's your motion? Motion, the motion is as is, and you stated that the interest already started. It began on, was it July of 23? Yeah, but then the mayor spoke and said that, you know, we don't want to set them up to fail. So, is your opinion, the interest should start when that judgment was made in July of 23 or should we start it around now or when they… We can start it as of today. Okay. That is the amended motion on the floor. The interest rate starts as of today, $3.27, again, to repeat the motion that he must pay, the owner must pay the $15,640.30 by April 7th for the 20 percent reduction in the, I don't have that exact, $350,000 number. $350,192.71. Thank you. That is the motion on the floor. With the interest rate starting today. Okay. That's… Understood. Okay. Do we have a second? Second. Do you understand what our motion is? Yes, but I don't know why the interest should start today. I believe I should get at least a couple of months to try to get everything together. You have had since July of 23. No, but I had issues with… You pretty much… I'm not the only person that come in here and come inside the building department and have issues with permitting and contractors. I'm pretty sure in the building department they have issues with contractors doing all type of bad work. They even got a sign in Fort Lauderdale that say, if your contractor is trying to do a job without a permit, please call the DBPR. I just went to Fort Lauderdale today. Mike. Well, I understand what these subcontractors are doing. I do understand that. But it is the property's owner's ultimate responsibility, and that's why you're here. That sounds like a civil matter you could take up with that contractor that didn't advise you properly and caused you extra funds. So… President Badger… Yes. It's been properly moved and seconded, correct? Yes. Can we call the question? Ms. Beggarope, call the roll. Council Member Einstein? No. Council Member Horland? Yes. Council Member Anderson? Yes. Council Member Andrew? Yes. Council Member Fadgen? Yes. Okay. We gave you a 20% reduction. The interest is going to start accruing today when it's all settled with the bankruptcy on the condition that that $15,000 lien, they'll know the exact amount, is paid by the deadline. So how much is interest is on $280,000 daily? The lien amounts $15,640. It's a… Or weekly, monthly, I don't know. I just amortized what interests you. In addition to 20%, you just also saved… Actually, I'm not positive. You saved a lot of money in the eight months of interest in addition at 7.69%. Yeah, but you don't know how much interest is monthly? Well… The interest rate is 7.69%. Yeah, but how does that, how is that broken up? You can Google amortization calculator and put it all in. It's just… The bottom line is it barely passed. But it passed. Okay. The staff recommendation was no reduction. So I would probably tell you that I think it sounds about $15,000, $20,000 in interest that you saved because we're not accruing it from that July and we reduced it to 20%. So… So it's like about another $10,000, $15,000 a year of interest. Well, it's going to be about $20,000. So, all right. It's never going to… It's going to be… All right. Whatever. Sorry. Okay. It's your call. We're at item 20, advisory board's report. Mayor Sortel, your update. We've updated our HOA list. We're pretty close on having a new one. Have you all gotten one yet or not? What's that? Our HOA list. We all agreed that we needed to do an updated HOA list. We're making progress on it. I don't know if it's ready to hand over to you yet, but it's pretty close. Okay. We're working on it. And banners. We've done a lot of work on banners the past couple of weeks. Talked about all kinds of different things. The hometown here. Home rule and everything. Hometown, not home rule, but yeah. Okay, good. I've got to vote for that. Laura has been engrossed, and we've had a lot of conversations. We're getting close. I'm glad we're proceeding with that. Yeah. Yeah, we're getting close. My big thing is I'm planning state of the city, 530 p.m. on April 10th. So I will come in for a half hour early. We'll talk. It's not the state of Nick Sortle as mayor. It's the state of how's the city doing. At what time? 530. Because you don't have an early. The 10th. We have a council meeting on the 10th. 30 minutes before the council meeting. Oh, okay. So that way people come in and do it. We're going to broadcast it? Yes. We'll put it on any venue available. Okay. Anybody we want it. We've been talking a lot. We've got updates. We need the big picture. We'll tell you where we are in the big picture. Okay. That's all I got. All right. Board committee appointments. Selection of our 2024-25 board director, alternate, and second alternate Broward League of Cities. So I nominate Council Member Horland because she's already on the letterhead and she's the second vice president. So thank you. And everyone will come to my installation gala next year. Thank you. I enjoy serving and representing the city. So thank you. Does that need a second? I second. Ms. Beggra, can you call the roll? Council Member Einstein? Yes. Council Member Horland? Yes. Council Member Anderson? Yes. Council Member Andrew? Yes. Council Member Fadgen? Yes. Who was the alternate? Council Member Reinstein. I'd like to make a motion for him to continue as the alternate. Second. So I give him Council Member Andreu an opportunity? Second. Right. Okay. Ms. Beggra, please call the roll. Council Member Reinstein? Yes. Council Member Horland? Yes. Council Member Anderson? Yes. Council Member Andreu? Yes. Council Member Fadgen? Yes. And a motion for the, what are they called? Second alternate. Second alternate, Council Member Andreu? Second. All right. Ms. Beggra, please call the roll. Council Member Reinstein? Yes. Council Member Horland? Yes. Council Member Anderson? Yes. Council Member Andreu? Yes. Council Member Fadgen? Yes. Thank you. Okay. Council Member Comments, let's start with Council Member Reinstein. I'd like to see, brought back before the city, some discussion of our bike paths. You know, Mr. Goldstein brought it up, and at a prior, I think it was the Resiliency Advisory Board where there were a couple students from South Plantation that also came and did a really nice presentation about bike paths. And I would like to see some further discussion about where we are in terms of the multimodal plan and seeing more bike paths in our city. Carol, do we have a workshop set up coming on that? We do now. Okay. Okay. Is that it? I'm sorry. I didn't mean to interrupt you. That's it. I'm done. Okay. I know. Surprise. No microphone. Council Member Anderson for coming at first. And Council Member Reinstein and the Mayor had respectable times as well. It was great to see everybody out there. Or just respectable times. But anyway, it's a lot of good conversation tonight, so thank you, everybody. That's it? Mayor, you want another bite? Sometimes government is painful. Sometimes it hurts like heck to get through it, but we did a lot of good things today. We had to grind out the thing about the walls, and that's just the price we pay. If that's the price we pay, it's worth it. Can't predict these meetings. Anything else? Council Member Anderson? Happy Easter. And, yeah, the corporate run, just aside from it, it's great that I think there were 60 employees, and we were the 10th biggest organization out of 5,000 or 6,000 people. Don't you have a little more kudos, right? Yeah. And it was neat, so many different people getting together and just getting to know them and having fun there. I meant to add this. I'm sorry. I am stone-cold sober. I'm tired. That's all. I want to do a plantation corporate run, get all the plantation businesses, meet at Central Park, have Chamber or somebody do it or do it out of somewhere, and everybody gather in an evening and get 500 to 1,000. That's a great idea. Thank you. Put J.J. in charge. You did a great job. Absolutely. J.J. rocks. Benefiting what? City. Well, what? I'm not worried about the charity part. He said he's tired. This is a germ of an idea. We could do a benefiting Relay for Life. We could do a benefiting our parks and rec board. But the idea would be to other businesses to interact and everybody get to know each other. Yeah. All right. Anything else? Councilmember Anderson? Don't forget Councilmember Andrea. Oh, yeah. I looked over there. You weren't there. Councilmember Andrea, I'm sorry. No, that's okay, President Fadget. Thank you. Just happy Easter to everybody Sunday and enjoy the rest of your spring break for all of our students that are celebrating. Thank you. Thank you. Real quickly, I went to the procurement seminar. Very well attended. Informative. I learned some things. So I hope that we can keep doing that. And let's make a stronger effort to directly talk to the Plantation Chamber of Commerce because I think that would be great to get them to attend that because I think they would open their eyes. I drive down Broward Boulevard every morning and I was really enjoying watching the guy pressure clean as he went down the sidewalk. It was like watching someone play Pac-Man every day. That's the best feeling in the world. So that was good and the sidewalks looked great. And then the last thing, happy Easter. So with that, it's 1047 and we are adjourned.