City Council - Nov 04, 2026

Good evening, everybody. We've got a lively crowd tonight. Good evening and welcome to the November 4th City Council meeting. I'm going to ask the City Clerk to please call the roll. Council Member Anderson? Here. Council Member Andrew? Here. Council Member Horland? Here. Council Member Reinstein? Here. Mayor Sortel? Here. Assistant City Attorney Morgan? Thank you. Thank you very much, Ms. Beggro. And tonight's opening remarks on Pledge of Allegiance will be led by Council Member Anderson. Good evening, everybody. As you know, I want to take a moment. Not yet. I just said good evening. Wow. Thanks for, you guys, thank you for the honor, really. Please, let me conclude my remarks. Hey, look up in the roll. It's not church. I didn't say all rise, okay? I'm not a judge. None of that. All right. All right. I want to take a moment to recognize that we are meeting the day after Election Day. Tonight, we are here to not only conduct our regular business as a great city, but to thank and honor our candidates for yesterday's election. So regardless of the outcome of any particular race, I want to thank everyone who was willing to put their name on a ballot and participate in the democratic process. Running for public office requires a commitment of time, energy, family, sacrifice, and I believe anyone willing to step forward and serve their community deserves our appreciation. I want to congratulate Mayor Nick Sortle on his re-election. I want to welcome and congratulate Councilmember E-elect Aston Bright. Where is he? He's not sworn in here yet, so he gets to sit over there. I also want to congratulate my colleague Denise Horland, who, like me, was also fortunate to be unopposed for re-election. So we're both re-elected. As a lifetime resident of the city, I'm honored and grateful for the opportunity to continue serving alongside all of you. So, and finally, I would be remiss if I did not congratulate, I mean, excuse me, sorry, did not recognize Councilmember Tim Fadgen and thank him for his six years of service on this council. Public service asks a great deal of those who undertake it, and Tim has given his time and commitment to this community. And I want to personally thank him for his service and wish him all the best in whatever comes next. And most importantly, elections may determine who occupies these seats, but once the election is over, it's our responsibility to come together and represent all residents of this city and do the work on behalf of the entire community. So I look forward to continue working to do that work together. So at this point, now please all rise for the Pledge of Allegiance. I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the republic for which it stands, one nation under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all. Thank you, Councilmember Anderson. And items submitted by the mayor. Mayor, would you have an objection if we moved Mr. Cody's proclamation into after the Women's Club? And then we'll move the resolution to third place. Okay? Thank you very much. So go ahead with the Women's Club. Oh, thank you. Yeah. Is there anybody here from the Women's Club? No. Nancy, no. And by the way, Councilmember Anderson, thank you for recognizing me when the room was full and everybody could clap for me. That was pretty cool. I just want to say thanks. And this is one of my favorite parts because they're handing us a check. Yes. Is Chief Slank over? Oh, he's right there. Okay. Just so you know, we have heard through the police department that they were missing a drone. Their drone kind of had an accident or retired. I don't know. It wasn't working anymore. So the club voted to provide funds to the police department in the amount of $27,736 to allow them to get a new drone. And I do want to also say that in the last month, we've provided Parks and Rec with almost $10,000 to support the Rock the Park program, Fall Festival, Light Up City Hall, and the Holiday Parade. So we're very proud and happy that we can help you guys. It's our city, too. The more we do, the better we're at. Like you said, everybody's in this together. So I'd like to thank you. Can we do that right? Yes. Yeah. Oh, you know what? I do want to say one thing. We have an arts and crafts fair at Volunteer Park this weekend. I'd like to invite anybody to come out there Saturday and Sunday. And I want to bring to your attention what a wonderful Parks and Rec staff you have. The park out there is flooded horribly in certain places, and they have bent over backwards to try and help us get everything done and organized. So I want to recognize their help. Chief gets the check, so you're in the middle. I'm on the side. Okay. You're in the middle that way. So we're going to shift that? All right. You're getting to the middle. Okay. Thank you. Have it, Jeff. Just walk in the middle. You should be in the middle. Yes. Nancy, before you walk away, could you just tell, I'm sorry, Chief, could you just, since we have a crowd, let them know the details of the craft fair, please. Time. Okay. The craft fair on Saturday runs from 9 to 5. Not only do we have the crafts out there, mostly everything's all handmade. We have a committee that approves vendors. So it's not just like we're bringing in five-and-dime stuff from China. And on Sunday, it's from 10 to 4, and we actually have a food section in there, and everything's handmade. We have fresh-made pulled pork, egg salad, chicken salad, fresh-made potato salad. So everything's handmade, so we'd love to have everybody come out and enjoy, and we're praying for good weather. Thank you. At Volunteer Park, yes. At Volunteer Park. Okay. Thank you. Thank you. I didn't mean to cut you off. No. Not at all. Well, we'll be there at the craft fair. It's one of my wife's favorites. And I just want to say I'm always, always blown away at the generosity of the Women's Club. They continue to help us out all over the place, and I still owe them a visit from the last donation, which is our most recent canine. So it'll be coming soon. Thank you again. Great. Thank you, Chief. All right. And now I'd like to ask Mr. Cody to please join me at the... You didn't get elected. You're a sports guy. Okay. All right. Okay. All right. All right. Are you ready? Yeah. Okay. I want to start my colleagues. So my husband and I moved to Plantation in September of 1993. We've been receiving the daily delivery of the Miami Herald since then. It's no longer seven days. It's now six days, but we still get that paper in our hands every day. In fact, we moved here, and about five weeks later, after that September 1993 move, what would seem to be considered an infamous column ran in the Miami Herald sports section with the title, The Unthinkable, A Marino Trade. And while Greg Cody never advocated for trading Dan Marino, I'm here to say that in that column, he, by merely suggesting it might be time to consider the possibility of a trade, it caused a furor with loyal dolphins that lingers with some to this day. Well, you certainly got our attention, and we have been no readers of yours ever since. We are losing many of our local papers, or they've been weakened by corporate buyouts. Communities benefit from local news. Local news hubs weave communities together. Keeps governments and institutions honest, and strengthens civic life. Fortunately, the voices of many of my favorite Herald columnists, such as Carl Hiaasen, Leonard Pitts Jr., Ana Vecchiana Suarez, Fabiola Santiago, and yes, Greg Cody, have not gone silent. Some have authored books, right here, which I got signed tonight. They regularly interact on social media, or create content on other outlets, such as Greg, who can be found on Substack, and the Greg Cody Show podcast, which City Plantation made the Greg Cody podcast this week, where he mentioned he was going to be here tonight. And I was joking, because his son said nobody goes to those meetings, but look at this. He said he was going to pan the room, and it was going to be a sad video. It's not going to be a sad video. So with that, I'm going to proceed to the proclamation. And it's an honor to have you here tonight. So whereas Greg Cody was born on September 10, 1954, in Lawrence, Massachusetts, and whereas Greg has been a resident of Broward County for nearly 70 years, and has made his home in Plantation since 1989, and whereas Greg has been married to his wife, Earlene, for 46 years, and they share two sons, Michael and Chris, and one grandchild, and another on the way. Congratulations. And whereas Greg's first foray into journalism began at age 10, when he began writing a family newsletter, The Cody News. And whereas Greg credits his MacArthur High School English journalism teacher, Cheryl O'Connor Place, for nurturing his writing talent and encouraging him to join the school newspaper, where he became sports editor of the MacArthur High Times. And whereas Mrs. Place also encouraged Greg to do what no one else in the family had done, attend college. Greg went on to write for the school newspapers at Broward Community College and Florida Atlantic University. And whereas Greg Cody's decades-long career at the Miami Herald began with him answering an ad for a part-time clerk position in the sports department. And whereas Greg went on to become a nationally known and respected sports columnist who won a first-place Green Eyeshade Award in sports commentary in 2025, and is finished in the top ten in column writing by the Associated Press sports editors on multiple occasions. And whereas it has been said by many that Greg Cody was an excellent sports writer and even better columnist, understanding the South Florida sports theme better than most, Greg has also authored or co-authored four books. You've got one coming out, right? Yep. And whereas Greg's 54-year career at the Miami Herald ended unceremoniously on his birthday, no less, due to cost-cutting measures by its parent company, leaving a community to grieve the loss of more than five decades of insightful and often humorous reporting on its beloved and often much-maligned sports teams. And whereas Greg continues to write on Substack and appears regularly on the Dan Ray-Batard Show and hosts his own The Greg Cody Podcast, he's ensuring South Florida sports fans that his witty and insightful sports takes can be counted on each week. And now, therefore, Nick Sortelmeyer and the City Council of Plantation Florida do hereby proclaim November 4, 2026, as Greg Cody Day in the City of Plantation, and call upon all residents to celebrate the journalistic achievements and long career of this much-celebrated plantation resident who has contributed so much to sports journalism in South Florida and beyond. Thank you. Come here. Well, my day only has about five hours left in it. How about that? I don't know who to address here. You can stand here. Okay. I want to thank you all, everyone in the room. And first, I would like to congratulate Mayor Sortel on his re-election and Commissioner-elect Bright. You guys have been busier than one-armed paper hangers, and hopefully now you can exhale and enjoy this moment. Well-deserved for both of you, and thank you for what you've done and what you plan to do. You know, I'm the kind of guy that doesn't get a lot of proclamations. When you do, it doesn't make it right, but when you do what I've done for a living, most of the proclamations you get are angry readers proclaiming what an idiot you are for writing something they didn't agree with. So this is something different. But the main reason I'm honored by this honor is that my family and I, we're plantation people. I mean, I'm not faking it up here when I say I'm a plantation guy. My wife and I moved here around 1990. She's going to correct me on exactly what date it was because she remembers that kind of stuff, and I don't. But we had, we raised our family here. We had a little toddler at the time. The toddler is now over there taking video. And my wife was pregnant, and she delivered a second child. We now have a granddaughter who's here. And my other son's wife is pregnant, about to deliver our second grandchild. So life has been good in plantation. And when I say we're plantation people, both of my sons went to Tropical Elementary and then Seminole Middle and then South Plantation High, right up the same street. So this is where we're from. And I really appreciate all of you here. I appreciate all of you who had anything to do with dishonor for me because I'm grateful for it. And like I say, I've never had a, well, I take that back. There was a minor league baseball team in Fort Myers that had a Greg Cody show day about eight years ago. So this is the second Greg Cody day in my career, but the most important to me. So thank you all. And you know it. Thank you. Appreciate it. Thank you. I invite the mayor up. So the mayor did not know I was doing this proclamation. And great minds think alike because the mayor informed me that he has an announcement tonight to make about Greg Cody. So does it go on the screen? Yep. So we have a holiday parade every year. I'm tipping myself off here. And every year we pick a grand marshal. And this year the grand marshal is Greg Cody. I just, I want to let you know, I'm very proud of you, but I held off on announcing this until after the election because you could cost me votes. I didn't endorse you. Yeah, I appreciate that. Okay. Now we're going to, Greg, if you're the Cody family would like to come up and take a couple of photos. Yep. Come on. So we're always looking for ways to be more supportive of different populations here. And this one is a statement of support for Guard Reserve, a program we're working on. I'm going to get out of the way. All right. Good evening. Good evening to everybody, the major, members of the council, city staff, and guests. My name is Vanessa June. And I am the area chair of the Broward County Employer Support Guard and Reserve, ESGR. And what we do. So we are part of the Department of Defense. This is a program that helps civilian employers support employees who serve in the National Guard and Reserve. We help employers and service members understand their rights and responsibilities under USERA laws. And we offer informal mediation with questions about military service and civilian employment. Today, I'm here to present the City of Plantation, what is the statement of support for the Guard and Reserve. We have here the acrylic that the City of Plantation recognize the Guard and Reserve are essential to the strength of our nation and the well-being of our communities. In the highest American tradition, the patriotic men and women of the Guard and Reserve serve voluntarily in an honorable and vital profession. They try to respond to their community and their country to time in need. They deserve the support of every segment of our society. If this volunteer force, I, to continue to serve our nation, increase public understanding, is required of the essential role of the Guard and Reserve in preserving our national security. Therefore, we join other employers in pledging that we fully recognize, honor, and enforce the uniform service, employment, and reemployment right at, which is USERA. We will provide our managers and supervisors with the tools they need to effectively manage those employees who serve in the Guard and Reserve. We appreciate the values, leadership, and unique skills service members bring to the workforce, and we encourage opportunities to employ guardsmen, reservists, transitioning service members, and veterans. We will continue to recognize and support our country's service members and their families in peace and crisis in war. I want to congratulate you and the City of Plantation to support our service members because they are our part-time soldiers, and they definitely guarantee our safety when they are here or when they're serving in a foreign country. Before I hand it to the Major, I want to invite anybody that would like to work with us as a volunteer and continue serving our community. Okay, Major? Yes, I'm going to brag on each other. Thank you. Thank you. I appreciate it. Oh, my fault. Oh, yeah. Just so you all know what this is about is Sarah here has been with us about a year, assistant HR director. How many years in the National Guard and service? Fifteen years National Guard. We're happy to have you here and you bring a perspective. And what we want to do is support the City employees who belong to the National Guard so when they take time and go away, we don't sit there and go, oh, what were you doing the whole time playing poker? And we can sit there and be supportive, so we want to train our managers to let people know that this is important, that we support Guard members being employees. And we have quite a few in public safety, more than we think about. So Sarah lined that all up, and we want to keep doing that. And Trish is a Lauderdale West resident. Right, Trish? Trish left. Okay. So that's where I came from. All right. So anything? No, no. Thank you so much. Appreciate it. Thank you, Sarah, for doing that. Wonderful. Well done. All right. Thank you, Mayor. And then I'm going to invite Ms. Trish O'Toole up to give a Parks and Recreation update. Good evening. How's everybody? Recovered from yesterday? All right. We've got to first thank you all for participating in our Trunk or Treat event. I appreciate all the support. I know someone couldn't make it, but that's okay. But thank you all for being there. Coming up this Friday, we have our first Rock the Park concert of the season featuring the band Pump. That's a pop rock party band. That event is at Pine Island Park. Food trucks open at 6 p.m. Live music begins at 7 p.m. Also, we're collecting non-perishable goods for the harvest drive, so please bring a non-perishable items. No glass, please. They requested no glass containers. I had the Not Your Mama's Craft Bear on the list, but I believe the Women's Club covered that. Wednesday, November 11th is our Veterans Day service at Veterans Park at 9.30 a.m. Wednesday, November 18th, we have our movies in the park featuring Michael, the Michael Jackson movie. That will be at Volunteer Park. The movie will begin at dusk. We're currently accepting applications for sponsorships and participants for the It's a Wonderful Life Implantation Holiday Parade. That will be November 21st. In our aquatics division, our private swim lessons are always open. We're encouraging people to book your lessons today. Today, tennis, we have a large event coming up starting on Monday, November 9th through Sunday, the 15th, the USTA Women's Intersectional Team Championships. With the weather, we had trouble getting the facility ready, so I believe you all received an email. We will be closing to make sure the facility is ready for that. In our equestrian center, Saturday, the 7th and the 8th, we have Heritage Horse Show, 7.30 a.m. to 5.30. Sunday, November 14th, the Heritage Dressage Show from 8 to 2.30. Sunday, the 15th, Plantation Acres Saddle Club from 8.30 to 2.30. In our athletics division, this Saturday is the Parkinson's Foundation Walk at Central Park. It begins at 8.30. And next Saturday, the 14th, the National Kidney Foundation Walk at Central Park, which begins at 9 a.m. PAL Spring Sports, we are signing up for baseball, basketball, and softball. Now, Council Member Reinstein asked me for a quick update earlier on Liberty Tree Park. So, Liberty Tree Park passed its final inspection last week, the playground. The Engineering Department is spearheading what we call Phase 1B, and that is the parking enhancements to make sure we have accessible parking. I believe there will be a crosswalk, and they are doing some drainage improvements. So, they were supposed to mobilize this week, but the weather, that will move to next week. So, you'll see some activity there. And I was also asked to provide a brief, some brief information on the Museum of Discovery and Science exhibit that the city was a part of. And I saw Indole in the crowd, so I'm going to make him do it. Okay, great. Good evening, Mr. Brown. Nice to see you. Good evening. Good evening, Council Mayor. I do serve on the board at the Museum of Discovery and Science in Fort Lauderdale. Please tell everybody who you are. We've got a big crowd tonight. I apologize. Indole Brown, I'm the Environmental Landscape Supervisor for the City and Plantation. Like I said, I serve on the board the last several years at the museum, and we recently opened an exhibit called Build a Better World. In that exhibit, we have a pledge station where I petitioned the museum to include our resilient initiatives that the city has. In doing so, patrons of the museum, which is about half a million a year, can experience how cities can use their staff and funds and resources to have more sustainable initiatives. So, I just wanted to bring it to your attention. Wonderful. Well done, Mr. Brown. Thank you. Thank you very much. All right. It is 627. At this moment, we're going to recess the City and Plantation regular council meeting and move into the CRA meeting. Ms. Beggarrow, would you please call the roll? Commissioner Anderson? Here. Commissioner Andreu? Here. Commissioner Horland? Here. Commissioner Reinstein? Here. Commissioner Sorrell? Here. Assistant City Attorney Morgan? Here. Thank you very much. Commissioners, the consent agenda consists of items 1 through 2 and may be approved with one motion. Does anyone wish to pull an item off of that? Okay. Do we have a motion? Motion to approve. All right. Second? Second. Ms. Beggarrow, please call the roll. Commissioner Anderson? Yes. Commissioner Andreu? Yes. Commissioner Horland? Yes. Commissioner Reinstein? Yes. Commissioner Sortle? Yes. And we have one individual signed up for public comment. Mr. Conklin? Good evening, sir. Good evening. Dennis Conklin, 4581 Northwest Sixth Court. Heavenly hosts protect you. Thank you, sir. And all of your families. My request is, when you get around to solving the Plantation General Hospital conundrum, to please limit potential high-density residential buildings to the three stories, like the Village Green neighbors, and please try every effort to make them ownership and not build to rent. That owes for the Plantation Inn conundrum. I'll yield back my time. Thank you, Mr. Conklin. I know we'll be seeing you again soon. There's no one else signed up for the CRA. It is 6-28-29. At this time, we will adjourn the CRA meeting and call the meeting of the Plantation Acres Improvement District Board to order, please. Commissioner Anderson? Here. Commissioner Andreu? Here. Commissioner Horland? Yes, here. Commissioner Reinstein? Here. Commissioner Sortle? Here. Assistant City Attorney Morgan? Here. Thank you. Thank you, Ms. Beggarow. The paid consent agenda consists of three items tonight, one through three. Does any member of the board wish to pull an item? Okay, and no one else from the public has signed up. Do we have a motion? Motion to approve items one through three. Okay. I'll second it. Ms. Beggarow, please call the roll. Commissioner Anderson? Yes. Commissioner Andreu? Yes. Commissioner Horland? Yes. Commissioner Reinstein? Yes. Commissioner Sortle? Yes. Thank you. Thank you very much. And we have no members of the public signed up to speak for paid. So we will adjourn the paid meeting at 629. We got that done in a minute. And reconvene the regular council meeting. That was a quick one. We will start off with a public request of the council regarding municipal affairs. To those who wish to speak, we request that you complete a speaker form. If you have not done so already, please do so. When you are called, please approach the podium and make sure the green light is on the microphone. You have three minutes to make your request to the council. And please state your name and address. And only address your remarks to the council president, not the mayor, nor individual members of the council. Please keep your remarks to the allotted three minutes. Please use your time efficiently. If extra time will be needed to conclude your remarks, please ask for it as your time is expiring and not prior to beginning your remarks. For public comment, I have two people signed up, Mr. Conklin and Natalie Lynch-Walsh. You said administrative item. We don't take comments. So would you like to come up? I don't know where you are, Natalie. I saw you walk in. Okay. Would you like to address it in public comments after Mr. Conklin? We don't take public comment on administrative items. It's just an update for us tonight. So would you like to make your comment during public comment? Sure. Why don't you come up? And the gentleman is offering to let you go first. Mr. Conklin, you're on deck, sir. Ms. Gelfand also is under public comment. Okay. I have her under item one. All right. Good evening. Good evening. Yeah, I know how BCPS works this a little bit less. So today, Natalie Lynch-Walsh, Plantation. So today I sent you guys an email with my request that you guys amend the comprehensive plan and also extend the deadline, the 180 days request on extension. This was on the basis of my review of the comprehensive plan. I looked manually at volume one, and I threw volume one and two into Gemini. My primary concern is although there's a reference to the third restated in a local agreement, it does not specifically reference what's in 163.31777, which I know you guys have sat here and had me read to you before. It does mention in a lot of places new school sites, which usually makes me giggle since the state will not let you add seats when you have empty seats in a district. And as you know, the Brad Schools is doing redefining without a master plan, which is sort of like driving around in a car without really knowing how to drive. I would not hand the keys to someone that didn't know how to drive, and I hope that you guys won't either, which is why it's important to have specificity in this comprehensive plan that pertains to the potential school closures and significant renovations. Significant renovations is what we just lived through with the $800 million, $2 billion bond program. And now they're doing potential school closures. When you have really small schools, the next one up could be like Plantation Park because it is not economically feasible to have schools, elementary schools anyway, that are under, say, $800 is about ideal, but $500 and under, that's when you start losing specials. So there's nothing in here that specifically mentions that piece, and the district has just been paying lip service to the interlocal agreement. They have not been abiding by it. I haven't seen the last report. So I'm requesting you amend it to put specifically, there's plenty about new school sites, the thing that's not going to happen anytime soon, but there is nothing specifically in here in terms of policy or procedures about significant renovations or potential school closures. So that's what I'm requesting it be amended to add that. The attachment to today's email included the recommendations specific to that. Most of this is in Goal 12A, but there are other places throughout where it's peppered in. And then since I went through all of Volume 1, I added, you know, my own comments. It's in a table. It's about six pages. So I hope you guys read it and that you do the extension. Thank you. Thank you, Dr. Lynch-Walsh. Mr. Conklin and then Ms. Gelfin, I do see that you also wanted to speak in Bible comment. Mr. Conklin? Dennis Conklin, 4581, Northwest 6th Court. I'm going to skip my normal calendar countdown. It's already been mentioned, but the city has a ceremony for Veterans Day, which was originally Armistice Day, honoring on the 11th hour of the 11th day of the 11th month of 1918, end of World War I. The city does a fantastic memorial for that. It's called Veterans Day now. Um, congratulate, it's been said, but congratulations to all of the candidates in the municipal election and congratulations to the elected candidates. Um, I request that the city of Plantation strongly direct the state reps and state senators to, number one request, pass election and public law legislation to declare Election Day in Florida a public holiday, to eliminate early voting or drastically limit it. I'm not in favor of it at all, but drastically limit it to Saturday and Sunday before Election Day holiday in Florida. Number two, uh, three, um, to return to absentee ballots and eliminate vote-by-mail ballots, which is the interstate highway to voter fraud. And number four, make failure to follow the legislative, which passed in 2025, that the state begin, uh, Article 1, Section 10, to coin money in gold and silver, a tender and payment of debts. That's a quote from the Constitution. And that will solve your affordability, which all the candidates were talking about. But we are stuck with Federal Reserve notes, which are just pathetic. So, um, I will yield back my time. Thank you, Mr. Conklin. We'll see you on the other items. Ms. Gelfin, good evening. Good evening. Good evening. Vicki Gelfin, 9381 Northwest 18th Place, Plantation. Good evening, Mr. Mayor. Congratulations, Council Members, Attorney Morgan and City Clerk Beggenwell, and also to the future Councilperson, Mr. Bright. The election season is now complete until the next time. And as someone who witnessed early voting and Election Day events, I have a couple of things to say. First of all, my fellow Plantation residents, thank you for showing up to cast your ballots, no matter who you were voting for. It's good to know that the city is active in sharing information with the residents and a lot of explanation on what and who we were voting for. Kudos all around. As for the folks that were the paid workers and working for candidates, don't mess with us in Plantation. We knew who you were and pretty much stayed clear of you. The lady that drove around and around and around the parking lot screaming about one of the political parties was a paid worker. The people who hired her were aware of her antics but did not rein her in at all. I thought there was something wrong and asked her if she needed any help. For my offer, I received a single-digit salute. For those that know me, I can laugh at almost anything. This time, I just asked her if that was her age or her IQ. She never responded. Those of us that spent hours and days talking with strangers and hearing the two parties and their representatives speak know it was a very long two weeks. Thanks to several people for bringing food and sharing umbrellas and laughter. It did make it a lot easier. Also, the addition of a disc jockey yesterday had the volunteers singing along and some dancing to the music. I tried to find out who hired him, but he shared he was a total non-party hire. I do think that before the next election cycle, the county will do something about the tree roots that everyone was tripping over and also replant the now-dead plants that were crushed by everyone that walked into the building. We're now on to a revised membership on the dais, and I'm still hopeful that those will represent us in the city, the county, the state, and in D.C. We'll remember the folks that voted for you here in Plantation, and we'll always keep that in the front of your mind. On a different subject is, one thing that I've asked several times is about sub-wires that are located on the corner of Pine Island Road and Sunrise Boulevard. I've called FPL, and their customer service line is in the Philippines, so they have no idea where Plantation was, let alone that intersection. I stopped an FPL truck that was doing repairs and found out from them that it's not FPL. It's either AT&T or Comcast. It's in an area that can be observed, that can be accessed by children, and should be taken care of. Hint, hint, so you know who I'm talking to. Thank you, and as always, please use your turn signals. Thank you, Ms. Galvin. Boy, got it in under the wire. I don't have anyone else signed up for open public comments, so at that, now public requests of the Council regarding municipal affairs are now closed. We're going to move on to the consent agenda, which consists of items 1 through 17, and may be approved with one motion. Council is pulling item number 1. We have many people signed up to speak on that. I have also, let's see, anybody else from the dais wish to pull an item? Item 10. 10? What would you like? 10. 10, okay. Anybody else? No? Okay. Mr. Conklin would like 1, 2, 10, and 16. All right. Do we have a motion for the remaining items, please? Anybody? Motion to approve items 1 through 17, with the exception of 1, 2, 10, and 16. Okay. Second. Thank you very much. Ms. Beggro, please call the roll. Council Member Andrew? Yes. Council Member Reinstein? Yes. Council Member Anderson? Yes. Council Member Horland? Yes. Thank you. Thank you very much. All right, folks. So many of you are here tonight for the discussion on blue bags. So what we're going to do is, if you were not here for the workshop, we had the workshop earlier, because we have a lot of flooding in portions of the city tonight, we have agreed that we're going to hold the discussion. We're going to allow you to come up and speak, and then we are going to most likely table the actual vote on the contract until the meeting on the 18th. But we want to be able to, because you showed up, we want to be able to give you the opportunity to speak. What I'm going to ask you, we have 25 members that have, members of the audience that have signed up. If you times that, times three, it's an hour and 15 minutes. So what I'm going to ask you is just keep your comments brief, if you can. If somebody else ahead of you said the same exact thing, you can get up and say you wave in support of what they said. Okay? So we'll just, I don't want to keep you here. We want you to have your time to speak. We don't want to keep you too long. All right. So item number one, would you like to come up, Ms. Morris? Are you going to present the contract, or is it going to be Mr. Spencer? I'm going to go ahead and read it. It's a resolution approving the amended and restated agreement for the collection of qualified solid waste, bulk trash, yard waste, and recyclable materials by Waste Management, Inc. of Florida. I really don't have much to add to what we discussed in the workshop. Certainly we're anxious to hear your questions and discussion from the community. So I think I'll go ahead then. If you don't have anything else to add, I'll turn it over to my colleagues, and then we'll have the residents come up. Council President? Yes. Can we actually ask Ms. Morris before you sit down, despite the fact that I know that you were referring to the workshop, since not everybody was present for the workshop that is here now, and they won't have time to watch that workshop video before this discussion starts, can you just give a brief summary of the resolution that's before us in the contract? I don't think we need to go into all the details, but basically present that it is a choice. In plainer terms, keep it short. Right. Okay. Again, just to speak quickly to the time constraints, we are under some time constraints here. We recognize that presentation is not optimal, but Council had previously directed us to go out for bid, and in order to preserve that option, we need to bring this matter to conclusion by November 19th. If we push it out longer than that, we start to jeopardize the timeline for going out for public bid and having a new hauler in place prior to having to give waste management notice of our intent not to renew the agreement. The current franchise term goes through 9-30-2028. If we do want to non-renew, we have to give notice roughly 9-30-2027. The proposal before you is to extend the agreement through the final term of the original agreement, so it would run through 2033. The key feature of the agreement, I think, as far as most of our residents go, is that it would offer residents the option to determine for themselves whether they want their garbage collected via the cart system or the blue bag or pay-as-you-throw system. There's lots of other features to the agreement. I think probably the key take-home for many people is that presently, there are a lot of costs to the city involved in collection of solid waste, processing of recyclables, household hazardous waste, and the Broward County Solid Waste and Recycling Authority that are not captured in our rate structure, and this would start to move those things into our rate structure, out of our general fund, and therefore give us a step, if you will, towards compliance with Amendment 3. Did I get it all? Thank you. And before I turn it over to Council Member Reinstein, again, if you were not here for the workshop, when we reference what happened with Amendment 3 passing yesterday, there is close to about a half a million dollars in costs, when we take a look at $300,000 and others, that we're currently taking out of the general fund. So the way that Ms. Morris has negotiated this contract with waste management, those costs would be covered by waste management. It would also give residents the ability to have direct payment from waste management. Your costs will be removed from the water bill. Eventually, we would potentially, with the Solid Waste Authority, transition to the Ad Valorem Tax Bill in 2031, and costs are pretty much remaining even. But, again, this is a generational change for the city of the plantation if we're able to offer individual residents. I could have blue bags. My neighbor could have a cart. So what we want to hear from tonight is what you think, whether it's blue bags or carts, and then, again, we will have that vote on the contract on the 18th. Go ahead. All right. Council Member Einstein, then Council Member Andrea. Thank you, Ms. Morris. Thank you, Ms. Morris. First, I'll say I'm very much looking forward to hearing from all of our residents. I can say that as long as I've been listening and been interested and for all my years living in plantation, probably the number one issue raised above all else was what's your opinion on blue bags? And I can tell you that walking doors over the past 10-plus years and speaking to residents, it was by far, by far, the number one question is what is your position? And anecdotally, without giving statistics, in those discussions, whether it was knocking on doors or at Publix or somewhere else or just reading social media, it's actually always been about 50-50 as to what we've heard. There are people who love the carts. There are people who love the blue bags. There are some who the blue bags are good as long as the ducks and raccoons aren't eating them. I mean, you all know these stories, and I'm sure many of you will share some of your stories. I want to say that the contract that I've read, the agreement that is before us, which would extend, it's a new agreement, and it would extend our relationship with waste management, provides almost everything that I can think of that we've been looking for and asking for for a long period of time. The ability to choose, and again, that 50-50, right, is that somebody on your streets wants the blue bag, somebody wants the cart. You know, that's been something that we've been talking about, you know, for a long time. Why can't we have that, right? Why can't that be an option? So it's finally an option, and it's now before us. And I think that this agreement is something that I could very much support. Now, here's the however, okay? And that is that if it wasn't for the fact that some time ago, when we had this discussion about the future of our waste agreement, our waste management agreement, and any other pickup agreement, we then engaged this consulting entity, Mid-Atlantic Solid Waste Consultants, and we provided a scope of work asking them to prepare a bid, to evaluate the bids, and to put it out there and see what else is available. I'm not sure that there's anything else that's better that's available. And I think that everything that I've read, I really don't believe that we would get a better deal than we have before us. And there's a concern that if we don't approve this whenever it is voted on, that we may not get that same deal, right? It could be something different. And so that's a concern of mine, and I want to voice that out loud. However, I also, though, I do believe that it's important that when we enter into a big agreement like this, and I think, I forget what the words that you said, generational change, yes, that putting it out to bid allows the public to hear what all the options are, and that it's all very front-facing and it's all very transparent in that way. The concern being, though, is that we may not get the same great deal. And so, you know, those are my concerns. I'm interested in hearing from everybody and hearing the discussion. I'm glad that we are possibly tabling this and not voting on it tonight. There was also a lot of concern from residents that are dealing with the flooding that they weren't able to be here in person. And by the time they realized they weren't going to be able to leave their house because of the flooding, the online comments closed. And so, you know, if we do decide to table it, it will allow those residents to come back for more discussion. So I just want to share those initial thoughts before we move on. Thank you. Thank you, Council Member Reinstein. Council Member Andrejo. Thank you, President Horland. And Council Member Reinstein, I have to disagree with a few of your comments. So I am not crazy about this deal. I reviewed several other municipalities, and I really think that if waste management wants to continue working with the City of Plantation, they need to come in and do some further negotiations. One would be the CPI that I mentioned during the workshop. And I understand that they went from five to four. And if I can interrupt you, because I have been remiss in stating this, we do have representatives from waste management here tonight if you at some point want to hear from them. Thank you. And forgive me as I'm looking towards the back of the room, but you guys have heard me speak about him so many times. Hiding in the middle of the audience is Leighton Francis, who is our route supervisor, and probably should be the guest of honor at any of these discussions. So I apologize for interrupting you, but I did want you to know they are here. Thank you. And thank you, Leighton. We do hear a lot of wonderful accolades about you, so I appreciate you being here tonight, and it shows your commitment. But again, I don't think this is a great deal. Well, it's a negotiation, and I appreciate your work, Ms. Morris, that you've done. I know that it's been a long process, but we can do better. I firmly believe that. And I'll give you an example, which I don't think I've ever said in six years, but I looked at Tamarack. And Tamarack's contract is more lucrative than the current contract before us tonight. And so that's why I'm not in agreement. The termination clause in Section 44, they have a 180-day termination clause, and ours is 360, and that was an area that I was told waste management would not negotiate further on. Again, if they want to continue the business, and as my colleague said, the relationship, they're going to have to, I think, do a better job in the negotiation. I mentioned the CPI. The CPI adjustment should be based on the average CPI. It should not be a set 4% increase year after year. I also did not say it. I wanted to wait until now, but part of the workshop was the no franchise fee. Well, establishing a franchise fee. I'm also against that. People are hurting, right? That's exactly why Amendment 3 was passed yesterday, and we just, and we can keep saying it's incremental. We can keep having that discussion, but it's a dollar. It's $2. But year after year, by the conclusion of this contract, it would be a 33% increase. And again, for some people, you can say it's $5, $6, $7, but people are feeling that. They're feeling it at the grocery store. They're feeling it at the pump, and we all know that. And so I have a problem with the CPI part. And then I know we're giving them accolades about what they did put in the agreement, but I have to tell you, in the Tamarack agreement, they're giving $150,000 for scholarships for students, something that I've been wanting to do in our city for six years now, and I've been doing personally. That's built into their contract. They're giving $125,000 for a sustainability officer. We just had a conversation earlier that we need a contract manager. Why isn't that part of our agreement? They should be building that contract manager position into this agreement and paying for that position. They also are giving the city $150,000 for city initiatives, whatever they're doing, concerts, 4th of July, parades. When I read the details of their contract, I was very disappointed in ours. So I think there's more wiggle room. I'm hoping there's more wiggle room. They're here tonight, and I appreciate you all being here. But I'm not prepared to approve this in the current form. I'd like to see either some additional negotiations, or we go back out and see what there is to offer at the open market. This used to be a monopoly, but it's not anymore. There are other people. No applause. Please hold your applause. Please hold your applause. That was fine during the proclamation. But, you know, there are several other large entities that would also like to do business with the city. And I think I heard what Councilmember Reinstein said, but I believe that they will also come in with very creative solutions and still be willing to do self-selection. And if they can do self-selection at a better price for our residents to save our residents money, that's what I want to do. Thank you. Thank you. Councilmember Andrea, I just want to make a comment and want to clarify one of the things you said. And I appreciate all the research you did. First of all, we're comparing apples to oranges with tamarack, right? Yeah. The other thing that I think we need to take into consideration, so I understand your concerns about the franchise fee, but when we look at Amendment 3, so when we're looking at, we're currently taking almost a half a million dollars out of our general fund to cover those costs. So what you're saying is you want to remove the franchise fee, and that nearly a half a million dollars should still come from our general fund when we are going to be facing a $13 million loss in the next year with Amendment 3? I want to clarify that. Yes, that is what I'm saying. I think that we still can do it. We have to do some creative budgeting, but I know every time I sit with my budget book and Ms. Oteniano and my yellow Post-it notes, I can find $150,000. I can find it easily. So, yes, that is exactly what I'm saying. So, but we're talking about a half a million dollars. That franchise fee will cover nearly a half a million dollars that's coming out of the general fund. I want to be really clear about that right now. We're taking that out of the general fund. We're not going to have that luxury when Amendment 3 is implemented, so I just want to be clear about that. The franchise fee that- It's covering household solid waste and SWA fee that we're currently paying. Right, recycling. That's what it's covering. Ms. Morris, I don't know how difficult it can be to bring up the- We'll come back to that if we can give Ms. Beguerell an opportunity to come back to that. And in the contract, there's still the other franchise fee. Is that for the commercial element, Ms. Morris? Currently, there is a fixed franchise fee in the current agreement. It is charged across commercial customers. It is not charged to residential customers. The franchise fee that is proposed in this agreement would be a 5% franchise fee on residential customers. It would help us defray the costs of recyclables processing. Again, a portion of that has been moved into the rates, but it would help us defray those costs. It would help with SWA. It would help with the costs of household hazardous waste. And while we don't have a solid waste manager per se, ideally, especially once the SWA moves to ad valorem, it would give you funds to start to reimburse the costs associated with contract management. Because I'm not going to lie to you, this one, we don't account for that time separately now, but there is a significant amount of staff time involved, not just mine. Your team at Public Works is on the phone with customers on solid waste issues all day, every day. And what is the annual residential percentage? 5%. No, I'm sorry, in terms of dollars? It depends on which form of collection the person chooses. If you look at the chart that we provided on the, I believe it's the next to last page of the presentation, it has the current rate, what the rate would become April 1st, and what the rate would become April 1st if the council opts to go forward with the franchise fee. I'm sorry, let me rephrase it. I'm aware of that. The annual dollar amount that would come from the general fund to cover the residential portion. I'm not sure I understand your question, but I think what you're asking is the amount of money that would be generated by the franchise fee, and that's roughly a half a million dollars. No, but you said, or Council Member Horland said, that it would be half a million dollars coming out of general fund. Right now you are paying the following costs out of your general fund. You are paying your recyclables processing, which runs roughly $300,000 a year. Fluctuations in the commodities market could change that number, as well as a change in the amount of materials that we are processing. You are paying roughly $139,000 for household hazardous waste, and those are the collection events that we do in the city, as well as the partnership we have with Sunrise. Sorry, franchise? I don't know where that came from. Sunrise. You are also paying roughly $120,000 annually to the SWA. So those are just three specific line items that relate to this. And how much are we receiving in terms of the franchise fee for the commercial properties? The franchise fee for the commercial properties is treated as a general fund revenue. I want to say it's roughly $3.6 million per year. Thank you. Ms. Morris, we've also discussed, if council chose to go with this contract on the 18th, the complexities of moving to the SWA and the implementation of that with a new franchisee. You want to just touch upon that a little bit? Good old SWA. SWA, Bowerwood County Solid Waste and Recycling Authority. The authority addresses ultimate disposal of waste recyclables, whether it's municipal solid waste, yard waste, bulk waste, or recyclables. What they are in the process of doing is seeking to go out to bid to establish vendors to provide those services. The hope is that by banding together as a group of municipalities along with the county, we can negotiate a better pricing structure than we have right now. What that means in terms of the contract is that if they're successful and they come in with better pricing than we have now, we would have the opportunity to change our designated facilities. And that's our direction as to where those materials go. Again, depending upon what that looks like, there may end up being some discussions with waste management. The provision in the contract says that if it's more than 25 miles from City Hall, and this exists in your current contract, we would consider renegotiation. But again, Solid Waste Authority is anticipating having their bids back September, October-ish of next year. If you recall, you approved the Second Amendment to their agreement, which provides members of the authority of the ability to opt out if they're not comfortable with those RFPs. Okay. Council Member Weinstein. Thank you, Council Member Andreo. I always appreciate when I hear the positions and opinions of my colleagues. I have not seen the TAMRAC contract. I appreciate that you saw it and analyzed it. Nevertheless, it doesn't change what my conclusion was that I still think that going forward with MSW's work and the RFSP may still be the best decision. What I want to ask, and although, again, this may get tabled and we don't get to it, are you seeking or was your comment leading towards a renegotiation based on what is currently before us or to go forward with the request for a proposal? My comment was to hopefully go back and have Ms. Morris renegotiate with Waste Management if they're amenable to it. If they say no, this is our best and final offer, then I think we should move forward with the new solicitation. Thank you. If I may just jump in quickly, and I don't want to overstep, but one thing I just want to caution you all about, when you compare residential rates between communities, it's very difficult to compare apples to apples. Frankly, that extends to franchise agreements as well. Cities in Broward County use a variety of tools to deal with this. There are still one or two cities left, I think two, maybe three, that haul their own waste and simply pay their own tipping fees. They maintain their own crews, they maintain their own trucks, but they haul their own waste to disposal sites. Some cities negotiate separate contracts for different portions of the agreement. So, for instance, there is one city whose agreement I sent you that negotiates a separate contract for their solid waste and a separate contract for their bulk waste and a separate contract for their other streams of waste. Our contract, like some of the others out there, because you can't paint everything with the same brush, is sort of soup to nuts. It includes the whole package. All of that said, I will tell you in my former community, I had a lot of, I'll call them givebacks from waste management, whether it was a contribution towards special events or whatever. We need to remember a couple of things as we look at our agreement. There are some significant things that waste management provides us that have significant value that may or may not be in other franchise agreements and may or may not be in an agreement if we go to RFP, or excuse me, RFSP. One of those being the value of the services that waste management provides to the city itself in terms of disposal of our waste, in terms of the dumpsters that they provide at Public Works that we use for all of our landscaping waste and roadway projects and all of that good stuff. They also provide containers and such for us for our special events. Not unusual, seen it in other franchise agreements, but there is a value to that. The value to that, as best we calculated, is over $600,000 a year. Additionally, as we worked on this agreement, rightfully or wrongfully, one of our focuses was trying to move all of our costs into one cost center, because they're not now. So, in some areas, we focused more on getting our recyclable expenses covered and household hazardous waste and some of those things and didn't focus on community contributions. So, that may just be an error in our thought as staff as to what we prioritized in the negotiations. And if I may clarify, I wasn't saying it so that we could also establish the community issues and scholarships, per se. I do feel like if waste management would want to renegotiate, that they should fund the contract manager position. So, I just wanted to be clear. I wasn't looking for necessarily some of the other things that Tamarack was doing. But I think, again, my two big sticking points were that position and the CPI. And I appreciate that. That certainly makes it easier for us if we're going to go back and engage in further conversations. And, again, if I don't know if you want to invite them. Thank you for that, Council Member Andrea. Thank you. Does anyone from waste management want to get up at this juncture? Good evening. Good evening, Madam President. First, my name is Barbara Herrera. I am here representing WMIF, which is Waste Management Inca, Florida, also known as Waste Management. Congratulations, of course, to Mayor Sortel, to you, Madam President, and to you, sir, and, of course, to Council Member Elect Bright. So, congratulations on your well-deserved elections and re-elections. So, I am happy to answer any questions that you may have. We've certainly had this as a labor of love for the last few months. We've been working very closely with your staff. And they have held our feet to the fire, of course. And one of the questions that was asked earlier, I think it was by you, Council Member Reinstein, is why, why now? We certainly want to continue our partnership with the City of Plantation. That was never an issue. And we recognize that the City Council had made a previous decision before. But it was made clear to me with conversations that if we were to continue this partnership, we had to bring our A game. And that's exactly what we are doing today. We had very serious internal conversations. We have new leadership in WM. And we said, we have the opportunity now. We have the assets now. We can offer a choice to the residents. And there are multiple benefits that, of course, Carol Morris has reviewed. So, with that being said, again, I'm happy to answer any questions for any details that you may have. Council Members, do you have any questions directly for Ms. Sorare? Ms. Sorare, I think you've heard the comments. So, we would encourage you to go back and have a discussion with Ms. Morris. And at this time, I want to turn it over to the residents. And I think that you'll be interested in hearing their comments as well. Absolutely. And please know that we also have operations here as well, members of operations, to answer any operational questions that you may have. Thank you very much. Thank you so much. All right. All right. This is how we're going to do it. I'm going to tell you who's up and who's on deck. So, first up is Mr. Conklin, and then David Wilkes on death, and Kenneth Rivera. Mr. Conklin? Dennis Conklin, 4581, Northwest Sixth Court. You all know my background, but there's a lot of folks up here. Basically, I was born and raised in Appalachia, part of New York State. And I'm a child of the 50s. Every family would go out, and they would get an oil drum, and we'd burn our waste. When the oil drum would get filled up, we'd ask somebody with a truck, come and haul it to the dump. In the meantime, if anything else happened that we had to get to the dump, we would take it ourselves. It might be furniture broken or something like that. Spent some time in Texas when I was sailing, and then moved to Florida and to the plantation. And it was pay-as-you-throw. And I said, wow, this is something else. But I want to say this. I'm very satisfied with it and very pleased with it. I would keep the blue bags forever for plantation. For starting as a young family, as we did, basically, oh, and another thing. I was a kid from the 50s, so when the baby did the doo-doo, you would wear the cloth diaper in the toilet, and then you'd launder it, right? But I guess it was Procter & Gamble invented disposables. So after a family gets their kids out of disposables, I mean, it's a no-brainer. You go with a blue bag. We might have had to use a bag for the Tuesday and a bag for a Friday pickup in plantation parkies. Plantation parkies, not parkies. And so I'm in support. If people want to go with the carts and they want to spend that extra money, but I think it's crazy, that's okay. And the self, what do they call it, self-determination, self-select, let it be so. Because apparently, from what I understand, it's a phase-out. So any time, for example, if I pass on, hopefully to heaven, the house goes for sale, whoever buys it, they're going to be stuck with the cart anyway. And I'll yield back my time. Thank you, Mr. Conklin. All right, David Wilkes and then Mr. Kenneth Rivera. Good evening. Oh, thank you for coming out tonight. So I'm not really familiar with the financial terms of the select, but I just want to tell you that a man my age or my wife's age in Lauderdale West, it would be a big difficulty to carry those or pull those carts out. You know, our driveways have water on them. The grass, if we're going to be on the grass, is very difficult. And then what happens when they're out there and after they're picked up? Does somebody come in and bring it back to our garage? No, we'd have to do it ourselves, wouldn't we? It's a lot of work for a 55 and over development where we live. And most people are in their 70s and 80s. I mean, it's not that easy with the blue bags, but at least you don't have to bring them back in. I don't really have to say that much more, but I'm really against losing the blue bags. You want to keep your blue bags in Lauderdale West. Okay. Thank you so much for coming out, Mr. Wilkes. No, please hold your applause, please. Thank you very much. We want to get through this as quickly as possible and hear from everyone. Kenneth Rivera, then on deck, Sally Floor and Stephen Rose. Good evening, Mr. Rivera. Good evening, Mayor, Council President, Council members and city staff. My name is Kenneth Rivera and I'm here representing Waste Pro Florida. I understand that there may be some concerns that going out to bid not necessarily result in a better deal for the city. And that's a fair concern. But my question is, how do we know that if we haven't given the market an opportunity to compete? One thing I want to emphasize is that the city controls what they ask for in your process for an RFP or RFSQ, as you call it. The proposals you receive are based on the services and the standards and the requirement that the city establishes. You determine what level of service your residents deserve, how bulk collection should be handled, what equipment, technology should be provided, and what performance standards companies must meet. The companies competing then have the opportunity to put their best proposals forward based on one plantation and their residents' and their businesses' needs. Maybe waste management already has the best deal. If that's the case, a competitive process will help demonstrate that. But what if another company can offer better pricing, better improved service, or additional benefits? Without going out to bid, how would the city know? And let's remember, issuing an RFP doesn't mean the city has to change providers. It simply gives you the opportunity to compare what's available and make a decision based on actual proposals rather than assumptions. WastePro would welcome the opportunity to compete, but this is bigger than any one company. We're talking about a long-term agreement that will impact plantation residents and businesses for years to come. So my request tonight is simple. Before committing to another long-term agreement, allow the city to define exactly what the wants through a competitive process is and give qualified companies the opportunity to show what they can deliver. And at the end of the day, the city should be making this decision with all their options on the table. Thank you for your time. Thank you. Come in. Sally Fleur? Good evening. Good evening. I live at 8720 Northwest 15th Court, Plantation, Florida. I am a single person. So the amount of garbage that I accumulate is like nothing. The amount of garbage somebody who has six children is a lot different. So the bags work really excellent for me. I can get a really small bag, fill it up, and throw it out. It's simple. It's great. And if you are older and you can't, like he said, take your stuff out, it's simple. It's good. The bins are heavy. I had bins. I had bins and I've had bags. Bins are great for a big family. They're wonderful. It works great. And I can see why the families in a large house with lots of children would want a bin. But for all of your older people that are like maybe one or two people in a household, it's much easier for the bags. It's also much neater. There's not going to be a bunch of garbage. I mean, it's not going to be, you know, the bin is flying here and there. And you're backing out your car and you have to be careful that you don't hit somebody's bin that they haven't taken in because the wind has flown in front of your driveway. Anyway, that happens. Okay. And last of all is environmentally. I know nobody likes plastic bags. But you can get a little plastic bag, blue bag, and I put all my garbage in it and I don't have any other bags. That's it. Okay. Plus, you're going to think when you have to pay for the size of the bag and the amount, you're going to be very conscious of how much garbage you make and you generate in your household because you're going to pay more if you generate more garbage. So environmentally, this is actually the best way to go. And that's all I have to say. Thank you. Thank you, Ms. Fleur. All right. Please, please, no applause. Stephen Rose, then Mitchell Gordon, and Patricia LeBinvenu. Good evening, Mr. Rose. Good evening, Mr. Mayor, City Council members. Thank you for the opportunity to talk. Stephen Rose, 1062 Northwest 88th Avenue, Lauderdale West. I am also the President of the Board of Directors for Lauderdale West. I am here on behalf of the Board of Directors of Lauderdale West and the residents of our over 55 community to express strong opposition to any provision in the proposed garbage and recycle collection contract that would require our residents to utilize large wheeled garbage and recycling cans instead of the blue bags. I just heard something from Ms. Morris, which actually isn't in the material I sent to you, that gives me concern. And that is, if a house sells in Lauderdale West, does that automatically mean that they would have to do the bins? So I'm here as President of the Board, we are going to go to a Board vote in order for Lauderdale West to, by a Board vote, remain with the blue bags. But I need to understand if a house sells, does that override what the Board vote would be? Lauderdale West, as an over 55 community, we have to watch our residents. We have a lot of non-mobile, restricted individuals, and the ability to move a large bin is impossible for them. Number two, we don't have the ability to store the bins, especially in the one-story duplex and four-plexes, which we have a lot of, over 544, if my memory is correct. It's not simply a matter of convenience. It's a serious and foreseeable public safety issue for the residents of Lauderdale West, significant risk of falls and serious injuries. It is unacceptable to knowingly introduce an additional physical hazard in the senior community when safer collection alternatives are available. The physical configuration, as I said, especially for the plexes, would not allow bins. They would have to be behind the buildings and then brought to the front across common area lawn, which is not flat. And we already have serious falls and injuries. We have numerous lawsuits from our residents because of these issues. With that, I ask the council's indulgence in recognizing what these constraints are and appreciate your consideration. Thank you. Thank you, Mr. Rose. Please. No applauding. I don't want to have to keep you warning you. Can we wait? Yeah. I want to address it at the end. Thank you, Mayor. Mr. Gordon, Patricia, le bienvenue, and then Vicki Gelfin. Good evening, Mr. Gordon. Good evening. Mitch Gordon, 5781, Southwest Fourth Court. Hopefully bring a little different perspective. It does seem like I'm in the minority over here, but having lived in both Cooper City and Hollywood, I've got a lot of great things to say about plantation, but in my limited time, I'd certainly like to discuss the current method. And having lived in, like I said, two other Broward cities that both have bins and also having a vacation home in East Tennessee, I'm really not happy at all with the blue bags over here. I'm well north of over 55. I don't have any trouble with the bins. I find something that's on wheels actually much easier to take out than dragging a blue bag out there. Basically, there's two sizes. You've got one similar to a tall kitchen garbage bag, another more than double that size. So as far as the smaller one, I don't find it that cost-effective one. The larger one is very inconvenient, as you still need to use other garbage bags, such as tall kitchen garbage bags, to maximize that bag over there. As a newbie, which I still am fairly to plantation over there, I used to put it in my garage. I found that after the first Thanksgiving, I came in there two days later full of maggots in the garage over there. So the first thing I did was I went out and I bought a garbage bag to put outside over there. And after, you know, fishing those out after two or three days in 90-degree weather over there, you can imagine what that was like over there. So, and also on multiple occasions, I've had to pick up trash from the street from animals that have gotten it in the garbage. Sometimes Publix is sold out, which I've had to make multiple trips over there. One of the other things, we have no ability to put large objects at all in the recycling bags. Again, having those bins, any times I've got large objects over there, you've always got to wait for bulk over there. So, recycling, I don't understand why we put recycling in a bag that's not recyclable. I don't think that's environmentally friendly over there. The bag is not recyclable, as far as I know. As far as cost, people, again, I seem to be in the minority, but as far as cost goes, it seems to me that we're paying more for the blue bags than other people are actually paying in the cities over here. And I've got something from Coastal from the city of Davie. It looks like their total cost is $2,709 a month. I did my cost with Plantation, looking at the water bill, and my usage of roughly five blue bags a month over here. I come out to $36. So, I think you're throwing costs out the window. And I think, you know, looking at that other presentation over there. So, I really don't see the justification in that. Sorry, it's pretty tough to do it all in three minutes over here. So, I guess, you know, one of the other things that was said, that you've got a 98% satisfaction ratio with the bins, and you've got 50-50 with the blue bags. I mean, right there, I would drop the discussion right there. You've got 98% satisfied with the bins and 50-50. So, again. Audience, can I ask you, please, be respectful. Go ahead, finish up. I think that kind of speaks for itself right there. Again, having lived in multiple cities. Right. Thank you. Thank you for coming out. Hi, Patricia Leigh-Benvenu and Vicki Gelfand. Good evening. Good evening, again. Thank you for letting me speak. Absolutely. My name is Patricia Leigh-Benvenu. I live at 1500 Northwest 100th Way in Jacarenda Lakes. I also own a house in Lauderdale West, where my mother lived before she moved to an assisted living a few years ago. I have to say, of course, I am very satisfied with the blue bag service. I was very happy to hear that you have the possibility of allowing residents to continue to select that option, if that's what they're happy with. However, I am concerned that this current ability to select is really possibly a Trojan horse, because in the future, future residents won't have that ability to be able to choose that. Only the people that are here now are already using the blue bags, and especially concerning Lauderdale West people. I know from my mother's experience, she used to go out with her walker and take out a little bag and leave it out there. She never would have been able to take a bin out or bring it back in. So I think especially when you think of older residents or anyone with any kind of physical impairment, we have to keep that in mind for them to be able to have this choice in the future. I'm concerned that the choice is going to end, that it's only now. So in the future, there will be no choice. Everybody will have bins. And then what do we do about the bins? They're outside. You have a tropical storm. You have a hurricane coming. Where are those bins going to go? They're not going in my garage. I put my cars in my garage because it's not full of junk. My trash bins don't go in there. So we have to think about that. Are we going to have these things flying about in a storm? And I'm not just talking about hurricane season, because we have storms throughout the year. So I do ask that you continue to fight for us to be able to at least select the option, but don't limit it to only their current residents. That's not fair to people in the future. And with areas like Lauderdale West, I think maybe they should be able to opt out no matter whether it's a current resident or someone who buys in the future. I don't think the blue bags are that expensive. We only use one or two a week because there's two of us left. So thank you very much. Thank you for coming out. All right. Vicki Gelfin, then on deck. I have Alyssa Rosenblum and Scott Rosenblum. Ms. Falcon, Gelfin. Vicki Gelfin, 9381 Northwest 18th Place. I appreciate how much work Carol Morris put into this, and she did a great job. A couple of corrections. Davey does not have any recycling. All their trash goes into one big bin. They don't believe in recycling. As a single woman in a single family home, I cannot see me dragging a cart to the curb when it's filled and then dragging it back up when it's empty. Waste management has representatives here, but I don't see any of their drivers or the other people that work for them here. Those are the ones that we interact with, right? Okay? All right. So may I can also ask them, why aren't they taking my recycling? I recycle newspapers seven days a week, and I get them in a bag, and they leave them there. They said, paper's not recyclable? I don't know about that. But that's not the, you know. I'd like to know what the cans weigh empty. And when the cans fall over, and all, because, you know, we do have critters, and we also have drivers, they'll knock over the cans. The cans open up. The trash is on the street. Okay. Somebody comes up, sets the can up, puts the trash back in, but they don't flip it closed, and all of a sudden we have a rainy day like we did today and yesterday and Sunday and Saturday and all of last week, and those cans weigh 100 pounds. I'd like to weigh 100 pounds. But I don't, I also don't think, I'm honest, what, I also don't think that their $10,000 donation for public education, I mean, seriously, let's go for waste management has more money than this room combined. I mean, if you're going to ask for a donation, get a couple hundred thousand. I thank Councilwoman Andrea for her research. Tamaric has about 75,000 people in it, and if they have a better contract than us, we're doing something wrong. But I just feel that, and also the community survey, I filled it out. I'd like to know how many people in this room filled it out or even knew that there was a community survey. There's 95,000 people in the city of Plantation. How many people filled out that community survey? And how many people would fill out another one now? That's it. Thank you. Thank you, Ms. Gelfin. Ms. Rosenblum and Mr. Rosenblum. Good evening. Good evening, everybody. Thank you for this opportunity. My name is Lisa Rosenblum, 15th Court, Lauderdale West. For 36 years, we lived in New York, longer than that. But for 36 years, we had waste management with 90-gallon bins. Had a family of five. Worked out great. Except, even in New York with cold weather, you still had to wash out the bins because of the bugs. And you're still not paying for the bags anyway, because you're not throwing your trash right in there. So you're still paying for that. Came down here, and I went, we've got to buy bags? What am I, crazy? Now I'm spending it on bags? Why? And then paying for it in our water bill. So I wanted to see, now there's only two of us, not five of us. How many times am I going to have to replenish bags, as opposed to paying the waste management every three or four months? I don't remember what it was. And there's only two of us. Our footprint is so tiny, we maybe have a blue bag every two to three weeks, once a week. You know, I should say, one time, every two or three weeks. Recyclables, maybe every other week also. So for us, the big bin, where are you going to put it? Not going to our garage, we have no room in there, and our cars aren't even in there. And I don't want to clean it out. Nowhere to store it. And financially, how is it? I have a 92-year-old cousin that lives in Lauderdale West. She has an aide. That aide takes it out. There's no way. She had a hip replacement. No way she's going to be rolling out one of those big bins. So for elderly people, a lady across the street from me, her aide would take it out, too. So elderly people, there's no way they're doing it, and over the grass, that they can do this. So I think it's good consideration to figure that in an older development, and you have people, like the one gentleman said, you know, he could take it out. Yeah, you're young now, but when you live and be well, 85, 90, 95 years old, are you still going to say, oh, I can take that bin out? You could take your blue bag, put it on a hand truck. You've got a small little hand truck, put it on there. Or on your walker, the ones that have the little seats, put your little bag on there and just straddle away. You're fine. That's all. Thank you. Thank you so much for coming out. No, please. No, no. I don't want to admonish you. Scott Rosenblum, and then Christy Woods. Scott? Are you waving? Okay. Thank you so much. Christy Woods, then Dom Kosia, and Sandra Poole. Good evening, Ms. Woods. Good evening. Good evening to you all. Christy Woods, 8642 Northwest 10th Court, Lauderdale West. I'm on the Board of Directors. As Steve said, one of the things that caught his ear and mine is when Ms. Morris said that anybody moving out would then go to the cart. And that was one of my fears from the beginning, that this is a bait and switch, if you will. Well, that they will give us the blue bags, but then at some point there's going to be a loophole in that contract where they are going to turn the tables and we will have to go to the carts. So I would urge you, just as you did your due diligence with looking for various things, I would urge you to look in this contract and take care of those loopholes and put language in there so that we don't have to go. And it's already been mentioned about people having to take the carts down the driveway, those kinds of things. I am one of the residents that lives in a duplex. And I am very particular. I have dealt with those carts before, and one of the attractions, the many attractions to Plantation when I moved here was blue bags. I looked forward to getting my blue bags. And then you were able to get us the smaller blue bags. And for one person, it is perfect. Once a week, the bag goes to the curb, and I'm done with it. I will not have those nasty-looking trash cans sitting even on the side of my house. It is not acceptable. We don't look that way. And if you go through Sunrise, you can go just about any street, and it looks like nothing but a trash city. A plantation is not made for that. Our reputation does not give for us having those bags on the sides of their houses. And in addition, when you live in a plex, we pull that from the back around the side of our house, which is very uneven. But then we have to pull it over a bump stop because we park our cars in front of the plexes. You can't pull it over a bump stop. It just doesn't work, and there's not enough room to go between. So how are we going to do this? It's not something that we should consider. And above all, the safety factor is what is really critical for all of us because, as said, we are in over 55, and many of us are really over 55. And even when I was able to pull those darn carts, it was not pleasant pulling it down the driveway and then pulling it back up again. So a safety factor for us is paramount. Thank you. Thank you very much. Dom Kosho. No, what did I say about the applause? Dom Kosho, Sandra Poole, and then Pinky Trapani. You're back at a council meeting. Good evening. How are you tonight? Good, thank you. Good evening. Dom Kosho, 1067 Northwest 83rd Avenue, Plantation. I live in Lauderdale West, and I've been there for now three years. I help out a lot around the community, do a lot of volunteer work, and what I've noticed is with the proposal that you're doing, we have a lot of plexes. And the four-plex units have two one-bedroom apartments in between the two outside units. That means those people, if they had a cart, would have to have it behind their house, and as Steve Rose pointed out, would have to drag it out around through the common ground to get it to the front and then drag it back again. That ground is very, very uneven. I could see a lot of falls going. So I prefer the blue bags. Thank you. All right. We have Sandra Poole and then Pinky Trapani. Hello. Good evening. Good evening to everyone. My name is Sandra Poole, 9011 Northwest 13th Street. I am a resident of Lauderdale Manors. I lived in Hollywood. We had the roll cart bins. I would take the bin down to the end of the driveway and set it off to the side of the driveway so that I could back out my car and go to work. I would come home. Most of the time, the empty cart would be sitting in the middle of the driveway. Rain or not, I had to get out and move the cart before I could proceed off the street. So I got into the habit of moving it three feet onto the lawn, not even in the driveway. I would come home. Where's the cart? In the driveway. I went to four feet. I went to five feet. I came home. The cart would be in the driveway. Recently, after 22 years of owning another car, I bought a new one. I made sure it was a Subaru Crosstrek because it's the smallest SUV and it fits into the Lauderdale West single-family garage. I like parking my car in the garage. Like today, when I came home, it was raining. I was able to pull into the garage. I don't want the cans because they're an impediment. I was also concerned, as other people have spoken, about the policy of this company wanting to say that you have to choose one or the other. Well, I'm a very young 78 years old, and so I could manage the cart at this point, but what about when I turn 85 or 90? You know, we moved into this community to age in place, and I'm reading your faces, and I can see that you all have compassion and understanding for that. But, so if I say that I wanted to opt for the cans at this time, but when I'm 85, they're saying I can't switch over. And I feel that whether or not Lauderdale gets an exemption or not, that that should be considered for all of the residents of Plantation. Why aren't we able to switch from one to the other? It's a convenience for them that we can't. It's not a convenience for us. And so I thank you for your time. I'm out tonight. Pinky Terpani, welcome back to City Council. Thank you. It is indeed a pleasure to welcome all of you familiar faces being right where you're supposed to be, to take care of us residents of Plantation and of Lauderdale West. So I congratulate each and every one of you. May have a beautiful, successful year ahead of you, but I am here to say something from my heart to each and every one of you. Keep in mind that I am just about five feet tall, okay? I'm 91 and a half years old. Can you picture me dragging a bin from my house all the way out to the curb? I don't think so. Not only me, but we also have a resident of 100 years old with a walker, with a cane. That's an accident waiting to happen at a lawsuit. Please take that into consideration for us elderly people, 70, 80, 90 years ago, dragging these bins out to the curb. And I want to say more, but Mr. Rose, our president, and Christy Woods said it all for me. But I thank you for the opportunity to speak and welcome all of you. Thank you for coming out tonight. Ah, Lauderdale West is not listening today. Okay, we've got Ellen Bronstein, Jan Heinrich, and Rosemary Burns. Folks, and we ask for the quiet out of respect for the speakers and also to move this along so you're not here until 11 o'clock tonight. So Ellen Bronstein? No? Yes? Are you coming? Okay. Jan beat you. So you're going to be second. I'm second. All right. She's coming. Yeah, you're second, Jan. You're on deck. You're on deck. And then Rosemary Burns is third on deck. Good evening, Ms. Bronstein. Hello, everybody. Congratulations, Mayor and Ashton. Ellen Bronstein, my nickname is Esther. So everybody in the community knows me as Esther. 8531 Northwest 11th Street, Lauderdale West. So I'm in favor of having the blue bags, and I would like also to understand the point that Steve Rose made that if somebody moves out, then they're going to be grandfathered in to get the carts, which I don't agree with, because then it would be a demerit against the community. I currently use the little baby blue bags. I use one a week, and I use the clear recycle every two weeks. I'm a one-person unit in my home, and it would be a hardship using the carts. They're heavy. I also live in a duplex, so that would be very cumbersome, going over the grass, the parking stops that Christy mentioned, et cetera. And I'm concerned for my health and tripping. I don't want to jeopardize my health and create a fall, which would be pretty disastrous with some of the conditions that I currently have. So my vote would be to keep the blue bags in our community, and thank you all for your services. I'm very grateful for your wisdom and your compassion and doing what's right for the community. Thank you so much. Thank you for coming out tonight. It's this group over here. It's not this side. I know. It's this group. Okay. Jan Heinrich, come on up. And then after you is Rosemary Burns. I really... Jan Heinrich, 1311, Northwest 85th Ave, Lauderdale West. Surprise. I can't really say anything more or better than my predecessors have said, but, yes, definitely I have. Health issues also. If I fall, I break. And that compounds things. I would have to get an aid. I don't know where I would pay for that, et cetera, et cetera. And I'm not alone. So I'm glad you're considering all this because it's all very important to everyone in our community, especially that grandfathered in thing about not getting... Well, you know what I'm saying. You do. Okay. Thank you very much. Thank you, Ms. Heinrich. Rosemary Burns. And before we... No? You waving? You want blue bags? Blue bags. Okay. Keep blue bags. Before I go to the next public speaker, Ms. Morris, because everyone seems to have the same question. So if the entire Lauderdale West community, and I've spoken to Mr. Rose, they decide as a board that they want to keep the blue bags, much like Hawks Landing has the carts, and that's their decision to stay. Would they be treated similarly to Hawks Landing, that they would be blue bags, and what you're hearing is their fear is if somebody moved out that they would be replaced with a bin? My assumption would be if the entire community is blue bags, and it stays blue bags. If the board wants to provide a direction that they want to be a blue bag community, they certainly have the ability to do that. Some have suggested we write that into the franchise agreement. I would suggest that we not do that. I agree with that. Because then if that changed, you would have to amend your franchise agreement to allow that change to happen. And stepping back, why would you want to carve out a community and not allow them to have a choice that you are giving the rest of your residents? That might not be perceived well. It's equitable. Correct. That said, if the board wants to do that carve out, they could certainly stay blue bags. If, indeed, the direction is going to be that we go back and have further conversation with waste management, whether or not they can continue to be blue bags, I'll say in perpetuity, may be one of the items that we have further conversation on. And I think that my request would be that we have that conversation in perpetuity. And, again, I've had this conversation with Ms. Woods and Mr. Rose. I do not believe it belongs in the franchise agreement. I don't think that's a city determination. But if their board determines they want to remain a blue bag community, much as we have communities that are entire carts, then I think that that's something that we could work out. Okay? And agreed. If the direction is that you want us to go back and have further conversation, that can certainly be one of the conversation points. And it may well be amenable. Okay. Yes? Ms. Herrera, do we have a decision? Yes, Madam President. So, yes, of course. Okay. We can do that. Of course. Okay? So, anybody who asked about the grandfathering, if you're a blue bag community, if Lauderdale West chooses to do that, it will remain so. Okay? And no clapping. Oh, boy. But that's on Mr. Rose. Mr. President, you're going to have to get your community under control. Okay. That's on you, bro. All right. So, if that was going to be your question, then you won't need to answer it. Okay. All right. So, let's proceed. Thank you, Ms. Morris and Ms. Herrera, for that. Debra Glover, and then on deck would be Nancy Zoba, and then Suzanne, a favor. Madam President. Thank you. Madam President, as she comes at any point that you see fit, can I just get clarification in terms of not wanting it to be a part of the franchise agreement? Because we do have the other areas that are bins, exclusive, right? The acres, Lago Lago. Those are in the agreement. But they chose to be in the – I don't – so, what was asked – and Ms. Morris can – what was originally requested is that the city make the determination to put them in there. Ms. Morris, do you want to clarify about the agreement? I'm sorry, Ms. Clever. I apologize. Just real quickly, they're in the existing franchise agreement as carve-out communities. As we go forward and we go into the amended and restated agreement, a part of what we were trying to accomplish is currently we have franchise agreement and two amendments. Let's get it all into one document, put it all in one place, make it simple for administration to manage it. It just is much cleaner if we don't have carve-out communities in there. If we're going to give people the right to self-selection, we provide the right to self-selection. If you want to add a sentence to that saying we will honor the decision of boards of directors or something along those lines and provide a notification mechanism, we can certainly look at doing that, but again, as long as we have carve-outs in there, any time somebody wants to change. Let's say Lauderdale West suddenly finds an answer and they want cards. Right. You would have to go back and amend your franchise agreement to allow that to happen. But it's in the current one, in the amended one that you're presenting. No, ma'am, it is not. It's in the original. We deleted all the language about Lago, Largo, Melaleuca Isles, Hawks Landing, and Plantation Acres. Unless you found a place where it's missed, we removed all of those pieces. We can circle back, but go to page 37. Okay. Okay. Well, let me proceed with public comment. Thank you. I'm sorry to keep you waiting. Ms. Glover. Hi. My name is Deborah Glover. I live at 1120 Northwest 90th Way in Lauderdale West. I am pro-bobag and very anti-bin. My mother lived in a community that adopted bins, much like many residences in Plantation, not just Lauderdale West. You have a lot of townhouses, villas, and other communities like that. They had nowhere to put the bins. So adjacent driveways had a median, and that's what their community looks like now. They have a string of bins down the grass in front of their house. I think the aesthetic of the bins is ugly, and it doesn't add anything to the, you know, aesthetic of the community. And I think Lauderdale West has a beautiful community, well-landscaped, well-taken-care-of, and it will ruin the look of our community. I also bought a house specifically to have a garage in which to park my car. That would force me not to park in my garage so I'd have room to put a bin in there. And I would just leave mine outside, I guess, and enhance the ugliness of the community. I have been a resident for 30 years. I have followed the blue bag versus bin debate on Nextdoor forever. And, you know, and those proponents of the bins, they always make the assumption it's going to be cheaper. I have never really seen a cost analysis of how much more expensive it will be for the city to use the bins because I assume waste management is not going to make that a free item for us to get. So I just want to go on the record. I think it's more sanitary, more attractive, and more user economics, the user economics. I use one kitchen bag every other week. I don't make a lot of trash. For those that don't like the smell of maggots, et cetera, I put all my food in the freezer. And then on garbage day, I take it out and I put it in the blue bag. So I don't have maggots. I don't have any of those bugs or any of that stuff. So anyway, I just want to say blue bags forever. I'm old. I'm not that old yet, but the day will come. I can't do one of those bins. Thank you. Thank you, Ms. Glover. All righty. We've got Susanna Favor, Paul Wagner, and then Carol Sword. Susanna Favor? Going once, going twice. All right. Paul Wagner and then Carol Sword. Paul Wagner still here? No? Okay, they left. Okay. Ms. Sword, then Linda Langley, and Diana Tuganda. Good evening, Ms. Sword. How are you? I'm fine. Thank you very much. I'm Carol Sword, 1621 Northwest 82nd Avenue. As a resident of Lauderdale West, I am requesting that the City Council reject the Waste Management Contract, unless it can amend it, to carve out Lauderdale West as a bags-only collection area in perpetuity. Lauderdale West is a senior community with many residents in their 70s and 80s, including me, who cannot clean or wheel out heavy bins. Due to lack of space, there is no place to put the bins, and they would become an eyesore. Also, our insurance company considers the bins a liability, since our seniors could injure themselves while moving them, and that would raise our premiums. I'm also against charging residents a franchise fee, since many seniors are living only on their Social Security. Every penny counts. Thank you, and I yield my time. Thank you very much, Ms. Sword. Linda Langley? No, not here. Diana Tuganda? Right. Jeffrey Alexander? Boy, a whole group left. Valerie Parchment? And then Natalie Lynch-Walsh, and the last one that I have is Noemi Sanchez. Good evening. Good evening. My first time at a meeting like this. Thank you. You're welcome. Thank you. I'm Valerie Parchment, 1420 Campanelli Drive. I just made some notes. I was very interested in what was taking place this evening. I would encourage the board to negotiate the contract, as our council member previously suggested, and if there are opportunities to negotiating, better prices, services, or flexibility before making final decisions. I'd like to thank you for bringing that to our attention. I like that both bags and bins are being offered as options. I think having a choice is a positive thing, as you express 50-50 throughout the community, next door, and everything else. If residents are being given the choice to choose between them, why is there such opposition to the proposal? Are there different size bins available? I have lived in other communities where you have full-size bins for large families, and you have the smaller bins for individuals. So is that an option? Especially in Lauderdale West, I see currently homes that have bins outside. So it's not unusual to see some people taking the option of the bins, and then they take the bag out and walk the bag to the end. I already, in the case of duplexes, would residents and fourplexes, would residents share a large bin, and you just drop your bag in? And we all use the shopping Publix and Walmart bags so we wouldn't have to buy blue bags. I already assist neighbors with their bags in getting them to the curb as I walk around, and I believe residents will continue to look out for one another, whether it's bins or bags. It's such a great community. Everybody is very helpful. I was wondering what the environmental benefits and disadvantages of using the bags versus bins. I'd be curious to hear more about that. The other thing I noticed is the majority of Broward County communities appear to have addressed these same concerns and implemented their waste collection systems. What other Broward County communities still use bags? What can we learn from communities that have successfully made the transition? Are the concerns being raised unique to Lauderdale West, or have other communities found workable solutions? I notice I'm a younger member of Lauderdale West, and I'm looking forward to aging in place there, and I hope I can take my bin out. But if I can't, I hope I have a kind neighbor that will assist me, if that's the only option. But the idea that I can have my blue bag as well is also a wonderful option to have. I believe we should approach this decision with an open mind, look at the facts, and consider what is best for the community. We should make an informed decision based on facts, practicality, affordability, and the best interest of our residents. Thank you for your time. And Ms. Parchman, we're the only city in Broward County, 31 cities, that has pay-as-you-throw, and the blue bags don't go to the waste, to the landfill. They go to the waste-to-energy plant to be incinerated. Could you repeat, we're the only city that has pay-as-you-throw. Correct. Bags. The bags. Uh-huh. Thank you for that. I appreciate it. Thank you for coming out. Don't be a stranger. Come to another meeting. Dr. Lynch-Walsh. And then Noemi Sanchez. Natalie Lynch-Walsh, Jacaranda Lakes Plantation. Um, so a few things. I'm going to have to, uh, commend my 83-year-old stepmom for being able to drag bins out in St. Augustine. Uh, she probably needs smaller ones, but she gets them out there and back. Um, so, uh, it, it sounds as though Lauderdale West wants blue bags, and so you probably need a senior citizen solution. Uh, I would recommend tabling this item because I'm a big fan of competitive selection, like that would be putting out an RFP, and unless it takes even longer in plantation to put out an RFP than it does at Broward Schools, you should be able to put one out and get, get something in place before you would have to give notice. Um, it seems like you have like a year here. So, uh, but you don't have a lot of information in terms of the costs. I'm not seeing a lot of data attached to any of this stuff. So, you would have to do some research to see what other cities, what it costs their residents, what they're paying. I didn't see. I like tables of data so I can compare and contrast. Just while sitting there, uh, Margate has these really cute little 35 gallons, and then they have 65 gallons and 95 gallons. Not even I probably want 95 gallons in my garage or the side of my house. But, but they have, for the record, I hate blue bags. Um, I've lived, before I lived in Florida, I lived in Colorado, and it killed me that people didn't recycle. And then I realized it's because they're thinking, oh, well, I'm not going to be here. So why do we need to recycle? Why do we need to worry about what's happening to the next generation? So, Colorado recycles. They have that down to a science. I moved to Florida, and nobody was recycling, um, for years. And even now, I'm not sure what's going on. So, I would welcome having carts, because it's not just about the cost. It's about the cost to the planet. Um, yes, surprise, I'm actually a tree hugger. Um, so it's, it's, it's, it's a lot of cost, but it's not just cost. And people have to think about the environment, because we're going to destroy the planet eventually. But, again, I would table this. I don't think you have enough information. You certainly have had enough feedback. But you don't have enough data to really make the best decision. And you could negotiate, but you don't know if you're getting the best deal until you do some comparative analyses with other cities. Um, Margate, for instance, uses Republic, and they have the three different size carts. Um, but definitely, uh, it would seem as though you need a solution for people that really cannot drag out a cart, because I could see my mother, if she doesn't have her cane with her, it is plausible that they could have a problem with carts. That I get. But, um, but I just realized I'm also over 55, and I'll be dragging carts for a while. Thank you. Thank you, Dr. Lynch-Walsh. Naomi Sanchez? Good evening. Thank you for coming tonight. Thank you, and I'll keep it very brief, because you've heard what I'm going to say over and over again. But I just wanted to add one thing. Uh, I wanted to thank, uh, Jennifer Andrew for doing the study that you did with the city of Tamarack. I also did something very similar, but with five different cities. I used, uh, Davies, Sunrise, Cooper City, Plantation, and Weston. And did it through, you know, AI, because I don't have all that information. And it ended up being that with the proposal that waste management currently has, uh, given the city, we're going to be the highest city for cost of our garbage from all these five cities. So, you know, right now we would be, we're in third place. We would be number one, the highest out of all of them. So I thank you for requesting that, you know, you do further studies and you try to figure out, you know, maybe waste management can give you a better proposal, because I love waste management. But they should not be telling you you have a deadline. You know, they want to be, they want to be our customers. We want, you know, they want us, they're our service. So they have to extend and, you know, abide by what we need. At Lauderdale West, where I live, yes, we do need the blue bags, because, you know, we do have a lot of elderly. I can take out bins with no problem, but I see people with their walkers, with their canes. They can't. And, you know, the space is very prohibitive, so, but that you've already heard. So I'd just like to thank you and, you know, request, look at it and do it a little further. I had come out that it was going to be 23% higher. You're saying 33% higher. So something was missed. So thank you. I just want to clarify a couple of things, and thank you for that. So I don't know if you were here for the workshop at 5 o'clock. No, I wasn't. I got here on 5.30. Right. That's fine. So it's really difficult to compare other cities, because you have population differences and you have waste generation differences. So, you know, we go through that all the time with the Solid Waste Authority when we came up with this master plan, looking at all the different cities. Very difficult to compare. Now, there are some things, as Council Member Andrea has said, that perhaps we can get from them. But it's very different to look at city to city and compare that data, because the services are so different, especially in a city like ours, where we have pay-as-you-throw, and as you heard me say, we're the only ones who have that. And then carts. So there's going to be a difference. So it's difficult to put that into AI and get accurate information. And the other thing, I had another thought on that. I was going to answer a question that you had, but I just wanted to put that out there as well. And definitely, you know, even within our own city, we have the differences, because at Lauderdale West, we need the bags. Right. You know, it's very different from the rest of the communities. We're kind of a unicorn in Broward County with the bags. But as you've heard tonight, it is more cost-effective for a lot of us to only put out the one bag. But I appreciate you staying through all that feedback. You were the last one tonight. All right. Thank you. Thank you very much. All right. We really appreciate everyone coming out and commenting on that tonight. We've got other agenda items to move on to. Mayor, you have buzzed in. Thank you very much. Mr. Rose, stay with us here. I've got a handful of notes. Come on, man. I listened to you. First off, Aston, are you sure you want to do this? So a couple notes for everybody from Lauderdale West. We saw this on the horizon a few months ago. And I came and talked to the administration and said, this is going to be something that's going to need to be worked out. And so props to you all for thinking everything through and trying to get where we are on it. Ms. Sward, you're talking about perpetuity. The contract's for five years. So no matter what, it's going to get renegotiated in five years. And the contract also says, no matter what five years from now, if they go with WM, it's all going out to bid, no matter what. So it is going to come out to bid then, and this is all going to come up again in five years, like it or not. That's in the general contract we have with our trash overall. You know what I mean. The deadline, somebody just mentioned the deadline. The deadline's not from WM. The deadline is from us because if we don't have a decision by November 18th, it's going to go out to bid. So vote on 18th, and you vote on 18th, is it going to approve the contract or it goes out to bid? So that's really what the choice is going to be. The other thing was you talked about cost. Comparing cost, I do think with labor, the blue bags are two people, to have a truck with blue bags. So any company that comes in and visits and gives us prices, the prices are going to be higher now because the cost of labor everywhere has gone up. And if you check the price of gasoline, the price of gasoline has gone up. So some of these costs that we're trying to evaluate, each contract that's coming in is going to be coming in higher. Costs are going up everywhere. So those are just things for you all to consider. And, you know, the idea of carving it out was something we talked about. The question that they will also have, though, is if you decide to carve out this community, what will be the protocol if other communities come to you? And so what protocol are you all going to have? And that's just something to talk about. Mr. Rose? It's your meeting. I'm sorry. Mr. Rose, please come back up to the podium. Thank you, Mr. Mayor. It turns out I have a house in Tavernier, and I have bins. The important thing about bins is they have to face a specific direction for the automatic lift, which means the people have to put them out with the particular position. If they are not that way, they either don't get picked up or they have to have two people. They have to have somebody to go out and flip the bin around so it can be picked up. Am I correct in that, WM? Yeah. They're nodding. Yeah. Hi, I'm Tom Ritter. I'm the senior district manager of waste management. So, yeah, you are correct. If they put the bin out the wrong way, two people would have to do it. Now we operate in about 12 or 13 other cities, and about 99.99% of all people put it out the correct way. So they learn how to put it out. I don't have every other cart the wrong way. It's kind of you wheel it out and you leave it. But you're right. If somebody did, they'd have to go and turn it. Come visit us in Tavernier because we are waste management, and, in fact, at least 45% to 50% require a second individual to go out and turn the cart around. Okay. And, Mr. Rose, I'm good if we carve out Lauderdale West blue bags. I'm good with all that. But I'm just trying to be up front with the idea. As you compute costs, I don't want anybody to get sandbagged at the end saying, oh, my God, this is more than we thought. Oh, no. We totally understand. I think we've got that, Mayor, and it's got to come from the community direction. Okay. Thank you. Council Member Reinstein. Council President, will you entertain a motion? I certainly will. Thank you. Motion to table this item until the November 18th City Council meeting. Yes. Do we have a second? Thank you very much. Ms. Beggro, please call the roll. Council Member Andrew. Yes. Council Member Reinstein. Yes. Council Member Anderson. Yes. Council Member Horland. Yes. Thank you very much. Moving on to consent item number two, the AHAC 2026 Annual Report Resolution. Mr. Conklin, you pulled this, sir. Okay. Thank you for coming out, everyone. I'm just going to ask you to exit quietly so we can give the speaker his time. Thank you. Mr. Conklin, go ahead, sir. Dennis Conklin, 4581 Northwest Sixth Court. I just wanted to pull this one to emphasize what I put in on my request to yield so much time back because of the issue. Can we please be quiet exiting the chamber? Thank you. During the public request comments. And it has to do with the affordability. I just want to reinforce the affordable housing. You cannot solve that. I don't care how many committees and reports they give and stuff like that. Because we have a fiat currency. And, again, to stress how important it is of the failure of the Florida state legislature to not turn the ignition key on, constitutional Article I, Section 10, gold and silver coined by the states for payment of debt legally tender. That means it removes it from commodity and makes it money, as our framers, right? The founders wrote the Declaration. The framers wrote the Constitution. So you're a dog chasing your tail with us. You cannot solve this. And when government gets involved, it's sort of like right now with the mortgages. The government owns most of the mortgages now in America, over 70%. They're not done by private lenders anymore. Hardly. And I just want to stress that again. You need to make the legislature follow its own legislation from 2025 that they failed to perform on July 1st of this year. It had all been laid out. Brink's depository was going to be the state of Florida's depository for gold and silver coin legal tender under the article. I went down there because it got so close I wanted to find out how to do it. And they told me, oh, the legislature didn't turn the ignition. So I just want to express it. Get on the phone. We got newly elected officials and some that would retain their seats and get them to do this. My kids, if you have children, what is it? They can't afford to buy a house because they get paid in Federal Reserve notes, which don't keep up with the cost of a home. That's what the whole problem is. When I bought my home, it took 200 ounces of gold because gold was $440 an ounce. The houses around me that sell, right nearby me because I live on a corner, right, one this way, one that way, was $500,000 plus. Guess what? Finish up, Mr. Conklin. Same amount of gold. And actually, it was a little bit less of ounces of gold. I yield back my time. Thank you, sir. Do we have a motion on item number two? Motion to approve and transmit the report. Do we have a second? Second. Okay. Ms. Beggarrow, please call the roll. Council Member Andrew? Yes. Council Member Reinstein? Yes. Council Member Anderson? Yes. Council Member Horland? Yes. Thank you very much. Item number 10 was pulled by Council Member Reinstein and Andreu. This change order number 13 to agreement number 001-26, the Dyke Auditorium Roof Replacement and Structural Repairs. Council Member Reinstein, you were on first. I'm going to let Council Member Andreu go first. Okay. Please. The last time I went first, you get scolded, so go ahead. You did not. I just wanted, actually, Mr. Nunamaker must have stepped out, or, okay, Div, if you could. I wanted an update regarding Dyke in general and your estimated completion date. I understand some new changes were also made in terms of, I think, a room divider and flooring. But in lieu of everything that has happened, when can we expect to be back in there? So, I believe we gave Jason, oh, by the way, Div Machuca, Capital Projects Administration, City Plantation, good evening. I mean, we gave an update on Dyke. We gave an update on Dyke. I think he shared that with the Council Members. He sent that out to everybody. So, you guys are aware, per contract, the contractor is scheduled to complete, per his contract, the Dyke Auditorium and all the improvements by mid-February, let's say. It's February 19th, I believe, give or take a day. Currently, he's progressing with his scheduled contracted work and to be complete with his scheduled contracted work by sometime by early December. However, with what we're bringing up today is the change order for the operable partition walls that currently, when we were doing the structural improvements, we noticed that we needed to reposition the foldable partition walls, and it made it very resistant, restricted movement. And my understanding is that they use the partition walls for various events, community events, meetings, and as it is right now. And in looking into it further, those partition walls themselves are over 20 years old. And not to say the least for the track itself is even older. I think it was original to the building when the building was built. So, as you can see, it makes it very difficult for staff to come in and move the partitions when we want to hold events. So, that's why we're bringing this change order. Now, with this change order, if it gets approved tonight, then the contractor will go, move forward, release his subcontractor to move forward with the fabrication of the materials, which has a lead time between 10 to 12 weeks, which will put us roughly by the end of January. Then the installation portion that follows with that will put us on another one or two weeks after that. So, we're still in line with completing the work by February, mid-February, give or take, bearing no weather conditions or any other things that come up. And thank you for sharing that with us. Yes, but I wanted the public to know because you know this has been a topic of conversation for a very long time. Correct. Now, one thing that Charles just did point out, we did issue the contract on an additional 30 days, calendar days, as part of this change order request in the event, because they have some superfluous improvements around the partitions as well. So, it will put them at roughly March, end of March, give or take. But they are trying to push forward and complete the project ahead of that, if possible. Thank you. We would appreciate that. Thank you, Council Member Andreu. Council Member Weinstein. Thank you, Mr. Machuca. Look, I just want to make sure that we do hold their feet to the fire. Yes. I will say that this project is probably one of the most frustrating projects that I have seen in the four years I've been on this Council. And I have said from the day as a number of times when we've talked about this, because this has come before us a number of times, that I never understood why we didn't – it's not a historical site. I mean, it's one that is very well used, but it seems like where all these repairs, we could have put together – put a new building there. And I know I've been told over time that that's not the case, that the repairs are less expensive than an entire new building there. But, you know, after you get to a certain amount, it would seem that maybe we should have just put a little more in and then had something new like we did with the community center. But at this point, I just want to clearly express the frustration that not only do I have, but residents who are regularly asking, when are we getting back into the place that we enjoyed being and meeting and so forth. So I'm glad that you're responsible for this project, because I know you will push it forward. And I just want to make sure it's clear on the record that we do want you to hold their feet to the fire. Thank you. Thank you. And I appreciate your comments, because, again, you're not the first I've heard that. I've heard that from many residents, even staff. So we're pushing. Thank you, Mr. Pachuca. Mr. Conklin, you also pulled this item. Would you like to comment, sir? Dennis Conklin, 4581 Northwest Sixth Court. Just very quickly, after the return of the library to Helen B. Hoffman's site, how many years has this been for the Dyke Auditorium Repairs? Because I kind of lost track. And the comment I want to make, but I hope I get the answer, is I used to watch the Three Stooges all the time. I'm a kid in the 50s, and they always had a saying, Rome wasn't built in a day, and neither was Syracuse. But what on earth? You know, demolish Dyke like they did the John F. Kennedy Center and make it a new facility. Thank you. Thank you, Mr. Conklin. You'll back my time, but I hope to find out the answer for the number of years. It was like peeling an onion. Every time you looked at another layer, there was more damage in there. So it's been, how many years? It seems like it's been forever. I know you came in late, Mr. Machu. Yeah, I really can't answer that because I don't have the historical background about that, but I know it's been like three or four years. Yeah, it's been about three or four years. Okay. Thank you. Thank you so much. Yeah. Okay. Do we have a motion, Councilmembers, on this item? Motion to approve. Okay. Do I have a second? I'll second it. Council, Ms. Biggerow, please call the roll. Councilmember Andrew. Yes. Councilmember Reinstein. Yes. Councilmember Anderson. Yes. Councilmember Horland. Yes. Thank you very much. Item number 16 is the gateway expenditures. Mr. Conklin. Thank you, Mr. Machu. Apologies. I wasn't really watching the stuff. Dennis Conklin, 4581 Northwest 6th Court. Again, to draw attention to what the extra millage on the plantation gateway, in addition to the regular real estate millage, everybody knows they got their trim notice. And in the last week, I just got my actual bill, and the businesses have to pay extra in plantation gateway. They're spending, again, this is week two report, $1,300 for water and wastewater, when the CRA has been in place for nearly its entire existence of 30 years, right? We've only got four years left. So I'll give back my time. Thank you. Thank you, Mr. Conklin. Do we have a motion? Motion to approve item 16. Second. Thank you very much. Ms. Beggarrow, please call the roll. Councilmember Andrew. Yes. Councilmember Reinstein. Yes. Councilmember Anderson. Yes. Councilmember Horland. Yes. Thank you very much. Moving on to item 18, comprehensive plan status update. Mr. Alpert. Good evening, council, city attorney, mayor, city clerk, Michael Alpert, and term director. Just an update on where we are with the comprehensive plan. As you know, we've received comments from several members of the community. We are in the process of looking at all those errors and omissions and other clarifications that were needed. Not all of the items that were pointed out were actual errors, but we are in the process of answering and responding to and creating a document for the public to clarify some of those things. Most of them are very minor errors and omissions. We're working on that, and when we are done, we will upload that for the public and invite the public to review and comment on those items, as well as the revisions that are made to volume one and volume two. On November 10th, we will have a discussion at the Planning and Zoning Board giving the residents another opportunity to ask questions and so forth. And after that, we will – we have also extended the period with the state. We requested and were granted an extension for 180 days to April 30th. But we will – when we have the revised documents, we will notify the public, post it on the website, and we'll have a future adoption hearing after a time period. And most likely bring it back before the April 30th. Yes. Yes. Great. Thank you, Mr. Alpert. Council members, any questions on that update? Okay. Mr. Alpert, thank you. We appreciate that. All right. Moving on to legislative items. Item 19 is the second reading of an ordinance amending Chapter 2 of the City Code of Ordinances, creating Section 2-164, Disposition of Surplus Tangible Personal Property. Mr. Morgan. Thank you. You're welcome. Public hearing, second reading of an ordinance of the City of Plantation, Florida, amending Chapter 2 of the City Code of Ordinances, titled Administration, Article 6, entitled City Property, by creating Section 2-164, entitled Disposition of Surplus Tangible Personal Property, providing for codification, providing for conflicts, providing for servability, and providing for an effective date. Thank you, Mr. Morgan. Thank you. Council members, any discussion on the second reading? I saw that the revision that Council Member Fajan had requested was included, so motion to approve. Do we have a second? Second. Any further discussion? Anyone from the public? All right. Ms. Biggerow, please call the roll. Council Member Andreu? Yes. Council Member Reinstein? Yes. Council Member Anderson? Yes. Council Member Horland? Yes. Thank you very much. All right. Comments by the mayor. Sir? Cooking. Did I miss board appointments? Can I make mine now? Because I have openings. I have three openings. Okay. You don't want to wait until we make those? Well, because I want to get somebody on for the 10th. Okay. Sure. Go ahead. So Lisa Tompkins is my alternate to planning and zoning. Max is going to miss the meeting on the 10th, and so Lisa Tompkins will be my alternate. Okay. So that was a big one. Brooke Bordy from Tropical Elementary. I don't know if you know her. She's a star. You probably, Dr. Walsh knows her. Okay. EAB. And Richard Mendel from Tropical Way to Parks and Rec. Okay. Tennis player and golfer. So more comments for me? Yeah. Let's go ahead. Let me go all the way through it. Yeah. We don't have to make a motion on those. Okay. You're good, Mayor. Go ahead with your comments. I texted Council Member Fadgen, former Council Member Fadgen, this morning, ask him to remain on the pension board, employee pension board. And it looks like it's going to go that way. So that's good. We're going to have a gap on the MPO because he is vacating. I don't know if anybody here on the panel has an interest in being the MPO rep. Well, I think we should probably wait until we have the full council seated. Okay. And then we can talk about that. Okay. What I'm trying to get at is I don't want to do it because I'm doing AHA. Right. Well, and I don't have the… Yeah, because you don't want to, you don't have the capacity. So it would be good if somebody others… Sure. You know, but if not, then I'll transition to a video and somebody else I can. But I think you're right to bring it up so my colleagues can consider it. Yeah. And then when we get to that point… And can be thinking of. Yep. One, two, three… We do resos on those anyway. Yeah. I'll have time to prep it. Right. Yeah, exactly. Perfect. So for the public and for everybody, Tuesday, November 17th, 10.30 is swearing in. There is one, two, three of us up here to be sworn in and Mr. Bright. Correct. Public invited. And that's the best of it. All right. Thank you, Mayor. Council Member Einstein. Thank you very much. You've heard lots of the congratulations already, but it's my opportunity. So I will, again, congratulate the Mayor, Council Member Elect Aston Bright. I also want to recognize that we have a new state representative, Representative Michael Friend, that will be representing us. Senator Osgood was re-elected. We also have Congresswoman Debbie Wasserman Schultz that was re-elected. Congresswoman-elect Pia Dandia will be representing parts of Plantation as well. I may have missed some, but generally those are the people who will be representing us. And public should know. Reach out to them, whether you're congratulating them or not. They are your representatives, and you should get to know them because they will be responsive. And they have been to us, those that have been in office. I think you also heard already, if you're not familiar with our Veterans Day observance, it is a very special observance that we do here. So I hope that everybody will join us. I want to make mention of the South Plantation High School bowlers. They went to the state championship, 13 of the South Plantation High School bowlers. And they did exceptional, and I want to congratulate them for all of their work. Those that actually went to the championship and those that were great teammates and leaders on the team, they apparently get along real well, and they played real well together. So congratulations to them. I also want to specifically thank Michelleon and her team and Matt Thompson and his team. The flooding that's been going on has been – it is what it is, but they're responding immediately. And, you know, whether you're satisfied with the response or not, you should know that they are working overtime, and they are putting in a tremendous amount of energy and effort, and we often are talking about these, you know, one in a hundred storms or one in a thousand or whatever we're calling them, but the fact is that they're happening often, and so just want to make sure to recognize them for all of their hard work. And I want to also – Mr. Thompson and his team, you know, we get calls all the time. I'm sure you all do as well regarding, you know, whether it's a tree that's fallen or whether it's a sidewalk or whatever it may be. And when there's a danger and it's the city's responsibility and you let us know, they respond very quickly. And so I want to just make sure that they get recognized for that. The last thing that I think I wanted to say before maybe Ms. Shailon wanted to say something – I see her – she walked up – is that there is a – there's a documentary that's playing on November 15th at 6 p.m. at Savor Cinema. Plantation is not specifically mentioned in it, but I've been told that there is a brief glimpse of a group of plantation walkers that walked for over two years when the hostages were being held in Gaza, and there was a group called Run For Their Lives that walked simply about the hostages. It was a humanitarian walk, and this documentary is taking place on November 15th, and I've been told there's a brief glimpse of the plantation walkers. But if anybody is interested, that's November 15th at Savor Cinema, and I think that's all I have. But if the Council President wants to indulge, Ms. Shailon. Thank you. Yes. Ms. Shailon. Thank you. And thank you for that. I had that in my notes to bring up as well. The Stormwater Team, Public Works, and also Utilities, because Utilities has been dealing with some lift stations. My apologies. Utilities, too. No, that's okay. They've been out around the clock, and I think – you know, I was out at polling places yesterday, Volunteer Park, the acres – the water just has nowhere to go. Yeah. So, go ahead. Good evening. I would like to take a moment just to explain to the public, if you allow me, a few facts. Absolutely. That's all of the situation that's happening in the western portion of town. Before I do that, I just want to explain we are – Noah had explained we are in a climate phenomenon called El Nino. And what does that mean? There is an increase of the temperature of the ocean that regulates what happened in our seasons. And they are expecting this winter season to be – actually, we saw we had reduced hurricanes, and we're going to have a very rainy winter. And here it is – November 1st to November 4th, City of Plantation received 12 inches of rain in total. And the rain concentrated in the west portion of town until this morning, where the rain spread throughout the city. So, Monday, between 5 p.m. until – and it kept raining throughout the night until the early morning hours, we received approximately 7 1⁄2 inches in less than 8 hours. And that's beyond the capacity of any drainage system locally and regionally. So, the – a couple of regional canals that the system drains to exceeded their capacity. So, there was nowhere for the water to go and resulted in flooding. 6.30 a.m. on Tuesday, myself, Jason, and the stormwater manager, we toured the impacted areas, which is western portion of the town from Knob Hill West, including my own community. There is residential Fountain Springs, Fox Run, Bridgewater, we couldn't leave our homes. The most impacted areas were Plantation Acres and Commodore Drives. So, we toured the area, we isolated the impacted areas, and then we started scratching our head what can be done. There's limited things can be done when the regional receiving water exceeded its capacity. I went back to the office, made phone calls to South Florida Water Management District, and asked for permission for emergency pumping, which they allow us to do. We deployed additional five pumps, and actually, I want to thank both Public Works and Utilities Department for their cooperation and collaboration in this rain event. Utilities Department lent us an additional pump, and Matt and his staff actually this morning deployed a smaller pump on Cleary Boulevard as the rainfall spread throughout the city. We received calls from Park East to Country Club Estate to Cleary Boulevard. So, I can assure you we're working around the clock. As we speak today, all paid pump stations are working, and they are working since Sunday afternoon. There is five additional supplemental pumps staged in a strategic location. And I want to explain to the public, there is authorization required by South Florida to increase the pumpage, which we need to request and gain that authorization. And we went through the proper steps to do that. There is also two jet vacs trying to help the community. I, myself, went to the Southern Acres, and I understand the resident frustration when they cannot leave their homes, when they have their businesses, their schooling, their work activity, or even going to the groceries. So, they are trapped in their community. I request them to continue to be patient in this situation. We're trying to do the best we can with the situation we have. We're not the only town impacted by this rainfall. There are surrounding towns, City of Sunrise, City of Weston, Davie. We're all facing the same challenges as we speak. The weather condition improved in the afternoon, and it is expected to continue to improve tomorrow throughout the weekend. And we're hoping to start receding hour by hour and day by day. So, we want to just ask the community to continue to be patient with us. We're answering our phones. We're answering the email as Council Member Reinstein. Some of the residents are accepting the answer. Some of them are not. But we're trying our best with the resources we have. And we deployed a lot of resources, utilities, stormwater, and public works. And thank you. Thank you again to your team for your responsiveness and all your hard work. Council President, can I make one more, please? Thank you, Michelle. I just wanted to also say this morning I happened to have attended the annual Southeast Florida Climate Leadership Summit. It's going on for three days. And you could imagine how the topic was that everybody is dealing with the flooding. And so, you know, while we're obviously focused on what's going on in our neighborhoods, there were people that were attending this climate summit at the Broward Convention Center from Palm Beach County, Miami-Dade County, and everybody was talking about the flooding in their neighborhoods. And I think we're doing an exceptional job of responding. Thank you. It's coming on the heels of high tides, which, you know, high tide has been king tide as well. Council Member Anderson. Well, you guys have covered it. And I definitely was going to actually ask to call her up. So thank you for thank you for that, Ms. Shailon. So that's it. Thanks, everybody. And thanks for thanks for getting reelected without an opponent. Council Member Andrew. I, too, want to congratulate Mayor Sordal, of course, Council Member Elect, Mr. Astin. I'm not sure if he's Mr. Astin Bright. Also, congratulations on your unopposed re-election, Council Member Anderson and President Horland. And is this your last meeting serving as president? We're going to switch over in December. In December. Okay, so I won't thank you for that yet. I'll hold that one. But, again, congratulations and well-deserved. And I, too, appreciate all of the candidates that ran and did so with dignity, which, when you were the president of the League of Cities, I think you really paved the path for that. Yep, we still have our gavels. We still have our gavels. And I was in Coral Springs and applauded them for that, too. The way that so many people did handle themselves with such dignity and care. Also, I want to congratulate Hawthorne Village on their 60th anniversary. I know some of us are going to their event on Saturday the 14th. So, looking forward to that. And the Mayor's Gala on November 15th at the Renaissance Hotel, Sunday the 15th. And then, lastly, just want to remind all of the men in the room and listening, November is Men's Mental Health Awareness Month. And I know with all of the societal pressures, we tell men to be strong all the time. But it's okay to seek help and to talk openly about your emotions. And there are many resources available. So, we do want to acknowledge Men's Health Awareness Month. Thank you, President Horland. Thank you very much. And I just want to add to the chorus. Congratulations, Mayor and Councilmember-elect Bright. And to my colleague, Councilmember Anderson. And I know that we got to say goodbye to Councilmember Fadgen at the last meeting. I wish him well on his next chapter. He was a valuable member of this dais for the last six years. I also want to commend the two electees that, you know, you heard Councilmember Andre mention handling yourself with dignity. I know that you had a gentleman's agreement going into this campaign. And it cannot be understated how important it is to run a campaign on the issues and not personal attacks, as we see in other cities. And I just want to commend you, you know, on that. I think it's important for our community to see that. I heard there was another community on the news last night. And we don't want to be like that. So, I just want to. It gets testy out there. The two weeks is long. But, yeah. They got news coverage. They did get news coverage. Yes. Not the right kind. But, anyway, I just want to thank everyone for staying with us tonight. And we'll hope to see you at the Veterans Day service next week. Meetings adjourned.