City Council — Nov 6, 2024

Good evening and welcome to Wednesday, November 6, 2024 City Plantation Council meeting is now called to order at 6.40 p.m. Ms. Begrove, please call the roll. Council Member Anderson. Here. Council Member Andrean. Here. Council Member Patchen. Here. Council Member Horland. Here. Council Member Reinstein. Here. Mayor Sordal. Here. City Attorney Ezra. Here. Thank you. Thank you. Tonight's opening remarks and pledge of allegiance will be provided by Council Member Reinstein. Thank you very much. I'd like to call up Seminole Middle School's Junior Thespian Troop 88941 to lead us in the Pledge of Allegiance. So if you all come forward to lead us in the pledge and if everybody can please stand. In terms of the microphone. This way. When you're ready. Light on. Yes, it is. Good. When you're ready. I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the republic for which it stands, one nation, under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all. Everybody can be seated. If the thespian group will stay up at the microphone, please. That's why they don't take direction. No. Shy group. So Seminole Middle School's Junior Thespian Troop 88941 is an award-winning theater program. Students there learn the skills beyond the stage like cooperation, teamwork, dedication, and more. Each year the students compete at the district and state level as well as produce a spring musical. I learned that this weekend they'll be competing in 65 events ranging from musical theater to set design. And we're going to wish them a lot of luck. We also have with us the leadership of David Lubin and Sarah Rappaport who lead the group. And we also have the amazing Jesse Valenzuela who helped us arrange this tonight. So thank you students for leading us in the pledge. What I'd like to do is that if we can go one by one and if you could just introduce yourself with your name and how about you tell us your favorite Broadway show since you're a thespian group. Go for it. Who's first? Go to the microphone, please. Can you reach? You can go to the microphone now. Hi, my name's Sarah and my favorite Broadway show is Mama Mia. Yay, thank you. Thanks, Sarah. Hi, my name is Annabelle Lowe and my favorite Broadway show is Funny Girl. Okay, thanks Annabelle. Hi, my name is Harrison Codd and my favorite Broadway show is Beetlejuice. Just don't say it three times. Hi, I'm Cecilia Valenzuela and my favorite musical is Swimmy's Hot or Wicked. Thank you. Hi, my name is Madison Nordhook and my favorite show is Hadestown. Thank you. Hi, my name is Carole Carrera and my favorite, well, we're listening to Broadway show, when we're off by the show is Little Shop of Horrors. Nice. Thank you very much for leading us in the Pledge of Allegiance and everybody in our community should know that we have an amazing thespian group at Seminole Middle School. There's more than just this group right here, but they're here representing. So if you are interested in attending any of their shows, please make sure you get in touch with Seminole Middle School. They have some great production. So thank you, everybody, for joining us. Okay. Thank you. Mr. Mayor, you're up. I have some opening remarks that are separate. Oh, sorry, you have something else? Yep, I do. Sorry, Mr. Mayor, come on. So I have some separate opening remarks that I'd like to make. As everybody should be aware, we just concluded an election, not just in the city, but nationwide. Now it's time for us all to get back to work, doing the work of this city without the distractions of campaigns. I do, however, want to share something that happened to me while we were out at the West Regional Library during early voting. I think it's important to share because I'd like to make sure that something like this doesn't happen again. While I was out there greeting residents, I had someone express an anti-Semitic comment to me. I believe it was a comment aimed at me because the person saw my name on my shirt and assumed I was Jewish. While there is no question that I'm a proud American Jew, my religion, nor the religion of anyone else, was an issue on the ballot. To be clear, I believe the comment was also not about political parties. The comment was also not about candidates. I have no idea of the individual's politics. I just know that what was directed at me. I share this because it shocked me and because I never experienced anti-Semitism in plantation. I have no interest in knowing or sharing the name of the person who made the comment, nor are these remarks about him. These remarks are about the scourge of anti-Semitism in our country and what I experience. There's also no question that where there's anti-Semitism, there are also many other kinds of hate. We must stand together against hate wherever and whenever we hear it and see it. These remarks are about our need to come together and treat everyone with love and respect. This also includes respecting the outcomes of the campaigns at all levels of our government. Thank you to our council and our mayor and all of the members of Team Plantation for setting the bar high for all other municipalities. We cheer each other on and we support each other and we see our roles as true public servants. Now it's time to get back to work for our residents. Thank you. Thank you. Mr. Mayor, you are up. Women's Club. All right. This is one of my favorite moments of any meeting because they are giving us money. So do you want Trish up here too to receive a check presentation? Trish. All right. I'll keep out the way. Trish, before we give you this money, I would like to personally thank you and your staff for everything that you've done for us. The people that may not know, we've got a large craft fair going out this weekend at Volunteer Park and we've been out at the park setting up. And your staff has been wonderful, whether it was a set up there or helping us with get things arranged. We really want to thank you because we couldn't do it without you. Thank you. And I'll let Michelle give you the money. Turn it down. Well, Plantation Woman's Club is very proud to support Parks and Rec in any way we can. This is all your money. Thank you. Police and fire. You guys didn't. Yeah. First of all is the Family Fall Festival. We are a bronze sponsor. Next is one of our favorites, Block the Park. We are the gold sponsor. One of them. And that is for $3,500. The Holiday Parade. We are a title sponsor. And this is for $2,500. Light Up City Hall. We are a title sponsor. And this is for $3,000. And last, Trunk or Treat. Yeah. And we are the Casper sponsor. We asked for the care. What? Casper. Casper. The ghost. The ghost. The ghost. And can somebody take a picture? Yes. Thank you. I can grab my camera. Do you want a couple of them over here? Even a couple. Yeah. Maybe all this way. Roberta. Two or three this way. A couple of you. Come down on this side. There you go. Back up. It's my one. It's so good. It's so good. I wonder why you brought your little stool. It's good. It's very handy. Thank you very much. That's how we do. Thank you very much. Very good. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Okay. Thank you. Okay. And next up, we have our property appraiser, Marty Kier, proud plantation resident. And he said, anybody in this room who comes in here is going to get an extra exemption. Marty. Well, hello, everybody. How are you all doing? So I actually have the best story about the Plantation Women's Club. As you all know, you were so nice to have invited me to come and talk about a year ago. And I had the best time. And afterwards, I called my dad on the phone because I just talked to him every day. I go down and I had the best day today. I met all these wonderful people at the Plantation Women's Club. And he stopped me right there. He goes, wait a minute. You went to the women's club? I go, yeah. He goes, was there a lot of women there? I go, yeah. He's like, can you bring me next time? I go, absolutely. So I'm bringing my dad next time. But thank you all so much for the great work you all do. And thank you, Mr. Mayor and Mr. Chairman and for the entire council for having me today. I've been really looking forward to it. And actually, before this, I've got to congratulate you, Louis. I am so proud of you, ma'am. You worked so hard. You deserve to be reelected. You've done a great job for Plantation. My Louis Reunstein sign is going to stay in there for the next four years and just be there for the next time. But I just really am so happy for you and Adi and your entire family. And I just want to give you just a big heartfelt congratulations. Well-deserved. And with that said, I love living in Plantation. We have 31 fantastic cities, but this is my home city. Jennifer is my neighbor, and I love our community. And I can definitely tell you, you know, first, when you represent the entire county, there's no better place to live than the center of the county. But one thing I've been finding lately is I don't want to leave Plantation. Our restaurants are amazing. Our parks are awesome. There's so much to do. It is just a great place. So thank you all for your great service. And what I was hoping to quickly talk about if it's okay, just there's a few things. I wanted to talk about what we do just quickly for the residents. I was also hoping to talk about property values. And once again, property values have skyrocketed in Plantation, just like they are all throughout Briar County. I mean, people are paying more for properties this year than last year. And then I always love to talk about title fraud because it's a very big deal for South Florida. And unfortunately, a lot of people are being preyed upon all the time. But for the residents, there are a few main functions to our office. The first function is we determine the value of every piece of property in Briar County for tax purposes, whether it's residential, commercial, tangible, personal property, or centrally assessed property, which are railroads. And the reason that's important is when people in Plantation pay their property taxes, the amount of taxes they pay is a relationship between the value of the property that we set and the tax rate set by UL, the county commission, the school board, and all taxing authorities. So the most important thing we want to do is make sure we get it right. And as you know, Briar County is a huge place. And we appraise more parcels than exist in many states. And what I always tell people is next August, it's going to be some time from now, but next August, you're going to get a document from me in the mail. And that document's going to show a lot of things. It's your truth and knowledge notice. It's not a tax bill. It's going to be a document you can make sure you don't overly pay in your property taxes. And that's going to be for the 2025 tax year. So in August, when you get that document, take a look at it. If you have any concerns with the value of your property or you're not getting every exemption you're entitled to, just give me a call so when your November tax bill comes out in 2025, we can make sure it's accurate and correct and don't pay too much. The second thing we do, and this is what I love most about my job, is we give tax-saving exemptions to people that qualify. And there are a lot of exemptions under the law that people qualify for. You have the homestead exemption. You have senior exemptions, veterans exemptions, widows exemptions. There's a lot of exemptions that can save people money. And so I always tell everybody, just go on our website at bcpa.net, click on exemptions. And if there's something you're not getting, just give me a call. We'll make sure it's applied so you don't pay too much in your tax bill. And just for the residents, last night, an Amendment 5 on the ballot actually passed and was amended into the Constitution. And that's actually going to increase people's homestead exemption. In your homestead exemption, you have two $25,000 values you don't pay taxes on. The second $25,000 value that you don't pay taxes on basically says you pay no property taxes on that $25,000 of value except for the school portion of the tax bill. That will now increase every single year based on inflation. If inflation goes up, the exemption goes up. It can save you some more money. If inflation goes down, it won't go down. So I thought it's a very interesting thing that will take effect next year. The second thing I was hoping to quickly talk about, if it's okay, Mr. Mayor and Mr. Chairman, is just where property values are right now in our city. And as you know, Plantation is a pretty big city, and there's a lot going on here. And to give you an idea, in 2023, last year, if you took all the commercial and residential property and you sold it on the open market, you would have got right about $19.46 billion. Fast forward just one year to 2024, there's been an 11.55% increase in market value to right about $21.7 billion. That's a big number, and that's because a lot of people are paying a lot of money for properties, and there's been a really substantial amount of new construction right here in Plantation. The taxable value is a value that you currently utilize, that you set your millage rate on, to determine the amount of money that you need to operate for the great residents of our city. And in 2023, the taxable value was right about $12.75 billion. Fast forward just one year, there was a 9.9% increase in taxable value to right about $14 billion. And to put that in perspective, your operating millage rate is 5.8. That's what you had agreed to. And that's going to bring in an additional right about $7.3 million more this year than last year that you can utilize to provide great services to the people of our city. And you've had also $324 million of new construction added to the taxable, the largest being the Ellsworth Apartments of Plantation, which was 306 units, and that was put on for about $95 million. You have 21,189 homesteaded properties here in Plantation. You have 1,997 seniors who receive a low-income senior exemption. Something I'm very proud about is you have 113 long-term seniors that pay no property taxes to the city of Plantation, and I really love that exemption. And I'm so appreciative that you all adopted it because that's an exemption that a municipality must adopt. And not every single city in Broward County has adopted it, but my city Plantation has. And I'm very proud of that because, as you know, Plantation is a very big city, and only 113 seniors actually can qualify for this because they have to be over 65 years of age. They had to have made under $35,000, but they had to have been in their home for 25 years or more, and the value of their home had to be under $250,000. So, 113 seniors is not a lot of people, but those 113 seniors really struggle to make ends meet, and even though it's a drop in the bucket when it comes to the loss of revenue as a result of that exemption for you all, it's a lot of money for that senior so they can have a better life. I hope every single city in Broward County follows your lead because it's the right thing to do. You also have 1,889 widows and widowers who receive an exemption. You also have 576 veterans who live here in Plantation that have a disability, and out of those, 218 actually have a full exemption. They pay no property taxes, and I think that is wonderful that those American heroes made Plantation their home. And you also have four first responders who are totally permanently disabled that pay no property taxes to the city of Plantation. You also have 20,471 single-family homes here in Plantation, which is very big. And what I think is amazing, this year there's been 525 sales so far in Plantation, and the average sale price of a single-family home is $842,541. That is a very large number, and it's more than last year. When it comes to condominium parcels, you have 8,955 condominium parcels. You've had 312 sales for this year, and the average sale price is right about $260,000. The other thing Mr. Mayor is hoping to quickly talk about is just title fraud. And it's something that's very, very important because people use it all the time to try to steal people's properties and cloud their title. And I say this all the time. Unfortunately, South Florida is the title fraud capital of the world. It's the capital of the world because you have criminals, and that's what they are. And what they do is they walk into the recording divisions of every county every single day in the state of Florida. They file fake deeds on people's properties, and they take those deeds, and they extort people for money or mortgage rent or sell the property. And so the first thing we wanted to do was basically give the people of Broward County the opportunity to fight the fraud before the fraud occurs. So as you know, 3 years ago we came up with a great program called Owner Alert. I love this program. It's really a notification program letting people know if there's been a title change to their property. And here's how any resident plantation can sign up. They go to our website at bcpa.net. They type in their name. They type in their e-mail address, and they type in their parcel ID number. And if we have their e-mail address on file, they're automatically verified. If we don't, they upload their Florida driver's license or Florida ID. If they don't have that, they have to upload a utility bill or something proving ownership. And then if any document legitimate or not is file-changing ownership, they'll be notified instantaneously by e-mail, by text message. They even get a hard copy in the mail. And something I'm very happy about is this year there was a fantastic law in the legislature passed that all Democrats and Republicans voted for and the governor signed that exempts all information we collect for Owner Alert. People's e-mails, their phone numbers, even the fact they signed up, it exempts it from public disclosure. So that information can be used for one purpose and one purpose only. That's to alert somebody of a deed change to their property. And right now we've had about 270,000 Broward County property owners sign up so far. And something I want to thank you all for is in Plantation, because of your help, because you all worked so hard to help us get the word out, 51% of all of your property owners here in Plantation have actually signed up for our Owner Alert program. And I think that's a really fantastic thing. And as you know, when I started this program, I started getting calls from residents. And they would say, Marty, I just got an alert from your office that somebody changed the title on my property, but I didn't do it. And then I got more and more and more, and I realized how big of a deal it was. So I came up with a different idea. I wanted to work with law enforcement, build criminal cases, and put the people in jail who are doing this. So I decided to start what I call the Crimes Against Property team that the state of Florida approved. I then went to the county commission, and all nine county commissioners decided to fully fund it. I then went to the sheriff of Brewer County, and we entered into an agreement, and Sheriff Tony has been a fantastic partner. And he's actually assigned three sheriff's detectives to work in our office with our team so we can actually do the job of law enforcement. And Harold Pryor, our state attorney, has assigned our assistant state attorney to prosecute the people that we bring to him. And over the past couple of years, we've been very successful. We've had hundreds and hundreds of criminal investigations. I think, as a matter of fact, right now we have 130 criminal investigations going on just right now. We've had numerous arrests and convictions, and we've been able to work with the court system to get people's property back to them in a much more expeditious and cost-efficient manner. And just to give the people of the plantation just an idea as to how bad these people are, I just want to give you an idea of just one recent conviction we've had, and just a couple of arrests that we've had, each one which is a little bit unique, but shows the type of people that do this and why they do this. Our most recent arrest happened just a couple of months ago. And this is one of our biggest cases. It involves about nine people that decided to do this. And what they decided to do was use the court system to steal people's properties. And so you have the ringleaders, and they would file quiet title actions in circuit court, basically lawsuits in circuit court, saying this senior or this bank or this person no longer wants the property. They would turn a service to the guy's buddy, who's in a mobile home in Hillsborough County, and he would say, oh, yeah, I represent that senior, that bank, that person. Yeah, they don't want the property more. And put in this guy's name or his company's name. They stole dozens and dozens of properties all throughout Broward County. Fortunately, the ringleader was arrested. He was convicted. He was sentenced to eight years in state prison, filed by ten years probation. If he violates probation, he goes to jail for life. And something I think is very interesting, one of his minor co-conspirators was also found guilty and was also ordered deported to a home country of Moldova, an eastern European country, and is not allowed to return to the United States. I can give you a ton of other convictions, but I wanted to give you just a couple arrests. And these are three that I was just thinking about. Actually, I was driving here. So this is actually the first time I'm giving a speech on these three arrests. But the first thing I was thinking about was people ask me all the time, who are the people that try to steal people's properties? And my response is, well, the one thing they all have in common is they are the smartest people. The second thing they have in common, they try to pick on our most vulnerable people. And the third thing is they are pretty much everybody. They are lawyers, they are teachers, they are real estate agents, they are people that don't have jobs, they are people all throughout our community that do this. They are people that want to try to make a quick buck. And just a few months ago, we actually arrested a lawyer in Cooper City who allegedly assisted in filing a fake deed to steal some homes there. Another thing people ask me is, well, how do they do this? Well, again, they file fake deeds, but something I've realized recently is they're using some really significant technology to try to steal people's properties. And it kind of shows how smart they are. Recently, there was a case that we had in Hollandale, and it's actually still ongoing. And in this situation, you had just some people reach out to a title company. And they said, hey, we have this property in Hollandale, we'd like to sell it. Would you represent us? Here's our IDs that show that we own the property. And they said, well, we actually have to meet you in person. And they called back and they said, well, no, we can't meet you in person. We're out of the country, but we'll go on Zoom. And they go, okay, great. They had the Zoom call. And on the Zoom call, you had this very sweet senior sitting there at her desk. And she's talking to the camera. And she's basically saying, oh, yeah, that's my property in Hollandale. You know, I want to kind of retire now, and I want to sell that. Well, it turned out that was artificial intelligence, AI technology. And it looked very legitimate. And fortunately, we were able to figure out there was AI technology. It's sort of the title company. And that never went through. The third thing I wanted to bring up, and I kind of spoke about this at the beginning, is the type of people that they prey upon. And as I said before, everybody is targets. But unfortunately, sometimes our most vulnerable people are the targets. And we had our most recent arrest, to me, as kind of my guiding light as to what we do this. And this arrest happened about a month ago. And let me just tell you the facts of this case. Here are the people involved. The victim was a senior who was severely mentally and physically disabled. He actually had the mentality of a nine-year-old. The defendant, who allegedly committed the crime, was a Miami-Dade law enforcement officer. And they both lived in Miramar. They were neighbors. And the senior, who was severely disabled, used to be, his parents were his caretakers. And he lived with them. His parents then died. And they left their property to his daughter, his sister, who then became his caretaker. And she took care of him. She then died. And when she died is when the Miami-Dade corrections officer decided to allegedly do the things that she did. And here's the first thing she allegedly did. She made a fake power of attorney, basically having power of attorney over him. She used that power of attorney to open up a bank account in both of their names. The first thing that was put in there was the sister's life insurance money that she spent and had a great time spending it. The second thing she did is she opened up a probate estate in circuit court, trying to get all of the sister's assets, including the home, in his name. It went through the process, and the judge signed the order, and everything went into his name. And as soon as that happened, she decided to deed the property over to herself. So she would now become the owner of the property. She then moved him out of the property into an assisted living facility that was being paid for by a Social Security disability benefits. And she was collecting his other Social Security money into that joint bank account that she was having a great time with. She then rented out the home and was collecting money that way. And what really galled me is she even made an insurance policy, a life insurance policy she took out in his name, where she was the beneficiary, pretending that she was his daughter. Twenty days later, he died. She got that money as well. Well, fortunately, we found out about it. It was a very big investigation that the Broad Sheriff's Office was amazing to work with on. And fortunately, she was arrested, and she is looking at some very serious charges. And if she's convicted, we'll see some very serious time in prison. I wanted to bring these stories up because I hope if you live in plantation and you haven't signed up for our own role work program, please do it. It's just a free, fantastic program that's designed to protect your most important asset, your home. And also, I want everybody in Colorado County to know that's thinking about doing this, if they do it here, we're going to work very hard to make sure they spend a long time in prison. With that said, I can go on and on forever. I'm so sorry if I spoke for too long. I apologize, Mr. Chairman. Is there any questions that anybody has? I just wish you would speak faster. Oh, thank you. I always tell people if politics doesn't work out, it would be a great auctioneer. That's not my fallback, without a doubt. But is there anything I can answer? You guys are awesome. Well, I just want to say again. Council Member Anderson. I think I asked you this last year. Oh, thank you. Haven't you shared this, spread this good, this is awesome stuff. I would always say that. But you spread this around the state. Aren't others copying this? That's such a great question, and thank you so much. So something I'm very proud about is when it comes to at least our owner alert program, we started helping a number of different localities, actually throughout the country. San Diego and others set up theirs as well. And then the legislature actually passed a fantastic law, which I'm really proud of, that requires every single county in the state of Florida now to actually have a program similar to ours. And what we've been trying to do is there are counties like Miami-Dade County or Palm Beach County. They're similar to us, and they have very large budgets. They can do it. But we've been really trying to help some of our really fiscally constrained counties set up because we have the technology. The other thing that we've been doing is I've been trying to inspire other localities that have to actually also crack down on crime and on fraud. And so, for example, Palm Beach County, the clerk of court is one of my dearest friends in the world. Actually, I have two dearest friends, Scott and that guy back there, and Joe Abruzzo, the clerk of court of Palm Beach County. And they're actually setting up a crimes against property team as well, and there are some others also throughout the state. And I'm actually very excited about that because what I found is a lot of the people that we arrest, they don't just steal properties here. They're selling properties all throughout the state of Florida. And when you have a task force, a number of people working on it together, you can really make a big difference and a big dent in it. But thank you very much for bringing that up, Erica, and thank you for the great work you do as well. Absolutely. Thank you. Thanks for coming in as always. Thank you. And as I said before, I just love Plantation. And I want to just also say, you know, every single person up here does a fantastic job. I really think that I'm very blessed and my family's blessed to have everybody up here representing us. You also have some amazing staff. Every single week, we work with every single city staff all throughout Broward County. We get all the permits that have been pulled, things of that nature. We can capture all the value to make sure it goes in the tax world. And the staff here in Plantation is so easy to work with. They're just wonderful. And Carrie's also one of the best legal minds that I know. So with that said, thank you all so much. Everybody have a wonderful day. Thanks, everybody. Congrats again, Lewis. Thank you. Thank you, everybody. All right. Parks and Recreation upcoming events. Ms. O'Toole, director. You're a cheering squad. I know. I'm going to see if I could talk as fast as him to get through this. A couple of events in our recreation division coming up. This Saturday, November 9th through Sunday the 10th is Not Your Mama's Craft Fair at Volunteer Park from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. Monday, November 11th, our Veterans Day service at Veterans Park starts at 9.30 a.m. Thursday, November 14th is our Senior Jazz Brunch at the Plantation Preserve. That starts at 11 a.m. Friday, November 15th, Movies in the Park showing Twisters, the new Twisters, not the old Twister, at Volunteer Park. Gates open at 5.30 p.m. Saturday, November 16th, our 2024 Kidney Foundation Walk at Central Park. That starts at 9 a.m. Tuesday, November 19th, Senior Trip to Share the Musical. Registration is currently open for our Fall Break Camp at Central Park, which runs November 25th through the 29th. In our Tennis Division, Monday, November 11th to Sunday the 17th, the USTA Women's Intersectional Team Tournament at the Veltree Tennis Center. In our Aquatics Division, Friday, November 15th through the Sunday, November 17th, we're hosting a Red Cross Lifeguard Certification Class. In our Athletics Division, we've got the AYFL Super Bowl at PAL Park, Friday, November 15th, and Saturday the 16th. And we're currently registering adult athletic programs, flag football, kickball, basketball. And PAL registration is currently registering spring baseball, softball, t-ball, and basketball. That's it. All right. Thank you. Public requests of counsel regarding municipal affairs. Those who wish to speak will request that you complete a speaker form. If you have not done so already, please do. Please state your name and address, and please address your remarks to the City Council President, not the Mayor or individual members of the Council. Please keep your remarks to the allotted three minutes. Mr. Conklin. Thanks, Conklin, 4581 Northwestern's Court. Heavenly hosts, protect you and your families. I had a few requests. I'd like the City to look into the class action suits that are going against Pfizer for the fraud, particularly for the harm of women that the jab causes. When they said that it was safe and effective in protection against COVID, which was the Chinese biological weapon that released. It's anything but safe and effective, especially for women. It said it was safe and effective for pregnant women, for nursing mothers. The spike protein is harmful and deadly, fatal to human beings and mammals for that fact. So I would encourage, as I have been for a couple of years now, to look into joining those states that are going after Pfizer to recover costs that I'm quite sure that the City has incurred because it has its own medical plan. Also, I would like to have the City request that the Legislature be sure to proceed with the establishment of the Bowdoin Depository. And then, after establishing that, to move to transactional gold and silver, which is permitted under Article I, Section 10 of the Constitution. And I've mentioned that, basically, you're sitting on a bunch of dollars year in and year out. Last year, from September to September of this year, lost 32% of its purchasing power. A number of states are already doing this now. Texas already has its established. It's working towards a transactional win. And it's done through debit cards. Next year is an odd number year. And it was mentioned already during comments that this expansion from the constitutional election day, one day, the same in all states, to election festival or season, it's really distressing the fabric of the civil society. I mean, they shot the president in the face. That's how bad it is. With an odd number year, there's only a handful now of cities in Broward that are having municipal elections in March. We have to get back to the establishment of, when I moved here, there were 42 precincts and 46,000 population. Not voters, but population. They've done completely the opposite thing that you're supposed to do. They failed to increase the number of precincts to keep them small and neighborly, or, in fact, of multi-story and like that buildings, multiple precincts within them. And they went to shrinking the number of precincts. They went from 42 to 30, and now we're down into 16. It should be just the opposite. They should have now implantation with approaching 100,000. They should have 80 to 85 precincts. They've surrendered our right to vote because the people that ran the elections were basically my parents' generation when I moved down here. They survived the Depression and World War II. They put in machines, they scared them all off, and then they forced the machines on the whole state. If you revert back to multiple precincts, small, you're working with your own neighbors, you can have everything done, and it costs a fraction of what these machines cost because they don't stop when it's an election day. The meter runs, I worked for them for 11 and a half years. The meter runs 365 days a year. Those companies are there, and the machines are there. The space that it takes up is incredible, so you've got the cost also of real estate. We've got to get back to where we, the people, and not the people that own the companies, which have the property rights through patents and copyright for their programs, and revert back to we, the people, running our own elections and not the companies. And I give back my time. Thank you. Thank you, Dennis. I do not have any other comment cards. Is there anybody from the chamber I'd like to speak? Former Council Member Hilliard. Good evening, President. Thank you very much. Lee Hilliard, 1551 Northwest 115 Terrace Plantation. Proud and glad to be living here in our family. But tomorrow, or excuse me, November 11th will be our Veterans Day, and it's one of the days that is one of my proud aspects of my life. And having, earlier I told about having been with Jeremiah Denton, he has the longest POW in Vietnam. He was a numero uno who stayed until everybody else got out. Dick Stockdale was part of Perot. I don't know if you remember, he ran in 1992. But he was the guy with the big glasses, and he was very sharp himself. And he got his share of torture, and of which he blinked Morse code. And I had learned that through my uncle in the Philippines. So I had an advantage that one of my props was that I wanted to be a mash. And I realized it was a little bit sharper, so they re-signed me into something that was more pressing for themselves. On April 30th, 1975, that our military by Denton launched with President Ford to April 30th, 1975, was to take over the embassy at Saigon, which was falling at that time. Excuse me very much, so it was kind of traumatic. We shipped the people off the embassy and got them to the ships. They got to Philippine Islands as fast as they could. Earlier in 1973, he meeting, Denton got off to Clark Air Force Base, and then I could be snapping a solid salute for him and his heroists. And later I could help him and then help out Ron Reagan, if you heard of one of our presidents. So now I've had only seven presidents thus far, so the eighth guy will be Trump when he doesn't know who I am. So someday he'll find out who I am, but I'm off the grid right now, a little bit short-term-er. But of which I know Mr. Conklin brings up about Ron Reagan. I'd like to see if we could do the Fifth Street here from Sunrise to University would be fitting for Ron Reagan, because I know he's next door in the turnpike, but I think it would be a fitting honorable for him, this kind of personal of which. Thank you very much. Have a great day. Thank you. Look, see you. Thank you, Mayor, for the 11th. Thank you, Lee. Is there anybody else from the chamber that would like to make a public comment? Last chance. Public requests to the council regarding municipal affairs are now closed. The consent agenda consists of items 1 through 11, may be approved with one motion. Does any member of the council wish to pull an item? President, can I pull items 2 and 6? 2 and 6. Anybody else? 1. 1, 2 and 3. 1, 2, 3. And is there anybody from the chamber that would like to pull an item? Seeing none, can I have a motion? Motion to approve 4, 5, 7 through 11. Second. Ms. Beggra, please call the roll. Council Member Orland? Yes. Council Member Reinstein? Yes. Council Member Anderson? Yes. Council Member Andreu? Yes. Council Member Feijan? Yes. Thank you. All right, item 1, Council Member Reinstein? Yeah, thank you. I don't have any concerns with the dates themselves, although I know we haven't seen, I don't believe we've seen a city council schedule for 2025. So I just would, have we seen it? It's been set. Okay. Oh yeah, we had a resolution on it. Well then, I'm ready to approve this item. Okay. Motion to approve this item. Second. Ms. Beggra, please call the roll. Council Member Orland? Yes. Council Member Reinstein? Yes. Council Member Anderson? Yes. Council Member Andreu? Yes. Council Member Feijan? Yes. Yes. Thanks. Council Member Andreu, item number 2. Thank you, President Vagin. I just wanted to confirm that this would be three $50,000 grants that would be issued. Is that correct? I'm not sure if there were changes from last year. Good evening, everyone. Edlin Griffith, City of Plantation. Yes, that's correct. It has not been changed. And I know last year I brought up about maybe promoting this a little bit more. Have we been able to do anything in that regard? Yes. We have had workshops related to the Purchase Assistance Program and the Home Repair Program. So we are promoting it, yes. And I hope at our upcoming Affordability Housing Meeting this week we'll also be able to make mention. Yes. Yes, we definitely will. Thank you, Ms. Griffith. Thank you. Motion to approve. Wait, wait. Council Member Reynson? Sorry. He called. He pulled the item, too. Thank you. I really just, while I know Council Member Andreu just asked a few specific questions, I just thought it would be beneficial to the public if you could just explain what this is that's on the agenda. Sure. The Home Investment Partnership, the Home Grant, it's a grant that's given by HUD to local cities as well as states to be able to provide affordable housing for the local community and the City of Plantation has been receiving this grant fund and we have a contract with Broward County to administer the funds. And they typically administer it for most cities because the guidelines, they change regularly. And so it's easier to make sure we expend all the funds by having the county do that for us. And so every year we come back to make sure that the city approves it. And just in terms of the question that was asked by Council Member Andreu in terms of promoting it, can you just explain how would a resident apply for it? Sure. So the City of Plantation has a minor home repair program and also a purchase assistance program. You can receive a grant to purchase a property in the City of Plantation and also for home repair. The programs have income guidelines which are created by HUD and we follow those guidelines. So you could go to our website or you could call us 954-414-7871 to go through the application process for these grants. And there's a link on the specific tab or a link on the website for the residents to click on? When you go to the website and you click under resident, it says grants, housing grants. Great. Thank you very much. Thank you. Can I have a motion? Motion to approve? Second. Okay. Ma'am? Thank you. Well, she wandered up. I was just curious. Can I help you? What's that? What is this? Hold on a second. I think this is the quasi-judicial. This is for, yes, this is not up yet. This is coming up. You want to speak to that when it's time? Well, that's not up yet. We're coming to it. No problem. Is there anybody who would like to make a, I wasn't sure if she wanted to make a comment. But is there anybody who would like to make a comment regarding this motion we just made on item two from the chamber? Seeing none, Ms. Beggarrow, please call the roll. Council Member Orland. Yes. Council Member Reinstein. Yes. Council Member Anderson. Yes. Council Member Andrean. Yes. Council Member Vajon. Yes. Thank you. All right. Council Member Reinstein, item number three. Yeah. For item number three, I was just hoping somebody from the administration could just further explain this just for the benefit of the public. Good evening, Council. Jason Hennemaker, CAO. This is in regards to an educational mitigation agreement that was executed in 2006. There's about eight or nine municipalities that executed similar agreements. This is back when housing starts were tremendous, school capacity was constrained. So there was an agreement made that student station costs would be paid that are in excess of the traditional impact fees. And unfortunately, the agreements were executed with no termination dates. So what's come to pass is obviously we still have strong housing starts, but school enrollment is no longer an issue. Capacity constraints aren't there. So these agreements are no longer necessary. And, in fact, I think the revenues derived from them are all problematic. We're currently not facing any of these units. We have about 400 or so that are subject to this agreement. But one of our sister cities, Oakland Park, is. And it's costing them tremendously in their affordable housing efforts. So we're trying to partner with them, as several other municipalities have been. Administration sent a letter to the school board. We didn't hear back on that. So we're hoping maybe this resolution gets a little bit more attention because the issue is coming to a head and needs resolution. So just to follow up then, is it my understanding that our city has reached out to the school board and there was no response? That's the purpose of why we're bringing this resolution forward? That and to show additional support to Oakland Park's efforts. While it's not critical for us at this point, we do envision it being relevant at some point. We're getting ahead of it. But we are, and if the school board's not responsive, we're going to find ourselves with the need to, you know, maybe a 164 conversation with them. And I don't think that's going to be a good thing for them. Okay. Thank you. Would you like to make a motion? Yes. Motion to approve. Second. Is there anybody from the chamber that would like to make a comment on item number three? Seeing none, Ms. Beggro, please call the roll. Council Member Horland? Yes. Council Member Einstein? Yes. Council Member Anderson? Yes. Council Member Andrew? Yes. Council Member Fajan? Yes. Item six, Council Member Andrew. Thank you. Hold on a second. I'm sorry? Can somebody from staff sit with that lady that came up here and help her decipher what she's reading? You got her, Edlin? I just have a notice for the... You got her? Okay. Okay. All right. Sorry. Thank you. No problem. Sorry. Council Member. Thank you. So, I asked a question previously about the backup material, and I was concerned about the completion of this work because it appears that this contract expires in January. And so, if the work has not commenced yet, will it be completed while the contract is still, you know, in play? Okay. Okay. Charles Spencer, procurement director. Thank you, sir. Yes. So, the way these continuing services agreements work is as we approve task orders established by the continuing service agreement, the task order is approved, money is allocated, and then the task order survives even when the expiration of the continuing contract has expired. The firm continues to operate under the terms and conditions as it was originally approved, although the agreement itself is technically expired, so we can't, we cannot execute any additional task orders to a particular firm after the expiration, but the task order approved prior to the expiration is still valid. So, what, I'm worried about the liability issue. So, what if, I don't remember exactly, I think it was an A&E firm. I don't remember the exact scope of work. It is an architectural firm, yes. Okay. So, I'm more concerned about the practice of this than maybe this particular issue, but if we're, I didn't realize this was a practice. So, if we were doing a roof, for instance, and we're utilizing that firm after their contract has expired and something were to happen with that firm while they're on the roof, what's our liability? There's no contract. There's no contract in place. There is a certificate of insurance still in place assigned to the task order specifically, and again, the task order that is approved is still tied to the agreement, although the expiration of the continuing service agreement has expired. So, the task order survives, although the overarching continuing service agreement may have lapsed. Mr. Attorney, I would need to review the documents. I have not reviewed the documents, so I really can't comment on it, but it is not uncommon for a task to continue beyond the expiration of a contract for continuing services. That is not unusual. But then how long, also, I mean, would we allow the work to continue? Well, it's typically, again, it's provided for under the scope of the task order. Correct. The task order has its own completion timeline, so whatever that completion timeline is. Let me ask just one more question. Why aren't we doing a renewal? So, if you know this job is going to take 90 days, 120 days, whatever your estimate might be, why aren't we renewing the contract? So, this particular discipline and this particular firm, firms under that discipline, there are no existing renewals available. Oh, going out for a new? We are out on the street, yes, for a new library. Okay. Yes. All right. It still gives me a little bit of angst, but okay. Would you like to make a motion? Motion to approve. Second. Does anybody in the chamber like to make a comment on item six? Seeing none, Ms. Beggarow, please call the roll. Council Member Borland? Yes. Council Member Einstein? Yes. Council Member Anderson? Yes. Council Member Andreeves? Yes. Council Member Fadgen? Yes. All right. Legislative items number 12, PD 24001. City Attorney Ezra, would you like to read it? Yes, sir. Excuse me. This is public hearing, first reading of an ordinance of the City of Plantation, Florida, pertaining to the subject of comprehensive planning, adopting the annual amendment to the capital improvements element of the comprehensive plan of the City of Plantation, approving transmittal of the amendment to the Department of Economic Opportunity and the related agencies for the purposes of sufficiency review in accordance with Florida statutes, providing a savings clause and an effective date. Thank you. Council Member Anderson? I just wonder if our city employee took those people out there. That's not this item. It's not this item? It's quasi-traditional. I'm going to call them back in. I'll make sure they're in here when it's time. Any comments regarding this item? Seeing none, can I have a motion? Motion to approve. Second. Is there any comments from the chamber? Seeing none, Ms. Beggaroff, please call the roll. Council Member Horland? Yes. Council Member Reinstein? Yes. Council Member Anderson? Yes. Council Member Andrew? Yes. Council Member Fett? Yes. Before we go over the rules, let's bring everyone back in if they're here for that. Yeah, we're at quasi-traditional. I think there's some people out in the lobby that was interested in this, so before I have the city attorney read the procedures, I'd like to have them in here so they can hear them. Ma'am, this is the item that you were asking about. City Attorney Ezra, will please read the procedures for the quasi-traditional hearing? Yes, sir. The city clerk will swear in all witnesses. Before speaking, please state your name and whether you have been administered an oath. Any speaker may be cross-examined. If you refuse to be cross-examined, your testimony may not be considered. Cross-examination shall be conducted in a courteous manner. The material in the city clerk's agenda packet will be made a part of the record. City staff will make the first presentation, followed by presentations from the applicant, any affected parties, and the public. Elected officials may set reasonable time limits for speakers. The hearing will then be closed and the matter decided. City council's decision will be delineated in its motion and rendered in writing by way of a development order, resolution, or ordinance evidencing its decision. The city council may also decide to continue the matter to a designated time to allow for additional research or review. Thank you. Ma'am, this is the item that you are interested in, so if you think you would like to speak to it when we get to that point, we're asking everyone who wants to speak to it to stand up now, and the city clerk is going to read you the, swear you in. So, Ms. Beggerel, please swear in all who wants to speak. Okay. Everybody wants you to speak on this item. Please stand. Raise your right hand, please. Do you swear or affirm that the evidence you're about to give will be the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth? Hold on a second. Ma'am, do you think you went right and we'll speak to it? You're just going to listen. Perfect. That's fine. Okay. Did we get everyone? Mr. Case, I don't know if he, just in case. Let's do it again. Just in case, Mr. Case. Okay. So, do you swear or affirm that the evidence you're about to give will be the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth? Thank you. Perfect. Item 13, PD 24001, consideration of request for a practical difficulty waiver for Rick Case and Columbia Hospital Corporation, South Broward. Property is located at 401 Northwest 42nd Avenue and Zone B, HCS Gateway Healthcare Services. Mr. Holmes. Thank you, Mr. Chair. It's been a while since we did a quasi. Yes, it's been a while. Thank you, Mr. Chair, members of the council, for the record. Dan Holmes, Planning, Zoning, and Economic Development Director. This is application PP24-0001. It is an application by Rick Case and Columbia Hospital Corporation. Just to give you some background information on this, it is a request for a waiver from the off-street parking facilities. Our code does allow a facility to utilize another facility's parking spaces if it's within a 300-foot radius of that parking facility if they enter into an agreement. Okay, so the two parties have actually entered into an agreement. The problem is they're outside of that 300-foot radius requirement for the parking. And the 300-foot radius is pretty much there because, and in this case, their request for the parking is a little different. And a lot of times, one facility or business might ask to utilize another business's parking if they have excess so that their patrons can actually utilize that space. So it needs to be within close proximity for it to be reasonable. You can't be half a mile down the road or people are not going to walk back and forth. So it would be an unreasonable request. So that's why we have the 300-foot separation requirement. So, again, this is at the hospital site, 401, Northwest 42nd Avenue. The, just other background information, the agent is, the agent is Will Lastrom. The size of the hospital property, 8.52 acres, and it's located within the city's Gateway Healthcare Services District. And, as you know, it's the Plantation General Hospital site, which is currently just pretty much operating the emergency room, which is one of the reasons why they actually have some of the excess parking on that site, and that this is a site that was appropriate for the two parties to consider an agreement. So north of the site you have as residential Kings Point apartment. To the east is Northwest 42nd Avenue and medical offices. To the west is single-family residential. And then to the south of the site is residential, the Village Green condominiums. So background, as I said, Columbia Hospital and the south and Rick Case Enterprises entered into an agreement for parking in October of 2023. Because of the distance, you know, they did not meet the city's code. So the agreement actually granted Rick Case to utilize up to 144 spaces in the parking lot of HCA. They will utilize the space for overflow inventory of vehicles that would not otherwise fit on their lot. So Rick Case does have adequate space for patrons that are coming there to, you know, to purchase a vehicle. This is basically for their inventory. The parking spaces are generally located to the east and on the north of the site. So this map kind of shows you this would be State Road 7 here. So as you enter toward the hospital on Northwest 4th Street, this is the main entrance there. They are proposing to utilize the parking area that you see to the north here and this little parking field to the south. So that's the area that is the subject of the agreement in which they're requesting to utilize the parking space. Again, because of the requirement that it would be within 300 feet, they're seeking a waiver from the 300-foot requirement within our code. And, again, you can see that this just shows you the location of Rick Case, location of the hospital. You can see it is in excess of 300 feet. And just in summary, the off-site, off-street parking facility, HCA emergency room is reasonably located in relation to Rick Case for the purposes of the inventory of parking spaces. The proposed waiver should preserve the essential character of the neighborhood. There should be no problem. It's going to be located in the parking lot within spaces that are designed for automobile parking. The proposed waiver should not adversely affect the general welfare of the residents. Citizen comments, there were 262 notices that were mailed out to properties within the 300-foot notification boundary. To date, we have not received any. I know that there are a couple of people that I just spoke to kind of explaining to them what the issue was. I don't know if they wish to speak or not. I did indicate to them in our discussion in the lobby that they did have an opportunity to speak to the matter if they wish to. And just another bit of information, because of the distance separation requirement, when it was discovered, a citation was issued by the city. And that's kind of what prompted the parties to come in and to seek the waiver request. But staff recommends approval of the request. So is this a permanent arrangement? No, it's a temporary arrangement. This has to do with the redevelopment of your prop, of the dealership? Yeah, we just need the studio. I need you to come on up. State your name, address. Case for Case Automotive Group. The address is Plantation 3. I'm not sure which address this is. And then just state that you understand the rules of the proceeds. I understand the rules, I believe. Go ahead. Yeah, so we just need extra parking. We have more cars than we know what to do with right now. And we've been doing this for a while. When you're done with your development, you'll be able to move your cars back onto the property? We're hoping so. And then I also know that the hospital is going to be remodeled soon and under construction. Once that starts or is coming, we'll be out of there. Just trying to get, you know, some light on it so people understand. So do we have any idea what's the timeline for this? It's opening. Do you know when they're going to remodel the hospital? No. So as long as they'll let us park there, we'll use it. I have a feeling with any luck at all, inventory won't get any smaller. Okay. We need all the cars. We want you to be successful, for sure. So, no, we don't have a time frame. I'm over in the next couple of years. Okay. Council Member Andrew. My question was very similar. How long is your agreement? We're on a year-to-year with them at this point. You're doing an annual agreement? Okay. Because they don't know when they're going to start construction either. Okay. I'm fine with that. Thank you. And then we have security there around the clock, so that helps with just in general. It's not an empty lot that nobody's at, and it keeps, you know, people there and, you know, the riff-raff aware that people are there. Cameras and an actual person? Just a person. Oh, okay. And then I understand that the law enforcement was doing some training in the hospital itself, so we got SWAT during the day, and we got security at night. Security. We got coverage. Did you have any concerns? Are you okay with everything? Wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait. I'm losing control of the meeting. I mean, I just wanted to make sure that you felt comfortable saying yes or no. We'll make sure. We'll make sure. Council Member Anderson, just brought up the point. If this is year to year, do they need to come back, or does this waiver? Only if you make them come back. But as it's written now, as long as they're under agreement, it meets this, so they can keep renewing the agreement, and it will keep meeting this. That's what I'm asking. Yeah, okay. Any other comments from the dais? Can I have a motion? Motion to approve. Second. Is there any comments from the chamber from the Council Member Hillier? I'll get you next. We're going to have to swear you in. Good afternoon. Lee Hill, 1551, Northwest 150, Terrace. I've been sworn in as a quasi-judicial, and I am a very, I heard scuttle earlier, and whether I'm mushroom or not in the growth, is to hear correctly that there may or may not be a garage on their facility for Rick Case on site is a question. You're talking about the dealership? Yes, sir. Well, that's not really what this is about. Well, I'm wondering about the adjustment of whether or not this use of HCA will be a part of a larger group with Rick Case expansion, and I would be very endorsing of that because Rick Case will own the- On a profit, seven, eight, ten stories? Yes, sir. Oh, my God. A larger flag possible because I think one of the initials was to get a swap when there was back ABC brick as well as the gas to put a larger structure where the Genesis is currently there. It should be vertical because to the rest of it is that empty housing that may or may not be built, don't know, you know, DBA, but since across the street is the park of the facilities of the swimming, that this would be compatible with that usage for Rick, but also now back to HCA about the compatibility that I had asked about the car wash, about the signage of having the flashing stop signs for safety along with Kings Point across the street along that 42nd Avenue that I think that the, I don't know about the usage, about the door to his west is along 8th Street there, whether or not there's a temporary access to that facility for the arrangement to come off Sunrise Boulevard. I'm not sure where that is. To its west. So between us and the- To the west is a new garage's or apartment system that built sits in, and I'm wondering about that duality usage that has, or may not be, access to their facility that would make it a better access to their facility. I think you're going down a path of a different issue. This is not what we're discussing. It's multitask with the HCA because that corridor of 42nd will be a higher, faster. Hold on. Mayor Sortell? Council Member Hilliard, yeah, we've talked about that. We've worked on it. This thing that they're planning, the garage, we've been talking about for a long time, it's not going to interfere, and we kind of mapped it all out. Good. Planning and zoning worked on it. I would be very interested of it. And then whatever they can work on with HCA, we're going to be better for security aspects. Yeah, we got it. I appreciate you asking. Big double thumbs. All right. Yes, sir. Thank you. My pleasure. Ma'am, would you like to speak? Come on up. I don't believe you were sworn in. You weren't sworn in, right? Okay. We'll come on up, and then we'll, we'll, we'll do the oath. We'll come on up. April, can you, or Ms. Bagwell, please swear, right? Sure. Swear, right? Just raise your right hand, please. Do you swear, friend, that the evidence you're about to give will be the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth? Thank you. Great. So now you're going to come up, state your name, address, and then you're going to say you understand the rules of the proceedings. My name is Marilyn Spears. I live at the- Pull the mic down a little bit. I live at the Village Green Apartments on the south side of the diagram, which we all have. Okay. Yeah. Do you understand the rules of the proceedings? This is a formal hearing, so I, I, I need your name, address, which you've taken care of, and then I need you to state that you understand the rules of the proceedings that we're doing right now. I live at 4200 Northwest Third Court, apartment 329, Plantation, Florida, in the Village Green Apartments. And all you have to say now is you understand the rules of the proceedings? I understand the rules of the proceedings. Perfect. Go ahead. The diagram has had me very concerned, and I now understand, I think, part of this. Okay. The fact that the north boundary is right next to the fence of my parking lot of the, of the Village Green Condo. And I'm wanting to know, is that going to be a permanent one, or are they going to try and expand later on because that would eat up our parking lot? And I've been thinking that along the lines, or maybe they want parking space so badly that they don't mind coming around to other locations surrounding this. I think I can have the applicant respond to you, and then we'll see if that will be satisfactory. Do you want to do it well, or do you want Mr. Case to do it? This is what I'm concerned about. This is where I live, in that we will go down right next to the parking lot, which I'm afraid is going to be consumed by the hospital. I guess first, we'll lay Sherma 1177 Southeast 3rd Avenue, Fort Lauderdale. I understand the rules. Can you, what do you mean by the bump out? All right. This is, this is a Village Green Condo. Right. And there's, we have three, three, the buyers for. This is also, part of it, is just a little extension. But this is the only parking that we have on this side of the building. We won't, we are not going to impact that parking at all. You promise? Yes, absolutely. I got them on the roof, man. Thank you. All right. Are you okay? I'm fine. All right. As long as nobody comes and takes away my parking. No, I'm happy you're here to make sure that you have your concerns alleviated. Thank you very much. No, no problem. Thank you for coming. Is there anybody else who would like to make any questions regarding the item? Because I think there's some people here for it. All right. I don't have any other comments from the dais. I don't see any comments from the chamber. Can I have a motion? Motion to approve item 13. Second. Ms. Beggar, please call the roll. Was it, was it Jennifer? I'm sorry. Council Member. We did. Yeah, I thought we did. Oh. We did a motion. Then I retract my second first. I think it was Council Member Horland and Reinstein. That is correct. That's right. Well, I'm crashing in my end here. Were you going out with a bang, weren't you? Well, I thought I might have doodled, so. Can't make people think I'm too confident. All right. So we only have a motion. Ms. Beggar, please call the roll and ignore that last action. Council Member Horland. Yes. Council Member Reinstein. Yes. Council Member Anderson. Yes. Council Member Andre. Yes. Council Member Fatchett. Yes. All right. Thank you. Mr. Mayor, you're up. Yes, sir. Thank you very much. We talked earlier about the swearing in. It is in the charter. You must be sworn in within 48 hours of the election being certified. In this case, my thinking was privately and quietly go make up with the city clerk, bring your loved ones there, and officially get sworn in, and then we could do a ceremonial swearing in on the 19th. The other option. I appreciate it. I appreciate it. I appreciate it. Have a good evening. Thank you. The other option would be to move it up, do your ceremonial swearing in, whether the election is certified or not, and then once the election is certified, show up and quietly swear in officially at that time. Okay. Can you see what the choices are? We could do it this way or this way, whether it amounts to. Okay. Well, the 19th, it wouldn't be the, okay. I thought the preserve's not available on the 15th. Is that correct? Right. Okay. Okay. So that, that's, you know, so we don't need to do a ceremonial swearing in. So right now, the last thing we got pushed out was the 19th for the swearing in. Mm-hmm. The tradition is a family member swears the elected in, which would be ceremonial, and then the official would be, you know, we're, we're pulling the curtain back, people don't realize. So, um, so on the 19th, we would just do the ceremonial for the public, and then, like we have always done behind the back, the clerk would swear us in legally. On the, yeah. And then we would have the luncheon on Tuesday, like we're playing as tradition, and then we're all ready to go for another four years, and everybody's happy, and, yeah. So I, I, I just think that at this point, the 19th is the option, so. Right. I mean, the other option is, like, I could try to see if we could get it safe for this Friday. I'm sorry. Well, I'm leaving town tomorrow. Yeah, you guys give me your input on what you all want to decide. Congressman Rosenstein. Just so I understand, um, Council President Fadgen, uh, you're, you're asking that we keep the 19th as the swearing-in ceremony. Well, I thought when we talked a little bit earlier that you were, um, unavailable on the night, on the 15th, and actually the preserve's not available. Right. That's why I said you want to keep, we're not saying to change the 19th. On this point, on the 15th, yes, but on the 8th, maybe not. But whatever you guys noodle out. The 8th is not available to me. I'm out of town. Okay. Um, I was, I was suggesting, um, uh, in, in the future, let's just reserve the following Friday after, not the Friday of the election, the following Friday for our ceremonial luncheon for Friday because it's easier for family to come in, um, because what's happened here is my brother and my nephew are, is unable to be here, and maybe I'm taking it a little, not personal, but, you know, all, when, when, when Jennifer, I'm sorry, I'm being too informal, when Council Member Andrea and I got sworn in on the 20th, we didn't get the traditional, um, ceremony that we get, and maybe it's a little bit more personal to me because of the 20 years of coming to my father's swearing-ins, and it's something I wanted to share with my nephew and my brother, and unfortunately that's not going to be able to happen because they, um, my nephew has a field trip on the 19th, so they're not going to be able to come down, and that's okay, I'm just saying in the future, let's just do a ceremonial, and then we'll do the legal within the 48-hour window, and if, going forward. So 19th is what I'm suggesting, like, like the last email that I got, that I've been starting to tell people, come to the 19th. Council Member Andrea, I'm sorry, are you done? No, I wasn't, thank you. Go ahead, Council Member Einstein. Thank you, so I, I don't have any concerns with, um, with the 19th, I'll, I'll rearrange what I had scheduled for the 19th, I just wanted to make sure that my understanding was because of the, the ordinance, within 48 hours of the certification, is that if the certification takes place on Monday, then within 48 hours, um, we'll, we'll just, behind the scenes with, uh, correct, so we're. Yeah, that's what we've done. Correct, I, I just want to confirm that that was, and that will be scheduled according to, really, our own needs. Right, and keep in mind, 48 hours is right before a council meeting, on the, on the, uh, 20th. So, there's, you know, I thought, I thought when we talked about this, I, I thought we were talking about Monday, November 11th, is when we expect next week for the certification that happens, so that it's either the 12th. It's 12th, 18th. That would, yeah, 11th. It certainly won't be on the 11th, because it's a holiday. Okay, so. But my guess is, could, it could be the 12th, it could be this Friday. Right, so I, I thought that we don't know for sure, it could be sooner. Right, that's why, that's, that's the whole point, is that the, the legal aspect of it will all depend on, as soon as we hear that certification has taken place. Well, we can come in before the 19th, if necessary, I think that's what you're saying. Exactly. Yes. Okay. I'm pretty sure it'll be legal. But I, I heard that the 18th is when the supervisor was expecting to certify the election. I might be wrong, but maybe it's coming zero. I, I didn't hear that, but if it is, then so be it. Thank you. Thank you. Council Member Andrade. So, it's usually around 10 days, and I don't have a problem with whatever date we decide. I just wanted to bring to everyone's attention, if we keep the 19th, which I'm okay with, we won't be able to attend the ceremony for the school board members. And I know in past years we have. So, we'll conflict with theirs, because theirs has already been scheduled for the 19th as well. I'm fine with it. I'm fine with the 19th. Anybody else? It's not my story anymore. What's that? Yeah, it's not my swearing in. Okay. Do you want, you don't want the 20th? It was just on the council day. That, that, that's a tough day for her. Okay. Um, all right. My, my preference is the 19th. Sorry, Dr. Holness. Are you done with that one? Yeah, as I said, I currently have a conflict, but I'm going to work to change it, and I think it should be fine. Thank you. All right. Council Member Anderson. All right. Just to make sure we're sticking with the 19th, but is it, what the email said, 1030 is swearing in, and 1130 is lunch. Mayor? Yes. Yes. Okay. We try to get it to 10 to get out by 11 because there was a, we had another conference with the chamber. No, but the chamber is an advertised meeting that they needed this room. Right. That now has been moved together because it's not that big of a meeting. So we're good. We're good. 1030 is fine. 1030 it is. It will be brunch, not lunch. Um, that will be the time to give your speeches, so you've got time to write them. Be verbose. Be verbose. Okay. Council Member Anderson, that's it. Are we good with that? All right. Go ahead now. Okay. Uh, the Education Advisory Board met Monday. They have an event coming up on the 16th. Um, Laura has been out, so I don't know that much about it. Council Member Horland, do you know much about it? No. We received an invitation, we received an invitation, but it was, there weren't any details on it. I just have the time, and we were asked to stop in, so I don't know if there was a... When we get it, we'll get it out to you. Okay, thank you. I don't, I don't have it either right now, so that's, that's what's going on. Uh, we had a pretty good homeless meeting, uh, to talk about problems and everything and challenges. Uh, I'm just going to kind of download some notes. Um, this, the estimate is 20 to 25 percent, uh, of the homeless who want help. Uh, women in distress had been taking them. Uh, they're having to put families on hold and going to emergency shelters because the need and the action is that much. Um, we have a certain part of the greenway that is Weston's, Weston BSO, so that's a little bit there. A lot of the homeless are born and raised in plantation. I did not know that. Um, we are adding to our trespass program the idea of putting locks on hoses and shutting down Wi-Fi, basically the police creating a hardening kit for businesses that have homeless people that could protect their business while also not making it that appealing to homeless. You see what I mean? What do you mean a Wi-Fi hardening? I don't understand. Um, let's say, uh, Wi-Fi shuts off their, their Wi-Fi from 10 p.m. to 6 a.m. Oh, because they're connecting and it makes it a more desirable stopping point. Yeah, yeah. So, um, the other part was county, the quote given to me was, this, this reflects really on our mental health and this bugs the heck out of me. Jail is the best mental health facility in the county. So our mental health that we're doing to serve homeless from other agencies is at such a level that the best thing we can do for homeless, put them in jail, dry them out for 30 days. Let that stink in your head, okay? So that's what we're talking about. Drying them out is not a mental health. That, that's an addiction. That's a different issue. Sure enough. But I understand what you're saying. But there could be a connection. Um, uh, we got approval from Broward County to have a trespass. And so you will see the library, government center, bus stop, uh, clean up. Also, they have security now. So they've added security. So you will see fewer names, fewer people. Go ahead. Uh, I just want to say I've made that part of my morning commute driving through that complex. Appreciate that. And then actually like a week ago, I couldn't sleep and at 2 o'clock in the morning I drove through the garage. Uh-huh. Security came up to me and I said, what's going on in the corner? Because there was the only, uh, evidence of homeless. And he said, well, I asked him to leave. He went away. I said, well, call, call the non-emergency number. And then I gave it to him. And then he called it while I was there. And then I left. So, um, there's been considerable, um, improvement over there. And anybody that's been there probably have seen an improvement. So I appreciate all the efforts of the police and what we've been doing. Because I got frustrated, um, with the county, with the buses coming through and they never say anything. It's just, the NPO is trying to get people on mass transit. And that's not going to get people to take mass transit. It doesn't feel a mass transit. It doesn't feel safe. It's not clean, et cetera, et cetera. Council Member Weinstein. Yeah, I just want to say, uh, that, uh, thank you, Mayor, for the update. Because it sounds like, um, as we've been saying all along, that our city has been actively responding to the homeless situation. And that we're on top of it. So thank you for continuing this effort. It's important to us. Yes. Just, Mayor, I thought it was interesting. Thank you to your administration for keeping us updated with the communication with the county. But you mentioned the, um, bus station. And it seemed like when you were discussing the back and forth on the trespass program. Um, that the, the transit station had been asking the county, uh, for the, uh, trespass. So I thought that was interesting with email if you caught that. Right. They had already been asking to be a part of it. To be part of it. Yeah, yeah. So I think the, the action of the city really helped facilitate that for them as well. So, Council Member Fadgen brings up a good point. Uh, they have paid security there now. Yes. So we should make sure that paid security has 797-2100 in their phone. Boom. Yes. Yep. That's, that's a good point. Yeah. So we can do that. And I, I, I was impressed, like, how quick, you didn't, like, question it. I just said, what's going on in the corner there? And, and then I said, call the non-emergency number and he looked like he took immediate action. Our two officers can basically tell you, every person, what they are, what they like, what they don't like, and what their challenges are. Good. So that's, that's what we try to do. And we try to help people if we can. And I think we should be clear. If you can't stop them. I think we should be clear, you just said that. It's just like, our first thing is trying to assist them. Absolutely. Our second thing is trying to get them to move on. Yeah. Also, we are, I'm meeting with more and more HOAs and they have, often have laundry lists of issues. So we're bringing them in Friday afternoons. Jacaranda Cay is this week. Jacaranda Cay was last week. Fountain Spring is this week. So if you meet with groups and you hear a laundry list of things, I line up Public Works, Jason, me, whoever else is needed, and we just do the whole list at once. It helps if they mail it in advance so we can do our homework. You got one there? Well, we mentioned it several months ago, and then I just, and I probably should have followed up, but one of the things that I had discussed with the Westport HOA was seeing if it would be possible, and I know I have a meeting scheduled with Ms. Morris coming up soon, to see if Westport could do a pilot of bins in lieu of blue bags. Hell no. No, I'm kidding. You can do which one. Yeah, I'd be happy to talk to them, and she knows if we're on your list as you're meeting with these HOAs, but. Yeah, yeah. Some people talk certain things, and yeah. 11-16, no, tomorrow is our town hall. Yeah. Mayor, I just want to jump in real quick. No, no, on the HOAs, I'm so glad that you're bringing them. But when you have a conversation with them, can you remind them that we're all available to go to the HOA meetings, and a lot of them don't publish it, so I think there's only a handful that we're able to attend. So please extend that. And I'd like to you guys to do that. I don't like to just show up, but if they would extend the invitation to us, let us know that they would like us, yeah. Yeah. Yeah. For anything we can do to get you out there, that helps a ton. Yeah, thanks, ma'am. Absolutely. That's a good call. Town hall's tomorrow. You've got that. Veterans Day's Monday, 930, you've got that. And Friday is Heritage, American Heritage. You guys got an e-mail on that, I hope. It's at 9 a.m., I think, right? All right. That's all I got. It seemed like, you know, we were getting, like, calendar invites, and now it's, like, telling us dates and e-mails. Can we just – I thought it was easier to manage just, you know, these events that we're invited to that if the administration keeps just sending the calendar invite. Because you had a pretty good e-mail that I – I kind of get caught up on the arrears there, and I saw a lot of these dates, and I think I missed something I would have attended if I knew. That was a lot. I appreciate it. Like, you know, the Mayor's Cup, I found out about it when I was at Trunk or Treat, and I don't think I could have attended, but I would have tried to attend if I could. Yes. But the calendar invite would be easier if it's coming from administration. We'll coordinate it a little bit better, but we've just had a – No, it's not a criticism. Yeah, I had four things at night. Yeah. No, I know. But you were actually at Trunk or Treat, you know, Public Works. You were doing your minutes. That's it. Thank you for representing me. So that's all I got. That's it. Thank you, Mayor. All right. Comments by Councilmembers. Councilmember Horland. I'm up first. Up first. All right. You ready, Ms. Begaro? Well, so, no, very quickly, I think we've all met Ms. Monica Moorman, a teacher, third-grade teacher at Central Park Elementary. She's been here with her Everglades ambassadors for the last couple of years, and she's had me come in and talk to the kids. They do elections. So what's really great is we go in, and I bring all the political flyers I've been saving over the years, and we look at them. I'm going to pass these down so you can take a look at them. You know, what attracts a voter, we talk about integrity, not making promises you can't keep, and Ms. Moorman reached out to me last week, and she said, Ms. Moorman, I understand it's election season, and you might need something to restore your soul, and she was correct, and invited me in on Monday, and the kids very proudly showed me all of their political posters that they made, and they got up and they gave their speech to me and told me about what they want to do for their community. So, Chief, you'd be happy. A lot of these budding politicians wanted to add more police to the streets, so that was a good thing. But I promise them that I'll bring the pictures so that you all can see them and do this. The other thing, very quickly, Johnny Peccarelli in city clerk's office had contacted me a couple of months ago, and he had an enormous amount of wine corks, and it was not from bottles of wine that Johnny had drunk. It was from somebody who used to do crafts and had given these to him. So Ms. Moorman, because of their Everglades Restoration Environmental Program, one of the corks, the kids went ahead and created projects that could be used. So there was a cork board. There was a bird house there, and the young lady was very proud of the fact that she used the champagne cork as a perch for the bird. So everybody did a project, and it was all about upcycling and sustainability, and they wanted me. This is for Johnny. This is going in his office. It's a tissue holder made above the court. So anyway, I promised them that I would show it, so I appreciate you indulging me. It's such a great classroom of future leaders and environmental stewards in there. So they were very proud of that. So that's all I've got, and congratulations. That's it? That's it. Congratulations to our colleague, Ms. Reynstein. You made a terrific campaign, and I just have to compliment you on your volunteers and your family and yourself and how you conducted yourself out there, and so proud to be serving with all of you. We kept the band back together. Councilman Anderson. I actually missed a few of those, but the – thank you, Councilman. I thought you were going down the line. I mean, this is my brother's – I've run it the same way for the entire year. And I'm caught – what actual student is – I got caught off guard for a second. Can I keep you on your toes? Oh, the firefighter. The firefighter barbecue is outstanding. I left the polls to go to that. So great job with that, as usual, that way. I thought you were there. The chiefs are fighting. Just kidding. Anything else? That's all. Councilman Rangio. Thank you. I know that we have the PTA presidents and EAB coming up at June Ward on the 16th. I was really excited to see that. Are we to be there at the beginning? I haven't seen, like, an agenda. Who's – I guess I get – who is owning that meeting? I've asked the EAB to communicate with me a couple days ago, and I haven't heard from them yet. But Laura returns Tuesday, and she'll probably drive it. Okay. So give us until Tuesday. Sure. I was really excited. I don't think we've done this before. Right. So it will be great. I hope we have all the schools' PTAs who are present. We'll share them. Yeah. Okay. Well, I plan on being there. I just want to confirm the time. And I know on the 13th with Chief, right, we're doing the Prime Watch meeting at Broward Mall, 7 p.m. Oh, it was canceled? Yeah. Oh, okay. Didn't get the cancellation, so thank you. Like, to Council Member Fadgen's point is, you know, there's a lot going on and – Hard to manage. It's – yeah. So if Greg can send us those, it would be very helpful. I know it's that time of year, too. That came from Catherine Rollins as a HOA person. That didn't come through the city. Okay. The Crime Watch? Yeah. We saw that. Oh. Yeah, it's never come through us. We haven't even gotten a call on it. Oh, okay. Yeah. All right. And last but not least, I just want to ask Mr. Montefusco. I know that we received an e-mail that we all need to do some – is he here? Oh. We all need to do some training, but I don't know, too, if I missed – I mean, we have been getting a lot more e-mails than normal, so maybe I missed it. I saw your e-mail telling us we had to do training, but I want to make sure that I don't miss the due date, and then I never got the e-mail that I thought you said we would get from the actual, like, company, the vendor. Good evening, John Montefusco, IT Director. No, you haven't missed the e-mail. I was just sending out a series of e-mails just to keep everyone informed. Next week, you'll see an e-mail with instructions, screenshots. Know Before is the company we use. It's roughly a 10-, 15-minute video, and you answer some questions. Okay. And then you have until December 20th, so you have plenty of time to do it. You can do it at your house. You don't have to do it on a city computer. What happens on the 21st? Can't access your e-mail. We're coming to take you to the IT jail. No. We'll work with you. Okay. Thank you. I just wanted to make sure that we were in compliance with that as well. Okay. And I didn't mention last month being, like, Cybersecurity Month, so we appreciate all that you have to. Well, he's just, like, totally exhausted from all the partying. Thank you for everything that you do behind the scenes to keep us safe. Keep us safe. That's right. That concludes all of my announcements. I look forward to seeing everybody at Veterans Day service on Monday. Thank you. Great. Council Member Weinstein. So a couple of these were mentioned, but I want to, again, compliment everyone and the departments on Trunk or Treats and the Fireman's Barbecue, both two great programs that our city does. I will say my kids were very disappointed that we didn't actually get anything at the auction items for Fireman's Barbecue, but, and they've also requested that I formally ask for the shirts to come back because they weren't selling the shirts this year. But two great events that our city does. I also wanted to give congratulations to South Plantation High School's Girls Bowling Team District Champs. They were. That's a good school. At least their bowling team is good. Congratulations to Jennifer Collins from South Plantation as she is the 2024 Broward County Pioneer. So she's receiving recognition at the 48th Annual Pioneer Day that will be held this Saturday, November 9th, at the Tamarack Community Center. And Chief, I have down also that Coffee with a Cop is going on tomorrow at Target in Plantation, Target Store in Plantation from 4 to 6 p.m. So it's a great opportunity to speak to and see and be around our amazing officers with the Plantation Police Department. So thank you. Thank you. Barbecue great. Sorry I'm going to miss the ribbon cutting tomorrow. Looking forward to Veterans Day. And then congratulations to Councilmember Reinstein. Looking forward to the next four years. And you can get out of the sun now. That's just brutal out there. So with that, meeting is adjourned at 8.12.