good evening and welcome to wednesday september 11th 2024 city plantation city council meeting is now called to order at 6 31. miss beguereau please call the roll here council member andre here council member fudgen here council member hornham here council member einstein yes here mayor sordle here city attorney aswell here thank you thank you um before we start i'd like to do like a moment of silence for the uh victims at the apalachee high school the two students that passed the two teachers seven injured and obviously in broward we're familiar with what the community's going through so we could have a moment of silence for them thank you tonight i'm leading the uh invocation and the pledge of allegiance if we could stand to pray almighty father we thank you for your continued abundant blessings upon this great city state nation and upon all of your people we ask that you bless these proceedings and all who appear before this council tonight as we deliberate the important business of the city today on the 23rd anniversary of the 9 11 terrorist attacks we will reflect on the loss of innocent lives taken from us as they run about their morning routines we pray for the bravery of the first responders who face unimaginable danger and their courageous efforts to help those in need on that day we also remember and honor the men and women of our military expressing our deep gratitude for their sacrifices which allow us to lead our everyday lives with a sense of security and freedom we pray for our leaders and all those in positions to make a difference asking that to be granted the wisdom and the insight to address the pressing issues of today with compassion and integrity may their decisions reflect the deep understanding of the challenges we face and lead to positive lasting change we pray for the people who feel forgotten underappreciated or overwhelmed by the pressures of everyday life may we experience your grace and find source and knowing they are deeply loved and valued we pray for the people around the world that are suffering through conflict may those in positions of power find a path to peace and work towards a resolution that brings relief and hope to those in need for all this we ask in your holy name amen um pledge pledge allegiance to the flag of the united states of america and to the republic for which it stands one nation under god indivisible for liberty and justice for all thank you okay mayor much uh we have one proclamation today and uh coming up how many different hats do you wear moms demand legal women voters and you're here on behalf of the suicide prevention the league women voters and um yeah and i always went father always said i had a really big head okay yeah all right many hats i'm not going to come in on that part okay whereas the mayor and city council are firmly committed to raising awareness about suicide prevention and whereas the month of september is nationally recognized as suicide prevention awareness month and whereas more than 50 000 americans died by suicide in 2023 and florida person dies by suicide every two hours on average um whereas suicide is a natural endemic costing the life of 6 000 veterans each year and is a leading cause of death for first responders firearms are the leading method of suicide in florida and the most lethal method access to a gun triples the risk of death and whereas the american excited academy of pediatrics the children's hospital association and the american academy of child and adolescent psychiatry have declared a national emergency in child mental health and whereas suicide is the second leading cause of death for children adolescents and young adults 10 to 24 and whereas it's critical to recognize the signs of depression that may lead to thoughts of suicide including speaking about wanting to die feelings of isolation or hopelessness increase use of drugs or alcohol and severe mood swings and whereas it is critical to recognize the best best methods to prevent suicide when the person is in crisis ask if the person is thinking of taking their life keep them safe get them professional help in florida dial 988 or call it suicide prevention line 800-800-273-8255 or text 741 741 whereas the league of women voters abroad county has provided significant leadership in suicide prevention and creation of their lock it up gun safety program and whereas the forward chapter of the american academy of pediatrics has provided significant leadership in suicide prevention through a community education program therefore i next total and the city council plantation do hereby proclaim the month of september 24th as suicide prevention month it's okay to clap because we declare that my quick comment before you do that is that the paper when i was working realized we realized each year there are more suicides than murders and that's a stunning stat when you think about it more people commit suicide than our diet than die at the hands of somebody else cheers thank you mayor thank you very much good evening i'm mary swanson i volunteer with moms demand action in broward and also implementation resident today i'm here on behalf of the league of women voters of broward and the florida chapter of the american academy of pediatrics to thank the mayor and the council for recognizing suicide prevention awareness month as the mayor said over 50 000 americans die by suicide each year half of them by firearm and in florida 61 of gun deaths are by firearm suicide locking up guns saves lives anyone who would like a free gun lock mail to their home can email gloria.lewis at va.gov and i bought some gun locks with me so if anyone here in the audience would like one um you're welcome if anyone you know is struggling or in crisis call or text 988 that is the suicide crisis lifeline provides 24 7 free confidential support to people in suicidal crisis or emotional distress anywhere in the u.s finally on behalf of moms demand action thank you to the city of plantation the first city in broward county to publish information about florida's red flag law and the availability of risk protection orders to temporarily remove firearms from people in crisis on its public facing website the first city in broward please to the public that's hearing this look for risk protection orders on the plantation police department's website to learn more uh happily i'm telling you that you you will the first but you're not the only anymore so we have convinced the city of fort lauderdale the buyer sheriff's office the city of pembroke pines to already put it on the website and now we're working with several other cities we're taking kind of four or five at a time and working with that and then moving on to the next group so right now i'm working with miramar sunrise and letter hill so thank you plantation you're a leader in this thank you um moving on we're at parks and recreation upcoming events ms o'toole council members my name and mr as well a couple of upcoming events for parks and rec this saturday we have the plantation seafood uh festival park from 12 pm to 9 pm tickets are available for purchase at www.plantationseafoodfestival.com kids eight and under are free on saturday september 21st we have parents night off at central park from 5 pm to 10 pm thursday september 26th a senior happy heart luncheon at jimward community center from 11 to 1 pm friday september 27th our annual plantation parks recreation foundation golf tournament at the plantation preserve golf course uh starting at 1 30 the deadline to register to play is this thursday september 19th thursday october 3rd we have a kids day off camp but jimward community center from 7 30 to 6 pm at our tennis center saturday september 21st to the 22nd we have a level six junior tournament in aquatics swim lessons session eight begins october 14th registration begins october 6th and athletics currently in pal we have fall baseball and fall soccer registering in adult athletics kickball and flank football you can always follow us on social media plantation parks or give us a call 954-452-2510 thank you all right thank you okay public requests of council regarding municipal affairs those who wish to speak we request that you complete a speaker form if you have not done so already please do please state your name and address and please address the remarks to the council president not the mayor or individual members of the council please keep your remarks today allotted three minutes so first up mr clark good evening council mayor city attorney wayne clark 6001 southwest 20 street i don't come and speak very often i try to make sure that when i do come speak it's something of importance right now from what i'm seeing being told i know the mayor addressed it this week is the homelessness issue implantation that is starting to creep in the question is is where are those individuals coming from i would personally make a request and make sure that they're all dealt with compassionately and we have a plan currently if you read the mayor's comments i don't doesn't look like the county has any type of plans i understand that it's the county that's supposed to address that however it still falls on council and the mayor's office to make sure we do it and we do it right those individuals are struggling in life and they deserve to be treated humanely and compassionately also we all know that the new statutes coming into place in october you know i know that tomorrow night we're going to discuss the budget or at least you all are in looking at the 700 page budget i don't see a lot of room in there or area in there regarding this issue we all know that when this statute comes into place ordinary citizens have an opportunity to sue and if they sue that's going to put a burden on the city attorney's office which then could spiral into hiring outside counsel i would hope that it never gets to that point i hope that the city has a plan in place to help these individuals and be able to do something compassionately with them and make sure that we're doing the right thing as citizens implantation thank you for your time thank you chief do you want to make a comment talk about the two um officers we've added for the homeless outreach thank you councilman howard harrison police chief uh we do have two officers that are uh that is all they do is deal with the homeless and although the two officers that we have and we just came up with that um there's one on days one on nights we're also part of met a multi-agency uh homeless task force we have several detectives that are board members of that uh organization so it's not just the two we have multiple officers within road patrol that were trained on dealing with the homeless and again as i and i've always said uh being homeless is not a crime and all these officers and especially the two that we just got uh have an enormous amount of resources for the individuals that want help a lot of these homeless people do not want help and we have success stories left and right on how we've reignited some of these homeless people with their their loved ones um you have the uh mental health issues so it's multi-faceted but we've been working with the city attorney and city administration and coming up with a game plan we have a multitude of uh options uh that we're working through one of which is the trespass program that uh is under state statute and not in ordinance uh if we can get uh our businesses on board and we're working on that um that's another another tool that we have in our toolbox i'd be more happy to answer any other questions uh you and i've had plenty of discussions it seems to dominate most of our conversations now um i'm sure we're all getting a lot of phone calls regarding this and um one of the things that i've been relaying to the people that call out to me um is the call to non-emergency police number um and you've assured me that um as long as those two officers on a um alpha and bravo are not assisting with you know an emergency situation they they they deploy to wherever the complaint is um and so actions being taken we're trying to offer them assistance you know um if they have a broken down car that that that agency they they can help them get the resources to get them back up get on their way hopefully get them in touch with their family which gets them off the streets right yes sir so um council member horland just very quickly thank you um mr president chief we have all talked about this and even at our broad media cities um meeting last week mr ranemaker um had asked some questions about that i have two questions because we've primarily concentrated that trespass program and 441 corridor and we know that we're all seeing an increase in homeless population along broward boulevard what um has detective graber and her team done to reach out to any of the businesses there are we waiting for the businesses to call us no ma'am when we see an issue uh a good example is the world sound advice shopping center there we got them on board naturally moved them to another area but again sometimes it's a domino effect sometimes it will actually uh work uh so that they leave the area um there are several businesses that are under construction right now and we're waiting to the tail end of that and we're on top of it to make sure that they're they're on board with the uh trespass program and second question just quickly cheap because there has been a lot of chatter about it it's detective graber are they seeing uh because a lot of the people the individuals are familiar to them yes a lot of the same people out there are they seeing a lot of new people that and uh fortunately mr name maker has uh done very well with the um an mou uh that is we're going to be part of a program that allows our two hopefully three but our two um homeless outreach personnel to enter information into a portal and what that does is it allows us to see where these people are it's almost like tracking them i agree we'll have a whole lot of confidential information that only those individuals with access to the portal will have um but it is a great tool for us to use um identifying where they're coming from thank you team yes ma'am thank you um it's great thank you um mr conklin dennis conklin 4581 northwest 6 court if i may approach sorry dennis thank you that is the only test i've never failed dennis conklin 4581 northwest 6 court heavenly host protect you and your family i'm going to change things because today is the anniversary of 9 11. um what i gave you was a copy my wife says i'm ocd of old time plantation city council agendas the original city council means they only opened with an invocation and some years later after 2001 they removed invocation completely the invocation was always followed by the pledge of allegiance but some years later the agenda removed completely the invocation and um it was kind of coincidence because uh the one i pulled councilman fadgen gave the invocation that evening i did not i don't think i was here i did not know one of this because i just printed up the agenda for tonight minutes before i came but councilman jerry fadgen fought for years to get the invocation included back into the agenda i i was furious when they removed it i would speak but you know i get the pad on the head in my three minutes back then it was five minutes and you know go sit down don't you say no but after a number of years jerry was successful in getting to include the invocation in the agenda and i i think it might be because i went to some sort of system of reporting now with this you know all online and everything but this country is adrift i've been knocking doors for uh campaign and um today i had a uplifting event i delivered the last of uh the united states constitutions to 16 schools in plantation uh through the nine some team society dot org you can go there um are finding documents if you look at them their prayers they open recognizing god the declaration recognizes them more fewer than four times twice at the beginning just like an invocation twice at the end just like a benediction the united states constitution reinforces that recognizes god again because it's the second bite of the apple the articles of confederation failed by re-recognizing god we are here today and i think that perhaps we can remove the other the comments are nice i i don't mean to offend anybody when they just do comments but i think we need to go back to just invocations thanks i don't break your time thank you dennis okay um is there anybody else in the chamber like to make a public comment seeing none public requests of the council regarding municipal affairs are now closed closed the consent agenda consists of items one through 15 and may be approved with one motion uh does any member of the council wish to pull an item mr conklin would like to pull item 14. can i is there anybody in the chamber like to pull any items can i have a motion motion to approve items one through 15 minus 14. second miss begroke please call the roll council member andreen yes yes council member warman yes council member reinstein yes council member anderson yes council member fadgen yes thank you thank you dennis thank you dennis congressman 458 northwest 6 court um the reason i pulled the gateway i mentioned that quite often the expense of the gateway is spent on water and wastewater um but i would like to reinforce my comments from the cra and i know that tomorrow we're going to be taking up budget and millage rates and so forth and so on and i would like to uh again repeat myself with the increasing property values keeping millage rates the same increases the taxes for the extra millage rate on the district and i would uh encourage you to zero out the gateway seven uh millage rate to zero point zero zero zero zero and i support the report here but i i question gosh you spent awful lot of water money and uh i'll move back my time thank you may i have a motion motion to approve item 14. second is there any other comments from the chamber seeing none this beggar please call the roll council member andreen yes council member horland yes council member reinstein yes council member anderson yes council member fadgen yes thank you mr mayor i want a tight ship to your administration you could have made a wonder we're going to call you ron jacobs with this kind of thing um i have i have no comment except one i want to relate a story i um about three meetings ago it's raining like heck it's dark out i go on university on the way home which is the way you go i see this black car big black car pull off to the side for parks turns on these lights kind of thing like extra set of flashing lights that some people have pulls off to the side and there's a yard sign that in a place it doesn't belong and the person runs out grabs the yard sign walks to their car and as i'm walking to the car i see that it's matt thompson the guy the guy does not stop so i think you remember that sign so so the idea that we all do everything and and nobody's above stopping and stooping to do every little thing that makes our city better i just thought that was a good example always on duty okay council member comments we'll start with council member andrea thank you council president fadgen i need to make a correction to the record from our meeting two weeks ago or three weeks ago because i said max goldstein was our max goldstein from the sierra club um and it is not there are evidently two max goldstein so let me just correct that the sierra club max treasurer goldstein is not the same as our resident here and um also thank you president fadgen for your opening uh this evening i thought your convocation was absolutely um on point and the message we needed to hear for a time such as this so thank you for that and you know we will never forget 9-11 and i think today all fits heavy on all of our hearts so thank you for that i also want to congratulate charles spencer on being elected to serve on the board of directors for the national procurement institute you make us all proud and i know you represent plantation well so thank you for that i know it's added work with no added uh pay so we appreciate that there's a title there's a title and responsibilities but no added income but thank you for that it shows your leadership um yesterday i had the honor of attending a welcome reception for the new principal at plantation high school one of our premier high schools in the city of plantation uh miss robinson if you have not met her i encourage you to meet miss robinson she is coming to us with a wealth of experience and i'm really excited because the energy yesterday was contagious and i'm really excited about the future of plantation high and i know they're going to be an a-rated school this year so it's their 60 year i believe anniversary as well and she's the first african-american principal at the school in that history so i hope that we'll include her in the eab meetings and welcome her to the city also grandparents day as we know was sunday september 8th but broward county public schools will be celebrating tomorrow so all grandparents are encouraged to eat breakfast free with their grandchildren tomorrow at all of our plantation elementary schools i also want to thank chief harrison and his entire team for the gun buyback program october 12th you know how excited i was when i saw that post on social media so from 10 a.m to 2 p.m october 12th at our police department you can return your guns and no questions asked and you'll get gift cards and if you need any support please let me know i'd love to attend if i can sponsor lunch anything you need i am here to support this program and make it successful and finally we look forward to seeing everybody tomorrow for the budget hearing we are excited it's probably the most important thing that we do as council members so i want to thank in advance anna otaniano and her entire team for putting a balanced budget together together for us and two binders this year so we had the pre-binder and then the actuals and i know how much time and energy it took your staff and i want to thank you for that thank you president pageant very good uh councilman ryanstein so um minnesota started out with uh with thinking of that and i'll add that um both public works and utilities that it just so happened that on labor day of all days that there was a pipe burst in a community and it was amazing to see and and watch how quickly they responded to flooding that was occurring in the neighborhood and a pipe burst uh responding to the pipe burst and want to want to recognize demetric melvin and capers for their great work um they were there all day and there was a moment where the entire street had to have the water shut off and so all the residents um came out to see what was going on and they were extremely responsive and um they they did great work on on on labor day they labored so thank you to them uh i hope people have seen some of the social media that has come out from the city regarding the say adams mural uh it is complete uh it is completely amazing to see the process the progress see it at work um leading with love one love and please take a look at that it really is amazing uh what say adams and his team is doing out there at uh at kingsley park um i i also want to thank um president fashion for the comments regarding um 9 11. the the i also want to add some thoughts and prayers and um there are those that are still mourning from from the losses and still suffering from the uh the attack on our country and our way of life and uh i i learned just recently that we actually have one of our very own from our fire department lieutenant astin bright who is back in israel at this very moment and he was asked to be at the state of israel 9 11 memorial ceremony and to be there and to represent um all emergency services in the entire united states and so he uh he spoke there at their national 9 11 memorial and i believe that um that it is the uh israel is the only country that um that lists all of those that um that were killed on 9 11 and has um memorial like they do so it um pretty incredible so while lieutenant astin bright is there i hope that um the work that he does there also is uh allows him to continue to make a difference and to come home safely i also want to thank jason trish and matt and michael for um taking a walk with me on friday afternoon we went over to volunteer park and i've had a number of residents that have raised um missed the bridges that are there and some residents may may recall that uh about a year ago we had a presentation about um recommending demolition of the bridges and uh we we we were a bit surprised i think with with how with what were the options and that was all ended up being put on hold and um since some residents were still uh asking about the progress and what is happening um i thank them for taking a walk with me around um around the lake there and for committing to take a further look at uh at the bridges and lastly i want to thank councilmember andrea for mentioning the the lack of the working water fountains at plantation high school and um since learned that there are now 39 out of the 43 water fountains that meet epa standards and are um are now deemed um available for use and i will say that um you know as much as uh as much as we all try and stay involved with what's going on in the schools and we think that the the residents come to us a lot with things that are going on i was shocked to hear that and that they've been using water bottles instead of working water fountains so thank you for that and i was happy that we got that report thank you thank you councilman lavalon thank you mr president um i'd like to segue into say adam thank you for bringing up and thank you for everyone that went out to paint to actually finish the mailing list during running and received a text message from lindy yang um and i just everybody received a letter i believe in a name from robin vegas today and i'd like to ask april beggar to put it into the record but i want to read a little bit just so the public can see and i don't know that staff heard because it was really you know when we're out there the other day council member andrea and i say adam's internationally recognized artist was so touched by what this city did for him not just the proclamation but chief he talked about um the police being out there at night to make sure that there was safety provided everything that um jason and you know glenn everybody the support they did they couldn't believe that this got approved so quickly but they were the support was overwhelming to him and he's worked in a lot of cities so basically um the the letter that we received today said on behalf of the business for the arts of broward and the community foundation of broward i'd like to express our deepest gratitude for the incredible support the city plantation provided for the lead with web mural featuring artists say adams your unwavering dedication and commitment made the entire process seamless and exceeded our expectations in every way from the very beginning your team especially glendon hall susan delora and jason mannemaker went above and beyond to ensure the success of the project they expedited the necessary paperwork and process with efficiency and professionalism allowing us to stay on schedule and focus on bringing this beautiful mural to life and she just went on to talk a little bit about the details um but she concluded saying your passion for public art and commitment to uplifting this community is clearly evident in creation of the one one room plantation mural at kingsley park this mural not only adds beauty to the park but also serves as a symbol of unity love and pride for the entire community we're so proud to have been part of this meaningful project and grateful for continuing your continued efforts in supporting public art initiatives so again um you know this meant a lot to me personally the support that uh this council and this mayor and administration and staff showed uh this was just a really wonderful letter um again none of us are surprised at the professionalism um of our staff we've got a great team here but um i'd really like to make sure that the public knows uh how seamlessly that came off so again thank you just a couple of um updates i think uh talking about the schools you see the redefining our schools they're having conversations again and i just want to point out to everyone on thursday the 19th of september at piper high school from 6 to 8 pm they'll be uh discussing the middle schools implantation middle is on that list so i did speak to dr holmes's office today and said that um i have another commitment i may not be able to make that so if any of my colleagues can be there i will be submitting some comments and it's something that we've discussed up here but i think that we really need to be involved in that process um also another date coming up the solid waste authority which has received a notice that they will be holding a uh listening session gathering information from the public feedback uh unfortunately it's next week during our budget hearing but i think that miss morris is trying to attend that will be from six to eight at lauder hill veterans park for any members of the public that would like to be part of that discussion um and that's all i have i want to thank everyone again for attending the brown omega city's general membership not general membership but the board of directors meeting i did send an email out to everyone but it's so wonderful to be out in the county and to hear how other people view our city and our team and what i heard over and over again is there's so many great things happening in plantation and we were so impressed by the fact that the entire council showed up and we had staff there to support and they commented on what a great team we have so again i know it's a lot of kudos to me yeah with that beautiful golf course and you know what was interesting about that is so many people were not aware that we have that gem in our city so it was really wonderful so thank everyone for coming in last week thank you mr president thank you councilmember anderson nice comments a nice opening remarks tim um uh also lewis thanks for sharing that about uh israel and 9 11 and ashton that was that was great um when i was out to say adams uh uh the mural he was he he was he definitely was touched but he was so he he was beaming about his proclamation he was beaming about his proclamation and i said so every year on this day i would be joking that he could he gets to speed through town no no one will give him a ticket chief right was up as i have proclamations yeah anyway it was really nice to be part of that thank you for helping to kick that off and then the staff to to come through all all teamwork makes the dream work um thanks everybody that's it thank you um i i got to go by the mural on monday and and spent like i didn't want to disturb them too long but i spoke with say for five or ten minutes and it i didn't know what i was expecting i wasn't expecting what what we got and it's pretty spectacular um i'm curious can we explore maybe possibly lighting it up at night we are going to do that i'll light it okay good good perfect um father davis from saint gregory's called me this week and he wanted to let me know that the blue mass will be october 27th at the 10 30 mass and uh so i'm just making that announcement once all the council members can put on their schedule and it's open to the public and it is it's a really nice ceremony and service so uh if you haven't been um you don't have to be catholic just have to want to come uh hear a hear a good service so what's that time 10 30 yeah october 27 and i'll get more details but 10 30 be on time you won't be that person walking in late so and then the last thing this was so much fun i think we we should do it tomorrow so come back so the uh council budget meeting starts at 5 30 councilmember horland um and then the cra meeting follows at 7 0 5 so um i think councilmember horland said that's the most important thing we do so please councilmember and gerio sorry uh come to that meeting and uh with that it is 7 11 and we are adjourned