City Council — Sep 17, 2025

Good evening and welcome. The Wednesday, September 17, 2025, City of Plantation City Council meeting is now called to order at 6 p.m. Ms. Begaro, please call the roll. Council Member Horland. Here. Council Member Anderson. Here. Council Member Andreu. Here. Council Member Fajan. Here. Council Member Reinstein. Here. Mayor Sortel. Here. City Attorney Ezra. Here. Thank you. If I can ask that if you're coming in here, if you can please come in quietly. We've already started the meeting. Thank you. Tonight's opening remarks will be by Council Member Anderson. We, for those of you that were at the earlier meeting, we've already done the Pledge of Allegiance, and so we're going to go right into the opening remarks. Council Member Anderson. Good evening, everybody. So, welcome to fall, which begins September 22nd. My wife grew up in northern Illinois, and fall always gave her a great joy with the changing of leaves and the crisp air and the cozy sweater weather. And while we don't experience the same changes here, we have our own signs that the seasons are changing. We begin to see the migratory birds heading south. We begin to feel a little less humidity. The temperatures begin to ease up, and hurricane season eventually ends. I shouldn't have said that word. The H word. I meant to actually say it. The changing of seasons can bring a sense of joy. Dr. Goldie Muhammad, an American educator from the University of Illinois, defines joy in this way. Joy is something more than having fun or celebrating, but is a sustained effort to recognize and honor the beauty of and within the earth. To the ancestors, joy was an art and aesthetics. It was teaching our children to name the beauty within themselves and within humanity. Joy meant coming together for advocacy and problem-solving to make the world better. Joy was wellness, healing, and justice. The ancestors needed joy then, and we all need it now. With that, I wish you all a joyous fall and a joyous council meetings. And you do not need to stand for the pledge. We already did it. Thank you very much, Councilmember Anderson. I do also, before we get right into the items submitted by the Mayor, I just want to also make a couple announcements. In case you did not see the various social media posts that came out from the City today, we have removed from the agenda item number 17. So if you are here only for item number 17, please be advised that's been pulled from the agenda. Mayor Sortel, the floor is yours. Councilmember Anderson, what was the name of that doctor? The doctor? The doctor in your... Okay. She's not a football fan, and she's certainly not a dolphin fan, right? If she finds pleasure in the fall. That's all I've got to say. Okay. Those are the jokes. They will not get any better. Okay. I would love to do these retirements first. And first up is Bill Gale. I get to read this. And you have a key. No. Whereas Bill was born in Monticello, Illinois, moved to Florida in 1987. Whereas Bill began working for Plantation on April 7, 2008. He's proud of his involvement in the conversion from paper for permitting to a total progressive electronic submittal process. Whereas Bill met his wife, Donna. I hope you're Donna. After a wedding in Fort Lauderdale on June 15, they had been married for 33 years and have one daughter, Catherine Ann Dito, who resides in Austin, Texas. Bill has a large extended family of great nieces and nephews and twin godchildren who will be attending UF this year. Whereas after 17 years of service, Bill announced his retirement effective September 30th. During retirement, he will continue to improve his mastery of the dobo, a resophonic guitar used primarily in bluegrass music, traveling, visiting family and friends, including him and his wife's first trip to England, Ireland, and Italy. Now, therefore, I, Nick Sorrell, and the City Council of Plantation hereby express our gratitude and appreciation to Bill Gale for his dedicated service. Pam, bring his staff up here. Bring staff and family. If you're related to Bill or work for Bill, come up. We've been rooting. You guys stand here. Get off the way. Do you guys stand here? You guys stand here. You need it. All right, guys. All right. Right ahead. Okay. I'll be very brief because you've got a lot of people to do. For the past 17 years, it's been an honor and a privilege to serve the City of Plantation. I'm going to miss it a lot. 17 years went live. Fat. My only regrets are I didn't start earlier. I'd like to thank the council, the mayor, administration, city attorney, my amazing staff, incredible directors that I work with. They made my job a lot easier, and I couldn't have done any of it without it. But it's time to turn the page, start a new chapter in my life with my wonderful wife, Donna. We plan on traveling, pursuing our hobbies, and just enjoying life. Once again, thank you very much. So, Steve Merritt is on his way. Paul. Paul here? Not here. Irvin? Irvin's not here, right? He's not coming. All right, right. Ellen Stein. You moved up to number two. You also get your 20-year pin today. So, extra hardware. Whereas Ellen was born in NYC, raised in Brooklyn until the age of 16. Whereas Ellen moved to North Miami Beach in 1974, met her husband of 36 years while working for North Miami Beach Parks and Rec. Ellen has one adult son named Kyle. Whereas Ellen started working for Plantation in September 2005 and is most proud of starting Trunk or Treat, their Snow Place-like Plantation, Candyland Express, Mother's Day, Father's Day, and Grandparents' Day, all at the Plantation Community Center. I've been to Grandparents' Day. Whereas Ellen enjoys bike riding and Zumba and will continue both during retirement. My Zumba lady. That's your Zumba lady. Oh, very good. All right. And Beto's not here, is he? No. Okay. And will continue both during retirement as well as traveling with her husband and just enjoy life. Whereas after 20 years, Ellen announced her retirement effective September 30th. Therefore, I, Nick Soto Mayor, and the City of Plantation hereby express our gratitude and appreciation to Ellen Stein. Stay here. We want you in the picture. I'm going to wait for that. Sorry. Okay. Friends, family, co-workers. Come on, friends, family. Come on, Tasha. Come on, girls. Tasha. Marsha, come on. With a hand on. Oh, my. Oh, you flower. And the arm. Oh, there you go. Okay. It was all of ideas. You got it. Thank you. We're not going to the front this time. We always meant to go on the front. We love each other. Very close. We love each other. Not allowed to ask you. This is good. Turn sideways, guys. There we go. Don't even be so popular. Try to hold those smiles. Limited blinking. We're good. One more. One more. One more. Well, this is very late. Thank you. My ladies. Yeah, my name is Christmas. So my Zoom book. I got service awards. You get a key. And anything you want to say? Oh, I don't know if you really want me to say anything in this mic. But, okay. First of all, if you ask my husband and my son and anybody that was at my son's wedding, probably giving me the mic is the wrong thing to do. Yeah, but I do want to thank everybody. It's been a wonderful 20 years. I want to thank my supervisors, everybody that's here, who have put up with me for 20 years. Because, believe it or not, I tend to have a mouth. I know none of you believe that, but I do. And they've been wonderful with me. 20 years in North Miami Beach. 20 years in Plantation. It's been fabulous. I made lifelong friends. I love everybody that I work with. And it's just a great city. So, thank you very much. So, we're still waiting on Stephen Paul, I think. So, we will go on to service awards. We have a big one. Don Todd, 30 years. I'll talk about you first for a second. Okay. Chief Todd, the more I talk to him, I think the word obsessed comes to mind, that everything is safety. His mind is thinking of this, that. There are so many angles to firefighting and rescue that I've never thought about. And because I now have the pleasure of being mayor, I love our chats. Because there's always one more thing and one more thing. And I'm going, I didn't think of that. I didn't think of that. So, I appreciate, I can't tell you how much I appreciate your attention to detail and your leadership. It means a lot to me. Thank you, sir. Picture? What's next? Picture people's speech, right? Sure. Okay. Here's your pin. Thank you, sir. We'll take that picture in a second. And then, so, real quick, 30 years goes by pretty fast. You blink an eye and it's past you. But I always tell people that you're only as good as the people you work with. You're only good as the people that you lead. And this is an example right here. And I always say we're the best fire department in the state of Florida. And we couldn't do this without the support of you guys with administration, the mayor and administration. You've been a big supporter of ours. You always have been. And it's been a pleasure. And it's been an honor to lead this group. And I can't, I'm not going to say I'll give you another 30 years because, no, that's not happening. But I've enjoyed it. It's been a great trip. And thank you very much for having me here tonight. Okay. You ask for my family. Let's go. Come on up. Let's get a picture. Come on up. Okay. Here it is. Yeah, it's going to be a while. We're going to need to have a couple of rows. We're going to need to have a couple of rows. We're going to need to have a couple of rows. Yeah, yeah, that way. We're going to need a couple of rows, guys. We're going to need to get a couple of rows. A couple of rows. We're going to need a couple of rows. All right, here we go. Come on, buddy. Here we go. We good? Everybody good. Perfect. Don't blink. Smile. Thank you. Thank you. Hey, Chief, before you sit down, I think there's a barbecue coming up. There is. The first Sunday of November is our barbecue. I don't know what year it is. November 66th year, November 2nd. That's going to be out at Pine Island Park. And what else? We got. I believe you're taking sponsorships right now. The Volunteer Firefighter Association is taking sponsorships. So if anybody's interested, I think you wanted to share that as well. Perfect. Now that you led me into that, I appreciate it. So anybody that's interested, yes, sponsor. We're taking sponsorships. We're taking door prizes. Anything you guys can give us would be great. We also have, in October, we have our, I'm not posting an essay anymore. It's literature and art competition. And we'll be doing a presentation here in the October meeting. We'll also do one in the chamber. But thank you for bringing that up. I appreciate it. We love it. That's what I said. We love your assistance. There we go. Barbecue is the best. Thank you. Yes. So we have three more service awards, and then we'll circle back to Mr. Merritt. I know. 25 years, Jim Gallman. Thank you so much. Yeah, yeah. Thank you. Thank you, administration. It's been a great 25 years. I can't thank the Chief Harrison from the Peely's Department enough. He's been great. To me, my husband, Joe Gallman, and all of administration, and to you, the mayor. Thank you. Thank you. 25 years, Greg Lewis Fyler. Thank you. Oh, you checked this. Thank you, sir. About a pen. A picture? Family? Yes. All right. I'll come in here. I don't want it. Very good. Anything you want to say? Oh, just thank you. There we go. How much more speech making? See you soon. All right. All right. Two more. Frantasia Prince, Parks and Rec. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. We'll see. It starts in Parks and go Dolphins. Did you get your pen? I'll give you another pen. Okay. Ten years, Maximina Mark. How are you doing? Thank you. Can you hear your stuff? Yeah. Let's take a picture. I'll put the little bit. You should get it. I know. The Chief as well. Okay. Come on up, Chief. Here we go. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. You're good? Okay. And last retirement that is here, Steve Merritt. You did good. Whereas Steve is a native of Plantation, born and raised here. Steve's been married for 30 years to Lisey, who we met in high school, and they have two daughters, Alicia, 25, and Isabel, 17. Whereas Steve began working for Plantation as a volunteer in May 2002, rising through the ranks of Lieutenant, Captain, and Battalion Chief. Steve was hired part-time Fire and Life Safety Inspector June 2014, full-time September 2014, and in 2019, Steve became his current position of Battalion Chief of Training. Whereas Steve, as a teenager, received a proclamation and key to the city from Mayor Frank Veltry for assisting in a break-in and stolen property. Steve was named Plantation Fire Member of the Year for 2017, and he recently took on the main role in the implementation of the new record management system, involving every division and member for reporting. Whereas Steve plans on enjoying his retirement, playing golf, working in the yard, and traveling with his wife and girls, now therefore, I, Nick Soto Mayor, City Council Plantation, do hereby express our gratitude and appreciation to Steve Merritt. Playing the key to the city, you've done a lot. I appreciate you. Is that all good? Okay. Anything? Sure. Sure. Yeah. Can I go 25 minutes, Chief? No. Start the timer. City Council, Mayor, residents of Plantation, all I can say is thank you. Yes, my time, as many of you know, started when I was very young, like other people here. And I've enjoyed every moment of it. Never expected to get to this point in my life, but life has led me to here. And I greatly appreciate everything that the city has done for myself and for my family. And thank you to my wife for her continual support for all of our years. But thank you very much. You've always been in good hands. Chief has been fantastic. He said he's going to give you another 30 years, I heard. But the volunteer firefighters and rescue members are special to my heart, and I hope that I was able to provide everything that I could for them. And I leave you all in good hands with them. So, again, thank you very much. I'm sorry. Chief, do you mind coming up? I do not mind at all. Very good. Thank you. Okay. All right. Thank you all. As you saw coming in, the retirement thing was for them. It's unusual. We have five retirements, and so we put things out in the foyer. Pam asked why we needed 100 cupcakes. I said, because fire's coming. All right. Congratulations to all those that were recognized tonight. Thank you for being here for all the retirements. If you are planning on exiting the council at this time, please do so quietly. And if you're going to be in the lobby area, please also stay there quietly while we continue. We next have up a proclamation for National Diaper Need Awareness Week. I never knew that there was such a need until I learned about the Greater Fort Lauderdale Diaper Bank. So I'm going to ask Elisa to come up, and I'm going to read the proclamation. Whereas diaper need, the condition of not being able to afford a sufficient supply of clean diapers to keep babies and toddlers clean, dry, and healthy, can adversely affect the health and well-being of children and their families. Whereas national surveys and research studies report that nearly one in two families struggle with diaper needs, and 48% of families delay changing a diaper to extend the available supply. And whereas a daily or weekly supply of diapers is generally an eligibility requirement for babies and toddlers to participate in child care programs and quality early education programs that enable children to thrive and parents to work. And whereas many parents struggling with diaper need report missing an average of five days of work each month due to an insufficient supply of diapers. Whereas without enough diapers, babies and toddlers risk infections and health problems that may require medical attention, resulting in medical costs, and parents may be prevented from accessing child care needed to go to work or school, thereby destabilizing the family's economic prospects and well-being. Whereas the City of Plantation recognizes that diaper need is a public health issue, and addressing diaper need can lead to economic opportunity for the state's families and communities and improved health for children, thus ensuring all children and families have access to the basic necessities required to thrive and reach their full potential. And whereas through their important work of addressing diaper need, diaper banks play a critical role in supporting families, improving infant health and well-being, and advancing our local and state economic growth. Whereas the City of Plantation, we encourage our residents to donate generously to diaper banks, diaper drives, and support those organizations that collect and distribute diapers to families struggling with diaper need, so that all of the Plantation's children and families can thrive and reach their full potential. Now, therefore, Mayor Nick Sordal and the City Council of Plantation proclaim the week of September 15th through the 21st, 2025, as National Diaper Need Awareness Week in the City of Plantation, and we urge all residents to join in this special observance. So, I just want to add that, as I said when I first just introduced the proclamation, is that if you don't have young children in need of diapers, or you've never been in need of diapers before, this may sound very foreign to you. But the fact is that these statistics are real, that one in two families struggle with diaper needs. And if your child does not have a clean diaper, it means the child gets sick, and it means that you are going to have to be home with the child, and that means the entire community suffers. I want to add is that in addition to our proclamation for National Diaper Need Awareness Week, we also will be putting a box for donations of new diapers that will go to the Greater Fort Lauderdale Diaper Bank. That box will be placed in front of our library, in front of the Heldenby-Hoffman Library, and the diaper bank serves all of Broward County. So, while it's called the Greater Fort Lauderdale Diaper Bank, it serves all of Broward County, and we welcome our own residents that if there is a need for them to reach out, so we can make sure that they are assisted as well. President Reinstein, when will that box be available? We are hoping that it will be out, if not tomorrow, it will be out by the end of this week. Would you like to say a few words? Good evening, Mayor and Councilmembers. I want to thank you all for recognizing Diaper Week. And in addition to that, we have monthly diaper giveaways at the Tyrone Byron Library in Fort Lauderdale, and to register for that, you can visit the website at ftldiaperbank.org. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you very much. And we'll take a picture. Thank you very much. And we will call up Parks and Rec Director, Tricia Toole. Good evening, Council. A couple of upcoming events in the Parks and Rec Department. This Sunday, September 21st, we've got our free Nature BioBlitz at the Plantation Preserve Linear Trail from 12 to 2. Thursday, September 25th, Senior Hispanic Heritage Month event at Jim Ward Community Center from 12 to 2. Saturday, September 27th, the Florida Panthers are hosting a community event at our Central Park Hockey Rinks from 9 to 1. Thursday, October 2nd, there's no school, so we're hosting a kids' day off camp at Jim Ward Community Center. Saturday, October 4th is our community garage sale at Volunteer Park from 7 a.m. to 12 noon. In our Aquatics Division, the swim team is hosting tryouts on Tuesday at 3.30 and 4.45. In our Tennis Division this weekend, we're hosting the USTA Junior Level 6 Boys and Girls Tennis Tournament. Matches begin at 7.45 both days. In the Equestrian Division, Saturday, September 27th, we've got the Heritage Dressage Horse Show starts at 8 a.m. And our Athletics Division is registering PAL, Fall Baseball, and Adult Athletics Flag Football and Kickball. That's it. Thank you. Thank you very much, Director O'Toole. So we will now recess the City Council meeting, and we will call to order the CRA meeting. Ms. Beggaroe, please call the roll. Commissioner Anderson. Here. Commissioner Andreu. Here. Commissioner Fajan. Here. Commissioner Horland. Here. Commissioner Reinstein. Here. Commissioner Sortel. Here. City Attorney has roll. Here. The CRA Consent Agenda consists of Items 1 through 5 and may be approved with one motion. Do we have a motion? Motion to approve. Second. Seeing as nobody wished to pull an item, and as there are no comments for the individual consent agenda, and no further discussion, Ms. Beggaroe, please call the roll. Commissioner Anderson. Yes. Commissioner Andreu. Yes. Commissioner Fajan. Yes. Commissioner Horland. Yes. Commissioner Reinstein. Yes. Commissioner Sortel. Yes. Thank you. Next up, we have public requests of the commissioners regarding the CRA. Mr. Conklin, you are recognized. Dennis Conklin, 4581 Northwest Six Court. And I have a comment first, and congratulations, because last time Mr. Hall wasn't here, kudos to the fantastic job he's doing in the CRA. I wish he'd have been here from the start, because we'd have a lot better-looking gateway. My request is, when they demolish the Plantation General Hospital, to kindly not put in any high-rises, and I yield back my time. Thank you, Mr. Conklin. There's no yielding back your time, but thank you. Seeing no further public requests of the commissioners regarding the CRA, we will now close public requests of the commissioners regarding the CRA, and we will now reconvene the city council meeting at 632, and we will begin with public requests of council regarding municipal affairs. Those who wish to speak, we request that, if you haven't already, that you complete a speaker form. Please state your name and address, and please address your remarks to the council president, not the mayor, nor individual members of the council. Please also keep your remarks to the allotted three minutes. And, Mr. Conklin, thank you for staying nearby. You are up. Dennis Conklin, 4581 Northwest Six Court. Heavenly hosts, protect you and all of your families for the second meeting here. Last week, you may remember, there was an assassination of Charlie Kirk, and what has been learned is that, as I mentioned, the killing of the boy, Fletcher Merkle, age 8, and the girl, Harper Moisky, age 10, at the Holy Mass, both happened to have been perpetrated by the violent sects of the transgender cult. Mr. Conklin, let's keep this focused, please. All right. I was at the meeting when the state school commission met at one of the hotels at the Fort Lauderdale airport, and Dr. Joseph Lauderdale airport was there, and he spoke, and it was about this sort of stuff. And I was there and witnessed some of the violence on a friend of mine by one of these. So I just wanted to get that out of the way. And, on a happier note, 238 years ago today, the Constitution for the United States of America was established. And happy birthday, second bite of the apple of our governing ourselves. 2014 days ago, a public health emergency was declared, and the lockdown closing America's houses of worship, schools, schools, businesses, mandatory masking and shots, creation of essential and non-essential Americans, loss of our unalienable, God-given individual rights. The closing price of gold today was $3,676.30 an ounce. According to the CAFR, which was September 30th, a year ago, $2,683.70 an ounce. That's a loss of purchasing power of 37.0%. So I'm requesting that you shift some of that mountain of money, which is about $110 million in treasuries, which no one is buying except our government is buying back our debt to pay on with more debt. Get rid of those things, and let's eliminate the deficit on the general employee's pension. The thing about the... I'll yield back. Thank you. Happy birthday. Mr. Cameron, if you could please state your name and your address, please. Good evening, members of the City Council. My address is 12260, Northwest 21st Court. I'm the former vice president of the Homeowners Association for Plantation Acres. We have played an integral part of getting a park done on our street. Doc's Doc, who is now deceased, he had skin cancer. And when I thought about the park with no shade, I believe that we'll get more residents involved if we had a gazebo that made sense. The one that's there now, it's not appropriate. It's too small, and there's not enough of those. I believe that if the park was more people-friendly, we'd have more people there. We had an area for children to play before. That's gone. I understand that the budget was a little different because once the amount was approved, it took so long to get done that I know there's a scaling back of the budget based on what we have today. But what I believe that should be done and must be done is we must have an area, more gazebos in that park where people walking can actually stop and not be dealing with the serious heat. I don't know if you notice nowadays how hard it is here in Plantation. I don't know what's going on. I saw it in Jamaica. Here, it's like I've never felt this much heat in a very, very long time. So I think from a public safety standpoint, we need to get more of those gazebos that are... The one that we have there, like I said, it's too small. I think it's about an eight by eight. It's not enough for, you know, without getting crowded. Do you plan on doing any improvements in that area as well as putting back the area for the kids with the swings and that kind of thing? Mr. Cameron, I have a question for you. You wrote on here, park, and I hear you... But I didn't hear specifically, and I apologize. Which park are you specifically referring to? I'm sorry, North Acres Park. Okay. It's actually on the street. I just wanted to make sure we were talking about the same one on the record. I'm going to ask our Parks and Rec Director to come up here because you've asked some specific questions, Gazebo and Shade. One of the things that we actually have specifically talked about at our last budget hearing was the need for more shade in our parks. So thank you very much for bringing it back up to our attention. I'm going to ask our Parks and Rec Director. Yeah, all we have is just one right now, and it's way too small. Understood. Thank you very much. I appreciate it. Thank you. Good evening. Current plans right now are to install a new playground. So yes, there will be the playground that will be installed in the coming months. That will include shade over the playground. I know I just spoke to Ms. McCormick about having more residents donate trees to that park. So while it's not addressing exactly his concern with the Gazebo, we are trying to encourage folks to plant some commemorative trees in the park. And the Gazebo, there have not been discussions on adding any Gazebo or making the one that's there larger at this time. But if it's something that you'd like us to get prices on or to take a look at, we could. But that's not in our current budget right now. I would say that it never hurts to get some information on the price of that, just so we have that to look at. And I will add that while it is not a city organization, I think many of you know that we do have a Parks and Rec Foundation. And the Parks and Rec Foundation was created for the very purpose of assisting our residents with moving things a little quicker than sometimes the city can do with our parks. And I know that I will also mention that some conversations with Ms. McCormick about speaking to the Parks and Rec Foundation about how those in the plantation acres who would like to see some things happen into the parks and the acres move a little quicker that maybe we can get the foundation involved. Councilmember Horland. I'd just like to add, thank you, Mr. President. Mr. Cameron, I think one of the discussions we had had, and that was a discussion with Paha as well and internally with staff, is not putting a party gazebo, you know, a larger gazebo in that park. We have other parks where people can rent those. And what, you know, I walk that park a lot and it's very peaceful out there. I agree that we need more shade out there, but I think the idea of having a smaller gazebo was that people could get some respite but not go out there necessarily, you know, have a children's party or whatnot. But perhaps we can look at adding extra small gazebos down the line. I also want to bring up the fact that I had spoken to Ms. Shailon while the park was being designed and we wanted to wait until the park was built. But Naturescape Broward, if we could partner with them, is willing to donate native trees that are not young saplings but larger trees. So I think we wanted to wait until the drainage was in and everything was set, but I'd really like to explore that. They will be free to the City of Plantation and I know it gets extremely hot out there, especially when the sun's setting. So whatever we can do to provide more respite for the residents out there, I think it would be great. Thank you. Thank you, Ms. O'Toole. Thank you. And Mr. Cameron, just so we're not going back and forth in a conversation on this, is that if you have some additional suggestions, very specific ones that you'd like to share to assist us with looking at the park, please, by all means, you can email it to us or you can call us, contact us, and we will also share it with the Parks and Rec Director. You can reach out directly to her as well. Okay? Thank you very much. I do not see any other requests to speak and no further requests regarding municipal affairs. So public requests to the council regarding municipal affairs are now closed. We now will turn to the council consent agenda. The council consent agenda consists of items 1 through 13 and may be approved with one motion. However, just to make clear also on the record, we've already pulled item 7, so that will not be up for discussion tonight. The administration has already asked to pull item 5, and I also have a member of the public that's wished to pull item 13. Do any members of the council wish to pull any other items? Seeing none, do I have a motion on the consent agenda? Motion to approve items 1 through 13, well, actually 1 through 12, minus 5 and 7. Correct. Second. Do I have a second? Are you talking item 7 on consent? I didn't think that. No, we said that was off the agenda. Item 7 is off? That's the meeting. Oh, sorry. I wrote, you're right. It's 17. Thank you for correcting me. I, for some reason, wrote. It's like, why are we going to pass it? Yeah, sorry. Sorry. Okay, I will amend the motion. Items 1 through 12, minus 5. Second. Sorry, I put it in the wrong spot on my notes. Hearing the motion and a second, and seeing no further discussion on the consent agenda items, please call the roll. Council Member Horland. Yes. Council Member Anderson. Yes. Council Member Andreu. Yes. Council Member Fadgen. Yes. Council Member Reinstein. Yes. Turn it over to the administration for item 5. Good evening, Council. Jason Unamaker, CAO. I wanted to make sure we pulled this item. I didn't get any questions on it, but because we made a mistake, I wanted to make sure we acknowledged that on the record, because I don't want to take for granted that you all missed it, and then you didn't get a chance to ask a question or poke us a bit on it. As you all are aware, we have embarked since the change in leadership and public works on a very aggressive campaign to address our infrastructure. Sidewalks in particular, as you all have seen from our shade sessions, have been of particular interest. To that end, we have authorized, through y'all's approval, tranches of funding to help address that. In the course of doing that, there was an oversight where an account was overspent without authorization, although it was predicated on an appropriately piggybacked contract. There was some confusion internally between a piggyback and a term contract. The same failure of internal control, on the one hand, though, was caught on another side, and that's why we were able to catch this item. That said, while it is a big mistake, and it's a big number at $240,000, all of these items would have been moved forward. And I don't mean to dismiss the significance of it, but only to say that we are still committed to eliminating the backlog, and we're just about there. So in October, we plan to come back for another authorization to get that caught up, at least for a day, so we have no more work orders at least backlogged. And I just want to also, while we acknowledge the mistake, just to commend the department, because we cleared a backlog. We're almost there from 2021, and frankly, that's embarrassing that it got that far back. But because of the aggressiveness that the new leadership has taken, we've been doing a lot more, a huge volume. But I do apologize for the mistake. Public Works Director is prepared to answer more detailed questions if you like. But I just wanted to own that on the record, offer you all an opportunity to ask any questions, and look forward to putting this program back in place and continuing our R&R on the sidewalks. We do have some questions. Council Member Fadgen. Thank you, President Reinstein. Yeah, I have some questions. I was very upset about this. A quarter of a million dollars. It could have easily been a half a million dollars over the approved budget. So how did this happen is my first question. Sure. Well, let me turn it over to Mr. Thompson. Mr. Thompson. Hey, don't counsel, Matt Thompson, Public Works Director. So as Jason mentioned, we had some internal lack of training as far as the contracts go, and they were focused more on a monetary value versus a do-not-exceed amount. So although we didn't overdraw it to where we didn't have the funds to cover it, we just exceeded the do-not-exceed amount in that contract. There were still funds in the walkways through our budget process that we had, and that's what they were focused on. Looking at the back of the fiscal year 26, we're pulling $100,000 to cover it, and then about the balance of $140,000 is coming out of the general fund risk management portion. So you blew through the line item of the budget, not just the limit on what we approved in February. Correct. I believe that was changed to 25 fiscal year funds. Not in the backup? Yeah, it was a mistake. Okay. But it was switched to 25. Yes, sir. So you had a limitation of $500,000 approved by the council in February 2025. Correct. And then your fiscal year 2025 budget line item had $100,000 in it, and then we blew through that, obviously, and then we are taking $140,000 out of the fiscal year 2025 general risk management line item. Okay. That's where the previous fund was funded from was a risk management to mitigate the risk for the sidewalks. Well, okay. So in the backup, you know, I'm reading this, and it says to process the payment for work performed in excess, and I think that's an incomplete statement. It should have said to process payment for work performed in excess of approved council amount for the total amount of $240,000. That's on PDF 529. So I'm just trying to say, like, I felt that it was less than coming forth that we screwed up by not completing that statement. I added of approved council amount. That's in the memo that you guys get for backup. So how many task orders was it? It looked like it was approximately 30 task orders that we approved before the contract expired on March 20th. I believe there was 110. Well, I was looking at the backup. I saw the yellow lines highlighted. I just assumed that was the task orders that pushed this over. No, that whole list was 110. That whole list. Correct. So it was 110? Yes, sir. Okay. Man, that was a lot because I think it was February 12th, 2025, and the contract that we were piggybacking expired on March 20th, and nothing was supposed to be, you know, no POs were supposed to be approved after that contract expired. So all these POs or task orders were approved basically in five weeks. They were issued before the expiration of the contract, yes. I'm just saying we blasted through it, and it could have been worse if the contract was lasting longer. When did we identify that we had this problem? Because this happened – the contract expired five and a half months ago. Right. So as the last invoices were coming in, as soon as we hit that amount, Mr. Charles Spencer called, and we quickly identified that we've reached that $500,000. When was that identified? Two – yeah, two weeks ago, I think. Yeah. Okay. There's another line item on the memo. It says, during the course of this work, a contractual oversight was identified. And I've read that sentence over several times, and I really didn't understand what that meant. And I Googled what's the definition of contractual oversight because I had an idea what I thought a contractual oversight is, and then the AI response is basically what I said. The definition of contractual oversight is the process of supervising, monitoring, and managing contracts to ensure compliance with the terms, conditions, and legal requirements throughout their life cycle. So what does that sentence mean? And during the course of this work, a contractual oversight was identified. It means that while the work was taking place, we canceled task orders once that we learned that we have exceeded it. So we stopped the contractor immediately. So once we realized that we withdrew over that account, we stopped it and took corrective action. I still just don't understand the wording of the contractual oversight. You know, we lost control of the contract, might have been. Is that what you were trying to say in this? I wouldn't say – I think we were just being, as Jason mentioned, we were being very aggressive with mitigating the risk. And we – this is kind of the result of being extremely efficient. And looking at a monetary value, we got sidetracked from the do not exceed. When you say you're looking at the monetary value, what do you mean you're looking at – I don't understand what that means. I guess if there's like we identify something that needs to be fixed, there's X linear feet of it, and this is the agreed-upon rate for that linear feet, and then that's the monetary value of it, what do you mean we lost sight of? But budgetarily, if we had the funds, we were not going to spend beyond the funds that we had. But we did. You know, in the comments it says, you know, trying to justify, you know, going beyond the authority that we granted you, your department, public safety overrides the city council authority and responsibility – and fiscal responsibility. So, I mean, the public safety overrides, that can be mitigated because – and I'll give you an example. I gave you – I called you about a sidewalk that looked like it's becoming uprooted. It's like around the corner from my mom's house. You guys put a barrier on there. It looks like they spray-painted it. It's mitigated. It's not fixed, but people know it's dangerous. They have to walk around it or cross the street. So, it's – that comment bothers me from the standpoint is it's like, okay, we are going to bypass the approval of the council, which is our responsibility to approve these things. I didn't like that response in the memo. So, that's one thing. And then to put fiscal responsibility in this memo, there's nothing fiscal responsible about what happened here. Understood. Okay. How was the contractual oversight corrected? Why are we not going to do this again? Well, we are no longer utilizing that piggybacking contract. We now have a term contract with the city. Okay. Did we approve that yet? Yes. It's hard to keep track of all this stuff. Another thing we're going to do – two things. One is Matt mentioned previously when we were having internal conversations. When we seek the task order for these individual items, while we think it might cost X, let's say it's $15,000, we don't know what it's going to be until they're actually out there because they could pull up X number of sections of sidewalks and pull additional ones as part of that. So, it can grow a little bit. And when you aggregate all those together, that can grow quite a bit. The other aspect as far as the internal control you're referencing, we're going to move on a project basis so it's going to be specifically identified. And once it exceeds a certain threshold, and we're still discussing whether that's 50% or 70%, it's going to trigger an additional level of review. So, then finance will be looking at that to kick it back. And I guess one of the things I was thinking, it was like, how quickly are we getting – we said we found it out a week and a half ago. I guess that might have corresponded with that invoice. Did we find it because we got billed this invoice? Correct. So, we didn't find it. We were told this is what we authorized them to do the work. And we spent a quarter of a million dollars over the group. When it went to be processed, procurement found it. So, that's why I was referencing the other side of internal control. While it slipped in one department, another department caught it. Yeah. I would be more satisfied with that if it was $20,000 or $30,000. I would have a bit – I would probably have the same – you know, I'm the CPA. No, take your point. And I defend this city, and I defend how we handle our budget, and I defend how we're efficient and that we're responsible. And we're trying to make every single dollar go just a little bit further. And then when something like this happens, it makes me a liar because I'm trying to – Well, no, look. It's not – you didn't screw up. We did. But the point is that also this work was going to get done. And I know it doesn't negate the impact of this and the issue that we need to address, but it doesn't – the money was not spent frivolously. It was a piggybacked contract that was procured. So, it was not wasted money. It was curing a legitimate issue. It's not a matter of wasting money because I do understand that. There's a lot of sidewalk work, and like you alluded to, our shade meetings, unfortunately, have a lot of conversations regarding what we're trying to correct and fix and make safer. But it – the most important control is what we agree in our votes as to what we're allowing you to spend. And if it's not followed and if it's not monitored properly, it undermines our – in my opinion, and I would think that maybe I have some agreement up here. That is the most important thing that we do because if we waste our residents, our business owners' money – and that's what this money is, the pile of money, as Mr. Conkin likes to refer to – you can tell I'm a little upset. I'll move on. I'm almost done. I promise. What happens if we don't approve this payment? Well, we need to. I mean, the work's been performed. I understand that. But what happens if we don't? Well, we'd be in legal jeopardy, and work's been performed, so that would not – that wouldn't be good at all. Okay. And I kind of hope that was the answer I was going to get because it's a legal issue if we chose not to – No, absolutely. We're going to cause a problem. But I just do want to clarify. The money was not wasted. I take your point. There's something inappropriate happened. I've never used the word wasted. I'm saying that we spent money that this council did not authorize to spend. Yes, sir. I didn't say waste. I understand that you guys – if you had tighter controls of this and you knew that we hit our maximum, you probably would have put it on the agenda to ask for more money to do these things. I understand. So I know it's something that had to be done. It's the order that it got done in. We authorized a vendor to do work, and then you're going to hope that we're going to approve the payment of it. Now, I'm just making the assumption that we're probably going to approve the payment of it. That is our hope. But I was going to ask a question. I wanted that question asked, and I wanted that answer out there. Like, you're jeopardizing the city when you do something like this. Let's say that we were not financially stable and we didn't have this money. Then what? You know? And I know it's $250,000 on a $280 million budget, but I think that's the point I'm trying to make with the – it's not a matter that – it's not something that was going to be done. It's a matter that we approved something that we did not want you to do because that wasn't in our vote. We stopped you at $500,000. This might be a question for the city attorney. Should we self-report to the inspector general? Because I don't know if – how do I know that this is all resolved? And I don't want to open a can of worms, but we spent $250,000 without the approval of the governing body. You're not under an obligation to self-report to the inspector general. Is it in our best interest to self-report? I don't know how to answer that question. Okay. My initial thought, and this is going to be my last statement, is I thought someone should have been terminated over this. I disagree. Was there any kind of reprimand? Who's ultimately responsible for this? I'll take responsibility. Okay. All right. I wasn't looking forward to this. Well, neither was I, but, you know, we evaluate these situations on the context in which they occurred. There have been egregious circumstances in this city where we have fired people immediately. This does not rise to that occasion. If y'all feel that I've acted inappropriately and want to take a vote of no confidence, then I'll act accordingly. But I'm not going to fire an individual over this. I feel like I had to ask the question. Okay. And I wanted to be a direct answer. And you did, and I appreciate that. Yes, sir. I appreciate both your comments in this. Thank you, Council President. Councilmember Andreu. Thank you, President Reinstein. I'm still trying to rectify the invoice. So the invoice is $255, but the request tonight is for $240. So you had a balance of $14,000. You had the balance still of $14,000. Yes, ma'am. So I'm more concerned about the process going forward, right? Yes, ma'am. A huge mistake happened. You're taking responsibility for that, and I appreciate that. How are we monitoring going forward? Because we have a process in place, right? And when exactly what Mr. Noonemaker says. So to avoid this from happening, as soon as you hit your 75%, that department is notified automatically via email. You're at 75%, and then you have to make the decision to come back and ask for additional spend, or you monitor that to the end. Slow down and shrink the project. Correct. Like Jason said, we're not sure what that is. 50% or 70%. But how is that happening? Through finance. Finance is going to notify us at 50%. Then we can pull back, re-evaluate the project by an issued project number. They're tracking the invoices. We're tracking the invoices. But it takes communication to know what's out there and what's already been brought in. So realistically, we just need to slow down to our checks and balances. So, Ms. Otanyana, you have a system, like through SAP, you have some software. No, we do have a process, not a system. We have a process in place right now for these types of projects. When a project reaches 50%, we notify the department that you are at 50%, and we do it at 50% because we don't want to have work being done right now that we're not aware of. So we have it at 50%, but we only do that when we make a payment that brings us to 50%. In this particular case, the payment wasn't made. So we were not aware that they were at the level that they needed to be. So to notify them of these, they would have, when they hit 50% of the current project that's in place now, it would be notified that you're at 50%. But this was additional work that was not related to anything we saw. So it was because when they put – Can you explain – can you elaborate on that? What do you mean it wasn't work related to anything that you saw? We didn't see a payment. There was no payment submitted to finance. It actually went through – it didn't even make it past procurement. When the submission was made to procurement, they stopped it and never even got to finance. So we were not at a point where they had reached – I'm sorry, Councilman, I didn't mean to interrupt. Can you just – so that step right there, how are we rectifying that that step doesn't happen again? Well, we've already identified that it's going to be done by task order, and then when they – they're going to do an estimate of how much a job is going to be, and then when they get to a point where they're 50% on their side, I guess they're going to stop. I'm not sure how your task – Yeah, that's what we have to do. The task orders are going to be monitored. Yeah. They're going to work on the estimate, and then when the task orders reach that, then they're going to come back to Council for more money if that project is going to continue because we will notify them when it hits payment of 50% because that's what we do when we see the money. But if we're not seeing that invoice come to us, we're not going to be able to notify them. I completely understand your part of it. So in five weeks, we repaired enough sidewalks to accumulate an invoice of $255,000 in five weeks because when I look at this invoice, they're saying all of this work was basically done in July and one month in – We issued the task order. Right. Right. So the – Speak to the other time. Well, the work – they shouldn't be invoicing you if the work wasn't done. So I'm assuming the work was done. I don't pay invoices before you do the work. Correct. Correct. The work finished up early August, and that's when the invoice came in. They had to issue the task order by the end of the contract, and then the work was done over time. But that's my point. The work was done over time. They should have been invoicing when that work was done. They were invoicing time. So they didn't invoice you for months, and then in five weeks they basically backed – Hit us with that. So that's also a problem, right, because nobody was monitoring even the completion of work and being invoiced in a timely fashion for that. Yes, ma'am. There's just – there's a lot of mistakes. Hence why we moved to a term contract and are not utilizing these types of contracts anymore. We want a term and that relationship with the term contractor to get more on board and include projects with estimates to rectify this. I don't think that the term contract solves the problem. Well, it still has to monitor your budgetary amount. Yes, ma'am. We're aware of that. And that's where we have to do our checks and balances and slow it down. And if you all remember, a couple of months ago I was asking about auditing beyond the current audits that we get with Ms. Otaniano that always come out perfect because I think to your point, Council Member Fadgen, in lieu of – I do not feel like this bubbles up to the OIG, but what I would proffer or like is some type of internal audit to see has this happened before because we don't know what we don't know. I hope it hasn't, but we wouldn't know. Well, to that point, man, because you brought that up when we were actually having our budget discussions as well, and that's one of the things we've been discussing with procurement, and they've already done some internal audits on contracts. That's something we'll be doing more of. And as you all know, you all approved a contract manager that we're looking to hire in the future, so that will be part of that. And I think that's something we have to embrace because if we don't do it, somebody else will, whether it's the OIG, Florida Doge. So we understand the oversight component. Okay. Not yet. Go ahead. That completes my comments. Thank you. Thank you, Council Member Andreo, and thank you, Council Member Fadgen, for starting this line of questioning. I think they've covered quite a bit, and there's not much more. But I do want to ask is that in terms of this discussion of an internal audit or some type of analysis, I hope that we actually do that citywide throughout our departments because, you know, I always look at it as that if you see an example of something that happened mistakenly, right, in one department, we should make sure that all of our departments are fully aware of how this happened and what was missed so that they don't fall into that same position unintentionally like happened in this situation. No, absolutely. It's not restricted to public works. At any time an example comes up, just as when the Doge presentation came out, we shared that with staff. You know, at the meeting, actually shared it with you all because we want everybody to know what we're looking for, what everybody's looking for. So we do use those as examples, and we will go citywide. But to the extent that if there isn't a full and formal internal audit, I would like to see some type of follow-up memo to the Council that this has been an education to citywide, to all of our departments, and then we can make sure that it was at least used as a learning experience, for everybody, so that nobody falls into it again. Sure, we provide that. Council Member Fadgen, you wanted to follow up. I was just going to respond to Council Member Andreo. You know, the reason why I was thinking of the Inspector General, it goes to, you know, I was requesting like a fraud hotline, you know, which would probably be a minimal cost for the employees. And, Mr. Nunamaker, you said, well, the OIG is an avenue for someone if they have a serious problem with the city. They can call the OIG. It takes it out of our hands. So it just sort of – I'm not necessarily saying we should, but I think it's something that we should consider, and that was – that's why I was thinking about it, but – Well, just on that, just so everybody knows, we've revised our policies where that's – the OIG is specifically referenced as an opportunity if there's malfeasance or people think certain things need to be addressed, they can reach out to them. So that's incorporated into our handbook. We're telling the employees that this is an avenue if you don't feel comfortable going to your direction. Absolutely. Okay, I guess one follow-up question. So part of the problem was is that when we were issuing the task orders, they were not coming back with an estimate of what the task order was issued. Now, the new contract, there's going to be an estimate of the tasks that they're being. Is that accurate? I'm looking at Matt. Yes. So the contract that we blew, or we blasted through, they were not given an estimate when we would give them a task. There's very rough estimates, but – I didn't just come to the microphone. Yeah, there's very rough estimates, but – And then we weren't keeping a spreadsheet total of that to say that we were hitting our 50% mark. Correct. With the crews that they had out there, we weren't spending the staff to monitor that every day. We'd go back and check what they did to verify that, but – But that estimate, like, so there wasn't – so we just didn't keep track of it. Correct. And that's why we're here saying that we made a mistake and we're going to do better. So we did get a broad estimate, but we didn't utilize that tool that they were giving us. And did we have any idea that they were going to bill us at the end? Like, what was their progress billing? And so it was – like, that last bill wasn't the last bill. There was, you know, there was at least one other bill because we spent $500,000 before we got to that $240,000. Correct. There was a previous invoice for that. I think that was all sent over to procurement before. Do we have any idea how many invoices they gave us? I think there was three in total. Okay. Yes. All right. Okay. Thank you very much. Councilmember Hoyland. Very quickly. I think that we're all concerned about this, and we may have had conversations with the directors before this item came up. It sounds like an issue with process. I want to be really careful about what's said on this dais about – you said fraud hotline, and you said OIG. And I think in my estimation and the explanation we've been giving, this was not a case of fraud. It was a case of a process that was – went awry, and I do agree with Councilmember Andrea where we talked about audits, and it sounds like we're heading in that direction. So I want to be very careful about saying fraud and reporting to OIG. And I'll make it very clear. Those are two separate comments, so – but – and I don't think this is fraud. I think this is a failure of control, and I think you guys acknowledge this was a failure of control. No, Councilmember Anderson. Just for a moment. They've said it all. You got broad estimates for the work that was done, and then they kind of did not give the actual invoice for a while. It came in a big chunk. Correct. So it basically – you ran past – I got it. But – and you said your guys – your crews have gone back to make sure they've done the work. Are we making sure – if it was a broad estimate, do we make sure we're being charged right, basically? Correct. Oh, yes. Because instead of getting each one, you're getting a big chunk. And then after time goes by, how are you ensuring that that big chunk wasn't inflated or something? No, it's all done by linear feet. They go back and verify that. And you guys know the linear feet from before when you asked them to estimate it and so forth? So it's all included. Okay. So we're not overcharged. It was just the – Correct. You guys were extra efficient, so you were fast, and then they were slow to invoice, and it came in a big chunk, and it blew past the money. Correct. Okay. Thank you. Before we take a motion, I want to inquire. Council Member Fadgen, I had a note that while you were talking about the language that should be in the backup, was there language that you wanted to be asked to be added? There was some wording of approved council amount. No. No, my comments were more to the way that it was phrased. I just – I understand. I just want to make sure. Are you looking to add any language? I'm not looking to add anything. It's the backup that they presented to it, and I'm telling them what my impression is. And if we have an unfortunate situation like this in the future, I think it could have been more explicitly – Understood. I just want to make sure you have an opportunity to add to the language. I know. I want to finish my thought. I just – that I just don't want it to come – it came off to me as covering, you know, covering ourselves. And we messed up. You know, there's no other way to put it. And that was the intent. We brought it forthcoming. I understand that. Correct. I understand that. Okay. Thank you. Thank you, Mr. Neumaker, for pulling this and bringing this to our attention. And thank you, Matt, for fully explaining and putting it out here for everybody on the record. Do we have a motion on item 5? Motion to approve. Do I have a second? Second. Motion has been made and seconded, saying no further comment, no further discussion. Ms. Begaro, please call the roll. Council Member Horland? Yes. Council Member Anderson? Yes. Council Member Andre? Yes. Council Member Fadgen? No. Council Member Reinstein? Yes. Thank you. Next up is item number 13, which Mr. Conklin asked to be pulled. Dennis Conklin, 4581 Northwest 6th Court. I was happy to see that this week they didn't spend any money on water and wastewater in the gateway or the CRA district. And, again, because I mentioned it during the, I guess it's the millage for the CRA, since the gateway was established first, but the CRA came along in 2020, overlapping the same district. Does that create a potential for the Florida agency for fiscal oversight on the potential of kind of a doge sort of thing for the state? For the chief financial officer, Blaise N'Gaglia, to examine what's been going on here for so many years with the additional leverage of millage over the regular millage that everybody else would be paying for property? That was my question and comment that we're not spending money on water and wastewater this week, so, because we're usually running about a thousand bucks a week, so, thank you. Thank you for your comments. Item 13, seeing no further comments, do we have a motion? Motion to approve. Second. We have a motion. We have a second. Seeing no further comments or discussion, Ms. Bedgrove, please call the roll. Council Member Horland? Yes. Council Member Anderson? Yes. Council Member Andre? Yes. Council Member Fadgen? Yes. Council Member Reinstein? Yes. Thank you. Next up, we have Administrative Discussion Items, Item 14, Broward County Public Schools Redefining Our Schools. And I also just want to make sure, when I first announced that 17 was being pulled, I hope I didn't say 7 at the very beginning. I may have said it at the very beginning. I think I got it right at the beginning. Okay, so, that's been worrying me this whole time, so, I want to make sure. So, we're up to number 14. Who do we have leading the discussion? Thank you. Good evening, Council Members. So, this item is here just simply to allow you an opportunity to discuss the topic in public. As you know, and school district and school superintendent has been very transparent about it. There are a lot of challenges facing our schools, and the district is undertaking this redefining our schools initiative to address some of it. And, obviously, you know, it includes downsizing when it comes to buildings, you know, they're leaving no options on the table. Basically, everything is up for discussion. I sent you all a note, I don't know if you had a chance to see administration had a chance to meet with school district staff that's leading the initiative. It was a very productive conversation. We talked about things like, you know, we talked about, obviously, the quality of education and the reputation of our schools and how important it is. And, obviously, the city being at the table when property or school conversations come up. And, obviously, they assured us that this is just the beginning of the discussion. And we also asked them what's being done to see that the curriculum offered offers opportunities for kids to graduate with careers that they're ready for what the business community needs. And they assured us that they have a unit that's canvassing businesses. So, this is really for us to hear from you and see what your thoughts are, what you're hearing from the community, from the parents, whether you're constituents, what you're hearing from businesses, what you're seeing as the needs of community in this arena so we can relay it to the school district as these conversations are ongoing. And, obviously, I know many of you are probably planning on attending the upcoming town halls. So, again, if there is any consensus on any conversations, you know, that would be the right time for you to discuss. Thank you. Councilman Horland, you're recognized. Thank you, Mr. President. First, I want to thank the administration for putting this item on here. I thought it was important for the council to be able to have a discussion about some of our ideas. I will actually be out of town for that meeting. I did, however, and I'll talk about this in council comments, attend a Broward County Schools meeting that they held today for the mayors. I was there as the mayor's designee at Joe DiMaggio Hospital today. And I just want to share a little bit about what went on at that meeting and then give some ideas and some history specifically about Plantation Middle. This isn't just about school choice that we have low enrollment. It's also about affordability. And I think that a lot of people see that I think it's close to 10,000 students Broward County Schools lost last year. But it's not just a Broward County story. Dade County lost almost 14,000. And Palm Beach didn't see it coming, but they lost 6,000 students. And, again, we look at it's not just obviously people have a lot of options with school vouchers and school choice, but it's become an affordability issue where people just can't afford to live in the community anymore. So I did mention from the days previously that I think that with as aggressive as the school board wants to be with this, that we have a real opportunity to address the concerns with Plantation Middle, which has been severely underrolled. That school was slated for almost 1,400 students when it was built. It's less than 600 students there now. So I think that we really need to talk about the school serving the community at large. As you know, I was part of the group of parents 15, 16 years ago that got the IB program put in there. We were trying to get innovative programs, and a lot of great programs have gone in there, and educators are working so hard. But we've completely lost West Plantation. And when you look at the map for Plantation Middle, you know, we have a whole swath of people, and some of them in the audience tonight whose children just don't attend that school. So I do think it's imperative. We've talked about asking parents why you're not attending and figuring that part out, what will get you back in the door. And maybe we don't get them back, but I think that we need to be very innovative. So I was happy to see that administration had a great meeting with the school board. One of the things I heard today Dr. Hepburn say was they were looking at municipalities that were really willing to partner and have a skin in the game. They mentioned Miramar, and I know that we've talked about possibly creating a trade school, a Plantation High School. We've talked about municipal operations. I had a conversation with someone this week where I'd love to be able to talk to President Alston at Broward College. We always need inspectors. Municipalities have a very difficult time in getting building inspectors and structural inspectors and creating a program and partnering with Broward College so that we could do something like that. I think that would be a great fit for Plantation High School, which already has a construction program in there, you know, and then perhaps open that up further. Now, what I did learn today is Miramar has a similar program, so I don't see why we can't do a north and south. I think that that would be a great fit for our community. When we talk about P3s, I'd like administration to possibly engage Bob Horn with Torborn Partners. He's done some great things up in Chicago. He was very involved in education there, and if we can lean on some of our corporate partners and talk to them and see what we can do along that corridor. Other options, I heard today when they talked about combining schools is, you know, if they sell an old building or knock down an old building and combine a campus, it's possibly building a new building. I know that there was a discussion a couple years ago about potentially combining the middle school and the high school, which I was not entirely in favor of. I'd like to see what's presented on that because I don't have all the answers. But I know that when that was presented to some people in the community, Central Park Elementary parents were not excited about having their 11-year-olds on campus with 18-year-olds. So, you know, those are some of the concerns that I think that we need to listen to. You know, the Plantation Middle School site, I think, depending on what the school board wants to do, would be a great site for administration. They've already taken over part of the building. Short of that, if they decide to get rid of the building, it sits on a transit corridor, I think it would be great for workforce housing. But I do think that there needs to be some type of combination, whether they take land from Mirror Lake Elementary, but we've got severely unenrolled schools there that need to be dealt with. And, again, I don't have all the answers, but I think that we really need to ask the questions about what type of innovative programs we can get in there to get people back in, because we're not serving a large part of our plantation population. They're just not attending those schools. So, again, thank you to administration for the work that you've done and for just bringing this forth so we can start to have the discussion. Council Member Andréa, you're recognized. Thank you, President Reinstein. Thank you, Ms. Horland, Council Member Horland, for those comments. So I would not be opposed to looking and getting more information and data regarding a 612 at Plantation High. And then I don't recommend that the parcel is sold at Plantation Middle. I think that would be a good use of administrative facilities. And there's some other facilities that, you know, could probably be sold. And in the event we were to ever grow again, and just with real estate prices being what they are, I think that that's property that the school district should hold on to. In terms of programming, I could not agree more. Having some type of building official program, something with Mr. Polio, I don't know if he's – but, you know, looking at all of the trades and having a pipeline to our workforce education would be great at Plantation High or Plantation 612. So I will be at the meeting on the 25th and listening intently, and I encourage everyone to attend, not just those with children that are school age, but everybody in the community should attend. And you mentioned a few factors like the vouchers, but one thing, too, that you didn't touch upon that I think has a direct impact is also there is a lower birth rate. Children aren't – you know, families are not having as many children. And so – right. It's not just Plantation. It's not just Broward. Yes. And so I think that's, you know, also a factor. So it's almost the perfect storm, right? We have the affordable housing issue. It's very expensive here. The lower birth rate, the vouchers. It's a combination of things. So it's going to be challenging, but I think, you know, the A-rated status, the focus on academics and specialized programs can definitely at least make it more competitive. And then we have to be good ambassadors of promoting all the excellent things going on. You know, sometimes we just hear the few loud voices that can be negative, and we need to do a better job of promoting all of the excellent programming that's taking place. I mean, people don't even know about all the dual enrollment programs that are happening and students already leaving high school with associate's degrees at South and at Plantation. As a matter of fact, it just came out that Plantation High School has two National Merit Scholarship semifinalists, two National Merit Scholarship semifinalists for 2026. So those are the things that we need to make sure that we get out to the masses, you know, because we tend, like I said, to focus on the negative. So, and that's my alma mater. So, very proud Plantation alumni. So I'm excited to see what the school district will recommend for the future. Thank you, Councilmember Andreu. So, you know, I always find it interesting, you know, we, as you all know, we can't have these conversations in advance of being here, but when there are comments about potentially administration, school board administration utilizing the space, particularly Plantation Middle School, I recently had the discussion with a resident who said that when we talk about the school board and school board budget and we talk about the real estate of the school board, the question as to why aren't they selling the Casey Wright building downtown, which is Wright, the most prime real estate in downtown Fort Lauderdale, that you could possibly look at in terms of the legal community particularly, especially as the new federal court building is being built. And when we talk about Plantation as being the literal center of Broward County, where the county commission actually has office space here as well on the corner of Broward Boulevard and University Drive, it would seem, and not a discussion I've had yet with the school board, but I hope they're listening, right, is that if they really want to look at real estate and they really want to make a big impact and a big change in showing that they're taking the hit too, it would be to move the entirety of the administration to an underutilized property like Plantation Middle School and sell the property downtown. I think we have lots of people that go to the school board building that live in Plantation, and they'd be happy to have a much shorter commute. That being said, is that, you know, the conversation about Plantation Middle School has to go hand-in-hand with Plantation High School. And it is, you know, it's not as much, as some of the comments that have been made, it's not as much about what the principals are doing in either of those schools, it's not as much about how the students are performing in those schools. There are so many other factors, and it may be that the ability to turn it around and say, well, let's just put a little more effort into it, we may be way past that point. And so, you know, the time to really be thinking outside the box and making some hard decisions is really now. And to the point, Councilmember Andre, who brought it up, and I'm happy she did, is that it's not because we don't have great students at Plantation High School. It's exactly, I mean, the proof is that we, Plantation High School has two National Merit Scholarship semifinalists. We'd love for them to have a lot more, but that's two more than our other high school in Plantation. And so, you know, listen, but the point, listen, the point has to, it's not about the students. And it's not about the students, it's not about the principal, it's about a lot of other factors. So, you know, I think there's a lot more in this discussion. I will be there, too, on the 25th. And Councilmember Fadgen, there's no discussion about your school here from the dais. So I will be there also at that meeting, and I do look forward to hearing more from our residents between now and then so that we can really try and further this discussion. Anybody further from the dais, any further comments on this administrative item? I'll just add, because all your comments... Ask Governor Anderson. Sorry. Sorry, sorry. You're good. You asked and I didn't ask. My back. All the comments, I agree with what was set up here. Your comment about the KCW, that is a massive space. I mean, that is, yes, fully utilized. They have to close many schools to be able to absorb that first. So that's like years down the road to do that. They've got to get the space. They've got to close schools to get the space to move them, too, if that were in the works. And your suggestions would be spot on. Save a ton of money, prime real estate, all that. And then it would protect the buildings we have. Because if we give up a building, it can turn to charter. And we may need these buildings again, because who knows what will happen with macro over time. If population comes back, we might need to reverse these 612 and make it back into a middle school. Who knows what happens in 20, 30, 40 years. But I don't need to rehash those. I'll be there that night to hear what the residents are saying, because I've heard things for so many years living here my whole life and working as an educator in the city my whole life. I have not heard things recently, because I've heard it for so long. So, honestly, I'm not in touch with the things in the last year being said. So, hopefully, we hear some new comments. But the ideas that you all stated already, I agree with. Go ahead, Council Member Horland. To Council Member Anderson's point, I think it's important to understand that the state continually changes the metrics on underperforming schools, which they recently had done. Now, there were schools on there that had previously been underperforming, but now are A schools, and suddenly they're on the underperforming list. So, I think that's something that when I say we have an opportunity here, and I think the school board has an opportunity to be bold and to make bold decisions, we have to be cognizant of your point, because if they are on that underperforming list, then they can be turned into a school of hope. And then we lose that, you know, public school. So, I think it's important that we, again, as we've done with development projects and done with this, try to be the partners with the school board and try to drive this. But, you know, to your point, and I did not mention the birth rate, but I look at Central Park Elementary specifically, and I remember when we were overcrowded at 1,200 students, and we were trying to find people's addresses to send them back to their old school. And when I look at that now, and it's 800 students, 800 and change, a lot of that, now that's been a consistently performing eight-rated school, does have to do with birth rates. So, your point is well taken. Thank you, Mr. President. Seeing no further discussion on the administrative item number 14, we will move to the legislative item, number 15, which I know we have quite a few people that would like to speak to. I'm going to first, City Attorney Ezreal, is there anything that you have to introduce for item 15? No, sir. Okay. So, item 15 is a resolution confirming the City of Plantation's acceptance and willingness to service a dependent special district. Before I call on the administration, I also want to just put a couple things on the record. One is that in addition to my role here today as a council member, most of you also know that I'm a lawyer, and my only legal client that I have is the Broward County Legislative Delegation. And that's relevant today because part of the potential process that we're discussing about is that if this matter moves forward, there is a step that it would go to the Broward County Legislative Delegation in order for them to approve it, and then it would go to Tallahassee. So, what I want to put on the record is that out of my own concern because of my role here as a council member and my role as legal counsel, I have had communication with the Florida Bar Ethics Hotline, and I have had communication with the Florida Commission on Ethics. And after communicating with both of them, my roles are completely separate, and my role as a council member and our discussion today will play no role in my role as the attorney for the Broward County Legislative Delegation. I also want to just explain is that any discussion that we have here tonight and my analysis here tonight is as a council member, it may also be as an attorney because that's my background, but it will not be as the legal counsel for the Broward County Legislative Delegation. And the reason for that should be very clear is that this matter, if it so, will get submitted to the delegation. It has not been submitted to the delegation. And as legal counsel, I would not be reviewing such a matter until it's finalized and submitted to the delegation. So we're not even at that step. So I wanted to put all of that out there on the record, and if there was any question as to it, I am happy to answer it. But otherwise, I think that covers it. I will now turn it over to the administration and Mr. Nunamaker as to presenting this resolution. Good evening again. The action on this item actually started a few years ago with a storm event. I think the city got engaged in some recovery efforts, particularly in regards to South Acres. And from then, some discontent started to be expressed with regards to management of the district. Requests started coming into the city to see what we might be able to do. Subsequent to that, there were some elections. You have a new board formed. And I do want to put on the record that our relationship, I would say, is much more collegial. So we do appreciate that. But on February of 25, there was a motion to dissolve the district. And once that happened, it was incumbent upon the city to prepare for that, because statutorily, those responsibilities, the assets and liabilities of the district, are the responsibility of the city. Geographically, it's wholly within the city. So that is something that we have to face that level of responsibility. So to that end, one of the things we've been very consistent about is on approach, if we were to take the district, our approach would be to have it as a dependent special district. Because some of the things we heard, both from residents within plantation outside of paid and within paid, each were worried, would we use funds from one to subsidize the other? So a dependent special district, it presents a very transparent way of tracking the income and the expenses associated with the special district. It's very easy to find in the budget. So we thought that was a great way to go. It's also got some precedent, like Sahatchee Groves. They had a somewhat similar effort. And so the model seemed to work for them. Now, an interesting wrinkle – well, let me finish that. So the process we were seeking to do was to accept – and you'll notice the verbiage here, and that's important – because we weren't looking to lead a charge. We weren't looking to take the district. We were being responsive to their actions. And so with that, we were looking to set up a local bill that would then go to the local delegation, set up a framework for an election prior to November of 26, because we didn't want there to be confusion with, okay, so we're going to the polls. We're deciding whether or not we have a district, and we're also voting for district members. It would be a source of confusion. And we'd planned to have an engagement meeting on November 12th at Volunteer Park from 6 to 8 to talk about how would the city manage the district. Not to sell them on anything, but just to lay out in a matter-of-fact manner how would we do this. I did attend the meeting this Monday, met in advance of the meeting with Chairman Santana. And at that meeting, I met the new accountant, delightful lady, and Chairman Santana said – expressed his concerns that he had a change of heart. He felt – well, I don't want to say a change of heart, because I think even when he took that original vote, some of the board members expressed that they didn't want to transition, but they wanted to give their residents or their ratepayers, I should say, the opportunity to vote on it. But anyway, on Monday, he expressed to me that he still had – he had that perspective. But as a safeguard, he wanted to see could the city act as – and provide some financial oversight. And I said, that wouldn't be possible, you know, because you are – as an independent special district, you already have that baked in the cake. You have reports you have to file with the state, you have your own audit, and that just wouldn't be a good position for the city to be in. And so then the meeting was held at 7 o'clock, and after discussion on the item, the board voted basically to rescind their previous approval for dissolution, which kind of changed – well, it may have changed the game a little bit, because there may be some issues with how that process was engaged. Now, setting that aside, it kind of presents a kind of unique dilemma for y'all, because we've been proceeding, and it's been very clear with each of you that we are responding to this effort, that we're acknowledging our responsibilities should they dissolve, should they vote to dissolve. So now, I'm not sure exactly where we are, and I hate to give y'all that level of guidance, but it seems as though we've moved from accept to some other area. And so I think, you know, for y'all, you're going to have to listen to the residents, see what their desire is, and decide if you want to change your perspective, do we hold back and wait and see what happens. And so I don't know if y'all want to have some discussion now and entertain with the residents, but we're here at your service. Thank you very much, Mr. Noonemaker. And I clicked in first, so I'm going to start. So I guess the word that I can think of that maybe is the most polite word is disconcerting, right? Is that we've been hearing, we, not just this dais, but the residents of the city of Plantation who pay attention, have been hearing about the desire to dissolve paid for quite a while. There have been a lot of people who have been, not just in our ears, but been very public about the concerns that paid hasn't been servicing our residents in the acres well enough for a long period of time. And I will say that when the last election took place, and my understanding was that some people were elected for the very reason that they had promised that they were going to move forward with a dissolution because they agreed and that it needed to be dissolved and that the city could do a better job of running the mechanism, right, and taking care of the waterways and taking care of the needs that paid currently is supposed to. And I will say that I have heard that the new board has been making strides where it hadn't been made before. And the question becomes is that are those strides sufficient to take it to where it needs to be? And even if it went there, is it still duplicating the efforts where the city, my understanding is that we already jump in and help when we're called to, and we've been doing this for many years. And our residents in the acres are already paying taxes. They're already paying for us to do this kind of work throughout the city. And on top of that, they're paying paid to do this work. And so it's also disconcerting that while I have a whole stack of people that want to speak, it's not the entirety of the paid board that is here to speak. There is one member, and he's going to be called on, and I'd be interested to hear what he has to say. But that being said, that being said is that I want to talk about what is before us right now here today. Because what we have before us is a memo, we have a proposed resolution, and we have a proposed bill, an act that would be sent to the Broward County Legislative Delegation as a local bill, with the request that they approve it to go to Tallahassee. There are some things that I think that if this dais was to believe that we should support this effort, still, even with this change of circumstance, there are some things I think in the resolution that needs to be revised. Number one is that while it is factually correct that February 27th the board voted 4-1 to voluntarily dissolve the paid, it would be factually incomplete since they've now had a change of vote. So I think that that would need to be added. The other part that I want to make sure we're clear about is that Section 3 of the proposed resolution says very specifically is that city funds shall not be used to pay for the required referendum. My understanding, based on my reading of the Florida statute that I think is at issue for dissolution of an independent special district, is that if the governing body of the independent special district, meaning paid, is not supporting it, so if it's not a voluntary dissolution, although the statute, which is 189.072, doesn't actually call it an involuntary dissolution, it just says an other dissolution, but it's involuntary because it's not voluntary. And the statute says that if this body, if the city council here is the one that is pushing this forward, then there seems to be language that would say that this government entity must pay any expenses associated with the referendum. So if that's our decision, then that would have to be changed in the resolution as well. The last part is that the act itself would also have similar language that would need to be amended, and there has to be some additional changes that would comply with the local rules as required by the legislative delegation. Again, not putting that hat on, but simply putting on a reading of it based on what's before me. And so in reading, and my last point that I want to make before I pass it on is that I also found it troubling that this body is being asked to do something contrary to another elected body. And as you just described, they were just recently elected, and so it's not as if they've been there for so long and the members of Plantation Acres doesn't want to see them there. They just were put in office. Some of them just put in office. Others continue term. And so in thinking of that discomfort as to do something contrary to another body, it took me back to the Florida statute where the Florida statute, I think, properly has a mechanism for what is essentially an involuntary dissolution because there are times that that is the appropriate step, step, even when the elected body in this situation for a special district is not seeing that need in and of themselves. So I wanted to make sure to put all that on the table based on where I think we currently are, and then I will circle back, but I want to now open it up to discussion. Can I just add something real quick? Yeah. Just so Council doesn't feel pressed on this item, based on my conversation with President Reinstead, and in subsequent conversation with the city attorney, we have time, depending on which direction you want to go, we can bring this item back at the first meeting in October, have plenty of time to then get it back to the delegation before their deadline of the 17th. So you all have room to discuss it here. We can take that feedback, whichever way you all want to go, and then bring it back to you so you don't feel like you have to get all of this 100% worked out tonight. We just need the general parameters of the direction you all want to go. Thank you. Councilmember Fadgen, you're recognized. Thank you, President Reinstead. I had a conversation with the city attorney this morning because I wanted to make sure I had a full understanding of what the process is supposed to be. So you can jump in and correct me if I mess up our conversation. So it starts with the board of the improvement district to make a motion and vote for dissolution, which did occur. From there, the district is supposed to draft the local bill that will be submitted to the Broward delegation. Unfortunately, I found that we did it. So we expended resources for the local bill, which I would, you know, if they're not responsive, I don't think we should have gotten involved with writing the local bill. If they didn't, if they weren't taking the responsibility for this, I think that that needs to lay at their feet. So I'm disappointed that we expended resources. But it is what it is, and I know it wasn't a significant amount, but it was resources that we expended. Then it comes to the council. Let's just assume that it happens the way that it's drawn out, where they're drafting the local bill. Then it would come to the council for us to, for the council to have consensus or affirm that we want a letter of acceptance, which is, I interpret it as being a ministerial, because we do not have a choice as to whether we can't say no. If they dissolve, we have to administerily accept it, and then we would issue the letter that would, I guess, would follow the local bill to the Broward delegation, which they would take the steps to get it to the legislature to get to the ultimate goal of what the pro-acres people are to get it on the referendum. So we've been talking about this for a very long time. So in February 2025, they voted to dissolve, and I think there was a second vote that, you know, it required two hearings. And then Monday, they rescinded that. So my first thought on that is we have no action to take because the first steps have been canceled. So my suggestion is that they should hold a special meeting, advertise it, get the people, you know, get the people who are for it, get the people who are against it to have their public hearing and have another vote to, because it was done under shade, which is not our issue. That's their issue, but my understanding is there wasn't people there to speak for or against it because it was just something added to the agenda, and maybe it was a mistake by the attorney. Maybe it wasn't. I'm not going to make a comment to that, but this whole process, we have been neutral. We haven't advocated for it. We haven't opposed it. So I have a problem if we actually do a motion and get ourselves on record to vote for this thing tonight. I am for what administration was suggesting that I would like to see this on the October 8th agenda. I would like the paid board to hold another meeting for public discourse and then re-vote and may come back with rescission, and then if that's the case, then we're done. I mean, is there an avenue to vote for this? This doesn't make it a referendum next November, and I believe your opinion is that the Broward delegation would cancel it, if I remember that correctly this morning. I can't speak for the delegation and what they would do. I think it would be unusual for the delegation to proceed with an involuntary, but again, you know, this all just happened within the last day or two, so it may be something that the delegation would want to consider public comment and hear from the residents as well. But again, as this document, the reso, and the bill are presented, we assumed a voluntary dissolution. We are not dealing with a voluntary dissolution at this moment. And I think that's kind of the key. Thank you for your comment that this is no longer the process that was presented to us when they initially voted for dissolution. I think we put it on the October 8th agenda and give them an opportunity to call a special meeting, to have their public, you know, a properly public meeting where comments can be made. And then if the public comment sways the board for dissolution, they get back onto dissolution, then it comes to us, and then we'll do our ministerial acceptance of it. But I really don't want to put a vote yes or no on this, because I really don't want to put a position on this, because I am not rooting for anybody, and I'm not rooting against anybody. So I think the October 8th meeting, letting them get their ducks in order, is a very sound way to proceed. Thank you, Council President. Before I call on Council Member Hoyland, I'm going to make my own point of order, is that I want to be sure I understood something, Council Member Fadgen, is that there is another mechanism when it is not a voluntary dissolution. So while we were presented here for the agenda tonight, a resolution and a bill, a proposed bill, that is on the basis of a voluntary dissolution, we still can, I believe, we still can discuss the fact that it would be transformed into an involuntary dissolution. Go ahead. Okay, if I can make one quick response. If we proceed with the other dissolution, then we're in the same spot as the paid board is in. We're not going to take public comment from all parties that might be involved, because what our agenda is for tonight is to affirm that we are willing to take this dependent ministerially, but not under an involuntary action, so I don't think it would be appropriate for us to do any kind of motion or vote. I think we should push this to October 8th and let them take care of this. So, and I understand that position. I just want to also clarify is that because we have noticed it for tonight, we actually are providing the opportunity that what I'm hearing is that paid did not provide. No, I understand that, but we didn't, when it say this is a voluntary dissolution, we're here to affirm a voluntary dissolution. This is no longer a voluntary dissolution. But it is here for discussion. It is here for discussion, but I'm just saying that we don't, we can't assume who's going to come and who's not going to come because, I'm not saying we did anything improper. I agree with you, other than the notion that the fact that we had it on here for moving for discussion based on a voluntary dissolution, those people who are not in favor of the voluntary dissolution were on notice that it was still on the agenda. So, I just want to make clear is that I think our discussion is fair either direction. Let me make one quick response. If it's a voluntary dissolution, you know, how many people don't come up because they know it won't make any difference? Because we were ministerially required to vote yes on this for a voluntary. So, some people might not have shown up because they know there was nothing they could do under a voluntary dissolution. I don't believe we were, I don't believe it's ministerial, just to be clear, is that it, I, I, I, can we vote no accepting the, the board? Yes, you could. Okay. Um, and, um, just one other point, um, I apologize, but one other point in terms of, um, of procedure is that, um, and again, I, I, I'm going to make, I, I need to make clear that this is not as legal counsel for the delegation because it's not been submitted to the delegation. But, um, there is a possibility that the referendum would have to come first before it goes to the legislature based on 189.0722A. And so, there may be a different procedure altogether that it would still have to go to the people to vote on it before the legislature could dissolve it. I think all I'm saying is, at this point, I'd like to give them an opportunity to correct this with a, with a proper public meeting, which I don't, my opinion is that they did not have a proper public meeting on Monday with, with this vote. I would like to give them an opportunity to have a proper public meeting. They can come back with the same vote, but a proper meeting. And then we could, we can have this involuntary dissolution discussion on October 8th. Councilmember Horland. Thank you, Mr. President. Um, much of what I was going to say has been said, but I do want to make a couple of points. And I'm glad you brought up the state statute because there are a couple of things I want to address there. Um, disconcerting was a good word, but also disappointing. Um, because I think, and I, I want to give credit to Mr. Nunnamaker because I think that you have worked very hard to build a collegial relationship with paid over the years. It wasn't always so prior, in prior years. Um, I think that we have jumped in, the city's jumped in when our residents were not being served and they, and they needed us. We've done a really good job about staying out of this. And I know each of us have had multiple conversations with residents about this. Um, and we have tried to be neutral. And why I say I'm disappointed is another elected body did something on Monday night that may or may not have been improper. It's not for me to judge, but dumped that, this in our lap today, um, in a way that I do not think that was fair. Um, you know, our phones and emails have been blowing up today with residents who did not understand quite what our role would be tonight and what we could and could not do. Um, and I know a lot of people have worked in what I was disappointed for our residents is that I always felt, and I never weighed in either way, they had the right to self-determination. So if the board decided we're going to dissolve, then they had the right to a vote, and that was taken away from them on Monday night. So I'm disappointed for them that they didn't have that opportunity. Um, I do not think it's fair that if this council votes tonight, if we were to accept it, that we put the cost of the referendum on the rest of the taxpayers of the city. I don't think that's right, and I think that pay just dumped that in our lap because of their action on Monday night. So my, um, what I would like to see is also we do have some wiggle room with the local bill deadline of October 17th. Um, I would like the residents of the acres try to get paid to come together, and whether you determine that meeting was improper, it was not properly noticed, whatever you determine. But, um, I think the onus is you've got a little more work to do, um, to try to get this back on track, if that's what it is, so that we can reevaluate it on October 8th. So I would ask that the item come back on the A. So based on, and I don't see anybody else buzzing in, so based on the, um, comments that I've heard from Councilmember Fadgen and Councilmember Horland, um, does somebody wish to make a, an actual motion to table to a time certain? I'll make a motion. I'm sorry. Excuse me. A motion to table, just so you all understand, would cut off all discussion. And that's why I didn't. Okay. So if I make a motion to... And there's a second, there's no further discussion, uh, other than the vote on the motion. And don't we make motion and discuss or, uh, not with a motion to table. That's fine. And let me, let me just tabling or are we just pushing this to the October 8th? So let me, I also want to make sure in terms, in terms of the idea of tabling it, while I recognize that there are a lot of residents that wish to speak on it. If what you're, if what we're, um, suggesting or hoping is that the paid board is going to conduct another meeting, fix what they did wrong the first time, um, I would think that the people who all wish to speak on it may wish to save their, their breath until after that meeting, because we're going to have the same discussion, um, or, or change the discussion at the next meeting to see if that meeting takes place. So, um, I, I understand that the idea of preventing further discussion may not sound like the, the, the best procedure, but, um, based on what we're, we're putting forward in terms of asking paid to do and to bring this back, um, it just seems like it may be unnecessary, but at this moment in time, um, but up to you. If you want to make, you, you've made the motion or began to make the motion, so my motion was going to be to move this to the October 8th meeting to give, um, the paid board an opportunity to properly, um, advertise and hopefully have a good public discourse and either come back with the same vote or get back to, um, agreeing to dissolve. And then we can make our decision from there. So I'm going to accept that as a motion to table. Um, is there a second mass city attorney question, please. So if we were to proceed in another way, Mr. Azaral, um, say we were to make a motion, um, to approve for, um, purpose of discussion, uh, allow the public to speak. And I believe we have a member of the paid board here, if he wishes to speak. Uh, and then we vote to deny this, but it could come back on the eighth in another form. Yes. You could make a motion to approve. There's a second allowed discussion. And then at the conclusion of the discussion, somebody can make a motion to table. After the discussion. Correct. The motion. Okay. Friendly amendment. Or, or, or let it die. All right. In the interest of, uh, giving the residents who are very loyal to us and have nice, uh, uh, uniform t-shirts at times, although, um, Donna, it's the only one in uniform tonight. Um, I will make a motion to approve for discussion purposes. I'll second. So just for the record, the, the initial motion, um, was not seconded, it was retracted and you've made a replacement motion, um, that, so the, the motion has been made, uh, and seconded to approve the resolution as it is presented. Um, and we will now have, uh, further discussion, mayor, you've chimed in. Um, you guys ask about the Broward delegation. You talked to LJ. Maybe he's got some info to give you just to try to understand how the delegation would receive this. And I want to say that this is what we think we, we don't know because we won't know until we get there. But if, if it was moved forward as an involuntary, yes, involuntary dissolution, our question was how would the delegation receive this? What do they think about it? Um, the advice we got from our, our lobbyists is that their thought is that if it's resident driven, if the preponderance of the residents were for it, whichever way they were going. They, the delegation would receive that positively. But if let's say there was a 50 50 split and they're hearing it out of both sides of their ears, they probably wouldn't move it forward. But again, that's to be tested. So take that for what it's worth. Thank you, Mr. Noonamaker, mayor. Um, with that being said, we will, um, we'll move to discussion and we'll call on, um, residents in the order that I received the speaker card. Um, I am going to stay state again is that, um, while I have the speaker card. Um, while I have the stack of residents that wish to speak, um, you are not required to speak just because you turned in the card. You are welcome to, we will hear everything that you want to hear and we will give you your three minutes. Um, but, um, you can also tell us what your position is and then sit down and save it for the next time as well. But you have your three minutes and you will be given that opportunity. Um, I will call up first, uh, Mr. Beasley. And Ms. Bernardi is on deck. Bill Beasley, 11701 Terror Drive, Plantation, Florida, 33325. Good evening, Mr. President, City Council members, Mr. Mayor, uh, City Plantation staff. My name is Bill Beasley. I'm one of five commissioners sitting on the Plantation Acre Improvement District Governing Board, or for short, the Paid Board. The board is elected by the residents of Plantation Acres for a term of four years. And only residents of the acres can be on the board. While Paid is part of the City of Plantation, it is an independent, special district created by the state legislatures in 1963 as a drainage district named the Dixie Drainage District. Further, in 1982, the Plantation Acre Improvement District was formed under Chapter 82-274 of the Florida Statues as a successor to the district, to the Dixie Drainage District. The mitigation from a drainage district to an improvement district was necessary due to the complexity and the rapid rate of development in the district. As an improvement district, the authority, powers, and duties were expanded. While Paid is now an improvement district, certainly under its umbrella, its primary mission is to mitigate flooding in the area called Plantation Acres. During its tenure, there have been questionable doubts from the residents about the efficiency, accessibility, and overall ability of the board to perform its primary mission, namely water management. During the 2004 general election, two new board members were elected and seated in January of 2025. While this was a new board, its new members were still composed of residents of the acres who were fully aware of many of the failures of past boards. At the February 2025 monthly meeting, there was a motion to dissolve Paid as an independent special district and turn its responsibilities over to the City of Plantation as a dependent special district. Again, this motion was based on past performance of the board, as well as public sentiment that Paid's board structure did not support its continued existence. The motion passed with four to one approval. Now, eight months. Since that decision, I stand before you offering a second decision by the paid board. At the September 15, 2005 board meeting, a motion was made to overturn the January dissolution approval. However, while only four of the five, may I continue? Yeah, we need to hear from you. Please continue. However, while only four of five board members attended this meeting, the motion to not dissolve Paid went forward with four yes votes, where one board member was out of the country and unable to attend the meeting. Why this wishy-washy decision was made. As stated above, at the February 2005 meeting, the board only had past performance of the past boards as a metric to make its decision to dissolve. After nine months of restructuring, which included election of a very progressive chairman, dismissing certain support staff, refocusing work priorities, etc., things have vastly changed. However, there is a concern as we move forward and the current members reach their term limits that newly elected board members will not maintain this current level of governance. And this is certainly a possibility. However, just as a paid board should fulfill its responsibilities to the residents of Plantation Acres, it is up to the residents to be informed and elect the board members that will maintain or exceed performance expectations. Further, even though the city council and mayor representatives are elected public officials, they are subject to cycle turnover as well. So, having provided this brief background on the past and the present status of paid, in my opinion, as a 27-year resident of Plantation Acres and as a paid commissioner, the September 15 decision by the board to stop the dissolution process was faithful to the paid's mission, but less insightful to the will of the Plantation Acres residents. Therefore, I recommend two approaches. One, let the paid board call an emergency meeting to readdress this issue, allowing further input from concerned parties. Two, move forward with the initial dissolution proposal where dissolution to the responsibility of paid under the city of plantation governance. Lastly, I thank you for your indulgence on this matter and welcome any questions. Thank you very much, Mr. Beasley. We're going to move on to the other individuals and if there's a reason to call you back up, we will. Thank you. Lori Bernardi, 11681 Northwest 6th Street. I was at the meeting where originally everybody was at like a town hall and everybody had their chance for discussion. It was noticed and people were there. Then in the February meeting, people were there and there was discussion again at the paid meeting and then the vote was had. It was four to one. I won't say the names, but one of the people that voted doesn't even attend most of the meetings. And it's been brought up with the other board members that he's never there. Now, I was at the regular paid meeting. Nothing was brought up about this going to happen on Monday night on their special meeting because they had to change the date because of the budget. During the meeting, Mr. Nunnamaker was there. It was waited until after he left and the meeting was almost over that over zoom that this idea came out. And before you know anything happened, they were having a vote and they changed their mind. It was not on the docket. It's not on the agenda. It was not on their website. It was not on anything. So there was a total of I think four or five of us at the meeting because most times at the monthly meetings, there's hardly anybody there unless they're called upon because they have a problem. Paid is complaining that they have done a wonderful job in the last eight or nine months. I will give them credit for that. They're busting their butts out there. But it's also the paid board members are out there making sure everything's done, just like it's their full time job to be out there with the employees. We have had to hire new people. They've hired secretaries. They've hired HR person. These are all more expenses for us. A lot of things are duplicated between the city and paid. If we didn't have to pay all these extra people, we could probably use the 2 million budget that we have and put more money to what needs to be done out there with the drainage because the drainage is the biggest problem that everybody's complaining about. I just don't see how paid can continue with the amount of houses that are being built out there and the residents that the four people that work daily, which one of them just got ill and cannot work right now, can be out there working. And they keep telling us they can do the things cheaper than the city can. I just, as a educated person, I do not see how we can clean canals at the lineage that they're talking about. And they quoted that you guys spent $500,000 on, I think it was like four houses that you cleaned out some canal or something. And we can do it better. We can do it cheaper. Not with their in-house people. They can't. And it's just that the only thing I see is that my taxes for paid are going to keep going up because they already went from 800 to 1500 since we got the new board. Did I vote for them? Yes. A few more minutes, seconds. Did I vote for them? Yes. But it was with the understanding that when they came on that these guys were going to see what was going on in this whole idea about dissolving paid came about. When they came on and they saw how much, and I'll quote Mr. Noonamaker, the existing, the embarrassing backlog of projects that need to be done out there that have never been done. I feel like I've been stabbed in the back with the way the whole thing went off on Monday. And I'm there for every meeting and know what's going on, just like I'm here at most of the meetings unless I'm out of town. I thank you for your time. I thank you for your consideration always, not for this matter, but for every matter in the city. Thank you. Thank you, Ms. Bernardi. Donna McCormick, followed by Michael Roth. Good evening. Donna McCormick, 1201 Northwest 114th Avenue, Plantation, Acres, Florida. My late husband Michael and I moved our family to Plantation Acres in 1985 when each of the landowners' property ran to the middle of the dirt road in front of their homes and we had drinking water from wells. I remember vividly when we voted for the city of Plantation to pave our roads and to bring in city water for us and we each had a deed over our property so that the roads could come in. Thinking back, that's where the residents of Plantation Acres made a huge mistake. We paved our roads. We brought in proper drinking water. But we continued on with Plantation Acres Improvement District, aka PAID, to handle our drainage. How silly was that? Tonight we have a resolution before us where the city of Plantation expresses a willingness to service Plantation Acres as a dependent special district. However, potentially, based on PAID's recent change of heart, the resolution needs to be reworded to be passed. So my request to the council is simple. Do whatever is necessary to help Plantation Acres residents be allowed a vote in the future to determine the fate of PAID. Yes, our existing PAID commissioners are doing a much better job than has happened in the past. But it's going to be a long time between now and when we get to vote. And when we get to vote, we'll be able to make that decision. Please help us get to a vote. Thank you. Thank you very much. Mr. Roth, followed by Kathleen Funjul. Thank you. Good evening. If I sound upset at all, please realize that my anger is with PAID and not with any of you. I appreciate that you've been dealt a mess, as we all have. And I find it incredible that this has been going on for over a year, many, many months before the February vote, seven months since February, and two nights before today when the agenda, you know, shortly after the agenda coming out, they pull this shenanigan without it being on the agenda and advertised and whatever to change their mind. I can't attest to the legality of that, and I don't know that it's even relevant tonight. But I'm trying to thought. I'm sorry. Anyways, we're on uncharted ground. I've spoken to as many people as I can who are involved politically and have knowledge of law and special districts over the last 48 hours. We don't even know if they have the option to rescind. Nobody knows of a special district that has ever voted to dissolve and then later change their mind. To the best of my knowledge, it's never happened in the state of Florida. So we don't even know if they can rescind. Regardless of that, I ask you please, probably not tonight, but before the Broward delegation deadline, your residents need your support because without it, we can't move forward to the county, to the state, to getting a vote, a proper vote during a proper election of all of the residents, which is the fairest way. Tonight was supposed to happen so we could have the town hall meeting in November so it could move forward to those other bodies. If tonight or in the near future this resolution of your support doesn't happen, we're dead probably until 27 or 28 before this can be addressed again. And that would be really sad. PAID has improved. I'll give them credit where credit is due, but they've gone from an F minus to a C minus. And statutorily, they don't have the authority they need to succeed. As Donna pointed out, they were created when the acres was unincorporated back in the 60s. Plantation is a hell of a lot different now. And it continues to just grow and develop in unimaginable ways. And you've said it yourself, you know, whether they dissolve by choice or we find a way to force them out, you're going to be obligated to do the services. It's the right thing for you as our government to do the services. So protect yourself. I don't want the rest of the residents of the rest of the city to have to pay for it. They shouldn't. Make sure that's in there. But we need something documenting your support because every legislator we talk to, before they... The first question was always asked is, who's going to do the job? If not PAID, then who? So... Please conclude. That's basically my point. We need it in writing that the city is willing or understands and accepts this responsibility. Not necessarily the expenses of it. Not that PAID should go away. The residents can vote on that. But that you are willing to help. And remember, you owe nothing to PAID, except for the fact that those five commissioners are residents. So it's five votes, five residents. Your people are who... Your residents are who you need to be concerned about helping. Please. Thank you. Thank you, Mr. Roth. Andrew Garnett on deck. Followed by Linda Carr. Hi. Kathleen Fanhul. My address is 11901 Northwest 24th Street. I have to say that I wasn't at the meeting on Monday, and it was disheartening to find out that all of a sudden there was a change of heart when these people were kind of elected because they were going to vote to dissolve PAID. We knew that when we worked for candidates. However, I have to say that I feel some of that might have been precipitated by the fact that a lot of the residents are happy with the way things are going with the new board. I, for one, am happy with the way the new board is doing, but that is only right now while this new board is out there killing themselves, and they really are working hard. I think they've probably heard from other people, and I know I've said myself that they're doing a good job. But when they're not there, when it's the next board, who knows? It's been 25 years of really poor service and flooding and disaster all the time in the acres, and I think we feel that it could easily go back to that as soon as, you know, George and Bill and the guys we have now are gone, and, you know, that's an election away. I think in transparency, everybody said they wanted to be able to vote on this and that we should be granted that. I have a question, though, if you guys would answer. If they vote to self-dissolve, does that mean it's absolutely self-dissolved? Or no, that's just until we vote on it in 2026. Because I think we need this year to see how things are going. I mean, to see what you guys can take over. Can you really do everything? I mean, we need that time to see. If they vote to self-dissolve, are they gone? Or does it go to an election? Thank you for the question. The mayor is asked to respond. Yeah, I have the same question. In February, did the board vote to dissolve, or did you vote for an election? Right. Well, hold on a second. Let's not have a conversation back and forth. But that's the question I have, and I don't know who can answer it. I thought the board voted to put it on the ballot. It's what I thought. I don't know, Mr. Neumaker, if you heard the question. It just happened to be the moment I think you stepped out for a second. Sorry, I held up as long as I could. Unless Mr. Beasley, who I said, we may call on you again to respond. I don't know if you heard the question and you're able to respond. I'll ask you to come forward if you recall the specifics. Otherwise, you're not required to. But mayor, maybe you can repeat the question and see if Mr. Neumaker is able to respond. Because Mr. Roth said the board voted to dissolve, and I think the board voted to let the residents vote. And I don't know the difference. So in February, they did vote for dissolution. And the way it's been crafted as far as the local bill would give that referendum. Okay. Let me. The answer is yes and no. So I'm going to turn this over to our city attorney, whether he wants me to or not. But if chapter 189.072 is the only statute at issue, and that's the statute that says it's for dissolution of an independent special district. We talked about this before. There are two types, voluntary dissolution and other dissolutions. The way that the voluntary dissolution section seems to read is that if the governing body approves it, majority plus one. Right. So let's say they go back and paid approves it. The only next step that is in the statute is that the voluntary dissolution of an independent special district created and operating pursuant to a special act may be effectuated only by the legislature. So that would seem to suggest that it goes right to the legislature for approval in the local bill process. It does not call for a referendum in section one. That's correct. It could proceed without a vote. My recollection is that the meeting in February, there was a discussion where they did want a vote. We don't have the minutes from that meeting. We have made a request. But my recollection is there was a discussion of having a vote. But you're correct. It's not required. So I think to answer the mayor's question, but I will turn it to our city attorney in that regard. So you are correct in the reading of 189.072. That is exactly what it says. Going back in time, when we were looking at this issue in the early part of the year, we were assuming that this was not going to be a voluntary dissolution. Then the vote took place in February, as we have been told. And we were asked, our office was asked, to prepare the local bill modeled after the Loxahatchee Groves bill that we have previously discussed. And based upon what has transpired over the last several days, things have gotten a little sidetracked, to say the least. But maybe as a follow-up question, though, is that the bill in its current form that was drafted, based on believing it's a voluntary dissolution, but modeling it after the Loxahatchee bill, while in Loxahatchee they decided to go to a referendum, the statute still does not seem to require it. Correct. Okay. For a voluntary dissolution. For a voluntary dissolution. Right. I was trying to answer the mayor's question by asking the follow-up questions. It didn't answer Ms. Von Heul's question. Did it answer your question? No. Come forward. Maybe we got sidetracked again. So, come forward. Come forward, Ms. Von Heul. Yeah, go ahead. I'm going to turn it to Mr. Ezra. If we are answering the question, if the paid board, under 189.072, voluntary dissolution, if the paid board votes to dissolve, it does not happen automatically. It requires a special act of the legislature, which would also provide for an effective date, and if that, pursuant to that special act, the dissolution involves the transition to either the city or a dependent district created by the city, that would require some transition and operational matters between the two organizations. It would not happen automatically. It would not happen immediately. It's not a vote. Right. So, if the legislature, it has to make it timely to the delegation, for the delegation to vote on the local bill before it can be submitted to the legislature. And then it has to be actually heard by the legislature and voted on by the legislature. And until such time that it's voted on and enacted, it then wouldn't trigger the next steps of the city taking over. But it's not going to trigger any election for us to have then. Once they self-dissolve, they're done. Well, it depends on what the bill is that's ultimately drafted, presented, and voted upon, whether or not a referendum election would be required. So, we wouldn't know that? We don't know because we're not sure yet how the council is going to proceed. It might be dependent upon what the paid board does or does not do, if what I am hearing from the discussion of the council. But the council has not voted yet on the matter. I'll add one more point to it, though, is that based on seeing these at times, not this, but local bills, is that when it gets to the legislature, if it gets to the legislature, there are committees in the legislature who could reject portions of it and say that it doesn't fall into the language that those committees believe is required. And so there are times where it is still sent back for further edits, if not rejected altogether. Thank you. Thank you, Mr. Garnett. Councilmember Andreu, did you want to jump in on that? Is that a shofar? I think he may have been blowing his nose, but did it? It's 8.30, 2 p.m. We're going to take a brief recess. Please stay seated. I ask everybody to please remain seated. I ask everybody, please, please, please. We're taking a brief recess. Mr. City Attorney, any reason not to continue? I'm not sure. I'm in all seriousness. It's 8.30. It's 8.32. We're going to recess to 8.40, and then we'll decide what will continue. I don't know if anybody left on the basis that we were taking the recess. I think I see everybody has returned. So I will retract that brief recess, and we will readjourn the meeting at 8.33 p.m. And Councilmember Andreu, you're recognized. I'll wait until we finish. Okay. I had you clocked in, so I… I'll wait until we finish the speakers. Very good. Thank you. Andrew Garnett, 11401 Southwest Third Street, Plantation, Florida. I guess the main point that I'd like to bring across is we need to have the ability to vote on this as residents, regardless as to whether or not the paid board rescinds or approves the solution. We are basically being held hostage in an HOA-type situation where we're paying assessments every year, and we don't have a say. People do what is inspected, not what is expected. They voted to dissolve, and then for months they started busting their butts to try to make it look like things are good. Okay, they're not going to be there forever, but now that they feel that they made things look good, they underhandedly decided to reverse what they were… some of them were elected to do, and we don't have a say. So, taxation without representation. So, I know the position you're in, and I agree with what you have said for the October 7th. However, if the paid board does not agree, we are being held hostage as plantation acres, residents, residents of plantation. So, whatever advice you can give to us, whatever we can do to move forward, we would like for the residents to have a say, regardless as to whether or not the board goes back again on what they said. Thank you. Thank you very much. Councilman Horland, you've clicked in, but is that for later? No, I'd just like to clarify something that was said. The city attorney laid out the process, but I think still to Ms. Von Hull's question about a vote. It is in line 100 of the bill. It is proposed that this goes to referendum. So, while it may not be required of this process, it is written into the bill. Okay? I wanted to clarify. Thank you, Mr. President. Ms. Carr, followed by Anita Manning. Hi. Linda Carr, 11630 Northwest 26th Street. Good evening, Mr. Mayor, City Council. Good to see you again. I'm on the other side of this. I've lived here for 28 years. I've been through a lot of flooding events. And during storms, each of our homes becomes an island. And I usually sit on my patio and I watch the rain, because I've got to admit, I find it very unsettling for my home to become this little island. But in one of these recent floods, I became concerned when the water rose very quickly to what I call the full level. And what impressed me was that even though it rained steadily for two more days, the water never rose above that full level. It never got any higher. And that showed me that PAID knows how to manage our drainage system. And our canal drainage is different from a city sewer system, right? And I imagine it requires a little extra specialized expertise. If the city takes over, we don't know that the staff has the knowledge or skill with that canal drainage sort of system instead of an active sewer system. I'm not an engineer. I don't know all of the differences, but I imagine there's a learning curve there. So that concerns some of us. The thing is, any mistakes could leave our homes flooded. Our homes have not gotten water, okay? I know we get flooded, but our homes themselves have not gotten flooded. And so with PAID, I'm mixing up stuff from a few of us right on the street. It's not. With PAID, we have both skilled management and accountability. So if the supervisors don't perform, we can vote for change, which is what we did. But some of the residents, when they vote, they didn't really know which side the supervisors were on that we're voting for. And that didn't really, they didn't really put that out there. Since the last election, PAID has made some real progress. And we're really happy with it. Our flooding could be far worse than it is. And that's why some of us really want to keep PAID. And the reason you hear a lot about getting rid of PAID is because the complainers make a lot of noise. And the people that are happy, they don't make noise. We're just like, okay, we're cool with how things are. And that's kind of where we're all at. And thank you. Thank you very much. Anita Manning. Good evening. Anita Manning, 11551 Southwest Third Street. I just want to quickly go through all of my points. I agree with the majority of the residents. I've been here over 32 years. I live by canal. I now have a lot of flooding because the previous paid councilmen, they put in an underground systems behind the houses across the street. So all that comes into the canal. And of course, it floods my yard. One of the things that I'm having an issue with is the budget. One of the things that this council had advocated was that they were going to reduce costs. All we heard about was the expenses. So far, we have three budgets that we've reviewed. They've all been different. And I've noticed that there are some things that were missing that has been confirmed. I've also noticed that we have now new hires full-time, new consultants, new consulting companies. But we've been talking about monies. I have written to three of the commissioners and asked them to provide some actuals. There are other people in the audience that have also asked for actuals. We've never gotten that. We don't know what is sitting there versus what they're budgeting. I want to make sure that you understand that I think that there's an issue with the education and experience of some of the resources that are there and the salaries that they're getting. Again, we were supposed to be cutting monies. I'm voting for them to be resolved. I initially was not. I do agree with the previous residents that there are some issues that paid has specific to our area that may not be handled appropriately with the city because, again, that's not what you do. But I'm not saying that you can't. I'm just very concerned that we now have an issue where residents don't know what's going on. They're not involved. And paid is just doing what they do. Thank you. Thank you very much. I do not see any further comment cards from the public. Councilmember Andreo, I know you had requested to speak before. Would you like to speak now? Thank you. You have the floor. Thank you. As Councilmember Horland pointed out, that the referendum is stated in the actual item that would go possibly to the legislature. My question is, should we also, depending again on what happens at, and somebody said October 7th, I just for the record, it's October 8th, Wednesday, October 8th. But if this does come back before the Council on October 8th, should we include some similar language in the resolution? That's one of my questions. And a second question is, how did the October 1st, 2026 date come to be? I always thought, for some reason, I just thought it would be November in line with like a general election. So how did the October 1st date come? And if I'm misspeaking, I'm going to ask Ms. Vigoro to clarify it for me. But if this were to be an October 1st election, that would actually incur even more expenses per the supervisor of elections. Yes, ma'am. And as stated by one of the residents, I want to ensure that the city and other residents don't take on that expense. So it would be more than even our general election, which we're not going to have any expense for our general election. The thought process on having an advance of the general is to avoid confusion, because my understanding is that we would have potentially the vote to dissolve or not on the same election as board of directors for the district. So it might confuse folks, well, wait a minute, I'm voting for the district board members, or I'm voting to dissolve it. What's happening here? So it was for hopefully more clarity. Now, just to answer one of the questions on the vote itself, one of the reasons the administration felt the vote was important is we want people to go in with eyes wide and clear expectations. If it was just to transition to the city, we don't want people to think this is a panacea. We don't want people to think on day one, oh, great, it's resolved. When are you fixing this? When are you fixing that? There are a whole host of issues in the district to fix, just as we're dealing with our own issues that y'all are well aware of. So we thought that would make them think about what they're doing, and it would be subsequent to the discussion we have in November. So they go into that fully informed. But that was the reason why, from administration's perspective, we did want to see a vote happen. So if this were to go on an October 1st referendum, has anybody shared that dollar amount with the residents and the acres of what that would look like? One, just so again, everybody's very clear and it's transparent, and two, if the voters were to agree with the dissolution in an October election, they would understand that then there would be no ballot in November. Yes. Okay. So I think that it should be added. I don't know if it's customary, but I think maybe that should be added to the resolution. What should be added? About the referendum, that language. It states it in the bill, but it's not in the resolution. Would that be not appropriate to add that to the resolution? It's not necessary to add it to the resolution. But again, keep in mind the fact that if the city were to proceed with an involuntary dissolution, the cost of the election would be borne by the city. I completely understand that. And we're working on getting the costs, my understanding would be about $2.97 per voter. And then we want to clarify how many registered voters we have in the paid area. I believe it's about 6,000, but we want to understand that. And are there any other ancillary costs? I guess I'll save this other question until October 8th. But why I think it's important is because we would be possibly approving the resolution, not the bill. So that's why I want it to be clear that I am I'm agnostic about the bill, but I am in favor of the resolution. And I want the resolution to have the referendum language in it, especially after our conversation about the potential that it could almost be automatic and not go to a vote. So I think that's why I would want that language in the resolution. But we can discuss it more on October 8th should we go in that direction. Yes, ma'am. Councilmember Fadgen. Thank you. So I believe that Mr. Beasley said that paid will have an emergency meeting to address this so that we could come back to this on October 8th and take the appropriate action based on the knowledge we have. So at this time, I would like to amend my original motion to defer this to the October 8th meeting that will see if paid will take will advertise an emergency meeting so that all sides will have the opportunity to tell their elected representatives for the district what they want so they can make an informed decision. And then we can just perform the duties without being for or against this to facilitate what the residents of plantation acres want. So that's my amended motion. So just a point of order. I'm looking at the city attorney. I think you want to explain it. Would you like to or would you like me to? You don't need to amend the motion because you could just make the motion to table and it takes priority over the existing motion. Motion to table to October 8th. Thank you. Second. So as the motion has been made to table and has been seconded, we will cut off all further discussion and we will continue any further discussion if we so choose to on October 8th. That being said, let me find out where I am after. Do you have to take a vote on the motion? No. No vote on the table? Yes sir. I thought once it was made and this is okay. We will. Let's vote on the motion. Motion to table. I don't see any further discussion on it. Ms. Beggarow, please call the roll. Councilmember Horland. Yes. Councilmember Anderson. Yes. Councilmember Andreu. Yes. Councilmember Fajan. Yes. Thank you. Thank you. Let's move on. We next have legislative item 16, an ordinance providing for a student representative on the Sustainability and Resiliency Advisory Board. This is a second reading. Mr. City Attorney, do you need to read this? Yes, sir. Please. An ordinance of the City of Plantation, Florida, amending Chapter 2 of the City Code of Ordinances for the City of Plantation Administration by amending section 2-73 membership appointments and staggered terms. Quorum to provide for a student representative on the Sustainability and Resiliency Advisory Board, providing for codification, conflict, severability, and effective date. Thank you very much, Mr. Ezra. Councilmember Fajan. One quick comment. Do we need to address homeschoolers, or is it implied that they can apply for this? I didn't recall seeing homeschoolers. What's that? It's plantation residents and eligible students, so a homeschooler is still a student. I agree. I just want to make sure. Yeah, I'm comfortable with that. I think we changed the language specifically to take out plantation schools. And since you'll be making the appointment, that'll be up to you all to make that decision. Right. I just want to make sure that they're not excluded, so I don't disagree with any of the comments. So thank you. That's all I have. Do we have a... I'll make the motion. Motion to approve item 16. Second. I'm seeing no further discussion. Ms. Begaro, please call the roll. Councilmember Horland. Yes. Councilmember Anderson. Yes. Councilmember Andreu. Yes. Councilmember Fajan. Yes. Thank you. Next up, we have comments by the mayor. October 9th is the Greater Fort Lauderdale Alliance Dinner. Let us know if you want to go. In light of some ticket recent policies, we'll vet it the way we need to vet it. Very good. Anything further? I really admire everybody who can keep their patience. And, Elson, when we redo this, these walls got to be thicker. Mm-hmm. Thank you, sir. Next up, Item 18, Advisory Board Report. The action minutes have been submitted for everybody's consideration. We'll next move to comments from Councilmembers. Councilmember Andreu. Thank you. Just want to highlight the Hispanic Heritage Event on Thursday, September 25th. If you're not coming to the Plantation High meeting for the schools, then you can go and celebrate Hispanic Heritage at Island Space. They're having a cultural festival at 6 p.m. And also want to wish everyone a happy Rosh Hashanah who will serve. Thank you. Councilmember Fajan. Thank you, Council President Reincey. I had a question for Danny that I told him in advance that I'd be calling him up. To the point that Councilmember Horland made at our last meeting regarding the, like, the 15,000 businesses on Google, what my request would be, and maybe you can even, you know, just give us a very brief, you know, update as to what the plan is. But what I would like is, maybe for the second meeting in October, just to have, like, a memo or whatever that you're going to present to us, the actual action plan to identify the unregistered businesses. And then possibly even bring up, like, the issues that we were talking about, like, the investment LLCs about how quickly we can make sure that the code is reflective, that those should not be taxed, should not have a business tax receipt being a non-operating business entity in the city. So. Right. Okay. So, thank you. So, there are several things that, you know, we've been looking into that their local governments are doing to make sure that they're collecting all of their money. So, there are some local governments that periodically, every five, seven years, or what have you, just as we're doing with our short-term rental program, where we have a company that kind of helps us identify those that are operating that have not registered with the city. There are also firms out there that do the same thing for cities. There are different models, sort of, that they utilize. Some will say, hey, you know, for that first year, if you want to do it, we'll take, you know, maybe 20% of those revenue that we find. Some will just say a flat fee or what have you. So, that's something that we want to look into and investigate. There's also, I think, what we've been looking at, as well as internally, you know, we've identified that there are some things that we can do. We do currently, the fire department, when they go out and they're doing their annual inspections, and when they find that they don't, you know, find the business tax receipt posted, they will let us know. And we are currently finding, you know, some businesses in that manner. We've identified possibly, you know, better enlisting code enforcement to assist with this, something we just talked about the other day with regard to our zoning staff. There are times where we're getting, like, waivers or variances for parking, as an example, where we get a listing from, like, a shopping center of all of the businesses that are located in there. And we need to cross-check that with our database as well. So, there's a two-pronged approach. We're looking at improving some internal things, making sure that, you know, within the different departments that we're doing a better job of communicating and working together. And then maybe looking at, you know, as we said, every so often, because I'm sure there will be some attrition over time, just to make sure we're finding all of the businesses that are operating. And, you know, there's some that are going to be, like, home-based businesses or what have you, and I'm sure we're going to find, just as we did a little exercise that we've already done, that we know that there's going to be some of those LLCs. So, there's some decisions that we'll have to make in terms of, you know. How we can figure out that they are not an operating business. I found it amusing that one of the map things for maybe a zoning thing that we were proving that there was a business, like, right in the middle of it. And I was wondering if it was a registered business that, so. So, I'd really appreciate if we can get an update, like, in that second, like, what the actual plan is. Right. So, that we can get moved forward on that, because I think that's a lot of, like, that Council Member Horland brought up, that there's a lot of revenue to be found there. So, thank you. Absolutely. Thank you. I'm going to jump in next. I want to first thank you to the library for giving me an opportunity to participate in story time last night. I had a chance to read to a group of our young families. I apologize to them that I didn't realize that I was agreeing to sing songs as well. I thought it was just read books, but when the kids said that they always did it, I had to comply. So, for those of you that don't know, there's great story time opportunities at our library for anybody of any age who wishes to attend. I also want to thank Mr. Conklin for mentioning Constitution Day today. I had the opportunity this morning to go to Central Park Elementary School and speak to Mr. Vailu's class. And if you don't know Mr. Vailu, he is one of the most amazing teachers that we have in our city. And we have a lot of great teachers, but he does a great job, especially with civics. And so I want to acknowledge him. I also want to mention that one of our great principals in our city, Marlon Vailu, if you haven't heard, she is retiring. And that was on your list to say? Okay, well, it may also be on your list that I'm putting out there right now to tell everybody that you can, is that we're going to be giving her a proclamation at our next meeting. And so, well, so, and I'm happy for us all to go in together so that it's presented from the entire council because she is also a fantastic principal. And she's been very welcoming to any council members who have wanted to go there and participate and be involved with the school. So she just announced her retirement. Also, I wanted to put on the record that Young at Art Museum, which some of you may know, it currently exists in the Broward Mall. They are having on September 27th a family comic con, and they said that there's going to be cosplay photo ops and interactive fun and comics and memorabilia that will be tabled throughout the mall. And so everybody's invited to attend that. I mentioned at our last meeting, but I'll mention again that this Saturday, John Way's Martial Arts is doing a community day as well as some workshops that you can sign up for that are free to the public on this Saturday. And thank you, Council Member Andreu, for mentioning it. It's for those celebrating Rosh Hashanah, Shana Tova Umetuka. Council Member Horland. Thank you, Mr. President. Joel Vey Lu was my daughter's second grade teacher and also a graduate of South Plantation High School. He's a phenomenal teacher. May I add, my daughter was in that same class with your daughter. Yes, she was. Elise was in there. And his father worked here. Joel's father worked right in there. Yeah, Plantation Born and Bread. As I mentioned earlier, the Mayoral and City Manager Roundtable with Broward County Public Schools was held at Joe DiMaggio. I was happy to step in. The mayor had another engagement. And I had not been to Joe DiMaggio since said daughter was there when she was 18 months old. And wow, what – and it's just amazing the amount of programming they have. Every floor has a different name. The cardiac wing – cardiac floor is a rhythm floor. You know, everything's correlated. Just amazing. But they have a Mr. George who works with Broward County Schools who makes sure that all the inbound children that are in the hospital stay on top of their education. And it was really a great partnership and a great meeting today. They presented us, Mayor. I got you a little notebook. But I thought this might be nice to put outside. It says, Joe DiMaggio, Children's Hospital, loves the city of Plantation, catch the love. So perhaps we can put it out front. But it was really terrific. One of the things – support servicers from Broward County Schools got up and did a presentation, as did Dr. Wanzo. I know she's already met with administration. But Vernika – and I didn't catch her last name, so you both might know her. Yes. One of the things she's offered, which I wanted to bring to the city, and I'll send her contact information, is municipal support. They engage and will come to any events in the city dealing with mental health for the students. So I thought that would be phenomenal. There were a lot of great things that they brought forth. So that's all I have. I just want to also wish everybody a happy Rosh Hashanah. Councilmember Anderson. You basically was all covered. Yes, I talked to – I was in the parking lot talking to Mrs. Villese, trying to see if – I said, are you still at school? Can you make it to council? I'll call an audible. I didn't get kids anyway. I wish you could have done the pledge. And I said, we can work on a proclamation later. So we're on the same wavelength. Yeah. That's it. Thanks, everybody. With that being said, 9.01 p.m. This meeting is adjourned. Thank you. Thank you.