Good evening and welcome. The Wednesday, January 24, 2024 City of Plantation Advisory Board Update Workshop is now called to order at 5.01. Ms. Begaro, please call the roll. Council Member Anderson is here. Here. Council Member Andrew. Here. Council Member Fadgen. Here. Council Member Horland. Here. Council Member Reinstein. Here. Mayor Sordal. Here. City Attorney Ezra. Here. Thank you. Thank you. We have eight boards presenting over the next hour, which allows about seven minutes per board. Each Council Member has received and reviewed your submitted report, so a detailed presentation may not be necessary, so try to focus on your highlights. I would suggest if each representative limit their presentation to three to five minutes, and if any Council Member has any questions, please limit yourself to one lightning question, and if we have more time, we can come back. But first up, we're going to call up the Education Advisory Board. I don't see any representatives, so we're already ahead of schedule. We'll keep an eye out for them. Laura, are you going to do the Education Advisory Board? Okay. We'll come back. The Library Board? Lou? Yeah. Here we go. I'm Monica Knapp. I'm the Library Director, and I'm representing the Library Board tonight. I am the liaison from my department with the Board. As you all saw in the update report this year, the Library Board really supported the Library and the staff as we moved back into the Library building. We're open for business, and things are going very well. They've met in the new building, in the new, newish building twice, and gone over all the changes. And the big goal for next year is to reestablish programming. That's one thing we couldn't do at DIKE because we didn't have the space. So the Library Board is evaluating all our programs, which ones are well attended and going well, and then some things that need to be updated or added to meet the needs of the community. Does anybody have any questions for me? I don't see any. Okay. Well, shameless plug. The Friends of the Library Luncheon is March 16th. The authors are Elaine Vietz and Lyle Howard. Tickets are $50. Contact us at the library if you'd like to attend. And don't miss our reopening event on Saturday, February 17th from 10 a.m. to noon. Refreshments, Crafts, local author meet and greet. We've got 10 local authors coming. Use book sale. There'll be a story walk, and the museum train exhibit is opening that day. Thank you. Mr. Mayor. Thank you so much. Thank you for hanging in there through everything. What's the membership of the Friends of the Library now, and how does that compare to the past or to the demographics? And is there anything we can do? It's amazing. The members of the Friends of the Library, I think, right now have 65 active members. I mean, they have lifetime and sustaining members who don't always participate. And that seems to remain steady. We lose some, we gain some. It seems to be an even. And the demographic, although we have more men this year than we've ever had before, they're retired folks. Thank you. Next up, Parks and Rec Advisory Board. Hello. My name is Darren Lees, Parks and Rec Advisory Board. Currently, we've reviewed and approved public arts in the parks projects, participated in workshops, and provided feedback for the Central Park Master Plan, discussed and approved pursuing a grant opportunities and applications for an accessible and inclusive playground at Liberty Tree Park, and lighting projects for the Plantation Community Center tennis courts, provided feedback and suggestions on special events that occur as well. Outlines for 2024, participate in procurement process through the selection committees for various parks and recreation of capital improvement projects, continue to build and enhance public park art in our parks by reviewing and approving various projects, assist, volunteer with supporting city department events. That's it. Any questions? All right. Thank you. Okay. Thank you much. Next up, Sustainability and Resiliency Advisory Board. Dr. Long. Good evening. My name is Julie Long. I'm the chair of the Sustainability Advisory Resiliency Board. Thank you for the opportunity to update the council about our activities. We're the youngest board, and in pediatric surgery parlance, we've entered the testy-toddler phase year two of life. We have two new board members, Dr. Ron Emya, a civil and environmental engineer, and Dr. Kate Peach, an award-winning professor at Broward College. They've both added a depth of expertise to the board, and I appreciate their appointments. I want to recognize and thank the other board members who have been serving since our inception for their time and commitment, Mrs. Maria Oliva, Ms. Guthiel Ruiz-Nicholas, and Dr. Mary Hope Schwobel. I also want to thank the mayor and council for the trust and support for our activities. Without Carol Morris' experience and patience, we would have nothing to report this evening. Over the past year, we've had presentations about sustainability and resiliency activities of many of the departments in the city and have learned a lot. We've developed a program to recognize green businesses in the city of Plantation and hope to roll that program out this year. In addition, our activities this year will include continuing to learn about the remainder of the green initiatives in all the departments, and to use that information to develop a plantation sustainability plan that I hope can be used to promote the city's activities, educate the public, and provide a path forward for future environmental progress. On a personal note, I hope that we will be able to educate our residents about the harm to our health from environmental degradation and the benefits to our personal and economic health from environmental protection. And I'd be happy to answer any questions. Very good. Councilmember Reinstein. Thank you, Dr. Long. You're right that this board is doing quite a bit, and it's wonderful to see all of its progress. My question is in regards to the green business certification and the green business program. I know you said that you're working towards implementation. Can you maybe elaborate a little bit on the plan and the timing? Well, the timing is shifting, but I do think that we will be able to roll it out in the first half of this year. As you know, there's no one person in the city that's doing environmental activities, and most of the city work on this seems to have fallen on Carol, and she's developed a template. We initially thought about doing it just for restaurants, but then said, why do that? Why not include any businesses who are taking environmentally conscious activities? So we changed the format, and I think we may be able to roll it out by maybe Earth Day. You know, the idea would be to promote it on the city webpage, social media, and then do a little, you know, regular door-to-door knock on doors and talk about it. May? Well, I really want to move on. We're short on time. Okay. Mr. Mayor? Yes. Also, I would add that you're going to come to Rock the Park and set up something. Oh, yeah. For better things. Yes. The sticker thing was something I proposed. I've talked to the Chamber of Commerce, Ketchum doing something right. I really want you guys to have input on what you think qualifies a green business, because it's kind of going to come back to you anyway. So I think Tim was at the – Council Member Fadgen was at the last one. I think he had some input. You probably have some input, I'm sure. And so, look, we have committees, so you can drill down on things that we don't all take the time in. So drive it like you stole it and just go. Well, we've got a form. If any council member wants to see it, have input on it, we're an advisory board. But I assume that you have seen the templates, and if you haven't, I'm happy to share them or send them to each one of you and definitely would love your input. I'm done. We're going to go to the Chamber with it, though, too, obviously. I can send it to each one of you individually. Thank you. Council Member Andrea, we're not done. Dr. Long, I just want to thank you personally, and also you are going to have a table. You were speaking about Earth Day. You're going to have a table at Earth Day, correct? Yes, no, I didn't include everything because of time. We're going to be at Rock the Park. We're going to be at Earth Day. Yes, absolutely. And then also, just also shameless plug, we have a student art contest going on as well with great cash prizes. So any student should enter that recycling art contest as well. Is that for Plantation's Earth Day? No, that's Sierra Club. Sierra Club, yeah. Overall, everyone. Very good. I do a tenure meeting regularly. You do. Thank you. You're right. You're right. The board's maturing growing up. They're getting their legs under themselves. I thought, I try not to speak at those board meetings because I already have a voice up here, but you had a good conversation regarding what the green application and for that certification thing. So you compelled me to speak, and I think that's good. I think that's what we want with these boards is to have good, healthy conversation. We still have a few minutes, so if you want to ask your question, Councilmember Reinstein. We're good. Thank you. Okay. Thank you. Next up is Affordable Housing Advisory Committee. Good evening. My name is Michael Dutko. I am pleased to represent the city's Affordable Housing Advisory Committee, of which I'm the Vice Chair. Our committee is comprised of a group of diverse, dynamic, and devoted individuals who are doing what we can to address affordable housing concerns in our community. Our board chairwoman Maggie Zalamea's report, which was provided to the commission, provides a comprehensive update on our 2023 successes and our 2024 goals. But I'd be happy to answer any questions you have in that regard. I'd say, in general, our board is focused on continuing our engagement with the community, which ended in December with a success in our town hall meeting. We're paying particular attention to the ability to implement new regulations concerning accessory dwelling units, any bonuses that may be available under the Live Local Act, and other policy issues or changes that could be made to help the affordable housing concerns in the community. I'll just start if nobody has any questions. I think that town hall was incredibly successful because I think there's a negative connotation when you hear affordable housing, and it's not what most people think it is. So I definitely think we need to host another town hall in the upcoming year and keep getting people informed about what that means and how it affects our city and how it affects the people we're trying to have work for us. So any other comments? Thank you. Thank you. Mayor, we're ahead of schedule. I'm just going to say, and I think Mr. Dutka will agree, we've learned a lot through the committee. First off, affordable housing is not something solved by developers alone, and that we can do things as leaders and as a government to help make things go along. And also, I've kind of given up on the word affordable housing because all housing is a problem right now. And the last thing would be if you look at the apartments that have just gone up, you have to make $100,000 a year to live there. So when people make judgments of people who live there, are you making $100,000 or not? That's just my thoughts. Thank you. Councilmember Horland. Thank you, Mr. President. I think along those lines, one of the things in gathering information during this legislative session, data from our residents, I think that I would like to see a future town hall for affordable housing address some of the costs that our seniors are dealing with. And specifically, when we talk about condos, and I know the mayor has been brought into that. You know, I've been working with Plantation Club Condo for five years now, and they took over that board. But what I asked was for them to reach out to the residents and give me information. And I received about 40 sheets that residents filled out and told me what they're bringing in every month and what their costs are. And I can't tell you the most distressing thing to me was how many of them said, I could possibly lose my home, my condo, and I'm going to have to leave the state, and I don't know where I'm going to go. So I think that we need to start to look at all those costs. You know, it's just not the housing itself, but the rising costs that they are, the assessments in some of these older buildings. I think we've got the new apartments, as the mayor stated, are expensive to rent. But we need to look at our aging housing stock and how people are potentially being pushed out of our city because of that. And not just our city, but all over. So I'd like to see a little bit of a focus on that as well. Okay. Thank you. Councilmember Andrea. Thank you. To that point, Councilmember Horland, I thought that the workshop we had probably a year and a half, maybe two years ago, with the ombudsman was excellent. I believe that gentleman is no longer with... Thank you. He's now with the law firm, yeah. Exactly. Yeah. But if we could do another session similar to that with maybe the new... Thank you. If there is a new ombudsman. And maybe, you know, and I think that was our first dipping our toe into it, and I was excited we were able to do that condo town hall. But I think that now, building on the success of the affordable housing town hall, maybe we can bring in some more of those individuals and some more of the agencies that can deal with that. So geared to those condos. The condos. Correct. And it is... It's a huge problem. It is. Thank you for that. With our aging community and with everybody who's in a lot of these condos. So I thought he gave them some really great legal, I don't think it was advice, but direction and just guidance as to what they could and could not do. Right. So... And I think what we've seen is, not surprisingly with the recent legislation to deal with the issues surrounding Surfside, there were unintended consequences that are really impacting a lot of residents. We've had two or three people come to see us saying two or three associations. They got their act together, they know where everything is, and they're managing it great, and they still can't get there. Okay. Thank you. Planning and zoning advisory board. Max. Yes. Max Goldstein. Rob couldn't make it, so you have to see my face instead. There's not that much to say that you don't already know, right? Because 90% of what our board goes through goes to you, like, the next week or two. So there's not that much that we have to inform you about. We did have a couple of asks, though. Rob, as written here. It hasn't happened very often, but there have been a couple times that someone from the board wasn't able to come, and their alternate was not in attendance. And we have the rule where the alternate has to be the alternate only for the person that appointed them. So we sometimes have that case where we have, instead of seven people, we have five or six. We still have quorum every time. We've never had that issue. But Rob asked for that to be amended so that any alternate that's in attendance can fill in whatever vacancy there is from the main board. And I'm in total agreement with that. And I believe we discussed that at the last council meeting, so I think we're on the path to incorporate that for more participation. And also, hopefully, getting the alternates to come to the meetings so they see what's going on in there. It's not just looking at the agenda once a year because that's when they get to participate. Right. The other request that I have that Rob didn't write is that… Uh-oh. No, no, no. It's not a major thing. Just a lot of our work and what we're looking at involves stuff that other boards also look at, like the Midtown Advisory Board, like Gateway Advisory Board, Affordable Housing Advisory Committee, and Sustainability also. Like it's all related. So if there can be some more coordination or like joint sessions with all these committees so that we can talk about it because some… Doesn't happen often, but sometimes PZB says one thing about a development in Midtown and then Midtown Advisory Board says a different thing. And there's a lack of communication there that I've noticed. Not that it's a major issue. That's my other request. And I just want to give a big shout out to Michael and to Danny for putting all this work through. I know that we, I hope that we're a really easy board to work with, but we have at times, you know, asked them to rewrite certain things, take a better look at it. And I really appreciate them and what they're doing. They're putting a lot of work here. They're smiling. I don't know what that means, but… I'm going to suck up. That's what that means. Any questions? I think planning and zoning is a board that we pretty closely monitor because it's pretty much the last step before it comes to us. So it's always fascinating to hear your discussion and makes it helps us make more better informed decisions. So thank you. Thank you. I see that Mr. Tosic arrived. So we'll go to the Education Advisory Board. Good evening. Good evening. I just want to thank Councilman Fadgen for the appointment again for reappointing. Also, it would be with Laura keeping us in line and in check and for all the council members who do come and attend and keep us aware of some of the things that the more eyes we have out there and the feet on the street for our education so we can make sure that, you know, there's every place what we can do for the, for our students and to make our city better through education. Our main goal, as we've been doing, is going out with the schools, getting out there with the PTSAs, PTOs, PTAs, getting out there and getting with the principals, having them. We changed the hours so it was a little more accommodating for the teachers and the principals so they didn't have to go home or have to wait around. So we meet at 430 and we've had a little bit better attendance there. We're working on, as the communications, working with the schools and getting that, and it's been a little bit of an uphill battle, but we're getting there and they're feeling more comfortable with us. And obviously, out of COVID, we're finally, this is the full year that we're away from COVID. So we're getting back into schools. The biggest thing we're looking at this next year is partnerships with businesses, with our civic organizations, the Kiwanis Club, the Women's Club, as well as some of the other social organizations we have. Working with the Shriners that work with children as the several other Masonic organizations and anybody. We've had a great former Miami Dolphin who was here at our last meeting talking about some education. We're going to look into getting that coming. Sorry? Ron, there you go. I appreciate it. Hey, what can I say? I'm not a Dolphin fan like the players. What can I say? But that's a whole other conversation, right? But, you know, we're here for the students and we're getting out there. And with the Kiwanis Club, with our key clubs and K kids out there with Plantation Park Elementary, Plantation Park Elementary and South Plantation and Plantation High School. They're getting out there in the community and working with some other projects and getting in the grassroots effort and just trying to get out there and find out what we need to get to our kids and continuing to hear what we have. I know we have a couple things coming up that we'll be attending. Some of the members will be attending zone meetings and things like that. So we're trying to get out there and do what's best to get back here and obviously relay back to the council because we can just do to advise. I think we had something that came up to as we were talking about the Russell group. So getting out there and, you know, we have everything in the city to help that too with our now that the museum is using the museum with some of the events as well as for our library. We have the teddy bear picnic. So we're trying to promote that for the reading and the history not only for the kids but to get us out there. So, and input from the council is always welcome and you know how to get in touch with us or me or if, you know, maybe stop a big red firetruck maybe. I might be on it. Any questions, comments, concerns? Very good. Mr. Mayor. Just to update you on the Russell Reading Foundation. Have you guys heard anything about this or not? You heard a little bit? Okay. So the Russell Reading Foundation created by Twan Russell and his mom 25 years ago. They're doing well in Pompano and Hollywood. The problem is they can't go on the school grounds because schools already have their own after school sunshine and all that stuff. I think somebody here runs that? I think so. So their model is to find a facility nearby to get their kids there. So we have discussed Plantation Elementary going to Jim Ward Center and tomorrow Mackie Firestein who is the executive director is going to talk to Trish about ways to do it. So far Parks and Rec has expressed an interest. Let's see if we can do it or not. And in Tallahassee Community Foundation showed up and says they can pay for buses. And Russell Reading Foundation uses real teachers. So they bring the teachers over, keep them connected, actually teach them things. So what the heck? Let's try it. Yeah. That's where I am. That's... If this is... Is this to be a day... Oh, sorry. He talked to me and I was just talking back. I'm sorry. Through the chair. Should I... May I respond to the... Go ahead. The... Is this to be a daily program? Because if it's not daily, it is allowed to be in the schools. If it's gonna be in every single day for multiple hours, that's where it competes with the aftercare. No, it's... It's essentially runs exactly the same as aftercare. If school's going on, you're out at 3.30, they take you to Russell Reading Foundation rather than... But Monday through Friday. Yeah. For... Except for holidays and everything. So then, yeah. Yeah. So, in some ways it could take money out of Plantation Elementary's pocket. I don't know how that works. You see what I mean? Yeah. But, you know, we gotta try. Yep. They're gonna do value-added things to teach kids how to read and help them up their game. And we can do it for free. We're gonna... So far, it's looked good. And EAB was all for... I mean, we had a good talk. Absolutely. We had a good talk with EAB. And not only that, but... Which is the way we do this. Mr. Russell also, it's not just the reading. It's mathematics and other things in the whole STEAM program. It was... It started out as reading, but he saw other things that they needed help, and they've added that into it. So, it's the whole gamut of education. Uh... Councilmember Reinstein. Hello, Mr. Tosic. Thank you for your leadership on the EAB. I see, um, Greg Goldstein from the EAB is here as well. Um... My question is, um... I know you... You... You talked about it and you put in your outline the, um... Relationship with the schools. I'm wondering if, um... Are... Are you tracking that in any way, or are there reports from the EAB members as to their school visits, or their involvement with the schools? When we have our meeting, uh... Each member has the opportunity to respond, uh... and give a report on the schools that they've been assigned, or they've picked up, and any interaction that they've had, so the members know as well as it's through the minutes. Because, uh... What I... I think what I've seen is that, um, some are reporting and some aren't. Right? Some are making it, some aren't. Just depending on schedules. And, um... I just want to... Wanted to see if there was any feedback if the schools want more involvement, or if the schools feel like they're getting enough involvement with the EAB. Some of the, uh... Members of the board have not gotten responses back from the schools. They've tried. It's just... Sometimes it's just getting in there and finally getting in the comfort zone, I believe. That's why we're looking at... Sometimes with the, uh... The parent-teachers association, or organizations, or those might be better. But we do have... The teacher... The principals and teachers that we've discussed with have come to the meetings, and they get... We do get reply back, if you see, on the minutes. When, uh... The, uh... Reports are given. Those are the ones that are responding back and forth that we have. Just saying if there's anything the council can do to help with those, uh... Relationships. And, um... Please let us know. Absolutely. Um... Councilmember Andrea. Fantastic. I just wanted to, again, do another shameless plug. So, we have so many great school choice programs within our schools. And so, Friday, February 2nd, is the last day for parents to apply for those schools. And I know EAB will help push that information out. And then, also, I'm hoping that we get, um... Participation at the upcoming, um... Superintendent, uh... Meetings to discuss repurposing of school locations. And so, those will be kicking off on... February... 8th. So, the first one is at Fort Lauderdale High on February 8th. That's a Thursday. Then there's also one on February 15th and February 22nd. But hopefully, um... If you're available or other EAB members to attend one of those three meetings. And if you can't attend in person, I believe they'll be streaming it. But, great community conversations about redefining our schools. That's right. I have it on my calendar. One of the ones I'm going to be able to make is... Yeah, that's the... Redefining our schools. That's what it was, right? Thank you so much. You're welcome. Um... Councilmember Horland. Very quickly. Thank you again, Mr. Talcic and Mr. Goldstein. Uh... You've got two former EAB members here. So, um... I... You know, we understand the, uh... Difficulty sometimes in getting communication back from the schools. So, if you have not done so already, I would suggest... You know, perhaps Laura can help you, or one of us can help you with that. It's getting the schedule of all the SAC and SAF meetings as well. Um... Because SAC allows a community, a member of the community to be on that. That would be important if somebody could, um... Join from the EAB, if their time allows it. But I think you can cover the gamut with the PTA, PTSO, SAC, SAF, and any of these community meetings. I'd really like to see some of the EAB members. Um... Obviously, can't be at all of them. Right. But if we can get involved in that way, that would be an excellent opportunity. I know that, um... Mr. Rose attends several of them. He's on one of those committees. Oh, right. He gives us feedback on that, for sure. Wonderful. Great. Thank you, Mr. Tal. You're welcome. Mayor Sortel. Um... Yes. At the last meeting, they talked about where they want to go for next year. And I suggested each meeting have the principal speak first, because they wait around the whole hour, and then they talk. So, I'll bring them cookies. Hell, I don't care. Let's just get them to talk and tell us what's going on through school. So, I think you're going to make that adjustment. Right. Right. And the second thing is, uh, somewhat relatedly, at the next national night out, we're going to have the SROs all show up. So, you can meet your SRO before school starts, but we also could link EAB people there, so they can make a physical contact with people with the schools, rather than just a random call or email. So, that's what we're working on. Great. Thank you, Mr. Kosick. Thank you. Appreciate it. Thank you for letting us serve. Absolutely. Um... Gateway Advisory Board. Mr. Hall. Yes, sir. Good evening. Glenn Hall, CRA Administrator. I'm here on behalf of Mike Cooley. Uh... You have the documentation. I want to highlight some of the successes that we did have. You know, of course, the development of the Publix. We can say Publix now. The new HCA freestanding emergency room. HCA is back. Closing of Plantation Inn. You'll be able to see more on that. Um... The movement of pre-construction work for Hometown Heroes Project. Four townhomes on 4271 Peters Road. The installations of the LP Yard, which has been very successful with multiple felony arrests, et cetera, and reducing crime in the area. And the commencement of a landscaping street plan for the rest of 441. Um... And including Sunrise. That's the overview. Any questions? Council Member Andrea? Just if you can save me some time and research. I was going to go look it up, but since you're here. Uh... Mm-hmm. I have someone, because I have the rotating seat, so there's someone I want to appoint who has his business in the gateway, but doesn't... Mm-hmm. He's not a resident. Can he serve? Or you have to be a resident for this one? I thought it was his business. I have to check. Just the business? I think it's business. Okay. At our next meeting, I'll appoint someone for that rotating seat. Okay. As we're all checking it out. Thank you. You're welcome. And one other question. Any update? And I know we haven't discussed it at length up here, but I was kind of waiting for a little bit more information in terms of, I believe it's also with Parks and Rec. We were trying to see if we could do something in honor of Kingsley Smith at the Passive Park. Parks and Rec? Yeah. Ooh. Exciting. Yeah. But I know we were waiting also for the equipment to come in, so I just had... Right, the equipment's coming in. So I think that, I guess the plan would be to have it as part of that installation. Okay. Any estimated timeframe, or if you can get back to us? From what I understand, it's actually being manufactured now for delivery, I believe, in February. Yeah. I know they're having services for him also coming up in February, so it'd be great if we could get that timing together. Yeah, cool. But if somebody could just, once we have a tentative date. Right. I have that in mind, but that's something that, as you know, he came to many of our events, and so, yeah, it'd be great to do that as a symbol of his work in the Park East. Yes. Yeah. Yes. Thank you so much. You're welcome. Mr. Mayor. Real quick, we've also met and talked, we've got to do better about the panhandling there, and addressing it, so I'm just letting you know it's on the table. We're working on it. I do not see any other questions. Thank you. You're welcome. Next up, Midtown Advisory Board. Mr. Lethbridge. Good evening, members of the council, and Barry Lethbridge representing the Midtown Advisory Board. Also, I'd like to thank, you know, Danny and Michael for their help with our board each month. It's very good, the support that we get from them. As far as the things that we've accomplished in 2023, we voted for the tag readers in Midtown Development, and I think that will be a good addition, as it has been over on Gateway, to help with any crime situations. We approved the conceptual plan for the Midtown Bridge Project, and approved funding, planning development, and engineering studies. So that's going to be an important piece to ease some of the traffic congestion that's in the Midtown. Moved the plan along for the Midtown Spine Road. That's something that I'll come back to, but we're continuing to hope that we can do something like that, because it will tie into the bridge and make things, you know, keep the traffic within the district if, you know, if people are moving around and keep them off of Pine Island University. And, you know, that will be a great help. And, you know, that's the largest problem that we have for all the development that we're doing in Midtown is, you know, is the traffic. We discussed and supported a funding process for a land use amendment plan to a regional activity center. And I'll discuss that a little bit later also. Reviewed plans for Midtown projects, hosted one, and attended several other roundtable discussions of the comprehensive plan update, and discussed some code amendments with staff. That's what we did for 23. For 24, our goals are to get council approval and funding for the filing of the regional activity center. That's just – I can't, you know, urge you enough to really make this a year that that gets done. I've been serving on this board probably for 30 years or more, and it's something we've been talking about. And it'll just make it that much – it's not going to take away anything. The ability of the council to coordinate and oversee and control the development is just going to give the people that are, you know, coming in and looking a little bit more confidence that they can get something done and gives you flexibility to help a good project get through in the Midtown. And we're – you know, the Midtown is maturing. It's a mature place now, and there's going to be more redevelopment coming along. And those type of things make it much easier if we have a regional activity center in place. We'll continue to – the discussion of the spine road in the district to relieve the congestion. I don't know – you know, there's – it's not going to be an easy thing to do as far as to have a dedicated road. It's probably going to be something that we're going to be able to outline and maybe with signage and, you know, because to acquire right-of-ways through different projects to link everything up to that light that's going down to the bridge and everything else is very difficult. But something that – working with staff and with the council and with our group, I think we could come along with a, you know, with a plan that would at least outline that for people. Because, I mean, if you know that area, you know you can get through it now. You know how to – where to turn it, how to get through it. But for the people that come in, they don't. And so we can – we can dedicate something like that and use signage or, you know, wayfinding to do that. That was something that we'd like to see the council look at. We want to continue to work on the conceptual plan for the district, follow up with the mayor and the council. And we appreciate what is being done right now in regards to permitting and things like that because a lot of the work that goes on in the midtown district is tenant improvements, people moving in and out. And, you know, a lot of times a building owner will lose a deal because they don't get – you know, they can't get them in there soon enough as far as to get their business up and running. So that's something that, you know, will be very helpful. And that's all I have for you. Any questions? Very good. Well, I believe we're voting on something today that's going to establish the RAC, so. Good. That would be great. We're already ahead of schedule. All right. Excellent. Long, hot, a lot of discussion. Anybody have any questions? Nope. Thank you for serving. Thank you very much. Appreciate it. Have a good evening. Does anybody have any other general comments? We don't have any more boards to speak. Councilmember Horland. Thank you. Not to beat a dead horse because we've had this conversation many times, but to follow up on what Mr. Lethbridge said, I know it's something that I had talked to the previous administration about, and I know that the current mayor has also entertained the idea of some type of business concierge and what we can do to try to get the permitting. And it's not just the permitting. And I commented because I brought some wicked bread samples in the back, if anybody's heard about wicked bread. And, you know, each time I go into a new business, the question always is, how was it opening? And I've never once had a business say to me, and it distresses me to no end, oh, it was great. And the same with wicked bread today. So, you know, it's not any one issue. It's not just permitting. It's inspections as well. And I think that we really need to take a look at how we're streamlining that process because it just really hurts my heart that people want to come and open in our city, and they start with such a negative impression. And we all know that, you know, going into, you know, building departments always have the most complaints in any city that's going to be because we need to hold people accountable, and that's the way that is, but I think whatever we can do, and I think the business tax license was certainly an issue, and we're cleaning that up, but it's going to continue to hurt us in the Midtown area when people are trying to open a business, and it takes so long. And wicked bread, for example, is a mom and pop. They're losing time and money with those delays. Same thing happened with Vivace. So we need to take a look, a really hard look at that, and I know you're trying to work on improving that, but I think collectively we have to make sure that we're getting it done. Very good. Council Member Weinstein. I think earlier last year, one of the things that we started talking about when we first were making appointments to the various advisory boards was the need to empower the boards more and to make sure that we were giving the boards more opportunity to do more and to be heard more, and I think we're working towards that, which has been great. I think I've been hearing a lot of positive feedback from, at least from my appointees, and some of that is coming because of our liaisons, that they're really bringing a new sense of ownership for each of the boards, and I think it's making a big difference. Also, the sharing the information on our social media is making a big difference. I think we were doing a lot of it for a little while, and then I think we slowed down because maybe there were a lot of other things going on, but I'd like to see that continue and even pick up. And one of the other points, though, is finding other ways to share that information, that just sharing it on social media isn't reaching enough people. And so, you know, whether it is some collaboration with the mall or with some restaurants to share information, especially when we need new appointees, that it's a, you know, we want to reach more people. And the more we do that, the more people see all the good things that are going on in our city. So it's a win-win for everybody. Thanks. Thank you. Mayor Sorte. Thank you for those comments, Mr. Reinstein. The way I envisioned originally when I took office was that we would have the advisory board meeting, somebody would email two or three paragraphs to somebody, and we would push it out the next day. Having been able to implement that, I don't know if that should be done by the chair, if that should be done by the liaison, or how to do that. The things that you would say if you walked into a barbershop the next day. EAB, we decided that we had three principals there. Whatever you did. And if we just share that info on social, we're going to advance. But, yeah, I would love to do it a more formal way. Just haven't gotten it done. Take any advice if you got it. Thank you. I think that wraps it up. I'll just say thank you to all of our appointees for volunteering your time. And it feels like we are empowering you. And hopefully we'll keep empowering you. And thank you. So with that, it's 543. We're going to adjourn. And we'll restart the CRA meeting at 6 p.m. and hopefully we'll be right back. The next day, we'll get started. Thank you again for joining us on theспers of the state for next week at 6 p.m. We'll be right back. We'll be right back. Thanks for joining us. We'll be right back. We'll see you next time. Bye. Bye. Bye. Bye. Bye. Bye. Bye. Bye. Bye. Bye. Bye. Bye. Bye. Bye. Bye.