All right. Welcome, everyone. Welcome to City Hall here in
the City of Hollywood. Today is Wednesday, August 26th, 2026.
And we are here for a City commission meeting. Of course,
every meeting of the City Commission has important items
on the agenda and important recognition, and today will be
no different. And in fact, today will be really
exceptional in what we're recognizing today. But before
we get on with the agenda, we do always start the meeting
with a moment of silence, followed by the Pledge of
Allegiance. And at times when a member of the City Commission
wishes to ask for a moment of privilege to remember someone
in the community or in their personal life that was lost
during since we last met as a city commission, then we, of
course, extend that opportunity for the community to think of
someone as we rise for the moment of silence. So at this
time, I'd like to recognize Commissioner Quintana, who
would like to extend her remembrance of a friend. Go
ahead, Commissioner Quintana. Thank you very much, mayor.
Today I'd like to take a moment for us to remember Steve
Werthmann. Steve's enduring legacy is in South Florida,
where he was a beloved community activist, a devoted
husband, son and friend. He was a Broward County resident from
the age of two, where Steve witnessed tremendous change
over his lifetime and helped bring about some of the best of
it. For more than four decades, he served as Broward County,
Broward County through his work in environmental conservation,
affordable housing, mental health, and homeless services.
While some people measure their lives by personal success,
Steve measured his by the difference he made in the lives
of others. In the late 70s, Steve co-founded Environmental
Coalition of Broward County. In 1982, he became the first
executive director of the Florida League of Conservation
Voters. He later served as site supervisor for specialized
Urban Ministries Urban Garden Program in Broward County, and
in the late 80s, he became Broward County's first outreach
case manager for people experiencing homelessness and
mental illness at Henderson Mental Health Center. He went
on to manage the county's first transitional shelter for
homeless families operated by Salvation Army, and later he
opened the Miami Rescue Mission Broward Outreach Center, right
here in Hollywood. He ended his formal career as chief
operating officer for Hope South Florida. Above all, Steve
cherished the life he shared with his beloved wife, Kathy.
They met in 1991 when both worked for the
And they married at Trinity College Chapel in Hartford,
Connecticut. Together, they enjoyed a life centered on love,
friendship, music, faith, family, and community. Their
partnership reflected the same compassion and generosity that
defined Steve's life. I'll remember Steve always for his
passion for being barefoot everywhere he went, so I. Every
time I'll. Barefoot, I'll remember Steve. Thank you.
Thank you, Commissioner Quintana as well. You all might
have heard that the community lost a a member. His name was
Larry Davis. Larry was an attorney that lived here in the
city of Hollywood. Practiced here on Harrison Street at his
law office for decades, served a lot of people again as an
attorney. Began his career, as I later learned, in social work
and in behavioral health, when that was first really starting
to bud here in Broward County, back in the 1980s and 90s was
very close with Bob Butterworth, the former attorney general who
still lives in Hollywood and has a lot of close friends that
will miss him dearly, a lot of colleagues in the professional
legal world that will miss him. He was someone who was very
well known in in the Broward County courthouse, by every
bailiff, by every clerk, and was a real, real great person.
We're all going to miss him. And it really is a great loss.
So think of Steve and think of Larry. Mayor. Yes. Go ahead
Commissioner. Just also, if we would just remember all of the
lives lost in the earthquake in Venezuela and the lives lost in
Colombia. Yeah, indeed. Well, thank you all. Let's be
thankful for our for our blessings and for the moments
we've had with people that we care about. Please rise for
that moment of silence, followed by the Pledge of
Allegiance. I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United
States of America and to the Republic for which it stands.
One nation under God, indivisible, with liberty and
justice for all. Thank you so much. We also take an important
moment to recognize our veterans, active service
personnel and their families. So if you are a veteran of the
US Armed Forces, family member thereof, active duty, please
rise. We'd like to recognize you. Thank you. All right,
let's go for roll call. Pat. Commissioner Quintana. Yeah,
here. Commissioner Shuhan here. Commissioner Hernandez here.
Commissioner Kalari here. Sorry. Vice mayor Kalari. Commissioner
Gruber here. Commissioner Biederman here, mayor Levy here.
All right, before we get started with our agenda, there
is also a special recognition that I certainly feel
responsible and happy to extend. Commissioner Shuhan from
district one in Hollywood was just elected to be our new
district six South Broward County Commissioner. She'll be
with us until she's sworn in as county commissioner. I believe
it's November 17th. So congratulations, Commissioner
Shuhan. All right. On to the consent agenda today. These are
items five through 22. These are items that don't usually
require individual discussion. However, if a member of the
body or the public submits a comment card, we are happy to
remove it for discussion later in the agenda. Pat, are there
any speaker cards on consent item 13, item 13. Okay, let me
put that into the regular agenda. Any any requests from
the dais for 16, please? 16 anything else? Otherwise I'll
accept a motion to move items. Five through 22, -13 and 16.
Second. We have a second from Commissioner Quintana, motion
from Vice Mayor Kolody. All those in favor say aye. Aye.
Any opposed? Hearing none. Those items carry unanimously.
All right. 1 p.m. presentations, proclamations and awards. I
would like to begin and extend an opportunity to invite our
fire chief, Jeff Levy, up. He would love to recognize the
recipients of the Meritorious Service Award for the fire and
beach safety, and, of course, the life saving Award chief
mayor, Vice mayor, commissioners, city manager and
staff. Thank you, Jeff Levy, Fire Chief, we're going to be
presenting a few awards today, and every one of these awards
were presenting are all life saving heroes from a doctor and
a physician who are doctors and physicians at Memorial, but
also oversee the Hollywood Heroes program, who teach CPR
to our residents and business owners. We're also going to be
recognizing two of our fire rescue and ocean rescue
personnel, one for his deployment to Venezuela for the
earthquake as part of the Urban Search and Rescue team. And
then another one, our hero Ocean Rescue lifeguard. That
was you'll hear the story in a minute. That saved his family
while on vacation in Aruba. So Chief Moser is going to read
the, the, the the, the descriptions and recognize
these wonderful individuals. Thank you, thank you. Thank you
chief. Good afternoon, mayor, Vice Mayor and commissioners
and city staff. Today, we're honoring several different
employees. As Chief Levy mentioned. I'd like to first
ask Doctor Bassan and Nurse Caitlin Iles to come up. So as
they come up today, we're honored to recognize Doctor
Eric Bassan and registered nurse Caitlin Iles for their
dedication to improving cardiac arrest survival throughout the
community. Together, through their leadership of Memorial
Health Care Systems and Hollywood's Heroes program,
they have helped provide hands only CPR and AED training to
more than 700 citizens and City of Hollywood employees. Their
work has strengthened the chain of survival by preparing
bystanders to act during critical moments before EMS
arrives. Doctor Bassan is also advanced hospital based
resuscitation care. By creating the Memorial Regional Hospital
Resuscitation Committee and helped establish Florida's
first comprehensive resuscitation center. Caitlin,
as co-director of the Heroes program, has been instrumental
in coordinating and expanding its lifesaving education
through Hollywood. Their partnership with Hollywood Fire
Rescue has helped connect community education, emergency
response, and advanced hospital care into a seamless continuum.
These efforts have contributed to survival rates with good
neurological outcomes that exceed state and national
benchmarks. Doctor Bassan and Caitlin exemplify leadership,
collaboration and service. We are proud to recognize them
with the Citizen Award of Merit and sincerely thank them for
their commitment to protecting the lives of those in our
community. Thank you, thank you, thank you, thank you. Thank you.
At this time, I'd like to call Lieutenant Chris Garcia to join
me at the podium. We are honored to recognize Lieutenant
Chris Garcia with the Meritorious Service Award for
his extraordinary courage, selfless service, and
unwavering commitment to preserving human life.
Lieutenant Garcia deployed to Venezuela as a member of
Florida Task Force two following the catastrophic
earthquake. During this international urban search and
rescue deployment, Lieutenant Garcia spent eight consecutive
days conducting search and rescue operations in unstable
and collapsed structures, assisting victims who were
trapped beneath earthquake debris. Throughout the
deployment, he willingly operated in an environment of
extreme personal danger. He faced compromised buildings,
shifting rubble and hazardous conditions. Despite these risks,
Lieutenant Garcia repeatedly placed himselfn harm's way to
locate reach and rescue survivors. His actions
demonstrated exceptional bravery, professionalism and
dedication to the mission of this fire service. Working
under physically demanding and emotionally taxing conditions,
Lieutenant Garcia remained focused on saving lives. Every
rescue required calculated risk, exceptional skill, and
extraordinary courage. His willingness to perform
dangerous rescue operations in the aftermath of a devastating
earthquake exemplifies conduct that is clearly above and
beyond the ordinary. Call of duty. Lieutenant Garcia's
courage and unwavering devotion to protecting human life
embodies the highest traditions of the fire service for his
extraordinary courage, selfless service, and dedication to
saving lives. Lieutenant Chris Garcia is receiving this
Meritorious Service award. Lieutenant Garcia, on behalf of
Hollywood Fire Rescue and the City of Hollywood, we thank you
for your courage, your service, and your unwavering commitment
to helping others in their greatest time of need.
Congratulations. Thank you. Thank you so much. I would next
like to call Ocean Rescue lifeguard Marcelo Lorenzo. For
this award. I want to receive. I want to read the email that
we got from his grandparents, which obviously led us to to
recognizing him today. On August 11th, 2026, members of
our family were on vacation in Aruba and decided to take a
speedboat towed tubing excursion. Three members of our
family daughter, son and granddaughter were on one two,
while Marcelo and other family members were on a second tube
alongside. The boat. Pilot unfortunately took a wide turn
and caused the tube with our daughter, son and granddaughter
to collide at high speed with an anchored, ocean going
catamaran. The entire incident was captured on video. The
impact was at high speed and extremely violent, and
catapulted all three riders onto the catamaran. Others
excuse me. Other than Marcelo Lorenzo, there were no other
first responders in the area. Marcelo saw our granddaughter
face down and unconscious in the water. He also realized
that his severely injured father was underneath the
catamaran, holding on to the netting without hesitation and
putting himself at risk. Dove into the water, rescued our
granddaughter, started CPR to evacuate water in her stomach
and lungs. Within minutes, he was back in the water and
pulled his father to safety. Marcelo continued life support
until relieved by local first responders. As a result of this
catastrophic incident. Our granddaughter has spinal
injuries and severe head trauma and must be medevaced out by
air ambulance. Marcelo's father has two broken ribs and a
bruised and punctured lung. Our daughter's arm was broken in
three places and needs immediate surgery. As severe as
these injuries are, they would have been far worse if Marcelo
was not on the scene. His actions speak volumes and
reflect positively on your agency, which provided him with
the necessary training and professionalism to demonstrate
command, presence and take the necessary actions in the face
of extreme danger and mental duress. Lifeguard Marcelo
Lorenzo acted with remarkable courage, quick thinking and
selflessness. His decisive actions not only safeguarded
lives but also prevented further harm to members of his
family. Learning of such dedication was both humbling
and inspiring, and it serves as a powerful reminder of the
extraordinary commitment that your agency upholds every day
in the training of your personnel. Congratulations!
I'd like to extend a moment of
privilege for Vice Mayor Callery, who would like to make
a comment. Well, first of all, that is amazing. God bless you.
And I'm sure your family is just so pleased to have you
representing them. And we're so pleased that you're
representing the city of Hollywood with your amazingness.
So congratulations again. Thank you. I would also, I'd be
remiss if I didn't point a point of privilege for a moment
of silence for Battalion Chief Michael O'Donnell, who passed
away during our summer break. And so if you can keep his
family and the entire fire department in their in your
prayers as well, that's all I have. And it's great to see
everyone here. The Chiefs for Fire and Beach Safety and
Rescue, and to recognize Lieutenant Garcia and lifeguard
Lorenzo for both, you know, exercising their training and
their instinct and for the courage that you've displayed,
both in the earthquake aftermath, which I'm sure
wasn't easy of seeing what you saw. And then for, of course,
the, the, you know, instant trauma and the instant, you
know, occurrence that happened. Lifeguard Lorenzo, with your
family, that must have been, you know, a terrifying moment.
But your instinct was, was I'm a lifeguard and that's special.
So congratulations. Appreciate it. And thank you to the doctor
and Katie Lyons for both. I worked with you guys alongside
of CPR training. You guys got to continue doing it because
that one person you make a difference in can save a life.
It's the most I don't know if you trained, you know,
lifeguard Lorenzo, but whoever did did a good job. So if you'd
like to say a few words, we're happy to hear from either of
you. Maybe tell us, you know, Venezuela, we saw a lot of
heartbreak and a lot of significant damage there on TV
screens. But you saw it in person. Yes. Just like. Chief
Moser described. Everything was was true. The emotional. Damage
that out to me was probably the hardest part. I'm bilingual,
speak Spanish as well, fluently. So I was a translator for most
of our team and dealing with that, talking to those families
that were just holding on to the little bit of hope that
their family member was still alive. That made all the
difference. I am proud to say that FEMA Task Force Team two
did make a remarkable rescue of a gentleman, a security guard,
Hernan. He was wedged three floors below the street level
in a parking booth when the earthquake happened, and it
took us 53 hours of nonstop around the clock work,
tunneling through debris, as well as putting ourselves in
danger. Because every single structure there that I saw was
unstable, it could have collapsed on us it almost a
couple times. Thankfully, we we were able to stabilize it and
shore it up and work together as a team. There were over 40
other teams from around the world in Venezuela. We were all
working side by side with each other, but it was a great
experience. It had its highs and its lows. But overall, I am
forever grateful for the opportunity that you guys were
able to provide and allowing me to go and support Hollywood,
the city departments, the people, everybody. Thank you,
thank you, thank you. Hello. I just want to say thank you for
having me here. I'm very appreciative for this award.
It's an honor. And I just want to give a huge shout out to the
Fire Rescue and Ocean Department for giving me the
best training and allowing me to help my family. Thank you,
thank you, thank you. Well, we wish a quick recovery to the
members of the Lorenzo family. Wishing the best for your
family members to recover safely. And thank you,
Lieutenant Garcia, for representing Hollywood in the
best way possible. We're proud of you guys. Proud to have you.
Thank you, thank you. Yeah. But before you before you go, I've
got commissioners Truman Biederman. Go ahead
Commissioner, I well, to all three I mean, thank you all so
much for the incredible work and for, you know, having
Hollywood be reflected throughout the world in such an
incredible way. My question, Lorenzo, it sounds like your
family, in addition to the, you know, horrible incident and
injuries, it sounds like there's probably significant
costs that have been incurred via medevac and things like
that. And I just wanted to know if there's a place that people
who are listening might be able to assist your family in any
way. No, everything. Yeah. All good. Okay. Thank you.
Appreciate it. Thank you. Great. Commissioner Biederman, just
wanted to make a shout out to our fire rescue and our two.
Team members here and the training that they got. And I
mean, this just shows why why Hollywood is a class one
department. And the training that we give. And I think this
just demonstrates what we do here in Hollywood. And I
commend you both for what you did. And as far as the hero
program, I don't know if anybody else got to witness
what they do, but Boulevard Heights had them, and it was
well embraced by all the attendees and what they do and
commend them too, for helping to teach others on how to save
lives. Thank you. Thank you all. Thank you. Well, I feel like we
can adjourn the meeting now because that was so special.
But from one case to another. Thank you all so much. Thank
you all for everyone from Hollywood Fire Rescue. Who's
here? Hollywood Police Department, if you're here to
support these award recipients, thank you so much. You. You
would. Happy for you to stay until 5:00 if you like, but
otherwise family as well. You're free to go. Good job.
Appreciate you. Thank you. All right. Thank you, thank you.
Yeah, sure. Sure. Is that one of our classes? I know Tracy,
know CPR, but do you guys know? I should think I should take
your class. Thank you. These are my daughters. I don't know
if I know CPR, but I got a certificate that says I do.
Thank you. Hello? Hello. Thanks, doctor. No, I was at the
Boulevard Heights thing. Oh. You were? Yeah, yeah. Thank you.
Yes. Thank you. Yes, I've seen you twice. Bye, guys. Thank you.
Bye, Beverly. Come on. Everybody, that was beautiful.
Great. Senator Sharif. Yes. I know, I didn't realize. I had
no idea until now. Yeah, I probably saw it on social media.
Actually. I saw it on the news. Yeah. All right. Well, thank
you all so much. Now on to more ordinary business. But nothing
is ever ordinary, right. Senator Sharif, Senator Barbara
Sharif is here with us. She would like to and we've invited
her to speak to us regarding the 2026 legislative session.
And so we're happy to have her and thank her, of course, for
representing us so well in Tallahassee. And here we go
again with another session coming up. Senator, I know it
seems like it just it starts and it ends and then it starts
again. But it is always a privilege to be here in the
great city of Hollywood, one of my favorite cities that I
represent. You know, one of the most rewarding parts about
representing district 35 in the Florida Senate is listening to
the needs of this community. And you guys do that so well by
advocating in Tallahassee. And I want to say thank you for
always coming up, thanking you for keeping me informed about
your issues. And congratulations, Commissioner
Shoham, I know you're going to do a great job. I'm especially
proud to be here today to present the 170 zero zero $0
state funding for the Boulevard Heights Community Center senior
program expansion. Right. As you know, you know, no
appropriation is possible without a partner on the other
side. And we've got a great partner. And Representative
Hilary Cassell, who's here with me as well today. So our
seniors have spent decades building our neighborhoods,
supporting our families, and contributing to the communities
we call home. They deserve opportunities to remain active,
connected and engaged and supported. I was proud to
advocate for this funding during the state budget process,
and I look forward to seeing the impact it would have right
here in the city of Hollywood. This investment was also part
of a broader effort this year to bring state resources home
to district 35. Altogether, these successful appropriations
represent more than 5.3 million in investments in public safety
and infrastructure education, senior services, veterans,
families and community programs. But my work in Tallahassee went
beyond the state budget this year. I was proud to say that I
received I well, I put forth five bills and I had five bills
signed into law, SB 42, which addressed specific medical
diagnosis and child protective investigation, and its
companion, HB 47, passed the legislature and became law.
This revamped portion of the DCF program, where children who
are removed from their parents care as a result of medical
diagnoses that mimic child abuse, now have a way to get
their kids back through a legislative process that
improves their ability to defend themselves. This is
great to keep families unified and to also fix an issue that
has been plaguing us for many, many years. I also carried
legislation strengthening Florida's Veterans dental care
program. As you know, veterans who do not have injuries to
their oral area as a result of combat do not get dental
coverage. Therefore, veterans are going without dental care.
And so this program created a well added to and made a $1.5
million per year veterans dental grant program that will
keep veterans healthy. We had a uterine fibroid database. We
did the. In the Department of Health, they address issues
that affect the community's health. Uterine fibroids is
something. And women's health in general is something that we
don't really address most of the time. And there's always a
deficit where it concerns women's health, women's health.
And so our uterine fibroid, uterine fibroid research and
database bill will allow for us to collect data and also
educate women on the side effects and the possible issues
that they could face with if they have uterine fibroids. We
also have this year, we're planning to continue to work on
women's health issues, the impact of perimenopause and
menopause on our female community. Many people are
experiencing these issues, and they don't understand that the
anxiety, the palpitations, the memory fog and all the other
things that they're experiencing as a woman have
absolutely nothing to do with anything. For a long time. We
in the medical profession, yes, men, listen up. We in the
medical profession have been taught through our training
that prescribing bioidentical hormone replacement therapy for
women was not a good idea, because there were side effects.
About a year and a half ago, the FDA released a study and
said, listen, we've been wrong on this all this time. And so
there's a retraining effort going on with all professionals.
I'm 34 years in practice, and there's many others of us out
there that have been out there and were told out of school,
listen, we don't prescribe these therapies for women
because they can be at risk for high blood pressure, clots and
strokes. Well, that's just not true. And so I have a bill that
I'm working with the Department of Health on that will address
that and to help to get some help to the women. And also it
will help the men because, you know, we're pretty ornery when
we're going through menopause. Just saying, I got mad. I mean,
I have road rage now. Oh, was I supposed to say I'm sorry, I
don't have road rage to keep that air conditioning on, right?
Yeah, yeah. Oh, my thermostat's possessed, you know, I have
personal summers. Again. You know, one of the other things
that we addressed this year was the property taxes. I know
during the special session, the legislature advanced an
amendment three, which you'll see in November. And we're
doing our very, very best job to really inform people on what
that means for them and what that means for cities and
counties. And so we will, throughout this district and
throughout this, the rest of the year leading up to November,
we will have educational seminars within the community
so that we can give everybody as much information as possible
so that they can vote in an informed manner. If approved by
voters, the proposal would increase the homestead
exemption for taxes other than school district taxes levied up
to $150,000 for the year of 2027, and then $250,000 for
2028. It also would lower the annual cap on increases in
assessed value for non homesteaded property from 10%
to 5% beginning in 2027. We recognize that there's
challenges with this proposal, and I wanted to let you all
know that after the vote, if it does pass, we will go back for
an implementation session. And that implementation session
would involve the House and the Senate and the governor's
office working on ways to minimize the impact to local
governments. That will mean, at some point in time, that some
cities or counties that only fund through property taxes may
end up being annexed into others around them so that they
can continue to function and that those those governments
will be continue to, you know, be in place. Let's see. So on
November the 3rd, they'll it'll be a required to pass by a 60%
approval. Additionally, the other thing that we're going to
handle this year, we had a two year pushback on property
insurance. So as you know, the governor and the Office of
Insurance Regulation allowed for admission of about 21
additional insurance carriers to come into the Florida market
to write insurance. What they were hoping to gain is that
property insurance premiums would decrease by somewhere
between 30 and 40% for the residents that are paying them.
What we've seen is that that has not occurred. And part of
what the plan was, is that brokers would have
opportunities to reprice through three quotes through
all of these new carriers and decrease the rates for property
insurance. So some people are doing it, some people are not.
That's what we've seen. And then the other thing that we've
seen is that the the rates have not dropped substantially like
they thought by flooding the market with more carriers. So
this is our two year end to the wait. And I believe that this
session we're going back again. And so we'll be dealing with
property insurance and property tax. And I'm answering that
because every time we go to one of these homeowners meetings,
people ask, when are you going to do something about property
insurance? And then the last thing is that. We are going to.
Okay, so we're going to give a check. Yes. So we're done.
Thank you so much, doctor. Thank you. All right. Why don't
we join Doctor Sharif down below for photo.
Of her bank account. Clearly the Senate
gets a little bit more money than the House. And you see can
you see my check. And I'm a lefty. She has much nicer
handwriting than I have. The only thing you'll get with this
check is that it'll never balance. I've never bounced a
check, but I wouldn't. This one directly. This one. This one.
You can't go to bed. Because he's in a little bit. There you
go. That's great. Yes. I'm going to take one now. That.
Doctor Sharif. Thank you so much. I can tell you that the
Boulevard Heights Senior program is so well attended and
serves so many seniors week after week. It's really a
special program. And so thank you so much for helping to keep
it going. A lot of seniors just rely on it. And so thank you so
much for fighting for us up there and as well,
Representative Castelli, thank you. Thank you. All right. At
this time, we have a presentation by Representative
Hillary Kissel regarding the 2026 Florida legislative
session. On the House side, of course, Senator Sharif is in
the Florida Senate. And representing us so ably is
Representative Cosell. Please. Thank you, mayor. And you
brought a check with you as well. I did also bring a check,
yes. Yes. Thank you. Thank you, mayor, vice mayor,
commissioners, obviously, it's always such a pleasure to be
able to present in front of you a little bit of a summary of
what occurred during the 2026 legislative session. The House
and Senate are two very different chambers. So I like
to always start off my presentation is with really
talking about the work that we get to do together as a chamber
in the House. I don't think we hear about it often enough. So
one of the things I always like to focus on, what work did we
do together? And overall, 1896 bills were filed in both
chambers. 237 of them passed. This was not a year where there
was a lot of policy that actually passed, but 237 bills
did get passed. 83% of those bills were passed with
bipartisan support, meaning 83% of the time your legislator,
Republican and Democrat, are working together in the best
interest of Floridians to make sure that we are tackling the
problems that Floridians are facing. I have the honor and
privilege of serving on several committees in the legislature.
I serve on the Judiciary Committee. I serve as vice
chair of insurance and banking. As you all know, my favorite
place to be. I serve on the health care, budget, housing,
AG and Tourism subcommittee in the Health Care Facilities
Subcommittee and the Information Technology budget,
and I had the opportunity to serve on the Select Committee
with Property Taxes, which is actually a committee that we
served on for over a year in the House. Working on tackling
this issue. I had the chance to meet with all five cities that
I represent. I spent a significant amount of time with
your staff. As we were talking about the conversation, knowing
that at some point we would see some type of property tax
reform. I think when it originally started, we were all
thinking that reform was going to look like a complete
elimination of property taxes. I will say, over the course of
that year, working in the House chamber with our speaker and
then with our Senate partners, we were very adamant that an
elimination of complete a complete elimination of
property taxes was never going to be sustainable. And ensuring
that we protected our public schools was a high priority for
both the House and the Senate. And I think that's why you see
the proposal that voters will have an opportunity to pass or
fail in November. But at the end of the day, we have given
them that choice. I passed several pieces of legislation.
I was actually the only legislator to pass anything AI
related. Unfortunately, it did not make it to the governor's
desk. But as everybody knows here, I'm a big insurance
advocate, a big consumer advocate. And we know that when
it comes to AI and denials that insurance companies have a high
error rate when utilizing AI in either denying underpaying
claims, and that's across all types of claims, whether it be
health insurance, property insurance, etc. So we were
successful in passing that off the House floor, but it got us
it got the conversation started about AI and consumer
protections. And I look forward to bringing that in the next
legislative session. I also pass legislation that was
actually brought to me by constituents of district 101,
which dealt with expanding access to schools. So we
focused on expanding access to micro schools, schools that can
provide facilities for children that need additional assistance,
whether they have disabilities, or to provide additional
support for our religious schools. So schools that serve
150 students or less have the ability to operate in mixed use
spaces, which we know since Covid have really been vacant.
As businesses return to working at home and leaving sort of
that retail space open, we're going to have the ability to
utilize those spaces for schools of 150 students or less,
but ensuring that cities have the ability to utilize their
traffic concerns and making sure that they work with those
schools on those issues. So we don't have we don't run into
traffic issues. And then my other project that I love to
support are issues related to mental health. Two years ago,
we successfully successfully passed legislation that was
signed into law that dealt with collecting data on our school
resources when it comes to mental health. Since the
tragedy that occurred at Marjory Stoneman Douglas, we've
spent almost $1 billion on providing resources to our
students all across the state. But nobody's actually
collecting any data to determine whether or not our
students are getting any better. Our is the dollars that we're
spending even reaching these children, and are they getting
the help that they need? So we pass legislation two years ago
that is starting to collect that data, so we can make a
determination as the legislature, to actually make
sure that our dollars are being used in the right space, and
most importantly, that our children are getting help. But
we also, when we looked into that, realized that that's also
happening in our vulnerable population, in our community
court system. So our mental health court, our veterans
court, our drug court, same scenario. We're funding these
programs in an effort to get these people the help that they
need, so they can not continue to go in and out of the system
and get back to being and serving their communities and,
and, and being, you know, back to being healthy. That's our
goal. But nobody's tracking that data. So this, this
legislative session, I successfully passed that
legislation as well. So we'll begin to really take a good
look at our overall mental health system here in the state
of Florida, and make sure that the dollars that we're spending
are actually getting the people the help that they need when it
comes to the legislative budget, we, once again, for the fourth
year in a row, reduce the state of Florida's budget. The budget
that passed this year was $117 billion. I was successful in
securing $41 million, 21 million of that specifically
serves districts 101, which is anywhere between Hollywood,
Hallandale, Dania, Davie and from $7 million to helping our
veterans health clinic at NSU to dollars. Going to build a
nursing program, help build the nursing program at Broward
College to. Obviously, my work with Senator Sharif and
Commissioner Gruber, I know a project that you and I have had
the pleasure of working on for the last two years is
specifically funding this incredible project that you
brought to me in honor of your father, to provide our seniors
with who are suffering from Alzheimer's and dementia,
access to a center where they are going to be able to provide,
get the care that they need and give their loved ones respite.
My grandmother had dementia and moved in with my parents and I
when I was in high school, and I witnessed firsthand the toll
that that can take on those caretakers and how it can truly
impact a family and the respite that caretakers need, and a
safe space that you can send your loved ones to be able to
get out and get some arts and crafts or, you know, to
socialize or to get some exercise and to have a safe
place here in the community of City of Hollywood to use one of
our facilities specifically for that purpose is a project that
is near and dear to my heart. So thank you for trusting me
with that the last two years. It's an honor to present to you.
I don't know where Connie went. Again. The Senate must get all
all of the dollars to make these nice checks, but. So we
secured another $250,000 this year. So thank you. For a total
of $500,000 over the course of the last two years. And I know
it's my understanding that come November, we are looking at a
grand opening, and I'm sure you might address that when we when
I close my remarks. But the last thing I wanted to comment
is similar to what Senator Sharif said. It's truly a
pleasure to represent this city I have called Hollywood,
whether it be my actual home or where my business home is
located for over 20 years, and it's truly an honor. You guys
are such incredible advocates for the people that live here
and the type of lifestyle that we want people to be able to
enjoy. And I enjoy spending time with you in Tallahassee
and getting your phone calls and hearing what your concerns
are. And I hopefully answer. Answer that call to the best of
my abilities as well. So thank you for allowing me to work
with you and serving this great city. Commissioner Gruber. Yes.
Representative Cassel, I, I from the bottom of my heart, I
can't thank you enough for getting behind this initiative.
You know, it's it's going to provide a much needed service
for respite care and for quality of life for people that
suffer with dementia and Alzheimer's. And the goal here,
and I can't John Strader, who brought this to me from the
National Alzheimer's Association, worked tirelessly
for this cause, is to really have this be the first of many
throughout Florida, throughout Hollywood, throughout the
country, where we can use underutilized community centers
that aren't being activated Monday to Friday, 9 to 5 and
bring these centers. So the business pencils out that
operators are able to do it, and we can provide this service
for respite care. And I just can't thank you enough for
getting behind it. Thank you so much. Thank you, thank you.
Thank you, Representative Cassel. We're certainly
grateful for all the work that you do up in Tallahassee. We we
we are we have great confidence when we know you're there
advocating because you do like us, know the needs of the
community and especially your work on property insurance is
coming back to being very, of course, important because after
the discussion, property tax. There was, of course, this
other large bill that we, you know, we all recognize maybe it
doesn't need to be as large, never used to be as large, and
that hopefully the legislature can help, you know, rein in the
market. I know you have some proposals that you've set forth
before the legislature years ago that they're just now
talking about saying, hey, this might be a good idea. And so go
ahead. Both both candidates running for governor. Talk
about two of my proposed pieces of legislation. So. All right.
Well, it's finally making its way. It takes some time for
people to start to listen, especially when you talk about
overhauling very large systems that have been in place for a
very long time. But both of them see the need to reform
both our catastrophic fund, which will have a huge 30 to
40% decrease in premiums, as well as moving citizens back to
a wind only policy, which is what it was always meant to be.
So exciting times. Well, let's hope for good things in this
upcoming legislative session in that regard. Thank you. Let's
do that photo. Thank you. All the time. Connie. Oh. Okay. A
little darker for the check to be seen. Thank you everyone.
Okay, just a moment. Oh thank you. Okay. Can we recycle and
reuse. So we're going to keep this one.
So far we've had a lot of good news with all these
presentations. And we're going to continue that trend because
there are also good things happening right here on the
ground in Hollywood and that. So I'm proud to ask Shannon
Hunter, who's the mother of Marquis Brown and the chairman
of the Hollywood Brown Foundation. I see Commissioner
Linda Anderson here as well, to thank them for and recognize
them for the. They like to recognize the city support for
the Marquis Brown football training camp. So welcome,
Commissioner Anderson. Good to see you. And thank you, miss
Hunter. Hi, I'm Shannon James. I am Marquis Brown's mom. Good
afternoon. Mayor, vice mayor, members of the city commission,
city staff and everyone here today on behalf of Marquise
Hollywood Brown, his family, and the entire Hollywood Brown
Foundation. We want to thank. Take a moment to thank you on
behalf of Marquis Hollywood. Brown day is incredibly special
to us because Hollywood is home no matter where Markie's
journey has taken him from. Growing up right here in the
community to college football and now playing in the NFL. And
now he's with the Philadelphia Eagles. He has remained
committed to to coming back home and give giving back to
the community that helped shaped him. And for the for
that reason, it means so much to us. The year after year
after year, the mayor, the vice mayor, the city Commissioner
and the city of Hollywood continue to stand beside
Hollywood Brown Foundation and support our vision for
Hollywood Brown Day. This year. We were blessed to celebrate
five years our fifth annual Hollywood Brown Day, once again
bringing the community together and creating a day centered
around youth and families. Through this event, we've been
able to provide book packs. Hollywood. I'm sorry. School
supplies, groceries to families, youth activities, football
programing, food, entertainment, and most importantly, a
positive environment where our community can come together.
But one of the things we're especially proud of is that the
impact. Hollywood Brown Day. Doesn't stop when the event
ends. For this past three years, we have also had the
opportunity to award a college scholarship to a graduating
high school student, helping them take the next step toward
higher education and their future. That has become one of
the most meaningful parts of the Hollywood Brown Day for us.
Because giving back isn't only about what we can provide today,
it's also about investing in what our young people can
become tomorrow. And none of this happens without
partnership. Mayor, vice mayor, and commissioners, we sincerely
thank you for your continued support, not only this year,
but every year that you have welcomed us back and helped us
continue to grow this event. Thank you for believing in what
we're doing. Thank you for helping us create opportunities
for our young people. Thank you for helping us support families
throughout the community. And thank you for allowing Marquise
the opportunity to continue coming home and showing our
young people that success doesn't mean forgetting where
you came from. It means remembering where you came from
and reaching back to help someone else move forward. We
also want to recognize Hollywood Pal city staff, our
sponsors, community partners, volunteers, and everyone behind
the scenes who continues to help make Hollywood Brown Day
possible every year. So many people give their time,
resources and energy to make this day special, and we truly
are grateful for each and every one of you. As the Hollywood
Brown Foundation continues to grow, we hope this hope that
Hollywood Brown Day continues to grow with with it allowing
us to provide even more resources, awards, and more
scholarships, create more opportunities for our youth,
and make an even greater impact right here in the city of
Hollywood. And also, I would like to thank our very own
former commissioner, Miss Linda Anderson, because I first came
to her with this idea about giving back, because I once was
a young mother that did it by myself, and my kid wanted to
play ball and I didn't have the funds. And someone came and
supported me. And so I wanted to move forward. My son had
this opportunity being a mother, a single mother of two that
suffered kidney failure at the time, was on dialysis for five
years and was able to stand beside my kids. And I talked to
Miss Anderson and she said, sure, I'll help you with
whatever you have to do. And so I just want to just thank each
and every one of you for the opportunity. Now, with the
awards, we had a little mishap inside. We on the day, we had
all the awards for all of you. Commissioner, you received your
you received yours. But for some kind of way, somebody
disappeared. But I'm going to tell you, we will have your
plaques here in hand. Okay. So our award is your success, and
the success that Marquis and the Foundation are bestowing
upon the kids. That's that's the award. So thank you so much.
Yeah. Thank you. And I truly appreciate each and every one
of you. Thank you, thank you. Commissioner Anderson, you are
in green because of the Philadelphia Eagles or just
because it's a nice color. Hey, money. I just like to say thank
you all for your support. And remember, always remember that
the Marquis day is always the 2nd July, second Saturday in
July. And after you all leave and change up, I still want you
all to support him. That's why I don't live here anymore. But
I still come back and support. And I still love Hollywood.
Okay. Thank you, thank you, thank you Commissioner. Thank
you all. Well, we have one final presentation. It's item
28. It's a celebration. A celebration, is it Andrea
Winget? She's the director of development services along with
Russell Long. He's of course, the chief building official
here in Hollywood about the successful launch of phase two
of the Acela permitting software, a large undertaking.
Andrea and Russell, congratulations on on this
launch. Thank you. So good afternoon, mayor, vice mayor,
city commissioners. Andrea Winget, director of development
services. We have several staff members in the audience. You're
welcome to please come up. Come on up building here,
development services. You know, as the mayor said, this is a
celebration, not just a Cela. And, you know, we're we're
really here today to celebrate a huge milestone, not just for
the Department of Development Services, but for the city, for
the residents, and for all of the other departments who
helped make this happen. For us, this has been a multiyear
project that incorporated two phases that has taken a
significant amount of staff time from a variety of
departments and resources within the city. And, you know,
we have gone live with Acela, which is our new building
permit process management for from a variety of not just
permits, but from items that public utilities takes in,
zoning takes in and everybody and we're here today to
celebrate that. We're here to expand our digital services and
look at how we manage paperwork between departments and between
our customers. And. You know, what this represents is truly a
true digital platform for, you know, we have been taking
things in via email, but we have not had a portal where
customers can be directly responsible for their papers
and their permits and their processes that they need to
come through the city in a regulatory manner for. And this
really is a true digital service that the city is
launching holistically across multiple departments. It
increases our ability to communicate across departments,
to be able to see the same thing real time by everybody,
whether you're in the field or you're in the office, and just
creates better workflows and process improvement for
everyone. And so now our building official, Russell Long,
is going to take us through a couple other portions of this,
and then I'll wrap it up at the end. Thank you. Andrea, you
already went on this one. How to create and access your
account. A simple, straightforward process. In the
Acela platform, you can create your username, your password,
your email. The benefits of having an account in Acela is
that you can monitor your permits, your properties,
schedule inspections, upload documents. You can control the
activity that you are directly involved with. Customers with
or without an account. Can search permits, can look up
properties records using address folio numbers or
contractor or owner's name. These simple tools create a
more convenient, transparent and accessible experience while
reducing the need to contact staff for basic information.
This is an address based search that displays the information
associated with the property entered in the search bar. The
search results include. Certificate use BSIP which is
your building safety inspection program. History code violation
history permitting history for the property. That's that's in
the search. We also know that Acela is also streamlining the
process, the certificate use and the zoning verification
letter process clearly demonstrates the operational
value of phase two automation with a seller. Both are high
volume processes that previously required significant
manual intake, additional time spent for research, routing and
tracking, and processing by staff. Phase two automates
these key steps, including application intake, Review
routing and reducing staff touch points and administrative
delays. Overall, the automated workflow provides a greater
efficiency, consistency and visibility throughout the
review process. Before processes that took weeks now
takes minutes. Automation is also tied to the GIS system
that verifies whether an application complies with the
city zoning ordinances. In a cellar. We also have a GIS
mapping. If you go to the city's website under permits at
the bottom of the screen, you'll see where the red arrow
showing you to find the GIS mapping for a cellar. This is a
GIS map where you can view permits related to the
information by location. As you can see, the City Hall is
selected here. If you click on any of the blue dots, it will
tell you the information under that property. I do have a
speech I want to write. Before I do that, I'd like to make a
statement to the mayor, commissioners, city Manager's
office. I want to take a moment to thank each of you for your
support, your continued support, and your vision during the
implementation of the city of the permitting software system.
But today, I want to recognize sincerely thank City of
Hollywood staff that have worked tirelessly, tirelessly
for the past two and a half years to test, develop, and
implement our newest permitting software system. Two and a half
years. That's just since we started with the seller. We
actually started this three years ago and it's been a
process. This has been a tremendous team effort
involving departments across the city, including building,
planning and zoning, engineering, public utilities,
fire code, compliance, treasury information, Information
Technology, CMD and the city's clerk's office. Over the past
two and a half years, our staff spent countless hours testing
the system, identifying problems, working through the
challenges, retesting and helping ensure that the system
works for our residents, the businesses, contractors and the
employees and staff did this while continuing to perform
their regular responsibilities. Many of many of the staff
stayed late. They worked many hours beyond what was expected
of them. They went above and beyond because they. They
understood how important the project is to the city and to
the people we serve. This accomplishment is not the work
of one department or one individual. It is the result of
teamwork, dedication, patience for perseverance and shared
commitment to improve the service to our community. So to
every employee who contributed to these to these over the past
two and a half years, I want to say thank you for your hard
work, your professionalism and dedication to the city of
Hollywood. Your commitment has made a difference and it
deserves recognition and appreciation. So on behalf of
the City of Hollywood, I want to thank you. Building. I want
to thank you. Planning and zoning. I want to thank you
engineering. I want to thank you, Public Utilities. I want
to thank you. Fire. I want to thank you. Code compliance. I
want to thank you, Treasury. I want to thank you. ITI want to
thank you seemed and I want to thank you. City clerk's office.
And most importantly, I want to thank each and every employee,
manager, supervisor, project team member in the department
representative who contributed to this effort. The success of
this project is a reflection of your professionalism, your
teamwork, and your dedication to the City of Hollywood. Two
and a half years of testing, preparation, problem solving,
and implementation is a remarkable commitment. The
hours you invested, especially the hours your normal
responsibilities, demonstrate something that cannot be
purchased or programed into into a computer. A genuine
commitment to public service. I hope each of you understand how
much your work is appreciated. Today we are recognizing more
than just the implementation of a new software system. We are
recognizing the people behind it, the people who gave their
time, their knowledge, their energy, and their dedication to
move the city forward. Thank you for your work of the extra
hours. Thank you for going above and beyond. Thank you for
your patience and perseverance. And most importantly, thank you
for for caring about the city of Hollywood and the people we
serve. This accomplishment accomplishment belongs to all
of you. Congratulations and thank you for extraordinary job.
Well done. Good job. So everything that Russell talked
about really, you know, couldn't, you know, couldn't
happen without the team who's here today. And it was really
about when we kind of look back over time and we look to where
we've come from to where we've gone, it's really about the
impact and the innovation, the process improvement, our
customer service and the technology that we're bringing
to to the residents. Is that why? So, you know, there was
countless trainings that were done internally and externally.
There have not only been trainings on how to use this
software, but customer service training and learning how to
adapt to change. We specifically had targeted
trainings within all of the users for the departments that
are using this. And with that mayor, vice mayor, and city
commissioners, it's I ask that you please come together, if
you can, on the dais. For me, it's time to celebrate. And so
if we can accelerate, accelerate excella for our new
permitting software system. So if we can all gather together
for that. And and you're, you know, this represents us
turning the system on and moving us forward at the city
into a new digital era for all of us. So if you can all lean
in and mayor, we're going to ask you to please, with your
colleagues, turn the button on. I'm going to count down. Are
you counting down, mayor? Yep. Five. Four. Three. Two. One.
Okay. Wow. That's amazing. Thank you. Okay. Good enough.
And so the video that's playing represents the amount of papers
in our prior processes. That is now going away as we flip the
switch and we accelerate into our future together. Okay.
Congratulations. Well, on behalf of the City Commission
and the residents and business owners, Russell and Team Andrea,
Jim, everybody, thank you so much. We know when we charged
the city manager, city managers ago as well to help expedite
the permitting process, we knew a lot of it would require new
software, simultaneous review from the various disciplines,
and just overall process improvement. And through those
years, we've not only invested in Acela first phase, second
phase, but also built the brand new development services
department and divisions up over the library and on the
second floor. And we also added a lot of new team members to
the building division to help get things processed. So all
that together, it really is a new moment in time, a new,
modern moment for the city of Hollywood. And we know we have
aspirations to even continue to migrate additional customer
touch points to Acela to both give the staff and of course,
the residents and businesses first and foremost, an easier
time transacting with the city and, you know, getting their
building permits processed and their approvals and their
business licenses process as quick as possible. We all know
all the hopes and dreams that we have for the city. I always
say, even those that we talk about with our own capital
improvement projects that we talked about this morning
during the workshop, all need to flow through the building
division and building permit review and approval. And so
your accelerated momentum now and your your new processes
will help serve both what we do internally and of course, every
other hope and dream for Hollywood business owners and
residents here in the city of Hollywood as they look to
improve their property and in the end, grow our tax base and
make us more self-sufficient through our own internal growth
that we help support out there in the community. So thank you
all so much. Really proud moment, and we look forward to
continuing to help you and give you the tools needed to be the
best building division and best development services that we
can be in the state of Florida. So thank you so much. All right.
Now, I really feel we can adjourn the meeting, but no,
thank you all to everybody from Development Services.
Appreciate it. Congratulations. Congratulations, Russell. I
hope you have some fresh fruit for them or something. Some
kind of celebration. The celebration must continue. All
right. All right. It is a little bit past 130. So let's
head head through our agenda in order of the the agenda here
130 time certain items. This is an ordinance on second reading
advertised in conformance with state statutes and city codes
as a public hearing. No changes since the first reading from
the Department of Utilities. Item 29, An ordinance of the
City Hollywood amending chapter 51 of the Code of Ordinances,
entitled water to update the current regulations relating to
accounts and procedures providing for severability
clause, Repealer provision, codification and effective date.
Of course, you all remember before the break we had a long
first reading that where utilities had gone through, you
know, all the details of this new ordinance that provides a
lot of opportunity to streamline, even in the case of,
of, of utilities. The process is for our residents and for
our customers. And so are there any speaker cards on item 29?
And Ralston, please come on up. Just. Okay. There you go. This
was from the meeting before for the. And they were actually 29
and 30 on the last agenda, I think, or 29 and 30, 31 I think
could be exact. That was what was printed, what I printed for
the meeting right before break. This is what is the backup for
today's on second reading. I don't know why they're
different. This is the update. The rates don't make sense to
me. From what I remember on these. These rates were going
up 25% each year for three years on water and sewer. That
was back then. This was from a report done in 25, which is the
backup now. It shows us. As number four in the highest in
water sewer rates. I am now paying instead of $93.72
because I don't use enough. That's my base rate whether I
use it or not. So I don't I don't conserve well, I try to
conserve, but I pay for non use is now $100. So we're still at
fourth. But when you approve these you are going to really
hurt residents water and sewer bills. And I don't care how you
want to spin it. I'm sorry but the well gets dry on fixed
incomes, especially when you talk about senior citizens and
taking care of people. This is your you're feeding us to death.
So please be very careful when you do this. Thank you. So this
item is the the ordinance update with regards to the
regulations and the accounts and procedures. And so I'd like
to entertain a close the public hearing that was open and close
the public hearing. I'd like to accept a motion on the item. We
have a motion for Commissioner Biederman and a second from
Vice Mayor Clary to approve item 29. City attorney, please
read the ordinance and let's read the get the call, the roll
call vote on an ordinance of the City of Hollywood, Florida,
amending chapter 51 of the Code of Ordinances entitled water to
update the current regulations relating to accounts and
procedures providing for severability clause and
Repealer provision, codification and an effective
date. Commissioner Quintana yes. Commissioner Shuhan. Yes.
Commissioner Hernandez yes. Vice mayor. Kolody. Yes.
Commissioner Gruber. Yes. Commissioner. Biederman. Yes.
Mayor. Levy. Yes. All right. Let's show the ordinance
passing unanimously on second reading. And I know Phyllis is
here, and she would be prepared to provide a quick update. But
this particular ordinance change really helps to relax a
lot of the leak reviews and the extends opportunities for
residents to have better recourse with the city and very
many across many different areas. And so it's a it's a
helpful provision. I'm sorry. Right. Yeah. The next item is
the rates. Item 30 is an ordinance of the City of
Hollywood amending section 52.5, three of the Code of Ordinances,
entitled Rates and Charges for the use of the system, updating
the current regulations relating to accounts and
procedures and providing for severability codification
effective date. This is also an ordinance on second reading
advertising conformance with state statutes and city codes
as a public hearing without any changes since the first reading
from DP, you. I'll go ahead and open the public hearing. Are
there any speaker cards on 30. And Ralston, please come on up.
We'll just skip out on him. It's the same. It's basically
the same thing. I said, there's no need to repeat myself, but
just be careful sometimes what you wish for. Also, I do
believe that this is a sneaky little way for the residents on
sewer to pay for separate septic to sewer. So we're going
to keep an eye out. Public hearing is now closed just for
the public record. I just want to clarify for those watching,
of course, the city is responsible and we have the the
the role and the responsibility to provide clean drinking water
and treat wastewater in the city of Hollywood. We have
regional plants in the wastewater plant. We have, of
course, the water treatment plant. And those plants are
aging and are 70 plus years old and need a lot of work. And so
our staff brought forward to us a plan where across the board,
both the water plant and the wastewater plant will be
improved and modernized and practically rebuilt and brought
to the modern era, like the Acela did for the building
division. And unfortunately, that costs hundreds of millions
of dollars. And so these rate increases. None of us enjoy
having to increase anything in the city, but we do have to pay
for the plants in order for them to continue to provide the
service, to treat wastewater and to provide clean drinking
water. It's an obligation of ours. There's we're going to
look for every efficient way to undertake those hundreds of
million dollars of projects. And so part of that, of course,
is going to be born on the on the ratepayers. And so we did
come up with a plan that was smooth to be as as as efficient
as possible. Even from an affordability standpoint,
though, I do not disagree, these are significant rate
increases for the next 3 or 4 years. And then they're going
to it's going to continue to be high. And so that's just the
reality of, of repairing and updating very old water
treatment and, and water plants. City. City manager. Yeah. Mayor,
I just want to make sure, you know, you're absolutely right.
We have had extensive presentations regarding the
needs at our water and sewer treatment plants and within the
overall transmission system for water and the collection system
for our wastewater plant. And we've presented those rates,
you know, and adopted them back in July. And I know that that
was very challenging for the commission. This particular
these particular two items are actually designed to update our
code of ordinances as to how sewer credits and water credits
are applied when there are a leak, and when we have a
situation where we need to look back where maybe a meter has
not been functioning properly previously, we would be able to
look back 36 months, and that was a really long time, maybe
actually even longer. Five years. Sorry, five years. Like
that's not the right number. And now we're really, we've
limited that to a 12 month look back. So it actually, these are
customer service enhancements that you're voting on today.
Absolutely lutely. We have needed to look at significant
rate increases. And those were attached to this agenda item.
So people are aware of that. But really as it specifically
relates to these two ordinances that are before you today, the
concept is really just to make it more customer friendly. When
you do have a leak and you need to apply for a credit, or when
you do get that estimated bill or you have a meter problem,
how that gets resolved more quickly. So that's just wanted
to clarify that. Thank you. This at this time, no, this
time I'll invite members of the body to make a motion or for
any comment. Commissioner Hernandez thank you. Mayor, the
question that I have is I wanted to make sure that what
we talked about, where we can have to fix the meters within
the three months, is this part of this ordinance or is that
something that it's. No, it's not part of this ordinance, but
it you know, that is our commitment that we are working
to be able to fix those right away. Do not believe. And the
reason why was because there was support from the commission
in order for that to be established, how does how is
that going to be established if it's not going to be part of
the ordinance? And don't we can we can absolutely look at that.
And if we need to further, if the desire of the Commission is
to further codify that, we are obviously. We had a budget
workshop this morning, and a big part of that was, how do we
create the staffing that we need to make sure that when we
have those meter transmission unit issues, that we address
them. This is looking at if we have a situation where we are
needing to where we've estimated a bill and we're
doing a lookback, it limits the time frame. I understand what
this is and I think it helps the residents, period. But my
point is, and some of my friends kind of joke with me.
Yeah, trust, but verify because I ask a lot of questions when
it comes to this. And I do not distrust the staff, but the
support from the commission and the commitment was that you
would only go back three months. Now, this is 12 months. And if
there's a broken meter, I'm getting calls on a regular
basis. And some of the staff have said, well, you're not
getting 40,000 calls. I may not, but we haven't gone through all
of the meters yet. I just want not only the commitment, but I
want to see it, whether it's a resolution or whether it's part
of this ordinance that within 90 days, the meter issue will
be addressed. I don't want customers to continue to get,
oh, we're going to estimate back 12 months. And that's just
not fair to our residents. And if if we're looking to put
another 57 individuals to be able to work with us for the
City of Hollywood and the underground utility department,
we ought to be able to give that commitment to our
residents. That's all I'm saying. Yes, we we absolutely
we it is an operational process, and we are working on that
three month time frame. We as soon as we detect that there is
a problem, that is what we are doing. Can we have it as a
resolution? Was that not what we talked about? We could. Okay,
I would prefer to have a resolution. I'm okay passing
this and comments Peter, and we'll. Well, it's already has
support so. Okay. Good. Thank you. Okay. All right. Motion to
approve. All right. We do have a motion and a second from
Commissioner Biederman, second from Vice Mayor calorie on on
on the ordinance item 30. Let's go ahead and read the ordinance
and call the roll call vote. An ordinance of the City of
Hollywood, Florida, amending section 52.53 of the Code of
Ordinances entitled Rates and Charges for Use of System to
update the current regulations relating to accounts and
procedures providing for repeal, severability codification and
an effective date. Commissioner Quintana. Yes, Commissioner.
Yes. Commissioner. Hernandez. Yes. Vice mayor. Kolody. Yes.
Commissioner. Gruber. Yes. Commissioner. Biederman. Yes.
Mayor. Levy. Yes. All right. Let's show the ordinance
passing unanimously on second reading. All right. On to item
31. This is a resolution of the City Commission. City of
Hollywood accepting the Washington Park Industrial Area
Redevelopment Program recommendations, providing a
policy direction regarding phased implementation of the
recommendations, providing for certain limitations and
providing for an effective date. This is advertised as a public
hearing. This is a resolution before we open the item. I just
do want to put something on the record. There's been question
as to whether or not I would need to abstain from this item,
because I have family that owns property within Washington Park
Industrial Park. And so as required and as proper protocol,
I asked the city attorney the question. She researched the
matter and found that I have an obligation to participate on
the item. And because there is not a conflict of interest as
defined by Florida law. And so, city attorney, if you could
just summarize for the public record in regards to this
specific item in the vote today as a threshold consideration in
the analysis, we looked at what the item actually sought to do.
This item is a nonbinding policy guidance and therefore
confers no specific benefit to any property in the area, and
any benefit that is conferred is remote and speculative.
Further, the mayor has no personal ownership interest,
though his brothers do own land in the area. However, there is
no special economic, private gain or loss to the mayor or
any relative. The mayor is not required to abstain from
today's vote, as he mentioned, but this analysis does not
extend past today's vote. All right, so that resolves that.
Thank you. All right. Andrea, please go ahead. Good afternoon,
mayor, vice mayor, City Commissioners Andrea Winget,
director of development Services. And while we're
bringing up the presentation, we're we're here today to talk
about the comprehensive redevelopment program for
Washington Park. This has been a long time coming. And before
we get started, I would like to also thank. I know today is a
lot about a. Celebrations and things, but I really do want to
take a minute to thank the other departments who also
contributed to creating this vision for this area of the
city, and that extends far beyond development, services,
planning, engineering, building. It extends to the fire
department to code, compliance, parking, communications,
marketing and economic development. Because we could
never do anything independently or alone. It always takes a
team, especially when we're creating visions and master
planning certain areas of the city. And of course, I would
also like to thank the residents and those community
members and the commission for participating in your
contribution to this as well. So we started we started this
project in 2025. And at that time, the commission directed
city staff to come up with a comprehensive redevelopment
program for approximately 160 acres of the city, which we
generally know as Washington Park. The program looks
holistically at the future land use, zoning, urban design,
infrastructure, environmental economic development, and
opportunities for reinvestment in the area and the physical
improvements. It's not a document or just a collection
of recommendations. This is actually a vision and a
framework for the future of this area. It's a living
document. It's iterative. It will probably change over time
as we start to bring forward and implement portions of this
map, this vision or this master plan for this area, there's
individual initiatives that will require further commission
action and consideration by all stakeholders. What this
document is not is it does not change the zoning in this area.
It does not approve anything site specific for this area. It
does not change the land use. It is going to be a shared
unified vision so that staff can start to program different,
different items to move this area forward. And those items
are identified through the challenges, the risks and the
potentials of this area. This is a this has been, as I
already mentioned, this has been a comprehensive exercise
that was undertaken. It. It's a. It serves as an important model
to allow for intentional planning and reinvestment and
visioning of this area. It's been a long time since the city,
since our planning Division has brought forward any type of
visioning. So I know it can be, you know, it's a little
different from some of the things that we've recently
brought forward. But this is a common item that we used to do
quite often in various parts of the city. And it's a, it's a
normal planning exercise when we're looking to have a shared,
unified vision for how we can move parts of the city forward
with challenges that we're experiencing today. And with
that, I would like to turn it over to Juan Mueller, who's
going to walk us through the the program. Thank you. Thank
you very much. And good afternoon, mayor, vice mayor,
commissioners, it's a pleasure to be here. It's been a year.
You probably don't remember me anymore. I was the one that was
stuck in traffic on 95 a year ago, and I am I was still stuck
in traffic today, so some things don't change. But the
beauty of of the work that I do is that things eventually
change. And this is one of the reasons why we're here, to
envision how things may change. The I think this was your slide.
It's been a year since we put a team together,
multidisciplinary team to tackle some challenging work.
Washington Park presented some challenges that were unique to
the area. So we work together, our firm, plus Serbia, we are
specialists in visioning with business flair who does market
studies and, and and economic studies, as well as expe
experienced and engineers and mobility experts. We've done
this before. And coincidentally, I was at a public hearing
yesterday in in the city of Miami, where we were talking
about Little Havana. Little Havana started over ten years
ago, where when we established a vision, and this is exactly
what we're doing here today, presenting to you a vision that
will take a long time to get implemented. So as, as it was
just said, this is not something that changes tomorrow.
This is looking to the to the long term future and seeing
what actions you guys can do today to start that, that
evolution and how things may change in the future. So I
commend you for that vision because as again, it's not just
Hollywood that doesn't do it. Most municipalities are working
with zoning and direct policies without really understanding
what the long term vision may be. And this is what this
project establishes, something that can help you see things
through and ensure that you have north right up there and
you understand where you're going in the long term. So the
project goals, other than creating a long term vision,
we're very simple. It was to to see what exists there today, to
listen to the community. And I thank you for coming to the
workshops that we had some months ago. It feels like
forever ago. And listen to the community, understand what
their needs and wants were and are, and maybe in the future,
and then establish a cohesive and holistic document that
again, can guide you and also help your residents understand
where the city is going. And hopefully in and through this
document, mitigate some of the anxiety that people have,
because change creates anxiety. Again, this vision plan does
that, and it creates that guiding document that can help
you now and in the future. So why Washington Park? Very
simple. It's it's a it's a challenging neighborhood. It's
a challenging community, a district. It's at the southern
edge of your of your city. And it creates a gateway. One of
the reasons why it is challenging is because it is a
very interesting land use area or area based on land use,
because it's not just the residents that live there, but
the people that work there. It's a great engine for your
business community, not just for Hollywood, but also for the
county itself. So respecting and understanding how to evolve
the community over time and ensuring that we not just
protect the neighbors, but also the businesses that are there
and that we continue to provide an area where people can
service their cars and service and provide services for the
rest of the community, not just now, but in the future. So
those things were challenging. And then I'll introduce Maria
Maria, if you want to come up again. It's been more than a
year. I think it was said that it was just shy of a year. It
was more than a year. And, and it's been a pleasure working
with you, working with the community. And hopefully this
project, this, this, this document guides and helps you
understand how to evolve the community for, for its future
success. Maria. Thank you. Good afternoon, mayor, vice mayor
and commissioners. My name is Maria Benfield. I'm project
manager for Serbia Design. So as Juan mentioned, we've been
working over a year on this project. During that time, we
conducted an extensive community outreach through
surveys, workshops, open houses, walking, audit, and we listen
to the community. We refined the vision, we confirmed the
priorities and shaped the final plan. The project website was
the central hub for announcements, surveys, updates
to the community, feedback and all the summaries. All the
documents reports are posted on the website as well. So what?
What did we hear? So we gathered more than a thousand
comments from the community outreach process, and five
priorities emerged, preserving the industrial character,
improving the district appearance, addressing parking
and mobility challenges, investing in infrastructure,
neighborhood serving uses and green spaces. Also investing in
infrastructure and plan for the future redevelopment of the
area and protect the residential neighborhoods. You
can see a complete community outreach and background
analysis reports on the project website as well. So what is
this document? I think Andrea already summarized it, but I
want to reiterate. So this is a framework for of
recommendations based on technical analysis and the
community input. It's a vision. It's a roadmap. It's a tool to
help a plan, future improvements. It sets a shared
vision and recommends next steps. It's not a final design
or a fixed schedule, or a promise to build everything all
at once, or required spending plan. This action plan serves
as a roadmap for turning recommendations into actions.
Each recommendation of the plan identifies responsibilities,
suggested timelines, potential funding sources, and measures
of success. The recommendation action steps are are sorry.
They're. Divided in short, mid and long term. The short term
recommendations focus on organization, safety,
appearance, and branding. The mid-term recommendations focus
on infrastructure, mobility improvements and redevelopment
tools, and the long term recommendations. Focus on major
investments and corridor build out. So what can change? First,
the short term recommendations focus on visible improvements
that can be implemented relatively quickly and can have
a big impact. One of the ways to incentivize visible changes
fast is the creation of a facade improvement program,
specifically for Washington Park. It's a simple step that
can have a big impact, and the city already has successful
matching grants, programs that encourage private investment
and improve properties and neighborhoods. Little River is
another example in the city of Miami that has been very
successful. The goal is to create a cleaner, safer, and
more attractive district while maintaining its authentic
industrial character. The recommendations include simple
design criteria to help guide improvements. There are
examples that are provided that can help the city staff and the
applicant with clear examples that can help them understand
the design expectations of the improvements. The
recommendations also suggest establishing a strong district
identity through branding, wayfinding, gateway features
and business promotion initiatives. These can help
improve the appearance of the district without disrupting the
existing businesses and operations. Through our
workshops and further refinement, we define the role
of each street in the industrial area to create a
clear framework for future improvements. Recognizing that
each street serves a different function within the district.
So an example is like some street might prioritize
business frontages and pedestrians, while other
streets focus on the industrial, industrial access and local
traffic. Loading. The result is a framework that helps guide
future improvements related to mobility, safety, parking,
streetscape investment and future development. So parking
was one of the biggest concerns raised by all stakeholders
during the community outreach phase. So some recommendations
include improving parking enforcement compliance,
education about parking rules, clearly defining parking areas
to improve organization and traffic flow, better management
of existing parking, exploring standards for temporary gravel
lots and shared parking specifically for the primary
study area, with the goal to make parking work better for
businesses, employees, customers and nearby residents.
And this is an example of the short term recommendations that
suggest installing clear pavement markings to define the
parking areas, the pedestrian crossings, the areas where
parking is not allowed, all within the public right of way.
These are conceptual ideas that will require refinement with
staff and the community. These suggestions can help create a
safer and more organized conditions for all users. Like
I mentioned before, and while continuing to support the
industrial operations, a key priority through the
development of this plan was to protect and respect the
residential neighborhoods, and short term recommendations
suggest reducing truck and commercial vehicle traffic on
residential streets through a traffic study to evaluate the
feasibility for doing that, managing parking, spillover,
temporary gravel lots like I mentioned before, and
implementing traffic calming strategies like speed pumps to
reduce speeds on residential streets, for example. So what
can change next? In the midterm midterm recommendations focus
on infrastructure, mobility improvements and redevelopment
tools. This example shows South 56th Avenue, which was
designated as an eighth Street that prioritizes business
frontages and pedestrian comfort. This is an example of
how improvements can be tailored to each street's role.
This shows improvements that can include traffic calming
measures, parking management, swale restoration to improve
water permeability, enhance pedestrian crossings and
sidewalks, improved transit and bicycle access, and and even
district branding and street streetscape upgrades. As you
can see on the right hand side. Another suggested strategy was
to help create better transitions between the
industrial core, the major corridors and nearby
residential areas by encouraging neighborhood
serving businesses such as cafes, small restaurants, food
trucks and everyday services in strategic locations. Using the
street hierarchy to guide investment to the streets.
Where these uses make the most sense, and supporting flexible
building types that can accommodate small businesses.
Live work units, flex spaces, workshops, etc. In the mid-term.
The plan also recommends guiding redevelopment
opportunities to the key corridors. The identified a
street such as 441 and adopting guidelines for consistent
building frontages. So what can the long term future look like?
Long term recommendations focus on resilience, economic
competitiveness and a larger capital improvement projects.
So the long term recommendations suggest
evaluating the feasibility for converting some streets into
one way. Using the street hierarchy framework. The goal
is to balance movement, enhance safety, increase parking
opportunities and ground permeability, and support
business operations, and ensure that emergency access and
neighborhood connectivity are maintained in the long term.
The plan encourages redevelopment to be focused
along major corridors and opportunity sites, where new
investment can deliver the greatest public benefit. As I
mentioned before, an essential principle throughout the
development of the plan was to protect the residential
neighborhoods, and this means preparing for future
redevelopment and encouraging transitions between land uses
and avoiding drastic scale shifts. And the plan suggests
strategies to direct growth to appropriate corridor locations
while gradually transitioning to established residential
neighborhoods and still respecting the existing
development rates. So the result is a balanced balance
between growth and neighborhood protection. And in the long
term, the plan suggests policies and incentives for
future projects that could also contribute through a public
benefit program. For example, to get a more improved or more
or improved open spaces connectivity, streetscape
enhancements, gateway features and community amenities such as
new fire station that was mentioned throughout the
community outreach and meeting with the different departments.
So this shows the matrix of all the short term recommendations
that are available at the end of the vision plan. You can see
here 2023 suggested short term recommendations that staff can
take, study, and bring forward to you when feasible. And I
think Cameron can take this slide over to further discuss.
Thank you. Good afternoon, mayor Commission Cameron Palmer,
assistant director, development services, assistant director,
development services. I want to take a moment to, as we bring
the presentation home, to talk about next steps. You know, the
document outlines, as Murray says, a collection of
recommendations and a sequence roadmap. And as Andrew said
earlier, it's intended to be a living framework. And what that
means is as we go through, we organize, we test, we calibrate,
we prioritize, and we invest. And understanding that the city
has already made investments in Washington Park and site
specific or content specific investments. Through this
process, we've evaluated and realized that Washington Park's
challenges and opportunities need to be viewed holistically
as a district, meaning that we can leverage the opportunities
to overcome the challenges using the roadmap that's been
presented to us. So the question then becomes, what can
we do today? What small wins can we achieve to have big
impacts? So what staff has done on the screen, you'll see the
tangible next steps outlined in four recommendations. And these
are what staff have distilled from the short term
recommendations that the applicant the consultant has
put forward. The first being coordination. It's really
important that staff is able to coordinate among the internal
divisions and departments, along with our partners, to
create a working group for Washington Park. This working
group will be responsible and the project manager to enact
this action plan and to see through the different time
horizons. But more importantly, it allows departments and the
city to align budgets, resources, staffing, existing
plans and future plans to ensure that we are now
calibrated with the action plan. Once we are all aligned
internally, we can start tackling some of the more
operational and obvious issues that face the district include
number two, which is organized parking and curb management
mapping, existing parking locations, future parking
locations, striping where feasible, and also establishing
standards that we as a city can create to enable interim or
temporary parking solutions are really tangible elements or
things that the city can do to impact make functional changes
to Washington Park. That leads us to number three, which is
advancing safety and traffic circulation. This includes low
cost elements such as signage, crosswalk markings, and more in
more in depth looks at traffic movements, such as where
traffic is moving in and out of the site, where goods are
moving, where people are moving and where pedestrians are
moving. Lastly, recommendation number four, again, within the
short term scope is advancing the facade gateway and code
improvement tools intended to create the. This was the. The
facade improvement. The painting. The numbering that
was discussed by Maria. This allows the district to be more
attractive, cleaner, more recognizable. Creates a brand
that that can easily access and easily implemented through the
renovation, which is a natural course of business development.
But most importantly, it becomes more inviting for
investment. The important takeaway today is that this is
not just a collection of recommendations that are
aspirational. They're specific, they're tailored, and they're
sequenced on purpose. They're intended to build on one
another and are not intended to come all at one fiscal year, or
all at one time. One time. If we organize, we test, we
calibrate, and we invest. Then each of these small actions can,
can, and will ultimately lead to the Washington Park that we
are looking to achieve with that staff. Myself, the
consultant, Nicole, the project manager for this project, is
here to answer questions. Thank you Cameron. Thank you to the
consultants. Pat, are there any speaker cards on this item?
Thank you. And Ralston, followed by Michael Seltzer.
Mike, I don't know why they turn them off. It was stated
that it's going to be a unified, unified vision for the area. To
me, a unified would be all the citizens kind of agree 50 plus
one agree to this. I heard that there was a thousand comments,
but it didn't say whether they're for or against. I know
the beach community doesn't want 1301, but gee, it's
getting unified in our in our faces. The lakes didn't want
them. Plenty came out to speak again. It's. But gee, that's a
unified vision for. I guess the area. Regardless of what the
residents think. So because when I read the report, I only
saw Nadine McRae's name on there. Everything else was.
Thank you to someone else, not the citizens that participated
in this quote study. I'd also like to know what did this
study study cost us? If it's just something visionary. So
pretty pictures everything. It doesn't mean anything. And you
can't change the character of a neighborhood unless they want
that change. So I don't know if if the residents want it, but I
don't see anyone here from them. I don't know if they, like most
people, work, so maybe they can't be here. Maybe they've
written in, I don't know. But here's another problem with
this infrastructure. And just like the sewer plant that you
wanted to tell me how this is for infrastructure that's been
ignored, that is very true. The an infrastructure throughout
the city has been ignored for years. And until there is a
crisis and it costs the citizens twice as much or more
to fix it, there is not a regular maintenance program
that finally, I think maybe a year ago, started to get
implemented in the budget and that's for landscaping,
anything. So you can make pretty pictures and you can put
trees and stuff. But if they're not willing or the city cannot
afford to maintain it, it's not fair to put it upon the
resident. To maintain that, we have to trim those trees that
the city wants to plant. We have to do the sidewalks.
Although now I think you're doing sidewalks. I'm going to
run out of time, but please make sure when you want to
change a neighborhood this drastically. And the last thing
I'm going to say, I am sorry, but the look of impropriety on
your family's business owning a lot, whether technically it's
not illegal to do. I think the look of impropriety makes us
not trust whatever you do. Josh. Thank you. Michael Seltzer,
your turn. I have to follow that. So here we go. I think
it's a wonderful opportunity for the city of Hollywood.
Somebody called me a few weeks ago and told me I should go
take a drive there. I had no idea where it was, told me the
mayor was involved and something with the connection
to the sewer and all this nonsense garbage. This is a
wonderful opportunity for this city. And if you guys don't
figure it out, shame on all of you. I sold 220 acres in West
Melbourne right off of I 95. I brought the developer, paid
100,000 an acre, a ten acre offer from the leading health
department health hospital in the community. They wanted to
build doctors offices and an emergency room, and he wanted
$1 million. What he paid yesterday for 100,000. And they
took a walk for five years. It sat vacant because the guy
didn't have a catalyst to start the whole thing, because that
would have brought other doctors offices, a Publix or
this or that and the whole thing. And we should not make
that mistake. All that being said, we should go after a
hospital campus. We should go after an industrial campus, an
office campus, or we should go. I can't read my writing. A
university, God knows there's enough people moving to Florida
today that we should take a step back and we should hire
somebody. And I'm too old to get hired, and we should send
them out to these places or these companies and see if we
can find somebody that's interested in coming here and
eat up 50, 40, 30 acres and move an entire operation here
that creates jobs, creates taxes, and creates a business
and something we can be proud of. The idiot mayor in Saint
Pete who is going to lose the election because the guy's an
idiot. I brought him 50 acres, 26 sellers. My time's almost
running out. And the developer said we should make this a
museum center. Well, that's all I had to say. I was on a plane
to Naples. I met Murano glass. They wanted to come. I went to
New York. I met the Hermitage people for the Hermitage Museum
in Saint Petersburg, Russia. They wanted to come, but it
wasn't good enough for this guy. I don't know what he was
looking at. Now he's going to get kicked out in his. So the
bottom line is there's 160 great acres there. Before we
decide what we're going to do with it, we should explore a
university, a hospital campus, and a company. Thank you
Michael. Good luck. Thank you. All right. Let's hear from
commissioners about the presentation, beginning with,
of course, Commissioner Quintana. Thank you, mayor. I,
I, I just want to first of all, just be grateful for the fact
that we're having this conversation. I've got a long
history with the neighborhood that is Washington Park. I've
been participating in their homeowners association meetings
for the past 12 years, and I live about five minutes away.
So that was long before I was a city commissioner. And
certainly since becoming one. I hear from residents and users
of the industrial park on a regular basis. This actually
this conversation is happening because when George Keller was
about to become our city manager, I asked him to drive
out there with me to see what was going on in the industrial
area and to better understand how it is that the conditions
there were what they were for, as long as they were without
anybody ever saying anything about it. And so I'm not going
to talk long. I'm just grateful to be able to hear what my
colleagues think about this. And then I'll just say that my
focus, there's so much information that this study has
put out on the website that it can be really overwhelming. I
mean, I've been chipping away at it for months now, and
there's still parts of it that I haven't gotten to, but my
comments are going to focus on the implementation matrix. And
just a couple of thoughts I have about the sequence of
things. But beyond that, I'll just be quiet and listen to
what others think. Thank you, Commissioner Hernandez. Thank
you mayor. I may not be so kind. And with all due respect to
everyone here today, who where can somebody point out to me
with this intersection is on that neighborhood, the
hypothetical situation in that. And that's the problem that we
have hypothetical. It's not reality. And like I said, I'm
not going to be so kind because we're trying to fix a problem.
And all I have is ideas. And the idea doesn't say, you need
to do this there, you need to do this there. These are all
hypothetical and with let me finish before you, before you
say anything. This is beautiful. So anyone that looks at this
that says, oh wow, they're going to fix this problem. And
then you look at the reality of what's there on the ground.
There is no room. There is no intersection like this in that
neighborhood. So that's the that's what I see as a problem.
Is everything you're saying in your report is correct? Where
is the ability to fit that with the constraint that the area
has that's missing? Unless you can correct me if I'm wrong,
which I would love to be able to do that because that would
fix the problem. But the constraints that we have in
that neighborhood, we have businesses that are overrun
because of the vehicles that they have, because of the trade
that they have. It doesn't address that one way. Yes, it
would solve some of the problem. It doesn't address how we're
going to get parking. I look at this easily in that picture.
It's a five foot six foot sidewalk. I see green space,
and then I see parking on the other side. I see parking on
the other side and a sidewalk. We don't have enough right of
way to do anything like that. So please, please enlighten me
if you don't mind. And the reason that I like to be able
to be enlightened is because I have another area just north of
Johnston Street, on the east side of 21st Avenue that would
be able to be helped by something like this if we have
an innovative way of doing it. But right now, just even this
picture right here, tell me where this is in order to be
able to get something like that done, I would love to hear
these two reflect the existing right of way. And what we did
is that we took existing conditions and we, instead of
being specific on a particular intersection, we took
conditions, existing conditions for multiple ones. So if you
see, for example, there. And then we have another example,
okay, no, go back, go back to that one because yes, I know
you. I'll wait till you get there. That one. That's the
long term vision. The vision. Where is that intersection that
well, that like I said, this is a compilation we did respect.
We did show the existing right of way of all, most of the east
west streets are 50 foot right of way. So that does reflect
the 50 foot right of way. And it does show existing
conditions that we saw in different locations, with
suggested implementations and improvements that can be done
at, at, at different places. Our study does suggest to
conduct a proper study specifically for each street,
determining what the street and what priorities they need, and
what improvements can be done in the ground. Right now, our
study suggests some ideas for improvements, but it's not
specific to a specific intersection or location. It
just suggests specific recommendations for
improvements. I understand that, and I can tell you that before
we had the study and before we actually went and got the
comments from everybody in the area and the residents and
people at large, we knew that. We knew that those issues need
to be addressed. What we were looking for, at least from from
my perspective, is how can and and by the way, this is not an
attack on on you or the company we need. We needed this. But
what we're looking for is clear light of what needs to be done,
where, how to achieve that. It would be up to us, but we don't
have that information because please take. Good. Let's go
back to the other one. Yes. Sorry, but let's go back to the
other one. We we have a specific examples on page 48 of
the full report that do show each one of the, you know,
identified street types that we defined. And we do have
examples of each one of them. It's like, I, like I said, it's
not specific to like a specific intersection, but it does guide
you to improvements to blood streets, which are, sorry, to
blood streets, the short term, mid-term and long term, how
they can build up. It has examples of you rehashing the
presentation. I got it, I saw it, and I agree with your
presentation. I'm just saying I you're correct, Commissioner.
And all we're asking is for something how to resolve the
problems that we currently have. The presentation addresses the
issues, addresses what can be done, but where can we do it?
And the the intent of the master plan study was not to.
And I used the word site specific. It's probably the not
exact right term, but it's not to give specific details on how
to solve each of the items identified in the matrix, It's
to pull together a holistic matrix of everything that has
to be done, and then staff will move forward with each of those
items. It's an intent of the master plan. Wasn't to say this
should be 50ft, two feet, five feet. It was identifying all of
the collective risks, visions and way to move them forward
holistically for the area at once. Because we know that
we've tried some individual items out there to address some
of the concerns, and independently, those items have
not worked. And you and I understand that, and I get it.
And I'm not trying. Like I said, I'm not bashing the information
you're bringing forth because it's forth. But I'm going to
give you a an example of what I would be looking for. If you
give an engineer a space and you need, I need to be able to
put this here. They drove up and they engineer a way to be
able to put whatever it is that you need in that space, which
is, I thought that what we were looking to do, we have a
constraint in an area because of the business and the quality
of business or the type of business that are there. And
yes, you have brought up a study that says, these are all
the problems that are wrong. These are the problems how to
fix it, but it doesn't tell us how to fix it. That's correct.
And so my my point is, I thought that the study would be
to be able to tell us how to fix you. We have very smart
individuals who work for the city. They know that that area
was a problem. The whole elected body knew that the area
was a problem. We all knew what we would like to see. This is
what we got here. How do we see that? That's what's missing
here. So we spend all kinds of money for something that we
already know. That's how I see it. And so again, we need to be
able to be site specific as to what we can do in certain areas.
It talked about gravel lots. Yes. I understand that gravel
lots currently are illegal. We don't allow them. We can maybe
we can do asphalt millings. We can. Where can we identify one?
Because one of the things that we would like to do from the
commission, and I'm speaking from the Commission and please
correct me if I'm wrong here, is to be able to identify areas
where we can improve that particular district. And that
means if there's a particular corner that it's empty or a lot
that it's empty somewhere, it could be identified and maybe
on a private setting, this lot may need to be purchased for
the city, for parking, for the people that work in that area
so that everybody can park there. And this way, maybe the
parking department can go purchase that and charge those
individuals to work there to be able to park in that lot. Those
are the ideas that I thought that this study was going to be
able to bring back to us, not something that we already
recognize. And like I said, no disrespect, you guys were given
a task and you brought up a task. And I get it. And it may
be more cumbersome than, than what you guys have been paid.
Because this is tedious in nature. You're going to have to
go block by block, business by block, and identify what needs
to be done. And that may be our job to do with staff. Overall,
I love what I saw. What is disappointing is the fact that
you have pictures of some of the residents are looking at,
oh, that's what it's going to look like, and there's no way
to get that picture because we don't have the space in the
roadway. Even though we may have 50ft, we may have 50ft of
right of way, which is ten feet of swale. On each side you have
the road that is 12.5ft or something like that. So you may
have the the space, but you don't have the space to draw to
do what it's actually there. Overall, I love the
presentation. I think the ideas are great, but how do we get
there is the part that I would like to hear. And, and that was
the on the end where Cameron summarized our our action items
staff will be putting together those action items collectively
and bringing those individual tasks forward. And what and
what I'd like to see more of is maybe working with engineering
as well to identify which roads, which streets, the street
hierarchy you would like to see to be one way. Because in order
to alleviate some of the issues that we have, there is going to
be the design of the road to have where they're going, and
also working with code enforcement to do the
enforcement that it's needed because some of the residents,
they are there, they have to traverse through there are
going insane because they can't do it because some of the
operators don't care. They're parked in the middle of the
road. And then there's some business owners that are
related with tow truck companies. They tell you right
on the wall, no parking here. And if you park on there as
well, which is public property, and they're not paying for it
within three minutes, you have a tow truck there trying to tow
your car. No. Lift it, I seen it. So these are the things
that we love to be able to fix. And like I said, this is the
area that was picked first. But there's an area just north of
Johnson Street, east of 21st Avenue in my district that has
very similar problems. So whatever we learn here, we
would try to implement there. And the business sector, I'm
trying to do something similar on the south side of Jackson
Street in downtown Parkside, and you guys are helping me
with that, and I'm grateful for it. In order to try to one way
and generate more parking, we all learning on this thing, but
I see beautiful pictures and I say, well, how do we get there?
And I just can't, I can't see that. And that, and that is one
of our short term items that we'll be working on. So we
could program it, fund it, and prioritize and program the
projects within the staff workloads and tasks. And by the
way, for the comment with the mayor's family owns property
there or not, I don't think that unless they own 90% or
more than 50% of the property there, it's relevant. I think
that we have a problem in a business district that needs to
be addressed. So whatever it takes to address it, I'm in
support of do that. And that may be why I'm coming off a
little harsh and critical, because I want to make sure
that that area survives and thrives, because I see the
commercial areas in the city of Hollywood has been minimized
and minimized, making way for residential. And the business
people in the city of Hollywood don't have a place to go, and
they need to have a place to go, and they need to have a place
to operate. And the better we can do it, the better business
that they will have. And in the long term, the better tax base
that the city of Hollywood has to approve. Motion to approve.
Second. This is just a presentation, but I don't know
if you know, we're asking for a motion to approve so that staff
will work forward with the short term, medium and long
range items like the ones you've discussed. I'll move to
approve. And that way we can work with Mr. Hernandez budget
and departments, who has also cued in to speak next
Commissioner. Second, it for the record. Okay. Vice Mayor
Cleary. Sorry, not that I wouldn't, but I just don't want
to take credit for something I didn't do. So I agree with part
of what Commissioner Hernandez had brought up. I didn't see
some of the things that I was expecting to see in this report.
Maybe I just missed it, maybe I was, but I thought we were
going to. Improve this industrial area through change
in zoning and abandonment of uses, but I didn't see ideas on
different zoning changes and stuff like that. In the
presentation. AM I was I expecting something we didn't
have that one of the one of the long term items is to evaluate
the land use and zoning for some of those areas, but it we
have to start somewhere. And right now we were looking to
start on the short term, immediate wins that we've
identified in the task list, which is starting to get
excitement around the area, visioning, bringing the the
businesses together more so that they're. We're bringing
placemaking and identification to the area and also looking at
the, the street hierarchy, working within the existing
pavement boundaries to identify if there could be one way if
additional on street parking can be captured long term,
would be. Do we need to look at the land, use the zoning. Do we
need to look at those other items and work outside of the
existing pays paved asphalt. But. So the specific
recommendations on rezone from this to that that is not in
there. And that was not what the intent of this was. So I'm
not an urban planner, but I thought that we should be
adjusting the uses before we start to come up with one way
streets or how much more parking we need, because long
term, as you put it for zoning changes, requires long term. It
requires abandonment of uses. And so the sooner we do that,
the sooner we get the change in uses. And then we can work on
the one weighing of streets and additional green spaces or
additional parking. Because unless we because people could
speculate and start buying properties, as has been alluded
to, based on the current zoning and current land uses. And if.
And then we are faced with Bert Harris. If we are improving a
neighborhood, stimulating interest in the area and
speculators, and then we change zoning and we're stuck with the
zoning that we have now instead of zoning that we want. So
while I don't have a problem with approving this today, I
think we need to bring back a zoning and land use changes as
soon as possible before we start losing the opportunity to
get those zoning and land use changes. I mean, unless you
could explain to me why I'm wrong, which I'm perfectly
acceptable. Commissioner. Thank you. And and yes, it is pretty
rare that we don't touch a zoning. The reason why you
don't see it specifically there is because you already had a
very well written economic study previous to this, and
with the help of our economist, we also saw how important this
area is for as an economic engine for both the city and
the county. So what we did is we established a long term
vision that would allow for the study of the land use evolution.
But building on on the success that you currently have and
seeing how things trickle over time, because changing land use
right now would had potentially, as you alluded to, a negative
effect on both the, the land values and potentially having,
having businesses go out of business. And I'll tell you, I
promised that I wouldn't bring it up, but I worked on the
master plan for Wynnewood. And I can tell you there's a lot of
successes there, but there's a lot of things that happen very
rapidly that we could not foresee. One of the things that
we wanted to make sure with this project is that we would
protect through land use and through through a long term
evolution of land use and implementation of
infrastructure. Over time, the protection of your businesses
and the evolution of of the businesses themselves. But
building on what they are today and seeing how they can evolve,
you know, slowly and in a, in a, in a healthy way. Does that
answer your question? Because I don't want to I don't want to
tell you, I don't want to, I don't want to mislead you,
first of all. And number two, I believe working with your with
your staff that the what the report does, it establishes
something in a very careful and very well thought manner for
that evolution of your uses. Okay. And and I'll go, I'll,
I'll do one more. Yes, we could have been more specific with
the rights of way and the areas and the distances. Yes. We
could have proposed zoning changes. I love your your
comment on on well, if you ask an engineer how to do something,
they'll give you this very specifics. I'm an engineer. No,
no. Well, and you're absolutely right. They might have. The
thing is, when you ask an engineer to find a recipient
for water, they'll give you the most efficient thing. And it'll
probably be something cylindrical. What this project
does is it begins to try to understand why are you what are
you using the water for? What options do you have? How does
that recipient fit within the context of Hollywood? So yes,
you could have gone over the first step of understanding why.
And yes, you could have gotten all those answers. And yes, you
could have gotten all the zoning changes that we could
potentially propose because trust me, I could propose a
bunch of those. But first you needed to understand, and first,
we needed to establish what was needed and give you a path
forward that then your staff can take little by little,
carefully and understanding what the. Both context and
reality of the time are. And again, I, we have a lot of
ideas on how to change those roads. And yes, I can imagine
here, you know, many other things. But I think that what
we've put forward for you is a menu of options and a path
forward that you can work with your staff, not with us
necessarily, but with your staff, and take it apart and
ensure that whatever steps you take are very meaningful. And
they, they, they approach the problem that you have in front
of you, not necessarily an overhaul of the whole thing. I
hope that that I am not an engineer. I am not an engineer,
but my daughter is a mechanical and an aerospace engineer. And
some of the questions that you talked about, an engineer may
give you where the space goes. They actually look at first
what that space is going to do, and what they're installing in
there is going to help to make that happen. So they are very
thorough when it comes to that. So I try not to argue with my
daughter because of just that. So but yes, I have nothing
against them. Takes it out on us. It's nothing against
engineers. It's just that we came at this with the guidance
and help of your staff from from from 30,000ft. Right. And
I think that's the right approach. You look at it from
the big picture and try to be holistic, and then help you
begin to narrow things down to the solution that you need,
that that was the purpose of the of the project. So I'm
going to, I'm going to finish with just a couple more points.
Anybody can answer if you're available. But I love the idea
of one weighing and creating some diagonal parking along
these streets, because that will cure some of the parking
issue. It doesn't cure the flooding issue. So and what I'm
going to propose is going to be expensive, but can we do
somewhat like the downtown area on these streets if we one way
them and do paver parking so that you have that permeable
area and then we pay for it through creating a C, D, D. Or
turf block. But you know, I don't, I don't I'm going to
reiterate, I don't agree with gravel parking anywhere. I
think it's just it's going to not improve the esthetics of a
neighborhood by allowing gravel parking. But can we do what the
city attorney can we create a C, D, D or do we need voting by
the property owners or. I mean, we didn't do it for we did a
voluntary vote for the North North Emerald Hills Improvement
safety Improvement District. Like we we did the voting just
so that we can get shade for making the decision. But don't
we have the ability to create a C, D, D, or some kind of
improvement district for Washington Park industrial area?
We're very happy to look into that and let you know what
we're able to find. We're I'm happy to to have my office look
into that. You don't need support. We'll look into it.
Okay. Thank you. And that's it. Thank you. So, Damaris, the way
in which the discussion is going on with the City
Commission, and they're talking about concepts and they've gone
beyond the envelope of this particular master plan
presentation, even though I'm not required to abstain from
voting on this. I think I just want to avoid even the
appearance of a conflict of interest. And I'm going to just
step down. I'll pass it to step pass it to Vice mayor to
complete the item. And this way they can have their discussion
because they're going beyond just the vision plan. And so
I'd feel more comfortable just erring on the side of, of.
Absolutely. The appearance of, of any conflict allows you to
abstain. Thank you. Thank you. Of course. Tracy. Who's up next?
Okay. Go ahead, Commissioner Shuhan. Oh, Lord have mercy. He
exited the meeting. Yeah. Thank you, I got it. I don't need you
much of what I was going to say. Commissioner Hernandez said. I,
I agree very much that I think it looks good. I think it
provides direction. I guess my wish or my disappointment is
that we don't have something today to say yes for the next
step. I mean, we have we're going to approve this, it
sounds like. But is there money that you need? Is there more
direction that you need? I feel like these surrounding
residents have been living with unacceptable conditions for
decades, and we should be doing more faster. And so this is the
exact this is the kind of the the uncomfortable part here is
we haven't done master planning, you know, in a little while.
And so the intent of this is to identify the items that we need
to work together to program within the departments, whether
it's funding, staffing or just within our workload to bring
them forward. So what we have on the screen now is our four
next steps, where we're going to start to move the short term
recommendations forward, and then evaluating some of the
medium and long range. The intent of this isn't there's
not going to be change overnight, but the intent is
how do we have change over time so that we start to see
tangible results? And what are the quickest, fastest items we
could do. And that is what has been identified and laid out in
the implementation matrix. Okay, so we will be coming back to
you with funding and prioritizing and putting those
together. Okay. And I understand that your department
has been extraordinarily busy. So a concern is and you know, I
don't want this to sound disrespectful for any master
plan that's ever come through. But we have a lot of plans. We
have a lot of plans that don't get implemented. And this one,
I think it sounds like and we'll see how the vote goes,
but it sounds like we're all in favor of this as a good thing.
But it it has to start happening. And then my only
other comment is, is code. And I think that much of the
predicament that this community and this area finds itself in
is over a very long number of years, there has been lax code
enforcement. And so things that are not allowed, have been
allowed to the point that we're afraid to not allow them
anymore. I'm not an expert in the neighborhood, but that's
what it feels like. Like people just abuse the situation
because it's never been forcefully enforced. And so I
think that one, the one thing that we can do today is not put
these businesses out of business with enforcement, but
come to some agreement with the business owners that we're
going to enforce things. I mean, I only hear about residents
that can't get through these streets, and they're concerned
that emergency vehicles can't get through these streets. I
mean, these are real worries, right? If somebody's trying to
get their kid to school or get their kid to the doctor and the
streets are blocked. I mean, we're not doing our job as a
city. So I think I appreciate what Andrea's saying about
starting on this. But in the meantime, we have to come up
with some enforcement that allows the businesses to
operate and allows the residents to live peacefully
and successfully to be able to get where they need to go
without the concern. So like I said, I'm not an expert in the
area, but the one thing I hear about are these block streets
business owners not giving up any care to the residents that
surround it, feeling like they have the priority over these
streets versus the residents when really, you know, the
residents are are very, very important and their concerns
have to be addressed. So that's my request, I guess, Giovanna,
is to maybe have some sort of meeting with these businesses
and say, this is what we're doing and we're going to really
enforce this. Now, in between when our planning department
keeps us moving through these next steps. And until then, the
burden is really on on code to keep the residents safe in this
in this area. So that's it for me. Thank you. Next in the
queue is Commissioner Quintana. Do it. Okay. Okay. Yeah, I, I
was actually sticking to what was in the plan. So thank you
for all of those of you who have come up with ideas about
how to fund the future. And I was really focusing much more
on the short term and mid-term actions that are in the
implementation matrix. So, I mean, that said to the
conversation about code, believe me, Roger and I speak
every day. I don't know how else I can say how much was
spent on the sidewalks that are on the linear park on State
Road seven on fDOT that is currently being used by the car
dealerships to to drive their cars over the landscaping and
onto the sidewalks, and then taking pictures from State Road
seven to sell their cars. And so I want our small businesses
to continue to operate the community. The surrounding
community does not want to lose its identity as a working class
community. They want to continue to have blue collar
workers be able to be in the Washington Park community. They
don't want that to change, nor do I. What I was seeking was
coexistence, mutual respect between the heavy auto uses
that are going on in the industrial park and the other
business types that are in there. I'm talking about
business to business, mutual respect that does not currently
exist. And then certainly the big trucks that come through
delivering the vehicles from the dealerships that drive
through the residential neighborhoods, that no sooner
does Joseph Kroll's department catch up a road that within two
months, big holes are there again, because you've got these
huge trucks that are using them daily for delivery of vehicles.
I was just looking for a way that we could have mutual
respect happen within that industrial area. And I also
want to then point back to what in The matrix, it seems to me
like the most intractable parts of this challenge. So this area
was unincorporated Broward until 1963, when Hollywood then
took on the area. What was there before was a trailer park
and it became it took away housing, but it then became
industrial and commercial use. This has been this way for an
awfully long time, since 1963. And if this was an easy to
solve problem, I would think by now somebody would have solved
it. It's an intractable problem. The parts that are most
difficult are in that those three center blocks that if you
could bring the map back up, guys, that has the hierarchy of
streets, that interior part, it seems to me like the most
challenging part. So the thing about painting the the thing
about painting the facades, not all the stuff that's in the
short term, under vision and identity, none of it would cost
anything. In addition, and I know that that's part of what
staff took into consideration is what can we do without money
to get it going? And I think that's all fine and dandy. I
kind of get the sense that unless the property owners
there take an interest in improving their facades and
having a cleaner environment, it isn't going to happen. Right.
And so I'm kind of deemphasizing all that part
because obviously they haven't done it yet. And it's not like
they're not making money that they could clean up their
properties as it stands, but they haven't done it yet. I'm
deemphasizing all of that. Of your vision and identity
recommendations, the one that I think we should follow through
on is managed change at the edges, not the core. So there's
an easy win if you focus on 56th Avenue, on Washington
Street, on State Road seven and Pembroke Road. As a first step,
what can we do about improving that outside core, how that
looks? That's where I think we could get some quick wins. It's
still going to be ugly in the middle unless we get property
owners in there to care, but at least the outside core won't
look so bad. I would like to suggest in the section that
says Street Design, Mobility and Infrastructure, I would
like to see us focus on. You already said it. Adopting the
street hierarchy framework and considering initiating a
traffic study to assess limiting truck and commercial
vehicle traffic on residential roads. I'd like to move from
mid-term to short term, where it says develop a comprehensive
street condition and needs assessment so that you can
prioritize the repair and repaving of residential streets.
Again, I mean, Joseph is patching them, but we're not
actually repaving them. And I guess we'll see how long they
last with the big trucks driving over them if we spend
the money on that. But I'd like to move that into short term,
because those roads are in terrible condition where it
says, prioritize sidewalk improvements and repair.
Referencing the proposed street hierarchy. So we'd be putting
sidewalks in repair, emphasizing it on the four
green areas in the map. I don't know that it's worth trying to
fix sidewalks in the interior core right now. When all the
cars are parked over the sidewalks and anything and
everything else they can park over. So again, I'm not even
touching the long term. I was just focusing on the short term
and mid-term so that you guys could know where to get started,
where under street design and mobility infrastructure, again,
please move to short term developing and adopting
strategies to increase water permeability in the public
right of way. So this is a prone to flooding area. When
public Utilities did the. Sewer and new water lines, there was
not really a vision to improve the drainage. And because of
all of the hoopla that that was raised, they somehow managed to
improve some areas of drainage in there. But it's still really
bad. I go through there at least three times a week, and
the flooding is I mean, I have video, I'm not going to show it,
but it's like waves in a place with heavy auto uses where
there are auto chemicals. Okay, so I think that proper drainage
should be a priority. So whatever we can do in the
places where we know the water puddles, I think that should be
a priority. And then I guess I'll stop with that because
wait, is there another one? Yeah, I made reference to it
this morning as the last thing I'll say. I made reference to
it this morning. If we can somehow encourage in these
outer core the things like maker where people are
manufacturing, making something, it can be in a small setting,
but some some place where people can. I know of places
where they have something that's called repair clinics,
DIY repair clinics, so that people could come to a
storefront and learn how to repair lamp, learn how to
repair a sewing machine, learn what they can do to change
their own oil. Perhaps even so, things that would encourage
that, that identity as a blue collar, hands on kind of
environment. But we could create businesses that are
consistent with that in the outer core. So I'll stop. I
don't want to monopolize the conversation, but I again, I
want to say I'm grateful that we're even thinking about this
because what I was told when I first brought this up, this
will never change. It's been like this for decades. Nobody's
figured out a way to do it. It's going to take a long time,
I said, but if we never start, we never will. And if you just
say it's never going to change and throw up your hands and say,
forget it, that's how we got to where we are now. So I'm not
expecting it to be overnight. I don't want to throw any
business owners into a panic. I don't want to throw the the
neighborhood around it into a panic that they're getting
gentrified and kicked out of their neighborhood. I don't
want that to happen, but I do want us to know that it doesn't
have to be this way. There are other ways that we can do this,
and we should not give up on the opportunity. I'll stop.
Thank you. Thank you, Commissioner Quintana. It's
your district, so you should speak up about it so no one is
monopolizing your time. If you have more to say, go for it.
Thank you. I'm good for now. So I was in the queue, but I'm
going to go ahead and take the privilege. I know that
Commissioner Hernandez is up to speak after, but I think a lot
of know Kevin done. He's done. Yeah. So I think that we have
talked about in a micro vision years about this area primarily,
as Commissioner Shoham said, code, code, code, because that
seems to be the biggest issue. And we got nowhere for a long
time. It was an unsafe area. It was a police haven, if I'm not
mistaken, to go in there because there were a lot of not
so friendly usages going on in that area as well. So it was
almost like a micro type of addressing and starting just
with code. But this to me is a macro because it shows a vision.
It shows a way that we can get where we need to be. My only
critique, I guess, would be and not disrespectfully, but we
have so much advancement with AI and technology that if you
go back to the slides that you showed the streets and it
reminds me of, I'm kind of going backwards, but you bring
it forward, right? You have this what it is now you have an
overlay to show what the future will look like. So, you know,
it's like the, the process. So you see where it is now, like a
current time photo and then what it could be with an
overlay showing the underneath and then vibrant appearance of
how that would be because it's very hard if you're not a
picture, like I need to see it to believe it. And right now,
this is wonderful ideas, but it's not reality for me, that
would be my only suggestion. And, and it's great for the
public to see what the future could bring. I don't think we
want to push out the small businesses in that area either.
It's very important that we actually have the pips and the
hips and the ships and all the type of projects that we have
to help generate these businesses to give them an
opportunity to enhance their businesses, make them more
appealing. Curbside appeal. I think that that's an
opportunity that we can seek. Don't we have that right now
available? And maybe we have to do some outreach and and really
get them involved to make sure that the improvements are made
as well. But I think that there is light at the end of the
tunnel. I think that this is a really great start, and I think
that this is something we've needed for a while. So thank
you, Commissioner Quintana, for being the squeaky wheel, which
we always say is so important. But now we have to put the
rubber to the road and make sure that we move it forward.
And so I know that there's a motion on the floor. I'm going
to go ahead and allow Commissioner Hernandez and then
Commissioner Gruber, and I guess we'll go ahead and take a
vote. Commissioner Hernandez. She's not on yet. She's here.
There. One more. Okay. Thank you. Thank you, Vice Mayor.
Actually, it the door has been open for us to look at the
outer versus the inner. As a business owner and someone who
don't have any property in this particular area, I can tell you
that my idea is completely contradicting to yours, rather
than to eliminate the business and have the residential thrive,
give the people from the residential the ability to make
money out of their property and make that a business district
so that you don't have both. You don't have we? Well, you
said that you would rather focus on the main street and
the outer cause as a start. As a start, I understand my, my,
you, it won't work that way because, for example, Pembroke
Road, I've been after the department for years to do
something to change the zoning of Pembroke Road. Pembroke Road
has mostly 25 foot lots, and then you have to amass so many
of them. Then you don't have the depth to be able to have
any business that can sustain, because it doesn't have the
ability to create the parking necessary for the business that
you have there. So you have a conflict no matter what you do.
Now, if you take a block behind that, some of the residential
block and you create a buffer, then you can have a larger
business doing on Pembroke Road, similar to what Pembroke West
Park has done. They've actually rezoned two blocks south of
Pembroke Road to be commercial in nature in order for them to
be able to allow larger development to take place. It's
not anywhere near where they want to go, but they've taken
the step zoning wise to be able to do it this way. There's a
buffer before it gets into the residential. In this particular
district, you have a great deal of commercial that has taken
over some of the residential. And I can tell you the by
firsthand experience, what happened with the regional
activity center with Iraq that took place on east of 21st
Avenue, west of Federal Highway, where you had a mixture of both.
When we rezone every all of that to a regional activity
center. If you had a commercial use that you were using and you
sold it and you stopped using it for that for more than three
months, you lose your ability to do that similar to 24th
Avenue. And it created a stagnation of some of those
lots because people didn't pay the money that they paid for
commercial, supposedly, and then find out that it was
residential. We have worked through some of those kinks,
but working on a 1 to 1 basis is time consuming, painful for
both for the property owner and the staff in order to be able
to achieve something. So if we're looking to see what the
long term vision is of that particular area with the
density that you have on commercial uses, I would say I
would rather have, since the shrinking, the commercial
properties in the city of Hollywood's have shrunk,
particularly with the regional activity center. I would
venture to say I would rather see this as a commercial
district. And the properties that are residential in nature
right now, and the people have the ability to sell cash in on
a higher value. Those properties. Let's draw up what
we really want to see with the proper parking, with the proper
drainage and the proper business model. So then them
can actually thrive. And then we can work backwards on this
one that we have, which is smaller property. And they're
actually abusing their, their, their stay, if you would,
because they're parking in the middle of the road. And if
you've been there, as I have, when a flatbed tow truck is
unloading two cars, because they got one on top and one on
the back, and you tell them, hey, I got to get around you, I
whatever, no, whatever you would want to hear from a
sailor, you would hear from this. I have and and so have I.
So my point is. And then you you have to test your patience.
So we need to address that and code and police because I
wouldn't suggest just to send a code officer out there without
having the police nearby, because those people get nasty.
And yes, the truck driver may have the ability for 15 minutes
to do this, but sometimes they're really smart. They park
right next to the other guy who is on the other side of the
street, and they block the road. And when they're unloading cars
and they're blocking the road, God forbid that any emergency
vehicle has to go through there. It ain't happening without them
having to move that. And that's time that it takes away from
somebody's potential life threatening situation. So we
need to address this. But I think that the larger picture
is I love what they presented, but we as a commission need to
address this. What do we really want to have a residential area
in the middle of a commercial district that will be in
conflict for years and years to come, or do we want to change
this to a commercial district? And that's more than the
presentation that it's here. But that's the long term vision
as to what we want to do. And if you want Pembroke Road along
that area to thrive, we need to be able to change the zoning
because I've been here since 1974 and even since back then,
the city of Hollywood had a growth management department.
That's what it was called. Because we're landlocked, we
can't grow anymore, and nobody was willing to take that on. At
some point, we have to, if we want the city with that
particular area to prosper. Otherwise, you're encouraging
the same thing to happen. And no matter what we do with the
street, no matter what we do with code, no matter what we do
with those businesses, they will still live in conflict
with those residential area. That's how I see it. And I and
I appreciate what you're trying to do, but I think we need to
maybe look at it from a different perspective, allow
this to take place, and then bring it back to us and see
what we really want to do with the whole district, with the
whole area. Because basically from 56th Avenue, that's 56th
Avenue and Washington Street for 41 Pembroke Road. That box
right there, that area right there is what we're talking
about. And if you look at it and you count, there's a heck
of a lot more businesses in business zoned areas and
properties than there are residential just food for
thought, something to talk about. So that was my question
to Andre is how many residential properties are
within that area? I asked her that, but I'm not sure. I'm not
sure I understood the answer because it didn't I didn't
think it was very much. But we're going to let's come.
Let's go ahead and stay in the queue and give Commissioner
sorry. And then we can come back to you. Okay. That's fine.
You're absolutely right. Thank you. Okay, Commissioner Gruber,
go ahead. Thank you. I was under the understanding like so
I went to one of the one of the outreach meetings. I think,
Commissioner Quintana, you were there with me and it got really
heated. I mean, the residents, you know, they're dealing with
what they're dealing with with the the impact of the
businesses, especially a lot of the automotive ones that are
that are, you know, taking up the streets and whatnot. And
then but some, you know, the business owners were there too
passionate about their family owned business with their kids.
And, you know, at, at the meeting. So, you know, it's,
it's one of those unique situations where you have a
residential neighborhood kind of embedded in this industrial
commercial area. And I guess the challenge is to figure out
a way for it to be a cohesive, you know, kind of marriage over
there. I was under the understanding that code has
cracked down pretty hard. I know personally, I've gotten
calls from business owners there that they said, you know,
they've been parking in the Swale for years. They have
automotive and all of a sudden they're getting towed, they're
getting violations and what's going on. So I thought we were
kind of already we've already on step one of doing that has
that has that improved the situation there? I don't know
which who on staff would be able to answer that, answer
that question. So for the last 3 or 4 years now, we have been
cracking down on the Washington Park area between code parking
and the police department, basically. So, you know, we
have made a tremendous progress in our opinion. You know,
everybody every comment that the Commission has made is
accurate. Where there is every use is within that area. And my
apologies, I also forgot Hollywood Fire also has gone
out there with us. Also, in the last six months, we have taken
a different approach where we did put down some some lines to
kind of encourage folks to park within the lines, had them keep
outside the lines. And in addition to we recognize that
some of the, the tenants there are, are the ones that are
causing some of the issues basically, you know, so we try
to find a different way to, to give those or encourage those
tenants to, to behave appropriately. And in addition
to working with HPD, I believe that we're, we're changing some
habits out there. But again, you know, there are a few of
them that are not, you know, compliant so well, and we have
to change our tactics. So I believe with this study, it is
a combination of efforts and approach that we kind of have
to do out there in that area. It is a systematic area that's
been there for decades. And, you know, I believe the team
that's here now at the city are the right team to be able to
tackle this, this, this systematic issue that's been
there, you know, so I believe the study does identify some
short term short term plans, some long term plans. And, you
know, with the team that's all behind me. I think we're all
trying to work towards that short term plan. While the long
term plan vision is being worked out right. I, I'd like
to hear that that, you know, you can do you can enforce so
much, but there's also to educate and then to meet with
business owners like this specific business owner, he's
30, 40 years he's been in business. He's always parked a
few cars on the swale, not in the road. And then to all of a
sudden out of the blue, you know, have it where you can't
park there. And I get it. You were never supposed to. But
these business, these businesses had their businesses
succeeding that way. And that's not to say parking in the
middle of the road. So I like the fact that we're engaging
with them. It seems to be moving in the right direction.
So I would hate to give there's, did we say 458 businesses there
and almost 2000 employees. So a lot of them are small
businesses. I wouldn't want to change use. I would, you know,
I wouldn't want to give anyone the impression that we're going
to put them out of business. These are the small business,
the backbone of our city. We want we want these these small
businesses to succeed. I also would like to try to be able to
keep the residents there. So I think on a long term, I like
the vision and a short term, it sounds like we're moving in the
right direction from what you just said. Yvonne. So I'm in
favor of this. It is a work in progress. It's a work in
progress. It takes a long. You got to change some really old
habits and business models that that rely on those habits. So,
you know, we got to be creative to figure out how how we can
help them succeed. Yes. So thank you. You know, I'm just
kind of hearing the, the discussion amongst the, the
commission and as you said, you know, this area didn't develop
to this point overnight. It took a long time to get here,
and it's going to take a little while to reestablish the vision
and move it forward. I think what I'm hearing is there is
support for about six of the items to be reprioritized, so
that staff now knows what we need to focus on. And then the
last item was correct, correct? Yes. Because the motion was
made, there was some discussion, but it sounds like, you know,
the focus on. The priorities back up. The focus was to the
the to manage the edges, to focus on that area in terms and
de-emphasize a little bit of the vision and the identity,
and to look at the edges in terms of the zoning and what
could be done there. It was to look at the street design and
move that up in terms of looking at the water
permeability, and it was to prioritize some of the sidewalk
on the four green areas on the outer edges, look at the street
conditions and needs assessment, the framework, the traffic
study for the mobility. And I think that will give staff the
ability to look at programing, look at funding and see what
things we can also do without that to start to move some of
these initiatives forward. The. This is not a. I understand
it's not an easy conversation, you know, for this, but we
understand the direction that it sounds like where we're
going for this. And that's exactly what we needed here
today. Commissioner Shuhan. It's okay. I'll take it, since
that way I'm doing it. Sorry. Two things I want to. So that
was my exact question. So there was a motion Commissioner
Quintana had there was a motion and a second to approve it as
is. And then it sounds like, you know, if you want to tweak
to some of the things I've talked about, we will
incorporate that into it so that we know where we're
focusing and where we should be focusing our resources on. So
procedurally, what do we need to do to put those tweaks into
the motion? A motion to amend the original motion would need
to be done, but it would have to be agreed upon by the person
who made the original motion. I'm going to interrupt for one
second, and there was a late if it's okay, since the mayor had
to step out because of the process, I did watch some
movement and there is a speaker card that is pertaining to this
item. If you guys are okay that we'll listen to that because it
may add some light onto whatever we're discussing. And
that way we don't have to. Okay, Yaron, you. Again, my name is
Yaron. I'm actually a I own around, I'm sorry. I own around
30 properties in that exact same location. Yeah.
Pinpointing location a these surveys or inquiries with the
residents and business owners. I have not got any notice of
anything. And I'm there literally every day. And all my
tenants have not got any communication with any
companies to ask them any opinions. Again, I'm not to
judge any companies that are doing this, but I, we we as
business owners and the property owners have a little
say of opinion of what's going on. And the main here, the main
issue here is not only the parking. It's the biggest issue,
the drainage and the flooding. Basically, if there's any
customers coming to that area, they have nowhere to park.
Usually it rains, I don't know, an hour during the day and they
park everywhere because they're not going to get into a two
foot puddles. It's a disaster starting from the flooding of
that area, then going into, again, people coming from out
of the out of the city, coming into that little area. And what
happens is they don't know the rules, the regulations, if
there's any enforcement in in violations or fines to the
specific people coming not to the business owners or to the
property owners, because the property owners basically, at
the end of the day, have to work with the city people to
basically comply and put everyone in order. But we as
owners get hindered, get violations, and instead of
working with us hand to hand to solve the problem. And the
problem is the drainage, the parking, and these third
parties that are coming in, maybe huge signs for these
truckers not to not no trucks going coming through or huge
violations to third parties, because everything at the end
of the day falls on the property owner. And it's not
fair because we're trying to work with the, with it. And
again, no, no questions have been done to any property
owners. And I know a lot of them, maybe around 60% of all
the owners in the area, and they're all on my side, and
none of them have been approached for any inquiries of
what can we do to, to make things better in the area? I
have a question. Since you're here, you're saying that the
parking is mainly the parking issue that's in that area is
mainly because of the flooding. It it's mostly about the
flooding. There's no designated. I mean, the again, the
businesses comply because at the end of the day, the the
property owners tell them these are the regulations. And if
it's a business that is out of norm and they're creating a
havoc. Me as a property owner, they're not my tenants anymore.
But we're not responsible for third parties. And that's part
of the city's reinforcement, you know, to protect us because
at the end of the day, it falls back on us. Now, the city
should work more closely with the property owners on how to
repair the issues, our opinions, because we're on a daily basis.
They're they're not there. We are the ones that, you know,
see it every day. So I guess our opinions matter on priority
because if there's any way to solve it, you know, we can, we
can give opinion to. So I okay, so I don't know why you haven't
been notified. I think we have a list of who, what companies
and we've had outreach. So I don't know where the missing
link is at, but I'm glad that you're here today. I think I'm
sorry to interrupt. I own seven properties. And within the
seven it's 47 companies within those seven companies, 40
properties in that exact same area. Perfect. Not even one
letter did I get. Because we have people here that are not
even one letter, not even one phone call. Zero. Yeah. I'm
going to have you meet with code and, and the businesses, I
mean, the, the code enforcement knows me very well because I'm
there and proactive to solve issues. But there it isn't in a
point where they're working directly with us to find a
solution. It's there to hinder us because at the end of the
day, we have deep pockets. We're going to pay the fines.
That's not working out, you know. Okay. Thank you. Okay.
I'm going to I know he may call you up, but I have to say thank
you and end the time. Okay. Commissioner Hernandez, mayor
Levy, you're in big trouble. Oh. Thank you. Could could you
please come back up because. After this, vice mayor, could I
just speak for a moment? I wanted to clarify my the
question on procedural. Yes. You own seven properties and
you have 40 tenants. Did I hear you correctly? Yes, exactly.
Okay. And you and you said that nobody from code enforcement or
the planning department has reached out to you as to what's
going on in the area. No, they reach out when they give me
violations. I'm sorry. They reach out when they give me
violations. It's not. Come. Listen, how can we solve. What
can we do? They're not again, I don't I get that just just for
brevity, just answer yes or no and what have you. But so you
said that planning department has not reached out to you to
see how we could fix any of the problems. No, no. And the
individuals that are doing the presentation did not reach out
to you, sir. And actually, one more thing. You have 2 or 3
diagrams there. And I identify exactly what where they took
those pictures and they eliminated chunks of buildings
for for little parks. What's going to happen to the owners,
you know, when they have these spots that they took out? I'm
just saying the diagrams don't reflect reality. So I have an
issue with some of the drawings either. But here's a question
that something that I don't agree with you with. Okay. You
said that the issue that the parking is because of the
flooding, right? No, as well, on top of that as well. No, no,
no, no, no, if I understood you correctly and the vice mayor
ask you a question. Not only that, I'm sorry. No, no, let me
refrain. Not only that, that you said that the reason the
parking is a problem is because of flooding. And I'm going to
quote you, people don't want to go through two feet of water in
a puddle to get to their right. So this is South Florida and it
rains a lot. But you know what? There's a lot of sunny days and
I go by there 2 or 3 times a week. So I don't own property
there. I don't live there. I don't have a business, but I'm
very familiar with it. And even on those sunny days, they still
park there. Parking is a huge issue. So you 40 tenants, I'm
I'm not going to pick on you or your tenants. I don't know
where they parked their vehicles. But the problems that
I see there is that the car operating businesses that are
there use their designated parking spaces as storage.
That's incorrect. That's no, no, I'm not incorrect. You're right,
100%. We're just going to say no, no, that's that's, that's
also a main issue and 100% correct. No, no, I'm just
telling you what I see. Yes you could if you tell me otherwise.
You are right. I believe my lying eyes. I believe 100%
correct, 100% correct. If the problem is that those
individuals using the designated parking for storage,
quite frankly, if you have a customer, what do they expect
that customer to park so they don't foresee the forest for
the trees. So some of the issues is maybe maybe is the
tenants own generated problem, right. And we're trying to fix
that. And when I have solutions. No, no. Well, when it rises to
this level, sometimes we just impose things, right. Because
they're abusing that. They're not they're not leaving any
spaces for their own customers to park. Correct. So their
customers have to park on the street or the guy down the
street. I go by there and I see something that I can't believe
the code allows, and that is I see property owners that keep
their swell very nice, but they have railroad ties blocking for
nobody to park on their right. And that's not allowed. But you
know what? They got fed up with fighting with everybody else
and some of the fights that take place on that thing.
People take baseball bats, people take weapons out. People
take anything out to protect their little turf. So when it
rises to this level, we may have a disagreement up here as
to how to fix it. But we all Agree here that it needs to be
fixed. And so if the staff has not reached out to you, shame
on us. But while you're here, they're going to talk to you
and they're going to take your information and they're going
to want to sit with you. And do not be surprised. Thank you.
And do not be surprised if we ask you, your properties and
some of your and see how we can bring those tenants into
compliance. So we can use that as an example. And I appreciate
you being here. Yes, sir. Yes, but but the key is you come
here to communicate. We want to fix the problem. We want your
business to be successful. You want your properties to
continue to grow. But we also need to do it in a way that the
guy down the street can do business as well. You're
correct. So I just want to say thank you so much. Thank you.
Coming up, I watched the little interaction. Annie. Thank you
for thank you for allowing him to speak. And I think that this
was a good a good segue to creating a cohesive working
environment and to succeed this area, Commissioner Quintana and
all of us have strived to do for so long. So God bless you
for being up here. Thank you, thank you. And I'm and I'm
going to address and don't leave without getting with the
people. Of course, I'm here and I'm going to get with the
mayors and whatever amendment you may want to do regarding
this. I'm in agreeing with trying to change some of those
things. But the key is one of those things in particular,
which is the changing zoning. It's going to hold everything
else up. So that's a concern that I have because, well, no,
you said to work on the outer rims, the outer perimeters. And
if you well know, if you're going to do anything about
Pembroke Road, it's going to require changing the zoning
because what's currently out there now, it's not fixable. So
I want to ask you before I accept the the amendment here
is are you looking to change the zoning to expand the
commercial footprint or you want to keep Pembroke Road the
way it is? If you look at Pembroke Road, half of the
block is commercial and the other half behind it is
residential. That doesn't work. If you don't want to address
that, then I'm not going to support the amendment. If you
want to address that, then I will support the amendment. I
just want to talk to you before the amendment comes forward,
because I don't want to get into get staff to be into a
quagmire where what do they mean, what did not? I want to
make sure that we do that. And look, sometimes if you want to
make an omelet, you got to break an egg. And my point is,
hang on a second, vice mayor. And my point is I want to I
want to, I want to support what you're looking to do because I
think it's the right thing. But in order to for me to support
it, you need to give a little bit and say, okay, you know,
from Pembroke Road to the next block over, let's consider a
zoning change. And yes, you may affect some of those residents,
but you know what? Otherwise you're going to continue to
have what you have and you outer perimeter is not going to
change. I'm sorry to put you on the spot, but this is I just
want to say something, if I can, before you do that, because of
past experiences. It's going to be challenging. And I think you
need before we make a decision on that, maybe we have to do
community outreach. Well, no, no, the zoning goes with the
community outreach. We're not voting for any of that right
now. But my point is, would you consider that in order for that
to take place? Because right now we're hypothetical here.
And I think that's the reason why the mayor left, is because
we're going outside of the scope of the presentation. I
think it's a good idea. And so my point is if if you consider
something like that to talk to those individuals whenever
they're ready for it, I don't want if you don't do the zoning
change on that particular block, I'm not interested because it's
not going to change anything. Pembroke Road will continue to
be the same thing for the next 40 years. Commissioner, could I
ask that if I understand that you're trying to figure out
what the amendment might look like, and I think that might be
helpful to to stay on the record, how you would frame the
motion. And that way everybody knows exactly what it is they
would be voting upon, because sometimes we go back to the
record afterwards, and I just want staff to know exactly what
it is that I'm more than happy to do that after she answers me.
Go ahead. Okay. I'm on, I'm on. Okay. Yeah. I am thinking about
the individuals that I know personally who live on the
backside of Pembroke Road, and that I would not want to make a
decision like that without speaking to them first. So, I
mean, do we need to amend it? Go ahead. Andrea, please help
me out. So so the the item that we're talking about with
regards to the zoning along Pembroke Road is actually one
of the midterm items to look at. It sounds like in general, the
commission has a consensus to move that up, to be looked at a
little bit sooner than midterm. I think the parameters of
exactly where the line falls for what that is needs to be
evaluated as part of that request. I don't the intent for
today isn't to be drawing those lines. It's just to say, hey,
we all agree. We want to look at the zoning along Pembroke
Road and move that up a little bit further in the process. So
bright. And that's basically the solution. We hear you. Yes.
You bring that towards the forefront. I'm okay with that
because then we would deal with that. No, no I'm serious. No.
Then we would deal with that in sooner rather shorter term than
midterm. Yes. Yes. We okay. Okay. So just to make sure that
I'm I'm going to go ahead and refresh my motion. And my
motion is to adopt the conditions or the suggestions
that Commissioner Quintana has made for that district, as it
was stated. And, Andrea, since I know you were taking copious
notes over there, can you tell us what that is, including the
rezoning of the Pembroke Road to be moved from the midterm to
the short term? So it sounds like the commission. Andrea.
Just one second, though. Maybe you want to consult with them
behind you, because there seems to be some friction going on
first before we we. Commissioner. It's also it
sounds like a possible solution here may be to keep the current.
Oh no. If you keep the current motion. But if the Commission
wanted to give direction as to the priorities within. Like how
they would like staff to approach it, that's also
another way to do it. I want to see what they have, the notes
they made, and if that's part of it, it should be, yes. Are
you are you popped in? Yeah. Okay. Go ahead. Okay. It sounds
like we have a motion and a second on the floor. So
anything happens. Now we have to have a either a motion to
amend or we have to erase what's on the floor, which it's
already on the floor. It belongs to the floor. Yes. So
there has to be a motion to amend. Yeah. Just for
clarification. My two my $0.02 is in addition to accepting the
presentation today. I think that the motion would be
whatever the terminology would be for zoning and progress now.
Or is that two or is that too severe? Can we just back up for
one second here just because I think that we're getting a
little bit, you know, ahead and it's very great because that
shows that there's general enthusiasm for looking at the
recommendations of this study and and trying to move things
along. So that is, you know, obviously the purpose of a
study is to then take action on it. So what we have before you
is a study that you all are considering adopting this study,
this, these, this redevelopment program, what Commissioner
Quintana has suggested is that there are several items that
are in the midterm category of recommendations that she feels
should be moved up to the near term, the short term
recommendations, am I correct? Correct. And so then there is a
little discussion of of the specifics of one of those items
that relates to the rezoning of Pembroke Road. Absolutely. What
Andrea said, we are not rezoning Pembroke Road. We are
not proposing any rezoning of Pembroke Road right now. What
you would be doing is just taking some recommendations.
The the amended motion. If you all decide you would like to
amend the motion, would be that you would be adopting the
redevelopment program with an amending it to move some of the
midterm recommendations to near term recommendations, and then
specifying which ones you think are appropriate to do that. So
if I could, I think we should just vote on the motion that's
on the floor without amendment, because I think it muddies the
waters. And then at the direction of the commission to
look into priority priorities. So we're going to go ahead and
just take the vote. Now, if that's okay with everyone. Can
we just restate the motion? Yes. The motion was to adopt to
approve the way it was, the way it is. I seconded the motion.
And then once we take that vote, then we can redirect the
conversation as direction for the staff to look into, and
they can come back with us, which is the best fit needs
based on our priorities. Sound good? Okay. And that's and
that's what the city attorney thinks we should do. Yes, that
we shouldn't. Okay. So we're going to give direction after
this. Yes, yes. Yeah. As far as everything else. Okay. I think
that's the cleanest way to do it with the vice mayor
suggested. There we go. So do I do all in favor? Do you have
the roll call? So all in favor, say aye. Aye. Any opposed? No.
And I want to vote on the amended version. Well, now now
now now we're going to give direction to vote no. And then
we're going to come back now and give direction. Okay. And
that's not going to be amendment. It's going to be
direction of priorities like you stated earlier. But that's
not going going to be in the motion to adopt this. Okay. Yes,
yes. Okay. So motion passes six zero. And now we can buzz in to
add your priorities. Now you can give the directions and we
can support it. There you go. Okay. Do I have to go back and
read again the which one. Absolutely. And maybe the first
one is we want to continue to work with code compliance and
educate the the businesses and everyone in the area. I think
that sounds like an overarching first priority to continue to
look at. And then the second one, yes, okay. One would be
the outer perimeters. I think you had mentioned Commissioner
Quintana, recommendation 1.6 manage change at edges. Perfect.
Thank you. Recommendation 2.1 in street design and mobility,
it states consider adopting a street hierarchy framework to
improve street function. Yes. I would like to change the let's
see. Recommendation 2.5 A traffic study to assess
limiting truck and commercial vehicle traffic. I would like
to move. Recommendation 2.7 from mid-term to short term. It
states develop a comprehensive street condition and needs
assessment to prioritize the repair and repaving of
residential streets. I would like to move recommendation 2.8
from mid-term to short term. Consider prioritizing sidewalk
improvements and repair, referencing the proposed street
hierarchy framework. And I'd like to move recommendation
2.13 from mid-term to short term, it states consider
developing, adopting, and adopting strategies to increase
water permeability in the public right of way. That's
number. That should be number one. And I believe that was all
of the changes that I was hoping for. I'm already turned
on, so I don't have to buzz in so I can see the queue because,
well, if I buzz in, you gotta get turned off. And this way
everybody else is already on Commissioner Hernandez. Go
ahead. Thank you. One of the the one of the ones you
mentioned was 2.7. If I correctly, if we could put the
items here so we could see which one we're talking about.
If you have the clicker, you can put those on. Yeah. So that
we can all see it at the same time. What was it. Oh you
passed it really small. Yeah. It's tiny. No we have we have
them at the end. So a little bit larger in case we needed to
go there. Well we we're there. Okay. Sorry. If you want to
just give us one minute. Yes. I'm okay with most of those.
There's one that I'm not quite sure of. Because if we decide
to go a different route than that, it would be a waste of
time for the staff to be looking into that. Is it 2.7?
That's one, I believe. So 2.7 says consider developing a
comprehensive street condition and needs assessment to
prioritize the repair and repaving of residential streets.
Correct. Because that doesn't that only goes to the
residential street when we just we need them all. Okay, so
change it from residential to all. Okay. Which is, which is
fine. I just want to be able to do something like that. And
that shouldn't be a big deal. The implementation is expensive,
but to have the information should not be a big deal, right?
If you drive by, you can see where the potholes are. I just
wanted to see that it wasn't just 2.7 change to all and well,
correct. Got it. So what was it mentioned though was the
rezoning the the questioning about the rezoning, the
questioning about the rezoning. I believe that was 2.8. 2.8.
Consider prioritizing sidewalk improvements and repair,
referring to the proposed street hierarchy framework, if
I may. I don't want to make this any longer. I just want to
make a recommendation. Having been through this several times
with several municipalities, I would highly recommend that you
let your planning department take a look at it all and come
to you with some recommendations of what may
change. The reason why I'm saying that is because some of
these, the way that they are planned, they're kind of
sequential and they have trickle effects. And so it
would be beneficial, from what I've seen, to just let them
propose something to you and then have a workshop with you.
And I'm okay with that. But some of what Commissioner
Quintana has mentioned, which is the prioritization of the
Pembroke Road, I think that should be I shouldn't be waited
on level of hierarchy, should be something that the community
needs to be start talking about and giving her feedback as to
what they would like to see. Some of these other stuff. The
sidewalk. This is all staff is going to be recommending, and
I'm sure that the workshop will come to us and discuss it. At
the end of the day, I don't have a problem with all of that,
except just to change the 2.7 to count all of them. That's
all because the same truck that it's tearing up the residential
street is tearing up the commercial street. And the one
thing that you don't want to have is a truck that needs to
go someplace, that gets a citation because he's going
someplace and somebody doesn't believe that he's going there.
So in the truck, this is the reason why if you minimize the
residential to commercial, then the residents are able to cash
in on their property and some may not want to sell. And I'm
okay with that. But if you make it residential, then you are
starting to infringe in the little commercial space that
the city of Hollywood have. And City Hollywood needs to have
some commercial places for the small business. Small business.
Thank you. Hold on. Okay. I support what you were doing. I
think you need one more in order for the staff to be able
to. I support to the only the only thing I just want to add
to that little bit of of terminology is like the RAC,
they don't have to sell. But then they're the little, the
little house amongst the big sea of. But they don't have to.
It just creates some chaos that we've seen already with the RAC
adjustment. So you have three to support. You have direction.
I think we can call it a day. The mayor can come back and I'm
out of the hot seat. Thank you. Thank you. Is he somewhere in
the building? Somewhere close. Hey, let's refresh the long
discussion. All right. All right. Let's take up. We have a
2 p.m. time, certain item, item 32. It is just after 2 p.m.
Let's go ahead with item 32, its resolution of the City
Commission, the City of Hollywood approving a loan
commitment in the amount not to exceed 1.8 million and change
consisting of 1.2 million and change in Neighborhood
Stabilization Program funds 135,000 in home program funds,
half a million home program income funds for the
redevelopment of the Hollywood Village. Affordable housing
development into Hollywood Vista. Affordable housing.
Housing development. This is from the Office of Housing and
Community Development. Welcome. Ryan Kohut, the director.
Definitely an exciting opportunity for a long time
derelict site. So go ahead, Ryan. Thank you mayor, vice
mayor, commissioners, city manager, city attorney. We have
an opportunity today to take a development right now that is
currently abandoned, an affordable housing development,
and turn to something that's going to be bring tremendous
value to the city. We are asking right now for the city
to reinvest one point, approximately 1.8 million in
federal NSP neighborhood stabilization dollars and home
dollars into the redevelopment of the Hollywood village into
Hollywood Vista. Currently, the building is abandoned because
it's unsafe. It was abandoned. It was vacated by the Housing
Authority and our city building department. The initial loan
that was given to the Housing Authority back in 2010 included
a $2.5 million loan, which is 1 million in NSP dollars, 870,000
NSP and 135 000 in home dollars for the acquisition of the
property back in 2010. For approximately 12 years, it
fulfilled its commitment to the loan by providing affordable
housing for residents that were 50% and below of area median
income. Unfortunately, because these dollars come with rent
restrictions, the rents are really low. It's an older
building that was built in 1967. The cost of maintenance repairs
with the low rents led to the building falling into disrepair,
and over a period of time, the building deteriorated, became
deteriorated, deteriorated over a period of time. The housing
authority took several steps to do assessments to determine
what it will cost to redevelop this property. In 2001, they
hired a company that conducted a thorough assessment to
determine what the cost of rehabilitation was at the time,
it was deemed unfeasible to rehabilitate this building
because of the cost it would take. At that time. They went
through several steps, several different iterations, and what
happened was they hired a company that relocated the
residents that were there within HUD guidelines into
other areas, and the building was subsequently closed in 2023.
Once the building was officially vacated. What we're
asking the proposed development brings new life to a structure
right now that is currently underutilized because it's not
being utilized for its intended services. So technically
speaking, we are technically out of compliance because of
HUD regulations. We are still within the 20 year covenant for
those HUD dollars that are invested in the property, and
it's not being used for its intended purpose. So right now,
we need to make a decision to move forward by reinvesting
those dollars that are already tied to the project and adding
more money so they can achieve this. The proposed development
will include eight stories of 118 affordable units, 89 more
than we had before, while maintaining the 29 units that
are at 50% in the development, you're going to have units at
30%, 60%, and 80% of Ami. They're going to be partnering
with Htg to make this happen. HTC has already received a sale
loan. They've been approved for sale loan to move this project
forward. And what it's going to provide us with now is a longer
affordability period, an additional 30 years. These are
all good things for the city. The federal investment and the
public benefit will allow us to potentially resolve compliance
issues with the federal dollars that are tied to the project
right now, it's not going to be an easy lift, but we have been
working closely with Htg in the housing Authority to develop a
pathway to really make sure that we fall back into
compliance with these dollars. Hctz also work closely with the
housing Authority, where they will also reinvest in funds
into the development of this project. And on top of that,
they need another $500,000 from the city, which would be home
program income. To move this project forward. It's important
to note that we're using program income, the money
that's already tied to the project right now, because the
housing authority did pay down their loan. All they owe right
now back to the city is about $1.3 million, approximately
$1.3 million. We're going to add another 5 million on top of
that to help them get there. We're using program income so
they can avoid certain federal regulations that could cost
this project to go to, to, to that could potentially increase
the cost of the project. So the program income aspect of it is
important. So reinvesting these dollars and using home program
income. On top of that, they've worked closely to work closely
with the housing authority for them to also have some skin in
the game, to invest some dollars to, to move this
project forward. So as we stand here right now, we have an
opportunity to turn something right now that's abandoned, not
being used for its intended purpose. That's really out of
compliance for the city and turned into something that can
move the city forward and provide much needed affordable
housing. Thank you. Thank you. Ryan. I'll take public speaker
cards. And Ralston. Withdraws. Okay. Thank you. Members of the
board, Commissioner Biederman. So, Ryan, just to clarify, is
the housing authority giving the property to HCG or are they
selling it or are they retaining ownership in some way?
No, they're selling the property to HCG. Correct. And
what are they doing with the proceeds from it. So they are
going to reinvest $2 million of those proceeds back into the
project. The team is here from HCG and the Housing Authority.
They can give you some more information about that deal,
but from their purchase sale agreement, they are reinvesting
some of those dollars back into the project as a loan. As a
loan? Yes, sir. Okay. As a loan. Ours is a loan too, so our
money will always be alone because of the federal mandates.
But they're reinvesting back as alone as well. Okay. Yeah.
Rodrigo, can you clarify? Hello. Good afternoon. Thanks for for
considering this item. I just wanted to explain. Yes. The
housing authority, the Rodrigo Housing Trust groups, or so the
housing authority's land price was $2 million, and they're
putting that $2 million back as a loan. So they're not really
making money right now, but they're partners of the
development. So they're going to get some income during the
the development, like the the proforma, the 30 year proforma,
they get some income out of that. And we are also investing
in money. And the state is investing money and the county
is investing money. And the federal government is kind of
university like everybody's investing money. It took a
village to do this as well. And, you know, we're glad to be able
to get everybody out of the problem of noncompliance and
provide more housing at affordable, provide much more
housing. Okay. Thank you. Elderly. No, it's family. It's
family. Youth out of foster care as part of the special
needs. Yeah. Just add to Rodriguez point on the. Sorry,
just to add to Rodrigo's point on the $2 million purchase
price, we're also helping to take on a portion of the
outstanding loan balance per our purchase and sale agreement
to pay that down. So just an added benefit. And what about
the dispute with the city and the housing authority on some
of the past due dollars? Sorry, what was that? No. To my staff.
Can you repeat the question? And in the past I was made
aware that there are there was a dispute between dollars owed
to the city with the previous loan and the housing authority
as part of this going to be an action where that either gets
repaid or it's being waived. Just to clarify, part of this
is the actual the actual. Yes, you're right, there was a
dispute a while back about what was really owed. After some
extensive digging and research, we've identified the actual
amount that was loaned to the housing authority, what they
paid off, what the city actually owed them to in
maintenance fees. We deducted that. We deducted what they
paid off. And the actual amount owed to the city is the one
point, approximately 1.3 million. That's the actual
amount. Yeah. Motion to approve. Yeah. Commissioner Shuhan, just
a quick question, Ryan, on the original 29 units and the
amount of time that they had to stay at 50%, is that now being
extended? The original agreements were for 20 years
each. Those that funding required them to maintain
housing for 50% or below for 20 years, right? When the building
became abandoned, the time clock on that stops. And how
many years were we into it at that point? You were into it.
We were into it for approximately 12 years. Okay.
Right. So we still technically, as per HUD, have eight years
left to go on that. Correct. We're going to have to do here
to move this forward. And this is where this is a very
complicated deal. This is not going to be something easy,
because we're going to have to make sure we cross our T's and
dot our eyes to make sure we meet every federal mandate.
We're going to have to remove the existing Laura, put on the
new Laura once they go to construction, closing to add
the additional 30 years. So we're stopping it at this point.
And then we're going to add another 30 years, not
compounding this 30 more years. So you're based on 42 years? No,
only 30. Only 30. Yes. So at the end of the only 30 will the
rest of the building will still be within their 30. So you're
going to have a situation where the 50% complete their 30, 12
or so years earlier, then what happens? No, because we're
removing the existing. That's a good question. But because
we're removing the existing restrictions and guidelines
that are governing the current dollars right now and the
actions you make today, reinvest those dollars back as
program income. They come with a new set of guidelines and a
new law for 30 years, starting from the day it opens up. I
think so, yeah. Okay. That's and that's, that's the dance.
That's what we have to be very careful because you can do what
we've been using. We've been relying on our consultants who
are very good. By the way, our HUD technical consultants
advise us through this deal because it is a very
complicated process. The federal side of this is what
makes this deal so tricky, because those dollars are NSP
dollars and they only have a certain there's certain things
you can only do with them the home dollars we could work with
because you're allowed to do certain things, but the NSP
dollars make it complicated. So we have to make sure that in
order for them to close that Laura has to be removed. We
have to remove the law. But once you remove the Laura, all
those restrictions go away. HUD may frown on that, but. So they
have to see what we're going to do after the law is removed to
put back in some kind of restriction that protects those
federal dollars. And what they're doing actually protects
those federal dollars for 30 years. Okay. It looks like HTC
wants to add to that, just to clarify. And Ryan, he's not so
involved in the Fefc portion of this, but during our
application to Fefc for the sale funds, we actually
committed to affordability and perpetuity, which means 99
years. So all of the units will be restricted, affordable at
their different Ami levels for 99 years at the current that
what we're seeing now, that 50% Ami level. So we have units, we
have a mix, right? So 29 at the at the 50% for 99 years. For 99
years. Yeah. Right. All of all of the units, all of the 118
units restricted to their, to their levels of affordability
for 99 years. Okay, let's vote. And this includes 30%. This
includes the private parcel on, on federal highway. Yeah, yeah,
yeah, we bought that parcel to make feasible this development,
which already owned by us. And it's just great. We have
different lures. One lure is going to be with with you guys
for the 30 years. But then with Florida housing is for 99 years.
And then we have other lures with us with Broward County.
Bottom line, it is going to be 99 years with different levels,
which is ideal, right? You don't want to be everybody at
the same level. You're going to have the 30% Amis, the 50%, 60%,
70%. Okay. So you have a first and a second, a motion and a
second. Alright. Do we have a motion in a second? You have a
recorded. All right. We do. All those in favor, say aye aye aye.
Any opposed. Hearing none. Item carries unanimously. Thank you
all. Thank you all so much sir. Yeah yeah. All right. Well that
helps resolve a derelict building and introduce a new
affordable development. So that's great. Hey, Ryan, if I
could. What's what's the outlook on where this goes? Now,
obviously they have to go through site plan approval,
right. Well the Or has that already been done just so
they've already been through site plan approval with
planning. They've already gone through the actual esthetics
portion of it, the art design with with the planning team.
And I think they've already went through DRC, if I'm not
mistaken. Correct. Yeah. Utilities. Yeah. Yeah. And then
you're going to planning Development Board for a site
plan approval. Yeah. So they're moving along fairly quickly
because they have to, because they do have that sale loan. So
there's a timeline that they have to meet. This is why it's
important. So it's go go go. What about demolition of the
existing building? We should be closing on construction
financing for all the sources by February March. So you know
as is until then. Yeah, we have to we don't we really don't
want to make an alteration to the building until it's
actually approved by HUD. I gotcha okay. All good, all good.
We are going through we are getting our demolition permit
now in anticipation of that because. Okay, I got you. All
right. Thank you everyone. We had two items onto our regular
agenda today. There's only one item. Before we get to that,
let's just go ahead and take care of items 13 and 16 which
were pulled from consent. Let's go ahead with item 13. It's a
resolution of the City Commission authorizing payment
of attorney's fees to Greenspoon Marder, and an
additional amount up to 175 K for the fiscal year 26,
bringing the total amount for that year to 275 000. Who was
the requesting party speaker card? And Ralston and Siobhan
McLaughlin. Thank you. I understand this is paying the
lawyer meal for 1301 representation on us in
appealing to the county as many of the residents who have
spoken quite against this. What's it called? Proposal to
give away. Public land to a private developer? For what? I
will get zero benefit from that. My tax dollars are going to be
paying. Not only is that it's insulting that I'm paying a
lawyer against the wishes of most of the citizens that have
spoken, that my tax dollars, along with other fees, I
realize it's only 35% tax dollars pay your salaries, but
it's still part of it that we are literally. I don't want to
pay for this. I don't want to pay to give away public land.
And this is what you're doing. And it's being rushed all the
way through. Don't know why, but it all keeps coming back.
So we're up 93000 to date, according to the attorney. I
don't know when it's going to end now that there's another
lawsuit going on with it. I'm sorry, but, you know, beating a
dead horse, the horse is not going to get up. Mr. Von. Still
here. There she is. By the way, Siobhan, is it Siobhan
Mcglocklin or McLaughlin? I known you for many years, but
if you're from Brooklyn. But. McLaughlin. All right, so I
said it, right. I didn't want to like, you know, some of the
Boston people say it kind of funny. Siobhan McLaughlin, 1409
Rodman Street. I don't mean to disparage or attack Mr. Meli's
very, very accomplished legal talent, but if I'm not mistaken,
and he has been very, very kind, he is such a good lawyer. We
have actually asked him on a couple of residential things,
and he has always been generous and with his time. But if I'm
not mistaken, the former city attorney had said that any
litigation money fees would be paid by related. So I'm not
really sure why the city is on the hook for Mr. Meli and his
law firm's attorney's fees and costs. It seems to me that
again, he is very accomplished, but he should probably be
billing the Perez group related at all and not the city. And so
I think you can understand why residents are not happy about
paying a law firm or an accomplished attorney as Mr.
Meli, but against the interest of many, many citizens. And
that we were told when this debacle started that related
would be paying the legal cost if something came up. So I hope
you will consider that and suggest to Mr. Meli and his law
firm that they go to related first. Thank you. Thank you,
Commissioner Shuhan. Thank you. Mayor. So as I understand it
and I'm going to ask Damaris to the city attorney to explain
this to us, I think there's at least four buckets of
attorney's fees that have been or will be spent on this
project. The first we had, Mr. Zelkowitz, early in the project
helping with the contract negotiations, and then I'm sure
there's something I'm missing in between. But then we had the
issue that I think this is part of, which was the Lupa and the
appeal to the county. And then based on our conversation
Monday, we have the. Coordination between the
existing GU zoning versus the new live local act. So that's
three. And then of course, we're engaged in litigation
with an outside private entity. So. That my concern is that all
really adds up. And we're just seeing this one piece of it. So
roughly, do we know what the total expenses have been for
outside counsel to date on this parcel? So just so that it is
clear the initial contract negotiations were handled by Ed
Dion at Nabors. Giblin so that is the first. And also Steve
Zelkowitz assisted with that. There has been, as you note,
the Bcpc appeal that Mr. Mealy and his firm are handling. And
we have asked for assistance in coordinating how we are going
to do the hybridization for the process to bring forward to the
Commission the site plan and design and these things which
have not been done before. So we have sought counsel from Mr.
Miley's group, all of that, and the litigation that you
mentioned that has been brought most recently is actually being
covered by our insurance carrier. So that is not out of
pocket funds from the city. So all of that, as currently we
can determine, is approximately 160,000, $65,000. It certainly
has not exceeded 200. But now we're you're seeking 275,000
additional. I am seeking authorization for that amount.
We are still in. Currently, in the process of appealing the
Bcpc situation, and so I do not know how much that will take.
And so I am asking for authority to have that money in
case it does take that much to complete the appeal. Okay, so
to date, you're saying you've spent 160 000 roughly and that
the process we were looking ahead, you want to have the
authority to go up to that. 275 yes. Okay. And I also recall
very specifically the related group saying that they would
bear legal fees. It doesn't really make me feel better that
our insurance company is paying that. When there was a
commitment on the part of the related group for me, I don't
know about all the other stuff, but certainly any litigation,
if I remember correctly, that was exactly what they were
saying because part of it was based on the the deed
restriction. And he stood here and said, if there's any
challenge to the deed restriction, we've got you. And
so what's going to happen with that? Why should our insurance
company pay that? I am very happy to commit my office to
looking into that, to seeing if there is a way to recoup any of
the monies there. As of right now, that term is not in the
contract, though. As you note, that was something that was
stated here at the Commission, so we will look into seeing if
there's any way to recoup any of these monies. Excellent.
Thank you. So for me personally, obviously, I did not support
the idea of making this project a live local act, and I don't
support spending even more attorneys fees to figure out
how to make it a live local act. But I will agree with the
comments of miss McLaughlin that I think Dennis Malley is
an excellent lawyer, and so it's nothing personal, but it's
not something that I would support. So thank you. I also,
when this first came up and the city elected to select its and
refer this to the carrier, maybe it's obligated to because
of certain insurance policies. I also expected the the partner
to cover the legal fees, but the city said once the
insurance company, you know, is advised of a of a claim, then
they have to or they choose to assign counsel. This way they
can, you know, ensure that there's adequate representation,
you know, looking out for their own interests. So that's what I
was told when I, when I inquired myself. And so I left
it at that, because that's what apparently was represented in
terms of what the insurance policies would expect from an
insurer to, to refer. But nonetheless, we still have to,
in my opinion, you know, move forward with the item because
that's what we've decided to do. And there's a lot of, you know,
terms like give away and all that. There's so much hyperbole
in there. They use a Joe Biden term that's, you know, so
loaded and wrong. And to sit here and rebut every, every,
you know, inaccuracy is not something I'm going to do. But
certainly this is going to generate for the city
significant dollars like nothing else. And today we
talked about how the city needs a significant dollars. It takes
a few dollars to get to that point. And in this case,
there's going to be potentially additional attorney's fees that
need to be invested into the ultimate result, which will
yield, you know, a significant revenue stream for the city not
to repeat every, every, every line item in that. So, so I'll
leave it to any others to make a motion litigation. And that
is I would like to go back to that video because if there's
an opportunity for our insurance company to subrogate
that that should happen. I mean, we all know if your insurance
company goes out of pocket, it affects your premium. And then
to your other point, I mean, we heard this morning from the
city manager that, you know, this is and we are not in
financial urgency. These are not dire times. So I take
exception to the need for this project. I just want to put
that on the record. Thank you. All right. Vice Mayor Kolody so
so just help me better understand if we have the
insurance, it's really no cost to the city. So why are we
increasing the amount? Is it because our premiums are going
to go up in anticipation? That's a that's a different
situation. Greenspoon which is the subject of this particular
Reso. And my request for an increase is specifically for
the appeal to the county on those issues that came before
the Broward County Planning Council. And the litigation was
the litigation filed by Keep Public Lands Public. I believe
they're called LLC, and a resident of the city, and that
is a separate matter. Greenspoon is not is not
advising as to that. And they have no part of that litigation.
So Greenspoon is is advising to the county's rebuttal, or
they're advising the city as to the appeal of BC PCs initial
determination, which is now going before the County
Commission. And also we have asked them to advise us in
crafting the item that will, in the future come before this
Commission regarding site plan and design approval and the the
concurrence between the Live Local Act and that property
being a Goo zoning. So I definitely, I definitely think
that we need to revert back to the video and the comments that
were made because any type of litigation costs funding, I
will tell you, I'm in favor of the development. I was the one
who pushed it through. And with any type of legality that has
created from that, it needs to be settled. So I just want to
make sure that related and their representative
representatives hold true to what they said as well, because
we shouldn't be spending another penny. This is
something that's going to benefit the city in the long
run, and it's delay tactics that continue, and it's costing
money left, right and center, and we should not be
responsible for that because we have done our due diligence and
moved it forward. So if we can just please re revisit it, look
into it and clarify that before any further movement is made. I
I'm not willing to approve the funding today. Okay. Until I
have that that solidified as far as who's going to be
responsible for the costs. Okay. Thank you, Commissioner
Quintana, I was wondering if the in order for me to vote yes,
can we find some kind of way to amend the motion so that we can
include the contingency of of potentially reimbursing the
city for the additional expense? So that I could vote? Yes. Is
there a motion or no motion currently? No. But go ahead and
answer the question. So can we incorporate in in the motion
the language that would seek to find reimbursement from the
partner? Yes, you may do that. I don't know how to word it. So
you make a motion to approve on conditions of reimbursement
from the provider. I make a motion on conditions seeking
reimbursement. I'll second your okay, so I'll make a motion on
on stipulation that the. Provider, as said at a
commission meeting, will cover the cost if it's so, duly
represents it. Otherwise we're not I'm not going to approve
this today. In other words, come back. In other words,
you're approving the item subject to the city seeking
reimbursement by the P three partner. Correct. Which was
stated. Now if it wasn't stated then it'll have to come back to
us and we'll have to think about it that way. But it was
stated any legalities. All right. So that's a motion. It's
understandable. I'll second that. Okay. There's a motion
and a second. Let's continue down the queue with
Commissioners Biederman and Hernandez, Commissioner
Biederman. So while I understand the importance of
getting reimbursed because there was a promise made, I
think ultimately the financial burden should be on the county
because they're the ones road blocking. They are the ones
that are arbitrarily changing maps. So do we in this whole
process. I know that with the lawsuit, the plaintiff will
ultimately be responsible for our legal fees. If we are
successful, because that's the way the law works in Florida.
But I think the same thing should be true here. What if we
were to be successful in this whole process with the county?
The county should be responsible for our legal fees
because they're the ones that arbitrarily changed language in
the maps. This is currently an administrative process, and
attorney's fees for success would not be available in that
case. Okay, so basically our attorney's fees would be an
investment in the hundreds of millions of dollars that we're
going to get to help our neighborhoods. Theoretically.
Okay. All right, Commissioner Hernandez, thank you, mayor.
And I hate to be technical, but the mayor, as you just answer
the question just to answer all those people that don't want to
vote because this is an expense. And somebody said, if we get
sued, we got you. Well, we haven't been sued by the county.
They just made an administrative decision. And
based on that administrative decision that actually replaces
a legislative body decision that we're challenging. So
therefore, nobody has sued us. So if you're going by what you
claim or you said that it was there, I wasn't here at the
time that the person said, if you get sued, we got you. We
haven't been sued. The one time we're being sued. They're
representing themselves in that process, if I understand it
correctly. So there is nothing for us to be reimbursed when it
comes to this particular litigation, if I understand it
correctly. Can you correct me if I'm wrong or am I down the
right? Thank you. This is not a litigation. This is currently
an administrative process that Mr. Mealy is representing us
for. Okay. So basically, we're just defending ourselves based
on the decision that we didn't think was proper, correct. And
I am happy to go back and ask, no, no, no, look, I'm just if
anything else, I'm okay, but I'm okay with us defending
ourselves when it comes to our turf and the decision that
somebody made administratively, that it was supposed to be done
legislatively, that's what you call the workaround. You make
an administrative decision, then you punt it to the
legislative body, and the legislative body says, oh, they
made the right decision. Now we're going to table it. And
therefore, when you table it with at a time certain, it
basically like killing the item. So now we got to go back and
ask them, oh, by the way, oh, we want to be heard when it
comes to this item because the legislative body needs to make
a decision rather than to uphold by paralysis the
administrative body decision. But at the end of the day, if
somebody said, if you get sued, we got you, we'll pay for
litigation. We haven't been sued. We're just defending an
administrative process. I just want to make that clear. So I'm
okay with voting for this because it's we're defending
our our process. That's number one. And if there is a there is
a lawsuit, which I know that there is by an individual who
feels wholeheartedly because what they think that they're
doing is correct. God bless them. I'm okay with it. But
that's between them too. I don't believe that we're in the
midst of that, even though we're the one who's being sued
is being handled by the other side. Is that not correct? We
do have our own counsel in that case. We are being represented
by Dan Abbott from Weiss Sirota. However, the codefendant in
this case is related group, and they are taking the lead on
most of the motion drafting and those things. And we are
reviewing that and agreeing where it makes sense. Okay. And
at the end of the day, if we do not prevail and there's a cost
to that, then we can go through what we're going through right
now and saying, you said if we were sued, you take care of it.
So we would expect for them to take care of it at that time.
I'll withdraw my motion. Withdraw. Okay. All right. So
was there a second? Yeah. All right. Okay. So I'll make a
motion that we actually pay to give you this up to $275,000 in
order for you to have the amount of money needed in order
to defend ourselves when it comes to the administrative
process. Thank you. All right. We have a motion. And second to
approve the item, as is Commissioner vice mayor, can
you give us an update of where this is at? Because last I
heard was supposed to be heard at third last Thursday's county
meeting, and it was deferred again. Correct. And so where
are we at now? It was brought back on the August 20th meeting,
County meeting, as you as you state at that time, it was kind
of tabled indefinitely. I know that our city manager has been
in contact with some of the county people at the county to
see about perhaps putting this back for getting this heard at
a time certain. And having spoken with our counsel, that
is that is the recommendation at this time that we work
through those channels to get this item back onto a county
agenda. And the reason why it's going back on the county agenda
is because, because at this point in the administrative
process, the appellate body that hears our our issue is the
county Commission. And by the way, just to answer your
question, Robert's rule of orders procedurally, if you
table an item indefinitely, that means you kill the item.
The item is dead. It's like it never happened. So that's what
I mean by the workaround by the county where they actually an
individual from the county said, I want to do it on indefinitely.
And they did that on purpose for the item to die, which
means that it would automatically uphold the
Broward County Council's decision to change the zoning
that they did administratively. So that's why it's imperative
that us ask the county commission to actually hear the
item and make a decision. Good, bad or indifferent. It can't.
It cannot just be thrown out without giving us a due process.
Right now, what they've done is eliminated our due process to
be able to defend ourselves. And so therefore, that's why I
feel that we need to ask and give direction to the city
manager and the city attorney to continue with the process
for the item to be heard in front of the county commission
and let them make the commission their their
administrative body, their the legislative body. So two
questions then. One being that it is now being considered live
local. Does it even have to go to the county? My understanding
is that's the state law. So does it have to go through the
county? There are certain there are certain reasons that we
feel between staff conversations and legally, that
it would be best to to seek the the approval of the maps, which
is what our initial ask is here. Request before the BCC, PC was.
So we believe that it is in the best interest of the city to
continue this matter. There. No. You are correct, though, that a
live local action does not necessarily require that this.
Go before the County. However, to leave the most options open
for the city and put the city in the best position to further
negotiate and further determine what is going to happen with
that site and on the beach. We believe that it is best that
this go back for determination before the County Commission.
And who makes that decision? You guys make that decision
through the Comprehensive Development Agreement. That
decision is on appeals and things like that have been
delegated to the city manager through that agreement. Because
this is the first time I'm hearing of it. That's why I'm
questioning it. I knew that it was tabled, but now I'm hearing
additional information. So I'm just kind of taken back for a
second that now we're going back to ask for another date
for them to hear it to. So I just want to make sure I'm
hearing what you're saying. So we're asking after it was
indefinitely tabled, which I believe is a violation of some
sort, because it kills it. Now we're going back to the county
and we're going to ask them to hear it in some certain time
frame. And it's all to protect the city because of why?
Because this leaves the most options open for the city to
move in regards to the site and what we ultimately decide to do
there. I mean, we made a decision, though I don't
understand that though. We've made the decision, we agreed
upon it. We we took a lot of heat, but we felt it was the
best decision for the city. So I'm just a little taken back as
to how we're back at the county again after it was tabled
indefinitely. Like this is just we didn't table it indefinitely.
They did. That's what I'm saying. So what's to prevent
them from tabling it more what they're doing in what I support
and them doing. So I mean, I have nothing to say when it
comes to this, but we have to defend ourselves. They just
said down the road for you, and I don't think that's proper. So
all we're doing is defending our position in front of the
county. That's all. And the insurance company is paying for
it. Do we have a date of when this will be heard? We do. We
do not. We're we would be requesting that it be put on as
an item, because it was continued indefinitely. And we
have the right to have the item heard. It is my understanding
from legal counsel, outside counsel, that if we don't
finalize this, it's it's sort of in no man's land, it's just
out there. And if at some point we felt that there was a need
to appeal this, we would we would then have nothing to
appeal because it hadn't actually been decided. So there
is a need for some finality, true finality, meaning a
decision rendered one way or the other to preserve our right
to then appeal. And as you know, there are a lot of different
things at play. And when we talk about 111 residential
units that were on the land use map, we believe that those 111
units are an important piece in the overall conversation. So
we'd like to have a decision on that. If the decision goes
against the city, then it is a decision and that there is some
legal value to having that decision. So, you know, that is
the finality of it. And that's we did try to you know, I have
tried to reach out to some of you and have this conversation.
I think I well, it wasn't in clarification. So here's here's,
I guess, you know, for the, the, the opposite side, I guess we
should say. So here's where a definitive line comes in, where,
where there's a question of the amount of money that the
developer was supposed to pay this city. And we've made
changes or exceptions or not even exceptions. I guess we're
following state rule and law that because of the hurricane
impacts that they are deferred the name for it. But I have had
several individuals comment or make a statement that out of
the goodwill of the of the developer, they should be
paying because they believe in the project and the money
should come in. But but then here, now on the opposite side,
it's not the city that's causing the problem that we
should receive the money. It's the county that's causing now
the delay and the lawsuits and everything that's involved in
it. So I just want to put that on the record. However you guys
go, listen, I did what I was supposed to do. I feel
comfortable in my decision. I felt it was the right thing for
the city. It's going to be at the hands of the. This is
playing politics at its fullest capacity right now. I'm very,
very, very disappointed. So as much as the opposite side is
very disappointed on the project, we have to find that
common ground and all we're doing is two separate sides are
battling against each other and we are delaying the process.
And so I do not feel that the developer should have to pay a
penny even by this. A lot of goodwill, especially with these
type of tactics, regardless of what they are, good, bad or
indifferent. Let the county come up with a date. Good luck
to everybody. Hopefully it will get built and it will be a
benefit to the entire city, the community center, the, the, the
entire thing. And if it doesn't, so be it. But you have to
believe in what you do. And I, and I really hope that at the
end of the day, all of this just gets settled and we stop
with the, the 2000. They should be paying a month and all of
this rhetoric because it's all parties involved that are
creating such chaos. So hopefully it gets approved. We
move forward and just let me know the date that the county
will be there, because I will be there. Thank you. All right.
We have a motion and a second to approve the item. Last word,
Commissioner Quintana. I just wanted some clarification about
is it still an administrative bodies decision? When the
Planning Council voted to uphold the administrative
department's Decision. So by administrative process, I refer
to any process that is at the municipal or county level. It
is not judicial. This has not been this is there's no suit in
state or federal court. This is purely the administrative
process. Though these planning staff at the county made the
initial determination. Then it went to BC, PC and they made
their determination. This is all still part of the
administrative process. Now. Our appeal of the BC PC
decision is at the county commission level, so that
remains administrative. I see. Okay. Thank you. Commissioner
Hernandez. Thank you mayor. And this is maybe a rhetorical
question. Should a county employee and a county
commissioner elect be voting on this particular item? Since
we're talking about furthering the legal issues with the
county, and I don't mean to put you on the spot. And if the
answer is I don't know, let everybody. It's just a question
that somebody asked me earlier on today. So far, as a county
employee goes, there's no specific financial gain to that
county employee in voting here. It is my determination that
there's before you say that it is the employee of the city
commissioner who has asked the county Commission to table this
indefinitely, which practically nullifies the item. So it is
their direct employee. And I don't know this to be true or
not, and I've asked that person and they haven't answered me.
They are an at will employee of that particular commissioner.
So it is not landscaping Joe Blow from down the street. It
is somebody in a position of of such and I don't care which way
it happens. I'm just wanted to put it on the record. Okay.
That's all. All right. We have a motion, a second to approve
the item. All those in favor, say aye. Aye. Any opposed?
Opposed. Motion carries. Four, three calorie shoe. And
Quintana opposed. All right. Thank you so much. Let's go
ahead to citizens comments. It's 510. I'll take the cards.
Pat. If you're here for citizens comments that's Pat.
She's going to stand up and you can give her your speaker card.
You're welcome to speak on any city business. And Ralston,
followed by Michael Seltzer. Some really happy good news. I
have to thank. Yes. Fall out, but I don't sue. Thank you to
every single employee in this city, to staff, to the
commission, to top ranking. We actually had parking during
early voting. I drove up here ready to battle, trying to find
a place to park and by God, there was parking everywhere.
It was heaven. So I want to thank. I want to well know it
made it much easier for the voters, which it should be. For
years I have said, please, why don't you promote the city of
Hollywood with upcoming events? They actually did. When you
walked into the voting area, there was a thing on the Holly
trolley. So it's a start. I'm very grateful that it's a start,
but you should be promoting city events, upcoming things
well and there and have a table of water. Be proactive. We want
participation in voting. So that was wonderful and I
appreciate it. The second thing is I couldn't be happier that
miss. You are now officially my county commissioner, which I'm
quite happy about. So thank you very much. Now let's get to the
ugly stuff with the Planning and Zoning department debacle
on now overloading the September 8th planning and
zoning with, I'm going to say 5 or 6 issues, especially all
controversial, mainly 1301 that you've just been discussing.
Whether it's tabled or not doesn't matter. The we're going
to have a vote in November to see what happens. So I'm I'm
sorry, but everything seems to be just getting shoved down our
throats whether we want it or not. It's not misinformation.
People just don't like the project. I'm sorry. People
don't like the project on public land. Okay. The grand
old lady. And here's part of the problem with this overlay
district for history. Everything I've read. Now, when
you do the mitzvah house, the grand old lady, all of a sudden,
well, it wasn't deemed historical, so therefore we can
do what we want with it. Why then do the rest of us? 840
Hollywood Boulevard. 1345 Hollywood Boulevard. They had
to jump through hoops to for those properties because they
were in an overlay district. They were not declared historic,
but their historical properties. That is unfair and not correct.
So if we're not going to follow the rules or or all of a sudden
claim, well, it's not historic. And so we can now tear it down
because they let it go to hell in a hand basket, which is what
they did with the grand old lady. I'm sorry. Then get rid
of the historic district. I have no problem with that.
Michael Seltzer. We got to have. I got to give you a second. I
gave you a I got to give you a middle name like Michael
Seltzer or Canada Dry Seltzer, or. Come on up, Michael. This
doesn't count for my three minutes. But years ago, when I
was home sick, I got a call from a man. He said, it's
Bromo-seltzer. And I said, you must be kidding. He says, no,
I'm your uncle from Cuba. I just got here from Cuba. I said,
what? No. And he was actually my grandfather's brother that
escaped from Cuba. Wow. Bromo-seltzer. Anyways, wow.
This is for Pat. You have to start his time again. Yeah,
that was a family moment. A family moment first, thank you
for the Acela. It's one more thing that I won't be able to
figure out. When I first came to the city, I came to the city
hall to change utility stuff and other things, and I walked
into the office after I couldn't find it, and I said,
what a mess. And then I was here at a presentation, and you
had some real estate company with some plans to do a new
city hall. And then I said to myself, we need a new city hall,
a new city hall, and we need to redevelop this. So I brought
you who I felt was the best candidate or client to develop
this property. And I brought them not only because of their
worldwide talent, but something more important. They have the
money. And a grand old guy from Montreal, my friend I bloom,
who's a mortgage broker of the of the nth degree, always told
me money's important. Then I saw the grand old dam that had
to be redeveloped, and I heard that you wanted a five star
resort and a five star hotel. And trust me, I know all the
developers in South Florida and most of them in New York. In
fact, I sold some of them properties, and I reached out
to a chap who I thought, and I still think is going to be the
man capable of developing that five star property, the hotel
and the condo. And then I read, or I tried to read a 500 page,
whatever you want to call it, and I stopped at page 30 or 35
because I had better things to do with my life, like play with
my grandchildren. But there's lots of things there that
really disturb me, and I'm meeting with staff in the next
few days to get some clarification. So I wrote this
to you, and I gave you a few extra copies to give to the
staff, so they should be somewhat prepared because what
I read really disturbed me and what disturbed me the most of
all had to do with a chap named Gary Jaffe in the parking
garage. And if you take the time to read it and understand
it, at least the way I was told was pretty disgusting in my
opinion, and I have no stake in the game with Gary Jaffe, and I
might not have a stake with my client, but I brought you two
people that are more than qualified. And Michael Seltzer
will never do anything to hurt the city, because I always want
its best, because this is the place where I think I'm going
to die. Well, we all go, right? Have a great night. All right.
Started out inspirational with Uncle Rommel, but how quickly
we digress. All right. Mr. Is it Yaron Gabay? Yaron, who
lives on Dewey Street? Okay. All right. Is that the business
owner? Yeah. All right. Okay. Siobhan McLaughlin. McLaughlin.
Do you have a story about Rome? Tell us about it. You're from
Brooklyn. You can go. Siobhan, I first want to echo Miss
Ralston's comments. And congratulations to Commissioner
elect to him. It's really a wonderful, wonderful job that
you've done. And to say thank you and congratulations. I'd
also like to mention that today the 19th amendment was ratified.
So it is Women's Equality Day. And I haven't heard a mention
of it today yet, but I've been in and out. So we'll
celebrating the Women's Equality Day. I am also here to
ask that you direct, ask, suggest whichever word you
would like to use that the September 8th planning and
development item that will deal with the beach overlay be moved
to a different date. It is a very controversial. A lot of
time was placed by staff, I know, but people are concerned
about it and it is not right. Correct. Fair optics, whatever
words you want to use, it should be to a separate date
with a discreet agenda to discuss that item. You saw what
happened at the last planning and development meeting. It was
a disgrace. And people stayed after to talk about it. And I
think adding 1301, which I think is number six on the
packed agenda. So I am urging you to please direct staff to
change it. Ask. You were also given, I believe, the
instruction that Robert's rules, the maker of a of a motion
needs to approve an amendment, and I do not believe that is
true. Once a motion is made and seconded, it belongs to the
floor and does not need the maker's approval to change it.
What you do, then, if I am not mistaken, is you vote down the
amendment or you do not second it. So just just a process
question. And then finally, some of Commissioner
Hernandez's comments seem to want to socialize the loss and
privatize the gain. It does not seem fair that the residents
are not able to use every tool that is available to them to
protest the 1301 project or other projects that they don't
like. It seems to me that the administrative process,
according or suggested by Commissioner Hernandez, should
only be available because it would help the city as opposed
to the residents. So this is going to be a fair process. The
city can play dirty, talk to the people they want to, and
you don't have to like it if we're the residents. But on the
other hand, if the residents want to appeal to the county
commission, they want to outreach to the planning board,
then they should be able to do so and see where it gets you. A
lot of this could have been avoided if, as a commission and
a body, you had put this to a vote of the residents. So thank
you. And again, congratulations, Commissioner Shuhan. Thank you,
Rebecca King. And the last speaker is Sylvia Spencer. Good
evening. So as you mentioned, my name is Rebecca King and I
am a resident of South 24th Avenue between Funston Street
and Pembroke Road. I'm here tonight to respectfully ask for
continued action regarding speeding, traffic and
pedestrian safety along this corridor. First, I want to
sincerely thank Commissioner Hernandez for listening to my
concerns and bringing the issue forward during today's
commission meeting. I also appreciate Sergeant Jonathan
Fiala of the Hollywood Police Department Traffic Unit for
following up with me and explaining that increased
enforcement is taking place and that traffic engineering is
conducting studies along the corridor. Over the past year,
my family and I have witnessed three major accidents within
approximately a two block area. These accidents caused
significant property damage and resulted in injuries. One
incident was especially concerning. A child and parent
had just entered their home when a vehicle crashed into the
front of their property. The child had been outside moments
earlier. Thankfully, they were inside when it happened, but
the outcome could have been tragic. I also have a father
who is a senior citizen who likes to take walks, and I
regularly see other older residents walking along South
24th Avenue. I'm always concerned about their safety as
well as the safety of the children, pedestrians and
everyone who lives along this road. I understand that
accidents happen and that the city needs traffic, data and
engineering studies before determining whether measures
such as speed humps or other traffic calming solutions are
appropriate. I'm not asking for a particular solution without
proper evaluation. I am just asking for follow through. I
respectfully ask the city to complete the traffic studies.
Consider the entire stretch from Funston Street to Pembroke
Road. Communicate the results to residents and if the data
supports it, move forward with permanent traffic calming
measures. Increased enforcement is appreciated, but I believe
we should also address the underlying safety concerns
before another serious accident occurs or, God forbid, someone
is seriously injured. Thank you to Commissioner Hernandez.
Sergeant Fiala, the traffic unit, traffic engineering and
city staff for listening and taking these concerns seriously.
I look forward to hearing about the next steps and when
residents can expect them. Thank you. Thank you, Miss King.
Miss Spencer. Good evening. My name is Sylvia Spencer and I
live in 1540 or 50 sixth Avenue. And I'm here because I'm very
disappointed with the water bill from last month to this
month. You know, it was increasing with $30, with not
even any knowledge. I came to the water department and, you
know, they have they said they just estimated, well, my income
is not estimated. It is what it is. So everything counts. So
it's better to be fair. And you know, they just I found them. I
want to do, you know, whatever I have to do. And they came
home and unexpectedly two times in a matter in weeks I found
them on my property, changing the meter, working there and
blame one another said I said they just changed like a 2 or 3
weeks ago. Oh, but did you know what? He doesn't know what to
do. When I came to complain to the water department, they said,
oh, in computer is just one time. That's not my problem.
But I don't like to have that surprise every month, you know,
to be increasing, increasing, increasing and their discretion
because they estimate it. Another thing is I, my
neighbors, they did a fence and I have to do, you know, like to
protect and you know, the some improvement with the fence. And
when I came to speak with someone like the code
enforcement used to come in our area, used to be able to talk
with someone, ma'am, go online, not even let you to go in to
talk with someone so totally disrespectful online cannot
come to your property. You need a life person to be there to
see exactly what it is. So I know you need a blueprint, you
know, whatever. But I'm saying somebody to know exactly you
are doing the right things according to the code. I have
that house from 92 and always I follow the rules. So how come
now it's no. No help from nowhere. Also, you know, like,
and I'm talking about in the behalf of all my neighbors
because everybody is so disappointed with what's going
on. And they said we are very neglected. Now, another thing
is they used to be meetings in our area time by time, no more.
How come you're in Hollywood Hills? No, no, 1540 North 56th
Avenue. Yes. Is that excuse me, is it Playland Estates? No. 15?
No. Hollywood Hills? Yeah, it's Hollywood Hills, yeah, yeah,
yeah. Hi. You you used to go to, you know, do the whole fliers.
I know, but now it's not anymore. I don't want to. I
know, so that's what I'm saying. And that will be helpful
because you don't have to come just here. You know, we can
make, like, a small time, but I'm on the west side of 56.
Okay. Yep, yep. There are civic likely. Are you done with your
questions? Well, I'd just like to make it short because I'm
saying, you know, like, I'm so disappointed to everything, you
know, read the bill. Just increase it and their
discretion. No, you have to be the correct one. We have we
have proper individuals here that can speak with you about
that. But also as far as civic associations, I don't know
about the district if they have it, but you can also attend
Hollywood Hills Civic Association that meets on the
third Wednesday of the month at David Park and then
Commissioner Gruber's, which is down the street in Lakeland
Estates. And they. When do you guys meet? It's not it's not
Playland. It's it's south of Taft Street, south of Taft on
the west. And he could attend, of course, but I'd like to know
when and what. So I'll tell you, Hollywood Hills is probably
your closest. And they're the third Wednesday of every month
at David Park at 7 p.m. we have code, we have police. We always
have guest speakers. We used to. One thing that they used to do.
So come to Hollywood Hills. Well, she was the best, but
she's not anymore. I know, like, you know. So come to Hollywood
Hills and we can we can take you in. We don't have closed
doors. And you can express your concerns and talk with
individuals and get updates. And we would love for you to
join because like my neighbor, you know, usually they work,
they come from work late, they go early in the morning and
they come and they have little children at 7 p.m. they can
bring the kids. We have donuts. We have no, no, I understand,
but I'm saying, you know, that we are just talking because we
are like family. So then, you know, I speak on behalf of
everybody because. And also with a family like, so who is
in charge of that? Because just them city have nothing to do
because they give you like it's no light street month really,
really one month. Okay. So we can maybe right now, another
thing with the voting card, what you have to go with a
voting card because they do a lot of, excuse me, the
expression stupid things with the voting card. That's the
supervisor of elections. I called them and there's no
solution. So I have to go for the Hollywood Hills and we'll
try to help you. Did you know what they did? They put the
name, the address and the birthday and everything is open.
It's not even sealed. Envelope. Put your Social Security there.
I said, here is what else we have to be a little bit like,
Commissioner, I'm going to give you my cell phone. You're in my
district and we I can spend I spoke with you a while ago.
Yeah, I know, that's okay. So yeah, I will be more than happy
to have your cell phone. Yeah. Here. You can. Come on. Call me
because I need more than three minutes. That's it. Yeah, yeah.
Okay. Okay. Give you way more. Thank you. Yeah. All right.
Thank you so much, all of you. Apologies for for your
disappointing experience with the different city departments.
Commissioner Gruber is going to help you. Yes, but you should
have received better care than you're describing what to do.
Every month we expect increasing. So $30 is like a
significant. Unfortunately, I hate to tell you that we have
hundreds of millions of dollars that need to be invested in the
city's wastewater and water plants, and there's going to be
a 25% increase in the water bill. I know from November, I
get that the civic is happy to hear that, because the income
is increasing like 2.8 and inflation was 4.5. How about
this year will be zero, will be under the Playland State Civic
Association is tomorrow night at Oak Lake Park at 6 p.m. and
I'll be there. That and definitely swing by. It's the
neighbor Oak Lake Park. It's between Sheridan and Sterling
on the west side of 56th Avenue. Okay. Yeah, there's a little
community center there, right? Definitely come by. And that is,
I don't remember which Thursday of each month it might be
different this time because we're getting back from summer,
but it's tomorrow night at 6:00 because in the community, you
know, like it's a lot of problems sometimes, you know,
they don't care about that property. You know, it's a lot
of garbage. Nobody cares about it. Or it's different kinds of
pops up. Definitely come out there tomorrow night because we
always have somebody from code, from police, from fire and a
different rep from the from the cities. And you can ask all
kinds of questions and you'll get more time. And I'll, and
I'll, and I'll be there. Thank you so much. Thank you, Mr.
Spencer. Okay. All right, ladies and gentlemen, item 16.
That concludes citizen comments. Item 16 is resolution of the
City Commission authorizing the appropriate city officials to
accept and if awarded, the fiscal year 2627, Broward
Cultural, Cultural Division, Arts and Cultural Festival and
Special Events sponsorship program. Grant. Oh, that's a
mouthful for the Hollywood Jazz Festival at Arts Park at Young
Circle event, and the amount of $50,000 authorizing 1 to 1
matching funds to be paid by the Department of Parks and Rec.
Pat, is there a speaker card? Was this pulled from the dais?
I pulled it, so go ahead, Commissioner. I just have a
question on the entire thing. As far as the costs for the
event. We've already proved that we've sent it through, but
I want to know the additional costs for police security and
stuff like that. How is that going to be handled and who's
taking the responsibility? Because I don't think that that
was added in the total figure. I know we discussed it, but I
just want to make sure. Good. Good evening. At this point,
mayor, vice mayor, commissioners, city manager,
city Attorney Rick Engle, parks and recreation director,
cultural Arts. It will be covered under the $150,000 the
police costs, so there won't be any additional fees for
coverage. If there's any additional staff costs, there
would be Parks and Rec staff, which was would be part of our
budget. It wouldn't be any additional expenses. Thank you.
Motion to approve. Commissioner Hernandez. Thank you. Mayor,
this is one of the events that I I've spoken with staff about.
By their own admission, I think it brought in 3000 people, and
we're looking to spend up to $150,000. I just don't and.
Well, yes, the grant is 50,000. We're putting 100,000 out of
pocket for an event that brings 3000 people to downtown and
don't come to eat in the downtown restaurants. I just
don't think it's equitable. I'm going to vote against it. I'm
not going to belabor this anymore, but I just don't think
that when you add a dozen pencils, some of my colleagues
would say, I just want to add that there was discussion with
the downtown stakeholders on how to integrate the jazz
festival with downtown after the the picnic basket idea was,
was, you know, passed on. And so I don't know what the
ultimate plan is through Rhythm Foundation and staff in terms
of how they planned on executing and, and producing
the event. I'm not looking for that detail now, but thank you,
Mrs. King, for coming out. All right. So go ahead.
Commissioner Gruber will tell us all about it. I understand
happy, happy to hear. My understanding is that the event
was kind of tweaked to have more activations downtown and
incorporated downtown stage and entertainment downtown. So it's
going on not just at Arts Park, that people are also immersed
in the downtown area, street performers and whatnot. So, so
that was the I remember the discussion. Yeah, yeah. So
we're originally it was just going to be contained at Arts
Park, right? Yeah. And is that still the direction? I want you
to give us an update if you have one. That's where I know
the discussions left off. So I just. So the the event will
include the main acts being at Arts Park, but prior to the
main acts and following the main acts, there will be a
stage downtown. We're trying to incorporate like a wine tasting
with some of the downtown businesses, and there will be
street artists performing both on Hollywood Boulevard and
Harrison Street to try to attract people to the
businesses as well. Can you just refresh our recollection
on the date? If you know it, it's November, Friday nights,
the tree lighting, I believe it's November 20th and then
Jazz Festival is November 20th, November 21st. So that's what
about what, two, two months from now, roughly September,
October about three months. Yeah. Let's start promoting
Joanne Rhythm Foundation. Like send us the promotions. Yeah.
Like right away. Yeah. We got to start building up the hype.
Yeah. It's coming up quick. All right. Commissioner Hernandez,
thank you. Based on the update, I'm willing to support it and
see where it goes from there. And then I'd like to give
people the benefit of the doubt and have the ability to prove
me wrong. I have no all those in favor say aye. Aye. Any
opposed? Hearing none. Item carries unanimously. All right,
ladies and gentlemen. Life, liberty and the pursuit of
happiness and full effect. Let's go to comments by the
City Commission. City attorney, item 34. Oh, okay. Thank you,
thank you, thank you. Item 33 is the last item resolution of
the City Commission authorizing the city to execute a purchase
and sale agreement, special warranty deed, and required
closing documents and fund all related expenses for the
purchase of property located at 1101 Diplomat Parkway in an
amount not to exceed $2.575 million. Amending the fiscal
year 2026 Capital Improvement Plan. Although we've received a
briefing on on the value of the property for purposes of
implementing the Stormwater Master Plan VIN, for the sake
of the public's understanding, why don't you go ahead and
explain and run through it, you know, as needed? Certainly
there's. You yell at you if you don't do it. So, okay, so
there's the presentation. I was just waiting for the
presentation to come up. You're going to miss us. I mean,
you're going to miss it. Go ahead. No she's not, because
it's all going to follow you up there. It's okay. So this is
the the purchase of this property is essential to the
solution of the flooding at Moffett Street and 14th Street.
We we need a an outfall to discharge the water. The
stormwater from the location is highlighted there on the map
slide. So the situation is this. This is the most heavily
flooded neighborhood in the city. It was a priority
identified project in the master plan. You can see there
the. That's the a graphic of the model showing that the
extent of the flooding. There are two stormwater stations
that that are interconnected for that area. Stormwater eight.
Stormwater seven. The solution is to provide additional
outfall to deconflict the connection between the two pump
stations, and that will greatly alleviate the flooding by first
providing an additional outfall, and secondly, by allowing us to
increase the size of the pump stations. I can hear my my own
echo. So. So I don't need a microphone on my outside voice,
I can shout from. At any rate, we've been actively looking for
properties for the outfall since 2023. We've been denied
by various owners. We found that other properties are being
reserved for development use, so this is a unique property
that is close to the pump stations and well suited for
the solution. So this will this property will allow us to
install an outfall and provide adequate capacity for
stormwater pump station eight, which is located near Moffett
and 14th Street, and for stormwater seven, which is on
Wiley Street. This is a picture of the property here. It's a
vacant lot, so it's not like there's an economic loss where
we're buying a perfectly good home and destroying it. It's
it's already been raised and ready for construction. The
purchase price is 2.55 million. There are additional closing
costs. I want to thank seemed real estate section for
basically conducting the transaction and bringing it to
this point. We have the stormwater funds available, and
this is the first of several properties across the city that
will be buying as part of our solution. Thank you. We do have
a speaker card. Let's go with Ann Ralston. Maybe she's going
to offer her house. Yeah, I offered my house. You could
have bought that for 2.5 million and made a pump station.
What the hell? Yeah. Let's go. And then I wouldn't be here.
That that is. I mean, that would have benefit to you. Buy
that one. Tear the damn thing down. There was a house on that.
It was probably about a $2 million house that was taken
off the tax roll. The vacant land is on the tax roll that
now you're going to use lose and you're talking about you
got to build build, build for all these tax dollars. You're
taking vacant land that you could build a condo. No no no
no no no no not on. Oh diplomat. You'll probably not approve
that. You could build the little mini McMansions for
about 1.5, 1.8. And then you'd have about a $2.5 million house
that you would put on the tax roll. The assessment for this,
quote, vacant land is $1.345 million. You're willing to pay
1.229 500 000 over that above price. I have absolutely no
idea why why the house got torn down. I retired in 21, so I
don't know. But it used to be my area. I still offered my
house, but I'll give you the bargain price of 1.5 million
and and it's only assessed at 6.59. So you can take your pick.
Anyway, will that help? And by the way, Vince, it's 14th
Avenue, not 14th Street. That's driving me crazy. It is going
to help Moffitt, but will it help Van Buren, Jackson, Monroe
where a regular rain. I can be stepping out my front door and
I need hip boots up to my. You know what? So I don't know if
it's going to help me. He hasn't explained that. I'm
still waiting to find out where my stormwater drain is. I
haven't seen it yet. Okay. All right, Commissioner Quintana,
thank you. Mayor. I don't know. I, I. I think this is an
unnecessary investment because so many people's properties and
lives are being affected by all the flooding they're
experiencing unnecessarily on an ongoing basis, including
Annie. I know how much she's come and talked about the
flooding at her house. And I think this is an effort to try
and address that. It is a lot of money, but I think we all
got to get ready for having to spend a whole lot of money to
keep our low lying parts of our city afloat. You're going to
see a lot more money spent for that purpose. So, you know, I
am a Broward County employee, and I got from the Resilience
Department, the 2025 Resilience Plan, which I hope that
everybody here is considering, because that is going to give a
guide to us where resources are to help pay for keeping our low
lying areas afloat. And I hope that the resilience plan will
help us make decisions about development where it can and
can't go, and what kind of development. So I hope our
development department is well familiar with what's in here,
because this is where our money, this is where we can get help
to get to pay and to make wise decisions about where we invest.
So that's why I'm, you know, I brought a copy for everybody up
here on the dais, and I have a copy for everyone in
administration because it's got a lot of important information
for us in there, because we are going to have to spend a lot of
money to keep ourselves afloat. So that's it. Thank you. Thank
you, Commissioner. Vice mayor. So I'm sad that Annie left. It
must be happy hour. But I am concerned because the amount of
money, the cost and that's just to purchase land. How much is
the money to erect the pump station? The the total solution
for the. I'm sorry. Can you hear me? The total solution for
the. That storm water basin is probably in the $40 million
range. Pump stations, pipes, infrastructure all together.
One thing to consider is that you know what's unique in
advantageous for about this particular parcel is it's close
to the pump stations. And you have to consider for the size
of infrastructure that we're putting in these pipes for
every thousand feet of pipe that we would have to lay to
get to a more distant lot would cost us 1 million to 1 million.
Five just for just just to get to the more, you know, for
every thousand feet. So when you have a property that's
close to the pump stations, you have to factor that savings in
to the cost of the property. And it seemed, you know, did
you know what the appropriate process was for evaluating the
cost and arriving at a an agreed sale price? Can you
bring up the map for me then of where the location, the
surrounding areas? There. So it's going to be right there on
the canal. Yes. It needs to be on the water. It has to be on
the water. Yeah. How many homes is this ultimately affecting
that is going to that we hope to see improvement on? I guess
I don't have a count on the number of properties. Is it
just south of Washington or off hand? It would it would have to
be from, I'd say, Washington Street down to. Atlantic Shores,
drive down to Moffat Street because that whole basin. It's
the low point of the entire area. Moffat Street, Moffat
Street is, is that's where all the flooding is just north of
it. I'm trying to see where that's. Oh, it's not on this.
Let me see if I can. Yeah. Okay. So so if you go back to the
other side, so it looks as if it's going to affect several
homes, not just a certain allocated area of, of
individuals. Correct. Oh, it'll be close to a hundred homes.
Okay. So this is one of our hot spots. What I'd like to see, if
possible, before my time is up is the other areas of interest
for putting pump stations that we've talked about acquiring
properties. You said there are a couple others that you're
looking into. No, that what the slide was that we had looked at
several, several properties that were unavailable. Mostly
these were trying to put a pipe between an existing house,
trying to, you know, if somebody has a house that's
already on the waterfront and talking to them about it,
putting a 72 inch diameter, a six foot diameter or 248 inch
diameter pipes on the side of their house with a big outfall
that would belch out storm water during a rain event. It's
just an impossible sale or concept to sell. Okay. All
right. I hope we continue to look at other hot spots that
obviously are affected as much as this is, because granted,
it's so much needed, but there are other areas. My concern
mainly is the area that we're addressing. You found a
property which I think is great. I'm going to advocate for my
area and the hospital because people from this area need to
get to the hospital, and the flooding is just as important
and as as concerning. And if we can find an area on the roadway
to the hospital for safety purposes, I think that that
would be the next point of approval. This just happens to
be the first property. There is a list of of property and
they're not specific properties. I want to be clear, there are
drainage basin areas and there are solutions that require
outfalls or easements. This requires and this is just
happens to be one. But that list is with seemed real estate.
And we are diligently working through the list and, and
identifying property owners doing appraisals. And we'll be
coming back with more, more of this type. And just, just for
lesson of burden on staff and commission, have we done a
community outreach to the surrounding neighborhoods to
make sure that there's not going to be any pushback with
placing that there, or is it just something that we do
choice consideration because of the need it it is such a finite
solution. It's just something that has to be done. But I
think community outreach would be just give them a heads up.
Yeah. So, so just in terms of, of the sale price, I just want
to comment that I took a look at the, you know, recent sales
on the property Appraiser's website and comparable lots are
selling for an equivalent or higher amount. So if we didn't
have the good fortune of, from what I understand, this vacant
land already been been made vacant and the property being
listed for sale for 2.9, then I understand CNN negotiated a
2.52.5 and change. I just want to make the point that as the
market value, there was no other way to purchase
waterfront necessarily property, which is required here for the
outfall to go for a any any lesser figure. And as Vince
said, you know, if you look south, you know, there's even
larger lots of the larger homes. And so there really weren't
going to be a lot of options in an eminent domain of an
existing home with people would have been way more. So I think
there's, it's, it's an opportune, you know,
happenstance that this lot became available and that the
city noticed it and has the contract in front of us. So I
certainly support this land is expensive here, but it's
certainly critical for this basin. The Moffat Street area,
we all know, is some of the worst hotspot. This is a little
more north than I think ideal, right? Or is it or are you
comfortable? Very comfortable with the location. Yeah. Okay.
All right. So I'm certainly in favor of it. Let's go ahead and
let's go to Commissioner Shuhan. Thank you mayor. Then it's it's
a lot of money. But you know, it is it kind of is what it is.
We have the two appraisals. There's no reason to think the
appraisers are doing anything other than giving us a
confirmation that the price is fair and reasonable. I think it
is fortuitous that it's available. You know, these are
residents that have really suffered some some of these
families have lost four and five cars over the past few
years. So it's so desperately needed. My question is, when
you talk about the $40 million pump station that's not
physically going on this quarter acre, is it? It's not a
$40 million pump station. The the infrastructure for the
entire basin pipes and pump stations together. What we're
going to do next is there's quite a detailed math and model
that needs to be done for the area. We have to figure out
pipe alignments. That's just a fancy term for pipe routes down
which streets, whether we're going to increase the capacity
of the existing pump stations where they are. That represents
certain problems, such as now you're raising the flow through
old pipes. So that's a risk of fracturing those pipes. So then
the alternate solution is to put a smaller pump station on
the far end to draw the water. And but then that introduces
the risks of hydraulic transients, which is pressure
waves trapped inside the pipe. So all that needs to be studied
and evaluated for the most cost effective blend of solutions.
So there will be a pump station. I don't the cost 40 million.
Okay, I understand, thank you. And then my only other comment
which we talked about during our agenda review with the city
manager and director of public safety, is, I mean, it's a
gorgeous lot and a gorgeous location. So if there is any
way when we're placing equipment there to make it
serve a dual purpose, whether it's a public dock or a dock
for police boat or something, I mean, just hate to see that,
you know, not be used for another more recreational use.
GPU has already communicated with DCM, and we're planning to
leverage the maximum value out of the property as open space
after we've put in our infrastructure. Fantastic.
Thank you so much. Hey, I don't know. I don't know if it's who
who the question would be, but this is a residential lot that
we have to jump through any hoops with regards to using it
for utility, or we just have our police powers that let us
do what we need. But does this need a zoning change or I just
don't know. I'll just leave it at that. Maybe if you guys,
whatever, can look into that and give you the answer, but we
don't believe so at this point. Okay, let's go to Commissioner
Gruber. I think you kind of just answered my question.
What's the what's the size of the lot quarter acre and what's
the footprint of the equipment that's going there? We don't
know the exact footprint because we have to do that.
Modeling the math part of it, where we figure out the size of
the pumps, if we're putting pumps there, and then that'll
dictate the footprint of the station. But we could possibly
have a little bit of green space there with maybe some
park benches. Absolutely. Okay. So that'd be great. Okay. Yep.
Thank you, Commissioner Biederman. While I understand
and I hate taking stuff off the tax rolls. I know that these
are necessary things and it's going to provide drainage and
stuff like that for the surrounding areas. And just to
clarify, this is different and separate from the pump that
we're putting on 14th Avenue and the easement that we're
already talking about. So this is a secondary pump system for
the same area this. So that that pump station that's
located at 14th Avenue and Moffat is what they're putting.
There is a generator. That's what we'll be putting in place,
not a, not a pump. That's an existing pump station. But to
your point, the outfall that will be placed at this property
will. That this pump station at 14th Avenue and Moffat will
pump to. Right now it's interconnected with another
pump station on Wylie Street, and that's causing a hydraulic
transient. That's not. That's interfering with the dewatering
of the basin. All right. And secondly, I appreciate this
resiliency plan. But if we're going to believe part of the
resiliency plan and we're going to believe part of what the
Resiliency Office tells us, I think we need to believe all of
what the Resiliency Office tells us, not just pick and
choose what we want to believe. Anyway, nothing further. Thank
you, Commissioner Hernandez, and then we'll take the vote.
Thank you mayor. A couple of concerns that I just heard from
my colleagues. And by the way, I spoke with the city manager
and staff at length about this. And one of the things that I'm
kind of not 100% happy with is the process is more important
than the means. And in this case, you have X amount of
money for buying purchases property because of the needs
for the stormwater plan that we approved. I would wish that
those properties would have been talked about and
negotiated and brought up at the same time, in order for the
people not to get smart and says, oh, I want this because
you guys need it. That to me is, is something that I wish we
would have done prior to this. But I got, I got a couple of
questions because going back in time, my understanding is one
of the issues that that area floods is because there's a lot
of water that coming from Hallandale when it comes to
that area and sheets of. Is that not correct? That is
correct. Okay. So in, in my, in. So my other issue is, and I
like to thank Commissioner Quintana for bringing in the
resiliency. Is there any grant money available for Broward
County? Because we're actually dewatering not only our area,
but we help them with the storm water from a nearby city. So,
you know, I'd like to be able to see if we can tap into
something like that in order for us to be able to address
that. That's number one, is they did announce $25 million
of available dollars. Correct. So I'd like to see if we can
tap into that, because we're helping drain Hallandale as
well. And that is an area where they flood and we get flooded
because of their their sheets of water coming into our area.
I'm okay with this, but I got to tell you something. If I am
the guy that lives next door on any one of those properties,
I'll be hating life and you as well. Not you personally, but
I'm just saying. Or if you're the person across the street,
you know, and the island. So I want to make sure that if we do
spend this money, we don't get pushback where we get stuck
with a lot. I mean, I, I like for, for the commission to
realize that this individuals are not somebody who's worried
about a water bill going up. This individuals have the
wherewithal to say, wait a minute, this was residential,
not well. Yeah. Correct. So this is a need and I'm okay
with this. I mean, I understand, I wish we would have had other
properties or we would buy them all at the same time and go
like this. But the commission needs to have the fortitude to
be able to say, hey, this is a need and this is what we're
going to do, period. If we're well, okay, good. If we're
willing to do that, I'm going to know we have a choice. I
understand that, but I would still ask the staff, look for
some grant money when when it comes to the county, because
that's a good point about the, the regional kind of or the
dual impact here. This is a regional approach. And we're
helping Hallandale drain because they're actually
dumping into our area because we're lower. And so in that,
that's the reason why we have such a flooding in that
particular area. So having said all of this motion to approve,
I think we already have one, right? No, I don't believe we
do. No. All right. Motion from Commissioner Hernandez, second
from Commissioner Shoham. All those in favor, say aye. Aye.
Any opposed? Hearing none. Item carries unanimously.
Congratulations, everyone, on completing the agenda. Aside
from comments, does anybody want to take a five minute
break. Five minute break. Recess. Who?
Just a couple of things I want to. I think Public Works is the
greatest department. We have to be honest. And I know I've said
this before, but every time you send a request into public
works, it's amazing how there's a response and the work gets
done like it's true. Joseph, we love you. I mean, Joseph, you
need to, you need to do our gateway signage. It would have
been done. Sidewalks, lights, all kinds of things. I mean,
I'm amazed that you put something in to Hollywood
connect that there's a broken sidewalk somewhere. And in like
ten days, two weeks later, they're tearing up that whole
street, replacing all the sidewalks. So I my hat's off to
you. It's amazing. Secondly, I'm very excited that state
legislature, you know, approved funding. It didn't get vetoed
by the governor for the enhancement of our senior
services at Boulevard Heights. And I'm very appreciative of
that. We've been working on that for a couple of years. And
thank you very much to our state legislator, Marie Watson.
Keep fighting for us. Thank you. Nothing further. Thank you, sir.
Commissioner Quintana. Thank you. Mayor. So I just wanted to
say thank you for everyone who participated in our last
storytime in the park for the summer. We're going to take a
little break. We'll start back up in after daylight savings
time is over and we can be back outside. Special thanks to
Officer Brian Rodriguez, who was there with us and fully
participated with the families and their children. He didn't
just sit in his car and watch us. He actually came out and
was part of everything, helped, helped give away books and
everything. So just thank you to him and wanted to make sure
we recognize that. I want to thank our fire rescue and all
of the work that they're doing to collect donations for
Colombia and all of the fire stations. I don't know how much
longer you'll be doing that, but thank you for doing that
and working with our community partners to get those resources
to where people need it. Thank you, Chief Levy. I want to ask
for support from my colleagues. The, the there's a little park
that came in to State Road seven on Johnson Street.
Actually, it's on Glenn. It happened as part of the road
widening. And it really parks Department just called it
linear Park, but the entire length of the 441 Greenscape is
the linear park. And so when people are wanting to join,
come there or meet there and they look it up on the GPS, it
doesn't it doesn't take them to where this park is. So I want
to give it a name. And I'm learning about the naming
process. So I'm asking for your support. If we call it seven
Skies Park. So it's on the seven seven Skies Park. And if
I have support from you, then hopefully staff can move it
forward. I like it, I like it. Thank you so much everybody.
And there's a lot of big open skies. So it's nice. Yeah. And
it's got seven. So it goes with our on the seven branding. That
was my thinking. And I got some, you know, got some feedback
from people in the community and they were good with it. So
you waive, waive the process, give support to waive the
process. And as a commission initiated, I'm asking for
support to waive the process as a commission, a commission
initiated request. You got it. Thank you man. Thank you
everybody. And then that's it. Thank you. You got it. I'm
losing it. I'm already just starting to be funny. All right.
I'm skipping that one. Commissioner Shuhan. Go for it.
Thank you. Mayor, I just wanted to agree with Commissioner
Biederman and give our accolades to Joseph. You know,
it's nonstop in that department. And whether it's somebody that
didn't get their garbage cans or whatever it is, it just
seems like it's taken care of very promptly. So thank you,
Joseph. I actually happen to agree with some of the comments
we received from residents about the agenda on nine eight
between the for the P and D board. It just seems like it's
so much for those volunteers. The P and D board is a
volunteer board. We've really loaded them up and on nine
eight they have six items, one of which is the 1301, but the
other is this beach overlay, which is huge. And I just, I, I
guess I'm asking for support to, to follow up with, I don't
remember who said it. Maybe Siobhan to give that its own
night for the ND board itself. They were there the last time.
It didn't work out, had its own night, and now we've put it as
part of an agenda with six other significant items. So I'm
looking for support to make the beach overlay review before the
ND board its own independent night, so they can really dig
into it. So I don't support that, principally because a P
and D board sometimes have long agendas, but B more importantly,
the board itself was asked to choose a date, and they
discussed the fact that it would be on a big agenda. And
they discussed that it would be September 8th, and some of them
would be out of town. And they resolve together that that
would be the date. And they made comments. 1301 on it at
that point. Yeah. The agenda they knew they would be on. So
I don't support changing it, but go ahead and that's it. But
anyone else, I'll say vice mayor. So I, I actually, I
don't know if I should say my comments and we could re I'll
bring up a motion and you could appeal it, but I actually have
Steve Welch's letter that I feel was written in such a, a
very shocking but professional. I want to stay on this topic.
So I don't support that motion. And I have reasons to as why I
don't know if I should answer them or talk about it in my
comments, because I just if there's no support, then we can
wait. Okay. Yeah. And then and the only other thing is I just
wanted to talk about the election a little bit.
Obviously, I'm very excited and I want to just thank so many
people who helped. It was a long race I filed two years ago.
I had tons and tons of support, tons of volunteers in the
community and tons of individual donors. Just it was
an amazing experience and a very gratifying. So I also want
to just congratulate other people who won the races. In
particular, I want to single out Maura McCarthy Bowman, our
school board rep. She's been a great school board member for
these past two years. She only had half a term. So now she's
been reelected for a full term. And I'm very grateful because
immediately after the election, they started talking again
about closing schools. And we have a fighter representing
district one. So I'm gratified about that. For everybody who
ran, win or lose. I just want to thank the candidates who ran
positive campaigns and congratulate those who ran
positive and honest campaigns, because it's just important to
the community as a whole to have people running. And we had
two candidates here earlier, but they're gone now. But
people that are running for the right reasons, that respect the
voters, that bring a positive message, you know, that bring
different backgrounds and experiences and priorities to
the voters. So anybody that ran that type of campaign, I just
want to say thank you. I have spent the last really two years
now just talking with so many residents throughout district
six. And I'm very grateful that I did it because once sworn in
as a county commissioner, I have so much insight now into
the things that are important to the residents throughout
district six. And that's County District six, which includes
several other cities besides Hollywood. But I just want to
say also that, you know, it's fabulous that the election is
over. But the most important thing and about the whole
experience was just meeting so many great people and just
having the opportunity to interact and learn so much
about our community. And I just really want to give a gigantic
shout out to Commissioner Beimfohr. You know, he's still
there. We have him until November, but he's made such
amazing contributions to our community. First 12 years here
as a city commissioner and now 12 years as a county
commissioner. So it was a privilege for me to be able to
run my race with him by his side. And I just want to
acknowledge now, and I'm sure I'll do it again in November,
all the amazing contributions he's made. And and finally, I
just want to say, you know, it doesn't matter if you voted for
me or you didn't vote for me. It didn't matter when I was
elected as a Hollywood commissioner. And it does not
matter as a county commissioner, I will always listen to every
single resident, every business owner, everyone who has any
sort of interest in Broward County. And I will just work
really hard to meet the needs of my constituents. And I
encourage anybody to reach out to me between now and November
and thereafter. So really looking forward to starting.
But yes, I will miss you. So thank you. Thank you
Commissioner. All right, Commissioner Hernandez. Thank
you. Mayor, one of the concerns that I have, I'd like to thank
all of the departments, police department, the fire department,
public Works, the utility department, the Parks
Department seemed, even though we don't always agree. But I
love the work that you guys do and the financial department.
So. And you. City Manager, it's been an interesting few weeks
off work more than I thought I would, but nonetheless. I was
driving a dusk east on Fillmore Street, just past the railroad
track east of the tracks. All of a sudden the lights turned
on. So all the small poles that we put on, they've been on,
they're on. We haven't seen them on before. On the opposite
side, on the south side of Hollywood Boulevard, we still
need help. Lighting is an issue. I know we're doing the
initiative with the one where we're doing the concrete
walkway, but lighting is still an issue. If we could help with
something like that would be great. The small lot on 441 in
the Boulevard Mayor that you brought up earlier that it
sometimes it collects a lot of trash. It's not the property
owner that's bringing the trash is the individuals that are
actually dumping trash out their window and winds up there.
And I know as I speak to some of the police officers, they
hate that. They hate when any when they see anybody throwing
trash out the window. Can we pick up enforcement when it
comes to that so that people know not to throw trash out in
the city of Hollywood? You know, I yeah, you know, it. I've seen
people actually stopped at a traffic light and they just
throw their McDonald's or Burger King or they throw
everything out the window. I don't know if I need support
for that. I think the PD would just ask him, please. You know,
if somebody like that, just give them the, the the
violation and let them go to court and fight it out. Because
I got a feeling that the judges don't like to see something
like that as well. And for the most time, you guys are busy
doing something else. But this is a quality of life for the
residents of the city of Hollywood. If you guys can't,
please. Because if I was the owner of that lot, I would just
put chain link fence around it so the garbage would stay on
the, on the on the public side. And I wouldn't have an issue
when it comes to that. But I do agree that that particular site
serves a purpose for the city of Hollywood for something,
whether it is our signage, whether it's something that we
may want to do, whether it's to put the name of the park that
we're looking to name on. 441. But that site is important for
us. And unless the gentleman wants to put a hot dog cart, as
it used to be years ago, we're selling that. I don't think
it's useful for much of anything else. So I support
whatever you guys want to do with that. But I would
encourage the PD to start enforcing the people throwing
trash out the window. And I'd like to thank my residents for
coming out. Mrs. King reached out to us regarding 24th Avenue,
and this is the reason that I'm fighting very hard on on the
south side of Washington to Pembroke Road to be able to
have some speed tables. We have had, in particular, an
individual who was clocked doing 87 miles an hour and 22nd
Avenue. The rest of the people may not be. But any. Anything
like this, it would be almost impossible to do if you had
speed tables. And they've been asking for years. I'm talking
about seven, eight, ten years that they've been asking. So
whatever you can do to prioritize that, please. And
that's basically the last thing that I'd like to do is I'd like
to remind everybody, because my wife will tell me you didn't do
it on October 10th, the Hispanic Heritage Month is
going to be having a celebration in the downtown.
And if anybody would like to sponsor, I believe that the
deadline is deadline for the logo is tomorrow. The money
doesn't have to come in right away, but just reach out to the
Hispanic Affairs Council to do something regarding that. Thank
you so much, Peter. We had a lot of discussion today about
speed tables, and I just want to take the pulse of the City
Commission for the benefit of city management, the speed
table designs that have been put in through the Go bond have
been very, I guess you could say harsh when you drive over
them. Really harsh. I think you all would agree that any future
speed tables need to have a different, different product,
different design, different element to them. They cannot be
the same harsh, very large speed tables that we've had to
date. Would you all agree? Who agrees is there? I mean, speed
humps, the speed tables that have been put in. That is a
very harsh like with your car. It's a approach and the angle
is way bad if you drive some other speed tables in the city,
like older ones that have been put in like on 28th Avenue
between Sheridan and Taft, it's a much smoother rollover. These
are super harsh, and they also cause the cars to have to slow
down to like 15. So you're also congesting traffic because
people have to slow down, like to like way below the speed
limit to even get over them without a really harsh, you
know, going over them. So on 28th Avenue, when we redid the
water infrastructure, the first set of speed humps that they
put were very aggressive. They were very. And then we asked
the contractor if they could do it. And I believe that there is
a format for them to follow for them to do it. So you may want
to check if the ones they install actually meet that
format. If not, maybe they can adjust that. And we've already
had this contractor do that. But the design that I that is
much better is a lot more rounded. And the car rolls over
it as opposed to boom, boom, like really hard. And honestly,
people with back issues, you know, or even our ambulances
have an issue when it comes to stuff like that. But yeah, it
just may be, it may have to make it a little wider rather
than so short and high. But yeah, I don't know. The design
is really bad. Commissioner Quintana, on this, I don't know,
I just kind of feel like it's supposed to be uncomfortable.
Otherwise they're going to go fast. If we make it easy for
them to go over it, they're going to speed. They don't want
to slow down. And I mean, then we're going to get all kinds of
complaints about people speeding. I mean, the design of
the speed, unless you're the one writing in the ambulance
and the ambulance actually goes to one of these and you go
airborne. As you know, we ride on some of the rescue units.
And that's one of the things that concerns them when it's
just if we're going to put them in, I mean, if we're if we're
not going to make them a deterrent to, to speeding, then
let's not put them in. No. Well, you still have to slow down,
but you don't have to slow down to like 15 and it's still an
aggressive go up, go down. I don't know if you've driven
them, but go ahead. I have a recommendation. I'm sorry. Oh
you got to turn on you here. Press the button. See three go.
It may go along with supporting but and I know that there's
been a lot of talk back and forth, but there's the, the
they're drilled in. And I don't know how Josef feels about this,
but they're the plastic or the. No, those things don't really
work. But you can relocate them if the area is not. Well, okay.
I'm sure you you have your own feedback. I know that you've
heard. So I don't know if you have an opinion on this or.
Well, I think, you know, as, as we discussed briefly earlier,
the, you know, we understand that a lot of times if people
feel concerned about speeding in their neighborhood, their
fallback right away is some type of speed table. But then
we, you know, if we get to the point where we have speed
tables on every single street, it really does become a little
problematic for emergency response and, and other issues.
So, you know, we, we believe this requires a little bit more
of a holistic approach. And, you know, some, some maybe
different parameters for where we're putting them. I to the
mayor's point, I think this, you know, as we permitted the
last round of speed tables, I know that there were specific
things that are now required, you know, from a drainage
standpoint that kind of make the tables a little more
aggressive on the outer edges as well. Whereas that used to
sort of taper down into the swale area. Now that area is,
you know, harsher too. So if you hit it the wrong way, it
can be a little different. It could be that over time, some
of these sort of soften, you know, and get a little less,
you know, harsh. Yes. And so, you know, I think, you know,
these are this is good feedback and we can take it. The idea of
a speed table, my understanding is you should be able to safely
traverse it at the speed limit for a speed table. Now a speed
hump or a speed bump rather. Excuse me. You do have to slow
down for a speed bump to a lower than the posted speed
limit in order to, you know, get over it without having
wrecking your your cars. I support looking into it because
even those little, you know, like if you go to Oakwood Plaza
ripples the ripples, it makes you so aware of stop signs and
speed. I think you make it an arrow. It's a little bit
different than just the speed. So I support that. All right.
Well look into it. And that's probably a more comprehensive
conversation. Yeah, I support it. All right. Who's next.
Commissioner Hernandez, you finished right? Yes, sir. All
right. Vice Mayor Kolody please. Thank you. So a couple of
things. I just want to confirm from earlier during our
workshop that we all are in a in a agreeance to look at the
Rotary Park improvements and see if there's any funding. I
think we took the vote, but I just want to clarify it because
it was so much going on as far as looking into allocating
additional funds, if need be, to make that Rotary Park the
best that it is. Yeah, I have support on that, explain. I
think Jose had explained that it's going to take the existing
project plus more, and everybody nodded that we
understand that we need we need to do what we need to do. So I
support are we on the same page? I just want to clarify because
nodding and actually making it happen, we took away from that
is it was a workshop you requested support to have us
bring back the full cost of that project. Okay, perfect. So
that you all could consider as part of the budget process and
the capital improvement budget, whether you wanted to allocate
those additional funds. Awesome. Thank you so much. Just wanted
to clarify that and that'll be before my term ends. Correct?
Yeah. Thank you. Parking at Stan Goldman. We're going to be
having a meeting just for the residents, because I've been
getting a lot of complaints, along with other colleagues of
mine, regarding what was there and what is there now and the
whole outreach. So we'll be talking about that soon. We
have a meeting scheduled. Thank you, Yvonne and oh, Jose and
Rick. Thank you, thank you, thank you. Today there was
something mentioned and I don't want to go too elaborate, but
just put your thinking caps on. It was mentioned about from
from Senator Sharif regarding if the property tax does
actually pass, there is going to be some cities that are
going to suffer. So just think on your radar as far as
annexation, that meant that word was mentioned today. Do a
little bit of history and see what's surrounding us. I think
that it would be very beneficial to the city of
Hollywood and to those surrounding cities that might
be impacted by the property tax if it passes. Correct. I'm
going to skip that one. I'm going to skip that one. This
the I wish Susan was still here, but maybe raelyn you can answer
it. The area that is surrounding that, we had our
signage supposed to go in on Sterling and a one a. That
roundabout though is that City Hall, Hollywood owned grass
area or is that fDOT? Well, the big Hollywood sign on the the
Dania Beach Boulevard ramp. However, we had a big design
there. We I don't I just want to know. I know we were looking
at trying to get the right approvals for that signage and
honestly, I don't know the answer right now, but we'll get
back with you on that. To me, and the only reason why I was
approached at a an event recently, and I think you also
have been spoken to. And so it's all new, but I'm going to
set up a meeting. I've been asked to set up a meeting with
Nova Southeastern University regarding the Marine Biology
Center that's in the park, and signage so that people know
that it's there and also partnerships. So I think that
that would be a really positive discussion and a way to help
enhance and waive finding signs. Since we talked about them
earlier, Lincoln Road, we talked about purchasing of
homes. Lincoln Road is a huge issue that we have in 29th
Avenue. I've talked about it many, many times, and this is
an area that I think VIN, you should look into and and no
deed goes undone. They built four houses in the end of
Lincoln Road, right up against 95 many, many years ago before
I was even Commissioner. Wrong place, wrong development, wrong
everything. And since then, that really has been the
culprit of a lot of the flooding in that area, because
that used to be very as we talked about, Rotary Park being
a runoff. So I think that's an area to investigate because it
is a hot spot. It is a lot of flooding in that area. And most
particular, we have one resident who lives there now
who is trying to put a driveway that has been deteriorated from
the flooding and also wants to do enhancements. And she's
getting a lot of pushback. So I don't want them to invest the
money. If there's an opportunity for us to maybe
look into possible stormwater drainage. Yes, sir. Yes. Jose,
if the address is f dot, we just checked it, it's F dot
that the entire curve. So we couldn't even put a Hollywood
Beach sign in there if we wanted to. They agreed. Well,
we have we have some permits that are pending with fDOT and
we are we do have infrastructure on fDOT property.
I do believe that that was identified as a location for a
sign. I'm just not sure if they agreed to it or not, because I
know we were having some back and forth on that. Okay.
Lincoln Street, Lincoln Street, sorry. And my last. Will you
get the address to Vince so he can. Yes. Talk to the owner?
Yes. And if and if the stormwater plan, you know,
finds that that's a perfect, you know, property to to hold
water then. Yeah. And so. I'm going to talk about common
ground. And so I just, I agree, you know, I know Commissioner
Scheuermann brought this up and the mayor had also brought it
up. And and first, I believe, you know, you provide respect
and, and gratitude where it's available. And over the last
probably five years, we've received very negative toned,
aggressive emails damning the commission, to be frank. And I
actually was quite respectfully and pleasantly surprised by the
most recent email that we received from Mr. Welsh. My
last encounter with him was out in the lobby after the
commission meeting, where the word poor doors was brought up,
and the narrative became extremely uncomfortable for
some. And it was a very terrible confrontation in the
lobby. And I don't think anybody deserves I'm not a
doormat, nor is anybody else here, nor is our residents. So
mutual respect and balance is so important. So this email
that we received, I thought, was really written in a very
respectful way. I want to give accolades to Mr. Welsh for
writing the letter, although I do understand the concerns that
were brought up. The board did. The board did agree to have
this put on the agenda, knowing that it was a full agenda? I
don't believe that anything is being pushed through. And why
do I say that? You know, a lot of the information was said
about meetings not being publicly informed. I. Five last
bit of information, please. And so I requested because I know
that there's been a lot of dates. So I did request from
city the dates that we have done public outreach. And this
has been going on for a while. So this is nothing new being
rushed. And I just want to put it on the record out of total
respect and transparency. March 30th Chamber of Commerce
presentation. April 1st. General Membership meeting
presentation. April 29th. First public engagement in-person
meeting April 30th. Second public Engagement in-person
meeting April 30th after April 30th. Online community surveys
and public engagement meetings. August 19th was the first
in-person public open house. August 20th second in-person
public open house. You can we can do so much outreach, but
the fact that we are not being transparent and we are not
involving our community narrative is completely wrong.
We talk about it today, about reaching out to the residents,
about all the topics that we made. We had residents come and
speak about the 441 issue. You can do so much. It's like the
saying you could lead a horse to water, but you can't make
them drink. We can provide opportunities for engagement,
but if the residents don't engage, we can't force them
until all of a sudden a narrative goes out and then it
becomes a bigger problem. This is something to protect the
city. The overlay. We can agree to disagree, but because of
pending lawsuits and because of decisions that have been made,
this is an opportunity for us to put hard stops and protect,
but also allow the city to grow. So I am not in favor of
preventing it from coming to the board meeting, even though
it is a packed agenda, because they did agree to have it on
that date. Now, if they want to adjourn and move forward on
certain topics after if it's too late, I'm assuming that
they can do that. But there I know there's been there's been
planning and development board meetings where they've been
here until one, two, 3:00 this morning before. So that's part
of volunteerism. And we've been here till one, two, three. So
when you sign up for something like that and you know, these
are topics that need to move the city forward, and actually
it's going to be a benefit to the residents who say they
can't make it because they're working at whatever time they
can come, and they're going to be able to have their voices
heard, and a decision will be made. And we can kind of, I
think, already know it will come back to the commission.
And I think more information will come out to support the
reasons as to why, through the 500 page pages, the staff did
an amazing job here in the lobby. We got the letter from
Mr. Seltzer. I responded, I think that was a very negative
tone and I expressed that to him as well. You're damned if
you do and you're damned if you don't. But we got to find the
common ground and we have to be able to balance that properly
and do what's best for the entire city of Hollywood. Yet
again, I'm saying this and I will not say stop saying it
until my last day sitting up here. So my goal is to welcome
Mr. Welsh for the positivity and to continue to move forward,
because that's where you find common ground and I am willing
to do the same. We have to formulate and masterfully
create respect because right now we are all on opposite ends.
So with that being said, that is all of my comments. Thank
you very much and have a great day. Thank you. Thank you, Vice
Mayor. Sure. Go ahead. I just want to clear up one point.
When we had all of that public outreach, which I agree, staff
did a good job. That was getting information to go into
what's been being presented to the board. The the public has
not had any presentations other than, I believe the night where
the P and B more meeting was canceled. But the heights and
things like that were not available in the August
meetings. That was gathering information, as I understand it.
So I'll tell you, since the meeting was continued from the
special set, was it August or July, August, August 4th, or
whatever it was? The staff had put together a number of
sessions that a lot of those same folks attended. So there
has there has been good utilization of the past 30 days
or so already to have additional input. And so for
all those folks who were already, you know, clamoring
and advocating for the board even before the hearing to
continue the item. No, no, we need more time. Well, because
of the issue with the notice, they got the extra time staff,
thankfully had, you know, taken advantage of that and actually
reached out to the community more and presented the heights
and everything else. So now by the time you get to September
8th and P and no one can really, you know, reasonably say, oh,
we need more time because they've had, you know,
practically 60 days at that point with the package. So and
same with the Planning and Development board members. So,
you know, they wanted more time and by, by mistake, they got
more time. So good thing it's all good. Everybody can now be
educated on it and speak on it. So yeah, go ahead. I didn't
finish stating my I got distracted and I apologize, but
the, the poor door statement that was made here at the
commission meetings and the comments that were made. And I
know it was a very challenging thing. I just want to put on
the record. I do not and I will not. And we are as a body, have
the opportunity to prevent poor doors from ever happening. And
so I just want that to be on the record. I would never
support that. And to be accused that I was in support of it is
completely taken out of narrative, and I hope that all
of us are cognizant of what we say, because it just festers
and it becomes a bigger issue. And I think that that should
come to a cease. Thank you. All right. Let's go for
Commissioner Groover. You could wave if you like. No, no, I
have a few things I want to just real quick, I want to
thank staff for PD and fire also and FOP for donating the
ice cream to the Ice Cream social. It was actually one of
the most well attended things that I've been to with that
type of thing that we did. We gave away 400 ice creams, 400
ice creams. Yeah. And thank FOP for, for they had purchased
that ice cream for the kids. Yeah. I think some of some
parents might have got an ice cream or two, but it was
amazing. We had a fire truck out there with, with the hose
attached to the fire truck and kids were able to shoot at, you
know, shoot the hose at a cone. And, and police were out there
with K9 and Swat and really, really was a nice time. So
thank you to everyone that was involved in that. Sorry to
throw this out there because I didn't bring it up in my Monday
meeting. I was just thinking about it last night. And I kind
of want to think, see what my colleagues and staff think
about this is there's a lot of chatter that I see on social
media about paying for parking downtown and people thinking
that that's why some people aren't going there. I don't
necessarily agree with that, but I think it could be the
right time of year. Are we doing dine out Hollywood?
Joanne. We are September. October. Okay. But September is
typically the slowest time of the year. What about my idea?
Adam is going to hate me for this. Adam. Free parking in our
garages from Monday to Thursday just to see if it does have an
impact on businesses. We don't have to hire a consultant to
figure out, you know, should we charge this? Should we not make
a couple of weeks in September, maybe the full month of
September? Start it September, Monday, September 1st on Monday
it just listen. If if we're if we're going to pay $100,000 for
a jazz festival, right. To bring boots on the ground.
Right. So, you know, or, or we did, we had an event where we
gave free parking where we knew it was going to be packed
anyway. Why not take the slowest days of the week and
the slowest weeks of the year and sample it and see, and we
can talk to our businesses and say they can say, hey, you know
what? There was no difference. Hey, we had, you know, much
better sales. You know, I'm throwing it out there. I don't
know the exact amount of income we bring in on a Monday. Maybe
we can just do Mondays. But I like to test it just to, to see
because we can quantify it. And I'm just, I don't know if I
need support. I, I kind of want to Adam maybe, maybe you can,
you know, I apologize for throwing that out here, not
bringing it out Monday. I thought, what's that? So I
would just say in Miami Beach right now, they have a, instead
of like 5 or $6 an hour on their paid meter parking for I
think it's August and September. They have it for like a dollar
an hour. That's on the beach on Miami Beach. Yeah, yeah. City
of Miami Beach. So just to give you an example, they, they also
are trying to do something for the slow time of year. So we
charge it, right? So no, so what I'm saying is for downtown,
not on the street for our parking garages. And maybe they
don't make too much money during that month. Monday
through. Yeah. If the commission will allow me to
interject a little bit. Yes. Sorry. Go ahead. Yeah. I think
we should probably just do an analysis before we make that
type of decision. Yeah. I'm bringing something back to the
commission based on that recommendation. Okay. And
because because our parking right now in the garages is a
dollar an hour. It is it's not a big impact either. Yeah, it
is. It's a massive impact. But, but, but it is, it is economic
and affordable for, in my opinion, for those residents.
But allow us the opportunity to I agree with you, and I don't
know if it's going to make a difference, but there's a lot
of chatter. I don't know if anyone else sees it on social
media saying that the reason people aren't coming out, and I
don't necessarily agree with that thought process, is that
they have to pay for parking. So if the time to maybe, you
know, try, it would be the Deadest. I bless you. So yeah,
if you if you guys want to bring it back, but I don't want
to do it in December, you know, if we're going to do it, I'd
like to. So before I get before I get to Commissioner Hernandez
to give his feedback publicly here, I just want to mention
that if we want to thank that if we have a dine out Hollywood
throughout the month of October, maybe that's the month to do it
and really go all the way for Dine Out Hollywood and pair it
with free garage parking. And then you're really getting the
word out. Let's go to Commissioner Hernandez. Mayor,
I gotta tell you, there is a concerted effort right now to
attack the parking in the downtown, not because they're
going to come. They're just going to say we don't go
because we got to pay for parking. But now that you're
going to tell them we get free parking, but it's got to be in
the garage. Well, I don't want to go into the garage. So, so I,
the, at the end of the day, if you guys. And I don't support
it, by the way, but if you guys are willing to do something
like that, I'm more than happy to do it in conjunction with an
event or with a month that we're having to try to see
something like that. But I really do not support the issue
because this is just a concerted effort by a few
people, and they're loud when they come to tell you this
thing, just like I heard in you probably heard it from
Commissioner Blattner, which is the person who's telling us,
well, the people that come to Cinema Paradiso don't come
because they don't want to pay for parking. I'm looking at it
like, you know, no good deed goes unpunished. Here we are.
We we're we're putting money out of the resident's pocket to
have Cinema Paradiso actually be there. And then they also
want you to give them free parking. Do you want free ice
cream and a hamburger too? I mean, in popcorn. I mean, at
the end of the day, I spoke about we had free ice cream. No,
no. You know, and the you may. But at the end of the day,
we're we're we're subsidizing Cinema Paradiso. Now, the
people that want to go there want to have their parking
subsidized. Everybody else has to pay. I don't believe that if
if they have a problem paying a dollar an hour, really, I get
it. I, I've gone to different places and I just got back from
Seattle. You park, you pay in $7, $8 an hour to park on the
street. And if you get a ticket because you park in the wrong
day on the street, it's $225. So let's be real. So I don't
support it. But if you guys want to do it, I will
reluctantly go away, do it in a month that we're actually doing
something so that we can quantify. But I would I would
like to hear the analysis. I'd like to hear the analysis first,
I guess, and then and I would do it during dine out. And for
those people who continue with that narrative, we can then say,
well, we tried it and the effect was hopefully X, Y, and
z. I mean, hopefully it'll be a great month. But yeah,
Commissioner Biederman, go ahead and then we'll be done.
So I'm glad you brought this up because I was thinking about
this the other day, and I just didn't like I've had a rough
afternoon. Has anybody used the park mobile app here other than
me? Yeah, I use it. All right. So when you use the park mobile
app or pay by phone, it always pops up these stupid ads on
sign up and you get $25 off. I spoke to Susan about this, and
I told her to touch base with Lisa because the CRA, just for
historical information. So the CRA, before all you guys time
except for maybe Ray Lynn, used to give people these tokens for
like $5 or whatever it is, and they would give them away like
water just to spend money in the businesses in downtown.
Right. And, and, and, and the city would redeem those tokens.
So it's all about messaging to the businesses. It's a digital
age. If people park in a parking garage and they're
paying their 2 or $3 for parking, we could pop up a QR
code or, or a barcode of some sort that is scannable at a
business that they get $10 off of the business, and they could
spend $2 in a garage, but they get $10 off in the business.
But it gives us the ability to bring people into downtown with
a 5 or 10 or whatever it is, dollar coupon. And who's going
to pay the $10? The business? No, they could redeem them to
us. Oh, okay. We're not paying $10. But I mean, we've done it
before. Dinner subsidies? No, but we've done it before.
Whatever it is, the idea is there that we could do some
kind of digital thing and you could flip it on like a switch
only for ice cream. All right. I think we've we've talked I
think we've talked it out. We've you've heard some ideas.
We're going to hear what the something next week with the
financial impact would be. But Joanne was supportive of the
dine out Hollywood, the dine out Hollywood alignment. Now
Joanne, if you want to get up here and talk downtown, we're
happy to invite you. But that's not on the agenda today. All
right, Commissioner Gruber, thank you. You said, you know,
you had an idea and look what happened. I know have another
idea, but I think it's going to take too much time now. Yeah.
So so actually, going back to Commissioner Shuhan, you
brought up this morning about the golf balls. And I was
speaking to a resident that lives on the golf course, and
he was telling me it's his car gets hit, his house gets hit,
which is what you expect if you live on a golf course. But he.
What's that? Yes. No, which is what you expect. But he said
that one of his neighbors went to put a pergola. I believe he
said it was a pergola, and he had to get a variance and
different things. What about looking into making it a little
bit more seamless for people who live on a golf course to
protect their property, like their cars, to be able to put
some type of canopy that they don't have to get a variance, I
think. Is it something we could look into? I mean, it seems
reasonable. Yeah. It seems reasonable that, you know, they
should. It shouldn't be some crazy path to pay for a
variance and this and that. Maybe look into the options of
what people can put in front of their homes when they're facing
a golf course. And this could not this could be city wide, an
ordinance. If you're living on a golf course and apply to
those those homes, I don't know if I need support for staff
text. Amendment to the zoning code for setbacks just sounds
like for pergolas. Well, well, and also there's there's
different things you could put to protect your, your property.
And there you go. An interceptor, an interceptor, a
laser interceptor, automatic weapons. Yeah. So smart city
technology. Anyway, I think it could be something to look into.
Right. Yeah. Do I need that one's a little reach, I don't
know. Yeah. I just don't want the emails anymore. No. And you
and you put it out to the people who live on the golf
course. Is that your how about this staff feedback on the idea.
Not a motion to bring back an ordinance, but correct support
to bring back feedback, whether it's in the Tuesday memo or and
what, what options could exist that that you'd recommend
asking for support to look into possibly options for homeowners
that live near a golf course for them where they wouldn't
have to go through a variance and this and that and whatever,
something seamless for those homeowners protecting Clusia
plant, areca palms. What else? No. All right. Yeah, yeah.
Sidewalks and in the road. So for my comments, ladies and
gentlemen, I just want to express my excitement about
tomorrow and the Hollywood Police headquarters ribbon
cutting and opening to the public, excited for HPD and for
the city at large, for this new headquarters to be open and for
all that, it's going to serve the city. It's at 4 p.m.
tomorrow at. Is it address North Park Road? But I don't
know the number, 401 401 North Park Road. Parking is on
Entrada. Enter through Entrada Drive for this particular event.
All right. Thank you all so much. Excited about tomorrow.
Good to be back and get into the weeds. Let's get to city
Attorney. Welcome back everybody. Normally I wouldn't
have any comments, but I did ask two of my new attorneys to
stay. And I just wanted to introduce them to you. All
right. Varosha is yeah, you can come up to the mic and tell us
about you too. She's not here. You're an attorney. Come up to
the mic. Right? She's not that new, but it has been a little
busy and so I have not done it earlier. But Varosha, if you
want to, you want me to. Okay. I thought you had a little bio
prepared for me. Yeah, but I guess, I mean, no one knows
more about you than myself. My name is Feroz Shah, and I came
here from the city of Miami Beach, where I was a
legislative attorney for the city commissioner for about
eight years before starting my journey in Hollywood. I don't
live in Hollywood, but I'm a very, very frequent visitor as
my partner lives here. So I'm here pretty much every week for
work and also every weekend for recreation. I really love the
city. I'm very excited to be here. Originally, I was born in
Turkmenistan. It is located in Central Asia, but I moved to
America with my family when I was 12 years old, and we
actually ended up in West Virginia. So it took me a bit
to make my way to Florida, but I moved to Florida, I believe
in 2014 for law school, and I fell in love with the state. I
fell in love with South Florida, and I've stayed here ever since.
Propecia works with our development services team, and
she's really. That's the most important part. Yes, she'll be
staying late on September 8th. Yes, yes. Yeah, we'll be
watching. All right. Thank you very much. Thank you for Russia.
Welcome. Also, Amy Dreaver is our newest attorney. Amy is
working with our PD fire code and parking departments. And
Amy, if you want to say a little bit about yourself. Good
evening. Nice to meet you all. I, I most recently came from
the Broward OIG where I worked for the last three years with
Jody Breeze. Before that, I was a prosecutor in Miami Dade for
nine years, kind of pretty much working the the full gamut
there. Very excited to be here. Part of the team fire, police
code and parking still very new and learning the ropes. But
it's been exciting so far and seems like a great city to work
for. Awesome. Thank you. Welcome. Thank you all so much.
All right. That's on deck for all of us. Yeah. A lot of
modernizing needed on those. All right. City Manager. Well I
also want to just say welcome back. I hope all of you enjoyed
a little downtime over the last several weeks, although I know
it was still very busy for for most of you. Just a couple of
things. I want to highlight a couple of items that were on
the consent agenda that I think were noteworthy. Our law
enforcement forfeiture funds. We dedicate a pretty
significant portion of those each year to funding various
nonprofit agencies that are working in our community.
That's right around $140,000. That's going to help things
like the Boys and Girls Club, our Police Athletic League,
Hispanic Unity, you name it. So we have quite a it's just
noteworthy and a great source of help to those nonprofits.
Also, I would like to highlight that we had the Highland
Gardens Sidewalk Project. This is one of the projects that our
engineering team and DCM have been working on, and it is a
grant funded project. All of those grant funded projects you
have to get in the cycle early. It takes a long time, but it's
finally, you know, coming to fruition. And that's a
significant investment of about $720,000. So as you heard
earlier today, Deputy City Manager Adam Reichbach is going
to be doing behind the budget community meetings. Really,
this is an opportunity for our residents. We're trying we've
we've you know, we have budget hearings, and sometimes we
don't have a tremendous amount of participation from our
residents. But we do think it's very important that they
understand the budget. And and so Adam is going to be doing
three separate sessions for folks to attend, will be also
touching on the impacts of amendment three. But I think
this is really just hopefully what will become a standard
process for us, where we will try to get out into the
community to allow them to ask questions about the budget
process. So September 1st at the Hollywood Beach Culture and
Community Center at six, September 9th here at City Hall
at 6 p.m. and that one will be recorded. And then September
10th at the Boulevard Heights Community Center, again at 6
p.m. And then just if people do feel so inclined, after they've
learned about the budget to actually come and participate
in the hearings. Monday, September 14th, here at City
Hall is the first budget hearing that's at 6 p.m. The
second one is Wednesday, September 23rd at 6 p.m. and
that will be followed immediately by the CRA budget
hearing. As you heard earlier from Commissioner Quintana, the
collection of supplies is still underway by our fire Department
for the Columbia Earthquake Relief. Please go to the
website www.hollywood.org. There is a list there of the
priority needs. And really, you know, while we love all
donations, it really is most helpful if people take a moment
to look at that list and bring the things that are most needed.
And then finally, I want to actually, I have two more
things. Sorry, sorry, sorry. One is we heard earlier today
and this one's been sitting for a little while, so I apologize.
I got it right before the commission recess, and I just
want to take a moment. We get a lot of complaints, and
sometimes we don't really hear when we do things right. And so
from time to time, I'm going to try to share how much we
appreciate when we do get letters from folks saying that
we did something right. This was a letter to VIN Morello in
our utilities department. It was from a man who had reached
out. He had a problem that his water service that required his
water service to be cut off for a couple of hours. And he says
after the service trucks had left, I turned on my hose
spigot and found very dark water in the line that even
after what I thought was a reasonable amount of time,
still appeared cloudy. So I contacted your office. The
utilities office spoke to a very nice person named Danny,
who told me I would be contacted by a supervisor. Very
shortly thereafter, Supervisor Lucas Kelly was at my home and
explained to me how this condition is sometimes caused
by a valve that had not been operated in a long time. He
also offered to flush my line, and within a few minutes the
water was flowing again, perfectly clean. Supervisor
Kelly was so professional, professional, affable and such
a great representative of the city's workforce that I wanted
to share my experience with you. So we don't always hear when we
do things right, but we do appreciate our staff when
they're doing those things. And then finally, our CMD team has
won four Telly awards, the Telly Awards honor excellence
in video and television production across all screens
across the city. And I think they're coming out with a
couple of the tellys. So Nikki is our chief videographer, and
Ray Macaluso also is a very capable videographer in our CMD
team. The team won two silver trophies and two bronze
trophies for our Aerospace economic development commercial.
Our fire recruitment promotional video and the
Centennial celebration. So we certainly want to congratulate
them for some excellent work. Thank you. And that is all.
Well, that is great. I was looking to see if I could find
a great email from a resident who was appreciative of a crew
from Public Works that came timely and quickly to remove a
tree that had fallen into the roadway. It was a glowing email
that I sent and shared with with with Joe Kroll and team.
But certainly we hear a lot of good things too. So I know
sometimes we all get the beat down and it's deflating and it
should be uplifting, and sometimes it's deflating, but
that's what we have to overcome. And also, you know, know that
we do great things. And sometimes we do hear it from
people who are so appreciative. And that helps motivate you to
keep going forward. So thank you all so much. Let's keep
rocking Hollywood. This meeting is