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Some of you may have seen me on Monday when I did my little introduction. I don't have my paper out. I figured it worked so well on Monday. Why not do it again? Or Tuesday? Sorry. Why not do it again? Maybe I should have written it down.

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I want to thank you all for being here, for being part of tonight. I want to thank everybody who's watching us as well for being with us.

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And this is a very important night.

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Your civic engagement is what makes our community stronger.

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And it is okay to have different subopinians.

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It's okay to discuss those things.

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And that is what makes our community great.

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That we're able to do that and we're able to thrive.

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Tonight we are lucky to have the Miami-Dade Women's League

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of Women's voters.

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Thank you.

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Um, we have, um, ours, their civic director, um, of engagement, if I'm not, uh, yes, I'm just a

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more voter service is here.

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I should have written this down.

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Um, it's more in Anderson.

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Thank you so much for being here.

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And again, as our moderator, we have Dr. Murphy.

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Dr. Murphy has been, um, moderating the, um, discussions.

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I don't want to call them the beta.

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I'm going to call them discussions for the past.

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last 12 years if I'm not mistaken.

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He's a professor in the University of Miami,

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and he's a strong advocate of civic engagement as well.

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So Dr. Murphy, thank you, and welcome back to Surfside.

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With that, to all of the candidates,

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thank you so much for being here,

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thank you for being engaged, thank you for caring about Surfside.

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Not only tonight, you are sacrificing your time away from family,

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But, should you be serving, there's going to be many, many, many more hours and I promise

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I am very long-winded, so our discussions will go even longer of sacrifice away.

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It does mean a lot and that you're willing to do that for the community and the town

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that you love is a great service for everyone and hopefully it's fulfilling for you as

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well.

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With that, good luck tonight, I wish you the very best in this process.

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And I welcome Ms. Morgan. Do you want to say a few words?

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Good night, everybody.

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All right. Good evening, candidates. Good evening, community. My name is Morgan Anderson and I am the

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voter services chair for the League of Women Voters of Miami-Dade County. Our president,

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Mayor Salzanteno is usually also here, but she is on a very well-deserved vacation right now.

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So I'm happy for her. So I am standing in for her, proudly. So tonight, I just want to welcome you all

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It really gives me encouragement and hope to see so many candidates running for elected office in a municipality.

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I think that we need more of that.

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And I welcome you all.

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I hope it is an enlightening and productive evening.

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So just to go over, a few of our League of Women voters best practices for candidate forums.

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I emailed you all last night, hopefully you received it.

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copy of our guidelines and I think the town clerk Sandra McCredi was so kind as to print them all out for you.

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So just quickly to go over them.

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Hopefully you all are here as yourselves. There are no substitutions or stand-ins.

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You give consent to the recording of this forum. But none of it could or should be used in a

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political advertisement. No phones, iPads or other electronic communication equipment.

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It must be turned off and not used by candidates.

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So if anyone has a phone and I've had anything,

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please go ahead, turn it off, put it away,

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just so that we're not using it during the forum.

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And the questions have been submitted ahead of time by the constituents.

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So Dr. Murphy will be giving you those questions.

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They have all been submitted by your residents

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and constituents here in Surfside.

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Just to go over the format a little bit of the forum,

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candidates will be introduced by the moderator.

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So we will go for your opening statements in order alphabetically.

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Perfect. I see you all are sitting in alphabetical order already.

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So you'll have three minutes for your opening statement.

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And then when you see your closing statement,

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that will also be three minutes and we'll go in reverse alphabetical order.

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So when you are asked a question,

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you will have 90 seconds to answer and 30 seconds for a rebuttal.

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If you're mentioned by name, by another candidate, but typically it's just 90 seconds to answer the question.

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Myself and my colleague at the league, Luis, our membership chair and treasurer, he will be also keeping time.

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So I wanted to show you, you can keep an eye on us.

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We will be holding up these cards and staring you deeply in the eye when you have one minute of your 90 seconds.

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When you have 30 seconds, when you have 15, and when time is up, all right?

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So please remember that this is, as the town manager said, we don't like to call it a debate.

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It is a forum, is it a discussion?

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So we will be speaking one at a time, however, if you are called on by name, by another candidate,

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you do have 30 seconds to respond, but we will let you know when that 30 seconds has

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so that we can all speak just one at a time.

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All right, so with that, welcome again to the candidates and the community.

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I'm happy to be here and welcome to our moderator.

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Very good to pleasure to be here tonight.

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And I'll do everything in order as stated.

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I want to let you know though, you do have 90 seconds to answer questions.

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Don't feel obligated to use the entire 90 seconds.

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You know, the residents have given a lot of questions here and you know, just simple math tells us if we do this we're only going to have two or three questions

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So let's let's be quick in your responses and and also I really hope you can avoid name checking your opponent

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You know during this process because it just gives them 30 seconds and then I have to keep track of who's name checking who

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And it's just, you know, let's let's just answer the questions and leave leave that for another day.

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It's the best way to move through this. So we're just going to start right now.

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And we're going to start with our opening statements.

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Ms. Fedmer away.

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Ben McGee.

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Sorry.

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Okay.

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Correction.

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That was loud.

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Wait, mate, I didn't start yet. Wait.

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Okay.

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Good evening everyone.

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first I want to thank God for this moment. I also want to thank my

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support family and the League of Women voters. My name is Donna Diana Ben

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Mergey and I'm running for Southside Commissioner. I was

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Born in Caracas, Venezuela, where I grew up in a warm and stable home with loving parents who taught me the importance of family, respect and helping others.

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I was born with a birth defect, I'm blind for my left eye, but then never stopped me from achieving success in life. I learned early life that challenges can make you stronger and overcome anything.

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My family also raised me in a home, in a Jewish home with strong values of community, responsibility, and giving back.

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Public service has always inspired me.

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My grandfather, Jose Alfon, was mayor of a little town in Spain, Seuta, and he was killed defending democracy.

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his courage and commitment to standing up but what is right was always been a power of

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example for me. While living in Caracas, I was always involved in social work and

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community activities. I was also a painter back in the days and I often donated my artwork

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to institutions so they could auction it during their annual events to raise money for

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important causes. After high school, I spent a year in England, and then returned back to Venezuela,

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where I began my career. I started languages with a major in business in University of

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Metropolitana de Caracas. After graduating, I got married and moved to Miami. My husband Isaac was

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finishing law school at UM, and soon after we already had two babies. We were looking for a wonderful

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place to raise our children. And we know that surset was the place we wanted to call home.

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Slowly, many of our dear friends moved here as well and together we raised our children in this

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beautiful town going to be changing the parks, you know, joining the town activities.

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Professionally, I spent many years as office manager at my husband's law firm. And then later on,

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owned and managed a dental office where I handled all the financing, recruiting personnel, etc.

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Most importantly, I am a proud mother of seven kids, raising a large family, was not an easy task,

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but it taught me patient love and compassion. Some of the things I want to focus,

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They've elected our traffic issues, public safety, improved lighting, and promote community

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events.

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Thank you so much for this time.

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Very good.

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Thank you, Ms. Ben Margie.

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Mr. Bordugo.

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Good evening, everyone.

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And thank you for bringing you here tonight.

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My name is Jonathan Bordugo.

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And the surf site has been part of my life for a long time.

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I first lived here in the 90s with my parents and about 12 years ago my family and I chose to return

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to make Surfside our home again. Like many families, we chose Surfside because of its unique character.

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A small coastal town where neighbors know each other, kids ride their bikes in the streets,

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and you can walk to the beach or to the shops while still feeling that strong sense of community.

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Professionally, my background is in technology and engineering where I've spent years solving complex problems.

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Like many people in Miami and in Florida and in general, I also work in real estate and property management for my family's portfolio.

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But my strength has always been applying a technical and practical approach to solving challenges.

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Over the past 12 years, I've seen suicide grow and evolve.

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However, growth always comes with important challenges like traffic, pedestrian safety,

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responsible development, budgeting, and trying to preserve the character that attract

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all of us here in the first place.

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I'm running because I care deeply about this community and I believe my experience, my background,

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and my commitment to surf site, can help guide our town forward while protecting what makes it special.

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I'm looking forward to a thoughtful and respectful discussion here tonight.

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Thank you all.

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There you go.

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Mr. Belomant, could I?

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All right, good evening, everybody.

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I just want to say I want to acknowledge a very fine line-up of candidates here tonight,

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like wish we can just have all eight of us on the commission,

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making an eight-man commission call it a day.

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Unfortunately, we got to do this, but we'll get through it. Anyway, my name is William Blumencrantz.

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I was born and raised here in Surfside. My parents bought a home on Dickens App. I'm sorry

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on Emerson Avenue. I live on Dickens. For $22,500 in 1956, I spent many childhood afternoons

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Fishing under the old wooden bridge that connects Surfside with Biscayah, with Biscayah.

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So other than that, I spent many days shopping on Harding Avenue with my parents.

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There was no traffic in Surfside when I grew up, and I'll tell you why.

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Because we had a local shoe store where floor shine where my parents bought me shoes

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We had a local 5 and 10 where we got our toys

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We had a local hardware store where we got our hardware and if we had time, we got a milkshake and children's

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drugstore

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in the evening

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The hot spot to eat dinner was Denny's New York.

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I'm sorry, not Denny's Denny's, got Denny's on my mind.

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Denny's New York style, Deli, which was the closest thing we had to a kosher restaurant

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at that time.

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There were no kosher facilities anywhere in Surfside.

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So we've come a long way since then.

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The town has changed a lot and I've lived through it all.

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My mother had a office, a travel agency on Harding Avenue.

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She conducted tours all over the world, and I was fortunate enough to accompany her

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in over 25 countries throughout the world.

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I spent weeks in India.

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I spent weeks in a safari in Africa.

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I was in the back country of New Guinea.

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I was in Australia.

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All through Europe, almost every country in Central and South America, and every trip I took,

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the best part of it was coming back to Surfside, because seeing these other countries

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throughout the world made me really, really realize what a good life we had here.

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And I've come to appreciate this town in a special way, so I'm here to continue that.

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I am retired. I worked 39 years at UPS. I have all the time in the world to devote to this town.

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And to put in as much time as possible, we need it. Thank you.

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Thank you. Thank you, sir.

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Miss Kenzer.

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Thank you. My name is Dr. Austin Kinzer, and like all the people up here, I am running for Commissioner of Surfside.

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I want to thank the League of Women's Voters, all of you who have given your time to run, and all of you who are here tonight and at home watching us.

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I came by my decision to run honestly, and without a hidden agenda. I know that this job only pays a dollar a year,

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And in my mind, that's all there is largely ceremonial.

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I'm a Life Log Surfside resident and have a unique perspective on our amazing town.

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A Kinser has lived in Surfside for the past 70 years.

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I'm so lucky to have the guidance of a former mayor,

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who also gave 22 years of public service to the town.

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I linked to think my father Mitchell Kinser.

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He's taught me more.

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All right, getting a little motion on, thank you, more than I can ever imagine.

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Like him, I'm not anti-development, just anti-density.

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I believe that our zoning is what keeps our small town small.

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I love my neighbors, I love you all, but I really don't want you on top of me, and I really

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don't want you handing me a tissue late at night when I sneeze.

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The town is already dealing with the density issue forced on us by our neighboring municipalities.

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I'm hoping to prevent that happening in the form of a greedy developer who only has

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profit in minds. There is no way that the post office property will be affordable housing.

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It will also take away parking and change the character of our downtown district.

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I know that most of you are concerned with the traffic and the flooding.

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And I've come to that conclusion by talking to you all my fellow residents, I don't have all the answers.

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But I do have a problem solving mentality and these are problems that I as well as you once solved.

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There is also no reason that our resiliency committee had to be brought back.

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It should not have been gone rid of to begin with.

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Especially if one understands that our town will be under water in our lifetimes.

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We are one storm during a king tied away from seeing that we have to do something more for flooding and distributing stormwater.

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The Abbott Avenue Training Project is a good start.

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I also want to say that if developers want to build in Surfside, they need to play by our rules.

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They need to follow our zoning.

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I know that the term legacy resident has been used negatively to describe people like me.

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And I believe that those doing that, don't want those of us who speak up about zero

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lot homes to speak up, they want to silence.

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If elected, I will do everything in my power to prevent serve side from becoming like our

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neighboring municipalities.

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I have no interest for making money from my public service and do not pander for to those

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who do.

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This goes from my professional life as well.

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As a person whose career is a nonprofit development, I deal with donors on a daily basis.

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I understand fiscal responsibility,

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complete transparency and listening.

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I hope you will give me a chance.

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For Lansman for three minutes.

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Good evening, everyone.

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Thank you, first to the League of Women Voters,

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our moderator, Dr. Murphy, our incredible town staff,

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and to the residents of Surfside here in Chambers

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and watching from home.

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Many of you know me as your neighbor

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and from my years of service to the town of Surfside.

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My name is Fred Lansvin, Surfside resident for 16 plus years, husband and father of two daughters both now in college.

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I've been a member of the Downtown Vision Advisory Committee, the Vice Chair of the Planning and Zoning Board, and a commissioner from 22 to 24.

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I asked for your vote to once again serve our town.

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I believe that experience truly matters.

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There is no on-the-job training.

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My career has been in corporate talent acquisition.

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I've also been an entrepreneur owning an operating restaurant.

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I understand customer service,

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how to listen, and care about others.

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Being a commissioner requires time,

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relationship building,

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the ability to debate,

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and make the best possible decisions for all of our residents.

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Our town continues to face challenges, infrastructure, traffic, parking, the size of our single

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family homes, assessments and the reservations for our condo owners, taxes, pending lawsuits,

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and the live local act to name a few.

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During this term, we must break round and build a lasting memorial to the 98 souls that

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we lost.

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I do not have all the answers, but pledge to work with other members of the commission,

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our town manager, our town attorney, to keep Surfside moving forward while always keeping

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an eye to the past.

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Our town is resilient and remains a unique on-play within Miami.

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I will fight to keep it that way.

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I support your rights, public safety, our dedicated police department, our town employees,

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all of our businesses, and of course all of our residents.

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I look forward to answering your questions.

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Thank you.

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There you go.

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Mr. Devon, good

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evening, everyone, and thank you for being here.

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When I started preparing for these speeches, I began with what I thought was the introduction.

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Just to then realize that it was actually the ending.

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It's not easy to introduce your ideas yourself in a way that doesn't sound like a resume or a series of promises.

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So I wanted to do something different.

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And start by talking about my neighbors first.

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I've had a lengthy conversation with Jared on traffic through my first day of

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chemistry.

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Then David was pretty concerned about over development.

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Maria wanted to discuss street safety.

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And then it was fascinated by the stories of the residents that have been here for 30, 40,

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50 years back to William's point, and more

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spent here in

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search side with so many stories about how the town has changed, but

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what moved me was that virtually all of them were happy to be here and

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were not nostalgic about a world long gone.

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There is a lot of wisdom in

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all this. If there is one constant in this world, is that it constantly

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changes. We can't stop that. But we can absolutely manage these changes.

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We can be smart about them. We can find ways to navigate these challenges, while we preserve

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society's character and we stop over development, we manage our traffic, we're rigorous about

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our budget and we protect our environment. That's what I think I can help. I'm a civil professional

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engineer and I've worked around the world, designing and building bridges, highways and ports. I know

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what it means to deliver a project ahead of time and under budget.

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And I know that it takes a village to do that.

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Teamwork and leadership are essential.

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And my free time, I'm a volunteer as well.

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I started yoga for meditation and non-profit that works with teens and adults

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to promote a flexible body, a clear mind, and a compassionate heart.

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With a ton of research, I served on the sustainability and resiliency board

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and on the planning and zoning board.

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But I'm not here on the day as alone.

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I'm grateful for the support of my wife Gloria, my two kids, Naima, and Ricardo, and we also have

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a little rock band going on with them by the way.

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And of all my friends who have been so generous and supportive during what I never imagined

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would be such an intense effort that I have actually to stop here while I see all these

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blue shirts before I share the tear.

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So thank you very much.

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Looking forward to this conversation.

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Very good.

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Mr. Vildas, thank you.

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Thank you, thank you, Dr. Murphy,

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and thanks to the League of Women Voters.

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I want to say thank you as well to our town staff

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who made not just this event possible,

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but to especially to Sandra McCredi,

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our clerk and her wonderful staff

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for making this whole campaign run so smoothly.

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I'm very grateful for that.

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Like my colleague here on the day as Mr. Blumencrantz,

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I want to begin by sort of acknowledging

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and thanking my fellow candidates.

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Two of you, I met only recently on the campaign trail.

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That's Mr. Weingaard and Mr. Berdugo.

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But the others have been friends for a long time.

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And I share the feeling that it would be nice

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if we could all be commissioners together.

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We did that with the youth council.

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I want to especially acknowledge Ms. Ben Merge.

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Our families have lived across the street

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from each other on Fraud Avenue for almost a quarter century.

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She knew my dear departed parents.

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I know her husband and her grandkids.

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And it's just, you know, it's really moving to see neighbors here working together for

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the good of the community and glad that we can be part of that together.

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My name is Gerardo Velvastiguy, I'm the only incumbent commissioner here running for

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a commissioner again.

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And so many of you may know me from my work on the town before.

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As I said before, I'm here with a group of wonderful people and that's going to make things

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challenging for you the voters, because usually in a sort of side of the election there's

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one or two meanies that you can cross off your list.

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This time, it's not gonna be that easy.

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These are all good people

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and they're all good people who love the town.

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So when you make your choice at the ballot,

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what you're gonna have to ask yourself is,

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what's necessary to turn personal goodness

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into political goodness?

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What are the traits that are required?

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I think that in addition to being a good person,

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you need to have other traits.

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You need to have an even temper.

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You need to be a little bit thick skined.

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You need to be honest.

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and you need to have the courage to speak truth to power.

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You need to have knowledge about the town and about law and government,

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and you need to have experience.

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And I'll say that I think that I have those traits,

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and I think I've shown them in my time as a commissioner.

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I believe, therefore, that I should be among your top four choices.

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And I want to give a few reasons for that.

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First of all,

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and to begin,

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I think that in my time as a commissioner,

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I've modeled what a better politics for Surfside can be.

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When I first ran for office in 2024, I said, I want to show you that Surfside politics

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can be better, and in my time on this day, as a member of the commission, I have tried

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to always be informed, thoughtful, honest, respectful, and compassionate.

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When things got heated emotionally and they did, I tried to stay calm.

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And I'm very proud of the fact that after two years on the commission, I've been endorsed

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by all of my fellow commissioners for reelection.

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That's not an easy thing to do.

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Many of our former commissions have had bad breakups, and you can think of some in the past.

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But even though those commissioners disagreed with me, and I cast a great many dissenting

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votes, because I was an independent voice on the commission, they still stood by me.

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And I think that says a lot about what I can do as a politician.

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Thank you.

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Very good.

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Thank you.

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Mr. Wine guy, please.

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Good evening, everyone.

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My name is David Weingaat, and I'm running to serve you on the next town commission.

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Before we get started, my thoughts and prayers are with the six fallen service members and their families.

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It is a stark reminder of the ultimate price for safety and security.

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With that said, thank you, Dr. Murphy, the League of Women Voters of Miami-Dade County,

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and to the town of service side for sponsoring tonight's forum,

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and giving us this vital opportunity to connect to every current and former elected official

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for your dedication that shaped our special home

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to each community member who submitted questions attended

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or is watching, your interest means everything.

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As caring neighbors like you keep

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surf side special and vibrant.

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And to my fellow candidates for stepping out,

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it would be my honor to work with you on a unified

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positive, get it on commission,

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putting surf side first.

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The camaraderie here tonight is incredible

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and yeah, I second that motion of all eight.

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So let's go with that.

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But for those of us that have not yet met,

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I'm a proud husband to Rifca, right here on the crowd,

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and incredible mom of our four children.

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It's V, Elkhanon, Tehila, and Yuhuta.

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We're grateful for our 19 plus years together.

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Every day is a blessing.

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Rifca's an avid runner, completing local marathons

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00:28:33,490 --> 00:28:35,210
in New York City and soon orange county.

402
00:28:35,750 --> 00:28:38,070
She loves our beautiful walking path as do I.

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I've met many of you there, and on our beaches,

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and I'll fight to protect them.

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My background is in community service,

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founding two resource organizations in Maryland,

407
00:28:48,610 --> 00:28:50,290
partnering with public safety and EMS

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at all levels, local state and federal,

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while building businesses.

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Over 16 years, I've led thousands of security officers

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00:28:57,070 --> 00:28:59,790
to see level executives across 14 states

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in a highly, tightly regulated industry,

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emphasizing great people,

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processes, compliance, and responsive service.

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Giving back is core to our family values.

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00:29:09,950 --> 00:29:15,710
I've served on nonprofit boards, HOAs, now currently on the Solumar condo association,

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unifying members to find compromise and to deliver it to the community.

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And that's why I'm running to keep Surfside a world-class town with A-level services

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00:29:26,990 --> 00:29:29,030
and unparalleled quality of life.

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My priorities, safety, accountability, results will keep us safe, transparent, and progressing

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forward.

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00:29:35,810 --> 00:29:37,690
Thank you so much for being here.

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I look forward to your questions and earning your vote.

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Let's move to Surfside Forward together.

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00:29:43,070 --> 00:29:43,510
We're good.

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We're going to start the first round of questions on this end with Ms. Ben McGree, and the question

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00:29:53,110 --> 00:29:59,650
is, written as this, as Surfsideers, we all have the same goals, peace with our neighbors.

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00:30:00,000 --> 00:30:06,960
Safety for our children, less traffic, more fun. What would you do to bridge the divides and bring

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00:30:06,960 --> 00:30:11,120
the community together in ways that have never been tried before?

430
00:30:14,860 --> 00:30:18,160
Hello, yes. That's a great question.

431
00:30:19,620 --> 00:30:27,000
And I actually had an initiative, because I stand for unity. I actually had an initiative and I

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00:30:27,000 --> 00:30:33,760
Called my all my candidates and I told them you know what I feel there is like a division

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00:30:33,760 --> 00:30:39,080
There's tension in these elections and I don't like it and I don't like the fact of like oh

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You're stand with here and I stand with I don't like that. So I invited all of them and I asked them please

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Bring each one

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00:30:47,560 --> 00:30:51,680
Your sign and I will place it on my front yard

437
00:30:51,680 --> 00:30:53,500
So I can show

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something very simple, unity. I stand for a unified community and I will do my best to create

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00:31:02,440 --> 00:31:06,920
events to unify the community. Thank you.

440
00:31:07,000 --> 00:31:08,140
Very good.

441
00:31:09,120 --> 00:31:10,240
Thank you, Mr. Burdovo.

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00:31:12,820 --> 00:31:18,860
So I think one thing that has been missing lightly, it's making sure that people feel

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heard. A lot of discussions in

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00:31:21,840 --> 00:31:26,120
CERCIDES lately have been became a very

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00:31:26,120 --> 00:31:29,340
tense. The realities that CERCIDES is a

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00:31:29,340 --> 00:31:32,220
small town. It's it's made of people from

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00:31:32,220 --> 00:31:36,520
different backgrounds and it's a

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00:31:36,520 --> 00:31:38,200
personality. I've been I've been comfortable

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00:31:39,180 --> 00:31:42,520
navigating this different cultures. But it's

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00:31:42,520 --> 00:31:44,560
something that's been part of my life for

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00:31:44,560 --> 00:31:47,400
a long time and I understand that these

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00:31:47,400 --> 00:31:53,300
tense communications between people. It's simply because of misunderstanding, and because

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00:31:53,300 --> 00:32:00,080
people are not heard. When you step back, most residents actually want the same basic things.

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It's a safe town with respectful conversation and decisions that make sense for the community.

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I think if we keep that in mind and focus on listening to each other a little more, we'll

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and even better position that we are now.

457
00:32:16,420 --> 00:32:17,580
Thank you.

458
00:32:17,740 --> 00:32:18,800
Very good.

459
00:32:19,200 --> 00:32:19,540
Thank you.

460
00:32:19,600 --> 00:32:20,320
Hello and cross.

461
00:32:21,900 --> 00:32:22,460
Fabric.

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00:32:23,320 --> 00:32:27,300
As far as an event for surf side to bring people together,

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00:32:27,860 --> 00:32:31,440
I think the town already does a very good job of that.

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00:32:31,660 --> 00:32:34,040
But I take that question to another level,

465
00:32:34,040 --> 00:32:36,740
because I think it's between it's really

466
00:32:36,740 --> 00:32:40,220
yourself, personally, to bring the town together.

467
00:32:40,220 --> 00:32:48,240
My wife and I, we take walks through Surfside every single night for over an hour and every

468
00:32:48,240 --> 00:32:53,020
neighbor, we pass, we say hello, whether they say hello first or not.

469
00:32:53,540 --> 00:32:59,320
And I think that general feeling, if we can get everybody or more people on board to get

470
00:32:59,320 --> 00:33:05,480
out at night and share their stories or their feelings with other people in the neighborhood,

471
00:33:05,480 --> 00:33:12,920
that in itself will slowly bring our neighborhood together. Thank you. Very good. This

472
00:33:12,920 --> 00:33:13,300
canzer.

473
00:33:18,000 --> 00:33:24,640
Thank you. So, I do agree that town does a very good job but having grown

474
00:33:24,640 --> 00:33:31,680
up in this town, there is division like I've never seen before and I think that we need

475
00:33:31,680 --> 00:33:36,620
to strive to remember that we are all neighbors at the end of the day and all of our voices

476
00:33:36,620 --> 00:33:44,280
do need to be heard. I think that there is a fear still of speaking at meetings because people

477
00:33:44,280 --> 00:33:52,080
want to be heard and they have been silenced. I do also believe that I do still see kids playing

478
00:33:52,080 --> 00:33:55,820
but they're still division. I played with the whole neighborhood, whether I went to school at

479
00:33:55,820 --> 00:34:05,060
them or not. We need to say hi to our neighbors, we need to meet our neighbors. I hate to use my

480
00:34:06,560 --> 00:34:12,580
You know, I was at a meeting, a professional meeting, and somebody was like, oh, your dad is the guy who gives me bananas.

481
00:34:14,280 --> 00:34:15,120
Things like that.

482
00:34:15,500 --> 00:34:22,100
I think, especially when we're so glued to technology, we need to just go out and meet our neighbors.

483
00:34:22,920 --> 00:34:23,780
Very good.

484
00:34:24,120 --> 00:34:24,840
Thank you.

485
00:34:24,920 --> 00:34:25,440
Mr. Lanzo.

486
00:34:29,480 --> 00:34:30,700
Thank you for that question.

487
00:34:32,120 --> 00:34:37,300
And again, not to repeat the same information that preceded me.

488
00:34:37,300 --> 00:34:43,460
Yes, education, discussion, events, people getting together, but I'll take it to a different

489
00:34:43,460 --> 00:34:43,800
level.

490
00:34:44,380 --> 00:34:45,640
What can the commission do?

491
00:34:45,640 --> 00:34:49,640
What can I as a commissioner do to help bridge this, to help bring us together?

492
00:34:50,500 --> 00:34:55,260
I'm a strong advocate of a board that was put together during this current commission that

493
00:34:55,260 --> 00:35:00,100
Jerry's actually, I believe, the representative from the commission, it's the community

494
00:35:00,100 --> 00:35:01,180
relations board.

495
00:35:01,800 --> 00:35:13,880
That board, and I will say I was on that board for a minute until I was not on that board and there's a story behind that, but I'll leave that to other discussions.

496
00:35:15,060 --> 00:35:27,640
That board has an opportunity and I want to make sure that we continue that board into the next term and give it more of a mandate to actually create discussions, events, lectures,

497
00:35:27,640 --> 00:35:31,580
where we can bring people of different backgrounds together,

498
00:35:31,660 --> 00:35:33,520
different parts of our community together,

499
00:35:34,120 --> 00:35:36,880
and listen and listen and listen to each other.

500
00:35:37,420 --> 00:35:38,020
Thank you.

501
00:35:38,120 --> 00:35:39,480
Great. Thank you, Mr. Landon.

502
00:35:40,820 --> 00:35:41,480
Mr. Kervani.

503
00:35:42,540 --> 00:35:45,020
Yeah, sure. So, what first of all,

504
00:35:45,060 --> 00:35:46,460
you know, what the vision usually comes,

505
00:35:46,780 --> 00:35:48,340
the vision is tied to drama.

506
00:35:48,580 --> 00:35:50,800
My brain is like a struggle process,

507
00:35:51,120 --> 00:35:52,800
drama because maybe I guess I'm an engineer,

508
00:35:53,100 --> 00:35:54,580
so I don't deal well with drama.

509
00:35:54,580 --> 00:36:12,100
So, on the other side, though, I'm always being active in the community, especially with a non-profit, for example, trying to bring people together, and even teaching techniques to help people develop compassion, some very sensitive to that.

510
00:36:12,980 --> 00:36:22,800
So, I think that, you know, the way I see this is like when you build a project, when you build a project you have different stakeholders, you have people that want something, some other people want something else.

511
00:36:23,860 --> 00:36:31,180
So with my, I have a lot of experience trying to focus everybody on common goals.

512
00:36:31,620 --> 00:36:33,840
I think, and the common goal is the quality of life.

513
00:36:34,000 --> 00:36:35,440
We all want quality of life here.

514
00:36:35,720 --> 00:36:37,420
We all want to feel good about our time.

515
00:36:38,360 --> 00:36:43,680
So, and there's a few ways that we can do that with cultural events, as Fred was mentioning,

516
00:36:45,500 --> 00:36:51,580
and involving our youth, with the youth council, they have good energy that can bridge

517
00:36:51,580 --> 00:36:56,740
the gap sometimes also with people with different ideas, so yeah, thank you.

518
00:36:56,940 --> 00:36:59,820
Very good. Mr.ville does agree.

519
00:37:01,040 --> 00:37:05,420
Yeah, I want to thank Mr. Landsman for mentioning me in a positive way, because the community

520
00:37:05,420 --> 00:37:11,540
relations board is one of my main initiatives for addressing exactly this problem. It came from a suggestion of

521
00:37:11,540 --> 00:37:14,920
Dr. Murphy's at the debate last time. I don't know if he remembers it, but I sure did.

522
00:37:15,480 --> 00:37:20,440
And the idea behind that board was, was to create events that aren't like the tourist board

523
00:37:20,440 --> 00:37:24,120
events or the Parks and Rec events, but that really are focused on building community.

524
00:37:24,560 --> 00:37:28,280
And we've done wonderful things like the pizza and palm fronds event before a suit coat.

525
00:37:28,540 --> 00:37:29,980
We recently did a book club.

526
00:37:31,280 --> 00:37:36,460
Celebrating a surf site author who had written a novel recently, and I want to continue the work of that board.

527
00:37:36,680 --> 00:37:41,660
What Mr. Lenspin was referring to is that originally I had structured the board in such a way that it was designed.

528
00:37:42,400 --> 00:37:47,860
The commission would appoint five people, and then they would appoint four more to try to get the whole community represented.

529
00:37:48,460 --> 00:37:52,460
Unfortunately, the commission later overwrote me on that, but I would like to pursue that vision again.

530
00:37:52,460 --> 00:37:57,680
If you look at my campaign materials, I talk there about the way in which I have tried to bring

531
00:37:57,680 --> 00:37:59,280
something special to the town.

532
00:38:00,180 --> 00:38:03,900
And I've really gone out of my way to try to find different ways of bringing us together.

533
00:38:04,300 --> 00:38:09,200
I couldn't believe that our surf site has a Nobel Prize winner in literature from 1978,

534
00:38:09,520 --> 00:38:11,120
who's primary language was Yiddish.

535
00:38:11,580 --> 00:38:13,540
And we never celebrate Isaac Bershev, a singer.

536
00:38:13,640 --> 00:38:16,220
So I created an event called Singer Fest.

537
00:38:16,340 --> 00:38:20,640
I hope it's the first of many on-or-airing this great surf site, or he's like the ultimate

538
00:38:20,640 --> 00:38:21,560
legacy resident.

539
00:38:21,560 --> 00:38:24,240
And I think he's a real opportunity to unite the community.

540
00:38:25,060 --> 00:38:29,320
I'll say lastly, I think one way to unite the community is with the campaigns that we run.

541
00:38:29,820 --> 00:38:33,700
And one of the biggest threats to community unity is this dark money pack that I hope

542
00:38:33,700 --> 00:38:37,580
we'll talk about tonight, and I think we can unify the community by repudiating what that

543
00:38:37,580 --> 00:38:38,440
pack is doing.

544
00:38:38,940 --> 00:38:39,200
Okay, no.

545
00:38:43,680 --> 00:38:45,000
Mr. Wang, that's good.

546
00:38:46,200 --> 00:38:46,980
Thank you.

547
00:38:47,160 --> 00:38:48,340
This is a most important question.

548
00:38:48,460 --> 00:38:50,740
It ultimately so much can be accomplished when we have unity.

549
00:38:50,740 --> 00:38:56,200
My response is going to be devoted to my dad of us, a memory. His name was Shalom, which means peace.

550
00:38:57,940 --> 00:39:02,000
He loved all, and always extended in hand, and the smile to a neighbor.

551
00:39:03,080 --> 00:39:08,060
He couldn't understand when self-checkouts were introduced to a store. He said, why would you not want to speak to a person?

552
00:39:08,460 --> 00:39:11,620
When we went through a toll booth, he chose to go to the human occupied.

553
00:39:12,360 --> 00:39:17,600
The toll booth first is the easy pass. He said, why would you not want another opportunity to connect with another human?

554
00:39:17,600 --> 00:39:20,860
So, we need to encourage dialogue and find compromise.

555
00:39:22,140 --> 00:39:25,180
We need more listening, my dad advocated for active listening.

556
00:39:26,880 --> 00:39:32,280
He can, again, he can understand why people would want to find difference rather than finding common ground.

557
00:39:33,120 --> 00:39:40,040
So, while we may have differences in opinion, we all smile at the same shape and let's extend the smile to a neighbor and bring our community together.

558
00:39:40,320 --> 00:39:42,040
It's her side's beautiful. Let's keep it that way.

559
00:39:42,040 --> 00:39:43,280
Good.

560
00:39:46,300 --> 00:39:51,020
This next question is very specific. We're going to begin with Mr. Burdugo for

561
00:39:51,020 --> 00:39:56,280
this round. I'm going to read it to you as written. In order to cut down on double

562
00:39:56,280 --> 00:40:02,760
parking and sidewalk cafe congestion, would you support a police patrol or code enforcement

563
00:40:02,760 --> 00:40:10,420
officer to walk harding avenues business district around 96 to 90 district during lunch and dinner

564
00:40:10,420 --> 00:40:11,000
hours?

565
00:40:12,320 --> 00:40:18,760
Well, that's going to be very easy to answer, and a short answer is absolutely, absolutely.

566
00:40:19,240 --> 00:40:24,240
It's very getting too much traffic, it's creating a mess, and this is unacceptable.

567
00:40:25,520 --> 00:40:26,740
Okay, Mr. Blowing Crunch.

568
00:40:29,320 --> 00:40:35,080
Okay, that's something that I have seen firsthand many, many times walking through this first side.

569
00:40:35,320 --> 00:40:36,860
It can be very aggravating.

570
00:40:37,740 --> 00:40:45,220
Fortunately, most of the double-parkers just drop people off her people, pick people up and

571
00:40:45,220 --> 00:40:51,740
from what I understand even if the police are the or the parking authority is there in person.

572
00:40:52,160 --> 00:40:53,380
They give them a little leeway.

573
00:40:53,700 --> 00:40:57,660
If you can get out of there in less than a minute, they let you go.

574
00:40:58,760 --> 00:41:04,840
So it's really a matter of how much we want to enforce it and how strict we want to become.

575
00:41:04,840 --> 00:41:19,640
If you put someone there all day, which might not be a bad idea, do they run after a car that's only going to be there 30 seconds and give them a ticket or do they follow the same system they already have.

576
00:41:20,180 --> 00:41:22,820
So that's a complicated question answer.

577
00:41:23,120 --> 00:41:31,020
So even if someone is there, it may not be a sure fire way of keeping people from stopping.

578
00:41:31,700 --> 00:41:32,560
Thank you.

579
00:41:32,560 --> 00:41:34,460
All right, Ms. Kendler.

580
00:41:37,600 --> 00:41:38,080
Thank you.

581
00:41:38,440 --> 00:41:42,280
I seem to remember at one point we did have a civilian.

582
00:41:43,120 --> 00:41:47,680
I believe his name is Mr. Spanger, but I could have messed that up.

583
00:41:48,260 --> 00:41:51,140
There is no reason for the double parking.

584
00:41:51,340 --> 00:41:53,680
I live with somebody who has limited mobility.

585
00:41:55,540 --> 00:41:57,680
We, you know, we work around it.

586
00:41:57,760 --> 00:41:59,160
There are handicap spots.

587
00:41:59,160 --> 00:42:10,160
I, honestly, when hurting is down to one lane because there are million Amazon trucks and a million UPS trucks, why aren't they using the alleys?

588
00:42:11,080 --> 00:42:15,520
Why are deliveries not being done at times before opening and closing?

589
00:42:16,120 --> 00:42:21,200
I worked at a Starbucks on South Beach and we had to be there at 7 a.m. on a Sunday to get our delivery.

590
00:42:22,000 --> 00:42:28,400
There are ways to work around this so that even with the traffic problems we have that we aren't creating more.

591
00:42:28,400 --> 00:42:33,800
I am open to ideas, I am not a traffic engineer, but there are ways to solve this, and it

592
00:42:33,800 --> 00:42:36,660
may have civilians walking around and educating.

593
00:42:38,040 --> 00:42:39,380
Very good. Mr. Lanza,

594
00:42:42,950 --> 00:42:46,790
the simple answer is yes of course, and frankly, during the

595
00:42:46,790 --> 00:42:51,430
commission I served on, we actually allocated additional resources, additional budget to

596
00:42:51,430 --> 00:42:56,890
the police department to hire public service aids. The intent was to have one, if not two,

597
00:42:56,890 --> 00:43:02,070
controlling downtown, one if not two on our beaches as well, to enhance public safety,

598
00:43:02,330 --> 00:43:08,870
public security, and to help move traffic, et cetera. I frankly don't know what's happened to

599
00:43:08,870 --> 00:43:13,110
those resources. I don't see them in downtown. I don't see them on the beaches. So absolutely,

600
00:43:13,310 --> 00:43:19,230
we need to encourage and add additional resources funding to the police department to bring in

601
00:43:19,230 --> 00:43:24,790
more officers for a lot of reasons, but including people downtown to help remediate the traffic,

602
00:43:24,790 --> 00:43:29,670
help people find where they need to go, be an ambassador to the town of CERCID for our visitors,

603
00:43:29,950 --> 00:43:30,730
and of course our residents.

604
00:43:32,190 --> 00:43:33,010
Very good.

605
00:43:33,550 --> 00:43:34,290
Mr. Kravani?

606
00:43:34,890 --> 00:43:42,470
Yeah, so the question is, yes, somewhat complicated, because it's tied to budget and it's tied

607
00:43:42,470 --> 00:43:52,610
to a structural issues, that's what Johnson was also talking about, so the idea, the goal

608
00:43:52,610 --> 00:44:00,610
is to avoid this, so the goal is absolutely to make sure that traffic flows on college because

609
00:44:00,610 --> 00:44:05,720
if it doesn't flow and on harding, because if it doesn't flow on these two arteries, then

610
00:44:06,090 --> 00:44:10,730
we're going to have an increase in the cut-through traffic, so that's why it's important.

611
00:44:12,790 --> 00:44:22,050
I think that we have absolutely to look at possibly having an officer, but yeah, it's like a

612
00:44:22,050 --> 00:44:27,290
So you have someone that goes there, tells you to live, and then yeah, one main, I'm going to leave.

613
00:44:27,450 --> 00:44:31,510
Then maybe somebody else is going to stop. So we have to see how effective this could be.

614
00:44:32,050 --> 00:44:39,730
As opposed to maybe other other solutions that could be implemented.

615
00:44:40,490 --> 00:44:52,030
And I mentioned traffic because the idea is essentially to see how parking can be implemented.

616
00:44:52,030 --> 00:44:59,970
and especially considering this on-street parking that creates the double parking as well.

617
00:45:00,000 --> 00:45:07,600
Well, and the people that goes in and out, there's solutions that need to be evaluated, I think.

618
00:45:08,080 --> 00:45:11,020
Here we go. Thank you, Mr. Giovanni. Mr. Bergassadri.

619
00:45:12,400 --> 00:45:17,700
So, in a way, there's an easy answer, which is of course we need to do something about double parking.

620
00:45:17,820 --> 00:45:26,040
I want to say that I think Chief Press does do something about double parking, but there's a harder answer about this, which is to really,

621
00:45:26,040 --> 00:45:28,800
I want everyone to appreciate what's involved when you say,

622
00:45:28,800 --> 00:45:30,600
can the police do this or that?

623
00:45:31,220 --> 00:45:35,360
At any given moment in Surfside, we may have only two or three police officers in the entire town.

624
00:45:35,940 --> 00:45:42,980
So if we dedicate an officer to this issue, that significantly limits the sort of public safety

625
00:45:42,980 --> 00:45:43,960
elsewhere in the town.

626
00:45:44,020 --> 00:45:49,440
So we can do occasional sort of organized traffic interventions, you know, where you try to get

627
00:45:49,440 --> 00:45:51,220
the word out that we're serious about this.

628
00:45:51,220 --> 00:45:54,220
But it is a hard thing to do on a regular basis.

629
00:45:54,480 --> 00:46:02,880
A civilian sort of community service aid or something who's on the sidewalk would have some difficulty pulling people over who are in the flow of traffic.

630
00:46:03,020 --> 00:46:04,580
And so it's not all that easy.

631
00:46:04,940 --> 00:46:05,880
However, it can be done.

632
00:46:06,060 --> 00:46:09,200
I'm just saying that to kind of let people know what's at stake here.

633
00:46:09,400 --> 00:46:16,220
Earlier this week, I attended a meeting at Bay Harbor Islands with police chiefs from the three towns and elected officials from the three towns.

634
00:46:16,220 --> 00:46:20,880
And the elected officials in Bay Harbor were talking about the double parking and surfside.

635
00:46:21,280 --> 00:46:24,880
And so what I would like us to say to them is, well, if you're really concerned about that too,

636
00:46:25,020 --> 00:46:27,900
and that this is the low-hanging fruit, help us with the staffing issue.

637
00:46:28,060 --> 00:46:31,120
If you could dedicate one or two of your cops, then we can do this.

638
00:46:31,360 --> 00:46:36,660
But keep in mind that in Miami pulling over somebody for a traffic infraction is always risky.

639
00:46:37,640 --> 00:46:39,200
And you know, it's not easy.

640
00:46:39,380 --> 00:46:42,720
It's not something just a civilian can do, especially if the car is in the road.

641
00:46:42,820 --> 00:46:43,920
Things can escalate.

642
00:46:43,920 --> 00:46:47,020
So we need to be careful, I mean, we need to make sure it's staff the right way.

643
00:46:48,200 --> 00:46:49,240
Very good.

644
00:46:49,720 --> 00:46:49,900
Thank you.

645
00:46:49,900 --> 00:46:50,820
Why, guys?

646
00:46:51,420 --> 00:46:54,280
1,000 percent double parking is a cardinal sin.

647
00:46:54,800 --> 00:46:58,400
It is one of the many pieces that are triggering unnecessary congestion in our town.

648
00:46:58,980 --> 00:47:03,720
I absolutely would support foot patrol or bike mounted patrol officer and high visibility

649
00:47:03,720 --> 00:47:08,000
safety vest for their safety and to deter the violation in the first place.

650
00:47:09,060 --> 00:47:13,080
I would encourage our police to also execute their traffic stops

651
00:47:13,080 --> 00:47:18,740
on a side street and have the vehicle pull out of the way of hearting avenues so that when they

652
00:47:18,740 --> 00:47:21,300
initiate the traffic stop, they're not blocking two lanes now.

653
00:47:21,480 --> 00:47:29,200
As protocol is to block the, to protect the officer while they're executing their traffic

654
00:47:29,200 --> 00:47:29,560
stop.

655
00:47:30,200 --> 00:47:30,980
I love service side.

656
00:47:31,020 --> 00:47:32,120
I do not love the traffic.

657
00:47:32,340 --> 00:47:37,160
So we need to work towards solutions and we also need to address the parking shortage.

658
00:47:37,160 --> 00:47:44,040
when we do so, we could also make at least part of parting Avenue a loading zone rather than parking.

659
00:47:48,300 --> 00:47:49,180
I'll miss Ben McGregor.

660
00:47:49,880 --> 00:47:50,340
Yes.

661
00:47:51,360 --> 00:47:51,660
Yes.

662
00:47:52,520 --> 00:47:56,840
So, yes, I do agree that we need an officer there, maybe in pick hours.

663
00:47:58,900 --> 00:48:01,660
Because there's no reason to have double parking.

664
00:48:02,240 --> 00:48:04,720
And I'm telling you, when I see the double parking,

665
00:48:04,720 --> 00:48:14,960
I see that we have legislators, we are very well trained on that, I feel it is most literates.

666
00:48:16,240 --> 00:48:27,700
Unless it is for disabled person that needs to be dropped off, it is okay, but yes, we need somebody to be managing.

667
00:48:28,920 --> 00:48:29,440
Thank you.

668
00:48:29,440 --> 00:48:37,680
very good. Now this round of question we'll begin with Mr. Blumencrout and the question as written

669
00:48:37,680 --> 00:48:45,440
with Tallahassee looking to eliminate homestead tax. How are you going to compensate for the lost revenue?

670
00:48:47,520 --> 00:48:54,420
The only really way you can compensate for that is to increase taxes and I don't think anybody really wants that

671
00:48:54,420 --> 00:49:01,420
possibly a slightly higher tourist tax could be one way of going about it.

672
00:49:03,840 --> 00:49:07,940
There's not many ways you can get that money back unfortunately.

673
00:49:08,540 --> 00:49:13,780
We just got to hope that that rule does not go through, and maybe we won't have to deal with it.

674
00:49:13,940 --> 00:49:20,100
But if we do, I think that particular item was already covered in the mayors debate.

675
00:49:20,100 --> 00:49:37,360
and they offered a couple of suggestions, it would involve talking to other cities, also to see how they're going to solve the problem, because obviously every city is going to be in the same boat in the same boat, it's not strictly a surf side issue.

676
00:49:38,140 --> 00:49:45,620
So hopefully all of us can come up with a solution if we all work together and maybe it'll never happen to begin with, so we'll see.

677
00:49:46,080 --> 00:49:46,820
Thank you.

678
00:49:46,820 --> 00:49:52,600
All right, this kids are on this tax issue that's possibly going to occur.

679
00:49:54,540 --> 00:50:01,360
Yes, so just so you all know, eliminating homestead tax, eliminating tax in general,

680
00:50:02,000 --> 00:50:06,560
eliminates so many of the services that you have come to love from this town,

681
00:50:07,500 --> 00:50:14,300
eliminating those taxes would affect us on a state and county level, which means less money trickling in

682
00:50:14,300 --> 00:50:18,480
And for line items that we already have, forget the homestead.

683
00:50:19,440 --> 00:50:22,320
Okay, we would need to find an adequate money source.

684
00:50:22,480 --> 00:50:24,180
I believe it's something like $4 million.

685
00:50:25,140 --> 00:50:26,700
I work in non-profit all day.

686
00:50:27,760 --> 00:50:32,720
The lack of grant money, the lack of federal funding,

687
00:50:34,540 --> 00:50:36,980
donors have come to be.

688
00:50:37,340 --> 00:50:38,900
People we're helping now.

689
00:50:38,900 --> 00:50:45,180
The amount of services that we lose with that loss of tax money is unbelievable.

690
00:50:45,520 --> 00:50:50,800
And I don't think a resort tax or a bigger tax on alcohol can make it happen.

691
00:50:51,060 --> 00:50:53,120
I don't think that we can eliminate taxes.

692
00:50:53,420 --> 00:50:56,920
Unfortunately, I think it's, you know, the truth of death in taxes.

693
00:50:59,180 --> 00:51:01,300
Mr. Hensman, all right.

694
00:51:01,420 --> 00:51:03,960
I will try in 90 seconds not to get too walkie,

695
00:51:03,960 --> 00:51:09,860
Mr. Zomper and Mr. Karek and this is a big issue beyond 90 seconds, but let me give you

696
00:51:09,860 --> 00:51:10,640
what I can.

697
00:51:11,580 --> 00:51:16,980
We have a potential here in Surfside of a $45 million that might be a shortfall that we

698
00:51:16,980 --> 00:51:18,760
have to deal with.

699
00:51:20,780 --> 00:51:27,240
This legislation requires that every municipality like ours maintains the police services at

700
00:51:27,240 --> 00:51:31,920
the same level and can't cut that budget, so that's over half of our budget currently.

701
00:51:32,540 --> 00:51:38,040
Only homestead properties will be exempted, so that's good for those that own their home and are exempted.

702
00:51:38,180 --> 00:51:46,540
In Surfside, the good thing is we have a lot of homes that are second or third homes, especially our condominiums, that will still be paying property tax.

703
00:51:47,240 --> 00:51:55,100
Just in the next couple of years we have a new revenue coming in from buildings that are being finished, finalized, even before the Delmore comes online.

704
00:51:55,100 --> 00:52:03,460
The revenue from those units that are likely against second homes, third homes for very wealthy people will still be taxed.

705
00:52:03,480 --> 00:52:06,580
And that could bring in probably around that $5 million shortfall.

706
00:52:07,020 --> 00:52:13,480
So we should be in a good position here in Surfside where we can't and won't increase other taxes.

707
00:52:13,700 --> 00:52:18,840
We won't increase our military to our residents, and still be able to provide the services that we do today.

708
00:52:20,160 --> 00:52:20,760
Okay, we're here.

709
00:52:20,760 --> 00:52:23,060
Mr. Trevani.

710
00:52:23,760 --> 00:52:29,980
Yeah, so the this is that the four million dollar fee.

711
00:52:30,000 --> 00:52:36,320
Here's coming from like about 20% of the advalorment taxes that the town gets, which is like about 20 million.

712
00:52:37,100 --> 00:52:44,420
So out of a budget of 43 million, just for the income sources, plus that 10 million of the

713
00:52:44,420 --> 00:52:50,860
Interfund transfers. So the impact is less than 10% on the budget, which is still important.

714
00:52:52,220 --> 00:52:59,980
It's significant. However, so I don't know about the projection, the tax, the

715
00:52:59,980 --> 00:53:06,300
of the projection of the tax revenue in the future because it looks like it might not be that great,

716
00:53:07,620 --> 00:53:17,120
but we definitely have to look at a little stress test to the budget and identify efficiencies.

717
00:53:19,880 --> 00:53:27,840
Obviously, services is something that might be affected. However, it's also important to remember,

718
00:53:27,840 --> 00:53:30,700
But we still don't know what law is going to be passed.

719
00:53:31,000 --> 00:53:35,000
We've got to look at the details of the law before identifying what we can do.

720
00:53:35,300 --> 00:53:38,540
Because at the moment, we're just speculating on the overall impact.

721
00:53:38,680 --> 00:53:40,440
We've got to wait for the law first.

722
00:53:41,460 --> 00:53:41,620
Okay.

723
00:53:43,220 --> 00:53:44,420
Mr. Villabas, tagley.

724
00:53:45,320 --> 00:53:45,500
All right.

725
00:53:45,900 --> 00:53:49,340
So, the question was a little bit, it could have been worded a little better, I'll

726
00:53:49,340 --> 00:53:52,100
say, because it says, Tallahassee is going to do this to us.

727
00:53:52,300 --> 00:53:53,720
And that's not exactly accurate.

728
00:53:53,860 --> 00:53:56,140
What's happened right now in case you haven't been following the issue.

729
00:53:56,140 --> 00:53:59,440
is that the Florida House has proposed a constitutional amendment

730
00:53:59,440 --> 00:54:03,120
that would limit property taxes on homesteaded properties.

731
00:54:03,560 --> 00:54:05,180
The Senate hasn't approved it yet,

732
00:54:05,180 --> 00:54:06,640
so there's not even a final version.

733
00:54:07,080 --> 00:54:09,620
But for this to happen, it has to be approved by 60%

734
00:54:09,620 --> 00:54:10,620
of the voters in November.

735
00:54:11,040 --> 00:54:13,540
So if you don't like the answers that we're giving about budget cuts,

736
00:54:13,640 --> 00:54:15,240
because nobody likes to talk about budget cuts,

737
00:54:15,720 --> 00:54:18,680
don't shoot the messenger, but vote against this in November

738
00:54:18,680 --> 00:54:20,320
because we still have a say about this.

739
00:54:20,460 --> 00:54:22,420
If this happens, it's not because of Tallahassee,

740
00:54:22,540 --> 00:54:24,180
it's because of Florida voters approving it.

741
00:54:24,540 --> 00:54:25,980
That said, Mr. Landsman is right.

742
00:54:25,980 --> 00:54:27,380
we can't cut public safety.

743
00:54:27,640 --> 00:54:29,480
That's part of the how, at least under the House version,

744
00:54:29,620 --> 00:54:30,560
that's currently out there.

745
00:54:30,940 --> 00:54:33,400
So I think in Surfside, we do need to plan for the worst,

746
00:54:33,440 --> 00:54:36,440
however, I don't want to count my chickens before they're hatched.

747
00:54:36,500 --> 00:54:38,620
I don't want to say the Delmore is going to save the day.

748
00:54:39,820 --> 00:54:41,580
So what are we going to do in that case?

749
00:54:42,060 --> 00:54:46,020
I also think that the proposal would make an incentive

750
00:54:46,020 --> 00:54:48,700
for people to now go home to their property.

751
00:54:49,140 --> 00:54:51,280
So we can't count on those luxury condos.

752
00:54:51,760 --> 00:54:52,940
If we're going to have to cut the budget,

753
00:54:53,160 --> 00:54:55,120
it's probably going to have to come from capital improvements.

754
00:54:55,120 --> 00:54:59,160
And so I talked with the town manager about exactly this scenario, I think what we're going

755
00:54:59,160 --> 00:55:03,100
to have to do is hire a consultant who can help us prioritize everything we need to do

756
00:55:03,100 --> 00:55:03,660
in the town.

757
00:55:04,060 --> 00:55:05,680
But we're going to have to give up something.

758
00:55:06,540 --> 00:55:08,020
Stormwater, the stormwater master plan.

759
00:55:08,140 --> 00:55:11,400
We have focus areas that are ready to go and that's something I really would love to do as

760
00:55:11,400 --> 00:55:11,780
a commissioner.

761
00:55:12,320 --> 00:55:13,740
But we're going to have to prioritize them.

762
00:55:13,900 --> 00:55:17,020
We might have to prioritize the doing restoration over the stormwater.

763
00:55:17,240 --> 00:55:18,580
We're going to have to make very tough choices.

764
00:55:18,760 --> 00:55:20,160
And I hope we don't have to do that.

765
00:55:20,520 --> 00:55:21,280
Very good.

766
00:55:24,640 --> 00:55:27,800
Mr. Ryan, I believe this is going to be a multi-pronged approach.

767
00:55:27,800 --> 00:55:31,960
It's not going to be one item that's going to completely offset our shortfall.

768
00:55:33,100 --> 00:55:35,420
Toorism tax is going to be one piece.

769
00:55:35,700 --> 00:55:40,180
I believe that us the residents who deal with a lot of the inconveniences of the toorism

770
00:55:40,180 --> 00:55:45,380
coming tourists coming through, we should be able to bring some solutions our way from

771
00:55:45,380 --> 00:55:45,740
that.

772
00:55:46,160 --> 00:55:47,780
So I am in support of that.

773
00:55:47,960 --> 00:55:50,480
Running businesses I've had to pivot and adjust constantly.

774
00:55:51,600 --> 00:55:56,020
We get hit with tariffs and we have to look at our P&L and we have to look at our profitability

775
00:55:56,020 --> 00:55:58,160
and find ways to make this work.

776
00:55:59,000 --> 00:56:00,960
So it's going to be a deep dive into the budget.

777
00:56:01,400 --> 00:56:05,380
It's going to be the bright side of the development

778
00:56:05,380 --> 00:56:07,600
that we already have happening.

779
00:56:07,760 --> 00:56:09,260
We're going to get some additional revenue there

780
00:56:09,260 --> 00:56:13,820
and a good portion of those long there will not be home setters,

781
00:56:14,040 --> 00:56:16,600
so that will definitely offset a portion there.

782
00:56:17,280 --> 00:56:19,060
But we have to leverage inevitable.

783
00:56:19,460 --> 00:56:21,280
The developments that are happening have to serve

784
00:56:21,280 --> 00:56:23,140
to our benefit and improve our quality of life.

785
00:56:23,140 --> 00:56:25,740
And this is a perfect example of where we could work at deal.

786
00:56:26,180 --> 00:56:29,260
And if a project is happening beyond our control

787
00:56:29,260 --> 00:56:31,340
because of the state law, we need to work

788
00:56:31,340 --> 00:56:33,620
at deal with a developer and make it offset something else

789
00:56:33,620 --> 00:56:34,980
that's going to make our life more pleasant.

790
00:56:36,300 --> 00:56:36,780
There you go.

791
00:56:39,300 --> 00:56:40,100
Mr. Bergen?

792
00:56:41,780 --> 00:56:43,700
It's a very complicated question.

793
00:56:45,500 --> 00:56:47,560
And we have to come up with a solution.

794
00:56:47,940 --> 00:56:50,180
But when we get there, it's still very uncertain.

795
00:56:51,000 --> 00:56:54,420
As we said, but the first thing

796
00:56:54,420 --> 00:56:58,500
is I would never cut on the services that we have.

797
00:56:59,180 --> 00:57:03,500
When we get there, we have to, I agree with Gerardo,

798
00:57:04,120 --> 00:57:07,560
that we really need, like, a consultant experts

799
00:57:07,560 --> 00:57:11,560
to come here and help us to figure out how to plan this.

800
00:57:11,820 --> 00:57:12,600
Thank you.

801
00:57:12,780 --> 00:57:13,940
Very good.

802
00:57:15,550 --> 00:57:16,710
And Mr. Bergogo.

803
00:57:17,730 --> 00:57:18,630
So,

804
00:57:22,190 --> 00:57:30,710
while the anticipated tax repeal for the homestead taxes, it poses a significant challenge,

805
00:57:33,310 --> 00:57:35,890
we projected the losses to be around $4 million.

806
00:57:37,050 --> 00:57:49,890
The shortfalls will be of said by revenue that's coming from a high-end development and actually

807
00:57:49,890 --> 00:57:59,110
this could demonstrate that growth is beneficial for our budget, but it has to be done in a more

808
00:57:59,110 --> 00:58:05,150
optimistic that what I'm hearing here, it's just that we have to remain conservative,

809
00:58:05,150 --> 00:58:15,970
but we have to know what's coming in, and I think that's very positive, and I think we should, of course, have an educated,

810
00:58:19,550 --> 00:58:33,730
probably, and we should definitely hire someone to answer those questions for us and plan it so we can be fully prepared to face this kind of the eventuality that it's going to be voted for.

811
00:58:33,730 --> 00:58:35,570
that we should be prepared.

812
00:58:36,530 --> 00:58:36,710
Thank you.

813
00:58:38,290 --> 00:58:41,450
Okay, now there's next question.

814
00:58:41,730 --> 00:58:42,930
We'll begin with Ms. Kenzer.

815
00:58:44,870 --> 00:58:50,890
As written, in 2012, options for a parking structure were proposed.

816
00:58:51,510 --> 00:58:57,630
At the Abbott Lot behind CVS and Flannigans, or the Post Office Lot, or the 94th Street Lot,

817
00:58:57,810 --> 00:58:58,830
diagonal from Publix.

818
00:58:59,310 --> 00:59:01,750
Some people think we need to build a parking structure

819
00:59:01,750 --> 00:59:07,270
thinking it will help reduce traffic congestion. Others think that if you build one, it would

820
00:59:07,270 --> 00:59:10,470
just make things worse. What do you think?

821
00:59:13,860 --> 00:59:17,440
I'm not opposed. I am not opposed to building a parking

822
00:59:17,440 --> 00:59:25,440
structure. Obviously, we see it's increased parking in other municipalities. It would also give

823
00:59:25,440 --> 00:59:32,260
residents a place to park their cars when there was a storm during a king tide. I just think

824
00:59:32,260 --> 00:59:40,590
it needs to be done in a way that keeps the character. I believe that it needs to be done

825
00:59:42,860 --> 00:59:49,040
thoughtfully. Obviously, we don't want something that's overdeveloped. We want it to fit

826
00:59:49,040 --> 00:59:55,120
our needs. Again, I'm not an engineer. I am up to listening, but we definitely do need

827
00:59:55,120 --> 00:59:59,480
more parking. I can tell you Starbucks in the morning is a zoo.

828
01:00:00,680 --> 01:00:11,640
If you go before work, I, you know, are parking, for residents, there is only those few 15, what is it? 15 minute parking spots?

829
01:00:12,620 --> 01:00:23,780
So, people want to come here. They want to shop at our downtown. They want to, to enjoy our town. Why not give them a place to park and make a little revenue in the meantime?

830
01:00:23,780 --> 01:00:25,540
But do it thoughtfully.

831
01:00:26,560 --> 01:00:27,640
Okay, Mr. Landsman.

832
01:00:33,770 --> 01:00:38,630
So this brings me back to four years ago when I first ran for office this question.

833
01:00:39,390 --> 01:00:41,510
Maybe in different words was asked as well.

834
01:00:42,130 --> 01:00:44,710
And I finally remember my answered.

835
01:00:45,490 --> 01:00:46,810
Parking parking parking.

836
01:00:47,590 --> 01:00:51,170
Our town is dealing with parking has for probably decades.

837
01:00:51,510 --> 01:00:53,390
And we'll continue to deal with parking issues.

838
01:00:54,150 --> 01:00:56,050
And when I said four years ago I'll say today,

839
01:00:56,050 --> 01:00:59,130
a parking structure will not happen on my watch.

840
01:01:00,150 --> 01:01:03,890
We don't need a three-four story building that will only have parking.

841
01:01:04,150 --> 01:01:06,630
We don't have the room for it. We don't have the capacity for it.

842
01:01:06,730 --> 01:01:09,930
And I think there is some issue with if the parking is here,

843
01:01:10,290 --> 01:01:12,170
people will come and fill it up.

844
01:01:12,790 --> 01:01:15,990
You look at Hollywood Beach and there's parking structures all throughout.

845
01:01:16,110 --> 01:01:19,850
And how many people go to Hollywood Beach and park there and use the beach.

846
01:01:20,330 --> 01:01:22,970
We have a small community, a small beach.

847
01:01:22,970 --> 01:01:35,350
And frankly, yes, we don't have enough parking, there has to be some solutions, and I don't necessarily have those solutions right here, but we need to talk to people that have the expertise, but again, on my watch, no parking structure.

848
01:01:36,450 --> 01:01:36,450
Okay.

849
01:01:39,120 --> 01:01:39,880
Mr. Kravani.

850
01:01:40,200 --> 01:01:53,020
Yeah, so it's again, it's a complicated question because this, so there's a grant, I believe, of $350,000 that we could use for traffic.

851
01:01:53,020 --> 01:01:59,280
And I don't want to do, I mean, there's a study done in 2023, so there's some data available,

852
01:01:59,460 --> 01:02:02,700
but the problem is modeling, not the study, the modeling.

853
01:02:03,640 --> 01:02:12,260
So what it means is that it's very hard to subjectively answer a question like this without seeing what it does to the traffic itself,

854
01:02:12,440 --> 01:02:17,300
how the cars move, and if you actually can't relieve congestion or you're adding congestion,

855
01:02:18,080 --> 01:02:23,840
It could be tied to keeping the number of parking spots even, but just moving them.

856
01:02:24,020 --> 01:02:29,420
Like, for example, you move them out of colonies and you put them in a specific location.

857
01:02:30,040 --> 01:02:34,700
Like, for example, it's a small structure that could take those parking spots.

858
01:02:35,140 --> 01:02:41,820
But the ultimate goal has to be having less traffic.

859
01:02:42,260 --> 01:02:46,100
While at the same time, you keep the same quality of life.

860
01:02:46,100 --> 01:02:52,460
And by the way, when you do a model, you get to a point where you have maybe two or three solutions.

861
01:02:52,840 --> 01:02:55,660
It's like in a PD and E study that you do with F.D.

862
01:02:55,800 --> 01:02:58,100
You get to a point where you call the community in.

863
01:02:58,440 --> 01:03:01,260
You show the three solutions with the prongs and cones.

864
01:03:01,340 --> 01:03:02,560
You get the community feedback.

865
01:03:02,920 --> 01:03:04,920
You implement the one that makes the most sense.

866
01:03:07,090 --> 01:03:07,590
Very good.

867
01:03:07,970 --> 01:03:09,190
Mr. Vovast, I agree.

868
01:03:09,530 --> 01:03:17,030
So when I was first selected in 2024, we got a very angry, concerned email from the owner of Oberlea

869
01:03:17,030 --> 01:03:23,670
One of the old-harding avenues to establishments that Mr. Blumencrantz might remember from the classic days of harding avenue.

870
01:03:24,050 --> 01:03:27,350
And he was concerned that the lot was so full that he might be losing business.

871
01:03:27,530 --> 01:03:29,690
And so we wanted to address that problem right away.

872
01:03:30,410 --> 01:03:35,330
One of the two things, basically, we stepped up enforcement of the lot.

873
01:03:35,890 --> 01:03:40,790
There was a lot of placard abuse with people using handicap placards that probably were not legal.

874
01:03:41,110 --> 01:03:44,150
And there were a lot of bellharbers shops and employees parking in the lot.

875
01:03:44,150 --> 01:03:47,370
We combine that with raising the rates.

876
01:03:47,850 --> 01:03:51,070
And I think that created a workable solution.

877
01:03:51,810 --> 01:03:54,770
That same shop owner wrote us and said things are much better right now.

878
01:03:55,090 --> 01:03:58,590
So what that experience leads me to think is that that's the right approach.

879
01:03:58,930 --> 01:03:59,890
That I think we can go further.

880
01:04:00,070 --> 01:04:03,390
We can do something like dynamic pricing if we had sensors in the lot

881
01:04:03,390 --> 01:04:05,510
then the prices could go up as it gets more crowded

882
01:04:05,510 --> 01:04:07,230
and we can try to balance things out.

883
01:04:07,770 --> 01:04:10,870
Like Mr. Lansman, I would prefer not to build a parking garage.

884
01:04:10,870 --> 01:04:16,830
I think that a parking garage, there is such a thing as too much parking, and a parking garage

885
01:04:16,830 --> 01:04:21,990
will create more traffic, just think about how, you know, this calculation might enter

886
01:04:21,990 --> 01:04:23,130
into your daily life.

887
01:04:23,510 --> 01:04:26,930
If you have a little bit of time and you want to go to Harding Avenue to buy something,

888
01:04:28,350 --> 01:04:32,530
you might say, oh, if parking is a problem, I'll just walk or bike.

889
01:04:32,830 --> 01:04:37,490
But if there was a four-story garage and there was always a place to park, then you're not

890
01:04:37,490 --> 01:04:39,650
going to feel that little bit of healthy pressure.

891
01:04:39,650 --> 01:04:43,470
right? We, you know, we want to, it's a very delicate balance. You want to make it so that there's

892
01:04:43,470 --> 01:04:47,830
a little bit pressure to get there another way. And I'm like for that.

893
01:04:51,680 --> 01:04:53,360
Mr. Wang. No one deserves

894
01:04:53,360 --> 01:04:59,160
to have a parking lot in their backyard. However, the simple map is if you create more space,

895
01:04:59,440 --> 01:05:02,700
you're going to alleviate the pressure. You're going to remove the congestion elsewhere.

896
01:05:03,440 --> 01:05:08,460
So I agree. It needs to be done thoughtfully. We need to be creative. We need some pressure ideas also.

897
01:05:08,600 --> 01:05:13,140
There have been traffic studies done. There's what to execute based upon many of those from experts.

898
01:05:13,240 --> 01:05:27,180
We will need renewed studies, I believe, as things have changed, I believe it also has to be looked at on a more holistic level as 33154 as a whole because traffic is flowing through traffic and parking is connected.

899
01:05:27,820 --> 01:05:31,360
Parking becomes an issue when you have the traffic flowing through and you have the people coming.

900
01:05:32,220 --> 01:05:42,760
So, we need to be able to work with our neighbors. I'm proudly endorsed by our neighboring Bell Harbor Mayor and our prepared to work together to address traffic and then therefore parking as well.

901
01:05:42,760 --> 01:05:48,680
While I'm not an engineer, I believe we do need some new ideas and we can look at our waterway.

902
01:05:48,960 --> 01:05:50,780
We don't have a water taxi here.

903
01:05:51,940 --> 01:05:55,320
So simply removing some of the vehicles from the road is going to be at that pressure everywhere.

904
01:05:56,080 --> 01:05:58,300
And we have the benefits of environmental benefits.

905
01:05:58,400 --> 01:05:59,020
We have connectivity.

906
01:05:59,620 --> 01:06:05,940
We have commuters from surf side can go to points south with a new way with a beautiful view.

907
01:06:06,700 --> 01:06:10,700
And enjoy the beautiful outdoors that we have without bringing more cars there.

908
01:06:10,700 --> 01:06:11,680
There you go.

909
01:06:13,440 --> 01:06:14,540
Let's be in my game.

910
01:06:17,420 --> 01:06:21,100
So I'm not opposing to building a parking infrastructure.

911
01:06:21,620 --> 01:06:22,580
I see there is a need.

912
01:06:22,760 --> 01:06:29,440
I mean, it's not only me, everybody sees there is a need for parking here, but I do agree

913
01:06:29,440 --> 01:06:32,300
that we need to do it very thoughtfully.

914
01:06:32,920 --> 01:06:34,380
We cannot just jump on it.

915
01:06:34,400 --> 01:06:39,180
We have to really make a plan and have consultants help us through a process.

916
01:06:39,260 --> 01:06:39,920
Thank you.

917
01:06:44,190 --> 01:06:49,370
So to answer this question is basically saying what are the results of not having parking

918
01:06:49,370 --> 01:06:51,090
and having parking.

919
01:06:52,150 --> 01:06:54,090
So right now we don't have any parking.

920
01:06:54,830 --> 01:06:59,730
So there's a number of saturation in our streets, basically all the traffic that's bleeding

921
01:06:59,730 --> 01:07:04,750
for example on Byron and people are parking because I live on Byron, so I see people like,

922
01:07:04,750 --> 01:07:07,950
for example, they want to go to the beach, they park on our streets.

923
01:07:07,950 --> 01:07:12,890
So the result is complete over saturations of our streets of our neighborhood streets.

924
01:07:14,430 --> 01:07:19,590
So the problem is we have to understand that also parking helps businesses,

925
01:07:20,090 --> 01:07:22,850
Surfside businesses. So we need those markings.

926
01:07:25,350 --> 01:07:29,870
Now regarding the parking situation if we have to build a parking.

927
01:07:30,000 --> 01:07:43,000
A structure. Well, that comes first of all, we need to ask an experts opinion and the second thing, it has to go through what the residents want, ultimately. And that's what I'm here for.

928
01:07:43,240 --> 01:07:52,860
It's listening to the residents, if the residents decide that we need parking, then we need parking. But it has to be done for what fully, like everybody said, more or less here. Thank you.

929
01:07:52,860 --> 01:07:56,260
Very good. Mr. Roman Crohn's.

930
01:07:57,560 --> 01:08:03,820
That issue is kind of ironic because Bay Harbor and Bell Harbor both have their own

931
01:08:03,820 --> 01:08:11,980
parking garages and we don't. But being said, I would never support a parking garage in

932
01:08:11,980 --> 01:08:17,740
service. I'll tell you why. And I'm kind of interested in why none of my other colleagues

933
01:08:17,740 --> 01:08:24,900
brought this up. Every one of those sites for a parking garage is an existing parking lot.

934
01:08:25,680 --> 01:08:32,240
If you build a parking garage, you're probably looking at about maybe at minimum of two years

935
01:08:32,240 --> 01:08:40,800
of construction, that would be on an existing parking lot in Surfside. So that would alleviate for

936
01:08:40,800 --> 01:08:45,400
two years, maybe 200 parking spots, minimum.

937
01:08:46,220 --> 01:08:48,600
So during that two years of construction,

938
01:08:49,820 --> 01:08:52,280
nobody is going to be able to find parking anywhere.

939
01:08:52,720 --> 01:08:54,200
And it's going to be complete bevelum.

940
01:08:55,200 --> 01:08:58,300
So unfortunately, we don't have any place to put a garage.

941
01:08:58,940 --> 01:09:00,860
So that idea is out the window.

942
01:09:02,940 --> 01:09:03,120
OK.

943
01:09:07,970 --> 01:09:10,210
Next question begins with Mr. Lansman.

944
01:09:11,070 --> 01:09:13,890
And this is a little history test, I guess.

945
01:09:13,890 --> 01:09:21,330
It says, can you name one decision made by a prior surf slide commission that you disagreed

946
01:09:21,330 --> 01:09:21,910
with?

947
01:09:22,130 --> 01:09:24,110
And what would you have done differently?

948
01:09:34,950 --> 01:09:36,770
I'm just reading them as they come.

949
01:09:37,990 --> 01:09:39,810
I won't need glasses for this one.

950
01:09:41,050 --> 01:09:42,770
But it's one, one decision.

951
01:09:43,530 --> 01:09:47,190
Again, I could spend 90 days on this, not 90 seconds.

952
01:09:47,290 --> 01:09:51,810
But yes, I think this question is perhaps written for me because I am a former commissioner,

953
01:09:52,870 --> 01:09:55,090
who's been involved in town activities.

954
01:09:57,490 --> 01:09:59,650
I'll go with one that's from this current commission,

955
01:10:00,250 --> 01:10:03,750
that is near and dear to a lot of people's hearts and it's about

956
01:10:03,750 --> 01:10:06,030
and something we should discuss and we haven't yet,

957
01:10:06,190 --> 01:10:07,970
but I'll bring it up because it's important,

958
01:10:08,150 --> 01:10:11,890
F-A-R, Florida area ratio, the size of our single family homes.

959
01:10:12,310 --> 01:10:15,390
Anyone here concerned about that big, small, yes, no, anybody?

960
01:10:15,710 --> 01:10:20,250
Wait, hands? Come on, if you're not aware that you should be,

961
01:10:20,250 --> 01:10:27,090
So again, this current commission has placed a tremendous number of restrictions on the ability

962
01:10:27,090 --> 01:10:28,870
to build a home here in Surfside.

963
01:10:29,910 --> 01:10:32,350
I'm not in favor of bigger homes.

964
01:10:32,470 --> 01:10:36,330
I'm in favor of modest size homes that fit our character of our community.

965
01:10:37,070 --> 01:10:42,870
But at the same time, I think that this current commission has gone too far to extreme.

966
01:10:43,370 --> 01:10:49,370
And if I am, yes, elected again, I will hopefully bring together a charrette or a town

967
01:10:49,370 --> 01:10:54,910
meeting so that we as residents can come together and have a conversation about what is the

968
01:10:54,910 --> 01:10:59,610
right size? What are the right setbacks? What are the right parameters for a single family home here

969
01:10:59,610 --> 01:11:05,570
at the serve side? So we can come together and have some peace and not go back and forth back and

970
01:11:05,570 --> 01:11:17,100
forth. Thank you. Very good. Mr. Kravani. So the first one that I could think about is when

971
01:11:17,100 --> 01:11:21,900
because I was involved, it was the when the assistant ability and

972
01:11:21,900 --> 01:11:25,620
resiliency committee was basically abolished.

973
01:11:26,340 --> 01:11:31,060
So I disagreed that decision on that time.

974
01:11:31,800 --> 01:11:36,020
And it's because I think that that's one of the things that I'd like,

975
01:11:36,340 --> 01:11:41,420
it's one of the points of my program. So I feel quite strongly about it.

976
01:11:41,420 --> 01:11:56,520
And I think I was a little, it wasn't really a decision, but I've seen that because I've been part of the planning and zoning board.

977
01:11:57,700 --> 01:12:06,180
And I disagreed with the previous planning and zoning boards where taking the evaluation of the homes.

978
01:12:06,180 --> 01:12:26,740
because there are design guidelines that need to be followed, and therefore I liked the idea of bringing this thoughtfulness back, so that we really try to preserve the character of Sirside.

979
01:12:27,520 --> 01:12:29,240
There you go. Thank you.

980
01:12:30,890 --> 01:12:32,310
Mr. Jolga Stagley.

981
01:12:32,930 --> 01:12:37,810
All right. So remember how I started off by saying I was really proud of the fact that all my fellow commissioners have endorsed me.

982
01:12:37,910 --> 01:12:41,130
I hope I don't lose one of their endorsements with this answer.

983
01:12:43,110 --> 01:12:44,470
But there's a note.

984
01:12:44,810 --> 01:12:46,570
If I could have a little bit of time, was that alarm?

985
01:12:47,990 --> 01:12:48,150
Just.

986
01:12:49,250 --> 01:12:50,390
It's a baby chair.

987
01:12:50,750 --> 01:12:52,550
Sorry. Just a few seconds more, please.

988
01:12:53,290 --> 01:12:57,910
So a decision that my commission made that I descended from and I disagreed with.

989
01:12:58,490 --> 01:13:02,550
As early as June 2024 in our term, it was clear to me that the cost of the

990
01:13:02,550 --> 01:13:06,430
Undergrounding Project was going to far exceed the $40 million that we had

991
01:13:06,430 --> 01:13:07,450
already approved to borrow.

992
01:13:07,890 --> 01:13:12,210
And I wanted to get that item back on the ballot as soon as possible, and I wanted to

993
01:13:12,210 --> 01:13:15,310
level with the voters and say this is going to be much more expensive than $40

994
01:13:15,310 --> 01:13:15,790
million.

995
01:13:16,130 --> 01:13:19,630
We need to either decide that we're going to borrow more money or we're not.

996
01:13:20,330 --> 01:13:23,530
And we could not get that on the ballot for quite a while.

997
01:13:23,530 --> 01:13:34,470
I tried, and I think what ended up happening after a full other year and almost a half we finally did have that vote.

998
01:13:34,710 --> 01:13:41,530
It was not until July of 2025 that we got this cost estimate that it would be at least $80 million.

999
01:13:41,870 --> 01:13:43,770
And I think the real number was something like a hundred.

1000
01:13:44,370 --> 01:13:49,530
And so what ended up happening during that time is that, you know, there was this kind of...

1001
01:13:49,530 --> 01:13:54,570
The project was supposedly moving forward, but nobody was really being honest about the full

1002
01:13:54,570 --> 01:13:55,010
cost.

1003
01:13:55,510 --> 01:14:00,010
And I wish that we had been able to make that decision sooner in our term.

1004
01:14:00,370 --> 01:14:03,670
So then we could have said, okay, if we're not going to pursue that project, if the voters

1005
01:14:03,670 --> 01:14:07,970
don't want to borrow more money, what's the next big project that we can do in Surfside?

1006
01:14:08,270 --> 01:14:13,530
And I think that our imaginations got limited, because we spent so much of the two years

1007
01:14:13,530 --> 01:14:18,110
kind of hemming and high about undergrounding, the project was sliced and diced into three

1008
01:14:18,110 --> 01:14:22,850
And we were going to maybe start the first part, but we never knew how much the whole thing was going to cost.

1009
01:14:23,190 --> 01:14:29,010
And I think that we should have made the clear decision to put that back on the ballot as soon as we could have in 2024.

1010
01:14:30,370 --> 01:14:30,770
Thank

1011
01:14:33,910 --> 01:14:34,310
you.

1012
01:14:34,510 --> 01:14:35,010
Mr. Wange.

1013
01:14:35,670 --> 01:14:39,570
We make decisions based upon the best information available to us at that time.

1014
01:14:39,830 --> 01:14:45,870
So I will not be a Monday morning quarterback and make a judgment on the decisions made previously on this day.

1015
01:14:46,110 --> 01:14:50,770
I was not here at the time given the data that they had, reviewed the studies that they had.

1016
01:14:50,770 --> 01:14:54,150
and I respect the efforts of what they put to it.

1017
01:14:54,370 --> 01:14:59,970
However, I must say based off of listening and talking to residents over the last few weeks.

1018
01:15:02,480 --> 01:15:20,540
The restrictions on the homeowners to do and improve on their homes, rather than finding a balance, you know, going back to the flurry or ratio, that's something that I continuously hear, and I wish there could have been more balance rather than such a strong decision there, so I know that's something that's going to be like that.

1019
01:15:20,540 --> 01:15:26,480
But Wayne Gretzky was once asked, you know, how he became such a stellar player, and he said,

1020
01:15:27,080 --> 01:15:30,880
all the other players are running to the park.

1021
01:15:31,040 --> 01:15:32,420
I'm thinking where that park can go.

1022
01:15:32,620 --> 01:15:36,740
And I know that with a strong commission, a unified commission, we can get a lot done here,

1023
01:15:37,020 --> 01:15:39,220
and make good decisions for it.

1024
01:15:39,660 --> 01:15:40,060
There you go.

1025
01:15:42,100 --> 01:15:42,920
Just been Marguerri?

1026
01:15:45,820 --> 01:15:49,540
So, um, this past month, I've been doing a lot,

1027
01:15:49,540 --> 01:15:55,080
door to door and have made wonderful people. And people, you know, they come with their concerns,

1028
01:15:55,320 --> 01:16:01,880
they're the other suggestions. And I'm not here to judge again. I'm not here to say the

1029
01:16:01,880 --> 01:16:07,740
past commission or the previous commission. That's not my job. But yes, I heard in some

1030
01:16:07,740 --> 01:16:13,560
concern that people were a little bit like not very happy with the restricting, like I agree

1031
01:16:13,560 --> 01:16:18,000
with Mr. Lansman, that about the restriction

1032
01:16:18,000 --> 01:16:21,480
of the sizes of the building and a warm.

1033
01:16:22,960 --> 01:16:26,940
So I mean, I would go back to how it was before.

1034
01:16:28,260 --> 01:16:28,920
And then, that's it.

1035
01:16:29,060 --> 01:16:30,060
Thank you.

1036
01:16:30,300 --> 01:16:31,100
Very good.

1037
01:16:32,400 --> 01:16:34,000
Mr. Burdovo.

1038
01:16:35,660 --> 01:16:38,140
So for me, it's not really what was done.

1039
01:16:38,400 --> 01:16:39,520
It's not about what was done.

1040
01:16:39,520 --> 01:16:43,700
It's more like things that used to be in surf side.

1041
01:16:43,900 --> 01:16:46,580
There are not anymore, and things that are like features

1042
01:16:46,580 --> 01:16:49,720
that are present in surf side that don't play their role

1043
01:16:49,720 --> 01:16:50,020
anymore.

1044
01:16:50,240 --> 01:16:52,320
I'm talking about, like for example, the disappearance

1045
01:16:52,320 --> 01:16:56,440
of safety measures, like speed humps, all of our surf side.

1046
01:16:56,600 --> 01:16:57,200
They're not anymore.

1047
01:16:57,540 --> 01:16:59,320
So people are speeding with their,

1048
01:17:00,580 --> 01:17:06,400
I would say, noiseless scooters, electric scooters,

1049
01:17:07,220 --> 01:17:09,240
and cars that don't make noise anymore.

1050
01:17:09,520 --> 01:17:16,880
and they're speeding on those streets, so the disappearance of speed homes, it's a bummer for us

1051
01:17:16,880 --> 01:17:24,140
and especially regarding safety and for our children. Also another feature that's creating a lot of

1052
01:17:24,140 --> 01:17:30,760
problems, it's the presence of that around about, so I'm not criticizing because probably that

1053
01:17:30,760 --> 01:17:37,960
roundabout played its role at a certain point, but now the roundabout on 95th it's creating a huge congestion,

1054
01:17:37,960 --> 01:17:41,960
So we need to figure out what's the, what's the answer to that.

1055
01:17:43,300 --> 01:17:44,280
Okay. Thank you.

1056
01:17:44,380 --> 01:17:45,240
All right.

1057
01:17:45,480 --> 01:17:46,460
Mr. Blummercrans.

1058
01:17:48,400 --> 01:17:50,540
On the past commission and current commission,

1059
01:17:51,120 --> 01:17:56,170
it's not so much the rules or things they passed or did not pass.

1060
01:17:56,820 --> 01:17:59,700
For me was more some of their attitudes.

1061
01:18:01,160 --> 01:18:03,560
I know they put a lot of ballot,

1062
01:18:03,560 --> 01:18:15,800
The additional ballot questions out there, and I feel some of them are just to empower rules that they already made, so we cannot ever change them.

1063
01:18:16,160 --> 01:18:23,500
Also, they tend to blame task commissioners or task commissions for problems that we have now.

1064
01:18:23,860 --> 01:18:31,200
So I'm just very upset with the name and blame game that's been going on, and that to me is their biggest mistake.

1065
01:18:37,050 --> 01:18:44,210
I'm going to take a few minutes and say Mr. Bredugo. I live, I sleep with a speed hump in front

1066
01:18:44,210 --> 01:18:50,790
of my window. You and I need to talk because I would love a night of sleep where somebody

1067
01:18:50,790 --> 01:18:56,010
isn't going over that thing, trying to launch their cars far across their side as possible.

1068
01:18:57,430 --> 01:19:02,310
But that's a whole other story. My biggest issue, especially being a non-profit development

1069
01:19:02,310 --> 01:19:09,570
professional is the fact that we are still in the 20, 20, 24 audit financially. I don't know if anybody knows that.

1070
01:19:10,230 --> 01:19:19,290
But to me, the fact that our CFO or whoever was in charge was fired by a mayor who thought he was a strong mayor,

1071
01:19:20,130 --> 01:19:24,830
with no cause that we've been given and hired immediately by him, Miami Beach.

1072
01:19:25,710 --> 01:19:30,890
Another municipality does not hire somebody who is fired for wrongdoing.

1073
01:19:30,890 --> 01:19:36,610
Okay, the fact that we are still on fiscal year 2024, we had to bring in an outside auditor.

1074
01:19:37,070 --> 01:19:41,430
People did not know what was going in financially. You all should be worried.

1075
01:19:43,810 --> 01:19:49,490
To me, that was a huge red flag, and any future audits that will be a huge red flag.

1076
01:19:50,870 --> 01:19:51,390
Okay,

1077
01:19:55,700 --> 01:19:58,840
Mr. Bordugo, I'm going to give you 30 seconds since you were a name.

1078
01:19:58,840 --> 01:20:06,160
I think I'm very sorry because I don't have a beat as beat bumps, so I don't know what it does to us.

1079
01:20:07,400 --> 01:20:12,780
But I agree to your statement, because that's probably a disturbance.

1080
01:20:13,440 --> 01:20:18,280
But at the same time, it's probably a better way to make those and to make sure that they are safe.

1081
01:20:18,460 --> 01:20:23,040
And they don't cause as much noise as you say. Thank you.

1082
01:20:23,040 --> 01:20:32,740
Okay. All right. Now this next question starts with Mr. Corrani and it's, how would you ensure

1083
01:20:32,740 --> 01:20:39,080
residents who criticize the commission at public meetings are protected from retaliation?

1084
01:20:41,480 --> 01:20:49,820
That's an easy question. To me, it's actually inconceivable. It's

1085
01:20:49,820 --> 01:20:54,380
So against everything that I do, that I stand for,

1086
01:20:54,500 --> 01:20:57,600
that I couldn't even envision this happening.

1087
01:20:59,580 --> 01:21:05,200
So when, and if I'm going to be in a situation like that

1088
01:21:05,200 --> 01:21:09,580
on the commission where some of the members of the commission,

1089
01:21:09,800 --> 01:21:11,100
some of the commissioners are mayor,

1090
01:21:11,640 --> 01:21:15,860
are going to be trying to impose that,

1091
01:21:15,860 --> 01:21:23,360
I'll be definitely there to do everything I can against that.

1092
01:21:23,740 --> 01:21:29,440
So we need to make sure that the time is given to everyone to speak their mind.

1093
01:21:30,220 --> 01:21:32,780
Sometimes it's, you know, it's, it's, it's, it's the democracy.

1094
01:21:33,160 --> 01:21:34,620
So there's many different opinions.

1095
01:21:34,620 --> 01:21:37,700
We all care about these opinions, we're passionate.

1096
01:21:39,660 --> 01:21:45,280
So it's, it's our job to make sure that our emotions don't get the best of us.

1097
01:21:47,600 --> 01:21:52,500
And I'm going to, I guess, do a lot more meditation to make sure that that does that.

1098
01:21:54,200 --> 01:21:54,400
Thank you.

1099
01:21:55,040 --> 01:21:55,840
Thank you.

1100
01:21:56,040 --> 01:21:56,400
Thank you.

1101
01:22:00,410 --> 01:22:01,890
Mr. Villas, thank you.

1102
01:22:01,930 --> 01:22:03,790
Yeah, this question is near and dear to me.

1103
01:22:03,890 --> 01:22:06,910
And it's something that I am really proud of from the work of my commission.

1104
01:22:07,990 --> 01:22:13,610
The previous commission, and we should name the mayor, Shlomo dancing, or who was really the culprit behind this.

1105
01:22:14,010 --> 01:22:17,050
Use the police at meetings to eject people regularly.

1106
01:22:17,050 --> 01:22:22,450
I was forced to stop speaking at one point when the commission was trying to do this weird

1107
01:22:22,450 --> 01:22:27,710
favor for the developer of the Champlain site to increase their buildable space by something

1108
01:22:27,710 --> 01:22:29,970
worth tens of millions of dollars and I was asked.

1109
01:22:30,000 --> 01:22:37,180
Can we find out who paid for your trip to Dubai? Because that seems to cast a shadow over this whole thing. I was forced to stop speaking.

1110
01:22:38,120 --> 01:22:43,180
And the way they did that was there was a rule that said, you couldn't make in pertinent comments.

1111
01:22:43,700 --> 01:22:51,080
Well, we changed the rule. Now you're allowed to speak, and the only time that they can cut you off is if the speech is incendiary or threatening.

1112
01:22:51,580 --> 01:22:54,320
So people like me would be able to ask questions like that.

1113
01:22:54,320 --> 01:22:59,720
We also created a mechanism where the other commission can override the mayor when they

1114
01:22:59,720 --> 01:23:01,740
silent somebody with a privileged motion.

1115
01:23:02,100 --> 01:23:05,240
But the number one thing that we have to do, and this is really important, is have a professional

1116
01:23:05,240 --> 01:23:08,180
police force that won't retaliate.

1117
01:23:08,660 --> 01:23:12,560
Ms. Kinser mentioned when Shlomodansinger fired the financial director for no reason.

1118
01:23:12,800 --> 01:23:17,920
He also fired the chief of police, and installed people who were loyalists, and those

1119
01:23:17,920 --> 01:23:20,320
people were willing to do the mayor's bidding.

1120
01:23:20,320 --> 01:23:31,560
Right now, we have a professional chief of police in Charles Press, who would never, never retaliate against somebody for their speech and never take direction from a commissioner who tried to do so.

1121
01:23:31,820 --> 01:23:37,360
That is critical. That's one of the things on most proud of that we have a professional police force that won't engage in that sort of thing.

1122
01:23:52,160 --> 01:23:52,600
Mr. Wang.

1123
01:23:53,540 --> 01:23:57,900
Let's be neighborly. Let's be nice. Everyone deserves to be listened to. That's what the mic's there for.

1124
01:23:57,900 --> 01:24:00,320
And that's what the three minutes of opportunity is.

1125
01:24:00,520 --> 01:24:07,540
I encourage those at the mic to respect the mic and the other 5700 or so residents of

1126
01:24:07,540 --> 01:24:12,520
the serve side because the goal and the objective there is for us to improve the quality of

1127
01:24:12,520 --> 01:24:15,960
life for one another and so you know let's work together.

1128
01:24:16,040 --> 01:24:18,020
Let's be able to be more listening and more understanding.

1129
01:24:19,900 --> 01:24:20,220
Very good.

1130
01:24:20,300 --> 01:24:21,640
Thank you.

1131
01:24:22,100 --> 01:24:22,760
It's been Marguer.

1132
01:24:23,280 --> 01:24:23,800
Yes.

1133
01:24:23,800 --> 01:24:31,340
So my philosophy in life is we can agree to disagree as long as we respect each other and be

1134
01:24:31,340 --> 01:24:31,900
civil.

1135
01:24:32,400 --> 01:24:33,160
Thank you so much.

1136
01:24:33,860 --> 01:24:34,360
Thank you.

1137
01:24:34,760 --> 01:24:35,640
Thank you.

1138
01:24:35,640 --> 01:24:35,860
Thank you.

1139
01:24:36,080 --> 01:24:36,100
Thank you.

1140
01:24:36,100 --> 01:24:37,000
Thank you.

1141
01:24:37,000 --> 01:24:43,660
I think that we shouldn't be in this position if we disagree with people.

1142
01:24:43,820 --> 01:24:50,300
We can disagree with people, but rejecting others opinions is not a place here.

1143
01:24:50,300 --> 01:25:00,320
So I think that this commission or the future commission should be, should gear it towards respecting one another, that's the first thing.

1144
01:25:00,900 --> 01:25:02,980
And then respecting the will of the residents.

1145
01:25:03,780 --> 01:25:04,360
Thank you.

1146
01:25:04,840 --> 01:25:05,520
Thank you.

1147
01:25:07,480 --> 01:25:08,520
If you're below the grounds?

1148
01:25:09,480 --> 01:25:13,100
I think the key word is respect and respect has to go both ways.

1149
01:25:13,640 --> 01:25:17,900
When someone comes up to the podium and speaks to me or anybody else up here,

1150
01:25:18,460 --> 01:25:20,040
I would expect them to have respect.

1151
01:25:20,040 --> 01:25:25,900
But if they want to get angry, that's fine with me, they can yell and get upset as much as they want.

1152
01:25:26,080 --> 01:25:29,060
Keep talking as much as they want until they get blue in the face.

1153
01:25:29,540 --> 01:25:30,460
I don't really care.

1154
01:25:31,180 --> 01:25:36,940
I have no anger issues whatsoever, and I would never show anger back at somebody.

1155
01:25:37,740 --> 01:25:44,600
But if they want to get up there and be upset, it's okay with me, and I would never have anybody thrown out for any reason.

1156
01:25:44,600 --> 01:25:50,620
nor would I let anybody alongside me request to have somebody thrown out.

1157
01:25:50,940 --> 01:25:51,840
Thank you.

1158
01:25:51,840 --> 01:25:52,980
There you go.

1159
01:25:56,810 --> 01:25:57,330
Ms. Kendor.

1160
01:25:57,770 --> 01:25:58,330
Thank you.

1161
01:25:58,390 --> 01:26:00,670
I'll refrain from the old daddage about opinions.

1162
01:26:00,870 --> 01:26:02,330
I'm sure you all know it.

1163
01:26:03,310 --> 01:26:06,510
And in an account of a blocks, we have a lot of opinions,

1164
01:26:07,070 --> 01:26:09,070
but opinions should always be heard.

1165
01:26:10,130 --> 01:26:14,650
Part of the reason that all of us are sitting up here is we're looking for your votes.

1166
01:26:15,290 --> 01:26:17,970
Any commissioner or mayor or vice mayor,

1167
01:26:17,970 --> 01:26:20,710
serves at the behest of you guys, the voters.

1168
01:26:21,350 --> 01:26:24,470
If we don't let you speak, we aren't running a democracy.

1169
01:26:24,770 --> 01:26:25,770
This country is a democracy.

1170
01:26:26,790 --> 01:26:29,210
Speech is protected under First Amendment rights

1171
01:26:29,210 --> 01:26:36,190
to violate that and use a force to arrest a young man

1172
01:26:36,190 --> 01:26:38,690
and potentially ruin his future.

1173
01:26:40,370 --> 01:26:44,110
I don't think I got more polls about Champlain

1174
01:26:44,110 --> 01:26:46,290
than I did about the arrest of Joshua Abstein.

1175
01:26:46,290 --> 01:26:51,750
sorry to use him. Okay? People know I live in Surfside. They know my father was involved. They

1176
01:26:51,750 --> 01:26:58,650
know who I am. Those were the most disgusting calls I've ever received in my life. And it was

1177
01:26:58,650 --> 01:27:05,710
hard to watch. And it was hard to watch neighbor fight neighbor over the fact that we became a police

1178
01:27:05,710 --> 01:27:13,030
state. This is the democracy and everyone is free to speak. Whether we like it or not, every

1179
01:27:13,030 --> 01:27:17,250
President should be heard and have the allotted time frame.

1180
01:27:18,150 --> 01:27:19,350
I stand for that.

1181
01:27:19,970 --> 01:27:22,650
I, you know, I'm sitting up here asking you to listen to me.

1182
01:27:22,650 --> 01:27:24,810
I need to be able to listen to you.

1183
01:27:25,090 --> 01:27:27,710
And at the end of the day, I keep saying we are all neighbors.

1184
01:27:28,170 --> 01:27:29,630
We need to agree to disagree.

1185
01:27:33,040 --> 01:27:33,320
There we go.

1186
01:27:38,500 --> 01:27:39,420
Mr. Management.

1187
01:27:39,740 --> 01:27:44,420
Well said, everyone, as I did serve on the prior commission,

1188
01:27:44,420 --> 01:27:53,660
I had to deal with sometimes very challenging conversations and debates, yes, several people.

1189
01:27:53,720 --> 01:27:57,520
A handful of people were asked to leave, did not, and they were escorted out of the building.

1190
01:27:58,620 --> 01:28:07,900
My personal philosophy, and as the mayor owns the gavel, he or she has the opportunity or the responsibility to manage the proceeding.

1191
01:28:07,900 --> 01:28:13,360
as a commissioner, I do not, and previously that provision, that the current commission

1192
01:28:13,360 --> 01:28:16,560
put in place to reinstate a speaker didn't exist.

1193
01:28:16,840 --> 01:28:23,680
So yes, I personally would never, and I never would stop anyone from saying what they want

1194
01:28:23,680 --> 01:28:29,960
to say, never again should anyone be thrown out during good and wealthier, there's a regulation

1195
01:28:29,960 --> 01:28:32,840
where you're not supposed to talk about issues that are on the agenda.

1196
01:28:33,500 --> 01:28:37,380
In my opinion, it's my opinion, personally, those three minutes are yours.

1197
01:28:37,380 --> 01:28:42,580
say what you want to say to the commission, but do it professionally, do it as a mature person,

1198
01:28:42,820 --> 01:28:49,160
do not use profanity because our children watch these proceedings live or in future states.

1199
01:28:50,020 --> 01:28:56,900
So don't swear. I have a very thick skin. I did this for two years. People yelled at me.

1200
01:28:57,280 --> 01:29:01,860
People screamed at me. People threatened me. People did a lot of things. And I took it.

1201
01:29:01,860 --> 01:29:03,540
I will keep taking it as a commissioner.

1202
01:29:04,020 --> 01:29:08,780
Say what you want to say, but let's be as civil to each other as we can be.

1203
01:29:08,900 --> 01:29:09,860
Thank you.

1204
01:29:10,440 --> 01:29:11,200
Thank you.

1205
01:29:12,890 --> 01:29:14,250
We're going to do one more question.

1206
01:29:14,730 --> 01:29:16,150
One more question.

1207
01:29:16,390 --> 01:29:18,310
Because we have closing statements to do.

1208
01:29:18,670 --> 01:29:22,270
And I know there's made a clock, you know, deadline here of sorts.

1209
01:29:22,410 --> 01:29:24,610
But I'm going to run it over a little bit with this last question.

1210
01:29:25,350 --> 01:29:28,390
And this question starts with you, Mr.ville, the Stockway.

1211
01:29:29,170 --> 01:29:29,990
People like it.

1212
01:29:30,810 --> 01:29:31,390
Did I get it right?

1213
01:29:31,390 --> 01:29:31,630
What?

1214
01:29:32,130 --> 01:29:32,690
Velvastiki.

1215
01:29:33,310 --> 01:29:33,810
Velvastiki.

1216
01:29:34,870 --> 01:29:35,250
Thank you.

1217
01:29:35,790 --> 01:29:37,410
If I would say that wrong, I'd say.

1218
01:29:38,610 --> 01:29:40,770
People like to mention that elected officials

1219
01:29:40,770 --> 01:29:43,830
should focus on issues that affect quality of life.

1220
01:29:44,530 --> 01:29:47,970
What does the term quality of life mean to you?

1221
01:29:49,390 --> 01:29:50,170
That's a great question.

1222
01:29:51,490 --> 01:29:53,250
In my last campaign, I made quality of life

1223
01:29:53,250 --> 01:29:55,310
one of the main sort of organizing principles

1224
01:29:55,310 --> 01:29:56,510
of my speech.

1225
01:29:56,970 --> 01:29:59,690
I think it means at least

1226
01:29:59,690 --> 01:29:59,790
Thank you.

1227
01:30:00,000 --> 01:30:06,520
The things. One is that if you don't want to engage in politics day-to-day and serve side, you just want

1228
01:30:06,520 --> 01:30:12,140
to live your life, you're free to do that. And you can trust that everything in the town is going

1229
01:30:12,140 --> 01:30:19,400
to work well enough that you can focus on your family, your career, your garden, whatever is

1230
01:30:19,400 --> 01:30:25,540
most important to you. It means a kind of freedom from worry. I also, you know, and that means having

1231
01:30:25,540 --> 01:30:31,700
High-quality government services that are reliable all the time. I also think it means in

1232
01:30:31,700 --> 01:30:35,500
Surfside because if you ask people, why do you enjoy living here? They often mention the quality

1233
01:30:35,500 --> 01:30:40,780
of life and I think they mean something more than that, too. They mean there's something kind of special about

1234
01:30:40,780 --> 01:30:48,700
this town that we really savor. Like it has a really particular flavor. I remember in my last two years ago

1235
01:30:48,700 --> 01:30:53,680
I talked about the soul of the town and I think keeping that alive is a big part of the quality of life.

1236
01:30:53,680 --> 01:31:00,560
So it's the distinctive feature of our events, of our community gatherings, the things we do,

1237
01:31:00,680 --> 01:31:06,240
the personality that the town has that enriches the quality of life. Of course, though, it encompasses

1238
01:31:06,240 --> 01:31:14,300
just about any issue, so traffic can be a big detractor from quality of life. But as I said,

1239
01:31:14,480 --> 01:31:20,320
I see it more as a kind of freedom from worry, as being able to live your life as a surfcider,

1240
01:31:20,320 --> 01:31:27,020
and engage with politics only when you want to and not because you feel you have to in order to defend something important to you.

1241
01:31:27,020 --> 01:31:27,360
Thank you.

1242
01:31:28,000 --> 01:31:28,000
Thank

1243
01:31:30,560 --> 01:31:31,080
you.

1244
01:31:31,440 --> 01:31:31,600
Mr. Wine.

1245
01:31:34,140 --> 01:31:39,960
Quality of life is the experience to live in peace to know that one is safe, neighbors, they call friends,

1246
01:31:40,340 --> 01:31:44,220
and sharing one another's happy times and support one another at their times in need.

1247
01:31:45,420 --> 01:31:48,360
Everything else rules up under quality of life.

1248
01:31:48,360 --> 01:31:55,180
So, our traffic issues, our public safety, our pedestrian safety, our beach, our path,

1249
01:31:55,960 --> 01:31:59,300
our beautiful nature that we want to protect that all rolls up under there,

1250
01:31:59,340 --> 01:32:04,000
but ultimately to live, neighborly, to be there for one another, and have our lovely community.

1251
01:32:05,720 --> 01:32:06,280
Thank you.

1252
01:32:08,540 --> 01:32:09,560
Ms. Femberg, Ruth?

1253
01:32:10,040 --> 01:32:17,020
Hello. To me, quality of life means having less traffic, like I think everyone shares that idea.

1254
01:32:17,840 --> 01:32:27,040
Also have cleaner streets and cleaner beach being able to go to a beach watch sunset and sunrise.

1255
01:32:27,920 --> 01:32:31,900
Have better lighting at night in the street.

1256
01:32:32,400 --> 01:32:37,380
So we feel safe to walk around safe, safer for the pedestrians.

1257
01:32:38,740 --> 01:32:42,720
And just feeling in general, having public safety.

1258
01:32:43,420 --> 01:32:45,820
That's to me, quality of life and service. Thank you.

1259
01:32:45,820 --> 01:32:47,820
There you go.

1260
01:32:48,680 --> 01:32:49,100
Just a word.

1261
01:32:49,140 --> 01:32:51,270
There you go.

1262
01:32:51,570 --> 01:32:51,870
I'm sorry.

1263
01:32:52,750 --> 01:32:58,250
Quality of life has a different meaning for every probably single person in this room and

1264
01:32:58,250 --> 01:32:59,970
for people who are watching us.

1265
01:33:00,310 --> 01:33:06,110
So at the end of the day, it could be safety could be a bunch of things that we discuss

1266
01:33:06,110 --> 01:33:06,870
here today.

1267
01:33:07,310 --> 01:33:17,110
But at the end of the day, when it comes to be a commissioner, I think that we have to

1268
01:33:17,110 --> 01:33:23,730
opinion of quality of life. That's why we are here. We are here to listen what people think their quality of life should be.

1269
01:33:24,810 --> 01:33:25,150
That's all.

1270
01:33:25,650 --> 01:33:26,450
Thank you.

1271
01:33:28,910 --> 01:33:30,110
Mr. Blowing Grant?

1272
01:33:30,290 --> 01:33:36,130
I was actually going to start out with what Yana Thin said. Everybody has a different version of a quality of life.

1273
01:33:36,970 --> 01:33:44,650
To me, my life is very simple. I'd like to get up in the morning and go out and get my newspaper and my pajamas and not feel like anybody's

1274
01:33:44,650 --> 01:33:50,030
staring me down and feel very safe out there. It also involves being able to walk the

1275
01:33:50,030 --> 01:33:54,710
street at night with my wife taking a nice long walk, not worrying about anybody

1276
01:33:54,710 --> 01:34:01,190
coming up behind me and surprising us or a car going too fast down the street,

1277
01:34:01,470 --> 01:34:05,990
knowing that there's adequate police out there at all time protecting us. So at

1278
01:34:05,990 --> 01:34:12,310
the end of the day, just going home and knowing that you had a good day with no

1279
01:34:12,310 --> 01:34:20,130
problems and no fear and basically surfside is that way for shirts and it always has been

1280
01:34:20,130 --> 01:34:25,130
that way. That's one of the things we take pride in. We are a very, very safe community

1281
01:34:25,130 --> 01:34:31,730
and that gives everybody here a higher quality of life than in most other communities in

1282
01:34:31,730 --> 01:34:33,330
Miami. Thank you.

1283
01:34:33,510 --> 01:34:34,310
Thank you.

1284
01:34:36,340 --> 01:34:37,600
This can's her.

1285
01:34:38,340 --> 01:34:42,380
Again, as most of the time quality of life, the first thing I wrote down is it's subjective.

1286
01:34:43,500 --> 01:34:49,820
My opinion for quality of life is very different from somebody who's not 45 years old and with no children.

1287
01:34:50,920 --> 01:34:58,040
Again, it's very subjective, and I think that a lot of times when you sit on a commission or you sit on a board or you work with people,

1288
01:34:58,720 --> 01:35:00,300
you only hear the negatives.

1289
01:35:01,900 --> 01:35:10,620
Okay, when people have a problem is when you hear from them, I really think that residents should feel empowered as well

1290
01:35:10,620 --> 01:35:15,200
to come to their commission and tell us when we've done something right. Tell them when they've

1291
01:35:15,200 --> 01:35:20,140
done something good. Don't just come to a town meeting, we've mentioned good and welfare,

1292
01:35:20,860 --> 01:35:25,040
and tell us that your quality of life is wrong, tell us that your quality of life is great and

1293
01:35:25,040 --> 01:35:30,980
why. You know, we can't just have the negative all the time. We do that at restaurants. We don't

1294
01:35:30,980 --> 01:35:37,560
praise our servers for the great service. We only let people know when things are bad. So I think that,

1295
01:35:37,560 --> 01:35:44,800
know, we all have different, different meters on quality of life and you need to be able to

1296
01:35:44,800 --> 01:35:50,120
speak to those you have elected to represent you about what's both good and bad.

1297
01:35:54,340 --> 01:35:59,860
Mr. Landsman, not to repeat what's been said, but yes, everyone has their own interpretation

1298
01:35:59,860 --> 01:36:04,060
of quality of life. What is important to me may not be important to you, but as a commission

1299
01:36:04,060 --> 01:36:10,340
are related to this election and to the work that we may be doing, I will listen to you and

1300
01:36:10,340 --> 01:36:13,020
want to know what your quality of life issues are.

1301
01:36:13,200 --> 01:36:13,780
Is it traffic?

1302
01:36:13,900 --> 01:36:14,460
Is it parking?

1303
01:36:14,740 --> 01:36:15,300
Is it houses?

1304
01:36:16,100 --> 01:36:16,960
Is it schools?

1305
01:36:17,100 --> 01:36:17,560
Is it educate?

1306
01:36:17,700 --> 01:36:18,480
Whatever it might be.

1307
01:36:19,140 --> 01:36:22,880
So, mine is not really that important to anyone outside of this room.

1308
01:36:23,120 --> 01:36:24,260
What is important to you?

1309
01:36:24,320 --> 01:36:24,880
I will listen.

1310
01:36:25,520 --> 01:36:31,700
Something else that's very important to me is that I am a proponent of respecting everyone's

1311
01:36:31,700 --> 01:36:32,060
rights.

1312
01:36:32,260 --> 01:36:33,260
Everyone in this room.

1313
01:36:33,260 --> 01:36:38,460
voter, not voter, friend or foe, I respect your rights to live the life that you want

1314
01:36:38,460 --> 01:36:42,780
to live, to love the person that you want to love, to build a house that you want to build

1315
01:36:42,780 --> 01:36:49,240
within moderation, education, your choice of religion, how you practice all of the above,

1316
01:36:49,420 --> 01:36:56,800
I respect your rights. And as I have the opportunity to serve again, tell me what is important

1317
01:36:56,800 --> 01:37:02,140
to you as a commissioner and I will do what I can to make sure that you have the quality of

1318
01:37:02,140 --> 01:37:03,080
that you deserve.

1319
01:37:07,230 --> 01:37:07,910
Mr. Kervani.

1320
01:37:08,550 --> 01:37:15,050
Yeah, so when I hear the words quality of life, and I've

1321
01:37:15,050 --> 01:37:18,830
a bunch of images and things that come up, like I've

1322
01:37:18,830 --> 01:37:23,250
jotted some of them down like the slow pace of people walking

1323
01:37:23,250 --> 01:37:27,130
on the street and this kind of sensation that you have in

1324
01:37:27,490 --> 01:37:29,970
side, uh, getting to get on the beat.

1325
01:37:30,000 --> 01:37:40,080
Each with my friends, so easy, right? My kids that went to Ruth K. Bra, they were biking to school,

1326
01:37:40,800 --> 01:37:48,860
along with the other kids, and the fact that we live in a international and diverse place, I love

1327
01:37:48,860 --> 01:37:57,100
that I really do. It also means a functional town, obviously, and that's what this is about.

1328
01:37:59,060 --> 01:38:25,120
It's, at the end of the day, it is true, quality of life is subjective, but this is what democracy is about, I think, it's, and it's hard because, you know, we might have different ideas and ideas, maybe a little different from your ideas, and this is what fascinates me about democracy, this art of trying to understand where we can all be.

1329
01:38:25,780 --> 01:38:31,900
How can we be together? Maybe somebody's going to be a little unhappy. I'm maybe going to be a little unhappy.

1330
01:38:32,480 --> 01:38:38,260
But for the most part, we need to have that feeling that we do have this quality of life.

1331
01:38:38,740 --> 01:38:42,240
And communication is also important because...

1332
01:38:42,240 --> 01:38:43,180
Well, I'm sorry.

1333
01:38:44,640 --> 01:38:45,240
Thank you.

1334
01:38:49,540 --> 01:38:54,200
Well, I want to thank all the candidates for the civility shown to each other and to me.

1335
01:38:54,200 --> 01:38:59,340
Yes, it's been relatively easy to manage this this evening and I appreciate it.

1336
01:38:59,420 --> 01:39:03,260
We're going to begin our closing statements now and we'll begin with Mr. Wang.

1337
01:39:04,160 --> 01:39:07,880
Thank you all so much again. As we wrap up this wonderful forum, I want to thank the League

1338
01:39:07,880 --> 01:39:14,200
Woman Voters and Miami Data County of Miami Data County and the town of Surfside once again for creating the space where we can come together as community.

1339
01:39:14,860 --> 01:39:21,580
Your efforts make democracy thrive right here in our special town. To my fellow candidates, thank you for your passion and ideas.

1340
01:39:21,580 --> 01:39:25,420
Regardless of the outcome, I know Surfside is stronger because of voices like yours.

1341
01:39:26,400 --> 01:39:30,400
And to all of you are dedicated to residents, whether you're here in the room or watching,

1342
01:39:31,120 --> 01:39:35,600
from home, your questions tonight haven't inspired me. You've shown why Surfside is so unique

1343
01:39:35,600 --> 01:39:40,400
because of invested caring neighbors like you who keep our town vibrant and connected. Tonight

1344
01:39:40,400 --> 01:39:45,680
we discuss critical issues like quality of life, resilience, and beauty, balancing development to protect

1345
01:39:45,680 --> 01:39:50,280
our charm, while respecting property rights, tackling parking and traffic with smart,

1346
01:39:50,280 --> 01:39:54,800
resident focus solutions, and elevating our overall quality of life to make, serve side

1347
01:39:54,800 --> 01:39:58,600
the premier place to live in South Florida to keep, serve side that way.

1348
01:39:59,280 --> 01:40:03,180
I'm confident we can address these head-on, drawing from my experience in community service,

1349
01:40:03,320 --> 01:40:07,840
business leadership, and board governance, where I've always focused on unifying people, finding

1350
01:40:07,840 --> 01:40:09,800
common ground, and delivering results.

1351
01:40:10,380 --> 01:40:13,940
My vision is clear and achievable, a world-class serve side with A-level government

1352
01:40:13,940 --> 01:40:18,920
services, unmatched safety, transparent accountability, and real measurable results that enhance

1353
01:40:18,920 --> 01:40:24,360
every residence life. From preserving our beloved walking paths and beaches to ensuring our

1354
01:40:24,360 --> 01:40:28,800
infrastructure is storm ready and our streets are safe and flowing. I'm ready to roll up my sleeves

1355
01:40:28,800 --> 01:40:33,480
and get it done. I'm excited about our future. Together with positivity and determination,

1356
01:40:34,060 --> 01:40:38,340
we'll keep the serve side moving forward, stronger, safer, and more united than ever.

1357
01:40:38,740 --> 01:40:43,140
I humbly asked for your vote on March 17th. It would be my greatest honor to serve you on this

1358
01:40:43,140 --> 01:40:44,140
Thank you.

1359
01:40:49,390 --> 01:40:50,730
Mr. Villabas, do you?

1360
01:40:51,670 --> 01:40:52,450
So, thank you everybody.

1361
01:40:52,590 --> 01:40:54,170
This evening has been too short.

1362
01:40:55,030 --> 01:40:56,670
We've had many questions.

1363
01:40:56,870 --> 01:40:59,950
We've been able to just scratch the surface on them.

1364
01:41:00,310 --> 01:41:05,110
So, what's going to have to happen tonight, as we all say, goodbye, is that we're going to

1365
01:41:05,110 --> 01:41:10,350
have to continue this campaign for the next under two weeks out, knocking on doors,

1366
01:41:10,450 --> 01:41:11,030
talking to you.

1367
01:41:11,070 --> 01:41:15,130
And I think that's where I want to leave this crowd as thinking about what comes next.

1368
01:41:15,130 --> 01:41:20,310
I want to say that I repeat what I said in the beginning about the traits that I think you're

1369
01:41:20,310 --> 01:41:24,050
going to have to look at when you decide who to vote for, because we're all nice people

1370
01:41:24,050 --> 01:41:25,410
here and we all love Surfside.

1371
01:41:26,190 --> 01:41:31,410
You have to think about, I think, who brings the right temperament, who brings the courage

1372
01:41:31,410 --> 01:41:35,750
to speak truth to power, who brings the right kind of knowledge about the town, knowledge

1373
01:41:35,750 --> 01:41:40,810
about the law, and who brings the right kind of experience, especially experience in the

1374
01:41:40,810 --> 01:41:43,170
issues that face the town and in the government of the town.

1375
01:41:43,870 --> 01:41:49,870
That's going to get reflected in the kind of campaign that we run and I just want to let you know what you might hear from me in the next couple of weeks.

1376
01:41:50,630 --> 01:41:57,050
If you see my yard sign around town, every single one of those yard signs is at a house with a real occupant who's my supporter.

1377
01:41:57,610 --> 01:42:07,410
Not a single one of the houses that has my yard sign to my knowledge is the house owned by a shell corporation and I have no yard signs on empty lots that speak, you know, where nobody lives.

1378
01:42:08,010 --> 01:42:17,330
If you dig deeper, if you dig deeper into my financial reports, you're going to see that every single donation I've received is from a neighbor or a personal friend who believes in me.

1379
01:42:17,690 --> 01:42:22,430
I'm only able, when I do things this way, the old school surf sideway, I can only raise about $3 or $4,000.

1380
01:42:23,810 --> 01:42:29,330
But you should know that if somebody knocks on your door and asks you to vote for me, that person isn't being paid.

1381
01:42:29,590 --> 01:42:34,150
If somebody hands you my flyer, they're not being paid. They're volunteers who are there because they believe in me.

1382
01:42:34,710 --> 01:42:39,110
If you get a postcard that was written by somebody for my campaign, it was written by a real

1383
01:42:39,110 --> 01:42:40,990
neighbor who signed their real name.

1384
01:42:41,370 --> 01:42:43,010
That's the kind of campaign I want to run.

1385
01:42:43,450 --> 01:42:46,930
But that also means repudiating that people who use the other techniques.

1386
01:42:47,350 --> 01:42:51,630
There is a dark money pack called Surfside First, and we didn't get to talk about it, so

1387
01:42:51,630 --> 01:42:52,930
I need to talk about it now.

1388
01:42:53,830 --> 01:42:59,650
We won't know who's spending the money to send these flyers that are coming into our mailboxes

1389
01:42:59,650 --> 01:43:01,030
day in, day out right now.

1390
01:43:01,030 --> 01:43:07,130
But we saw this last year and they were developers who put $40,000 in to a pack that was

1391
01:43:07,130 --> 01:43:11,770
closely allied with slow-mo dancinger and that, you know, was endorsing my colleague here

1392
01:43:11,770 --> 01:43:16,630
friend Lansman and he wouldn't repudiate them. On the election day last year, the director of

1393
01:43:16,630 --> 01:43:22,930
that pack Aaron Nevin spent the entire day sitting next to Dansinger Lansman and Rose. And once again,

1394
01:43:23,070 --> 01:43:27,310
this campaign is going to get flooded with money. And if you want that not to happen,

1395
01:43:27,310 --> 01:43:30,810
you have to repudiate the candidates who are doing this.

1396
01:43:31,210 --> 01:43:34,010
They are poisoning the political dialogue in Surfside.

1397
01:43:34,150 --> 01:43:35,710
And so this is a make or break election.

1398
01:43:36,030 --> 01:43:38,770
If this kind of campaigning, this Surfside first

1399
01:43:38,770 --> 01:43:41,910
that was founded in Tallahassee is allowed to win,

1400
01:43:42,150 --> 01:43:43,590
then this is going to be the kind of election

1401
01:43:43,590 --> 01:43:46,050
we get every two years in this town.

1402
01:43:46,410 --> 01:43:49,330
You judge people by the campaigns that they run,

1403
01:43:49,570 --> 01:43:51,310
but also by the truth that they tell you

1404
01:43:51,310 --> 01:43:52,750
about the other people's campaigns.

1405
01:43:53,010 --> 01:43:54,970
And I urge you to think about that very hard

1406
01:43:54,970 --> 01:43:55,890
when you cast your ballot.

1407
01:44:12,530 --> 01:44:20,130
Before we continue, Mr. Landsman, you are named check, and I'll give you 30 seconds to reply or respond if you wish.

1408
01:44:21,550 --> 01:44:22,650
Right now, if you wish.

1409
01:44:23,710 --> 01:44:30,650
So, took to the closing argument to have some level of, I guess, acrimony here amongst our candidates, I wasn't expecting that,

1410
01:44:31,270 --> 01:44:36,730
but I will tell the audience here, clearly, I am not associated with any pack,

1411
01:44:37,310 --> 01:44:39,750
Surfside first, surfside last, surfside, anything.

1412
01:44:40,050 --> 01:44:41,410
I'm not backed by them.

1413
01:44:41,750 --> 01:44:43,910
Their flyers will not include my name.

1414
01:44:44,250 --> 01:44:45,630
I don't know who's behind it.

1415
01:44:45,650 --> 01:44:47,970
I have no association with this pack whatsoever.

1416
01:44:48,830 --> 01:44:52,010
My campaign contractions have been less than yours, Jerry.

1417
01:44:52,490 --> 01:44:56,270
And I have had only people helping that care about me.

1418
01:44:56,290 --> 01:44:57,670
I'm the one knocking indoors.

1419
01:44:58,170 --> 01:44:58,970
No one else.

1420
01:44:59,430 --> 01:44:59,970
So I am not...

1421
01:45:00,000 --> 01:45:05,320
Associate with that, and you will not see my name on any of those flyers. Thank you.

1422
01:45:11,010 --> 01:45:15,130
Now, back to our regular programming. We'll have Mr. Providing to do as closing statement.

1423
01:45:15,450 --> 01:45:18,650
Yeah. All right. Very, very, very important words.

1424
01:45:20,470 --> 01:45:23,850
All right. So elections are always a big deal.

1425
01:45:24,410 --> 01:45:30,110
And I appreciate that you all want to make sure you elect the right leadership.

1426
01:45:30,110 --> 01:45:36,150
While I was canvassing, I felt really blessed to have this opportunity to speak to so many residents.

1427
01:45:36,970 --> 01:45:39,130
I've never had the opportunity to meet before.

1428
01:45:39,530 --> 01:45:43,950
And I think this captures precisely the essence of all this.

1429
01:45:44,270 --> 01:45:46,850
The very reason why we are here tonight.

1430
01:45:47,530 --> 01:45:49,350
Relationships and passion.

1431
01:45:50,290 --> 01:45:52,250
We're a town of over 6,000 residents.

1432
01:45:52,870 --> 01:45:59,830
And we're here to make sure we have a peaceful and qualitative coexistence in a functional and beautiful place.

1433
01:46:00,550 --> 01:46:05,570
When I decided to run, I actually did so out of a sense of obligation, I have to be

1434
01:46:05,570 --> 01:46:10,570
obviously there. Thankfully, my life is already filled with a lot of joys, my family,

1435
01:46:10,670 --> 01:46:16,970
my career, my non-profit, my volunteering. But I grew up in a small town in Italy with

1436
01:46:16,970 --> 01:46:24,630
this unshakable sense of community, where serving was not an option. It was as essential as

1437
01:46:24,630 --> 01:46:31,410
the air we breathe. It was almost as pervasive as it was 2500 years ago for the ancient Greeks

1438
01:46:31,410 --> 01:46:37,590
where the police, the town, was more important than the individual. Why? Because the town

1439
01:46:37,590 --> 01:46:44,230
survives the individual. But then as I started walking the streets and meeting more and more people,

1440
01:46:44,870 --> 01:46:54,610
a different sensation began growing inside me. It was an only sense of duty anymore. It was the

1441
01:46:54,610 --> 01:47:00,930
in this together. The disposition bears not only responsibility but also a sense of connection.

1442
01:47:02,570 --> 01:47:08,270
Only then technical topics like traffic regulations, smart growth, beach protection,

1443
01:47:09,170 --> 01:47:15,430
resiliency, communication, drainage, budget, make sense. We want to do them right not only because

1444
01:47:15,430 --> 01:47:21,650
it's technically pleasing. I have to say that because I'm an engineer so. But especially because

1445
01:47:21,650 --> 01:47:27,650
We are the physical framework over which lives and relationships develop.

1446
01:47:31,220 --> 01:47:36,640
I truly believe that politics is the highest form of charity.

1447
01:47:37,180 --> 01:47:39,880
Politics is the highest form of charity.

1448
01:47:41,000 --> 01:47:46,660
And I think that putting my passion, my technical skills and my analytical mindset at

1449
01:47:46,660 --> 01:47:53,900
your disposal as my promise to you that I will serve with an engineer's mind and volunteers

1450
01:47:53,900 --> 01:47:55,740
here's hard. Thank you.

1451
01:48:08,340 --> 01:48:13,940
Mr. Landsman, now back to our regular programming. Thank you again

1452
01:48:13,940 --> 01:48:19,400
to the League of Women's Voters, Dr. Murphy, our town staff, Sandra McCreedy, who's been

1453
01:48:19,400 --> 01:48:24,120
here way too many hours this week. I'm sure and would like to go home and of course thank

1454
01:48:24,120 --> 01:48:29,220
you to the residents of Surfside. In just a few days you will have the opportunity to vote

1455
01:48:29,220 --> 01:48:35,820
for your next commission. Surfside needs a commission that will listen, consider options,

1456
01:48:36,620 --> 01:48:43,720
debate and work to bring balance and I'll say that we're again balance while making the best possible decisions.

1457
01:48:45,040 --> 01:48:52,140
We have a lot of work to do in a very short two years. I will continue to listen and learn from all of our residents.

1458
01:48:54,040 --> 01:49:05,280
I support your rights, your our dedicated police department, our town employees, our businesses, and all of our residents. Thank you.

1459
01:49:12,620 --> 01:49:13,500
Thank you.

1460
01:49:13,700 --> 01:49:16,520
Again, I'd also like to thank all of you for being here.

1461
01:49:16,600 --> 01:49:17,840
All of you watching from home.

1462
01:49:17,880 --> 01:49:20,260
All of you will be coming out on March 17th.

1463
01:49:20,440 --> 01:49:21,460
Please come and say hello.

1464
01:49:22,200 --> 01:49:23,780
I'd like to thank the town staff.

1465
01:49:24,260 --> 01:49:28,860
I know how many countless hours you guys put in that people do not know about.

1466
01:49:30,700 --> 01:49:31,860
And to my family and friends.

1467
01:49:33,120 --> 01:49:36,720
As demonstrated on this DS, I'm not afraid to give straight answers to questions.

1468
01:49:36,720 --> 01:49:40,200
I have no problems being transparent and agreeing to disagree.

1469
01:49:41,080 --> 01:49:44,860
I am capable of empathy and putting myself in other shoes.

1470
01:49:45,660 --> 01:49:47,580
As I've told some of you while canvassing,

1471
01:49:47,940 --> 01:49:51,460
I was in a unique position after the Champlain's Hours collapse.

1472
01:49:52,360 --> 01:49:55,820
I worked for JCS at the time and I was the one who picked up the phone

1473
01:49:55,820 --> 01:49:58,480
for every donation given to them.

1474
01:49:59,140 --> 01:50:01,880
For their work with the Champlain's Hours survivors,

1475
01:50:01,880 --> 01:50:07,280
I picked up every phone call and spoke to every person who gave to our town.

1476
01:50:08,960 --> 01:50:12,520
It was overwhelming the amount of love.

1477
01:50:13,780 --> 01:50:18,300
I have the best interest of this heart of this town and my heart and residents.

1478
01:50:19,120 --> 01:50:25,300
Please know that a vote for me is a vote to have your voice heard and your town protected to the best of my abilities.

1479
01:50:25,300 --> 01:50:28,460
I remind you that I'm a true child of this town.

1480
01:50:29,200 --> 01:50:35,040
For five years, I might have actually been the youngest person in this town by at least 30 years.

1481
01:50:36,240 --> 01:50:41,040
The recreation program helps shape my formative years after elementary school and during summers.

1482
01:50:41,640 --> 01:50:43,220
The community center gave me autonomy.

1483
01:50:43,780 --> 01:50:46,420
It's not far allowing my friends that I'd like to make lasting memories.

1484
01:50:47,000 --> 01:50:50,860
As a kid on the weekends, every kid in town wrote their bikes together.

1485
01:50:51,000 --> 01:50:54,420
No matter what school we want to and we all played together.

1486
01:50:54,420 --> 01:50:58,420
We didn't come home until somebody's mother screams in her.

1487
01:50:58,920 --> 01:51:01,640
I grew up the same way that my father and his siblings did,

1488
01:51:01,860 --> 01:51:06,760
as Bill did, as Gerardo did, and I hope as your kids will continue to do.

1489
01:51:07,640 --> 01:51:11,780
I only want this town to keep its zoning, to keep its character,

1490
01:51:12,340 --> 01:51:16,140
to provide the next generation with the opportunity to make lasting memories

1491
01:51:16,140 --> 01:51:21,060
and to be resilient. I want all residents to feel that their voices are heard,

1492
01:51:21,060 --> 01:51:24,920
And they can have a place in this inclusive community we call a home.

1493
01:51:25,460 --> 01:51:29,440
I was lucky that as the youngest resident, people let me speak.

1494
01:51:30,360 --> 01:51:32,380
I also promised for those of you I'd be sad.

1495
01:51:32,560 --> 01:51:33,900
I will not do with the older residents.

1496
01:51:34,000 --> 01:51:35,920
Stayed until you when I diverge you.

1497
01:51:38,280 --> 01:51:42,120
But I hope that when you guys come out, you vote with your consciences.

1498
01:51:42,320 --> 01:51:43,960
And you vote for what's best for this town.

1499
01:51:44,140 --> 01:51:46,820
I thank you for your time and all the love you've shown.

1500
01:51:54,180 --> 01:51:54,980
Mr. Blumentcrout.

1501
01:51:54,980 --> 01:51:58,640
All right, everybody, well said so far.

1502
01:51:59,860 --> 01:52:02,220
So the town face is a lot of challenges,

1503
01:52:02,660 --> 01:52:06,220
especially because to the north and south of us,

1504
01:52:06,320 --> 01:52:10,580
there's a growing population and growing traffic.

1505
01:52:11,480 --> 01:52:13,680
These didn't exist when I was younger,

1506
01:52:14,000 --> 01:52:15,640
so we didn't have to deal with these problems,

1507
01:52:15,660 --> 01:52:16,700
but now we do.

1508
01:52:17,540 --> 01:52:22,880
So I'm ready to keep the town in a small ways

1509
01:52:22,880 --> 01:52:27,360
as possible, keep a small town feel as best we can.

1510
01:52:27,880 --> 01:52:29,980
It's not going to be easy, but a more...

1511
01:52:30,000 --> 01:52:39,340
We're willing to work with anybody in any suggestions they may have to keep this small town feel that we have.

1512
01:52:39,940 --> 01:52:54,000
Also, I have a unique connection to the Police Department. I know many of the command staff and rank and file officers by first name. I also know a lot of the employees by first name.

1513
01:52:54,000 --> 01:53:00,240
And I also served on the pension board for the Police Department for two years.

1514
01:53:00,860 --> 01:53:04,640
So I do have a sense of what's going on in town hall.

1515
01:53:05,060 --> 01:53:07,420
I know what the morale is in town hall.

1516
01:53:07,660 --> 01:53:09,720
I know the problems in town hall.

1517
01:53:10,320 --> 01:53:12,120
And I know how they could be fixed.

1518
01:53:13,120 --> 01:53:20,660
So between keeping the town itself in order and keeping the town hall in order,

1519
01:53:21,700 --> 01:53:24,400
It's quite a task and I'm up to it.

1520
01:53:24,420 --> 01:53:27,960
I've always wanted to be here on the commission,

1521
01:53:28,840 --> 01:53:31,220
but in previous years I could not do it

1522
01:53:31,220 --> 01:53:33,580
because my wife was an employee here,

1523
01:53:33,820 --> 01:53:35,640
so there was a conflict of interest.

1524
01:53:36,000 --> 01:53:38,540
She is no longer here as many of you know,

1525
01:53:38,760 --> 01:53:40,600
so that opened the door for me.

1526
01:53:40,940 --> 01:53:43,520
And that is the only reason I am here

1527
01:53:43,520 --> 01:53:46,680
because the door is open and I wanna make things happen.

1528
01:53:46,960 --> 01:53:47,940
Thank you.

1529
01:53:54,300 --> 01:54:02,000
Thank you again to the organizers and to everyone who came here tonight and those who are watching at home.

1530
01:54:02,700 --> 01:54:15,200
This election matters because our town is at an important moment. Over the past couple of years we've seen a lot of instability and decisions that didn't always move us forward.

1531
01:54:16,220 --> 01:54:22,600
Projects were started and stopped plans were changed along the way and valuable time and resources were lost.

1532
01:54:23,240 --> 01:54:30,700
What residents want now its stability, concrete results and leadership that focuses on getting things done properly.

1533
01:54:31,940 --> 01:54:37,900
Surfside is a diverse community made up of many different backgrounds, perspectives and experience.

1534
01:54:37,900 --> 01:54:47,960
The diversity is one of our strength, but it also means that we have to work harder to listen to one another and find common ground.

1535
01:54:49,060 --> 01:54:54,600
I believe the role of commissioners to bring people together approach problems with the practical mindset.

1536
01:54:55,880 --> 01:55:05,240
Relionic expertise when needed and make decisions carefully, measuring twice and cutting once, so we get things right the first time.

1537
01:55:05,940 --> 01:55:12,500
So my goal is simple to help bring stability, thoughtful planning, and a spirit of cooperation

1538
01:55:12,500 --> 01:55:17,280
back to make our town move forward in peace, and I insist on peace.

1539
01:55:18,600 --> 01:55:23,700
And we've success for the benefit of all our residents, I would be grateful for your trust

1540
01:55:23,700 --> 01:55:24,220
and your vote.

1541
01:55:24,320 --> 01:55:25,640
Thank you very much.

1542
01:55:30,050 --> 01:55:30,590
Thank you very much.

1543
01:55:31,310 --> 01:55:31,490
Yes.

1544
01:55:32,610 --> 01:55:38,570
Before I conclude, I would like to thank Dr. Murphy, and I would like to thank the League

1545
01:55:38,570 --> 01:55:47,750
women borders and the Sandra which is being incredible and the entire administration staff from

1546
01:55:47,750 --> 01:55:53,550
town of Sursat and our police department. For their work that they do every day to keep us,

1547
01:55:53,550 --> 01:55:58,670
you know, the town safe running smoothly and serving our residents. Your education to this

1548
01:55:58,670 --> 01:56:06,050
community truly appreciated. I would like also to share something that is very dear important to me

1549
01:56:06,050 --> 01:56:08,650
And it's a concept that is Stanford.

1550
01:56:09,230 --> 01:56:11,150
I stand for a unified community.

1551
01:56:11,710 --> 01:56:14,630
Surset is a special place that I believe

1552
01:56:14,630 --> 01:56:16,810
we all want the same thing.

1553
01:56:17,190 --> 01:56:20,270
A safe and welcoming town where families can thrive

1554
01:56:20,270 --> 01:56:22,810
and neighbors respect one another.

1555
01:56:23,330 --> 01:56:26,430
Lately, we have seen some divisions in our community.

1556
01:56:27,530 --> 01:56:29,690
I believe it's time for something different.

1557
01:56:30,150 --> 01:56:33,630
It's time to move forward with some respect and civility.

1558
01:56:34,850 --> 01:56:43,670
We may all have different opinions and that is completely normal in democracy, but we must remember that we are still neighbors.

1559
01:56:44,790 --> 01:56:54,290
We should be able to respect one another, tolerate our differences, and agree to disagree while continuing to work together for the good of services.

1560
01:56:54,290 --> 01:57:02,490
And to reflect that spirit during my campaign, I started that small initiative that I mentioned previously.

1561
01:57:02,870 --> 01:57:08,350
I asked each one of the candidates running for Commissioner to bring me their own campaign sign.

1562
01:57:08,770 --> 01:57:10,690
So I can place it in front of my yard.

1563
01:57:11,190 --> 01:57:18,530
And my idea was very simple to show that even though we may be running against each other,

1564
01:57:18,990 --> 01:57:23,110
we can still respect one another and conduct a positive campaign.

1565
01:57:23,110 --> 01:57:28,190
It's basically like a message for everyone for the community.

1566
01:57:28,770 --> 01:57:35,170
So you guys see that we really will work for the best of you guys for the residents.

1567
01:57:36,990 --> 01:57:41,910
Because this election should not always be about division.

1568
01:57:42,430 --> 01:57:44,510
It should be about serving our community.

1569
01:57:45,670 --> 01:57:47,970
I am here because I care deeply about sourcing.

1570
01:57:47,970 --> 01:57:52,490
I'm here to listen, to learn, and to serve humbly.

1571
01:57:53,710 --> 01:58:00,050
Let's move forward together with respect, with unity, and with pride in the community we all share.

1572
01:58:00,770 --> 01:58:05,330
I would be honored to serve as your voice, the voice of suicide.

1573
01:58:05,830 --> 01:58:09,090
And I would like to thank all of you that believed in me.

1574
01:58:09,270 --> 01:58:13,530
I'm here because of all of you, because my supporters, because my sponsors.

1575
01:58:13,830 --> 01:58:17,630
Thank you so much for being there for me. Thank you for your love. Thank you.

1576
01:58:23,140 --> 01:58:29,460
It is when I'm closing I want to thank our time keepers Morgan Anderson and Maurice here.

1577
01:58:29,480 --> 01:58:30,640
It's been helping out.

1578
01:58:31,860 --> 01:58:36,720
I made the League of Women voter shows up and makes this work fine and I want to thank

1579
01:58:36,720 --> 01:58:38,060
Sandra for welcoming back.

1580
01:58:38,120 --> 01:58:40,500
I didn't realize this is my 12th.

1581
01:58:41,400 --> 01:58:44,200
It's been 12 years every other year.

1582
01:58:44,560 --> 01:58:50,860
But in an election day as your Irish moderator on March 17th I'll wish you all the best

1583
01:58:50,860 --> 01:58:53,620
the luck and happy St. Patrick's.