Good evening everyone and welcome to the March 5th City Commission meeting. There will be a 10 minute recess taken at 830 City Clerk roll call please. Commissioner Gordon. Here. Commissioner Newbulm. Here. Commissioner Bahu. Here. Vice Mayor Arns. Here. Here. Okay. We will begin with a moment of silence and then the pledge to the flag. Today we have Ria Rivera, our acting finance director who's going to lead flag of the United States of America and to the Republic for which it stands one nation under God, indivisible with liberty and justice for all. Thank you, Rhea. At this time, we have our first proclamation. It is Irish American Heritage Month. Can I have a motion please? Please do a doubt. Second. Commissioner Gordon. Yes, Commissioner Newbold. Yes, Commissioner Bahu. Yes. Vice Mayor Arns and Mayor Longgan. Yes. Commissioner Gordon. Yes. Commissioner Newbold. Yes. Commissioner Bahu. Yes. Vice Mayor Arns. Yes. And Mayor Longigan. Yes. Whereas by 1776, nearly 300,000 Irish nationals had immigrated to the American colonies, played a crucial role in America's war for independence. And whereas the story of Irish Americans has always been one of strength and perseverance through adversity. Many Irish immigrants arrived on America's shores to escape the great famine only to face discrimination, prejudice and poverty. Despite these hard times, they embraced their new homes in every corner of America and helped build and fortify our nation into what it is today. And whereas Irish Americans have enriched our culture and nourished our hearts and souls through the arts and have blessed our nation, whether indomitable spirit, faith, and love for family that has been passed down through the generations. This sense of community, hospitality, resilience, and passion are integral pieces of America's cultural tapestry. And whereas the City of Oakland Park celebrates, the journey and contributions of Irish Americans who helped shape this land of opportunity and define what it means to be American, let us refer them, the legacy of friendship and strong family ties between the United States of America and Ireland, united by a common purpose, by our histories, and by our futures. Now therefore, the City Commission of the City of Oakland Park, Florida, by the authority, vested in by the charter, does hereby authorize Mayor Tim Lodrigan to proclaim the month of March. 2025 is Irish American Heritage Month. Thank you. Thank you, City Clerk. Today, Mr. Ray Lynch, the Secretary of the Ancient Order of Hypernians, thank you, sir. The Ancient Order of Hiburnians is America's oldest Irish Catholic fraternal organization founded concurrently in the coal mining region of Pennsylvania and New York City in May of 1936. The order can trace its roots back to a series of similar societies that existed in Ireland more than 300 years ago. Today, the organization exists in America, Canada, Ireland, England, Wales, and Scotland. And at this time, I would be pleased being a wee bit of Irish myself to present the proclamation. Is he your hair please? Mr. Lynch are you in the audience? No. We'll mail it to him. Thank you. Perfect. Thank you, City Clerk. And at this time we will then move on to our second proclamation. Could I second? Commissioner Gordon. Yes. Commissioner Newbone. Yes. Commissioner Boutou. Yes. Vice Mayor Arntz and Mayor Lonegan. Yes. Whereas the Florida Government Finance Officers Association is a professional association founded in 1937 and serves more than 3,300 professionals from State County and City governments, school districts, colleges and universities, special districts and private firms. And whereas the FGE FOA is dedicated to being your professional resource by providing opportunities to education, networking, leadership and information. And whereas this government finance professional week sponsored by the FGFOA, and all of its member governmental organization is a week long series of activities aimed at recognizing government finance professionals and the vital services that they provide to our state and our community. And whereas during this week, government finance professionals throughout the state of Florida will be acknowledged for their hard work, dedication, and leadership. Now therefore, the City Commissioner of the City of Oakland Park, Florida by the virtue authority, vested by the charter, does hereby authorize Mayor Tim Lonergan to proclaim March 17th to the 21st of 2025 as government finance professionals week in the city of Oakland Park, and extends our appreciation to all government finance professionals throughout the state and here in the city of Oakland Park for their hard work, dedication and leadership. Thank you. Thank you, City Clerk. Tonight, Commissioner Newbold will be presenting the proclamation to Rhea Rivera. She is the acting finance director with her tonight is Carrie Ann Fisher, purchasing manager, Jéril Inches, the budget manager, Tracy Watson Senior, accountant, militant Powell, accountant, Paula Wallman, accounting specialist, not attending tonight, but part of the team includes Michelle Johnson, Comptroller, Katie and Lewis Taylor, senior accountant, Aaron Richter, purchasing specialist, Jayano McAden, purchasing supervisor and Maria Orelana, senior accounting specialist. Also, under the Financial Services Department is the Utility Billing Section headed by Geneva Burgess, Utility Billing Manager, Alberta Chessol, Elba Herrera, Chiquita Tuff, and Eugene L. Stewart. And if you could step up, Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you in addition to the other staff within the city of Oakland Park. And I first moved to Oakland Park, the first person that I came in contact with was Miss Burgess and Miss Geneva Burgess. And she was very informative, very nice. I mean, she pretty much set the tone for my relationship with the city and I was so grateful. She made me so grateful to have made the city my home. But again, it is the honor to present you with this proclamation, this proclamation outlines the government's fiscal strategy, aimed at ensuring financial stability, economic growth and social progress.. You provide the clear roadmap for managing our funds. And we know how important that is. And this proclamation is also a commitment to the people. And I'm sure when people have questions, when budget time is here, we're always asking questions. And so we just want to thank you. And so on behalf of the City Commission, the city manager, we present you this proclamation. Would you like to say something? Good evening, good evening, City Commission. Thank you, Commissioner Newbold. On behalf of the staff, I would like to thank you all for recognizing the government professionals week. Government finance professionals week. Thanks. Yeah. More quick one. More quick one. I'm not going go back to the first thing I'm going to follow around. Pretend you're a seeker. I'm sorry. I'm sorry. I'm sorry. I'm sorry. I'm sorry. I'm sorry. I'm sorry. I'm sorry. I'm sorry. I'm sorry. I'm sorry. I'm sorry. I'm sorry. I'm sorry. I'm sorry. I'm sorry. I'm sorry. I'm sorry. I'm sorry. I'm sorry. I'm sorry. Good. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you and deletions. No, I'm here. Vice mayor? No. No. No. No. Okay, today I would like to postpone agenda item number 13, pull it and push it back to Mr. Averg, do you know which would be a potential? I think the next meeting will be fine for us mayor if that's comfortable for you. Okay. And then we would also like to poll item number 12. Yes, thank you mayor. That was at the request jointly of the city manager and the city clerk for us to gather some additional information before we have that discussion on who should sit on behalf of our team as part of the Board of Trustees of Police and Fire Pension. Thank you. The issue is not to pull it but to defer it. Defer it. Thank you. Thank you. Motion to amend the agenda. Second. Commissioner Gordon. Yes. Commissioner Noobln. Yes. Commissioner Budhu. Yes. Vice Mayor Arns. Yes. Mayor Longan. Yes, thank you, City Clerk. And it will adopt the amended agenda. Second. Commissioner Gordon. Yes, Mr. Newborn. Yes, Commissioner Budhoo by Smaire Arns. Yes, Mayor Longan. Yes. Thank you, Vice Mayor. And at this time, I'd like to acknowledge Commissioner McKenzie from the County, Commissioner McKenzie. Would you like to say a few words? Anything you'd like to say tonight? Come on up. Thank you for joining us. Please use the microphone, sir. Sorry, I don't have a file instruction. One day you'll be in front of me. I know. That's why. Ah, ah, ah. Thanks. Bye, boom. Yeah. It's always a pleasure to be in Oakland Park. You all have made me feel like I'm just one of you. So anytime you call, invite the first I'm here for you. And tonight I'm here because we're going to do a presentation from the Brown County on an improvement on Northwest 21st Avenue. Now about six months ago, I met with Commissioner Nubo and three of the residents from that area, and had a list of concerns of what they wanted done. We tackled everything on that list and I gave you my word. I gave my word to see the manager and the distinguished elected officials. And to Knightham here to give a presentation of what we're going to do, everything that we promised you, plus a few additions, but we're not in the business of selling roads. We're going to keep our road, but anytime that road needs improvement, we're going to do the improvements. And our staff is here tonight to give me that presentation. So that's why I'm here tonight and also St. Patis Day. I want to warm a green. I'm a little Irish. But it's always a pleasure to be in the open policy. Thank you very much for allowing me to speak. There you go. See you at St. Patis Day. Sadder. Thank you, sir. Michael. So at this time we'll start time we have our first presentation, American Public Works Association, Florida Chapter Awards. Yes, thank you very much, Mayor. We are going to call on our distinguished public works director, Albert Carvin, to brag about his new home. Albert, would you please? Thank you City Manager. For the few times I do get a brag. Good evening Mayor. Vice Mayor of City Commission and City Manager, Albert Carbon Public Works Director here to announce the City's new Public Works Facility has been named the American Public Works Association, APWA Florida Chapter Project of the year in buildings and grounds. Okay, there we go. The APWA is an international organization that represents public work staff and agencies in both the private and public sector and the city has been members of APWA for over 10 years. This slide summarizes the APWA Florida ward notification to the city congratulating us on this great facility and some pictures of this fabulous facility. More pictures of the facility and the APWA ward ceremony and banquet will be held on April 30th during the annual conference, APWA annual conference held this year in Orlando. This award achievement is a direct result of dedication, strategic problem solving and collaboration between our engineering team, our construction manager, a risk contractor, and our design team. These projects present challenges, but through determination team work, the city and its project team have delivered a substantial, delivered substantial savings. That will now be returned to the city for future initiatives. This milestone is truly something to celebrate. And I want to extend my deepest gratitude to every team member who played a role in making this happen. Their hard work in making a real impact on our city are all and are all part of this APWA project award and should be recognized and appreciated. Thank you. Thank you, Albert. And we'll open up to the commission. Any comments? Commissioner. Thank you. I just want to simply say congratulations. Job well done. Beautiful, complex. Thank you to staff, you know, the vision of having this incredible facility put in place. and you've just been such an invaluable director. Is the help. facility put in place and you've just been such an invaluable director is the Albert Carbin and we're very proud of what you've done so congratulations on an award well deserved thank you thank you commissioner Gordon for saying that this means so much, this facility means so much to me. And I was once a sanitation worker in Public Works in Salar Wacen Day County. And when I took that tour in the grand opening, I saw that Public Works facility. I told the sky, this is the cleanest it's going to ever be. Okay, it's stated in the art. We have fire, police, emergency management there. And of course I want all my uniforms when I go there when it's time for activation. Very impressive, sir. I'm glad you getting this award in Orlando. I will be up there that supports you. Possibly the mayor too. Okay, so this is a big time award. So congratulations, job well done, tell this whole staff. They did an awesome job. Thank you. Mr. Carvin did all what the rest of the commission is saying. Thank you for everything you and your entire team do. Public works, they work hard. I am so excited and I think we all are that we're going to have five and a half acres of park. Now that we've moved the public works to where we've moved it to. So that's going to really change the park over there and it's adding a lot of green space. And eventually as you all know, we'll be getting a nice new library in there. So things are moving along nicely. So thank you for all your hard work, your team. Not enough words to say. Thank you. Thanks. Oh, Commissioner, I'm so sorry. I too wanna congratulate you. And as you know, we all we are at the facility state of the art great decor everything and not only that you have a great team. So congratulations. Just real quickly I'd like to say thank you to the Finance Department for getting that such a good bond rating and a loan on that on the the sewer water sewer bond issue The architects I think is so sword the architects Hurry sourd Okay, and the and the and the construction team With all that is this I mean, it takes more than one person, and your office too, Sierra, you know, you've got it all together, you've got it. So it's just a showcase. I wish I had some place to work like that for all years. I worked on cars, it was just, it's beautiful. But, you know, it's going to be like that for a long time and it's not going to get dirty. Believe me. You've got a let it get dirty. Thank you, vice mayor. Okay. We will now move on then to our next presentation. The road ahead navigating jurisdiction safety and funding of roadways, Mr. City Manager. Thank you very much, Mayor. The issue of roadways, roadway ownership, roadway improvements, and oversight is a complicated one that involves many different agencies. And we are a small piece of a very large county. And the entities that we partner with, including the MPO as well as the county and their search-axe team, have been enormously supportive to our city and our efforts to try to ensure improved safety and moveability on our streets. But because this is a somewhat complex topic, I've asked my team to pull together a presentation to look at the various aspects of this. And then we're going to zoom in on an issue that was highlighted already by our fabulous County Commissioner, Robert McKenzie, who's been working closely with members of our commission to try to address some additional concerns that were raised by community residents. So our team is assembled, I think. I don't know which one of you is going to be brave enough to enter the lion's land, lion's den first, Albert, you're up. Andrew, that throwing Andrew under the bus, very good. Our assistant city manager, Andrew Thompson, will take the lead on this item. If you would please, sir. Thank you very much. Mr. City manager, good evening mayor, vice mayor, city commissioners. So as David said, we're going to be talking about roads today. The road ahead, navigating jurisdictions, safety, the funding of roadways or also alternate title. Everything you want to know about roadways, but we're afraid to ask. So some of the key elements that we're going to be talking about and also Mr. Carvin, Ms. Merrill, be going over is the jurisdiction and road types. We are a city but there are many different roads that have many different owners and many different responsibilities are shared among the county, the city, and the state, and even private entities. Then we'll talk briefly about funding, how we maintain those roads, and more importantly, how we plan for those large extensive improvements, both through grants and with our partnerships with the county and other agencies. And then we'll focus a little bit on Northwest 21st Avenue. What work has been done, what work is currently planned, and what work is going to be underway very soon and is even featured in tonight's agenda. So I'll turn things over to Mr. Carbin, our public works director. Thank you, Andrew. So regarding jurisdiction and ownership, ownership responsibilities would include routine maintenance such as peer-eye resurfacing and repair, potholes, traffic calming which are speed tables or other traffic calming devices should residents petition and those get funded and funding is available. Safety related activities fall under briaric kind of traffic engineering. These include signage, street name signs, stop sign, stop and yield signs, striping and traffic signals. There are four roadway ownerships in Oakland Park. These are FDOT, which are the major roads, I-95 commercial Oakland Park Boulevard. Then there's Briard County on the roads, which are Northeast 6th Avenue, Andrews, Prospect, Northwest 31st and Northwest 21st. And then Oakland Park with all the residential roads, Florida, Northeast 38th street and then there are private roads within the city of Ocomparc, which are the, don't really the gated communities, most recently being developed oak tree area of Ocomparc at private roads. The type of roads, roadway classification system is used to group roads and classes based on services they provide. These classifications are by the United States Federal Highway Administration FHWA. And they define the classes whether it's our terror collector or local. We have interstates that are the highest classifications and they're designed for long distance travel and they've limited accessibility on and off ramps. And then you have arterials, which are the major roads that through traffic and major circulation movements, normally multi-lane with signalization rather than stop signs. You have minor arterials, which connect cities and towns, and they supplement the metropolitan highway system or the federal highway system. Then the collectors, the roads that often are mixed with signals and there's mixed signals, intersections, roundabouts, traffic service, stop signs. These roads access neighborhoods or between residential areas and commercial areas. And then again, the local streets, the lowest classification, which offers the least mobility, but they get you to your homes. Level of service, this is discussed on how you pass through roads, is a quantitative used to transportation planning and engineering to access the operational conditions of roadways or intersection based on traffic flow, speed, travel time, and other factors. The rating system is completed by FDOT in Florida in coordination with this area, the Broward MPO. The grading scales from A to F. A is considered a free flowing traffic with minimal delays, with high comfort, high driver comfort, B is slightly lower speeds, still stable flow with minimal delays as you pass through that road. C is a stable, but has some restrictions of maneuverability, turning moments, or notice delays during per-cat peak hours. This is the current rating of the Northwest 21st Avenue road, which the last rating was done by FDOT in 2022. The level service D, this is in approaching a very congested area, an unstable flow, speeds are. Delays are more frequent during multiple times of the day. Then E is a very unstable flow, and it's near at capacity. The signal flies delays, a stop and go conditions throughout the day. And then F is the lowest rated road. Severe congestion, breakdown of traffic flow, heavy delays, long queues all day long and all night. This was a previous rating in Northwest 21st Avenue that was completed before during the improvements that were done to, was done prior to 2022 and that new rating system. Whoops, excuse me. So, so Broward County traffic engineering is the traffic engineer for all cities in Broward County and they follow the best practices, whether it's FDOT design manual, the manual for uniform traffic control devices, which is the national standard for traffic engineering. And a lot of the activities they do are summarized are shown here. And we do have the County traffic engineer, Rosemowar, if you have any questions specifically about that what the traffic engineers do for the city of Ocom Park. Local Parksark's local road maintenance, the city is responsible to maintain its roadway system. We have 121 lane miles of roads that we're responsible to maintain. This list shows some of the types of maintenance. In addition, the city does maintain street lights under contract with FDOT. They pay us an annual amount to maintain the street lights on FDOT right away within the city. And then we also separate landscaping agreements with the county or FDOT for our recent right away improvements so we can beautify our city. I'm not going to pass the presentation on to Sierra to talk about the project funding. Thank you, Mr. Carbin. So I'm going to talk a little bit into how road construction projects are actually funded. And so a lot of our funding does come through grants that help cover those costs. To be able to accomplish those. So grants awards, the problem that we have is typically when grants are applied for an award, even though they may be enough to cover the cost of the designer construction at the time of the grant application, because of the timing, it typically is not enough money to cover the full cost of that designer construction. So in those scenarios, or when we don't have a grant for a roadway project, what happens is we actually utilize city funding and that comes from our general funds, not from the bond like the buildings do. And so that city funding is from property taxes. That's how that general fund is funded. And so that we also have one other type of way that we get improvements and that could be through developers as part of the city's requirement for an incoming developer. So I do want to take a moment to say thank you to our partners at Broward County and the MPO because in the past five years when we looked at all of the numbers they have actually covered 80% of all of our roadway project funding and we are very grateful for that partnership with them. That grant funding does come from like I said, MPO who does the ranking in Brewery County who will fund these projects through Sirtax or other programs like that. So when you are getting funding grant funding for these projects, you can it could be through the C slip, which is the complete streets and other localized initiatives grant program. That is a competitive program. And so even though we apply every year, that doesn't guarantee that we will get funding for that project that we apply for. So it is on a rolling cycle. It is continuous and it is competitive with all of the other cities within the county. We also frequently reply for surtax funding and that is all cities that have to compete basically for 10% of the money that's collected under surtax. That is capped at about $25 million annually for the cities that can be utilized for those projects. And once again, that's also competitive and requires ranking. So adding to the, to give a bigger picture to zoom out a little bit from just the grants, when we do apply for a grant, what it looks like as far as timelines. So for Andrew's Avenue, for example, it took about five years, a little over five years, from the application that we submitted to the actual project completion. So we had a total project cost of 2.3 million with the city having to have a match, which covered $1.3 million of that project, which came from the general fund. We also have 13th Avenue, has been in the works for almost nine years. We applied for this project back in 2017, which I'm sure you can assume the costs of 2017 when we apply for the grant. And then we're actually not going to be funded for construction until the beginning of 2026. So just to give a little context is to why we'll apply for these projects and how that timeline unbales when we do have these grant funded projects. And with that being said, I'm going to turn the presentation back over to our Assistant City Manager, Mr. Thompson. Thank you, Sarah. Thank you, Albert. Just before I move on, one point I want to make, we talked a lot about grants just now. And many of those grants have a federal origin, and many of them are affected by recent executive decisions in Washington So that is one of the challenges we see going forward is that even funding sources We thought we could rely on may still be in play and that's also part of looking what our Best strategy is for moving forward for roadway improvements So if we go back to the presentation we'll talk a little about northwestst Avenue. So this is categorized as a county collector and it is owned and definitely not for sale by Broward County. Just like how Albert described collectors, it does connect multiple jurisdictions just in a very short range here from 21st to commercial boulevard, you know, Fort Lauderdale, Oakland Park, and Tamrac are all right there. So the county has made very significant investments in recent years. The largest one was a project that was recently completed. There was over $7.2 million to reconfigure Northwest 21st Avenue between Oakland Park Boulevard and commercial boulevard improve mobility and safety and this included the addition of Buffard bike lanes, the replacement of the bridge over the C13 canal, new signalization, sidewalk replacement, a new signage, medians are placed in suicide lanes and then not featured here was also the county worked with us to provide funding for the landscaping that was installed on Northwest 21st. So again a very significant investment there. And it has paid off. This is BSO's traffic accident data from January 22 to December of 2024. You can see that this girl is not on fire because she didn't get into an accident. Traffic accidents have gone down just 27% in just these few years. And we anticipate that they'll continue to go down because this is showing 26 to West Prospect. And we haven't talked about the area south of Park Boulevard. That is another project that is underway. And there are other safety improvements that were done recently on that corridor. As part of the oak tree developed by Polte, about $3.13 million was expended on doing improvements to 21st and the neighboring roads of prospect in northwest 44th. And that included signal upgrades, changes to the left turn lines, Westbound prospect to 21st, and also that linear park. And just to put the magnitude of those traffic improvements, that pathway was estimated cost was only about $275,000. It was about $2 million for 21st and Prospect. Almost $1 million for 44th. So those are significant costs and improvements to those west side roadways that were born by the developer to help increase safety and traffic flow mobility in that area. You'll see this item later on your consent agenda. But this is sort of part two of those improvements to Northwest 21st Avenue. This is focused primarily on the area south of Oakland Park Boulevard, about $2.6 million. Glad many of those features, those improvements that were done north of Oakland Park Boulevard to the community and areas to the south. And again, that includes the irrigation sleeves, landscape mediums, sanuce, stripeage, and signage. But also importantly, one thing you'll see is for the whole breadth from 26th, all the way to commercial Boulevard, those continuous green surface treatments with green bike lanes that we have on prospect, that we have on power line though as we have on Andrews those will be added to that or lower out. But wait there's more. The city also has items that it is able to work on based on those issues that were identified and that includes the installation of median speed monitors that's currently in progress and then also also as part of our capital improvement program, we have grant funded improvements to veterans park, a linear park along northwest 21st that includes a new lighting trail improvements and other elements to that park. Then we also have improvements that Broward County has currently working working on and that includes Bridge Striping and Signage and a pedestrian crosswalk on Northwest 21st. And just to provide that visual, here is the county improvements for that raised crosswalk. And that also includes a new bus turnout bay with a pad for the shelter and raised medians and you can see that there with that mid block crossing and those rapid flashing lights. Going a little further to north over the C-13 Canal, you'll see that we also have the installation of traffic lineators there to help control that flow of traffic and to make that area safer. So that does conclude the presentation, but we do have Mr. Carbin, Mr. Marrao. We also have Mr. Richard Torniz, Mr. O'Rourke from Broward County, and then we also have our own PSO district chief, Captain Quigley, available to answer any questions you have on roadways or Northwest 21st specifically. Thank you very much. Thank you, Mr. Thompson. Thank you, Mr. Carbin. Ms. Moreira, we'll open it up to the commission now. We'd like to start us off. I'm sorry. Commissioner. Thank you, Mr. Carbin. The entire team by county for for being here for this presentation. I have a few questions. I'm so happy to hear that the south side on 21st Avenue will soon be addressed and start the safety measures will be implemented on that end. But I know right now we're working on the north side. I wanted to know who owns 39th Street, this next to the fire station. The city owns 39th Street. Oh, okay. Yeah, do we don't put that 39th Street in that area, correct? Yeah, half of it. Okay. I didn't bring this up doing my briefing, but I thought I was thinking about it. I know as you're driving on 39th Street heading east, going towards the fire station, there's been several accidents there. And I was just wondering, maybe like a flashing sign, like curve or something, just to notify people. Just a thought, I just wanted to bring that up. No, I appreciate it. And there have been a couple of incidents at the Refurbished Fire Station 87 That have been a little bit disturbing That is our road so we'll take a look at it and see if there are some enhancements that we might consider and an upcoming CIP so thank you for bringing that to our attention commissioner Okay, and my other questions for the south side. I know I was supposed to reach out to staff and I didn't. My schedule was just busy. I wanted to just confirm that there was no slab that was going to be placed on 28th Street in 21st to prevent the residents from making the left turn which heading north on 21st towards Oakland Park. I know we spoke about that years ago. My rarer. Marera, sorry, I get them mixed up. And absolutely, so, 28th Street did you say? We've already made those provisions as discussed. Okay. And that project's a design we actually met with the county about that project today. Right. To make sure that we were getting ready to move that forward into construction next year. Yes. Okay. I don't know. I thought I and I also thought about like around about just and I'm just doing stuff out probably can't even fit there around about in that area because I know that's a very congested area. So the city has very limited right away. The county has very limited right away in the road way itself to be able to put around about in that location. So we are making all of the safety improvements that we can give in the amount of right of way that we do have. And if I could add mayor, part of the challenge that we have here with the roadways and the process of receiving grant funding and as was noted earlier in the presentation south of Oakland Park Boulevard we do have a grant it is on your agenda this evening for the agreement. but the application specifies the improvements that are going to take place. And once the award is granted, you're required to stay essentially pretty much within the four corners of that. Now, that doesn't mean that adjustments are not possible. But as was noted earlier, I think that that grant application was awarded to us in what 2021? That is correct. Yes, I's submitted. So you're going back already four years and nothing's actually been started yet. So the world changes in four years time, traffic patterns change, the desires of the community change. Sometimes we can make adjustments, but sometimes the grant application has to control. So there will be the usual process of outreach as this project moves forward, and there will be opportunity for input. But there will be limited ability to look at large scale reconfiguration simply because the dollars were not expended for those purposes. about are extremely expensive and they require a great deal of public right of way. So it's not available in many places that might be perceived as desirable by the community. 44th Street is a good example. We were there with the private developer, PULTY, and they had the additional land that they could allocate for that purpose. And then of course it was done as you know on their dime. So each of these projects is a little bit different and it each is confined to some extent by what was originally improved and what is actually accounted for in the allocation of the resources that have been awarded. Thank you. And I know I just discussed this earlier, but it's just a thought that came to my mind. I just wanted to know. And I also want to thank the residents over on the south side for their patience because I know we had this meeting years ago even before I came on the commission about improving that roadway so I truly truly want to thank them and I'm so happy to see this on our agenda. Thank you commissioner. Who next? Thank you, Mayor. I am grateful that we are discussing Northwest 21st Avenue. This has been a huge topic of concern by many, not only many in the community, but also all of us on this day as well as engaging now the County Commissioner. I did mention to you Mr. A. Bear, in addition to having the road improvements on Northwest 21st Avenue, both North and South of Oakland Park, Boulevard, but also just looking at that area in general how some of the businesses specifically the gas station on that corner. needs to be addressed. Those businesses, that particular business is a gas station. I'm sure they bring in tons of dollars. It's a centralized location. Wargreens is no longer there, you know, exactly. Where I'm speaking, We have to be a little bit more engaged as far as the upkeep of that area as well. So I'm just, you know, putting that out there publicly. We have to get, you know, businesses to support our efforts in improving the roadways and making sure that the beautification that we expect to see in our city is upheld. And we want all of the stakeholders, all of the partners, businesses included to be a part of these efforts. I thought in terms of Northwest 21st Avenue, what about speed tables? You know also putting that out there is that feasible. You know, I was driving through downtown Fort Lauderdale just the other night through some of the streets and there are all types of speed tables, all shapes, sizes, designs. There's some right at the intersections as you're driving on these local streets, and they are the wide ones. Okay, there's some that's narrow, but what it does, it slows down traffic. So although that is a county road, one of the biggest concerns that I've heard from the public, especially those who live on that street is the speed, the amount of speed on that street. And I know there are statistics and statistics, say, one thing, but sometimes reality to some people, especially when they're right there on the street, shows something different. So what about putting some type of traffic, common devices? How does that work? And this is mainly for public consumptions. Sure. And I'll turn this over to my staff in just a moment. But this gets back to the definition of the various types of roads that we have. There are roads whose purpose is intended to ensure smooth and uninterrupted flow of mobility, like 95. Now, I say that knowing full well that I avoid driving 95 for the very reason that it doesn't actually accomplish its goal. But that's a roadway that's intended to not have obstruction implemented enhancements that are going to decrease the ability to move easily from one point to another. And then as the other roadways were already defined, there are those collector roads, which of course we've already talked about here and one of them is 21st Avenue. And that is intended, unlike perhaps I-95, but also unlike local roads, to be that median between which individuals are able to travel smoothly and with limited obstruction. and those local roads, which as Albert indicated, are primarily intended to get people to their homes, but in often a limited way because of speed control devices and that includes of course the speed limit, which is frequently much lower on local roads. This is a road that, again, has been indicated on multiple locations this evening and at other community events that is owned by the county. So the question that you pose, I will turn over for official response from the person that cast jurisdiction over that roadway, which is Broward County. Sierra or Albert will take this first, I'll take the first thing and then Richard or Rosem can follow up on. Traffic calming is there's several tools in the tool box for traffic calming, one of them is speed tables. Those. Some of those tools that the county are using are also traffic calming, such as the lane dividers that traffic engineering is going to put on the bridge. So that will narrow the focus people on their lane, not the oncoming lane, so that that channelizes the traffic. The other one is the extension of the median, the median is that the county previous put in but we've worked with the county on extending those median and then the flashing yellow, not just a crosswalk but the flashing yellow lights and not just the flashing yellow lights, there's going to be a raised median in between the crosswalk and not only that, the crosswalk is going to be raised. So these are different tools in the toolbox of whether that, instead, the common traffic calming is a speed table, a speed hump, everything. We're using those other tools to channelize traffic and then to calm traffic down by some other methods to keep those lanes appearing to be narrow and reducing the speed. Richard, would you like to? Yeah. Yeah. Richard Tony's Browek County Highway Construction Engineering Division. So everything that Mr. Carbine was saying was accurate. Actually, the raised crosswalk is very similar to a speed table. It just went across walk right in between. So, and this is one of the first ones we're doing. This is actually the first one we're doing. So we're testing it out. And hopefully it does what we think it will do, which will slow down traffic. So we're happy to do that in your city. Perfect. I'm excited to hear about it, especially considering that the current traffic state that has changed, correct? It went from maybe a 1A to maybe, I don't know, a D or whatever hypothetically. It's changed, changed. So certainly we want to keep up with, you know, the change in traffic, state. Okay, so I just wanted to give you some really good news. Excellent. Yeah, no, we knew that. We aimed to please. We aimed to have more good news. Yes, yes, no, I was going to wait for him to tell him, but on his behalf, actually, he's been behind us, helping us through this process and giving us what we need to to actually get it done. So we are happy to say we are starting construction next month. Excellent. So, and we, within three months, it will be all done. Yeah, it will be all done. So it is something we pushed and we thought that we can do it and we actually came through. So we appreciate everyone's cooperation, city staff, and including. Well thank you so much. That is great news. Thank you Commissioner McKenzie. Appreciate it. Thank you all and thank you for crossing. Yes, we the All of the efforts and everyone who's in and who's been involved They said ask and you shall receive and here we are. Thank you so much great news looking forward to the construction and the results Yes, and if that table happens to work. I have confidence that it will work. Maybe we can put that on other roads. Yes, that's the point. So if it does work like we think it will, it will be looked at for other areas. Yes. Excellent. Thank you so much. You're welcome. Thank you. That's it for me. Thank you, Commissioner. Commissioner. Yeah. Commissioner McKenzie you come back up to the podium please. I Have a question. I'm gonna start with the county since we have great news. I love great news. Especially from the county. Yes, sir No, thank you, sir. I appreciate that. My first question to the county Thank you city manager for putting the budgetary item on the agenda for the residents because they need to understand where the funding come from and how we utilize it. Control. I'm former truck driver. Class ACDL. I know a lot about trucks and transportation and I've been issue a lot of concerns about traffic safety and BSO you, you be ready because you have a question too. Because I saw on the chart, follow me. The accident is not as much in prior years, but it was a lot of concern on fatalities. How many fatalities on North f-21st Avenue? And it seemed like it's been a danger. It's been zero. OK. OK. But I have residents beg to differ with that scenario because it's been violent excellence on 21st. So that's public safety. It's my first priority. All right. I'm going to the funding to us where I know the chief will comment on that but funding It's been said to me and probably others that Hey, the only thing we have to do the city could take over the control control It's an MPL give us funding to take control of those city worldways County worldways and we'll be able to handle it But then we all know it's complicated when we have to see funding from the county and then we heard in this presentation, it's not guaranteed that we're gonna receive, is that correct? And so I wanna know what is the streamlined process that if we were to take control of it, will we be guaranteed funding to maintain our roleways if we have the capability? As a commission, I think I can answer that. I'll often tell people you want to make sure that you have as few roles as you possibly can because of the cost to maintain them. With the MPO and the regional effort, we're able to get more dollars that we wouldn't traditionally get through property taxes. And we parlay that, you see it in the penny tax, but you can't afford these county streets. They're not for sale. We do a better job at maintaining them. The minute you point out what's wrong or what's needed, we put together a team, we come out, we assess it. Public safety is always number one. And when we came north to us when it first street, and the residents pointed out, some of the concerns, they were public safety concerns. And we looked in depth at it. There was a bus that was stopping in the middle of the street. And that's coming to a bus pull out. We studied it, and we came back and said, well, we can do that. We put the divertis at the hill, we studied it, we did it. There were additional incidents or accidents happening at these points that were pointed out to us. We with all of those and then we put the raised Crosswalks is what I alluded to earlier that we're gonna throw those in because that's another Common device that you have you don't want to weigh your streets down Especially you made the third ways with with all these common devices But we found found creative ways to comment and also keep traffic moving. They also wanted to relocate a bus bench. And as they started talking about relocating the bus bench, I said, are you sure you want to do that? You put it down there. You make it all fancy. It becomes a place where people want to come and sit for longer than a 15-minute bus ride. So they said no to that. All all the other things that they said yes to, but the neighbors are watching. They know what's going on. The ESO is watching. The statistics said 27% decrease in fatalities. So what has happened since the first improvement, stole the traffic down. Accidents happen all over the world. Ped The pedestrians and vehicles. We are looking at that all the time. From a regional perspective, and viral count is doing it every day to see what we can do to improve it. And your staff does an excellent job. You do not want to own a viral count enrolled. Great. Could you add on to the stir tax funding too as well for clarity for the public, you know, the two-pot of money, the MPO, the FDOT, and the third tax? How is that level of active that we could get funding consistently as a way to the third tax? I think staff and even your staff can answer that because at the MPO we gave you the rules of engagement on how the search tax dollars would be spent and you had to have shovel-ready projects ready to go at the time that that was adopted and most cities didn't have shovel-ready projects but even we went back and we started looking at you know how we can add you know as we move forward and we got some of the projects that were ready to go day one, we got them off the ground. As a city commissioner, I was ready day one. I got so much stuff done because I saw those dollars come I prepared and when they said you got to show I have I have a dump truck full. So you got to always build your peace and peace make sure you're ready when there's any fun to develop it right now. We to have some funding challenges but right now with property taxes we still can do what we do day in and day out with people like like a city manager and people like transportation folks. They do this for 11 we just said policy. And one last point to the honorable debonair commissioner district from E. for those kind response, because that's clarity. That's effective leadership in your communication. Would it be wise or suggestive that we know it's Fort Lauderdale, Tamberac in Oakland Park, and that may just 21st Avenue is going flowing. Is it wise to have a compact between city municipalities to apply for funding so we could solve a lot of this gridlock? I'm gonna give you a recommendation. Greg Stewart at the MPO, you set some time with him and you give him some of your ideas and you'll be amazed that when it comes back when it's said what you can it cannot do. I think that's the first step to getting some of these I would call them freshman anxieties out. Thank you sir. Great to do it. Thank you very much. Always the president come over and the taste was great too. Thank you. Commissioner. Oh. Commissioner McKenzie and staff. Thank you very much. Always the pledges to come to over pot and the taste was great too. All right, thank you. Commissioner. Me? Oh. Commissioner McKenzie and staff, I want to thank you all how I, I, I, got in contact with your office. You came out, you met with the residents. You took time out of your schedule to come and I appreciate that. So thank you for that. Anytime, anywhere. They didn't know what they didn't believe it, but we showed up and we showed up. Perfect. But I want to thank my staff, Richard Torniz and his staff and everybody over there for their commitment to making Briar a county a safer place. Thank you, Commissioner McKenzie and Vice Mayor. Yeah. Thank you, Mayor. Just once a statement that you may want to start thinking about is that, you know, although they say the maintenance of the road comes in the general fund, a majority that comes from the gas tax. Am I correct? The gas tax does help support those operations, but the value of it has not necessarily supported all the operations, so that $3.2 million number on Mr. Carbin's slide, less than a million dollars of that in any given year, substantially less is coming from those different gas tax buckets. And each of those buckets has various limitations on what it can or can't be used for. So to the extent that the commission really only says the property tax rate every year to derive most of the general fund revenue, it does rely on that. Another general revenue is it can be used. The gas tax is definitely a huge component of that and one we can rely on. And one that's principally used to help support his regular resurfacing program and just another shout out to the county. That surtax program we were able to repay the substantial number of city streets. Yeah, parking like $2 million dollars. Here's the big thing is the gas tax is drying up. Reason being electric cars, they're not charged a gas tax. So this is something that we've got to look forward to in the future is that there's got to be some way that those cars are charged for using our roads and the counties roads and the cities, I mean the states roads and this is not something that's done here at Stunt and Towne Hassey. So we really, I think about, you know, I've seen some bills that go through there that all fail. But the more electric cars you get, the less gas tax you get. Less gas tax you get, the less maintenance you get. Now, going back to the bus outs, I don't know if you, commission every can, there's enough. When they were redoing Prospect Road, I made a big deal about taking rid of the bus outs on Prospect Road from 21st Avenue East all the way to I think it's probably six to have you because there's I've lived there 40 years there's never been a bus route east 21st Avenue on prospect road and guess what happens but guess what happens with all those bus outs all the truck drivers go do they there, and they park over the weekends. They park their rigs there, and luckily, BSO on our side has been able to effectively take care of it. On the Fort Lauderdale side, we have all these, I just, I couldn't understand why they wouldn't get the bus outs off of Prospect Road when they had a chance when they did, we did prospect road, because there was no bus route, there was never gonna be a bus route, there's never been a bus route on there. Never been a bus route east 21st Avenue on prospect road, ever. And there isn't one now. There's one that goes down 21st Avenue, it goes west of prospect road, but there's nothing that goes east. So I just, you know, I just be careful when they put the bus out to make sure they're going to be used for bus out, not for parking big rings over the weekend. But yeah, this sounds like a really good project with the raised median there. The big thing is we just got to extend those medians out for as far as we can. Is there going to be landscaping the medians? They were promised landscaping. The landscaping they put our more shorter landscaping the most pavers in concrete will be able to add some landscaping, some vertical elements. but that'll be after the fact. Yeah, but I mean just like north of there, I mean it's beautiful north of there. Yeah, we've just completed some more plantings out there just the last couple months. Make sure that we have, you know, give this south with the north god because, right? I mean, because it's like we were promised green bike lanes on, on road and they gave us green little slots here, little slabs here and people use the bike lane there as a lane especially when you go and sell them on on Powerline from commercial to to Florida, Florida, to Prospect Road, they use that right bike lane as a third lane cause, because I get to go home every night and they're constantly going down there and eventually one of these days is going to be an accident and someone's getting killed there. And it's such a big, I mean, I know we made the commitment on the Andrews Avenue, spent $155,000 to make the green bike lanes from Prospect Road up to Andrews Avenue. I just got to think there's got to be a way that we can get green bike lanes back on Powerline Road because it's just an accident looking for a place to happen. But yeah the county one last thing can you please please for 30 years now I'm going to ask and reduce the speed limit on Florida on a road from 30 to 25 It's the only street in the neighborhood that has a speed limit 30 miles an hour and I always hear because within when they take the the speed things It's when the 80 it's within 85th percentile so it meets the criteria If you spent the set the speed limit 40 miles an hour they'd they would meet 85 percent it because they've begun 40, 50 miles an hour. I go there every morning, they go flying down there. And what they do is they speed up, they do the speed, the homes to stop, speed up, stop, speed up, stop. So sometimes I see that the speed monitor in front of me, just saying, so down, slow down, they didn't give a speed, it's going fast. And I remember all the speed, I've looked at speed over the years when they've done studies. And some of the speeds are 89 miles an hour at night. And I know some of those are false because when they use those, when they used to use the rubber bumpers, you gave a pretty accurate speed, but the problem is with the baseball, the little baseball things I got to think, the problem is it depends on how big your vehicle is. That's how they measure the speed. If you have a long vehicle, it's going to measure a shorter speed, a slower speed, then if you have a short vehicle, it's going to measure a faster speed. But it's pleased somehow or another. You know, these people, I don't know why they they are having to, and I know this is not on the 21st Avenue, but why? But this is the only time we have the county here in O'All. And for the life of me, an Albert knows I've been bitching about this for years. And when Lane Walls is here, we were both talking about it. And it just amazes me that after 30 years now we can't get the speed limit down on the floor and out of road. Those people over there deserve better than that. Well if I could marry we have a project as you know coming up on floor and out of road so we'll certainly take a look at it and we'll discuss that with the County Traffic Engineer and see what we can do okay. Thank okay? Thank you. Thank you, Vice Mayor, thank you, City Manager. I just want to say thank you to the residents for their advocacy. We all know the wheels of progress sometimes turn very slowly. We have partners that we work with, we're very appreciative of Broward County, and when have to work with the state whoever. Commissioner, I also wanted to assure you that I do know that our staff works very closely with the MPO staff. And we try to be shovel ready whenever we can. The problem with being shovel ready, all cities encounter the problem is it takes money to get shovel ready. So that causes a little bit of a delay. So I'm thrilled to death to see the enhancements that are happening on 21st that raised crosswalk. Excellent. I know we also spoke recently to make sure that the little islands have the proper reflectors around them. I heard that some people had a problem hitting the island. So I believe that was checked up on it. Like the rest of the commission, I think some of the feedback. Folks, we appreciate your feedback. We appreciate hearing it. What we can change, we will change what we agree with that needs to be changed. It's important to keep the communication open. And just please keep in mind, we work with staff, staff works with our partners, and trying to initiate that change. And it's not always overnight. Sometimes it does take a while. So I appreciate hearing from you. As it does the rest of the commission, we don't take it personal because we know how passionate you are because you're worried about Quality of life and we know that you're worried about safety. We get it. We're there too So I just want to say thank you and again Thank you for the presentations tonight. We appreciate it any last questions before we move on comments Okay, we will close the presentation at this point and we'll move on to public hearings, ordinances. We move on comments. Okay, we will close the presentation at this point and we'll move on to public hearings. Ordinance is on first reading. Mr. City Attorney. Ordinance by the title only. An ordinance city commission, Steve Hoper Park, Florida, menu of the menu cities comprehensive plan 20 to 45 within the future land use element and the housing element under chapter 163 section 163.3184 of the Florida statutes by specifically a many policies in the future land use element to comply with the items identify as deficiencies by the byoward County Planning Council October 24th 2024 according to article 2.3.1 of the administrative rules document Broward next providing for new policies in the housing element containing a provision for inclusion in the comprehensive plan providing for severability conflicts and effective day. And Mr. Rivera, do we have a presentation for the other? We do, thank you Mayor Miss Sierra Marrero will guide us through this item. And I see that she has Rick with her this evening for extra support. So if you would please. Yes, I always have to have my backup with me. Sierra Marrero, director of engineering and Development, and joining me tonight is Rick Buckeye, our planning supervisor. And we are here tonight to bring forward the Comprehensive Plan 2045 Broward Nex Resertification Amendments. This is on first reading for case CD22-01CP. So, a little bit of background as you all are aware, you approved the city had adopted per the ordinance on July 17th, 2024 our comprehensive plan 2045 as part of the process and getting our plans certified after the adoption We did have to route the plan back to the planning council where under goes another compliance review for for alignment with the Broward next. And that was done so in September of 2024. In October, the Broward Planning Council did respond to the City Provider response saying that there were some items that they would like to have in alignment with their comprehensive plan Broward next. They are, do not have any substantial changes to the comprehensive plan, or the intent of the comprehensive plan is just merging policies together and realigning a little bit of a little bit of cleanup. So we did actually bring this item before our planning and zoning board, which recommended it for approval at a vote of 5 to 0. We also went to the local planning agency and that was also recommended for approval and we are here tonight at the first reading for the City Commission. And just a reminder, these are all of the elements that are included in our comprehensive plan 2045. Tonight we're only talking about changes to two of those elements. The first one is the future land use element update. This is basically what the request of the county was to incorporate different cross references. So we really just brought a lot of policies into other policies. We did have to add a land use category into our local activity center. It was one that had existed before. We just had to change that classification. And then we made adjustments to some other policies for storm water management, open space, school planning, and environmental preservation. Since we are bringing the comp plan amendment forward to the city commission, we wanted to go ahead and address the previously approved resolution that was approved by commission on October 16th of 2024. And this was at the request of our prior mayor, the Trozimal that was supported, making those changes to the affordable housing elements. So we went ahead and incorporated that into our amendment at this point in time. So it is a recommendation that staff recommends the City Commission conduct a public hearing on first reading to adopt an ordinance amending the comprehensive plan 2045 to ensure consistency with Broward Next and the Broward County land use plan. And Mr. Buck, I and I are available if you have any questions. Thank you, Ms. Murrer. At this time, I'm gonna open up a public hearing if anyone wishes to speak on this item and this item only, please step up to the microphone, provide your name and your address, and your comments. Okay, seeing none, I'm going to close a public hearing at this time. We'll shoot it up. Second. Any discussion? Yes, Commissioner. Thank you. Thank you, Miss Moreno. This is very important. Our House and the Element section of the Complan. If you go back to city manager on my extra question, if you're directed. Is that okay? Slide number five. I was part of the discussion when I was in the other style of that podium about the AMI. Please for the record for everyone. The previous mayor we advocated for a 60% AMI but now it's back to 80%. So please clarify the update and I had a discussion with the city manager and we agree. But it's difficult because looking at the tables for what you have to earn and our level of activities for employment in our city, the level of how much you have to pay in order to make a rental worth on the 30% of your budget. It's not going to match up. for connecting the tables. So please give clarity why we at 80% AMI instead of 60. See how we pull up that slide, please, so that we can take a look at it. And while she's doing that, let me give you a little bit of history. Our process was laborious here locally as we went through discussions and approvals on the changes to the comprehensive plan. And it was at the last minute that the suggestion was made as was noted earlier by then Mayor Rosenwald to adjust our language and make it 60%. Now that happened after we had previously and already begun the process of providing our draft to the county and the state who also must approve and certify it. So when we forwarded the resolution language that included the 60% it was reviewed by the partner agencies, the county and the state and they were the ones that sent it back to us striking the 60% in the language. Now we have no choice in the matter if we're going to conform with their request here because they have to approve it. And they didn't approve it with the language that we had incorporated. So their concept was you've already noted that you're gearing towards incomes below 80 percent. And that means that you can gear to any number that's at 80% or lower, which would include of course 78, 50, 20, whatever it was that the city decided was appropriate. But it did not necessitate a certain component at a certain level and that that was their request here. And so we're bringing it back at their request for your consideration. It is not tying anybody's hands. Nothing is off the table here. It is only clarifying that we are shooting for 80% or below to be included as part of our affordable housing initiatives. Thank you for that clarification. That's very important. That's the discussion myself in the city matters, the manager had when I went through briefing. Because I was advocating for that 60% AMI, but it was done because of the state requirements. But however, it doesn't limit us. And that's a good thing. So us here as a body, we'll be able to adjust accordingly based upon the circumstances in our city. Okay? I am committed to that for the ability quality of life for the resident city open part. With that said, I'm going to look at, you know, vacant laws that we have that we need to develop. It's a lot of areas in our city and a lot of people who have control of those vacant lots. Whether it's private ownership, whether it's churches, mayor, they need to get incentive to develop those lots. When you do that, you bring more tax revenue to the city, you get some affordability depending on the level of interaction you want to have to our community and you could get housing, nice quality housing for 60% AMI, 50% even some units may not be a lot but some it's necessary we have to be part of our county team with brow and neck and we'll be able to have some teachers some firefighters deputies to be able to live affordably in our city so I am supporting this because of our staff and the flexibility I know we're going to be very encouraging to land owners who has vacant lots that need to be developed. So please provide us with a list of possibility of lots that we need to encourage our owner to do it for more affordable housing. With that said, thank you Mayor. Thank you, Richard. Additional. Additional comments? No. Okay. Vice Mayor, nothing? No. Okay. I just want to say I agree I'm going to support this also and it leaves us the availability to do what we need, where we need it. And then we also, we have a motion in the second already. Roll call please. Commissioner Gordon. Yes. Commissioner Noobl. Yes. Commissioner Bowdo. Yes. Vice Mayor Arntz. Yes. Mayor Longagan. Yes. Oh okay. We now move on to public comments. General public comments and public hearings are normally limited to four minutes per person per item. However due to the large amount of people in here, I'm gonna ask the commission if we go to three minutes, because I think if we go four minutes for everyone, I don't know if we would all be done in time. I don't know, I don't know. I object. No, okay, four minutes. Okay. Give four minutes, there's not that many people. It's not. Thank you. So anyone wishing to speak come up to the podium, your name, your address, and you have four minutes. Good evening. Oh, Wallace Petersen in 1941, North was 36th Street. I'm speaking to you tonight as a private resident of Oakland Park. According to public records from Water Build in early 2023, Covenant House received a notice of requirement to comply with a 25 year safety inspection for their current location at 733 Baker's Avenue. On September 14 of the same year, they received notice of failure to comply and were ordered to comply by December 21st. They did not and were brought before the special magistrate on April 18, 2024, where they were found to be in noncompliance and were given 180 days to comply our face fines. They remained in non-compliance until just last week, less than two days before their second schedule DRC hearing. Also on that date, just less than two days before that hearing, they finally placed signs on the property signs required by code, supplied by us to be placed by the applicant within two business days of their application, which was dated January 21st. they they were placed more than a month late and placed in violation of code stills, stuck in the ground behind a bus bench and parking spaces, although they did correct that day before yesterday. Additionally, in reviewing their submitted documents to the DRC, they violated code by not supplying the affidavit for those signs, presumably because they did not meet, they were not in compliance. Yet we still put them on two of those DRC agendas. Also, per our DRC checklist among items to be included are letters to HOA groups contacted regarding the neighborhood participation meeting. Only four letters from the applicant's representative dated September 15th and CC to staff are included. All neighborhoods nowhere near the location and none from Southwest England Park, because none of these communities received them. Nor did the communities within 750 feet receive the required written notice for the October 1st meeting. The 750 foot notices did go out for a second neighborhood participation meeting on February 3rd, which I will remind you did not include participants in the first meeting as the applicant stated it would. Lastly, the required summary of concerns and issues that the applicant included in their DRC documents grossly misrepresent the concerns that were expressed by residents at the October 1st meeting. In fact, they were so out of compliance that they were removed from that February 27th agenda. So why open park and why this location? In an extremely unsafe area for pedestrians as documented by both the county and our own West Side Study, where there are no grocery stores or even farmers markets that CBD and liquor stores within a mile of an active human trafficking investigation with no emergency medical services anywhere for miles since that hospital closed on West Oakland Park Boulevard and within a mile of seven schools including a preschool that would need to share this parking lot. How does this location serve their clients? The applicant spoke at the DRC meeting and said the safety issues raised were things of the past. According to the Fort Lauderdale Police Department from February 1, 2024 to February 1, 2025, there were 100 calls to 73-3-breakers avenue, 13 in the last month of that period, a call almost every other day. Their problems are clearly not a thing of the past, but also of the present, and reflect the experiences that the former Fort Lauderdale Commissioner shared with you with last month. We are already struggling to manage code violations, vagrancy and crime issues along West Oakland Park Boulevard. Our city has recognized this and in our comprehensive plan, chapter 10.5 requires that we quote, prioritize redevelopment on the west side of Oakland Park and encourage walkable neighborhood scale commercial development and encourage additional and improved food options west of 95. Further granting of conditional use states that any application must be in conformance with the comprehensive plan. For years our city has repeatedly put the desires of developers ahead of the needs of West Oakland Park residents by approving conditional use applications that have caused decay and decline. I understand it as much easier to say no to something like a drive-thru warehouses than to a high profile very respected nonprofit with a virtuous mission. But your mission is to care for your constituents and adhere to your comprehensive plan. And that must come before the service of anyone else's mission, no matter how noble or prominent. When difficult decisions are to be made, your loyalty must lie with the comprehensive plan and your voters, your neighbors who elected you to represent them. Who do you serve for everyone in this room? I hope it is your fellow Oakland Park residents. Thank you for hearing me and thank you for that roadway presentation tonight. Folks, please no applause, no jeering tonight. Next person please. It's just we want to hit the time so we got enough time for everything. Hello my name's Stacy Norcross and I reside office at South Oakland Forest Drive so I'm also here to discuss anything regarding Covenant House. So as per public records requested I pulled from Fort Lauderdale Police Department there have been 112 calls for service between the dates of January 1, 2012 or 2024 and February 28th of 2025. Ignoring the 22 911 hang-ups in which there were no police dispatched, that leaves 90 calls for service, which were actively responded to. 20 of those calls were residents that were violent and or combative, which equals 22% of those 90 calls. 16 of those calls were Baker acts or voluntary committals for mental health services that equals 18% of those calls. There were six percent or I'm medical issues, equating 7% of the calls, some of those are drug overdoses. And most concerning to me are the eight incidents involving people that are outside of the age range, that covenant house serves. These people go there under the guys or under the auspices of thinking that Covenant House services them and when they turn them way they become violent. So it's like a moth to a flame. Now this remember that Covenant House right now is in a really nice upscale neighborhood on the beach. So when you move it to West Oakland Park Boulevard, as other people have said, is not the nicest area anymore. What are we drawing to that flame? Okay. The next point that I'd like to make is, is BSO been advised of how many calls for service covenant house? Requests from the City of Fort Lauderdale Police Department, and are they ready to deal with the uptick in volume? And remember, that's 112 calls for service on the beach, not on West Oakland Park Boulevard. So you can expect those calls for service to rise. Okay, so and we're already an underserved area of Oakland Park being west of 95. Okay, so what are your plans to mitigate the crime that's going to be brought to the area? Is there any idea with the community redevelopment for projects in Oakland Park to mitigate the issues that are going to be brought to the area because you want to move Covenant House or they're requesting to come to West Oakland Park. And even more distressing to me is at the February 3rd meeting that Covenant House had with the neighbors. I asked specifically the manager of Covenant House how many times have you turned away police and been uncooperative with police investigations? And she promised me, Swore up and down that they are very, very cooperative with police agencies. However, just February 26th of the police were, I'm sorry, responded to a female caller who said that she was being sex trafficked. Police responded to Covenant House and they were denied any help. As per public record, they arrived at the listed 1020, which is the location, and they made contact with the supervisor who refused to disclose whether or not this person who has been redacted resides at the Covenant House location or not as a result. F.O.P.D. was unable to investigate any further. Now let me ask you and I'm happy to provide copies of this report if you would like. Let me ask you, is this who we want to bring to West Oakland Park Boulevard? We don't. I will be continuing to come. I will see you in the future with more information. Who can I promise to? Thank you. The city clerk. Thank you. Please no clapping. Thank you. Good evening, Mayorers. You may be. Audience. Tamara, I am at 311 or 311 Oakland Shores Drive. I am a condo board member. And I live at the condo. There are a lot that may not live and own, but I live there. And I did attend that meeting as well with Covenant House, and I just wanted to say that although, you know, I commend them for having the mission to end youth homelessness. That particular agency, they gave a high level overview that it's going to house mothers with children 18 to 22 population of homeless. And it's going to be right directly across the street. When addressing the transitional housing program, we all know it's important to balance community concerns with an understanding of the program's goals. High level things that could be potential issues that come to mind when thinking about the potential relocation is community impact and management and oversight safety. I did ask about security and it did not seem that they would have security throughout the day. Traffic, of course, the intersection, congestion, and again the condo being right across the street. Interaction with law enforcement and if city could have a satellite hub or some type of presence in the area I'm hoping we can get that if this agency does move As far as rules and regulations that sound like there's gonna be about 60 to 70 people As far as the intake they did mention and this was a little concerning persons Will be accepted regardless if they have a misdemeanor or a felony. And something about domestic violence situations, I think they may take a little bit more of a notice to that, but they could also be accepted during intake. And so I just want us to just pay attention to some of these things. Again, this is a high level overview, but if they do get that opportunity, I'm hoping we can get more of a presence and prevent a lot of the trespassing issues that we're thinking may occur. Thank you for your time. Once again, my name is Tamara. Thank you. Next person, please. Good evening, members of the board. My name is Maiden Hernandez, and I am the real estate owner and executive director of the Presquind Child Care located at 2860 West Oakland Park Boulevard. I stand before you today to address my concerns like our other neighbors about the homeless, adult homeless shelter by Cubman House, located within 100 feet of my preschool. I want to start by saying that my concerns are not intended to diminish the mission or to discredit the mission of Cubman House or the accomplishments that they have achieved throughout the years. My concerns are meant to address the safety threats and adult home to shelter will pose for the 161 children and their families that will be served at my preschool adjacent to them and the 274 children and families currently being served by my other preschool that's less than a mile away. Covenants' house deserves to exist. They just don't deserve to exist next to a preschool or in a family neighborhood. I invested in Oakland Park 18 years ago by opening my first preschool despite the advice of many familiar with the area including former childcare inspectors. I followed my instance and established myself as a model preschool for West Oakland Park. One that was appointed by the, once the, uh, point to Chancellor of Early Childhood Education from the Department of Education visited Oakland Park last year. The one school she visited was Charlie Preschool, our school. So we take a lot of pride in what we do to service the families of Oakland Park. Covenant House just does not, doesn't serve as just Oakland Park They serve as anyone from any city, any state that shows up at their door. Inspired by the city manager's vision to revitalize the development of West Oakland Park, the investment and development projects of Lanar and Poulty Homes, I expanded my third preschool into the proposed, right next door to the proposed site for Coveon and House. That preschool has been in existence since 1975. It's had different owners. I've owned it for three years. So it's been there for 50 years. Coveon and House presents their homeless project to the community as a youth center. Coveon and House is not the Boys and Girls Club. It's not the JCC. It is an adult, homeless, shelter, and that's what we need to understand. Young adult ages 18 to 22. At 18 you can vote, at 18 you can apply for a job at the city, at 18 you can become a firefighter, at 18 you can make your own health decisions, you can even write a will. So they are adults and that's what we need to keep in mind when we're thinking of Cuddinant House adults as I've been mentioned tonight that have drug addiction substance abuse issues mental health issues some Have just been released from jail and since they have nowhere to go. Where do they go? They go to Cuddin House You know issues that have resulted in the homelessness My preschool children and their families do not deserve to be exposed to this on a daily basis. Without repeating everything that has been said, one of the biggest problems also is the safety. Our entrance has been basically blocked by their new design. We have no proper egress or no egress or ingress to our access or preschool. So how are the families going to safely enter our school? More importantly, if there's an emergency, fire rescue with that design plan, they're not even going to be able to go in, but there's no way to come out. I'm right off West Oakland Park Boulevard. We're concerned about 21st Street, 38th Street, all the streets I've we've mentioned, what what about West Oakland Park, how busy is that? That's the entrance to my preschool that they are blocking. Waste management cannot collect waste, fire rescue cannot get access, those are life threatening situations. Covenant House has taken no consideration to the dangers that it's gonna pose our preschools and family, the hardships to the community, the hardships to the business that I all have established. Thank you, ma'am. We appreciate it. Next. My name is Elza Van Eckerbrook. Do you speak in the microphone please? I'm sorry. My name is Elza Van Eckerbrook. I live at 1354. I was 49, Terra's in Fort Lauderdale 33317. I live in Browieu Park. And the Convent House was trying to put their building in our neighborhood. But it was deemed an inappropriate location for this facility. The multiple reasons contributed to that were in the middle of a residential area. Next to an elementary school, close to an already existing sober halfway house, no resources nearby for these troubled young adults. The nearest bus stop by a gas station where drugs, sexual activity, and underage alcohol use was going on. And we had testimonies from law enforcement about many 911 calls for runaways and that the crime is up there at the area where it's now and testimonies from mental health care nurses and aides about how these young adults end up in these facilities. They get picked up by law enforcement. They're being held. They are going to be sent to mental health evaluation center and from there, most of the times they will be sent to a confident house or some other facilities. So they run away and the whole circle repeats itself again. They also lied to us when they came over and told us that this was a facility for young teenagers between 14 and 18 years old. At the next meeting they said that it was for young adults 18 to 22 years old. These are troubled young adults. They have been on the streets, doing drugs, been abused, physically and sexually, trafficked, and probably some that committed crimes as well. And they proposed it in our neighborhood, they showed us a floor plan which had a wall with a gate around it property, and they said that there would be security on the premises. When we asked why, one of the reasons was given to us that they said that they're traffickers, some of these girls that are end up in facility, they have been trafficked, pimped out, so now these traffickers, they want their properties back. So they tried to get in, get their girls back. And that was one of the reasons why they would have security and walls over there. Also, there's many reviews from the Covenant House, from girls that were there. One from seven months ago, the place is awful. It's smelly over here. There are people in there who refuse to shower. There was a fight. There's no resources for employment. The staff also tried to make me look like I'm predictive, productive. And I've been only here for two, three weeks trying to find employment. Another one from four months ago, this place is horrible. There's always short staff. Most of the people who work here are unsympathetic, have no compassion or hard and have nasty attitudes, would not recommend this place to anyone, not even my enemy. Another one from a year ago, if you're looking for somewhere to go for help, go somewhere else, I could give this place zero stars if I could. If I would, the staff takes their time helping you and they really don't care about you or anything. The discharge people just for fun when they're supposed to be helping you. Something goes wrong, they don't investigate or ask questions. They just keep people to the curb. The place in rooms are dirty. Keep looking for another place, don't go there. There's more like bat reviews from that place. If, for all of you review park was not a good place and consider this place that they're now trying to consider, I don't think it's going to be an appropriate place either. Thank you. Thank you, ma'am. Next person, please. Good evening. My name is Kevin Loud. I live at 1921 North West 36th Street in Oakland Park. At this point, I think the commissioners and city manager clearly understand where I and many of my neighbors, Westside residents feel about Covenant House project. Rather than continue to rehash the same concerns, I thought I'd take you all in a verbal, walking to our Oakland Park boulevard on the West Side, especially if you're someone who never drives west of power line. Our tour begins during non-rush hour because I only have four minutes to speak tonight, and that's about the easiest time to drive west as we approach lows. After emerging from under the I-95 overpass, the first thing we see once we cross the train tracks is the burned out shell of a restaurant attached to the days in. I phoned the front desk the other day to see when the restaurant would be repaired and the woman who answered didn't have any idea. But I know that if it takes as long as it took to replace the days in sign that fell during Hurricane Irma, we've got years and years to wait. And speaking of the days in, the woman at the front desk confirmed that the hotel provides shelter for the unhoused. You couldn't provide an exact number or who pays the bill, but yes, the hotel does provide housing. We then come to the shuttered rooms to go property, which is adjacent to the Home Depot parking lot. This seems to become more crowded and more disorganized with men soliciting for work. A little further west is the post office. There's a big construction project going on, but the community knows nothing about the plans, and I think that's because it's a federal project. But it's clear that a lot of trees have been removed. Then there's the intersection with northwest 21st Avenue. It's important because as Commissioner Gordon stated earlier, it's location of a dilapidated gas station, a shuttered Walgreens, and a homeless woman who we've mentioned here in past meetings, who writes her tricycle, who walks through the lanes of traffic begging for money. And a few feet from this intersection is the bus stop where that same woman has lifted her dress to empty her bowels as I was stopped at a red light. Beyond this is a hodgepodge of vacant buildings, storefront churches, gas stations, and small businesses. Many are struggling to stay afloat. We then come to the location of the proposed Covenant House, a bookend of the unhoused, if you will, to the days in just over a mile away. This is the west side. This is the neighborhood in which you want to place even more unhoused individuals. This is the vibrant community coven house thinks is appropriate for its clients. This is the project that could revitalize and bring growth to the West Side. This is the project that improves our quality of life. In one of my prior comments to this commission, I stated that this was not in my backyard situation, but more of why is it always in my backyard, in our backyard? We've watched you nodding as you've listened to our concerns, we've listened as you've shared your visions with the West Side, a vision that echoes our own. These interactions have created a sense that you have heard us and that we're partners in helping and healing the West Side. It's why we voted for you so you could bring the Westside into the next century along with the Eastside. So right now we're all watching you to see if your actions will be stronger than your words to see if the promises and assurances you've made to Westside residents are in fact sincere. Thank you and thank you for addressing the Northwest 21st Avenue concerns. Thank you sir. Next person please. Mayor City Manager Commission. I'm Hazel Gusham, 2340 Northwest 29th Street. I'm here to speak very briefly about reports coming from the roads. I'm really pleased to say after the city manager spoke about 21st Avenue and all of the things that's supposed to be taking place on 21st Avenue because we were about to begin to believe that were we left out, was anything going on on 21st Avenue? Well, the other commissioners talked about the need for cutting down the speed. They drive down from Oakland Park to 26th Avenue as if they are on I-95 when they're speeding. The speed is just tremendous. You cannot get out of your street less more other than to sit for 10 or 15 minutes and hope that someone slows down. The landscaping, the landscaping has been there for for years. And I think that they pretty much forgot that it was ever done because it's just old and outdated. Now I heard the county commission of speak about the new landscaping coming from prospect up to Oakland Park. It's absolutely beautiful. But I also heard him say something about the property tax is a part of making those type of improvements. So my concern too is that they told us for years that oh 21st at Oakland to 26 that's part of the county. Oakland Park has nothing to do with that. Well, when he talks about getting funds and being a part of the county. The Oakland Park has nothing to do with that. Well, when he talks about getting funds and being a part of the new landscaping, that's absolutely beautiful. From prospect to Oakland, then I wonder about that. So I'm really thrilled that I'm happy to hear the City Manager speak about 21st South as being included and what's about to take place having to do with 21st. So I thank you, I'm pleased and I look forward to seeing it coming into fruition. Thank you very much. Thank you, ma'am. Next speaker please. Good evening. My name is Chandra Smilick. I live on Northeast 56th Street. And I am a volunteer at the Urban Farming Institute, which is just about four blocks north of here. And today public works came and disconnected the well and I'm just wondering if they need to repair it or if they are planning to reconnect it because right now it's connected to city water and we all take pride in having organic gardens and the chlorine in the water and other chemicals in the city water is not ideal for gardens. So we really need the well reconnected. I'm not exactly sure why it was disconnected. But this is something that is very important to us at the Urban Farming Institute. Thank you. We'll have someone with staff follow up with you. Next person please. My name is Bob Lynn. I live at 659 West Oakland Park. I've been there for 21 years. Mayor commissioners, thank you for your service. I admit that I know very little about Covenant House other than what I read online yesterday. I know where it is, but I do know quite a bit about alcohol and drug abuse and addiction. I've been sober myself for 47 years, and I worked in the treatment field for 20 years with adults and teenagers. I can tell you that the teenagers is a very challenging job. The essence of addiction is difficult to comprehend if you're not one of us, but I can say that the bottom line is it means that you lose control. Things happen like jail's institutions and death. I don't know how many of the clients at Covenant House have alcohol and drug problems, but I do know that if this were allowed to move to our area, it would bring lots of negative consequences. And the neighbors in most cases are often, often, are the ones, the neighbors and the police, are the ones who end up having to work on the problem. So my question is, is this what we want for our city? Thank you very much. Thank you, sir. Next person please. All right, good evening. Mr. Mayor, Mr. Vice Mayor and members of the commission. My name is Eric Peterson. I live at 1941, Northwest 36th Street. My comments this evening pertain to the application submitted by Covenant House to open the homeless shelter on the west side of our city. In November 2023, the commission approved a major update to the city's comprehensive plan. Four of you were on the commission at that time, and all of you voted for its approval. And in that plan, you committed to do the following things. Prioritize redevelopment of the west side. Identify catalytic sites to serve as community and economic anchors west of Powerline Road. Encourage walkable neighborhood-scale commercial development west of Powerline Road. Identify strategies for redevelopment and revitalization on the West Side and to work to alleviate the food scarcity in the area and identify strategies to encourage additional improved food options west of i95 Opening a shelter on the west side of oculum park would accomplish Absolutely none of these items and would make implementing some of them even more difficult The property is currently zone b1 which quoting from code is a community business district Intended primarily to meet the shopping and limited service of several neighborhoods. Retail stores are intended to include convenience fashion and durable goods. A shelter offering short-term stays to homeless adults does not comport with any of the B1's approved uses. The applicant is applied for conditional use, and that requires conformance to the comprehensive plan. It also requires that the use is deemed desirable for the public convenience or welfare and will not be detrimental or injurious to the surrounding area. This proposal doesn't do any of those things either. The applicant has gone to great lengths to conceal the true nature of this proposal from the public. It calls its proposal a youth shelter and youth center and shelter, which makes it sound like the YMCA. You all know about the city's spider building, which is located right behind us here at City Hall. That is an actual youth center. It took the applicant four weeks to put up the signs required by our code. Signs that were supposed to be up to within two days of the submission of the application. They finally went up less than 48 hours before the DRC was supposed to meet. The applicants has cherry-picked people to join its neighborhood participation meetings. It never extended invitations to some of the very nearby neighborhood associations that are on the city's official list. But it did invite other ones that were farther away than the ones that were ignored. The applicant's representative has repeatedly he said that this is not a homeless shelter. They may not like the phrase homeless shelter, but in their own words in promotional materials, they say they provide shelter for unhoused people. It is exactly the same thing, and they know it. The applicant wants to distract you by arguing semantics, instead of being candid about their plan. I've spoken with many residents, preschool operators, school administrators, and business owners within the immediate vicinity of this project. Virtually none of them were aware of the project until I contacted them. The applicant has no prioritized our community and has made very little effort to solicit the support of the people and the businesses within it. As our elected representatives, your primary obligation is to serve the interests of the current residents, businesses, and property owners of Oakland Park. The proposed shelter does not align with a comprehensive plan. It is not a permitted use, and it is a risk to current residences businesses within the area. This clearly makes it unwary the additional use approval. So I leave you with two questions. One, would you approve a major site of intimate and conditional use if this project was in your own neighborhood? And if the answer to that question is no, then why would you approve of it in our neighborhood? Thank you again for your service to our city and thank you for your attention to this matter. Thank you, sir. Next person. Hi, my name is Charles McCotter. I live on Northwest 29th Terrance here in Oakland Park. First, I'd like to congratulate Mr. Bud who I met you six or eight months ago when I was here on other business. Kind of similar to tonight, but it was, I met you out here and it's nice to see you sitting up there. I found out about Covenant House from a flyer that was stuck in my door on Monday. It was not put there by anybody from the city, but it looks like this, talks about a homeless shelter. I had no idea. As much as I would like to help the homeless, especially young adults, my generosity does not extend to having a covenant house place a homeless shelter 100 feet from my backyard. And that's no exaggeration. I literally live closer than almost anyone to this building, except for a couple of my neighbors here in the audience as well. when I look at my patio door, I can see the back doors of the building and the cars in the parking lot. And unfortunately homeless shelters bring with them trash, drug use, vagrancy, and has been extensively pointed out crime. I don't want these things right next to my home, and I'm unhappy that the notification system for the city of Oakland Park has once again failed the residents of Cambridge Park at Oakland Park and the other neighborhoods and communities in the same area who all seem like they're blindsided like this as I was. What I'd like to know from the commission now though is are we too we too late? Is this, have all the permits been granted or whatever had to be done? The processes that come in a house has to go through to be able to turn that building into a shelter? Has that done? Are we all wasting our time at this point? Or is there, is there something you guys still have left to consider that you can even put a stop to this if you wanted to. I mean is this all the waste of time all of us talking about it at this point or is there something to be done? Thank you so this is me. We go to the person. We will follow up with you. You will. Yeah thank you.. Whoops. All right. Olivia Charlton, 2350 Northwest 20th Street. I come to you this evening as a parent, as a social worker, as the president of late-side homeowners association. I agree with all of my neighbors. I'm an agreement. It's a negative impact on our community. And the most important thing is the safety. To have the covenant house with ages 18 to 22 year old on Oldton Park Boulevard, and this day and time, we give in the traffickers invitation to these young people because they're gonna be going up and down Oakland Park Boulevard. To us, the traffickers can get on the turnpike, the traffickers can get on 95. So we need to think about the safety of these young people because they are very vulnerable. So that's, you know, I'm an agreement with all of my residents. And just for public record, I did not receive an invitation for the neighborhood meeting. I reached out to the attorney that's dealing with the development and they stated that a lot of melon was returned and late-side homeowners did not receive any information and I want that to be public. Thank you. Thank you, ma'am. Next person, please. Hi, Michael Krigo in 1940, Northwest, 33rd Court. So I have quite a few things here, but I'm just kind of jump to the part that I think is important that was missed. So I was at the last two DRC meetings, and Lordeering was a top of concern for several reasons, which brings me to the Covenant Sounds for Rupp's response at the last DRC. Quote, we have a half mile no-leitering policy, but can control when a homeless slash troubled young adult wants to leave. With that many of cases, I'm sure they experience will leave us in our neighborhood a half mile east right at Northwest 21st Avenue, the entry to my neighborhood, Veterans Park, the Post Office parking lot, vacant Walgreens, Burger King, Home Depot and the KFC, which all have current lordering and homeless issues that are not addressed by the city. So how does or can or will Covenant House enforce their half mile in either direction no lordering policy as stated at the last DRC? The other thing I want wanna bring up, somebody mentioned about reviews on the site. So I'm just gonna read one or two of those. The place is horrible, they're always short staffed and most of the people who work here on sympathetic have no compassion or heart and have nasty attitudes. Would not recommend this place to anyone, not even my enemy. This place is awful. Oh my God, you have people inside this shelter refusing to shower. there's mentally ill people here as well. When I first got here, the smell of piss struck my nose in the room. A fight broke out here and they have absolutely no resources for employment. inside the shelter refusing to shower. There's mentally ill people here as well. When I first got here, the smell of piss struck my nose in the room. A fight broke out here and they have absolutely no resources for employment. The staff also tried to make me look like I'm unproductive and I've only been here for two to three weeks trying to find employment. That's straight out of their place. And I know there's good reviews and there's bad reviews. In addition to that, last at the DRC, they brought in a volunteer that worked there, said all good things. Well, if you go on here, you'll see within the same six, seven, eight months, this is from one of their volunteers. I volunteer for the Covenant House for six months in the Jobs Preparation Section. I write this review after two years of reflection about my experience. I'm not a child psychologist nor a social worker, but I am a professional management expert with 40 years of experience and training. based based on my observations as a volunteer, the management of Covenant House is extremely weak. And when management is very weak, even noble goals will not get accomplished. And the way the institution evaluates its own performance, the indicators it uses and provides to donors don't seem to correspond to the state of goals. I would urge a re-examination of how to evaluate such an institution's performance. I was told by one of the counselors that the skills teaching only starts to stick after the fifth in and out rotation of the youth. While it might raise intake numbers, it judged another way. It would look like inefficiencies. Further, they work at bare bones resource levels in its shows. In full disclosure, my volunteer experience was not a positive one. The volunteers had given minimal training and it seemed to be oriented to keep the expectations low, which can hardly be good for the youth being trained. About four months into my tenure, and with none of the professionals to be found, I had a distributing counter with one of the youths, who taught me and gathered a crowd of youth around me, and he, for him to enjoy it. I was caught off guard and definitely upset. One of the teachers I immediately mentioned to the episode said the kids were allowed to get away with too much and I should report it to the supervisor. I was expected to be told that these things happen, what the particular situation with the youth in question was and what to do the next time. Instead, I was told by upper management like they do with other kids to go home, take the summer off and think about it, then decide if I want to come back. This is not how to incentivize volunteers in order to how to build capacity. And of course, I don't go back. So the message is if it's between the youth or you, their sanctuary requires that they can bully or do what they like to the volunteers. And to the volunteers, you need to don't need to support or be informed, you just need to accept it and somehow it's your fault and keep your expectations low. So with that being said, I would say, now having additional insights from looking at a deeper, looking deeper sense of DRC and Fort Lauderdale's experience and terminated lease and fines, why not be very transparent for the very first community meeting for Oakland Park, prior to buying the property with a presentation with video walk through community engagement graphs and spreads each that show that they're true intake process to address concerns of troubling issues testimonials from young adults. Time sir. Okay thank you. Thank you sir. I ask you guys deny the conditional. Thank you sir. Yes next person please. Good evening. My name is Dylan Centallo. My fiance, Brett and I, we recently moved into the Harlem-Bright neighborhood in Oakland Park. I first want to thank all of you and the city. The park is beautiful. I definitely exceeded my expectations. I had no clue there was something behind the playground. So I thank each of you. The neighbors have very neighborly and welcoming. So again, thank you all for the warm welcome. I wanted to raise three concerns now that the park is up and going. Let's come to my attention. The first, the need for shrubbery to create a boundary between private residences and the park. The second, the necessity of allowing leashed dogs similar to neighboring cities and Broward Countings existing park policies. And lastly, the increasing safety concerns since the park is opened. Starting with the first. So currently there is no physical barrier, such as shrubbery of the interior of the fence along the perimeter of the park, thus not causing a distinction between private property and public space is blurred. The lack of separation has led to confrontations, including an incident where I was subjected to homophobic slurs from a resident that shared a property line with the park. The solution is simple and widely implemented in other parks. Installing a dense row of native shrubs, this natural barrier would help define the park's limits, reduce conflicts between residents and park visitors, and enhance the overall aesthetic of the space. Now my second concern is the leashed dog policy. So Broward County's park policies allow leashed dogs in public parks, yet Carder G. Woodson has not adopted this policy. Implementing leashed dog policies hold pet owners accountable, encourages responsible pet ownership, and offers multiple benefits. A few statistics. The environmental research in public health have found that dog friendly parks experience lower crime rates, because dog walkers provide natural surveillance, discouraging illicit activity, as you're aware, crime is a huge issue in this area. Two, the American Kennel Club reports that 70% of dog owners interact more frequently with their neighbors, fostering a more community environment, and lastly, the CDC highlights that dog ownership promotes healthy activity, reducing heart disease and obesity. So while some may have concerns of pet wastes, of safety, and presence of a dog park 1.5 miles away, many parts can install pet waste stations with free disposal bags that ensure responsible pet owners. Additionally, peer accountability among pet owners help maintain cleanliness. Now leash dogs when handled by responsible owners pose minimal risk. In fact, people are far more likely to be injured in public parks by bicycles, by sports activities, or uneven sidewalks. Again, Broward County does allow leash dogs in their parks. And while a designated park exists closely, it serves a different purpose. Many residents, especially seniors, individuals with disabilities, and those with limited time like myself that I commute to work from Big Brum Brickle and back 5 a.m. to 8 p.m. every day. We just want to walk our dog safely in a well-lit area and not get the risk of being hit by a car on that street on third street. Lastly, there are increasing safety concerns and would love to address them as soon as possible. Thank you. Thank you, sir. Next person please. Darcy Esquate 3038 Northwest 30 of Tears. This is the Irma grievance of placing a homeless shelter at 2880 West Oakland Park Boulevard. I am a single homeowner at Cambridge Park Town Homes. I like to walk my daughter's dog and we hours of the morning. I feel safe because it's a medium sized dog, but also because it's currently a safe neighborhood. So the presence of a shelter will attract individuals who engaged in criminal acts and will bring my property values down. Please consider expanding housing vouchers, affordable housing, job training and addiction recovery. So please say no to the shelter and By the way, I love the Easter limb parks, But thank you for listening. Thank you, babe. Yeah, I get a show of hands who needs to speak yet. OK, next person, please. Hi, guys. Jim Joseph Favitchich 1940 Northwest 33rd Court. Hi, everyone. Forgive me if this comes out a little bold in places. I would like to say that the covenant house people have a good cause in our passion for what they do, which is great. Just not in this area. Do it in more suitable area and not surrounded by residential neighborhoods and transparency in this application with the city. This has been an issue from day one. First off, a major donated to Covenant House, Starlight investments out of Toronto, doing business at Starlight Properties is the owner of the property, which is highly suspicious to myself and all of the other West Side residents. Secondly, no signs were ever put up on the site notifying the general public of anything to recently after our complaints. Some attorneys that live in our neighborhood have said that this could possibly open up the city to a lawsuit being that this is in violation of Florida's sunshine law. How did they even get to DRC without taking these steps by not doing this and by not giving proper agenda notices to the citizens of Oakland Park. Excuse me, I'm nervous. Also, if Covenant House is saying they are providing a safe shelter to the homeless, why were they in violation of Fort Lauderdale Safety Code to keep their residents safe? Since September of 2023, they were non-compliant ignoring Fort Lauderdale's recrust to provide a safe habitat and even being fine since October of last year, just recently fixing the violations. This is a type of character our city wants to be entangled with. Please check the last Chamber of Commerce records where a former Fort Lauderdale City Commissioner stated that Fort Lauderdale has ongoing issues with the common-house stating that they were residents were coming and going at all times of the day and Late into the night and early mornings and told them of the break ins in the neighborhood apparently Covina House did not do anything to fix the problem or continue the dialogue The commissioner said that Oakland Park should be careful of opening a can of worms that they will regret Please note that the West Fort Lauderdale most recently something land was denied by Fort Lauderdale and since that denial on pull out Co houses and approaching our city. We would also elect in the city will enjoy less property taxes coming in from the diminished home evaluations and diminished property tax values of the thousands of surrounding homes. At the last commission meeting it was said that you want to make the West side of priority and this is what the answer is. Something we don't want and something that goes against our own comprehensive plan. Please answer us. What one good thing does this bring to the residents of the west side? We were happy with property tax generating office center that was operating there. The zoning was put in place for this area for a reason. Let the current zoning city in place for what it was intended for. We the resident should not even be here be here today. We voted our officials in, which in turn, hired the city staff to work for us. Some were voting in on the premise of making the West Side a priority. And I hate to say from hearing from many neighbors comments, and unfortunately, some will be voted out, and some should be fired if this were to go through. And to this effect, some neighbors are suggesting to bring in the news media to cover this if it moves forward. Commissioners and city staff alike are supposed to be watching out for us, the constituents, who put you in office, which in turn, you provided others in the city their jobs. We should not have to be here defending ourselves in our wishes to all of you, of all people. You all are supposed to be listening and defending us. And another note, various respectfully, very respectfully. Thank you all for your service to your citizens. Thank you. Thank you, sir. Next person, please. Good evening, commissioners. My name is Paul Clifford. I reside at 3,0001 Northwest 30th Terrace in Oakland Park. I've been at this location for 17 years. And this is the second time I've seen the commission regarding an issue that I feel strongly about. when you even more so than the Resoning issue which came up recently, but I did not receive any type of information about this Covenant House only via email recently very recently nothing from the city But I just want to say that I do not believe that this is an acceptable place for a home. I agree with, certainly there is a need and they are appropriate, but this is not an appropriate place for a homeless shelter. 2880 West Oakland Park Boulevard. 2860 Oakland Park Boulevard is a daycare called Totstown. It is licensed and accredited by the Florida Department of Children and Families, a professional learning environment. How can that possibly coexist with a homeless shelter? The daycare is operating Monday through Friday from 6 a.m. to 6.30 p.m. And then also a very close Hindu temple at 3000 Northwest 29th Avenue. And we're talking about putting a homeless facility for those recovering from substance or addiction issues next door to these these fine establishments. It's an inappropriate location. Oakland Park and this location specifically is prone to severe traffic congestion and it is not safe for residential. I've mentioned in the past to you that is prone to flooding and this zoning is presently B1 and I would very respectfully ask the commission to review this and not proceed because it's just not a good location for this whatsoever. Thank you very much for your time. Thank you, sir. Next person please Jim Smith 1015 Northeast 39th Street Oakland Park mayor Ice Mayor, City Commissioners, I'll be brief. I came tonight because some of these residents contacted me privately and said, would you come? Because I have some experience with the Covenant House as a City Commissioner for the Beach. And I was also the City Commissioner for Sunrise Boulevard where the homeless assistant center is located. So I have experienced with two different homeless centers. The homeless center on Sunrise is run like a Swiss watch. It is just perfect. If you're homeless and you want help, you go there. They let you in if you're not drunk, if you're not stoned, you come in, you have immediately, you sit down with counselors to see what your issues are. You can't just leave there and wander around all night. You can, but you can't come back in. So that neighborhood has embraced the Homeless Assistance Center, Broward County funded facility. The Covenant House is a whole different animal. They believe in their mission and they have a great mission of helping particularly troubled young people. Oh my God, my boy is 35 now, but I remember when he was 18 and that's a tough age, but they don't approach it properly. When I was a commissioner and I told, I would call them and say, geez, I got six calls last night. The cops are all up and down, Birch Road. That your clients are out there at three o'clock in the morning. They're 17 years old. There's people trying to pick them up to have sex with them. And they would say, Commissioner, is really none of your business. And we're not not a jail and we don't lock them in and that's the way they approached me and I called them dozens of times and I was frustrated and that's why I told these folks I'd come and tell you guys that there are proper ways to run facilities that take care of our weaker people and there are ways that you should not do it. And I don't think Covenant House has learned their lesson over all these years. And I hope you find a way to deny them or at least put enough restrictions and conditions into your approval that if they start messing with your community again, you can be able to close them down or have some action. Thank you. Thank you, sir. Next person, please. Seeing grand 30, 12, Lord, Mr. D. Avenue. I am concerned about the homeless shelter. I'm seeing grand 30, 12, not be sturdy at Avenue. I am concerned about the homeless shelter that will be placed basically back door within my community. We, the citizens of Cambridge, our residents of Cambridge, we have suffered so much. Currently we have a large body of dirt in the back of four yard where the city has approved for debris and all those type of things to come right there. We're suffering. We have respiratory problems. Recently I think there's going to be some rezoning just at 30th Avenue right below where I live. And so again this homeless center is coming. It is it is too much of us we have kids in our community that you know play from time to time. We have residents that walk. The young lady said she walked her dog at night. There are times when they may go out and just exercise. And so to have this facility so close to us, I think it is not something good for our community. So I'm asking the commissioners and all who serve for us to reconsider. I don't think we need this. It's a lovely project. We want our young people to go somewhere and to be rehabilitated, but I don't think that this venue is a right place for them. Thank you so much. Thank evening. Good evening. Good evening. Good evening. Good evening. Good evening. Good evening. Good evening. Good evening. Good see that whole building from the back of my house. I have two small children. My wife and I are both veterans. My wife is a clinical social worker. She's very versed in facilities like this. She couldn't be here this evening because she's with our children, but she does not support having this facility in our backyard. It's dangerous. Unfortunately, these people do need help, but the area that it's in is not going to serve them properly or us because there's going to be conflict, right? And for anything like this to exist, it has to be a harmonious situation for the people around and the people being served. I'd like to give kudos to everybody that did their research. And I really hope you take in consideration the people here and the people who are not here. It's just not a safe situation. All right. Thank you. Thank you, sir. Next person, please. Okay, at this time we will close public comments. And we will move on to the consent agenda. Okay, yeah, but let's not take 10. Let's just take five minutes rest from Rick. Thank you. Yeah. Right here we go. I'm going to go to the next room. I'm going to go to the next room. I'm going to go to the next room. I'm going to go to the next room. I'm going to go to the next room. I'm going to go to the next room. I'm going to go to the next room. I'm going to go to the next room. I'm going to go to the next room. I'm going to go to the next room. I'm going to go to the next room. I'm going to go to the next room. I'm going to go to the next room. I'm going to go to the next room. I'm going to go to the next room. I'm going to go to the next room. I'm going to go to the next room. I'm going to go to the next room. I'm going to go to the next room. I'm going to go to the next room. I'm going to go to the next room. I'm going to go to the next room. I'm going to go to the next room. I'm going to go to the next room. I'm going to go to the next room. I'm going to go to the next room. I'm going to go to the next room. I'm going to go to the next room. I'm going to go to the next room. I'm going to go to the next room. I'm going to go to the next room. I'm going to go to the next room. I'm going to go to the next room. I'm going to go to the next room. I'm going to go to the next room. I'm going to go to the next room. I'm going to go to the next room. I'm going to go to the next room. I'm going to go to the next room. I'm going to go to the next room. I'm going to go to the next room. I'm going to go to the next room. I'm going to go to the next room. I'm going to go to the next room. I'm going to go to the next room. I'm going to go to the next room. I'm going to go to the next room. I'm going to go to the next room. I'm going to go to the next room. I'm going to go to the next room. I'm going to go to the next room. I'm going to go to the next room. I'm going to go to the next room. I'm going to go to the next room. I'm going to go to the next room. I'm going to go to the next room. I'm going to go to the next room. I'm going to go to the next room. I'm going to go to the next room. I'm going to go to the next room. I'm going to go to the next room. I'm going to go to the next room. I'm going to go to the next room. I'm going to go to the next room. I'm going to go to the next room. I'm going to go to the next room. I'm going to go to the next room. I'm going to go to the next room. I'm going to go to the next room. I'm going to go to the next room. I'm going to go to the next room. I'm going to go to the next room. I'm going to go to the next room. I'm going to go to the next room. I'm going to go to the next room. I'm going to go to the next room. I'm going to go to the next room. I'm going to go to the next room. I'm going to go to the next room. I'm going to go to the next room. I'm going to go to the next room. I'm going to go to the next room. I'm going to go to the next room. I'm going to go to the next room. I'm going to go to the next room. I'm going to go to the next room. I'm going to go to the next room. I'm going to go to the next room. I'm going to go to the next room. I'm going to go to the next room. I'm going to go to the next room. I'm going to go to the next room. I'm going to go to the next room. I'm going to go to the next room. I'm going to go to the next room. I'm going to go to the next room. I'm going to go to the next room. I'm sorry. Okay. Okay Okay, and we will move on to the consent agenda now. Mr. City Attorney. Item 3 is approval minutes, February 5, 2025. Item 4 is resolution by title only. Resolution that City Commission is able to park Valkyrie Park floor up proving the purchase of one replacement van from Poser for it in the amount of $49,990. Thank you back in the floor to Sheriff's Association contract FSA 24 VEL 32.0 providing for conflict, severability and effective date. Item 5 is a resolution of the City Commission, the City of Oka Park, Florida. Approving an authorizing the appropriate city officials, execute a work authorization between the city and Hazen, Sawyer, PC for city centennial park phase two, storm one or assessment, impriminary design, professional services, and amount not to exceed $215,106, providing for conflict, severability and effective date. Item six, Resolution by Title Only, a Resolution, City Commission, Civil Compact floor to approve and authorize the renewal of the EDR platform license with SHI International for fiscal year 2025 2025, it total costs $35,855.62. Piggy backing, cooperative purchasing agreement through MAMNIA Partners Contract, 201 8011-02, provided for conflict, severability and effective date. Item 7 is a resolution by Title Only, a resolution, city commission, city of Ocompark, Florida, approved and authorizing the appropriate city officials, actually to work authorization between the city and Kimley Horan and associate's in for the ADA self-evaluation and transition plan phase two for an amount not to exceed $50,000. Provide for conflict, sever date. Item Nates, the resolution by Title Only, a resolution city commission, C. Volkampark, Florida, proving authorized appropriate city officials executed agreement with in-liner solutions, secured in place pipe, lining of approximately 14,300 feet, the main lines based on existing agreement with the city of Hollywood, which Ocampark has received approval to piggyback for a total of $791,824, providing for conflict, severability and effective date. Item 9 is a resolution by Title Only, a resolution city commission, City of Ocampark, Florida, proving to authorize proper City secretary of the agreement, the necessary to provide local funding for the stamped asphalt element of intersections of Northwest 21st Avenue project from Northwest 26th Street, Ocopark Boulevard, in an amount of $155,400, an additional approval of $25,000 to cover any additional costs, increases, and the approval of the budget amendment, the primary conflict, service, and effective date. Item 10 is resolution by title only. A resolution, city commission, city of Ocompark, Florida, approving authorizing a bid waiver and the provisions of Article 7 section 2 dash 200, city code of ordinances for the purchase of the Pavilion, brand, outdoor furniture from WRK Lab, Inc. for the tenant improvement for the City Hall space, the City building, and the amount that they exceed. 51,590,000, 13 cents. Approving the proposed budget amendment, providing for conflicts, providing for serviceability, and providing for an effective date. Item 11 is the resolution by the City Commission. The City of Ocompark, Florida. Approving and authorizes the purchase of furniture for the tenant approves of the city all space. The sky building from WRK lab, ink under state of Florida contract. 6 5 6 1 2 0 0 dash 2 4 dash 9 and Y-ACS in tips contract 20301 in the amount of 279,218,000 E.5 cents. In an onerous contingency of 40,000 dollars for an unforeseen items, approving the proposed budget amendment, providing for conflicts, survivor of serability and crime for effective date. That concludes the consent agenda for the seating, Mr. Mayor. Mochito, adopt. Sorry again. Commissioner Gordon. Yes, Commissioner Newbold. Yes, Commissioner Batu. Yes. Vice Mayor Arns, Mayor Longagan. Yes. Okay, and we move on then to, let's see, 12, 13. We skipped and 14 reports from the City Commission. We pulled it. Again, it just helps us notify us of, thing that's going on or need to be repaired. So just thank you. But I just wanted to mention I was with Debbie over at Big Dog Station at the Chilli Cook Off. I was one of the judges and had a very nice time. And I must say that the city truly has been on the move because we've had several grand openings from the sea moss, the grand opening of sea moss or organics, the then red sea restaurant, and the El Car Wash that's popping up all over the place. It's just great to see when we arrive there the energy that's going on and we just look forward for every business that Choose Oakland Park as their home That for them to thrive and Also the taste was wonderful well attended attended, had a great time. And also this morning I went to a meeting along with the mayor. I will, I saw him there, brought next, gave wealth of information that's going on with the county, with Browley County. I learned some interesting facts as far as what Browie County stands with the property insurance, as far as businesses, minority owned businesses that we're Florida is number one, and one category, black owned business, and number two, they came in number two for women owned business and for number three for Hispanic owned business. So I thought that was interesting news and also that there are more jobs out there to apply for than there are people applying. So again, there was so much information there. So I'm grateful to attend that meeting this morning. And what's next? Dancing with the streets? We have March 14th. I look forward to coming there. I don't know. Vice Mayor Arns, you're gonna dance again? Not any types of... ...could be a little bit... ...one time. I'm not a not a type to one time shot lucky me well I look forward to then although it's not this week next week I look forward the 14th so I look forward to that. And again thank you city manager and your staff staff for just bearing with us and taking questions on the spot that you know may not have discussed I just want to thank you for that and again for our county collaborating with the city of Wokong Park to make sure our streets are safe thank you thank you. Mayor thank you thank you. First of all it's good to see Commissioner Gordon back. I have to stop with that. Yes I did. I'm preparing for you and your family. You was missed. You said you're an Iax the city manager. How you was doing all the time? He briefed me. Be glad you're back. This was an exciting last month, February. It was short, but it was sweet. It was long. Dr. Carter G. Watton Park was amazing. To see the residents there there unified as one city Great job Yes, city manager. I'm gonna all the fame bus We got we got Gold Star Your staff part of a leader is making sure he got the best to get stuff done. It's all problems. And I have to give you kudos today because you took care every time it was an issue, I have residents call me and they ask me what to do. Man, it's a, hey, come down, come get your four minutes. That's why I wasn't going to cut them loose because I gave my word. You're going to have four minutes. And I knew this was the last meeting that was going to happen March. So I wanted to hit a resonant. Yeah. If it looked like we were going to, it was so cool. I just wanted to make sure everyone could get hurt. No, you did a great job. Channel meeting, man, you really did. And I appreciate that. I have my must say, I was happy to see all the residents and that's what it takes to continue building our Oakland Park, making the best city of the 31 in Brown County. Also, I got to give a shout out to the Fire Department. I was there present over time in ceremony and Chief George Kinzo, his family. I sort of had a whole branch with there. It was was early in the morning, but I was there on time. And I was my first one. And to see his family and his employees, his fellow colleagues, I embraced them. It was special. We are family. And that means a lot. I want that axe too. That was a beautiful retirement axe. And I asked the chief of that. I want one of them to ask him how much it cost. He just don't want to know. But it was nice. It was very nice. I just... I'm just... You just don't know the importance of community and how much I get interactions all the time and how the city is doing. And our integrity is vital at all times, people respect us. Even though they may come down on us, they will expect what we do here, because we are a team. And I appreciate that. We're going to maintain that. Long as I'm here, I'm going to eat and make me one of us. It's here. We're going to maintain that unity. And that's why everybody could go home now. They felt, listen to and heard, and they have confidence in us. And I'm proud of the level of integrity and consistency with my fellow colleagues. So we have the challenges coming up. We got to go lobbying Tallahassee to make sure we continue getting funding. We got to get clarity in Washington city manager, and it's gonna come. It just takes time. It's going through the process. I have my 100 days, 100 days, my first 100 days, and we did a lot as a team. When I'm out there in the community, I'm not just representing myself, I'm representing the whole board. Trust me, because they ask about each and every one of you. And I smile and say, yeah, they are my colleagues. So I am pushing us as much. All of us. And they see that. So with that said, I know the time is short, because we had no one. But thank you this evening. Thank you, Commissioner. Just very short mirror kind of losing my voice a little bit, but Thank you commissioner but who It's nice to know that I was missed but You know It's it's life, you know when I think of death, I think of life. You know, they kind of go hand in hand. We all are going to go one day. We just have to enjoy. Remember in our hearts and spirit, the joy that we spent, we spent with those people who were once a part of this life, you know, and just give thanks for having that opportunity. Tonight, I'm certainly happy to be back and listen, listen to all of the residents who came out to speak with us this evening and voice their concerns. And I too always encourage residents to come out and speak. This is a platform for them to come out and just let us know you're in front of the commission, you're in front of city management. Just come out and let us know what your concerns are. And I would tell you I never take our residents, our stakeholders, concerns for granted. Every concern that's brought to us is unique, special, and we do our best to address those. I don't take for granted that I'm elected to this position. I am a public servant, serve the public to the best of my ability. So I am grateful to see the residents come out and you know, remind us that, you know, we took an oath and they voted for us and they are holding our feet to the fire. So we make decisions up here. The buck stops here and sometimes those decisions might not necessarily make one please, but I can assure you I'm confident that every last one of us up here for the right reason. And that is to make good, fair and just decisions at all times. So, yeah, I'm grateful to be a part of this great team and thank you City Manager and all staff for all of that they do to keep this great city on the move. I watched that with the crosswalk, with the skywalk, I'm sorry I should know that. The skywalk, I watched that on video, it was amazing to see that being set in place. Can't look forward, I'm looking forward, I can't wait to walk on it and test the weight. But you know what? But you know what? Guess what? Guess what? I've walked on many of those. Okay? And yeah, I've walked on them and I don't mind testing the water. Okay? Remember that. I don't mind being the first one out. Send me out of the gate. Let me go first. And you make sure you're behind me now. Or you don't let me have to come and drag you across. But yeah, I'm looking forward to it. And thank you all for all of your thoughts, prayers and wonderful comments. Thank you. Thank you, Commissioner. And you were definitely missed. And second thing is I'd like to thank Christine A. Jack. What a beautiful job she did picking up people. I mean, the main thing about the taste is that it gets people to find out what these restaurants are all about and really what it does, it helps people when they want to go out and eat locally. They know what they're getting into and they got a variety of restaurants that's just a great job. I I mean, I can't say enough about her. And the last thing I'm gonna say is that keep it all your back in your minds. One of these days, I'm gonna have a genuine item about replacing the park ranges we lost years ago. It's getting time. We got new parks. We got problems already in the new parks. We had park ranges for years. They were great. The only reason we don't have them is because of the recession. It's just one of those things that was, but think about it because it's getting to the point where these, oh, we have a lot of parks and they're getting, I don't want to sit here and have people be complaining about parks before they had radius at one right to BSO. They do the people who are the players that were troublemakers in the parks. They call BSO and they ever happen. So long as you're just keeping your mind, because soon I'll be having a gen item on that. That's it for me. Thank you. Thank you, Vice Mayor. Appreciate it. Just wanted to mirror what the commission said. First of all, welcome back. You were missed and we will have a parachute for you if you're going to do the first. Thank you. The tonight was such an excellent example of community participation and people getting involved in their community, their neighborhood, their city, and expressing their viewpoint. That's what it's all about. As everyone knows, anyone can bring an application to the city and we have to give a fair evaluation of it. So this is the resident's time to come in and tell us how they feel about it before it even comes to us. So they've got the public comments, we receive emails on it, we receive telephone calls on it. We encourage that, that's how we know exactly what the residents want and ask them to continue doing that. I know through part of that conversation there was some concern about the neighborhood participation meetings. Just want to remind everyone, although if there were missteps, trust me, staff heard. And anytime there are public comments here, staff is taking notes and they're following up. They're checking to see what maybe we might have made a misstep on or was there a misunderstanding on someone's part and we didn't make a misstep. The reason I bring it up is if it's always good also to refer out to the city website for numerous reasons. Neighborhood participation meetings are often listed out in the city website. Community services are listed out in the website things that are happening at the library events at the park. So just a reminder, go out to the city website, you can find a lot of that information out there on the calendar to help keep you up to date. Let's see, I do wanna say Christine, Vice Mayor did a great job like you're saying and the entire staff love the volunteers that are out there too that sign up to help to keep the park clean. The vendors, I know I see you guys going around too. I go around thank the vendors for participating and see you guys doing the same things. So thank you. Always hear great comments. Looking forward to dancing in the streets, which is Friday the 14th from 6 to 9 and then the last thing I just would say is our next commission meeting is Wednesday April 2nd So this is the only meeting this month and mr. City manager to you Thank you just a couple quick notes I want to remind those of you that have been so supportive about the school board mitigation issue and our support for the county resolution that urges the schools to release those nine cities from this issue. You'll all remember that there was a workshop with the school board, many of you attended, and many others, including the developers, Jack Doran was here. Thank you, Jack. It was amazing to see you there and have your voice heard. Subsequently, there was a working group established of cities, the county, developers, and the school personnel. And I've been named one of the three co-chairs, along the county and the school to try to navigate how to report back to the school board. So it really served its purpose that you took the time and energy to do that, everybody that came and supported that effort. It's moving forward. I don't expect it'll move fast, but we're going to keep pushing on that issue. I was doing one of my walkabouts here in the downtown this morning to clear my head after an early morning trying to put together the last minutes of the traffic presentation. And as I walk down Main Street as I do from time to time, saw the people going into the post office of course because people still use that area and then because I decided to turn and cut through the post office parking lot to get to our vacant lot I noticed that there weren't any cars in the post office lot, which as you know we leased from the post office. This was probably around 1030. I thought how strange is that. And I turned around and I noticed that the gate of the post office was open, which is very unusual unless they've got a semi that's loading or unloading there. And so, because it was an open gate and because I'm just a wanderer, I went into the parking area of the post office site and lo and behold, what do you think I would see there? Nothing. Nothing. Not only were there no personal vehicles in the post office site where the delivery people usually park, but there were also no delivery vans in the parking in closed area of the post office. Now I am aware that there is work getting done at the other post office in Oakland Park on West Oakland Park Boulevard. I do not know what that work is. And knowing that the post office customer service area was open, it struck me as curious that something I've never noticed in 10 years is going on over there. I've got my feelers out. I don't know what it means. Not sure where it might pretend, but I'm excited at the prospect. And just to prove that I'm not going completely insane. I went on my video phone chat and made sure that I showed both Andrew and Anna who had continued working in my absence at City Hall. There may be movement here folks. I have spent 10 years with Russ Glenette and DJ Do Duty and my team trying to get into the post office. So I don't imagine it's going to be easy to get an answer from them because nothing is easy to get an answer from them. But if there is movement, we're going to be there. And we're going to make sure that an opportunity to have a say if not to control the development that takes place at that site is going to be something that does not pass us by. So I'm cautiously optimistic, and I had to share that with you, because this be paid dirt for our downtown Really exciting prospect potentially Real funny you said that I work right down the street in the tropical reef station on six Avenue in Palm Pino off the federal highway and the back of that they're getting ready to move the tropical reef somewhere and The back of that is empty too. All the cars are gone. There's something happening. It looks like the post office is abandoned. And even the, the regular parking lot is, there's hardly anyone there. I know they put out feelers online and everywhere in Pompo to find a place where they can move the Tropgarif station. And that's one of the precursors of that I think is they moved everything out of the area. What's happening right now at the Federal government is highly unusual and there's no prediction of where it might go. Some of it causes me great trepidation like the issue of whether or not our grants are going to be fulfilled. Others create excitement like the possibility that there will be opportunities in federal properties. But the world is changing and it's changing in a very dramatic way. I am focused on eight square miles and the rest of the world got help it will have to work well without me because I'm going to have my hands full here in Open Park. But I wanted to share that with you because I thought it was just so curious. Commissioner, I'm sorry. No, I did read that there are like over 300 I saw that and then they took them off. They posted them as 400, then they took off 100, and then later today they took them all off. So it's anybody's guess and I'm not going to make any predictions. All I'm saying is let's get ready to pounce. Please, a big shout out to the county. I don't like to be the person that says, I told you so, I told you so, I told you so, but we don't own Northwest 21st Avenue. And once the members of this day us took the initiative to work with the county to get the county focused with the community's needs, change happened, changed happened. It wasn't because of me because I don't have that ability. but together we can get things done and prove positive tonight. And sorry guys, but let me add my thank you to the things that you received from some of the people that were here tonight because it was because of your efforts that that initiative is being undertaken again. of dollars of dollars, folks, on 21st Avenue. Millions will be spent both on the north side as well as the south side of Oakland Park Boulevard. So kudos to you, hats off and ra ra ra. You guys are amazing. Thank you, Mayor. I'm done. Thank you, Mr. City Attorney. Councilor Nussle, to report. Motion to adjourn.