##VIDEO ID:glfesQglRow## e e all right we have everybody here and I show 606 so why don't we call to order our our regular meeting okay so we call to order our regular commission meeting today is Tuesday January 7 2025 uh Madam clerk could you please call the RO for us mayor gr here ice mayor Kennedy my mouth moving yeah thanks [Music] me doing it again oh I know watch many videotapes of hey we said to continue yes okay all right Madam clerk could you uh call the RO for us please mayor Gro here ice mayor Kennedy here commissioner Amsler here commissioner Huntington here commissioner Sam yeah Mr Mayor you have a quum he thank you can we do the pledge please okay do we have any additions delet itions or withdrawals to the agenda at this time I have two okay there are two items on here Dan that you put on the agenda and there's no explanation or backup there's nothing I could do to prepare for these things and and um we're supposed to have something for us to consider I called the manager and I called the attorney to discuss these items and they didn't have any information they could share with me either so I'm here Flying Blind on two items can you Dan can you talk to your mic please since there was no backup well when I ask the clerk well um since there was no backup on it uh I'm going to pull those both of those items and save it for the next commission meeting so in just um commissioner Samar so um I think in between your terms we we adopted a policy where we have like a full detailed sheet and and that's I know these are your two your first two items so I'm just telling you no this is something that as there something that I have to learn yeah of course has happened in the past is different from what has happened now so I I definitely apologize to this commission for that no problem about that um but that's my responsibility to find out so I definitely would like if M if Mr commission Kennedy wouldn't mind if I can jump in front and pull those two items okay okay all right so I'll mark uh that's 13A and B um vice mayor wasion okay vice mayor were there any others um no I have I have um so 13c is your item Mac doesn't have um anything on it either well unfortunately there was nothing for me to add I did have uh send a longer message through to the clerk and the manager when I sent it in and it didn't make it on to here but I did have a longer write up on it it wasn't included you say it's not included on here but I sent it into staff yeah but I will tell you Vero that there wasn't a whole lot on it because it was an item that I couldn't get any information on it was based on a social media post and again when I talked to Brad and Al about it they didn't have information they could share with me either so it was really just a uh hey Dan what's this about item that's really all I presented to them in the email that I sent him so I'm just trying to be fair here we're asking uh commissioner Samaria not to move forward with two items because it doesn't have any support but your item doesn't have any support well there's no support but there was a longer item that I sent in it was an email that I sent in that didn't make it onto the agenda but I will say again that there was no B there was nothing I could add other than I don't know what happened here I would like this to be explained at the meeting okay commissioner amler and I did talk to the attorney manager and they both said ma we don't know either we've asked the commissioner and he's not information to us commissioner AMS I appreciate what you have done but I there has been something that this is important there's nothing done nothing wrong so I don't have a problem hope I don't regret it but I don't have a problem with this item being brought up again commissioner am thank you very much for thinking about that but I because there was a post on next door and I have done nothing wrong so I'm willing to all right so I just wanted to make sure we'll have the the same sort ofat I I appreciate that thank you very much and then on the other side just for for for us you know we we received the agenda on Friday we have to kind of go through this items and the idea of having backup is that we're all prepared but also the people that come forward have the time to read I don't I don't want to drag this on into the next commission meeting so all right so I have an item I'll mark down 13A and 13B is withdrawn to move and then 13 c will stay there was another item you had commissioner yes uh so on the minutes let me just get to it to the last one there yeah yeah so if I could just pull those minutes off I just want to have the time to address minutes in my commission report if we can just push them for the next meeting my idea is that we have an understanding I don't know if you guys do I I'm still wondering whether we are presented the information that is basic in terms of minutes we have um lots of minutes that need to be catched up and I just want to make sure that whatever is done from that point from this point on Pamela in terms of format is what we all look into to see there was a question I asked Bradley chess before we got to the meeting today about do you feel confident this is legally sufficient in terms of a minute and I don't know that I got that answer so if you guys don't um disagree I would like to push it for next agenda so that whatever format has been already seen and discussed you know internally between the manager Pam because there's a lot of ketchup that needs to happen I don't want to have to be pulling items one by one I'd rather make sure the items address as we all feel comfortable everything we discuss if that's okay and you're going to be I'm fine with that and you're going to be addressing that in your report tonight yes okay good I'm all for that and just so folks in the audience know the reason it's so important it's not us just being picky about that we've all we all know that the official meeting minutes are the official record of the meeting even more so than the video that's stored on YouTube so they have to be right and complete um or our record of the meeting is not right in complete so that's why we have to be so sticklers about that yeah okay so now that's so we're talking nine h j and k correct yes all okay all right mayor if you will uh I have concerns about the minutes as well maybe we could walk on a discussion item at the end to discuss the minutes procedure and what we're we're currently doing and what we can do better because I have concerns as well and instead of addressing them each individually maybe we can have a group discussion so I will say yes if we get to that point yes um why don't we do that and verl why don't we have that be since you're gonna presented in your report why don't we let ver leave that because she's going to report on it anyway and then that way instead of you having your report and then us discussing it again later we can do it all at one time perfect let her go first okay all right so I'll make a note that we have a a discussion item under new business on minutes okay uh is I think I have everything is that any anything further for additions deletions and withdrawals at this time hearing none Mr Mayor yes I I just wanted to put my my report in the department reports at the end after the um ordinances reading the ordinance you want to move Section 8 to after the ordinances yes please um all no no he's not well right but he's talking about all of Section 8 a a b c d and e yes Dan I can't hear you when you're not speaking in your microphone it's your microphone not your mask are we going to have a a manager's report too because I don't see it on here yeah I think that's what Al's suggesting he wants to move Al do you want to move all of eight or just your portion of eight your report all the department reports will be combined with my report yes okay we'll combine them and move them after the ordinances okay all right so I think I have all that down correctly hopefully um okay so do I have a motion and a second to approve the agenda as it's been amended motion to approve as amended we have a second okay all in favor hi I I okay so let's go ahead and let's uh begin with our presentation from our finance department evening Paul pass test there we got it a little I can't tell how loud it is from here but you're you're good good all right thank you uh Happy New Year to everyone it's a pleasure to be here uh to introduce the uh the changes that we're working on with your finance department particularly as directed through the budget process uh a strategy to uh improve the entire process but some really specific things I'm going to talk about today uh big picture the financial report in the in the agenda also has the October and November uh financials and it's the least remarkable time of year to talk about financials because they have nothing of of note uh I will give you the because of the revenue not being in and and it's actually just now hitting uh this fiscal year because you get most of your October finan uh invoices in in November you pay them they show up in your December financials so you're just seeing you you will start to see the year uh in really your next set of financials uh so with that said I really want to focus on uh the big picture is the change will happen on many levels and the and the improvements the first one is to uh have a very formatted uh schedule and the schedule is across the board and and I've met with the manager and discussed it and basically I call it the February 1 kickoff basically the picture is the manager issu use a a statement to all staff uh with a an estimate or a position on increases particularly labor or Personnel Staffing as assumptions and and those assumptions can trickle as broadly or narily as the manager so chooses uh there's no science to that it's just how we start things in this business and then from that the department heads will begin to develop their 2026 budget from that first message now going a little deeper what we've already done is started to develop a relationship with the uh department heads and the finance director my or the person handling the budget analyst and the uh accounts payable process which I've appointed myself to do uh nobody else would do it I'm just kidding uh it it's really my job to because I have the familiarity to to get the thing built right so that we can sustain it uh for years to come uh I've had the uh sorry you're talking about build in the accounts payable process you said like from scratch designing it yeah yeah so for the last few uh visits to the to the Village I I've done I've attacked it on multiple level levels at the same time one in in my report it mentions you have an assistant clerk now that handles that responsibility you didn't for a long period of time over the summer uh you got a large backlog of invoices uh we've worked tirelessly to get those caught up get them programmed into this process correct irly uh that's that's taken some big steps forward so the the other part I was beginning to mention with the department heads is really an understanding of how uh the budget process the manager's responsibility the reports to the commission they are really the same thing and that is a is a paradigm shift for a lot of us that have never been taught that way or or managed that way and what it means is that and and really the the Crux of my report is I summarized it into what I call an events Village events preview and what I did was I took uh three years of Village event history and put it into identifiable categories that we could credit cards equipment DJs you know supplies you know the obvious pieces of those little puzzles and and match them up year to year so that the department head can actually start to see Trends see programmatic flaws or strengths uh I'm hoping to eventually develop into the uh the the detail attendance participation some sort of uh either qualitative or quantitative observations of each one of these events so this will roll into a manager's report to you that will be financially based and quantitatively based so what you'll do is you'll see this is how we did in the past this is how we're doing this year and the next column on this type of report is what do we want to start thinking about for next year and some some topics like a construction or Public Works might even have multiple year projections like when would we do that road project when you they really all need to be dovetailed together and that's the the big leap that you've never had and you're going to have this sustained effort to to hold the department heads into that process to bring that to you in their reports and it'll look just like your budget and so what happens in our budget process is you see numbers for the first time uh that describe what you did last year or the current year and in the budget cycle and what they want to do next year and they may not even align and that was very you know historically problematic and that's what we're trying to fix in this phase of of improvement uh the other thing that the manager and and the department heads will do is they have to adopt into their vernacular into their cultural into their interactions a financial element uh it's been missing frankly uh for whatever reason but the point is that it's it's really holding everybody to that that fabric because the budget should not be the first time you you think like that it should be constant and so with that overview uh Issa particularly I picked on him the most uh he he's he's the one who's not armed um in my meeting so he no he's been very generous with with his effort and understanding uh the chief and have have actually started to talk about how and they get a lot they get the whole data dump of all of their financials every month with the financials and we sort it out for them or I can if they once they learn to sort it and put it in its format we can uh see it much quicker and react to it more quickly and ultimately we'll have a a weak period week weak period of review so before the financials even actually get published we can correct some things things and that's those all those steps seem uh common sense but they get ignored in a culture and a climate like B Village biscane Park and I think you guys understand how your Staffing history has worked what their workload is like and this role that I'm I'm feeling is is I'm doing the time consuming part to them they're going to do the thinking part uh because it's their shop it's their house that they're managing and operating on your behalf through the manager and so I'm trying to uh get that as streamlined as possible uh as helpful as possible so that it becomes the way we all do business so that's uh my introduction uh it'll get much tighter the this schedule I want to mention again there's an internal schedule where where the manager writes that memo uh we start to pick the external schedule which is when we're going to have key reports what we want to do is we want to have the stuff that we get tied down in the budget process really turn up in a commission meeting and that and you have a strategic planning session I believe potentially those they did in the past but that will definitely dovetail into this as well uh so that when you're starting to go through the budget process you're not worrying about a lot of those details because they've already been presented to you you've already given guidance to staff that that you want next year's to like the budget process is 12 months of the year is really the final uh sentence I I want to leave you with there any questions well thank you Paul for the introduction um yeah we go ahead kind of open the commission for questions um but one of the first ones that I'd just like to to ask you about the the additional role that we carved out during the budget process for your department can you kind of give us an update and overview of of where we stand with that person or that that position should I say yes and how what role you see them or they are serving or how they're working yeah so as soon as I have a process C built and staff and and the process are functioning that'll be probably maybe the next 90 days is my guess before the budget would be nice uh before we start our budget process um to hire somebody or or move my Staffing around I'm doing a little company reorganizing we started today uh so that's in my mind when I'm looking at people and who's best at what I might pull somebody out of it but I might also have to hire I got a two or three skill sets that I might be hiring uh in the next 60 days so both are possible uh but I I'm not going to put anyone into it if I if I were not ready for it I have to do it and it's fine it's it's I I've I have control of my schedule as well as my staff so I can be here uh what role what role in this kind of new procedure new process that you're setting up what yeah so a little more detail I'm sorry yeah so the you do have a a very uh capable system and Karen uh your assistant clerk who I don't know if we've changed her title or anything but she does she's the the the the head of the of the process so basically Gathering the invoices getting them scanned into this electronic approval system is really going to leverage the technology to to make this less time consuming for staff where they they used to be chasing it around and looking for it and they get lost or whatever like that's hours that that this system eliminates that process goes to the to the players depending depend on what what invoice it is it gets signed off it gets reviewed it gets kicked back it gets dealt with you know from a leadership management standpoint uh but ultimately it gets to my accounting department as ready to be paid and that that has streamlined uh and will when we rely on it and use it solely uh the process I I reviewed that very carefully all the ways of that had was being done in the village and it was being done five or six different ways by the way uh but I'm going to through the manager obviously uh formalize that as the as the obligated uh process and that's going to fix a lot of things because it has programmatic capabilities we can put our policies in into the rules of the software system so basically it's something we can rely on that can build uh this you know because of a small staff you don't have somebody to bird dog all these things the software can do a lot of that and we have a we have some meetings we're we're trying to set up with the software designers and programmers to to tweak it to our needs just a little bit but it's in it won't cost anything and it's going to it's going to work and so I don't want to monopolize the time here so I'm going to open up a second but one follow up on on the points you just made one of the big issues that we had during our budget process was had to do with you know what is this charge for what is this money for what is this line line for that backup that you're talking about the invoice when something's scanned is that going to be available to us do we have the details yeah so yeah the software I see what you mean exactly right so we can pull that up we can see everybody's notes comments it'll all be a Consolidated that would be very helpful and and in the budget process if that's what we're doing we've all failed to be honest like everything I've been I want you know that you need needs to happen live all the time way before it shows up in a budget and I'm going to open it up to the the commission for for any questions that they have thanks Paul yeah so I just want to I'm going to repeat what I think I heard you said just to make sure I understand it so uh during the budget process you came to us and asked us to fund another position and we funded that position it's a part-time position that you're going to fill through your company um and that's going to fill the gaps in our budget to make our budget process better but you haven't hired that position yet in instead you are going you're refining the process that that person will be in charge of before you hire that person to do it and you're taking that role on for now personally are we paying you extra to do that so right now we have money budgeted that we're not spending but we're not spending it on you either uh I the role of Finance hasn't changed the role of this budget analyst uh is being charged and you're you're paying my company to do that and this is so we are paying for it okay so okay so we're paying for the work the service right but not that person that we approved because I felt that we approved a person more than a product so I was expecting to hear tonight about a person who was going to be doing that for us um uh but you're assuring us that when we start I won't be here when the commission starts budget season for fiscal 2026 right that the information that we were lacking for the past several years will be there for them to get the budget done in a more stre way and reliable okay information yeah so it's happening it's but it's happening through you uh rather than this other person but you are anticipating to have that person on in 90 days March April so in April you hope to have that person in correct and they'll make sure everything's all hunky dory for Budget season that starts two month after that some form of service from either myself or my company CU that's the bottom line look we you asked for a person we approved a person we are spending the money this is news to me now I didn't know that until sitting here right now I thought we weren't going to be paying anything extra until we were paying for that person but we're paying your company to provide the service I won't be here I just want to know for your guys benefit that it's actually happening because I was expecting it to be attached to a person who we would hopefully even be meeting here tonight to have a conversation with but if it you know if all the information is right the information is right and you get what you pay for but it's not exactly how I thought this was all going to be happening but if it all happens God bless well you mentioned uh February 1st was the budget season kickoff uh are you with this new process this Common Sense process you say that you're going developing do you anticipate having it done in the next less than a month and kicking off with that new process or is it going to be kind of a learn as we go scenario the the process is is fairly obvious what we're doing what I what I have to do is develop the management level uh reporting tying that to the existing financial information and the proposed budget lines and we've got that so what what will happen is between now and the February kickoff the the managers will will take they have the historic they have the current they'll start adding and developing their future 2026 budget all of that is going to be reported to you on a regular organic staff reports so the reports that are on your agenda aren't going to look like that in the future you you'll see them they're very uh qualitative operational discussions they're going to have an element or be re redeveloped so that they have a financial element to them as well that is what connects all of it together because if the manager isn't tracking and understanding the the the numbers no budget analyst or no no accounts payable person will understand it the manager has to own it and and you have to hear about it and give guidance if there's if we're off course or we're overspending or like all of those decisions should be happening on a daily basis in essence and and that's never been a a focal point culturally so we're going to fix all that at once and uh it it's already there in terms of the effort we've met we've done the Staffing I've given the tools we've got some draft tools we're going to work together and get a tool uh that everybody likes that communicates well uh and that all happen well before the first budget draft that's that's great to hear that hear that we're going to see the change well before the budget season start yeah the and it to me it's more a comprehension has to be done and digested April May June way before there's a draft budget's kind of a joke it should be already in our minds and our mindset is this going to be easy for the uh Commissioners to understanding and also for the residents and is it going to be available for the residents to see during this whole process because in the past we haven't done that and I think we need to start do yeah there there the amount of information and the amount of commun the goal of information and communication is going to be exponentially greater the simple staff report description I just mentioned ultimately may not happen right perfectly the first budget cycle this first year but ultimately every report that comes before you will have a financial and a budgetary element to it and that's always been decoupled and left for another day so to speak we're going to marry it back together so that'll be part of your public records all of your reports before commission have to have that financial budget impact element it just it just makes all the sense in the world I hope so the whole step by step the residents are going to be able to see it and understand it and absolutely okay thank you well the understanding part I did not say yes to that I can't guarantee but it'll be presented in a very uh digestible Way by my goal because it can be complicated like things can get a okay right I'm sorry what you say by Michael my goal oh your goal we're friends um hi Paul Happy New Year I I have to say I was expecting a lot more to see today as a presentation I mean I had an item um you and I spoke in October about being ready with a AP process and a workflow and I share an example you know walk us through a PO from the beginning from the PO how H how it happens now to what it should be happening what are the recommendations and I understand we're talking about budget but budget happens you know down the road we need to start preparing for it my first question is why we talking about this now in January not 3 months ago uh and the second is I I was really expecting to see your proposition as to what the actual AP process should be at this stage right now I mean you you've dealt with the village for how many years excuse me how many years seven or eight years so you know it better than anybody you know the flaws like you say you know it's been done different ways all over the place there's a lot of things to fix so it's not starting from scratch for you this is a system that's been going on and has this its gaps uh one of them that I brought up was that Commissioners are sign in checks to go to vendors we don't have a backup information I never heard since uh November back on the item and it's January and I was hoping you were going to be the presentation November it was pushed if I'm not mistake it by the manager because you requested more time for December now we push the January which totally understandable with the holidays but I was expecting more I want to see a process in place with accounts payable today that works and I don't understand what that is I still have a question mark as to how we're paying vendors how we're making sure the services have deliver with the expectations of service that we you know we we contracted for all these questions that I asked in November right that's what I'm I I was really excited to come and listen today I can get into some of that detail I didn't think we were at that level yet to and spoke about it over the phone in October this is not news I I mean I have a detailed email that you and I have kind of went on and I gave an example of what I was looking for so I think again what you're defining is something that may should have you know if there's gaps in the system and they've been for seven years or six years or three or two they should have already been introduced that's how I see it if not if we found a gap let's address it now I'm concern when I hear um and this is on recent events and I have to pull this out I mean we have an old manager no old manager sorry it's a previous manager that is claiming for some money that we owe him you know uh some expenses that just a village needs to um pay back uh and uh I'm hearing things of maybe we didn't pay them correctly maybe we PID them to the incorrect person so again I again today I still am not confident and then the AP process that we have what it is how it works what gaps do we recognize we have and how are we going to fix that and dur can I can I repeat something that I said earlier that I thought I I hit that Mark uh but I'll repeat it really quickly so the software package does what you want an AP process to do we are using it we haven't used it long enough and we haven't made it an obligation of staff to use it because it's premature to do that I add that in that we have to learn a little bit about that process before we finish the program there's some programming that it needs to to tighten up once it's okay this is going to work this is how it is I'll be happy to present that to you personally or to the entire commission so that we see what its strengths and weaknesses are you're you're much more infantile in this process than than you were hopeful for and I apologize for that but that's just where you were once I assessed it I started talking to all everyone I looked at all the old documents and saw why there were all these errors it it gave me the sense of you know how big we needed to start I did that I approached it that way uh I want to get exactly where you want to get we're not ready for it when will we um I can't say exactly the the next step is to tighten up the the actual software so we can say okay now this is good enough to obligate everybody to utilize it we're using it we're scanning we're using the process but it it wasn't ever finished when it was written or for us and so we' got to get it it's not a big adjustment but the programmers have to do it so once I don't know when they're going to do I can't speak for them in between and that's why I'm going I think now we we're saying we need a software in order to make sure you have the software okay yeah is this a software that is new no you've had it it was just never uh formally given to staff as their only option to to approve an invoice so you had a paper process you had a phone call Process you had a credit card conglomerate process you had all kinds of goodies going on so that's a lot of behaviors to to her into a a a policy and a precise process uh you so when I saw that you see what I've done I went back to the beginning of with the managers to get them in that business and then as that comes in the tool the AP process is really the the easiest part of all it Okay so until that happened what I was hoping to see is you're find it as what those gaps are and what we're doing in the meantime yes ma'am because like we spoke in nove in October you know there's things happening vendors are not getting paid on time we had three months of some vendors claiming that they were not being paid it was part of uh you know what was discussed uh some errors me being made where how are we until you're ready which we don't know when is it going to be um what process do we follow to minimize those errors who's how are we tracking this and at this point we should know which areas are of most concerned to at least give us an explanation as to where we are right now what's the starting point and where do we want to go and I think we spoke on those terms back in October where we are being like the picture of today versus what we hope to see right um based on what I quickly read over the presentation I received today I didn't see that so I think before we start talking about budget for next year which is very important and we again everything we're doing is going to feed into that I'm concerned about yesterday well let me let me clarify one I I think I think there's a little disconnect the accounts payable is to take what was approved in the budget identify what was expensed and put it so they match correctly and if they don't identify it and have a managerial uh solution to it or a report back to them that is exactly what we're talking about so if you so when I say budget I mean the existing budget just as much as the future budget but you don't want to talk about one without the other so the accounts payable process we identified in in October that uh there was a large gap in the in the the workflow from July through uh September we found all that missing uh paperwork processed it was it was actually being properly scanned but it died on on the vine right there it was never pushed out to the managers for their approval and their check approval process we fixed that so that we have that process identified it is working now the next step which I've already covered is how the computer will will prevent us from not catching that live because it will it it gives reports it gives notifications we're that's part of the programming that was never uh the switch was never turned on for it to be able to do that and that's required you have to know that an invoice is is uh uh aging and it's not been processed and that was where nobody knew that number nobody knew that invoice was scanned and and sent to somebody without being approved and moved to the next step nobody had eyes on that now we do so it there is a process in place the manager was explaining now for Commissioners not to be inol after I brought the item because I have no idea how many hours a police officer did on part-time and then I have to sign a check now I understand the the mayor and the manager are doing this I found out through the manager this should be a process in my perspective that needs to be an sop this is not something we just find out as I'm asking this should be something within our processes administrative processes in the village should the manager tomorrow stand up and leave uh which could happen uh we understand what the process is for the next person moving forward that we don't have that was part of what I'm hoping to receive as a feedback of the where we want to be and memorialize as Bradley would put it very nicely in a way that can stay with us forever we're that's absolutely the picture and the goal okay again I'm not comfortable I have to say that because it's taken since the budget season and then the other part I don't understand is the money that we assigned it was $30,000 right around that I think $30,000 correct me if I'm m contct Amendment amount that you approved okay so how is that connected today where are we so what are we paying for this today what are you're paying one 12th of that it's a monthly fee it'll be divided up throughout the year and that's what you're that's what it that's what covering the system that you're talking about it's covering all the effort and the Staffing and and my expertise to to fix your existing AP process and your Staffing gaps and all those things none of that is it was originally in the finance contract track now it is so now you have you know quite a bit more effort uh on our side that wasn't our responsibility we had to live with all the the headaches and suffer through the budget process with you uh for those reasons we're going to we're working on a way to fix that and it's when you say it's now itay in the contract are you're saying the contract's being amended or will be amended you approved an amendment to our contract for that amount of money yeah I know but I don't remember talking about a system PR we talked about already had there's no system in my contract but you have one and it's going I believe it's going to work and we're going to implement it to make it work okay so that's the part maybe I'm I'm I'm following what you're saying yeah it's very different to what I understood for us this was a money we set aside in the budget to have someone literally take over the responsibilities of pay AP the way it needs to happen we did not have the properly trained staff to do that that was the feedback we said what would we need to so we the next budget season we get to a better place we need $30,000 so that's a different process as to what we already are implemented without I didn't know again that there was a system in place that we started using and it's part of the fee now covered with the 30,000 no that's not accurate okay you already had you have multiple software systems for instance and they they were used in part to do do all of your financial processes that part of it your building department has a piece uh this one is it open goov or goov goov go this had an accounts payable process built into it it wasn't being used and so I I want to back up to the person that because that's a misunderstanding when I presented it to Chris and I presented him in a memo with a full explanation I I it sounds like you never saw it but the point is here we are uh well I'm sorry let me just jump in there real quickly if you're talking about a communication that you had with our now former manager about how this was to go that's news to me I just heard it right this second for the first time but what I heard sitting in this room was that we approved money for a person that's what we're that's what I'm saying and I think that's what Veronica is saying as well i' never intended that money to just be a raise for your company to do more work now again if we get the job done we get the job done but that's not what I heard and it's not what I voted to approve and put in the budget just making that really clear not a huge criticism it's just that now it sounds like we gave you a raise um but that's not what I voted for if you came to a different conclusion with our former manager I think this commission needs to see that l so if there's some kind of communication that Chris Tru it our former now former manager uh came to some kind of an agreement that's different than what we understood when we sat here and voted for that budget approval we we need to see it and I'd like to see it before I leave office by the way that was also the reason of today I would add to the intent is it is for it to be a person but the goal is for it to not be a person who leaves I understand that I understand that but you just said you just made it sound like something else happened that got us to this point yeah so I'd like to see that you could pull it up and just email it to us from your phone that would be great too um but if we get to the right place we get to the right place but it's not the way I thought we were going to get there yeah I I I will reflect on it for a minute because the budget process I I saw what was happening and I said Chris this is what we need we need to have this role implemented an individual whether it was an hourly you know however that wasn't really part of the topic it was about fixing the problem and I sent it to him I said these this is what you what you're missing this is what we can do I can do it and then you don't have the continuity problem that was really the goal uh it was presented at the beginning of the budget process and as our process as you went wasn't money it was never introduced he never presented it to you until kind of late in the evening and when you threw the money together at the last 15 minutes of the budget cycle I believe is when it was added in so I can understand how what is it called what is it called in the budget because I thought it was even attached to a position by name does anyone have the budget handy they can pull it up the role is but an administrative it's an the administrative account payable budget analyst role yeah so that's what I'm saying it was we we put it in the budget attached to a role to a person not based on expertise that was the main thing that was brought up yeah yeah so I think we're all kind of wanting the same thing and I think that's what I'm trying to provide in all certain but we're confused now that we're hearing how we're getting there that that's what yeah yeah the when something like that sort of hit you in the side of the head during a live meeting I'm like when did that change you know that's that's what I don't like yeah okay understood that that wasn't as clear uh but I'm very pleased that we have some capabilities that we don't have to buy you don't have to buy them I'm very pleased at the enthusiasm and the effort of the department heads uh that's new and and welcomed and that's going to make all the difference uh so I'm very excited that you're going to take that big step forward and every budget year going forward you'll have that done and it'll be repetitive and that's what's been missing is it is the drops in between each budget process all right so I I guess I'll turn this into to the manager poll so um Albert so for me again this is not what I was expecting to see so I'll turn this to you when can I expect an sop regarding AP processes as well as um I put I mean we talked about it expense policies I mean there was a an a series of items that you and I discussed that was put in the agenda and we said you know we'll wait to have this presentation with Paul again today this is not about that this is about a system that's going to help us to get there to budget I'm concerned about tomorrow so what is the next step so uh commissioner I I can meet with Paul and we can meet um with all bring you in also and formulate that that uh that that plan that project and uh and then send it out as an LTC so all the commission is aware of it yeah and and and I just you know at the end of the day you've heard me talk about this Sops that don't exist that we need to the whole commission heard me talk none of them go against it they all agree it's needed so can we just start implementing one and and I I'm really trying to emphasize I have to build it before I can write it and I have to train and develop the staff and see if they can you know if it can fit in their workload if they can produce these reports if they can I'm going to re I'm going to Pivot and do it a different way so I I want to hand you a finished document but I would hand you a blank paper right now because it's not ready to be implemented all right so I'll connect with you we'll set up a meeting as the next step and hopefully you have a timeline for us okay because you you need to understand by when we're going to have this I would like to know by when we're going to have this right okay thank you commissioner uh if there are no further questions for our finance director Paul um thank you for your time thanks for the information and I will be looking forward to hearing more from you um all right that concludes our presentations so let's go ahead and please get starting with our public comment um public comment we will start with folks here in the Log Cabin uh just a reminder public comment uh is limited to 3 minutes and uh please provide your uh your name and address before you begin good evening everyone AR Gonzalez 10926 Griffin Boulevard uh first I'd like to say ma man you've been awesome um you're going to be missed um I've told a lot of people that uh you know may or may not agree with you in a lot of things that I've always known that you've always had the best intention for this Village and for the people of the village so you know that's that goes a long way and and and uh so I'm very appreciative of everything you've done uh over the years having said that um I'm glad you guys brought up the uh the fact uh that several things were put on the agenda that didn't have backup because that's something that we had made sure that you know uh in our when I was sitting in the commission then the other thing I wanted to talk a little bit about was that I was a little disappointed that I didn't see uh on this agenda uh the the manager the permanent manager uh position being discussed it's been several months that our former manager uh left and I unless I'm wrong or unless uh I'm missing something I don't think that currently as we as you all sit up here there's a process in place to actually hire a new or a permanent manager whether it's our current in manager or whether it's a new manager um I think that that should kind of be a priority I don't know why it's not a priority I think that um when I was on here I think we would have even have called a special meeting to have this prioritized and put into in in place so that we can actually you know start the process of hiring a permanent manager um and it just doesn't seem to me that it's it's it's there's a sense of urgency on this commission to actually um put a permanent manager in position in place so I would urge you to take that into consider ation and you know move that up the uh the the the list of agenda things that you guys have going on on um on your commission agendas that's all I got thanks hi good evening Veronica Oliva of Northeast 108 Street uh former commissioner I really stopped by tonight just to say bye to Mac and it's not by see you later and also say thank you for everything that you did uh you have been an inspiration as you know and uh like you told me when you inspired me to join the commission we don't have to agree on everything uh which we did not most certainly um but it's just been such an honor and a privilege to know you and to serve alongside you and I just wish um you and Dan both the very best in this move and I know you're going to do great things uh in the great state of Minnesota that's it have a good night everybody good evening um first I am also here to uh say goodbye to to Mac um you name name an address first to Mr Kennedy I'm sorry we just need your name and address first for public comments oh I'm sorry I'm mtiv vogr from 1169 Northeast 6th Avenue thank you I came to say goodbye to Mac and to of course thank him for his service um and actually we just saw an example here of how important the service is um from both Commissioners that have questioned you know where is our money going and what for uh and you know in the end this is all our money and what we pay for and it's very important that uh the there'll be somebody overseeing that nobody takes advantage of it in any form shape or way and this was a live example that Mr Kennedy came forth um to uh to question uh our accountant firm that is supposedly taking care of our business secondly um I've been directed by uh Mac to come here uh because I have an issue of concern that is a bit more private and since the commission is overseeing uh the pnz committee the planning and zoning committee there my last experience is that I came forth with a request for a permit since 2022 um my first attempt to get a permit for the pool was rejected because uh I asked to place the pool on the side of my property and I've been told that it is a little too close to my property line and to the road and I was instructed that if I want to put a pole there it has to be at least 30 ft away from the road and 10 ft away from my property line so I uh have submitted it to the architect and we've moved the pool a little closer to the house and it was compliant and then I asked for a second permit but I wasn't able to attend the meeting and it was rejected for the same exact reason even though I had the new plans um turned out that uh the construction company I hired to do the poll uh did not submit the new plans within explanation um I was instructed to request for a variant which I did uh and that was in July of 2023 I have uh submitted the whole file for a variant and it was um and and then I paid for it and then I left to go abroad and when I came back the meeting was supposed to take place on July 3rd and for the reason of the holiday I guess it just didn't take place they took $360 from me after taking twice money for a permit uh which no one has ever informed me of a meeting what so yes so our our our public comment uh this this so I will sum it up I will sum it up pretty quickly I I will not take too long uh over a time uh and then two almost a year and a half later there was never any type of a message to me that there was going to take there's going to be a hearing about my variant and then when I came again it was you you were missing all the papers uh the village was missing all the papers and I have uh submitted new papers almost almost a year and a half later and it became um apparent that uh I don't need a variant because my poll is is compliant with the ordinances so I was actually instructed by The Village to submit again a permit request which I did and when I came there was a resident here you guys are our commissioners we which we vote for you uh and this whole speech is because we need your protection when it comes to these things you are the one the ones that appoint people in the Planning and Zoning uh to basically determine what is going to be the future of our property and how can we improve it how we can uh uh um make the best of it for ourselves and I've lived here for 12 years and I bought into this uh uh Community because it is small because it is uh you know we all say hello to one another we all know one another and it is very important to me that the sense of community would be in your hands and I come here to a meeting of a hearing there is a gentleman in this committee that attacked me that called me a liar right after attacking another Resident that was asking him to to basically part her property in two because she was uh she she was facing financial difficulties and she wanted to sell part of her land so sir if I might I want to be fair to the other residents because this is this is limited to 3 minutes if if you wouldn't mind i' I'd be happy to talk to you about this um okay after the meeting if you don't have to stay you can email me we can talk over the phone but I I just want to be fair to everyone else uh I'll I'll cut it short but just let me tell you something hostility is not something that Representatives or people that are uh um that are appointed uh are supposed to be having hostility towards other residences I'll I'll conclude with that thank you very much for all your work and and have a great even thank you uh Dan schneer 1175 Northeast 11th Place I am not here to say goodbye to Matt [Laughter] Kennedy but I would like to say a few things um I guess it was about five years ago I stood at this Podium and I told the people of the village that Mack was the hardest working person I knew and I think he has proven that Beyond expectation I know that um I expected he would act ethically I expected he would prove extremely competent uh I knew he would be extremely dedicated but truly the one thing I didn't expect was the level of patience that you show on a regular basis it's truly quite frankly I don't know how any of you do it but this one in particular I don't know how you do it um and you've done just a fantastic job as if I can be unbiased I will just say you've been an incredible commissioner and I certainly couldn't have done it um so thank you Janie Anderson 11905 Northeast 11th Place ma to say that you're going to be missed your passion your efforts and your caring about this community to say you're going to be Miss be a world class understatement but I wish you both the very best of luck I want to thank Al and Veronica for both of you coming to the December cboard meeting and hanging in there for the entire time because we went over two hours Al it's been a long time since we have had a manager as engaged aware and proactive as you are it makes such a difference and I so appreciate that Veronica as you've heard we say I think it's absolutely critical that all of you see firsthand the code process you're logically going to be the first people that a disgruntled resident or any disgruntled property owner is going to come to and you need a whole lot more than just second and third hand and anecdotal information you need to see it for yourself now want to remind everybody our meetings are on YouTube Ryan I know you watch them them and thank you for that so there is always a way to engage and to get that knowledge but again thank you both Bob Anderson 11905 Northeast 11th place I want to thank uh ma War side my recollection that you were instrumental of having the plant swap setup that's over there at the uh rec center and there's a lot of our residents have taken good use of it including us and I think it was a great idea and that's one of the examples how you really think ahead thank you and you will be missed hi good evening everyone Gage Chung uh 1029 Northeast 114 Street um just wanted to speak on a couple agenda items quick um and other things um development permit that that you're going to be reviewing I know you've passed it on first reading so second reading um hopefully you'll pass it it is something that's very important especially considering the current uh new state laws that I believe took in effect on January 1 uh so it's really important that um the planning board um has that tool to um help us stay compliant with the state and also move forward the uh the village uh Business Without You know too much um too much drama with it so um second thing would um there was a thing in the re about the rec center and U just u i i seems like it's being handled by The Village but I just hope that uh proper oversight is being taken place as far as any Renovations um um and uh that the board that's in charge of doing it or that's being tasked to do it is being supervised uh properly to make sure that uh I guess nothing like what happened happens again um there was a thing that I just found out about last night there's a thing with the biscane Canal adaptation action area plan didn't know about it it wasn't published um and I just want to make sure that you know the residents are properly notified I don't think even really many of the Commissioners or the manager even knew about it which is funny because the flyer actually says bis game Park residence and things like that so um some people know about it some people not but uh hopefully the word can get out and it's you know hopefully it's a good thing is if it has something to do with flood control and such uh and then finally um thank you Mac um it's been a pleasure working with you and I'm going to miss um um um our conversations and the the things that we've worked on that I believe has uh made our village uh important and uh and better and you have been very instrumental in that and uh you know you've been example of uh we might not agree all the time but I find that if you focus on what you agree on you can get things done and uh it's been a pleasure and uh we'll be missing you so uh thank you for um for everything you've done so good night okay um thanks everyone that provided comment here in the log cabin is there anyone on Zoom before we move on once only twice yes hi uh this is John Holland can you hear me okay we can hear you John yeah everybody John Holland 844 uh Northeast 119 street I'll just amplify very quickly some of the comments uh about Mac thank you for giving me a a taste of what is required to serve on this commission uh I think everyone's a little bit naive about the demands and what it takes to do it right and you've certainly done it right over these last few years and you will be missed and uh thank you again um the only other thing I want to say because I know that we're as usual already running a little bit behind is that it was nice to see um uh uh commissioner Huntington's uh kind of poke around the transportation issues and then then it was already on my mind that it's been almost a year since that thing happened about two blocks away and that's right after I joined and you know we had a lot of momentum going so thanks for for bringing that up again um and the other thing was you know having sat having listened to the the uh the finance discussion that occurred this far two things one I would I would like to again offer uh my assistance and any sort of you know Workshop capacity outside of the commission to help uh add uh uh Clarity into our financials uh it sounds like Paul I think that's the gentleman's name I didn't catch it but I think that's what I heard has already got some good ideas particularly around AP but the main thing that I would want to make sure that the commission is mindful of is that you know he's talking about a system I'm not sure of the system and I would love to have some further conversations with with you guys about this but just to be mindful of the fact that all the things that we're talking about at the end of the day it's all add up to being our data and that we should maintain good governance and good and ownership of our data so yeah there's a lot of work to clean it up and to make and to fix process specific to AP and other areas but at the end of the day I still think it's our data and that if we you would like to have a um a a a a a secondary process or a process that's that runs Jack supposed to the existing system uh that consolidates all the day and makes things easier I would just love to understand how this new system does that and if not if there's anything that I can do to help using basic Microsoft Office uh functionality because having been through a budget season myself I thought it was you know I was pretty staggered the disconnect between what's happening at the nuts and bolts level to what's being reported up and and how how a lot of things were getting Lost in Translation journal entries lack of the ability to basically start at a high level on an executive level and drill down to the level of detail that you want to get to that's that's the the long and short of what I'm hoping we can get to so that it takes all that ambiguity aside excuse me so yep that's it and again thank you commission for doing what you do and and I know it's not easy I've been there thank you thanks John okay um so if we have no further uh public comment um certainly thanks everyone for providing some some context and some thoughts and and again for uh for voicing your support and gratitude towards uh commissioner Kennedy for all all the wonderful things that he's done here for us in biscan park and for this community so um like to Echo the sentiment again thank you Mac um okay so do we have any um any specific commission reply to the comments before we uh get going into our consent agenda two super quick ones if you sure sure um art we have a special meeting on January 15th to discuss head hunters for the uh manager position so um it that'll be happening here I'll be attending by Zoom um but I believe it's already on the calendar so look for that to happen and then Bob I'm there he is I'm very happy to take credit for things I did but the plant swap while I brought it to the commission for approval it was an idea from Dan Keys who saw it on Instagram in another city and when the commission uh said yes to the idea my husband Dan schneer built it and donated it to the Village so all I did was come in here and say hey here's a great idea and and they all said yes so I'd like to take credit for it but it wasn't mine but thank you and it is an awesome thing in the village any others perfect well just that I hope um that the city manager will look into uh what the resident brought up about his um while the one I was speaking today I hope that we will look into that thank you anyone else before we move on yes okay um all right so under our amended agenda um we moved our report section you know I don't think know that we address this the our commission reports uh move with the entire reports portion so very quickly before we move on I know this is generally pretty quick um understanding um commissioner Amsler that your your item we're moving down to a new discussion item with respect to the minutes um have another item so points I wanted to treat on my commission report so yeah go ahead so I'll leave the um recorded commission minutes update for later what I wanted to touch base on was uh code so last mon I had the opportunity to join join our Code Department during a drive along event to witness firsthand how they Implement our code and engage with residents to ensure the safe and beautiful Village we all enjoy this is not an easy job and they approach it with elegance and professionalism my thanks go to the end entire team for educating me on the processes they follow to maximize their time and their efficiency so dorine thank you very much following this experience I participated as an audience on the Code Compliance board um meeting last month this was an excellent opportunity to observe the code team in action as well and their interaction and gain better understanding of the um challenges faced by the code board when reviewing large list of cases um my appreciation goes to the Corb as well for your dedication you do this for free and I appreciate you very much um key Impressions I just wanted to take advantage to highlight uh rest and education and communication this is something you and I spoke Janie at the beginning before I became a commissioner there is a consistent need to educate and communicate with residents about what we expect them to how do we expect them to live in harmony with our code we need to be better and this is not news communicating and educating people about the key items that continue to come forward on the code AS violation violations that are repeated violations um staff attention to detail staff must follow processes meticulously to ensure the cases brought before the board are valid attention to detail is essential essential to facilitate successful follow through and when applicable the collection of fines with without this precisions cases risk being dismissed by the board which I saw as well so I think that just wanted to highlight how important it is what you guys do in a way that is so precise to allow for a code to also do their job correctly and I think there is an interaction that needs to continue to happen to better ourselves all the time so we hit the mark um and T team preparedness during the meeting dorine you led the majority of the cases on behalf of the department which raised the question to me about the prepar of the rest of the team to take full responsibility once you transition Your Role when is that happening again is it March okay so again not because they are not prepared because of what I saw is that you're still leading uh the meetings the majority of the time so I would ask the manager and this is a an item for you maybe Albert to respond to how R are how ready are we so for March you know when March comes uh luchano takes over Rafa takes over and we feel confident that they will have the same follow through and preparedness to um you know support the board as needed the other item I'll leave it for later okay yeah that's it thank you any other updates is that your report Vero I just what okay I can I tag something onto your report yeah I wanted to say just for I forgot and you remind me I will make it public record give it to our clerk so she can included also in the agenda updated once it goes public right I wanted to provide this sort of notes included in the agenda I just didn't have it for the deadline uh real quickly I just want to say um I got your email today as a resident to my personal email address and it was very nicely done and I was really happy to see another commissioner send out a really nice thorough yet concise report that was very meaty and as a resident I was very happy to receive that and it and it made me feel really good because you know that's a role I've kind of been filling and um that's off to you nice thank you thank you so uh my report for this month I uh sorry M did you want to go first you want oh say thank you to her real quick um my report for this month uh this week actually yesterday I attended a meeting with uh the police chief and Al our village manager at Miami Country Day School we uh spoke about a possible training exercise an active shooter drill we could that the police department as in conjunction with Mii D Sheriff's Office would like to put on uh we talked about that for some time Miami Shores PD also might be involved the school was was uh very accepting to the idea they like the idea they actually two years ago tried to put on a similar exercise and were unsuccessful so hopefully this time with RPD as well as Miami day sheriffs they can have a successful drill and maybe possibly bring in Mii shs Elementary and St Rose of Lima while we were discussing that our conversation kind of turned into a brainstorming session on how the village can help the school and the school can help the village kind of in the same lines we talked already about the rec center uh our brainstorming sessions started uh very rapidly talking about what are the school's needs what are the villages needs and we the village and the or us at the meeting started talking about uh the extra landscape the or property that the village or the school has and what could be utilized to help our Police Department in the future it very quickly turned into talking about could we utilize some of their extra property they purchased through their growth to house a satellite station so our police would have would have more room to grow more room to have offices and things like that I don't know if you've visited our police department but it's it's very crammed and they were excited about the idea our village manager excited the idea my country day was as well it's very infantile we were just really brainstorming at the time but we uh we're excited about it and we would hope the commission would give consensus to continue the conversations and see where they go from there uh it would definitely be a long-term thing we would have to to negotiate but it's something that could be beneficial for us as well as Mommy Country Day they were even uh uh open to the idea of annexation of actually joining our village voluntarily so I think the the conversation could be there to a mutual benefit between us and the school uh that could get us a nice home for a police department as well as good protection for the school excellent thank you but my question is is do we have consensus for to continue these conversations and uh if is it possible if we have consensus to me act as liaison for the commission to go to these meetings and help the conversations move forward I mean I I don't have a problem I mean I would love to see that I think it's a good idea to explore it um and you've already started it so you're taking it thank you thanks commissioner commissioner just St your mic I got you one one thing at a time first thing for commissioner Kennedy being on a commission for the second time I was going to be able to have that chance to learn from my mistakes in the past where we have had I would discussions heated discussions but we voted down the same line being off the commission I learned my mistakes to be where you can be passion but still do your job I was looking forward to doing that in the second ter terms so now you're letting me down on that um but I'm looking forward to it you wanted to if I didn't express myself wanted of the things that you have you have good Communications with the residents I think you're the best on this Commission in doing that and I can always criticize you for doing that but now I understand because that's the best thing for the residents and hopefully I'm going to learn from that I think commissioner amsel is going to be taking your spot as far as communicating better uh hopefully I'll be able to learn too on it but um and hopefully we can keep in touch um you know because I I got two years and I want to be able to learn and I've always want to be there for the commission I mean for the residents um and then I would like to discuss the possibility of signing an employment contract with the the guy the city manager to sign a contract with the police chief in the meeting that discussed the employment contract for the village manager he mentioned that typically a manager and the police have contracts I'm happy with the services still have a lot of movements that we have to do in the police department and I want to ass sure that we give the support needed for the police department as a commissioner and I think commissioner AMS started this when she went with cold um I did a ride around with the police department residents have complained about how there's not been enough police department at night time or or how the chief operates as a police so I did a wrer on and and the chief can clarify would I'm about to say we did uh ride around one of the offices for 12-hour shift and uh it was tough because I worked during the day and uh was a joke between a corpor that says I would never make it to 6 o'clock in the 6:30 in the morning which I did but we had a ride around one of the things that bothered me was the amount of officers that we have at night and I would like to have the chief to explain how that worked in the past I thought we had Reserve officers that did it at night I also we had an incident on 121st Street and I hope the chief will talk about it in his report of where res and a city manager did it in his report to us that a resident from North Miami crashed his car over the medum and hit one of the residents here and what I was impressed was that the police chief showed up building department showed up and public works showed up and I asked the chief is that routine is that normal and were we pay in each of these employees and the answer to that was no and what I was impressed was that he bought it up the property and I thought that was good idea because of the fact that the you know the resident could have had somebody could have broke into the property then when we got back to I was with the police officer spent the three hours filling out paperwork and he made a joke about does he always says he drives by my house on griffy Boulevard sees my truck and says your truck has not been checked in 2 hours that bothered me that bothered me a lot and reason why is because if we have a suspect that we have to take to jail only had two officers that day that bothered me we had Reserve offices before and I'd like to know if the chief can give me an update on what that is um we put in traffic units in the police department and I you guys voted the budget for two traffic uh police officers and commissioner Kennedy brought it up in the last meeting and I'd like to know what what's happening with that then the next day I voted with the chief of police because I wanted to see what the chief of police does as his job and I told him are you sure you want me to ride around with you for 12 hours and he asked me why and I said because this is not going to be as they say a fny ride I want to see how you act as a chief of police and hopefully he'll talk about that tonight and his cour the 12 hours that I spent with him was good and the question I asked him why are you doing this Chief you can pass the command down to another office and have them work and he basically wanted his Sergeant to have the day off and I said are you getting paid for that he says no I'm under the contract that's what chief of police is under contract when you have a contract that's what you're supposed to do there is no overtime in contracts so I was very impressed with that but I was very disturbed why we don't have Reserve officers at night and I hopefully and I've been bugging the chief of police to talk about the reserve officers I don't know if the residents understand the average years that a Reserve officer does is between 20 to 25 years and it's not costing us anything we should be glad to be jumping on having as much Reserve officers as possible when I first ran a commission first time that's what I suggested that we have Reserve officers at that night when I was with that officer I seen three Reserve officers that were doing their off duty jobs each of them had 36 30 and 25 and it didn't cost us anything I don't have a problem with Reserve officers doing part-time jobs because it off duty jobs because it doesn't cost us anything and so I think that we really need to look into that and hopefully um the chief will start promoting the police department more and give us updates on what's going on monthly especially the reserve officers talk about the reserve officers on what they do for us again again thank you commissioner Kennedy I will miss you um and I mean that sincerely because we had our discussion when I was running for commissioner we sat and met we never really did that before so I learned a lot from you I'm going to miss it I hope you're going to continue to keep in touch with us and I'm going to learn a lot from you thank you uh just a couple very quick things all right I'll move quickly um I just wanted to um uh thank the village staff and the employees in Issa in the Parks rec department for the Winterfest event uh it was a lot of fun as always well done riding along in the uh in the procession beforehand with uh some of the old um classic Beatles that we had come down some friends of mine that was it was always well done and we enjoyed it so thank you um same thing for the manager and and the employees uh and everyone here in the village the the holiday lunch that was really well done and something nice that that I'm I'm glad we got to do for everyone here um and commissioner Huntington you were there with me so that was it was nice to to be a part of that um uh the manager and I were able to attend the best the Miami D County um League of cities best practices conference which was great we made a lot of good connections there he introduced me to a lot of people that he's known for a very long time um and people were appreciative of our presence there so it was uh it was just it was a very well done confence that was my first time um so I appreciate you coming down and and spending spending some time there with us um I don't really have much else I know leading up to our legislative priorities uh Workshop um David CER and I have talked a lot about trying to to game plan for that workshop and then get something set up to go to Tallahasse we've talked a lot about that and um we'll we'll talk about it at the workshop obviously but um I think it's important and we've talked a lot he kind of talked a lot about um where the state legislature is is directing a lot of their policies and and how we can kind of tailor ours to match that to kind of maximize our our efforts but I'll let him he's better with his vernacular so I'll let him to address that at the at the workshop but he's been helpful and I've had many many conversations with him leading up to that so that's all I have so I'm going to turn it over to you Mac so I have one little quick thing to talk about and then I'm going to share some final words um first I promised you guys that I would give you as much advanced notice as I could and I sent my resignation into the village effective February 1 you all need to know that it will likely be before that so when we close on our house right now our closing date is January 30th and after that I will no longer be a village resident and I can't serve hence the uh February 1 date um but the buyer has asked us to move the closing up and we're trying to accommodate as best we can so we might be closing on the 23rd or as early as the the 20th is that what they told us today the 21st um so when that happens uh I'll be sending in an updated uh effective date for my resignation the reason I bring that up is just to remind you guys that you have 30 days after I resign to fill the position on an interim basis it's the reason why I announced so early and I told you guys I would allow you to prepare I expected it to be on tonight's agenda not for you to fill my seat but for you to discuss the process by which you will fill my seat because the only regularly scheduled meeting you have to do that is the February meeting so if you guys don't have a conversation about it tonight about the process by which you'll appoint someone I don't know how you're going to meet that Charter requirement so I'm just letting you know you someone might want to make a motion to add that to the agenda um I might have said this at the top of the meeting but you might want to have that quick conversation we had a process that Vero and Jonathan I thought worked well last time um so you might just want to pick that up and copy and paste but uh if you don't if you don't appoint someone at the February meeting you won't be fulfilling your requirements just letting you guys know how that works okay so you have if I resign effective Fe January 20th you have until February 20th to get it done okay so here are my final words my final commission report very strange thing to say so I prepared it in writing so I'm not going to remember all the people I want to thank um as a type A personality that's a nice way of saying I'm I'm a bit of a control freak I struggle with the concept of letting go and believing that things happen for a reason it's more my nature to make things happen rather than allowing them to happen in their natural course but recently I I have learned that everything is meant to be for a reason I'm a Small Town Pennsylvania boy I ended up after college in New Orleans and then DC and then on South Beach 30 years ago uh I was following the wrong guys around if I'm being completely honest it's how I ended up in Miami um in Miami in my early 30s I realized that the only guy I really needed was me and that was meant to be for me then but then I got my dream job here in Miami and I excelled at that for 25 years at the same company which is crazy to think about and I went on a business trip to Minneapolis and I randomly met that guy so we did long distance for six years and then he moved down here and we were together for nine years before we got married and Dan schneer was meant to be for me and this Village as it turned out was meant to be for us but now life happened and it's taking me back to miniapolis or a final chapter in my career it's a lovely city and we have found our new dream home which I think is turning into a bit of a money pit so we need to keep an eye on that fair warning if you're moving up to Minneapolis and although it's very unexpected and unplanned this move feels very much meant to be so about this job being a bis game Park commissioner boy this is tough I've had two real careers publishing and then marketing and sales and in those jobs I've made more money than I have in this job God knows $167 a month before taxes I'd love to help remind people of that and I've gotten to travel the world and do all kinds of exciting things but I've never loved a job as much as I loved being a commissioner for this I've never had such great boss and I wake up every day very happy to serve my bosses here in bising I want to thank you to the residents for hiring me and for holding me accountable because God knows you do I can't go to Publix or Aldi or Home Depot without being held accountable for something it's the reason why Dan doesn't go grocery shopping with me anymore so thank you for the job you really are the best bosses or clients or whatever the residents are to us up here on the days I also want to thank the village staff especially former manager Mario Diaz and our wonderful Attorneys at neighbors Giblin nickers who is at Dion and Valerie vente and now Brad W you were very patient with a newbie you had a million questions you guys taught me an enormous amount about being a public servant I would have failed miserably without you and special thanks to my fellow Commissioners past and present and to all the board chairs and members for doing all the hard work alongside me I know I'm not easy to work with but I consider that to be my special charm so I hope you miss it I ran for office three times and I promis three things each time Integrity passion and hard work I pulled up my door hanger today to read it to make sure I got the words right I'm confident that I overd delivered on all three of those things so I feel I leave here feeling like I earned my keep and I have a perfect attendance record if anyone's keeping score I was that kid in school so I am still that kid I have a final message to the residents and it's very simple stay informed proactively know what's happening in your local government most of what happens in this room on the first Tuesday of every month hold these people to task and force them and the staff unrelentlessly to be accountable for their actions and their inactions this is your village hold people responsible to make it what you want it to be and to my fellow Commissioners I've lived in several states and cities large and small including three right here in South Florida I know firsthand the biscan park is very lovely and it's special please see that and believe it truly believe it at your core and work un relentlessly to overachieve for this Village don't settle for just enough or good enough ever aim way higher than what you believe to be possible because the real world is chipping away at those lofty goals every day look around us it's happening quickly right at the very edges of this community and if you guys don't protect it it will be lost overprotect this brand and overd deliver for its residents rather than for outside interests and here's where the message is going to go south don't be gullible or naive when people lie to you about who they are and what they're doing or when they threaten to sue you or whatever other idiocy comes out of their mouths even when those people are sitting here on this day is or standing at that Podium you have already dealt with and will meet with more fools and Liars in this job some of whom this Village has employed and elected don't Flinch from your responsibility don't be afraid to be the bad guys and bad gals you weren't hired to be popular when somebody wants you to feel like you're the big mean commission it means you're probably doing something right don't blink I believe in the present and in the potential of bisc Park I trust you guys I love our quirky band of presidents and I wish only wonderful things for this Oasis in the heart of my thank you and God speed in your usually I can go on and on and on with no problem but that one was tough as you say commissioner let's get down to work ma thank you it was very well done very well written how do we follow that uh uh I guess we try to move try to get it try to keep going setting the bar very high for us um all right our commissioner reports are have concluded so let's uh under our amended agenda let's go to our consent agenda I'm sorry do you want to add that item to my replacement we got to the bottom but I'll make a motion to add that to the agenda if you'd like me to okay we have a second second okay all in favor I I I okay um and as always ma thanks for bringing that up um okay so our consent agenda um item number 10 do I have a motion in a second to approve the consent consent agenda as it's been amended motion to approve a second okay uhor yeah Cent agenda I'd like to move for discussion uh apologize um or that's a 9g the resolution 20257 I want to move that to take it out a consent agenda having a discussion we've already we've already done that we approved the agenda as it is you needed to do that Del additions dels and withdrawals you missed that opportunity so we have a motion on the table to approve the consent agenda that we've amended um do we have a wait for commissioner Amsler okay so do we have a um consensus on on the the before us yes yes yes we have a yes from commissioner ner just for the record okay who was the move I'm sorry who moved that vice vice mayor moved and uh commissioner Huntington second okay so the amended uh consent agenda passes um so let's go ahead and start with our ordinances then um we'll start with uh item 11a which is ordinance 20241 um Brad would you mind reading the ordinance under the record for us yes Mr Mayor ordinance number 202 24-10 an ordinance of the village Commission of the village of biscane Park Florida amending section 16.2 development permit section 16.3 building permits of chapter 16 permits and certificates of the biscan park Land Development code to clarify development permit process and the role of the planning and design review board as well as to ensure the provisions contained therein are in Conformity with the Florida building code providing for inclusion in the code and scrier errors providing for conflicts providing for separability providing for repealer and providing for an effective date thank you Brad do I have a motion to second on the ordinance motion to pass okay um before we open for discussion is there any public comment on this ordinance before we move forward going once going twice it's it's it's an amendment to our land code this is our our second read we've already moved it we've already discussed it once and it's pass so we're moving on a second okay so um no public comment here or on on Zoom um is there any discussion on the item before we move to vote hearing none okay Madam cler would you please uh call the rooll M yes vice mayor Kennedy yes commissioner Amsler yes commissioner Huntington yes commissioner Sam yes the item is adopted on second reading 5 Z okay thanks Madam click um all right Brad I'm going to keep the rapid fire on you uh let's move on to Item B um ordinance 2024-the ordinance number 202 24-11 an ordinance of the village Commission of the village of biscan Park Florida Florida excuse me excuse me my New York accent came out amending chapter 11 offenses and miscellaneous Provisions to create article 7 titled public camping and sleeping prohibited uh providing for inclusion in the code and scrier errors providing for conflicts providing for severability and providing for an effective date okay thanks Brad uh do I have a motion in a second on the ordinance motion to approve second okay uh before we move to discussion uh is there any uh any public comment on this item before we move forward hearing none okay Mr Mayor as a point of order if I may yeah please so um members of the commission I've um I understand that we're here for a second read on this ordinance I can tell you that for some other Municipal clients I've been drafting various different versions of this ordinance based on the the legislation that was passed last year by by um by our Florida legislature I do have a a couple of proposal um proposed possible mod ifications if if you all would just entertain them at the time this okay run them through them pretty quickly if I may sure um in section 11-1 151 which is the definition of of the offense of camping and sleeping subsection 1D talks about lodging or residing overnight in a motor vehicle in a public place regardless of whether it is registered or insured I just um that that is taken directly out of the statute I will tell you that the statutory definitions are a minimum standard based on my interpretation and research the The Village can be more restrictive if if you all choose to then what the legislature provided as far as a definition because remember they did not create any type of offense they just mandated that you prohibit this type of activity so I I would ask the commission just for the point of discussion is the commission is satisfied with the Restriction of just preventing the or residing in a motor vehicle overnight in a public place that's and just for clarity for purposes of clarity that's the minimum standard adopted by the state statute that's correct okay so if you chose um that restriction could be at all times preventing somebody from residing or lodging in their vehicle whether it be in daytime or during the night time so I I would just ask I I know some of my some of my other Municipal clients wanted to restrict it much be more restrictive and so I would so the language I'm sorry I don't mean to interrupt you Brad but the language that you're proposing would be to add the qualifier at the end of the condition that it be at all times because that's what you're doing for other Municipal clients you would basically remove the word overnight I understand just make it a general restriction at any time during the day or night for somebody to be residing in their vehicle within the village okay so really it's it's it's up to the commission on on how we'd like to move forward forward with that point because that's um I guess what briad has done for some other Municipal Partners so it's just something that's been brought up by other elected so I just wanted to put that to you for you to um decide on whether or not that's something you want is that the only no there's one other and the other one's more of a cleanup for me in 11 d153 which is evidence of camping now this isn't the actual offense these are these are um some of the things that have to be considered by the entities that will be enforcing this restriction which will primarily be the police department um what I would propose to add and again this will depend part of this will be depending on what your decision is with regards to my first point is in paragraph number three it would be the existence of a tent sleeping bag hammock blankets CS mattresses Tarpin newspapers cardboard or foliage used as a bedding or shelter would be in there and then it would talk about this also evidence of camping would be the storage of personal belongings um building of a campfire or other methods of outdoor cooking or any other evidence um activities commonly associated with outdoor camping and then the language that's in there that says that the person is engaged in camping must be engaged in an activity during an overnight period we would either that's discretionary again whether you want to restrict that just camping just just overnight period or at any time and with regards to the camping itself taking the vehicle out for a moment the public camping outdoors I would suggest that you do remove that language that one sent okay so which one from where from point three so when you look at three where it says that the the person who is engaged camping must be engaged in activity during an overnight period I would suggest removing that based on my research and and some of the things that we've been looking into and I would change that entire paragraph to say just paragraph three we're talking about the existence of a tent sleeping bag hammock blanket or plural Cuts mattresses tarpons newspapers cardboard or foliage used as bedding or shelter so essentially what you would do is restrict public camping unless it's authorized by The Village so if and just so we're clear if you have a special event where you use the park and you have a night out family night out where people can bring tents sleeping bags and Camp under the under the stars as long as you're authorizing it that that would be permitted but for somebody just to go into a park or into a public place within the village and publicly Camp without the authorization of the village would be a violation of this ordinance so I I would suggest um take you know the change that I just spoke about in three and remove the language that deals with overnight camp okay and again you you read a whole sentence right yes on new can you repeat it I can repeat it yes so what I did is I also added two paragraphs so the way three would read is the existence of a tent sleeping bag hammock blanket cot they're in the plural but mattresses tarpons n newspapers cardboard or foliage uses bedding or shelter remove that one line talking about overnight um activities and then number four would read the storage of personal belongings um number five would be the building of a campfire or other methods of outdoor cooking or any other evidence activities commonly associated with outdoor camping and these are just these are just items cleans up the evidence what is evidence of Camp right these are just items that will be considered by the the right okay so that would be my recommendation with certainly the evidence of camping as I've just described um I would defer to the commission as to you you know your village better than I do um with regards to the vehicles whether you want to restrict that just to overnight or at any time during the during the daytime um and and and I think we've expressed the concern before um there every jurisdiction is passing some form of a camping ordinance because they're mandated to you're you're subject to potential lawsuits if you don't restrict it and it takes place in your jurisdiction and the concern is is that if one municipality doesn't enact something and have a restriction that meets goals of your community the concern is that this population is going to be moving from one jurisdiction to another until they're in a jurisdiction where they're left alone and so again that that's the issue that you're faced with and um I would just um defer to you as to the rest of that okay the big change then I'm sorry BR the big change then is the it there's no no longer an overnight component to this you would take out an overnight component so it's any time so if if somebody was residing or lodging which is defined in your ordinance so it's not somebody that's it wouldn't apply to somebody let's say for instance if I'm I'm attending a sports event for my for my child and you fall asleep decide to go sit in my car and watch it from the parking lot and I fall asleep in my car that if you look at the evidence of camping that wouldn't fall under the ordinance that wouldn't be a violation that's what I want somebody that's actually residing or or and I can give you the definition it's in there but um like lodging means sleeping accommodations or a temporary place to stay residing means to dwell or live in a place so somebody that just falls asleep in their car you know watching an event would not be violating this ordinance but however you could not if you if you if you include the vehicle restriction 247 for lack of better terms it would pre prevent somebody from using their vehicle Within the village for habitation and same thing with regards to the I would support that and what is remind us what the trigger for all of this is would it have to be a report or Can the police uh enforce this on their own unilaterally without a report of some kind so the police would have to in order for the police to take action they would have to actually witness the the the incident so they they could witness it without a a call coming in saying hey someone's sleeping on my street okay so an officer on routine Patrol in the village see somebody setting up a camp or or seems to be lodging or residing in their vehicle they can take enforcement action um the ordinance gives them the authority to to meet with that person try to determine if that person is in need of services and if they're willing to to accept Services whether it's a shelter or whatever it might be and if there if there's some available that the officers can can afford this individual then they can take the only action they have to take is say okay let us let us get you to the shelter do get you the help you need however if somebody refuses the Shel the assistance Andor there's there's nothing available then they can take straight enforcement action and uh just on the enforcement side what the the um lawyer saying is the one incident that I can recall of this happening in Griffin Park was in the daytime not at night so that change would be critical for us in a lot of jurisdictions the outdoor camping is not just for night problem jur I'm not speaking necessar here but it's an issue other jurisdiction as well understood okay um I I'd be prepared to support both of those recommendations um yes I support both of them as well okay I would just ask for an motion as amended clean up second I I'll make a motion for the corrections we have a motion uh has the resolution on second read with the Amendments recommended by the attorney do we have a second second okay um there's no further discussion um Madam clerk would you call the role on the vote please on the amended ordinance mayor gr yes vice mayor Kennedy yes commissioner Amsler yes commissioner hunington yes commission Sam yes the item passes on second reading as amended thank Madam cler uh and thank you Brad uh with uh the ordinance conclude we have no resolutions and we had moved our department reports down to the uh to follow or ordinances our ordinances excuse me so let's uh let's go back to our our department reports um and uh Mr manager did you want to start us off with your report yeah um thank you very much Mr Mr Mayor so I'm I'm going to uh combine all the department reports within my Village manager reporting and if there's any questions the end will certainly uh entertain those questions but um good evening Mr Mayor and Village Commissioners it's it's good to be back after a holiday break I trust everyone had a safe and happy New Year and Christmas a lot was has occurred since the last time we met and I wish to combine my report with the Department reports that are attached to the agenda I like to thank our Parks and Recreation director Issa Torell for taking on the role of the Village manager while I was spending some time downtime with my family over the holiday vacation when school is not in session that is one of the busiest times for our parks of recreation department so he he uh took on these additional duties knowing that that was one of his busiest times so I I thank you Issa for for taking on those duties uh during the month of December the village manager's office had issued seven ltc's uh letters to the commissions for various issues events that occurred during the month of of December uh the first LTC was issued on December 7th that provided information respect to a traffic accident that occurred in the uh one 120th block of Northeast 7th Avenue on December 7th an LTC was issued on the lean enforcement process uh that's followed by the co- compliance Department that uh they uh assisted in drafting up that that LTC on December 19th and LTC was issued that provided information with with uh with the shop a cop event and LTC was issued on December 20th that uh provided information on the annual toy drive both of those were the police department's events that uh were very successful uh and on December 23rd an lltc was issued with respect to a r a mamus for a records request uh with respect to Christopher Castro cas uh I worked closely with the village attorney and drafting that LTC LTC was issued on December 23rd of the after action report for Winterfest giving information on on on um on the event what took place what was successful about it and uh on uh on December 23rd another LTC was issued which which gave information on a significant arrest that occurred within the village another great job by the police department with respect to the goov app uh we were able to sign up a few people during the winter fest event as of January 5th of this year it's been reported to Village staff that a total of 1,258 registered uh users from biscan Park are currently signed up W it's fantastic yes yeah well and I thought that number was pretty significant 1,258 great we we we'll continue to reach out we we had a a meeting uh a training session yesterday a C- compliance had sat uh at a training session yesterday uh we're going to extend to that training to each of the Departments to make sure the app is being fully utilized also uh goov has committed to provide additional marketing strategies so that we can increase that 1,200 number that's fantastic uh Home Depot will be uh filming a commercial in the village during the month of January overflow parking will occur on the church parking lot at 675 Northeast 113 Street the filming location will be in the fifth 115th block of Griffin Boulevard and off duty biscane Park officer will be working the event we we are happy that the production CH company chose biscane park for the commercial uh we look forward to the final product and I'm sure we're going to share that commercial with all of you so you could see see the results of that yeah we're very happy they chose bisc Park on December 6 I attended the mes Chamber of Commerce breakfast at the M Shores Country Club U mayor Le LaVine Cava of Mi day County was the guest speaker and gave an informative talk about her new new term of office and what she wishes to accomplish I was able to obtain a contact for from from her office for biscane Park which is Melanie Burke Simmons and now I have her on speed dial she's very helpful yes yes she's the best on December 11th I attended the unsafe structure board here along with a building official uh co- compliance director and building official from homestead who had knowledge of the case the hearing as you are aware was for the property located a21 Northeast 121st Street the hearing took place at uh 11805 South Southwest 26th Street at the Mii day County Department of regulatory and economic resources the unsafe structures board moved first to vacate the last order from the board for demolition since the bank is holding the mortgage to the property was notified and did not attend the last hearing the unsafe structure board Mo then moved for a new hearing uh the homeowner was represented by a local attorney Bill Riley Jr who attended the hearing and was representing and had requested to give a 30-minute presentation about the property uh that basically did not address the unsafe structure issues after the unsafe structure board allowed the village to present the case the unsafe structure board ruled that the owner would would be allowed eight months to obtain permits from the village to completely rehab the two structures uh once the permits are obtained the owner will have nine months to complete the work the owner's First Step will be making an application to planning and zoning board for approval on their plans on uh December 16th as the mayor said uh had previously mentioned both of us had attended the annual mummy day County League of cities best practice conferences uh the Conference was held at the builtmore hotel in cor gaes which was a great location it was uh the conference was attended by most of the 34 municipalities in mi miam day County along with the city of Miami miam day County and the classes uh occurred were very informative this was the 12th annual conference uh the best uh practices conference was started by the former mayor I have to give him a shout out because he was my former boss mayor JC buunis which the mayor was was uh was able to meet he's now a county commissioner he was in tenance of the conference and had they had recognized him at the uh at the lunch gave him a special award uh the this morning the chief and I attended this wearing in ceremony Sheriff Rosie cord stultz of M day at the M day College North Campus as you're aware M day County Police Department has transitioned to a sheriff's agency uh this is the first time in 60 years M day County Law Enforcement will be governed by a local sheriff uh we hope to invite Sheriff Cordo staltz to a village Comm commission meeting for her to make a presentation uh finally I need some guidance on on respect to payout to our former Village manager to resp uh with respect to travel that was taken to Santa b island prior to his departure from the village I think I have talked to all of you about this but I just need some guidance on how the how the payout should be should be made so uh I I uh this H happened all uh before I came to the village and uh uh I got a a briefing from the chief if I could call you up now to just so you can give a briefing about that conference you you were in attendance with at the conference the uh the former Village manager attended uh yourself along with um two captains I believe or three captains two Captain sir two captains okay and uh and can you just tell us the conference was for the accreditation right yes sir um so the Florida commiss uh Commission of accreditation uh CFA the accreditation process that we're going through holds uh several conferences throughout the year to update and direct the agencies on what is the current changes what they're projecting uh what they want to see from us and they give training courses throughout the entire week is actually a very intense uh conference because it's not a luxury it's it uh going there and learning and prepping for file building uh the power DMS system it kind of breaks down and goes through the entire accreditation process and a very quick week overview so the the goal was to kind of get the command team on board so that they understand what the accreditation process is because when we took over everyone kept saying okay we're going to get accredit we're going to get accredited but no one was on board or understanding okay what is accreditation what are the steps what is the directions that we need to go so the part of this conference was kind of wheel in and get all of the command staff on board because they're going to be the ones that are actually implementing changing and and directing the agency towards accreditation so this was a a very necessary step uh to be able to get accredited because it's not going to be just one individual it's going to be uh all the the whole team that gets accredited but we have to push down and and we unfortunately can't send the entire department to that but it it started from the top to get them uh versed in it and understand so during that process when we presented it to the former Village manager he wanted to attend because he said he needed to know what the process was also so that uh he knew what what had to be approved or what would need to be purchased for it um so then he he signed up himself to go to it uh to attend it with us as him being the supervisor of of me I I don't I don't direct the manager what to do okay so so he um um Chief so he this was all budgeted under your your um Department that's correct for the 20 it was uh 24 25 budget the manager had budgeted because it it was right at the I guess the kind of the the the change of the budget was right the end of September into October so the invoices he had obtained prior to us going because they invoice you prior so he had alined it and budgeted in the 2023 to 2024 budget year uh the the three personnel from the police department were budgeted under our accreditation portion and then he had budgeted himself under I guess the village May or the admin budget uh he said that he had budgeted there so he had budgeted himself into that area I'm sorry did he so and then in a email he sent to me on November 10th he indicated that he paid for himself Jorge Lewis and that you you and jorio paid for themselves I guess they yes sir there was there were some he had messed up the we sent the invoices before because the invoices had to for the hotel and the conference had to be paid prior to you showing up because we don't have a credit card method high enough to pay for the hotel rooms so we had provided him with all of the invoicing and billing prior I guess somewhere in the process he did not pay for it so when we showed up thinking everything was paid it wasn't paid so uh some of the Personnel were kind of left uh to pay for their own hotels up front he got there right in between it all and then paid for some of it himself uh under his personal credit card to he said he would uh get reimbursements for everything that was going when he got back I guess he he kind of handled all that he took all of the invoices um and then I guess gave Direction sounds like from what the research pulling up goov and looking at our processes through goov it appears that he processed it himself sent it in and then it got mixed up in financing and then the billing all the reimbursements got sent um out randomly in a different method um more of like a off-duty payment for for police services not really like a reimbursement so we were able to track that down with the help of the manager kind of analyzing going going through it um and then they the incorrect payments that they paid to the The Command Staff the officers under what looked like off duty that was pulled out of the paychecks this last go round so that money went back to the Village uh so now it would be I guess where he kind of messed up on trying to get the reimbursements to himself so in in his no November 10th email to me which he uh in the village clerk he said he actually says I I I got a a check but I need to be paid more so he indicates that you attended along with three uh captains no sir it was only two captains it was myself cap the full-time administrative Captain George rosaro and the Patrol Captain because the Patrol Captain kind of implements out uh our routine and how we get it with the patrol officers uh Lewis Rodriguez are investigations Captain stayed as the acting Chief during that week right and so recently checks were sent out you got one yes sir the captain's got one one Captain the the two captains got it and I myself got it and then the former manager got one I I don't know what he got yeah he got he got a check also yes sir and then uh so um that that was for that was put in goov and you approved that it the on goov he sent it in and he wrote a directive to approve it and for it back to him it was approved uh under the reimbursements to the correct person and then sent back to him it's a little bit hard to tell because once the manager shift it shifted the names so it doesn't have 100% uh but now it says your name but obviously you weren't here for that so a little bit of Shifting in the goov on on the on the goov it shows that I Prov approved it but I I haven't proved anything the time yes sir so that's why I'm looking I know that he had sent some emails out to uh to me and you were all cop coped on them and so uh this is where we are I just need some direction on on how you want this to be clear I was not copied on those emails request those to be forwarded to me and I did read them um may I ask a question so what were the dates of the conference it was uh September 29th to October 4th or 3rd so that was after he resigned from the village after he ATT tendered his resignation I I know that during that time is when we had the commission meeting I was on zoom and that's when uh I guess he did not it was news to me listening to the commission meeting you guys did not know that he was there and that's when you guys had order oh that's when he was at the me we didn't know where he was we asked him to come back right okay um so who's who's required to be at this thing I'm very I'm going back to the who's supposed to be there and who's not supposed to be there because I understood that we had within the police department I'm not going to get the title right but there was an accreditation officer who was assigned to lead the village through this it's a gentleman who's been here many times I don't believe he works for you anymore no the the unfortunately the prior Administration how they hired the individual that they promoted to the assistant chief prior uh and they kind of named him the assistant manager or accreditation or the accreditation manager he went off of a campaign that he had got Coral Gables or University of Miami accredited their Police Department um unfortunately the information how he presented himself with that was inaccurate not true because University miimi cannot have its own Police Department it's actually Coral Gable's Police Department which has been accredited for a long time so it be you have is a private Institute it can't be it's a it's a it's a reserved component of the Gable he's no longer here he's no longer here was he here when you went to this event no he was already gone so you're saying the person that we all thought was our accreditation officer was let go or did he leave the village voluntarily no he was he was terminated sir he was terminated because he misrepresented himself as having done this for he was he was U terminated for hostile work environment stuff so he's gone and that's who I thought would have attended this thing is it customary for the police chief and several captains and the city manager to all attend this I've never seen this I've seen Sweetwater city manager there or their mayor there um I have not uh it was uh he was with the police chief um Diaz so I'm not sure exactly I saw him there but uh there's a lot of sheriffs and a lot of chiefs there gotcha okay so um this item uh you said it was budgeted for people to go in the police department and then Chris budgeted himself out of the admin budget he can't budget something my anything like that but Brad what are the um uh what are the requirements for the manager to attend uh something and spend Village money on something that we did not approve because we did we found out he was there that meet that night at the meeting correct my recollection of facts on how when I I remember did it did attend the the commission meeting remotely being at the commission um you know I I have a vague memory of this being discussed with the commission prior to the conference I don't remember if it was a discussion item it wasn't a formal request but there I I have some vague re recollection do you guys remember that I don't have any recollection of ver do you could be wrong so that's I mean I'm not saying that absolutely happened I wouldn't even know what meeting to go back and and listen to so with we've gone back and forth ever since his departure from the village on what he's entitled to and not entitled to so I really can't address that does anyone remember him asking us about this but what I would say is I believe in your budget that you did budget a certain amount for the manager to attend conferences so whether he used that amount I don't I don't know what if he used the budget amount that you all had allocated for him to Ed to go to conferences then I would I could argue that he was permitted to go to the conference whether he should have went under the circumstances because I believe he had already my recollection is he had already resigned M prior to attending the conference and then then he we were wondering why he was there when he had already resigned that's my recollection asking him that during the meeting when he appeared remote so again to answer your question if if he had money in his budget for him to attend conferences and he used that money to attend the conference I think there arguably he was entitled to do look if if he's if you're asking us for guidance Alis if there's money in the budget and he used money and did not overspend and did it all properly and that money is in there then I then I guess we pay for him to do it it sounds like maybe the processes weren't followed but you know I a lot of processes aren't right here aren't followed so processes I think the main discussion here is there are no processes we are in the midst of discussing whether it was allocated to a budger versus the other it was already paid to police officer versus the manager pulled back controlling the the little money that goes in and out so again to the point to pull this uh earlier when we started the conversation this is the example of how lose we currently sit on account payable this is the perfect example and people were paid that they shouldn't have been paid and then the money was taken out of a paycheck and now they're being paid back again properly is that correct no the payment I guess would go to if the direction I guess to the Village the former Village manager so chief Mr Mayor May so Chief as far as what was if you know as far as what was already paid to Mr Truitt um I well just hear my question first and then if you don't know clearly you don't know um and one I'm I'm understanding from speaking with with Mr childis is that he had submitted bills for for his food for his the actual cost of whatever his meals were do you know if the village reimbursed him for the actual cost of his meals and what I mean by that is if he whatever he bought a $20 hamburger was he compensated $20 for the hamburger or was he compensated in some other way for his meals looking at the invoices through goov it looks like there was a uh like room service like food that was build to it and reimbursed um some of it's little misleading in the the invoicing because at the cafeteria downstairs at that hotel I know one night day I ate there and when they gave me the receipt it said room service uh but it wasn't room service it was their their cafeteria so we paid for that out of our own pocket like we made sure that was not included any of the village billing so the reason why I'm bringing that up I think we do need to figure out what exactly we paid him and what exactly we owed him and the and the reason why I'm saying that is uh for travel um there there's nothing in this Villages um rules employee rules or code of ordinances with with regards to PDM for food so you would revert back to the to the Florida statute that that applies to all government employees including Municipal Employees which is uh Florida statute 112.0 61 which specifically deals with prum and and travel um expenses of public officers employees and persons authorized to travel under the estate management system um and the reason why I'm bringing that up is there is a specific amount that you get per DM and it's read it right out of the statute it's $6 for breakfast $1 for lunch and $19 for dinner so that's all it's reimbursed so if you go out and have a $100 Stak dinner your your only reimbursement is $19 according to the state statute so I I don't know what he's been paid but obviously whatever we would pay him should be what he's entitled to and can I more nothing less can I say something please so I think to answer your question Albert because you're you're asking us to give you guidance and I think we don't have that opportunity to give you the guidance I mean I would expect you to provide the proper detail this is a conversation between the attorney with all this legalities that I didn't know about right we were talking about this earlier today and find out that there is a cap to what the expenses should be um but how come we don't know what was spent how come we're asking in the midst of the commission meeting how much money did we that that for me is the number one question that goes back to you it has to be discussed with a finance team it has to be discussed with the police officers with the attorney to see what and then bring us an amount and say we owe him $500 um can we go back Paul has all this we discussed about what was appr proven the accreditation to your question about did we approve his traveling we approve a certain amount for accrediation I don't remember if including his trip so dig you know into poll's notes as to all the budget amendments that we did we ended with accrediation being appr proven part of the trip that you needed to take was he needed to go no he was he had already resigned there was no reason that's why we call him back so there shouldn't be any expenses based on the fact that he resigned that's how I see it but if we approve it I just want to pay whatever we owe him and we ow the to and move forward I just don't know that this is something you're going to get from the commission I don't know how much that is I don't know how properly that was budgeted for with that you know during the the budget season so um I would just go back and put together um I that's my feedback find out if we approve it if it's within the legal terms you know and has already been budgeted for I'm okay to move forward pay whatever we owe but I I don't have the the okay on I don't know if it's 900 300 I don't know so some forensic accounting on this would be helpful and compared that to what Brad mentioned about the per DM look once if you're going to bring this back to the commission for them to approve the amount we need to see the numbers in front of us but let let me finish real quickly but if this is then going to be the final money that we pay to former manager Chris Tru it before we wish him well in his life we need to make sure this is it what we don't want to have back is something coming back in next month saying now you owe me for I went to a restaurant and took a village staffer out and had lunch so this need there needs to be a this is it end of story no other questions asked about this um for example does he have a a village credit card are there things on a credit card has anyone looked through that and reconcile all of that are there any charges there that are questionable I don't know I mean is there anything else Al that you're aware of there were there were some um uh charges on a credit card that were questionable and we're still trying to find receipts for those I don't think there was any receipts issued for those what were they for they were for couple restaurants during work hours it was they weren't significant events so I I don't know what they were tied to is he is a village manager allowed to take the village credit card and go out and have lunch right I I would have to know more details as to what what the purpose of it and I'm not saying not I don't know there is no expense policy that's the thing not aware of any policy well if there no if he says he took um I don't know I mean I I inaros where might be business I don't well I I'm not again I'm not going to be here for this but if you bring it back I would suggest that you guys try to get it all sorted out at one time get it done and make sure that there's a a written agreement whether it's an email or whatever Brad thinks is reasonable where he recognizes that this is the final anything that this Village owes me signing off on it send me my check and be done with this once and for all or I can see this dragging out no to to to make a recommendation at this point so we can kind of try and move forward to follow up on commissioner's point and the vice mayor's point I think what we need I think is we an understanding of what's being paid what the line items are to be in line with the statutory reimbursement levels because we we I think we need a proposal look I think you made a very good point look if it's if it's within the discretionary fund and he's allowed to spend it in such a way we don't have a choice so but we need to understand like line item what what's it for um and if it's within that level then then we do it um so but I think we need kind of a little bit more granular detail before we can say look I think the commission is saying if we got to pay it we got to pay it and I I certainly think we all want to just move on from this so yes no go ahead if I may because sure I think there's more than just this conference is part of the issue and and are you talking about the the personal the PT well he and that's the thing he throws around some terms and Comm AMS and I talked about this earlier today he throws around some terms that are terms of art within your within your employment man for example for instance PTO is paid time off right PTO is a different animal um than annual leave which is vacation leave or or sick leave so the only thing that Mr Truitt is entitled to as a result of his separation from the village is his unused vacation time not to not to exceed 240 hours of vacation we have already previously con calculated that a while ago he had 18.6 hours of unused annual lead which he would be entitled to um I worked with Sharon Henning she she helped me calculate what his hourly rate would have been it was 48 Point $488 cents an hour is what his salary equated to so that comes out to 89429 under his contract it refers basically to what every other employee would be entitled to had they separated from the village um so he's certainly entitled to the 894 um 29 I do not believe he's received that yet in his emails that he sends he keeps on saying PTO I have not talked to him so I don't know when he says PTO if he means his annual leave is quote vacation leave um so what maybe if I can suggest so that we can move this forward um because I'm sure we're all tired of getting the emails is the manager and I um and finance can sit down just find out total what we owe him whether it be for the conference his SE whatever his separation pay he's entitled to come up with a number have a discussion with him so that if he's in agreement with that number because I know from some of his previous emails he's asking for his credit card interest interest on his bills because he's he hasn't paid those bills which is 23% um I don't know we're sorry what was the percentage on think it's 23% on his credit something like that I don't remember the exact amount it's 23 point something percent which is about what a credit card might some credit cards charge per month if if you're not paying your bill but I don't know that he's necessarily entitled to that um so what we can do is we can sit down try to come up with a number between myself the manager in finance present it to him if he agrees to it we will notify the commission this is the amount and um then if if it's approval although quite frankly I'm I'm not sure that the commission really has a hand in this it's really within the manager's purview but but if if manager wants your input I I certainly understand why I can draft a a waiver and release that he's accepting this payment it's in full in full payment of all money's owed to him he's waving any further actions with regards to it if he signs it we'll send them we we'll put the money in his account I think he want I I would strongly encourage you to do that and then the other thing that I had brought up to Al something I had been looking into before uh Tru resigned was his vacation time because it appears he took vacation before he was eligible to take vacation and if that impacts the hours that are due to him then that needs to be accounted for as well and I'll leave that up to you guys but it's very clear in his agreement when he's allowed to take vacation and he was taking vacation from my reading of it before he was allowed to be taking vacation if that's the case and that shouldn't be um qualified to be paid out then that needs to be accounted for as well but every penny that he's due and not a penny more and make him sign off and say that's that and move past this this is you know Brad can you make that part of the analysis please I can can I comment on that sure so well I'd like to try and make this the last time we have but I just want to have some direction because I understand so and I and I understand the vice mayor's point and I'm not saying it it's not a 2012 he's being a steward of of the village of money and and I understand that appreciate that approach um however I just from a legal perspective he did let's say he did take the vacation within the first six months I don't know if he did or didn't assume he did for a moment um he certainly made the the the village was aware he was taking the vacation he was aware at the timing that he was taking the vacation I'm assuming he put in the vacation because I know when he was gone he would say I'm out and I I think he he would appoint the clerk as the as the acting manager at the time um and nobody stopped it at that point it wasn't it's not until now that we're we're raising that issue and I I would suggest if it's kind of a mo point at this point okay whatever he's doing not a penny more probably talking about dollars as opposed to I mean it's only 894 we're talking about not saying it's not a lot of money but in the grand scheme of what he might have taken you're you're talking about couple hundred dollars I'm not sure okay disrespect may I just I just like things to be nice and clear in black and white little columns and this is what we owe you and that's that and take your money and off you go uh Mr Mayor that's the end of my report may I ask some follow-up questions to Al up from his report okay so separate from that um what's the status really quickly of the employment contracts that Tru it offered to people that they signed were they did everyone sign the letter letter yet saying that they understood that that those contracts were invalid yes one one employee chose to resign instead of signing it so he did resign so at this point we're solid on that okay um um Issa filled in for you for a couple of days thank you Isa and uh the first thing I asked was is he being paid extra for taking on this extra responsibility Al could you clarified to us when people do start earning extra money if people are going to fill a role and they're and they qualify for more money I want make sure we're paying them right so it's only in the employee handbook which I I brought here this evening in in employee handbook it says is they only receive a 5% after the the fifth day so on the sixth day they start receiving a 5% increase retro back to the first day no just on that just on that six that sixth day six seventh day so I was out six days so he only gets a increase for one day so I I told him I I'll be taking them out to lunch so hey the lesson to staff if he ask you to fill in for him say only days or more yeah I'm not I'll be gone for a month then we encourage me you gone for a month exactly um the unsafe structure have they taken any steps towards their first uh hurdle they have to jump over uh we we have a scheduled meeting coming up um um the the village attorney myself uh co- compliance the uh the um building official and and engaged to talk about an application that was submitted uh recently for offense so we're going to be talking about okay um so earlier in the evening uh commissioner Samaria was discussing the fact that he was riding along with the police just so we're all clear on that how does that work if a commissioner wants to ride along with the police does that have to get cleared by you do Commissioners go straight to the police and say I want to ride alone do they talk to the chief what are the policies on that just to make sure I've never ridden along with the police or the code officers um so I just want to make sure that everyone's aware of what those rules are I'd hate to think that Commissioners are hopping in cars and spending overnight shifts if if they haven't been great so make sure we're following policy that probably doesn't exist phoh the chief and I are working on developing policies well there are no policies policies right now so we have sorry Mr manager we have a uh waiver release form and then uh we do a criminal background check before they can get in the field so you make sure you're covered okay because and Dan don't take this the wrong way but you did say in your report I didn't write the words down but you said something along the lines of when you told him you were going to ride along with him on the shift with him like I don't know how what exactly you said like you may not like what I do or something I don't know but I just wouldn't he only reports to one person in this room and it's Al he doesn't report to us and I don't want police or any employees to ever feel obligated to do something for a commissioner um that they're not required to do so I think maybe as a best practice until Al writes a policy uh on this that anytime we want to engage with the police or code certainly as a right along we should be clearing that with the manager would that make you more comfortable Al yes sir thank you very much I would certainly agreed to that myself I want to clarify Chief did I tell you at any time to do anything no no do you just said some like I don't want you understand what I'm saying then I want anyone to feel like they're being because look whether we're not their B we're not his boss none of us individually or as a body we're not his boss right um but it's really easy for him knowing that ultimately he answers to us some way for him to feel obligated to do what he wants so I'm just saying we need to make sure that that separation is really clear I should have said that that was more of a joke to him okay well just you know what I'm saying here okay so I think it's the best practice um we should all uh get that cleared question is if I'm correct um Comm amsley you rolled around with Cod didn't you yeah after getting approval from the manager oh so you asked the manager he said yes and you went along that's great that's that's the pro we should always be asking permission for everything sometimes we ask permission of Al sometimes we ask permission of each other ver wanted to go represent us uh to Mii Shores Ryan's asking to represent us for something we come here we get the thumbs up and then we go do it it's better than just running off and doing something um Jonathan if you forgive me there's someone who I have to go hug oh go ahead Debbie Holmes walked in she's one of our village residents and I haven't seen her for a long time I want to give her a hug okay [Music] um uh there's a variance requ that's pending for those folks on 10th Avenue at 111th oh my god um and you were waiting for the uh for us to pass our policies on how we notice things I just want to make sure they don't slip between the cracks we're aware of them you haven't I have a list of everybody who I'm sorry thank you I just want to make sure they were very concerned because it's been a while okay yeah they called me from time to time and I keep them updated as to beautiful thank you and then for the I I I don't know if this is for you or for the attorney Al um this rid of mandamus am I pronouncing that correctly okay um it's about public records requests not being fulfilled promptly after multiple requests just so we're clear when was this happening was this happening before you got here Al or since you've gotten here yeah I think the original request came in a long time before several months before I arrived July okay okay but I got resolved since you've been here oh it's resolved now yeah okay good I just want to make sure that anyone who is listening and is aware of that knows that that didn't happen on your watch Al but it got resolved on your watch and we're we're developing procedures so this never happens again a lot of procedures to write out through the police department and to the Village clerks okay okay that's it thank you okay uh thanks vice mayor are there other questions about the the management report yeah the report uh is this report that you're going to be given every week that has the report for all the Departments or we going to be allowed to hear from each of the Departments well the reports will be attached and you know if you have any questions well I'll be happy to answer them if the if I can't answer them staff is here available to answer those questions also because I want to be able to get reports from the police department they'll I have to go through you to get it they're submitting written reports it's on it's attached to to the to the yeah 8 e the report any other questions for the manager own his report okay um Al the position we talked about on the last commission about the position needed for John for public works it was needed to be advertised and and start the process of of fulfilling where we stand with that manager can right so that we were waiting for the the um um his their labor negotiation the contract was uh was passed approved by the commission and in there it had a a salary um um increase that didn't take place till after the first year so now that we are after the first year we can um adverti for that uh and I need to sit down with John in one of our weekly meet meetings and and talk about just what that person will be doing and make sure we have a job description for that for that position I didn't understand so you're saying there was an increase on there was an advertise in in that um labor negotiations in that bargaining uh agreement yeah there was a new a salary schedule that would take place after the first of the year so now that it's we're after the first of the year uh we can advertise for it and I just wanted to sit down with John and to go over the uh job description for that position and to C make sure that when we're advertising we have a clear job description and the employee knows what uh their job responsibilities will be and that uh the we have a salary range we just not want one uh uh salary that starting salary they we have a salary range that uh that uh they clearly understand and and uh and just work with John to toh get that out and uh you know so that we start the process commissioner you if you remember doing the budget process when you were doing that you were trying to determine a one a two a three maintenance of Labor and that's what um the manager is speaking of in the contract he was waiting for the contract to come through for that definition of those one twos and threes perfect I just want to help find you some help John I know you you've been working on those potholes around the city and the around the village and several areas so thank you very much for for what you do um do you have a mited time frame for that I'll put it on one of on my list of things to do but and so John John and I are meeting weekly so we're we're you know that would be on the top of the list when we meet to discuss all right and then um did you find out if we have some budget U um set aside I don't know if you guys remember during budget cm4 Christmas um holiday holiday decoration lights I think we put like $5,000 um knowing that now we have the best time to buy stuff for sale um are we planning to use that I know that the idea was that every year we have a little bit more set aside right and that we can continue to increase our our our our lights and everything it's the right time Isa and John are working on it [Music] okay is said come come to the podium so you can everybody can hear it you you you you volunteered yourself yeah uh commissioner Amsler just for clarity it was $1,000 this year cut it from 5,000 to 1,000 you really cut that down say if it was 5,000 it pass me because I didn't see that it was 5,000 last year 1,000 this year on sale that's like two right $1,000 correct it's in the Parks and W um Department budget uh so we spent a little and bought the Garland and uh some reefs that we put on the doors is here but we are waiting for post sales toting every year so thank you for putting that together it looked wonderful everybody did a wonderful job of making it very Christmasy the rec center look amazing so thank you and just on that note commissioner uh John is working on on fixing the sprinklers out there by the our main entrance sign the U biscane Park yeah and there there were a pump was broken and he's uh so he's working on that and then we'll be planning some once that that's fixed we'll be planning some uh annuals out there to make it really look nice so not to not to on that point were you finish okay no and I and I had another point for Isa before you sit down I don't want to get him to sit down say good even good even got you before you sit Isa we added one already but I got one on sale that's already now out there know the sprinklers are running so we're just waiting on you know I'm saying annuals and how we want to plant it the plants we want to plant yeah so you'll be seeing some flowers out there and much like we're trying to uh make it look like the entrance to the beautify beautify it and make it look like the entrance to our our our our neighbor Country Day School how they had those flowers out there but so on that point and and um Mr manager something that we had talked about very briefly and John I know this is isn't kind of within our purview but all that new all that new sod that went in on Griffin where they did the um the drainage project now I know that's griffing and this was part of the agreement that we passed in the consent agenda but a lot of that looks like it's it's dying we're not doing so well is that something that we are paying any attention to or because that's not something that we do we're just kind of letting them them we was kind of hoping for rain but that's kind of say mostly um you know what I'm saying Miami County supposed to water it we usually help them out but right now we have the um Water trailer um you know what I'm saying you saw it one you repaired yeah well we're trying to repair it now and we just you know halfway there we got to get the wood I'm saying the welding is all done we may have to do a little bit of the rusting on it so it doesn't break down again I understand I just wanted to bring it up as a point that this that's like one of the main entrances that's where a lot of people come in and out of the village and we it's all brand new I would really hate to see it all um go south so if it's something that we can maybe pay attention to a little bit before now that this is signed and you know the the county will come in and help us out it might might be nice to try and kind of keep all that new stuff fresh that'll work and thank you that was it yeah my last um is I it's for Isa if you don't mind my last question remember we spoke at some point some time ago about the air toadlet area maybe Mak an a signage for H appropriate and their caretakers to hang out in the area to make sure that Al not only safe for the kids but also to protect the equipment is that something that is being done are you looking to put that forward on the inside or out we talked about the um remember we had a gentl that was sleeping in that area and after that we had a conversation about how do we protect the area in the best way possible absolutely making it inviting for everybody to enjoy uh in addition to the hourly walkarounds that we already done I definitely have staff being more proactive to be in those areas and more attentive especially when our numbers are High um I absolutely did want to sit with um legal to go over the parameters of how we can do that with breaking down that room obviously some of the areas will be age appropriate but it is all public seating in that in that whole room um aside from the back room which is close to the public during the day so I think I would want to take direction from legal and the manager to make sure we pinpoint and cover ourselves in regards to signage in that area we've put up sign to help keep this area clean and and signs like that um but for the most part and even with the bathrooms now if the bathrooms are they're ly we lock the main door and let people go in by themselves if they're using any other bathroom so we're taking those precautions in that area signage though I would definitely take the lead from from legal and the management from the attorney yeah right thank you so much and just if I can real quick I want to thank a number of residents um commissioner here who who've made some donations to the book um the library and bringing the books back uh Sandy uh former commissioner's wife um Sandy Morris thank you you got it Sandy Morris donated like 50 books that are basically like brand new today um to the adult section of the library which is where that needs as much help as the kids section so um a special shout out to all those residents who have done that and I think that is all just if I can respectively um with the manager's permission um with meeting with Paul over the last week and the staff that's been here for a long time um it is insightful to see us working and D digging deeper with Finance in the budget in preparation um I think we it kind of gets lost in the mix of the transitions that we've gone through with managers and our other positions so things change a lot for us and then you have different policies that still exist and if they don't get closed out you have different departments doing different things so just off the first initial meetings I think there is progress I just wanted to say that um also with the village manager being here the commission um manager childrenis um his experience already has showed a lot just to me directly um being at public meetings with him for CIT or Zoom meetings with um CIT or F do um the knowledge he has has been really helpful so I want to say those things and from the staff if I can um send a thank you to this commissioner here for all he's done for the Village um so some of the staff asked me to send that message to you since they couldn't be and that's thanksa there any other questions for the manager report before we move on know commission Huntington you didn't get a chance to yeah only uh Al we discussed in our meeting the entry since we're toing the topic of beautification the uh banners that we have on the light posts as we enter our village did you get a chance to look at those do we have a chance of taking them down or repl them I um John and I will that's the other uh item on my agenda to talk with John on our weekly meeting that uh how to get those down I did see them when I was driving today and saw them great I know brought it up many months ago and they're still there and they're good Welcome to our village I'd like to see them replaced if possible but at least let take the old ones down if we can thank you all right well Mr manager thank you for the informative and detailed report uh and everyone for uh following up with some items and for all of our department heads for being here and and contributing to it we very much appreciate it and certainly appreciate the opportunity to discuss these items with you um okay so that um does it for our report which takes us back down to our discussion items um we'll start with our old business we have three items on the old business and the first one up is commissioner Huntington your uh discussion on traffic update would you mind uh introducing it or sure thank you Mr Mayor uh so I uh penned this discussion item back in November because we I knew we were approaching I know the way things work in the village we wouldn't get to it until the month that uh this trash Jackson occurred one year ago um I am happy to announce I don't know if the village has announced yet but I'll be the want to announce it that our Ila has been executed and we can move forward with that uh that would open up questions to the manager as well as the commission as how we move forward with selecting sites for traffic calming measures now that we have this ability uh if our safer streets for all Grant is moving forward what our status on that is is and if we still have intention to execute that that Grant and our Traffic Unit and where we I know we're at one officer what's our plan for going forward to execute a second officer and get get that unit fully on the road those are the three questions I had luckily one of them was answered on its own but uh the other two are still pending and I'd like to see us moving always moving forward in the topic of safety and traffic so i' uh open up to the commission as well as the manager to answer those questions and let's have a discussion on how we move forward with safer streets for all our police Traffic Unit and selecting these sites and making our road safer so I I wouldn't mind addressing the one about selecting the sites commissioner because uh some of the discussions that I had with the county back when we first started talking about the Ila again my I I know and Brad you and I have talked a lot about this um and chief um you and I talked about this too very recently as of recent as as as of yesterday again it was my understanding that the way that we support the traffic calming measures and this I think this is a larger discussion probably for another time when we have a better understanding but I just wanted to briefly kind of do a quick refresher my understanding of of the way that we select traffic calming sites is Due based upon any type of um of data of objection objective data that we have not limited to a traffic report but also inclusive of Chief things like where tickets are being issued where resident complaints are coming from uh the county said that they would share uh volume data with us like car volume data that they have and they said when they came out here for a site inspection where we kind of drove around the village they said they have it and they they freely share it with us in something as as I think informal as an email so these are all just kind of data points that we can use to to select those sites and again I don't I don't have a whole lot more granular detail at this point so um Brad and and Mr manager I something that we could probably try and coordinate and make sure that we understand fully um but that's my understanding of it um and and we can start doing it but that's just kind of a a recollection sure yeah may I add on to that real quickly before they answer when does the traffic study come into play with this do we have to do one first now out generally or do we have to if we pick sites do we then have to do a traffic study specific to those areas and the kind of solutions we're looking at so again my understanding of it my discussions with the county and with with DOT is that it doesn't necessarily have to come from a traffic study the traffic study is is important to have as we've discussed many times Brad it's it's good because it gives you data to support why you're putting things in certain places I thought it did say that in the Ila I thought it said that it was a requirement don't know that it said it was a requirement I thought we were able to support with spec with with data not necessarily traffic plan or traffic study data well Mr Mayor if I will I know I know the police chief recently visited Miami Shores and got some information sharing from them and the speed bumps or speed tables they were able to put in maybe we could hear from the the police chief as to what Mii Shores was doing and selecting their sites want to join us Chief um speaking with Miami Shores their Public Works uh they had different methods that they did they based kind off what the mayor was saying off of complaints off of traffic I think they at one point they did do a traffic study also uh and then the specific locations once they narrow it down with complaints uh they went door to door to the the neighbors and asked them if they were okay with the uh cing device placed in front of their residents and that's where they kind of Bas it off of but it was a totality of the different data coming in I don't want to I guess I just don't want to offer a definitive opinion on whether it needs to be yes supported by a traffic study or can be supported by other data I guess at this point I would leave it to to Brad to to understand I'm reading from it right now if I have the current version it says any such traffic hming devices may be installed on local Municipal streets only after an appropriate traffic engineering study has been performed and signed and sealed by a Florida licensed professional engineer and has received written approval by The Village manager and or his her design so if that's the last version this is why I'm remembering it because I remember having the conversation at the time this doesn't preclude the requirement to we don't circumvent that so that's what my that's what my understanding was so back to my question when does that come into play because I'd hate for the village to spend time and resources identifying things that the traffic C then doesn't allow I I I also would ask what the traffic study means um um I mean I I want to be kind of specific at of what it entails in the contract versus for example if you guys remember uh my question regarding the triangle of visibility we had our Public Works director come forward with an engineer saying that such and such were okay and that sort of serves as a backup so I'm wondering if we are able to use the preliminary information we have in our data long as it's certified by an engineer and that constitutes a traffic analysis a traffic report so I would want to know specific if we're talking about $100,000 on a study Village Wide or are we saying here is our proposal we have already checked this with an you know an engineered and have clearance of it and that constitutes a go-ahead um that for me is also back referring back to the manager as to how we move forward and if I can sorry jump in real quickly there the from what commissioner Kennedy just read about the passage that doesn't I mean I would refer to Brad here for for a opinion but I don't know if that reads as a traffic study or an engineering report as to it's okay to put it in XYZ location asking we just I want to know when at what point in the process that gets done so we're Notting our wheels and wasting money yeah so I I mean I can only if you need to digest I mean I can only go by the language and what what the vice mayor has read is is from the actual executed that's an excerpt from the actual executed agreement so there is there is the requirement of an appropriate traffic engineering study that has been performed and sealed and a you know licensed professional engineer has put their seal on and that the managers received it and approved it or what the manager designate I I'm I am not a traffic engineer I am not I am not a excuse me not that I've driven on a road once but I'm not I'm not a traffic engineer so I I really can't I can't opine on that would can I make a suggestion reach out to the county well so that's that's exactly what I was going to say is maybe the county can provide Direction on whether we can do something as as commissioner HS are recommended to say we look at it through through Public Works and we look at it here we have an engineer come in and say yeah that's appropriate and then they put their stamp and seal on and everything and it's and by reading this I think if if if the engineer if that's sufficient for the engineer and the engineer signs off on it puts their steal on it I I would suggest by just reading this paragraph that that would be sufficient right right yeah agreed yeah and I think from a liability standpoint you want that because that's that's where the the village is protected Ed um yeah that's where you and I that's where yeah that's where you and I talked if something bad were happen to result right but there's no approval process through the county I think it's just that they have it right that they have it probably right additionally as long as we're using the designs that are incorporated into the agreement which is why we painstakingly went through what we wanted and what we didn't want um and found approved designs from do um we do not have to go back to the county for approval of the installation of those for design approval that's very good that's going to be a much more efficient hopefully yes so on that point I know the next step you mentioned maybe is going to the county and double check how this is expected to be seen I would ask in between to address how the shores is doing it how elportal is doing in it because I would I'm sure the county will say you just need a traffic study you mean a whole traffic study the answer will be yes 100 Grand is nothing small villages are probably doing it already in a different way that the county has accepted so if we can find some examples of maybe you know they haven't needed a Village Wide study but they go with the data that they have that will be in our in our favor too and to touch on what commissioner Amsler said uh maybe we could come to consensus to direct the manager to come back to us with an action plan from the information he found out what his plan going forward was going to be and how to act on this Ila so we don't just continue to spin our Wheels uh don't want to put more things on your list to do Al maybe we can come up with with a timeline of one month two months of to get that action plan back to us so we we continually move the the ball forward great great news what were the other two the uh see the other one is safer streets for all it's same thing we're we're talking about it's the grant that we was was could be awarded to us it was a 25 $25,000 match for $100,000 Grant are we moving forward with that is that uh going going ahead are we deciding to step back you know that is the $100,000 study we're talking about here uh we basically have to make a decision as a as a group are we continuing or we are we going to hold back that study maor go well I I had met with the representative from the state on that Grant and I I think I sent out an email to all of you um about that meeting and the um discussions that I had with her and I had asked that she'd be here uh this evening to talk about the Grant and you know and and the whole process because I had Ju Just by what was being said I had some concerns that we would be spending a lot of time and energy on a on a report on a study that would probably never be implemented uh because um she she talked about you know that study that study would just be that a study uh and would could come back saying that the village needs to have a million or2 million dollars worth of improvements and and then we'll be searching for Grants to do those improvements so I I think think at this point I would um like if commissioner uh Huntington and I could meet with her so that he understands uh directly what my concerns were U before we move any further because I I surely don't want to waste any money and time and effort that uh on a project that money could be spent somewhere else I think that seems reasonable reasonable to me that's fine okay oh the third one would be the Traffic Unit and uh where we stand with that I Know Chief not to call you up again but I know we have one officer hired and what's our plan going forward to get that Second Officer yeah I like to ask a qu I wasn't on a commission at that time didn't we budget I think you bought up at the last commission didn't we didn't we budget two police officers right it was for two from what I remember and if I also remember it was that you wanted them working in tandem with each other when they were on duty so it we originally wanted two sets of two and we ended up with one set of two because they should always be working together in the village that's my understanding yes sir uh we have one that is working right now uh we kind of teamed them up with the reserve or and the the other Personnel for now um we're um evaluating and restructuring some of our uh processes uh me and the manager are working very hard on it with our policies and procedures uh in the near future uh we hope to to open up the positions and and hire the upcoming uh positions we have a few uh we're just waiting on the finalize our stuff to make sure we do it right we we got a lot of broken things and we we're just trying to when we do something do it right for now on the manager is helping a lot with that so we're we're kind of in that direction right now we will get it but we just we got to do it right if not we're going to hire and we're going to have all the same issues like we had with the last Administration thank you Chief so so what is the one person doing now he's working the traffic uh we we kind of teaming up with the with the reserves and trying the place a reserve with him that day or whatever the case is so that we we don't take off the because once we do traffic and they keep getting tied up on the traffic you notice that our like our traffic arrest skyrocketed um and that ties up a unit uh if they got a transport to the jail it ties up a unit and then we lose our practive Patrol um so that's right now we're trying to place the personnel and have it so that we we don't tie up our regular Road patrols we need the that proactive Patrol we need the guys going by the park or the GS going by the park and checking on it so we've kind of made some steps in the in the process right now um just to kind of cover it or like uh some of the Command Staff will go out and work traffic uh to try to offset that to to to mitigate it just for officer safety but the money is in the budget now would it be possible to take some of those Reserve Reserve officers and pay them to do the actual job until you hire someone uh that that that could be a possibility I I'll talk I'll coordinate with the m because we're we're we're back in school now and we all know that you know anecdotally at least that we believe that traffic is a whole lot worse during the school months uh in the morning and the afternoon so I'm just trying to get that I mean again here we go we're October November December we're almost four months through a fiscal year which is onethird of a fiscal year and something that we budgeted for you know we have several of them tonight now are not happening so I was like this money is like slipping between the fingers and not being spent and we had the best to it was actually your idea so um it was your request rather so um if there's some other creative way that you could get that done in the meantime I mean I I thought the hold up hiring I thought the reason we lost some of the other ones was the car issue and that's been resolved now so you're hiring them with full awareness of what they what their benefits are yes sir okay rad did you if I may um you you can't pay your reserve officers they're no longer Reserve officers under the way you're so you can't Elevate them up you could you could promote them to part-time if that's something that they want to do and and and the manager agre to that you can't keep them at a reserve status and pay them for their hours if you're changing their but you could change their status and pay them yes and you could do that temporarily you could say we're going to change your status if they're willing to do it we'll change your status we're going to pay you this amount of money but know that we're hiring someone if you know if they don't want the job permanent I'm just trying to figure out ways to get it done they're at will so you could if you know I certainly it would be with their acquiescence with the understanding that they're going to be transferred to a to a to a part-time status understood period of time and then when we replace that individual they're going to go back to they'll go back to being in reserve which is what they intended to be in the first place it's just you know this was a I trust when you said this is a solution that will help us I believed you and I trust you to make that difference be visible to us Mr manager you want to do yeah M if I could so I just looking at the um the chief's of monthly presentation report so in 2023 we had uh 115 traffic total uniform traffic citations for 2023 for 2024 we had 655 uh speed violations in 23 we had 34 24 we had 282 uh red light violations we had zero Z and 23 uh 24 we had three stop sign violations we had 32 and 23 we had 67 and 24 uh Northeast 6 Avenue violations we had 55 for 23 for uh 2024 we had 255 uh Village Wide we had 60 uh traffic uh uh I guess total traffic violations uh Village wi we had 400 for 2024 uh traffic wars were 23 and and uh 23 uh 36 and and 2023 and for 24 we had 257 so there's a significant increase in the number of of traffic uh activity that's going on and I know that the chief is we have two motorcycle units that they're doing traffic uh and we also the uh Patrol units I I see the monthly I see the daily reports and they're also doing traffic they're stopping vehicles on six Avenue for speeding and I I see the the arrests that are being made and we're toring Vehicles so there is traffic enforcement that going on and significant I think we all we all know that no one's questioning that there look the numbers are very clear but what those numbers don't show is how many more Speeders and stoplight Runners and violators are out there we don't know the the the the number of everyone they could be pulling over so right and we we all know it could be better so right so vice mayor also to to touch on that there is some new technology that uh I think there was an article in the paper today about the counties using it for for their uh school zones and in the village of U kusc has has uh purchased this new technology I asked the chief to look into that for us and how we could utilize that so that we're exploring specific for school zones or can it be used it's it can be used for anything for for speeding so so thanks for bringing this backround lesson learned that was what April of last year we started this conversation and here we sit with nothing being accomplished except the Ila and we're now asking for a report to come back in a month or two months and this is the grind of government all the more reason to ride on it and make sure it gets done Chief I just want to say thank you sit here and have that I just want to say thank you I know you guys are working hard those numbers are very impressive you guys you you and your your men are are doing hard work um and I the sentiment of hiring the right person and taking the time I mean I don't want to speak out of two sides of my mouth and say let's get get it done but hire the right person that's very important too to hire the right person somebody who's quality employee for us thanks sure the manager's given a lot of support uh making sure we do that we have too bad of History to have another black guy here so we we got to do it right Chief thank you all so commissioner if uh that wraps up the item okay great so let's uh keep going let's go to 12b uh the discussion on the uh the village motto and Andor tagline um vice mayor that's me before I start just as a reminder we have uh uh we have some items that were pulled off under new business we have three items remaining on the agenda and we added a fourth one yes and we're under an hour now so might we want to adjust the order of any of those things well we certainly need to move up I think the uh the the procedure for appointing that one so maybe you guys want to hop up and do that one next just to make sure that one's done because you don't want to be backed into that corner when I'm sure yeah let's uh we can go ahead and we can skip over to that one then so let's take up that uh the walk on item on the new business which is the um the procedure for appointing appointing the commissioner um so whenever your your um resignation will be completed we have the 30 days um and at our February meeting we basically we have to do this one meeting to get it done in unless we said a special one but I would not be surprised if my resignation date will not be changed to January 21st okay that's the date okay yeah yeah I know we had a process before I spoke to uh commissioner Gonzalez and he's willing to do the um temporary well I think you guys need to discuss the process by you'll make that selection that's the item for tonight not specific person yeah there so there I think there's a few people that are interested you're you're you're correct commissioner I think um I spoke to former commissioner Gonzalez as well and he's voiced some some interest but let's just talk about how how we we want to do that um I think what was the the process last time uh M we we I was gonna say maybe we could refer to the clerk and let remind us the process well we've had two three um we put out the notice of interest um as the persons came in they came in with their paperwork as if they were qualifying for the election and then you vought it you set a date certain um that you all would be sent the um notice the letters of interest and a date certain that you would choose to invite those persons in small interview or you talk to them prior uh to the meeting and then you would select at at the meeting so I R I was just going to say just a side note to the selection of the interim is you also um since there's more than six months remaining in in the vice mayor's term you're you're going to have to um hold a special election between within 45 days to 90 days V we're also going to have to that motion supervis obviously Madame clerk will have to reach out to the supervisor with elections I know I know your your Charter requires that time frame the supervis elections can't be we'd have to okay so as far as as far as the appointment of position to fill the seat I think maybe just operating under the assumption that it will be gen 21 right okay so I I think we got we pick a date certain by which we we get the information from people that are interested so at the maybe what we do to ensure that we have enough time and I think we've done this in the past is set a a special agenda item on the February meeting an hour before starting at 5 o'clock where we can invite those people to come in we can speak with each of them and we can make a decision there I can't imagine there's going to be that many people where we can't talk to them all right and I I think that I think that worked well um I would be in support of doing it that way and I think we just need to select a date by which we want to have the information submitted to us so if there's if we have a consensus on on that process then I think we just pick a date and we and we set the special agenda if everyone agrees on that question I would have is are we allowed to send the notice of Interest out prior to his resignation or do we have to wait till the resignation date two weeks from his reg from the 21st is the day of the meeting so we could still have two weeks if we wait until the day he resigns right right that that's good point what's the requirement there I don't see anything in your code or your in Charter that that would prohibit that that would prohibit an out sending it before the resignation is I've already announced to the community that my my my only concern was today that you shouldn't be shouldn't be talking about candid sure sure so are the the February meeting um is the 4th so do we want to do the 28th that gives us a week to look at everything and and talk to everyone is that enough time for everyone one I I even would put it um closer today I think we did it like uh I I don't know if it was a day before or a Friday before it wasn't a week out I just want to give as much time as possible to people to contemplate get in touch with us I'm sure questions are going to come as to what it takes time and all of that um I will be okay with the Friday before the commission meeting so the 31st January 31st last time how many did we have four or five we were not in dated with no good point um okay so I'm I'm fine with the 31st if we want to do that the the date certain does that sound good back that's the deadline by which they have to submit their interest in their in their paperwork are you going to and when do you want the notice to go out tomorrow day yeah I think yeah I I I agree I think right away is fine can you make it a requirement that they attend the February meeting in person or by Zoom so you guys can talk to them that's important are we permitted to make that a requirement you you could you could require them my only concern is five o'clock if you're going to do it at five o'clock you can we put that it that will be a factor that the commission considers their attendance at that meeting so maybe not making it a requirement if they be there but possibility right so people come and also assume if you let look we have commission meetings all the time at 5:00 yeah if you're going to do the job you have to be prepared to be here when a meeting's called okay so Madam cler can you can you make that a requirement show up right now notice okay okay um I think that that settles the procedures for the for the um for the selection of the the appointment um your your mic's off stay on until after the speci thank you so now as far as the special election goes I don't think there's much we can do until you get in touch with the uh the supervisor until we know what their availability and timelines are correct I'll send the letter out okay and then we'll have to address it whenever we get that information back but if if we don't have a date setting the special ele all that establish resol should that be in the February meeting yeah I'm the Pam can have assuming assuming you'll have that information by that time right well usually we go to them with the date and then they say yay or nay yeah they say yay or nay whether they can work with the date that we submit because we have the 45 days since the 21st you said right so that that by then we have to have someone we have to have the general your Charter requires it but again it's but that would be the DAT be the date she would put forward to ask and then they would come back and say Yes possible the last time I submitted to them uh three or four dates within that time period and they came back and said that they couldn't even work with that because they had another um election going on then the attorney had to I guess by resolution or something to amend amend resol amend the initial date what what's the timeline Again Brad just remind me please it special election be held no sooner than 45 days more than 90 days following the occurrence of the vacancy so 45 days the 45 days the the initial threshold is March 7th at least that's by my calculation so that point on yeah from that point on we'd be fine so do we want to just pick a date is it a requirement there on Tuesdays or is it just historically done on Tuesdays yeah look at Tuesdays in March is it appropriate for you to go to the elections board and say here are three dates we prefer this one this is our first second and third choice why don't you guys decide on your first second and third choice and I do worry about um I do worry about spring break not I would not ask Isa to give up his Center on spring break 25th the week of the 24th to the 28th but uh 25th would be the Tuesday for the so what if we what if we target the second week in April or go back in March and say March 11 18 and April 1 give them two dates in April before spring break and one afterward you say March 11 March 18 or April 1 that work want to be the in April one okay April one is a commission meeting April 8 so Pamela will probably be pretty busy that day April 8 then so March 11 March 18 and April 8 and I wouldn't want to be the commissioner elected on April Fool's Day so it's good call work we good with those I don't have a voice in this one okay sound good all right I think we have a consensus on both the the proed yes consensus on the procedures for the appointment of the uh of the interim and then uh the date for the special election so um I think that's resolved uh Madam cler do you need anything more from us on that all right great thank you madam Court okay that knocks off that item so the remaining ones then that we have are um 12b 12C 13 C and then the the minutes procedure so I don't know that any of these are necess necessarily uh time sensitive um unless I'm wrong uh none of them are time sensitive but I'd like to get to the tagline because it's my item I was passion project yeah and then the thing about for for Dan for commissioner Samaria I think we may want to make sure we really get to that item tonight so he can he feels like it's he needs an opportunity to kind of clear his name perhaps and we should give him that opportunity while it's all fresh and we can put that aside you don't like those things to linger over to another month so why don't we start with 12b so um village tagline we don't have an official Village tagline now a number uh a couple years ago um we uh had our whole strategic plan and we came up with a vision and all this great stuff for the village and that leads right up to you're right on the brink of now what kind of a tagline represents that for the the for the brand that we are uh many most communities have a tagline um uh I didn't bother listing them in here we don't have one but I just feel like it's a big it's it's it's the cherry on top of the whole visioning project just as a quick history um a number of years ago I think before any of no Dan was on the commission actually um there was a group of residents led by Janie Anderson who uh put together she put together a group of us I was on it Dan was on it Linda Dylan anyone else in this room Janie bunch of about arales was on it because the village didn't have a strategic plan and we said you know what this the village is floundering because we don't have that and that led to the CIP and all the wonderful tools that you guys now have that they using for your direction um so we went through a process and we took it to the commission and said this is missing you guys should consider doing this it's why Mario brought it back remember before Mario left because I had asked him he said ma give me some time to straighten up some Messes in this Village before we tackle that big thing and he brought that and that's what started it before Mario left he was very gracious enough to to bring that to the commission and get that train out of the station um and when we did it we ended up with a tagline our group of residents and we were not assigned by the commission we did it voluntarily just as a way to show them what could be done what should be done uh and we came up with the tagline that you guys know that I use all the time I use it in Village Communications of my own it's unofficial bisc Park and Oasis in the heart of Miami um so I think we need to take that final step and come up with a tagline there is one that you see on some things every once in a while it makes me chuckle every time I see it oh actually I was packing up some stuff yesterday and I found a license plate in the closet and I'm like and I laugh so hard when I read it uh it's biscan Park a village of homes it's like you know a parking lot of cars you know a room of humans it's like okay a tagline should be something that describes the specific product the specific brand the specific organization it was like generic tagline so I won't be here for this but I am bringing this forward at my last imperson meeting uh asking you guys to take this on uh and come up with something I happen to think that the one that the group wrote is just perfect with a little ding on top because it's an oasis how many times have we all used the word Oasis to describe biscan Park in the heart the word heart implies not just the the geographic center but kind of the sole of things as well and Miami because we're certainly part of the Greater Miami area so bisc park in Oasis in the heart of Miami I think is just it's just lovely and so perfect for what we are and when we got done with the whole Vision project at the end of it I looked at it and said yep and it's still perfect but after we went through the community went through and all the machinations it's still perfect so I'm not asking you to approve it tonight although if you someone makes a motion I'll second it and vote for it um because uh but you might I would ask you to to determine a process to come up with something uh knowing that I talked to Valerie about this years ago knowing that before you could adopt it you would need to do a is it a copyright or trademark or both whatever to make sure someone's not using it I did some preliminary profun kind of stuff on my own and I couldn't find it anywhere um but you would want to you know sort of cross that off um so um I'm bringing it for a discussion I'd love to hear what you guys think because I think it's it's it's the thing that you need I should mention that you would use it not just for Branding purposes within the community but when anytime we talk about biscane Park on on the website on social media in Communications and anytime you're branding the community it would be the tagline that you would want people to associate with with bisc Park so there's the topic discuss you know I still have those uh Christmas ornaments the ones from several years back oh a res I forgot about that so a resident took the tagline and she made it into Christmas ornaments I got a couple of those that I think I put I think I have three actually I found that a pack of three I think all three are on my tree well what's left of my tree um yeah you know I I mean I certainly like it a lot I certainly think it fits um I would just be interested in hearing from from Brad about what the process from from like a legal standpoint perspective looks like on searching for the the mark yeah for the mark I I it's an i it's an IP service specialy yeah you would have to retain isn't that I'd be committing Mal it's highly specialized I know yes and at this point in my career malpractice is not something I'm striving I understand um I mean I like it a lot i' like in order to make it official I think we need to do that step um I don't know that we would want to assign it or fix it without knowing that we've done the due diligence okay so I I there's a there's a threshold issue here then what I can I can do is let me reach out to my firm and see if there's anybody in The Firm I don't think there is but let me see if there's any in The Firm that that has that specialty and if not we can get your direction we can and I think that's a First Step because if if we're going to move forward and do it and use that tagline because I've come to associate it with the Village um I just like to know from the Le what what the legal spend would be and then whether we're we're okay to use it within the past five years let's say I uh the company that I until recently worked for uh we developed a line of beauty products and I came up with a name and some other things and we went through this process and I found an attorney in Miami and I don't think it cost more than a couple hundred bucks um it was kind of pretty simple actually what he did he like cranked it out really fast for us so it's not a big process having gone through it once before yeah but he was very specific to that subject but I know it's what he does he's like a trademark and patent lawyer or something like that patent copyrights and trademarks and if you want me to I I just looked them up I thought I Google I put attorney in my phone and found them I would never remember the man's name if you want it I'll send it to you sure okay um so I am not a huge fan of tag lines in general when it comes to the Village so I I know this is important for you Max because sorry Mac no Max Max my son um because you've been talking about you know an oasis in the middle of Miami and you've been promoted and to the point where some residents have taken to the to heart and I and I can appreciate that I just don't think it as a priority right now where I would put staff behind or any money behind I think maybe down the road where we can continue to work on the CIP which has finished the Strategic plan that could be something to look into um there's also a hefty sort of investment to be done to put a tagline to place once once you decide to move forward as you probably know in marketing um you have to make sure that that message sticks so not only will be the village of bising Park but now we would switch logos there's a lot of stuff that would need to be adjusted so I'm not saying no completely of this I just don't think a priority for me this year uh with all the things we have lined up as you've heard me talk about the basics of Sops not being there um I just push this on the back burner for now so for me uh Oasis in the heart of Miami when I heard that I it I don't see biscan Park I see Matt Kennedy and that means good things for me uh but when I think about it I uh we're not in the heart of Miami and we're geograph when I think of Oasis I don't think of water and we only have a canal uh Village of homes I did some research on it it dates all the way back to our Charter when our Charter was submitted to the state I don't know how it didn't become our motto but it probably should have and probably we proba it probably did and we probably lost the paperwork um so I I'm not saying no what I'm saying is for me it's about the process and I would like to see the residents involved this is a great thing to get the res involved in we have boards we have you know we could we could put a committee together uh for me I think it's that they that's what it boils down to it's about the process and about letting residents we shouldn't just be the only ones that just push them through I think we should it say come up with a process to do it and I'm I'm supportive of a process of of putting together directing a board or putting together a committee I'm I'm supportive of that I won't be here so I'll let you guys do that but yes that's what I'm proposing is figure out a process if you want to take the one that I like take it or put a committee I don't care I'm just saying put it out there I'm gone i' still you need it you're missing it yeah I I think idea about the residents I think they're having the residents involved they live here so I think that'll be the most important thing is to have the residents and you'll be surprised with the names that people come up with and ideas so I think it's a good idea in that sense that have the residents definitely be involved in this but your idea is a good idea but it's just you know and I think you can probably find attorneys in b game talk that might donate their time go through the process of coming up with it first you need to do that first before you hire an attorney to research something so um then decide what a process would look like and it could be as easy as forming a board and putting a call out to people that were forming a board and decide to put board chairs on it whatever you guys want to do well or nothing at all I mean I I I don't want to lose track of the thread I think at a minimum I'd still like the attorney to to look into it to find out what the the process the proc procedure and the cost looks like because I I I I understand you know you know Mac couple hundred bucks maybe maybe that's true I I have no idea I've never done this type of work in my life that yeah that may be true I think I've done some service Mark searches without really having any real knowledge had to be publicly noticed somewhere it was like perun stuff like that it was actually a bar exam question for me back in no jeez let's not bring let's not bring up wounds yeah exactly so what I what I can do is I will do some lag work and try to find out what the process is what possible costs are and um during my attorney report the February meeting I'll I'll have some information that you know what the process I mean I'd be comfortable with getting that information and that number um before we put together a board um just because it's it's step one so I'd like to see it happen I like the idea a lot I just would like to get some information about process and cost anything else okay all right uh so I know we got about 30 minutes left we got two items I I just want to ask one one point of order question about our Workshop very quickly if I may this will be fast I promise are we allowed to vote or take consensus on anything I because this is part of legislative and one of part of the discussion I had had with the lobbyist and I don't want to you know co-opt our process here but part of the discussion I had with the lobbyist was going to Tallahassee and I just want to make sure at the workshop we can can we come to a consensus on someone going on behalf of the commission or do we have to do that tonight because session is end of January I can tell you right I thinking so that's fine I can tell I can tell everyone here that that David and I have had discussions about me going up and I will go on my own dime I don't care we had already budgeted for taking any legislative action so you you could by consensus perfect that's all I want to know then we can do for right yeah we had that money assigned and as long as we can do it then I just didn't want to miss our opportunity to do it now because we've missed it in years past um and I'm really trying to shore up a framework with David to do it it's no different than the other work the second Workshop you're doing okay the firms you're not going to vote on selecting a firm you're going to direct man well I guess either myself or the clerk to to speak with the firm to engage that firm based on your and then we'll come back with the resolution okay so well then we let's let's just take it up done I don't want to spend much more time on it now because we got two more items and we're getting close so last two um 12C um commissioner AMS this is this is your item if you'd like to introduce it yes I'll be as brief as I can um if I can find the agenda now here all right so um buildin Department processes so night and I put together November um I received feedback from different residents about um the concerns regarding our building department the issues highlighted primarily related to administrative processes regulatory requirements and instances of miscommunication and understanding which permit is are requirements on what specific types of work delays due to incomplete applications or the need to apply for additional permits mid project difficulty reaching staff for guidance or clarification Limited hours under staff departments a Reliance on online Sy this is all the way it's been kind of been coming back to me um and overall diss satisfaction with customer service experience uh they endured throughout the process so I'm going to pause here but um Linda I took your point you made a public comment about this item uh then uh this is a no way to try to minimize what the staff does for us um I absolutely understand there is a process that involves the contractor many times majority of the times and the communication between contractor residents and Village uh it's a tricky one because there is a lot to blame between the contractor and the village in terms of communication that actually the resident might not be aware when you hire a contractor that's what they do they kind of run on your behalf go back and all of a sudden I've been in that situation everything is a Village's fault um so I'm taking that completely in and in respect um and I want to say again I have nothing but the utmost respect for the people that work in the village and the building department um but this complaints exist and it is my role to bring them forward and sort of seek to understand what's going on um for the staff portion of it that's what I'm hoping the manager can stick up for and kind of clarify where are this inconsistencies happening so I just wanted to frame as a response to your comment that you did that day um what I'm recommending and that's why I'm going straight to the point to see if you guys agree uh this cases of uh you know the village is not answering the Funko when I asked they tell me to fill up a a permit per a permit application in the midst of my work they find out I find out that there was another permit that they didn't tell me about that now they need so delaying the process that this back and forth that we've heard we had people come forward saying they had to pay to ask questions the PNC and they come back and claim for the money because it wasn't supposed to happen questions about whether a roof needs to be repaired for one resident versus another that says no you don't need a permit obligation for that or if go in front of pnz for that so all of that back and forth generates a sense of I don't trust the department they don't answer the phones and it creates this friction that I'm hoping we can avoid um again coming on resident's behalf for me the important part is where is this tension and friction happening so see if we can solve this so what I was going to propose to you guys is I would like the manager to pick some cases let's pick 10 cases that are currently going on the pipeline and understand where they go in that sense um Albert what I'm asking is picking up the phone when was the process the first permit it submitted what has been the the resolution of the permitting process has it been a year back and forth is it because of contractor issues I can give you those that are currently sort of stuck in the middle um we had a comment of uh someone told me to sent an email about this to to Showcase one example of what they're going through you should have received right that should be included as part of a an public comment for for this item but I would like to put that as a record um that's one of the cases but there's people that come up with issues so can we pick some cases audit them and kind of hear back from the manage from the manager as to what can be done um um another thing I I was hoping to have Pedro tonight to kind of go through and explain what the process is um to see his perspective if I could sure so I've I've asked co- compliance to make their um monthly or their department presentation for the month of February so that before she leaves she can do a presentation on the department but I'm talking about building so I'm I'm getting to that so you had brought up some concerns about C- compliance so they can address those C concerns too before she leaves and then and then and then in March we'll have building department make their presentation but I can tell you this commissioner that uh when issues arise they accelerate to my level and those have been very far and few uh since I've been here there have been some and then we immediately address those and and and the residents are are very happy with how we respond to those but those are going to occur because you have a department that is enforcing the building code it's is a very strict building code as some of you have experience when you're when you're building some of your inspections may have failed and that's that's because your building inspector is doing the proper job so and then that's where the complaints come but I can I can tell you that you're you have a very professional staff as has been uh expressed and you have a very hardworking staff that they're there're Beyond five o' you know addressing the applications and so forth there is no backlog right now there's no current backlog but uh I I think uh this this agenda there wasn't a report for for the building department I'm going to make sure that there is a monthly report for building department so you can see exactly you know how many how many inspections they're doing how many uh uh uh uh permits they're issuing for each C for each um um category for building Electrical Plumbing and so forth so you can see all those stats and see what they're working and if we have stats from last year you can compare it as the police department's doing compare those to last year to see this the level of service that they that they have increased I I know they're working harder because I see it and uh I I'll leave it at that but I I I'll I think we we wait till M March let them make a presentation and answer all your questions at that point but I I continue to to observe that I observe them and as I do every department and I'm I'm I'm confident in the level of service that they're providing to our resid that that doesn't quite answer so it's not about the the inspection process people are obviously not going to be happy if they didn't get the way because of Florida code or our code or anything like that this is about answering phone calls the way there need to be leaving messages not being responded this is about uh being told to call Miami day County this instead of you know this the process about um online not having all the information to so I don't want to again my point is so so commissioner I'm there yeah you if you get these complaints tell them to call me so I can I can respond to them do I'm not getting those complaints tell them to call me directly tell them to email me so I know that we have dis satisfied customers and I can hear firsthand I'm not getting those I would like to hear those and to me that that's the main thing I always refer them to you right and so I will put you in copy if I have something in writing this is usually conversations of people that don't want to get in the wrong side of the village because they're they're in the midst of a process so I also want to be fair to the residents they don't want to be straightforward coming I don't want to you know I'm in the midst of a process I just need this to move forward so my request is if you all agree with me I would like to have few of these cases pull up audited and this is something for cap to do it's our vendor for them to do how much of our um building department belongs as staffed and what part is Cap I don't I I won't have to get you that I'm not sure one yeah they have one building Clerk and then the inspectors and in our building official okay but during the day but during the day Linda assist um with the building department and I also assist with the building department and I I can tell you this commissioner they're they're being told to call the county because there's some things that we don't do that the county does so that's why they're being told here call the county with respect to that issue so for me and again I want to be I don't want to be dismissed with the people are not happy because they're not getting the answer they need the complaints I get as service complaint and when I'm asking you as the manager is to provide feedback from the vendor that we pay for that runs our building department to come forward and say here are the main sort of issues we've had and we're working on that so that I can also put forward that we are doing our due diligence as Commissioners and bringing those concerns for I'm not going to give you a name of who you need to call if they don't want to email you or if they don't want to reach out again for the fear of retaliation sometimes they don't want to get be involved on any email that makes them public let's do this commissioner you you come in you pull five cases or whatever and then have audit those five cases I'll I'll do an LTC and report back on those FS that's all I'm asking at the end of of the uh recommendation if you see I'm asking for random cases to be audit it doesn't have to be any anyone in particular that we go for if you guys are okay that would be the the way to before sounds like yeah this can I just make one very quick comment on topic so and and just with regards to the timing of approval of permits y um if if you're doing and I understand that's not the whole purpose of your audit but or your request excuse me but just I just want you to all remember that effective January 1 of this year that house bill went into effect which changed the time frames and expedited the approval of building PR so that how you're only talking about what what are we six days you're talking about process so there may be review of the files with the understanding that the law is Chang with that caveat that the the approval process is going to speed up because it has to by Statute which is one of the reasons why we amended tonight we approved an amendment to our our building understand may I make one comment before we close the item down uh I'm not going to disagree with you I don't know how big of a problem there is and I get complaints as well but honestly there's not a person sitting on this day that I haven't received a complaint about I'm sure you hear them about me so and often it's very often it's because people don't understand the process that's going on so they think they're being they're being they think they're being singled out I'm not being treated fairly da da da da da I I hear all of this too uh and most of the time it's not the case it's because they don't understand the process they don't understand the difference between the building department and the code department and the planning board and the code board and they get them all confused we've had people show up at our meetings thinking we're another board you know or vice versa I've been in code meetings where they think they're at a commission meeting so I think a lot of this is the education of the educating the community and communicating with them better about and I I think something as simple as understand your village structure this department does this and you go to them for that and they have an app and you use it for that I just think it's probably time for something like that to sort of explain it to people in very simple clear-cut kind of ways without making it look all confusing and that heads off a lot of problems because then they go oh if I need a permit I don't go to the Code Compliance board when Dan and I bought our house we had to go get permits for everything and we showed up at the Code Compliance board and we're like I think we're in the wrong place and then I got up in public comment and I said I think you're the people we don't ever want to meet I think we're at the wrong meeting you know because we got put on the agenda so people don't know what they don't know right so I think I think I'm I'm not disagreeing with you and I'll support it to whatever degree the notion of looking at what the facts are but I think it just points back to that here's an opportunity to explain to people kind of how meet your village and here's who they are and here's what they do and here's what you how you access them and for what purpose and try to head things off at the past cuz I'm in Village Hall sometimes when I see the craziness swirling around I recently had to go get some stuff done and I don't think I was treated special because I'm a commissioner I hope I wasn't and it just went swimmingly so right and if I could be to just follow up on that so I I was walking through the lobby today and co- compliance was speaking to a lady there and explaining the process to her and I caught some of the conversation but they were able to explain the process and it didn't ex escalate to my level they didn't say hey I want to meet with the manager they were fully satisfied they walked away fully satisfied so there is a process and the process I I think is working okay so it sounds like we have an agreement on your recommendation and that's good and communication is certainly a very critical element to this but it sounds like we've got a bit of a resolution on your item so I'm glad that we did since you're the deao communications arm of the village now I make that nomination right now who seconds it um okay we jumping on to mine before we run out of time okay we're on our last one it's uh new okay so um hopefully this will be be quick and I'm going to ask Dan to really step in here and manage this so uh recently at at the Winterfest which I did not get to attend I was out of town um uh commissioner samary was there in uniform and had some kind of an official I'm going to use the word raffle I'll let him explain exactly what happened and I was not aware that this would be happening I read about it on social media um and I said I better look into this and see what this is about I contacted Al I talked to Brad they didn't I'll let them jump in here they were not aware of what was going on or exactly how or whatever but um uh and then I was hearing from other residents and I thought okay we need to get to the bottom of this because what I really don't like among any of us up here is something untour we have enough crap going on that we don't need to be throwing more stuff out there for people to be angry about because they didn't understand something or they saw something they and they didn't know what who to ask so um but if there was money raised on behalf of the village by a commissioner we all need to understand the process by which that's allowed to take place by law it's allow required to take place in terms of my media County ethics um and if money was raised I would personally like to know how the money was raised who it was raised for were their prizes given out who received them what were they um there needs to be a full accounting for things like this to happen and we have a foundation that handles money for us um we need some transparency on this because there were some uh things being said to me about another commissioner and things being said on social media that I didn't like to hear and I'm not saying that it's a CR criticism towards you Dan I'm saying I don't like hearing that about the biscan park commission we should be working on stuff not uh you know handling this crap so um I would like a full accounting as to what happened who's who's aware of it the money that was raised I want to see where the money went and know what was going on because it was done on if it was done on behalf of biscan park there are laws and and Norms that we have to follow that's all okay commissioner this was my personal event I have all the papers that it show it I gave away four gift cards um out of my own car um Village manager and Isa knew that I was doing it even promoted it at so I I'm not g to go into it what I have all the paperwork that shows what I me this this this commission decides to have an investigation so up to you you can do that but I I know that I'm within my okay um so you said you this was your personal event but Dan it it was at a village event and you were and you were addressed as a commissioner you had your commissioner shirt on dressed as commissioner because I just came back from Christmas parade okay put I gave $100 to the recreation department gave a $100 donation to have my my event I've done it all through the years PP crsh Pest Control has sponsored of events and I've never had a problem with this in p as as ethics has told me that Dan Sam Maria CRI are the same thing I'm allowed to do stuff this was my event this is not Police Department event this was my did you did so you got permission okay but you were dressed as you had your commissioner shirt on so you were commissioner Samar it's and people who were walking up to the table yes no yeah okay okay ask Mr Samar is also I don't lose my rights as a commissioner can I make a recommendation I'm sorry I don't want to cut you off get into an AR I want they want to do an investigation do an investig no one anything about recommendation I just want to make a recommendation I was originally bring everything that settled this but I waso commissioner I I have a I have a recommendation that I'd like to ask the manager um in these sort of scenarios normally what we've done is we've asked the manager you know could you talk to the effective parties and and make a determination from your managerial standpoint whether there needs to be further investigation or whether in your opinion from what you've determined in in your presentation to the commission of what happened um if we need to go any further or if this is if this is in again in your managerial capacity uh satisfied so I I I think I need to have h a conversation with commissioner Samaria and I I we had tried to do that but we couldn't arrange that and I would ask the just the City attorney to be sitting in or if he can't sit in to have somebody there I don't feel comfortable just doing it by myself Brad can you explain why you can't be involved in this and this is something that um I've commissioner Sim and I had a conversation privately about this I explained it to them um I as the village attorney I represent the interests of the village I also represent this collegial body as a commission the governing body of the of the village and I also represent each and every one of you in the course and SP so best way to explain that if somehow you became a legal dispute a lawsuit is something you did in the course and scope of your responsibilities as a village commissioner I'm your counsel unless the insurance your insurance carrier would cover that liability and present counil I'm still involved in that representation um I I can't be involved the reason why I can't be involved with with a conversation with with commission Samaria and the manager at this point is because potential of a conflict if he were to say something and I'm not suggesting in any way shape or form I'm not this is purely this is purely a legal positioning of privilege consulted with the Florida bar about this this is my license on the line right and if if if he were to say something um that was contrary to the interests of the commission I would be put in a in a conflict position where I have an obligation to the village and to this commission to notify you all yet he is my client well right and so I I really need to stay out of this so at this point if if there's if there's a need of a legal assistance and that conflict I I must say also ends to our firm our firm repr repr just a represent so if there's a need for legal representation um at the commission's direction either to the manager myself um he would have to you'd have to outside Council part of that conversation okay well doesn't get to that well this is what I'm hearing and and I understand the concern bringing up I understand the position of commissioner Samaria what I hear is a difference in intent um and to me there's not enough fact to make an ultimate determination of of what was going on so that's why I put the threshold issue to to the manager because this is this is the position that you're in Mr manager to to determine is there something that we some sort of official or formal action that we as a commission need to take because I I haven't heard really enough to say that that's the case if I can jump in there Mr Mary provide some clarity I was at the Winterfest event I I my daughter got away for me for a second I found her at the raffle Booth I read the sign that was there and it it bothered me a little bit the sign I can't testify exactly what it said but basically I read it and it said uh give us a dollar for a raffle ticket you have to make a donation for a raffle ticket that kind of bothered me I said I don't think that's the way Raffles work but you can't require a payment for a raffle ticket um but I saw commissioner smaria there in identifying himself with the shirt that that also uh uh bothered me and then furthermore uh I when we attended the uh holiday lunch in commissioner Samaria offered up to let me know that he was inviting the winners of the raffle here to Village Hall to accept their their their proceeds that they won from the raffle so here a commissioner is not only having his raffle at a village event in a village shirt but then he's also inviting them to Village property Village Hall to accept his their their winnings it all just didn't sit right with what were the winnings your microphone's off the paper that was put up was not authorized me authorized me when it was when it was brought to my attention I brought it to the Chief and the chief we took it off so there was no dollar for a raffle ticket I was even concerned why people were giving a dollar donation which is wouldn't I didn't ask so there was no dollar or a raffle ticket that was a mistake that was wrote down by mistake not by me but somebody else wrote it down and so there was no Dollar Raffle given out so people were getting free raffle tickets free raffle tickets and I'm allowed as a private citizen not not not t her up but I I I'm still on the call and I can person yeah I I I John I'd just like to give the commissioner a chance to finish his thought please I gave away to help kids for gift cards $100 75 and $50 one resident said they didn't want the $75 so they took the 75 said give it back to another kid so I called up all three of the winners because I had their raffle tickets I mean I had their not raffle tickets excuse me I had their gift cards for them so I had them come out here and meet me outside after the the party one of the residents was not in town and they approached Issa about it and we finally did it so the gift cards were donated by my company and me I am creepy crit is pest control people got to get get used to that I am creepy crit is Pest Control years ago we had commissioner Sam Maria especially yeah a commissioner shirt but I so what did you want me to do when a prey was over tear off my shirt and put on the survey I don't want to listen I don't want to I don't want get commission Maria if you're wearing a village shirt if it doesn't matter commissioner listen did you raise any money that's my what I want to know first did you raise any money your microphone's off I collect I asked people they wanted to give donations at the same table at the same table you were saying here take a free raffle ticket to win some gift certificates for something and you can also donate money for what for for the toys for kids for what toys toys for kids that we have at the event for the Christmas Club so these were two separate things going on at the same table right these weren't the toys that you were giving out as prizes no no these are toys that were going to be given to a hospital yes so you're giving away raffle tickets apparently you for a dollar for a while and then you stopped doing no I never get was never for a dollar okay well there's a sign that said for a dollar that wasn't my sign okay so I don't know how that whose sign was it I don't know it wasn't my sign so well did some stranger walk up and put the sign on your table I'm a little confused I'm trying to understand look I know really I'm honestly trying to understand all right you want to just slow down for a second yeah that I think I think the takeaways for questions and some answers and I I I think we we want understand um but I don't think that we do this right here right now I think that we give this to the manager we say Mr manager we need you to look at it we need you to tell us the findings and we need to know whether we need to take further certain any further action uh because I don't think we're going to come to a conclusion right now Al have you tried to talk to Dan about this so so to answer your question vice mayor the um when we had learned about it the um the uh Village attorney and I uh wanted to meet with him he was he on a Friday afternoon he said what he wasn't available and then we uh sent an email for um Saturday at at noon and he said he wasn't available at that time feel comfortable meeting with us said that the meeting you didn't say was about that you just said you wanted to have a meeting with me and the attorney on Friday and I said I could not do it on a Friday right I said I will meet with you on a Saturday at 12 and I decided not to do when I figured out what you wanted to talk to about okay so now that it wasn't you wouldn't you weren't UPF front on what you wanted to talk to you said you just wanted to have a meeting with me and the attorney the question at this point now is that it's it's a discussion item we've talked about it and if if it is the request of the commission and Brad maybe this a procedural issue if it's the request of the commission that the the manager look at this and just kind of make a determination or make a recommendation uh are we as a commission as a as a collegial body are we able to do that are you able to do it the an the simple answer is yes okay what I mean what you're asking the manager to do is essentially conduct an investigation or at least an inquiry and come to a recommendation to the commission with regards to one of his bosses cond should we have an outside somebody or other do that instead I think that I mean I won't speak for the manager but I I I think that might be problematic from his perspective okay I'm not trying to put I'm just kind to create a difficult situation based without commenting on what I've heard today um I think the manager even if he were to do that would need some assistance with somebody that's familiar with the law and the application of because of the position of of of of the principles relationship with right because of the positioning of the principles your cannot can physically cannot act in that capacity based on the recommendation from the Florida bar correct because the firm is your counsel I'm justed as a representative I understand okay Dan have you hired a lawyer to represent you on this in any way have you no okay fair enough um is this something that would be just easier to turn over to date County ethics and let them do it and then Al's out of it the attorneys out of it and they can that was that was my question Mr manager with with the all right we got like six people talking at once answer that question you have really options okay four options you can do nothing which doesn't sound like that's the desire of the commission you can have an outside an attorney outside of my firm appointed you're gonna have to pay them yes to to conduct an investigation and bring back to the commission an opinion based on their investigation whether or not there's a violation of either state law state or County ethics code or The Village Charter um or you could refer this directly to either the state or the county ethics commission or both and let them conduct an investigation um and if they believe based on their investigation that it should be forwarded to another Authority be handle they they will they won't they won't address your Charter but if there's a state law violation or a county ethics violation or state ethics violation they will refer it makes me uncom comfortable to have Al involved in this particularly because we're in the process of hiring a permanent manager um we haven't accepted applications yet but assuming that Al would be applying then he's investigating quote marks in the air uh a commissioner who would be casting a vote for or against them it's just all very awkward and un toured I think it's a whole lot cleaner and simpler to hand it off to ethics and let them deal with it and determine if there's something let's decide on that now but I'm going to say this now because I want to give my opinion on this while it's in the front of my head Dan please don't step in stuff you just got back up here on the day is please don't step in stuff and if you are questioning anything go to them and ask them first or come to us because if you had come to us at the December meeting and said guys I want to do this the attorney would have said legally Bam Bam Bam Bam and the manager would have said by Norms Bam Bam Bam and my staff may do this and they may not do that and we would have saide Dan do it or it makes us comfortable and take your shirt off before you sit down there and give out toys you know we would have and you wouldn't be here having this awkward conversation with your brand new colleague so Dan look at me for a second really I mean this in in the best way slow down and ask way more questions before you hop in a police car go to him before you hop in a code compliance car go to him before you do something like this even if it's with the best intentions of your heart to help kids who aren't getting toys for Christmas ask everybody and then you'll avoid this but in the meantime it happened people are questioning it you just gave me an explanation that makes no sense inside my head so I think ethics should take over from here that's what I vote for all right well I don't I don't want to involve uh the manager um especially in the position where you know you you could certain you know I don't want to make it more difficult for either party understood I may Mr sure please I can't I can't do that so okay give you that direction it would still be a conflict okay so I'm sorry to throw this in the manager's lap but um by consensus direct manager to um refer this to ethic the well can we keep everyone cleint and and direct Jonathan to do it on behalf of the village on behalf of the commission certainly he could certainly do it any one of you could file I'm I I would rather staff stay clean of all of this and I'd be much more comfortable Jonathan calling ethics having the conversation let hand it over to them and let them do it and he's also an attorney he knows the right words to use whatever I trust that Jonathan will present it well to them well I don't have enough facts to present it other than just calling them and ask inquiring what the process is open up I'm not going to make any representations on behalf of commissioner Samaria or on behalf of the village or on behalf of anything we've heard this came up and we would like you to keep us all clean of it we would like you to take it from here that's all we're asking I can make the phone call and and make an inquiry we're back in February I I'm not going to make any representations to them on your behalf because I don't want to do that for or against anyway exactly so M Mr Mayor if I will sure maybe I suggest that it's state ethics and County because as I did the research this is State statutes that we're talking about the governs uh Raffles so it seems like they would be the best people to handle State ethics yep Mr May right yeah please right I on behalf of the of the village so I I think uh uh what would I would suggest is just a copy of this tape of tonight's meeting and forward that to the ethics commission and ask them to look into it you know that any any one of you could do that and uh that okay it's a link it's it's a YouTube link yeah well then I would be more comfortable if they heard us take a vote or by consensus or whatever is appropriate at this point so they hear us all say yes we want this to happen it's not a formal vote so it's consensus correting either somebody in City staff okay myself or you're appointing one of your fellow members of of this collegial bodyy file there's a formal complaint that has to be filed okay um if if that's if that's what I'm being asked to do by the commission that I can make a phone call and just ask because correct correct I'd be very Jonathan I know you don't want to probably volunteer this on your own since you're pointing you but I would be very happy Jonathan if you would represent the village in this matter to State and County ethics explain to them what's going on and ask them for the next steps and if they want to link to this meeting they will hear all of us fully supporting hopeful well I shouldn't speak for everyone but I'll be the first one to say I support because I want this to be cleared up and to go away as quickly as possible fully concur commissioner Kennedy I think that state state and County ethics need to be involved and uh you have my vote of confidence Jonathan to represent us well again I'm not going to be making any representations to them about what happened or about what uh commissioner samar's positioning or or or what he did because I comfortable doing that but I can certainly discuss it with them Dan are you comfortable with Jonathan making those calls on behalf of the commission that's not what I asked you I asked you I asked you if you're comfortable with Jonathan being the person to make that call okay there you go you got it yeah Veronica you're good I I think my main question was you you're saying not you're not representing anybody at the end of the day so what do you feel comfortable do you feel comfortable doing this and then what would you bring forward for them to analyze then wouldn't be so I think if I understand the process correctly and I would you know you you both have more experience than me um you were there no no well I was at the event but I I didn't have any discussions we be representing the fact that this conversation took place and that we asked him to take it to them that's it just that ask them what they need I I I suppose because I I don't I don't want to make any representations to I'm not saying I don't want to represent any party here in I just say I don't want to make any representations to them about what happened that they make weren't there so you don't opinions no nothing just this conversation took place and the commission agreed if unanimously or 41 Whatever It Is by consensus to ask them to look into the matter and decide if there's something there they should look at or not and we'll follow their lead so I wasn't there I just I just want to reate how important it is we all proceed with certain boundaries and those boundaries are need to be respected for all the clear reasons of who we represent and and the respect to that so if you feel comfortable with that my vote is yes I don't know that there's anyone else to do it and yeah I'll I'll make contact that um I know we did have one other discussion May before we leave this item so there there was a $100 check that was given to the uh Parks and Recreation Department so on we had discussions with the Village um attorney about this and uh on on his advice we're going to return that check to commissioner Sam so the commission remembers yeah okay sure I'll pass a donation policy long with it so it's within the manager's discretion based on for that that amount well he can make the decision it's his position to do so it's within his discretion um all right I know we had one other new business item it was with respect to the minutes procedures so that will be the one item that we are requesting to be rolled over to the next meeting agenda um and uh with uh with that um I think we're concluded so um I want to picture with you guys before we um all leave the room if you don't mind jumping up front here and getting a picture with me yeah certainly actually I was going to ask you if you would like to make the motion to adjourn your final meeting I'm not ready yet I'm not ready to make that motion it's my last meeting I want to drag it out as long as I can guys thank you very much thank you it's a pleasure really thank you and thank you for all the kind words and for everybody who came and spoke that felt really nice you m thanks if I had known how nice you'd all be I would have quit a long time ago see was that a motion moot motion to adjourn second all in favor I e