##VIDEO ID:oeb0-tx1zk4## e Allegiance led by the vice mayor Brian Mora please remain standing for an invocation led by council member JC Fernandez Lord thank you so much for this evening thank you for um for all the residents that are here we ask that you bless us that you um that the decisions that we make here tonight that they be U of you and that uh we're guided by your wisdom and that we do the the work for the people in Jesus name amen you may take a seat welcome and thank you all for joining us the time is currently 6:53 p.m. we had a little bit of an issue getting our live stream going uh so that is why we're a bit delayed uh but here we are we're going to get underway uh uh I'm pleased to be joined by all my current uh colleagues uh on the dasis uh tonight is a workshop it's also meant to be a listening event right we're here for you this is part of our new efforts uh that the council recently spearheaded to hear directly from you for those of you that live in a neighborhood service District regardless of the type that you live in uh before continuing though I do want to acknowledge our local celebrity and our former colleague Marin Rano who is here thank you for joining us um and so again this this is your night um we're not going to have a a time limit for you to speak although because of the amount of people that are here I would ask you to please be mindful of your neighbors as you're speaking and uh to please uh continue to keep that in mind as the evening continues right so we can try to get you all here at a different time or at a decent time rather um so moving on from there I'm going to go ahead and turn over to vice mayor Mora who was one of the uh The Architects of these quarterly meetings and and I'm going to have him go ahead and say some words and introduce us all righty getting right back into business um before we jump into public comments I think public comments are usually best when informed uh with that said uh I know JP has a little bit of a presentation give us some basic uh knowledge about the status and what what's going on and then we'll open up for public comments as well as for uh discussion by members of the council good uh good evening thank you mayor and Council um I want to thank everyone for attending today's meeting I uh we have a great turnout uh so it's nice to know that everyone got their uh not notified about the meeting um I would like to direct you over to the TVs for a brief uh PowerPoint on uh we're going to be discussing oh give me one second technical difficulties there we go so uh in today's meeting we're going to be discussing uh an introduction to neighborhood service districts for Lake HOAs which I'm sure uh a lot of a lot of you here are here for uh additionally we will be talking about updates uh to our current uh nsds our lake maintenance nsds our security guard Service nsds as well as some uh NSD management enhancements that we've been working on so what is a neighborhood service District a neighborhood service district is created by public improve uh created to provide public Improvement and special services funded by residents within the district through non adalum assessments some examples uh would be security guards multi-purpose Landscaping which uh as an example would be uh maintaining common areas uh Landscaping Community entrances and tree canopy um neighborhood street lighting lake maintenance which is what what this presentation is directed for as well as uh certain Capital Improvement projects such as Street lighting improvements uh and roadway resurfacing so the town currently oversees six nsds uh we have four security guard service districts and two lake maintenance districts Lake Hilda and Lake Patricia legal Authority for nsts is uh they're we're authorized under miamidade county code chapters 18 and 28 uh municipalities like the town of Miami Leakes are gained authority to create and manage Municipal nsts on November 8th 2016 so the town's role in nsts includes a dedicated Town liaison uh you're looking at him he's right here uh as well as coordination of services these Services can be uh procurement for example uh facilities Etc uh oversight of our vendors ensuring they're doing what they're supposed to be doing uh ensuring compliance with st with uh established standards for example contract standards code standards or state laws uh additionally we have uh Financial oversight uh our finance department works dilig diligently to ensure vendors are are paid on time that we're uh that uh everything is is managed properly and then we have our dedicated uh budget manager right here Miss Melissa shout out to Melissa she she manages the uh the budgets for the anses so these are the steps to create an NSD we're going to go over all of them in uh uh at length step one would be to submit MIT a letter of intent uh an HOA May submit a letter of intent to the town's Parks and Recreations department in the absence of an HOA at least 10% of Area Property Owners May submit a signed letter of intent and that letter must describe desired improvements District boundaries and the level of service oops uh step two would be the petition process so once the letter of intent has been submitted Town staff uh would go ahead and prepare a petition package uh based on the letter of intent the package would in include a description of the proposed level of service as well as a range of Assessments es estimated for the services HOAs or community volunteers as we mentioned with the uh 10% of the of the uh Community uh would then uh circulate the petition among all residents uh included in that uh proposed uh District uh a maximum of four months is allowed to collect these signatures otherwise you would need to restart the process all over again uh petition is then returned to town staff once it's returned Town staff would uh verify each of the property owners uh home homestead exemption and uh petition must contain at least 50% or more of the resident property owners for the process to continue so step three would be a feasibility and cost study uh the town staff would then provide a report to council which includes a detail of improvements cost estimate and the assessment method in the case of Lake HOAs the assessment method would be uh distributed equally among all units or Parcels with in the district and then it also includes the district boundaries step four District creation uh there would be a public hearing uh conducted by Town Council uh most likely at a regular council meeting or a um a um what's the word here uh not a workshop a sunshine meeting no or a workshop uh residents or concerned citizens may speak at this uh propos on this proposed District ask any questions if Town Council decides the proposed District should move forward to an election the creation of the district and ballot language is adopted by ordinance and the assessment role is adopted by resolution why is the assessment adopted by resolution because each year the assessment role would would change so it would have to be adopted by resolution the assessment rate what happened here there we go step five is District ratification uh an election is conducted by mail uh on an available election date set by the Mii Dade uh elections Department all all registered voters within the district boundaries are eligible to vote voting requirements are determined by miamidade County plat restrictions so uh for example a majority vote of 50% plus one required to ratify that is for uh lakes that are intended for public use or Property Owners Reserve rights for for public use if it's uh if the lake is not intended for public use then 100% approval uh of by the surrounding Lake owners would be required to ratify if the vote doesn't pass the creation of the the creation ordinance is then by rescinded and the proposed district will not move forward here are the lakes that require a majority vote of 50 50% plus one for ratification those are Dunwoody lake lake Cynthia Lake Elizabeth Lake glenellen Lake Gloria Lake Martha Lake Michael Lake Roseanne and Lake Valerie Lakes requiring 100% approval from surrounding Lake Property Owners include Lake Adele Lake Andrew lock Andrews Lake Carol lock Isle Lake Katherine lock lomman lock lomman East lock lman West Lake Mary Lake Sandra Lake Sarah lake suie lake windmill East Lake windmill West silverrest Lake North and silverrest Lake South so collection of special assessments this is the final step in the process uh the special assessment is collected through property tax bills uh on non-ad valoran assessments they cover maintenance costs administrative costs and reserves if there are any uh unpaid assessments this can result in uh a in property leans on the homeowner let me rephrase this is the final step step eight uh is the implementation phase uh which would uh include final planning uh the contract establishment for the lake maintenance service uh which could be either piggybacking through a current uh contract that we have in place or uh going out to bid and then uh finally the services would commence uh there we go process timeline uh the full estimated time frame for implementation could take anywhere from 12 to 24 months uh some of the factors that are included in this would be uh meeting scheduling uh the um the ordinances to adopt the ordinance would take two public readings uh it could also be factored by the available date by Miami D's uh elections Department uh as far as collection of SE of special assessments they would be uh in November they would be ratified uh they would be uh uh the the following November they would take effect for ratification and then uh this is based on the the from the start of uh submission if you do have any questions you could always reach out to me your friendly neighborhood NSD Town liaison uh my contact information is there your next steps is to discuss with your HOA or your neighbors uh to assess the level of interest in becoming an nstd thank you JP and before we continue on with tonight's program I just wanted to provide a bit more context as far as uh why JP just gave the presentation that he did um so a while ago a resident contacted me asking me about how often the the particular Lake that her daughter was swimming and was treated because she was at a birthday party with some friends and when she came out of the lake she started complaining about ear pain and subsequently became uh very ill fortunately she recovered it wasn't anything related to uh the lake however it gave her a scare and it got me thinking well I do know for a fact that there are some areas of town uh Lake Suzie for example one of them that used to have an HOA that is now defunct right um and so right now there really isn't anybody taking care of that lake so uh this seemed like an a potential option for those homeowners uh to go ahead and get some information create an NSD so that they can create one that will have uh minimum criteria for treating the lake and ensure that the lake moving forward is uh appropriate for uh different recreational aquatic activities right uh to give us the the confidence that we can fish there that our kids can can swim in them much as I did when I was younger on Lake Sarah um and so that was the intent behind this and for those of you that currently have an HOA that does maintain a lake uh like MTH you guys do a phenomenal job maintaining your Lake uh when I walk by there it's pretty evident when you look at the water itself right uh but of course we all know that there are HOAs that over time they start getting less and less participation and eventually they die right they they become defunct they stop operating so looking ahead all I wanted to do was to present the option and only the option for those of you that live in a lake to explore creating an NSD that will maintain the lake in excuse me maintain the lake in perpetuity um so that we always have that assurance that the lakes are being maintained and treated to ensure again that they're safe for human use uh so that is where that comes from but it's solely an option for those of you that know of uh neighbors who live on a lake that is not being treated like like suszie you can give them JP's information and put them in contact and that might be something they want to explore uh but that was the point of of this point or part of the presentation tonight uh with that I'm going to again because uh being that this is our inaugural quarterly uh meeting and and uh our vice mayor was the architect behind I'm going to let him go ahead and continue from here go ahead uh Brian thank you mayor uh and thank you JP that was an excellent presentation and I think it would be a phenomenal no idea for that entire presentation to end up on the NSD portion of our of our website just so that those who were here can see it again uh if they you know didn't have a chance to take notes or for those who weren't here and I think it applies as to how you make any NSD not necessarily just for Lakes so I think it's a really good resource and you did a good job on it uh with that being said um I'll open up uh the floor to public comments if you have a public comment coment uh specifically as to the lakes and what was presented and the possible creation of a new one uh I would suggest come up first uh since that wasn't you know it's the the theme that's being discussed right now but otherwise it's fresh um but by by no means you know uh any public comments you may have come on up and as uh the mayor had said there is no uh time limit but do be cognizant uh that there may be other people who want to speak if anything maybe uh bring up one or two issues and then take a break let a few other people speak and then come back up because again there's no uh set format for this anyone I'm going to turn it over to our Das if there's any questions that you have for the audience for JP anybody um council member Fernandez you recognized well I I definitely thank you for for the presentation JP and I I think it's important for those I don't live on a lake L but I think that that uh I'll speak for my neighbors and Royal Oaks I know Silver Crest and included and cuz I saw some of the names on there that um have some of those lakes that you mentioned were were uh take were are inside Royal Oaks and I know they maintain those Lakes uh Silver Crest I believe does too so I don't think that anybody wants to create nsds I don't think that's the intent I think it's for those lakes that don't have any maintenance I think that's the intent so I I just want to be clear on that because we're not trying to get bigger government thank you Council Fern anybody else um I I'll briefly pose the question to the audience and maybe this will uh stir up some public comments which is is everything working perfectly in your NSD if not Now's the Time to let us know you know uh part of what we aim to do is bring the council to you um in in the past you had the advisory boards you know they they were doing a good job but at times uh it wasn't reaching us now you have us here to hear you out maybe you don't like how security is doing maybe you don't like the chemicals or whatever procedures being used on the lake whatever the case may be go ahead and let us know this is what we're here for and I believe council member herberg you wanted to be recognized well first if anyone's coming up I'll let them come up first and then I guess have some questions for JP would anyone like to make any comments M Reynolds okay espira Reynolds and we all know I'm Lake Len Ellen uh first thank you so much for the work that you have done as a council and in particular you Mr morera it is incredible since that past that we have lived very tranquil lives we are not stressed no one is making decisions on our behalf because every one of us has the right to make a decision as Property Owners so I sincerely thank you for the removal of the advisory boards as for the lake the town is close to us this is our government and if a lake is not treating the the waters well if they just simply create some sort of a process in the town where you can actually put a bill to every property owner that lives around that Lake maybe that is a way for us to also go because the thing that we fear the most when we have an NSD which is really a special taxing district is the fact that that bill comes through the Property Appraiser's office and therefore if we are unable to make payment at any point they sell the tax receipt of our home and we our homes are gone whereas if we have a problem with the town of Miami Lakes and we are not paying for the maintenance of the Lake I am sure you guys can put a lean on our homes you can fight us off you can do whatever but it would be a nicer way to protect some of us in particular those of us that have lived for a very long time and now find that we are about to not be able to continue to cope with all of the expenses just a suggestion thank you thank you hope anybody else for public comments Stephen or council member thank and thank you hope because I actually brought up a question um the lakes that we are understanding have issues with maintenance are those lakes in private property are they owned equally by the Home surrounding them what's are responsibility as a town and the liability if those legs aren't being maintained properly and the negative effects to the town the town wouldn't have any liability those are owned by the property owners so if their Lakes aren't being treated for there's there's nothing outside of creating an NSD um that would be able to be done so they can create an NSD and and then we would have oversight as a town to to assist we are creating uh minimum standards for our uh lakes that we oversee um however they will be posted on the website as well as uh they will be uh in as part of the uh contract with our vendor so if other if other Lakes uh would like to utilize those minimum standards for their own Lake they are welcome to do so um having said that you know as far as the the for the for the nsds the biggest thing is some some Property Owners either aren't helping to to fund the Lakes that's the the biggest thing that I've heard back uh feedback wise is we can't can't get uh everyone to to help out they may not have HOAs uh some of some of them so uh they're not able to acquire the the funding needed to go ahead and and maintain their Lakes this would be an Avenue to go ahead and do so I guess maybe a discussion point for us uh my my concern is properly maintained Lakes creates an issue not just for the people on the lake creates an issue for everybody so what is our I really don't know the project for us but what is our code say about how you have to maintain your leges if they're privately owned somebody has to maintain it we can't allow the lakes to just you know go bad there need something needs to be done to keep them up and if if if maybe it's a code issue right hey Di yeah I I agree with you that it's a public safety issue and that was one of the reasons why uh I wanted to present this option um as part of my item that we had passed and also more specifically in order to standardize how the Lakes were treated create these minimum criteria for how to do so and then also to publish it so it can serve as a model for everybody else to follow of course every Everybody's Free on the other HOAs to treat it more than what's uh there but the idea is to create a minimum treatment level so that we know what it's safe for for swimming for fishing things of that nature I agree with you though we got to find a way uh there and perhaps that could be the focus of of another Council Workshop did you want to be recognized come on over uh just point of privilege really quick um Jeremy Bon director of parks miction in our research and looking at minimum standards I do want to make it clear that uh Florida statute has uh essentially preempted it's allowed through Florida statutes for Waller quality management and enforcement they also go they also give some of that governance to the county so then it becomes more of a health issue and then that's where that enforcement will lie within County uh Health Department yeah I I'm not a fan of pushing it to the county and relying on another government that's for sure so I think it's a worth a discussion I firmly believe that the lake should be firly believe the lake should be maintained and I live on a lake I look at a lake has any consideration been given to the fact that the lakes are also polluted by the storm water runoff I don't think it's a my responsibility for all the crap comes off the road that is pollution probably that's what makes you sick too so I think some consideration should be given to that absolutely so some of these Lakes of course are more prone to receiving uh uh storm water runoff than others and in fact I think like Catherine most recently was affected by a contractor boring into a sewage pipe that uh led to a spill there so I again these are all reasons why I want us to be more proactive with these Lakes I mean it's in our name it's a big part of our identity and for me especially it was a big part of my childhood growing up I think for many of us as well um so I I definitely want to make sure that we find ways to ensure that safe uh not only in terms of just from letting it go stagnant and and things accumulating there but also yeah to deal with runoff uh uh issues exp the being because the houses were being built here by the gram family and they wanted lakes and Etc but the the field that up my house is built on was removed from that so it's for the benefit of the developers and stuff it in my opinion the town should be it should be prated I live on a lake I enjoy it but the town should have a a heavy investment in maintaining those Lakes so understood understood by by the way which lake are you on out of curiosity which lake are you on I'm on Lake Mary probably the probably the worst Lake in the neighborhood really I thought Lewis used to maintain it uh right with the air well we have an HOA we have a contract but it has not been done properly okay I used to live on Point Sienna um and I know my friend neighbor Lewis used to go out there like su's own in front of well in front of my house uhhuh so okay no it has improved it's clear you can look at it you can see the bottom but again it's not just a property owner that should have responsibility and this goes back for years when this is all developed so understood sir thank you thank you sir cman Garcia yeah thank you to the chair um just quick question I want to thank everybody for being here um this is what it's all about right getting feedback from the from the residents as and and I do believe minimum standards is the key to all lakes we have we we have to keep maintain our Lakes as the mayor said it's in her name um just to the staff are there any grants available at this time through the county state or or the government when it comes to helping uh communities maintain their Lakes uh education program anything that that we can tap into that'll help um at least with the with the process I know the majority of Lake issues is is oxygen and Iration and if you have good Iration even when temperatures rise you're not going to get the algae blooms because of the oxygen content of of the water uh anything that we can tap into to help residents especially those that don't have HOAs are having issues right now um with that with the lake we haven't come across any uh during our management of the neighborhood service District doesn't mean we can't look into it um we'll take a deeper dive uh into kind of some of the Florida resilience programs that are out there some of the D programs that are out there um and see if there's anything particular the only hardship we might face is the ownership of some of this land obviously is divided amongst Property Owners so we'd have to see how we navigate applying for essentially areas that may not pertain directly to us while we manage them they're still owned by the homestead of property owners um maybe a way around that is you know certain Wildlife are you know certain waiting birds that come in they don't care who owns the lake at all right so so if if if we do have waiting Birds coming in or or you know just native birds using the lake um or or or the fish and things like that maybe that' be an an you to go through uh and that'll maybe help us with with that aspect of it the wildlife situation definitely uh being a a recent bird designating our as a bird sanctuary that's definitely a good Avenue to take so we'll go ahead and take that into notation and make sure that we we look into a little further with our Grants Department I appreciate that thank you council member Garcia Mr good evening Mr mayor council um going back to the NSD uh how used uh to work Lake Patricia in Lake Martha didn't we have like an NSD committee that will take care of those lakes and come and give a an idea to the council if I remember when those NSD were around that's how it used to be right I think you're referring to lake patrici lake Hilda Lake Hilda I'm sorry so when Lake Hilda was first created by council member Tony llama there was no Advisory Board um it was just run by the county as an NSD and then I believe Lake Patricia followed suit afterward but prior to any NSD boards being created and then later when they were transferred to the town and then the council went ahead and created the boards then those advisory boards were created um and that's where you had Rudy for example who took charge of Lake Patricia I forget who took charge of Lake Hilda um but yes that is the timeline as I understand it as far as when the nsds were created and then the boards and how were they able to maintain those Lakes how will they get the funds that the residents will pay for it and these people being part of the NSD they will take care of those how to collect the money in order to be able to clean them right so for example Lake Hilda was having issues trying to because they were a voluntary Association they were having issues trying to get all their members to go ahead and contribute toward the maintenance of the lake um so this provided a solution as Miss Reynolds pointed out to collect uh the maintenance fees from each property owner through their uh their property tax bill uh in order to ensure that those nsds were fully funded my my my my biggest issue Miami leaks why are we call Miami leaks because of all the Leakes that was the dream of the grand house back in the days and all this Lakes had an association those associations with time they die people didn't care about it a lot of people don't like associations I don't know why because they do a lot of good more than bad but then again that's a personal opinion in matter I'm all for Less government than more government hope had a a very good point that uh our community is getting older and there's a lot of old folks here that cannot afford not even paying almost FPL for the electrical bill creating an NSD is going to create an issue with taxes because like she said you don't pay your taxes that tax bill is going to be sold to a third party that can go ahead and lean your property you pay it you're out or they sell the house that's I'm totally against that the other issue we have is more like a code issue than anything else like in Royal LS we have a huge problem I don't know how the county back in the days when uh Mr LEL did the development in the 80s early 80s he got approved to hold those legs without any access the access is because we got to ask the neighbors or the residents to give us access so we can clean the lake right now there's a person here that I I want to thank her for the years that you allowed us to go through your house to clean the lake her Lake right now is not being clean because she's not and I understand the people were not careful going through her house they will not put things back where they belong she got fed up and she said no more they're not coming through my house anymore now it's impossible JC knows it to get somebody to give us access to clean that Lake what do we do the town needs to come up with a solution perhaps on the zoning code and not only in Royal laks but all over town forcing people to maintain the Lakes these Lakes were supposed to be for the private use we were trying to change our bylaws last year okay you need 75% plus one vote in order to change the bylaw it took us about 5 years to do the draft and it cost us about $3,000 to do that you know how many votes we got 56 how many people are here today how many residence do we have in town same thing happened when we had the committee nobody showed up nobody cares until something happens and we got to be very careful trying to create more and more and more taxes more committies more NSD that that's that's that that could be a bomb to explode at any time so please think about it and and let's think about it a little bit more and try to get involved Derm HRS and R zoning code there's a lot of things that we need to change in town I'm glad that the charter is coming up for revision as well because we need to work on that 25 years is a long time and uh I I'm planning to stay here at least another 25 if I can God will so thank you again congratulations to all of you okay thank you thank you I did want to point out though for Miss Reynolds benefit though and and to partly respond to Mr Cruz though that the reason why I like the NSD option right as opposed to just going through the code option is that with the NSD option as you heard JP State you have to vote on it right so there is an election that goes on there whereas of course with the code that is US imposing it but again I'm open to the ideas uh like I think all of us are united in not creating unnecessary government um and I think that's one of the reasons why I like the NSD creation process in that you actually have to vote in order to uh approve it and the threshold does change a little bit but the point is that there is an election um and and Mr Cruz is right though we have a lot of challenges that we need to address and uh I'm committed to working with my colleagues on on trying to address as many of those issues as possible um J Nexus did you want to come up excellent doing great thank you now that you're bringing options why not a Community Development District instead why you know we have what in sator it works great we have 482 homes we have a board is government um U managed if we can say that but then the homeowners are part of that board and they make the decisions I believe the main differences with the NSD the application process goes through us with the CDD I I could be wrong I think it goes through the state um because it's essentially they're creating a mini HOA just for the lake this a small City uh yeah so what you be going to do is create a small City for all these people and they can control it themselves and it doesn't have to go through you but we can create it is is issue no but maybe maybe all these people can create that District I think that's not a bad idea my only concern with that is longterm is the issue of participation I think for example in Satori I think you guys have more enough people to almost guarantee and people that are used to having ho structure that are going to it's going to keep busy so how many people how many homes are affected by this I don't have that number with me like how many you have like what eight Lakes now we have more or more I don't know I was looking at the presentation but how many homes I mean at Satori we're only 482 I'm sure there's more than 400 I mean in omo how many houses do you have this is 667 so that's that's one neighborhood do you know how many of those are lake lake homes as opposed to just yeah yeah L I think it's an interesting thing to look into I'm not prepared to say this is the exact difference between the NSD and the uh cdds but from as to the point of self-management that you're bringing up I'm all for it the only difference or the problem rather becomes you know what happens years from now as people choose not to get as involved just like they chose not to get involved with the HOA that that's the only thing I would be a little nervous about I mean we're moving and especially when you're collecting from your taxes and you need to have a board Incorporated people are going to participate because it you know it hurts their pockets directly and also with the coding you know you cannot build to the lake you know so that's something that probably Miami Lakes has not enforced and that's why people are building fences all the way to the lake that shouldn't be happening either because anybody has to have access to those Lakes correct yeah there are a lot of people that have built fences all the way down they're not supposed to I know part of that is just the challenges of enforcement we do need to hire overtime more code officers because right now they're they're going crazy between commercial vehicles or this boat that's parked too long or you know this person that hat rck the tree so there there's a lot of issues that they have to be on the lookout for and and if I recall correctly we only have two officers throughout the week uh for code enforcement one on the east side one on the west side and then the weekends we only have one uh officer that used to be part-time until I I I proposed to make them full-time to cover the entire town so clearly we need more officers out there to help be more consistent about how we apply the code and I'm I'm in agreement with you there and again that could be another option going through the code I'm just saying I'm open to everything not shooting anything down just want to make sure we all have um a different view of things so that um you know we can consider that as we continue as a team to come up with new ideas perfect just wanted to share that thank you thank you so much Mr before you before you step down Mr Mayor can I can I or maybe or maybe Brian could could um vice mayor mon excuse me maybe you can answer this between the two of you I I would I saw on the list at Lake dun Dunwoody I think it's called that that isn't being maintained by your Association our association doesn't maintain it we have within the HOA or technically it's a separate entity you have the CDD which she serves on uh so she couldn't give you more info yeah I'm currently the chair for that board so so do you maintain through the through the CDD you maintain the legs yes and we collect taxes from everyone not only the houses on the lake everybody in 482 homes paid for the lake maintenance interesting well because because they they all have access to it exactly because there's common areas that exactly if they're saying that these Lakes belong to the town or to the properties and they're common it's for everybody to use then everybody should have access to it it's hard to put the burden on all the residents when some of the Lakes aren't aren't don't don't give access to all the residents it's it's all but that's what I was saying with code enforcement so I I think the key here was that those Lakes needed to be available to everybody in the town because they like he was saying this is Miami Lakes the jewel of this community same thing in sator in sator the jewel of our community is our Lake here in Miami Lakes you have it in your name it's your Lakes everybody should have access to your Lakes everybody should be able to canoe if you can fish and release whatever the case is but that's I I think the main thing is having access to everybody to go to those legs and then keeping them in in you know in a way that is healthy it's in compliance but especially I wouldn't give it to the government I wouldn't put that burning on you guys because like you're saying you only have two code enforcements now you need to hire somebody else to come and supervise somebody that is going to be taking care of those Lakes because at the end of the day somebody has to be you have to have like a supervising board or supervising person in the town to make sure that somebody's doing their job so you just creating you're going to create more jobs and then you're going to fall back because it's it's not going to be enough people where here you have you can you you're taking money away from people they're taxes they're going to be involved you're going to have a board and it's going it's going to go through the government so they're going to get elected through the government they need to take a course they need to be in compliance so it's not that easy you know at the end of the day they're like a mini elect that is like he was saying it's a mini City within a city and it's managed by the government you get audited everything needs to be spectacular the books have to be clean and the people are actually taking care of that not the government of your town that's just me looking at it from I'm not I'm not even affected but I do have friends that I have one of my friends she couldn't come and she wanted me to come and hear what's going on I I have no idea about this I don't know how how it is how it work so I just wanted to get a little bit more of more information more knowledge but just giving a little feedback to you guys okay thank you thank you and just to give you also this little nugget as to why everyone in the community pays for it not just the lakefront residences with cdds and and frankly also depending on how it's written in in the enacting ordinance for a special taxing districts special taxing districts they can have multiple purposes something like the CDD uh in Lake Dunwoody uh as it's officially called sator um is through the CDD is actually how they paved the roads and built the sewers within sator they were all privately paid through um bonds issued by the the CDD the CDD is a quasi governmental entity uh it it's quasi because yes it's government it's subject to um the same Sunshine laws all of those things uh but it's private in the sense that it's the homeowners uh who are uh the the the ones making the decisions and running the board one area where uh that should be taken into account though is like an HOA it tends to need it basically needs a manager a a professional manager uh where JP takes that rule here and um there's certain tax savings uh due to the fact that he's paid for his many roles and many hats that he P plays throughout the town a CDD would need to pay for a manager um so it's a little bit of a different thing but it's definitely I I like the idea of how and obviously I already have one in stor but uh for those that are considering it it does give you in a technical sense more ability to to govern to self-govern as opposed to have your Municipal uh elected officials be the ones governing um but it does have the I I do get the longevity concerns that uh the mayor mentioned um as well as participation as a concern but thank you uh vice mayor Mia but it also it also would would be affected by taxes because if if that that is that goes right on as a line item on on the tax bill just like special tax measures correct right so but again if you don't if you don't pay your tax bill it can go be sold to a third party and they're going to have that same issue even with the CDD yeah correct any other comments um while while you come up you can go ahead and say what you were saying so first I see c c CDD I think taxes and more government honestly uh and and the reason it pays for the lake and Stor is just because it also pays for the roads of sewages it's a pretty big Bill you guys pay there um I guess for the town are there any lakes that are not privately owned because the when people buy these houses they know they're buying the lake like that this isn't news to them so they have to take a responsibility of maintaining the property they own that's the way I see it I don't I don't see why we would think about making new taxes new task force they have to maintain their property just like they would have to maintain any other property they own and that's why I see the issue if if if there's lakes that are being not maintained and they're causing an issue one you would hope that those homeowners take some responsibility obviously I understand it's hard five might and then there's 20 that don't but I that's where I see where the town comes in and makes sure that they're being maintained I don't know if our code allows for that right now it seems like there's some ways to do it um but when you buy a house you know what you're buying or at least you should so that's the way I see it sir anyway can you provide us us with the maintenance fee that the two like hildon and Patricia Pap yearly JP in my case on Lake Mary there is an HOA and maybe it's if I had an SST I don't need the HOA if that's all they do I would like to be assured that all the people around that Lake are intent on taking care of it if you have a financial interest in it you will so that was part of the issue on Lake Hilda when counsilman Lama was Thea president there is that not everybody was contrib contributing equally to the maintenance of the lake so by having the election and the majority of owners voting the affirmative to create the iny everybody now that lives on the lake had to contribute equally toward it what he told us we have to have a 100% depends on whether your lake has Public Access or not if it is privately owned then you need 100% support say like uh the lock lman Lake for example which I know is having similar access issues as U Mr Cruz is pointing out um but if you're on a lake like Lake Hilda that has a little beach there by the k38 center or like Patricia that has a lake uh uh excuse me like a little beach I believe on like saranak Avenue or one of those um then those Lakes only need 50 50% plus one I got that well lake suie is in front of my house and prior to them putting in the concrete curb and reposting sign I doubt if you can enforce it Miami Lake citizens only but without that curb it was a trash pit people from all over were coming there and it it was not a very good place yeah and uh yeah you're talking about the cement curve that was put in right the cement curb is that we referring to yeah yeah and I know that for some people that's been controversial but I think on the whole I think when you look at the grass there as somebody who still lives in that area you have seen a difference yeah yeah no no again I've noticed a difference in the quality of the grass for example since we put it in uh now if there's nobody else um before uh I don't know if there's anybody else in the council that wants to say anything yes okay well when you finish uh because we are getting close to 8:00 at 7:42 and is my understanding that staff still had a few other slides for all the other nsds some information that they wanted to present to them um so I I think uh we'll close out the late part of this discussion after the vice mayor and then we'll go back to staff and then uh they'll present their information we'll give another final opportunity for the public to opine Mr vice mayor thank you mayor um JP JP in terms of budget expenses actuals um do we have any sort of report on that on making sure that we are on track uh to stay within Budget on our existing nsds I want to turn our attention a little bit to our existing nsds as I know a lot of the people here came specifically for that are we on track with our budget are we over budget under budget on budget we are on track on our budget and then um I think you might have mentioned to me prior to the meeting that it was possible some of our actual vendors were going to be here are any of them in fact here some of our vendors are here our uh lake maintenance vendor from Solitude Lake management Todd is here we also have our vendors uh sfm from sfm security for the guard houses okay so I pose a quick question to the audience would any does anyone have any questions specifically about how our Lakes are maintained that possibly Our Lake vendor could answer would anyone from our security uh nsds have any questions that maybe sfm our security vendor can answer any questions oh I'm sorry Manny before because again remember we have to record all these proceedings so we need your comments to be on the record good evening mayor council member maner Bale from lockness thank you for your time uh just a question uh as far as the involvement can you share with uh the town uh what part or what involvement does South Florida Water Management District have with our Lakes that's a great question for Jeremy or JP with within our operations um other then essentially sometimes they'll do their own testings of certain public uh Lakes other than that we see no real uh we have no interactions with South Florida Water Management um within the two lakes that we manage does um South Florida Water Management have any ownership over either of the two nsds uh that are l Main Lake Hill then Lake Patricia there is no ownership or involvement from South Florida Water Management does the water level set by South Florida Water Management affect the water level of those Lakes I'd have to double check with public works if there are any Outlets that lead to them um but not to my recollection whenever we make those requests for reducing the the canals and so forth I don't believe we've ever checked in with them on the lake side thank you Jeremy and I hope that answered uh your question anyone else would like to ask anything to our our vendors who were kind enough to to be here today seeing none uh I will just uh ask I know I had one more question uh actually no it was answered um so I'll go ahead and let you close up and let you give that presentation yes exactly uh so we're going to go back to staff and they're going to provide a few more slides with updates that are relevant to uh to everybody so please uh pay attention and then we'll have one more one more opportunity for public common and then a j take it away JP okay so now we're going to discuss some of the updates for our current nsds starting with uh lake maintenance so uh with Lake Patricia and Lake Hilda we have adjusted our our number of treatments back to two treatments per month uh during the summer time it was three treatments per month uh We additionally uh we did Lake testing for bacteria uh which was completed in November uh the next testing will take place uh sometime in the spring uh we do expect fish stocking in May and um we as we mentioned earlier in the in the meeting we are uh working on Lake minimum standards I do have Todd here from uh Solitude he's going to discuss more on uh the two um bacteria testing results that we have okay so what we have here is a types of caulif form bacteria in FAL cifor so the three species that we tested there for Lake Hilda you can see the first one is anything below 105 is considered uh the desired range the lake was full four um total cifor was at 2400 um anything below 2400 you were in one at 140 and for fecal coliform which I think is probably what most people think about when they think about bacteria you were in the uh 50 so there were literally no issues with uh any bacteria on the day we tested like Kilda uh so same thing for Lake Patricia you can see um we got a one a 20 for total cifor and then for fecal cfor we were at 12 so well within ranges of what is considered normal um I can tell you 33 years of doing this I've had one test in one Lake that was above 800 for a day protocol kicked in and this was up in Martin County protocol kicked in in and the next day there was it was at 100 so this is pretty typical data um should be pleased with that it's it in terms of what we found that day everything was good thank you Todd yep so now we're going to jump over to our security guard districts uh some updates uh we do have a uh new contracted vendor in place uh eyewatch systems they are our new contracted vendor for gain arm repairs um we also uh have routine checkpoints every 30 minutes to 1 hour during night shifts at all the guard houses uh I could um let sfm explain that process a little more uh when I call them up um lock Loman we have uh Glenn Eagle Drive uh the emergency exit Lane that was created um is being restored uh we have removed the Rocks uh that were there and uh we are now uh working to resad the area um that is going to uh be uh taken care of by the um the the vendor that uh caused the the incident uh in uh we are also reviewing our options to raise the gate at glennel drive to improve lighting and add a live camera there um and uh we're we're kind of looking at uh about either we're weighing our options whether to raise it or to uh to put in a new fence Al together um at myami Lake section one uh everything running smoothly there uh we have uh We've added an additional live camera camera by sfm at no cost to the community uh uh same thing with Roy Oaks uh East and Roy Oaks West uh we added a camera an additional live camera at uh 82nd Avenue as well as 79th AV those cameras are intended to look directly at the the guards themselves to monitor the guards while they're outside um sfm did provide uh an umbrella as had been requested at a previous meeting uh on 79th AV to provide shade for the guard unfortunately it was not a viable option because uh there's not enough space for it so uh we are looking into alternative options uh including uh you know possibly getting uh uh what is it called awnings uh lastly uh and and very importantly uh sfms Security Services contract at Royal Oaks East and West ends in uh March uh there are options to you could go out to bid again or we could do what we did with lock lman which is piggy back off of sfms contract with uh Miami Lake section one uh that way all the nsds are under the same contract and would all expire at the same time to go out to bid all together and then lastly we have some in-house enhancements that we've been working on as many of you uh already know you've already received uh uh we changed our mail out system to utilizing postcards um for and we will be continuing to do so uh in our annual budget notices as well uh and we are working to improve our NSD web page uh to provide more transparency so uh we'll be able to put uh you know for example results of Lake testing on the site we're also updating the na NSD uh fact sheet and um and any other information that would be able to um to provide more resources such as this PowerPoint will make it available somehow are there any is there anyone on the council that has a question or comment on these slides I I just have uh one more thing I'm sorry sure and our next meeting will be our uh NSD budget Workshop uh we do not have a a date set right now um but it will be sometime in uh March or April uh it's expected and it'll be here in town Town Hall council chambers thank you and and actually before I I bring it up to my colleagues is there anyone on in the public that currently wants to opine on any of the slides you just saw uh Mr Sanchez mayor members of the council I'm just wondering the lakes with the analysis are those Lakes swimmable are they in a condition where a person can go in and swim so because of somebody mentioned earlier about somebody getting sick with ear wasn't related I actually cannot make that comment um because that test was that day in that location that doesn't represent the whole lake it's a snapshot of one location um in the past when we talked about doing these tests it would literally be probably somewhere to get statistical analysis of where you could actually make a claim like that legally okay you would probably have to test in 15 to 25 locations around the lake and if you find those same results in 15 to 25 locations would you certify that the lake is then I can say based on the results from that day the lake would be safe for swimming however you get a storm the next day two weeks later it may completely change the pH of the water not the pH but it can you brush your bacteria that test could literally if we and this is why we don't test right along the shoreline because say a duck swims by a turtle swims by if something the bottom gets stirred up that will alter our test so we do have a property called Lake lenar that I don't know if it's called e Lake because it looks like a giant E from the Google Earth it's a ski Lake yeah about 7 Acres they ski in it so we treat it every other Tuesday we have been taking since 1992 we've been doing sampling in there every month to provide them data and it's not very far off of what yours is um but again even with all of that data I still can't walk into a courtroom and and make the comment the lake is legally safe to swim in okay so it's it's just there's too many other variables that occur okay good to know that's what I wanted to know thank you thank you yeah through the chair you are recognized councilman Garcia thank you mayor um as far as I know you were saying you were going to send out post you're sending postcards out now for the next uh meetings can you uh go over the time time frame how many postcards are sent out before each quarterly meeting that we're going to have approximately it was 1,500 uh notices that were issued okay uh to date right now we've only had two returned to Sender so I think that's pretty good uh efficacy right there um and that's a good thing to to bring up to to to the members here of the public did everyone receive that notice did you guys did you hear from your from your neighbors we we we're looking at ways and this is a good thing to bring up now too is JP has been working at other options to put out notices I know we've used uh A-frames in the past we're looking at digital options on the guard house to kind of have these updates where where it's not something that needs to be manually G put up there it can be done remotely uh from JP's office so we are looking into those Avenues but um some of you I think said you did not receive okay anyone else not did not receive on on on top of that we also uh published it both times uh in the Laker noticing this this meeting uh both December and January Enid has a question yes it didn't have my name on it and secondly the postcards must have gone to the rentals and not to the official owners of the property is that correct it'ser right so it didn't go to the owners it goes to the property homeowners address so so but if we have rentals right the address is who received it not the official no it goes to the property owners homeowners address so if the property homeowner is in Wisconsin it would go to the the home address in Wisconsin okay that's interesting okay thank you I don't know why it CHS Wisconsin councilman Garcia do you have any followup no no I just wanted to make sure to and and it was it was a good thing so everyone at least received notice directly no you said you didn't okay um so uh you know there's still room for improvement so let's if we can talk to her and see what will happen there appreciate it councilman herberg thank you mayor I did receive mine I live in uh in one of the nsds I I I did say I did note that it's it's one of those postcards uh it's not exactly eye-catching maybe we can work on that I get it's a standard uh and then mine was a little it's a postal service not your guys a little roughed up like some of it you couldn't actually read um but that's not your fault that's a postal service but I did receive mine and I think it's a good idea to continue them those mail outs um JP is you know has have you been able to take in complaints from homeowners has there been any issues with you know making sure that you reach out to the contractors about uh any issues and and resolving them regarding any issues regarding any of the issues but I I assume a lot of the comment things you get are about about the gate guards yeah so the the the most common complaint I get is is regarding the gate arms the the guard Gates uh Guard Services in general uh we do work uh in tandem with sfm sfm is here to answer any questions as well um to to discuss but uh yes we we we work in hand with with them and then um about the the budget I based I like the idea of potentially piggybacking on the current one and keeping it all streamlined uh in my NSD you know when I first moved in that my budget actually went down which was great and and you know a lot of people to think for that I just want to make sure that we are we get the details right to try to keep those budgets as low as possible because there are homes that pay more to their NSD than they even pay to the town right so we got to just beond that so I don't know what the current rates are for section one compared to what we're currently paying other nsds but let's just keep that in mind I I'll just piggy back no pun intended off of that question that that was going to be what I was going to ask which is how much does Royal Oaks East and West pay right now compared to how much they would pay if they were to piggy back off of the section one because obviously I don't want to see an increase uh so if it is a decrease or stay the same then that makes a ton of sense otherwise uh we'll see if we send it out to bid or have a discussion with our vendor council member Fernandez well I just want to make a comment I I know that I live in one of those nsds and um there are there's one side that that has more homes than the other right Mr Cruz yeah so they they would probably pay because we they they have exactly two gates just like we do and just by the math they're going to be paying less per home any other comments from up here on the DAT all right in the audience any anyone else wishing to speak genexus I'm I'm sorry hey wait yeah yeah we need a a microphone perfect okay I wanted to congratulate them come on up Price is Right congratulations to all for your appointments JC dieas you for vice mayor the new ones Angelo and Stephen hburg and you've been here but congratulations for another term God be to you and I want to congratulate and point out that without JP nothing would have been done sfm has come a long way and I'm very happy we have four guards that are really very good and that's a lot to say because I've been here many times I don't know I know some of you have heard me but anyways one of the things that I really wanted to mention in addition to the service that has gotten better from both is that I brought about the question of asking for licenses in the last committee meeting that was turned down I believe Mr Angelo Garcia was there it wasn't a good idea I had mentioned it doesn't have to be permanent it could be something that could be done at night we've had a lot of car thefts I just had a WhatsApp this last week that there was a street that was hit like I don't even know what street it was if it was the Easter the West we're on the East if we can at least at night try not on a permanent basis at temporary I know it's working in Loch lomman I know people there that have had results and it's not that bad maybe we can ask for a license or just talk to the person and say where are you going I know they don't have to show the license but if they take a little longer and coming in and that camera captures the car are the person I think we have a better chance I know they could be walking in just like they could be walking in in L Lan and anywhere else but it's maybe a deterrent I think it's worth that extra step I don't think it's going to cost us any money but if they break into your car or your home and I've said this before the deductible itself is going to be more than what you pay a year in taxes for the guard houses so if that can be something that could be discussed among you and the Community I think that's it's worth the discussion well if I may before you continue JP aren't you guys doing that in lock lomman I know I know this in Lo Lan but yes that is correct okay what I will say is I'm in complete agreement with you I remember discussing uh this idea with your neighbors and lo lman when we were talking about switching to FFM and and uh with Mighty Soul thinking about other ways that we could make it safer again I agree with you that it's an extra deterrent you'd be surprised though I had a a prominent resident in town that was basically basally saying that we were stripping people of their Liberty uh to move around U yeah I know so the point is there's always going to be some criticism about it but I fully support you guys if that's the direction that you guys and your community want to go um but I'm sorry I just wanted to I know we're not breaking any laws no because they don't have to show the license and I think that we we could maybe post that but that conversation of just that snapshot of that person I think you know is enough and asking where are you going they don't again they don't have to say it but that takes time you know another thing that I would and I I know JC lives on the East I met him picking up trash on 79th Avenue that's the first time with his son he's a good citizen um the guard house on 79th Avenue that is a problem I know today the curb started thank you JP a hundred times and thank you all of you and you know we need curbs on all of 79th and drainage but that's not for today but if we can get a box on the exit so that parents don't park there because we can't get out they're going to go crazy now with this lack of Swale used for parking but if we can at least deter that now they're doing some of it in Silver Crest I know Silver Crest is going to scream and yell because they can't get out today there was a guy honking no yesterday Wednesday there was a guy honking he can't get out and it's frustrating but if we can at least use 79 to get out that light everybody knows if you take that light it's it's it's brutal you can get a manicare like my friend used to say at the light on on 79th and 154 you know are you when you say a box you're referring to like the don't block the box square on the inter block it put a sign don't block the the guard house at the end of the day it's a public road but it is we're paying for the uh guard houses right can we do that can we put the box is it legal for us to do that the Box you're referring to putting a do not block the I I checked with public works it is something that we are are able to do if we can do that provided funding yeah if provided funding funding provided pay for the paint I can pay for the paint I think it's worth it that's not a yeah you know it's not a I think it'll help and that that way maybe you know police can enforce the say it creates an enforceable fine essentially so but we have to do it listen I don't want to do it I have family that works in that school and I we've been to the school JP knows it we went to a meeting we had a lot of law enforcement they're intimidating law enforcement I thought you know I was even afraid to talk and I'm not one to be afraid to talk but then you don't see those on 79th Avenue you just see that one school guard am I right or wrong I think you live on the east too one school guard maybe a police officer now we don't see them there they don't go past the guard house am I right or wrong we need to have some law enforcement I don't want somebody there at 247 but during those crucial hours we need to be able to get out of our community you know another thing that I um when I talked about the the Box the violation of that we have been going through about the ordinance the ordinance we've been violating because we allow those guards to go to the bathroom we lift that guard arm up we're supposed to be getting 247 it's a state thing I just heard that now we can't even give them meal breaks these people are humans they're not AI robots they need to eat they need to go to the bathroom if we can get a device that allows them to eat go to the bathroom and have that guard arm operate so that we just don't let anybody in because a bathroom break can be 30 minutes depending on how that person is feeling am I right or wrong and that's 30 minutes that anybody can come in you know again I go back to the same thing we're paying the guard house what less than $1,000 a year and our deductible is probably going to be much more than that if our cars get broken into or our homes get broken into so that's or God forbid anything worse so that's where I'm at with that if we can discuss those things and put a device where that guard arm can continue to work when that person is eating or when that person is in the bathroom and they have every right to use the bathroom and to eat it's an 8 hour shift you know and we've come along with way but if you're if you don't know how to treat your employees well you're not going to get good service they're going to be miserable and that's the fact of life and you know every time we go through one of those guard houses and that guard arm is up what is it saying you understand what I'm saying so thank you godp speed again to all of you I hope you know you do good thank you very much thank you and we we for to do that what you're proposing which I think is a great idea one of the things that we had talked about previously is we might need to amend the ordinances that created your District right and we may have to go through now this process that we created just to ensure that there buying I don't foresee there being an issue with uh with with uh your fellow neighbors going ahead and approving it but I I think it's something worth working working on and I'm more than happy to work with my colleagues about uh to get it done because there's a couple other uh uh guard gate districts that also want to have more Security Options available to them um C been hburg something that I remember that that we used to do at the guard Gates many years ago and I don't know why it stopped when it stopped the purpose of it first of all I agree that I'm not a big fan of the license during the day but I agree at night it makes sense um but when you used to exit and the sign is still up by one of the entrances the guard gate from 12:00 a.m. to 6: am. would not automatically go up the guard had to go and take your license plate and then open the exit I don't know why that stopped I feel like that's a nice deterrent as well when they know they can't just leave out the gate won't go up right away uh I'm not sure the reason why that stopped but it did stop I do remember they used to do it all the time like I'm talking 2012 2010 not sure when it happened but that stopped so I don't know why that stopped but I think that was a good deterrent as well that is uh part of the current post orders and that is something that I could work with sfm to ensure that it's being they don't do that at all I I just go straight like it doesn't matter what time I don't exit that much at 12:00 but I do and it just go straight up like no one's no one's there opening I mean at least they don't come out I I don't notice any delay so that can be discussed that's supposed to be happening let's just make sure that's supposed to be happening then um Mr Vice did you have something to say okay well it's 8:10 so let's uh you know I'm going to turn it back to you guys but a I'm just saying it's 8:10 so let's try to start wrapping this up um and starting with genexis go ahead and I think ma'am um I believe you also wanted to come up okay so this is I mean quick for my end I don't know if it's going to be quick for you but what is the voting process I hear about 50 and 1% I hear about 100% how many people are we talking about and and what how would that affect I think those numbers in particular were specific to starting uh the NSD as far as the to make a modification I'll turn it over to my colleague here uh who ex ordinance it was that that uh modified the procedure for amending uh an existing NSD yeah amending an existing nstd uh requires a very similar process as what was outlined by JP uh except it is a majority in all cases if I'm if I'm not mistaken uh what we approved right it was a majority in all cases um because at that point the NSD is already created um but other but that is to amend an NSD it's a and and we keep in mind that is only affecting the nstd so Something Like Us in sator we're not affected at all if the loock lomman NST is amended or if the lake Hilda or any of the other ones if they can do whatever they want it doesn't affect us that's up to them and then if they want to make those changes they're they're welcome to do it and I'm not talking about those changes I'm talking mainly about day toay um direction or work that needs to be done yeah day-to-day Direction and and operational control operational is right there but it has to be in accordance with the ordinance that created the the NSD original so before that used to be done through a committee and now it's only done through the manager like I want to get it clear so that's where where nsds and cdds differ very strongly in a CDD you have a very involved board uh with a a day-to-day operations manager because the CDD has so broad Powers a special taxing district is Extreme is almost the opposite in that it is extremely Limited in its power uh if the NSD uh ordinance that creates it says this is a guardhouse uh NSD the purpose of this NS NSD is to uh uh build and maintain a guard house uh there's nothing that you can do outside of building and maintaining a guard house so if you ever go and read the original ordinances for these for these um nsds they talk about uh initially one guard uh you know unarmed I forgot the details now but they're very very specific you can't really go beyond that but at the end of the day who's going to execute that is the manager not the people it it correct okay just wanted to make that clear correct L uh Lydia Hernandez from Royal Oaks uh congratulations to all of you on the board and I also want to point out the fact that John Paul has been doing an excellent job uh I text him all the time and he responds immediately and usually calls me back uh if he doesn't respond by text um two things I want to point out number one wouldn't it be better to put those humongous um speed bumps that you've now put in Royal Oaks which are very tedious uh before the guard gate so they don't break our our arms because apparently they're not getting reimbursed for the repair so if not as big as the ones that are already there I think they're just too big sorry John Paul I think they're just too big those um uh those speed bumps but that would help uh have the people not hit those guard Gates and would certainly reduce our budget and the second thing is on Christmas Eve I was invited to a Christmas Eve party at L lman and I was asked for my license and I immediately thought well why don't we have this so Christmas Eve I texted John Paul and he responded and he said the HOA said no but we wanted it the people of uh of Royal Oaks just because the HOA didn't want it the people did I may be mistaken omo I don't remember if it was the HOA or the people in that other committee that was dismantled the committee at that time the committee right but we wanted it the people the people that I've talked to that's a lot of people so we want to see if that we could revisit that especially in the evening hours it sure it's dark out there sometimes I've gotten home dark and uh late and it those gates are really dark if they get to ask people for their license it might serve as a great deterrent and it'd be great if it also happened during the school hour and see if we get deterrence on those people coming in and holding us hostage because I can't get out of my house can't get in can't get out and so um I would like to reconsider these things as you Talk Amongst yourselves and again I thank you all for listening and John Paul amazing thank you very much thank you very much anyone else before we start to close out we all want to go home and so do I so I'll make it quick with the driver's license issue when JP brought us to the committee back in the days every time I go to llum and I don't give my license and I told the guy no he has to let me in I asked them a couple of months ago what happens when somebody from Uber comes and they say they don't have a driver's license do you let him in or you tell them to go he has to let them in yes if you know you're right you don't have to give a license the issue we have in Royal LS and they have on the east side and they told me that I did not care about the east side I do care about Royal LS and I do care about all of Miami leaks is with the school board and I've been here before and you guys know it not until we have a meeting with the school and we have a serious conversation with Mr Alonso being in the district and they try to work with us and do something with the traffic security we have the guard house we have the uh the cameras the NSD JP spoke with me the other day that now the HOA can go ahead and put a Life feed outside which will probably end up doing that the license is not going to do anything first of all if the guy's on the other side when he gets to see the guy it's dark he won't even see who the heck is driving this totally a waste of time and if we do that in Royal Oaks the traffic is going to go up to 170 and that was my biggest issue on the other hand let the police do their work sfm is not the police department let let's out out each branch do what they're supposed to do so be very careful with that license issue and I'm sorry but I think it's a terrible idea hey I do have one question for you JP what hours is lock lman asking for the licenses all day all day all day okay all day he answered it for me got it through through the mayor uh council member Fernandez of I see the issue with with asking for the license on the east east side of Royal especially but I don't I wouldn't be opposed in the evening time I I know that it would be unbearable if you asked for in the day time especially during school hours it it you know you you would cause a traffic you know the media would be there but I don't I wouldn't be opposed for the evening I think it's an extra it's just a deterrent well at least I think that to to to her Point um I think that it would really be addressing the the break-ins or or at least the unlocked cars the the burglar that we had going into I'm going to ask though that um and I because I know what's going to happen we're all going to start going back and forth um and again there are others that that need to go home want to go home what I would ask is that we continue this conversation but perhaps uh outside of the uh of the context of the meeting um just so that uh you know again so that Lydia you can get with omo and and with councilman Fernandez I talk to him all the time okay so or do you have something else to add or are you just going to respond to uh I was going to respond but I'll make it very short number one we do want the deterrence at night I was asked for my driver's license in elen at night by the way I didn't give it to him I refused and I asked her under what Authority are you asking me for this because we weren't allowed to have them okay so we were let go we were let in and they also asked where are we going and which they're also not allowed to ask so I said no I wasn't going to do either one and I thought he was going to call the police but he let me through but you know how many people were behind me waiting five five or six cars that's what I want to achieve and you're right JC there's going to be a traffic a mess in a traffic that's what I want because up to now nobody listens to us the school board doesn't listen nobody listens to us but then if that happens they go okay maybe they'll come to the table and negotiate with us that's what I'm trying to achieve not a perfect solution but a solution to get them to the table thank you well thank you all for your time thank you for being here thank you to my colleagues with that we are jour --------- ##VIDEO ID:rlvgw0ZokUQ## e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e done all right everybody uh we're going to go ahead and get started uh this is the uh meeting greet for Mr Alejandro Alex Sanchez who I've nominated to serve as uh the next council member from seed 4 I've prepared some brief remarks just to provide a little bit of background for those who are watching at home um my name is Josh die and I am the mayor of Miami Lakes we're here tonight so that I can formally introduce Alejandro sandz to the broader Miami Lakes Community pursuant to article 2.5 of the Miami Lakes Town Charter the mayor is required to name a nominee whenever a vacancy occurs on the Miami Lakes Town Council that nominee is then either confirmed or denied by the entire Miami Lakes Town Council if denied then the vacancy will be filled by special election within 90 days or at the next available opportunity provided by the Miami day Department of Elections a vacancy occurred in seat 4 when I was required by Florida law to resign my Council seat to run for mayor having been successful in that run it is subsequently or it subsequently fell to me to fulfill my obligation to select a nominee for the vacancy in seat 4 in meeting that obligation I engaged in the most open and transparent process any prior mayor has has engaged in order to select a nominee for the seat in conjunction with Town staff I established an application process which was announced Friday December 13th the application then became available December 16th applications were due on December 20th and we received eight applications by the deadline on December 23rd I held a sunshine meeting with my colleagues to discuss the applicants to determine who would have the best opportunity to be confirmed from that discussion two applicants were deemed viable and I ultimately selected Mr Alejandro Sanchez or simply Alex for the vacancy uh in seat 4 Alex is a decorated Navy veteran and a 16-year resident of Miami Lakes who has been active in the Miami Lakes Community Alex has previously served on the Miami Lakes veterans committee Miami Lakes Planning and Zoning Board Town manager selection committee and the neighborhood Improvement committee he has also also previously been awarded the Miami Leakes volunteer of the Year award and served as the Miami leak's Veterans Day Parade Grand Marshall one year Alex has typified the servants heart that we want in our leaders and has pledged to run for reelection in 2026 giving residents the opportunity to hold him accountable or ratify the decisions he will make during his time at on the Town Council an opportunity residents otherwise would not have had with the previously nominee for seat six when that vacancy was open I will further elaborate on how I arrived at my process for selecting Alex at our January 21st regular council meeting but for now I'm simply pre pleased to introduce Mr Alejandro Alex sandes to provide more background on himself and answer some questions from the public Alex thank you Mr Mayor very much appreciated the kind words so as mayor dieo stated previously my name is Alejandro Sanchez I go Alexs for short a little bit easier to remember I've been a resident of the town of Miami Lakes since 2008 when I returned from active duty from the Navy in 2007 I lived in haia for a small period of time and my wife and I would eventually move into the town of Miami Lakes where we had our wedding at the at time Shula Hotel so we have always wanted to set our roots in the town of Miami Lakes from a very young age our family is here our kids have grown up here they know Miami Lakes and it's always been the epitome for me of the neighborhood to live in in Miami D County south Florida just Florida and as a whole I grew up in hiia just over the bridge at the age of 14 was my first experience with the town of Miami Lakes at the time my best friend may he rest in peace lived in eagl Nest we started getting a lot get getting you know together a lot more often and I saw my first preview of was what was my young AES in my teenage years I started Ed visiting Main Street started going to dates on Main Street it became my social environment and the place that I knew that eventually I would want to raise my family I left the Navy I served my country proudly left with an honorable discharge and many awards on a great rank but it was time to come home and continue my journey to like I said before create my family here in 2008 moved into Miami Lakes just behind Town Hall at Crescent house to get our initial St initial steps to to become Town residents a very tumultuous period happened when I became ill it was 4 years of hardship it was 40 Years of struggles that really cemented my thought process for Miami Lakes because the neighbors that I had showed me what it meant to be a Laker at the time I no longer lived there I used to live in Via visaya we purchased a home in Via visaya and lived there for a period of time and our neighbors came around they rallied around us my wife at the time was pregnant with our oldest son Aiden they would do groceries for us because we couldn't drive and she towards the latter half was put on bread rest and it showed us the meaning of neighbor and Community something that Miami Lakes is engraved in that is in the DNA of Miami Lakes time went on 2012 my health started improving quite a bit and I started volunteering I saw the Veterans Day Parade for the first time and it made me proud to see that a small town of 35,000 residents in six square miles would have such pride in our military I started volunteering at the time the veterans committee was not a committee it was an ad hoc very informal it was meant just to put memorials around town like the one that the first one at Robert alono Community Center so we motivated the the de at the time are elected officials to turn us into a full-blown committee so we can do more than just memorials and to this day it still exists two years later 2014 I had the privilege of being the Grand Marshal for the first ever Veterans Day Parade that ended in town hall 10 years this year will be 11 years now two years after that I continued volunteering all that time two years after that I received the honor of the designation of volunteer of the year that didn't stop me from just continuing my volunteer service two years after that I continued on the volunt on the veterans committee I was selected by councilman Frank mingle to represent him on the town manager selection committee it was a few months of of interviews and hard work and processing I believe it was either 54 56 applications till we came to the final five that we presented to the council at the time and they selected Edward Peterman Civ Civil Service runs in me outside of Miami Lakes along with my military time I have worked in the federal government specifically the Social Security Administration helping those that want to retire that want that need to receive disability benefits Medicare benefits so I've seen the good and the bad I've seen thousands of people and have helped them at every step of the way and I will continue doing that for the town of Miami Lakes for the residents of Miami Lakes I do have focuses if on Tuesday I am confirmed to be the next town the next town councilman for seat 4 I would like to initiate a program for volunteerism in the town for the teenagers that are in high school and the National Junior honors soet that need those hours not just to graduate high school but to get to College there are some colleges in the State of Florida that need a th000 hours at a minimum of volunteer efforts over their High School career Miami Lakes right now does not offer that Pro that program we have great events that need volunteers but those events don't know where to find those volunteers so if we can build that bridge between the high schools and our local events it'll bring that sense of community once again back to Miami Lakes and bring the parents to those events our Veterans Day Parade has on average between 5 and 7,000 attendees most of the attendees are not there for the parade they're there because our kids are in the parade so if we can have those volunteers come and just spend the night for example the the jazz concert that we just had on Saturday night have volunteers just making sure that everything is clean that everyone's okay it's safe those parents are going to come too it expands our footprint into what is what it is that we do in the town of Miami Lakes our soul is here I believe is still hiding behind the shadow a little bit and it's time for all of us to expose it and bring it back to what it was the original Miami Lakes that we all know and love so with your help we hope that on Tuesday I am I am elected by the Town Council as the next member of C4 I am more than happy to answer any questions that anyone may have and please I I'm here for you thank you so uh thank you for that introduction to yourself Alex and uh you actually got a little bit ahead as far as what I was going to ask you which is what would be your priorities and again as he elaborated uh I think his cander was something that attracted a lot of us uh to his application um in addition to the fact uh his extensive Public Service uh not only to the town but to our country uh with that though we're going to turn it over to the public here to ask some questions if you don't mind though I'm going to see if this mic works please hold this Alex okay perfect so we're going to come around with the mic so you can ask him a question and we can record it for those that are watching uh live online and then he will maintain uh or hold that mic uh so that he can go ahead and answer your questions again also for the record this is after all a publicly noticed meeting uh in the sunshine everything has to be recorded for later viewing so uh for that reason we need to make sure the mics are working so with that who would like to go first council member Garcia welcome and and uh well guad Garcia and I I hope uh you recover quickly I don't know what happened to your leg I'll be playing pickle ball real soon again we all hope uh congratulations sir I I had the opportunity to read your bio and it's h pretty interesting I actually had the opportunity to read almost all of the FES and uh everybody was uh pretty impressive my question is going to be simple um I had the opportunity to read in some of the pages that you wrote and you elaborated there that uh you would be in support of of getting or working again with those bonds that uh we had one time thought uh of uh getting for the park how do you feel and what it what are what are your takes on the uh the actual uh uh Park absolutely well the bonds that was referring to is not Bonds that would be funded by the town of Mi Lakes these are bonds that already exist at the county level with the mission to fund projects around the county so it wouldn't be a tax burden on any Resident of the town of M Lakes nothing like the bond that was that was tried to be acquired for the park our Parks need improving I know the big focus is Optimus Park and the massive Improvement that was Tred to do to it but we also have 110 pocket parks for example one of my neighbors takes his grandson to his pocket park twice a day the steps are at a point where the rubber protection is so exposed that the metal is exposed a child can fall can hurt themselves on that you know it can it can just Ripple have a ripple effect from there so it's not just the f of the one of of optimist but it's all of our 110 pocket Parks if we can access those funds that the county has earmarked for local municipalities to improve and maintain our parks that is my goal not to have any more tax burden on our residents our residents up until the drop of the rate that just happened uh last fiscal year I believe the average household dropped $17 because what we have the power over is is just the tax bracket that belongs to Miami Lakes which on average is 10% of your total tax bill that does not need to be raised We already pay enough let's try to reach out to those bonds to be able to fund the things that we want to do to maintain and have some improvements to our Parks okay I've got the uh the view anybody anyone else has a question don't be Shad guys we got a good CR in here so or it could be if you want to make a comment um as far as maybe what priorities that you want us generally to focus on Etc good evening my name is Lee Medina I luckily call myself a neighbor of Alejandra and his wife Jackie and the two sons um I said lucky because I don't say that word lightly um Alejandro has been like a father to me not a father I'm sorry I could be his grandma I'm 81 so he has been more than a son he has he he has been there for me and in so many ways and so has Jackie and um when they move in Into My Block C Court we did not have the the awesome chat on WhatsApp where we communicate with everybody and and that was that was brought up by Alex at that moment when I met him and his wife they were remodeling the house and I I saw the qualities of a leader and that's pretty much what I want to say tonight um when I heard that he was going to occupy the seat for the next two years as councilman I felt God is great God is listening to my prayer we need a man of his caliber in our Council because talking about the Miami Lakes of before when we the civic association governed the town yes we need to go back to those days except that this time we have an improvement called government elected by the people with our monies of course and it should even be better than almost 50 years ago since I bought my house on C Court in 1979 so this gentleman and his wife and the two kids I don't want to separate them because to me they are like awesome nucleus it it's not Alice is nothing to do with male versus female or any like that it's the reality when I see Alice I see a family and he behaves with all of us as if we are his children and I'm very appreciative Alex and this is the best opportunity that that God in life has given me to thank you in public for the awesome human being that you have been to all of most especially to me I live by myself and he's there he volunteer he doesn't wait for me to call he kind of suspect or guess I don't know some brilliant thing in his mind but he will know when hey lie Medina needs him and he'll come to my house with his kids and volunteer Lee you want me to do this for you you want me to do that it's it's awesome and so I am very very happy and I made the effort to be here and so has my son Roy and and his wife Katy and and Mason you you've met them before um because we needed to be here to to let you know and to tell you that we are very much appreciative of of the fact that you accept to serve Us in the council thank you so much thank you Lee thank you for for the kind words now um you brought up when I was remodeling my house and I would be remiss if I didn't mention omo Cruz is here tonight he and his son Jonathan who were the Architects that helped me design the remodel of that house uh we've been there now in September it'll be or may it be six years that we purchase that home and you know it's it's it's in great shape because of omo and and Jonathan's help so we I'm very appreciative that you're here tonight um our neighbors even though we don't interact with them daily they are our community I keep insisting on that word Community because it has more a deeper meaning than that in Spanish they say our neighbors are who we are they are a reflection of who we are and I am proud to live on Cedar Court so it's 14 homes when I'm a culdesac we have everything from from vice presidents to High School principles to police officers that street alone is is it's I am so grateful to be on Cedar Court um but yeah if anybody else has any questions or concerns or comments please say again um I believe one of the council members wanted to say a few words is that is that correct okay hey uh council member Fernandez JC Fernandes good evening so so yeah I I've met uh I've known Alex for probably seven or eight years and you know I've received many phone calls and you know I'm I certainly won't get in details about i' I've received some for me you know for for us to take a second look as to whether or not we should confirm you but the majority has been has been positive and I think uh from how I know you you know aside from serving our country which you know that's a big thing for me but serving our community Through the veteran of faith and all the other things that you volunteer with you know I think it says a lot about you so thank you Jon you know that's all being taken into consideration thank you JC I very much appreciate that all right be before we close this out I assume that some of you are here for the NSD Workshop that is after this uh starting at 6:30 uh but I wanted to give one more opportunity for uh everybody to ask a question or make a comment if you'd like before we close out this portion of tonight's uh proceed meetings anybody else well thank you all for being here thank you for listening and Alex would like to make some closer remarks although please kick it back to me before youly close so thank you everyone for coming tonight I know some of you are here for the NSD meeting but thank you for sitting while while you know we were speaking but I cannot end this conversation without thanking one of the most important people of my life that is here tonight he's 89 years old and he made to drive even though he doesn't drive at night my father is here tonight his name is Julio Sanchez and he said the foundation of of who I am of being kind to others of helping others of being honest my life is an open book quite literally so there's nothing to hide the transparency is evident there are things that I sh that I shouldn't have done that have come and gone thankfully that was a long long time ago and is no longer any part of my life Miami Lakes is home Miami Lakes is number one to me there's 37 municipalities in Miami D County but Miami Lakes is one on one of one my kids are growing up here I hope that my grandkids will grow up here and I hope that come Tuesday I am able to seat to fill seat for thank you very much for listening and I hope we have a great night mayor Diez thank you Alex and for those of you uh here the time is 6:23 so in 7 minutes we will begin the NSD portion of tonight for those of you who are watching at home and those of you here who would like to come back and see how this all unfolds the meeting will be uh next Tuesday January 21st at uh 6:30 correct beginning at 6:30 and then uh I probably will move up the item on your appointment toward the beginning um you know so that the residents can have a chance to see how that plays out and opine etc etc uh so I hope to see everyone e either online or uh in Chambers January 21st again at 6:30 p.m. thank you all for being here