COUNCIL MEETING

>> Good morning, everyone. Welcome to our June council meeting. Today is Wednesday, June 10th, and the time is now and we are calling our regular scheduled council meeting to order. A reminder to please silence your phones. If you must take a call, we ask that you please step outside so that we can maintain a respectful atmosphere. Madam Clerk, please call the roll. >> Councilwoman Nicole Reinoso. >> Present. >> Councilwoman Maureen Porras. >> Here. >> Councilman Rafael Pineyro. >> Present. >> Vice Mayor Digna Cabral. >> Present. >> Mayor Christi Fraga. >> Present. >> Mayor, we have a quorum. >> Okay, thank you very much. Please rise for the Pledge of Allegiance, led by Councilman Pineyro. >> I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the Republic for which it stands, one nation under God, indivisible, with Liberty and Justice for All. >> Thank you. Before we go into our invocation, I'd like to ask for a moment of silence. We're having a moment of silence for a family in our community that has lost loved ones. We will remember Melanie Heyer and her daughters Savannah and Sienna. This heartbreaking tragedy has touched our entire community and serves as a reminder that behind every smile, there are many struggles that we cannot see. It is also a reminder of the importance of supporting one another, checking in on loved ones, and ensuring that those facing challenges know that help is available and we are a community that supports each other. As we mourn the loss of these precious lives, let us come together in compassion, prayer, and for all those affected. Thank you. We will now ask Pastor Edwin Castro from Presencia Viva to please join us for the invocation today. >> Thank you. Good morning, Mayor, members of the City Council, and members of our community. As I was praying this morning about this meeting, I remember the story of King Solomon. The son of King David. When he was very young, he faced a similar situation like yours. He had to make big decisions that will affect a whole nation, just like in your decisions will affect the entire community. Solomon felt overwhelmed because he knew he was young and did not have enough experience. Because his heart was in the right place, he asked God for wisdom. The Bible says that God gives wisdom to anyone who asks, but also the Bible says in the book of Proverbs that the fear of God is the beginning of wisdom. For that reason, even more than asking for wisdom, we need to ask for the fear of God, and this simply means being aware in every decision you make how to please him and make choices that align with his word. And that is exactly what I pray for you today. Father, we come before you to ask for your wisdom to be manifested in this meeting. Give each member of the council a humble heart so they can ask for your fear and your wisdom, so they can lead us in a future of peace, prosperity, and joy in our community. In Jesus' name we pray. Amen. >> Amen. >> Amen. Thank you, Pastor. Thank you. All right, we'll now move into the agenda order of business. Go ahead and start with the City Manager's Office. >> Yes, good morning, Mayor and Council. I need to defer item 21L to the August meeting. That item is in the evening. >> Mr. City Attorney, do you have anything? >> I have nothing, Madam Mayor. >> Councilman Pineyro? >> I don't have anything. Thank you. >> Vice Mayor Cabral? >> Yes, I have 6A, 6B. I'm still waiting for some information on 6Q, so I'm going to put 6Q in, if anything. and 6Q, those three. >> Place. >> Mayor didn't hear. >> A, B, and 6Q. >> Q. Okay. Councilwoman Reinoso? >> No, Mayor. Thank you. >> Okay. Councilwoman Porras? >> No, none. >> All right, I'm going to go ahead and pull 6K, and I am actually deferring 9A. I have been had I've been having conversations with, the manager's office and finance, and I've been asked to you to have this discussion during budget. It would be most appropriate with a full presentation, so We're going to do that. So I'm deferring indefinitely, and it'll come back in some shape, with the budget as a discussion. Motion? no, no motion right now. We don't need one. Nothing else has been done. So if there's nothing else to be pulled, we'll go into public comments. Everyone's good? Okay, we will now open the floor for public comments. Each speaker will have 3 minutes to address any item on the agenda today or any matter related to the City of Doral. Please begin by stating your name and address for the record and ensure that you have registered with the city clerk. We will first hear from those who have preregistered to speak. If you have not preregistered, I will follow by asking anyone who would like to speak from any final comments, before we close the public comments. As a reminder, in accordance with our city's code of conduct, we do ask that all remarks remain respectful, courteous, and in an orderly manner. Personal attacks, offensive language, or disruptive behavior will not be permitted. Let's work together to keep this forum productive for all. We will now open public comments. I do have a few public Comments, preregistered speakers, starting with Theo Karanastalis. I always say it wrong. How are you? >> Good morning. >> Good morning. My name is Theo Karanastalis. 289 Shadow Way, Miami Springs. Some of you may remember me as the librarian at the old Doral branch. Others maybe as the barista who opened Doral's first Starbucks in the late '90s. Today I'm here as the former chair of the Miami-Dade County Disability Board and as a current member of the Miami Springs Disability Board. I'm here in strong support of Chief Matthew Castillo. When I brought to his attention that people with disabilities were being shut out of downtown Miami Springs life because others were illegally parking in disabled spaces, he organized an enforcement operation that netted 30 violators in just a few hours. Those of us with proper placards can engage in civic life again because of his leadership. Chief Castillo has trained his officers to serve people with all types of disabilities. My adult son has autism and schizophrenia and sometimes runs away from home. His officers know exactly how to respond. With patience, skill, and humanity. Chief Castillo also spearheaded Coffee with a Cop events at Starbucks. My son went, took photos with the officers, and came home and told his mama in Spanish that the police were his friends, and many of whom he now knows on a first-name basis. I'm a retired assistant library director. I worked at Miami Dade College when Matt was training at the academy next door. He has always been an avid reader, a man with a genuine passion for continuous improvement, and it shows. I was at his swearing-in ceremony in Miami Springs in 2015, and I watched him rise through the ranks ever since. He is visible, he is approachable, and he gets things done. And you could not be choosing a better person to lead this city's police department. Thank you. >> Thank you, Mr. Karanaslis. Mr. Richard Glitzstadt. >> Richard Gluckstadt, 4768 Northwest 114th Avenue. I show everybody this. It's a medallion that I received from the City of Doral Police Department for my work with them. I've been helping them for many years. I have limited law enforcement experience myself, the state of Florida, in two different positions, so I think I know what I'm talking about today. Answer true or false to the following statements. Number 1, the City of Doral has had 3 mayors. 2 mayors were Cuban. 3, 1 mayor was Venezuelan. 4, under the Venezuelan mayor, the police chief was Italian American. Number 5, under the Cuban mayors, all police chiefs were white Cuban Americans. Number 6, all of the Doral police chiefs were brought in from other places. Number 7, no Doral police chief have has ever been promoted from within the department. Number 8, no Doral Police Chief has been a female. Number 9, no Doral Police Chief has been an African American. Due to the efforts of Chief Edwin Lopez, the police department has become a very successful and most importantly, a diverse organization. At present, the department has a Black female Assistant Chief of Police and a female African American Major. They are Alicia Neal and Samika Gibson. The department also has a distinguished male major who is a Bronze Star recipient of mixed Colombian Cuban heritage, Major Leonel Ochoa. I think some of them are sitting over here, right? I don't see the men and women of Doral PD may feel they are never fully trusted. As displayed by the history of outside hiring of his chief of police. The history of not hiring our best from within negatively, negatively affects morale and level of service to citizens. 15, Durrell has two other options: either hire from within or advertise the position nationwide. Doral can eradicate its history of political and social cronyism by changing its hiring practices. 17, Doral can be it's best when it gives all groups a chance, not just Cuban Americans or other white males. Number 18, nobody can be a better police officer than one who already knows and cares for Doral. Since all the statements are true, I reached the following conclusion. 20, hire our new chief of police from within. There is no other reason to look any further. Long live the Doral Police Department, and may they prosper and be successful always. >> Thank you, Mr. Glatztadl. Next, I have Mr. Tobias Roche. >> Thank you, Madam Mayor. Pleasure to be here today. My name's Tobias Roche. I live in Miami-Dade. I'm a retired supervisory special agent with ICE here in Miami. I've served as a consultant to ATF, Secret Service, and other federal law enforcement agencies, been part of HIDTA task forces with state and local. I'm a former police officer in Massachusetts. My expertise is in Venezuelan investigations. I've appeared on numerous, television shows, radios. Also consulted with Marco Rubio and Carlos Curbelo. I'm here to tell you that Darrell and Rafael Pinero, who I know well, we had concerns about infiltration of Chavistas here in Tren de Agua coming here since 2012. My cases have resulted in a new book, and I'm not here to promote it. I have one for the mayor. One for Chief Castillo when he takes office, and one for my good friend Ralph. It's called The Chavista Hunter. It's written by Pete Thrawn, a New York City police officer. It's number one in law enforcement on Amazon. Unfortunately, Doral has been infiltrated. It has been infiltrated. They have run Chavista operations through here with businesses. I had talking with, Mr. Pinero years ago about filtering that out, but the city manager at the time did not want to do that licensing and things like that. I think now with the state of Venezuela, with Maduro in custody, it's time to clean house and look at things like that. So if you need me, my contact information is available and I'd be more than glad to help here. But there are some, some of the names in the book you'll be very familiar with. I'm not going to talk about the book, but it's very detailed on the operations here in the Doral, Miami-Dade, some of the people that are there's $5 million rewards on. So thank you very much for your time. And who should I leave this with, Mayor? >> You can leave them with the clerk. She'll give them to us. >> Thank you, ma'am. >> Thank you so much. All right, I have no other pre-registered speakers. Now would be the final opportunity to speak if you have not pre-registered and would like to speak on an item on the agenda or germane to this council. Please approach the podium. >> Good morning, Mayor Fraga. Good morning, councilman. I'm not sure if this is the right part of the program about the HOA pilot program. >> You can speak now, just state your name and address for the record, and once you finish, you can Just register with the clerk. >> Okay. My name is Brent McNabb, resident of Doral, 7863 Northwest 111th Court. I wanted to just touch a little bit on the, Mayor Fraga and I have conversed several times in the last couple of years on HOA problems here in Doral. But it seems that we're always addressing the outside of it and we're never getting to the root problem of HOAs here in Florida. The HOA is a mafia of the developers. The developer create the HOA, they govern the HOA until the completion. They install their own boards, they create the rules. As a homeowner, if you want to live, you entitled, you have to join it or you don't buy your house. And we've seen that everybody is looking at everything, the fraud here, the fraud there, but we never get to the root of the problems we have with HOAs. Further, the problem is there's no support for the homeowner. As a homeowner for an HOA, I'm governed by 720, for the statute 720, Mayor Fraga knows my thing, my fights in Islands of Doral for the past couple of years, that you go to the DBPR, and I was here at the event yesterday to talk with them with a problem I have, and the first question from DBPR, are you here to discuss 720 or 721? I have a 720 issue. Sorry, we can't help you. Who can help you? Nobody. There is no entity in the state of Florida there to support an HOA. And I'm the president of the HOA now because we took over the board from last year, which was the first election in 20 years. 2,900 homes and an HOA, 20 years, never had an election because of the rules of the community are in favor of not having an election. It took a tremendous effort of over 200 volunteers in our community to get it, and we're moving forward. But I just wanted to see, like, you know, and we met with Representative Porras at your last event, and he put forward the bill, vote out your HOA. How are you going to do that? Get a quorum? It took 6 months and 200 volunteers to get a 20% quorum for an election, which they give you 14 days. The board, we're going to hold the election. They let you know 14 days ahead of time. How are you going to get we needed, I believe it was 897 homeowners to vote to have an election. But, you know, there's so many things and it's being addressed, but we're never looking at the root of the developer. >> Thank you. Yes, we, we'll have a discussion on it. If you could just see, the city clerk and register, and we'll be having a discussion on this. Thank you so much for being here. Anyone else would like to speak at this time? Now would be a reasonable opportunity. All right, being none, we're closing public comments and we will move into the agenda. I'll just give the clerk All right, Madam Clerk, would you please order, read the, items that have been pulled from the agenda so we can get a motion on the consent? >> Yes, it will be all of the items on the consent agenda with the exception of 6A, 6B, 6Q, and 6K. >> Motion? >> Motion to approve by Councilwoman Reinoso. >> Second. >> Second by Councilman Pineyro. All in favor say aye. >> Aye. >> All right, let the record reflect that the consent agenda has been approved unanimously. Now need a motion on the minutes. Motion. Motion to approve by Councilwoman Reinoso, second by Councilman Pineyro. All in favor say aye. >> Aye. >> Let the minutes reflect that they have been approved unanimously. We'll now move into presentations. >> Item 8A, presentation, Keep Draw Beautiful Business Award. >> Good morning, honorable mayor, vice mayor, members of the council, Madame Manager, Mr. Deputy Manager, Mr. City Attorney, and Madame Clerk. Gina Vania, Assistant Code Compliance Director. This month we are pleased to recognize Holiday Inn Express for their outstanding commitment to keeping Doral beautiful. The property for which they are being recognized is located at 1691 Northwest 107th Avenue. Holiday Inn Express has been in the city for 5 years. The property is approximately 50,170 square feet and it is managed by 22 employees. Holiday Inn Express is a contemporary hotel in a proximity to Doral's vibrant shopping districts, accommodating guests seeking high-quality, affordable, and reliable stays. Recent improvement and ongoing maintenance efforts at the property include daily leaf blowing, weekly pressure cleaning, daily paving scrub, monthly grass and brush trimming, quarterly waste tank cleaning, yearly window cleaning, and the presence of an on-site maintenance team responsible for the daily maintenance of the exterior areas. It is with great pleasure that we name Holiday Inn Express for the Keep Doral Beautiful Business Award for their continued efforts to keep Doral beautiful. Madam Mayor and Council, here to accept the award on behalf of the property You may step up, please. he's General Manager Daniel Orellanos, Front Office Manager Emily Prats, Director of Sales Jessica Machado, Executive Housekeeper Tania Batista, and Chief Engineer Rolando Quintan. >> Hello, welcome. Thank you. Would you like to say something? >> Hello, Council for Doral. Just want to say thank you to the City of Doral, Madam Mayor, the whole council. >> It was an honor to be nominated. >> It's even proud of us to receive this award, and we will continue to be a beautiful image for Doral. >> Thank you for your investment and care for the city. Can we have a photo? Would you mind coming up here? >> Perfect. >> Thank you. Thank you. >> Thank you. >> Moving along, we are moving into the next presentation item, 8B. Item 8B, fiscal year 2025 annual comprehensive financial report. Madam City Manager, or >> Yes, good morning, Mayor and Council. We have our consultant here and our finance director who are going to give us a presentation on the results of our Act IV. >> Thank you. Good morning, Mayor and Council. We have here Jerry Donates, a partner with a firm Garc a Espinoza Millares Rodr guez Trueba, which is our external auditing firm. I'm handing over the presentation to them. Thank you. >> Thank you, Sol. Good morning, Mayor Fraga, Vice Mayor, council members, and city administration. As Sol mentioned, my name is Jerry Llanantes with GEMRT. I was the lead partner on the city's audit for the fiscal year ended September 30th, 2025. So I'm just going to give a brief overview, summary, summary results of the audit. So the Annual Comprehensive Financial Report, or the ACFR, as it's abbreviated, was issued towards the end of April, and the city submitted these financials to the GFOA for the purpose of then obtaining the Certificate of Achievement, for Excellence in Financial Reporting. The excuse the opinion in the audit report was an unmodified opinion. So that just means that the financial statements are presented fairly in all material respects. in essence, it's a clean opinion. So we did not have any findings to report, and there were no prior year findings to address in this year's report. In terms of our field work and testing, we did not have any difficulties in dealing with management, and we didn't have any issues in completing our procedures and our audit. You know, throughout the audit, we asked for a lot of information, supporting documents, a lot of inquiries, questions, and Sol and her team were able to provide, you know, responses and documents in a timely fashion. In terms of some technical aspects, accounting practices and policies, everything was consistent with the prior year. There was one new standard that was needed to be implemented, GASB standard related to compensated absences, but that did not have a material effect on the financials. In terms of some key financial highlights, property tax revenues increased by approximately $3.7 million when compared to the previous year, mainly attributed to assessed, you know, assessed value increases, new construction. Now obviously that's a hot topic in the state of Florida with the property taxes, so that's something that will need to be monitored in the upcoming months. Capital expenditures were approximately $53 million, including the land acquisition, ongoing construction, infrastructure, and acquisition of vehicles and equipment. In terms of fund balance in the general fund, at the end of the year was approximately $86 million. Out of that balance, approximately $70 million was unassigned, so that's well above the city's requirement of, of its minimum unassigned fund balance requirement. In terms of the budget, revenues and appropriations were sufficient to cover expenditures. And then lastly, we also did complete a federal single audit that's related to the federal grant awards and the spending based on the expenditures and the threshold. So there were two major federal programs that were audited, and for that audit, in the single audit, we also did not have any findings, and the opinion in the single audit report was also unmodified. So basically, that's a high-level summary results of the audit. And as I mentioned, I'd like to thank SOL and the finance department as a whole for working with us to complete this audit. And my team as well. Frances Cabrera-Yeque was the lead senior manager on the engagement. She's currently on maternity leave, so she couldn't be here. So we wish her well with the baby. And my entire team for getting through the audit. If you have any questions, and as always, we're available throughout the year if anything arises. You need to talk. >> Thank you very much. Thank you very much. Is there any questions for the consultant? All right, I don't think we have any questions. Thank you very much, we appreciate it. Appreciate it. Thank you so much. All right, we'll go ahead and move into our discussion items. >> Discussion item 9B, a resolution of the mayor and the city council the revised recreation fee schedule for the City of Doral Parks and Recreation Department, providing implementation and incorporation recitals, and an effective date. >> Okay, Madam City Manager, Deputy City Manager, I don't know if there will be a parks presentation regarding the fee schedule. >> Yes, Mayor, good morning. We have our consultant here from JRD and Associates. as you're aware, last year we voted on an item to have JRD and Associates conduct an overall fee study for the city. We are in the process of finishing that study. However, we wanted to address the parks fees now because, as you also know, we are in the process of rolling out our software program, which is going to be handling park operations, called Amelia. And we wanted to be able to have the fees in place in order to be able to roll that out as it should. So I have George Duyos here, who I've had the pleasure of working with in Coral Gables, as, as he provides service to that city. He also did our fee study for our building department a couple of years back. So he's familiar with Doral. So, with that, I'm going to turn it over to George. >> Thank you, Madam Manager. Good morning, Mayor, Vice Mayor, council members. George Duyos with JRD and Associates. I believe we have a presentation. >> Thank you. >> Thank you. As the manager stated, our firm was hired to conduct fee assessments for several city departments including Parks and Rec, Public Works, Planning and Zoning, and some others. So today we're presenting the Parks and Recreation. I will kick off the presentation with some background talk to you about how we went about the fee study and then turn it over to the Parks Director to walk you through specifics of fee changes for the Parks Department. The objective, as, as you all know, now is a time with the all of the property tax discussions and legislation, now is a time to take a look at those services that you provide and those that are eligible and should be Costs recovered by adequate fees. So this was one of the objectives of the study, also to improve transparency and the clarity of your fees and to simplify and standardize your fee structure. Right now it's a very large fee structure. There's inconsistencies. And so working with the department over the last few months, we've been able to arrive at what we think is a fee that's going to achieve cost recovery but also maintain the level of service that you provide to your residents. Cost recovery is one of your key performance indicators in your parks urban in your parks master plan. So it's very important that the city keep going with looking at the fees for the parks. So what is a fee? Basically, user fees, unlike property taxes are those fees associated with receiving a service. They help, to maintain your facilities, administer your programs, and they also help the city continue delivering those high-quality services that your residents are used to in the community. They also help alleviate the financial burden on the general fund. Why are they needed now? Well, as you all know, your parks, your facilities, your programs, your amenities have expanded significantly in the past few years. It was a good time to take a look at how your fees are structured, what the actual fees are, how you can better serve the community by having the appropriate fees, and how the new software can implement these fees. As the manager mentioned, your, your software Amelia is in the process of being implemented. So this is a good time to get these fees approved so once you go live with your software program, the, the appropriate fees will be included. The approach that we took was to basically, as I mentioned, we worked very closely with the department, with the director and his team. We looked at your current fee schedule. We assessed what fees were in need of change. Some fees were eliminated because you don't need them anymore. Some new fees were created. Some were consolidated, and the director will go into some of those in a little bit. We also gathered cost information to make sure that as much as possible, your, your costs could be recovered for the services you're providing. We benchmarked also against other municipalities. I'll talk about that in a minute and develop some options for the department to consider when looking at a simplified fee schedule. The cost recovery approach, which is essentially what we wanted to obtain is one that balances recovering your cost with the community benefit. So we wanted to make sure that the programs that you provide, some of which will not fully recover your costs, such as your, your, your senior and special needs programs, are maintained at a reduced cost, and you want to maximize your community participation. So for instance, some of your senior programs on the new fees are like a tai chi class for $2.50. Well, you might have 3 or 5 people attend that class and you're paying an instructor, you know, maybe up to $100. So, but you want to keep providing that service, you want to make it affordable to as many residents as possible. So there are some of the fees that are not going to result in cost recovery. However, there are others which should that involve significantly more staffing, operational requirements, complexities, and those have to do more with facility rentals and pavilions and some of the other programs that the city provides. I mentioned the comparative analysis. We wanted to make sure that, because there are, there are other options, especially when you talk about non-residents or businesses that are in, in your city, to maximize the use of your facilities. We wanted to look at what others charge, so we looked at all of these cities here. And our findings included that your department your parks facilities are newer, they're very well maintained, they offer many more amenities than other parks facilities offer. But we wanted to make sure again that the costs were on the same level as the others to the best degree possible. For several facility types such as athletic fields, baseball fields as an example, where your fees are lower in, right now you currently charge for 1 hour of a baseball field rental $40 for the hour. We looked at some of the other municipal parks. City of Weston, for example, charges $45, not a big difference, but you'll see in the proposed fees we're proposing $45 for that. Again, that's to achieve cost recovery but not to increase it to a level where it becomes unaffordable. You obviously want those fields used and the community to be able to enjoy them. So even with moderate fee increases, such as the example I just gave, Doral would maintain its competitiveness regionally. And finally, targeted fee adjustments are warranted to better reflect the premium nature of the services that you provide. So at this point, I will turn it over to the director to walk through some of the specific updates. >> Good morning, Michael Festa, Parks and Recreation Director. so with youth programming and programming across the board, with the non-resident rate, we're going from 20% to 25%, and we're setting that as a, as a benchmark. Previously, wasn't it was a different percentage depending on different programs, but we're across the board, so it's easy to understand for staff, easy to understand for the customer that it's a 25% surcharge for, for non-residents. On our recreation leagues, we're consolidating the fees, so it's one fee or a set number of fees instead of the 6 or 7 that we have now. And then we've adjusted some of the programming fees, especially those, the smaller programs where you have a lot of it's a very low instructor to a participant ratio. Event venues so anything involving event venues, the non-resident rate is going to go from 25 to 30 across the board. We're applying discounts for things like nonprofits, public schools, and government organizations that use our venues at a discount. We're also consolidating our security deposits to have 3 security deposit amounts across the board depending on the value of the rental. So it's easy to understand for the customer and for the resident. And we're eliminating any inconsistencies between facilities. So all facilities, all pavilions will have a set fee within a small category that we have. And then we standardized pricing, and we'll give an example at the end. So for field and court rentals, we are eliminating all administrative fees and we're just moving that into our hourly rate. Again, so customer understands you're renting a field for 2 hours, you're paying $90. It's not $90 plus whether the lights are on and off, administrative fee. It's just one set number that's easy to understand. And then those resident and non-resident rates and the discounts for nonprofits public schools and government institutions carry forward towards the use. This would not impact any schools in which we have joint use agreements with Miami-Dade Public Schools. This is add-on if any other facility any other school that we do not have an agreement with wants to use our facilities. special events, we adjusted the vendor ranges for food trucks and we standardized pricing across the board, and then we introduced some fees that we've been charging, for parking, for special activations that you'll see at the Fourth of July, where the residents are gonna have still the free event, but we're gonna have some ticketed events as part of that. For example, we'll have the Doral Central Park fitness members, which we have over 2,200 members in the fitness gym will have access to the rooftop patio that we have at the center as a member perk. But also as an add-on. Camps, we eliminated some of the seasonal camps and we restructured fees on that. We added fees for the summer camp that we are running in-house now. And I think going forward, what we're gonna do is primarily we've outsourced a lot of our camps, but we've had tremendous success in the camps that we've been doing in-house. And we'll be expanding that in the summer. And during seasonal, so spring break, we have the Thanksgiving break now, and winter breaks. Senior special needs, we've eliminated all fee rental fee ranges that we have, and now on our fee sheet, it's a clear fee that is easy to understand. We have it based on fitness classes, we have enrichment for seniors, but the programs themselves are not going to change. The fees for the most part are not going to change because we're already charging this. It's just standardizing it to what's on the fee sheet versus a range. Before, it would show $2 to $5 for a senior class. Now we're setting it at $2 a class or $2.25 a class, $2.75 a class. for Doral Central Park, the fitness center, and to George's point, this is a facility that we run more as a, as a business than a community benefit because it is a gym. We do have members. We've consolidated membership categories. We've expanded what membership includes to have perks, discounts. We've expanded the ability for members in the Aquatic Center to use a childcare in the gym. And for members of Doral Central Park Fitness Center, we are adding access at Doral Legacy Park. The idea is, is that it entices individuals that are wishing to sign up for memberships to have the more encompassing packages, so they have access to all 3 facilities with 1 membership. You will still be able to buy individual memberships per the fitness center, the pool, and at, at Legacy Park. And then we, one of the things that we're going to be able to do with Amelia now is we're going to consolidate are the add-on classes for fitness, where you're going to pay one set fee a month additional onto your membership, and you'll have unlimited access to the fitness classes at the fitness center at Doral Central Park. And then we consolidated the fees at Doral Legacy Park. Doral students with an ID will still have free access, but they will receive a membership fob so we can track who's coming in and out of the building. And this is something that we're going to be rolling out for memberships at Doral Central Park, Doral Legacy Park, and at, at the Aquatic Center. We had a very convoluted veteran and military discount section that was passed about 10 years ago. We've consolidated it so it's one set percentage fee, easy to understand, easy for us to track. there it removes a lot of the administrative backend that we used to have with the old, veteran discount. And we've expanded it to include all personnel at U.S. Southern Command. So just a summary, we've consolidated a lot. It's going to be easier for the residents to understand. It's going to be easier for staff to communicate this. It's going to be able to allow us to, when we move staff between facilities, reduce the training time. That's needed. We've expanded the surcharges for non-residents. We are going to be treating commuters so people that work in Doral can show a pay stub that they work in Doral at the fitness center and the aquatic center. We will be treating them as residents. Anyone that is a non-resident will still pay the surcharge. And then we're just eliminating just a bunch of underutilized and redundant fees that we had. And then just to give you some examples, this is an example of our youth basketball league. Instead of having two fees per season, it's basically the same season in the fall and the spring. We're consolidating it to one fee with a non-resident surcharge at 25%. And then this was our fee structure for pavilions. Now it's easy to understand. Depending on capacity, you're going to pay one of three rates. And then you'll have the discounts under there, and it's a flat $100 security deposit. the good thing with Amelia is we will be going away from security deposits being checks, which a lot of people don't carry checks. we'll be doing that all electronically, and that'll be something that'll be done on Monday after the rental is once we've confirmed the facility was returned in the condition it's supposed to. That gets all refunded to the resident, to their credit card. For most pavilion rentals and high-dollar amount rentals, we're going to go to strictly credit card. We will not be accepting cash at the park just to allow us to better to have better accountability of the funds. But the smaller ticket items like the water park entries, your small programs, that will still be cash or, or credit. And this is an example of some fees went up. In this example, fees did go down after we assessed the rental at that facility, the use, and balancing the resident/non-resident rate. So one of the things that's going to change for us and why we brought fees up is on the software, you're not going to see a non-resident/resident rate. What it'll be, it'll be the non-resident rate with a resident discount. So we had to adjust all our fees to be able to configure within that percentage versus a dollar amount. And that's, that's my presentation. Thank you. >> All right, great. Any other questions? >> I have some comments. >> I have some questions. >> Councilwoman Porras. >> Thank you. Thank you to Michael and the city manager's office and the consultant. For putting this together. Just have a couple of clarification questions. >> Yes. >> So the first one is regarding the use of facilities by the government agencies. I think before we had, fee waivers, right? And now, if I understand it correctly, it's a 30% discount. >> Yes. >> Okay, so we moved away from allowing government entities to use our facilities for free, at no cost, to a 30% discount, the same as nonprofits. >> We'll get like the health department that'll have an employee gathering not related to any like business that the, an elected official has, and they still pay the fee to use a facility. it's very popular to do that across the street. We've had the sheriff's office use the event hall at, at Doral Central Park, and we have assessed it. It depends on the usage. Typically the fees for, like the tax collector will use a space, we don't assess fees for those things. But if it's like an employee gathering type activity, we have been charging the rental fee. >> Okay, so just to understand, so if it's part of, an event, part of their duty, we're not charging fees? So is that, if you can clarify that, please. >> Can I jump in here? Because we had this discussion. What's been noticed is that there's been a little bit of, an excessive request because we're one of the only places that doesn't charge other governments. >> I remember that. >> So what we have talked about doing is potentially allowing once a year for free, and then after that they'll have to, they'll have to pay, to be able to utilize unless they're doing something directly with the city. Some of our agreements have MOUs, or MOJs, and so in those cases then the agreement will stipulate whether the space can be utilized within that agreement. But it's, you know, we have to have to create the revenue. So, there has been an excessive amount of requests for here because we're the only one of the only cities that have the newest facilities and free facility for other government agencies. So we're working on reducing that, that request to being once a year. Yeah, it also takes staff time and effort. >> And I'd just like to add one thing, So, if there has been an excessive amount of requests, like the mayor said, also we have to take into consideration that those events require setup, resources to go take down everything else. And so it's taking an inordinate amount of staff time to be able to plan, to have people here, to do everything else that is needed as support for the meetings. So that's mainly the reason. >> Yeah, no, and I'm in support of it. I, you know, we had that conversation where we determined that there was a lot of requests and I just wanted to see if there was something across the board, if this was the policy. So it sounds like there's maybe something else that could come before us to set sort of like the uniform policy, right? >> Okay. >> Okay. Let me see, there's one more. So, I'm obviously excited about the use of Amelia because it's just going to make our work so much better too. I know I bombard you with a lot of emails for facility rentals. So that's going to be really great. You know, I don't remember my other question, but I don't think I have anything else that's concerning. That was just my main question because I remember that. We had talked about it, but if we're going to see something else come up, you know, I'll, I'll look forward to that. >> Thank you. >> Thank you. >> Any other questions? >> Mayor, I do have a comment. >> Yes, Councilor Reinoso. >> So again. Also thank you staff for the report and our consultant. Thank you. My question is, are we giving discounts to our seniors? >> So right now with how it's set up, the fees for programs are heavily subsidized. And then for the membership at Central Park and the Aquatic Center, meaning for lap swimming, we do offer a $25 a month versus the $40 that other adults would pay for that. We have discounts for the 5K that have been used by the Silver Club to register for 5K. But as far as like a blanket senior discount for other like the water park, that's not in, in this fee schedule. >> Okay. And did we analyze potentially doing free classes or giving something of the programming, some aspect of the programming for free? Was that analyzed? >> Yes. Yeah. So we do the bingos we do seminars, we do, some of the activations that we'll do aside from like the big socials, that those are we offer those, for free. They also have access to, with a paid, not with a membership but if they have a fitness class at Central Park, we give them access to the walking track within the gym outside of a membership. So most of the seniors that use our facility at Central Park, they're paying as they go for programming. They don't have to have the senior membership plus the program fee. That's separate. There are separate they're treated separate from that. But what we will be doing going forward is issuing them membership fobs so they can sign in and out, because right now it's kind of like a free flow inside, in and out of the building, and we need to know kind of what we have in there. So that'll be a part of that. So they have certain discounts for certain programs, and they have certain privileges, and that access to the walking track includes, the track at Legacy Park. On the second floor of the gym with a paid fitness class. They have access before and after the class to use the space. Part of the upgrades that were just approved in consent, we will be expanding the cardio deck there at Legacy Park, and that'll be included in that access. >> Okay, I appreciate that because that was definitely a concern for our seniors, particularly a few And then, the other question is, we are expanding the military discount to those that are in the armed forces in Southern Command, correct? >> Yes. >> Okay. >> Yes. So we'll be expanding that. The previous resolution was vague, so we've defined it to include active military and veterans and those that are working within Southern Command, correct? >> With an ID, they can show an ID at the park, and they'll qualify for the discount, at any discount, at any of the facilities that we have for programming. >> And I also appreciate those that are working within the City of Doral to obtain some sort of benefit, especially when it has to do with health and quality of life, that they're able to have some buy-in into the programming at the resident rate. So I did appreciate that being included into what was assessed and in the study. So those are my questions. Thank you. >> Thank you. >> Good job, guys. >> Anyone else? Yes, Councilman Pineyro. >> Just to follow up on that, Mayor, well, first of all, Michael, thank you for bringing this forward. As a, as a former park manager, I get excited every time that, you know, you, especially you since came on board, have been implementing a lot of positive changes that I believe the department needed as well. So thank you for doing this. And when we speak about the operational cost recovery that By the way, has been part of the 2017 park system master plan. So it's something that we needed to do. So I'm happy that we're doing it now, especially with what we can face after November with all the changes that might take place. But at the same time, following up on Councilwoman Reinoso's comments, certainly, you know, seniors is important for us, special needs programs. Are important for us. There is a program actually, as a matter of fact, for seniors that is every, is the first Monday of every month that is for free. Yes. Is Aqua Zumba, right? >> Yes. Aqua, it rotates. But yeah, it's the senior splash day. >> That one. Yeah. So we're going to keep that one, correct? Yes. >> Okay. >> So those are good things that we still provide and we're going to keep providing for the seniors. And I just want to make a comment. I'm glad that we're increasing the age from 55 to 60. So I always thought that 55 was too young to be part of the Silver Club. I don't know if it's because, you know, we're getting closer and closer and closer every year, but I'm glad that we're moving forward and increasing the age as well from 55 to 60 and putting a moratorium for non-residents because that has been always One of the concerns from a lot of our seniors, the residents of Doral, having seniors from other places in Miami-Dade County coming to our program. So I'm glad that we also put in a moratorium on that. So those were my comments, and I place the motion to approve. >> I have one more question. >> All right, we have a motion to approve. >> Second. >> Second by Councilman Reinoso. And we have a question from Councilman Porras. >> Hey, just really quickly, so looking at the rentals, for example, for the, the Cultural Arts Center, those are not hourly, right? they're per rental for the day? >> Correct. >> Okay, it's a window of time. >> It's, it's usually like a 5- or 6-hour gap that you have the facility for. After that, we assess an additional usage fee for that. >> Okay, and that's also for the other Multipurpose rooms, Morgan Levy, and all the other parks. >> Yeah, they all have a 4it ranges between 4 to 6 hours. So when you rent a pavilion, you have it for 6 hours, and that includes your setup and breakdown time. And, and the same goes for the indoor spaces. >> Okay, and now it includes the tables and chairs? >> Yes, for the most part, except for this facility, because you can it's very flexible if you're using the event hall at Morgan Levy Park. Doral Meadow Park, Legacy Park, and Central Park, your fee is inclusive of what you need with tables and chairs. Anything above that, that you did additional tables and chairs, there is a fee for that. But for the most part, people just need, hey, if the room sits 100, I need 10 tables and 100 chairs. So we're rolling that into the fee because what we saw is it wasn't consistent across the system, and people pick up on that and they'll say, I had to pay tables and chairs at Central, but it's included at Morgan Levy. So we rolled that in. It's, it's, I think it, it eliminates that perception that we're trying to nickel and dime, when you get your estimate on, on the rental. >> Okay. And I guess the last question, is the, the garage still an add-on for the Coulthard Center? >> Right now? I think we eliminated that. >> Okay, let me see. Separate. >> Yeah, I believe that was a fee that was assessed through the Public Works side because it's a facility managed by Public Works. So it was in coordination where they would contact Public Works, advise that the facility was needed, they would make sure it would remain open, and then that fee was included as part of the rental. >> So it's included now? >> No, it's still part of Public Works. >> It's separate. Yeah, it works. It's not on our fee sheet it's on Public Works. >> You can choose to use the garage or, but if there is a fee assessed, right? Yes. >> just to add, the whole purpose of the fee schedule and the fee study that we have done with JRD and Associates, as I explained to all of you, has more and for the benefit of the public is why I'm saying itis we needed a methodology of how to do this over the city with each of the departments to be able to have a standard that we could proceed from going forward. so there needed to be a methodology behind all of this, which is what George has helped us to do, which is very important. And that's why we've separated the departments and who charges for what and what to do. >> Okay, okay, we have a motion and a second. If there's no additional questions, Madam Clerk, please call the roll. >> Motion to approve. Second by Councilor Pineyro. >> Yes. >> Councilman Reinoso? >> Yes. >> Councilman Porras? >> Yes. >> Councilman Cabral? >> Yes. >> Mayor Fraga? >> Yes. >> Motion passes. >> All right, thank you very much. Okay, next item, Madam Clerk. >> Item 9C, a resolution of the Mayor and the City Council of the City of Doral, Florida, approving and adopting the Condominium Owner Association and Homeowner Association Fraud Detection Pilot Program, providing for authorization, implementation, incorporation of recitals, and an effective date. >> All right, thank you very much, colleagues. Over the past several months, we've heard directly from residents across our community who feel frustrated, overwhelmed, and in some cases financially harmed by issues related to their homeowners and condominium associations. These concerns are real, and they are impacting not only quality of life but also affordability for many of our families in the city. At the same time, it is our responsibility as policymakers and stewards of public trust to be clear and honest about what we can and what we cannot do as a city council. As outlined in the attached resolution, under Florida law, the City of Doral does not have jurisdiction to regulate, audit, enforce, or oversee HOAs or COAs, and that's condos. We cannot intervene in elections, management disputes, or governance decisions. Those authorities rest either with the state of Florida, the Department of Business and Professional Regulation, also known as DBPR, in limited cases, or the associations themselves. And that is precisely where our challenge continues to lie. Residents often turn to the city because it is where the closest level of government is to them. We are accessible, responsive, and engaged, but the reality is many of these issues they bring forward fall outside of our legal authority. If we are not careful, we risk creating a false expectation or misleading residents to believing that we can solve problems that by law we simply cannot. That said, there is one area where we do have both a responsibility and an opportunity to act criminal conduct, specifically in this case fraud. When allegations rise to level of potential financial fraud, organized schemes, or exploitation, especially of our seniors or vulnerable populations such as the elderly, our police department has both the authority and the obligation to investigate, provided there is sufficient evidence to support such claims. However, as we have discussed providing, proving fraud is not as simple as it may seem. It requires financial expertise, documentation, and investigation resources that go beyond a typical complaint. This is where this proposal becomes both important and measured. What is a pilot program? What is this pilot program? The proposed HOA and COA fraud detection pilot program is designed to fill a gap not overreach on an authority we don't have. It creates a structured process within our police department to evaluate whether a complaint may constitute actual fraud, provide residents with a pathway to present credible documented, and advance only those cases that meet the legal threshold for investigation and potential prosecution. It is critical to emphasize this program will not resolve HOA direct disputes like enforcing rules and regulations. It will not enforce or it will not overturn elections or address dissatisfaction of your board's management. What it will do is help determine whether a criminal, a crime has occurred, and if so, will help build a case that can persuade or can be persuaded through the legal channels. Why this matters: this is fundamentally, fundamentally a quality of life and affordability issue for many. The largest investment of our residents is their home. When funds are misused, when assessments are improperly handled, or when alleged financial misconduct impacts, are actual impacts and not just theoretical. It's deeply personal and often a financial burden for our residents. At the same time, the state continues to place the burden of these issues on residents and indirectly on municipalities without providing meaningful tools, resources, enforcement mechanisms. This creates a disconnect between where problems occur and where authority truly exists. This program is to direct response is to, is to a direct response in this gap. It is also an example of what local government does best: step up, provide solutions, and put people first, even when the system above us falls short. Fiscal responsibility and the need for this pilot program equally is important. To the approach is the responsibility of the financial standpoint for us as a city. It's a reality that we just don't know yet how many complaints will we receive, how many will rise to the level of actionable fraud, how many hours of investigation work will be required, whether we will need an ongoing external financial forensic support, or whether long-term this fun this function should be supported by dedicated personnel within our police department. It is entirely possible we receive a handful of cases or hundreds of cases. We simply just don't know the data today. That is why I think a responsible approach is implementing this 1-year pilot program to study and look at what we can solve and how much it will cost us. During this period, the city will absorb the associated costs with training and outside financial auditing services. We will track utilization outcomes and resource demands, and we will evaluate whether the program is sustainable, scalable, or requires restructuring. At the conclusion of the pilot, we will have real data to answer critical policy questions, including whether a dedicated funding mechanism is necessary, whether a fee structure should be considered, whether cost recovery is possible in cases where fraud is successfully prosecuted, and what the appropriate long-term model should be. This ensures that we are not making permanent commitments based on assumptions, but rather on true measurable results. I also want to be clear that this program is not a guarantee of outcomes. Not every complaint will lead to an investigation. Not every investigation will lead to a prosecution. And not every case will result in recovery of funds. What this program provides is something equally important, though, a pathway to accountability where none may currently exist. It'll allow us to filter legitimate cases from general disputes, support residents in navigating complex situations, and work closely and collaboratively with the U.S., with the State Attorney and the U.S. Attorney's Office, of which both I have met with regarding this issue. And have committed to strongly supporting us in prosecuting cases. The bigger picture here is an initiative that underscores a broader issue that we continue to face. Local governments are being asked to do more, respond to more, solve more, and serve more while simultaneously facing constraints on revenue authority. This is a clear example of how policy decisions at the state level failed to fully recognize the role municipalities play in delivering real, tangible quality of life improvements for residents. And yet we have considered consistently demonstrated in Doral, we do not step back from challenges, we step forward. For all these reasons, I respectfully ask for your support in this resolution so that we can provide ongoing training to our police officers. I have asked Tamara Reyes to be here, which her proposals are attached. She currently works with the City of Miami and the City of Homestead in training their officers to be able to look specifically at these types of complaints and reports. I will ask Tamara to come up and maybe just say a couple words. I've been working with her for years on, not just what we can do locally with our limited authority, but how we educate our community, and particularly the investigators that just don't have the training to understand the complexities of these financial crimes. More importantly, we must continue to advocate. So in addition to this, I will continue to do the expo that we do every year, the resource fair, which I do along with Tamara, many attorneys in our community to give their time for free to educate and train our community. And I encourage our residents to come together. We will be hosting, I will be hosting a legislative workshop later this year where we will specifically talk about very key legislation that we will take to Tallahassee and hopefully be able to get passed. My goal is to start signatures after we formally formulate what legislation needs to happen. I was as was discussed earlier by the president of the Islands of Doral Clubhouse and Association, is that the root of this problem is that there is no accountability at the state level and in legislation, and we must see that change. And as much as we've gone and led and advocated yearly and proposals have come forward, they just haven't taken priority and have not gained the support. So we are going to have to collectively have stronger voices to truly get relief for our residents and see real change. Just before I turn it over to Tamara to say a couple words, I also want to say that personally, I have also made it a goal to see CDDs reformed and hopefully eradicated from the legislator's ability in cities. I think that they are extremely excessive and just pass on the bill for years to come to our homeowners, making homeowner entry and costs even more expensive. People don't understand what they're paying. They think they're paying a city or a government entity, and they're not. They're paying basically another group of residents to manage and upkeep infrastructure that wasn't paid for by the developer. It's the developer passing the buck. I can tell you here, I will not be supportive of CDD expansions any longer or establishing any new CDDs. And the other thing I want to say about something that was said earlier is, unfortunately, we don't have the authority to vote for the creation of HOAs or condos either. When a development comes forward, it comes forward to us under zoning categories of either multifamily, so on and so forth. But we do not have a say on whether an HOA is actually created or not. So with that, I want to turn it over to Tamara, who has extensive experience with this and has a true understanding, has been up in Tallahassee for I don't know how many years, Tamara, advocating for this, over 15 years advocating for this, and was the investigation company behind the issue that happened at Kendall Village. I believe it was called, right? or the townhomes over there. So I want to go ahead and turn over to Tamara for a couple minutes to have an opportunity to present what her proposal is. >> Hi, good morning. The reason I'm here is because these HOA complaints and condo complaints are not going away. As a matter of fact, they're getting worse. we have a private entity where people can pay to have us look into their books, their financial situations, and see if we can identify any misappropriations. The issue is that not everybody has the money to pay for our services. And then once we do get involved and we do the investigations, our accountants do the financial reviews, or the accountants do the audited financial, and we do find that there might have been misappropriation, we hand it over to the law enforcement agency. And what we found is that these officers have no clue on how to handle these cases. These condo cases are complex, they're document heavy, but more importantly, they work differently. And the example that I always give is if you come out of your house and your car's not there, you k