All right.

Welcome everyone.

Welcome to City Hall here in the city of Hollywood.

Today is Monday, April 6th, 2026.

We are here for a regular city commission meeting, but as I always mention, the meetings are never regular in that sense of the word because there's always important uh and meaningful work that we have on our agenda, and today is uh is no different.

Uh before we rise for a moment of silence, I would like to recognize Commissioner Shoeham and perhaps Commissioner Quintana, who uh the community has lost uh a great uh public servant this past uh a couple weeks, and they'd like to recognize their friend the vice mayor from Coral Springs.

Commissioner Shoeham.

Thank you so much, Mayor.

Uh this week, uh the world really lost uh bright light.

Her name is Nancy Matea, and she was uh killed on Wednesday night, we believe.

Nancy was a remarkable, remarkable leader.

She was a brilliant human being.

She was an environmental scientist from FAMU with a master's degree in public health from Johns Hopkins University, my alma mater as well.

Nancy spent her life working on behalf of her community, and her community extended well beyond Coral Springs, beyond Broward and beyond Florida.

She was a huge advocate for Haitians and Haitian Americans and people from all over that needed someone to represent their cause.

She was very much focused on preserving our environment, protecting our environment, creating resiliency in ways beyond just the environment, but financial resiliency, resiliency in in all aspects of the lives of people in her community.

Anyone that ever met her knew not only how beautiful she was physically beautiful, but a deeply, deeply beautiful soul.

And I really can't emphasize the loss that we all feel.

Uh all of us who knew her and anybody that she touched, their lives were improved just by crossing paths with her.

She was passionate about community outreach.

She was so intentional and thoughtful in her work.

She was an amazing listener.

Uh, and she just loved to laugh and just loved to help people.

She was in public service for all the right reasons, and she was just a superstar, a great friend, and a wonderful human being.

And our lives are diminished by her absence.

So thank you very much, Mayor.

Thank you, Commissioner Shoeham.

I know uh Commissioner Quintana uh spent uh a lot of time with uh her as well.

Commissioner Quintana.

Thank you, Mayor.

Um I've known uh Nancy for the last five or six years through our work together.

But in the last six months, we've become much closer in our personal relationship and our friendship.

I the the loss of her is a loss for everyone in our community.

One of the things about Nancy is that she was the first black Haitian American woman elected to the city commission in uh Coral Springs.

But despite all the pride she had in her own culture and her own background, one of the things about her is that she was such a globalist.

That she could connect with people from every background, every culture, and that she could celebrate in all of our differences while acknowledging and being proud of her own.

She realized that recognizing the beauty of all of our differences is actually something that strengthens our own.

And that's something I really admired and respected about her.

She was a fierce advocate, always for the underdog.

And she always did that in the most difficult situations where it was confrontation, but she did it in such a professional and even-toned way that it was always about trying to make connection to get to a resolution of a conflict.

I wish I had her courage.

And I and I look to what she did as an example and a challenge to be more like Nancy in my own interactions with the people in my own role moving forward.

Last year in May, there is a uh predominantly Haitian church in my district.

It's called Holy Nation Church.

And I had the privilege of being invited by our Congresswoman and our uh state representative Marie Woodson to join them at the church for a very special event.

It was a joint celebration of Haitian Flag Day and Jewish Heritage Month.

It was such a wonderful celebration of the unity of the history of these two peoples and how they came together after the Holocaust.

They took in a good number of refugees in Haiti itself, but also uh Haitian officials they issued visas to Jews fleeing Nazi persecution in Germany, Austria, and elsewhere.

And some refugees use those documents to flee to other countries rather than just uh settling in Haiti.

Uh there was a time when they then were able to uh get in 1947, Haiti was one of the few nations that supported the UN partition plan that assisted in the creation of the Jewish homeland.

So again, you know, what might seem like two totally different cultures, actually what unifies them was something that Nancy highlighted, and I was so proud to be a part of being there that day.

So be like Nancy, everybody.

Thank you.

Thank you for the those great tributes.

Uh certainly a special person uh that we all come to learn about, some of us.

So let's please think of Nancy as we rise for the moment of silence, followed by the Pledge of Allegiance.

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 this for all.

Thank you all so much.

Uh we also take an important moment at the start of each meeting to recognize our veterans, active service personnel and their families.

So if you are a uh family member or veteran yourself or member of the armed forces, please rise.