[Music] [Music] [Music] the oh [Music] [Music] take [Music] n you [Music] [Music] [Music] me take [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] e [Music] n please take your seats the meeting is about to [Music] begin please stand by we are going on air in 5 4 3 2 1 morning good morning everybody happy Friday uh welcome to the June 28th finance and economic resiliency committee meeting uh beautiful beautiful Friday morning in Miami Beach uh you'll have to excuse me if I'm not able to master this new microphone system so hopefully my colleagues will bear with me this maybe uh a trial and error uh that being said want to kick it over to the City attorney to kick us off then we'll go to our CFO uh for announcements and then we're going to get right into things good morning to today's Finance today's meeting of the finance and economic resiliency committee has been scheduled in a hybrid format with a quorum of the committee physically present and remaining members staff and members of the public appearing either in person or virtually via zoom in order to participate in today's meeting virtually members of the public may dial 1888 475 4499 tollfree and enter the webinar ID which is 863 6059 5462 or log to the Zoom app and enter the webinar ID which is again 863 6059 5462 any individual wishing to speak on an item must click the raiseed hand icon if they are using the Zoom app or dial star9 if you are participating by phone uh thank you chair uh a few announcements we have deferrals item 1 item 6 item 12 19 22 and 23 are deferred item 16 has a 10:45 a.m. time certain number 14 has an 11:00 a.m. time certain the item 25 which is actually a future item uh commissioner bot has requested to be added to as a co-sponsor and will be recorded that for the the July meeting and there's a request uh commissioner Fernandez won't be with us and he has requested that his items number seven and number 11 are moved to the July 12th uh FK budget workshop and if chair if you're uh okay with that we could show those items to just be discussed at the workshop that'd be great thank you thank you and then just one last thing for the order is that July 12th uh budget Workshop which originally going to be at 10:30 will be moved up to 9:00 a.m. so it'll be at 9:00 a.m. 12: a.m. uh slot so that is it thank you okay why don't we get going um and believe that we're going to hear agenda item number 13 uh this is the uh conveyance of air rights easement at Ferry Lane uh although before we move forward one of the things I'll let our City attorney introduce I really want to be sure that we had the right amount of uh Community engagement so that's something that I want to focus on during this discussion if I can read the item into the record uh number 13 discuss conveyance of air rights easement mms7 Farley Lane LLC item number 13 sir you want to come up and introduce the item good morning committee members my name is Joseph Paro Paro law and my miam Beach I represent the applicant MMS Ferry uh this is an item that was brought to you at the last committee meeting and it was deferred for a month to allow us to engage with the community members the essence of the item is that the applicant is seeking to purchase air rights from the city over a small Alleyway on faery Lane so that it can uh combine two Parcels with a a unified development in the neighborhood we understood from the last meeting that we wanted Community engagement and since the last meeting I was able reach out to and obtain uh close to 70% of the support of the residents on faery Lane including each of the neighbors of the applicant's property the other residents and the property owners including the entire apartment complex uh directly adjacent to the property uh We've also reached out to bua we intend to have a holistic conversation with them about potential allocation of the use of the sale proceeds uh we defer to the committee on its judgment and here to answer any questions you have thank thank you very much do we have any representatives of Bea possibly on the line because I I do want to see um how they feel about engagement and moving forward I'm not sure who they would be or who or me I I'll hand it over to my colleague commissioner Dominguez to make a comment and if you see anybody raise their hands and want to provide public comment want to give uh priority to that yeah all I see is a 571 number caption or Jasmine cart Spanish so so we'll leave it commissioner dingz why don't uh we turn it over to you and if there are members of Bea uh that are online and would be able to uh dial in just with their Collective thoughts um and how they would uh choose to proceed it would be much appreciated thank you so much um so when this item came up last time I had uh been contacted by the B is residents Association and they had not been contacted and um I was under the impression that at that meeting the city Administration would reach out to Bea and as of last night they had not heard from the city also this is a resident's right to no item and it wasn't tagged as such so that's why uh bura was upset um I have email connected uh Joe who's also a Bell Isle resident with the bureau board so that they can have community iations the biggest concern with be is how is the money going to be allocated to benefit be and um with that I'll give it back to the chair uh thank you for that commissioner Dominguez and uh from my perspective I didn't see any issues with this uh it seems like modest impact um but I guess it'll be amongst uh our colleagues decision uh if we want to essentially move this forward out of committee uh and and essentially ensure that bura uh has their um voices addressed between now and next commission meeting because there's nothing that essentially prevents us from moving it out of committee engaging them and if we get to a point where uh they don't uh agree we can essentially pivot uh in commission but I want to be sure that my colleagues feel the same uh Mr PTO and I want to make an affirmative representation that I will reach out and continue to engage with bua and have those conversations directly with them between now and God willing when it goes to committee uh excuse me to commission excellent uh Mr Public Works director um good good morning Mr chair uh Joe Gomez Public Works director as far as we're concerned um we're in favor of of of granting this uh air rights uh there is a public benefit associated with that that we've outlined in the memo uh which is uh approximately $83,200 in favor of the city than Mr City attorney any engagement on the phone I nobody has his or her hand raised there is a phone number uh there that might have been a dial in but I have no way of knowing if who that is then I I guess uh commissioner Dominguez I I want to get I know this is your backyard your neighborhood and uh very near and dear to you so I want to give Defence where I'm at I'd be comfortable moving this forward given it seems relatively n we have a positive affirmation from this project that will engage with Bea and it seemed like their concerns weren't about whether this project has Merit rather just how these funds would be allocated so I'd be comfortable moving out of committee but if you have a different feeling I'm going to give deference to you H I'm on the same page thank you Mr chair okay then does anybody want to make a motion to move this forward uh to the commission I'll second I'll I'll make a motion okay and I will second so this is being moved to commission with a favorable recommendation yes please show uh commissioner bot you uh y okay all in favor okay thank you thank you very much thank you and we're going to hold you to that so okay um moving on um agenda item number 10 uh discussion regarding uh Fitness and fashion uh I'm sorry just Fitness Festival in March Miami March 2025 let me hand it over to my uh colleague commissioner Suarez to introduce the item thank you Mr chair uh so we a while ago you know we had a serious problem with Memorial Day and Memorial Day was was pretty much soled with the air andc show and I'm hoping that we can do something similar for Spring Break um you know there's been a lot of talk of bringing Mega concerts um to to South Beach for for Spring Break um uh and a host of other activities I think if we really want to Rebrand Miami Beach during the month of March what better way to do it than a March Fitness month can you know Miami Beach is synonymous with the Sun the weather um the beaches and what better place to have a real f a host of Fitness events in the world uh in the month of March for Miami Beach and so um I wanted to bring this to my colleagues check the temperature and and see how we feel for a possibly 2026 start um I know from from what I've heard from my colleagues on the day that I think 2025 we also we want to repeat what we did this year I think for 2026 we have to be a little bit more Forward Thinking and and realize that we can't just shut everything down um for the month of March I mean it's it's one of our best times of the year and you know I asked uh LTE to to engage and and and do some very highlevel discussions on on what we can bring um you know and I think in a perfect world we would have one week of perhaps H rocks another week would be CrossFit um it's very similar to the water paloa that happens in across the the bay and you know that could really Rebrand our our month of March for Miami Beach so I I'd love to see what my colleagues think about this I I think it's going to be a great step in in in deciding the future of of what March is going to look like for Miami Beach yeah I love this idea let me kick it over to lazette lazette happy Friday um please give us uh your overview here happy Friday good morning Mr chair committee members lisad Garcia tante director of Tourism and culture city of Miami Beach as um commissioner suar he it up properly uh we have had highlevel conversations with high rocks since uh we hosted Miami Beach live in 2023 High rocks is a a hit type Festival they've grown exponentially uh they're very excited to come back to Miami Beach in 2026 we also had highlevel conversations with loud and live the uh production company that oversees the rebot CrossFit water paloa that's been for many years uh in Bayfront Park they are also excited to bring a CrossFit event um as the memo States we are recommending should the city uh commission approve this to focus on the two highest impact weekends as we've done in the past uh for March of 2026 excellent I I personally love this idea I'm not going to rehash all the positive uh attributes that it could bring I think this is something that can uh in turn pay for itself uh whether especially I really like that you're not trying to force a square peg in a round hole in terms of timing and Rush something that uh is going to be a critical part of our future and try and get it done the next eight or nine months that we have essentially uh over a year to put this together and really one help double down on our message of breaking up with spring break uh and then we've discussed what we don't want to be this really shows who we do want to be so I'm fully supportive here uh we'll get some of the details worked out but from a high level concept uh I'm supportive commissioner bot yeah I'm supportive of this as well um I think it ties in really well with our Blue Zone cities initiative that we're undertaking um and I am eager to see what comes out of it I like the idea that it's being focused on two months uh two weeks not you know taking over the entire month I think that's a good way to proceed um among the people that you speak with and and you know you know it there are going to be a lot of different factors that um decide that that inform the decision about how to proceed and what it looks like and with whom we partner but it might be interesting and fun to also have somebody like Zumba um I know they have a super high energy very impactful um and and much beloved Annual Festival uh like everybody who teaches Zumba apparently goes and dances their brains out and um you know I think that might be a fun Counterpoint to something like high high rocks or CrossFit like you know one could be super hardcore and one could be a little bit more familyfriendly and fun and not not that that's not fun but it's a different kind of fun what's that well but you know it's a different kind of vibe and so it might be fun to kind of balance them out so as you go along and do your due diligence maybe you could Factor something like that into the mix as well but I'm very supportive of this and some history Zumba started at um crunch on Miami Beach the the yeah the found Betto start was his class uh yeah I used to go to that class so uh it would be wonderful to reach out to them and see if they're interested okay perfect yeah and and he actually uh still lives in Miami Beach um so somebody I'll engage he's one of the founding fathers uh wildly popular in Colombia and things like that so it would be great that'd be awesome um if if um if I may leet if we want to U perhaps budget this for 2026 I believe we need budget it perhaps maybe for this fiscal year and next fiscal year what what would you suggest is the best course of action to I guess put this in the right direction or the next step sure and I as I mentioned we've had high level discussions uh with h rocks um they mentioned they would need uh about the same amount of funding that we gave them in 2023 which is about 600,000 uh with the CrossFit loud and live they mentioned you know as close as possible to 800 uh I and I defer also through our CFO but we have our large scale uh event fund that's at 606 that that's already in the recurring budget that we can start uh and use that for 2025 and 26 but Jason thank you was that let me add on to that so uh currently in the 2024 budget it was a new item that was added um was a uh Community event um pool funds available as events come up and uh commission has approved a number of events throughout the year uh that didn't have attached funding you know as a specific item and we've utilized that pool to to cover those costs um so what we we could do I believe it $66,000 is available in that pool um so that would be over the two years 25 and 26 1.2 million and just doing quick math I think it's around 1.4 million would be needed for that so that would exhaust the pool totally for 25 and 26 and still be short to 100,000 which is which is fine uh just a couple caveats that so if this goes back to commission to become a a you know a budget priority through the 25 and 26 budget priority what we could do is we could allocate $600,000 in the 25 25 budget dedicated towards that with the understanding that the the 600 for 26 would also be allocated and we would then have to Pony up an additional 200,000 26 to cover that the only caveat I just wanted to add then is um for the commission to hopefully be mind then when there's these events of let's give $25,000 for this thing and 10,000 for this thing then there would be no pool really available to to cover that um so just to give you some of the the concepts on on the numbers there and this essentially being a placeholder one thing that I like about this is I can see the strong possibility of an Roi on this right March is a month where we went from having very little Direction in what we wanted to be and now we're implementing curfews and you know essentially uh telling people yes come here but no do not come here um and this is uh going to kind of help uh reshape and reinvigorate uh time that might have had somewhat of an economic impact uh of when we think about how we're handling spring break if I can also maybe just to to recommend uh there's around $400,000 left a little more than that left in the pool for this year but there's an outstanding obligation to the National Championship which is also in two years of $400,000 so you know I speaking to to leet about this is that we would just utilize that outstanding requirement uh for those dollars and there would be a small amount that I would allow to get rolled rolled over uh to cover that but perhaps the the motion is to go back to commission you know favorable recommendation for the administration to engage uh you know in in agreement U negotiations to come back to commission uh for these uh for these vendors with a a budget of up to 1 $4 million of which 600,000 will be allocated as part of the large scale uh pot in 25 and uh another 800,000 in 26 so but again just as a reminder this would mean then that this would be all of the pool being uh being allocated but we'd be able to talk uh at our upcoming budget Retreats and workshops which I think the next one is actually focused on operating not we've already done Capital so we're doing operating so we could talk about uh prioritizing actually replenishing that if we decide to allocate in this fashion correct correct the dollars could be um if there's additional uh Surplus uh that want to be allocated towards that uh some dollars maybe the 200,000 uh that we know that we're going to identify need or or some amount additional could be added to it to leave some amount in the pool and just I think in the realities of the world it's probably helpful to ensure that there's at least hundred or $150,000 because things will come up uh that you know and lazette can speak to you privately off you know about the other pools of money that we have for for events and all the the the very detailed processes that she's put in place to ensure but there's you know very many Hunger mouths that you know have interest in in and running really great events here at the city okay I I appreciate the uh the informative dialogue do uh do I have somebody that wants to make a motion I'll make a motion okay I will second and if I can so that motion would be to return to uh again always for the record right uh return to commission with a favorable recommendation to for the administration to engage uh with the uh relevant vendors to bring a fitness Festival during March of 2026 and to make it a budget priority during the 25 and 26 budget process okay excellent yeah commissioner J yes we'll show unanimous thank you all right thank you let's move on to agenda item number 15 discussion regarding costs associated with dog beach access program in the budget process feel like I'm doing somebody else's job right now am I doing your job Rick no I wasn't sure if you'd like introducing I'm doing your job all right go ahead I'm sorry that was item number 15 sorry uh discussion regarding costs associated with the dog beach Access program in the budget process for the F 2025 fiscal year number 15 thank you good morning everyone um so this is actually an exciting item for us because uh it's I'm sorry if I could uh just not for my uh knowledge but for everybody else's us being who you in I apologize Jose no Risco assistant director of The Parks and Recreation Department um so this particular item is one that um you know we definitely have a an issue we have dogs on the beach we witness it you know um our Rangers witness it our Code Enforcement Officers Etc um so you know there it's an issue that has to be tackled and so that's why we're excited that this item came before us and there's you know basically one of two ways right one is inforcement another one is creating an Avenue um for people to lawfully you know have their dogs access Beach areas Etc uh to profer some history in 2014 The Parks and Recreation Department initiated uh a pilot program and that program required registration uh paying $5 if you're a resident $25 if you weren't a resident Etc to use uh the beach area uh on 81st Street um and you know for their dogs and basically Friday through Sundays uh you know roughly a 4H hour period seasonally adjusted uh and that program has since then uh weaned down in the sense that we didn't have a whole lot of use uh of the program so we stopped uh restricting you know or requiring registration we stop charging the fee um we do have folks that do follow the rules we do have folks that use the program but we have seen you know dogs in the beach in other areas you know South Beach mid Beach Etc um so you know we've provided our cost uh we think that you know um as recommended and as proferred you know Park Rangers could monitor um the budget that we've provided is kind of a um worst case scenario budget in the sense that we always try to to move our staffing around um and remain flexible in you know uh being able to you know restation and reposition Rangers uh to avoid overtime cost but uh the numbers that we have provided um are inclusive if we had of Ranger coverage dedicated there during the uh entire period you know that's being proferred originally the the recommendation was 7:00 a.m. to 9:00 a.m. however we've been working closely with environment and sustainability um and they've recommended maybe that we push the hours back 9:00 a.m. to 11:00 a.m. uh just because we want to make sure there's enough time for uh the county to go out and do the turtle nesting uh you know reconnaissance that they do every morning Etc um but you know this is an item that we certainly are happy to discuss and you know have any you know uh questions Etc we commissioner schars why don't want to kick at you for your thoughts first um given this your item yeah I you know I think think Jose hit it on the head you know you know right now people bring their dogs to the beaches anyways this this gives an opportunity or an Avenue for a legal place where we can you know dedicate our resources for cleanup and and sanitation um you know we have what seven miles of beaches it's impossible to think that we can enforce everywhere but if we educate with a uh with a specific place where people can bring their dogs to the Beach and enjoy during a very set specific period of time I think that would be I think that would be great I mean you know I've got three dogs um and I I I love bringing you know I when I when I can bring my dogs to the beach I you either have to go to hover or biscane Beach and you know it doesn't seem uh feasible for a resident to do that if they want to enjoy the beach with their dog um and you know this kind of ties in perfectly with our Blue Zone City uh initiative you know it's not just us it's our pets that we can bring uh we can go run on the beach with the dogs we can play catch it's it's a it's a quality of life it's a small quality of life issue that we're we're bringing to the residents that's going to make living here so much more desirable commissioner Rosen Gonzalez we we can just engage him back and forth we don't have to go through the chair on this all right I have a few questions number one what do we do about fleas in the sand because that's been one of the concerns I have nothing against people bringing dogs to the beach but you know you get one dog with fleas the sand gets infected with fleas and then people are getting bites that's number one the second thing is that they're out there having fun and you know they just urinate like in the sand so my two questions how can we keep the sand clean that's my only you know my only worry let's say that we have this specific area it needs to be sanitized at some point like at least once a month I don't know what the protocol is for that do you I said that you're going to test the water quality fine but what are you going to do to make the sand safe yeah so when it comes to the sand um we can certainly work with the county and try to see what options are available they're the ones that maintain the beach itself they do the beach raking Etc um as it pertains to fecs Etc the Rangers would be there uh they'd be handing out bags um and you know ensuring that folks are cleaning up after their pets we would also engage obviously if we came across any feces but of course urine is a concern and fleas could always be a concern as well so my you know I'm going to be supportive as long as they find something that they can either spray the sand with that's not toxic that will get rid of the urine um odor and fleas I mean there is rain usually the rain washes the POA and um as far as fleas I mean it's the same you know same issue that you would have at any dog park unfortunately um but but you know I I think in today's age with te today's technology I think 90% of dogs are on flea medication especially in Miami Beach um where it it it's almost like non-existent at this point I mean so um I hear you and again this is just a pilot program so I know my my only question is if there is something that's not toxic that they can spray the sandwi I think we should you know so I would just add that to it if that's okay with you great idea okay commissioner Dominguez I'll just make a a quick comment um and it's not related to dog fleas but um there is sandli that exist on the beaches and there's a season and my understanding is that the season is happening right now and the lice comes from the sarcasm that builds up on the sand U so not the dog so I want the people to confuse it with the dogs bringing the lice it it happens uh because of the seaweed um I have a couple of questions in general I'm supportive of this but I I'm you know Amy you're you're here and maybe you can address how we're going to um have increased water testing we have definite issues with water quality around Miami Beach already and I want to make sure that we're not adding to the problem by trying to do something that people want I mean that's that so is there going to be enhanced testing more frequent more like in these particular spots will we do testing specifically um is one question the other qu sorry uh the other question is um we have a lot of independent-minded thinkers in Miami Beach and even if we have three additional dog parks to the the big one that we already have up in North Beach people are still going to have their dogs off leash on the beach wherever they want as they do now how are we going to um communicate that this is happening and and step up our enforcement is practices so that you either have your dog on on the dog park Beach or you don't have your dog on the beach at all because you know this is being proposed to solve that issue but if it doesn't solve that issue and you know we turn the entire Beach into a dog beach effectively that's a problem I also love dogs I have a whole bunch of them the numbers vary by by weak it seems but you know I know people who are terrified of dogs or allergic to dogs or you know dogs are at the end of the day even the best trained Ones Still animals and if somebody you know somebody set somebody else off that is an issue and we don't want to um be sort of sticking our foot in it while we're trying to do something that's good so how are you guys handling those things sure well good morning um commissioner and Commissioners Amy nlls uh chief rilian officer um when the item was first conceived um the uh commissioner as well as attorney's office did reach out uh to me personally to find out what the Department of Health would think about this with those same concerns the areas that are um being recommended already are within the fdoh healthy beaches program so 53rd Street 21st Street as well as the existing 81st are already within that program um they would not be inclined to add any additional sampling so we would need to utilize what we have and I think we would have to monitor it carefully so when there is you know any exceedances there are alerts that are go out you probably have seen them yourself so that would be monitored you know in that way um but they do not have the ability to um or they don't have authority over this as Department of Health but they have a lot of recommendations which were also included in your package as to enforcement um so the ranges are certainly a component they Patrol the beachwalk we currently don't Patrol the beach um but you know combined with the codee enforcement officer combined with the police department who also has some beachwalk details we can certainly work with them and and try to address the issue um it does come up we do receive complaints um and we all try to work with each other to uh tackle the issue and that's why we're excited that we're taking a stab at you know an approach to see if it alleviates some of the um concerns that we're having now in those areas where it's not permissed right now and we would also work with Communications because a very important component of this like any you know action we take is a communication piece right people are aware um and I think that you know innately people want to certain to comply with the rules you know and now that we're going to have a mid Beach location a South Beach location um I think it'll certainly provide an Avenue for further compliance yeah yeah just um commissioner but it's not three additional um it's two additional it's two additional I I I never I didn't know that North Beach had a dog beach and so um when I found that out I'm like oh well now I will um so it's going to be adding two additional beaches and and the idea is to basically have it you know so every you know every part of the beach gets its own little slice of paradise on the beach so I'll make comments uh maybe I'm hoping the dog lobby isn't as strong as the cat lobby after this we'll see um I don't love the idea uh but if uh this is a community need um I'll be supportive of the concept but uh Mr CFO just confirm when we were going through our latest budget I saw $150,000 that's allocated for the construction of a new dog park in mid Beach and well it's not on the beach it's actually uh on colins Avenue right off of the beach correct I believe one of the projects that was recommended for funding was a 35th Street uh uh dog park which I think is uh adjacent uh to to the beach and if I could just also because the dollars weren't mentioned specifically this initiative um if this goes back to commission with a favorable recommendation I would assume it include the $140,000 uh budget uh make it a budget party during the 2025 budget process because there is a a dollar value associated with initiating this program so while the concept I'm not in love with but can be supportive I I think we're kind of I don't say asking for trouble but I can just uh Envision the emails that we're going to receive of people walking barefoot down the beach and stepping in you know what deal with that when it gets there but from the budgetary perspective if we're not we're not adding any type of infrastructure or things like that help me understand how just saying okay from 7 to 9 or 9 to 11 you take your dogs on the beach how that translates to $140,000 and I hope it's not because well now we need uh in in a three block area um people to stop by every 15 minutes uh I'm not going to be supportive of if that costs1 $40,000 yeah so the way the most of the cost I mean there's minor uh costs related to infrastructure meaning we would have the doggy bag uh dispensers both at the entrance to the beach and in the actual area as well but those costs are you know relatively minimal we would have costs associated with the dog bags the poop bags themselves uh most of the costs are Staffing right because the way that we um originally had the discussions was having Rangers dedicated there present while it's happening um to monitor the activity right to make sure that people are picking up after themselves and and to further you know make the program successful um as I mentioned that is the cost if we had to have a ranger on an overtime detail perform the work sorry who was Mr City attorney is there any legal liability where that would be a requirement having the ranger staff this because um until we see an issue maybe we we don't go forward with the Personnel component but if we could put in a nominal amount like uh 10 $15,000 for the doggy bags the infrastructure and then we go forward as a concept I'm happy to support that the the question as to whether you need to have a ranger there to monitor that's a policy call that is not a legal question uh I I don't know how my colleagues would feel if we move forward in concept but we're not allocating dedicated Personnel in the tune of $140,000 how would you feel uh the by the way the bue Brothers um told me that they'd be more than happy to help on the cleanup efforts and sanitation efforts so um I think we have we have a a vendor who's willing to I can do it for free um and even print out bags with Miami Beach logos on it um the poop bags so um I'd be more than happy to maybe bring it when we bring it to the commission that they can present and say hey they're willing to uh step up as a great asset to the community to help us to help with this pilot program doggy poop bags were never an Avenue I envisioned for advertising but um hey that's what they want to do I'm fine with that how would you all feel if we uh approved this item but we allocated an amount of $155,000 for the infrastructure and uh don't go forward until we would discover a need for it with a Personnel component if I may yeah please um I have a question the um proposed locations are those locations where the buet brothers already have operations or would that be their volunteering and that would it be an expansion I believe it's they're going to be volunteering I I I'm not I think mid Beach they may have an operation there but I know South Beach they for sure the one on 21st Street they do um I just want to be careful because um we don't want that I am happy to accept help from anybody willing to offer but I also don't want to um if there's not already a bushe Brothers location at the location of the park I don't want that to turn in no brother location I think during that I think during that 2our limited time they're willing to send someone there to make sure that it's being handled properly okay yeah I I'm we're not going to set up shoing yeah no I mean because that's that's also a community need right like the balance between being able to just throw your towel down with your friends versus being relegated to the back of the bus because there are all kinds of chairs on the beach right um I would be supportive of your vision of um moving it forward with a smaller budget and then if we need to find funding because something is a Miss um you know when when we come back to the commission meeting we'll know if the buche brothers are able to help and if they're not then we can reconsider what the funding needs might be okay so does somebody want to make a motion that we will move this uh item forward with uh but with a modification that we will um reflect the funding not of a fiscal impact of up to $140,000 but we'll say $10,000 which I still think is very gracious uh for the infrastructure you know time value of money sorry I tried $10,000 um and if uh this program we decide we need more resources and more Personnel come back to us and we'll take a look at this but let's move the the concept forward with a lesser Financial impact if I could um chair if I if I could hearing everything and trying to work the motion if if I'm correct the motion would be to uh return to commission with a favorable recommendation to add two new dog beach locations with a $155,000 cost 10 I'm sorry 10,000 uh to be a budget priority during the 2025 budget process and for the administration to discuss an additional public benefit with the buche Brothers is that perfect get everything thank you do uh does a colleague want to make a motion I'll make a motion I will second all in favor all right thank you thank you thank you very much we have a 1045 time certain for item number 16 looks like uh we're pretty close to uh timing here so uh let's hear that commissioner Dominguez would you like to introduce your item I read the item into the record I uh I'll just read the item into the record uh number 16 is a referral to the finance and economic resiliency committee for a comprehensive review of the uh M mvpds lgbq uh Outreach initiatives discussion of the types of Social Services programs available to the lgbq community in the city including but not limited to STI Andor drug testing centers and exploration and collaborations uh between the city nonprofit organizations and local establishments to strengthen and promote these crucial services in the City item 16 thank you uh so the purpose of this item is to really ensure that we have an allocated line item so that mbpd can uh utilize funds from that I line item for LGBT uses right now with the current chief and Command Staff they are very supportive of lgbtq initiatives and we want to ensure that um funds for their different items are protected uh through a separate line item and Cecil ory is here to discuss it good morning commission um the item asked for an overview of the P services and so we also ask uh Dr Rosenfeld and Parks and Recreation for what they do on LGBT initiative so the memo reflects the information we receive as well as PD's initiatives um right now there's two uh piles of money allocated by the commission which which is the uh the partnership with pridelines and the partnership with save um that's for sure ensuring certain services in the city in terms of the police that's a big part of the community policing approach however there's no dedicated funding attached to it uh we have Personnel we have two Leon doing some of the work uh but because there's no budget attached to it it's very dependent on the leadership's support it's also dependent on the what is left in the budget if you have something that happened um or spring break could cost more money or something like the attack on on October 7 that deployed a large portion of overtime funding to safeguard the Jewish institution or anything like that then you could end up with no funding for LGBT or or not sure and you can't launch a program unless you know it's going to be funded so it makes doing those activities um pretty challenging the lack of dedicated line item and there's been a high demand for actually more from the community from the advisory committee uh from other municipalities with with which we collaborate on LGBT initiatives and so it would really uh allow us to number one safeguard the fact that we we would know certain activities are going to happen every year and number two to probably do more if we had a dedicated line item uh for this thank you Cecil and on page 168 of our package it lists uh the breakdown of what it would be used uh for and the line item request is for $54,000 excellent and I think what you've seen uh from our commission is just broad-based uh support um and love for our LGBT community we understand the trying times uh especially you know perhaps in our state that that uh has been cast upon them um that is not how we view things in Miami Beach we we want to do things that are supportive uh so something I'll support let me turn over my colleagues uh commissioner uh but thank you um first of all Jason if you could add me as a co-sponsor to this that would be great um I think that not only should we um memorialize this and protect the funding but we should also do it with a whatever the appropriate CPI increases per year to make sure that you know in 10 years from now you don't you know you're not still at 54,000 have to cut a program so um I don't want to inflate things unduly but also things there's inflation and I think we need need to factor that in so you know it's really important as you said um commissioner magazine that um we put our money where our mouth is especially in the State of Florida where um we we're not supposed to say gay and protect those who may feel um that they are the most vulnerable among our our community and and um provide safe spaces and resources so that's a that's a definite two thumbs up for me I will move it excent I will second if I can the so the motion will be to return to commission with a favorable recommendation to make a uh make it a budget priority uh during the 2025 budget process for $554,000 to be added to the police department budget related to the lgbq uh initiatives and that that dollar value to be uh indexed to inflation going forward that's right and believe uh commissioner's bod myself uh as be added as co-sponsors okay um going to move past item 14 just because we have an 11:00 a.m. time certain and while we're close I believe the rules are we can't call it anytime before 11: even though we certainly have our Representatives here so if you can bear with us for six minutes we'll we'll get you up here and out of here uh so let's go to um item number three discuss action pilot program to utilize block the Box cameras Mr chair thank you Mr chair uh so I brought this back um a few months ago and the idea here is right now we cannot issue a citation via mail uh for blocking the box if there is an officer present we can issue a citation uh and that is unfortunately a function of state law the idea and intent behind this item is is twofold um one one idea is to educate people who do block the Box we can find out who they are and we can send them a written notice saying hey you blocked the box please be a little bit more considerate or something along those lines and I believe this legislative session in 2025 the Florida legislative session 2025 you know we're going to have tremendous amount of Lobby activity um to push for items such as this and the idea is by the time we get approved funding permits it's probably going to be one or two years anyways and I'm foreseeing us having a huge success in Tallahassee to actually get citations uh mailed out uh through this technology it's only a matter of time I we we just did it with school zones and speeding um and I feel like this is less intrusive um in terms of U enforcement so uh I wanted to check the temp of my colleagues on this I think you know on you know it comes to mind 41st Street um 17th Street and Alon um you North Beach uh that there's a consistent issue with people blocking the box and it really affects traffic and so this is starting to lay the groundwork for better behavior on the road I am support of uh let me turn over to our Police Department uh good morning Commissioners Eric Garcia major of uh police tech services uh So based on the recommendation by commissioner Suarez we've we've started to look into this at this point in time we've we've reached out to uh our current red light camera vendor they are conducting some testing on uh A system that would do basically that in Delaware has not started yet um the other the other uh agency that we reached out to that we found out was doing something similar to this was in Washington state um in Washington state it's a little different it's not necessarily blocking the Box their technology Works more about blocking crosswalks um so they think that technology might be able to be adapted because uh but right now it's only cap it's not capturing every vehicle that would be blocked the Box intersection it only captures the last one in the line which usually is the one that's in the crosswalk and they're citing for that so we have not yet found uh a vendor that does specifically block the Box technology obviously we're going to keep looking anytime that we can uh H find a solution to a uh problem like this with technology is much better than solving it with Personnel much much more cost efficient um our concern commissioner with uh with the locations we have we have a unique situation where the biggest pro locations where this problem occurs are on state roads we do not believe that uh the Florida Department of Transportation would permit uh us installing a system to do something that is not legally allowed um we also have a concern regarding uh uh using cameras and uh obtaining information from the driver database for a non for uh a non- enforcement type of citation uh We've looked into this with the city attorney's office uh previously we cannot get a definitive opinion from the dhsmv whether it's a permissible use or not so we have a concern about that that we we'd have to work out and um and and and as far as uh what we're what we'd ask for from uh the finance committee I I unfortunately I do not have the ability to ask for anything because I do not know how much this would cost we have not found a vendor that does this yet um the costs can vary widely depending on whether they require hard infrastructure or uh some type of wireless and solar uh inst installation so I I don't I I do not have the ability to ask you for any funding at this point um I'd like to ask we can uh my my uh our recommendation would be to allow us to continue looking into this we do have some uh uh police and law enforcement uh conferences and expositions that come up at the end you know towards the end of the year where maybe we can find a vendor that uh that does this uh and we'll continue to look into it but at this point I just don't have anything to ask you for because I don't I don't I don't know how much uh this something like this would cost at this point deputy chief what is the status of essentially um the I don't want to use the wrong word but the traffic enforcement officers that we will have stationed at the some of the problematic intersections I I know that there's a specific uh moniker named for pip yes s is good morning Mr chair members of the commission um Public Safety specialist um yesterday that we have we hosted a graduation in which seven graduated we have the remainder starting the um uh Academy per se our in-house Academy on Monday um so we should be fully staffed at some point with the 10 that was allocated by the commission um the seven are now going to enter into what we call the fto phase they're going to ride for a short time with an an experienced PSS um gain some knowledge of the city um geography um and actually perform the work um that they were trained to do and then eventually they'll be released on their own but they're going to be out there um beginning on Monday actually performing some of its work at Major intersections around the city um and I just want to reiterate uh what major Garcia said we are a proponent for this um we we support what commissioner Suarez is trying to do here um the ability to free up law enforcement and then to educate the the public um um through technology such as this with um enforcement action um is the way to go we just have that hurdle with fot and hopefully through the state and something passing along these lines that um allows cities AC across the across the state to uh perform this type of function uh is is a long-term goal and I hope they they come forth with it uh because that'll help us tremendously excellent great to hear about the PSS uh if I could ask one followup uh perhaps before Monday if you'd be able to issue a very very quick brief uh letter to commission um perhaps identifying the times and places where these seven officers will be on Monday I'd love to come out and uh show my personal support and see how this is working live and in person and just just has a follow-up to that sir um they're going to move around to congested areas around the city so it it'll fluctuate but we can get you some information I'd like to make one additional comment that um I think uh at the point in time where this is legislatively approved I think very quickly you'll find people moving into the market just the same way that we saw with the red light with the speeding cameras in uh in schools zones the minute that this is approved legislatively through the state I think you'll find everybody will have a solution that they're going to come and and try to sell us immediately so uh we're kind of a little uh putting the cart before the horse but hopefully uh once it happens or uh once there's some some uh uh momentum for that to get approved I think you're going to see a lot of people move in and uh there'll be there'll be Solutions available commissioner as far as what direction we want to take here do you want to perhaps close this out but it sounds like our our police staff will still uh be on the lookout and proactively looking for um different vendors and different solutions but given that they don't have any uh any ask right now or do you want to keep this kind of open and revisit in six months yeah correct so I'm I'm not a member on this Comm so I I unfortunately cannot make any motions but if I were um yes I would like to I don't mind closing out or waiting back 6 months for additional information and I would also you know would like to see that this become a legislative priority for the 2025 uh Florida State session yeah I'm certainly supportive of that I know we're big boys and girls here so just because we close close this out I'm confident that you'll keep working on the background we're not going to stop looking y you need a motion if if I can help summarize itself I'll I'll move what he said you want to bring it back in like a few months to see what they found out like three months how long do you need six yeah six but I think we're going to close bring back in six months so and we'll let the it I think is there's a couple of items to there is the motion uh could be to return to commission with a favor recommendation to make the um and I'll work with the city attorney maybe on the language a little bit is the block the Box related law uh state law adjustments to become a uh uh a legislative priority uh for the commission two uh for an LTC to be issued on the PSS uh deployment and then we would close and then obviously the police department in the future is if that laws ever did change would then work with a commissioner to then go down the proper process is that all that commissioner bot you want to make a motion I'll make that now second I'll make that motion second I feel like we're lacking our all in favor C here today I feel like we're lacking the all in favor say I I yeah I'll just in favor if I can I'll take that roll over I just before we close this item out can you just explain what releasing the PSS is is is it like releasing the Kraken is it Rel letting the dogs out I mean essentially um Madam commissioner they they have to achieve a level of proficiency in the in in they've been previously trained to do they have to demonstrate that actively out on the roadway um there's uh I'll give you an example there's a difference between uh learning how to move cars in in a very small uh confined uh intersection versus picking them at 41st Street in Alton as an example which is a major intersection with lots of uh uh turn lanes and through lanes and things of that nature that's just one example and then there's report writing and things of that nature thank you excellent thank you gentlemen uh so we're going to go ahead and hear uh our time certain of 11:00 a.m. item number 14 and then I believe I see HR yes uh after that we're going to hear item number four okay number 14 discuss the possibility of the city assuming control and managing the Sunset Harbor lift station number 14 gentlemen turn it over to you uh or Mr CFO you want to introduce this I think we'll have um Joe Garcia uh thank you Mr chair and Commissioners uh again Joe Gomez Public Works director this is a request uh from the Sunset Harbor um uh buildings um the North Tower Sunset Harbor south tower the town homes in Sunset Harbor and the yach club collectively the the properties making a request for the city to take over the private lift station that currently serves these four buildings um uh in in the memo we detailed for you um our analysis of this um I should point out that this is not a unique situation to to this location uh we have over 30 private lift stations throughout the city um for example Mount Si has several uh the addition um hotel has two um we have other locations the Coast Guard uh station has uh has has has several so this is not a unique situation however um after careful analysis by our team um if we were to to take over a station like this um we've estimated that the cost to upgrade the station um based on our city standards um with new equipment is somewhere in in the range of a million to a million and a half dollars in addition to that it would have an annual operating cost of about $60,000 as such uh we're not recommending that this be approved it also implies that we would have to have uh legal instruments for us to be able to because the the location of the pump station is not going to change so in order for us to be able to maintain this this facility we would have to have revoke irrevocable uh license uh permits to be able to enter private property in order for us to do that so these all these private lift stations are all within private property and as an examp the the best example is in the case of a private Li station what it does is it provides a point of collection for those particular building building or buildings to be able then to to pump into a the public RightWay to the public system excellent thank you for that um and maybe if we could turn it over to Sunset Harbor if you could introduce yourself and then uh make the reason for where this esque is originating from yes so um thank you uh committee members Commissioners chair uh my name is Mark Halper U with Halper and Rodriguez um we represent a variety of the communities out there it's important uh first of all I want to point out some inaccuracies um um that you just heard uh number one we're about 641 units representing over 2,000 residents uh in in the Sunset Harbor area um the word used was this is not unique this is incredibly unique we are the only location in the city faced with essentially performing as a public utility this predates everybody's time here however this happened but I want you to understand we operate a lift station that deals with the sewage of four different communities not ours not some so the the the actual lift station is located at Sunset Harbor South those pipes run through our neighbors property it they run through uh the city's property we are essentially handling the sewage for three private communities not including our own so when you hear that this is not unique because Mount Si does it or the Coast Guard Station or some Hotel they are doing it for themselves imagine if you were maintain maining your neighbors sewage needs pumping their sewage for them it's very bizarre and I've been on this issue Loosely for 10 to 15 years uh we worked with Public Works back when they tore up perie and the the sewage line would needed to be widened because of the increased density down there we talked about it then and all of the challenges that we are faced with by essentially running a public utility this was a setup that should have never occurred we've searched the City Records to find how the developer of this community got away with this it doesn't exist nothing exists we don't have agreements between ourselves and our neighboring properties we've been really good residents dealing with this for 25 years okay and I I I do have a few things that I just want to go through um again this is critical waste infrastructure that we've been dealing with spending hundreds of thousands of dollars over the last 25 years you heard that to bring this lift station up to code it was going to cost the and which is this is really upsetting because we've tried to make this very clear we have spent hundreds of thousands of dollars of our own money I don't mean inter but when you say we yes who who is running this now like strangely enough when I say we I mean Sunset Harbor South we get contributions specific buildings yeah buildings so okay so 1800 1900 yeah yeah so so as you all HOA is going into operating this yeah so really the operating is being done by one of us because it's on our properties meaning Sunset Harbor South let me stop using pronouns you're right so so Sunset Harbor South has been operating this for 25 years we have really just without proper documentation and and so forth we get we Bill the neighboring communities that we are servicing from town homes of Sunset Harbor Sunset Harbor North obviously we are South and we also service the marina um the bigger problem is not even the money for us when the city comes out and they have to do work work on the sewer system we get shut down you know how so most of the time we find out about that because the in terms of point of connection the last Community which is to uh Town Homes of Sunset Harbor starts getting backflow in all of their toilets and feces and all of that stuff so not only is this an operating nightmare for us there is a serious health and safety concern and we anticipate at some point environmental concerns we're on the water there's going to be raw SU AG that's going to let me let me move past that we've been down our pump station has been down we've been working on a buypass since 2017 2017 hurricane Irma destroyed the control panel we have since 2017 spent hundreds of thousands of dollars getting this thing up the the the code continues to change on us fortunately I I can I can tell you all here today that we anticipate getting an operative control panel uh mid July um so this idea that there's this upfront million to million5 cost is untrue we propos to turn this over to the city in tip top shape but if we just turn it over just turn over the operations is that going to dramatically affect some of the issues that you've just described absolutely absolutely because we have a coordination nightmare we have a coordination nightmare the city does everything in that area except maintain this station so we get no notice we don't know and by the way we're a condo association we don't have the infrastructure the city does to deal with this and if they're going to work on you know uh uh some crucial uh we fight about putting out chairs at our pool I can't imagine if we if we had this responsibility yeah this is this is and and by the way by the way I have with me because I think it's actually better um uh to to to to hear from the people that are really in the trenches here and and by the way happy to answer all questions as much time as you all will give us we're very thankful to be here but I have with me siar Rena who is the manager of Sunset Harbor South she's the one that really deals with this on a day-to-day basis the nightmare that it is she she can go over some of the Practical real practical issues I also have uh and some people that I'm sure you've seen before Sarah deis Rees she's a resident an activist here on on on my that wants to talk a little bit um about about some of the financial issues and I have Marilyn flick here who who did incredible leg work because we got a list we we know where all the private lift stations are we've checked them all out none of them are similarly situated not one and so it's a it it I know yeah I have a coule question absolutely that okay please okay number one obviously those buildings are tremendously dense and have we looked through our public records to see when they got the building permit for this if there was anything included you're saying there's Zero Records on this zero and we've asked the city to look we've done this multiple something weird happened I say that between now and the next meeting the first thing that we need to do is look very carefully through everything because maybe the only reason that you got permission to build in the first place was if you agreed to this station wait not saying that you know you do right now um but if I just the first thing the first step that as a city because this is a tremendous expense and we don't know what I would ask is between now and the next meeting let's have um our city attorney's office comb through our public records and have us do a very thorough search to look not just at the building department a building permit but look at the notes um from the land use committee at you know and from the planning board to see what the conversation was when you got the building permit because how many units total is it it's 64 640 so you know at that time they probably said okay we're going to let you build this but you have to agree to maintain that station so we need to see what it was what the Covenant is what the agreement is before we can move forward now if money is not an issue um and maintenance is um so basically it's out of compliance and it's going to take a million to a million and a half to bring it up to compliance or it's in compliance it's in acccurate we've done all the work so first and foremost before we do anything we don't really have any information except for that you guys haven't found any information my motion on this would be between now and our July meeting let's comb the public records and find out what the agreement was so that we can at least work from there and once we have the information that we need we can possibly strike some sort of a compromise okay if it is something agre and I would just that that would be my opinion because really right now we're just you know we don't know so let's find out what it was what everybody agreed to I don't know if it's not near condo docks and it probably isn't but I'm sure that this was discussed at the planning board so what we need is to find out from you guys and I think you guys should contact the city attorney's office and find out what the agreement was at that planning board meeting when the planning board meeting was held by the developer and then moving forward let's have a conversation based on what transpired back then that would be my motion I don't know if anybody would support that I I think I'm getting there i' just like to find out more about this not Joe gentleman was pretty compelling tell me where he's wrong um um let me start um when they say it's being brought up to code I agree that they're bringing up the electrical panel they've been working with the building department and all that what I said was bringing it up to standards we did a hydraulic analysis because they they had approached us when I first started with the city uh almost 3 years ago um and they had approached us about the issues that were having we uh commissioned a hydraulic analysis and the hydraulic analysis showed that the issue is the pump station itself the pumps are under sized for the amount of of volume that the capacity of those of those buildings we provided that hydraulic analysis to them um so to say that if they're bringing it up to standards we haven't seen proof that the pumps have been changed that the because it's it's definitely undersized so that is a problem the pump The Pump Station the lift station the private lift station connects to a 6-in force M owned and operated by the city that connects to our our line on Dat Boulevard so when that lift station collects everything it it it feeds through a a a a force main that's along py Avenue and connects to date Boulevard but I will I just want to be clear whatever Mr Halper is saying that we did do a hydraulic analysis in the hydraulic analysis showed that the the pump St the lift station was deficient for for the the the volume the capacity of of those of those buildings and I appreciate and I'll turn over to you commissioner R and GZ but how I'm looking at this is this sounds like complicated stuff right really complicated stuff are we essentially setting ourselves up for further failure as a city by relying on Condo building to perform this critical infrastructure undertak because even if we wouldn't say you know I'm I'm sorry this was in the development agreement you have to put up or shut up I'm sorry but if we're sitting here saying well you need to do all this it doesn't sound as if and this is no disrespect but they don't have the expertise a Condo building wouldn't it has nothing to do with them so we can't just sit here and say we as a city this is your responsibility because what we ultimately care about is this gets done right because it doesn't just affect their building this affects the entire neighborhood and the entire city so are we almost having a dereliction of Duty by allowing them to undertake this private lift stations are typically provided by large developments when the the distance to be able to connect by gravity to a city facility becomes so deep that at that point it's impractical so what happens in those cases is that the lift station the private lift station is provided to be able to boost and then connect to a system so again a a private lift station is is a choice because the cost to to do the upgrades that a developer would have to incur to provide that connection to the public rway may be so high that they opt to reduce the cost by providing a private LIF station with a connection that forces it into the system that's a choice that developers make and again I regardless of or this is the only one the only four buildings that are connected with a private LIF station there are other examples in the city I have total of 30 private lift stations throughout the city um in different locations that chose to do that as part of the development agreement so again it's a choice I'm not faulting it and how that agreement was arrived at 20 some years ago I have no knowledge of that all all I can say is that at at current based on the the analysis we did that pump that lift station is undersized for the for the amount of BU for the capacity that it needs if if I may give one keep it up here on the commission for a moment um I'm not opposed to doing something and it really bothers me when a developer comes along okay and gets a permission and then puts us in this precarious situation and build something that you know he shouldn't have and then people buy into it and then they're stuck with problem I see this in so many different Condominiums and I'm not not amenable to striking some sort of compromise possibly a cost split or something um you know and some help from the city but before we do anything and I would I would suggest this again let let's find out what happened so that we know and then we we're in a better position to you know to to really consider the fiduciary responsibility and what happened with this entire you know legal agreement back then because they made a commitment obviously to take this on or the developer cut costs and chose not to build the cting station uh that he did which is horrible I hate that okay so I'm not opposed to it but I I don't feel comfortable taking any action today because we really don't we have no information so um if if it's okay with you in the interest of time um and Sarah and and and Marilyn if you'd like to say something you can it I my motion and I don't know if somebody would like to Second it would be to get the information and then come back next month and figure out some sort of solution when we have data when we have when we understand what what it is and and let's keep the motion on the table uh and we'll have a little more discussion so I'm I'm actually inclined to support that I I I wonder if uh I don't know when how that development was built but I wonder if the lift station was built for let's say the first two towers or the first Tower or whatever and then the other things the other Parcels of that project came online after the fact um and so that lift station might have been sufficient for the original building but not for the entirety of the project um but we can't figure that out until we know what the commitments were um my my concern I have two concerns one is that I don't want this to set precedent for other and I understand your situation is unique because of the multitude that that get served but I don't want this to set precedent for other private Enterprises to um try to you know push the responsibility off for for others um onto the city but I'm going to hold that a bay the the other the third thing that's on my mind is um Mr halin you said that um the condo association isn't notified of work by the city so you find out about it because residents have unfortunate episodes I would ask the city um I I don't know if there's a particular incident where something just didn't get properly communicated or there was one really bad incident incident or it's tied into o you know General infrastructure overwhelm like when we had the rains but if you guys can have a chat you know offline and try to figure out why there's no communication because that is something we can and must no matter what um and can happen starting today so yeah so so I I couldn't agree with honestly all the things that have been said I think two things are important right now one I I want to just leave a I want to leave a couple minutes real quick for shamata rea the person that's boots on the ground to talk to you all but I just want to say as to the presidential uh uh sort of effect I challenge the city I challenge them right now to please find me another community or private lift station of the 30 they've done some homework that service Parcels other than their own when you start to do that you have your City attorney when they start to do that you become a public utility by definition could we request that from the city I I think I'm inclined I think we're all inclined to kind of support uh what commissioner Rosen Gonzalez was saying so if we can include that as some of the analysis that we get back and if we can indulge you for a second longer I'd love for you all meet s and just to hear a little bit about one of your concerns which was was this a one-time thing or does it happen often and how how how do we live dayto day so instead of us if you don't mind um this is my item um yeah um you know I I personally visit a lift station and it's uh it's it's crazy that this community or this this one particular HOA Services three other HOAs and this this was brought to my attention this was concerning for me because it is next to the water and whenever there is a backup it goes into um the bay um commissioner Rosen Gonzalez you you mentioned that the developer kind of backs up by the way this developer has passed away um and he he I've been asking the city attorney's office for to find this document now for the last month nothing has been produced um but it is smart to go to the planning board and look at the minutes for this particular property I I don't think they've done that which is a great idea um but you know from from all the points raised here other than you know sewage backing up into people's places it does seem out of the ordinary that a condo is servicing three other condos um and I just don't believe that they're equipped to do that I think that really should be a city-owned responsibility I've asked I've had private conversations with um with the HOA on saying look you know and I totally get the argument that if there was a deal struck with a developer at the time you know that's the deal um but meet us halfway if this is going to cost a million dollars maybe you maybe there's going to have to be a special assessment for half of that in the city and so I think and by the way they're more than willing to work with us but I I think commissioner rosing is also you're absolutely right let's get the facts of exactly what we want I'm totally okay with that and I'm sure they are um because we're not we're on right now we're not working with all the data and so um I'm hoping that the city attorney's office can can produce that and Sarah if I could call you the quot name for one second you know Sunset Harbor I think this has become one of the most exciting areas in in our entire city some of that is predicated by on uh new projects that have come over the past few years there's some projects where we've essentially said okay you want to do this we need some sort of public benefit or there's fees paid into a Transportation uh impact fee or things like that perhaps what we could look at is you know going forward over the the next couple of years some of these new private developments we could say well this is our priority now when instead of paying a neighborhood impact establishment feed that goes to X or transportation we need this to go to our sanitation you know to help alleviate some of these costs and you know what's crazy when they were developing the palao and these other buildings had we had this information we would have been able to include them in somehow being responsible for this Direct Connect but we didn't and we didn't know and I'm I'm I'm along the lines of commissioner Suarez I'm willing to take possibly do some sort of compromise in terms of responsibility but let's come back next month and get the notes from the planning board and see what your developer uh agreed to please listen to her because she is the expert on this I think those are all wise comments yes yeah please intr I'ma I'm the sole person that operates for the 671 units which include over 5,000 bathrooms aside from running a 26-story building going through an elevator modernization a facade project a the Eda system installation of fire alarm modernization the building manager I am 100% liable when durm shows up it's me um I had an instance where um I came at 8 in the morning on a Friday I had coffee yet and there was Public Works to tell me that the Venetian main had broke down I had to immediately drop everything I was doing make sure I had six pump out trucks to make sure that we were running at least through the weekend because the first place that goes down is the town halls we literally have feces and other haard waste in the first floor of their building their resident Es are on the first floor the second place is the North Tower they start going through the landscaping and then the third is us and we actually come out through our lobby so I have to prevent all of this from happening I've had other instances where the coast guards got shut down I was not noticed next thing I know I have literally feces in the street so I had to call I got shut down I got 14 fines from them so based on all of that also I have upgraded the control panel which will be done at the end of July only $40,000 not half not Millions I have hired civil engineers Structural Engineers electric Engineers electricians plumbers and I'm having all of the system half a mile of pipes being repaired starting this month I'm fixing connections cleanouts and pipes we're going to have a 100% rehabilitated system before July 27th which is my deadline and it's not costing me half a million or Millions it's costing me $200,000 with the engineers included to have a 100% solid system by mid July and how does how does that uh billing process want to come work for our Public Works she could by the way by the way you joke but but by the way our biggest nightmare our biggest nightmare is losing seal ma because there's no other manager in the city that could do what she does in this regard and then do you go out and then actually build the other buildings so there's some sort of join agreement so at the end of the year we I collect all of the fees and then I collect all of the invoices the backup and I send it to the other four associations to give them the hard so where would those if the city takes over where would those fees go if these buildings are already paying well these fees would never come up again this is a 25y old system that I'm going to get to youh that's some sort of part of the compromise that those fees actually come in us you know they they Remain the city just takes over uh professionalizes the operation and the maintenance the the maintenance that we actually pay monthly um annually regular is only ,500 if I can shair I I believe the uh the request was to return to F uh after researching the development orders and other related documentation related to the Sunset Harbor lift station correct right I think we're all comfortable with that the community is in agreement that would be great thank you all very much for making time for us no thank you all appreciate it can I yeah you know as part of that motion and I don't know if this is possible Rick could you see um with planning if there's something that we could do moving forward to put some sort of overlight in sunet Harbor so any new developments will have to contribute into the fund like commissioner magazine said so that we can you know begin to help cover the cost if anything else additional is developed in the area so there's ways that we can you know help cover the cost wait a new uh any new developments to contribute to a fund any new developments in that sunet Harbor area that could potentially you know like that they somehow pay into a fund so that we maintain this I don't know if people want to continue to build in that area maybe they pay into a fund to help I mean as I understood earlier if you build a certain way you do not need a lift station so if the developer is going to use this lift station I suppose I'm not sure it doesn't matter we can still charge them an impact fee that will help cover our cost in the case that we do reach a compromise moving forward so you can say listen in your neighborhood in the Sunset Harbor if you want to put any more density or if you want to build if you want more water and sewer you have to pay into um a fund there's ways to cover it okay if I can than work so this isn't technically related to this item is something that you would work with the commissioner to as a commission item yes I would like to hunt this to commissioner Suarez because this is his baby would you like to do that item see some themes on sws's items um they talking about working with the city attorney's office to create some sort of overlay to pay into some sort of fund to potentially if anybody wants to develop in that area to cover the cost of whatever we're going to be putting in moving forward and if you don't want to work on that it's fine I'm okay with it okay let's get the okay all right okay hi hi my name is maryn flick I'm with the Town Homes at Sunset Harbor uh the lowest point of all these um Endeavor here and when something happens the first garage that gets the poop is us okay and we had to install special drains that only allow water or whatever to go down and not up to the tune of thousands of dollars in our building to help not prevent but to help with this but that's not what I wanted to say what I want if you indulge me for a couple of minutes uh this developer what he did was incredible so we have no idea no idea of exactly what deals he made with the city I'll give you the best example we have a guard house in our town homes and we needed to change the doors and the windows because they were old and you know not complying with the hurricane so we go down to the city with our plans to ask for a permit to change the windows and the doors and uh the city tells me but you don't have a guard house and I said what do you mean we don't have a guard house no that was never permitted that was never on the plants so we had to permit a guardhouse in order to change the doors and the windows and it doesn't stop that that shows you what I'm talking about it doesn't stop there we're doing a huge massive renovation in our uh property now so we wanted to convert the back patios who wanted to raise them so we go with all the plans all asking for a permit and and again Michael Bou tells me Maryland you don't have paros in your plants what you have back there are Gardens I said we've had paros from the W he says well you have to permit the patios because you don't have patios so this guy built things without permits obviously okay he built things without permit and like commissioner bad was saying maybe he did that lift station in the South Tower because it was the first thing he built then he built the North Tower and he was built was going to be the third Tower where we are the town homes but the was Sue by the islands because the tower will cast The Shadow on them so there was a big lawsuit which the city lost and they couldn't build the Tower there and then they decided to build the town homes which couldn't be higher than x so that uh the mansions on the other side wouldn't get a shadow so everything is very not above board when it comes to to Mr betel may he rest in peace we might what what was the developer's name Marilyn Beto B Michael well Michael was the son what was the old man's name besso B SSO yeah okay yeah uh it was called Pacific Pacific Pacific they were from Canada no we're we're sympathetic um and all we're asking I mean this Li state is is going to be operational 100% when if you do get it it's like brand new you have no problem with the with the lift station and we are willing to pay something for for you guys the city but suar she's not an engineer she's not a public work person she's the most amazing manager that anyone could dream of having okay what aob yeah okay all all right let's keep on track no thank you for your involvement with the community and look forward to continuing the discussion my last thought was that if Bush comes to sha maybe the city would work with us to make like a special taxing district I mean I think that's something that we're proposing uh maybe not that but along this new development they pay some sort of impact thank you for your ears guys I really really appreciate it thank you let's um we're going to hear item number four uh do we have H here oh yes sorry I'll read the it ahead of us uh number four uh referral to discuss the proposed resolution of the mayor and the city Commission of the city of May Beach Florida establishing his policy of the city of IA Beach that medical marijuana is medicine is not an elicit recreational drug that employees of the city who are prescribed medical marijuana by a properly licensed Medical Professional in compliance with all requirements set forth in Florida law shall be permitted to use the has properly prescribed medication during non-working hours and sufficiently in advance of any scheduled workshift in order to ensure that the employee is not impaired by the use of the medical marijuana while on the job and directing this Administration to draft and proclamate uh written directives effectuating the city policy number four commissioner Rosen Gonzalez please kick it off so you know it's a we're we're a nonpartisan uh body but I would like to think of us also as a progressive body and in the past we've you know done some great things for employees like I I believe in 2016 I I created this paid parental leave which really you know had a great wonderful direct impact on our employees and morale and um because we're so Progressive as a body um I had an employee come to me who had a Cancer and he had a prescription he you know this the Florida the Florida state law says that if you have an ailment and you have a prescription then you are entitled to medical marijuana because it is medicine so what I would like for us to do and I think this would be the progressive thing is that if you have a documented illness and diagnosis and you need medical marijuana in the city of Miami Beach we're going to follow the Florida state law and allow for it I do think that technically if one of our employees were to to sue us um under state law they would probably have the right uh to medicine so um I think that uh as long as you know if you know if it's law and we allow for this and by the way in the city of Miami Beach everybody has performance reviews you are showing up to work if you're somehow not complying um you know if you can't do your job obviously that's not going to affect it you know you're there's there would be consequences this is if you have an illness and you have a prescription and you need the medicine we're going to allow you to do that and I think that that is the benign Humane compassionate course of action for us to take as a progressive City how do you guys feel about that I'd actually like to hear um for Marla because I've I've questions I my my instinct My Wish is to be able to do this my understanding and I'll ask you for more more detail on this is that um it it would affect the rates we're able to offer all of our employees because it changes our insurance uh and the other thing is I I think that it is not unreasonable to suggest that if this were something that were adopted it would there would be certain Cate ories of jobs that would be Exempted from this so if you're an emergency responder you know one of our First Responders then for you guys you know then [Laughter] maybe just see the the police van with the chichin Chong smoke coming out like yeah exactly it's a whole new look Force um no but you know so you know if you have been historically um in the Lifeguard tower for 30 years of your career but now dealing with a health consideration obviously we're not trying to make force you out of your job but your job Duty gets changed so instead of being a first line of defense you're training people or you're you know whatever um so now that I've asked you what I um what I need more information on could you provide some please good morning um chairman magazine City commissioners my name is Marla alpar I'm the director of the city of Miami Beach Human Resources Department um if you don't mind I'll just read from a prepared uh statement and then directly try to answer your questions medical marijuana is legal in Florida state law does not prohibit employers from establishing a drug-free workplace which is a designation under federal and state laws for insurance and workers comp purposes as well as other purposes or from having rules such as prohibiting the use of schedule one drugs which marijuana is currently a schedule one drug under federal law or from being impaired at work from the use of any drug alcohol or any substance so while medical marijuana is legal in Florida the Florida law is structured to allow workplaces is to still maintain these types of rules the Administration has provided in our memo to Comm to this committee um a memo that issues that outlines issues surrounding the use of medical marijuana and how it intersects sometimes in conflicting and confusing ways with multiple federal laws state law um I should have said federal laws including the Ada workers compensation issues liability issues and then also our city bargaining agreements all of which um prohibit the use of um marijuana I can tell tell you that HR the city Administration the city attorney's office we all take care currently to interact with our employees on these matters in a sensitive careful and legal way there are different situations we see with different employees where um each particular case may interact with this issue sometimes we have an employee that has a substance abuse problem and they're seeking help that triggers our responsive reaction in a compassionate way with a certain set of actions some employees may be impaired at work and have an accident that triggers different responses some employees may have a medical condition and what they're asking for us is like what commissioner Rosen Gonzalez is bringing up they're asking us for an accommodation which we might do something like commission what commissioner bot just mentioned how can we work with you to adjust your job responsibilities to give you this reasonable accommodation and then finally you might have a new employee candidate that tests positive and we don't necessarily automatically reject we would s sit with them and have an interactive conversation and say in this particular case is there an alternative uh that is before that you can do to and be employed here is there um a different job that is not safety sensitive so depending on that situation each of these is completely different requiring HR not to just take action but to consult with um our attorneys because these are complex legal matters and our departments to determine what can be done reasonably and not reasonably to navigate these legal matters be helpful to our employees maintain our operations and our safety and to comply with all applicable laws contracts and procedures please note that if we adopt um um this referral uh this this resolution we would need a very deliberate and careful change of many administrative procedures and practices including our drug testing practices our discipline practices and we would have to negotiate with our unions changes to each collective bargaining agreement so this is unfortunately not a simple situation I do want you to understand that we already approach these matters very carefully with lots of thought and compassion questions um does this all get easier once it's no longer a federally schedule one uh drug so I'm going to say yes and it depends um for example Federal Transportation law is probably among the St and and I'm not an attorney so please attorney jump in if I'm getting off here but Department of Transportation rules regarding licensing of CDL Drivers many of which our jobs require CDL driving um they're much stricter than and those things have to do with um licensing of of operators who do uh certain um I mean airline pilots uh you know Department of Transportation CDL driving other types of Department of Transportation rules are the strictest and so probably um even if it became a schedule three drug it's hard to know what what the Department of Transportation would do as far as their rules regarding the licensing of federal transportation licenses so yes and maybe um do we know where where it is in the process of being Declassified federally so I actually think that's a great question and there's three recent updates in April the Department of Justice recommended to commence the rulem process at the federal level it's going to take many months um to ease Federal restri restrictions on rules surrounding medical marijuana not recreational this rul making process is not expected to end Federal criminalization of the drug but it may include changing the schedule classification that's one update another update is on May 1st of 2024 a bill was introduced in the US Senate to legalize marijuana and remove it from schedule one on the controlled substance list as of now and that was at the time of of the writing of the M of FK no Republicans had signed on to co-sponsor the bill in the US House of Representatives and that was in May and then here in Florida voters will be deciding on a referendum for a constitutional amendment on the November fifth ballot uh to possibly legalize recreational marijuana so there are changes coming in the federal and in the state um level that we're monitoring and pay attention to I have one more question if I might and then I'll turn it over to you um is it possible my understanding and commissioner Rosen Gonzalez please correct me if I'm wrong but my understanding is this this is currently well this this initiative is predicated on one individual's needs currently that we know about I mean who knows what hasn't been reported but um is there a way to accommodate one person as a as standalone um it not a policy change that's not my item if you wanted to accommodate my item is no I understand that but I want to I want to understand if it's even possible well I mean we started we started there but the more I thought about it the more I thought about our practices I thought about overall morale in the city of Miami Beach I think this is an incredibly stressful place to work do you know that we like terrorized departments with random drug sweeps at any given time and please don't take this personally I you know we also have this like looming Inspector General who used to be the head of the you know Criminal Division and he's where is he where is it oh there you are there you are not that you're terrorizing people but you you frighten people you do you do your presence does and you know we also have you know this this culture where everybody is so afraid that they're going to be accused of something at any time and I would like to stop some of these practices and I'll tell you why because happy employees are productive employees okay and the our culture right now is not a happy I'm telling you it is not a happy culture it is a fear-based culture and people love to work in the city of Miami beach but some of these practices need to shift and change and we need to sometimes push back you know um and I'm not saying you are wonderful look HR people are this is your job and this is what you have to do but I have a different perspective you know as a PhD in Communications and somebody who actually you know looks at cultures and and looks at at practices and how they affect certain groups of people um from my perspective and observances over the past 10 years um I think we could do better and I think we need to be uh the leaders in in in pushing back a little bit on this and I think that that that whether you know I I I won't be offended if you guys you know move it forward with an unfavorable recommendation but I do think if we exempt anybody um who has to operate Machinery or um anybody who is involved in Emergency Management Services what is it what did you First Responders I guess First Responders anybody operating heavy equipment uh it would not um apply to them but I think that anyone else who is sick and the individual involved has cancer and we started out with the meeting we um and and and by the way had I gotten permission at that meeting to somehow exempt that individual you know I probably wouldn't have pushed forward with it but maybe I would have anyway because I do I do dislike some of our um practices we even like um when we test like I think if you have like a drink the night before don't you we test for alcohol too when we do these tests I think that we go a little too far and I would like us to set some Pol relax some of these policies so that our workers don't feel afraid because let's say that it's your birthday the night before and you had a few drinks and then you get one of these random drug sweeps for alcohol in the morning and you just had a few drink l so you had a couple of Cosmos the night before you could test I think it's terrible practice because our people really are living in fear so apart from the fact that I would like to remove all of those testing requirements which might be another thing coming and maybe that's part of this uh drug-free workplace designation um my motion would be to to to move this forward and hear what what the body has to say find out what the financial implications are for us and I do think that if we real for anybody who has a prescription and is ill um I I don't think that this is bad policy I guarantee you it's going to go a long way in uh making happier um employees by the way do you know the increase in depression and anxiety and it's terrible the cost of living is escalating it is hard in South Florida and I and so many people are addicted to legal drugs like oxy content horrible things like Xanax drugs that really really wreak havoc and and have a you know a terrible you know terrible side effects so I would just ask that we that you guys allow me to to move it and have this discussion let's find out what the financial implications are and I guarantee you that this is this will be a positive shift in the in in the employee base in the city of Miami Beach Mara can I ask another question Jeff um do we do you know off the top of your head um or not off the top of your head but do you have the information available about what the implication would be for our health insurance costs okay so the cost that you're referring to is outlined in the memo and basically by us being a drug-free workplace there are discounts that we receive in our state of Florida workers compensation fees we receive an annual 5 % credit which is $30,000 annually we we do not recommend not being what is called a drug free workplace because it also um impacts our ability to certify and receive federal grants um you have to say in order to receive many federal grants that you are a drug-free workplace program what does that mean it the the drug free workplace program under federal and state laws basically are saying we're going to um um operate our um our city our our employing uh employment in a way that means people are not impaired at work so we notice that we're a drug-free workplace as you apply we notice it when you sign up to get hired we give you a copy of the bargaining agreement and say we are drug free workplace here's how we do our testing and each it's bargained into each collecting bargaining agreement as well so there's layers upon layers of notification to employees when they apply and when they sign up to work here that says in order to be a drug-free workplace to qualify for these insurance discounts to offer you workers compensation and and indemnify you you can't be impaired at work and so we're going to maintain these set of rules and testing guidelines in order to maintain these um these um federal grants and these um and these insurance discounts that being said there were a couple of their questions if I could just touch on them um in the case of any employee that and and I don't know the employee that the commissioner spoke to but in any employee that says you know I have a medical condition and I um I'm worried about testing positive in the future and I would like to let you know HR that I need an accommodation to be able to use this drug that the doctor has told me to use what whatever the drug is um we would meet with that employee and the attorneys and we would say well is this or is this not a safety sens job can the person receive this treatment and not be impaired at work that's the first question and then beyond that we would go so in many cases the answer is yes we can accommodate you we for this period of time if you test positive and you've given us this note and this is part of your treatment you're we're not going to create a situation where your employment is endangered in any way or discipline is implemented in any way we're going to accommodate you if you're a police officer officer with a gun or a lifeguard in a tower the answer might not be the same um it might be What alternative placement for some period of time do we have to offer you or we can't accommodate you during this period here's some leave that you need to take so it depends it depends on the nature of the job I appreciate that more and I agree I'm all for a more uh joyful productive Workforce um perhaps what we can do is evaluate if testing requirements are too stringent and burdensome burdensome I could support a a review of that but I do I am comforted that we have a reasonable ability for accommodation um we are not restricting people's rights that are in some sort of medical situation but um do I care if somebody smokes marijuana at night when they're home on their couch no I don't but There's real world implications for that for some of these federal grants and funding so in a perfect world I'd love to say no no I have no issues with whatever people do in their personal time um and if we could you know maybe lighten up testing requirements I I'd be happy to explore that excuse me um but to sit there and take on have this undertaking and uh pivot Direction and lose some of the opportunities for uh state and federal funding and grants and have uh implications in health insurance costs I don't think it's a measure I'd be supportive of if I'm one of our many employees sitting here and saying no I I'm Drug Free by choice and but now my colleagues to allow them to smoke marijuana my health insurance costs are going to go up I don't know what that would do for morale either so yeah please number one it's it's not a drug it's a medicine okay so and that's the that's the mindset that needs to shift is that it is not it is a drug just like you take um I suppose an a an aspirin or a dapan or whatever else you take it is the same there is no difference there are people that are suffering from so much pain two physical pain um my item is not about the testing but I would love you to bring forward an item about testing and I will absolutely 100% back you and support you and co-sponsor it with you my item is about allowing employees who have a medical diagnosis to get the medicine that they need and um I would like to move forward what I would like to know so we're going to $30,000 in insurance cost how many federal grants um can you give me a list of the federal grants that we um that we have because I would like to see exactly what they are what the financial implications of that how many federal grants have required the federal uh drug free workplace um I would need to consult with the Grants Department I know that I sign probably five year that's five a year but like how much like how much would you say that's an estimate I don't know the amounts because I'm not what I'm signing is that the city as HR Director the city is a a drug free workplace and then I sign so I get about five or six of those a year and I would need to consult with the grants office to give you the answers to your questions so let's say that the overall Financial impact I guarantee you is I don't know what it is but we can get the exact amount and I would like you to go back go back five years and tell me annually exactly how how many federal grants required a drug free workplace I would like to actually Jacqueline you're in the office would you please have a meeting with Mara so we can schedule a meeting and go through all this data and find out what the financial impacts would be year-over-year and um you know my motion and you guys might vote against it I would like to you know I I would like to move this and have a discussion at the full commission and maybe um you know between now and then um you guys can you know think about it I I don't feel like I have the support but I am going to move it forward and I I do want to have it at the commission my motion is to take this policy um if you have a an illness okay and and I would exempt the categories um of if you're operating heavy machinery and if you are a first responder it does not apply to you but to all other employees in the city of Miami Beach um I would like you to be able to have access to this medicine so that maybe you take this instead of a Dian or an oxyon or whatever else kind of pain medication you might have so and and you can vote against it commissioner magazine um I I'm still allowed to move this to the full commission with a negative I don't know what how commissioner bot is going to um vote on this but um but if I could one second and I think that's the basis of our discussion here is we do have that accommodation please correct yes it yes the answer is not yes for everyone the answer is what can we do reasonably and that's what we're required to do under federal law well you have an employee right now with cancer and what have we done for him because he's been this is going on for almost a year have we done anything for this employee because he came to me desperate nothing has been done for this employee this employee has cancer he has pain and we have not done anything for him in a year in in the meeting with you and follow up in the meeting with the Union that was present when we discussed this item I offered multiple times that if the employee wanted to privately meet with HR I would be very amenable to that and I stand by that offer so okay I can't help someone that I don't know who they are or what they need or I mean I can't help someone that hasn't come forward so that being said uh you asked a question about testing limitations when you test for alcohol you can test with um the tests show you whether someone's impaired or not because they have time limitations that are tied to um um how long it takes alcoh your your body to process alcohol marijuana is a little unique in that all the other drugs we test for are like alcohol they have similar um you know tie ends to uh impairment marijuana shows up when you test for marijuana it can be like a 30-day window you could have used marijuana 30 days prior and then you have a result that shows a marijuana use and you don't know if that use was 30 days ago or today I appreciate and what do other municipalities do are you familiar the county the city of Miami are we the outlier or they're they're all very similar to what we're doing there anyway there are new tests that HR is exploring with our um our medical um um officer to see if there are new protocols with these new approved tests they swab tests and they have a much more narrow window of time of testing positive so people could theoretically use marijuana 30 days ago and know that they're coming to work this week and if we were using a different test that's more modern and it is now approved then we would not be um they would not show positive for something that was 30 days ago so we are now currently in bargaining discussing with our unions you know we want to have a a an ability to change our testing protocols if these tests are better and they're more in line with measuring recent commissioner rosing and commend your efforts I'm likely not going to be supportive but I don't want to thwart this from going to the full commission Mr City attorney uh if and commissioner B I don't know where you're at on this um but if you're yes do you want to put your cards on the table yeah I'm happy to I listen I I I think we are going to have to figure this out going forward um I would suggest the best way to do it is not to preempt the federal government because as chief just point pointed out we get reimbursements for hurricane damage from and expenditures through FEMA um fire department and police department both get usai Federal grant thank you for making me look so smart um but so there is money to be to be um to be factored in that can be you know thankfully we haven't needed and I don't want to jinx it so I'm not going to finish that thought but a lot of money from FEMA and hopefully we won't need a lot in the foreseeable future ever again um but I don't want to jeopardize something I do agree with you that it is a policy that needs to be updated but I don't want to do it before the government structure that we depend on and are representa of and hang on let me finish um um it because that's going to it's kind of like spiting cutting off our nose to spite our face right so yes we need need to update this I'm really happy to hear that you're working on more um uh Nuance tests because um I think it's wildly unfair that if somebody was at somebody's birthday party and had a hit off somebody's joint a month ago um they are now like at risk for I don't know what happens that do we tie them to a steak and burn them or like what happens no if they were to test positive and they explained that I had a hit a month ago and I'm not impaired you know depending on their bargaining agreement you know if it's a good employee we'll we'll work with them and we'll say well look you're you know we're we're going to put you on what's called a last chance agreement under our bargaining rules that says you can't you can't use these substances that's very clear um and we would say um for the next year or some defined period of time depending on how long the employees's been here and if they're a good employee the union agrees the employee agrees the city agrees and we say we're going to test you more frequently for some period of time and if what you're saying is true and you're not using the substance regularly then you're going to come off the agreement we do let probably I've since I've been here I've probably entered into I'm going to make up a number some over 30 last chance agreements with employees that test positive and they we don't endanger their job they successfully complete the agreement and they come off of Last Chance agreement it almost always Happ I would I would suggest the following um it is going to have to be updated as culture evolves um I want to be in compliance with State and and federal regulations so we don't impair things I'm quite sure there are plenty of people who would be pretty pissed to have the annual insurance rate go up and then also an additional 5% in the premium because they're paying for something somebody else you know like we don't I think if I recall correctly there's if you smoke you pay more for your insurance policy but we don't all pay more for your for everybody's insurance if there are smokers in in the organization yes but we're not factoring medical marijuana into that's my point that's that's my point so what I would suggest is that because there is an opportunity for individual accommodation currently and because we are working on getting more Nuance tests and because we need the federal support to figure out how to do this without en endangering the financial impact I will not be supportive of of this at this time however I'm very supportive of the effort to prioritize um making this better for everybody and if it takes a year or two and and that's when the laws catch up and then we can figure out how to do it but at the end of the day people take the jobs here knowing what the deal is like if you said uh the job here is uh you know you can only work from 6:00 p.m. till 6:00 a.m. that's the the working hours here and somebody said halfway through their job um you know what I can't do that anymore I have different demands at home we could accommodate that or we couldn't and they could change jobs and I know that's a hard line you know it's like kind of hard ass response um there are other massive public institutions for example Miami de college is not does not have this designation we are not terrorized with uh test let's get there let's get ourselves well I'm I'm going to move it forward anyway because I believe so strongly in this and I do believe that this is a positive move um for our corporate culture and I believe that um I would like commissioner magazine to also follow up to relax some of the current testing requirements that we have we know that these are Reagan area era policies and they were designed really to incarcerate a lot of minorities a lot of these policies were manufactured okay people have suffered in jail because of them people have gotten fired because of them and these we know now that just say no and by the way it is not a drug anymore it is medicine the State of Florida our state law okay and we live in a pretty conservative State our legislature and I believe in Miami Beach it was 79% okay it passed by 79% so I think we need to reflect what our electorate cares about and they really came out to vote for this um we need to reflect our Progressive values by the way um the federal government also doesn't recognize paid parental leave but guess what the city of Miami Beach does because we were Progressive enough to change the law but there isn't and I'm just saying that but you know if we look at Federal designations I'm just using that logic they said no to paid parental leave I brought it before this body and we said we are going to create a benign policy so that when you have a baby in Miami Beach we for over you know over the first I believe it's a generous policy isn't it it's a very generous policy a very generous policy and you know what there are other municipalities that don't have that policy but we but we did it because I thought that because I I believe that it was the right thing to do and we might differ in this belief or you might feel uncomfortable doing this but I will tell you that other large public institutions do not have this designation the financial impact is in no way uh I I thought it was going to be much worse I would like to see these grants I would like to see them in writing the grants and the amounts of the grants and um city employees of the city of Miami Beach I'm going to fight for you I want you to be happy I want you to not feel like you're going to be terrorized by some test at any given point in time and I'm going to move this to the full commission and let's have a robust conversation about it even if I don't have support so I appreciate that I'm going to be a no but if it comes back and there is a DI Minimus Financial impact where the grants total $1,000 each then I won't have those caveats or reservations and my my my motion even though it was it's not going to be supported um would be to exempt First Responders and anybody operating heav Machinery from this policy we just need to see the financial impact I mean if it's $50 million that's a big Financial impact if it's $50,000 then we can probably figure that out once we also see what the impact is for for you know people's premiums maybe there's a way to do it they you sign a waiver and say you know what I do enjoy the benefits of medical marijuana and so then you're your individual premium costs a little bit different that the way you do with smokers I'm just saying we're not there yet okay City attorney if uh if there's a one to two recom recommendation against can this still move forward to the full commission because we only have three members here today what I believe we should do and is is that this will go back with an unfavorable recommendation but the commission can still discuss the item wait can I give them one last can I I'm good you don't have to vote yes or no on it you're not voting on the policy right now why don't you preliminarily and we have in our audience one of the um State of Florida and I did not invite you to come but you are the the authority on medical marijuana and got the law passed at the state level and I've known you for many years I've seen you around so I yeah I'm I mean it seems like there's Eric St Sor sorry sorry you know I'm pretty liberal about how we on on our meetings but let let's have some order come talk to me in between the next meeting why don't you move it forward with with a we're moving it forward but why don't you consider just for right now you're not actually voting on the policy let's move it forward in a compassionate way we'll get the data if you look at the data in between now and when the vote is and you don't and it if you make a decision I respect that and I don't urge you or pull at you I say okay that's her decision and I respect that I would ask if you do the same what I'm telling you is I go into this with an open mind I wouldn't have prevented this from moving forward but given that we's conversation that's the man I'm most comfortable in if this comes back and we see the financial impact is going to be the Minimus There's an opportunity for me to turn that around but right now I I don't have that uh that sense or Inkling um you know five or six grants uh FEMA funding and things like that my starting point is it's going to be a larger Financial impact that I'm comfortable with but in the event that that is incorrect I'm open to changing my mind on this that is music to so many people's ears you have no idea and along with this hopefully we'll remove some of these very very stringent testing requirements that's wonderful news commissioner magazine faor until we get this policy passed okay so if I can if I can it's to be moved to the commission with an unfavorable recommendation the resolution but it to be uh mod the mo the resolution be modified to exempt First Responders is that correct and anybody operating have anybody operating I I recognize that commissioner Rosen Gonzalez uses the phrase heavy equipment and First Responders I will tell you that that under federal law CDL Drivers cannot test positive for marijuana so so CDL Drivers cannot have a CDL it will be have's impact about what the Exempted classes should be we work on the exemptions between now and then when we move it to the full commission okay I'm happy to do that okay I if I can I could modify to just modify the resolution to allow for certain exemptions just exemptions thank you and we'll figure that out and this is this is going to be and I'm going to need Rick's help on this with Robert's Rules this is an unfavorable recommend Commendation and it's a 2: one two: one for an unfavorable recommendation and by the way I I want to tell you guys a colorful anecdote of 2015 when um I was elected and by the way the uh drug testing does not apply to uh Commissioners but it was an overall drug testing I remember right after the election I didn't know what was going on and um I had gone to a party uh like two two days before and I I knew that I I like I didn't even know that we were going to get tested for alcohol anyway Ricky Ariel and I show up and we you couldn't see two more miserable looking people ever in m and we're standing there and we're waiting to be tested when all of a sudden we both get a call from the city manager and he goes hey this doesn't apply to the two of you and we were like you know and we got to so it's not even fair it doesn't even apply to us we're not getting swept we're not getting tested and you know what if it doesn't apply to us why should it apply to them if the directors are giving them performance reviews and their performances are okay you understand yeah let's let's move on um thank you I appreciate the discussion let's move on to item number 20 uh discuss financial and Manpower impact of extending law enforcement officer initiatives the Thursday nights during the two middle weekends of March um commissioner bot uh if you want to kick this off I co-sponsor this I know we were both out there during spring break so it's uh we know exactly what's going on and where kind of uh we saw what happened and I like that we're not going to be static we're going to be dynamic and saying this is what worked this is what didn't you were such a champion of that so let me uh go ahead and kick this over to you thank you I appreciate that and I appreciate your co-sponsoring this item um before I turn it over to Chief aosta I just you know it worked really well this year there are things that didn't work there are things that that did work there are things that hopefully we can uh take our foot off the gas a little bit for next year but I think one of the things that worked incredibly well that we want to actually do a bit more of is extend the um the the law enforcement you know the DUI and checkpoints uh DUI checkpoints and lprs Thursday night understanding full well Jason that there's a cost um it did it did such a great job of deterring Bad actors from doing crappy things in our city so um you know if we have a few more years of of of this and extend the hours to cover a Thursday when the weekend really kicks off for a lot of people during the month of March then I think we will be um really more effective even more effective especially given that we know that most of the bag actors are the folks driving in with stuff in their trunk that they shouldn't have um as opposed to people who are flying in from Parts on you know around the country so have at it thank you ma'am good morning Mr chair again Madam commissioner um Paul aosta here on behalf of the police department we took a look at the financial impact of adding Thursdays to two um of the highest impact weekends uh for March we anticipate not we anticipate but we looked ahead and uh much like 2024 2025 has five weekends in March so uh we're going to fine tune and identify the most impactful weekends uh the back-to-back weekends typically the second and third or the third and fourth um adding the Thursday uh in terms of coverage and overtime expenses and and including um costs related to outside agencies we anticipate based upon what our budget was this year or based upon the cost this year um it should amount to about 195,000 um on the highend and um what we don't have and what we don't know is what other agencies are going to do next year in 2025 in terms of um sending us an invoice for their services next year we do know that requesting outside agencies to help us has impacted their agencies and their cities financially um and they have turned to us to take a look at how do we reimburse them for some of their cost all of their costs um do they reduce the number of people that they sent here to assist us during spring break so a lot of that a lot of those factors are not uh considered in this particular uh fiscal impact and and proposal here um so I just want to lay that out there there's some some unknowns but for us right now as we stand if we were to mirror this year and and push it to next year we're looking at about 200,000 uh to add both Thursdays uh for spring break thank you Deputy Chief and when we say this uh did you get the sense for Thursday night where maybe we could add some resources but not the same amount as a Friday and Saturday we don't want to sacrifice Public Safety but some sort of you know fine line between uh replicating our exact efforts on Friday and Saturday um but maybe not to that extent so what I'm thinking is perhaps um having man power man and woman power on uh Fifth Street on some of the entrances uh that really serves as that deterrent that yes hey you know what we actually are prepared here yes yes we definitely can do that absolutely we can make those adjustments and is your Sunday night coverage as robust as Friday and Saturday night or is that already tapered down no it's as robust as Friday and Saturday do to be I mean is that a way okay M okay yes ma'am so i' like to move the motion move the item yeah um with uh perhaps you know the evaluation of if exactly mirroring our resources on Friday Saturday and Sunday nights are fully needed or if we'd be able to find a some sort of better tune or better balance of more resources on Thursday than we had last year but per perhaps not take it to a Thursday F or Friday Saturday Sunday coverage level I'm not going to get down in the minutia of uh you know your operations you're the experts but if we'd be able to strike some semblance of uh balance there understood understood so if I if I can in um as your CFO maybe to to ask if this item is then set to be a recurring one or perhaps just a 2025 one time which let's start with the 2025 one time because I I think we all take it as a personal challenge that this isn't how we want to live March on a uh in perpetuity right so if I can I believe then the motion will be to return to commission with a favorable recommendation to make a 2025 budget priority to add the two Thursday nights uh for enhanced law enforcement efforts during spring break 2025 in the amount of $200,000 and then obviously they they the police will look at um if there's a a paired down one that can be discussed this will be an enhancement a new enhancement doesn't exist but uh would be discussed at the July 12th uh FK budget Workshop so um I would ask Paul to work with our budget department to get that enhancement prepped yes sir ASAP excellent thank you w Chief yes sir um let's go to item number five uh consider funding for artistic wayfinding signage at City Hall uh commissioner bot kick this over to you uh if you just tell us a little visual visualization about what your you're talking about think is a really cool idea yeah so um as I was standing outside of city hall for two weeks straight in the fall um I saw people coming uh across the plaza where the tree is and that seating area is um not knowing which direction the bay was which direction the beach was which direction Lincoln Road was where the museums are where's Washington they were just totally turned around and I know it says Miami Beach City Hall but nobody even like that as bold in graphic as it is nobody really sees that um we have the name of the Lincoln Road garage on the garage building and it's I if I recall correctly it says Lincoln Road with an arrow kind of straight up in the sky which is not entirely accurate and also you have to kind of walk either through a store or through a garage or around to get onto Lincoln Road so I would propose that we do and there's not a huge my vision for this is not you know a multi 100,000 project but um to create an opportunity either with a local artist or local kids um to design um some kind of really cool fun engaging visually stimulating that's not an Ike kiosk um sculpture almost or or signpost um something a little less cliche than you know the beach that way like you know what you see in on beach postcards that are you know generic but um it might be something that the Fab moonligh or lab fabricating folks are able to kick in and and help us but have something that is becomes a a place where not only do people coming out of the convention center know which way to go or people going across um but also it's something that people want to take a picture with um it is you know we already have hundreds of thousands of people coming into this part of the city um and it is arguably our least graceful part of the city there's a lot of room for improvement we're going to have a um Convention Center Hotel any day now um and that's going to have a whole ton more people coming and it's really going to elevate the look of this of this area and I think that we need to do our part to uh make this welcoming and engaging and appealing I appreciate that thank you commissioner from my standpoint um typically very much against more signs uh especially just directional there's one sign in particular I that that really rubs me the wrong way driving north on Collins and you're in mid Beach and it says North Beach straight ahead I think we've gotten to a point in society where you know if you're going north and you're in South Beach or mid Beach you know the next Beach you're going to get to is North Beach that being said if this is of the artistic um variety that's what kind of really excites me and how I'm thinking about this before I turn it over to Liz uh perhaps before even putting some sort of budget item on maybe this is where you're thinking maybe not give me direction where it's we open this up to the community and say come back with something visually and artistically really cool and then we'll evaluate what the budget need is for that is that kind of along your line of thinking yeah I mean I I had pulled references and I I can um include them in the um um when it comes back to Commission of the kinds of things that I was envisioning but I'm very happy to and it doesn't need to be you know L to your point it doesn't need to be a renowned artist from somewhere it would be great if somebody wanted to because it's fun but um it could be you know everybody who's grade six and under can is this is an open call to Young Artists and we'll figure out a way to bring their Vision to life right like the people who who make um take kids drawings and turn them into stuffed animals like we could do there are a lot of different ways we could make this um really a fun and engaging way to do this um maybe there are local artists who would like to do this and sort of you know volunteer their design and whatever but I'm very open to how this if I may through the chair uh we have had high level conversations with moonlighter Fab Lab to do a type of partnership where we can engage a designer to provide input in um public infrastructure so this kind of Falls along those lines um they we can still work with them to engage a designer I think that gives you a little bit more flexibility than engaging a visual artist artist uh and they do have summer camp summer camp programs so I think that there's some synergies there between the city and this amazing nonprofit organization and I don't know if my colleague has any anything else to add to that but um they also have 3D printing that we can um use to kind of make a maette and I think it would be a wonderful opportunity also to engage our residents like we do a legacy purchase and maybe narrowed down to three designs and how them vote and really get that Community engaged could be great and we also have um in our office of the mayor commission a very talented designer and graphic artist um in in the form of of George not you I mean tattoos not withstanding um Georgie movich is you know has has a great track record and this is what he has spent his career doing so uh maybe making him a point person on this to work with you listet and and kind of help bridge the the initial Creative Vision of you know if it ends up being a school project and it's kids with crayons on craft paper and then help translate that with fabl lab into something that could be functional but I you know I think that I love the idea of having it be something the community votes on and and you know all hands on deck I think that's that's fantastic yep commissioner Rosen Gonzalez I'm total 100% supportive I think it's a great idea um you know we need to design the new signage across the city it's work in progress It's work in progress and um so yeah so there was a um if you if it's okay um there the well Eric can probably give a better update on this than I can but or actually Liz you probably are deep involved in it as well um there was a a whole signage inventory that was done um over the course of the last year approximately and I think that report is being finalized or has just been finalized um and then we'll figure out what we have what we need and and then that will in theory trigger an update of our entire Miami Beach branding because then it'll be translated back to the signage so that is a project near and dear to my heart okay well I I think it's a wonderful item and um I think you should move it and I will be your second if you want fabulous thank you simple you can thank you uh it it sounds like and and I'll need help here if I got this off is the return to commission with a faval recommendation to direct the administration to engage with moonlighter Fab Lab to develop artistic way finding signage at City Hall uh are we going to limit it to moonlighter fabb I think I think there needs to be more more conversation internally about how exactly we want to do it but it it could include engaging with moonliner f Fab Lab it could include engaging with local artists it could include um a call to community submissions I I think it just needs to be maybe I can simplify the language instead of saying engage with moonlight or faab to engage with external parties and keep using a more generic term like an external party or do we want to limitate the community uh based parties no I think it's you know I think it's return the commission with a favorable recommendation to explore how to make this happen which could include any combination but does not is not limited to engaging with Fab Lab um having um schools involved having Community involved hiring an AR arti getting an artist to donate but like let's those are things that we could kind of start off with and then have the conversation about how to how to make it happen maybe I can simplify it one more time if I can returning Commission in favorable recommendation direct this Administration to develop an artistic wave finding uh signage at City Hall program that broad that that's flexible enough okay yeah okay yep thank you so much thank you guys second on that uh you know what while you're up here can I'm sorry there wasn't a vote technically I need a vote technically I I'll move all in favor oh yes commissioner Rosen Gonzalez was your second Y and I think all three in favor thank you um yep if we could discuss item number six uh discuss special event guidelines and City sponsorship that was deferred okay no no worries um let's uh do item number eight fencing for vacant and abandoned Lots hi everyone so we got it passed in the city that if you have a bacon lot oh welcome commission um we passed for everyone else that if you have a vacant law it has to be fenced and landscaped and lit and and and beautiful we you know and but we Exempted ourselves from this and uh but some of our vacant Lots um we cleaned up the one at the Barkley which was really bad before by the way I was over there the other day and it actually looks really good you can't see inside the site is secure uh I I don't see anybody complaining about it right now cuz we finally clean that up but I do think that this should apply to us too because I think that if we do make it apply to us we will beautify our city so I don't know how you feel about this and I have to actually what was the financial impact and before Li it's a lot but before you go into that um when I heard this original discussion I was saying yes of course this makes sense but then when I was actually going folio by folio I said you know what it really makes sense for a pro commissioner I um yeah I I I think I want to catch your attention with this so when I originally heard this I said yes of course this should apply to us and for properties like the Barkley fully supportive but when I was actually going through our agenda and the memorandum and going folio by folio a lot of this were properties in North Beach and I'm sitting there saying wow I'm not looking at this as like a vacant abandoned property this is actually quasa Green Space if I'm just walking along up in North Beach here I'm not saying oh this is an abandoned lot now there's other things that we could do to beautify it but if I'm a neighbor there I'm actually going to be upset if these are fenced off because and this was a surprise to me right I uh well then I think we should have this apply then only if it is a vacant building not a vacant LW yeah and I can I build on that so I had the same reaction so I mean you know Chris's really supportive of this and um this came out of the planning board stuff that we did when I was still on the planning board um and for instance with the doville just having a clean aluminum fence makes That Hideous site look so much better um does make the site itself look better but the the gaping hole doesn't like assault your senses um gee I don't have strong feelings about this at all but but to draw this point there are some there are some images in here that definitely need to be beautified but there are so many that just look like beautiful you know passive parts and I would actually suggest that your suggestion of if it's a building it should be um it should be fenced in but if it's not you know like for instance on this image um it is the sort of well and I think it should actually apply to almost every vacant lot but if it's a vacant lot it should be grassed over like this and you know so not not the sort of hodg podge of some scrabby grass and some gravel and but look how gorgeous assistance this is you know go play soccer yeah no um I would I would like to limit it to buildings and um and in situations where there's already beautiful beautifully maintained grassy Lots there's nothing further that needs be done but if there are lots that need some TLC that you know that have some gravel or exposed and yucky things that that gets upgraded to a beautiful grassy lot and by the way my ordinance applies to every single vacant lot in the city of Miami Beach because I think I need to change my ordinance to say only vacant buildings okay or vacant building sites or construction sites um if you have vacant Green Space I don't think we need to fence that so I I would move it to the full commission only have it apply to us if it's a vacant building well could we actually keep it here for another month and have facilities come back and say under this new Direction this is what the financial impact would be because when we looked at all vacant properties the the financial impact was going to be upwards of $2.5 million and even if we said we want to fence in all this green space it wouldn't have been feasible anyway so I'm hoping with commissioner Rosen Gonzalez's New Direction um not only are we saving green space but we can also uh much uh much reduce the financial burden as well okay so my motion would be what he just said and we can bring it back here can I make an amendment to this so what he just said and um that any green space that is in good shape in part of it but is in crappy shape in the other part of it to bring it all up to the good shape across the board so like there's some that you won't have to do anything to there's some that you need to S and and take over that way and I'm actually going to amend my overall ordinance so that it's it doesn't really apply to vacant Green Space only vacant uh buildings or construction sites so we need to amend that too at the next meeting so okay we I'll second wait I if you end it to be only buildings or um construction sites there are some green spaces that are uneven in the lot so like part of it looks great and part of it looks terrible so what I'm suggesting is for the part that looks Terri get it SED and make it uniformly looking great you mean for us or for for us private okay yeah okay that's that's the my motion and a second I don't know what he needs to say but I know if Eric comes up we should let him speak for better for worse I don't know thank you very much honorable chair and committee members um Eric Carpenter Deputy city manager uh I just wanted to bring up for discussion purposes the potential of considering a property with a zero lot line as something that might be a little bit different than one cuz I think what we're all envisioning and certainly what I was envisioning is a vacant property with a parking lot or uh you know a unkempt vegetative area similar to the barklay which becomes an ISO unsightly only for unsightly vacant Parcels we don't want to fence in the lovely Green Space we we only want to fence in something that's ugly so I don't know how to legislate that because that's so subjective use your Nuance you know like practical thinking oh so identify the folios where it's like you know what this is the Barkley 2.0 this is where fencing would be required and give us the financial impact and if you could have pictures that identify each of those folios that we'd be uh looking to apply these parameters to and I would like to add something else I think after and I I think it was based on I don't know whose item about aspirational quotes if we do fence something in I think we should add in like cool aspirational quotes about Miami Beach like historical quotes something to educate people yeah okay so um yeah and that's like a separate thing alog together Jackie put that on the list we'll come back with a revised list just know that we did have the Landscaping cost for each one of the folios as well as has the fencing cause for you to select from but we'll revise this list based on your direction right so it would be those that need fencing and Landscaping and those that just need Landscaping those that don't need either exactly perfect thank you and even if you just s it the cheapest thing so if if I may because this was a an ordinance that was uh sent down here for review on that was and there was a lot of different discussion here it to could return to commission with a favor recommendation that the fencing ordinance appli to City proper if it's a vacant building that does not have zero lot lines I I think we want to get the financial impact we want to keep it here so return to return to FK yeah or can we just not keep it open for the next month and yeah yeah we just we just return as appropriate I just want to make sure facilities has clear Direction yes perfect um let's get number 12 uh I don't think there's going to be a 12 was also deferred 12 deferred I that was you are you going to leave after maybe you said you were I can there's not a number left I can tell you the numbers that are left uh number 24 which was the new one that was just added uh from Wendy's Wednesday's commission meeting uh related to the rolloffs uh number 21 hiring Detention officers is remaining uh the ballrooms number two small business grant 9 and uh West Avenue phase 3 number 17 is is uh left oh I I thought I called 17 you said it was deferred no number 17 no West Avenue face oh I'm sorry I was looking at the call order um okay let's go with nine uh 18 what's 18 number eight number 18 was Mr commissioner Suarez he withdrew it before he left's withd never mind yeah um God that leaves us with number nine okay let's go so I I'd like to amend this actually you got read the item into the record sure yeah I'm sorry Jason thank you uh number item discussion regarding small business grant funding for businesses in August and September months number time okay so you know I I was just on social media yesterday seeing that you know the Freeze ice cream shop is closing after I don't know how many years of being on Miami Beach what the freeze well the point is it's becoming it's it's harder and harder for small Mom and Pops especially in Food Service uh to make it because we've become increasingly hyper seasonal due because our weather is so extreme and what I wanted to do is all is create this program and you know we said $10,000 Grands I would make it $55,000 GRS because what happens um in the off seon is you know if your rent is10 or $12,000 a month okay and you're still you're you're trying to pay your payroll because you want to keep your trained employees there um you know it's very very hard and if we and we do have the funding um to hand out these small grants of $5,000 it doesn't seem like a lot but they could apply for a couple of months even if when you look at our when you look at tourism taxes I think the worst months are act like um August and September is that where our tourism taxes are the lowest yes just yes right yeah I mean they just drop the drop is uh dramatic and um then you have added to that um you know the Jewish holidays in September like really kill business because people either leave town or they're not going out to eat because they're having family meals so um it might not seem like $5,000 per month would would be that helpful but I think in in some cases it like just allows you know small businesses to breathe I would have this apply to you know local businesses doing under a certain amount of Revenue um local businesses doing under I don't know couple million physical yeah what are the parameters food service so we we said um 10,000 but I would say the city commission allocated 200,000 okay so we did this one once during Co and it worked out pretty well um this is just something that I'd like to Pilot one year maybe nobody even takes it you know maybe nobody even you know takes it but a business like the freeze it could be a big difference because it could cover your payroll you know these kids scooping ice cream at you know minimum wage at least you know you cover your payroll or you supplement your rent or you do something to help or your utilities which are become hyper expensive with you know air condition even you know your fpnl bill so I think that um we should try it you know we give so many other grants to so many other uh organizations that are not operating businesses in Miami Beach a lot of you know 501c3 I saw we just gave you know Pride lines testing like $50,000 I mean why wouldn't we share a little bit back with our businesses that we enjoy especially smaller businesses in North Beach I think it's really it will help I think it will go a long way and this will be me getting on my soap box for a little bit so excuse that but I can un support it is fine I can withdraw it no it's not that um but what rubs me is over the years we've taken or maybe forgone initiatives to truly diversify our economy and make us a more full-time residential area uh in fact I just saw a social media post that went viral last week and it was from Julie and Henry's uh downtown Food Hall and uh shots of Brickle saying we are no longer a seasonal town the streets are packed here we are a full-time residential community so I would just ask if I consider things like this we can't keep taking Band-Aid approaches we need to say we've identified the problem right these businesses are dying in the summer but it's because we haven't taken this steps to really say okay let's mature as a city we don't need to be double triped down in tourism uh we can build a full-time economy with full-time residents and we don't need to be this cyclical Hospitality driven Town um let me turn it over to Heather let's talk about what some of these parameters could be uh we have a criteria right here you got to be in business you've had to have a BTR for 2 years registered as an active entity with Florida Division of Corporations in good standing not a national chain or franchise um you have to have your BTR up to date no outstanding federal state local taxes and revenue annual say limit as evidenced by recent business tax filing what was the what was the number what was the cap Heather on the total revenue that you needed to be in order to be eligible be it would depend on the size of the of the business okay yeah so I mean these are just local but what do you mean by that I mean when we say what would be the maximum amount of Revenue a business could receive if they're going to apply for this well a small business based on on the federal government you could be over a million dollars so we just want to make sure that the revenue that they were saying that they presented in their application also replicated what they had filed right but what are we saying uh we don't want to give this to um live nightclub you know that makes $25 million it's not going to make any difference for that we want you I would do a cap of like businesses doing under like $2 million per year right okay our real mom and pops yeah and we have all sorts of you can't if you're a nightclub liquor gun shop pawn shop none of tattoo parlors piercings none of those agricultural soures none of the they're not eligible and by the way something really cool happened as a result of this and Heather thank you for this the gmcvb has agreed to not necessarily help fund this but the GM zbb would say that they would wave Miami spice funding for restaurants which is actually a great deal because like $1,500 what's the price to be in Miami spice I think it's like $1,000 yeah I would like to have this happen in July cuz when does Miami spice kick in August September July and August oh it's July and August so we missed the boat for July um do we have to legislate that that's not a leg that's not something we have you for the gmcvb to do that no they can do that on their own we should actually we should right now because I think we can have this done we should put out some communication to our businesses and let them know that the gmcvb is willing to to uh wave the Miami spice fee for certain restaurants because a lot of restaurants don't want to do that cuz $1,500 just you know they could do a direct advertising I'd want to return to the gmcvb we talked about this with them in January but I I want to go back to them because I don't know what what is involved in their Communications to do it for July August September but okay so I guess that part that portion could be for the next year but um you know I'd like to move it to the full commission as is with business cap of doing less than $2 million a year it's not that it's not very many grants it's $200,000 this is direct impact going directly back into the people that live here and work here and do business here and I guarantee you um they will be very grateful the county does something like this they need a physical location paron uh the business would need a physical location they would have to be a a registered business with the btrr for the city of beach I get that but um let's say somebody had a business out of their home they had a BTR but they're shipping things on Amazon right we did make that as a stipulation that you have to have storefront you do have to have actually I would exempt real estate uh real estate also we don't have that on the exemption list I don't think any real estate would you be open to um that friendly Amendment commissioner Rosen Gonzalez that you had to have a physical storefront no of course you need a physical storefront and uh and real estate should be ineligible also cuz they seem to be flush so homebased businesses are already exemp yeah okay okay all right it is already exemp and also just sorry with with your ption um we put this uh the funding for this uh program in as an enhancement in Fisco 25 so it wouldn't be for this month yeah not this year it would next year how come we didn't get it done for this year cuz it wasn't called it's been on here for 6 months that's too bad because you know it's important there's no way to get this done for this for this September and October yeah I think we can do a budget amendment for this and I would encourage us to do it and just have the grants done for this year because why should we wait an entire year when August and September is going to be hot rainy now we have rain events okay and we're getting bad PR about like rain events too I mean more now more than ever and by the way during those days of rain events nobody is going out to eat and you know what it is when your sales when you have a you know a 10 or $15,000 monthly rent and you go 3 days with no Revenue it kills you for the month that's it you're Prof wiped out so can I just ask some questions make sure I'm understanding correctly basically this is going to go just to restaurants is what we're saying effectively well actually when this was first heard um commissioner Rosen Gonzalez wanted just restaurants but then commissioner Fernandez asked that it be open to no I I understand that um but now we've you know homebased businesses obviously you must have a storefront obviously um but no real estate no like what other so it's restaurants coffee shops food-based businesses but what other businesses retail on page 107 of your book at list it's every business on 71st Street stuff like that okay so to play Devil's Advocate because of course I want to see our businesses Thrive um I would suggest that to run a business well you need to plan for where you have your business and if you know you're living in a seasonal town you need to plan your business p&l accordingly and so if you make you know Jason you've told the story about growing up in your dad's pet pet store and you knew that that the the bulk of the business was generated over you know December January whatever and August was inconsequential you have to run your business knowing that you're going to have fallow months I would suggest there's one other thing that we could do we could do it per Commission Office like the county does each one of us if we took the 200,000 we divided it by seven each of us could hand out six different grants to applicants who apply to each of us I think it needs to be out of the hands of Commissioners I think that sets up all kinds of drama that nobody needs because that's how the county does it but okay so you're not supportive well let me finish my thought I'm wondering if there's a way um because it doesn't seem like there's any stipulation any requirement for why you need this so somebody might apply for this where they actually had a perfectly good month right so could it not be um retroactive that if you you know had whatever for whatever reason August and September were disastrous for you then we can give you a grant to make up for your you know what happened but to hand it out you know just it's not a big amount it's a $5,000 Grant and it's showing goodwi to our businesses I if you come before the commission I I just want and I'm not like every single time that people have grants I don't I don't necessarily um always always 100% agree with some of the monies that we hand out in very large amounts I see it all the time 50,000 20,000 you've had tons of I've never I I don't V against you know why because even if even if we're really not getting anything back because a lot of times we we don't and and and I support it and you know why I support it because thank goodness and I'm so grateful that we have this extra added revenue from tourism and our large property valuations and we can show this Goodwill and we don't necessarily do it for the impact of our businesses and um and and this is something that first of all we don't even know if anybody's going to apply but I guarantee you if somebody this is not an easy application and if somebody goes through the process of filling this out for five grand it's because they need to apply the five grand to either their payroll or their rent and if not we are going to continue to see the freezes close because unfortunately as more High net worth individuals buy properties and live here only half the year many people who live here year round um used to you know they would live here they'd go on vacation for two weeks now we have people that six months in one day are living here and then they're out of here rest of the time suggestion sure can we do it in such a manner that it is um encumbered to be used only for payroll and or only for rent absolutely okay okay not utilities what's that not utilities are utilities because if you in the memo we have utilities Professional Services which is payroll marketing technology rent and rep pirs and replacement of uh equipment that's so definitely not that definitely so so rent payroll utilities yep you only want payroll and utilities and R and is the thought of this this is going to be a one-time this year item or is this a testest right this year is a test this year well first of all we don't they're proposing it for next year but I really think that more than ever we need it this year because we've seen that we get this rain and unfortunately we get the rain at around dinner so people aren't going out to linoln do you know how many people on Lincoln Road last year these businesses who are normally I mean they're Lo they're losing so much money but we live in South Florida it rains during the summer in the late afternoon like that is just a fact of life shuttering I mean they're closing I just think that you know oh so I'll support this if you promise promise me that we have a serious honest to God discussion about why some of these businesses are being pressured because giving $5,000 to a business on Lincoln Road is not going to make structural changes not at all in our economy but when you're losing 20,000 let's say that you're you're shouldering a $20,000 loss per month and then because of our grant it becomes a $115,000 loss you say to yourself well at least I'm getting some and maybe they go to the county and they get an additional $5,000 from and and and against my better judgment I will be supportive helping this out if you promise that we can have some of those discussions about why businesses on Lincoln Road are losing $20,000 a year because it's not a new phenomenon that we're just getting rain in south Florida or it's hot here in the summer we have some structural issues about our economy that need to be addressed and it's not through handing out $5,000 to 40 businesses right so I'll be supportive of this but we have to have serious conversation exactly about some of the structural issues for why these businesses may be in need of this money no and and and and I'm telling you the seasonality it's become hypers seasonal our working class can no longer afford to live here and but and most people who did live here have now sold their homes to extremely high worth you know High net worth individuals that are only living here six months in a year they are out of here as of May we don't see them again till December I mean you know so so that and that's really what it is because living here full-time um and not being a high worth individual when you high net worth individual when you have to shoulder our insurance costs and the you know increasing utility costs I mean it's just super expensive but that comes at a time when every single neighborhood in our surrounding proximity has decreased their seasonality like it's for businesses like cheeseburger baby you know I it's for business I'm going to support this so you know listen we're living our Resort taxes are flat or up our stock market is at record highs our economy uh employment is at record lows so I'm sitting here from a financial and economic perspective saying if this is Ever Needed now is not the time but I'm going to go ahead and support this if you promise we can have some discussions about the structural ISS issues impacting our economy that are very unique and specific to Miami Beach as long as it doesn't make us look like Dubai I'm okay with that if I can ask one question before I help to craft a motion uh the item is presented the program is presented by The Economic Development Department uh had a $100,000 price tag is that the um we're 20 all right I'm okay with that okay and then if I can I'm going to try to craft a motion basically so return to Commission 200 no 100 it was it was set at 100 CU we were doing $10,000 grants at 100 cuz because it is a pilot program so all right so we'll do 20 grants the first year and let's see who applies let's get a list of businesses who do apply let's get some feedback from those businesses and they can um you know I don't know how much it's going to help but at least we're showing that we care and that we understand what's going on yeah and if we could add a stipulation the 20 businesses that receive grants if we can get an informal feedback about the state of business in Miami Beach why they're reaching out for this grant what we do good what we do bad and then what they would like to see and how they could be further helped going forward well do we can add a survey application commissioner I know you care deeply about this community so I thank you for that passion so again the I believe it would be return of commission with a favorable recommendation to make a one-time 2025 uh budget priority uh to implement an August September small business grant program as presented in the amount of $100,000 with the amendment that it would only be applicable to payroll rent and utilities uh it would be only applicable to businesses with a $2 million Revenue cap and no real estate agency would be added to the ineligible businesses yes but my amend is 2024 just for the I've heard from the city manager it's just not possible to develop Implement and roll that out um for in in 30 days um so the recomend you know the recommendation for administration would be as if this to be explored it would be a 2025 program given the fact that my item has languished on this agenda for months and months and it has not been called I would ask for your support to try to roll this out for at least the month of September for 2024 would you accept that commissioner magazine be fair I did ask if you want to diss or the sine Chapel and you chose the other if I can also just process-wise since this is a referral to discuss it this would this would go to Commission in July uh for the co for the commission to to approve it and if they did approve it we would return with a budge amendment in September which is after the fact just process-wise also just the ability and I was getting communication from the you know our city manager that the the concept of being able to develop roll this out implement this in such a short time frame is is difficult let's just disappointed that I have this on I mean when when was my item originally this is why me I really wouldn't get into this okay well I mean it it it does upset me because we are going to have seasonality and because it's sat here and I don't think this I'm just saying andr do you think I end meetings early and I say you know what I'm going to end an hour early so I don't call Kristen's items okay every single meeting you sit here and say oh didn't get to this we sit here for 3 or 4 hours at a time and nonstop hear item after item after item after item okay but it's not me the reason I'm upset is not because you know not about me it's about not being able to help people because my item wasn't called and that's it it just hurts my feelings I can have feelings and be a politician I can have feelings so Commissioners we could potentially um be able to if it gets approved through the Commission in July that we can potentially try to get it rolled out for August September we'll try we're small department but we will do our best to try to get it out if that's possible it's fine that's possible that would be great I ju I'm sorry to contradict but there's a funding difficulty there is no funding to fund this so that's also part of of the the issue um so I'm not sure how to to proceed with this in such a rapid manner so if does the economic development department have $100,000 to uh cover this expenditure we don't have $100,000 to cover it but we might be able to cover some to to roll it out so I just need to know what the motion is okay so uh if you could call the the vote on the favor recommendation for the 25 program I I I we'll show it you have S proof thank you um B rooms item number two item number two discuss ideas to increase utilization of ballrooms at the Miami Beach Convention Center item number two uh thank you got a light in the air a little hi I'm P Shaw I'm the uh interim director for economic development and this is an item that was brought by mayor Miner in January of 30 uh January of this year 2024 um where he had made a request to have a discussion about the utilization of the convention Center's ballroom and that um he was concerned that the public wasn't getting um equal use of the ballroom so just to give you some history and I'm sure I'm preaching to the converted here but you know that after we did this massive reimagination of the convention center millions of dollars was placed into the convention center to take it up to um where it is now it is a worldclass building that has multiple ballrooms we have a a a large uh Grand Ball Room we've added um multiple new um meeting rooms and have brought up the amenities of the convention center so it could be a worldclass uh building that can attract the type of clients that we would like in the convention center we divide up the convention center in terms of uh the clients as priority ones these are people who come in who have more than um 15,000 rooms on Peak we have uh priority twos that are a thousand um meetings and we have a priority three um uh clients that are less than um 500 rooms on Peak so we kind of divide them that way and then also the way that we think about the sale of the convention center we want to make sure that we always have have the great amenities for the convention center meaning all the ballrooms and the meeting rooms and we do this so we not don't just uh attract quantity a large quantity of clients but quality clients we want people who are going to have Deep Pockets who are going to utilize the building the way we want to and not on a rapid basis but but on a in a way that is more meaningful and when I say meaningful is that they're bringing the the reason that most cities have a Convention Center is to stimulate the economy we want to bring people here who are going to go to our restaurants stay in our hotels utilize our our our businesses and that's what we want we want those types of businesses but on top of that we also want to enhance our reputation of being a great destination and the convention center does that by bringing also groups that come even smaller groups that may not take over the entire convention center but may have smaller ones and then third and of course most important is that we want to make sure that our residents can utilize a space which we do but we also want to make sure that we're doing it in a smart way we want to utilize the the convention center space first and foremost for those who are going to bring Revenue that are going to bring people to the destination who are going to in turn put money into our economy and so we utilize those dates first for the clients and those the dates that are not utilized we always offer up to our residents to nonprofit organizations they're not for profit organizations which I'm sure you all are familiar like that you've approved on um a commission for some of the nonprofits that come in like the 5,000 role models for the Martin Luther King we did the pride Park um we did the um the park Pride Park um event in Pride park for the family day um we doing um style saves we have a number of events that come in that we utilize for um the convention center so here's the rub um we do a we do want to encourage a lot of the residents to come to the to the convention center but we don't want to do it at the expense of our hotels we have very large hotels here that can accommodate large weddings that can do a thousand a thousand person events we don't want to take away business from those hotels and put them in the convention center so we as the convention center make sure that their weddings canas or bridal showers or or um you know honor programs where they're giving away Awards if it can fit into a hotel we tend to steer them to the hotels because we want to also help their part of our economy as as well so I think that maybe where there may be either a um we try to create a balance and there may be um some disconnect and communication as to when some people are coming to the convention center saying you know they they can't get a date or or um the cost may be a little prohibitive but or that we've steered them to um a hotel where they want to be at the convention center if they want to be at the convention center we definitely welcome them but we also want to make sure that we kind of keep our economy balanced by making sure that our hotels um have um the opportunity to at least pitch to these organizations and um as to whether they wanted to use them or not so in the end all of this and it's in the memo that I've written it's we it is about balance it is about making sure that the the residents do get to utilize a Convention Center that we utilize it for like the Hall of Fame and we did um um Muhammad Ali that we do have those events but we also make sure that it's not at the expense of our other businesses that can take advantage of the clients that are coming to town or or that are in town that want to do that thank thank you heather so what is the ask today I think that the mayor just wanted to have a discussion on how we could better utilize the convention center and we do that through through you I'm sorry commissioner do do you know where this is coming from when we went to Surfside for a do you remember when we had that dinner in Surfside and we all drove up to the temple on 95th Street um when we were having dinner there he said this is Miami Beach organization why are they holding this in Sur side and they said they were having a problem finding large venue spaces so what he wanted to do and the reason he brought this item forward was that he said at the like at the time we should um we were having an informal discussion I wonder why you know we don't offer to host these types of community events or at least open it up so that they spend their money with us in our Convention Center rather than going to Surf Side and I think that was his uh Vision but at the time I hadn't really thought of the fact that like if we start to promote our Convention Center for local events like that we would be taking away from you know uh hotels I think there is a market for something in between I don't know um there was what action could be taken but I do know that that was his thought process and and um um with permission um an a good example is the Mia Legacy Awards they were taking place at the Diplomat hotel which is outside of Miami Beach for years and years and they had come to us about having a location and they went to the convention center and it just wasn't the right fit for them so we were able to steer them to the Lowe's hotel and it was a phenomenal event and it was something that could be brought to Miami Beach um and and they were able to weigh out whether they wanted to do it at the convention center or one of our hotels and I think a lot of it is really about us you know continuing to have Outreach to the community and letting them know the types of space that we have available um and and again we don't have you know the power to say where someone wants to go but we can definitely continue to offer and showcase all of the spaces that we have within the city and that's what we continue to do have a question I part of it is also that we don't have the um the hotel built there so that is a chunk of business that we are not going to be getting until that is online um is the convention center able to host events where a kosher kitchen is required I believe so I believe that um sedexo will allow them to come in you and they bring in like a portable kitchen okay our kitchens are not Kosher okay yeah but I think this is also more of not the the priority one priority two uh clients these are local organizations that are trying to have a one- day event versus a multiple Day event so this does not include like hotel rooms or anything that that we typically like to have so I believe that was it I mean so do you do you need anything from us or do you want to should we close the out it it just this is actually one of the few just discussion items at first so it could just be it's the economic development department uh presented and this could just be noted as a item presented and closed if uh the committee is uh amicable to that I am amendable to that and I'll make that motion to close this out you guys I'm making a motion to close this out all right we'll show the item Clos thank you thank you all enough enough well I mean I'm just telling you you know but you know what then you should be chair if you would like to decide what items to be called just saying that my item was called is from December it's the only one from December it didn't get here until February yeah because it's not being called anywhere it doesn't matter doesn't matter we're moving forward we're fine I already said Mr CFO what items do we still have outstanding for today I we have a short amount of time I think to be able to close this out if I could just add as U we have our CIP inter director come up just uh and he'll correct me if I'm wrong um this actually let me read the item into the record first uh number 17 discussion regarding prioritization of identifying funding for phase three of the West Avenue resiliency project during the fiscal year 2025 process uh number 17 and before I I recognize our inal director I believe if you could correct me is there is not actually funding appropriation request needed for phase three for fy2 it would be beyond that is that correct intern director for Capital Improvements David Gomez that is correct yes okay thank you yeah so so um this item specifically talks about uh making a budget party during the 20125 budget process for the uh phase three of the West Avenue uh but you know as you said the technical there is nothing listed as an appropriation requirement uh for phase three during 2025 there will be a request probably in 26 or 27 uh but for 25 there actually is no additional funding required to continue moving forward uh phase three so where do we go with this uh I I think this is a discussion I mean sure yes it's a critical infrastructure project we need it prioritized uh we have a lot of priorities right so where where can this funding start coming from well this will be something that would probably be discussed during the 26 uh budget we talking about $10 million around uh I believe it's 20 21 and a half no and could this ever be uh done through the issuance of um storm water bonds yes you can portion of it at least yes okay I I believe um so of that 20 some million dollars that is uh short on that just you know we are actively uh pursuing grants to help uh close that Gap I believe that U because our these neighborhood Improvement projects are funded through three sources traditionally uh one is storm water the other is water and sewer and the third is what they call the above ground portion that's really going to be your asphalt and your streets after the fact um I don't know if you had that breakdown of the funding gap which one of those categories has that uh decrease I think Maria does and and and it comes to water and sewer and storm water those would be bondable and would be become part of a uh upcoming future issuance which we would be you know bringing to F during an issuance it was not part of the 85 million that we did the Declaration of inent on the Water and Sewer those were all critical needs projects not neighborhood Improvement but we would go back and maybe modify that that declaration to intent if we need to add it um the above ground will be the most difficult portion because that's traditionally funded through a Pago or maybe Transportation funds and as we know we just discussed um we have a big possible bending on how August goes with a vote there maybe a um a big priority related to a Public Safety project so all of that would have to be looked into and could I ask I know that we've already discussed our capital projects uh in our budget Retreat um but we essentially started with we have this $1.2 billion unfunded uh Gap but that includes a lot of the storm water Wastewater actually a very large trunk if perhaps uh in our next budget meeting even though it's focused on operating if we could get a list out of the unfunded capital projects just so we see what our competing needs are because you know in many ways we're dealing with a zero Something game here correct chair actually there was a request during the uh June uh Capital One that to actually have a couple slides uh on that concept of what are are the outstanding gaps that we know or don't know that we that we either have Quantified already or um we believe that will be coming up so the different departments have been providing that information to the budget department and there will be some slides to show and this will be an example of a of a known Gap uh of what we will have to identify funding in the future but yes we're working on that right now thank you no comment shockingly I don't think for this we are taking I think this item could just be closed out um there's no action to be taken that could be closed out and that would but I I mean I think it leads to a broader conversation where uh we have a lot of priorities right a lot of things that are important to a lot of people and unidentified funding needs and perhaps we need to be proactive in going out and identifying additional Revenue opportunities because when we have let's call it a $10 million surplus every single year um that's you know knock on wood that's if property valuations remain strong and growing at a double digit or near double digit rate um we are having a lot of competing interest and priorities for a lot of these numbers so we're prioritizing a lot of things and when you prioritize everything nothing is a priority so perhaps we have to have broader discussions about giving all these high priority items they're starting to get very big ticket and perhaps not satisfied by just okay we have a $5 million surplus this year do we have to go out and enhance our Revenue in some ways that we're not just leaving things up to chance chair I I I completely agree with you I think we'll start that conversation I think we've already started that conversation and I think we'll continue that at the July 12th uh budget Workshop and then um I think we'll have a little more clarity uh after August and then there's clear Direction how to move forward on on a certain capital projects and then November when we do our closeout um budget amendment uh with any of the general fund Surplus as by commission policy those dollars are to be rolled into our capital reserve but we often modify that a bit and we can look at those priorities because if we have a large known gap for a project at that time you know it could be directed specifically to a specific project or just put put aside to be Ser a later point Thank you thank you um so we'll close this out thank you all uh we've lost as a I think as the city CH mentioned we lost are there any other items that we could hear and uh that we don't need to take action on it's incredibly unfortunate that uh for I'm not sure what reasons that we've just lost qu um but if there's items that are important for anybody else we won't be able to hear them today uh given that we've lost Quorum are there any items that we could close out that don't require action I I think uh number 21 related to the hiring of additional Detention officers could be like commissioner Fernandez's request to be forwarded to the July 12th could just be discussed at the July we could close it out here and just be um discussed as an enhancement at the July 12th that's actually my item um is that a thing that we can do yeah I yes I believe I believe you can you can close out and because you can't can't take action here you can't say anything back to the commission can we hear what deputy chief has to say I think you can have that discussion just so there are no surprises yes ma'am deputy chief aosta again um Madame commissioner uh this is regarding the enhancement of two Detention officers to improve our operational Readiness on a 24-hour period for the police department it allows police officers to be police officers that maintain visibility out in the street and do the work that they've being asked to do and allow Detention officers to deal with all prisoners that are incoming into the police station or need to be transported to TGK um quite often police officers are um at TGK for a vast amount of hours it impacts CS for service back here in the city um allowing um these addition of two really improves our Readiness as a police department so um the the the department is for these two addition uh additional Detention officers um it it does come at a cost um but before I get into that cost um we think and we anticipate that this will reduce our overtime budget for Detention officers between 45 and 55,000 a year by adding these to um there are startup costs when with any when you hire any new police officer or detention officer in this case um there's salaries benefits um police cars radios tasers body warn cameras and things of that nature if if we are looking at two Detention officers we're looking at a startup cost of 344 for the first year and then a reduction in year two to 236,000 if we're doing one as an example it's half of that cost on each deputy chief when we had a discussion previously about Staffing I believe one of the uh camera centers or perhaps realtime intelligent unit units we essentially said I think it was about that area but okay these will not be your full borne police officers so they're actually coming at a lesser costs I think it was about the real time intelligence service right yes um the officers here the Detention officers are they required to be our that come at a higher expense or uh is there a scaled down version at a lower cost if these are largely kind of processing and transportation related well um they are part of our City's bargaining unit they fall under the fop as well in terms of benefits and salaries they do come at a cost that's lower than the hiring of a police officer um that's why we went with the detention officer program um they are sworn they carry firearms um and they basically if you look at them side by side with the exception of the patch they look like police officers but their duties are solely centered around the uh prison processing and making sure that um the save transport over to the TGK facility and then they leave uh relief officers um so they can remain on the street doing police work yeah so I appreciate the information unfortunately I don't think we can do anything with it yeah I but I could just showare this item is just item as heard in forwarded the July 12th for Budget workshop and we'll close it out okay okay we'll be ready sir okay thank you so if we lose Quorum is the meeting adjourned by default or do we have to make a motion for that can't make a motion make a motion for meeting no I'll second Jo can I make a motion to Jour I'll make an exception thank you all thank you all for the time today