##VIDEO ID:hJr8mSWpufg## e e e e e e e e e e e e e e okay you please I push when I need to right perfect testing good morning Mr clerk recording in progress good morning good morning I'd like to welcome everybody to the November 12th commission uh as always thank you for your participation Advance it's a 902 um I'd like to as I always do tell everyone that they are welcome to provide comment guidance input feedback many different options you can either do it online you can do it via Zoom or you could do it in person and some even via phone we welcome all of them there'll be an opportunity for everyone during public comment uh to be able to to be able uh to provide their guidance and their input so moving along um I'd like to closer I'd like to take this opportunity they're asking that you get closer to the mic I'd like to have it to take this opportunity uh to just say a few words very quickly before we move forward with the Pledge of Allegiance As We Gather today following yesterday's Veterans Day I am filled with profound reverence for those who have served our country with Valor it is my honor to ask offer Officer Nelson Garcia who has been with the corg police department services for more than 31 years and is a distinguished member of our Honor Guard officer Garcia is the longest serving veteran and I would like to ask him to lead us in the pledge of of Allegiance in Coral Gables we are privileged to count 64 members of our team who have served in various branches of military each of them adds to the vibrant tapestry of Liberty and services that enriches our community and Nation our city manager recognizes that sacrifices by sending personalized letters of gratitude a heartfelt gesture that carries the pride and respect of our city beyond words we ensure that each veteran employed by the city receives an administrative day off a day to reflect recharge or continue servicing our community in their own way let us be reminded that our support of veterans should never be confined to a single day President Ronald Reagan once said freedom is never more than one Generation generation away from Extinction we did not pass it on to our children in the bloodstream it must be fought for protected and handed on to them to do the same our veterans embody this truth reminding us that the Liberty we cherish is a result of unwavering dedication and sacrifice so I ask our our esteemed member of the police department to please join us to lead us in the Pledge of Allegiance please rise I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the Republic for which it stands one nation under God indivisible with liberty and justice for all officer Garcia and all the other individuals who are here with today other employees of the city I see Mayor Don sesing in the back who also served this great country thank you for your service thank you for your commitment to Liberty thank you for allowing individuals like myself who are first generation Americans who my parents came to this country with nothing and were able to raise us were're able to study and become contributing members of this community thank you for making that a possibility God bless uh moving on now uh to my dear friend from St Augustine he's here please join us good morning everyone Heavenly Father We Gather today for this meeting we ask you to let us take a moment to reflect on the values that bring us together compassion Justice and equality May the discussions held here be guided by wisdom respect and a commitment to the well-being of our community let us pause for a moment of silence to collect our thoughts and begin our work together with Open Hearts and with open minds for the benefit of all we ask this through our Lord creator of Heaven and Earth amen amen thank you sir please send my Parish our best wishes and it's always a pleasure to have you here thank you sir uh moving on to presentation and protocol documents item A1 I ask for the family of Jack L to please join us please come to the podium first good morning and thank you for being with us today it's an honor to have you here with us I'm going to read a quick resolution that we have here of condolences on behalf of the city of cor Gables extending its heartfelt sympathy and bere family of the late Jack L whereas Jack L was born on September 2nd 1934 in Westwood Massachusetts and whereas Jack attributed much of his success in life to the remarkable educ educational Legacy of his LOL and Trumble families he attended Nobles and granell school and graduated from Harvard University where he formed lifelong relationships while attending Harvard he was dedicated to the ad Club the crew team rowing in the Henley Royal rata and RTC and whereas Jack served in the US Navy from 1966 to 1968 aboard the US mphin station in Norfolk with tours of Duty throughout Europe and the Caribbean after living in New York City Boston and St Louis Jack found his true home in Miami where he dedicated over 50 years of his life personally and professionally and whereas Jack was a pioneering force in South Florida's commercial real estate landscape with vision and Leadership that shaped the local economy and Commercial Real Estate industry holding key positions at numerous esteemed firms and whereas Jack was also deeply committed to Civic engagement and chable Endeavors he was the former chair of the beacon Council the Greater Miami Chamber of Commerce and the cor was Community Foundation and notably his leadership to the beacon Council during the Great Recession was pivotal as the spearheaded initiatives that lay the groundwork for Miami day's recovery and growth and whereas Jack was a beloved husband father grandfather philanthropist and Trailblazer in the commercial real estate industry and passed away on September 28th 2024 at the age of 81 surrounded by his loving family his wife Natasha and his children Carolyn Kate Ted Loring LOL Lindsay LOL Lena l Johnson Eddie Johnson and John L and whereas Jack also believed in giving back to the community including serving on advisory boards for the 20 21st century schools Bond advisory committee wpbt Channel 2 tech for America the United Way of Miami da the Salvation Army friends of Gable's high and Zoo Miami he was an art and supporter of Baptist Health South Florida Florida in chash University the Miami foundation and Casa Familia Inc Jack was dedicated parishioner served as the Deacon of St Stevens's Episcopal church and now therefore being resolved by the commission of City Coral Gables Florida that we extend our helpful sympathy to his bere family on the occasion of their great loss please join us so before before you say a few words because I know you could speak for hours about Jack Jack's accomplishments this is just a tip of the iceberg tip of the iceberg I had um I had a lot of Great Encounters with Jack as a member of the coral G Community Foundation uh and also at FIU but more importantly I I I really spoke to him a lot about issues about commercial real estate I've always had an interest in commercial real estate I've been involved in commercial real estate most of my professional career and Jack was a mentor to many of us Jack was an individual who was always a straight shooter told you the way it was straight up you know if I if I talk to him about a certain real estate transaction or a deal or something that I was working on you know he he gave you a straight answer that's a bad deal that's a good deal uh that type of honesty is is cherished is cherished and he was an honorable man and his legacy lives with you now so I'd like for you to just tell us a few words talk a little bit about Jack um he will be sorely missing this community uh he was always a bright spot especially at that Foundation uh as we raise significant funds for scholarships for young children in this community um Jack was always engaged Jack was always a person that wanted to you know give you know give an additional dollar you know provide some guidance and his involvement was something that again uh led many of these young Professionals in this community helped them lead in a way that he uh left a fingerprint on them so welcome to to the commission welcome to the city cor gaes and please join us thank you um Mr Mayor and the rest of the commission thank you so much for this recognition uh and honor and um on behalf of my father I'm joined here by my sister Lena l Johnson my brother-in-law Ed Johnson and my mother Natasha L um and I'm Jack's son John L my dad um he loved his his family more than anything and a close second was was the city beautiful cor Gable if I had to make one amendment to to the oit it is he finally found his home in Miami specifically Coral Gables um and you know through many of those accomplishments mayor that that you read a lot of them resided in our backyard here in Coral Gables um it's left a hole in in our lives and our our hearts but it's it's the support from you all and and recognitions like this that just make it a little easier on us so we want to thank you for the support now and the support moving forward his legacy lives on um with his family but but with the city beautiful and coral gaes so we we ask you all to carry on his legacy as we will thank you mayor thank you thank you very much thank you my son speaks you have good representation representation U so unless my colleagues have anything else I'd like to add I had a personal relationship with Jack and I know that many other individuals in the community here had a great relationship with him uh he helped me a lot during my first my first years in in office um you know and and and like I mentioned before not only professionally but also personally so it's a big loss to the city uh he was larger than life a larger than life individual um and it's a true bless ing to at a minimum um present you with this resolution of condolence it's a small gesture we can never repay his commitment to the city beautiful um but at the end of the day just know that your husband is missed your father is missed he's a person who is truly loved thank you madam vice mayor I had uh the brief privilege to um be with him on the on the community the Community Foundation board as the city's lay is on and um the love that everybody in the room felt for him and again his uh unrestricted truthfulness on how he felt about certain issues was always welcome but he also did it with a smile and with humor and a way that you know you really appreciated him being there in the room um he's going to be missed terribly by the foundation by everybody in this community because he was such a a warm loving and and G giving human being I feel for you all so thank you I want to add um if I may um Jack was beloved and in the world we live in today to be beloved is not an easy accomplishment yet he was a beloved across the community he was the embodiment of service the embodiment of involvement in his community and the embodiment of what leadership is he leaves behind shoes that have to be filled and in all real there no one individual can fill those shoes it'll take a community to fill those shoes and I just want to give our my condolences but it's a loss for our community and our heartfelt condolences to your family and I just want to say thank you to you for sharing Jack with us in our community uh I know he took a lot of time to devote to Coral Gables and that took time from your family but I think he was happy doing that and doing both uh the the one memory that I have of Jack is he was always smiling uh he was always happy uh I'm sure you had different experiences but um when he was out there in the community and he was out there uh serving Coral Gables he was always happy so thank you for sharing him with us I'm sorry for his loss and I'm sure his name will live on forever she thank you which moving on to the next item item A2 and we have a well it's a somber moment we have a we have a a bright spot and that we get to hear from Mayor Don sesk who's here with us today presentation or Proclamation declaring November 12th 2024 as Marty Rosen day in Coral Gables mayor uh Marty rosen's family sends their regards they could not come from out of town for this and his grandson is working for federal agency and deployed at the moment but Marty you know led a long and wonderful life which is a great thing for he and his family but when you come to the end of your life and you outlive your contemporaries then of course there's not a lot of people to stand around and and concern themselves with your disappearance so I am delighted to be here on behalf of my good friend Marty for those of you who don't know worked for this city worked in Economic Development he uh worked with uh the economic development board when my wife Janette was on that he served with me in the Army Reserves for U at least over a decade and he was our medical officer he was not a doctor but he was uh trained in hospital Administration and so he did that he was very active in the junior Orange Bowl he was very active with the Chamber of Commerce he was very active with so many things and he was honored by the University of Miami as an outstanding Alum uh Marty gave a lot of his soul to the city in his later years he moved to be near his family so he hasn't been around to be seen or heard uh personally from in a little while he'll be buried in a national cemetery for veterans and so it comes as a great day to honor him the day after Veterans Day and um I want to thank on behalf of the um Family the city for recognizing his passing he he was a person dedicated to Coral Gable Florida and I thank you personally on behalf of all of his RS and arms thank you mayor thank you I'd like to uh read a proclamation onto the record whereas Martin Marty John Rosen age 92 passed away on October 27th of 2024 in Port St Lucy Florida born on June 9th 1932 in the Bronx New York Martin affectionally known as Marty dedicated much of his life to military service and Community involvement whereas Marty was a proud alumnist of Riverside High School military school and the University of Miami where he earned a Bachelor of Science in business between 1950 and 1954 Marty is a member of iron Arrow um's highest honor Miami Hurricane and touchdown clubs since 1950 and whereas Marty's commitment to his country and Community was evident early on following his education he served in the US Army and the US Army Reserve from 1954 until his retirement in 1984 as rank of Co colonal during his disting distinguished military career Marty was deeply involved with Army Recruiting following his military career Marty was on the executive board for the employer support of the guard and reserves serving as both a boss lift and esgr executive committee member roles through which he supported countless service members and their families and whereas Marty eventually transitioned to a civilian role as the Director of visitors and conventions from Ami Beach Florida and employee of the city and an employee of the city of cor Gables Florida and later pursued a successful career as a stock broker becoming vice president of of a mayor prize retiring in 2019 his commitment to military communities remained steadfast throughout his life as he frequently engaged with ro students at various high schools sharing his experiences and insights he was a member of the Korean war vets military offic Association of America and World Wars Jewish War four veterans Coral Gables South Miami and Port St Lucy rotary clubs Junior orange bull committee and Coral Gables Mobile Patrol earning lifetime achievement awards for decades of service Marty also Marty was also devoted to actors Playhouse in col Gables football games golf movies and enjoying trips for military events and whereas Marty was a loving father grandfather brother and friend who will be dearly missed and forever remembered now therefore I Vince l was mayor of the city of cor Gables along with the members of the city commission excuse us do you hereby Proclaim November 12th 2024 as Martin Marty Rosen day and coral GES [Music] M you sir e e e e e 800 lb of paper in his first two years advancing sustainability and responsible waste disposable efforts in coil Gables businesses whereas the city was first municipality in 2016 in miyate County to implement a prescription drug disposal program and in 2021 launch a year yearround battery recycling program for its residents businesses employees and visitors which to date has collected over 3,600 pounds for proper recycling whereas the city launched a plastic film and plastic bag recycling program in three locations in mi County to implement a prescription drug disposal program and in 2020 slight delay uh whereas City launched a plastic film and plastic bag recycling program in three locations in June 2024 which helps divert plastic contamination in our city which to date has collected and recycled 143 pounds and whereas the city continues to maintain below 8% contamination rate in its single family residential recycling program through continued education and awareness efforts and whereas the city was awarded a grant by the keep America beautiful organization to implement the cigarette litter prevention program throughout the city to reduce uh cigarette litter now uh now therefore Ivan slago as mayor of the city of Co gaes along with the members of City commission do hereby proclaimed November 15th as America recycles day in coil Gables so when I just add we had 800 Vehicles show up I know Mr Anderson you're here ready to to report um and thank you mayor for starting the plastic recycling efforts over at the the youth center and the other locations that make it available for uh the residents as well as the battery uh recycling uh it's through these types of Partnerships that we can help improve our environment and put divert stuff that was otherwise going to go to the trash Mount trash Moores to the proper way that the material can be reused so thank you vice mayor and thank you Commissioners for your support um we had a great turnout like the vice mayor said this past Saturday for the community recycling drive-through event we had 800 Vehicles come through in three hours it matched our largest event ever when I looked back and while I'm the one Speaking uh before you today with shiron it's really a team effort to come together and put together events like that uh thank you to our uh police department a solid waste uh the United Methodist Church who allows us to use their parking lot as as we've expanded over the years um and really to my team as well um who are out collecting those plastic bags we're going to the youth center I think now twice a week I feel like uh to collect all of the the the plastic bags so it's through you all support and through the community support we're able to implement these programs that really make our community unique in the region to offer our residents these different programs to be able to properly dispose of and recycle our waste so it's through you all support and our community support that we're able to implement that and through the amazing work of our Solid Waste team and you know the our Communications team on educating our residents what's recyclable and keeping that contamination rate really low which I don't know of any other city in the in the region or in the state that has a contamination rate as low as our so I don't know if shiron wants to add any words but no I didn't have any words but um thank you to the community for coming out it was a productive Saturday and we had a lot of materials we collected so I know you guys are excited for the next one because we were getting questions asked when is the next recycling drive-thru event thank you and on that note uh it'll be in April but we do have our business recycling drive-through event that'll be on December 7th so we look forward to also having that event for the business specifics well so thank you so if I may just to duvail off the vice mayor's comments first off I want to thank staff for all their efforts they deserve all the credit they did a wonderful job I stopped by there I know I saw the vice mayor uh there uh this weekend it was amazing the amount of cars that were there I was able to bring a lot of items that I've been saving over the last six months to get recycled um the vice mayor was was kind enough to give me credit for the plastic bags but I want to be very clear uh while that idea did come from my office it didn't come from me uh that idea was brought to me by a resident uh who who had a discussion with me at my open Office hours and said listen other cities are doing this this plastic bag ordinance I tried years ago to ban plastic bags here in the city we took it all the way to the state supreme court we lost but the effort was noted and we continue to always get uh inquiries especially from young children who who want to interview or they want to learn a little bit about you know how the city led the way years ago in regards to the plastic bags the younger the children the more interested they are in recycling so while people say that recycling is weeding off it's not you know especially when you talk about my my young daughters they are more interested in recycling the environment than ever so in regards to the plastic bags you know I want to I want to give credit to the resident uh very sweet lady who is very involved in recycling and she brought her to my attention I also want to mention for example um the battery recycling which has been incredibly successful you know the credit of that goes all to Salange Salange and Matt you know really brought that idea uh to our office years ago and said why don't we start doing this and it's been incredibly successful and the one the other person I want to give credit to who's always there for example is Marlin Ebert uh she she came to my office she came to us and we had a meeting remember all the meetings that we had uh to talk about the recycling project twice a year uh that was her idea she came up with the idea uh we ran with it in 2016 that's how long we've been doing it and you're talking about hundreds of thousands of pounds that have been diverted uh from the wa stream which it's twofold number one it's environmentally the appropriate thing to do but it's also saving the City money instead of people throwing that in your trash pits and then it we have to pay higher tipping fees we're able to remove that recycle it and in most cases actually potentially make money off it depending on what material it is but the credit goes to the residents and the credit goes to the employees again who who lead the way and I think last month I sent you a contact of a person who wanted to implement the same thing that we do other elected officials newly elected officials that want to see how the city does it so I always throw them they reach out to me I throw them throw Matt's way and uh and and you give them the the tools to implement what we've done here in the city so I want to congratulate uh the residents the employees uh for coming up with these great ideas bringing them to my office and uh implementing a lot of them take time to implement but at the end of the day we see the fruit you know years and years after so thank you shiron um Anderson thank you so much for your leadership thank ready photo Y come on bring up the team and is Marlon here here I'd like to just give a quick update before we move on to the next item and so the nice lady who brought it to my attention in an office hours meeting was her name was Sherry very sweet lady very involved in the environment very gaze here in the city she's responsible for bringing it and then we had multiple meetings and we got it in mented in multiple different locations one of them being the adult Activity Center so Matt just told me right now that we've almost reached a level where we can now take all that plastic and the company that recycles all these plastic bags will give us a park bench in return and they actually make these park benches out of the plastic bags that we recycle uh Sherry is amazing she's a huge advocate for the environment and what I like with the support of my colleagues in the commission is we have an opportunity to name you know to put a plaque on that bench and I'd like to name that bench after her and her husband and her family uh for bringing this idea to the city and how long did it take for us to reach our first bench hasn't been well we're not there yet we're getting there we're almost there yeah but we're almost there so I'll keep the commission update a few month right it's been a few months since we've done it so if the commission would would be willing to support it you know I'd like to name that park bench that we'll be getting from tracks uh the company that will be that that recycles the plastic bags on behalf of the individual the resident who brought her name that be happy to second that um I'm in favor as well and um we have more benches I know that'll be coming down the line and there's uh some other folks that were very supportive and and pressing for this issue as well that we can do additional benches for I love it all right thank forward thank you uh before I move on to item A4 I'd like to call darel Fernandez who is here with us today uh darel is a good friend individual who has a long history here in the City of Coral Gables and he is now your tax collector here in Miami day County uh in a very hardfought uh respectful um process in the November election he was elected your tax collector and I have a I have a very distinct feeling that he's about to revolutionize the way that we do business here in Miami day County and why do I say that uh not only because I respect him as a businessman and as a person who's done great things in his community and his wife is much more intelligent much much harder working and she also happens to be a city employee she also happens to be a city employee but darel has a way of him Delle has a way of him where he's unrelenting unrelenting in in uh in everything that he puts his mind to so not only is darel a friend but he's a person who have an immense amount of respect for and a person who will Advocate on behalf of the city of cor gaes and its residents and will already promised me will have Open Door uh policy very similar to like what I've been doing for the last 12 years in my office so without any further Ado I'd like to to uh introduce you all if you don't know him already to our tax collector Dariel Fernandez good morning sir good morning mayor good morning Commissioners I just wanted to say thank you uh for the opportunity to to be here to to this morning I just wanted to introduce myself to the resident of this beautiful city uh I am here to serve my community uh we have too many things to do together I think it's important that the people know what we do in our office and that is why I try to contact different cities around the Miami day County to see how we can work together I think it's important that the people know that we are here to serve our community again thank you for the opportunity I will be around here so in the few week we're going to meet with everything of you to see how we can work today one of the thing that we wanted to do is to create like a mobile office in every single City in Miami day County that way the people don't need to go to our office in the middle of the downtown so if you have any question I always say I'm here to serve my community go bless you all Mr Tax Collector if I may uh we have already in our in our offices uh one of our commissioners uh uses City Hall as an opportunity to meet once a month with the residents uh I'd like to offer you that opportunity to if you want to meet on a quarterly basis if you want to meet once a year twice a year whatever youd like you can also join um I have a town hall next month we'd love to have you uh we have you know depending on the topics at hand we have a lot of people that show up and we always welcome you to to get involved as you always have in as many things as possible in the GES so I'd love to take a picture with you now possible we welcome you here to the city of beautiful I wanted to take the opportunity point of personal privilege um I've seen you grow from somebody who came from Cuba and working at Radio boss just working the booth with a passion for service to our community I remember when we shared our radio show on R Bas for many years uh worked with you with digital image advertising and ponos group um and I've seen the passion the drive and the dedication that you put into everything you do uh I Echo the mayor's comments I think you're going to do a phenomenal job uh it's an office that many people didn't even know existed yeah until this election cycle but it's an office that's going to carry a lot of weight moving forward with the T taking on the DMV um your passion for um Innovation and new technology I think is going to help that office a lot the clerk and I actually had a conversation recently about potentially doing a partnership with your office for the use of the space next door at the passport office and possibly provide some of the services there so I think that's something just making that quick intro here uh the clerk has and I have already had that conversation so that's maybe something we can work on so that you can use this space and uh potentially offer our residen of services that your offices offers but it's an honor I'm proud of what you have accomplished I'm proud that you're here today uh and I look forward to working with you as our new tax collector thank you commission and thank you to the resident of this beautiful city congratulations thank you congratulations and I love your idea of the mobile office yeah this is something that you know uh more electeds are doing right now like yourself uh we see the faces and you get to touch the people that we actually impact their lives so thank you for taking that extra effort yeah thank thank you congratulations darel okay so far so don't like the okay [Music] but moving on to item A4 good morning mayor Commissioners Rael Ela HR director so as you all know we do have the best employees but today we're going to recognize um our exceptional employees so we have our part-time employee of the quarter and two employees of the month so we're going to start with our part-time employee of the third quarter she comes from community recreation Isabelle notton she is a lifeguard at the Venetian school and she's at at the Country Club so Fred going to say a few words and present her with the award uh thank you um community recreation is highly dependent on our part-time staff we have quite a few um and we put them in um positions where they have a lot of responsibility and they're integral to what we do every day and the services we perform I'd like to call up Jose Valar who is the Venetian pool supervisor who would say a few words about Isabelle and I think Isabelle has something prepared also good morning mayor vice mayor City commission very uh happy to be here in front of you every once in a while you get an employee that really sticks out whether they're part-time they're young uh characteristics stick stick out and Isabelle not only is a great employee she's a city resident and in under a year she has saved over 20 people from drowning at the Venetian pool which is unheard of and two of those very well deserved and two of those were major emergencies that everything turned out positive there were no issues with it so we we had to nominate her she was definitely the the choice for us so a choice you know I I I believe you want to say I believe Isabelle does want to say some words so I'll pass it off to her good good morning Mr Mayor Commissioners I am so honored to receive this word and I want to thank you my incredible supervisors and my teammates for your support and recognition as a senior at Rivier Preparatory School balancing schoolwork varsity swim team College apps and my work here can be challenging but has helped me grow in ways I've never expected this is thanks to the constant training and effort put in by my exceptional supervisors and all of my lifeguard 3es they teach me new things every shift I learned how to swim at the Venetian pool I actually grew up right around the corner I'm excited every day to help new guests stay safe as they discovered the best pool in the world thank you again for this honor and I look forward to continue to serve our community thank you thank you so accept this LA and recognition and really the important part is a nice check that you get as well as a reward so don't spend it all in one place and here's your letter so great job thank you let's take a photo yeah staff come please that's we got TI A5 mayor so now we have our employee of the month for the month of August he works at in the finance department Christopher Garcia budget analyst to I would like to call up Paula Rodriguez assistant Finance director to present him with the award good morning um so Chris uh I'm so happy to be here to be able to recognize Chris Garcia um we have an amazing team in the budget um in the Budget Finance area but Chris is certainly um shown to be an outstanding employee Chris joined the city just about three years ago he joined in 2021 as an administrative analyst in public works and shortly after was promoted to the budget team as a management and budget analyst in his short time Chris has really um sh shown interest in our city and caring about um how the City Works he's become very knowledgeable about what he does and the nomination today that he's receiving was actually from a co-worker um in another department and to me that speaks even louder than I had nominated him as his boss right so he was um his nomination included sentences like leading with integrity and loyalty dedication to assisting and teaching others in his role goes a long way and he is always accessible and willing to help and so that to me just shows an employee who not only cares about his job but also cares about supporting his co-workers and the organization as a whole so I'm proud to be up here to be able to recognize Chris who I I always knew was a great employee with a lot of potential um but also to know that his um peers and his colleagues also see that in him as well um so thank you for uh this time and I'll hand it over to Chris I'm sure he has a few words prepared thank you good morning good morning mayor vice mayor members of the commission um it's definitely an honor to accept this award today uh um definitely uh I consider myself lucky to have such a dedicated team over here um but even more greatly rewarded to have a such a knowledgeable and experienced director throughout my career path uh she has definitely helped me throughout every step of the way um every day is definitely a learning experience and I just want to thank everybody who has just helped me condition and develop me for this exact moment and definitely always room for improvement and once again thank you for everybody Chris in integrity and um loyalty are characteristics nowadays that are very very hard to find in employees so congratulations and I'm proud and I'm the city's very proud to have you thank you thank you paulen thank you thank so he'll receive his recognition and of course his check which I'm sure he's going to share with hisam I'm I'm an adult now so I need to pay my car payment with that congratulations I'll ask the finance team to join us PR com ad a A6 yes mayor so now we have our employee of the month for the month of November if you don't recognize the name you'll definitely recognize him if you go to any of our Parks Jerry Jones congratulations I'll call up Fred ciso to present the award and say a few words morning morning so um Jerry has been with the city's Parks and Recreation Department for quite a while he does have the lowest employee number of any active employee in the city at this point and he's the one gentleman that's worked in this City's parks and recreation parks and recreation department more years than me so he beat he beats me out um Jerry has um you know he's he's made quite an impact on a lot of participants throughout the years Generations um families that have have come to Youth Center um I've seen how he interacts with with our participants now um whether he's at the front desk or whether he's doing his duty um you know running our athletic programs our basketball camp um he's worked with my children um and uh he has a way about him the children really uh respond to his leadership parents are um really complimentary of him I see how he interacts with them and I think he's he's one of the those things when you're dealing with a community center you're dealing with the youth um that um goes beyond you know um procedures and policies that's really how you how you interact with those families and he has uh forged a special bond with a lot of our participants so congratulations to him it's a long time coming I don't think he's ever been up here before so um uh We've consider ourselves fortunate that we got him to wear pants today and he's not wearing his athletic shorts and working out there on the basketball court so Jerry come on up congratulations well this is a great honor thank you so much uh Mr Mayor and commission uh want just want to thank my youth center guys Fred Catalina Carlos inessa cat for putting up with me all these years and I had a lengthy speech prepared but I don't think I can top the girl that saved 20 lives so I just thank you so much that's an honor Jerry before here's the money the money's here let's get to the m there you go you get the money you get the plaque and what J didn't say is he has now coached families of three generations right yeah that's about right yeah he's coached the grandparents now he's coaching the grandkids so it's pretty pretty incredible and I look I look younger than some of the people that are Jerry Jerry Jerry Jerry stay there no no no up there no this is your life take the picture I'll put it up you got it no no no I haven't gotten me okay um little surprise image there um Jerry and and I we met in 1975 uh we were the outdoor basketball courts me and my friend I had just turned 13 years old it was after school and every day every afternoons there was this really tall lanky guy who could shoot with his left we called them Lefty and we said hey can we shoot with you and a man a few words back then uh said yeah and from then a relationship a friendship evolved and I know it was 1975 because you love this new song song that had just come out called Bohemian rap city by Queen and still love yeah I know that's why I mentioned it um over the years and with all honesty I think you are the uh unsung hero that you Center you've impacted So Many Lives I talked to parents today that have their kids in the program they talk wonders of you I talk to kids that're now in their 50s for first they can't believe you're still there but secondly they talk about you with such affection and so much love nobody has better dry wit than you uh you are the master of the dry wit and the dry comments uh Billy or the image I have an image uh that may take you back a little bit oh boy I had one of you and me well you cut off his head I think right it'll get well the Slender guy there he is is that's around 1981 882 Jerry on the left of the image those kids are now in their 50s and um the greatest tribute anybody could have when you coach kids like you do is the following you are loved you are loved and you're my dear friend and you'll always be my dear friend and you so deserve that and more congratulations than thank you very much very it is always refreshing to go to the Youth Center and see you interacting with the children and you always positive you always have a positive way about you doesn't matter the circumstance could be 100 degrees outside you're out there smiling and out there making sure that everything is running smoothly um you talked about saving 20 lives you've probably touched 20,000 lives in the time that you've been here and for that this community is grateful Jerry thank you for your PTI with the pickle ball players I we've chatted about it you've always given them a few extra minutes to finish their game and didn't rush them off the court so thank you from those from the bottom of their hearts as well e e clerk moving on to item B1 regular City Commission meeting of October 22nd 2024 I'll move it second all hi hi thank you moving on to public comment uh yes Mr Mayor first Speaker this morning Miss Maria Cruz good morning Mrs Maria Cruz 1447 Miller Road and that's my real name I do not use fake names um it's a wonderful day to be here so far uh this is the day the Lord has made let us rejoice and be glad in it and I hope is a good start I hope we can have a good end see you later Eddie Ray good morning sir good morning I'm here to see if you guys would take into consideration making some permanent pickle ball courts uh you know I live in the city of C Gables for 25 years plus and presently every time that I got to go play uh there is no dedicate there's only two dedicated courts in the city and I either got to go to Pine Crest or I gotta go to Dalal or I have to go elsewhere and I believe that this city the way that it's trying to be present itself uh up and coming and you know for the the level of taxes that we pay here I think that we should be able to afford permanent pickle ball courts where everybody could use them uh if is a cost factor I think that you know you guys could charge uh I think people are willing to pay for that um if you go to any pickle ball court go to the youth center at 4:30 5 o'clock you will see there there's an overwhelming amount of people waiting for courts uh I think it's good for the community gets people off the street get people to interact it's a it's a game that you play close so you're able to have a communication um you know in essence I think it's a plus all the way around but you know it's up to you guys to dedicate some space and uh allow some money like I said I think you could get it the money back or at least it'll pay itself thank you so Mr Ray we approved um uh half a million dollars this year uh in order to start funding uh a permanent pickle ball facility uh I know that Mah haly and I walk the built more grounds recently and there is a plan that will be going before the Parks and Recreation board uh in order to get approval and bring it back to the city commission for final approval uh to potentially have some pickle ball Courts at the uh the Kik Tennis Center uh so we are working on it um we're trying to get it done uh as quickly as possible uh but we want to make sure it's something that is a long-term solution to a big problem that we've been having for a while okay okay fair enough thank you guys and I also walk the the rounds with Mighty haly and yeah we can we can do it just Tak some willingness for people to work together so Eddie first off thank you for being here I met with M last week we had a nice and the week before that we met with Mr cero the parks director to review an opportunity that mte was the one that found and I congratulate her and the vice mayor for really working on that um it's an opport that's there as a matter of fact it's very economical especially when you think about the fact that in the budget we already have $500,000 I don't foresee it costing over we were looking at just off the back of a napkin a million and a half dollars to potentially be able to have Courts at the beginning of the year that'll be temporary then having additional courts that will be obviously permanent I think the site works perfectly well because there's already existing infrastructure in place you have a facility where people can buy drinks people can buy uh clothing people can buy memorabilia uh there's parking undercover there's electric parking stations there so it makes sense that that is a One-Stop shop for both tennis and for pickle ball and there's accessible routes for every single person that wants to use it uh and I don't think it would cost that much money either so I foresee it in next year's budget uh being able to put an additional million dollars and this something that I talk to Mr cuser about and and my D about with my colleagues on the commission put an extra million dollars into into the budget so that we can start designing now this year the money's already there as long as the commission has consensus on the location and they're fine with it uh I don't see I don't see a reason why why we could not have a beautiful facility that meets our needs um not only currently but in the future you're talking about the one putting on top by the Publix on no no no I'm talking about the one next to the one next to the buil at the C facility I think it makes complete sense um you have all the infrastructure there yeah I think if you it's visible it's more possibility of being used and if it's up on the third floor where you can't see it perfectly perfectly stated sir okay thank you very much for being here I appreciate you taking the time out of your day on thank you guys thank you mayor Anna Fus to put the microphone good morning ladies and gentlemen I'm anaxus I thank you for allowing me to to be here and to speak uh good morning to everyone I also am a Avid pickle ball player and I'm very good friends with M and Eddie Ray and we all represent a large group of about 43 people on an email string that love to play Pickleball the only thing that we can really do as a group is try to play at um in general that's that's where we predominantly play but somebody has to be an alumni of the school or a member of the wellness center and so forth to be able to get a court and all this and then large group of people can't play because there's just too uh you know few courts and too many people so we're all in favor of and all of us you know we all couldn't be here together but we all join in to the fight to you know create pickleball courts uh in the area that um that we could be you know that will be greatly used uh for all of us and that is growing by Leaps and Bounds in you know in the in the US but especially in Florida so we hope that you all consider and thank you for already um you know promoting that and dedicating money to it and and we'll look forward to playing at the court where you designate thank you thank you very much for being here have a wonderful dayk thank you that's it Mr Mayor all right we'll close the public comment if anybody else like to say anything before we move on Now's the Time all right we'll move on to the consent agenda before the vote adopt the consent agenda is taken is there anyone who wishes additional discussion or review of any item on the consent agenda Mr Mayor I received the request from a member of the public to pull agenda item D4 right with the exception of D4 may I please have a motion on the consent agenda second all in favor I coming back to item D4 uh Mrs Maria Cruz has requested to pull the item Mr Mayor mayor I'll read it into the record D4 is a resolution of the city commission authorizing a First Amendment to the amended and restated parking management agreement between the city of cor Gables and Rivera Presbyterian church for the exclusive use of a portion of the parking lot at 5275 Sunset Drive cor Gables Florida 33143 that will be used as a staging area during the construction of the city's Firehouse number four do we have a member from staff here that could give us a little background how are you Zeta good morning good morning mayor Commissioners Zeta sardinia's asset manager um Miss Cruz uh this is a an item that we uh originally had a parking agreement with the church after we purchased the lot to fire station 4 that parking agreement was based on the Rivera Day School parking in that area but uh Riviera day school has since moved on and is not parking there anymore we needed to amend the parking agreement um to use the parking spaces that were closest to Firehouse 4 construction site as a as an extension of the construction site and that is what we're doing we're amending the parking agreement just to say that the city will be paying the church the same amount of money that they were getting which is about $2,142 quarterly uh while the construction is going on and that's being allocated out of the construction budget okay thank you very much will anybody provide with a motion on Mr Mayor we haven't heard from the speaker yet M Maria Cruz it is Mrs Maria Cruz at my age I guess is sometimes I do make mistakes very few times uh I thought I had signed off for d8 not D4 I have no issues with d8 D4 I was just going to say I support it but I I was hoping it would be a annual thing not just one time okay so D4 the one about the the light whatever it is uh Whata item d8 d8 is the one that I send off for really did I do it wrong I'm sorry I'm old you know just to show that I'm not as great as some people think the8 is the one D4 I have absolutely no objection to it d8 I know that you already voted but my point was that you should be every November 8th not just once thank you Mr KK uh may I please have a motion on agenda item D4 second all in favor I hi thank you thank you thank you very much uh moving on to item E1 as a point of order Mr Mayor I'd like to call uh make a motion to call up item F5 I'll second agenda item F5 vice mayor to call up agenda item F5 vice mayor Anderson can I just make a comment yes sir as just so just so the residents understand what's happening so as for the charter I have very limited powers in the city one of them is running the meeting what this gentleman is doing here is forcing my hand to to take this next item let me explain to you why I requested from the clerk because I can't speak to my colleagues via the law here in the city the Sunshine Law I can't have a conversation with my colleagues the individual who is responsible for item F10 is the issue of the city hall City Hall renovations I'm still waiting for certain people to be here I think it will be best and I ask for this item and the item of the billm to also be heard after around four o'clock so um I believe that the reason that that I'm making this motion is I believe that residents should know from the beginning of the meeting why were here today and what has gone on at City Hall I believe Mr wood is here is Mr wood here Mr wood is here who's our structural engineer is ready to answer our questions uh and as far as the builtmore I think we have residents in the room who are here to listen to that item it was a 10: a.m. time certain which it was published on Tuesday of last week it was republished on Thursday of last week and then you magnanimously decided to change it to 4m so that residents would show up not be able to hear the item so I do intend after this let me finish talking I let you speak after this item is is discussed I do intend to make a motion to also call call up the builtmore item as it was originally uh uh noticed to be discussed at 10: a.m. and we have residents in in the room who are here to give us their opinions and listen to where we are in this situation which is very concerning to many members of our community so I stand by my motion to to call up F five so let me address it number one I'm excited to talk about both those issues I think they're incredibly important and I stand with the residents in regards to their concerns that's number one number two I never approved the item to be at time certain 10 o'clock yes or no Mr clerk so Mr Mayor we had a 10: a.m. time certain for the built more item but it's my understanding that certain people couldn't make it until 4 pm which is why you wanted to change it and you wanted to get more speakers you are correct about City Hall that you did not approve you wanted to assign 3 pm but I know that was not the time that commissioner Fernandez wanted so let me explain to you let me explain to you very clearly what commissioner Fernandez will not tell you okay I would like to speak about the issue with the billmore but also have the individual who has the lease for the billmore here with the party Mr Tom Prescott Mr Tom Prescott sent notice to my colleagues I can't speak to my colleagues I can't have a conversation with them due to the due to the Sunshine Law I said let's have a meeting at four o'clock so Mr Tom Prescott can be here and bring his team members here I told Mr Prescott when he called me Vince can we do it at four o'clock I said I don't have a problem with it but there's certain members of the commission that wanted to do a 10 o'clock I spoke to the clerk to have this conversation in any other in any other Commission in 10 years before this commission reasonableness would Prevail not stubbornness Mr Mr Prescott told the clerk I cannot be there till four o'clock because certain members for example his interior designer architect and other members of the team cannot be there we're about to have a conversation when we don't have the other side of the story whether you agree with it or you don't disagree with it now let's get on to the issue of city Hall I'm 100% in favor of having the convers we can have a conversation whenever you like but I was hoping to have an expert here who could have a conversation also to give a I was hoping to have an expert here outside of Mr wood who I have the utmost respect and confidence in and I've done work I've worked on projects where he's been involved in he's a consumate gentleman and one of the probably the brightest individuals when it comes to Structural Engineering in South Florida not the State of Florida but I also wanted to have somebody else who could give us a little bit further guidance in regards to the way things transpired that's the only reason why I bring it up right now if you want to do it right now not a problem you want to have the billmore right now it's perfectly fine but you're not going to be able to have the other side of the story and you're not going to be able to talk to Mr Prescott head on and ask why certain things were done and I think that's what we want to have a conversation in in the light in regards to why things transpired the way they transpired in the billmore my only Point Mr Mayor that was a decision that Mr Prescott made Mr Prescott was informed the minute that this time certain was secured prior to publishing the agenda by myself that we had a 10. time certain I spoke to him about it last night and you know apparently he needed more time to be prepared for the meeting this has been going on for two weeks there shouldn't be any more need for Preparation we should not continue to push things off we have people here who are who are here to listen to this discussion item if Mr Prescott chose not to be here at 10: a.m. that was his decision but I think we owe it to our residents who are the ones we represent and the interest of our residents to discuss the item while they're here in the room not when they're at home trying to figure out at what time we'll actually be taking it up so I stand by my motion for F5 no I'm going to respond to you because I know that I know the picture you're painting which will come out tomorrow and all the blogs the mayor doesn't care about the billmore the mayor doesn't care about uh you know uh City Hall when you're a professional when you're a professional you like to hear both sides of the issue you like to have the person under oath in front of you and having conversations and negotiations with that person what I would never have done what I would never have done under any circumstances is sent out an email is sent out an email to 35,000 residents where we hadn't even had a walk through yet we hadn't even know what's going on what I did what I did was detailed in this email right here which is very clear just in in this email and the vice mayor was also copied in the email we cannot have these conversations except for In This Moment is this email was sent to myself it was sent to the vice mayor the Mii Harold was copied on it uh Anna peris Juan rco andrees valuchi Don cesnik was copied on it my colleagues were not copied on it only the vice mayor what did I do I immediately forwarded that email to my to my Deputy city manager and I said Mr Deputy city manager you know please review this is an issue that I think needs attention immediately I work through staff I want staff to review things I want people to digest things I want understand things I don't go off and send an email to 35,000 residents saying shocking news like this is like some tabloid and basically state that you know the builtmore is falling down and they're doing something did the builtmore do something without a permit wholeheartedly was it incorrect extremely incorrect especially when you read the lease agreement which I have read the lease agreements and I have also reviewed which my colleagues have not the local designation report the state designation report the National Historic Landmark report and also the national register of historic places I have every single document here I reviewed it and then myself and commissioner Fernandez went on the walkth through 3 days later you want to reserve judgment you want to hear both sides of the story what transpired this is a sensitive topic and I'll give you an example I'll give you an example when we had an issue months ago excuse me years ago with the Coral Gables Country Club you remember that about three years ago we had an issue with that that was done during a different Administration we sat down we had a conversation with the leaseholder we've we did an exploratory dive into the issue with our very competent staff who's here and we reviewed the issue we did not go public in regards to our findings in regards to the neglect that happened in that property we did not throw anybody else under the bus we addressed the issue and resolved the issue that is the way that you conduct business appropriately you do not send out an email that shocking and you know it's an email this is not about getting the information out first this is about getting the information out correctly so what I would have done is I would sit down and have a conversation with the lease holder who has another 60 years in the lease I would not have put that individual in default okay that's the way you do things and in regards to the city manager the same thing we can go into this issue in very clear detail because I'm going to ask Mr Douglas would some serious conversations because while everybody was on vacation yesterday I was at City Hall reviewing reviewing the existing conditions I was at City Hall with the engineers with the people who are working on the construction project addressing the situation so I've done my due diligence but I think it's fair to listen to both sides before we come before we render a decision Mr clerk there's a motion in a second on the table I think we need to call for a vote so I'm going to add to the so though the record is complete I also received the email from the resident with videos and photos uh about the changes that were done in the lobby and other areas of the builtmore hotel I immediately forwarded it to staff and asked them to uh examine and respond to us I also asked our city manager and our City attorney to put this item on the agenda to give this commission an update the the response is our city staff is not ready because we don't have the report complete until we have a complete report to where we can have a concrete discussion on what the next step should be taken who should be appointed to help with the restoration efforts and the various things that we should do um because there is the potential of litigation being a practicing attorney I don't think it's wise or prudent to have an airing of laundry before you take those next steps you need to have the report from our staff you need it from our historic Department in order to be able to make an intelligent decision we owe that to the residents and and the report can be shared with a resident because it's a public document they need to know the facts okay we're all upset about the builtmore and what happened with the builtmore but there's a process and a procedure that should be followed and if it wasn't ready enough for the city manager to put on this agenda or for the City attorney to put on agenda then it's not ready the the item in question right now is City Hall clerk please call the question this would be to move up in the item F5 for discussion right now vice mayor Anderson is recording City Hall City Hall it wasn't noticed on a Time certain no that is correct commissioner Castro yes commissioner Fernandez yes commissioner Mendez yes mayor loo no and by the way there's other items on this agenda that are time certain we have a very tight schedule today and it's a disservice to the community and people have appeared for those items to be shuffling things around and and having more items heard before they can have an opportunity to speak Madam vice mayor that seems to happen every single meeting when it's one of your items or the mayor's items in fact two meetings ago we had a pocket item that wasn't even on the agenda brought up during what we had for a Time certain and the time certain was pushed back for a pocket item so you you can't have it both ways why don't you commissioner why don't you refresh me and the community here what the pocket item was it really doesn't matter it you can't you can't say we shouldn't move items up prior to a Time certain if a Time certain wasn't given but then be okay with another one being called up like to call commissioner hold on a second hold on you're not gonna listen oh God you you made a statement i' like to I don't remember what it was there's so many items that happened here so many meetings what was the pocket item obviously that I brought up that was so important that you just mentioned it what do you know what it was it's it's not relevant to the question the vice mayor says we was one who's saying we should not be calling items up if they're not time certain but commissioner if it wasn't re revent then why did you bring it up I think we need to stop I think we need to stop playing games and move on the most Mr wood let's I appreciate you being here um for those residents here um August 27th I brought up the item on the structural issues we were having at City Hall um it was something that was brought to my attention a few days before apparently the city had been informed in 2011 about this issue uh actions were not taken back then city was once again formed by Mr wood in 2022 and 2023 and as a member of the commission I was never informed by the prior administration of these structural issues at City Hall so I'm grateful to the manager and the the deputy city manager uh that they brought it to my attention um we've been able to take a proactive approach to try to protect our historic asset that is City Hall um actions have been taken in the past with the roof Renovations and I know the windows uh have been a work in prog when I F was first elected um for the first two months I was having uh issues being at City Hall and we quickly found out it was because we had mold issues in my office in particular uh and we had to take the immediate action Public Works was able to come in and make some changes uh in order to uh deal with some of the humidity and moisture issues that we have and that's due to the material that was used to build um city hall now um Mr wood and I met when he was doing a walkthrough and we were actually I was trying to help them find a specific column that they couldn't find uh because it seemed to be in a closet the picture showed it was in a closet we couldn't find that closet eventually they figured out it was in the Elevator Shaft but since that day a lot has changed uh that first report said there were two beams uh that were deficient the one that was located between the city manager and the city clerk and the commission chamber ber uh the second one um was outside the the chamber since then we found out there's one above the um First Floor conference room and under the city attorney's office uh which has put us in this situation today last week Mr wood reached out to our city manager and to staff and informed them that due to the um ground penetrating radar that was used in City Hall uh they were forced to um move us from City Hall to the location where we are today so uh Mr wood um I just wanted to hear from you what your findings are and what has brought us to this situation okay uh first of all good morning sorry mayor vice mayor Commissioners um so you know we're in the process of uh recertification we did that report approximately two years ago um and it's been under consideration since then and how we proceed I mean obviously it was an occupied building um you know fully finished so um you know took some time to develop that but we are now working on that of course you were working on parts of the building on the third floor and the first floor which gave us the opportunity talk a little closer to the microphone please sorry is that better yes sir okay thank you so um you're working on parts of the building on this third floor and the first floor and that gave us an opportunity to make some more observations um and while we're doing that just developing some more information you mentioned the GPR uh we were able to um so for instance you're talking about the column outside the chamber it's a stone column the original drawings for the building show it as a reinforced concrete column but as we started to look at it I mean obviously it's Stone I've run into that before at visaya uh where we had like a an annular ring of stone and then reinforce Concrete in the middle so we decided to do a little more investigation right there on the spot some of the staff members took a drill bit and we drilled all the way through to the center couldn't find any different material um so then we decided to move on to the GPR uh which confirmed that there is no reinforcing in there so those columns are just solid Stone uh there are some dowels that connect the pieces together but that's it so with the large piece of um stone that was coming loose on that particular column we decided that you know we should proceed right away with Shoring that column so as far as the work that needs to be done immediately at City Hall um what do you foresee the first steps have to be uh well we identified four places that we think should be sh I believe two of them are already short or really close um the other one the stone column I think is starting today for that and then we're still working with the Shoring engineer um on the last column and you know it's necessary so that you know when we begin to further investigate these conditions um you know we have reliable stability so that we can um start chipping away at the column and things like that so right and I think the assistant city manager is heading up the the project would would you mind coming up Mr Gomez could you please refresh our memories on the work that has been done over the last couple of months and what is currently undergoing and moving forward uh yes commissioner uh thank you and good morning uh Joe Gomez assistant city manager so currently um the the work that's been ongoing is part of the uh report that I identified issues that needed to be uh repaired for purposes of the recertification um in addition to that uh the structural work that Doug alluded to uh is currently underway as well so as he he mentioned uh we're currently in in the process of installing um between today and tomorrow the Shoring for the on the outside which is right underneath the commission Chambers um as well as the Shoring inside uh where the city manager office is that wall has already been taken down as well as the the area where the CIP office was located as well there's additional uh Shoring that's going to be put in place one is in the city attorney's office as well as the large one uh that's going to uh be uh be placed uh where the conference room on the first floor is and that's going to go all the way up to the fourth to to the top uh which will include having uh needle piles that that will basically hold that that Shoring in place time frame wise what are we looking at the well the current the the two um the two uh uh the two columns that are being that being shored right now that Shoring should all be complete by uh by by the end of tomorrow um the other Shoring is still being reviewed by by Doug at this time for the calculations and all that that Shoring will be installed one of them obviously the one where the uh conference room is which goes all the way up to the commission offices that one can't be installed because we have to actually penetrate into the to be able to support the Shoring until the commission of offices are vacated we're working right now on trying to uh we're looking at a plan uh to relocate uh the commission offices to uh the monca garage here in an empty space or we have a layout looking at that there's all the all the things that we're currently investigating including office space as well uh and to do that but we can't that Shing won't be able we won't be able to do that until we we actually uh relocate all of you out of those offices thank I have a quick question uh two questions uh in the communication that went out I think Joe you sent it out um why were we instructed to it appeared to vacate the chambers immediately why are we not in the chambers today and you know Doug is the expert but in in in in in in a nutshell we receiv received correspondence from Doug after his his review of of both the the condition of the column as well as the ground penetrating radar studies that were done that he felt that that particular column uh was what we call has has uh more bending than it it really should so in to be say to be to ER on the side of caution it was better not to be able to load the commission chambers that remove the load by by not having the commission meetings there and I heard that I don't know if it's accurate or not that uh the floor was perhaps in the chambers not was inclined or over time had there was some something having to do with the Florine which added more possible destabilization I'm not aware of that commissioner okay all right good I just wanted to make sure clarify thank you one of the ideas is if I may is again an error in the side of caution there's two issues the structural issues that they're dealing with and the experts are dealing with then you have the environmental issue as they're doing their work inside City Hall you have the dust you you have all those issues environmental issues that develop our idea is to try to locate a facility where we can house all the offices that currently exist in City Hall in one particular place so the residents can go to One location and they have the mayor's office Vice mayor's office uh the city attorney's office my office and so on so we're in the process of doing that it's not it it it takes some time but we're looking at maybe January towards the end of January hopefully by February to be able to relocate so that the work can be done at City Hall whatever needs to be done from the engineering perspective regarding your answer to the question on terms of why we're here today um what triggered it is there like a new test that was done or something that was already in the report that perhaps triggered us vacating the chambers yes so the the most critical issue is that stone column um it's outside the commission chamber but the roof above is supported on those columns the investig the investigation that we just uh started looking at more closely at these columns with the GPR that was just like a week ago and that's when we determined that the drawings are not correct that the columns are just solid Stone um you know there are it is compromised with a large loose piece of of stone on that column so in airing on the side of caution we decided um again to recommend that that get shorted up immediately um and I was asked if we if if the building should be occupied at least in the commission chamber area and I said to be prudent I would wait at least until the Shoring is in place thank you for making that call on behalf of everybody appreciate it greatly and Mr ACM uh regarding the windows uh have the has the sample window Ares so we can start that process I'm I'm happy to report that it it has arrived and it's being assembled at the board of Architects conference room the mock mockup window so it it will it'll take a couple of days to be able to put it together and then it'll be available for viewing and and so forth anything else anything commissioner Castro no thank you okay all right so I have a few issues if I may Mr wood you please come come forward Mr clerk will you put the pictures up please yes sir okay just give you a quick background uh my background is in finance and engineering and I also have a masters in construction management I build highrise buildings I restore historical buildings this is what I do for a living for the last 22 years I do this every single day I worked with people like Doug wood I work with Doug wood many many times plans I know exactly how this works okay this is my pictures I took these pictures yesterday this is a simple walkthrough this building is over reinforced okay if you look at the beams as you can see right there they are crisp they are clean they look like they were done yesterday if you look at the spalling there barely is any spalling barely any spalling and the reason why you have a little bit of spalling is because of the way when when when the beans were poured the rebar fell probably to one side as a result and it was too close to the edge stop right here what you see here right now was an area that was stated to be hollowed by the GPR it's not Hollow I was there when the structural subcontractor was digging it's a 6in slab and the rebar is crisp not a not a section of rot not a section of rust and underneath that there is compacted there's compacted matter underneath that lime rock it's there so there is no Hollow area under the slab that is that is a slab that they were using a chippy Hammer a drill bit to get through and I witnessed it as they were breaking through it and it was stronger than today's construction okay I have a very simple question for you I'm on in favor of the Shoring I've been involved in Shoring in many projects I was involved in Shoring at a major project in in University of Miami uh in the medical campus at Jackson where where the building was structurally unsound and it had to be basically shored for six months while people were inside while the plans were redone to meet the needs in regards to the structural issues that we encountered just like we encountered in the new uh permitting building which as many of you aware when we started removing the drywall we noticed there was structural issues with the building that were not included in the budget that happened what did we do we had to take a step back redesign the building bring the structureal engineers in that took time figure out what the loads were going to be correct correct the structural Integrity of the building and then restart the construction this is not the case and we were the structural engineers for that am I right or wrong am I right or am I wrong about what about the fact that when we removed the demolition when we started the demolition process we encounter structural issues in the building well there's always some surprises when you do those I'm just telling but that it's not your fault it's the fact that they were behind the drywall and we had to make those Corrections so my point is this this is nothing new Shoring is a technique that goes back to Greek times Roman times this is nothing new this has been happening for years once the building is shored is the building habitable yes or no in in our opinion when the Shoring is in installed and approved the building is stable and yes you can rely on the safety now that's number one so we got that out of the way we do not need we do not need to leave City Hall what you're seeing here is the theater of politics of we have an issue with an email that was sent out another email just at the billmore that this has been going on since 2011 I've been here for 12 years our employees have done an amazing job in the city would you like to know why the city did not remodel City Hall it's very simple because the commission prior to this commission which commissioner Mendez was on and so was the vice mayor decided to take money and use it for Phillips Park that's what we did the budget is there we had money in in City Hall and now we have to there's different options in regards to how to address the issue this has not been abandoned this project has not been abandoned this is a very complex project this is historically significant building where they've been working on it for a long time if we abandon this building right now we will not come back to this building probably for four years and I'm going to tell you why this staff over the last nine months has done no rfqs request for qualifications for Architects or professionals they have not hired an architect that takes another three months then you got to go out for an RFQ for a contractor you got to bid the product you've got to get these plans per permitted and then you got to select through procurement your your general contractor that takes at a minimum two years to do all that work before you can start construction so this is simple the Shoring has been done in many different buildings let me remind you the billmore hotel had Shoring up for years while plans were being done the visaya Museum and Gardens Mr ACM I don't know just I would like for M Douglas wood to hear this for the visaya Museum and Gardens as you're aware Mr engineer on record had Shoring up for years and I'm going to give you the one that had the most Shoring up that got the most talk which is the Downtown Courthouse had Shoring up for nine years before the construction commenced and people were using the building in and out it wasn't an issue Shoring is not an inhibitor to being able to do to to being inside the building you can work around the Shoring in an election year in a moment where people need to use city hall there's no reason to get rid of the entire commission floor there's no reason to move the City attorney there's no reason to move the city clerk there's no reason to move the city manager's office this is something that we've done for years I've worked around Shoring for years yeah it's a little uncomfortable in certain times but you isolate those areas and you move on the building is safe this building is safe and multiple multiple Engineers that I've spoken to have told me even if the building was that shed it would be safe because it's not a catastrophe and I've done my homework on that issue so Shoring is in place it took two days to put the Shoring in it'll probably take another three or four days to do the pending Shoring that's there clean up the area and we can start working on the building but we have a lot of work to do before we can even consider Construction Construction is two years away from here this is what I do every single day for a living so I understand where we are in the process no one's going to sell me a story and tell me that you know we have to vacate the building right now or we're going to be in a catastrophe that's neither the case I will continue to have office hours there on Friday I will continue to meet residents employees who use that building it's a safe building we don't need to scare people in this community it's a perfectly fine building the building is beautiful we we change the roof before you do anything else The Next Step you do is you change the windows so in my opinion and I'd love to hear from professionals that are here who have a lot more knowledge than I do I'd like to hear their opinion on on that matter I think it's important to hear from the public people are here they like to speak about it this building doesn't belong to me it doesn't belong to this commission it belongs to everyone in this community but we shouldn't use Scare Tactics for for political favors or for political wins if I may mayor yeah yeah that's fine and like I said before the engineering studies whatever that results are it's what they are but you also have to look at the environmental factors of working in a building where they're taking off the roof some folks are allergic to mold to you know uh dust and so on so the question is for staff is do you want to work in a building let's say it's safe whatever the engineer say do you want to work at a building that's going to be under construct roof material is going to be moved around while you're working there every day that's the question I'm going to answer you I'm going to answer you first off do you know what a negative air pressure machine is oh God yes I dire actually okay well then you should be aware negative air pressure machines can be used they use them in hospital scenarios all the time and you're well versed on it so you can use negative air let me I listen to you let me let me finish so you can use negative air pressure machines here to clean and scrub the air it'll be cleaner it'll be cleaner than the previous that's number one number two there should be minimal work on the roof minimal roof because the roof has been replaced it's been taken care of if there's any penetrations on the roof that need to be done it's minimal at best what needs to happen here is and I wholeheartedly agree we need to move out of the building once we're ready to start real Demolition and Real Construction you don't even have plans yet you don't even have engineering drawings done you don't have you haven't even selected an architect you haven't even gone to Market to select an architect so I would love to see the RFQ if you've gone to Market to select an architect when did you do that when was it that RFQ was um advertised I believe the last this year in a j July or August of this year SED archs um the selection committee I believe was met last week and there's coming to with an award uh to the December commission meeting in your in your in your obviously I would love to have this information but since the manager won't meet with me I don't have that information um quick question you're an expert how long does it take an architect and an engineer and a civil engineer to to finish plans of this magnitude that are ready to go to permit and and to be bid how long nine months to a year okay so we're not even talking about breaking ground or doing anything nine months to a year so you have a year then you got to permit the plans then you got to select a contractor then you got to bid the work and then you got to start the process so why would you vacate a building now outside a political theater when you don't need to vacate that building clean the building you're not going to be doing any interior work clean the building and in in two years you start the work that's what you do so get yourself some negative air pressure machines and allow the people who own the building to use the building because all the residents that I've talked to said this building needs to be beautified needs to be historically preserved and I agree the moment that we start construction everybody out and that gives you the time as you even said right now I don't even have the I don't I haven't even found the location to put the mayor the Commissioners the vice mayor where we put in the clerk where we put in the city attorney's office so do things right and diligently don't just start rushing to close City Hall to make a statement which I think again is not in is not in kind with the city I think Mr Mayor speak through me speak through me speak through the chair yeah you like to speak Mr manager yes very simple I am not going to put city employees back in that building unless the environmental conditions are met where it's safe for them to work period unless wait I haven't finished mayor unless this commission D directs me to do so I will not put him back to work there if you want to work there that's fine my suggestion would be let's take care of make sure that we have no environmental issues while they're doing all of their Shoring and what are the Environ I haven't finished explain it what are the en I haven't I haven't finished the P the dust you you were in my office I assume because you took pictures you walked around you think that's a that's an area that somebody could really work and not have issues breathing there are some members of this commission that are very sensitive to those issues the bottom line is this mayor I am not putting a city employee back to work there until I am comfortable that there's no environmental issues for our employees unless this commission directs me Mr manager Mr manager first off employees already have two days off they don't go to City homeall they already work it's unprecedented we have employees that now are working from home for two days out of the week already is that a negative I don't agree with that I think that people should go to work at the office and I think it should be they should be working and I've heard from many many many residents who tell me that that employees should be going back in the private sector people are going back to work that is a positive you may disagree but at the end of day we may disagree that's perfectly fine I think I think people should be working from the office office is closed most days of the week it's not closed there's no there listen again commissioner we're not going to go back and forth my bottom line is simple and that is the Environmental concerns can be easily addressed by negative air pressure machines can be addressed by circulation it's all done every single day we're not Reinventing the wheel these are simple things if you shutting down City Hall is not the appropriate thing to do I want to continue being at City Hall I want to continue to offer open Office hours because for the next two years there will be no construction at City Hall Once the Shoring is done you have to move on to the next step in the pre preconstruction process and there will be no Holland or dust maybe on a Saturday maybe on a Sunday they do some exploratory work on a wall you know what you do you use plastic you seal the area off you use a negative air pressure machine like we do in medical facilities and you contain the dust you don't just allow the dust to go throughout the entire building that's what everybody does we're not Reinventing the wheel so to say that environmental effects is a very broad statement to scare people and it's not you're dealing with somebody who does this every day so this is my this is my expertise if you want to talk about security and you want to talk about you know dealing with policing and those kind of tactics I leave it up to you I leave it up to the cheap but when it talks about construction when you talk about engineering when you talk about issues of of of building buildings restoring buildings I've done historic buildings you're not going to tell me that going to City Hall like I was this morning at 7:15 in the morning is a hazard to my health when it's not if you tell me that there's ASB bestus it's a different situation we we control the asbest we we bring in a company we remediate it and we take it out to my knowledge there isn't any asbest in the flooring there is any ASB bestus in the mastic in regards to the bonding agent or for the HVAC this is what I do for a living so again you're not going to tell me that the city hall can't be used for two years when it can obviously be used no sir I'm just saying that I'm not putting City employees back in there 100% convinced that that is safe I'm not putting anybody I'm not I'm not putting anybody I'm not putting anybody again that's the tactic for the the blogs political gito the GES Insider the mayor puts employees at risk you know he want that's not what I said and I'm GNA be very clear because that's what you're GNA say the highest that's excuse me excuse me that is that is exactly what I'm not going to accept because that's the tactic so so what we're going to do is very simple when the building is shorted if this is the Comm the will of the commission when the building is shorted you take the necessary steps to make sure to make sure the air quality is appropriate and the employees that want to work work there if they don't want to work there they don't have to work there at the end of the day they're already working two days a week from from home that's my opinion that's what I would do mayor who the chair G to First address some of the environmental issues many buildings have been repaired Construction done the uh Federal Building downtown which had asbest in it had particular floors shut down while work was done we have had work done in City Hall and you put up the plastic and and uh guard for for the U air quality going in and we could have had more filtration machines I have one in my house that goes off when there is dust in pollen in the air pollen usually is not a concern during construction you're dealing with dust not because there's not trees or flowers emitting dust or pollen in in the building itself so that's not an issue when I first got in office my first priority was to seal off the water in the buildings and that was why the re-roofing I pushed for hard to get done on City Hall was done we have to seal the exterior first to prevent any more water damage the next step was the windows as you can see it is Tak Tak an enormous amount of time to be able to get a mockup window this past year we finally are going to have one that we can look at and start the process of reviewing the window itself and determine whether this commission wants to proceed with that design that money was originally in the Phillips Park and I drafted a resolution to move the money into City Hall so that we could part prioritize getting this building sealed from the outside to prevent further water damage in the future now I've been around Shoring before too for over a decade ago 73 West Flagler which is the the uh Courthouse it's about a 13 story building not a three-story building but a 13 story building you could look down into the garage where the cars parked and see the Shoring that was in that Courthouse it was amazing okay business didn't stop cars didn't stop going in there and you know people proceeded moving forward getting the work done in that very historic uh Courthouse it's on 73 West Flagler I told you all too that I had to take my husband down to bason Palmer in the parking garage had cars parked in it was fully operational was Shoring in it the complete period of time that you know know I was there and people were going through hundreds of Shoring poles were in that parking garage and I would estimate that a car weighs a lot more than the people that go into uh City Hall the amount of traffic it goes with Basin Palmer is phenomenal and it again is more than a three-story building we're talking about seven eight stories of parking with Shoring poles in there the fact that we need to put Shoring poles in City Hall is not alarming to me at all we do it when we jack cars up you use a jack to put it up and you put jack stands underneath so that while you're working on it you don't have the car going down on a person an individual that's underneath the vehicle we can put air sensors in there and when the air is clear after any dust is made we can reoccupy the building um I don't see a need to vacate the building while we have an architectural and Engineering drawings done and after the Shoring pole installed it's a simple process and I think we're just you know costing the city an enormous amount of money to rent space Elsewhere for a building that's completely occupiable once the Shoring poles are placed in there it's open today it's it's um no shock and all to me that that the building needed work it's been in the budget for a very long period of time testing had been going on with for the materials in that building for a very long period of time so that we could have a proper plan moving forward and I think that's you have to move forward in a prudent manner with testing we're worried about dust when the work is done the dust is cleaned up you can go in and you can have air quality sensors put in there to make sure that it's clear we do it every day when we tent homes we fumigate homes we open up the windows that's a poison that's put in the in the windows and it's regularly accepted in the community that you can fumigate a home for termites and reoccupy it within 24 hours after the windows are open we can do this in City Hall another point that U that was that I forgot to mention and I apologize was this building is already basically unoccupied the entire third floor doesn't have one individual working on it except for you g i you're not forgotten my friend you're not forgotten so we we went from having probably 50 people on the third floor to having one or two people working on the third floor and correct me if I'm wrong please we used to have dozens and dozens and dozens of file cabinets that were a significant load Mr wood on the third floor those no longer exist those are gone so we've removed significant of the live load and of the Dead load of the third floor the second floor again it's almost similar in regards to the amount of load there so it's pretty easy to detect that the the city hall is in a much better position in regards to the structure Integrity today as of the two Shoring but I've even spoken to Engineers who told me Vince even the Shoring that's in place all due respect to Mr wood is a precautionary measure the building is not going to fall the building is perfectly fine let's address that issue let's address that issue like we did with a slab where we found that it was actually reinforced and that it wasn't Hollow this yesterday but this building is not going anywhere it was built well and it is an asset in this community that we will protect but we want to do it the right way through the mayor yes ma'am okay Mr wood I'm sorry for putting you through this environment I respect your intelligence your professionalism um your expertise in judgment now the biggest concern in question right now is the safety of our residents and our employees if the cha if the chamber is occupied what would be the worst case scenario of what can happen there you want to ask Mr wood that's what I'm asking him I don't thinking knew so I was asking just wanted to make sure you were speaking with him okay so you're asking me to speculate on issues that we really can't um so again we're being you know we're we're being cautious um and to me the most um significant issue is that stone column outside and again I think after we get that um shorted uh it will be safe okay so what is can you paint me a picture so maybe the people that don't understand the construction phase could maybe understand for us safety is number one so if we need to evacuate or leave premises we will do it just if there's one percentage that the Flora can come down and that people can die or whatever the case is what is the worst case scenario paint me a picture so the primary issue at the floor level is the perimeter beams which have been probably exposed to moisture penetration over the years there's been some deterioration there were a couple of them that were more deteriorated than the others uh those are the ones that are getting shored now but again when it's shored it will be um stable and safe Mr wood may ask your question I think it will help commissioner Castro very simple yes or no answer the building is shored in three days in your expert opinion as a licensed engineer engineer on record is there any risk once that is shored that you could have a catastrophe there and people's lives are at risk yes or no in our opinion it will be uh stable and confident that it'll perform uh properly and be safe to occupy safe to occupy okay thank you very much if I may through the through the chair yes sir I doo apologize because after you spoke at the podium I think we spent the next 30 minutes um the word politic ize and for your report and your concern for the safety of others to have the word politicize be in any way connected to what your job is I apologize for that I too apologize for the employees of the City of Coral Gables because as city leaders and the administration our responsibilities number one the safety and well-being of our residents and of our employees our residents look to us for leadership and our employees and residents they all look to us and we have to make the difficult decisions and life safety is the number one issue in our community in anywhere around the country so you know they throw out some folks like to throw out well funding went here funding went there we spent the last three years talking about $63 million for a Mobility Hub okay I don't I'm not here to point fingers here to find Solutions and a path forward I think common sense and the most prudent thing is to make sure that our employees our residents and everyone involved is safe if there's an elected official up here that wants to stay in their office I'll be more than happy to make a motion maybe get a second that they can stay in their office but for the well-being of everyone involved I think we need to do the right thing and not politicize it at all so i' like to respond to commissioner Andis number one um when I mentioned politicized I was under no meaning means mentioning you and you know that very well that I was not what I was mentioning was my colleagues on the commission okay very clearly and you know that Mr wood you and I have worked before together um that's number one and number two the statement of the mobility Hub was mentioned just to be clear we were going to bond the mobility Hub so it was not an issue of money that was coming from the general fund that was going to be worked out on that front Okay there was different ways that that that it was going to be applied to and that was in consideration we was talking about it the money has always been in the budget we took the money and we spent it on a park which I'm wholeheartedly think it's a great idea because I think it was an opportunity to come to consensus here on the commission when we did not support commissioner manz's $140 million Bond referendum which would have been my opinion put the city even in more debt so what did we do we came to consensus and we said let's build let's build a park that I think would be very beneficial I recommend everyone look at meeting up so you can get an idea of how the park came to fruition now like I mentioned before you know the mayor doesn't care about safety that's going to be tomorrow's headline you know it'll be a hobby bu special and Gable's Insider it'll be a special on political toito uh no it's not that's that again it's misleading it's completely and utterly inappropriate completely utterly appropriate the issue here is very simple when I say politicizing it's there's an election coming and the effort is to say look what a disaster city is It's all under the watchful eye of the mayor we can use City Hall when you can use City Hall look at the buildmore look what happened at the billmore it happened under the watchful eye of the mayor look what's going on here all that is the intent and that is what everybody's talking about but what I will not allow as a professional as a person who does this for a living okay I go to work every day this is what I do every single day I will not allow somebody to say something that professionally is incorrect when you sit down in a room and you say this bu is this building safe it is safe you shouldn't scare residents you shouldn't scare people coming to do business in the city it's safe if you don't want to be in City Hall that's perfectly fine you don't have to be in City Hall I'm not forcing you to be in City Hall but City Hall should be open for an election the clerk's office should be in City Hall the city attorney's office should be in City Hall and as we move forward over the next like our ACM just said Mr Gomez over the next year when we design this building and we get public input and we get the public involved on every single front we should then vacate the building when we're ready to commence construction which I believe that the bidding process the permitting process alone will be 6 months to 9 months on top of the nine months to one year that the design process will take so we will not be breaking ground and starting this project for a minimum for two years and we haven't even talked about funding which we're talking about two different options either the bond or we're talking about finding money in the coffers through budgeting so I'd like to hear Mr clerk from from from the community if possible uh who's been waiting so quietly and peacefully thank you I had a few additional comments Mr Mayor well we we'll have them after we we hear from from the residents of course first Speaker Mr Mayor is Maria Cruz I said I will be back and it wouldn't be good Maria Cruz Mrs Maria Cruz 1447 Miller Road I see several problems several issues here we have let's see how I can say nicely we have a mayor that is there angry upset uh what other nice thing can I say because he has lost control of the city commission our Charter does not provide for a strong mayor our Charter provides for five elected officials that make decisions the problem we have is that on the previous administration one because the ones before kept them out of the loop but then we had one that allowed him to make decisions and tell people what to do even though that was not his job and this is what where politics comes in we talk about politics the others are politicizing no the mayor is politicizing because guess what any issue any item any concern that he thinks is important the the residents get an alert it's important we need to discuss guess what some of those things could have been discussed here but we choose to alert the residents to get them all excited we also have a mayor that even though transparency is a word that he used all the time now does not want the residents to know that there's a problem with the building we shouldn't be discussing it publicly you know why let's keep it in house because the residents do not have to know because you know the experts the person who has a construction management degree knows more than the engineer that we pay as a consultant to tell us what the problem is and we're going to challenge that well we had an engineer that didn't think it was important to take care of City Hall previously when it was brought up of course nobody knew about it we kept it away from the residents from some of the elected officials and guess what I think if I remember correctly remember I'm old and sometimes I forget the money from City Hall did not go to a park the money from City Hall was changed channeled differently when we made City Hall a city hall complex so we could fix 427 that was the original movement of money we made City Hall the city hall complex and that included the 427 buildings so we could use the money that was supposed to be for City Hall to fix that building maybe my memory is wrong but I think think usually when I talk I know what I'm talking about all right so here we go we object to people working from home that happened in the previous administration there are people that were if if you want me to I have the report how many people were working from home not one day not two days we had an employee that worked the whole time till he retired working from home under the previous administration it's funny that we now we're you know we don't want the employees to work from home but when a previous administration it was okay not one day not two days the whole time from beginning to end I know at least one person that only came to City Hall when requested working from home in another County okay now let me tell you what else we're talking about misleading people hello who is sending the stuff misleading people we have chosen to put politics first not we the maor has chosen to put the politics first and then he complains about other people doing it the bottom line here is number one I object to having the main door to City Hall block and I I discussed it with the previous administration and guess what it's still that building belongs to the resident belongs to us that's the people's hity hole how come the door is still closed oh we didn't care about that item but now we're very concerned because the residents may not be able to go into City Hall hello don't have two standards one standard if that is the people's uh building how come we have to go in the back instead of the front because you agree to it with the previous administration and I challenged that okay so I'm tired of double standards when it's convenient for one is good when it's convenient for the other is not good I'm sorry our charge your charge you were elected all five of you were elected you should be concerned about the building you con you should be concerned about how the state of the building is as it concerns the people of this city the residents the taxpayers and foremost the people that have to work there and please don't tell me that it's safe please don't tell me that working there is safe because you know what nobody should be working in this way okay Finance has been out of there for I don't know how long it's not hasn't been an issue I don't know now it's an issue it wasn't an issue before stop making and Sir you're not listening I guess I'll stop because if you're going to be uh texting I'll stop because you know what I may be a pain in your behind but I'm arrested I'm a taxpayer and I deserve to be hurt and I haven't finished yet and you need to listen please M it doesn't make any difference you know how long you talked after each Proclamation more than necessary so please don't go there don't go there pleas finish please do not go there and by the way when Mr commissioner Fernandez was talking about your pocket item yes there was a pocket item that you forgot to put in the agenda you forgot to make it a Time certain but when you have Willie Vero uh one of the Prescot and um the community uh person here everything stopped including the T the time certain because it was your pocket item you wanted discuss because you wanted to take away what commissioner Fernandez was doing about the veterans I'm sorry you cannot have it both ways it's either the same for everybody or nobody should be able to do it and that includes you because you're one of five you're not better than anybody else so before we move on to the next person I'd like to clarify that I appreciate her bringing to my attention the pocket item I completely forgotten what it was so many items I forget uh the pocket item I I welcome for you to get involved if you'd like anyone who's listening today and thank you for bringing it up we're going to be having an organization called Leaf uh which will benefit police officers we're going to have a nice event in January so if you'd like to to benefit families of police officers who are injured uh in the line of duty or or people or police officers who pass away in the line of duty uh we're putting together a fund for Coral Gables police officers and firefighters uh to be able to to help those individuals uh who pay the ultimate price and service of our community I would love to take credit for coming up with that but that was Willie Romeo who brought me the idea and I hope that my colleagues will get involved and donate uh to this wonderful CA thank you for bringing that up it was a great good good opportunity for a PSA so so uh mayor if I may just add it was actually on the prior agenda and for some reason didn't reprint I had put it on the prior agenda and I um asked for it to be deferred to the next meeting and I didn't notice that it hadn't printed so my apologies for not uh having made sure it was on that agenda is that a big deal no it's a great cause I'm excited about it Mr clerk next speaker Peter gasius so now I have the pleasure of having our previous city manager Peter Iglesias who's here with us today soet Peter is not only a 50-year resident of the city of coros but Peter Iglesias is not in my opinion in the opinion of many the most respected structure engineer not only in South Florida but potentially in the State of Florida uh he's an individual he's an individual who uh is called to testify in National cases he's an individual who speaks at universities uh is an individual whose resume precedes him and served our community with immense immense respect and dignity uh before you start uh Mr manager I'd like for you to consider when you speak addressing because we heard from commissioner Fernandez uh via an email that was sent out to all the residents stating that this building has been neglected since 2011 since 2011 I'd like for you to talk a little bit about how this building was not neglected what are the efforts that we took what happened to the funding the funding that was in place for City Hall what did we use that for uh and in your expert opinion in regards to even if the building was not shorted would you consider to be safe for to be habited so again thank you for being here taking time out of your busy schedule I know you have a lot of things going on in the private sector and I wanted you to be here uh to clear the air and bring truth bring truth to a lot of politics that are being played here in the commission thank you Mr Mayor uh thank you Mr Mayor vice mayor Commissioners uh yes I've been a resident for over over 50 years in our in our great City it was my privilege to be City Manager for almost six years um we've never we've never neglected City Hall we have we we had we had a plan to to do City Hall uh I believe what you mentioned concerning the uh commissioner um and then this $140 million uh bond issue uh that is correct the commission I I think didn't didn't wanted to uh give Mr commissioner Mendez something and they decided to fund uh Philips Park however that did not mean that we were not going to fund the uh the the city hall uh project because we were going to use a bond we were going to bond that that project we felt it would be somewhere between 10 and 20 uh million dollar Bond uh so the the idea was and something I spoke with the commissioner on that we be doing both projects one one through through through more traditional funding and the other through uh through a uh Bond um the city hall is a complex uh you've got the Annex Building next door and you've got the the building that we uh purchased across the street uh that that building was in shambles was an embarrassment to have planning planning uh there we were working on the third floor with plans everywhere in the mezzanine uh so uh so the uh plan was to move out move out the third floor get development services out of there we had uh code enforcement working out of their cars uh really really something that that really uh it's not it's not Gables like so I interrupt may I interrupt you one second please yes I'm G take a personal opponent privilege here um just so people are aware because you don't usually get this privilege of having the facts stated by the individual who actually accomplishes with staff when we remov the individuals staff from the third floor this gentleman along with surami CA which was also left the city who was also an engineer uh they built the neighboring building with staff um with staff they built that entire building they digitized for the first time ever in the city our plans review are done here and they digitized all the files millions and millions and millions of files that used to be in file cabinets and that we used to pay storage for every month that was done by this gentleman uh we now have a One-Stop shop across the street for bard of architecture for permitting for code enforcement Mr Douglas Ramirez's office which I visit often who does a wonderful job along with his entire Team all those officers are there because of the lead that this gentleman took it's not the commission the lead that this gentleman took and surami Cabrera so I apologize I want to make sure that people understood when you when I say we remove the pressure of the third floor and we took the load we took that load and we took all those individuals and we moved them to the building next door so that people would not have to come into City Hall would have a more pleasant experience and that we could now take it to the 21st century not like we had the way we had it before it was a it was a Monumental task May um not only did we have to digitize Decades of of plans we also had to close out permits we had permits on Eden uh which was our prior system because we went to to to a new to to to intergo a much modern system Eden was a more of a finance system that was ported to the building department and not very efficient and then we also had to close out permits that were on Eden and also we had thousands of permits on winter grad so closing out there was thousands of probably uh 5 10,000 permits that had to be closed out individually so it was a Monumental task uh we have the only One-Stop shop in in D County where we've got code enforcement we got planning zoning and and building there and by the way uh that building was funded for 47% from the Enterprise fund only 53% from the general fund what does the Enterprise fund Mean Mr manager the Enterprise fund the uh the the state uh uh does not allow uh permit money to go into the general fund has to be has to be used for the building department so the the permit money that was used for the the U building department encompasses about 47% of those operations so 47% of the funding came from from the Enterprise fund 53% came from the from the general fund which that has to be F where zoning planning and code enforcement and the board of Architects are really not not a a building department function uh so one so it was critical for us to get the the start vacating City Hall so um so that first phase uh went very well we we not only did we do that but we we we also got a new enterprise system intergov which is a which is U used by by many of the large cities uh uh in in the country so that that took a lot of stress off the building uh the building department was really the one that provided the the most stress as far as as far as uh as far as use is concerned so we got people out of the third floor got drawings out of the third floor tremendous amount of weight out of the third floor we also got people out of the mezzanine and and the people out of the annex building all into that One-Stop shop Center so that was that was phase one phase two was the monca garage next door we we uh we have office space on on on the first floor uh we currently have HR and parking on that first floor uh in addition to that we have temporarily uh the the passport office but but we do have additional uh space on the west on on the west side which we had already discussed with the architect forco Schuster to design two preliminary design offices for us to move there so the the idea was phase one get the building department out phase two while out while phase two was at the same time build the Minorca garage get get our offices out of the fifth floor of of this building and uh that allow the which which was where uh Human Resources was that allowed um Finance to move into into that space uh phase phase three was to build out what's left of the Mona garage to use as temporary offices so that we could uh as you mentioned vacate City Hall once construction started so so so there was this plan uh this plan in space in in in place we can't simply move all all City Hall into Wei works it just it just doesn't work so this this was a an idea where we would have City Hall in this complex still accessible still functioning and accessible by all our residents um so um we also um as far as far as City Hall was concerned U Mr anesto Pino wonderful architect uh and uh ex uh director of Public Works was working with me to uh solicit uh uh the the the historical architect for City Hall uh it's something that we we're looking at whether it's going through procurement or going through a through through a waiver to select really the the most the best Architects uh because it's such an important project City Hall for us is a is an extremely important project um uh Mr wood who is an excellent engineer uh was was was working with us uh on on on various projects including including City Hall uh we've worked together on numerous uh historical projects um and uh some and and try to to um to keep City Hall operational uh certainly certainly not not with any life safety implications if there's a life safety implication City Hall is closed so Mr manager in your opinion right now with the findings of the GPR yesterday's findings from the slab which I witnessed personally uh the current situation in regards to that one column uh which is missing some reinforcement uh do you believe that with the Shoring or without the Shoring but let's use the Shoring because it's already in place do you believe that there's a life safety issue and that no one can use that building for the next two to four years no I do not I think I've been involved in many historical projects one in in particular that was much worse than city than than our city hall actually not not comparable was the Miami did Miami dead Courthouse you had a but a 13 story building 14 story building that had column issues at the ground floor floor so so I worked on that when I was at the city of Miami as building official and we that building was shed I think there was even an issue um with with the judges where they were they were uh because people people don't understand and people are legitimately afraid and we met with him told him that there was no issue and the building has not been closed the bu building has been been functional it's been repaired and and uh and and uh and operational so so there there there was a plan the the and we were we we were going to go to a to an to an RFQ at the beginning of the year uh we were Mr P and I were discussing whether to go to an RFQ or or to Simply look at um try to get a waiver because of the importance of of the building and making sure that we had just top-notch Architects and I'd like to put one thing on the record also cuz the ACM mentioned before about the current condition of the window uh sample who started that window Sample When did that start we did a we did a tremendous amount of work as far as the windows of city hall because we knew that that was going to be a huge issue and it was going to be a very long issue uh we worked with hope we we looked at different different windows in wood and aluminum Etc and we could not match the windows of City Hall so we went to uh Hope Windows which is uh the W the the the U uh window manufacturer did the windows for Miami High because they they are steel windows and those steel Windows uh steel being much stronger than conrete over double and U that that we could provide windows that knowing that the historical board did not want to change the windows and there was a lot of historical issues on on the windows we have a little dilemma we have window those that are extremely weak and not water resistant and and uh and really do not protect the building we we put shutters up but those shutters up those shutters are connected to cor Rock which has no no structural value so really more of a water infiltration issue than than actual structural issue so we worked with with hope window to to work extensively with with architect and and and with historical to to uh windows that matched as closely as possible the city hall profiles but it had to be in steel it took a long time we were we put a lot of a lot of work in that and uh we had the mockup ready should have been it was ready in in January um and that's something that I was going to personally planned on personally presenting to the historical board because because I knew there was a lot of issues as far as keeping the existing Windows because they were original where itus new windows that would be that would be much more water resistant and and impact res resistant which which is a big issue so uh shutter the shutters are ineffective there so one of the things that I I want to most take out of this conversation back and forth which I think is important to memorialize is the concept that this was kicked down the curb that you didn't speak with the commission or the mayor or anybody on this Das in regards to City Hall that it was you know that it was non-existent it was something that was not going to be dealt with and that you were just gonna pass it on to the next city manager to address it no did did you have conversations with this commission the previous commission as a matter of fact the fact that we're having commissional meetings in this bill in the CMR right now uh we plan for this this this this the CMR was planned for commissioner meetings we even had a one commissioner meeting here which I suggested to you to to to uh to as a as a trial as a trial as to having as to having commission meetings here so so the the idea was to move here and and into the Monarca garage use this building this this this this where we are right now as our commission meetings and it's worked out very well as you can see you have a commission meeting now that's not by that's not by accident it's by Design but let me let me also make sure because the manager's sh shaking his head and I want to make sure the manager understands what this manager saying his manager saying to use this facility while the building's under construction that is correct while the building on construction the existing City Hall the existing City Hall is not a threat for a structural collapse so the purpose of why we had these meetings and we had these discussions and we had these conversations for such a long time they preceeded me was in preparation of finally finishing the architecture the engineering finishing all the samples hiring all the Consultants hiring the contractor budgeting for the money because our finance director who is here Will tell you she will not commence a job unless there is money in the bank account and we even talked about it remember in commission meeting talked about potentially doing a two-phase project where we would break it up into different floors so this building is this building is this building is I like I'm G I love to hear rotto after the manager speaks but forgive me the question was not answered but I wasn't I wasn't I wasn't was asking him a question I just asked him if he spoke to the commission and he started talking about whatever the plan was you give me one second give me one second please I'd like to have commissioner fernand's question answered in regards to yeah yeah again you're asking for it to be answered whether you spoke to the commission this commission and previous commissions about the remodeling efforts of of City no about the structural issues that were reported in the 2011 letter 2022 letter 2023 letter I I if you look at the at the budget uh we had 10 m started $10 million and $12 million $15 million $18 million uh the the uh it's it's pretty obvious mayor that that you don't you don't you don't spend $ million just replacing floors so I I believe that everybody knew what was happening here uh everybody understood that there was there was quite a bit of of work to be done of restoration work of repair work uh it's it's almost 100 year old building that we we and so very one of our Marquee buildings an incredible building so for the record your answer is no that's talking about what's in the budget what was in the budget and everybody assum you you and I never spoke about any structural issues you never presented me and I did a public records request the that letter from 2023 when I was already on this de was never shared with me now you talked about Mobility Hub a ton of times you came to talk to me about that burger Bob how you weren't going to do the work there you know I mean the Gonda Building that collapsed we talked about all these things under your watch but as far as City Hall you never discussed with me any structural issues that we had at City Hall uh sir that's untrue so is true sir is as former as a former city manager remember you are under oath when you're discussing with this commission whatever you during your tenure let me make it very let me make it very clear let me make it very clear okay because I called say one thing I called almost 10 elected officials before this meeting today who dealt with the manager eight six seven eight elected officials and they all told me asked do we have conversations because I know that I did and since we can't speak to each other and in my case you won't even speak to me um since we I can't speak to my colleagues that's why for example I use the builtmore as an example let's have it in the afternoon so that Mr Prescott can be here to answer your questions not have staff answer those questions Mr Prescott should answer those questions here on the podium just like the manager is doing it I have a lot of respect for that so now I no not yet I am gonna answer you oh God so my point is my point is that the the elected officials that I spoke to who answered my calls and I spoke with I asked them did we have conversations about City Hall did you talk to the manager they all said yes we all had conversations about budgeting about structural issues that we're facing but you have to understand you have to understand and Douglas wood will tell you the only way that you can get to the bottom of something is exactly what happened in the building adjacent to where we have where we've completely renovated where we have now our perming department you have to skin away the walls see the existing structure see the MPS understand what's behind those walls behind the drywall and then you get a better picture of the actual condition of the building that is standard construction practice you do all the look at you do all the radar you do all the ground penetrating radar and guess what the ground pedet trting radar that was done on the slab was wrong was wrong it said that it was a hollow area and it was not I was there the structural team that was there doing the work yesterday I took the pictures I put it up there said Vince this is all filled with limrock it's perfectly fine it's not an issue I guess the GPR made a mistake and that happens it's happened to me before on job sites you think it's a hollow area Hollow area and it's not and I think that Mr wood will attest to that no machine is so at the end of the day to say that you didn't get any any notification is incorrect and you can continue to say that but the bottom line is that you don't see an item on the budget that's your fault if you you saw an item on the budget for 12 13 14 million it said and you don't say hey what what is that on the budget why is there $14 million what is it what is it for for flooring for Windows when you knew the windows going to be $2 million we're advocating for it you knew what the budgets were you knew exactly what we were trying to do in City Hall we talked about the fact that uh in in in Tallahasse we did not receive an Appropriations for for the windows we talked about the issues that we were having uh with with the city hall so at the end of the day I mean it's proof the proof is there we even talked about in the commission meeting that we didn't get money for the windows in City Hall so you knew what we were talking about hardening the building you knew there were issues with the building and if you want to say that hey blame it on somebody else that's perfectly fine but in the real world in the private sector world you can't blame you can't blame people for for for issues that were facing you have to face up to them and move forward with those issues I agree and I think that's what you're trying not to do so here's the problem you're making assurances of what conversations I had with the city manager are you tapping our offices and listening to conversations because I have been told that is potentially happening I'm gonna give you an answer can I can I give you an answer you ask you ask your question no what because that's the only way you'll be able to give me an assurance of what conversations the former city manager and I had let me give you let me give you an answer to that very simple the issues Beyond Simple I don't think that you lack the competency to understand a budget and look at a budget which says 18 145 million and when somebody tells you that the funding is for X Y and Z either like Melissa Castro says our commissioner says either you don't remember you have issues with your eyesight but to tell me today that you didn't know that1 15516 million in a budget was being used to repair a building structurally what did you think it was be used for for frescos and for rug and for I mean to me it doesn't make any sense it doesn't make any sense even the manager man the manager cannot even tell you the manager cannot even believe that story that is so outlandish and so ridiculous when you you're just looking to blame somebody else for something the issue now is how do we get it done and the issue is you want to make this giant story so it gets published tomorrow in the blogs and it says you know Vince logo is anti- safety and he wants to you know put the employees and the resident is in trouble and the building's going to collapse to one point you even were so extreme that you said that this is like Champlain Towers I mean think about using the example of Champlain Towers in a commission meeting to scare people when you have two exceptional engineers in the room that are telling you that this three build three with with with Joe or ACM that will tell you this building is nowhere near in danger of of having any structural issues you see an issue a matter you address it we've done it always in construction but to say they use Champlain Towers that's politicizing scaring people look at the email that you sent after you got your hands on this email what did I do I sent it to the DCM and I said Mr DCM Mr parus I sent it to Mr parus please review this item talk to code enforcement find out what work was done without a permit we need to get to the bottom of it what did you do you sent out an email that said shocking shocking the build more you know it's shock and awe it's that's not what we do in the city we've always done things the right way way we open it up to the public and we're having it here I invited that how much more transparency do you want you have the city manager here the previous city manager who's willing to answer any question this is not about putting things under the rug or not being transparent the bottom line is that you don't like the answers and you don't have the competency to understand what's happening in regards to the building and you're blaming it on other people the number was in the budget it's clear as day it's online like Maria Cruz likes to say read the budget what do you think 18516 million was for so let's go over that yeah so to put on give me one second to put on the record you didn't speak to me about anything that had to do with the building what we did speak about numerous times was about the windows plenty of times now about the structure and all of this that's happening with the building we did not have one conversation so a few points we we had if I may answer sir we had uh multiple budget meetings uh we we discussed them individually with every commissioner we have $115 million uh as far as a budget as far as City Hall $50 million is not just to replace the actual floors I discussed this I don't know how many times uh as far as phase one being getting getting the building department out of there as far as as doing a a structural assessment now but but Mr wood found something new he found he went into into a column and and found something new can you can you stop the manager one second you brought up I want let him let him finish you brought something you brought something very good point he interrupted letting him I want I want to I want to hear point you said that Mr wood found something new when did Mr wood find this uh I just I just found out about it uh as far as as far as that particular column uh we looked ask question can I ask you a question yes we looked at the actual drawings of the of of the building there you go and that wasn't there we also looked at a lot of uh number of photographs that historical has on the construction of the of the building this was a professionally done building this was not this and and so and so I I I think that that that Mr wood was as I mentioned is an excellent engineer is is correct he's not t he's he's showing so he can do a more of in-depth study as to as to what's going on there that we have I mean how many buildings have been short Baya uh uh they built more uh certainly certainly a major one was was was uh the actual Courthouse sometimes you find things on so you find things that are different from the from the drawings unusual on this building cuz all work that we've done so far had had done so far pretty much was in was in align with the with the actual drawings so it's something that that I think I think Mr wood need needs to further clarify and uh and his providing Shoring in in in the interim I think is very prudent just in case and it also helps people uh feel better also from actually from from thatp the mayor I was I was in the middle of having May Madam vice mayor go ahead I mean we we do have a chair on on the on this uh commission for a reason so and he and I was speaking he the city manager interrupted I had the floor the chair who the chair just just a few questions because my first time on this commission was in May of 2021 and I know I sat down with you and went through uh precisely the the area of City Hall carving out how much money was needed for particular items okay the windows uh the estimates for structural Etc and you know while we were sitting in the first floor conference room and you had you know a board like this over a section of wall and we discussed what was behind that section of wall can you Enlighten the rest of the members of the commission and the public as well approximately when that was and the details and the reason why there was a hole in the wall vice mayor that was years ago and we were we were looking at we were looking at the all the restoration aspects of the of the of the building uh actually the the first thing we did was stabilize the building by by re Roofing because we had a lot of water infiltration and and so so we so the first thing we did was actually stabilize the building I forgot to mention that uh so that we would we would uh we would um remove the the water infiltration the damage uh to to the to the actual building um and as an answer to commissioner Castro did I say that this building is about to fall down never but I did mention that the the first phase was moving moving getting getting that uh getting the load off the building by by getting uh uh the development services team in in into that into the into the new One-Stop shop and then we would do a further further check on that by the way uh when we were able to get the the we did even even more work when we when we uh when um when the third floor uh was move was moved and we were able to demo uh some at third floor to do additional testing on the concrete look to see U what uh uh with the construction techniques were pretty much there were what we saw on on on those photographs it was consistent with some of those historical photographs so so uh um Mr wood did uh concrete cores and we were move we were moving forward to really get uh to get the architect get every get everybody out get get the the uh drawings completed um that was in January and um and move forward with the with the restoration of the building with with everyone uh in in the Public Safety in this public safety building and and the monca garage what what you saw is US looking extensively at the existing drawings photographs uh looking at at uh at uh we we had to be careful we we didn't we were very careful with destructive testing because of course the inside of the building is also historical so so we have to we have to uh we have to um really really uh be be very careful with that however that I think everybody knew that phase one was getting development services out phase two was getting that out and getting the monca garage I mean that that was that was common knowledge I I spoke about this to everyone really I have I have a quick question through the chair the concerns for to move the employees out of the third floor was regarding structural issues dealing with the third floor correct no there were there were no structal issues dealing with the third floor we just wanted to get them out as phase one to to eventually get everybody out of the building so when uh so when we start construction we do it as one whole project and not have to do it floor by flooor and things like that because you mentioned loading concerns no no it was just it helps a building because you're getting loads out right the more loads you get the uh uh the better it is it was it was only people was files tremendous amount of paper which is uh which is quite heavy but was it a structural concern no it was just it was just get doing this is event just getting people out so we could come in and do that building in one shot I think it is faster so loading wasn't an issue no no no am I able to ask my question to of course you can commissioner because I think there's a false narrative that is being spread here that if there is $15 million in the budget it must have been for structural work however I remember we approved the work that had to be done at the AL Hamber Water Tower and I don't know if the budget director is here if she can come in um to tell us what the cost of the work that has to be done there including cluding the mayor said you know work on Fresco is cheap um I think that was a large part and you may remember of the 1.25 or $1.5 million just for the AL Hamber water tower here we're talking about a three-story city hall building Madame director do you do you remember the numbers on the alhamra water tower um thank 1.8 million right behind you behind you um so the current budget for the Alahambra water tower is about 1.3 million and about 800,000 of that is coming from insurance due to damage uh because of hurricane Irma right but the the the alimer water tower is $1.3 million so if we're presented with a budget of $5 million for City Hall nothing in that says there's structural issues and as you just told commissioner Mendez the loadbearing removing people from the third floor was about opening up space in order for the eventual construction it wasn't about structural issues so you just confirmed it wasn't presented to us that there was a structural problem at City Hall and I'd like to call up the ACM regarding the list of uh issues that uh Mr wood had presented to us how many of those items had actually been addressed prior to you coming on board uh how many items were there and how many were actually addressed prior to you coming on board uh ACM Gomez uh I believe the list had um 16 or 18 items on that report um that we've have we've slowly been addressing through that and uh it's important to note that the the the Shoring that is being installed is for the structural repairs that are necessary to recertify the building for the 40-year recertification right but how many of the items were actually done prior to you taking on this project I believe we discussed a from from that list um none of the items had been addressed um because we kept uh asking um uh Doug wood to reissue the letter uh to give us an additional time so since that point uh we've been able to start addressing all those issues so since at least 2022 the items that were on Doug Wood's letters that said we had 30 days to address them had not been addressed and they weren't addressed until the new city manager took over and ACM Gonzalez uh Gomez uh came on board to address those issues and you know I always go back to this the vice mayor was championing the cause for the Gonda Building she was out there three months before it collapsed she brought it up and it was allowed to collapse I mean structural work in our in in our city has been deficient on more than one facility the alhamra water tower was never a priority until we got on board and commissioner Mendez Castro and I made sure that it was approved in last year's budget and you know we talk you talk about continuing to Kick the Can down the road that is what has happened Time After Time After Time and you like to say that in this city we do things right let me tell you there was a mandate from the residents of the city last election which questioned the way the things were getting done and they wanted to be included in the process they wanted transparency because you mentioned the country club as this perfect way that you that things were done in the past that was bundled that was that was a disaster you had police officers from Miami dat County showing up to kick out a family who was running that operation if if that's the crowning Jewel of the way things should be done that's absolutely not I think we need to ensure that going forward we have a plan in place to address these issues before they continue to grow and as I told the city manager if there's an issue that needs to be addressed I want to find out about it and we want to discuss it out in the open in a commission meeting so that we can take action because at the end of the day Mr Mayor I know you like to say that oh it's because there is an election and because you know we're blaming Vince logo this isn't about Vince slago I I mean the whole world doesn't revolve around Vince SLO it revolves around the City of Coral Gables and forging a path forward to ensure that we're addressing the issues that have not been addressed or have just not been a priority you're right some of these issues just weren't a priority but I think if prior commissions had understood that there were structural issues my predecessor commissioner Castro's predecessor you know all of our predecessors had really understood that action needed to be taken earlier we wouldn't be here in this position today and I reference back to the the meeting from August 27th at 4453 44607 45027 4129 you praise the work of Mr wood and how he is the perfect person to make decisions on what's going on at City Hall you then go on to say at 45147 and 45513 that if Doug wood believes that we should leave City Hall you are the first one leaving City Hall but now you're calling into question this gentleman's Integrity because it's not politically uh convenient for you leave politics aside throw it out the window here we are today making a decision on making sure that City Hall is here not just to this Centennial but for the next Centennial for future generations to enjoy a building that was designed and as you said and as Mr wood said it was designed in a proper way and it was constructed in a proper way at the time it's been there 100 years unless we maintain it unless we do what needs to be done to sure it up you know that's that's on us now whatever happened in the past we have to leave it in the past we need to make decisions going forward and I know you're against taking out a bond because you want to you know put money aside for three or four years we need to tackle this now we cannot continue to allow it to deteriorate our offices have blue tape on the Windows just to see if there's water intrusion and I commend the vice mayor mentioned that you know she and commissioner man made that their priority when they came on board and they laid the groundwork and it has taken a while and you know Mr igus while you a manager we had numerous conversations about the windows and I supported every single thing you said about those windows making sure that we tighten the envelope as you like to say and you also talked about what we needed to do with the with the Limestone around the building and you said that was an expensive process you did talk about those things but you never talked about the beams you never talked about the structural issues that we had inside the building it was always about we need to restore City renovate City Hall restore it and that does that's not cheap because work in historic preservation does cost money we did talk about that we talked about the the exterior of the building but you know I I do not appreciate you coming in here and telling me you said something about the structure when you did not because you absolutely did not talk about the structural issues at City Hall I did not talk about the current issue that uh Mr wood came up with because that was not a that was not addressed at at at that time but I did tell you that the the issues about about the cladding the issues about the window and the issues that we had to remove ex uh that we had to uh get out of City Hall to do the actual work and I did tell you that we were taking cores and then analyzing the building to to make sure that it was structurally correct did I tell you that the building was about to fall down no I did not because that's not true because that's simply not true the building is not about to fall down so no I did not say that I did not say that to commissioner Castro either because that is not true because we did not move the third floor because it was going to fall down but we had to do an extensive analysis on that on that building to to renovate the building to renovate the building and that's what Mr wood is doing and I did say Mr wood is an excellent engineer I've known him for decades uh and and uh that he found something that's not per plan that's not for the number of pictures that we looked at uh it's it's something that needs to be looked at he's showing it to give him time to properly analyze it to see was there a structural change that made that column like that uh there could be a structural change that he has not had time to do so it's very very prudent thing to do uh uh to to to show the building get time analyze the building Pro analyze the uh the the uh the building further you mentioned the the Gonda building it's been there for for 90 years so please don't criticize 90 years of of commissions the the let's talk about the water tower uh very familiar with the water tower the problem with the water tower is that it's a frame structure it's a Concrete it's a Concrete frame and it's it's frame inside that building will will have to be replaced every 10 years there'll be a million and a half to $2 million every 10 years that's what it is that's what it is it's the way it was built that's what that's what that's the way that it was built very unusual because M because Mr Merrick used to do everything in masing yet that was done the the all those walls are actually frame construction doesn't last a long time uh with our uh with our humidity uh we actually found the original drawings that were done by Ferguson Glasco Schuster and Mr wood and we were working on that to to um to get that done but that that will be a continuous 10year $2 million project and that's and that's just what it is right so so yes I I think it was very clear that that that everything that we had to do in City Hall it it was made very clear it it it it was not uh I'm not a doomsday person you may be commissioner I am not you know this is not a chapl and Towers issue it is not as a matter of fact I worked on chapl and towers for date County I was there when the demolition took place with with mayor mayor mayor Cava helping him on on the on the implosion plan so I'm I'm I'm very aware of what happened at chapl tius I'm very aware of what's going on at City Hall this is not gloom and doom we have an excellent engineer working on it who's very prudent who who who will Who will guide who will guide the way uh to get a good to get a a proper job does City Hall need to be evacuated once once Mr wood Shoring is in place no it does not does not it's a welld design it's a well-designed building does it need does it need restoration absolutely absolutely best the plan that that we had and plan I think is moving forward is getting everybody out and and getting and getting that beautiful building back to uh to what it used to be so let me ask let me answer your statements just to memorialize a few things number one I apologize item E3 has been deferred uh the sponsor has requested item E3 be deferred so let's start off with with with uh mayor so the those that don't have an agenda in hand that is the mediterian and design item I know mayor Thompson was here to speak on that and as well as some other folks so uh we'll put it for the next commission meeting and I'm sorry mayor thank you mayor for being here I apologize um so the first item that the commissioner Fernandez mentioned about you know $15 million that were in the budget how did how did I know how did I know that that that work was for structural work or for flooring or for rugs or for that me I remember you clearly told me when I asked you Comm commissioner you have 102% raises that are in the budget you know you haven't had a transparent conversation you haven't brought this to light you haven't talked to people you haven't had a town hall meeting what happened and your response was on the record it was well people can read the budget people can read the budget the money has been in the budget for years the money was in the budget for years it's up to you it's up to you like I did with him our city manager when I when I brought to my attention I said Mr manager why is there $300,000 of addition money in the item in regards to in regards to salaries for the Commissioners and he said well mayor the issue is X Y and Z this is this is the way that the Commissioners wanted it and they put it on the agenda and I have to do what three of the Commissioners tell me to do and I said okay no problem I understand it if you see a $15 million line item which is the largest line item in our budget budget and you don't answer and you don't ask a question again that shows a lack of due diligence a lack of care and in my opinion a lack of Competency like I said so that's number one okay number two you mentioned the issue of the country club the country club was an absolute debacle and what I'm going to do right now because of our City attorney who's here and she can wave her head if I'm correct or if I'm wrong when I went to see her I said you know we need to have a public conversation in regards to what's going on with the country club I have a lot of residents that are coming to me that are asking me questions are there memberships in danger what's the plan for the country club The City attorney which is the same thing that she did for for me in regards to the builtmore issue thank you Madame mayor uh the same thing that she did for me with the billmore when I called her because I received your email with the word shocking on it from the billmore um as if we were back in the blogging days she told me I said well I'd like to put out a statement in regards to the billmore she told me we want to preserve our rights legally don't do that I disagree am I correct yes or no generally mayor yes we prefer for the city to speak with one voice and we don't want to you know compromise our legal positions so regards to the country club we took a we took a step back we LED our attorneys and I remember I remember when Miriam Ramos was here because I was in a business trip in New York and I got a phone call in regards moving forward what were we going to do and I held that phone conversation on the street in New York with the city manager Miram Ramos Christina and other members of the City attorney and outside Council in regards to what we would do moving forward to address the issues because we found many deficiencies we found things that were not correct and we handled that accordingly and we've done millions of dollars of renovation and staff did a wonderful job addressing that issue and people are more than happy in regards to the country club under the city's leadership you want to say something Mr Man um mayor I have never said this this before but we even found the fire alarm had been tampered with and was not working and it was jumped so it would all be green so we found some things in there that were incredible that we certainly were not expecting and uh it was it was uh I'm not going to say everything we found but but I've never seen that before in my 40 years and another thank you and another comment to to address uh commissioner Fernandez what he said the Fresco are cheap I never said that what I said was very simple you're not spending $15 million on frescos at least not under my watch I would never spend that amount of money yeah it's going to cost money to restore the Fresco that are there if they're historic and our historic director will tell us if they're historic or not because there are certain things that are not historic and we've noticed that and I'm talking about City Hall if those frescos are historic they will be replaced and they will be brought to the original splendor but we're not spending $15 million historic and if you know about construction there a $15 million line item on the budget what you do is you take a step back you sit with the city manager and you do what I did when I saw the raises that were proferred by commissioner fernandz commissioner Menendez and commissioner Castro I said what is this money I disagree with this and guess what they won they proceeded and the budgets went for and and the budget increase on salaries went forward but if you see a $15 million line item it's your responsibility as an elected official to say what is this $15 million what is it going for okay it's going for restoration of City Hall break down the restoration I'd like to understand what that is again that's an issue again of Competency and doing your job very similar to what we've had before when you haven't answered your emails and you said hey I never receiv received this email and it was proven to you in in in a meeting hey you did receive the email the problem is that you haven't read your emails no it have been sent to a wrong person no they were sent to the right person it was sent to a Fernandez not my email address police officer I have the copy of the email requested as alto Carlo your alas it's not my Alias I don't have Alias but you make record request cler is here point my point is listen concentrate you're not listen remember Ariel you are no longer commissioner Fern commissioner Fernandez you're no longer a blogger you're a commissioner now remember you represent the people you're not supposed to be the first one to deliver the news no matter if it's wrong or it's right that he you are now a commissioner we have to work on behalf of the residents for example the country club it was a very difficult thing by the way nobody threw anybody out there with police officers okay just so you know those people I understand were your friends I understand that and you got many perks at the Country Club through those individuals but hold on a minute hold on a minute those people false information information the problem is and you're displaying it as a member of the St and and you're violating the civility code you're not your civility code the one that you passed I'm not this is not the first time though you can censor me again you're like so my point is my point is very simple you you did not like the way that was handled that was handled professionally and we we found many things that the manager will tell you in regards to construction life safety issues and not only that what they were doing financially that went against the residents in this community for years and years and years we had many meetings with the leaseholders and we had discussions to say bring us your books we reviewed the books we reviewed all the documents we reviewed we did a walk through the building and at the end of the day the city took the building over and that was in the best interest of the city so if you're going to tell me that you don't know why there's a $15 million line item in the budget I could say listen 15,000 50,000 20,000 certain items that are minuscule maybe you don't see them but a $15 million line item which is the largest trunch of money in a construction project that we have outside of the public safety building which was done three or four years ago that to me again is you know it doesn't make sense so moving on moving on with mayor actually just for a clarification for those watching um the decision regarding the country club and having community recreation takeover took place by this by the commission February 2022 uh Christina became City attorney in February of 2023 so Christina though she was part of the team she wasn't the actual City Attorney at that time with the whole country club situation I just wanted to clarify the timeline so let me let me let me let me add on to to to uh the commissioner statement Madame City attorney how long were we in negotiations in regards to the country club sir I'm sorry it was before you became City City attorney correct correct all of that happened before I became City attorney I do not know how long those negotiate at this moment I don't recall so my timeline so my timeline in regards to the way that was conducted is correct I wasn't a phone call in New York with the attorney's office and the city manager to move forward in in addressing issues so listen this job is a very difficult job you're going to make people happy and you're going to make people unhappy but at the end of the day at the end of the day the purpose is to sit down and work cohesively not to be the first one to send out 35,000 emails saying shocking news you know uh I got this email and I'm putting it out there without allowing staff to finish their reports without allowing the professionals to finish the report so you just said Mr wood Mr wood is one of the most when I introdu him I said he was one of the most respected individuals in his community I hold him in high regard he's a person who I've had the pleasure the pleasure of being with I'm multiple occasions in regards to business where the private sector and everyone speaks about the manager Peter glacias and in regards to Douglas wood in the highest regard as engineers in the private sector so please don't say I'm disparaging this gentleman because that's the last thing I would do through the but I do but one thing and to close out so that you can move forward very simple you heard what Mr wood said and you can repeat it again the building is shed the building is habitable it's not a safety issue he said it it's on the record when he spoke and now you've heard it also from another structural engineer Peter Iglesias we have taken extraordinary precautions to make sure that the building is safe but Mr manager even if we had not shorted the building would the building be safe for habit for being habited right now yes or no I I I I defer to the engineer record on that being being a I ask you a question but I I do think that I do think that as as you mentioned I mentioned Mr wood is an excellent engineer and he's showing it he's showing it in in the utmost of caution and to to be able to to to analyze the building the the the uh building further so so uh uh with respect to Mr wood I have known for decades and has always been an excellent engineer uh I I I defer to him I I don't know what's been found uh but uh but but I do think that I do think if Mr wood says that Shing the building is safe I have no problems working in that building thank you very much and and let me just say that I worked in the building I wasn't working across the street so I don't believe I'm suicidal thank you sir commissioner Castro yeah it is past noon you have spoken probably 75% of this meeting on one item I think it's time to move on and stay on topic I think it's a beautiful opportunity to clear the air and do and and I think the residents want to hear what's going on in their City Hall especially on their historic Gem and what we are doing as as a city because I talk to Residents all the time and we are on topic by the way who tell me Vince when does City Hall start next week two weeks I hear we're moving out I said no no no no no City Hall is not starting for a minimum minimum of a year and nine months to two years so we are on topic it's on the public record and we've had two exceptional experts here along with Mr Gomez who's also an engineer who have given us their opinion and staff is doing a wonderful job and please for the record when I'm quoted tomorrow on the blogs I do not want to have anybody die in the building this is not Champlain Towers like commissioner Fernandez said you know this is an opportunity to have City Hall open during an election year which is critically important and allow some of our staff to continue to do business in that building and you and you realize you continue to talk I do and I will continue and I will continue to talk that people are here listening you know people come to listen to the whole agenda and pay some respect to them I think it's enough you said the same thing probably 10 times maybe I can say maybe I say with one time it's more than enough we have very educated employees and residents Mr Mayor I still have a member of the public who requests to speak on this item Mr rip Holmes Mr Holmes thank you um is is the mic working yeah yeah just get close to it get close to it thank you so um yeah I appreciate your help on that um uh I'm really floored with the um the fact that City former city manager glacius the fact that former city manager glacius has been hiding these structural problems at City Hall for at least six years he's hidden it from the public uh so you've got the public and now uh mayor Vince logo says oh no no nothing to see here uh people can keep coming to City Hall uh so he's part of the this hiding of a really serious problem uh but no no the public keep coming you get uh environmentally uh damaged and we end up with people suing City Hall for having government in secret we had this this is actually reminiscent of the government in secret that led to the zoning code that nobody knew about uh and was a a horrendous Scandal and very seriously continues to damage the city this was government in secret uh former city manager eaus knew he's admitting today he knew that there was a problem and he was secretly trying to move people out of City Hall he says he moved them to the the building next door he says he was planning to move them even here but now they're objecting to doing that he says that they were secretly planning to do offices on Minorca but he never informed the public because I'm I I attend these meetings very very frequently I would know it was all in secret and now what else are they keeping secret that's the real problem and mayor logo you said that this is some kind of an election Ploy by Ariel Fernandez I think actually it is has you've made it an election issue because you've been hiding the fact that City Hall has structural problems and you're continuing to hide it thank you thank you sir all right we're to move on to item 21 time certain 11 o'clock continue talking make a motion for to pull F2 pulling F2 second okay all right wait can we State what agenda itm F2 is for those who are two is update on possible action regarding alterations at the builtmore hotel so we're deferring the builtmore hotel item no we're going to pull it up now I'm making a motion to to call it I'm sorry will you will you do me a favor will you tell Will you tell the commissioner what you requested from me what was he requesting to take up the 11:00 a.m. time certain okay we have people in the room that have been waiting for the 10: a.m. time certain that had been uh noticed okay so I'll second uh commissioner Fernandez's motion okay commissioner Castro yes commissioner Fernandez yes commissioner Mendez yes vice mayor Anderson no mayor l no as I mentioned before as we hear this item you will not have again you will not have anyone from the billmore who could be here at 4:00 to hear this item I mentioned it multiple times to our city clerk over the last few days so that we could get it prepared for this meeting and I've asked I've asked through the clerk so we could make sure we an accommodation for the billmore so they can be here front and center to answer to the questions let me be clear for the blogs when they write this um I oppose doing anything in the billmore without a permit that it was not viewed by historic preservation it is in my opinion something that it's our Jewel it's our gem we should not touch the buil more without having met with the city manager and without having met with our historic preservation office we need to be extremely careful with this building but at the end of the day it symbolizes who we are as a city thank you very much so I had initially called for a special commission meeting last week to address this item um the city manager and staff had said they would not have time to be prepared for it um I had a meeting with Mr Prescott and following that meeting I spoke to the manager the City attorney and the city clerk uh and I decided to cancel the special commission meeting that had already been scheduled um with a condition that we have a 10: amm Time certain for this item the 10 a.m. time certain was granted and it was also published on the two agendas that we published we published on Tuesdays and on Thursdays and it was it was noticed for 10 a.m. on both those days the minute that I got the confirmation that we had a 10 a.m. time certain I called Mr Prescott and informed him that we had a 10: a.m. time certain to discuss this item so the entire request to change the time C to 4m didn't come until yesterday the day before the meeting at the last minute when when you the residents already had intended to be here for a 10: a.m. time certain to discuss this item that is why I objected to moving the time certain to for p.m and I have asked my colleagues and I appreciate commissioner Mendez and Castro for agreeing to move this item up so that we can have a discussion um I think the builtmore hotel is what residents and people in throughout the world think of when they think of the City of Coral Gables it is a gem and thanks to Mayor Thompson who was here earlier and two of her colleagues in that commission back in the 1980s the commission decided to save the builtmore hotel which was going to be demolished and a lot of work went into the restoration of the builtmore hotel to bring it to what it has been a gem in our community a place where people go for Gatherings families come out to enjoy the amenities at the builtmore hotel it's a place that we as a city celebrate our 4th of July this is our Central Gathering Place in the City of Coral Gables and the mayor likes to talk about the blogs but had it not been for Gable's Insider I would not have found out that this had taken place the manager the the City attorney um commissioner Mendez the police chief and I had all been at the builtmore hotel probably a week and a half before uh for a police chief's dinner and no work had been done there was no mention of any work coming and The Operators are very quick to to say look this is what we're going to do with Fairways and I want you to see the plans and this is what's what's going forward there was no conversation for me seeing those pictures was a shock and that's why I use that word because it completely defaces the lower lobby of the hotel and as I told Mr Prescott that day you have destroyed our historical gem that's the way that I see it on Friday of that week the manager had scheduled to walk through the mayor had had uh went as well it was even more concerning because as we're walking through and thankfully the manager insisted the mayor did not want us to go to other rooms in the in the hotel the manager insisted in trying to see as many rooms as possible and thank you for that we stumbled onto illegal painting that was taking place in one of the rooms next to the Danielson Gallery but if that wasn't enough there was a locked doorway that we were trying to get into and it took a while to get the key when they got the key they've built a Speak Easy in one of the of the rooms upstairs completely illegally without the city knowing about it we then find a staircase that has a code lock and of course couldn't find the code so I asked the maintenance gentleman to find a b cutter and immediately they had the code to open well we go upstairs and I have never seen carac cot UPS set I have never seen her upset and she was livid the amount of work that has been done up there you know there's a fire pit there's Plumbing work there's electrical work there is no second egress so it's a space that cannot legally be used but a ton of money was spent in there the most upsetting thing to me is the operator is always telling us we don't have money we need to charge for parking so that we can have enough money to do things but there has been hundreds of thousands if not millions of dollars that have gone into this building on illegal work and you know the problem that I have is we are a city that for too long our own residents have believed we hide things and that was the message that I got from residents last year during the campaign the reason that I put out the statement is because of the number of calls and emails that I started receiving from residents when they saw those pictures the following Miami heral article um CBS 4 who went out we have to live in the community that we represent we have to be sure that our residents understand that we are not sweeping things under the rug that we are taking action that we are standing up for their interests the builtmore hotel although I've heard many places that other people own it no it's owned by the residents of this city and this city this is your asset we're here as the governing board of this city the manager sits as our CEO as Mr eaus always said to guide our city in the right direction the issue here goes beyond historic it goes into process we have a very clear contract with the operator which says any that's very clear any alterations must be approved by the City of Coral Gables the lobby the work that was being done in that painted room the work that was done in the Speak Easy the work that was done up in the tower and then we're being told well that's never been used and as Miss cot said she saw people up there the night before so I have a concern that is shared by many residents we are in a position right now where this is not the first time and I fully support the manager's decision to send a letter of default even though some are saying that I was behind the letter of default I was informed after Mr presscot informed me because he was called by a member of this commission to let him know and I fully support it this was the third strike the first one they started charging for parking without being allowed to do it the second time Fairways beautiful work that was done the golf club beautiful work that was done I mean you walk in there and and it's it's a five-star Resort however there was permitting done there was planning that was done and then whatever they wanted to do was actually done inside when we came in for the inspections tons of things had been changed without going through the process this is about process it's about ensuring that our asset is protected and many residents have told me what assurances do we have that it's not going to happen again and that's what I told Mr Prescott when I spoke to him again last night I told him I have no assurances that you're going to preserve our historic built more Hotel what's it going to take are we going to have to have a code enforcement officer permanently parked at the hotel because there was work being done outside by the way the elal work we stumbled into there was a red notice which said they couldn't be doing any work but you you know they believe that painting is okay it's not okay it's not okay it is our asset if any of you own Comm commercial real estate you own commercial real estate Mr Mayor if your tenant decides to do their own buildout inside when your contract says they have to approve it by you you would have an issue with that we all would if you rent out a house to somebody and they do tear down walls or you know change the historic nature of the house you would all have issues with that I have issues with it has taken place at at uh the builtmore hotel and that's why I asked for this item to be placed on the agenda I want to hear from staff on what steps have been taken I know that there's additional checks that have to be done we were not able to go to the 13th floor because there was somebody staying there and I believe they're still staying there until later this week or next week um there were also concerns about other floors I mean even the Terrace the beautiful tow that we had in the Terrace has literally been spray painted with green spray paint we're talking about tons of money just to restore what the built more was and there was really no reason for it it was kind of a haha moment you know we'll take care of it we we'll hire whatever conservative the C City wants to bring it back but we need to be able to trust our City's operators to operate our facilities and to preserve what is there so Mr manager uh commissioner the city was made aware that there were certain alterations made at the billmore hotel City staff investigated it and determined that prior approval based on our lease had not been provided and these and these alterations that were made were done without a permit so obviously we stopped the work code enforcement uh issued a violation uh red tag the work so they would not continue and I spoke to the City attorney and we both determined that it would be appropriate to issue them uh the letter so that we could reserve our authority over the issues that may develop down the road and then staff has has been working as diligently as they can trying to figure out where where we're at with the built one there are areas that we have not gone inside uh I've asked staff to do a top to bottom review of everything that was done and make sure that all the uh issues are address as per our lease and as per our code that's where we're at today and I know during the walkth through there were certain questions that were asked by by Mr Prescott and I think our staff Doug from from development services uh annais from from historic preservation everybody's willing to work with the operator the billmore because the concern was well you know it's going to take forever to get approvals but I think what you stated and what Doug and and Anna stated is we can work with them on finding a solution to ensure that it doesn't take you know two or three weeks to get a permit approved for something that's urgent that needs to be done but they still have to follow the process that every resident has to follow if they're doing work in their homes without an application we can't do anything so they need to follow the process we will go back and double check make sure that everything's done appropriately similar to what we had to do with uh uh the restaurant uh but uh we are working on on some items to have discussions with the build more management so that we could move forward through the mayor through the mayor um I've spoken with Mr Prescott several times last week he um he takes responsibility for everything he's done he's more than willing to work with the city to do what is the process he did send me a video yesterday that he wanted to present during this item if it's have the video ready to play I think we all received the email we all received the video too right but I did yes I it was a conversation I had with him and I told him if he couldn't be here on time that you know i' I'd be willing to to move up to to ensure that the video could be played so that we could hear from him if he wasn't able to make it on time good afternoon everyone um actually it'll be good morning when you see this um uh this is tomm Prescott with the billmore hotel I apologize for not being able to attend the morning portion of the city commission meeting and this important discussion topic uh however as I've expressed to the commission I do wish to be there to engage with all stakeholders community members and so forth in the afternoon uh please accept my apologies for not being able to be there in the morning but I welcome the conversation in the afternoon for all that wish to uh have it I also want to specifically State though now so there's no misunderstanding as the conversation commences that in no way shape or form was any person from the city derelict in their duties um the oversight was on my part and that is what I want to talk about um the restoration that we're going to do in collaboration with all interested parties and stakeholders will be undertaken but I thought it was important to at the very least ensure that there is no ambiguity by which the city whether they be elected officials or career staff did anything wrong in this regard um I'll explain that further when I have the opportunity to speak and again I welcome uh further comments by anyone that wishes to have that as I've been doing already with a number of members of uh the community so thank you very much for allowing me to share with you this message and I look forward to speaking in the afternoon who the mayor yes um Mr manager I did speak with you after forwarding the email to staff to for code enforcement to take the necessary actions that they have to do at the builtmore hotel I also asked you to put this item on the agenda um so that we could you know have an update and report from staff so we understand what the necessary procedures are going to be to restore the built more properly in particular we need a conservator to govern how things are done so it's done correctly and no more damage is done okay and that that should be paid for uh by uh cway which is the current operator uh and I have spoken to Mr Prescott and he is agreeable to pay for uh the conservator and I think he you can hear from the tone that he's agreeable to take whatever steps are necessary um going forward um huge mistake was made by him I agree uh but we need our staff who are experts in this field not none none of us are experts in historic preservation to guide us on what needs to be done at the the builtmore hotel and and how it should proceed forward if I may through the mirror um a lot of things that happen in decisions that are made and issues that come up um we can't address them in a vacuum we've already had plenty of residents concerned folks who actually moved away years ago who saw the news of the alterations without proper authorizations of the builtmore and it created a great deal of concern for our history for our beloved builtmore Hotel um one of the reasons why we have this opportunity is to inform our residents as to what's happening what's happened and the path forward um and I do know Thomas and Seer and making amends for the changes that happened and the corrections that need to be made going forward my only concern or my biggest concern is um the fairways restaurant which is phenomenal and it's beautiful and it's wonderful and I recommend you go there when it was going through its final approvals issues I think commissioner Fernandez mentioned arose things were discovered that perhaps we're done with again without the proper authorization permits now we face this situation there's a pattern and patterns repeat themselves so in addition to addressing the alterations and bringing things back to the way they should be I want to make sure that through the city attorney's office and through the manager's office we take a look at that agreement to see what can be added to the agreement to further protect us in case there is a momentary lapse and judgment down the road I don't believe there will be because of the community outcry and the engagement with the city government but you just never know so I would like our agreement to be addressed and see how we can tighten it up so that this never occurs not only with this operator but whatever else happens down the road we need to protect the city and not let patterns repeat we can certainly certainly look into that commissioner Mr Mayor if we can call a public comment since residents have been waiting for a while uh first speaker is Mrs Maria Cruz Mrs Maria Cruz 1447 Miller Road my real name not an alias not a madeup name my real name and my real address this item first of all I think that if we will consider discussing it like it was said from both sides maybe it would not be wise to do it today because we do not have a Time certain for today because the people do not know didn't make plans to come back today I would suggest that wise move would be to put it on the agenda for next meeting at a time certain whatever time you want but at advertis it so people can be here because it was advertised for 10 now we're saying let's make it four well I hate to tell you most people are not listening now to make plans to be back at 4 o' that's comment number one number two I think we keep talking about historic frankly I know the building is the build is a historic building it's a national National designated historic Monument I think or something to that effect we're not talking about just historical changes I hope we're talking about we have a lease it says very clearly any changes any not just the historic portion of the building any changes if you were to have a property if you leas a home a house to somebody and they change what you leas to them you would expect them to either put it back the way it was or pay somebody to put it back I don't think we should be entertaining just the historic portion I think the way the building was given to this management company should be the way it is back and then let them ask for permission to do what they think would be an asset and maybe some of it we would agree to but the city the owners the the residents the taxpayers the elected officials have to give permission for anything that will be done whether historic or not that's the point here the process I don't think we're talking about design at least I'm not talking about how it looks how it could look whether people like it or not my whole issue is process you have a lease you have a contract you have an agreement this is what we lease you this is how it has to be unless we tell you that you may make changes and I believe from what I've read from what I've seen that the city hasn't given permission to make any changes so the building before we consider it issuing any permits we need to go back and see the building the way supposed to be and then talk about permits Mr clerk Sonia Berto good good afternoon first word I have to say finally uh yes it was schedule for 10:00 now if there's a conflict of uh scheduling it's not the residents uh issue first I have to second Mrs Cruz I think today 4:00 is not a suitable time a lot of residents will miss this important meeting my name is Sonia virto I live at 7:30 Anastasia the builtmore hotel is at the 1200 Anastasia first thing I have to tell you is wow I cannot believe that this is happening I cannot believe it when I tell people who don't live here don't live in the United States who have visited Florida and I say I live in Coral Gables first thing they say oh is that where there's that big building that big hotel yes so imagine and Mr Prescott says oh I will make repairs and Madame Vice uh mayor you say he's willing to pay for it well I hope every penny comes out of his pocket not a penny of our taxes not a penny from the people who live in Coral Gables and now I'd like to address to you Mr city manager the people who are supposed to do the supervising come under your jurisdiction the building department the code enforcement this was done some people say during the night how can they do during the night this is not just a small garbage back these are huge dumpsters I walk the back and you can see if there's anything going on this is under your jurisdiction that this happened the people who work for you you all know here and everybody here all the residents here if you want to do change anything in your home I've done three Renovations in my house I'm trying to finish my last one for an idiotic piece of handle that's not there we had to go back to the draw board and it's still in your hands at the city for one handle my neighbor has a historic designated home her she had a a vent something like what do you call the cloth um a vent not a an awning she had an awning she got fined because the inspector came by a few years ago told her ma'am your awning is dirty so between a dirty awning and the destroying a historical building fre building that we have in Coral Gables I say shame on you all of you because you put us through hell to do a minor Renovations in our homes it has to be the proper this and the proper that and the proper color and the ramp and the steps are too high and the steps are too low we go through hell to suit cor do I like it yes I do because I decid to live here in Coral Gables and I have to abide by the rules but you let the biggest building that represents us to do everything they want to do and you say you didn't know about it Mr city manager who are your people where are they but if I have a an extra Leaf in front of my house or I have a pickup truck with a name on a Sunday oh my God code enforcement will put on the brakes so I say this is on you Mr city manager you you direct your people your supervisors they don't see the dumpsters in the back no everybody's blind or they would they they wanted to be blind is all I can say I am appalled I am appalled of this situation fully appalled and you Mr Mayor because Mr Prescott is cannot make it at 10: a.m. like the residents you wanted to push this to 4:00 I'm sorry the conversation today is between the residents and you who have been elected to take care of us to take care of things that we like like the builtmore and everything else that is historical people pay thousands and thousands of dollars to visit places that are historical and they come back and they say wow we have the buildmore and you can't even preserve it Mr city manager the one bmore it's your group of people who failed us because all they have to do is is Drive their truck in the back because that's what it's happening and now you say you didn't know about it Mr Prescott said oh I'm so sorry I didn't know how long have they been here I know the city was dying to find a tenant because there were dire times for the city to find a tenant you finally called Mr Prescott's father and his company to come in they have 60 years left well I hope they pay through the yinyang for everything that they did to that building everything they did for that building and I would like to hear more from from all of you sitting here and from you city manager what you have to say for your staff that get good salaries good retirements good health benefits and this is what they put us through shame on you I'm sorry to say this but shame on you thank you Barbara Reese hi good afternoon um my name can you hear me okay my name is Barbara Ree and I am at 11 uh8 Zamora Avenue uh previously I owned a beautiful old historic home at 840 coralway and I sold it three years ago and the people who bought my home are still trying to remodel it because it was a beautiful old Crown Jewel of Carl Gable's historic home so having lived there I know what I had to do in order to paint something or do anything alter anything uh with the city and you know I was great working with Cara she was wonderful and you know whenever we needed anything they would always work with you and I was a gas when I went to a garden club meeting uh a couple mon couple weeks ago and I valet parked uh for $30 I might add and uh so anyway I walked in and I looked down and there was this white marble mausoleum in front of me and and I went what could that be you know that can't be I'm it's just awful then I looked above they have this little tiny chandelier that someone was still hanging while I was there it didn't even at the scope of the building and then tacky mirror chips that were inside these furniture that they discovered looked like something out of Vegas and my brother and my sister and my brother-in-law live in LA and they're the ones who said what did you do to the builtmore and I said I don't know I said I I saw it it's awful and then what the most disturbing thing because I had things like this in my old home they painted white paint over the beautiful murals I mean how can that be restored and I hope it can be and I think you can tear up all that white marble he might not like doing it but it can be done because I understand the old flooring has still been restored underneath and I know it's being done at my old house so um it can happen I think he should be made to do that try and restore the beautiful stencil work that's in there I mean it's historic the problem with the whole city of Miami is we don't really restore and keep historic buildings and respect it and that is just such a beautiful building and when you live there and use it all the time and have your relatives come uh it's just a shame that he was allowed to get by with it and I think when he tries to make some kind of restoration for this he needs to consider what it used to look like and it's fine to say you need new Pierce of furniture or you need this but not take beautiful beautiful work and and make it look like as I said a Vegas hotel it's really the first impression you get out of the valet is that and I just hope it's unfortunate that he's not here today to hear all these comments from her but I do agree with Maria that you know rescheduling this at four o'clock I miss my garden club meeting for this today so uh as Maria knows and um you know I can't come back at four but I think it's only fair that um he hears what we have to say and um May I appreciate your time even though we were here all morning waiting for this but uh uh I do think it's an important issue with this community to keep a crown Jew like that would it was meant to be thank you thank you m Reese just let you know the stencils were uh a company holding the stencils did send May and email uh and corellia caranel that they do exist so the restoration of that the stencil work can be done oh yeah no I know what you're talking about so in reference to what the resident said before and Miss ree repeated in regards to 4:00 that was a request that was made by uh Mr Prescott earlier in last week in preparation for today's commission meeting I passed that information I passed that information over to the clerk to try to make sure that we have someone here to speak on the other side in regards to the issue why did I want that to happen very clearly because like you said Mr Prescott performed construction without a permit should face the music before the residents who are here there's nobody from the billmore here to hear what you're saying except for if they listen to the commission meeting so at the end of the day my intent was to have a meeting where both sides could speak in regards to what the intent was and understand the outrage that the residents have in regards to what was done at the billmore so I have I have no issues with we here now I think it's perfectly fine I was not going to request that it be that it be moved at all Mr Clerk Elizabeth rder good afternoon uh thank you Commissioners I appreciate you letting me speak I'm Dr Elizabeth Raider about now I'm Dr Elizabeth Raider I am here uh not only as a resident of Coral Gables uh but I uh work on behalf of Hindman auctions we are a Chicago based full service art and auction house and I am the VP trust estate Private Client uh director managing Florida uh I am a big fan of the vmore um one because as all of you uh are very passionately uh saying it is a historical landmark and it is the gem of our city and what but um for many reasons why people are drawn to come here and you could argue why there has been further investment in construction and why we see the growth of Coral Gables today I think uh many many years ago it had fallen in disrepair it was chained up it was an elephant to the city so the prescotts they are owed a debt of gratitude they do run it as a business business and is a successful business that we all benefit from so I think it is important um as mayor uh Vince logo and the vice mayor U mentioned that they should be here to defend themselves to be able to the they're owed the courtesy and as all of you also have recognized uh the prescotts seem to be willing to make things right so I think just as someone here in the business Community it is a bit of a warning to me to see that people can rush to judgment to someone that has contributed contributed so much to the community and is constantly looking for ways to um do more projects that benefit us all such as the mod of Miami these kinds of projects you can't have something like that at a hotel like the Belmore without it being modernized to a point now there should be an agreement on what that looks like but you shouldn't forget that fact as well that the builtmore is not a museum we should preserve it it's again the gem of our city I have a doctorate in historical preservation I think it is very very important but I think also from business point of view there's a way of dealing with people that are proven contributors to our community and that I feel is very unfair so that those are my comments thank you Doctor that's it Mr Mayor okay public comment is Clos what is the will of the commission is there any further comments or can I make my comments any else you like to say the only only question I have um Mr manager is when will staff's report be ready for the bum it's going to be a while we still don't do not have access to certain floors certain offices are privately rented out so we want to take a look at that but I should be able to report to you by next commission meeting our initial findings of what we discovered during our investigation yeah I would like an update next month right can we get a copy of the um preliminary report when it's ready yes ma'am absolutely Mr clerk Mr Mayor I'm sorry I know you closed the public hearing but Kon just raised her hand on Zoom okay I perfect Mr konell if you can unmute good afternoon yes hi everyone uh this is scelia thanks for taking my call I didn't realize public comments was going to be uh um shorter than I thought um my I I you know I I would be remiss if I did call in you have received not only um on behalf of the historic preservation Association our letter um you know asking for a full remedy of what has transpired I have also spoken with Mr Prescott he is absolutely uh taking full responsibility but um but that's only one part of the of the equation now it's the remedy part and it has to be a full remedy to our national landmark and it is under the national landmark status quote a Living Museum and that is that is what it is and yes it's a working hotel but that was the premise of building that building it was a hotel and it was built in 192 26 it's a it's an era that is uh Frozen in Time as we say as far as the designation is concerned and that's how it it re it got a national landmark designation not because it was modernized not because it was different than it was original it was designated because of the fact that in 19 1986 a full restoration authentic restoration es hearnen you know in collaboration with obviously City and and the historic all the historic renderings and and documents to have it go you know and and and and be the authentic uh hotel that um mer planned so when I hear about modernizing and it's not you know anything other than a hotel and that see what has to make it so that you know it's profitable all that they understood when they signed the lease in 1992 um as a matter of fact Mr Prescott himself uh made sure that when he signed the lease he he um he promised his stewardship to the hotel so you know I just I just want to make sure that we're all on the same page this is not about modernizing this is not about it not being historic or one part is historic and one par isn't that hotel or and that Landmark is all historic it is a historic monument and we have to take care of it as that and then my final thought is that national landmark it's our only national landmark in this city should have regular side visits from the historic preservation whether it's on a monthly or every two months or however the calendar works but for this to happen under sort of everybody's noses um really doesn't you know it really doesn't um I mean there's no voter confidence there um so moving forward when you all decide on what to add to the lease and what you know things are going to have to be implemented I believe that should be part of it so again please understand that this is a very important Monument to the city it is a working hotel but that's that's what it was designated to be and we have to abide by that so thank you again thank you Mr Mayor and yes we have already put on the record and it's very public right now what has transpired with within within the last two weeks three weeks I don't think that Mr Prescott had any malicious intent as one of uh the speakers was saying it is a business not excusable at all the process wasn't followed however he is more than willing to work with this commission with the city we need to move forward get this resolved in the process is supposed to be solved and I know that um Tom is willing to do that let's look forward to making sure that our our asset is preserved adequately according to our code and that would be the responsibility of our employees we don't have any expertise here in the Das and um just let's look forward let's look forward it's already happened and let's make the best of it and I just want to add real quick uh the closest thing to the bum hotel that I can think of is The Breakers Hotel in Palm Beach and unless I'm mistaken The Breakers Hotel is still The Breakers Hotel and I was just researching right now they got approval by their historic preservation commission to restore the Mediterranean style Courtyard they went through the process and that's the key here we not need to make sure not only that the process is followed and respected but we need to assure going forward that we never encounter this again I think there'll be a solution that'll everybody be happy but we need safeguards and that's what I'm proposing and I'm I know we're still in discussion but I'd like to make a motion to bring this back in December time certain at the beginning of the commission meeting because I know a lot of folks have other events and other activities so perhaps we can do if allow me another 10:00 a.m. in our December meeting for update that way we everybody's on the same page I'll second I'll second it if we don't jam up the agenda again I had a Time certain and was put on for 11:30 I took it off it was like the only thing on the agenda it was a very light agenda and then we've jammed a few others in between I also had deferred uh the opalak item from the last meeting to this meeting it time certain for this meeting at 1:30 we have the mayor of opaka coming so please be mindful of other people time as well I just have a question for the City attorney um regarding the letter of default there is a 45-day window what exactly must take place within that 45 day window because the next commission meeting is just outside that 45 day window so it's a cure period um I I would anticipate that the billmore would likely ask for an extension of that cure period um and the manager and I can discuss you know and and seeing where we are at that point um the next steps okay just want to make sure that during this time there is no approval for the work that has already been done to remain the way it is that's that's what that's my goal from this meeting to ensure that we work through the process but that there is no I know that they're trying to submit permit applications for the work that has already been completed I just want to make sure that we don't approve the work that has been done and that we find a path forward and I agree Mr Prescott has told me he is interested in finding a path forward as much as everybody else but I want to be sure what is there now is not approved so so that's on that's on the manager and and your team so if I may I haven't said anything so first off that's that's an impossibility because they have to come with plans they have to submit for permit so what he's stating it would never even happen anyways so moving on from that um let's talk about certain comments that were made and I want to clear the record it's important to clear the record Ariel made commissioner Fernandez made some comments a few minutes ago that are falsely defamatory and incorrect okay number one a when I showed up to to the walkthr to the walkth through that that uh commissioner Fernandez had called I showed up about four or five minutes late and as I went to as staff we were walking into the Danielson room and what I said was I thought the issue was in the lobby oh and the comments were we're going to review the entire building I said okay not a problem would you like to know how many words I said during the rest of the of the one hour walkth through zero I didn't say a word I walked out when it was done because the reason why I made that statement was because in one hour we had a fire graduation fire graduation in this in in in this city that I wanted to make sure I thought we're just going to address the lobby but they wanted to review other areas of the billmore to see if other work had been done I have no issues if they want to turn the billmore upside down and they want to look at every single Corner go at it let's protect the asset but the reason why I made that statement was very simple was because we had a one-h hour deadline to make it to a presentation where I was going to be speaking as the mayor on behalf of new uh fire department employees that were being led into the city I find it very interesting how everybody's in shock and awe about about what's going on at the billore when multiple of my colleagues I've yet to go to the Speak Easy that that that the commissioner fernandz speaks about but multiple colleagues on this commission have not only been there but they've had drinks at the Speak Easy and they weren't bothered by it when they went there so at the end of the day to me I I wonder why why it's a big it's a big issue now you know they should have brought it up let me let me give you an example when I you know how we all found out about this and it's good for the record to clear the record we got an email on October 26 2024 the email was Ronda Anderson Jose Herer from Perkinson will uh a a peris Ron Juan rco Andres vuchi Don cesic and myself were copied on an email that email immediately because it's copied here was the vice mayor and myself both sent that to the the the DCM and said have staff addresses immediately code enforcement review it this is a public record okay I let staff do the job to protect the asset I trust my staff they do a wonderful job I don't have I don't I don't need to send out an email you know notifying everything because even to this moment staff hasn't even be able to finish the report of what the actual what actually happened I will make my judgments once the report is done let's remember this this nice resident here in front of us made a very good comment in regards to the manager the manager's been here nine months we love to blame managers and other people for doing this this happened under the manager's watch the manager I've checked public record the manager has met with with the with the owner of the lease of the billmore two times in nine months the previous manager would meet every two weeks to every month with the the bill more the billmore lease holder to make sure that that was addressed no no but that's the truth don't interrupt me don't interrup me I'm not don't interrupt me you can reott when I'm done I waited I waited 45 minutes you can do it um also how did this become spread like w Wildfire because it was leaked it was leaked to the blogs a massive email was sent out to the residents and then IED a phone call from Channel 4 and Channel 6 and I asked him how did you find out about this and I said a your following commissioner on the dice told us about it to me I think that that is not what you do to a partner especially when their partner is in a very very tough situation that doesn't shine a good light on the city because what Mr Prescott did did not shine a good light on our relationship and our city that is not how you resolve something that is how you throw gasoline onto a problem because now you have a bigger issue than what we started with so to me we have to internalize this now it's out in the public we had five people come today to this meeting they talked about it we've sent out multiple emails both commissioner mandez has sent one and commissioner Fernandez has sent to you know was shock and awe about what's happening here uh in the builtmore now it's time to resolve the issue to bring it back to its original Splendor and invest the money that's needed to make sure we protect this asset in regards to the default letter I would have never sent that default letter I think it's unnecessary and it's way too heavy-handed I would have called Mr Prescott in with our incredible staff and I would have addressed issue I think and I told that to our City attorney that is that shows a lack of professional experience in regards to the business world and how you treat contracts to me that is not the way that you work on a relationship that is already damaged as a result of what this gentleman did in the buildmore we could have I understand contract I cont he has 100% he violated it you're 100% correct 110% but two wrongs but two wrongs talking one thing he did not abide by his contract with the city he has no permit if I may if I may I'm not finding excuses I'm not I'm not finding excuses I'm trying to do no I'm not I'm trying the issues that you have to understand when you send a default letter to somebody who has multi-million dollar loans on a property it could trigger a multitude of effects that could damage damage the viability of the asset and again I agree he should have thought of that before he did that but at the end of the day but excuse me I understand that but you have to you have to conduct yourself in a way that again you resolve the issue not exacerbate it so moving on um this is an issue that we as a city have to address this is a complex issue the two ladies who are there who are part of our historic preservation board at the Department excuse me they have a very tough task at tus tus task at hand uh they have to review an entire building they have to review these documents but the first thing I did which I highly recommend that my colleagues do is I went and got two professional Architects that I know in this community to provide me with the local designation report the state designation report the National Historic Landmark report and the National Registry of historic I spent the week and reviewing these documents to ensure that I knew where where this asset stood and what we had to do to protect it so moving on moving on it's all out in the open now let's get this resolved let's bring in Mr Prescott provide him with the necessary time to address this issue he's going to require an extension because there's no way to can cure this issue in 45 days and let's move forward to make sure that everything is addressed case in point when we were doing the walkth through uh one of one of the staff staff noticed that the tiles uh were a different color they had been stained or painted that's just one of the many examples of things that need to be addressed to bring this building back to its original Splendor so let's not make this into a political issue let's make this into an issue where we can protect the asset thank you very much by the way Mr Mayor um you I didn't require an architect to get the designation reports simple Google search gets them for you and I went through all of those in fact I shared them with staff in case they didn't have them uh and it very clearly stipulates that the interior of the hotel has historical aspects including the lobby uh furnit that that was there um it's in the the national designation by let me respond to you since I'm not an architect and you're not an architect and not a business owner you have to understand that I sat down with I sat down with an architect I sat down with an architect because he is the most respected architect in this community when it comes to Historic preservation and I wanted to review the documents with him and get it directly from the source to have the most respected voice in regards to the issue anybody can download it online but the point is to sit down with somebody who again is very well versed on the issue and understands and can lead me in a direction because I'm not a historic preservation expert and my staff here um is more than busy and I don't want to take up their time to address the issue so I met with a professional in the community who could sit down and have that conversation with me so and I by the way and I'd like to thank that person who met with me they spent a lot of time and they put together this package and it was very nice thank that's that's a failure of understanding what the issue is there's a historic component a process that was violated 100% how many code enforcing complaints do you send on residents on a regular basis without finding out the facts of how they got in that situation you send at least 15 to 30 a day but when it comes to your friend at the builtmore hotel you're trying to sweep it under the rug you're trying to make sure that it's not discussed publicly you're trying to move it to four o'clock you're trying to bend over backwards to not say that because you said it Channel 4 interview I don't know that anything was done wrong that's what you said to Channel 4 in fact you took it a step further you said this is all political what has taken place at the bore is all political there's nothing political about the seway group desecrating the lower lobby of the builtmore hotel and doing a bunch of other work so let me respond to you without without having any permits which is the process that every resident of the city has so let me respond to you because I this is what I do for a living this what I do for I I I I work every single day in the construction industry when I send to the manager when I sent to the manager on his Tech I send the list of the items every single day every time when it deals with a resident I always say the same thing please educate the resident do not find them please educate the resident and those are from residents in this neighborhood that are sending me lists and are sending me other things majority of the items that come before me that are addressed are issues that are signs curbs that are broken sidewalks that have not been addressed and I understand you want me you want to make me look bad in public but please please you're dealing with a person who deals with permits and construction every day do not step into these Waters because I promise you you don't know what you're talking about the bottom line is that I have no relationship no relationship to Mr Prescott what I said in in the in the interview is what a responsible person would say I don't have all the facts I need to wait for staff to provide me the information I don't know what has been done I haven't seen it in person we're having a walkth through and I want to have excuse me you had just walked out there with me excuse me I had missed the walkthrough I had showed up five minutes late like I said I was in the Danielson room when I got there I was not privy to what happened there but at the end of the day it's that what you've done for years as a blogger what you've done for years you continue to muddy the waters you continue to muddy the waters in effort to confuse people and you throw outlandish outlandish statements out there that every single time they're always debunked they're always debunked I haven't gone to the speak easier to have drinks but two members of my commission have so if it was such a big deal and we're having such a heart attack right now then why did they bring it to the attention of of the manager why didn't they how come I haven't been there I haven't had drinks I haven't had a great time at a facility that didn't pull any permits again so this is exactly what commissioner fernanz does all the time he conflates the issue in an effort to confuse people I've said it if Mr Prescot and Seaway broke the rules which it seems like they did they didn't pull permits I'm still waiting for staff to give me all the reports I see all these emails flying back and forth they should pay the consequences they should bring that property back to its original Splendor at their cost that's it it's very simple but please please don't lie and don't conflate things and tell me about permits and construction this is what I've been doing for my entire life I won't talk to you about blogs that's your life so the one that you used to send information to you best source on Gable's Insider I know I when you wanted to attack a staff member you would send the information again again I would never do that that's the most insane thing ever Mr clerk where are we we good to the commission we had a motion a second I think to to uh call time certain item 10 a.m. the vice mayor brought up a good point I want to make sure her item is is addressed as well so whatever time certains are uh scheduled for next meeting and I'm going to commit to not putting anything on the agenda unless it's an emergency to ensure that we can address the items that that are being deferred I think your item on Mediterranean bonus is a very important um uh item for this Community it's something that you put in a lot of work uh as have other members of the community and I think it should be given the amount of time necessary so if if we're scheduling it let's just make sure that we stick to whatever time certain we're giving it so that we don't find ourselves in the situation again so uh what I'm going to suggest is this is Mayor Thompson was here to speak and the morning is best for her let's get knock that out first and we can take up to buil more in the afternoon in the meantime manager will get us a draft of the report uh with whatever is accomplished that's that's for us so we have a clearer idea of you know what's the next step you know I think we've all been talking about a conservator we want it done properly we don't want any more damage we can go for that so I'm going to ask for you to set that session in the afternoon and let's see if we can tackle the uh the Mediterranean Design it's just a design um there's no incre decrease and bonus didn't touch that at all um it is going to get harder to get a get a uh a building with with bonuses because of what was done but I'd like to take care of it in the morning because I know that there are very um it's a very important issue for mayor Thompson it's her Legacy and I'd like to preserve it okay so the motion that I have is for to set up for a 10: a.m. time certain at what time would the commission like to play so I'm I'm offering a friendly amendment to that I'll I'll amend to have the builtmore immediately follow the Mediterranean Bo if Mediterranean bonus is going to be the first item in December I'll amend to make to build more the item that follows that item okay so I would like I would ask our um our staff to guide you on how long the med design discussion needs to take it took seven meetings in Florida the Planning and Zoning Board can we maybe we can do um a one o'clock time certain that way it gives folks who or the builtmore you mean or for the builtmore we can do the 10 a.m for for Med bonus that'll give us three hours to discuss it and I'm fine with 1M and maybe at 1 P PM obviously if there's an overrun we're we're we're close to one o'clock so I'm gonna make this suggestion since we've steamroll past lunch so many times give us some time for lunch take a break sit down you know maybe at 2:00 or 3:00 it'll give more opportunity for people to go to their meetings in the morning the Garden Club member couldn't go to the meeting this morning I couldn't obviously because of this it originally was set for Wednesday so I'm GNA suggest an afternoon two o'clock on my only my only concern with lunch is we never hit the target no matter what we do so if you want we can set lunch at a certain time because we've had lunch at 3 P.M at 2 p.m. it's all over the place so um your item would start what at 10: we could start at 10: and I'm just noting that on the the printed agenda here yeah okay the a we just discussed was not printed for 10 we can we can work this out like the Beatles Sayang once um your item starts at 10:00 let's set lunch at whatever time the vice mayor would like lunch when we come back we we deal with the buildmore I think that at least we create a structure so 1:30 or so for the buildmore hotel what time would the vice mayor like lunch let's Do's Beauty at the ball everybody over here wants make you so 12:30 lunch and 130 they don't like working together exactly everybody works together that meanss you haven't been here 1:30 p.m. for the builtmore hotel for the December meeting all in favor I'll say thank you all right moving on uh item time certain item agenda F3 uh Mr Mayor just to uh let you know agenda item 21 which at an 11:00 a.m. time certain the board member had to leave and he requested to be moved to the December agenda all right thank you the Pres okay item F3 is a presentation by University of Miami Professor Dr Kenneth is he is he in the room right now see he may step away he left yeah I'm not sure if he left if we can communicate with him I don't know if maybe we want to take lunch and come back it's item F1 F1 is F1 has been deferred correct no sir no F1 no F1 still 21 you want to address that now except for 1:30 so we should wait until at least 1:30 okay I just don't want to make you know how long how long do you want to wa for lunch I want to make sure the people who are hungry they they get they they're happy I'm happy I'm good just fine I can keep going I I can eat I want I want to I want to I want to appease my friends over here that make them happy you know well some of us have sugar level issues at exactly yeah I get hry is 20 minutes good 30 minutes good what would you like I'm I'm here to you what would you like we can do a quick lch we can do a quick Lynch yeah we also have mayor Thompson coming from the city of opaka so right let's try to be back here see you at 1:40 recording stopped that's know you got to figure it out I'm a no [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Laughter] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] honor to hear from you and your team as to the work that you've done and what this uh Museum will do for South Florida and preserving black history for our state Mr Mayor welcome to the city beautiful you're we are we are blessed to have you here and I'm looking forward to learning a little bit more for what you have in regards to these big plans for the museum that's okay okay good evening everyone and as vice mayor said I am the mayor of the city of opaka Mayor John H Taylor Jr and I have with me Mr James Nixon a representative from 10 North group we're providing you with the PowerPoint presentation that we have been providing to every city that we do this presentation with so what opaka did about a year or two ago was submitted an application to the State of Florida and we have been chosen as one of the three finalists to bring the black history museum into the city of opaka um but we partner with 10 North group who's also helping us to Shepherd that process and the ask to every municipality in Miami day County south Florida brow is to help us get the word out that we want to bring this into South Florida so I have Mr James Nixon here who would um go through the presentation with you good afternoon good afternoon I do understand that we do have a limited time so I will ultimately uh provide some overviews on what the Florida museum of black history what the Florida museum of black history initiative is and what it means to not only the city of opaka but to Miami day County and the south Florida region at Large so first of all thank you for the opportunity to present we most recently presented to the Miami day County League of cities by which um the vice mayor and uh mayor Taylor just referenced uh Miami day county is specifically uh the identified as uh one of the finalist in the selection of the Florida museum of black history uh this was a task force that was initiated by the governor to explore communities within the within Florida uh for ideal site selection uh starting out with a number of 13 communities we were narrow it down to three uh one of which is St Johns and um Northeast Florida as well as Edenville which is Central Florida and we uh Miami day County specifically opaka were the only one in South Florida also we are the only uh site that's the most appropriately suited not only from an economic uh Fe economic but also a feasibility study perspective in the sense that we are already uh just Aus in a uh commercial and um well populated and tourist location so it's not only a economic impact component but we already have the infrastructure and all that leads to that so uh the task force began in December 2013 I'm sorry 2023 and it's met over the course of uh the year including um a number of uh surveys that were initiated to the state at large the Tas Force then in June of this year um prepared a a final report to go to the governor's office uh with the recommendation is that a feasibility and economic study be done which were uh opaka like I mentioned will be the the uh best sighted and suited um site for that so ultimately the the area also host uh year round arts and cultures programming and really becoming a cultural hub for um the area especially in the northern part of the county but NE but uh at the state at large um the to frame or situate what the the presentation is that the the museum will be approximately 100,000 square feet with um we've Incorporated to for the economic uh feasibility uh programming space for commercial uh retail and um cultural spaces which is over 100,000 square ft to complement that as well um and as well with uh uh its position in the city terrorist area of opaka where it's ultimately being redeveloped um which is in a Transit alloc oriented District right on the trial station as well so ultimately across all Spectra um the the location site for opaka is really the the best cited uh for um the State Museum of the state Florida museum of black history so so with that we've had a host of support um through this journey um with specific resolutions by um and support from the the county as well as the school board and now as mayor teller mentioned we are asking for uh uh letters of reg resolu letters of support and or resolutions from the municipalities throughout Miami day County to support that thank you well I I do appreciate you taking the the journey down here to present before us I was very impressed by the presentation that we had over at St Mar's uh I think it dub tails in beautifully with what the City of Coral Gables is doing to try to uh make Cultural Arts and uh and you know the issues like this and History part of what makes South Florida an amazing place to come visit and you're our neighbors and that is why I've brought this resolution for our city to also uh support this one so um I'm going to go ahead and move it if any of you all have any comments or would I'll second it okay um mayor may I read it into the record just for of course so F1 is a resolution of the city commission urging the Florida legislature to designate the city of opaka Florida as a site for the new Florida museum of black history so just some brief comments um I spent many times in my youth in in the city of opaka having lived across the the way there in halia had a lot of friends who lived in opaka um and um in fact our prop um tax collector uh our just elected tax collector used to live in opalak and served on oneyear boards for for many years um so I love your city hall and what you've done there I think this will be perfect Synergy to to what you've done as City Hall with with the historic preservation there um I think you're a city that has great potential to continue to to improve and this would definitely help Revitalize the area and bring some attention to one of our hidden gems in South Florida again thank you for making the time for being here I appreciate the vice mayor for taking the lead uh on this again it's a great opportunity to showcase some of the incredible things that are not only happening as a result of of the museum but also of opaka there's a great great opportunity uh in that Community uh and I welcome you know this opportunity to put our stamp of approval and you know offer you any way that we can help you uh it's not only just uh offering our support through a resolution if we can offer any of our expertise we also have a museum here that really focus in on focuses in on Coral Gables our history and what we're proud of um and and I think that I also want to you know I don't want to step on the vice mayor's toes but maybe you can sit down um with with some of the residents in um in the in the Gables which are very involved very involved when it comes to matters of our real Bohemian culture on how the city was founded through George mer uh there was a large group of individuals who played a major major role in our success today 99 years ago when George Merck was building the city uh there was individuals in this community who who again I think could potentially be memorializing a museum of this magnitude uh we're in the process right now of honoring of honoring their legacy through a beautiful um sculpture that we've been working on uh for the last four years uh staff's been really taking a leadership position on that and I'd love to share that with you if you can ask the vice mayor she'll get you all the information uh even our clerk could potentially offer it to you we're pretty um we're pretty far along in that process but there's a lot of synergies that I'd like to potentially highlight in this Museum in this Museum in regards to Coral Gables course and again we' just love to be a part of it in any way that we can yeah Mr Mayor St Mary's is you know right in that neighborhood and that's where this presentation was done and the community um our community strongly strongly supported it Mr Prime is aware and I'm sure that we'll be uh including the the information about the city Coral Gable's black history in there as well because it is a wonderful story um when you get to know it so I'll be glad to share that with you as well it's pretty well documented uh so looking forward to the day that it opens so first we got to get the win the bid there it's a very very proud community at Golden Gate area and uh if you're not familiar with it I know you probably are but I think it'd be it'd be great to find some synergies together probably even find some sponsorships of people who are in the community who would love to engage in one form or another you have a motion a second May yes commissioner Castro yes commissioner Fernandez yes commissioner mandez yes mayor loo yes thank you for coming uh moving on to item i1 time stting for 2 pm mayor it is the time C of two o'clock so we should wait till at least two o'clock to call it make sure everyone's here who intended to be here okay um mayor item F3 the the doctor left he was very upset that we went over the time he thought it was very disrespectful and he's also asking to see if we can reimburse his parking at um I'll take I I'll take care of his parking myself personally so he can give me the bill and I'll pay for it myself thank you very much that's exactly what I offered him I'm just putting out there his sentiment you're very generous thank you um moving on to item F4 I guess we'll take this item before we move on to the 2:00 item F4 discussion regarding credit card processing fees we have staff in the room okay this item discussion there are but it's easier here they don't have to run up the stairs exactly I won't be out of breath exactly good afternoon Diana Gomez Finance director this item is a discussion item was it as a result of a discussion item a couple of commission me meetings ago regarding um recouping the um or not paying the uh credit card fees for um when people pay for their um bills online with a credit card so I I had written a memo at the end of October and for the most part it went through and explained how much we currently are paying and absorbing as part of the um transaction fees and then the different um payment systems that we currently use the S uses about seven different cess systems and each one of them has their own Merchant processors and so um in order for us to consider if the city were to consider to um Rec uh start charging the fees to the custumers who decide to pay with a credit card um there's for the most part two ways to go about doing that the city could determine a rate um based on an average rate based on um the transactions that we have as well as uh you know the types of um bills that we put out and pick a rate and um then make sure then tack that rate or that search charge onto um the uh the person who is making a payment via credit card um in that case um we have to pick one rate so therefore there will always be some amount that we will still be absorbing because we won't get it right every single time and the other option which I think is probably the preferred option is that we allow our payment processors to analyze our records and determine what rate they are um we can mutually agree on a rate based on the activity the type of charges the number of transactions so forth and then they assume any underage or overage having to do with that and so if we were to do a charge of $1,000 we get 100% of our fee and so that um we would work with the different payment processors and um have them provide us the rate that they would be charging and for each payment system it would be different but um it's a one rate that they would TCH on and then we would get um the 100% of the fee one thing to consider is whether or not we want to allow for a free to the customer off option of paying with a debit uh like a bank routing and banking number um so ecks is what it's called and so we could choose to continue to absorb that typically that is always a slat dollar amount per transaction so it's not a variable it's not based on the amount it's just a flat rate that is charged and so typically that's between somewhere between a dollar$ two dollars depending on the different p uh Merchant processors and um we could still absorb that so that way there isn't a free um option for the customers to still pay online we don't have to absorb it um we could just make that as part of the transactions for doing for paying electronically um so there are different options and so if um the will of the commission is to move forward in trying to work towards these uh having the the the the credit card processing fees and or the E check processing fees tacked onto the uh to the customer then we would work towards doing that we would have to work with our processors it'll take a few months for us to get there we would have to work with them negotiate the rates make sure that there's the Agreements are legally um sufficient things like that and then we can move forward to that so it would be a couple of months and then we would obviously want to advertise and let our customers know that beginning on this date or at some point we will start passing that along if they want to and then obviously when we when you're paying the credit card you would see it at the time of making the choice so um if that is the direction of the commission we can definitely move in that direction and that would be the recommended choice to allow the pro payment Pro processors to do all of it so that way we don't absorb we don't continue to absorb any of the credit card fees I would like to provide some Direction with the consensus obviously of the the the commission to um do an analysis of our accounts and let the vendor figure out the rate however leave the E checks um for the city to absorb I know that's a very minimal charge for me I'm very comfortable when the resident or or the contractor has the option to not pay a credit card fee that to me is very important and granting them the eCheck option is is a way that we can obtain that sure the other thing is that Sim simultaneously I would ALS o like and I know that I've spoken to the parking director to work on a resident rate for parking that way we can continue to have our residents engage in our local downtown H how does the rest of the commission feel about that I think that's something that um I had talked about with u kin Kenny when when he was here I know there was issues with potentially the use of um pay by phone which the city uses uh and there may be new technology that was being put into the monca garage that might work differently and give us the option of doing that uh but I agree I think you know if we're looking to attract our residents to downtown I think one of the biggest question marks always is well you know the parking um if we offer a discounted rate for our residents I think we're providing an opportunity for residents to engage uh and support our local businesses uh which are a part of of our community um I I agree with your uh if you're making a motion on the the fees I'd be happy to second I agree I think we should pass on the the credit card fees um I was inclined to also pass through the uh the eCheck fee but I think you're right I think if you have a free option um if it's a nominal fee so um so I don't know exactly because we don't know how many people will continue to will use the E check but like I did it an average based on transaction Counts from this past year um so I'm assuming I took transaction fee for lack of and I'm saying that if 33% of people the same volume um would use each check it would be about just under $100,000 if um uh 75% of people would start using each check it would be like $225,000 so somewhere in that range um because it's per transaction at this point so memory on the number that we have right now that the city's paying yes for past year credit card fees all in was about 1 Point $ 2.17 million that's a big chunk of change absolutely so through the through the mayor just few comments um whether you're using an e check or real check which we don't charge for it does take staff time to do regular checks but we're not charging for those so I don't think we should charge for the E checks and it would encourage the money to come you know directly from the bank it's a person's Choice whether they want to use a credit card or not and we should not be absorbed ing all those fees when people need to to pay for it on a credit card so I'm in favor of there as far as resident parking I do think we need to encourage residents to use the parking garages as opposed to the street parking it is a lower rate so you know we need to look at that um and hear from our parking director as to real you know Financial impact on that and take that up as a separate issue at a separate time yeah before we decide the prices make sure you're closely working with her so that we can balance well our budget when it comes to the parking sure and as far as the parking I'm not sure if that would only work with um like the pay by phone app because I don't know if at a at a meter you can't do um discounted rates um so I'm she's already she's done this in Miami Beach and we're very very blessed to be to have her here as our parking director and to be able to mimic some of the great things the beach has done thank you very much Monica belan parking director parking and Mobility Services director so yes there are a few things to be discussed about this but um can we do a resident rate we can but there may be the caveat that you can only do it through an app because our meters um don't have the capacity some of them don't have the capacity to do that so you need a software change and it would include it would require uh residents to sign up for the the discount and then that creates a different part in the app and when you enter your tag it'll direct you there and will apply the correct rate however um I I do think that an analysis of the impact should be done I also think I agree that that possibly to drive more people into the gares because on street parking is still the most desirable far followed by Lots so to drive some people into our garages um and we would have to expand the app into all garages so there has to be a little technology um adjustments but is it doable I believe it is and we have the best it department so we do I I I have complete faith we will make this happen I I I think um in in the in our parking Department we're ready for new and better technology and we're moving towards that so this would just be another step can it be done and again whatever is determined it should serve to drive people where we most need Parkers or where we most have availability and also a rate that doesn't hurt us absolutely by the way I have a quick comment observation I know when uh residents go to register let's say at the youth center they want to get the resident rate they have to show utility bill things like that I just want to make sure I mean down the road if we're able to implement imp this that there is that kind of protection in the system to make sure that they actually are residents you know it's that's how you create the resident uh list or or the of of tags is you need to register your tag and you need to prove that you're resident very much like when you um register for a residential permit yeah so you'd have to prove that and then you create a separate list and when you enter enter your tag the correct rate is applied thank you question followup question on that is there any way to link directly to the vehicle registration system which is linked to an address so automatically if you once you register um you can do it through the registration system and if the person moves out they're automatically Purge from the list so it just doesn't so we do have a system that that we could access but typically we don't unless certain people only have access for privacy Etc so it's really more your inti your desire to do that and to provide the information in order to get a benefit I I think just again using other ways that we register people as residents right uh we want that every year you have to renew and just reconfirm that you're still a resident with just like we do in everything else in the you gotta bring back the documents to prove and sometimes you can do it online um Etc but like I said we need to take our technology a little further we're a little behind in some things as you know but we're working on that I think the other option was also to include the other the other app to pay by phone the one I think right so so we're working on that um I'm looking to see if we can have more than one app so that if you have Park Mobile and you went to Miami Beach you don't have to download the pay by phone and vice versa so if you have at least two and by the way um I've had some conversations with them and they would pay for the signage and everything um and actually there are many ways that we could activate that thank you so much my pleasure going back to the uh credit card fees because we went off in parking we're talking about a flat $2 rate well so the E check amount will be a flat rate I don't know yet what it's going to be it's something that we have to negotiate with each of the individual payment processors so it may be for one system it's $2 for the other system and maybe1 185 for the other one it may be $25 I don't know until we start those conversations with those companies to know exactly what the rat's going to be but it will be a flat per transaction for the E check and then the rate would be a percentage that will be added based on the amount that you're doing it but again the the vendor or the payment processor will absorb any um any overages or anything that or under you know like if they if the rate is not quite enough they take they bear the risk of it and we don't absorb any of it do do you feel you have direction or there's a motion yeah I think there should there's a motion in a second so just to be clear the motion was to direct staff to explore this option with the um individual vendors and and come up with some kind of implementation plan do an analysis of our accounts and let the vendor figure out the rate however leave the E check to the city to absorb and simultaneously work on a resident rate so that for Park we B yes for parking so that we're able to balance what's coming in and what's coming out in in an appropriate manner before voting I have members of the public who requested to speak on this sir first Speaker Miss Mar Cruz Jackson rip Holmes thank you very much um as you all may know I have a retail I'm a m and pop retail landlord on Miracle Mile 256 come get your massage Massage Envy um and so if if people can't park they are not going to come spend their money either in my place or a long Miracle Mile or for that matter all of the other retail locations uh um I couldn't actually fully comprehend uh what but it sounds to me like we're we're pushing off expenses to people who who who would be shopping now I don't know if that's true but if it is I oppose it because it's going to come back on the city anyways if people say oh cost too much parking it's too much of a hassle this or that they'll just go somewhere else and then the city will lose the uh land property Valu which lower the uh the the taxes that the city's able to collect ultimately from shoppers thank you thank you that's it Mr Mayor we have a motion a second commissioner Castro yes commissioner Fernandez yes commissioner mandez yes vice mayor Anderson yes mayor logo yes moving on to item i1 mayor item i1 is the hearing pursuant to the attorne dispute resolution mechanism set forth in the class action settlement agreement regarding the determination by the Retirement Board that class members in murhe versus City of Coral gaes case number 13-20 731 Florida 11 circuit court Gap members and opt out members should receive a cost of living increase to retirement benefits the alternative dispute resolution mechanism was established pursuant to the class action settlement agreement and was ultimately codified in the city code pursuant to ordinances 2018-11 2018-25 and 2018-35 5 the mayor has issued a procedural order to govern the conduct of this hearing that has been shared with the interested parties and is included in the record for this agenda item the procedural order provides as follows any person wishing to speak must be sworn in by the city clerk the finance director his or her design will have three minutes to present her professional recommendation based on the memorandum provided to the city commission any individual wishing to address the city commission will be afforded three minutes each after the conclusion of the presentations the city commission may ask questions of any party or individual pursuant to the ter the settlement agreement the city Commission in its sole discretion May by a four fits vote reject the retirement board's determination or reduce the amount of the proposed Cola considering the following factors a whether the present value of the proposed Cola exceeds the net Actuarial experience of the retirement system accumulated from all sources of gains and losses since July 1 19984 B the amount of the unfunded Actuarial accured liability and whether it has been declining or increasing and the amount of such decline or increase C the amount of the unfunded Actuarial crude liability and the amount by which it will increase if the proposed Cola is granted the D the number of years since the last Cola was granted e the percentage increase of the last Cola that was granted F the single year Actuarial experience of the retirement system for each of the seven years preceding the proposed Cola and the net actoral experience over the preceding seven years and G the increase or decrease of the Consumer Price Index issued by the US Bureau of Labor Statistics if the commission takes no action today or there is not a forfeits vote to reject or reduce the retirement board's determination the retirement board's determination to Grant a cola of 8% will stand if the commission votes to eliminate or reduce a cola by a forfeits vote the city commission's decision will not be overturned unless arbitrary and capricious any decision of the commission to reject the retirement boards determination or reduce the amount of proposed Cola based on factor a alone and regardless of the other factors specified will not be considered areri capricious mayor with your permission I would ask the city clerk to please swear in everyone who will be speaking today thank you those who expect to testify in today's proceedings please stand and raise your right hand do you swear or affirm that the testimony you will offer today is the truth and nothing but the truth thank you so next the finance director will present her recommendation good afternoon Diana Gomez Finance director as a finance director of the City of Coral Gables it is my professional recommendation that the city commission reject the board's proposed 2025 Cola for the class members Gap and out opt out members because it would increase the unfunded liability to over $182.8 million increase our contribution requirements by $3.5 million and decrease our funded ratio by approximately 4% additionally payment of this Cola would wipe out 47% of the progress we've made to date with the total extra payments which has gone towards reducing our unfunded debt my recommendation considers the factors listed in the ordinance that are the factors to be considered by the city commission making St termination specifically a the present value of the proposed Cola will exceed the net Actuarial experience of the retirement system the current cumulative experienced loss as of 101 2023 is 88.9 million as of the 2023 actual valuation report B the unfunded actual liability is $157 million as of the Val valuation date dated uh 101 2023 the unfunded liability has increased from the previous year by $1.1 million providing for C providing for the 2025 Cola of 8% to class members opt out members and GAP members would increase the current unfunded Actuarial ACR liability by $25.8 million and will increase the current annual required contribution by 3.5 million D the last Cola paid on May 7th was on May 7th 2018 per the terms of the settlement agreement e the cola lawsuit settlement provided for a 2.97 5% Cola in for 2020 2013 and a 0.25% cola for 2014 payable on May May May 7th 2018 um this payment increased the unfunded liability about $14.5 million the single F the single Actuarial experience of the retirement system for each of the seven preceding years are as follows in 20 20 23 it was an 8235 million loss in in 2022 a 5.7 million loss in 2021 a $19.2 million gain in 2020 a $6.1 million gain in 2019 $469,000 gain in 2018 a $2.3 million gain and 2017 an $8.5 million gain the net actual experience over the preceding seven years is a gain of $22.8 million and G the increase in the consumer pricing 10 index since January 2014 is 34.1% the above Factor support rejection of the 2025 Cola as the costs associated with granting the cola would adversely impact the P pension system it is my professional recommendation that the city commission does not Grant a cola of any amount until the system is fully funded a polo granted before then would cause the additional increase to the unfunded liability thus an increase to the underfunded status which would adversely imp impact the pension system thank you clerk speak first speaker is Dan Thornhill good afternoon sir afternoon thank you um my comments might go beyond 3 minutes but there are several people here that have signed up that are going to yield their time to me so with all due respect I would um I would like to go you know this is something that can't be said in three minutes um I come today with a myriad of emotions um I'm angry God knows I'm angry um I'm hurt but yet I'm optimistic so I I wanted to finish that uh Myriad of emotions with optimism um we have all these numbers you have the numbers Diana has all the numbers I'm not going to bore you with all the numbers but there is one series of numbers that is relevant and it's the one that the actuary gave you that if you pay this cola today it only extends out paying the system off by almost not even two years so you could be mortgage free in essence in two years past your goal of being 100% paid off in your pension system which is a great goal but it's not a realistic goal you don't have to be 100% funded in your pension it's a great goal and it's a great thing I would love to be mortgage free but I still have to pay my obligations along the way this obligation that we have is to the employees that serve the city and agreed to do what the city asked them to do and in return the city was going to give them certain things and one of them was a cola and that Cola was agreed to and then after people did what they did they moved the goalpost and I can speak on behalf of the firefighters even though all the employees are amazing employees from the general employees to the fire to the police but in the city manager has a law enforcement background he can appreciate what my my words are for firefighters it's a unique line of work okay it's not something that any one of you can appreciate because you've never done it we have done it I did it for 31 years the people in this audience have done it for decades and decades and decades we have retirees out there that are in their 80s that literally can't drive we just had a firefighter died this past week God Rest his soul we've had over 20 firefighters you want to use numbers here's some numbers we can use we've had 20 firefighters let's talk about numbers that's a number you don't hear about 20 firefighters have died that didn't enjoy a cola that they earned by putting their life on the line the city said come leave your family and protect our families during a hurricane and we'll give you this we did that the city said work a 24-hour shift and expose your body to hazardous materials and infectious blood and work tremendous scenes that you can't even fathom what we would do at 2 o'clock in the morning when a car is wrapped around a tree and you have two and three family members in there literally dying you can bleed to death in two minutes and our firefighters are out there making decisions that if somebody's going to live or die and then go home and be with their families and act like it didn't happen and the stress and pressure put on them on their backs and on their knees okay and we did that but we did that predicated because we chose to work for the City of Coral Gables but because of the the the the deal that we had and again someone's going to yield their time to me Mr clerk okay so I'm going to continue talking if you want someone to address that for Parliament parliamentary reasons but thank you Mr Mayor so the system doesn't have to be funded 100% we all don't retire at one time if this was a private Corporation and it was closing next February yes we'd have to be funded at 100 per. right now we're funded at maybe 75% that's a relevant number that's high that's a great number we retire in staggered portions this group that we're talking about is a finite group sadly they're going to be dead sooner than later it's going to get smaller and smaller and smaller the system is going to make money off of this as soon as they die if you want to compromise let's compromise next year because more and more will be dead as dramatic as that sounds that's the reality so that goes back to my comments am I angry you damn right I'm angry am I hurt you have no idea the hurt that I feel and that these people feel I've gone to those funerals we have another one that we have to go at the beginning this week for Charlie McGary I get those phone calls from the widows we go to their houses because they can't repair things because they can't afford people to come to their homes it's been a decade a decade five colas that were awarded by the Retirement Board five have been overturned by this commission not you personally some of them by this commission but previous commissions as well the Comm the cola that was awarded as a result of this lawsuit was cut in half at the time think about it if it was your family if it was your parents that somebody said okay you know what we're going to start we cut benefits for a decade a decade that's more a decade and they said you know what you did everything you said you're going to do but we're just going to pull the plug and we're going to stop everything for a decade would you be okay with that if it was your family and then put the flavor of the fact that it's firefighters police officers doing what we do what we did you can't do that in 2011 the city went through a really bad time the whole country did and the first group of employees that came to the city and said hey what can we do to help city manager Sara was here and we opened up our contract we said what can we do to help and the city said you know what we need a give back and we opened up our contract we gave 5% of our salary right off the bat firefighters the first one at the table we said we want to help and we gave 5% of our salary without even thinking twice because we wanted to help the city we wanted to help what do you need we helped and we did that and you Mr L mayor L I'm gonna call you Vince I want to make this personal because this is personal Vince it's ironic that you were just mentioning about the the builtmore and I I made a note while you were talking about it symbolizes who we are as a city right and the city back in the early 90s the builtmore defaulted on on an agreement with the city and the city sued the builtmore and they got their money back the city went after because it was right they went after the billmore because it was the right thing to do to get their money back because it was principally it was right we have to do the right thing guys we can't keep saying this is wrong this is wrong I've been to so many funerals where people come up to me at the surface at the service of a funeral where they say Dan when is the city going to do something about this Cola and you know what my answer is I don't know I don't want to give them your phone number but they sure as hell have mine and I keep saying I don't know the answer I don't know the answer but today is the answer today is the time even if you give it what when you give the 8% it comes out to 0.8% over 10 years a decade do the right thing today guys it's time the four-fifth majority is to overrule the Retirement Board respect them more importantly respect them it's time it only takes two of you it should take all five of you but it takes two of you to say I'm not supporting the four- fifth majority and we're going to do this thing today we're going to be we're going to put to bed it's time to protect those who protected you it's time why do we even have to have this conversation it's absurd you guys are are are are respected people you're moral people you have integrity you've always been good friends with the firefighters it's time to do I'm never going to beg As A Firefighter I'll never beg for this Cola I'll never beg a firefighter shouldn't have to beg a police officer shouldn't have to beg and general employee shouldn't have to beg but I will stand here till the day I die and and be here and fight for this Cola and fight for these people out here and fight for the older retirees that we have they're making 40,000 a year $38,000 a year we make collections we go by their houses and we help them there's widows out there we have firefighters that are on disability you can't keep doing this when are you gonna say well let's let's compromise this year and we'll do it next year or we're gonna take a vote we're not gonna get anything done today do it today make a motion make a motion Melissa make a motion Ariel make a motion Kirk it's time don't say well let's just do 2% this time let's do five % this time let's just do a 13th paycheck let's do it this time and we'll compromise next year because more of us will be dead we just lost another firefighter on Wednesday make it in today you have all the numbers I don't need to bore you with more data she's doing her job by saying yeah I recommend you don't do it she's a finance director she's not gonna say yeah I recommend you spend money it's not that much money it only extends it out two years you'll be 100% paid in your your your goal of being uh free of your debt of the pension obligation please please please let me walk out of here with optimism and knowing that what I did for the city was worth it and that you you give a damn excuse my language you give a damn about what we did as firefighters firefighters police officers and general employees too not to discount them at all but what we did was a little bit more unique than any kind of work you can imagine out there and I won't go into gory details but I could tell you story after story after Story they will stay with us until the day we die please do the right thing let's get this done today no compromise compromise next year more of us will be dead I thank you for your time thank you Harry Pickering good afternoon honorable mayor honorable Commissioners Mr Roos director Gomez Chief Hudak my name is Harry ESP Pickering a retired police major cores Police Department 1976 through 2007 just a quick snapshot about what's been happening in the last 12 months for workers Across the Nation then I'll get into my brief uh talking points rder News November 5th 2024 boing ratified a 4-year contract with 26 ,000 West Coast Factory workers granting 38% in wage increases over the life of the contract uaw.org October 30th 2023 the United Auto Workers representing some 400,000 Union Factory workers from The Big Three automakers GM Ford and Chrysler tantis settled a 4 and a halfe contract granting an immediate 11% pay increase and additional pay increases totaling another 25% over the life of the contract US Department of Labor blog August 26 2024 the teamers in ANH Houser bus shett a 5-year employee contract with workers in 12 breweries Across the Nation all union workers received an immediate $4 an hour pay raise and an additional 23% wage increases over the life of the contract Coral Gables Teamsters General employees settle their Employment contract 224 the general employees received an immediate 4% across the board wage increase plus a 1 ,000 one-time non-pensionable lumpsum bonus effective October 1st 2024 followed by another 4% across the board wage increase in October 2025 and a 3.5% across the board wage increase in in May 2026 cor's International Association of firefighters firefighters contract a six-year agreement that was ratified on September 13th 2023 incrementally each year grants a total across the board wage increases of 16% retroactive from 2021 through 2026 cores Police contract ratified June 11th 2024 a 2-year deal covering the period from October 2023 to October 2025 grants a 99.8% salary increase the first year and two salary increases of 3.5% and 4.5% the second year plus a lump sum bonus payment of $3,000 each year and upon ratification officers can earn up to 300 hours of overtime which will be counted as pensable income towards their retirement that's what's been happening with workers helping them to catch up with the cost of living and inflation one of the talking points that the faternal police negotiations team uh held during contract negotiations was the fact that since 2015 the cumulative inflation rate had totaled 35% well the city granted what as a retired cores police officer I consider a nice sub substantial wage of benefits contract retirees have zero well guess what the retirees who have not received the cola since 2017 and that was a 3.22 5% Cola that was not granted by the good wishes of the city commission no offense it was a negotiated settlement of a lawsuit that the retirees and the three and the three unions had filed against the city and circuit court prior to that we had not received the cola for more than 17 years and 2007 and that was only a 2.3% increase I've had two Cola increases since I've been retired 18 years ago as a result for me personally I have seen more than a third of my purchasing power depleted Gone Forever tens of thousands of dollars lost not to mention that when my wife died two and a half years ago from cancer I then realiz a loss realized the loss of $177,000 in income from her social security payments being cut off all retirees are hurting and many many retirees are hurting very badly today just referring to the sworn police retirees not not talking about fire and General employes on sworn police retirees we have one retiree and six surviving beneficiaries living below the official US Department of Health and Human Services poverty level guidelines and that seven police retirees living on less than $5,060 a year based on an individual household if based on a two-person house household we have another nine retirees living below the poverty level if based on a three-person household we have another 10 retirees living below the poverty line and if based on a four-person household we have another five retirees living below the poverty line and that's only sworn police retirees and surviving beneficiaries like I said that does not include the fire department retirees nor the general employees so please seed in your hearts uh to grant us AA this year uh thank you for your time and thank you for your public service thank you sir Michael chichelo thank you all um I'm just going to speak from my experience and I'm more speaking from the fire side of it which we I I know you might know this maybe you forgot but we're not part of the Social Security System we opted out I guess in the 50s and so we're really hurting so I'm going to go back to the Inception of this catch-up Clause that we're we're trying to enact and and with your help today hopefully we'll get there but the catchup Clause is put in the ordinance for the years that you didn't get a cola and Diana if you can correct me if I'm wrong I believe if you hadn't had a cola in four consecutive years you would be granted a cola based on the numbers of the CPI not to exceed any one year 2.75 so you know the most you can get any one year is 2.75 so it's a catchup so right now it's at eight it's it's been at eight and it's it's it's at eight the um the CPI over the last 10 years is 34% we get half of that CPI which is 17 we're asking for eight right now that's what the the the system says we're we're entitled to it's a catch-up Clause but that 9% out of the 17 it's gone forever we can't catch that again it's it's history so this catchup Clause is so very important to us because the Assumption rates have changed the rate of return is still 10 10 or more that's hard to hit 10 think about it in any one year she read them what we got certain years 10's a tough number with the Assumption rates when this col and the ordinance was written the Assumption rate was nine it's like seven and what a quarter now I'm not even sure exactly what it is so it's going to be hard to get the economy's on fire right now it's not going to be on fire forever it's 10% is going to be a hard number to get so if you grant us anything right now other than eight let's say you give us a five or a six we're still out three more those the Slate gets clean and now we've lost three more percent I personally retired in in um 2010 with the cola lawsuit I lost three and % so 3 and a half% plus 17 is 20 it's actually 20 and A4 per. I'd like to get eight C can I get my eight please 12 and a half% is gone forever I can't get it back or anybody else can get it back so you know it's a big number but really is it a big number over the life of this whole retirement system that took uh effect in um 1988 89 this the um the coal has been granted it's it's like 8% not a lot and if you gave us that 8% Cola there we go we got a0 8% again for the last 10 years so it's very important that we get the the 8% we just can't keep doing this every year and it it's not fair to us it's not fair to you to hear this but the reality is the city's doing well it's only going to push this out two more years and it's the right thing to do so I I implore you to please think real hard before you cast that vote we need two people to to say yes and and and we get our 8% Cola and it's welld deserved and uh it's it's a long time coming so thank you Christopher Challenger good afternoon mayor vice mayor Commissioners Mr manager Christopher Challenger 265 Sevilla president of the Coral Gables Fraternal Order of Police Lodge 7 I stand before you today to advocate for have tirelessly served and protected our community it has been over a decade since these selfless individuals received a cost of living adjustment in that time the Relentless March of inflation has eroded their hard-earned pensions over 34% while I acknowledge the existence of unfunded liabilities within the pension system it is imperative to recognize that the moral and practical implications of Denay delaying or denying a cola are retirees many of whom lived on live on fixed incomes are struggling to keep pace with the rising cost of essential goods and services the delay in granting a cola has forced them to make difficult choices and sacrifice their quality of life and fin Financial Security the absence of a cola sends a disheartening message to our active officers as well it undermines their faith in the system and their long-term Financial well-being while an 8% Cola may seem substantial consider yourself in their position 34% inflation in the last 10 years and even if you get an 8% you're still behind it's important to remember that the significant financial hardships of our retirees uh are enduring if this figure is deemed excessive I would suggest alternative options as maybe a slightly reduced percentage even a reduced percentage would still provide a meaning meaningful relief I just I come to work every day and I I try to do my best the retirees they've done it they've done their best they were hoping the city would take care of them when they retire and it's not just firefighters police officers it's city workers too uh I get calls from General employees that have retired I get emails uh and I can sense their frustration they want to know what is the city going to do to help them because of the agreement that they when they signed up and I can speak for this uh personally when you sign up for an agency you look at their benefits and what they have is what you think you're going to get and then it's it's bad when it gets to the end of your career and now you're scrambling to pay for fuel food uh I just wish you guys would uh reach deep inside put yourself in our position the retirees position and um just do the right thing thank you I appreciate it Charles stavis mayor Commissioners city manager thanks for having me most you don't know me um my name is Charlie Charles Davis um I retired from the fire department but my city my family history starts with the city my mom was a city employee in the 50s she retired because she got pregnant with me she met my dad in the 60s my dad worked for the city my dad died of cancer As A Firefighter we all most of the firefighters in this room have had some sort of cancer one way or the other I've had a kidney removed from cancer I've had two diff two different types of cancer after that okay like like uh Dan Thornhill said if you push this can down the road a little bit it'll be easier on the financial situation because we're dying okay firefighters die you know 20 of them have died since this has been going on um I just asked that you do the right thing um I've been retired for 20 years have gotten about 5% raise over that 20-year period um the gallon of milk isn't anywhere near 5% more than it was 20 years ago so I just asked I'm not g I'm going to yield my time to Danny and uh I just ask youall do the right thing it's about time thank you thank you Joseph McNichol good afternoon Joseph mcnickle I I served city of corg police department for 30 years from 1982 to 2012 and at retirement I was serving as your acting chief of police thank you for the opportunity to address you on this matter and I and all of us are appearing today not only for ourselves but more importantly for the hundreds of other city of corg Gables employees who are unable to appear to ask for your consideration to approve a cost of living allowance to retirement system beneficiaries in some amount or format we're all well aware of the actual status of the city's retirement system do not dispute the systems unfunded Actuarial acred liability your sustained commitment to steadily reduce the amount of the unfunded liability is acknowledged and genuinely appreciated two significant factors uh just uh reiterating what the predecessors have have mentioned for you to consider first is the increase in the Consumer Price index which is estimated at 34% since 2014 that significant increase countered by the fact that only one Cola in the amount of 3.22 5% has been awarded in the last 15 years 15 years I don't know exactly how this increase in the CPI over the last 10 years compared to other SIM similar historical periods but the compounding impacts of a significant increase such as this is the major reason while we're here even with the full understanding of the ongoing fiscal challenges of reducing the unfunded liability a second significant consideration is the city's ability to retain full-time employees especially your Public Safety employees is not only retirees paying close attention to this hearing but active employees are paying very close attention also in the now 99 and a half year history of the city of cor Gables has been our Collective good fortunate at all levels to serve an organization that enjoys a very well-deserved reputation for excellence in Municipal governance a reputation for excellence that hundreds of retired employees in the system have made decades long contributions to sustained during our period of service so in the full Spirit of this alternative dispute resolution process the city's retired employees respectfully request you grant a cost of living allowance in recognition of the significant individual and Collective contributions we've all made to the prosperity and success of the city of cor Gables thank you very much thank you Tim Daniels in my age I need notes first of all thank you for allowing me to speak mayor vice mayor Commissioners new city manager not that new but nice to see you and City staff um you know we uh I I first introduction uh Tim Daniels I was a retired Deputy fire chief uh I was also a member of the Retirement Board for 10 years and is also chairman of the Retirement Board for a period of time uh and of course I urge support for the full 8% um you know it's good to want to fund the uh actual funding pardon my flubbing that um but it's it's extremely important also to recognize what everyone else has pointed out here we haven't gotten a cola in 10 years and you know you've already heard it multiple times I don't have to repeat it all right and I'm going to liken it to uh you having a mortgage you have a 30-year mortgage and you set a goal you want to pay off your mortgage in 20 years that's a good goal and you should do that but then you find out that your roof needs to be repaired you don't put off repairing the roof you fix it and you readjust that appointment of resources and you pay off your mortgage in 22 years or 23 years all right our roofs are leaking okay in some cases literally our roofs are leaking and we can't fix them all right this is you've heard numbers but these numbers are people these are people who are hurting who worked for you loyally worked for the citizens of Coral Gables risk their lives worked long hours endured abuse for the city and all they're asking in return is that you do the right thing we need two or three people hopefully all five to support this 8% Cola it's going to require political courage and just some basic decency and I'm sorry to be so blunt but that's the way I see it so thank you very much for your time and um please make that decision in our favor thank you Greg wether Steve Bush thank you Tom zelen good afternoon everybody I know most of you you know most you know me I'm Tom zelenak I was the president of locals 1210 the firefighters before I left I also served on the Retirement Board I also served as the 175 chairman so I've been around for a while and never you know I've gotten to talk to you and share my feelings on this you've heard it all so I'm to get real simple here we need two votes I need two brave people sitting up there last year we had a couple brave people that tried to get a compromise done and somehow that compromise was turned on its head after we left the room don't let that happen this year two boats it's over we all walk away have a great day miss Murray Cruz Maria Cruz Mrs Maria Cruz 1447 Miller Road I'm sitting here and of course you know I don't have a horse in the race other than my appreciation for the work our police are fire our general employees do for us the residents and I think is I'm sorry some people are going to get offended I think it's very hypoc hypocritical and ironic that every year we have uh high paid employees in this city that get executive benefits because we don't want them to leave because we want them to stay and because of that we have to give them uh a little more but yet the people that retired the people that devoted their lives to us um they're gone we don't have to worry about them anymore if you talk to people like me that um get Social Security and FL retirement system we get cola almost every year you don't have to wait 10 years to get cola and it is shameful that a city like ours that a city that brags about the fact that people love to work here because we are very good to our employees have people that because they retired they cannot survive what their pension is I think it's shameful I think it's about time that you all face what you're doing because someday you may be in the same position and I hope people will remember what you did for others not everybody will be in the same position because some of you um are better off than what these people that devoted their lives to us are and I think it's time it's Passover du I I mean I'm really really cringing at the idea that for 10 years they haven't gotten anything I think it's shameful I think some of you when you go home and you put your head on the pillow should be asking for pardon for abusing these people thank you Joe Hamilton Rick cook good afternoon Mr Mayor Mr vice mayor council Mr city manager who I really don't know you I worked 34 years for the City of Coral Gables I was the fire chief for 12 years every one of these gentlemen here I know every police officer I know Charlie Davis's dad he not had my first save in 1976 before uh most of you even thought about this I'm here to talk about the firefighters some who are not living now but those who are living in squalor I talk to different people different firefighters all over the United States and they're just wondering what are we doing how come we can't get anything how can't we how come we can't get what we bargain for what we work for there's a lot of people here who do things as Dan said that you'll never see you'll never know about Dan's being uh koi Dan was in New York City climbing around in 911 our team was up there the County Florida Task Force One Florida Task Force 2 these are routine things for us but they're not routine hurricane and andw I don't know how many of you were here during Hurricane Andrew but every one of these guys was serving out there climbing on trees getting in the houses opening the roadways making sure we could get to the hospitals you know you couldn't get to the hospitals the roads were all blocked these people have worked tirelessly and they deserved what was bargain for I'm not really looking at myself although with this uh percentage of what 30 something percent that's that's been killing us um I'm looking for the people who can't do anything for themselves I can still do things for myself uh but I'm getting close and uh I just ask that you would look in your heart and do what you should do for these people they're great people they will never let you down you fall down now they're going to jump on you fix you get you to the hospital or or the police officers will come and make sure they get rid of the bad guys all these things you take that for granted it's not for granted every call may be your last and we live through it so thank you Dean James Alan Russo John parate David Perez David Perez representing the coral gaes professional fighters local 1210 Mr Mr manager good afternoon I stand before you in the hopes of this commission granting the cola for the retirees we've talked about different numbers here today and I want to share with you all a little bit of History I think it this might have happened before some of you were on the Commission in 2014 in 2017 they were benefit reductions to the employees that it's in your package it was presented to the pension board during that meeting there was an $80 million savings to the unfunded liability based on benefit reduction to the employees that's important that's important that you all realize that because that was on the backs of the employees you know someone mentioned earlier cancer and I'm going to share with you the international Agency for research on cancer cancer is the leading cause of death in firefighters today that is not a union thing that is not a state thing that is the international Agency on research on cancer they have determined that cancer is the leading cause of death in firefighters all of us every single one of us here firefighters past and present we all know what we signed up for we're ready to pay the ultimate price if necessary but not one of us signed up for cancer we did not know that and today it's in our gear it's not necessarily what we're exposed to but there is a chemical in our liner posos it's a forever chemical you cannot get rid of it you can't burn it you can't wash it away you can't bury it in the ground it does not go away it's in our gear we're exposed to it every single time we put that cure on and as I told you all of us knew what we were signing up for but cancer was not part of it that research led to three and every five firefighters will be diagnosed with cancer at some point or another now I'm not going to put personal stories about the gentleman standing behind me but there are individuals who are sitting in this audience that had to deal with cancer that had a about of cancer in some way shape or form this Cola is is important for many reasons it's important to them to their families now I'm going to share with you also one of the previous speakers also talked about a retention problem that gentleman was right current employees are watching what's happening here today if this commission if this city does not take into consideration the hard work a life of dedication to the city that was given by these employees and a cola is not granted they see what's happening your retirement problem is going to lead to a retention problem because these employees here are going to say what am I doing here why do I stay when there other cities providing better benefits your retention problem is going to lead to a recruitment problem which is why some of our departments here are facing almost 40 vacancies because again they benefits that are better elsewhere for instance local fire departments we are now competing with 2472 a minimized work week in the fire service that is something that this city that this agency will have to deal with we are being surrounded what used to be 2448 work 24 hours off for two days now departments are going to 2472 three days off as a benefit to their employees because they see the toll the job takes on the individual with PTSD and other issues in the fire service so again I stand before you asking you to please Grant this Cola for the retirees who have dedicated a lifetime of service to this city thank you right Mr mayam I'm going to go to zoom next first speaker is Frank Pascarella when I ask the gentleman to please raise his right hand do you swi we are affirmed that the testimony you'll provide today will be the truth and nothing but the truth sir yes thank you good afternoon mayor vice mayor city manager and and committee there appreciate the opportunity to talk um my name is Frank Pascarella I spent 19 years with the city of cor Gables As A Firefighter then a paramedic and eventually a lieutenant it's 19 years because I gave all until I couldn't give anymore until my injuries were such that I couldn't perform the job up to the standard and that forced me to go out on a disability and um disability is different from from normal retirement you don't get to take advantage of or have the privilege of of some of the other benefits um uh so that's very impactful uh I also would like to reiterate and I I Echo everything that my co-workers and I've worked with all of them that are there uh all of their comments and all of their frustration and their anger I'm right there with them the fact that we didn't pay into Social Security is is another little thing because the fact that I'm coming up short I can't even lean on the Social Security to try to get some kind of benefit some kind of buffer some kind of cola if you would replacement because I'm not getting it from the City of Coral Gables I'm angry as well you know when I when I applied I applied at four or five different fire departments I actually got called by three others besides the city of Carl Gables but I chose the city of Carl Gables because of their status their pride and and and supposedly how they looked at their their employees I can remember becoming a class one fire department because that's what you know the city want wanted they prided themselves on having the best fire department the plus the best police department we've all given everything that we can give always and then some so is to to to constantly you know I've been this has been 18 years for me I remember getting one Cola I hear people talking about two or three I have to check because I may have not gotten something that I deserve I don't know but it is really concerning and you know you have to focus on people sometimes it seems that the the money sometimes is blinding everybody is consumed or some people are so consumed with the money they have this goal that they have to achieve but they they lose focus on what's really important and that's Humanity that's people we're the people that got you where you are that that represented so well that businesses and people wanted to move to the city of cor Gables I've got a folder in my file cabinet full of accommodations bragging up about my service and my crew and how excellent we were and then yet I I can't get the help that I thought that I signed up for that I would get from the city beautiful so please I'm I'm asking you as a disabled person that gave my all like they said two votes do the right thing be remembered for something so positive what you do will echo in eternity thank you next speaker is David Renshaw Mr Ren Shaw you could flip your camera around and race your right hand I don't know why it's doing it that way but that's the way we this is my right hand I can sign in and sign back on if You' like I can go upside down too he you who are affirmed that testimonial provide today will be the whole truth and nothing but the truth sir yes I do and in all seriousness thank you uh I apologize for the flip on the video here I just David renal Teamsters Local 769 um uh mayor commissioner city manager just wanted to take a moment and also uh complement what the firefighters have done what they continue to do um and we as the teamsters the other bargaining unit out of the three there U wanted to come and respectively U have it noted on record that we are in support and we do hope that you give this due considerations for the ones that have served thank you thank you that's it Mr Mayor okay what is the will of the commission okay this is a vote that I got massacred multiple made fun of mocked because I did last time by the G gentleman sitting next to me the mayor um we need to look at the big picture and see how our decisions offset the rest of the city we need to talk about retention we need to talk about Recruitment and we need to send the message to our current employees and and look at the vacancies we currently have with police over 20 firefighters have passed away in these past 10 years and that for me is Unforgivable the retired the retirees have invested years of loyal service to the city they risk their lives to keep us safe and I think now is the time for us to repay that and keep them safe as well a lot of retirees are hurting as a lot of the retirees here stated it would make a two-year delay to fully fund the pension two years and we will be making such an impact in so many lives right now if we approved this 8% Cola we send a great message to all the people that are here but to the rest of our employees that this is the city you want to work for let's think about the city as a whole and let's pay respect the retirees that keep us safe which kept us safe for so many years I think everybody knows where my vote will stand and you can go ahead and keep on making fun of me and massacring me with all your comments my vote would stay the same the mayor y last year when I spoke about this item and we had a suggestion for uh after the initial vote a i a flat check amount I said that we needed to include this in the budgetary process because looking at this in a vacuum while we have negotiations on labor contracts and other it items is a disservice to the individuals that have sat here and spoken here today because we're talking about budgeting for something that we haven't budgeted for and based upon that I I'm going to ask and make a motion that we include this as a line item in our budget so we can have proper planning in the future for these types of items and have a reserve second I think that's a conversation that we had last year and you and on the same boat about you know we we go through the budget process and this doesn't come to us unfortunately because of the timetable until after we've gone through the budget process so I agree with you I would like to see this as a line item on the budget so that we can be prepared for it um but so they can also understand they're being taken care of when the budget is approved approved and it's a streamlined process when we get to this point in November last year in December um but you're right I mean we've gone through the budget process and this always comes after the fact right and in each contract negotiation these numbers are not have not been taken into impact so when we're doing current labor negotiations for folks they do need to realize as a cost to the retirees when we've already spent all the money so we need to plan in advance so I'm going to start with that as a the opening remarks that I have this is something that I mentioned before the budget and we still didn't do anything about this is something that last year we said we were going to do and guess what we haven't done it I think Now's the Time so we have a motion uh in a second there commissioner F commissioner Fernandez yes commissioner mandez could you restate the motion the motion would be to begin planning for the retirees races or colas during the budget process so if I could just clarify that I think it would be to to include in the budget process um funding for the potential Cola for the class members the opop members and the Gap members it's a reserve okay so we don't looking for funds to take from something that's already been budgeted but that does not end the conversation no I didn't say it ended a no I'm I'm asking for clarification right okay so just to make sure that staff is clear on the direction right so we did talk about this in the budget process and the discussion has always been that we don't know what the outcome of the pension uh calculation is going to be at the end of the year this is something that is not information that's not available to US during the budget process um and so if this is the motion to go ahead and give direction to include it in next year's budget process is it something that you want us to budget based on an assumption of a percentage Cola or at a flat rate right so the impact that we're talking about now is over $3 million so if we were going to contemplate an amount similar to last year's results we would have anticipated a $3 million line item in the budget or are you looking to just set aside a certain dollar amount um that would be included in the budget for a one type it's a little bit um so the difficulty in this is the planning process right so um if we were going to plan for a flat amount that would make the assumption that you were not going to approve the percent Cola um if we were going to plan for a percent Cola that would then assume that would be the I guess worst worst case scenario if financially best case scenario for the retirees right I don't want to Discount I I never want my comments up here to Discount the work that you've done I will one day be a retiree as well and so I well I appreciate that so just U my comments or my discussion is not to take away from that just to make sure that I understand what the direction is or what it is that um you want staff to do with this motion are we to contemplate a flat rate in the budget or are we to contemplate a $3 million percent Cola so I'm going to provide some clarity okay okay we never know how much it's going to cost for us to have a hurricane the size of the hurricane whether we're going to have two or one massive hurricane but we have a reserve okay so with all du respect we do not budget for that Reserve that Reserve comes with any surplus that we have left at the end of each year that $50 million Reserve that we have is not a budgeted dollar number that is anything that's left over at the end of the year goes into a separate Reserve I don't budget for that if I budget my budget actually would account for a zero doll Reserve at the end of each year we just happen to have Revenue over expenditure each year and have funding that we can put aside okay so our policy is to have a 25% Reserve in order to avoid spending those dollars so that we have them available to clean up after a hurricane and we can get C operations back on board as quickly as possible okay what happens when you spend the money because you didn't have a reserve is now you have to scramble and borrow in order to take care of obligations that you didn't save for we need to save for these things okay so going forward in the budgetary process when we're receiving the advice of our finan financial director I want to be able to take into account potential Cola amounts just like you do when there's potential litigation amounts that corporations do reserves for or you have potential Reserve amounts if you're a condo association and you have roof repairs to do structural repairs to do there's a reserve that's there so that you can use it doesn't mean you're going to spend it you can use it when it's available there now how much that Reserve should be is something that can be separate discussion but we need to have a line item just like I asked for a line item to be put in for Ada remediation on the capital Improvement budgets because for some reason all these years we never ever had it we need to have it in there so that we take care of the things that we need to take care of certainly so if I'm hearing the direction that you're giving and if that's the vote during the budget process we will talk about a set aside of a certain dollar which may or may not cover whatever decision is made next the following November or December but we would have a a a pot to be able to draw from just correct okay so Madam vice mayor if I may just add something for you to give some thought on we have the next discussion on the budget we have different options when you talk about a cola you have a 13 check you can grant the cola remember that Cola is reoccurring every year in perpetuity it continues to expand so if you grant the cola and you're going to put money aside remember that money has to be put aside to take care of that Cola is it a 13 check or is it granting the cola as it is which will increase our unfolded liability are you talking about putting money aside just for a 13 check or are you talking about just putting them money aside in case we have to Gran a cola or we're inclined to Gran a cola you don't have to answer me now you can just think about itax I can I can think about it but at the bare minimum at the bare minimum we need to be um planning for 13th check or a lump suum check you know these numbers are troubling because of you know the unfunded liability and the amount it increases it impacts the current employees it can impacts future employees but I think at the bare minimum we have to start budgeting because if we don't budget for it these discussions become more painful every single year commissioner Mendez yes vice mayor Anderson yes commissioner Castro I disagree I I feel like voting for this is already giving up on the first option which is granting the 8% so my vote are no mayor logo yes I don't vote you had already voted no no you start with Menendez commissioner Fernandez you were yes you were first when before for the question yes um so moving on to the issue at hand continuing the conversation what is the will of the commission I'm a yes vote if I had all the money in the world I would absolutely Grant the full Cola because these employees absolutely deserve I prefer to do a lump sum this year because it will you know provide us enough predictability in the budget to be able to move forward and hopefully we budget a little more wisely next year to account for these things so I'm a no vote now on Mr may I can just clarify if there is no motion by the commission then the cola that was determined by the Retirement Board stands right if the commission doesn't take any action the commission would have to take action to either eliminate the cola or reduce the cola based on of course the factors that are set forth in the settlement agreement I have a procedural question for uh Madam director we reach 100% funded what happens to the col at that point is that still something that comes to commission for approval so the way that the ordinance is written and I'm going to ask the City attorney to keep me honest is that um the cola cannot be granted unless there are cumulative gains in the plan when we're 100% funded that does not necessarily mean there's cumulative gains available to pay for the cola so the analysis would have to be done at the time and um we would deter you it would be determined by the actuary um at that point in time what the cumulative gains are right um so the the the the net actual experience would have to be positive and then it would you know would it would Grant it would be granted it would have to be granted right but it doesn't NE just because you're 100% funded doesn't necessarily mean that the net Actuarial experience experience will be positive so to CL so to clarify taking no action would approve the recommendation of the board it stands the the the determination of the Retirement Board would stand at the 8% Cola for the to be clear for the class members of the mie class action the Gap members and the opt out members okay I just want to make it clear one more time it is a delay of only two years for the pension to be fully funded I know the numbers seem a lot I know it's scary I know we feel we don't have the money guys it's two years and the difference we're going to be making is huge just keep that in mind in my I mean but I think this has been the second time that I've had the toughest vote being up here um I've spoken to many of you I've spoken to many others who weren't able to make it today and I understand the financial impact and I think last year we were close to a compromise um we we came fairly close um to at least issuing something I do not want to walk away from here again with a zero I think that even if we're able to do a an additional check we we need to put money in their in your pockets we need to ensure that you're able to pay your bills 8% we're looking at $25,800 I'm sorry 2,800,000 with an annual increase to the contribution of almost $3.5 million that something that for next year we're automatically $3.5 million less than where we are today going into next year's uh budget not even factoring in what next year might be um I mean just with all the question marks we have right now City Hall being the biggest one we don't even know what the cost of that's going to be it's it's just I mean it's it's a situation that all of us have been placed none of us were here when the decisions were made to put the the unfunded liability in the situation that it's in um and we're having to make the tough decisions here now um I just can't get to the 8% I mean it's just it's going to cost us someplace else and the question is where can we cut I mean I have no problem working on a solution where we're all comfortable on an additional check um I don't want it to be a 13 check because I think those who are making the least and who have retired the longest and are suffering the most are struggling um I would prefer that it be a lump sum amount um that's just where I stand yeah with with what I have previously proposed with the credit card savings we're going to be saving around a little less than two m a little less than two million that 2 million can contribute to that $3 million will be paying extra to the pension to go ahead and give this Cola we could find somewhere else you know that um 900 one 1 million to provide annually so I I think if we really really want to we can find a solution I'm up the opinion that um you know they deserve a cola it's been long overdue and I think uh one of the gentlemen that spoke is we get caught up in the goal and the purpose of reaching certain Financial targets but in getting into that mindset we do sort of disconnect ourselves from the reality which is the lives of these folks they've been through a lot and we're not here if it wasn't for them last year I I tried you know and others I think we were trying to find a compromise my biggest regret last year was walking away with nothing and I definitely do not want that to happen but I believe I would like to see a cola granted um you know I'm hearing from at least one or two of my colleagues the 8% may not be the the number that everyone's comfortable with but I'd like to see if a a a good amount because I think we need to make a statement um sometimes you just have to do what's right and in my heart it feels the right thing to do maybe there're different things that are good to do but it's one thing that stands out so I'm here to work with my colleagues to find a path forward but let's not leave here without a solution but I want to we all want to be fair to them so let's work together on that this just a clar I this average of $3 million that will I think is 3.24 s I think something like that it's going to be for a period of 10 years correct so should the 8% Cola be granted um it would be 3.45 million per year um the way that the actuary calculated it um is that um the extra payment would absorb that $3.5 million so it would be less towards the extra payment at that Workshop that he had that's the way that he explained it so but it is $3.5 million for 10 years so it would lower the extra payments of the pension which would put us back around two years around right around two years and that's assuming that every other assumption is met it's not a guaranteed um six year or eight year it's if every single assumption is met meaning we have gains each year or all of our assumptions are met then it would be 6 years without this or about eight years with it but if you have a loss year or if you don't meet your assumptions it will then automatically push you back by how much you don't know because it doesn't whereas if you have extraordinary gains it may push you forward so it works both ways that's the lack of a crystal ball that we have thank you commissioner Menendez I share your same sentiment I mean I'm not going to have the support for an 8% which kind of begging for it I think it's happening um I would love to work on a percentage amount you know I think it's it's fair it's not what I want but I don't want to leave here giving you guys nothing and I think I think that's where we're heading I would be ambitious and say like 7.5 but I I don't think they're going to go for that either um let's let's work out a number let's let's talk about that right through the mayor couple points that we need to remember here the finance director just spoke about the lack of predictability 20 in uh the numbers that were available on the gain or loss in September of 2023 was an 8.2 35 million doll loss single year performance same thing for September of 2022 we had another multi-million dollar loss 5.75 to which is the reason why I am in support of having an a single amount because I don't have a crystal ball that big I don't think any one of us have a crystal ball that big to know how the performance is going to be on investments going forward it's a scary way to try to predict the future we're not going to be seeing G gains year after year just like we haven't had the past two years so I can't spend money we don't have which is why I asked for a b line item budget to reserve the money in the future so that we have the ability to have more Assurance on on the numbers that we're talking about so with that I I'll move to deny the cola increase requested of the um the pension board a second I'll second the motion Mr kerk can we have a vote commissioner mandz yes vice mayor Anderson yes commissioner Castro no commissioner Fernandez the motion is to the motion was to deny the 8% Cola increase it's painful it is do it can't do it compromise next year we can't do this people please don't do it the the population is a finite group they're going to die do it next year the numbers will be lower please don't do this let us work on a solution let us work on a solution what's G to happen you come up with just a I need to say this respectfully respectfully can I can I speak just for a moment Mr Mayor we do need we do need a good record and and so we need what speakers to be recognized by you I understand but the problem is that since everybody does it it's the I'm asking your permission course go ahead okay thank you I appreciate it no you have all the floor you can take as long as you like okay um I haven't said a word I understand that and and I'm I I'm just I'm very careful I'm very careful with the firefighters okay very careful with the firefighters I know I know where I stand all right if you give if this is compromised in any way other than eight we we lose it forever it's it's another 2% you know if you say well we're going to give you a six% you're talking about a fixed dollar amount you all even know what a 13th check really is municipalities give 13 checks because that's their Cola every single year if you retired at $8,500 a month you get an $8500 check you're talking about giving us one right now you might as well give us a public card to go buy groceries with for the year because that's all it's good for one year if you want to starting point to fund a cola do the simplest one you can do take the math 8% over the whole lifetime of this this um this uh over the lifetime of this um pension system and that's a good starting point but the minute you reduce this Cola right now if you don't give us eight and you give us a two we lost another six and it starts at zero that 8% Cola doesn't come back next year it builds from a 2.75 the highest you can get per year it takes three years of great returns to hit 10 or I'm sorry to hit 8% So you you're slowly you're slowly suffocating us we we cannot I need two of you I need three of you to say yes I know what two are going to say please reconsider your votes and your thoughts it's two years down the road this Cola is a performance-based cola it's based on rate of return okay we did nothing wrong we didn't control the retirement system for for for um 30 years the the the city had a a 54 vote we had four votes they had five with commission appointees we didn't put ourselves in this position it's not our fault it's time 177% okay you want to get we're asking for eight you're you're up nine the retirement system gets to keep nine I mean how much more can we give you know you count the 3.2% that you took from not not you but the city we we settle in the lawsuit that's that that's that's 12% that the retirement system gets to go this isn't going to come up next year you give us eight right now um whatever if the funds go over 10 which I I would hope they do for the retirement um healthiness of the fund next year but if the CPI is four we're going to stand up here for a 2% raise that you'll probably vote down because you gave us eight this year and we would understand that and then we'd start the catchup claws again but the ketchup Clause once you give us a penny it goes away and we can't have that we've had this ketchup clause three times now it's never been eight in the whole history we need to get this thing whole and it's you need to you need to you need to stand up and show some courage please do not may ask your question yes sir do do you mind if I we start the meeting again just want to make sure we can start it again now if you're okay can I start it now we're in the middle of a vote before you do can I have remember you gave me permission I know but I just want to know when when can I start the meeting again let me finish something to say whenever you say you want to see see see whatever you say just one thing if I may please again I appreciate your your go ahead I appreciate it please I I apologize this is critically important and I'm speaking with absolute passion and this is critically important if it's a solution perhaps we could do it and split it in half maybe we can do a five and a three a four and a four we don't surrender the 8% but we spread it out and if you're worried about City Hall we have reserves that you could use to help fund the repairs at City Hall but we can't go back to our people and say well we'll do it next year or here like Mike said here's a public public uh gift card we can't do that this is critically important this is lives I'm not trying to be dramatic here at a microphone this is the truth Like Chief cook said this is real Ariel you have to be the one that's going to do it you have to you have to do this split it Melissa you're you're you're so brave and so honest I I I I can't begin to tell you how much it's appreciated by the people but every single one of you should be doing the same thing Kirk change your vote do it split it do a four and a four if you have to a five and a three whatever it's going to take but let it happen now you can't do this fixed 13th paycheck or whatever you're coming up with please let it compound and again Vince I appreciate your patience and allowing me to speak but this is what I'm talking about I get these phone calls from these widows we go to their houses you don't understand these people some of them are living in squalor and if I sound like I'm raising my voice I apologize but these are firefighters and their families Joe McNichols was talking about the the police officers we put our lives on the line we worked on people the things that we went through I could tell you story after Story of horrible things that we worked on and did we did it by choice but that choice was predicated on what the city said if you do this this and this we'll give you this well guess what we did that we did that and we beat up our bodies and we took our family we took our job home to our families and we had to turn different switches on because it was a horrible job job that we had to deal with sometimes but the city said do that and we'll give you this and now you have a chance to correct and do that but please Ariel please Kirk please look me in the eye and please do that split it Vince you're a businessman do a four and a four please I just I just wanna I want to respect the process I I want to respect the process amend it vote it down two people vote it down two so Hudak has a recommendation I may let me let me let me run the meeting one second please please please commissioner let me run the meeting everybody's we've been very lenient as always on time let everybody speak this gentleman's been waiting let him speak and then and then our Larry Brooks past president of the union for local 1210 I'm a disabled firefighter for 30 years we don't have to get pay raises I don't understand why we have to come to you as a disabled firefighter to ask for a pay raise it should automatically be a caller for us so why are we considered under the same situations as everybody else and consider us and why don't you and I hate putting the other unions under the bus but why don't you consider the 8% raise for the firefighter since we don't pay into Social Security and the Coral Gables has never gave us the benefit of it my brother just a quick say my brother's Dade County Fire firefighter I was talking to some of his friends that pay into Social Security so these people know what Social Security is like I says well how how how much you make it at Social Security oh don't even talk about that he said that's our play money he says that's our boting money and it's our money for this he says we live off our paycheck so we live off our paycheck but we don't have money to do anything else and the people on disability shouldn't be included into the co it should be an automatic Cola for the disabled retirees they put their life and soul into the Coral Gables just like the the disability retirees the general employees of police and firefighters is the toughest job in the world number one hazardous job in the world and the city employees keep the city beautiful so why do you punish the the uh disabled employees help the disabled employees at least or help the firefighters give them the 8% raise and let everybody else be on hold thank you thank you sir Chief you have a you have a comment Commissioners mayor thank you um I do need to just chime in on one thing as the chief and we've had this conversation uh through negotiations uh having represented the Florida police Chiefs we also did have a conversation about what F FRS was doing and I I testified in front of the state on that um I've been told I'm pretty good at reading te leaves at time so let me put this out out for you all and as your Chief not necessarily um as somebody who's in the drop uh see if we can split the baby I know how much all of you individually were agonized that this didn't get done the last time we were up here and as the senior employee of the city right now for as many years as I've been here I understand that a percentage now and a lump sum that can be budgeted for next next year today can be done and I say that for two reasons one it gives me the ability to continue to embolden our benefits that we're offering the new employees that we're looking for the second thing I say as the old man in this city I remember when it was 100% funded I know there's reasons on both sides as to why it was not and why that unfunded liability Rose I was on the negotiation side when we were offered benefits instead of money because we didn't have the money at the time back in the 80s and the90s it's a lot of pain and as we now know with the general employees we have finally finally brought them on par with police and fire and their contributions to the retirement system the employees of this city have been taking a big gamble every year the retirees don't have a voice on it but you and I both know when we are sitting at the table and we're negotiating with our current employees and we're trying to bring them up to where we need to be I think it's time that we can find some kind of a balance where we can do both and I understand exactly where we're coming from MoneyWise if it's a smaller percentage now a 4% and we budget for a lump sum next year that is something all of us and I say all of us as department heads will start looking at as we go forward to next year because we don't know what it is and I say this as your chief that I need to have something that I can put on that flyer to continue to recruit I've got nine in the academy now I need to get more and the ones that we are going after will go into a 401k that doesn't help us which is why I think as we're trying to find something to to split the baby here I understand what we're talking about and I I have asked been asked this a few times so I just wanted to clarify that for you all in your discussion Chief did you mean 4% Cola Chief I I I mean if it's feasible I would say a 4% Cola and then to to go what the vice mayor said next year you can do it right now where we start to budget right now for a lump sum next year and so the employees and and the retirees know exactly what's coming and what's going now I'm probably going to get killed by the finance director and the budget director but but I that might be something looking forward of what we can do okay so that if I may right It's let's we have a that's what I want to try to do can we finish the vote that we have on hand I would like to hear from the finance director sorry I'm sorry from the budget director so that would be 1.7 extra into the contribution to the penion I'm only trying to help you get the vote that to go I promise so just to kind kind of bring in some of the many comments that were made in the last few minutes right and from um some of the information that the chief um his suggestion right so the vote that you're taking now is whether to give the 8% Cola which would be the $3.57 uh million in um increase to our pension payment as the finance director said the plan to pay that 3.5 would be red reducing the extra payment right so in that scenario it doesn't necessarily increase the budget it reduces the extra payment we would recommend that if that was done or if any portion of this was done that during the budget process we would come back and talk to you about how to increase the extra payment if funding was there because our goal is to is to take less time to repay right to not really get to that eight more years um but that may not may or may not be possible if if you were to consider something lesser than the 8% and still be at a percent I'm just going to kind of go down the line real quick 7% would be a $3 million a year 6% would be a2. almost $6 million a year 5% would be a $2.16 million a year and 4% as maybe the chief was suggesting would be a $1.72 eight million per year again which would come which would just reduce the extra payment that we put into the into the pension plan each year and then um you have this in your memo so I won't go down all of them if the consideration was for any type of a lump sum on the back page you have the cost of what a lump sum or or extra check would be so just so that we're kind of clear on the information and the decision that we're making and remind me again the extra payment is $9 million the extra payment is about $9 million a little bit more than nine and a half more or less so we have a commissioner Fernandez oh Madam City attorney the vote we're taking is on the 8% in order to have a different option on the table that still requires a forfeits vote to pass correct so if you all recall last year you made an initial motion to eliminate the cola and that was adopted by forfeits vote then there were subsequent motions for a reduced Cola so that's it would require also a forfeit vote A reduced Cola also requires a forfeits vote and to be clear today's vote is regarding the cola that was determined to be granted by the Retirement Board for the members of the class action in the mie case the opt out members and the Gap members it's not our retirees it's those members so you all could do this a number of ways there is a pending motion to eliminate the cola doesn't mean you can cannot have a subsequent motion if that's what you're getting out okay so then I'll vote Yes No mayor loo no sir this is to eliminate the ca yes yes you got me he has to vote against me regardless of what it is but congratulations he just voted no no I voted yes um so the call of fails what is the will of the commission moving forward I'm very open to the suggestion of the chief if we can get to 4% um we're not walking away from here uh if we can help it without taking the import the necessary steps in the right direction I'll second that can we do a five I'm not gonna I'm not gonna I'm not gonna I'm not gonna reach up I'm I'm open to five I I I think that the recommendation comes from somebody that we all trust uh in the chief I think the retention and the recruiting component um really gives me some clarity on this um and I think it's it's a decision that we need to make not just for the retirees in the room but for everybody who's considering working in the City of Coral Gables so I'm I'm I'm comfortable at 4% I just want to make sure I'm I want to clarify commissioner it's coming from your salary I I understand and and you know what if it gets if it gets it done I'll work for free I kind of am now we're gonna hold but part of this I just want to make my recommendation to you all is if it's a 4% now then figure on what lump sum you want to do and I say this for the retirees a percentage is a percentage of what they're making the lump sum is going to affect some of the teamsters that we are not really thinking about because that lump sum is going to go farther for some than others that's why when I say a fair across the board to my older retirees that have been on from the police department it's something now and it's something later that may benefit them more so it was yeah too too prpt because if it's just a 4% I'm gonna have to go out this way no no it's it's a hybrid so could you give a recommendation of 5% please please honestly if if if if I if again reading the tea leaves commissioner with all due respect I I I I don't I don't know if I could say that why don't we why don't we make a motion as appropriate so we can so I do want to clarify a couple of things once again this determination is for the members of the class action not all retirees the members of the class action those opt out members and the Gap members in addition your direction for staff to the that was already approved to budget for the potential Cola for next year you cannot make that determination today that determination would have to happen through the process next year you wanted to give staff that direction to budget for a potential Cola that's fine but without making a determination as to um your decision on any Cola that may or may not be determined by the Retirement Board next year and any decision that the commission would make as part of this alternative dispute resolution process if it's triggered next year so Paulo If I may um just can you define what a 4% cola this year does in regards to money reoccurring cost year-over-year and where you plan on getting that money a 4% Cola would be 1728 million year-over-year it would have the same for 10 years it would have the same effect for 10 years that would be um so the method of us to fund that would just be to fund less of the extra payment which is what extends that re that uh that repayment to our 100% funded and and how much will that put additional unfunded liability on what we have right now about 12.9 million which would reduce what we are funded currently correct so it would it would increase the the unfunded liability by $12.9 million yes you know what that you know what that number would be the percentage I just want to put on the record what we're voting on today sure so you're saying so a 4% increase right so a eight an 8% increase was going to um reduce the funded status by 4% so it's half so I would assume more or less 2% okay let me just double check that yes we decrease our funded ratio by approximately 4% if it was an 8% so if we're doing a 4% I'm going to assume roughly without doing the actual number would be somewhere around reduce the the funded ratio that is currently at 76% to about 74 roughly yes but that's without yes and it take it will take us how long one year to catch up so at at the 8% the actual at the 8% the actu determined it was going to be two years but that's assuming that everything all the assumptions are met so assuming that everything is met then yes it would probably be about a year um to become fully funded if you do half of um of what the 8% was yes didn't earlier you mentioned that we could as a commission approve increasing the payment right now if this goes forward obviously the dollars move in a different direction but we legislatively later can move funds from another place to compensate in in the budget process when we're as we're going through the budget yes we could and that if you're going to do an increase a percentage increase then if that's going to be done then my recommendation would be to try to increase the extra payment in the budgeting process next year right in order to make up some of that um what's going to be taken or absorbed for the for the payment yes yeah but but also but also I mean again just to clarify a little bit commissioner Mana said we legislatively can move money around I understand that but you still have a one .75 million debt that you have that you didn't have this year that's coming from an unfunded payment that you have to make for the next 10 years so you're still going to have to take $1.75 million from somewhere in the budget no yeah you are so yes you are because definitely no because it's not going to be so we send $9.5 million extra you're bringing it down no well well so we're sending 9.5 we so then because the regular payment is 21.5 million for our numbers and then we send another $9.5 million typically the result of that extra payment helps to reduce the normal payment the regular payment and so therefore that comes down and as that comes down the extra payment naturally goes up so it's it goes like that so if so next year let's just argue was going to be 9.5 the extra payment the total payment that we would send to the pension let's just argue it's $30 million that number will stay the same however only seven and a half or eight or $8 million would go towards the extra payment and the regular payment will go to 22 and a half or 23 you're paying you're paying it one way or another at the end of the day it's you're just playing moving the car there's no budgetary effect it's a will of the commission it's perfectly fine but it is it's it's going to affect you because you're GNA pay it it's going to take you longer to pay it down the debt yes so you can you can skin it any way you want at the end of the day it's a cost it's a cost Ag and when and when I started here we made a decision to take the unfunded from 51% to protect our retirees I know that they don't give me credit for it and they think we should just spend the money at the end of day they're grateful that their pension instead of being at 51 like it was 12 years ago now it's at 76% so it's a good thing to pay down the Deb yes and let me be clear my recommendation is to not make any payment I know okay thank you and also to be clear from the estimate that we got at the pension board from last year to this year um we've improved by two years on the estimate of one would be paying it off because originally it was 2038 now it's down to 2036 so yes the um the years the gains that we had did in fact reduce the number of years to pay to be fully funded but again that assumes a lot it assumes that everything will be done will make every single assumption one thing that is not considered in that assumption that the actu made and I believe that we spoke a little bit about it at the pension Workshop was that even the colas that were granted this past contract are not factored in to that sixth year mark so the colas that were given recently to police fire or police and and Teamsters will cause by themselves not maybe not the cumulative by themselves would be an Actuarial loss maybe there's an Actuarial gain that will offset that that hasn't been determined yet because that's F calculated at the end of the year um or actually mid year it'll we'll get get that calculation in around May so maybe that loss that I know in my professional capacity I know there will be a loss based on those salary um uh increases I know that there will be with that piece of it there may be other gains that offset it so we break even and that's great but there may not and I that's the part of the crystal ball that I don't have I don't know what's going to happen but I do know that the colas are going to cause a loss by themselves so what is the will of the commission and mayy just have a real quick question for Diana Diana since it's it's a finite group as the City attorney has made very clear it's a finite group and unfortunately we are all mortal and you know people come and go as that group shrinks in size because of just natural progression of life um then the city's obligation going forward is lessened I would only imagine right just by subraction yes and no the actuary makes certain assumptions and I don't it sounds morbid but the actuary assumes certain amount of deaths each year so that is another one of the assumptions so if the number of people pass that was assumed was greater or less than than be a gain or a loss depending but he the ACT factors in certain amounts of deaths based on the mortality tables and things like that so but that would be for all for the system but not for the finite group that's going to be rece because the C is for a A specific group I think I was made very clear but we're discussing it's not for all employees it's for a specific group their numbers aren't going to increase year-over-year they'll actually lessen just like everything else in life so there's about 780 people in this finite group and there's about 970 total retirees so the majority of the individuals are in this group so um the majority of them those those are again the actuary factors in certain things he fact they factor in certain types of turnover mortality certain types of raises certain um assumptions that the Investments are going to make all of those are are assumptions and those assumptions you either have a gain or loss based on the results of those assumptions and so while yes that perhaps if a if many more retirees pass than what was expected then yes there would be a a a theoretic little gain in the plan but unlike the general employees all the employees of the city from all departments uh the number of employees we have fluctuates we lose people we try to add people so there's always a a certain number headcount but in this group that headcount will never increase because it's already determined so that head count for that group can only decrease it will never increase cor you don't have the ability to make up oh we lost 10 let's add 10 correct so that's class the class yes that is true okay is the will of the commission we have a motion Mr Mayor okay repeat the motion please motion would be to uh provide a 4% Cola increase it would be to to Grant A reduced Cola in the amount of 4% to the members of the class the opal members and the Gap members and the reduction will be based on the factors in the settlement agreement do we have a second comtable that I a motion okay sorry vice mayor [Music] Anderson as difficult as it is to budget for these things um I understand the costs that people must experience every single year I can support 4% this year um and we'll discuss anything else in future years so that's a that's a yes commissioner Castro yes commissioner Fernandez yes commissioner Menendez yes mayor Lago no thank you very much so moving on to item E4 passet thank you yeah E4 mayor E4 is a resolution of the city commission accepting the police department's 2023 to 2024 red light camera survey responses and written summary after a public hearing and presentation at the November 12 2024 City commission meeting in accordance with Florida statute section 316.0083 subsection 4 Commissioners I'm not showing your packet you actually provided a memorandum that we do now by Statute uh for you all for the red light cameras this does not include the speed cameras um thought they were coming to take me away um as you can see uh the remittance to the state is $542,000 paid to Red speed which is the provider out of pocket $466,900 and money retained by the city is $1 17,1 15455 uh during this this past year from July 1st 2023 to June 30th uh as in the memo we wrote the the system wrote 9,144 notices for violation 55 were contested of which 48 were upheld seven were dismissed uh 2500 253 issued a uniform traffic citation uh with 6596 notices of violation that were paid this is an annual report that we give you from the from the U red light cameras okay what is the will of the commission oh I I'll move it but I have one question when are we going to hear the about the um speeding the RFP has been conducted uh or has been completed we have now assumed a panel as per the statute so we will have a a panel through uh procurement process of both interior and exterior individuals who will make a recommendation for a provider and then we'll be back in front of this body with a recommendation to which company to go go forward with my goal was to get it in December I will probably be in the middle of the next semester in the spring semester depending on what time the implementation is there are other things things that we're taking into effect there are things like shot spotters there's different availabilities uh so what we have done already is all of the we had an open provider day here at the station where everybody came in and and kind of pitched what they have we then made our RFP our RFP is going out our rfqs excuse me uh we will now have the panel will have the presentations and hopefully I'll have something to you by January at the latest I was hoping to get it in between but it just didn't come together I'll move it already did second I'll second then Mr Mayor this is a public hearing item I have no members of the public requesting to speak on this item Mr Mayor commissioner Castro yes commissioner Fernandez yes commissioner Menendez yes vice mayor Anderson yes mayor logo yes moving on to E1 E1 is in ordinance of the city commission amending the City of Coral Gable's code chapter 10 animal section d-4 removal of animal feces to provide a code enforcement mechanism for illegal dumping of animal waste bags and trash pits there are some changes between um from first reading and the ass City attorney gusos will present those changes good afternoon Mr Mayor vice mayor and Commissioners assistant City attorney gustab bies so there were a few changes I think they were circulated to you earlier today I'll go over them briefly um so there was additional language that has added that would prevent a property owner that has uh put the city approved signage on their trash pit or in their Swale area and they themselves have not put one of these trash uh one of these uh waste bags in their trash pits they would not get cited additionally we added the language that no bagged or unbagged animal feom matter pet waste or used cat litter shall be placed in soiles or trash bits and we also Incorporated cat litter into the code section if you have any questions please let me know hey um mayor I I added this additional Lang because I didn't think we should penalize the folks that have the U the trash pit we need to penalize those who are dumping into the trash pit itself so this is an an effort to balance uh the impact the real goal here is to educate and get this matter into proper disposal methods and because the language is vague as to what a sealed container was I could Envision people saying well I bagged the dog waste and I threw it in a trash boots for therefore it's in a sealed container so that's why I clarified that language that the bags don't go into the trash pit but and plus they are biodegradable which people don't necessarily understand and they break when they're picked up and I could go on to other gory details about it but uh I will I will not do that um unless any of you have any other comments or we have public comment on this matter I'll move it I'll make I'll second it commissioner Fernandez yes commissioner Menendez yes vice mayor Anderson yes commission Castro yes mayor L yes moving on to item E2 E2 is in ordinance of the city commission amending the city of cor Gable's code chapter 10 animals to modify bird sanctuary protections by excluding pigeons chickens Ducks roosters and other domestic foul so I stated it is a very straight to the point all it does is currently our our code design the city a bird sanctuary this will create a carve out specifically for pigeons chickens Ducks roosters or other domestic file all of those are being listed because it's consistent with other parts of the code that have that those exact animals listed if the commission would like to modify that please let me know there was also more language added to this ordinance and it's the humanity of trapping um these these animals and I just want to go ahead and make a point I don't know if you could read that to the record the the added language that was added to this ordinance about Humane TR compassionate in the whereas Pro Provisions yes th can you read those relevant ones so in addition there's a weas clause that was added to the ordinance um it says in the spirit of Humane treatment and in the interest of Public Health and Welfare commission finds it appropriate to exclude certain domestic file from the City's bird sanctuary protections to allow for the compassionate and regulated trapping or Rel location of these animals ensuring that any actions taken are conducted responsibly and with care okay I also want to put into the record that the city is not trapping nobody's calling the city to remove any of these animals this is a homeowner if the pigeon or the or the hand or rooster is in their property they will have the availability or the access to actually move the the hner or the rooster or the duck at this point now my question is what happens if they are in public right away do they still have access to move the or transport the chicken or the rooster so generally I mean uh that's an interesting question commissioner I don't know that we've ever had to deal with it but um you know I don't know that we I don't know that we have these this these foul on public property um certainly you know they can do things on their private property and and that's really what um and and the city could take action with as a result of this ordinance the city could take action as well on the public property it's just excludes them from the bird sanctuary it doesn't say that anybody has to take action either it's just an exclusion this would not Grant authority to any homeowner to have a Trapper come out and put traps in the right of way so certainly not be allow certainly so anything that's if a a chicken somehow is smart enough to stay on the road I think he'd be perfectly safe at least from the Trappers okay all right so uh through the mayor um Mr clerk I I gave you a couple emailed you a couple items that we need to put up for a discussion um on this item because we're talking about some foul that are addressed by the Florida Wildlife Commission and vice mayor while that's being pulled up um the the the language in the provision as proposed does say that this doesn't in any way affect any other reg applicable regulations of course this is just an exclusion from the City's bird sanctuary all other regulations state or federal would of course apply my concern is this number one you are not authorized under the Florida Wildlife Commission to release any malard Ducks um let's see or mccoi Ducks because of environmental concerns this provision is completely silent on that and people shouldn't have to hire a lawyer to understand what is and isn't allowed under the law in our not only our city but in our state if these are invasive birds and all we're doing is moving them from one side of the line to the other side of the line we're not accomplishing anything on a practical standpoint whether they're chickens ducks or otherwise but you're not allowed under law to release mccoi ducks or what's the other type of duck Mard Ducks uh in the wild so we've we've lost the um putting up the other one yeah putting up the other one so we need to consider these other Provisions not only we're dealing with state law we're also dealing with federal law that restricts what we can do with these with these birds uh while I applaud catching them releasing them is prohibited by law and we shouldn't allow that to happen is there a place to have them taken to a farm you know we need to think out this process you know and the same thing thing should be done with with the chickens because just releasing them on the other side of 8 street is not going to solve the problem they'll be back you know if anybody's everever watched the you know pigeons and so forth or homing they come right back to where they left you're only just wasting the time they need to be taken to a farm and dealt with humanely uh and dealt with properly that that is my concern here so as currently proposed we're not proposing any sort of process for them to undertake and at the end of the day we are not modifying any law all we're simply doing is our law was more restrictive than state law or basically you could not harm or capture any any bird that may be under the Florida law you'd be allowed to do so all this does is simply remove the city's restriction on it we are not granting any Authority for any individual to do anything more than state law currently allows for so the individual or the company whatever ever they still have to abide by state law 100% okay and what alerts them to the fact that they should be looking at that if You' like we can try to incorporate some of that language before second reading yeah we can flag so my apologies I think I mentioned that we already had that in there but we can certainly add a specific um um clause or language to say that um you know subject to all other applicable you know state and federal laws and regulations there's a state statute you can cite and there's a federal um order you can cite uh I believe there's even a f a federal law section you can site whether it be a regulation or otherwise or the actual Wildlife Commission itself in order to for people to know that hello there's there's something you have to look at beyond our city code yes you can trap them but what do you do with them after the fact you don't dump them in the Everglades that's why we have so many problems in the Everglades right now the reason why releasing them in the wild is prohibited is because we have a problem let's not continue that problem and make it Greater so if you're going to include specific statutes I would suggest you know this stat but not not limited to because I don't want people to think that those are the only statutes that govern just it's put them on notice but again I think you've all explained the city's not going to be involved in Catching these and releasing whatever the plan is but the obligation to abide by all laws is on the individual or the company right the addition of this language be strictly informational but we'll go ahead and incorporate that language and we'll make sure to put some sort of a catchall clause yeah make sure that you know if they change the numbers we're not caught off guard so guess if a homeowner wants to call a Trapper to catch chickens in his yard will he be required to pull a permit for that no and I would urge that we just don't release them on the other side of the road we're going to have problems with our neighbors and the bird will be right back so we're not solving the problem like we've done with the peacocks there is a place they can be delivered and um the farmers I'm sure can enjoy the additional eggs and that they can profit from um we need to take care of that as well is that language you're um comfortable with addressing Now to create an actual process an actual process yes I'm not sure we may be exempt under certain State statutes and certain laws as to what process we can agree but I we we'll make sure that we'll look into it and we'll we'll dive into and see if that's something we can incorporate so be kind of like an anti-dumping provision we shouldn't be dumping in other people's in other cities okay we can always put the chickens on Metro Rail and just send them off see where they land just just an idea it's a good one all right um moving on can we get a vote here I'll move it y second second thank you uh Mr Mayor Mr rib PS would like to speak on there perect I I find it very upsetting that uh this commission would be willing to basically uh a sanction and allow and vote today to allow the um murder of roosters and chickens I'm putting myself under penalties for perjury as to what happened a few years ago uh this is what happened uh I live on Sedonia near the Publix near Douglas Road I like chickens um and so we had about six roosters and henss on my block um people were getting upset the best argument I hear is that roosters wake people up uh and it it disturbs their sleep they're trying to go to work but with they need a good night sleep all right but here's here's what happened of those uh six uh hins and roosters five were put to death four by the City of Coral games and and I'm under penalties for perjury the City of Coral Gables killed uh four of the six roosters and and chickens and this is what uh commissioner Castro is taking us back to by removing these birds from from the uh protected list um I talked with a Trapper at the time I met with him and he said I I said' whatat are you going to do with them if you when you trap them and he said I'm gonna kill him and I said well what if I get a chicken farm in the uh homestad area and would you relocate it there and me talking with City officials code enforcement I was able to rescue one of the chickens uh one of the hens and we did it with Jesse's Chicken F I I I cannot imagine that you all are going to vote to murder chickens and roosters because that's the effect people start complaining then the city calls a Trapper and the city paid Trapper kills him that's what happens that's what we will revert to if you approve this today what I'm suggesting is that this that you add language saying that if the city employs a Trapper that the city be required to attempt to PL to relocate rather than uh exterminate uh these chickens and hens these hens and roosters that uh three efforts three phone calls be made and I'm starting with the one that that took the the hint I saved uh Jesse's chicken farm uh but there's there's lots of chicken farms in in the homestead area so we add language saying uh the city has to make has to document three phone calls to chicken farms uh requesting that the they accept a relocation thank you how do you feel about that City attorney so it's really an operational question I think what I'm hearing from the commission is that there's no plan currently for the city to undertake any efforts with respect to these birds that we are excluding from the get so so if if the commissioner wants to perhaps address it now even though it's there's no plan to do so there's different ways that it could be addressed perhaps you can um direct the city manager to um issue an implementation order that to the extent that you know at some point the city were tot take any efforts with respect to these domestic file that it' be done in a certain way or according to a certain process there's different things the commission can do if that's what the commission wishes to direct can we sorry can we explore that idea and also come back with a fiscal impact on what it would cost the city to do that I I'm not comfortable leaving City liable for trapping these animals but let's go ahead and and do an analysis brainstorm and see what the impact would be we we don't have animal control in the city so there would be a whole new game if we were to go into that kind of business so my suggestion would be that the city stay out of the uh hiring of Trappers and and homeowners want to do it I think that's perhaps we can there's commissioner we can discuss between non second reading different things that we can do we can also just put in a whereare ass class that addresses that the city does not intend to to um you know be involved in any relocation or any any other efforts with respect to these birds okay okay um to the mayor my suggestion was that you require the private Trappers to you know when you're talking about chickens make an effort to get them to a farm this is private removal of those as far as the invasive species the ones that are prohibited to relocate and put you on the other side of the road or anywhere you put it we have to comply with the law okay there's a farm that wants them they can have them but you know we do have to provide Direction and that's why I'm not comfortable leaving this wide open with uh not providing direction for residents and expecting them to go and do a a search that wasn't done before this was drafted by our team here to determine that it was illegal to re re-release the Ducks I'm asking is city that if the city involves itself in hiring a traffic that the city is required to try to relocate rather than kill any hands or roosters that are by a that's all I'm asking thank you very much yeah so I'm let's have one let's have one conversation what is what is the what is the will of the commission what would you like to do okay I just can we go ahead and make a clause or a warehouse Clause where the city will not trap any Huns or chickens so we can incorporate that to Warehouse Clause but I think it'd be better served if we did some sort of an implementing order because at the end of the day it would be odd to put inside the code something that applies to the city but I think we can definitely work with the city manager's office and have them put some sort of administrative order or an implementing order that we would not initiate this sort of trapping unless the will of the commission changes in the future or could we put language that basically says the city will not do the trapping or hire anybody to do it that basically creates a wall between us and what they do just clear we're not it wouldn't be in the yeah we will not wait just have one point of conversation this seems to be a very contentious issue so why don't we table this issue Madam sponsor and we can come back to the next commission meeting and we can finalize this with legal to make sure that you sit down with Mr Holmes and the commission and we have a conversation in regards to the sponsor that they feel comfortable so they meet all this criteria instead of negotiating it up here on the Dives that sounds good actually no no this is something that could be worked out between first reading and second reading we won't approve second reading if it's not right and we don't have to lose so much time we don't have that many commission meetings left off out of the year so we can work that out as the mayor is saying between both readings we can do that then why don't you make a motion she didn't I did a second on the table a second yes yes I do we so much going back and forth that you know I lose track he's CH chasing chickens commissioner Menendez yes vice mayor Anderson no at this time I'll see what language we can put in for second reading commissioner Castro yes commissioner Fernandez yes mayor logo yes all right moving on to another item moving on to I2 Adam City attorney yes um mayor and Commissioners um as i' I've briefed each of you um there are some water intrusion issues um in in this building um we have City staff has been working with the designer and the contractor to try to achieve a resolution of those issues there has been some progress made toward that end um there's also discussion of a potential um agreement so that would avoid the having having to f a lawsuit but in abundance of caution I'm asking for authorization to take all legal action including the filing of a lawsuit if it becomes necessary regarding the design and construction of the police and fire headquarters okay I'll move it it's do you need it to be moved yes please I'll move it second okay Mr Mayor we have a member of the public who requested to speak on this item Mrs Maria Cruz she's going to be on Zoom uh good afternoon again Maria Mrs Maria Cruz 1447 Miller Road I'm a little confused we're talking about the new police and fire building correct yes okay I have heard several times including today the mention of the wonderful job that was done building the Police Empire Building the wonderful job that the previous administration did and now lo and behold I hear that there are problems with the building the building is fairly new I am confused what happened here okay attorney would you like to explain to what happened here so on the technical issues of course I would always have to defer to staff but I'm aware that there's certain water intrusion issues against some of them are are being addressed um and and we're working with the contractor on those there are some additional issues that we're still in conversations with them about and so this the purpose of this item is so that we can take legal action if necessary including filing a lawsuit thank you all right um a motion we have a motion Mr Mayor okay uh vice mayor Anderson yes commissioner Castro yes commissioner Fernandez yes commissioner Mendez mayor logo yes all right moving on to item H1 H1 is a resolution of the city commission accepting the recommendation of the chief procurement officer to award the tree maintenance services city-wide contract group one tree maintenance services to sfm landscape Services Inc primary and Sherlock tree company secondary and group to pre-qualification for new tree planting to sfm landscape Services Inc and Sherlock tree company the most responsive and responsible biders pursuing into section 2763 of the procurement code entitled contract award and invitation for bids 202 24-15 good afternoon celest Walker Harmon chief officer this is a recommendation to move forward with the most responsive responsible bidder for the um Citywide um tree trimming services we had five biders and we're awarding to the um most responsive bidder which is sfm um at this time so this is our recommendation that we're choosing to move forward with any public comment yes Mr Mayor first speaker is Jose Felix Dias H Jose Felix Diaz to alhamra Plaza Coral Gables Florida uh 33134 on behalf of sfm which is the lowest responsible bidder um you know um I think we might be the only ones here but if we're not um I know that there's been some discussion about one of the biders who is an incumbent that did not qualify for the bid and um you know as a lawyer that has been working in procurement law for 20 years I just want to let you know that you know the reason that you do these processes the reason you vet people the reason there's a process in the first place is to make sure that qualified biders come out and that the process is respected um there's ample case law and I don't want to bore you with it on you know why that has been the case in Florida for the past three decades uh we believe that those um presidents are firm and that they should apply here uh we know that uh you know we love all our current vendors in in our cities uh but they the the current vendor did not qualify and when they were asked to cure they did not and therefore we are the lowest and best and responsible bidder sfm is a current uh vendor for the city they do great work for the city um and they look forward to uh working with you in the future thank you thank you Elizabeth Peterson we good that's it Mr any comments from the commission um my concern has been regarding the the cost the difference in cost of the of the contract um the uh the current operator's bid uh came in $460,000 less um which is about a 33% difference um that has been my objection I discussed it with uh with staff um regarding this contract um I don't know that we've had any issues with the current vendor um but I understand your uh your point that if they were not responsive and it maybe for the record um would you be able to tell us about the process that was followed to get here uh and what was the lack of responsiveness so that residents can understand the decision we're making today okay and competitive solicitation was issued and at that time um with the scope of services we um mandated there's be certain minimum qualifications that each B each bidder had to qualify for um after the process of receiving the solicitations after our review We determined that at the time the lowest priced bidder which is superior the incumbent bidder um failed to provide certain information is with regard to meeting the minimum qualifications at that time we reached out to them to um for them to provide the information for them to cure that information they failed to do that in the process so we had to move forward with the information that was provided to us so at that time they were determined nonresponsive as far as meeting the minimum qualifications that we have so in the procurement process we have what we call respons and responsible biders so you have to meet both thresholds in order for us to move you forward and at the time Superior failed to meet that first threshold with is the responsiveness determination so then we moved on to the next lowest priced bidder which happened to be sfm so that's how we got to this point now you also said there was a fifth bidder but uh I see that it says no bid so was there no bid it just they're considered still a bidder they just submitted information or paperwork that said no bid so they're technically we're fine right so they're they're so it was really not a bid no but it's still considered a bid because they offered a bid response yes so we ask people even when they don't um bid that they still submit a no bid and we still count that as a response because sometime they give us reasons or some information to tell us at the time why they chose not to participate so what were the requirements to change from last year's or the last time we went out to bid to this time um I can't tell you that specifically to go through the gamut of them but um they were pretty much much similar but at the time the user Department chose to beef up some of the qualifications to make sure that some gaps were covered from the in the current contract and the one that we um intend to award or Implement for the new the new contract period so there were some changes I can't tell you specifically what those changes are but in the area of they're having a deficiency it was the requirement of the two for persons the people who are going to be mainly responsible for caring for the project being our lead and making sure that all of the services are implemented correctly okay that answers my questions okay um M Walker one of the qualifications I if memory says me correctly was that there was a certified Arbus that was also qualified to work near power lines and that was one of the distinctive factors yes ma'am okay so that does cost more money yes and we do have a lot of power lines with trees next to them the four persons requirements were for them to be an arbous for the him them to have answer um certifications or training and also have um five years of experience okay I'll go ahead and move it second commissioner Castro yes commissioner Fernandez yes commissioner Mendez yes vice mayor Anderson yes mayor logo before I vote I just want to say one thing uh sfm is probably one of the most exceptional companies in South Florida they do incredible work across the board janitorial Landscaping tree trimming and multiple different uh municipalities across the state being in the construction industry I've witnessed them and I consider the family an incredible cor Gable's family but I have to vote no thank you all right moving on to item H2 H2 is a resolution of the city commission authorizing the approval of a lease agreement between the city of cor gabl and Municipal Corporation of the State of Florida and Agave Plaza retail LLC a Florida limited liability company for a retail Suite located within the plaza Coral Gables retail element at 30005 ponon Boulevard Su 145 Coral Gables Florida 33134 to relocate the city's police bike Patrol unit office for a term of 10 years with one five-year option to renew good afternoon mayor and commissioner Zeta Sardinia asset manager so we have been working on this contract for a bit um the um staff is requesting approval of the lease agreement as the C attorney said with G Agave Plaza retail this is for a 913 Square ft retail Suite within the plaza element at 30005 ponon Boulevard Suite 145 the landlord is going to be um conducting at its sole cost and expense um construct furnish and equip all minimum based building shell and core which will include the storefront the uh locks the hardware uh wiring partition walls uh the slab on grade is uh polished finished concrete Plumbing fixtures Plumbing preparations fire sprinker system aack unit fire alarm electric IND data outlets and um the infrastructure conduits for the teledata the term is for 10 years um with a 5year renewal the base rent is $10 per year and it includes operating expense cost um that will be that we will pay the percentage share of the operating expenses paid so that means we will be paying cam um we had estimated that that was going to be between $18 and $20 a square foot um and we will be paying that throughout the life of the lease it has a 5year a 5% cap on it there's no security deposit um required and the lease and rent commen and will be upon the date when the landlord delivers the premises to the city following substantial completion of their work on the space we recommend approve Mr CL do you have any public comment no Mr Mayor what is the will of the commission have a couple questions um it's 913 square feet it's a small space yes for the it's a small space and it was as I recall and mayor you were here longer than I am uh have been that this was part of the negotiations for the plaza itself am I correct no that was not actually negotiated there's some it's somewhat it comes up often that that was part of it it was not actually part of the development agreement I don't know it's it's not the first time I hear that we did we did something very similar in um mer think of Merck Manor Merck Manor with Henry Tor the settlement we negotiated that that that agreement but I I'm I thought we had talked with the plaza about potentially you you having some sort of police substation due to the high traffic in that area so again this has come up on you know other occasions but but it's not part of the um development agreement um the development agreement did include a contribution that was to be used either for um art or Public Safety and it was used for Public Safety but not for construction of this kind of um of this unit or any kind of substation the chief H uh Commissioners just for clarification this was discussed early on when there was like several different owners of this uh the idea was always to have part of a substation there uh the reality of it is since we moved to this building currently our police presence just ambiguous police presence in that area has kind of dropped off since there's cars not coming to and from the station uh subsequent when it was discovered that it was not in the um original deal uh we spoke with the owners of the plaza and they agreed to kind of Honor us with this storefront space over there it does give us a little bit more it is strictly just an office for the bike Patrol unit where they can work on things they will be working out of there along with the blue light they'll have a blue light and the only other request that they add is they're going to have designated police only parking spaces as you've seen in some other retail areas where we and ask that we have one of our police cars are parked there there for a presence as well right so all right and so we don't have a dollar amount as to what the space is actually worth what it's actually worth I don't believe we ever because it's not built out uh ma'am their their rates are quite high for retail space they're charging us $10 a year just and we're paying Cam and the reason why we're paying cam is because it's part of their entire HOA and they they couldn't wave that so we we do have to pay it there is a 5% cap on it uh per year uh that there can't be an increase of that much but it's basically our proportionate share uh for those 913 square feet right I see I see this as a mutual benefit to both their property as as well as the police they'll have more police presence as well because they have someone there as well um it is a small space and in light of some of the discussions we've had today knowing what the the actual value of some of the space is I thought was important so I think we have a motion yeah I had a motion I don't have I don't think we have a second second commissioner Fernandez yes commissioner mandez yes vice mayor Anderson yes commissioner Castro yes mayor L yes thank you Mr clerk did I miss any items on the agenda no Mr Mayor Madame vice mayor yes uh two things through the brilliant efforts of Our IT department today um and followup to the requests that I had done to the manager and it we did finally get posted on Google ways and Apple Maps construction notice on on Granada so it is possible to get this done and we can celebrate that it has been done so when people get in their car in the morning and put their apps on they'll know about the construction notice second thing is we have a guard uh tour of the Coral Gables uh Garden Club it's of historic hes with it with their Gardens it's happening this weekend um Saturday November 16th from 10 a.m. to approximately noon you can buy your tickets at the Coral Gables Garden Club website or from any Garden Club member we had one here present during our meeting today and if you still can't find someone I am a member as well sh Castro yeah Mr Prescott is here and I don't think he's aware of that there was um time certain Mr Prescott will you join us yes sorry I didn't see you right but that there was a motion earlier today for a Time certain on on a following date yeah I I think at the end of the day he could at least say hello and we'll see him in a few weeks well actually Madam City attorney since our motion when residents were here was to table the discussion until next commission meeting at a time certain are we allowed to continue discussing it now how about how about this how about we don't discuss it how about you just say you look forward to coming in two weeks when we have it at the meeting you're here just to just to not ruffle any fell about certainly I I'm both here as I said I was be here but I'm also I have been told about the subsequent meeting I will be there at that time certain I'm just confirming it's the 12th of December I said it to 10th December 10th at 1:30 which is Tuesday Tuesday the 10th at 1:30 at 1:30 thank you 130 understood um I will change my plans for that and I will be here with the team that's here represented as well um but I wanted to be here again I apologize I understand you did show the video that I had sent forward outlining the reason as to why not I'm actually joined today by Matias Cera my managing director de Malone who was the designer associated with the builds and Paul fig with Burger singerman um legal representation um my head of engineering uh Tony Brown had a family emergency that he could not join us for um nevertheless my point is we want to be here as we said uh I've had the opportunity in the last hour to look at the video from this morning to make sure that I heard the citizens comments that came forward and the exchange that followed um so but again I wanted to not you know not show up so to say um I want to assure Mr homes if he's still here that the only chickens that are at the builtmore that are dead are the ones that came from the farmers that provided to us for our Outlets so uh I'm here to talk a little bit about what transpired which I can again repeat happy to do so uh next month I also know that you all are going to get more information at the manager's direction to compile a list with subsequent walkthroughs which is fine we are here to fully cooperate and then we can have the open discussion as necessary other discussions to go through all of the things that have been raised um I would reiterate what I said in the video to make sure that the commission hears it directly as well as the community as a whole which is the responsib ility falls on me I take full responsibility for such action and it was not done with any malicious intent uh I view myself as a steward uh my family has been the stewards of the landmark as you know working in partnership with the city since 1992 um we take that very seriously and personal opinions you know on design choices and other things of that nature I understand get very heated and emot and uh emotional but our intent is to serve two purposes one is to of course maintain the landmark both its historic nature but also as an operating luxury hotel and the way to do that they can work in Tandem and we intend to talk further about that in the open which I know commissioner talked about um and I welcome that we welcome that and we will find the PATH forward to make sure that uh all stakeholders in this are heard their voices are taken into account and we will find that successful outcome that's what I wanted to say to the commission we look forward to seeing you on the 10th at 1:30 all right very good thank you sir I appreciate you coming always thank you anything else commissioner Castro and that would be all thank you commissioner Mendez thank you um right now just uh that on Thursday at 6:30 pm is the uh ribbon cutting for birdie beastro formerly known as Burger Bobs so uh that's Thursday at 6:30 I just wanted to remind folks commissioner as this is the last meeting that we have prior to Thanksgiving I want to thank God for all of our residents for our staff here in the City of Coral Gables for all of our stakeholders um this is a community that works together a community that is better because of each and every one of us um and I want to thank all of you for being a part of my life and for all you do for our community and um I look forward to being back here on December 10th uh thank you first off I'd like to thank the clerks clerk's office for their hard work uh the IT department uh everyone that that cable TV thank you for reminding me uh everybody who played a role in making today a possibility I know you worked very very hard Public Works everybody in the building here at Public Safety thank you so much um I'd like to invite everybody I sent a I had staff sent from the Community Foundation send an invitation uh to the directors and also to the commission a few moments ago um fourth fourth annual venos of the Venetian is this Friday uh we've raised $400,000 I'm the chair of that event raised $400,000 for uh student scholarships out of high school um this year we're going to have an amazing opportunity for people to buy some great wine enjoy enjoy company uh here in the holiday season uh the tickets are not that expensive they're a great time we always sell out and you can have you can enjoy the auction so hopefully this year we take it over $600,000 that we raise uh for scholarships for children I hope the commission comes it's a great opportunity uh to engage with the community and give back um another another thing I'd like to say is I had written down here is I want to wish everybody a Happy Thanksgiving uh everybody who uh makes what we do here in the City of Coral Gables look easy um it's all as a result of the employees we have exceptional employees and partners who who make everything possible so I hope that everybody has a wonderful Thanksgiving and looking forward to seeing all of you on December 10th thank you and God bless meeting adjourned recording stopped e e e e for