##VIDEO ID:vJ7Py7NuUKQ## [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] e e [Music] for [Music] [Music] e for [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] e [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] for [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] e e e e e e e e e e for e e [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] morning are you good all right e e Mr clerk you ready yes Mr Mayor all right perfect I'd like to welcome everybody to the good morning I'd like to welcome everyone to the October 22nd 2024 commission meeting as I mentioned before it's always a privilege to have all of you here today it's great to have a packed house I'd like to see people engaged in the process of governance uh people can either watch the meeting at home engage via Zoom they can have phone call they can come here we have a public section where people can speak and provide their comments and they can provide their comments as every single item moves forward through the process so I look forward to your public comment and your engagement as always I'd like to welcome also uh this morning for the invocation Reverend Tim Fleck from St Thomas Episcopal Parish thank you for being here with us as always it's a privilege to have you back good morning morning I bring you greetings from St Thomas Episcopal Parish church and school at the intersection of Red Road and North Kendall Drive for South Miami Pine Crest unincorporated Dade County and the great City of Coral Gables the city beautiful all meet together at one point of peace prosperity and Perpetual traffic let us pray heavenly father in your word you have given us a vision of that Holy City to which the nations of the world bring their Glory behold and visit we pray the cities of the earth renew the ties of mutual regard which form our Civic life send us honest and able leaders enable us to eliminate poverty Prejudice and oppression that peace may prevail with righteousness and Justice with order and that men and women from every culture and with diverse gifts may find with one another the Fulfillment of their Humanity to the glory of your holy name amen amen thank you Reverend as always thank you we send our best wishes to your congregation of worshippers on behalf of the city God bless you and your family thank you so much I'd like to take the opportunity to also recognize commissioner Ken Russell who's here with us today thank you for joining us will you lead us in the pledge I pledge ALG 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 Mr clerk Mr Mayor judging of the annual Great Pumpkin challenge I believe I receive I'm only missing one of the uhing uh and then we'll announce the winner at the end of the day all right perfect thank you very much Del all right moving on to item A1 do we have our Senator here not yet we'll come back uh number two A2 congratulations to ma Agave on receiving the keep cor Gable's beautiful 2024 commercial beautification award well deserved good morning sir good morning okay good morning mayor Commissioners um so we're here today to recognize uh my sagave for winning uh the keep Co Gable's beautiful commercial beautification award I'll let Salange talk a little bit more more about that but again I just want to thank the city's sustainability Advisory Board because they are the ones that vote on um the businesses we get applications from different departments and the general public and they're the ones who vote on which businesses are winning the commercial beautification award so I just wanted to mention that and I like talk a little bit more about the the program and and go good morning everybody um yes so this is the second Award winner that we present to you this year as we said uh during the September commission um meeting this is our third year doing the commercial beautification award and this award is to recognize those businesses that are going above and beyond uh the normal call to maintenance and beautification in their area mayave is relatively new to the area but they've done a wonderful job um completely transforming the space across the street and keeping it very nice and and tidy so we have some members of their um ownership team here Hector Ivan and Santiago Roberts if we can have you guys come on up and then we'll present them with their beautiful plaque to display in the restaurant along with the window decal um do you guys want to say a few words good morning gentlemen hi good morning morning um so well uh we want to say thank you for this award uh you know this project was whole thinking in Mexico we want to give you guys here in Miami the opportunity to have a place in Mexico to have the opportunity to visit me Mexico even being here in Miami you know the whole the whole project was made uh through our found Foundation all the profits are going to to the foundation found Antonio Rivera Vegas which is to help people in Mexico in the conditions of needing so well we want to thank you so much because this project is whole made uh with love and thinking about uh our country which is very important to us so thank you so much thank you very very much uh for your efforts you've done an amazing job over the life of the construction project in regards to the quality of the products that you've used uh really being thoughtful and genuine considering Coral Gable standards you do amazing amazing work and also just as since you've opened you know not only the quality of food is amazing but also Al the the events that you have you know how you're always very welcoming and very giving in regards to philanthropy so we're looking forward uh to your engagement in D moros coming up now in a week I think it's something that's going to be very beneficial because again your restaurant is a stone thr away from from the location and I think it's going to be some good synergies in between both so congratulations on on a well-deserved award thank you thank you so much thank you and so we have your plaque and then a window decal for you guys to present at the rest okay let's take a photo this is a beautiful moving on to item A3 presentation or Proclamation declaring October 22nd 2024 as Dan fenor day in Coral Gables thank you mayor um we live in a society of constant change uh some change is good some change not so good but we come to appreciate as the years go by those constant pillars in our lives those constant pillars in our community those people that make a difference in the lives of of others especially our youth because our youth over time become us and that's why today we're recognizing Dan fenur and declaring today Dan fenur day um Mr fenur worked 65 years at Gable's High I wouldn't say work he gave of his time and gave of his life it wasn't work it he he made a difference in the lives of others for 65 years and continues to do so he was a typing teacher Athletic Department business manager schools business manager and I think probably most importantly school counselor because that's where you have the one-on-one with the students and when you have those one-on ones especially when you're young sometimes you come from household that perhaps things aren't so good perhaps no folks in your family never went far past high school but to have someone like danora in your life when you're young is life-changing and I am pretty sure that over those 65 years Dan has changed the trajectory of a lot of lives of a lot of young people for the better um I got to know Dan as a student at Gable's High graduating class of 1980 but I also became I got to know Dan as a dad because I coached his son Greg at the coral G's Youth Center um in the 1980s he was my team's goalkeeper and it's funny I never told him this but I knew of his reputation in the community at gable high and to have him as one of the team dads to me was an honor and it still is to this day um before I go on and i' would like I think Marlin aert you have um you want to come up and and add to the moment good morning everybody I'm delighted to be here um my family and I moved to Coral Gables 36 years ago and uh our oldest child was starting to Gable's high at that point Gable started in 10th Grade and she was a new 10th grader and I remember um being asked to attend a meeting for all 10th grade parents uh at the school and um there were people sitting up on the stage and then this lanky goodlooking man stood up and introduced well he was it and and uh introduced himself as Dan F and I still remember his words he said if you're where you're supposed to be when you're supposed to be there doing what you're supposed to be doing you'll do well at Gable's high school and it's still I mean all through for my other children too that was what what I said all the time um Dan became a a wonderful friend to my three children we were lucky he was assigned the last he was assigned the letter e my last name is Ebert so he had all three children um he was their counselor uh when I spoke to Dan last week and I said you know who would you like me to call he said oh Marlon he said I've gotten so much attention he said please let you be the only speaker and so he let a couple other friends attend to but it's it's really his humility that that shines through to me he's gotten a lot of attention because of the 65 years and I'm just delighted that the city is recognizing him so thank you if I may Mr Fen uh I graduated from corg high school in 1973 and you were my business math professor uh I I think I may have barely passed your class but I still I remember you sitting on a barol type uh chair with a sweater golfing sweater uh teaching us uh accounting basic County and I've always remembered you and remembered uh the lessons you taught us there I appreciate it um Billy the city clerk do we have the video clip that the city prepared uh yes we do we have a that's coming up I'll add that you also were the counselor for my two daughters and all grown and it was very helpful those are very formative years of their lives so to keep them on the right track is is sometimes a challenge and they both did exceedingly well so thank you and while we're waiting for the video I won't add the year to embarrass the colleagues up here but uh I also graduated from cor G high school and was there while Mr fenor was there and as you can see we're up here so since we left you things have gone downhill anybody else [Laughter] [Music] my name is Daniel fur and I am a resident of coral gabbles I arrived here in 1955 from my 2-year uh discharge from the United States Army my mom came down in 1957 we bought our first house uh on Miller Road 433 Miller Road that was our first association with cor we loved it I would summarize my entire career career uh as a as a beautiful thing because I never once wanted to sleep in I always wanted to go to work and I didn't have any issues and I liked going to work I was always a a person who was disciplined I think God helped me along the way many times I found a niche I found uh working with kids and working with various parts you know there's a lot of components to a comprehensive high school but the important thing that I was getting into was you know what does it take how can I make this kid's life easier how can I get him motivated how can I get him to the next level you know you're here now we want to get you there how are we going to do it you know I'm the only one that I don't I don't do any online stuff I said you want to see me I'm here I'm not you can't you can find me if you're looking up until 1971 I was also a teacher I was teaching uh business law teaching accounting uh typing and office machines so in 1971 they took all my classes away so I became basically the comproller for the entire school I did all the purchasing for the three departments it was my job to reconcile all the books uh all the discretionary money and then I kept the Athletics I didn't really give up anything I kept the Athletics and then I took over so they they gave me a couple of names money man good humor man you know different things or or stingy you know mean I spent eight years on the recreation board and my name is on the youth center over there if you walk in the main building on the right hand side I served 8 years I couldn't serve anymore so I was involved with a community on a recreation basis and um the group I was in we were the group that got lights put up at the youth center so I was inducted into the Coral Gable um Hall of Fame for my service it's like a service award more than anything else and uh life has been good God has he's he's given me something that he wants me to do I feel like I'm the luckiest man in cables and Dan I I just want to say that you never really retire because all the lives of those young people that you touched they grew up and became parents and became grandparents and all the life lessons they learn from you they carry on for generations and generations so you never really retire um I mror please join us it's great to have you thank you for being sure when you like can I face the audience of course you can first of all Kurt I want to thank you very much and all the Commissioners this is Camelot to me when I got here I fell in love with it my mom came down we had a great life Carl Gables has been extremely well extremely good for what I wanted to do coming down here and going into teaching I didn't I didn't have any idea exactly what I was going to do but I think I had somebody over my head pointing me in the right direction and one thing I did have was great mentors I had five gentlemen who helped point it the way but the City of Coral Gables is unique I live in the City of Coral Gables I've been here for close to 70 years and I want to tell you that it's a beautiful place and I represent you all the time I also want to tell you this is the first time I've been in the actual Commission Office I've been downstairs a lot and coming up here was uh is quite humbling and uh the words that curred and I have some visitors here from church that were Pedro pan came over in the 60s and uh I don't Pat's not here the other one uh met them in church and they told me uh they didn't like me but I turned out to be pretty good um in fact I have a picture of one of them doing that uh I can't thank you enough uh personally I only did what I was supposed to do as Mr Ebert has indicated the job wasn't a job I didn't work 9 to5 I can remember also putting 57,000 people in the Orange Bowl actually 52,000 when we beat Miami High in 1967 one of the greatest experience was asked to do or have and I think it was my first year as business manager we represented the State of Florida in the high school um division 2 football championship and we played uh Tampa Robinson over at at the University of Tampa with 12,000 people soldout stadium and those of you who are old enough to understand Larry Davidson who was our quarterback and uh he was a left-handed quarterback but he kicked field goals the oldfashioned way the green go away straight across and he had a square toe and he kicked a 37 yd field goal with 377 37 seconds left to go it's still on record and we beat Tampa Robinson for the first of four state championships in the history of kro Gables since then as my illustrious friend Kirk has said change is upon us and there was a comment made with the U with the television the the young man who interviewed me I have a I have a flip phone I don't have a smartphone but I use it I have a computer at home I don't do very much email I don't order online so my recommendation is if you want to see me you can call me on a landline you can go to hopefully Burger Bobs when it opens or is it going to be uh birdie Bobs okay I know birdie because I coached golf with Gables for many years or I'll at Bagel Emporium in the third place I'll be at Coral Bagels down behind Crook and crook so I'm easy to find I don't go out of my ZIP code and I stay in my lane and I want to thank all of you who came here and stay in The Gables and right now I'm surrounded by 16-story buildings that I thought I never would see so thank you very much thank you [Applause] [Applause] picture come get a picture picture I get this is my neighbor [Music] I want all of you to know I was at Gable's high school yesterday today go and visit every now and then but I want you to know your tax dollar is doing wonderful we have new impact Windows uh in the hallways we just put in brand new air conditioning for the media center and the last thing that we're going to do according to our new principal uh uh Tony I called him Rocky because his last name is bboa he came from Pon Tony bboa uh Tony uh olari was our previous principal and obviously I've worked with every principal at the school but the amazing thing is we are going to get a new gym it's going to be the last thing that the that the grant money has available for us and that's going to happen when we complete what we're doing now which are windows and the maintenance and air conditioning and we have a new Orchestra and a new band room so we're good so anytime you guys want to have something that just go see Tony tell them I sent you and he'll put you up thank need that right write on the I'll get it for you F3 F3 moving back to item A1 legislative update from our Senator Alexis cud Senator welcome back it was great to catch up with you this week over coffee and we're always blessed to have you here I know you have a very hectic and busy schedule but welcome back to the city beautiful thank you so much Mr Mayor vice mayor Commissioners oh something's happening we can't hear you just tilted tilted up it's a little delicate no worries thank you so much Mr Mayor M vice mayor Commissioners thank you for the opportunity to address you today and the community uh we've gone through the summer after legislative session and I'm sorry it's taken me so long to visit again but now we are in Preparation not just for what's passed last legislative session but to focus on the priorities you all have for Coral Gables and to make sure we're in a position to Champion them this next legislative session and whether we're talking about you having observed what happened to our friends in the west coast when we're talking about resiliency and uh focus on the possibilities of what storm surch looks like what water quality looks like and our septic to sewer problems and challenges um my goal is to make sure that the priorities that you have aligned for Coral Gables we are able to maximize our capacity to bring those resources back home and support your work and make sure that the residents of Coral Gables have the best possible this past legislative session I'm very proud to say we were able to pass 10 pieces of legislation one that has a great deal of my heart is um employment of individuals with disabilities we were able to synchronize the uh state agencies so that not only can individuals with disabilities uh find themselves in an easier position to acquire employment but we also created a tax credit program that encourages more and more emplo employers to participate in the employment of individuals with disabilities um we passed an interpersonal violence injunction um change which allows individuals who need to apply for a um a protection from someone who can potentially cause violence to them that process to become seamless and online instead of requiring a notary a printing a scanning um making our community safer we also invested $44 million recurring into our early childhood education system increasing the reimbursement rate particularly for the subsidized uh lower income family program called School Readiness we changed the cancer coverage in Florida for our public uh our public uh insurance program and we hope to do this soon for our private system but what we've allowed is for biomarker testing which is genetic testing to understand the type of cancer you have and how to best Target a treatment plan for you to be made accessible to our public system this is is going to provide the next The Last 5 Years of most advanced technological cancer treatment to our community members without this biomarker test with without insurance is $500 you don't know how to test and you don't know how to treat your particular challenge we also created a uh Spaceport territory which is a product of space Florida above the Homestead Air Reserve Base and this is to incentivize companies from across the globe but when we're thinking about SpaceX uh blue Origins the opportunity for manufacturing and uh Logistics of these large companies to come down to South day and to find their place to help us also alleviate some of our traffic and transportation con congestion by bringing medium and high wage jobs Into the Heart of our community I'm proud to say we also created a pathway for more HIV infection prevention drugs to be available in our community by creating a partnership withes across the State of Florida that someone can have access to 72-hour postexposure medication easily and within a pharmacy setting rather than an emergency room setting we've learned recently through the focus program at the Department of Health that of 22,000 individuals that were tested in the Jackson emergency room over the last 2 years 800 of them presented with as HIV positive and didn't know it so we have more and more challenges in this community than we May realize and we have to do more I was proud to carry the school safety bill this legislative session and within that we've added seven additional positions to our office of school safety Statewide to ensure that our public system is not just able to be held to the highest standard of school safety but there's the appropriate personnel to support School administrators on the ground to reach that level of Excellence that we expect in our school system and that we need for our parents parents to have that sense of security of our schools I was also proud to carry the Department of Environmental Protections package which had an emphasis on Coral ref frustation and we know that that's our first line of defense for storm surge and the future of flooding for our Coastal Community and so I hope to do more this next legislative session on Coral refres duration and our own University of Miami is on The Cutting Edge of that challenge um I also carried the Senate president's uh priority in public school deregulation and what this meant was we were creating an even playing field between our charter schools and our traditional Public Schools The Innovation and opportunity you find so many times in charter schools we want to give that same flexibility and opportunity to directly serve students the way they need to our public school system and we work with administrators work with superintendents across the state to do this and I'm also uh proud to say we worked on uh the live local act in trying to honor the character of our local communities and creating uh changes that honor single family home neighborhoods and understand that we should have reduced height for areas that have a contiguous family single family home communities um similarly we worked on traffic enforcement and red light cameras providing additional processes for open forum for conversation within the community of the placement of new red light cameras all across the State of Florida um these are some of the pieces of legislation I worked on I know that through the budget process this last year although we still need to work with the uh the governor's office and the office of policy and budget on getting across the final red line within the budget we had storm water Improvement uh water quality assessment and sidewalk construction and replacement and while I lean on you all for your priorities this next legislative session and your direction on where we want to go next going through the the first hurdle of getting within the budget is important and so next session we look forward to getting fi across the final stretch and making sure that we work in tandem in our advocacy as legislators and as uh as local leaders to make sure that the needs of our community are crystal clear to all the folks that need to check off on our support um I want to say I'm grateful for the time that you all as a commission have made not just this opportunity to speak with you but in the coming weeks to have conversations about what's important to you all individually um it is my pleasure to work with you and understand at a granular level what's important to our residents and to make sure that our advocacy is uh United on behalf of their needs and the future of Coral Gables and I want to say thank you so much again for the opportunity to address you and to speak with the residents today thank you Senator as always it's great to have you thank you for your advocacy on behalf of our city and and always not only being available for a phone call but always being available for a quick coffee to discuss pressing matters or issues that we could be potentially facing like last week I think we spent close to two hours together and you know again it was very fruitful and I couldn't thank you enough for that time thank you sir looking forward to visiting you in Tallahasse this year also I think we can make some efforts up there and deliver on a few uh pressing matters here in the city yes sir I have one question for you and I think this is something that's on top of mind for everyone in this community and it's something that I know is critically important thing for you and that is the issue of insurance can you can you dig a Little Deeper uh in regards to that uh this community is facing I I talked to a lot of a lot of residents who are concerned about the double digigit increase in Insurance costs we've just had two hurricanes hit Florida uh obviously we wish that it was not the case but this whole state of Florida is going to have to is going to have to absorb the cost um more than over hundred billion dollar are saying potentially the the AL you know the ramifications as a result of these two of these two hurricanes what what is the state legislature and the Senate potentially going to be discussing because I know there isn't anything said in concrete there isn't really any legislation what do you think is the future of of insurance and I'll tell you why 25% of our tax Bay comes from properties in the downtown excuse me not from the downtown I apologies on the Waterway uh you're talking about 27% of our tax space comes from properties in the central business district think about what happens if properties for example on the waterways uh see a massive uptick in regards to Insurance costs I don't have a crystal ball but I think that that would that would result in a reduction in property values because you would see a lot of properties potentially hit the market because the cost would be too much to bear for a lot of people who have lived in those homes for a long time not everybody is living in a new home on the water a lot of people have been there for 10 15 20 30 years so this cost is uh this cost increase is so significant as many of them are in some sort of retirement income or fixed income that what can we do what are we looking at I know you've been working diligently to see if you can find new carriers how the state can can you know be partners with these carriers uh I just see it you know being a road that's going to be increasingly more and more bumpy uh so your guidance or any input because when I talk to them it's it's very easy just to say hey the states got to deal with the states got to deal with it but I want to provide more than just the states to deal with it mhm thank you for the question Mr Mayor it's on top of mine not just in Coral Gable's residence but I think all of South Florida um particularly if you were on citizens no longer on citizens or in some sight of uh the middle portion of that this legislative session we have the opportunity after two years almost two years to understand what changes happened within the property insurance system based on the uh tort reform legislation that passed almost 2 years ago so we have kind of that 18-month look back we've also unfortunately had four massive storms that have hit within that 2-year period And so a part of my priority within this next legislative session and thankfully thankfully we do have a Miami speaker coming in who it's not a senator Kad UD problem it's not a senate problem it's it's a South Florida problem that this is going to be driving unaffordability for our residents so not just is this one of my top priorities and understanding what are the actual tangible changes we can make within our system understanding the regulatory policy change we made two years ago and understanding we're probably going to have additional name storms for the years to come so we're almost going to have to project out this type of billion dollar loss consistently and understanding we have some funds within the catastrophic fund for hurricanes but this is not above $6 billion right we have funding and reserves that we consistently as a fiscally responsible legislature put aside but that's not enough funding for this type of thing we have to sit with experts and understand that what's happening in Florida is unique in the world it's happening in California it's happening in several select nations of the world but this is completely unique and we operate within an international property insurance market in terms of reinsurance and we're simp simply a piece of what an enti a private entity can decide to invest in or not invest in so I say that to say our goal in the legislature this session is to understand the policies that we've already put in place the additional funding that we've had to provide to the southwest Florida in the past what we'll have to provide to Central Florida uh West Central Florida currently we're still recovering from Michael and the Panhandle we have to understand that this is going to to be an continued investment of the Florida legislature to help disaster F help families in disaster year-over-year and understanding at the same time we have additional vulnerabilities of our Coast communities South Florida in my opinion the most vulnerable we have so many people we have so many buildings I think the resiliency the resiliency Investments we have to make are a piece and parcel of this because they can help over time reduce the insurance cost for some of these um homes my commitment is that this is a top issue for me thankfully this I believe is a top issue for uh for speaker Perez and I hope to work in conjunction and I've expressed this to the incoming Senate President that this is our number one issue I see ours because it's residents the conversation you have with residents is is not unique and it's only becoming more intense as these as the either property insurance continues to go up or begins to settle down into single digigit increases but the unaffordability challenge of this on top of cost of living on top of inflation is astronomical particularly for fixed income homes thank you very much Senator mayor mam vice mayor I'm just going to add a little more when we had the opportunity to meet with the insurance commissioner one of the topics that we talked about and representative Mooney spoke about and I spoke about was in the future we need to address the building code and the rest of the State of Florida it was Exempted out you know after herin Andrew and only South Florida adopted the Windstorm ratings that are necessary to withstand the storms that we've historically you know surprisingly seen in Central Florida that they never saw before the the storms in the Panhandle that they never thought that they would experience and therefore didn't adopt the Windstorm ratings so that's one piece of the puzzle and if you look how they build down in a keys and even how they historically built back in the 1800s even out of wood those buildings are still standing despite the number of storm Ms that they with stod and it's because of the engineering that goes into the buildings so um looking forward I think we need to address that in the rest of the state because it's impacting all of us going forward in our insurance rates because every resident in the State of Florida Bears the burden of the higher Insurance costs the reduced availability of insurance carriers willing to step into our state and not understanding that there is a a really uh much more robust building code that that it is enforced actually enforced in in the State of Florida uh south of you know I think Broward County area West Palm Beach uh those Windstorm storm ratings and coupled with that if you don't have proper inspections you can have all the code you want in the rest of the state but one of the factors that was pointed out to me by a structural engineer was the fact that those types of inspections were not incurring so uh improper strapping was used where if it had been done properly we wouldn't have had the devastation that we did and along these coastal areas you know building those bottom floors that can blow out and you can expect them to blow out and the building will still be standing I know there's more than building code that goes into this and way of resilience but I just wanted to highlight that because I think that's a critical piece for the rest of the state to to get up to the standards necessary so if we're going to be building new let's build right you know okay thank you very much for your time coming here thank you Miss vice mayor I I I want to agree and those are conversations that are also being had because the Panhandle is a wonderful example the devastation of Michael was MH took kids out of school for a year and a half yeah even schools couldn't withand hurricanes thank you so much for being here Senator I just wanted to say thank you for how great gracious you were on our two trips to Tallahassee this past year pleas uh as somebody who has been to Tallahassee for 15 years I can tell you the attention that you gave us and making us feel like we were the only people you were meeting with that day goes a long way because a lot of times you're just being rush through meetings but you took the time up to the last second when your staff was like you really need to go to the next meeting uh just to talk to us and and make sure that our priorities were your priorities we could have no better champion in Tallahasse than you thank you so much you really did everything possible to get us the $1.8 million this year uh and I know that was a your pool this year and we appreciate all the efforts you and your staff uh did for our city we're in great hands with you representing us thank you I want to Echo the words of my colleague commissioner Fernandez and um again um you truly represent our city in Tallahassee um um we have no doubt every session that you're going to give it your all and um just to be able to know that we can reach out to you and you give us guidance and you give us you know suggestions on how to proceed on many issues so to have you there it's I think uh all the residents of Coral Gables are blessed to have you representing us thank you so much Senator thank thank you so much for your update it's really such a pleasure to work with you and as I say in my past life before I was a commissioner I was in um field of psychology and I treated children and young adults with disabilities so when it came to employment I was actually training them life coaching them taking them through interviews so if I could be any assistant to you please count with me and I'm looking forward to meeting with you on the 28th thank you so much thank you so much okay thank you um mayor um Dan you still around there you are come back up we have your Proclamation I sorry about that it's on us it's on us um after Dan we'll take a photo with you Senator mam Senator just wait one second we take a photo after uh go there so um I guess like in Godfather 3 just when I just when you thought you were out we pulled you back in so um it's not en large print but I'm going to do my best to read your Proclamation okay okay whereas Miami Daye County Public Schools and those who are employed in these public schools are important and integral parts of our society Dan fur is one such employee and whereas Dan a longtime resident Coral Gables resident sometimes referred to as Mr Coral Gables has devoted 65 years of work at Coral Gable senior high school and whereas Dan began his career at Coral Gable Senior High School in 1958 and during his tenure he has worn many hats including teaching typing Athletic Department business manager School business manager and school counselor and whereas is always the devoted employee Dan was always willing to come in to work uh early work late in order to get the work done or even come in on Saturdays to allow alumni to tour their beloved campus and whereas over the years Dan has seen the school grow and as such he indirectly became the high school's in-house historian and whereas it is altogether fitting and proper that we recognize danor a marquee individual who is well respected and valued by everyone throughout the entire Coral Gable Senior High High School community and Beyond on the occasion of his well-deserved retirement now therefore I Vince SLO as mayor of Coral Gables along with the members of our city commission do hereby Proclaim October 22nd 2024 as danora day in Coral Gables it's official [Applause] [Music] I to go to school well thank you I can't thank you I have it I can p it up come on just for that [Music] Pi moving on to item A4 presentation or Proclamation declaring October 21st 2024 be second October 27th 2024 as author city government weaken Coral Gables by the way item F2 has been deferred ready stop available for item for the city government week all right we'll skip it then item 85 congratulations to City cor Gables for receiving the voice of the people were for excellence in online Outreach good morning Salange good morning again good morning uh so the city recently received the voice of the people award in the category of excellence and online Outreach the voice of the people is an Award presented by uh PCO the company that we do our uh Community survey with but also our transactional surveys and different online Outreach in collaboration with the icma so the international City County management association uh and it celebrates the city's commitment to uh Innovative resident engagement and data driven decision-making the voice of the people awards are in their 16th year and are the only national awards recognizing local governments based on Resident feedback we received the award um because of the way that we've leveraged the tools that PCO uh offers us by conducting interactive surveys across various departments from the uh trolley satisfaction survey that writers can take once they're on the trolley which we have signs up in English and Spanish the police department has done their transactional surveys through that uh platform as well development services has been going on for almost two years now with great results so these transactional surveys collect real-time feedback from the residents to help improve services such as like I mentioned the permitting public transportation and other community events we use it to get feedback from our residents uh from our restaurants and businesses after we do uh different engagements like taste The Gables to hear what they think what worked what didn't and actively increase and change our programming uh the trolley service survey uh captures insights like I mentioned directly from the W from the writers and development services uh has gotten consistent customer satisfaction uh receipts of 88% of respondents reporting High satisfaction since that survey has been ongoing uh additionally we were able to use and leverage this tool last year during the holidays for the uh holiday window contest that we did for our businesses and that received 24 th000 resident responses uh it was one of their highest response rates on on PCO for a poll like that they actually did a case study uh on it so we're we're really proud uh to have been recognized through PCO and the icma for for this award that's amazing congratulations great work great work to the team just a reflection of all the hard work that you put forth so thank you for that thank you thank you you have you have a yes they they mailed us the certificate since we weren't able to attend the icma conference they held it in Pittsburgh um this year but they mailed us over the certificate so that we can present it to you as the commission let's take a photo take a photo come [Music] on for moving on to item 86 the next item we'll take is a Time certain item 86 congratulations driver engineer John Jensen recipient of the City of Coral Gable firefight of the month award for the month of September 2024 Chief good morning good morning everyone good morning morning morning good morning mayor ladies and gentlemen of the commission for our firefighter of the month uh I think that he exemplifies uh work ethic dependability and uh mentorship but for that I'd ask uh deputy chief Hernandez to please introduce him to us yeah it's a privilege to introduce John Jensen to our September firefight of the month John's been with our department now for 24 years in these 24 years he's been a a go-to firefighter he's a subject matter expert in many many topics related to the fire service and really outside of the fire service some will refer to him as a walking encyclopedia literally I mean he has knowledge on just about anything you can think of um he was nominated by his peers for several reasons and I'm going to try to just summarize them um briefly but um recently this year earlier this year we purchased two new fire trucks John was instrumental in equipping the fire truck mounting equipment on these trucks and creating inventory sheets for for all the other drivers and Fir fighters to use to check the truck daily um he's we have a robust air technician program we do not have a lead Airtech in this program but everyone knows that John is the lead Air Tech of this program whether it's the administration or all the other air techs we refer we call on John whenever there's any question related to the air technician program um most recently there was a uh an incident that occurred in a in a parking garage I think it made national news a vehicle crashed and was hanging there by a by a tree saved that vehicle um John was what many say the MVP of that incident he was behind the scenes um he's the one that um created the rig the grip hoist to lower that firefighter that was able to execute that rescue um like in football the quarterback get to Glory the person hanging in that rope that executed the rescue gets to Glory but he was a person behind the scenes and everywhere you looked there was JN doing something instrumental to make that scene successful and it's really for all these reasons that John's are fire for the month for September and I'm happy to uh introduce him right now congratulations thank you Gil there a lot of kind words um uh I'd like to say that we trained to do what we did on that that day for that lady and every day that I do something for the guys on the department creating truck check sheets I just want to make the job easier and pass on the knowledge to them so they have a great career for the rest of their lives that's about it so thank you very much for this appreciate it congratulations well deserved thank [Applause] you Chie let take a photo [Music] squeeze we're going to be going back to item A4 Fernando good morning sir morning mayor vice mayor Commissioners Fernando weer government Affairs manager for the city on behalf of of the city we have the items A4 a presentation or Proclamation declaring October 21st 2024 through October 27th as Florida city government week in Coral Gables I'll read the proclamation into the record in large print um whereas city government is the government closest to most of its citizens and the one with the most direct daily impact upon its residents and whereas municipal government provides services and programs that enhance the quality of life for its citizenry making their entire city their home whereas city government is administered for and by its citizens and is dependent upon on public commitment to and understanding of its many responsibilities and whereas Florida city government week offers an important opportunity for elected officials and City staff to spread the word to all citizens of Florida that they can shape and influence this branch of government and whereas the Florida League of cities and its member cities have joined together to teach our citizens about municipal government through a variety of activities now therefore I Vince SLO as mayor of the city of Cor Gables along with the members of our city commission to hereby Proclaim October 21 through the 27th 2024 as Florida city government week and Coral Gables thank you so much mayor thank you and obviously accepting this on behalf of all the city employees and the state's employees at large also I was told we're having ice cream in honor of this on Thursday so that everybody knows awesome awesome thank you very much thank you um item B1 regular City commission meeting September 24th I have entertain a motion Mo second Mr clerk all in favor I I thank you B2 regular City commission meeting October 8 2024 I'll move it second all in favor thank you perfect Now we move forward to public comment very quickly U Mr clerk on items after I'm done with public comment I'm going to take the the 10:00 a.m. time certain and then immediate after that I'm going to take the item F3 so the individuals that are thinking about speaking in public Comon on in regards to item F3 if you wait maybe 10 minutes you can have that conversation is that fine or you want to or you want to leave your comments now and then you can and you because you got to get going okay perfect all right so first speaker in public comments this morning Mr Mayor is Tom Wells Mr Wells good morning good morning by the way also congratulations on your I want to formally congratulate you it was a pleasure to see you uh this weekend um at the pickle tournament you know I heard that you have incredible news to to bestow on on the city so first off why don't we start off with a positive a positive and show everybody that the amazing amazing Hardware that you'll be wearing I heard you actually wore it yesterday to work at your law office is that true or no uh see CL my three minutes is not yet started not yet started we're going to give you we're going to give you we're going to give you we're going to give you more than enough time don't worry we we let everybody talk so go ahead tell me okay so my name is Tom Wells I live at 13 10 cor away I came to complain about Senor Martinez not being open for 8 months um and I think it's because they didn't pull a permit for 13 months after the lease was signed and they weren't issue a permit 16 and a half months after the lease was signed but enough with a bad vibes yes I want to thank the the commission and all the volunteers uh for raising $330,000 for the Ronald McDonald house this weekend at the billmore with the pickle ball um and and I also want to thank the 30 to 40 Coral Gabriels residents who show up every Tuesday and Thursday to the youth center to play pickle ball which helped me win the over 50 3.5 uh pickle ball um uh uh doubles championship in men's thank you um I I I believe what's going on at this at the youth center is the most active Coral Gables weekly uh uh process going on right now and I want to continue that um so and also thank you the commission to having that the builtmore is fabulous Friday sucked with the rain but s was brilliant and um I also want to thank uh the mayor uh uh the mayor and the vice mayor for showing up at the event and saying some kind words thank you quick question you didn't answer your word on Monday at the law office that's what I heard but I also want to understand you said you were a 3.5 is that sandbagging or is that because I heard that you were a 394 that's what I heard and you were playing below just to make sure that you could you could win that first place that's what I heard you know there are too many false facts in politics right now for me to address that so you're not a 35 you're you're admitting you're a four on duper rating uh I am 3.48 also I want to thank the city clerk for not playing in my division CU had he played in my Division I would not have won can I ask you another question yes sir sir besides being a great athlete the clerk wasn't the clerk the best dressed pickle ball player there and I spent a few hours there with the vice mayor so I saw every single person he was the guy that you thought he was going to win the biggest trophy I by his appearance he went on the court I didn't see him on the court oh you didn't see him on the court I saw him on the court well that must have been a different tournament so thank you for not playing my tournament problem thank you so so next year we're going to do you know special competition we're going to have you against the clerk okay I don't play I I'll be play I'll play next year in the over 60 group yes if Billy plays with Rhonda and I play with Vince we're gonna Crush you guys thank you thank you sir I'll get practicing who we have next Maria Cruz good morning Mrs Maria Cruz 1447 Miller Road I have my little it's a great day in the city of K was so far so good so far so good let's see if we can last the whole meeting this way um this is the day the Lord has made let us rejoice and be glad in it and guys you have a lot of people here listen carefully to them because they are the ones that need to be heard Mr Clerk Jackson Holmes good morning sir greetings um City commission city leaders citizens uh I'm afraid to give this a public comment uh so I want to apologize Upfront for my trespasses because I should be wearing a jacket it's at home uh I should be better organized in the presentation they only allow me one video uh so it's a little bit shocking but let me get right into it I'm afraid there is a danger now of nuclear war uh starting with the Israel Iran conflict and I I'll go quickly to the video which is a very shocking video but then I urge the people of Coral Gables we are powerful people to write uh the Congress people and say ceasefire now and I urge you all considering the downside if we don't do anything uh to consider a ceasefire resolution 100 other cities have done this can we do the video uh cable TV can put up the video please it's muted yeah no audio Scott Ritter was the the fellow who exposed her there were no weapons of mass destruction in the Iraq War we never should have gone into that war because there were he's the guy who blew the whistle there were were no weapons of mass destruction to justify seems we were having issues with the video Mr holes with the audio yes so let's we'll try to figure it out and then come back okay thank you sir M Hal good morning good morning everybody thank you for having me here I have to say first of all everybody who's here in support of pickle ball because I know you're all not going to speak could you just stand up if you don't mind please so we've got all these people here I know Tom's here too but I also wanted to ask everybody here who has played pickle ball to stand up because I I I think it's a lot of you is it on which side of the which side of the Das there you go Melissa you've play I'm sorry commissioner no no you can call me Melissa is there is there an expiration date I played back in the 70s and ' 80s no expiration date absolutely so I have to tell you this man is the comeback King I watched him play on Saturday and he was down but he wasn't out he fought fought fought and came back and won a game against these like 19y olds who were I don't know they were like Jack in the beant stock tall and they were they were amazing and so congratulations I'm sorry you didn't win any medals but that was awesome Tom congratulations I didn't know so that's wonderful that's wonderful to hear um we also had at this uh at this wonderful tournament on Saturday we had our mayor our vice mayor there said some kind words um helped raise the $30,000 for the Ronald McDonald House that I know of this is the third tournament charity tournament that they've done at the builtmore and they run really smoothly I'd like to say yes obviously in part it's part of the management company that's running it but I'd like to say too it's this beautiful venue we have here in Coral Gables and I urge you and I don't have it in my presentation only because I found out this morning um Mr Mayor I think you were interviewed by mugs Rodriguez for base to pickle so the video is going to be out very soon so if you follow Bas to pickle because they went from baseball to pickle ball I guess is the thing um base to pickle they're going to have a a whole video on it on YouTube and it's announced on on Instagram so if you go to that but I wanted to talk to you today about the state of pickle ball courts in Coral Gables and I have a presentation which I emailed to all of you and in front of you um yeah what do I do I don't know I'm sorry here this is not the class I took with Mr fur Okay um so the next one Mr cler while she's loading can you also make sure that this presentation is made available as a public record yes yeah so anybody that wants to enjoy it can can review it so briefly I'm not going to go through this but back in the fall of 2022 to the sitting Commission at that time the commission asked the re re's Department to report on pickle ball and pickle ball courts um Fred cero came back with a presentation we found out that that was coming to the city to the commission and we came in with a presentation about the demand um you know later that year the Youth Center Courts started to come online that we share with the outdoor basketball courts um during the off hours in last summer in June 23 there was a request for capital on the capital Improvement budget which was denied um in June July of that year I went to each of you and came to the full commission talking about temporary and permanent structures and again we didn't have any action taken at that time um Faller 23 we had a lot of discussions about uh parking garages a lot of discussions about parking garages and the feasibility study came in early this year we had some Ada and bathroom issues um so we couldn't do it in that one parking garage spring of 2024 there was the idea floated about taking um part of the youth center field pickle ball players do not want to take from children's Sports and that's really important for for everybody out there to hear and I know you guys have heard us but it's really important for us not to take from other sports um May of 2024 I wheeled myself in my wheelchair into some of your offices and presented an updated plan again for temporary Court while we build some permanent courts nothing's happened and now we have approved by you uh 500 ,000 for a plan uh for pickle ball courts the issue is we need eight dedicated centralized lit pickle ball courts now to meet the demand um we've looked at a lot of options right parking and we've talked and talked about these things parking garages land across University Drive from the Youth Center um the land owned by um at granard and ponds kdik family park the the Kik Tennis Center the builtmore the Northern end of Country Club pra at Southwest 8 Street all of these involve some pain it's nuns perfect everything we do here is not going to be perfect for every single one of our residents some more than others and and I say that because I was I personally I was distressed listening to the last commission meeting it felt like that was a day to take some Jabs at at at pickle ball from um some residents and I I I was distressed by that so I wanted to make sure we did something positive here we can't keep kicking this down the road you have a substantial block of residents and I'm going to give you the numbers in a minute asking for courts without a centralized pickle ball court we will miss opportunities for holding pickle ball tournaments like we had last week um and we may also lose the opportunity to make maybe host some um you know professional things that may be coming down the road some professional events I would invite you all by the way if you don't know Major League pickle ball the world players are in town this weekend they're playing out at tamami Park so if you want to come see me and I'll I'll help you get um you know some tickets and we'll see what we can do with that um like I said that I know of we've run three charity events at the Belmore that have turned out really well I'd like us to have some publicly funded courts um pickle ball taxpayer dollars pickle ball players taxpayer dollars are good um so I I don't think a private public partnership is necessarily what we're looking for and our Recreation Department our community recreation department needs guidance from you all they need you need to tell them you all need to tell them which way to go with this so let me just give you some updates on something back when I came here in October of 22 we talked about about that Coral Gable would reach 1640 players by 2024 and 2200 plus players by 2025 we were wrong we were totally wrong because we reached that 2200 players in the city last year okay these are the numbers from the Sports and Fitness industry Association these are numbers on all sports and participation in all sports 7.7% of the US public plays tennis 7.7% 4.4% plays pickle ball um and by the way I'm using tennis as a comparison one because you know we both take up real estate in the city um as people age out of tennis they come into pickle ball young people are flocking to pickle ball and you'll see the numbers um much more than to tennis right now but I want this also clear I don't want to take we don't want to take formal playing time from tennis either okay they have we have by applying these numbers that the um this report gives us we have 3,800 plus tennis players in the city 2200 pickle ball players and we have 32 tennis courts in the city two dedicated um pickle ball courts if the proportions work out right we should have 18 pickle ball courts in the city which we don't um we do have two dedicated and five shared Courts at the youth center which has worked out really well for us and as as Tom said we have tons of people coming up there let me give you um basically some numbers they did a survey over two and a half weeks in early June of this year and with 268 players who showed up 173 of them were residents so you know I know a lot of people say there's a lot of non-residents there there are but that that random 2 and a half weeks 59 non-residents 70 173 residents and 36 people who had no IDs um we do have I know plans for new Courts at Phillips um 500,000 for we have the funds for the dedicated Courts at Phillips Park and then we also have the additional funds for plans in this in this budget but tennis is growing at 1% pickle ball is growing at 51% a year 223% growth in the last three years alone which is just un unprecedented um the other thing that's happening with pickle ball is high school and I don't have this data point here but we are getting clubs at all the high schools Coral Gable's high school has a club um coral reef has a club I know at their interest meeting they had 150 kids show up M for their Club not this isn't even a team Columbus has 150 kids in their Club balen has just around a 100 kids in their clubs also College scholarships are coming down the road we need to provide a similar infrastructure for pickle ball young players to get them to the level where hopefully you know it can be the same thing that they do with tennis that they can go to D1 D2 D3 schools with with these um skills that they have and so in in close in I just I don't know where I'm going okay in closing with this growth Trend the number of pickle ball players are going to equal the number of tennis players in less than three years we need to meet current and projected demand we need to provide programming leagues clinics camps for our children and our adults and so we respectfully ask for all of you to meet our recreational needs in the pickle ball Community thank you any questions I do follow us follow us on Instagram by the way um at Coral Gables pickle bable at Coral Gables pickable couple couple questions couple comments um looks like you added some pages since you sent us this presentation no no okay no I changed some of the things that you pointed out the typo okay thank you no no I just happen to spot it uh I'll have to make sure I turn the rest of the pages it was great speaking to you on Saturday you know we walked uh the area that I think is a viable location um it's actually room for at least eight if not more Court I agree uh we spoke about doing um you know a private fundraiser it's not really a city event but the city would accommodate I spoken to our um director of parks asking for February or March he'll get back with us and you know we can work together on this and and get it done because I think there's you know the energy to do it the willingness to do it and if we work together we can get it done um sooner rather than later and you know uh it's quite quite a group I heard from the uh clerk that that was the best attended event the Ronald McDonald event that ever occurred and it would be nice if we could before the next Ronald McDonald event have something out there um you know permitting and building and construction cost and you know getting drawings done and stuff I'm not sure we're going to meet that goal but certainly by the year afterwards I would hope that we could do something uh you know we're happy happy to work with all of you to to do what we need to get done well you know it's it's uh I went back out uh to the pumpkin patch with Ronald McDonald flyers and I had my I donated sticker on and when I I saw someone that I knew was that I knew number one and and was a type of person that uh is willing to give I was approaching them and saying hey here's a good cause I was out there earlier please think about doing it because with the r McDonald House does such wonderful things for children and her families that are going through the most difficult times of their life so um you know I I think the network of folks that we have that are interested in pickle ball can do the similar spreading the word reach out to those they know see if they can you know make a donation a sponsorship whether it's uh was it Tito uh vodka vodka you know you have you have people that watch because they know that they shouldn't be out there on the court and then you and you have others that that love to participate and we'll we'll get our clerk out there again maybe I can egg the mayor to join me I I'll be in better shape next year listen I was impressed I was I was I was impressed by our our hitting we had a we had a good time out there might I'm going to be brief again I wanted to say thank you uh to you I got to really enjoy spending time with you you know for the few hours that we were out there but I was really impressed with the amount of people that were out there it was amazing uh the setting like you said was incredibly incredibly fitting it was exceptional uh the sponsors I've been working with Ronald McDonald House from few years now and it's a great cause so the synergies between Ronald McDonald and the the individuals that we met from from that put together the actual pickle ball tournament were first class they did it they did it the right way they did it they did it really well and they understood the importance of of the giving back portion you know everybody loves to play pickle ball that's great but people were were there in Mass to support pickle ball but also support this great charity and it was really nice to see that you know everybody understood that so but it was great to spend time and kind of look at a little bit about what what's the future going to look like for pickle ball in the city and what's the opportunity of it and and also to speak to a lot of Advocates um in the community who are interested from all walks of life you know we had we had a lot of people that were not from Coral Gables there who came to our community and they said listen we we always love to come to the city of cor Gables because you have the best facilities because you have the best you know opportunity for recreation and for family funds so thank you for your for your advocacy on that front Okay well I hope this information will be helpful to you and I want to thank you for all the work you put into this I know this wasn't easy to get all these statistics and all this information um but I I think it just continues to um Drive our interest in ensuring that we have these pickle ball uh facilities here in in our city uh like you said we finally have money in the budget for this fiscal year uh to begin addressing this and uh it's not only about the adults it's also about the children uh you and I have had many conversations my son Stephen had a project in school where he had to say what his hobby was and it was pickleball uh you know Pokémon and pickle ball and um the children are looking for it well we did the event here at the farmers market this year we had tons of people and tons of children who came out wanting to experience pickle ball and that's the future generation of our pickle ball community and we need to make sure we have the facilities for them as well so I think you have the commitment from everybody up here to get this done this year all right I just want to mention your recovery is amazing yeah I'm doing pretty well I saw how you you know remember how you hobbled and wheeled around and it's it's Testament to what pickle bull can do I was in Fair shape before and I think that's helped and I'm working hard at it I hope to be back out there on the courts in January that's the goal good thank you thank you m good to see you again Mr clerk Jennifer FR good morning good morning hey good morning all um Jennifer uh 621 Mina just wanted to let you all know that my husband and I play a lot of Golf and Tennis over at grada but we just started playing pickle ball in November here at the youth center and we attend religiously on Tuesdays and Thursdays for open play and when we first started I'll admit it was like you know a bunch of people like me sweaty older and now like really within the last few months I'm seeing kids I'm seeing teen teenagers are playing there's a lot of 20-year-olds oh my gosh they play so well but the great thing is that it brings the community together and we all play together so a lot of things here especially golf you know you see like a certain age bracket with pickle ball we've got kids we got teenagers we have older people and we just all have such a great time and I feel like a real sense of community so I pray that um the commission will find some space for us for dedicated pck wall sport thank you thank you very much muchad yes good morning sir good morning ladies and gentlemen uh my name is yes the microphone my name isad yes resident of corg for 35 years I wanted to thank you for remodeling the um the pickable court they great and I want to comment that we need more um like the previous speaker said it's an opportunity to bring it brings people together um and we need more more more people and I want to emphasize it has to be open none of that having to what time you're going to go no no I go whenever I can I'll be there whe whether it's 8 8:30 9 whether I leave at one time we overlap and that's how it works that's how you have uh young uh people playing with old people um different genders different ethnicity and I think that's a good thing I think George Merrick would be happy and proud of um of that this you know his role in his inspiration in building a community building a city and that's what a city is about thank you and humbly we need more thank you thank you sir Toba tidle bom how are you good morning good morning how are you as you can tell from my attire I'm a pickle ball player I've been playing now for a little less than a year and it's an incredible place I go to the youth center and I've made so many friends showing up people of all ages go there it's a place that brings Community together which we desperately need in today's time there's a loneliness epidemic and if you show up to the youth center I guarantee you'll make a friend um and I've passed by in on the evening in the evenings of uh Tuesday and Thursday with my bike and there are definitely not enough courts there's a massive line of people waiting to play so I implore you to please find space for us so we have enough courts to accommodate our community thank you so much thank you Carl Leon Prime is he on the phonee in person he was here he's right there Prime how are you sir good morning uh good morning everyone good morning uh let's see let's dispense with this part Carl Leon Prime 141 Florida Avenue uh good morning to all the distinguished members of the Das that way I don't have to take forever to do this I came here this morning just to give credit where it's due and for primarily the inclusion of our neighborhoods the Golden Gate and historic uh McFarland and all of the events and activities coming up to the uh centennial celebration you know we truly appreciate the level of input that would uh allowed us with the artwork that's coming up and will be put there and also an inclusion in the oral histories you know we have to remember what our history is sometimes we have to be reminded that oops we overlooked a little bit of this but in the end you know make sure that it's always reflected and as no and I'd like to leave one parting thought for you today as you continue with your business remember keep peace as a constant companion thank you thank you sir good to see you thank you going to go to zoom next Mr Mayor first speaker is Laura Malai good morning good morning mayor vice mayor commissioners neighbors thank you commissioner Castro for adding F10 discussion regarding the crosswalk at intersection of Pon Leon Boulevard and Stanford Drive to the agenda my name is Laura Malay and I live at 1205 maraposa Avenue with my husband and seven-year-old daughter we moved to Coral Gables in September of last year and intentionally chose our home because of its proximity to our daughter's school West lab located next to the University of Miami our family values healthy living and we walk and our ride our bikes or travel via Metro to get to school work shopping Etc we intentionally avoid driving so as not to contribute to the excessive traffic in our community in fact it's often faster not to drive to get wherever we need to go so we bike our daughter to and from school every day and this commute involves crossing over Dixie Highway via the pedestrian bridge which we are so grateful for near the University metro station we then Head Up The Pedestrian and cycling path known as the M path and cross Stanford Drive in front of the University of Miami every single day we have been unable to safely cross this intersection either on the way to school or during pickup in the late afternoon cars are always blocking this crosswalk we have asked motorists to move their vehicles into other available Lanes on Stanford towards the Dixie light and have been argued with and mocked we are often stuck in the center of the crosswalk when the light changes and cars are speeding toward us from both directions it is unsafe and we fear for our lives every day we have noticed a police presence for the first time in the past few days and hope that will continue until a permanent solution is found this is not just an issue for our family but for everyone that uses the path other children that may ride or walk to school University students and others using the path for commuting or exercising once the underlined redesign is complete many more will be utilizing this path too including all of you pickle ball users um who will be taking advantage of the Pineland Court complex near corillo and the university and westlb please what can be done to make this intersection safe for pedestrians and cyclists thank you thank you very much next speaker Robert ruano good morning sir good morning mayor Vice mayor Commissioners good morning Robert Rano 1544 Merc Avenue I'd like to say first of all that I am a private resident 24e um Coral Gables resident uh I do not belong to any special interest group as some people have said um I was uh a co-founder of bike wild Coral Gables which still exists and had a wonderful tour this past week and I was at one point on the transportation Advisory board but I've since left those because unfortunately when you get inv involved in things like this people start thinking that you're part of some group and some agenda in my case my agenda is safety and so I'd like to share with you a piece that's in the community newspapers right now and will soon be be on there uh in print um and I'll read it to you in case you haven't heard the latest tagline for road safety is Vision zero an initiative where US cities and states commit to ending roadway fatalities and serious injuries by a certain date recently adopted in Coral Gables Vision zero intends to end all deaths or serious injuries on all roads within the City by 2050 the Gable's resolution states that the city manager is responsible for developing and implementing a plan to achieve these results this means at 26 years from now no one should die from a head-on collision lose their leg in a bike crash be run over by a car while walking on a sidewalk or be killed while riding in a scoop T in a crosswalk all which have happened in Coral Gables in The Last 5 Years it was the last incident the death of Daniel Bishop a popular senior at the University of Miami set to graduate this past June that may have pushed this commission to adopt his vision zero policy a month after his death while six months have passed since Coral gaes committed to Vision zero it's unclear what the city has done in this regard for Daniel who was commuting to school on a scooter the city has not moved forward with plans to provide protected routes for students to get to the university or for pedestrians like my friend Jeff who was a victim of a hit and run while walking on a sidewalk is the city ready to make all new sidewalks as safe as possible the reality is that many cities across the country are committing to Vision zero because without doing so they will be ineligible for millions in Federal Transportation dollars for those funds they need to commit to end deaths and serious injuries by a certain date but also commit to a vision zero mentality this is where cities including Coral Gables struggle in the words of a local activist the city has a better than nothing attitude when it comes to pedestrians cycling infrastructure it is this mindset along with the night and my backyard mentality that cities will continue to face after the vision zero declarations because voting yes on that document is just the beginning of the process for any City especially Coral Gables to truly achieve what they they their goal they need to see Vision zero as a new way forward not a tagline if we're serious about ending Road debts particularly for people walking cycling or scootering we have to build the infrastructure that will result in safer outcomes if this new mentality takes shape everyone benefits not just with less car traffic but with safer streets when we can let our kids ride bikes or walk safely with protected paths especially to the university we can put an end to the tragedies like the one that happened to Daniel Bishop and the others over the years on our streets if anybody would look learn more they should go to visionz network.org thank you thank you Mr Mayor I'm going to try to share uh Mr Holmes video one more time okay and I'll try doing it through zoom and see if it makes a difference cable TV could put up my computer oh there it is into every cell in my body um that we are all going to die if there's a nuclear war and if we don't change the policies that we have in place today there will be a nuclear war so your death is inedible I'm speaking to dead people now normally that's a normal statement we all will die none of us are Immortal um but I'm speaking to people who are going to die unnatural deaths every person listening here will die on unnatural death if we allow these policies to continue but it's gotten even more dangerous because um something that hasn't been heralded in the Press um is the fact that Iran is now a nuclear power now Iran hasn't admitted this in so many words but statements consecutive statements made by senior Iranian officials have certified that the fatwa that has been in existence since ay's time um is subject to reversal under certain circumstances and one of those circumstances is when the enemy seeks to use a type of weapon against you you can use that type of weapon against the enemy Israel has nuclear weapons Israel is threatening to attack Iran's nuclear weapons facilities as Helga mentioned uh these facilities many of them are not conducive to conventional strike so therefore if you're threatening to strike the facilities to take them out you're threatening to use weapons capable of accomplishing that mission which means you're threatening to attack Iran with nuclear weapons that is a statement of fact it's not up for debate um it's just a ask Donald Trump why he changed the American uh nuclear employment uh posture when he was president um and the reason why is he had to incorporate two new categories of nuclear weapons that were capable of destroying Iran's nuclear facility one is a a variant of the b61 bomb which is a gravity bomb dropped by certain American aircraft including the B2 bomber this b61 variant was adapted to be a bunker Buster to have penetration capability um specifically designed to destroy Iran's underground nuclear facilities uh we built the weapon we deployed the weapon and we have plans to use the weapon so when you hear Donald Trump the candidate say uh Israel should hit Iran's nuclear sites what he's saying is Israel should nuke Iran's nuclear sites because the only way you can hit Iran's nuclear sites is to use a nuclear weapon and he can't claim ignorance on the matter because he personally signed off on the adaptation of America's nuclear employment plan to incorporate weapons that were are nuclear in nature because they're the only weapons to take out the fa so he is encouraging Israel to Sir H that asked me to share 2 minutes and 40 seconds yeah perfect so if anyone wants more information on this you can get it on my YouTube channel Jackson rip Holmes um let's face it we all brag about how Coral Gables is one of the top cities in the United States that we make a difference and I think that the citizens uh probably feel the same way I do I urge you to write to your uh Congress people and I urge you all it's it's a very tough thing that I'm asking of you but consider a city ceasefire resolution 100 other C the the public opinion polls show that the citizens support a ceasefire thank you thank you sir Mr cler that's it Mr Mayor all right perfect um I have a motion in regards to the consent agenda I'll move it second uh does anyone wishes additional discussion or review of any other item on the consent agenda no all in favor I I thank you we move on to item F4 it's a Time certain I apologize for being a few moments late at for as a presentation regarding freebie and a possibility for expansion I ask Claudia to come up and do a presentation on freebie and um and then I'll go ahead and discuss what the future plans look like and maybe we can come into agreement to what is the next step thank you uh good morning Mr Mayor vice mayor esteemed members of the commission Claudia Mido vice president of Business Development and government Affairs for freebie with offices at 371 Northeast 61st Street Miami 33137 um thank you so much for having me today I do have a presentation if I could please come up um is this the clicker yes okay good um so yeah so I wanted to come here and give you an an update on our um on our service I will say um I have great news everything is running very smoothly um with the freebie service here in The Gables area as you all know we recently um upgraded the vehicles from the gem vehicles or the golf cart type vehicles to the Tesla Model X um and so what we have been saying as a recommendation to the city for years for to was to upgrade to the vehicle because it would um decrease weight times and increase ridership and that's exactly what we're seeing so we're very happy um to see that um I plan on being very uh brief here and just kind of going over the high level uh points of the service so I'm going to kind of Breeze through this just to again to provide the update and touch on the high level points when the service first started it was started um with the goal of um you know the street streetscape project was going on it had taken the you know the sidewalk project on Miracle Mile had taken a little bit longer uh than expected and a lot of the business were being affected so freebie was brought in to connect the residents to those businesses to help them keep their doors open um and so freebie operates you know within the commercial District on Miracle Mile down on Pon Leone and that has been the use I also say the majority of the riders for the service are residents so we are serving our residents um again um what you will see here is the um the hours of service so we recently changed the service again this was all prompted by some of the um recommendations that came from the data freebie does provide every city with a uh dashboard a live dashboard and that data is um is valuable because we are able to take that data and then make data driven decisions um the service are our hours are um Monday through Sunday now uh Monday through Thursday it is 10: to 9:00 p.m. and on Friday and Saturday we're going 10: to 12:00 p.m. where before we used to go 10:00 a.m. to 10: p.m. so again some of the feedback that we got from the community that likes to go out to Miracle Mile to the restaurants and stay out to dinner a little bit later maybe have an extra drink an appetizer just simply take a stroll along beautiful Miracle Mile so the service does run till 12:00 p.m. um uh till 12:00 a.m. midnight uh with a reminder that every time the service ends it always does Last Ride 15 minutes before um and I want to share different little things like that that are going to help our residents get the majority um the best benefit of have of using the freebie service um and then on Sundays we're running from 10: to 7:00 p.m. before we used to run to 10: to 10: but the data showed us that after a certain hour the ridership was dropping off so again we strive to offer a service that moves or that works in the way that the community actually needs it and that the community actually uses it so some of these changes were made the the vehicles that we have we have five Tesla Model x's and that is the the current map that we have right now it is an OnDemand door-to-door Transportation um freebie serves as a first and last mile to help folks who you know maybe want to take the trolley and don't want you know can't walk two or three blocks to get to to the trolley a lot of our seniors that might have trip hazards on the sidewalk along the way um use it as a first mile Last Mile uh service to our wonderful trolley service here in the City of Coral Gables um this is annual uh ridership data that we have now this data is a year this is from um October of last year to September 30th of this year 74,000 passengers were served that's a wonderful number an average of one half people per ride you're talking about over 50,000 rides that are completed um you know o over 50% of the Riders are are female 49% are male also um very important is weight times um it's important to note that freebie operates in many cities but each City dictates the weight time for um their residents and so the average weight time here in Coral Gables has been set to 10 minutes uh currently we're operating at about an average of 11.6 minutes um and but here it'll show you that out of you know all the riders that uh took freebie 56.9% of them waited 0 to 10 minutes 22 10 to 15% uh 10 to 15 minutes um so over 70% of folks you know waited less than 15 minutes and uh when you look at the over 30 minute wait you're talking about 1.9% that's great and again it's also normal understanding that every city is going to have what we call call a peak time here in Coral Gables and it's on one of my slides our peak time is 11: to 4: folks coming to you know down to Miracle Mile they're going to have lunch late lunch Etc um a lot of the folks go to the supermarket The public's there on leune um that's one of the high writing points um again our our driver rating is 4.9 that's very positive by the way we also have the ability to rate a a a rider so if you have maybe a rider that comes up and you know maybe throws up in the vehicle or something like that we have the ability to rate them we have the ability to put them on warning um and also restrict their R if it's something that's egregious and continues the apps um app requested rides 86% of our folks are very app friendly they're techsavvy they're uh requesting the rides through the app we've got 14% flagging it down if you see a freebie flag it down and um the ridership you have the majority of the ridership um coming from our over 51 uh age range followed by the 21 to 34 and then I'm sorry yeah 21 to 34 and then 35 to 50 and then under 20 it's 5.9% so it's great you get to see who's riding but you see everyone is riding all the different age rages are riding freebie um so when we did this upgrade now you'll see we started and um if you look at the ridership average ridership when we were using the the gem vehicle was um 5,800 average monthly Riders 72% of those Rides Again waiting under 15 minutes now when we brought in the switch we initially started with the um the Y vehicles that we were doing at the same cost as the gem to try out the service that moved up to 6,500 Riders per month so 70 77% of the Riders were up under 15 minutes and the it was a 12% increase in ridership when we switched from the Gen vehicles to the Tesla Y and then when we switched again to the model X Vehicles which is what we have now you saw ridership increase again to 7200 so it's an 80% um of the rides under 15 minutes it's a 24% over overall increase from going from the gem vehicle to the Tesla Model um X vehicle ridership increased by 24% and that is a very positive number also share with you that we are heading back to those pre-pandemic numbers as far as ridership is concerned I know the city is seeing the same thing with the trolley so it's good news that folks are feeling comfortable going back to public transit um again some of the the you know the the the pros and cons of the vehicle that we had before it was a 45 minute you know to to charge it it could only go 65 miles where it takes only 30 minutes to charge a test done it could go 275 miles without having to go back for a charge so almost all day our vehicles can go uh without charging should also know that we've implemented ride pairing um Auto uh optimization which is really Auto pair and that basically means we have this amazing technology which is um you know proprietary algorithms that you know let's say you know commissioner Anderson requests a r and then commissioner Castro requests a ride we have the ability to say well we don't want commissioner um Anderson to be I'm sorry vice mayor Anderson to be in the car for more than 10 minutes so it'll just drop her off before they pick up you know commissioner Castro but if it makes sense and it's the more efficient the algorithm is going to do what's more efficient this is ride share but as long as it makes sense we're not pulling rides just to pull rides we do pull rides so sometimes you're going to see that your wait time goes from 6 minutes to 10 minutes because someone else requested a ride and it just makes sense to pick them up and pull the ride based on the location of the request and the location of the destination um again um headways 11.6 minutes customer satisfaction is doing very well again your peak times I mentioned are 11: to 4: Monday through Thursday and then on Friday and Saturday peak times are 4: to 9 and on Sunday those peak times are 1 to 5 uh we've gotten great feedback from um the the Riders and again it's been we're very happy with the way that the service is going we continue to work hand inand with your transportation department I gave this update to the tab last week as well so we are very committed to working hand inhand with you and you know listening to your feedback listening to the feedback of the Riders we pass that feedback back from our from our drivers to our performance managers back to your city staff and the transportation so that we keep you there um you know where you want to you want to know where everybody's going well this is the heat maps and you see that a lot of folks are going to the grocery store the condos on builtmore way a lot of ridership is coming from there the r restaurants the bars the shops on Miracle Mile um again the technology we have we're able to really pinpoint and this is kind of something that it looks like it shows you how many people in real time you can see how many people have taken the freebie so far how many people are currently waiting what is that average weit time and any other kpis that the city wants us to track we're happy to add them for you um with the rides and reports are given to the city at the beginning of every month even if they don't go into the live dashboard so again just keeping you apprised of everything that's happening there we're super happy with the environmental impact that we've had here and uh the uh the CO2 that's been saved is over 2.4 million um translates into over 7,000 miles um great great great uh news for the economy here and we're very very uh sustainability conscious here at freebie and U and that basically concludes you know my um my presentation I am here um to answer any questions any recommendations that you may have um and just again you know we've had a lot of feedback from the residents that they're happy with the service they want to expand to more areas um and again you know we're here to serve you and of course Implement any any recommendations that you have for us so thank Claudia thank you Claudia thank you so so much for your presentation I think one of the things that I love about you is that you care for the residents as much as I do and I think that's such that's so important especially when it comes to business in the city and I I think we all share the same the same sentiment um we've been having conversations I don't know for how long over and over and over I was in the pumpkin patch on Saturday and there was three concerns that parents kept on talking to me about right one of them was permitting the second one was that they don't want passive parks that they want Community parks where they could take their children to and the third one was that they want more freebie and I don't think were asking for more cars I think they wanted expansions besides the Pumkin patch this is an everyday issue that I personally get I don't know if my colleagues get this as well but they want an expansion and I know that I've been promising but I cannot do something by myself I need the consensus of my fellow Commissioners right so we've spoken to to Administration we've came up with different plans the Point here is not to spend more money you guys are not charging us anymore let's make that very clear um we came up with a map of the possible location where people were asking that we wanted to expand to Administration wasn't very accepting or they weren't recommending us to expand however I feel that we can start somewhere at least right so I think that um some of the residents in high density buildings in the central business district were asking to expand a little down ponds and they what else did they want they wanted mer Park they wanted um public on 37th they wanted the Venetian pool as well but that right now I think we should start in expanding just a couple blocks right now we go to Target and I think that there's other businesses down ponds not to go all the way to 8 street Maybe what is it four more blocks yeah so it's a few more blocks um what we have been looking at right now the service on the North End of of the G of Pon Leon ends at Madera so it would be going down to what you might think as 10th Street or on Pon the equivalent would be santian so that would include just to kind of give you some like references like the I think it's tin cafeo Cafe tinta I always get the name backwards um closer to the American Airlines building it encompasses there's like a strip mall there that has like a Domino's Pizza a laundromat that folks try and go to a few other other tag agency is another one you have your tag is expired and you need to go get it and people are getting tickets parked right in front of the tag agency while they wait so um yeah so that would be that's only a couple of blocks we did the time because of course freebie does not as you well said freebie does not charge to expand or retract a geofence however there may be a time implication I think that was the concern that staff had brought up up but when you're talking about four more blocks it's a minute you know driving at 20 mph it's one more minute to go a little bit further and of course our now with the Tesla vehicles we're able to go 30 35 um which is also why we're able to get to more people and get them where they need to know go in in less time so um it wouldn't really be a time impact but again we we're going to be able to track that with the data is it an impact is it not an impact and again it allows you to have the ability to come back and say you know what listen those blocks didn't have any impact or they did have an impact and then you can make your decisions based on the data that you're seeing um I time ridership has has improved dramatically and I am of the opinion that we should go ahead and do those four or five blocks more then um analyze data again and then if we want to go ahead and expand a little more depending on what our data says and we go ahead and do it I personally don't think this is going to make a difference this is like a minute I other people were asking me for the Women's Club which is a block away from I think but I mean it's up to you guys if you want to extend it to the women Club to the Women's Club or not um how do my colleagues feel about expanding or if I may I just went ahead and sent the uh proposed map to uh the the clerk so that you know the the commission can take a look at it and see what it looks like I think if you're visual like I am maybe that helps so U you n and I appreciate you doing that now some of the areas where I've seen that we need have more critical needs are areas where the the trolley doesn't serve um right now and that is the the parking was out of control at the builtmore it always is out of control at Venetian pool you know there's I know so I I do think there's potential there but I I really would need the assistance of staff to study the the traffic and and see what we can do maybe in partnership with some other folks to make this feasible because I am concerned about the weit times but Matt's amazing you know and and I know you agree with that to be able to help us reach a a great conclusion there was more parking than than more cars at the builtmore on Saturday than the parking allowed there was IL legal parking there was double parking uh there was parking all over the swes everywhere there was a no parking sign there was someone parking it's out of control so I mean that's why I bring up the builtmore it was just sad to see that we can't fulfill the needs of one of our gems in our city so that's why I would like um you know man Anderson and his team to study this and and give us some some input on how we can best serve this very high traffic area in in our city because there's a lot of cars going to the billmore and if we can reduce the number of cars that need to park at the facility that would be uh a tremendous Improvement the same happens at Venetian pool we can bring people from the central business district they can park in our parking garages and then it can move on out to these other locations and relieve a a a public it's become a public nuisance the complaints that come in with the parking all over the place uh on PE on people's swes and the tickets that are handed out and the parking on the sidewalks Etc is just over the top so and I am concerned about lead times but you know I think I think our department can crunch the numbers for us and give us some excellent input sir so I do want to say that for the builtmore two different points for the builtmore number one um I I heard about the event with Ron McDonald House we are happy to assist for event activations like that like we do with the city normally Matt reaches out for us like for the for the 4th of July he reaches out to us and we are able to on that day we do rides from the parking garages to builtmore and back because of the 4th of July to avoid exactly that same scenario that you described happen now with this event so you know we could have come in and helped you with that and say you know we throw we with a couple of weeks notice we put a me message up on the app for those folks that you know are Transit dependent of the freebie on that day so that they have a way to manage their expectations and understand that on that day we're going to be working this event from here to here so that's something that we can do immediately if you have any other events that come up to the builtmore and secondly we have been in conversations with Mr sailor um at the builtmore because they used to offer a car service for their um for their guests to bring them down to mirle mile to bring them back to Merck Park and some of the issues that they were having is they're not Transportation providers so they were having their concierge and their guests were calling them acting that that like they had a personal chauffeur so we have had conversations with them and so it would be a good idea um for the commission to engage them in a partnership for them to help an additional freebie that's going to go from you know to it's going to help their guest and it's going to help our economy you know bringing them to the local business Community we have had those conversations they it's been about a year since we've um since that conversation's kind of turned stale but it is something that they looked at that they used to fund themselves and it just it didn't make sense and they were they were actually very um open to the fact that it would be handled through the app they can just refer their guests to hey call the ride through the app and so it would be something that to look forward to now for Venetian pool our geofence is just outside Venetian pool right now and let me tell you um a lot of the times we have had drivers who have are people said can you just take me over here and our drivers have gone above and beyond and just dropped them off a vegian pool so it's something you can obviously you can do I I did it before the geofence was expand if I may I just just one second if I may um my recommendation is there's a lot of conversation here is twofold number one work with the manager I'm not privy to any of this information here um so I recommend that you work with the manager and the manager can can work through the commission on this front if it doesn't cost a commission I'm I'm more more than in favor of it number two if you'd like have a have a sunshine meeting invite the residents of the community to come and speak about it and you can host it and everyone can have a conversation in regards to the freebie um I'd like to see we can move on to other items that we have we have a I just wanted to real quick um second if if we can move on to the next items on the agenda because we have a lot of time certain items and I keep they just keep stacking up and I want to make sure we can address it mind comments just real quick I'm supportive of it going north especially with Coral Gables Preparatory Academy being outside I think currently the range I think it'd be help for a lot of families to maybe pick up their kids and stuff like that in Venetian pool we all know we have a parking overflow issue especially in the summer months that people are parking in front of people's houses when they shouldn't so I think uh just in order to serve the school that area and also venician pool I'm totally supportive of uh expanding the footprint of freebie going forward thank you so I think one of the one of those hidden requests that I got a lot during the campaign was expansion of freebie um you hear about sidewalks you hear about Street repaving you hear about all the infrastructure that the hasn't been addressed for years this was one of those things that people had been asking for um an expansion of freebie more into the residential zones um I agree with the vice mayor I think the builtmore needs to be addressed but my concern is I don't think that's going to get the people who need to get to the buildmore to the buildmore cuz the people who need to get to the buildmore are normally residents who are going to events and they're not going to have a pickup at their home um those are not people who are going to be in downtown Coral Gables trying to get to the builtmore uh but there is a need to expand to that Northern Pon area um I did have numerous residents in one building in particular particular who told me the freebie is offered but I have to walk four blocks to get to it um and it was a concern that that they had the The Trolley Stop was not close to their building either um so I have no problem with with the small expansion uh of freebie in this area and Venetian pool I think is a no-brainer uh we do have tourists who do go there we also have residents who congregate in that area uh for walking for for for exercising uh you see a lot of president who just park there and go walking um so I I would have no problem with with expanding to that zone so moving forward this is my item I would like to move to expand to that northern northern section of ponds I don't know if there's any consensus maybe I think it's what a block away or for the Venetian pool it's right there off of it right it's literally right there and we could go ahead and offer venician pool because we have and I know venician pool really sees an all this this point only during the summer months whenever it's open it only be during the summer months so that really shouldn't affect um wait time and that is my motion Madam City attorney we don't have any res we don't have a resolution or an action item here on the commission should she should prepare prepare something for the next commission meeting and then we can take action on it I I think that would issues with it whatever you yeah that would be prudent I think also I I I am hearing from the commission that there's some some perhaps need to discuss with staff further there's different ideas and perhaps you know just the suggestion would be to kind of address this perhaps holistically rather than you know peac meal as a suggestion um and of course as like anything else we would need to review to make sure there are no um you know to address any potential legal implications or legal concerns okay can she can commissioner uh Castro uh present uh I guess on the spot a legislation instructing the administration to bring back expanding it certainly that can be done yeah we you know different things can different things can can can occur here absolutely um but but also you know I think has gotten some input and perhaps the commissioner you know it's not needed to have a resolution if it's just to discuss with staff and bring something back we don't need a resolution but we can do that too okay so I'll go ahead and amend my motion and it is to direct direct staff to go ahead and start the expansion of the North Area and Venetian and then we can go ahead and speak further after we analyze data on on other possible expansions I'll second well I'd like to let me let me let let's just take a step back Madam City attorney I think you're as confused as I am so are we asking for staff to work on something to bring back or are we moving forward we are moving forward mam attorney I mean we would of course you know we can take that direction but we would staff would need to do whatever it does when these things happen when these changes happen we would review of course for legal sufficiency and any concerns that we may have and um if there's anything we would have to bring it back but I would you know perhaps we can do that my only two are very simple is legal sufficiency and the simple fact of the cost if there's no cost and it's legally sufficient I'm in favor of it but I just we can wait one meeting it takes two weeks and we can get it done we can get it done if you'd like to make a motion to give staff through the manager you know the push forward to draft help to help draft legislation that that amends the current the current footprint of where freebie travels I think that's perfectly fine by the City attorney uh I just don't think we should as for the City attorney should take action uh moving forward without at least analyzing the legal sufficiency and also the cost is my request yes so there is no cost um we currently the the way freebie charges us is that we currently it's a per vehicle fee right if we go ahead and we make the geofence smaller it's not going to cost us anything if we go go ahead and make it longer it's not going to cost us anything the implication here is um time weight times so um I understand that I just I just want to have it in writing from from so that freebie can work with staff to bring forward the legislation and we just vote on it I'm in favor of it if there's no cost and it's legally sufficient I'm willing to move forward for the mayor's Comfort can you can somebody send him a memo after the fact so that he has no issues with it I I did want to offer that we have been meeting we met with the manager with all of transportation we met with the city attorney about um 3 weeks ago and we've been having this conversation with City staff for about since August so it it's what you're recommending us to do we've already been doing continuously so could you bring back a status could the administration bring back a status report next meeting we if we move forward now just bring us the status report so so my understanding from those meetings was staff was did have some potential concerns as the commissioner mentioned staff was not recommending that we do any expansion and we from our office also need to review and make sure the implications of any expansion that is correct so I think that will so there can be a motion mayor but it's you know I'm just want this the commission to have that information and like in every item the City attorney advises us and I believe that if it was a big implication to the city we won't move forward however I think this follows our our goals with with freebie and um and the business Community one of the things I'd like to to also have Matt Anderson through the manager and his team put together is an analysis when we bring back um the last thing I want to do is cannibalize our funds from the CIT TT in regards to the trolley something that we worked on very hard we are the poster child of any municipality Miami day County in regards to the trolley and more expansive than freebie potentially could could have an implication in regards to to the trolley use and the funding that we get from the CIT again I want to reiterate I'm in favor of expansion of the freebie if it makes Financial sense and if it meets legal sufficiency just I'm not ready to vote on it today as per the the clear statement of our City attorney I I just wanted to add and clarify that when we had meetings with staff and the City attorney the hesitation on staff was not on adding the expansion to North ponds the hesitation on Spa on with staff was adding merik Park that was the uh the uh the hesitation that had implications I think the concerns were about title 6 but right now um expanding on North had no implications that legally were um of a concern there is definitely to the mayor's Point absolutely zero fiscal impact um so if that gives you any peace of mind and we're also going to be looking into there's additional funding and I believe um there's another Grant available for the city to apply to in the spring which is a um a department of energy it's a Federal grant that is a 50% matching Grant just like the 50% matching grant that we're getting right now um through fdot this is a 250,000 minimum which the city would meet um and would able to so we are you know hand inhand working with you understanding the fiscal Contra constraints understanding um that you know your CIT funding that you use for this so again um we've actually just now identified another grant that we're looking into to see if it's also Germain so that cities can apply for it so again um we continue to be mindful of the of the fiscal responsibility to be able to assist the city um with alleviating the funds thank you so much Claudia for coming and I believe there's a motion and there's a second on the table and and I was trying to add a friendly Amendment because I do think that um there is a need for additional study and the traffic to the builtmore is more than just people coming from residential homes you have the central business district folks the chamber the chamber events uh so that would be many uh opportunities be able to tell folks if you don't you can't find parking here when the Latin Builders Association is doing its events to park in the City Garage pick up uh transportation services and then be taken out to the builtmore rather than risk getting a a parking ticket uh for parking on the grass and parking in areas where they shouldn't be parking so uh that's my friendly amendment to have staff come back study this issue see what we can do to uh better enhance uh transportation to the hot spots where we're having parking issues and where people are uh traveling the most I mean we saw the heat map we've got the adult Activity Center we have built more away we have the grocery stores grocery store will change eventually when this Lun is torn uh this one on Lun is torn down and uh of course ventian pool and uh you know the builtmore hotel so that's my friendly Amendment and I accept your Amendment so we have a motion and a second on the floor uh Mr Mayor before mooving on we'll have a member of the public requesting to speak on the item Mrs Maria Cruz Mrs Maria Cruz 1447 Miller Road I was amazed surprised of the number of people that called me talk to me when they saw me um people that I even I didn't even know that were wanted to talk about freebie usually when people do that is to complain I I've heard complaints about anything and everything but not this time I did not have one person complaining what they wanted was more they wanted the this um the service to be expanded I'm sitting here listening to it doesn't cuss anymore it's easy to do and yet we have to keep waiting and waiting people do not want to wait they want if it's possible to do it let's do it because we do other things we have things that come here and we decide on the spot I mean I've sat here when pocket items have been brought up when surprise items that we forgot to put on the agenda have been discussed you know people remember what I said at the beginning you need to listen to the people in this City the freebie is a plus doesn't cost you any money what is the problem with expanding it if it's possible to do it with no consequences no money out of my pocket why do we have to keep putting stumbling blocks in the way I do not understand my only complaint is someday the rest of us that do not live near the core the business District should be also able to benefit from the freebie that's my only thing maybe someday when I don't get to when I don't drive anymore I could use the the freebie also that's the my only thing my only hope so that everybody would have access to freebie all right I understand what you're doing now I think that people want the expansion stop kicking the can down the road Mr cler vice mayor Anderson yes commissioner Castro yes commissioner Fernandez yes commissioner Menendez yes mayor Lago Madam City attorney do you need further time where you feel comfortable with moving forward I I've briefed all of you on this matter and so we can we didn't have your your briefing yesterday I know but um we um we we can do the short expansion and then we can evaluate and if we need to make any changes we'll bring it back no problem if you're fine thank you yes thank you all right moving on to the next item um one second it's F3 Mr Mayor yes F3 thank you very much and then we'll do f11 and then we'll move on go ahead 11 10:30 103 item F3 Madame vice mayor sorry my computer decided to reboot in the middle of the meeting so so I I'll read it while you while that happens yeah I'm just mayor thank you so f3's resolution of the city commission encouraging Miami day County to delay its decision on the location of a new waste to energy facility in order to explore alternative options conduct a detailed cost analysis and adopt an updated Solid Waste Management master plan this is a an item that came after going to a a wonderful presentation that the Sierra Club put on and uh commissioner Russell was there uh advocating on behalf of it I believe he's put in a speaker card and um just by way of summary our goal here is to have our County um do a further study before uh proceeding on a decision on an in incinerator and if the clerk has uh available the slide that I sent you I think it would help tell the story as to why this is important now okay if cable TV could share my screen so this is what brow county is doing uh and it's in line with you know the direction the city wants to go to try to bring down our waste fees um 31.5% of what Broward county is is doing with our waste is compostable and the yard waste being made into mulch and then you have your other recycling matters uh so you have a total um amount of recyclability here of 62% of everything that's picked up by Broward County uh and commissioner Russell if he would U bless us with your presence and explain what your your goal here is uh with this resolution because you were the reason I brought this here today thank you madam Vice chair and good morning to your residents uh thank you to your Administration Commissioners uh vice mayor and Mr Mayor of course my name is Ken Russell I'm at 3142 Ohio Street Little Bahamas of Coconut Grove I'm here representing Sierra Club in favor of F3 to ask the county to delay their decision uh to create a new incinerator or to relocate it out of Dural as many of you know the incinerator that the county operated with uh burnt down a year and a half ago and they've been very quickly moving toward building a new incinerator which would be the largest in the country and the reason Sierra Club engaged me uh was as a former elected I was very proud of the fact that we burned all of our garbage in the city of Miami and we had what was on quote unquote a zero waste solution a non- landfill solution at the city of Miami I only came to learn later from experts uh that were working together with Sierra Club that incineration is now an old technology and there are new opportunities being used throughout the country and the world uh that we could follow as as a County uh and the incinerators still produce CO2 gases and greenhouse gases without mitigation there is no sequestration by the County's own study for the greenhouse gases produced so they may make it smell better they may make it a little bit cleaner but they will be creating the country's largest producer of greenhouse gas in terms of an incinerator right here in our County when we're trying to fight that now your question may be why should Coral Gables be involved um uh in such a discussion when your city is not one of the target cities where they would relocate they're they're looking at uh putting it out near the Everglades they could leave it in Durell uh there's a few different locations and the cities are fighting amongst themselves where they don't want it well 34 cities in the county produce the garbage that is consumed by the county and I would venture a guess that Coral gibles has not been brought to the table on the additional costs that you will incur for changing that transportation location if you have to haul your garbage all the way out to the Everglades versus Dural for example what is that additional cost who will bear that will it be the county will it be Dural or will it be your residence and as an elected who dealt with uh Waste Management cost I know that it's a lost leader I know that you already subsidize your residents for the cost of garbage and this could make it worse but we don't know it just hasn't been studied yet so the idea is a simple ask to the county because their current schedule is on November 6th to choose that new location the perspective location is the Everglades abing the Everglades outside of the Urban Development boundary Sierra Club is in favor of no incinerator and we we would like to the county to study the zero true zero Waste Solutions including other cities comparable to this County that have found ways to divert their waste in ways that don't need incineration but they are on a single track right now for incineration and it will affect your city and county and I would like to remind you that it was Coral Gables that actually shut down the Old Smoky incinerator in the city of Miami decades ago uh because of the waste it was producing uh and its effect on residents so thank you very much for your time and this opportunity to to talk with you I'm happy to answer any questions and there's also some folks from Sierra Club here who would like to speak as well all right and I'll add that the site is contaminated so it'll be that that particular site where it was shut down is contaminated now so that's another Factor we have to consider um Mr clerk I think we have some additional speakers would like to add yes yes ma'am okay next speaker is Steven lner good morning Steven Lightner 11312 Street Bay Harbor Islands hello Commissioners mayor vice mayor I am I serve as the the conservation chair for the Miami group of the Sierra Club and I would I mean Ken Russell really said enough and I would add that if this incinerator goes into is realized that it will produce approximately 4,000 tons of CO2 into our atmosphere so you mentioned earlier about the cost of insurance it's all driven by by our hurricanes our flooding our heat waves so you want if you want to reduce costs we're going to have to start addressing what's what the fundamentals of of what's driving driving those costs thank you thank you next speaker is Noel Cleland good morning sir good morning my name is an Cleveland I live at 5990 Southwest 50th Street uh and I first wanted to start off by thanking all for acknowledging danora and his Service uh and recognizing the role that teachers play for all of us because it's it's literally thousands of people seems like everybody has a danora story well I went to Southwest High so um but my mother my mother was a teacher of cores for 35 years and she worked in the typing Department with Dan and she always had good things to say about him so thank you for for acknowledging that and and also the role of teachers because uh confus has once said um if you want to plan for a year plant rice if you want to plan for 10 years plant trees if you want to plan for 100 years educate children so one of the things we're asking here with this y Club is to be forward thinking because the decision that the countyy is trying to make for an incinerator is going to is going to affect people for the next 30 to 40 years it's going to take about 8 to 10 years to build an incinerator and then if it goes to plans they're going to keep it going for another 30 years so we're talking about the decision now that our kids and our grandkids are going to be facing and it's important to realize that incineration as as Ken said is old technology if you look around the country uh the incinerators are being decommissioned not being built and and the the reality is by 2060 we may be the only city or the only County in the country that still actually has incinerator going because since we built that incinerator in dral there's a lot of Technologies available for ways to divert our waste from a landfill we're not trying to fill up the landfill but the reality is if we do a better job recycling composting uh getting the the debris from construction and demolition we can divert a lot of that and and reuse that materials and stop trying to destroy our planet thank you so thank you thank you Mr and thank thank you for your your comments and efforts I think that you're the last speaker no I have one more Marcel we have one more Marcel come on good morning sir thank you for being here hi there um Marcela badar 16171 Southwest 73rd Street I am also here with the Sierra Club um supporting Ken and my um great friends Steven n um one point I want to add on to uh what no had mentioned about being sort of committed to this for 30 years um along with that commitment comes a um in most operational contracts for incinerators is uh what is known as a put or pay um where essentially if you are not generating or supplying enough waste to feed the operational capacity of the incinerator um the county has to pay the operator of that incinerator for that um for that missing waste essentially because they're not using it to their full capacity So Not only would be would it potentially lock in the county to generating or supplying a certain amount of waste it would also work against zero waste energy uh zero waste initiatives and renewable energy goals in the long term thank you thank you sir that's it Mr May Mr cler I'll move it may I just may I just say one thing um one of the things that I was talking to the commissioner and the commissioner I have a long-standing relationship well before he was even elected uh is is a concern that we should always and i' welcome you to come up because you're you have a much better handle than I think anybody else does here in regards to this issue I think this is a critically important issue as we try to divert as much waste as possible from getting into the waist stream uh one of the issues that I'd love to love to hear now a little bit more maybe in the future from staff if they can if we can work together with Sierra Club and get more information is one of the things that we face as a city is the continued increase of garbage fees from the county every single year these tipping fees continue to go up and up and up and what they do they pass them through from the county to the city and then we have to make a decision on whether we absorb them or we pass them on as increases to the residents commissioner will you talk a little bit about very briefly because we have a long agenda and I want to respect the agenda can you talk a little bit about about the issue of the of the travel time and what where the we currently being proposed if we were to do an incinerator and I think many people would say we don't want to do an incinerator we want to remove as much waste from this type of you know disposal as possible we want to do something that's a lot more sustainable but if we were to go with the proposal from the county what would be the proposed implications to cities like ours in regards to the additional Trucking fees and their costs what are we looking at how dramatic could the increase be yes it's a simple calculation of the tonnage of waste that you transport right now to the Dural location and calculating how much it would cost to take it that further north and west to the Everglades location um and and that's different for every city obviously based on they're located and whether there's transfers needed Etc but it's something your Administration could work together with the county to calculate if the county had you at the table so also on that front and the the big issue here is it's pretty obvious I don't want to speak for the county but the County's not going to absorb that cost uh the county is going to pass it through obviously to the cities so it would be an additional cost that we as a city would have to make a decision on whether we pass it through to the residents or we or we absorb it again uh as a city here we have to vote on that every single time so that's something that I wanted to bring to the attention of my colleagues on the commission and to the city uh to the residents because while it sounds great that we're going to build a new facility whether it's more sustainable or less something's got to be done right at the end of the day something's got to be done this is a potentially about 8 billion was the number I've heard is that around $8 billion a huge investment uh in the future of how we get rid of our waste here in the city but also the cost as gas prices continue to go up and they haven't found the you know a real reliable way to trust things and reduce the gas prices and the insurance prices Trucking only continues to go up that's an industry that's seeing a boom in in price increases so I foresee that cost being passed on to cities and being a major issue in the near future yes and personally I'd like to thank you and the City of Coral Gables long before I was an elected official I was just a resident with a closed park in front of my house because of incinerator Ash and I reached out to every elect that I could think of or find and the first person to respond was commissioner bince slago even though you weren't the commissioner of my city your residents used that Merry Christmas park across leun and you helped me thank you I forgot about that I remember that we went to that was our first Contact ever that's amazing I can't I can't believe we remember that thank you commissioner I appreciate your advocacy okay it's awesome thank you yes sir I have another relevant point in terms of the cost that you were bringing up one of the reasons that the the county is working on one site a Central site for all of our waste is because an incinerator by Design is a big complex and it needs to have all of our trash in one place so they can burn it if we start if we eliminate the incinerator from the equation the idea of decentralized um Waste Recovery facilities that are smaller in nature we could have one for South Dade one for North Dade one Central I don't know what the formula would be but if we if we just take the incinerator out of the equation then the costs for each individ City would would go down if we had if we had a decentralized um waste collection so thank you for bringing that to our attention thank you sir Madam vice mayor uh we have a motion we have a second yes yes we do commissioner Castro yes commissioner Fernandez yes commissioner Mendez I'm sorry you stepped out vice mayor Anderson yes mayor logo yes uh thank you very much thank you commissioner thank you to everyone from the Sierra Club for being here as always and being Advocates on behalf of our community in the environment thank thank you thank you all item f11 yes okay discussion regarding the Hambra Circle sidewalks f11 okay that that is my item um there we go thank you Hermes morning good morning good to see you I had requested a third option and I know that we've I've received several emails from from both of you um exploring the option of of a third option I know you have a presentation yes beautiful I don't have a presentation you said that to me mhm yes when last week okay do we want to maybe take another item come back to here come back to it sure Mr Mayor if you could take F1 first and then we'll come back to this one take F1 we'll be back I got yes ma'am the record thank you F1 is a resolution of the city commission establishing its intent to reimburse certain project costs incurred with proceeds of future tax exempt finances financings providing certain other matters in connection therewith and providing an effective date good morning uh Diana Gomez Finance director so at the um September 10th commission meeting um a discussion item regarding bonds and other financing options was brought by commissioner uh Menendez he requested that the administration bring forward to an intent resolution to eventually issue new tax exempt financing for the purpose of financing the restoration of City Hall venician pool as well as infrastructure projects um including Street resurfacing and sidewalk repairs and replacement um in order to ensure funds are available as we move forward with the projects but prior to actually issuing Insurance of the bonds we were asked to bring forward an this intent resolution um Pur to Internal Revenue uh regulations the city must establish its intent to re reimburse itself for expenditures it incurs prior to the issuance of tax exempt financing this resolution will establish the official attent and allow the city to reimburse itself for expenditures incurred during the before prior to securing the bond um we anticipate to use this intent resolution for the design costs of the stated projects um a bond resolution authorizing the financing would need to come in front of the city commission at a later point in time at a subsequent meeting and we anticipate that we wouldn't actually issue bonds for about a year um staff was in was asked to structure the bonds so that it would be repaid over a period not to exceed 15 years using the $5 million of recurring uh set aside revenues for the capital the priority uh Capital Improvement projects um and that use that as a revenue source to pay the debt service so these parameters allow for a bond issuance not to exceed 5 about $58 million doesn't mean that we have to take out the full amount that's just the maximum that could be with the parameters of 15 years and $5 million available for repayment um so we had earlier we had um outside console on the call I'm not sure if they're still on the zoom they had to drop off a little after 11: and I also have um uh Ser Jo masvidal with me from uh our financial advisers from pfm if you have any specific questions about um the the the current market uh interest rate environment uh credit rating uh concerns and things like that and if you have any questions I'm here to answer them I I I do have a question reading some magazines and there's some misinformation out there online and on on actually paper and I just want to touch B Bas on a memo that you sent us and I want to clarify for the residents that are listening that this does not affect our AAA Bond rating correct right so an intent resolution that is the item is the resolution that's here has no effect on our credit rating so this is just an intent resolution all it says is that the city intends at a later point in time to go out to debt and um but in the meantime if we want to start with design work and things like that we can re we can use our available cash and reimburse ourselves um with the actual Bond issuance that we issue in a later date so one the intent resolution absolutely has Credit Agencies don't even concern themselves with intent resolutions even issuing of the bond issuance of the bond I do not believe it would have any uh negative impact on our rating agent on our ratings um mainly you know in and of itself right so there's other factors that could go come into play but in it of itself the B issuing a bond having the repayment Source available having the revenues to make the payment not going over our our coverage ratios or our debt um our debt ratios there's no reason that the rating agencies would look at it negatively okay so let me go ahead and clarify it one more time it will not affect our AAA Bond rating just so everybody has a clear understanding that it's on writing you're our our finance director I trust you and um I hope the rest of the community trusts you as well I have a question um in terms of intent resolution um has the city issued intent resolutions in the past and if so could you sure so we have issued intent resolutions in the past um most recently we had done an intent resolution um back in 2021 in July of 2021 for the um Mobility Hub uh the the construction of that garage one project so we issued an intent resolution we have used some of the um uh we have used funds for the design uh related to that project we have not yet issued those Pro that project or have not issued those bonds yet so when we do issue those bonds we can at that point in time reimburse ourselves uh for um uh these um the design costs that we actually have already spent um what was the dollar amount attached to that that that intent resolution was done for $42 million at the time that's what we thought that the um the project would be that amount has changed since um in my uh coverage uh calculations I use the more um uh the later estimate of approximately 65 million in my coverage calculations to make sure that if we were to take out that debt plus this debt where we would be with our coverage and so the coverages are fine I'm using both numbers but the intent resolution is out there that intent resolution is no longer valid for us to start construction on the uh G uh garage one because too much time has passed from that time however all the design there's no time limit for the design work so we can still reimburse ourselves for the design portion but for construction you have to start construction within 18 months of the intent resolution in order to use the intent resolution as a reimbursement source so if we were to decide to break ground we would have to actually go out for bonds and take out the money for the uh garage One Mobility Hub and with regards to and I'm sure that we've done other intent resolutions I believe we did one for the public safety building when we took out that debt um so what's What's the total debt $9 million currently um so right now um so principal alone is $ 107 million $107 million interest of $37 million so a total of $144 million including principal and interest of outstanding debt um since I think anybody who has a 401k and and likewise knows that there's a market for municipal bonds uh Nationwide um my understanding I think the public understands that municipal bonds are issued throughout the entire country every state City pretty much and every County uh for projects infrastructure especially infrastructure could you elaborate a little bit how that plays out U you know in terms of what municipal bonds do and how they are used and if perhaps you want to bring in can I ask um Sergio masal pfm just to what he sees about how we issue bonds and the he has clients that are different cities and he may be able to give a little bit more information on that sure good morning everyone Sergio masel pfm financial advisers 2222 pon Boulevard uh to your question Mr commissioner municipal bonds are issued you know um hundreds of billions of dollars across the country every year the uh they're issued for all sorts of purposes it could be roads schools um Bridges you know Municipal facilities uh stadiums things like that so yes there's they're issued for all sorts of purposes across the country um I guess this would be Diana other than the intent resolution that you mentioned that we did in 2021 or the commission did 2021 um do you have perhaps a reference other bond issuances that we've done in the past so in in the memo um attached to the memo there is a um there is some pages from the the budget book and it talks about the different um series of bonds that we've done so um the most recent uh let's see so in 2022 we did a refunding of the Miracle Mile and Geraldo Street projects but that was a bond that was taken out originally in 2016 um in 2021 we did um new money uh for sanitary sewer Force Mains and then we refunded a bunch of uh of uh series from 2013 20 2004 2015 so we refunded a b uh several to get better interest rates at that time uh also in 2021 we refunded uh the 2011 series and 20 uh 13 series um so we did a bunch of refundings again to get better rates at that time when we do refundings we do not add more time to the bonds we tend to just get the better rate we're not trying to kick it down further we're just and then in 2018 we did um the public safety building uh with the attached garage we did um with its own garage not the the other garage um in 2018 we also did refunded the 2012 um uh the refunding of the 2011 neighborhood Renaissance program Bond so we did a lot of refunding most recently um and so the new issuances were the public safety building um some sanitary sewer uh we so those are the most recent um new new money issuances and my last question for now is we have you know uh projects in the pipeline and the funding for those projects is multi some sometimes multi-year we move money every year towards a particular project and those projects I know the residents would like things to happen now but because of funding restraints we have a sort of a extended plan to fund them what is the benefit why do counties and cities what how does it benefit the cities and the counties how does it benefit what they're trying to do to achieve for the residents um perhaps you want to why they do it so I mean from from our standpoint is mostly timing I would say is like if you have a need if the city has a need to do something sooner than it would take for us to accumulate the funds over time um that's when you issue bonds also when in a in an inflationary environment where you start saving today and it's going to take you three or four years to save what you thought was going to cost you $10 million may now cost you $16 million 3 years from now because and then so you you you made you met your $10 million goal of savings but then you still need more money so um it's just for from my standpoint I believe the one of the main things is just a timing of when the project needs to be done but I'll turn it over to Serge if you any those are two great points right there as to why municipalities issued debt I think it's really to bring projects forward faster than they would be able to brought forward if there was payo funding um another rationale municipalities will use is if you put an asset in place today and you pay gofund it then that asset's already paid for yes but the residents that will enjoy that asset for the next 20 30 40 years don't pay anything for it so there is some equity and you know the repayment of that debt for residents that are enjoying that that asset in the future okay I don't know if my colleagues have any comments I I wanted some clarification it was for repairs for City walk I'm sorry City City Hall and also for sidewalks so so um exactly the commissioner menes had requested that it was for um the the historic projects of City Hall restoration and Venetian the Venetian pool facility as well as streets and sidewalks so that would cover potholes alleys so it's the the the idea and I will defer to commissioner Menendez on exactly what but it was the REM milling and resurfacing of streets and uh replacement of sidewalks that needed I believe that there's a a a program of streets and sidewalks that um doesn't have have the full funding available we're doing each year certain amounts each year and so the idea as I understand it is to try to get more done and one if you don't mind i' through the manager ask the assistant city manager to talk about that good morning honorable mayor vice mayor uh Commissioners uh Joe Gomez assistant city manager um commissioner yes um so for example in the case of sidewalks um the program right now we have uh funded for this coming year I believe it's uh $1.5 million the needs for 20126 um which we lumped all together all the needs approximately total about $6.5 million in terms of sidewalk uh needs similarly in Street resurfacing we've looked out to fiscal year 2025 and that probably will be another uh million and a half to 2 million Beyond 2025 we've got to go back and do uh uh a new pavement uh survey and Analysis because there's been a lot of growth and change in the city so we want to be sure we capture all the needs that are out there so more than likely there will be additional needs identified in the coming years resurf with regards to and Diana said uh explained that it's not from one one overnight that things happen you know but in terms of being able to address City Hall restaur restoration which we already had an engineer report explained that we need to take action uh the complete restoration of City Hall Citywide um sidewalk Citywide roads timeline what this for example this kind of funding what would it do in terms of the timeline to be able to complete those types of projects as opposed to going about the usual patterns that we do for funding or as a as our finance director uh pointed out um it helps with timing because if the available the funds are available sooner rather than later we don't have to defer uh projects to year two year 3 four we can accelerate that that work sooner rather than later would you for example with sidewalks and City Hall and the streets once funding is available uh would those types of projects be a perhaps completed within a three-year window three or fouryear window I I I think more realistically it would probably take about about 5 years to complete all of that but you'll see progress moving and there'll be activity out there uh City Hall for example is a project that will probably take um once the construction starts anywhere from 18 months to 2 years to complete because of the the age of the building I think the price tag the most recent price tag was above 20 million right now the very very very preliminary estimate is somewhere in the neighborhood of 20 to 25 million but until we get into the weeds into the building we won't really know the exact cost of that so from the timing standpoint of the of the intent resolution as well as one to issue bonds the idea is that we would use this next year to do all of the design and Engineering reporting and and pay for it using this uh the general fund using the intent resolution with the intention that we're going to reimburse ourselves get all of the design and engineering done for all the projects and then be able to be going out for debt at some point next year in order to then um start construction so it's like you've explained it's a methodical process very detailed and one step at a time right so right so and the the reason that um intent resolutions have been used is so that we don't have to wait till accumulate the funds for the um for the design and Engineering we have access to available cash and be able to use that and then know that we're going to reimburse ourselves the problem with taking out the bonds today and then starting the design work well once we take out the bonds we have three years to spend 85% of the bonds um and so if we waste a year a year and a quarter year and a half on design it um it eats into the amount of time that we know it's going to take for the projects to actually get done so this is just a mechanism to allow us to give us that extra time that is needed in order to be able to uh have everything shovel ready before we actually go out for bonds and so then I will need to come back to the city commission to issue the bonds at that point in time and I would say it takes about two to three months to issue bonds from the time that we say okay we're going to issue it in October we need to start working on it in you know whatever July or or August of the you know beforehand and so we would bring forth a item to the commission for those uh for the issuance of the Bond as we have in the past well thank you for answering those questions M vice mayor um I have a question for our finance director okay you you talked about having the opportunity to reimburse but we do have the funds available for um doing the design for City Hall for instance so there is there is funding available for City Hall um my understanding is that the majority if maybe there's some money available for design um but the the amount the there's not I don't know if there're sufficient um but yes we can use the money that we have first in order to limit the amount that we would otherwise need to reimburse ourselves later so if we have as um uh the assistant city manager was talking about the funds that we have currently available for for sidewalks we can use those funds um and not then just take out additional monies later on for the uh it would limit the amount for the for the debt um I'm not sure if we have sufficient funds available in city hall because um we have the funds available for the third floor project for certain it's split out to a certain for the different aspects of city Hall I'm not sure that we have sufficient funds in there to do the entire uh design and assessments and Engineering all those re I don't know that we have enough for all of that and I would have to defer that over to um public works or or CIP on that piece of it um I'm not sure if do we if we have the funding available for the design for the Venetian pool um or the design available for the the larger project so let's stop and just do one at a time because that's the only way you can really examine this because from my examination of the bud we have on hand $6.7 to7 million for City Hall um cash right now and from my discussions with staff we can get the architectural drawings and Engineering designs done with those funds if anybody in staff disagrees um please inform me for six for 6.7 million yeah so much but so that those funds were assigned to not all of it's available for design let's give an analysis I mean very quickly I mean if it's a $20 million project I I don't that's a lot more than than we actually need I mean that's a exorbitant amount of money to do design documents if you tell if you tell an engineer and architect that you're going to pay them $ 6.7 million to do this job I mean they'll jump at it so but we also have 1.5 million of that for the windows so you deduct that that leaves you 5 um $2 million which is still an adequate amount to get this project set for shovel ready and I don't see how this job could cost not even half that no I I understand I understand so I have ask some questions around about how long it takes to get the design done and we're talking about a year out from now for getting the design done and that's just a rough ballpark estimate that's correct and we know how as we get closer to an event because we'll have to do the assessment first which typically takes four to six months which will determine the scope of the design that'll be needed this is not your conventional conventional design project because of the nature of the fact that it's rehabilitational work right so from what I can see on our budget we have enough money currently to get this design worked on and get this shovel ready it may be a year it maybe more than a year maybe even 18 months before we have we're ready for that because inherently things take time the windows are a good example those were supposed to be ready this past summer the mockup and it wasn't ready until mid November corre so we haven't even seen it yet so um I've got the same type of question so you might want to just hang up here um on Venetian Pool City currently has on hand four 4.34 five million for the restoration work pool buildings and Facilities last year we spent 2. 639 million on restoration of pool facilities some of which were state Appropriations that were attained in 2022 all right I don't see in the next year an additional project coming up until we start to get to the filtration system and that's not projected to start for some time because we have to get design done has there been a change in that um I believe the way the Venetian pool is being done is being done in phases so we're doing one phase now we're also doing um uh restoration of the tower separately because of structural issues that have been identified with that separately but that's all being done at the same time in this in this first closure of Venetian pool so that's with the funds that we currently have yes the $4.3 four5 million yes ma'am there's not an additional shovel ready project available on Venetian pool my understanding is the $4 million or so that we have now covers the renovation or the the repairs that are um that are in the current plan that there's another portion of the facility the tower that is not funded at this time it has not been a project that we have discussed yet for funding um because we're um they're working on completing this first phase but there is a uh an additional section of the facility that needs to be renovated um that that is not funded at the time and um and just to go back on City Hall for a moment on City Hall the funding that is in that project there's only about $800,000 or so that can be used towards the design the rest of the funding in that project is assigned to other portions of the project and so a significant amount of it um just under 2.5 million uh $3.5 million is assigned for the windows specifically and then there's the work that's underway um on the third floor which includes some of the remediation of the of the third floor as well um there's also some work on the Tower and the renovation of the cottage so the funding that's allocated to city hall now has um specific uses assigned to it um and only about $800,000 is assigned for the design now and what is estimated the amount needed for design uh vice mayor um as you know we we've got the RFQ um out uh we're going through the selection process now to select once we select that consultant and we sit down and negotiate the scope in terms of the phase and all that we'll have a much better idea as to what that cost is going to be and again uh but right now my guess that that the design is going to be well over easily a million5 dollar uh for the rehabilitation could be more again until we don't sit down and negotiate with the consultant that um is selected and go through it in detail in terms of the assessment that's required um uh types of testing that may be required in order to test for the materials and all that um we won't really have a a a precise number for you okay um other than uh price size number when is this RFQ process going to be completed um I spoke to procurement this morning um they in the process of scheduling the um interviews with the the Consultants I believe the intent is to bring it to the commission uh intent to award um in December for the December commission meeting so I'm looking at a spreadsheet that was provided to me as of n September 6 2024 about City Hall project phase and current available funding less expenses and and combr is indicated 4.57 2 million okay um as far as available funding right now on the projects and you have 6.7 I should leave you 2.2 million for design and Engineering drawings no is that correct so I'm not sure um which document you're reviewing if it was uh prior to the 25 budget being adopted the um the amount that would have been there the 4.5 available would have included 2.5 for the windows um and then it would have included uh probably about uh just under maybe 600 ,000 or so that would have been un um unassigned to be used for the larger facility project um and then the other portions um would have been assigned for the tower the cottage and the third floor I'd have to look at the specific breakout but at that time in September um anything within that project was assigned except for about 600,000 or so don't quote me on the exact number I'd have to look at it which would have been used towards the assessment and any design anything that was left over towards design of the larger facility but that happy to share the sheet with you it's dated September 6th it covers structural assessment and renovation it covers Windows Towers third floor remodel first floor remodel Cottage Uh current Renovations prior Renovations overall facility prior restoration I okay City Hall recertification City Hall Parking Lot illumination uh recertification and City Hall roof replacement so all those items 16 lines were in there and um you know that's where I come up with the uh the math simple math that there should be $2.2 million uh available because um and then you have funding planned in the um 2025 budget estimate of an additional $1.3 million on top of that right that's expected to come in the 25 the the 25 budget of a million do million 1.3 more or less the a million of it was going towards the windows to bring the total um budget of the windows to 3.5 million if you'll recall in 24 we gave it 2.5 another million in 25 and then um the 300,000 or so is the additional funds that we brought over for um for the larger project so it would have taken that $600,000 or so to the $800,000 that we have available for for the um assessment and design which we freed up during the budget process so let me ask you this question because interest rates are high right now why do you feel it's critically necessary that we do the intent resolution now as opposed to when we get the rfqs back or R the proposals back I'm sorry can you re I I was discussing something with the adviser can you that's okay that's okay um why do you feel with interest rates as high as they are right now it's critically necessary for us to address this now as opposed to when we have more information available to us uh because the clock will be ticking you have 18 months yes so no so so let me be clear because maybe it's clear that I'm not it's not um I'm not being clear the intent resolution does not set any interest rates does not do anything except four allows us to reimburse ourselves whenever in the future we choose is the best time for the city to go out and get bonds at that point in the future it's when interest rates are locked in it's when we're an analyzing the um the market conditions we're deciding everything that we're deciding at that point in some future so as an example on the garage One Mobility Hub we took that intent resolution out in 2021 no interest are locked nothing has happened I have spent money on uh assessments and and engineering studies or whatever we had to do a design and it's sitting there as a receivable on our books waiting for the day that we choose we are ready to go off for bonds when we choose to go off for bonds at that point at the time and so it's already been 2021 we're in 2024 so it's been over three years whenever we go to Cho's outbounds that's when the interest rate would be set and then since we did that intent resolution we can take out enough funds in that one to pay ourselves back for the design cost of the project and no clock was ticking the only clock that was ticking is that we would have had to have started construction within 18 months of the intent resolution if we wanted to be reimbursed for the construction so the fact that we so that window has closed and that we did not start construction within 18 months maybe it's 3 years I get a little confused but we did we missed the window to start it was 3 years to start construction from the time of the intent resolution since we didn't start construction we cannot start construction on the mobility Hub want right now and expect to get ourselves reimbursed when we take out Bonds in a future we can't do it it's not no longer allowed but even if it's two years from now we can reimburse ourselves for the design because there's no time limit for reimbursement so the only thing that this intent resolution does it satisfies the IRS regulations to allow us to reimburse ourselves for any design and Engineering costs and construction costs with a later issuance but the construction cost if we don't take if so once we start construction once we actually start construction or actually finish construction then we have a certain time limit from which we have to take out the debt so this is not um so we are not setting any rates we're not dealing with the economy right now with the rates we're not doing any of that right now all we're doing is saying we intend at some point to take out Bonds in the future whenever it's ready for whenever we're ready to take out those bonds I think that that time should be after we've finished the design and engineering studies and we are shovel ready at that point is when I think is the soonest the earliest that we should take out the bonds and we could even wait and just borrow against our own funds and then um issue it even later if the if the market is not the best in a year from now this is just giving us flexibility in order to be able to reimburse ourselves later it's just a a tool that we have again if it's for the intention like so for right now if we choose to not go out for debt for the mobility Hub the amount of money that we spent on the design we would have to just fund it we would just have to pay ourselves we're not going to get it back from a bond issurance we would just have to find monies and we have money set aside to cover it because we're conservative to make sure that we have the available funds to cover it should we not go out for bonds so there's nothing there's no interest rates being set right now there's nothing there's and that's why I said earlier that the credit rating agencies don't care and I say that you know um respectfully they don't it's there's no issue with us taking out an intent resolution because it does nothing yeah no it they don't care about the intent resolution what they'll care about is if we take out the bonds and and that at that at Point it'll affect uh welld I mean again it won't affect the credit ra rating because we have the wherewithal to pay it back I understand but that that'll be analyzed at the time yes so when we go out to the bonds part of going out to bonds is going to the credit rating agencies and say hey we're going out for bonds can you please rate the bonds that we're taking out like what what will you rate us as we're taking out for every Bond inssurance we get a rating at aside to it I believe we go to two credit rating agencies each time we um decide that we're going on so in that three-month period that I was talking about that it takes us to issue debt I will then start calling the rating agencies and say hey we are actually going out to debt uh give us a rating we pay you know you have to pay their fees or that's part of the whole process of getting um issuing bonds so at that point in time in the future is when we would actually lock in rates get quotes um for you know who who's going to offer us the best rates on the on the debt and things like that so let's just argue that we're ready our earliest point to be ready is an year from now and the and the rates are terrible we may say you know what let's wait a little bit longer let's not take it out right this moment we have flexibility to you know but if from now until then we say wow we're pretty close to having all the design and engineering done and rates are great then maybe we do take out the bonds it yeah but we would still have to come to the commission we absolutely have to come to the commission start that process do we have anything else that we' like to discuss no okay let just go um is there a motion I'll second I'll make it I'll second Mr Mayor I have members of the public requesting to speak on the item okay first Speaker Mrs Maria Cruz Mrs Maria Cruz 1447 Miller Road let me start with the caveat I'm not a finance person my husband was but he's not around to give me advice so I'm going to start by telling you we have an elephant in the room and the elephant in the room is what I'm trying to understand because we did have an intent letter for the mobility Hub actually from what I hear that intent letter is still good we can be reimbursed for what we spent so far so good okay but we cannot go ahead with the bond because we did not start the construction within 18 months no what's the explain that we cannot start we cannot start the construction and expect to be reimbursed from the bonds when we issue unless you did the int letter no no no because the time has passed for the for the we're just talking about the mobility Hub so on the mobility Hub if we started construction tomorrow we would have to pay for that with other funds we couldn't take out the bonds the intended bonds that we were going to take out and then reimburse ourselves but we could take out the bonds tomorrow for the mobility Hub and then do the construction no problem okay but the problem is that if I follow correctly what has been asked you know we're concerned that having that intent letter and the possibility of the bond may affect our rating right that's what has been proposed or discussed well it's been 3 years I don't see people knocking on the door to have the mobility Hub built so if having the letter affects our ability to uh keep our rating maybe it's time to say hello goodbye to Mobility Hub get rid of that so we can move on with other things that people really want that's my my thing if we keep waiting I'll Mobility Hub 42 million to start with 60 some plus by now I'm sure more because 60 some was what 2 years ago look at Burger Bobs if we keep kicking the can down the road the they doing whatever we need to do here is going to be humongous the money we're not instead of saving money we're going to have to be spending more money enough is enough guys you need to listen what is important okay I'm sorry but I praise you for talking about the streets and the sidewalks you're touching on things that people want I mean I drive in this city plenty taking kids here and there I'm going to tell you you have heard me say I think I live in haia maybe worse places because there Pooles all over the place and if not there if they're not P holes then we have chickenpox on the street because because they close this port Hall then this one opens and we have different color on the street okay there are some things are important to our to our residents to the people that live in coros the people that choose to live here the people that care to maintain this worldclass city and that is how we look and I'm sorry just saying that we're going to look like thisy world but not doing anything about the road the sidewalks doesn't work so yes we do need to come forth with the means to fix City Hall this is ours this is the people's house we need to fix it so it doesn't get any worse and then we need to fix the down streets so we do not have to worry about and I you can ask Mr Diaz how many times I call him on Pano because they close that port hole and guess what next time it rains it's open again okay so I'm talking from experience I see it I don't live in the dream world I don't live in Disney World I live in the city of corable only since 1976 okay so I think enough is enough you need to do what the people want you to do and I'm sorry I read the magazines I read the blogs I read everybody I read the newsletters and enough of the misinformation please Jackson [Music] Holmes thanks very much I'm sure it's no surprise to any of you that I support the mobility Hub as if my life depended on it because it's true uh in relation to my financial life uh but the reason I signed up on this card is uh strangely uh to remind people that because of Israel's attacks throughout the Middle East we have now lost the new this the Saudi the US Saudi Petro dollar we have lost our Supremacy in the world economy when we had the Great Recession why is our City Finance director not talking about this why didn't she meet with me to talk about it um uh we got ourselves out of the Great Recession by printing money because we had the US Saudi Petro dollar and we could do what all the other countries can't do that is just print money we printed at $19 trillion Bravo uh Ben Bernan he rescued us because we had the US Saudi Petro dollar sir this is why Richard re Richard D stuck with me right um so uh now we've lost that now what does that have to do with financing the needed repairs on City Hall uh rates are probably going to start going up even for the city my mortgage is probably going to start going up uh we are in deep trouble and so when you uh vice mayor Anderson asked the question about what are the rates right I mean fortunately we don't have to address that now but I think we need to keep in mind maybe the city should do a ceasefire resolution because our economy is done we've lost the Petro dollar thanks thank you that's it Mr Mayor do you have a motion in a second I do commissioner Fernandes I didn't get to speak but yes what speak now please no I I just very simple um the reason commissioner cter and I got elected is people wanted a different way of doing things and coral cbles they didn't want to continue the Kick the Can down the road approach they wanted things done now as the finance director said we do have an issue with inflation every penny that we're saving today is worth a lot less in 5 years when we actually take on these projects today we're dealing with emergency repairs in City Hall that should have been done years ago our sidewalks are a disaster and it wasn't until we got elected that we've increased the funding for our sidewalks but we still have I think the the number they gave us was $6 million of sidewalks that need to be repaired for a resident who's sitting at home seeing those sidewalks every single day seeing people trip and we've gotten the emails of people who have tripped on our sidewalks it doesn't matter to them if we take out a bond for $5 million which is not going to impact their taxes it's going to come from the money that we are setting aside and use the funding today to address those projects this resolution has nothing to do with taking out the bond it's about setting us up to be able to get reimbursed for the expenses that we're going to have in design it could take 24 months it could get take 36 months to actually take it out and to M Cruz's point I think what the the finance director was trying to explain is we will get reimburse for the construction we just cannot begin construction until we get the bond if we wait more than the 18 months 3 years so now it's three years so we have 3 years if it takes us 3 years and two months to begin construction we just have to taking out the bond before construction begins so I I'm in favor of this I think we need to set ourselves up to be able to address these projects not 5 years from now but address them today Burger Bobs is the perfect example um prior commission thought it was crazy that $400,000 was what it was going to cost us to repair Burger Bobs and today we're at what $1.8 million um we can't continue to allow this to happen because it's costing our taxpayers every single day so I'm I'm a yes commissioner Mendez yes vice mayor Anderson as I indicated I think this is premature because we don't have enough facts and data I'd be happy to revisit visit this on a more precise basis in the future in a physically sound physically sound budget requires planning and it must be done so thoughtfully we do have money on hand to be able to do the construction planning on City Hall we currently have 6.7 .727 million in City Hall's budget it's not necessarily a time that to be discussing this the planning and Architectural drawings the engineering drawings will be done in a year year and a half and we can thoughtfully decide how much at that point in time we need to take out for City Hall if this was confined to City Hall it would be an easier decision now um if you look at Venetian pool we don't even have the shovel ready designs done yet for expenditures that are I guess wanting to be made but we have no idea what they're going to be uh we have saltwater intrusion issues to deal with in the future we don't know where we're going to put the filtration yet we have no shovel ready designs the appropriate time to contemplate that is when you know what you're going to be doing with it sidewalks we currently have 1786 million available for sidewalk replacement another $944,000 for new sidewalks and three pending Grant applications that could easily double or more that amount we don't have the results yet back from from those Grant applications I personally took the time to knock the doors of the folks on Riviera near the high school uh in order to be able to complete the sidewalks on that street we did a HRA South there's overwhelming support for that Grant applications are pending for that to be able to provide that funding and that's why I feel that with the grants we'll have at least $3.7 million for sidewalks but we have to face the reality there's a limited number of contractors there's a limited amount of bandwidth for contractors to fulfill this work so we need a more precise formula before we start just throwing money at stuff to be able to determine whether or not the work can actually be done then you have the weather we've had episodes of weather and rain this particular year that are well in excess of the County's average of 52 in a year we're talking numbers in excess of 2 250 in you can't pour cement when when it's raining it damages the cement so before we're doing that any financing we need to roll up our sleeves make sure that every single year we're doing these Grant applications there is a high availability and demand of Grants to be able to fund a lot of the sidewalk projects and will relieve our City's budget and our taxpayers of the burden of having to pay for them out of their pocket we are a donor Community we donate to the rest of the state a lot of money through our our taxes and sales taxes it's time for us to get the money back in repaving we currently have 1.53 million in our budget for repaving some of the delays we have encountered on repaving are due to the lack of material and contractors to do the work the $1.53 million that we do have available for repaving 975,000 of that came from Appropriations that we obtained back in 2022 during our Tallahassee uh the commission's trips to Tallahassee so over half of that money came from our efforts and bringing money back into our our city so we don't have to spend taxpayer dollars or pay interest on that money the remaining 564 th000 came from taxpayer dollars then we encounter delays as well when projects are um shifted in different directions now how the the alhamra circle south is an example of that and it's been waiting for a long time because the sidewalk issue has been contentious we do need to listen to uh the people that live there their ballots and move forward on that project uh lastly this this inant resolution is vague it's not limited to repaving it's not limited to sidewalks it's other infrastructure projects I think we it to the taxpayers to Define what it is that we're going to be using it for and not be vague about what we're using it for have a plan have a shovel ready plan any bank would require you to have that you need to have that going forward so at this time I'm going know on this in the future um taking it project by project I I would be U entertaining you know an attend resolution at that time and be uh yes at that time but right now I'm no commissioner Mendez um I believe we're headed the right way to keep our city beautiful and I think one day we will remember when we see that this has been the most beautiful the city has ever been one day we will remember that it was you who took the first step okay so um I commend you for bringing up this resolution and I vote yes thank you but it's a team effort staff residents everybody but um we need to move forward together thank you though mayor logo Madam Finance director may I have a few words so I reserved my comments just so I could have some one-on-one time sure when was the last time that we as a city secured debt for this type of projects that did not deal with for example um water main sewer extensions public safety building would you say it was a Renaissance project that was probably 14 years ago 15 years ago no so the int the last time we did an intent resolution was in 20 2021 for the mobility Hub I understand but but move let's let's talk about that for that one it was um I believe it was the public safety building which was in 20 the public in regards to the in regards to the 2018 in in regards to the um the mobility Hub that had that had a self-funding strategy to pay for itself self through parking Revenue that's number one number two the public safety building is a critical component to Public Safety now I'm a big believer in budgeting versus debt I've done it in my private sector business that's the way that I run my home I will not incur credit card debt on the future the interest rates are massive right now so at the end of the day I think it's critical to budget over a 2 3 four year period to address our needs versus taking the easy route which is just taking de this is like a credit card that eventually you have to pay back currently we have $144 billion worth of debt on the city what would be the proposed debt if we let's meet in the middle you said 68 million between 44 and 45 to 68 million you want to say 60 million so if you include the $60 million and include the debt on that portion what will we be looking at in regards to the 144 million plus this new number so this one is limited to 58 million that's the maximum that would the the repayment Source would allow and depending on the mobility Hub if we were to take out the 65 million then that's where forget the mobility home okay I'm sorry we're just talking about this okay so this one this is this is a from burner item for this commission So based on the parameters that were provided this Deb we said that the the 15-year repayment with the identified repayment Source would allow us to take out not to exceed about 58 58.5 Million worth of debt okay does that also include not only the how much we're taking out but also the debt that we're paying on on that over the 15 years is that the total amount I'm I'm I'm sorry I'm not understand principal we have the principal and then we also have the debt we would take out 50 $58 million and we would repay the repayment schedule would be what it is what would be the repayment schedule plus the principle so people understand because it's not just a 58 million it's the amount of money that you're paying in interest and that's critically important yep so give me one second I'm going to and people fail to mention that you see it hasn't been mentioned at all in this commission meeting that's the that's the important thing I don't think he understands it I understand oh because we're not talking about taking out debt today I understand that we're not that you're trying to push a point you're trying to drive a narrative commissioner that is commissioner not not consistent with what we're discussing here today commissioner if I may Diane are we voting on the bond today we're not okay so that me but if I may yes I can answer your question and I'm going to ask you to come up with me just make sure I'm reading the right page I'm reading it off my phone so um we would pay in total that much of Interest right that's correct 15 yeah so over the 15E term it would be 23 $23 million $23 million of interest and so a total after the repayment of the 15 years it would be about just under $75 million so add that $75 million to $144 million M you're talking about probably what about $225 million what the city would have in debt correct for immediate yes um but the things fall off but let me just I know we have we have things at Sunset but let me answer my colleagues to the left I know we're not talking about we're not talking about the Deb I understand that we're not signing that today but this opens the door to take the next step to be able to assume this debt so let me read you a little a little quote okay the greatest country in the world the strongest most financially viable country in the world on August 1st 2023 Fitch ratings one of the country's three major credit rating agencies announced that it had downgraded the US credit ratings from a tripa to a double A Fitch had been reassessing the nation's credit worthiness over the last two months putting the US on a negative watch for the end of May 2023 moving into the 2024 year in the risk assessment Fitz cited the expected fiscal deterioration of the US government over the next three years not one year three years growing national debt growing national debt which the same thing we will be growing we'll be growing our debt from 144 million to 225 million and the erosion in the standards of governance over the last few years has reasons behind the downgrade so my point is while moving forward today will not affect our triple triple AA Bond rating we're taking out the debt and a few other outliers that may come into play nationally locally could po you good okay I just want to make sure you're okay Miss Cruz um so what ended up happening was that all these things come into play and could potentially result in our national in our triple triple Bond rating being affected so just put that up for the record so it's not $144 million of the debt it could be almost a quarter of a billion dollar worth of debt that the city could be having number two we have significant funds already in the city hall for budgeting we have those numbers if we assumed as we sunset at Philips Park and that came to an end after that Park was completed we could potentially use those funds over the next two years and phase this project out into two two phases number one being the third floor and number two being the second and first floors and achieve the project without having to get debt out just using a budget I believe that I think we could do it okay the second issue the sidewalks please refresh my memory I don't have the budget book in front of me they said that we have increased the amount of money that we've added to budget to the sidewalks has there been an increase from last year's budget and sidewalks to this year's budget so I want to put the correct numbers on the record yeah I'm not sure and I'll have to ask Paula to join me up here or if maybe if if Public Works knows the answer to that I don't have the book in front of me so I just don't know if there was an increase or not and I apologize no no worries there was an increase no worries we want to see stre I like to see what the increase side did you say in or sidewalks sidewalk from 1.25 to 1.5 I'm so we had about a quarter a million increase perfect welcome you that's a budgeted increase so I welcome it yes sir we'll have to dou check the budget we could find out it's okay and I think that we can we can deliver on on increased sidewalks through a budgetary process now uh in regards to what I mentioned to you before about um we talked already about the mobility Hub that is going to be funded if it would have been done through parking Revenue which is an opportunity to again not take out to have a funding source that doesn't affect the city because you can increase the parking Revenue if for some reason or another we need a little bit of financial buffer in one form or another so when we talk about Burger Bobs I think it's critically important that I was brought up right now when Burger Bobs I was astounded by the numbers that were coming in from Burger Bobs in the beginning I just couldn't believe that that a project that was just getting a refresh simple interior renovation we one at one point talked about not even removing the drywall but then we were able to find out that the MEPS the electrical the plumbing and uh the mechanical were in dire shape so we removed the drywall in removing the drywall when I walked the site as Madam Finance director you can tell you can tell everyone here we found extensive structural damage to the building unless you have X-ray vision and you're part of you know the X-Men uh there's no possible way that anybody through the drywall could see the amount of structural structural work that had to be done there you have those change orders I ask you to make them please public record so that people can see what resulted in in change orders what were the reasonings for the change orders that happened from the original budget item to the final budget item and what were the additional scope items that we as a city requested there are certain things that we requested that we upgraded but one of the main items was the structural Integrity issues that we found okay so in closing I'm a no vote on this again it's not that we're voting today to approve the debt what we are doing today is taking one step further in potentially being able to approve that debt and I think we can achieve the same goal through a budgeting process without having without having to um incur any debt and put the city in my opinion in a financial situation to move forward so my vote is are no thank you so I just since you don't have the budget book in front of you um I was told I was told that it was $250,000 increase for sidewalk Replacements so the um prior available on sidewalk as we began our budget process was unused funds $1.29 s million we added an additional 1.5 which is where we came up with a 2.8 which went to my point that we have to have bandwidth to do the work we can throw all the money you want at it but if you don't have contractors out there to get the work done you have to you know find the right contractors get the engineering work done have the right you know H have the work done as well so we added money but we didn't use up what we had available last year um same you know same thing from uh sidewalk new sidewalk installation we had leftover money 430,000 and we added another 570 to it and that's where we came up with the $900,000 and of course we have Grant applications out where that can be used as matching funds and exponentially increase the total amount available so that that's just for the record I've already voted thank you so we're going to move on to item f11 thank you mam Madam Finance director and your team thank you so much this is discussion regarding alhamra Circle sidewalks thank you for waiting good good morning heras Body Works director good morning Melissa Des Transportation Melissa desas Transportation division manager so at the last um City commission meeting we were asked to come up with another option where we were looking at you know putting a sidewalk at the RightWay line so internally we developed a concept we had our surveyor go out and Mark where the path of the sidewood would go we had our arborus go out and review it and we analyzed the tree impacts for each location where there was a tree this is an overall plan view um we're going to go more into detail on each slide so according to the city code anything like a tree modification includes cutting any Roots greater than 2 in in diameter of a specimen tree a specimen tree is any tree that's 18 in or greater dbh um within 6 fet of the trunk cutting more than 25% of the roots of a specimen tree within the drip line to or to a depth of greater than 6 in and and something I like to add just to make sure that it's clear the tree protection code as the way that it's written in the code it it allows for you to cut beyond that percentage uh subject to the approval of uh landscape Services then unfortunately couldn't be here with us but Melissa and I had all source of conversation with about this and I will say that she's very uncomfortable of going beyond the tree zone cuted from what is currently on the Cod and recommendation would be that any tree that were required roots to be cut in excess of that number to be removed uh but the code doesn't say that you can't he say subject to approval just want to make that clear so the tree projection Zone that Hermes were referring to is you basically calculate a minimum of 1 foot away from the trunk for every 1 in of trunk radius and no more than 25% of that those roots in this Zone should be cut at one time you know according to the city code so for each of the 16 trees that we have within the limits of this project um we got the tree diameter and we calculated the root protection Zone we also offset that 6t where you're not supposed to cut you know any structural Roots um and we calculated the percentage of the tree because that 25% that's mentioned in the code any of the item any of the um trees that are in red here um are ones that are exceeding the 25% the green just indicates that they're a specimen tree oh my back so there were two two trees that you know they have Aster next to them if we tried to put in the 6ft sidewalk that we were planning throughout they exceeded the 25% we analyzed it further and we minimized it to 5 ft at those locations to see if we could Salish a tree so now we're going to go through each individual tree and show like a little clip of what it looks like so for each of the slides that are coming up that red circle is the 6ot offset from the tree trunk and the yellow circle is the tree protection Zone um according to the ARB report this tree is in poor condition so we're recommending to remove this a question so you cannot frame the road just before the bridge as um vice mayor has suggested before the request for this location well throughout the whole you know project limits as per the last commission meeting was to put it at the RightWay line we went out with the arborist and the arborist said that due to the condition of this tree he had already listed it as poor condition they would just recommend to remove that was one of the ones that I had suggested remove as well I've looked at it but I do think curbing on an entire block is necessary to funnel the cars away from the bridge post with modern technology that we have today on the cars with the striping and so forth it it directs people away from the striping and you'll have fewer accidents so so the direction that we're given on this run is to throw the sidewalk to the prop line and that's what we've done um I I understand but I'm talking about from the standpoint I mean I've been on Granada I've used the sidewalk there I pick it up at the corner at the beginning of the block and I AIT on the opposite end of it so that there's a continuous flow there right so it's it's a best way to keep cars away from the bridge and to protect the bicyclist so they can use The Pedestrian walkway um Bridge there okay so tree number two um this is another specimen black olive tree it's in fair condition it has a 39 in diameter so the root protection zone is 42 ft um if we were put if we were to put in a 6ft sidewalk that would be 28% if we were to narrow it down to the 5 ft um it would be 26% um so this one can remain um the only thing is that you can see it's like just touching that 6ft offset from the um from the tree trunk so we have to be very careful about cutting any structural Roots there how how wide would it be a shared use path it was there typically shared use paths are about 10 ft so the bicycles and pedestrians can use the sidewalk yes okay you can get a variance for I think down to like eight but 10 is preferred right and but I think it will be a fee for like a reduced section where you have some conflicts it will be over a significant length so so tree number five there is room to wind around this tree but if we were to wind around it the branches are so low that we would have to cut them because it would basically be hitting the pedestrians in the face if they tried to walk through it so we just recommend to remove this tree um it's a crepe myrtle right yes yeah and and those Mo move very very easy they grow by cutting it it it's also it's got a very poor structure so it's one of those things that it's probably better to replace it than to relocate it but it's it's a small tree it's not really consequential this is the one tree right that's not a specimen tree in the project limit yeah no I didn't even I didn't even consider ite okay so tree number eight tree number eight is another specimen black olive tree um it's a very tricky um location for the sidewalk because we do have a fence and a column that are right there so um a 6ot sidewalk at this location would be a 30% impact um and if we were to narrow down to five it would be 27% so we're recommending removal for this one because it's over the 25% that's in the city code so just say remove remove it that's if this plan is followed of course yes if this when I went out and looked at it this is one of the better looking trees I think the original AR arborist report had an issue with the roots of number eight against the road right the what the original arborist report had an issue with the roots when it was against the road well so we went out with the arbor again we were showing them the roots and everything and you know when we originally asked them to you know produce the Arvest report we asked them to look at the least the the path that would be the least impactful the more that he looks at it the more that he looks at these tree roots he has said that you know the way that a tree the branches out when it has like a barrier is instead of going under it tends to go like this so where there's asphalt and compacted Lime Rock and subbase and everything he believes that the impacts to the tree on the asphalt side would have been probably less especially if you're building up 6 Ines from the pavement and we're narrowing the roadway MH so tree number nine um another specimen tree this one's in fair condition um but it's just way too close for us um this one would have to go not only is it 30% impact 38% impact with a 6ft sidewalk um it falls within that 6ot radius offset of the of the tree trunk so if you want to see a good example of a black olive tree that has has found its way under an asphalt go look at my driveway apron it it's a great speed bump so so this is another tricky location tree number 11 so this is um a specimen black olive it's in good condition it's 33 in in diameter um it has a 36t repr protection Zone um a 6ft sidewalk would impact this location by 43% um so we recommend removal even though it's in good condition uh the other thing that has to be noted at this location is that we will have to um reroute the driveway approach because right now it's emptying out onto this to the intersection so we would have to realign it and potentially harmonize into private property for um the sidewalk at this location do you recall how tall this tree is cuz I recall it as being quite a impressive tree off the top of my head no but I can definitely give that information afterwards because we do have it listed for each of the trees right this is in my recollection one of the largest ones one of and one of the healthiest this one was a a pretty substantial tree and the one just north of this is also beautiful tree so tree number 12 this one we tried to go around as you can see the way that I wound the sidewalk was to avoid that 6ot offset for tree number 12 and tree number 13 this one's in good condition it's a 40in diameter with a 43t uh root protection Zone um if we went with a 6ft sidewalk at this location would be 26% however if we narrow it down to five it would go down to 23% so we would be able to keep we would be able to be within the limits of the city code basically ask you a question when you're talking about these percentages you're talking about the overall health of the tree but does it also address the ability of these trees to withstand hurricanes force winds and not fall over no the percentage relationship of the portion of the root that the root Zone that is being cut no I understand but like like every other thing that that's built you have to have an anchor right if you cut the anchors M and it doesn't have sufficient support right whether it lives or not is not the issue whether it falls down in a hurricane will become the issue right so if you cut substantial Roots you know yes it may it may fall down alive but it may not be there because you've now cut its feet any of those trees if there a hgan tomor will fall without any impact obviously any rot cutting will exacerbate that possibility we couldn't really tell you what percentage will increase or not our analysis was just based on the limits that we have in the city code engineering standards Ada standards that's just what we looked at and that would apply to whichever plant is chosen you're going to be cutting root structure right on any side of the tree yeah everything in fact it probably would lean the tree towards the road instead of towards the residen is if the sidewalks on the inside and the root structure is cut on the inside versus on the side of the street where it could be top heavy the other way so so my experience is that the tree if the tree were to fall it would be opposite from where you cut the roots correct right yeah any other questions for this slide okay so tree number 14 another specimen black olive tree this one's in fair condition 37 in diameter with a 40t r protection Zone if we were to put a 6ft sidewalk it would be right at the threshold of the 25% which is still Within the city code um because it's greater than 25% that that's a concern um however we never went down to 5T it would be 22% of this location now this is the one that I had spoken to staff about because of the issue with the driveway and potentially putting this one on the front of the tree but moving the road further over so that there's a buffer between the sidewalk and the road and I know I had a conversation with with Joe and the manager about that so physically there's no really no way of putting the sidewalk on the inside of this tree because of the drop off to the to the the driveway realistically this assumes the roots are cut and but even if the roots are cut the driveway is almost a foot lower than the ground so in order to get the sidewalk to the same level as the current driveway it's an ADA issue you have a steep drop so in this spot in particular there's really no realistic way of putting it on the inside that doesn't place an enormous burden on the residents with their driveway there is there is an alternative which I think was one of the options we presented where you could go back into the road and then you could put a curb on the road I cannot right physically approve something that has a curb on the road with the amount of traffic on that road if there is no buffer I'm a no right so I I can I'm I'm okay with moving it to the front but there has to be some sort of buffer between the sidewalk and the roadway and if we plan a hedge if we plan something to to delineate the uh the sidewalk from the road but I safety wise I'm going to know if we're putting a sidewalk next to the road so commissioner let me ask you a question in my neighborhood where there is more young children and there are more students and there are more elderly individuals than in most neighborhoods fair to say probably 95% of neighborhoods in Coral Gables do not even come close to where I live based on the simple fact that you have um you have lenar St Augustine church you have Rivera Country Club you have doctor's hospital you have a school where kids walk through my neighborhood every single day on 57th Avenue which is a public school they walk in front see them every day I have a sidewalk with the curb across the street right in front of my house I live on Sant arino and I see people using this sidewalk every single day and in my 14 years of being on that on that on that um on that street I have never encountered an issue where again somebody's been run over there that I that I can't remember did has it happened maybe maybe not but um I like to understand why it was applied and I'm asking the experts this is not an emotional conversation why wasn't it applied there and why can't it not be applied in a winding manner in an area which again in an effort to try to save the canopy and build build consensus could potentially deliver on everything the the options that we provided to the property owners for them to ballot had two options one option was a sidewalk along the a pment along the curb and there was another option that had that Meandering where you had a curbing sub areas you didn't have a curbing some others um they show uh they voted for the curbing along the roadway um but yes Meandering sidewalk with portions with a curb you know we can always revisit that but that was one of the options that we looked at originally and if I may I apologize for the record this is a two walk excuse me a two block section of sidewalk it's two blocks I don't want to say a number that's incorrect mhm but if you drive around the University of Miami how large and how long is that sidewalk that is curbing the entire University of Miami would you say 3 miles is it safe to say three miles maybe from my home all the way to pon pon all the way to Granada Granada all the way to Doctor's Hospital doctor's hospital all the way back on camposano 3 miles 2 and a half miles maybe yeah you feel comfortable with that I M half two miles how long has that sidewalk been there would you say I I've been in that house for 14 years mhm so how long do you think it's been there would you say uh I I have no idea and it's been there for a while will you also say that application is something that's used in other places throughout Miami day County the throughout throughout the gables if I don't want the green book allows for a sidewalk about into a radway as long as it's a curb so it meets the standards yes it does this is and I and I respect my colleagues statement about that safety safety safety but if you're using in an area that has tens of thousands of people walking because they go to school there and they're all walking and I see them every single day I'm going to I'm going to be you know what don't take take my word for it cuz there's there's a lack of trust and faith amongst the colleagues on the commission I'm going to take it from the residents who are here do you think that you have more people walking on your street or do you think my area University of Miami has more people walking every single day what do you think my area right but mayor doesn't your area roundabouts and traffic circles to slow down the traffic but if I may if I may just saying but that's a good point by the way and if we finally are able to stop this they will have a round about and they will have medians and they will have traffic calming which is also part of this plan and it's been pushed back because we want to do it all together on one fail swoop to save money and I have to regrade that street so thank you for bringing that up commissioner cuz you make a good point because that area will have the same amenities especially regards comes to traffic calming so you know I think we've gone back and forth a lot on this issue you've heard from the residents remember residents first and we've talked about this issue you have an area which is literally less than a mile away where the same application is in place that has hundreds if not thousands of people that are walking in this area every single day and using this area and they face the curb on the sidewalk and I have yet to see an accident in that area and I welcome Melissa NES through the manager for you to be able to provide crash data if there if there is any when it comes to my neighborhood because I'd like to understand that so if you all haven't had the opportunity to look at what the crash data was in the two block area you know I asked the assistant city manager Gomez to provide that and there was only one crash in that section um and then one on the bridge and you can provide the detail on that and uh the the report in the summary of the report yes ma'am uh there's only in the 3-year period that we analyzed there was only one crash in that two block segment it was a single vehicle um he would the driver according to the police report was fatigued ran off the road and hit their tree I should point out that if the sidewalk had been there with the curb more than likely that vehicle would have been attenuated he would have hit the curb and would have gone would have redirected him and probably not hit the tree but does that include folks that Veer off the road that don't hit a tree because there are a lot of people that Veer off the road catch themselves and then they're back so my concern is not so much how many cars have hit trees but the reality that we live in a world that people are distracted on their phones or they're tired or they're trying trying to get someplace and they Veer off the road and then they come back but if somebody's on the edge of the road they're in danger that's my issue it's not how many people hit the tree it's how many the reality is that we live in a society where people are preoccupied and we've all been in traffic so that's my concern and when I met with residents recently they talked about they mentioned to me a buffer creating a buffer which I'm open to listening to but traffic studies is great and you know I'm glad that the hopefully the pass the driver was well but people Veer off the road and where the mayor lives there are traffic circles and roundabouts it slows traffic down but even the residents themselves say people hate to use the Expression all ass on alhamra so we're comparing sort of apples and oranges and we need to find a solution and the solution you know we have extreme views and data being thrown out but we live in reality world and that's what I want to address if I may answer to you because you made a comment there that's not true the apples and orange comment is not true if the chief of Mr Chief Mr police police chief may you may you come up here one second you were standing up so I decided to call you so but you know we we we I promise I'll make it very brief thank you I appreciate it I promise very brief how many times have I called you or complained to you about the people that in the words of commissioner Menendez hul ass down my block this week so let me tell you something just so you get this straight first off you don't live on my block okay I would never talk about your block how intimidating this guy tries to be because I don't know about your block I just don't I mean I your street is a public right away if you want to block me from that feel free it's a street I'm not blocking you but I I have a little bit of a more intimate knowledge and I'm not intimidating you I'm just giving you the fact I just thought you were expert you look at people way you look at people yeah you know it's that's life a majority I would say this I would say this for this conversation is the majority of the accidents that we're seeing or the increase of the accidents is distracted driving whether it be uh and there's been a push from the Chiefs Association to do away with uh you know phones and Texas and things like that um the as the assistant city manager said uh any kind of a curbing does geometrically kind of push a car back into it or back into play um but most of our single car accidents are people that are distracted and that's whether it's a curb or and and if you've seen some of the circles that you're referring to uh around the university uh the 3.2 miles of sidewalk around the university I happen to know that only because I used to jog it um that there is a lot of that um Damage Done To those circles on a regular basis for people that aren't paying attention so my point is you're you get to the next point if you look at for example on s model you look at on Miller you'll see that a lot of those circles the signs are down the Landscaping is trampled over it has to be replaced continuously because people take them people take them no matter how many reflectors you put on them or the trees they're blown they blow right through them a lot of think I think a lot of it has to do with the with the level of intoxication and people coming home late they can't see or there's an issue now I know my I know my neighborhood like they know their neighborhoods very very well every single day I'm outside my neighbors are talking to me about issues and what they're facing there is no other neighborhood in my opinion that has that amount of foot traffic because of the amount of entities that are there like I mentioned to you before and the activity if it's not church at 800 in the morning it's church at 8:00 at night if it's not doctor hospital it's Rivier Country Club if it's not Rivier Country Club it's lar if it's not um where kids are coming in at a class and then you have grad school at night and then you have law school at night and you have medical school at night it's the constant rotation of people coming in and out and not to mention the amount of cut through traffic where people are avoiding 57th Avenue people are avoiding Miller and they're trying to find a way around the city so they a lot of the traffic that comes through and one of the issues that we've had there before and I've told you and you can elaborate a little bit from my colleagues because they're not in the neighbor neighborhood and I don't expect them to know just like if you ask me what's going on in commissioner mendez's neighborhood I don't know I use it now as a cut through to avoid the traffic that's happening on that street when I have to come through that area but I barely ever go through that area so we have an issue with foreign plates from uh dignitaries from consulates correct correct I don't want to mention who they are well they all have beautiful race cars and they use sanato as a race car and I've had this conversation with you to the point that they reach speeds of 70 80 M an hour and we've had issues where the police has chased them down into University of Miami and had right or wrong correct and we've dealt with these issues so and it's always the same culprits and we have very limited ability to do something because of their status so I'm of the belief if my colleagues don't want the curb and the residents want something else we're at a grid lock we move on we leave it the way it is and that's it and people don't people don't get a curb and we move on we live the fight another day that's it right the only the second the uh the biggest area to your point mayor and commissioners of pedestrian vehicle um interaction is around the Granada golf course that is the two areas around campus and around around the golf course which has been as long as I've been here we've had fatalities we you know and again uh putting up a wall is not necessarily and what did we do with the sidewalk there uh we put in a landscape buffer around it the problem is on on that situation is Runners and joggers want to stay on the golf course as opposed to using the sidewalk and that becomes a much bigger problem for us uh on the enforcement side another issue there because I mean driving that area when the sun's going down is folks are crossing Granada on the crosswalks but since the lighting is poor most people can't see the people crossing so that's another issue I may bring back for discussion down the road because with the number of people that are walking when the Sun goes down or it starts to go down the lighting is so poor that people think that they have the right of way they would have the right of way if the dve can actually see them we actually have a meeting with the vice mayor I believe it's tomorrow looking for additional traffic related uh crosswalks and things from the state and looking for specific High vehicle areas where to help an assistant pedestrian Crossing this is a little bit more U noticeable than the signs that we're using now so that is part of our issue as well good to hear yeah the reason that I put this item on the agenda is cuz we cannot keep on kicking the can down the curb we need to come into consensus hopefully today um we do need sidewalks as the mayor said it's not about moving on I I'm I'm not comfortable just moving on and not doing anything leaving it as it is um the commission has committed to Vision zero and I think it's time we act with a mind of vision zero I would also like to explore the possibilities of traffic calming because I know that that was some of the concerns some of the residents have there I don't know what um maybe we'll have another discussion item or we could give some recommendations now will you Mr Mr director will you advise my colleague of what's been what's been in the works for the several years now and has there actually been approved at the county and we've been working on this before the previous election so there is a traffic cling component part of this job um which in this particular case because it's a little it's on a curve so that kind of limits our ability to do things it it's we're proposing a median as you approach the bridge kind of creates cars to kind of do something along that um and the idea was to add that before and after the bridge um and that was that's a traffic caling element that it's being proposed as part of this job but obviously depending on where the sidewalk goes that design will change we've sent several iterations to the county for the review but we really need to resolution as to where the sidew going to be so that we can submit to the county whatever the final design is so they can give us a blessing and commission your your comment about moving that that pavement it varies is anywhere between 22 to 24 and change width um if we were to let's say that's wi need be part of it is shrinking the the size the the weight of the P so so let's say that rather than taking the payment away from the West Side you you basically shift it to the other side we we haven't looked at that geometry uh you will still need a curb because the buffer space that you need when you have a sidewalk next to to a travel Lane um without a curb it's a minimum 6 fet and you're never going to get that distance now if we shift the entire alignment further uh along the east side there may be the potential to maybe add a couple of feet of grass well in between the curb and the sidewalk but we we haven't analyzed that so it's something that I couldn't tell you right now whether it's something that's going to work or not one thing that is going to bring into this equation until now we only engage the residents on the one side that's going to be affected we're now going to be impacting driveway approaches some of them are decorative on the other side if we go that rout I'm sorry and trees and and there's some other trees on that area so we may need to Loop in the trees there are tiny trees and remember we looked into it for the potential of moving the sidewalk to the other side on the opposite side really not so so we will have to look at it closely that's not something that shifting in in that way we've looked at um it's possible but we don't I couldn't tell you right now whe that will work or not I know we have to engage those resers now quick question in terms of a curve because I mentioned last meeting a case in Disney that a car hit elevated and it sort of took off because you've heard youve heard the expression car jumped the curve yes at what height or what elevation do we minimize Joe if you want if you you know chime in I just want to make sure that and there was a lawsuit somebody lost their life hit the curb and the car took off Airborne so I just want to make sure that whatever solution is found that we we are identify and address all the possible scenarios for safety reasons I'm just you know it's a reality it's it's the the the height of the curb 6 in has been set based on years and years of engineering research that is the the height that's best that car that vaulted over that sidewalk had to have hit it at a pretty good clip in terms of speed and and at a certain angle in order to be able to achieve that cuz normally the the 6-in curb does provide that attenuation so if a car it's kind of vearing off cuz he's dozing off it'll bring you back so that 6 in if if you go any higher than that that becomes an obstruction now now you're introducing a a physical ha Hazard on the road I appreciate thank you and just for reference there are some areas in downtown Miami that have 8 in curves they're ancient and that's not really a stand there anymore so if you if you look at other areas for example cuz he said in my neighborhood there's there's roundabouts so you look at areas for example on compano there isn't roundabouts on compano there also there there isn't also roundabouts on ponds and ponds yes in that area so there's there's long stretches that don't have roundabouts where the curve is literally right right on Where the Sidewalk is literally on the curb so it's there if you like if you'd like through the manager's office you can provide through the police chief get the documentation so it comes from a reputable source and provide the commission with how many how many accidents have occurred in in in my area in that whole area of University of Miami and and get an understanding of what are the actual reports and send it to us to see whether there's been incidents with bikers issues with Runners issues any interactions with a car in regards to those curves if you have them if you have great we actually ahead I'd love to know we actually have them in the presentation if you want perfect great so while you're working on I just want to add the at the corner of alhur circle and Sevilla at the um Southeast Corner we have curbing the reason we have curbing is there's not enough distance between the sidewalk and that do we have Shield six data on the speeds going through this two block area and if we do do are the speeds that are being reached fast enough to jum to jump a curb because I know from my unfortunate experience being in an automobile accident on the turnpike and the vehicle hit the wall the um you know the the officer there said you know it wouldn't have gone over because it's engineered not to go over but you really have to be going an extreme speeds sometimes to be going over those walls on a Turnpike and by the same token there has to be a speed ratio that you would have to reach to get over the curb the angle you hit it Etc to be able to go over a curb like that do you have that data so even if we did have Shield data um from before and I can't recollect off the top of my head what it would be we did recently lower the speed limit at this location because you know it's not a collector roadway south of corway so it's 25 mph the data that we would have had would have been back when it was 30 so we would have to collect it again to get you know a more accurate representation of what it is but I can pretty confidently say that in most locations throughout the city where we have collected Shield data we haven't seen you know speeds where you would expect somebody to jump a curb technically we can't keep on kicking the can down the curve I think we need to come into I it's not fair for these residents to keep on with the same subject and nothing to happen so are we what's being proposed is a combination of of measures to slow down traffic together with the installment of sidewalks is that a package so so the overall plan will eventually so let's just say the decision is made now to move over any sidewalk then we will continue to work with the traffic coming element whether we do sidewalk I know that was something that was actually the works from before however if there's going to be a sidewalk it makes more sense for us to do it all together um and also you know you're looking at payment I'm going to redo a payment then I'm going to do it again uh depending on the option right so so from more perspective we just need direction uh from the commission how you want us to proceed Melissa has a couple of extra slides when they looked at the crash data um in this section of the corer and then also on the sanaro if you want me to go over the data I can do it really quick uh basically I have three different slides um two of them are for San Maro one of them is Alam but just to show a comparison between the two we used a length that yes it's beyond the limits of this sidewalk project but we wanted to capture like a comparative length between the two to be able to show like the crash data and basically from uh Within within the last 3 years from north of poo to soera um we had a total of eight crashes um in that time frame of 3 years there were no pedestrian or bicycle crashes on a Humber Circle um and there were three injury crashes and Zero fatalities and just for the record there are um there's an average daily traffic on this length of roadway of about 4,600 vehicles per day now comparing one of the crashes was on the on oh for the segment just to refresh so if you look can't really I don't know if you can point if you can see that Green Dot just above the the water that's salvatera that was the one that the assistant city manager was referring to where the car the car veered off the road and hit a tree and then those two blue circles are where um they hit the bridge so for son Maru um comparing to all you know a HRA Circle about the same length um we were looking north of Sosa to basically ponds the data showed that there was um about 41 crashes within that time frame you know compared to I think it was 8 you know on a HRA Circle um there were two pedestrian and two bicycle crashes however these pedestrians were not on the sidewalk they were actually Crossing within the crosswalk so and it was a driveway they were and pedestrians walking through a driveway Drive yeah they walked into a driveway um there were seven injur injury crashes and Zero fatalities the average daily traffic on S Maru is about three times more yes 12,000 vehicles per day so my point was before like I was telling my colleagues to my left I have a very distinct understanding of my neighborhood like anybody would because when you walk outside you see it you see it in front of you it's right in front of your face you see the amount of people walking baby carriages people using bikes scooters skateboards there's a lot of activity and it works and it works in one form or another is it perfect far from it but it works in that area so from our perspective we're just looking for direction however the commission would like us to proceed do you mind if I speak to the curb and have and have public comment absolutely thank you okay uh first speaker is Nicole PTO good afternoon good afternoon my name is Nicole Puerto and I'm at 3430 Al Hambra Circle uh thank you for your time today um our the majority of our neighbors are here and we voted over the summer for an option an option that work well for us that preserve the trees and the canopy in our neighborhood that was safe cuz I doubt your colleagues would propose anything that is not safe for the City of Coral Gable's residents and I just would like that to be upheld so thank you thank you very much Katie Ariola hello good afternoon thank you guys for having me and I appreciate all you do for our city all the all the time um I'm at 3416 alhamra and um I I I just heard about this meeting the other day I was aware the last I heard was we had voted for the the one um along the curb and I think you know that was great that was sent out to us I believe it was about a year and a half ago that the mayor was walking around in our neighborhood and came to our door and we were actually really looking forward to having a sidewalk we do think it's needed and on that same point I've lived in this house four years and before that I was 21 year um down in your neighborhood which was just a little bit South um I was on Sosa and um I agree much much more traffic in that area um and also that segment of alhamra also from bird South needs a a curb as well just on that note because it's very hard to get around with all those things um but I uh I agree with my neighbors we want to protect the trees we all agreed on a a plan for the uh for the sidewalk and hope that that would um come to fruition if possible or if not I the trees they said they were fair condition I mean the ones that are near our house are beautiful big trees been here longer probably than the city has has been in existance so um as much as we could protect that that'd be great thanks thank you Matilda cesi good afternoon Mata cesi 3400 alhamra Circle Jesse pelleter her husband 3400 alhamra Circle I'd like to thank the mayor vice mayor and um all the Commissioners here today uh we appreciate your time uh we uh voted unanimously as a as a neighborhood on on the ballot um and we would really like to have this uh vote respected um you know I'm going to Mr Rodriguez going to make um some um very significant comments as to the Democratic process and what that means uh for our City so I'll let him speak there I'd like to make a different well two types of appeals uh one would be first to the actual beauty of alhamra circle do anybody considered this um as residents we believe it is equivalent in Beauty to Granada uh to Coral Way um it's something that Mr Merck would be very proud of uh we do not want destruction in the neighborhood we would like to preserve our trees I happen to be the we happen to be the neighbors impacted we also have to have our driveways rerouted that's not something that we're we're very interested and so there is an aesthetic appeal that everybody here needs needs to hear and we believe we' have found that solution secondly um one of the issues we have there is you know we have a young daughter and I like her I like her ride her bike um we are on the corner of a HRA Circle and circle in trino and I have to teach her unfortunately to keep her heads up head up all the time remain very Vigilant if she's going to ride her bike we can only ride the bike at certain times I've had to teach her how to ditch a bike if someone's going to come around to uh if traffic is going to come quickly from uh from 57th or from alhamra Circle routinely we're all I'm sure you're all historians in some way you're all in government we've heard about a pincer movement known in World War II this is what we have in our area we have traffic coming over down Travino from 57th that meet moves at very high speed and you have the same problem in alhamra circle so from a a perspective of first principles like what are we doing why are we even having a discussion about bringing more foot traffic to this area before um before we have traffic cing measures implemented so I'd just like us all to think about that and the idea might be that you have to do everything at once but uh things have very unintended consequences it's not intended that traffic drives quickly through alhamra Circle but it does and so whatever measures you have in combination with the sidewalk calming measures in combination with the sidewalk may not work they may not work it's best to calm the traffic first have a period of reassessment and then intellectually consider next steps and I would also like to add that the location is what it is and that cannot be changed we are on a street that's a Feer to 57th so whether there's a sidewalk or not traffic is going to be present so that's why traffic calming is important is is is a sidewalk important possibly but like my husband said unless we get to the route of traffic calming unless we get to a solution where cars are more responsible when they're driving I don't think having a sidewalk is going to matter thank you thank you thank you ran Rodriguez good afternoon good afternoon thank you again I've met with uh all the Commissioners thank you for your time um again I've been been up here multiple times and and I think what's frustrating what still hasn't been answered is what what happened to our ballots uh on on May 21st you all reviewed the ballot that was going to go out we received it we voted for it and then in July uh or in September we vote in July September commission it gets here all all of a sudden now a mysterious third option is requested it was you guys were given all the options we we got the ballots we submitted them and then it's all gone it's who's kicking the B the can down the road we selected option one and I think that's what we want and it's we're very clear what we want we're not the ones kicking the can down the down the road so that's my question where's the what's the validity of our ballots I think it was very clear there's been other stuff collector roads questioning of where the this is a collector Road or not well just to end that discussion uh Flor uh Federal functional classification manade blown up Al Hammer circle is is a local Road it's not a collector Road and it's uh and it's it's available to everybody um through through through websites rhetoric um there's been a lot of rhetoric I don't know if it's rhetoric if it's true true uh feelings and in regards to safety right and I'm truly truly sorry like R mentioned yes there's people get hurt yes I I work on roadways all the time unfortunately I deal with fatalities major fatalities on interstates they're they're not our pretty sight however we design on data we're giving data we design on data not on feelings yes there's always safety concern but the data reveals what what the safety is and how to design a project um it's a beautiful street now you want to remove seven possibly remove eight trees I mean now one resident says oh we got to keep Al Hamra the beautiful street that it is but now we're going to kill seven streats barbarous reports I think we can all agree they're they're not held to any uh liability in their opinions we can get an arbor report this shows what that that it this different than what your Arbus says right so are they liable how how liable going to hold the arborus um south of the bridge I think we at this point we demand a comp comprehensive approach to the brid to the to oh Hamra I know Mr Ron said let's go 2.3 miles from the bridge to to Douglas well let's go 2.6 let's go 2.6 from bird to Douglas let's give it a comprehensive approach from Bird Road all the way through cuz how's he safely going to get to my side of the bridge if he has the same problem I'm having right now I don't think and I think it's clear the design criteria has been met there's there's uh data shows it that was presented by Public Works a curban gutter is a safe and a safe manner to to approach a design in sidewalks um just like you have guard wheel you have Curb that that will deviate a uh a a car from Hit going over it's got it's got to be at a certain speed this is all historical dat has been going on for years in the Flor greenook it's not something new so I I don't know what direction this is taking again we don't want to kick this on the road we think we've been very clear and and before we even make a decision what happened to our ballots nobody's I've been asking for months what happen to my ballots nobody can answer that um I think like Mrs Mrs Cruz stated multiple times listen to the people right so how you are you listening to the people we have four residents here that are directly impacted by this by this sidewalk nobody's listening to the people here I I I don't think I don't I don't know how much further i' I've requested public documents 1,700 pages of emails involving one resident very interesting read if you get to it I mean I don't have the time to read all of them but I think he's become a burden to our city if I if you ask me so I think we're very clear you have our ballots and I don't again I don't know what direction this vote is going to take or what this discussion because it's slated as a discussion but if if it doesn't if our votes aren not helded I think we're prepared to say no we don't want the sidewalk let's let's find a more comprehensive approach which includes south of the bridge which which I guarantee you're going to have similar if not worse problems than what you're having right now in my section of the road you have bigger trees you have less rideway you have bigger concerns there so that's all I have so let me ask you something what you're saying is if it's not on the curb You' prefer no sidewalk at this time yeah we we we have the the option it's a it's a uh Collective Road and and like like we stated before at this time we don't think our our approach is being looked at or considered we're look we're we're we just bought this home for us this is our forever home we want we're going to be here for a long time and we don't want this option just shoved down our throat we want an option that we agree upon and that we that is safe and I think option one is safe we all think it's option one safe the engineers show you safe the data shows you safe so let's stop kicking the can on the road and value or validate our ballots otherwise why why were the valid issued I I I don't understand I understand 100% what you're saying and about democracy but um sometimes when we feel safety is a concern that's where about [Music] so right so option three was requested before the ballots and it wasn't offered and I'm sorry for that two options the third option was no sidewalk we all decided on one option so it's not like we were given three options we were given two option we were given three options there wasn't no sidewalk option but we said no to that and we acknowledged that there was a need in the community and yeah but now you're going back and saying that wasn't valid it was your goverment budy that issued that vote not us we didn't like it up so let's do this let's do this one last thing again sorry feelings don't don't design safety feelings data does you don't okay can I ask you a quick question because and I think in every Walk of Life in business government you have to make a decision but you don't make a decision you want to make sure that your final decision be a a designed for a building designed for a road be it anything for a school you want to make sure that that final decision because there's no going back is the best decision it may be a good decision but like everything else in life even in parent you want to make sure it's the best decision yes so i' I understand the frustration that it's been taking a long time but if it's been taking a long time it's because there's an effort to find the best decision and maybe the best decision is right in front of us but until everybody at least comes to the conclusion that they can that they feel that all Alternatives have been reviewed then that's our goal find the best and yes it's safe but is it the safest so we're looking for the safest option so and and and that's what we're doing we're just looking for the best solution excuse me hold on wait wait wait wait wait wait wait wait wait wait wait wait wait wait listen please please what individual people who are directly affected please if we can please I just want to remain a little bit of order in the meeting here look well this is I understand I and I respect you trust me I'm trying to do the best that I can okay this has become politicized okay this is no longer about sidewalks it's no longer about Where the Sidewalk placement is could you explain yourself May what you mean by politicize please because if you're addressing us I find it very offensive what they would want me to do is they would want me to answer that question we're not going to answer that question because this is not going to become the circus that they wanted to become what I'm telling you is this is I move for a recess I'll second well we were just going to come all up because we all taken it's a motion second r no no no no you need to vote you need to vote Yes you do commissioner commissioner commissioner you need to vote excuse me excuse me you need a vote so the one that doesn't understand Robert's Rules is you so listen to me we're taking a vote let's be mindful and respectful no no no no no we are going to take a step outside I'm going to ask you please step outside we're going to walk into my office we're going to have a 5-minute meeting we're going to come back okay this has become politicized because we don't face what has to happen here we have to make a tough decision not everybody's going to be happy I started this process three or four years ago in an effort to connect two blocks of a sidewalk to a bridge and then hopefully and then hope and we talked about it and then we and then the whole point was that in the future to hopefully to hopefully be able to then address the other South section of Al Hamra which went all the way to Bird Road in in a slow process to to address sidewalks just like we're doing in blue Road okay so my point is my point is simple trying to deliver this for the community the options are we either cut the trees down which the residents don't want we Meander around the project and find the location for the sidewalk is not going to make everybody happy or we discuss the issue of the curbs when the answers of safety have not suited certain narratives they've been attacked staff and I want have to stick up for staff and for Hermes and for Melissa staff would never ever ever bring anything forward that would jeopardize the safety of the residents okay so just come to my office we're have a conversation and at the end of the day this is something like I've told you before we may just have to move on without sidewalks because it's become not about the sidewalk location it's about going against something that was implemented a few years ago so if you'd like I'm going to take a 5minute recess we'll come back and we can have a conversation okay thank you very much for e [Music] [Music] for [Music] for for for for for for [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] e [Music] [Music] e e e e e all right all right so we had a little a little break um I'd like for the resident on aamra uh he'd like to provide a few a few words uh in regards to an option and some other documentation that he has on behalf of the residents so again on behalf of the residents we we had reviewed option one the balloted version that was sent out in July we've been clear and that's what we want uh I think everything has shown that it's a it's a safe alternative if you notice I never broke I stopped it at that point and I think we we wanted to see where this is going at what's the the final decision on it because it's going to affect the rest of my life in my home and I so it's very important to me and that's why I've been here devoting my time to this so we didn't have it but now again I don't know which direction the the commission is going with this but if option one is not selected which is our option this is what we're ready to present this is our resident petition against sidewalk implementation due to governance issues and B acknowledging failure to the city Commission of cor Gables we the undersigned residents impacted by a hambur circle project formerly petition against a proposal to install sidewalks in our community this decision raises serious concerns particularly given the unresolved issues surrounding governance and transparency this disregard of the July 2024 ballots many residents actively participated in the ballot submission process regarding this issue in July 2024 however there has been no formal acknowledgement or transparency about the outcome of these ballots this lack of acknowledgement undermines a democratic process and rais doubts about the validity of the decision-making process Safety City commission chose to ignore a unanimous ballot citing safety concerns there has been no verified justification for these claims other than unsubstantiated rhetoric safety data provided by Public Works along o hamro Circle and Santa Maro for the past three years shows no data that would raise safety concerns our bided option meets all required safety and design parameters Allowed by Florida engineering standards lack of lack of accountability there has been a consistent lack of accountability communication and accountability from the commission regarding the proposed sidew project key questions raised by us concerning project oversight long-term maintenance plans have either been inadequately addressed or completely ignored moreover under undue influence has been given to a single Coral gaes residents who would not be directly impacted by the project the insulation of sidewalks while beneficial in some communities cannot be justified with without clear governance and proper consideration for existing conditions proper engineering judgment residents votes and opinions onto these issues are addressed we firmly oppose any further movement on this project we demand immediate action to rectify the failure to acknowledge the July 2024 ballots and ask for a full and transparent review of the entire process additionally we demand a full comprehensive approach and sidewalk design along Hamber circle from Bird Road to San Rafael Avenue after only after such steps are taken should any further discussion about sidewalk implementation proceed respectfully sign the residents of along cor Gables uh along our Hammer Circle forg based upon your comments and the extensive discussion from the uh residents in that area it's incumbent upon this commission to move forward and honor the ballots of the residents it's a safe design and moved for option one to be implemented I'll second it before moving forward Mr Mayor I still have additional members of the public who have requested to speak on this item yes sir next speaker is Mrs Maria Cruz Mrs Maria Cruz 1446 7 Miller Road I'm sitting here and I am still trying to figure out how we jump from Alhambra sidewalks to Santa Mar sidewalks but since santar was mentioned and since I have lived in my house since 1976 that's 48 years and two of my daughters were born while we were living there and my parents who live with me at the time used to take him around I can talk I haven't lived there 12 years or 13 or 15 48 years as of July 22nd this past July if you live on Miller like I do you can take the baby carriage you can take the wheelchairs you can take the kids walking you can take the mopeds the bicycles etc etc from Red Road all the way to anorner and then we don't have a sidewalk we have to go across the street to use the sidewalk that the university built because from anona to urbino and another block I forget what the other street is there's no sidewalks so when we talk about side walks in front of my house yes in front of my house I have a sidewalk I have a sell I have a curb in front of the church there's a sidewalk there's a Swale there's parking but from anona to urino there's no sidewalk okay so you would have to cross Santa marrow and I'm glad that some of you mention how fast the kids drive around there you would have to cross Santa Maro to get on the other side but the interesting thing that caught my attention was that we mentioned we meaning the mayor we mentioned that there are sidewalks on that side and there's no issues of course not the span of sidewalk that he was talking about is wider than the normal sidewalks that's why there's no swell there but if you turn that's the if you turn into camposano the the sidewalks are skinnier and then there is a sale okay the street the sidewalks across from Mr Lago mayor Lago do not there's no issue that the sidewalk is next to the street because it's so wide that you can put two baby carriages at the same time okay so why would I walk next to the Street if I have a span next to me that I don't have to be next to the street so that argument was not valid okay comparing sangaru to Alhambra is comparing I guess Miller to us one there's absolutely no comparison and if you go south in sanar the University does have sidewalks and they have parking okay doesn't compare to people walking on the street either and when we talk about doctors there's no sidewalks around doctors so people do not walk around doctors there's no sidewalks on camposano so on the other side of camposano other than the university side there's no sidewalks there okay so this business of people walking in our neighborhood because it happens to be my neighborhood too I've only lived there for 48 years okay and and uh three kids grew up there and I have two granddaughters that and I have one granddaughter that goes to the RoR uh library and she has to cross the street okay so I can talk about that area the comparison doesn't relate to you ignore it so let me let me answer the question because what what Maria Cruz stated there was beyond false on every single front Okay look number one what she's stating is I'm going to put my Rec my phone my address on the record 5200 sanano Drive okay she's stating that I have in front of my house I'm missing a sidewalk Mr manager yes sir sorry to interrupt you I apologize okay go ahead so please I would love to have a sidewalk in front of my house I've been asking it for years you can put it in front one okay thank you so that's number one number two what I would love to see is sidewalks run all the way down s but whether it's in front or it's in in the whether it's in front of my property or across from the property at the end of the day it's still going to be used and I actually prefer to have the sidewalk in front of my house if you want to know why so that when I open my door I don't have people on top of my door because they're using they're going from driveway to driveway especially people with baby carriages and people who are coming to the neighborhood to work I've had open the door in the morning 5: in the morning and I have people who instead of walking on the grass they walk on my driveway which is perfectly fine I understand that I've even had people standing in my in my driveway in an effort to get out of the rain so the simple thing is I love to see a sidewalk in front of my property we should all have sidewalks I think it's great and I also recommend that we have sidewalks from alhamra to Blue Road and unlike unlike no we do not we do not have sidewalks for example where my father father-in-law lives lived until he passed away to years ago from a very tragic disease that when I would walk him around the corners when I would walk him around the neighborhood I would have to go onto the street in oh Hamra and then go to the nearest street over so we can get out of out of the immense amount of traffic that was on alhamra you cannot go you cannot go from Bird Road to the blue Road open space because there is no sidewalks there there should be sidewalks but what you see there is is an attempt an intimidation attempt to say well the mayor doesn't have sidewalks in front of his house I do I have sidewalks on arbino I'm just missing a small sliver in front and I I would love to have a sidewalk in front of my house so I welcome it I welcome my co the our my my Public Works team here to if they can put it FR a sidewalk in front of my house I welcome it think it'd be great great for the community as a whole so all right sir so we're not done yet yeah we have additional speaker I know uh I'm sorry sorry to interrupt I just what I I know we have give that give that to the cler I don't know what to do it give to the clerk thank you sir all right so next speaker Mr Mayor is going to be on Zoom going with Robert ruano mron yes sir mayor vice mayor Commissioners so uh a lot of stuff going on a lot of stuff to address uh but first I'd like to ask the clerk please since I'm not there and I'm sorry that I can't be there with you today uh Mr clerk please if if I am rebutted uh because I often am when I speak can you please allow me to answer um because my name has been mentioned several times and the mayor May rebut some of the things I have to say first of all before I speak I would like to um answer that there was something a question about public records request and I would like to because there was a last time I spoke in person there was a public records request on a document that I handed commissioner Castro and I'll be sharing it with the commission later today but it's very simple I'll read it to you it's it's an email June 4th 2020 from uh Vince logo to Chelsea brell uh Ed Santa Maria Peter glaas Mar Ramos cing um jcds Pon Ariel Fernandez and Maria and and it says Chelsea please place a discussion item quote curbing in the neighborhoods on the July commission please advise if any of my colleagues would like to co-sponsor V regard guards vinaga and I just mentioned that obviously because I saw that there was a public rec request and I not going to um aine on the mayor's motivation but I will just tell you that that's what happened and I feel really bad because some neighbors are against me and feel that I am maybe against them or or their ability to live and love Coral gaes like I do um but it is right this this process has been politicized and I'm afraid I politicized it and I did this actually in December of 2021 when I had a conversation with the mayor and I asked him to please please restart this project that we've been talking about since 2014 was sidewalks and then in 2019 and 2020 please restart this project uh two blocks away from my home and he met me out there with the uh the Public Works director I believe Melissa desiah and one of the first things the mayor said oh if they don't want the sidewalk in front of the house we'll tell them we'll put it against the road and I remember telling him mayor what are you doing like first of all a sidewalk is a sidewalk everybody starts from the point of a sidewalk goes against the property line behind the trees and then they move from there in every instance in the city that's what they do some examples people say I've heard leun or builtmore way where the sidewalk is against the street with a curb wow yes they are also against the property line because those rows were expanded so I'm sorry I politicized it but let's get back to uh the reality and the facts at hand I'd like to first I'd like to thank the staff for developing a sidewalk plan for Al Hambra that makes sense also to thank this commission for voting unanimously by five to develop a sidewalk plan with sidewalks against the property line where the public work Works director has stated would be the safest place for a sidewalk the administration will tell you today that this safest option will be to the demise of the most trees on this section of the options currently Seven Trees with the modified option the reality is that with a little creativity option three would only have to remove two trees already designated by the city hired arborist to be removed other trees could be saved with the redesign of a small section against the road in front of of a particular particular tree sorry thir others could be saved by ramping or the use of other materials in areas where Roots might impede a sidewalk finally the city's plan envisions at the narrowest of 5 foot sidewalk though they could go to 3 ft in small sections again confirmed by Public Works keep in mind that City's own plans call for rep replacing the black olives in this section with native trees a lot of residents asked for them to be removed because of their droppings regardless these trees provide a wonderful canopy oxygen and Energy savings to name just a few with a revised option three the city two failing trees and could plant an additional four trees in those and other sections a net of four trees a few neighbors on the other hand will tell you that the best option is a new curb with a sidewalk against the road they will tell you that this is the best option because they were asked to vote and that this is what they want that because they voted to change the character of this historic Road of a road with thousands of residents mind you with the least safe and most expensive of three options of sidewalks that will connect 2.3 miles of sidewalk then the city should listen to them I'm sorry but I disagree it is my opin my opinion and just mine but also informed by Best Practices studies and standards it is my opinion that you should tell the administration to build the sidewalk you told them to build last time with minor modifications to save trees with the understanding that a sidewalk belongs against the property property line and every effort should be made to put them there thank you and have a good day uh Mr clerk for the record uh Mr Rano had five minutes total to speak he was not interrupted moving on that's I'm sorry uh Jackson rip Holmes Mr Mayor Mr Holmes greetings I I know it's um I'm sticking my neck out because so if you get someone who's talking too much at some point you want to like tell them you cool your jets but um I've heard from the people who are on elhammer Circle uh and by and large they've said that their first priority is uh to get the traffic caling that that's the most urgent need and I know there are counterveiling things about if we do it all at once we save money or this or that I personally am really a Gass at the idea of putting a sidewalk where children would walk literally next to traffic I mean why don't we all commit suicide um I apologize for that uh what I'm urging consideration of is what I get the consensus of this group uh is to just move forward with the traffic caling now which is the most important issue for safety and then the other items can can fall into place later thank you thank you sir that's it Mr Mayor all right as a sponsor what is the will I think there's a motion and there's a second on the table will you reiter your motion that wasn't my motion it was I I move to move forward with option one these residents have spoken our Traffic Engineers spoken the curbing as a safe option um you know the engineering shows that the speed that would have to be reached for someone to jump AC uh jump this curb and uh Mr desas if you could assist us with this would be an excess of what we normally see in our city including on this street it is a safe option to take out 75-year-old trees which none of us sitting here today will be able to see something replaced like that that's healthy and risk these trees falling over by chopping um anchoring Roots I don't think is an appropriate option um we have an obligation the city has an obligation to provide accessibility throughout our city cities throughout South Florida have been sued for lacking accessibility um including failure to provide a safe route over a bridge and in this area it's totally lacking it this is an important step to be able to provide a route for an individual with this ability to get across the pedestrian bridge right now there's none is much more dangerous now at the same time the the traffic caling can be installed it can be engineered to work with the curbing the curbing will help keep the cars re redirect the cars uh away from the pedestrians and onto the bridge okay I have a home with a traffic circle and Curbing and no one since that curbing has been put in has jumped the curbing I'm one block from Lun I've seen a number of times which all the traffic from Lun has been redirected onto my street and despite that no one has jumped it without the curbing they have but with the curbing they have not um so yes that's the motion have a question for staff um when was the last time a study was done in terms of the speed by which cars drive down that area I believe it's probably been several years okay and probably predates back when the speed limit was 30 mes per hour so we can work with the police department to put some of the shield and gather some of the data something that's up to dat because everybody's in agreement that not only the flow it's this speeding has been an issue it's an issued the whole city we all know that but since we're addressing that portion of hamur circle I think it's important for the city to also quantify um the numbers particularly for that area but my understanding excuse me my understanding is that a decision has to be made as to where the sidewalk is going to go before we can take a look at doing the dividers correct for for Speed reduction the data we can collect at any moment the decision yes we would like to make a decision or the decision will be no sidewalk at all and we could still move forward with traffic climbing we can do that all right so we have a Motion in a second so I'm going to just add to that for you all since I'm one block off leun and I frequently walk my dogs all the way up to Lun and back the speed at which cars come off a Lun road is sometimes 45 miles an hour no one's jumped the curb okay so we have a motion in a second mayor Anderson yes commissioner Castro yeah I want to put on the record and clear the air that um it's not about listening to one specific specific resident and there's not one resident to me that is more important than the other they you you guys are all the same and um as for me this is definitely not political it's about safety and when I say safety is because we've been addressed with recent deaths and injuries that have impacted our community and I think maybe it's a little PTSD and that's why we implemented the the vision zero um I would be happy if maybe you could provide me an option like with a little bit of a buffer um but as as for my vote that would be a no commissioner Fernandez as I stated before I cannot support the sidewalk on the curb unless there's some sort of buffer so I'm a no commissioner Menendez um I promised the residents I want to find a solution when we met my office and I still stand by that my points are I just want to make sure that before side any sidewalks are installed that traffic calming is installed not sidewalks and then three years later traffic caling um we talked about a buffer in the break during the break I think a buffer is a must because even in the areas um near the youth center there's sidewalks but there's a sale that's a buffer and the other thing I think the staff mentioned the two trees that are not I guess uh in the best of conditions um to to see if we can if the trees are going to be removed because they're not healthy to see if that could help in terms of creating buffers as well so until those three points we have a comprehensive plan to do the three things I mentioned I'll vote no but I'm open to vote Yes if we can come up with a plan that has uh traffic cing a buffer and a good use of the land wherever the the two trees are so let me rephrase the motion because I'd assumed traffic calming would be put in okay and we talked about taking out the sickly Tree near the bridge on a prior occasion and I suggested that and there's another sickly one that is under canopy that is in poor condition so that's two small trees okay that are in poor condition right I need I need I need staff to come up with a plan for a buffer like I said it's a three-pronged approach we get the three I'm I'm ready to move forward we need a buffer and until I hear that the buffer of some plants if a car is going over there which I can tell you statistically from my corner they have not and if if you're not going over it a block from Lun with people pulling around the corner the way they do because you know the Lun traffic it's 50 55 mil hour so it's naturally going 45 a few BL Blades of grass aren't going to make a difference okay okay so so I guess the safest thing is just stay in the stay in the house Mr CL mayor loo all right so to the residents it's been a three-year Odyssey plus I'm in favor of the project to deliver sidewalks to your community whether it's behind the trees in front of the in front of the trees the idea is to finally connect some sidewalk I'm in favor of doing this project we should move forward we're also going to do traffic coming which I think is going to be critically important we're not setting a precedent this exists in multiple different locations throughout the city without a buffer and as you can see and I asked the director and the assistant director through the manager to please provide my colleagues and make it a public record the documents would show the amount of cars driving through both neighborhoods both neighborhoods so you can see how there's significantly reduced amount of accidents or incidents in regards to pedestrians and bicyclists I think it's important the motion fails we move on can we go on to the next item I'd like to address the the residents that are here um and I asked the manager if you all can meet with the residents to find a solution for a buffer a creation of a buffer and if you're able to find a way to do a buffer I'll bring back the item but I need that's that's it it's not a politicizing anything I just want to see if we can find a buffer so we can all find that solution that we're trying to get to that's all that's my position if that's okay with a manager they can work towards and I'll be more than happy to bring back we'll look at traffic calming the buffer and the tree removal I would also like to make a motion um directing staff to begin working on a comprehensive plan on connecting our sidewalks from the bridge all the way to Bird Road I love it yeah great idea been working on that years that is a great idea and absolutely needs to be done we have a sidewalk there on the um north side of bird road we need to be able to connect to it uh and hopefully soon we'll have one on the south side of Bird Road and uh and God willing if we get the grant for the sidewalks on the south side of Al Hamber Circle we can continue to connect all the way to the university and the underline and get these kids to school safe be able to get the high school kids um all the way over to the high school safe but yes this this anticipated that we would have traffic coming done simultaneously sooner rather than later to the residents thank you very much for being here I appreciate you I made one last comment of course yes um the issue of the ballot Still Remains unanswered either way we want an answer I mean we deserve it the the ballots the ballots were clear okay U obviously the residents wanted wanted a certain uh design that's not that the city's not moving forward with that there's not support on on on the commission to move forward with that design so there's nothing that we can do about it and I'll give you my position on that the ballots were sent out and I know at least one of my colleagues asked for a particular third option be included in the ballot but at that time the administration decided to send out the ballots not including that commissioner's third option and if that third option would have been there this discussion probably would have been had months ago but the administration at that time left it out and again we wanted to have all the options on the table let me let me clarify the commissioner first off no commissioner on this di asked for anything to be left out number one number two number two you have a signed you have a signed document that you provided as a public record saying that all the residents here are an opposition of the third of the third option it's not like if even if it would been included 6 months ago you still wouldn't have voted in favor would you have voted in favor of it would you have voted in favor of it would you have voted in favor of it would you have voted in in favor of it so you don't have the votes so we can hide behind whatever we want to say at the end of the day it is what it is it was two options that were submitted the residents chose one there's there's no will on this commission to move forward on that issue and we'll see what else we can deliver maybe we can put together a buffer and and we can find a way to deliver on the sidewalks at the end of the day I just want to find a compromise between the residents and this commission to deliver to deliver something that is more palatable for people who want to walk and enjoy the neighborhood okay that's it simp let me go ahead and correct you because I think that you have a hard time understanding some things sometimes I was the one who requested a third option the third option should have been on the ballot it was delivered to the residents with only two options but no no one on this commission and I don't have a difficult understanding I can hear you very well I'm having a little I'm having hearing and understanding are two different things thank you okay so I'm not I'm not even going to D dwell on that comment because like the level of disrespect on that comment is ridiculous so my point is my point I I the facts are simple the facts are simple we're moving forward there's no votes there's no there's no interest in moving forward with the will of the Comm of the residents here as you say residents first the residents came here and they said exactly what they wanted we did not give the residents what they wanted and we have to think think about the safety of all residents that has to be our priority the priority of every government is to provide the safety of their residents this is not the saf safest plan our staff has told us Mr director is this the safest option option one option one is a safe option option is it the safest option in the bag will be safer but hold on a minute but is that was my question wait wait wait wait wait wait stop for a second please please please does one meet standard engineering standard they both will meet is one yes a safe option yes okay so there has to be compromised that's the problem that's the problem there has to be compromise to be able to to be able to deliver on certain things case of point when you look at projects that have happened in the past here when we voted on certain things I haven't always been happy about certain things that we voted in the past case in point I'll give you an example I wasn't happy that Miracle ma was given an additional floor and and we and we and we were able to do so but I still said it's better than what was being proposed of Nine Stories that to me was egregious but it happened and that's a new a new code for Miracle Mile so it's safe it meets engineering standards and again it's not a it's not a precedent here in the city so and I offer a compromise and hopefully work with the residents and by the way in the the 1950s cars were safe they met standards fast forward 60 70 years they're safer they they they were standards but there's always an effort to try to improve upon those standards and that's what we're trying to do so thank you we we'll work on that option didn't have seat belts they didn't have airbags and we've been adding safety features and requiring them for years the the fact that something has been done a particular way for 99 years doesn't mean it's the right way to do it at the end of day it's perfectly fine we evolve there's better standards today than there was before but but you can't but you can't say that one thing is not safe when it is okay moving on we're going to move on to H1 nice mayor are you okay I promised you we would take a lunch break on no I I ate all right I didn't pull around all right all right I committed to to honoring that with you so no I'm while I was waiting for you all to discuss stuff I was responding to a resident's email I'll be quick let me just share my screen see if you can pull it up all right good afternoon everyone belis Perez with the economic Development Department we're here to talk about the community of Excellence um program now this is um a lot more than a program this is really a journey that the city has been in for the Last 5 Years um uh in which we are constantly refining and working toward uh Excellence as a community um we have partners and I would be remiss um if I didn't apologize that um um Baptist Health um Aaron Dow and Mark Trowbridge from the Chamber of Commerce weren't able to be here and um David Harwood which is the person that's been helping us through this journey had to leave he had to go back to the West Coast but um so you've got me um but basically this is something that we've been on for the past 5 years Baptist Health South Florida is the one that initiated this program and um really we're bringing this to you right now because um we uh have there's been some recent developments and we uh have very good data that we want to share with you uh and that you should know about because the program that we're in right now this community of Excellence program um has the potential of um of making us one uh the number one community in the nation recognized by the president of the United States and so um it's important that um we C you up to speed on this so basically if you know Malcolm Baldridge and the criteria this is um the the community of Excell Excellence was based off of the criteria from the Baldridge um and made for a community Mal the Malcolm Baldridge award is for a single organization and it's awarded annually by the president of the United States so uh the community of excellence in 2023 um Congress established the community of Excellence as the seventh national award category for presidential recognition so it is slated to be the first presidential recognition to happen either in 2026 or 2027 um so we've been working closely with our partners which is the uh Baptist Health and the Chamber of Commerce to come up with criteria so we've got three pillar Five Pillars excuse me that we work under to create what it is to be a community of Excellence it's Quality of Life Health and Wellness educational Excellence safe neighborhoods and a thriving economy and under those there are different goals that we try to accomplish um so I'm going to take you quickly through the data uh we'll start with a thriving economy and so in order to make a case for us having being a community of Excellence we do have to Benchmark ourselves so um we do that with Miami dat County we do it with Florida how we rank among uh other uh cities in Florida and the United States so what you're hearing here what you're seeing here is the medium household income and how um we how we rate so the navy blue bar is ours and every everyone else is the lines that you see there so unemployment um also we are the Blue Bar we're at uh 1.7 uh% and um everyone else is a bit higher than us as far as a safe neighborhood violent crime rates we also looked at that and so as as it's indicated here we have a very um you know obviously we know this from experience because we do talk to not only businesses that come but residents that come um to the city and just yesterday we had an international Affairs coordinating Council we have a brand new Resident on our board from San Diego we asked why Coral Gables because it's a safe Community because it's a beautiful Community because of the quality of life so um so it was important for for residents as well so violent crime rate um is also down it's a lot lower than um as compared to Miami dat County Florida and the United States here we have a little bit of work to do it's high school graduation rates so as you can see Coral Gables uh we've got two high schools in the city we got the Coral Gables High School and we have Isa and so Isa has a graduation weight of 100% And um uh Coral Gables High is hovering at the 93% 97% this is something that we've been working with the previous uh principal for a while um and now we'll work with the new principal of coral Gable's high but he had determined that um if he got a a person to work closely with those indiv those individuals that were already at risk and that could um pass their SAT scores um their SAT exam that we could um get them ahead of time and have them pass and so there was funding that was put aside um we raised funding through our Sip and Shop events and um the Community Foundation did as well and we've provided some funding so he can get some of these at risk kids tutored and um given a chance to graduate high school um High School proficiency reading also uh important uh particularly at the coral GBL High School level um so we are the latest figures that we've got is that we're at 56% proficiency um as as as as related to ISA which is 77 and then Miami dat in Florida is lower um under health and wellness we worked with Baptist and the uh Health Department to get this information but basically um we have um obviously a great Community a working community and so there is um health care that there's only 5.5% of the population that does not have health care in the city as compared to Miami D County 15 and Florida 11 and then accidental death deaths This was um a big one for us as well is um you know we do a lot of proactive measures and I'm sure the fire department and the police department can attest to that but based on um the based on the latest figures that we have we had four accidental deaths in 2022 we didn't have any in 2023 which is huge and then these are these are um items also that how we compared to Miami date County in Florida and the United States heart disease we have a very low um count for that uh diabetes as well kidney disease list goes on quality of life we get these numbers from our community um survey that we do every other year and so we can Benchmark it against the US and Florida we can't Benchmark it against Miami dayve County that's why it's not included here so for Coral Gables we had uh satisfaction of uh would you recommend uh Coral Gables based on quality of life and in 2023 the number was 95% compared but the lines here are different so the orange line and the Gray Line are really how we compare to the rest of the nation so at the US level we are 91% We compare at the 99 91% ranking and Florida 86% ranking and here again for quality of life satisf action of living in the city um as far as Coral Gables we are at 96% but as we compare to the United States we're at a 98% ranking um and Florida 92 and then satisfaction of working in the city um quality of satisfaction we've got um we went from 91 to 88% in 2023 and as compared to the United States we're at a 99% racking ranking so we're we're doing great at that level and in Florida we have we are at the top of um the satisfaction of working um in the city I would say that there's a discrepancy here from 2021 to 2023 from a satisfaction of working because in 2023 this is when there were fewer people working in the service industry I remember going to some um places even around the nation where you ate and um the tables wer being bust as as quickly as you should because there wasn't any workers available so I think there was um there was a sense of like concern at that point uh satisfaction of quality of life um again we're at 96% right now how does it Faire against the US ranking 97% and uh for Florida is 93 so basically these are the same um uh pillars and um so we have a conference that's happening next week and um we wanted all of you to know about it it's the Baldridge conference that's happening here it's the first time in its history that it's happened so about 40 years that the conference actually takes P place in uh Coral Gables um this is a testament to um the Chamber of Commerce Mark trobridge who actually helped to bring it so they will be at the builtmore hotel and um there are some Rec nitions that uh will be taking place there and we are confident that we will do very good in it and so we'd like to invite you guys if you are interested in attending um to see how we end up and what our our distinction ends up being that we are um that you can attend as well um it is it is a report that we have to give every year to let um the judges know how we're doing it's um it's a basic basically a judging uh a judging meeting that happens it takes about 3 hours but it tells us if we're on the right path and if we need to make any changes so um this is going to be basically a test run of what we expect in 2026 and that's it question it's so you're inviting us 28th 29th and 30th or the it's um specifically one day uh if you are interested in going to the conference I'm happy to um have you as well but I can get you the exact day that that recognition is happening at the builtmore hotel and it's um it's around 5:30 okay all right thank you very much thank you uh moving on to item 2-1 Mr Mayor for uh item 2-1 the board member had to leave he requested to uh present it that the next commission meeting all right perfect thank you I apologize and the fin item before we go to lunch G1 G1 is a resolution of the city commission approving the concept and commissioning of a work of public art by Linda Bas in conjunction with the Regency Park development project at 2601 s Street in fulfillment of the art and public places requirement for public art and private development good afternoon Katherine cathers arts and culture coordinator for the city we do have the developer here to do the presentation if we can have the um it people rent it you know maybe we'll take G2 before we go to lunch we might as well yeah she says she's not sure they're here yeah yeah he's doing G1 he saying after he'll do G2 and then we'll do lunch right we'll do G1 first G1 first don't worry just just listen listen to me listen to me got a lot of people running the meeting but listen to me they you confused them you said you were calling okay just listen just listen to me I said after we will call GT never said the word after yes we did it's okay how you doing sir deing I'm doing well Mr Mayor thank you Mr Mayor members of the commission Joe Jimenez 2020 Salo Street on behalf of the Regency Park joined by Luis gong vice president of Cina partners for development and Lee Casey vice president of marketing um thank you very much for taking the time today uh this is what I hope to be the last hearing and in an overly complicated process as it's been and I would once again like to thank you and the administration for the concession that you made I hope that once I finish the presentation you will have found it U worthwhile and we definitely believe that this will be an incredible Improvement an incredible contribution to the art and public places program in the city so these are not my slides so let's go and here we go um as Mr Galina has been here before to tell you we do consider this a unique building not only in cor Gables but in Miami dat County and with that came his desire to have a unique art piece and ultimately our request for the the escro funds to be able to give this the attention that it deserves um we obviously had to take our time we had to we' put the money in escrow as you know and then we formed an advisory committee with Craig Robbins and Manny God and as well as Mr go to find the right advisor to really study the city study the current um inventory that you have our site our building and come up with something they've come up with Jeffrey D who um both boards that have that have um I will admit this is not exactly my area but I have been told when I flashed this the audience that I have flashed to who did know said oh okay well oh you got somebody so I I I will confess my ignorance but I've been educated since um and they came up with a sculpture by Linda bengas um a longtime artist incredibly well regarded unfortunately at the time she actually wasn't um certified here in the city but we have since done it so the the boards have approved her and it it was approved very quickly but this is not somewhere where she had worked before so we're glad to bring her talents to the city of cor Gables the piece that we've chosen appropriately named is Power Tower as you can see by the size it is and I'll give you in another slide instead of giving you the numbers just so we understand it in context there's a significant sculpture that will be at street level so as you're all aware the two buildings that mrina has built sort of bookend the CBD the Sofia and our corporate headquarter go to the very last Street in the CBD to the north this building goes to the very last Street in the the CBD to the South right along Salo so whereas the sopia we did the artwork right onto the building and the panels um that were sculpted right in and the gates that surround bashour and very much Incorporated it into the building this is designed more to give a more established pedestrian experience it's something that you walk right by and will be it sits on a slight pedestal because of the because of the art architecture which we did have to change but it is as you can see even if you were a level with it it is an imposing sculpture we redesigned the entire entryway so we can see what it used to look like when we first came in for all the approvals to board of Architects and everybody else and this is what we've come to now so again originally it had sort of like a Park Avenue feel with that awning and that was part of the pedest experience but when we started giving this and that's why the pedestal is slightly necessary because of the grade the grade of the of the building where it was so as you can see it's right there next to the sidewalk it is not something that is up in the building it's not something sort of away from from interaction another rendering of it to show you the lighting to show you how it would look like at night the lighting in this building um as far as I know the lighting in this building was the first to ever actually be approved by the board of Architects because the city architect wanted a detailed presentation on it and they even they didn't really know they were like why are we hearing this said he wants us to give it to you we and we will and Armando Lewis and I went down there the lighting in this building is specifically designed to be able to be warmed and cooled depending because because of the railings the light that go behind this so some complaints that other people have made about other buildings in the area just being like a tower of light that's something that went into our design and that's something that was approved by the board of Architects so we we felt that a night rendering of how this would look would be important as well does the sculpture on its own have its own lighting or were just using the surrounding lighting no it has its own Lighting on the pedestal okay right about there um yes that's and that was actually one of the comments from the from one boards because we go to cultural Affairs public art advisory so we've been through we this is our third presentation of this uh it's been unanimous so far we hope to continue that tradition um but um but and I I won't read this to you but it is it was our goal to take our place in the community seriously by our unique position of having the book ends we're very proud of the art work on 2020 Salo and we're very proud to present this as well and just the lines of demarcation of the CBD um we're we're we're proud stewards of that line and we're happy we hope that that you agree uh the scheduled installation um I know leis um I think this day gets earlier every day because because Armando's always said he wants to live there so now we're still saying December 2025 uh we obviously have and and just to be specific so we all understand the people at home understand this would be right on Salo on the west side of the building um and that map is oriented properly to the north so right there in the center of Salo in between Valencia and alaria the what we are required to put up we are we have 1.2 million in escrow we have our project total here is an estimate of 1.22 five $333,000 um I know that there's some K I know that there will be some talking about that later there some things that aren't but we you know we would just like to once again thank you very much for the concession you made here we hope that that you are happy with the result that came from it uh we look forward to installing this piece and and I'm here to answer any questions for you so we just want to continue with the presentation there are additional slides for the city Side while you're bringing those up can you address the maintenance on that yes that will be part of the rest of the presentation we always know your questions becoming predictable so cable TV could put the presentation back on so we just want to go over the approval process so as part of our city code section 99-103 the fund requirements developers do have the option of requesting a waiver through the acquiring or commissioning of artwork as was mentioned the Arts advisory panel recommended approval on September 4th in the cultural development board recommended approval on September 17th both of them were unanimous and you can see it move forward very quickly um this is just a breakdown is of the fees part of our our code is 1% of the projects total um the Aggregate and construction cost which right now is estimated at 1 point approxim in17 million for the artwork and there are additional funds being used for foundation and other related expenses so are there are things that are permissible through the code and things that that aren't so we'll work with the developer on that uh the funds uh should not exceed or replace expenses that would typically use be be used for lighting requirements on the site so um or for the artwork in this case or for in infrastructure or The Hardscape again this is all broken down and we will review it with them um artwork and any related expenses will be um uh the responsibility of the developer with any difference in costs to be paid back into the art fund so we would Rel release the escro funds at this time um if it passes approval and then if there's anything after the close out of the project they would pay that back into the fund um our our favorite topic uh maintenance developer is required to provide for the Perpetual maintenance of the artwork in accordance with the the code and uh this will be memorialized in a covenant to run with the land coordination of Maintenance will be the responsibility of the developer is not related to the ENT public places fee thank you okay what is uh any questions from the commission I just want to comment that um every board and the city commission did the right thing in handing over the Reigns to you all to come up with this piece I think it's a beautiful piece uh I think it Blends in very well with the concept of the project itself um I think it's something people will go to just to see it uh and and it's that I think amazing uh I guess the the only question I have so it's called power of tower but has nothing to do with Tower of Power which is a 70s Funk brass section is it I don't know if you've met Mr go but uh that a funk R&B guy okay no I don't think it has anything and I don't think Linda bengalas has was no I don't okay no the answer is but I you know it could be I won't say it under oath I want to give a worse joke than that one does anything to do with the Tower of Terror no no I was just saying Power Tower let me let me can I come up with can I come up with a worst joke in that one I don't know like what other jokes can we come up with about Towers the leaning tower of pza is it like the Leaning Tower Pizza I hope not no although why did the building department pumpkin break anyway you know I got I got to come up I got to come up with these punch lines you know I got to they're good it's a beautiful piece in favor of voting in favor of it I'm glad you're going to be maintaining it CU I wouldn't want to imagine the build on that one I'll move it I I share I share the sentiments of my colleagues um exceptional I love it thank you very very classy thank you very much yeah it's beautiful all right I'll move it I moved it yeah you moved a second commissioner Castro yes commissioner Fernandez yes commissioner Menendez yes vice mayor Anderson yes mayor loo thank you very much and absolutely and I don't know may not be unanimous I don't know you know oh oh you didn't okay sorry I thought I just I was thinking about it there for a second I don't know if I make it unanimous I don't know it's like just another joke I don't know I just you know I'm in a joking mood see this one was actually funny I know well I mean I'm I mean Menendez is jokes so he hits one out of 10 so let me I can't hit them all which is actually better than your rate it's okay oh no trust me I I got that trust me I know that yes thank you and with that I really want to thank staff for all their help they've been great through all of this the attorney I know I didn't make it easy on this one so thank you to everybody appreciate it's beautiful thank you so much we'll go to lunch wait G2 I thought you were going to do the second one he said G2 I thought you guys didn't want to hear G2 oh okay come on up come on up come on up come on you wanted to spend some longer time with us be jealous of your you guys eat lunch ready did everybody eat lunch ready I didn't okay I'm a diabetic in the room iisten he who hesitates is lost you know listen it was there G here to serve all right how we doing give me G2 great G2 is a resolution of the city commission approving the exhibition of a mural by artist Eduardo Cobra on private property at the plaza 2950 Coconut Grove Drive so um Mr clerk if you can uh see if either uh Miss Garcia is on Zoom otherwise Mr Beckman Carlos Beckman if either one of them are then I will run the slides for them and uh they will they will do the talking okay so have someone with the last name Becca mson okay Mr Beckman are you on the call uh I am Katherine thank you can you all hear me yes yes yes okay we can put the presentation back up um okay uh mayor Commissioners uh public in general thank you so much I I apologize if I stutter a little bit here I'm actually pitching in for Isabel from bradesco who is really the forest behind this mural but uh I think Katherine and I have done this a couple of times before so we'll try to to run through the presentation uh quickly and um um efficiently for everybody so that you all can go to lunch um uh for those of you familiar with Cobra obviously um he's a contemporary artist from Brazil um the idea of having a mural in this location at the the the the wall facing you the Portico share right next to the Portico share of the low's Coral Gables um actually started many many years ago we have an empty uh white wall uh currently there at one point we wanted to do a mural there as part of the general art in public spaces program for the Plaza we all chose the the sculptures and pieces that you were familiar with and at that point obviously the funds were exhausted so uh we never got to do the mural uh working together with one of our anchor tenants here bradesco who have the the top three floors of the South office tower uh and uh just before art basle later this year the idea came to finally realize something on on on that uh space white wide wall space and do a mural uh so this is the proposal we we got from uh Eduardo Cobra himself what you see on on on the screen is Tom Jan very famous Brazilian bosan NOA artist that did some work together with Frank Sinatra to the left and uh as they are playing and recording uh music you can see the famous Coler uh schemes triangular figures that Cobra is is famous for um the piece is 100% sponsored by bradesco and the U intention is obviously for the plaza Coral Gables to take uh any additional expenses for the U creation of the mural itself and uh maintenance as need be um I would like to thank Catherine for helping us run through this really quickly because uh if we really want to get this before Art Basel later this year um obviously uh a quick review and approval process was needed and um I think we're still on time to to get this done in the next three to four weeks five weeks and have a good event unveil unveil unveiling event um just uh during the Art Basel week uh that will'll bring a lot of people and and visitors and it be another attraction to the the plaza Coral Gables so just to to continue on and give a little bit more context and again go through the the uh review and and recommendation process that we used so where the the yellow star is is the location of the mural so you can see it is just to the the left if you're facing the entrance of the L's hotel which is on a a one-way Street and um it again it went through the Arts advisory panel and the cultural development board with unanimous recommendations on October 2nd and on October 15th uh these are just some specifications about the piece so it would it is a newly commissioned work um that will be completed in 2024 hopefully in time for art basil it is a painted mural that they intend uh it should take about a week a little less than a week to complete uh right now the intention is sit to stay up for approximately 5 years could be less uh depending on how how well it weathers it is in again a very kind of a protected area so we think that it would do well there um and just as an aside um I actually saw the piece I don't know if any of you saw the saw it down at the Adrian Arch Center I was down there downtown last night and there's a beautiful piece by his on the wall of the the Adrian AR center of a of a baller so um you could see some of his other work from around the world and and that's it if you have any questions for Mr Beckman or myself that's nice okay um to avoid any possible future conflicts I'm going to go ahead and recuse myself from this vote I'll step out okay commission it's because you have a you had a you have or had a business relationship with um the the entity that's paying for this piece right oh BR bresco I I think it's very fitting timing is great I'm you know unless there are other comments I'll make a motion I uh just had a question you talked about a limited time period for it to be up is um the applicant going to paint over it be responsible for painting over it at that point um Carlos could you respond to that because it really is on the the developer's property it's on their private property we would not responsible it yes yes commissioner um the uh we the the time the time frame for the art piece is around five years that's the the expectation we have since this is a North facing a well protected area I think uh it may be longer but uh what we heard from the artist and from the studio was that uh normally after 5 years it would really require a a major redo or repair work or redo and some cases on other properties the owners have decided to just you know paint paint over it either do another mural or or go back to the current condition which would be like a wall white uh you know stock of finish so uh we're ready obviously to do maintenance as required to keep it as long as possible and uh when the time comes uh we would probably uh advise the city and uh go back to the current a and hopefully we can um you know for a forthcoming Art Basel or or some something else we can come up with something else from Cobra or another artist give another artist an opportunity to do something on that specific location so if those um conditions are included in in the motion uh I'll second it you might we need to make a verbal response for the court reporter oh yeah amend it absolutely okay thank you yeah that they're not going to be able to hear your nodding on the tape commissioner mandz yes vice mayor Anderson yes commissioner Fernandez yes mayor logo yes see you in 30 minutes thank you recording [Music] stopped e e [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] for e [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] e [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] for [Music] [Music] for [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] e [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] 8:00 so I'm good I going to defer F9 i' like to respectfully suggest we deal with f8 after the next session we do what I'd like to f8 I think we should deal with after the next session we didn't do that much yet I think Fernando wanted to do an update what was discussed well I'd be a City Commissioner City uh city manager I know I yeah I went from uh freezing [Music] Joe you ready on F7 are you ready on F7 uh recording in progress but need a little bit more time um rundo does have an agreement with ways to be able to to put the information in into ways as far as detours and all that right but I like to come up with a more holistic plan on how we're going to do with that mhm so yeah I think that's the best way it's probably the reason why I asked fdot to put no left turns plac is because then it forces it into the app right Mr clerk you ready yes Mr Mayor we'll start with E1 E1 is ignorance of the city commission amending chapter 46 of the code of the city of cor Gables entitled tensions implementing provisions of the 2024 to 2027 collective bargaining agreement between the city and Teamsters Local Union 769 amending section 4625 definition section 46- 26 compulsory participation section 46-27 purchase of credited service section 46-29 City contribution section 46-34 employee contribution section 46- 253 normal retirement income and section 46 - 269 deferred retirement option plan and providing for severability Clause repeal Provisions codification providing for an effective date good afternoon good morning mayor Commissioners good afternoon I'm sorry don't worri so this this ordinance is on second reading it implements the pension changes that would agreed that were agreed upon in the recently ratified Teamsters agreement those changes also apply to the general employees there has been one change between first and second reading sorry I just ran up the stairs and um the that change was to allow appointed officials to retire once they reach um the 75% multiplier maximum regardless of their age Mr do you have any public comment uh not at this time Mr Mayor second vice mayor Anderson yes commissioner Castro yes commissioner Fernandez yes commissioner Mendez mayor loo yes thank you too thank you very much E2 is an orance of the city commission amending the code of the City of Coral gaes Florida Chapter 2 and titled Administration article 3 boards commissions committees division one generally by amending section 2- 52 qualification appointment of members in order to expand the benefits offered to members of City boards providing for rep provision severability clause codification and providing for an effective date there have been no changes since first reading no changes Mr cler do you have any public comment no Mr Mayor I entertain a motion I'll move it second commissioner Castro yes great job commissioner Fernandez yes commissioner Menendez yes yes vice mayor Anderson yes mayor L yes item E3 on first reading E3 is in ordinance of the city commission amending the city of cor Gable's code chapter 10 animal section 10-4 removal of animal feces to provide a code enforcement mechanism for illegal dumping of animal waste bags and trash pits assistant City attorney and City prosecutor Gus of will present the item good afternoon Mr Mayor vice mayor Commissioners uh this item is pretty straightforward it basically just gives the code enforcement department a few additional tools to try to curb the current issue with the doggy bags and dog waste issues throughout the city um straightforward first offense you will receive a warning second offense you receive a $100 fine and the third offense and any continuing fines it would be a $500 charge so uh refresh my memory when we first discussed that the um appropriate fine was $500 so the current code for illegal dumping you can be fined up to $500 so currently our code does allow if somebody Wass to see somebody throwing a bag or any sort of trash into somebody else's trash bit that for our code is defined as illegal dumping um but I think our idea was to try to narrow to provide a more narrowed approach and um in conjunction with the QR codes and things as part of the waste stations throughout the city direct people specifically to this code section and let them know hey there is a penalty provision for specifically doing what I think a lot of people actually think is is a permitted uh activity yeah so when Martha was designing some of the signs and the QR code went to the city's website it said you know the the sledgehammer was coming you're going to get a $500 fine and so I asked staff to to do this stepped approach like we did with bicycles and skateboards and and other things you get a warning you get a fine that gets your attention and then then the sludgehammer comes so if I may was a co-sponsor of this item I'd like to see if we can Implement something additional it doesn't have to be legislative it can be through public works this is an idea a consideration is I'd like to find the hotpots throughout the gables that have major issues because at the end of the day we don't have enough staff we never will have enough staff we never will have enough police we never will have neighbor enough neighborhood safety aids to be able to catch somebody in the act of doing this um unless a neighbor sees from their lawn uh you know a habitual offender you know doing it it's going to be very difficult again so I would like to see if when we have when we have areas we can can identify the top 50 hundred areas where you know we've received a lot of complaints for for the issue of illegal dumping like we're dealing with in New York New York excuse me North Gables uh which is been curbed significantly since we pushed that forward um I'd like to see we can do the same thing here and what what can we do with that then contact those individuals and say I know you love your trash pit maybe they don't love their trash pit maybe they say you know what I'm fed up with this and I want to get rid of my trash pit and we can address the issue with with uh by removing that trash bit and offering them offering them that there are other solutions to the situation you don't have to have a trash bit and once we talk to people I mean I've encountered dozens of people who told me I'm suffering from illegal dumping I didn't know I can get rid of my trash bit so I don't know if that's something that you think would be a good idea vice mayor just to kind of educate them and say you're having this issue let's let's let's let's find another solution yeah some people you know when they find out that they don't need to have a trash pit that they can use an alternative solution and close it have chosen to do that when they've contacted me the other hope here was we can identify where the trash bits are with the most um dumping of feal matter put these signs up we still got to work through cost issues uh some residents have already asked me you know how can I request a sign um and we'll go through those wrinkles uh later on and to help educate folks that's why the QR code is on there uh and I asked staff to uh confer with our sanitation department about placement of the signs what will keep it out of the way of our sanitation workers but yet still communicate to people walking by uh that there is a QR code they can look it up and find out that what they're doing could get them a a fine if they're spotted we have cameras in some areas already if there's a heavy heavy use of it uh of dumping in the trash pit there of all the the bags which I've I had a picture but I didn't bother bringing it in the post where they you know they continue to flow down the street and it becomes quite a mess so hopefully this is a first step in helping curb some of this activity we're never going to stop all of it but we got to start somewhere so I so I have some some comments as far as legality um you have to catch somebody in the ACT to be able to issue a violation a fine that's correct so what happens to the homeowner that has these bags already in the trash bit and we haven't caught them are we giving the homeowner a f I'm not aware of us ever giving a fine specifically for a dog bag they could because it is your responsibility to maintain your trash bit and it is your responsibility if somebody's dumping cardboard boxes inside of your trash bit and code goes by and see these a pile of cardboard boxes there's a very good chance that you're going to receive a a notice violation for that okay so I'm guessing now with with poop bags we're probably going to give them a fine too whether we catch somebody in the act or not so the code already allowed for them to issue that citation if they if the code enforcement officer choose chooses to obviously they have the discretion um but currently our code allows them to site for that okay and then the other thing is that once I saw this ordinance which is very good thank you for bringing it up um I did get together with solid waste that they did voice some concerns and um I think they would like us to add some language of where it is appropriate to dump the feces um they were showing concerns that there shouldn't be a separate bag or container with poop bags maybe that we should include it in the house garbage or in the kitchen garage that is the that is theate that's the appropriate area that's a standard that's existing so this isn't changing what's allowed this is just creating the the the the framework or the scheme for the finds but the concern that they they shout to me with was that some residents are dumping in a separate bag and they're not picking it up so let me let me fill you fill in some gaps the flyer that went out this past year um you know I participated with Miss panene on editing the language to inform people how to properly dispose of dog waste um so it did say you can put it in a dog waste receptacle or in your household garbage you can collect it and and dump it in um the way this is written you know failure to properly remove and dispose of animal feces and a matter into a trash recepticle seems to be directed at the the person who's actually dumping the waste as opposed to the victim which is the homeowner there uh of people improperly dumping the waste so um the intent of this again we're not Reinventing the wheel the intent of this is very simple is to provide a vehicle that when somebody gets caught like what we did with the north Gables when I wrote the legislation about illegal dumping and we put the cameras and we were able to curb that significantly as per you can read it in the article of community newspapers this is the same concept behind that is to provide a vehicle for our code enforcement our neighborhood safety AIDS our police our staff to be able to address that concern if you have a neighbor that says hey I have a handful of individuals that continue to dump their their poop bags in my yard I have it under I have it under camera I I caught it under you know camera continued effort but we don't think we want to ever get to that one of the things that we always say when I when I tell residents about a Code Enforcement issue is let's educate educate educate but now you have a way to address the issue and if someone doesn't want to conform to the rules then they're going to be they're going to going to have a code enforcement violation not a codee enforcement but they're going to have an actual violation I'm going to use my late mother-in-law as a example again she for years didn't want to properly dispose of a lot of things but once she received a garbage receptacle that had the information right on it she was the best best uh person at complying the the point here is to educate to try to get more people to not be dumping it and the trash picks and not burden our our sanitation staff with having to deal with all these doggy waste bags that they're going to have to rake up which never get really raked up they're still left behind after the garbage is picked up and why should they have to be dealing with half decayed waste bags so that's the point um you all have any other questions before I move I think like the mayor said education is is is on this I don't know if maybe we can do Martha can prepare a PSA video that she can put out on on the E news on proper ways to dispose because the language as it exists it kind of says just dumping it with your your household waste but from what I've been hearing as well people are collecting it in one bag which is all doggy waste when they put it into the truck that thing explodes so it's better if they just mix it in with their household waste as opposed having a separate bag that they're just putting their doggy uh waist in that's something that again is just informational as part of the before second reading I can try to tweak some of the language in C to kind of direct the residents to make sure that they're putting it as part of their household trash I I don't think it's it's so much language it's just about information and getting the education out there I think it nothing to do I think the legislation is fine as is it's just about making sure that the informational campaign that that follows once we we approve it a second reading just informs resident of best practices I guess I believe commissioner that there is on uh e already some information on how to dispose of but I did have a question for Gus uh can you use the evidence from video cameras for illegal dumping as evidence hearing if a neighbor has a video of their neighbor you know pooping in the trash because our officers are not the ones that collected that video or that evidence they would have to be willing to come here and testify as to what that video shows I'm talking more about the ones at the city has over a couple dozen around the cities if we take that recording we could take that with the code enforcement officer to the board for a hearing we could I don't know how we would be able to tie that to the individual in the video but if we have a manner of way of doing that that that could be presented as evidence in front of the code board but that's the reason why I wrote the law I mean at the end day I didn't write the law just to catch somebody on the on on TV I wrote the law to to resolve the issue of the illegal dumping that we were having in in the north cables so of course the video can be used we we had a very thorough analysis as we you and I sat down with along along with the city attorney that's the extent of spending money and the extent of putting these cameras up and putting the signage up because people were tired in North cables of all the illegal dumping to the extent where you put the cameras up and then they'll do the Leo dumping somewhere else and then you got to go and you got to plant some trees and you got to PL put another camera so um it works it's it's a deterrent it's a deterrent and you can use and you can use it because we've cop people uh who were who were a moving company I think it was a few months ago that was dumping uh you know bed mattresses and furniture and we caught the name of the company you were talking about that before few months and we we've caught even uh adjoining buildings uh that are walking over and we see them walking over and dumping it so we were able to identify where the source of the illegal dumping was coming from right no it works and the beauty of this is people are usually walking their dogs in the same area repeatedly and the people are identified by their dogs and you know people know me long before they by my dogs long before they realize it's me no matter what hat or disguise I wear so all right I'll move it second commissioner Fernandez yes commissioner mandez yes vice mayor Anderson yes commissioner Castro yes mayor logo yes moving on to F5 discussion regarding chicken and rooster and roosters and and Coral Gables I've gotten several complaints um about chicken and and roosters in the north Gables and I know that in other parts of the gables as well and um as it is right now I know City of Miami has allows each residential home to have four hens As We Know city of Miami is half a block away from some parts of the gables I don't know how the roosters are getting here because they're not allowed to have roosters but they're getting to to our side to our side of town as it is right now a resident cannot touch these chickens because we are a bird sanctuary and chickens and roosters are part of that bird sanctuary so I know that um some residents have come to to City Hall to talk to so to Tony CIO and they have not been able to do much what I am proposing is that maybe we exclude um chickens and and and roosters from the bird sanctuary that way we can give access to the homeowner or the property owner to go ahead and remove the chicken or rooster in their property um at their own expense or what is it whatever it is that they want to go ahead and do with their chickens on the on the property um I invite my colleagues to to um indulge this conversation great great great idea baby chicks turn into roosters that's how you get the roosters this is the fun part of the meeting dog poop and roosters and chickens well we have a plan we have a plan we're going to do an undercover chicken to get the roosters so we're going to tie them up to a tree and when the roosters come up we'll grab up the roosters and chief chief chief by the way could you find out why the chicken cross Douglas Road to get to get to its neighbor's egg uh commissioner what we can do is the nuisance things like that uh we could I mean apart from the ordinance and I know along with the same ordinance that you're clining all cats are supposed to have bells on them too which is a whole another unenforceable thing that we can do uh in the bird sanctuary if it becomes an issue like that usually what we do is we call pesky Critters the police department can see them sometimes they want them pendant if people that are watching have them inside a yard or something like that it's it's easier for us to have pesky Critters come over and grab up the chickens or the roosters um again I have seen some of the pictures have come to me as well where they're just kind of clucking a muck across Douglas Road so uh I that's about the only thing I think we can come up with right now whether I mean we don't I know the state sometimes put out something to deal with iguanas I I'm not a big proponent of that but there is there is something I think we can probably talk to pesky Critters and come up with something that we can do to address that when we get those calls so so I'm not proposing that the city itself become liable with trapping chickens this is just to give access to the homeowner to be able to grab the chicken and put it across the street again or whatever they want to do I'm not talking about about I can't speak for code enforcement but I'm not going to cite anybody who touches a chicken in the city I I I mean it's part of and I think we could put together like an an informational flyer or something like that on who to call whatnot we'll put it up on the police department social media and and go out that way so I I think if if it's the will of the commission we could prepare legislation for next meeting that would um explicitly ex um exempt chickens and roosters if that's what if that's the word Theiss that's exactly where I was going I just wanted to make sure that I there was consensus here that everybody agrees this is an issue and um can we trap them and take them to the Sears lot and make that a bird sanctuary and they can't build the live local project well maybe if there's some bats there but um but uh anyway I I don't think anybody you know the noise ordinance they don't comply with that so no well the price of eggs you may want to reconsider this we could use some some I'm going to tell you some residents are going to be really really happy um know it's it's an issue in the North caes in particular it's been a it's been a big issue we'll put out some information for the nsas as well we'll get once we get that information on kind of giving them instructions on how to contact the appropriate removal company we'll do it that way as well so would you like me to move or is there a direction from the commission I I don't I don't need a a motion or anything I can bring we can bring that back okay perfect and I'll just report back to the manager when we come thank you Chief moving on to item F6 yes um this is regarding uh I've had a lot of you know residents um approach me all you got to do is drive around the gables these past few months and you see a lot of uh Road repairs a lot of construction um and a lot of street closures oh sorry six oh I'm sorry six wrong one page oh okay well ceas and deist well that one's good too um F6 uh um basically um we're in a hyper sensitive time I think in our society um you know now with the proliferation of AI a lot of people on social media are creating images and creating websites and creating things that give the illusion that it's one thing when in reality it's not and I met with the City attorney and her team about um there's no particular case or particular matter it's just you can see it all around the country how things are just uh getting out of hand um what the procedure is with the City of Coral Gables in terms of how we issue cease and assist letters when we have issued cease and assist letters uh mostly the concern would be for example hypothetical somebody uses a city seal or City's design to make look like their website or something is an official uh City page it's not talking about the language it's not what they're saying it's given it's like a trademark I know like a lot of sports franchises have sued or sent cease and assist letters when people send sell their merchandise that's not official merchandise so I'd like to talk about that so so my office says we do have authority to issue season's assist letters when necessary and um certainly if someone is using one of our trademarks or the city logo city seal Etc without permission we can certainly take action to protect our marks um that's that's very important to us um but in terms of you know if someone's using the similar font or something like that we can't control that and we can't um restrict that and certainly we are very cognizant of of the First Amendment and Free Speech protections and we do not intend to censor you know speech but certainly we protect our trademarks absolutely yes and we've all read cases and hopefully not impacted us personally our families our friends but you know people send you an email you click on the link and it takes you to a Bank of America and it's not Bank of America they recreate a bank in America you put in your PIN number and all of a sudden they have access to your account that's just growing more and more and they're becoming more creative and with AI it's a major problem it's only going to get worse so I just wanted to you know have that discussion put on the record that the city has the necessary legal tools when and if the problem ever arises within the city to take the proper action and I appreciate um your response and the information thank you just got done blocking one from the US Postal Service that wasn't from the US Postal Service yeah is and they basically take the same images it's it's amazing how they do these things these days creative folks I I was just in a meeting probably an hour and a half long meeting last week regarding cyber cyber hacking and and and it's really unbelievable how the whole United States really is facing this issue right now and um a lot of the threats are really coming from places that I like my mouth was open when they were explaining to me from Russia oh yeah China and then they were giving examples of the actual websites that look exactly the same yeah these are issues we're facing every day let's hope that um we don't have to go through that here in Coral Gables but if we do I mean I was at a I had the opportunity to be at a conference this summer uh there were representatives from different countries and at the conference there was a young man who's a specialist in cyber attacks and he works for a consulting firm but he worked for the federal government and he was explaining that he was behind his uh screen computer screen he stepped away to get a cup of coffee and when he came back his bosses wanted to see him and he go what happened he goes when you walked away the report that you were writing about I think it was about the report that you're writing started deleting the sentences and new words were added while he went to get coffee somebody had access to the computer and rewrote was rewriting the report to benefit whoever was behind it so we're in a very very serious uh new worlds can I uh just make a mention that it's uh very comforting to know that our it department is topnotch and they're on top of those issues day in and day out uh I'm I'm very impressed with our it unit well Chief delosa was telling me that during the hurricane the number of cyber attacks on municipalities that were being impacted right because they figured that the um municipality wasn't focused on the Cyber attack they were focused on the response to the hurricane so they were cyber attacking the municipalities that happens all the time with folks that commit crimes this has been happening for a long long time and I I know the city manager is fully aware of that I had some very talented clients had always thought that law enforcement was asleep Christmas New Year's times like that but cyber attacks been going on from Russia for decades MH and expect this to increase even more just to um make us doubt for of our democracy now coming close to the election period they're going to just want to you know input so much misinformation to make us weaker well I'll just leave you the with this one war games concept the the same person I met who's from Washington said that if let's say the Chinese wanted to go after Taiwan and and make a mil military move they could Cyber attack the US government to delay our reaction our response they have the capability to delay Us by jamming our our systems hopefully uh it never comes to that but again I appreciate actually everybody's input I think it's important for the community to hear it so thank you moving on to F7 all right this one is um yes uh there's been a lot of you know uh construction um you go down Granada where the bridges um south of of um Bird Road you go in the near our downtown area a lot of even Coral Way a lot of construction which is good because there's a lot of improvements being made but they're creating dead ends or detours and a lot of the residents find themselves sort of Trapped in a maze of detours and they asked if they if the city maybe I would think maybe the beginning of the week can list where there is um construction location so that they are aware to maybe avoid those areas I we don't have to say when the streets are closed or when there's where there's a detour but just let them identify those projects that we know are happening um and and put a list the county sometimes sends emails out there like work on Bird Road near the Palmetto if we can do that on our website I think that would be helpful for residents and people knowing where what areas to avoid so I've been speaking a little bit uh for I can't remember when we first spoke uh Joe about the having it inputed into ways and Google Maps and what were mapping programs we have because most people don't go onto our City's website before they get in the to take their kids to school so uh that was the idea behind that the same reason why um in the letter to fdot I requested no leftand turn turn signs on some of the places where it's absolutely dangerous to do so especially during peak hours because then it gets into the mapping programs and then we don't misdirect people to do things that's very very dangerous you said that that uh it needed some time yeah yes um it it has a memorandum of understanding with both Google and with ways to be able to um to uh provide information on on the app and they have done it in the past for example the example that rundo cited was uh the plaza when the plaza construction was going on they put that information into ways so people would know that there was heavy construction in the in the area one of the things that I want to uh work with it going forward and with our Public Works department is on some of our our other RightWay permits that have a complex mot to have that information populated both on our website and as well as integrated into our GIS system so that that information can then be fed to the applications like ways and Google and all that so we're going to be working on on that so can you add to that list the Apple map program Apple of course okay I think it's the fact that we can put it because uh not you know some people still have flip phones and some people like their landlines and you know and and that and there are plenty of those and um the more we can provide the more places we can provide this information the more we we cover the community sure would it be possible to maybe include a section in the E news of upcoming road closures uh for the following week and then that's the one touch we have with residents weekly uh and the place they know to get the news from the city maybe we can just had a section we have different uh ad advisories that we receive sometimes we receive them at the last minute from uh Miami dead water and sewer and we always do put them we put them out and and I we send them to you as well so that you can uh also put the messaging out we do get every week uh from Public Works what they expect to be doing but everything is very dependent upon weather as As We Know uh we think that we are going to be working on something and all of a sudden uh you know there's rain or the contractor was delayed the week before and then it it changes uh I'm happy to put whatever on E I just caution that if we take too much space uh we get away from putting you know our on ongoing newses news that we need to obviously I would take your direction as to uh where we need to go I just caution that whenever we have too many things that we have to put in we limit and we we know that there's a limit of how much people will read yeah but maybe we can have a section where you just have the link to the to a website yeah and that way people can see it the other suggestion might be to create a separate Instagram account or Twitter account where people can which is just Coral Gables Road closes and it's specific to that so the algorithm doesn't just mix it in with everything else the minute you post post it it does get picked up and people can follow that account yeah the road closures we definitely is is something that we put on Twitter because Twitter we treat as a very different type of of of news uh uh dissemination versus you know promotional like like an Instagram we wouldn't be putting road closures we do put them on uh on Twitter and I think what we can do is if we're going to put the ones that we get every Friday that if we put them on the website we can promote on an ongoing basis at least in the beginning so that people you know that do read E news know that it's there and where to go and we can also put it as a news story uh on the homepage and we can leave that for one of the things to remember though is for the ways is has to be closure of more than four to five days another an extended period of closure not one of those that we do today tomorrow we're moving forward so there is we're talking about long long-term closures correct that's why I think for at least for the E news not ways obviously that's a different story but instead of road closures you know areas where there's construction and that's that's you know people know what that means avoid the area but we don't pin ourselves down to actually road closure because like you said it could rain and they're not but they know that area has activity but I mean and and we do it occasionally in in uh in enu and and uh Public Works does provide us a list every Friday thank you thank you moving on to f8 f8 is an update on the recent Florida League of cities policy committee meetings um I'm going to go ahead and let um Fernando start with a presentation and then within the topics I know we can go ahead and fill in some gaps on Billy cable TV could put up the presentation great okay so we'll get started I'll get through these rather quickly so just to introduce um really what the functions of the Florida League of cities are or is is that they do three main things one is they Advocate on behalf of over 400 member municipalities uh they do so by by uh at the state and the federal level they collectively uh get whatever our interests are through our legislative commities that we'll discuss in a second and then put that before the legislative bodies and try to put uh push through whatever those priorities may be a second role that the league has is to educate the individual uh City members of The League through webinars through in-person seminars they have their yearly conference and then also their committees uh during which they introduce us to bills that were passed related to our committees bills that were uh you know likely are coming back next year and then prior Year's priorities uh and then the last thing that it allows us to do is to collaborate with the other members of the Florida League of cities and you know here in The Gables we're 50,000 person city um with you decent resources and then there are some members that come from 2,000 member you know 2,000 resident cities that have almost no tax revenue 756 residents in exactly czy yeah so so very diverse groups um which make for a a a wide variety of concerns and ideas to be presented before the body okay so to go through the Committees quickly these are the committee assignments that we have for this year we have five committees and five uh Representatives development Code Compliance and Redevelopment is commissioner Melissa Castro finance and Taxation commissioner Ariel Fernandez intergovernmental relations mobility and Emergency Management committee that's vice mayor Ronda Anderson Municipal operations that's Chelsea grenell the mayor's chief of staff and then I as the government Affairs manager I'm in the utilities natural resources and Public Works committee they should make this the mural on the Plaza background good looking picture that was a night time um so so this is the schedule for the Committees there are going to be three meetings we've already done one that was on October 4th the following meeting will be on November 8th and then the last meeting will be during what the league calls their legislative conference which will be between December 4th and December 6th uh this past meeting the way that things were structured were that uh each of us went into our individual committees and four things were supposed to be discussed I've heard that some of the different committees didn't go through all these things but the structure was supposed to be bills passed that concern the committee in this past legislative session those that were not passed but are likely to come back and are of concern and uh worth keying in on and then also what the uh the specific committee's past priorities were and then what this year's priorities were thus far uh so at this point if the Commissioners would just like to comment on what was discussed during their individual committees I'll pass the the mic to you absolutely I'll I'll touch really really fast um just basic subjects of what was discussed the first thing that was discussed was the live local act and then I'll touch base later on during your presentation on that um other things were vacation rentals impact fee um issues and very important to us unlawful demolition of historic structures um I'll go ahead and give it to one of my other colleagues if go ahead I'm going to pull up my folder because there's a there's a lot of stuff I worked on all right you want me to uh just briefly touch upon so um finance and Taxation committee um it's a smaller committee not made up of that many municipalities and you have a lot of smaller municipalities in in the group I think we were Orlando is the largest one I think we were the second largest municipality that was in the room um but we did have a couple of folks from here from South Florida we had uh um mayor Mitchell from Miami Springs and commissioner smuckler Fortuna smuckler from um North Miami Beach and um there's two issues that obviously I push for on on the live local issue um based on the argument that there is a financial impact to the municipalities uh we seem to get some traction with even some of the smaller municipalities uh who are dealing with their own issues with Liv local uh surprisingly um where in some municipalities you would expect a reduction of the cost of housing uh other municipalities in the Panhandle are having the adverse effect properties that have been built in The Last 5 Years qualify for live local as long as they begin to uh use 40% of it for affordable housing and in one municipality those units were being rented for $1,400 a month with the new parameters of live local they're now renting for $1,800 a month so it's increased the cost of housing in their municipality um but they all seem to it had some traction uh I'm going to try to push and I'm still Fernando and I still have a call with our with my uh FLC staff member we've been getting some push back on having this be an issue for my committee to bring up they think that commissioner Castro's committee would be a better place to address it um but as I told them I don't want this to be an issue that just falls on the sidelines uh because the uh your committee doesn't take it up so I'm going to be pushing to to address this another issue that came up that does affect us and it's not in our legislative priorities but I know that um it has been something that as a municipality we have tried to do in the past which is uh uh involves um tourism taxes and the inability of municipalities to get the trickle down of that funding uh it stops at the county level uh there's only two municipalities in Miami County actually I think in the state that are benefiting from it which are Miami Beach and bal Harbor they were grandfathered in 1986 um so mayor Mitchell from Miami Springs was pushing this issue on trying to have the state authorize for municipalities to get a portion of that uh and it's not just revolving around hotels there are smaller municipalities that don't have hotels but rental cars come through their communities using their infrastructure um Airbnb has become a big issue in smaller towns uh because people are looking for that small town feel so those are taxes that they're not being able to benefit from so again it went back to the Taxation and the the financial component a lot of these municipalities are seeing it as we're providing the service but we're not getting getting the revenue to provide the service so uh I think that one will also have traction uh this time around there wasn't really anything major being considered obviously there's a lot of concern about the legislature uh potentially pushing in the next couple of years to eliminate um real estate tax um so it they're not even pitching a change of the revenue stream um the the person who's been pushing in the leg kind of just wants to eliminate municipalities as a whole uh so talk about getting rid of home rule but um it's something that's not expected to gain a whole lot of traction this legislative session uh but it is something that the LC has been tracking going forward so um I worked on drafting a lot of the uh the legislation that is being presented so I just wanted for the Public's benefit be able to summarize it cuz not everybody knows what we're pushing for uh this particular legislative SE um session because I looked at look at this more than just a leue of cities issue I look at this as an opportunity to share with other uh cities uh what we're doing and things that they may want to consider adopting so one of the items we did we redefined what type of warning signs and lights and so forth are necessary on school buses cuz currently the statute that exists was drafted Back in 1970 when Charter Schools didn't exist and private school buses um at least when I went to uh Catholic School were the regular school buses with the little signs that came out and the lights blinking the problem with not having that type of signage on these vans that transport children um is that law enforcement cannot ticket when someone improperly goes around the van and then it's the child that's crossing the road so uh Fernando and I worked on editing that language um I had done some of the preliminary research so uh that's one of the items that I I worked on and shared with the various League members uh modification of the tree ordinance this is something that uh Fernand and I worked on um and we passed it through Dena uh to be able to have Lang anguage in there with sufficient guard rails on it that we can prevent fraudulent reports being used as a basis upon which to remove trees uh it requires the um person uttering the report to swear under oath and before a notary uh also requires the concurrence of a landscape architect who actually has a license that you can lose and likee a certification uh that really is not ever taken away from anybody if they falsify uh an ARB report uh and there's some other Provisions in there to prevent uh life and safety issues such as don't stump grind it because you may hit gas lines you may hit water lines you may hit other uh necessary infrastructure uh electrical Etc on Hurricane resilience I provided you a brief summary earlier today so I will not go over that again uh the stock in ordinance is something that's been in the pipeline for a couple years it's been well vetted we have a sponsor for that the boating safety um statute is something that um State Attorney that I aware of um was interested in having uh go forward I offered for our city to be able to sponsor it so that's that's well received and then we have an amendment also to the Florida statutes dealing with recovered materials so that will allow us to proceed to remove out of our waste stream the green gardening waste and be able to do um you know recycling basically of that material as opposed to having a tippet with regard to what some of the things that my committee discussed it mirrored a little bit of what um commissioner Fernandez's committee discussed because we were talking about um home rule there was someone that did a presentation um with regard to the Republic of Florida taking over their jurisdiction and you know putting two cities together to benefit the other one taking their revenue and and basically taking a tiny little island of like 800 people and pulling their their revenue because it's a vacation location and putting it in to um the large the municipality um the other thing that we have to be aware of and I'm to mention it now while we're in a sunshine is that there are efforts to increase homestead exemption okay um from our budgetary standpoint we need to be cautious about this because this will impact our budget in the coming year and we need a plan for it as if it's going to pass um there is a proposal to substitute it with a sales tax which will further take money away from our municip municipality because we don't receive those funds so I I spoke to staff brief yesterday about having a a friendly Amendment on it to have it a portioned according to where the tax was collected as opposed to uh just having a Melting Pot of money that um we get out voted on every single year because we don't have enough votes in the legislature to bring back the money that we put in um so that's my summary for you very good thank you yeah and and then as far as the utilities committee we discussed uh two main things one was uh utilities revenues uh bills likely to restrict Distributing those funds from the utilities budget up to the general fund and then also there's a an interest in potentially capping uh how much of a SE charge could be applied to utilities provided to extr territorial properties um so so that was primarily what we discussed and then also Parks development within state parks which I think almost every single Committee Member was unanimously against um and then if we could go to the last slide let me add a fun fact really quick um vacation rentals I don't know if this was a fact that was um disclosed in in that meeting and it was that Florida airbnbs is larger than the whole Europe did we know that no that's pretty interesting what part of the whole Europe well that's that I wrote it down quoted from my committee well I mean ask them to clarify what they meant by that next time and that was it all the Napoleon a controlled Europe I don't know um uh okay so so as the vice mayor was uh hinting at these highlighted legislative priorities are going to be definitely presented to the Florida League of cities by one of our members uh depending on which committee is most appropriate uh so zoning Authority building Design Elements and live local will be presented by commissioner Castro um and uh and and we'll report on that we'll give a summary as to what is presented during the November meeting uh the protection of the city's tree canopy I will present to the utilities committee and then the school buses the vice mayor will present to her committee um and the thing with this is that obviously we have all of these priorities and the question may be why we're not presenting all of them the Florida League of cities tries to restrict what all we can present and they emphasize that they have to deal specifically with Municipal Affairs so even though some of these things are of interest to us they may not fall within the pfew of what the FLC Advocates on behalf of so that's why we've chosen these four specific priorities well I think it's also important to note that if it does not affect almost every municipality all 411 municipalities in the state they don't even want to take it on so it has to be something that affects if not every member almost every member municipality and you know like we were talking there was one gentleman that I to a breakfast his municipality has 50 residents so there there's very few issues that could affect them they have I think it was 22 houses in their city or their town so yeah all right yeah so I'm I'm I'm planning on doing a town hall to educate residents about live local and um I have a meeting with um Senator kud um October 28th some of the things that we spoke about in our committee and I'll just bring them some comments is that um they are hearing of a live local Alliance as a coalition of developers um obviously to benefit developers a little more with this live local act um they also spoke about penalties for not following the live local in different municipalities and counties um mixu zoning is ongoing discussions it is really up to the city of the county to determine if if it's whatever mixed use it is residential buildings with offices it depends on the actual the municipality is the one that determines it um and I think they're leaving it to them there was a lot of questions Also regarding the tax break for developers they said there's a possibility that it could be pulled back and um I did bring up what the the vice mayor was talking about that we we sent out as far as um if maybe we can come up with a an agreement between local governments or municipalities their recommendation was to go ahead and just talk to Pine Crest South Miami and do something on our own because it really doesn't seem like all of Florida is facing the same issues it's mostly very south Florida thank you very much sir thank you uh before we move on to F10 we have a person who was left out of public comment Mr clerk he exited the meeting once again Mr Mayor all right then we'll Circle backk F10 uh just for the record F9 was deferred F10 okay discussion regarding the crosswalk of intersection of pone Boulevard and Stanford Drive this during public comment I had a resident um that spoke upon this this item I did include some pictures that she sent me as it is thank you to to to Hermes um and Melissa and the city manager um they were very quick to respond to this to this request her com her her complaints were about the painting of this intersection that's already been I what what stage are we on because I know that this goes through different phases what you're looking at here and you can tell by the floor that this has all been re redone they had a large um construction site the entire length of bots this particular picture we're looking at if you notice the waffle like look to the road itself so this has all been put up so it's been graded and it would get done and reput down again the so this was a a temporary fix for as they were resurfacing all of ponon below major parts of these intersections which made it difficult for us to enforce on some of the stop bars during this particular time okay so I know so we're in the phase right now that we're waiting 30 days the the payment has been resurfaced M and we put a temporary strapping on it so it's going to be at least 30 days before we put the final payment but the crosswalk is already well delineated and and uh the final will be the thermoplastic which we usually do that when we had we still have some areas that we need to finalize payment usually you do that in one shot but the crosswalk right now it's delineated and it's just spending the the thermoplastic the the final layer of this is really this is really simple I drive the street every morning at 5: in the morning from my home to the gym it's next to mer Park this has been an ongoing issue you and I have talked about it for six months in regards to the work that was being done there m which the uh sanitary sewer line that was being connected there so now they're at the final stages it doesn't look like that anymore I was just there this morning I drove by this morning it's completely done completely done it looks really nice you still have some Road plates that need to be addressed some Road plates that need to be addressed but this is just the standard the standard issue it's two miles worth of sewer that we so now so now moving on from that you have here right now is uncurable MHM okay so we can tell the resident that we're going to cure this and the only way you can cure this is by one way having a police officer and this intersection sitting on a in a chair or in a squad car pulling people over because people are so desperate to cross all these intersections on ponds because of the because of the Conant traffic especially if you go there around 5 or 6:00 and I this is again right near my house that everybody's desperate so they get into the box they block the Box they get into the crosswalk and there's no resolution by the way just in case I don't know when this photo was taken but you have a code enforcement violation right there you have a you have a sign you have a sign I'll make sure I take care of that and I send it to the to uh to Amos tomorrow morning like I do every morning so um that that right there is a is a Code Enforcement violation that hopefully somebody will take it off the corner so this issue here is is and I'm going to tell you the truth it's unfixable because of what we've done here in the city and how people are in this community in regards to their driving habits Chief since January 1st today we've written 50 citations at this intersection with 57 traffic stops and 44 designated details just at Stanford and Pon from ponon to Red Road from Red Road to Grand Avenue on ponts since January 1st we've written 519 citations on on ply on Boulevard another 192 traffic stops and traffic details where people were designated in this area since for the last 10 months for 181 times uh Pon is an ongoing issue whether it be speeding or these intersections the issue that we have from the police department is the next complaint that I get when we're stopping them is we're blocking traffic by writing the citations because of the Curbing and the areas under underneath the Metro Rail there is no safe area to have that vehicle pull over where we can issue the citations so we do that as quickly as possible and I believe uh the next construction part that we're going to have down there as now as the underline is starting to come through this area which if you all know I have said this is why we're bringing in a mounted Patrol to get a little bit more where we can tie the horse up to a tree and the officer could actually write citations on foot uh so it an ongoing issue some of the vehicles that are seen out there and I've talked with the city attorney uh there is a requirement uh from a covenant I believe with the University of Miami that they have to have two officers at Merck and ponts uh I'm not quite sure that's been in place for 10 years I I don't know what that does other than allow egress and Ingress so uh those people are not necessarily writing tickets uh and then you also have the another pedestrian side when the Metro Rail is running well then there's an additional stop for the crosswalk there as well when they're coming over uh we have and if you remember probably another 20 years ago when we put the pedestrian bridge over and everything else was now fenced along uh Red Road I'm sorry wrong US1 to Red Road to stop pedestrians Crossing across us one from a number of fatalities so some are using that bridge some are coming to those intersections which is also impeding the Stanford and ponts intersection because they're not yielding for The Pedestrian lights so there is a myriad of issues at Stanford and ponts uh Granada and ponts I know we have talked at nauseum over the years about redoing that I think since we've resurfaced that it'll be a little bit more clearly delineated uh we do know the times of days that they are there uh but we have done a significant in my opinion effort to to address these issues it still happens uh when they're when they're getting across the Box uh there is arrows there for those so there are traffic arrows there the synchronization of these lights also has to coincide with the synchronizations on US1 that's what I was about to say I was there last week yeah I two lights trying to make a left turn and I was the first car I was never able to make a left turn uh because because of all the cars that were coming uh Southwest to to Northeast um they were just taking that right turn and then they were blocking the right turn lane because they're making the line of the left turn lane so the the lights are not synchronized at all right and I just gave up I just kept driving on on on ponds yeah point to that to that point to that point CU there's information on that so to that point there's a new contract in Miami day County it was taken away from the previous firm that had it for 10 years and now has now the the the entity that has it is called horsepower electric and they will be now working over the next decade uh to ensure that they can revamp all the lights and finalize all that synchronization of the lights throughout miam County another area that we will never be able to correct and I know your team is out there constantly working on it they're at the gas station is on the corner of leun and ponds blocking the Box you have multiple different U ins and out you have us one on two different fronts you have leun you have ponds it's like literally five areas of traffic converging in one area and everybody there's limited time to cross that intersection so everybody blocks the Box everybody blocks the cross the crosswalks so I hope it gets better with with the underlying but I'm going to be candid with you I don't I don't think there's much solution look at the amount of tickets that you've given look at the amount of effort that we've that we've invested in there and at the end of the day it's happening every day because you have all these individuals from U we have all these individuals you know that are working on on on US1 you know the schools ponds you have uh just a convergence of traffic that again it's just more than what the streets were designed for 15 20 years ago it is and and commissioner the the big issue that we have uh as far as cut through traffic is blue road is is a feeder blue Road feeds into Granada I'm sorry feeds into Riviera which then Riviera is the only way you can get on the highway because PS backs up to Grand so that's the constant trying to beat over there a few years ago uh at least while I've been Chief I know we put a diverter in there to try and slow that down in the neighborhood think it was one of the first traffic cushions we put in so we we do continually address it the biggest challenge we have uh and and I've been copied on a lot of these emails from the young woman that that spoke today is that is how we stop them I mean the speeding is is is is much more more easily enforced than that because we have more Lanes when they're in that box to continue to block the box it makes it even worse uh and then the transit pickups to and from the University of Miami Metro Rail station so we are I think uh the the motor unit and the officers have done a great job um under the direction of major bits to kind of focus on this so this has been on our radar for some time uh I think the markings uh once they're kind of set in stone again as the Director said we'll be able to kind of write those most of those uh blocking the Box inter blocking the Box intersection were like 46% of those 50 inter of those um citations that were issued at PS were blocking the box so can we have any communication with um to see if they can start having one of their officers there in that intersection they have they have the University of Miami officers have been working with us uh they actually ask us for additional uh help on Santa Maro Santa Maro has been a big problem uh pedestrian wise I think the university added a lot of crosswalks there um so they have been uh helping us um on different times the sergeant will supplement one officer for staff as Staffing permits so we've been able to use them as well uh along with the umpd has their own Shield 12 measuring devices the sh their shift people put them out as well uh they do a pretty good job of assisting us both with traffic accidents and handling those perimeter roads in and around the university so I'm just going to throw out an idea here um you know that sometimes when there's construction it says fines are doubled when you speed or whatever the cas is in different parts of of the city so what about if we have like a don't block box or don't block crosswalk because of high of highfin is like a something a visual that if you're on the other side of the light you're like ah I'm not going to cross over if this if this body wanted to do a a don't block the Box um markings so to speak I believe that's something that we could entertain um which was pretty much if somebody's in there the issue still is I'm not saying no to the idea I think this the issue the idea is then we would stop them on ponds to write the ticket or whether be Stanford which is the main entrance way at night for the University of Miami so that that could get backed up um so there's and then we'd have to just take to increase those fines would be something that we would have to do statutorily that that would actually go through Tallahassee to see if we can in fact do that the that's that's who decides who those citations uh the rate will if you will of how much those cost goes through Tallahassee um it doesn't College doesn't equate as a school zone uh West lab does so that's actually handled as a school zone itself um but that that's something that we could entertain I think I think that dealing with Tallahasse we can explore that later but um maybe putting a sign don't don't block the box or don't block the crosswalk could be something that prevents people from actually being there before they get the ticket we ask the county you see those usually on on the M arm so we reach out to the county we ask him to see they will entertain putting sign there it will have to fit within the weight and you know cuz those masterm have a weight limit depending on when they were designed but we did put that request with the county and what happened we don't you know we just did it so you just did it yes okay recently so keep me updated we'll do thank you thank you gentlemen Mr Mayor before moving forward I have two members of the public requesting to speak on this item of course uh first speaker is Daniel milai hi um it's not let me do the video I'm not sure if that's oh there it is hi my name is Daniel Malay my wife spoke earlier Laura Malay our address is 1205 Marosa Avenue in corl GES and I want to speak to the um the crosswalks obviously my wife wasn't able to stay online cuz she had to go and get our daughter and funny enough someone was blocking the crosswalk both directions while she was picking her up both going to school we go she goes to West lab and coming back um there wasn't the police officer wasn't there for some reason this right now and I tell you I'm the one that does the drop off in the morning it's every single day someone's blocking that crosswalk and I'm only there for a 20 second window of the whole day and I know y'all discussed having um more signs initiatives like don't block the box I personally I don't feel like that pay that works at all is no one reads signs no one's paying attention they're looking at traffic they're trying to get where they're going it was yesterday someone cut in front of me as I was trying to cross because they were turning right and I was trying to cross the crosswalk they weren't even looking right to look at who's coming in so they you just turn right and go the police officer wasn't able to do anything at the time just the person just turned and left so yes there are things that can be done it's not just a shrug oh people drop bad if we make PS not a thoroughfare where it's a bypass for trying to go around um Dixie traffic or getting from point A to point B doing things to slow it down make it not worth it taking it I'm not talking about closing it off but speed tables when you put speed tables at all the crosswalks that way you have to slow down you have to maintain the speed limit because it was just two days ago I think I was coming from the um trains stop and that crosswalk there for students AC cross and someone just blew through it like didn't even slow down I'm surprised like no one's in the crosswalk at the time so I'm glad it's address that the everyone knows how bad puns and the crosswalks are it just we're looking for more of a permanent solution a cop there every day only works as long as you have them available signs don't work because no one reads them or eventually becomes background noise like you just see it every day like oh I don't even see that anymore just there every day so and I also feel it's not just for us you see that y'all mentioned the underly that's coming the remodel with all the pickle ball courts um it's only going to get worse because more people are going to be using that section so what I mean is only going worse is I'm afraid someone's going to get hurt I'm afraid it's me and my daughter personally but I see other kids R their bikes to school I see students I see just joggers out it's not just us it's the entire community and more people will be using this as more is done on the underline thank you so thank you thank you for joining us thank you next speaker is Roberta newway Roberto good afternoon hi hi um I'm Roberta Neway 1236 South hambur C and as you know I'm always complaining about South alhamra and US1 and South alhamra and Pon is just as bad so I agree with what the gentleman was just saying I think we need to slow down ponds and I think enforcement as much as it inconveniences people it would help to some degree I have seen very little enforcement on ponson alhamra I can't speak to ponon Stanford but ponson alhamra in all the years I've driven there I've walked there I can count on oneand the number of times I have seen people pulled over so I think there are solutions I just think we have to work harder at them and now I'm going into the Gable so I have to leave and I'll probably be delayed by people blocking PS so have a nice night everybody and thank you for your time thank you Berto that's it Mr Mayor all right some follow okay I have some follow-up questions for our Public Works director um are we allowed to put in any type of speed tables cushions on ponds no I don't believe so it's a collector and that intersection itself is humongous I mean it's it's uh I I just don't see even if even if we were allowed to by the counter agreement which we're not I just think from a geometrical perspective I'm not I'm not sure how that will work okay can we uh add speed detection signs that yes can we absolutely can we add cameras titing cameras I mean that will have to discuss with it and I mean we could do anything that we're willing to pay for I guess that's we can that's something we can work with rautu if if that's the desire of the commission I'm sorry would the cameras be enforcable no they would have to be enforcable if they oh no that's a question for the city of attorney putting pamas not enough no at this time the only time speed cameras are allowed to be used are in school zones uh the statute does not allow us to do that other than at a school zone can we um tick it do not block the box with we can TI it for do not block the Box what I am checking on specifically um is I don't know if blocking the bo box so uh blocking the box is the traffic I don't know if there is a citation for blocking the crossw walk there should be I I don't know if that's a separate statute number it's a non-criminal traffic infraction it's it's for for blocking the um for entering an intersection or a marked crosswalk unless there's sufficient space so so what's happening is everybody's going to the other part of the Stop Bar which is the thick white mhm uh line at the edge of the intersection and when they go across and they're backed up their back ends are in the crosswalk off the beaten path of or outside of the what we call the intersection which is the large white lines so if they're blocking over that they're blocking the intersection we're writing the moving violations for blocking the box if it stops the traffic uh but once they're off that road and the pedestrians if there's no pedest present that may not be writing those mam vice mayor if I may yes you may my advice is is getting late and we have a lot of items to take care of on the commission here is through the manager maybe your office along with other works can provide what legally is available at our disposal to address block the Box along with other issues that we're facing on pumps and what is allowed in regards to speed tables which I'm pretty sure they're not you already explained about the cameras so it can be properly memorialized and can then be sent to the residents who have concerns in this area gladly okay gladly I appreciate it Chief thank thank you very much Mr Mayor before we move forward we had one more speaker on this item uh suly Paro hey zulie how are you good afternoon zul chicken Miss part yes sir can you hear me yes ma'am hi hi good afternoon thank you for um for addressing this this very important issue I live at 49 I'm Zulo I reside at 49 Campina Court I live I in the cor G Sager Street section and we our main thare is Pon Leon and on the east side we have Douglas Road we recently as you I'm sure uh including Chief Hudak is aware that we recently had a major accident where there was a fatality we have the same issue it's not just to the south on ponds it's also North ponds and I would really love to see some kind of of um uh uh addressing the issue in our neighborhood it's very important we have people just as the the previous speakers were saying we have folks speeding through our neighborhood they take you know all our side streets and just speed through to connect to Miami on the on the leun side so I think it's it's really important to address and and and it's and I also you know would like for our neighborhood to be included in this endeavor um thank thank you I appreciate it and um I hope to see some changes in our neighborhood as well her Hermes through the manager could you go ahead and maybe do an analysis of what is it that's happening in in that section that's already in the books yep we actually been doing a study there for a while the county asked for some additional information we're working did you start that study oh over a year ago we actually provided the county where they asked when we when we send it over to them they said actually I need more data so so we we got to collect more data send it back to them it's unfortunately it's a lengthy process but that's something that we've been working on for quite a while we've made some we made several site visits to the area and and the idea is that from that results we we're looking at potential projects kind of like similar to pawns phas 3 who's going to start relatively soon south of the location when you get a chance you think you could send me an email with an update go ahead and regular that neighborhood absolutely thank you thank you all right um do we have the person's pending that wanted to speak about the issue Mr ker I'm checking Mr Mayor thank you no no okay F12 um so thankfully we did not see much of an impact with hurricane Helen or hurricane Milton um but I've had a few conversations with the manager with Chief Delarosa with members of the police department who went out to Tampa and the surrounding areas uh following the storm and um my conversations have been about what we can do to better be prepared for the eventuality of getting hit ourselves um what resources are currently missing in the areas that are being affected that we could potentially benefit from and maybe start looking for grants that could cover the cost of of those resources uh here locally there was one concern that I had uh driving around the day of the storm was the number of people whose gardeners had come out and put all of their trash in the sale there had been trees that had been chopped down there were coconuts all over the place had we had a direct hit we would have had tons of projectiles because it wasn't even the day of of the trash day it was I guess we got hit what Tuesday to Wednesday and trash day in that area was Friday um I don't know if it's something that we should maybe look into uh legislating where you should not you cannot do yard work when we're under a tropical storm or hurricane watch or warning to prevent people from actively uh putting stuff out I know I received requests from people who wanted an last minute pickup because they had taken things out and uh they wanted it picked up before the storm I think that's something we should prevent because our resources are limited as it is as we're preparing uh and we want to be ready so I don't know if Chief deloso you had any any comments you wanted to share so uh we will be conducting an after action study on just what gaps we may have found or opportunities to respond uh the next time we have a hurricane that's uh upon the request from the manager and it'll be headed by the deputy city manager arto uh with regards to where our needs are uh I think that this hurricane had the potential of presenting itself very similar to the challenges that were posed to our city after Hurricane Irma with the depletion of resources that we depend on with our response Partners so for instance uh if you take into account that within hurricane Helen uh before that hurricane Debbie and then this last hurricane Milton that impacted several States both of those hurricanes did so whatever contracts we have with response partners for uh vital restoration particularly debris management uh all those areas are dependent on the same resources so the depletion of resources that we need for debris management is going to be one of those challenges that we're going to be looking at to see how through the legislature or through our own budget we begin to have our own resources and not have to be so dependent on outside resources for example uh heavy machinery that we would would need to clear our roads past the storm uh we are looking into technology that is available to encircle Fire Station 3 which even though it sits at a high elevation it's still subject to storm surge and there has been recent technology that will protect that building post storm uh from the storm surge and then we're a ble to restore it or use it post storm rather than have to mitigate whatever damages occur there particularly from storm surge because that building was revamped for wind damage and then our own ELC the support of the workforce that's there mainly that kitchen area that's upstairs are three those are the three areas that we're looking at for improvement in addition to that our internal improvements in our processes this is what we're going to be looking at to your point uh commissioner Fernandez we began to message not to put out cuting and and yard debris several days prior um that almost sits as a template for us to start messaging our residents because it's something that occurs every time we are threatened with a storm and you're right it does pose certain dangers after that especially if we have anything over a category one which now poses uh the threat of of flying debris uh so those are the areas that we're going to be looking at and focusing on as far as capital and infrastructure and how to best message our residents with last minute cuting especially that that face that challenge once we have to go around and try to either pick it up and you're right that that impacts our um resources that we have here that are prepping the city when you take into account that it takes us almost 3 Days To shutter the city our our buildings so that's three days even prior to storm impact that our Public Works folks are already in storm preparation so I'm going to okay me I just want to add something to that so there's two ways there's two ways to address the issue of clippings you either address the homeowner or you address the Landscaping Company four or five years ago I wrote a law that was later preempted by the state of Florida and the law was very simple I think we charged landscapers a dollar $2 a year and we required them every single year to submit a questionnaire we did not ask them if they were legal illegal we did not ask them where they lived all we just asked for was contact information in email and it served as a multi-purpose document the document served as an ability to get in contact with them on multiple different fronts to discuss there a hurricane coming what are the procedures there's somebody missing in a neighborhood there's a new change to the law like we're discussing now in regards to you know waste waste bags um you know issues that may exist in regards to if they encounter a trash pit that is too deep illegal dumping as we finding so we collected a few hundred landscapers that provided the information and it was very beneficial but we ended up sunsetting that and I confirmed it with the city attorney because it was preempted by the state of Florida so I think the most difficult thing about this which again I have no issues I think it's a great know I tried it once is you got to really attack the homeowner you got to attack the homeowner through extensive education and you try to care it but then they going to stick cuz if you do get a hurricane that ends up turning our way and we get a category four category 5 and you're in a situation where you've been pruning your trees because you improved them all year in preparation thinking that we're going to be able to do that it's not a possibility resources are very thin at that moment so fines have to be given and you have to notify the residents if you prune your tree and you leave it out there a day before the hurricane you're going to get fined and that's got to fall on Cone enforcement because I tried to do it in a nice way through multiple education forms via VIA this legislation but the preemption obviously um killed that killed that kind act of being able to contact landscapers in our community just with even if there's a simple change in the law there's a law stating that you can no longer park on the street you have to park on somebody's property you got to park on the meeting you got to park on the sale we can no longer even get in contact with them or request that information so Madam vice mayor I apologize go ahead no no it's okay and I was going to bring that up as well but I want to inform my colleagues tomorrow we have a meeting with one of our Senators to discuss some of the equipment that we're talking about to be able to move debris trees Tire trees out of the roadway so that we're not dependent upon um other vendors and municipalities to bring a piece of equipment all the way down from Jacksonville um I mean um the same thing in regarding to debris the same thing happened in the Middle District uh or I should I'm used to speaking in court terms but the central part of the state debris was put out they weren't expecting another hurricane and then they couldn't get it picked up fast enough so whether it's tree trimmings or your kitchen cabinet it's all dangerous so thank you for what you do much appreciated I think people once the hurricane got a certain point North where really really could not make that right hand turn and head towards us you know went back to business as usual enjoyed the breeze and uh went forward so that's I think too we saw a little extra going on thank you thank you thank you thank you Chief moving on to f-13 so um the fdot has been doing work along Red Road and I don't know if the rest of you been receiving um the concerns of residents that the sidewalks when they're repairing the sidewalks are not being done in the same color uh the same pink color that Coral Gables uses they're just using standard white concrete um now I know that the ACM has been in contact with the fdot uh and something that we had talked about was the potential of having them pay Coral Gables whatever it is their cost is to repair them so that we can do them the right way instead of having these sidewalks that are checkered now throughout uh 57th Avenue um and they're taking away from uh our aesthetic as a city uh that that's correct commissioner so um dot the way they approach sidewalk maintenance repair is it's done with their own in-house forces their inhouse forces just use Standard Concrete they don't use the cor Gables die they do when there are City when there are D projects within the city uh they will specify the red the red DY for the for the concrete so I approach the FD I'm waiting to hear back from them about uh they would pay us the the cost of the gray concrete we would pay the Delta for uh for the red concrete and then we would go ahead and schedule that as part of our sidewalk uh repair work that way we can avoid this issue of having the Checker sidewalks SO waiting to hear back from after thank Right Moving on side F14 F14 is a discussion regarding jalda Avenue last last week I met with several business owners from geralda Avenue and they voiced certain concerns the day after I actually met with some business owners from Miracle Mile and there were some overlapping concerns as well um one of the biggest and maybe belus you'll want to come up elus come on one of the one of the biggest concerns there were something that we've been speaking about so often but still have not done which is the umbrellas on geralda I know they told me that maybe you send them a letter an email I don't know what asking for them to help with the funding of The Umbrellas is that accurate yes I did okay at their request okay so speaking to several business owners especially their Geral the Geraldo Plaza they are having a really hard time financially um in that section and as much as they want it it's a hardship okay and I know we've been talking about this and this is beneficial not only for geralda but it's for the whole city to bring you know tourists and I mean the last time we had people from everywhere and I think the whole commission agrees this was a very very good project um I am of the thought that we need to just do it we need to stop talking about it and and just do it and I think that asking for for the business owners that are going through a really hard time that's why you want to do it is kind of a burden on them okay well let me just in perspective let me put it in perspective I meet with them every month um and they are at Liberty to come or not come um sometimes we get all the the merchants there sometimes we only get three um we have always put it in our budget as a new need to bring back umbrellas or bring back an an art installation to draw the Plaza um at this point in time I did alert them again that it didn't get approved however um you know and then they asked me how much it was and so when I told them one of the merchants that was there said okay well can you divy it up and see just how much that would be if we would um make that into if every Merchant would pay and so that is why I gave it to them because it was their request not because you know I expected them or thought this would be the other Avenue um um I think that regardless they would need help from the city as far as permitting is concerned MH because it's multiple entities it's multiple um Merchants but that's how it came about guys is there guys I'm sorry so informal colleagues is there any way we can make this happen I mean this is something that we've been talking about for so long and we still have not made it happen um it's good for the city it's good for the businesses we all know the businesses Thrive the city as a whole thrives right um the more money that comes into our downtown the the higher the valuations of the businesses the more the businesses want to come in then what happens to our residents it's it's it's simple you know if the business Community orts more until our tax base and valuations go up you know we take that burden off the tax base of our residents and it's a it's a win-win for everyone so let's let's work together and let's make these umbrellas happen so can I ask for staff to send us more information on the cost and so forth I know it was a Community Foundation project before uh so it was not I don't know it was my my my first grandchild was an a stroller been a while it's been it's been we did this we did this to the foundation we did it uh in collaboration collaboration to the foundation it was a nice project and at the end day you know we can I think we can always find a way way to potentially do something in the similar vein but remember doing something that's already been done doesn't have the same Splash and appeal right as in its previous iteration so you want to look into it again at the end of the day it's the will of the commission from what I remember it was about $150,000 yes so the trust system alone would be around 120 and then you have to get permitting uh engineering drawings and you need artwork um we had proposed to put the artwork up whatever it is you can have for 6 months six months that are not hurricane season so um at that point when we did it we were one of the first in the world to do it and maybe probably handful of individuals had entities had done it before us uh now it's been done a lot it's been done all over the world something to consider but there are even some permanent um like I know up in even in Tennessee uh in Dollywood they have a section of Dollywood that has the umbrella guy and it's just permanent so I'm going to make a suggestion to get some input from also the um Cultural Arts um board because they you know after the umbrella Sky I threw around ideas that we could do something different just to keep it fresh and we have done some stuff different but I think the amount of color that was in there was part of the appeal of it and to get some input from those folks as something uh creative that could you know potentially have even more of a attractiveness for the businesses there than a repeat of a of a prior project okay I want to throw some ideas um it's too late because of the time of year but um to draw people in the holiday season uh Hollywood Studios MGM had the Osborne lights it was a street where everything was decor with lights with music and they even had a machine that made it look like it was snowflakes coming down and people would go to that area just to the experience that I think for heralda which is perfectly set up to recreate something that Disney did in a smaller scale with synchronized lights with synchronized music and you know see you know they have something that creates sort of the image of snow uh in Miami or in Coral Gables I think that would be very appealing to families and maybe it draws folks that normally don't go to heralda to go there as well so that's my my two cents on you know some ideas yeah so another concern that was brought up was homelessness I did talk to them about yes I I I I I could feel you staring at I know like not not my department it was your fault could come over fast enough I I did give him some education of what's happening in Tallahasse and um how they need to be camping or they need to be sleeping so they're well aware aware of that now not everybody is and I think education well I in fact I don't think it'll be such a big problem after after what January 1 it is January 1st January 1st right I believe no you're talking about the law yes the law is in effect already right now yeah November or uh October 1st October 1st so commissioner we actually ran the the crime analyst actually ran it uh since we haven't stepped up our interactions or say since September uh we have identified eight total people in need of services two of those people uh on the 16th and nove and October 3rd uh were at geralda and Pon and geralda and gallano of those uh 20 people that we've had interaction with the eight people that are identified everybody with the exception of one refused uh any kind of services one was transported to the Camilla's house um two were arrested everybody else left the area without incident uh so we are continuing and we're also I mean we're we're we're charting them we we we pretty much know the officers in the bike Patrol unit who handles most of that pretty much all knows them by name uh so we understand that is an issue as well as the solicitors um as as early or as late as this morning I can't stress it enough when the business people see somebody that is in need of service to just call the non-emergency number even though I mean sometimes I know the frustrations that some of our callers have this morning was an example um but we're there within 30 seconds this morning we had a complaint about a truck and finally the person called and uh amazingly we still were there within 30 seconds and the truck was gone and and as I said in the email to the individual if somebody is actively loading or unloading a truck on the rideway it is not illegal I mean if they're taking stuff out of the truck they can block a street we we are we understand that the Alleyways we work hard on the Alleyways uh but that is not illegal that's not something my officers can enforce uh but when we know about it we can offer service same thing with this homeless um population that we have which is relatively small we are working in conjunction with uh the homeless trust and we've had a we actually sponsored a meeting with law enforcement at the police department and we continue to work on the new um interpretations you will of the the encampment laws and things like that so um like I said we identified two people uh that were on geralda we continue to work well and I think uh we've been working hand inand with what is the name of the the group again block by block by yes uh so now they have a quicker interaction with us and that's I think we've been able to address that faster I can't stress it enough the more people call the non-emergency number the faster you're going to get the service because I may not see it right away U um we just hope I hope our residents are a little bit nicer than some of the calls that my people are getting now okay and the one they got this morning was pretty yeah commissioner just so you know um so this isn't new to us we have been talking um and they have the merchants have expressed to us the same thing about homelessness and um solicitation we've brought the the chief and um sometimes even the major um to talk to them as well to tell them what steps they need to take as well because we have been pushing the safer watch app they told me very important for them to do that and unfortunately sometimes they don't use it uh and so that's really important because it gives them a picture it directly connects them with 911 so um the proof is it the safe for watch app and I know you've all heard me say this I know you're all familiar with the 100 block of romano and until that neighborhood took over the saer watch app and sent us videos constantly of what's going on we've probably made more arrests there than we've made in any other neighborhood this year alone because the the engaged residents uh are sending it to us it works I don't know how else to put it uh it's something that we we use and we get we're getting more and more tips from but this also helps us get assistance to these individuals which is what they need they so so another big issue of concern and it's not only with Gera but it's also happening with marac m is that these Uber scooters are getting in the back of the alleys and when there's delivery trucks or when the business owner employees want to go ahead and back out out of the alley they're being blocked and what's happening is that these Uber Uber Eats or Uber drivers are getting very aggressive so there has to be uh a solution for this and I don't know I was I was brainstorming and I'm thinking we could get one parking spot per block where all these motorcycles or little scooters go and I know the the the manager was telling me that they were looking into maybe making the park spot a little smaller so that the scooter if I can stay along the line of of us being a bird sanctuary that's like hurting cats yeah commissioner we no we have and and commissioner if I may we have but but we have we worked on this how many years we tried to do this we've been try that's why I said her we literally talked about parking lots on Aragon parking lots on on just any parking lot designate five parking spaces give give it to them put them in a corner this is your area we'll even put a canopy we'll put a charging station we'll put a bathroom we'll put a garbage can we'll do everything for you we tried every type of scenario I've been talking about this for how how many years five six seven years they their response to us so commissioner to your point though we have been we have regularly scheduled motorcycle officers hitting those areas uh again to the the mayor's point and what happens is we got them off of sitting on Miracle Mile which was a bigger problem they were using the city's electricity to keep their their phones charge the closer they are to those locations is when they the closer they get their hits for that so they don't want to be three blocks away because they're they're Geo fenced to Tap 42 or whatever it may be and then they'll get them faster than everybody else one point at one point they were they were about 25 of them parked in front of the miracle theater taking up four parking spaces we were able this is years ago 3 years ago we were able to get them out of there open up those parking spaces we moved them we moved them to a different area they wouldn't they didn't want to be in that area cuz a geofence then they moved to the Aragon parking garage then in the Aragon parking garage when we did one of our monthly cleanups remember Matt we went to the Hedge where they were and in the Hedge you tell how what did we find in the Hedge a ton of garbage that was I mean ton of garbage I mean it was bags after bags after bags after using the they were using our Hedges as a garbage so what do we do we cleaned up the hedges and we put we installed a garbage can for them there and then what ended up happening was that they don't want to comply so now what they're doing is I can tell you everywhere they are they're located behind hillstones in the alleyway okay they're located behind to 42 they're located um adjacent to to the Starbucks they they you know figure out a way to stay on the the radar there but they just don't want to comply they're they're they're insistent on not complying because they want to be as close as you said to the geofence area but this is a process that's been going on for years to the extent M can fill you in Mr Anderson can fill you in when we were in the final stages of Designing the the the mobility Hub we even put them in a location in the mobility Hub we said this is going to be your area and it should have been a perfect place for them because they're literally 50 ft from Miracle Mile this is an area where you're going to be able under the cover you're going to have protection from the elements you're going to have a charging station you're going to be able to put your you're going to put some benches there for you you'll sit there and and you'll have your own area where you'll be out of sight and you'll still be able to conduct business obviously the mobility home never happened but that was even included in the mobility home I I know that Miss beltron has some really really good ideas that the manager was telling me to address this and maybe you want to share them good afternoon Monica belchan parking and Mobility Services director so yes uh one of the things that we can do is we need to create space for them because these services are important to the residents I mean it has to happen who hasn't called for a delivery right so they we have to coexist and we have to find I think one of the things that concerns me is that when some of these scooters park behind a van for example and they leave there when you're backing up you may not not see them so it's actually also very dangerous so the idea and I'll be working with Melissa is to measure out the the the curb and see if we can accommodate the parking spaces and then create scooter spaces like corals we did this in Miami Beach we create corals so that they can park at a certain area and always in front of the vehicles not behind right for safety reasons and also because the real estate may be there you know so if if we have a a 24 foot uh parking space and we don't need 24 we can start trimming and reassessing the the cisis and then create these these Corrals that's what we call them and in some areas where we had to do in some neighborhoods where we had a lot of scooters where people would use a scooter to save a parking space for examp example is we actually went to the different parking spaces and put no scooter parking right so then we can enforce it uh or nor motorcycle parking and so it's just a matter of evaluating the real estate and reapportioning it to create and and meet the need because when we spoke to the the the delivery companies they don't want to geofence everything because they there's a need there's a need from the resident side and from the service side so it's a matter of finding a solution so that we can use existing real estate and uh Supply to meet this demand I really really like where you're going with this I would like to hear more about it if we really I think this is a possible solution um however I think that not only applying this but maybe can we restrict scooters going into the alleys is that even a possibility so we restrict can it so restrict alleys I mean or just standing we can't restrict them from going into the alleys but the parking I mean right now our parking citations are more in the Alleyways than they are for on the streets so that was increased by this body already once before uh that Corral area and and I think this is Monica and I discussed it briefly about it is you know the push back we would get is where we put the Corrals and that's something that we're all going to have to collectively come up with an idea of where that is and then the enforcement arm we would need probably codewise is how many of those scooters can be in that Corral uh because when they when they start to pack and this tongue and Chek I know it's hurting cats but they'll be 14 of them sitting there and when they sit there they become cigarette butts food eating whatever so uh that we can't prevent them from going in the alley we do prevent them from parking in the alley the guys in the cars we've moved them off the mile now they sit behind the mile in their cars and we have to go through on a regular basis and move them along I have a quick question you there in some parts of Coral Gables the residential says no through trucks correct I've seen that um what governs the ability to say no through trucks there and then no scooters is an issue in the the no through the no through truck sign is is indicative of you can't have a tractor trailer just passing through or but but what has happened now and a lot of our residents don't like this is if you're getting a home delivery a lot of that stuff is in a tractor trailer if they have business in that route they are allowed to go through so the enforcement of the no through truck policy in Coral Gables is that we would have to follow them if they don't make a stop then we would we would you know go all the way down blue Road in the alleway specifically is for deliverables most of the people have it in the back it would be hard for us to say no through mopeds on that area I mean enforcing and you you all get the same complaints I get enforcing the no bikes only on Miracle Mile is I mean short of a Clos line that's sometimes you just can't stop them um so I I think the Corral issue is the way to go maybe closer to the m yeah I know that's my shoulders are old um but I think that's the way to go in that area um I think I think we can take it even a little further and that is the reason why these companies didn't want more Geo fencing is because they do have a need however they don't need to stay there they should be coming in picking up and leaving it's not a staging area it's a pickup and delivery area so we would have to restrict the time to a certain amount of time I think you know they're just they're waiting for the pickups when they get it you know and again I think it's um if they see me walking down the street the valet Parkers behave themselves if they see some of my other cops they may not and and when I say behave themselves they'll let somebody in a Scooter Pull in between two cars to run in and get food and get out and go right the ones that are are the concern is that there's 14 of them sitting around waiting to get an order and then buzzing over uh so that's that's the bigger issue is the staging of where they're going if we put a Corral up front uh we don't see that much of an issue unlike an Uber drop off to the other point is if you're dropping off a human being you can stop and traffic and let somebody out of your car that's not blockable you cannot leave your car unattended to get out and get food that's a citation so that's how we've dealt with the cars downtown okay and then um the other the other thing was um improv communication a lot of the business owners there and I see that belela said yeah but only like three business owners show up to the meeting and I see where the problem is is now they're not showing up to the meeting but I think there has to be another probably form of communication and that's what I'm working with with the city attorney to see we find a mechanism to better inform um businesses of resolutions and ordinances that directly impact or indirectly impact their business I'll be bringing that up probably into commission meetings or so what yeah and commissioner I sorry um I I I I suggested maybe to the extent you're able to get information from these business owners which specific examples of of changes or resolutions Etc they've not received notice of because maybe we can see what was done in those situations and evaluate how to improve upon that so it was all different type of things some of the things that they spoke about the most was the out outside seating um and and things that had to do with with geralda and Cote enforcement um changes that the commission did the Planters yes and no and then getting back to the Planters we need to I know that we met with um what was the lady's name midor consultant or retail retail consultant but yes this is something that I've been promising J and government takes forever for everything but we need to finalize something and come up with something that looks good for for um Geral the plaza so let's go ahead and touch Bas again about the Planters and um and that's about it yeah and commissioner we do have um we do know everyone that's on the street and we do have their contact information and that's updated regularly so every time that we do have a meeting and we set it up we send out a response like we send out a a meeting request so they it's not only on Geral I'm getting this from um Miracle Mile as well and Miracle Mile we do as well we have 140 merchants on the street and we walk it and we're actually we had to walk it because we're doing trick-or treat on the mile so it's one of those where we're constant communication as well but happy to take that and see if there's any way that we can improve beautiful thank you so much thank you very much I'm going to add just one thing if we're not ticketing the scooters when they're parked where they're not supposed to be I was going to ask the uh city attorney's office to um research that issue apparently there's laws in some municipalities where they are handing out tickets so if they're if they're not complying with our parking regulations and and we're checking you know the the the I mean we recovered stolen scooters uh wed people um so we are writing citations we're not seizing unless there's something defective with the scooter we're not seizing the scooter that's yeah that's and talking about the different scooter the moped or I don't know what you call it the one that you stand up and you the bird one the the bir yeah the oh the bird one no the bird they're riding on the sidewalk and I've been getting complaints about that corre Hazard not only to the driver to the rider but also to The Pedestrian um I guess the only thing I can birds usually shut down Birds shut down on Miracle Mile understanding are the ones that are driving you see on Miracle Mile are personally owned the bird scooters we've set up a a Geo fence to where if they enter onto Miracle Mile on the sidewalks or on geralda the scooter shuts down they cannot accelerate and they are issued an audible warning to turn around and return to a um a ride Zone um so that is a no ride area um that's set up and we've had that in place for at least 2 to three years um coordinating that with bird so that is in place so if you are seeing scooters on yeah then it's a personal one okay so as for that I know enforcement is there sufficient signs to say do not write scoters there's sufficient code enforcement signs along Miracle Mile yes I mean it stays out the statute or it has all of the stuff that stat the regular statute so yeah and we updated uh Stephanie reminded us too we did update those signs a couple years ago so you see them posted on Miracle Mile and on ponts I believe two blocks north and south of Miracle Mile um so yeah and then I believe on geralo as well so and I asked you to follow up with uh the request I had regarding ponds and the scooters correct yeah because it's it's as dangerous there as it is yeah and I've asked I just asked a member of my team to check with bird because I wanted to make sure that all the the lights and the horns that are on the rental scooters are functioning um so I should be getting that answer momentarily um if it's a private scooter that's a obviously a different matter so let me clarify because what I'm talking uh speaking about is because we have businesses with storefront just like on ponds just like we do on Miracle Mile we got to look at for the safety of the pedestrians whether it is appropriate going forward to allow scooters on those so you're saying GE fence the sidewalks all the way up ponds yeah they can you know take uh you know we have bicycles allowed on the street we have a share of the road symbol on ponds we also have Salo but but to have a resident hit by a 15 mph scooter going on ponds as they're heading out the door from a restaurant or another shop is going to end up with another Resident injured like happened on Miracle Mile okay so thank you okay moving on to item H1 we do this already time star yeah we did H1 right yeah did that one H2 I thought this was a short agenda hi good afternoon uh I just wanted to give you an update on the city's centennial celebration uh Michael if you could bring up the the presentation how beautiful so as you all know we'll be celebrating our Centennial in April 20 on April 29th and we just want to make this a pray tribute to this Milestone look at our past and also celebrate our past and celebrate our future uh by building a sense of community collaborating with our Community Partners which I think is very important and work with internal City departments just to give you an idea I've been working on this for quite some time I've actually had uh more than 65 meetings uh between Community organizations as Mr Prime said today I've regularly met with the Lola B Walker regarding you know the the sculpture as has Katherine cathers and I also want to say that this is while I've been leading this uh from a city perspective uh Sandy Rodriguez from my team has also been uh very involved as have been other departments for example it uh and uh rundo and Mark Hebert and and Katherine uh doing a virtual reality uh app that we're we're looking at so uh we plan to kick it off uh during the holiday tree lighting because as we know in most places you celebrate a centennial uh for you just don't celebrate it on that day but you celebrate it through the through the year we're working on an oral history project today you saw uh the one for uh coach Dan fenur we have uh 40 already on our website we have 10 more that we are editing and we plan to get to 100 uh I think most of you here except for commissioner Castro have already uh done your uh 3 minutes uh and we plan to house those at the Coral Gables Museum at our archives and they will be on our website and uh another and these please are not all that we're doing these are just a sampling uh you know the Fourth of July will also have a centennial theme and we're also uh as the commission indicated to us to look at a community concert sort of to end uh this celebration building Community is an important part of this and that is why uh from the Garden Club to bike walk Coral Gables uh St Teresa's to Temple Judea we've all been working with them to see uh what can be done and we've uh have the Centennial website we've gotten a lot of very positive comments regarding it we were able to do it uh in a cost effective manner but it's a great place to be able uh to house our information uh sharing our stories as I mentioned before we're profiling 100 uh folks and uh this has been met very positive we get a lot of positive comments honoring our history uh at a a couple of meetings ago you approved the sculpture this was one of what we thought would be a really major uh project which would also live into the future and by placing it here across the street at Merck park it gives it a very visible place for people to learn about this history uh what are some of our city initiatives as I said uh we are in the development of an a augmented reality and that's uh something that's being done by raund window team it's going to be called Gables go and you're going to be able to go and uh to like 20 sites and get information about the sculpture or about the historic uh place just by using uh this augmented reality and hopefully in the future uh we will be able to present um more details on that uh uh economic development is going to have an A Centennial ornament for sale uh it's starting in November uh and you know you see that there it's it's very very nice our city clerk's office the passport office they do a coloring book for kids that come in for uh um to get a passport the the the coloring book is now going to be Centennial themed we have other things that are going uh for example we will have a challenge coin uh that will be a centennial theme uh the police department will have have uh badges that are Centennial theme uh we have uh lapel pins that we will be giving to all employees and to all our board members that are also uh Centennial themed uh what are engagement opportunities we do want the community engaged so we want them to share their City beautiful memories we have the frame the memory contest and we uh not only are we went out to different organizations to really get them to participate and these are being shared on our website here you see a picture of the Junior League of Miami headquarters from like before and after and people are writing uh different and we've gotten some great ones like someone sharing a picture of their home and saying how you know they've lived in The Gables Etc we are going to have uh an audio Booth because in addition to the 100 people that were profiling we want everyone to be able to participate this so uh we will be Staffing at every farmer Market this audio Booth so that people can come in and share an audio uh uh clip with us uh we have the tree of the year that that was something that was spearheaded by one of our committees uh submission and we are also asking for donations to our City's archives and actually by publicizing it we have been getting uh more we have Community initiatives and again these are just a sampling uh I know that many of you have probably seen that the uh Coral Gables Garden Club is going to be doing a tour uh next month but uh we're going to have sentennial banners uh working together with the University of Miami and they're going to be on ponts between Granada and Santa Maro uh talking about this uh the chamber and uh Alan Morris and his wife June they're going to be doing the greetings from Paradise uh play at the miracle theater on the day of the Centennial the mus museum has been doing path to 100 with different exhibits for example now they have they had one recently about doctor's hospitals and and their 75th Anniversary uh bike walk Coral Gables is going to be doing uh a series of uh of Tours and they're going to be all themed uh and it's not only bikes it's some walking tours and we have worked with Coral Gable Senior High and they are planning to do uh they usually have an essay contest and it's going to be uh Centennial theme so these are just some of the projects that we're undertaking uh and some organizations like are going to be participating uh we've been working with all of these organizations so for example the Coral Gables Bar Association they're going to make their Gala uh for next year Centennial theme and they're going to be honoring uh uh City attorneys uh past and present uh which we think is you know a wonderful thing to to honor that history uh University of Miami is not only the banners but since they're also participating we look for the game next year the football game where they have halftime the recognition where we usually have a University of Miami game for uh you know our commission to be able to go on the field and and do a proclamation so we're looking for every different opportunity to work with the organizations that are already within the community uh to move forward and we are including their events in our website so it's we're inclusive if they they share it with us and it's not only them calling us we really have been reaching out uh to be able to get this done and of course we're open to any suggestions of how we can make this uh more inclusive and more engaging with our community we had spoken about doing something in the Venetian pool and I think we voted on that was yes that that was in uh December in December 2025 it was in a in a previous slide that that was one of uh the the community's thing obviously it has to be at the end because as you know Venetian pool is undergoing uh uh repairs and restoration and it also has to be because of our weather it has to be in the winter so that's it thank you much Mar real quick um I think Dorothy Thompson was the chair last go around 75th you know she was very involved I just want to make sure she and others like her you I she's involved I I went to a meeting with her and and Martha recently and she brought uh pictures and documents she yes I and just so that you know anyone that has reached out and wants to uh meet I have met with them that's how I've gotten to 65 meetings uh we do update our Communications committee on an ongoing basis uh instead of establishing a committee but anyone that wants to come and meet with us uh mayor Thompson wanted to make sure that that in part of the oral history that we included crime watch Coral Gables we included their pictures on our website and we have uh of Carol Fel that was actually the person that brought this idea to to Mayor Thompson who was a commissioner at that time I spoken to her she's in North Carolina now when she comes back in in the winter she will be we will be doing an oral history uh segment with her great thank you okay thank you thank you item H3 Mr Mayor uh vice mayor and Commissioners this is just to provide you an update with the uh ongoing uh repairs for the recertification of City Hall So currently um as you all know and we put already out the the advertisement um uh the first two showing columns are going to be installed uh starting Monday November the 4th and those columns are going to be placed um in the city manager's office between the dcms office and the chief of staff and the other one will be at CIP given that uh the city manager's office will be vacating to to the public safety building specifically at the EOC on Friday November the 1st uh of this year um once that Shoring is in place uh then they will go in um and start shipping away to determine the extent of the repairs that need to be done um we anticipate that we'll probably be out of that space at least through through April or May of next year in addition to that two additional locations have been found that need Shoring uh one is in the uh where the city attorney's um uh office is going to relocate to to the first floor uh Shoring column is going to be placed there in an area that that's uh I believe it's a cubicle space so the rest of the space will be available however that space will be isolated there's one more that is um probably the most significant one and that's column 24 which is where the conference room on the first floor is that Shoring actually has to go all the way up to the roof meaning it's got to go floor by floor by floor because of that um it will probably impact and and it's going to be a significant uh size Shoring that will impact operations in the city in the uh commissioner offices so we're waiting to get back the detailed design of the the extent of that uh but I suspect that come December um after the December commission meeting it more than likely be prudent at that point that the commission relocate uh along with starting with the commission meetings in January starting the commission meetings in January um at the CMR um time period of that I would at least at this point a bank on probably 6 months that will be doing that while these repairs are taking place place again I have to uh emphasize that when the chipping starts and they start going into that's how they determine the extent and then the plans have to be developed they have to be approve permitted and approved by our building department make sure that the repairs this is all critical part of recertifying the building so it's it's very important so I I I expect that in the next couple of at least in the next month I'll be able to give you a better idea in terms of the commission chamber the commission offices and the in the chamber but I I think it's safe to say that come January we're going to be operating over at the CMR that's my report that thank you very much thank you um Madam vice mayor do you have anything good for the order um other than the fact that we have Halloween coming up let's let's enjoy it perfect um Halloween on a mile um I think we've all been pushing it out on social media so happy Halloween commissioner yeah I want to go ahead and thank um Fred kolina and from Parks and Recreation they did a phenomenal J job with the pumpkin patch and that's important that we recognize that it was a very very nice family oh there you go prepared love you lovely um I also want to say that coffee with a cop I sent you if you could there you go let's enjoy the pictures beautiful it was such a beautiful event Not only was it beautiful but they were able to assist me with setup and pickup of my my tent and my materials I really really appreciate that the the next item I want to talk about is coffee with a cop it's in Target if you could go ahead and put the flyer up li K TV could share my screen coffee with a cup Harvest Edition October 24th it's right around the corner please go talk to your cops it's always a very com a very nice Community event 9:00 in the morning to 11:00 a.m. in Target um I encourage you to go I will be there so you could talk to me as well I'm not a cop but hey and then the last one is November 2nd guys Adventure day um event is from 11:00 a.m. to 2:00 p.m. in Salvador Park I will be there I will have a table and I'm brainstorming on doing something very special for the kids so um stay tuned and that's going to be very fun as well um is my image ready for commissioner Fernandez um that's that's Saturday 11: a.m. for free for Halloween The Exorcist boy um it's a phenomenal movie I'll be sitting instead of the first row in the back row uh hiding um then next image please there you go uh happy to announce that my family and I through our family endowment we renewed for 2025 uh new series of blockbuster movies for the miracle theater actors Playhouse we still have on November 3rd this year we're showing The Godfather November 3rd at 500m but for 2025 the series of movies for families and for everybody really is Mary Poppins which is a beloved Musical that you really don't see on TV anymore Steven Spielberg and may uh Close Encounters of the Third Kind August perfect Summer movie go Ghostbusters and to finish out 20125 will be Godfather 2 which is interesting because Godfather one and Godfather 2 are the only sequel ever to win best picture so I have them as bookends but I'm happy to announce that my family is going to go another year of movies at The Miracle theater as well for everybody free good do um I just uh want to Echo your comments about uh the pumpkin patch I think it was a phenomenal event a lot of happy residents who came up to talk about what a great event this is for the city and it's a great opportunity for families to share um we had more Pumpkins this year in a different format I think that worked uh so kudos to our Parks folks and our Public Works team who was there uh police and fire who were out there as well there was a long line to take picture with a fir truck uh and uh everybody was there with smiles on their faces because we had great weather this year which was phenomenal um the other comment is uh that same location this Saturday we have deos uh from 2: to 6 it's a new location in the past it's been here across the street from City Hall it has has been moved to Pon Circle Park another great event being put together by the Mexican consulate in conjunction with the City of Coral Gables so look forward to seeing you there did we get an invite for for that or for the dios they I think they circulated the information to staff okay so thanks for thanks to commissioner Fernandez for for mentioning de muos something that I started four years ago and this is the fourth year that we do it it's in a major event for the city um draws thousands of people there and it's part of the legislation that works on also with the um we're working on a third one which was the filla that we just approved here in the commission uh that's number one number two um make it out to early voting early voting is happening as of this week you're going to be able to do it from Monday October 21st to Sunday the 3rd starting at 7:00 a.m. to 7:00 p.m. you can do this at the coral Gable's library at see voting is on November the 5th 2024 that's the general election but you have more than enough time from 7:00 a.m. to 7:00 p.m. uh to go out there and vote at the coral G was Library make sure your vote counts number three I would like to meet with a parking director through the manager's office uh see if we can have a conversation uh in regards to parking A Miracle Mile um I've encountered a few issues there that are not in in line with with the way that I think that things should be done and I want to make sure that we're very very careful and thoughtful cuz I actually en it myself uh with the individuals who were who were running the valets there it was this weekend so I'm you know in an effort to protect those individuals and protect the city I won't speak about it here but it's something that I'd like to speak to you about something that I've never seen before um and the final and the final um item that I have here for today out of all the great pumpkins that were here thank you for participating all of you did a wonderful job but somebody has to win so pumpkin number two is the winner congratulations uh development service development services congratulations good job meeting a jours they have code violations in that thing with a proper permit Ada issu they have Ada issues and it says it's appr proove stopped be right there hey gus didn't put Gus didn't put a much effort into not you guys not you