##VIDEO ID:Blz3rUlcaWo## [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] please take your seats the meeting is about to begin remember to speak into the microphone as this meeting is being recorded for public record please stand by we are going on air in 5 4 3 2 1 good morning everybody Welcome to the December 2024 finance and economic resiliency committee meeting uh I have a lot of exciting items for our community here today this will be the last firk meeting of the year uh appreciate in advance all the time and commitment and efforts from my colleagues uh the elected Commissioners that not only sit on this committee but also uh frequently particip at all the staff that does the work behind the scenes um and let's uh let's get right on board I'll kick it off to our CFO and our City attorney but we're going to hear the uh uh FIFA item for 10:30 time certain uh very excited about for the 2026 World Cup good morning everyone today's meeting of the finance and economic resiliency committee has been scheduled in a hybrid format with a Corum of the committee physically present and remaining members staff and members of the public appearing either in in person or virtually via zoom in order to participate in today's meeting virtually members of the public may dial 1888 475 4499 and enter the webinar ID which is 863 6059 5462 pound or log into the Zoom app and enter the webinar ID which again is 863 6059 5462 any individual wishing to speak on an item must click the raised hand icon if they are using the Zoom app or dial star9 if participating by phone thank you chair uh a few announcements we have two time certains uh ob2 will be time certained at 10:30 NB3 10:45 items mb5 6 and 8 are linked that we heard together items MB 7 and 11 are linked and we heard together and we have two deferrals mb12 and mb15 thank you and we'll call the first one yeah first item will be ob2 discuss the creation of incentives to establish Miami Beach as the local hub for World Cup 2026 ob2 so let me turn it over to you and the team that we have here from FIFA uh good morning Mr chair good morning committee members Lisa Dante director dor of Tourism and culture City of Miami Beach I'm going to provide a pref a brief recap regarding this item that is detailed in the memo before you regarding incentives for the 2026 FIFA World Cup uh this item was last heard at committee on November 8th uh where the committee recommended that the staff go back and negotiate with the FIFA World Cup host committee uh sponsorship and incentives uh before you um I'm going to share really quickly what we discussed and requested uh the sponsorship benefits include Global exposure for the city with inclusion in FIFA World Cup Promotional and branding opportunities a feature in FIFA's official no before you go cities guide the city's guide will be available to South Florida residents with over 700,000 V visitors designation of the official and exclusive FIFA World Cup 2026 media Row in lumus park where the host committee will send media to this is expected to have a credential media attendance is estimated to from 5,000 to 20,000 with early numbers in 2026 public benefits for Miami Beach residents include designating Miami Beach as an official FIFA World Cup watch party location Target area is North Beach where people can view the Opening match final match and all matches taking place at the Hard Rock stadium this would be free to the public the host committee will produce a kickoff concert with top national International Talent on the inaugural weekend of the first World Cup game played in Miami date County the concert will be free and open to the public and take place in the Lumis Park beachfront a designated amount of uh resident front row area seating will be provided and a legacy project so the host committee will work to leverage fundraising and sponsorship efforts to provide accessible spaces for Youth and promote Community engagement in sports the host committee's financial support for the Legacy project will be based and contingent on its fundraising activity the city's Parks and Recreation Department has identified three possible projects uh in north and mid Beach uh there's currently a whole to book them might Beach Convention Center however there's no official ask for the use of the convention center uh the host committee may want to operate a ticketing Center there um or a media working Center to conduct press conferences and or to set up desks pending availability uh lastly is City sponsorship requests is what includes event sanctioning so they would like to do a FIFA World Cup clean uh clean zone so a zone of exclusivity similar to our boso so they can vet events that are going to be uh in their area and to make sure that um you know there's no uh Ambush Marketing in the clean Zone um that clean zone is detailed in the memo before you waiver of special event fees uh square footage fees and city um police department off duty administrative fees fire department off duty administrative fees and Beach concession fees sponsorship of city services so in-kind services for up to $500,000 and this includes Mii Beach fire PD sanitation and any event related city services and a cash sponsorship in an amount of 1.5 million in sponsorship funding it's proposed that 50% 750 750,000 be provided in fiscal year 2025 and the remaining 50% the 750,000 be budgeted in approp created in the fiscal year 2026 budget cycle and lastly a waiver our our pouring rights we have a contract with PepsiCo and so this would uh they're requesting a waiver of PepsiCo as Coca-Cola is one of their major sponsors um again today we have representatives from the World Cup uh host committee we have uh Chief Operating Officer Ry Martinez and event producer Randy Freeman to answer any additional questions thank you Lizette um the one that caught my eye uh and I don't know if this even falls into our hands but is the sponsorship waiver uh I don't know if the Mr City attorney can opine on that is that something that is a legislative issue that the commission would take up the question um so part of what uh the committee is requesting if I understood correctly uh given our deal they wanted a sponsorship waiver uh for Pepsi um we we do have four waivers per year and I believe that U Miss arante has already started the process proc to allow them to have one of those okay excent so what we'd be looking at here is a $500,000 in kind contribution and a $1.5 million cash contribution uh I I'll turn it over my colleagues I know what I'd be looking for probably more from staff versus the the sponsorship team but certainly if people have questions for the sponsors uh feel free to um engage with them but can what our previous history is for things like the Super Bowl the Orange Bowl uh various events uh if we could quantify what we've done in the past um that's something I'd be interested in uh to essentially you know gauge where we're at for this event versus uh what our opportunities have been in the past I'll turn it over to my colleagues um for what they'd like to take the discussion commissioner Fernandez orot so um thank you I I think it's a great opportunity and it's very exciting um I would actually like to hear um from our marketing Communications folks sorry Melissa to put you on the spot um but as a um as a value you know Super Bowl is a week a weekend you know 10 days whatever you want to stretch that out to this is over seven weeks could you aine on the value of the media um the unearned media um sure um good morning Melissa Bertier director of marketing Communications uh FIFA is how many weeks seven seven seven weeks 33 33 days we have seven games in Miami I think it's incredible and so if we wanted to so I think in terms of the value sorry to the value I I do think that it's a fair value um so if we wanted to buy this kind of media exposure would we be paying more than $2 million much more ballpark I would need to see I don't have it in front of me sorry because this isn't my item but it would be uh multi-millions yeah okay um and for the um for the FIFA folks oh that's fun to say I encourage everybody to say FIFA folks 10 times quickly um is there any opportunity to collaborate in how Miami Beach is presented is there um absolutely we can shape the narrative a little bit to Shina the best possible light on what we offer here yes and and thank you Ry Martinez I'm the Chief Operating Officer for the uh FIFA World Cup 2026 Miami host committee it's a long uh name there but uh you can just say a few uh obviously we want that partnership and we want that you know feedback for what myi beach wants to do you know we don't want to come in and tell you what we're going to do it's truly a partnership uh of what we can do and what what we'll be able to do as the event comes near um similar to the Super Bowl I was involved with the Super Bowl I was the president of the host committee for the Super Bowl in 2020 uh we all remember how great that was especially here for Miami Beach you know the difference is as youve pointed out this is over a 33-day period uh our matches that are going to be held here it's also in June and July which is typically a slower month for tourism and whatnot where the Super Bowls in February during peak time so there's some you know very distinct added value to that um in in light of that also with soccer and what we're learning you know as a new soccer fan myself learning that you know people will travel here just to be in the host City even though they don't have a ticket to the match you know so they want to be part of the excitement that's why the viewing parties are so important not only at the FanFest but throughout the communities and uh you know something that we want to work together with uh Mii Beach on that as well so that's a great segue so my last question then I'll turn it over my colleagues um you know the Band Shell as a as a location for viewing parties and maybe even extension screen on um Normandy Fountain um is great we've seen how successful it is with the hu enormous and enthusiastic and really happy crowds that show up um however it is a significant number of people who fled into that area and I know we're doing all kinds of waivers of calls some policing and all that sort of thing but if we're going to have seven screenings um or you know whatever it ends up being um in that area that's going to be seven pretty significant crowd control police expenditures and and um maybe chief of Costa might be able to um share some insight on that sorry to put you on the spot as well but I guess today is popcorn quiz day so you know it's not like it's just to make sure that things don't go AR and you know we we don't have people who are joyous in their celebrations climbing on light Po posts and getting hurt and all that kind of stuff um or people who are distraught and taking it out on parked cars so I mean it's not Philadelphia so we should be okay but good morning ma'am good morning morning Mr chair members of the commission deputy chief Paul aost on behalf of the police department pop quiz um sometimes in school I didn't pay attention to the teacher so I didn't hear the question in its entirety um I must admit so if you can restate it for for yes so the conversation was how great it is to have these viewing parties up in North Beach we've had it before at the bans shell possibly an extension at the Normy Fountain within ancillary screen but the cost of policing that to make sure that everyone leaves in the same shape that they got there basically yes ma'am it's not something that we are not uh capable of doing and providing as a department um we would have to ask ocate in advance um um a budget to carve out for FIFA which we do plan on doing because Citywide we do expect an influx of more um people to our city in 2025 and 2026 as a result of the game so um obviously we want to make sure that we provide enough and sufficient Staffing for it but it's not anything that we can't handle I I have no doubt that you can handle it that's not the concern the concern is um is it going to be above and beyond the in-kind donations that we're making for police services throughout the city like I guess that's a question that you guys will have to get to as we get to our budget process and figure out you know is a $500,000 spread across multiple departments going to cover what we would need for seven different games um in North Beach and if not how much more is that and because that should be a consideration set as well yes ma'am I I feel more comfortable if we had an opportunity to go back and and perform that analysis and understand roughly speaking um and non-binding what would that cost be for one game if you were doing it like like when Argentina was right I would think somewhere perhaps around U $225,000 I think if we have provide sufficient Staffing if we're doing both areas both watch parties up in the north so it's not insignificant it's not okay could I just could I just add commissioner R Williams assistant city manager uh because we have this much lead time and this is a collaborative planning process with multiple jurisdictions including Miami day County city of Miami and others we expect to be partnering with other agencies to ensure that we have okay our our Public Safety component um down pack for that time period so just know that it won't just be Miami Beach that's activated at this time but our entire community so we do expect to partner Madam city manag is correct okay if I if I may add also is because the ask is as a Max is an up to 500,000 so from a budgetary perspective that would be our number I guess theoretically as you I think if you were asking if there were cost beyond that um the ask is only up to the half a million so okay I well I I don't want to be spending more than half a million if we don't have to but I also don't want to have Public Safety you know compromise in any way because people get excited about their football commissioner Fernandez thank you Mr chair and I just want to ask uh our CFO traditionally other other large events let's say you know activities that happen in our city let's say the month of March during the month of March how much do we spend on Public Safety during the month of March or all together actually I'm going to ask Richard ill our budget officer on that I know we budget theing Spring Break um if you can come up and how much over oh a little over $2 million over over $2 million and and I just think about that we spent 2 million dollars there uh on public safety and the negative impact that that has in our economy whatever investment we make uh in in FIFA 2026 will be such a great return on our investment because let's let's just you know get it right this is the single most washed sporting event in the world and it's not just any other sporting activity FIFA it it surpasses the Super Bowl it surpasses the Olympics it surpasses Formula 1 and with a combined audience connecting billions of people across the globe uh people that that transcend borders it transcends languages it transcends social economic barriers so this is just so spectacular and it aligns with the type of community that uh that that we want to be and and not only that you know the economic impact of over 500 million dollars is going to that's going to generate um in our in our region I think I read it was or list I may have say 600,000 visitors for in in the in the area and and actually the the the economic impact number is more like 1.3 billion uh if you go back to Super Bowl 20120 uh we did an e economic impact study as part of that and it was 572 million uh FIFA did a preliminary uh economic impact for Miami day you know for Greater Miami and uh they came back with a number 1.3 billion I think that's personally low when you look at what happened in 2020 with the Super Bowl but you know those are the numbers that they they have put out there and so and and not only that I think you know this is so much more than just numbers it's about enhancing our Global profile uh as a city boosting our tourism industry and uh positioning our city as a premier destination for major international events so in addition to I I think there's the world class soccer fields uh that um that I I read somewhere that uh that's part of an investment that's being made high quality soccer fields sure that's the Legacy project and that's contingent on the host committee's fundraising efforts so that's something that they're working on but that would mean more accessible recreational spaces absolutely that are going to be available for our youth as part of the legacy of this project so there's so much return for Miami Beach that even if the public safety investment exceeds the 500,000 the return on that investment is so much greater uh for our community Mr chairman thank you for sponsoring this item this is this is a wise uh use of our dollars and at the right time I'm happy to make a motion on your item this is all of our items uh this is seven six Commissioners and a mayor a city staff and entire community that is going to be hand inand welcoming FIFA welcoming one of the most iconic events in the entire world uh the police department so uh this is truly a collaborative effort I'm excited to Embark upon with all of us uh commissioner Rosen Gonzalez nothing thing I just want to um emphasize what my colleague said by saying that this is one of the coolest things that's ever come to South Florida hosting these seven games I can't even imagine the Mayhem and pandemonium that is going to take place that entire to month right of games um so I'm excited to support it I you know hopefully I know you guys will be super successful in your fundraising efforts and hopefully we'll get at least one soccer field um out of this and I'm excited about the benefits package and hosting the media along uh Ocean Drive I think it's just going to be a tremendous uh good PR for all of us so congratulations excellent and before we close this out just to get on the record uh you know Miami Beach like so many events even though it's taking place at the broader county level will really be the Center for this whether it be for events from the TV broadcast or things like that uh but if the FIFA Team could quantify uh you're asking for million and a half cash contribution what is the county stepping up in their their efforts so we can essentially um you know gauge that so we had an initial ask with Miami dat County of 21 million cash along with 25 million in kind and a 3 million doll uh Legacy contribution um they made an adjustment at the board and uh in approved the 10 and a half million they cut the 21 and a half uh 10 a. half million cash uh the 25 million uh in kind and a 3 million Legacy there is an opportunity to go back to the County commission for the remaining or the the uh 10 a. half million dollars that uh was reduced in the uh initial legislation and uh courtesy of my colleague commissioner bot the city of Miami I know we discussed this earlier but just to put on the record yes we haven't asked into the City of Miami for $5 million cash and $10 million in kind as well which includes uh the use of Bayfront Park uh for the FanFest and Mr chairman if I may please yeah and and I just want to reiterate media row media row is going to be in our city is that right well that's you know the the FIFA official Media Center is actually in Dallas so uh similar to the Super Bowl was here and you remember uh radio row and the conventions uh Convention Center um so the the the media center for the FIFA all of the 16 matches is actually in Dallas uh because they needed a Convention Center space for nine months time and something that most cities could not commit to but Dallas did um but we are getting inquiries and are going to have a lot of requests for media to come into you know Miami obviously there's a lot of interest in in what's going on in Miami and so that is what we will be pushing to Beach and to Ju Just to add to that so we will have the official and exclusive media row where the Miami host committee will be funneling all of the media Outlets to Lumis park right with our Ocean Drive background and so which is like what we experienced with the Super Bowl that like I remember Fox Sports like I remember Fox Sports constantly you had the ardco buildings and Ocean Drive you know on the on the networks and and this is this is like that but instead of just nationally this would be International uh dissemination correct and while we know that some media Outlets will occupy some space at the stadium which is a natural occurrence because the games are happening there we know that we're going to get a lot of media visibility because of the exclusivity offered by meteoro thank you well Mr chair uh at the right time I'd like to make a motion uh to to send this item back to the city commission with a favorable recommendation to direct the city Administration to negotiate an agreement with FIFA World Cup 2026 Miami on the terms uh as presented uh with the host committee it sounds like the right time so mov excellent the second was okay thank Youk you I I Joe passed unanimously thank you excellent uh look forward to this um let's go to our next time Surin uh we have uh 1045 times certain for uh NB3 oh thank you uh NB3 is discussed a resolution of the mayor and the city Commission of the city of Maya Beach Florida establishing as the policy of the city of Maya Beach that medical marijuana is a medicine and not an elicent recreational drug that employees of the city that who are prescribed medical marijuana by a properly licensed Medical Professional and compliance with all requirements set forth in Florida law shall be permitted to use this properly prescribed medication during non-working hours and sufficiently in advance of any scheduled workshift in order to ensure that the employee is not impaired by the use of the medical marijuana while on the job and directing the city Administration to draft and progate written directives effectuating the city policy mb3 okay so this let's face it it's a controversial item although we are designated a drug feed workplace um medical marijuana is uh legal and seen as a prescribed medicine in the State of Florida um when we drug test there are certain drugs like Xanax that we do not test for correct we actually different pain medications would you like me to respond now or at the end of your comments thank you commissioner Marla LPS our city of Mami Beach Human Resources Director um to the Comm uh through the chair the answer to your question is all of those drugs that are scheduled drugs um under Federal schedules are tested for let's say I test positive for um Aderall which is on the scheduled list schedule three I would then show the medical officer providing my test with my prescription and I would not be a positive I would just be uh even though it came up on the drug test I would not test positive because I would be using my prescription as required okay so then we would add um Medical marijuana to this if you were tested for it and you had a prescription for it then it would be treated like Aderall or any of these other drugs correct so to the to answer your question it's a little more complicated because the prescription it's not it's a under Federal um schedules it's a schedule one drug it's it is not a schedule three drug and so um it is not legal under federal law like it's legal under state law so it's we're in an intersection of um difficult conflict between state and federal law we do anticipate that the federal government will move marijuana they're studying moving it to a schedule three drug what will be treated like other Controlled Substances right now for example in the State of Florida if you are an employee in the State of Florida and you have a prescription for medical marijuana given that it is legal in the state of Florida how are they treating employees within the state very carefully like we are um when a person uh under all laws Federal and State when a person has a medical disability or um a disability or medical condition that might impact their um core functions of their job and they say to you as uh an employer I would request a um uh reasonable accommodation so that I may use this medicine for my health condition you have to treat those as individual cases you see what we can reasonably accommodate or not on and we have done that with so far in the history of since I've been here two employees that have medical marijuana cards where we say is this reasonable or not reasonable to be able to provide an accommodation in the case of an employee that theoretically is not a safety sensitive um position is you know say you have a desk job we might be able to say okay we can reasonably accommodate um your uh your use and not you know ding you as a positive uh underneath our labor agreements um in the case of a person that's in a safety sensitive position we would need to be um thinking through what would be appropriate for that employee maybe a reasonable accommodation is leave maybe a reasonable accommodation is a light duty position that doesn't have them you know driving a city vehicle or and this would be any drug not just marijuana it might be a painkiller that a person might need to take um these are individualized conversations based on that individual person's medical needs so you don't think there's any stigmatization coming to you and saying hey I have a medical marijuana card that's what I would like to avoid I don't want that person to have to be singled out to come to you to get a medicine that is legal under the State of Florida like many other prescriptions you know and and I also I'd like to try to find a way that this body recognizes medical marijuana in a compassionate way without stigmatizing anyone I would like to say that um Amazon Microsoft meta Google Netflix none of them drug test anymore um you know we have these random drug testing policies I don't think it's great for employee morale I understand that it's necessary I suppose if you're operating heavy machinery although I I would say that you know people have supervised and that's what the supervisor is for you know if somebody shows up intoxicated you know then obviously they're going to have a problem so um I'd like to find out you know I was I was under the assumption I thought that recreational marijuana was going to pass at the ballot I looked here you know overwhelmingly 60 70% in our precincts have passed medical marijuana passed by like between 70 and 80% across Miami Beach in every single Precinct so um I don't know I'm not going to follow I'd like to hear what you guys have to say before I move it for forward with a positive or NE negative recommendation one thing I'd like to hear more of um trying to recall where the most controversial things lied in did we ever close uh out essentially the grant um thing that came up because I think the two things that I am most focused on you you know I I have no issues with this however if this would have a significant financial or economic impact on the grants that we're able to apply to um and then also uh you know the legality I'd certainly like legal to uh weigh in on what some of the implications are about this it's not that I have a personal or moral or somehow moral Higher Ground Authority on this I just want to know what the perhaps unintended consequences for our broader City uh in administration would be can I we kind of did a deep dive into that we found that it's minimal correct so with the I think let me start by saying the drug-free workplace concept is tied to the grant funding so the drug-free workplace concept is meant and is written as law federal law to be a um compassionate approach to assisting employees that have um Poss I uh just just because you use a substance doesn't mean you necessarily have an addiction or anything but the drug-free workplace originally was a compassionate legislation to say if you're a drug-free workplace you can test your employees for safety purposes and provide to them the counseling and the medical care that they need in order to avoid addiction and so we do approach our drug-free workplace policy which is tied to our federal grants through the compassionate approach if you have an addiction we try to help you find um The Right Care yes yes ma'am but that wasn't the qu if we we had we looked at it and there were no grants right we did not lose out on one penny of grant funding correct we are still a drug zero we're still a drug-free workplace and so we sign and authorize in our Federal grant forums that we are a drug-free workplace the administration does not recommend that we stop being a drug-free workplace as a status of a uh it's a designation we suggest that we continue to sign our Federal grant forms that we are a drug free workplace in order to maintain our federal funding and there are I don't remember the number there are a number of Grants tied to that Federal funding the the small number that you're remembering is the amount of a discount that we would stop getting from the state of Florida for Our Workers Compensation Program if we were not a drug-free workplace so if we were not a drug free workplace there is a discount because we are a direct free workplace that we would receive and we would stop receiving that $30,000 a year discount on our workers compensation um insurance that we provide to the State of Florida so we stand to lose um Federal grant opportunities if we were not a drug free workplace and we stand to lose a small discount from the state of Florida on Workers Compensation Insurance uh payments that we must make if we were not a drug free workplace so this Administration does not recommend stopping that designation yes so that $30,000 is uh across the board that's the entire amount or is it like per policy federal grants we apply for various federal grants every year and we are certifying that we are drug PR quy that that's zero Millions I mean it's a lot in the case of that we wouldn't be able to apply for if we were not a drug free workplace we just wouldn't be able to certify that we were and that's one of the requirements of some grants wait in the cas of the discount that is just I'm sorry if we could run back through that again so we are right now A federally recognized drug-free workplace which allows us to apply for Grants if I'm sorry if we can allow this to continue we're a drug-free workplace right now yes and that allows us to apply for Grants if we would take action that would deem us not to be a drug free workplace there are specific grants we would be able to apply for and if that is correct if we could quantify the amount can I just clarify no I'm sorry if I want to answer the question I'm sorry I didn't ask you the question you can apply you Sor I ask you the question Mara so this nobody interrupts you I I think that I'm going to say what the commissioner wants me to say in the in the in the fact that we think that we can um have a policy we can't throw out our drug testing but we can have a policy that um that that that maintains our drug-free workplace and still allows us to make allowances for people who have medical conditions and that is sort of like a Threading a needle just because we talk about your desire or to do or not do a medical marijuana policy does not necessarily mean we have to throw out the drug-free workplace piece it just makes it really complex to thread this needle and so the all of the background information that the commission has been provided with or the committee has been provided with about what other jurisdictions are doing about how the laws are unfolding as we speak about what might come with the federal government making changes it's it's really a dynamic and complex topic right now and if we stay on this path of trying to be at the Forefront of what you want to do with policy it is complex it's not going to be easy and it is going to be a lot of needle threading but we don't necessarily have to throw out the drug free workplace designation thank you commissioner rosing I'd like to turn it over to you uh real quick before I do that's something you'd have my support for is if we're able to essentially thread a needle where we're making accommodations but still maintaining the status as a drug- free workplace I'll kick it over to you to where you want to take this okay um first and foremost I think we could still I mean if it was up to me would get rid of this whole random spooky testing thing in the first place I mean I work at my mate College none of us are randomly drug tested I don't even think that mdcps I was a teacher there I know that they don't do that either um I'd like to follow the big five you know the Microsoft Apple Amazon I mean they're not drug testing we all know that Nancy and Ronald Reagan created this just say no to drugs policy and it was just a big Boogeyman if somebody's not performing their job correctly it's going to be noticeable to the people around them especially if they are intoxicated that said and and by the way if we were not a drug-free workplace we could still apply for those federal grants and get the funding at the end of The Forum you just say we're not a drug food we're just the whole state of Cl Colorado they're not going to say to all Colorado and California you can't have any Federal grant money because drugs are legal in your state right so Across the Nation there is a a movement you know against this it's kind of an enlightened compassion movement anyway if you're willing to support my Myra suggestion which is kind of like what you want us to be able to allow for prescription medical marijuana I just worry about the stigmatization embedded in all of it if that's all I'm going to get fine if that's what threading the needle means um it's a start and you know if the federal government changes this at some point I guess we can move in that direction um so just um question to our attorneys you know what are legal challenges that that we as an employer can face if an employee causes harm or damage as a result of any change of policy that we enact hi Rob Rosen uh Deputy City attorney um so you're speaking of for example somebody came to work high and got into a crash and then would we have liability any any damage the answer the answer is we we are liable for our employees actions no matter what they do they they we have what's called vicarious liability for their actions so if employee gets into a car crash we are liable for it if they're doing it within the course and scope of their duties um is there more of a risk that somebody could show up to work high and be driving and crash I suppose there is some incremental uh risk but there's also the risk that somebody could show up to work to drunk someone could show up on some other drug sure uh and so uh we don't while there always is some risk and anyone can sue for anything we don't consider it to be uh a prohibitive risk and so I I just wonder also um you know for example our insurance premiums our insurance premium are are based on the policies that we currently have in place and I just wonder have we studied what could be the potential impact to our City's insurance premiums uh if if our drug testing policies are seen as insufficient or changed you know do we run the risk of of those costs going up keep in mind we only have uh insurance for uh overage coverage on workers compensation claims every other form of insurance that we would pay claims on the city is self-insured we don't pay for insurance we don't have any special rate we we just pay the claims out of the city's funds uh and we've deemed that financially beneficial to do so very few situations do we have some small area where we have a private outside insurance company and one of those is for uh uh workers comp claims I believe over $2 million one or two I don't remember and uh and and that's where that 30% comes in but I want to make clear that it is not at all clear and I think it's trending the other way it's trending towards you can still say that you are a med you are a drug-free workplace if you allow medical marijuana um just last week there was a trial court decision out of hilsboro County uh it was it is just a trial court so it's not binding on us we'll see what happens on appeal and see if that gets uh upheld on appeal but that trial court held that what the work drug-free workplace and Florida law requires is that you not use marijuana while you are at the workplace and you not show up to work high but if you have a medical marijuana card the city must but Mr attorney I I certainly understand that but we also need to keep in consideration that while tests for alcohol and permit for example are well well established uh I don't know of any universally accepted or reliable task to determine whether marijuana uh impairment actively exists in an employee and so and so while I get what the courts have ruled and and the importance of that ruling you know how do we determine whether someone in the workplace is impaired or not well we do have training program prams especially for police officers for uh detecting drug impairments even though if somebody is not uh like isn't going to take a blow test and test positive for alcohol so it is something that can be done uh Mara has information about testing that is either already done or is it in the very near pipeline uh that we that we will have access to the one thing I would point out about this case out of Hillsboro County was uh it was a very it was a 25-page decision and the employee who wanted to use medical marijuana was a paramedic driving a fire truck and the court said you had the Hillsboro County had to allow them to use medical marijuana now again only a trial court decision may be appealed we're not sure uh we generally only take rules of Precedence from appell at court decision so this one has a little ways to go but the dir of case law that we have so far on this particular issue makes the the existence of this one trial court decision particularly uh uh noteworthy because there isn't much law at all on this I you know I I I really believe that my colleague is trying to do something important for employees who have been prescribed medical marijuana by duly licensed medical professionals and in ways that comply with the Florida law um you know and I understand you know that employees can use it outside of their workshifts uh so that so that they're so that they're not feeling the effects of it uh while while while they're working I just get very concerned about the unintended consequences so the motion that's been presented I just want to understand it right it would allow it on a Case by case basis in other words we wouldn't change our policy but it would be to the on the hands of the administration to allow it on a caseby casee basis is that what's before us now so when I refer to a caseby casee basis I'm referring to what we're doing now um what is proposed by resolution by um commissioner Rosen Gonzalez um I I don't know how to speak to what that would do to change our policies we would have to figure out what changes would be needed that we can accomplish one of the things about this new testing that's coming down the pike is everyone is saying oh this new testing looks like it might be more beneficial it's it's not measuring a 30-day exposure to a drug it's measuring a much more narrow window it's much closer to the concept of impairment we can't we have had we have struggled with having a provider be able to provide us the uh drug sheets about the the the like the the sheets the spec sheets about the testing and to provide to us the pricing that we can take to procurement like it's so new that we're struggling with getting the answers that we need on the new testing it's coming we're going to be able to get there we're not there yet on the case of um the other thing that is a a complication in threading a needle is even if we say um we're going to have this type of a policy approach that the commission decides whatever that looks like in a resolution um there are things we can't wave for example if you're have a a CDL license and that is um that whole license is um regulated by the Federal Department of Transportation you cannot use any marijuana and have a CDL license and some of our jobs require a CDL license and so you can't avoid those kinds of job by job not only medical condition by need and we'll leave it to staff to you know quantify and qualify what exactly that is right I just don't want to represent I just want to follow up on because once let's take this resolution once this resolution is approved the operational responsibility will naturally fall to the city manager to the city Administration to implement it yes and so I get very concerned about the complexities of this of this issue including the compliance as we've stated here with Federal and with state laws uh and ensuring that our City's operational needs are met can't we propose that we you know give the city manager you know the ability just to determ what this policy should be um you know maybe maybe I I know at times um at times marijuana is prescribed to to cancer patients and May and at times it's prescribed to patients uh HIV and AIDS and and other illnesses I don't want to politicize something that is so sensitive to the health of of of our Workforce who deserves every consideration possible uh in their treatment and in and in and in their you know recuperation um but allow the city manager tell the city manager Mr manager this is important to us we want to make sure that that that individuals who are who are facing you know grave you know illnesses you know if they're dealing with a certain state age of cancer that they absolutely need this medication that that the city manager be able to do that but I don't want to have employees you know handling credit card transactions in the city who we can't really verify whether they're inebriated or not at the time of that transaction or or or or you know handling other types of of issues so I you know I I don't know if there's a possibility to do that yeah Mr attorney well the long and the short of it is I I discussed this most this very recent case which was very far-reaching and went towards allowing medical weij want for everyone even firetruck drivers um I wouldn't feel comfortable with that I'm sorry I would not feel comfortable with that I can well if that became the law we would have to follow it but right now it's not at the point where we have to follow it but I only point out the dir of case law and interpretation on any of these leaves you the freedom right now to do what you want uh if if you just want to allow the city commission to and in the city Administration do what it's doing in a caseby casee reasonable accommodation basis uh uh you can do that uh you could be you could ask for something more restrictive and say that we're we not going to do that there aren't any cases saying you you can't do that besides this one trial court decision that just came out so it's very much all of a policy call right now just keeping in mind that as these new cases start rolling out and then appet Court start ruling on it it will clarify itself some more and you may have to adjust what it was you wanted to do so you can be you can be right in the middle and do what the state of Florida what uh May County and what we are currently doing you can do something more aggressive towards allowing it as commissioner Rosen Gonzalez wants to do you could do something less restrict more restrictive and not allow it in a lot of situations if you wanted and still get away with it right now keeping in mind that as the case law develops you may have to probably tweak what you do commissioner Ro than commissioner bot okay I just want to Define before I just wanted to find before commissioner bot speaks that what this is is employees of the city of Miami Beach who have been prescribed medical marijuana by a duly licensed Medic in compliance with all applicable Florida laws and regulations should be permitted to use such property properly prescribed medication uh during non-working hours that is the policy that we would be passing and mor does that thread the needle what does that mean essentially what more was saying is to maintain our status as a drug-free workplace we can make reasonable accommodations without just opening the door and waving in medical marijuana and that essentially threads the needle of maintaining that drug-free workplace moner uh while still making above and beyond reasonable accommodations am I phrasing that correctly so I believe that what the commissioner is proposing in the resolution is more of a um is not so much giving the administration as much individual caseby casee basis because her resolution doesn't say even something as simple as except for CDL Drivers under to have to meet requirements under federal law and except for um possible safety sensitive uh positions so there best way this is a much more broad um policy that is proposed that um so maybe part of the motion could be and then commissioner bot I'll turn it over you but where I'm going with this is part of the motion uh maybe a friendly amendment to commissioner Rosen Gonzalez is have staff come back and put some exclusions for the type of sensitive positions that might not be able to be brought under this umbrella that would have to go for a uh oneoff case-by case basis commissioner bore so you know I think we are as I forget who said it but at at the Vanguard of this changing Dynamic across the country and if Hillsboro County not noted for its wildly Progressive views on anything um is recognizing that this is a change that's coming um I'm sure it's you know progress is never linear it always looks like this a bunch so I think we're kind of at the beginning of this mess um I I'm inclined to actually do uh what you just suggested Joe which is take commissioner Rosen Gonzalez's um proposal and have staff see if there needs to be one or two little guard rails like the CDL license um and then and then come back and let us um vote on on making that a policy because I feel like um you know at as it stands now anybody could be processing credit card transactions or performing CPR after having a three Martini lunch and we wouldn't know about it necessarily I mean you might hopefully they don't hide it that well but but there's nothing to stop people from doing dumb things with or without our policy I will take it I'll take what you guys are proposing we will come back do you want to come back here with an or we don't because we don't have the ordinance we have to kind of draft the policy correct so it would be a resolution it would be a resolution so let's I would I mean you so if I move the resolution forward to the full commission with the exemption of certain employee categories which by the way in the future will not matter anyway because they could sue us and state the FL I I just I would throw out THC alog together when we test but I mean whatever I'll take what you guys are proposing move forward in increments let's move forward in increments and hope that as we move forward judiciously that the state and national law catches up with us so that we end up paral traveling in parallel paths that we give people in need more of what we want what they need um we are not going to walk away from the Compassionate Care if body has a problem there should be no Stigma I mean I know there are plenty of people who take um mental health medications that are far more um reluctant to talk about those prescription drugs and they are about medical marijuana cards so I I would like to destigmatize any medication that you need because Better Living Through science is a thing and um you know let's let's move forward in a compassionate Progressive but measured way but can I just say like let's say that you were on an anti-depressant you don't have to go and sit down and have a conversation with Marla and say you know I'm on an anti-depressant no no no my point was people feel might I know people who feel less comfortable owning up to being on anti-depressants than they would ever feel uncomfortable about um talking about medical marijuana so I I would like to get to a place where you know if if you were on if you had a medical marijuana prescription you don't have to go and have that discussion and we're trying to get there so we're moving so so do you want to make a motion so I'll make a motion Rob let's let's um move this resolution forward with some exemptions for certain employee categories okay and maybe HR could put in some recommendations for how for implementation that they think would work I'm happy to work with the attorney and the commissioner on suggestions and ideas and and they can arrive at a policy towards the commission that will achieve what you are all seeking if I you look so happy commissioner if I can help CU I couple of elements there but I think it sounds like this would return to commission with a recommendation to direct Administration develop a policy to allow medical marijuana within limitations uh but with the requirement that the city maintain its drug- free work workplace love that Jason that was so welled that's that's okay all right that sounds good uh might become an incentive to stop the bleed we we need a second on that does somebody want to Second my motion somebody G to Second it thank you all all in favor hearing none opposed passes thank you excellent excellent um long time in the making so I'm happy uh for that LE let's get to uh it's going to have unintended consequences everything does and we'll fix it as we go um question for some of the staff uh mb25 the residential Solid Waste contract mb25 discuss a residential solid waste collection contract and a situational report on it mb25 good to go open it up okay thank you good morning chairman magazine fellow board members uh today we're going to talk about um the residential Solid Waste contract that the city has and just to clarify this is not the non-exclusive agreements that we have with Waste Connections or waste management for commercial and multif family nine and above this is very specific to uh the residential uh exclusive franchise agreement that we have with Waste Connections um who in in one form or another through different companies has been providing the service for the last 14 years this is only pertaining to the approximately 5674 single family homes we have and it affects 1,400 I believe multifam units that are in the 2 to8 category so I just wanted to put that on the record to clarify it so we all know what we're talking about today and there's no confusion so um I will get started I'm just going to try to give a little bit of a history of these contracts where we're at today and and what staff recommends at this point going forward so if PJ could put the slides up that would be great huh knew the power knew the new PowerPoint guy I'm borrowing from commissioner Suarez um so you can go to the next slide please so in 2010 the city of Mi Beach entered into a residential single family uh multif Family 2 to8 exclusive agreement for hway services with a company at the time called Choice Environmental Services of Miami um that contract was for a duration of 5 years the agreement provided the city with the option to renew it for up to three years of one additional terms which in fact they did in 2014 uh the city commission authorized a First Amendment to the agreement consenting to a name change of the contractor from Choice which was then purchased by Progressive Waste Solutions of Florida uh who had the contract with with no other material changes to those contracts upon expiration of the initial term of the agreement uh the city Commission on July 8th 2015 approved a one-year extension with a directive to City administration at that point in time to prepare an RFP to go out to bid for future residential disposal and Waste Services in 2015 uh the administration presented and the city commission approved the issuance of RFP 255-258 WG uh for the collection of disposal of residential Solid Waste trash bulk waste and operations of the city green waste facility uh in 2016 the commission provided further direction to Administration to negotiate and extend the contract with waste connection for the remaining two one-year extension terms that extended the contract until 2018 following the review and evaluation of the RFP submittals it was deemed that Waste Connections uh was the best qualified firm to continue to provide the residential service um in 2019 the city entered into another agreement with w connections extending the contract to 2023 with the option of up to three one-year additional renewal terms provided by the contractor is not in default under the agreement the city is in the second one-year renewal term uh with Waste Connections which will expire on December uh in 2025 where we are today Waste Connections has indicated to the city that they will not be able to renew the agreement after December 25 under the existing con terms um the extension has has to be renewed by both parties mutually and so to just explain why that where it is the uh the contract that we currently have is incredibly um beneficial to the city uh a lot has changed in the marketplace for the LA in the last five years um and sometimes you know businesses get to a point where you know financially it's it's difficult to continue under those same terms and I concur with their position and I understand where they're coming from uh we're at we ask a lot in that contract and it and it becomes you know over time where it just it's it's not possible to renew it under the existing terms and we completely understand that uh so we're basically on the clock right now and we have to make some decisions and that's what uh you know in my recommendations um after we see a couple more slides of where the market is um we're going to get into Let's uh let's go through those quickly and tell us where we're at where our options are what your recommendation is absolutely um staff's research shows that in the State of Florida based on recent bids submitted over the last four years there have been dramatic rate increases in Solway Services averaging from 50% or higher uh in a lot of different municipalities and if you'll see in the next slide um that's up there this is kind of a a snapshot into the marketplace it's not every municipality because cities have different times when they go out to bid but these are some of the most recent ones and synopsis here of this slide though is these rates are increasing dramatically across the boorder there's two parts to the synopsis one that's correct the rates are going up significantly uh and they have all since covid uh but number two you have to understand all of the municipalities that we're looking at here all have curbside service and that what that means is they get a there's a cart Tipper type truck that comes up to the house and dumps the cart that's put in the front we don't have that service here when it comes to our residential ID was we have a very Specialized Service that only one municipality and in Broward and Miami D County do which is sidey backyard service which is used by Approximately 80% of the single family homeowners today so it's a service that is is really used and enjoyed by the residents and and that will be maintained through your recommendation correct I I I would not rec recommend making any change to that I have never heard a complaint about it I think people find it to be a a very nice service that's provided by the huler some people have you know disabilities and are unable to to do that so to have someone either come to their side or their house or in their backyard and take it out for them I think is a big uh you know Advantage so I I would not make recommend making any changes to the way that service is provided and one thing I believe that we should all keep in mind going forward as we deal with uh traffic in this city is certainly I think it would be premature to make a decision now but uh in terms of for our next contract whether we start thinking about whether to uh include that service the backyard pickup uh because it you know just from my simplistic thinking it could really uh impact traffic because the amount of time that these waste huling trucks are going to be out front because uh so my thought is I'm not saying one way or another but one thing that we should can should consider going into next contract is some type of analysis is that uh compounding excuse the pun uh traffic uh because the presumably the trucks would be out uh in front of any residents largely multif family I'm thinking about the smaller multif family houses along West Avenue and Sunset Harbor something like that um where if they have to go into the backyard and pick those up uh is that compounding traffic just something to think about going forward in analysis I I would tell you this um I I don't believe as as particularly as it relates to the multif family it's very segmented uh how much they service it's really like two to eight units I don't really believe for the most part uh you take West Avenue for example they're really many if not any units that may fall into that c I believe most of them are above that size this is in in in in very pocketed areas that we have this it won't change per se the amount of truck traffic I mean and I think it it takes a little bit of time extra to go in you know to someone's house and service so I don't necessarily think with this particular contract that that's an issue but regardless we're not discussing that for this I shouldn't have even interjected with that um but but I want to just just explain to what the current level services and then you'll I'll get into my recommendations okay yes we have people purchasing 20 30 40 $40 million homes that are paying millions of dollars in taxes and to not extend this service to get their garbage can is going to cause an uproar because people are already complaining oh my gosh they purchased this home and also the thousands of residents that live in single family homes across the city that have had this benefit forever so beinged for this I I know but I would just like to tell you that I don't think that this is a a positive thing given that the amount of taxes paid and the benefits that single family homeowners um have had this would be a massive change you know it would mean like which we're not waking up and dring okay but you're brought it up so I just wanted to address sometimes I just like to frame things because sometimes you live in a in a condo and you know and you haven't lived in a single family home here so this has to be represented on some level it's important to understand that too espe given the amount of taxes that that people are paying okay which we can discuss in several years I just threw something out for disc discussion Mr CH Fernandez yeah yeah I think you know given the significant recent rate increases that we've seen in other jurisdictions I I think you know it's been mentioned and it's in our analysis similar Services have increased by an average of 50% since since 2019 and also given the very unique services and I'm now going to take your flip approach you know it's we we got something great here in in Miami Beach that our residents are are actually very grateful to have and I think they're willing to pay for it and it's that backyard sidey um Service uh which I understand is more labor intensive than the standard curbside collection but but our residents I never hear them complain about about our residential uh contract uh for for for for these Services I want there to be stability and continuity right now um and uh and I saw that staff is recommending uh that we continue uh with uh with with Waste Connections and I'm happy to support that um because it is I I I just feel the service is great I think there's other issues that we're going to have to discuss in in the future about you know other companies that pay franchise and license fees that we need to figure out what we do with them but Ina in in this case with the residential services um I I'm all for us uh keeping this contract commissioner yeah I I would like to add that I'm I'm in favor of this too not only do we know the crew that comes by our homes and picks up our garbage or trash but we actually had a party for Saul and his crew that's how much that's how great they are we yeah that's how much everyone in the neighborhood loves our crew like they know them by name pardon they know them by name yeah we everybody knows sa and the entire crew by name and they really do go above and beyond if you put out a box they take it away for I mean they're they're wonderful um so I'm okay with this I just want to I just want to mention a couple things because it's important yeah I I think you have so you know broad support I don't want to speak for commissioner bot uh but I think you have broad support um I'll let you kind of uh wrap it up but yeah I'm just just a couple things and I appreciate get all the support and um really I I I think this is really an important step you know in our in our future as it relates to this but what staff is is recommending as as commissioner Fernandez said is we recommend um you know going into enter into a long-term agreement you know with Waste Connections which you know fortunately are they are a good partner and they are willing to enter into those negotiations we're asking that you know for allow staff to do that come back uh in January with some terms uh for a new agreement um to be most effective and provide the best um structured agreement and price stability uh we feel that a long-term agreement is the best way to go um the only thing that you know we're asking is obviously there has to be a bid W waiver in that process which that has to be passed by I believe 5 S vot by the commission but we feel that will ensure the same levels of service the continued um use of the green waste facility which will be continue to be provided in that new extension and and just um you know putting together a really good agreement that will that will keep pricing structure unlike if we went out to bid where I would tell you that the marketplace would would would see it go up off the wall and the one thing I would just say through the chair there's always room for improvement um you know while we celebrate the great service that we get twice a week uh in garbage pickup at our homes uh I would say you know the one areas where where where I do get feedback on is you know the bulk pickups uh they're not always the most reliable and there's there's there's you know Improvement there so as you guys go back and negotiate a long-term contract uh you know just keep that in mind that's that's an area where where where I do feel that uh that there could be Improvement uh and I just also want to confirm uh this contract also includes the operation of our grain waste facility is that correct absolutely at at at 2800 Meridian uh which is open to Residents uh Monday through Saturday 7:00 a.m. to 5:00 p.m. and I just want to point out what it takes it does take yard waste but we also take electronic waste and textiles free of charge to all Miami Beach residents as long as they have their ID I Echo what commissioner Fernandez said I would like some sort of bulk pickup across neighborhoods by the way can you imagine what that will do for the sanitation department that has to go out into some areas where people just start to pile on and you get piles of garbage um especially in some some areas in in North Beach I haven't seen it so much in South Beach but if we were able to get that bulk pickup and people would know that like one let's say that it wasn't weekly like City of Miami because I know I owned a house at one point in City of Miami and every single Monday we could put anything that you wanted out in the street and they would stop by and pick it up right and um and we need that the areas where we have apartment build yeah so I would say that if we're willing to negotiate a long-term contract and take the rate increase that we look really hard at getting a one like once a month bulk pickup it doesn't have to be weekly but once a month whatever you put out in your yard they're they're going to pick up and see what you can see what you can get right the the way it currently works right now is any Resident um you know that's under the purview of this contract can call up and they get six free bulk picks UPS a year from Waste Connections um yeah we we can look at you know but we like the idea of just here's the problem is you know when you're throwing something out sometimes it could be like like a last minute decision sometimes you call and you don't get an immediate response from them um so it's not the most seamless process which is why I would advocate for the once a month bulk pickup and everybody just knows like the second Monday of the month put your stuff out and we're going to come byy it and get it and I know that's a big shift but like I said given the amount of of property taxes that every body in the city is really paying I think that this is a service that will really go a long way with making all residents across Miami Beach um happy it you know when you live in a multif family smaller building and you have to take your stuff and go to the dumpster it's tough you know let's say you're a single mom right and you want to throw out uh your sofa it's one thing to get it down to the curve you can probably grab a couple of guys or some people in your neighborhood and try to get it there but to take that so now you've got to find a truck okay you've got to take the sofa so this is the type of service that really um we need it's essential Brad it's not so hard it's it it really penalizes you know um so we have it we have six but but to your point you know given that this contract and correct me if I'm wrong Brad it goes up to eight unit buildings okay so that's correct so so so those are our smaller uh buildings and and they they usually deal with much more limited space and much more limited back of house facilities um you know I would even say you know maybe maybe we should be speaking maybe do we want to bifurcate uh bulk to see you know how can we have many other cities it's not just uh the city of Miami many other cities do have that Weekly pickup because the thing is if you only have six you know if you're dealing with an apartment building of up to8 units at the beginning at the end of every month you're going to be dealing with bulk waste pickup issues you have people moving in and you have people moving out and people leave their their things behind and so while for single family residential homes the six pickups a year might be absolutely adequate if you are an apartment building and you have someone moving in and out uh every month you need more than just six and that and you're dealing with that in in those up to eight unit properties and and maybe you know maybe we need to get creative in what we do and so and so I think what you're hearing from us we're supporting uh this bid waiver because of the excellent service that they're providing to our single family homes and to our residents with that backyard side yard uh Services there's room for improvement on the on the bulky way pickup and Mr chair at the right time I'm happy to make a motion to send this back to commission with a favorable recommendation yeah let's do so now if I can't think what I'm hearing is a return to commission with a favorable recommendation provide a bid waiver and direct the administration to enter into negotiations for long-term agreement with Waste Connections of Florida for residential Solid Waste contract yeah and I also want to incorporate in that you know giving them the ability to explore creatively what they can do in terms of bulky ways because it will help even with the issues with Alleyways and cleanliness throughout the city it'll help Advance the goals that we're all aligned with we can show it with a with improved bulk service and we see what they come up with yeah there was a a motion by commissioner Fernandez yes we have a second second okay I don't want to tie their hands I want creatively I thank you w I appreciate it and thank you this went a lot easier than the commercial waste stuff I tell you you all maybe not expect that ease when we get there back there again um how about we move on to uh nb4 discussion of our uh parking efforts mb4 uh mb4 discuss uh resolution of the mayor and City Commission of the city Mii Beach Florida accepting the recommendation of the finance and economic resiliency committee as April 2019 I'm sorry April 19 2024 meeting to accept the city administration's update on the city Maya Beach Parking Department enforcement efforts and B4 excellent thank you and where I was thinking Jose welcome want to give uh an overview of your efforts uh thank you for I know you're wearing dual hats at the moment I'm sure you're uh incredibly busy parking inforcement has become one of our Tools in a multi-prong toolkit when we're looking at public safety issues uh not only for our special events like spring break and things like that Memorial de weekend those were critical tools but uh kind of 52 weeks a year um what I'd be looking to do is kind of keep this here at committee especially as uh I believe we're looking for a permanent parking director so let's uh hear an update on you have some back and forth Dialogue on what's working what's not where we're at um but keep this item open uh to maybe come back in a couple of months uh for updated um analysis for where we stand so Jose let me turn it over to you just to kind of give uh an overview on where some of our efforts are where there's still wood that needs to be chopped and uh how we're making um the plans to do so thank you thank you Mr chair committee members Jose Gonzalez Transportation director and interum parking director and thank you Mr chair for the opportunity to to share with you all some of the initiatives and and our recent efforts at least in the past about seven months since I've been with the parking Department um several initiatives that we're working on on multiple fronts to try to to en enhance our enforcement efforts including uh using technology more efficiently to help us enforce smarter and and and better um I'll start with our most important resource which is our people our Personnel our parking enforcement Specialists uh back seven months ago we had about a dozen if not more vacancies so we were we were down in those numbers uh since then we've been able to hire all 50 and now we're down to 4 48 we just had a couple of parking enforcement Specialists that resigned they were part-timers they were not full-tim but they did resign so we're now at 48 out out of 50 parking enforcement Specialists but we're um just aggressively recruiting we have still our list is active and we're going down the list and and calling folks to fill those uh two positions that were just recently vacated about a week or a couple weeks ago um then in terms of of uh technology I think technology is an area that as a department we really have not uh capitalized on or explored uh thoroughly and there's a lot of Technologies out there that help enforcement that make enforcement just more efficient and I want to highlight a few of those um lprs license plate recognition uh mobile devices for example uh 7 months ago we were at zero we're currently at three we purchased three new mobile um LPR devices they'll go into effect January 1 uh real quick sorry to catch off that was actually going to be my next question I think uh last update we received they were going to be implemented December 1st if I recall the end of November um have those been implemented I think you might have just answered the question that I had uh but they'll be yeah they went through some testing and some integration and the actual mounting of the devices on the vehicles but I think we're set for January 1st uh for deployment it's R in stone they're going to be out there uh up and running January 1 that's that's our goal that's our goal good morning abto inter system parking director we are installing the computers it was configuring them they're configured on Monday they will be installed we'll do one week of training just to make sure that January 1st we're ready to roll out with them and and I'll ask if that does not get implemented by January 1st if you could issue a letter to commission uh because in the interim I'm going to assume not hearing anything other that these are up and running by uh January 1st sure and it may be January 2nd of January 1st because it is a holiday but it may be the second okay thank you um along the same uh along the same vein of of the lprs three is a very small number there's no reason why we can't have three these these devices are not C prohibitive uh so my goal is to purchase several more we haven't quite decided on what that number should be but we have 30 vehicles for our parking enforcement Specialists so there's no reason why we should only have three lprs uh in our city uh clearly the benefits are are are obvious uh an LPR can scan a lot more vehicles in the same amount of time than than a parking enforcement specialist can have to be out of the vehicle and walking and scanning each individual vehicle um so next Jose on that note uh when you bring up vehicles and I want to do my best to stay on topic here but I've always wondered I'm out there I see your team uh the wonderful team like you said our people are the best assets but I see them driving around these pickup trucks to do parking enforcement and then you know they have to park in the median uh these very heavyduty trucks that I don't know if are applicable to the job at hand I promise I'm not part of a golf cart Lobby of any of any means but I always wonder they're easy they're mobile they're small they're compact they're easy to drive around why they're green right for our parking enforcement efforts why do we have these this Fleet this vehicle that is so cumbersome both to our infrastructure our traffic cuz when they're out uh when our our great agents are out trying to um you know manually go car by car they need to put that vehicle somewhere and it gets in the way it's often parked in the median I think something much more smaller or mobile uh if we want to laugh a golf cart similar to what the police have up in New York City you know the small mobiles why do we not have something smaller and more Nimble um I know that that you know you're you're into them that's not you making those decisions years ago but would that be a good effort to essentially embark on going forward sure uh short of there being a fatal flaw which you know I'm I I I don't know enough about the topic uh Mr chair to to really be able to respond to your question I don't know if there's a fatal flaw associated with that it may be part of a Union contract I'm not sure but but uh I I see where you're going and I do I do believe that a smaller more Nimble vehicle uh would be advantageous from the standpoint of being able to just more quickly um enforce and I want to turn it over to assistant director Alber have to expand on that several reasons would be inclement weather and a golf cart you won't you'll have to then go to a garage and stay there until it subsides uh another thing is when we have to put up and take down gorilla poles and a golf cart you really can't have them because somebody might take them so we have to make sure that they're protected from anybody stealing them the gorilla poles that we put on when somebody reserves a space but you don't need a whole Fleet no not a whole Fleet but we do have at least on every shift with the inclement weather I'm sorry through the chair because I wasn't recognized but with even with inclement weather if the lprs were on golf carts for example um or just on the regular vehicles on a regular vehicle they got to get out of the car to place the ticket on on the windshield correct but with an imp if it's uh inclement weather they could just park on the side and stay in the vehicle until it subsides but if if it's raining hard then they have to find the nearest garage and go park there and then come back up I think that idea works for half the year but I think that half the year it's so hot outside that you get out of your car to give a citation in the sign and you literally need to go back and sit in your car in the AC to kind of Rec cover and drink water before you go to the next you know you know as you're dri as you're walking or driving around you know um that would be my only concern simply because people are literally getting um heat stroke and getting sick this was actually a a big discussion wasn't it for employees that had to work outside especially in landscaping um and areas and parking lots are hot you know you're on asphalt I mean we're trying to plant trees in one of our parking lots to see if we can make it a little bit cooler but the majority of our parking lots have no shade whatsoever so they're in the hot sun it's beating down on them and if you can find a golf cart that has like some sort of AC I think it would work like a bubble cart you know where I was going with this whether it be a golf cart or something smaller more Nimble that doesn't take such a strain on our infrastructure and actually is more green and emission friendly I think that's where where it just seems from a common lay person would make sense uh it just I see these pickup am I correct that the majority of the carts or cars that we're using in the fleet for this are pickup trucks no we have different type of vehicles we have SUVs we have pickup trucks I don't know if SUVs you know uh go against my argument yeah there's still heavy Vehicles exactly totally understand where you're going with this I think we're open to exploring different vehicle options and we can come back back to you um at a future meeting and report on that aspect okay yeah all right so continuing on with with our efforts we we procured a vendor and we executed all the agreements necessary for the purchase of electronic handheld parking enforcement solutions that are integrated with the County's parking citation issuance system and what that does is it streamline the number of devices that a parking enforcement specialist has to carry with them as their uh enforcing it used to be that they had to carry two different devices one belonged to the county the other one belonged to the cities uh because the integration has to be at both levels the integration has to be at the county level with the clerk of the courts as the citations are issued there through the clerk of the courts but then also the system had to be integrated with our own uh parking parking payment options the you know Park Mobile pay by phone the uh the kiosk the the pay station and whatnot so it was two different devices now it's just one device the information just needs to be entered once so that right there is is a uh was a big step in the right direction and we launched that last month in in November EXC you know the one thing maybe uh that would be so great that you could embark on um for somebody permanent comes in and something that would be continued it's really having data driven decisions you know I I love having data in front of me data data data data um maybe if we could Implement something like on a quarterly basis uh the parking department does an LTC for what our parking enforcement metrics are and what that looks like on a year-over-year basis I don't want to just have these wishy-washy Feelgood hey we're we're doing okay team go out and get them right let's let's have data driven things so we can see actually what's transpiring in our c I think a quarterly letter to commission that you could start um would be fantastic Absolut we'd be happy to do that and Mr chair with this system that I was referring to that we just uh launched we can do that we'll have uh um a um a state-of-the-art um dashboard we'll have dashboard and all the key metrics will be part of that uh dashboard so we'll be able to do that now with this new system whereas it would have been a lot more convoluted to do that prior to November for free loading s um uh next U it could be I mean we could request that certainly yeah yeah that' be great yeah commission but I'm sure um this is a dumb question but the um the lprs help the um pes's do their job but also does it is it tied into the police database so that it is if there's a a flag it will flag U you know certain uh act criminal activity or or or whatnot and it is integrated with the police system so so what happens they will see certain information that they may need for their for police purposes whereas we may not see that but they will they they have police access to that get flagged contemporaneously and then do the police come out immediately and do whatever they do does it get towed what happens good morning ma'am deputy chief Paul Holocaust on behalf of the PD so um our system receives an alert to all Patrol officers that are out on the street so for example they come across a stolen vehicle or of something like that or or even an in a wanted vehicle for some other reason then we would come out and and assist and conduct enforcement if if needed is it at like at the moment yes okay so and if the person obviously isn't doesn't have to be standing by their car what happens if the vehicle gets impounded well we can impound it or sit and wait and hope to capture or and you know investigate further and determine whether or not the person that was occupying the car is wanted for that particular crime that um generated the alert um if that never happens if we sit on the car for you know a considerable amount of time then we'll go ahead and told the vehicle and then someone's going to come looking for it and we'll take it from there okay thank you yes ma'am excellent so when to get through this we're going to try and end our meeting around oneish today um Jose one I want to thank you for your efforts in the interim uh you've done a fantastic job you have a lot on your plate especially with the transportation department um but I want to keep this open so this is part of an ongoing discussion that we bring back every couple of months I want to implement a quarterly LTC I feel like I'm getting pinged on all sides here so if anybody needs anything speak up yeah um just before you close it out I wanted to um close the loop in the conversation we had the neighborhoods com discuss uh committee meeting about um in addition to the um the alley zones and the freight loading zones this issue of trucks coming and and uh blocking rights of way on traffic Indian Creek and um pine tree and lorse um and what we're doing I I know the police get $100,000 from The Parking Department to um to help assist with that can you illuminate what's going on there because if that's something that needs to be adjusted if we need to be holding um PD accountable for a higher rate of enforcement or if maybe that it's better to spend the money um hiring some you know bringing our total up to 52 um pes's instead of 50 can you talk about that for a minute sure sure and and I think I'm going going to also rely on uh Chief aasta to to expand on on some of this at least on their portion of the operation um commissioner I could speak to our numbers and uh in terms of freight loading zone toes for this past fiscal year 2324 we executed 4,576 toes those do not include the police toes the police toes are above and beyond this number and the chief will be able to to speak to that I'm sure um so we are definitely towing a lot out there and uh and and we know because sometimes we get the complaints that we're being too aggressive so uh we there's at any given time there's anywhere between three to five uh parking Specialists that are assigned to Freight loading zones throughout the whole city and that's really not a lot three to five for the entire city and we're bringing in 4576 toes for the fiscal year let me just ask you this just following up on commissioner bot's question are they also doing and I'm sorry because I think this may have been part of the neighborhood discussion and I perhaps it didn't register right in are they also doing the alley loading zones and the commercial loading zones or are they only doing Freight loading zones because they all created as well yes alley alley loading zones as well because to park in an alley you need a permit so we are we do enforce that as well so what isn't if I may through the chair continue on this thought um what isn't really being addressed yet so much I mean I see that there are violations issued but um this issue of traffic jams being caused by people uh by commercial vehicles parking in you know on streets where there are no loading zones of any kind not alleys not side streets not medians but blocking Lanes of traffic at rush hour so um that $100,000 that gets used how does that get used can it be dedicated to clearing that out um you know I I know there's Outreach to the the vendors Amazon and you know instacart and whoever else is doing all this delivery but you you see it every day at rush hour in the mornings especially but in the evenings as well on these narrow um you know pine tree and legor and you see it on Indian Creek and I'm sure you see it on Alton as well to some degree but um it's a little bit of a different story but can we do some more dedicated um surveillance or operational um plan to try to mitigate that because it just really snarls up traffic when you go down a Lane a full Lane at rush hour um for 10 minutes at a time it it Agreed 100% U commissioner so our parking enforcement officers as as they they go around the city enforcing they do uh look for those types of violations uh in which case there is a citation that's issued to the uh to the to the driver and that citation is in the amount of $124 it's it's really not a lot and then in addition to that our parking enforcement specialist um issue a right of way violation as well the right of way violation is for a higher amount five approximately $500 just filling out that cite that part of the citation takes a lot longer than just issuing a citation so there's the citation plus the right of way violation right of way violations do take time to fill out so let me ask you this so you said this our loan you guys parking enforcements have done how many to 4,576 toes loing zones that's tied to a citation and that's tied to a citation and the citation is how much 124 but when okay and then when the police dustice chief sure what is do they get a parking citation on the police enforcing this or do they get a different type of enforcements it sometimes they get a uniform traffic citation and a uniform traffic citation and also a parking okay that's that is what will curb the behavior yes the uniform traffic citation is what's going to curve that behavior the $124 parking ticket from The Parking Department that is the cost of doing business but the uniform traffic citation is what's going to curb the behavior of these individuals because affects their insurance it's going to get them points that's that's really what we need so let me ask you this let's talk about the data because so we know parking has done about 4,000 this year how many how many uh of this type of enforcement have we had from police this year for the last fiscal year beginning in October of 23 ending in October 24 we have focusing on just flz 403 toes 403 yes okay so I'm just trying to understand why why is the number so and how how many people do you have dedicated to flz uh Jose three to five at any point in time and how many people do we have in police that's doing this Monday through Friday commissioner we have two motor officers okay I focus on fzs between 7:00 a.m. and 11: a.m. all right so why are the numbers so different why is it that that parking is doing 4,000 and police we have 43 for the last fiscal year and the and the reason why I asked this is because I think you hear from us a true desire to curb this because of the great implication it has on traffic and I think that you guys are actually the key element I almost wouldn't even want parking uh doing the enforcement of this because I want to drop the hammer on the people who are blocking traffic and are causing the delays on on our on our streets and and so I'm just wondering you know why is there a differential on on the numbers well well sir I can only count um for PD in that um we do a variety of different types of enforcement as you know um our main focus is speed and other moving violations that occur throughout the city and also at commission Direction we've been focusing in on a lot of traffic enforcement a lot of times um you know for example when we look at the Monday through Friday data um sometimes the officers are doing escorts sometimes they're doing a funeral escorts um they have training things like that where our focus is not just on parking we do a variety of it to include parking so I do believe in looking at this internally um there is an opportunity for us to partner with our parking enforcement colleagues and and and uh increase our efforts in this area yeah because I'll just say also you know because of the traffic situation that we have then we end up having to come in and do other supplements correct in the police department because of the of the traffic issue and maybe and you know when in fact I got some notes that show that in in 20156 fiscal year the flz uh toes with police were about 3,400 so it's a big drop you know from fiscal year 2324 or to fiscal year 23 uh 24 um you know over a nine-year period it went from 3,400 to 400 and and that's the thing I think I really think if we really want to solve this problem the uniform traffic citation is the tool that's needed here as opposed to the parking citation and I want to defer or or yield to my colleague commissioner bod um as I see she's got her hand rais Mr chair thank you so you know I think there are a couple different things going on they're all important but I think the traffic problem is the one thing that isn't being directly addressed here and so maybe we could through the chair um uh ask you to K guys to collaborate and come back to us in a month with a plan to address what the the best you know do sting operation for a week at a time um on Indian Creek and on on uh Collins and you know wherever because it's it's not the loading zones and it's not um individual drivers it's commercial drivers whether it's people ride share people and or um Amazon deliveries or whatever and so I'm curious I don't know the answer how getting a UTC affects them professionally like I don't want somebody to lose their job because they they well it's a bit Draconian I'm not quite there yet give me another year but right now I'm not quite to that point but year you will um you know I I do want to send a very clear message that this way of operating is no longer tolerated so if it means that your your service gets smaller trucks so that you can put into pull into the buildings and also by the way reach out to the buildings and say you can't use the right of way for for delivery purposes to your building because all the other people who don't have the benefit of living near building are now sitting in traffic for 10 minutes extra than they would be already so um I I think we need you guys to collaborate and come back to us with the plan I don't want to take anything away from the PD um but if that 100 Grand is better used by hiring two more full-time parking enforcement Specialists then maybe that's a conversation that needs to be had but I will leave it up to you guys to come back to us with a a concerted set of ideas to implement and see if we can't make it dent in this definitely do that and we'll get with our partners and we'll come up with something that I think you'll approve okay we need to make a motion or is that uh chair if I can just um I think we'll show the item because you wanted to to stay here but there was one item I think that goes up and so I think we here show the item heard staff presented an update uh you had mentioned to return in a few months which I was going to list is march called two just because I know we have a long agenda we're not going to get to a lot of it today um so I don't want to just put this on and have them come back for next month when we might not get there let's have it two months and then Jose if you could start a monthly actually LTC if we need to scale that back we can that was the part of the mo that would be the motion then because that would have to go back to commission so I think we'd show then the motion then would be to return to commission with a favorable recommendation direct Administration to produce a quarterly LTC and parking enforcement effort let's do monthly oh you want to do a monthly yeah okay uh chair you made the motion yep okay I need a second second I think I heard just make one last comment just of so so the uh committee is aware one of the things that we are also looking at is curb management automated curb management strategies to to Really better manage our curbs and monetize our curbs there are are different Technologies uh rather new in the industry that I think we can explore and and really better just more efficiently manage our curbs there's a lot of competition for our limited curb space including from right share and other purposes other uses and I think capitalizing on that is important for the city I love it thank you is and just for the motion uh all in favor I item passes thank you I don't think we've lost commissioner Fernandez and if we summon him uh we will do is it nb26 is it it is the speed detection I know that we have uh people here from out of town so I going to be respectful of their time thank you I'll that'll take me a minute to read the item uh item mb2 six discuss a resolution of the mayor and City Commission of the city of May Beach Florida accepting the recommendation of the city manager to authorize negotiations relating to the request for proposals number two 2024-25 DDF speed detection camera system for school zones authorizing Administration to enter negotiations with Modo traffic management USA Incorporated is the top rank proposer further if the administration not successful negotiating agreement with Meda traffic management USA Incorporated authorizing the administration to enter in negotiations with with uh census gatso USA Incorporated as the second ranked proposer further if the administration is not successful negotiating with the agreement with census gatsu USA Incorporated authorizing Administration and enter into negotiations with japn North America Incorporated as the third ranked proposer and further authorizes city manager and city clerk to execute agreements upon a conclusion of the successful negotiations by the administration mb26 and if I butchered any of those names I apologize and commission Fernandez do you want me to turn this du or should we uh have staff come up and give an overview sure um you know just just generally you know this item is an item that went to the city commission I pulled it from from the consent agenda um it would have uh authorized um it would have accepted staff's recommendation uh for the speed uh detection camera systems in the in the school zones um and I and and I pulled it um because while this program reflects our com our commitment to Safety in in school areas and it's something that um that that we've been working on for for a long time you know I wanted to acknowledge the two bid protests um that were filed regarding the procurement um and and the address uh that that the city uh gave in response to it and I'd be happy to hear from our procurement director on on this item and uh and on staff's perspectives having to do with the with the two bid protests that the city received so good morning Commissioners good morning um committee members um we did receive two protests they were responded to within the timeline um required to do so and at this point um the protest period has ended and the city's recommendation remained in place um so so so I'll tell you what my concern is you know they were there were two big protests I think one was from a company called Sensei is that how you pronounce it Sensei census godsel census uh and census was arguing that mxo which was or is that how you pronounce it mxo mxo very unique names s pharmaceutical right I know they do sound like pharmaceutical companies um but sansy was uh was arguing that Mao's proposal was uh was nonresponsive due to an incomplete uh cost reporting and the inclusion of conditional terms such as cost of living adjustments is that correct we did review that with legal and we did respond to the protest accordingly right uh and you guys responded that that those issues did not render mod Axel's proposal nonresponsive correct okay and then red speed um uh also made a protest claiming that the city miscalculated the pricing uh the the pricing score correct and that was also reviewed with the city attorney's office and responded to accordingly right and now the thing is from my perspective you know not withstanding the city's response to these bid protests what I see here is that you know we have three out of the eight uh respondents involved in a bid protest you have Sensi you have mxo and you have uh red speed and this is this isn't you know very typical we we usually don't have this level we we usually don't have 40% of the respondents uh to an an an RFP involved in a formal Pro protest just to mxo has not protest they're the recommended but they're but they're involved they're involved in in in in the protest and it's very uncommon it this this doesn't happen very frequently and I just feel you know is there an urgency to this contract right now like is this a Time s this is not a replacement contract um this is a new contract for the city and it's a revenue gen generating contract so it is not you know this was the will of the commission to bring this as a solicitation so so it's not urgent correct you see I don't like when there's bid protests even though there could always be a bid protest but you know you'll get a bid protest but you know you usually don't have 40% of the respondents involved somehow with a bid protest and I just you know given that there's not an urgency with this I just rather us maybe consider a new solicitation uh and see and see if we if we avoid you know the lingering issues of people protesting the bids and then potentially you know these things can ultimately end up in legal challenge uh if People's you know remain in their standing um I believe so that's that's what I feel it's a reason why I pulled the item from the consent agenda thank you Mr chair commission B um I'd actually like to hear from our our legal um team because I what I'm concerned about is that this becomes the beginning of a slippery slope and that everybody knows that if you bid on something in the of Miami Beach and protest it if you don't get the bid they will you know throw out the entire process and start again and I think that is you know beyond cumbersome and um I think they're bad actors I'm not saying these PE these individuals are but I think there are Bad actors who might try to take advantage of the situation and things are slow enough in government I very much appreciate the desire to have things be clean and above reproach and um make sure there are no issues um but I'd like to have the City attorney weigh in on this um we're confident that the the responses were adequate and appropriate but this is entirely a policy call uh for this body to make um in terms of whether it's a slippery slope or not that's something that you all need to need to agree on or or not I I my preference you that's fine um I don't like I don't like bid protests um and in this case there were multiple bid protests on something that is not urgent on something that we're not dependent on right now on something new that we're establishing I rather this be as clean as streamlined for there to be as as you know as few problems as possible and my preference would be you know uh let's go out there let's do a new procurement uh and and just make sure that there aren't any you know lingering concerns that can be then used against the city and something that's supposed to be good for the city and something that's supposed to protect uh the safety of students and and something that's supposed to generate revenues uh to enhance our Public Safety goals I don't want this to become an issue of liability for the city and that'll be my motion if I may I think so the motion is to return to commission with a favor recommendation to direct the administration to reoc the services yeah that's what I would feel more comfortable with but I'm happy to got feedback from from my other colleagues you we need a second the motion second your motion commissioner but you mik off I'll second your motion um I do think commissioner bot's uh comments made sense not something hard fast one way or another but I I I'll second yours to hear this at the Fuller commission um but I'll keep an open mind there uh but I do think it's useful to just facilitate a broader discussion sure I don't like this item at all but it's not about what it's for it's about a process um I'll go along with what you guys are proposing about you know this one bid but I I do agree commissioner B with what you said you know to some extent so make an exception have a conversation anything to elongate this process that's not the goal but on the on the motion all in favor yeah yeah and and and I just want to put it on on the record I really think that issuing a new RFP would provide an opportunity to refine and clarify any aspects of the solicitation that led to these disputes or to these protests that were filed and reduced the risk of you know any further challenges or any perception that someone feels that they were treated onfair or anything like that I don't want that happening with uh with a with a procurement item and so I know you guys are amazing and you've been doing such amazing work and so and so I just you know let's clarify anything so that everyone is clear and we can move forward with something hopefully with no protest can I clarify uh commissioner bot were you a yes or no no you're no should the EM pass 3 to one let's uh let's hear Obi-Wan uh want to get that out of the way Leasing incentives for vacant commercial properties um and then time pending we're going to hear the Tree items that uh that we have kind of looped together ob1 thank you ob1 discussion of potential leasing incentives for incentives for owners of vacant commercial properties commercial vacant retail vacancy analysis update obi-1 good afternoon honorable chair and commissioner jel Williams assistant city manager at a previous for meeting I believe in October the commiss the committee asked that we come back with additional information on vacancy rates uh rental rates in our commercial corridors to take a look to see how we're doing and compare us to other areas including Miami day County city of Miami so we've done that you will see in the detail memo provided that Miami Beach is high up there in our price per square foot as compared to other areas and this is not surprising to us because as we do Outreach to the business Community that's one of the things that we hear as a concern uh if you look at Miami Beach our average asking rent is about $98 in other areas Mi County it's somewhere in the mid 40s 46 $45 we're looking at Winwood $78 somewhere in that ballpark so we are already about $30 per square foot more than uh a comparable area so one of the things that we wanted to highlight today is our job creation incentive program which is a program that was established a few years ago we do have an applicant uh included in the memorandum Edge Lord and I know the chair is very familiar with that company uh they are transitioning from a temporary space in the Design District to Lincoln Road 230 Lincoln Road to be specific and it is in that area of Lincoln Road that is outside of the business improvement district they are taking up about 30,000 square feet they're investing and have done most of the investment in Capital Improvements already to the tune of about $1.2 million they intend to bring 10 compan uh 10 employees to the city in the first year and then 50 employees over 4year period uh we are recommending them for the job creation incentive program and we would love for the finance committee to uh provide a favorable recommendation so that we can bring their incentive package to the city commission another thing that I would love to highlight uh as it relates to incentives and the activities of the department in the past economic development department has typically provided a quarterly update to the finance committee uh that item had previously been closed out uh but it does provide an opportunity for us to continue to interface with this committee provide additional information I'll let you know about the activities of the department and give a status update on various businesses and initiatives that are underway within the department so we are respectfully asking that we have that type of quarterly report uh be something that we can continue to provide and hopefully the finance committee is supportive commissioner yes I would love for you to give this presentation to the Lincoln Road bid and washing because it's mostly these prices are average across mayi Beach or just in the Lincoln Road area or all the memorandum provides detailed information about Lincoln Road Washington Avenue and 41st Street Lincoln Road's price per square foot right now is $15.68 which is above the Miami Beach average Washington Avenue $958 below our Citywide average 41st Street $635 as far as vacancy rates across the city were at 5.47 Washington Avenue 5.7 and 41st Street 8% Lincoln Road and we looked at an area that's larger than the business improvement district so going from 17 to Lincoln Lane South Alton and then all the way to Collins uh the vacancy rate in that area is about 18% and so we see that that Corridor is the most impacted by our our rental climate at this time my recommendation on this would be to make a motion to have our Administration present this at the Lincoln Road bid so that the property owners can see just how expensive they are compared to other places in Miami day County you know because if we are going to implement you know I've been sitting on that vacancy registration that Raquel put we put a lot of time into creating which means that if you're vacant over a certain amount of months you need to register and if you continue to be vacant over a certain amount of months you actually get a registration fee we can't penalize people but we can charge them to be on a list and register them which is one way of you know we look we don't want to punish business we want to we punish our businesses we want to incentivize them right but the fact of the matter is that their prices are so high compared to every place else so let's start to educate them and show them these comparisons because I don't think they're looking at this and that way we can go to them with the vacancy registration and say okay you know what we have educated you showed you that you're twice the price of other places in the county and it's it's very hard for us to attract retail one of the complaints that I get from constituents is what's hap what's happening with Lincoln Road it's ter you know and it's really depressing to have that conversation again and again um and again although there is a lot of cool stuff happening uh yesterday I walked to Collins Avenue um Vivian Westwood has purchased a building on Collins Avenue this other wine club has purchased um a building on Collins we are about they've rented or they've purchased buildings purchased buildings renovating these buildings we're getting a whole new Renaissance of coolness happening um along the Collins Avenue Corridor which is you know what we've been working toward and um two young gentlemen actually have dedicated themselves to the revitalization of Collins Avenue and they actually drew a map of all the buildings and so I think we're going to see change right now it's an actually an amazing deal Collins Avenue is like $600 per square foot to purchase okay these are iconic small buildings and investors are looking and they're actually uh they're buying them up so you know we're in we're in this process but Lincoln Road is still so expensive okay the prices have not come down like they have on colins Avenue Collins Avenue got to the the price these were buildings that were selling at 2,000 or 1,500 per square foot so now it's really a bargain it's a deal it's a deal it's a real deal to buy um you know a building on Collins and we went and walked the whole area yesterday and it's it's really exciting especially when we see this Vivian Westwood space so it's going to be um cool retail happening but I would say let's let's refer it to the bid as the first step and taking more action if I may add I do know that uh representatives from the Lincoln Road bid and the Washington Avenue bid are on Zoom today uh but to the credit of the Lincoln Road bid uh in totality they are self- taxing themselves at a level that is higher than other uh bids in South Beach and in mid Beach so when we look at their overall budget it's about 1 and a. half million they're currently going through the renewal process and their annual budget is probably going to be around $2 million when we look at the Washington Avenue bid their budget is about 500k based on their assessments and then 41st Street is about 200k based on their assessments so we do know that the Lincolnwood property owners are investing in Lincoln Road and they are uh trying to activate and market and they are making considerable efforts so I just wanted to put that out there for your consideration okay and just something added some data that I pulled just so that you know based on another item we excluded MAA from all the restaurants on Lincoln Road because it's an outlier in the research but to give an idea of Revenue um in 2021 to 22 um they did 85 million 22 to 23 they did 74 million uh 23 to 24 was up slightly 76 million but I mean when you look at it's just declining um sales and I think that those declining sales are you know part of the reason why it's so Stig you know stigmatized right now because anybody could technically you know pull these numbers person says this is a great place where I should go and open up you know but when we look at our restaurant revenue and the reason I prepare this is because I wanted an abatement for some of our Legacy restaurants that are like Ros andella that are saying we're going to close our doors if you don't help us somehow um so I have a whole new spiel about trying to if you've operated over 20 years on on Lincoln Road you know we are going to give you an abatement not for the newer restaurants for the older restaurants but you know they're they're suffering overall and this kind of data doesn't doesn't really help so I think we have to go to these property owners and say what you know what's what's going to give you got to lease it out yeah commissioner bot no go ahead no I was going to say you know one of the things that I've long thought a lot of these commercial and Retail corridors across the country whether they be shopping malls or things like that they've come to the conclusion they can't live on just retail and restaurants alone right they need to curate experiences um and entire kind of ecosystem is going to draw people there because we can have all the restaurants we want open up there but we're still going to need clients and customers coming to that road and that's where other commercial corridors across the country kind of reinvent themselves is bring experiences to bring people there commissioner bot well to thank you to build on that point it's not just experiences but it's um the 15minute city and and what gets leased and put into those vacant spaces is a big deal so it's not just restaurants or Brazilian bikini shops or or super high-end sparkly clothing for a special night out um it's got to be things that residents will use and it's got to be you know ideally walkable for residents who are living there so people don't have to get in their car to go get their stuff I mean I don't anticipate a Public's opening on Lincoln Road I'm not that delusional but um you know I would I would actually suggest that this presentation um get made to all the business uh Improvement districts to 41st to Lincoln Road and to um uh uh Washington and the new one on on Collins and and um and you know because I think it's not just the management of the bids who need to really understand this if you're a business owner property owner you're kind of myopically focused on what the best bank for your business is for your business Buck is but it's an ecosystem and if somebody's doing something lousy for the neighborhood everyone's going to suffer and um the flip side of that does I think Kristen I don't know if you've brought something like this but I know um Alex Joe and I have all brought items um over the last year about how to activate vacant spaces and you and I have talked about this at at length and so if they're not willing to lower their rent voluntarily to get businesses into those spaces um or because it's a tax write off for them as a part of a larger portfolio of properties whatever their rationale may be can we put together a set of criteria where there are 6 to 12 month leases where people artists workshops or dance studios or photography um you know whatever but things or even you know Maker Studios or anything creative in the windows because it's really hard to lease a space when it's covered over even with our lovely Miami beach wrap Windows um it's much more appealing to Lisa space when you can sort of project your thing in that space and to have all the windows activated not have things boarded up or papered over um we just did a a short walk only not even 10 blocks in the North Beach Collins Avenue Corridor and we saw a bunch of places that have been papered over for years I mean your team Raquel is going to go back and and and check out what's going on and so I'd like to shake these people loose a little bit so if there are larger kind of Reit uh financial implications for why they're not leasing that's a conversation we can't force anybody to do anything if it's lack of information then we can provide them with their information but if they're not willing to work towards the greater good then let us put together um a program where they can sign up to you know we figure out the insurance situation and the bathroom requirements or whatever needs to happen so that they can do sign up for six to 12 month leases and get people in there who need to to use their space not for profits or after school programs or who knows what yes we we can coordinate a joint meeting with all the business Improvement districts and even the forthcoming South Beach bid that's in the process of being established uh the item about activating vacon storefronts I think that's coming back to Committee in January as previously directed so we can definitely have a more robust discussion about what we can do and and again I just want to make sure it's not just the management of the bids but it's the business owners and the r the property owners who really understand that this is going to be a focus for us because it's it's absurd we're charging a super premium over everybody else in our adjacent area um you might be paying top dollar to rent to lease your space but the guy next to you has been closed for seven years and it's you know it's Whiplash I just want to say when it's not owned by some like International re or property owner who wants to lease it out you will see full blocks that are completely leased and then you see these blocks that are just totally abandoned and yesterday for example I was on I believe 9th maybe it was 8th Street eth between Collins and Ocean and the Windwood walls gift shop just opened up there this other um popup opened up which is called the little big gallery that has all of these photos of you know Miami beach scenes by the way these businesses are thriving the pop-ups are doing very very well so and they were really cool experiences did they say that yeah we've been really slow right now and they don't understand why we've been so slow post bosel um I think that's traditionally like that this time of year but yeah I would like as many popups as possible and I saw that for example when you look at that Western block where the movie theater is on Lincoln Road the one side owned by Robert winnet is like completely leased and when a tenant leaves he makes sure that somebody goes immediately right back in but then you look at the other side and you know Sushi doru has been there you know what they said they said we're not leasing it cuz we're waiting for zoning and even if they get the zoning um who even knows what that means are they going to flip it are they to someone else who's going to wait for more Z if you understand but also and also zoning doesn't happen you know with the stroke of a pen so in those intermediary five years whatever the zoning might change you could still have somebody in there and just say it's a shorter term lease well it's definitely a collaborative process trying to coordinate with the property owners uh to ensure that Lincoln Road is active and our other commercial corridors are active uh we can certainly explore I I know commissioner Rosen Gonzalez mentioned the vacant uh registry program I I'm not sure that uh our businesses are uh of the mindset that they want to have such a a registry and our property owners want to have such a registry because they may be concerned about how that impacts them long term I know I've heard feedback about that in the past when this was initially floated and so we can bring that up as part of that joint disc discussion with the property owners and the bids to see if that's something that they would want to explore with us I think anything that we do has to be collaborative with the property owners and with the bids by the way they don't want the vacancy registration because they don't they don't want to show that their properties are vacant at the same time they don't want to lower what they're trying to lease out per square foot because then the value of their property on the open market looks like it's going to be lower but if you're on the vacancy registration and they Google your um if we if we do this the right way and they are on the vacancy registration and they type in that corporation's name and that pops up that is going to put a lot of pressure on these guys to lease out their space and reduce their rents or at least enter into a popup where you can have the popup and still have your advertised per square footage uh commercial leasing price so that their overall value is they have to realize though some of these Property Owners purchased you know EX at a much higher rate than they did now it's not our fault well and I maybe one of the ways to get around the the registry is that you either um are on the registry or you do pop-up leases oh well that's brilliant do you want to co-sponsor that that is really good you are on the list or you're a popup that's really good i' like some of the previous some of the previous uh exclusions discussed about two years ago would be for properties that have an active lease but don't have the tenant actually in the space yet maybe there's a buildout going on maybe they're going through the permitting process and so we wouldn't want to um penalize them in any way because they are actively trying to uh bring someone into the space and so we have certain exclusions that we had explored before uh happy to bring those back as well but um I think that that consideration is valid okay where we going with this yeah I think I heard a couple coup of different items and I'm going to I'm going to try and summarize summarize them all is to return the commission with a favorable recommendation to direct Administration to uh approve the gcip application for edel LLC uh for the economic development to present its report to the various bids in the city and for the economic development department to return to firk with a periodic update and I think that periodic update that would allow the economic development department have there these ongoing discussions of these different programs so I think that that that kind of managerie of of number of items was where you guys were going that was one motion and then the next motion which I'm seconding which came from commissioner bot is to use the current vacancy registration and offer property owners and we'll move this forward to the full commission you can uh do a popup lease on your vacancy if you're not in the current building process or you uh can join the vacancy registration list which will have a fee associated with it and I think we're going to bump up the fees there's not we can work on that commissioner bot do you want to work on that before February meeting that's really okay there there's not currently a vacant registry program but we're going to put it forward with those criteria SP co-sponsored by the two of us if that is the will of the committee to bring it forward to I was on that item I was I was I think that that's where the third part of the the motion I was recommending for the Ed Department to return to FK with an update is that Ed could then return to FK with an update including I think move it forward to February because it's going to take a couple of readings anyway and you know I mean by the time you get this implemented but we don't we don't know what it is exactly yet right that's true so we could return so we could return in Janu well yeah this whole item would go back to the commission because there's a number of items to get commission to direct Administration to do and then we come back to that to the that next after for to I I think it may be beneficial for that uh joint meeting of the property owners and the bids uh to discuss the vacant registry program that would be proposed before the committee and get their feedback so that we may incorporate anything as necessary uh I think just from a scheduling standpoint I think maybe we should consider February to come back with this so that we can schedule that meeting with all those groups get the input and then package something that has the input of those organiz ations yeah I you know I I know we want to light a fire here but I'm a big fan of measuring twice and cutting once and this is new completely new to us and so I would rather try to get some some productive feedback on board craft something that might actually get things done commissioner that was why the the recommendation for the Ed to return with an update and that would include you know I think the economic development department has heard your your ideas and that so once this goes back to commission for the commission to endorse all of these Concepts that are in here then they would be able to come back and that would give Ed time to develop a program to present back and and the staff staff is also requesting uh the economic development quarterly update to be something that is uh referred to the finance committee so that we can that was yeah that was the third part not just an update on this specific no that's why I have it as a more generic one and that that can be incorporated into the that that periodic update okay so if uh I think that that summarizes everything I need to who's making that move I'll second am I a to make commissioner Rosen Gonzalez and chair magazine uh all in favor I thank you a lot of stuff uh critical stuff we want to get to probably not going to be able to I know we want to get out of here by about one if we can hear two quick items uh while we have Quorum they're staff driven discuss indexing the living wage rates for employees number nine and then I think uh number six 16 will be um one minute through the police department discuss the uh purchasing held narcotics analyzers uh yes CH those should be rather quick uh mb9 discussed regarding living wage uh rates beginning July 2025 in accordance with chapter 2 article 6 division 6 section 2-48 of the city code MB mb9 Mr chair I'm happy to move the item we've historically approve these items I'll second thank you for the wonderful all in favor showing no one oppose we'll show it it was approved and goes to commission with a favorable recommendation and then uh the final item I think we be very quick is mb16 discussed the police department potentially purchasing handheld narcotic narcotics analyzers to test seiz uh Contraband and protect Mii Beach police officers from possible exposure mb16 and I think I can actually help speed this even more with the police uh this item 27,000 right uh actually the police are were in support they actually applied for a grant and got most of the funds to actually do this 27,000 is shorted on that and they've identified funds when they're in their existing budget so this would have to return to commission we could actually just hear it I'd move it item close we could actually just hear it it's a Jag Grant right yes sir yeah yeah I'm happy to Second the item this is a no-brainer and uh thank you mayor Miner for bringing this item forward so we'll show it item heard in Clos but we'll show that there was a favor favorable consideration and the the administration was going to move forward on that a way okay is this for this fiscal year uh yes the grant was already awarded and they actually identified the additional 27,000 in savings that they have in the department that's why we don't believe it needs to go back to the commission to endorse cor right thank you job Chief thank you help the chief out one minute yes ma' yes yes ma'am thank you chair we just concluded this item we're good all right closed we the closed out of schedu releasing we love it well Mr chair holidays I just want to tell you Mr chair a first year commissioner you've LED this committee not only have you led this committee you've uh guided us through a budget process uh and you've done such a spectacular job and not only that the honor you bring to this day is it is such a privilege uh to serve as your colleague uh thank you for being such a great leader it's we not me this is a collective team we've all done it it's been a pleasure to to do this with all of you thank you happy holidays thank you happy holidays see you next year e