[Music] he [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] please take your seats the meeting is about to [Music] begin please stand by we are going on air in 5 4 3 2 1 good morning everybody I hope we were all prepared and excited for an exciting Memorial Day weekend it's uh it is quite amazing how transformative this weekend has been for our city uh a weekend where historically people uh couldn't get out of town fast enough there is just an excitement uh building for what should be a fabulous weekend so I hope everybody enjoys uh before we get to the festivities celebrating Memorial Day weekend we are here at the May finance and economic resiliency committee I thank my colleagues for joining me um but let's kick it off and get started good morning today's meeting of the finance and economic resiliency committee has been scheduled in a hybrid format with a quorum of the committee physically present and remaining members staff and members of the public appearing either in person or virtually via zoom in order to participate in today's meeting virtually members of the public public may dial 188847 4499 tollfree and enter the webinar ID which is 863 6059 5462 pound or you may 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 raise hand icon if they are using the Zoom app or dial star9 if you are participating by phone thank you Mr City attorney and before I hand it over to our CFO to uh kick off uh the various items that we will be having time inur and deferrals for uh while we have made tremendous progress on this weekend uh I understand it is still quite taxing on our first uh responders notably our code police and fire so even if it is from above up there maybe if I could ask uh our Police Department to lead us in the pledge that'd be great flag of united statesis Mr CFO I'll turn it over to you and if I could just ask everybody to bear with me and everyone else is we are still uh getting through this new it system uh thank you chair so I have a a few announcements uh first I'm going to list uh the withdraw items uh number one number 15 number 17 number 28 are withdrawn number 11 15 17 and 28 number 33 is deferred the following is a list of time certains number 27 at 10:30 number three at 10:35 number 36 at 11:00 a.m. number 32 at 12 noon which was 11 36 number 32 at 12:00 noon number 34 1 p.m. number 25 at 1:25 p.m. the following items will be heard yeah number item uh the following items will be are linked and will be heard uh simultaneously uh if heard number seven and number 10 are linked number 11 13 and 14 will be linked and number five and number 25 are linked thank you chair that is uh all my notes for now excellent thank you uh before we get to the 10:30 time certain want to kick it over to my colleague uh commissioner Dominguez who uh has really been fighting for the uh the everyday little person that are operating uh businesses especially homebased businesses and I believe that this should be a quick item so commissioner I'd love to get you out of here to start your Memorial Day weekend so why don't we uh go ahead and look at item number two thank you so much uh Mr chair so um Manny Marquez and I have met uh several times and had many conversations about the BTR process and we took the suggestion that you gave at the last Finance meeting which was if we are that much higher in our btrs than um any other municipality in the state then let's knock it off 30% and on average that's what we did and something else that we've worked on is making sure that businesses that we weren't capturing before we now know um so it's it's been a nice overhaul of uh the item Manny want to share anything else good morning Manny Mark is Assistant Director of Finance we we worked on the chart of of BTR categories and frequently we get requests for how many vape shops we have how many CBD shops we have um several categories that we don't have a business BTR category for so the commissioner and I went through the list and we added all these categories and I think we have a really good list we've been trying to do this for some time so now we have the right commission the right admin Administration the right CFO that wanted to tackle this and and we're adding these categories so I think it's it's a good thing excellent thank you and was there a estimated uh Financial impact and how I'm looking at this commissioner domiguez thank you for your leadership on this um even if we do lose a bit of Revenue that we were getting in because we're lowering the fee I think uh over the longer term uh given that we're widening the net we're actually going to be Revenue positive here correct uh with the adding these categories is revenue neutral cuz these businesses are already being charged they're being charged for merchant sales so it's going to be Revenue neutral where we are reducing some monies is with the reduction in the homebased businesses and that was just $34,000 excellent thank you for the leadership I I I love any initiative to make uh business easier to do for our our everyday people in this city so thank you commissioner and I would request if someone on the committee could move the item I'll move it second thank you if I could clarify so I clarify the motion uh moved to commission with a favorable recommendation to approve the BTR modifications as presented yep yeah thank you all in favor y i we show it is uh unanimous and I believe this will come back as a actually not the reso but an ordinance okay thank you okay let's move on to the 10:30 time certain thank you actually let me read the item and I didn't do that the first time so let me read uh that is number 27 for those following at home and number 27 is discuss the issuance of the second trance of the general obligation bonds number 27 okay Bri um thank you for all your work uh I know this is your yeah yeah pride and joy so this is my pride and joy um so for those of you that um know I mean the Geo bond is in its fifth year uh that's the 2018 bond that was issued um that was approved by the voters in 18 and bonds issued in 2019 so we are in our fifth year uh there are three categories um within the bonds and today uh the neighborhoods and infrastructure category is uh running out of funding in order to continue some of the programs which uh or some of the projects that are are pretty important to the residents and things that we've been doing uh very constantly that is the street tree master plan so it's the planting of trees uh sidewalk improvements Street pavement uh seaw walls and shorelines and traffic calming these five projects are basically out of money um so for the first time we're going to be taking um we're going to be issuing the money from trunch 2 into these projects and our CFO can discuss the vehicle by which we're going to do that cuz we're not actually going to be issuing bonds it's an intent to issue so um that's for eight um $19.8 million uh to continue to fund these projects in the um item you see the chart that tells you the amounts and how much we're going to be asking for each a couple of them will still have money remaining in trunch 3 and that's streets and sidewalks excellent thank you Mar I I do want keep this uh conversation kind of centered around the purpose at hand as we have a large agenda so uh while there will be a time and place to get broader updates on uh the broader geob bomb projects for this right here it's nothing that is unexpected this was all part of the plan and essentially this is actually a good sign because we're essentially moving forward with some of these projects and we're moving into the next phase correct Mr chair and just I just one for the record uh this does not at the moment this action today or adopting its recommendation at the full City commission does not yield any tax increase to the residents and taxpayers of the city of Miami Beach is that correct that is correct but our CFO can elaborate on that yeah uh yes that is correct because what we're taking is the same model that we did last month on the water and sore thank you thank you thank you Mr chair yeah of course uh Mr CFO or Mr City attorney uh do you want to advise on action I think we're just making a motion to allow this to go forward is that correct that is correct you're just adopting a motion to refer this back to the commission with a favorable recommendation if that is the body's determination so moved uh commissioner Rosen Gonzalez I just wanted to understand the interest implications given the current economic environment sure as of now just like the water and sewer we won't actually be issuing the debt now this is a a request to declare an intent to issue uh we will issue in the future uh when the time is right uh could be anywhere from 12 to 24 months uh down the line so we were utilizing the city's reserves and then paying her about self back effectively with commonly is called a reimbursement resolution but it's going to be at a much higher interest rate than previously correct uh no I if I knew what the interest rates were in two years from now and uh I don't think I would be here but uh knowing that as we are now are you know kind of historical it's been probably two generations since we have rates this High um I would predict they might be F lower in the future but either way on the long end which is what G you know geob bonds are issued out you know in the 20 30e line there really hasn't been a a big change from the back in the 19 so I don't see a big difference in the interest expense okay thank you tidbit for the record Goldman just came out and adjusted their expectation for uh the First Rate cut from July to September along with the so um okay uh commissioner Fernandez a motion to move you made a motion to move this so mov excellent is there a second second excellent all in favor I Maria thank you and your team for the incredible work on this okay let's move forward to number three discussion regarding Tyler Technology's performance thank you uh number three discussion regarding Tyler technology performance and strategy for the city of my Beach uh we have Frank here and I'll I'll also be presenting actually I'll I'll kick it off and Frank I'll jump in if I'm off on anything we presented this item uh last month and the only item left to close out here was a discussion about as we move into Tyler payments uh we are in the middle of actually the critical stage for our Utility Billing roll out to the new software and the discussion related to credit card payment processing and if we wanted to move from an absorption model where the city is absorbing all credit card fees across all different payment platforms uh to a uh a system where we do a hybrid where we would absorb all of the costs related to e check a you know people can still cash pay so there'll always be those free options across all the bandwidths but the credit card charges we passed through to the customer if they so chose uh and that is the administration's recommendation after discussion at FK last time there was interest in the utility billing side about the small single family home about um someone who might have difficulty paying and wanted to still pay with a credit card and didn't want to charge that fee I did work with Frank and the the utility billing team um to see what options are out there so there is a modified hybrid approach which is listed out in your memo where we could um still do the pass through on all the credit card fees on all other platforms except Utility Billing the city could continue to absorb the credit card fees for all Utility Billing charges so you could use it for free with no fee on Utility Billing only but the request would be to uh kind of hedge that in since it was an interest on just this for the small single family homes of which the average bill is $290 per month for water sewer storm water and sanitation that perhaps that we could put a limit on the credit card I've done that in another government I was in so this would limit you know hotels or large buildings uh from charging $30,000 to a credit card but still letting the single family home in there so maybe you know a400 or $500 uh limit on credit card transactions may be entertained thank you through the chair of course um so the goal is to protect the most um those who might want to uh those who might be at at most um risk for not being able to pay and um I think if the average bill is 290 we should set that limit at 300 and with the chair as permission I would move it with that Amendment if people are willing to do that I'll second okay call vote all in favor I I'm going to oppose this item thank you I'm s I'm going to post this item itose yesst yes so you said post I was going to go to our City attorney for a clarification on the rules can I ask a question yes yes why yeah because your your arguments of the last meeting were were were quite valid um okay so then I'm opposing to thank you yeah I didn't know that I had some so it'll be uh 2 to two and it would go back to commission with a I believe an unfavorable unfavorable correct okay so it won't come back as a consent it will come back as a resol resolution for debate at the commission thank you okay okay let's move on um uh I would like to call sanitation but uh I know commissioner Suarez one to be here for that um so why don't we uh go ahead and take item number five uh discuss taking whatever action necessary including allocating funding for electricity and infrastructure upgrades uh if if I can that was linked to number 25 which has a 125 time certain ah okay commissioner Rosen Gonzalez I know know that you had a couple items on here that we've been looking to get at uh and are a high priority for you um I'll leave it up to you if you want to hear the item on Fifth Street first or your uh tree parking lot item um the tree parking lot I'd like to wait for commissioner Suarez my fellow tree hugger to arrive before I call it because I think it's a I don't know if it's controversial or not so could we wait on that we could go to Fifth Street is this about tapt it is yes okay um sure I call it it's just I'll read the item into the record let me sorry let me just find that real quick what number is the top top item that's item number 35 35 we have yes thank you uh item number 35 discuss the possible purchase of the property located at 8/19 fth Street number 35 so for those of you who don't know taptap um the people who own the building where taptap is um they passed on and the estate contacted me to see what we could do with the property which is historic they didn't really want to sell it um at this point they reached out to us I mean I I don't I don't know if we would want to pursue somehow maybe getting grant money I think it's very relevant for the Haitian Community however I don't know if you know my Beach is the place to find those funds we might need to go to the county maybe change this into a resolution to try to get the county to purchase uh the property Liz where are we on this the estate did reach out did you ever con did you have a conversation with them we haven't been able to contact them I did get a valuation study oh and it's at 3.4 million 3.4 so I mean you know listen it's it it's I I I don't can't necessarily justify Miami Beach purchasing it I don't know how you feel about it would you guys consider sending a resolution to the county that they could potentially help us um find the funding um to purchase this just a resolution to all the County Commissioners asking if they would like to make an offer to to uh the the estate before it gets sold and I'll kick it over my colleagues but I think before I'd be comfortable doing something like that I'd need more well baked PL about exactly what we would want to see there I'm very hesitant to just purchase something or or even ask for County funds which are still Miami Beach taxpayer funds to purchase something without very wellth thought out plans and uh I'm happy to keep this item on the agenda if you wanted to um kind of Stew over exactly what we would want to see there um I'm saying that I don't think we should buy it but I think the county should purchase it because it means a lot to the Haitian commun Community overall it has uh original artworks all over the inside of the building that mean a lot and I think the Haitian members of the County Commission and Haitian residents should I don't think that the estate knows who to contact so they came to me so I mean I would like to convert this my motion on this would be to convert it into a resolution to explore to ask the County Commission what they would like to do with tap tap with the building with everything just act like making them aware of it and then with that resolution I can go and I can Lobby them my colleagues have thoughts yeah I I mean it's a it's an odd little building it's not there's not a lot that can happen there so I do think we it would be useful to have some ideas of how it could be used and um I would think that maybe the county would have more um uh you know maybe be in a better position to both purchase it and to utilize it for maybe some County um facility here in Miami beach but I I don't see any issue with trying to figure out how to how to retain the building um for the use of the general public especially since there are um notable historic um murals in there yeah it's good thank you commissioner Fernandez thank you um and it's a great idea I and this property falls in District 5 represented by commissioner Higgins um I would say before we pass a resolution to all of the 13 members of the County Commission we reach out to all of her colleagues I would say perhaps we should reach out I don't know if we have already or not uh spoken to commissioner Higgins but I would suggest first speak with commissioner Higgins uh before we adopt because she might be interested in this or she might not but it' be good to have her buy his what if between now and the next meeting um because we haven't passed a resolution I reach out to her just in the you know we have six weeks I can call her I do think that there are several members of the County Commission that would be interested because it's a Haitian Landmark it has the original artwork they might want to turn it into some sort of Haitian cultural facility there's not a lot of buildings like this and it does play um a role in our history so um if you guys would my motion would be to to send it to the full commission as a resolution to encourage the county to work with the estate to somehow um find figure out uh a purchase and with that and I'll reach out to commissioner Higgins in the interim and several other of the county commissions and then by by the time that it goes to commission I will have more um more information it's fine I and just uh where I stand nothing personal I'm not going to vote in favor uh this is the entrance Corridor for our city um at the Burger King and Pier One site we're getting one of the best architects in the world to do uh a transformative project at the entrance here uh this building to me is not my vision for Miami Beach and certainly not something that is important enough to me to urge taxpayer dollars being uh uh used on that but I'm not going to stand in your way if uh if you have the support and you want make that motion okay so made the motion okay if I can clarify the motion passes return to commission uh to issue a resolution to urge the County Commission to purchase the property located at 8 195th Street explore the purchase of the property and to the state and if you need information about the state you can contact my office thank you I'm sorry the the recorded vote was three to one yes commissioner Suarez uh thank you did you want to take item number 40 discussion regarding a fitness Festival March 2025 yeah well I'm you know what I'm sorry that's that's a future item apologies for that that's going to be heard at the uh at the June item uh commissioner Rosen Gonzalez why don't we talk about uh your tree at them I know you wanted to wait for commissioner Suarez I called you my fellow tree hugger commissioner Suarez um those of you who know the parking lot adjacent to North Beach Elementary is void of trees or shade it is not the most attractive parking lot and yet it's one that all of the so many parents and so many of us of those of us who live in mid Beach if I can uh just announce the item so have it for okay this is item 23 discussion regarding add adding shade trees and repaving parking lot p63 item 23 thank you um it's a large lot it has no shade it is it's ugly it is that's all I can say about it and um we had it painted we had it restriped uh but it's still you know it's it's needs work and I watch of the parents coming during the day you know they like if we were to make an investment and the reason why this is so important is because we have these unsightly surface Lots across the city that could become potentially beautiful if we planted shade trees and uh you know in the geobond we saw that we had a couple of million dollars dedicated to tree planting and we never once uh tried to really plant trees and transform something and I can't think of a better place to do it than where all of the parents of North Beach Elementary and all of the residents Park to go to the hardware store in in in in mid Beach uh you know we go to roers and Roasters there the school is there so it's a frequently used lot and when we tried to use it to um when we tried to use it uh as a Saturday like um Market it was so hot it was so hot that it was unbearable so we did an estimate on what this would cost and it was expensive we're talking a million and a half dollars to do this but if we spend this money and transform that lot this is a direct impact on tens of thousands that live in the area and it's something that they're going to see that their government is really working for them and they haven't seen this because we really haven't beautified mid Beach we spent a lot of money down in South Beach but mid Beach is largely in many cases forgotten we're finally getting the water main that we need there but uh this is something that we could do and it's a positive impact it's expensive but I think it's worth it so I don't know how you feel about it but um if I'd be so happy if we could uh transform this surface lot for the parents of North Beach Elementary didn't you just get elected commissioner magazine to the PTA do you understand what that is as a single dad Mr Mom yeah Mr dad um David before I recognize you uh and happy to have just free back and forth if I recall because this is It's a noble effort it is with a hefty price tag if I recall there were two different options we almost had like a a more cost sensitive option that was on there am I correcting that here would you like to give us the two options please the item started as an expansion to the Landscaping but what we had in envisioned at the time was some perimeter landscaping and commissioner Rosen Gonzalez brought to our attention that the center of the lot was untouched and unimproved and that's how this option so is developed initially they said sure we're going to plant trees all around the perimeter which does nothing I mean to spend that money I would rather you know it's just like throwing it away because there's already trees on the perimeter we need to figure out how to cut through concrete and plant trees this is a good way for our city staff to begin to work with these contractors so that we can cut through concrete and plant trees and I think we can all agree that our tree canopy is is needs to be improved and uh we need to start working actively on this and we haven't to date done a single project like this commissioner Fernandez yeah just a question because I recall a while back um like in Central Bayshore uh there were funds for increasing the tree canopy on the public rideways property owners had to contact the city and I think that there was was an issue of not enough property owners were were were interested and I'm just wondering you know do we still have funding available from that that we could use uh for this purpose uh I don't know if that was through CIP or through some other raford yeah I'm sorry David Gomez in director of CIP I'm not familiar with that with the details of that program and what's left we did look for this project at the possibility of using reforestation go funding to to help reduce the cost on this one question Than You magazine uh hold on commissioner or Gonzalez and then commissioner B and commissioner sarez does the parking Department have any reserves to help with this I believe they do and they could probably issue a revenue bond with this also I can I can speak to that uh yes the reserves and the parking fund the parking fund is doing very well uh the parking fund does have dollars available if this was something to move forward uh that would probably be the funding source I would recommend okay commissioner B and commissioner Suarez um you know we've talked about um the shade canopy and and heat deserts all over the city I I don't want to rob Peter to pay Paul I know Parkview Island where people actually live rather than just run in and out while they're doing their errands um is in desperate need of tree canopy and it's going to be complicated because there are no sidewalks on most of the island and so it's going to to be probably more expensive um how would doing this affect that I have not looked into those comparisons can I answer let me go to okay if you want to answer yeah commissioner sarez um yeah good morning uh David um commissioner Gonzalez brings up a good point you know so we have a parking fund I think um a couple meetings ago we discussed the automatic the automatic readers for for parking right um and it it had like a like a 900% increase in Revenue as a result you know I don't know how this body feels but I think if we open that doorway up to increase City revenues we can certainly fund projects like this um for especially when it as it relates to parking another question is how much was it originally for the perimeter of the parking lot as opposed to putting the trees in the middle of the parking lot do you remember what that was and I have a followup U after this yeah uh Lindsay practices and director of the environment sustainability Department to add 20 small trees around the perimeter it would have come to about $40,000 but that didn't include the transformational nature so so how does it how is it 950,000 for like the middle are these small trees are you putting in more established trees is it because the concrete cutting yeah it it has to do with the restoration of the asphalt as well as uh all of the rerouting of the electrical for the parking lot lighting and and so the million and a half how many trees does that come out to 24 trees 24 18t trees in the middle or is it everywhere in the parking Islands so between the rows of parking so that's that's excluding the the the perimeter that excl the perimeter yes okay another good thing about just just so everyone aware you know when we were campaigning um I don't know if everyone remembers but there was a pal event with the the police and uh yeah and it was great and you know I think there would I think there would be a lot more uh activations there if we had a little bit more shade for uh for community events there um but but I'm just a little concerned that like 24 trees is is a million and a half dollars yeah that's that's that seems like a lot I mean did we did we is that just a rough estimate or that is using historical data that we have and adding a an escalation fact is that something that Miami Beach does or you contract that out no we did that in-house Oh you mean the actual work would be contracted a big price tag just for commissioner B then commissioner Rosen Gonzalez so it seems like a lot of the costs is because we're cutting concrete and we have to re-root our utilities is there not a way to um do something above ground and maybe construct some concrete Planters or something where you don't have to build cut into the underground facilities which is the bulk of the cost the the issue with doing something above ground is that those medians are so narrow that you don't have a whole lot of room to put a tree type planting so you wouldn't have room for roots so is the parking lot and I'm not a fan of removing parking space but is it um is it always used to Capac I mean I lived in that neighborhood for 13 years I I don't remember it ever being used to capacity this would not remove any parking spaces what it does do is provide the uh suspended soil system that allows the roots to grow under the asphalt But but so but my point is if we you know you're saying that it'd be problematic to do contract uh concrete Planters because we'd have to take up some parking spots but if this fac if this parking lot is never or almost never used a capacity maybe that is a tradeoff that you know we might lose let's say six parking spots but we would get Planters without costing a million dollars we did not consider removing spaces out of concern for parking availability and parking funds and other things so is that commissioner Rosen Gonzalez through the chair if I might could we maybe defer this um to give the team an opportunity to evaluate that as an option so that we can accomplish the goal of preserving or or creating a shade canopy without costing the city a million dollars well I'm going to tell you a little bit of my experience with this okay I've been waiting for8 years to try to cut through concrete and plant some trees and we have not been able to get it right and we need to start to work with these tree contractors and learn how to do do this because this is something especially right now in this environment we need to figure it out and we haven't been able to now just to give you an idea of how far away we are from this the entire amount in the geobond to plant trees was $2 million and to do one parking lot is 1.5 so we messed it up in the geobond but here's the beauty of this first of all I would love to see Parkview Island do it the thing is is that this could be paid for we have reserves in the parking fund and the parking fund is doing well once we do this can you imagine if we can do this on all the surface Lots AB buding Lincoln Road with monies from the RDA and make it just beautiful and shady and like it's just such a beautification but if we don't do it once and trust me we tried to plant above ground in North Beach and it was challenging it took us a year and a half and frankly I admire the effort but I think we need this is an exercise it's it's something that we need we need to do we we have the funds in the parking reserves we have them and that Enterprise fund is doing amazingly well and when we pass that item you're going to see 10 times the price what I would ask you in my final 18 months here is to give me the opportunity give us the opportunity to please please cut through concrete and plant these trees because it will become a Gathering space I guarantee you for the elementary school for um they wanted to do a Fresh Market on 41st they can't because there's no canopy there's no shade anywhere it's devoid of trees do we have renderings for each of the different design options no the most we have is the the site plan that was included in the memo yeah so I mean commissioner or is where I'm at if you wanted to try a multi-step approach um I be fine moving forward with the perimeter I'm very hesitant to sit there and say without even seeing how a potential uh performant design would look to say yes we're going to it's going to have trees down these three oh oh okay it's going to have trees down look this is what it looks like it has no trees and when we finish it's going to be full of trees um oh just down the three and I mean we we never spend money when was the last time when was the last time we spent significant money in in you know in mid Beach on something to beautify it just doesn't happen very often we bought the statue that that sun statue and that was beautiful and that was 25,000 but the truth of the matter is is that it's largely forgotten because you know North Beach needs so much and a lot of attention goes to South Beach but you know it's nice to remember our residence which is primarily residential and not very tourist oriented and especially the the school that's right there and another thing is that it kind of saves the parking lot we making an investment in it so that the parents have that law in the future because I know that a lot of people have wanted to purchase develop it but it has to go to referendum it's never going to pass a referenda to sell that parking lot and uh this is a directive I'm telling you that thousands of people in M Beach are going to be grateful if we if we do this because right now it's h question commissioner Fernandez it it just seems to me that a million dollars for this it seems just like a lot I think the same residents that would V benef from this would probably come back to me and tell me yeah that was a lot of money per tree that you spent uh there like I can hear their voices in my head right now and I don't hear voices in my head that often that often that that often that's right T um how about because one of the concerns I have is that I saw someone complaining on social media about another place where we did something similar where we cut through con through through concrete and then the trees died uh or they weren't doing well and so what if we bifurcate this you know let's not go with a million doll let's like break this up into two parts let's start with do a smaller amount let's do a smaller in installation if it works well if it's successful then we can come back in and do a larger installation can you do half the parking lot well not have the parking lot but because I want to do this parking lot because we have the money there and you know the revenue the Enterprise fund is generating money we have the money to do that if we I did we did a pilot program and it wasn't good and it took a year and a half to do through the chair yeah I will I'll just say where I'm at I think I'm uh in commissioner Fernandez's align thinking I am happy to beautify this but I think it would be irresponsible if we didn't see uh the cost benefit analysis right sure we can do anything it comes with a cost um I am it's Noble that you are taking this on looking to beautify for Mid Beach I'm fully aligned with you but when I think bang for the buck I'm thinking let's start with the perimeter make that as beautiful as possible and I don't want it's wasting money well okay I would say cutting through concrete for a million and a half dollars would be a waste but you have my support if you want to beautify the perimeter with trees sheet trees uh try and have some sort of canopy there um I'm happy to make this a multi-step approach where we start with that uh I think that is essentially delivering uh true bang for the buck for our residents and taxpayers where we're beautifying the area but we're also doing things at a costc conscious manner uh commissioner Suarez yeah last last couple comments um you know I I think commissioner bot had a great idea where you know maybe we don't do it in the median we sacrifice a few spaces because I I pick up my kid from their from Mathnasium you know multiple times a week and it's Never full uh so I think I think definitely if that helps at all with cost savings if you are referring to an above ground planter no no no um an in ground if it's in ground it it you're still dealing with the asphalt The Lime Rock the the suspended pavement you you still have to do all of those things for the trees okay and then as commissioner uh magazine was saying maybe if if we were going to have maybe a pilot program to start I would want to start on the west side closer to the school so when parents pick their kids up or drop them off and they Park uh they have shade it's closer to the school he can I he's saying do the perimeter which really does that's what we've done to date there's already trees on the perimeter look what you're saying is to plant trees here where we already have trees the idea here is to plant trees where we don't have trees so look the perimeter has trees where where would we plant trees there we need to do is plant trees in the center commissioner Gonzalez through the chair um I think I think um the chair is correct where we need to get maybe give us like a menu of options of of where we want to start maybe we don't go full Bard with a million and a half maybe we spend a quarter of that and we start on the north side of the parking lot and we see how the residents uh you know feel about that but I I certainly don't want to wait like years to do this just to just to see you know plant like six trees um I I'd like to you know move forward with something as quickly as possible preferably if with a menu of options that we would choose from and David you mentioned above ground Planters okay the the uh the size of the planter limits the root growth so you never get the full growth of the tree we won't get shade trees they will die and it will not be transformative we've I've spent a lot of time on this and the reason why it's so expensive is because we're also rewiring the entire parking lot um honestly we're going to need to rewire these Lots anyway moving forward if we want to do some of the you know um AI uh parking stuff this is all new electric it's going to be our only surface lot it's kind of like it it's it's not just trees it's electrical because what we found is when we cut through concrete we break things okay and so we know that we need to lay new lines now um if this was added to the general fund I'd say no we can't do it we don't have enough money in our Capital but this is coming from parking um reserves which is constantly being replenished Mr chair I just I and you can't do it half oh wait let me just finish and you can't you commissioner spes you can't do um one little piece because you have to lay the new lines I mean if you wanted if you wanted to say that we'll do one of the medians just one okay so let's say that we do one and the price drops to 500,000 get like let's just do the one but we can't just do like a little section it doesn't work like that it's it's transformative this is not you know and by the way once we do this then the city will understand how to get this done right we're going to be working with certain contractors we're going to develop relationships we're going to be set to move forward cut through more concrete and I would hope that it's like places like Park View Island that we have trial and error so that by the end you can put trees in North Beach and on Park View Island but if we never start if we never take the plunge to even do one median we're never going to get the canopy that we need if I may Mr chair perhaps what would be good in South Beach we're very blessed at in South Beach we have a beautiful canopy um we don't have the heat island effects that we have in um in other parts of our city what would like to see is if we're going to move forward with this and I checked with our CFO we have good reserves in our in our parking uh Enterprise fund I'm not sure if truly this is the intent of our parking reserves uh but we do have a funding source for this is when this comes back to commission it'll be great if we see if we're planting what is it 24 trees here 25 24 24 24 25 commissioner B commissioner Bots count as 25 trees but person with a proposal to plant 25 trees in North Beach North Beach needs it we hear from our residents there all the time they have uh a lack of canopy over there and I think it's great that we're doing this in mid Beach um it you know but let's come back and let's sure let's let's be fair you know this is not the area of our city where we have you know the shortage in canopy North Beach has a big shortage in in canopy if we have the funds we have the funds let's move forward with it then um but let's let's uh let's do something for North Beach as well where they're dealing with heat where you have a lot of people who are walking and don't have the benefit of shade we using public transportation have to stand hours you know at a bus stop without the benefit of of of a trade to get them some cover and so let's come back with a proposal together with this at commission so that we help one neighborhood but we help the other as well and where I'm at yeah hold on one second where I'm at I am all for transformative projects especially as we're talking about expanding our tree canopy I would be more selective uh it is if I'm talking about where we need to be transformative it's not on Surface parking lots right that is not my view for our city um I think it's ironic that we want to greenify surface parking lots right it's it's just counterintuitive so I am fine for being selective and really going above and beyond where I'm at with this I I'd love a beautification project in a scaled down cost efficient way um that's just where I stand if you wanted to do a multi-pronged approach move forward with the original proposal but I'm just somewhat hesitant to move forward with a million and a half project where we're just cutting through concrete to plant trees and I don't even have renderings of what it'll look like besides like this but with trees um that that's where I'm at through the chair yes okay we all want to see more trees we need to learn how to do this and we want to try to make um this very large space something that can be activated for the community so here's what I propose um we will inevitably learn things as we do this right we haven't done this before it's sounds fairly complicated and it will be a very useful learning exercise so that we can do it successfully and and more efficiently going forward throughout the city what I propose is that we take the westernmost um Lane where you have 1 2 3 4 5 6 seven eight oh I counted a an existing thing as a as a new tree so you have eight new trees you can pop in a couple more trees where there is already existing East that's where no I'm talking about this Lane right here that's West that's North that's north north south that's North okay this one Northern that's the northern Rome okay the northernmost oh right okay I only live there 13 years how would I possibly know this take the northernmost um Lane pop thank you um pop in a couple of trees if there are some spots that are bare along the perimeter and then you've created a nice good siiz chunk of area that can be activated for markets and community events while also learning what to do and what not to do taking the entire parking lot and doing it it will be less expensive you'll learn how to do it we'll create an activated space and from that and and it won't cost as much money and then from that um we will then know you know what we can get the other two Lanes of trees in for half the price because we now know we don't need to do this or we can do that or whatever we decide it's not even with this beautified space nobody's using it so maybe let's use that new knowledge someplace else in the city so let's let's take your goal of um creating a space and learning how to do this but do it on a smaller basis so that we're not expending a fairly large amount of money that could be used in other things um and we can still get the knowledge that we need that's what my proposal would be is that your motion sure okay I'll second it um before we do that Tanya do we have uh we need to know how dollar amount that we would look to say David uh $500,000 come back and show us what it is and then the other question and perhaps I I can be supportive if we scale down that number and think about ways where if we would expand um a quasi tree canopy that would make this open for events if there would be Revenue raising opportunities that would coincide in that uh do this a supporter from single family residential neighborhood I don't know that we want to Mr chair Mr chair I I you had me until you said Revenue generating events this is right at the border of a single family residential neighborhood we need to protect that character I think if it's the pal or a city city activity like a farmers market you know that's that's Lo scale I yes okay that's we're not we're not talking about a music festival here okay well no I I just want to make sure I don't BR mind so I just want to make sure well if you would have heard me out with without the theatrics yes something like a farmers market right that is good for the neighborhood but we can start earning some of this money back right we're spending a million dollar or $500,000 on trees and we're saying yes for activations okay if you have a farmers market isn't that normal if it's on City public property to actually get back some tell me if I'm crazy I don't know if Heather from the economic development department when we have things like Lincoln Road vendors pay for that correct yeah right yeah yeah I just I just want to make sure that's what you're talking about yeah I I I didn't want to move the uh the music festival to the 41st Street parking lot um things like if we are going to do this so the space can be activated things uh like the for farmers markets that we can offset some of these you know large costs through the chair thank you um I highly advise to do it on the south side of the parking lot I and know I'm sorry I know this item is going dragging on forever but as you can even see on the picture that there's more cars parked on the south side and there's a lot of businesses on the South Side such as Mathnasium um the the The Roaster and toasters so people are more likely to park on the South Side than the North side and there would be much more value in having it there but I mean David you can come back and I mean if and if if it's a tossup between um North or South I don't know if there's a cost difference between the two but I I'm going to go to commissioner Bach commissioner Rosen Gonzalez and then I hope that we can settle on a motion to move this forward I would just suggest um doing it on the North side the the south side is parked up a lot but it's also a little bit nasty um you've got people cleaning the backs of their buildings and cleaning out their grills and you know it's never it sometimes smells a little funky like it's just not super awesome if that's like I hear what you're saying um but if you want to have it be a lovely space for people to do a fresh market or craft fair or something like that um you know from the 13 years that I did live there that's not the side I would want to be doing it on I mean I really what we'd want to do is beautify what's nasty but I would go with the north I'm I'm just happy that you're willing to support any of these trees so I'm going to go with your motion and let's try it maybe it looks so beautiful that you guys agree afterward to do it we have six months six weeks excuse me until the next commission meeting can you get this can you get her motion into the next meeting cuz I don't want to bring it back here and then you know and then it's maybe at July maybe at August then we don't meet in August could we with your motion um to do the north side and plant the trees on both sides could you bring this back by to to the full commission um ready to vote on I'd have to look and see when the the memos are due for the next commission meeting well you have about a month five weeks memos are due before that um let me when is it June 4th June 4th gives me a little over two weeks maybe two weeks it's a little tight um as long as we we look at this high level and and it's a a general order of magnitude thing yes we can put something for all right so I seconded um commissioner bot thank you commissioner bot this means a lot and I think it will really be a beautiful space I like your idea of putting more trees on the other side too so you'd be putting creating a canop at least in one part of it so commissioner Fernandez do you support uh the the moot commissioner bot's motion to do the north side yes yes okay 31 are you passing are you I'll go with the one but I I'll go with the one opposing but I'm telling you if a scale down mod more modest proposal comes back did we quantify a dollar amount that's what I'll be working on I think that's what we care from if if this is somewhere that is a scaled down amount that still provides bank for the buck commissioner rosing Gonzalez I'm going to be supportive of it um I'd like to see it before I say I'm supportive but if this comes in at a more modest cost in the you know half of what this was where we're still providing the start of a tree canopy you're going to have my support Fair okay uh chair can I clarify the motion I think I have it but let me let me try and commissioner B please Chim if I'm off return to commission with a favorable recommendation to plant trees of the the p63 lot as discussed and modified with North Side improvements um North Side improvements like that lane plus additional trees on the perimeter as needed just for the motion I didn't want to get super detailed okay thank you yeah yeah okay is that was that pass unanimously or 3 to one do unanimously but uh it's not a Ironclad commitment that I'll be a yes A commission I want to see what this proposal looks like the beginning but we can do okay okay uh thank you for that um number item number 36 uh thank you let me introduce it uh item number 36 discussion regarding designate in the city of Miami Beach uh blue zones City and all the benefit benefits costs associated with embarking on this undertaking number 36 it was the 11:00 a.m. time certain um thank you um I think Danny Butner Jr is on Zoom uh Danny I apologize we're running a little bit late this morning but we just heard this meeting uh this idea in um in uh the neighborhoods committee meeting um for those who didn't is any does anybody know who does everybody know what this is yes Alex yes okay so I won't I won't reintroduce the item um but I wanted to talk to Danny if we can make him part of the meeting Danny please raise your hand if you're on Zoom hello good morning hi Danny how are you terrific sorry we're running a little bit late um everybody on the day already knows about Blue Zone cities and um I think is quite enthusiastic about the concept so I wanted since we're in front of the finance committee um I wanted to talk to you specifically about um the finances and what it would take um to get the initial steps going how much money would take and how um long it would take to start the evaluation process which is the first step to designating a Blue Zone City could you talk to us a little bit about that please yes is it possible to um share screen uh is PJ there yes uh give me one second Danny we have to uh promote you as a panelist uh so just give us a couple seconds as we uh bring you over to the other side so bear with us one second well while while we were working on the um the technical aspect of this um for those in the audience who might be listening at home Blue Zone cities um uh you might not think that Miami Beach needs to be made into a Blue Zone City because we have so many wonderful assets at our fingertips and available for free to anybody who wants to be here but that's precisely why it's such a great opportunity um tourism meccas like some of the beach cities in California and some of the uh tourist um cities in Hawaii which have a lot of similarities have been extremely similar or have been extremely successful in becoming Blue Zone cities where they um they see increased life in expectancy better quality of night life for residents um decreased health care costs increase Revenue for businesses um and restaurants in who are participating in the Blue Zone City and really more sense of community and you know as as much as we are a home to a lot of us we are also a pretty transient City people come in and out move in leave in five years and when I was out on the campaign Trail last year that's something I heard a lot about um actually missing a sense of community so um lots of um bonus benefits to us um in terms of health Quality of Life Community longevity um Financial impact um and most important to me is that as we talk about shifting our brand as a city away from a party till you drop a city um we would be shifting to a city that Embraces wellness and um well-being which fits in really well with other types of businesses that we would want to attract um and there are millions and millions and millions of dollars in um uh basically free media that we would be getting about this shift and I don't know if anyone's here from the marketing department but uh they can tell you as I can um that that is um you know earn media is invaluable so there are lots of good reasons to make this work oh there we go all right that looks like my Q thank you commissioner bot for those of you that commissioner bot hasn't already gotten to about blue zones um you have an opportunity for extra credit um this week and go home and watch uh our Netflix it's a it's a a great um entertaining way to get oriented to to Blue zones in addition to our literature blue zones the company about 200 people we're in LLC we operate across the United States and we've operationalized uh the lessons from the world's longest liveed people a big uh for Americans uh to to continue to advance the American story the big thing on this slide is just the word Empower under our purpose it's important to to know that we don't do this to communities this is a train the trainer model um and you know a Miami Beach story Miami Beach well-being strategy uh is is TBD um we we would leverage our experts your experts um an evidence-based model measurement media but but ultimately um it it of course needs to be a story that that we co-author I'm gonna fly through this so don't worry but original blue zones places where people reach age 100 at 10 times the rate that we do here in the United States obviously they have they have some best practices um that that we can bring into American lives American community communities um and and U our culture to be to be frank about it the biggest lesson that that I think is important is of the hundreds of centenarians that we've studied these communities that aren't just living long but they're living Rich meaningful purposeful connected um lives not a single one pursued Health not a single one pursued longevity or connection or purpose or ritual or Community the biggest lesson they have is um the best thing you can do for yourself is to shape your environment it's about where you live and who you spend your life with so our model is take inventory of Life radius U the architecture of choices that either boost or erode a good lifestyle this is our model in a nutshell when we part if I could real quick I I think we're all incredibly enthusiastic well I don't want to speak for everybody but um the people that uh I heard speak about this at neighborhood and Public Safety I think we're uh all incredibly enthusiastic about this uh just being times sensitive commissioner B is there anything specific uh you wanted to address in that yeah so just going back to the um the original question about what do you need from the city of Miami Beach to start the process and um and how quickly does that that process kick off once we start yes so the first thing we need to do is an assessment we need to do a six-month get to know you um get to know Miami be what Journey are you already on around transformation and well-being Orient Community stakeholders grass tips and Grassroots to this work so the assessment is a six-month scope of work it's $220,000 for a community the size of Miami Beach um it it involves quantitative and qualitative uh evaluation so we have proprietary instruments to help Baseline well-being as well as the the cost of doing nothing so we're starting to set the table for U an Roi uh for a well-being strategy and then qualitative what's already happening in schools in built environment policy in food system policy in work sites Etc bringing in our national experts to partner with your National experts so as a result uh we have a report that's one deliverable 200 Page high gloss report a lot of communities use it in their chna and they're planning it's yours the second deliverable is a custom blueprint uh if we were you here's where we would start um with with the work here's the biggest bang for your buck here's the lowest hanging fruit and here's the real aspirational things that that you should Target the third deliverable is a proposal for a 5-year partnership with blue zones to go and do this with blue zones um and then the fourth deliverable is we leverage our national development team um to uh develop local sponsors 90% of the five-year work is paid for by U not for-profit Health Systems and health plans probably not a big leap of logic to to conclude that there's a lot of value capture for them so it's not while while Municipal dollars can be used to introduce Orient and and do the assessment uh it's not relied upon to do the transformation work um that's private sector funded and that's the fourth deliverable is U uh develop is leveraging our process so at the end we don't just have a fancy report and a plan but we have a resource and Alliance U to go and execute great well in unless anybody has questions I would like to move this item I think it is arguably the best bang for our buck we could get a couple hundred, up front for transformational um impact for residents of every stripe for businesses for our tourism brand um and most of the ongoing costs going forward will be paid for by um people who want to see us succeed so with that I would like to move the item yeah and I'll just tell you how I feel I thank you for this initiative I I think it's wonderfully exciting uh I'm going to be supportive I I just hope we truly put our money where our mouth is and some of these things that are initiative that we really take to heart and uh put in the Forefront of our mind for every single decision that we're making as a city you know I want to embark on this and uh then not see fast food drive-throughs on some of our most important you know intersections throughout the city so I'm going to be uh incredibly supportive I just hope that uh we all keep this at the Forefront of decision-making anybody else if I can chair just wanted to actually commissioner B made the motion I just want to clarify because you have two ways of because they think it's about being a a budget item for 25 I just want to clarify is the motion going to be to make it a budget uh priority during the 25 because as of right now it's not an enhancement or is it the move to commission uh to be part of the budget process which means it would be uh on the list of enhancement not necessarily A commission priority I just want to get clarification a budget priority priority okay thank you commissioner Fernandez commissioner Rosen Gonzalez all good yeah yes and we'll show that as a priority at $220,000 I believe was the number and we'll show that as unanimous so just to be clear uh making a budget priority is the strongest way to move forward yes okay underlined and in red letters it'll be it will become uh an enhancement I think Parks will draft that up it'll become an enhancement uh and we'll list it you know when we looked at those slides like we just had the retreat it'll not go on there as the budget priority and then we always work to our best to it Inc corpor those great thank you excellent excellent very uh tremendous initiative really excited about that thank you Danny thank you Danny um commissioner Fernandez could I uh be so kind to ask you to tee up item number 12 uh discuss retaining consultant for intensity and density if I'm May read the item into the record thank you I'm going to ask commissioner for okay thank you number 12 uh discuss retaining consult and conduct intensity density Capacity Analysis including analysis and recommendations for individual zoning districts number 12 thank you uh thank you Mr chair this is an item that came out of the uh land use and sustainability committee um and it's about developing a comprehensive uh report on on areas in our city that that that that have uh capacity for density what areas of our city are more built out which areas of our city need more housing or need more more more retail space how we have been in utilizing the zoning that we have in our city throughout different districts that way we can plan better that way we can pass better legislation and that way the public that is looking to develop in our city knows which areas of in our city uh have capacity for different uses and I think this is especially important when we're talking about creating more residential or Transforming Our City because we'll have a better understanding of those areas of our city that are overdeveloped or those areas in our city that are in a desperate need for housing inventory or the areas of our city where we may have way too much transient uses and we may need less of that I see we have Debbie tacket from our planning department if you allow me Mr chair I'd like to recognize her to explain a little bit more about uh about the necessity for this intensity and desity Capacity Analysis of course but you've uh you've quite quickly learned the buzzword to my heart huh please thank you commissioner Mr chair um the commissioner really summarized it very well um in your memo as an attachment we have also included a 2008 study which had a similar General concept of looking Citywide at our development capacity and um issued some recommendations um for the city to accommodate um what would be our maximum capacity um this was also referred to the land use and sustainability committee they met at in I think I was on March 19th and did Issue a a uh positive recommendation to have this included within our uh 2025 fiscal year uh budget process um we have the planning department does not have a cost estimate at this point we have reached out to four of the firms through the procurement um pre-approved list we've heard back from one of those firms who asked us some questions they said they need about 2 weeks um additionally to to provide us with some estimates so we're waiting on that we do we do expect this to exceed $75,000 Debbie thank you when you say exceed are we saying on the margin or like maybe up to 500,000 I don't know I think $500,000 is probably high I I can't imagine um but generally these Citywide type studies that also will need to look at infrastructure they'll need information from the Transportation Department regarding our roadway capacity um are $100,000 or more okay uh commissioner Fernandez especially uh given your positions chair of land use I'm going to be uh highly um dependent on you and the direction you want to take uh I will leave it in your court if you want to uh wait two weeks and get a quantification of of the cost of the study or if you want to move forward and if it comes back as something egregious then we can certainly uh pivot on the Fly I think um I think this is a study that um that that our city is going to need um moving moving forward I think per perhaps uh we can have the cost go to the full City commission um and and we can decide uh there how to how to handle this excellent would you like to make a I'll be supportive yes I I I moved that we fund uh that we fund the study uh contingent on hearing bag from the planning department on how much it's going to cost I'll second that all in favor if I could just clarify commissioner the motion was for the 2025 fiscal year budget process or okay very good thank you it would be a yeah this would be a to be considered a budget priority during the 2025 budget process and hopefully between now and uh when the planning department brings this as a consent resolution to for the whole commission to uh make that a budget party they would have that number uh Incorporated by then yes yes okay thank you I consent resolution thank you yes okay thank you happy Memorial Day Weekend everyone thank you fitting as we hear the Jets overhead uh commissioner Suarez did you want to take a look at the 87 items of yours on the agenda and prioritize yes yes please uh just real quick I think the Waterway cleanup item is a pressing uh matter with um yep so item number 11 if I could see you uh chair had asked for that to be linked to the other two if I could read them uh into the record yes and if I believe uh one was number six uh no I'm sorry these are just on the sanitation ones yeah 111314 and I'll read them uh into the record you of course number 11 discussion regarding the increase in Public Works Sanitation budget for Waterway cleanup and maintenance number 11 to be linked with number 13 discussed enhancing expanding sanitation efforts for fy2 number 13 and number 14 discuss taking whatever action is necessary including allocating funding to improve overall cleanliness and aesthetic uh upal of the city's sidewalk streets and neighborhoods number 14 thank you sure um so the Waterway cleanup we've had discussions uh about this I I wanted to I pulled it actually from consent because I didn't think it was enough of uh um enough of an effort to really clean our waterways I think it was one boat two times a week or three times a week um I brought the subject of perhaps maybe two or three boats one for Mid Beach North Beach South Beach since you know there's over 50% of the area of Miami Beach is water it makes sense to have a more dedicated Marine Cleanup Crew uh I'm I'm curious to know what you guys have and then for 13 uh for Joe discuss expanding sanitation efforts this is something we talked about a couple months ago where you know we we walk down our streets it it it's not it's not this the prettiest anymore it really needs to be upkept pressure washing should be expanded to specifically residential areas um because it's it's um it's not currently at least in most so um I'm very curious to see what you guys have and through the chair if I can hear um start with the Waterway cleanup that'd be great good morning Lind prce assistant director of the environment sustainability Department you're not thank you um so again Lindsay practice assistant director of the environment sustainability Department um as commissioner Suarez noted the existing contract the Waterway contractor goes out three times per week and they alternate between North and South among those three days and they clean up inorganic material so anything that's man-made so this item had previously been at Public Safety back in November of 2022 and at that time we reached out to the existing contractor to receive quotes on an elevated level of service and what that elevated level of service would include is a 5day per week contract throughout the entire city but also include the organic materials that are not currently being picked up that includes floating seagrass coconuts any sort of lawn clipping debris and the elevated level of service estimate for that contract would increase the existing contract from 160,000 per year to 520,000 per year through the chair um that's five days a week that's still one boat um we're going through the negotiation process now um the RFP passed at the um commission and we uh receive the go-ahead to enter into negotiations they could add additional boats as part of that process and we actually they actually calculate the amount the weight of trash they pick up right do you have that on hand last year was approximately 880,000 PB 80 so they pick up 880,000 PBS of trash from from the water this this expected enhancement what are they is there a a ballpark of what how much they're going to pick up they don't have an estimate right now because this elevated level of service does include additional organic materials that they have not picked up before but what they did offer was to re-enter into a negotiation process if what they find that the disposal fees are lower and so it's not just coconuts it's like Palm froms right if if you know Palm froms they take forever to decompose or disintegrate in in the water even though it's natural but it's still it's unsightly and um it it would it would completely change the sort of atmosphere of the waterways right where you you get to clean up that debris it could also decrease nutrient loadings because as these items decompose they add nitrogen and phosphorus um anything to make the city cleaner these massive changes go a long way so I would make the motion for the full uh 230 well do you want the is it the two 31 or the the 231 is what's already included in sanitation's budget we're paying approximately 160,000 per year this increased level of service would go up to 520,000 I I would make the motion to do the entire 520,000 we have our waterways are so important we have never dedicated um the amount of resources that they need so yeah checking that and and also the um biodegradable stuff it traps the stuff that isn't biodegradable nobody wants to touch any of it so yeah and if you look at our resident survey and the results that we just received it placed the cleanliness of our waterways and our canals as a priority that our residents want to see us improve improve on together with you know homelessness and other issues but that was one of the priorities of the residence so commissioner SAR is thank you for bringing this item forward is so important happy to support it and just just for the record I this was staff's item uh I just pulled it from consent to to to bring it to add more teeth to it or more meat and potatoes wow handsome and humble so is there a motion to motion second to adop the 5 520 no if I could add chair always feel free just to chime in you have those uh to be recognized first thank you chair uh just wanted to uh just you know Spotlight that this the existing 231 is covered under current service level in these individual funds but this increase uh I believe is through would be contemplated through the sanitation fund which is already at a $2.8 million deficit so there is no funds to actually uh do this I know we discussed it at depth in the spotlight during our budget Retreat so this would just push that uh fund further deeper uh into a deficit situation thank you commissioner Rosen Gonzalez I'm sure you can find the money Jason I'm gonna keep my motion for the 520 and uh you know you've been I don't know if you have to take it out of you know I know you've been trying to complete the reserves or whatever you need to do but this is important because when we got that survey back from the residents they were specifically saying that they think the city is dirty okay so this is need needs to be and it's gotten better by the way I would like to commend uh Joe and the whole team because it's been cleaner than it has ever been in the past um but still it's not it's not enough so we know moving forward that we need to allocate more money to cleanliness and this is just the first step we could look at the surface parking lot Tree Enterprise [Laughter] fund so let's uh if I may chair just just to to that about the reason the revenues I know that we had during that discussion we had it the the briefing and I believe we have a sponsor that's going to look at some of those items to try to close that gap which won't be enough but if I'm hearing that this is the interest um you know there is the franchise fee rate which covers this I believe there's a 2% rate uh that goes uh to environment sustainability to cover it so if the interest is to try to cover that Gap uh the budget office can work with environment sustainability and the sanitation fund to see what uh Revenue adjustment could be made to offset this this item uh and we can bring that back to commission uh also if that's uh interested to be entertained we can discuss it through the budget process obviously excellent EXC thank you and did we take the vote uh Mr City attorney no you did not okay but we have a motion in a second correct yeah yes you do okay all in favor and the motion is to return to commission with a favorable recommendation to increase the outlay for the service to $52,000 per year correct that's correct yes thank you okay um as an income statement has uh not only expenses that we all love uh it also has a revenue side let's go to item 31 which I believe will actually oh I'm s oh 13 we're already in a deficit 13 and 14 so at 13 was the yes so uh uh good morning um Commissioners um Joe Gomez Public Works director so um as commissioner SAR stated um he asked us to look at um looking at um enhanced levels of service uh for example pressure washing where we currently do not do in residential neighborhoods so um our team came up with uh looking at the possibility of providing uh pressure washing in the residential neighborhoods twice a year and the the memo that we prepared um has costs associated with that there's also a code compliance component uh that would be associated with that because we want to be sure that as we do the the the enhanced service that the the sidewalks are maintained uh properly so um um we have the cost associated with that so we're talking about um an initial cost of about $800,000 and then a recurring cost of of of uh over $800,000 um through the chair so right now we don't do any pressure washing cleaning in residential areas no sir and then so this this 800,000 would be twice a year so every 6 months in every single residential area in Miami Beach yes okay um so you know one thing I've realized with the budget is I look I know we just talked about enhancing the Waterway cleanup and adding um $500,000 but it just to me it seems right to me it seems that we spend so much money on Public Safety I mean our 61 63% of our budget goes 61% of our budget goes to Public Safety but how much of our budget's sanitation two 4% 2% sanitation budget overall of the city's budget um I don't know T is here the audit our budget officer sh she pull that up the dollar value I want to say it's 28 million it's it's nothing compared to the it's the mid 20s yeah 3% 3% of our budget that's and that's something that that you know when you walk outside your house you really see you know if it's clean or not and that's a quality of life issue and and and commissioner Gonzalez is right we you know that was one part of the survey where we we we are kind of you know we're we we could do better and so um you know I think I I I personally I think it we we you know this is a longer discussion but we should certainly balance the budget where you know we may have to pull some funds away from other things any you know it look it's up for discussion pull funds away from other other uh components of our budget and really beef up our sanitation because having only 3% of the budget for Miami Beach that's really low I I want Miami Beach to have the Disney standard you know when you that when you walk outside in Disney everything is and span and it's clean and so I don't know if the mid 20s is enough for the sanitation uh budget and I certainly don't think that we should be relying on you know I think that there's only a handful of of um funds or revenues that come in you know maybe we need to enhance it with from the general fund I I don't know how you guys feel about that but certainly I don't think that 3% of of the the whole budget is really going to keep Miami Beach clean and like and like I said residential neighborhoods never get pressure washed and imagine how imagine how happy our residents would be and their quality of life would be if you know at least twice a year they walk out and everything is perfectly clean and there sidewalks don't smell and it looks it looks brand new I'd like to hear what my colleagues have to say about that uh yes I mean I totally agree um I'm going to be supportive but I think it just goes to broader discussions of you of course it's the clich show me your budget I'll show you your priorities a as a city or as a government um but just kind of not related to this item specifically there's all these tremendous initiatives that I I think we're all being so diligent on on really pushing forward for residential quality of life for the first time in a long time I think that's being seen but as we discussed at the budget Retreat it with any push there's a take right and uh more than anything else I don't want to be the commission that busts our budget um so we really need to prioritize perhaps we need to all think of ways where we can also not only take on some of these tremendous cost expenses that are great initiatives but look at ways we're able to enhance our Revenue that we're taking in uh to give us ways to do that um because there's only you know the last thing we want is to uh put forward all these wonderful initiatives and then they are just not possible you know we'll be creating false expectations we'll have to pull back so while these are all wonderful in silos uh these things add up right and we really need to uh be budget minded as well um to an individual line item all tremendous and I applaud all of my colleagues for being so laser focus on residential quality of life but we really need to start thinking about you know kind of a order of operations and list of what's most important uh commissioner Rosen gonzalas um I'm so excited about this pressure cleaning thing because we just we've been very reactive for the for example and I'm glad I have you guys here the other day I was walking on South Point Drive and we have the most beautiful corner of these gray tiles and they are filthy it looks so bad and I don't know if that's our responsibility if it's the building's responsibility but that should be pristine and right now it's not and I know that you guys will send a crew out there and clean it but I don't want to see that like ever you know like how we we send people out to the end of Lincoln Road um because it gets really disgusting there especially around where the bus stops are and uh that that needs to be pressure cleaned like almost every day and I don't know what we would have to do in the budget but in the morning I I go to other major cities I go to other major cities and they're out there every single morning cleaning the streets so you're right commissioner Suarez um you know there has to be like a rebalancing of the budget and we do need to take this into account because we need to have pressure cleaners everywhere every day look I think I think the reason why the commission is working well together um is because we're quite unified in listening to residents and what residents are telling us is you want a safe clean comfortable City that we um are not contending with people and events coming in from out of town doing things that don't enhance our quality of life whether it's a you know Marquee special event that maybe has run its course here or or people who are coming in to stir up a Ruckus so um I think I think it is going to require a very robust set of discussions during the budgeting process for next year and going forward because we're going to need to you know figure out what what matters to us enough and what what we're going to pull back from or if we are going to have to take the tough stand and and increase taxes which nobody wants to do obviously um but we're hearing from our residents what they want and if they want clean and we are we're going to I think we all want clean I know you guys want clean um and we want this to be the world class City that it is and we we need to find a way to step up our game and so it's going to be a very challenging budget process to figure out which of our children we love least and um you know it's it's going to be rough but we're hearing cleanliness and safety in a million different iterations and this is a part of it so I you know we're going to have to move forward good news is I'm well versed on getting that child that my parents love the least you know my sister's pretty impressive uh so commissioner Fernandez thank you Mr chair um you know I this goes to the very Essentials of government what is the uh the essential services that government needs to be providing uh a clean and Safe Community for people to to live in uh and I think I'm so excited to hear all of us kind of on the same page as it as it relates to this uh because it's just you know just reprioritizing uh not spending as much perhaps on special events or other typ sponsorships and redirecting those dollars to what our residents actually do want and are asking for um like for example on on the beachwalk on on on the beachwalk there's areas of of of the beachwalk that desperately need uh pressure cleaning as well that you that we get emails uh from our from our residents on that they feel you know that it's not being pressured wased enough and that's you know facility that that is one of our most successful fac facil ities and so you know not to belabor the point I want to move or uh commissioner are you on the committee you can't no so I'll move your item for you I think this is our our essential services that we need to be supporting and uh and at the end of the day we this is a commission that is listening to the residents and we reprioritizing the use of their tax dollars to put them directly to their services uh and so with that I'll move the item fantastic I'm able to Second uh Mr City attorney pardon me am I able to Second yes yeah okay I'll second the motion all in favor okay if I as always may I I clarify for the record the the the motion and I believe it is and the commissioner will correct me if I'm off um to return to the commission with a favorable recommendation to make a prairie during the 2025 budget process to add residential area sidewalk pressure washing thank you and through the chair of course uh 14 I think 13 kind of covers 14 um to a certain extent may may I make a comment about um the next one because we talked about sidewalks and here is um I don't know I might be pillared by some residents for this but I'm going to say it out loud and on the record so there is a historic um reason for our red sidewalks yes which is that we are rolling out the red carpet for our guests which is lovely and and Charming I would suggest that I don't know what the appropriate action is but I think it is working against us now um anytime you make a repair it is gray for a while then the the pigment is mixed differently from year to year the batch will never match it fades in the sun it looks dirty even when it's clean we did a walk through North Beach a few weeks ago and I specifically called out a a patch of cement and you're like yep clean as a whistle cuz we just passed by it with our street cleaners our our pressure washer um I don't know what the process is if this needs to go to a referendum to get communities to weigh in or if we can we can just make that decision I would suggest that um our founding parents would be more interested in having clean sidewalks that are uniform in color than having mismatched pink red gray spotted sidewalks that fit and are more likely to be more expensive to repair because you have to add pigment rather than just clean cement so I don't know if that's a motion that could be made here for consideration or if it has to go to the commission or if neighborhoods what's that neighborhood neighborhoods I don't know what the process is yes I believe you would want to bring an item to commission to refer the matter to neighborhoods CU okay yeah rck can I can you add that to the June list of course chair if I may um I just wanted to get the recorded vote on the sidewalk pressure washing I think there was a motion in a second but there was no technical vote yep uh so let's call the vote all in favor I we show it past the an thank you excellent um very quickly because I think this uh should only be a minute or two and actually I believe gets Revenue into the city all be a pretty small amount for uh minimal intrusion um item number 31 the easement of air rights do we have City staff here to tee this up yeah I'll read that uh into the record uh chair number 31 discuss convenance of air rights easement mms7 far Farley Lane LLC Fair thank you number 31 um thank you Mr chair uh this is a property that is uh connecting two different Lots uh through a a bridge um so um they approached us about uh the air rights uh associated with that we looked at our utilities um in the area there wasn't anything um complicated um we did have an appraisal done and based on the appraisal um we're recommending uh we we're okay with the with uh with recommending the the air rights granted uh but with a a benefit to to the city in what would be the uh quantification of that benefit it's uh 83,00 250 it's pressure washing for a year huh yes sir how much is $83,000 what if we all volunteer for a couple sh so when we do this selling the air rights there does that mean that that's going where is it going it's going to the hotel next who's buying it it's the property um it's uh the property at seven fairy Lane combining six and seven fairy Lane uh uh connecting the the two properties by the use of a a bridge is the neighborhood okay with that because I know that there were some complaints in that neighborhood about people um over you know uh overbuilding and the height of the homes commiss fernandz you were you went met with the neighborhood in fairy Lane I just want to make sure that all the neighbors know what we're doing there because it's going to change the alley but if that home becomes some gigantic monolith because we have sold this um I don't think that's the right thing to do without going to the neighborhood first and asking if they're okay with that and having them show the rest of their neighbors the home that they're planning on Building Commissioner fernandz thank you Mr chair I listen this is something that that we've heard uh a great deal from from from the neighborhoods there um the law s are quite small there they have they have an an issue that you know some of these uh lots are really not buildable unless you build a really tall home because they're so tiny allowing them to make this connection over this over over the street allows them to do something that perhaps is a little bit more compatible um especially on on this uh on on Ferry Lane uh I I haven't heard opposition if anything when I tried to pass legislation to keep the character of the street to reduce the height or and to keep something you know more modest in scale the opposition that we had from the neighbors uh on F and Century Lane was significant we had every attorney coming in you know threatening all sorts of lawsuits against the city uh so if anything what I've heard from the neighborhood is you know they want to they want to see the area continue to prosper and that means you know the homes need to really be consistent with the area all the older homes the old older Bungalow Cottages are pretty much gone um and what you're ending up now is with these very tight lots that are getting overbuilt this will give these two properties a little bit of a release by giving them a little bit more space so if I may and ultimately it goes to the RB I think uh yeah you know what I told commissioner Dominguez and then we'll go to you commissioner B oh sorry jesz thank you so much uh Mr chair I I'm not on this committee but I do live in uh Bel a and I know that when this came up before land juice last year um the neighborhood association ation was not in favor so I just want to make sure that beer um is consulted and that they know what's going on because um was it this item that came up uh yeah with Wayne pathman Uh it was the air rights because they bought the house on the water and the one across the street and it's next to the standard okay I know that um I had followed along when there was kind of a an overlay uh no that that wasn't this wasn't an overlay it was um the specific item okay um back commissioner Fernandez uh with that news would you be okay if we deferred this and got some input um I had followed closely uh your initiative which I thought was amazing but then you got feedback from the uh the neighborhood and you said okay they don't want that and you put that to bed um so I commend you for you know trying but then even more so for pivoting with this I thought those two issues are separate and I wasn't aware of the opposition here so perhaps if we could shove this for a month and uh have staff reach out and get the feedback from the neighborhood uh because certainly um that wasn't my understanding I I thank commissioner Dominguez for bringing that to light we'll show the item heard and deferred um let's go to a uh a Time certain that we have at uh you know we we actually have mark down here for number six is that correct okay let's do that then we'll go to the uh noon time time certain let's uh let's hear number six number if I queue it up number six discussion regarding any potential fiscal impact of establishing implementing and enforcing the proposed anchoring limitation areas to include any application Andor permit fees the cost of Permitting installing and maintaining the requisite signs and buoys and any Personnel or other costs of enforcement number six good morning Lindsay pract assistant director of the environment sustainability department so this item included a resolution 2024 32963 that was adopted requesting Miami D County to establish alas or anchoring limitation areas in Miami Beach um there are restrictions on size such as it cannot be greater than 100 acres and it can't exceed 10% of the navigable waterways um there was also a 2023 resolution that required alas to be established prior to the operation of the proposed moing field so as part of the 2023 resolution what staff did was we requested to increase an existing Capital project titled Waterway markers and signs to include those ala proposals as part of that 2023 resolution if the 2023 and 2024 resolutions are combined it would be a total of approximately 44 signs and markers design permitting and construction costs um that may change depending on recommendations and Regulatory agency feedback if those two again are combined it would come out to $218,400 which is 500,000 for design and permitting and then 1.5 million for construction okay through the chair so I brought this item forward because this was a a law that the State of Florida gave the counties the ability to set up anchoring limitation areas um and this sort of acts as its own moing field without the moing balls because it it it limits the amount of time a vessel can be anchored within that um limitation area and so you know the issue with a moing field is it just pushes the problem to another neighborhood so for example in North Beach um where commissioner bot lives right in front of the King Cole there's there certain certainly seems to be a an influx of of liveboard vessels permanently anchored in that area and the intent of my item and you can see on the map is I covered almost every single uh anchoring spot possible in Miami Beach and so correct me if I'm wrong Lindsay that that's going to cover all of Miami Beach so uh as opposed to the moing field which I believe is $2 $3 million and that's just one section of of of of Miami Beach this would cover every residential and any Cove possible to Anchor in and that would get us covered so this is going to take many years um and I would I'd like to see this uh started today because it certainly seems that this trend of permanently anchored vessels uh whether they're being parked or they're living aboard uh it's growing and so we need to you know take the appropriate steps and see um and see that we can we we have the right tools in the next couple of years to to at least regulate it right um I'm okay with any hard cost involved in this but you know the enforcement component on this is two police officers and what I would ask is that we get those police officers from within the force instead of adding more police officers actually the the way the law is currently written through the through the state legislature it's it's 45 consecutive days uh you're after 45 consecutive days you have to move your vessel and so you don't necessarily need an officer to be coming around 45 days you you need just a camera to be honest just point at the anchoring limitation area and then you can count you know you can see how long it's been there and then use that enforcement so you use technology uh simply to to enforce law well somebody's going to have to monitor it though but what I would ask is that instead of adding two more positions um that we find them from within yeah I I yeah I'm I'm not on the finance committee but um I'm I'm okay with that plus I'm sure we have a commissioner that help out in enforcement efforts with his GoPro so so is there a motion to be made I'll make the motion then without adding any police officers any cost for hard equipment but no additional police officers if I can I believe I'm reading the item correctly is that it's approximately a $2 million capital project and that Capital project is not currently in our Capital program is that correct correct what staff did was we do have an existing Waterway markers and signs project so our proposal was to add it to that project and we did for the 2023 resolution we did add the initial cost for the areas um that were required for the moing field to operate um these new 24 signs as part of the second resolution were not included when we submitted that request so the $2 million request would be a 25 request to add additional appropriation to that exist okay so uh in hearing that chair if if the motion is to make this uh approxim 28,400 uh Capital project a budget priority during the 2025 budget process is that what I'm hearing I'm not sure I believe commissioner Rosen Gonzalez made the motion is that correct that you would make the the $218,400 capital project a priority during the 2025 budget process um no enforcement right sure okay where we're going to get that money from but you know sure okay uh all in favor excellent uh commissioner Suarez while you're here and want to get you to have time with your family for Memorial Day weekend how about number 22 uh to start clearing some items uh I don't think there should be a cost associated with that this is consider incorporating a Prohibition on plastic utensils um Steph uh let I hope I didn't eat my last words no pun intended there with the utensils but uh hopefully there's no cost uh associated with this I'll um I'll I'll just he this up for Lindsay um if I I'm sorry if I could just read in to the record uh this is number uh 22 consider incorporating prohibition on plastic utensils in City's outdoor dining contracts and restaurant leases and devise incentives for for establishments to adopt the skip the stuff initiative similar to other jurisdictions number 22 thank you thank you uh through the chair so um you know one of the first things I passed was or we passed was um you know reducing Plastics uh in my beach by by doing the balloon prohibition um we are very limited as a municipality unlimiting the amount of plastic uh that is in our city and uh some of the ideas that were brought to me by Sophie Ringle from um clean up Miami Beach was uh perhaps a program for takeout where they they have the option of of putting plastic in so Lindsay if you don't mind um educating us on on the uh program definitely so Lindsay practices and director of environment sustainability uh as commissioner sarez mentioned we are preempted from reducing Plastics by the state of Florida so it does restrict our ability to to have a full out ban what we see is the three options for this item include skipping the stuff within the city's outdoor dining concession agreements that's managed by the public works department the other would be to include skip the stuff in food service related leases managed by facilities and Fleet and then the other option is to integrate skip the stuff within the plastic free Miami Beach program so what the plastic free Miami Beach program is it's a voluntary program where we highlight businesses and educate them on the Imp impacts of single-use plastics and so we could really use this as an initiative to get that program even more off the ground thank you thank you very much uh commissioner Fernandez uh actually moved the item yeah and I second all in favor tremendous initiative thank you think I messed up for it's nice of you chair so the motion was to uh send this back to the commission endorsing the program yes okay thank you excellent um why don't we uh call up item number 38 I think we're of uh going to wait to see if we do the uh noon time certain of 32 uh so why don't we call up item number 38 do we have uh City staff here I got to read that let me uh let me got to read that item ah yes I guess so uh number 38 discuss the resolution of the mayor and the city Commission of the city of Mi Beach Florida accepting the recommendations of the public safety neighborhood quality of life committee it's April 17 2024 meeting to replace the Tesla Model X vehicle with a higher capacity Starcraft van operated on a fixed route fixed schedule similar to the former Mi uh Bus Route 115 to provide a more reliable and consistent connection between North Beach and mounts Medical Center and to explore the feasibility of extending the proposed service to an existing bus stop located at 41st Street East of Alton Road to connect to Route 150 and wave the 57th vote the formal competitive bidding requirement in section 2- 367 e of the city code finding such waiver to be in the best interest of the city and authorizing the interim city manager to negotiate and execute the following agreement in order to provide the fixed route fixed scheduled transit route to a portion of the city's area previously served by Bus Route 115 uh which route was eliminated by m County at as of November 13 2023 as part of the better buz bus Network in our local agreement with M County Florida county uh providing funding to the city for a fixed route fixed schedule Transit service and to an amendment to the Professional Services agreement with uh B free LLC DBA freeb to include a fixed route fixed schedule transit services part of the scope of the freebie agreement provided forever however that the city at a minimum has secured a letter of commitment from the county and to fund the enhanced fixed route F fixed schedule service number 38 thank you thank you Mr chair um this is an item that uh we had at commission uh with a recommendation uh to uh to to proceed with a with a service provider uh to provide a fixed route option to replace the former Route 115 the former round 115 that was done away with as part of the implementation of the the better bus network was a bus that would pretty much uh connect North Beach with mid Beach uh and it would go all the way South actually I think all the way to Lincoln Road I I I believe and it was an essential uh Service uh also if if you worked at Mount Si or you're a patient of Mount Si you're trying to get from North Beach to mount sunai that's important um we also have the bus uh it I think it's the 120 that goes to the airport um 150 150 I'm sorry the 150 I always get that confused um that if your North Beach is harder to uh access the 150 to get to the airport and vice versa if you're if you live out in West aate and you want and you work uh somewhere in North Beach you would depend on the former 115 to make that connection up to North Beach so the better bus Network did away with that I brought an item uh to see how we could somehow restore uh that that service um commissioner uh Laura Dominguez uh our vice mayor has been very involved with this as well W with the support of the administration we started an OnDemand uh service option with freebie uh that um that showed what it showed was that there is still a demand of pass MERS that need that connectivity between North Beach and mid Beach and because of that what we looked to do was okay let's restore instead of having an on demand service let's restore a fixed route a fixed route to uh to to to meet the demands uh for connectivity there what came forward was to enter into um an agreement with freebie to provide that on that fixed route service now freebie is an on demand service provider but in this case they would be providing a fixed route service when the item went to commission we heard from our fixed route provider that they used to provide the Route 115 service and that they were willing to come in and to rovide the service with the city at pretty much the same cost that uh that that that freebie was was was offering so I said let's send this back to the finance committee so that we can analyze both both options and we can send back to the city commission a new recommendation getting the feedback from the administration and seeing uh seeing what would be the best option for us commissioner R I'm so glad you brought this item forward because I was up at Stella Maris um a few weeks ago and the seniors have no way to get to the supermarket now um they don't understand uh calling the freebie um and I you know so there's a certain amount of expediency so when I asked them they said you know Surfside used to share or you know that bus route and and I called the mayor of Surfside and I spoke to him and he said well what we've done is we um engaged on demand freebie now what's interesting about this because it's the same route is that we could probably lower our cost just by calling Surf Side and splitting it with them or adding to what they're doing with freebie right now and switching that to um fixed so what I would suggest we do is contact Surf Side because literally the people who need that are right up there on the border of Surf Side and somehow um uh work it out financially so that we restore a fixed route and we use the freeb service that they're already using they're very happy with it they said that you know they engaged it and it's worked very well so um Mr chair I'd like to recognize yeah good afternoon Mr chair committee members Jose Gonzalez transportation and Mobility director and interim parking director and if I may ask PJ to pull up a quick one uh one or two page comparison of of the two vendors freebie and lsf and thank you commissioner for recapping Comm commissioner Fernandez for recapping the item very thoroughly um the only point of clarification that I would like to make is that while freebie is predominantly an OnDemand service provider uh they do provide a fixed route fix Service uh fix route fix schedule service they're currently providing that in the city of Miami for a couple different neighborhoods for Downtown Miami for Coconut Grove and they also provided for another city in somewhere else in Florida Central or or north Florida uh that was the only point of clarification that I wanted to make and also just to to explain how we got to this point as commissioner Fernandez pointed out the conversations with the county we've been working with the county for several months now they've evolved this started as an on-demand Service uh freebie as the provider approved by the county in fact with a funding contribution approved by the county um based on the data that we collected we saw that there was an unmet demand that was occurring in the afternoons uh which a a freebie Tesla vehicle was not able to accommodate and so at that point uh we we shared that data with the county and the county agreed and then the conversation turned more towards a fixed uh schedule fixed route service with a higher capacity uh vehicle with uh freebie still being the the the vendor that that was providing that service then we continued to engage uh freebie in those conversations and they indicated that they can provide a a van um a Starcraft van that with uh 22 ft u in length with a capacity of 14 passengers which it would we feel would meet the demand and then um as commissioner Fernandez pointed out this was at the May 15th uh commission as a resolution but in light of a a letter that we received from Al F who's currently our fixed fixed route fixed service provider for our Citywide trolley service uh we received a letter uh from them the day before uh commission stating that they would be interested and very capable in providing the service and that's why we're before you today and I wanted to share some some of the uh you know most Salient um uh criteria regarding the the two Services I will note that lsf can Pro go ahead commission I'll I'll note that um lsf can actually provide the service immediately because they have because they operated Route 115 in the past they have a vehicle already at their disposal available they can wrap it uh at their cost um and so that service could actually start quicker than the freebie service freebie would have to procure a vehicle I'm sorry yeah so so just just to uh get some some additional information here so with freebie we would be entering into a contract till until 2028 is that correct three we still have about three years so I would say 2028 But but so with this fixed route we would now have freebie providing this fixed route through 2028 potentially they they could we have funding only for two years okay from the county and and currently we have a a fixed route contract with lsf correct and with them right now we're fix route contract this month to Monon that's correct and we're currently in a solicitation for our fixed route options is that correct okay um and so if we go with freebie we could potentially then end up with two different providers for fixed route potentially is right now we have uh month-to month with lsf that's out in solicitation and then we would enter into a separate fixed route uh contract with freebie we that would be if if we go with freebie that would be the let's let's call it the immediate course of action but however once we have a contract with a fixed route fixed service provider for our next generation of Municipal Transit circulator service we could negotiate that the let's call it the Route 115 fixed route fixed schedule Service as part of the Citywide um fix route fixed schedule service but that's my that so and that's and that's my question so if we if the city commission were to uh and you know follow follow through with with freebie at at the city commission meeting how long would that commitment be for well for as as we speak we have a funding commitment for two years from County beyond that we have to identify a funding source and if so we will be committed with free before two years yes okay and so but then but then if we enter into a new contract with a uh with with an fixed route provider um what happens if that fixed route provider is not freebie how do you now get that uh service um as part of that contract are you going to have two overlapping uh contracts Services no we we would include the 115 Service as part of the new contract that we would negotiate with the fix fix so you would have to terminate the agreement with free and so what it ter not the entire agreement because freeb also provides on demand service right but that but that 115 that service right so then wouldn't it makes so for me it just seems just procedurally it's nothing against freebie because I love freebie I and I use freebie all the time and I think that is a great service and they offer great products uh and great vehicles uh and I love the convenience of just using the app and it it's just fantastic I'm a big fan uh but given the process that we are in the middle of right now I just don't like the process of entering into an agreement ment with one service provider than potentially finding ourselves in a situation having to midterm in a contract having to cancel to then change providers to go with with a process with the provider that comes out of the solicitation from the competitive solicitation so what I feel more comfortable doing is I believe with the slide that you showed Jose with lsf it it's a month-to-month agreement is that correct that's correct so with lsf we can be month-to-month so that once the competitive procurement process tells us should who should be operating the fixed route service on a permanent contract then they can continue uh with this as part of the fixed route option that we have and that's what I would feel more more more comfortable with that's not to say that it won't be free because I don't know even if freebie has has uh bid in the uh in in the contract uh but in the meantime this seems to be the cleaner uh thing there are our current fix route option lsf they can do it month-to Monon so that whoever wins the ultimate contract can just assume uh assume the um the uh the fixed route option I I'd like those comments thank you for those uh commissioner Rosen Gonzalez but if surf sides using fix Dr freebie and the they're 95th Street down to 41st Street why wouldn't we just split the cost with the Surf Side and go with what they have right now we could probably Reach Out extend the service and pay half price I I I have no idea what Jose have you reached out to Surf Side I did have a discussion with um Surfside but it was in another on another context but their their circulator uh service would not come all the way down into Mount Si and we're looking at even an extension over to 41st and Alton Road so the I I doubt very much the surfite shuttle would would would do that or the surfite service would want to do that one of the things commissioner that was trying to do was not only get it to Mount Si which was important but also extend it all the way up to 41 Street so that then we can provide connectivity to Route 150 that is what get gets the workforce you know from the airport all the way into Miami Beach you know and you're dealing with people that live in the Fountain Blue Area the flami area the city of Miami uh and all that that those a lot of that is a Workforce a work in in a lot of our hotels and and in North Beach and all that they need that connectivity and being able to make that connection with the route 150 and Route 115 um makes makes sense uh to me also I don't know I I know the county involved with this I know depending the funding source with you're limited on cross-jurisdictional use of funds so if Miami day County depending on their funding source that they're using to help pay for this you could you might be limited only being able to use it within the confines of your jurisdiction and then the moment it crosses into another jurisdiction there are some uh issues that come into play uh so I don't know enough of what surfite is doing and the funding source from the count um and I don't want to complicate this right now then also by now we have one fixed route provider we're going to bring another fixed route provider in the middle of a procurement process and we don't know what the procurement process is going to yield so it's better from my perspective do the cleanest thing go month-to month with your current fix route provider and once there's a recommendation from the administration and the and the selection committee on who should be the permanent fig Rob provider have them just follow the continuation of the service what matters to me is not the vendor is continuity of Route 115 yeah I don't want to use the wrong words I almost feel as if we'd be uh giving an unsolicited bid at this point if we would just interject freebie into this process when a solicitation process is out um Jose is the ultimate end goal I noticed on that uh that lsf is a month-to-month contract now is the ultimate goal at the end of this solicitation process to have a more fixed term yes absolutely with the selected vendor y whoever that may be okay uh I was just going to add on to the commissioner my prior role is the ass city manager at Surf Side I worked on a lot of this and the commissioner is absolutely correct when your fixed route goes a certain percentage another municipality becomes very complicated uh it involves a number of interlocal andus that would have to be executed approved by the county and I worked on that uh on a multi-jurisdictional one and it was I think I worked on it for two years and we never got it across the go line so if there was an interest in that this is nothing that would be coming in anytime soon and it became a very controversial policy matter at the board of County Commissioners when they tried to change the policy governing that funding source so they could go over uh Municipal jurisdictional lines it became a very muddy in controversial process the commissioner is absolutely correct I firstand knowledge of that and do you want to make a motion for that I I'd like how you teed this up and uh absent commentary to the contrary I I think that's how you made a compelling argument to me yeah and and and and again I am a freebie fan everyone should download the Freebie app we have a great freebie service in our city and I encourage everyone to use it but in this case you know lsf was providing the service so so I'm going to make a mo uh that we just you know continue Route 115 uh with uh with lsf on a month-to-month basis and then once once a contract is awarded uh for uh for the fixed route service that whoever does that that this be incorporated that Route 115 be be reincorporated into our fixed route contract with whoever is the awarded vendor for it actually I'll so I'll second that agree with all of that I oh was well I can okay I going to repeat it just please don't read the item again don't read the title again we'll make the title shorter so so I move the I uh second it all in favor I I iold commissioner bot how do you feel about item 32 would you like to hear that yes okay let's hear item number 32 at a 12 uh P p.m. time certain thank you item 32 levels of service and funding for City Services in North Beach compared to other areas of the city number 32 so hello um good afternoon we got we got the matching pink shirt memo um so I I'm not going to take anything away from you I I wanted to have this analysis done um I'm not sure there going to be action items required as a result of this but it will probably inform conversations going forward so um before you even start thank you for the very hard work that you and your team have done on this you're welcome uh good afternoon to mik Stewart budget director and this actually has a presentation attached so PJ if you could pull up the presentation okay so as commissioner bot said this was referred by the city commission to take a look at the cost that we're expending in North Beach as compared to other parts of the city so the goal is to just see where we are landing and to have some informed decisions in the 25 budget process so before we jump into the results of the analysis we did want to share some supporting data that would probably help inform um where we landed so one of the data points we pulled up is a property tax revenues um that we collect based on location so from the slide you can see the majority of the revenues 53% of our property tax revenues come from the South Point um South Beach area um North Beach coming in last at 16% um we also looked at the data by population South Beach has the highest uh population 10% more than North Beach and then mid Beach coming in um third square miles uh per area mid beach has the number one number of square miles followed by South Beach and North Beach and then we just we actually looked at the operating budgets versus the capital budget so first we'll talk about the results of the operating budget and we did focus on police code enforcement and also sanitation so one point we wanted to make before we go into the data is that we started the analysis first with all funds and then we broke that down separately because there are certain funds in the city that we only can spend them in dedicated areas those include the city center RDA uh the North Beach CR those can only be spent in specific areas within the boundaries of the CRA and the RDA and then the resort tax funding has to be spent on tourist eligible expenditures and so for the purpose of the analysis we removed those budgets from the numbers so what you see here is for the police department on the left side that pie chart actually shows the the all-in cost so if you did look at the overall budget it is uh 46% um to the to South Beach uh 26% to North Beach but when we isolate the the funds that are dedicated to specific areas South Beach becomes 38% and if you look at all three we're pretty close to almost a third for each area for police for Code Compliance before we take out those areas we're at 45% self-re North Beach at 28% again when we take those areas out South Beach is higher by 10% um uh than North Beach and then mid Beach and North Beach are actually almost exactly the same and then for sanitation we start off at 59 almost 60% uh but when you take out those areas South Beach is 42% still higher but North Beach is second and mid Beach is last and when we get to the end of the presentation I actually have a slide that has all the data all together so you can look at the numbers together on the capital side what was important to sh if I might just before you go any further can you just tell the numbers of um population by area I I know that was one of the new slides that was added yeah let me go back here you go so South Beach has 36 North Beach has almost 28 and mid beach has 20,000 okay thank you okay all right so what was important to share about the capital budget is that each year as a part of the Capal budget process the Departments provide what's needed regardless of funding availability regardless of the location of the project so wanted to share that before and the numbers that you'll see here are based on the fy2 24 to 28 CIP which is a fiveyear plan so again without taking out any special special units again South Beach is coming in heavy at 47% uh when the CRA and the RDA and the resort tax eligible expenditures are taken out um South Beach went you know still 47% um North Beach goes up to 33% um middle Beach is 20% what I did want to note though is that when you go into the details of the South Beach projects almost 300,000 of that five um 300 million of that 500 million are for utility projects so this includes West sta projects uh a lot of Waterway Restorations and so it's basically where the needs are for our capital projects so this is the final slide and it just summarizes where we landed um it shows you know the rate the rankings by population square miles property taxes collected and then also the ratio for police code sanitation and CIP and then the overall ranking overall uh South Beach does you know get 45% and North Beach gets 33 so mid Beach is actually the the section that's getting the least coverage for these three areas um and just uh going back to the point you just made about the chunk of projects in South Beach being so much higher because it's not just Capital Improvements like West have or First Street but it's also the police station and other sort of city owned and and utilized across the city okay including like the convention center um or sanitation facilities that you know Services everybody but some of their facilities just happen to be in South Beach okay and so that was 300 out of the 500 million well the 300 was for the utility projects only so do you have it with the other things that aren't utility projects we did not include it because when we did it only reduced the split by 2% um IMM material okay mid Beach is only 24% yeah if we keep the slide up too much longer I'm gonna have M Beach residents calling me to complain I'd be happy to share this next slide move on right I'm trying to plant some trees there you well listen I it's it's very important information I think this commission is very interested in making decisions driven by data and facts as opposed to anecdote and speculation um and so this is useful information for us to chew over and and Ponder and um I know it took a lot of work to get here I'm sure I'll come back with questions but you can be relieved that I don't have any at this moment and if you can send to us so we could repost on Facebook I do I do I do have a comment uh perhaps what what what each each one of these areas need to counter not to counter but to balance the anecdote are area managers that uh see things to the Optics of all departments if only we had an item off for that we should also have a whole separate Council you no I was just going to request a copy of the PowerPoint because it's got a lot of good information in it that I'd never seen before so i' be happy to email that whole thing I just want to elect the new we need to get the new slides when you have a chance thanks for the great work on this to thank you any action items not not yet I'm sure I'm sure there will be things that we will use this as a reference point for but at this moment um I don't know how you disseminate it with the entire to the entire Commission because I think it would be beneficial for everybody to see it we'll have um the budget office will email out a PDF copy of the presentation to the entire commission so that they're uh aware of it especially including the updated slides yeah thank you I'll just blind copy everybody perfect thank thank you to um thank you for everybody on that uh let's call some public safety items number 7 and 10 uh Mr CFR I think uh your recommendation we hear these together uh yes correct and I will read them in number seven discuss take action reach Spike and criminal activity North Bay Road ventian Islands number seven number 10 discuss recommendations and plan for addressing the real-time staffing needs for the upcoming uh realtime intelligence uh Center project number 10 thank you I'm sorry yes major good morning uh Mr chair and members of the committee and staff Eric Garcia a major of police tech services I'm here today to discuss uh an important item which is the realtime Intelligence Center as you know this is a priority item as we've discussed in neighborhoods just recently and commission this is a very high priority item for the police department and for the city we've um established all of the requirements that we needed for the physical buildout of our facility and this particular item both of these items really deal with uh what our staffing requirements uh would be so currently we have two positions that are funded uh we have one incumbent employee we have one vacancy that we're looking to fill uh that that is the extent of our current Staffing for the real time Intelligence Center what we're asking um through this item and through the 25 budget is for an increase in four positions uh these will be non-sworn uh positions the title of the uh job is realtime crime Specialists that's what we'll be requesting through the 25 budget as an enhancement we have our financial uh team members here if they uh to present financials on that if necessary but that's what would be requesting through uh the 25 budget yeah thank you major um appreciate that and yeah if we could have the uh the team come up I'll just tee up some questions on your way up here uh this is part of the geobond initiative uh that we paid quite significant amount of money for the real-time crime Center is that correct the physical buildout yes sir yep yep and and this is the personel costs that's related to that were there and I don't know if Maria is here if not were there Personnel costs that were in the Geo Bond or was that just for the hard cost I can answer that the Geo Bond would only be for the uh Capital cost the operating cost will be born on the general fund okay uh and what what was the cost of that of the any um sorry I don't remember I know it's a multiphase project do you remember the overall budget for the realtime crime Center but build out we're talking the millions of dollars several million dollars and I believe it was an overlay of geobond with additional pgo dollars uh as the project grow a little bit in scope but it's fully funded that's correct and major when you say that these will not be sworn in officers uh I would presume then that there's a a cost offset there that these would almost be Ain to in-house Park Rangers uh that are monitoring the the time Center that's correct the the job description that we've created for this particular job which we already have an incumbent for is a realtime crime specialist it's a non-sworn position um uh we enhance the real-time Intelligence Center with sworn officers especially those that uh uh are recovering for from an injury or have some other reason to be off the road uh obviously we we we'll use whatever resources we have in our department to to do it but this would be our 25 funding request y EXC and please feel free to just chime in um uh what is the cost if we were going out using a a veteran senior officer to staff the real-time crime Center versus having one of these non-sworn officers any ballpark estimate not an estimate but it's a significant difference I can give you the number I I believe uh first year it be somewhere in the 180ish range 180 190 first year cuz you have a lot of equipment purchase and things like that vehicle so uh but the ongoing Personnel cost right that would be the for just for one per one uh sworn officer I believe is the first year budget so this is definitely a cost-efficient way to um handle the situation um so the 180 is for the sworn officer correct okay and what is the allocated amount per Personnel here for this position it's about $89,000 per year and that includes benefits such as health care pension and other benefits okay so significant over 50% cost Savings of this commissioner Rosen Gonzalez I would I would tell the police department to look within their budget and re organize instead of us continuing to just dump money and money more money into the budget we've already seen that it's a l large percentage of our budget you know once you create these positions and these line items it's almost impossible to redo I would tell them to go and figure it out because you know what what is our total budget right now for the police department what is it per year I don't have the specific number I know it's over 100 million per year oh over 100 million per year I would say uh find the money I'm sure you can that's my position on this I I can't I can't I can't believe that you know we we continue to add money um you know because it's not like I'm not it's not look I I love and I support our police officers but eventually this is going to become like I said a terrible situation like you have at mcps where there is no money for student toilet paper because it's going into salaries and so every single time that we do this um you know we are putting ourselves in a precarious situation we have just added so many different police officers I see them out there I would reallocate figure out where you're putting your staff and staff the center with what you have that's my my position and I'm going to go public I'm going to talk about this a lot not because I want it has nothing to do with the police department it has to do with our alloc we spend responsibly so I'm going to you know really uh you know lean in to uh you got over 100 135 million uh work with 135 million that you have in my so while I don't totally discount uh that premise and I think there could be Merit in some situations in something like this I actually view it as somewhat almost of a cost savings because uh their alternative would be to have a sworn officer sitting there Manning the cameras at a cost of $200,000 versus if we can have somebody that doesn't need those qualifications it would almost be like saying telling a a hospital to go out and have a doctor making a doctor salary but perform nurse duties they'd be able to but you'd have these overqualified overpaid people uh professionals doing something that are being overpaid for so we'd be paying $200,000 uh to have somebody sit there and view something for what we could be paying $660,000 so while you you make some valid points and we can uh certainly discuss that I I think we can't paint with a broad brush and in selective areas where this needs to be manned I'd rather man it at lower cost positions versus having our officers off of the streets where we need them out there and have people that are uh don't need those qualifications don't need to be sworn actually being paid less I disagree I think sitting in the real-time crime Center instead of like sitting in your car on your phone and you've got the cameras looking everywhere I would staff within what we have for now at at the beginning and I would be very hesitant to increase any Budget moving forward and I think it will also instead of just you know saying yes to everything really questioning and looking at these line items I would love to bring in an independent auditor to look at our police budget and figure out where we could actually find dollars before we continue to I would I think the best thing that we could do is find an expert um police auditor to look at our Department's budget and say this is where you're spending too much this is because we don't know and so we say yes and we say yes and I I ascribe to what commissioner bot said um we want to use data and right now we don't really know I have not analyzed the budget none of us have what we do know is that it's growing and it's swelling and we're not necessarily seeing that big of a change in service so in my opinion and I might bring an item forward to this I think that we need to do some digging before we continue to add dollars to the budget commissioner bot or Fernandez um I have a tangentially relevant question before we talk about head count um the camera's currently so the goal is to have cameras throughout the city they currently go up to about 18th or 23rd Street right is that we have cameras all over the city we do have cameras because I was told when when we did the beachwalk um bike thing which is a totally different topic but one of the things that came out was that there were um camera you know posts for the cameras without cameras on them so so are we at our full amount of cameras that we were planning to deploy well if you're speaking only about the beachwalk the beachwalk is an ongoing camera project so that's not completed yet okay but yes there are C we have police cameras all over the city so are there are there going do we also need to fund additional cameras or is that part of the Geo Bond money that just hasn't been deployed yet or like explain that bit to me because that to me it's part in parcel of the same conversation this particular item um commissioner we're not asking for any additional camera funding but I guess and maybe Jason maybe you know I don't know if Maria is still here but um excuse me um if we're if we're not are we complete other than the beachwalk on our cameras for the realtime crime Center program and if we're not where are those dollars coming from hello um there are a lot of cameras that have been installed as part of the geobond program there are many more to install and some of them will some of those will not be geobond funded and I can and I can answer that uh in last year's capital budget there were a number of security camera uh Capital program projects I can't remember the specific number two or three or four and we were uh able to fund all of them uh last year so there are a number of of projects that were requested and all of them were funded in the 24 budget process so they're either in progress or or completed so there is no outstanding amount of cameras that have not been installed because they aren't funded I would say from an Appropriations basis my understanding is and I have to go back and look at the 25 budget requests I don't think there were any but there were a number in 24 were funded so they may not be completed but as far as I know I believe they've all been appropriated I'm sorry commissioner I misunderstood your question we don't look at the at the realtime crime Center as a start to finish uh including all the cameras the cameras cameras will continue to be installed in every city park parking garage every new project that comes up will have independent funding that we try to include at the time that the project is designed to include Public Safety cameras so we look at the camera as camera expansion as an ongoing process okay okay so those that have already been identified as cameras where they are needed are currently appropriated um they just might not be installed and then going forward on rolling bases as the opportunity presents itself to install a new camera then it will be built in as part of the project cost that's exactly what we try to do with every every project and we do have some uh capital projects that uh some parts and stuff that that we've done part of the pro part of the the uh project has been done meaning uh infrastructure work was done at the time that the project was completed No cameras yes okay so that's thank you because that will help me answer the questions that I've been getting so to this particular conversation um and thank you for letting me take you on the scenic detour um it's a freebie you know I we we just have been talking um about the the things that our community wants most is to feel safe and to feel like the city's clean so we do have an enormous police budget we have enormous demands on our police staff um and in theory the real-time crime Center will alleviate some of the um no pun intended the leg work of what people on on out on the street are doing because we can deal with things in a different manner I'm going to make a favorable recommendation to move this forward because I think it needs more conversation I think all the points that have been raised are valid I don't know if there is a separate accounting or audit that has ever ever been done because even with the most well Ed budgets you know fresh eyes when I was in a different life my least favorite answer to things was well this is how it's always been done like don't even question it and sometimes it takes a fresh set of eyes to say oh you know what that's already being done here so we're in effect doing it twice maybe we don't need to do it that way anymore so it's not I'm not in at all casting its versions I'm just saying that it may be an opportunity there may be an opportunity to take a fresh look and see if we can reallocate some of the money that's being earmarked for something over here to something over there that being said um I think that that we we do need people committed to doing this and any um enhancement of the service levels in the real-time crime center with people who are out um recovering from being sick or whatever that's a bonus that's great but we do need people and I would prefer to use less expensive people than more expensive people so I'm not sure where I'm going to net out on this um I don't know how quickly we can do an audit of the budget I don't think it's going to be super quick but you know I think that's a that's a conversation that needs to be contemplated as well commissioner Fernandez thank you Mr chair for me it's it's pretty simple I mean I see this as a force multiplier you're you're able to get uh eyes uh in in more areas of the city using uh using more efficiently human uh Capital uh and that's and that that is why the realtime crime Center and I hate we call it the real-time Intelligence Center because this is about crime this is about abating crime in our community um and so it's why the real-time crime Center has been so important for me since the first sayate that I got elected and you know pushing Facilities Management to move forward with it working with our city Administration to bifurcate it from the rest of the geobond project uh with the renovations of the the police department but our investment in this uh you know realtime crime Center in the facility itself means nothing we really don't staff it properly and we help our officers be more efficient with the bodies that they have by leveraging this this this technology um and the reality is every day we're we're spreading them thinner and thinner I mean just a reality of when did we complete the um the beachwalk we completed the beachwalk when I guess it was just a couple of years ago you know that was more green space and more public space where we had to put them at now we're asking them to take a more aggressive approach on on our waterways because the increase activity on our waterways we're having to do increased the details with our religious institutions because of the public safety threats we're doing on cover investigations with drugs and other types of stuff and just throughout you know the list goes on and on and on and how every single day we're asking our Police Department to do more and more and and more and so you know I think our electorate has spoken very clearly Public Safety is their top priority and uh and and this is where we need to be investing uh dollars in public safety protecting life and property and leveraging the ability to leverage technology properly so that we can more efficiently use our precious police resources where we needed most I'm fully supportive of it it makes sense is the direction we need to be going in and happy to uh to move the item thank you and major I don't want to prolong this um quick questions I think I have an idea of how operationally the center works but believe there's a a fatal hidden run on Washington Avenue 13th in Washington a few weeks ago um suspect kind of ditched his car got out uh something like this in real time um I would presume that somebody sitting there looking those cameras can sit there and point to the police hey he's going east on 7th street now you know what now he's go right something like that helps types of crimes like that be solved in real time the incident with me where somebody creates a violent assault and I have no idea how the police department caught him a hats off to them but the best time to catch them is when is right when the crime is occurring right that people are sitting there monitoring our cam are saying oh the guy that just ran out of the garage on West Avenue you know what he just went South on Second Street yes Comm yes Mr chair that's exactly how we envision this working um the Mis one miscon conception that I'll say is that we have people monitoring cameras yes we have people watching but you don't the chances of you catching something while while you're watching 1500 cameras is very little the real value in this uh in the in the Intelligence Center is having someone that can instantly respond to that call virtually and begin working that call backwards so you can if if there are cameras in that area we can start looking at well when did this person arrive we can start playing back cameras we can start playing back cameras back further to maybe all the way back to where they originally came into the city work we can work in license plate readers we can work in the Drone footage if if a drone is up so yes that's exactly how it should work um an operator would would immediately start working with the units on the ground to investigate that particular crime that just occurred excellent and and why you won't find somebody that's more budget conscious than myself I don't want to be Penny wise and pound foolish um like uh commissioner Fernandez this is a force multiplier one of the things I enjoy most about serving with people smarter than I is picking up a vocabulary from both my colleagues to the left um but uh very supportive of this item uh I think there's mer to some of the other uh issues that were raised here today that we'll discuss in due time um but for this this is uh this is critical it would just be silly to sit here and invest millions and millions of dollars in the G geobond and then sit there and say you know what we all of a sudden have a new Hill we're going to die on and um we're going to staff this with uh staff that's going to be four times as expensive as these new positions that we're hiring so I'll second commissioner Fernandez's motion chair if I may two items one I have a recommendation that might be helpful uh to commissioner bot's uh uh question about uh Staffing plans the police department about 2 years ago did do an updated third party outside analysis Staffing plan so I spoke with the police and they'll reach out to you to sit with you and walk through that and then you could determine if you have anything you want to take four on that so that might be helpful to to handle that and then for the motion if I as always let me try uh return to the commission of the favorable recommendation to prioritize during the 2025 budget process for the staffing plan for the real-time Intelligence Center as presented correct excellent and then as related to the number seven um if I could request this is the discuss take action recent spiking criminal activity North Bay Road Venetian Islands if we could also expand that to uh the star pal hibiscus Islands just because I was reading about a very high-profile uh car robbery uh that happened there the other week can I ask that we follow up with the LTC I really liked uh my colleague commissioner dingz when she was chairing the neighborhood in public safety closing items out but getting some followup if you could just do a LTC about uh recent um possible incidents that we've had here I was made aware of several over the past couple of months so just that we're able to kind of keep that on our radar so uh just to be clear you want to go back this year 24 yes this year 24 that'd be great thank you major yes on that you know it seems we've talked about it in some of the working groups that I'm involved with but it seems really frustrating because these high-profile very expensive car heists are because people don't have the common sense to take their keys into the house uh you know it's great that you have a nice guard uh at the island of the at the entrance of the island it's great that you have a locked fence but if you don't lock your door and and take your keys into the house people driving by will know with the fancier newer cars if your little mirror ears are out it's unlocked and if your little mirror ears are in so it's just advertising please come take me and you know I'm very I feel terrible for people who have are victims of a crime no matter what type of crime but it's frustrating to hear that people aren't taking the common step sense uh Common Sense steps to help themselves and by the way their neighbors so the fewer times your neighborhood gets robbed the fewer times people are going to be likely looking back to you know coming back to try and find another um vehicle so I don't know what if if you guys are working on a campaign if you're going door too um but maybe that could be included in the LTC as well because it's it's a it's a preventable crime and it's really frustrating that we're squandering resources on this Y and commissioner you left one important group out of that uh they're putting us in danger as well because we're the ones police officers and my colleagues have are the ones that have to engage with these people later on while they're driving those store cars and and we have to chase them in un unpleasant conditions and deal with unpleasant people so they're also putting our our police officers and responders it's ironic there's um uh Scott raikow the Scott raikow Center namesake um used to do guard Duty on the at the Palm habiscus Star Island guard house and he lost his life in a criminal car chase um predicated on drugs not cars but you know there are a lot of crimes that we can't prevent and we need everybody safe and sound to be there to try to help our residents and visitors when those happen but for the number of crime that we can prevent let's prevent them For Heaven's Sake let's you know we're neighbors let's all work together so big section about that as well I know we do have a lot of I know we do have some initiatives going on uh ongoing and this is I this is not a new problem this is I know we this has been an ongoing problem I know we have ongoing publicity uh campaigns and uh social media campaigns to address it in uh in addition to Door to-door campaigns as well I know we've done in the past so yeah we did a big push about six months ago and we saw uh the spike decrease and now at the last incident you're talking about at pal Island we're starting back again our our posos are starting back up that campaign again let them know about locking their cars and everything excellent thank you officers thank you I know we have the byon car I want to get to that I know we have a 1M time certain that's going to be lengthy and perhaps we close out the meeting with the Barron car and then items five and 25 I I uh but before we get to that I'm hoping we could get out number 30 perhaps quickly uh but we shall see but Alex uh commissioner Fernandez why don't you tee that off and then we will close out the meeting with items number 34 then five and 25 heard together I'll read I'm sorry there was number 30 discuss considering the creation of a new capital project to install floating walkways Andor the acquisition of the outlaw at uh 2811 Indian Creek Drive to complete the Indian Creek pedestrian pathway number 30 thank you Mr chair um so this is an item I placed on the agenda because we've made a quite a significant and I think a beautiful public investment um with the Indian Creek pedestrian pathway uh so if you if if you ever go out uh to Mid Beach the the area between uh 26th Street uh to about uh actually from 20 24th street from 24th Street to about 41st Street you'll see along the uh Indian Creek Waterway on the east side a beautifully landscaped uh pedestrian way uh that that residents can now enjoy one of the concerns that I have about it however is that it's supposed to safely connect individuals uh from its southernmost point around 24th Street to 41st Street when you're walking Northbound on on that um pathway at about 28th street right before the 29th Street pedestrian bridge there's one parcel that hasn't signed I guess an Eastman agreement with the city is that the right terminology is it an Eastman agreement yeah the the commissioner and through the chair I just want the terminology it is agreement e correct right so they haven't signed that that Eastman agreement with the city so then what happens is that the individual that's walking Northbound on that pedestrian pathway you can't get on the street because there's a barricade there's a concrete barricade protecting pedestrians your only option then is to walk on the seaw wall you get to the pedestrian bridge and you have to jump the wall wall of the pedestrian bridge if you really want to be able to use this facility in my eyes it is a significant safety issue here we are creating a piece of public infrastructure a public investment to create a save alternative for pedestrians and then you hit a roadblock because one hold out one property owner got in the way of an important pie of connectivity for public purpose for Mobility purpose even and and that one hold out is creating a safety situation for anyone using this and so we need to have a conversation about this because the taxpayers have made a significant investment there so that one property owner do ruins the experience for everyone else now I know that the property owner is selling that the home associated with that Outlaw but quite frankly every other property owner has signed an eement agreement with the city and I want to know what are our options to start having a conversation about eminent domain for that portion of eastment that we will need in order order to complete uh this public infrastructure this is something that the taxpayers uh have have have supported that we've invested in that the neighboring properties has have have signed Eastman agreements on and now one hold out is creating a dangerous situation for the rest of the community and so I I hate to talk about eminent domain uh but this is public train I I see this as part of you know our Mobility options you know and and other agencies do it all the time FDT does it all the time to ensure connectivity and safe connectivity and here I think that we need to engage in this in this conversation because it's it's unfair and it's unsafe putting aside fairness is not safe for the people who are using uh this public infrastructure with that I want to recognize Joe Gomez our Public Works director Mr chair thank you Mr before we recognize Joe just quick question maybe an interactive conversation back and forth between you and I uh fantastic initiative very similar to what uh dealing with in my neck of the woods with the public Baywalk uh that has been 10 years in the making so I know how frustrating it can be having uh certain properties hold out the property in question um and where I'm going with this one of the initiatives uh Joe that we've done on the Baywalk is any Redevelopment of properties there is mandated to build a bay walk out back for instance moad terrorist they had to publicly construct uh the Baywalk did you mention that this property is for sale or is traded hands it's currently for sale and it's been for sale for quite a while it's a it's a single family home um and it's been on on the market uh for for a while now and is this historically designated do you know I don't know I I don't know the property is designated or not so you know one option I don't want to speak for you I'm sure part of your plethora of options it does look like an outdated home and I'm sure in that area along the water one of the appealing things would be some sort of Redevelopment uh I don't know Mr City attorney if you'd be able to app uh similar to what we did for the multif Family Properties along the Baywalk any Redevelopment would be mandated with uh uh the construction of the private Baywalk is there something that we'd be able to say any permit that was sought for the Redevelopment of this property would have to come with some sort of easement like the commissioner is advocating for without knowing the precise desire of the new property owner it's hard to really give an opinion um but it is a possibility if if there's a Redevelopment that would require any kind of zoning approvals or or drb approvals that that you know to include a condition but I would need more details okay I'll kick it over to jail okay so so the the the property as as commissioner Fernandez mentioned the property in question we've approached the we approached the property owner uh several times during the Indian Creek project all the other property owners that had um that had water line side properties either deed or provided us an a Perpetual eastment for us to be able to to build the the the sharu P and the seaw wall so in this particular case we've tried um on multiple occasions um and the property owner is just reluctant to uh and ask commissioner Fernandez also mentioned he's had the property up for sale now for 400 and some odd days um and um has not uh had any offers so um at this point you know we're just uh looking for for for direction in terms of what the The Next Step uh is to be Mr chair um I think it's important I think the safety of our residents the safety of our pedestrians the safety of our bicyclists comes it's number one priority for one property owner to force people to have to walk in a seaw wall to make it to a pedestrian bridge it it it's it's it's selfish and irresponsible when everyone else have has has signed this agreement I think I think this city commission needs to be exploring the possibility of of entering into an eminent domain proceeding with this with with this proper property owner right now it's not safe even if you go and you jump the concrete barricade you're doing so on Indian Creek Drive uh where you have buses uh going going by so even that is not a viable a viable option there's no there's no there's no way here that that that you can get into a safe facility given the current uh situation so I I think I think I I would like to keep um this portion of this item open because I would like the City attorney uh and the city Administration to come back to us with our options with what would be the options and the process to start uh eminent domain proceedings so that we can complete uh this uh this pathway that is supposed to make conditions safer for pedestrians not less safe safer uh and so so I'd like for us to uh do that uh here now part two of this item is between 26 and 41st Street we don't have there the ability the width correct to have uh the continuation of the pathway over there it just doesn't exist correct uh and um and so and so um Jose speak to us about um Joe sorry what did I call you Joe that's okay I am Jose Joe speak to us about uh doing uh the floating uh walkways there what are how how feasible is it how involved how costly what are our Alternatives so we can complete this thank you commissioner so yes um in order to be able to accomplish the cont uity of the path because of the as you mentioned the the very tight space that we have there we would we would have to extend the the path outwards from from from its current location to be able to to to have continuity in order to do that it and we use the terminology of floating dock but it really is um more than likely constructing an extended sea uh seaw wall cap to be able to provide a safe path for the for the pest ran um so we looked at it um and and in terms of uh it's it's complicated because of also of the environmental constraints that we have on the Indian River uh Indian Creek Canal um so um it would require we're estimating somewhere between 2 and $400,000 in terms of design uh because it it it it will require structural design to look at it in terms of how we're able to accomplish that uh permitting uh certainly and and I know my colleague lindsy PR is here but I know that there's several agencies that would be involved uh permitting could take um upwards of a year uh and construction costs we're estimating somewhere in the neighborhood of without doing detailed design somewhere in the neighborhood of 2 to 4 million to be able to accomplish that can it be done um more than likely we it can be engineered uh but it will be a lengthy process uh and there may be some environmental uh resistance from some of the the agency because of the the issue with seagrass and and shadows and things of that nature that price we could buy the property and give the easen ourself and then sell it back well but but this is separate this is so the property I gu yeah because this this is the two parts of it um but so Joe let me let me ask you this because of course these are costs that are over several fiscal fiscal years so so to start you know the capital uh investment of actually constructing it you know that's at the very tail end uh of of the process uh and we can start certainly you know if it's the will of the body you know start to you know start programming for that in our in in for for the future but in the meantime to start looking at you know design and permitting what is it that we would need because the thing is we've we've done already a significant investment not to complete it it it's you know you're going you're leaving people almost in the middle of of nowhere you know not in the middle of nowhere but you need to complete it right so we would recommend that then if it's the will of the Body for us to go ahead and we would program the the the the monies for at least to do the the design and the permitting portion of the project um that'll probably that effort will probably take about two years uh because the permitting will be extensive a lot of coordination with the permitting agencies and then at that point we would be able to program the in the in some in a couple of years program the construction dollars to be able to build it once we know exactly what that construction cost is going to be well I I think it's something that we need to start doing because you know we say a few a couple of years away and I can tell you sitting here two years go by very quickly um and uh and and how how wonderful it would be if you know towards the end of our terms uh we get to to to look back at a day like today and say well we had the vision to start something like this so that we could complete the connectivity and see and see the product of of our of our vision implemented uh so I think you know if it's the will of the committee and the the committee supports it you know we have this Gap it goes like from fena about the fena property um is that correct Joe about about the right exactly it goes from about fena all the way to about 41st Street we were out there also with our Deputy city manager Eric Carpenter um Joe you were there and we walked with the mid Beach neighborhood association and they have concerns about it because again at that point you know you don't have hold out Property Owners but you just don't have the public space it's just not wide enough and you have people then that end up walking in the street and it's not safe for them here we have the alternative to do something really amazing and and complete this connectivity all the way to 41st Street yeah I appreciate that um and I'm align with that commissioner Fernandez uh going back quickly to the first portion of that the property 2811 indar and Creek Drive if I'm understanding this correctly and I thought this was uh the case from our packet that we received but when we're talking about possibly eminent domain certainly not a word I like I I know feel the same but it's not yes it's on its property but it's actually separated from the home portion yes the actual Street would they have any it's the it's the partial closest to the water on the other side of inion would they be able to build anything there would they be able to a potentially more than likely uh that that would be it and obviously they would have to go through the permitting process as well which is complicated so but all the other property owners could still go in and do dogs also that they wanted their properties yes and that was part of the the agreement that we had with with the easements or the Deeds the property owner providing the Eastman agreement to the city doesn't prohibit them still from using the Outlaws or doing a dog if they so desire the current property owner or a future property owner it's just giving us the ability to put this through and they've chosen not to now we don't have to aminate domain the house right of course we just you know the we just eminent domain you know the portion of the property that we need on the outlaw um yeah this could be the uh City maner site uh I'm supportive of that uh when I first heard you know M and domain things like that I really you know back it up but I'm looking at this and this is uh very nonusable to the property owner it's separated by a major thoroughfare um and it it is holding out a major public benefit this isn't just a pet project this is something uh that is a a critical pedestrian thoroughfare for our entire mid Beach neighborhood so Mr chair um so since it's two parts probably it would have been easier if I would have done two separate items but it's on it's on one item I feel like would it be appropriate if I can make two separate motions I think that makes sense in light of the two different items that are combined into one yes yeah so so so so so so one motion would be asking the um the City attorney well would would be recommending to the city commission that we start the process to do eminent domain and for and for the City attorney to guide the city Commission on that process for the portion of the outlaw that we would need uh to continue the pathway I I I'll work with Jason on the on the after action but I think think you want to direct the city the the commission will want to direct the City attorney to work with the administration on the process that could ultimately lead to an eminent domain if if other steps taken do not result in in the desired outcome well if other steps taken they they have already not resulted in the desired outcome um this is we are doing this so so we are not going back and you know waiting no you know so if I I we've already tried and the outcome has not been what the public deserves if if if it may it's to return to commission to uh to recommend the the City attorney work with the city Administration to begin an eminent domain process or Andor uh be able to negotiate an access easement because it could end up being that yes and to return to commission with with uh the action yes yes move correct okay I'll second and all in favor I it's nice little quum we have here yeah right I like this and and so and so the second part of the motion relates to the part of the pathway that approximately around where fena is at all the way to uh to to 41st Street um so that we can start you know bring us back what it is that we need to start you know let's say fiscal year 25 what is it that you need in fiscal year 25 and break it down by the years so that we can start programming this and start moving forward with this uh piece of infrastructure so that we can support the completion of this connectivity um we can certainly do that sir yeah and and obviously it's not going to be all in this fiscal year of course uh because you got to do studies permitting design and so it's it's a fiscal impact that's extended over multiple fiscal years uh but I think uh I'd want to direct the administration at commission to start uh the process of this so that starting with fiscal year 25 we have dollars you know to start looking into design and permitting and this would be if I may commissioner this would be a priority not because one it's creating a new project is it just to create the new project to be part of our Capital program to decide or to be a priority during the 25 budget process and creating a new project uh and and again it would be a multi-year phase one probably maybe two or 4 $100,000 for year One to begin the design everything in the capital uh construction dollars probably be 26 or 27 listen I think I I think this needs to be a a priority because when you have people using pedestrian infrastructure and then they have to go on the street to achieve connectivity it it becomes a public safety issue and we've already invested the dollars to do it so we need to finish it so then the motion I would see is uh return the commission with a favor recommendation to prioritize during the 202 budget process a new capital project installing a floating walkway as part of the Indian Creek pedestrian pathway and if in prioritizing it we find that you know we need to adjust it or whatever you know we always can but my preference would be to send that as a priority understood thank you do we have a a second for a point of clarification has there any ever been a commissioner that proposed something they go no don't prioritize it though I this is my second budget round and maybe put it lower maybe one I I will uh second your motion commissioner Fernandez and if the time comes and we have a lot of priorities and we need to readjust we do so on the fly but uh I I think this is a a great item we'll show the item pass three nothing yes thank you we do uh would love to hear the baron car number 34 and then uh if my colleagues uh are so inclined I would certainly like to try and hear our other time certain numbers uh 5 and 25 if you had the the appetite uh for the meeting um I know uh those were the only two uh items that the mayor had on and I think they were his priorities so I'd like to be able to accommodate those in here but leave it to you all thank you uh number 34 discuss programming for the new Byron caral geobond project for multi-purpose cultural art space and possibly Workforce housing Andor other uses that are compatible with a cultural art center and the surrounding neighborhood and to consider the various options for financial and funding models for the project number 34 so if I might before you guys all dive in um to me this is a pretty cut and dry opportunity um we have $30 million for cultural art space the geobond commit Geo Bond committee has um recommended unanimously that we spend uh monies towards this project um the movie The model of what it used to be is dead that is not a thing that people want to go and do the way they used to um reimagining the Byron Carlile as a multimodal cultural complex with a ton of community benefits and educational benefits um is a a boon and an economic driver to this part of the city it ties in beautifully with what goes on in the north beach um Normandy Fountain area on a regular basis and at the Bandell um and all the way out to the um the the organically popped up gallery that um actually had one of the artists who was the toast of the town at this past Basel to not jump on this opportunity um is a is a mistake in my view um we have an opportunity not just to bring this cultural Community Center forward but to do it in a way that also provides some um Arts Force Workforce housing um we are talking about being a live workpl community and this is literally the embodiment of that um we are required by the CRA into which the Byron carile fits into the boundaries of um to build Workforce housing and this would enable us to um me meet that requirement without the additional cost of purchasing land um we don't own anything up there that would be suitable um and so we would be hitting on all cylinders here um so the other part to consider is that the workforce housing would help supplement the operating costs of the cultural cons uh Center within a few years so that instead of operating at a deficit which we the city and taxpayers would have to um subsidize and limiting what it could provide to the community the immediate community and the larger Miami community in terms of culturing cultural offerings it would actually be flush with operating cash to do all manner of fabulous things so like I make a motion no I'm kidding Mr chair yes and I'll say one thing I kick it over my colleague commissioner Fernandez agree with all your points commissioner bot another way to say it is given this opportunity we would be paying money not to build Workforce housing in an area where it may be needed most and we're in a housing crisis and and and I get everything comes with a push and a pull and we could make the argument that do this added uh you know housing help traffic her traffic I have my views um that I've made well known but at the end of the day we don't have the money to create the uh Cultural Arts facility that we want without this Workforce housing component right and quite literally we would be saying well if we don't want this we have to pay extra so we'd be we would be paying extra just not to have Workforce housing that we have in our city plans and parties that we need to build that that we have in our CRA requirements that by law we have to build yes uh commissioner Fernandez thank you Mr chair um so this is this is where you know when we discuss these items and different committees were looking at things through different lenses if I'm looking at this from the lens of land use um and and and and a neighborhood uh a neighborhood that has a scarcity for parking a neighborhood that has concerns about about traffic you know I have concerns about building a new building that uh that can add more to the challenges that we are experiencing there and there's also the vision of of of expanding uh Workforce housing which which certainly is is is very important if I'm looking at this through the lens as a of a member of the finance committee it it truly would be I wouldn't I would be deric to my duties not to realize that the rent revenues here will contribute towards the operation and the maintenance of this Cultural Arts Center um you know with in a very short uh period of time uh and I think it wholly covers the operating costs within within the first years um and that it'll be able the ongoing rent Revenue would be able to contribute significantly towards the expanded programming and the commissioning of of artistic uh work uh and other types of subsidies that would need that would be needed to to to sustain cultural activity so when you sit in different capacities you know when you're looking at it from the land use aspect of it I have concerns I have concerns about adding more density there about the impacts to parking and the significant impacts with traffic when I look at this from analyzing the numbers of this it's clear that it makes sense we had advanced in our stated goals of uh of Workforce housing we advance in our goals of North Beach being part of the cultural fabric contributing greatly uh to the cultural scene that that that the Miami Beach has but more most most importantly um the net revenues would go towards the operations and maintenance of of of of this of this facility uh and the city would end up retaining ownership of of the land that can exercise its rights at any time that's how do I say no to that we're advancing in our goals there i' like to make a motion in a way that is that is beneficial uh ultimately to the taxpayers of of the city so I'm happy to Second your your your motion commissioner B thank you commissioner Fernandez could not agree more and thank you for putting it very eloquently um I always uh I was on the other side of this for so many years and uh always encouraged public uh discussion City attorney has made me aware that we have uh hands raised for public comment I would like to hear them I do have a quick question yeah of course um without being said uh are we actually tying into a financial model here today or we're just directing staff to say go out and bring us back the options for this uh Workforce market rate housing uh mix component good afternoon committee members air Carpenter Deputy city manager all you're doing today is giving us your direction so that we can bring a discussion back to commission cuz obviously we have recommendation from a different committee we'll get a recommendation from this committee we're going to bring both of those back to commission and have a discussion there where ultimately we will hopefully get some clear Direction on how we want to pursue the next steps to bring this cultural facility that the community has been asking for for a long time to fruition excellent uh thank you very much for that AR um and where I I'm at I actually uh wrote in called in and opposed the first model uh when this went to uh RFP before because I didn't agree with the short-term rental components um you you can like or not like the development in North Beach uh the one thing that I despise and I think I speak for just about everybody from rental components so uh the ground rules that I would like to set is um you know want to talk about minimum unit size I think we've all been mind on that of not wanting extreme micro units and absolutely no short-term rental abilities uh this is a city where we need to start really facilitating full-time residential housing and when we have the opportunity to do so on public land that's the model that we should be putting forward so if I may before we let everybody else um no short-term rentals no micro units um uh and we should not let the the misguided decisions of Prior commissions saddle this excellent project um with the doubts that have been sown because of oversized overscale overpriced high-end micro unit or not um well in both some buildings have both but Micro unit short-term rentals that are going to um be visited Upon Us in North Beach those things are done and if there were a way to undo them you know I would be first in line to do that however this is the definition of the kind of development we wanted and the master plan the North Beach Master Plan called for and that the residents were behind in droves and so there are ways to mitigate the parking issue the goal is for many people to not even need cars because they would be working and living in the same place um this is exactly the kind of development that should have been in encouraged by prior administrations by prior electeds when the master plan the noi master plan was approved because that's what the community said they wanted and instead we have a 22 story building that's that's literally advertising in the New York Times with a phrase I'm going to quote it directly it's a live Link in the New York Times and you can click on it it says 72 Park Miami Beach first short-term rental approved resident es in Miami Beach that's what that's the mess we have to clean up that's the project that that is the first of many to come that we are dealing with and so for colleagues or Neighbors in North Beach blaming that garbage and laying it on top of what we're trying to build here is damaging and and and problematic to me so yes to this no no to any more of that nonsense so I will now climb down from my Soap Box let me give you my hand yes Mr City attorney uh can we go online sure we have uh two participants on Zoom uh if we could please let Mr Sam inor speak you have two minutes please unmute yourself Miss Mr inor please unmute yourself all right let's move to Mr Wayne Roberts Mr Wayne Roberts you have two minutes good afternoon ladies and gentlemen um I I really respect Tanya and all you folks on the on the on the bench today um I do have concerns and I don't live in North Beach and I literally do not have all the information that you folks have in my mind I do have some points that concern me um Tanya is absolutely correct uh the North Beach uh Town Center um was abused and uh the outcome is not as good as it could be um and it was due to some propaganda that started with you know statements of of grander that ultimately turned into um not the best outcome so I want to make sure when the city makes decisions it's based on facts and data and that has um uh The Good the good outcome that we seek um so my concern was the city came out like a month ago a gentleman uh representing the city and he gave some facts and figures that really shocked me so today we have $30 million worth of of public money that was uh approved in the bond that was sold to us as a standalone project for the carlb the Byron wasn't going to be um uh merged in with somebody else's uh um uh game so uh now we're on a different area but he said that the cost uh to run it independently was like more than double and I'm doing the math and um on a one-story building or a two-story building you know I'm looking at construction South the fifth where it's uh three stories and it's it's under 800 of foot buil out thank you Mr Robert your time is up and Wayne I will say uh you know you and I had uh uh kind of a quick conversation on some of those construction costs and I invite you in uh and I'm it actually raised my antenna I'm happy if uh if you'd be willing to dedicate some of your time to come in and talk with me and City staff on that uh though I think you know these are kind of separate items but I'm happy to address that point with you Wayne because you have my curiosity peaked as well Mr City attorney we have no other participants anybody in the audience the mayor gelber would always say uh no need to do so while you're ahead but I feel great I've spoken to all of you individually thank you all for your care uh passion and commitment to our city thank you motion so I think there's a motion in a second so would you call the vote can as always just to clarify I believe I have it corrected uh return to commission with a favorable recommendation proceed with the new Byron carel project incorporating Workforce housing with no micro units and no short-term rentals excellent congratulations everybody uh excited for the community seeing this move forward all in favor I I and I just have one question and I'm passing this and we're supporting this when this gets to commission the one thing I would just want to know when we discuss this further is does the housing have to be limited just to Arts can it be just a percentage for ours so that also the general population you know obviously an important project we're going to move I feel we need to move forward with with this given the economic model of it but I just want to make sure it's just not limited to Art force and support as I understand I think the only uh parameters that we are uh even given direction to and the commission would be able to Pivot from that is no short-term rentals no micro units and work Workforce that was work work I used the term Workforce and I and I I think that could be then clarified to commission if you're going to then segregate uh specific percentages for other uses right and and and the motion is for us to for you guys to draft an RFQ that would be was I think it was to return and I I think I defer to the deputy say manager because I think there's another another recommendation from another committee I guess it would come as a discussion to get clarification if it discuss and take action yeah I mean we would we would ultimately put this on as a discuss and take action at the city commission especially since we had you know differing results of the two different committees um it wouldn't be a consent item it it would be a discussion item or or um could potentially even be a resolution um but to the point of the other item obviously we will have plenty of time to discuss the details of the different approaches to um different components of the project in the future okay thank you take off for all the work and do we have appetite to hear number five and 25 combined yeah let's let's not that excellent let me read into the record number five discuss taking whatever action is necessary including allocating funding for electricity and infrastructure upgrades in order to provide permanent palm tree lighting in Lumis park that is number five and then linked to number 25 identifying lighting enhancements in specified areas of South Beach as previously recommended by the public safety and neighborhood quality of life committee similar to other successful lighting projects implemented in other areas of the city such as 41st Street 71st Street and Maran Avenue number 25 ladies okay we're going to start with number five uh good afternoon uh Commissioners Elizabeth Muro uh facilities and Fleet managements interim director for the record so this is to install permanent lighting at U Lumis Park the the lights that we have there right now are temporary in nature and they've exceeded their useful life and we've expended a lot of resources trying to mend and and everything but what we need there is either a complete overhaul of his existing infrastructure which we provided to codes or we we may even contemplate solar lighting which does not require as extensive infrastructure but there is a cost associated with it Li thank you for that and uh Jo I don't know if you have anything to say and I'm certainly not an expert here but I live above canopy Park and I overlook it and the lighting I don't know how to describe it but it's kind of at the lower level where it's almost like pillars coming out of the ground it's the most beautiful Park I I've ever seen and I'm blessed to live above it and look down on it why wouldn't something like that work in Lumis Park uh be respective of uh the turtles because it's not elevated and it just provides a a very very nice warm enhances Public Safety uh why couldn't something like that be the model uh in Lumis Park um well I I I think if I'm not mistaken the um the majority of the of our residents and and visitors they enjoy the tree wrapped lighting that we have I didn't mean mutually exclusive oh yeah oh but I see you're you're saying also provide some Bard lighting as well Bullard lighting yeah I I that that's certainly something we can certainly look at for sure and it is very very nice it it lights up The Path if if I can add just for uh because we have a couple of new members of the commission we had a series of very similar items I think are more linked to number 25 but uh as the items mentioned there's already uh tree wrapped uh lighting uh in several other districts of the city I think there's again one in South Beach one in mid beach one in North Beach um they're quite expensive some of them were several million dollars they were uh discussed uh during the 24 budget process uh they were not prioritized and they were not funded obviously there's the one component of the several million dollars to actually install and then there's the you know the ongoing annual cost cuz they are quite pricey uh using the the the the vendor any vendor but any for the maintenance because there's constant maintenance wear and tear on those things so I think when the the commission looked at these several different areas uh the dollars uh just were not allocated in that area and I think that's where I was also going with the Ballers not that they'd be mutually exclusive but I would presume that maybe The Upfront cost would be greater but the ongoing Opex would be much less because there wouldn't be that replacement component for for B lighting um it is the maintenance cost is much less than for tree wrap lights that's correct can I ask a dumb question thank you um everyone loves the WRA trees we have them all over the city um more and more neighborhoods want them to be in their neighborhood part of the cost is that we have to use outside vendors right to to wrap the trees yes we have what are they called cherry picker trucks as part of our Fleet we do um so could we not have one or two people on our facilities team learn how to do this and be our sort of In-House experts um so that the cost would go go down significantly to just the cost of replacing the lights Alex just said I I don't if I I don't recall because I I'd implemented this project um when I was in Surfside so they downtown district and from what I recall the most of the cost was the the actual purchase of the lights itself the installation cost which was done by an outside vendor who's you know obviously an expert on how to put this together quickly and such was was part of it but I believe it's really the special you know uh 24 not 24/7 but 365 day a year up holiday type lighting is really the I think the major of that upfront cost not necessarily Manpower obviously if if it was able to be done in house there would be some kind of savings but I don't think it's I don't think that's the majority of it I I I do want to though if we were to do that we would it would be a dedicated crew and I can tell you from Public Works perspective our street lighting crew is a a crew of eight and they're responsible for maintaining uh most of the the lights in City owned lights in the in in the city so it's quite a bit of work so um this would require additional resources thank you Joe and I think we can maybe make a motion to move forward with number five and if it's prioritized in the budget it's prioritized in the budget to the extent that it's not it's not um through the chair if I may clarify so number five actually offers two options one which is a complete infrastructure um upgrade um that's just basically hardwire installing junk boxes and so forth and the other is um solar powered wow so let me if if I can ask about that because I thought solar power my understanding was because I recall when we did the lights on Meridian Avenue which I'm still so excited about the lights on Meridian Avenue I got so happy whenever I drive down there at night I call it like the S the silver lining of Miami Beach at night um but my understanding from when we did that installation was that solar lighting was not feasible I don't know if it's because of the shade of the trees uh is is it a different condition on Ocean Drive where perhaps we could do that there I believe the fact that we have a more open space allows for um the solar lighting to be successful there um we did test one and by the way the Sol lighting we're proposing is compl completely Amber so it allows you to have the lighting year round and we do have two options one with a 20 foot which is the majority of the trunk and one that's a full palm tree of the 600 some palm trees we have out there this would wrap 494 and what's the difference in cost between uh doing solar as opposed to doing uh the junction boxes and everything else so for the solar lighting it's approximately 575,000 um and 8 77,000 if we're going to do the full trunk for the infrastructure it's about 85,000 the only thing with the solar lighting it also includes a maintenance cost for a year um depending on which lighting we propose what is the recommendation of the administration I would probably propose if you wanted to do something very quickly maybe want to do a pilot to see how well the solar lighting Works um and also you know look at longterm you have the infrastructure I'm sorry I can't hear you well sorry we have airplanes flying over us it's hard to hear things you're imagining in your I don't hear [Laughter] airplanes so um as I was saying we may wanted to appil it with the solar lighting to see how well it works we do know that the solar lighting also has the ability to change colors and but that's going to be for 2026 and that allows us to have year round lighting where we can have the warm white lights throughout the year um except for turtle season where we would have Amber if I'm correct on that is if the option is if they're interested in that option this would be basically a deferred item where you would recommend because the tech isn't ready is this would be a 26 this would would come back as a 26 enhancement for consideration correct which one I'm sorry which one for the solar for the solar the solar with the multi the multi lighting just the I guess the tech isn't right and yeah can I question uh through the chair I was under the impression the solar lighting um didn't have bright enough lights and didn't stay lit long enough has that have those issues been addressed with the technology yes they have um we actually had a couple of samples and they're very bright couldn't tell that they were solar so I I would respectfully suggest that we do a um a pilot of the solar because we're trying to be leaders in the in in environmental sustainability um so it would be less expensive be less of a drain um and not require electricity um that would be my preferred I I I I agree I and and and I know uh from from when I sponsored the item with the trees on Meridian Avenue after it got installed the number of the residents reached out they loved it but they wished it would have been solar and we had to explain to them why we couldn't do solar uh so taking that feedback into consideration I'd second uh commissioner bot's motion to proceed uh with testing the solar technology and in if May to always this facility is that so we would send this to commission with a favorable recommendation uh to prioritize prioritize during the 25 budget process a pilot Pro a pilot project at at Lumis park for the solar uh lights and then I guess what and that would be the motion and then they would if it gets budgeted and it gets installed then you know we can see how that that Tech works out and uh then you know return at some future date if there's interested in to expand those lightings U to other areas is that what I'm hearing yes we do um could we hear from Mr Sam inor you have two minutes please unmute yourself are you able to hear me yes thank you so much so I have been working with a group of 2030 local residents here soby safe is included in them and other community organizations are trying to get bring decorative lights to um Ocean Drive uh to Collins Avenue and to Washington Avenue that I think these items are before you right now and I want just appeal to you by saying that we are probably the most walked traveled part of Miami Beach and in terms of lighting um we are not well lit at all uh I'm happy that 41st and 71st Street have gotten uh those kind of lights that create a certain look to them and and obviously illuminate the area um I think we deserve it based on the tax base are we at both residential as well as tourists we contribute immensely to the city there have been you know just I would say uh two weeks someone was mugged down the street here um so there's many spots where uh the lighting is not strong at all uh from what I understand it requires serious legislation and much more expense to install street lights whereas these decorative lights are much cheaper these holiday lights and uh in light of all the above I'm certainly hoping that you will support this and pass this today we've been working on this for years we met with um uh Commissioners mayor um over over the last 3 four years we've been in conversation a few blocks have been lit up but it's not what we're asking for we're asking for these three strips uh to be lit up in the appropriate areas that you have before you and um in light of the finances in light of what we contribute I think we deserve to be treated seriously and to be given um your utmost attention and hopefully you will pass this out of committee favorably the mayor supports it so um I can see no reason why we should not be given this important uh uh tool to make our our neighborhood safe and to make it feel secure and look beautiful aesthetically as well thank you Mr inor could we please hear from Mr Novak hi good afternoon everyone Mitch novic 901 Collins Avenue I Overlook lus Park and I find this proposal uh entirely unnecessary especially when considering the cost to wrap lights around 494 palm trees that a cost an excess of half a million dollars I find the WRA palm trees especially at The Clevelander gy the Kelvin temperature is wrong uh it uh I agree we need better Lighting in the city especially over Collins Avenue uh but also Al uh you need to consider there's a looming uh bondle Park project uh associated with lumus Park where Ocean Drive is proposed to be put where the palm trees are today I would hope you kill that plan and kill this plan is uh regarding the palm trees it's unnecessary this being a budget conscious commission we need to focus on the Necessities uh of the infrastructure we need and uh on a nice note I invite everybody uh to my place this weekend Saturday and Sunday should be a nice Community oriented crowd and uh thank you that's my two cents thank you Mitch I know how much this weekend always means to you and what a fabulous host you are uh thank you for all you do for the community and we always welcome your input so to the extent did somebody want to make a motion T you made one and seconded right and I'm just to to to re to restate again it's the returning commission favor recommendation to prioritize during the 25 budget process a pilot project for the lumus park tree wrapped solar lighting and then we'll see how that turns out and and revisit a future time okay thank you thank you thank you all 26 I think HR left I'm going to open and continue item number 26 uh because I'd like to have our human resources department present here I'm also um separately working on a red flag ordinance that I would like to be part of the responsibilities of the Inspector General for uh for for items appearing on the agenda I want to make sure that the you know if we're looking to increase the the uh the pension of the Inspector General um you you know it the the Inspector General isn't you know runting the day-to-days of the city and on call 247 year round you know the City attorney the city manager they're constantly getting our calls and and it's a reason why these certain Charter offices have the higher pension amount um this request came to increase uh the pension acral factor for the Inspector General I just want to make sure we do it in in a way uh that's fair you know that we just don't give uh that we give this you know that it truly is done in a way that it's fair to the level of work that's also done by the other chartered offices so I'm just going to open and continue this given also that HR is not present we'll show the item open and continue to the next meeting thank you we got through a lot today which I don't know if that's good at a finance committee because that it just means we spending a lot of money um one two which there two things no there's five and 25 we heard those both yeah I think um thank you staff for all your time I hope uh before traffic becomes a headache you're able to get out and enjoy this lovely weekend with family to those that will be participating in the events festivities and operations of our City this weekend uh certainly thank you for your times and efforts and uh fabulous Memorial they weakened everybody uh and make a motion to adjourn the meeting second third [Music] recording stopped [Music] he he oh [Music] [Music]