[Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] n [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] he [Music] oh [Music] [Music] oh [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] up n [Music] is [Music] n please take your seats the meeting is about to [Music] begin please stand by we are going on air in 5 4 3 2 1 body welcome to the finance and economic resiliency committee meeting uh we're here we have a pretty packed agenda I am going to turn it over to our CFO Jason Green for introductions to our City attorney Rick too and then we're going to get started with our agenda good morning today's meeting of the finance and economic resiliency committee has been scheduled in a hybrid format with a quum of the committee physically present and remaining members staff and members of the public appearing either iners or virtually via zoom in order to participate in today's meeting virtually members of the public may dial 88847591 5462 pound or log into the Zoom app and enter the webinar ID which again is 863 659 5462 any individual wishing to speak on an item must click the raised hand icon if they are using the Zoom app or dial star9 if you are participating by phone uh thank you uh chair we have a couple of time certains to uh to announce uh our first time certain is number item number nine at 10:30 we have the first item uh the second item to be heard will we number seven at 10:45 time certain and then uh number five has an 11:30 time certain those are all the announcements I'm sorry Jason what was the first time certain uh number nine would be the first time certain at 10:30 number seven T45 and then number uh number five will be 11 11:30 okay why don't we uh kick off with item number nine let's get the meeting started we read the item uh a resolution of the mayor and City Commission of the city of Miami Beach Florida accepting the recommendation of the finance and economic resiliency committee it's March 22nd 2024 meeting to direct the administration to initiate a non-bonding discussions with Live Nation worldwide Inc regarding the possible construction of a new theater at the Jackie gleon theater site and referring this matter back to uh FK uh for further discussion number nine yeah and Mr City attorney uh why don't you tell us the direction we're going to take here sure um after reviewing the after action for the April 3rd 2024 commission meeting it was determined that the item was uh referred back to the committee with the report that was prepared by staff so there was a miscommunication um and the item was placed on this agenda but it really belongs on the next city Commission meeting agenda which will be on September 11th okay thank you so we can show that item moved we'll show the item uh show the item moved to commission for discussion and discussion take action thank you so motion to close the item second exclamation I'll second it oh good okay why don't we move ahead to item number seven time certain for 10:45 read number seven into the record number seven is a resolution of the mayor and City Commission of the city of May Beach Florida directing the administration to negotiate appropriate terms and conditions for the possible extension of the term of the Miami Beach Marina lease to include options for both shortterm less than 10 years and longterm 10 years or more extension and to present a draft term sheet that includes both options to the finance and economic resiliency committee and the Public Public Safety neighborhoods and quality of life committee for review by each committee as soon as reasonably prac IAL uh number seven thank you and Liz I'll let you introduce this I'll let everybody know kind of how I'm feeling about this uh this is a complicated item it's not incredibly time sensitive given that the lease isn't up and we're trying to get out in front of this uh the meat and potatoes for this item uh and the full analysis came out late last night I think there hasn't been really um too much Community engagement uh we've had a lot of it in previous months but in terms of having the uh actual contract and proposal in front of us and then having time to uh read through it comprehensively uh digest it discuss it with the community I I I wouldn't feel uh entirely comfortable with that but I would like to hear the discussion and perhaps continue the September meeting I want to give uh uh our city staff if there's people from the community or online that want to speak here um I want to begin to have these uh conversations so we can prepare to move this forward um but that's uh that's where I stand and you know we'll uh we'll hear from staff and then I I'll turn it to my colleagues about how we want to proceed list please good morning Mr chair committee members Elizabeth Muro interim director for facilities and Fleet Management so we have been negotiating with Sunex some potential terms for the extension of a 10-year agreement um we first presented this item at the July 10th neighborhoods U meeting and we came up with some preliminary terms first of all we're going to look at all the terms that were already negotiated between Sunex and sna as being Incorporated in the key terms but we have also made some other um items I believe we have a a copy of the exhibit yeah MH and in consideration of these terms we're looking at Capital Improvements that we're going to request from SX um to put the maintenance of world class um Marina we're looking at a negotiations negotiations I'm sorry with submerged land leaves which the city currently pays for and once that's renewed um what that will look like including any expansion of the footprint we're looking at um resident uh priorities go ahead how come we just got the terms right now how are we supposed to possibly digest this I would that's that's what I was saying yeah I would venture I would yes I would make a i second his motion to defer and that's kind of how I opened but I think maybe we have a presentation and then we def I can't even let's can we give our colleague a c okay it's my item yeah yeah thank you um I think I I just got this as well I think what we can do is to be constructive uh in some of our thoughts um is to ensure some of the resident issues that have been voiced with the marina extension or with with the sunext um gets discussed so that we're very clear on what what the intent is and so I want to ensure that the quality of life around the marina is is upheld and the issue is these party charter boats right um and I think one of the issues one of the agreements is we'll limit it down from I think 50 or 60 btrs down to 10 that's correct um ideally I'd like to have zero Charter party charter boats okay I understand the need that we should have some but um what I want to avoid is these party charter boats turning uh their btrs now are like an Eco tour where they go see some I guess flamingos and then they crack open keg okay or uh they go on a fishing you know they put up one fishing P they say hey we're on a fishing tour but it's really a party boat so I want to make sure that we have really tight guard rails on ensuring that doesn't happen you know just shooting from the hip I think a really easy way to do that is to ensure that we have access to all their security cameras where it's not you know we don't have to ask maybe it's we just go log in and we have access and then we can find out who like the bad apples are um another idea is to keep it all at one dock all the party charters so that it's manageable preferably the fuel dock um and you know so those are some of the concerns we just want to make sure that whatever we put forward there's no really wiggle room around it and if they're trying to wiggle around it we can catch them understood and those are some of the terms that we have identified um and we'll certainly continue to negotiate with the marina Sunex to to refine those and commissioner would you like to take the lead on perhaps having a sunshine meeting with the community probably timing could be a little tight I'm not sure when the next uh finance committee is but perhaps sometime past Labor day but before the next finance committee um you know they've been pretty instrumental in this and uh I think it would be course discussion Sunshine meetings are great so um and I'd welcome everyone to to join and if you post one I'll try to attend this one chair we have two callers on the line please let's hear from the public Michael Grio please unmute yourself morning everybody can you hear me okay yes good morning Great Commission um a good portion of the items um on that term sheet I think that we've come to an accord on some of them some of them not so much um that is the uh staff's uh positions uh where they are at this point um there's some issues and some of them I've had conversations with with several of you including uh commissioner Suarez some of the uh issues like getting all of the boats on the same dock may not be feasible um I'm speaking with the manager of the marina to see if there's any wiggle room on that but because of the various size of the remaining 10 Charters I just don't know if that's going to work um we are likely going to implement a cap on the number of guests allowed on the either Eco Charters or fishing charters which I think creates extra guard rails uh regarding any sort of uh potential of them getting cute and uh you know saying oh there's a dolphin and you know let's open up a six-pack kind of thing so we are it's it's in everybody's interest to kind of lower the temperature regarding any sort of negative behavior that's affecting the neighborhood you know the our CFO and myself we live right there so we are both directly impacted as residents so it's in our interest all of us to make sure that it's smooth sailing I'm no pun intended um there's just a couple things that we're still working out with staff but I think most of these are in a good spot the quality of life issues were really worked out between sopna and Sunex and I was actually not part of that initial conversation but I'm in continued conversations with uh the president of sofa and they're looking forward to this getting resolved I know it was described as not time sensitive but they they're looking to get pretty aggressive about converting the parking in the two garages uh back to what it was before which we are in favor of um as well as the reduction in Charters so I think that we're heading in the right direction um just understanding that every concession that sunx is making it is a financial it's a reduction in the in the income and that affects both the bottom line for Sunex but also for the city because the city is getting 10% of the gross revenue from the marina as well I think the marina wrote a check to the city for somewhere an excess of $2.7 Million last year so we just want to make sure that as we continue to give the marina haircuts on Revenue generation that we understand that that affects everybody whether it's the parking the rent uh fuel all of these different issues but I appreciate your time and if you guys have any questions of me you can ask them now you can ask them offline you know I'm always available to you thank you and it seems like you'd be aligned uh thinking it's premature to move this out of committee here uh we can have some discussions and address this in September so it seems like uh you would be in agreement there well yeah I think uh we especially with I was communicating directly with Liz and with Eric and I think with some of the city manager issues kind of being in in the vortex I think that we were trying to get as many issues resolved as possible um but I think some of them I think we can definitely you know put our thumb on the scale at this point on both sides and just get it done there's some definitions that we need to have clarified regarding what is maintenance versus what is capital expenditures um but you know we're just happy that you know sofa was really they were really the Catalyst and all this back a year ago and uh we want everybody to be on the same page and make sure that it's not any sort of you know adversarial negotiation I mean there's still right now 28 years left on the lease you know we'd love to have the additional 9 point whatever years um and we want to make sure that we're good partners with the city we are a tenant um we're not necessarily a vendor but we are partners with the city because of the revenue sharing and we want it to be a long and fruitful partnership so if you're inclined to push this to finance in um in September with an identifiable goal of potentially having it go back to Commission in October um I think we'd be okay with that and uh we'll spend some time in the next little while uh sharpening our pencils on some of the the financial issues okay perfect um I'm happy to hand it over to any of my colleagues if they want to put issues uh out into the public realm that are important to them if not happy to also move this forward and uh continue to the September Finance meeting motion second second perfect so we'll show the item to return to the September FK after a community outreach meeting thank you chair excellent why don't we get to uh new business um item number four commissioner Suarez cat commissioner thank you is anyone from the cat colony here okay Brad I I I I can speak for the the cat folks thank you you a cat guy or I'm the cat guy you need that filter that judge had where he was on zoom and he appeared as a cat I I could it could you know we have great technology so we should be able to do something like that go PJ and just before you start um Brett I just want to make clear that I think the intent of my item was to ask Administration what the what would be the cost for spaying and every and neutering every cat in in my beach um and what that cost would be and so um I think there was a little bit of um miscommunication on uh on that so maybe you can help to Enlighten that right so I so I think um and good morning chairman and fellow Commissioners Brad Kain intern Public Works director um so it's it's a multi-tiered phase approach to it and I think as we um discussed at the last perk meeting um I think everybody was in line with supporting I believe there's a $330,000 um budget um addition to uh fy2 and that what that'll do is that'll begin the first phase of the program which is basically having uh teams of like two in North Beach midm and South Beach and be able to go ahead and start doing a comprehensive uh cat count so to speak and there's a there's a protocol to doing that and we need to make sure that um we get all of them done and that's that's the first step in the process uh in in being able to you know help get to where you'd like to be so we have to get that done first and I think once that's done we'll be able to come back and and and and outline the next steps in the process um through the chair so I I don't I don't necessarily want to spend $30,000 just to C count cats you know I'd rather I'd rather you come to us tell us what the I know it's I know I'm putting the cart before the horse but is ideally I'd like to know what the cost would be for let's just how about we assume that there's like a certain number of cats and I think Holly even said there's maybe 10,000 uh Community cats um and if that's the case what would be the cost for that right I I I I think there's more and I think that there was a um you know from obviously as a result of covid there seemed to be more of a growth period for those cats in the city from you know 2021 into today I think that the number there has has grown substantially so we're you know we're not exactly sure and I think that doing this will get us to that point so we can have an an exact accounting of it um and there are cats that are already marked you know with wing tipped deers and then there are ones that are not marked at all which we really need to make that delineation an account for because some of them have put been put back in the cat colony out there and then there's obviously the ones that are not so I think if we're able to get that done and I and I think it may not ex hit that $3,000 but you know this is not like a service you can just go out and you know say call somebody up and say hey I need you to come out and do this there through soic cats and and through Holly's contacts um we're finding some people that you know obviously have a lot of familiarity with the program and that are able to then um be able to uh uh participate in this process and be able to help us get where we need to get it probably will cost less than that um but I think that you know we just wanted to make sure you know we have enough you know funing to be able to do this because certainly from you know our staff level it's just it's just Holly and and Joanne who is the cat Trapper uh and that's the only staff you know city has for this program right I just I want to make sure that we're not paying $30,000 to a couple volunteers to go out for a couple weeks and and can trap cats I mean I'm assuming the 30,000 is just a cap um the cap okay um and that would be for two people per neighborhood or we we' try to do it by having at least a couple people up in North Beach midbeach and South Beach so it' probably be a total of like six people and how long do you think that would take um you know I I want to be uh you know safe and saying it's probably within the 30-day period that you be able to do that okay I'd like to know what my colleagues feel about it open the floor to everyone uh commissioner dingz I believe is on Zoom would like to chat we could recognize her hi everybody good morning commissioner vice vice mayor as an aside uh to this item I just wanted to Loop the body in I met with the county a couple weeks ago and was mentioning the importance of the uh trap new to release and they've put me in touch with animal services and they're going to give us access to a mobile vet uh to have a few days of action to get this done and I will ensure to to coordinate with um Brad Kane and his team uh so that we get all neighborhoods in the beach but I just wanted to let you guys know that uh this was coming down the pike as well great yeah excellent I just check I just check with I'm sorry I was going to check with Brad to see it would make sense then to come back in the October for for an update it would sound like if that that's okay it's up to the body sure yeah that that's fine with that so we'll show the Adam herd uh and to return in October with an update perfect thank you number five and six we're going to hear two together we have a Time certain for that at 11:30 commissioner we have one public comment yes please Wayne Roberts please unmute yourself Wayne I good morning I have a feeling you were probably calling about the marina and I'm sorry you weren't recognized if you want to uh put your two cents in on that even though we uh moved on uh I always welcome public comment and encourage it as well yeah I'm not quite sure they they forgot me uh and you know I just want to give you some background on this so uh as you probably all know uh there was a um a 99-year lease um uh uh referendum placed uh four years ago on the ballot and it was defeated largely because I got involved and uh did a campaign with the help of hundred of residents to uh defend uh the city uh subsequent to that the the commission at the time I think as payback against the the defeat enabled sunx to gain access to the garages for public parking that um that was that turned the the under our buildings in the neighborhood into a a criminal situation um and they didn't care about the citizens of of South AFA um this this procedure um that uh I'm hearing now is is is completely illegal if you go forward with a 10-year extension or 9ye 11 month extension or 9 years 11 months and uh 364 days uh because well it would only be illegal if you don't do a reference um I worked very hard for four months five months to work with sunx and and teror group to come up with a comprehensive plan that takes into consideration uh the the neighborhood the buildings in the neighborhood the parking situation that's criminal the uh the charters uh the investment in the Baywalk and I presented I worked very hard and um I can tell you that um the outcome of any extension for a short period of time would only uh decrease the valuation that I ultimately more than doubled from what was proposed four years ago in a referendum into that proposal uh net dollars to the city and changing the Dynamics of the economic uh payout to the city uh whether it cost to maintain the water weight uh that we pay on behalf of sunx uh going forward whether it was uh rev share whether it's uh um uh the food sales where we only get 1% although the agreement getting back to the 80s really should have been 10% I don't even know how it got to 1% but um uh everything I did I I thought of the interest of the business Community the local community and the city in general and but what I I can't stand by and allow is our Charter to be uh affected uh by an illegal action which would extend a 28-year lease by 10 years without referendum if you do a referendum it's all said and good but this commission cannot cannot by law change uh the deal extend the deal uh thank you Wayne that's that's your time and and uh you know I look forward to you being part of that uh Community discussion going forward as uh uh in the interim in between now and September so thank you for your involvement uh Mr City attorney could you please advise if if that's a correct statement that we would need a referendum um I don't believe that is correct prior City attorneys and I have discussed with at least one or two um view the requirement not to apply in in this particular case could you explain why just so I can understand this is not entering into a new agreement which is what the charter con completes this is an extension of of an of an existing agreement number one and number two uh this lease predates the charter amendment that has these new requirements but first and foremost this is not entering into a new lease which is what the charter contemplates thank you appreciate um why don't we move on uh before we come back to our time surance commissioner Fernandez do you want to present item number eight uh discuss the possible acquisition of certain Outlaws along Indian Creek Drive just going to read the item in the record uh number eight discuss possible acquisition of certain outlots along at the increte drive for the creation of bus pull out uh bay bus stops to amarate traffic number eight thank you Mr chair um this is an item I've placed on the agenda due to the significant traffic that we all experience on Collins Avenue most specifically when you're heading south on Collins Avenue part of what contributes to the traffic in this area of the city is when you have the buses that stop on the road to allow the boarding of passengers onto the public transportation certainly public transportation is an important piece of infrastructure that we need to continue advancing upon to ironically relief the traffic in the in the area but I do believe that part of what we should be doing is uh considering the acquisition or entering into some sort of agreement with the property owners of the outlots on the west side of Collins Avenue to facilitate the buses pulling over into into the outlots avoid the blocking and the flow of traffic to amarate uh the backup that we often experience especially during C when we have the highest amount of traffic we hear it from our residents it could take them 45 minutes an hour to get from North Beach to South Beach and it most certainly does become a public safety situation once you have an ambulance stuck in that traffic or some other type of emergency vehicle I see we have our director of Transportation standing before us and i' like some guidance uh from our city Administration as to what action is needed from this committee so that we can engage in negotiations or conversations with the property owners of these Outlaws uh to facilitate this thank you Mr chair Jose good morning why don't your thought good morning Mr chair uh Jose Gonzalez transportation and Mobility director and in parking director uh and thank you commissioner Fernandez for for the introduction on on this item um the the bus stop that is on Indian Creek Drive just north of 45 First Street actually plays a very critical role in our public transit Network reason being is that it is a critical transfer point because of our grid system our street grid system and how Collins goes up Collins goes up to 44th and then it curves becomes Indian Creek Drive so there are multiple bus routes that originate south of uh 44th Street that travel Northbound along Collins they get up to 44th they do the curve they they navigate the curve and when they get to Indian Creek they make a left and they go southbound and from there that's where this bus stop plays a critical role because that's a diversion Point bus stop uh bus routes can either then proceed westbound on 41st Street towards Mount Si or they can continue southbound along Indian Creek Drive so that's a a a point of of diversion if you will and for that reason and and I'll mention as well that it's not just County buses it's also our trolley so we have about uh Five County bus routes and two trolley routes so several routes pass by that point and stop there so passengers can transfer from one understood the importance of this bus route is 100% understood and we need to support it we need to expand upon it we need to continue seeing our public transportation um options as as a resource to facilitate the the the the issue we have with traffic congestion in our city so the problem is not the public transportation my question is what action do you need from the committee so that we can explore entering into use agreements of these out lws so that these buses so that they're not stopping on a lane of traffic so they're not stopping on a traveling so they can pull over into a cut in ideally in these out Lots so that traffic can continue flowing especially during our peak hours of traffic when we're having to mobilize police resources when we're having to ask the Florida Department of Transportation to build for us a second uh turning lane uh so that so that so that in addition to everything that our law enforcement is doing with the employment of public uh of traffic uh Specialists with the work that FDT is doing with the double turning lane that we also explored this additional option to uh alleviate the traffic so the option of a bus Bay uh that you're referring to is a very it's it can be a very effective option for that very reason that when the bus when the bus serves that stop it will pull out of out of the way in order to create a bus stop uh at that location a bus Bay a bus a bus Bay excuse me it would require a uh some sort of arrangement with the private property owner understood what action do you need from the committee today in order to enter into that discussion and negotiation we we can be we can reach out to the property property own to the private property owner and engage them in a conversation to see if they would be amenable to some sort of a Arrangement either a temporary short-term Arrangement such as a temporary lease of of that property or a full you know full out uh acquisition um we have not done that due diligence yet having I think the direction from this body to begin that process uh would be helpful thank you and Mr attorney the the direction that this committee can't provide Direction clearly uh so what would put us in the proper posture so that we can advance with this yes I'm glad that that you're asking um the there should be a resolution from this committee to the full commission and then the commission can authorize uh the administration to engage in discussions negotiations with the various Property Owners involved and and and Mr director correct me if I'm wrong you've identified uh I believe uh seems like two different uh locations where we might potentially be able to consider a bus Bay that's correct along Collins Avenue yes where the bus stop is currently located on public RightWay but in order to to create a bus Bay it would require um private property right we would have to enter into private property so colleagues uh i' I'd appreciate your feedback on this as we all know traffic is a problem in our city it'll only continue to to get worse and we know that there's no solution to it but we can always try to urate it uh so I welcome your your feedback and your support on this motion back to the city commission yeah I love the idea I love the creativeness I love the proactive thinking um one thing I'll ask you Jose sounds almost silly because we should all be on the same team but do we have for a lack of a better word an enforcement mechanism to ensure that if we did do an acquisition like this uh that the bus drivers are actually pulling into the bus Bay um just through my anecdote alone two eyes I I've seen the exact problem commissioner Fernandez is correctly identified and that that bus Bay being open and accessible and bus drivers just taking the easy way out and just remaining in that lane of traffic so do we have for lack of a better word enforcement mechanisms to ensure our drivers are using properly utilizing these bus Bas we we we would not be able to enforce County County buses and require them to use it but we would work with the county to inform all all their drivers and alert them to use that that uh that bus bait once it's created one important uh point is to ensure that that bus Bay once it's created is always kept free and clear of any parked vehicles of any obstructions there are times where buses will not use a bus Bay because there is a vehicle illegally parked within the bus Zone if you will so we can assist with that and just ensure through enforcement that that area once it's created is always kept clear for bus drivers to be able to use it but in terms of requiring forcing bus drivers to to use it we would rely on Miami day County for for that enforcement Comm B um do you have any sense of what the impact the the cost would be to acquire this these pieces of land not yet uh not yet commissioner like even just a ballpark sense um well we have we do have the dimensions and those are are specified here in your in your memo the dimensions of a bus Bay and they're quite large bus Bays have to allow for the bus to enter What's called the the um entry taper and then the actual uh length of the Bus Plus then the exit taper for the bus to exit the bus Bay and re-enter traffic so it becomes um over 100 ft over 100 feet long but if about if I may um if if I may the city has entered for example south of of 41st Street south of 41st Street the city of Miami Beach has entered into use agreements for outlots where we have constructed a pedestrian path along Indian Creek Waterway how much did the city pay those Property Owners those Condominiums um for in in those in those agreements for the use of those Outlaws south of 41st Street commissioner I was not involved with those negotiations I believe Public Works handled Mr attorney uh are you familiar uh with that I'm not but I believe that some of those are in the nature of easements I'm not sure what will be required for the purposes of the bus Bas so that can have an impact on price maybe if we could ask between Jose if you could le as with Public Works legal um City manager's office to come back with with that with a letter to commission that'd be great thank you if I can to help with with this item I believe uh there's there's a direction to return this to commission um to direct the administration to explore either property acquisition lease or use agreement for certain outlots along Indian Creek Drive South near 41st Street and then the return to furk for discussion of the appropriate time yeah can this committee not make that uh direction to staff commit Prov you recommend to the to the administration okay so I'm sorry you recommend to the to the commission I apologize I've been sitting on this committee for well you know committees for a very long time and we can give direction without going back to the commission many times when the administration feels that they can resolve a simple issue and it's always been like that for example um you know it's not so much of Direction but if the administration says this doesn't need to go back to the commission for approval and it's already been referred here which which was our stop if we didn't want it referred and we didn't approve it then we don't refer it to committee so you do have our approval and if we can take care of it at the committee level level we always have otherwise you're just going to clog up our agenda yeah clog up the agenda I'm I'm not just pulling this out of a hat Rick I'm telling you that we if if the administration could get it done if one of us was not in agreement about a referral that's your moment to uh to stop the item well I see we have five members of the city commission PR and I don't sense opposition from any of us either I am all for riding us of bureaucracy and uh efficiency it just seems very silly to delay this for two months uh on something procedural when we have five members of the commission sitting here in favor of just asking staff to essentially continue or engage in discussion you know you're we're not asking you to go out and execute an agreement or uh enter into a contract uh we are just asking for staff to begin that process yeah thank you thank yeah I agree with that thank you so much so so so I believe that it would be to return to FK for additional discussion uh after exploring either a property acquisition lease or use agreement costs uh for the certain outlaw long Indian Creek drives uh South near 41st Street how much time do we think that that could take uh it's hard to say but I think reaching out we could do fairly quickly and if the owner gives us a a meeting we'd be happy to have that discussion with him and come back to you with an update as to whether they're amendable or thank you thank you Mr chair was that are we talking about the owner that's the hold out I don't even think no no this is this is separate this is on the north side of 41st stre the hold out is on the South Side okay yeah thank you so we're all good with that commissioner Fernandez do you want to introduce item number 12 and then we'll go to our 11:30 time suron uh that I'll hand over to commissioner Rosen Gonzalez um Mr chair I'd like to just just out of respect to our new city manager uh and the trust we've placed in him I'd like to have the opportunity to discuss this item with him it is a major structural change to a department under his purview uh and so I'd like to defer this item until such time that I've been able to speak with our with our new city manager perfect fine with that we'll show the item deferred thank you um do you want to just uh as we have a couple of minutes to get uh few uh through a few quick things um old business item number two and I'll tell you where I was thinking with that and then I'll hand it over you to introduce the item and see the direction you want to take uh I think just given the sensitivities maybe we actually send that back to the entire commission uh just as a discussion item um that way it's Charter officer the full commission has a uh uh say in that but let me let you introduce it and see where you want to go uh sure uh this this in essence is to uh place the the Inspector General uh pension acral uh Factor uh at a parallel with the other chartered officers um and it's an item for for discussion and not bringing forward here one specific recommendation or or another I think we can also perhaps seek the input of the audit committee uh that deals closely with the with the Inspector General uh and be good to uh get their feedback I'll tell you just superficially the role of the Inspector General is an important role one that was created by the electric to uh seek uh you know transparency efficiency and proper uh conduct in in our in our government prevent fraud waste and and abuse uh but I also don't think that that the workload is com is is comparable to the workload of a city manager who's uncal 247 it's that comparable to the workload of the City attorney who is constantly getting phone calls from Seven elected officials from the city Administration from a number of departments to put out fires and emergency like literally to put out literally fires and emergencies throughout the city and so and so and and so I think that's my view on it but I like the view of somewhat more of an independent body and I'd appreciate the input of the audit committee uh as it relates to to this because I do want to be fair to the Inspector General but I also do want to be fair to those who really sacrifice time with their families with their loved ones uh in order to serve our city as as our city manager and our City attorney do so perhaps we can refer this to the audit committee and then to the full commission to get their input yeah I like the idea and that's kind of exactly where my line of thinking was going referring to this the full commission instead of just this uh you know this smaller body uh let me open it up uh any issues with that no no issue okay can I if I could just ask the City attorney is this an item then that would be go to commission to be referred to audit committee I don't know if a committee to committee refer yes that is correct okay perfect and we shouldn't have the same discussion we just had one and a half minutes too code 2-17 requires it but we can amend the code so we'll show it to return to commission to be referred to the audit committee thank you thank you Dr Rosenfeld please commissioner Rosen Gonzalez uh do you and commissioner Suarez want to link items four and five uh while we have the esteemed doctor and uh also the PTA for Fisher fineberg first of all I'd like to thank you um commissioner magazine I'd like to thank uh Beth Edwards for bringing this forward if we didn't have a by the way just so that everyone knows Beth does not even have a child at fineberg Fisher which was Title One school one of our poorest schools believe it or not when you look at the student body and she's monitoring the situation they lost their Title One funding which provides all sorts of wraparound services for the students approximately $171,000 so they came to me to think of creative ways that they could raise money for example right now M Beach Senior High PTA for example during our Basel they um they they have they they sell parking spaces or offer parking and they raised a significant amount of money by doing this so what we wanted to be able to do is extend this um to fber Fisher and I'm going to turn it over to to Leslie or Beth or both of you or however wherever we are in the process who whoever wants to go first it's okay it's on all right this fancy I haven't spoken here since this nice new get up here yeah so just to give you a line of sight um Kristen you said it very eloquently Title One funding was removed and the I'm not going to get into how it was removed it's it's in the weeds but here's here's what transpired we had $330,000 go to 170 to go to zero all right these are wraparound services that are most at risk children need period explain what the wraparounds are for all so we've get community Lees on Specialists we get over and above pair of professionals and these are federal funds okay this is not like the districts being a bad guy all right I just want to be very clear I always like like to bring parties together so when I know a child in our community is seriously at risk right now I mean it is it is catastrophic cuz I got to tell you pull up the reading at fineberg Fisher at third grade which is the danger Will Robinson grade for reading we're at 31% you remove services like reading par professional in math we are going to have a feeder pattern domino effect these kids feed into Beach High all right and Beach High unfortunately stepped backwards as well so what we can't do is look a problem in the face and ignore it due to it's not my responsibility I think we have been unbelievably great I call it creative collaboration it's what built the football field we're business people we can figure this out I'm not here to supplant somebody's responsibility quite the contrary I'm here to be a reality person we got a problem I'm erasing it to you I get to tell you just like our little PTA moms we already divided and conquered we went down to the district okay we put our names to sign up and we got a phone call all right so I I you know I don't have the exact dollar amount but as of last night on good authority I already know half of those funds have been returned somebody came up with about half all right so Bravo okay that's advocacy and work but what I'm saying is danger Will Robinson we still have a gap all right so I don't want to hear it's not my job it's you know what there is a gap it is reality some other part came to the table that's great people are happy but at the end of the the day it looks like two reading interventionists and two math interventionists are the Delta what are we going to do because these kids are at risk it's a fact it's not going away that's where we're at so I always like to be creative I bring people together and say hey we let's think outside the box so that's where we made a very strategic motion at the QC being VP of advocacy for venberg Fisher Leslie is here to discuss like we strategically made it vague because we don't want to pigeon hole ourselves in terms of creativity I mean you got some smart people up here I'm I'm pretty sure we can figure it out together so with that said we have an immediate need for this year and the need as of late last night was two reading interventionists and two masks because somebody else came to the table and kind of filled in some of the Gap and then there's the longterm you guys are going into budget meeting what is strategic I got to tell you you've got an idle parking lot all right they did not use that shame on them okay that generates money if the district not in an agreement with anybody right now over a parking lot that can help I'm going to tell you as VP of advocacy of fineberg we're okay with wherever those funds go meaning like if the city enters an agreement with da County Public Schools as long as it goes to our public feeder pattern because it is a public you know it's it's public funds in there meaning like it's our taxpayer dollars are going to them you guys figure it out that's not for me I'm just here to bring Creative Solutions let's hear what the they're willing to do okay Les Dr Rosenfeld excuse me and before you go Dr can I ask one question one thank you for all you do for the community for amazing um is this expected to be uh a loss for one year or is this continuous because is I understanded perhaps there was some clerical stuff that happened uh and the funding should return in years thereafter or is this something that we should it should be I mean I'm not here to be a naysayer but when federal policy and the district decides it's not going to be on free and reduced lunch I got to tell you and I'm not going down an immigration hole right now but you have to first be on federal assistant so you have to come document yourself so I got to tell you just from a population standpoint take a look at fineberg Fisher it is predominantly Central American and I'm just going to say because I do a lot of research around here go take a look at Cuban immigrants that are coming in Miami Lakes that's title one because they it's easier for them to go forward with Federal documents all right unfortunately this population is not I'll leave it at that so I don't know if you'll ever get them to step up to a plate do you see what I'm saying so I don't have a crystal ball let's let's let's see what we can do with that parking lot if anything at all so Leslie where good morning uh and Beth thank you I uh ended my evening last night speaking to Beth and I'm beginning my day and uh she's very passionate and very well informed formed uh I have reached to the district to better understand uh of the items that were lost as as a at the U loss of the title one of the 171,000 of those items that were funded last year what would be um replaced I have not received uh any direct indicator of what is being replaced however I do know that of the items that were funded in the 171 one of the was a VPK class I know that that has been uh secured and will be um offered at fineberg and we actually are partnering with fineberg we moved the VPK class that we fund at biscane to fineberg to accommodate the 37 families that were on their wait list so together we have uh secured uh that position and addressed that need Additionally the city already funds many different enhancements we fund a uh reading interventionist at each of our elementary schools um it's a part-time college student um we provide an additional 500 hours of uh reading interventions at each of our four elementary schools recruitment is challenging but we continue to recruit on an annual basis and we also um fund after school enrichment which was part of the 171 at fineberg to the tune of about $40,000 a year so we're in the space uh supporting uh the needs of those children um but that does not uh you know diminish what has spoken about but I don't have a specific answer uh regarding what is going to be funded let me just ask a question a question how did Beach High get the permission to commercialize their parking lot at certain times of the year during the boat show during our Baza and we already have so if I mean if we just take that language from that agreement and apply it to for example South Point and then find Berke Fisher I like the idea of making instead of you know it's not that always coming to us and we're spending so much but if we can use these resources um did you get a positive response I mean they're already doing it with B so so speaking specifically about fineberg parking lots and they have four Lots there historically um as Beth indicated there had been an operator in those lots a valet operator run by the school district this past school year they did not have anybody operating that lot uh I did speak to the school district about the possibility and potential of partnership with us uh they are considering it of course the direction given here uh would would um perhaps accelerate that conversation regarding Beach High's parking lot um Miami Beach Senior High School's lot uh is is operated um throughout the school year through the PTA and through the different clubs of that school and that's an arrangement that the district has with that school and their PTA and their clubs so would so is that the direction that we would move in for a more sustainable you know business model do you know what I'm saying and I I truly believe you can you this community needs parking these CH children need services and we've got idol Lots I mean there's got to be some type of Leverage you all Carrie to have Leslie be able to have a formal conversation what direction do you need from us right now well his we did enter into an agreement with the school district between 2016 and 2019 which allowed the city to operate the lot of Beach High when it was not being operated by the PTA and the clubs and then if we operated the lot any funding that we uh collected would first cover our costs and then those additional funds beyond our cost would be spread and shared across the six public schools within our city limits we did have an agreement like that make how much well we actually we had the agreement but the ptas and the and the clubs ran ran the lot uh during that period of time so we never actually had to step on the property but we had the ability to do it well as a former PTA member of every school here on the beach boat show alone paid for the entire budget it was over 125,000 our BOS will bring in about 50 just for a weekend all right just to give you some context just for the sake of time what we're going to do then do you need us to move this to the full commission to get some sort of permission to be able to enter into this agreement would you like a resolution and you can work with the legal like what what what should we do right now if that's before you answer that if you don't mind um we are you know we are oversaturated with cars all over the city um I think doing a parking lot that is open to Residents year round at night so that there's no risk of you know comingling adult residents with kids getting picked up after school like so from 7: to 6: 7: p.m. to 6:00 a. might be a great thing for the neighborhood and since you're going to be going back to the district and asking about using District facilities we have you know as commissioner Suarez has been fighting along with with Commissioners magazine and Fernandez to um uh help find parking spaces in North Beach we have a it's not an enormous lot but it's not insignificant lot at um at the school up just off of Park View Island and if we can do that there as well so you know 700 p.m. or 8 or whatever they find to be comfortable um to 6: a.m. um year round would be incredible and same kind of thing cover the cost of operating that um but anything else could get redistributed back to the school or schools so if you're having that conversation let's just do it for for all of the facilities but okay so we would be paying for it then because I think the idea here is for them to commercialize it and generate serious Revenue so they can make up the cost so what if we did a parking pass a parking permit there um we can't have people parking on that lot because we don't have permission to use that lot but if we made that a special parking zone for North Beach residents or included it as part of the North Beach I don't know how what the mechanics are now we're talking these are two I would bring a separate with the school board I think you have to go school by school for for for I I don't know what the deal is with Sello but I do know that fineberg fisher has a very specialized need right now they're right in the middle of South Beach and we want to be able to generate as money understood I was just thinking if you're having a conversation with them about parking lots anyhow and that's that's fine separ I'm I am working with Leslie on the North Beach on the biscane beach Elementary yeah it's it's in the and and by the way with some of that Land by the way we do have a program because we're going to be beautifying the is it the playground there or is it the parking lot through a partnership with the trust for public land yes we have a what is it called the trust trust for public land the trust for public land that we're actually working on that I'm going to have to pass the Baton to someone so hopefully that's going to be you and um it's taken a very long time but we're moving forward with that so anyway each school I mdcps is a I I just don't want to jeopardize what they need like starting September with anything else so should I move this to the commission with a resolution to go to mdcps or do you want to come back to us because we want to get this done ASAP how can we it it depend it's a policy decision however if this does go back to commission by resolution then the resolution would allow uh Administration to work uh with Miami day County Public Schools to potentially negotiate an agreement to have access to the fineberg lot specifically for the purpose of um utilizing any funds raised in that lot to be infused back uh I think as Beth indicated to our six Public Schools uh and then regarding uh biscane Beach Elementary we certainly can have the conversation about utilization of that lot for um use by the community but not necessarily as a fundraiser okay so let's do two things I would like a resolution um my motion would be number one Let's uh create the resolution so that uh Dr Rosenfeld so you both of you can go and Lobby the school board and get the agreement done which we'll then have to ratify now in the interim the cost okay let's say that you have an $80,000 Gap at this point right yeah I have up if we let's say that we if we were to prate the cost of of that can you find out what the cost of those Services would be in September October so like for a couple of months we might have to cover it I'm not you know so two two different things Dr reld figure out what you might need on a per month PR basis and uh let's get the other agreement done too and in the interim explain to them that you know we have this we're not meeting in August I just want this to move through so that as in September we are prepared to move through with the funding um that you might need and also get the agreement so that you don't miss the season and you can make the money that you need we could if they make enough money they could pay us back I I'll throw out an idea um I don't want to step on the mayor's toes but I believe that we're going to have a special Commission meeting uh for the city manager contract perhaps if this is no no not anymore and just for the record as of last night it was the community liaison specialist as well as a full-time perah that was funded so there's basically we need more help in reading and math I'm just going to leave it at that so I think I sent you a spreadsheet Yan ago take a look there's two lines that have been removed off the column now it's math and reading so I'm going to tell you of immediate priority this to me is long-term how we're going to build a business model but to your point there are services that unfortunately start coming in August you know and I'm not here to beg for money I'm just here to raise awareness to let you know where we're at well we're going to try to cover both so let's do do those for September and um Ander but if you want to make a separate it um something about do you want to create an item for no it sounds like it's already work in progress so Mr City attorney for this specific item how can we uh put this forward to make it as uh quick and as efficient as possible we could certainly refer this back to the full commission or do we just basically put an item on the September agenda on consent uh does that cut a month out of the process I believe that what I mean the commission still needs to approve the ideally the commission would approve entering into negotiations but in light of the time sensitivity perhaps um Dr Rosenfeld could work with the school board and bring an agreement to commission uh for approval in September yes so similar to what we did before we will you have our full backing that you have our support to go out and work with the school district and you know before they receive Something official from the city clerk it's just a matter of timing but they're going to be receiving that I appreciate that however um I have worked with the school board for quite a long time and uh I will reach to them and we will have conversations but I want to set realistic expectations I do not think we would be able to have an agreement executed by September uh just because their pace is different than our Pace uh and the process they follow is different from the process that we follow but I will make my best attempt to uh work with them and see if we can uh reach reach up a point of consensus so we're going to do that instead of my creating a resolution that you do take to the school board because she might get to the school board and the school board might say where she's going to do that as well yeah we're going to do that as well we're going to do it all and please doctor if you need us to essentially liaz with you to apply additional pressure um pressure I I the school board the school board and I say the school board the school district Personnel we've had a longstanding very a positive relationship we do work together uh well uh just the timing uh sometimes is not as quickly as we would like it to be however we we do get there and and commissioner just regarding the trust for public land we're going to be doing a kickoff in the next few weeks so that is moving a long well too that's going to be very exciting because what we did was we partnered with this group that actually comes in and funds it they they gave us the funding right part of the funding I think we matched it they will help us with fundraising oh we still fundraise okay Ed we're going to be beautifying um some of our playgrounds and some of the areas on these school campuses that are unsightly um with the trust for public land and and commissioner bot hopefully because I know you are up there in North Beach you will you know continue this that's a bis Elementary please invite all of us to the uh to the groundbreaking or whatever we're doing chair if I if I can I think I I think of canas because there's two elements there's one about engaging uh on an agreement and the other is the costs uh to it so so if I if I get attempt I think return to commit so what this would be is a a consent resolution in September but in the meantime uh Lizzie will start doing that footwork and that that the discussion but return a commission to direct Administration to engage with miy day public school system to negotiate a facility use agreement uh or equivalent agreement uh for Fisher fineberg uh parking lot to generate revenues to support the Miami Beach school system after covering City costs and for the administration to present costs uh uh needed for to to bridge the gap at Fisher fineberg for this upcoming year at the September budget hearings because there were two pieces that you wanted to to discuss one was the facility use agreement which is I think a what's called a medium-term solution this may not generate revenue for six to n months just just going through the process but there's a need in coming up right now so that since we do have the September budget hearings if there is dollars that're going to be allocated um that would be the appropriate time and I think that that was the commissioner's intent if I and final thing and you can close this out I'm really upset that they're losing their free and reduced lunch um I don't understand what happened with the calculation can you guys also find out what happened with our federal calculations so we can go back and make sure that moving forward these I thought that everybody got free breakfast every child isn't that wasn't that right but to receive uh the federal funds the cut off is uh 75% of your population must meet eligibility and fineberg Fisher uh applications uh were a little over um 73.8% so they just missed the cut off and the cut off is not uh you know an mdcps cut off it's a federal cut off it's a federal ISS are we stuck now based on census data on this or is this a yearly calculation annually it's it's redone annually each school has an opportunity on an annual basis to uh work with their school population to submit those applications and they'll be re-evaluated in March April of this coming uh somebody dropped the ball no I I I went down the radal I'm not going to bore you it's it gets into an immigration issue all right and I'm just going to leave it at that I get it so I I I would think that fiser fineberg even in the Miami Dade school district is not unique in that manner so perhaps in in your uh uh discussions with the school board you could ask them for Best Practices how other schools handle this because I don't think the immigration status at fiser fineberg is unique uh there there are there are 336 schools uh that qualify for uh Title One Across Miami Dade County Public Schools this past year and 337 in the coming school year thank well thank you so I believe commissioner Rose Gonzalez this was your item I think the motion as I as I recited is good okay Fin and all all in favor I I okay thank you commissioner Suarez do uh while we have these ladies um well particular uh Dr Rosenfeld uh do you want to talk about numbers uh five I'm five uh six six it's a police item I think she'll be reading stuff in uh sorry I missed a few disc mentioning in the record but discuss the feasibility of implementing committee for Quality education in Miami Beach Schools the QC motions prated uh by ltc1 145-12 4 relating to Staffing of school crossing guards within the city of Maya Beach uh number six um take it away sure so at the April uh committee for Quality Education meeting um the committee was made aware that the positions for school crossing guards um have been uh there's been a challenge in filling those positions uh the committee requested that uh all of the positions be filled and that the commission contemplate the opportunity to perhaps incentivize uh those positions similar to what uh we do with a teach at the beach substitute teacher program um following that committee uh motion uh I we met uh uh together to disc discuss uh some of the challenges for the recruitment process for crossing guards and I'm going to defer to uh Sergeant Sergeant yoka to um kind of speak to uh where we are because we did do a recruitment and I I'd like him to address that good morning chair good morning Commissioners Sergeant jamoka Community Affairs unit Sergeant uh when we met an uh first of all we have 14 uh positions that are funded we only have eight field we're missing six on March 19th we met with the quality education commission committee and we had several ideas on how to fulfill this uh request and there were two recommendations uh the recommendation was for allowing us to for flexible hours and incentivized residents the livier that want to participate in the program in the last recent months we've had uh one of our recruitments which is started in June 13th all the way to July 15th which closed uh we had 43 applicants that wanted participate 300% increase after our meeting thank you Dr ronfeld 35 are qualified to do the job that have been uh accepted before that on March 13th uh through 27th we only have 13 applicants so something did happen thank you Dr uh R for your assist uh but after this now we have Les happened now we have 35 applicants that we we could possibly fulfill all the requirements for filling these uh these SPS and and um and and it was definitely a joint effort uh our community wants their children safe and so we are definitely optimistic of the uh 43 that applied the 35 that you've indicated are eligible he we the police department will F will be able to fill all of those positions one of the things that we did discuss I think that was also part of the um uh attraction to the position was uh to flex the schedule so that because these are split shift positions which would be very challenging to have to do a morning shift and then wait seven8 hours and do an afternoon shift we discussed allowing the um applicants to choose to do only morning or only afternoon and perhaps some flexibility even with the days that they select which again incentivize our residents who are concerned about the safety of their children at the schools that they attend to potentially join us in this effort as a school crossing guard so we're optimistic about that uh I I think that uh we had come here with with the intent um depending upon how the recruitment went to seek the opportunity to further incentivize the positions similar to what we do for the substitute at the beach positions because we have challenges with substitute teachers the incentive for residents to become substitute teachers is that after they have substitute taught at any of our public schools at least five times that they are eligible for a Citywide parking decal for one year that is that is always a big draw um so we were contemplating doing that as well however we'd like the opportunity to um fill these positions with the 35 applications how uh uh they work out and if we're able to sustain those positions all being filled throughout this school year and if there are challenges with keeping them filled to return uh potentially to discuss further incentivization well with that being said I think we've pretty much figured it out and I I can withdraw my item or we can show the item uh heard and closed yeah give a quick shout out to Miss Georgia uh at southp elementary just a fantastic Crossing Gard um there some of the best ambassadors for our community I know the same over at North Beach Elementary so uh she she truly she's magical uh first person my daughter sees in the morning that's not in her family um she she's just she's wonderful yeah so these aren't insignificant positions they have a profound impact on our youth so thank you all thank you thank you why don't we hear item 10 commissioner bot uh do you want to introduce that and we'll hear that uh commissioner Fernandez uh is listening uh we'll leeway that into item number 11 yeah um so I will um I'll let LTE do a lot of the heavy lifting on this but um I had also wanted to make available the opportunity for our fire chief and anybody from the police department I don't know if uh Chief Jones is still here but to um to talk about this because we are a very attractive City for events whether it's somebody's wedding on the beach or art B and other um high impact events and we need and there's a cost to doing it so not only the the economic impact generated by um these events but also the taxing of our resources so we have certain times of year where our police and fire and sanitation have to work incredible hours you know the month of March basically um but every large scale event that we do on the beach or you know in another location in the city um our our colleagues are being taxed at a pretty significant level I mean they get compensated they're not volunteering their time but you know if you're working you know 21 days in a row with no time off that takes a toll um so the this item was was brought initially to have an open conversation about um how we vet these these items or these these events doesn't make sense to start thinking differently about what we want to encourage is there a way to limit it you know have our our colleagues in the um in the fire police and sanitation services apply on at what point it becomes um overly burdensome you know if you're doing a small wedding on the beach that's not a big deal but if you're doing you know Carbones on the beach that is a big deal so um I'll turn it over to LTE to talk about the process it has changed and I will say it has changed for the the better um over the last year and and I am very pleased to see that I've heard good things from Neighbors there's always I'm sure room to for improvement as we go along but um I'll turn over to you guys thank you good morning uh visette and chief still love saying that welcome happy to be here not to steal your thunder the zette but no Chief still no whatever you want you just come over I'm recruiting I'll take you up on that uh good morning uh Mr chair committee members thank you commissioner B for queuing it up uh I know we had some conversations regarding this item um and I can share with you that there's a extensive vetting as you can see in the memo is what we do as a department but I think what you were also trying to look into was the economic impact of these events and how we sponsor these events and we wave certain things and uh Aaron if you could please share the South Beach Wine and Food Festival and I kind of want to use it as an example we sponsor South Beach wine and food at 175 or 150 before and wave city services so if you look at the combined grand total it was 213,000 for the 2024 event this event and Francis can share with you um the economic impact study that they did in 2018 they're doing one currently now from for the 2024 show in the city of Miami Beach was $ 34.2 million so I just want to I share this because I really want everyone to understand and and see the the figures you know the economic impact that helps our city um and as you mentioned you know we do work a lot here in the city you know we're an events arts and culture destination but we have these amazing world class events uh and they do trickle down to the restaurants to parking to to all the other different elements in our city and our brand and exactly and that's uh that's really an intangible having things like gar basil and Food and Wine Fest you know uh it goes well above and beyond just the direct bottom line impact absolutely and I'm not sure about the staffing issues that you mentioned but obviously my colleagues are both here that can answer to that if I can just jump in for a second to be clear I'm not suggesting we get rid of everything I'm just suggesting maybe we should be thinking a little bit more judiciously about how many of what scale you know one of the attachments was the list of things covered on any particular um neighborhood uh special events committee meeting and it ranged from super big deal to Tiny deal and maybe there's you know maybe we just clear the Clutter out a little bit um it it's a conversation it's not a mandate so that's that's why we're having this chat for sure and commissioner does this kind of uh leeway into and I don't want to speak for the item but I think commissioner Fernandez almost had an idea where we would have a a committee that is not just the commission almost like in a special events committee yeah please they go through so much red tape to hold an event and get a permit it is already so egregious and to put another block or Road bump in the in you know in the process I think would just really upset a lot of everyone I'm saying we vet it issues of cutting government bureaucracy it's overly have notice requirement that I don't do we still have it do we eliminate it we do special meetings especially with the HOAs C okay okay okay yeah I I I don't want to speak for commissioner Fernandez I don't know if he's listening and can jump in online but um you know it looks like his idea was to um was to include um people in these in the existing special events committee already so I I don't know maybe um this is something that we wait until to hear until he's back I'm not sure how you want to proceed on that but what I'm suggesting is a little bit different from from what he's what he had submitted and if I may we do not have a committee we have a community review meeting that happens monthly that it's publicly noticed um we do extensive Outreach uh and it's has it's very well attended and that's the opportunity where city services the producers and um our residents are able to discuss each event that's happening impacting their specific neighborhood L can you give examples of um when or if it's ever happened that residents give feedback and it changes um the you know the location the hours the configuration the concept whatever for events sure absolutely uh at the community review that's when um let's say if the there's Community feedback regarding the the speakers that say they they they ask what where are they facing at that time if it's not Facing East or it's facing it's impacting directly towards their neighborhood uh we make sure that the producer uh adheres to to those recommendations and then they come back and we share the updated uh site plan that has taken those recommendations into consideration Chief good morning hi fire chief T good morning commissioner you chief chief there we go so as far as um the impact for special events to the fire department we've had a 79% increase in events since 2009 um they've nearly doubled we're up to 359 um you know reviews so what happen happens is when it impacts Life Safety whether it's a road closure um the amount of people that are at that site we will staff it with fire department personnel or we may not need to staff it because it's not changing the layout of the area um the the biggest impact for us is the blockage of access roads so the fire trucks need 20 ft and we have an inspector goes on site and then all of a sudden things AR changing or we don't know that something's happening um that's when it starts impacting US Staffing last minute um events you know and it's a communication so sometimes the event doesn't require it to go through lett's uh division because it just pops up on our side like U firework or something um depending on the type of event and then we have to communicate with her so she can let everyone else know to make sure it's not impacting I think that when it comes to Spring Break and March you know we're we're asking a lot of the Personnel both fire and police and you know you have to start mitigating that and that's why we're so um enforcing on how early we get those permits the earlier we know it's easier for us to plan and and be able to stop or continue events so anybody who's ever done experiential marketing or event planning or events of any stripe knows that 90% of the drama is at the the 11th hour before the the gates open um is there kind of a is there a threshold at which um events that are below certain size don't need to go through police and fire plans it all depends but events that are below 150 attendees and we do have um timelines for any large scale events you have to submit a permit within um minimum 90 days I mean does it make sense to to make that more than 90 days and and require it we do so we start for our bosle we start working with a different uh permit in in June right now no no but I mean those are enormous events that they're super well organized they're Pros their working relationships I'm sort of thinking the next tier down or the next two tiers down because I'm sure those cause Untold headaches but you kind of know what we're what we're preparing for it's the the things that are a little bit you know not sort of our our our brand building blocks with the stuff below that might come in for a year or you know maybe they're doing it maybe they're not I you know it's sort of that middle tier of of things um that where where it might not be as well organized or is there like a like an event like a sports event a team that wasn't expected to you know get to finals right on Lincoln Road recently there was a cage of Festival on Linc Road Creole oh Creole Festival okay yeah like like that for an example not singling anything out but using that as an example I think that came somewhat at the last maybe is you know and it's smaller scale stop it0 days before are you guys fixing it right there that would be awesome we're talking about what you guys negotiate no no we're not negotiating but it's if there are we're trying to see 90 days out and it's like you know most of the time you you have a heads up um the majority of the time we do but I think uh what Chief abello is saying is that there are uh sometimes activities that do impact that don't necessarily require a permit and I think she was talking about a soccer team and I was trying to ask her what what she was referring to like the weekend that the Copa came that something you know started something very small and now it's evolve and that doesn't require a permit that 73rd Street the residents are super excited and they take over the street so that I think that's different than what we're talking about their process of getting a permit and may maybe we all have to be more disciplined I say this is us electeds when we get these last minute requests we all have to be more disciplined um you know in really adhering to a timeline that uh is fair for our process and our planning and I'm sure that will be play back to me on video when I break that um feel free to do so but uh you know I I'll just say that to all of us but you know it's interesting because we we just had a meeting about our Deco weekend with the police department and what they said also in was the thing that's like the most taxing is um is uh the road closures and so is there a way to um rethink how permited how how events are able to close our roads like if you want to do an event where there's no road closure then that's one sort of category of of fees but if you're or time frames or whatever but if you have an event that where there are going to be road closures since that seems to be the issue of Manpower person power and and you know the the last minute chaos maybe that is at a at a higher you know there maybe there's a search charge for that that gets used to defas some of the costs or encourage people to think differently about the layout of their event so it didn't it wouldn't require as many road closures I I don't know this is not my area of expertise I just know that we have a lot of events we have people saying We would like to use our resources without having to Elbow other people out of the way and we have our life safety folks saying we are really taxed and it's it's an issue for recruiting Because you know you can work here and be a Miami Poli Beach police officer or firefighter but you have some you know work life balance trade-offs so I'm trying to think holistically about this I don't have any brilliant ideas I'm looking to the crowd for that well let's stick with the chief theme assistant chief uh good morning Mr chair good morning Commissioners assistant chief Sam Gro uh I run our Deco I also run our bosel and all these special events you're talking about these are all basically volunteer officers they're all off duty so we're not forcing anybody to come work those events we put out an uh an email who wants to work and you should be surprised how many officers volunteer to work this to the point that we have a list that not everybody gets to work it the two biggest ones for as you know is spring break and Memorial Day Weekend those We have basically changed their our officer calendars and they told them I can't go on vacation and those were those those events you're talking about but most of these other ones all those special events are done with a volunteer officer working in our duty capacity okay so where do you want to take this commissioner um I guess we'll market closed and heard we can he uh we can hear the um show the item heard and closed yeah okay and you know if anybody has any brilliant ideas of how to sort of lessen the impact or slow the flow of midsize events but thank you I know a lot of work went into preparing this and I appreciate that and thank you all for being here to talk about it thank you thank you man' apprciate have a good day Mr CFO how about uh item number 22 uh I think there was a recommendation can we hear that the discussed uh next steps for funding the Pine Tree Drive in 46 Street uh I'm sorry which one number 22 is the my Beach summer camp uh okay uh perhaps I'm on a previous one is uh 21 or 22 sorry um Pine Pine Tree Drive 21 21 discuss next steps for funding for Pine Tree Drive at 46 Street uh Circle project number 21 David welcome Mr chair Commissioners good morning David Gomez interim director for Capital Improvements uh the pine Chi Drive traffic circle project is one that began with a joint participation agreement with the county to do some geometric modifications at the intersection of Pine Tree Drive in 46th Street it uh it got its Genesis through some concerns about Traffic Safety in the area uh and that was a a proposed solution we did engage a consultant to begin the design who they developed a uh single dual Lane roundabout as a solution when we met with the adjoining residents there was concern about the size of the roundabout I'm not sure if you're familiar there's one in Coral Gables that is the same geometry um because of that concern we did meet with uh representatives from the mayor's office the city manager's office our department uh and the residents and we uh looked at alternatives to that dual Lane roundabout and and looking at how we could do it with a single Lane uh because the single Lane roundabout requires merging and merge distances it expanded the footprint of the project uh to include now a second Circle at 47 Street in pin Tre uh that is and and it's in your your package shows the uh proposed layout by expanding the limits of the project and Crea that second Circle obviously the cost of the project increased we went back to the county because it is a county asset it is a County uh right away uh and discuss with them the the potential we had to show them the potential Solutions which they have approved they did go back and find additional funding approximately 50% of the project um but again it is a county asset the we did go through and submitted as part of the fy2 budget process a request for the shortfall um but it was not recommended number one because of the size of the ask and number two because it is a county right of way and a county responsibility it is a program for potential FY 26 what is that uh Financial ask that would be borne by our city uh we are looking for a total City contribution of 3 almost two 3,178 if I can just this this project is listed in our CIP uh it was not recommended by the administration to move forward I think on the project I if David wants to add anything to that the Pine Tree Drive Circle that's just our commitment so this would be a $6.4 million that's correct and what drives that is that is that how we should think about the cost of traffic circles in general are there nuances uh about the location here that make this uh so complex and complicated one of the challenges here is because the design involves uh a single Lane roundabout the merge distance required because it is a two-lane road to get down to one lane pushes the footprint in both directions so it's a much larger project and because of the distance between 46 and 47 Street we had to address that intersection and the merge length as well so I want to think ahead and and I want input from my colleagues here because this has been something as I understand though I haven't been involved traffic coming requested by The Neighborhood for years and they've kind of been given the uh you know go around for years now I I I was trying to stop myself from doing that that would have been about the fourth pun of the day so I was actively trying not to do that um we want to bring traffic calming measures to this area it's needed has been uh heard by the community but I can't sit here with a straight face and say we're going to prioritize $3.2 million in the 2026 budget and I don't want to just keep kicking this down the road and say h you know we we're sitting here a year from now and saying well we'll do this in 2027 I just don't know when we're going to have $3.2 million where we say go do this for that so want to hear from my colleagues I think it's important to have traffic coming here but are there more viable uh got you promis more viable solutions that we could have that are perhaps cost effective and commissioner Rosen Gonzalez Fernandez um Jon had a really interesting slide when he was going through the budget what were the percentages that we spend North Beach South Beach mid Beach I don't recall off the type top of my head obviously it's different based on police code and and uh Capital Improvements but I believe and that was a commissioner Bots item and myself and Tama work with her on that and I think that it was pretty fairly if I recall and commissioner bot will jump in if I'm off was pretty fairly split actually I think there was a surprises not no it was not it was like mid Beach had something like 12% spent on them North Beach was in the 20s it was something it depended on the service on the service yeah it but it was it was very very low for Mid Beach meaning that we really when we look at how we spend our money we spend almost nothing on Mid Beach uh and so when we look at this no it I'm I'm telling you that slide I need to get a copy of that slide because when you saw the percentages it was very shocking um so when we look at how spending if this is something that mid Beach you know wants I mean that's why I was so happy that we were finally um pressure cleaning sidewalks and residential neighborhoods because they're going to finally see that we're actually spending some money there and I've actually noticed and I don't know who's doing the sidewalks on Alton Road thank goodness that some is that us or is that the state up and down Alton you can see that they're fixing might be the county oh it's the county right because it's a county jurisdiction it's a County Road it's not it's a Alton Road is a state road I'm sorry uh sorry I was thinking of pine tree yes it's a state road that is being fixed by finally are getting you know some of our sidewalks fixed so it's the state doing it but the point point is is when we looked at overall spending commissioner magazine and the only reason that I would consider entertaining this is that literally we're not spending any money in mid Beach compared to North and South if I can I just got a a text from our budget director is 29% of our CIP is in mid Beach and then okay what are the other what are the percentages for I will wait for to text me okay well anyway would guess around a third but yes and I thought it was lower yeah it it simply is you know do we get is the juice worth the squeeze for this or can we find more coste effective measures than 6.4 million you know County money is still taxpayer money uh Comm well we have public comment do we want to talk or do we want to hear from the public first and then we can come back with our discussion well I'd love to hear from from the public just because because what my comment was I really haven't heard from the public any support for this circle I haven't received any emails I've heard traditionally that this circle at this location hasn't moved forward because it's been in fact controversial with the neighbors and that the neighbors in fact don't necessarily support this um and so and so with me I I mean I just have tremendous level of hesitation you know putting such a large amount of money into something that I really haven't heard you know passion about from the neighborhood so Mr chair I I defer to your leadership uh in running the meeting David go ahead real quick because I saw you put your hand up and then I want to hear from the public um and I agree I mean we're not essentially having this in the budget this year that it just then becomes like do we continue having it saying ah we're going to put it next year not prioritizing or do we find something that's more coste efficient David Martinez go ahead yes uh good morning uh Mr chair thank you I just want to clarify what direction Administration seeking in general there's there's a couple of things we're looking for uh clearly the funding component do we want to fund the additional Gap that we have left uh after the county has put forth their share but the first thing that we want to get direction and get your opinion on this is it's this is a county rideway nobody disputes that there's some there's conditions on this road that need to be addressed however do we as a city want to take on the responsibility of correcting uh these conditions on a County right away despite them offering These funds um they have proferred a an amendment to the original joint participation agreement of 500,000 as David Gomez mentioned of another 2.8 and change bringing up their total contribution to over $3.3 million and and and that's fine they the next step is they're expecting us to execute this amendment to the jpa which the commission would have to approve and then that would go back to their board to the County's board for them to approve that and the money would be in so the first question is do we want to take this on or or or look at at it from a different angle and through I'm not asking you to read a crystal ball but I am that 3.2 or $3.6 million in the county that is Project Specific so it's not as if they're saying here's $3.6 million go do the best that you can with it so if we came back with uh traffic cing project that cost $4 million they're probably going to slash their allocation correct it's not just a absolute pot of money it it it is a a Project Specific uh funding uh provision that they have given okay let's hear from the public yeah can just one point of clarification so I know you know um in in the quest to do the best possible job to fix an issue um we sometimes have a tendency to put in the maximal solution right so when we were talking about Road raising a decade ago it's like let's raise it to the 50-year level because that is the best use of funds and it'll fix it for half a century but maybe Road raising for 20 years is actually better now because we'll need to go back in and fix the roads anyhow right and so I it we've got issue in North Beach where there's a a traffic calming situation that was proposed to be solved by um a roundabout that would take out a whole bunch of parking spots and in fact an adequate solution a good solution um is a less impactful solution right so is this solution the roundabout the maximal version of a solution or could there be traffic coming which definitely needs to happen with a lesser less expensive less impactful um uh solution and if it is a lesser not a not lesser as in it won't be good enough but just less it less as spinal tap would put it it doesn't have to go to 11 right it can go to nine or 10 and be really good um and if if there is a nine or 10 solution instead of an 11 solution would we lose the county matching funds I I'll begin the the response and I I'll probably need David Gomez and Jose to jump in on some of the details um yes this solution is the ultimate solution this would be in theory the the the overall fix uh over the years when we first started looking at this at this intersection the the city proposed other less uh impactful or or less costly uh Alternatives and my understanding is this is where I'm going to turn to David and Jose the county was not in agreement with some of the alternative that uh we were contemplating um so David and that is accurate the we we looked at at Solutions as simple as rumble strips or speed bumps we received huge push back from residents in the area that that wasn't an appropriate solution for the neighborhood not only because of the discomfort of driving over them but the noise it creates to the neighborhood uh we looked at the single dual Lane roundabout which would be a more economical solution but received huge push back from the adjacent residents because the footprint was just too big um so that's how we wound up with this solution and I'll let Jose add Jose before you go on let's hear from the public uh I'd like some context uh to how this came to fruition and how the residents feel about this Matt amster please unmute yourself you have two minutes good afternoon mat with the law Burke Del Fernandez tapz um here on behalf of the neighbors that live right close to 46 Street on Pine Tree Drive uh they have experienced uh the speeding vehicles for many many years and also a number of accidents and uh definitely know firsthand the safety issues that exist and they've been working with their city and appreciate the staff's assistance through the process to try to come up with appropriate traffic calming and uh yes uh I think overall to commissioner Fernandez a number of residents are definitely in favor of traffic calming uh but we uh want to make sure that it's done in the appropriate manner uh not only for the footprint size of what is proposed uh but its functionality and a two-lane roundabout will be um not just wide and Pi up too much room but not do the uh full effect of slowing Vehicles down and also can create confusion for vehicles that are not for people who live in the area for how to uh navigate two lane and that is the big push uh obviously we want to have the safest configuration uh and uh I did pass on three written letters but there are more neighbors uh I sent them by email to everyone this morning uh so that you can see at least in part our support and uh we are happy to continue to meet with staff and even the county to see if there's a way to to you know make this uh funding happen and be a reality uh and I know at least one other neighbor should be on the call to voice uh their thoughts on this as well thank you very much thank you Matt Jamie LEF please unmute yourself you have two minutes uh great uh can you guys hear me yes uh I'm going I'm going to assume yes unless otherwise told so so uh first of all yeah I want to obviously Echo everything Matt says I'm I'm probably the most affected um neighbor you know on on this project whether it was the old format or the or the current one because my house is exactly on the uh it's on the the circle of the roundabout so obviously it's of personal interest to me but but I I will say you know we moved into the our house about five years ago and there had already been a string of accidents caused by the chicane that exists uh around uh 45th Street and that's really the problem is it's a currently it's a two LAN Road and the cars get excited like they're going to drive on a highway after they cross the light at Arthur Godfrey and they speed through there and there's a chicane which I think is marked as a 20 mph slowdown and they ignore it and you know they they tend to wind up mangled or their car is mangled in in the front yard of either my house or or my two neighbors to the South um so so you have three three neighbors who are extremely worried about the the safety configuration we were shown the the two-lane roundabout I have the the Misfortune of of having a master's degree in civil engineering and and uh uh as a result I hired our own traffic engineer to take a look at it we all agreed that the problem with having two lanes is you know unless people are actually willing to follow traffic rules they're just going to split the middle of the two-lane roundabout and drive-thru about as fast as they possibly can and that narrowing the the whole situation to one lane somewhere in advance of that actually solves the whole problem so so you know I speak to all the neighbors who spoke to most them this morning everybody is quite in favor of the idea of a single Lane uh roundabout here uh it would be hugely important for for safety purposes um and then of course you know all the neighbors everybody's got little opinions on this or that and um you know I'd be remiss if I didn't mention them uh people really appreciate the additional Green Space um but are are let's say a little worried about the configuration of the median sorry uh for another Jamie take another minute okay anybody else there's one more please let he caller identified as caller in user one please unmute yourself hi good afternoon Commissioners committee members my name is Matthew ganof and I want to call and speak about this as well as you know you can't put a price on public safety and as some of the other callers have mentioned there have been a number of crashes at in this General vicinity that resulted in deaths or fatalities and serious injuries um so while the price has really balloon I've seen some U I seen some ideas where it could be simplified instead of two roundabouts there could be one roundabout and uh some other reconfiguration so I think it's important that this be addressed and be addressed quickly so that there are no more fatalities and serious injuries um but at the same time right look at it and see if there's ways to simplify it so that it results in those desired reductions in speeds and also simplifies and perhaps even you you remove uh one of the traffic circles the one at 46 Street to help reduce the cost so I'm supportive of this I think it's uh imperative to help uh you know the city reach its desire Vision zero as well in the future thank you thank you Jamie leag please unmute yourself yeah hey I wasn't I'm not trying to take more time than I'm entitled to but I wasn't sure if you guys heard me since it sort of cut out in the middle but uh if I'm allowed to keep talking I'll talk for one more minute Jamie please yes talk for another minute y that uh so so yeah the there's an issue of financing here and the neighbors want to cooperate as much as possible kind of cut to the chase um there's a there's some willingness I would say for participation at at least among the the um east side of the street neighbors to um cover some you know some and three $3 million pry much but some of the cost of the uh the Landscaping because everybody perceives the Landscaping to be quite an improvement and I for one would gladly pay my fair share of it and then the other suggestion that we had was since this creates BMS larger burms on and you know for some of the neighbors I don't think much for me but for others it creates much larger BMS in front of their house I wonder if there's a way to structure something where for example the air rights associated with those burms are sold to the adjacent Neighbors which I think there would be some willingness to do which would cover probably a lot of the cost right and if I'm not making sense probably the best way to talk about this is in a meeting with with staff but we're all very uh we're all we're all very open those ideas especially if we can continue to participate in the design yeah Jamie uh thank you for that I for one would love to have kind of a collaborative session uh with the neighborhood with staff to see what is feasible I don't know if the uh previous gentleman uh Matt amster on the phone as well that said he represented a bunch of neighbors but um I'd really like to put our thinking caps on recognize uh as Mr Gano said something absolutely is necessary here uh but how we proceed in a manner that is coste efficient please can you just I I'm sorry if I've miss this but does pine tree become one way in each Direction as a result of this no it's a divided highway it has a median in the middle so it's two lanes on each side no no I know it's a divided highway but is it does it remain two lanes on either side it will with the with the exception of the merge yes okay so I know this is a dumb question but that never stops we know we have a speeding problem it's a straight away I mean Justin Bieber total his car years ago and I was living a block away you know wouldn't it also make sense to change this to a oneway divided highway one lane on each side of the divided middle and then you wouldn't need such a complex roundabout you would slow the speeds by definition you would put in a ton more green space and bio swes and and and be able to do a lot more and better for resiliency issues um it is that is our biggest issue is that it gets it's used as a as a racetrack so was that considered and dismissed am I missing something yeah and I'll Echo that of course I'm looking here as a complete lay person um but as somebody making a left uh from 46th Street on the Pine Tree Drive I'm guessing that's where it becomes kind of a racetrack and if we would even if it's not for the entirety of pine Tre drive but uh going north on the lane that is on the eastbound if we would essentially ease in to a two-way street so right at that turn basically have it a one-way street so people can't just go at any speed uh possible we we could fill that in with green space with palm trees whatever it may be um just something that provides some sort of traffic easing uh as they make that turn on to Pine Tree I mean I I lived in that neighborhood a block a couple blocks away from there and um for for 13 years and it's not like that the the turn gets really congested but the street itself um doesn't get backed up the way other streets do I mean I think part of the conversation and maybe this does need to go back to the collaborative drawing board um to look at a more holistic solution and just make it one way um one lane in each Direction and then that simplifies the the roundabouts it it impr improves resiliency and and sustainability initiatives and maybe the county would be still willing to match it because it's not the highest best version of a roundabout but it is a more comprehensive holistic solution Mr chair if I me please Jose so from a from a traffic engineering perspective I I do agree I think it's prudent given the concerns with the project itself and as well as the cost escalation that we've seen over the past few years with this project I think it would be prudent to reh huddle and and see if there are other viable Alternatives out there uh that would be less costly and perhaps just as or even if it's not as effective but something a little more feasible and and valuable and we'd be happy to coordinate that uh you know have the C the county would need to be at the table clearly it's their asset uh the other uh one thing I want to mention so um commissioner B to your point yes this section is a is the two-way section of pine tree there are two lanes in each Direction while the circle would uh reduce this area to one lane the rest would still be two lanes in order to look at reducing the entire two um two-way section to either one way or one lane or two-way but one lane in each Direction instead of two lanes in each direction that would require a whole separate uh traffic study than what was done back in 2020 for this circle the study that was done for this circle that recommended this circle was very focused at uh the intersection just the intersection of 46 Street and then it was expanded to 47 streets so it was a very focused traffic study that really didn't look at a whole lot of other Alternatives because it is a signalized intersection there's there there's not many options for a for an intersection itself it's either you know you remove the signal but then what do you put you could put stop signs you could put a traffic circle so there aren't a lot of options that's why the traffic circle was sort of the default uh option if you will but uh there may be ways of looking at the the entire section that's you know currently uh two way two lanes in each Direction and just as a side note we are looking at or we proposing bicycle facilities along pin Tree Drive in this section and in order to accommodate a a bike facility uh in this section it's really going to require removal of a lane so well I mean it's it sounds like a perfect opportunity to really think holistically about this whole stretch resiliency micromobility and and you know how to how to improve that traffic calming um I'd be really interested to get police data on crashes from on Pine Tree going back you know further south and and further north um I think this may be a pro a real opportunity to do something more suited to where we are now as in the direction we have going forward as a city than maybe where we were four or five years ago um I will say just as we were talking about the the loops the traffic light Loops yesterday um the one that's there now if you're coming trying to get on to Pine Tree going north um from 46th Street you might wait 3 minutes so that might need to to be looked at in the inter we'll check that if I if I can to help land L the item I was talking here is I think perhaps what would work is for us to return to FK when appropriate and for the administration will work with the county and local state the stakeholders to riew the project to see if we can deliver it the county can deliver it within it its current budget yeah not only County but let's engage the community I'm happy to be involved in some of those discussions I have a question please FDT has a project on Alton Road for example Alton Road is a state road um and as part of that project you they're going to be making certain changes to to to Alon Road as as might be necessary does the city contribute to that project or is that uh paid by FDT I'll answer if I'm wrong I'm no some want to run up here I believe in there we we uh that is fully funded by the the government agency that controls it the only contribution which you would see for the dot is to deal with our assets which would be like the below ground water sewer storm water uh type elements right but the actual roadway project it's their Road it's their project okay and in this case um Pine Tree Drive is a county asset this is a County Road and a county project okay and how much does the county have at the table right now for it's uh two possibly half about half 3.3 million is what they have the I think the Project's grown so much over the years okay so the county is putting half yes and they're asking for us to contribute approximately half approximately half on their project but but this is not a project that the county initiated this is a this is a a project that we've requested yes sir yes so unlike the FDL project on Alta road that this was you know this has been a programmed initiative of FDT here this is different the county wasn't planning on coming on to Pint Tre drive to engage in this they're in fact responding to us and they've found money to help with what we're asking for but this is not something that they had programmed or anticipated to do is that correct that that's correct yeah when it comes to something like that you know this and if this continues to be a project that's the desire of the city commission to advance on then it's then it is fair then it is fair because this is not that the county is coming to us and telling us Hey listen we're going to be doing work on Pine Tree Drive what changes would the city like to see on Pine Tree Drive and then they get to incorporate it a situation like that then you know the county should pay 100% of the the cost but this is this is different this is something that we've requested as a city uh that they've that they've been willing to accommodate which is which is appreciated and I think when we go to another jurisdiction a higher jurisdiction we ask them to engage in a in in a project they listen to us they say yes we'll do it and then they find funding for it I think it's only fair that then we come back and we we matched the funding and so and so you know I don't know I that's that hearing the comments from the residents who called in who we represent knowing that this was initiated by the city and not the county and knowing how much the county has found that they didn't have to find to support the requests of the city I think we're only then a good partner um if if we come to the table with an equal funding amount and there are not it is not an insignificant amount of taxes that the residents on this road and in this area pay and I think the least uh amount that we can do is ensure that their immediate vicinity is uh safe and has traffic hming measures and solutions so let's engage in those Community discussions let's see uh now four years later essentially the best options going forward but I think we collectively agree we need to move forward with something I also don't want to lose the uh funding that we have at the county and their attention um so let's really try and move forward in an xious manner in the next let's call it couple of weeks get a meeting with the community uh let's put our thinking caps on about how we can provide adequate traffic hming measures uh perhaps at a a more reasonable price and we'll evaluate uh you know uh different plethora of Alternatives and come back to the firk and look to move forward with this that makes sense for my colleagues than excellent Mr CFO uh are we just going to keep this open and continued with a direction to staff yeah I think we'll we'll show it to return when to F when appropriate the admin like I said we'll work with the county and stakeholders review the project see if it can be delivered within budget or there's extra um and that that'll be that item I wanted to just for the for the record and I sometimes if we make a incorrect statement we want to correct ourselves and I misread a text and mid Beach is 20% of capital uh North Beach 33 and South Beach is at 47 and I know as we discussed a lot of it's because a vast majority of our assets are in the South Beach area but I did want to correct I said 29 out on the capital it's actually 20 I will let you decide on the punishment okay next well I know I know it was crazy but I did see the discrepancy and what would be interesting and another calculation that I'd like to do in addition to that is when we look at property tax percentages and we look at how much um Mid Beach you know pays in versus the 20% that we're getting versus South Beach and North Beach that would be an additional calculation that we should do as a justification if we have to spend this money we can thank you Jason yeah South Beach on taxes brings in 53% of taxes mid Beach brings in 31 North Beach brings in 16 exent thank you uh commissioner Rosen Gonzalez why don't we move on to it number 16 uh with everything coming up with the uh certifications of uh buildings and things like this and you know our residents being cost burden I think this is such a a critical manner so why don't I turn this over and allow you to introduce this I'll read number 16 16 discuss discounting fees for existing buildings recertification application processing fees to incentivized Property Owners to submit applications in a timely matter number 16 so I know that you're probably all getting emails from constituents too that are concerned um everyone's getting assessed um The Reserve Pro is a problem and they're going through these recertifications and um we worked with the building department thank you Natasha and uh are now city manager uh Eric Carpenter for working with us and listen I know that these are not massive uh discounts but sometimes the recertification fee can be as much as $350,000 and thank goodness our building department can afford to disc account these fees and what they did was they scaled it so in year one of the program you'll get 75% well you know it should probably be the calendar year 2024 you should make it 2024 and 25 and then 26 because we're already you know we're already H more than halfway through 2024 but if if if so right now we have 187 buildings due if they come in right now we can give them 75% off and we can of you know of their filing fees and this could be several thousand doll and offer a little bit of a respit for residents that are really uh desperate I'm not quite sure what's going to happen moving forward because you know with the recertification requirements the reserve requirements the you know and and and the violations that current buildings have um it's not a great scenario so um if you guys are okay with this um I think this was you know a lot of work done the would' be counting $146,000 total in fees for those 187 buildings right if all of them applied and submitted on time so you know I would send them an email and say look you're going to get 75% off your fees if you do this by the end of the year so it works twofold number one it's an impetus to get your application done prior and you get the discount I would move this with a favorable okay recommendation just to clarify so you'd like to do 24 and 25 at 75% off would you guys be okay with this it's it's a three-year program but I think you know a year and a half instead of a year yes yes okay I have a question okay so I'm sorry explain to me what this says so if you look we have a certain amount of buildings that are due for their recertifications and the building department can well afford to Discount these fees sometimes a fee for a single building could be very pricey so what this encourages them to do is submit their application early get the discount and um like for example how much could a total fee be for 1 bilon I mean I'm looking here and you have 18 187 buildings so the filing fees are only 195,000 per building no so the for every building right for every building so each building recertification fee is $1,045 so what this would do is discount 75% off of that $1,045 I mean it's not the biggest amount but for a smaller Association that's already struggling it could make a difference how does this uh impact um I was newly elected I passed um an incentive program where where if the the building owner submitted an annual maintenance log as was recommended by the um by by the uh by the grand jury convened by the state attorney following the champain Tower collapse that the buildings would get a discount on their recertification fees that's does this impact that in any way no we this work together work well together okay all right can I ask one question we when we initially did this I thought we were offering like 50% off the total like fee schedule but this is only off the application fee what happened to offering the 50% off of our entire um the entire amount not just the filing fee but what we were going to charge them for example one Association came to me they said our filing fee was $350,000 this crippling us so when I sat down with you and Eric the idea was not just the filing fee it was to give them the 50% off that that entire fee so if if I may correct that so the filing fee for recertification is only $1,045 now let's say they have repairs that are needed because their recertification report says that they need repairs to structural or electrical then they would need to obtain permits regular permits so it may be that in that case their repairs equ you know the permit fees for those repairs amounted to $350,000 what with the economic I would like to know I mean this is okay but I don't think it's any change maker at all I thought that this is going to be way more aggressive and help associations much more I mean we could move this forward I would actually like to give you a couple of months to come back and give us a percentage off of the entire as Fe that yes permit fees yes for just for recertification fees over the next three years because I think that that would actually make a lot more sents if your fee is $350,000 we can reduce it and the building department can afford to reduce it by $175,000 these are simple recertification fees the building department is making the majority of its revenue from these large projects that are being built across the city so could you come back with an addition to the filing fee um the entire yeah so I will preface by saying it's very difficult to estimate what somebody's permit fees might amount to because we don't know what kind of repairs would be needed as part of their recertification process may I make a suggestion so maybe you can when you evaluate this you could do it by tier like if your if your permit fees are going to be below whatever it's this percentage of it between whatever plus you know 25% and and do it that way so that I think what we're what we want to do is in not only incentivize everybody but also protect the maybe the smaller buildings that are right for poaching even the larger buildings are being hit by this no everybody is everybody is but um you know so you know understood definitely we can hear it like that and come up with different options for that approach and I would do something aggressive based on what we can afford to do and it's only over the next 3 years while I think the State of Florida is working this out I think they realize that some of the new condo laws have serious problems and they're they're coming up with Financial Solutions but in the interim this one building and it was a larger building came to me and says $350,000 application fee we just can't do it you know and then we go in on top of it and buildings end up with a ton of violations so yeah and so it's c what we've done is just overburden them so let's do what I thought I initially said that this was not it but um come back with what I wanted okay thanks yes we'll do thank you thank you so much small um if if I could if I could ask I think because I think there's two elements and I'm just going to ask the city attorneys first because I was looking at the title at them I just want to make sure you know I'm process person I'm sorry is uh can this return um to F with a a different permitting fee discount program or would that require a new referral um because there's a commission meeting prior to the next firk meeting I would suggest that we get commission direction or commission direction to do what what what she would like to do which is different from what was understood apparently okay so actually Tommy wise hold on hold on hold on we need this right now and what you guys are proposing is going to hold this back for 90 days I think application processing fees and I will change it it won't it won't hold it back they would come back to F September 20th there's a commission meeting September 11th but I want to approve this program September 11th I have a question yes okay why is it that you're saying needs to go back to to to to commission I I understand it doesn't but I want to understand the rationale I was just just requesting some insight from the city attorney just on the title if it required a different one um but I think timing wise I think but okay but okay from your perspective why would it have why would it have ju just reading the title that this was specifically about uh discussing uh um the recertification application processing I just was was asking the city attorney's opinion processing fees it's a wide umbrella and I think that there's absolutely no problem doing this I'm not taking it back to commission and deferring this I'm sorry I'm overriding this this committee can give this type of direction we always have in the past and and uh and and when you look at application processing fees um that's what this is processing and permitting fees did you want the uh program that was discussed today to go back to commission for approval not yet I would like to have something for September um that I will present to the I what did you say the date was the commission meeting is the September is the 11th and FK is at the end of the month so I would like to work our office is going to work with Natasha in the interim I suppose and um bring something forward to at least I I know that you guys support this so we will go and we will I guess rework this entire item and bring it to the full condition with what I with what we asked for okay for September so I guess this committee is doing nothing with it except I mean it doesn't make sense to do this thousand waiver fee I thought you know we want something that moves the something that here here's a a solution if I may take it to Comm with the amount that you'd like and include a waiver of referring it back to firk because it might exceed 75,000 as as far as Ina okay so that would be my motion we could do that I don't so iing it's being sent to the commission with a favorable recommendation on this program this will be a well if you want to recommend this program you send it with a favorable recommendation for this program and then you create a new item to address the building permit fees and that one will just come straight to commission with a waiver of the FK referral and we can't just include that in the recommendation for this item we could we could because permitting processing fees could be many things we'll figure out the process but we'll get what you want right so we'll return the commission with a favorable recommendation to implement the option one is modifi for discounting fees for the existing building recertification application processing fees and also to develop to approve a to be developed uh permitting fee discounting program I'd like this theme of an efficient streamline government today yes perfect okay and I think that gets both pieces this program plus it gives you the time between now and then to develop a a secondary one which is the the the permitting one which I believe was the intention I mean it's okay yeah uh let's go on to item number 13 and 15 commissioner bot uh these are kind of waste er uh related I'll read number the men uh number 13 discussed a proposed amendment to section sections 90 d276 to 90- 278 of the city code clarifying the circumstances under which a roll of permit and payment of the percentage of gross receipts is required from those individuals and entities engaged in demolition Andor removal of construction debris Andor bulky waste in the city and providing a limited exemptions for from obtaining a rolloff permit number 13 number 15 discuss incorporation of the single family recycling program fee which is present covered by the Public Works Sanitation fund as a distinct light on the utility bill to pass through the Miami D County Fee number 15 so I will let um Brad and our CFO get into the Weeds on this but I will preface both of these items with um these just annoy me because it is in both cases one um a sin of commission on the other sin of omission an issue of fairness and integrity the item 15 I don't know why we are subsidizing one set of residents and not another so that is just a cleaning up with a minimal um impact of private homes which generally speaking are the most able to afford fees so it's not damaging anybody's uh anybody's income um and then so that should be an easy yes and then the rolloff fees is a sin of commission and that is just really annoying to me because um you've got people who are demolishing buildings and taking waste away and claiming that because the item is not the items are not being hauled off in something with wheels that it doesn't count as being something that would fall under a rolloff fee and that is just absurd to me so I would like to clean up both of these items and uh Brad go for it Brad feel free to disagree with her if you want no she's doing great I I agree um so for item 13 uh we have a little PowerPoint presentation and I'll try to really go through that pretty quick but as um commissioner B was explaining uh so the way the code was written um it really only covers certain elements of uh picking up construction demolition material um by rolloff by having a rolloff container out on a a construction site and that you know we have a list of active contractors that you know are basically doing those kind of things however what is currently not in the code and is missing is language as it relates to uh any other way that people who are engaging the um collection of CN which is construction demolition material either through demolishing oh there it is okay here we go I'll try to run through these slides now quick we can go to the next slide okay so here I I'll try to go through this rather quickly so again as I said the current code you know which is under the term rolloff contractors uh is designed to um have anything that's involving the removal of construction and demolition material um and there's a process to go through that uh currently uh where you have to obtain a business tax receipt you have to have rolloff fees franchise fees that you have to be paying on a monthly basis and you need to uh also have a permit to pick up the CND D but what this fails to do is there are other ways that you can pick up construction and demolition material when you're working on a construction site and I'll just use the devil as a good example so they didn't have rolloff um uh boxes out there containers what they did was they had like dump trucks that they used to basically take all the stuff away while they were using a piece of equipment on site that was basically loading them all up and the way the current code is written it's it's just gray it doesn't really cover that and and it makes uh you know them when they do uh a project like that uh any kind of uh demolition hauler it it gives them a loophole to not have to pay franchise fees so what we really did here and thanks to the help of the City attorney offices we really cleaned up the we're cleaning up the proposed language in all three um elements of the sections between 276 277 and 278 uh we changing the titles so it's very specific that U these are for construction and demolition permits uh and any contractor who is engaged in that business needs a permit and it does not matter uh what type of uh equipment whether it's a grapple truck whether it's uh dump truck trailers or any other kind um that are being used to engage in that activity you have to pay the per the the fees um that are associated with the with these things with the franchise fees you need a business tax receipt and you have to have a permit and what we are going to do hopefully upon successful passage um you know of these changes is we are going to work with the building department and make sure when contractors go in for demolition work that they need building permits for that they going to have to get a permit to do the rolloff and we will be able to track that you know um for every site go ahead you know I haven't been renovating houses for the past few years but I will say that when you go to City of Miami or you go to Miami dat County and you're an owner Builder and you are performing any type of a work there is no permit required for getting a dumpster there just isn't uh you know you call up what's the LA prefa okay they bring you the dumpster right there and you don't do anything they said that it is such a pain in the city of lemi Beach and I remember the last time I wanted to pull something I had to go to the building department and get like a the planning department and get like a bond it was ridiculous and we're the only city that's doing that I would exempt from this single family homeowners owner Builders I don't want them to have the permit I don't want them to have the fee I want them to be able to come up and call a dumpster for 500 bucks and just get their dumpster Brad it looks like you're about to be pretty proud to say something so let me over are you exempting single I really upset spot and you can do it because you're doing good we have some exemptions um that you know specifically addresses that if we could just move ahead a few slides uh forward keep going keep going keep going oh right right there commissioner R if you fix this this is a very under proposed amendments just flip one back I'm sorry so under the proposed amendments to this there there are exemptions and and you know we thought about this long and hard with what made sense and it doesn't really make sense to us we're not really looking to ding people doing a remodeling of their bathroom or things like that those are little you know household things and we're not trying to uh do that so you know we came up with uh any single family homeowner Renovations or repairs that were like less than a th000 square feet and aggregate over the course of a 12-month period and the same you know for multifam those should be the exemptions but if somebody's doing uh you know demolishing a home or they're building a home you know that that's very different and in such that's where you know we think the requirements should be the same but any you know Renovations of any sort of that little nature we agree that they should be exempt from this Al okay go ahead yeah just looking at B um number three B I would say um confined to the confined to a single unit might be problematic because if you're in a fourplex for instance and there's a leak upstairs and you have to replace that bathroom and it affected the bathroom downstairs you're going to be doing renovation on two bathrooms um and and so maybe that should be Exempted also it it should be Exempted from planning department review I don't understand if I want to have a drive if I want to have a container in my driveway why I have to go to the planning department and I don't understand also with this initial thing there was a bond requirement why do I have to get a bond if I want I mean I think that's a building department thing like I don't know but it it's planning department right because when I came it's the planning department so in addition commissioner bot I would encourage you to remove the planning department review because what happens is now you're removing the the the permit but you still have to somehow go for planning review and I would eliminate this ridiculous bond that you have cuz I had to put down like I don't they weren't they gave it back to me it was hard to get my money back I had to go there I had to pay for my bond all right but I think those are different things so I Brad maybe you and I and Tom can and and somebody whoever else needs to be pulled into a conversation about those other issues but this is very narrow and specific so let's get this going and then we can look at the I mean the whole building department and permitting you you need do both of theirs but this is I don't want to hold this up until we understand absolutely I you have my full support on this 100% but we need to fix the bond requirement too because that even if you don't get the permit Leer's like I can't do it because you've got to go to planning and then you've got to present this drawing it's a pain literally I drew it like this in front of them and I was like here's my drawing here's my driveway and they accepted it fine but I still had to put forward the money for a I did but I like this kg the voice of small government I like it he'll turn you into a republican yet me I'm joking so so I think at this point then if if everybody's kind of on the same way we're just looking for to the commission to take it to yeah we could with that with that amendment to be okay I we'll work on that I'll work on that with Rick so we could I think the idea is to return to commission with a favorable recommendation approve the uh the ordinance as modified um and then this would show up as a first reading so the you have two more times the C commission will have two more times to look at modify and adjust it as needed at first reading and at second reading okay perfect all in favor yeah s all thank and then number 15 and then 15 same can I just move it with favorable recommendation okay we have a second yeah second okay all in favor I I okay and that one will be shown as presented all right thank you commissioner bot uh item number 17 I'll let you introduce that how I'm viewing this is uh I'm hoping this is a quick discussion because it's just centered on the financial impact which is actually getting money into the city however I think this is bated from the actual legislative or policy decision about for next spring break whether we're going to do this is that how you're thinking about this because I'm not sure if we're ready to get into discussion of okay is part of our spring break plan are we going to have these Cafe uh seats open or not is just the financial impact yeah I was do you want to come up yeah you know it was the idea was um to understand what we're losing what business owners are losing what the city is losing by not letting them um have their Cafe seating during the less fraught times of spring break and so I thought having the having the information provided would be a useful thing rather than us just trying to make decisions on on a whim now even if if we decide that this is a good thing to do the individual business owners may say you know what it's such a pain in the neck to move the tables in and out for those limited periods of time we're not going to choose to but it's good to know that we could or you know that we think we could do it or think we shouldn't be doing it but I wanted to have a a conversation about it less policy and more information to make those policy decisions uh sure if I may um I was um informed about this just last week not sure exactly what was the intention but um the economic everyone comes to myami beach to sit Outdoors Ocean Drive is predominantly all about our sidewalk cafes some places have patios but some of them don't so um as much as the Interior Space may be large with lots of seating everyone wants to sit outside and each one of those seats have a value right so any day that That Sidewalk Cafe is closed that is there's a value to that one seat or 50 seats or 90 seats so um the best time also to go to Ocean Drive and sit is after 5:00 p.m because that's dinner time so that is probably the highest revenue base that they have of their three meals breakfast lunch and dinner is their dinner so we would um and supported actually we asked them not to close the sidewalk cafes we understand it might be a public safety issue as it was they wanted to clear the sidewalk and the public RightWay but it was not an easy ask it was really something that we had asked be the final like your if you if you absolutely have to to do it because it is a huge um economic impact um to the to the businesses there are 43 cafes just to let you know I mean it is that much of a economic uh Revenue generator for the restaurants that there are 43 cafes on Ocean Drive and cie thank you for that and I would just say this will become a policy decision and let's not wait until January or February to engage in these conversations because as we saw once this plan gets baked it becomes hard to peel back the onion so I would say soon as summer is over September October let's have this now because I'm sure one of the first priorities of our new city manager uh and their themed staff um our former interm city manager I'm sure they're already putting together that spring break plan commissioner Bach commissioner Fernandez have both had uh immediate conversations uh post March about what worked what did not so let's start those conversations before this spring break plan develops and then we could talk about the merits of keeping these uh open sure but if I may March and April are the best times of the year to be in Miami Beach we would love to get to the point where there's no barricades there's no issue it is a safe place to be and we don't even have to have this question I'll tell you what if my four years is up and we still have barricades I I unequivocally say I failed at my job thank you that's that's our Collective goal thank you so much is the is the action item is heard and Clos is the item going going back to commission for discussion how how would the disposition of this item be uh perhaps if we can quantify that and send an LTC about the revenue that could be generated by uh this or actually the revenue that's lost from the businesses are we able to essentially get some sort of uh quantification of that I i' leave that up to uh from the city's perspective just you know we collect revenue on a monthly basis so I I did work with public works on that and it's we're not able to do that Sessy would you be able to give staff uh so the one thing that we were working with Public Works is it is not beneficial to compare this march with last March or even the March before because we have in the past few years five to 10 years seen a decline so the potential of where we should be can't be compared to where we were in the last year or the last two years we have restaurants that are in the 30 % down over the last couple of years so when I was working with Public Works we were comparing it to last year it seemed a flatline like you can't compare to a low time in the in in in the you could work with your restaurants and pick another uh near Prime week or month and say Here's the amount of sales that we do during this time window and extrapolate that to essentially what is then lost in March what we were trying to actually work with is what is the value of each seat so anytime you take off a seat that's the value of the loss what we can do is we can we can share the item that the administration to in consultation with the Oda to send an LTC on the issue excellent good thank you very much um yes would like to hear the Poseidon F item is that 25 item 25 a resolution of the mayor and commission of the city of May Beach Florida directing the administration to terminate the concession agreement dated March 14 2024 between the city of May beach and PID FY LLC Poseidon uh due to Poseidon's material default number 25 commissioner Fernandez thank you Mr chair um earlier this year the city entered into a contractual agreement with uh Poseidon uh to provide with to provide the city with uh fairy service from Maurice uh Gibbs uh Park to um to down to Miami to the SE Marina the service started in July ever since the service started it has encountered mechanical uh issues it's been faulty they've had to suspend Services um including on the weekends when you would think it would have the be the busiest uh ridership um and I think if we were to ask uh our City attorney our City attorney would probably app that they are material default of their contractual agreement with the city in addition to it being what I believe to be a bad deal for for for the city I believe it's a bad investment of our taxpayers dollars for what we're getting in return I don't think uh our our residents truly feel that it's a true public transportation option uh one that would Merit the subsidy of the taxpayers of this city the hardworking taxpayers of this city um and I've been quite frankly quite underwhelmed by the um by the last Act of ridership low ridership numbers uh very unimpressive ridership numbers uh that uh that this service has yielded thus far as such I place an item on the agenda together with my colleague David Suarez um commissioner Suarez of this last City commission meeting to terminate um the the contractual agreement with Poseidon uh for material default the item was pulled and is before us now at this body and I love the feedback of my colleagues uh your feelings about this should we continue testing it should we suspend this service uh do our taxpayers and those dependent on T on public transportation deserve a better service a more reliable service for this important connectivity thank you Mr chair thank you commissioner uh I as well I'm disappointed in the level of service that's been provided the only way this could ever work the only way and even then the jury would still be out is if they can provide a consistent service where workers can say I need to be at work in Sunset Harbor at 5:00 p.m. I know I can get the 415 furry or whatever it may be uh without providing that level of consistency this is never going to have adequate ridership that justifies the use of our taxpayer money uh that being said if we move this to the full commission in September they will have a month and a half to prove that they can essentially step up to the plate and turn this around right we're not this isn't terminating today but my recommendation would be to move forward in that direction because they have shown that uh they are not a uh reliable partner and our taxpayers are not getting the return from their money that I think we all deserve uh however if they are able to provide a cons I'm not tied into that decision so if we we are showed that they provide an adequate service through September and ridership increases I am free to approach that decision at the September commission meeting with a uh free and open mind yeah I I jumped on as a co-sponsor because I you know I've lived in cities all over the place that have very robust fairy Services even Fort Lauderdale has a a smaller but very Nimble um ferry service that seems to work very well I I never understood why this was contemplated in its form as it is now and I also didn't understand when we heard from residents um that one of the uses that they would love would be to be able to take it over to see a Heat game or to go see a performance at the arch Center but you might be able to get there but you can't come back because fairy service ends and so the whole thing seemed sort of half-baked to me and um I I would love to see a fair service but I don't think this is the version of it that we need so I'm and by Half Baked you don't mean like cookie toe ice cream half bait no not the fun kind no or maybe our non-drug free Workforce half baited so just so that you guys know over the past eight years we have put this out to bid how many times did we bid this out that that I recall at least at least once but this one was a bid wer wasid this out and nobody has responded and it's not once Jose it's been at least two times that we bid it out now we initially did the service with Poseidon and they were charging exorbitant rates then we canel it but the reason that we have this going right now with the subsidy is that in order to apply for federal Grant funds we need to prove that we have something is it perfect now I sent my legislative a Jacqueline to ride it the other day and she actually had a pretty agreeable ride based on the feedback that I was getting I thought it was going to be awful but she took pictures of the entire boat she said it was actually a very pleasant ride it drops you off by um Kasa Donna on the other side and I think and here's what I would ask of all of you I think Poseidon realizes that they need to step it up they're probably going to have to change out their equipment at some point in time but it had a ridership of nearly a thousand people and it's free right now what I would ask so that we can show that we have some sort of a service so that we can apply for the federal funding so that we probably can help them get a better boat is to not interrupt the only thing that we've got because if we do this has been going on for years I guarant I don't I don't know what was wrong with the past bids that we've put out that we only get Poseidon but to see it finally launch after so many years and then pull it um I think we should give them a chance kind of like The Little Engine That Could but can't right now but there that may that may um let's give them the opportunity because they they they are aware right now that we are unhappy with the boat that it was kind of dirty that it needs to be painted that we're expecting something I think they had a couple uh Landing issues um especially on the 4th of July they kind of people got on the ferry and they went over and then the ferry could talk so it was like a fery that just didn't go anywhere but I think they are ironing out those problems and even though what we're getting right now is not what we're expecting I would ask that because we have something right now that we give them the benefit of the doubt and then reevaluate in a couple of months what what are the federal funding grants for um so that we can fully subsidize and possibly get our own electric uh Ferry moving forward I mean but we have to show that we did something and if we P it this is such a bad Ferry concept I mean it's it's the hours don't work it's expensive even if there aren't federal dollars for it it's still taxpayers dollars and it's still taxpayers dollars on something that isn't good to me when you get a response from the market where you really don't have a response except for one person it's shows you that probably the market doesn't think it works is p and you would have Market interest but the fact the fact that that that the Private Industry is not responding to it is because we might be trying to do something that just doesn't work I don't know to me it just seems like you know um you know sou fifth Resident was reminding me that that that there's a water taxi service there you know that's a private endeavor that continues to operate because it works that works why are we going to try to force something that isn't working using the taxpayers dollar whether it be City dollars or federal dollars if it's not working it's not working first can I just say something first of all we haven't done this ever before but to cut them off at one month at one month after years of going back and forth and bidding this out we what what we realized is nobody's responding because they need a subsidy as the chairman mentioned in September it'll be more than one month and the proof will be in the pudding you know is is it is it going to break down again is it going to leave passengers stranded at the other side of the bay with no way to get back am I going to take my Deco bike my again to the West uh side of the Venetian cosway and not be able to get back on because it decided not to be operating on a Sunday and our writers going to be left with nothing I mean it's just our residents deserve better especially in a city with an operating budget that is approaching $900 million okay here let me just be one second commissioner I'll hand it over to you I want this service to work right when I lived in New York City I would take a furry to work every single day and I recognize that even in New York City where they have very high volume and ridership higher than we will ever get here just because of the nature of the density of the city even that needs to be subsidized so I understand for a successful furry service it will need to be subsidized just like any public it before and we've tried it before right so I want this to work in its current form it's not so when you say give it at the benefit of the doubt I'm making up a term I'm going to give it the non-benefit of the doubt and this is just St we've tried ited if they come back and they show that they've actually enhanced their services through September I I approach it with an open mind um but I I want to send a clear message that they can't continue operating uh in the capacity that they have been so have any of us written it I tried you have you read it it was terrible no no it's not terrible it's it's a fabulous ride commissioner Ren tance I tried and uh the day that the City attorney and I were were going to try to go it wasn't working and then on the Sunday that I was on my city bike and I took it to on across across the Venetian caway and I got it to the marina and it's out of service and that's the thing with it I it's not reliable okay can I just chime in between now and September what are the hours commissioner bot that we need to do we need to extend them to like 11:00 p.m. or something so that people can get back you know whatever so um and maybe not every single day of the week but maybe Friday Saturday or something I don't know on weekends Friday and Saturday we would like the ferry to go till midnight 11:00 p.m. or midnight I wouldn't I wouldn't do it just now you know based on what I say they should look at the schedule for the AR Center and for the the Heat games and the stuff that's down there and if if there's a prop look maybe it's really quiet right now because um it's summertime and there are no events um but if there going to be a service to connect our island with the mainland it shouldn't be just a service for people commuting it should be a service to for people who are you know looking to not sit on the MacArthur for an hour and a half to get to a Heat game or to see a show here's what I would say I would like to help them grow and fix it because it's been too many years of trying it and right now now there's something now let's work with them and help them Jose we commissioner Miner passed this item how long did it take from the time that we bid it out until the time that we launched the service that in itself was like over a year right a year and a half it it took several months from when it was approved because there was a permitting process involved it is a DM DM process so to just say right now to give it the ax because it because they're F because they're having issues starting it up I think with do it a service let's see what happens between now and September and I know that it's not perfect and I'm hoping that we can start working so that somebody knows how to do it CU it's that unknown we just haven't done it and and to say to somebody who hasn't done it and nobody else wants to do it and the only Little Engine That wants to do it to just say you suck and we're cutting you off after like a year of Permitting I just think that we should try to work with them Jose they understand that everybody's unhappy and they're on the chopping block for the how many times have we cut them off now we've we've like the third time we've brought this is the third time from day one we've brought issues to their attention yeah I mean we did this under mayor LaVine we did it under gilber I mean we've done this fair this is but the thing is Alex is that nobody else is willing to do it so at least with the one entity that's willing to make an effort let's work with them this time because now we got them the subsidy that they need and they understand what's going on them until sep it's too you know I I just find it so so so interesting because like here we are you know pushing for something that that you know constantly hits rough from Waters that can't navigate its way through no you know pun intended um and you know and so and so and so we get passionate about continuing something like this yeah like things that we know that will work you know for a variety of reasons you know you know we decide to stop like real public transportation like the bail link like we stop it and that's something that we know that would work that will really serve an important segment of our of our population and so like real public transportation we stop it uh something that can really provide real connectivity in in in in the region and then here we sit to just waste because it's really what we're doing we're wasting we're burning through the taxpayers dollars and something that was a failure already once we're pushing it Forward again just because we want to p push it forward and and it's a disrespect to our taxpayers it's not right it's wrong let me say a few things number one I just got a text message their BTR does not allow them to operate past 8:00 p.m. so why don't we give them an extension on their BTR and allow them to at least operate until the end of a show at the Art Center or the end look at the schedules for what's happening extend the hours on their BTR because they're been set set up for for failure um number two I would say it's it's it's it's not a waste because we have to we have to try to figure this out Alex I mean it's it's not a perfect service and I understand that we're cutting it off but there's something there and I I don't know I I've seen this happen too many times and cut them off too many times and we've set them up for failure even their BTR is skewed these are things that we didn't know until we started the service now we understand you're getting there we need to go past 8:00 p.m. but if we don't even have this trial and error we're never going to find out and by the way you can cut this off and I will sit here and say that we'll probably never ever have a fery service so so I'll say this right we're not cutting it off today we're never going to get it I I'll say this we're not cutting it off today I'm not going to be in favor because actually I think it would have to go back to commission anyway we're going to modify hours and things like that the most Elementary thing that they could do is so that they can provide a reliable service yeah if we're not getting notifications every other day that the service is shut down that's their first win in my book right and I'll look at ridership afterwards and I'll understand that it's the summertime summer months and they're just getting up but they need to show me regardless of what their hours are is consistency and and that's uh a very low threshold that's what I need to see before September that they can operate this boat in a manner that allows our residents our taxpayers to rely on this service right so I I don't need the hours extended or things like that we're giving them a chance essentially through September and we're going to have this discussion then and commissioner Rosen Gonzalez listen I understand where you're coming from you're trying to make sure that residents have an alternative and you're and and and I know you're coming from a good place and I think you know in September as the chair mentioned we'll we'll have better data and uh and and let's let's uh let's make a motion to uh to to to send this resolution ter minating the ferry service back to the commission uh so we can discuss it in September and with better data uh make a determination at that time and commissioner bot and then commissioner Rosen gonzale and Jose I I talked to I can't remember who in the administration about this also but they were saying that um residents would ride through ride free through July 31st but they've been out of service for at least five days maybe more so I would like to request this isn't a a thing that we we have to vote on but when you're talking to them that they should extend however many days they were out of service they should extend that free ridership can we we' be happy to yeah to relay that to them what's that we'd be happy to relay that to them I think it's fair the fair thing and do we have public comment but can I say something yes commissioner was in and the final thing that I would like to ask is all of these times that we have bided out why do we only get Poseidon why this is the first the market is talking to you the market is telling you something sometimes a free market that tell we need to put it out with the subsidy like we have this is the first time we subsidized the service you know it was an unsolicited type of thing we didn't put that out to the market so if we do have to terminate them because they're unreliable and dirty and the service doesn't work then we need to immediately that same commission meeting put out to bid a reliable work on a bid for a reliable fairy that has a subsidy that's an electric boat something that possibly will work and I would get that started at the same time I would even I wish we could give the direction right now to do something like that you could start working on it through the chair that's actually been that's that's our our path forward this this service that's currently in place with with Poseidon is actually just a 12-month pilot program and the idea was to put together a competitive solicitation and go out to bid with a you know engage a company through a subsidy through a similar Arrangement where the city would subsidize it but this pilot program was just to get something in sooner rather than so then we have something I would say that even you know as they work toward it over this initial 12month pilot program that we don't cancel it while we bid out a better service because I think we do need to show that we have something to apply for all of these different state and federal grants and show that we're making the effort but if we show that we're just canceling it that we have nothing that we have no proof of ridership that we have nothing to give them we have no data then that that does us a big disservice so yeah so let's move this forward to the uh full commission in September right the regardless of what happens here we're not um terminating anything today uh and we'll hear this at the full commission in September and the resolution is going with a favorable recommendation yes okay all in favor I I is that unanimous I I I captain Oh I'm in okay I thought I just wanted to check thank you it'll be recorded Ju Just because I talked to Parks and Rec oh is there somebody online no uh you know what it'll be for the uh would my colleagues be willing to entertain one additional item about uh number 22 about the Miami Beach summer camp if we need to leave we can just because I told John yeah we I don't think we need a full quum uh because it's just feedback yeah uh and it's especially timely I'll give a little plug um my daughter cpri is at uh Flamingo Park summer camp I had her in all these fancy camps last year was like keeping up with the Joneses she came back and goes daddy Flamingo Park was the best camp in the world and just last night they had their talent show they packed the Filmore I was expecting to show up and it was an audience like this The Miami Beat summer camp packed the bottom row of the Filmore it was incredible so many often times we forget that there's this you know entire Community out there that's not these political activists they don't show up to meetings yeah but but it's a different world did exist I I think it was the the mayor of Bogata and I'm paraphrasing here but uh Enrique paletto he said build a city for the children and everything else will take care of itself right and and John that what I saw last night was was magical right it it was families it was a community um however one of the things things that uh is restrictive is I know from anecdotal experience when summer camp sign up comes up if it opens at 10:00 a.m. if you're not registered for Flamingo Park by 10:15 you don't have a spot for the summer and I know from all the parent WhatsApp uh you know PTA groups that I'm on there are tons of kids that wanted to get in that weren't able to do so so this is such a critical service it's part of Economic Development it's part of our Families how can we expand this because I just sense that there's such a demand there that we're not able to meet and I'd love to be able to support that I'm just going to read the item number 22 highlight the demand for Miami Beach summer camp program and explore the expansion of the Mii Beach summer camp program if needed number 22 and thank you commissioner um for um the the review from last night's playground review you you said it very well um and and covered all the points our summer camp our child care is extremely popular we Al we offer full full year child care you have summer camp rolls into your after school program which rolls into your teacher day off which rolls into your spring break and winter break holidays so what you what many people experience is those year round it's called a rollover so a lot of those year round Child Care um participants they automatically fill the spots so these only limited amount of spots for for others it comes out to space you know you could only have so many children you have ratios you have square footage Capac ities um we do have a Gob project for a future for a future trun in Flamingo Park which will make that facility larger um but that's that's years away so know where this yeah you have the Southshore Community Center you have that entire area downstairs you have a playground you have an upstairs Auditorium and there's no summer camp there commissioner magazine so if you would like I would co-sponsor with you a summer camp program at the Southshore commun by the way they are close enough to get them to the pool if you wanted to go to the pool too right now if David's able to link in the legislative Aid into this that'll be really impressive um you know you think about other than construction and other possible sites you you know a lot of cities do um partner with the schools you know but but but there are restrictions with the schools they do a lot of their maintenance in the summer and they they can't open it up for 10 weeks for that many hours but we could certainly um work together we did try to get into school years ago we were't about the convention center that's out of out of my school so to say um but it's certainly a large enough um property and they the possibilities are endless we go just think of the convention so we're essentially space constraint right now ask let me ask you a question John when a resident signs up right do we lose money yes any idea how much we're subsidizing our child care is heavily subsidized okay just just do an LTC uh later on or just be prepared for next discussion uh so okay so we don't only need to find space but funding I I just need to know I can give you a quick number okay so if I just quickly use and this isn't talking utilities this it's operating expensive Northshore Park youth center has about 300 campers okay it's a and it's about a 300 thou $298,000 subsidy okay for for that um it's about $1,000 per kid special specialty camps pay for themselves or more okay our child care is subsidized okay um so what I will ask we will continue this uh not to September but to October I would love if you could work outside of your realm work with our uh assistant city manager city manager uh Parks uh I'm sorry with Liz in facilities and let's find places where we're not space constraint right let let's be creative the convention center um uh Southshore Community Center uh maybe the Tallahasse legislative Aid uh but be creative and I would love to go back and tell these families and say if you couldn't register for summer camp this year you are going to be able to next year commissioner Rosen Gonzalez I mean I'm sitting here right now and I'm looking at the director of the wolf sonian and I'm thinking why doesn't the wolf sonian have some sort of summer camp program that we help subsidize too and that's something that you could work with right there or even the Jewish Museum of South Florida but I mean you guys would probably welcome some sort of programming like that and you have the benefit of the FIU um you know educational program you could bring in you know their people to help you format the program I that I'm putting you on the spot Casey and Casey if we heard your item even been standing here the sitting here patiently which number is your item number 19 we have to call I'd love to he's so he's such a gentleman and someone else would be texting me like hey call my item casy come up get can and beginning of summer camp we'll show that uh so we're going to show the item return to the October FK with an update on possible new locations for summer camp uh and Partnerships not only locations but Partnerships with uh perhaps some of our culture institutions okay we want deal with number 19 I'm sorry okay cool number 19 discussion on the possibility of making up the funding short for fori Beach arts and culture organizations caused by the new state budget cuts number 19 commissioner bot yeah so um Casey nice to see you Casey At The Bat right um so this is not intended to be an ongoing uh expenditure this is an intend this is intended to be um a Band-Aid when we are dealing with um unceremonious cuts to organizations that have no reason to have their funding cut by Powers outside of our city limits um there was uh a table put together it's in the packet of sort of the best case scenario of what everybody would love to get and I think that is kind of a a lot of money um I want to make sure that everybody gets something that they can use as a Band-Aid so what I would propose is um kind of a um a a a format of um either $25,000 or 50% of your ask whichever is greater and that's how I would kind of proceed with this not yours specifically everybody on the list um I'm fully supportive of what you're recommending it's a onee dip um you know we want to help we understand um obviously it can't be a line item every year but yes I'm supportive but Casey before I say my support how do you feel about that summer camp idea yeah but first let me ask you a favor exactly so just could you clarify 25,000 for each of the organizations that are listed or 50% or 50% whichever is greater understood understood so you do understand our original ask or the to the state are you talking about the original fund levels that the state's recommended the of the 960 of the 960 okay thank you commission I wish in the ideal world I could give you all the money in the world but you know any funds that can support us as the Arts and Cultural organizations is welcomed we're very proud to be part of a very Vibrant Community here and certainly it commit it contributes to the economy of the community too the dollars we spend they help with summer camps they help with education but they certainly encourage our visitors to spend dollars in hotels to eat Mills uh I think there's a very valuable study provided there from the a that shows the economic impact of what we bring to the table Mr CFO let me ask a question have we uh issued the AR and culture geobond the arts and culture Geo Bond approved by voters about two years ago we've issued approximately 100 of the $160 million and there is a substantial amount I don't recall the exact amount 10 15 million 5 million million 5 million in total so where I'm actually going with this is and I'm guessing that the majority of that money hasn't been deployed yet so it's actually sitting in uh a quasi escro account and it's earning interest hopefully at a much higher rate than uh we were anticipating when we uh voted to borrow down on that is there an interest uh income that we're getting from that $100 million that's been uh already bonded that we'd be able to put towards some of this it would have to be specifically towards the capital projects that were approved by the voters and and bonded out could could not be utilized um towards operations got it okay um yes we have one public comment please Daniel Caldo please unmute yourself yes I Commissioners Daniel Calo with Miami Design preservation League I wanted to thank you all for taking on this this initiative uh I was in Tallahassee for the arts and culture advocacy and I know that um you know cultural institutions around the state worked very hard for this uh very long Grant process takes about two years and um then to see the legisl recommend 47% um and then it go and get vetoed at the end was a is a real hit to the cultural anchors and institutions of the city I also want to mention that this grant is her Operational Support so um the geobond being the big capital projects is very critical but this grant was supposed to kick in this month in July and so many of us are scrambling for that you know whether it's 70,000 uh uh around that Operational Support that was cut so uh we want to thank you again and I think it's another example of Miami Beach leading the way in art we think you'd be perfect for a summer camp too Daniel over there on 10th in Ocean um you've got the beach let's do it let's do it okay all right what I can't wait to see our kids learning about you know our Deco stuff Miami oh and Miami modern my commissioner B just okay uh so is there a motion on the floor if I if I can know I'm going to commissioner bot help me out with this I I believe it's return of commission with a favorable recommendation to provide support of $225,000 per listed organization or 50% of the number provided whichever is whichever and whichever is higher all in favor I I thank you thank you very much Commissioners thank you everybody for a fabulous meeting I think we got through a lot uh didn't spend a ton which I like um yeah exactly uh Camp no where okay um thank you everyone uh motion for meeting adjourned